3 Cautions From Acts 11 — Shane Idleman

You know, that's a dangerous worship song, if we really mean it. Come and awake us from our spiritual slumber, awake us from our sleep. I think many people might be shocked if that really happened. Because everything would change.

You'd love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. The Word would come alive. Worship would feel like it's descending from the portals of heaven. Prayer would not be something that's rushed.

Awakening the Soul and Returning to First Love

When God awakens your soul, you are radically changed. And I would encourage you this morning to pray that prayer. God, awaken my soul. I want to return to that first love. Some of you, do you remember what it felt like when God was everything?

We couldn't get enough of God. We would go to church three or four times a week. We would worship. We would pray. And then somewhere along the way, we've left that first love. That's why Jesus said, come back.

Come back to me, church, in Revelation. Come back to me. You've left your first love. Return to that heart of worship. Awaken. It's a dangerous song. If you mean it, blow through the caverns. You know what caverns are?

Empty, just empty. Think of a gold mine. It's just empty. Sometimes in our soul, we get empty and dry and dead and lethargic. And we pray that. We better mean it. God, come and fill those empty caverns again.

Come and refill me with that joy and that peace. Let the joy of my salvation return. Three cautions from the book of Acts. Three cautions from Acts 11. What a caution is. You know what a caution is, right?

You see the caution lights or the caution signs. And there are cautions throughout the entire Bible. Cautions. Don't do this. Do this. And God warns and God instructs and God leads, ultimately, sometimes through cautions.

See, we love grace and we love mercy. But grace and mercy without the cautions is dangerous. Because we need to know when the road is ending. We need to know when the bridge is out. And there's three we can pull from Acts 11, chapter 11, verse 22.

The Holy Spirit’s Movement in Acts

Now to put this in context, if you haven't been here, you can go back and listen to the messages prior. But the Holy Spirit was moving in the church. And in case you are unaware, we are not afraid to mention the Holy Spirit here.

We're not into weirdness, but we are into power. We're not into bizarre things, but we are into unction and anointing. God moving among His people. We see the Holy Spirit moving throughout the entire area of Judea and Antioch and up through Jerusalem.

And in this whole area, we see that God's Spirit was continuing to move out west and east and pushing. And that's how it eventually encompassed the whole globe. That's why there's not an Acts 29, as we are Acts 29.

The book of Acts continues. God moving among His people, moving in the church. So what happened is the Holy Spirit was leading the church in many different areas. People were being set free, they were being healed, they were being delivered.

And then we pick up in verse 22. Then the news of these things came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem. And they sent out Barnabas to go as far as Antioch. So he's going up from Jerusalem. He's going up toward Antioch.

When he came and he had seen the grace of God, he was glad. And encouraged them. This is what Barnabas did. He saw the Christians in Antioch. He encouraged them with a purpose of heart that they should continue with the Lord.

Now I can only speculate here. But when the Bible says he encouraged them, I have a feeling that some of them were discouraged. Have you ever been there? Come on, let's be honest. Discouragement comes into all of our lives.

Even you, Shane? You have no idea. Because new levels bring new devils. Have you ever heard of that? As soon as the church wants to start doing more, here comes the discouragement. And God wants to do more, here comes the discouragement.

And what discouragement is, when you're encouraged, you're walking a certain direction, aren't you? You're going forward. You're encouraged in the way of the Lord. You're strengthened in the way of the Lord.

And as you're being encouraged and walking in what God wants you to do, discouragement is meant to sidetrack you and go out the exit. And then we go out the exit and we get discouraged. And we fall. And we fail.

There's shame. There's guilt. There's condemnation. And we can never seem to get back up on track, some people. And they fall again. That's why you'll notice a lot of times in addiction recovery, the word relapse means that people who were very encouraged became very discouraged.

And they relapsed. They fell back away from that encouragement. So he is encouraging the church, which tells me that we need encouragement. It's not all about just wonderful things all the time. Sometimes people are dealing with a lot of different things in the church.

