Thank you very much.
Thank you.
My head has found a resting place, not in the vice nor grave.
1-5-0. Sing it out now.
Sing it out now.
I did no other accident.
I did no other thing.
It is enough that Jesus died, and that he died for all the last.
My great physician kills the sick.
The lost he came to save.
For he is precious, but he has no one.
He is my detail.
I did no other argument.
I did no other thing.
It is enough that Jesus died, and that he died for me.
Sing it out.
All right.
This time we'll go through our announcements together.
If you don't have a bulletin, slip up your hand nice and high.
We'll get to you with one.
On the inside, we have our service time.
Sunday mornings at 1030 is our preaching service.
Sunday nights at 6.
Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study.
This week, we will be in 2 Chronicles, chapter number 27.
We've got the so many times listed there below, as well as salvations and baptisms.
I want to make sure that we don't just get that spreading like wildfire.
Below that, we've got the note about wrapping up the yearbook portraits.
If you haven't gotten your portrait taken, this is it.
This is the last call.
You've got to get it done immediately.
If you have any great photos that you took throughout the year at any kind of church,
activities whatsoever, then you can submit those to the email address listed there.
We will pick the crème de la crème in order to put them in the yearbook.
Send those to the email address indicated.
Keep praying for our expectant ladies that they would have a safe and healthy pregnancy and delivery.
Camden, New Jersey, we'll be back with you on the next one.
We'll be back with you on the next one.
So let's go ahead and count up the soul winning
from the past few days.
So going back to Thursday, anything from Thursday.
Okay.
Saw some movement out of the corner of my eye,
but I think it was just something else.
All right, one.
All right, anything else?
All right, gotcha.
All right, and then what about Friday?
Okay.
All right.
Oh, there we go.
Okay, and then Saturday.
Okay.
All right, and then what about today, Sunday?
Okay, Brother Scott, five.
Got it, got it.
Okay, got it.
Got it.
Oops.
Okay, anything else from today?
Very good, keep up the great work on soul winning.
And with that, let's sing our next song.
Come lead us.
All right, you should find the insert
in front of your hymnal with Psalm 24.
Let's keep tuning into the song service tonight,
and we'll sing Psalm 24,
The Earth is the Lord's and the Fullness Thereof.
Sing it out.
The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.
The world and they that dwell therein
For he have founded it upon the seas
And established it upon the flood
Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord
For who shall stand in his holy place
He that hath clean hands and hunger hard
He that hath lifted up his soul
Unto men in pain or soreness in pain
He shall receive the blessing from the Lord
And righteousness from the God of his salvation
This is the generation of men that seek him
That seek by faith the faith of Selah
Lift up your hands, O ye gates
And make ye lift up the everlasting doors
And the King of Glory shall come in
Who is this King of Glory
The Lord strong and mighty
The Lord mighty in battle
Lift up your hands, O ye gates
And make ye lift up the everlasting doors
And the King of Glory shall come in
Who is this King of Glory
The Lord of hosts
He is the King of Glory
Lift up your hands, O ye gates
And make ye lift up the everlasting doors
And the King of Glory
Lift up your hands, O ye gates
And the King of Glory
Lift up your hands, O ye gates
I have been there even for years, I have been there
When I sought the Blessed Lord and I took him at his word
Then at once all my burdens rolled away
Rolled away, rolled away
I remember since my burdens rolled away
Rolled away, rolled away
I am happy since my burdens rolled away
I remember when my burdens rolled away
That I appeared to them only night and day
Jesus showed to me the law, so I left them at the cross
I will come when my burdens roll away
Rolled away, rolled away
I am happy since my burdens rolled away
Rolled away, rolled away
I am happy since my burdens rolled away
I remember when my burdens rolled away
That I had been there for years, night and day
As I sought the throne of grace, just the glimpse of Jesus' face
And I knew that my burdens rolled away
Rolled away, rolled away
I am happy since my burdens rolled away
Rolled away, rolled away
I am happy since my burdens rolled away
I am singing since my burdens rolled away
There's a song within my heart, night and day
I am living for my King and the joy I shall be singing
Hallelujah, my burdens rolled away
Rolled away, rolled away
I am happy since my burdens rolled away
Rolled away, rolled away
I am happy since my burdens rolled away
Alright, this time we'll pass our offering plates around as the plates go around
Let's turn our Bibles to Isaiah chapter number 31
Isaiah chapter number 31
As we always do, we'll read the entire chapter, beginning in verse number 1
Isaiah chapter number 31
Isaiah 31
Woe to them that go down to Egypt, for help and stay on horses and trust in chariots
because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong
but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the Lord
Yet he also is wise and will bring evil and will not call back his words
but will arise against the house of the evildoers
and against the help of them that work iniquity
Now the Egyptians are men and not God, and their horses flesh and not spirit
When the Lord shall stretch out his hand, both he that helpeth shall fall
and he that is hoping shall fall down, and they all shall fall together
For thus hath the Lord spoken unto me, like as the young lion roaring on his prey
When a multitude of shepherds is called forth against him, he will not be afraid of their voice
nor abase himself for the noise of them
So shall the Lord of hosts come down to fight for Mount Zion, and for the hill thereof
As birds flying, so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem
Defending also he will deliver it, and passing over he will preserve it
Turn ye unto him from whom the children of Israel have deeply revolted
For in that day every man shall cast away his idols of silver
and his idols of gold, which your own hands have made unto you for a sin
Then shall the Assyrian fall with the sword, not of a mighty man
and the sword, not of a mean man, shall devour him
but he shall flee from the sword, and his young men shall be discomfited
and he shall pass over to his stronghold for fear
and his princes shall be afraid of the ensign, saith the Lord
whose fire is in Zion and its furnace in Jerusalem
Dear God, thank you for bringing us back together tonight
Dear God, please bless the service, please bless the pastor
Please fill me with your words, and please give him boldness, and please give him wisdom
In Jesus' name I pray, Amen
Amen
The title of my sermon this evening is Going Down to Egypt for Help
Going Down to Egypt for Help
Now in the Bible, Egypt symbolically represents the world
And if you think about it, the children of Israel were in the land of Egypt
as slaves, and then they left Egypt and went into the Promised Land
The idea here is transcending this wicked and evil world
and living a more excellent way of life
Because the way of this world is wrong
And God is showing us a better way to live our lives
He doesn't want us, even after we're saved and have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ
to just remain living in this world the way that everyone else is living
He wants us to be different
And so Egypt represents sort of the old life, the way of this world
the wisdom of this world, and so forth
Now if you think back to Biblical times
there were times in the Bible when Egypt was the number one most powerful nation in the world
Other times it was still a very powerful nation
And so obviously this world has a lot to offer
It has wisdom and riches and power and things like that
But of course what God has to offer is so much better than anything that this world has to offer
So with that in mind, we look at Isaiah chapter 31 here
It says, woe to them that go down to Egypt for help
and stay on horses and trust in chariots because there are many
and in horsemen because they are very strong
But they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the Lord
And so the children of Israel are located near Egypt
It's really, even after they've left Egypt and gone to the Promised Land
It's really not that far away that they've gone when you think about the entire world
And so later on in their history they would have problems with other neighboring nations
and maybe they were under a threat of invasion or fighting with their neighbors
Maybe the Assyrians are coming
And there is a tendency for them to sometimes, instead of seeking the Lord and relying on God
to lean on one of the other nations around them for help
One of the more powerful nations
And of course one of those is Egypt
And the idea here is that they're threatened by someone else
and they're going to Egypt to help them out
Instead of asking for God's help and God's protection and getting right with God
They instead go to Egypt for help
And they say, well Egypt has a lot of horses and chariots and they're just going to be able to physically help me out
Whereas the children of Israel, when they're right with God, God protects them anyway
God keeps them safe and God even allows them to stand up to enemies that are way more powerful than them, right?
For example, the Assyrians come and they surround Jerusalem
And it pretty much just looks like there's no way out for Hezekiah
And they've already defeated the northern kingdom and they're surrounding Jerusalem
And nobody's been able to stand up to them
And of course God sends His angel that just smites the host of the Assyrians
And they wake up in the morning and a bunch of them are dead and they end up going home
You know, I don't know if God smote them with some kind of disease or whatever
But somehow He supernaturally killed this huge number of enemy forces that had surrounded them
And today if Israel wants to be safe, what they need to do is just be right with God
Trust in the Lord, seek God and He will protect His people
And of course the lesson for us in 2024 is that God is the one that ultimately is going to protect us
He's going to cause us to prosper, He's going to keep us from crashing and burning in our lives
Financially, relationships, whatever, God is going to take care of us
We need to trust in the Lord and not go to Egypt for help, right?
Because there could be a tendency to think, well the world has the answer to my problems
You know, it's not found in the Bible, it's not that I need to get more serious about the things of God
Or get serious about reading my Bible or church
It's not that I need to search the scripture to find an answer for how to proceed in my life
It's just the world is going to fix everything for me
Look what the Bible says in verse number 2
Yet He also is wise and will bring evil and will not call back His words
This is of course talking about God
But will arise against the house of the evildoers and against the help of them that work iniquity
And look what the Bible says in verse 3
Now the Egyptians are men and not God and their horses flesh and not spirit
And the idea here is that sometimes Christians, and especially Christian children, teenagers who've grown up in that Christian home
They can sometimes kind of glorify what this world has to offer because they haven't actually been there or experienced it, right?
People who've actually been out there in the world, they know that the world has nothing to offer
And that as the Bible says, the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God
But for the child who grows up, for example, being homeschooled
They might look over at the public school and envy those kids in the public school
Or think about what worldly kids' lives are like and somehow think that they have all the answers
But I got news for you, you know, the Egyptians, they're not God
They're just men, they're just people just like you and me
And guess what? The people that are outside of the church have the same kind of the problems as what the people inside the church have
You might think, oh, it's so hard serving God and oh, it's so difficult growing up as a Christian young person
Or growing up as a Christian child or teenager, you know, just living the Christian life
But let me tell you something, people out there are going through their own problems
And the same trials and temptations that you're going through are also being accomplished in your brethren that are in the world
They're not God out there, okay? The kids down at public school are not God
The teachers aren't God, right? The teachers and professors and counselors of this world, they're not God
They don't have all the answers, they don't have everything figured out, okay?
In reality, the Bible has the answers and God's people have it figured out way more than the people out there in this world
You know, I get a little bit weary of this talk sometimes that says, oh, you know, church people are like this
Or church people are like that or, oh, you know, there's too many hypocrites at church
Folks, this whole world is filled with hypocrites
And whenever I hear this talk about church people this or church people that, I'm always just dumbfounded
I'm like, have you ever been out in this world? Because guess what? If you went to any school or any place of business
Or any neighborhood or anywhere, you will find the same type of problems
The same type of drama, the same type of selfishness, the same type of hypocrisy
It's called human nature, it's called a sin nature, okay?
All of the problems that you find with God's people in the house of God are out there times two
Times three, times four when you're dealing with unsaved people
And I find the exact opposite to be true of this talk about church people
I find that when I get around the people of this world and then I get around church people, it's refreshing to be around church people
You know, I go to Faithful Word Baptist Church and I'm thinking like, this is my group here
These are my kind of people and I actually prefer church people to the people of this world
Why? Because the people that are from church, yeah, they've got the flesh
Yeah, they're sinners just like the people out there, but at least they have the Holy Spirit living inside of them
So at least there's that godly influence of the Holy Spirit in their life
And at least if you go to a church like Faithful Word Baptist Church
At least you know that people are serious about the things of God
And there's a lot more interest in actually living for God and caring for what God says in a place like this
Than at a lot of places
And so this attitude that's down on church people because there are problems
You know, because, oh, this lady's this way and this guy's this way
Well guess what, you go out there, you're going to find those kind of people all day long
All the things that you don't like about people at church, you're going to find out there and more
Those people aren't God, you know, they are not perfect
Nobody's perfect
And so if you just think that going to Egypt is just the answer and it's just going to solve your problems, right?
Just get out of church and just live the way of this world
And look, of course the world makes their way look successful
Of course they polished the apple
But you know what, they're going through all kinds of problems and struggles and pain and misery
That's just the way the world works, my friend
And so thinking that Egypt is just going to save you and fix everything, it isn't
You know, young people growing up, you just think like
Oh man, I just need to get out of my parents' house and just go and embrace the ways of this world
And the philosophies of this world and just kind of go live
And this is what Christian young people call it, living a normal life
You know, just like normal people, right?
But let me tell you something, this world in America in 2024 is anything but normal
Okay, you want to know what normal is, it's Christian people who go to church and live a normal, decent Christian life
Okay, that's what I consider normal
And if you think that worldliness is normal, well, you know what, you're the one who's wrong
And so this thing of, oh, you know, we could just get out of church and that'll fix everything
And just live a normal life in this world
You know what, the people in this world, they're not happy with that normal life
They're miserable, they're going through problems that are on par with what Christians are going through
But the difference is that at least when Christians go through problems, at least there's a purpose
Like at least if we endure hardship, we can say, hey, we're doing this to get people saved
We're doing this because we're serving God
We're suffering for the cause of Christ
We're going to push forward and weeping may endure for the night, but joy cometh in the morning
And I have not heard and ear, excuse me, ear hasn't heard and eye has not seen what God has prepared for those that love him
Whereas when you're out in this world suffering, you have nothing to look forward to
It's just suffering and more suffering and failure
Whereas at least with God, you know that he's going to bless your latter end
Even if you're like Job, he blessed the latter end of Job and gave him double
And so the Bible says here when the Lord shall stretch out his hand halfway through verse 3
Both he that helpeth shall fall and he that is hoping shall fall down
And they all shall fail together, right?
Talking about Egypt and the people who rely on Egypt for help, they're all going to fail in the end
And then if you would flip back over to chapter 30, just one page back in your Bible, Isaiah chapter 30
It says this, woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, that take counsel, but not of me
And that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin
That walk to go down into Egypt and have not asked at my mouth to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh
And to trust in the shadow of Egypt
And so we see here that the rebellious children are being rebuked for listening to counsel that doesn't come from God
Right? Because the Bible says blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly
Alright? And so again, going to Egypt for help, a lot of times people will go to the world
Go to the just kind of the normal, you know, the non-Christian secular world to get advice about how to live their lives
Uh, rebellious children that don't take counsel of the Lord
Folks, the Bible has the answer to all your problems
It just does, okay?
If you want to have the right kind of marriage, you need to do what the Bible says
It needs to be according to scripture, okay?
Now, that doesn't mean it's always going to be easy
Obviously there are going to be challenges
Obviously the Christian life is hard
But guess what? The non-Christian life is even harder
Everybody is going through difficult things in their life
Nobody is living a life that's just a bed of roses
And if they are, well, it's probably all going to fall apart tomorrow
Okay? Because that's just the way the world works
Everybody goes through trials and tribulations
And so don't get your advice from people who deny the word of God
Go to the word of God and embrace its teachings
And by the way, don't just get a trial size of what the word of God has to offer for your life
And say, well, I'm going to try it out
Folks, you need to be all in
And let me tell you something
I've been listening to the word of God for decades
And I am all in
And it doesn't matter what happens in my life
I am not going to stop believing and practicing what the Bible says
Though he slay me, yet will I trust him
Okay? And so you've got to decide that you're all in
And that you are going to follow the Bible no matter what
And that you're going to have the faith to believe that God is going to bless you
For doing what the Bible says
And that you don't need to go run and get some other advice of a different way to live your life than what the Bible says
Now look, obviously there's nothing wrong with learning things outside of the Bible
You know, there's nothing wrong with reading books that aren't the Bible
Listening to people give you advice that's not the Bible
But it better not be contrary to the Bible
Right? I mean, look, if somebody wants to tell you how to do gardening in Arizona or something
Hey, that's great
That, you know, it's not like, hey, you need to go to the Bible for that
Obviously when I say the Bible has all the answers, I'm talking about the big questions of life
I'm talking about moral issues
I'm talking about spiritual issues
And look, if you are going to listen to secular advice about something
It needs to jive with what the Bible says
But if somebody comes along and starts telling you to do things differently than the Bible
You need to reject that wisdom and reject that logic
You need to do what the Bible says
God is right
This is the tried and the true
It's not going to be perfect
It's not always going to be easy
But you know what? You're going to be better off following scripture
And you know what? People change
People come and go
People let you down
But the Bible never changes
Your parents and grandparents and great grandparents had this book
Hopefully they were reading this book
And following this book long before you were ever even born
Okay
And so this is the rock that never changes
Don't just rebel and take counsel of someone other than the Lord
And decide you're going to try living life a different way
It's going to be a big waste of your time
And it might even lead to destruction
Don't go down to Egypt not asking counsel at the mouth of the Lord
It says that they strengthen themselves
Verse 2
In the strength of Pharaoh and trust in the shadow of Egypt
Right
And the idea here is that you know
Egypt is not real
Okay
Like there's a facade of strength there
But God is saying that it's sort of like
And he brings this up elsewhere
Leaning on Egypt is sort of like if a man
Leaned upon one of those bull rushes that grow by the side of the river
Where they just instantly just bend
You know what I mean?
Like you just lean on this bruised reed of Egypt
And it just instantly just collapses
Right it looks
But some of those things they look pretty strong
Right they look like they're going to actually have some strength
They look like a staff or a rod or something
But then you lean on it
And it just collapses under you
Right
And that's the facade of thinking that this world has the answers for you
It says
Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame
And the trust in the shadow of Egypt
Your confusion
For his princes were it Zoan and his ambassadors came to Haines
They were all ashamed of a people that could not profit them
Nor be a help nor profit but a shame and also a reproach
The burden of the beasts of the south
Into the land of trouble and anguish
From whence come the young and old lion
The viper and fiery flying serpent
Now what are we talking about here with the viper and the fiery flying serpent
Obviously when we talk about Egypt
We're talking about a desert region right
Egypt is a desert
If you look at a satellite image you know along the Nile River
There's a bunch of green but the rest of it's a desert
The Bible also talks about it not raining in Egypt
Even all the way back in Bible times
It's talking about the fact that it doesn't rain there
And so you've got kind of desert animals or desert creatures
And you know what you would expect to find in a desert
And the viper, the fiery flying serpent
And it says
They will carry their riches upon the shoulders of young asses
And their treasures upon the bunches of camels to a people that shall not profit them
Right
So the idea here is that Israel is loading up all this money and wealth
And they're sending it down to Egypt on asses
Saying well if we pay the Egyptians then they're going to protect us
They're going to save us
They're going to take care of us
And often the children of Israel would even take stuff out of the house of God
Stuff that had been dedicated to God
And take gold and silver and things that belong to the Lord
And say hey we got to give this stuff to Egypt
So that Egypt will protect us
Let's take stuff away from the Lord
And give it to Egypt and they're going to protect us
And what he's saying is you're going to just send all this wealth into Egypt
But you're not going to get anything in return
You're not actually going to get what you pay for when you send that money
It says for the Egyptian, verse 7
The Egyptians shall help in vain and to no purpose
Therefore have I cried concerning this
Their strength is to sit still
He's saying look
Don't go to Egypt
Stay put in Israel
Stay in the promised land
Stay with the promises of God
Stay with the Bible
Stay in church
Okay
Because whatever you invest out there in the world
Your time
Your energy
Your money
In living that life that is contrary to God's word
Is all just a big waste
And you better just wait on the Lord
And be patient
Because let's face it
There are times in life
Where you're serving God
And things are going bad
And you don't think things are going to get better
And you can despair
You can give up
Right
But there's no temptation taking you but such as is common to man
And God is not going to tempt you above what you were able
And so you need to just hang in there
Push through
Keep going
And not just go running to this world for sucker
Just running to this world for comfort and aid
When things are going bad
And you know
There are times in our lives
There are times in my life
When serving God is fun
It's exciting
And I'm pumped up
And I'm feeling great about it
I have all kinds of joy in my heart
And then there are other times where you're going through a low point
Right
And here's what I've found in my life is that
When I'm going through a low point
I just continue
Doing what I know I'm supposed to be doing
Even if my attitude is the wrong attitude
Even if I don't feel like it
I just make myself read the Bible
I don't feel like it
I pray anyway
I just don't feel like it
Drag myself to church
And you know you'd be better off dragging yourself to church
Sitting there with your arms crossed
With a bad attitude
Sitting in church
Than not being in church
And you know what
I can't even count how many times
I've gone out soul winning with a bad attitude
Bad mood
Not interested in soul winning
Didn't feel like it
And went out soul winning
And got someone saved
You know
Recently I had kind of a bad attitude
I went solely the first door I knocked
Saved
And it's just like
God does that to me a lot
Because he's just showing me
Hey, keep doing it
Whether you feel it or not
Whether it seems like it's working or not
Keep going
Don't stop
Push through
Okay
You're better
And look
There are all kinds of examples in the Bible
Of people who get kind of a bad attitude
Or down in the dumps
And then they're just greatly used of God anyway
Even though they have a bad attitude
You know
You look at Ezekiel
In early parts of Ezekiel
He talks about
You know how he's bitter
And feeling bad
And so forth
You know
You look at Jeremiah
Say, oh God
You've deceived me
I'm not
That's it
I'm done
I'm never going to preach in your name again
Right
But then he ends up just
Preaching anyway
He just keeps going
He just keeps doing it
Okay
And obviously
There are all kinds of people in the Bible
Like Elijah
Just saying
Oh God
Just go ahead and kill me now
I'm done
I'm ready to go home
I don't want to do this anymore
And
You know
When you think about Elijah in particular
Elijah gets down in the dumps
Right
And
Jezebel
And he just
By the way
He's just coming off the great victory
With the prophets of Baal
At Mount Carmel
And he had that great victory
Where he calls down fire from God
I mean
We think to ourselves
Oh man
If I could ever
Just pray
And the fire of God comes down
I mean
You know
I would just be on cloud nine
Oh to be greatly used of God
Like Elijah
To be able to just pray down the fire of God
And defeat the prophets of Baal
And kill the prophets of Baal
But then just the very next day
Jezebel puts out a warrant for his arrest
And says he's going to be dead
And he gets super down and depressed
And he ends up
Going and just
You know
Laying down under a juniper tree
The angel comes
And
Wakes him up
And tells him to eat
He eats
He falls back asleep
You know
And the angel's like
Alright come on
You gotta go
And he wanders through the wilderness
All the way to Mount Sinai
Which is not in Israel
So he ends up just
Hiking
Ultra marathon style
To
Arabia
To Mount Sinai
And he goes there
And when he gets there
He's complaining to God
How I'm the only one left
And
And they're trying to kill me
And where
You know
Where's everybody else
And then God of course tells him
That there are seven thousand men
That have not
Boweled the knee to Baal
Then
There's nothing
Work to do
God says look
This is what you're gonna do
You gotta
Anoint
Elisha
To be a prophet
In your place
You gotta train
The next generation
You gotta go
Anoint
Hesiel
To be king of Syria
So he gives him these instructions
He sends him back to Israel
He says go back
And do
Your job
That I've given you
And he goes back
And it's interesting
When he goes back
And recruits
Elisha
To be now his sidekick
His right hand man
That he's gonna train
The next generation
Right
Because Elijah
Trains Elisha
To take over
Afterward
And by the way
Elisha
Does twice as much for God
As Elijah did
So he does
You know
He's able to train
It's a good thing he didn't quit
Before he could train
The next generation
Yeah
Because the next generation
Ends up being even better
Than him
And it's
It's funny because
When he goes
To recruit
Elisha
He throws his mantle
Upon Elisha
And I don't know about you
But when I read that passage
I can kind of feel
That Elijah still kind of has a bad attitude
And that he's really just not that into it
But that he's just doing what God told him to do
And kind of going through the motions
I mean did anybody kind of feel that way
When you're reading that
Because he doesn't even really say anything to him
He just kind of throws the mantle on him
Like ah let's go
And then what's funny is
Elisha says
Hey is it alright if I say goodbye to everybody first
About you know
And what's funny is that in the New Testament
Jesus
You know
He's just on fire
Like Jesus is just preaching
And soul winning
And doing all this stuff
And he's doing so much
They have to tell Jesus to take a break
I mean he's intense
Because you know Jesus only has that ministry
For you know approximately three and a half years
And so he's obviously the perfect man
And so he's just working hard
Serious
Getting things done
And it's funny when somebody says something similar to Jesus
Like hey I need to go back
And say goodbye
Jesus is like
You know
Well anybody
Who puts his hand to the plow
And looks back
Is not fit for the kingdom of God
Right
Oh I gotta go bury my dead
Hey let the dead bury their dead
Preach out the kingdom of God
You know Jesus is like
Nope let's go
We gotta go
Elisha tells Elijah
Hey is it alright if I say goodbye
He's just like
Whatever
I don't care
That's pretty much what he says
You know
It's a little bit of a paraphrase
But he pretty much is like
Yeah
Okay
Yeah I go back
Whatever
I don't care
Take your time
You know cause he's kind of coming off of
A rough period
And I think some of you have probably read that passage
And kind of got that same vibe that I got
From the way that he says that to him
You know what but he just keeps going
He just pushes through
And God ends up using him mightily
To train the next generation
And so sometimes you just go through the motions
And you know
One of my favorite Bible characters is Jonah
You know I love the book of Jonah
I love the character Jonah
Because of the fact that you know
Jonah gets a lot of criticism
And obviously yeah
We can preach sermons criticizing Jonah
Because we're looking at this episode in his life
Where he's not quite right with God
He's definitely disobeying
And doing wrong things
But at the same time
This guy just can't help but just get people saved
Everywhere he goes
He's just accidentally getting more people saved
Than the people who criticize him
I mean this guy just everywhere
Everybody on the ship's getting saved
Everybody in Nineveh's getting saved
And he doesn't even have the right attitude
Bad attitude, wrong attitude
And yet just can't stop
Just getting people saved everywhere he goes
You know what I mean
And here's the thing
In Jonah chapter 3
Jonah does not have his heart right with God
Because remember in chapter 1
Jonah was disobedient
But then he gets swallowed by
He gets thrown overboard, swallowed by the whale
And so you might think to yourself
Oh well when he's in the whale
He gets right with God
And then he comes out of the whale
And now he's just got a heart right with God
Ready to serve God, ready to do the right thing
That's not really what happened
Okay
If you actually look at Jonah's prayer
In Jonah chapter 2
He doesn't really ever
Say anything in that prayer
Read Jonah chapter 3
He doesn't really say anything that says like
I need to go to Nineveh
He pretty much goes to Nineveh
Because God's forcing him to go to Nineveh
In Jonah chapter
It's not that his heart has gotten right
It's that he just spent three days
And three nights in the whale's belly
So yeah, he's gonna go to Nineveh
Because he's just been tortured
In a whale's belly for three days and three nights
After 72 hours of that
Yeah, you're gonna go wherever God tells you to go
But it doesn't mean you're gonna like it
And how do I know he has a bad attitude
Because as soon as he gets to Nineveh
He has success and he gets mad about it
And then in Jonah chapter 4
He's got a super bad attitude
In Jonah chapter 4, that's what the whole chapter 4 is
His attitude, him giving God attitude
So, what's the moral of the story?
The idea here is that Jonah
Is obviously a godly man
He was obviously a great prophet of God
Or he wouldn't be
Successfully evangelizing so many people
Everywhere he goes
And God wouldn't have even picked him for this
Mission if he had not been
A great man of God
Okay, we're just witnessing
Kind of a dark episode in his life
But I guarantee you
That he'd been serving God for years
And doing all kinds of great things for God
That's why he's such a powerful preacher
And such a
A man of God that's greatly used by God
But here's the
The moral of the story is that even though
He's got a bad attitude
He still obeys
Even with a bad attitude, he obeys
And God's work is accomplished
So, the moral of the story is
If your attitude is bad
Don't let that just stop you from serving God
Well, you know, I just have a bad attitude
So I think it's better if I just don't go to church
Until I fix my attitude
I just, you know, I'm just kind of having
A bad attitude right now
So I think it's better if I just don't go soul winning
Until I get my attitude fixed
Is that right?
No, because the idea here is
No, go to church anyway
Go soul winning anyway
Read your Bible anyway
Pray anyway
Because it's better to do
The right thing even if your
Attitude is off, even if you're in a bit of a funk
Do it anyway
And often that's what'll get you
Out of that funk, right?
How many times have you come to church with a
Bad attitude and left with a great attitude?
For me it'd probably be hundreds
In my life
Where I had a bad attitude, came to church
Walked away with a great attitude
Went soul winning with a bad attitude
Left soul winning with a great attitude
But here's the thing
I've even shown up for soul winning
Won someone to Christ and still had a bad attitude
But so what? I still won someone to Christ
But usually that'll fix your attitude
But even if it doesn't, even if your name's Jonah
And you still have a bad attitude after serving God
After winning people to Christ
Hey! At least you did something for God
And you know what? I noticed in Jonah chapter 4
How nice God is to Jonah
I mean think about how many times
God sternly rebukes people in the Bible
And God is just really telling people off
And really rebuking them hard
Right? We could point to all kinds of passages
In scripture where God's saying
I'm against you
And you're wicked and all these different things
But is that how he treats Jonah in Jonah chapter 4?
I mean he's pretty gentle with him
Like hey Jonah, you know
Doest thou well to be angry?
Right? And then he's explaining it to him
Like hey, you know
You care about this gorge
Shouldn't I care about Nineveh?
You don't see him saying you're wicked
I'm gonna judge you
I'm gonna destroy you, I'm gonna punish you
Why? Because Jonah's a great man of God
Right?
He's just going through a rough patch
He's just going through a dark place
He's just going through a difficult time
And obviously I'm not justifying Jonah's sin
But what I am saying is that we've all sinned
And come short of the glory of God
None of us is perfect
And we're all gonna have highs and lows
In our Christian life
And if we end up going through a low
In our Christian life
What we don't want to do
Is go to Egypt
Or as Jonah did, hey let's go to Tarshish
Let's just go to this world or something like that
That's not the answer
And in Jonah's case, God forced him to do the right thing
It's funny, I heard someone say recently
God never forces anyone to do anything
I'm like, really?
What? What the?
Like, God never forces anyone to do anything? Really?
Now I think what this person's mixing up
Is that God doesn't typically
Go into somebody's brain and control their brain
And make them do stuff
Kind of like a Calvinist God
Where he's controlling people
And making them do things
I think that there probably are times
When God has gone into people's brains
And I think there's scriptural proof for this
Where God will go into people's brains
And influence them to do different things
And make them do things that they weren't necessarily going to do
And influence them in that way
That's, you know, that's another debate
But forget that
In general, yeah, God doesn't control people
In general, he doesn't do that, does he?
In general, he commands us what to do
He tells us what to do
In his word
But he doesn't force anyone to do anything?
Really?
Because, I don't know, I feel like
Jonah was kind of forced to go to Nineveh
When he didn't want to
How can you say God didn't force
Anyone to do anything
When Jonah was clearly forced by God
To go to Nineveh
Now what does it mean to force someone?
What does force mean?
What does force?
It's when you say, like, go to Nineveh or else
So if God
Says, do this or
else, isn't that him forcing people to do
Something?
You know, well God, God never
Forces anyone to do it
God doesn't force us, right, but he just tells us
He's going to beat us with a stick if we don't
Yeah, God never forced us to do
Anything, he just says that he's going to
Scourge us or whip us if we don't do it
But I guess that's not forcing
Us, right? Yeah, actually that is
Kind of forcing us, isn't it?
Obviously, and this was
In the context of, oh, you can't force
Your wife to do things, you can't force your kids
To do things, you know, you can't force anyone
To do it, everything's voluntary, all this dumb
Crap that's been taught lately
And here's the funny thing about that is that
You know, I don't remember
Ever entering into my children's brain
And controlling their brain
I've never entered
Into my wife's brain and controlled my wife's brain
But at the same time
I have rules in my house
And I've said to my
Children, do this, and it's not
Like, because you love me
It's not like, you know I
Love you, right? Take out the trash, would you please?
Pretty please with sugar on top?
It's like, take out the trash
Now what if they just say, no
I'm not going to take out the trash
Ah, kids these days
These darn kids, I tell you
I tell you what, what are you going to do
If the kids say, no, I'm not going to take out the trash
You know what you're going to do? It starts with an F
You're going to force them to take out the trash
Right?
Your kid says, no, I'm not going to brush my teeth
You know what you're going to do? You're going to force them to brush their teeth
Amen?
Or are you just going to say, no, no, it's okay
Brushing your teeth is optional
Brushing your teeth is voluntary
No, you're going to say, you will brush your teeth
Or else
Now, you're not going to enter
their brain, you're not going to tie
strings to their arms and make
a puppet in like, in like a marionette
like, okay, brush your teeth
You know, you're not going to be doing that
You're not going to be forcing them like, controlling them
That's ridiculous
That's absurd
But you know what you will do
You will say, hey, you're going
to brush your teeth, this isn't optional
Hey, you got to be in bed by
10 or you got to be in bed by 9
You're going to bed
Even if they're just up at 1 am, you're just going to be like
Ha, these kids, I tell you
What are you going to do?
Starts with an F
You're going to force them to go to bed
No, no, he never, God never forces anyone
and he's the, you know, so why would we
force anyone to do anything
God never, God's a gentleman
and he never forces anyone to do anything
Right, there was like a, there was a meme like that
of Joel Osteen saying like
God is a gentleman, he'll never
force, but the thing is though
I'm not sure, I was wondering if
that Joel Osteen clip was taken out of context
because I don't even
think Joel is that stupid
But some people lately are
literally that stupid to say that
God never forces anyone to do anything
when in reality the Bible is
replete with examples of God
saying, do this
Well, what if we don't do it?
Oh, I don't know, then I'm just going to burn it all down
Right, I'm going to just burn your house down
I mean, it's like, oh, you know, I'm reading the
book of Numbers this week, and it's just
I've always found the book of Numbers to be the
gnarliest book in the Bible
You know, when it's not just
listing catalogs of
names and animals
and things, man, when you get into the stories
in the book of Numbers though, there's
some gnarliness there, and it's just
like, you know, people are complaining
and God just starts burning fire
He's sending fiery serpents to bite him
He's burning with the fire of the Lord
Oh, but God's just a gentleman, he's not forcing anybody
to do anything, right?
No, he kind of forces
people to do a lot of things throughout the Bible
and you have to wonder
how biblically stupid someone would have to be
to make this statement
God never forced anyone to do anything
in the history of mankind, because last time I checked
you don't have to get very far in the Bible
before God is throwing Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden
and he's not saying, hey, just, you know
I hope you guys will honor my
wishes that you stay away from the tree of life
Is that what he does? Does he say
hey, you know, I prefer that you not
eat from the tree of life now that you know
the difference between good and evil
and you're sort of God-like in that sense
you know, I'd rather that you not put forth
your hand and eat the tree of life also
and live forever, you know
Is that okay?
No, you know what he does? He has a flaming sword
and what is the purpose of the
flaming sword in Genesis chapter 3
is to force them
to stay out of the Garden of Eden
Garden of Eden
I don't understand how you can read the Bible
and not see this
over and over again where God
is using not always the
carrot, but sometimes using the stick
and telling people that they have
to do something
God is constantly saying, you have to do this
well what if I don't, what if I don't believe in Jesus
well you're going to go to hell then
you're going to burn in hell
okay
once we're saved, once we believe in Jesus
what if we don't serve him?
ha, whatever
just live your life how you want then
see you in heaven in 70 years
no, God will do what?
he'll discipline you
you know what he'll do?
similar to what he did to Jonah
obviously Jonah is an extreme
situation, God will often use these kind of
extreme examples in order to show us
a truth very vividly
but obviously
we're very unlikely to go through something
as dramatic as Jonah where we get swallowed by a
whale or something, but he'll do
something sometimes to kind of force us
to get on the right path once
again
okay, and I don't want to insult
your intelligence by spending any more time
on that point because I think everybody understands
that, but it says in verse number 8
now go write it before them
in a table and note it in a book
that it may be for the time to come
forever and ever that this is a rebellious
people, lying children
children that will not hear
the law of the Lord, which say to the seers
see not, and to the prophets
prophesy not into us right things
speak unto us smooth things
prophesy deceits
get you out of the way, turn aside
out of the path, cause the
Holy One of Israel to cease
from before us, and so we see
that these rebels
who want to go to Egypt for help
they want to rely on Egypt to help them
right, they're going to this world for help
and they're rejecting
the word of God, right
they don't want to hear at the end of
verse 9 the law of the Lord
right, so they don't want God's word to be
told to them, they're looking for another way
of life, another
explanation of how things work
than what the Bible says, and then
also they're not looking toward
biblical preaching for the answers, right
we need to get the answers
in our life from reading the Bible ourselves
and from listening to
biblical preaching, and not listening
to somebody who tells you, hey God
never makes anybody do anything
I mean cause that's just dumb
alright, because God literally
made them not eat from
the tree with a flaming sword
you know, case closed
and we could, you know if you want we could go through
like 2000 examples of that
throughout the whole Bible, that's just at
the beginning, but the idea
here is that there are people
who prophesy right things
they preach right things, and what's
the definition of a right thing, a biblical thing
they preach something that's
biblical, and here's what that means, that means
that you could figure it out on your own
from reading the Bible without them explaining it to you
that's what it means
right, because what does the Bible say
you have no need that any man teach you
and so if there's something that
I preach and you
can't see it for yourself in the word of God
then it's probably something
that I made up, because if you're there
you're saved, you got the Holy Spirit
you should be able to see whatever I'm saying
in the Bible yourself
it shouldn't be like, well I'm just going to have to trust
Pastor Anderson on this one, it's like, well no
your Bible's open, I'm reading
a verse, telling you what it means
and it should be that after I'm done explaining it
you look back at it yourself and you're like
yup, that is what it says
yeah, that is what that means, well I'm glad
Pastor Anderson explained that to me, because now
it makes sense, now it jives
and when I look to my Bible, I can
see that, because I have sat in
sermons, I'm not kidding, where I've
listened to preaching, and at the
time it made a ton of sense
and I'm sitting there and listening
and it's making a ton of sense, making a ton of sense
and I'm like, wow, it's a great sermon, it's making so much sense
then like the next
day I tried to figure it out and I couldn't
recreate it
and I'm thinking like
oh, I want to remember that truth, or oh, maybe
I can preach something like that, and I would go
and try to find it in my Bible
and it isn't there anymore
it was only there when the preacher
was talking about it, and then
as soon as I went back to look for it, I couldn't
find it, it wasn't there anymore
you want to know why, it's because sometimes
preachers have a way
of just kind of saying a bunch of stuff
that sounds good and makes sense at the time
and a lot of times we can just get caught up
in what they're saying
but the real test
is when you go back and look at the
Bible and it's still there
okay, because
the Bible is written
and meant to be understood
and so if I
explain some passage of scripture to you
and I have to do all these mental gymnastics
to explain it to you, and then when I'm
not here just taking you by the hand
through every phase of it, and it's
just you and the Bible and all of a sudden it isn't
there, it probably was
never there in the first place
it should be that the preacher
shines a light on it for you
illuminates it for you, explains it
it all makes sense to you
but then the next day it still makes sense
and when he's not around talking to you it still makes sense
and some other guy in Timbuktu
is reading the Bible
and figuring out the same thing without Pastor Anderson's help
okay, that's true
biblical truth
and so there are those who
prophesy right things
and what's the opposite of right things?
we would want to say wrong things
but in this passage the opposite of right things
is smooth things
and what does that mean?
that means that sometimes the right preaching ends up being
hard preaching
right, things that are hard
are often
the truth
there are some hard truths in the Bible
and you know when we talk about hard preaching
here's what we don't mean
we don't just mean you're yelling
you're saying things that are offensive
or edgy or radical or wild
you know there are all kinds of talk show hosts
and comedians and stuff that get really edgy
and kind of say
some harsh things or whatever
but is that really what we mean by hard preaching?
what we mean by hard
preaching is
uncompromising preaching
of what the Bible actually says
nothing is sugar coated
or adapted to our current
culture and generation
not like well you know it's 2024
America so we got to kind of sweep this under the rug
and kind of maybe soften
this part up maybe skip that verse
or gloss that over or maybe say it
doesn't really mean what it says no the hard
preaching gets up and takes something
in the Bible that
is not popular and gets up and just
calls it like it is and tells it like
it is and does so
unashamedly and does so with
boldness and so yeah there could
often be some loudness involved
there could be some dynamic
preaching involved in hard preaching
but of course it is also
hard truths
you know I think about
reading the four gospels and how many
times Jesus will explain
something to his disciples and they just have trouble
with it
you know when he explains to them his teachings on
divorce and they're
just kind of struggling to grasp it
and what does Jesus say to them
he that is able to receive it
let him receive it
and he even says all men cannot receive this
saying in Matthew 19
some people are gonna have a hard time with this
everybody can't receive it
but it's true
it's right
you know and of course in John chapter 6
the people say to Jesus this is a hard saying
who can hear it
many people stop following him
they stop listening to him
because he said some hard things
and so the opposite of right things
is smooth things
so beware of the smooth
preacher
beware of the preacher who doesn't ruffle any feathers
he smooths everything out
he makes everything really palatable
and you know the Bible says that we should
adorn the doctrine of God our
savior but the way that we adorn the doctrine of God
our savior is with our good works
right having the life to back up the
doctrine is what you know it doesn't mean like
well we gotta decorate it so that people
don't realize how gnarly it really is
hey there's some gnarly things
in the Bible
he that hath an ear let him hear
he that is able to receive it
let him receive it
he that hath an ear let him hear
what the spirit saith unto the churches
you know the Bible isn't sitting there and begging you
to would you oh would you please accept
this doctrine it's just like you know what
he that is unjust let him be unjust still
he that is filthy let him be filthy
still he that hath an ear
let him hear oh I don't know man
this is this kind of hard hey well all men can't
receive this saying hey I guess this church
just isn't for everybody hey I guess this preaching
isn't for everybody bye
not like oh well you know
what can we do to put you in this car today
you know what what what can we do
to get you into you know being a fundamental
Baptist today
it's like take it or leave it
man take it
or leave it
but there are some people out there
that they're
leaning on this world's philosophy
more than on the word of God
they've embraced Egypt
they've embraced the psychology
and psychobabble of Egypt
they've embraced the philosophies
of Egypt they've embraced the
lifestyle of Egypt
and in many ways
2024 America
embraces a lot of worldly things that are
contrary to the Bible and so
if you're just going to be normal
in 2024 America you're going to end up
embracing a bunch of sinful things
and then you're going to end
up turning your ear away from the law of the Lord
because it's not going to jive with your
chosen lifestyle
because the law is going to have some rough
things in it you're going to have a hard time with the book of Numbers
you're going to have a hard time
in Leviticus and Deuteronomy
but at the end of the day
the law of the Lord is perfect you're the one
who needs to get your mind renewed
and
of course you're going to have plenty of hard things
in the New Testament as well
there are plenty of teachings in the New Testament
that worldly Christians struggle with
and refuse to obey
and they don't want to hear the law of the Lord
and they don't want to hear preaching
so instead what they do is
they say to the prophets
prophesy not
don't preach we don't want to hear that
don't preach right things
preach smooth things
prophesy deceit
now obviously they don't say it in those words
look at verse 10 it says
prophesy not unto us right things
speak unto us smooth things
prophesy deceit
obviously when the Bible says this
it's not saying that they literally walk up to the pastor and say
hey would you lie to us
and just tell us comfortable truths
comfortable lies instead of inconvenient truths
obviously they're not literally saying that
but what they'll do
is in essence they will say that
because they'll say stop preaching
x and it'll be something that's biblical
preach y instead which is not biblical
they're not going to say hey please lie to us
but they're just going to say hey preach that
my sin is okay
stop preaching against this sin
preach this
it's never going to be this blatant
like hey preach lies
and again this is echoed
in the New Testament when the Bible says
the time will come when they will not endure
sound doctrine but after their own
lust shall they heap to themselves
teachers having itching ears
and they will turn away their ears from the truth
and be turned into fables
and so they will go out and seek out
and today here's the thing
let's say someone is at a church that's
preaching hard and preaching things that are biblical
preaching things that are uncool
or unacceptable
or whatever in 2024
then what they'll do is
they can just easily find in 2024
in Phoenix Arizona
you can find a church that's going to be
whatever level of truth you're comfortable with
right?
like you can find a church that's not going to preach
against your sin you can find a
church that's going to have a really worldly
philosophy about filling the
blank whatever you're interested in
I mean there are so many hundreds yay
thousands of churches in the
greater Phoenix area you're going to be able to
find the church that suits you
and your
carnal worldly attitude
or you can come down
to Faithful Word Baptist Church
and actually hear hard preaching
from the Bible
great dope unfiltered
uncensored right?
