(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 Your heavenly father Lord, thank you for everything that you do and Lord Thank you for salvation for your gift that you have given us so freely Thank you for this church father the Lord I pray that you'll fill pass first with your spirit in the future works on boldness with all authority and it's named Jesus. I pray All right, let's go turn to song 441 That Is song 441 great as I faithfulness Song 441 my father Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Great Amen, all right, it's very good to have you all here with us on this Wednesday night at stronghold Baptist Church at this time We're go through our announcement so if you don't have a bulletin slip your hand up real quick and we'll make sure that we get one out to you and If you open up to the first page You will see our service times listed there Sunday morning at 1030 Sunday evening again at 5 o'clock Wednesday night 7 of course is our Bible study We have the soul-winning opportunities listed there as well as the salvation's and the baptisms excuse me for the month of November as well as for the year and Remember our goal by the end of the year this year is try to Try to win a thousand people to the Christ. So Things are going well in that regard. We had 20 more Salvations of what you see on the bulletin so And that's without counting up anything at the moment. So anyone have any salvation numbers to report to slip your hand up real quick We'll get those counted up. Yes, sir Today one today. Very good And two on Monday Awesome anything else to report Whoa, amen. Well three more salvation's so that will bring us up to 937 so Yeah, 63 more to go Very doable just continue to put in the work and And hopefully we'll see this goal get met. So Very good. All right continuing on We got the offering totals received through the month of November down there at the bottom of the page prayer requests we added Stephen Smith's father to the list since he had that ATV accident and It's still recovering now from that Does anyone have any updates for people who are on the list at the moment? All right, and then we've got Verity Baptist Church in Sacramento, California pastor Jimenez and his family and their church Be praying for them this week as well on the next page. We've got the November challenge. So Don't forget with the holidays to do get that extra hour of soul winning in This week if you are participating in our challenge You've got a couple days left few days left to get that in and then one more final week of November I can't believe it's already almost Over and we're gonna be in December years gonna end very quickly a New church plant Greenville, South Carolina. Nothing new to report there. Just please continue to pray that God will show us Lead us to a good a good place there that will that will work for a new church plant for years to come Gingerbread house decorating activity is going to be December 2nd. So that's already it is a couple weeks away Please let me know if you plan on attending the We can't purchase any more gingerbread houses, so Make sure you got your name on there or at least we can't get the ones that we always get The ones that everyone else will have If you do want to come Put your name on there and we'll do our best maybe to source some other gingerbread Houses for you. We do always get a few extras just in case Mrs. Maslow was nice enough to go through and pick out some of the ones that were already broken so we returned those and got new ones for those but We didn't check to see if the ones that we got are broken because we got literally the last ones that they had so We should be all squared away if you signed up for the activity then you're definitely set but if you haven't and you did want to come then please make sure you get your name on there and Get your gingerbread house reserved All right Bible memory passage. So we've got just a few days left of Hebrews chapter 10 verses 1 through 22 to get this quoted you got until Sunday night midnight to quote this passage Out loud if you want to earn that prize Upcoming birthdays and anniversaries are listed There what is today's date anyways? 22nd So close So close well That's gonna be a very thankful day tomorrow for the Masler family and as rains got her birthday tomorrow so happy early birthday, and I hope you enjoy your day tomorrow and Of course tomorrow's Thanksgiving Day, too And all the rest of the birthdays are listed there through the first week of December upcoming events What does that mean I wrote something in my notes and I don't even know what it means so I Don't know Huh, maybe I'll figure that out sometime Anycase we've got Christmas caroling December 16th and Saturday. It's a couple weeks after the gingerbread house decorating activity Please sign up for that as well because we are gonna be feeding you for that So be nice to know how many people are playing attending It's it's a lot of fun and also helps us a plan and make sure we have enough leaders for the caroling because we send people out not in massive groups so that people are just really kind of like what's his mob doing at the door but small enough group big enough so that you know, it's loud enough and people can blend in but but not so big that it's just Kind of too many people out on the street and in front of one house, so It's a lot of fun I encourage you if you haven't done this before To come on out with us. It really is a lot. It's very heartwarming side A lot of fun just spreading the cheer and singing the great some great Christmas carols So that's December 16 January 19th. We have pizza and movie night and Yeah, I'm looking forward to that there's a good film that we have already I've got it in the office as I watched it It's like I said before it might be a little bit dry if you're not really into creation science stuff, but it's it's fascinating It's really cool. We also have some show-and-tell items that we'll have available on hand as well for the showing of that movie So be here for that if you can watch night service we are having a watch night service so it's December 31st It is a Sunday. It's a regular Sunday service We'll have food Afterwards. Well, the church will just have a church dinner and then you could hang out for as long as you'd like I really like doing the watch night services just like the the chili cook-offs that we do on October 31st an alternative and it's a place to be in a Good environment a good Christian environment have some good fellowship with people away from the world and You know, obviously New Year's Eve a lot of people spend getting drunk and drinking and doing those types of things. So This way someone invites you to a party, you know, it's gonna be alcohol like no, I already got plans got something to do come to watch night service and Ringing the new year with with your brothers and sisters in Christ, we'd love to have you here for that. It's gonna be a lot of fun and That is about it for our announcement So I'm going to turn the service back over to brother Austin who will lead us in our next song All right church, if you could turn to song 440, one page over. All right, that's song 440, thanks to God. Of this song, let's make sure we sing with all our hearts. We have a lot to be thankful for, especially with Thanksgiving tomorrow. So sing a song with all of our hearts. That's song 440. Thanks to God, my Redeemer. Thanks for all that has provided. Thanks for time now found on memory. Thanks for Jesus by my side. Thanks for pleasant falling springtime. Thanks for dark and dreary falls. Thanks for tears by now forgotten. Thanks for Jesus within my soul. Thanks for friends that thou hast answered. Thanks for one thou hast denied. Thanks for storms that I have weathered. Thanks for all thou must supply. Thanks for pain and thanks for pleasure. Thanks for comfort in despair. Thanks for grace that thou can measure. Thanks for love beyond repair. Thanks for roses by the wayside. Thanks for thorns their sensibility. Thanks for all and thanks for fireside. Thanks for hope that sweet refrain. Thanks for joy and thanks for sorrow. Thanks for heavenly peace with thee. Thanks for hope in the tomorrow. Thanks for all eternity. As our custom is, we're going to read the Bible before we get started. So if you could turn your Bible to Psalm 80. Amen, church. Once again, that is the book of Psalm chapter 80, Psalm 80. The Bible reads, Give ear, O shepherd of Israel, thou that leadeth Joseph like a flock, thou that dwells between the cherubims, shine forth. Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh, stir up thy strength and come and save us. Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine and we shall be saved. O Lord God of hosts, how long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people? Thou feedest them with the bread of tears and givest them tears to drink in great measure. Thou makest us a strife unto our neighbors and our enemies laugh among themselves. Turn us again, O God of hosts, and cause thy face to shine and we shall be saved. Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt, thou hast cast out the heathen and planted it. Thou preparest room before it and didst cause it to take deep root and it filled the land. The hills were covered, but the shadow of it and the boughs thereof were like the godly cedars. She sent out her boughs onto the sea and her branches onto the river. Why hast thou then broken down her hedges so that all they which pass by the way do pluck her? The bore out of the wood doth waste it and the wild beasts of the field doth devour it. Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts. Look down from heaven and behold and visit this vine and the vineyard which thy right hand hath planted and the branch that thou made it strong for thyself. It is burned with fire. It is cut down. They perish at the rebuke of thy countenance. Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man whom thou made it strong for thyself. So will not we go back from thee. Quicken us and we will call upon thy name. Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts. Cause thy face to shine and we shall be saved. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you for the book of Psalms. We thank you for the whole King James Bible. And God, we thank you for all that you've done. We pray for all families to be safe throughout this time of the year. We also thank you for Thanksgiving with time for gathering and also breaking bread amongst each other. And God, we thank you for salvation. Thank you for being the bread of life. God, fill Pastor Burzins with your spirit. Allow for him to preach with boldness. Allow for ears to be attentive and minimize distractions. God, we praise you and thank you for all that you do. We say this in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, in Psalm 80, let's dig right into this passage. Look down there at verse number one. The Bible reads, Give ear, O shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock, thou that dwellest between the cherubim shine forth. So there's kind of three references here of the Lord mentioned. Shepherd of Israel, obviously speaking to God's watching over his people as a shepherd watches over the flock and protects the flock. Thou that leadest Joseph like a flock. Again, very similar to being a shepherd. And then thou that dwellest between the cherubim shine forth. And I just want to give a real quick reference back to this. If you want to keep your place here, turn to Exodus chapter 25. Just the reference to the Lord being the one that dwells between the cherubims. And just in case you don't know what this is referring to, this is going all the way back to the Ark of the Covenant that was created and the cherubims that were created. We'll read a little bit about this work. And this is referred to multiple times in the Old Testament about God dwelling and speaking to the children of Israel from the mercy seat, which is between the cherubims that were physically created there with the Ark of the Covenant. And obviously God doesn't need, you know, like it's not some magic artifact or something. As many people thought throughout history, there's especially the heathen. And sometimes even the children of Israel would treat things like the Ark as a good luck charm or as a, you know, this holy thing that would somehow just bring the magic power in itself. Right. And these objects are just physical objects. They're not, you know, the representative of so much more. These ones that the Lord especially had the children of Israel create. But they are not in and of themselves anything more than just the object. But they're always illustrative of truths. But this is a reference to the Lord that dwells between the cherubims is important because of, well, just take a look at this. Look at verse number 20 in Exodus 25. The Bible says in the cherubim shall stretch forth their wings on high. And this is just an excerpt of the whole creation of the various elements in the tabernacle and specifically the Ark of the Covenant. So this is where it is kind of jumping into Exodus 25 and verse 20 and the cherubim shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering the mercy seat with their wings and their faces shall look one to another toward the mercy seat. Shall the faces of the cherubims be so that the angels are being described the cherubims as facing each other. They both have wings and the wings touch like the one wing of the one touches the other wing of the other one. They're both kind of facing each other and they're both looking down at the mercy seat. And it says in verse 21 and thou shalt put the mercy seat above upon the ark. So the ark is the box that holds the Ten Commandments and holds Aaron's rod that budded. It holds a little portion of manna. These are all different artifacts that were collected and added to the ark for a remembrance ultimately for the children of Israel. And they were all put into the ark. But the most important aspect of the ark was the Ten Commandments. It was it's symbolic of the law of God and God's leading and and giving them that testimony. And then on top of all of that was the mercy seat is kind of like the cover for the ark. And the angels were above that. And that is. There's so there's so much to get into. I'm not going to dig into all the symbolism, even just surrounding that. It's a good idea, I think, for a sermon for another day. But let's read there. And then verse number 22, the Bible says, And there I will meet with thee and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims, which are upon the ark of the testimony of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel. So this is God specifying, like, here's how I'm going to communicate with you. I want to I'm going to speak to you through this, like like these these elements, this artifact. And I'm going to speak to you through from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims. This is how their Moses is going to be receiving the law and receiving the commandments from the Lord. And God is the one making point of this and referencing this. So we see this multiple times, as I said, and when this psalm in particular. We see a phrase that comes up multiple times. We'll see it real soon here. It shows up for the first time in verse number three, where it says, Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine and we shall be saved. This is repeated two more times in this psalm and this concept of turning us again. And as we've seen in other psalms, this is a kind of a repentant psalm and explaining, like, look, we've done wrong. We're being punished for it. We've been punished for it. But God, you know, turn us back again. And this is the overall theme of the psalm as a whole. And three times it's referencing to just, you know, God, please get us back