Failed marriages. Kids are going south when they should be going north. And these problems at work and losing jobs that we should have held the rest of our lives. And retirement is not working out. And our kids are sick.

And maybe we are going through health challenges and we get discouraged. And it's funny here. He says, with purpose of heart, be encouraged that purpose of heart you should continue with the Lord. This is one of the best things you should learn when it comes to your walk with God.

Is no matter what comes, that you stay encouraged. Because it's very easy to stay encouraged when things are going well, isn't it? Everything is going well, I'm very encouraged. But when things go the wrong direction, we get discouraged.

So he says, be encouraged, purpose of heart, continue with the Lord. No matter if you're going through the valley or up on the mountain top. No matter if you have a good doctor's report or a bad doctor's report.

Stay encouraged in the Lord. Because discouragement is where the enemy gets a foothold. Remember we talked about what a foothold is. You open the door and the enemy puts his foot right there. You ever do that with your kids?

No, you can't close the door. Sorry, there's a foothold. You gave me a foothold. You can't close this door. And the enemy looks for that foothold of discouragement. And then he begins to walk in. Have you failed God before?

And fell back into sin? It's usually when there's a foothold, right? There's an opening. There's a discouragement there. I often comment to people, and it's the truth. We can leave here Sunday afternoon.

We are just so full of the Holy Spirit. Things are going great. The enemy, you have no, no, you have no, you can't even move me today. I'm so encouraged. I'm strengthened. Then come Monday afternoon or Tuesday or Wednesday.

It's like, what happened to all that encouragement? I am discouraged. So keeping focused on the Lord. That's why you have to, when you stay in his words, you get re-encouraged. That's why God says, though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you will fear no evil because I am with you.

Though the storm will come. Jesus said the storm comes to the man who built his house on the rock and the man who built his house on the sand. And when the rain came and the wind blew and it beat upon that house, it did not fall because it was founded upon the rock.

I feel like preaching a little bit this morning. So you might want to back up. If you're in these front rows, you might want to back up. Or let me move this back a little bit. Because this is so important.

The enemy will start to sidetrack through discouragement. He will lead kids away through discouragement. When the waters come upon you, throughout the Old Testament, when the waters come upon you, that was a sign of, uh-oh, that's not good.

God said, I will be with you. When you walk through the fire, the flame will not scorch you. I will be with you. I will uphold you with my hand. Though you fall, you will not be utterly cast down because the Lord upholds him and you with his right hand.

He doesn't have a right hand. It's a sign of strength and encouragement. The right hand of God is a place of authority and power. And you have to stay encouraged. I think that's why most of us are here today, right?

Did any of you say, I'm going to come to church today and be very discouraged? No, nobody did. We want to be encouraged. What does encouragement mean? It's a persuasion to do or to continue something.

I'm persuaded to continue to do something. So the first caution that we can get from Acts through this is we must stay encouraged. Stay encouraged. The most powerful thing you possess is right here. You have to strengthen yourself in the Lord.

Sometimes, you know what, let me just shoot you straight. Sometimes, you've got to encourage yourself. Your friend's not going to encourage you. Your spouse isn't going to encourage you. Your family, your husband, your wife.

Those things that sometimes we rely on might not encourage you. Sometimes, they might discourage you. There's just three things on this area of discouragement I want to impart to you this morning. When you're feeling discouraged and when you're trying to get back on track, many times we look to the wrong voice.

Always look to what does God say? What does God say? And get encouraged and strengthened back again. The best thing you can do is stop listening to secular advice for your children. The Bible says, train up a child in the way they will go.

And when they are old, they will not depart from it. There is hope for the prodigal son. There is hope for the wayward daughter. Through prayer and fasting and petitioning God and relying on His promises.

Lord, Your Word says, I take God to task all the time. It says right here, if I seek You with all of my heart, I will find You. It says right here, if I draw close to You, You will draw to me. I don't feel like it, but I'm going to hold You to Your Word.

I'm going to encourage myself through Your Word. What does God say? What does God say? And encourage yourself. Think about it. How many times have you watched dead, dying, violent, gross movies? And you go, I am so discouraged.

I'm more down than when I watch this thing. I'm more down when I listen to the wrong person or watch the wrong thing. And we discourage ourselves. So God says, encourage yourself by looking to My Word.

What does My Word say about your situation? Just prayed for a lady at the first service. Just found out she lost her job. What does God say? I've got you. I've got you. Just wait on Me. Just wait. What does the world say?

Take Him to court. You go show Him. You throw your weight around there. You get out applications. I know you shouldn't work there, but you do, you do, you do. Get it. Go, go, go. And God says, just wait.

Just wait. Now, He might lead you to put out applications. He might lead. But wait on God, and you will renew your strength. Because when a person says, Lord, I don't know why this happened, but guess what?

I'm trusting in You. You're going to show me. God's not going to go, nope, I'm throwing you a curveball. You're toast now. You're going to lose your house. You're done. Well, I won't use that word, stupid.

Right? Can't say it from the pulpit. But He's going to say, okay, that's a person I can guide. That's a person, the humble, I teach my ways. I can lead that person because they're listening to me. Not listening to the voice of secular reasoning.

Just be careful who you're listening to. This drives me crazy in the area of people are looking for advice and they go to friends who aren't even Christians. Don't ever go to friends who aren't Christians for marriage advice.

Because here's what they say. You should take him for all he's worth. Or she shouldn't treat you like that. You should take her to court and get full custody. That's what you should do. Yeah, and we leave there all empowered by the world.

And there's no fulfillment. What does God say about you and your situation? Stay encouraged. Stay encouraged. I just got this report from the doctor. What did they say? Stay encouraged. It's funny, I forget the king's name.

I think it was, I don't want to say the wrong one. Maybe not Manasseh, Jehoshaphat. I was reading 2 Chronicles this week a lot. And it said, the Bible says that he sought physicians instead of the Lord.

And he died of that infirmity. Now I'm not putting down physicians obviously. I think people should get their blood work, blood tests. And know what's going on to some degree. But who do we trust in? What does God say?

What does God say in His Word? Who's encouraging you? You know, because this might upset some people too. But the world cannot encourage you. If we're looking to the world and ungodly things, they can't encourage you.

They might tell you something temporary that encourages you temporarily. Ultimately, though, we have to look to what God says in His Word. Also, here's another way to stay encouraged. What do spirit-filled believers say?

What do spirit-filled believers say about a situation? If you're feeling discouraged, what are those who are filled with the Spirit of God, what do they say about it? Are you seeking godly counsel? Are you getting direction?

Because we only see one side of the equation, don't we? They can look in and see all angles of something. And speak into our lives and encourage us. And help possibly get us back on track. And the final thing here on staying encouraged.

I can't say this enough. But prayer encourages and strengthens. You see the light at the end of the tunnel. Just even this morning, not wanting to be here. I didn't want to get here early and didn't want to pray.

But after 5 -10 minutes, uh-oh, watch out. Because now we're encouraged. Now we're strengthening. Now we're calling down heaven. Now we're casting down arguments. And every high thing that exalts itself against God.

Here's why. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. So you don't even fight with this. I wish we did sometimes, right? That'd be a little, I can knock that guy out. But I can't knock him out spiritually.

I have to pull down strongholds. That's what prayer does. And you get encouraged again. When the Bible says pulling down strongholds. A stronghold is something that comes in. Have you ever had this? Where you just can't get rid of this thing.

It's the tree in the backyard whose roots keep growing. You ever pull out something? Like where did that come from? Now it's even stronger. And the enemy comes in. He's got a stronghold. And we pray for a few days and we give up.

