Amen. Okay, keep your place there in Acts chapter 5. We're going to finish up this chapter this evening. So we've already gone through the story of Ananias and his wife, Sapphira, and talked about that. We're going to start at verse number 12, but before I go verse by verse, we're going to just break down the rest of the chapter for you. So you kind of just understand what happens. You kind of see the points that I'm going to try to make throughout the chapter. So basically, after the Ananias and Sapphira situation, Peter goes back out and they get locked up again. They get put in prison, the angel of the Lord breaks them out, and again we just see at the beginning, as we're going to look, all these people are just getting saved. Okay, all these people are just believing them, and you see this contrast of all these people believing on the Lord Jesus Christ and just believing what they're saying, and then you just see this contrast of the Pharisees and the religious leaders just getting madder and madder and madder about the whole thing. Okay, then of course the angel of the Lord breaks them out of prison. They are brought again to the religious leaders and they tell them to stop, you know, stop doing this or whatever, and then of course they don't. They say, you know, we ought to obey God rather than man, Peter says. And then we see at the very end, I'm going to talk about this as well, we see the speech from Gamaliel, and we'll talk about that as well. So let's look down at verse number 12. That's kind of what happens. That's just kind of the plot that we're going to be talking about here. Okay, so look at verse number 12. The Bible says, and by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought amongst the people. And they were all, here we go again, we see this again. They were all with one accord in Solomon's porch as they were preaching in the temple. And the rest, and of the rest, Durst, no man joined himself to them, but the people magnified them. You know, it says that there were some that, you know, Durst means dare. Some people just didn't dare follow them, but the people magnified them. And believers were more added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women, and so much that they brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them. There came also a multitude out of the cities, round about unto Jerusalem, bringing sick folks and them which were vexed with unclean spirits, and they were healed every one. So, I mean, here we're seeing just these people that are just being just saved and just believing this, and just, and of course, they're performing miracles too. They're not just, you know, preaching the gospel, they're also healing people. So, you have to kind of remember that just like the Pharisees when they saw Jesus doing the miracles, they just, they still didn't believe him. It was just, they just got madder and madder and madder. The exact same thing is happening with the apostles here. Look at verse number 17. So here we just see these, this chunk of verses verse 12 through verse 16. There's all these people just believing on the Lord Jesus Christ and believing what the apostles are saying. Look at verse 17. Now we see the opposite, the contrast. The high priest rose up and all day that were with him, which is the sect of the Sadducees, these are the Sadducees, and were filled with indignation and laid their hands on the apostles and put them in the common prison. But the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors and brought them forth and said, go stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life.  Verse 21. When they heard that, they entered into the temple early in the morning and taught, but the high priest came and they that were with him and called the council together and all the senate of the children of Israel and sent to the prison to have them brought. So they don't even know they're out yet. When the officers came and found them not in the prison, they returned and told saying the prison truly found we shut with all safety and the keeper standing without before the doors, but when we had opened we found no man within. Now when the high priest and the captain of the temple and the chief priest heard these things, they doubted of them where unto this would grow. Then came one and told them saying, behold the men whom he put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people. So that's quite a miracle right there.   And they didn't even know, even the guards didn't even know that they were gone. And then verse 26. Again, we see that they fear the people. The captain with the officers brought them without violence. Why? Because they feared the people lest they should have been stoned. So they were worried that if they would do anything to these popular men, because look, there was verse 12 through verse 16, we see all these people that were just believing them and just getting saved. And they were healing all these people. So the people, again, liked them. It was just these religious leaders trying to make this stop. Look at verse 27. And when they had brought them, they set them before the council and the high priest asked them saying, did we not straightly command you that you should not teach in this name and behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine and intend to bring this man's blood upon us? And then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, we ought to obey God rather than men. So here we see, this is just a standard, this is a basic Bible philosophy right here that Peter lays out in front of the Sadducees. He just says, look, we're to obey God rather than you. We see this philosophy throughout the Bible when the Bible talks about all the authorities in our life. God is always at the top of the list. In Ephesians 5, the Bible says, you know, wives submit yourselves under your own husbands as unto the Lord. So God is always at the top of the list when it talks about authorities in your life. So a wife is to submit herself to her husband as long as it's, what it means as unto the Lord, as long as it's in line with what the Lord says. Ephesians 6 says the same thing about children, children obey your parents in the Lord, it says. For this is right. So that caveat is always there in our life. I mean in Colossians 3 it says servants. I mean talking about your boss at work, you know, masters that you have. Servants obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eye service as men pleasers, but in singleness of heart. And look it says, fearing God. So it always puts that point in there that you're always to, as long as it lines up with what God says. This is very similar to what Peter told the Sadducees. He just says, I have to do what God says, not what you do. So what the Sadducees were telling Peter was not unto the Lord. It was not of fearing God. It was not in line with what God, because we saw the angel just told them, go speak all the words of this life just a couple of verses before you let him out. Romans 13 says exactly the same thing. It says, let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. So this is one thing that we always need to realize when we're looking at authorities in our life is, you know, we are to follow the authority that the Bible lays out for us in our lives. Yes, husbands, wives, masters, servants, you know, pastor, church, you know, the whole thing, as long as it's in the Lord. As long as it's in the Lord. If it's not in the Lord, then we're to obey God rather than men. But look, here's the thing, if it's in the Lord, if it's in the Lord, we're to obey it. If it's in the Lord from your boss, we're to obey it. And look, a lot of things, a lot of things are neutral. A lot of things aren't in the Bible. I mean, think about this for a second.   