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

All right, 1 Kings Chapter 10, so tonight I'm gonna tell you a story. I like to tell stories and this story is a little bit different than a lot of the stories you've probably heard me tell. You know, you're probably thinking about the story of, you remember all the kids are smiling, they're like, oh we're gonna talk about giant spiders again or, you know, the story that I told, you know, we're out hiking about the San Joaquin Valley River cave monkeys. They're not real, brother angel. I just made it up. Okay, so this story is different though. This story is different. This story is in the Bible. It's a great story. The stories in the Bible are great. They're much better than any story we could ever come up with and they also apply to our lives, which is the great thing about the stories of the Bible. So tonight we're looking at 1 Kings Chapter 10 and we're looking at the story of Solomon and all the people. So Solomon already has all the wisdom that God gave him and people are traveling all over the world to hear the the wisdom of Solomon and to, you know, just ask him questions. You know, people, it just goes to show, people have always had questions in life and they would, they've just had questions about things and it talks about, you know, how these people came and, you know, they asked Solomon these questions and then they gave him great treasures. You know, the main story we're looking at is the Queen of Sheba. She came and she brought all these these treasures to King Solomon. Now look, I mean, a side note here is if, you know, you have answers to hard questions, you're probably gonna do okay in life, all right? So, you know, if you just, if Solomon would have just gone to the Queen of Sheba, would have come to him, asked him questions and he just didn't have any answers, she probably wasn't gonna leave him much, right? But he knew all the answers and it was much more than she ever expected. Look down at verse number one. So I want to tell you this story and then, you know, I'll take a few minutes, we'll look at the story and then I'll explain how it applies to us here, how it applies to us in our lives, how it applies to Verity Baptist Church, Fresno, as we're at our one year anniversary and let's just look at that tonight. So look at verse number one of 1 Kings chapter 10. The Bible says, and when the Queen of Sheba heard the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she came to prove him with hard questions. She came to see if it was true. She came to come and bring these hard questions that nobody knew the answers to, to see if this rumor was true about his great wisdom and she came to Jerusalem with a very great train with camels that bear spices and very much gold and precious stones and when she was come to Solomon she communed with him of all that was in her heart and Solomon told her of all her questions and there was not anything hid from the king which he told her not. So he answered everything and when the Queen of Sheba had seen all of Solomon's wisdom in the house that he had built and the meat of his table and the sitting of his servants and the attendance of his ministers and their apparel and his cupbearers and his ascent by which he had wept went up into the house of the Lord there was no more spirit in her. He answered everything and not only did he answer all her questions she looked at how you know he was he was managing his kingdom she looked at how he was he was treated by his servants and how you know just how this man was prosecuting his life and he answered every single question he didn't give her political answers that were splitting hairs and not really answering the he wasn't dodging questions he answered every single question correctly to the way that she wanted and look at verse number 10 for sake of time and then the Bible says and she gave the king and 120 talents of gold and of spices very great store and precious stones there came no more such abundance of spices as these which the Queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon so the Queen of Sheba is the main example of what was happening to Solomon but this was happening to Solomon from all over the world people were sending him treasures and asking him questions and he was just his wisdom was basically just how he gained and acquired all his wealth it was also a blessing from the Lord look at verse number 16 this verse number 16 tells us what Solomon did with just some of the gold in verse number 16 the Bible says and King Solomon made 200 targets of beaten gold 600 shekels of gold went to one target and he made 300 shields of beaten gold three pound of gold went to one shield and the king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon so he makes these targets the targets are a bigger shield so he basically makes all these golden shields so he makes it the the big ones were like if you work out the you know the the archaic weights and everything they're about 15 pounds of gold and the small ones were three pounds of gold I mean that's that's a lot of gold when you look at you know gold today you know how much it's worth but the guy just had all kinds of gold so he makes these part of his riches and then you can read about the things that he overlaid in gold and all these things but it's interesting because he makes these shields with some of the gold that he gets from the Queen of Sheba so look these shields can really represent God's wisdom God's gift of wisdom on to King Solomon because that is what gained him all the treasures that he got it's where his treasures came from it's where King Solomon's treasure I mean how many do you know how many books and how many movies and how many different like historical accounts have been written about King Solomon's treasure I remember I read a book like 15 20 years ago about this theory