And that stronghold remains. But keep fighting against that stronghold. Fighting him piece by piece. Layer by layer it begins to unravel. Casting down arguments. And every high thing that exalts itself against God.

What is an argument? You know what it is. It's the defense attorney within. We talked about last week. Do you know you have a defense attorney? He lives right in here. Defending everything. No, Shane, you can do that.

He's our defense attorney. Every time God's convicting. Defense attorney comes in and says, Your honor, but he's this. And it's a hard day. And he deserves this. And your defense attorney's defending.

He's arguing for you to continue in that destructive pattern. So when you pray, you cast down not only strongholds. Arguments. Your defense attorney is silent. You put that duct tape on his mouth. So the arguments are silent.

Strongholds are beginning to evaporate. Casting down every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. Your thoughts are being brought into obedience to Christ. You are encouraging yourself through prayer.

Jesus said, My house shall be called the house of. Come on. Balcony, I didn't hear anybody up there. My house shall be called the house of prayer. Not preaching. Not worship. Not ministry. Not feeding the homeless.

Not the kids connection. Not all this fellowship. My house shall be called the house of prayer. If my people pray and humble themselves. See, even preaching must bow at the foot of prayer. Even worship must bow at the foot of prayer.

Even ministry. What good is a worshiper if they don't pray? Because they can just pray. Or they can just worship and nothing changes. Their hearts. There's a lot of people worshiping. Trust me. Throughout our nation that are not truly broken before God.

And it's the worshiping. This sounds good. But prayer is the catalyst. If my people pray. My house shall be called the house of prayer for all nations. Because it starts with that. Here's why. You have to take those thoughts captive.

And you begin to pray. And you get the foundation right. That's how you encourage yourself. But. But, but, but. Encouragement doesn't mean tell me what I want to hear. Does it? Encouragement. Sometimes we think.

Because people say. You know. Church is pretty discouraging today. Because they didn't hear what they wanted to hear. So encouragement doesn't always mean tell me what I want to hear. There's an interesting story.

Encouragement That Confronts Sin

As I'm in 2 Chronicles. Of Jehoshaphat. He was a good king. He would rely on God. And then he would go back. And then he would rely on God. And then he would trust in armies. He's an interesting guy to watch.

You can think of yourself in his story sometimes. He'll say, Lord, you know, I trust you against the Egyptians. And he'll beat the Egyptians. And they'll say, oh, the Assyrians are coming. I better get a big army.

And he won't trust God. And be overcome with the Assyrians. And Ahab. Do you know who wicked king Ahab is? Just think of Jezebel. Does that ring any bells? Do you know any kids named Jezebel? Or Ahab for that matter.

Any boys named Ahab? No. Because he was a bad king. The only worst. I don't know if I can say worst king grammar wise. Let's say the only king that didn't do well. That was worse than this man Ahab was Manasseh.

And these guys were wicked. But Ahab had an alignment with Jehoshaphat through marriage. Now. Whew. This could take a minute. Let me just try. Just the basics. You had the children of Israel. When they came out of Egypt, they were governed by judges.

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua. Judges. They would judge the people for hundreds of years. And then the people said, give us a king. Give us a king like all the other nations.

And so they got Saul. From Saul, David. From David, Solomon. But then the kingdom of Israel was broken up into a northern kingdom and a southern kingdom. The southern kingdom did better. They didn't get judged for 150 years after Israel did.

This wicked northern kingdom was bad news. But this kingdom down here, the southern kingdom of Judah, had Jehoshaphat and other kings. Rehoboam, Jeroboam, all these kings. Asa, Ahaz, Ahaz. You hear these kings.

But it's interesting if you follow the storyline and see how it works. These kings aligned themselves. Ahab and Jehoshaphat came together. And Ahab said, will you join me in battle? And Jehoshaphat said, well, is there a prophet among you that we can get advice from and seek the Lord?

And he said, oh, there's a whole bunch. And they came in and gave all this wonderful advice. Go, you're going to beat the Syrians. I have these horns. This one guy had, I think they called him Sears. S-E-E-R.

