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Amen. All right. So back at it again, going through the Old Testament, we are getting close to being done with the divided kingdom. Um, in a couple of weeks, we'll go ahead and take a look at the captivity of Israel and then the captivity of Judah. And then we'll clean up a couple of the Kings that I'm not going to get to touch on tonight, but you're there in Micah chapter one. So we're going to go through a little bit of Micah, but just to give you a quick breakdown, basically chapters one and two, you can, uh, to sum that up, you could basically say that's a message to all the people, right? Cause he says, Hey, hearken all you people. So Micah starts out by saying, Hey, listen to what I've got to say. Listen to what God has to say. But it's primarily a message to all the people. And then chapters three through five, he says hearken, but he's mostly talking to the leadership. And so you can hear that, but it's the same thing. It's here and then judgment here and then judgment. And then the last two chapters, six and seven is about God's mercy and his redemption. And so you'll, if you were to read the whole book, uh, after reading the first what six chapters, you know, just come in judgment and destruction, judgment, destruction. Micah asked the question, he's like, wow, you know, I'm paraphrasing, but he says, who is like unto you, God who has so much mercy and, and just forgiveness and so on because Micah got the vision of what it was going to be like after basically the millennium. You know, they, these, these old time prophets, you know, Amos, a lot of them, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, they weren't just given prophecies for their time, but they were also given prophecies throughout basically the rest of the world. Um, and I think one of the reasons why obviously is to teach and so that these things would get passed down and become more clear as time goes on. But also because like I said last week, their world is going to be turned upside down in just a few generations. And I think God's trying to prepare those that love him, those that are saved. And he's basically saying, Hey, don't lose hope when you see your nation get taken into captivity. And so that's why you're going to see that as you study through the prophets. But if you have your chart, I'd like you to just pull it out and look at it real quick here. Uh, so verse one of Micah, it says the word of the Lord that came to Micah, the more site in the days of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. So Micah didn't just see visions concerning the kingdom of Judah, but he also saw him, uh, visions concerning the kingdom of Israel. But he mentions three Kings here, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah. We're actually going to back two Kings up. So if you can go to second Chronicles 25 and like I said, we're going to take a detour. We'll come back to Micah in a little while, but go to second Chronicles chapter number 25. So Micah mentions these three Kings, right? Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah. We're going to back up two Kings and we're going to basically just overview from Amaziah, which if you have your chart is number nine all the way down to Hezekiah, which is number 13. And the two prophets that primarily keep coming up over and over again would be Isaiah who wrote, you know, the book of Isaiah and Micah. And so that's why I started off today with Micah. Now just because Micah is a minor prophet doesn't mean that he had a minor vision. Doesn't mean he was lesser of a prophet than Isaiah. It's just simply saying that, you know, you can read Micah in a day where you're not probably not going to read Isaiah in one day. Isaiah is a big book. I've been listening to it for the last few days and reading it off and on as I've been studying this. And I mean, there's just so much doctrine. It is hard to overview the book of Isaiah. It is not easy. That's a whole sermon on itself. And someday we will go through the entire book of Isaiah. But for today, for the chronology, for getting to know your Old Testament, I'd like you to just understand the time period in which these men preached and who was in charge and what was going on. So you're there in Second Chronicles 25. We're going to start out talking about Amaziah. Now this guy is a cluck. Okay. And you're going to see why here in a minute. This guy reigned for 29 years, right? The Bible says that he did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, but with without a perfect heart. And the reason why it says that is because Amaziah goes to battle. Well, before he goes to battle with the Edomites, he decides he's going to hire the Ephraimites. Now do you guys remember a few months ago when we were going through the book of Judges, how we talked about the Ephraimites and how they love to fight? You remember how Gideon, you know, he had his victory and then the Ephraimites said, hey, how come you didn't bring us to the battle? You know, remember that? And they got mad and Gideon spoke softly into them and they were like, okay, you're lucky this time they went back home. And then by the time you get to Judges 10 or 11 where it talks about Jephthah, right? Remember Jephthah, he has his battles, he has his victories, and then guess who comes knocking on his door? It's the Ephraimites, right? And they're like, you know, how come you didn't invite us to the battle? We wanted to fight. We'll burn your house down. And then Jephthah winds up killing a lot of them and at least destroying them. You know, I mean, he didn't wipe them off the face of the earth obviously, but nonetheless he put a huge beat down on them. If you guys remember that, well, you know, skip forward several thousand years, you know, to Amaziah, he deals with that same thing. He hires mercenaries, guess where they come from? From Ephraim, right? Well, he hires these people, God sends him a prophet and says, hey, I don't want them going to battle with you. I'm sufficient for you. I can deliver you. You don't need to hire the children of Israel, the Ephraimites specifically to help you go to battle, get rid of them. And he's like, well, what about all the silver and stuff that I already paid them? And the prophet's like, hey, God is able to give the much more than this silver, right? So after that, Amaziah says, okay, you know, he he harkens to God's counsel. He goes to battle. He defeats the Edomites, right? Get this. He defeats the Edomites who are worshiping false gods and then turns around and worships their false gods. That's why I said this guy's a cluck. He's just straight up stupid. There's no, I mean, it's not like, you know, I'm sitting here and I'm reading this and I'm thinking about this and I'm like, I don't have anything slick to say. This guy, I mean, I believe he's saved, but this guy's just boneheaded, right? Who does that? I mean, think about it. And the prophet even tells him this and we're going to read it, but it's like, look, you just destroyed these people. Their gods couldn't save you. I mean, or save them rather, right? And now you're going to bow down and worship them after you saw the strength of the Lord God of heaven. You have got to be stupid in order to make a decision like that. So we're going to pick up in verse 14 second Chronicles chapter 25 look at verse number 14 and says, now it came to pass after that Amaziah was come from the slaughter of the Edomites that he brought the gods of the children of Seir and set them up to be his gods and bowed down himself before them and burned incense unto them. That's look at that. That is, that is sad. That is just, it's just, it's beyond sad. It's like what, what in the world made you do this? Look at verse 15 wherefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against Amaziah and he sent unto him a prophet which said unto him, why has thou sought after the gods of the people which could not deliver their own people out of thine hand? And that's a good question. You know, I mean, it's, it's like, like asking a dog, why do you always return to your vomit? You know, it's not going to answer you. It's just something that it does. But apparently Amaziah had some point in his life stored up enough folly to where it just manifests itself later on. You know, there's a breach in his spirit. There's a breach in his heart and this at this point in his life, that stuff comes out. And like I said, this