If we think about a bell, what is a bell?
What are its physical properties?
What does it do?
Well, a bell, it's a piece of metal that makes a sound, but it doesn't just make a random
sound.
A bell is metal that is tuned to a certain pitch.
So have you ever seen those bell choirs where you basically have a bunch of people lined
up and people have a bell in each hand?
They might have two bells.
They might switch bells if they get really fancy with this.
But basically they ring bells and they can play all the notes of the scale.
They can play beautiful, complicated music with a bell, right?
So what is a bell?
A bell by anyone's definition is metal that is shaped in such a way to produce a specific
pitch or a specific sound.
So in that case, it's kind of like a musical instrument in that sense, except it only makes
one note.
And if you think about it, we have bells in our ... Well, there's a bell right back there,
in fact.
Don't ring it though, because we're not even close to breaking the record tonight.
In fact, we're setting a new record for low attendance on a Wednesday night.
We need to start having a prize for how low we can get the attendance during the coronavirus.
All right?
Well, you won't even have to buy that one, no, I'm just kidding.
But anyway, if you think about like a church bell, they're always tuned to some beautiful
pitch or they'll play a song, they make music basically, or they at least play a specific
pitch.
Well, if we think about that, what does that represent or what does that symbolize?
This symbolizes preaching.
And the reason that I say that is because God likens a preacher to a trumpet all the
time.
And he talks about a trumpet that gives an uncertain sound.
That would be like a bad preacher.
A preacher who doesn't speak in words that are clear.
A preacher that speaks and people walk away like, where does he stand?
What does he believe?
What is the truth?
I don't understand.
You ever just walk out of a sermon just confused, like what was the point?
Or I can't figure out what this guy believes.
You know, it's like when you ask a politician what they believe about something and they
gave you this really complicated answer to kind of snow you and kind of please both sides.
You know, a good preacher, he gets up and he communicates clearness.
You don't walk away wondering, man, is salvation by faith or is it by works or is it both?
I don't know.
You know, you walk out and you say, hey, it's all by faith.
It's not of work, so any man should boast.
And aren't there a lot of preachers who mix that up and muddy that and confuse that?
And basically when they sound the bell of the gospel and salvation by faith, it's kind
of like, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow.
They got like a whammy bar.
They're up here like, oh, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, faith works,
faith works, faith works, faith works, faith works, faith works.
And we're just like, dong, faith.
You see what I'm saying?
We're giving one note.
We're not like, wow, wow, wow, wow.
We're just like, whoa, all right.
So you understand the difference.
The bell is, is given a clear sound.
It's giving a certain sound, just like a trumpet would be like, you know, you can take a bell
like dong, and it's just like, that pitch goes forth and everybody knows what's being
said.
Does everybody understand?
I mean, that's what a bell is.
Okay.
Now what's a pomegranate?
Well, who has never eaten a pomegranate before?
Put up your hand if you've never had one.
All right.
People are embarrassed.
There's a few that are embarrassed to say, well, look, don't be embarrassed.
Don't feel bad because you know what?
I was an adult before I'd ever eaten any pomegranate.
I was in my twenties.
All right.
So don't feel bad because not everybody just grows up eating pomegranate pips.
All right.
I love pomegranate pips and I do eat them from time to time, but when I was a kid, I'd
never heard of such a thing.
I had to look in a book and you know, this is before Google, you know, so you know, when
I'm reading the Bible and I'm reading about pomegranates, I'm curious about, I had to
look it up in the encyclopedia and there's some black and white drawing of a pomegranate
in the encyclopedia.
I couldn't just go to Google images or something.
But look, if you've ever done anything with a pomegranate, the thing that stands out is
just the ridiculous amount of seeds.
Am I right?
I mean, you know, you have an apple, you eat this big apple and there's a few little seeds
in the middle.
You eat an orange, there are a few seeds, but the pomegranate is just seed upon seed
upon seed.
It's just pretty much just the thing.
Now this is why it's also, could be a symbol or a picture of reproduction because of just
all the, the, the fruitfulness, you know, the seeds of it.
So the way I look at this, the bell pomegranate, bell pomegranate bell, here's the way I see
it.
God's word is preached, brings forth fruit, preached, brings forth fruit.
It's preached.
It brings forth fruit.
It's preached.
It brings forth fruit.
Clear preaching, like, like ringing a bell type preaching produces fruit.
It's associated with fruit.
It's like, it's like inter, it's just like producing fruit, clear preaching, producing
fruit, clear preaching, producing fruit, clear preaching.
So I think that's a pretty strong symbol here.
I like it.