of where the treasure ended up and I don't I guess there's a stupid show about it now but it was like though the Knights Templar found King Solomon's treasure and they they got kicked out of Europe and they took it over to it was the greatest treasure that anyone could ever imagine on the earth you know they've estimate I can't even remember what they estimated it to be but it's this huge mystery of where this treasure those books and books and books and studies and studies and studies have have written about where this treasure went where did it go but guess what the Bible tells us where it went the Bible tells us like in just a few chapters where the treasure went and what and not only where it went but why it went there I mean aren't you isn't this an exciting story we know where King Solomon's treasure is you don't have to go and watch all the dumb movies or watch the show on Oak Island or whatever you know we know where it went and we know where they came from and we know why they were taken away is really the point I want to make tonight fast forward to first Kings chapter 14 first Kings chapter 14 let's look at the kingdom of Rehoboam who is Solomon's son Rehoboam now of course we all know the story Rehoboam lost the kingdom the kingdom split underneath Rehoboam that's not what we're gonna focus on on this evening so in chapter 12 of first Kings you know it's a judgment on Solomon first of all you know Rehoboam's pride basically helped God's judgment come to light so in first number or chapter number 12 Rehoboam you know has the kingdom split where two or three tribes go with Rehoboam to the lower kingdom of Judah and that's where we get the northern kingdom of Israel is in first Kings chapter 12 but it's interesting to point out that Rehoboam even after his mess-up where he you know God judged Solomon and he judged the kingdom under Solomon you know through his son Rehoboam it's interesting that Rehoboam still had a kingdom to lead Rehoboam still had the lower kingdom of Judah that he was in charge of he was still the king over that lower kingdom now look at first Kings chapter 14 let's look at how he did with that lower kingdom he's already the split has already happened he's he was told not to go to war God said look this thing was of me he's like this was judgment on your father judgment on Solomon and you know I just used your stupidity basically to make the judgment come true and in verse number 14 we see how Rehoboam prosecutes his leadership on the lower kingdom of Judah look at verse number 21 and the Bible says and Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah Rehoboam was 40 and 1 years old when he began to reign and he reigned 17 years in Jerusalem the city which the Lord did choose out of all the tribes of Israel to put his name there and his mother's name was Naima of the Ammonitis and Naima the N-aminitis and Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins which they had committed above all that their fathers had done doesn't sound like they're doing so well in the lower kingdom here look at verse 23 for they also built them high places and images and groves on every hill and under every green tree and it gets worse verse 24 and there were also sodomites in the land and they did according to all the abominations of the nations which the Lord cast out before the children of Israel so imagine that sodomites doing abominations I mean imagine that right look Rehoboam lost the United Kingdom as it split we know this but we know this was also due to his pride and mainly God's judgment coming through on Solomon on his pan Solomon's past disobedience to him but look he still had a kingdom to rule and he blew it there too he blew it he forgot the Lord he allowed evil into his kingdom he you know worship idols he allowed the sodomites in you know to do all these abominations look at verse 25 and it's interesting because now we hear about some of Solomon's treasure that he built up and this is where Solomon's treasure went right here I mean it wasn't even that long after Solomon was gone that the treasure was lost first Kings chapter 14 look at verse 25 and it came to pass in the fifth year of King Rehoboam that Shishak the king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem and he took away the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king's house and he even took away all look he took everything and he took away all the shields of gold which Solomon had made and King Rehoboam made in their stead so he lost everything he lost all the treasure that his dad that that the blessings that God put on his dad were all lost now all those physical worldly blessings that came from Solomon's wisdom they were all lost and specifically the Bible tells us that the shields of gold which Solomon had made they were taken as well the Bible points that out that those shields were taken away and then in verse 27 we see that Rehoboam does something here and King Rehoboam made in their stead brazen shields and committed them under the hands of the chief of the guard which kept the door of the king's house and it was so when the king went into the house of the Lord that the guard bare them and brought them back into the guard chamber so look these shields that were once a symbol of God's blessing were now something that were just used as a show for Rehoboam when he went to the house of the Lord he had these shields brought out and you know it was used as a show so when he went to the house of the Lord these shields people were walking with these shields with him and then when he got to the house of the Lord they put them away but look not only were they used as a show they were fake they weren't even real they were brazen they were made of brass you know what brass looks like when it's all polished up kind of looks like gold so he faked the shields he lost everything but then he made