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Romans chapter number 13, as we always do, read the entire chapter, beginning in verse number one. Follow along silently with Brother Raymond as he reads. Romans chapter 13, beginning in verse number one. Romans 13 and verse one, the Bible reads, let every soul be subject unto the higher powers, for there is no power but of God. The powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God. And they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same. For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid. For he beareth not the sword in vain. For he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Wherefore, he must need to be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience' sake. For for this cause pay ye tribute also, for they are God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. Render therefore to all their dues, tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor. Oh, no man anything but to love one another. For he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not covet. And if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to wake out of sleep. For now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envy, but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh to fill the lust thereof. Brother Charlie, will you pray for us? Lord, thank you for allowing us to gather here today, and Lord, I ask that you would be with Pastor Anderson and to open up our hearts, and that we may hear your word, and that it may sink in deep into us. Lord, in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen, if you would flip over in your Bible to Luke chapter number two, Luke chapter number two. The title of my sermon this evening is Jesus and Taxes. Jesus and Taxes, these are, of course, the two things that you can rely upon. No, I'm just kidding. But anyway, in Luke chapter two, we have, of course, the story about the birth of Christ, and I'm preaching on Jesus and taxes because Jesus actually talks about taxes a few different times. There are a few different Bible stories that involve Jesus and taxes, and what's funny about this too is that even before he's born, you know, taxes already have an impact on his life because he's actually born while his parents are paying taxes, okay, in Luke chapter two, and my mom, it's funny, when I was a kid, my mom used to always tell me, you know, there's no way Jesus was born on December 25th because we know he was obviously born on April 15th because of the story. But anyway, look at Luke chapter two, verse one. And it came to pass in those days that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed, and this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria, and all went to be taxed, everyone into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth into Judea under the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be taxed with Mary, his espoused wife, being great with child, and so it was that while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered, and she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the end. And if you remember the sermon that I did last Wednesday night, I talked a lot about the manger, and I said, hey, the manger's mentioned three times in a row, it must have some meaning or significance, or it wouldn't be repeated, this mundane detail. And it's sort of the same thing with this taxing, because it talks about in verse one that all the world should be taxed, and verse three, they all went to be taxed, and verse five, they went to be taxed. So it gets repeated a few different times, so it must have some significance. And I think that the key significance here, when it keeps bringing up this taxation, is the fact that Jesus is being born into a situation where Israel is not its own independent kingdom, but rather they are tributary to the Roman Empire, they're under the control of the Roman Empire. Because if you're reading the Old Testament, and then you jump over to Matthew, Mark, Luke, you've gone a few hundred years into the future, and so you've got to kind of understand the situation that they're in. And I think by bringing up the taxes a couple times, he's letting us know the situation that Israel's in, that they are under the Roman Empire, and that the Roman Empire has the ability to tax them. So he's not being born into a situation of total freedom, but rather there's somewhat of an oppressive government there. And this is gonna come up a few times in the story of Jesus and his disciples, because of the fact that people wanted Jesus to be this political liberator. They wanted him to overthrow the Roman Empire, and they wanted him to bring back the days of King David and King Solomon. They're looking for a political solution, he brought a spiritual solution. And by the way, there's nothing new under the sun. Isn't that sort of how America is right now? A lot of people, man, they wanna talk about politics all day long, they wanna listen to politics, they're looking for the political solution when the real solution is a spiritual solution. It's not in the White House, it's in the Church House that the solution is to be found. And God was there to do something much greater than just deliver them from the Romans. He's, you know, Jesus Christ came to save sinners and to provide them an eternal home, not just a temporary homeland. You know, even the disciples, after Jesus has risen from the dead and after they've learned so much, they're still saying in Acts chapter one, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? That's on their mind, right? And he says to them, it's not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father has put in his own power. You know, that's for him to worry about, that's in his power. He decides when it's time to restore again the kingdom to Israel, but you shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you and you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and all Judea and in Samaria and under the uttermost part of the earth. So he's telling them, look, don't worry about the things that are in the Father's power, worry about the power that you need to go out soloing. Of course, a different kind of power, but the power of God on our lives to win people to Christ, that ought to be on our mind more than some kind of a political power of restoring again the kingdom to Arizona or something. You know, restoring again the kingdom to Israel or having a political solution. So in Luke chapter two, we see right away that Jesus' parents are in a situation, I use the word parents because the Bible used the word parents to describe his biological mother, Mary, and his stepfather. Of course, we know Jesus is not his biological father. He did not know Mary until after she had brought forth her firstborn son, Jesus. And so we see that Jesus' parents are in this situation where they're being taxed. They even have to travel to pay taxes. You know, everybody has to go to their native country and pay taxes and Joseph is of the household and lineage of David, so he goes to Bethlehem. And of course, part of this is to fulfill prophecy that Jesus is supposed to be born in Bethlehem. The Savior is supposed to be born in Bethlehem. But we notice here that Jesus' parents are complying with this. Okay, they are paying their taxes. They're not a tax protester or an anarchist or anything like that. Now flip over to Matthew chapter 17. Let's look at what Jesus Christ actually taught about taxes, Matthew chapter 17. And again, like I said, one of the themes that we see in the Gospels is people wanting Jesus to fight a physical battle, bring a political solution, get rid of the Romans when he's actually offering them something better and saying that's not the time to think about that. That's something that is in God the Father's power and he'll do what he wants with it when the time comes. Okay, look if you would at Matthew 17 and let's get some teaching from Jesus on the subject of taxes. Now let me say this. When you see the word tribute or custom, that's taxes. These are just different forms of taxation. You could either have taxes, tribute, custom. These words are all referring to what we would think of in 2020 as taxes. Matthew 17, 24, and when they were coming to Capernaum, they that received tribute money came to Peter and said, doth not your master pay tribute? Doesn't your master pay tribute? People are always trying to find something wrong with Jesus, find some area in which he's delinquent. So the normal way to ask this question would be, does your master pay tribute? Right, and then the answer would be yay. Okay, so let me just teach you something quickly about the language of the King James Bible. There's a difference between yay and yes, okay. And in English today, we don't have this distinction. Everything's just yes, yup, yup, yeah. Okay, it all kind of means the same thing. But it's interesting in German, there's two words for yes and it's just like in the King James Bible. So that's what made me understand this when I learned German and I was like, oh, now I get the difference between yay and yes. Yay is the answer to a positive question and yes is the answer to a negative question. You ever have somebody ask you a question and they say, so are you not going to this party? And you say, no. And then they're like, no, you're not going or no, you are going, right? Who knows what I'm talking about? You get, you know, well, no, you are or no, you aren't. So in the Bible, if somebody asks you a negative question, does your master not pay tribute to avoid that confusion of yes, you do or yes, you don't? If the answer is yes, it means yes, actually he does. You're asking if he doesn't, I'm saying he does, okay. Cause yay would be confusing like yay he does or yay he doesn't. So anyway, that's just a little trivia about the English language. Yes is in response to a negative question. Yay is in response to a positive question. They're both affirmative answers, okay. That was way too much information about grammar. But anyway, he says yes in verse 25 there, right? Does not your master pay tribute? The way they're asking it sounds adversarial, like they're picking him apart. And he says yes, he does. And when he was coming to the house, Jesus prevented him. Now prevent in the Bible against a more archaic meaning, it means to come before. So he anticipates him, he intercepts him. So basically Peter runs into the IRS man, hey, doesn't Jesus pay taxes? Yes, he does. And then he goes in to talk to Jesus. And as he enters the house, Jesus stops him before he even has a chance to say anything to Jesus. Like, hey, you know, there are some federal agents outside and they've got guns and they're from the IRS. Jesus prevents him saying, what thinkest thou, Simon? Of whom do the kings of the earth take customer tribute? Of their own children or of strangers? Peter sayeth unto him, of strangers. Jesus sayeth unto him, then are the children free. Notwithstanding, lest we offend them, go thou to the sea and cast an hook and take up the fish that first cometh up. And when thou has opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money that take and give unto them for me and thee. So what Jesus is saying here is that he does not personally believe that he owes this money that they're coming to ask for. He doesn't feel that it's legitimate what they're asking him for. He feels that he should be free and that governments should not be taxing their own people that typically they would tax other nations and other people. And we think of maybe today, the taxing of imports or exports or things like that. But he says, you know, we shouldn't necessarily have to pay this. But he says, notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, let's just pay it, okay? And the Bible consistently teaches that we should just pay the taxes. Now again, this isn't what people always wanna hear. And this sermon might irritate people or people might not like it. Or, you know, Pastor Anderson is working for the government and he's working for NASA. And he's a Jesuit and you know, he's with the CIA. I mean, I've been accused of all these things. But I'm just preaching what the Bible says. I mean, even Jesus is in the womb and his parents are paying taxes in scripture. And then Jesus, when he's confronted with a particular tax that he doesn't feel is fair or legitimate, he says, you know what though? Lest we offend them, we're gonna pay it. You know why we don't wanna offend them is because they have guns. They'll come and put you in prison. They'll kill you. They'll take everything from you. Is that the battle that God wants us to fight? The Bible says we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. And make no mistake, spiritual wickedness in high places includes some stuff in our government for sure, in the American government. There's some spiritual wickedness in high places. But here's the thing, even though there are things that are illegitimate, even though we know that they're gonna use the money on things that are wrong and wicked and were overtaxed, you know what? At the end of the day though, it's not worth dying on that hill. That's not the battle that Christ has called us to fight. And so he says, lest we offend them, pay it. Now, he has an interesting way of paying it here because he sends Peter to go to the sea and cast a hook. And he basically tells him the first fish that you catch, when you open his mouth, you're gonna find a coin in his mouth. And that's gonna be the amount that you need to pay for both me and you. Both of our taxes are gonna be covered with one coin. Okay, those were the good old days. So you say, well, maybe it was a gold coin. A gold coin couldn't even cover my taxes or yours most likely, right? Because what's the price of gold? 1500 bucks, 1400 bucks. Well, most people are paying more than that per year, but much more than that usually, if you include FICA and everything else. But anyway, this is symbolic because of the fact that fishing in the Bible represents evangelism. Because you remember when Jesus calls his disciples, they're fishing, and he says, come with me, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And so fishing in the Bible is an analogy for winning people to Christ. And so when he sends them and says, go cast a hook into the sea, the fish that first cometh up, when thou hast opened his mouth, you'll find the money. You know, fish, they swallow all kinds of junk, right? Have you seen these ads or documentaries that make you feel sad about the dolphins and the tunas? And they get caught in those little six-pack, you know those little plastic things that hold a six-pack together? You know, and they get stuck in that thing, and they're swallowing all kinds of trash and junk, and they cut open a fish, and it's filled with like metal junk and plastic and everything like that. You know, well, guess what? Even back then, fish were getting stuck in things and eating weird junk, you know, because it swallowed a metal coin. But obviously God worked this out. It's a miracle that Jesus could just predict, hey, you're gonna go down there, you're gonna cast a hook. The very first fish that you catch is gonna be filled with junk, and it's gonna be the right junk. It's gonna be money to pay both of our taxes, okay? Now, the picture here is that if we go out and do the work of the Lord, which is the spiritual fishing, the soul-winning, God's gonna provide our needs. That's what we see. The Bible says, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. And what are all the things in the context? Food and clothing and just our physical material needs, our daily bread, our food, our clothes. God says if you seek first the kingdom of God, all these other things will be added unto you. So the picture here is that Peter, by doing the work of God, because obviously he's just throwing a hook in the water, but the picture is soul-winning. You know, you go out, you serve the Lord, you win souls to Christ, and God provides your material financial needs. So a lot of people think, hey, I gotta put church on the back burner, I gotta put soul-winning on the back burner because I got bills to pay and I need to get out there and work. But here's the thing, there are 168 hours in the week. Plenty of time to make money in those 168 hours, and you know what? You oughta be able to carve out some time to read your Bible, to pray, to go to church, and specifically to get out soul-winning. You know, to get out soul-winning every single week, knock doors, preach the gospel to the lost, and you know what? You'll notice that God's gonna bless you for doing that because you're doing his work and he'll take care of you in the process. Go over to Matthew chapter 22. So that's kind of the less famous story about Jesus in taxes. There's another much more famous story. Chapter 17's the less famous, but chapter 17 comes first, and chapter 17 is very interesting about Jesus' view on taxes, saying, look, even if I don't agree with it, I'm just gonna pay it anyway because I don't wanna fight this battle. I don't wanna offend them. This is not the hill I wanna dive. I think that's an important teaching today to understand that, look, just because we pay taxes doesn't mean that we're saying we agree with it or approve of it or think it's right, what they're spending the money on or the amount that they're taking is obviously criminal, what our government does today. But we're not saying that we approve of it. We're saying, you know what? Not my problem, not my battle. It's not what I'm here to fight. I have bigger fish to fry than to fight the government and protest taxes. Look at Matthew 22, 15. This is the famous story. Then went the Pharisees and took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk, and they sent out unto him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, Master, we know that thou art true and teach us the way of God and truth. Neither carest thou for any man, for thou regardest not the person of men. So this is flattery. They're trying to get him off his guard, get him to put his guard down, flatter him and be careful of people that give you these over-the-top compliments or flatter you. Look, this isn't really how the Pharisees and the Herodians feel about Jesus. But they're laying it on pretty thick here. Man, we know that you're such a bold preacher. You don't care what anybody thinks. You're gonna preach it straight down the line. And they think Jesus is gonna be susceptible to this. Like, oh, well, thank you. And that basically they're gonna get him to loosen up, let his guard down, and they're gonna try to entangle him in his talk and get him to say something dumb. Which obviously, he's way too smart for this. He's the son of God. He's the ultimate in intelligence. So he's not gonna fall for something stupid like this. So he always ends up turning things around and making them look foolish over and over again when they do this to him. Verse 17, tell us therefore, what thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar or not? Now, when they say, is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, at first this might confuse you. Like, why would they ask if it's legal to pay, of course it's legal to pay taxes. You know, it's illegal not to pay taxes. But here's what they're trying to do. They're trying to pit the Mosaic law against the Roman law. So when they say, is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, they're saying, does the Bible allow us to give tribute to Caesar? I mean, is the Bible okay with us doing it? Because when they say law, they're talking about the Old Testament. The word law is specifically used about Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, but elsewhere it refers to other parts of the Old Testament scripture as well. So the Old Testament is the law of God. Is it lawful? Another way of saying this would be, is it biblical? Is basically what they're asking him. Is it biblical to give tribute unto Caesar? That's probably how we would express this in 2020. And they're trying to get him to pit the word of God against the Roman law and to create a conflict because they want to get him to preach or say something illegal or teach something illegal to get him in trouble with the man. Okay, so it says in verse number 18, but Jesus perceived their wickedness and said, why tempt ye me, you hypocrites? And it's funny how whenever you call names or answer someone in a harsh manner, even when it's appropriate, people will say, well, you're not being very Christ-like. But yet we see Christ putting people in their place sometimes and really kind of telling people how it is, calling names, rebuking people. You know, sometimes people need to be rebuked. And obviously we should be kind and nice and loving, and I believe Jesus was very kind and nice and loving, but there's a time when a rebuke becomes appropriate, when you got these phonies coming in, trying to trick him, they're flattering him, they're lying to him, they're evil people. And so he says, why tempt ye me, hypocrites? Show me the tribute money. And they bring in him a penny. And you know, a penny is not what it used to be. A penny in the Bible is like a day's wages. So it's more like bring me $100 bill, you know, or something like that. And he said to them, whose is this image and superscription? So he just holds up the coin and he's like, whose face is on this coin? And they say unto him, Caesar's. So he's basically saying, why would it be unbiblical for me to give a coin with Caesar's face on it and to give it to Caesar? He's the one who made this coin. He printed his own face on it, it's got his name on it, let him have it. So he says unto them, render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's. When they had heard these words, they marveled because it was such a clever response. And like I said, this is one of the most famous things that Jesus said. I mean, even people who don't go to church and know very little about the Bible, you know, probably even people who talk about the palmist and two Corinthians and things like that. You know, two Corinthians walk into a bar or whatever. Even people like that have often heard of this story, you know, about rendering unto Caesar. And I'm sure that the wonderful politicians I'm talking about, they probably read this to their kids before bed at night, you know, because they're really into taxing people. If there's one Bible, just like every drunk knows the story about Jesus turning the water into wine, you know, this is what they're into, twisting this scripture, you know, the drunk twists the other scripture. So here he says, render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's. This is one of the most famous quotes from the New Testament, very famous. It was very clever, very smart, hit the nail on the head, totally put them in their place, made them look foolish. And when they'd heard these words, they marveled and left them and went their way. Look at Mark chapter 12. This story is repeated in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And again, that spells significance when something is repeated again and again in scripture. It means we should pay attention to it, take note of it, it's important. Mark chapter 12, verse 13. And they sent unto him certain of the Pharisees and of the Herodians to catch him in his words. And when they were come, they sang to him, Master, we know that thou art true and carest for no man, for thou regardest not the person of men, but teach us the way of God in truth. Why, thank you. Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar or not? Shall we give or shall we not give? But he knowing their hypocrisy said unto them, why tempt ye me? Bring me a penny that I may see it. And they brought it and he saith unto them, whose is this image and superscription? And they said unto him, Caesar's. And Jesus answering said unto them, render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's, and they marveled at him. Go to Luke 20, Luke chapter 20. Let's look at the third place. Luke chapter number 20. Now, we've already seen the story twice. Is Jesus telling them to pay it or not to pay it? It's crystal clear, right? There's nothing equivocal about this. He's telling them, render it to Caesar, pay it. There's no issue, just do it. What did he say in Matthew 17? The same thing, okay. Look if you would at Luke chapter 20 verse 20. And they watched him and sent forth spies which should feign themselves just men. So they're pretending to be righteous men. They're feigning themselves to be just men that they might take hold of his words, that so they might deliver him unto the power and authority of the governor. They want to turn him over to Pontius Pilate to be punished and guess what? That's what they eventually do. That's what they eventually succeed at. And they asked him saying, master, we know that thou sayest and teacheth rightly, neither acceptest thou the person of any, but teacheth the way of God truly. Is it lawful for us to give tribute unto Caesar or no? But he perceived their craftiness and said unto them, why tempt ye me? Show me a penny. Whose image and superscription hath it? They answered and said, Caesar's. And he said unto them, render therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesar's, and unto God the things which be God's. And they could not take hold of his words before the people. And they marveled at his answer and held their peace. Now notice how it says they could not take hold of his words before the people. Basically, they weren't able to turn it around on him because there's an audience. It wasn't just the Pharisees and Jesus. There's a whole bunch of people around and he clearly wins this little argument. And basically, in front of all the people, wow, Jesus is smart, you guys are idiots. That's what people are thinking. Now go to Luke chapter 23 verse one. But that's a key phrase that I want to point out there where he said they could not take hold of his words before the people. Look what they end up doing just three chapters later in Luke chapter 23. And the whole multitude of them, this is chapter 23 verse one. The whole multitude of them arose and led him unto Pilate, that's the governor that they talked about earlier how they want to turn him over to the governor. And they began to accuse him saying, we found this fellow perverting the nation and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar saying that he himself is Christ the King. What a bold-faced lie here to say, not only is he recommending that people don't pay tribute or is he saying that we shouldn't have, no, no, he's forbidding it. He's saying you better not even think about giving tribute to Caesar. What a lie, it's the exact opposite of the truth. Forbidding to give tribute to Caesar saying that he himself is Christ the King. And Pilate asked him saying, aren't thou the King of the Jews? And he answered him and said, thou sayest it. Then said Pilate to the chief priests of the people, I find no fault in this man. And they were the more fierce saying, he stirreth up the people, teaching throughout all Jewry beginning from Galilee to this place. So Pilate isn't convinced. He says, you know what? I find no fault in this man. And Pilate ends up saying that three times altogether. I find no fault in him. I find no fault in him. I find no fault in him. But we know of course that ultimately, Pilate delivers him to be crucified. At what point does Pilate change his mind? Because he's pulling for Jesus, he's fighting for Jesus. Hey guys, remember I'm supposed to pardon somebody and let somebody go? Who do you want it to be? He picks like the worst guy. Like I know they're not gonna want this guy. Hey, you guys want Jesus or Barabbas? And he figures this is a no brainer. They're gonna go with Jesus. No, no, no, give us Barabbas. But what is it that causes Pilate finally to give in and say, okay, fine, I'll crucify him? He didn't want to do it. And even when he does it, he washes his hands and says, I'm free from the blood of this just person. And they scream out, his blood be on us and on our children. What is it that makes Pilate do that? The Jews finally come to him and they're trying to figure out what button do we push to get Pilate to do what we want. And they finally say, if you let this man go, you're not Caesar's friend. Because anybody who makes himself a king is against Caesar and you're not Caesar's friend, buddy. And then when it says, when Pilate heard that, he says, oh man, I don't want to be known as the guy who's not Caesar's friend because of the fact that, you know, that's his boss. And obviously Caesar had a lot of power to make or break Pilate. So Pilate gets scared about that. And he doesn't want this to be a thing where, oh, you know, Pilate, he's not looking out for Caesar's best interest. He's not Caesar's friend. So what is the, what am I getting at with this? People will try to get a preacher or even just a godly Christian, try to get them in trouble with the law and trouble with the government. And they could use something like taxes to do that. You know, to try to nail Pastor Anderson or to try to nail you or someone else. You know, sometimes audits and things could be like a revenge or a way to punish someone. And there've been cases of that in America where, you know, somebody does something that someone in government doesn't like and then all of a sudden they just find themselves, they're getting audited every year and having all these problems. Look, obviously this is an avenue to attack anybody who's following Christ because if it's used to attack Jesus, then his followers could be attacked with this as well. You know, men of God, pastors, or even laymen could be hit with this as a punishment. But here's the thing, let it never be because we're actually guilty. You know, let it be because we're being falsely accused. So here's the thing, you could do everything right and cross every T and dot every I. That's not gonna prevent you from possibly getting arrested or possibly getting in trouble with the IRS or whatever. But I'll tell you this, you know, I have made a point in my life, both personally and with the church finances, to cross every T and dot every I as far as the IRS is concerned. I'm constantly looking things up, church-related things, and just reading pages and pages of IRS code because I don't wanna mess it up. You know, I wanna make sure because I'm thinking to myself, if they wanna go after anybody and audit anybody and nail anybody, it's probably people like us that they would love to nail. Because look how many people have it in for us. Look at how many governments have banned us, countries have banned us from entering. I believe I'm banned, I lost count, but anyway. I think it's like 37, it's 36 or 37. And by the way, I couldn't find anybody in the whole world who's banned from more countries than me so I might call Guinness, I might have the record. But here's the thing about that. You know, when I got banned from South Africa, you know who was ultimately behind that was the US government. We even had documented proof where the US government was writing checks to the queer radio station that spearheaded me getting banned from South Africa, which I, if I remember right, I think was the first country that I ever got banned from or maybe it was the UK, then South Africa. But basically, you know, what we see is that governments don't like our church. You know, YouTube doesn't like our church, Facebook doesn't like our church, even though, you know, we make these people money because when we got, we bring a bunch of people to their platform watching the videos and stuff. But you know, these social media platforms, they don't like Bible believing preaching. And so you could see how they'd wanna use something like taxes to nail you. Folks, if they're trying to nail Jesus on taxes, don't you think that they would try and nail preachers in 2020 on taxes? And this is why, you know, I've made a point to be just straight down the line with taxes, you know, and my personal tax, and I did get audited many years ago. I got audited in, I wanna say 2013. And you know, they ended up giving me money. And man, they, but they raked me over the coals and it was stressful. And I spent literally well over a hundred hours, you know, working through that audit and producing documents and just spending hours and hours. And you know, you're tired of this IRS, man, you know anything you say. You say the wrong thing and I mean, they can put you in prison if you do something wrong. So it's really stressful. And I remember just them giving lists of documents. I was bringing like boxes and binders of documents and he's telling me, I went over your mileage log with a fine tooth comb, you know, and I mean, they were really nailing me, but thank God they ended up giving me money and I didn't end up giving them any money. And my mileage log checked out and everything like that. You know, thankfully our church hasn't been audited, but you know what? We operate as if we could be audited at any moment and we make sure that everything's on the up and up because of the fact that we don't wanna suffer for breaking some tax law. That's not what Christ called us to do. Look, if I go to jail, I want to be for preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ or because somebody got mad about my preaching, about sodomites or just something that's biblical. You know, if I preach something that's directly from the Bible, you know, I'm willing to die on that hill, go to prison, whatever, and you know, maybe they might charge me with something else. You know, it might be like book them Dano, you know, preaching on homos. It might be that they would trump up something else, but I wanna be innocent of whatever else that they're trumping up. You know, Jesus was nailed on trumped up charges of, oh, he said he's gonna destroy the temple. He said, don't pay taxes. He, you know, they come up with all his lies, but Jesus was innocent. And you know, as long as, if I'm innocent and God allows me to suffer, then so be it, that's his will, amen. But I don't want to suffer because of my own stupidity or because I'm fighting the wrong battle. You know, there are people in the Bible who fought the wrong battle and died. You know, Josiah, great man of God, he goes out to fight against Pharaoh Niko of Egypt. God didn't want him to fight that battle. That was not a righteous battle, but he went out and fought it anyway and he died in battle. You know, if he hadn't have done that, he could have continued to reign and prosper and he was a good guy, but he fought the wrong battle. I don't want to fight the wrong battle. And I'm not just gonna just rebel against the government every single time just because our government's wicked. And look, I believe that our government's wicked. I believe that our government does a lot of wicked things. It's just, they're just beyond the pale in the things that they do. They are way over the line of wickedness. But you know what though, a lot of people, they just like the people in Christ's day, that's what they want them involved in. You know, they want them out of the spiritual battle and into the political battle and Jesus didn't fall for it. He didn't go for it. And I'm not gonna fall for it either. You know, a lot of people just want me on the front lines fighting against, you know, coronavirus lockdown or something. You know what, that's not my battle. I'm not interested in that battle. I've no interest in fighting against the government's policies on taxes or, you know, their lockdown or whatever. You know what, those things are out of my control. I am not running the state of Arizona. I'm not running the city of Tempe. I'm not even running this block, okay. I'm not running anything except a local church and I'm here to preach a spiritual message. But you know what, some people, they're just, all they do is just obsess about politics. Whether, and if it's not the coronavirus or the lockdowns or mandatory vaccinations, which by the way, I haven't seen any mandatory vaccinations and I think it's highly unlikely that there will be any mandatory vaccinations. And you know what, maybe there will be, let's cross that bridge when we come to it. Hey, obviously I'm not taking the vaccine. My family's not taking the vaccine. But here's the thing about that though. If somebody could put a gun to my head and said, take this vaccine or I'm gonna pull the trigger, then I would take the stupid vaccine. Whoo! Because look, I don't wanna put that filth in my body. I don't want that filth to go in my family's body. But you know what, I'm not willing to die for that. Maybe you're willing to die for that. You know, if somebody said, hey, if somebody comes out at me with that needle, it's gonna be the first shot in a civil war, like a little pun intended there with the shot. You know, this is the first shot of the civil war. And look, I'm telling you, I'm totally against vaccines. And especially this experimental, untested vaccine. And look, our government is so full of garbage that it's a fraud where they're getting vaccinated on TV. That's a saline solution. That is fake. Okay, Dr. Fauci gets a vaccine and then he's like, yeah, my arm's just a little sore, no big deal. It wasn't the arm he was vaccinated in. And literally, I'm not kidding. It was a split screen. They literally had a split screen where you see, you see on one side, you know they love the split screen. One side shows him getting vaccinated in his left arm. And then he's going, yeah, you know, it's no big deal, my right arm. You know, he just reaches over and grabs his right arm and says, yeah, my arm's a little sore, but yeah, no big deal. He's grabbing his right arm, saying it's a little sore. They're vaccinating on the screen with the left arm. At the same time. You know, what, what did we just watch? That's fake. It's not sore. He just knows that a lot of people feel a little soreness. So he just wants to be like, oh yeah, you know, yeah, a little soreness. You know, that's what everybody has, right? No, cause saline doesn't make you sore. You're not gonna feel sore from that. Am I right? Can I get a medical? Can I get a witness sign? Lola. So, you know, the point is that, obviously these people are fake when they get that on TV, because here's the thing. First of all, they're probably not even taking it. But even if they did take it, they don't want to take it live on TV. Cause if they start getting a rash or what, you know, they don't want it. Cause then it would really just freak everyone out. Like there was that one woman who got the vaccine. She's like, oh, it's so great. We're so excited about the vaccine. This is like, and then she did. And then the fact checkers are like, no, she did not faint from any individual ingredient in that vaccine. And then you read down the article and it's like, well, it wasn't any individual ingredient because these three people got three totally different vaccines with all different ingredients and they all fainted. So therefore it was just the vaccine that made her faint, but it wasn't any one particular ingredient. Thank you, fact checker. And look, let me just go off a little bit here. Cause I want to make you happy because this is a sermon that doesn't make you happy. Jesus and taxes is not a happy sermon for you. So let me just have a little, let's give you a break. Make you happy. Tell you what you want to hear, right? Tell you stuff that you like. Okay. Here's what the independent fact checkers, I saw the perfect meme to describe the independent fact checkers. It showed Paul Revere like riding on a horse saying the British are coming, the British are coming. And it said, oh, false because not all the British are coming, just the army. That's literally what every single fact checker article reads like. Well, it's not all the British that are coming. There's still some people over there in Britain. And Britain, you know, it's like, what? That's a fact check? You know, in principle, the idea of an independent fact checker is actually a good idea. It's a good idea because sometimes, you know, you'll see some archeologist dusting off some skull that's like 10 feet in diameter. Look, giants, you know. And people post it and think it's real. And that's where you need the fact checker to be like, hey, this is a hoax, this is Photoshop or whatever. You know, so in principle, it's not a bad idea to have an independent fact checker just for things that are a hoax, not matters of opinion, not just having some hardcore. Folks, these people are real independent, aren't they? Isn't it funny how they're always left wing 100% of the time? That's independent fact checker. And their articles are so stupid, like this is the make you happy part of the sermon. This guy, there's this article that said, man arrested at a ball game for refusing to wear a mask. Fact checkers found this to be false. So I click on the link to see, okay, what's false about this? Well, you know, yeah, they told him he had to wear the mask, he wouldn't wear the mask, so they made him leave because he wouldn't wear the mask. And so then they actually arrest him for trespassing. So basically, you're saying he got arrested because he wouldn't put on the mask. Well, no, he wouldn't put on the mask, so they arrested him for trespassing because he wouldn't put on the mask. Man arrested for running down the beach. Man arrested for jogging on the beach. False, fact checkers found this to be false. It's like, I click on it, it's like, well, actually, he didn't get arrested for running down the beach, he got arrested because he wasn't supposed to be there running down the beach, and so that's why he got arrested. It's like, ah, that's what the article said. It's so stupid, or it's just like, woman faints after receiving coronavirus vaccine on live TV. False. False. There was no individual ingredient that made her do it. It's like, what? It's not false that she fainted on TV after getting it. Just get over it, why did they just have to fact check? And literally, that woman fainting, there were like five fact checks. It was just like, it was just like, it was like so many pop ups were just coming at you or something, just like, no, no, this isn't true, this isn't real, this can't be happening. How many fact checks? And literally, you can type in anything into YouTube, and they have these little warning labels. Hey, go to Donald Trump's Twitter, everything that he says is false, according to them. It's just like, every single tweet is just like, this is, this, no, no, no, no, no. He's the president of the United States. And it's just like, no, no, no, no, no. But it's totally independent. It's interesting how independent their fact check is. But that's how dumb these are. Like, it's always just some weird pedantic thing about how this article's not true, because I know it says that this guy got, you know, hit by a blue car, but it was actually turquoise or something. It's like, so stupid. So look, obviously, look, there's so much fraud and disinfo, and look, Google controls the information. Facebook controls information. YouTube controls the information that's moving. I mean, I saw a video where the Native Americans up in Nevada are giving out gift cards if you come vote. Hey, come get a $25 Visa gift card, here you go. Come down, cash, prizes, come on down and vote. That's totally illegal. But if you Google, I Googled the name of that organization that was doing that, and every article is just, Trump hates Indians, you know, and can you believe he's attacking these Indians and what they did is perfectly fine and it's not, I looked it up and it's totally illegal. You're not allowed to give anyone any kind of a reward, any kind of a prize, you can't give them money, you can't give them a raffle ticket, you cannot reward them or punish them in any way for voting or not voting. But it's just like, nope, just shut up and believe it because we said so. Folks, look, there's so much corruption and fraud right now and obviously, when something like the coronavirus thing is going on, there are always gonna be people that wanna kind of jump in and take advantage of that and not let a good crisis go to waste and whatever. So look, obviously, there's all, look, the vaccine being administered on television, it's weird, like how all these, look, I'm doing it, see? You know what, that's like when you get home and your kid's like, I didn't eat any cookies while you were gone and you're like, I didn't say anything about cookies but now I realize you did eat cookies. Hey, look everybody, nothing to see here, great vaccine, you know what I mean? Look, I'll do it on TV. You don't know what's in that syringe, give me a break. There's no way that that's what they're doing. The whole thing's bogus, the whole thing's a scam and look, obviously, people are gonna twist what I'm saying and people are gonna attack me for saying this but like I said, I'm not willing to die for that. You know, I'm against it, I'll fight it, I'll fight it tooth and nail but if it comes down to it, like do it or die, you know what, I'm not willing to die for that, I'm willing to die for the word of God. I'm willing to die for Jesus Christ, I'm willing to die to preach every word of God. I'm willing to die for lots of others, to be able to preach lots of other things in this book, I will not shut up about what this book says and I'm not gonna shut up about what this book says about the sodomites either. Okay, you say, well, just leave out that one part and preach to God. No, I'm preaching the whole Bible, that's what God has called me to do and I am willing to die on that hill, I will die to preach the word of God but I'm not gonna die fighting against all the supers, and like I said, the mandatory vaccination is not gonna happen, it never has and it probably never will. The closest thing that could possibly happen would be your job making you get it or the airport making you get it or school making you get it or whatever but here's the thing, you know, I would just boycott those things and figure out a way around it. I'd rather find a new job than to put that kind of stuff in my body, or risk my family with that stuff but you know what, the point is, we need to choose our battles and make sure, look, if I'm gonna put my head on the chopping block, which I'm willing to do and you know what, I think I've demonstrated over the years that I'm willing to put my head on the chopping block but let me tell you something, it better be for something that really matters and it better be for something that's clear cut in the Bible, something that's biblical and a lot of people, they want Jesus to be some kind of a political warrior that's gonna restore the kingdom to Israel and I'm not here to restore the kingdom to America or whatever. You know, I'm here to preach the gospel, I'm here to seek and save the lost like Jesus and we need to make sure that we keep these things in perspective. You're gonna have a real hard time disproving this sermon from scripture, you know, because the Bible's pretty clear here that, you know, taxes are something that are just a necessary evil not because they're right but because we're born, I mean, look, Jesus is born into a situation where the tax are already there before he's born and look, I was born like Jesus, my parents paid taxes the year I was born too so I was born into that situation just like Jesus and so were you. So therefore, it's kind of out of our hands, isn't it? And as far as restoring the kingdom to Israel, he said, you know, the father has that in his own power. Let's worry about the power of God to go win souls, okay? Look at Romans chapter 13, Romans chapter number 13. The Bible says in Romans chapter number 13, I'll start reading it while you get there, verse one, let every soul be subject unto the higher powers for there's no power but of God, the powers that be ordained of God whosoever therefore resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. Now the word damnation in the Bible is identical to the word condemnation in meaning. It's just a stronger word but it means the exact same thing as condemnation. It doesn't, so you don't wanna look at the word damnation and just insert hell there. You know, we tend to associate damnation with hell like if you're damned, that means you're going to hell but damned just means condemned and so condemned can mean hell in scripture, damned can mean hell in scripture but they can also both mean something else, just another type of condemnation, you know. We can all be condemned for things without being condemned condemned, you know, because of course, those of us that are saved will never be damned to hell. We will never, it doesn't matter if we just completely resisted the power and resisted the ordinance of God and fought the power and fight the powers that be and all that, you know what? If we did that, we'd still go to heaven if we're saved because we can't lose our salvation no matter what because we have eternal life and nothing can separate us from the love of God but we would still be condemned for our behavior as far as we could be chastened, chastised, punished on this earth and deal with consequences for doing those things and so that's what it means when it says, they that resist shall receive themselves damnation. They're gonna receive condemnation. Notice damnation, damnation, condemnation. Like I said, the meaning is the same. For rulers are not a terror to good works but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good and thou should have praise of the same for he is the minister of God to thee for good but if thou do that which is evil, be afraid. For he beareth not the sword in vain for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. So understand that the purpose of government is to punish the evildoers. Now of course, our government's totally out of bounds and they wanna just take care of us from cradle to grave instead of just punishing evildoers. But this is what they're supposed to be doing, right? Punishing the evil. But he says in verse five, wherefore ye must needs be subject. That's a fancy way of saying you have to be subject. You have to submit to the powers that be not only for wrath, not only for wrath because what's the wrath? The wrath of the government coming after you when you break their rules. Cause he says, look, if you do that which is evil, be afraid for he beareth not the sword in vain. Wherefore ye must needs be subject, verse five, not only for wrath but also for conscience sake. So he's saying, look, you obey for two reasons. And by the way, these are the same two reasons you obey your parents. These are the same two reasons that wives obey their husbands. These are the same two reasons you obey the boss at work. What are the two reasons that we obey any authority in our lives is wrath. We don't want that authority to cloud up and rain on us, number one. We don't want them to punish us but not only for wrath, also for conscience sake. Because you know what, even if they never find out, we know that we did wrong. We know that we're in sin. We know that we disobeyed and of course who else knows? God and he can punish us as well cause he knows everything that we do. And so he says, not only for wrath but also for conscience sake. And then he says in verse six, for this cause pay ye tribute also for they are God's ministers attending continually upon this very thing. He's saying, look, you pay tribute and you do derive some benefit from the tribute that you pay. Now here's the thing. Obviously our government is not attending continually upon this very thing. They're attending continually on a lot of other junk and waste. I just saw the other day, Rand Paul's yearly waste report or whatever. He lists all the dumbest things that the government spent money on in 2020. Just a list of wasteful, stupid spending. And it's funny in a sad, sick kind of way. If you like black humor, if you like dark comedy, it's funny. But anyway, he says, they're attending continually upon this very thing. Now here's the thing. Obviously our government is funding things that are wicked, immoral, we don't believe in, wars that we don't believe in, abortions, weird queer things and gender studies in Pakistan and everything else. But here's the thing though. We do actually derive at least some benefit because let's face it, we go to bed at night and we feel pretty safe in Phoenix, Arizona going to bed at night. We don't worry that the street's gonna descend into anarchy or whatever or that people are gonna be breaking in. I mean, don't we feel pretty safe and secure? And so here's the thing. Yeah, there are a lot of negatives about our government and I'm not saying that we should ignore those. Obviously we should try to hold their feet to the fire and try to make things better, I get that. But at the end of the day, it doesn't really help anything to just have a bad attitude every day, just upset, but just try to look on the bright side of life in general is what I'm saying. And just realize, hey, at least we live in relative safety and security. I mean, unless you're in a really bad part of town or something. But even in a kind of rough part of town, you're still pretty much safer than a lot of people have been throughout history in a lot of situations or even a lot of people in other parts of the world right now are. You're pretty safe in the US of A. So at least that's something to be thankful for. And in many ways, the secret to being happy in the world that we live in here that's filled with sin is to kind of live in your own little bubble in a sense and realize, hey, you know what? I've got the Lord protecting me. Here's the bubble that I live in. The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him. And so I've got a hedge of protection around me. God is on my side. And so here's the thing, when I'm going through life, I could, every day, I could wake up and roll out of bed and you know what I can think about? I can think about Caesar, the first thing when I wake up out of bed. I could get out of bed and the first thing I could do is open my laptop and I could pull up and see what Caesar is messing with today. And see what stupid thing they're doing today and read Rand Paul's wasteful spending today and figure out, okay, what's the latest and greatest? And look, there are people who spend hours a day listening to political talk radio, conspiracies, alternative media, mainstream media, whatever. And you know what? It's not healthy because they're upset, they're angry, they're frustrated. Why? Because these are things that are out of our hands and they spend two hours, three hours, four hours. Look, raise your hand if you, okay, this is either for you or a friend. Either you or you know somebody like this who spends hours a day listening to political stuff, hours a day. I've got somebody in mind. I'm thinking of somebody. Look, I'm telling, it's a friend of mine. I'm not into it. But let me tell you, I said it's a friend. Anyway, the point is though that these people that sit around thinking about that, you know, you could just become an angry person. You're frustrated. You know, I don't want to sit around thinking about things I can't change. I have the serenity to accept the things I can't change. And I would rather roll out of bed and read my Bible and roll out of bed and start thinking about spiritual things, things of God, right? Getting a mentality about what's really important. And also I could go days without even checking anything in the media or even weeks or months, just enjoying my family because you know what? No matter what kind of stupid, insane things our government does over in Washington, DC, the sun still comes up in the morning and birds are still, I mean, people are just like, Biden is the end of America. You know, I've heard that before, Obama. I mean, look, this is a choice between having a country and not having a country. I mean, this is a choice between America and just total communism, socialism. If Biden gets in, it's over. They said the exact same thing. And I'm not defending Biden. Biden is wicked, he's evil, he's stupid, he belongs in a home or something. But they said the exact same thing about Obama and here we are. Eight years of Obama and here we are. Now that doesn't make Obama a good person but you know what it means is that he can't stop me. He can't destroy me. The only person who can destroy me is me or the Lord. That's it. And that would be me destroying me because I was stupid enough to make God mad at me. That's me destroying me because God doesn't want to destroy people for no reason. And so the point is that we need not fixate on these things. And look, if you're one of these talk radio junkies, I challenge you, turn it off for three months and come back and you know what? You haven't missed anything. Like you feel like, it's like you haven't even missed a beat. It's like, I remember one time I hadn't seen the news in weeks, hadn't heard anything. And I was at somebody's house that had the news playing and they were just turning on. They were turning on Fox News or whatever. I said, hey, before you turn it on, I don't know anything about what's going on in the news. I haven't been paying attention but I have a little prediction to make here. I'm a prophet, you know. I said, I'll bet you in the first 10 minutes it's gonna be something about race, something about our government's finances and something about some war in the Middle East or some strife in the middle East. Took like three minutes to check all the boxes. It's like, oh, look, these people are rioting over here because of this racial thing and oh, you know, this war. It's like the same, it's like Israel and Palestine are always just, they're about to hit that agreement all the time, right? It's about to happen. Big news or they're about to start killing each other. You know, it's always right there. It's happening, right? Folks, these people are paid to get you to feel like it's always happening right now. When there's nothing going on, they're paid to make you feel like stuff's happening. I mean, they don't just come on and be like, you know what, things are pretty quiet in the Middle East. More of the same, been going on for, you know, hundreds of years, same thing. Nothing big, no, it's not really a big deal. Yeah, there's some stuff, you know, government's not really doing anything big, you know. How are you doing? What are you up to? No, it's like, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, breaking. Wait, I'm just now hearing from my correspondent over, you know, they have to make it all dramatic and exciting to keep you coming back. So they are sensationalizing things. And folks, then when you get into alternative media, it can get even more sensational. I mean, Bill Gates is about to destroy our lives at any moment, but he's been about to destroy our lives for like 20 years. We're always about to be vaccinated. Look, folks, I remember in 2009 and 10, mandatory vaccinations are about to happen. There was no coronavirus. And it was like, I remember, you know, sitting and watching on the airplane on the way to my fire alarm job, Police State Part 4 by Alex Jones. He's probably on part 57 by now. But I remember sitting and it was like, Police State Part 4 just came out and it had this opening theme song and the lyrics, you know, this guy's like singing about FEMA camps and stuff. And the lyrics of the song said, you and I, they'll vaccinate. They're preparing us for an all-out police state. And they're showing, you know, this is 2010 or something, or 2009, I don't know when that came out. They're always about to vaccinate you. They're always about to put us on boxcars and send us to FEMA re-education camps. They're always guillotines being shipped, you know, in containers and it was spotted in Milwaukee or something. You know, there's always, the Middle East is always about to blow. And you know what, they're always about to rebuild that third temple, right? Always. But you know what, you can get caught up in all that. You know what, why don't you just watch the days of our lives? Why don't you just watch as the world turns? Why don't you just watch the telenovelas? You know, because that's what you're doing. You're watching a soap opera is what you're doing. When you're listening to all this political talk, it's a soap opera. It's meant to just keep you entertained, keep you coming back, and now a word from our sponsor. And folks, I'd rather listen to Bible preaching. I'd rather read my Bible. I'd rather spend time with my family. I'd rather read books that don't change than to just be on the cutting edge of what's happening right now in DC that has no relevance to my personal life and will not matter 20 years. And you say, well, I gotta find out if I'm gonna get that stimulus check. Why are you spending it before it even got here? Well, you know, because yeah, if I know the stimulus is coming, I can go out and do it on the credit card. Because it's coming before the, folks, just wait till you have the bird in the hand. Don't catch the chickens before they've hatched. Let's hope Trump gives us the 2,000, amen? Because hey, it's 2,000 per person and I got 13 people in my family. But you know what? Who cares? You know, because hey, if he sends me 20 grand or something, I mean, I don't think that's gonna happen. But you know what? I don't need it anyway, you know? I mean, if God wants to bless me like that, then I can, you know, I don't know, I'm gonna get some more equity in my house or something because I'm responsible like that. I'm not gonna go out and buy a bunch of jazzy stuff because that's not who I am. I don't lust after those things. I don't care. But the point is, we don't need to hang on every word of this and fixate on this because taxes are not our battle. And here's the thing. Don't just apply the sermon to just taxes. It's just, it's kind of just, you know, taxes are what we're talking about in scripture. But when we read the Bible, it's good to sometimes kind of just take what the Bible teaches and kind of extrapolate it out a little bit. And say like, well, if God's saying that we're not supposed to just die on that hill of taxes, maybe we shouldn't just be fighting the government all the time in general and making that our big thing. Now look, I'm totally for, like I said, standing up to big government, holding their feet to the fire. And you know, I think Pastor Jimenez might have done some kind of a protest in Sacramento or something. Did that happen? Or was that just a cool dream I had? I think Pastor Jimenez went down there and protested something about homeschooling or, wasn't there some video of him standing in front of the Capitol doing civil stuff? Civic stuff, yeah? Homeschooling or whatever. Hey, I'm for him. I'm for it. I think it's great. But you know what I know, Pastor Jimenez, and that's not what he does every day. That's not what he fixates on. That's not his life. Does everybody understand the difference? Hey, there's a time to fight a battle, stand up. I'm for that. But you know what, that's not what God has called me to do, so don't try to get me to spend my life fighting a losing battle. I wanna fight a winning battle. And you know what, this is a winning battle. In fact, I'm more than a conqueror through Christ, according to the Bible. So I like winning, hashtag winning, okay? Fighting the political battle is a loser. And you know what, fighting against the Romans was a loser. Because you know what, after Jesus was gone, the Jews tried it. And they lost, bad. And they lost again bad in 135 AD. And you know what, Jesus wasn't here to fight a loser. And yeah, obviously Jesus could have invoked supernatural power and won the battle like they did in the Old Testament with Joshua and people like that, but it wasn't God's will. So now let me, I gotta hurry. I kinda ran out of time with all those, I was trying to make you happy for a while. Go to 2 Kings chapter 23, 2 Kings, maybe somebody can just make a clip of just the part where I was making people happy. And that'll be the video that people will enjoy watching and just put this sermon, you know, make it disappear somewhere. Yeah, put it on a channel with very few subscribers or something. But hey, I'm just kidding. But 2 Kings chapter 23 verse 31, let me show you the real issue here. Okay, 2 Kings 23, 31, you know, we saw what the New Testament said. The New Testament said, pay the taxes, even if it's dumb, we're gonna pay it. This cause pay we tribute also, render therefore to all their dues, tribute to whom tribute is due, custom do custom, fear to fear, honor to honor. 2 Kings 23, 31, I'll close with this. Jehoahaz was 20 and three years old when he began to reign and he reigned three months in Jerusalem and his mother's name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord according to all that his fathers had done. And Pharaoh Necho put him in bands at Riblah in the land of Hamath that he might not reign in Jerusalem. And you know, God's using Pharaoh Necho to punish people and judge people like I talked about earlier in the sermon with Josiah. This is a different king that followed Josiah. And it says, and Pharaoh Necho made Eliakim, the son of Josiah, king, we're in verse 34. I skipped something, I'm sorry, I'm tired. Back up to verse 33. And Pharaoh Necho put him in bands at Riblah in the land of Hamath that he might not reign in Jerusalem and put the land to a tribute of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. And Pharaoh Necho made Eliakim the son of Josiah, king in the room of Josiah's father and turned his name to Jehoakim and took Jehoahaz away and he came to Egypt and died there. And Jehoakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh, watch this, but he taxed the land to give the money according to the commandment of Pharaoh. He exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land of everyone according to his taxation to give it unto Pharaoh Necho. But you know what you wanna underline in this passage? Here's what you underline, verse 32, he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord. Because you know what? That's really what matters in this passage. Because you know what? You know all this other stuff about the tribute and the hundred talents of silver and he taxed the land and everybody had to pay the taxes according to every man's taxation. Why? It's a punishment from God, that's why. Because of the fact that he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord. So why are the taxes so high in America? Why are our governing officials wasting our money on stupid things because we have done evil in the sight of the Lord, that's why. Now I'm not saying you did evil in the sight of the Lord. I'm not saying that I did evil in the sight of the Lord. But I'm saying as a nation, we did evil in the sight of the Lord and that's why we're being taxed incredibly. But you know what? You know, God is giving me some of it back. Because you know, I have so many kids that basically I'm getting some of my money back. You know, I remember back when I was running my fire alarm business, having to write a check in April for like eight grand. $7,500, $8,300 every April paying these incredible taxes back when I was making a lot of money doing fire alarms. Just having to cut that fat check in April. But now, now I'm receiving the eight grand. You know, I'm just saying, you know what? God has a way of taking care of you and fixing things. And here's the thing, even if I never see that money, even if they just keep sucking money out of my paycheck and I never see it. But you know what though? At the end of the day though, I'm gonna walk on streets of gold someday. And when I'm walking on streets of gold for a million years, for a billion years walking on streets of gold, you think I'm just gonna be like, man, blankety blank, Uncle Sam, you know. Stinking Biden. You think I'm gonna, Biden is not even gonna come into our minds. That Obama, you know, we're not gonna think about that. We're gonna be walking on streets of gold. We're not gonna be, man, I remember how much I used to pay, you know. And we're gonna be sitting around talking about it, hanging out in the New Jerusalem, talking politics. You remember 2020, remember Corona? Nobody's even gonna care about Corona in the New Jerusalem. No more than they're gonna be bringing up the Spanish flu or anything else. So let's focus on verse 32 in our lives and make sure that we do right in the side of the Lord so that we get blessed and not do evil in the side of the Lord and be punished. And that's the real, long and short of it. And you know, people are like, we need a revolution in this country. Folks, if we had a revolution in this country, whatever new government we got would be worse because our country's filled with idiots. Do you really trust a Continental Congress right now? I mean, if you know anything about the founding of our country, right, you remember like the first Continental Congress and the second Continental Congress? Remember they have like a constitutional convention where they get together and decide what's our government gonna be like? Folks, I'd rather have the one they set up in 1776 than anything they would set up today. You really want to open that can of worms and say, hey, let's start over and make a new government. It'd be insanely stupid because our country's filled with idiots, my friend. And so why don't we just be thankful for what we've got and just go with it. And you know what? Hey, let, you know, frankly, I'm gonna be fiddling when Rome burns, frankly, because you know what? It's not my problem. And if God wants to burn it all down, amen. Hallelujah, and her smoke rose up forever and ever. I'm not worried about it because you know what? I'm gonna be fiddling Jesus loves me. I'm not like Nero or something. I'm gonna be fiddling power in the blood. I'm gonna be fiddling look and live, okay? Why? Because that's what matters to me. That's what I think about. That's what I care about. It's what I wake up thinking about. It's what I go to bed thinking about. Not the junk that our government's doing. And by the way, here's, let me make you happy again real quick and then we'll close. This is gonna make you real happy. Who here has seen our film Babylon USA? And to the rest of you, what's wrong with you because it's free on YouTube and there's a DVD back there with your name on it. It's also free. Okay, you've seen Babylon USA, right? Well, here's the thing. Let's say that I'm right about that, right? Let's say that I'm right and that the USA is what God's talking about in Revelation 18 when he's talking about the Babylon being destroyed. You know what that means if I'm right? Which I believe that I am, of course. Here's what that means. That means that all the way up to the bitter end, Babylon's gonna be glorifying herself and living deliciously and saying, I sit a queen and am no widow and shall see no sorrow. So here's what that tells me. Is everybody paying attention? And by the way, when is Babylon destroyed? Babylon's destroyed years after the rapture. Babylon's destroyed after all the trumpets, after all the vials, after all of God's wrath. It's the last thing before Armageddon. It's right at the end and it's still talking about Babylon. So here's what that tells me. America, if America is Babylon, which I think that movie makes a very convincing biblical evidence, that's what I believe firmly. If it happens any time in the next 100 years, it's gotta be. Here's what that means. That means that our country is never gonna become some socialist hellhole where we're all starving and waiting in like Cuba or something, where we wait in line for hours to get gas and there's no food on the shelves. You know what? There will be food on the shelves until Jesus comes in this country. That's what I believe, you know, prophetically speaking. So that should make you feel better, right? So don't worry about the food. You know, you might run out of toilet paper every once in a while. You know, I'm not guaranteeing that. But you know what? I firmly believe that yeah, the U.S. is gonna go through hard times, punishments, the great tribulation is gonna be bad everywhere, some places worse than others. You know, like places that live near volcanoes and earthquakes and stuff like, you know, over in the East Asia are gonna get nailed especially. But the point is that we in the United States of America are probably going to be a prosperous nation until the bitter end. Doesn't mean we're not gonna go through personal trials and tribulations. But I'm not really worried about our country's finances because I believe we're still gonna be living deliciously all the way to the bitter end in that sense. Okay, and I've got some other good news for you. The Bible says that as long as the earth remaineth, summer and winter and seed, time and harvest will not cease. So I'm not worried about the environment either. So I don't need to obsess over the environment. I don't need to obsess over the economy. And I don't need to obsess over the politics because God shall supply all my need according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus, amen. So rejoice. And you know what? Do I like paying taxes? You know, the worst part about paying taxes is that they make you figure it out yourself. You know, at least a thief comes in your house and just takes what they want. This is a thief that says, okay, you load up everything. And it's like you're doing moving or something, you know? You have to load up the goods. So let's just not obsess over those things, just pay it, get them off our back, live our lives, not die on every hill. Let's focus on a spiritual battle. And folks, maybe I've harped on this a little bit this year, but I'm harping on it because it's a needed message. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for what you've taught us in scripture, Lord. And I know that the sermon, that there'll be things in the sermon that irritate the Fox News Baptists and the people who are obsessing over politics right now. And Lord, I just pray that people get their priorities right. And really, Lord, my biggest prayer right now is just that people would just actually pay attention to the verses that I showed them tonight and actually let those scriptures speak to their hearts. And Lord, help us all to keep the main thing the main thing and think more about you and our families and things that matter than things, you know, 3,000 miles away that don't matter. And in Jesus' name, we pray, amen. Amen. Amen, let's take our psalm books. Please turn to 433. Will 433 away in a manger? We'll have a verse first to the 433. Long way in a manger, no prayer for a man. No prayer for a man. The little Lord Jesus lay down his sweet head. The stars in the sky look down where he lay. The little Lord Jesus must sleep on the hay. Up, down, on the wing, the rainy day. He abates, but little Lord Jesus, no crying, he makes. My lovely Lord Jesus, look down from the sky. And stay by my cradle till morning is nigh. The little Lord Jesus, I ask thee to stay. Look spidey forever and love me, I pray. Bless all the dear children in my tender care. And take us to heaven to live in he name. May we sing it tonight for a spistler.