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["Pomp and Circumstance"] All right. All right, good morning, everybody. And welcome to 4th of July Sunday morning service at Shield of Faith Baptist Church. It's great to see everybody here this morning. I believe we have our potluck tonight, so we look forward to that as well. It's great to see everybody here. If we can begin to make our ways to our seats, please. And when you get there, please grab a hymn book. Should be underneath the seat directly in front of you. The red book. Grab a song book and turn with me to song number 412, Onward Christian Soldiers. Song number 412, Onward Christian Soldiers. ["Onward Christian Soldiers"] Sing it out loud. Onward Christian soldiers, marching as to war, with the cross of Jesus going on before. Christ, our royal master, leads against the fall, forward into battle, see his banner go. Onward Christian soldiers, marching as to war, with the cross of Jesus going on before. At the sign of triumph, Satan's host doth flee. On then, Christian soldiers, on to victory. Hell's foundations quiver at the shout of praise. Brothers, lift your voices, loud your anthems raise. Onward Christian soldiers, marching as to war, with the cross of Jesus going on before. Like a mighty army, rules the church of God. Brothers, we are treading where the saints have trod. We are not divided, all one body we. One in hope and doctrine, one in charity. Onward Christian soldiers, marching as to war, with the cross of Jesus going on before. Onward, then ye people, join our happy throng. And with us your voices in the triumph song, glory, love, and honor unto Christ the King. There's through countless ages, men and angels sing. Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war, with the cross of Jesus going on before. Amen. Brother Riley, we open a storm of prayer. Father, thank you so much for this time. God, we come here for your word to reach the Lord, and thank you for keeping us safe. And we thank you for giving our sights out to you. And we thank you for giving to the Lord. We pray for everybody in this whole household, that this can be a blessing for you. A blessing for us as well, Lord. Amen. Thank you, of course, we love you. And we thank you, amen. Amen. All right. It's good to be gathered with God's people, amen? All right, let's turn to Psalm 437, Battle Hymn of the Republic. And we'll sing it out loud, with all our hearts, unto the Lord, Psalm 437, Battle Hymn of the Republic. ["MINE EYES HAVE SEEN THE GLORY"] Mine eyes have seen the glory. On the first. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. He is tramping out the vintage, where the grapes of wrath are stored. He hath loosed the faithful, lightening of his terrible, swift sword. His truth is marching on. Glory, glory, hallelujah. Glory, glory, hallelujah. Glory, glory, hallelujah. His truth is marching on. I have seen him in the watchfires of a hundred circling camps. They have builded him an altar in the evening dews and dams. I can read his righteous sentence by the dim, the glaring lamps. His day is marching on. Glory, glory, hallelujah. Glory, glory, hallelujah. Glory, glory, hallelujah. His day is marching on. He has sounded forth the trumpet. That shall never sound retreat. He is sifting out the hearts of men before his judgments seem. Oh, be sweat my soul to answer him. Be jubilant my feet. Our God is marching on. Glory, glory, hallelujah. Glory, glory, hallelujah. Glory, glory, hallelujah. Our God is marching on. In the beauty of the heavens, Christ was born across the sea with the glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me. As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free while God is marching on. Glory, glory, hallelujah. Glory, glory, hallelujah. Glory, glory, hallelujah. While God is marching on. All right, well, good morning. Happy Fourth of July. Welcome to Shield of Faith Baptist Church. If you do not have a bulletin or you need a pen to take notes with or something like that, just raise your hand and keep it up and the tall one in the back shall give you what you need. Awesome, thanks. All right, so we'll just go over the front of the bulletin here because it never changes. Weekly church service time, so Sunday mornings are at 1030. Sunday evenings are at 6 p.m. and Wednesdays at 7. Underneath that is a list of our soul-winning times. So we have Saturday mornings at 1030, meeting right here. Sundays at 2 with Brother David. Mondays at 630 with Brother Mauser. Wednesdays at 11 with Brother Briley and Thursdays around 630. So Thursdays, if you want to go soul-winning, don't forget you have to call, text, let me know because we always change the meeting spot. 208-391-5323. Praise report, so salvation's for July. We are at 2, so we're already almost halfway from last month, which is great. 60 salvations year to date. Baptism's year to date says 0. It should be 5 and it's about to be 6. Where's he at? He's in here somewhere. There he is, there he is. Yeah, we got one more. You're getting dunked tonight. Right? That's right. He's getting suplexed into that bathistry. Yeah, well, no. I'll fill it up all the way. You'll be fine. We got you covered. All right, let's see. So last Sunday morning we had 37 in attendance. Last Sunday evening we had 28 and Wednesday was 30 and we had a total of 17 soul-runners out in the community last week, so praise God for all of that. Back page. So tonight we'll be in 2 Samuel, chapter number 6. Also tonight, after the evening service, we're having a barbecue, so we have hamburgers, hot dogs, and we're gonna be cooking them up out here, so feel free to show up hungry for that. And let's see, the next thing on there says a look ahead. So the week of the Red Hot Preaching Conference, so just that week only, we're moving the midweek service from Wednesday to Tuesday, so there's a lot of people that are gonna go to Sacramento for the conference, so we are going to be moving it to Tuesday that week only. Okay, so if you have any questions, just let me know after the service. Birthdays and anniversaries for July. So next up will be mine and Jessica's anniversary. Let's see here. The 23rd is Kylen. Where's she at? She's back there somewhere. Kylen's birthday. So... Oh, hang on. I don't know what's going on around here. Sorry, Kylen. So I guess she'll be beating me up in front of you all on her birthday, so... And then, of course, we have Miss Dawn, and we have Melissa, and Sophia's birthday is this month as well. This week's memory verse is James chapter 1, verse 2, which says, My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations. We are a family-integrated church, and what that means is we don't separate children from their parents for any reason. Children are always welcome in the service. However, if you need privacy or your child's being a distraction, you may use... The daddy baby room is over here. The mother baby room is right across the hallway. Just follow that lavender scent. It'll take you right to it, and there's still the laptop in there, so if it's dead and you can't watch the sermon, just toggle the little mouse pad. The sermon should come up, and if not, head right back there to the tall one and he will get it all fixed up for you. That'd be... I'm just giving him a hard time today. It's what dads do, all right? Ties and offerings for July are right below that. Don't forget to turn your phones off or place them on silent so they're not a distraction, and the bottom line of your bulletin says the I is the index of the mind, and we talked about that last Sunday morning, and we'll kind of visit that again today. So, with that being said, we will have one more song before we receive the offering. All right, let's grab those hymn books one more time and turn to song number 223. Springs of Living Water. Great singing so far. Let's keep it going. Song number 223, Springs of Living Water. On the first night I rested in the barren lands of sin and shame, and nothing satisfying there I found. For to the blessing cross of Christ one day I came, for the streams of living water did abound. Drinking at the springs of living water, happy now am I, my school day satisfied. Drinking at the springs of living water, wonderful and bountiful supply. The living water from the hills of God would make me glad and happy all the way. Now, holy grace and blessing mark the path I've trod. I'm shouting hallelujah every day. Drinking at the springs of living water, happy now am I, my school day satisfied. Drinking at the springs of living water, wonderful and bountiful supply. Sinner won't you come today to Calvary? A fountain there is flowing deep and wide. A senior now invites you to the water free. He thinks fairies can be satisfied. Drinking at the springs of living water, happy now am I, my school day satisfied. Drinking at the springs of living water, wonderful and bountiful supply. Amen. Alright, well let's go ahead and pray. Thank you so much, Lord, for allowing us to be able to meet here this great morning. We just pray that you'd bless our tithes and offerings, Lord, and bless our fellowship and keep distractions down to a minimum. Thank you for all that you've done for us and continue to do for us. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Amen. Alright, please turn your Bibles to Jeremiah chapter number 52. Jeremiah 52, the last chapter of Jeremiah. And as always we'll be reading the full chapter as our custom. Jeremiah chapter number 52. Jeremiah 52, and when you get there, starting at verse number one, the Bible reads, Zedekiah was one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Hamudel, the daughter of Jeremiah of Limna. And he did that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that Jehoiakim had done. For through the anger of the Lord it came to pass in Jerusalem and Judah, till he had cast them out from his presence, that Zedekiah was one and twenty years old, that he had cast them out from his presence, that Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and pitched against it, and built forts against it round about. So the city was besieged until the eleventh year of Zedekiah. And in the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, Babylon was sore in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land. Then the city was broken up, and all the men of war fled, and went forth out of the city by night, by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king's garden. Now the Chaldeans were by the city round about, and they went by the way of the plain. But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, and all his army was scattered from him. Then they took the king, and carried him up unto the king of Babylon, Ribla, in the land of Hamath, where he gave judgment upon him. And the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. He slew also all the princes of Judah and Ribla. Then he put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and the