isn't a long detailed, you know, overview of Amaziah. There was a lot of other things that took place that we don't have time to get into. But nonetheless, look at verse number 16 says, and it came to pass as he talked with him that the king said unto him, art thou made of the king's counsel forbear? Why shouldest thou be smitten than the prophet forbear and said, I know that God hath determined to destroy thee because thou has done this and has not hearkened unto my counsel. Now, what I think is interesting here is the king's response. He says, art thou made of the king's counsel? So he's like saying, wait a minute. You know, I didn't hire you. I didn't choose you. I didn't select you to be part of my cabinet. Right? What are you doing talking to me in this manner? He's like, are you are thou made of the king's counsel? But nonetheless, Amaziah deep down in his heart, he probably knew what he was doing was wrong. In fact, I know he did. Right. I mean, because think about it. He listened to the prophets before earlier on in his life. But now all of a sudden he's in sin. He's backslidden and there's just this brick wall in front of his eyes. There's stones in his ears and he can't hear good, righteous, honest counsel. You know, it's like some church members sometimes, you know, you tell them things over and over again, you explain it clearly and they just won't get it. Why is that? Because somewhere along the line they decided to get backslidden in heart and that, you know what, God, sometimes he just puts those blinders on and he's just going to let you slip and fall in your own folly. Right. How else are they going to learn? Unfortunately, Amaziah, he doesn't learn his lesson. He's actually going to get destroyed. Now look down at verse number 17. It says, then Amaziah, king of Judah, took advice and sent to Joash, the son of Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu, king of Israel saying, come, let us see one another in the face. And we're going to stop right there. Turn to Exodus chapter 18. So basically the story goes on. Amaziah, you know, he's full of pride, right? Because guess what? That's what happens when you reject God's counsel. That's what happens when you don't study God's word. You get prideful, you get boastful. And that's what Amaziah is doing here. He's proud. And so he basically sends to the king of Israel and says, Hey, let's go. That's what he's saying here. Come, let's see one another in the face. You know, let's, let's, let's get, let's get this battle going here. And so the king of, you know, the king of Israel, he's like, sure, I don't care. You know, let's go. And he winds up destroying king Amaziah all because this guy refused Godly righteous counsel. And so I just want to go over that doctrine, just give you guys a few passages of scripture about counsel that are found in the Bible. If you type in the word counsel, you know, into your Bible search, the first time you're going to see the word come up is right here in Exodus chapter 18. This is where Moses gets really wise counsel, wise instruction from his father-in-law. Now look at verse number 19, Exodus chapter 18. Look at verse number 19. It says harken now unto my voice. I will give thee counsel, right? This is Moses, his father-in-law talking here. So what's going on here is, you know, Moses is just taking a lot unto himself. He's judging all these different matters. People are lining up before him and he's trying to, you know, just, just do his best and make judgment and settle disputes and, and try to help the children of Israel out. And you know, his father-in-law is watching this and he's like, this isn't wise. You're going to wear yourself out if you don't get some help. So he says, harken now unto my voice. I will give thee counsel and God shall be with thee. Be thou for the people to God word that thou mayest bring the causes unto God. Verse 20 and thou shalt teach them ordinances and laws and shout, show them away. I'm sorry, show them the way wherein they must walk and work that they must do. Moreover, thou shall provide out of all the people, able men such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness and place such over them to be rulers of thousands and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties and rulers of tens. So Moses' father-in-law here, I mean, you can see this guy, he is wise. Obviously he doesn't know anything probably about the 10 commandments. I mean, that hasn't even happened yet. This is chapter 18, but nonetheless, this is some great counsel. This is great instruction. And you can see this in the new test. You can see this throughout the entire Bible, right? I mean, what's God's requirement for a pastor, right? Well, there, I mean, there's several requirements, right? You have to be married. You have to have children. Why? So that you can prove that you can run a family, you know, because, you know, Paul told Timothy, how else is a man going to run a church if he can't take care of his own family. But nonetheless, you can't be backslid and you can't be steeped into sin, you know, and Jethro, you know, Moses' father-in-law is like, Hey, look, choose out these righteous type people to help you. And then you just basically going to have, you know, different leaders they'll report back to you. It's going to ease your burden. Look at verse 22. It says, and let them judge the people at all seasons and it shall be that every great matter they shall bring unto thee, but every small matter they shall judge so that it'd be easier for thyself. And they shall bear the burden with thee. If thou shalt do this thing and God command thee so then, uh, then thou shall be able to endure. And all this people shall also go to their place in peace. Verse 24. So Moses hearkened to the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he said. Now keep in mind there, that's the narrator of the Bible in verse 24. That's the Holy Ghost saying that this was a good thing, right? Just because it came from Moses' father-in-law doesn't make it any less valuable of counsel. So, uh, I mean, I mean, just take a look at the advice that he's given me. He's, he's really teaching them how to delegate, how to lighten his load, right? Which is going to do what? It's going to make him more efficient, more effective. It's going to be good for the nation. It's going to do all sorts of blessings. Look at verse 25. And Moses chose able men out of all Israel and made them heads over the people, rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties and rulers of tens. And they judged the people at all seasons, the hard causes they brought unto Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves. And Moses let his father-in-law depart and he went his way into his own land. So here Moses' father-in-law, like I said, it teaches him delegation. You know, if you're in leadership, you want to go into leadership, I would, I would advise you to, to read this passage at home and just kind of think, just sit back and meditate about these things. I told, I preached a sermon about leadership a long time ago when I was at Verity Baptist Church. And I told this story about this admiral that I met, you know, in a meeting. So in this big meeting, this is when I used to work for the government. I was sitting around, I had this big task that I was supposed to do. And you know, I was behind and I was having trouble. And one of the things that he told me was basically similar counsel to this. You know, he's like, you know, you, you guys that come from the military, he's like, and I know I'm in the military, so this sounds bad, but basically what he said is like, you guys have this mentality where you have to always have like the abundance of control. You have to have full control. You guys have a problem delegating true leadership. And one of the things he told me is he was like, hey, look man, what you need to do is you need to take these people, you need to give them a job and you need to explain the standards and the expectations clearly, and you need to let them own it. Right. Ownership. That's what Jethro, that's what Moses' father-in-law here is doing to Moses. He's like, hey, you need to let go a little, right? Because good leaders are people that are able to instill trust in other people. Good leaders beget good leaders. So if you want to be a good leadership, a good leader, rather what this admiral was telling me is he's like, you know, you need to, you need to take some of these guys that are maybe a little bit new and you need to give them something that you wouldn't normally give them. You need to give them a hard cause. He's like, and I know people are going to mock you. I know you're going to fail. I know you're going to have trouble. He's like, but sooner, you know, soon enough after you've recovered from these little falls, you know, after they mess up and you correct them, they're going to know that work. They're going to own that work and it's going to make your life a lot easier to now where you can focus on the other things that you're behind on, you know, and hopefully that makes sense. And so what I did is I took his advice and I took the guys because see what happened was there was a guy that was over our shop that didn't like me. I mean, if you can imagine that, right? This guy's a very powerful individual, a very, you know, very wealthy man did not like me at all. Okay. And so what they did is they sent me a crew of junior people. I had no lead mechanics. I had no lead people that I could trust. So I was doing a lot of the work myself, right? Because there's this thing there at that culture. Well, if you're not at this pay grade, you don't do this type of work. So I took that admiral's advice and I took the newest guy and I taught them all how to read paperwork. I taught them all how to do the computer work. I mean, I was teaching them things I wasn't supposed to be teaching them, you know, and guess what? The admiral's right. They did good for a while, but there were certain things they slipped up on. I got yelled at, I got, you know, I got hammered on. In fact, I'll tell this one funny story. You know, we were docking the Seawolf, you know, it's a, it's a very, a very stealthy type submarine. You know, it's a fast attack submarine and we were docking it. We docked it. It was a successful docking people in my own chain of command where we're coming to me like, how in the world did you do that with these people? And it's like, you're just basically proving that you set me up for failure, you know, but that's a whole nother issue, right? So these guys try to set me up for failure. God helps me out. I get the victory because I listened to this admiral. I take his advice and then I give this guy a job to do and it's to hook up sewage. Okay, so hook up sewage. Well, I, I got the job over the phone. I got the paperwork out. I said, you know what, man, you're going to do this. We're going to come back. I was like, I got to go to a quick meeting. We're going to come back. I'm going to talk about this and everything will be good and you'll go out and do it. Okay. So you don't have to do it right now. So I go to my meeting and then the meeting goes on and come down the stairs. You know, I'm walking down by the dry dock where the submarine is. I look over and there's this guy that I gave the paperwork to and I'm like, what is he doing? I told him to sit down and I'm like, I better go check on this. This guy's trying to do this job by himself all by himself without helping. You need help, right? And he's like, look man, I got some of the sailors to help me out and do this job. I'm like, Oh, okay. So I'm walking onto the boat, I'm walking onto the ship and I'm looking at what they're doing and I'm just trying to assess like what the world's going on here. This is going to be bad. And sure enough, I asked him this question. I said, Hey, did they blow this hose down? Right? Did they flush it out? He's like, Oh yeah, they told me they do. Well, you never trust somebody when they say they blew out a sewage hose. Cause most of the time, most people don't want to do that. And you want to put your eyes on that to verify that something like that's been done. And he's like, yeah, these guys told me they already did it. As soon as he said that, I heard this gurgling sound. Okay. I heard this gurgling sound and all of a sudden I just hear this pop. All right. There's the sewage hose. These guys hooked up, broke free from the riser is now hanging down the side of the submarine, spraying sewage everywhere. And guess who was down there? People from Washington, DC. Okay. Inspectors, very high level people. We weren't even supposed to be down there to look these people in the face. That's the type of people that were down there and I'm like, okay. So I started walking off the boat. I go grab my phone out of the little locker, you know, the guards, he's laughing, you know, he knows. And I was like, watch this. And I just held my phone up like this and starts ringing cause my boss was a hothead. You know, I was like, watch, let's count the cuss words. So I hit talk. I'm like, Hey, Hey Mike, how's it going? He's just, just a stream of profanity. Right. And then when he's done about five minutes later, I'm like, all right, so here's what happened. I explained the situation, you know, he's like, you're going down for this. This is negligence, blah, blah, blah. Well, it turns out my shop comes out, you know, cause there was, there was still people in there that liked me and some of my other leaders, they come out and they're like, you know what, you know, I appreciate your zeal. Basically they backed me up and, and I, and we got away with it. That kid learned a very valuable lesson. The whole crew did. And you know, I wish I had more time to, to, to talk about this, but you know, the kid never did anything like that again. And he became a valuable asset to me. In fact, he grew rapidly after that because we sat down and we talked about everything in the morning, you know, before we did any job, I don't care if it was go put a zip tie on this thing over here, we're talking about it and everybody was on board and they listened to it, you know, and so it was a good thing. But I learned that that delegating and giving other people ownership of things and just letting them be creative and letting them run with it was a very successful way to ease my burden. And then I wound up finishing my career there, despite eating that guy, they hated my guts and I wish I had time to tell more of the stories. I got to kind of be careful. I'm not supposed to talk about certain things, so I have to really mentally go over the stories in my mind before I tell him, but that sewage thing that, that, that's okay. I can, I can tell that I can tell that story all day long. But basically that was a valuable lesson that I learned from that Admiral, you know, it was just to give people ownership, you know, you give somebody a task to do, let them run with it, you know, because then, then that's their task now, right? They don't have as much responsibility maybe as you, if you're a senior leader and so they can focus it, they want to do it. And when you, when you can inspire people to want to do something, they're going to do a good job. You know what I mean? They're, they're not going to slack off on it, you know, and, and of course that's also why his father-in-law said, Hey, you know, look for people that actually want to do this, that are living right now and so on and so forth. So we don't have time to keep talking about that. But nonetheless, what I want to talk about is counsel here and there's the first time that we see it in the Bible and you can see what a blessing it is if you listen, right? That's the key. And Mosiah didn't listen. And was that why he did listen, but he listened to the wrong counsel. Now turn to Psalm chapter one real quick. Psalm chapter one, we'll keep talking about this counsel just to want to show you a few more things that the Bible teaches regarding counsel. And the second thing after hearkening, after actually listening is applying kind of like what brother Remy talked about on Sunday. And then the first few verses of Psalm chapter one, you're going to see the contrast regarding righteous, you know, you know, righteous counsel versus ungodly counsel. So if you're there in Psalm chapter one, look at verse number one, it says, blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, right? Was Amaziah blessed? No, he wasn't. In fact, a lot of these Kings weren't blessed and it was because they violated this simple verse here. This is why a lot of Christians fall and get into trouble because the Bible says blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly. So if we decide as Christians, you know what, I'm just going to go ahead and seek this counsel. I'm going to go ahead and listen to my worldly friends. I'm going to go ahead and