fakes to make it look like he was still you know he still had what he didn't have anymore so you say man he's like what does that have to do with us well first of all it's a good story you don't have to read any more stuff about you know the Knights Templar taking Solomon's because it was already gone by the year 1500 you know 15 century or whatever was already gone I mean it would already been taken away so how does that apply to us how does it apply to Verdi Baptist Church in Fresno California so we've been here for one year I don't know how that's happened but we're you know look we're here today to celebrate how awesome all this is that we've been here for one year we're here to have a great weekend we're here fellowship like you know like that it's like the biggest side benefit of having a good church it's just like all the fellowship that just comes on this on the fringes right it's not the purpose like pastor said this morning but it's it's a nice little it's a nice little bonus but look I submit to you today this evening that we've been given some golden shields here I submit to you that we've been given some golden shields in Fresno we've inherited those shields in Fresno as Ray of Ogham inherited the shields from Solomon you say what are those you know what we've inherited a lot of blessings here maybe you think maybe you think well you know let me say this maybe some of you come here from Sacramento and you're like boy things seem like let me just talk about this for a second before I get into the the shields that we've that we've inherited but look you may come here from Sacramento and see what you say like this looks a lot like Verity Baptist Church in Sacramento when he reads the announcements it's not the bulletin kind of looks the same they kind of talk about the same types of things things seem to operate in the same way let me tell you something there's nothing wrong with duplicating success I mean there's nothing wrong in the world like don't be this type of person in your life where every idea needs to be your own this is a side sermon here I mean if you are this type of person you're gonna miss a lot of good things in your life don't be this type of person that needs to reinvent every wheel because you know because you need to be your wheel Verity Baptist Church Fresno we we've inherited some success and there's nothing wrong with duplicating success nothing at all I mean Verity Baptist Church in Sacramento is coming up on its 10 year anniversary in a few weeks I mean I can't I mean it's an extremely successful ministry but that is not an accident that is not an accident as we reflect on one year I want to look at a few areas that are golden shields passed down to us and you know we need to duplicate success here when we see it when we see success we need to duplicate success we could go off in our own area we could go off you know be these people that hey I'm gonna try it this way but you know there's a lot of mistakes a lot of pitfalls with that type of thinking you know I often said you know I think in my life and especially my secular career maybe one out of ten ideas is a good one and it's recognizing the nine that aren't good and getting rid of them as soon as possible that makes you successful but look if you're in a room and you you see successful people and you know look you can take their one idea too and then there's more than just one out of ten there's you know five out of fifty to choose from there's nothing wrong with duplicating success so what are these areas what are these golden shields that I'm talking about there's a lot of them I just picked three for sake of time but here's the first one here's the first one turn to Matthew chapter seven here's a golden shield that we've been given at Verity Baptist Fresno that we need to protect look practical preaching is a golden shield practical preaching is a golden shield look at Matthew chapter 7 and verse number 24 Matthew chapter 7 in verse number 24 the Bible says therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine look at the next words whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock and the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell not for it was founded upon a rock and everyone that here at these sayings of mine and doeth them not shall be likened unto a foolish man which built his house upon the sand and the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell and great was the fall of it I was talking to Brother Stuckey the other day and and we were talking about how thankful we are that we came out of this culture of practical preaching that we came out of this culture that is preaching look that not only teaches you what the Bible says but teaches you how to actually do it in your life because look you could be a really smart fool when it comes to the Bible and I mean the Bible says look the Bible says it's the difference between you know your foundation being a rock and being the sand whether or not you do with it whether or not it's not you know just knowing the Bible it's doing what the Bible says that's where the practical preaching comes in like hey we're gonna teach you what the Bible says now we're gonna teach you how to tell you how to put it on your life we're gonna tell you how to some things you need to change some things that you need to fix and why what you're doing in certain situations is not what the Bible says it is gonna make your honey do you ever wonder why so many people seem like you ever you ever met somebody it seems like the wind just blows a little bit and they're just completely knocked off their Christian life we're just some small things happen or maybe even a you know mediocre things happen they're just knocked out of the Christian life or they're just they're just backpedaling in the Christian life it's because it's because they're not practicing what the Bible says that's what it is so that's why we're thankful for the practical preaching I mean just this it's it's made me the kind of preacher that I am to make the messages the way that I do brother Stuckey said the same thing to just make these messages and it's because of it's because of the golden shield that we inherited from our teacher who is who teaches practical preaching who tells you not only what the Bible says is knowledgeable about the what the Bible says but shows you how to put that on your life look it would be easy to replace this I'm telling you trust me it would be easy to replace this with a with a brazen shield because as I'm writing sermons and I'm thinking about the applications and I'm thinking about the church as I'm writing the sermons and I'm like who many times I think people aren't gonna like this if I say that many times I think man is that is that is that gonna offend some folks if I apply this here if I apply this here many times I think that but I just write it down anyway because look it would be it would be easy for someone to not do it you know to never say anything could that could slightly offend people that would be an easy thing for people to do to go against in what you say to go against to literally you know apply things that are against the way you know people sitting in the pews are doing things now I mean that can be a little bit of an uncomfortable situation it would be easy to replace that shield and turn it to brass and look a lot of people do that a lot of people do that today you know I mean it'd be easy to just preach a feel-good mess message every single Sunday it would be really easy to just get up here and just tell you all how awesome you are and how you know you're awesome and just stay awesome and I don't even know how to do it I can't even do it right okay but the point is look it's it's easy for people to fall into it's easy I mean a salvation message every Sunday you ever been in one of those churches that's how that happens because it's just a it's just a good message all the time what's up I mean salvation message there's nothing wrong with a salvation message but if you're saved you need a salvation message today I mean if you're a saved you know person that's ruining your family do you need a salvation message look it would be easy to do it sometimes sometimes like sometimes growth hurts growing as a church it might hurt a little bit to hear a message that you know says you know I I need to change in this area I need to fix the way my family operates I need to I mean I need to flip some I mean you want to come to church and feel good and eat some cookies and go home and sleep you don't want to be like man I gotta flip my whole life around now I mean it's work it hurts when you go home and you tell your wife like we're doing it all wrong and we got to fix things we got to change things we can't go here we can't do this we can't see those people we can't do this with the kids we have to change everything look that is not an easy thing for most people to do growth hurts that's why people turn that shield to brass and that's why you don't see that golden shield much anymore as pastor said this morning you don't see that you don't see that golden shield much anymore what's another one turn to first Corinthians chapter 14 turn to first Corinthians chapter 14 here's another one a biblically run church is a golden shield first Corinthians chapter 14 look a biblically run church is a golden shield that we've inherited and that you don't see much anymore many times it would be much more comfortable to just let things go especially at the time it just like just go the way any everybody and anybody wants to go but it would be a disaster it would be a complete disaster and the Bible tells us this first Corinthians 14 40 says let all things be done decently and in order and then the Bible gives us all that order we preach sermon series about this the order you know first Corinthians 5 11 all the things that we're supposed to do look what did Graham bomb do he just let the wicked abominations in and you just let them stay and he just I mean he lost everything because of it that's one of the things that he did look we could let we could let sin in here I mean people do it I mean did you know I mean you do know because you we've been here for a year you do know that there's certain things that we just won't allow here look that's not that's not comfortable I mean Galatians 5 9 a little leaven leaven at the whole lump look that would mean that you know I mean forget the sodomites they're never coming in here I mean that's an easy one but look we could let we could let sin in here and then you know what would happen people would fall into sin it would spread you say oh you're you're mean for saying that you know you can't allow certain sins in the church like drunkenness and fornication and all these things look it's loving it's loving we let sin in and the leaven spreads and the kids they grow up they think this place is a joke and you're a joke you get up there and you yell about sin and it's a joke everybody knows that all this sin is going on in this church it'd be a joke I mean people would leave the church people would because Bible believing Christians who are actually reading their Bible we actually encourage you to read your Bible and know what it says so if some person gets up here and says something that's stupid and unbiblical and wrong you know people would leave the church people could turn to Jeremiah 23 people could quit the Christian life I mean I've heard pastor and other people say that you know the average church life of a Christian today is like seven years five years I've heard before I mean what is happening what is happening here if people get right and get in church and then you know they fall out I mean sin is happening that's what's happening look at Jeremiah 23 so yeah these things that might seem comfortable at first would turn into complete disasters and they would ruin people Jeremiah 23 and look there's danger for the leadership to Jeremiah 23 says woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pastor that's what a pastor or a leader of a ministry that just lets sin in and just doesn't run the church biblically it just lets whatever go they're scattering the sheep it says whoa be unto them when God says whoa be unto you that's not where you want to be okay I mean at the time at the time I mean look it would be just much easier just to let things go because it's not comfortable it's not comfortable having those conversations you know church discipline that's why most churches don't do it anymore that's why look I've been in churches my whole life I've never even heard of it before this church Verity Baptist Church I've never even heard of it but it's right there in the Bible so look we're gonna keep that golden shield and I'm not talking about just church discipline but look we're gonna we're gonna protect this church we're gonna biblically run this church decently and in order that's what we're shooting for here and you all you know y'all are helping you know for that goal but I mean look the bottom line is we need to protect it protect this church I mean truth is truth and people are coming after the truth today they don't want they don't want to hear the truth they don't want other people speaking the truth it's getting I mean it getting a little scary out there so we see that we need to keep these golden shields we need to keep the biblically run church we I mean we see the golden shield of practical preaching and what that can do to turn our lives around and help us out and keep us in this Christian life but here's the real big one right here the golden shield that we have been given that we can never let go it will be fatal if we let it go turn to Revelation chapter 1 is this it's the first works it's the golden shield of the first works turn to Revelation chapter 1 look at verse number 20 revelation chapter 1 in verse number 20 the Bible says the mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand and the seven golden candlesticks the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches look at Revelation chapter 2 in verse number 1 it's interesting that the candlestick there is not necessarily in the church the candlestick is the church in Revelation chapter 1 look at verse number 1 of Revelation chapter 2 the Bible says you know you know God Jesus is rebuking you know a church here and the Bible says unto the angel of the church of Ephesus right these things that he hath holdeth the seven stars in his right hand who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks I know thy works and thy labor like we talked about this morning and thy patience and how thou can can't not bear them which are evil so they're doing some good things here okay they're not letting evil in and now has tried them which say they are Apostles and are not and has found them liars look they're kicking the false prophets out they're kicking the evil out I mean they're not they're doing some good things they're not doing everything wrong here and has borne and has patience and for my namesake has labored and has not fainted nevertheless I have somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy first love remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent turn change change the way you're going and do the first works or else or what or what God or else I will come unto thee quickly and remove thy candlestick out of its place except thou repent look he's like he's like or you're not gonna be a church anymore how's that sound I'm gonna take a piece of furniture out of the corner he's like the candlestick is the church he's like you stopped him he's you're doing good things you're not letting evil in you're kicking all these false prophets out ray ball mess those up ray ball messed all those up but they forgot the first works and guys like hey you better turn that around oh or you're not gonna be a church anymore period we better pay attention to this one look we've inherited a golden shield of emphasis and a culture that is focused on the first works here at Verity Baptist Fresno going into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature that's that's like the easiest verse in the whole Bible to understand if we lose that we don't just lose a candlestick folks we lose the very church we lose the church look I mean you know we could do though you know we could do we could replace the golden candlestick with a brass one what you don't think people do that it looked good it looked really good it looked like gold to the world to the world it looked like gold to those around us it looked like gold I mean the brass look from a distance look like gold but to God it's brass sorry you got to have a golden one sorry not a church to God if we lose that golden candlestick we are dead ever been in a dead church yep we've all or a lot of us have been in dead churches you know the church the church dies you know I kind of like looking at trends of things it seems like this is the trend the church dies dead church candlestick gone the church dies and then they have two choices they either go like mega liberal liberal church or they just go slow dying dwindling slow death Church I mean that's why you see all these these big mega liberal churches they're just like hey all right all right we're dead we're dead let's just change the message it's just gonna be this super hyper you know everything's gonna be great you guys are great you come to church more often give more money it always comes back to money with the mega liberal stuff it always comes back to that give more money come here and you're like everything's gonna be great for you you know we'll just give you we'll just give you some spiritual you know heroin for a couple days and we'll send you off and you can just become whatever you were before you walked in the door and we won't tell you anything that matters and you know maybe they even have the right gospel some of these dead churches I mean I've seen those two they have the right gospel but they're just dead they're not doing the first works turn to Proverbs chapter 3 so what we don't want we don't want that to happen here that's like the that's like that you're not gonna survive that one you're not gonna live through that right that's a that's a fight that if you go into that fight you're not gonna get a broken arm you're gonna die I mean God that's why God tells us this that's why he gives us the examples of the the churches in Revelation well he's talking to us he's saying if you do this you're dead don't do it or you'll die you won't be a church look at Proverbs 3 3 or look at your bulletin so how do we how do we not get there how do we not have that happen to us look at Proverbs 3 3 the Bible says let not mercy and truth forsake thee bind them about thy neck write them upon the table of thine heart so the Bible says I mean look we know what the truth is you heard about the pillar of the truth this morning but look the Bible says let not mercy and truth look if you start losing mercy in your life you know you're gonna eventually end up losing mercy for the lost be on this person it's just unmerciful eventually you know all you say I'm just unmerciful to this guy but eventually that's gonna spread in your life and you know you're a danger ultimately of losing mercy for the lost and then that leads to this fatal condition for a church if everybody gets that way or enough people get that way see I mean we need to study and learn the Bible but mercy is right there with truth folks it's it's right there with it if we lose the heart for the lost I mean what I'm trying to get at is like if we lose the heart for lost people I mean do you have a heart for lost people if you don't I mean if you don't have a heart for lost people and you're going soul-winning and you're just going through the motions which something's wrong something's wrong red flag look I'm happy that you're soul-winning we're all happy that you're so winning but if you're soul-winning because I'm telling you to go soul-winning something's wrong you need to have that mercy in that heart for the lost because if this whole church Verity Baptist Fresno goes down this road where we're so winning because we're supposed to and not because we have a heart and we have mercy towards the loss we risk the very church everything turn to Romans Ted even Paul even Paul I mean he's just ripping face against the Jews I mean he's telling him I mean he's just beating them down think of Romans 9 10 and 11 he's like you've been cut off he's like you know the gent I mean and then I mean can you imagine the Jews there were these these hypocrites they were high and mighty they were the the religious people of the day and he's like man he's like the Gentiles they couldn't they were disgusted with the Gentiles he's like the Gentiles have been grafted in you been cut off and they've been grafted in I mean he's just he's just I mean as much as he was tearing into the Jews look at Romans 10 1 I mean look I mean they killed Stephen because of what he was saying I mean he was just offending them like crazy the Jews they were they were like trying to kill all these guys that were saying this stuff they were so offended about it but in the midst of all that look at Romans 10 1 he says brethren my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved is that they would recognize what they had done and they would they would recognize Jesus Christ as the Savior I mean the whole point in his heart where was his heart his heart towards them was that they might be saved how same way you were saved believing on the Lord Jesus Christ so like if we lose I mean let's just work the equation backwards let's work the equation backwards if you don't do the first works you don't have the heart for the lost and and at some point you lost mercy so if we can see that that's the trend we can recognize it up front folks that's why mercy is in Proverbs 3 3 that's how important it is if you lose that in your life look you risk you risk it your heart towards lost people you risk your desire to fulfill the Great Commission I mean that's a scary place to be and is and is that I mean that's a scary place as an individual as a Christian but if it gets to the church like that that what that you we could still have the truth here folks but a brass candlestick is not gonna cut it it's not gonna cut it with God at all so that is the golden I mean that is is the golden shield that if we give up it will kill us I want to say it like ten times so you understand and if your heart isn't right Verity Baptist Church Fresno something's wrong something's wrong you should want to go out with that golden shield that's the look that's the golden shield that we've inherited that is the culture of this church it will always be the culture of this church is to do the first works and to go out there and carry the gospel to a lost Fresno to a lost wherever else in these little towns around here and to a lost and dying world that is our job so if we need to cherish these golden shields that we've been given but here's just one last thing that I want to point out about these golden shields and I could go on and on about golden shields that we've inherited I could go on and on but here's the thing look I had a I had a wrestling match when I had a lot of wrestling matches but I had a wrestling match that just sticks in my head from my high school days I think I was a junior in high school he was at the state tournament really important