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Ezekiel 31

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Live from Bremerton with five feet of snow outside. The real frozen chosen are here. We're gonna study in Ezekiel 31, and, let's pray. Father, thank you so much that we can get out of the house and come over to Robin Vicky's house and the home church and, to study your word, to worship, to pray, to have a meal together, really nice, chocolate chip cookies and brownies and so many so many fun things, Lord. And we just ask that you bless this time, that you would encourage and build us up, strengthen us, watch over our families, watch over those who are sick, and, Lord, especially be with Karen Menard with as she grieves with the with the loss of Raleigh, Lord. But she knows where he's at. He's in heaven. And we just pray that you help them with all the arrangements, all they got going on, and bring your peace that surpass all understanding, guard their hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Be with Al and Cora. Heal them. And James, thank you for healing Sally. And help Brooke this week to get her new place, Lord, and help Ray and Betty to facilitate that. Bless this night. In Jesus' name, amen. Alright. Praise the lord. Thanks, Rob. Amen. Alright. We are in Ezekiel chapter 31, and I would like to ask the question again, open up with what prophecy have you what articles, what videos, what bible studies, what have you viewed in relationship to bible prophecy news feeds, president Trump's speeches, maybe the speech that he gave at Davos. He wasn't there personally, but they they put him up there, you know, visually. And he gave a big speech about the World Economic Forum and his his, you know, thrust with America. What are some things you're hearing? Did you hear that we're charging tariffs? Yeah. So what's where is that ending? Where what's where's that taking us? What's the purpose of that? Well Tariffs with Mexico and Canada and and other nations. It's blending us together. It's putting us into a situation where we may be them down. Well, we may be look. I mean, Trump wants to get Greenland and Canada and this whole thing and possibly make a Is it gonna collapse the global economy? Oh, he'll probably do that too. Oh, there you go. That's a short story, though. It's it's crisis reaction solution. So he's putting out there some sort of a solution, but when it becomes a crisis, the the solution will be digital currency. Right? It'll be the digital the digital currency they all have ready to go. What else? Anything else? Did anybody hear the world economic foreign speech he gave where he said we're entering into a golden age? Did you hear him say there's light all over the world right now that's shining as a result of him being made president? What kind of light is that? What kind of light? With his With his makeup? Orange and and tinted. Yeah. Brown? That's funny he does that. Yeah. Sean caught his makeup, the copper tone bronze bronzing like a statue. What else? Any anything else? Did you hear about the the regional data facilities that are being built all over for the Stargate and the Star Everything and the artificial intelligence to collect and and survey and get the groundwork ready for the fifteen minute cities and all that upon you know, all that data accumulation and and everything. Did you hear about that? Oh, yeah. Yeah. And who's getting involved in it? Elon Musk, Bezos, all the big tech giants, many of whom used to like, let's say Bezos, Washington Post he owns, he used to write about a lot of bad articles about Trump. Zuckerberg was a never Trumper. All of a sudden now, these tech giants, they're all on board with Trump. And where are they going? Where where are they going? They're they're going to globalism. They're going to globalism. Right? And he's got all the tech giants really excited because they can be on the cutting edge of this technology, of the artificial intelligence. And apparently, you're competing with China and some other places to gain the upper hand. And so they wanna be those that that achieve this, the beast system. What anything else? Any other prophecies that you see emerging, converging, and accelerating that would tell us when you see these things begin to come to pass, look up, your redemption draws nigh? Wars and Wars? Rumors. Rumors of wars. Gonna go take out the cartels. Yeah. Right? The borders. What else? Anything else? It's going so fast. There's so much. Surveillance. There's so much surveillance. The churches are and the Yep. The giants who created that. Anything in regard medical? Any medical stuff going on? Jabs and Oh, yeah. They're working today. More another pandemic and mRNA. That's gonna that's gonna cure cancer. That's what we're saying now. They're saying it's gonna cure cancer and myocarditis. Right. The guy who made it. Yeah. It's it's causing turbo cancers and and clots and all sorts of things. So, anyway, when we say this kind of stuff, I watched JD Farrag's video from yesterday, his prophecy update. I got through part of it, but it was one part made me laugh. And he said he's trying very hard not to fall in the devil's trap of being divisive, Divide and conquer. Now sometimes over over the word of God, we have to divide. If somebody's heretical, says something's wrong, we have to divide. We have to be willing to divide. But in other things, try real hard to, you know, agree to disagree. So one of the things that he he's probably the only pastor that I have out there that acts the same way as I do, and that is he tries to point out to people the things that Trump is doing as in that light thing, golden age, the warp speed jab, and and doubling down, doing it again, and giving money to Gavi, giving money, taking money from World Declaration, not for him, but giving it to Bill and Melinda Gates and stuff. Move money around, you know, before we figure out what's going on. And then you've got one of the biggest ones biggest conflicts is you have a gay a guy named Robert Kennedy junior, when we're talking about globalist, who is totally anti vaxx and then now is rebranding himself so that he can serve Trump. Right? I'm not anti vaxx. You know? And so they're trying to get him out there to maybe get rid of supplements because he's really concerned about the food we're eating, the ingredients in the food, and all that. So he's gonna have something within the administration from the standpoint of health, director of health and human services maybe. But what JD said was really funny. He said when I as soon as I mentioned something that Trump's doing or has done, I've got Christians ready to fight with me. And he says and the first thing they say is, well, he didn't know. Well, that was the deep state. You know? But he did this thing that was good. You know? And so he goes through a whole litany of things of things that we hear. And I had to laugh about it because it's just so incredibly true, the enormous amount of denial that we're under. So another prophecy that we're under is how have you caught the enemy lion this week? Because part of prophecy right now is a time of great deception. And so are there some things like like, for instance, when they tell you that they're gonna go to Mars and put the flag there, do you believe that? Do you believe we're gonna fly to Mars and go get some water on Mars and put the American flag there? Rob does, but anybody else? I don't believe we're actually gonna get to Mars. It's a little too What's the suspicion here about that? Well, I I just think it's it's going out there so far with UFOs and aliens and water on Mars. And we're gonna own Greenland. We're gonna own Canada. We're gonna change the Gulf Of Mexico to Gulf America. We're gonna get the Panama Canal back. And by the way, we're so exceptional. We're gonna put our flag on Mars. You know? It's it's just part of the speech. Part of the speech. Part of the big bravado. And so, anyway, those are some things to watch. I don't have to say too much anymore. It's it's it's happening in record warp speed, if I can use his terms. It's happening so fast. So many things happening. And so one of the things JD said was I can't imagine a guy being a pastor and not understanding revelation 13. Now we know revelation 13. Right? Nobody's gonna be able to buy or sell without a mark on the right hand of their forehead. So if you're a pastor, if you're a Christian, and you've heard that verse and watched Left Behind and all those things all these years, and now we're going to a blockchain, central bank digital currency, and the technology is there now to do it with cards or tattoos or even a mark or whatever. And you see the technology there. How could you be a pastor and not be aware or at least speak up? I mean, even the secular guys are making fun of us by taking somebody's head and putting it on a scanner. You know? When they're selling goods, they take somebody's head on a commercial, and they put it on a scanner, you know, to get a joke out there. Okay? So even they know. But somehow the pastors don't wanna talk with that. Make people nervous. You know? And, anyway, he said, you know, you can't believe a pastor, you know, would do that. And I had a guy say to me one time, I just can't get over this excuses. Have you ever thought that maybe a pastor has never studied the book of Revelation? And I'm like and then I think of Paul telling Timothy, a pastor, study to show yourself approved to God, a workman that need not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. It's nobody's fault but his that he hasn't studied it. You know? You you don't you don't go into your field of work without studying, without being able to do what you're supposed to do. So why make excuses for pastors that that haven't done their due diligence to be able to equip the, you know, equip the saints? About Revelation. AI AI just did the whole book of Revelation in a video to explain it to everybody. And how how they explain it? Which It was it's not. Like, I couldn't it made me feel I couldn't watch all of it, but it is so off. It's so off. It's so It's so it's not the book of revelation. It takes literal because, you know, there's parts that are not literal. You know, like Figurative? Figurative. Yes. And it makes it literal. Some literal? Yeah. And it put well, it turns the figurative into literal. Right. And so it's like and it's really it's I mean, the the graphics are amazing because it's AI. Right? But it is not revelation. And I it's being passed around. I've seen it through a couple people. Okay. Yeah. And I'm it's just That's why I'm doing this right now. That's what I want you to to let people know. That's that's It's a demonic it's it's a demonic means of communication and rewriting and all. And, like, when we read here tonight, it'll say, and it came to pass let's see here. Verse 17. Verse 15, thus saith the lord god. So when we read here, the holy spirit is having Ezekiel say, thus saith the lord god in the first person, this is god's word. When you take it and you have a man write something or, you know, a computer that a lot of the technology is being, you know, run by demons, some of that can be used for good, some of can be used for evil. So we as Christians, if we're Bereans and I hear that AI book of Revelation, I need everybody in this room to be Bible students so they don't get tricked. Because that's gonna be really difficult moving forward trying to help people not be deceived because the quick go to rather than getting a bible out and commentaries and doing the old fashioned way is just, well, I I I gotta write a report. I'm just gonna have AI do it. I'm a student. You know? Or I I gotta I gotta cough right now, and I don't wanna go see the doctor. So I'm gonna have AI diagnose my cough. You know? And you we laugh, but everybody does that. Yeah. It's it's a shortcut to go to go to the Internet and do all that. So so too with going to church, people are gonna stay at home, bedside Baptist, snowflakes, and they're gonna watch an AI presentation of a teaching on the Bible. You know what I mean? So we have verses say, neglect not the assembling yourselves together as manner of some is, especially as you see the day of the Lord approach in Hebrews 10. There's a huge dynamic of us getting in our cars and getting together for a Bible study or a church service. But more and more within the culture, people are electing to stay home and utilize the the, you know, the technology to watch from home. And when it's bad weather like this and things like you can't get out, we understand that. And then we say, god, the Facebook people tonight are able to watch, and they're able to watch all, you know, a lot of different places too far to drive. And we and we applaud it. That's a good use of of technology. But that AI, it's basically the beast system for the devil, and and they're getting it ready because the image of the beast in Revelation 13, people are gonna bow down to the image of the beast, and the beast can be able to talk. And and now remember, the devil is not the opposite of God. The devil's just a fallen angel, and he's not omniscient. He's not omnipresent. Omniscient means all knowing. Omnipresent means he being everywhere all at one time. And he's not omnipotent. He's not all powerful like God is, so he doesn't have the attributes of God. But he's a counterfeit, And this b system technology is gonna allow him to have a surveillance system where they're actually trying to pre predict predictions of, I think Rick Baudry is gonna go do something bad. I haven't done it yet, but they're just watching my Facebook and how mad you get this, that, or the other. And and they project, we gotta go stop him before he does something. You know? And also facial recognition. They make mistakes about you with facial recognition, and now you've gotta prove your innocence. So there's all sorts of different things that are coming along the way. But it's it's fascinating the time we're living in. It's exciting because you know that Jesus is coming again, and we know that Jesus wins and that all these guys lose. But they are very, very intoxicated with becoming gods. And that's that's the bottom line is they're gonna believe the lie that they can be gods. And that's the lie that the devil gave to Adam and Eve within the garden. It's still the same the same lie. And and as far as the word of god goes, we're trying real hard to teach the word of god. But like Kathy was telling me, there's a among young people, there's a word that's being used called deconstructionism. So they're taking everything that we've learned historically as a nation, all the information we have, and trying to deconstruct. So they wanna deconstruct, you know, Columbus Day. They wanna deconstruct the Bible, deconstruct everything that they can, and then bring the kids to the place where they'll they'll show allegiance to the Antichrist, to the government, have a good social credit score. But as far as morality, morality is based upon how you feel. It's all I feel this is okay. And so today, there's an article from Alex Newman on Steve Quayle, and I sent it to some of you. And basically, they have a a new app for the young people. And in that app, it's occultic. So you think of all the kids that are involved in Harry Potter, And and now now in this deconstructionism, there's a new app in California that's targeting vulnerable children with controversial propaganda involving the occult. The new age homosexuality, transgenderism, fornication, and more of the attack on biblical principles and precepts is clear, but critics are sounding the alarm. Under the guise of helping California teens with self esteem and emotions, the new program known as Saluna features blatantly pagan and occult themes from magicians and tarot cards to channeling that high priestess and touting lesbian characters. Controversial topics are ubiquitous. And one lesson's called Tarot and Tithing. So, anyway, have to get the article. It's a pretty long article. But, like, should you meet on Thanksgiving with your family? Because the whole story of Thanksgiving was false, and we we abused the Indians, you know, stuff like that. So they're trying to deconstruct in that regard. So I would say if if somebody had a video of AI on the book of Revelation, that it would be coming upon us to be students of the book of Revelation. So if you're a the old the old way to spot a a fraud is you gotta know the real one. And so Vicky used to work in the banks. You gotta really get to know the $100 bill of Benjamin, the texture, the weight, everything. And that way you can smell you can smell a fraud. Yeah. And and as we've talked about, if if you go off one degree in the compass to your destination, you know, you can be off miles and miles and miles in an airplane or boat or a car or whatever. So it's very important to stay on course, to stay on track. One of the things I'm watching too is people taking the Bible and treating it in such a way that it's allegorical. It's literal. It doesn't mean what it says. Words don't mean what they says. It means what I wanna say. Mhmm. And so it's it's it's part of a of a idiocracy that's taken place. And if I say that Jesus is the door, if I read that in John 10 that I am the door, now am I gonna interpret that literally that he's a door, or am I gonna interpret that figuratively based upon the context of the sheepfold? Right? So now I've gotta have some understanding of a shepherd and a sheep and bring him into a pen at night. And if I did my study, I'd know that that he brings him into an area where there's some walls and there's only one way out or one way in, and he lays across that threshold. He's the door. No wolves are getting past him to get those sheep. Now if I just read that cursory, he's the door. Jesus is a door. You know? Is he a literal door? If if Jesus says, I am the bread of life, is he a loaf of bread? You know, what what's he saying? And so when we dealt with the flat earthers and stuff, there were times where they would interpret things that were, you know, figurative and and interpret them literally. The four corners of the earth. Well, that's figurative. It it's encompassing the whole earth. It's a it's a navigational or a, you know, map type thing. But they they take it as, oh, the earth is square, you know, four corners. Oh, oh, it's it's flat. You know? So we're seeing a lot of that, though. It's not just it's not just them. It's a lot of people that attempt to study the book of Revelation. When they do, they they teach it as allegorical. They teach it as historical, like it's already happened. When you deal with the nation of Israel, whole lot of people are replacement theology where they say that the church has replaced Israel. So now you got a real problem on the stage today of the world today. What do you do with Israel? Do you do you allow two state solution? If you do that, then you might be going against God. You're gonna suffer for it. He doesn't want anybody to divide his land. You gotta go against Ezekiel thirty six and thirty seven, the miraculous regathering of Israel that God prophesied of. So a lot of this is going on, but there aren't scholars. There aren't people, students that can argue from the scriptures. And so it can be very frustrating for for me as a pastor and and and for you and I as bible students to see so much out there confusion caused by AI, caused by heretics, false prophets, twenty five, thirty years of not teaching the bible so the church isn't ready to discern between good and evil because the the word of god's been watered down. And and so anyway, I'm thankful for a a few group a few people that that we can get together with and study the word, but we need to be careful because we don't wanna give in to you know, what if I start to say, you know what? This next Sunday, I'm gonna let AI write my sermon. You know? AI does a much better job of it. And then pretty soon, you know, I got a cold. I'm gonna let AI speak it too. We're gonna get we're gonna get a hologram hologram thing, and we're just gonna put an image there and have the the AI do the talking too, you know, the preaching and all that. You know? Where where do you end with all that? I mean, but that's that's where a lot of the church is gonna go. And Our brain cells begin to dwindle Yeah. When we do that kind of thing. Yeah. Yeah. Like the guy that wrote the one of the Flat Earther books, he said because people don't read because they just go to the Internet and find videos. He said they they don't have comprehensive skills of reading a paragraph and going away from that paragraph being able to understand what they just read Yeah. Because they don't read anymore. And so we read the Bible, and we need to ask the Lord to help us with comprehension. Lord, teach me. Lord, help me. Unless you're born again, you can't understand. So being born again is number one. Number two, Jesus is the key. And then you pray. You ask the Lord. Lord, please open the scriptures and help me to understand. And AI can't do that. The devil can't do any of that. You know? That's the work of the holy spirit. So that's what we're gonna hold on to even though things are changing so rapidly around us. There's so much deception taking place today. And and so that's why Rob and Vicky have the show, be not deceived. That's why Jesus said four times in Matthew 24, let no man deceive you. And and that's why Jesus told the religious leaders, your father is the devil, you know, and he's a liar and and a murderer. So yeah. There's some good podcasts on YouTube, Be Not Deceived that Vicki does and Rob. So encourage you to go there. And if you have some ideas of some new podcasts you want, just let Vicki know and she'll pray about it. Alright. Ezekiel 31. And it came to pass in the seventh year in the third month, the first day of the month that the word of the lord came unto me saying. So Ezekiel is not at a computer terminal and the AI telling them what's up. Right? So let's pray. Father, we thank you that, lord, you still speak to us and that we ask that you be our teacher tonight. You'd open the scriptures to understanding and lord that we'd have this confidence as we do that this is not the word of men but the word of god. It's your word and lord, you tell us history in advance. You tell us what's gonna happen before it happens. And that's one of the ways with the more sure word of prophecy, Lord, that we know that, in fact, this is your your word. I would challenge AI, anybody with AI, to predict the future, Lord, with a 100% accuracy. Just 10 things. Predict 10 things with a 100% accuracy. And, Lord, your word has thousands, hundreds, and hundreds of prophecies that have been fulfilled and are being fulfilled. 300 prophecies in the first coming of your son. And so Lord, we thank you for your holy word. We thank you Lord that it's been preserved, that we don't have so many scribal errors and translation errors and that it's affected the integrity of your word, like if AI were to rewrite it. So Lord, we just pray that we would hide your word away in our heart, that we'd memorize your word, that we meditate upon your word, that we wouldn't take it for granted, Lord, because it's in fact your word. So bless now we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. So it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the third month, in the first day of the month, that the word of the Lord came unto me saying. So this is June twenty one in May, the word of the lord is coming unto Ezekiel. Now he's gonna do comparison here because the four chapters that we we're in, one more after this, has been the decline or the destruction of Egypt. And now in this chapter, God's going to give a comparison. Compare Assyria with Egypt. Assyria was a big tree, huge tree, a phenomenal big huge nation, and it just got chopped all down. So, we're going to see from verse two under verse 17, a description of the the type of nation Assyria was and how the lord took it down and then verse 18, he's going to finish up giving a summary concerning pharaoh and concerning Egypt, like this is what's gonna happen to you too. So he says, son of man, speak unto pharaoh. So Hera Haphra of Egypt and his multitudes, all of his people, big nation, big world dominating nation, and whom art thou like in thy greatness? So think of the nations over the over the years. And what nation are you likened unto? What what nation on the world stage is Egypt like? And if we ask that, what nation upon the planet is like America? Well, America is an empire, a superpower. China's not there yet. Russia's not there yet. None of the nations in the world are, you know, like us. Now a nation in the past that was like us was England. The sun never settled the British Empire. They were an empire. And when they lost control of the global currency, the British sterling, after World War II, the Bretton Woods Agreement, the agreement was that the dollar would become the dominant global currency that the bankers would use. And we went into a global economic system controlled by private bankers. Even the Federal Reserve banks in America and around the world are not federal. It's like Federal Express. These are private banks that run the economy. And once that happened, we could back it with gold for a while and the nations could borrow and know that they could get gold in exchange for whatever deposits they had. And then Richard Nixon, 73, had removed the gold standard and the silver standard. And then we had Henry Kissinger do the petrodollar where the agreement was is that we'll back the dollar with barrels of oil. And we'll use our military to ensure stability all over the globe with anybody that would would disrupt the price of a barrel of oil and the distribution of a barrel of oil. So every barrel of oil had to be sold in dollars, not euros. So Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein found out when you go against the bankers, when you go against that agreement and you conspire to begin to sell barrels of oil that you're producing in the the African dinar, d I n a r, they were gonna produce, and or the euro. If you were to use the euro, your country would be invaded. And so their countries were invaded and pressure upon them. And then from there, as the globalists are moving in a direction to take down this empire because they wanna go to a global empire, now we have what's called BRIC nations, Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, and a number of other nations that are joining with the BRICs to develop and move away from the dollar to break this empire control. So when Trump does this tariff stuff recently he's doing all this muscle, all this muscle kind of stuff, it's making Mexico mad. It's making Canada mad. It's making nations mad. They're angry. And one of the statements I heard them say, pretty soon you're gonna feel the pain of these changes too because America doesn't feel the pain. Every time they they use economic threats and sanctions against countries, it's a form of war. And but when when we're unable to do that anymore, when we're unable to spend more on our military budget than all the other nations combined, then a lot of our soldiers are gonna have to come home. We're not gonna be able to be that empire that rules the world, the muscle for the bankers over the world. So the bible says the world's gonna be divided into 10 regions, and then those 10 regions, 10 kings, and it could be 10 technocrats. And a bunch of those technocrats are sound surrounding president Trump right now, they want a part of the kingdom. You know? They want to influence the digital AI and the the central bank digital currency and the blockchain and the all that's moving forward, the technology they wanna move forward, then there'd be an empire. And so who are we comparing ourselves to? Well, we're sorta like e England used to be until they lost lost their ability to be an empire and have their military all over the place. They transferred it over to The US. So son of man, speak unto pharaoh, king of Egypt, and his multitude, so his people. Who art thou like in thy greatness? Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair fair branches and with a shadow shadowing shroud and of a high stature and its top was among the thick thick and so these these cedar trees were just gorgeous, beautiful. The ones in Lebanon were some of the best and so liking the nation to be in a tree and this tree as tall as the redwoods, you know, and yet when you look at pictures of these cedar trees there, they're not like the cedar trees here. Our redwoods or even some of you have cedar trees in your yard, they go up really tall. These are in the pine family, but they are very large trees, the type of type of wood that David received from king Hiram of Lebanon to build the temple in. So they're majestic they're majestic majestic trees of descriptive of a majestic kingdom and and so the waters so one of the key issues is that this tree was near a lot of water. Rivers, aqueducts, and they built aqueducts. They had rivers. They had sources of water, several different sources of water. One of the things that happened to the city of Ephesus Ephesus was a prominent commerce city in in present day Turkey. But when when a river gets silted or if the Nile River of Egypt gets filled with silt at the at the mouth of, you know, the mouth of the ocean, that sediment and all that stuff can come back and it can quench and it can ruin the fishing and it can ruin the the boats being able to come in. Like, the city of Ephesus, the siltine came so far back inland that it ruined its port aspect of being able to be a maritime port with with commerce and such. And so it'll cause the city to die in that way. But these guys had many they had the Tigris River, and they had a lot of different waterways coming through there. And so kinda like Psalm one, blesses a man, you know, who walks not in the council of the ungodly nor stands away as sinners nor sits in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the lord and his lot is he meditate day and night. He should be like a tree that's planted by the rivers, So the flow of water coming into your life, the flow of Jesus, the flow of the holy spirit coming into your life. As you study the word of god, then then your branches become very fruitful. Leaf shall not wither and whatsoever you do it shall prosper. And so same with the city. Same with the city that's got a strong economic ability and spiritually, in the same way spiritually. And so several little cities around this area and trees of the field. Therefore, its height was exalted above all the trees of the field and its boughs were multiplied and its branches became long because of the multitude of waters when it was shot forth. So very, very prosperous. And one of the things some of the commentators said in the time that Jonah came to Nineveh, thereafter, when they got a hundred year reprieve before they're finally judged, that god gave them great success. So it's accelerated growth of Assyria as a nation after the point in time that they repented at the preaching of of Jonah. And so we're praying for a reprieve in America. Right? Some pray for revival, some for reprieve. We're praying for Lord, can you make it go back to normal? But some of us are praying, come quickly, Lord Jesus. We're ready to go. And so this this height lends itself to pride. So the root problem of these nations is pride. Pride will take us down. So if we look at the Roman Empire, they could not be defeated by a foreign enemy. Instead, what happens is you corrupt from within. So same with America. America, when when we seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, all these other things added to us, he protect us. So some trust in the horses, some in chariots, but we're gonna trust in the living god. So some would say, I'm gonna trust my technology. I'm gonna trust in my economy. I'm gonna trust in the stock market. I'm gonna trust in our military. We can do anything we want, and Donald Trump's gonna go over there and just take it. If you don't give it Panama, we're gonna just take the canal. You know? So your some trust in horses, some in chariots, but we're gonna trust in the living God. And when when the Lord fights for you, you never lose. So you can be king Jehoshaphat and you have a huge huge three four enemies coming after you and and he looks up in second chronicles 20 and says, Lord, we don't have the power. We don't have the mind to whip these guys and neither know we what to do. That's a good admission of a king to be humble like that. When you're humble like that, boy, you catch the ear of god. You really catch the ear or if you say something like, lord, the battle belongs to you, that really catches his ear. If you're David and you're fighting against a giant and you come against me with a stick and all, but I come against you in the name of the living God, battle belongs to the Lord. Now, now god's going to fight for you and but if you go out there trying to wear King Saul's armor and trying to, you know, lend the help of the world, you're going to be mismatched by Goliath. It needs to be work of god's spirit so God can use a little shepherd boy with a slingshot to take down, you know, a big Goliath, and it happens all throughout history. In the book of Judges so many times where the Lord miraculously at Jericho could take down a city just by marching around it and blowing a trumpet. And in the case of Hezekiah when the Assyrians came after Hezekiah and they prayed, one angel of the lord slew a 185,000 of the Assyrians that were coming to try and take Judah And so you get your heart right with the Lord and you begin to worship the Lord and the Lord will fight for you. But if you, like King Asa, when he was small in his sight, God gave him great victories. And in those great victories, he was puffed up with pride. And then, what he did was is he got he got sick. His feet were sick. His legs were sick and the prophet come to him and said, cry out to god. He wouldn't cry out to god and ask god for help and the prophet said, hey, when you were small in your sight, you were strong. The Lord helped you. But now you're big in your sight. You're big britches, and you're calling all the doctors. You're calling all the doctors, and you're gonna die of this, you know? And he died. King Asa died, you know, because he just wouldn't humble himself. Now, Hezekiah, when Nathan the prophet came to him and said, hey, get your house in order. This sickness is unto death. He went against the wall and began to weep to the lord and pray to the lord. And the lord gave him fifteen more years. So god has a really soft spot for you and I when we're humble, when we come to him in humility. And so this is a tree. In Psalm thirty seven thirty five, I've seen the the wicked and great power and spreading themselves like a green bay tree. So what the what the very wealthy wicked do today is they always want a legacy building in the major cities. Right? And they wanna call it Trump Tower. Right? They wanna call it after their names. All of them. They want a technology or a business, Microsoft or whatever. And everybody associates, oh, that's that big tech giant, you know, that that built that. And they want their legacy, if you will. And so I've seen the wicked and great power and spreading himself like a green berry tree. Yet he passed away and low, he was not. Yea, I sought him, but he could not be found. So death is the equalizer. We're all gonna die the same way. Nobody's gonna take anything with him. And you and I, as believers, we sent it on ahead. There's rewards. There's treasures. There's blessings. We may go we're gonna go out of this world the same way as as the rich with nothing. But think about this. If the stock market crashes and and the hedge fund guys and everybody's betting, they're placing put bets, which means those bets are bets that the stock market's gonna crash. So they can make money as the stocks go down if they know ahead of time. So it's like when nine eleven happened and the airplanes are American Airlines. If you knew that American Airlines were gonna be the ones that were used in that whole thing, you would strategically put a put bet in upon American Airlines that their stock's gonna dramatically drop, you know, ahead of time. When those airplanes hit those buildings or whatever, that stock drops. You just made a ton of money. So if that's what's happening right now, the hedge funders, everybody's betting the stock market's gonna crash. I sleep so good. You know why? I don't own any stock. So when the nineteen twenty nine depression happened, you never saw poor people jumping out of buildings. Only rich people. Because their whole life was based upon what they had, not, you know, their relationship with the Lord. So you and I are rich in faith. Doesn't mean we're better than anybody. If riches increase that, not your heart on it. God can use wealthy people, but it just can't be allowed to be an idol in your life that devastates you if the Lord decides to take it away like he did with Job. So a tendency toward pride, a tendency of thinking you're better than everybody, and that's a huge test in itself. And so he says, it's rivers running around about in in his palms and sent out its little rivers under all the trees of the field. So little cities around, little canals around. And Babylon presently Iraq presently right now is being rebuilt from a standpoint of the same principle here, waters, irrigation, The harbor area for shipping and commerce is being rebuilt. And then the use of the Euphrates and other inner waterways and railways and roads are being built, And it could very well be that we're watching Babylon be actually rebuilt. Revelation seventeen and eighteen literally being rebuilt to be taken down with a huge earthquake later. And all the mariners and the monarchs and the people are looking from afar, and there's huge smoke coming up from Babylon. And Babylon the great the great that made the whole world have luxuries. The luxuries, the business, all the commerce that is gonna come through the Antichrist's commerce city there. So when you're looking at Gaza right now that's being cleared out and you're looking at Jared Kushner and you're looking at the Abraham Accords and you're watching the enormous amount of money that Saudi Arabia and everybody ready to invest in in the Gaza area, there's gonna be a higher concentration of wealth in that area of Israel with the Leviathan, with the oil natural gas that they have than Dubai. So there's gonna be enormous amount of money for Jared Kushner and all these globalists and everybody to make. And then to develop a whole economic system in a the antichrist is gonna wanna rule from Babylon but also have his political and economic system there in Babylon. And then Jerusalem's a big part of it. And and then as in a moment, the Lord's gonna destroy it all. But we're watching we're watching the wealth transfer from the West to the East and a greater emphasis upon the development of the of the East. And, again, very fascinating, very similar thing as as what made, you know, Assyria great there. And so therefore, height was exalted above all the trees in the field and its bowels multiplied and its branches came along because of the multitude of waters when it shot forth. And the fowls of heaven made their nest in the boughs and under the branches did all the beasts of the field bring forth their young and under its shadow dwelt all the nations. So a super world power, a lot of other smaller nations dependent upon them and covering everywhere. And one of the things in Matthew thirteen thirty two Jesus said was that the kingdom of heaven be like a mustard seed that it would grow up almost like a tree even though it's such a small seed. It would grow up like an herb, but the herb would grow so big that it'd be like a tree where the birds, where the fowls lodge. In the previous parable, he spoke about the birds that came. He said that was the devil that came and took away the seed. So part of what we see in the church today is a professing church. It looks really big from the outside, but the church is filled with a lot of demons and goats and tares and professing believers who don't believe. And a time of testing has come where we're gonna be able to see, you know, who believes, who doesn't believe in a great way. But it is a very difficult time presently to try and pastor a church in a community that, you know, has very little regard for God and for his word and and the things of the spirit. And it's it's and that's what he described the kingdom the kingdom of heaven would be like at the end of the age. It'd be filled with a lot of unbelievers, a lot of professors. And so remember he said Jesus said this way, Matthew seven, narrow is the way that leads to life eternal and few there be that find it. It's very small number of the professing. Broad is the way that leads to destruction and many go in there at. And so how can you know if you're saved? You've been sealed with the Holy Spirit. You have the Holy Spirit bearing witness with your spirit that you're a child of God. And the fruit of the spirit is love, that capacity to love that the Lord gives us. Now turn to Daniel chapter four, and we're gonna look at another tree. Daniel four. Remember Nebuchadnezzar's dream? Remember Daniel who interpreted it? And four verse 11, the tree grew and was strong and its height reached unto heaven and the side of it to the end of all the earth. And so this is this is Nebuchadnezzar's dream, and the tree is indicative of his kingdom, the Babylonian kingdom, and for him as as a king. And and then over verse 19, Daniel interprets the vision. Then Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, was perplexed for one hour and his thoughts troubled him. The king spoke and said, Belteshazzar, let not the dream or its interpretation trouble thee, Belteshazzar. Answered and said, my lord, the dream be to them that hate thee and the interpretation of it thine enemy. So it's not a good dream, king. You're you're a big tall tree, but they're gonna start calling you stumpy pretty soon because you're gonna be you're gonna be cut down for seven years. And your hair is gonna grow really long, your nails grow really long, and you're gonna lose your mind. You're gonna go out and be eating grass like a cow for seven years for seven seasons. And and Daniel is trying to, you know, like, pull the punch a little bit, like how how difficult this can be for you to get your head around this. And verse 22, does thou, oh king, that are grown and become strong for thy greatness is grown and reaches under the heavens, thy dominion is the end of the earth. And whereas the king saw a watcher and the holy one coming down from heaven and saying, hew the tree down and destroy it, yet leave the stump of its roots in the earth even with a band of iron and bronze and tender grass of the field and let him be wet with dew of heaven and let the portion be with the beasts of the field till seven times pass over. So you're gonna get cut down, o king, and seven years are gonna be out there. This is the interpretation, king, and this is the decree of the most high which has come upon my lord the king that they shall drive thee from men thy dwelling shall be with the beast of the field and they shall make thee to eat grass like oxen and shall wet thee with the dew of heaven and seven times shall pass over thee till thou know that the most high ruleth over the kingdom of men and gives it to whomsoever he will. These guys get so intoxicated. They get so prideful. And God's gonna humble the most powerful king of the most powerful nation publicly for seven years that he comes to the place where he recognizes that god's the one that rules over the affairs of men. And and whereas they commanded to leave the stump of the tree of the roots, thy kingdom shall be sure unto thee after thou shall have known that the heavens do this. So your your kingdom's gonna grow back. The stump's gonna grow back. And wherefore, o king, let my counsel be acceptable unto thee and break off thy sins, the righteousness, and the iniquities, and show mercy to the poor that may be a lengthening of thy tranquility. So do good to God. Do good. Do good for the poor. Do these good things that the peace that you're enjoying right now may be elongated, that it may be extended a bit. And it came to pass that king Nebuchadnezzar at the end of twelve months so he's doing okay for twelve months. Twelve months. Alright. Hasn't happened yet. And he walked into the palace of the kingdom of Babylon. Now remember Babylon was just a splendor, glorious, glorious city. One of the wonders of antiquity were the hanging gardens that Nebuchadnezzar had, the walls and just just everything about it was very extravagant. And so at the end of twelve months, he walked into the palace of the kingdom Babylon. And the king spoke and said, is not this great Babylon which I have built? And it's and it says, the words weren't even out of his mouth. And one of the angels, one of the watchers, Psalm and in the house of the kingdom by the mighty by by the might of my power, so the personal pronouns, I did this and for honor and for my majesty. While the word was in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven saying, oh king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken, the kingdom is departed from thee and and they shall drive thee from men and thy dwelling shall be with the beast of the field and they shall make thee to eat grass like oxen and seven times shall pass over thee until thou know that the most high rules in the kingdom of men and gives it to whomsoever he will. Do you think president Trump knows that? Do you think the politicians know that? No? Is there any humility left? The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar and he was driven from men and did eat grass like an ox oxen. And his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair was grown like eagles feathers and his nails like birds birds claws. And at the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar so now Nebuchadnezzar's talking. He's given his commentary. And look look what he's learned. Chuck Missler says he he expects to see Nebuchadnezzar in heaven. That it took something this drastic to bring him to faith. And he says, at the end of the day, as I, Nebuchadnezzar, lift up mine eyes unto heaven and mine understanding returned unto me and I blessed the most high. Now, a little side thing. How many people we know that are struggling with quote unquote mental illness? It's a spiritual thing, you know? God god removes that sanity and allows demons to torment you, you know? And he can stop at any time. Right? He cast the demons out. At the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezz, lift up mine eyes of heaven and understanding and return unto me and I blessed the most high and I praised and honored him who lived forever whose dominion is everlasting dominion and his kingdom is from generation to generation. And so when we pray when the Lord taught us to pray, we pray thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Right? We serve Jesus who's almighty sovereign. And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. And he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? At the same time, my reason returned unto me and for the glory of my kingdom, mine honor and brightness returned unto me and my counselors, so the stump is growing. And my lord sought unto me and I was established in my kingdom and excellent majesty was added unto me. So the way up is down. Humble yourself to the side Lord, he'll lift you up. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the king of heaven. All whose works are truth and his ways justice and those that walk in pride, he is able to abase. Alright. So let's go back to Assyria. Their problem is pride. So all the fowls of the heaven made their nests in the boughs and under the branches and all the beasts of the field bring forth their young and under its shadow dwelt all the great nations. So people were prosperous all around America. All the other nations were prosperous. Just simply the tremendous prosperity of America. America has so much money, they send it out to all the other nations. Aid everywhere. You know? They pay for COVID globally. All the nations have shut down. All the governments get money. You know? Unbelievable system, isn't it? And it looks like the tables are being overturned right now and a whole lot of shaking going on with the Department of Government Efficiency. Elon Musk, when he bought Twitter, removed 80% of the people. He went AI. 80% of the people got their walking papers. Efficiency. All the fowls of the heaven made their nests in the we we we read that. Verse seven. Thus was it fair in its greatness and in the length of its branches for its root was great great waters. So that was the secret of it, the great waters. The cedars in the garden of god could not hide it. The fir trees were not like it. The boughs and the chestnut trees. None of these other type of trees were quite like the cedar trees, quite like Assyria. Assyria there are other trees out there, but Assyria was like a cedar tree. The cedars in the garden, not just anywhere, but the garden of God. Mhmm. And that of like Eden. And the fir trees were not like the boughs and the chestnut trees that were not in it. Branches not was any tree in the garden of God. So the garden of God like unto it in its beauty. And that can be a great day when the Lord restores the earth like the Garden of Eden, and we can walk with the the Lord in the garden in the cool of the day. I think of Enoch. He walked with God and was not he just loved to walk with God, you know. And Adam had a chance to walk with God, and you and I get to walk with the Lord by faith. We walk by faith not by sight. I made I have made it fair by the multitude of its branches, so it's beautiful that all the trees of Eden that were in the garden of God envied it. So all the other trees, all the other nations, all the other cities, they envied Assyria, envied them. And so Assyria is greater than Egypt is what god's getting through to Pharaoh Hofra and that of the Egyptians and all the people who haven't been taken down just yet when this is written. But it's coming. So if I've taken down Assyria, think what I'm gonna do to you Egypt. Mhmm. So therefore, thus saith the lord god, because thou hast lifted up thyself in height and he has shot up his top among thick boughs and his heart is lifted up in his height, I have therefore delivered him into the hand of the mighty one of the nations and he shall surely deal with him. I've driven him out for the wickedness. So the Lord says the mighty one is Nebuchadnezzar. I've delivered you into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar and you're gonna be destroyed because of because of what? What's the reason they're being destroyed? Pride. Because of their pride. What was the reason Satan was cast out of heaven? Pride. Pride. And so what is pride? How what do we define pride as? Building yourself up, propping yourself up, thinking more highly of yourself than you ought, you know? Do we have to walk around with a false humility? Is that is that how we negate pride in our life? Oh, you know, like Eeyore? Do we have to walk around like Eeyore? You know? Ringing our hand, you know? So how do we do that? How do we my dad used to wear a shirt that said that it's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am. Right? It's a joke a joke shirt. So alright. Let's look at some verses. Think about that. The the definition of pride. How pride blinds. A lot of times we don't even know we're filled with pride. We think we're better than other people because of the color of their skin or the kind of car they drive or the house they have or education they have, all the different ways that we compare ourselves with people. And and I can't see Jesus, you know, acting that way, doing that, you know. If anybody could have been prideful, it'd be Jesus. Right? Because he is he is numero uno. But he humbled himself and took on the form of a man in Philippians two. And humbled himself unto death. And then it says not just any kind of death. But even the death of the cross. You know? Imagine that. God almighty, god's only begotten son, coming down to Earth, leaving the splendor of heaven, the exaltation of heaven, and coming down to Earth as the babe of Bethlehem, born in a manger, in a barn, being raised in a city called Nazareth, you know, a carpenter's son, a stepdad, a mom, brothers and sisters who thought he was crazy, and community of people in Nazareth that didn't believe he's the Messiah, a nation that didn't believe he's the Messiah. Creation, he created all things, you know, and the world knew him or not. And I mean, creation knew who he was. They clapped their hands and the but he was in the world of worlds made by him and the world knew him not. He came under his own and his own received him not. And so in John one and so we we see that and and then we see that he came not to be ministered unto. So, he wasn't in a palace. He didn't come to be ministered unto but and the word minister means to serve, to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom. So, the intention of coming was his blood. He'd pay for our sins. And so what an example we have of humility, of emptying yourself, of in his case, the free exercise of his deity. He set aside the privilege of deity to suffer with us and tempted in all points like we and yet without sin. Experiencing the human frailty of being in a human body and being tempted and being whipped and so many different ways that he was tested by the devil and yet without sin. So let's look at some verses. Who wants first Peter five five and six? I'll take it. Okay. That new bible. I'm so excited for you. James four five and six. I heard somebody. I will. Matthew twenty three twelve. I'll take it. Okay. Matthew eighteen four. Eighteen four? Yep. Matthew five three. Anybody? I'll do it. Psalm one thirty eight six. Proverbs fifteen thirty three. 15. Proverbs. Fifteen thirty three. Fifteen thirty three. I'll do it. Okay. Eddie's got it. Proverbs twenty nine twenty three. Proverbs sixteen eighteen and nineteen. I'll do it. Bueller. Bueller. No. Just kidding. Alright. First Peter 556. Yes, please. I'll do that one. Alright. Oh, he had it. Our man with the new body has it. Bible. Oh. No. Don't take it, Rome. He's almost there. Brand new tabs. First Peter five five and six. Alright. Likewise, you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes. All of you, be submissive to one another and be clothed with humility. For God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that may he may exalt you in due time. So you don't wanna be involved in self promotion, ambition, fighting, jockeying, that, and respect your elders, and God resists the proud but gives grace. Grace is unmerited favor to the humble. James five four, five, and six. James four, five, and six. Do you think that the scripture saith in vain, the spirit that dwelleth in us lust us to envy? But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he say it, God sitteth, resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. God resists the proud, gives grace to the humble. Matthew twenty three twelve. So when we are puffed up with pride, we remind the lord of the devil. Right? Doing a coup, a rebellion against god. And one third of the stars went with them. One third of the angels actually believed that they could pull that rebellion off. That's so insane. So insane. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased. And he that shall humble himself shall be exalted. So the way up is down with God. Humble yourself beside the Lord, and he shall lift you up. And so it's his timing, in his timing. Matthew five verse three. Oh, boy. We get her in here. Oh, this is special. Her own bible back, man. I know. Wow. It's got tabs on it. Matthew five verse three. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Amen. Wow. The kingdom of heaven. You wanna keep reading? Yep. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the poor in in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God. And blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Praise the Lord. Amen. Sermon on the Mount. All about humility. Right? Yeah. All about being humble. Allowing god to do it. So amazing. You know, we're joint heirs with Jesus. All that he's inherited. Amen. We receive as heirs because of what he's received. So we don't need to fight for anything. Amen. It all belongs to him. Right? You know, it all belongs to him. Right. Amen. Alright. Psalm one thirty eight six. Though the Lord be high, yet he have respect unto the lowly, but the proud he knoweth the far off. Ain't that amazing? Mhmm. Lot of these tech guys, they don't know God. We get to know God. Amen. He's got our name in Islam's book of life. Proverbs fifteen thirty three. The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom, and before honor is humility. Ain't that great? Mhmm. So let's think about that. In the Bible, before honor, there's fear of Lord, and before honor is humility. Who in the Bible do we remember was humbled in the prison before they went to the palace? Joseph. Joseph. Joseph. That's right. He went I mean, he's getting a dream about being a star and all that. His brothers are all envious. They they sell him away. Right? Mhmm. And who else? Honor? Humility before honor? Moses. Moses. Forty years in the wilderness. 80 years old. You know, spent forty in the splendor of Egypt, forty in the wilderness. Paul. Paul? Yeah? Well, Paul was beat down. Paul was up and then came down. I don't know if he ever went up, you know, but yeah. Yeah. He did. He was up there for a while. Yeah. He was up there. He considered it a privilege of being a prisoner of Jesus. Boy, what a smacking he took. What about Abraham and Sarah? Yeah. Oh, yeah. People laughing at you? They ask you what your name is and my name's Abraham. What's that name mean? Father. Father of many. How many kids you got? Yeah. I don't have any. I don't Can't have any. How long you been trying? Twenty five years. So so how old are you now, old guy? I'm 100. How old's your wife? She's 90. And what's her name? And then the Lord, the next year, gave him Isaac, filled their tent with laughter. Jacob worked for Laban for twenty years. Right? Switcheroo 07/07 and '6. And and then was broken. Broken wrestled with the Lord. Limped away. God changed his name and entered into his birthright, entered into what God had planned for him. What about David? Before honor is humility. Would David come on the scene as? Shepherd. Okay. Shepherd boy is the lowest, most low job on the planet, a shepherd boy. Right? Case in point, his brothers Yeah. Were doing the doing the big stuff. They were hip they were soldiers. Right? Noah. Noah's another one. Yeah. Noah? I didn't finish with David though. Oh, I'm sorry. So, I'm a wax and eloquent. So, just sit back and enjoy it. Alright? So, enjoy it. Good. David, even though he slew a giant and he's being exalted and he gets Saul's daughter, which is a great great thing, He had to run from King Saul for ten years. Yeah. Being chased like a partridge, he said, hiding in caves and such. And the the top 40 songs that were playing, Saul killed his thousands, David his tens of thousands, and everybody's hearing it on the radio. And Saul would get in a rage. He's so angry that everybody was singing David praises and all, threw a javelin at him, tried to pierce him against the wall and going insane and Samuel, the prophet comes up and you know, rips this the cloth of Saul and said, the kingdom's been stripped from you, you know, ripped from you and given them to David and and then I say the humility of Jonathan. Jonathan, David's best friend, is the son of Saul. But in his walking relationship with the Lord, he accepted the fact that David would be the next king. Isn't that amazing? Alright. Tell me about Noah. He was mocked. He's mocked? How long did he did he wait for the crowning? A hundred and twenty. A hundred and twenty years. And what did he do meanwhile? Built an ark. And preach righteousness. Preach Preacher of righteousness. How many people in his congregation? Him and his family. His family. Eight. That's the most important part of your congregation. Yeah. Yeah. Eight people. Right? Yeah. You got your kids into heaven. Now you got your grandkids. Right? Most important. Amen. And so, yeah, they got in the got in the ark and ark's a type of Christ. The door is shut. And they went through judgment and came out the other side. And and so, yeah, he had to wait to didn't rain. Hundred and twenty years of building it. Anybody else you're thinking of before honor is humility? Sometimes we have to wait a long time. Right? Seems long for us. You might have been waiting five years already, ten years. You just you never know. You don't know how long the Lord is emptying you. Now if God goes too quick, what happens? You get puffed up with pride. You get puffed up with pride because you haven't been emptied. You haven't been humbled. Right? So if you're king Saul and the people are whining and saying to Samuel, we don't want your sons you know, ruling over us. We want a king like all the other nations. Then what happens with with the pastor, with the leader, is god says to him, they haven't rejected you, Samuel. They've rejected me. And so they they take and wanna have a king like all the other nations and they find a guy that's good looking, head taller than everybody, but he hasn't been tested. He hasn't been prepared. You ever met someone like that? The doors just open up for him just because they're connected. They got money or whatever, but terrible leadership. Terrible. Terrible. Terrible. Didn't go through the school of hard knocks. And and so Saul's there, and Saul's a man after the people. He seeks to be a people pleaser. So when I tell people at our church that I'm not a politician, that's what I mean. I'm not looking for a consensus vote that people like me, and if I keep doing what they want me to do, they'll keep liking me and the church will grow. That's a man pleaser. I have an audience of one. Well, two. I gotta please Kathy and the Lord. That's it. And and and that's that's where we have to be for for if we wanna see God move and work in our midst, we have to always focus on it's his church. It's Jesus' church. And we're all to obey him. We're not to allow men to gain control of his church and turn it into a business and to quench the holy spirit. It's better to be poor. It's better to be leveraged. It's better to have nothing. And yet have everything, to have the freedom to teach God's word without people. You know, a lot of pastors, they have they have good salaries and, you know, a lot of stuff that the board can give them, but they also have to do what the board says, board run churches. And I've heard of many pastors that had to get up there and apologize because people got convicted. Yeah. So you become a hireling. You're told by the board what you can say, what you can't say, and you're elected in a membership church. It's a political process. And so you're you're you're a man pleaser. You're just trying to please people. And a lot of the pastors can't say the stuff that I do because they'll get in trouble. You know? They'll lose people. Nickels and noses. The board will put pressure on them. Hey, we're losing people when you talk about prophecy. You know? It's doom and gloom to them. You know? So better to be poor than to be a liar. Amen. And we have the true riches anyway. Amen. We didn't we didn't sell Jesus out. And I I would hate. I mean, I I don't want to go there but basically, making money is not hard. If you want to make money, you can go out there and work and make money but if you're going to be a pastor, It better not because you want to make money. You know? Because the devil's going to come along and say, what's your price? Yeah. And you're gonna wind up selling your soul. So when these people think that they're gonna leverage me and put pressure on my wife and us, and man, they're just so mistaken, you know, because we're already dead. We're already dead. We're we're we're living for the Lord, you know. So what are they gonna do to me next? You know, what are they gonna threaten me next? And here's the other side of it. If you give into those people, people within the church, the wealthier guys, they'll pay for everything. You won't lose buildings. You won't you won't lose anything. And they love their name to be attached to a winner. And so you'll keep progressing in the community and they'll be able to boast of what they built. Right? But Psalm a 127 says, except the Lord build the house, they that labor labor in vain that build it. So there's a lot of dead churches out there. Big buildings, lots of people going, but dead. It doesn't have the power to transform and change lives. So we don't wanna do that. And it's based upon pride. You have to humble yourself. You have to constantly humble yourself. And I when I know this that God resists the proud and he gives grace to the humble, it's it's an easy decision. Alright. So did we do Proverbs fifteen thirty three? Yeah. Psalm one hundred and thirty eight six. The next one is Psalm one thirty eight six. Okay. We're backing up to Psalm one thirty eight six. Okay. Thanks, Debbie. Though the Lord be high, yet he have yet hath he respect under the lowly, but the proud he knoweth afar off. That's so sweet that we can we don't get put on hold. We don't get say, oh, God's got time in this itinerary three weeks from now. You can see him. You can talk to him, but we can boldly go before his throne of grace in our time of need. I mean, right now, we we have access to his throne of grace anytime we want. But the pharisee, he prays with himself. He doesn't have access because he's so filled with pride. He he can't even get there. And and Jesus said he prayed with himself. You know? He doesn't have any access. So Proverbs fifteen thirty three. Yeah. I did that one. Oh, okay. Proverbs twenty nine twenty three. Twenty nine twenty three. A man's pride shall bring him low, but honor shall shall upon the humble be excuse me. But honor shall uphold the humble in spirit. And if you're ever afraid of your pride that it might bring you low? None of you are proud though. None of you are proud. It's another person. Somebody else. Proverbs sixteen eighteen and nineteen. I'm so glad how honest you guys are because I have the same problem. Proverbs sixteen eighteen and nineteen. Pride those before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. Better is it to be of a humble spirit with the lowly than to drive the spoil with the proud. Divide the spoil with the proud. Amen. So Judah fell. We saw that in in Ezekiel sixteen fifty six. Tyre fell in Ezekiel 27 verse three. Egypt in Ezekiel 30 verse six fell because of pride. And Assyria fell because of pride we see here. Sodom and Gomorrah fell because of pride in Ezekiel 16. So what was the sin of Sodom? Pride, fullness of bread, idleness, and they cared not for the poor and needy. Now they're sexually immoral, but what led to it? The idleness, the the affluence, the idle time, you know, and the pride that puffed them up and didn't think that that they needed to fear God. Alright. So your heart is lifted up in its height. So in the interest of time, I'll just let you know you can go to Zephaniah two thirteen, describes the destruction of of Assyria. And then in Nahum three one through 19, a whole picture of the destruction of Assyria. And happened in June with Nebuchadnezzar as the heavy, as the mighty one there, nations. He shall surely deal with him. I have driven him out for his wickedness. So Nineveh went down in June and strangers and terrible of the nations have cut him off and have left him upon the mountains and in all the valleys and the branches are fallen and his bow are broken by all the rivers of the land and the people of the earth are gone down from his shadow and have left him. And so he's been abandoned. And I always think of king David with his 650 mighty men, 600 mighty men, and when things went bad, they were plotting to kill him. I think of Moses when things went a little rough, the people are plotting to kill him. That's just part of it. And David went away by himself and encouraged himself in his God. And the Lord told him that I'm gonna give you everything back. So all that they lost at Ziglag, all their mighty men when they were fighting with the Philistines and they left the city and they left all their wives and children, everybody there. It says his mighty men wept till they couldn't weep anymore. These are manly men and they're weeping till they can't weep anymore because their women and children are gone. Nothing's left. And and we're gonna kill David. We're gonna kill David. You know, they wanted to get they want some vengeance. And so David got away with the Lord, got alone with the Lord and began to pray. And the Lord told David that you're gonna recover everything, every little stitch, everything you're gonna recover. And so they left 200 with the stuff at Besor, at the Brook Besor, and the 400 went after the Amalekites. And they found they found an Amalekite Amalekite on the ground that was way that was emaciated and starving. And and he they gave them some honey and something to eat and it revived him. And then he told them where where they were, and David and the boys went in and took everything. They they recovered everything. And so you go from being a hero to a goat so quickly. Gotta be careful of that. Gotta, you know, one day people think you're good, and the next day they're telling everybody you're a demon and demon possessed and and they they lose words. They don't have enough words to describe how much they hate you. So so verse 11, I have therefore delivered him into the hand of the mighty one of the nations and he shall surely deal with him. I have driven him out from the wick from his wickedness. And strangers, the terrible of the nations have cut him off and have left him and upon the mountains and in the valleys and branches are fallen and his boughs are broken by all the rivers of the land and all the people of the earth are gone down from his shadow and have left him. So again, completely abandoned. Upon his ruin shall all the fowls of the heavens remain and all the beasts of the field shall be upon his branches. So you're gonna be devoured. Absolutely devoured. There's nothing left except a place for you know the birds and the beasts. To the end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves for their height neither shoot up their top among the thick bowels neither their trees stand up in their height. All that drink water for they are all delivered. We see that word all all all delivered unto death to the lower parts of the earth in the midst of the children of men with those who go down to the pit. So all are gonna die. Every single person's gonna die. Gonna be wiped out. Gonna go down to the pit down to the pit of hell. So you're you're you're dead physically. You're dead economically. You're dead as a nation. And now you're dead spiritually. And you're probably dead all these ways because first of all you're dead spiritually. Had you been alive spiritually, then he's gonna provide for you, protect you, and watch over you. And so he says verse 15, thus saith the Lord God, in the day when he went down to to Sheol, I caused mourning. I covered the deep for him and I restrained its foods and the great waters and were stayed and I caused Lebanon to mourn for him and all the trees and the fields fainted for him. So everybody's in shock. Kinda like Babylon, Revelation 18. The whole world's in shock. As in a moment, Babylon's gone. It's gone. New York City's gone. It's in a moment. It's gone. I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall when I cast him down to down to Sheol. Sheol is the grave or Sheol is hell. In the New Testament, the word for hell in a general way is Hades. In the Old Testament, the Hebrew is Sheol. And it could be a grave, the grave, you're dead, you're in the grave. It's a temporary abode. You know that. Right? Sheol's a temporary abode. The grave is a temporary abode. Whether you're a Christian or non Christian, it's temporary. The eventual eternal abode for the wicked dead is a lake of fire. Right? Mhmm. Revelation 20, all gonna stand before the great white throne judgment. The devil, the beast, the false prophet, lake of fire. And Jesus warned about the Lake Of Fire. It's a place where the worm dieth not and the fire is never quenched. And and he said to the religious leaders, how can you escape the damnation of hell? You know? I mean, that's that's pretty strong strong language. You brood of vipers, you know? I'm glad you didn't I don't like horror movies. That's a horror movie. So I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall when I cast him down to hell with those who descend into the pit. So equal equality, wealthy, poor, whatever, all wind up in the grave. It's appointed unto all men once to die than the judgment. So the lie that's being propagated presently and gonna be propagated or promoted in the tribulation period is that you won't die. So second Thessalonians two says, because they suppress the truth, they reject the truth of who God is. God's gonna give them over to a strong delusion that they would believe the lie. And some are already Noah Yuval Harari and Jared Kushner and others. You're hearing them spout off and boast that they're not gonna die. That technology is gonna allow them to live forever. And so they're delusional. They're delusional. You look at your your portfolio. You look at what you're worth, your net worth, and you wanna make that grow over your lifetime. But the most important portfolio is your eternal portfolio. Have you prepared for heaven? Have you done what's necessary ahead of time to secure your spot in heaven? You know? And it's a free gift. All you gotta do is all you gotta do is open your heart. Open your heart and receive the free gift, you know. And then you can be richer than anybody ever, you know. Oh, god. It's just so hard to fathom people wanna sing with Frank Sinatra. I did it my way. It's just how's that working for you, Frank? You know? Sometimes those guys say they wanna be buried in a Cadillac with a pack of cigarettes. You know? How's that working? You're smoking for all eternity, man. The the way they think of the grave, you know, like some big party. Alright. They say when you talk about hell you should be weeping. You shouldn't be laughing. It's very serious. Alright. Vicky, you can cry if you want. I'm bad. The choice of the best Well, I think I'm I'm I'm trying to speak concerning the absurdity of not preparing and being so arrogant that you think it's a game, that you think you're gonna party with your friends, you're in for a rude awakening. So down to hell with those who descend into the pit and all the trees of Eden. So the big huge trees of Eden, the wonderful beautiful trees of Eden, you're going with them too, they're going. Equal in death, equal opportunity judgment day, the choice and best of Lebanon, all the drink water shall be comforted in the lower parts of the earth. Now that's a weird verse. All the drink water shall be comforted in the lower parts of the earth. Why would you be comforted? How about in the sense of you're in the tribulation period and it's hell. It's hell on earth. And you're in Revelation nine and you realize my way isn't working. Wouldn't you want to escape through death? You think that I'll be comforted. Death is better than staying on top of the planet. Right? Yeah. And people try to kill themselves in Revelation nine and they can't escape the torment even through death, you know. So sometimes we think, I just went out of this trial. I just went out of this life. I just went out of this. You know, think of a war torn country. One of the ways of escape would be death rather than torture. So they're thinking that they're gonna be more comforted by going to hell, by going into the grave. And that's what they're telling themselves. But that's where their worst troubles begin is in in eternity. And so they're comforted in the lower parts of the earth. So the big boys are fallen and it's not a party. It's a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth, Jesus said, where the worm dieth not and the fires never quenched. So what I get from that is if I take a worm at a campground and I throw it into the fire, what happens to that worm? It sizzles and burns up. Right? Well, the worm died not the fires never quenched is in the sense of it's not in the abstract. It's the literal. And that worms you're not gonna just burn up. You're gonna feel the pain. Your body, you as a being, are gonna feel weeping and gnashing of teeth and no cessation. No stopping. No no some some teach hell as a place of annihilation. Just be annihilated. You know, a god of love would make it where you're annihilated. You know? He's speaking in the abstract. No. It's literal. Jesus is saying weeping, gnashing of teeth, tormented, and we see a glimpse of the rich man of Lazarus who were in Hades. They were in Hades, a holding compartment, and it was a place of double compartment, one of paradise of Abraham's bosom, and the other side was a place of grievous torment where the rich man was wanting Lazarus to dip his finger in the water to touch his tongue because he there was such a thirst and that's what life is like without god. There's a spiritual thirst because you were made as a spiritual being for fellowship with god and hell is basically being away from god. Heaven is being with god, you know, being with him and being cast another description is being cast to outer darkness. Where's that at? In the galaxy, you know, in the universe, you know, away from god. And and and darkness just just thick darkness for all eternity. So they also went down into hell. Them those also that slain with the swords and they that were his arm. So his military is going down also, who dwelt under his shadow in the midst of the nations. So you got this big military that the Assyrians had. And now he's gonna summarize. He's done a comparison of Egypt and Assyria, and now he's gonna deal with deal with a pharaoh. Now one other thing. When the Rabshaka was coming to in July, the Assyrians destroyed the 10 northern tribes, Israel, we call them. The southern tribe is Judah. And although the Assyrians are very strong and able to subdue the 10 northern tribes, Israel Judah had like 46 forts, 46 outlying area military camps that the Assyrians were able to subdue, if not all of them. But when they came to Jerusalem and tried to destroy Jerusalem, put a siege around it, they were unable. And they were unable to destroy Jerusalem. But the Rabshaka, the propagandist, he would shout and he would insult the leadership, Hezekiah and all. He'd insult the king of of Judah and say, all the other nations have fallen. Everybody's fallen. We've subdued everybody. What makes you think that your god is gonna save you from us? I mean, think about that. That's what the devil does. He's a liar. Mhmm. And he tries to get you to trust in someone or something else, you know, make an alliance with somebody else. And and you and I, we trust in the one that raised himself from the dead. Right? Amen. How could there be anybody greater than him? Alright. So to whom art thou thus like in glory and in the greatness among the trees of Eden. So he asked him a question. Who are you like? He asked him that before In verse two, whom art thou like in the greatness? Behold the Assyrian. Are you as great as the Assyrians Egypt? They went down. Babylon took them down. So what are you thinking? To whom art thou like in in your glory and in the greatness among the trees of Eden? Yet thou shall be brought down with the trees of Eden unto the lower parts of the earth and thou shall lie in the midst of the uncircumcised with those who are slain by the sword. This pharaoh and all the multitudes saith the Lord God. So Egypt you're going down. Pharaoh Haphrae you're going down and I'm gonna use Nebuchadnezzar to take you down. Now if we backed it up to June, we see an instance where where the Assyrians were trying to get the help of the Egyptians, and they're going against the Egyptians. Let's see here. What was it? It was in second Kings twenty three twenty nine, the Assyrians, I think, were fighting with pharaoh Necho. And Josiah went out to help pharaoh Necho or to help the Assyrians. Let's let's read it. Second Kings twenty three twenty nine. Gotta get it right. And anyway, he died in battle by meddling, by getting involved in something he shouldn't have he shouldn't have gotten involved in. And then the the transfer of power was moving in the direction to the Babylonians. The Babylonians were starting to be raised up. Second Kings twenty three twenty nine. And this is a good lesson for you. If you forget, Just turn to the page and just reread it and you'll get all the little particulars, twenty three twenty nine. Because you don't wanna misquote God's word. Alright. Verse 25, and like him was there no king before him, he turned to the lord with all of his heart and with all of his soul, with all of his might according Moses neither after him. So the the reforms of Josiah, he's a godly king. Notwithstanding the lord turned not from the fierceness of the great wrath which he anger was kindled against Judah because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked him. So although Josiah did a lot of good things, the Lord says no because of the sin of Manasseh, I'm still going to judge Judah. And the Lord said I will remove Judah also out of my sight and I have removed Israel and will cast off the city Jerusalem which I have chosen and the house of which I said my name shall be there. Now the rest of the acts of Josiah and all that he did are they not written in the book of the chronicles of kings of Judah? In his days, Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria to the River Euphrates and king Josiah went against him and slew him at Megiddo when he had seen him. And his servants carried him so so king Josiah got involved in the battle and got killed by pharaoh Necho in that battle that the Egyptians were having with the Assyrians. He shouldn't have meddled. And his servant carried him in a chariot dead from the ghetto and brought him to Jerusalem and buried him in his own sepulchre. And the people of the land took Jehoias, the son of Josiah, and anointed him and made him king in his father's stead. Alright. There you go. So that was tied in there also. Alright. So let's pray. Father, thank you for tonight. Thank you that we can study your word. And Lord, we pray that we go away from here just so thankful that you love us. So thankful that we don't need to be puffed up with pride. And when we are Lord we thank you for our wives that you've given us to help humble us. And keep us on track. And I just pray that you bless our families. You resist the proud. You give grace to the humble. And Lord we're almost home. We're almost at the finish line. I pray that we don't lose any. We don't lose any on the way, Lord. On and if anybody falls, any of us fall, Lord, that we'd be loving and patient enough to pick pick them up, Lord. Lift them up. Get them going again. Get them going in the right direction. That way, not lose any, Lord. So build your church and give us the wisdom and the love and the power of the Holy Spirit to be used of you in whatever capacity you choose, Lord. Thank you for Rob and Vicky and open their home and all the nice food and friends that are here and watch over our families. Give us traveling mercies home. And, Lord, bring healing in your wings to those who are sick. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

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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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