(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.) Such like me, I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see. T'was grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear, the hour I first believed. Through many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come. T'was grace that brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home. When we've been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun. Amen. Good singing. Brother Mahid, do you mind praying for us? May God bless you in the name of Jesus Christ, and in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. Amen. Alright, turn to our second song. Song 187. Jesus loves me. Song 187. From the first. Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Little ones to Him belong. They are weak, but He is strong. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so. Jesus loves me, He who died. Heaven's gate to open wide. He will wash away my sin. Let His little child come in. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so. Jesus loves me, He will stay close beside me all the way. Thou has bled and died for me. I will henceforth live for Thee. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so. Thanks so much for coming to Pure Words Baptist Church. If you need a bulletin, they're back there on the cabinet. It's been a while since I've been able to get to be with you guys in person, and definitely great to be here and to see everyone. Also, I came bearing some gifts, so we had some movie tickets that we made recently for the Preserved Bible, and then we have some new ones for the Sodomite Deception that we had made a few years back, and so if you'd like to use these as well for handouts, we have them. Also, we got our DVDs for the Preserved Bible. Should have brought them with me, but Brother Dylan's gonna bring them next week, all right? So you gotta be here Thursday. Support Brother Dylan, and he's gonna come down with bearing gifts. Also, we've been making some shirts for the Preserved Bible, and so maybe, I don't know exactly when that's gonna be done, but we should be bearing even more gifts, so and I know that there's been some cool, I've seen some cool shirts that you guys have gotten for some of your memory challenges and stuff like that. Brother Duncan has a cool, like, pure words hoodie and stuff like that, but we've got some some cool shirts that are coming down the pike for the Preserved Bible as well, and so you can share that. In our bulletin, we have the service time, soloing times, our church stats. Also, please be in prayer for, well, the remaining expecting ladies, we also have the congratulations to the Urbanics on the birth of Annalise Joy. Seven pounds, four ounces, 21 inches long, and so that's great for them. That's also why I'm helping just kind of volunteer preach right now while Brother Duncan, our evangelist, Urbanic is spending time with his family, and it seems like he's been doing a really good job. Seems like the church has been really going well from those that I've spoken with and just kind of observing from afar. Also, we have upcoming events, April 15th, Soul Winning Marathon. We'll just be meeting here at the church, and then we have the Bahamas Missions trip in the latter part of April, and so I'm really looking forward to that trip. Even if you're not participating with us as far as going there, if you just at least pray that the trip would go well and that it would go smoothly, especially traveling to a foreign country, definitely makes it a little more difficult sometimes, and there's challenges that, you know, exceed what you'd normally expect, and so I think we have over 60 people that are going to be going on our trip, 60 Soul Winners, and so it's going to be a really big trip. Hopefully, God willing, we'll make a big impact, and I hope you'll just pray for us on that. Other prayer requests mentioned here. Continue to pray for brother Edward's health. Pray for Ms. Liberty's family member, Ms. Catherine, for breast cancer. We've been praying for brother Joel. We've been praying for Steadfast. Praying for Rocio West. We've been praying for Ms. Lydia. We've been praying for brother Mo, one of his friends. We've been praying for Ms. Angela Chambers, Samson's co-worker, and then we've also been praying for brother Kevin's uncle for healing there. So there's a lot of prayer requests for health and also some other requests. We can just say a quick word of prayer as a church family for our church prayer request list. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for giving us this evening to have church, and thank you for all of our ladies that are expecting. Please be with them. Please help them during their pregnancies. I pray that you would bless our upcoming trips and our soul-winning ventures. I pray that you would also bless our friends at other churches. I also pray that you help with those that are struggling with health issues. I pray that you could give them healing, give them comfort during the time of difficulty. I pray that you'd also give them peace, and I pray that you would just continue to allow our church to be a bright and shining light, so that our friends and family members would get the opportunity to hear the gospel and be saved. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. A couple church reminders. Just remind you, please don't allow children on the stage at any time before, during, or after the service. Also, please don't have them running in the service. I know they get excited, but we just want to make sure no one's getting injured. Also, if a child is being a distraction during the service, if you'd please just try to take them out of the sanctuary until they're either under control, or you could use their mother baby room, and then you could bring them back into the sanctuary. And then also, the mother baby room is for mothers only and their children, but the children should be accompanied by their parent at all times, so that way just to keep everyone safe. And also, this is the big help, but please clean up after yourself. It really just helps for those who do clean the church and just keeping the church tidy and everything like that, especially when you have a smaller church. It really, really helps out when people kind of help clean up after themselves and take a little bit of that burden away. Like I said, again, it's been a while since I've been here. Hopefully, God willing, you know, I'll be able to come a little bit more regularly. It won't be as such a long break as it's been. You know, Steadfast has definitely had some positive things, and we've been, you know, on the journey from our building situations and a lot of other issues, and so that's kind of kept me focused on them. But God willing, my schedule is going to get a little bit better, and I'll be able to make more regular trips down here, hopefully also on a Sunday, so I can see the Sunday morning only crowd. But it's great to be with you guys, and I'm excited to preach this evening. We can go ahead and go to our third song. Brother Mo, lead us. All right, song number three is going to be in the white handouts or in your Bible. I'm going to sing Psalm 150. Psalm 150. Praise ye the Lord. Praise God in His sanctuary. Praise Him with a firmament of His power. Praise Him for His mighty acts. Praise Him according to His excellent greatness. Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet. Praise Him with the psaltery and harp. Praise Him with the timbrel and dance. Praise Him with stringed instruments and organs. Praise Him upon both out symbols. Praise Him upon the high sounding cymbals. Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord. Praise God the Father. Praise God the Son. Praise God the Holy Ghost. Praise God in three verse songs. Amen. Good singing. If you would turn to your Bibles to what's the chapter? Exodus chapter seven. We'll go ahead and read as we pass the offering plate. All right we're there in Exodus chapter number seven where the Bible says, and the Lord said unto Moses, See I have made thee a God the Pharaoh and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet. Thou shall speak all that I command thee and Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh that he send the children of Israel out of his land. And I will harden Pharaoh's heart and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt. But Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you that I may lay my hand upon Egypt and bring forth mine armies and my people the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by great judgments. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I stretch forth my hand upon Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them. And Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded them so did they. And Moses was four score years old and Aaron was four score and three years old when they spake unto Pharaoh. And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron saying when Pharaoh shall speak unto you saying show a miracle for you then thou shalt say unto Aaron take thy rod and cast it before Pharaoh and it shall become a serpent. And Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh and they did so as the Lord had commanded and Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh and before his servants and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers now the magicians of Egypt they also did in like manner with their enchantments for they cast down every man his rod and they became servants. But Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods and he hardened Pharaoh's heart and he arken not unto them as the Lord had said. The Lord said unto Moses Pharaoh's heart is hardened he refuseth to let the people go. Get thee unto Pharaoh in the morning lo he goeth out unto the water and thou shalt stand by the river's brink against he come and the rod which was turned into a serpent shalt thou take in thine hand and thou shalt say unto him the Lord God of the Hebrews hath sent me unto thee saying let my people go that they may serve me in the wilderness and behold hitherto thou wouldst not hear. Thus saith the Lord in this thou shalt know that I am the Lord behold I will smite with the rod that is in mine hand upon the waters which are in the river and they shall be turned to blood and the fish that is in the river shall die and the river shall stink and the Egyptians shall loathe to drink the water of the river and the Lord spake unto Moses say unto Aaron take thy rod and stretch out thine hand upon the waters of Egypt upon their streams upon their rivers and upon their ponds and upon all their pools of water that they may become blood and that there may be blood throughout all the land of Egypt both in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone and Moses and Aaron did so as the Lord commanded and he lifted up the rod and smote the waters that were in the river in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants and all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood and the fish that was in the river died and the river stank the Egyptians did not drink of the water of the river and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt and the magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments and Pharaoh's heart was hardened neither did he hearken unto them as the Lord had said and Pharaoh turned and went into his house neither did he set his heart for this also and all the Egyptians dig round about the river for water to drink for they could not drink of the water of the river and seven days were fulfilled after that the Lord had smitten the river have a quick word of prayer amen um exodus chapter seven is the confrontation of moses and aaron with the egyptian pharaoh and moses is being commanded by god to present himself to pharaoh to ask for the children of israel to be let go um when moses had originally spoken with the Lord the Lord had told him he was going to help him with signs and wonders yet pharaoh still would not let the children of israel go now in this confrontation this is kind of the initial um confrontation here look what it says in verse number eight again and the Lord spake unto moses and aaron saying when pharaoh shall speak unto you saying show a miracle for you then thou shalt say unto aaron take thy rod cast it before pharaoh it should become serpent so the Lord is giving moses and aaron instruction and saying you're going to go present yourself unto pharaoh he's going to ask well what miracle are you going to show to prove that essentially god's on your side or why i should let you go and they're going to throw down their rod and it's going to become a serpent it says in verse 10 of moses and aaron went in the pharaoh and they did so as the Lord had commanded so apparently pharaoh asks for a sign says here and aaron cast down his rod before pharaoh and before his servants and it became a serpent this is a really incredible story to think about that you could take just a rod which is just a long stick typically has a lot of different uses it's mostly for protection um you know you might look at it today as some kind of a walking aid but really for these men they're fine at walking it's really more a picture of protection um just to stave off animals or be used as some form of a weapon but we see that this rod this just piece of wood becomes an actual animal it becomes a snake and of course i believe that this is a literal story that everything about this story is exactly as it is appears on the surface that he really threw down his rod it really became a snake now of course this is what we would describe as a miracle why because it's not something that happens in our natural reality um and so that's really to me a definition or probably the definition of a miracle is something that cannot be done in a normal physical reality our bible itself contains a litany of miracles it explains all kinds of different events that could never happen naturally speaking but they rather circumvent the laws of natural order they circumvent all kinds of different things you know we have stories of a virgin giving birth right our lord jesus christ that's that's not possible we see the lord jesus christ dying being buried and rose again that's a miracle we see uh the sun standing still for a day that that's a miracle you know of course just even creation itself is a miracle how everything was just created out of nothing god just spake things into existence and so we understand that miracles coincide with god's reality which frankly speaking if you didn't have reality and if you didn't have laws then you couldn't have miracles the reason you have miracles is because you have a physical reality okay it's similar to the idea of grace the only way to have grace is to have law if you had no laws then grace wouldn't even exist the only way that grace can exist is because there's a just recompense unto sin there is a law therefore you could then extend grace so we have to have a physical reality we have to have some kind of limitation on our the world that we live in and then yet god can exceed that and do it however he wants and these are what we would call a miracle and god is described as being all powerful so of course he could do these things now what's interesting though about the bible itself is that when god gives us miracles while they're really cool it's wouldn't it be cool i could just turn i wouldn't really want to turn into the snake but you can just turn a rod into an animal i mean that's kind of that's interesting right it's cool of course that's what people try to do at the circus or you have magicians right where they're doing all kinds of tricks and and what they call magic we understand that they typically they're just doing sleight of hand or they're just kind of deceiving people but there is real magic you know there is according to the bible notice what it says in the next verse then pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers now the magicians of egypt they also did in the like manner with their enchantments so according to the bible not only can god perform a miracle meaning it supersedes physical reality the devil and his minions also have an ability to supersede our physical reality now when it comes to push to shove though who's going to win in this battle of superseding physical reality god is going to win against the devil but you have to realize that the devil does have power the devil does have ability the devil can supersede reality um in fact when we talk about job in the book of job he is granted power by the lord to afflict job and by the means which he does supersedes our natural reality he just causes storms to come he just gives job a disease just out of out of the blue so obviously the devil has some ability to just essentially spontaneously create some kind of a disease or weather pattern storm the bible talks about in the future that the anti-christ and by the power of the false prophet they're going to give life under the image of the beast the bible also describes how they're going to call fire down from heaven you know when it comes to the anti-christ and a lot of these things people think it's going to be through the means of technology and you know i'm not going to discount that we have to also realize that the devil also has supernatural ability and you know some people um don't understand maybe the beginning of the bible but think about this if these magicians could turn a rod into a snake how how how is it not hard or difficult to then believe that the devil can present himself as a serpent in the garden so you know i've heard some people try to claim like oh the devil wasn't really a serpent in the garden he's just showing up and he just called the serpent no no i believe it was a literal serpent a literal snake in the garden that's why he has the name the serpent he didn't just get the nickname because he got the nickname because he actually presented himself as a serpent and when you read the story literal serpents were punished as a result of what the devil did wouldn't that be weird that the devil showed up and he wasn't even a serpent but then just randomly animals get punished for what the devil did no obviously the serpent has its purpose and it's it's kind of a cursed type animal and you know it it being cursed also symbolizes a lot of things now when we read this story we can just get the the basic surface reading moses and aaron they by the power of god are able to cast a rod down and turn into a serpent the devil's magicians are able to also turn these into serpents says in verse 12 for they cast down every man is rod and they became serpents but aaron's rod swallowed up their rod so we see that god triumphs over their power in their magic and he wins but there's a lot more to this story and really the title of my sermon is the serpent rod the serpent rod because there's so much meat to this particular story that i i nearly really thought about before i just kind of usually just read the story and it's cool but there's a lot of other cool things that we can think about here now as we think about this story let's let's just start unpacking some of these images you know when it comes to the serpent the serpent was cursed in the garden and what does the serpent typically represent it represents sin and it kind of has that connotation consistently throughout the bible so why would you have a rod and then it's cast down and then it becomes a serpent what what is that really kind of illustrating well i want to i want to go to another place go isaiah keep your fingers well yeah keep your finger here because we'll keep coming back but go to isaiah chapter 11 for a moment go to isaiah chapter number 11 and let's look at verse number one and i want to kind of just um prove a lot of these things even though you might pick up where i'm going pretty quickly but isaiah chapter 11 look at verse number one the bible says and there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of jesse and a branch shall grow out of his roots and the spirit of the lord shall rest upon him spirit of wisdom and understanding the spirit of counsel and might spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the lord and shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the lord and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes neither reprove after the hearing of his ears but with righteousness shall he judge the poor and approve with equity for the meek of the earth and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked now this is a prophecy that the lord jesus christ in fact preaches about himself in the new testament in the new testament the lord jesus christ reads this and then essentially talks about himself and of course we have him described here in verse one as being a rod and so if we think about the symbolism for a moment jesus can be represented as a rod if we go back to our story with moses we have a rod being cast down and then it becomes what it becomes a serpent now go if you would to john chapter number three go to john chapter number three there's another time that the lord jesus christ is pictured with one of these elements and in fact he brings it up himself he says in john chapter three look at verse 14 and as moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so must the son of man be lift up lift that whosoever believe that him should not perish but have eternal life so according to the bible when and this is further in the future this is later when moses is out in the wilderness and the children of israel are complaining against the lord that we have this picture of the serpent let's go there too let's go to numbers chapter 21 and i know we're just kind of dancing around for a moment but i think it's good to get some of these pictures in our mind real quick so we can connect a lot of different dots look at numbers chapter 21 and then look at verse number four the bible says and they journeyed from mount hor talking about israel by the way of the red sea to compass the land of edom and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way and the people spake against god and against moses wherefore have you brought us up out of egypt to die in the wilderness there is no bread neither is there any water and our soul loatheth is light bread wait a minute i thought you said there was no bread you know and that is they complain there's no bread light bread and the lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people and much people of israel died therefore the people came to moses and said we have sinned or we have spoken against the lord and against thee pray unto the lord that he take away the serpents from us moses prayed for the people and the lord said unto moses make thee a fiery serpent and set it upon a pole and it's come to pass that everyone that is bitten when he looketh upon it shall live and moses made a serpent of brass and put it upon a pole and it came to pass that if a serpent had bitten any man when he beheld the serpent of brass he lived and this is of course where we get the great him look and live where essentially anyone who was bitten by a serpent all they would have to do is simply look to the brazen serpent and they would end up being healed physically why well the this the bite of that serpent has poison in it and if left unattended you will eventually die what's the symbolism here it's the same with sin that sin is a poison unto you and if left untreated you would die and go to hell and so you need healing from that bite of sin that sting of sin and so you look to jesus christ you put your faith in him and you're saved why is it pictured as a serpent well first of all the lifting up in this particular parable or this story or this example is that of christ being put on the cross and having been lifted up on the earth now the reason why it's a serpent is simply because the serpent pictures sin and if we go to i want to i want to go to um second corinthians chapter number five now go to second corinthians chapter number five we're going to actually tie all this together for a moment though now in our initial story here in excess seven where moses confronting pharaoh this the rod is being cast down and yet we have the other story of it being lifted up i think that's just kind of illustrate the two aspects of what happened to jesus christ in the sense that he was cast down because he's being brought down and he's being destroyed he's being looked down upon he's being rejected by everyone and the lifting up is just simply the manner in which he would die but he's certainly being cast down in the sense of the jews are rejecting him and want nothing to do with him and of course we have this picture of him becoming the serpent now you know what does that look like well second corinthians chapter 5 verse 21 says for he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of god and him so according to the bible jesus christ became sin in the essence that all of the sin of the entire world was imputed unto christ and was placed upon christ and he truly bear our sins in his own body on the trees what the bible says so while jesus was on the cross he was literally bearing our sins in his own body and that's why we have the picture of the serpent on the cross it's kind of an ugly picture which of course isaiah 53 paints it paints that his visage was so marred and that there was no desire that we had toward him that you know the look of the cross was an ugly picture because our sin is ugly and the sacrifice that christ had to go through and to bear our sins on that cross go to john chapter number eight go to john chapter number eight and i want to show you another verse here but it's kind of amazing that with moses coming unto pharaoh taking this rod which is a picture of strength protection everything like that just being cast down and then becomes a snake but it's kind of similar in how jesus christ who is in a position of authority he's in a position of protection humbles himself comes down to earth and then has to become sin for us it's kind of in the same essence of him coming down and then becoming that serpent becoming that snake to you know combat what the devil did and of course sin entered in the world through adam and eve through the what the temptation of the serpent serpent coming bringing the sin the the serpent is a cursed animal which is also showing how when christ is on the cross he became a curse for us and so you know he became a curse what's the cursed animal it's the serpent and so you have all of these different connections being like woven all together john chapter eight look at verse 28 then said jesus unto them when you have lifted up the son of man then shall you know that i am he and that i do nothing of myself but as my father taught me i speak these things so we have that connection to the brazen serpent that was lifted up price is also lifted up and we have you know a beautiful picture of the gospel itself now go if you would to first corinthians chapter 15 go to first corinthians chapter 15 but here's the thing the rod while being a serpent then encounters something else doesn't it and encounters other serpents and not only that encounters all the other serpents all the serpents of the enemy and what does he do to all the serpents of the enemy it swallows them up doesn't it now look at this in first corinthians chapter 15 verse 54 so when this corruptible shall put on incorruption and this mortal shall have put on immortality then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written death is swallowed up in victory oh death where is thy sting oh grave where is thy victory now think what is the sting you know a serpent really only has one thing it can bite you with the sting but you know what it was swallowed up and now it's gone and there is no sting of death because when we die physically we're going to heaven you know there's no there's no pain of death that we'll ever experience now of course you'll you'll probably if not a hundred percent feel pain leading up to your death like the you know leading up to us physically dying will for sure be painful okay unless you die in your sleep virtually i mean everyone experiences some level of discomfort pain at death you know to me being like getting your head chopped off might be the least painful because frankly you might be you might have so much adrenaline and you know do you really even feel it i don't know i mean most of the time when you get injured very severely you don't feel it initially you know and so if you die a martyr's death in that way it might not even be that big a deal steven you know was rocked asleep i don't know if he felt that or not um so there's a lot of different options here but but here's the thing you're not going to have any pain of in death death itself will have no pain the only pain experience of death is hell and we don't have to experience that we don't have the taste of it in fact according to scripture catholics have all kinds of weird doctrines a doctrine of purgatory where even save people in their mind have to go burn off a little bit of their sins before they can be presented before god and then so they're going to still experience a little bit of that pain and that suffering of course this is nonsense some people that are so-called christians will say that christians have to go to the like this thousand year suffering before they can then come out and then be with the lord like during the millennial reign some christians are going to be in hell or the lake of fire or something you're just like what this is nonsense okay the the bible makes it very clear that if you believe in jesus christ you shall never die and to die in that context means being in hell of course we will all shed our physical body that you know that's going to happen to every single person including the raptured will be changed and so their physical body will no longer be with them and the bible says to be absent from the body is to be present with the lord it also says the body without the spirit is dead but that that kind of a death is different than what jesus christ would refer to when he speaks of the fact that us that are alive and believe you know whosoever liveth in me shall never die believeth thou this what is he saying he's saying that you will never taste of hell you'll never go to hell you'll never experience hell you know that's what jesus did for us and so not only did he die on the cross he became sin for us before that so that was an agony i mean there's so much that jesus did for us you know jesus he bare all the sicknesses of the people of israel you know that probably wasn't fun i personally really hate going to the hospital like who who loves going to the hospital okay no all right you know just even being around sick people is kind of depressing it's kind of uh it's kind of sad at times it's kind of loathsome the hospital is usually not the most cheery of places it's not the most enjoyable experience and of course we all do it and it's not like there's anything wrong with needing to go to the hospital most everybody has to do it at least once in their life but you know jesus literally was going around and visiting people in their lowest condition in their worst condition they were sick they were diseased they were having all kinds of problems he's you know and he's having to be around these individuals and he's bearing their burdens he's bearing their sicknesses and he's um you know tirelessly going around preaching the gospel he's fasting he's praying he he weeps for people who died i mean lazarus dies and he's truly weeping so there's a lot of suffering that christ went through he went through the suffering of bearing people's burdens he went through the suffering of his death in a lot of ways he had to be betrayed by judas which is a form of great grief and suffering unto him then he had to be mocked and spit upon and beaten by the chief priests and the pharisees then he was brought to the romans and then they drug him over to harrod and then with the harrod they whipped him and then they put a robe on him and then they mocked them some more and then then they drug him through town and people are spitting on him he imagines people spitting on jesus the lord i mean the god of the universe people spitting on him and mocking him and then they gave him you know poisonous you know beverage to drink that he did spit out but just all of that experience is terrible he's having to carry his own cross i mean that was that wasn't fun he couldn't even really do it someone else had to come and bear his cross for him then when he finally gets all the way to to mount calvary they strip him of his clothes you know the embarrassment the shame then they have to nail him to the cross i'm sure each nail hurt really bad then they have to lift him up then he has to go through all the agony of being on the cross and on top of all just the physical suffering god literally put every sin of every person of all humanity of all time all on him and he became the serpent on the cross um i believe that he was placed there essentially around 9 a.m if you study the chronology of the bible and didn't pass until about 3 p.m so six hours on the cross suffering for mankind and then at his death you know his soul was not uh left in hell neither especially corruption he did raise again from the dead but it wasn't for it wasn't immediate you know he had to experience the pains of death according to the bible and he wasn't loosed from that until the resurrection and we kind of see a similar thing here with the serpent you know we have the serpent form on the ground it then conquers all the other serpents so it's like swallowing up death and it also makes a lot of other pictures for me revelation 118 i have the keys of hell and of death now i don't know how many serpents are actually there but if you just kind of think of like two enemy snakes you know it's like you got death and hell and jesus christ is swallowing them both up and he's conquering both of them and then of course what happens they pick up the snake and it becomes a rod again and so we kind of see that that death burial and resurrection the entire gospel message of jesus christ being preached in a a physical example before for before pharaoh pharaoh if think about this pharaoh is getting the gospel preached to him and he asked for it he said give me a miracle what's the miracle the death burn resurrection and if you think about it all the miracles are like that you know whenever we have jesus being confronted with the jews and the pharisees they're like what sign show us thou and he's like i'll give you the sign of jonas and and what is that sign whereas jonas was three days and three nights in the heart of the earth or in the whale's belly i'm sorry so should the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth so it's the exact same gospel message Nineveh gets what the gospel message through jonah pharaoh and the egyptians get the gospel message through the serpent and consistently throughout the bible if you really study it everybody's getting the same gospel message and that's the miracle that god wants to give unto them that god wants to show them and when you really study the bible every miracle somehow pictures the gospel message and the gospel story and and that's what's really incredible about the bible is how you can have all these interwoven stories and they all connect and say the exact same thing there's no way it's just all these random guys just came up with the same story perfectly interwoven and of course think about the think about this too not only is the bible so perfectly woven together like this but the king james bible is an english translation and look how much it preserves all the interwoven story exactly how god would have it intended as well and so you know that's why we love the king james bible it's god's word it's living now go over to exodus 4 go all the way back to exodus chapter number 4 and you say what is the point of these miracles what was the point of jesus performing miracles so that people would believe on him right in fact in exodus chapter 4 god already told moses that he was going to do exactly what he did in exodus chapter 7 look at exodus chapter 4 verse 1 and moses answered and said but behold they will not believe me nor hearken in my voice for they will say the lord hath not appeared on thee and the lord said on him what is that in thine hand and he said a rod and he said cast it on the ground and he cast it on the ground it became a serpent and moses fled from before it and the lord said of the moses put forth thine hand and take it by the tail and he put forth his hand and caught it and it became a rod and his hand that they may believe that the lord god of their fathers the god of abraham the god of isaac and the god of jacob had appeared on thee now if you understand this story what what is happening moses gets the literal gospel preached to him here through this physical example then moses goes to the children of israel and he does this this miracle before them they get the gospel then he goes to pharaoh and he gives them this physical example of the gospel message so the gospel is truly being preached to everyone everyone's getting it but here's a big difference moses believes it the children of israel as a whole not necessarily every single person but generally most of them believe it but who doesn't believe it pharaoh pharaoh does not believe in the gospel message go back to excess chapter number seven where we had kind of started and look at verse number 13 the bible says and he hardened pharaoh's heart that he hearkened not unto them as the lord had said now here's what you have to understand about pharaoh is while it does say that the lord hardened his heart here it's it's ultimately in accordance to pharaoh's will and and you can see this look at chapter eight and look at verse 15 but when pharaoh saw that there was respite he hardened his heart and hearkened not on them as the lord so notice he's hardening his heart and consistently throughout the bible you kind of have pharaoh hardening his heart and then the lord's also hardening his heart but when you get such a great gospel message presented to you and you decide not to believe in it not to accept the gospel message what god will do is he'll harden your heart and then he'll just keep hardening it and unfortunately it can get to a point where it's considered reprobate and that just simply means rejected meaning it's never going to that heart is never going to believe in jesus christ and so this is a symptom of being presented with the miracles of god it was another group of people that are exactly like this the jews and specifically the pharisees because in john chapter number 12 let's just go there let's go to john chapter number 12 let's see the exact same thing you know some people get confused about the reprobate doctrine or what that really means the word reprobate simply means to be rejected it's possible that the word reprobate or reprobation could be in reference to something multiple multiple things multiple contexts because you could just you know say like hey this water bottle i don't want it i reprobated it okay but that means this water bottle is going to go to hell no okay so so just simply put just like repentance repentance just means a turn okay in the context of salvation what does repentance mean it means that you turn from whatever you were believing or trusting in to get you to heaven and you changed and you put that in something else and specifically to be saved you'd put it in jesus christ his death burn resurrection has the payment for your sin that's what saves you but repent could be used in other contexts can it and in fact doesn't repent have places in the bible where it's mentioning like repenting of a sin or changing your mind about a different subject so just i believe that's the same with reprobation you have to realize that there are places in the bible or situations where the word reprobate could be used and it's not necessarily always referring to the exact same thing but for the context that we're bringing it into we're talking about someone who in their heart hates god will not believe in him because of the gospel message and as a result they are rejected by god meaning that they're never going to believe in him and to prove that beyond a shadow of a doubt that that's even a doctrine the bible literally says this now look what it says in verse 35 then jesus said unto them yet a little while is the light with you walk while you have the light lest darkness come upon you for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whether he goeth while you have light believe in the light that you may be the children of light these things speak jesus and departed and did hide himself from them you know what jesus is saying is that you have a limited window to get saved there's a limited window when light is going to shine upon you and so you need to believe in that light when you have that opportunity so that you can become a child of light because if the light comes upon you and you choose not to trust in that light then what can happen is you end up it goes over it overpasses you and then you're just in darkness and this happens for egypt as a whole as a nation they one of their plagues that comes upon them they are in literal darkness according to the bible which can be felt you want to know a darkness that can be felt hell because it's outer darkness but you know what you're going to feel it you're going to just be i mean it is there's a lot of feeling going on in hell but notice what it says this in verse 37 but though he had done so many miracles before them yet they believed not on him isn't that the same with with pharaoh even though they did so many miracles before pharaoh yet he just didn't believe in the lord he didn't trust in the lord he still rejected the lord and it says this verse 38 that the saying of isaias the prophet might be fulfilled which he spake lord who hath believed our report and to whom hath the arm of the lord been revealed therefore they could not believe because that isaias said again he has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart that they should not see with their eyes nor understand with their heart and be converted and i should heal them so notice according to the bible in verse 39 it says they could not believe so you know the calvinist would have you believe that this is everyone you know no one can believe in you know a dead man can't believe in jesus no no the reason why someone couldn't believe is because they've been presented with the truth so many times and they rejected it over and over and over and over to the point where god then blinded their eyes and then god then hardened their heart and then at that point they couldn't believe but here's the thing god is not according to calvin is god he didn't even have to do anything you just couldn't believe this is talking about god doing something to you to where then you can't believe he's he's cursing you beyond just being a normal person to where you have this extra blindness this extra hardness of heart where it's just so difficult to want to get saved and you know it makes sense why children are so much easier to be saved because they haven't been presented with the gospel hardly ever yet they haven't had this these opportunities so their hearts just aren't as hard you know whereas older people that have been have been presented with the gospel a lot you can just tell how hard their heart gets and how difficult it could be to reach some of those individuals when you go to foreign countries and you talk to elderly people that have not been presented with the gospel that often or very much or maybe even at all they're still actually a lot of times very tender and capable of being saved whereas elderly people in america are typically some of the most difficult people to get saved because you can just almost bet they've been presented the gospel a lot of times they've had a lot of opportunities the lights come upon them so many different um points in their life and because they've just rejected over and over that their heart has just gotten so hardened and so you kind of see that effect that happens to people that's why it's important to preach the gospel to the young and to the youth and to the teenagers and to the young adults while they have the light while they have the opportunity to be saved that we're presenting it to them and of course i would present the gospel to anyone but you can just see this this process taking place and it it comes to a point where there's no healing you know i'm not saying that as soon as god hardens someone's heart a little bit they can't be saved but there is a point where it can cross like it's being explained here where they can't believe just like pharaoh and of course romans one let's go there for a moment romans one explains this romans one explains that hey you saw the serpent ate the other serpents and you just decided not to believe it but but think about think about how ridiculous that is i mean can you imagine someone comes in and says i'm of god okay well show me a miracle how about a rod into a serpent that's pretty unique and then it's like well my my magicians can do that too but then what happens his snake eats all of your snakes up and then he puts it back into a rod the only way to just continue to not believe that is to just be in just a complete reality denier you're just denying the clear reality and and let me say something those who reject the gospel when presented are just clearly denying reality now the bible says that the bible is saying that the rejection of god is similar and equivalent to a rejection of reality okay romans chapter one look at what it says in verse 18 for the wrath of god is revealed from heaven against all ungodless and righteous men who hold the truth in unrighteousness because that which may be known of god is manifest in them for god hath showed it unto them for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and got it so they're without excuse god is saying i've you have the truth it was showed you clearly you know it and you have no excuse what would be an example of this pharaoh seeing the rod turn into the serpent the serpent eat the other serpents come back to a rod it's not like pharaoh didn't see it it's not like pharaoh didn't have the truth inside of him it's not like it wasn't manifested to him what did he do he still rejected it this is what is the process of reprobation is having it clearly shown clearly seeing and just clearly denying and the bible is even saying that the invisible things of god are just manifested and of course there's a lot of things that are invisible that we know all about and we can see in evidence like wind like gravity just even abstract concepts such as math or physics or all the different laws of thermodynamics you know there's all kinds of different things that we can't necessarily see taste touch but we experience we know that they're there and even just from a spiritual perspective i mean just just the heavens and this the sun and the moon and just everything that's going on i mean it's just it's just so obvious that god is real and god exists to deny god is to deny your eyes is to deny your nose is to deny your mouth is the desire it's just to deny your brain everything that we have in this world just screams of god's existence it's just so clear and it's just denied it's a denial of reality to think that god doesn't exist that's why he goes on to say in verse 21 because that when they knew god does it say that they don't know god says that they know god they glorified him not as god neither were thankful became vain in their imaginations their foolish heart was darkened so it's not that they don't know that god is the one that created everything they just don't want to give him the honor they don't want to give him the glory so it's like when pharaoh saw that miracle he knew god did the miracle but he just didn't want to give god the recognition for the miracle did he you know even later in the story it's very clear when pharaoh says hey the lord is righteous me and my servants are wicked like it wasn't like hey i don't know that god exists he just hates god he just doesn't like god and doesn't want to give him that glory and of course what happens as a result of it is you become very dumb you become very foolish verse 22 professing themselves to be wise to begin fools so of course those who hate god the most they love to pontificate and pretend like they're very smart this is what you see in american academics today the professors and the scholarship of many universities in our world today are filled with atheists and they love to just pretend that they're so smart and so intelligent when really they're the dumbest people on the planet and they make some of the dumbest decisions and you don't you don't want to learn anything from these people verse 23 and change the glory of the uncorruptible god into an image made like corruptible men to birds and four-footed beasts and creepy things yeah that's like evolution you know the the theory of evolution that goes all the way back into claiming that we're from monkeys and from all kinds of different animals that you know they even turn the tyrannosaurus rex into a chicken you know i mean it's just like what is this you know it's just bizarre what they think and then they turn us all into rocks and then they just all turn us into nothing you know what what just like what could be worse to compare the creator of the universe to nothing because isn't that what the big bang teaches nothing exploded and created everything so they hate god so much they have to turn him into nothing but you know what god's going to turn them into nothing okay so they're going to get what they deserve look at verse 24 wherefore god also gave them up to uncleanness and lust of their own hearts to dishonor their own bodies between themselves who changed the truth of god into a lie and worship and serve the creature more than the creator is blessed forever amen so these people love to worship creation they love to worship the environment they love to worship animals they're they're very obsessed with these two different things that's why people that are obsessed with animals the environment are almost always unsaved atheist leftists just a very common denominator you don't see these right wing people that are conservative typically just so in love with the environment and animals or you know the conservatives are just like burn the gas and kill the animal and eat it you know and the left wing people are like you know let's merge with the earth or something you know let's it's just like what in the world and it's it's just so the bible is just so evident it explains everything that you see in this world today you want to know about leftists read romans one okay it'll tell you everything you need to know about the reality denying god hating atheists of our planet and so of course what god does though because these people hate him so much and they want to turn him into nothing and they just despise everything about him he's like you know what i'm gonna punish you right i mean how why wouldn't you punish people that are like this so he's gonna punish them that's why it also remember what it said in verse 18 for the wrath of god is revealed what does something mean to be revealed may be made obvious something that's really clear to us something we can see you're showing us something he's going to show us wrath okay he's going to show us god's anger what is god's anger towards those who hate him they know him they've seen it they rejected it they want nothing to do with it they've turned them into nothing they blaspheme him what is he going to do to these individuals well it says in verse 26 for this cause notice that important phrase for that what was the cause for this cause what what is that he's saying because they hated me because they had the truth because they rejected me because they want nothing to do with me because of that god gave them up unto vile affections for even their women to change the natural use into that which is against nature and likewise also the men leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust one toward another men with men working that which is unseemly and receiving themselves that recompense of their error which was meet so what does the bible say god punishes those who hate him so much and will never believe in him with homosexuality that's what the bible says and then we get to see wow you don't want to mess with god because when you reject him and you call him nothing he makes you a faggot okay which it's like that's the worst it's like oh you want to call me nothing you want to you want to blaspheme me you want to say all this trash about me then he just turns them into queers he turns them into lesbians and sodomites and of course these people then just destroy themselves i mean the women they'll shave their hair which is a glory you know women having long hair makes them beautiful i mean it's it's it's great but they'll shave it off and they'll dye it purple and weird colors and stuff like that and then they'll just like wear men's clothing which look women don't look better in men's clothing they look better in women's clothing just just facts okay why is it that the lesbians just want to wear pants so bad it's because they hate god and so god's like okay i'll make you so dumb you'll make yourself ugly on purpose the sodomite community is ugly on purpose and they do it to themselves they make themselves look like trash and they just they'll mutilate themselves i mean we're seeing it in america today there are so many people and why do you think it is that america is like the sodomite capital of the world basically now it's because we have the gospel being given unto us folks why is it that pharaoh got his heart hardened because he's got he got the most incredible miracle performed right before him you know so the countries that haven't had as clear of a gospel haven't had the truth just manifested to them as much are going to have less of this reprobation less of this wrath being revealed and made evident obvious to everyone but look america is the powerhouse of christianity for the last several hundred years it's had churches and the gospel and it's had soul winners and it's had i mean it has the king james bible i mean it just has so much truth and just so much power and the gospel just being shown before them that there's going to be people that reject it and as a result what happens to those individuals well they destroy themselves and when we see the wrath of god being poured out on their lives you know they women now are mutilating their bodies and and and taking away the best parts of their body and men are are just ugh i mean the men are so gross what they're doing to themselves you know there's never been a beautiful man it just doesn't exist they're all ugly okay and and yet the sodomites are the ugliest for sure putting on dresses putting on makeup clown and look they're like trying to dress up like satan and go around and pretend like they love children they don't love children they don't love anyone they know they're destined for hell and just like their father the devil they want to drag as many people down to hell with them as possible they're they're a cancer on society and they just want to destroy anything and everything they come in contact with and they are what we see that is the wrath of god and it is a wrath because that as a grown man there is no worse punishment i could think of than being that i mean that is the worst punishment john christosome said he'd rather die ten thousand times than be a sodomite you know he said that he's but they've sodomites have betrayed not only men and women they're not even worthy to be called dogs you know they're just betrayed everything they're just the most disgusting beast imagine john christensen was just send me to hell for all of eternity just don't make me a sodomite you know because that's embarrassing and let me tell you something you you don't even realize how many sodomites exist in america like our politicians and the hollywood elite and all those individuals they're all like that and they're virtually and they're just all disgusting and you know god is going to punish our nation for a while because of these individuals but you know what he punished pharaoh very severely and it was a really dark time for egypt you know what it did it gave a lot of glory to god give a lot of glory to god and he still rescued his people out of a really dark world and he protected them even through the midst of the wrath of god being poured out and this is what i believe i believe that god can still protect his people in america while simultaneously pouring out his wrath on those that hate him and reject him and despise him and you know what praise god for people that'll show up to a church while egypt is being destroyed and say well you know what i'm still going to serve god you know what i'm not going to be like the wicked and reject the serpent rod and just reject the miracles that god's performed no no i'll go to church and i'll still serve god and i'll even be persecuted if i have to but you know what i'm just not going to stop serving god and be scared and intimidated by pharaoh be scared and intimidated by the reprobates and be scared and intimidated by the freaks and the weirdos and the sideshow freaks i mean frankly some people like the front row i heard some kid was like taking a picture out there he thought it was cool you know with all the sodomites on sunday morning or whatever he's like sweet but you know at the end of the day you know they're these people are going to exist whether you like it or not why would you let that stop you from serving god you know i mean they're going to exist but you know we exist why can't we just do our thing and you say well if you just stop preaching you know then these people will go away they're not going to go away they'll just go harass someone else they'll just go harass other people i mean the best thing that's happened to us is how virtually everyone's getting harassed now because now now it's not like we're these weirdos that are the only ones that get protested anymore it's like we're in the cool kids club like yeah we're protested too you know but think about it i mean you go to virtually any conservative state their legislator is being protested by these people and school board meetings and city council meetings and just up and down the street and every kind of business and just any kind of conservative company i mean they're all getting the hatred they're all getting the ire and they're all seeing for themselves the wrath of god being poured out and you know what it should do is it should motivate people to believe the gospel of jesus christ and to say you know what i don't want to go down that road i need the gospel but right now is is is a crucial time in america because like jesus said while you have light believe in that light and let me say something the light is being shown in america right now and people need to get saved our loved ones and our family members and our friends that we are caring about getting saved we need to get them saved now you know now is the accepted time now is the day of salvation we don't want to wait we don't want to delay this is the most important time for us to be going soul winning and preaching the gospel and making it manifest how to get saved because when people don't they're so much more likely to go down this dark road go to romans chapter nine go to romans chapter number nine you know some people could be discouraged by the time that we live in but frankly speaking you know all the other times in the bible that were so peaceful we didn't we don't know about you know all the times that are peaceful it's just like and there was peace from the land four years and there's just peace it's just like or we'll just skip it'll just be like all of a sudden 500 years later you know it's like all the cool stuff is whenever there's conflict isn't there all the cool stuff is when there's pharaoh and there's the miracles and there's the plagues and you know people there's war and fight i mean there's all that's the cool stuff that's all the part of the bible we read and it's like why do i want to live in this boring time when it's just like man peace peace flipped over you know it's like no i want to live in the time when you know there's plagues and there's just all this turmoil and people are actually we're actually fighting it actually matters i mean 50 years ago if i preach a sermon like this everybody wouldn't have no idea what i'm talking about he'll be just like what are you talking about you know like who cares like sodomized they don't even exist or whatever and it's just like now you preach it and it's just like man it's just every day you know every day i'm just inundated with this garbage and it just manifested you know it's happening to our church and you know it's just the reality but you know god still gets glory out of this look at romans chapter 9 verse 17 for the scripture sayeth unto pharaoh even for the same purpose have i raised the up that i might show my power in thee and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth notice why pharaoh being reprobated has a big impact because he can show so many miracles and he just still won't believe and then just shows like whoa like there's something off here even his own staff is like dude this is the finger of god what are you doing and he's just trying to make a point like oh you don't want to believe in me fine let me show you what it's like to not believe in me you can be like this guy and you know it should be a warning to all those atheists out there that haven't become a reprobate yet oh you think it's cool to be an atheist i'll show you what it's like not to believe in me you'll be these trannies because i guarantee even though atheists might not like us that much they don't want to be a tranny okay they're terrified they hate that but i'm telling you while you have the light believe in the light and you know what the manifestation of all these freaks and weirdos and people that are mutilating themselves out there i mean how could you convince grown men to mutilate themselves in that part of their body that is bizarre but you know what god's saying hey you don't want to believe in me i'll make you do that to yourself i'll make you do things you wish you would never at could even dreamed of to yourself and of course that action and those people themselves aren't a glory to god but what he's what the glory to god is showing how powerful and how wrathful he is that's the power and that's the glory that we see and we see the victory of the children of israel over him let me say this you will fulfill god's will regardless of if you accept or reject them barrow hey barrow thinks that he's special oh you know what nuts to god i don't want to do his will you're still doing his will buddy in fact you're doing exactly what he thought you were going to do you're doing exactly what he knew you would do that's why it's so foolish they're like oh no no god wants me to be a christian or wants me to get saved it's like well if you don't you're going to fulfill his will by going to hell and you're going to show how just he is you're not clever you're not cool you're not going to do something that god didn't already think of look at verse 18 therefore have the mercy on whom you have mercy and on whom he will he hardeneth thou wilt say then unto me why did he yet find fault for rather resist his will well you know to some degree this question is funny because technically you can't but at the same time it's not to say it's not calvinism okay obviously everybody has free choice to decide if they're going to believe or not believe in him but at the end of the day your destiny is sealed regardless of what you want to believe about god you know you can you can try to resist his will but you know what his will be will be realized in the sense that if you don't believe in him you're still going to go to hell it's like you can you can try all you want but you're going to go to hell if you don't believe in him and if you believe in him no matter what you're going to heaven okay so you can't really change those you can't escape that destiny the destiny has already been set the game's already being played you're either going to win or lose there's no escaping that reality so why not just join the winning side and then if you're already on the winning side why would you not then commit to just serving god with your life and just accepting what he has for you you know we have miracles in the bible but you know and you say well i wish i had a miracle the gospel is a miracle and we have that and we got saved but there's so many other miracles that we don't even realize and i would say this just the fact that we even exist is actually a miracle because you know when scientists talk about the statistical probability of the earth and life and oxygen levels and the distance from the sun and just all the different calculations that go into the fact that human existence is even here it's such a it's a miracle defies reality defies you know anything the fact that you even exist as a miracle as a person the the miracle of life is incredible i mean if you've seen a baby being born and developed and all the things that are necessary and of course you know when we're when we're initially conceived we're so tiny and just the fact that you're preserved and grow and mature and develop and then your birth i mean you're so vulnerable it'd be so easy for you to not live yet you go through all of that and you survive then as a baby and as a toddler and i mean look if my toddlers were left alone they would not live they would perish they're so they're such a danger to themselves they're getting on tall things using sharp instruments you're just you're just thinking like how did you not die today sometimes or you're just thinking like how to survive that i mean it's just like a miracle that toddlers live through toddler life and then five-year-olds and then they just keep going i mean have you ever been on the highway on houston it's a miracle that you survived it i mean it to me it's a miracle that almost everybody that's an adult has a driver's license and we have just a few amount of accidents we actually have i mean i remember driving in houston one time and this guy's like obviously drunk and i no one died you know he was just like he was just like swerving everywhere and just like hitting the wall just like whoa but no one died it was just like man this guy's trying and he can't even kill himself you know it's like what's going on the fact that we're saved from hell through the miracle of the gospel that's a miracle and look the fact that we just continue existing as a species you know as as a as a creation of god is is just simply a miracle every single day it would just be so easy to die i mean just there's so many things that can happen i mean we have so you have so many parts of your body that are necessary for you to sustain life your heart and your lungs and your your brain it i mean it just and it just takes one one time just one choking event just one drowning event just one just turn the wheel wrong just i mean it just is so easy to just die that you have to realize like it's like we're just experiencing miracle after miracle that we're even here and so if you realize like i'm on a journey of about 10 000 miracles to even be here like then i should just say you know what let's just do whatever god wants me to do anyways but so many people they're just trying to like grip on tight to just being here and just all their stuff and their money and their 401k in their house and your their friends or whatever and it's just like they don't even realize you hanging on has no impact anyways you're riding on a trail of miracles even exist and to persist in this life so why don't you just embrace the miracle that we're still here and just start following god the children of israel have to go from miracle to miracle to miracle to miracle to get to the promised land don't they in fact their daily food is an actual miracle and sometimes even it's amazing our daily food you know the fact that we even have the food we have it seems like a miracle to live in america and to have all the delicacies we have to walk into the supermarket and to have all the luxuries and the food that we have i mean it's incredible that we have all of these provisions that i could never i mean look without the dependence of so many other people you know i'm not going to be feasting on all the different delicacies and cuisines and i don't even know how to make pasta you know if everybody that knew how to make pasta died i would probably go without having pasta the rest of my life because i don't even know how to make it like how do we even how do you even make pasta i don't know but it's amazing i love pasta you know there's so many different things that chocolate i don't even know how to make chocolate you know if you just gave me cocoa beans or whatever i'd be like let's try it and they're like ah you know they're like somehow you can make this into chocolate you know i don't even know how but you can i mean you don't even realize how much you just your life is just you're so dependent as much as that one day old baby is dependent on its parents for everything is how dependent we are on god for our daily lives and then yet instead of just trusting in him and following his path for our lives we try to hang on and try to sustain ourselves don't we well what you know i gotta make sure that i'm going out there and and doing you know what i think's right no no you need to what god thinks is right like church three times a week like reading the bible like praying like soul winning like seek ye first the kingdom of god and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you but when you you have this idea of like no of course i'm here by my own strength power and will no you're not you little baby you you can't even sustain yourself you wet yourself just go you know you need to change you need a diaper change okay you can't sustain yourself how foolish it is for you to think that you have and so when you get the right perspective it makes the world less scary because when i look at america you're just like man we're doomed you know it's like as a country politically socially civilly you know every it's just like doom education and this country's doomed the local government seems doomed i mean it's just like everything is just falling apart and destroying itself but wait a minute i'm in god's hand so i i can't it doesn't matter he can sustain me i mean you really think the children of israel walking through the wilderness they're like you know it seems pretty good economically around here what's the economy of the wilderness like it's zero it's just imminent death okay is on the horizon and then god what does god do here's manna from heaven right i mean they're walking there's zero water and then it's just like hey we'll just crush a rock and then water comes out of it and you you're sitting here thinking like well how how are we going to sustain you know i mean the dollar is going to crash and you know china is going to come in here and the jews are going to give us the central baking digital currency and you know how are we going to feed ourselves it's like i don't care yea though i walk through the valley of the shadow of death i will fear no evil for thou art with me i can't sustain myself i have no chance of sustaining myself you know i learned about some guy go to psalm 2 and we'll finish on this point but i learned about this guy from a friend of mine um he is like extra prepper and i mean it sounds impressive i mean this guy he's got like his whole house is lined with batteries and he's got all these generators he's got a copper distillery he's got a garden he's got animals he's got food stored for days he's got a barn filled with supplies of lumber and bolts and he's got 40 ham radios and he's got ammunition and he's got guns i mean he is just like he is ready for the zombie apocalypse folks and he's like he's buttering up all of his neighbors and telling them how you know look whenever push comes a shove we got to form our own little community and i can sustain everything and it's just like but just one brain ransom you're dead you know you have all that supply you have all that good you know and it's just just one little thing or just you know your wife poisons your chili or whatever you know this is like i mean oops or a snake comes out of where a black widow comes out of somewhere and you get bit i mean like you could have so much planning you could go hide yourself and get a moat and get a castle and get i mean it's just like but then god could just take your life like that and then you could be in the in the belly of a whale and god sustains you and what's the economy like in there it probably is kind of fishy you know stinks i mean it's it's just it's we get these weird viewpoints because we're just so carnal by nature we're of the flesh but it's like when we just kind of just think look we don't have a chance here it's like one of the children of israel chances against egypt zero but you know what god is able to take them out of it god's it what are the chances of getting across the red sea zero but they got across and i mean look they got across with babies you know sometimes we think like oh well how am i going to do it i have babies and i'm toddlers and i have you know people mothers really care about this you know what god was able to give them enough time with their even babies and infants to get across the red sea while the egyptian army is just hanging out with some fire and then he gives them just enough time to come in there and then they all did this die and then all the babies and toddlers and women and everything they win you know they're they're stronger in might babies are stronger in might than the egyptian army with their chariots why because god is on their side so it's like don't get the wrong idea here and and the title of the sermon was the serpent rod who is what are we supposed to trust in we're supposed to trust in that the gospel that's what we trust in to get saved you know what beyond that we just keep trusting and and what does the rod do well the rod does a lot of things it leads it guides um it protects it also destroys look what it says in psalm chapter two verse number nine thou shalt break them with a rod of iron thou shalt dash them and pieces like a potter's vessel you know your only chance to defeat your enemies is with the rod of god is the rod of jesus christ and he will dash them if he says i can't do it i can't defeat them go to psalm 23 last verse i want to bring up and stop and don't spend this week trusting in yourself trust in this trust in this rod this is your rod this is your life this is your economy this is your rock i mean this is everything is your strength this is your joy this you know and it's easy to be discouraged in the day we live in because we're walking through a wilderness in fact sometimes it feels like we're walking through a valley of the shadow of death what does the bible say in psalm 23 it says the lord is my shepherd i shall not want he maketh me lie down in green pastures he leadeth me beside the still waters he restoreth my soul he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake yea though i walk through the valley of the shadow of death i will fear no evil for thou art with me notice this thy rod and thy staff they come for me hey you know what let the rod of gods comfort you today just like the gospel message comfort you from not having to go to hell why don't you let the rod of jesus christ comfort you in your daily life and trust him to be a faithful creator you know i'm not promising you that you will never suffer in this life of course i already told you earlier you're going to suffer before you die right you're probably going to have a somewhat painful death but you know what our suffering in this world is not worthy to be compared to the glory which shall be revealed you know the suffering of the present time is not worthy to be compared to the glory which shall be revealed in us and and so it's easy to be afraid easy to be fearful it's easy to get distracted easy to care about all those other things that are going on but let me tell you something you know there's there's the miracle of jesus christ every single day that he's going to sustain us he's going to give us life he's going to protect us he's going to guide us and you know he's making you to lie down green pastures that sounds great he's making you to you know drink of the still waters you know not the rocky waters not the bud light that's for sure the still waters okay and so so let us you know put more trust in him today than ever before and and let us not allow the trials and the stormy winds of our society and our culture get us to be more fearful let it help us to trust in him more and rely on him even more and and become humble you know it's it's humble to say i can't i can't sustain myself i'm not i'm not capable of doing that just like a child i mean children they're not capable of sustaining themselves they have to just 100 be like mom and dad got me and and how would you love it if every day you went home and your kids are just like i'm so afraid what's gonna happen it's like i got it you know how are we gonna pay the bills how are we gonna do it it's like i got it you know how are we gonna make pasta i bought it you know it's like i'm afraid i don't know how to make pasta it's like i don't either but you know what the store has it and we can eat wonderful pasta right we can eat and of course we can eat all kinds of different things the beef and everything that we have but you know again the serpent rod is a great picture in the bible but let's not just only think of it in carnal means let's let's reflect on the spiritual truths that we have in the bible let's go in prayer thank you heavenly heavenly father for giving us this great story of of what happened with pharaoh and with with moses and with this rod and this this serpent so that we could understand the greater truths of what your son did for us and had his death burn resurrection gives us salvation but not only does it give us salvation from hell but it also gives us an opportunity to live and to walk in newness of life to walk in the spirit to actually be pleasing unto you i pray that we would uh dispel the spirit of fear in our lives you know you haven't given us a spirit of fear but a power of love and a sound mind i pray that we would not be afraid of the dark valley that's before us but rather we would walk with confidence we would walk with a sound mind in fact we would just run to the battle we would go out and we preach the gospel we could help be a bright and shining light in this dark world so that we could reach many others and help give them the opportunity believe and be saved in jesus name we pray amen amen to our last song for the for the night we've got a song 372 372 let the lower lights be burning they're on the first rightly be is our father's mercy from his lighthouse evermore but to us he gives the keeping of the lights along the shore let the lower lights be running soon to gleam across the wave some poor fainting struggling seamen you may rescue you may save dark the night of sin has settled love the angry bellows roar eager eyes are watching longing for the lights along the shore let the lower lights be burning send the gleam across the wave some poor fainting struggling seamen you may rescue you may save trim your feet let my brother some poor sailor tempest toss trying now to make the harbor in the darkness may be lost let the low lights be burning to gleam across the wave some poor fainting struggling seamen you may rescue you may save amen great singing you're all dismissed