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you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you our first song will be song 227 that is song 227 saved by the blood song 227 saved by the blood of the crucified one saved by the blood of the crucified one saved by the blood of the crucified one saved by the blood of the crucified one brother Jeremy can you pray for us please give you the honor come on oh oh oh oh amen all right it's good to have you all here with us at stronghold baptist church on this Wednesday evening if you do not have a bulletin slip your hand up real high and our show make sure you get one keep your hand raised so you receive that bulletin and if you open up to the first page you will see our service times listed there always Sunday morning at 10 30 Sunday evening again at 5 p.m. and Wednesday night at 7 of course is our Bible study we have the opportunities listed there as well as the salvation and the baptisms for month of November as well as for the year sorry I'm my brain is somewhere else uh and offering totals for the for the year for the month uh let's go ahead and count up if there's any salvations to report for the week anyone have any salvations to report yes or two on what day today amen anything else to report all right very good keep up the good work preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ prayer requests um scissor katie's grandmother died she passed away so please keep her and her family in your prayers I did see that she did say that that she was saved so it's always good news but of course we're going to continue to pray for uh for the family while they grieve and mourn the loss as well as um keith's brother-in-law's mother passed away as well so similar situation is pray for for uh everyone there it's impacted by the passing and that hopefully lord willing people would be um softening their hearts to the gospel and that people will get an opportunity to hear the gospel there um let's see if there's any updates to the people on the list uh leslie do you have a date when your mom is starting a radiation treatment now the fifth so uh patty is going to be resuming her therapy she's paused the chemotherapy and she's getting radiation treatments and that should start on the fifth so appreciate your prayers there um appreciate your prayers there uh does anyone and then uh shahan mom to hen i talked to brother mo on on sunday night and um so please please pray for her uh that's brother mark's cousin that's his that's uh brother mo's niece and uh she was just diagnosed with breast cancer so please pray for for her healing as well um anyone else have any updates for prayer list all right very good continuing on here uh we announced the engagement of chloe miller and solomon anderson she's very exciting i think we're being married uh shortly after the new year in arizona so that's uh that's exciting for them and be sure to wish her congratulations november challenge so we're almost done with the month of november and the um the challenge of course is to add one extra hour of time for each week so um as i mentioned previously you have until the end of this week is saturday so so i'm giving you that those you know call them bonus days or whatever just in case you didn't get that the last extra hour and if you needed to get it in this week um you've got until until saturday to get that done to complete the challenge and then the december challenge is starting up here real soon in just what two days i think is is december 1st is friday right so december 1st don't forget don't forget it's a friday it's gonna be easy to forget don't forget to sing those hymns if you need a song book take one home with you and uh if you want to do the challenge it's a fun challenge i think it's great uh i think everyone should participate in this one's a lot of fun singing for hymns uh every day and also not listening to the junk that's put out by the world worldly music cut it out of your life don't um don't willingly subject yourself to listening to what the world is pushing out so that's whether it be on the radio or uh mp3s your whatever however you listen to music um i would i recommend since it is a habit normally like most things just replacing it with something that is godly something that's spiritual uh if you would like recommendations on that uh i can be happy to help you out with some recommendations of things that you can listen to that would fall in the category of psalms hymns spiritual songs um as far as there's you know there's there's apps and and other things that you can you can start streaming there's websites there's plenty of sources to have godly music if you want to have that in your life and i'm happy to share what i am aware of and what i listen to with you so um just let me know if you are interested in that gingerbread house decorating is this saturday two o'clock so we're gonna have a lot of fun and um if you had not signed up and you did want to attend uh let me know please directly let me know as soon as possible but um for everyone who has already signed up no problems no worries i'm sure we'll have plenty of supplies um we we bought a little bit extra and we also weren't certain how many people in the household at the time that we bought them we're gonna be using the houses so i think we also planned a little bit ahead as well so we should be plenty good with the uh with the houses so please come on out and join us for that we'd love to have you here and it's just a great deal of fun two o'clock this saturday right here uh new church plant in greenville south carolina still looking for a place just pray that god will give us wisdom in making a solid decision on finding a location in greenville bible memory passage so the hebrews 10 verses 1 through 22 deadline was sunday night so if you didn't quote it then that is closed that is done um is there anyone here that did not raise their hand i asked there's six people that raised their hand on completing it did anyone actually complete it that did not raise their hand on sunday i know we got a smaller crowd tonight but um get started get started on the the latter half of this passage you got nine weeks to complete this versus 23 through 39 16 verses um might be 17 inclusively there i'm not sure probably uh but nine weeks to complete that and you get a prize for being able to do that upcoming events are listed down there at the bottom of the page there is a soul winning marathon and and i was informed on sunday that is mainly brother preston who's really heading that up i'm sure he's going to be you know the other the other people who um all fellowship together from north carolina are they said they are planning on going but he's the one who's spearheading that event so uh if you want to join them in charlotte then just get a get a hold of brother preston and he could give you all the the finer details of that event december 16th is a christmas caroling please make sure you do sign up for that um we don't have the time exactly yet but normally we meet up here i think around three thirty or four some somewhere in that time frame um so there's just enough time to kind of go over how we're going to do everything and we go out and hit the streets locally just just pretty close to the building and uh go out and for approximately an hour and then we'll come back and have a nice meal so uh that is on the 16th it's another saturday christmas cookie exchange on the 24th christmas eve it's a sunday uh for those of you that want to join or participate in that please sign up and then the watch night service uh is immediately following the church service uh you don't have to sign up for that we'll just see how many people are here and i'll just probably get a show of hands on sunday that sunday of who's going to be sticking around for dinner uh january 19th pizza movie night and then may 13th that whole week is our church camp so on the back we've got the birthdays and anniversaries and it looks like there is a birthday today yes mrs carter so uh happy birthday are glad that you are here with us on your birthday and as always you have been coming here long enough you know that you are entitled to uh a nice ice cream i know it's it's not a very warm day today but uh you still can get that that ice cream from the freezer and uh and help yourself to that and we will sing a happy birthday to mrs carter happy birthday to you happy birthday to you happy birthday god bless you happy birthday to you all right very good very good and you can see the rest of the birthdays and anniversaries listed there uh for the month of december and that is it for our announcements for the evening 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 and turn to song 396 so that is song 396 so little time song 396 on the first so little time the harvest will be over our we first report our word to jesus and hope you'll smile and that you'll say well done today we for his golden harvest today is given us to him golden to save some dear ones from the burning today we'll go to bring some spirit how many times i should have strongly pleaded how often i feel too strictly warm the spirit i know that i've meant for jesus the greatest golden house once not before today we for his golden harvest today is given us all souls to win golden to save some dear ones from the burning today we'll go to bring some spirit despite the need the ceaseless tone of hardship the broken heart for those we cannot win misunderstood because we're all peculiar still no regrets we'll have one for ourselves today we for his golden harvest today is given us all souls to win golden to save some dear ones from the burning today we'll go to bring some spirit a day of pleasure or a feast of friendship the house or thaw or garments fair or fain we'll all be trash when souls are brought to heaven and then have sense to face the slackers pain today we for his golden harvest today is given us golden to save some dear ones from the burning today we'll go to bring some spirit a harvest wide with wreathers fear is wasting and many souls will die and never go the love of Christ is forgiven oh let us be and love and praise go today we for his our golden harvest today is given us all souls to win golden to save some dear ones from the burning today we'll go to bring singing church this time I'd like to ask the ushers if they can set up for the offering and while the ushers are collecting the Wednesday offering if you guys could grab your Bibles and turn to Psalm 81 and especially right here at the fire amen church once again that is the book of Psalms Psalm 81 Psalm 81 the Bible reads sing aloud unto God our strength make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob take a song and bring hither the timbrel the pleasant harp with the psaltery blow up the trumpet in the new moon in the time appointed on our solemn feast day for this was a statute for Israel and a law of the God of Jacob this he ordained in Joseph for a testimony when he went out through the land of Egypt where I heard a language that I understood not I removed his shoulder from the burden his hands were delivered from the pots thou callest in trouble and I delivered thee I answered thee in the secret place of thunder I approved thee at the waters of Meribah Selah hear all my people and I will testify unto thee oh Israel that thou would hearken unto me there shall no strange God be in thee neither shalt thou worship any strange God I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt open thy mouth wide and I will feel it but my people would not hearken to my voice and Israel would none of me so I gave them up unto their own hearts lust and they walked in their own counsels oh that my people had hearkened unto me and Israel had walked in my ways I should soon have subdued their enemies and turned my hand against their adversaries the haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves unto him but their time should have endured forever he should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee let's pray father god thank you once again for this church thank you for the souls that have been saved throughout this week and throughout this whole entire this is of this church thank you for all the other like-minded churches that have been soul winning and saving souls god we also thank you for pastor burzins fill him with your spirit allow for him to preach your boldness and allow for ears be attended to your word and god thank you for all that you've done in our lives and god we recognize you as being the one and only god that you are the way the truth in life no man can come unto the father but by you so god we just praise you thank you just for salvation for everything that you've done for us we say this in Jesus name amen all right let's dig right into psalm 81 if you look down in your bibles there verse number one the bible reads sing aloud unto god our strength make a joyful noise unto the god of jacob of course the psalm is a song and it starts off with praise to the lord verse two says take a psalm and bring hither the timbrel the pleasant harp with the psaltery blow up the trumpet in the new moon in the time appointed on our solemn feast day for this was a statute for israel and a law of the god of jacob now verses two through four there's a lot of reference to musical instruments and i like the sermon that brother devon just preached recently about learning to play a musical instrument i think it's a great sermon and and i you know would to god more people will choose to to um pick up that skill and and learn how to play a musical instrument skill and and learn how to play an instrument and i i can't recall if you made any reference to this or not in a sermon i honestly don't remember but um i you know one thing that i would just stress is when it comes to like talent and things with with musical instruments you know i i the more i've been learning and understanding how things just kind of how people work and how things work when it comes to talent i'm not saying it doesn't exist like uh you know there's definitely people who are who are really good at playing playing instruments and stuff like that and some people seem it seems to come a little bit easier for than others but the people that we deem to be really great musicians they don't just play that way without having to work at it and having to work tremendously hard at it too like the best musicians out there really spend a lot of time invested in that craft in that uh uh practicing of their music so it's easy for someone who is not involved in that and doesn't even know necessarily how much time people are spending doing stuff and you just hear and be like oh wow you know it's like like brother josh is just fantastic on the piano and he is he's a very good uh uh piano player as well as mrs rogers but you don't see the the the practice that goes on outside of church right you don't get to see how much time has been spent and even just in in their lifetimes up to this point you know of of the the amount of time it just goes into it goes into it so they make it look really easy and people who are really good at something always are able to make it look really easy right it's just kind of like oh wow yeah it looks so great and then you try to do it it's like man you know I don't know how to do this you kind of throw up your hands it's easy get frustrated with it and you get to be like well that that's just something for them but anybody can learn how to do these things and I and I am a strong believer in that and while there may be some more aptitude in general with some people over others in in different areas and maybe musical ability is one of those anyone is capable of being good at playing an instrument but it does require work and it requires effort and it requires time I mean you have to