Contention, Contending, & Worldliness — Shane Idleman

Peter Preaches the Gospel to Cornelius

Acts chapter 10, we finished last week, but let me just get us up to speed here. Cornelius was a God-fearing man who was fasting, and God sent Peter to him to present the gospel to him, to present the good news.

So Cornelius feared God, but he didn't know about Jesus Christ. So Peter was sent to him, and in verse 44 of chapter 10, it said, while Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon those who heard the word and they were baptized.

Now, it's almost as if he's preaching the gospel at their house, he's laying out the plan of salvation, who Jesus was, and as he's speaking, the Holy Spirit descends upon them and overshadows them and comes upon them in a powerful way as he's presenting the gospel.

So it's not like a person has to get through the whole presentation. I've had this happen many times. You know, you think 10 minutes or 15 minutes or 20 minutes, I mean, they were ready at five minutes into it.

They were ready to receive as soon as their heart opened up. There wasn't a special prayer prayed. As soon as their heart was opened up to the things that God wants to do in their life, the Holy Spirit descended upon them, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit.

Contending for the Faith Without Becoming Contentious

So now we get to verse 11. The title of the message is Biblical Thoughts on Contention, Contending, and Worldliness. I'm trying to tie all that into this. So now we fast forward to chapter 11. Now the apostles and the brethren who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had received the word of God.

So the Jews just heard that the Gentiles had received the word of God. And when Peter came to Jerusalem, those of the circumcision contended with him, mainly meaning those Jews, contended with Peter. Now contention is different from contending.

They contended with him. They asked him, why are you going into the house of Gentiles? Why are you doing that? You went in into uncircumcised men and you ate with them. So for a Jew, a true follower of Yahweh, to go into a Gentile's house and fellowship with them because really more so back then than now, but fellowship and food were a tight-knit group.

You didn't fellowship and break bread with someone who wasn't your friend and didn't share the same things. So they're challenging him, Peter, why did you do that? But let me stop here for a minute. On the difference between contentious and contending, because some people use this scripture to berate others and to beat people up and to be contentious.

See, see, they were questioning Peter. Well, hmm, good contention, I'm gonna go back and forth on the words here. These Jews who were believers were contending for the faith. They were curious, why did you do this?

And also, it's a good time to point this out. In a healthy church, sparks will fly a little bit. See, sometimes we wanna walk around, no sparks, nothing, just let us do whatever we want. But iron sharpens iron.

So it's okay to ask questions. Why are we doing these things? Why did this happen? Don't you see this? And one of the areas sometimes I work with and we talk with Brant is on the worship songs and the lyrics that people, sometimes they come out with and looking at the lyrics and well, we might not wanna say that theologically and iron is sharpening iron.

People come to leadership or leadership goes to people and we contend and it's healthy if the attitude's right. That's the difference maker. If a loving, spirit-filled believer wants to offer advice, I go like this.

Please, tell me. But if I have a contentious, angry, nasty person, all they wanna do is be critical, I do this. And you have to be able to spot those who truly, because those who are truly concerned for you and want the best for the church, you have to listen to their advice because in the multitude of counsel, there's wisdom, there's safety there.

So we have to be careful in this area of contending and being contentious. Here's a couple questions. Were these people being contentious and critical or were they simply contending for the faith? Ask yourself this question.

Do you want to guard others or do you want to expose them? If we just go around wanting to expose others, have you seen, have you heard? And we want to expose everything and point out their flaws and go around sin-sniffing.

Right, we can be contentious because that's a critical, contentious heart. Now, if you are truly wanting to guard others and not expose them, love and humility is guiding your decision more often than this person because the New Testament encourages us, and actually, you can test this out on your own.

Go through the New Testament. It actually encourages us to err on the side of grace. If you're gonna err, you err on the side of grace, not on the side of judgment. Now, for all those type A people in the room that like to contend for the faith, I know it's gonna, what about this and what about this and what about that, what about, yes, I didn't say that we guard and we actually sweep sin under the doormat.

Let me lift it. Hurry, quick, get under there, hide it. We're not talking about hiding sin and we're not talking about, well, don't, you know, just don't ever, but the immediate reaction in your heart, is it to pound that gavel and cast a judgment or is it to protect and say, you know what, let me hear the other side.

I don't want to do that. I don't want to hurt this person and it's really the heart because it's good to expose things when they need to be exposed, but the heart behind it has to be right. That's the difference and I've seen, this is one of the issues with Bible-believing, conservative churches that want to deal with sin, that want to be true to God's word.

One of our flaws, if you will, is not having the right heart because we want to point out sin so much that sometimes we can hurt the other person. Now, this is coming from somebody who likes to point out sin and likes to preach on it and likes to warn people, but I also want to come up and be gracious.

Guarding Others Rather Than Exposing Them

You hit my car and you left. So wonderful. That was my first response was not to go find them and be nice. Was it? Well, you don't know, but I'm telling you it wasn't. 10 minutes before the baseball game's gonna start and my wife tells me and I'm like, oh, that's wonderful.

They hit it and ran. So I'm thinking, okay, who was this? We're gonna put out Facebook. And then God's kind of, come on, Shane. I could be using this for a different reason and it's working in my heart.

So my first response was not to guard them. It was to expose them. Get them on Facebook. We know the license plate number. Let's go get them. But it's God working in the heart. So just think about that.

Do we want to guard others or expose them? So when sin comes to the church or when you hear about this person's doing this and doing this, are you like, yeah, let's go get them right now. You grab the pitchfork and I'll grab the whatever, pitchfork and a sword and we'll go get them or as a heart of, oh, man, this is sad.

How can we come alongside and help them? But eventually sin comes out. Eventually you have to talk about things. So it's really an issue of the heart. Number two, these are convicting because I was convicted.

Are you quick to find faults and are you looking for them? See, we're talking, there's not a lot of AMNs at this service. It's just like stone cold. Oh no, he's going down my, he's calling me out on this one.

Well, yes and no. It's good to call these types of people out. I've been one and I can go in this side real quick. So I'm calling myself out because what this does, when I'm called out in certain areas, it should soften my heart and I should say, God, I don't want to be that way.

God, help me in this area. That's repentant and then change can take place. But if all we're doing is this and we're not receiving this loving rebuke, then change doesn't take place. So are we quick to find faults?

Are we looking for faults? Have you ever met those people? That's all they do is they, yeah, but this and this and this. I mean, there's people who can tear churches apart. I get emails from them. And I can go into a church and I can tear it up somehow if you're going there to find faults.

So when we're talking about being contentious, a critical heart or contending for the faith, there is a big difference. Then the third question on this, do you only see the negative? Do you only see the negative?

And it's okay to question if you're truly open to hear the answer. These people, I believe, were truly open to hear the answer from Peter. So one who constantly questions is often contentious. That's the whole point I was getting at.

If we're constantly questioning this and we're constantly questioning that, we have to look at our heart. Are we contentious? Is there something? Now you can go from humble and broken to being contentious.

It's a process sometimes. You kind of get bitter or you get upset or I'm tired of this person pushing me around. I'm tired of this and we develop a critical heart. So here's that first point. Either pray for boldness if you're not contending for the faith or pray for balance if you're contending too much and you've developed a critical heart.

Lord, help me in this area. That's the whole point of bringing these things out is for God to help us. So that's the contention aspect. And then we see here, I don't wanna rush ahead because I think there's a lot here.

Engaging the World Without Losing the Light

What about worldliness? How do we reach sinners if we always avoid them? Peter was in the world but not of the world. Now this could be a whole sermon. I'll just tell you up front. But the point was, they said, why did you go into their house to minister to them or to eat with them?

Why did you? You're not supposed to be doing that. You shouldn't identify with that group. Now this is an interesting topic, especially now with the media, Facebook, YouTube, conferences, who do we align ourselves with and who don't we?

We have to be careful who we share the stage with and who don't we? Who do we go to events with and who? So it's a very interesting concept. I wish I had time to fully unpack it but I think there's some principles that can help.

And I think we have to understand that God works in somebody's heart maybe a little different than he's working in your heart. And there are gray areas. For example, I remember, I think it was John MacArthur who passed up an opportunity to speak at the large Mormon tabernacle at their headquarters but Ravi Zacharias took the opportunity to speak about the true Christ at their conference.

And I had to process that one for a while. I'm like, oh, oh, I see his side. I see, man, I see John MacArthur's side because he would, he's like, oh, see, he's validating it. He's validating, he sees, is he becoming a Mormon?

And I can't identify, I can't do that. And then you see this other side, like you can walk in, thousands upon thousands of people will hear about the real gospel from an apologist, one of the best. Wow.

And you could, boy, Facebook, I mean, not Facebook but the media lit up and this thing. So you have to be careful because God does work differently with different people and how involved do you get? How involved in the world do you get to minister to people?

You know, how, it's an interesting thing being in the world and not of it but I'm gonna share some points that I hope help you. Are you the light or is the light fading? So when you go to an event or when you get involved in the life of a person who doesn't know Christ, are you the light or is the light fading?

In other words, are you in that setting and you're the light, you're calling the shots, people are looking to you or is your light fading and you're just being drawn into what they're doing? And put a different way, do you persuade them or do they persuade you?

Basically, who is the influencer? Who is the influencer? For example, it'd probably not be a good idea for me to go to Lake Havasu with a group of my high school buddies where there's just beer all weekend long.

It's just not, probably not gonna wanna listen to Shane right then, are they? But if that same person calls me on Sunday, hungover and sick and needs direction for his life, let me meet you down where you live, I'll drive there.

See, now you're on my turf. Now you're in my ballpark. Now I can influence you and I'm not being influenced. So that's how you're in the world of it. There are some places I believe Christians should avoid.

You, it's hard to, well, Jesus was among sinners, absolutely, we should be too, but he also wasn't in the brothel. He wasn't, you want me to get a little bit more technical? Here, he wasn't engaging, he wasn't in those places that all this stuff was taking place, he was selective.

He was the light, he was the influence. He ate with them, he talked with them. So that's one way to be in it and not of it. Are you being conformed into the image of Christ or are you being conformed into the world's image?

Now a lot of this might not apply to you, but it applies big time to young adults because this is what they're struggling with. As they're being the influence in their college campuses or around their friends, are they being conformed into the image of Christ?

They're holding on to their faith, they're leading people to the Lord, they struggle, they fall, I understand, but they're being strengthened or are they being conformed into the image of the world and that light is fading and they're being drawn away?

Then they are of the world and the world has infected them. Are you being selective, cautious, and using wisdom? Selective, cautious, and using wisdom. Seek godly counsel. I wish I could do a sermon just on this.

Seeking Godly Counsel Before Acting

Here's a little note about godly counsel. I have rarely seen a person go wrong by seeking godly counsel and waiting on God. Now, ask the right people, of course, but the right people can say, you know, from my perspective, knowing you, knowing your situation, you get godly counsel to look at you because they don't look at you biasly like we look at ourselves, right?

We usually say, Lord, here's what I'm doing, bless my plans. And our flesh gets in there, I want this, I think this would make me look better, I think this would bring in more money, I think this thing, and because of sin, because of sin, we don't have always pure motives.

We don't see clearly. We see through it mere dimly, Paul even said, right now. So others can come alongside and say, I don't think that's healthy, I don't see you doing that, I don't think that's a good idea.

And if you've got three or four strong Christians offering something and you go against that, I have seen nine times out of 10 where that didn't work out for the person. Because in the multitude of their counsel, there are safety.

Now, of course, you have to be careful who you ask, right? You don't wanna ask the lady at the nail salon who just got back from Lake Havasu and Laughlin, and what do you, you should leave that man, you should get rid of him, you should walk out today.

No, that's the wrong counsel. That's not godly counsel, that's worldly counsel, and they will tell you different things. See, I'm very careful who I go to for counsel. I'm very careful, because I know, I know there's flesh in there, right?

A sad fact, I'll just tell you, I don't know if I should, it's a bad idea that I won't do it at 11 a .m. But when we were thinking of stopping the Saturday night service, right, I wasn't probably going to go ask pastors in Lancaster what I should do.

Yes, stop it, get Shane out of Dodge, right? Get him out, yes, stop it, stop it for sure. Stop it, stop it, right, because ulterior motives. There is competition in churches, let's just be honest. We have to fight that, just like anyone else.

There's competition in business, everybody's going to that church, why is nobody going to that? And you have to fight that, because it's a work of the flesh. And then when you get to, I surrender all, before the message, you give it all to God, and let Him figure out the results.

That's one of the hardest times sometimes for many pastors, is the Sunday after Easter, because attendance goes, boom, and they rate it by attendance. But I learned a long time ago, if you've ever heard the story, when God dropped the church down to 50 some people, and I went home going, Lord, I don't know what to do, I'm just going to preach, and if you're 50 or 500, or you rank 5 ,000, it doesn't matter, I've got to do what you called me to do.

But He used that time to prune away things, because when we start measuring it by man's standard, we can run into trouble. So again, be careful who you ask. I was careful on who I asked in regard to that decision, and we actually left it up to leadership team, a big leadership team, seeking godly counsel, brought in children's ministry, and worship, and ushering, and deacons, and elders.

What do you guys think? What are you sensing? And you seek that counsel, God, it's a wonderful way to get direction. Number five, is everything you do bathed in prayer, and are you waiting on God? Now before this is in one ear and out the next, think about this.

Prayer, Patience, and Waiting on God

There's two key words here, bathed in prayer. This isn't driving to work, oh Lord, help that business decision, I think I'm doing the right thing, thanks. That's not bathed in, bathed in prayer, you know what bathed, right, bath.

Your prayer, it's on a daily basis, Lord, I'm needing direction here, God, show me, bring insight, bring insight, God, and I'm waiting on you, I'm not gonna rush, I'm waiting on you, I'm waiting on you.

You ever met those people, like everything they touch turns to gold? Have you ever met those people, Christians? Well, guess what, here's a little secret, probably. They're praying for weeks or months, and they're waiting on God, and they're waiting, and they're waiting, so when God touches it, it's confirmation, they already know they're not moving ahead of God.

So it's not them touching everything they touch works out, it's they're waiting on God, praying and moving patiently and slowly, God, you've gotta show me, I'm not gonna move ahead until you show me. Do you think God says, well, you really blew it there, I wish you would've just rushed ahead and got ahead of me.

He's looking for the heart, he's looking for the prayer that says, God, I'm going to wait on you. I don't know what that looks like. And if you haven't heard that song from Fireproof, While I'm Waiting, go on YouTube, go on YouTube and listen to that song, While I'm Waiting.

I wish every person going through marriage problems could listen to that song. While I'm waiting, God, I will serve you, while I'm waiting, I will wait upon you, I'm not gonna argue, I'm not gonna bicker, I'm not gonna bait, I'm not gonna go to the nightclub and try to find plan B, I'm gonna wait on you, God, while I'm waiting, you will move, while I'm waiting, you will see me through, while I'm waiting, you will change the heart of my spouse, while I'm waiting, God, it's powerful.

You can't go wrong waiting on God and bathing it in prayer. That's why I mentioned microwave Christianity, we've got this form of microwave Christianity. God, you've got four minutes this morning and you better move, and if you don't move by Monday afternoon, I'm on it myself.

Who told us that God was in a hurry? You know what happens is the world's mindset, right? We get back to the, and I don't know if you've realized it or not, but with the television, with media, I just remember, I even remember my grandparents, I don't know now, 40 years ago, I mean, sitting on the back porch making ice cream with those things, and nobody's in a hurry, but now you got two-minute commercials, or one minute, or 30, and you gotta draw them in, our attention span, our attention span.

See, Shane, things are just changing our attention span. No, it's because the influence of the world. Gotta go quick, gotta go quick. Don't like your car after 20 ,000 miles? Go get a new one. Don't like In-N-Out Burger?

Go to Carl's Jr., if your meal's not ready in three minutes, and now the unicorn drinks at Starbucks? Don't get me started on that. But all I had to see was 80 grams of sugar? Four grams to a teaspoon?

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 teaspoons. I read back to this, because that'll be a whole sermon on what we're putting in our bodies is not a good thing, and I'm more convicted of that.

Every hospital home I go to, a lot of the sickness I see, a lot of that is self-created. We are not taking care of this incredible gift that God has given us. I want you to try this. Go watch NASCAR, and you go tell one of the drivers, you've got this cheap fuel, but you'll give it to him for a good price.

Who's gonna put that in their car? I'll tell you, no one, no one. What's the difference? What's the difference between what we put in here? We're too tired, we're too lazy, we're too lethargic, we can't do anything for God, and everything has to fit our schedule, and it's this lazy mentality that I can fall into, too.

Preaching to myself, let me come sit down there. I'll just look up here at myself preaching. I can fall into that, too, folks, and it lines up that what does this have to do with the world? I'm glad you asked, because it's the world's influence.

Think about this. Many times, nothing, nothing that they're advertising is good for you, nothing. A car you can't afford, a house you sure can't afford, food you shouldn't be eating, and now all these billboards around town.

Big oops on it, have you seen it? Oops, with the wedding ring, oops, I made a mistake, quick divorce, call this number. So we see oops, we see this, we see this, it's no wonder we look like the world and we have no power of the Holy Spirit.

So again, don't say, Lord, here's what I'm going to do, please bless it, because that rarely works. Now you can say, Lord, I've been praying about this, I think you're calling me to do this, I've got to take a step here shortly, court date, education, schooling, you've got to make a decision at some point, then that's stepping out in faith, saying, God, you know my situation, you know I have to make a decision.

God, please bless this, please show me, and that's different, but you know those people here, I'm making my plans and God, you bless it. Doesn't matter what I'm doing, God, you bless it. Also, in regard to in the world but not of it, is there conviction, is there conviction in a lack of peace about what you're doing?

Is there conviction in a lack of peace about what you're doing? Then that's often God's way of getting us out of the situation, folks. A believer cannot stay in a wrong, whatever you call it, situation or a wrong event or a wrong thing without conviction and having peace, they won't have those.

A friend of mine, actually I told you, he's got a large church in Bakersfield and we've been going back and forth, they actually send a team to minister inside of a pornography conference in LA. And so I'm trying to get ahold of him, just like, how does that work?

Like, is it hopefully just women? I mean, and they're called of God to do that because that's not a good environment for most people to go into and bring the gospel. But is it an environment you never touch?

I don't know about that. Sometimes in the sex slave industry, if you heard some of the testimonies and how you have to get those women out, I think God calls people to certain areas, but you have to be ready.

You have to know what He's called you to do. For example, He has not called me to do that. I know that. But other people say, how do you speak? And there's atheists there, there's satanic group, there's all, how do you do, I couldn't, I would be, no, He's called me to do that.

But He hasn't called me to do what you, see, He gives us different giftings. Chapter 12 of 1 Corinthians. Same spirit, but different gifts. So is there conviction? Let's talk about this for a minute. Is there conviction that you shouldn't be doing it in a lack of peace, but we do it anyway?

Here's what most people say, but it pays the bills, brother. But it pays the bills. What you shouldn't be doing, yeah, but it pays the bills. I know people in jobs that they shouldn't be in. Working in places they should not be, compromising and all these, but it pays the bills.

So that goes above God's will. Yes, it's risky to step out in things. I mean, I remember Morgan, I remember, actually, it's my daughter's birthday today, so tell Aubrey happy birthday when you see her.

But yeah, it was probably 12 years ago, we had this conversation where she was working, and I was working, and for her to stop working, because I believe, stop working with the home, and it wasn't gonna happen.

It was just impossible. You look at the bills. We just bought a house in Lancaster over by the prison. Great location, right? And it's just not gonna work. We said that for a week. It's not gonna work.

It's impossible to do it. Well, can her mom watch it? And so we decided, well, you know what? Let's just pray. God, we think this is the heart of God. We think this is obviously what's best, and we're stepping out in faith.

Lord, we're gonna trust you in this. And after that, no problem at all. To me, I could go back in a lot of different things, what he did within construction, and I was allowed to buy my own heavy equipment.

Construction was booming, and I was busier than I'd ever imagined to be. But God honoring those types of things. Now, we haven't made perfect decisions all the way through. I don't want people to be left with that impression, because a pastor's not supposed to be the hero of every story, right?

I never do anything wrong. It's the opposite. I've learned many times, and I wanna share those things with you. So be careful if it's just about paying the bills. I've seen people trapped in the wrong job or in the wrong situation for years, sometimes their whole life, because it's about the money or it's about this and not what God's word says.

And it's often not until we trust God's word that he begins to move, because we want it without faith, don't we? Oh, I just, my aunt in Nebraska died. Nebraska. My aunt in Nebraska died. I didn't know I had an aunt.

She left me $400 ,000. Oh, thank you. Now I can make the right decision. That's not faith. That has nothing to do with faith. That's just a good open door, right? Or a good, that's a God may be opening.

Faith is saying, Lord, your word says this. I need to start obeying your word. Regardless of this, I'm going to honor you. I'm going to have faith and I'm going to trust you. Your word says, will I not open up heaven for you?

Will I not show you great things if you trust me? So I'm going to trust you. Yes, it might be difficult for a day or a week or a month, but you're living with that peace that you know you made the right decision.

So again, it has to do with in the world, not of the world. And finally, is there fruit? And yes, I turned an expositional sermon to a topical sermon, in case you're wondering. Is there fruit? Is there fruit in what you're doing in the world, but not of the world?

Fruitfulness and the Message-Messenger Relationship

If you're involved in the things of the world, like most of us are, right? I'm coaching baseball, and many of those people are not Christians. And it's a very difficult environment. I'm hoping I'm being the light.

I'm hoping I'm not being influenced. And is there fruit? Yes, we see fruit, hopefully, at some point. So is there fruit in what you're doing? Is there fruit? Or are we just using that as an excuse? But Shane, but Shane, I'm witnessing to them.

I've known pastors my age that will sit in Yard House and have a couple pints of Yale beer and tell me they're witnessing to the waitress. She went to church yet? No, but I'm trying. It's not gonna happen.

It's not gonna happen, folks. You see, the message and the messenger go together. The message of the gospel and the messenger have to be together. What would you guys think if I went and got a big Mickey Mouse sticker and filled this whole thing with a Mickey Mouse sticker?

And then Barney next to it? And then what's all the stuff now? Frozen next to it? Look, isn't this cool? The kids can relate now. You'd be going, what is wrong with Shane, the messenger and the message?

See, they go together. I've seen the way that they have, the dangers of pornography are terrible, and we all know that. But sometimes the way they promote these conferences, I can't go into details. I did in one of my books.

Now, I can't tell you what they do. But it's ridiculous how they promote these things, trying to reach the world. We'll leave it at that. Ask me, I'll tell you afterwards. But the message and the messenger go together.

The messenger and the message go together. They're married. So are you affecting the world or is the world infecting you? So that was all tied into Peter. He went in what we would call, you can't go into that place.

Don't do that as a Christian. He walked into that place, and God moved in a powerful way. So here's the shift we see. Well, let's shift it for a minute. Are you teachable? Were these people teachable?

So when Peter said this, did they get contentious and angry and try to put him down? Or were they teachable? Because Proverbs says, always hear both sides. That might be something for somebody this morning.

That has helped me more times than I can tell you. You hear this side, right? And you're like, oh, I'm gonna go get him. And you hear this side and you're like, what? Wait a minute here, what happened?

Because the truth is often in the middle. Because we tell things from our perspective. Right, we'll build this up, but we'll leave this out. We'll say this, but not that. And Proverbs encouraged us to go to both sides.

Peter's Defense and the Gentiles' Reception of the Spirit

So let's see how these men reacted. Verse 14, I'm sorry, verse four in chapter 11. Now we see contending. They're contending for the faith. But Peter explained the dream to them. The dream he had of God showing him basically that it's not wrong to go with these Gentiles.

And as Peter began to speak, as I began to speak, Peter's talking, the Holy Spirit fell upon them as upon us at the beginning. Then I remember the word of the Lord, how he said, John, indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

Boy, this is a controversial chapter, isn't it? Baptized in the Holy Spirit. By the way, they spoke in tongues. Uh-oh, here we go, right? I mean, the book of Acts is, the book of Acts is recording church history.

Then I remember the word of the Lord, John will baptize you with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit. What was happening is John the Baptist was baptizing people into the Jordan River, baptism into repentance, baptism into repentance.

Get your life right with God, baptizing into repentance. But Jesus said, when I'm gone, the Holy Spirit's going to come, and he's going to baptize you with fire. That's the difference. People in the old, they're being baptized.

Okay, I come out, I'm right with God because I baptized, no big deal. But when the Holy Spirit came upon them, they were radically changed. They became new people, basically. Dead to the things of God, now alive to the things of God.

If therefore God gave them the same gift as he gave us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God? So Peter's preaching the Gospel, the Holy Spirit falls upon this family, Cornelius' whole house, the Holy Spirit falls.

It's probably like, have you ever tried to witness even to young adults? They're like, whatever, or they're listening, and people, you can tell when they're bored, right? They're not really paying attention.

Well, Peter's wit, who knows, if they're standing, they're sitting, the Holy Spirit comes upon them, and they are just hit with the awesomeness of God. They are baptized in the Holy Spirit. They are unctioned, there's anointing there, and this whole family's changed.

As a result, don't get mad at me. The Bible says, I'm just reading the Bible, it says they spoke in tongues. That's what the Bible says. See, the problem with people who don't believe that is you gotta go ahead and cut out chapter 12 of 1 Corinthians.

While you're at it, cut out chapter 13 on love, and while you're at it, because he's using love to say, talking about the gifts, and then chapter 14, he's talking about more of this. Go cut out all three of those chapters.

It's just, we just don't see that. So when they heard these things, they became silent. In other words, the Jews heard Peter talking about Cornelius' family receiving the Holy Spirit, and they were all, they all began to glorify God.

So these people didn't say, nope, that didn't happen, because here's what a critical person will do. Peter, I don't care what happened, that's not right. You shouldn't have went in their house. I don't care if the Holy Spirit fell upon them, and they were speaking in tongues and preaching.

I don't care. You shouldn't have done that. You know who that reminds me of? The Pharisees. Jesus, you shouldn't have healed on Sunday. Why'd you heal that man on Sunday? So it showed me their hearts were like, hey, we're contending, why did you go into the house of unbelievers?

Oh, God fell upon them and saved them? Surely, surely, we cannot cast the first stone and be judgmental. That's what they said, and they glorified God, saying, then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life.