And he says, well, I don't think that God would want the lawn mowed twice a week. That's not correct. Okay, he's not in the Lord at that point. Mowing the lawn, and how many times do you mow the lawn? It's not in the Bible. Okay, that is up to, you know, his dad's authority, his parents' authority. So don't, you know, don't make things spiritual that are not spiritual.  It says, let the wives be unto their husbands in everything. It says the wives are to be subjected to their husbands in everything, everything. So, you know, that's not popular today, but there's a lot of things that are just, they're left up to the husband. They're left up to the husband. They might not be in the Bible. I came home, and my wife had a whole meal on the table, and I said, you know, I want pancakes. And she's like, oh man, but I've already made hamburgers. And I'm just like, I have to have pancakes right now. Look, she should make pancakes. Look, people would be up, I mean, that would be kind of a jerk thing for me to do. And like, I wouldn't do that, and in 23 years I've never done that. But the point is, like, the husband is in charge in everything. And if I want pancakes over hamburgers, that, you know, that's not against what the Bible says. Okay? So, you know, a lot of people, like with marriage today, this is all mixed up because it's just, you know, the world is teaching something completely different. A lot of people are really scared about getting married because, you know, young men today will look at the laws of the country and they'll just look at it and they'll say, well, man, you know, my wife, she doesn't have to listen to me. You know, there's no sheriff that's going to come over and tell my wife to make pancakes if she doesn't listen to me.  And I'm just like, well, that's not correct according to the Bible. Look, there's no law that's going to enforce that for me. So you'll get these young men that are just like, oh, I don't ever want to get married, you know, and all this. So here's the thing, I mean, you shouldn't marry someone that has no fear of the Lord. Because you shouldn't marry someone who has no fear of, you know, what the Bible says.  That's what the Bible says. So look, this idea of not respecting authority in your lives, I mean, I'm speaking about wives right now, but it's a life record in so many situations. If you're a man that can't respect authorities in your life, you're going to have a very hard time working or holding a job. If you're, you know, somebody that just can't respect authority in a church, you're going to have a hard time having your family in church. It's really a fatal flaw for the Christian. And for a marriage, it's really difficult. It'll make you so your marriage is kicking against the pricks. So wives, you should just, you know, he's in charge. I mean, that's the way it is. And you know, husbands should not be bossed around by their wives. I mean, it's just, it's very simple.   It's because they're cutting this down. They're trying to cut down this biblical structure. And they're trying to undo it. They're trying to undo it. Turn to Isaiah chapter three. The Bible actually says that in a marriage, in a marriage as in a nation, if you mix up these roles of men and women, if you mix these roles up, it's actually a curse. It's actually something that is a judgment. Look at Isaiah chapter three. Just applying this to a marriage. Look at Isaiah chapter three. Look at verse number eight. Isaiah chapter three and verse number eight. Look down at verse number eight. Yeah, let's just start at verse number eight. For Jerusalem is ruined and Judah is fallen because their tongue and their doings are against the Lord to provoke the eyes of his glory. So here this nation is in for it. The Bible is saying because they're doing things against the Lord. The show of their countenance does witness against them and they declare their sin as Sodom. They hide it not. Boy, who's that? I mean, that's kind of like us today. We just declare our sin as a nation and we're proud of, you know, literal abomination.  Look, judgment is coming to this nation. Look at verse 10. Say unto the righteous that it shall be well with him, for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Woe unto the wicked, it shall be ill with him, for the reward of his hands shall be given him. So look at this. Now, we can apply this to a nation and we'll see that it is happening in our nation, but you can also apply this to a marriage as well. As for my people, look, this is a judgment. This is a judgment on a nation. This is a judgment on a people that don't listen to the Lord, that do things against the Lord in verse number 8. It says, Ask for my people. It says, Children are their oppressors. I mean, look at people raising their kids today. People are being run by two-year-olds and three-year-olds today. All you have to do is go to a grocery store to see that, go to Walmart to see that. People are just, I mean, this is why people can't even imagine having more than one kid. They're like, oh, one or two, they can't even imagine it because they're completely owned by the two-year-old and the four-year-old have. Children are their oppressors. And look what it says, And women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee, cause thee to err and destroy the way of thy paths. Look, being ruled by women is a curse. Well, you can't say that too loud today. But that's what the Bible says. If you're ruled by your wife, that's not a good thing, men. You're not to be ruled by your wife. You're to rule yourself. It's not cause this isn't, this is what God says. This isn't how smart women are. This isn't, this is just the role that God wants women in, in a family. This is the role that God wants women in, in a nation. He says the nation that has women ruling over them, it's, that's a judgment. That's a judgment. Children are their oppressors and women rule over them. So obey your husbands in the Lord. You know, always in the Lord. Go back to Acts chapter 5.  