wrestling match and I had this the thing about wrestling tournaments is this it's a good thing and a bad thing you get to you you have the brackets they put the brackets like who you're gonna wrestle on the wall and then as soon as round one goes they change the brackets and you get to stare at that bracket and find out who you're gonna wrestle for like two hours before the match and I remember I had this one particular match and they always put the guy's name and we look it's North Dakota we know who everybody is all right and they always put the guy's name and then they put his record underneath his name so you get to see I mean you know who he is and how good he is but they put that record there just to stick in your face right so I mean my bracket was up there for my next match that was coming up in a couple hours and I still remember the number the guy that I was wrestling I won't say his name I remember his name too that's how it's tattooed on my brain he was 42 and 2 on the year this was the last tournament of the year that means he had 42 wins and he only lost twice in the whole year and I just kept looking at that and I knew who this guy was it's like 42 and 2 42 and 2 you know I mean I wasn't terrible I was like 36 and 6 or something but 42 and 2 is better than 36 and 6 and I stared at that bracket and my dad like always hated me looking at those brackets and I went into that wrestling match and I went into that wrestling match and I lost by a few points and I came off the mat and the first thing that my dad said to me is he said and you think about this new sensitive parents this is what my dad said to me first thing he said you beat yourself because he knew he was watching the wrestling match and he knew that I was trying not to lose I wasn't going out there trying to win I was trying to stop everything that was coming at me but I wasn't trying to win I was just trying not to lose that never works in anything here's the thing Verity Baptist Fresno Ray of Boem Ray of Boem he started with those golden shields he started with the golden shields he didn't have to go out and be wise and gain though that gold and have his craftsmen make the golden shields he started with them and he lost them he started with the golden shields like we're starting with the golden shields it is our job to use those golden shields we need to keep that golden shield of mercy and not replace it with the brazen shield of hypocrisy we need to keep that golden shield to protect this church and the way it runs and protect this from the evil out in the world and not replace it with the brazen shield of complacency imagine a church that preaches the Word of God but doesn't practice the Word of God there's a lot of them we're gonna keep that golden shield a practical preaching a church that knows what the Bible says that preaches read your Bible know what the Bible says and then do what the Bible says and then watch it work in your life and you will see it you will see it makes sense we I mean a girl today said to us we were giving her the gospel and just like again and again it was it's wonderful when they just get it like this she's just like that just makes so much sense that just makes so much sense I mean she must have said it ten or twelve times I'm like do you understand yeah that just that just makes so much sense because she's been confused her whole life by the Catholic Church or whoever Catholic Church in this case because look that's some confusing stuff it just makes so much sense it makes so much sense that it's a gift and that it's that it's free and it's forever and then if we apply the practical teaching of the Bible to our lives I mean we'll just see that it's not God just trying to like puppet master your life for for fun I mean he's trying to help us here so Ray of Ogham lost not only he lost not only the kingdom but he lost all the blessings that Solomon had bestowed on him through his wisdom and everything the golden shields were a symbol of that and what folks brazen shields won't cut it they're not gonna cut it in this game that we're playing and he walked to the temple under guard I love that part you know with that notice how he didn't use silver I mean silver is worth more than brass he he he used brass because he wanted it to look like the old thing it doesn't cut it that means nothing that means nothing in this game that we're playing looking the part means nothing we have to be the part we have to have the real thing look you know that I mean that's kind of a scary thing like going into the ministry when you think about it when you think about it you're gonna go into the ministry you want to have a real church and and you know you can't fake it you can't fake it it's real or you're gonna die you know have a nice have a nice day it's what you can't turn the candlestick to brass that's the ultimate lesson here we have it doesn't work with God the church when the candlestick is brass and it's been removed there may be a building and there be people come into the building but the church is gone at that point we've all been there I watched all your heads go like this when I said you ever been in a dead church everybody's been there everybody's been there look if here's the thing Verity Baptist Fresno we're gonna protect these golden shields here especially the golden candlestick and we know how to protect it because look here's the bottom line if the Lord's not in it I don't want any part of it and you should you should feel the same way thank you for for a wonderful year you are great we're growing and thriving together I I shouldn't say I'm proud of all of you and I'm not proud but I just it's the joy of my life to watch you all grow and grow together in this Christian life so thank you let's let's have a nice evening thanks for being here everybody let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer