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 could play
all the notes of the scale.
They could 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?
But-- well, you won't even have to buy that one.
No, I'm kidding.
But anyway, if you think about like a church bell, ding, ding.
You know, they're always tuned to some beautiful pitch.
Or they'll play a song, ding, dong, ding, dong, do, do.
You know, 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 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,
what, what did he, where does he stand?
What does he believe?
What, what is the truth?
I don't understand, you know,
you ever just walk out of a sermon just confused?
Like what, what was the point?
Or, 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 works, listen, you man, it should be both.
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,
(imitates siren)
they got like a whammy bar.
They're up here like,
(imitates siren)
and we're just like,
(imitates siren)
See what I'm saying?
Like we're giving one note.
We're not like, we're just like, 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 think of a bell like,
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 it 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 20s, 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 it's just all the fruitfulness,
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.
Clear preaching, like ringing a bell type preaching,
produces fruit.
It's associated with fruit.
It's like, it's like, it's just like,
producing fruit, clear preaching.
Producing fruit, clear preaching.
So, I think that's a pretty strong symbol here.
I like it.