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Jeremiah 38

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Live from Bremerton. We're in Jeremiah 38. Welcome. Let's pray. Father, we come before you. Thank you for this wonderful opportunity to have a meal together, to study your word, to worship you, Lord, to fellowship. We We commit this time unto you, and, Lord, we pray that you'd heal, all those that we love that are sick. You know each one by name. And, Lord, we just again, we commit this time in into your hands, Lord, and have with the praise of your people we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Bless the Lord. I gotta get it right. As the sun comes up, it's a new day dawning. It's time Feedback coming through this thing. Woo hoo. Hi, George. Alright. Thank you, Rob. Alright. Be not to see. Vicky's got a lot of different podcasts. 20%. Alright. Connected to Richard Vogarty. I wanna play a song. I wrote it about three weeks ago. Just close your eyes. You hear that cello? God, we thank you for tonight, this space, for this moment and time together, to let your name bring you praise. It's all for your glory, God. It's all You have to be more attuned to his irony. Let's see here. Oh, no. Your glory, all sons and daughters, Leslie Jordan and David Jordan, I think. Leslie and David Jordan. There's a live I've never heard that before. Mean Me either. Yeah. I've never. It's beautiful. It was beautiful. It was. And a friend of mine is at the gym today, and he was really stressed out. And he's a believer. There's a lot of believers out there that are really stressed out. Oh, wow. So I tried to minister to him for a few minutes, and then I just said, here. Because a lot of us have yeah buts. Yeah but, yeah but, yeah but, yeah but. And I said here, put these in your ears, close your eyes, and just listen to one song. And so he did. Thank God. Some a lot of times people don't listen to you. And and he just takes away all the stress. All the stress is gone because now you're a worshiper, getting your eyes off yourself onto the Lord, and the devil loses, and Holy Spirit wins. So if you're having trouble with stress, take some time to be like Mary and sit at the Lord's feet and listen to him and and begin to worship him. And as you worship him, your your heart's gonna be so comforted. His peace is gonna just fill your heart and life, and the stress is gonna go away. So either that or take a pill. Your choice. Can't be too serious. Alright. So to Jeremiah 38. I say that, but that's that's what a lot of us do, a lot of people do, and we have access to God's throne to worship him, and we need to be in the habit of doing that. Alright. Jeremiah 38, father, bless this time we pray as we study word. Be our teacher. Undergird and strengthen us. Help us to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, and not be distracted by the world, Lord, and the media, and Texas, and DC, and Iran, and the dollar, and all these things that are pressing against us, Lord, and, our shoulders are too weak. Lord, we once again, we cast all of our burdens upon you because you care for us, Lord. You said, come on to me all you that labor and heavy laden, then I'll give you rest. So, we wanna learn of you tonight. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Alright. Then Shephatiah, the son of Matan, and Gedaliah, the son of Pasher, and Juchol, the son of Shemaiah and Pasher, the son of Micaiah, heard the words that Jeremiah had spoken unto all the people saying, So these are high ranking princess princes, government officials, and they're spies. And so they're hearing what Jeremiah is saying to all the people, and they don't like it. So thus saith the lord, he that remains in this city shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence. And he's telling the truth here. The Babylonians are surrounding the city. They're gonna destroy everybody, But there is a way out, and that's surrender. Surrender to Jesus. That's the way out. He that remains in this city shall die by the sword, by the famines of the war, lack of food, famine, and by pestilence. Globus wanna spray you. But he that goeth forth to the Chaldeans shall live, for he shall have his life a prize and shall live. So your life will be given to you as a prize. You might lose everything, lose your job, lose all your stuff, might, you know, have to be shipped off to Babylon, but your life is gonna be preserved as a prize unto you. So there's two ways presented. One is life. One is death. It's either heaven or it's hell. You get to choose. There's two trees. Two trees. You can choose the cross, or you can choose the tree of knowledge and good and evil, you know, the forbidden fruit, and want to be as God and give into the lie of the wicked one to be as God, or you can look to the cross and Jesus dying in your place and be given your life as a prize, eternal life. And so there's only one Christ, and he's the only way, the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father but by him. A lot of different options in life, a lot of different ways that people are pointing and telling you to go, and, you know, philosophies and isms and advice, but, Jesus doesn't point us to a way. He doesn't point us to a philosophy. He doesn't point us to a program. Jesus points us to himself, and that what's that's what sets him apart from everybody else. Everybody else has an idea, a religious system, a program, a book, a movie, a way to live, life coach. I'm a life coach. I'm gonna coach you. How's that working for you? And Jesus said, I'm the way. Nobody can do that. Nobody can do that and back that up. Only He's one that can do that and back it up. He said, you just follow me. Just follow me. I'll I'll I'll take it from here. You put your trust, your faith in me, and I'll come into your heart and life, and I'll put in you both to will and to do with my good pleasure. I'm gonna help you to work out your salvation. I'm gonna help you live out your salvation. I've saved you, but now I'm gonna help you. I'm gonna help you give you ears to hear. I'm gonna give you faith. I'm gonna give you eyes to see the things of the spirit. I'm gonna open my word unto you. I'm gonna lead and guide you in the way you should go. And so you don't need to follow any man. You don't need to act like I'm inadequate or what my word is inadequate. There's nobody out there that has anything better, and I can prove it. Destroy this body. In three days, I'll raise it up. If they can't be destroyed and raise himself up from the dead, why are you listening to him? You know? So he's the only one, and it's because of the resurrection. It's because of his word. It's because he's god. And why would we wanna follow anyone or anything else? So you've got a choice here. If you surrender, if you follow obey God's voice, obey his word, your life will be given to you as a prize. So if you were in the Holocaust and you were in Auschwitz and you somehow made it out, your life is given to you as a prize. You have a second chance, a chance to start over. And, but but many people lost their loved ones, and, you can't get that back. And so for you and I, we don't store up treasures upon earth where moth and rust does corrupt and thieves can break through and steal because it's all temporary. But we can we can invest in people's lives and be assured that as they come to Christ, that we're gonna see them in heaven. Amen. That we're gonna be reunited, that their life is given to them as a prize. So great, great investment to invest the unsearchable riches of Christ in others. We don't take and we bury it. We don't hide it. We reinvest in the lives of others. And we say, all I know is I was blind and now I see. That's my testimony. That's all I know. And who who did it? Who who did heal you? His name's Jesus. You know? Is he a prophet? Who is he? And these guys in John nine are just, like, freaking out because, you know, Jesus healed this guy that was 40 years old, been blind from his birth. And so they're trying to work through, you know, who is this guy? And the guy that was healed was like, whether he's a good guy or a bad guy, you know, I don't know. All I know is he caused me to see if and they're trying to say he's a bad guy because he did it, you know, on the Sabbath. And he's saying, you know, from the foundation of the earth, there's never been anybody that's ever caused the man that's born blind to see. You guys figure it out. You know? And, his parents even even denied that they knew him because they're afraid they'd be thrown out of the synagogue. And then Jesus was drawn out of this man his faith. You know? And at the end of John nine, he comes to realize that he's the Christ. You know? He's the Messiah. And and your testimony is powerful. All I know is I was blind and now I see. All I know is I was a drunk and I was miserable, but now I'm sober. All I know is, you know, I was I was broke and derelict, and the Lord caused me to be clothed and seated and in my right mind, you know, the two at Gadara that he he healed, that he delivered of demons. And all Mary Magdalene knew is that she was a harlot and that she was demon possessed with seven different demons that were in her. And all she could say is, all I know is I was demon possessed and losing my mind and Jesus came along and and he saved me. You know, what a testimony. All of us have a testimony. All of us can testify of, the greatness of, God's love in saving us. And so it's because of God's grace, and then he says, thus saith the lord, this city shall surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, Babylon's army, which shall take it. And so there's no watering it down here with Jeremiah. There's no soft approach. There's no making it more palatable, the gospel, for these guys. You know? Hey. I got good news. You can be saved. Your name can be written in the lamb's book of life, but you you're not gonna get the city back. The city's gone. The city's gonna be burned to the ground, and they don't wanna hear that. They wanna hear a gospel that's a patriotic American gospel that if we just vote the right guy in, we can have it all. We can get it all back. Right? And I wanna say it again. Do we elect a king? Mhmm. Do we elect a dictator? Then why do we think voting any man in that he can fix this? He needs the cooperation of the people. He needs cooperation of the courts. He needs the cooperation of the Republican and Democrats. And if you have a unit party and you have a the court's already compromised and so many other district attorneys in every single, you know, state, Soros paid off and World Economic Forum and all. What makes you think that by putting this one guy in there that he has the power to become a dictator and to force everyone to obey him or to force any constitution. He can't enforce it. He he needs a Republican, you know, conservative house and senate to back him up. He needs the courts to back him up. He needs attorney general to back him up. And yet it's presented to us that just vote me in. I'll fix it all. Well, we've already been down that path, been down that way, and nobody's enforcing the constitution. So rather, we look at it and we say, you know, maybe the solution's repentance. Maybe the solution is call the nation under repentance like Nineveh. Maybe then God will intervene. Maybe then God will give us leaders after our own heart and raise up a standard against this wickedness. So no soft gospel. Sometimes it's hard. Sometimes it's it's presented in such a way it count the cost. Becoming a Christian might cost you everything. You can't earn it. You can't work for it. It's already been paid for. It's free. But in your case, it may cost your marriage. You becoming a Christian. It may cost your relationship with your kids. You may lose your job. You may lose your home. If they've hated me, Jesus said, they're gonna hate you. But we don't wanna hear that kind of gospel. We wanna hear a gospel that everyone likes us, God's gonna bless us, everything's gonna go well. And Jeremiah is telling the truth here. He's not gonna soft pedal it. He's gonna speak prophecy. He's gonna speak the truth. And he says, therefore, the princess said unto the king, we beseech thee, let this man be put to death. That's what he gets. For telling the truth, he gets a death threat against him. Let's take this traitor. He's a traitor. For thus, he weakens the hands of the men of war that remain in the city and the hands of all the people in speaking such words unto them. For the man seeks no welfare of this people but the harm. So what do they mean by that? What's that what what are they stating? What are they saying about this person? He said, in my bible, says he's a traitor. He's a traitor? What's it mean to be a traitor? What's it mean when he says he's weakening the hands of the military? He'd be he'd be saying something that would cause the rest of the mighty men to fight to to fear, like, oh my gosh. We're we're gonna all die. So he's reducing morale. Yeah. He's just reducing morale. The morale of the military. So how dangerous is it if you have a coward in the heat of battle? One coward. It can spread. It can spread. Yeah. When you send 12 spies in to spy out Canaan, the promised land, what happens if you only have two believers, two courageous soldiers, spies? What happened if 10 come back with a evil, wicked, unbelieving report? What happens to the rest of the people? I'm biased. What's that? Causes doubt. Permeates them. Right? Just causes doubt, indecision, uncertainty. What what do we do if we're the only couple, two, three, four, small little group of people, church that is resisting the official narrative, the media, causing you to be filled with fear? It's over. You're gonna die. What do we do? How do we stand? How do we how do we resist that sort of evil? Eyes on the lord. What's that? Eyes on the lord. Trust Keep the eyes on the lord. Trust in him. Amen. His word. Jeremiah's alone, ain't he? He's got I bet Melich gonna help him, the servant of the king, but and then Zedekiah's gonna gonna help him a bit, but he's got a whole lot of people against him, and he's not given the party line. He's against the majority of the people who keep believing a lie that somehow Nebuchadnezzar's not gonna bring judgment against the city. Somehow, we're going to win this. We're going to defeat these guys. And over and over again, God keeps saying, you're not gonna defeat them because you've turned your back upon me. So you can't do this in the flesh. You can't do this on your own. There's a spiritual problem here. And and so there's only solution is the spiritual solution. And so they're saying you weaken the knees of them. You're you're a traitor, and we we can't have this sort of speaking going on. He seeks not the welfare of this people. So you're against the military, you're against these people. And in John three seventeen, it says that Jesus came not in the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. So we have a positive gospel message, but there's also some negative aspects of it that if you resist, if you reject it, you know, you have the negative aspect of hell. You have the negative aspect of eternal judgment. So he didn't come to condemn. He came to to save. He didn't come to for the righteous. He came for sinners. He came for peoples whose lives were broken. And so so these guys wanna they want to they want Jeremiah to be a false prophet and present lies. The people don't wanna hear the truth. They wanna bring to the sales teachers having engineers that will tell them what they wanna hear. They wanna hear fables. They wanna hear doctrines of demons. They wanna hear that we're exceptional. We're gonna be great and that God would never judge America. God would never ever ever allow, you know, America to fall. And these guys are patriots. They don't wanna think in terms of, you know, everything could fall. Why would God allow his temple to be burnt to the ground? You know? It's incomprehensible to these people. And so lies are preferred. Do you prefer lies or do you prefer the truth? If the truth hurts, do you still want the truth? Yes. Yes. If the truth is negative, do you still want the truth? Yes. Yes. So do I. I just want the truth, man. Because that's where we can start to fixing this thing. Right? That's how I get in trouble at work. Yeah. Tell the truth. Yeah. What happens? I get singled out, and then it's pulled to the side. Warren. Told, don't be telling people this and that. Okay. I'm like, well, I've been there for twenty seven years now, so I think I know what you guys are doing. Then I get in trouble. Then you get in trouble. They don't wanna hear the truth. Nope. Oh, you can get in a lot of trouble for telling the truth. Mhmm. A lot of what our daily life is built on lies, and you're a whistleblower. What happened to that whistleblower in New Zealand? He was swatted. Yeah. He began to give numbers, statistics of the CDC of people dying of the COVID and stuff, and he was swatted. They don't want somebody. They don't want a doctor telling the truth either. We're gonna take your medical license. You know? We gotta keep the lie going. I asked a question yesterday with Mark and Shelly. What would happen if all the churches you think in terms of how can we fight this? How can we fight these lies? Because we're fighting a lot of lies. If all of the churches would have awakened every single person they could to the fraud of the jab and the World Economic Forum and all these things in the pulpits would just be ablaze with exposing all the lies. Fauci would be broke. Fauci be broke. Trump would be on everybody's radar. They couldn't get away with it, could they? They could not get away because everything's based upon a lie. It's based upon fear and keeping people in that place of fear and and following their lies, one lie after another lie after another lie. If you speak the truth, you can set the captives free. You can set these people free. They're being held captive by lies. It's the lies that are holding people captive, and it's a real simple simple commission the Lord's given us to go make disciples. You teach the word of God, and as people learn the word of God, they should be able to discern between good and evil, right and wrong, and not continue, you know, in perpetuating lies and living in an age of lies of deception. So be not deceived. Matthew 24 says, you know, they're false Christ, false messiahs, take heed that no man deceive you. Thomas Thomas Poole here. Someone says it takes a little bit of truth to keep a lie afloat. Is that right? Uh-huh. Yeah. Little bit of truth to keep a lie afloat afloat. So Bonhoeffer said silence in the face of evil is evil itself. You gotta have some courage when everybody's against you to tell the truth because people's lives are in jeopardy. Do you know how many people are gonna die because of these guys' lie? Do you know that if they would surrender, more people would live? But because these leaders persist in promoting a lie, men, women, children, and the cities can be burnt to the ground. So many lives could have been saved if they would have followed and obeyed the voice of God, if they'd have done you know, surrendered, you know, under the Lord. And then Zedekiah the king said, behold, he is in your hand, for the king is is not he who can do anything against you. So leaning toward that of, like, a political expediency like Pilate when Jesus was there, and Jesus is being interrogated. And Pilate says, I find no fault in him. You know? He's emphatic. He's innocent. He's an innocent man. And and he's trying every which way he can to let Jesus go. But the Jews are so putting pressure upon Pilate, you're not Caesar's friend. Oh, they're going above his head to Caesar. Right. You know? And he claims to be a king. So what kind of charge would that be against Pilate if he let a guy go that's claiming to be a king? Treason. Right? Yeah. So now Pilate's got a real problem on his head. Alright. I got one little loophole. Each year, we're able to let one of the criminals go. So I'm gonna put up here Barabbas, who's a murderer, full blown murderer, and Jesus. And maybe there's enough people that will choose Jesus. You know? And what did the people do as a mob? What did what were these chanting and saying? It's all it it's so cultic what they were doing, demonic what they're doing. Crucify. Crucify. Let his blood beware. Our us and our children. And what happened in seventy AD? It was on us and our children. Yeah. Totally wiped out. And so Jesus wept over the city knowing what was gonna happen. I'd have gathered you like a mother hen does gather her brood under her wings, but you would not. And so that all of that of political expediency, and the pilot tried to find a place of neutrality, didn't he? Yep. And what'd they do? He washed his hands. Washed his hands. David washed his It's it's I'm washing my hands of him. There's no place in neutrality. You're either for him or against him. No put no middle ground. You made your decision, pilot. Pilate should have said no, just like Jeremiah is. I'm only gonna go with the truth, and I'll let the chips fall they may. Well, tradition says that his wife came to him, had a terrible dream, and told him, careful what you do with this just man. And then later, tells us, actually, that's biblical there, but later tradition tells us that Pilate, a few years later, killed himself. So imagine the the lack of peace, the torment, that's a good word, the torment that he had. And then I think in terms of then took they Jeremiah and cast him into the dungeon, and Malachih, the son of Hamalek, that was in the court of the prison, and they let down Jeremiah with a cord in the dungeon, and there was no water but mire, so Jeremiah sunk in the mire. So Jeremiah is telling the truth. He's labeled as a traitor. He's labeled as treasonous to the government, And he's like a j six person that just hauled away and no no proof. We're just gonna haul him away, and and they actually hear what he's saying and all. He's a threat, you know, to society. We gotta remove this guy. And and then you gotta think in terms of today, I have a lot of pushback against me for a lot of years. People saying don't talk politics. Is Jeremiah talking politics? Mhmm. Isn't he gonna talk to the king? Isn't he gonna talk to the king? Is that political? Did John the Baptist speak politically and lose his head because he told the truth to king Herod that taking your brother Philip's wife, Herodias, is wrong? And he's thrown in jail? Mhmm. Thrown in jail for telling the truth. Now when they tell me, don't do politics, and they tell you, just preach the gospel, what does that mean? There's a good stuff. Don't be telling something that that we're not gonna like. How can you compartmentalize John three sixteen, the gospel, and leave out repentance. John the Baptist is saying, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Jesus is saying, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. In the book of acts, the word repent is still used. So you're calling sinners to repentance. Right? You got a choice. Keep going your own way or turn back toward God and cry out to God, God, be merciful to me a sinner. You don't compartmentalize it and just say, just raise your hand and accept Christ and continue living like you're living. Just Christianize your sin, Herod. Christianize your sin as you took your brother Philip's wife and just have Jesus in your heart and Christianize it. That's what they do today. That's what they do. They call that preaching the gospel. That's the gospel. No sense of conviction. No sense of right and wrong. Just let the lie continue. Let them live a lie. So Paul in first Corinthians five, when we get there, he was telling the church at Corinth, you can't let this lie continue. A little leaven leavens a whole lump. You need to confront this man that took his father's wife, your stepmom. And they thought it was really cute. They thought it was cool within the church to have this affair, you know, and no confrontation, no dealing with the sin. And so Paul says, no. You need to you that's a bad example to everybody, it and it takes away from God's glory. This this this sin will permeate the rest of the church and pull it down if you don't deal with it. So it's like immune system. You're the body of Christ. And in that immune system, we have to bring everything back to the obedience of Christ, not living according to the law, but living according to love. And because we love the Lord more than we love everybody else, we recognize it might hurt their feelings, but that's okay because we love God more than their feelings. And ultimately, if they take their medicine, they're gonna do much better. Right? Mhmm. And so it may go down it may go down harsh. It may not be you know, there might be tears. And the most powerful weapon against a truth teller is tears. All you gotta do is start crying, and half the people in this room can't think rationally. All they see is pastor Rick's a bully. He's a bully. How could he say that? That's so mean. And that's what happens when you tell the truth. There's a certain segment of the population that that don't think in terms of right and wrong based upon the word of God. They think in terms of what I feel, what I want. Jeremiah Jeremiah doesn't seem to care what they feel, does he? No. He he doesn't seem to wanna, you know, go for counseling about this. It's just it's just x's and o's. It's base two. It's right. It's wrong. Absolute truth. This is what god told me to tell you. You guys can live. There's good news. If you repent, your your life is a prize. That's the good news. That's the gospel. The bad news is if you live in a rebellion against god, then there's gonna be consequences, adverse consequences. So so Jeremiah is put into a a cistern that's empty, but it's got mire. It's got it's got, you know, mud, and he's sinking in the mud. And it's probably stinky mud and with those little gnats that are in places like that with mud. If you got a marshland and maybe some rats and stuff like that. You know? But a dungeon and like John the Baptist that went there. And so they're gonna try to silence him. We're gonna run this guy over to Guantanamo. We're gonna get send him to Gitmo. We're gonna get rid of this guy. He's a threat to society. And then in Lamentations, when it's all said and done, in Lamentations three fifty two, Turn to Lamentations, the next book. So now he gives a commentary of what it was like being a a prophet for forty years in Kitsap County. Not a whole lot of people wanna listen in this county. He says, mine enemies chased me hard like a bird without cause. He's being hunted down. Peter said the devil goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Right? They have cut off my life in the dungeon and cast a stone upon me. They've thrown stones at him? Did he go down in the hole? It's like more like a well maybe, and they put a hole a stone on top. Waters float over my head. So it's dry when you get in there. There's some precipitation, some rain, and it's designed for the rainwater to run off and go into that hole because that hole is your drinking water. That's what it's for. It's a cistern cut out of limestone. So they put them down in there. Waters flowed over my head, then said, I I'm cut off. He's like, I'm gonna drown. The water's getting up high. I called upon your name, o lord, out of the low dungeon. Never felt you're in the low dungeon and you're crying out to god? In that low dungeon? Nobody you don't think you have a friend in the world. Who's gonna help me? Thou has heard my voice. Hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry. Thou drew near in the day that I called upon thee. Thou said what did he say? Fear not. Fear not. Fear Yeah. How many times does fear not in the bible? Fear not. How many times does fear not in the bible? 63 times. How many times fear ye not in the King James? 144 times. Mhmm. Why does God need to say fear not or fear ye not so often? Because we're deaf. Because we're deaf. Forget. Afraid. What's the opposite of fear? Faith. Faith. Faith. So Joseph Goebel said, if you get him afraid, you can get him to do anything. And how does the devil get you afraid? He lies to him. He lies and lies and lies and lies, and the key to victory is the truth. If you know the truth The truth he can't control you with fear. Right? Right. He can't. Can't happen. So you're stressed out, your heart's hurting, just close your eyes and listen to a worship song and begin to worship the Lord. And, man, you enter into the holies, don't you? You you enter into the holy place. What chapter in Lamentations? Three. Three fifty two. He says in verse 58, o lord, thou hast pleased, pleaded the causes of my soul. Thou has redeemed my life. So Jesus ever lives to make intercession for us. Jesus is there praying at the right hand of the father and he's interceding on your behalf, pleading for you, interceding. You've redeemed my life. You bought me. You bought me out of hell. You bought me out of the dungeon. You bought me out of prison with your blood. Oh lord, thou hast seen my wrong. Judge thou my cause. And he's saying, vindicate me. You've seen the injustice. You've seen the way they've treated me. Vindicate me. Yesterday, when I was fellowshipping with with Shelly and Mark, we went to Oak Table and Oh, okay. I ate a salad. Well, just a little salad. And but one thing that a word that Shelley used was the word Ricky were vindicated in regard to describing the sermon yesterday. I've never had anybody say that, and that word has struck me. It's it's really, really struck me and a blessing to me because it the picture I get is I'm in a fight. I'm always fighting, and I'm fighting in that battle of good against evil. And when you're studying God's word and you're bringing forth a sermon, you're fighting against principalities and powers, and you're fighting against the liars. The liars and the lies, and so many people believe in those lies. So it is like you're in there at, a boxer or something, and you're you know, Paul said, I didn't shadow box. You know? I I I hit the target. I aim for the target. You know? And I love that word because I've been a loser, and I've lost in a lot of occasions personally. But but from the standpoint of teaching God's word, there's a battle, And I don't wanna win with the people. I don't want the people to like me and think I'm cool hip and all. I want to beat the devil. I wanna beat him at his game as a liar. I wanna set people free with the truth, and I can't I I can't force it. I can't force it on them, but I can sure get in there and give it my whole heart to try and expose the lies and present the truth of God's word and the holy spirit, you know, convicting people's hearts and bringing it forth and and becomes irrefutable truth, and people are set free. But if I go with the party line and I'm afraid to say certain things because somebody might be offended, they might not like me, then I've lost. Mhmm. I lost the fight. It's a fight for truth. It's a it's a huge fight for truth today for we as Christians. That battle goes on, though, just in everything. Everything we do. Everything we do. It goes on in families. It goes on our courts. It's going on in our schools. It's going on Cheryl's work environment. Yeah. It's all the time. But I might pass the test at work because I didn't give in to the lie. Right. I can't make them believe it or do the right thing, but the wind comes to me if I honor the Lord, if I just stand up and just say, no. That's wrong. And this is what this is what God's word says, you know? I can't make them, you know, join the church, be part of the church, you know, think I'm a good guy, but I go away from there. I think Rob and Vicky's heard this from me and Kathy. We have been leveraged by men and women for so many years, And all we gotta do is give in to them and our life would be easier, but we're not gonna compromise. So when they leverage and they want something through the years, Jesus isn't for sale. This church isn't for sale. We're not for sale. So if they don't wanna do the right thing, then there's the door. But we would rather suffer personally than to compromise and violate our conscience. To me, it's a win. It's a win if you don't compromise, if you don't give in to the lies and give in to the flesh. So he says, oh, thou lord, you've seen my wrong, judge thou my cause, so vindicate me. It's gonna be a great day when we're there before the Bema Seat judgment. Lord vindicates us. Right? Thou hast seen all their vengeance and all their imaginations against me, the plotting, the scheming, the lies. Do you know you and I can be ruined in a second by artificial intelligence? Artificial intelligence can take our Facebook accounts, any social media accounts, anything about you, and present pictures, present lies, and they can send it. Somebody in the Facebook said, they I think it's Carl. They can send it to all your friends, bold faced lies, and totally wipe out your reputation. Just wipe you out. You know? That's coming. It's coming. So if you get one of those letters in regard to me, only believe half of it. Okay? Just half of that. Okay. I'm a force. You because there's always some truth. Right? Are you real today? Am I what? Are you real? Are are you an AI? I I think I'm I think I'm a human being made in the image of god. Amen. So they're plotting. They're scheming. Thou has heard their reproach, o lord, and all their imaginations against me. The strategies that we're told of the devil that we're not ignorant of his devices. What's that word devices mean? Tricks. Tricks. Strategies. Yeah. The devil's strategizing. He's studying you. He's studying me, and he's saying, how can I ruin Betty? How can I ruin her marriage? How can I break Betty's heart? How can I neutralize her so she doesn't put me first anymore? You know? You know what? What I do when that comes? I said, Jesus Christ, get in front of me and the devil get behind me. Amen. Praise the lord. That's right. That's what I told my son today. Tell him to get behind you, and Jesus Christ get in front of you. Amen. And it usually works. Yeah. Because we always wanna keep devil in my life. We always wanna keep Jesus between us and the devil. Mhmm. The devil to get to me, the devil has to go through Jesus, because I've got Jesus. I'm following Jesus. Right. So I never want to say, you know what, Jesus? You go over here, and I got this, you know. You don't wanna do that. You don't wanna fight the devil on your own. The lips of those who rose up against me and their plot against me all the day, behold, they're sitting down. Their lips lips are powerful. Gossip is powerful. Slander is powerful. Once they ruin your reputation, it's real hard to get it back. Mhmm. It's real hard to go back in there and fix things, and so all your ex, your husband, your wife needs to say it's just character assassination, and you've lost more than half your friends probably, and and your reputation in many cases goes. So there needs to be a track record though. There's a point in time where, like pastor Chuck says, outlive your detractors. So it may take years. It may take years for the Lord to vindicate you and expose a lot of what was said about you was a lie. Chuck always told us, guys, let the Lord defend you. And I said that once to a lawyer when we were when we were being attacked, and they scoffed and laughed at me like like, you have no idea what you're up against. And so I I still don't understand what pastor Chuck entirely meant by that. I probably should have been more aggressive and and went to you know, took the state to task. I had a month to deal with them and go to a hearing to prove our our innocence, but I I said, well, the lord will defend us, and I was very naive. It was a slaughter. So I I still don't know. Like I said, there might be a couple couple things that are true, but then they blast the blast the lies. Well, we we we we do want the Lord defending us. We do want the Lord anyway, behold, they're sitting down and they're rising up. I am their music. So now there's songs of scorn. Now they're making up songs to mock Jeremiah. They're making up songs about you Christians. They're mocking you Christians. They're mocking your Jesus. They're in their arts and all their different ways that they express themselves, they're antagonistic toward Christ. One of them put, what, the cross in a pool of urine or something years ago. They think it's funny, and more and more blasphemous words against Jesus, against us as Christians. Render unto them a recompense, O Lord, according to the work of their hands. So eventually, you know, God is not mocked. Whatsoever a man sows, that shall I also reap. Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them, so don't let it be a party for them. Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the Lord. So, you know, bring on Armageddon, Lord. Bring Armageddon on. Deal with all these guys, you know? And it's all gonna be made right at Armageddon, isn't it? And so we we we are put into this world as sheep to the slaughter. Mhmm. Do you understand that? Mhmm. For a point in time, we are a sheep to the slaughter. Mhmm. And in the Lord's timing, he may rescue us to live another day, but evil is gonna prevail over that which is good. We're gonna see that in our lifetime if we aren't seeing it already, and it's very difficult to watch evil be allowed to destroy that which is good, to watch innocent Christians be slaughtered in Syria, in the Mideast, and have to flee for their lives because the Obama administration destabilized the region and called it Arab Spring. And they took out the strongmen that could protect the minority Christians and allowed, you know, various Muslim groups and even funding of these Muslim groups and Toyota pickup trucks for ISIS and white tennis shoes. And where'd all that come from? And now they come and they desecrate ancient old, you know, old churches and Christian sites and and and wipe out the Christians. And in Nigeria today, wiping out Christians. And it's like open season. Nobody seems to care. You know? But don't say anything bad about a homosexual. You say something bad about a homosexual, man. Holy moly. You know? And how did BLM get $10,000,000 for what they did over in Seattle? You know? How would they be awarded $10,000,000? How's that work? You Christians, if you go to January 6 to DC, you didn't do anything, and you're put in jail. These guys broke glass. They terrorized the city, Antifa and BLM. Right? Mhmm. Yep. They're awarded $10,000,000. They sued the city of Seattle. The policemen were hard on us. You know? The police were told to stand down. Mind blowing. One of them would call evil good and good evil. So you're not gonna get preferential treatment. Okay? You ask yourself when you're mistreated unjustly, how is Jesus treated? How are the apostles treated? You need to expect that. You need to anticipate that you are going to be mistreated if you stand for the truth. You're gonna be a target. They're gonna wanna silence you. And so verse seven, now when Ebed Melek, his name means servant of the king, he's an Ethiopian, one of the eunuchs. So he's an Ethiopian. He's a eunuch, black man from Africa, and eunuch as in the kings have harems, so they didn't want the servants, you know, messing with the goods, And so a lot of them were made eunuchs by the king, and won't go into that, but others are Jesus said are eunuchs are made by men. Some are born eunuchs. And so who was in the king's house, and he heard that they had put Jeremiah in the dungeon. The king then was sitting in the gate of of Benjamin. So there's only one alarmed man, only one person that's alarmed, one person that's outraged. Doesn't take a whole big group, just one person can do good. And who will stand for Jesus? How many people were there standing for Jesus when he was being interrogated by Pontius Pilate, by Herod? No one. Not one. One. Right? Zero. The shepherd was smitten, the sheep scattered. Right? Gone. They were afraid. And the apostle Paul described how no man stood with me, but the Lord stood with me. Right? And in your life, there's times where you feel alone, nobody's standing with me. Nobody's here with me. And you when you're in a crisis, in many times in the time of crisis, you find out who your friends are. Mhmm. You find out the ones that stood with you in that crisis. You also find out what are called fair weather friends. When everything's going well, you know, they they hang out with you. They're hoping it rubs off on them, but I liken it to being a leper. It can get so bad that people will pull their clothes in close and walk out of the church like like I might catch it. You know? They're they're just so afraid because truly if this was a place where God was moving and working, he would never allow his servant to be devastated like this. So they're afraid it's catchy, and and they wanna get away. And then and then there's these precious ones that stay and stand with you, and and you have sweet, sweet fellowship. It doesn't take a whole lot. When Jesus was gonna heal the daughter of Jairus, she's 12 years old, and got word that she died. And by the time he got to the house of Jairus to go heal her, there were professional mourners that were there mourning and mourning, you know. And Jesus said, she's not dead, she's just sleeping. And what did they say they did? They mocked him. They mocked him to scorn. Mhmm. Laugh and laugh and laugh. And now what did Jesus do before and and you say he could. He can do anything. But before he could or before he healed her, what did he do? Kick them all out. Remove the mockers. Yeah. And sometimes the Lord will shake the tree to get rid of the rotten fruit. Right? And he'll he'll shake a church, a church that's sick, and he'll cut away, and you'll be pruned to the nub. You think it's over, but the next growth is so sweet. It's a sweet fruit as a result of going through that pruning. Right? And it's he saves by few, not by many. And the real issue in the church I'm learning is the sweetness of the love and the fellowship. Doesn't matter how big. It can be a thousand and have that dynamic, or it can be 10. But it could be 20,000 and not have that dynamic, and what's the point? You know? You and if you're in a church of 20,000, make sure that you sign up for a small bible study like this so that you can experience the koinonia, the fellowship, the oneness that comes in getting to know Christians and, you know, making friends. He says, Ebed Melek went forth out of the king's house and spoke to the king saying, so we have an intercessor here. We need have somebody that's a liaison, somebody that goes and speaks on our behalf. Job, when he was being wiped out, in chapter nine, he cried out for what? Help. For a friend. Help. Yeah. Big time. 911. Help. Uh-huh. He was crying out for a daysman. What's a daysman? An advocate. A mediator. A mediator. He's I got a problem with God. You've allowed the devil in to wipe me out. You've removed the hedge of protection. I'm I'm all my stuff's gone. My kids are killed. You know? I'm I my health is gone. I'm scraping myself with a potsherd. My wife says my breast stinks. My wife says, why don't you just curse god and die? You know, I'm at my wit's end. I need someone to advocate for me. I need someone to intercede for me. I need someone to speak to God to let him know how unjust this is. I need a daysman. There's one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Right? Now Jesus ever lives to what? And what's that mean? He's mediator. He's praying. He's praying for you and I. He told Peter, Peter, Satan desires to sift you as wheat, to beat on you, Peter. Satan wants to destroy you, Peter. But I'm praying for you. And what did he pray for Peter? That your faith fail not. How tragic it'd be if Peter when he denied the Lord three times, when he saw the Lord resurrected, and he's so self dejected that he wants to go back to fishing. He self disqualifying himself. The Lord the Lord didn't disqualify him. He just let him know, Peter, you're gonna fail. And then Peter, Satan's after you. He's targeting you. He's studying you. He's looking at a strategy to take you out, man. But I'm praying that your faith fail not. And so the lord met Peter and the the seven of them that went fishing after seeing the resurrected lord. They were fishermen. They were going back to fishing. Right? It's a safe place. Right? Right? Right? It's a safer place. It's good? Is it good? It's addictive. It's addictive. Yeah. And and they caught no fish. Fished all night, but they caught no fish. And if we use the word deja vu, is that okay? Yeah. Is that okay? So what was the deja vu that was three years earlier? Topside over the right side. They didn't catch any fish. They got directed them. And then the fish, you know, were there. And then he said, leave your nets. I'll make you fishers of men. So for three, three and a half years, they've been fishers of men. They reach a crisis. Jesus crucified. They didn't get to be on the left and the right hand of his kingdom. Right? Which they thought. Now now they gotta walk by faith. Right? They still can't quite get it. They're super sad. The the two on the road to Emmaus are super sad. You know? We we had hoped in the past tense. We had hoped this this was messiah. So hope deferred makes the heart sick. They're just sick with with, you know, heart sick. And then the lord appeared to the two in Romans. The lord appeared to Peter. The lord appeared to the disciples, and now they're going fishing. And there's a guy on the shore, and he says, children, did you catch any fish? Right? Mhmm. They can't quite recognize who he is, and he says, cast the net on the other side, like Rob said, and then the net was bursting with fish. That's the deja vu of when he had them do that three years earlier. And and then John says, it's the Lord. And then Peter jumps in the water and they're coming to the shore, and Jesus says, children, come and dine. That's my kind of lord. Right? Yeah. And he's got coals there. Nice outdoor. You guys like to camp and nothing better than fresh fish. Right? He's got the coals there, and he's got fish, broiled fish there. What if he'd presented crickets? You know? It wouldn't have been very fun with crickets, would it? Bugs. Come eat bugs with me, boys. No. I don't think so. So he's getting some fish, and and then he reestablishes his calling upon Peter. He picked out Peter. And Peter, do you love me? Oh, you know I love you. Feed my sheep. That's your calling. Not to go fishing anymore. You'd be a fisherman, but feed my sheep. This is job description of a shepherd. You gotta feed the sheep, and what you feed the sheep is the word of God. Then he asked them again three times, one for each time that Peter denied that they knew him. Right? Do you love me more than these? Well, look at the great success of Peter, Filet O Fish Peter. Fish restaurants everywhere. You know? Do you wanna stay with that? Do you wanna be a businessman? Do you wanna stay self employed with James and John and, you know, fish the Galilee and be rich? Do you love me more than these, more than worldly success? And he says, you know, Lord, I love you. Tend my lambs and then feed my sheep. And so we see the Lord, you know, restoring Peter, and it's because of his intercession. The Lord ever lives to make intercession. The devil is using people to condemn you. The devil is using people to lie about you. And a lot of times, you can't defend yourself like Chuck says. Hard to defend yourself. So many people have things to say. So you focus on Jesus. You focus on bearing fruit. Your life will bear fruit. The work of your life will dispel the lies, and it'll be irrefutable proof that you're in fellowship with Jesus. And your detractors, over the course of time, if they persist in lying and gossiping and using their tongue to tear down in the church, it will become manifest. God will expose them in time. It takes time though. And I just encourage you to continue to pray for them so your heart doesn't get bitter and and ask God to bless them and help their eyes to be open and all because you didn't become a Christian. You didn't come to serve him or go into the ministry to destroy people's lives. That's not why you're there. You're there to edify and build up and love on people. But when the power struggle develops, you're gonna do the right thing. You're gonna be vindicated by living to please Jesus, and you're not gonna have the fear of man, which is a snare. And so the ball's in their cord. They get to decide what they wanna do. But but as for you and your house, you're gonna serve the lord. And that's that's the best we can do. So my lord, the king, these men have done evil in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet whom they have cast into the dungeon, and he is likely to die of hunger in the place where he is for there's no more bread in the city. And so, you know, he's starving. He has no food, and you didn't you didn't step in, king, and protect him. And now he's very vulnerable to your enemies. Your enemies are his enemies, and and, lord, we gotta do something. Then the king commanded Abel Melek, the Ethiopian, saying, take from here 30 men with thee and take up Jeremiah the prophet out of the dungeon before thee. And so god vindicates him. It's a good call. He finds favor with the king, and that's a good thing that the king, you know, provides favor for you. The king said said, oh, I hate that Jeremiah just let him die. So Ebed Melek took men with him and went into the house went into the house of the king under the treasury and took there out rags and worn out garments and let them down by cords into the dungeon to Jeremiah. And Abit Midlach, the Ethiopian said unto Jeremiah, put now these old rags and worn out garments under the armpits, under the under the cords. And Jeremiah did so. So why'd they do that? Pull him out of hole. That's that's a tough thing to get pulled out of. So, basically, he's saying to Jeremiah, he we went over to the temple there and we found these old rags. And these old rags that some would think are useless can still be used for the Lord's glory. Right? And some of us are like an old rag thrown into the corner, you know? But the Lord can still use us, and God can use you as an old rag. And he takes the old rag and puts it under his armpits so there isn't chafing and hurting him. So we're not going to just get him out by pulling him up by his hair, but we're going advise that he do it in such a way where there's less damage. And so Ebed Meidlak's a hero. He's soft hearted. Now, when we see somebody in danger, somebody in a car wreck, they've crashed the car, they've crashed and burned, whether it's their fault or somebody else's fault, how do we approach that accident? How do we approach that tragedy in somebody's life? Let me let me give you some choices. Do you approach it as a insurance agent? How does an insurance agent approach the the scene, the loss? We don't approach it as a lawyer. You know? We Well, you have a lawyer in the house here. Or approach it as a lawyer? Do we approach it as a policeman? What's a policeman's job? We approach we approach it as a comforter. Evidence. I think every time that I've approached an accident because I'm on the road all the time. I've helped quite few people. I usually just run and ask what they need. Mhmm. You know? There's been a time where I needed to help a lady out and her husband out, and there was a there was a time when I pulled up, and there was a lady. She she was shaking, and she need she's she had heart problems, and she needed pills out of her purse, and she was shaking so bad she couldn't get them. So I got those for her. You know, it's just little things, but you don't know. Like, impact. Yeah. So when you're going through a divorce, I'm gonna ask personal. Mhmm. Do you have friends or people in your life that approach it as a police officer trying to find fault? Who's wrong? Yes. Is that comforting? No. And and I only have a couple of friends because it's only been a month now, but the last year I've been doing that, and then I figured out when he said that Yep. And there's a there's a place for a police officer to determine if the driver was drunk. Right? Mhmm. And but in the immediacy of the danger, no matter who's there, we approach it like a paramedic. Mhmm. Yeah. We approach it as Jesus is a great physician. People are bleeding. Let's stop the bleeding. Right now, no matter who it is, let's stop the bleeding. So we we need to remember that that we extend grace, we extend kindness, we extend love in that way. And then later, if they survive, then we approach it from the standpoint of loss, the standpoint of accountability, responsibility, all those things because part of the part of the restoration might be restitution, it might be punishment, but ultimately, the main thing is save the life, point the person to Jesus, and and Jesus will, you know, sort it out spiritually. So if any man be overtaken in a fault, you who are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, that you also be tempted. So we don't wanna approach it in pride, and, you know, back to Job. Job had four friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar, and Elihu. And all of them all of them were presumptuous of why these things happened to Job. None of them saw behind the curtain of what was taking place. So they're miserable comforters because they're constantly condemning Job like it's your fault, and they don't have the capacity to comfort him and help him. And and so we don't wanna be miserable comforters. Pardon me? I say, friends do like that who needs enemies? And so Paul told the church of Corinth that Right. The suffering that we go through, and as we're comforted by the Holy Spirit, we become comforters for others with the comfort that we've received. So as you go through things, you're gonna be able to comfort others who have gone through divorce. You're gonna be able to comfort others that lost a husband, you know, in a car accident or lost a child to cancer or estranged from your children. God's gonna use it for good and help. And so we we see Ebed Milich, you know, stepping in, trying to help, and the guys would would have left him rot in the in in the dungeon and all. But turn to Matthew chapter 11. Oh, I beat you. You did? Alright. Start reading, you prophetess. Oh, no. Mine's different. Oh, okay. Well, it's okay. I don't think We're not reading the whole chapter. But mine's the new But yours is prettier? Yeah. Look. Nice. Nothing like a new bible. No. But it It's your best friend now. Yes. Right? It's New Living translation, though. Oh, cool. You don't like that one, by the Tell me what you said when I read mine. You you don't want Eleven sixteen. Eleven sixteen. Do you wanna read? Mine's Do have a Robbie reading voice? She's the best. I've My voice is horrible. Well, see, mine says to what can I compare this generation? There you go. It is like children playing a game in the public square. There you go. They complain to their friends. We played wedding songs and you didn't dance. So we played funeral songs and you didn't mourn. Keep going. So what we're gonna talk there is is sometimes we're hated and rejected like Jeremiah put in prison. Other times, they treat us with indifference. We don't care what you do. You could put on the best concert, preach the best sermon, heal 10 people, feed 5,000 people with just a loaf of fishes, and we don't care. We're indifferent to you, Jesus. Right? People just like, we don't care. He's dancing. They won't dance. He's lamenting. The funeral dirge. They won't mourn. Go ahead. Keep going. Verse 18. For John didn't spend his time eating and drinking, and you say he possesses or or he's possessed by a demon. The son of man, on the other hand, feasts and drinks, and you say, he's a glutton and a drunkard and a friend of tax collectors and other sinners, but wisdom is shown to be right by its results. So there you go, outlive your detractors, bear fruit, You're gonna have detractors. You're gonna have people that you can't motivate, can't get them good, can't get them to change or anything. They're indifferent. And you have others that slander. They they slander and gossip and find fault. And they his example of John. John's a stoic. John's staying away from all this stuff, and you say he's deemed to possess. You know? I've been mixing it up with people, eating and and all that with him. And but you say I'm gluttonous and a wine bibber and a sinner. So when I eat a lot of food and people say, hey, you're a glutton. I think, Jesus is treating the same way. You know? Mhmm. Called him a glutton. Right? So Jesus must have ate some pretty good food to be called a glutton. Right? I like that. He had a good appetite. But wisdom is justified over children in that the results, the fruit of your life. Jesus said you'll know them by their fruit. Now watch this verse 20. Continue to read. Yeah. You're doing great. Judgment for the unbelievers. Then Jesus began to denounce the towns where he had done so much of his miracles because they hadn't repented of their sins and turned to God. What sorrow awaits you? I'm not very good with names. Charazin? Charazin and Beth Bethsaida. Yep. For if the miracles I did and you had been done in wicked Tyre and Sidon, their people would have repented of their sins long ago, clothing themselves in burlap and throwing ashes on their heads to show their remorse. I tell you, Tyre and Sidon will be better off on judgment day than you. And thou Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven shall be brought down to hell. For if the mighty works which had been done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained unto this day. But I say unto you, that is be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than of thee. So they have a prophet among them named Jeremiah. Jeremiah has been ministering unto him all these years. They're hating him. They're indifferent toward him. They're slandering him. Jesus was treated the same way. So if people are reacting this way toward you, just it's part of the it's part of being a prophet or prophetess. The other one I would say is relevance or irrelevant. A lot of pastors wanna be relevant, so they're compromising the truth and trying to be like the world. But you can also reach a place where you're irrelevant in that people don't value what it is you do. They have no value for you. And so in their minds, you're irrelevant. But but god says you're very valuable. That what you're doing, you're you're doing it as on the lord. So whatever you do, do it heartily with your whole heart as on the lord, not on the men. If you're looking for the attaboys for men, if you're looking for the bank account to grow and people to like you and for to be blah blah blah blah blah. Typically, only the false prophets gain those kind of results, those huge results of Christian celebrities and all. And I find it amazing that that the sin of the city of Sodom, that's their wickedness, is in a better position than you because of your indifference to Christ. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they're out there doing the unthinkable and the unspeakable. Yeah. Yet, God sees that as better than you because you've just been indifferent to Christ. And and these are cities like Capernaum, Bethsaida, where he did miracles, did good things. So knowledge brings responsibility. There was no prophet for Sodom and Gomorrah. There's a believer there named Lot, but he didn't do a whole lot of teaching anybody. You know what I mean? Yeah. I mean, at the end, he had no influence as an influencer. He couldn't influence anybody. But but Peter tells us unrighteous lot and his soul is vexed. But but, yeah, you see some cities, some parts of the country that have been given so much, such good churches and pastors and music and worship and facilities, and and and people just don't care. They they they could care less. It's scary for our prodigals and the young generation today that have all embraced this culture, which has a complete indifference to Christ. Yeah. That they don't realize how offensive that is by scripture. You know? That's a good point. The the number one group in America now is called the nuns from the convent thing. Where do they think? No. N o n e s. Nones. No belief. No belief. That's the largest group in America now. The young people, they describe themselves as nones. What religious belief do you have? None. So that's the largest group now. So, yeah, it's it's it's been being sewn for a lot of years. The communists are very patient in what they've been doing in the school system and all. You know? They're waiting a long time to pull this off, and and it's happening, this unbelief. So so this Ebed Melek, I'd like him for a friend. He's soft hearted. He he's not only rescuing me. He's not only going to the king. Remember queen Esther? She risked her life going to the king. I mean, the the Persian king, you didn't just go into the court of the king and talk. Ibn Melek is a servant, but, man, he's getting in there. I I don't wanna say it this way. It's a little too rough. But in Zedekiah's face, he's getting in his face. Yeah. And he's appealing to him based upon this isn't right. He's starving. And he could have been thrown in a dungeon. Right? A king man, you gotta be careful what mood they're in. They might be in the mood of chopping heads off. And so you see about Milich risking everything to stand in the gap, to mediate, and and he's soft hearted. He doesn't want Jeremiah's armpits to get rope burns. That's a nice guy. So they drew up Jeremiah with cords and took him up out of the dungeon, and Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison. And so now he's up out of there, and the paramedics have come and helped him, and now he's staying at the Hilton hotel. He's he's really enjoying it. Then Zedekiah the king sent and took Jeremiah the prophet unto him into the third entrance that is in the house of the lord. And the king said unto Jeremiah, I'll ask thee a thing. Hide nothing from me. And then Jeremiah said unto Zedekiah, I declare it unto thee, wilt thou not surely put me to death? And if I give thee counsel, wilt thou not hearken unto me? So it's a lose lose for me. If I tell you the truth, you might kill me. And if I tell you the truth, you're not gonna listen to me anyway. So why do you want to tell me anything or have me tell you anything? What what happens to me if I tell the truth? And and so the beauty of of Jeremiah being rescued out of the prison, the king sent for him, and then we're reminded of Joseph that was sold into slavery, thrown in a hole in Genesis thirty seven twenty eight, by his brothers for 20 pieces of silver. His own brothers sold him into slavery with the Midianites. And then he went into Egypt, and he was sold to the house of Potiphar. He's 17 years old when he's sold into slavery by his brothers. Jesus was betrayed for 30 pieces of silver. Joseph's a type of Christ, and he sold for 20 pieces of silver into into slavery. And he's at the house of Potiphar, and Potiphar's wife eyeballs him and begins to make, you know, advance advances toward him, saying lie with me and stuff. And Joseph, a certain point when it got heated, he had to run, and she grabbed hold of his robe, he wiggled out of the robe and kept running in his underpants. And then later, when her husband came home, a woman scorned, watch out. So she showed the robe to her husband and lied that Joseph was trying to rape her. So he got thrown into prison. And he's in prison and it's years in prison. So he goes from 17 until the age of 30. So thirteen years of prison for Joseph for being a good guy. He had a coat of many colors his dad gave him. God prophesied, you know, he has prophesied over and all. And and now he's in prison, and he's got this talent. He's got this great talent for leadership that Potiphar noticed. He's got a great talent for leadership that the prison head of the prison noticed and helped him organize the prison. And he's got this other gift, which is interpreting dreams. And so you got a baker and a butler that have dreams. And the butler's dream, basically, Joseph said, you're gonna be released in three days and be re reinstated to your to your position. And the the baker, your head's gonna be taken up with a noose. You know? The birds that were in the basket indicative you're gonna die in three days, they're gonna come for you, and you're gonna you're gonna die. So Jeremiah excuse me. Joseph wants the butler to remember him. Remember me. Let the king know. Intercede on my behalf. The butler didn't. The butler let him in there for longer. So then there came a point in time where the pharaoh had a dream, and the butler who's had his hand there, like Nehemiah, hey. I know a guy. I know a guy. And so there's Joseph's chance. God's timing is perfect. And it says that they sent for just as they sent for Jeremiah, they sent for Joseph. And Joseph comes up, and he interprets a dream, lets the pharaoh know what's going on. And then the pharaoh puts him, elevates him to the point of being in charge of everything, second only to the pharaoh, gives him a wife, the whole thing. And and so a picture of Jesus at 30 years of age entering into his public ministry and as a type of Christ, but we may be in a situation where we're doing the right thing. You're doing the right thing, and yet you're mistreated and you're reminded of how Jesus was treated. It's unjust. It's unfair. You're waiting to be vindicated. You're waiting for things to be made right. But there's a point in time where God is preparing you for that next season in your life. God is preparing Joseph in prison during those years to to prepare him for being that of second command and to be used of God to bring the 70 down, his his brothers and all them to bring them down into Egypt where God was gonna make bring forth a nation. So that humility, that brokenness that takes place before we're elevated to a place of, what God's prepared us for. And so be patient in that season of small things. Be faithful if you're in prison. Be faithful in that that place that God has you. Don't run up ahead of the Lord and try and save yourself and make it all go away, you know, in and of your own strength. The Lord will release us. The Lord will exonerate us. He'll vindicate us. He'll cause all that the enemy has meant for evil, he told his brother. God meant for good to save many people this day. So So he's willing to suffer. Later, he has perspective that, you know, it really was for good because god used me, sent me ahead to save you guys. You know? So who knows how many people your life's gonna be used of god to save. So Zedekiah the king swore secretly unto Jeremiah saying, as the lord liveth who made us this soul, I will not put thee to death, neither will I give thee under the hand of these men who seek thy life. And so Zedekiah, he's kinda like Nick at night. He's afraid of these guys, so he wants to go secretly to talk to Jeremiah, and he's letting Jeremiah know now he's talking like a Christian. He's already lied to Nebuchadnezzar. He's a liar. You can't take his word for nothing. So he tells, I'll swear I'll swear on my soul that I won't betray your trust. You know? I will not put thee to death, neither will I give thee into the hand of these men who seek your life. So can you trust this guy? Can you put your trust in men? Can you put your trust in princes? No. No? Psalm 118, eight, nine. It's better to trust in God than put your confidence in man. Better to trust in God than put your confidence in princes. Can you trust Biden? No. No. Can you trust the Republican Party? No. Can you trust Jay Inslee? Can you trust the Democratic party? No. Who can you trust? Jesus says the lord. Jesus. He'll never fail. Strange thing about this is to quote a famous orator, this king is a whack job. He is. Because one minute he says, oh, wait a minute. I don't like what he's saying. You guys can haul him off. I won't say anything about that. Haul him off. And then they put him in the prison. And then they come this guy comes and says, hey. This guy, we need to get him out here. Oh, okay. Go ahead. Take him out of there. I don't care. Pull him out of there and then, oh, by the way, I wanna talk to you. And then Yeah. That's a good that's a good point. Now what what is the He's drunk. He's he's whack job. In worldly in worldly leadership, not God's leadership, we we discussed how god prepares his leaders, right, through suffering. Right? Mhmm. Through the school of hard knocks. But how are worldly leaders prepared? How is this king prepared for his role of leadership? He's Being a whack being a whack. A silver spoon in his mouth. Yeah. No life experience. None whatsoever. None whatsoever. Just simply born in the right family. He's he's he's a Biden. That's that Korean Clearwater song, Fortunate Son. Fortunate Son? Yeah. Like Koreans. Yeah. Yeah. Why don't you sing it for us? Yeah. Tomorrow. Oh. So Rob's right. I mean, we look at these leaders today. They're unfit for leadership. They they just are not fit for leadership. They're ungodly. And we, in a constitutional republic with a democratic means of voting people in, we should be able to vet these guys and choose the best among them all. Right? Right. But we only get to choose between two people, and and they're thrust in front of us. And we always say, well, I voted for the lesser of the two evils. Did god tell you to do that? You know? Yeah. Somehow there's gotta be a way of of of raising up, you know, leadership. Sometimes they'll tell you stories of Abraham Lincoln. You know? He walked five miles to give back, you know, 5¢. You know what I mean? I don't know what if any of it's true or not. You know? But in any event, we're gonna find out that Zedekiah is a coward. Yep. He's such a shallow individual. I mean, it's just amazing to me what these guys get away with. So he swore verse 17, then said Jeremiah unto Zedekiah, thus saith the lord, the god of hosts, the god of Israel, if thou will surely go forth under the king of Babylon's princes, then thou shall live. And this city shall not be burned with fire, and thou shalt live in thine house. So what's the message there? That's the same story he's been telling him from the beginning. Yeah? What what's the message? I know. Trust in God and you'll live. Surrender. And not just him, but the whole city. The whole city. Uh-huh. So so city will be spared. Yeah. So leadership, greater love is no man than this than a man lay down his life for his friends. And also your enemy too. And your enemy. So so he's he's got a choice here. You know what, guy? Do the right thing. If you do the right thing, you can not only save your own soul, but you can save the soul of the women, the children, and the city won't be burned. And all you need to do you don't even have to die for them. Greater love is no more in this than a man laid down his life. People have died to save others. Right? Mhmm. But we if you'll just do the right thing in obedience to God, you can save a whole city. You can save save everybody here. And Psalm a hundred and sixteen thirteen says, I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. So take the cup of salvation. Whosoever calls upon the name of the lord, Romans ten thirteen Yeah. Shall be saved. Right? So call upon the name of the lord. Take salvation. He's offering you salvation. Surrender and live. But if thou will not go forth to the king of Babylon, Babylon's princess, then shall the city be given into the hand of the Chaldeans, and they shall burn it with fire, and thou shall not escape out of his hand. So worship the king. The word worship, a picture of the word worship, you're describing worth, but it's the picture of a dog licking its master's feet, its master's hand. When your dog comes up and licks you, you know, you think it's because you got salty hands. I like the salt. But there's also a submission, a picture of worship is licking your feet. Mary. Pardon me? Like Mary. Like Mary. Yeah. The Lord's warts the Lord's feet. Right. Right. And so Psalm two verse 12 talks about kiss kiss the king's feet. So you remember in Psalm two, how oh, how the heathen rage imagine a vain thing. The instruction in verse 12 is to kiss the king's feet. Worship the king. Don't fight the king. Don't don't force the king, you know, to judge you. So he says in verse 12, kiss the son, lest he be angry, and you perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they who put their trust in him. So, you know, don't be fighting in rebellion against god Claus Schwab and all you globalists. You're gonna lose. Kiss the king's feet. Worship the king. You're not gonna beat the king, you know, the son, the son of god. You're not gonna beat him. It's a it's a fool's a fool's errand. So there's no escape from hell except Jesus. And Zedekiah the king said unto Jeremiah, I am afraid. How many times in the bible it says fear not? 73. 63. 63. Yeah. Something. 63. And then another way to say it, fear ye not. How many times fear ye not? Over a 100. 144. 144 times. So be courageous. Be the man. Play the man. Don't be suicidal. And fear not in Luke 12 verse four. Fear not in Matthew ten twenty eight. Fear not. If you're gonna fear somebody, fear god. The fear of the lord is beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord's beginning of knowledge. Don't fear them who threaten to kill your body. What's the threat upon you today? If you don't shut the church down, if you don't stop worshiping Jesus, we're threatening you. We're gonna do what? We're gonna have Shut you down. To be the shot. So they use threat. They use lies, and they wanna manipulate and get you to compromise and and not, you know, trust Lord. So let's go to acts four. So in acts four, Peter, James, and John are walking by a guy that's, you know, cripple and silver and gold have we none. Name of Jesus Christ stand up and walk. Right? Yeah. And he stands up and walks. And the religious leaders become indignant. They're angry. Mhmm. Why would you be angry that a guy that hasn't been able to walk, you know, now he can walk? You know? What what what's up? And they're preaching the name of Jesus, and they don't want Jesus' name. You know, 5,000 people get saved at after the preaching, after watching that guy get get healed, and then another 3,000. So the religious leaders beat him, put him in prison, and tell him, don't speak in this guy's name anymore. Well, the lord lets him out. The lord opens the prison. They get out. Where where where do they find him? Early in the morning. Back at the temple. That. Yeah. Back at the temple. What are they doing? They're preaching. Mhmm. They're preaching. So they didn't fear what these guys could do to them. They didn't fear death anymore because they saw the resurrected Christ. And they said, you guys decide what's right or wrong. As for me you know, we we are gonna, you know, obey god rather than men. Right? And so you put god first. You obey god first. And if men want to threaten you, I'm gonna take this away from you. You're gonna lose your job. You're gonna this they have to pick your fights. I'm not saying, you know, jeopardize your job over a mask, let's say, wearing a mask. But if they threaten you, take this jab, and then you've got the discernment and the wisdom to know that that jab is not a placebo, that it's it's lethal, it's bad, it's whatever, gonna ruin your health. You know, it's nonnegotiable. You're not gonna exchange three years of owning your house for getting myocarditis and dying or your kids dying, your children dying. It's just a no brainer. There's just no negotiating it. So, you know, you say no. Don't speak in this man's name anymore, or else pinch incense once a year in this pagan temple and say Caesar is lord or we're gonna kill you. So, ultimately, the most they can do to you is kill you. Right? And I would say the most that they could do to me would be to defile my wife and my children and kill my children before my eyes. That would be the most that they could do to me. So if you read Fox's book of martyrs, these are some of the strategies that the Satanist used against the early church. So you you have historical records of Christians being put in the Colosseum in Rome and them allowing wild beasts, animals to come up, lions and stuff, and to crush their bones, to eat them right there. Later during the dark ages, these these Catholic priests and stuff were so vile, so vicious that they would take in, like, one case, they took this little boy's crown of his head, his scalped him. Just scalped it. Took it right off. Just took it off. And his mother who was watching said, you have a crown awaiting you in heaven. You know? You can't defeat people like that. And so but all throughout church history, they're threatening to kill you. And Jesus said, don't fear them that can kill your body, but instead fear him who cannot only kill your body, but cast your soul into hell. So fear God. God's the one that determines where you're gonna spend eternity. And our hope is to be absent in the bodies to be present with the Lord. And so we we we evaluate the threat. We assess the threat, the risk, and ultimately, it comes down to god's glory. The most important thing is god's glory, and we can glorify him in death. He gets the glory. Right? So I want a good death. I remember in the gladiator that they came up to him, and he said, give me a soldier's death, you know, not just a basic one. And and so he wanted he wanted the glory of dying like a soldier. You know? And he tricked him. But in any event, I want I wanna glorify the lord in every everything we do right up to the point that we die. If if I were to get cancer and I were in the hospital and you guys were to come visit me, I don't want to go out whining and complaining. I wanna go out. Thomas will bring his guitar and Rob bring his guitar, and we wanna sing. We wanna worship the Lord right there. We wanna break through. We wanna break through the doom, the gloom. We wanna break through the the fear, the sorrow, all those things that are associated with with watching someone you love die. And and we wanna put the focus upon Jesus and upon heaven, and we wanna have victory. We wanna be vindicated. We don't wanna die like Voltaire. His attending nurse said she's never wanted to attend an unbeliever ever again because he he boasted that in his lifetime, he would destroy Christianity and within his lifetime as an atheist. And and he he was so tormented on his deathbed that she said she never wanted to attend the death with his shrieking and screaming and all that other stuff. And and then the Geneva Bible Society bought his house and printed bibles from it thereafter. So vindication. God always, always, always, always wins. So now he's he says, Zedekiah the king said unto Jeremiah, I am afraid. So what does a king have to be afraid of? The overthrown. He's afraid of the unknown. Well, being overthrown by the people because he might do something they don't like. His poker face, he's he's right there. He didn't he didn't know what afraid of. Making fun of it? That's exactly it. He's not afraid of dying. Mhmm. Mhmm. He's not afraid they're gonna abuse him. He's afraid they're gonna mock him. Mhmm. Mhmm. He's afraid that he's gonna have haters on his Facebook page, that they're gonna shame him. That's the worst. They report you to the police. The Facebook police. I mean, you want Facebook likes. You want everyone to like you. I like oh, so good. They're all lying anyway. They're lying. And Fakebook. Fakebook. Yeah. Fakebook. Alright. So, anyway, watch this. Watch this coward, the Jews that are fallen to the Chaldeans. So he's got some of his own people that are fallen to Chaldeans. He's afraid that when he goes there to, you know, the same place they are by surrender, that his people that are there who have already defected are gonna mock him. Gonna mock him. Yep. Hey, man. You know? And I'm afraid of the Jews that are fallen to the Chaldeans, lest they deliver me into their hand, and they mock me. And so that's that's because of his pride. It's his pride, man. You're so prideful. You can save a bunch of people. Get your eyes off of yourself. You can save this city. If you value this city and the temple and all, you'll surrender. They won't burn it to the ground. And and the women and children, the the weak, the common people will be saved, and and your harem, your women and your children would be saved. And he says, they deliver me into their hands and they mock me. And, you know, we laugh at that, but mocking is powerful. Mhmm. It's very powerful when you're a kid growing up and even as adults. All somebody has to do is make fun of you. Oh, you're fat. Oh, you're ugly. Oh, you think you're so smart. Oh, how's that working for you now? That little laugh they do, and they cut you down. Adults can't handle that. We as adults can't handle ridicule, sarcasm. You know? The tongue is powerful. Mhmm. What people say is powerful. It cuts hard. And especially when you're around your family members and they use that tongue and they push your buttons. You know? It's like, guy, we should have grown out of this. Why do they have that control over me? Why does it bother me that they're saying this? You know? How could they say that? You know? We go through weeks of, like, you can't talk to me like that. Why are you talking to me like that? You know? Don't you know who I am? You know? And so the king is the king is and and it gets worse. It goes from mocking to songs of mocking like we saw in Lamentations. They're gonna make a song about me. Peter, when tradition says that Peter, he would go into cities, that the people would mock him by cock a doodle doing. Mhmm. And this is after he's full blown satisfied with serving the Lord, he's Peter, and people are getting saved. But the unbelievers, people that knew, hey. There's that fisherman. There's Peter. You know? Simon Peter. And they cock a doodle doo. They're trying to get him under his skin trying to get under his skin to get him angry. You have to understand that the devil wants to take you out of, you know, your your countenance of loving and kindness and walking in the spirit. So the devil will send provocateurs, and the provocateurs are inspired by the wicked one who's strategizing about you and going to say and do things that push your buttons and get you angry, get you emotional, and to overreact in the flesh. So let me give an example. If you watch back to the future and you watch Michael j Fox, if somebody says, bop bop, you're a chicken. You're a chicken. He goes crazy. Right? Yep. He goes, they got under the skin. Right? Yeah. So if you tell me I'm old, it gets under my skin. Yeah. It's my button. Right? No. I'm just kidding. I I can handle it. It's just a joke. But but there's certain things, husbands and wives, you don't say to each other. You got certain things you can say that are kinda pushing the button, and and you don't wanna do that. And I would never ever ever uncover Cathy publicly about anything I know about her. I would never do that to get a joke or people laugh. I wouldn't do that. So but Jeremiah said, they shall not deliver thee. That's a cheap joke, man. That's a cheap joke. I was gonna say That's a cheap joke, man. I'm like, go ahead. Go ahead. No. No. Oh, alright. Okay. I'm not gonna do that. So some things are private, Rick. Yeah. Even Sunday, I nailed Mark and Shelly. I had only been with him twelve hours earlier, and they they said we're sitting here, they said, we've only been two fights our whole marriage. And I'm like, holy smoke. One of those. I've met a couple of these over the years. You know? And I'm like I'm like, hi, Mark and Shelley. I believe you. So I'm thirty seven four or whatever. And I'm like, I've been in two fights just this morning. It's only noon. You know? It's like it's like, how does somebody do that? You know? It's just amazing to me. That was fun. A marriage made from heaven. You know? And Cath I went home, Cathie and I told her, said and she goes, we didn't get any fight. And I said, Kath, I'm just joking. Alright? Mary is a heaven that sows thunder and lightning. That's it. So he says, but Jeremiah, they shall not deliver thee. Obey, I beseech thee, the voice of the lord. Don't worry about people. Don't worry about your celebrity or what people think. Remember we talked to you about king Saul? King Saul was a people pleaser. And Samuel said, what's the bleeding of the sheep in my ear? Well, the people. God didn't call you to be a people pleaser. You're never gonna be able to please the people. They're gonna like you one time, next time they're not. So live to please Jesus. Live to please him. Obey the Lord. I beseech to the voice of the Lord, which I spake unto thee so it shall be well with thee and thy soul shall live. And that's a good rule of thumb. Walk in obedience unto the Lord. Be doers of the word, not hearers only. Don't be suicidal. Don't be suicidal and take everybody down with you. But if thou refuse to go forth, this is the word that the lord has shown me. So so be courageous. David's David's general, Joab. I think it's Joab. Joab's told his men, play the man. Be the man. We're going into battle. Be the man. Be courageous. And so fear not. Fear ye not. And behold, all the women who are left in the king of Judah's house, his harem, shall be brought forth to the king of Babylon's princes, and and those women shall say, thy friends have set thee on and have prevailed against thee. So rather than be supportive of you, what a courageous husband, and boy, you protected us, and you did the right thing. We lived to fight another day. Your women are gonna mock you of your cowardice. And he says, against thee, thy feet are sunk in the mire, and they are turned away back. So you're you're gonna feel like what it's like with your feet stuck in the mire and being turned back, being betrayed. Psalm sixty nine fourteen, deliver me out of the mire and let me not sink. Let let me be delivered from them that hate me and out of the deep waters. So there's times where we're in a situation where we're hated by men and we're entrapped, imprisoned, and we're at a point where we're drowning. I've been Kathy and I've been in these situations. And what's interesting to me, it intensifies when you have four people in your life dying. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Four deaths in a row. It's it's so over the top in conjunction with everything else that's happening. Your daughters and things like that, things are you you just you you're just in shock. You're in shock, and you're like, god, where are you? Where are you? And and and you don't have any friends. There's nobody you can call to help you. And so you you turn to the lord. You turn to the lord. You you just he's the only one you can trust. He's the only one that you can turn to to maintain your sanity. It's it's insane how far down that that hole we can get. But the beautiful thing is we don't have to stay there. Mhmm. We can become worshipers and and worship the lord. That's the beauty of watching Job. Job loses it all, and then he says, the lord giveth, the lord taketh away. Naked came I into the world, naked on my go, the lord giveth, the lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. You just got victory. You were just vindicated. Because the devil said take away his stuff and he'll curse you to your face. You just won, and you did it for God's glory. Satan strategized you and he was wrong about you. Jesus is the most important person in your life, and you're gonna be able to say, though he slay me, yet will I trust in him. You're gonna be able to say, he knows the way that I take, and when he's tried me, I'm gonna come forth as gold. Right? You're gonna be able to say, I know. I don't know a whole lot about what's going on. I can't figure this out, but I know that my redeemer lives. And he shall stand on the latter day upon the earth, and the worms destroy, you know, this skin, yet in my flesh shall I see God. Right? That's vindication. That's triumphant faith. That's faith that regardless of how dark or bleak or whatever it is, if you still got a breath, it's a breath to praise and to worship the lord. There's where the victory's at. If we are mired in the pit on whining and complaining, we lost. We lost. So they shall bring out and they got a song. They got a song for us when we were there. I'm getting it. I'm getting it. Thomas is gonna sing it. Nobody knows the trouble. Do you love the way they sing that? Right? Alright. Because we think we're the only one that's ever suffered in that way. So they shall bring out all thy wives and the children to the Chaldeans, and thou shall not escape out of the hand but shall be taken by the hand of the king of Babylon, and thou shalt cause this city to be burned with fire. You're gonna be the one responsible for everyone being burned, everything being taken down, and they're gonna have songs of mocking. They're gonna sing songs about you. They were singing songs in David's time. Saul has killed his thousands, and David has tens of thousands. And king Saul was angry because they exalted David above him with their songs, the top 40. So and that shall cause the city to be burned with fire. So you got a big decision here, and, greater love is no man than this than a man lay down his life for his friends in John fifteen thirteen. Then said Zechariah, so what's that say? He doesn't love anybody as much as he loves himself. He's madly in love with himself. He's filled with pride. Then said Zedekiah, Jeremiah, let not let not let not let no. Let no man know. That's what the guy said in the Jeremiah. Let no man know of these words and thou shall not die. So keep it secret. Keep it on the down low. Don't let anybody find out about this or you're a dead man. But if the prince is here that I have talked with thee and they come unto thee and say unto thee, declare unto us now what thou hast said unto the king, hide it from us, and we will not put thee to death also what the king said unto thee. So these spies if these spies come, you guys in the navy, World War two, loose lips sink ships. Right? What's that mean, Rob? Loose lips sink ships. And if you say anything that might compromise your security, you can get yourself in trouble. So your wife says, honey, where are you guys going? I can't tell you. Honey, where are guys going? We're we're heading over to loose lips and chips. Mhmm. She could tell somebody, tell somebody, tell somebody so they know what's going on. So he's saying, don't tell anybody. Be quiet. And these a pastor, a rabbi Oh, no. Pastor and a rabbi, and a priest went a priest went golfing, and they began to confess their sin to one another. And the rabbi says, you know, I got a real problem. I I keep putting my hand in the till and taking money. I I I just got a real problem in that way. And the priest says, well, yeah, I got a problem with with lust. I'm just I'm tormented by the nuns and with lust toward toward toward people. I got a problem with lust. And and then the pastor says, well, whatever you say is gonna be in the sermon. I got a problem with gossip, and I can't wait to get out of here and tell everybody what I deserve. So loose lips sink ships. Right? So it looks here in verse 25 like Jeremiah is being asked to lie. Is that a lie that he's being asked to do? To not say something when these spies come and ask you point blank what happened? Are you under obligation to tell them exactly what the king told you in confidence? Do you have a right of privacy? Certainly, you do. But if if you're Rahab, the harlot in Jericho, and the spies come and hide in the you know, at your house, and you have faith. Right? God's given you faith. And so, Thomas, tell the story. Well, actually, the the they came and wondered if they were looking for the spies, and Rehab lied about it. She lied? And so Is it wrong to lie? Well, that's a good quest I I it it only only is redirected by the Holy Spirit. Amen. Love is not doing the highest good. The highest good was preserving those lives. Like the the women on the stools that were with the children, with the pharaoh, the edict was all Hebrew males, throw them into the Nile and kill them. Mhmm. The midwives refused the edict of the king, saved the lives of the males, and then told the king, these Hebrew women are quick, man. They're quick. Those babies pop right out. Well, I nothing we can do. They just pop right out. Run away. I couldn't get them. Right? And so Rahab's case, she lies about it, and she winds up in the hall of faith. She winds up being saved. Then she takes a scarlet, you know, line sheet, red, symbol of the blood, symbol of redemption. And when the city was being destroyed, her home and her family members were all saved. And not only that, she's in Matthew chapter one as part of the lineage that Jesus came through. Ain't that amazing? So we don't do white lying. Oh, I'm gonna lie. You know, our culture is all, you know, on lies. Telling the truth may might mean a loss of money, might mean a loss of job, whatever. But there is a point in time where in a case like Rahab or here How about Corey Schenboom? Did he he truths. Corey Schenboom, she had a probably told a few lies. I don't know. I didn't talk to her. I'm not sure. Okay. Maybe. But so then shalt thou say unto them, I presented my supplication before the king, that thou would not cause me to return to Jonathan's house to die there? So he's begging for his freedom. He needs an alibi. And Isaiah fifty five six says, seek ye the lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. And so he's begging for his freedom. Then came all the princes under Jeremiah and asked him, oh, so here they are, just like the king said. And he told them according to all these words that the king had commanded, so they ceased speaking with him for the matter was not perceived. So these guys didn't have so what this means is the devil can't read Jeremiah's brain. The devil can't read your brain. Mhmm. Right? These guys want you to think that they can get in your head and that they can read your thoughts. The devil cannot read your thoughts. Who can? Jesus. Everything's naked and open before the eyes with whom we have to do. Yeah. Right? God is omniscient. He knows all things. Satan, with his demons, can listen. Satan can help men develop artificial intelligence that are listening to you and I right now, that are recording. If I said, you know, I really want a a hamburger. When I leave here, my phone will have a bunch of restaurants with burgers on it. Right? Yeah. Somebody's listening. Somebody's collating everything that's said in this room. It's going into a database. And so these guys are here. They don't have that technology to record and to watch or whatever. And so they're Jeremiah is safe in the sense that that he they can't read his mind. He can let them know this is what we rehearsed with the king. This is what happened, and it said they perceived it not. Now you and I as Christians, we can maybe have gifts of discernment, gifts of what we call word of knowledge. What's that mean, Vicky? The gift of a word of knowledge. She's a Pentecostal. What's a word of knowledge? Oh, it always gives you some gives you a A knowledge that that's not known to you outside of your your abilities. Yep. So what about if somebody's lying to you as a Christian? What what kind of gift would we have of the spirit? Because Yeah. Unbelievers don't have that. They don't have that. This is a gift. That's a spirit. So There's discernment. Discernment. So we would have a gift of discernment, maybe a check-in our spirit where God's saying, up. Hold up. Red flag. Red flag. Bet this a little further. Don't just be naive and take this guy's word hook, line, and sinker. Right? First of all, take that thought captive to the word of God and make sure it's in alignment with God's word. Anybody that tries to act like they're spiritual and your friend, if it's contrary to God's word, they even can tell you they love you. If it's contrary to God's word, it's not from God. They're liar. Right? So that's the first place. Second place is prayer. And Yeah. If you need wisdom, ask for wisdom. Lord, give me wisdom. Lord, what should I do? And then you you pray about it. You ask the Lord. And especially, we need discernment nowadays with all the wools and sheep's clothing that are running around trying to deceive us. And Paul said in Acts 20, some will enter in from without, some are from within these wolves to try and prey upon people. So not every spirit. And then we test the spirits. Right. We test the spirit. We prove all things, hold fast that which is good. So I think during COVID, one of the things that was illustrated in the churches is how we lacked by and large, we lacked discernment. There was no there are very little discernment with enormous amount of deception that the globalists are able to hit us with with media and stuff. And and we need to come back to the place of vetting information, evaluate, dig in, do our due diligence, and part of that spiritually asking the Lord, you know, asking the lord for discernment, asking the lord for wisdom. Now some people, unfortunately, they think they're super spiritual, and they see things in you and I that's not true. Not true at all. Mhmm. But they blap it. They they think they're spiritual, and, you know, I saw a spirit of something in you. There's no such thing as that. There's no such thing as that. There's no such thing as a, hey. Pastor Rick has the spirit of gluttony. You know? There's no such thing as spirit of gluttony. I don't have the spirit of gluttony, And nor do I have to answer for something my parents did, you know, in their lifetime or grandparents. You know, they've got the spirit of alcohol. They got the spirit of this, and pastor Rick inherited. It's a generational there's no such thing like that. It's not true. Not true at all. If any man be in Christ, he's a new creation, the old things have passed away, all things have become new. I'm not their dog anymore. Okay? I'm free. And so I'm taking on the mind of Christ. So there's a whole lot of weirdness of people thinking they're, you know, and they don't know anything. So don't don't give into it. And the devil can only listen. Now think of that. When Jesus in the upper room, you remember that he let Judas he commanded Judas to leave? He don't want Judas hearing what he was gonna say next. Mhmm. Right? Got Judas off there. That way you do, go do quickly. He's gonna go take 30 pieces of silver, but he wasn't done with the guys yet. Right? And so Satan can be in our church listening to what's going on, in this room here listening to what's going on. Now Satan's only one angel. He's not omnipresent. He's not omniscient. He's not omnipresent. So I don't have to worry about Satan being in this room because we're low lives. He's probably in the room of some really spiritual person, you know, somebody really, really heavy duty. And that heavy duty person, he's studying them, strategizing them, knowing that if he can take that spiritual giant down, that it'll be like a domino effect in the lives of so many others. Right? Just huge carnage shipwreck. Right? But he can send demons here. Demons, fallen angels to listen in. Now the good news is there's angels in the room too. Good angels. The good angels are fighting with the bad angels, and maybe they're so busy fighting they can't hear everything going on. So do you think in your car when you're driving home tonight and you say something bad about me that the demons are listening and and that they can strategize a plan against you? Or or maybe you're saying something and they didn't know that about you, but now they do. You know what I mean? Do you think that happens, that dynamic? How do they study this? How do they watch? How do they look into these things? Well, we know that that that that's what they do to people who don't have the spirit of God. Yep. They just watch your past, and then they reminded you of you. And didn't you think that you're hearing from dead uncle Joe? Yeah. Uh-huh. So so Jeremiah abode in the court of the prison until the day that Jerusalem was taken, and he was there when Jerusalem was taken. So taken, taken, taken, taken, taken, taken. King, it's gonna be taken. Prince, it's gonna be taken. You guys aren't listening to me. Why would you throw me in the pit? Now turn to Hebrews chapter four. Wait. I have a question. Okay. So did he tell the the king's men what the king told them to, or did he just be silent? No. He told them what the king had had prompted them to say. Yeah. That's in verse 25. He said, I was begging for freedom. That's what I asked for. That's what we talked about. What he told me. Yeah. Okay. Now Hebrews, my favorite. Hebrews. Oh, my, yeah, my favorite too. I know who wrote this book. You went you went to school with him. I know who wrote it. Yep. I know my new name that no man knows. I know your guys' new names. Hebrews four nine through 16, because I'm special. Alright. So there remains therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that has entered into his rest, he also has ceased from his own works as God did from his. So Jesus is my rest. I can rest in him through all this chaos, confusion, all this stuff. So let us labor therefore to enter into that rest. So make an effort to enter into that rest, which is a rest by faith of completed action. Jesus already completed it. We fail to enter into that rest through unbelief, through fear. Lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. For the word of God is living. Powerful. Not a dead word. It's alive. Powerful. More powerful than the devil's word. More powerful than man's word. The most powerful. And sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing. Now Klaus Schwab, the guys can't do this. The devil can't do this. The devil can't divide between the soul and the spirit, the joint and the marrow. Can't get into your brain with a chip and act like they're gonna, you know, transform you. Can't do it. They'll try and make you think they can, but they can't. Transformers. They're copying. They're they're counterfeiting what only God can do. We've been equipped with the word of God, and the word of God's gonna go forth and do this in the lives of people. Piercing even the dividing asunder of soul and spirit. So some messages can appeal to the soul. The soul is centered, the mind, the will, the emotion. So emotions, emotional messages with streaming lights and smoke machines and and all that kind of stuff, it can give you a it can give you goosebumps, but you walk out of that building and it dissipates very quickly. Your problems are still there, hasn't transformed, changed you. It doesn't feed your spirit. Mhmm. But if you bring forth the word of God, you might get some goosebumps. You might cry. You might laugh. You might be entertained to a certain point. But most importantly, you're being edified. You're being built up in the faith. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God. Amen. So a two edged sword pierced and even the dividing of the son of soul and spirit, joint and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. So God's word can deal with your thoughts. Satan doesn't know your thoughts. He can't see your thoughts, but God's word deals with your thoughts. You look in the mirror of God's word and you see yourself. God's word reveals your thoughts to your heart, and now you decide whether you wanna obey God's voice or still give in to the flesh or somebody else's voice. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and open before the eyes with whom we have to do. Satan cannot do that. Everything's naked and open before God. He knows all things. He can see through everybody, all the lies, all of it. Seeing then that we have this great high priest. We talked about a mediator. We talked about a daysman. We talked about an advocate. Talked about somebody there to intercede like Ebed Melek on behalf of Jeremiah. Jesus is our high priest in heaven at the throne of God, and he ever lives to make intercession for us. That is passed into the heavens. He's in heaven there. Jesus, the son of God, let us hold fast our profession of faith. For we have not a high priest who cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we and yet without sin. So we talked about Zedekiah, his development or his his growth to be a leader. Jesus is empathetic. Jesus is acquainted with our infirmity because he took on the form of a man. He set aside the free exercise of his deity, and in this form of a man, he experienced the frailty, the human frailty, the suffering. Jesus wept. He experienced the sorrow. He's a man of sorrow. So it's not like he's indifferent, raised in an ivory tower of some king that has no experience, you know, with what it's like to be a human being to go through suffering. You see? And so Zedekiah's total zero, man. Total zero. For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feelings or infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin. Let us therefore, so in light of all that he just taught us, let us therefore, what's our response? Come boldly. There's no fear. Fear not. Fear ye not. You access. The veil of the temple is written too. You may be there all alone thinking you're all alone. I'm in the ditch. I'm in the dungeon. I'm there's no coming for me yet. It's alright. The lord's there interceding on your behalf. The Holy Spirit's also interceding on your behalf. And the chances are there's a whole lot of people that love you. A whole lot of more people that love you than you realize Christians that know you and heard about your plight that are praying for you. We're not alone in this. Let us therefore come boldly under the throne of judgment. Oh, that'd be scary, wouldn't it? Of grace. If it was a throne of judgment, I'd be scared because I know I'm a sinner, man. Right? I know I'd be undone. But, no, it's the throne of grace because Jesus was already judged at Calvary. That ye may obtain mercy. I need mercy. What's mercy, George? What's mercy? Not getting that what you deserve. There you go. So what I deserve is what, Robbie? Death. Death. Death. Condemnation. What is grace? I'm married favor. What's that? About to be married favor. Unmarried to favor? Getting what we don't deserve. Mhmm. On the one hand, I don't wanna get what I deserve. So that's important when we're judging somebody else. Right? Mhmm. Oh, man. I wanna make sure that judge Dauntlessy be judged. So you don't need a sincere condemning judgment at others, lest you be judged in that same manner. I want people to be merciful toward me. People to be gracious toward me. But it doesn't mean I don't judge. It means I evaluate what's going on in terms of right and wrong, but love covers a multitude of sins. I consider myself lest I also be tempted, but I don't give a free pass to sin in the name of love. No. We we need to identify what's right, what's wrong. Mhmm. So let us therefore come boldly under the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Mhmm. Are you in need of mercy and grace? I'm in need of mercy and grace every single day. Right? Mhmm. My life is held together by mercy and grace. And Jeremiah in Lamentations three says, the mercies of the Lord are new every morning. Have you ever put your head down at night and regretted your day No. Yeah. That you could have done much better? Yeah. And, oh, Lord, I'm so sorry. My day didn't turn out like I thought it was. And you're not in that situation where you're blaming anybody else. It's that it's that sadness, that godly sorrow that leads to repentance. Like, Lord, I'm sorry. Lord, please forgive me. Lord, cover me. And then you have peace, and you're able to sleep. You're not tormented. You cast all your cares upon him. You confess your sin. Then you wake up in the morning. Do you have to go to the court and be judged for what you did the day before? No. No? His mercies are new every morning. You don't get what you deserve in that case. Right? So we're so thankful. And his grace is unmerited favor is poured out, and what a god we serve. Amen. Alright. Well, let's pray. Father, thank you for the time that we could spend your word and worship and study and fellowship, good food. Thank you for Rob and Vicky. Always open their home like this that we could worship and and do this on Monday nights here and all that they do in regard to worship and food and and be not deceived, the vision they have with the podcast and all. And we pray that you'd reach out and and heal Sally, heal Alan, be with with Kathy, help her to feel better. And as I said, Alan and Donna Donna Beckhlourd, she's got that cough. Anybody else, Ronnie and Fred are getting a little bit little bit better. And and, again, be with James as he's a caregiver. Be with Juanita, Kevin Lee's wife, as she's had heart surgery. And, I pray you do a miracle in her life, help her blood pressure to be dialed in and for her body to respond to the surgeries and all. Help Kevin as he's over twelve hours a day of caregiving and be with Calvary Church Port Orchard, Lord. Bless them as they fill in for Kevin. And, Lord, we we love you. Watch over our kids, our families. Lord, intercede and speak to family members that we don't have access to. Lord, be that intercessor for us. Be that advocate. Be that one that, by the power of your holy spirit, that reaches and touches their heart. Cause the seeds that have been sown, bring people to water, Lord, bring the increase. And, Lord, we pray for our country. We pray for the men and women going down to Texas that they wouldn't be lured into a trap. Pray for discernment. Pray that people's eyes be opened and and not succumb to another false flag. We pray that righteousness would exalt the nation, sins are approached to every people. Lord, we do pray you have sheriffs and law enforcement that'll do the right thing regardless of the threats of anybody. Lord, we pray that we'd have a window of hope of somebody being arrested, some means of of righteousness prevailing, Lord, not always a con game and evil subduing those that are good. Keep your hedge of protection around the Christian, the godly truckers, the unbelievers. I pray they come to faith in you. Be around the law enforcement, the soldiers, the the all those that are being asked to do things as they evaluate them. Lord, I pray they determine they're gonna obey God rather than men, that they're gonna do the right thing. Lord, we lift up Travis. We pray for his oral surgery on Thursday that, God, you would heal him and help him to recover quickly, Cognizant. Be with David and his wife, we pray for reconciliation, Lord, that you do a miracle of reconciliation in their lives, Lord. Cause them both to turn to you, to cry out to you. Be with Mark and Shelley, help them with their children. Lord, let there be reconciliation in that regard. Cause the scales to fall off, cause them to realize they've been deceived and to come and take the olive branch and and make things right and not waste any more time. Time is so short. Lord, save our loved ones, save those that we that you've brought into our lives that don't know you. We pray for a great harvest in these last days, Lord. As people lose hope, they turn to you and be looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and savior. Bless, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. I also got a a Okay. A real estate residential situation that I won't go into, but you can just lift up that residential Okay. To the lord. Can you do that? Sure. Go ahead. Pray. I'll agree with you. Father, in Jesus' name, Lord, that you know the the plight. I just thank you, Lord. Lord, I ask you, Lord, that you might take care of this situation that I'm in. Just ask you, Lord, that you might give me favor with the people that are that are involved, Lord. In Jesus' name, just pray to me, father, that you might work everything out, Lord. And I pray to me, father, for all the people that are in similar situations that I am, Lord, minister to them each each by your grace, Lord. Thank you, Father. In Jesus' name, amen. We believe grace, God's riches at Christ's expense. Amen. Thank you, Jesus. Amen. Thomas. Wow. Mister Thomas. K. You, Thomas. Good to see you. You're looking good. I'm not good. I'm Love you.

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About This Podcast

Calvary Chapel Bremerton - Home Bible Study

Listen to Rick Beaudry, Pastor of Calvary Chapel Bremerton, lead our home Bible Study session in worship and teaching the Word of God. Be edified and built up in your faith with solid Bible teaching. New episodes released on Tuesdays in the Pacific Standard Timezone.

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