So in Luke chapter 13 that I really just want to focus on the first few verses there
Where it says in verse 1 there were present there were present at that season some that told them the Galileans
Whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices and Jesus answering said unto them suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans
Because they suffered such things I tell you nay, but except ye repent you shall all likewise
Perish or those 18 upon whom the tower in Siloam fell and slew them
Thinking not that they were sinners above all men that dwell in Jerusalem
I tell you nay, but except you shall repent you shall all likewise perish now
This isn't the thrust of the sermon
But whenever you read these verses you have to kind of clarify
What Jesus is saying here because there's a lot of people today that would turn to this passage and say you know
That you have to repent of your sins to be saved and this is something that they would quote
But we have to remember what is the context here and Jesus it says there except you shall repent you shall all likewise perish
right now the
Key word there is likewise. He's saying in the same manner. You're going to perish now
Who is he talking to right and he's talking to the Jews here, right?
and they're coming to him and they're saying look Pilate has mingled of the blood of some of these Galileans with the
Sacrifices and they and then he brings up this tower in Siloam that fell on these other people
Right and he's saying except you and he's speaking to the those people at that time the nation of Israel
And he says except you repent you shall all what likewise perish
meaning that Pilate who was what a Roman is going to come and and shed your blood and
That these this this city, you know Jerusalem these walls are gonna be broken down. Okay, so it's real important to understand that
You know, it's true that Jesus does say you got to repent but there's nothing no talk about repenting of your sin or anything like that
Now again, that's not the thrust of the message
But whenever you read that passage, that's just something I'd like to take a minute to explain because it's one that's often
Twisted and used it out of context to promote a false doctrine
Okay
because the Bible is real clear that
Salvation is by grace through faith and that not of yourselves and it's a gift of God not of works lest any man should boast
That we all we have to do is believe on Christ and he gives unto us eternal life that whosoever believeth in him should not
Perish the one thing is to believe right and he gives us everlasting life
It's everlasting because we're not good enough to earn it
We're got good enough to keep it. It's not of works that we're saved
That's a whole nother sermon, but you know, I just wanted to touch on that
So but what I I want to use this passage to point out something here is that Jesus is you know taught there
They're bringing up these people and Jesus himself is citing these people where this tower and Siloam fell upon them
Right and Siloam is you'll it's a you'll see that in the Old Testament. It's called Siloah or Shiloh
And you go over to John chapter 9 keep something in Luke 13 go to John chapter 9
This is something that you'll see in Nehemiah, which is mentioned
It's it's it's a basically a pool a fountain that was near this. There's this this this wall
Okay, which was called Siloah it says in Nehemiah 3, but the gate of the fountain repaired shall shall and the son of
Kolheza, he built the wall of the pool of Siloah. Okay, so you can see again where this is a
Commonplace it's in Jerusalem. So that all ties into what I was talking about before about the Romans tearing down
that wall
but if you look there in
John chapter 9 verse 1 and as Jesus passed by saw a man which was blind from his birth and
his disciples asked him saying master who did sin this man or his parents that he was born blind and
Jumped down to verse 6 he heals them and when he had thus spoken
He spat on the ground and made clay of spittle and he anointed with his eyes the eyes of the blind
of the blind man
Which with the clay and said in him go and wash in the pool of Siloam, which is by interpretation sent
He went his way therefore and washed and
Came so you could see this is a pool that's near this space in Jerusalem
but Jesus is bringing up the fact that there was this time when a tower in that wall fell and
crushed the people that were there right the 18 people that were there and
They had come to him and said hey
What about these people that that the Romans had killed that Pilate has mingled the blood of these certain Galileans with their sacrifices?
And what I want to get at the point I want to make this morning
Is that you can be in the wrong place at the wrong time?
right the people that went to that pool that day they're thinking hey, we're just gonna go down to this pool and
You know wash up or do whatever they're gonna do there next thing
I know a towers falling on them right people are scattering, you know, sometimes things just come out of the blue
you know bad things happen just
Randomly in life don't they and you know a lot of times those things cannot be helped, right?