want to do it so I'm not saying everyone has to want to play an instrument either okay but the reason I'm even bringing this up is so that you wouldn't just automatically put these things out of your mind as something that like well that's just not for me because I'm just no good at it I don't have the talent that so and so has but you don't know that how do you know how much talent you really have oh just because you don't get it like immediately you know what I mean like you know I tried doing it once and I don't know and you know no get you know work at it give it some time you could you might be excellent at playing some instrument you don't even realize it so I would I would just say this is encouragement right it's not it's not you all must learn how to do play musical instruments if you have if you like it at all right if you enjoy music if you enjoy the sounds of music and things just just give it a go give it give give it some try whatever type of instrument you like kind of most and see see what it's like and and maybe put some effort into it for a while too before you just dismiss it it's good if nothing else to have just more education and wisdom you know you learn more about music theory you understand you could read the notes you could you could know more about what goes into songs and music and maybe maybe that would lead you down a path of composition maybe you're not great at playing you know there's so many avenues to go down and I just just as a word of encouragement and you know this goes with languages this goes with with other things that people have a tendency to just kind of brush off as going well I don't have that talent I'm not very good at that but I think the the talent might get a little overstated because it really mostly boils down to a lot of effort and a lot of work and people who are more passionate about those things are going to excel because they're they enjoy putting in the time doing the things that they like doing I mean that makes sense so if it's not something you like at all then yeah maybe it's not for you it's not like you have to play an instrument to be godly okay but we are seeing here and my next point and what I want to point out here is we see all these instruments and and you know one of the most silly things I've ever heard as a doctrine that a New Testament Christian Church has is again like there's some people out there that are against having instruments in their church services and sorry it makes me kind of laugh a little bit because the whole point or at least the best argument that I've heard for this is an argument based off of omission meaning well we don't see anyone using instruments in the New Testament therefore we shouldn't use them it's kind of like do you really have to see that to just make the claim of like well we shouldn't do this that's kind of silly if you ask me especially when the New Testament tells us to um that we're supposed to sing the psalms that we're supposed to be speaking unto each other and psalms and hymns and spiritual songs right and then we go to the psalms and we also know that the psalms are the word of god and we know that all scripture is profitable to us and it's profitable for instruction right it's given by inspiration of god it is profitable for us to learn things from and it's not just to learn how they did things in the Old Testament like there's a lot of great truth in the word of god in the Old Testament we look at these psalms and he's saying here sing aloud and it's like well should we not sing then because that's an Old Testament thing oh but we can find people singing yeah they they sung a hymn with Jesus at the at the last supper or something it's like and they weren't carrying instruments around with them otherwise they might have been playing music too you know like whatever that's not it's not a reason to not have musical instruments but we see here clearly take a psalm and bring hither the timbrel which is an instrument the pleasant harp which is an instrument with the psaltery which is another instrument and then it says blow up the trumpet in the new moon in the time appointed on our solemn feast day and that says for this was a statute for Israel so this was actually a commandment given in the law of god now if you just look for well the new moon you hear about this really interesting if you've ever tried to look into this before and I and I and I looked into this while I was preparing for the sermon specifically you might you hear it in the major prophets more frequently about the new moons and your feasts and you know god talking about the new moons and bringing that up but when you actually go back to the law you won't find the new moon you'll find the feast of tabernacles you'll find the feast of unleavened bread you know you'll find the the feast of the in gathering you'll find these other holy holy days you'll find other times but then it's like well why where is the new moon the new moon still exists in the scripture and this is why the psalm isn't the psalmist isn't wrong saying it was the law of the god of jacob keep your place here in psalm 81 and turn back if you would to numbers chapter 10 and here's why it makes sense to to blow the trumpet in the new moon and that this was part of the law of god numbers 10 verse number 10 the bible says this also in the day of your gladness and in your solemn days and in the beginnings of your months you shall blow with the trumpets over your burnt offerings and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings that they may be to you for a memorial before your god i am the lord your god now every day they're having their burnt offerings or peace offerings the evening sacrifice the morning sacrifice like they have all these things laid out in the law but then it says it says here in this verse though that in the beginnings of your months now if you know anything about the hebrew calendar you'll know that it was a lunar calendar and they didn't operate like we're used to the gregorian calendar we're used to the the solar calendar where our years are based on uh you know the sun and and the 365 days in a year but their months were based off of the lunar calendar which we know uh the the uh lunar cycle isn't a full 30 or 31 days like we have for each of our months it's it's a little bit less than that so i don't want to get super in depth tonight on all the math behind the the the days and how they calculated their years because they have to have like we have a leap a leap year and there's a leap year coming up right next year so 2024 is going to be a leap year and we add one day why because our days last or our years are 365 and a quarter days roughly right that's that's approximately how much time is spent so every year or every four years you got to tack on a day because if you don't slowly over time right like we're in we're at the end of november now after enough time you know it's cold outside in november now it could get to get down to freezing well well over enough time it'll be summer right and then we're in november and it kind of screws things up with the way we're doing our months so it's easier just to say well let's just throw an extra day in there to make sure that we could keep everything still in tune with the seasons and back in in in ancient times especially and with with the hebrews they operated on a lunar cycle and according to the season so they still took kept track of year they weren't getting all out of whack but they just had to insert more days over the year and they would do it in terms of months or maybe another cycle or something like that and and and use literally another month instead of just doing it for a day okay but this is how they would keep track of their time and when you look into this it's really fascinating and it starts to make a little bit more sense and this is why it's good to have just a little bit more education about these things right it helps just a little bit to to get a good clear understanding so when you come across something like this you go well you know when you really decide to study and dig into it and go well what do you mean blow up the trumpet in the new moon i've seen that before but i didn't see that in the law but it says this was a statute for israel and a law for the god of the god of jacob right so how does this make sense well it makes perfect sense when you understand that oh the blowing of the trumpets it happens at the beginnings of the month and when we see everything is based on these different feasts that have to do with with with the agriculture with the harvest right there's there's there's a lot of stress and emphasis on these things it was a much more agrarian culture and and you know relied on these things big deal so they um they kept their time accordingly and similarly or sir along the same mindset and turn if you would to numbers chapter 28 the when you're when you're talking about your days with the children of israel the days start in the evening they go evening to evening which really isn't that much different than what we do here because we use midnight as the time when the calendar switches to the next day so theirs is essentially roughly six hours earlier than that right so it's a little bit earlier it's when the sun goes down evening time would start the next day and then it goes all the next day and the reason why they chose that is because the bible says in genesis one in the evening in the morning were the first day in the evening morning were the second day in the evening in the morning so so so you're getting this concept of starting with the evening going through to the next that's the the the way that they did the time now are we just wicked heathens that are terrible because we're not using the lunar calendar no doesn't matter right it literally doesn't matter but it does help when we're looking at this stuff to have that understanding okay that's how they did things great it also helps a little bit when you're doing some of the uh figuring on prophecies and just sort of understanding a little bit and that might help you when you find some uh nice little gems of truth in scripture when you're looking at the the time frames of of things yet to come especially all right uh you're in numbers 28 look at verse uh verse number 11 the bible says and in the beginnings of your months you shall offer a burnt offering unto the lord two young bullocks and one ram seven lambs of the first year without spot and three tenth deals of flour for meat offering mingled with oil for one bullock and two tenth deals of flour for meat offering mingled with oil for one ram and a several tenth deal of flour mingled with oil for meat offering unto one lamb for a burnt offering of a sweet saver a sacrifice made by fire unto the lord and their drink offering shall be half an hint of wine unto a bullock and a third part of an hint unto a ram and a fourth part of an hint unto a lamb this is the burnt offering of every month throughout the months of the year and one kid of the goats for a sin offering unto the lord shall be offered beside the continual burnt offering and his drink offering so in numbers 10 we saw that you know the blowing of the trumpets was included in the offering at the first of the month and this just goes into a little bit more detail about these special offerings that are taking place at the beginning of their months and it's good just to understand that we you know we're going to learn more over time going through the various sacrifices that the Children of Israel will make and even at the beginning of their months was a special time where they had specific sacrifices to be made so let's go back to Psalm 81 and also to make the point then this is going back to the law of God David introduced a lot of instruments right King David seemed to be a man that loved music he played music he played well remember he was brought in for Saul when Saul was plagued by that evil spirit from the lord and he would play and then evil spirit would depart and he was cunning by playing music and he also introduced the having the priests and the Levites and having other servants of the lord playing instruments in their service to the lord we kind of see him bringing a lot of that in but he didn't bring in all musical instruments it's not like there wasn't any music being played prior to that because they had these trumpets going all the way back to the law of Moses and having a part in the aspect of the service to the lord so you don't want to have a false understanding of like oh all these instruments started with David no they didn't all just start with David they had all God had already had music involved and these trumpets involved in his service going all the way back to the law of Moses at least so there's no reason again to say well I mean you don't see all yeah you don't have to see a lot of it doesn't mean it's not there New Testament hey let's praise the lord with instruments and sing praises unto his name and make a beautiful sound unto the lord yes with our voice but also with other instruments as well it gives honor and glory unto the lord look down there verse number five of psalm 81 the bible says this he ordained in joseph for a testimony when he went out through the land of Egypt where I heard a language that I understood not I removed his shoulder from the burden his hands were delivered from the pots thou callest in trouble and I delivered thee I answered thee in the secret place of thunder I proved thee at the waters of Meribah so now in the psalm here we're getting we start off with the praising to the lord and using the instruments and then covering the good things that God had done for Israel when he brought them out of Egypt and being you know removing the burden and delivering their hands and freeing them from their slavery essentially and they called on the lord and I answered and I was there to save you and it says I answered thee in the secret place of thunder and if you're wondering what that might be you could remember when Moses went up to receive the commandments from the lord there was a cloud and there was thunderings and when all the people came unto the mount they could hear the thunderings and Moses was allowed up there everyone wasn't allowed up there but he was able to go into there and at the presence of the lord there was that place of thunder where he was there communing with the lord and giving them what they needed giving them their direction giving them their commandments giving them the instruction to Moses and then he says I proved thee at the waters of Meribah so it's taking some events here that happened and kind of condensing them into a few verses and including this in the song here as we continue on we're going to see kind of getting more to the point of the psalm this is giving a little bit of a back story of how good God was to them and if you would just turn to Numbers chapter 20 we're going to revisit here when it talks about I proved thee at the waters of Meribah because this is a little that that with that phrase it kind of starts a shift in the psalm a little bit and it's getting us to the direction that the psalm is taking so it starts off with praising the lord singing unto him using instruments God's been really good to Israel God's been good to his people but right and then we're going to see but they didn't listen to me but this and this happened and it starts here with proving the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah let's look at Numbers chapter 20 when we start reading in verse number one this is that in that incident at the waters of Meribah then came the children of Israel even the whole congregation into the desert of Zin in the first month and the people abode in Kadesh and Miriam died there and was buried there and there was no water for the congregation and they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron and the people chode with Moses and spake saying would God that we had died when our brethren died before the lord and why have you brought up the congregation of the lord into this wilderness that we and our cattle should die there and wherefore have you made us to come up out of Egypt to bring us into this evil place it is no place of seed or of figs or of vines or of pomegranates neither is there any water to drink so notice all the complaining and they haven't even been freed from Egypt that long and they just keep complaining and this is even after people died because of their complaining now they're just complaining even further verse 6 Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation they fell upon their faces and the glory of the lord appeared unto them and the lord spake unto Moses saying take the rod and gather thou the assembly together thou and Aaron thy brother and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes and it shall give forth his water and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink so they don't have any water to drink and God knows this and God's already promised to supply their needs God's gonna feed them and God's gonna give them the water that they need to survive he's gonna sustain the children of Israel because he's the one who's led them out he's gonna care for them and he knows that this is a need now they're complaining about a whole host of other things he's not giving them all of that stuff but he is gonna give them the water and he's proving them here and he's proving the children of Israel they need to have the faith they need to trust the lord and that even in these impossible seeming situations God will take care of them it was an impossible situation being enslaved in Egypt but God delivered them it was an impossible situation fleeing from Pharaoh and his army and they're they're trapped by nature by a big sea but God delivered them through the sea and God brought the sea back down upon those that were chasing them and God defended them and God protected them and then they go into the wilderness and they need water and God brings them the water and they need food and God rains manna down from heaven and they need these things and God is taking care of their needs over and over and over again and he's proving himself he's proving them and he's proving himself to them through his miracles and but what did he command Moses here and this is important because what happens here is literally the reason why Moses and Aaron do not end up going into the promised land it is a result of this event right here at the waters of Meribah where Moses was no longer allowed to actually complete the mission of leading the children of Israel into the promised land which is why Joshua took over and then crossed over and of course then they fight against Jericho and Ai and continue on going into and inheriting the land and Moses only gets to get a glimpse of it and God shows it to him miraculously shows him all the land before he dies but he never crosses his foot over into the promised land because of this event and when you want to understand why well we have to look at the details of what God specifically said to do because what God specifically says to do matters and would to God we can all as Christians look to what God says and not try to spin it our own way or well God just said this so I'm just going to go ahead and do God said X I'm going to do Y but it's close enough no if you're going to learn anything about the Lord about the creator about God Almighty you know read the Bible and see when people just decide to do things their own way after God has already specifically said that it ought to be done God didn't specifically spell something out great you know God loves receiving praise and and you know the thoughts of your heart that are that are good towards him but when God tells you to do something a certain way you do it that way and God told Moses to do what in verse 8 take the rod gather the assembly together pretty simple instructions so far and Aaron thy brother and what do you say and speak unto the rock before their eyes so they're going to this rock and they're supposed to talk to the rock and it shall give forth his water you say hey rock we're thirsty give us water right and the rock's going to listen and obey and look the people are going to see that and that's amazing right it's a miracle and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock so thou shalt give the congregation their drink look at verse nine and Moses took the rod from before the Lord as he commanded him takes the rod that was number one and Moses and Aaron gather the congregation ok he's doing good Aaron's with him they get the congregation together before the rock so far he's doing everything exactly like the Lord said and he said unto them hear now ye rebels must we fetch you water out of this rock hold on a second Moses first of all you're supposed to be showing how God is providing for them not you and Aaron must we fetch you water out of this rock like you've got this special way of now being able to get water out of this rock Moses how about the Lord is going to provide for you from water out of this rock and Moses lifted up his hand look at this and with his rod he smote the rock twice now where did God ever tell him to hit the rock he didn't didn't tell him say what's the big deal pastor Burzins well God didn't say to do that and what matters is because we don't always understand why God wants to do things a certain way but God has a reason for why he wants it done a certain way and for us at our vantage point with the word of God and being able to have so much luxury of having information and having so many other books of the Bible delivered unto us it's not that hard to see the representation of the rock and the living water and being able to speak unto the rock to provide that living water for you right like this is a great illustration of Jesus Christ the rock of our salvation and the Holy Spirit and that living water is going forth abundantly the waters of life and being able to bring you and keep you and sustain you coming out of Jesus right and all you got to do is call on the rock to provide you that life it's a great example it's a great illustration but what did Moses do he added his own work to it he added his own work but it wasn't that much work I mean it doesn't matter he added his own work to it and that's not what God told him to do so that has significant consequences for Moses God was trying to show him something and all Moses had to do was just do it the way that God said and everything's great but instead he added his own spin to it he added his own thing and he gets himself in trouble so water came out and the water then did come out he smote the rock God still provided for him with the water and the congregation drank and the beast also he physically provided for him right but now the symbolism kind of screwed up here and the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron because he believed me not to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel see who was supposed to get the glory and honor I mean God was not do we have to fetch out this water for you out of the rock no sanctify the Lord not yourselves not how great leaders you are and oh you need water well we'll get this water for you no God's providing it for you sanctify the Lord because he believed me not to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them this is the water of Meribah because the children of Israel strove with the Lord and he was sanctified in them so this is that event and this is the proving grounds at the waters of Meribah and God doing all these great things for him as the Psalm said let's go back to Psalm 81 and this is the beginning of a turning point they're still listening to the Lord but it just gets a little skewed doesn't it and that's and this is how things go historically human beings human nature doesn't change right until we get new bodies we have this sinful flesh and everything has a life cycle and even God fearing churches and believers and movements and groups and generations of people who serve the Lord all seem to go through these cycles and it starts off with people being really zealous and listening to the Lord and wanting to follow and obey the Lord and then after a little bit of time you might get a little too comfortable and you start feeling like you can start doing things maybe a little bit different and tweaking things in their own way and then after enough time and more comfort and the blessings come and God bless you for being faithful to him and everything then people just start to forget about the Lord all together and not really wanting to have anything to do with this word things have shifted so far from just hey listen to my word and follow what I have to say and I'll guide you and I'll lead you to we're going to do what we want to do and how many Christian churches that I'm sure at one point they have a name that they lived and did great works for the Lord and making a difference in ministering to people with the word of God have just completely turned to where now you barely hear the word of God preached no one is using the word of God and converting souls to Christ but they have all kinds of activities going on maybe they're feeding the homeless maybe they're doing all kinds of other stuff right and doing plenty of good works in general but have just completely kind of stopped their ears and looking to hey what is the Bible just saying to do and we learn the lesson from God it's better to obey than to give sacrifice God is not as impressed with all the sacrifices that you can bring forward as much as he really just wants you to say what did the Lord tell me to do that's what I'm going to do right so living by the word of God every day is much more pleasing to God than whatever great thing and money and whatever else you could spend and give to something that you know that's that's not really what he's looking for and it doesn't mean that God's not pleased with the free will offering of course he is you know there's a time and a place for that but what he wants more than anything is just just listen to him just respect him and his word and receive it and treat it with the respect it deserves and the importance of saying hey I'm going to listen to what the Lord said and I'm really going to pay attention and study and do what he said literally that's what he wants from us that's what he wants from us that has a much higher priority than anything else so in Psalm 81 verse number 8 the Bible says hear all my people and I will testify unto thee O Israel if thou wilt hearken unto me so note this is coming right after the statement about the waters of Meribah you've got to listen if you're going to listen to me there shall no strange God be in thee neither shalt thou worship any strange God and this is a big deal for the Lord it's you know the first two commandments of the ten commandments right that kind of the the symbol of the old covenant verse 10 I am the Lord thy God I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the land out of the land of Egypt which is again understating don't go after other gods don't be bringing you know don't go worshipping anyone else I'm the one that brought you out I am the Lord your God you stay faithful to me and the rest of that verse verse 10 open thy mouth wide and I will fill it and how good of a God is our God I will I will take care of you like just listen to me and it's so simple and it's so basic and it's almost mind boggling we got this awesome infinite book of wisdom from the Lord our God that has been preserved through the ages and there's so much great truth in here and there's so there's nuance there's depth there's so much it's amazing it's fantastic but at the same time when you just really get the high level it's also just so simplistic it is so easy and over and over and over again we see these concepts of like look here here's some do's and don'ts I want you to follow me I want you to listen to me just obey me receive my word receive my word follow it do it just just do what I'm telling you to do that's it just do it and you know what I'll bless you and I'll cause your crops to grow and I'll build a hedge about you and your enemies are gonna run from you just obey me and listen to me that's it that's it obey my word follow my commands I will keep you safe I will bless you I will do many great things for you but if you choose to turn your back on me and you choose to just be disobedient and stubborn and stiff neck and you don't wanna hear now we got a problem and now you're gonna have all kinds of bad things happening to you right I mean this is the simplicity in the scripture and it's stated over and over and over and over again it's stated in law it's stated in the prophets it's even stated in the New Testament be not deceived God is not mocked for what's over a man so what that shall he also reap I mean it's these simple truths why do we make it so complicated right why is it so hard it shouldn't be well we got this flesh that's what makes it hard that is that is that is the problem is our flesh but it's not complicated we know this we know this we have to stay faithful but let's keep reading here in Psalm 81 so it's still showing like look if you'll listen to me don't go after these other gods I'm the Lord I saved you I brought you out open your mouth wide I'll fill it I will provide for you in abundance just look to me verse 11 but my people would not harken to my voice they wouldn't listen to me wouldn't listen and Israel would none of me so as a result verse 12 so I gave them up unto their own hearts lust and they walked in their own councils and what a foolish thing you want to walk after your own councils well I think I know better I'm going to give you advice how about we go to God for the advice how about we get the council from the Lord who knows everything and made everything and knows you better than you I'm going to get my advice from God I'm not going to worry about just coming up with my own advice from people like it's a foolish thing and turn if you go to Acts chapter 7 God is so willing to give and provide like God's heart and his love is there and his long suffering and mercy is there too and he really wants what's best for his people absolutely he wants people to open up their mouth so he can fill it he wants that to just people looking to him and relying on him and asking hey just ask you'll receive right then we change things and in Acts 7 this great portion of scripture we have Stephen the martyr Stephen who's preaching this great sermon against the Jews there and kind of gives us this big history of things that happened it does a good job of summarizing kind of what Psalm 81 has summarized for us already look at verse number 37 in Acts chapter 7 the Bible reads this is he that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the Mount Sinai and with our fathers who received the lively oracles to give unto us to whom our fathers would not obey but thrust him from them and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt so he's saying remember in the secret place of the thunders in Mount Sinai he received the word of the Lord the lively oracles to give unto the people God is giving him good things but what did the people do they wouldn't obey they thrust them and in their hearts they turned back to Egypt saying unto Aaron make us gods to go before us for as for this Moses which brought us out of the land of Egypt we what not what has become of him and they made a calf in those days and offered sacrifice unto the idol and rejoiced in the works of their own hands and this is literally what God was saying in Psalm 81 not to do there shall no strange God be in thee neither shalt thou worship any strange God but so quickly they go back to doing that verse 42 then God turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven as it is written in the book of the prophets O ye house of Israel have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch and the star of your God Remfam figures which ye made to worship them and I will carry you away beyond Babylon when people push things too far with God even his own people he says you know what I'm just going to give them up unto their own hearts lust I'm going to give them up and they're going to be taken captive I'm going to give them up and they're going to you know these things are going to happen and obviously you know there's some similarity but God deals with nations a little bit different they deal with people if a nation is going to be saved you got to have good works but if your soul is going to be saved as an individual you just need to put your trust in the Lord you need to put your trust in Jesus Christ right but still if you're a born again believer and you just have a stiff neck and a hard heart to obeying the Lord and doing the things he's going to have for you to do you're also going to be facing the consequences and God's going to make you reap what you sow and thankfully right you don't ever lose your salvation that wasn't ever on the table once he's saved you you're saved forever it's never based on how good you are but at the same time you could find yourself in a position where God's just done with you I'm done with him and we see the heart of the Lord and I'll read this for you in Psalm 81 turn if you would to Matthew 23 Psalm 81 verse 13 verse 12 I'll reread for you so I gave them up unto their own hearts lust and they walked in their own counsels oh that my people had hearkened unto me and Israel had walked in my ways the Lord is lamenting here in Psalm 81 why didn't you just listen to me you could have just listened to me why didn't you just do it why did you have to go after your own lust because now you're forcing the Lord to do these things right we bring the destruction upon ourselves like just listen to God it's all you got to do and you know and we just have this tendency to want to blame everyone else like take the responsibility for yourself when you turn away from God and start going after your own hearts lust and that's you know look you did that you brought it on yourself God didn't want that for you God is trying to instruct you God's trying to teach you through his word oh that you would have hearkened unto me and this is the same lament that Jesus Christ had for Jerusalem look at verse number 37 in Matthew 23 oh Jerusalem Jerusalem thou that killest the prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee how often would I have gathered thy children together even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and ye would not behold your house is left unto you desolate so how often I wanted to just bring you into the fold I just wanted to care for you I just wanted to love on you a little bit I wanted to bless you I wanted to be there for you I really wanted you to be with me but you would have nothing to do with it I sent you the prophets I'm trying to reach you I'm trying to teach you and what did they do? They killed them no we won't have this man to rule over us okay now your house is left unto you desolate it's empty you have nothing let's go back to Psalm 81 God is good God doesn't want to have to bring this judgment on people they bring it on themselves verse 14 I should soon have subdued their enemies and turned my hand against their adversaries I should have just been able to defend them and protect them and when their enemies came I would have loved to just been able to just send them away because that's what God wanted to do and that's what he should have been able to do but no the people screwed it up because they wouldn't listen they wouldn't hearken to the word of the Lord verse 15 the haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves unto him but their time should have endured forever so what's that saying the haters of the Lord they should have submitted themselves unto him but they didn't right that's not what happened and God's people should have endured forever because he promised them that remember the old covenant hey you listen to me you obey my laws I'm going to bless you and all of your enemies God's going to chase away that's what he promised them so he's like they should have been submitted unto you they should have been defeated I would have loved to do that but you didn't listen verse 16 he should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee the blessing should have come the defense should have come all of the good things should have happened but they didn't because they gave themselves over unto their own counsels unto the lusts of their flesh and therefore God had to give them up and turn if you would to Romans chapter 1 we're almost done I know many of you understand this doctrine well but I still think this fits in here because psalm 81.15 mentions the haters of the Lord and at the end of the day this is kind of what ends up happening when God's people just choose willfully to have nothing to do with the word of God and honestly that's it because when you look back in history especially at these times that are being referenced of God's people not hearkening there's still in many cases offering up the sacrifices going through the traditions and observing the feasts and doing these other things in the law but one their heart isn't there and two they're still just not really listening to the Lord it's like they're going through the motions on these things and they're not hearkening to what he really has to say they're omitting the weightier matters of judgment just like he said to the Pharisees that Jesus was rebuking on Matthew 23 you know you tithe mint and rue and anise and cumin like the smallest of herbs and spices and you get like these this little bit of spice and you're tithing on it you're giving 10% of that which you're supposed to do that on everything that you receive everything that you're increased with but he's like you get so focused on these things and it's so small but you completely forgot about the way more important things right the love of God and God's judgment and you know like all these other things are so much weightier than that and that's what they care about and this is you know they end up in a situation there and God turns their back on them just like the haters of the Lord the Bible says in Romans chapter 1 we'll start reading in just a minute when people listen to the Lord obey his commandments God blesses and protects and brings judgment and justice to the land it's what he promised to do but when the people turn excuse me, from listening to the Lord and end up ignoring God's pleas when he sends his prophets, sends his people God gets angry and he allows for the haters of God to rise he allows it to happen you could be like well these people are so vile how could you there's no way God's going to stand for this yeah when God's people just refuse to listen to what he has to say and won't be taking any stands and don't actually give heed to what God is saying then yeah you know what God does just allow for the really vile people that just absolutely hate God to just rise in the land and to gain prominence and to end up being a plague and a curse to God's own people and this is what we're seeing today this wouldn't happen if God's people didn't stop listening to the Lord if in this land that God has blessed with many people serving the Lord could have remained more true and faithful to the word of God and cared about the word of God and wanted to hear the word of God instead of shutting it and shutting it down and watering it down and not really wanting to offend anyone and not wanting to really hear what the Bible has to say but just kind of do out of the cares of their hearts they've already been blessed with so much wealth and oh yeah everything's fine oh don't be so negative that attitude, that mindset you're just not wanting to hear what God has to say and just listen to my word don't get off into these lusts of your heart and the lusts of the flesh but that's what God's people have done so he's saying okay well you know what I should have I should have been submitting these haters of God before you should have been doing it God wanted to do that and now we're in a position where we see today because that's not happening they're not being submitted under the authority of righteous Christians as they as they you know absolutely ought to be look at Romans 1 verse 26 the Bible says for this cause God gave them up unto vile affections for even their women to change the natural use into that which is against nature and likewise also the men leaving the natural use of the woman, burning their lust one toward another, men with men working that which is unseemly and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meat and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient now isn't this a little ironic when God's people don't want to hear God's word he uses the people that didn't even want to retain God in their knowledge at all as a judgment on his own people that just don't want to hear his word, he's taken now the people that just completely rejected God altogether and hate God to bring the judgment on God's people who just got a little offended and don't want to hear the word of the Lord does that make sense I mean I can see the irony there, look at verse number 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness covetousness, maliciousness full of envy murder, debate, deceit malignity, whispers backbiters, haters of God and this is where we get that phrase because it doesn't happen that often in scripture, you're seeing people just being referenced as haters of God, it's in there you know enough but it's not just all over the place and just going through all these characteristics of these people that are haters of God, the spiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents without understanding, covenant breakers without natural affection implacable unmerciful who knowing the judgment of God that they which commit such things are worthy of death not only do the same but have pleasure in them that do them this is a wicked people being described, this is an extremely wicked, reprobate people being described here and these are the people where God saying look the haters of the Lord they should have submitted themselves unto him but you didn't want to listen but my people didn't harken my people didn't listen to me so now these people that flat out rejected me are going to be not submitted to God's own people and you know in a righteous society they absolutely are absolutely, they're in the closet, they don't want to be known when you got a righteous society because people know how wicked this is and it'll have nothing to do with it and it's shamed and condemned and not tolerated in society but when you get weak on the word of God and people don't really want to hear the word of God you know let's just not get into the Bible that much you lose wisdom you lose discernment you bring judgment upon yourselves God just wants you to obey he just wants you to listen it's so simple let's learn to uncomplicate our lives with the simplicity in the word of God day in day out wake up in the morning decide to live your life going you know what I'm going to hear from God today every day I'm going to hear from the Lord I'm going to read his word and I'm going to open up my heart and my mind to receive what God has for me not just some tradition of reading I'm going to want to hear from God every day and do everything I can to walk in the way that I'm hearing from the Lord even if the entire world around us goes to hell in a hand basket we can be right with the Lord and God knows how to save his people out of trouble and God will have respect unto you for you know being faithful in what you do the same way that God had respect unto other people of God throughout history and was able to just be there for them in the midst of a crooked perverse nation what have you you know we need to be those lights shining unto the world and at the end of the day too let's not just throw up our hands in despair going well I mean God's just going to burn out but yeah he is but you know we don't know when that's going to happen and what's really funny I was just literally thinking about this this week quite a while back I think I had this conversation with Pastor Anderson in like maybe 2008 or something ish of we're just talking about man things are getting so crazy right we're looking at the events going on around us and just going you can start you see how things can come together and how the Antichrist could set up the system and you know the mark of the beast and there's this technology and you're just kind of like like your mind's racing going like man I could see how all this stuff can happen how it can all go down like really really soon like everything seems to be there and there's so much turmoil in the world it's like and that was already 15 years ago I never thought that we were going to get to where we're at now and it still feels like man we're like right around the corner right I mean doesn't it just kind of like I mean when is the Antichrist going to be revealed because things are crazy but the truth is we don't we don't know we don't know we don't know until the things literally start to like literally are happening that we've already been warned about so we can't we don't give up any hope I mean we still have children there's still more generations to come until who knows when we don't know exactly so we need to do what we can and fight just as hard as ever knowing yeah the time is short overall but but hey let's I mean you never know you can get a King Josiah that gives you another generation right before God just comes and okay now they're going into captivity now I'm going to pour out my rat now all these these really bad things happen he extended that judgment for Josiah's generation amen right so so it's you know we don't know what God has in store and we know ultimately what's going to happen but we don't know all the timing of it so we just have a good good attitude look to the look to the Lord to guide your path don't over complicate things right seek the Lord and his wisdom and you won't be steered wrong let's bow our heads our word of prayer your Lord we love you thank you so much for the wisdom that you give us out of your word thank you for these great Psalms so much doctrine packed into this Lord help us to learn and to grow from your word and Lord keep us all safe as we go our separate ways this evening we love you it's in Jesus name we pray amen all right we're going to sing one last song before we are dismissed brother Austin please lead us all right church you can grab your hymnals and turn to song 423 that is song 423 joy to the world song 423 on the first joy to the world the Lord is come let earth receive her king with every heart prepare him and heaven and nature sing and heaven and nature sing and heaven and heaven and nature sing joy to the world the Savior reigns and then there's songs and songs well the fields and the clouds the hills and the plains repeat the sounding joy repeat the sounding joy repeat the sounding joy the voices and sorrows grow Lord he comes he comes to make his blessings go for as the curse is bound for as the curse is bound for as the curse is bound he rules the world the nations rule the glories of his righteousness and wonders of his love and wonders of his love and wonders wonders of his love alright great singing church you guys are dismissed thank you