They had these horns. He said, just like these horns, you're going to crush Syria. And they got all dramatic. And Jehoshaphat said, wait a minute. Isn't there another prophet? And King Ahab, yes, said, yeah, but he hates me.

He doesn't tell me anything I want to hear. He doesn't like me. And this person's name is Micaiah. And it reminded me of also Elisha. Remember, have you heard of Elisha? With the J, not the Elisha. That gets confusing, too.

But Elisha would go. And King Ahab hated this prophet. And he actually said, oh, you troubler of Israel. And all he's trying to do is get the people to turn back to God. But see, they viewed this encouragement as discouragement because they didn't want to be challenged in their sin.

So long story short, Micah, they go, okay, go find this prophet. Bring him back to King Ahab. Offer advice on what we should do. Should we go to war? And so the guys who came and got Micaiah to prophesy, they told him this, please, please, please, only say encouraging things.

All the other prophets have been saying encouraging things, encouraging things. Please, only say encouraging things. And it's funny, at first he came back and said, go to war, you'll win. Like kind of sarcastic.

And the king said, no, how long will I tell you not to lie against me? What did the Lord say? And Micaiah said this, as the Lord lives, whatever my God says, that I will speak. See, that's true encouragement.

Encouragement doesn't always mean telling people what they want to hear. It also means telling people what they need to hear. You asked my wife about this. This is one of the funniest things we've ever seen at a church, and it's mainly at this church, for the last seven years.

We're running to people, you know, because I live here. And they'll say, I was so encouraged. Oh my gosh, I'm on fire, my marriage is restored. Then you run to somebody else, like I've only been twice, I'm never coming back, that's so discouraging.

Wait a minute, what's the difference? Let's be honest, what's the difference? Open heart. Open heart. They were ready for open heart surgery. This person was not. So what they took, what should have been encouragement through God's word, they were offended because they don't want to change their ways.

And, you know, I do get emails about this, and I'm going to say it again. One of the reasons why I say, in these dire times our nation is going through, Joel Osteen type sermons aren't going to cut it, is because people can't always just be encouraged and not confronted with their sin.

That's not going to cut it. People, we need to be challenged. We need to be convicted. That's where change takes place. So, so many people will say, I'm encouraged, I'm so encouraged. Other people will say, I'm never coming back there again, I'm so discouraged.

The reason they're discouraged is because they were enjoying their sin, and their sin got challenged, brought to light, now they're upset because they don't want to give it up. So be careful what you, or how you define encouragement.

Also, important note, encouragement is found in obedience. Encouragement is found in obedience. As you obey the word of God, that's another word we're not scared to talk about. You know all those words that churches don't want to talk about?

Obedience, disciplines, judgment, righteousness, holiness. Oh, goodness gracious. Well, this is another wonderful one, because encouragement is found in obedience. The more I obey the word of God, the more I obey the word of God, the more encouraged I become.

It kind of just, it just comes out of you. I'm encouraged as I obey the word of God. 2 Chronicles, but you, but you be strong, and do not let your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded. So God says, don't give up, look up, be encouraged, be strengthened.

Your hands will be rewarded. Somehow God will see you through. But Shane, I've been waiting and waiting. Yes, it's a battle. It's warfare. Whoever told us that microwave Christianity applies to us? It doesn't.

You don't put, one minute, one minute. Okay, God, I'm not giving, I'll give you two days, two days. Right? And then I'm not going to be encouraged, because, and it's not really a joking matter, even though it's ironic, but I've seen so many people get mad at God, because he doesn't move quick enough.

There are people, I mean, I've been preaching now probably 17 years. The church is seven years. But I see so many people, just use the example marriage. Man, they're at the altar. They're praying. They're crying out to God.

They're waiting on Him. And then two months go by. I'm not waiting anymore. Let me grab that six-pack and go to Plan B. Hit some clubs down in Vegas. I'm done waiting. See, what was wrong there? See, that's conditional.

And I often wonder if God makes us wait to get all out of us and let the genuine faith come through. Because as you're waiting, you will serve Him. As you're waiting, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I'm going to wait upon you, God, until I breathe my last breath.

I'm praying and waiting on you. Whether I see the fruition of some of my prayers or not, I'm waiting on you. Daniel set his heart to fast and to pray for 21 days. Have you ever tried to fast for 21 days?

Wow, try one. Try one day. Bagels, nope. Cookies, nope. Panera bread, nope. Keep going, nope. No burgers, nope. Nope. Sharkies, nope. Nope. Anything, nope. Just fast and watch. But Daniel said, I set my heart to pray and for 21 days.

And the Bible says, Daniel, from the first day. From the first day you set your heart to pray, I release that anointing. But he was held up by the prince of Persia. It's an interesting concept there. That there was a demonic influence.

A demonic realm was holding back the answer to that prayer. And as Daniel prayed and fasted and prayed and fasted and prayed and fasted, it finally came. What about if he says, this isn't working? When God tells us to do something, stand by it.

And he will see you through. So what steps can you take today to stay encouraged? What steps can you take today to stay encouraged? Everything I just talked about in 20 minutes. Pull something out of there and be encouraged.

Because I think God wants to encourage us. The whole reason you look to the Bible for hope. We look to the Bible for redemption. We look to the Bible for purpose in life. For everything. There is tremendous encouragement if we look to the right source.

Staying Grounded in the Word of God

And then verse 25. Then Barnabas departed for Tarsus to seek Saul. And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. We think with cars and airplanes, he found him the next day. If you had a map up here, you could show you.

It's a long journey. Weeks, if not longer. He found Saul. They went to Antioch. They were in Antioch. They met believers in Antioch. So it was that for a whole year, they assembled with the church and taught.

And taught a great many people. See, that's what you do. You bring the word of God to people and you teach them. The Old Testament, 2 Chronicles. So they taught in Judah and had the book of the law of the Lord with them.

They went throughout all the cities of Judah and taught the people. And the fear of the Lord fell upon the kingdoms and on the lands all around Judah. You see, when you bring the word of God, you teach the word of God.

Fear will fall upon the people. That's why they don't want to teach the word of God. That's why they want to remove it. They brought the word of God in. So here's the second point. Three cautions. The Bible encourages us to stay grounded in the word.

Stay grounded. Always be teaching. That's one thing I love about the mind, but I also hate about the mind. Is it's always going. And if I'm not fueling it with the things of God. If I'm not teaching it with the word of God.

Oh, a scripture comes to mind. Renew. Right? Renew your mind with the word of God. If we're not doing this, it's renewing itself. And guess what it renews itself with? The things of God and the Holy Spirit and all this goodness and righteousness?

No. The Adamic nature takes over. And by default, it starts to get corrupted again. That's why you have to renew your mind. We take a shower every day, but when it comes to reading the Bible, it's like, no.

Some people take longer showers than they spend in the Bible. And we need that spiritual cleansing to renew the mind. To renew it. That's why it says he taught them for a whole year. And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.

Okay, guess what? That's where the title started. You'll remember that now, right? Christians. We were first called Christians in Jerusalem. No. Antioch. It's above Jerusalem. Antioch. What were Christians?

Christ followers. The main difference at that point between Jews and the Jews who became Christians were the Christians acknowledged that Christ was the coming Messiah. Therefore, they were Christ followers, hence the word Christian.

That's where it came from. And they were first called Christians in Antioch. Now, I think this is important. I did this in the first service. I think it's important to do here as well. The first Christians, 1st century, 2nd century, we're all pretty much on the same boat.

We're all Christians following the same word. And around the 4th century, 5th century, you hear names like Augustine. And you can even go back to 1st century, 2nd century, Polycarp, Irenaeus, Ignatius.

All these guys that were church fathers. And then Constantine who became an emperor and made Christianity the formal religion. I think that was around the end of the 4th century. Don't quote me on any of this.

I didn't research it. I'm just going off memory. And then you have this one church. Okay, guess what? It was called the Catholic Church. Uh-oh. Nobody's leaving yet. That word just means, Catholic means universal.

So it was a universal church. 400, 500, 600, 700. There are some schisms and different things. But around 1050 A .D., 1050 A .D., it's called the Great Schism. The Western Church broke off and became the Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholicism.

Married with Rome in the West. And then this side became the Eastern Church. Have you ever heard of the Eastern Orthodox or the Greek Orthodox Church? 50, 60, 70 million Christians in Egypt. And a lot of them are here.

And you'll see those churches around Coptic, Coptic Christians. A lot of them are being beheaded by ISIS. That's the Eastern. And they held to, it looked similar to the Roman Catholic Church. I actually met a Coptic priest at the park in Lancaster a few weeks ago.

And he had his brown robe on and a cross. And I had a good dialogue for a little while. I asked some questions. But they wouldn't, they reject, say, Mary as immaculate conception. Or that she was free of sin and the virgin birth.

And all these things that are not in the Bible. They're heretical. And people get upset every time I say it. But I don't care. There's a lot of heretical teachings in that form of what they would call Christianity.

It's not biblical. We're not talking about this or that. These are big deals. And they also don't believe in the primacy of the Pope. Mass is a little bit different. So they're more, they look more to the Bible.

But they're still like praying to the saints. I asked him why they pray to the saints. And he quoted Hebrews 12. You can read that later. And I said, it doesn't really apply to praying to the saints. We have one intercessor, Christ.

We don't need to go to a priest. So there's different things. But they came out of that a little bit. So you have the Eastern, the Western. And then right in the middle, you ever heard the word Protestant?

That word means protest. It means protesting and going back to the Word of God. Now, this group, which we're a part of, we're not perfect. We don't walk on water, right? There's mistakes. They elevate Mary too much.

We don't elevate her at all. They put too much emphasis in communion. We don't put much at all sometimes, the Protestant churches in general. But the Protestant Reformation means reforming. That whole movement was 12, 13, 14, 1500, 1600, 1700.

William Tyndale, John Hus. Have you ever heard of a Tyndale Bible? He developed the Bible. Whitecliffe Bible Translation Society, John Whitecliffe. They all translate the Bible. They were persecuted by the Western church.

But they remained truthful to the Bible. So that's why you have basically three groups split up, Western, Eastern, Protestantism. And we go back to just soulless Scripture, the inerrancy of Scripture.

We look to the Scripture authority, not to the papacy, not to the pope. We don't look to them as the final authority because they decree many things that are not biblical. They're just not. All you have to do is research it.

And you'll be amazed at the differences and distinctions. So that's the differences. When they first called Christians, they were first called Christians in Antioch. They held tight for a while. And then also part of the Roman Catholicism is Rome, the power of Rome.

The emperors bought the papacy with money. And they bought the control. And that's where a lot of the corruption started to come in. And they would have like purgatory, which means you still need to be purged from your sins.

Can you imagine that concept? When I die, I still need to go to purgatory and be purged from my sins. I asked a priest about that recently in Santa Clarita, eight months ago now. And they said, yeah, that shame and guilt we're dealing with, we have to be purged of it.

No, we don't. What's the point of the cross? So you see, these are big differences. And I get scolded by people on this side. They need to stop scolding and stop looking to the Word of God. If you're following a heretical system, watch out.

Watch out. Another big issue is on the mass. This group, this group, this group. The mass that actually becomes the blood and body of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. In the monstrance, that big gold thing that they look to and they bow to that.

And they would say that they're sacrificing Jesus again. It's an ongoing sacrifice. And they're worshiping and looking to this gold thing that has the real body and blood. When we look at communion, what does the Bible say?