You can't really blame the people that went there that day saying well, they should have known better
You know, they should have you know before they got there
They should have set an engineer before them to have that wall inspected and make sure it was up to code and everything else
You know, sometimes accidents are just gonna happen in life bad things are gonna happen
But at the same time we don't want to be putting ourselves in harm's way
Okay, and I'm gonna make application at the end more specifically
But the reason I'm preaching this is there was a couple, you know, and I don't normally preach on things that happen in the news
It's not one. I'm not paying close enough attention to really, you know, speak intelligently about it, but it's a lot of times
It's just the same old story over and over again anyway
But I saw a couple of things this week that you know, I thought would be you know
Where they were a teachable moment
Okay, and I want to talk about this morning and if you would go over to Ecclesiastes chapter number nine
Is this astro world festival down in Houston, Texas where a bunch of young people were were killed at a rap concert
Who heard about this in the news? All right, several hands are going up
Okay, so a lot of people know about this and you know, and again, let me just start by saying this
I'm not blaming the people that died that for being there. Okay, they're just you know, they're you know, they're unsaved
They don't know Christ. They're just doing what they do
They didn't know what was gonna happen that day
But at the same time, you know, we have to understand that when we put ourselves in harm's way bad things can happen
Okay, and we can be in the wrong place at the wrong time and I believe you know
There was an example of this here at this asteroid fest
Astro world festival in Houston and again, I'm not trying to you know downplay the tragedy. I'm not trying to
You know blame necessarily the victims that were there and died and suffered and were injured, you know
I understand I'm trying to be sensitive about all that
But the simple fact is is that when you're going to these places
This isn't the first time things like this have happened and you know when these things happen you have to ask yourself
What were some of these people doing there to begin with, you know
Obviously there was a lot of young people that were making their own decisions
but when you see a 14 year old boy and a 16 year old girl that are at this concert at a
Rap festival like this where I don't think they're singing, you know, you know, I love you. You love me
We're one big happy thing. This isn't a Barney show. Okay, this wasn't you know, some harmless little thing
This was you know, gangster rap. I don't know
I've never heard of this guy before where this this took place
But you know, we can learn from it that if we go around and put ourselves into dangerous situations
If we put ourselves in harm's way
We can find ourselves being in the wrong place at the wrong time
And if you look at Ecclesiastes look at chapter 9 verse 11
It says I return and saw under the Sun that the race is not to the swift
Nor the battle to the strong neither yet bred to the wise nor yet rich men not riches to men of understanding
But to nor yet favor to men of skill but time and chance happen to happeneth to them all
verse 12 for man also knoweth not his time as
The fishes that are taken in an evil net and as the birds that are caught in the snare
So are the sons of men snared in any time when it follows suddenly upon them
So the Bible is telling us that there's times, you know
When when your number is up
It's up and that men can often be just taken and what in an evil snare
That if we go around and put ourselves in harm's way bad things can happen to us
You know a lot of times obviously it's time and chance that can happen to them
When that tower in Siloam fell on those guys
You know time and chance that that tower was you know whittled away by erosion and the weather
Wasn't looked at and eventually it fell that's just time and chance
But at the same time we don't want to be the people that just willingly put ourselves into harm's way go to places that really
Where bad things can happen and then be surprised when bad things happen
Especially when you're going to places like this concert, which I'm just gonna come out and say it with satanic to its core
It's satanic to its core folks and you know a big proof of that is that you know
The media is just whitewashing it now
They don't they're going out and say oh it had nothing to do with Satan
They're making articles and there's a lot of their tick-tock is scrubbing anybody that comes out that was there that begins describing it
Begins talking about how they felt they were literally in a concert in hell
That's what these were the concert goers and these weren't independent fundamental Baptist
You know Bible believing Christians that were saying this these were worldly people who are into rap were there to have
You know a party or do whatever they're gonna do and it wasn't a bunch of hallucinogens and things
There's witnesses that coming out saying yeah, I was stone sober and this is how I felt. I felt trapped
I couldn't breathe and we're gonna talk a little bit about it about what exactly what this place looked like and
We're talking specifically about the astro-ward astro-world festival in Houston, Texas
which was just a couple weeks ago on November 5th a Friday where a crowd rushed a
Crowd rush occurred during the first night of the festival a music event founded by American rapper Travis Scott
Now that's a very tame name for a rapper Travis Scott. You think is this a PGA golf tournament?
He's referring to Travis Scott, you know, most of the time these guys go with these just you know
Ridiculous names, you know, but I had never heard as Travis Scott prior to this and I'm glad for it
but he's founded this festival and there was this crowd rush where
basically
he was the story goes is that he was just kind of encouraging people just
bust in there and they were way beyond capacity and
Everyone just got pushed towards the towards the stage and people were getting literally crushes people that were there saying look
I couldn't turn my head. There were so many people now
You got to think about what that would be like to be there why people would describe it as feeling helpless
Inescapable, they couldn't breathe right and it those are really good descriptions of hell when you think about it. It's inescapable
You know, it's hard to breathe when everything's that hot that you feel hopeless, right?
Because there is no hope in hell
You can understand why they would like and under that before we even get into the description of the stage and what was written
There and the things that this rapper himself said, okay, but so put yourself in this situation
imagine being crammed in there and not even be able to do this and
Having all just hundreds thousands of people behind you pressing and people pressing back
One lady was just saying I thought my trachea was going to be crushed
Okay, and again, you know, I'm sure none of them went to that concert that night thinking
Hey, I'm gonna go risk life and limb
I'm gonna see you know
Hundreds of people injured and multiple people die, but you know, it's worth it. No one went there
I understand that but when we put ourselves in harm's way when we go to the places that on all honesty
We should never go and I'm just gonna say it
You know these these, you know, no, especially no Christian should ever be caught dead and what are these these concerts?
You know, they're satanic that there's nothing godly going on there. It's worldly. It's not edifying
It's gonna it's they're just trying to corrupt the minds of young people today and they're doing a very good job at job at it
And that's nothing new that stuff's been going on for a long time
But imagine being there and feeling that way being trapped and not being able to move and and trying to get out
It's a very frightening thought, you know, the more I listen to these interviews the more I kind of put myself in that situation
It's just it's it's scary. It's a very eerie feeling especially when you have going on in front of you
What was going on in front of you but at this event just for those that you don't know a
Nine people died including eight on the night of the concert a ninth critically injured concert goer died on November 10th
The causes of death are in under investigation now
That was what really blew my mind and you know
I didn't look a lot into it because like I said
It's it's hard to get the truth of what happened anymore
Because if you just go on Google and try to look this up
It's just you know, they're just whitewashing it and just saying oh all these far-right people that are saying
Okay, calling it satanic and it's not this and it's not that you know
they're just trying to get people to look away and some people have said and
That there's actually there were actually more people that died. No, I can't confirm that, you know
I'm just going with what the story says until I hear otherwise, but they're saying at least nine eight on the night thereof
But notice he says there that these deaths are under investigation
And what was being reported and what you see in a lot of these videos is
These people while they're listening to it just go into convulsions
They just start having seizures and then they eventually, you know, they died some of them came out of it
but a lot of them died and
You would think well if nine people died obviously was all because they got crushed they got trampled
But that wasn't always the case. Some people just went into convulsions and had seizures and died
Which is a very weird thing, isn't it?
I mean we're talking about young healthy people without a bunch of precondition, you know pre-existing conditions
This wasn't you know, this wasn't the you know senior night, you know when a bunch of people are showing up
You know that are knocking on death's door. These are young people that you know
By all means should have been able to walk out of there, you know
Well, but all of a sudden they're just convulsing they're just you know flopping on the floor
They're there's you know, they're having paramedics come and perform CPR. They're getting crowd-surfed out on stretchers
Ambulances are coming going and you say well surely they stopped the concert. No, the guy just kept right on going
The guy just kept right on going within the four songs
Someone's up on this on a cameraman stage saying, you know, a guy's already dead. Stop the show
There's whole groups of people that are saying stop the show stop the show
They're trying to stop it and you know this this rapper Travis Scott for about a second goes
Oh, you know give that guy some room and then just goes right back into a show. I
Mean wouldn't you think you'd be shocked if you were a performer that people were just dropping dead at your concert when you saw that
People were being literally crushed and trampled wouldn't you try and stop it?
You know because you know and this is just my belief is that this is what this guy
He didn't care at all. He didn't care about this
He had no regard for the life that was there and you know, and because it was satanic, you know
He was probably you know kind of in on it in a way
Because he's ultimately serving Satan now you say all the devil Satan all that
Do we not just read Luke chapter 13 where Jesus healed a woman that was bound by Satan?
Did we I mean don't we not believe the Bible here that we believe that we wrestle not against flesh and blood
But against principalities and powers and high places against the rulers of the darkness of this world, you know
That's what I believe as a Christian. I believe that there is a spiritual realm that we exist in right now
Where we have the devil we have Satan, you know, and we don't know a lot about it
But you know apparently these people that are into this stuff the occult, you know the music industry
You know where you think it's just a big
It's just a joke when they say they sold their souls for rock and roll. No, they they really did
I really believe that I believe that that industry is satanic to its core and there's been people that have come out of that
Or people that were going into it said hey, well, I can't even do with this
They want they're into all kinds of wicked stuff things that the Bible says
It's a shame to even speak about which those those things which they do in secret. We should even talk about them
Okay, because you know, but they're into that, you know, and I believe that that's a lot
What's going a lot of what was going on here and say well, why would you say that? Why would you call this?
satanic
Well, you know this concert was satanic
for one you had a
When they got to the concert you had a big blow up like a you know
Like the bounce houses and things like that. They blow up now. It wasn't a bounce house. That was there. No, what was it?
It was this Travis Scott's head and made out to look like a skull and
It was his mouth half open to the ground
It was just as big probably as tall as this building and it looked just like his head, but it looked like a skull
That's what you walk through to get there you walk through a skull with a gaping mouth to get in there, right?
And look, I know there's people that are gonna make videos and they're gonna claim all this esoteric, you know
Occultic knowledge about how that's a hell gate and everything else like that
Look, I don't know about any of that
But I know that's definitely demonic to me when you have a giant skull you're walking through, you know
The Bible says all day they hate me love death, you know people that hate God they exalt death
They love death and I'm gonna get to what this guy actually said at the beginning of the concert and dispel hopefully all doubts
How about the fact that the stage when you looked at it from overhead was an inverted cross?
You know this it started down there and it came down here then had a cross that was inverted with the end of it
Being where the stage was and then at the end of the stage you had a giant portal who's seeing the pictures of the stage
Okay, so I'm not just making this up
There was a big portal looking thing right and it had like the the spin was made to look like a portal into
You know just another dimension, you know, it was called the utopia concert or something like that
it was there was no utopia there that night and
And and before it started it had the words on there. See ya on the other side
Hmm. I wonder what he could be referring to. I wonder what exactly you could be talking about when there's flames going everywhere
there's all this, you know imagery and symbology the satanic stuff going on and and and you got the inverted cross
You got a skull you walk through there's a portal that says I'll see you on their side
I wonder maybe if he's referring to hell just maybe
You know, maybe it was the land of Oz, you know, let's give him the benefit of doubt
Maybe he just wanted to go to the yellow brick road, right?
It was just he wanted to leave Kansas and and just that's where he wanted to take us, right?
No, it was talking about going to hell. They see you on their other side and again, you know
They're trying to distance themselves from this in the social media and in the main media or the excuse me the
The popular media is what I'm trying to say
They're scrubbing tick-tock where these people these these young people were posting all the stuff
The testimonies the concert goers that are being removed because they're saying look this was sick
They're out of their own mouths. They're saying this was satanic. And again, these were concert goers
This wasn't you know, the Baptist preacher that went down there see what's going on. It's a that's satanic
This was people that were there saying this is satanic, you know, and just in case you have any doubt
Let's just listen to what Travis Scott said before the concert and I'll leave out all the expletives
Okay, because there's some of them in there. He said he said quote before everyone starts screaming and saying oh
You have entered the rancher now
I couldn't make out what he said rancher if he said ranch because I guess there was talk of him like, you know
Snatching souls. Maybe he's talking about a harvest of souls or something like that. I don't know
Maybe he said something that else but he goes on and says and if ain't nobody flying up to heaven right now
Obviously all y'all are going to hell right with me. Okay. This is what he said
You say look. Oh, you're here with me. If you're not taking off to heaven right now. You're all going to hell with me
That's what he's saying
So why you know
So is it really that far of a stretch to say that this was satanic when the the guy who's running the concert is talking?
about going to hell
So, let's get it he goes on
Oh you already here and you at this point it's really scree because you could he's kind of like saying this generally but he looks
Like he's like singling out a group of people that maybe have realized at that moment that they were they had put themselves
They were at the wrong place at the wrong time
He said oh you already here. So sorry. You can't get out you're stuck. It's over
That's what he said, you know that you know
and if you're if you're wondering, you know as a Christian young person of what you're missing out on because of you know,
Because of the the the rules that your parents have for you. You don't get to go at all these concerts
Is that what you want? Just what you want to miss out on a satanic assembly?
Where the guy leaning it is just hoping is
Encouraging people to break through to go through capacity people are dying. He doesn't care. He doesn't stop the show
He's got a stage. It looks like hell a portal to hell. He's got an inverted cross
That's what you're missing out on Christian young people a bunch of Satanism where people die
Okay, so don't ever get bent out of shape because you know your parents say hey, you can't go to that concert
You know
There's a 14 year old boy and a 16 year old girl that would be alive today if that was the rule their parents and said
Say you're not going to that that trashy show. You're not gonna go to that satanic show and again
I'm not trying to fault people but
here's the thing, you know, I can only imagine the grief and
The heartache and the sorrow and the shame of those parents that lost their children in that way
I mean that they have to be devastated and I'm not blaming them
I'm sure they're blaming themselves enough and I and I and I don't want to add to their grief
What I'm making this point don't get bent out of shape when your parents are saying you're not going to be caught dead at
That concert you're not going to go be found in the wrong place at the wrong time
okay, so
Again, this was a very a satanic event that was taking place. I believe
and
We should be careful about being caught in the wrong place at the wrong time
Now this guy Travis Scott, I mean out of his own mouth is talking about people
Hey, you're gonna go to hell with me. You're stuck
There's no getting out and you know, if you want to learn more about that concert, you know, you if you can find it
You know
You're probably have to go to some alternative news site at this point
To see what's really going on there because like I said, they're they're whitewashing the whole thing right now
But you know the Bible again really makes it really clear that this guy is a fool Travis Scott as well
And I don't just mean that you know
He fool in the in the lighthearted sense of you know
He he does slap six comedy or something like that. The Bible is very uses that word fool very strongly
The Bible says if you would go over to Proverbs chapter 17 Proverbs chapter 17
The man the fool has said in his heart. There is no God, you know
All the people are saying oh, there's no God the Bible says you're a fool to think that you're a fool
They think that there isn't a creator that God hasn't you know created this world and everything in it. You're a fool
It's it's obvious, you know that the heavens declare the glory of God the Bible says
You know the the Bible says they are without excuse because you know the things you know
Those things which cannot be seen are made manifest by the things which are made in Romans 1 and I'm paraphrasing
But to sit there and say there is no God, you know, you're a fool
How much more foolish to say to admit there is a God and I'm in opposition to him. I
Mean does it sound from Travis Scott's words that he believes there's a hell
Because he said hey you're going there with me
If you're here tonight, and you're not flying up to heaven right now. Those aren't the words of an atheist
Those are the words of a believer
And when I say believer
I mean somebody who believes in the reality of what this Bible teaches that there is a literal heaven and a literal hell and that's
Where people go when they die?
So how much more of a fool is that guy?
Who who isn't even denying the existence of these things
Look at Proverbs chapter 17 verse 12 the Bible says in Proverbs chapter 17 verse 12
Let a bear robbed of her whelps meet a man rather than a fool in his folly
Think about what the Bible is saying here. It would be better for you to run into a bear robbed of her whelps
You know, it's talking about her young her cubs, right?
Because you know the the most bears aren't to be worried
You know, you know obviously use caution don't walk out of here and say you heard the preacher
You know, we can we can go pet the bear mom, you know, obviously use caution with all bears, right?
But what do they always tell you about when you go on these nature hikes and you go out and you know
If you if you read up on the stuff if you come across young cubs get out of there. Don't take a picture
Don't don't go all how cute run for your life or back away slowly. I guess look I'm not a
Park ranger get you seek professional counsel on this point, right?
But we all know that when you see whelps you see these cubs mama bears nearby and we've all heard that term mama bear
Right and when mama bear gets mad, you know bad things happen. Okay
It's not that it's not the big burly grizzly, you know male that you need to look out for
It's the it's the bear robbed over whelps, right?
That's a very dangerous situation and the Bible saying it would be better for you to go up on Mount Lemmon today and go for
a walk and run into a
mother bear robbed of her whelps who's looking for her her young and
Get between her and her whelps her cubs then for you to run into a fool in his folly
At least then you have a chance, right? I mean so
That's what Travis Scott is he's a fool
It would be better for you I would rather my kids go hang out in a in a bear cage
Then with trav at a Travis Scott concert
Because this guy's a fool. I mean at least the Bears not worshipping Satan
You know, at least the at least the bear, you know might back off. At least you have a chance
That's that's what's going. I mean, that's the that's what the Bible saying when you run into a fool with his folly
There's no telling what can happen
With a with a bear at least you can you know, maybe throw a snack at it or something and run away
At least there's a some kind of escape, you know how it behaves, you know, what's gonna do
You know what? The problem is you run into a fool of his folly. There's no telling what's gonna happen
And you run into these guys like Travis Scott you go to these concerts and look these type of things happen all the time
Remember a few years ago that that that death metal concert in France
Where the Muslims went in there and blew it up like shot it up the place up 60 people died at a death metal concert
And again, I you know, I'm sorry that that happened
but it's when you put yourself in these satanic places when you put yourself in Pat in the path of a fool who's
Worshipping the devil when you put yourself in the company of those that that hate the Lord and love death
Don't be surprised when death shows up. That's who they love. That's why they have the skull out there
That's why they have all the wicked lyrics. That's why they have the fire and everything else. They love death
They want death to come they want these demonic forces to show up into work
So when you're there caught there with them, you are in the wrong place at the wrong time
Don't be surprised when bad things happen
And again, I'm not trying to downplay the tragedy of it
But I'm saying this we shouldn't be surprised when bad things happen at these wicked places
And it would be better for you to run into that bear than to be at some place like that
And that's what that's what I believe the Bible is teaching here
You know and I want to talk about another and that's kind of the Travis Scott thing and this is probably just me getting all
This off my chest because it's really been bothering me
But hope you know, they'll make some application here at the end, but there's another story
I want to just touch on briefly because well, you know, most people in here would agree
Yeah, that that Travis Scott concert wicked that was bad, you know, what was going on there?
But there's another news story that probably I'm sure everyone's heard about and that's the Kyle Rittenhouse
Trial who's heard about that? Okay. Now look, I'm not gonna get up here and pass judgment on Kyle Rittenhouse
They have a there's a there's a courthouse taking place of that right now
Okay, but I do find it interesting how many Christians are just quick to just say, you know acquit him
He didn't do anything wrong at all without even like oh are you the judge now? You're the jury
Oh, did we actually have the trial? Have you actually listened to his testimony?
Have you watched because I did I actually sat down a little and not just the part where he starts sobbing and crying
Obviously he feels bad for what he did and look I'm not saying what should or shouldn't happen to him
But what I'm saying is this Kyle Rittenhouse was in the wrong place at the wrong time
He was at the wrong place the wrong time
Well, he had a right to go down there and defend that look we could make that argument
But the fact is out of his own mouth. He lied about about being a minor
He lied about being an EMT and he might have been down there trying to do good
But you know what? He was the wrong place the wrong time
I mean a 17 year old. How could you let a 17 year old walk out your the door with a loaded AR?
down and go to a
riotous mob I
Wouldn't do that as a grown man. I would say I'm gonna stay far away from that. Yeah, but the property yeah
You know what? You can rebuild that stuff
That you know that stuff can y'all get rebuilt lives or once they're gone. They're gone. That's it. It's permanent
I'm not gonna let my kid walk out the door and go to
Go down and sum up and I'm bringing this up because this is what goes on in the minds of teenagers
And I'm not saying this to the belittle belittle teenagers and young people in this room
But the fact is and it's just a biological fact is that your brain has not finished developing. That's just a fact of nature
You don't think clearly you don't think like an adult you might have the body of an adult
You might look like an adult to some degree, but you are not an adult and you know
That's why I'm preaching this because this is the kind of things that get into teenagers head they see
Oh, there's some riot taking place. They got on social media and they say oh, you know, there's some mob downtown
We should go down there and see what's up
In fact, let's go get some body armor and an AR 15 and go down there and what yeah
We'll bring my medical bag and I'll help people and you you know what?
Maybe he was there for the right motives, but I'll tell you this my opinion. He was the wrong place at the wrong time
What if he had stayed home that night?
What if he just stayed home?
Maybe you know a few more dumpster fires would have been lit. Maybe a car lot would have caught on fire
You know, but at least three people wouldn't be dead
He wouldn't be on trial and you say well, you know, one of those people was a was a child
You know, he was a child molester convicted child molester
Yeah, I agree and the Bible does teach the death penalty for people like that. But here's the thing
we're not we are not the judge jury and executioner and
Kyle Rittenhouse didn't go down there looking for to take out, you know
a
child molester
You know, he whatever reason he was down there. He was down there for the wrong
He was down there at the wrong place at the wrong time
That's my opinion just like these young people that went to this concert where they're worshiping Satan
You know, they might not have known that what was gonna take place that night
But regardless they were at the wrong place at the wrong time weren't they just like those poor people at the Tower of Siloam
They were just going about their business just going to do their thing and then the tower fell on them
And they were taken in an evil net in an evil time
Look, we can't we can't just have this
what I'm trying to get across this evening or this morning is the fact that
you know, we can't be surprised when bad things like this happen and
When people put themselves in harm's way, we shouldn't be surprised when they get harmed
and
you know
especially young people who get this in their heads that they're gonna go out and
Get involved in things that they should just have no business being involved with
I mean me as a grown man. I
Would be afraid to go down to some mob
AR 15 or not and
Get involved with people like that because a lot of those people are what they're fools. I
Mean aren't a lot of those people I'm not saying all of them are but you know
There's probably some people that might even been Christians on the other side of that mob
You know that we're rallying or demonstrating if you want to call it that
But look there was probably a lot of God haters down there too weren't there?
I mean, we know at least one, you know one reprobate was there
You know
There was probably others there a lot of people that hate he got a lot of what fools that were down there
Why would I want to go get caught in a fool with his folly the Bible says it's better to go tangle with a bear
So why why meddle with things that
Don't pertain to you, you know, it's my community. I have to go protect it
No, they have police departments that do that. They have EMTs. They have fire departments
Look when the when the when the SWAT teams are standing down
That's probably a good sign to get out of there and that's just common sense to me
When the when the when the SWAT teams are down there saying hey, we're gonna wait till this cools off a little bit
We're not we're not gonna go in there with our armored vehicles and our you know, our tactics and our teammates and everything else
We're gonna let this cool down and we'll make arrests when it when we deem appropriate
That would be a really good sign for somebody to get out of a situation like that
Okay, and I don't want to comment too much on this thing
But you know
I've just seen a lot of things
Online where Christians who who the Bible tells us that we are not to be respecters of persons
We are not to be we're to be impartial in judgment
but I see a lot of people that are just so quick to just say oh you should just be let off the hook and
Should just be the whole case should be thrown out and should be dismissed and you know
If you're paying attention and you can and you can articulate that argument. Yeah, maybe you might have a point
But when all you see is just well, you know, it's all about gun rights or something like that
Well, there's a little bit more to the story than that
You know, what was he doing down there to begin with and things like that?
And and look somebody else is gonna pass judgment on that. I don't have to okay
But I definitely can we can learn this lesson from it
Is that when you put yourself in the wrong place at the wrong time when you cross paths with a with a fool in his?
Folly bad things are gonna happen
When you go to a satanic concert, you know, don't be surprised when Satan shows up
When you go down and start messing with the mob and people that that you hate the rights and everything else like that
Don't be surprised when they try to take your AR from you and threaten to kill you, you know
And and we should take warning about this, you know
and and we could bring it home towards obviously these are pretty extreme examples and
Most people in this room probably weren't tempted with buying a ticket to Houston, Texas and going down to the Travis Scott concert
You know or some other
Godly event that's gonna take place. Most people in here probably didn't have to struggle with that
But let me ask you this are there do we not often put ourselves take foolish risks that we shouldn't take
I'll be the first to admit that I do or have you know
I'm trying to minute the older I get the more I minimize that you know, I'm you know, we've got these ladders
I'm like I'm thinking I don't know if I should be up there without somebody else in the room anymore
Trying to fix these lights and things like that
But you know the the more practical application is this this morning is that we should avoid putting ourselves in potentially dangerous situations and
Physically, you know taking what about you know, taking big risks
Physical risk-taking right and this is something I look I'm not saying you should go through life
We're in a helmet and shoulder pads and and and never take a risk. Okay, but it needs to be a calculated risk and
And as somebody who's taken some uncalculated risks
I can tell you sometimes that plans backfire and things don't go the way you think they're gonna go and you risk life and limb
All right, and I don't know if you guys well, I don't know if I want to go into a story but
I'm tempted you asked me after the after the church service
But look isn't this something especially that young people do a bit and even admittedly grown men
We think hey, I'm gonna go out and do this activity
I'm gonna go ahead and and and put myself in this precarious situation just for the thrill of it, right?
You know, it's like that when we would go out to the Indian reservations to go soul-winning out there
We would stop at at Salt River Canyon right that pit stop at the bottom of the canyon. There's that water
There's that jump on the other side, but you have to jump in a very specific area or you can get severely hurt
Well, I found out even if you don't hit bottom you can still get severely hurt by just smacking the water
You know and I did it once just because I had to prove that I was macho and you know
I wasn't gonna get out jumped by a bunch of you know, teenage girls or something like that
And I jumped and it took a lot to get me to jump, you know when you're 200
Well, however many pounds and my height, you know and you jump into the in that water from 30 feet or whatever
It's it hurts right and I did it once. It's like well, I'll do it again
And we went back again and this the second time I hit that water so hard
Like I did something to my neck I pulled a muscle and I just said, you know what this isn't worth it anymore
This physical risk of me just getting up there and just the thrill of forcing myself to jump and the adrenaline and everything
It's not worth, you know, having a pain literal pain in my neck for the next two weeks
I'd rather just experience, you know general comfort rather than you know, I'd rather forego the discomfort and
I'd rather, you know, rather forego the discomfort and not have the thrill of taking a risk like that and
People, you know, especially young people need to really think about that when they think about well
I'm gonna climb up that rock face, you know, or I'm gonna go out in the woods by myself
I'm gonna go on some hike by myself. These are the more practical things, aren't they? You know, I'm gonna go out
I'm gonna go to this place. I know I shouldn't go there
It's a little risky, you know, and this especially gets into like extreme sports, right?
Look, extreme sports are fun to watch, aren't they? You never catch me doing them and not just because I couldn't do it
You know, even if I had the physical capability of performing some of these feats
I wouldn't do it anyway because you know, I used to watch I was into bull riding watching it
Okay, I never did it obviously, but I loved watching, you know, professional bull riding. I thought it was cool
I had a cousin. He was a bullfighter. Don't call him rodeo clown. They hate that. He's a bullfighter. It's more manly, right?
But, you know, you start I was like, well that'd be cool
You know, that must be a thrill and I said, you know
If I could guarantee that I could get off that bull with no injuries, I would do it
But you know what? I can't guarantee that
And you start to listen to these guys start to list their
You know the injuries they had on their career. They've broken like every bone in their body
Professional skateboarders. No, you know, like there's a there's a you know a risk that people take right skateboarding
How harmless is that my first two weeks of skateboarding I sprained both elbows I
Should have given it up then you know what I mean? I don't know how many other countless times
I've landed on my face or whatever if you're looking for an explanation, you just got one
Right, but that's the kind of you know people that's a more, you know, and I'm not saying don't ride a skateboard
You know what but maybe bombing that hill on the skateboard isn't the best idea
Maybe trying to go big or go home is actually just gonna land you in the hospital
Right go big or go home or go to the ER
Because you start to listen that you watch the skate video and they're doing all these cool tricks and it looks awesome
Yeah, but you didn't see when they got that, you know umpteenth concussion
When they smashed and I know this for a fact when they smash their face in the ground
I have to all the all the front teeth have to be replaced
When they've broken their arms multiple times, right?
So this is what I'm getting at when you put yourself in harm's way. Don't be surprised when you get harmed
Obviously there was a broader application a more, you know, dramatic extreme
Point I was making the beginning of the sermon
But this is the the the actual application that you can take from the sermon this morning
Okay, is that you should avoid these extreme high-risk, you know actions or how about you know for us that work?
You know those that go out into the work field. Well, I don't ride a skateboard, you know, dad doesn't ride it
Whoever those are those days are behind me. Yeah, but do you ever go to work and do something? Maybe you shouldn't be doing
Just for what just to save time
You know, I'm just gonna I'm just you know, he's not here anymore. So I'll pick him a little bit
I really should know
You know
I'm just gonna grab that pulley to try and slow it down and have have your hand just pulled into the belt and lose a
fingernail, right
Or I'm just gonna I'm not instead of getting a clamp
I'm just gonna grab this board my hands and then shoot the nail and put a nail into my thumb
And I'm trying to think of things that I did cuz I know I've done them
Right, you just try to cut corners get things done fast and take a risk
You know, you're taking a risk and then what it bites you it comes back and then you go that wasn't worth it
It would have been worth it. Just take my time do it the right way and not put myself in harm's way, right?
You know, that's that's the practical application here
But obviously, you know
The broader one is this is that we shouldn't be rubbing shoulders with worldly wicked people and then be surprised when bad things happen
So, you know that that's the sermon this morning, you know
Don't be caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, you know, and don't put yourself in harm's way unnecessarily
You know if it's just for some cheap thrill if it's just a hurry up and get to the job done just to get something
Done a little bit quicker
You know what that could actually end up costing you a lot more time in the long run when you're laid up in the hospital
Well now you've got a crutch or a broken hand or finger or whatever when bad things happen to you
You know, they end up costing you more in the long run and the look the bigger the risk, you know
They say oh, you know no risk or no reward
But look if it fails if that gutsy move fails, you know the bigger that gutsy move the more dramatic that failure
You know when you the bigger, you know
The more the more dangerous place you put yourself in the the greater chance of having a even worse thing happen to you
You know if they had gone those people had gone to you know
The movie theater that night or something like that if they just gone just you know
If they'd gone to the public library instead of the Travis Scott concert, you know, they might have gotten a paper cut
You know, they might have been told to be quiet
Something something could have happened. But you know what they wouldn't gotten trampled. They wouldn't gotten crushed to death
Because they put him why because there's a risk involved in everything understand
But when you put yourself at these extreme risks and these, you know, potentially hazardous situations
Don't be surprised when bad things happen to you when you put yourself in bad situations. Let's go pray