king of Babylon bound him in chains, and carried him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the day of his death. Now in the fifth month, in the tenth day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzarad, captain of the guard, which served the king of Babylon into Jerusalem, and burned the house of the Lord and the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and all the houses of the great men burned heat with fire. And all the army of the Chaldeans that were with the captain of the guard break down all the walls of Jerusalem round about. Then Nebuzarad and the captain of the guard carried away captives certain of the poor of the people, and the residue of the people that remained in the city, and those that fell away and fell to the king of Babylon and the rest of the multitude. But Nebuzarad and the captain of the guard left certain of the poor of the land for vine dressers and for husbandmen, also the pillars of brass that were in the house of the Lord, and the bases and the brazen sea that was in the house of the Lord, the Chaldeans break and carried all the brass of them to Babylon. The cauldrons also, and the shovels, and the snuffers, and the bowls, and the spoons, and all the vessels of brass wherewith they ministered, took they away. And the basins, and the firepans, and the bowls, and the cauldrons, and the candlesticks, and the spoons, and the cups, that which was of gold and gold, and that which was of silver and silver, took the captain of the guard away. The two pillars, one sea, and twelve brazen bowls that were under the bases, which King Solomon had made in the house of the Lord, the brass of all these vessels was without weight. And concerning the pillars, the height of one pillar was eighteen cubits, and a fillet of twelve cubits did compass it, and the thickness thereof was four fingers, it was hollow. And a chapeter of brass was upon it, and the height of one chapeter was five cubits, with net work and pomegranates upon the chapeters round about, all of brass. The second pillar also, and the pomegranates were like unto these. And there were ninety and six pomegranates on the side, and all the pomegranates on the net work were in hundred round about. And the captain of the guard took Sariah, the chief priest, and Zephaniah, the second priest, and the three keepers of the door. He took also out of the city and Eunuch, which had the charge of the men of war, and seven men of them that were near the king's person, which were found in the city, and the principal scribe of the host, who mustered the people of the land, and threescore men of the people of the land, that were found in the midst of the city. So Nebuzard and the captain of the guard took them, and brought them to the king of Babylon, to Riblah. And the king of Babylon smote them, and put them to death in Riblah, in the land of Hamath. Thus Judah was carried away captive, out of his own land. This is the people who Nebuchadrezzar carried away captive, in the seventh year, three thousand Jews, and three and twenty. In the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar, he carried away captive from Jerusalem, eight hundred thirty, and two persons. In the three and twentieth year of Nebuchadrezzar, Nebuzard and the captain of the guard carried away captive of the Jews, seven hundred forty and five persons. All the persons were four thousand and six hundred. And it came to pass, in the seventh and thirtieth year, of the captivity of Jehoiachin, king of Judah, in the twelfth month, in the five and twentieth day of the month, that Evo-Maradac, king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin, king of Judah, and brought him forth out of prison, and spake kindly unto him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings that were with him in Babylon, and changed his prison garments, and he did continually eat bread before him all the days of his life. And for his diet, there was a continual diet given him of the king of Babylon, every day a portion, until the day of his death, all the days of his life. Brother Jeff, would you pray for us? All right, amen. Jeremiah chapter fifty-two. Real quickly, one thing I did forget to mention during the announcements, is today's actually the two-year anniversary that we've been in this building, so for those of you that don't know, or have forgotten, this church started in Brother Mike's house back there about a year prior, and then we moved to my house, and now we're here in this building, and so I just wanted to mention that, and praise God for that. It's been a blessing for sure. So last week I said that last week's sermon was the last one in the series. I lied, but good thing you can't lose your salvation, so you have to just live with that, all right? Today is going to be the last one. And so the series that we're doing is called The Pride of Patriotism, and if you would, keep your place there in Jeremiah 52, but real quickly, just go over to Philippians chapter number two. We're going to come right back to Jeremiah 52, but go to Philippians chapter number two. And so the point of this series is how to learn to live in a society, a nation that has rejected God, that sets up laws and policies that violate the things that we're supposed to do, you know, that make it difficult for us to operate as God's children, and so look at verse number 15, if you would, Philippians chapter number two. Look at verse number 15. It says this, that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation among whom ye shine as lights in the world. And we've talked about this verse throughout all three series in this sermon, in this sermon series, if you will, and the point is that we do live in a crooked and perverse nation. Now, you know, you listen to this series or you listen to this sermon today, you might sit here and think, well, this guy's anti-American, and nothing could be further from the truth. You know, I spent eight years in the military and ten years of federal service, you know, so don't say, oh, you know, you're anti-American. No, BLM is anti-American. Antifa is anti-American. Our politicians, by and large, are anti-American. The mayor of Boise, she is a commie, and she's anti-American, okay? That is truth. That is reality. And the things that they speak about, the laws that they want to try to pass and push are to directly attack families. It's to attack the Bible-believing Christians. They don't just come right out and say that, but that's what it is, okay? We have laws that are written in this country. We have a constitution, and you know what? Most of these people don't want to follow it. I don't know if you know this or not, but it's not illegal to go knock on someone's door and ask them if they know for sure if they died today if they would go to heaven and to try to give them the gospel. That's not a crime in this country, but yet the mayor thinks that it is. A lot of people in this city think that it is, and it's not. The law is written. If I went downtown right now and tried to go get a solicitor's permit, they would say, leave. You can't have one. You know why? Because we're not soliciting. But guess what? A lot of times when the cops are called on us, what do they do? Oh, you're soliciting. You show them the law, and they're just like, oh, well, I got to think about that. That's pretty interesting. It's like, wait a minute, you're a law enforcement officer? But you got to step back for a second and look at the big picture and understand what's really going on. They serve a much bigger system that is corrupt. These people are being trained to take away our rights slowly but surely, day by day, week by week, month by month. But with all that going on, we are still supposed to be blameless, harmless as the sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation. And guess what the other expectation is? That we would shine as lights in the world. Well, how do we shine as lights in the world? Well, we use the great light that we have, the word of God. We go take that, and we preach that to anyone who's willing to listen. We assemble ourselves together as a congregation, and we edify one another, and we take what we've learned, and we apply it. And as the saying goes, if you're not applying, then you are dying. Now go back to Jeremiah chapter number 52 real quickly, and I'm going to give you the verse that we're going to be focusing on this morning. So Jeremiah chapter number 52, and we'll come back and take a look at the context here in just a moment. Jeremiah 52, look down at verse number 25. And so it says this, verse number 25, it says, And he took also out of the city a eunuch, which had the charge of the men of war, and seven men of them that were near the king's person, which were found in the city, and the principal scribe of the host, who mustered the people of the land, and threescore men of the people of the land that were found in the midst of the city. Now just hold that thought there, and we'll come back and explain what that means. But I don't know if something jumped out at you at the beginning part of that verse there, but that's going to be what we're talking about. And I want you to keep your place there one more time. We're going to do a lot of flipping in the Bible today. Go back to Isaiah chapter number 3 real quick, Isaiah chapter number 3, because I want to give you just a quick review of why we're even in this series, what started this off. And so Isaiah chapter 3 is basically where God has given Isaiah a vision of the coming destruction to Judah. So during the time frame that we're reading about in Jeremiah 52, the northern kingdom of Israel is actually gone. They've been conquered by the Assyrian empire, so they're done for. And all that's left is the nation of Judah, and their last king is a man by the name of Zedekiah, who was originally installed by King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. Okay, but before all of that, God gives Isaiah this vision. And Isaiah was a prophet in Judah during the times of King Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. And these men by and large love the Lord, except for Ahaz, he was a wicked king of Judah. But we've talked about this idea here. So even though they're kings, like Hezekiah, what did I say? Yeah, Hezekiah, right? Hezekiah loved the Lord. He had his issues. A lot of these kings, they had their issues. But they love God, and they're better than any politician that we have today. But yet Isaiah's coming along, and he's giving them this preaching. He's giving them this message saying, hey, your nation's about to be destroyed. In fact, Hezekiah was told at one point, hey, your children are going to be made eunuchs. And what was Hezekiah's mindset? What did he say? He said, well, good is the word of the Lord in my day. Sucks to be them. Basically, that's what he said, right? That's exactly what he says. He's like, at least things are good with me. So he's like, my relationship with God is great. That's on them. And so the reason why we keep bringing this up is because a lot of people think that God blesses a nation based off whether or not the president or the king or the ruler is some sort of a Christian, which isn't the case at all. In fact, if you would, look at verse number, let's see here, look at verse number 9. It says this. It says, the show of their countenance doth witness against them, and they declare their sin a Sodom. They hide it not. Woe unto their soul, for they have rewarded evil unto themselves. And he says this after what he says in verse number 8. Remember in verse number 8, Isaiah's telling the people, hey, the reason why God is going to destroy you as a nation is not because of your ruler. It's because of you. It's because of the tongues and the doings of the people. It's because of the things that the people are into, the things that the people are saying. They're becoming more and more vulgar. They're deciding, you know what, we don't want the statutes and the commandments and the precepts of God anymore. We want to do things our way. They're getting complacent in their doings. And we're taking a look at this prophecy here, and we're looking at America today, and we're like, wow, this is almost matching up perfectly. We live in a society today that declares sin as Sodom did, right? I mean, our government has dedicated an entire month to pride, right? And what does the Bible say about pride to begin with? Pride goeth before destruction. You know what? But our nation apparently has no shame anymore. Our politicians, corporate executives, they just want to shove this stuff down everyone's throat, and it seems like there are very few people today that are left that want to say anything about it, draw the line in the sand and say, hey, you know what? This is not the way that God has ordained a nation to operate in. So we're just going to do a really quick review here. So the first sermon that we preached in this sermon was called You Can't Step to This, and that was taken from verses six and seven. And so if you know, you know, I don't want to re-preach the whole thing, but basically in Isaiah chapter three, God is telling Judah, hey, God is going to take away what you have now and give you something else, and he's taking away the stay of water and bread. What that means is he's weakening the economic system. He's taking away the reserves. He's saying, hey, you're not going to be able to trust on your stores of water, your stores of food anymore. I'm going to remove that from you. You're starting to see that today in America. There's a shortage of workers. There's a shortage of lumber. There's a shortage of all sorts of things, because people would rather collect a check than actually get outside and do some work, right? And so that's what's going on here, and he's going to take away the mighty man. He takes away the trade workers. He takes away the men of war, the judge, the prudent, the counselors. And what does he do? He gives children and women to be their rulers, but during this timeframe here that's going to happen, which is actually what we're reading about in Jeremiah 52, is there's no one left or very few people left in Judah that have any kind of initiative. There's no one left that's saying, hey, you know what? We're going to go ahead and just take this responsibility, admit that we're wrong, take this on ourselves, and just go ahead and get right with the Lord. That doesn't exist. Look at verse number six. It says this, When a man shall take hold of his brother of the house of his father, saying, Thou hast clothing, be thou our ruler, and let this ruin be under thine hand. Look at verse seven. In that day he shall swear, saying, I will not be a healer, for in my house is neither bread nor clothing. Make me not ruler of the people. And so what do you have coming to Judah? We have people saying, hey, you have a little bit of strength. You have a little bit of resources. Why don't you become a leader? And what does he say? Hey, you didn't see anything here. I don't want any part of this responsibility. This isn't my mission. This isn't my problem. I didn't do this. Blah, blah, blah. So you just have people pointing the fingers today. Right? Everyone's a victim. That's what you have today. The victim mentality is raging. And we've talked about this for the Father's Day sermon, which was the second sermon that I preached in this series, because it was just fitting. The Bible says here that, hey, guess what? Children are going to rule over you. The man is now weak. He's not ruling his house. He's not leading his house well. And the kids are just going to be disrespectful to the elders. And that's exactly what you see today. There's story after story after story of children taking bus drivers and beating them down and beating their teachers up and all sorts of stuff. When I used to do appliance repair, I'd be in people's homes. And I would constantly see this, where these kids would just flip out on their parents and basically be bossing them around. This is like every single day. This is reality. This is what's going on today in our nation. So it seems like the same thing's happening to America that was happening to Judah in this time. And then for the third sermon, I called that parasitic patriots. And really, that was just a chest dump, you know? Because we go around town here, and we knock on people's doors. They've got all the flags, all the stuff out here. You know, USA, Second Amendment, all this stuff here. And then yet, they look at us, and they're just like, get out of here. What are you doing here? I don't want nothing to do with God. And so what we're seeing is we're seeing a nation that's dying because of apathy, a lack of interest in the things of God. That angers the Lord Jesus Christ greatly. He even mentions spewing the Laodicean church out of his mouth because they were neither hot nor cold. And that's exactly what you're seeing today in our society. Now go back to Jeremiah 52, if you would. We're going to go ahead and move on. Now the title of my sermon today is called, The Eunuchification of America. The Eunuchification of America. I made that word up. I'm going to try to get that patented after the service here so nobody else can steal it. No, I'm just kidding. I'm just teasing. We're going to talk about that here. And so I figured this would be fitting being that today is July 4th. And again, please understand I am not anti-American. I'm not like one of these Antifa people or one of these commies. I like the Constitution. In fact, I'm glad that even with the way this nation is today that we live here because you know what? Most of the time the cops do take our side when they're called on us. We can still assemble here and not fear that the government's going to come in here and shut us down. That's not the case in every country. In fact, you go up to Canada right now and you have a service and they might just decide to come in there and arrest the pastor and arrest all the people that are in there for assembling. I mean that is the way things are going in the world today, right? So we ought to be thankful that we still have the appearance of the rights that we do have today. But today is Independence Day, okay? And everybody today is going to celebrate independence from England and so on and so forth. And what this sermon is about, it's about things that America is independent of. And it may not be what you're thinking, okay? What does the word independent mean? Well, it means to be free from outside control, not depending on another's authority, okay? So keep that in mind. Is that true about our nation today? And I'm just going to give you the bottom line right up front here, and it's this. We need to understand that America today, America's independence today is an illusion. You have to understand that today, right? Just think about our financial system today, right? The dollar that you and I spend, if you have any dollars in your wallet, right? The Federal Reserve note that we all earn today, you know what? That is not owned by the people, you know? Go do some research on that and who owns the Federal Reserve. It's not the United States government, okay? So to sit here and to brag and, oh, we're independent and we're this and we're that is really just an illusion. That's all it is. You can light off all the fireworks that you want to. You can blow everything up that you want to. It's not going to change that fact. And guess what? When whoever controls the finances, whoever controls the money controls the nation. And we are headed to a time period like this world has never seen before, okay? You need to understand that. And with that being said, I'm not trying to, you know, project this doom and gloom on you, but I'm just trying to be honest. The Bible says to preach these things in season and out of season. And right now, the truth is definitely out of season. But you need to hear this because it's much better for you to hear and to understand the things that are coming upon this world so that you can be ready and not be fearful, not be filled with anxiety, but to know, hey, you could still shine as a light in the world. That is the expectation of God. That is the way that we should operate. And so what we're going to do today is we're going to learn what to do when there is nothing that you can do. Because we just read Jeremiah chapter 52. Zedekiah, he just got taken over. And the people, you know, they're really, there's nothing that they can do. They can't change Zedekiah's behavior. They can't change the past. They can't change the judgment of God that is coming upon that nation. And so a lot of those people are just sitting around like, what are we going to do? There's no option here. There's no good move that we can do. But, you know, we find ourselves in that situation all the time in our own personal lives. And so we're going to get to that later on and we're going to take a look at that. But let's get back to this verse here, Jeremiah 52, 25. Look at the beginning there. It says this. So keep in mind what we just read in Isaiah chapter 3. God says he's going to take away the mighty man. He's going to take away the man of war. He's going to take away the captain of 50s. And we mentioned before that that's a picture of leadership. So basically there's no one running around with initiative. Finding somebody who's willing to take responsibility is largely gone. So with that in mind, look at verse 25. It says this. He took also out of the city a eunuch which had the charge of the men of war. Now does anybody in here think that that's a little strange? Think that that's a little odd? Why would a eunuch be in charge of the men of war? Now I'm not going to get graphic on you but I'm going to do the best that I can to explain what a eunuch is. So a eunuch is a person that has been castrated. Now if you do not understand what I'm talking about it's probably because you're too young and you don't need to understand what I'm talking about. When you grow up you'll learn what I mean. And just understand it's not a very pleasant thing. It's not a very nice thing. When you study eunuchs out in the Bible what you're going to find is often they would be guards of the queens. They would be left alone to attend to the women and stuff because they could not reproduce. They could not do certain things. Now as I was studying this out I was reading about how when people were made eunuchs in their teen years how they would grow up. They would have narrow shoulders and it would really affect their hormones. It was definitely a big problem. And those of you who understand what I'm talking about I'm sure you could definitely understand that because it affects the male hormone testosterone. Which guess what? Unfortunately a lot of people today say well that's toxic. It's needed in war. It's definitely something that's needed in war. And to prove that to you on Sunday nights we're studying through 2 Samuel. And just last week we talked about the battle of David and his men where they went and they took over Jebus which actually became Jerusalem. What did David say? What challenge did David issue Israel during that time? Yeah that's right. He said hey whosoever getteth himself up the gutter and takes the city will be chief. Is going to have a great position of leadership. And who actually did that? It was Joab. So even David understood having a eunuch in charge of the men of war is not ideal. Now I'm not bad mouthing eunuchs. Eunuchs did great things in the Bible. God loves eunuchs. In fact there's a lot of encouragement even found in the book of Isaiah for eunuchs. Where God says hey don't look at yourself as a dried up tree. Your pain is temporary. You're going to get a new body and everything is going to be good to go for you. But the point is knowing the prophecy that God gave Isaiah for Judah. God said I'm taking away leadership. The military is gone. God has taken over and he's wrecking the economic system, the military system and the religious system. He's taking away truth. And so what do we see left here? There's nobody willing to step up. But in this time frame they have a eunuch that's like okay well I guess I'll go ahead and step up here and be charge of the men of war. What was the result? Destruction. Zedekiah and his men got defeated by Nebuchadnezzar. Now you say well why castrate somebody? What is the whole point of doing that? And it's to take away their strength. It's to control them. That's what I'm talking about here. And when you don't have, when a man doesn't have the proper hormone levels flowing through his body it affects you cognitively. It affects your bone strength. It affects your muscles. It affects all sorts of issues that men need especially if they're going to fight war. You understand warfare is not pretty. It's very brutal. And you need somebody like Joab. You need somebody like David. You need somebody who's tough and willing to say hey we're actually going to go through here and we're going to do the job that no one else wants to do. And keep in mind that war back then wasn't just pulling triggers and pressing buttons. You know I mean that's gruesome enough today by itself. This was in your face with swords, shields, spears, hand to hand. This was exhaustive battle, daggers, all that stuff. You know this is what they went through. And so what I'm trying to highlight for you here is that it's not ideal to have a eunuch over the men of war. And this is metaphorically a picture of America today because we have leaders that are basically spiritual mental eunuchs if you would. Now I'll be honest with you this is going to offend some people in here but this is the truth. Joe Biden needs to be a eunuch. All you need to do is just type that dude into YouTube and see how he fondles people. Right? You know what? That's behavior of a dog is what that is. That guy needs to be arrested. But leadership wise he's like a eunuch. And you need to understand that here. Now just a little bit more on eunuchs. You can leave your place there in Jeremiah and I want you to turn to Matthew chapter number 19. Matthew chapter number 19. And just to add on to the eunuch thing here Jesus spoke about this subject and I just want to give you this before I move on. Just in case anybody is still confused about the subject here. Matthew 19 look at verse number 12. So Jesus talks about eunuchs in this verse here and he says this. He says for there are some eunuchs which were so born from their mother's womb. And there are some eunuchs which were made eunuchs of men. And there be eunuchs which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it let him receive it. So obviously some people are born with defects. Right? It's just we live in a fallen world. These things happen. Nothing wrong with that. And it says here and there are some eunuchs which were made eunuchs of men. This was something that took place during the time of Jesus. This is you know a practice that people used to do. He's not endorsing it. He's not saying it's right. He's just basically saying hey it is what it is. And there's some people which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. And the reason why I'm bringing this up is because people will sometimes sit here and they'll say you know what? The Bible endorses mutilation. The Bible is okay with you changing your gender. Look that doesn't change your gender. It just affects your hormones. Okay that's what that does. But the last part there he says which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. Look there are some people that are just gifted with the ability to contain. And they haven't gone through any kind of castration. Right? The apostle Paul for example. Right? I don't think I don't see anything in the Bible that indicates that he was a eunuch. You know because when people were eunuchs they often the Bible just spells it out for us and lets us know that. Right? But he wasn't married. He didn't have a family. He had the internal strength to live his life one hundred percent for God. Now that's rare today. I think young people ought to get married. Okay? But there are some people that you know just decide you know what? I can do a lot of work for God being single and they can contain and we ought to not mess with those types of people and just let them go. You know let them work for the Lord. And so you can leave your place there in Matthew chapter 19. I want you to go to 1 Corinthians chapter number 16 and I'm going to give you the first point for this morning here. So I've got three points. Three things that America has or currently is declaring independence from. And number one is America has declared independence from leaders with strength. Let me say that again. America has declared independence from leaders with strength. Just think about this. Look I don't endorse politicians today. Okay? You guys know this here but I'll be honest with you. You know Donald Trump had a little bit more strength if you would than Joe Biden. Okay? And I'm not endorsing him at all. You know I don't stand for that. But it is true. You know Joe Biden has been making threats when he was running for president. You know I'm going to be tough on Russia. I'm going to be tough on China. You know I'm going to be tough tough tough. I'm going to be doing this. I'm going to be doing that. And what has actually happened? The exact opposite. In fact what he has done is threatened American patriots. I read you that quote last week. He basically said you know you gun loving people you don't need a magazine with this capacity blah blah blah. The government's got nukes and aircraft carriers and all of this stuff. That's a threat. He threatened the American people. He threatened the people that know you know what we're not going to go ahead and do an insurrection. We're not going to go ahead and take over the capitol. And I'm not talking about that issue a few months ago. That was a whole other story here. But America has declared independence from leaders with strength. Joe Biden I believe was installed by the shadow government whatever you want to call it. And what is his agenda? His agenda is to change the way that we do things. In case you don't know this man hates America. He hates the Bible believing Christian. And you say well how do you know that? He hasn't come out and said that. It doesn't matter. It's in his actions. It's in the things that he says. That you can understand by the way. That you can understand by the way. But one of the things that I've noticed that he's doing. And the media even keeps hinting around about this. Is they want to make it illegal for people to even support Trump. They want to put you on some kind of a terror watch list. I think Mike sent an article to us the other day. That talked about how this congressman wants to basically gather all the information up from Facebook. Of people who supported him or people who are against the coronavirus. Or people you know against the lockdowns and stuff like that. And collect all of that information. Now why would somebody who's an American politician want to do that? Because they are the anti-Americans. That's why. See these people who have crept into positions of power. What they are doing is they are saying hey we're now the new America. And we want to declare independence from people that can think for themselves. People who are independent. Baptists for example. They definitely don't like us. Which is why we're constantly getting kicked off YouTube. Constantly getting flagged off of Facebook. Constantly getting thrown off of social media. Why we constantly get death threats on a daily basis just for preaching the Bible. You know it seems like every other month we'll go knock on someone's door. And it's the wrong person from the alphabet community. And they just can't help but to message in the middle of the night. I'm going to cut your throat. I'm going to kill you. Why? Why are they so upset? Look a few months ago Bradley knocked on someone's door. And because he wasn't wearing a mask wanted to kill me. Called the CDC on me. And I told them they can go to hell. You don't tell God's people. You don't tell us what we can do. We take our orders from this book here. That's how it works. That's how it operates. And guess what happened? Nothing. You know but this guy sends messages to the church. You know what? You're out here killing people. I hope you die. And then all of a sudden I start getting a flood of messages in here. You know what? We're going to kill you. And it's like well if we're not wearing a cloth mask that doesn't do anything to begin with. You going to come in here and kill me? Get real. But this is what's going on today. Cancel culture is a real thing. And that's the independence that America is standing for in 2021. They have declared independence from people that have strength. That's why they hate Donald Trump. And please understand I'm not endorsing politicians today because they don't really love the Lord. You know I want King Asa to come back. I want to work for David. You know I'm looking forward to the millennium when Jesus rules and reigns with a rod of iron. When Leviticus and those laws come back into play. And there isn't going to be you know this oh whatever you want to believe type stuff. You know I got some messages last night you know you're lucky pal that we don't live in a theocracy. No actually you're lucky pal that we don't live in a theocracy. But that theocracy is coming and there's nothing that you can do to stop it. And just to further prove this point here. You know I saw a quote by Mr. Bumbling Biden yesterday that said you know hey we've set up three million jobs since we've took office. Now who here believes that? Who here believes that? You know this is what I'm talking about here. And then he goes on to say this. I went to his little Facebook thing or whatever and I just took some quotes. And it said this. In the past two months 60 percent of doses at federally run community vaccination sites were administered to people of color. Look we're not racist. The Bible says that God has made all the nations of the earth of one blood. There's neither male nor female in Christ Jesus we're all one. Being racist is stupid. Looking at someone because of their skin color and you know saying oh you're garbage is trash. Nobody in here believes that. Right. I don't even think there's that many people today out there that are really pushing that today. What it is is the media understanding full well hey the way to really destroy America is to divide and conquer. It's the oldest trick in the book. It's what the serpent did to Eve. Yea hath God said made her question so division in her mind between the word of God and what she should do. What happened. The fall of man. It's the oldest trick in the book. It's what they're doing right now. But look I mean this is the strength if you will of this president. Hey we gave some shots to people of color. That's strength. That's you being tough. You know. Oh we set up three million jobs. Here's the funny thing about that. The media today really never puts him on the spot. You ever notice that. He is spoon fed. He's the ultimate Manchurian candidate if you will. And he's spoon fed everything to say. You know everything to do. You know you're not going to turn on MSNBC and they're going to be like oh you know this isn't right what he's doing here. They're not going to give you an objective report. They're not going to do that. They're going to give you a subjective report. They're going to say how they feel. They're going to produce opinions. And they're going to sow discord. They're going to sow doubt into your mind about what's really going on. They're not going to show you the horrible things that he's done. You know he goes on stage here and he's talking about other people's you know daughters and how he's glad they're in the room and stuff. He's still doing this stuff. Does the media say you know that's kind of strange. No. They don't say that at all. They're just like oh he's so nice and kind and loving. No. He's a communist traitor is what he is. Here's another one. Going back to his I'm going to be tough on on Russia type thing here. He said yeah he said I'm going to hold Russia and even China accountable for the crimes they've committed. You know he for meddling in the election is what he was talking about here. Well when he was actually asked by somebody because somebody did ambush him. He said this is what he said about about his tough talk. He said I told Putin I told him if it turned out that the invest as I thought that there was engagement in our elections that I'd respond. Does that make any sense. No. And that's exactly word for it. So I told you guys last week you know I have to go to like White House dot gov to get these and I just cut and paste the transcript and that's how it reads. It's just choppy you know when I get excited I start like mixing up my words and stuff whatever you know but I don't have you know this kind of dementia. This guy does here. But the point is he's like I told him that I'd respond. Well what do you mean you respond you're going to send a little message on Twitter I don't like what you did. I don't like what you did. You know his whole ideal his whole goal where he pushes on America a lot of things he says we just need to be kind and treat everyone equal. It sounds good on paper but the problem is he's lying you've got to read between the lines because they'll say these types of things right. Oh let's coexist let's coexist. Right. But then what do they do. They want to pass laws that shut people like us up. And if they can't pass them what they do is they get their buddies who are high up you know spiritual wickedness in high places people are high up in YouTube and in Hollywood and the media and they have them come after us. That's what they do. Right. So you know we don't just have you know the government of America we have corporate America who by the way most of those people unfortunately hate our guts and they all work together behind the scenes to basically try to ruin our lives. But he goes on to say this the United States is not looking to kick off a cycle of of escalation and conflict with Russia. We want a stable and predictable relationship. OK. What happened all that tough talk that drawn the line in the sand and that whole oh I'm going to make Putin pay for being friends with Trump I'm going to make him pay for all this stuff. What happened all that talk. It was a lie. It was what it was. He has no strength. That's what you know what. Unfortunately because of the tongues and the doings of the American people because the people have decided you know what we're going to stand for abortion. We're going to stand for all this unrighteousness that's in the Bible today. We don't want God in our schools. We don't want him in the government buildings. We don't want him anywhere. We don't want his truth. It's too offensive because of that we deserve Joe Biden. Unfortunately we deserve Joe Biden. You know it is what it is. You know and I'm going to keep going on here with this point here. You know you could just search military top brass comments of today. OK. And just start reading what a lot of the generals and admirals are up to and what they're saying and what they're pushing. You know what the top dogs of the Marines are out saying right now. We're gay. Get over it. What. What are the top dogs in the media operation of the United States Army up to today. Promoting wokeness. Hey come join the Army because we're woke. And like I always say you're not woke you're broke and you're spiritually a joke is what you are right. But that's our nation today. Let's promote this woke ideology. Hey we're real tolerant. We're real liberal. Know what we have today is we have a United States military that is basically promoting leaders that are nothing but eunuchs. They don't have the power. They don't have the strength. They don't have the intestinal fortitude or the guts to really say what needs to be said. Obama started this back when he was in power. He started basically putting out surveys to a lot of the top brass saying hey would you fire on American citizens if you were called upon to do so. And of course a lot of them would say no not do that. Guess what. Find some dirt on them. Get them out of office. You know basically just remove them and appoint somebody that would do that. OK. Now when Trump was in office you know there was a lot of exchange. I think a lot of different people probably stood back in their positions. And you know the shadow government they said you know what we don't like that. We don't want that. That's not good for our agenda. And so what are they doing right now. They're doing the same exact thing. Look I feel sorry for people today that are in the military. Because it's a bad deal. It is not the military that I was in. It's not the military that a lot of you were in. It's a different world. OK. You need to understand that. Now OK. So what do we do about this. You had us turn to First Corinthians 16. You've just been rambling on and on and on about this. Sometimes you just got to get stuff off your chest. You know what I mean. And today's July 4th. And it's just like after every soul winning session you know you just I'm just seeing these patriots out there. And I look at these people I'm like man you're on fire for the right things. But it's like I wish we could just turn that zeal and help you to work for the Lord. Maybe we could turn this thing around. Maybe we could just slow the coming judgment down enough for our children to actually gain traction in this world and actually not have to go to school with a bunch of freaks and a bunch of pedophiles and a bunch of garbage like that and actually be able to grow up in a somewhat seemingly normal world. You know what. But that's not the case today. First Corinthians chapter number 16 look at verse number 13. So Paul says this to the Corinthians you know after giving him all the rebuke basically saying hey all these things are coming upon you you're being judged by God. You need to change you're going to get your candlestick removed. Look what he says. He says watch ye stand fast in the faith quit you like men and be strong and say what are you talking about. Hey just because we have a bunch of leadership today in this country just because our nation is declaring independence from actual leadership that has strength. People that say you know this is fact this is opinion we're going to go with the facts. Just because our nation is doing that doesn't mean that we have to reflect that. It doesn't mean we have to operate that way just because they're going to try to get us off all the social media. It doesn't matter. We're going to keep on fighting. We're going to be strong and we're going to preach the Bible. We're going to do the right things because this is what God wants. He wants us to shine as lights in the midst of this crooked and perverse nation. And that's what we're going to do. I mean think about this here. Watch ye stand fast in the faith quit you like men and be strong. You know there's a story in First Samuel chapter 4 where the Philistines in Israel are going to go to war. Right. And the Philistines hear about this and they're like you know what these Israelis these Israelites these are the people that have those gods that part of the Red Sea. You know their gods are strong. This is the language that they're using. And what does their leader say. He says hey quit you like men and be strong. So when he tells us he them soldiers quit you like men and be strong. What do they do. They mop Israel and they take the ark of God. So if the heathen can do it if these people can do it you know what. We have God on our side. We have the word of God. We have the truth today. What we need is just a little bit of motivation a little bit of courage. You know what we can watch. We can stand fast in the faith and we can quit ourselves like men and be strong. We can still say hey what you're doing is incorrect. It is a violation of the word of God. It's not right. We're not going to stand for you're not going to force a needle in my arm with you know with aborted fetal cells. It's not going to happen. I don't care what you say. I don't care how many times you take away my job. I don't care how many threats you give me. It's not going to happen. You can try to force all of this stuff on oh you have to let these people into your church. No I don't and I won't. It's not going to happen. We don't have to meet in the building if it gets that bad. We'll meet anywhere. I don't care. As long as we have a group of people who have decided you know what we're going to quit ourselves like men. We're going to be strong and serve the Lord no matter what. You see and that's what I talked about during Father's Day. You know there's just a lack of courage being promoted today in this nation because everyone's apathetic. They're just out for their own selves and that's exactly what the Bible said would be the attitude of the last days that people would be you know just all out for themselves. There is no longer selfless service. That's gone. Now it's hey what can I get out of this. You know people today they're not judged based on courage. See back in the day even when I was a kid you know you know we would look to people that had a lot of courage and did things that took guts and be like wow you know I want to be like that. Now today people are you know based off of how much of a victim you're in like I talked about last week right. Okay well my skin's a little bit dark. I got this. You know I'm a communist. You know I've got the green hair and I've got all this stuff going on so I've got this many points as a victim. And American culture says yeah you know that's a person we need to look up to. It's sad. It's you know it's just disgusting. But that's the that's the nation that we live in today. And it's a horrible horrible thing. Now if you would go back to Jeremiah chapter number 52 and we'll move on with the second point. All right so Jeremiah 52 again look at verse number 12. Jeremiah 52 look at verse number 12. It says this. Now in the fifth month in the tenth day of the month which was the 19th year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon. Came Nebu Zaragan captain of the guard which served the king of Babylon into Jerusalem and burned the house of the Lord and the king's house and all the houses of Jerusalem and all the houses of the great men burned he with fire. You say man what in the world's going on here. You know when you're studying this out this can be very confusing in the Bible. But you have to understand that Jerusalem was not taken in a day. It was taken in waves. It was taken in different time periods. OK. And so there's an order to this here. And in this time frame they're coming back and they're saying now we're just going to burn the house of the Lord. And you say well why why did God allow this to happen. We have to understand God never told them to build that house in the first place. Remember that was the desire that David had. And God's like hey I understand you want to build it. He's like you're not doing it David because you shed way too much blood. I'll let your son do it though. If you maintain my statutes and if you maintain my commandments. Well what happened over the process of time that people said hey we're sick and tired of following those rules. All this judgment you know all this stuff here it's just not for us. We like the new ways. And so they just started going off their own way. And so God says fine. I'm just going to allow the Babylonians to come in here and destroy the house of God and just destroy truth out of the land. And so with that in mind here's point number two. America has declared independence from God's truth. And I've already mentioned this today right. But there's always this movement of people that are out there ready to sue. Right. Oh I saw a picture of the Ten Commandments in a public school. Guess what I'm suing. Oh there's a kid reading the Bible during his break. Oh guess what I'm suing. Oh someone had a King James Bible on school. Guess what I'm going to sue. Right. Everyone's sue happy today. Right. They want to sue everyone over every single thing. But that's what's going on today you know. You're not going to go into a lot of these public buildings and these federal buildings and find the word of God and find the history that our nation was actually founded upon. You know because we did have laws in this nation that reflected the Old Testament. Like sodomy for example. People were put to death for that when this nation first started. But nobody wants to talk about that. And you bring that up oh you're a hate. You're full of hate. Look the Bible teaches if you have love then you have to have hate. You can't hate. I mean look you can't love your children if you don't hate pedophiles. You can't love both. It doesn't work like that. You can't love God and the devil. It doesn't work. It's impossible. But yet what are we told today. Oh you just need to love everyone for everything no matter what. Right. Well guess what. In order for our weak politicians and the people that really control this nation to push their agenda. They've got to get the word of God out. And look they hate it so much they want it all gone. Even one verse out of a government building they'll sue for. They want that gone and removed. And you know what that rubs off on the people. It does. It rubs off on society. It rubs off on the people we talk about today. And all of a sudden now you're going out here and you're talking with people. And they're like ah yeah whatever. Teach his own. Where do you think your rights came from? The devil? The Bible says where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty. And obviously the initial context is salvation. You know when you're saved you get saved you get born again. You know you're free. But guess what. It also applies to a nation. Because that's the whole point of the Old Testament. Every time they kick God out. Every time they say hey hold on we're good we don't need you. Don't need your teachings. What happens? Destruction, bondage, slavery, all these horrible things come on a nation. That's exactly what you're seeing today. So point number two is America has declared independence from God's truth. And this is so evident today by the cancel culture that is in our society today. You know I mean there are people wanting to cancel all of our pastor friends. You know and they just want to get us off YouTube. Get us off Facebook. Just basically get us out. You know emailing thinking that's going to scare you know scare me. And it just won't stop. I've just I've just come to peace with it. It's just never going to stop. You know I wake up every morning. I'm like okay delete delete delete. Die die I'm going to kill you. We've got a thousand subscribers on YouTube. How do we have like 10 messages a day you know coming in death threats. And it's because they want to exterminate all of us. That's what it is. They want to get rid of the Christian because we have the light. We're able to shine that light on their evil deeds and expose the hypocrisy. Expose the dangers. Right. And they don't like it. And so the only way that they're going to be successful is if they just continue this push to get the word of God out of the schools. Out of the government buildings. Out of society. I mean you know I still like it when you drive around here. Sometimes you'll see like a farm right and they'll have a big you know like a Ten Commandment thing in there. You know but I guarantee you there's somebody driving by there like what can I do to sue that person just to get that off there. Isn't that crazy. You know the guy over here used to have the Ten Commandments in his window and he took it down. And he's like yeah somebody offended. Somebody was offended by it. Look strength is disappearing from this nation at an alarming rate to where now just the common man's afraid. Oh I forgot. I offended you. Look I'd rather just tell you the truth and offend you and if it is what it is because that's how our God is. That's how this entire book is. It's written against man. And you know what man knows that which is a huge proof for the Bible. No man wrote the Bible. No if man wrote the Bible you know this message would be entirely different today. God loves all of you so much. He's not mad at you. He loves everyone. Look let's just shake hands for a minute. We'll just get the band back up here and play another you know 20 songs and just go home. That's how it is. Turn to Second Timothy chapter number two. Second Timothy chapter number two. Second Timothy chapter number two. Look at verse number nine. Paul's instruction to the pastor Timothy here. I want you to know what he says here verse nine and ten. It says this beginning in verse nine. Wherein I suffer trouble as an evil doer even unto bonds but the word of God is not bound. Though America today unfortunately by and large its corporate leaders its politicians they have declared independence from God's truth. They have internally said we do not want his truth out here. We need to cancel. We need to get rid of anybody who opposes anything unrighteous on Facebook YouTube Twitter whatever. OK. We need to get it gone. You know what. They're not going to succeed because the word of God is not bound. And I like what Paul's saying here is that wherein I suffer trouble as an evil doer. And that's a good question for all of us. Have we suffered trouble trouble as an evil doer. Yes we have because if we didn't our church wouldn't be getting the messages that it gets on a daily basis. OK. So we were I look at that and I'm like you know what. Hey this is a great thing we're actually doing something right. We're actually getting our name out there you know without even trying to pick a fight. I mean just the word of God is enough. So we are suffering trouble as an evil doer. But you know we haven't got the bond thing yet. They're trying to do that they're doing that you know through their loving kind get off social media way. Now look at our summertime. Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sake that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. And of course you understand this. This is the goal to get people saved to get them born again to show them the word of God. The Bible says faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. That is our mission. There's the look the local church has a two fold mission. It's to edify and to evangelize by preaching the word of God. That is what we are supposed to do. We should never declare independence from that at all. That is our mission. That's why we exist. That's why we have the blessing of God on us so that we can continue that push. But you have to understand with that comes push back. With that comes suffering trouble as an evil doer. Isn't that what people say today. Isn't that what people message us today. Hey you're evil. You're wicked. You're not loving. You're not this. We had people two years ago before we even moved into this building. I'm calling KTVB on you. I'm going to call the news on you. And the news is like whatever. Have time for that guy. Have time for that. Now you say why bring this up here. How does this apply to my point here that America has declared independence from God's truth. And I wanted to bring this up. Pastor Menes messaged me yesterday about this website that they built. It's called Banned But Not Bound. Banned But Not Bound. You see they've had a lot of issues getting kicked off of YouTube. You guys know Faithful Word has. Steadfast. You know all of our friends they're getting kicked off at an alarming rate. I mean even liberals are getting kicked off YouTube right now believe it or not. You know and they're like what's going on. You know so you have to be a certain kind of commie liberal to even stay on social media. But there's always a way. Where there's a will there is a way. And so he's just telling me about this website. He's like hey send me all your controversial sermons. You know send whatever you want to and we'll promote it. We'll put it on this website here. And guess what. You know if we all do that. We all sign up for this you know this website here. It's going to actually help sermons get out. It's going to help the Word of God spread even more. Because here's what you don't understand. You know we preach controversial things like this from time to time. But what they're really after is the Bible way to heaven. They don't want that on there. That's the one that they don't like. You know explaining the gospel to somebody. They want all of that gone. And we can't just get depressed and get this anxiety and you know all these feelings and emotions that come with that. We need to realize hey the Word of God is not bound. We can relax in that. God's going to provide a way for us to get the truth of the Bible out to the community. And banned but not bound I think is a great way. So if you haven't signed up for it I'd just like to encourage you to do so. Now go back to Jeremiah 52. We're getting close to being done here. This is going to be my third and final point here. Jeremiah 52 so we're going to back up to verse number 8. Jeremiah 52 verse number 8. And so this is kind of what it all boils down to right here. So from the time Isaiah and the prophets before prophesied to Israel said hey guess what? Doom is coming. There's nothing you're going to be able to do about this. It kind of gets summed up right here. Jeremiah 52 look at verse number 8. It says this. But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king. And overtook Zedekiah and the plains of Jericho. And all his army was scattered from him. So at this moment in time here. And you have to even understand and remember Zedekiah was appointed by Nebuchadnezzar. But you know Zedekiah decided you know what? I'm somebody. I'm important. And so he rebelled against the king of Babylon. And so he said okay fine enough's enough. Goes in there and overtakes him. So now Zedekiah's army is scattered. So now Zedekiah's army is scattered. They are not able to handle the Chaldeans. They can't fight. They can't fend for themselves. They are not unified. And so my third point is this. America has declared independence from a military of unification. And I just wanted to bring this up because it's definitely applicable and it's definitely true. The top brass by and large today of our military. They're promoting the communist agenda is what a lot of them are doing. Not all of them but a lot of them. And so you know what? That doesn't mean that every single person in the military is bad or evil or wicked. And I've heard Christians you know say stuff like that. You know you're in the military. You're garbage. You know that's not cool. That's not okay. You know there are Christians in the military right now that actually listen to us. That support us. That love our church. Love our friends. They want to be soul winners. They want to get into a better situation. You know what? And they're stuck in this situation and they don't know what to do. Because they've got one squad leader. They've got one leader over here saying one thing. One over here saying another thing. And they're trying to promote this garbage. You know what? And they feel like man I'm trapped. I don't know what I'm going to do. That's exactly how the people of Judah felt in this moment when they realized you know what? Our army is gone. It can't fight. It can't protect us anymore. What do we do when we find ourselves in that situation? And look all this stuff for America it goes way back. I can remember in 2004 sitting in a conference room in the United States Army getting an equal opportunity briefing. And one of the things that popped up on the screen was if you believe in the second coming of Jesus Christ you are a domestic terrorist. That's what it said. I had the manual but I lost it in the flood. I think I lost it during Katrina. But I used to show that to people and they'd be like whoa that's crazy. But anyways what's for dinner tonight? You know what I mean? Like you know that'll never happen. That was just a typo. You know we would have commanders that would give these briefings and they'd be like you know what I don't really quite agree with that. I think somebody just kind of is mistaken. I think they're just mostly talking about the Ku Klux Klan. You know it's not just white people that believe in the second coming. Okay? There's all nationalities. There's all kindreds. There's all tongues that believe in the second coming. Look if you believe in the Bible you believe in the second coming. Otherwise you're not a Christian and you don't believe in the Bible. Okay? But apparently somebody in Uncle Sam's government wants you to be declared as a domestic terrorist for believing that. And you know what? That hasn't gone away. They're still using that same briefing but they have added more. Now if you're against the alphabet community you could be considered a domestic terrorist. Isn't that what happened in Genesis 19? Isn't that why we go over Judges 19? Look this is how it goes. This is the order. When people reject God, God says okay I'm just gonna let you have at it. Wickedness abounds and we are caught in the crossfires. And sometimes we're like what are we gonna do about this? How in the world are we gonna keep going on here when it seems like there's nothing that we can do? We're gonna talk about that here real quick. So we're wrapping this up. Go to James chapter one. James chapter one. Last place I'm gonna have you turn. James chapter number one. Now while you're turning there I'm just gonna give you a quick, just a quick nugget of truth about James again. Because I feel this is important and you can't hear this too much. James is a book that a lot of people go to to try to prove oh you gotta have works in order to be saved. You gotta have works plus faith. You don't have enough works. You're done for. Don't forget what do we do when people say that? We have them read verse number 18. That's what we have. Verse number 18 of chapter one is what we do. Because it says of his own will be got he us with the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. That is what you do to set the context up for James chapter two. We're saved by his word. We were begot. We were born with the word of truth. Not with the word of truth plus our works. That's not what the Bible says here. And so you need to just remember that when people come at you with that. But James chapter one teaches us about the purpose and it teaches us about the plans that God has for us when we go through trials. But it also gives us the solution when you find yourself in a situation that seems impossible to get out. You're like, okay, I've got this trial. I just feel like if I turn to the right, I turn to the left, I go forward, I go backwards, I'm stuck in life. What do I do? There's no way out. I feel like God's mad at me. I feel like he's angry at me. I feel like I'm in Judah during Zedekiah's reign and just everything's falling apart. My life is falling apart. What do I do? And you're going to find you're probably not going to like the answer right off the bat. But you know what? It's truth. And if you follow it, if you believe it, if you embrace it, it's going to help you out here. So, James chapter one. Go to verse number 13. Go to verse number 13 here. And I want you to, we're going to read three verses here, and this is going to basically explain the pedigree, if you will, of trials. So look at verse 13. It says this. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted with evil. Neither tempteth he any man. Verse 14. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death. So we need to understand, when we get backslidden, we decide, you know what? We're going to go ahead and allow this sin to fester in our hearts. We're not going to check it. We're going to say, you know what? I don't care what the preacher says. I don't care what the Bible says. I don't care how I feel about this. I'm just going to go ahead and do it anyways. You know what's going to happen? Over the process of time, you're going to wind up like the children of Israel. That lust is going to grow. It's going to overwhelm you. It's going to cause you to go out and do things that you know you shouldn't do, and it could possibly bring you death. And what James is doing is he's telling us, hey, don't get that confused. Don't get your poor decision-making confused with trials that befall you. Okay? So back up, and we'll see the purpose of trials here. Look at verse number one. We're getting close to being done here. Verse number one. It says, James, the servant of God of the Lord Jesus Christ to the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad. Greeting. And if anybody ever comes to you and says, well, see, this is just for Hebrews, hermeneutically speaking. No. Guess what? Go to Romans chapter number two. He is a Jew who has won inwardly. Okay? This is to you. This is to the believer. The believers that are scattered abroad here. Okay? Look at verse number two. He says, my brethren. So we're talking to saved people here. Right? My brethren. Now, this is it right here. This is what you have to understand. This is very important. Count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations. Count it all joy. See, this is what people don't like to hear. And sometimes people will come and they'll call or they'll come in the office and they'll say, hey, I'm in this situation here. You know, I've made some bad decisions. You know, I understand it's wrong and, you know, I just, my life is crashing down on me. I've got these two or three options. And you know what? I have to tell them, like I mentioned during the Father's Day sermon, brace for impact. I can't help you. There's nothing I can do for you. You know, you've made these decisions. Now you're going to have to weather the storm. That's the situation that the children of Judah literally are facing. But you know what? Anyone in this room can find themselves in that situation at any given time, whether you brought it on yourself or someone else brought you into that situation. And the answer is right here. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations. And you say, what in the world is that? Look, God brings us through trials for this reason, to expose the level of trust that we have in God. So when you go through these trials and you're like, God's mad at me, I can't believe this. Look, even I feel like that sometimes. You know, we take care of my dad who's got Alzheimer's and dementia. And sometimes I'm like, man, God hates me. You know, I literally sometimes have that feeling. I feel like there's nothing I can do. You know, because of all the stuff that I'd like to do, but sometimes I can't because of that. Every sermon that I ever write, he's right there just, hey, you suck, shut your mouth. You know, just like yelling at me all day, all night long. But I have to realize, I need to count that joy. Because, you know what, two years from now, three years from now, that's just going to make me stronger. You know, that's just going to make me stronger. And I read this and I'm like, oh yeah, you know, I just need to count it joy. God doesn't hate me. You know, sometimes though, look, I got the old man too. We all do. Right? And sometimes, you know, these thoughts can come into your mind and it's like, man, what did I do? Is it for throwing the rocks at the cars when I was a kid? You know, which could be part of it. You know, I wasn't the best child, you know. And so sometimes, you know, I start thinking, yeah, you know, I did put them through a lot, you know, when I was younger. Maybe that's the chastisement I deserve. You know, but either way, God loves us so much and his mercy is so abundant that he just says, hey, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations. And what this has done for me is it's made me have to look at myself. It's made me have to realize the level of trust that I have in him. And that's what you need to realize when you find yourself in a position where it seems like there's no way out. What am I going to do? You know what, count it all joy. Count it all joy and do a self-audit and say, you know what, am I really trusting in the Lord like I should be right now? That's the application. That's what you need to do with all of this. You know, people say, oh, these things in the Old Testament, they just don't apply today. They're not applicable. Yeah, they are. They're very applicable. They found themselves stuck between a rock and a hard place and didn't know what to do. You know what James would say? Hey, count it all joy. Yeah, you brought this on yourself. Some people didn't bring it on them. A lot of people, a lot of innocent and poor people suffered because of what other people did. And you know what, the answer is still the same for them. Count it all joy. Take it as an opportunity to increase your faith and learn from it. Use that experience. Because like the thing with him, you know, it's like, you know, in the future, I might be able to help some of you. I might be able to help other people that are out there that are going through the same thing. And because I went through it, now I can help. And it's the same for you and your trials and your struggles and what you've done. You know what, when you see somebody going down the road that you went down in the past, you can say, hey, man, let me talk to you for a second. Let me try to help you out here. You're making a bad decision. You're making the wrong choice here. And if you don't turn around, this is what's going to probably happen to you. You need to get that and understand that. Trials expose the level of trust that we have in the Lord. Look at verse 3. Knowing this, right, so knowing this and understanding this, he says, knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. All of us need help in the patience department from time to time, especially me. And that's probably one of the reasons why I go through this. And look at verse 4. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. And that's the goal. This is why we go through trials. You know, and I like to make sure that people understand. When you get saved or you decide, you know what, I'm going to get on fire floor. I'm just going to serve them. I'm going to start going to church and do these things. Your life may not exactly get better. It may not get easier, right? We say this all the time because we see it all the time. You're going to lose friends. You're going to get ridiculed. You're going to get mocked. You're going to get all of these things. And if you ever find yourself in a position where you're confused, why, you know, I'm serving God. I'm reading my Bible. I'm doing all these things. Why does it seem like my life is crashing all around me? Well, look at verse 5. Here's what you do about that. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God to giveth to all men liberally. And upbraideth not, and it shall be given him. So when you lack wisdom and understanding for your situation, you need to ask the Lord. And he's going to give it to you. Why? Because he wants you to be perfect. Not perfect like how we use it where you never sin, you never make mistakes. No, you're going to still sin. You're still going to make the mistakes. But you're going to be well-rounded. You're going to be complete. You're not going to be envying. You're not going to be desiring all this extra stuff that doesn't profit after we leave this planet here. You're going to have the mindset that is just fully geared towards earning eternal rewards, things that do not burn up in the fire, right? That gold, the silver, the things that are going to last. When you get someone saved, you know, that's an eternal reward that you're going to get. Every time you help a brother or a sister out, you know, those are the things that go on into eternity. That's the goal. That's why we go through these trials. That's why God allows it to happen. And the answer is very simple. If you don't understand why you're in this thing, you just need to ask the Lord. And He promises to give you the understanding and the wisdom in how to navigate through that trial whatsoever it is. Now, real quickly, I'm going to leave you with verse 17. So jump down to verse number 17. Actually, back up to verse 16. Verse 16 says, Do not err, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. So we need to understand, this is our God. This is how He is. He is called the Father of lights. There's no variableness. He's not going to say, hey, ask me for wisdom, and then give you a scorpion. It's not how it works. You're saved. You're born again. Guess what? He's going to give you those desires because He wants you to be perfect. He wants you to be entire, wanting nothing. And there's no turning. You need to understand. Don't ask Him for things and be like, oh, He's not going to give it to me because I got mad at someone in traffic the other day. Okay? No. That's an unstable mindset. And it's unprofitable. Okay? And again, don't forget the bottom line. We need to understand that America's independence is an illusion. It really is. It's an illusion. You say, oh, yeah, but we're not under the monarch and, you know, England doesn't control us. Oh, really? Why is Joe Biden always praising China? Why is CNN always praising China? Why are they always praising Europe for their wicked laws that they have? Look, don't put your trust in the government. Don't put your trust in that and your hope in that and your zeal towards that. Stick to this book here because it doesn't change. This is what's going to help you in life. Right? You've got two choices. Either find yourself like the children of Judah found themselves in Jeremiah 52 stuck between a rock and a hard place. I've got Nebuchadnezzar over here. I've got my eunuchification leader over here to my left. What do I do? Well, the answer is simple. Count it all joy. And if you're confused on why you're in that trial, ask the Lord for wisdom. So let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you so much, Lord, again, for these truths that you have in your word and that we're able to always study these things out and to be able to get application. Lord, I just pray that help us to apply these things to our lives, Lord, and help us to understand that the coming trials on this nation, Lord, don't have to discourage us that we can pull through as long as we just count it all joy. And I pray that you bless the fellowship after the service. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. All right. So for our final hymn this morning, let's turn to number 45 when I can read my title clear. We'll sing it out loud. Song number 45, When I Can Read My Title Clear. On the first. When I can read my title clear, Two visions in the sky, I'll bid farewell to every fear And wipe my weeping eyes. And wipe my weeping eyes. Wipe my weeping eyes. I'll bid farewell to every fear And wipe my weeping eyes. Should earth against my soul engage In my cold, dark, sweet world, Then I can smile as Satan's rake And face a frowning world. And face a frowning world. Face a frowning world. Then I can smile as Satan's rake And face a frowning world. When cares like a wild day Which come in storms of sorrow fall, May I but safely reach my home. I've got my heaven, my all. I've got my heaven, my all. I've got my heaven, my all. May I but safely reach my home. I've got my heaven, my all. On the last. There shall I be, my weary soul, Across my peaceful rest. And not a wave of trouble roll Across my peaceful rest. Across my peaceful rest. Across my peaceful rest. And not a wave of trouble roll Across my peaceful rest. Amen. Brother David, would you close sound, please? Thank you, Father Godfrey. This morning, bring us all here together to sing praises to you and how your word be preached, Lord. We just ask you to please fill us with the wisdom of your word, Lord, and help us all receive something and apply it to our lives through this sermon, Lord. Lord, we just thank you for a pastor that will stand boldly and steadfastly in the word of God. If it's not a prayer to preach the word of God in a season or out of season, Lord, we just pray that you protect us as we go forth and bring your message to the community and bring us all here safely this evening. We love you, in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen.