(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you we're gonna go through our announcements If you do not have one of these bulletins, just slip your hand up real high. We'll make sure that we get one to you. If you open up to the first page, you will see our service times listed there as always. Sunday morning at 1030. Sunday evening 5 p.m. Wednesday night 7 is our bible study. We're going to be in Psalm 53 this week. We've got the soul winning opportunities listed there as well as our salvation and baptisms for the month of March. We're going to go ahead and count up some salvation for March if you, well not for March, just for the past week. If you went out soul winning at all this week and had any salvations to report, just slip your hand up real quick. We'll get them, one Friday, one Saturday. Amen. Friday, Saturday. Anyone else have anything to report? All right. Very good. Keep up the good job preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. Every opportunity that you get down at the bottom of the page there are the offering totals received through the month of March. Prayer requests on the next page. I've trimmed it down a little bit but we've also added a couple. So how's the foot doing, Jake? I don't think it's actually fully broken. Well, that's good news. Like it messed up my, like the tendons. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because whenever I move that, that's when it hurts. That's, okay. And I was just using my foot a lot because my foot's just kind of like broken. Yeah, good. Did you have like a big old knot or bruise or anything on the top of your foot? It was there for like two, two and a half days. Yeah. I dropped a ladder once on my foot. It was like an extension ladder and it came sliding down and just wham, hit the top of my foot and I got this big old balls like a baseball on top of my foot, I thought it was broken. It didn't break. It was just a really, really, really bad bruise. So you had a horse step on your foot, right? So we added Jake. Thankfully, he doesn't think it's broken now. So you know when it's like, I thought my foot was broken but after a couple days, if it's starting to feel like, okay, I don't think it's that bad, then it's probably not broken. But is it, you're doing a little bit better, obviously it probably still hurts. But that's good news to hear that it doesn't sound like it's broken but you got hurt on his foot so we'll pray that that heals quickly. And then how is Enoch doing, Brother Jesse? Does his fever come down a little bit from yesterday? Okay. So it's sick. Okay. Got to love that. Okay. Yeah, yeah, I would, normally, right, it should. But if there's no reason to think there's anything else going on, then that's good news. So it's just, he's ill, he had a real high fever yesterday so he took an urgent care, right? And, but he's at home now and just resting and hopefully getting better. So we'll pray that Enoch, definitely that that fever doesn't get any higher because it's starting to get dangerously high and we'll pray that he gets well quickly. And then, I don't know, maybe you know Brother Rob, Rob and his wife, Marianne Vichilano are coming, they're planning on, they're going to attempt to come down here for our soul winning marathon next week on Saturday. So just pray that they get here safely. They live in Canada, so they have, they deal with issues crossing the border sometimes. So you'd think it would be easy. Nothing's easy these days. You think like Canada, United States, why would there be any problems? Well, you know, COVID and 9-11 and what, you know, like all these other stupid things have really just screwed up being able to travel just in general. So just pray that they could get here quickly. And also they, you know, he kind of makes, he crams a lot of driving time in a short period of time. So I don't know if he doesn't have a whole lot of days off of work or whatever, but they really are dedicated in trying to get to these events on time and get here. So just pray everything will go well for him and his wife and they could join us this Saturday. Down at the bottom of the page we're going to pray for First Works Baptist Church this week, Pastor Mejia. And let's see on the next page, the April challenge. So hopefully you started this yesterday. Yesterday was the first day of April. April challenge is to spend a minimum of one hour every day doing something spiritual. And I don't just mean spiritual as like, you know, whatever. Spiritual things, right? Things of God where you're, you know, you could be praying, you could be reading the Bible, soul winning, memorizing Bible, even, you know, like listening to sermons and preaching where you know, you're learning, you're educating yourself on the Word of God, that counts, too. But the, what I want to say, though, just about this in general is that I just want to make sure you're investing the time, singing praises to God, of course, would also fall in that category. As long as you're kind of dedicating the time where you're able to stay focused on what it is that you're doing or whatever. That's part of it, right? So having just things on in the background isn't the same as really giving your mind to whatever it is and your heart to whatever area of your walk with God is on this particular challenge. So that being said, now we've got, the prayer challenge has ended. So who finished the prayer challenge? Who completed that 100%? Awesome. All right. If you completed the prayer challenge, we got some prizes up here for you, and I wanted to make sure we got some of these out today because some of these are, there's like some jelly beans and some Reese's eggs and stuff like that that you might want for Easter. So, but there's a different variety of things. We've got some of the sweet stuff over here, but then we've got some other random, there's some, these are always cool. We're getting near that time of year, and especially parents, no one likes tying water balloons by hand. This is one of the greatest inventions ever when it comes to water balloon fights and stuff like that. It's 560 balloons, hook it up to the hose, it fills them all up, it automatically just, they pop off and they're good to go. So we've got a few of these. It looks like we've got some squirt guns up here, some swimming goggles, there's, I don't know, you can come and check this out, there's a hammock up here. We've done these before. We got the camping trip coming up. If you want to get a hammock, there's lots of places to hang those up. There's a little splash pad for little kids, some mixing bowls if you're into that, candles, whatever. So, most of these are also, if you really just have your heart set on something and someone gets up here before you do and takes the one last thing that you weren't able to get, let me know, we'll work it out. The great thing about where we get these from is that they are all returnable easily, and we can swap things out, it's not a big deal. So if you come on up, if you did complete that prize, don't trample another, like I said, I want there to be people fighting over the prizes, there's all kinds of different things up here, but go ahead and grab what you like. Oh, we're going to return already? Awesome. All right, good job on that challenge. I didn't see our kids coming, are our kids coming up here or no? All right. Well, you lose out when you're shy. No, we'll get you taken care of, I'm just kidding, you'll get your prizes. You want to get them later, that's fine, and anyone who is too shy to come up here, if you completed it too, you can sneak later and get your prize as long as you did it, as long as you're not stealing it. Doing the honor system here. So the April challenge is coming up, and then we've also got prizes coming up next week for the Bible memory passage, which is down, there's our last week, we're memorizing verses 13 and 14 for Hebrews chapter 7, it's the first half of that passage, so you'll also be able to get some prizes for that. Lord's Supper, we're going to be honoring this, we're going to be observing this day on Wednesday here in church. So if you want to come out, I encourage you, even if you don't normally make it on Wednesdays, I understand there's a lot of people who travel long distances, but if there's one Wednesday a year that you're able to make it out, try to make it this Wednesday, it is, you know, we do this once a year, and the reason why I choose on Wednesday is because it's, in my opinion, the closest day to when Jesus would have had his last supper with his disciples, so he kind of instituted this observance of the Lord's Supper, and it's sort of the New Testament version of the Passover is essentially what this is. It's the, it's, I preached on this, I don't want to get into detail about it, but you can go back and listen to, I might preach on this again on Wednesday or something or next week, but I'll go into that, you can find the information, what we believe about that, but we'll be observing that on this Wednesday, so that'll be just during the regular service time, it's not going to be right at the beginning of service, so if it does take you a little bit longer to get here, just, just don't worry about being late and come in, and we'll be able to hopefully get, as long as you're not too late, we'll be able to, you know, be able to come in and participate in that on Wednesday. Sewing Marathon is this Saturday, so all of the schedules there, it's a pretty standard schedule, we'll be meeting up right here for breakfast, nothing huge, you know, don't, don't expect to have a full sausage, eggs, biscuits, grits, whatever, you know, like we're not having all that, but there will be some pastries, there'll be something here to, to be able to, to put in your belly a little bit, we'll definitely have some coffee, we'll have some waters, and all the supplies ready to go. 915 to 945 is that time, and then we'll be starting to pair up around 945, so hopefully we could hit the street at 10 o'clock, get out into that Marietta Smyrna area, lunch at 1230 p.m., I put the address there for Chick-fil-A, I did check out, I really made sure they have enough seating there this time, last time it wasn't, it didn't work out as well, but this time there's, there's, I, I saw the pictures with my own eyes, and I'm not saying it's huge, but there's definitely a more, a lot more tables there, at least twice as many tables as it was at the last place, so we should be good with this, and people kind of come in at varying times, but just in case people aren't able to make it in the morning, you know where the lunch meetup spot is also, so that's where we're gonna be at lunch, if you can't make it here in the morning, show up at the, in the afternoon, and we can get you paired up, and we go out and preach the gospel for the rest of the day, we'll have dinner around five o'clock, 4.30, five o'clock, somewhere in that timeframe, that'll be determined, I'll let you know where we're going to eat afterwards, it's a little bit dependent on how many people are gonna be sticking around for the long haul, we're also providing hotels for those of you who make long distance travels to come here, and you wanna stay here on Saturday night after the marathon to come to church, we offer that up, and I know, Brother Kevin, you talked to me this morning about that, I assume you're gonna, you're gonna want that, is there anyone else, because I'll just write your name down right now if you would like a hotel, Henry, are all three of you coming? And is there anyone else right now? All right, very good. Continue on, we went over the Bible memory passage, upcoming birthday's anniversary, so we got a, first anniversary, right? It was just one year ago that y'all got married, you're still together, so praise the Lord for that, that's awesome, didn't have any doubt about that, but that's good news, and everything's going well there, so we're gonna sing, and look, we just sang the anniversary song, like one week ago, maybe two weeks ago, so hopefully you caught on a little bit to sweeter as the years go by, we're gonna sing that out, don't leave me hanging here if you know it, okay, this isn't a solo, it's a church song, so we're gonna sing our anniversary song to the Bosticks, all right? Sweeter as the years go by, sweeter as the years go by, as the years go by, richer, fuller, deeper, Jesus' love is sweeter, sweeter as the years go by, all right, that was much better, much better. Excellent, well happy anniversary to you, and it looks like we got another anniversary tomorrow, and then there's more birthdays to come in the month of April, a lot of people at the end, there's actually three birthdays on the 29th, that's pretty cool, it's interesting, so on the back then we've got our upcoming events, homeschool field trip, all right, this is, I think this is important, 945 is when we're entering, Leslie, you mentioned something to me over the weekend, and I don't think we ever got a chance to finish talking about it, that they need some more information, what, a final head count or something, or did you already take care of that, is that, does anyone who's signed up need to do anything, or just let us know if you're not able to attend, I think a couple people, yeah, if you're not able, if you signed up and you're not able to attend, just make sure that we know we're giving the final head count on Monday, they already told us we had to have a final head count before, which is why we closed up the sign up sheet, because we were supposed to have that done, so now they're saying we need to give them another final head count, or else we're gonna forfeit our place, or something like that, so she's gonna take care of that on Monday, so just make sure that if you did sign up for it, but something has changed with your plans, and you're not able to make it, that you let my wife know as soon as possible, but that's gonna be, just make sure you're there, on site, 945 a.m., we're gonna be entering in the door, so try to make sure you're there on time, camping trip, May 1st through the 6th, so we did a lot of work also last night on divvying up the cottages and the campsites, and everything is almost finalized, I need to do my final review of everything, and make sure that we have everyone in place there, but we definitely have a lot more campsites still available, so be sure to invite people, I'm gonna be making a video out soon, and we'll promote it, all the cottages are full, there's gonna be some sharing of cottages with some people, but we'll distribute that list, we'll have it done by next week for sure, so you'll have your campsite, and your cottage number, where you're gonna be, and things like that, now I wanna mention this too, there's some people who have dogs, some people have pets, and it's a dog-friendly place, and we've taken that into consideration, but I also want you to make sure about this too, according to the website, their rules say this, that you're not supposed to let your dogs just be by themselves, whether you have a cottage or a campsite, just unattended anywhere, that's what they state, I'm gonna relay that to you, because that's what their website says, now they're very nice there, they're not Nazis, they're not just all up in our business, or anything like that, but I just want everyone to be aware that if you do plan on bringing a pet to the campsite, that you're aware of what the rules are, and what to be aware of, and things like that, just wanted to mention that, and then we also have the last event there on July 5th, it's a Wednesday night, also Pastor Anderson is gonna be in town preaching, he's doing his road trip again, going around the country, and preaching at various churches, so he's gonna be here on July 5th, if you wanted to plan for that, that is about it for our announcement, so we're gonna turn to our next song, and I'm gonna ask Brother Peter if he could please lead us. Hi church, can you hear me? Here goes the song number 106. Can you hear me? Song 106, The Mind With Me. Song 106. ["The Mind With Me"] My church, let's sing this out in the verse. A mind with me, that's born the evening time. The darkness deepens, for with me I'll bide. When all her help first, fail, it comforts me. Help of the helpless, a mind with me. A mind with me, scared to its words, let out what's there all day. Her stories won't fade, its lorries pass away. Change and decay, in all around I see. Oh, now who changes the mind with me? Why need thy presence, every passing hour? What blood thy grace can, all the tender spire. Do I love thee? Find thyself, my guiding stake in me. Oh, loud and sunshine, all mine with me. Oh, the last. Hold out my cross, before my closing eyes. Shine through the blue, and point me to the skies. As for deep breaks, and first made shadows gleam, in life and death, oh Lord of mine with me. Amen. You have a beautiful scene. This time we would like, to our morning, our morning, our Sunday morning offering, and ask the ushers to come forward. The church, while the offering plates are being passed around, you can open up your Bibles to the book of 2 Kings, chapter 19. Amen. That's 2 Kings, chapter 19. As we do customary, near Stronghold Baptist Church, we'll read the encounter, chapter, of the Ask of the Dead. Again, that was 2 Kings, chapter 19. And it came to pass, when King Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord. And he sent Eliakim, which was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amos. And they said unto him, thus saith Hezekiah, this day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and blasphemy. For the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth. It may be the Lord thy God will hear all the words of Raphsheka, whom the king of Assyria, his master hath sent to reproach the living God, and will reprove the words, which the Lord thy God hath heard. Wherefore lift up thy prayer, for the remnant that are left. So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, and Isaiah said unto them, thus shall ye say to your master, thus saith the Lord, be not afraid of the words which thou hast heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumor, and shall return to his own land, and I will cause him to fall by the sword, in his own land. So Raphsheka returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah, for he had heard that he was departed from Lakish. And when he heard say of Tirhukah, king of Ethiopia, behold, he has come out to fight against thee, he sent messengers again unto Hezekiah saying, thus shall ye speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, let not thy God in whom thou trustest deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be delivered, into the hand of the king of Assyria. Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly, and shalt thou be delivered, have the gods of the nations delivered them, which my fathers have destroyed, as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and of the children of Eden, which were in Thalesar. Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Siphar-vayim, of Hina, and Ivah? And Hezekiah received the letter of the hand of the messengers, and read it. And Hezekiah went up into the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord. And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord, and said, O Lord God of Israel, which dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone. Of all the kingdoms of the earth, thou hast made heaven and earth. Lord, bow down thine ear, and hear. Open, Lord, thine eyes, and see, and hear the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent him to reproach the living God. Of a truth, Lord, the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations and their lands, and have cast their gods into the fire. For they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. Therefore, they have destroyed them. Now therefore, O Lord our God, I beseech thee, save thou us out of his hand, that all the nations of the earth may know that thou art the Lord God, even thou only. Then Isaiah, the son of Ammon, sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel. That which thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib, king of Assyria, I have heard. This is the word that the Lord hath spoken concerning him. The virgin, the daughter of Zion, hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn. The daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee. Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? And against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high, even against the Holy One of Israel? By thy messengers, thou hast reproached the Lord, and hast said, With the multitude of my chariots, I am come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon, and will cut down the tall cedar trees thereof, and the choice fir trees thereof, and thou enter into the lodgings of his borders, and into the forests of his Carmel. I have digged and drunk strange waters, and with the sole of my feet, have I dried up all the rivers of besieged places. Hast thou not heard long ago how I have done it, and of ancient times that I have formed it? Now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldest be to lay waste fenced cities, and to ruin his heaps. Therefore, their inhabitants were of small power. They were dismayed and confounded. They were as the grass of the field, and as the green herb, as the grass on the house tops, and as corn blasted before it be grown up. But I know thy abode, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy rage against me, because thy rage against me, and thy tumult is come up into mine ears. Therefore, I'll put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back, by the way by which thou camest. And this shall be a sign unto thee. Ye shall eat this year such things as grow of themselves, and in the second year that which springeth of the same, and in the third year sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruits thereof. And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall yet again take root downward and bear fruit upward. For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of Mount Zion, the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this. Therefore, thus saith the Lord concerning the King of Assyria, he shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it. By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the Lord. For I will defend this city to save it for mine own sake, for my servant David's sake. And it came to pass that night that the angel of the Lord went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians, and hundred, fourscore, and five thousand. And when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses. So Sennacherib, king of Assyria, departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh. And it came to pass, as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch, his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer, his son, smote him with the sword, and they escaped into the land of Armenia. And Esarhaddon, his son, reigned in his stead. Let's pray. Dear Lord, thank you for allowing us another opportunity to meet here in your house this morning, to read your word, and hear your word preached. Pray that you would help us all to have open ears to hear, with little to no distraction, Lord, and that you would just bless Pastor Berzins as he comes to preach for us. And in Jesus' name I pray, amen. All right, real quick, before I get started on the sermon, there's a couple of points of just housekeeping. We did get a new air fryer toaster oven that's in the eating area here, so you can have at that. It's brand new, I haven't used it yet. We might wanna run it through a cycle once before we use it. I don't know, straight from the manufacturer, but that's out here. We do still need to get the more electric run, though, so that needs to be done. I added one more device that's gonna pull a lot of power, so just be aware of that, because we tend to flip breakers here when we use too many things at the same time. But it's here, and it's available to use. And then also we're having a baptism after the morning service. So after service this morning, stick around. We're gonna do a baptism right outside, and so we're excited about that. All right, keep your place here in 2 Kings 19. We're gonna come right back to this, but you turn, if you would, to Ecclesiastes 3. So we started this, I started this sermon last week, this series on the famous passage in Ecclesiastes chapter three. So we got Psalms, then Proverbs, then Ecclesiastes. Psalms kind of in the middle of your Bible. Ecclesiastes chapter three, real famous passage. Verse number one, the Bible reads everything. There is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven. A time to be born and a time to die. And I preached on that last week, a time to be born and time to die. Now the verse continues, a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted. So I'm gonna be covering that today, but I also went through this whole list, and I combined some things that are very similar, that are kind of like items. It's very poetic, it's a great passage here, but there's some of these that just make sense to sort of group together. So I have grouped together this morning, we're gonna look at a time to plant, a time to pluck up. We're gonna also look at verse number five, a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together. We're gonna look at a time to rend and a time to sow. And I know I missed it here. Oh yeah, time to break down and a time to build up there. In verse number three, we're gonna just cover all these. They're very similar concepts, but we're gonna look at various scriptures talking about these various aspects. So we're gonna start with a time to plant and a time to pluck up. And one of the things you see here in 2 Kings 19, and sometimes God is the one deciding to pluck up. And when things aren't going his way, when he doesn't like the way his children are behaving and acting, he may pluck them up. And in some cases, pluck them up physically and just kind of remove them out of the land. We see that happen to the children of Israel, where they were taken captive into Babylon. But then there's also a time to plant. And we think about planting, you think about getting your roots put down. You're sort of getting established, getting settled. There's a time to plant. There's a time to just make sure, hey, we have a big work to do. We wanna serve the Lord, but you need to get grounded. You need to get rooted down. You need to make sure you're unmovable. So you need to start planting in order for that to happen. And when it comes to planting, you don't see the results right away either. So when you're sowing and you're planting, you wanna make sure that you're planting good things. The Bible says, be not deceived, God is not mocked, for what's over a man soweth, that shall he also reap. When we talk about planting, obviously we wanna be planting good things, not evil things. You start planting evil things, well guess what? It's gonna come back. And when you plant something and it comes back, it comes back much bigger than what you started with. You plant that little seed, well that little seed, when it takes root and grows up, is gonna bring forth a lot more fruit than what that one little seed had that you started with. So when we think about planting, you wanna take special attention to what you are planting. Because whatever you plant will come back. But see, you gotta wait a while too. And we see here, God is encouraging the people, the children of Israel here, and getting them, even though they've been chastised and they've gone through a lot of problems, he's telling them now to plant, to stay put and to plant and that God will bless them. That if we can faithfully, no matter what situation we're coming out of, no matter what sins we've done, if you say, Pastor Berzins, I've planted, I've sown a lot of evil, I've sown a lot of wickedness. Well, the Bible says, God's not mocked, you're gonna reap what you sow, but start today by sowing good seed. And you know what? God is still able to show mercy also when he sees you doing the right thing. There's still always gonna be some consequence for our actions, there's always consequence for our actions, always. And there's some that you can't take back or undo necessarily the things that you've done. But what you can do is start today by planting right and getting rooted down into good things and God's righteousness in the word of God and getting established, getting a stable foundation. You think about planting, you're also getting invested. Look at verse number 30 here in chapter 19 of 2 Kings. The Bible says, and the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall yet again take root downward and bear fruit upward. He said, I've brought a lot of problems on you, you've gone through a lot of tribulation and some trials and I've chastised you, but you know what? You're not gonna be completely destroyed, I'm still gonna leave a remnant and they will plant and get their roots grounded deep down so then they could bring fruit upward. But see, when it comes to the Lord, He wants all of us to bear fruit. And this is a common theme throughout the Scripture, from Old Testament to New Testament, just being able to bring forth good fruit. We are here to bring forth fruit unto the Lord and if we're not bringing forth fruit, well, what good is it? So God might have to hew some of His plants down and to make room for people who are gonna bring forth fruit. And what He's doing here, He's starting with this remnant, He had to clean house a little bit with His people and with the house of Judah, and He's saying, you know what, this remnant that's escaped with the house of Judah, yet again, you're gonna take root downward and bear fruit upward. Turn if you go to John chapter 15. But how can you plant, how can you get rooted? Well, one of the best ways to get rooted in your faith is to get rooted and grounded in church, in a good church, a church that preaches the truth, a church that is serving the Lord already. That is going to be like the best fertilizer for that root. The root's gonna be your faith, right? Your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the absolute foundation. That is where that seed of the word of God hopefully has brought forth eternal life because you've received that word in faith. You put your trust in the word of God. You put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. You are born again. You are saved. That's step number one, no matter what you have. Now, what you choose to do, how you plant and what you do, you wanna make sure you get rooted in a good place, in a good space that you're not gonna be moved. You're not gonna be like a little weed that might shoot up real fast, but then it has no root to it. It's real easy just to pluck up. You wanna get grounded and settled so that even during tough times, even during big storms, even during a lot of turmoil and tribulation, you aren't gonna get moved. You won't be uprooted because you're sown down and you've planted in good ground, good soil. You're gonna bring forth a lot of fruit. And one of the ways you can do that is just get invested in your local church, in a good church, a church that's preaching the word of God, is following the word of God. It's not just a social circle. It's not just a place to get your spiritual pick-me-up as a feel-good, like a little dose of medicine for the week or a little high or something. That's not what we're here for. Okay, if you feel great coming to church, great, I do too. I mean, I love coming to church, but that's not the point, is just to get some little thing that's like a drug or like a social circle. It is social. We're brothers and sisters in Christ and we care for one another, we're gonna love one another, we're gonna encourage one another, but it's so much more than that. And that's where you gotta get in the right church that has the right focus, that's about ministry, it's about service. You wanna follow the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, Jesus Christ was a minister. He didn't come to be ministered unto, he came to minister. He came to serve. And the whole goal and focus of the Christian life is to serve, to be a servant. You humble yourself, we're not full of pride. We go forth, well, you know what we're gonna do? We're gonna boldly preach the word of God too. We're gonna hold to what the Bible says because we believe every word, we love every word, we're gonna preach every word, whether it offends people or not, this is what we believe, but we're going forth humbly to preach and to help because you know what, the word of God only brings life, it brings goodness, it brings righteousness, it brings judgment. You know, these are all good things to have in a world that wants to make judgment sound like a cuss word, okay? The Bible speaks pretty highly of judgment. It's actually a very good thing. You just, the warning, like Matthew 7 has about judging is just don't be a hypocrite. Okay, if you're guilty of something, some atrocity, and you think you're gonna be able to stand and judge people, no, hold on a second. You know, like, why don't you get yourself straight first? Why don't you start living a little bit more righteously before you're gonna start judging other things? But at the same time, you know, while we know none of us are perfect, there's definitely a place for righteousness and judgment in the word of God. So the Bible says to judge righteous judgment. You don't just judge off of sight. You don't just judge on an appearance, but on the actual truth and on the facts, and not to be respecter of persons. Hey, there's a whole book in the Bible called Judges. God instituted judges. We ought to have good judgment. And would the God that God's judgment would reign supreme and that God's judgment would actually happen in this lifetime as it does in heaven? That would be wonderful. Getting rooted, getting established, dedicating your time to serving the Lord, joining that church, getting in a good situation to be planted down. John 15 talks about Jesus Christ being that true vine. Another reference to plants, right? We're talking about planting and then plucking up that which is planted. Well, Jesus Christ references Himself as the true vine. So if we're gonna wanna be part of any plant, it's gonna be the plant of Jesus Christ. But here's something about plants in general. Look at verse number one, John chapter 15, the Bible reads, I am the true vine and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, He taketh away. Remember when I was talking about bearing fruit, about being productive, about bringing forth good fruit? You sow the good seed, you wanna plant good seeds, but God expects us to bring forth good fruit. And He says, you know what? If you're not bearing fruit, He's gonna take you away. Now, I wanna be very clear about this and especially if those of you who are new at our church or visiting our church, this is not talking about losing your salvation. That is not what the Bible is referring to here. If you put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, He gives you the gift of eternal life. And that lasts forever because Jesus doesn't lie. And that has nothing to do with how much good fruit you produce. It doesn't have anything to do with how well you're planting and how righteous you are in your life and all the works that you do. It has nothing to do with that because it has nothing to do with you because your salvation is given to you as a free gift that was already purchased, it's already been bought and paid for. The gift is purchased, eternal life is paid already. You just have to receive it, that's the good news. The Bible says, for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast. So your salvation is secure, as secure as what Christ did on the cross when He died and rose again from the dead was enough to pay 100% for every single one of your sins. Hey, if He did that, there's nothing left for you to do. You just received the gift humbly. You just say, thank you, Lord. That's when you're saved. That doesn't change with your works. That doesn't change with how often you sin. That doesn't change with how well or how good of a child you are to the Heavenly Father. Because there are good children, there's children who are not as good, but you know what, if you are in the family, you're in the family forever. So some people get confused and there's false teachers that are gonna teach a false doctrine out of this passage is why I bring it up. Now that being said, okay, you don't lose your salvation ever, the Heavenly Father is still a loving Father and He still demands certain things of us, as His children, as every good father does in his house. He doesn't just say, well, you're my child, so just go ahead and live like the devil. What father is gonna be like that with their son? Not a very loving one. A loving father is gonna have rules for their children. No, you're gonna do this, you're gonna be a good child, you're gonna be a good person, you're gonna live righteously in a brother, you're not gonna be a thief, you're not gonna be a cook, you're not gonna be a good man, you're not gonna be getting into all manner of evil, I'm gonna raise you to be a good person. And that's the way God is trying to raise His children too. And you know what He says? He says, you know what, you're not gonna work, you're not gonna serve, you're not gonna do all the things. I saved your soul, I gave you eternal life. We owe it to God to show our love for Him and our gratitude and our respect by serving Him. Serve the Savior, the one who saved you. Hey, serve Him. But then He's saying, well, look, I already saved your soul, right? That's not going away anywhere. But if you don't wanna serve me, if you're not gonna be bringing forth fruit, the whole point is that you can help other people be led to Christ. You need to be bringing forth fruit. And if you're not doing that, then what good is it to have you here? I'll just take you home. You're here for a purpose. You have purpose in your life. You need to get planted down. You need to be bringing forth that fruit unto God. That's what we're here for. So what He says there, every branch, every branch in me, this means a person's in Christ. If you say, well, there's someone's in Christ, but they're not really bringing forth fruit. Well, you know what? You'll be taken away. God's like, okay, well, you know what? I'm gonna move you out of the way. I'm gonna fill you with someone who's gonna be bringing forth fruit. And this is literally what happens for, I'm not one of those people, but people who know how to take care of plants, I at least know this much about plants and bringing forth fruit and trees that bring forth fruit. What do you do if you want to get more out of your tree, out of your plant? You prune the dead branches out of the way. You prune the unpredictable. You've got a whole section here that's like, nothing's happening here, nothing's budding, nothing's coming, well, you know what? The ones that are bringing forth the life and that are bringing forth fruit, they could have more room to grow. So you get the useless stuff out of the way so that the good things can bring forth more in the relation of a physical, actual plant. And this is what Jesus is relating here about bringing forth fruit, saying, well, look, every branch of me is not bearing fruit. You can be taken away, and every branch that beareth fruit, on top of that, he says, he purges it that it may bring forth more fruit. So God's happy when you bring forth fruit, but you know what? He wants more. So how are you going to purge that? Well, like you said, you got to get rid of some of the dead branches in order for a Christian to bring forth fruit unto God to serve the Lord and bring forth those good things. You know what? It's harder to bring forth that good fruit when you still got a bunch of sin in your life. When you got things setting you back and you're still sowing some bad seeds, you got these other things going on. Well, God's going to want to purge that and prune you a little bit. And imagine yourself being a tree. Now we know that trees don't have feelings, they're not conscious, they're alive, but this is for illustration purposes. Bible's using this for a reason. If you were that tree though, and someone's coming in and cutting off little sections, cutting off a little finger here, a toe there, oh man, I got gangrene, so we got to amputate that. We've got some other thing going on here, but it's not going to feel good. It's not going to be pleasant. And getting the sin out of your life isn't always pleasant. It's hard, it's difficult. It causes you to go, oh man, I need to stop doing this, this is sinful, this is wrong, I enjoy it. But you need to get that stuff out. So it's not always easy, it's not always a pleasant experience to make the changes necessary in your life to become more fruitful, but it is necessary to become more fruitful. You need to get the things out of the way, the dead things, the dead works of the flesh that are still cluttering up your ability to bring forth fruit. God wants us to be purged, it's what the Bible says, if you could turn to 2 Timothy 2, verse 19, I'll read there next. 2 Timothy 2, I'm going to start reading verse 19, when I turn in there, we're going to look at 19, 20, 21. 2 Timothy 2, verse 19 says, Nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure. The foundation is there, God's foundation, the foundation of Jesus Christ, that is sure, that will never move. Having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are His. If your foundation is Jesus Christ, because you've received Him as your Savior, you put your trust in Him to save you, that foundation is sure, and you are sealed by God. You are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, the Bible says in the book of Ephesians, that you have that seal. God has sealed you already with the Holy Ghost. You are His, and God knows who are His. And then it says this in verse 19, And let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. So that's what we ought to be doing. It doesn't mean you automatically will, you're being admonished over and over and over again throughout the Bible to depart from iniquity, to get out of the sin, right? God, the Bible wouldn't be telling believers to do this if it just happened automatically, like it's just going to happen no matter what. No, we need to be commanded, we need to actually do it. Because you have free will still, you still have a choice. When you wake up every day, are you going to do good or are you going to do evil? What are you going to do? Hey, you're going to reap what you sow. If you're a believer, God's never going to take your eternal life away from you, but you know what? That doesn't mean you're not going to reap what you sow here on this earth. As a born again believer, there's nothing I can do that's going to change my eternal destination of going to heaven when I die, nothing. Jesus Christ bought and paid for that, but at the same time, if I go out tonight and I'm just like, yeah, I'm going to go to the bar and I'm going to go get drunk and I'm going to go cheat, I'm like, I can't take my ring off, I was going to say, I'm going to pretend like I'm not married, yeah, it just doesn't come off anymore, so. I guess I won't be doing that. My plans are ruined for tonight. If I were to go out, if I were to choose, because look, I have the choice. Now, is that something I want to do? Of course not, right? That's something that people get into usually gradually, you're going to get, your heart's going to get that wicked where you've gotten to the point of doing, people still do that. But if I were to choose to do that, I have the choice. And God physically isn't necessarily going to stop me, okay? Now the Holy Spirit's going to be going, whoa, what are you doing? Don't do that, you're crazy, don't you go there. But I still am in control of what I do because I have free will. So if I were to just say, you know what, I'm going to quench the Spirit, where the Bible says quench not the Spirit. If I just say, yeah, you know what, I'm just going to do this anyways, and I'm going to just start down in some bottles of beer or whatever, so I don't really hear as much of that Holy Spirit inside me, and I'm just going to go and do that, you better believe that the Heavenly Father is not going to be pleased with me one little bit. And you better believe I'm going to reap what I sow, and I'm going to bring all manner of hurt on my life and on other people's life. I'm going to bring hurt upon my wife, upon my children, upon me, it could have devastating consequences in so many areas. I will reap what I sow in that regard, but you know what, my eternal life is never taken away from me, Jesus Christ already bought that. Gave it to me as a free gift. That's the good news. But what we do, how we plant, you know, those are going to come back, and the Bible is telling us, hey, look, we need to plant, we need to plant righteously, we need to plant godly things, because the best part about that, then you receive of the good things as well. So just as much as, hey, if I start planting some bad things, doing some bad things, it's going to come back on my head, sure, but if I start doing good things, guess what, that's going to come back on me too. So if you've done a lot of bad in your life, and you say, you know what, I don't even know, and look, I've done a lot of bad in my life in the past, especially just lots of different wicked sins and stuff, and I still to this day feel like I haven't really fully reaped, and I know I'm never going to fully reap because I have eternal life, but I mean, even just in the physical kind, I'm just going like, man, no matter what happens to me, I could be like, well, the Lord's just, just because of the sins that I've done, the sins of my youth were a lot. So, but when you start just saying, you know what, I'm going to change that, I'm going to start planting really good, that good can overcome the bad that you're going to reap anyways, and you still get the joy of serving the Lord. There's a lot of good that comes back to you, and you get blessed from God by planting the good things, and planting down, and getting rooted in the good things of God. So verse number 20 here, it's in 2 Timothy chapter two, Bibles says, but in a great house are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth, and some to honor and some to dishonor. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work. We want to purge ourselves from the sin, from the iniquity, so as to depart from iniquity, hey, if we purge ourselves from these, then we could be a vessel unto honor. We could be, you know, hey, in God's house, there's going to be some to honor, some to dishonor. There's some believers that are dishonorable. There's people out there who have the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior, and they are dishonorable people, but they're saved, and they're in God's house. But then there's other vessels that are vessels unto honor, and you say, you know what, why don't you purge yourself from all these other sins so you're not dishonorable, but that you could be a vessel that is unto honor, that's sanctified and meet, like you're ready for the master's use. You are ready to be used by him. God is going to use you even more. The more righteous you are, the less sins you have, the more people are going to believe your testimony, the less of a hypocrite you're going to be, because people are going to see, hey, wow, this person, you know, and that was one of the greatest things for me when I actually went to a great church. I had visited other churches, and I'm not trying to slam other churches I went to, but there's a difference between seeing someone get behind the pulpit, and they kind of talk a little bit, and then they just live the same exact life as everybody else. And when you see that, you know how much power is in their testimony? About that much. And if the preacher's in the word of God, at least there's the word of God there. The word of God's powerful. But watching them, when you have someone talking to talk and not walking the walk, I mean, that destroys the zeal, that destroys the confidence of everybody and the sound of their voice. Why would anyone do it? Well, I mean, you're saying all this stuff, oh yeah, I could mentally agree with what you're saying, but if I'm going to follow your works, then no one's doing anything. And that's a shame. Especially for someone in the position who's supposed to be the leader and supposed to be the example to the flock on how to live. Well, I actually got into a church where I was like, man, this is great, because I was hearing all this great truth from the Bible, and I was like, yeah, that's right, yes, it's right here. Yes, that's what the Bible says. And on top of that, you have a man of God going, and he's living it. And he's doing it. Look, no one's perfect, as I mentioned, but there's a big difference between someone who's, yeah, they're a sinner because they're not perfect, but they're actually living for God, they're soul winning, they're preaching the word of God, they're doing everything in their power to live righteously and do what's right. There's a huge difference between that person and a person who's just out in the world doing everything like the world. It's a big difference, a world of difference. How about if you see the Bible condemns something, not taking part in those things, not taking pleasure in those things, not having enjoyment in those things, right? Because if you do, what good is that? I said, when I was a believer in my sinful days, I had the Holy Spirit inside me, I was sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, but when it came to talking about the things of God, I didn't want to do it, why? Because I knew I'd be a big singing hypocrite. Why would my buddies want to listen to what I have to say as I'm sitting next to them at the bar getting drunk? Oh yeah, I believe the Bible, really? Now, did I? Yes, I did believe the Bible, yes I did. But I was walking in the flesh and I was ashamed as a child of God during those days. Absolutely, dishonor. And who, like I said, who's gonna want to listen to you? Nobody. I wouldn't have wanted to listen to me. I didn't want to, that's why I didn't say anything. But then shame on me, because now I'm not preaching the gospel and I'm not doing what I'm supposed to be doing as a child of God. Not very thankful for what the Lord Jesus Christ did for me at all. Evidently not. Now I would have told you I was, but it didn't really show forth. There's a time to plant, you know what, also there's a time to pluck up. And when it comes to planting, we think about planting in terms of the things that we're doing, when we notice we might be heading a direction, we might have been making, planting some plants, if you find out that plant's no good, there's a time to get rid of that too. You might have learned a lot of different things about the Bible in your past, and you think those were good plants when you first received them, and you're like, oh man, that's good. But then if you come to find out later, that's actually not good. I didn't realize what that was. Well, you know what, there's a time to pluck up too. It's time to just get that out, get rid of that. When you discover what a plant really is, I mean, to the untrained eye, someone might just be going in their ignorance, someone like me for that matter, when it comes to physical plants, I'm not into that at all. I don't know much about physical plants and my wife talks to me about flowers and different things and stuff, I don't know. And it's like, you give me some seeds or something or bulb or whatever. I could be planting things. I could be planting flowers and wheat and tares and dandelions and whatever. I wouldn't know the difference. But once you start to see that stuff, you're gonna be like, whoa, wait a minute, I planted the wrong thing here. At least be able to recognize it once you start to see the fruit. Wow, there's a lot of thorny things on there and whatever, I can't eat that. We're gonna pluck that up. So same thing, we need to plant, we need to pluck up. All right, I'll move on to the next verse. I'm taking way too long on the first one. Now the good thing is, these are all very similar. So another passage in the Cleiaceae III was a time to break down and a time to build up. And I just wanted to point out, it's not a whole lot, but it went from a time to plant and a time to pluck up. The planting would be like the positive thing and then the plucking up would be like the negative. And then the Bible switches to a time to break down and a time to build up. See sometimes, when you first get saved, you need to start planting. You need to start doing good right away. And then you're gonna notice some things and we'll pluck that up. But sometimes there's also a need to break down first. Like we just need to clear house, right? If you're already built up, you've got the whole structure built in an area where like none of it's good. You know, we've got rotten wood throughout this entire house. But we gotta start by tearing down first and then we're gonna build up. And I love this story. Turn if you were to Judges chapter six. Judges six is a great example of a time to break down. Time to break things down. There's a time to build, absolutely. We're all be building the things of God just like planting, right? Very similar, we're building up. Judges chapter six, we have an example of Gideon. And Gideon was challenged essentially by the Lord. He got a word from the Lord that he was gonna be serving them. He was gonna be leading the children of Israel out of their captivity. They've been being plagued and the food that they've been producing had been stolen and these wicked oppressors were over them and caused them a bunch of problems. So Gideon was chosen of God to be the one who's gonna set them right. But here's the thing. One of the reasons why these heathen were causing them so much trouble is because God brought it on them because they were turning to false gods. And they were doing things that weren't right. And God was punishing them. Now, we're gonna see the story of Gideon kind of setting things right here in Judges chapter six. We're gonna start reading verse number 24. The Bible says, then Gideon built an altar there unto the Lord and called it Jehovah Shalom unto this day. It is yet in Ophrah of the Abi Azarites. So that's good, he's building up the right altar, the right thing to God, he's building that up. And it came to pass the same night that the Lord said unto him, take thy father's young bullock, even the second bullock of seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that thy father hath and cut down the grove that is by it. So this is in his own house. His own father has this, the altar of Baal. Baal is like the devil, okay, he's a devil. It's a false god, false worship. So you've got this altar built to Baal and a grove, which is also used for religious ceremonies, stuff like that, that was right by that altar. But it was all there in the name of Baal. And his own dad has this and he's like, God's saying, you know what, you gotta break that down. You gotta clean house, you gotta get rid of this stuff. This is abominable to the Lord. Hey, you've set up your altar to the Lord, you wanna serve me? Now it's time to start breaking down the altar of Baal. It's time to get rid of that junk, clean house. And if you're gonna be the one that's gonna help lead the people aright and lead them straight, well, you know what, it's time to start breaking things down. He says you need to throw down the altar of Baal that thy father hath and cut down the grove that is by it, look at verse 26, and build an altar unto the Lord thy God upon the top of this rock in the ordered place and take the second bullock and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the grove which thou shalt cut down. So he's saying you are gonna replace that essentially. You're gonna tear down that altar of Baal and then you're gonna rear up and alter to the Lord. And then you're gonna offer a sacrifice upon that altar. That's what you need to do. Tear down and then build up. Verse 27, then Gideon took 10 men of his servants and did as the Lord had said unto him. And so it was because he feared his father's household and the men of the city that he could not do it by day, that he did it by night. So he's being, he's following God's command here, but he's a little concerned for his safety. He's like, man, if I go out in the middle of the day and people see me doing this, who knows what's gonna happen, right? So he's like, I'm just gonna do this at night where I could just get this job done. I could get it out of the way. I could get this thing destroyed. I could rear up the altar of God without anyone really seeing it. And then I'll just deal with the consequences the next day. So that's what he does. And the Bible says, verse 28, and when the men of the city arose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was cast down and the grove was cut down that was by it. And the second bullock was offered upon the altar that was built. Now look, the Lord hates Baal. He hates the altar of Baal. He wants him thrown down. This isn't just specific to this one story. This is something that God feels and God wants all throughout scripture. And even today, the Lord doesn't change. God does not want you just being, oh, we're just gonna tolerate every Satan worship and all these altars of Baal and it can all go up and it's not a problem. Look, God doesn't want that. That's not what God finds to be approved in his sight. God's gonna rejoice in the Georgia Guidestones being blown up and thrown down and that altar being destroyed. Seriously? Amen. Oh no, you just gotta be, look. That's not how God operates. We'll see how tolerant God is when someone's burning in hell. Because they're serving Baal instead of getting saved and putting their trust in Jesus Christ. So they see what happened here and then they see that the grove was cut down. They see that there was a new altar built and there's a sacrifice on it. Verse 29 says, and they said one to another, who hath done this thing? And when they inquired and asked, they said, Gideon the son of Joash hath done this thing. Then the men of the city said unto Joash, bring out thy son that he may die because he hath cast down the altar of Baal and because he hath cut down the grove that was by it. Now, when you start tearing down things that people have a strong emotional attachment to and they really love, people who love the things of the devil, people who love devil worship are gonna be really angry when you start tearing down their altars. So you know it is gonna cause problems. And when you promote and you're gonna build up the things of God and you're forced to say, well, you know what? We ought to be tearing down the things of the devil. It makes people mad. But unfortunately, Christians today are too spineless and cowardly to do anything about the promotion of the things of the devil, promotion of the altars to Baal and not willing to take anything down, let alone suffer the consequences of people saying, well, now I'm really angry at you. You're the one that ought to be put to death. I mean, no one wants to be in that position, but you know what? When it comes to serving God, you can't let that fear determine what you're gonna do. You know, the alphabet animals out there, the LGBTQ, whatever, however many letters they add to their name of the alphabet, they're wicked as hell, it's abominable. And if you speak out against it, there's this cancel culture, right? And now, right now, it's just a canceling, trying to shut down your finances, shut down your livelihood, shut down your bank account, shut down those things. But you know what? The so-called tolerant people, Christians, oh no, it's okay. They just need to be loved or whatever. Look, the more you just allow this stuff to happen, right now, it's just trying to go after your checkbook, but you better believe it's gonna be going after your life very shortly. You know, they just announced their day of vengeance or whatever right after one of those freaks went and shot up children and random people at a Christian school. That is what they're all about. At the end of the day, you know, you say, well, they're just, that person was just a psychopath. No, they're all psychopaths. There's something wrong with your head. You're pretty crazy when you start going after the same flash, you're a man, you're gonna say, I'm a woman, you're a woman, you're gonna say you're a man. It's demented, you are twisted, you're perverted, you've got some serious problems, and you know what? Those problems, there's no fixing. There is no fixing. The pedophile, I mean, this is documented science, let alone what the Bible says. I mean, the Bible has more authority than science, or so-called science, at least, but even the science is gonna tell you, even the psychiatrists are gonna tell you, you know what, these people, they can't be fixed. There is no fixing that. There's no praying the gay away. It doesn't happen. People might stop some of their actual actions, but that heart is just as wicked and dark as it ever had been. But, and mark my words, the time's going to come. The Bible says it's true. When the Bible references Matthew 24, we're gonna go into end times tonight, it talks about that when Jesus Christ comes back, it's gonna be like the days of Lot. And who was Lot? Lot was the only saved guy living in Sodom. Him and his family. Okay, and what happened when two strangers, two foreigners, who are angels, by the way, show up to Lot's house in a land full of sodomites, which is what their LGB2, whatever their alphabet is, they're sodomites. That's what the Bible calls them. The Bible doesn't break them up into all these little different categories. It's all sodomites. They're all perverts, okay? And the more that increases, the more those people spread like cancer, the worse they're gonna get, because there's less to restrain them from actually carrying out everything in their wicked heart. Which is why when the two angels show up, angels of God show up into Sodom, they're ready to beat down the doors of Lot's house and do wicked unto those men. And I brought this up a week ago. They know they were doing wickedly because when Lot was trying to save them, they said, now we're gonna do worse unto you than we thought to do unto them. And they said, well, who does this guy think he is judging us to, by the way? It's a paraphrase, we read the story. That's what they say. Oh, who are you to judge? Lot. Well, you know what, Lot didn't have to judge because Jesus Christ showed up and rained fire and brimstone down on everybody there. And you know who they only cared about? Lot. That's who they cared about. They weren't trying to save anyone else out of that city. It was Lot. Everyone else burned and was tortured with fire and brimstone rained down from heaven. And that's the righteous judgment of God. So they want to find Joash, or excuse me, Gideon, the son of Joash. They want to get Gideon and they want to kill him because they cut down their sacred altar to Satan. Verse 31 says, and Joash said unto all that stood against him. So this is his father. Now, this is the guy who owned the thing. Gideon's own father says this. Will ye plead for Baal? Will ye save him? Like what, does Baal need you to stand in his place and do anything? Like, is he a god or not? Hey, if he's a god and he doesn't like what Gideon did, then why doesn't he just take care of it? This is essentially what he's saying to them. He that will plead for him, let him be put to death whilst it is yet mourning. If he be a god, let him plead for himself because one hath cast down his altar. He's saying, you know, if he's really, if he's real, then why doesn't he just take care of himself? Therefore, on that day, he called him Jerabail, saying, let Baal plead against him because he hath thrown down his altar. Throwing down, tearing down, and building. You can't just tear down, you have to replace it. You have to build the things to God. Tear down the altar of Satan and build up the altar of the Lord. Bible says, the next verse I wanna cover real quickly now. I've got way more notes, but I don't wanna have to go through another sermon on this subject because they're all very similar. A time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together. Well, the Bible has plenty of times of casting stones in the Old Testament as a way of judgment where people are put to death. The death penalty is literally stoning to death. But that's not really what this verse is talking about here. A time to cast away stones, a time to gather stones together. We're gonna see, there's a time where there's not one stone left upon another. Jesus Christ warned about that, about the temple of God, where he said, as some spake of the temple, how it was adorned with goodly stones and gifts, he said, as for these things, which ye behold, the days will come in the which there shall not be left one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down. So they were saying, wow, look at how great this temple is. Look at these great stones. Look at all these gifts. Look at how beautiful this temple is. And Jesus is saying, you know what? Every stone is gonna be taken down and removed from that temple. And there's also a time, though, for gathering of stones. And we see this where people are setting up landmarks. We will gather stones, and I'm not gonna go through all the references here, but when, for example, when Joshua went over the Jordan River when he was entering the promised land, they went and they gathered stones out of the river and set them up. And it was symbolic and a remembrance that the Lord led them in on dry ground, and he allowed them to pass over the Jordan River just like when he freed them from Egypt and they crossed over the Red Sea. That's not the only parting of waters in the Bible. That's the most famous one where Moses led the children of Israel through the Red Sea into the wilderness. But then when Joshua is leading the children of Israel to fight against Jericho, the Jordan River was stopped up, and basically the water became like a wall, and then they walked over on dry ground, and then the Lord commanded them to gather stones out of the middle of the river, and then they set those up, the 12 stones, like a pillar, and that was gonna be another cause for a memorial to bring these stones together, to gather these stones, so when the children ask in time to come, hey, why are these stones here? They'll be able to say, this is when the Lord brought us over into this land and gave us this land for an inheritance. That was the point of that, so the point to gather stones, and things like that have happened multiple times in the scripture. Bible talks about a time to rend and a time to sow. It's very similar to breaking down and building up. Rending means you're ripping or you're tearing something apart. We read about people in the Bible rending their clothes, and that's usually during a time of mourning when they're real sad or upset about something. They would literally tear their clothing. That's what it means to rend, and then, of course, to sow is you're fixing that up, so you'd be repairing and bringing that back together. I'm gonna close on this one story in 2 Chronicles chapter 34. Just have a lot more references. We don't have time to get into them all. I kinda went off on a rabbit trail a little bit this morning. 2 Chronicles 34, one of my favorite characters in the Bible, especially in the Old Testament, is Josiah. Josiah was a godly king of Judah, and when you read the kings and the Chronicles, you're gonna read about different kings, and some were good and some were bad. Some served the Lord, some didn't. Josiah was actually prophesied way, way, way early on, going all the way back to Jeroboam, the son of Nebat. During that time, there was a prophecy made by a man of God about Josiah that was gonna come hundreds of years later. This is that Josiah, and Josiah started to reign when he was eight years old. We're gonna read verse number one of 2 Chronicles chapter 34. Probably, Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem one in 30 years, and he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord and walked in the ways of David his father and declined neither to the right hand nor to the left, for in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, so he's 16 years old, he began to seek after the God of David his father, and in the 12th year, he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places and the groves and the carved images and the molten images, so he's starting to tear down. He's tearing down the altars to Baal. He's tearing down the groves, the images, the high places, all these things that God said not to do. He's got this heart in him, so you know what? We're gonna tear this down, and he also, thankfully, had the authority, he was a king, and he's saying, this stuff is going away. We're gonna have nothing to do with this anymore. Verse four, and they break down the altars of Balaam in his presence, and Balaam is just plural for Baal, so that all these different false gods, the Bible calls them Balaam in his presence, and the images that were on high above them, he cut down, and the groves and the carved images and the molten images, he break in pieces and made dust of them, and strode it upon the graves of them that had sacrificed unto them, and he burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem, and so did he in the cities of Manasseh and Ephraim and Simeon, even unto Naphtali with their Maddox round about, and when he had broken down the altars and the groves and had beaten the graven images into powder and cut down all the idols throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem. Now in the 18th year of his reign, when he had purged the land and the house, he sent Shaphan, the son of Azaliah, and Maasiah, the governor of the city, and Joah, the son of Joahaz, the recorder, to repair the house of the Lord, his god, so he's breaking down the altars, breaking down the groves, and this went from the time that he was 16, the time he was 26, so it was 10 years. I mean, he's cleaning house, he's going through the land, because it wasn't just literally right where he was, he was going, it mentions all these other tribes, everything that they still had rule over at that point as the king, he was going forth and just getting rid of all of these structures, all of these altars that were set up to bail, because by this point, the children of Israel had done a lot of really wicked things, and their hearts had been turned. Manasseh, prior to him, had done all manner of evil, leading the people into sin and into idolatry and serving false gods. Josiah's setting the record straight, but now, after he's done tearing down, he starts to repair the house of the Lord, and that's what it would mean to sow, like you're repairing, if something's ripped, you're sowing, you're repairing it, right? You're making it whole again. Verse nine says, and when they came to Hilkiah the high priest, they delivered the money that was brought into the house of God, which the Levites that kept the doors had gathered of the hand of Manasseh and Ephraim, and of all the remnant of Israel, and of all Judah and Benjamin, they returned to Jerusalem, and they put it in the hand of the workmen that had the oversight of the house of the Lord, and they gave it to the workmen that wrought in the house of the Lord to repair and amend the house. So he goes through, and he does this, and builds back up the house of the Lord, and then they go and they find a Bible. I mean, they are so far removed from the things of the Lord that it's like, they're repairing, he's just like, you know what, we need to get rid of this stuff, this devil worship's gotta go, we need to just start getting back to the things of God, we need to get back to serving the Lord, so he's wants, he puts forth this effort, let's build this back up, and then they're building, and if we look through here, you're gonna see in verse 14, it says that when they brought out the money that was brought into the house of the Lord, Hilkiah the priest found a book of the law, the Lord given by Moses. Like hey, we found this book, we found this book of the law. Now, you know what was instituted in Israel when the king started to reign is that the king was supposed to have his own copy of the law. He was actually supposed to hand write his own copy, that's the way that God designed it. If there was gonna be a king, this is what the king has to do. And God didn't want there to be a king, but he said if you're gonna have a king, they've gotta do this. They had drifted so far away from the things of God, not only did he not have his own, they were just operating without the law altogether. They were just operating without the word of God. He knew enough to know like, hey man, this stuff isn't right, this devil worship isn't right, we gotta get rid of this stuff. Let's get back to these old paths, let's get back to the old one, let's get back to the Lord. Then they find the book of the law and he gives it to them. Verse 15 says, and Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord. And Hilkiah delivered the book to Shaphan, and Shaphan carried the book to the king and brought the king word back again saying, all that was committed to thy servants, they do it. And they have gathered together the money that was found in the house of the Lord and have delivered it into the hand of the overseers and to the hand of the workmen. Then Shaphan the scribe told the king saying, Hilkiah the priest had given me a book and Shaphan read it before the king. Now this is why I love Josiah so much as one of my favorite characters in the Bible. It's because of his response. Everything up to this point is great, he's fine, he's tearing down the false things, trying to build up the things of the Lord. But now he's actually hearing the word of God, he's hearing the Bible, he's hearing the law of God. And when people are confronted with God's law, even so-called Christians today, you're confronted with the law of God, people have different reactions to that. You say, wow, that's what the Old Testament says? And people have some really bad reactions to the word of God. And you know what, shame on you, if you could read the Bible and you're going through that and you're going, oh, that's terrible. Oh, I would never want that. And it's God's holy word. Who are you to judge the word of God? Now if you don't believe that this book is inspired and it's literally the words of God, I don't know what you're doing here in the first place. This book is the Holy Bible. Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost is how we receive these words. Moses himself received the word out of the mouth of the Lord in the mount. That law, the law of the Lord is perfect, the Bible says. He received that from God. It's God's word. It's what God would have done on this earth. And it is just and true. And anyone that's gonna look at the Bible and say, well, I don't really like what that says here. You got a heart problem. You got to love what the Bible says. You know what Josiah does when he hears the word of God? See, some people hear things and they find out they're doing something wrong. They just want to double down and be like, no, I'm not doing anything wrong. They want to justify their actions. They want to justify the actions of others. They want to just downplay everything and think, well, it's not really that bad. Or you can hear from the word of God. You can see what it says and you can say, you know what, that's true. And if I'm guilty that I'm guilty, I'm gonna try to get right. I'm gonna be sorrowful and repentful and I'm gonna just try to get right because the word of God is true and every man's a liar. So they bring this book back to Josiah the king and they read it in his hearing, in his ears. And the Bible says in verse number 19, and it came to pass when the king had heard the words of the law, that he rent his clothes. He's upset. He finally hears the law of God and he rents his clothes. And the king commanded Hilkiah and Ahicham, the son of Shaphan and Abdon, the son of Micah and Shaphan the scribe and Isaiah, a servant of the king saying, go inquire the Lord for me. And for them that are left in Israel and in Judah concerning the words of the book that is found. For great is the wrath of the Lord that is poured out upon us because our fathers have not kept the word of the Lord to do after all that is written in this book. He hears the word of God and he's like, we are in serious trouble. I want you to go and basically try to get a hold of God, try to find out, get a word from the Lord and see really what condition are we in now because I can't even believe that we're still here. Like, is there any hope left for us at all? Because our fathers had done so wickedly against everything that this book is saying, everything that the law is saying, he's like, we're doomed, we're doomed. But I want to hear from God, is there anything that we can do about this? So they bring the book, they find some person here, some prophetess that's going to get the word of the Lord for them and it says, verse 23, and she answered them, thus saith the Lord God of Israel, tell you the man that sent you to me, thus saith the Lord, behold, I will bring evil upon this place and upon the inhabitants thereof, and all the curses that are written in the book, which they have read before the King of Judah. They say, no, it's going to happen. Because when God says something's going to happen, it is going to happen. It's not just a suggestion list, it's not, like I mentioned earlier, I quoted, be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever man soweth, that shall he also reap. God isn't mocked, God writes his words, his commandments, it's real. That's why it's real, because it actually does come to pass, because it is from the Lord. If it was just a book of men, just making up imagination of their heart, you wouldn't have to worry about it at all. It would have no power. But there's a God behind the words of this book. There is the God, there's only one God, and that is the way things are, and his word stands. So first he hears, well look, this is going to happen, but then it says in verse 25, because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense on other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands, and therefore my wrath shall be poured out upon this place, and shall not be quenched. Judgment is coming. And as for the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, so shall you say unto him, so say I've got a message for the king. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, concerning the words which thou hast heard, because thine heart was tender, it was soft, you were ready to receive the word, because thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God, when thou heardest his words against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, and humblest thyself before me, and didst rend thy clothes, and weep before me, I have even heard thee, also saith the Lord. Behold, I will gather thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace. So I'm gonna bring wrath, you better believe it, because of everything that was done. You heard what, you already heard my word. That is coming. But you know what, you're gonna have mercy, and you're gonna have peace, and I'm gonna bring you to the grave in peace, because all this wrath will not be poured out, because you had a humble heart, because you were receptive, because you had a repentant heart, an attitude towards my word. He says, I'm gonna show mercy on you. And this is a good message for us, as the days get increasingly more wicked, more sinful, more dark, people are turning to the devil more, people are throwing out the Lord. Hey, you can't control what everyone else is doing. We're not gonna be able to stop the wrath of God from coming forth upon a wicked nation. We can't stop it, because if God says it's gonna happen, it's gonna happen. You know what we can do? We can get mercy for ourselves, and for as many people as we can reach. We can hear the word of God, and say, you know what? God is righteous, and God is good, and word is gonna do whatever we can do, humbly accepting the word of God, loving the word of God, and you know what? God might, God will, not just might, he will show mercy on you. That's what he wants for everybody. But there's some people that just won't hear it. Some people stop their ears. They won't have nothing to do with the word of God. Some people hear the law of God, and they're just like, won't have nothing to do with it. Verse 28 says, behold, I will gather thee to thy father, and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace, neither shall thine eyes see all the evil that I will bring upon this place, and upon the inhabitants of the same. So they brought the king word again. And you know what Josiah does after this? He just gets on fire for serving the Lord. They have this awesome Passover fee. He just is continued in his zeal to serve God, and to try to get the people right. He didn't just throw up his hands, and say, well, it's a lost cause, because God so good. No, he just continued to serve God, and get as many people right with God as he could, and use his life to serve the Lord. And that's why no matter what happens, never just throw up your hands like you're defeated. Never just throw in the towel, and say, well, there's too many people. They're all just super wicked anyways. So what good is it? God's just gonna destroy it. God's gonna reign up a crowd. No, you have a job. Every single one of us has a job to serve the Lord in the integrity of our own heart, in humility, preach the word of God, love the word of God. Why not try to get more people under his grace and under his mercy? Yeah, as collectively as a whole, Babylon USA is gonna get destroyed. It's gonna happen. You can't have a country that's so disgusting and defiling the minds of the entire world, like the United States of America, and not get judged for that. Western culture is an abomination. The holly weird, the TV, the music, all the stuff that's pushed out of this country alone defiles the mind, it's disgusting, it's abominable, and it will get judged. And it has an influence worldwide, it's crazy. Before the advent of all the mass media and stuff, cultures were very different. And there's still differences, don't get me wrong. I know that there's many cultures that are still very different from American culture, but you know what, everyone is moving towards a Western culture. All cultures are sliding closer and closer to Western culture, American culture. The influence is there. The influence is of the devil, by the way. It's not godly. And you should see what I'm saying is true as much as anything, you know, whereas before all the TVs, before all the movies, cultures were varied, very different in different parts of the world, very much so, different values, so much. Now everyone's watching the same thing. That's what happens when you start getting the same garbage being promoted. It influences the minds of the people on a mass scale. But there's still hope, even though Christ is coming back and there's gonna be the wrath of the Lamb, we won't suffer that wrath. We can serve the God, He will show us mercy. And again, let's just bring the word of God out to as many people as we can. And you know what, God can stay His judgment like He did for Josiah for us. No reason why He can't. He can hold off, He can postpone. And God is not, you know, God's not willing that any would, that any are gonna perish, any are gonna die. God doesn't want people to die and go to hell. He wants everyone to come to repentance. It would be, He's definitely in the will, He's definitely more wanting to bring forth mercy and long suffering than He is to bring forth doom and destruction, but you know what, the doom and destruction is gonna come. Let's borrow that word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you so much for your words and for all that we could learn. And I pray that you please help us in being able to tear down the things that need to be torn down in our own lives. Help us to pluck up the sin and uproot it out of our life, dear Lord, that we could live more righteously and plant the good things. And I pray that you please bless our church. I pray that you please help us to get the truth out to as many people as possible in the short amount of time that we have here in this world. And I pray that you would please just bless us all this afternoon and keep us safe as we go out and preach your word today. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, we're gonna sing one last song before we're dismissed. Brother Peter, will you please lead us? All right, church, you can open up your hymnals. It's song number 369. All right. It's song 369, I Know the Bible is True. Song 369. ["I Know the Bible is True"] All right, church, let's sing this on the first. I know the Bible was saved from God, the old as well as the new. Inspired and holy, the daily work. I know the Bible is true. I know, I know. I know the Bible is true. Divinely inspired, the whole way through. I know the Bible is true. I know the story of Christ is true. His virgin, glorious birth. His life is death in the open tomb. In his return to the earth. I know, I know. I know the Bible is true. Divinely inspired, the whole way through. I know the Bible is true. I know the Bible is fully true. For peace it gave me within. It finds me, covers me day by day. And gives me victory or sin. I know, I know. I know the Bible is true. Divinely inspired, the whole way through. I know the Bible is true. I know the Bible is true. The Lord denied with a spirit hope. The message of what's still new. It's true, this fear, each pride is told. I know the Bible is true. I know, I know. I know the Bible is true. Divinely inspired, the whole way through. I know the Bible is true. Amen, church, great singing. Thank you so much for coming, you guys. Amen, church, great singing.