on the right, right path. God, don't turn us away. Come back to us again and shine upon us. Bless us as you did before. And why am I bring us up? Because the very first verse is opening up with the Lord and addressing the Lord as one, the shepherd of Israel, as the protector, as a defender, and not just God Almighty and not you know, there's many ways you can address the Lord. That would all be appropriate. But this is one and in treating the Lord, which is not only referencing that, hey, you're the shepherd, you're our protector. You lead us like a flock. But you're also the God that dwells between the cherubims. And I think the biggest point to mention there is that it's from the mercy seat. Right. We're looking. The people here of God are looking for mercy. They're looking for the Lord to extend some long suffering and some mercy unto them and to turn back again, which I think is interesting how this is opening up with that reference there. And the reference of God even speaking from the mercy seat has a lot of symbolism in and of itself. So let's continue here back in Psalm 80, verse number two. The Bible says, Before you free him and Benjamin and Manasseh, stir up thy strength and come and save us. Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine and we shall be saved. O Lord God of hosts, how long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people? And I'm going to spend a lot of time tonight just focusing on this verse, particularly. A lot of people don't understand. Some people will think that, well, God always hears prayer, doesn't matter, you know, and. When I say God always hears prayer, I'm not talking about like audibly, like, of course, God always audibly can hear everything. God knows our thoughts. God knows all of our words. There's nothing that's hidden from the Lord. But hearing is not the same. You know, when the Bible's talking about God hearing our prayers. It's not just talking about like physically or audibly being able to hear the sound and understand the words. Hearing is like I'm actually paying attention to and I'm going to receive what you're asking me. So there's many ways and times in which people can pray to God and it's not accepted by God. And in some cases, as we'll see, it's even an abomination to God. God hates prayer sometimes. So it's not always just always well received, no matter what, no matter from who, no matter what's going on. Going to God and just asking God for things. That's what a prayer is. It's not always appropriate. It's not always right. And people can be in a bad way where God doesn't even want to hear from you. And this is important to understand because we never want to be in that position where the psalmist is expressing as a people. That's a condition that they're in right now. God's not hearing their prayer. They're there. Are you saying how long are you going to be angry against the prayer of thy people? So the request that's being made here is, God, come save us, you know, help us, lead us, guide us. We need you, Lord. But up to this point, you know, how long are you going to be angry at our requests when we come to you and and seek your favor and seek your guidance? How long is it going to be before you'll hear us and before you listen, Lord? This is this is the impassioned plea from the psalmist here. Turn, if you would, keep your place here. Obviously, we're coming back to Psalm 80. Turn to Isaiah, Isaiah 55, and we're going to look at various references in scripture. Where we see. The concept of God not always. Hearing prayer. And not always being there and not always just going to be the you know. We let me say we should always we should always go to the Lord with prayer, just in general. Right. Like any problems that we have, any issues in our life, we always want to be relying on the Lord. And turning to God with our problems and and. That is a good thing, but we have to just keep in mind that we can. You know, put ourselves in a condition where God's not going to want to hear from you as well. So. Would the God we wouldn't be in a place. Like the psalmist is here calling out into the Lord now as a nation. You know, we you know, we might be calling out the same way this is, and it's kind of like it's not the result of the one individual, but of a whole group of people, a whole nation of people that's just been turning their back on the Lord and rejecting the Lord, which is why they're suffering and facing the consequences that as a whole, as a country, they're facing these things. And this psalmist may be someone who's just looking for the righteousness and and speaking for the remnant, looking to to seek God's favor. But let's look at Isaiah 55, verse number six, the Bible says, seek the Lord while he may be found, call you upon him while he is near, which, of course, indicates or implies that there is going to be a time when the Lord's not found. There could be a time when God is not near, when God is not just going to be available for you just to call upon. And this goes for salvation as well as not for salvation. Right. Because you could call on the Lord for many reasons. The most important reason is calling on the Lord to be saved for your soul, literally to be saved from eternal punishment of hell. And there is a time where people can get to a point or a place where they have commit the unpardonable sin, whether they blaspheme the Holy Ghost, they become reprobate, where it is no longer possible to to even call on the Lord to be saved because it's impossible for them to put their faith in Jesus Christ. And that is a sad condition to be in. And we want to make sure that we can reach people before they get to that point so that they can have the best opportunity to get saved, to get their souls saved. But not just that, even for for us, for believers, for, you know, anyone who's going to call on the Lord for any type of salvation. We also want to make sure that we're doing that in a time when God is near, when he may be found. Here's an example. Well, let's just read verse seven here. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord. And he will have mercy upon him and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. And this speaks to God's long suffering forgiveness. Right. God wants everyone to return. If you ever get to the point where you end up being a backslider. So here the wicked forsaking his way. Well, the wicked doesn't have to be some unsaved person. It can easily be one of God's people itself. If you think about First Corinthians Chapter five at the very end, the passage that talks about people that need to be put away from among you. And the last verse says, put it therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person. And it's referring to save people that are in the church that are that are committing some really bad sins. You know, it'd be drunkenness, fornication, these types of sins saying, look, put away from among yourselves that wicked person. It doesn't mean they're unsaved. It just means they're they're really backslidden or they're into some sins that makes them wicked in God's eyes. And God's like, look, just don't have anything to do with them. So but what he wants and what we would want. So if anyone's guilty of one of those things in the church and we have to enforce a church discipline where we're going to say, look, we're going to put you away from among us because this is really wicked. This is really serious. But the goal of that would be repentance. Right. Change on that to get right with God to realize, oh, man, what am I doing? What is going on? I need to get right with God because God is still there to pardon, to receive. But you have to have that change in your heart. And this is the change in the heart that's being expressed in Psalm 80 as well, by the way, which maybe previously wasn't there before, which is why God was still angry against their prayer. So if you if you go to God half heartedly, bad things are happening and maybe, you know, you should be going to God, but you're still not like dealing with the reason why God was angry with you to begin with. God's not going to want to hear you. Turn, if you would, to well, you're in Isaiah. Go back to Isaiah Chapter one. I've got a lot of examples. I'll try to have these split up. But since you're in Isaiah, just go back to Isaiah Chapter one. Isaiah one, verse number 10, the Bible reads, Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom, give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. Now, he's not literally speaking to Sodom and Gomorrah. He's referring to his people and calling them a name that, you know, no one would want to be called like you're you're acting like or being like Sodom and Gomorrah. So he's applying Sodom and Gomorrah to Israel. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me, saith the Lord? I am full of the burnt offerings of rams and the fad of fed beasts, and I delight not in the blood of bullocks or of lambs or of he goats. So they're offering the sacrifices that are put forth in the Old Testament. Right. The sacrifices that God ordained, that he commanded, that he wanted them to do. And, you know, he's saying, you know, I'm full of them. I don't want any more. I don't need any more of your burnt offerings. That's not what I'm taking pleasure. And that's not what I want from you, even though it's in the law. Like, you know, you say, like, what do you mean you don't want this from us? You know, I thought this is what we're supposed to do. Verse 12. When you come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations. Incense is an abomination unto me. The new moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies I cannot away with. It is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. All of these aspects of the law that they might be physically carrying out and going through the motions and doing these things. And holding the feasts and offering the sacrifices and burning the incense. God's like, it's an abomination unto me. I just want it to stop. You're just making me angry. The more you pretend to be my people and go through these motions and do these things, it's just making me angry. Your new moons and your appointed feasts, my soul hateth. They are a trouble unto me. I am weary to bear them. And when you spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you. Yea, when you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. And that highlights the problem. Yeah, you're offering the sacrifices. You're observing these holy days. You're offering up incense. You're doing all of these things, but you've got bloody hands. You're wicked. You're involved in wickedness. And what God wants is the repentance and the change. Not just, well, I'm just going to keep going to church. Well, I'm just going to do this and I'm going to do that. And pretend like there's no big deal, like there's no problem. No, there's a big problem. And if you think that your sacrifice of making sure you're going to church is just going to impress God somehow, or how much money you put in the plate, or anything like that is going to have any influence on God as being like, oh, OK, well, this person's involved in fornication, but you know what, they're coming to church every week and they're giving a bunch of money to the offering plate. You know what, if anything, that might just make God angry. Because God doesn't want those things for you. He wants you to get right. He wants you to listen to me, wants you to be in obedience. That's what matters to the Lord. And you can get to the point, as the children of Israel were here, where he says, look, you make many prayers and I'm not hearing them. I don't hear what you have to say. I'm shutting my ears off to your prayer. And that's a scary place to be, because when you need help, you know, the Lord can help with anything. You don't want him, of all people, just turning off your prayers. Turn back, if you would, to Proverbs chapter one. This concept is in scripture so many times about God not hearing, God not always being there for you, and God not being your genie in a bottle that you just have to, you know, open up the lid, rub the top a few times, oh, poof, here comes out God, and now God's going to do as you wish. No, that's not the Lord. You know, that's why I love one of God's names is the Lord, because the Lord means he's the boss and he's in charge. He's not here to serve you. We are and were created for his pleasure. We're bought with a price to serve him, not for us. So he doesn't come to just to serve you. And out of love, God does give us things that we don't deserve. And out of love, God will hear the prayers, especially of those that have a repentant heart and that love the Lord and want to serve him. God is there for you and praise the Lord for that. But don't just think that you can just go off, do whatever you want and just be like, yeah, you know, I'll just I'll just call up the Lord and I'll call up God and, you know, have him get me out, you know, get me out of this trouble. Yeah, I did it all. I caused it all. But, you know, it's stupid. I just saw this somewhere. I forget where. Stupid T-shirt was someone's where it says Jesus is my homeboy. It's so it's so disrespectful, so blasphemous, you know, people think it's so trendy and cool, like like how disrespectful could be. No, Jesus isn't your homeboy. He's not someone you just like, oh, yeah, he's my homie. We're going to kick it. And, you know, like, no, he's the Lord of lords and king of kings. And you ought to you ought to reverence his name and respect him as such and not just treat him as if he's just some bud. OK, he's not your bud. He's your lord and master, like like doubting. Thomas said when he when he's like, hey, here, give me your hand. Feel this. You feel the holes in my hands here. Give me your hand. Trust it into my side and be not faithless, but believing. And he fell down on his face. And it says my lord and my God. And that's how you treat Jesus Christ. That's how you address Jesus Christ. Not just, oh, he's my homeboy. Ridiculous. And you know what? People have that type of an attitude. God's not going to hear you. You'll speak with some respect. I mean, even as as parents, you know what I'm talking about. You're raising your kids to be respectful. Right. Yes, sir. No, sir. Yes, ma'am. No, ma'am. Right. You want your kids to be able to learn to have that respect, especially for you, but not just for you, for other people as well. And if they just come to you like, hey, dad, you know, like, hold on a second. Wait, what? Hey, give me this. No. May I please have this? Right. Well, as much as you raise your children that way, think about how God feels. You'll just be like, God, do this for me. God, give me that. No, no. You humbly make a request to the Lord. And, you know, this is also why it's important to teach your children respect and the manners and everything else, because that will also help reinforce you and how you ought to be communicating with God. As the parent, yeah, you demand respect as a father, as a mother. You demand respect from your children and you ought to get that and you ought to teach them that respect. So then you can also remember how you ought to be with the Lord. And also then teach your children that once, you know, as they're little, they're giving you that respect. They can also understand, well, yeah, that makes perfect sense. I should give the same even more respect to our heavenly father. If they respect their earthly father, how much more then will they even know and understand and not stumble at having respect over for their heavenly father? Proverbs chapter 1, look down at verse number 23 there. The Bible reads, turn you at my reproof. Behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you. I will make known my words unto you. See, God is righteous in all that he does. And just like here, he's saying, look, turn at my reproof. I'm going to correct you. I'm going to tell you where you're wrong and you need to get right and you need to turn at my reproof. And he says, I'm going to make I'm going to pour out my spirit. I'm going to make my words known unto you. That's what he said to do. He's not going to expect you to know inherently what's right or what's wrong necessarily. He's going to he's going to give that to you. You're going to provide that to you. Look, he sends his prophets. He's given us his word. Hey, everything's right there. He did his part to make sure that you can have what you need. But now you need to turn when I tell you you're wrong. Because I have called and you refused, I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded. And this is what most people don't understand. God does this first. And when people get into sin. You're rejecting God's hand, you're rejecting God's guidance, you're rejecting God's instruction. Hey, I'm calling out to you. No, no, no. I want to do this. I want to do that. I'm going to go this way, whether it be collectively as a people or even individually. Just just having this type of an attitude. God's saying, look, I'm going to I'm going to correct you. I'm going to tell you when you're wrong. I'm going to show you my ways. But you know what? I've called. You refused. I stretch out my hand. No man regarded. You have set at naught all my counsel means all everything I'm trying to tell you do. You just made it like it's nothing. Setting it at naught. It's setting it like it's nothing. You're just disregarding it completely as if God doesn't know what he's talking about. No, I don't want to hear that. No, God, I don't want to hear your commandments. I don't have anything to do with that. And would none of my reproof. I'm not wrong. No, I'm not doing anything wrong at all. I didn't do anything wrong. So I was a great example of this. And so I was an example of a believer that did this. Right. So I was reproved. God sent Samuel and said, look, what are you doing? So it's not for you to offer up this sacrifice. Who do you think you are? What are you doing? You were told to wait. You didn't do anything wrong. What do you mean I did this? And two times he put off the blame from himself. And then what happens later on when he's in trouble and he wants to seek the Lord? God doesn't answer. He doesn't answer. Oh, what do we do? Oh, we got to go fight the Philistines. No word from God. Why? Because he didn't want to hear what God had to say. His heart wasn't right. He knew what was right and wrong. But then he just said it at not. It wasn't that important to him. And when we set it not the counsel of God, don't be surprised when God doesn't want to really hear anything from you. Now, when you're in trouble. It's not like you didn't know. You've been warned. You've been warned about the booze. You've been warned about the fornication. You've been warned about the sin. You've been warned about these things, about the traps, about the pitfalls of sin. You've been warned about it. Don't be surprised now when it comes back and bites you. And then when it comes back and bites you because you've just said, No, no, I just want to do this. I don't care. And then it comes out on you. God's going. You made your bed. Now sleep in it. I warned you about this. I tried to help you. I tried to help you in advance. I tried to reprove you and let you know you were wrong. But you didn't want to hear it. And look, thank God that God is still long suffering. I mean, we you know, we could know this. It's not just a super quick hair trigger with the Lord where he's just like, well, I just told you once that's done. That's not how God responds. That's not how we actually begin with. And this is why when God does get angry. He's really angry. Because he is so long suffering. When you get chance after chance after chance and God and God's working with you. And this is how it normally works in the life of someone who's trying to do what's right is, you know, you may stumble. You may fall. You get back up. You're trying to do right. You get you go back a little bit. You try to you know, you're living this life because we all have sin and we're trying to do better and we're trying to improve. And then you do something like, oh, man, what you know, what did I do? God, I'm sorry. And you keep trying to move forward. Right. And God is long suffering for us. In this life, especially in that type of a scenario. Right. We're just we can make the mistakes and oh, man, thank God you're long suffering and you're not just going to just hammer down on me now. But there's always going to come a point where especially, though, when your heart turns. And you think, you know, maybe maybe you've been walking that line too far. And and at first you were you were getting upset and sorry. But then after a while, you're just kind of getting used to your sin. And you sort of embrace it instead of trying to reject it. And that's you know, you keep on going down that path. God warns you, warns you, warns you. And it's just like, OK, look. I've been long suffering. I've been warning you. I've been giving you opportunity. I've given you space to repent, like we see in Revelation to the churches. Hey, I'm going to give you space to repent. But you know what's going to happen if you don't. I'm taking away your place. He says, you know, you've you've said it, not all my counsel with none of my proof. Verse 26. I also will laugh at your calamity. I will mock when your fear coming. Because after all that, when it finally when your day finally does come. Because you just didn't want to hear anything, have anything to do with me. Well, you know what? Fine, then I'm going to I'm going to laugh when when when that day comes on you. When that calamity comes your way and your life is totally in in in in in pieces. When your fear come at this desolation and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind, when distress and anguish cometh upon you, then shall they call upon me. But I will not answer. They shall seek me early, but they shall not find me. God is not always found of those that seek him. In these types of situations, in these scenarios where God has already said, look, here I am, I'm here to help you. Here's my word. Here's my instruction. Here's the reproof. Oh, you don't want any of this. OK. Go ahead, call upon me, then I'm not going to answer. For that they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord, they would none of my counsel, they despise all my reproof. You know, this ought to be fearful for us to. Obviously, it's a fearful place for someone who's an unbeliever to get to a point of being a reprobate. But as a believer, you don't want to get to the point like King Saul, where he's trying to reach out to the Lord and get some advice and say, you know, hey, I need some guidance, God, too late. Sorry, I'm not speaking to you anymore. You had your opportunity. Proverbs 28, verse nine, you don't have to turn there. Proverbs 29 says this, he that turneth away his ear from hearing the law. Even his prayer shall be abomination. Someone's prayer be like, I thought God is going to hear everyone's prayers. Well, you know what? Some people, their prayers and abomination to God. Some people, their prayer God hates. You know who those people are? The ones that turn away their ear from hearing God's law. And how many people are there out there like that today? Oh, why are you going to the Old Testament? Oh, I talk about these laws. Oh, people hate to hear the law. Oh, you're so judgmental. Oh, why do you always got to bring up the Bible? OK. You go ahead and pray to God and you know what? God's going to hate hearing your prayer. That prayer is an abomination to God. Why would a prayer be an abomination to God? Because if you don't want to hear him, why in the world would he want to hear you? And likening it again to a to a family relationship, turn it to Jeremiah Chapter seven, Jeremiah seven family relationships. Right. Children and parents. You tell your parents to do stuff, you tell your parents, tell your parents, tell your kids, excuse me, tell your kids to do stuff. You instruct your children, no, don't want to listen, don't want to do it, don't want to do it, and then they come and ask you for stuff. Oh, no, no, no, that's not how this works. You're going to come asking me for this and that, and you want the ice cream and you want this and you want me to do something nice for you and you haven't listened to one thing I've told you to do all day. Yeah, I don't think so. I'm not hearing you, buddy. God's not different in that regard. You know, he's given you instructions. Do you better do it. Jeremiah Chapter seven. I mean, this is I'm going through all these passages because for some, not necessarily, not necessarily you. I don't know what you know. That's why I'm teaching this stuff, because I don't know what everyone knows to hear. But when you hear things like God being angry against the prayer of his people and not just the unbeliever, but against his people, of thy people, you're going to be angry. Well, look at how many times in scripture that this concept comes up. Yeah, sometimes this is going to say, oh, yeah, but these are unbelievers. But but most of these are not. Is Isaiah is to his people. Jeremiah is to his people. Right. Even he's referencing them like you're like Sodom and Gomorrah. Look at Jeremiah seven, verse number nine. Bible says, will you steal, murder and commit adultery and swear falsely and burn incense unto Baal and walk after other gods whom you know not and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name and say we are delivered to do all these abominations. The gall, the audacity. Saying. They're stealing, murdering, committing adultery, like I mean, like he lists off all of these Ten Commandments. Right. All of these. In verse nine are in the Ten Commandments. Stealing, murdering, committing adultery, swearing falsely, burning incense unto Baal. Right. Which would be be having no other gods before me. All of these things. And you're actually going to come into my house. You're going to put your foot, you're a walk into my house, which is called by my name and say, yep, we're delivered to do all these abominations. We can do all this stuff. We're delivered because God has saved us. We could do all these things. In this house, which is called by my name, is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes. Behold, even I have seen it, saith the Lord. But go ye now unto my place, which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people, Israel. Like you think you could just get away with all this stuff and I'm not going to care and I'm not going to bother and you're just going to do whatever you want to do. And you're going to bring all this abomination in my house. Go see what I did to Shiloh. Because the people have already thought they could do this in the past and they were being wicked in my eyes and Shiloh is where my name was. And that's where I was pouring out my blessings. And that's what they were hearing from me. Yet now we're Shiloh. Don't don't just think you're entitled to all of this and think that I'm just going to be here all the time, no matter what. This is the point he's getting across. No, that that destruction could come. You better you better make sure. I mean, even with the Jews being broken off. Right. The olive tree. They're broken off and some and then and then the Gentiles getting grafted in. Right. And he's like, take heed. You were grafting and you were wild out. But guess what? You could be broken off, too. And I could I could graft in someone else. Don't ever think that you're just like, oh, this special like, oh, I'm Abraham's son, like. Nope. Doesn't matter. Verse 13, and now because you have done all these works, said the Lord, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but you heard not. And I called you, but you answered not. Therefore, will I do unto this house, which is called by my name, wherein ye trust and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh. And I will cast you out of my sight as I have cast out all your brother and even the whole seat of Ephraim. Therefore, pray not thou for this people. Neither lift up, cry nor prayer for them. Neither make intercession to me. I will not hear thee. And this people is so wicked and so bad. They're just like the people were before I destroyed Shiloh. They're just like that, and they think that they could just trust in this place and they're just going to be safe and they're going to be protected. No. When they're going out and murdering and committing adultery and swearing falsely and burning incense on the bail. No. No. And in fact, I don't even want you praying for this people. Jeremiah, I don't want you to to to pray or lift up your cry or pray for them or make intercession because I'm not going to hear you. I'm not going to hear that prayer. If you would, the first John Chapter five. I've got a few other references. I'm just going to skip them. And even these were just still picked out of many out of scripture. This is this is something that is should not be new to you. But if it is, you can see how many times this is actually in scripture about God. Not wanting to hear about people, not wanting the prayers. Prayers being an abomination, not ready just to answer every single prayer that someone throws up there to the Lord. No. What? And what does he expect in all of this? What does he expect? He expects you to listen and he expects you to have regard to his word so that you're not just just involved in all manner of wickedness and then just expecting God just to. Deliver you out of all of it. Like you can do whatever you want to do, and there's just no punishment for it. And you're just going to ask God to save you every single time you get yourself in a mess because you're doing a bunch of wicked things. It's not going to happen. And again, it's not to say if you get yourself in a mess not to turn to the Lord, but you turn to the Lord with all of your heart in a repentant heart. Because you truly are sorry about what you've done and you want to get right with God and you want to repair your relationship and you actually care about that. That's when God's going to hear you, not just. Oh, no, we're good, man. Hey, we've got grace. Let let us continue in sin. Grace is going to abound, right? That's a wicked heart. And this is what people rightfully so when we're trying to explain eternal security to people when they're like, well, so you could just go off and do whatever you want and it's fine, like, no, that attitude is not fine at all. No one should ever have an attitude saying, yeah, cool. I'm saved. So I'm just going to go off and I'm going to get drunk and I'm going to fornicate and I'm just going to sleep around and party up and do all these things and do a bunch of wicked things and steal from people. No, no, that's wicked as hell. And God's not going to hear you and God's not you know, there are serious consequences for that. Now, obviously, we still think that we know that a person is saved once they're saved, you're saved forever, of course. But it doesn't it to have that attitude or that mindset of saying that, like, oh, yeah, it's no big deal to sin. No, that's not what we believe at all. It's a very big deal to get insane, especially when you're when you're doing so willfully. But what we know is that God's never going to lie or break his promise when he's promised eternal life. Guess what? That life is eternal. And when he's given it to you as a gift, he doesn't take it away because you didn't keep the commandments. So that truth still exists. But it is a wicked mindset in a wicked place. Yeah, yeah. Let's just say God forbid. God forbid. And this is unfortunately what