It's just that we've given these authority structures in our life. We just need to follow them as long as they're in the Lord. It's very simple. Okay? And the more that we follow things, it's like, it's like, you know, like Paul was kicking against the pricks. Right? It's like petting a porcupine. You want to pet him one way only. Right? You don't want to go the other way. Right? So if you do things the way God says to do them, you're going to have an easier time. You're going to have a good marriage. You're going to have a good time at work. You're going to have a good life in church. You're going to have all kinds of just goodness and blessings come your way. If you try to kick against the pricks, you're going to have nothing but trouble. Look at Acts chapter 5 and verse number 30. So Peter is just pointing out, saying, look what you're telling me. You're telling me to pet the porcupine the wrong way. You're like, I'm not going to do it. He's like, I'm just going to do what God tells me to do. And that's it. Look at verse number 30. The God of our fathers, now Peter starts, he starts preaching, he starts preaching Jesus again. Okay? And this is how many times has Peter preached Jesus already in the book of Acts that we've been studying? I mean this is, he's done it several times already. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom he slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be prince and savior, for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are his witnesses of these things. And so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him. When they heard it, they were cut to the heart and took counsel to slay them. Notice how he says that, you know, he's given the Holy Ghost. Okay? That people that are saved and that obey God are given the Holy Ghost. And when they heard that, they were cut to the heart and took counsel to slay them. So there's that opposite reaction right there. Here you had all these other people bringing in their friends and bringing in these sick people so they could just have the shadow of Peter cross them. And they were just believing them and they were all becoming of one accord. And then you had these people, they were just like, they were just more and more against them. More and more cut to the heart against them. This reminds me of one of the theories that's out there of Hebrews chapter 6. So let's turn to Hebrews chapter 6. And I thought that this would be a good time, as good a time as any to explain Hebrews chapter 6 because I've never really gone into it before because it's one of those things This is one of those few verses in the Bible that as a satellite leader, I wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole. But now as a pastor, I can give my opinion on it. But this idea that Peter is out here and he's preaching the gospel again and again and again and certain just multitudes of people are getting saved and then other people are just getting more and more hardened to the Word of God. This is a common thing that you will see in your life It's a common thing that happens and it's one of the theories of Hebrews chapter 6 verses 4, 5 and 6. So let's go ahead and look at Hebrews chapter 6 and let's look at these verses. So this is kind of a standalone Bible study right here. Now just think about what's happening in Acts chapter 5 and let's look at these verses. Now I want to give you the context. Look at verse number 1. We got to look at the context. What we're talking about here in Hebrews chapter 6. It says, therefore leading the principles of the doctrine of Christ let us go on unto perfection. So he's saying, you know, perfection, sanctification. He's like, now that we're saved, let's go and let's do what we're supposed to do. Let's live the Christian life. Let's go and teach the right doctrine, do the right things. Because I mean, couldn't you get saved and then not do the right things? Or maybe just do nothing. Look what he says.  And faith, and of faith toward God. So what's he saying there? He's like, don't go and revisit this idea that he's talking about turning from what are dead works. Dead works are works that I thought were going to get me to heaven.   So he's like, we don't have to go revisit that. Let's get saved and let's move on with the Christian life, what we're supposed to do. He says, so we don't want to go back into repent from dead works because that's what we all did, right? Didn't we all repent from dead works? That's what I did. I mean, you repent from, you know, I believed in work salvation and then I repented from that in faith towards God, completely, right? So that's what the context here is. Now look at verse number four. Now these are maybe outside of Bible prophecy. These three verses are maybe one of the more complicated verses in the Bible, especially in the New Testament, okay? Look at verse number four. It says, for it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come if they shall fall away to renew them again unto repentance seeing they crucify themselves, the Son of God, afresh and put him to an open shame. So there's two main ideas here. There's two main schools of thought here. I'll give you probably the most, it's probably the most popular one, probably among circles that we are in is this. It's saying that these are people that get almost to the point of getting saved, okay? They've been given the word of God. They almost, they're really considering it. They're thinking about it. They understand it and they just decide no. They decide to reject it, okay? And then in verse number six, it says if they shall fall away to renew them again under repentance, it says it's impossible to renew them again, okay? It just, it says, now here's the thing. I don't take this school of thought. However, I'm okay with the theory, okay? Because the theory is true. The theory is true. If you go and you give somebody the gospel and they really consider it and they understand the whole thing and they decide, yeah, I don't think so. You know, then it's definitely going to be less likely that that person gets saved. That's been my experience, okay? However, I do know people that have been given the gospel like a dozen or more times before they got saved. I also know people that have been given the gospel years before and considered it and didn't believe it. And then something happened in their life that was drastic and then they were given it again and then they didn't believe it, okay? So, I agree with the theory of that interpretation. However, the absolute language here where it says it is impossible for those who are once enlightened as a matter of fact, as a matter of fact, the theory, I've heard this theory used for both saved people and unsaved people. I just talked to you about unsaved people. They hear the gospel, they almost believe it and then they reject it, okay? So this is basically saying that those people are just reprobates at that point, okay?  I mean, this is kind of like what Matthew 12 is talking about. Go ahead and turn to Matthew 12. I think it's in Luke 10 or 11 as well, but Matthew 12. Turn to Matthew 12. So, I've heard this theory and I've seen this happen as well, okay? You gotta save person, they fall away and it's just they never get back to where they were again. That's what this would say, right? That they just can never get back to where they were in the first place. Look at Matthew chapter 12 and look at verse number 43. Matthew 12 verse 43, the Bible says, when the unclean spirit has gone out of a man, this is Jesus talking, he walketh through dry places seeking rest and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out and when he has come he findeth it empty, swept and garnished. So here, Jesus is using an analogy here and he's talking about it and you could picture the unclean spirit as sin and the man is pictured as a house. Okay, so the man is a house and he's cleaned himself up. He's cleaned out the house, he's gotten all the junk out, he's gotten all this out and it says when the unclean spirit comes back, he comes in and he brings seven more spirits. Look at what he says, then he goeth and he taketh with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself and they enter in and dwell there and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be unto this wicked generation. So Jesus is using an analogy to say what's going to happen to these wicked leaders that are not believing in him. Jesus is basically in Matthew 12 here, he's explaining what we're seeing in Acts chapter 5. Does that make sense? How these people, they're hearing the gospel, they're hearing the gospel, they're just getting worse, they're just getting worse, they're just getting worse. That's what Jesus is explaining in Matthew chapter 12. He's given a picture of an unclean spirit coming out of a guy, but just picture somebody that gets sin out of their life and then they get back into that sin. And I've seen this many times too. They get sin out of their life, say a saved person, they dump the sin out, they clean out the house and then they go back into that sin and it's way worse than it was the first time. I've seen that several times in my life as well. So the theory is sound, the theory's there, okay? The theory's there. But, you know, I just, and look, I don't really have any problem with that interpretation of Hebrews chapter 6. The only thing that I don't think that that's the main application of it is because it's just its absolute language. It says it's impossible. And the Bible does say that, you know, it's possible to be restored. I mean, we see in 1 Corinthians chapter 5 there's a guy in fornication and then 2 Corinthians chapter 2, he gets restored. And Paul is saying, hey, restore him. You know, forgive him, bring him back. So, I mean, maybe I'm just an optimistic fool, but I'd like to keep that hope that that's possible. Okay, even though, even though it was saved people that have like just completely turned against the Christian life, it's very rare, maybe, I've not seen it. It's where they come back and they get to where they were in the first place. Okay, so let me look, it's a warning for us. It's a warning for us to protect our Christian life. Okay, at least from experience, we see it. We've all seen both sides of this. We've all seen people that have been given the gospel, got to that point where they're like, ah, almost there. And then they rejected it and then they just get way worse. They just get way worse and it's harder to get them saved. We've seen that and, you know, most people that have been in church or church as for years and years have seen people that get back, slid and get out of church and they just, they don't never seem to get back to where they were again, okay? Especially when they like just turn, they fall away from it and turn against it. So both of those theories are true, okay? But go back to Hebrews chapter 6 and I'll tell you what I think this means. And honestly, if somebody has an interpretation or a theory on Hebrews chapter 6 with these three verses and it doesn't like undo anything else in the Bible, I really don't have any issue with it. I mean, it's interesting. But here's what I think about Hebrews chapter 6 in verse number 4, 5 and 6. Here's what I think it means. I think it's just proof of eternal security is what I think it means. Because the Bible says in verse 4, because remember, what are we talking about in verse 1? We're talking about repentance from dead works towards faith in Jesus. We're talking about just throwing off works-based salvation and accepting Jesus Christ as your Savior. That's what we're talking about, okay? And then it says, for is it impossible? Is it impossible? For those who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost. That's where I think that these are probably saved people. I mean, it says that they're partakers. Okay, they're partakers of the Holy Ghost. So they've got the Holy Ghost. Partaker means you took it. You have it. You've got that earnest for salvation. And so if you just underline those words right there, for it's impossible. What he's saying is, what I'm about to say to you is not possible. What I'm about to say to you is it can't happen, is what he's saying. And this is the only thing when we look at this absolute language here. It makes sense, because it's not possible to lose your salvation, right? So he's saying it is impossible for those, and then he says, for saved people. That's how I interpret the rest of the verse. And if tasted of the good word of God and the powers of the world to come. So if you just look at verse four and verse five, let me just shorten it for you. It's impossible for saved people, look at verse six, if they shall fall away to renew them again unto repentance. Seeing that they crucified to themselves the Son of God afresh. He's saying it's impossible for them to fall out of that faith. Because Jesus would have to die for them again. Because Jesus would have to like go and like die on the cross again.  And I think it was after I got saved, I was already saved when I asked him this question. But I just kind of came up to him and I just said it was the last church service I ever went to at the Lutheran church. And I said where in the Bible does it explain, because like look we believe you can lose your salvation in the Lutheran church, right? Someone's going to make a clip of that. We believe you could lose your salvation in the Lutheran church. That was the whole thing, that was the difference. We said oh grace through faith and all this, but we believed you could fall into unbelief. You could fall out of grace. That's what we believed, okay? And I said where in the Bible, so if we believe you could lose your salvation you have to believe you can get resaved, right? Or is it a one-shot deal? No, they all believe you can get resaved and get brought back into the church and all this kind of stuff. And I just said give me one example in the Bible or where does it explain in the Bible where somebody gets born again and again and again. And you just don't see it anywhere. You don't see it. You're born again, one time. That's it. And the reason you're not born again and the book of Hebrews just talks about this ad nauseam is because Jesus only had to die once.   