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

Oh, man, if it's going to hurt, what's going on? The furnace, a fan of it, and a giant. How about the giant? The furnace will save your health. Giant. Hella dangerous. Shut up and go away. Go if you want to, or we can go back. A headache. There's nobody else. No, the furnace would have definitely would have reflected on us. It won't. The giants are obligated more to the enemy. We'll talk to the enemy. Come on, look. Guilty. Come on. Hurry up. Defending your form. That's what I knew. You were a leader, right? But it's difficult for the people to get to the front. But where are we? Those blocks there. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. 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You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. 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You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. You're going to get hurt. She's over here. All right. Good evening, everyone. Welcome back. Welcome back. Welcome back. Welcome back. Welcome back. All right. Good evening everyone. Psalm 349. Psalm 349 that come to earth's county. Psalm 349. My church, I sing this out of the works. Oh, spread the tight ground, wherever it is round. Wherever it may cost, and you may go to hell. Then every Christian tongue proclaim the joyful sound. The comforter has come. The comforter has come. The comforter has come. The holy ghost can, the Father's come too. Oh, spread the tight ground, wherever it is round. The comforter has come. The humble that is cast, the morning breaks at last. And thus the dreadful wail, in glory of God. And for the glory gives, the day it is last. The comforter has come. The comforter has come. The comforter has come. The holy ghost can, the Father's come too. Oh, spread the tight ground, wherever it is round. The comforter has come. The lurking beast, revealing his wings. To every sound, a whole new place. And through the waves and the song of triumph reigns. The comforter has come. The comforter has come. The comforter has come. The holy ghost can, the Father's come too. Oh, spread the tight ground, wherever it is round. The comforter has come. Oh, the light. Oh, now this lovely light. How shall the sun define? To find, before a sail. The fanciest ways to fly. That eye is round and fair. Should any day be shined. The comforter has come. The comforter has come. The comforter has come. The holy ghost can, the Father's come too. Oh, spread the tight ground, wherever it is round. The comforter has come. Give it to us, Lord. Sing it. Let's call our hands in a royal way. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you so much for everything you've given us, Lord. Thank you so much for giving us that comforter when we put our faith in your Son, Jesus Christ, Lord. Let us pray at this time that we focus on the singing, and we will sing out, and focus on the preaching, and the preaching time comes, and you will pass the emergency with your spirit when he comes up to preach, Lord. We'll have him preach with power and authority and boldness, Lord. Allow us to be able to receive it. Be good stewards of what's taught today. We love you. We pray these things in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Let's hear it for our next song. Song number 75. Song number 75. Come on, join us. It's the only dance. Let's hear it for our next song, verse 75. Make sure it's in the sound of the verse. Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight, O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming? And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? I am bound for the promised land I am bound for the promised land Oh, who will come and go with me? I am bound for the promised land I am bound for the promised land Amen. And then there's two others as well. So ten total for the day. Very good. And just real quickly, is there any other salvation numbers report outside of today that I didn't catch this morning? All right. Very good. Keep up the good work. Preaching the gospel. You never know what's going to do. Like we went to the apartment complex we've done in the past thinking it was going to rain some more but didn't really seem to do much. But whatever. Got a lot of people saved today. So praise the Lord for that. That is awesome. Now the bottom of the page we've got the offering total received through the month of July. Pray requests. I think we covered all the updates this morning. Please especially that you know there's people here that some people we haven't gotten updates in a while. If you know the people, some of the people on our list, try to try to find out what's going on with them. But also don't forget still to pray for the people on the prayer list as there's still that even though we may not hear a lot about them. It doesn't mean that they don't still need the prayers and especially things like cancer could last a really long time and still be something that's really serious and takes a toll for a while. Now I will say this. I forget who I was talking to. I was talking to somebody. And when it comes to this prayer in general, as human beings, you know, we are going to pray for the people that you are in contact with most frequently and the people who are most in your life because you're going to be thinking about them more regular. I mean, that makes sense. Right. People, your immediate family or your extended family, people, you know, like you're going to be praying for them more than you're praying for other people. And the reason why I'm saying all this is because it's important for you to be in church. There's going to be time, especially if you have prayer needs and stuff like that. The more you're here, the more you're going to be in the thoughts and of the rest of our church members. Right. So the less frequent you're here. Look, we still will pray for you, but it's going to take more people more effort to pray for you as opposed to just you being under thoughts already. We try hard to make sure that's why we have this list so we don't forget people, so we can still pray for people. But just honestly, practically speaking. You know, you won't get as much prayer. If you're not here and coming to church and kind of, you know, being in with the group. So just as a practical sense for your own benefit, come to church. You'll you'll end up just in people's prayers more frequently, just as a matter of fact. So anyhow, that was just kind of thought that I had and wanted to pass that along on the next page. We've got the men's preaching class scheduled for this Saturday. So I'm looking forward to this. I think there's a lot of people that are that are planning on attending this event. And the goal is where were the schedules to have one per month. So we should we'll have one in September of one in October, November, December on for the foreseeable future. So you can make it out to that. Men, come on out. It is a good time. You do get to hear a lot of really good preaching, too. By the way, there is everyone's at different levels in their in their growth and understanding and stuff. But seriously, like there's a lot of good points made. Even people who are preaching, like maybe for the first time, have some really good thoughts and bring up some good points from scripture. So I think you'll be blessed by attending that. The Bible memory passage is also our August challenge. So the goal is to memorize all of Hebrews Chapter nine this month, which if you memorize one new verse each day. Now, you have to catch up if you haven't started already to get on that plan. But try try to get now one to two verses every day and keep them committed and stay focused. As your challenge for this month, you could get this passage memorized. You got to be able to quote it out loud to someone else, not just in your mind, not just even quoting it to yourself out loud. You need to quote it to someone else who's going to be looking down at the Bible and making sure you didn't accidentally memorize it wrong or whatever. Make some mistakes. So that way you could you could know confidently. Yes, I memorize this. Yes, this is done. And you'll earn a prize for being able to do that as well. So you've got until the last day of August, right up until midnight. And then that's it. All right. We've got the upcoming birthdays and anniversaries for the month of August listed there, as well as the upcoming events. I'm not going to go through all these individually covered that this morning. If you have any questions on any of those events, just go ahead and feel free to ask me about that. That's about it for our announcements for evening. So we will continue out with our service. And as far as Peter, lead us in next time. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, Flip over to chapter 24 in Ezekiel, chapter 24. Pretty tough. Pretty tough job that Ezekiel had to do, in my opinion, at least. I don't know. I mean, that doesn't look easy. This is easy. If I'm just coming up and standing behind a pulpit and preaching the word of God, that's easy. Getting out there and doing everything that these guys are doing. That's not as easy. Ezekiel 24. He's also called to do another thing here that that also isn't that easy. But again, you have to these are this is we're going to see the mindset in order to serve the Lord fully. Now, this is I don't believe this is ever going to happen again where God is going to command somebody to literally do the things that Ezekiel did, because that was for then not that that truth isn't still the same, but but that was a specific message that he wanted to send. And we learn from him doing that even today. So there's no purpose for God to redo this exact same illustration today. But figuratively speaking, as I was expressing before, we all could have our own dung, as it were, to have to eat, to have to swallow in order to do what's right. In order to serve the Lord properly. Look at Ezekiel 24, verse number 15. Bible says, Also, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, behold, I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroke. Yet neither shalt thou mourn nor weep, neither shall thy tears run down. So as he's saying here, he's saying he's telling them in advance, I'm going to take away the desire of your eyes. I'm going to take something away from you. But but I don't want you to cry. I don't want you to weep. You're going to. Here's what you're going to do. Verse 17, forbear to cry. Make no mourning for the dead. Bind the tire of thine head upon thee and put on the shoes, put on thy shoes upon thy feet and cover not thy lips and eat not the bread of men. So he's not going to do anything to mourn. He's going to experience a loss and. Just put, you know, the tire we don't I don't know what the what the tire is, some kind of apparel on your head. Put the shoes on your feet, basically, but don't don't go, you know, crying and mourning verse 18. So I spake unto the people in the morning and that even my wife died. Ezekiel loses his wife. God took her. Sad. I mean, I couldn't it's hard to understand how that would be, you know, if I think about my wife being taken from me. I'm going to want to mourn. Right. I mean, I love my wife. I assume Ezekiel loved his wife. I don't think this was just like, yeah, whatever. She was kind of a pain anyways. Right. I doubt that. I highly doubt that. I'm sure Ezekiel loved his wife, you know, just as much as you or I. And. But he's commanded here, like, no, don't don't cry, don't don't do anything. And he said, and I did in the morning as I was commanded. And the people said unto me, Wilt thou not tell us what these things are to us, that thou doest so? People see this and now they're taking notice. I mean, a guy's wife just died. They see how he should be responding, how he should normally be acting over something like that. And he's not. Why? God told him not to for this very reason, in order to get through to the people to make them go. What's going on here? This is out of the ordinary. That's peculiar. Why are you such a peculiar person? Why are you so different? He's standing out in order to give them the word of the Lord, to give them the message. Let's keep reading. He says in verse 20, the Bible says, Then I answered them, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Speak into the house of Israel. Thus saith the Lord God. Behold, I will profane my sanctuary. The Excellency of your strength. That's the Lord's sanctuary. He said, I'm going to profane my sanctuary. The Excellency of your strength. The desire of your eyes. And that which your soul pitieth and your sons and your daughters, whom you have left, shall fall by the sword. And ye shall do as I have done. You shall not cover your lips nor eat the bread of men. And your tires shall be upon your heads and your shoes upon your feet. Ye shall not mourn nor weep, but you shall pine away for your iniquities and mourn one toward another. Thus Ezekiel is unto you a sign according to all that he hath done. Shall ye do? And when this cometh, ye shall know that I am the Lord God. So they see what's happening with Ezekiel. And he's saying, you know what? This is going to happen to you. That's a scary thought, because they're seeing how he is and they're seeing how he's acting and seeing, you know, and they're going, this is designed to really hit home. And it's not he's not saying like you're all going to lose your wife. It's. In a sense, more personal than that, because it's the Lord talking about God's house and we're supposed to be married to the Lord. And now he's saying like, I'm going to profane my sanctuary. I'm your strength. Like this is, you know, the Lord being with you. This is the desire of your eyes. This is this is, you know, when I remove that and take that away from you, you're losing a lot. And he says you're going to bear your own. You're a pine away for your iniquities and mourn one for another. Thus Ezekiel is unto you a sign according to all that he hath done. Shall ye do? And when this cometh, you shall know that I am the Lord God. Also, thou son of man. Shall it not be in the day when I take from them their strength, the joy of their glory, the desire of their eyes, and that whereupon they set their minds, their sons and their daughters, that that he that escapeth in that day shall come unto thee to cause thee to hear it with thine ears. In that day shall thy mouth be open to him which is escaped. And thou shalt speak and be no more dumb and thou shalt be a sign unto them and they shall know that I am the Lord. So he's saying when they finally come to you and bring this to you, that's when you can open up your mouth and talk to them and explain to them. And to me, this symbolizes, you know, people need to be going to the Lord because at this point he's done. Like you're going to reap your iniquity and all this other stuff, but they need to turn their heart back to the Lord and seek the Lord God in order to receive anything from God anymore at this point. Now, let's look at Isaiah. Let's look at something that Isaiah was was called to do in Isaiah Chapter 20. Hard things to bear. He lost a wife through his service to God. And still was teaching the people through that, even through that experience, using that experience, too. Here's another thing that. Is very unusual in the book of Isaiah, we look at Chapter 20, look at verse number two, the Bible says, at the same time, spake the Lord by Isaiah, the son of Amoz, saying, Go and loose the sackcloth from off thy loins. And put off thy shoe from my foot. And he did so walking naked and barefoot. And the Lord said, Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot barefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia. So shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners and the Ethiopians captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, even with their buttocks uncovered to the shame of Egypt. I don't know which one I'd rather choose choice between doing what I had to do and doing what Ezekiel had to do. I mean, Isaiah is walking around naked for three years. Now, look, I'm going to say this. This wasn't in front of mixed company. God's not going to cause him to go be naked in front of like the whole world. But he was walking naked and barefoot for the sign to show them, hey, this is what's going to happen to you. I mean, three years. That's a long time. I mean, I don't even like getting under us in a locker room with guys, let alone just being out there. Like that's, you know, we all have a natural shame that we don't want to be seen naked by anybody. But he's bearing that shame in the service to the Lord. God's telling him to do so. You know what? He's going to do it. And sometimes the right thing to do to follow God's commandments is going to it might cause embarrassment, it might cause shame, it might cause you to have to go through something like that. Are you going to serve God and do it anyways, or are you going to, you know, say, no, I can't do that. I can't do that. Last example is Jeremiah. Turn to Jeremiah 37. Jeremiah 37, we're going to start reading verse number 13, the Bible says, And when he was in the gate of Benjamin, a captain of the ward was there, whose name was Irijah, the son of Shelomiah, the son of Hananiah. And he took Jeremiah the prophet, saying, Thou fallest away the Chaldeans. Now, Jeremiah had been warning and prophesying a bunch of doom and gloom against Israel and telling them, look, here's what God said. You need to surrender. Because that was what God was telling them. Look, don't fight against them. This is my judgment coming against you. Don't fight. Just surrender. And you know what? If you surrender, I'll let you stay here and then you won't have to go. OK, you know, you'll be able to, you know, I'll still do good unto you, but this is what you need to do. And Jeremiah was giving them that message. Well, the people didn't even like that message. Like, no, no, you know, all these other prophets are saying we could fight. And the Lord's telling them that we can fight and we're going to win and God's with us and everything else. No, God wasn't with them. They're a bunch of liars. They're a bunch of false prophets. But they're saying here, oh, well, you must be working for the other side. You must be working for, you know, the Babylonians, the Chaldeans. You're a spy. You're an infiltrator working for them. That's why you're trying to demoralize the country. Right? It would be like if I'm up here preaching doom and gloom against the United States of America for all the wickedness and perversion that's literally just spewing out into all of the world by our culture, by Hollywood, by the music industry, by all the things that that literally are being distributed all over the world, our filth and saying, look, God is going to judge and you better stop now because God's going to destroy this wicked nation. If you don't repent and get right, it's like, oh, yeah, you're working for the Russians. No, I'm not working for the Russians. And I'm not working for the jihadis and I'm not working for anyone else. I'm working for the Lord. And Jeremiah is the same way. They're like, oh, yeah, you're you're falling to the Chaldeans. Look, he's not for the Chaldeans. He's for God. And he's telling them, look, this is what God says. Just do what the Lord says. So then said Jeremiah, it's false. I fall not away to the Chaldeans, but he hearkened not to him. So I ride you took Jeremiah and brought him to the princes. Wherefore, the princes were wroth with Jeremiah and smote him and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan, the scribe. For they had made that the prison. Now, just take a mental note or maybe the next time you read your Bible cover to cover the next time you read. I hope you read your Bible every day. Make note of how many times God's people, God's prophets are being persecuted, beaten, put in prison versus how many times they're they're put into the positions of authority and being blessed with everything else. Now, look, it happens both ways. But pay attention to how many times it happens one way versus the other. Daniel was lifted up, but Daniel was also thrown into the lion's den. Don't forget about that. Joseph, hey, he was lifted up, but don't forget how many years he spent as a prisoner falsely imprisoned before he even got to that point. Look at every person that was someone who could be looked at as a role model, as someone that you could you could use as a godly example of of fulfilling the word of the Lord. Being a prophet of God, doing the right thing, and you're going to find lots and lots and lots of tribulation and turmoil and resistance and beatings and imprisonments and all manner of evil done against the people of God. Time and time again. So think it not strange if it happens to people still today. And never side with the God haters of the world. It's the wrong side. It's the wrong side. So Jeremiah is saying, look, it's false. I didn't do that. But he's still brought to prison anyways. When Jeremiah was entered into the dungeon, verse 16, and into the cabins, and Jeremiah had remained there many days, then Zedekiah the king sent and took him out. And the king asked him secretly in his house and said, is there any word from the Lord? And Jeremiah said, there is. For, said he, thou shalt be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon. He doesn't change his message at all. This is what he's already been preaching. Hey, does God say anything? Is there anything new? Any news from the Lord? Yeah, there is. It's the same thing I've been saying. Moreover, Jeremiah said unto king Zedekiah, what have I offended against thee or against thy servants or against this people? They have put me in prison. Why am I here? Why do you have me in prison? What did I do? You're asking me a word from the Lord, and I'm telling you the same thing that I was thrown into prison for. Why am I here? Where are now your prophets which prophesied unto you saying the king of Babylon should not come against you nor against this thing? Because that's what they were saying before they came, but at this point now they're there. And now he's going, oh, does God say anything else? What happened to all your false prophets? They said they weren't even coming. Now what? They're all wrong. Now what? And you're still not going to listen to me? And I'm still sitting in prison? It doesn't matter. It's just like I preach about this morning. People want to sign. They want to sign. They want to sign. They don't really want to sign. Some people just never believe. They don't want to believe. Verse 20, Therefore, here now, I pray thee, O my Lord the king, let my supplication, I pray thee, be accepted before thee that thou cause me not to return to the house of Jonathan the scribe, lest I die there. Then Zedekiah the king commanded that they should commit Jeremiah into the court of the prison and that they should give him daily a piece of bread out of the baker's street until all the bread in the city were spent. Thus Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison. And this king, we're going to see, he flip-flops all of it. He's going back and forth. As soon as anyone's just talking to him, he's like, oh, okay, yeah, okay. Here he's like, oh, okay, yeah, I won't put you back in prison. Go to chapter 38, and we're going to see he sends him right back into prison again because some other people are saying, we've got to throw him into prison, you know. Oh, okay. Well, I can't speak against you. And, you know, that's what happens. You want to put your faith in a politician? That's what you get. We're going to see which way is the wind going. Don't you think for one second that any of these politicians that we have out there today actually have real principles and values and are going to make decisions based on, like, some good for the people. They care about votes and being in power. That's all they care about. They care about themselves. Don't be fooled into thinking that they actually care about you or even some other kind. The days are long gone of people who actually believed in a cause to be, like, representative of that cause. And anyone who does exist like that, you're not going to hear about them, you're not going to see them, and they're not going to get any time in the public eye ever. Jeremiah, but I don't want to get all political on you tonight. Look at verse number one, Jeremiah 38, the Bible says, Then Shephatiah the son of Matan, and Gedaliah the son of Pashur, and Juchel the son of Shelomiah, and Pashur the son of Malchiah, heard the words that Jeremiah had spoken unto all the people saying, Now look, sorry, I said I'm not going to get all political on you, but I just want to say this much, and it doesn't matter, I'm not just talking about one politician. Oh, you must be talking about Donald Trump. Yes, I am. Oh, you must be talking about Joe Biden. Yes, I am. Yeah, I'm talking about all of them. I'm not, like, talking in code here like I'm only talking about one politician. No, all of them. All of them are wicked as hell. Don't trust them. And by the way, they're not going to save our country. I don't care who your favorite politician is. I don't care who they are. I don't care who your favorite politician is. They are not the savior of this country. Don't look to politicians to be your savior. You're going to be let down tremendously. Year after year, election after election, they will let you down every time without fail. Don't put faith in an elected official. We need to put, get people's faith back in Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Because if the people were to repent and turn to the Lord, God can put anyone in power he wants. You think God is bound by our election system to put someone into power? Nope. But unfortunately, we're probably going to just keep getting what we deserve as a people, as a whole, which isn't good for us, by the way, in case you weren't sure about that. It's not good because there's way too many innocents being killed and filth being promoted. I digress. Verse number two, Jeremiah 38. Thus saith the Lord, he that remaineth in this city shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence. But he that goeth forth to the Chaldeans shall live, for he shall have his life for a prey and shall live. For thus saith the Lord, this city shall surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon's army, which shall take it. Therefore the princes said unto the king, we beseech thee, let this man be put to death. For thus he weakeneth the hands of the men of war that remain in this city, and the hands of all the people in speaking such words unto them. For this man seeketh not the welfare of this people, but the hurt. He's weaponizing his words. Oh, that sounds familiar. He's hurting people with his words. They're trying to get him put to death for his words. We are this close to that happening in this country. I mean, we are this close. And what's he saying? Now, like, he's just preaching thus saith the Lord. Oh, you don't care about this, people? Yeah, actually, he does, because God literally said that if you stay here, you're going to die. But if you allow yourself to be taken captive, you'll actually live. They didn't want to hear that. They wanted Jeremiah to lie. They wanted him to say, no, God's with us, let's stay here and God will bring us victory. And he wouldn't, and they'd all die. But that's what they wanted to hear. Some people just don't want to hear the truth. But the real men of God will preach it anyways. Even though they want to kill him, he preaches it anyways. And would God, we could have more men to grow a backbone, to have a spine, to stand on God's word. You don't even have to stand on your own words. Stand on God's word and say, thus saith the Lord. And who cares when they try to cancel you? And who cares when they try to stop you and shut you down or even put you to death, cast you into prison? Make your speech illegal, call you a hate preacher, whatever they want, whatever label, whatever thing they want to say to you, who cares? You say it anyways because you actually care about the people because the truth sometimes hurts, but it needs to be told. People don't need to be coddled. They need to get a swift kick in the pants with the word of God, figuratively speaking, of course. Verse number five, then Zedekiah the king said, behold, he is in your hand. So they're saying this guy needs to be put to death, king. Look at what he's saying. He's hurting the people. He's telling us, he's demoralizing the people by preaching the Bible to them. Well, what can I do? He's in your hands, for the king is not he that can do anything against you. That's what the politician says. Well, who am I? You're the people. You're in charge. You just do whatever you want to do. I'm not going to stand for righteousness. Earlier when Jeremiah's like, hey, why am I here? What did I do? He couldn't answer him. He's like, oh, okay, yeah, I guess you're right. We should, you know, and now all of a sudden these people are going, hey, look what he's doing. He's still doing the same thing. He's still saying the same thing. Oh, yeah, you're right. Yeah, let's go ahead and do whatever you want with him. There's a politician for you. Verse number six. Then took they Jeremiah and cast him into the dungeon of Malchiah, the son of Hamalek, that was in the court of the prison. And they let down Jeremiah with cords. And in the dungeon there was no water but mire. So Jeremiah sunk in the mire. Well, that's not very comfortable. Well, that's what happens. Sometimes when you serve God, you might find yourself sunken in the mire because of the stand that you make. Now, look, you say, well, if that's the case, then why should I serve the Lord? I don't want to be sunken in the mire. I don't want to have to do these things. Why? Well, there's a lot of reasons, a lot of reasons. One, how about this? God will reward you for serving him. All of these men that went through these difficulties, these trials, these persecutions, they all have gold, silver, and precious stones waiting for them at the judgment seat of Christ. They all have eternal rewards waiting for them, for their faithfulness to the Lord and not backing down. There's one reason. Two, they care about God and love God and love the commandments of God. And trust and know and have the faith that God doesn't hate them, even though they may go through unpleasant things, it still is for the overall good. Look, if this is the will of God, then I will submit myself to the will of God for his greater purpose. Even if I don't fully understand it, I could know that if this is the will of God, then what I'm doing is right, what I'm doing is good, and it's worth doing. And three, if you care about people, you're going to tell them the word of God. You're not going to let them just live in fantasy land. You're not going to let them live with their delusions. You're not just going to let people think whatever without actually hearing the word of the Lord. Now look, they have to make up their own minds. You can't force anything on anyone, of course. Of course. I'm not going to continue to talk to people who don't want to hear it, but I'm going to give them a chance to hear it. And one thing I'll never do is just pretend and play make believe with people who don't believe that the Bible is real or whatever they believe, if it's false, and just go along and pretend like everything's just fine, and just look the other way, and you want to use they, them pronouns, and refer to yourself as being plural and not singular, and refer to yourself as being something you're not. I'm not going to play your game. I'm not going to play that game with anybody. That doesn't help anyone. That confuses people. You think that helps my children when I start calling someone who's born a man, a woman? Oh, no, no, you call them, she, no, no, they don't need that confusion. It doesn't help them one bit. It doesn't help anyone. I'm not going to lie about any of that. It's junk. It's garbage. So Jeremiah's cast into the mire. He's sunk in the mire. Verse number seven. Now when Eben-Melech, the Ethiopian, one of the eunuchs, which was in the king's house, heard that they had put Jeremiah in the dungeon, the king then sitting in the gate of Benjamin, Eben-Melech went forth out of the king's house and spake to the king, saying, My lord, the king, these men have done evil, and all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet, whom they have cast into the dungeon, and he has liked to die for hunger in the place where he is, for there is no more bread in the city. Then the king, look at this, the king commanded Eben-Melech, the Ethiopian, saying, Take from hence thirty men with thee, and take up Jeremiah the prophet out of the dungeon before he die. You just got done telling the people, go ahead, I can't do anything against you. Flip-flopping king, I'm telling, this is ridiculous. But he sends them out, verse 11, so Eben-Melech took the men with him, and went into the house of the king under the treasury, and took thence old cast clouts and old rotten rags, and let them down by cords into the dungeon of Jeremiah, and Eben-Melech the Ethiopian said unto Jeremiah, Put now these old cast clouts and rotten rags under thine armholes, under the cords, and Jeremiah did so, so they drew up Jeremiah with cords and took him up out of the dungeon, and Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison. So we see everything that Jeremiah had to go through, at least what's recorded in scripture, and it's a lot. We see what Ezekiel had to do, it's a lot. We see what Isaiah had to do, it's a lot. And you know what they all had to do? They all had to humble themselves. You know what they all had to do? They had to preach the word of the Lord when it wasn't popular. Every single one of them, it was not popular. But they did it anyways. They allowed themselves to be humiliated, to be shamed, to have their name cast around and drug through the mud, and literally be thrown into the mire. We need to have the right view on this, and don't think that today is any different than it ever has been in general, unless you just understand it, maybe it's even worse. Okay? But at least it's no different. There have been wicked people in this world, you know, since going back to the Garden of Eden, when man was kicked out, essentially. You've got Cain and Abel. And we continue to have wicked people in this world. And the world is not Lord, as I mentioned earlier. Last place we're going to look at is Psalm 69. Here's the thing, though. When you suffer shame for Christ's sake, you are in good company. You're in good company. You're turning to Psalm 69. It's the prophecy of Jesus Christ. Very prophetic passage regarding the Christ to come. While you're turning, I'll read for you from Acts chapter 5, where the disciples were just beaten for preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. Acts 5 41 says, And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. The Bible says, you know, if you could suffer shame for Christ, it's actually a good thing, and you should be happy about that. Instead of thinking about it as such a negative thing, you know, hey, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, they could count it happy for suffering shame for the Lord. And this is Acts 5. I love putting 41 and 42 together. 42 is the last verse of that passage where it's often used so many times, and rightfully so, for soul winning purposes. The Bible says, And daily in the temple and in every house they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. Amen and amen. They didn't stop teaching and preaching every day in the temple, every house, they're preaching and preaching Jesus Christ. That's encouraging, that's motivating, but hey, don't forget to add verse 41. Because verse 41 shows that even in the face of the persecution and the beatings and the imprisonments, they still didn't cease to teach and preach Jesus Christ. We're in the United States of America, it's hard enough to get people off their rear ends and teach and preach Jesus Christ when you have no threat of anything happening to you. Let alone being beaten and thrown into prison. What's going to happen when it is illegal? Oh, then I'll stand up. Yeah, right. Yeah, right. You can't stand up now, you will never stand up. Psalm 69, look at verse number 6, Let not them that wait on thee, O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed for my sake. Let not those that seek thee be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel, because for thy sake I have borne reproach, shame hath covered my face. I am become a stranger unto my brethren and an alien unto my mother's children. For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. And this is quoted, by the way, in the New Testament, specifically referring to Jesus Christ. These verses are prophesying Jesus Christ to come, that he bore shame, he bore the reproach, he came unto his own and his own received him not. And even his own half brothers and sisters for a while didn't, you know, he was like a stranger to them. He was a foreigner unto them, an alien unto my mother's children. Verse 10, When I wept and chastened my soul with fasting that was to my reproach, I made sackcloth also my garment and I became a proverb to them. And becoming a proverb to people isn't a good thing, by the way. You could read that throughout, do your own little Bible study on that. If someone's using you as a proverb, it's for a negative purpose. Verse 12, They that sit in the gate speak against me. They that sit in the gate are supposed to be the people of high regard, the people that everybody looked to. They're the leaders of the city. Those that sat in the gate, those that sat in the gate speak against me. This is talking about Jesus. The leaders, the rulers, all the people in these positions of power, they didn't have any regard for Christ. They actually spoke against him. He was not loved by everybody. And I was the song of the drunkards, the drunks mocking the Son of God. You think it's any different now? It's not. And those that want to serve the Lord, you can kind of expect the same thing. Look at verse 13. But as for me, my prayers unto thee, O Lord, in an acceptable time, O God, in the multitude of thy mercy, hear me in the truth of thy salvation. Look at verse 14. Deliver me out of the mire and let me not sink. Let me be delivered from them that hate me and out of the deep waters. I mean, we just we're talking about Jeremiah. Jeremiah went through that. This is the prophecy of Jesus Christ even talking about that. Metaphorically coming, getting delivered out of the mire. Don't let me sink down in the mire. Lord, Lord, please protect me. These wicked people that hate me, they're trying to destroy me. God save me. You come to come to Wednesday night, we're going through the Psalms. You're going to get a lot of encouragement from the Psalms because we see over and over and over again how there's the people that hate God that are going after God's servants that are secretly bending their bow and they're trying to destroy the people who are trying to do righteousness. And the person in the Psalm, the righteous person is going, God save me. God deliver me. And God does. We don't need to be afraid of their faces like Ezekiel was instructed. We don't need to be afraid of what man can do unto me. We ought to fear what God can do unto you. Don't fear man. Hey, these words, feel free to repeat them. Preach them. They're not your words. Thus saith the Lord. Let people know this is what the Bible says. This is what the book says. You know, you can condemn me all day long for believing this book, but you're never going to stop me from believing this book. You're never going to stop my mouth from preaching these words until I have no breath left in me. And we need more people to have that attitude. And I'm not saying I'm perfect by any means, but look, we need more people to stand up on the word of God. That's for sure. That's lacking. At the very least, how about this? How about don't side with the world against the person who's willing to speak thus saith the Lord? Can you at least do that? Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for these stories of these men that served you so faithfully. And I pray that you please help us to realize what these men did for you and what they were called to do and what you had in store for them. And help us to, if we're not there already, to get to the point in our faith that we could be willing to serve you in whatever capacity you would have us to, Lord, no matter how humbling or how much shame that might bring on us out in the world, Lord, but that we would be willing to suffer the shame in order to further the cause of Christ. I pray that you would please just guide us and be with us, Lord, and use these people as encouragement. And God, please just continue to open up our understanding from your word and have good doctrine and know the truth, Lord. And please, please give us the boldness to be able to preach your word in an ever-darkening world that we live in. God, we love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, we're going to sing one last song before we're dismissed for the evening. Brother Peter, will you please lead us? All right, church, if you can open up your hymnals with song number 174. Song 174. We'll close it tonight with my Jesus I love. Song 174. All right, church, let's sing this out in the verse. My Jesus, my loving, I know thou art mine. For thee, O God, of sin I resign. My gracious, we need her. I say, Lord, I love. If and for my love, my Jesus is now. I love thee because thou hast first loved me. And purchased my morning on Calvary street. My loving, for wearing the cords of thy crown. If ever my loving, my Jesus is now. I'll love thee in thy heart, will love thee in death. And praise thee as long as thou didst beware. And say, when the dead do rise, O Lord, I cry. If ever my loving, my Jesus is now. In vengeance of glory and endless divine. I'll ever adore thee in heaven so bright. I'll sing with the glitter, well on my ground. If ever my loving, my Jesus is now. Hey, church, great to see you. Thank you so much for coming, you guys. Thank you so much for coming. Thank you so much for coming.