subscribe to this ungodly type counsel. Guess what? The Bible says you're not going to be blessed. It's that simple. Then he says, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law doth he meditate day and night. So if you want to be wise, if you want to be somebody that can even learn to give counsel, you need to learn how to meditate on the Bible. God's word. You need to learn how to read it, how to meditate on it, how to study it, how to chew it up and how to properly teach it to people, right? Then what is the Bible saying? That you will be blessed. Look at verse three and he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season. His leaf also shall not wither and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper, right? We want to be a church that prospers. That's why we preach so much Bible. That's why I'm always harping on these things. That's why anytime this comes up, I do like to point it out and I do like to bring it and I'm not hinting. I'm not saying that we have a church full of people that are ungodly. That's not true at all. Nonetheless, we need to learn what makes a person absorb counsel in a big factor besides listening and applying is also, you know, learning to love the law of the Lord, learning to love the Bible. If you can learn to love God's word, love the Bible, I promise you, you will grow tremendously. You will grow very quickly and you will prosper and you will be blessed because that's what these first three verses here teach. Now, if you reject that, if you decide you want to go the way of Amaziah, look at verse number four. It says the ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff, which the wind driveth away. And that's what happened to Amaziah. The wind drove him away. His, he, you know, his, his cabinet that he made, right? His, the king's counsel, if you will, they led him to believe that he was something that he really wasn't. He decided to try to take on the kings of Israel at that time and wound up getting destroyed. Look at verse five. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous for the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish. Now turn to Proverbs chapter 19, Proverbs chapter number 19. Why are you turning there? I'm going to read for you. Proverbs 11 verse 14, which says where no counsel is the people fall, but in the multitude of counselors, there is safety. Let me read that again. It says where no counsel is the people fall, but in the multitude of counselors, there is safety. This is a good tip for you guys that are going to be preaching on men's preaching that let's say you're reading the Bible, you have a thought and you're thinking to yourself, I haven't heard this before. You know, you have, maybe you have an idea, maybe you have something, but you haven't heard it before. It's good to ask other people, right? And then the main reason being is because there's safety in the multitude of counselors. You know, pastor men is when I was going through the spiritual leadership class would say, Hey, you know, pick up the phone and call another pastor, you know, call one of these other pastors, test, send them a text message. Hey, have you ever heard this verse? Explain like this before. See what they say, right? Put your pride aside and just ask the question because you never know. You might be missing something, you know, or what have you, or, you know, you may be onto a little gold mine. You never know. But nonetheless, there is safety in a multitude of counselors. And like I said, you gotta have the right kind of counsel too. Cause Amaziah had a multitude of counselors, but they persuaded him to do ignorantly to do wrong. And the Bible says there in that verse, in the beginning of the verse, it says where no counsel is the people fall. You know, that's why a lot of these people in these liberal churches today are fallen. When we go talk to them at the door, because there's no real counsel in their churches, they'll teach you that you can get divorced. They'll teach you that you can drink beer. I mean, all sorts of stuff. And you say, well, prove it. We'll come knock doors with us and I'll show you these people. I mean, they say all kinds of weird stuff to us. I mean, it's straight up bizarre. I mean, what was that? What was the name of that church where that pastor just got arrested? Not Rock Harbor, but it's something with a rock girl. Some, some hard rock church. Yeah. Hard rock church or something like that. Right. So this dude, he gets arrested for molesting a girl, right? Yeah. For molesting a girl and his church members are like, you know, wanting to get his bail lowered because he's a pillar in the church. How's that any different than Amaziah? How's that any different than the dog returning to his own vomit? Right. It's not any different. It's, it's, it's bizarre. It's stupid. It's weak. You know, in Proverbs 11, 14 says, Hey, where no counsel is the people fall. So obviously you can see by the actions in that church and the requests that those people have made, that there was never any counsel going on in that church. Right. Or never any godly counsel. Let me, let me rephrase myself. Never any godly counsel. There was some counsel going on, but it sure wasn't the right counsel, you know? All right. So you're there in Proverbs 19, look at verse number 20, hear counsel and receive instruction. Why look at the rest of the verse that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end, right? You need to hear and receive counsel and instruction from the word of God, even if you don't fully understand it, even if it doesn't help you immediately, because it may help you in the latter end. What you hear today might not help you tomorrow, but you know what? It might help you next year. It might help you in 10 years from now, but you know what? If you just walk away from God and decide you don't want to hear his counsel, then guess what? It's not going to help you in your latter end. Look at verse 21. There are many devices in a man's heart. Nevertheless, the counsel of the Lord that shall stand. You see, we always have our own ideas and there's nothing wrong with having ideas, but what the Bible is saying here is, Hey, God's saying, Hey, look, I understand that, you know, there's a lot of devices that come out of man's heart. There's a lot of thoughts. There's a lot of ideas. There's a lot of ways that men bring up, but the only thing that's going to stand is the counsel of the Lord. So you can leave your place there in Proverbs. Go to second Chronicles chapter 26. We're just about done with Amaziah. So while you're turning that Marie for your Hebrews chapter six, verse 17, which says, wherein God willing more abundantly to show unto the errors of promise, the immutability of his counsel confirmed it by an oath. The Bible says in Hebrews that God's counsel is immutable, which means it doesn't change, right? So that really wipes the floor with these dispensationalist that like to say, well, God dealt in the old Testament a certain way with people, you know, regarding salvation, but it's different in the new Testament. That's not true. People got saved in the old Testament, the same way that they do in the new Testament, only they didn't call on the name of Jesus. They called on the name of God, right? And we can, we've, we've talked about that before. We don't need to move on about that, but God's counsel that you read in the Proverbs, God's counsel that you read in the minor prophets, God's counsel that you read in the major prophets is still applicable, is still profitable even today. Why? Because God doesn't change his counsel. It's the same forever. What was good for Micah is good for you. What was good for Uzziah is good for you. It doesn't, it doesn't matter. It doesn't change. You can read any of these Kings. You can read any of the prophets. You can read any of these stories in the old Testament and you can pull righteous, godly counsel that will benefit you in 2019. So let's move on here. We're done with Amaziah. The next King we're going to overview real quick is Uzziah or Uzziah, depending on if you listen to Alexander Scorby or not. So look down there at verse number one, second Chronicles 26 one, it says, then all the people of Judah took Uzziah. So this is after Amaziah is dead after he's gotten, you know, slain by the Israelis of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Rather it says, then all the people of Judah took Uzziah who was 16 years old and made him King in the room of his father Amaziah. So this guy reigned pretty young, you know, just, just, what we would call a teenager today, you know, just ripe, ready to get his license. Verse two, he built Eloth and restored it to Judah. After that, the King slept with his father. 16 years old was Uzziah when he began to reign and he reigned 52 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name also was Jeculiah of Jerusalem. And he did that, which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father Amaziah did. In verse five, it says, and he sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God. And as long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper. So don't miss that there in verse five about Uzziah. How long did he prosper? How long was he blessed? Well, think about it. As long as he followed what God said, right? And he sought God in the days of Zechariah who had understanding in the visions of God. And as long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper. So the Bible is saying that, hey, this King did well. He did okay when he had a righteous preacher, when he had somebody teaching him the word of God, when he sought of the Lord, in addition to that, right? This here, this verse right here is basically a picture of the New Testament church. You need to find a church where somebody is willing to teach you the truth, not pull punches, not hold anything back. But then you need to be like Uzziah here, where in the last half of the verse it says, and as long as he sought the Lord, right? It's not just, I mean, look, it's great to come to church three times a week. I believe you should come to church three times a week. I believe that's how you're going to grow, right? Three to thrive. That's what we always say. But you know what's going to make you prosper in addition to that is when you, when you're not in church seeking the Lord, when you're reading your Bible, when you're praying, and when you're doing the things that you know as a Christian that you ought to do, that is what God is telling us here. That's when Uzziah profited, when he did both of these, right? When he sought Zechariah and when he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper. Now, unfortunately, Uzziah, like many of the other kings, he gets wrapped up into pride and we're going to see his punishment here. Look at verse 16. So jump down to verse number 16, 2 Chronicles 26, 16. It says, but when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction for he transgressed against the Lord his God and went into the temple of the Lord to burn incense upon the altar of incense. Pride, you know, the number one Christian killer is pride every single time. You know, Uzziah, he had a lot of victories. He won a lot of battles, you know it. And instead of thanking God, instead of continuously seeking God's word to get that humility in his life, you know what? He backed off on that. He backed off on that study. He backed off on that seeking and what happened was he got lifted up with pride as soon as he realized that he was strong. Now, and then look what he did. He violates God's word hardcore. Verse 17, and Azariah the priest went in after him and with him, four score priests of the Lord that were valiant men. And they withstood Uzziah the king and said unto him, it appertainteth not unto thee Uzziah to burn incense unto the Lord, but to the priests, the sons of Aaron that are consecrated to burn incense, go out of the sanctuary for thou has trespassed. Neither shall it be for thine honor from the Lord God. These are the kind of priests. These are the kind of men of God that you want around your life. These are the kind of people that you want to learn from people that are not a respecter of persons, right? You see that these people said, you know what? I know you're king. I know you're ordained. I know you're in charge, but you're wrong. And you have to be called out, right? There is a time and a place to call people out. And right here was the perfect time and the perfect place right when it happens. Now look at verse 19. It says, then Uzziah was wroth and had a censer in his hand to burn incense. And while he was wroth with the priests, the leprosy even rose up in his forehead before the priests in the house of the Lord from beside the incense altar. In verse 20 and Azariah, the chief priests and all the priests looked upon him and beheld. He was leprous in his forehead and they thrust him out from thence. Yea himself hasted also to go out because the Lord had smitten him. Now go to second Kings chapter 15, second Kings. We're going to come back to second Chronicles. So you might want to just keep something there. Keep a bookmark there if you've got one. And so again, you know, kind of, you know, definitely not, not as bad, at least he's not worshiping the gods of the Edomites and whom he just beat. But nonetheless, you know, he got a little too big for his britches. He burnt incense improperly. He was not supposed to do that. That was for the priests. He thought, you know what? God's been helping me all this time. You know what? I think I'm somebody special. I'm sure that perhaps God will overlook this and I'm just going to go make a show. And God said, you know what? I'm going to make you leprous. And so that's how Uzziah fell and ended his life. You know, we need to learn from these things, right? Pride. We need to guard ourselves from pride in the best way. And I say this all the time and I will never stop saying it. The best way to get pride out of your heart and out of your life is to read this book because God said, I mean, you can tell by reading the Bible. Look, if man wrote the history of the Kings, a lot of this stuff I feel would not be in there, right? Because what does man do when he writes about himself? Right? I mean, if you want to know, go look at Facebook, go look at Twitter, right? They'll tell you a little bit of folly, but they're not going to show you everything. God says, no, no, no. I'm going to show you everything. In fact, I'm going to write about your entire heart for that matter. So if you got your chart, we just finished number nine and 10. We've, we looked at Amaziah, then we looked at Uzziah. Now real quickly, just real briefly, we're going to overview Jotham. The Bible doesn't say a whole lot about him, but you could read about him a little bit here in second Kings 15, and then you can read about him in second Chronicles 27. So second Kings 15, look at verse number 32 real quick. It says in the second year of Pekah, the son of Remaliah, king of Israel began Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah to reign. And then in verse 35, it says, how be it the high places were not removed. The people sacrificed and burned incense still in the high places. He built the higher gate of the house of the Lord. So again, like a lot of the other Kings, he does a little bit right, but there's still, he's just still won't go in it with his whole entire heart. And the, and we've talked about this before, but the people just had it in their minds. They wanted to worship God, but they just wanted to do it like in that new evangelical sort of way, right? Where they would just go and burn incense their way, right? It's still to you, God, we're still doing this for you, even though we're not letting the priest do it in the, in the temple, but we're still doing this for you. Look, God has laid out very clearly how he wants to be served, how he wants to be worshiped. And he doesn't really like it when we say, you know what? We know better. We can do things our own way. You know, we'll just bring the rock and roll band. We'll just bring all this worldly stuff in here and call it Christian. That's not what God wants. That's burning strange incense. In fact, God killed people in Exodus and we can read about that in Adab and Abihu. You can look those guys up. God killed them because they burned strange incense because they wanted to do things their way. So real quickly, I'll just read for you. Second Chronicles 27, two. It says this, it says, and he talking about Jotham and he did that which is right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father Uzziah did, how be it he entered not into the temple of the Lord and the people did yet corruptly. And the reason why people did corruptly during his reign is because he himself didn't die fully in. You see, people can sniff out a phony. They can sniff out when somebody is halfway in. You know, you give people an inch, they'll take a mile. You know what this reminds me of? I brought this up here before. It reminds me of my hometown that allowed the pot shops to come in, right? What happened once they allowed that? Then all of a sudden pot consumption didn't really go up, but all the other crimes went up, right? Because the people look at the leadership and they say, okay, they're getting soft on this stuff. So since you're allowing pot to come in, we're going to go ahead and sniff a bunch of Coke and do a bunch more meth and who cares, right? I'm surely soon enough, that stuff will be legal as well. It's ridiculous. But you know what? When we go into this thing, half-hearted, the people know. The people could sniff that out and they will yet be corrupt. So go to 2 Chronicles chapter 28. Like I said, there's not a whole lot written about Jotham in the Bible. So we're going to just leave that as a quick overview. Next on the list is going to be Ahaz. Ahaz reigned for 16 years and he did bad. So 2 Chronicles 28. If you want to read about Ahaz, look at verse number 22. It says, and in the time of his distress, did he trespass yet more against the Lord? This is that King Ahaz. And so right off the bat here, you can see what kind of, what manner of man he was. Look at verse 23. For he sacrificed unto the gods of Damascus, which smote him, so just like his grandfather. And he said, because the gods of the kings of Syria helped them, therefore will I sacrifice to them that they may help me. But they were the ruin of him and all Israel. Because remember, the northern kingdom of Israel had this thing about worshiping the gods of Syria as well. Look at verse 24. And Ahaz gathered together the vessels of the house of God and cut in pieces the vessels of the house of God and shut up the doors of the house of the Lord. And he made him altars in every corner of Jerusalem and in every several city of Judah, he made high places to burn incense unto other gods and provoked anger to the Lord God of his fathers. Now go back to Micah. In fact, go to Micah chapter number three. So that's just a quick overview of Ahaz. Ahaz was bad all around. And keep in mind, because of the evil of these kings, you're going to see later on when we get towards the end here, which is going to be very soon, probably the next sermon, that one thing that springs up in the community, and I hate to keep bringing it up, but it's the Sodomites. You know, anytime that you start seeing in the Bible, these evil kings, one, two, or three, guess who comes on the scene? It's always the Sodomites. They always come up. And then Josiah stuck with breaking down their houses. And like I said, we've talked about that enough for right now. We'll address that again when it comes up with Josiah, but let's move on here and let's finish looking at the book of Micah. Like I said, I broke that down for you earlier in just three quick parts. I just want to highlight some things here in chapter three, Micah chapter three, verse one says, and I said, here, I pray you, O heads of Jacob and ye princes of the house of Israel, is it not for you to know judgment? Right? So just like last week, how we talked about Amos, you know, how, um, he said that, uh, judgment was viewed as wormwood. It was viewed as bitterness, right? Well, Micah is basically saying the same thing. You know, he's just backing them up, reinforcing that same doctrine, but he's saying to the leadership, right? He's saying to the heads of Jacob and ye princes of the house of Israel, is it not you? Is it not for you to know judgment? Look, it's God's standard and expectation that we as believers, as Kings and priests in the new Testament to know judgment, judgment is a good thing. If you use it righteously, look at verse two, he says, who hate the good and love the evil who pluck off their skin from off them and their flesh from off their bones, who also eat the flesh of my people and flay their skin from off them. And they break their bones and chop them in pieces as for the pot and as flesh within the cauldron, then shall they cry unto the Lord, but he will not hear them. He will even hide his face from them at that time as they have behaved themselves ill in their doings. And you might be reading this and thinking that's pretty strong descriptions there. Well, you know what? This stuff all happens as you study throughout the Kings. There's stories in the Bible. We haven't got to them yet. We'll preach them later on when I'm not afraid to preach anything in the Bible where people ate humans. You know, there's stories of cannibalism in the Bible and why you ask why it's because of the sin of the leaders. It passes down to the people. That's the reason why these disgusting things go on. Now look at verse number five, thus sayeth the Lord concerning the prophets that make my people air that bite with their teeth and cry peace. And he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him. Right? So here we can see the mic is relaying a message from God to the prophets, right? That make the people air. You know, all these prophets that we get mad about these false teachers that are out there, you know what? We just need to understand that God is going to give them what they've reaped, you know, or what they've sowed rather. I'm sorry. God is going to eventually ruin them. God is going to destroy them. He's, you know, that was his counsel here. That's going to be his counsel in our day as well. Now look at verse six, therefore night shall be unto you that you shall not have a vision and it shall be dark unto you that you shall not divine. And the sun shall go down over the prophets and the day shall be dark over them. He's basically just saying, Hey, I'm going to blind these people so that they can never really understand full truth. They're going to make up false dreams. They're going to make up false prophecies. They're going to be like, Oh, God told me this. When in fact, God has not told them that because he has blinded them. Verse seven, then shall the seers be ashamed and the diviners confounded. Yay. They shall all cover their lips for there is no answer of God. Verse eight, but truly I am full of power by the spirit of the Lord and of judgment and of might to declare into Jacob, his transgression and to Israel has sinned. So Mike is simply saying, Hey, this doesn't just apply to the kingdom of Judah. This is also for the kingdom of Israel. Verse nine, hear this. I pray you, he heads of the house of Jacob and princes of the house of Israel that abore judgment and pervert all equity. And there's nothing new under the sun. There's tons of Bible teachers that I can refer you, uh, that are on TV that are in the internet. They would fit this bill to a tee. So let's move on here. Go to chapter five real quick, just a little taste of how Micah wrote, uh, the prophecies from the Lord is very poetic. Um, you know, and like I said, if you read the whole book of Micah and you study it, you're going to see things that are referenced to even after the millennium. Now here in Micah chapter five, this is great. This here is a prophecy about the Lord Jesus Christ. I just want you to know that you can always come here and study this. A lot of people, they too, when they get to Micah, you know, they just kind of read through it real quick and gloss over these things. So look at verse number one, it says, now gather thyself in troops, O daughter of troops. He has laid siege against us. They shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek. But thou Bethlehem Ephrata thou, I'm sorry, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me. That is to be ruler in Israel whose goings forth have been from old from ever lasting, right? Keyword from ever lasting, right? See a Jehovah witness would read that and be like, Oh, it doesn't say that in the new world translation. And of course it doesn't because your idiot prophet who got, you know, put up on charges for perjury was basically a Micah chapter three type prophet, just a false prophet, somebody who's dark and that guy's burning in hell right now. Verse three. Therefore will he give them up until the time that she, which travaileth have brought forth. Then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel. And he shall stand and feed in the strength of the Lord in the majesty of the name of the Lord, his God. And they shall abide for now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth. Remember, God is trying to prepare the people that were listening to Micah to understand that he's not giving up on them, right? They're going to see their kingdom taken away. And a lot of them aren't going to understand. And so God wants them to get this. He wants them to really fully understand these things so that they can have hope so that they can move forward so that they can keep doing the works of God. Verse five. And this man shall be the peace when the Assyrian shall come into our land. And when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise against him seven shepherds and eight principal men. And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof. Thus shall he deliver us from the Assyrian when he cometh into our land and when he treadeth within our borders. And so you could apply that to the anti-Christ when he raises up to attack God's people, which are us and so on and so forth. Turn to second Chronicles chapter 30. So like I said, chapter six and seven of Micah deal a lot with God's mercy in his redemption. And you get to see Micah's just how Micah is just basically blown away. I mean, he's just read, you know, all this, he's just prophesied all this judgment. He gets all these visions of judgment. And then yet to read chapter six and seven, you know, he's just, I mean, just, just blown away at God's plan. So let's move on here. So if you have your chart, the last King that we're going to overview here real quick is Hezekiah. Now, if you type in Hezekiah in the Bible, it's going to come up a lot. Okay. There's a lot of information about King Hezekiah in the Bible. One of the most famous things, famous stories about Hezekiah that you may know is that he was diseased. He was about to die. The prophet Isaiah comes to him, you know, he says, pray to God for me. And he does. And God gives him 15 more years. And of course there's a miracle involved in all that, but there's a ton of stuff that we can learn about with Hezekiah. You can also read a lot about Hezekiah in the book of Isaiah as well. And so just a quick overview here. Second Chronicles chapter 30, look at verse one. It says, and Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh that they should come to the house of the Lord at Jerusalem to keep the Passover unto the Lord God of Israel. So Hezekiah was, he really was a good King. He really was a righteous King. Did he have all of his ducks in a row? No, but nonetheless, he was good. Especially if you're just got done reading about, you know, Jotham and all these, you know, Uzziah and Amaziah, he's really a breath of fresh air. I mean, think about his heart, right? He's the King of Judah, right? Hezekiah is King of Judah, but yet he still understands that the Northern Kingdom of Israel, that they're still God's people, right? And he wants to bring them back to God. So he sends letters understanding that he's probably going to get persecuted for that, right? He's basically sending and giving them invites, you know, hey, are you a hundred percent sure you feel that you don't know what happened? You know, look at verse two, for the King had taken counsel and his princes and all the congregation in Jerusalem to keep the Passover in the second month. And so right off the bat, we just started the overview, the overview of Hezekiah. What is the one thing that jumps out at you? This should jump out, jump out at you. It's counsel, right? Look at verse two, for the King had taken counsel. That means he received this counsel, right? He received the good counsel, something that these other Kings lack thereof, they didn't want to do. They rejected. He said, you know what? No, I'm not going to reject counsel. I've already heard about my forefathers. I've already heard what troubles and pearls and trials that they've gone through. I don't want any part of it. Look at verse three, for they could not keep it at that time because the priests had not sanctified themselves sufficiently. Neither had the people gathered themselves together to Jerusalem. First four, and the thing pleased the King and all the congregation. So Hezekiah is concerned about the Passover. You know, he wants to do the Passover, but he wants to do it right. He wants to do it in accordance with God's word. He's not going to make shortcuts. He's not going to go burn incense in the temple. He's not going to do any of that foolish stuff. He's going to do it by the numbers, by the book. Verse five, so they established a decree to make a proclamation throughout all Israel, from Beersheba even to Dan, that they should come to keep the Passover unto the Lord God of Israel at Jerusalem, for they had not done it of a long time in such sort as it was written. Now you got to understand the time frame and what you're dealing with here, right? Hezekiah is sending letters even to Israel, right? And it says they sent letters from Beersheba even to Dan. Well, what did Jeroboam the son of Nebat do? He made Dan a place of false worship, right? That was the place where he set up one of his golden calves, was in Dan. But Hezekiah, he doesn't care. He's like, you know what? I'm going to go ahead and send letters. I'm going to invite everybody, anybody who can hear these things, anybody who can, who's willing, we want to get them, we want to get them on board for God. And that's our goal too, right? That's our goal at Shield of Faith Baptist Church. You know, when I run into somebody who's saved oftentimes at the door, you know, I'll try to maybe plan a seat. Hey, you know, we could really use your help. You know, we could use your help out so many. I mean, we could use your help in our church. I mean, we're doing great things for God. We're trying to fulfill the great commission here. You know, why don't you come on down and help us out? That was Hezekiah's attitude. Look at verse six. So the posts went with letters from the king and his princes throughout all Israel and Judah. And according to the commandment of the king saying, you children of Israel, turn again unto the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel. And he will return to the remnant of you that are escaped out of the hand of the kings of Assyria. And so by that statement there, you need to understand that the Northern kingdom of Israel, they're struggling fighting with the Assyrians and they are soon to be led into captivity forever, right? And Hezekiah is trying to give them an out. He's like, I know there's 7,000 that haven't bowed the knee to Baal. Why don't you guys come out and keep this Passover with us? Verse seven and be not like your fathers and like your brethren, which trespassed against the Lord God of their fathers who therefore gave them up to desolation as ye see. Look at verse eight. Now be not stiff necked as your fathers were, but yield yourselves unto the Lord and enter into a sanctuary, which he has sanctified forever and serve the Lord, your God, that the fierceness of his wrath may turn away from you. For if you turn again unto the Lord, your brethren and your children shall find compassion before them that lead them captive so that they shall come again into this land for the Lord, your God is gracious and merciful and will not turn away his face from you. If ye return to him, you see that really slaps this Zionist doctrine that's out there in the face, right? Because anytime God gave promises to Judah, to Israel, or to the whole nation of Israel, whatever you, he always said, if you do this, right? What does modern Christianity today say? They say, well, no, the Jews are just God's chosen people. They're the apple of his eye, no matter what they do, right? Even though they, they, they, they steal the land, they, they, they murder. I mean, Tel Aviv is a sodomite capital of the entire planet right now. You know, and people say, you know what, God just looks the other way. You know, I heard one preacher say this. He said the times of ignorance, God winked at. That is a gross misuse of that Bible verse. That is not true at all. God, look, we just learned earlier in the sermon that God's counsel is immutable. It never changes. God wasn't okay with sodomy. You know, back when he destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, he's not going to be okay with it now. He's not, it's ridiculous. It's buffoonery and Hezekiah understood that, and he's trying to teach that to these people. Now look at second Chronicles 30 verse 10. Second Chronicles 30, 10 says, so the post pass from city to city through the country of Ephraim even unto Zebulun, but they laughed them to scorn and mock them. And you know what? A lot of times that's what happens when we go out into the community, we get laughed at, we get mocked at, and we get scorned, but you know what? It's worth the persecution. It's worth the laughing. It's worth the mockery. If we can get some people saved, look at verse 11, nevertheless, diverse of Asher, Ammonasi and of Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem. And you say, why did they come to Jerusalem? Because remember in the Northern kingdom of Israel, they had that false system that Jeroboam set up, or they had the gods of the Assyrians or whatever gods were going on at that time, right? If you wanted to worship God the right way, you had to go to Jerusalem where the priests were, where they were allowed to follow the commandments, where they were allowed to follow God's word. And so nonetheless, their efforts worked, right? They endured the persecution. They endured the mockery and they got results. And it's no different with this church. We will go out into this community. We will go out into other communities and we'll get mocked up. We'll get laughed at. In fact, I got a nasty email from that apartment complex on Monday morning, you know, and you know what? Next time it's time to go back. We're going back. I don't care about that email. You know, it doesn't matter why, because we might get somebody saved. We might have a verse 11 here, right? Nevertheless, diverse of Asher, Ammonasi and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem. You never know when that day is going to come. You never know what your efforts are going to do. God will bless those things. Verse 12, also in Judah, the hand of God was to give them one heart to do the commandment of the king and of the princes by the word of the Lord. Now jump down to verse 22 real quick. We'll move forward. It says, and Hezekiah spake comfortably unto all the Levites that taught the good knowledge of the Lord. And they did eat throughout the feast, seven days offering peace offerings and making confession to the Lord God of their fathers. Now go to Proverbs chapter 25 and we're almost done. Proverbs chapter 25 and we are almost done. Hezekiah was a king that loved the Bible. He loved the word of God. Okay. And that's why we're told this here in verse 22 where it says, and Hezekiah spake comfortably unto all the Levites that taught the good knowledge of the Lord. Remember that was the priest's job. That was one of their duties was to teach and make plain the words of God and to edify the people and to keep the people straight so that they wouldn't backslide. So they wouldn't wind up in the situation that Israel's in. Well, Proverbs chapter 25, we get a glimpse into that. If you look at verse number one, Proverbs 25 verse one, it says, these are also Proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied out. And so I just wanted to go over some of these things just to give you a little bit of insight into what fueled Hezekiah into what made him into the king that he was, what made the people that followed him into the great people that were and what made the Levites the great teachers of God's word that they were. So look at verse two, it says, it is the glory of God to conceal a thing, but the honor of kings is to search out a matter. And if you study Hezekiah's life, you will see that he was a king that searched out matters. He didn't just run hastily into battle. He wasn't just quick to pop off. He wasn't like Amaziah who went to the king of Israel and said, let's go right now. Let's get face to face and see what happens. He wasn't like that. He sought righteous counsel. And that's the lesson today. That's what it all goes back to. Righteous, godly counsel. Look at verse three, the heaven for height and the earth for depth and the heart of kings is unsearchable. Take away the dross from the silver and there shall come forth a vessel for the finer. Verse five, take away the wicked from before the king and his throne shall be established in righteousness. And you know what, this is why we don't let wicked people come into our church. This is why when we find out that somebody has a very wicked past, like maybe, you know, they're not saved and they're running around to different church members and running off at the mouth and saying things that are contrary to God's word. That's why we get rid of those people is because of this verse here, not only this verse, several verses, but nonetheless, when you allow and you tolerate and you coexist with these evil, wicked people, guess what? You're not going to influence them. They're going to influence you. And that's what we see here. He says, put a verse six, put not forth thyself in the presence of the king and stand not in the place of great men. Right? This is a lesson here in humility. This is a lesson in being humble. Look at verse seven for better. It is that it be set into the come up hither then that thou should as be put lower in the presence of the prince whom the eyes, or I'm sorry, whom thine eyes have seen. You know, back to my shipyard days, you know, that story I told you about spilling the sewage and those meetings I used to go to, I would always go into those meetings that sit way in the back. One, because I knew I was going to get called on anyways and it didn't really matter. But two, just because I felt like the admirals, these captains and the bigger, you know, leaders over me deserve to be at the table. And sometimes they'd be like, hey, no, don't get up here, you know, get up here. But I would let them call me up. You know what, you know where I got that from? I got that from this chapter right here. You know, when you go to somebody's house, you know, always be humble, you know, let them, let the man of the house or the family of the house eat first. And if they bid thee to eat first, then you do that. Right? That's the right attitude. That's basically the concept that we're learning here. Right? Don't just put yourself in the presence of the king. Don't just put yourself as the baddest dude on the planet. You know, let other people say good things about you. Let your works speak for themselves. Now look at verse number eight. He says, go not forth hastily to strive. Lest thou know not what to do in the end there of when thy neighbor has put thee to shame. You see a lot of times, like, you know, you know who learned this verse was Amaziah, right? When he challenged the king of Israel and said, let's get face to face. You know what? He got put to shame. You know why? Because he did it hastily. You know why? Because he rejected God to the counsel. That's why. That's how God's people fall is when they reject knowledge, counsel, and so on and so forth. And so we're going to be done right there. Like I said, next week, we're taking a break. So keep these charts here, you know, and maybe just kind of look it over a little bit and see what kind of information you can recall from these sermons. You know, just kind of look at the kings and I promise you, this will help you out. Like if you can just stare at the names that we've already gone over, Jonathan, and just try to think back without opening the Bible, just try to think what was one thing that you could remember about him or Amaziah or Uzziah, you know, that's really going to strengthen your Bible reading. And the next time that you go through these books of the Bible on your own, you're going to be ahead of everybody. I mean, you're going to, you're going to, you're going to learn so much more because your brain's already got that foundation. It's already got that stability. And so you're going to be able to pull a lot more of God's word out once you have that down. So that's the quick overview for today regarding those kings. Like I said, we're almost done with the divided kingdom. We're going to finish up and be talking about the captivity. We'll talk a little bit about Manasseh and Josiah, and then we'll be done with that. We'll move on to Esther and Imai and all that stuff when the time comes. So let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Lord, thank you so much for your word. I thank you for all these people that came here, Lord, to hear your word, preach and sing praises unto you. I just pray you bless our church, Lord, and help us out so many and bless the fellowship to come. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.