And the Bible here is saying if they shall fall away, so it's saying it's impossible for verse 6 to happen is the way I interpret this, okay? If they shall fall away to renew them again unto repentance seen they crucify to themselves as the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame. It would be a shame to say that Jesus would have to die again and again and again. That would be an insult to God to say that because Jesus' sacrifice was good enough it only had to be done one time, okay? The bulls and goats had to be redone again and again and again. Jesus once. So I just think that this is a proof of eternal security. However, the theory, and I think that reason people read into this is because the theory of saved people falling away and never really getting back to where they were and unsaved people hearing the gospel, you know, again and again and again and being less likely to get saved, it's true. You will see that. You'll see that in your life, okay? But look, it's not impossible for somebody to get restored. I mean, maybe I'll never see it in my life but I refuse to believe it's impossible, okay? I refuse to believe that it's impossible.  There's a godly sorrow in 2 Corinthians chapter 7. You can just repent of that and then, you know, Paul is supposed to just forgive people. You know, let them be given over and forgive people. So that's my Hebrew 6 explanation. Like I said, you know, there's some things you can't touch as a satellite leader but that's what I believe about that. Go back to Acts chapter 5. But we see the theory, right? We see the theory of people here in the gospel again and again and again and a lot of people getting saved and then certain people just getting really hardened is all that to say that, okay? Now go back to verse number 34. But just remember, okay? So just remember, we always base doctrine and here's why it doesn't really matter. Like if I had a pastor friend who thought something different about this, which I do, it makes no difference to me about this because when it comes to our Bible reading, rule number one is it's just that doctrine should always come from clear doctrine or from clear scripture. Our doctrine should always come from clear scripture. It shouldn't come from parables or it shouldn't come from, you know, obscure verses like this. We'll all get together and talk to Jesus when we're in heaven and he can explain it to us when we get there, okay? And then we'll get to the point on these obscure things. But just remember, when you're reading something obscure, if somebody was teaching a theory about Hebrews chapter six, verse four, five and six and it proved, and their theory said you could lose your salvation, I would have a problem with that and you should have a problem with that too because there's very clear scriptures that we are eternally secure and that we are sealed by the Holy Spirit and that once we are saved, we are always saved. Our doctrine comes from clear, easily understood scriptures. That's why the gospel is so simple, okay? Look at verse 34. Now we see this Gamaliel give a little speech here and this is super interesting what he says. It also applies to a lot of things that we see today but he stands up and he gives some wisdom here and I agree with what he's saying. What he says is pretty smart. Look what he says. He says he obviously doesn't have like this just like this reprobate hatred of the apostles. He says he stands up, there stood up there one in the council, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a doctor of the law. He had in reputation among all the people and commanded to put the apostles forth a little space and he said to them, you men of Israel take heed to yourselves what you intend to do is touching these men. For before these days rose up Thudeus boasting himself to be somebody to whom a number of men about 400 joined themselves who was slain and all in as many obeyed him as obeyed him were scattered and brought to naught. So he says look, he's like, he's talking to the people that are against the apostles and he's saying just wait, he's talking to all the people maybe people that are against him and people that are for the apostles. He's like look, don't you remember this guy Thudeus? He came up and you got this big following of hundreds of people and then some people obeyed him but as soon as he was killed, it was like everybody scattered and the whole thing came to nothing, he said. And then look at verse 37 he says after this rose up Judas of Galilee in the days of the taxing and drew away much people after him he also perished and all even as many obeyed him were dispersed. So he says there was another guy, that guy was a tax protester. There's another guy got people all worked up about taxes and everybody was gathered to him. What he's saying is like look, we've seen this before. We've seen this before. He's like look, there was people, they were drawn to this guy too and then he died, was killed or whatever it was like everybody just scattered. And look at verse 38. Now I say unto you, refrain from these men and let them alone for this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to not. Now he talks to the actual religious leaders who are trying to persecute them and he's saying, what are you doing? He's like just leave them alone because they're just like Thudias and they're just like this Judas, this tax protester because it'll just come to nothing. He's like what do you care? It will come to not, nothing. Verse 39. Then he says, but if it be of God you cannot overthrow it. Let's happily be found even to fight against God. And to him they agreed, it's like how are you going to argue against that? And when they called the apostles and like so they agree, right? So what does he tell them? He tells them, he's like hey guys, no action here. He's like don't take any action. He's like because if it's not of God it's just going to disperse into nothing. And if it is of God, do you want to fight against God? Like what are you idiots? And they're like yeah we agree and then they beat them. He's like this is how much these Sadducees just hate these guys. It's like the heathen rage, right? The heathen rage. And to him they agreed. So they're like yeah you're right. And they beaten them. They commanded they should not speak in the name of Jesus and let them go. And they departed from the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. And daily in the temple in every house is about to teach in praise Jesus Christ.  And either way you shouldn't take any action against these men because you know you're either at best case you're wasting your time and at worst case you're fighting against God. So this I mean people should think about this. Turn to Isaiah chapter 55. I mean this shows you right here that people that fight against a church think about this. People that fight against a church are foolish people that don't know the Bible because number one if it's some church where just the pastor's a heretic and it's like whatever just get out of there because like God's going to take care of that. I mean God's going to take care of that situation. I mean people that fight against a soul winning church are you kidding me? That's preaching the right gospel? It's like what are you thinking? I mean you're literally fighting against God. That's the position people are putting themselves putting themselves in because look if it is of God if it is of God God's going to protect it. It's very simple. Look at Isaiah chapter 55. Look at Isaiah chapter 55 and if it is of God I mean here's a promise that God gives us about so the angel told, remember what the angel told Peter.  Go speak all the words. And we know of course when we look at Peter and the apostles we know that that was of God. I mean first of all they all died. They all died and they just kept growing well except John. They just kept growing and growing and growing and look at us today and look at us today from that. People just kept getting saved and saved and today. People were getting saved and saved and you know it might not be as receptive as it was 40 years ago but people are still getting saved. It just keeps going and going and going. But why? Look at Isaiah 55 verse 6. It says seek ye the Lord while he may be found call ye upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon. So there's kind of like my there's my philosophy again right there that if you turn from your wicked way you know the Lord will have mercy on you. The Bible says from my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your ways my ways saith the Lord. We need to always remember that right there. That's not the main point of what I'm going to talk about here. We always need to remember that just because we don't really understand how things are working that as long as we're doing what we're supposed to be doing you know we don't know what God's plans are. Because his ways are not our ways his thoughts are not our thoughts. For as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven and returneth not thither but watereth the earth and make it bring forth and bud that it may give a seed to the sower and bread to the eater. He's like look the rain doesn't fall for no reason. He's like the rain comes down and the snow comes down. It doesn't just come it's not just like there just to just fall on the ground. It goes and it does its work in the ground and it brings forth all this abundance and it brings forth seed and it brings forth bread for us to eat. He's giving an analogy here. He's like these things don't happen for no reason at all. So he starts off saying my ways are way bigger than your ways. You have no idea what my plans are. He's like just as things that you just take for granted like precipitation has a purpose look at verse 11. He says so shall my word be that go forth out of my mouth. It shall not return unto me void but it shall accomplish that which I please and it shall prosper in the thing where to I sent it. If this is of God if Peter and the apostles were of God which we know they were then God here is saying if they were speaking his words then that word is going to accomplish something and you know you may say well I don't understand what God's trying to accomplish everywhere in my life but here's the thing if we are going out and we are speaking God's words this is a promise here. This is a promise that is when the rain falls you know I flew over death valley the reason there is nothing growing there is because it never rains. If it would rain there things would grow there but it just never rains there it's 130 degrees and it never rains but if it does rain things would come forth that's how it works. God is saying if the word goes out if it's his word and it goes out it will not come back void it will not come back empty it will not come back without anything look we have no idea what God's plans are we have no idea that's why there's a lot of times in your life where you're just like I don't know what's going on just got to follow orders just got to do what God tells you to do just keep putting that word out there that's all we need to do like the Christian life is hard but it's very very simple it's very simple just keep putting out that word look every time we go out nobody gets saved you go out and say you haven't gotten somebody saved for two months every time you went out and every time you spoke God's word something happened something happened because God promises that his word will not come back with nothing it goes on and it will accomplish something I mean the Bible says we're ambassadors for Christ you know what that means we're spokesmen we're representatives for Christ Christ is the word of God and it's a promise that every single time think about it think about it every time maybe every time you go out and you have a conversation with people I like conversations just as much as I like getting somebody saved at this point look I like getting people saved but if I can get into a conversation where I can just really strike the word of God into somebody's heart and just really make them kind of think about things look I just love those types of conversations very happy and guess what if we get if we get exhorted from it and we get lifted up not lifted up like prideful but if we get strengthened in our Christian life from speaking God's word guess what that's an accomplishment of God's word right there then it makes us grow do you know if you go out and you give the gospel and you go out and you get more experience soul winning you know what that's God's word accomplishing something right there there's so much more than just having somebody you know receive Jesus at the door there's so much more I mean just think about the edification that I went out I went on in Arizona and I went soul winning with a young man there for you know I don't know an hour and a half or so and we didn't talk to anybody but we talked to each other and I got to know a very nice young man and I got to know a new friend the word of God didn't go didn't come back void every single time we go out and the word of God goes forth it will come back with something look it's not me saying that it's a promise from the Bible we have to really pay attention to these promises in the Bible because I mean if you sit there and you read that so my word shall be that go forth out of my mouth it shall not return on to me void that means that we should go we should speak the word we should use that promise we should harness these promises in our life you know we're I mean it's a great thing and guess what there's a lot of things and what the Bible is saying in the verses previous to verse number 11 is saying even if you don't know what that coming back was you know what it came back with it's like you don't have to know maybe it was just rewards for you in heaven think about it if that's what you need just take that but the Bible is spending verse after verse after verse talking before God even gives you this promise I mean you're not going to understand my plans that's just it so all we have to do is just obey God rather than men and God promises that he will do the work that the word will come back not empty so great chapter in Acts chapter 5 I can't wait to get through in start after chapter 6 next week with bar heads and have a word of prayer


So goodbye Okay, all right, it's not good. It's slow and weak radio poles. Here you go. Let's uh, let's start some homo I'm gonna get an IV started over here. I'm gonna get an IV started over here too. It's whatever you bluff Oh, yeah You pump them at One unit of blood All right, let's just just throw that away. There we go. Let's get the IV. Do we have any expected?  Watched up. Dang it.  I am a dad. You don't want to do the gauze person and layer that on top?


Who's going to win readiness challenge in front of the stage? You don't have to be formed up unless everyone moved right here. My distinct honor to introduce Colonel Stanford, who is going to give opening remarks. All right, before we get started, we got to do a little test run here. If chief here, who's got better lungs than I do, shouts out the word engineers. There's only one proper response. What is it? In the way. All right, you guys think you can do that? All right, let's do a little practice round. Chief. Engineers. Please wait. All right, awesome. Hey guys, Scott Stanford director writing us here at Air Force Civil Engineer Center. We have got a absolutely tremendous week lined up for you here. So this is readiness challenge eight. Some of you flew from halfway around the world or halfway around the country or wherever you came from. We're excited to have you here, excited to host you. If you don't know what it looks like, don't worry. There's almost nobody in uniform that has actually seen this thing go down before because it's been over 20 years since we did writing this challenge. Okay, so what's it all about? Well, it's about building a war fighting culture among engineers, among civil engineers. It's about assessing readiness. It's about giving you a chance to come out here and show us what you got.  It's going to be a tremendous competition and we're looking forward to seeing what you guys can do. Okay, so I'm going to ask four things of you this week. Try to remember four things.  Okay, attitude is going to be essential for you to one have fun to learn and three compete this week. Something's probably going to go wrong. Right? We haven't done this a long time. The weather, maybe we got the weather out of the way, but the weather won't cooperate. A piece of equipment might not work one day. There'll be a miscommunication or something. Having that positive can do engineer attitude is going to get us through it. Okay, so I asked you to bring your positive attitude. All right, let's test that out again. Chief. Engineers! Lead the way! All right, that's a good start. All right, so if attitude is essential, then safety is my next point. Safety is paramount. Okay, you guys knew I was going to get up here and say this, right? We want you to bring your A game. We want you to compete hard, but at the end of the day, there's one thing that we would have a hard time recovering from. We can recover from the weather. We can recover from bad equipment, but we certainly don't want to have to recover from sending somebody home, you know, with a serious injury or worse. Okay, so let's take care of each other. Your red hats back there, your cadre are going to be watching out for safety points, but I need each of you guys to do the same. Look out for your own, look out for your neighbors. Take care of each other. If you're getting asked to do something and you don't remember how to do it, you haven't done it in a while, or maybe you've never done it before. Take a break. It's all right. Ask for help from your team, from your cadre. We'll figure it out and move forward. It's not worth getting anybody hurt over. All right, so that's two points. One was, anybody remember? Attitude. All right, so bring the right attitude. Okay, number two, safety is paramount. Number three, I had to make my own notes here. All right, we need your feedback. Okay, we haven't done this in a long time. If any of you get to come back here in four or five years, I can almost guarantee it's going to look different. We already know that our training for engineers, our contingency training is going to evolve as we get ready for this high-end fight. So along with that, writing this challenge is going to evolve. And so, in order to make it better, to take it to the next level, it's going to be awesome this week, but to take it to the next level we need your feedback as the first participants in 22 years to help us make it better. Okay, so when you see things go down this week, make a mental note like, so maybe we can do it a little bit differently next time, and then give us your written feedback at the end of the week. It's going to be absolutely essential and vital to the future of this program. All right, and then the fourth thing, so I mentioned three so far, one's attitude, two's safety. Three is give us your feedback. It's going to be vital to the future of the program. And fourth and finally is you guys get to make history this week. I'm not being overly dramatic. This is the kind of stuff we put in our Air Force history books, in our Air Force civil engineer history. This is the eighth time we've done it, right in this challenge eight. Let me give you a few numbers to set the stage here. Okay, so 51,000, all right, 51,000. That's how many engineers we have total force, active, guard, reserve, and civilian. Next number, 312. That's how many of you there are. So out of 51,000, we picked 312 to come here and compete, and that's you guys. I hope that gives you a sense of how special it is to be here for the first time in over two decades helping put this event. Next number is 100 plus, okay?  It took dozens, over 100 people to pull this thing off. It's a huge lift. So as you go about this week, please thank the folks that have helped put this on and do so much work to bring this event back. 22, that's the number of years since we've done this. 22 years. Eight, that's the number of teams we have here, each one representing a different match come, okay? So eight teams, final number for you is one. Eight teams, there can only be one winner. I hope you're envisioning getting up here and taking that trophy home. The trophy, I understand, is pretty big. It's a Meredith trophy. It's like 40, 50 pounds or something. So I hope each one of you comes out ready to compete and a vision is taking this thing home. It's exciting to have you guys out here. First events start in just about 30 minutes. It's 7.30. You guys know where to be, know where to go. We're looking forward to seeing you do things safely with a great attitude, giving us feedback and making history. Ladies and gentlemen, engineers, challenge eight is back. Chief, take us away. Good job. Don't you have any handy?


embedding public participation in the work of the Scottish Parliament. The Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee has spent more than a year looking at how the public can engage with the Scottish Parliament. It has heard from experts and consulted people inside the Parliament and outside. It has looked at citizens' assemblies run by the Scottish Government and learned about how they work in Ireland, Paris and Brussels. A citizens' assembly is a randomly selected group of people who deliberate on important public questions. The committee set up its own Citizens Panel, a group of 19 people from across Scotland who were asked how can the Scottish Parliament ensure that diverse voices and communities from all parts of Scotland influence our work. The panel met over two weekends in late 2022 and came up with 17 recommendations. The committee has concluded that the Parliament should use citizens' panels more regularly to help committees with scrutiny work. It accepts that these panels are not suitable for every topic and can be expensive, but they give ordinary people a voice and can help achieve consensus on difficult issues. As a first step, the committee wants the Parliament to run two further panels. One should review a piece of legislation that has been in effect for a few years to see how well it is working. Another should look at a current topic of interest. The committee expects to be involved in setting up these panels and then in reviewing how well they have worked. At the end of this process, it expects to recommend a model that the Parliament can use after the 2026 election. The committee has come up with some principles for the future use of deliberative democracy. Deliberative democracy means methods including citizens' assemblies and panels that allow participants to contribute to policy-making by discussing a topic in a structured, open and informed way that encourages people to reach a consensus. These include making sure the method used each time is in proportion to the topic and that the Parliament is transparent about how it works. The people who take part should be given support, made to feel in control and given feedback on how their ideas are taken forward. The committee recommends setting up a separate citizens' panel or people's panel for each topic rather than having the same panel looking at multiple topics. It suggests panels of about 20 to 30 people. It doesn't think that panels should include MSPs, though it thinks that MSPs might be invited to join some of the discussions. Panel members should be selected at random with the aim of getting a group of people who reflect Scottish society. That means, for example, having an equal number of men and women, a range of ages, and people with different levels of education. Other things such as race, ethnicity, health and disability, whether people are married or single and or have caring responsibilities, might be added depending on the topic. They should be given the support and information they need and should be paid for taking part. Each time a panel is set up to help a committee with an inquiry, the committee's report should be debated in the Parliament Chamber with panel members invited to watch from the public gallery, as well as considering how future citizens' panels might work. The committee has considered other ways that people can find out what the Parliament is doing and how to get involved. Some of the ideas it looked at came from the recommendations made by its own citizens' panel. The committee agrees with the panel about the need to reduce the barriers to participation. The committee points to the work that Parliament staff are already doing and recommends further things they should look at. These include paying people back if they have to take time off work or pay for childcare in order to engage, translating information into other languages or making it easier to read, making it easier for people to engage in the evenings or at weekends or by using online tools, considering a review of citizenship education in schools. The committee has also considered three recommendations made by the panel for changes to how the Parliament works. The first was to review the rules on MSP's behaviour. The committee doesn't recommend setting up a citizens' panel to do this, but thinks it could be looked at by the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee, which already has a role in considering the conduct of MSPs. The second suggestion was to give the Parliament's presiding officer more power to make sure that Scottish Government ministers give adequate answers to questions. The committee recognises that this could make the presiding officer's job more difficult and more political. But it also thinks that not answering questions properly is discordious, shows a lack of respect and undermines public trust. So it suggests that this issue too is considered by the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee. The third idea was to schedule time in the chamber each week when members of the public would be able to ask ministers questions. The committee does not support this idea, but is willing for it to be looked at if there is support for it across the political parties. This report outlines work that the Parliament is doing to develop and improve how it engages with the public. The committee intends to monitor this work and report on it again before the session ends in 2026.


As part of the recent PlayStation 5 reveal event, Insomniac Games showed off Spider-Man Miles Morales, a new follow-up to the studio's hit game about everyone's favourite wall crawler. While Miles appears as a supporting character in the original game, this time around he's going to take centre stage, becoming the PS5's primary Spider-Man. What's interesting about this is the fact that Insomniac hadn't originally planned to make Miles a big part of their video game's world. Initially, Miles was going to appear as a post-credit tease in Marvel's Spider-Man, as little more than an Easter egg for fans. There were absolutely no plans to make him playable in any form. Miles Morales debuted in the comics in 2011. As an alternate universe version of Spider-Man, fans absolutely loved this new take on the character. So eventually, Marvel's writers came up with an excuse to let Miles travel across dimensional barriers to live in the main comics universe. While he's now probably best known as the star of the Academy award-winning cartoon Into the Spider-Verse, during the development of Marvel's Spider-Man for the PS4, he was still something of a niche character. The team at Insomniac are enormous Spider-Man fans, but they didn't want their game to overwhelm newcomers that didn't know too much about the character's 50-year comic book history. As such, when working on the first draft of the game's script, it was decided that having Miles appear through a dimensional portal, as in the comics, would be a bit much for players. Then creative director Brian Interhaar decided to give Miles another look. He said, I had read the Miles comics over the years, but I went, let me read them again. And I started getting more and more into them. And I said, is there any way we could put him more in there? And we talked a lot about making this a very unique universe, something like the familiar and the fresh. Familiar, but still have it mix things up. Brian went to Bill Roseman, his point of contact with Marvel, and pitched the idea of including Miles in the game's story in a meaningful way. The plan was to keep things simple. Miles didn't come through a portal. There was no Spider-Verse-style dimension hopping. Brian said, what if we have Miles in the world? But it wasn't some kind of dimensional portal he comes through. That he just lives there, you know, he's 15 years old, he's a huge Spider-Man fan. Bill responded, go for it! So the team started building Miles into the story of the game, giving him some dramatic cutscenes. This, though, wasn't enough. Brian was thinking about all the side characters in the game. Yes, this was a Spider-Man game, but it was also about his friends. According to Brian, what we really wanted to do was show a superhero world from all different angles. What is it like to be in that world and not have superpowers? Just a different perspective of the world. If you have a character playable, you can have a much more fulfilling arc for that character. So Brian went to his team with a suggestion. What if, as well as playing as Spider-Man, the game also let you play as Peter Parker? Everyone agreed that yes, that made sense, sure. Then Brian pushed further. Wouldn't Mary Jane's arc be more satisfying if she was playable as well as part of her investigations? Yes, the team admitted. That was possible. Finally, Brian pushed again. What about making Miles playable too? To their credit, the team really worked together to make Miles's gameplay sections as interesting as possible. According to Brian, that Miles mission at City Hall, that really came together because the designer really got into the narrative and got into the experience and said, here's how I would make this feel emotional for him. And then it was the lighting and the environment people. We really invested a lot of time and effort into those scenes. Together, the team at Insomniac fleshed out Miles' role to make him an interesting, engaging character with his own arc in the story. After that, it made perfect sense to continue the story of Spider-Man by giving Miles a real chance to shine. The moral of the story is that it's nice to get a fresh perspective sometimes. Because the team at Insomniac wanted to feature a diverse range of characters in the original Marvel Spider-Man game, players now have the chance to enjoy a fresh take on a familiar superhero.


Welcome to All Hands Update. I'm Petty Officer Taureo Morris. President Barack Obama designated November the month of the military family. In America, November is traditionally a month to be thankful, and the Department of Defense wants to thank the families of service members for their support. Senior Pentagon officials will participate in events throughout the month designated to honor military families. Military installations and family support centers worldwide will be working to recognize the sacrifices and contributions that families provide to the U.S. military's strong, resilient and ready force and to their communities. Contact your local MWR or Family Services office to learn more about events scheduled in your area. For more information on Military Family Month, visit the Defense.gov website.