what people have thought in the past. Like, no, it's not it's not a big deal. We're going to do what we're going to do. Not listening to what God has to say and think that we could get away with it. It's just fine. First, John five, 14. The Bible reads this, and this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hear with us. And that's that's a key caveat there. If we ask anything according to his will, he hear with us. And that's it. That's true. It's a matter of fact. You ask anything according to the will of God, he will hear you. So all these times that we saw God not hearing, I don't want to hear this. Well, part of the reason is because that stuff wasn't according to God's will because God doesn't want to hear the intercession, for example, in Jeremiah, for those people that he's bringing judgment upon. But I don't want to hear it. They they have gotten to this point. Now, I'm not going to hear you because my will at all is not to have any intercessor for them because I already gave them the chance and I already gave them their opportunity. Verse 15, And if we know that he hear us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. Look at verse 16, If any man see his brother sin a sin, which is not unto death, he shall ask and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death. I do not say that he shall pray for it. All unrighteousness is sin and there is a sin not unto death. All unrighteousness is sin. Everybody is a sinner. OK, but there is a sin unto death that the Bible is referring to here. And you say, look, you can pray for people. You can pray for sinners. You can pray for for them to be recovered out of sin. But you know what? You don't pray for them that sin unto death. Don't pray for it. There's that line that's that's crossed. And he's saying, don't pray for that. A good example is don't you know, the person who adds to or removes from the word of God and God's taken away their place out of the Book of Life and out of the Holy City and all the blessings. You know what? We don't need to pray for those people. That's a sin unto death. And, you know, there's different ways of looking at this passage, but that absolutely for sure is going to fit. Right. But I point this out again, not to get too deep on this one passage, because we need to get back into Psalms. God doesn't hear every prayer. Some prayers God gets angry with. So we as we as we dig into this and see this, we say, look, OK, well. Most commonly, what is it that God's going to hear? God wants to hear the repentant sinner, the repentant heart or the faithful, obedient servant. Right. He'll hear the prayers. And but the people that just want to keep on doing what they're doing and thinking there's no consequences or whatever, and not acknowledging the wrongfulness of their actions and just want to, you know, keep going. Well, God's not going to hear that. So let's go back to Psalm 80. Let's get more into the spirit of the psalm here. Because it's still it's still a plea for God to turn to turn the people back, like turn us again, God. Turn us the right way. Get us on the right path. Cause thy face to face to face to shine and we shall be saved. And he asks, how long will thou be angry against the prayer of this of thy people? Verse five. Where am I? Here I am. Thou feedest them with the bread of tears. And give us them tears to drink in great measure. Thou makest us a strife unto our neighbors and our enemies laugh among themselves. So these are this is the judgment of God upon the people that have not turned, that have not sought out the Lord and have just been involved in their own wickedness. His people are being fed bread of tears, sorrow that he's bringing sorrow on the people and fighting amongst their neighbors. You know, they're having more wars. They're going to have more problems. The enemies laugh among themselves. Verse seven. It's reader again. Turn us again, O God of hosts, and cause thy face to shine and we shall be saved. So what's what do they what does he what does the psalmist know he needs for them to be saved? Well, they need to turn to the Lord. He's asking for God's help in their repentance to him. Turn us again, God, whatever we need, whatever this people needs to be brought low enough to turn to you. Hey, turn us to you and then cause your face to shine, meaning be there for us. Right. Be be open and ready to receive us. And then if that happens, we're turned to you and you have your face to shine upon us. Hey, we're saved. We're good. At that point, we know we're good. Verse eight, thou has brought a vine out of Egypt. Thou has cast out the heathen and planted it. And this is, of course, likening. Israel coming forth out of Egypt as a vine, as a plant. So he's saying, you know, you brought this vine out of Egypt. You cleared out a path. You got the heathen out of the way. And here you planted this vine. Thou prepare its room before it and did cause it to take deep root. And it filled the land. You blessed this vine. You gave it space. It took root down. It got strengthened where it was. You blessed the vine and it started to grow and it started to fill that whole land that you prepared for that plant for that vine. The hills were covered with the shadow of it, meaning it shot up. It shot up high. Right. God exalted this nation. God exalted this vine. God exalted this people. And the bows thereof were like the goodly cedars. She sent out her bows unto the sea and her branches unto the river. So great blessing, great growth, great expansion. Right. God has just totally blessed this vine. Verse 12. Why is thou then broken down her hedges? So God has kept the vine safe. God has has prepared the place and got everything ready. But now it's saying, well, why did you break down the hedges? The hedges are what's keeping that protection for the vine. So that all they which pass by the way do plucker. Right. So that that's and this is what happens when God removes his protection. You have the thieves come through that steal and these people are coming in just plucking and taking away and taking away and taking away from what God has given and blessed. And this is this is what's going to what happens to any nation that God has blessed, that God has made righteous, that turns from the Lord. And God saying, OK, you know, because when you follow him, he promises his protection. Hey, the enemy is going to flee from you. You know, 10 of you shall shall chase a thousand. You're going to be so blessed and have so much of my protection. And, you know, I'm going to cause the rain and I'm going to going to bless your and your habitation when you do what's right. And this is, again, all throughout the law, all throughout the Old Testament. This is how God deals with nations. So now this will wait, why did you break down our hedges so that all which pass by, by the way, do plucker the bore out of the wood doth waste it and the wild beast of the field doth devour it. So it brings up these two beasts, right, the wild beast and a boar. The boar is like a pig. I mean, think about the animal that just it's just in pigs, especially these wild boars, wild pigs are extremely destructive animals. Like they just they trample and tear up and destroy. And it's almost like they're like, what good do they do? You know, like they're they're a type of an animal that just really can do a lot of damage. And this is, you know, there's areas in other states like Texas is one of them where these populations got out of control. And you don't like like you barely even need a license or anything to kill these things. They really open up, you know, loosen the restrictions on these things because they're such a kind of a devastating beast. But what is this referring to? This is referring to the people now who are wasting the vine. Right. The the lowest of the low or the basest of people who are going to come in and destroy God's people and God's vine. Why? Because God has removed the hedge of protection that were around it. So, again, don't be surprised when even the lowest of the people and you have wicked people now judging the Christian nation or judging God's people. Why? Because they've turned their back on the Lord. Because they have didn't listen to God's rebuke. God's sending his prophets early and sending his warning and sending his message. And when people just reject it, reject it, reject it. Well, guess what? The hedge is broken down. The boar and the wild beast now are coming in to devour and destroy. And this is what we see right now. And this is what we see we've seen in the past throughout history. God blesses a nation and they get too full of pride and not want to hear from the Lord anymore and turn to vanities and turn to wickedness. Well, that hedge is gone. Now, the wild beast and the boar coming in devouring. Verse 14. Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts. Look down from heaven and behold and visit this vine. And the vineyard which thy right hand hath planted and the branch that thou made us strong for thyself. So so the plea here is, God, you love this vine. Look back to this vine that's being destroyed. Now look back to this vine and help this vine. Lord, you invested so much. You love this vine. You made it strong for yourself. It is burned with fire. It is cut down. They perish at the rebuke of thy countenance. Verse 17. Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man whom thou made us strong for thyself. And this is what we need to understand about ourselves as well as a man. Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand. So who's a man of who's the right hand man? That's that's where it's like that phrase comes from. The right hand man. It's someone who's going to be right there to do all the bidding, to do all that work. Someone who's going to be faithful and dependable and be all for the boss. And who's our boss? The Lord. Right. So we ought to be a right hand man for God. We ought to be right there for him, standing at his right hand and doing the work. And it says upon the son of man whom thou made us strong for thyself. If God makes you strong, don't forget that he's making you strong for him. Not for you, not for your glory, not for your pride, not for your vanity, but for the Lord. What God has blessed you with, however he's strengthened you, it's for him. As I already mentioned earlier, you know, you're not your own. You're bought with a price. God, when God strengthened David's hand and taught his hands to war. Right. So that he could he could bend a bow of steel and he could and he could war and fight. It wasn't for his own glory. It was for the glory of the Lord. It was to be able to lead God's people and lead them in a godly way. That's why he God strengthened David. And it doesn't have to be a physical strength. It could be any type of strength when God strengthens you and God gives you talents and he gives you skills and he gives you whatever power you have. Look, it's for him. Don't forget that it's for him. God's given you some musical ability and some and some special skills. Look, don't just use that and think, oh, this is all for me. I'm so good at this and I'm going to go out and I'm going to have this rock band and I'm going to be in front of the crowds and I'm going to have everybody worshipping me out on a stage. No, it's for him. You should be using that for him. Your strength. Use it for the Lord. Now made a strong for thyself verse 18. So will not we go back from the quick in us and we will call upon thy name. And of course, verse 19 wraps it up with the same phrase or the same sentence, same verse. Turn us again. Oh, God. Oh, Lord, God of hosts, cause thy face to shine and we shall be saved. So much to learn in these passages. Let's learn from the mistakes made previously in scripture from other people so that we don't have to make them. And let's learn also to seek God and not to get so far away from God where he's not going to want to hear your prayer. Right. Let's have a healthy fear of the Lord going, man, I never want to be in that place. I don't even want to know what it's like. I don't want to know what it's like to be so dark and in a dark place where I would be like King Saul was trying to seek God. And God just not answering you at all. And sometimes we may feel like God's not hearing us and God's answering us. And sometimes it's just because of God's timing. It's not necessarily because you're just super wicked and like like in all manner of sin. But see, you should know that for yourself. If you're just involved in all kinds of wickedness, then you better realize, hey, if I'm starting to feel like God's not there. Well, yeah, maybe he's not. Maybe you're now you're reaping what you've sown. OK. And of course, you never you can never lose your salvation. But, you know, be careful with the choices that you make and the path that you want to you want to live. And don't but don't my whole point is don't automatically just say like, oh, man, I just must be super wicked. Even if you haven't done anything because you feel you might feel like God's not answering your prayers. Well, no, it does. He does still work on his time. And God knows what's best for us more than we do. Sometimes we ask for things we don't realize that that's not necessarily even the best thing for us in our life. And God might not answer that. And you'd be like, I don't know. But look, I'm doing the things I'm supposed to be doing. I know my heart is right. I know I'm trying to serve the Lord, but I don't feel like God is hearing me. He is. OK. And just remember, especially you ask things according to his will, whatever you're asking him for, you say, well, is this what God wants? Is this what God has said that he wanted in the scripture? Then, you know, you're praying for the right things and you know that God is hearing you. So when you don't see the answer to that prayer right away, but you know that you're praying for the right thing. Just keep at it. Right. That's not that there's not necessarily anything to do as a result of you. Right. Just might mean that you don't fully understand. What you should be asking for, you should, but God still hears it. And we have a holy ghost that intercedes for us and and helps us in our own prayers to the Lord. But let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer right now. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for. These great Psalms and all the great doctrine and we learn from them, dear Lord, I pray that you would please help us to stay humble and. Not get down these these bad paths where where people just increasingly grow wicked and where you get to a point where you don't want to even hear and you start getting angry at the prayers. Lord, help us all to put ourselves in check and. What a scary thought that you wouldn't that you might not hear us when we pray. I pray that you would. Stir up our spirit with the Holy Ghost. When we do start to stray and. Give us the reproof that we need. So that we can get right and that you will continue to hear us when we pray. And, Lord, we love you. I do pray that you will. Especially collectively, you've blessed this land, you've blessed this people so much. And as a whole, we've turned our back on you and so many people have just. Begun rejecting your word and the truths and instruction from the Bible, and I pray that you would please turn us back to you, dear Lord. And we love you to Jesus name, we pray men. All right, we're going to sing one more song before we're dismissed. Brother, awesomely, please meet us. All right, you guys can turn in your hymnals to Psalm 355. That is song 355. What a friend we have in Jesus. Three fifty five. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Every child. We should never be. Take it to the Lord. And we find a. Take it to the Lord. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. It's. Come on.