that's what you need to hear
but it says in verse 11 you know they say
prophesy to seeds get you out of the way
turn aside out of the path
cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us
wherefore thus saith
the Holy One of Israel because you
despise this word and trust in
oppression and perverseness
and stay thereon therefore this
iniquity shall be to you as a breach
ready to fall swelling
out in a high wall whose
breaking cometh suddenly
at an instant
so what the Bible is saying here is that when you
have this attitude that says
I'm going to go to Egypt for help
you know what I'm unhappy I don't like
my life and so I'm going to go
try the bar you know
I'm going to go try fornication
I'm going to go try the liberal
you know church that
where anything goes I'm going to go
try this or that or the other you know and I don't
I don't want to read the law of God
I don't want to hear hard
preaching the
sin that you have in your life
that you're not willing to let go
of and the wrong
things that you want to hang on to
they're basically like this
you can think about like a swelling
that's about to just burst
open right
it's like a build up of pressure
okay
and it says here that it will be
like a breach ready
to fall swelling out in a high wall
who's breaking cometh suddenly
at an instant right so as you can imagine
like a balloon or something
right and it's just filling up
and just getting bigger and
bigger and bigger and
and eventually it's just going to explode
right
and what the Bible is saying here
is that you're basically
building up
all of this judgment and all this
wrath that's going to come down and right now
you're fine
but all of this stuff
is just kind of building up building up building
up and if you don't relieve that
pressure before it's too late if you don't start getting that
sin out of your life and getting right
with God and repenting of those
things eventually
it's just going to explode and then
it's like there's no putting it back you know
when I read this passage I think about a dam
bursting right and you
think about a dam and it's just kind of
bulging under the pressure and then eventually
just boom the dam burst and once
the dam bursts there's no way to put
that water back it's just it's too late
and this is like where the Bible says he that being
often reproved hardened at his neck
shall suddenly be destroyed and that without
remedy so there's just a continual
warning and there's a build up
there's a build up and it's just like don't
do it don't you know get right with God
and it's just like you ignore it and ignore it
and then eventually just boom too
late suddenly
in an instant and he shall break
it verse 14 as the breaking
of the potter's vessel that is broken in pieces
he shall not spare
so that there shall not be found in the
bursting of it a shard
to take fire from the
hearth or to take water with
all out of the pit what he's saying
is he's going to break your vessel to the point
where it'll be so shattered
that there won't even be a big enough piece
for you to use to like scoop something
out of the fireplace or even a big enough piece
to like put a little bit of water in and take a drink
out of it because your life
is just going to be so shattered
and destroyed you're never going to be able to put the pieces
back together or make anything useful out
of it for thus sayeth
the Lord God verse 15
the Holy One of Israel in returning and
rest shall ye be saved
in quietness and confidence
shall be your strength and
ye would not right he's saying look
stay here stay right
with God just
put your head down and keep serving God
grind it out
don't go running to Egypt
for help just wait upon the Lord
be patient stay in church
read your Bible do what you're supposed to do
he says but
ye said no for we will flee
upon horses therefore shall
you flee and
we will ride upon the swift
therefore shall they
that pursue you be swift
the idea here is that you can't
run away from God and you can't run away
from your problems
okay Jonah back to
him he tried to run away from God and
of course it didn't work
and the idea here is that you know you
think that oh if I just
leave if I just go to Egypt
if I just quit serving God
if I just quit the church if I just
run away from my family
or just leave my spouse if I just
divorce my husband or divorce
my wife or just flee
and whatever you know then
everything will be okay
I can just live a different life
somewhere else you know but God's
saying no it's gonna you yeah you'll
run but those who chase
you will be faster you know
you're not really gonna escape right
we need to stay put
we need to stay married
right we need to stay
with the Lord we need to stay with
church and we need to push through
difficult times
and not just say well
oh things are going bad I'm out of here
well then you know what then your problems are just gonna
follow you because I guarantee you
you say oh well you know I'm just gonna
divorce my wife and marry someone else well guess what
you're just gonna have problems with the
new wife and many people
have already realized that they're already on their second wife
they're already on their third wife and they're just realizing
wow maybe this is just how women are
maybe this is just what marriage
is like maybe this is what it's like
to be married or you can flip that over and you know
a woman divorced her husband marries another guy
and then she's gonna figure out what well this is what dudes
are like because
guess what a lot of dudes
kind of have the same annoying habits
and a lot of women have the same
annoying tendencies
it's just humans
right it's just people
and the grass is always greener on the other side
of the fence and you just think
oh man if I can just go to Egypt it'll be great
no your problems are gonna follow you to Egypt
Egypt isn't God
Egypt doesn't have the answers
Egypt doesn't have it all together Egypt's a facade
Egypt is a shadow
Egypt is a bruised reed if you lean on it
you're gonna fall over and land on your face
they don't have all the you know
oh and it's so funny listening
to people criticizing
our church and other churches right now
and just lionizing the old
IFB and just talking
about just you know they're describing
the old IFB like it's this paradise
you know
they just remember the leeks
and the onions and the cucumbers and look
let me just say this look
obviously I have
great respect for the old
IFB and the things that the previous
generation accomplished and I
think there are a lot of great churches out there
that are you know we would
kind of call old IFB whatever that means
and things that we would think of as old IFB
and we kind of would
look at those churches and be thankful
that they're serving God that they're winning
souls and you know there are a lot of good things
there but let's face it the new
IFB exists for a reason
you know
what I mean like the new IFB exists for a reason
because the
old IFB has got some serious problems
so well
you got problems too yeah but so is the old IFB
so does everybody
that's called humans and again it's kind
of going back to what I was saying earlier it's just
life is hard
life is challenging there are going to be
problems any church and here's
the thing you go and switch
spouses
I guarantee you the first couple years are probably
going to be great
because the first couple years of everybody's marriage is
great okay
and look you switch churches
and I'm not against switching churches
I am 100% for
switching churches I think you
should go to the best church in your area
you know I don't think you need to be
necessarily married to a certain
church right hey
if there's something better out there
and there's something that's better for you and better
for your family then by all means go
but you know what here's the thing about that though
is that what you're going to find is that
when you get to the new church eventually
the honeymoon is going to be over
you know you get to some of these churches and
it's great for three months it's great for
six months then the sermons start repeating
and sometimes it's more like three months
then six months
and the sermons just start repeating
and you're like okay I
think we've heard this like 700
times and it just keeps going over
you start to realize hey
every single Sunday morning the first
Sunday morning is like this is an awesome sermon
but then you start realizing every Sunday morning is a
salvation message
and you're like whoa
what's going on here you know and then
everything starts repeating
and then you start realizing some of the things
that are wrong look we're
new IFP for a reason
okay and I'm not going to sit here
and go through all the things you know
that's another
time that we could talk about that
but it's easy to
glorify
something else
when you're standing far away
and it looks
good but then but here's the thing a lot of times
a mirage
you know and it's like we and
here's the thing I'm not against switching churches
but you know what I am against I'm against being a church
hopper
and let me tell you something
you know I kind of come from a long
line of church hoppers
okay I'm just going to be honest
you know and
the thing is you know
church hopping is not
the answer now
there are times when obviously
yeah you got to switch churches
it's not like now don't ever switch spouses there's
never a reason for that you got
to stay married till death do us part no matter what
okay that's not an option
but when it comes to
church you're not married to the church
okay but what you don't want to be
is a church hopper and I've
known people like this my whole life
where they will
just switch churches every
year or two and they always have a
long list of all the things that they don't like
about their church and they're always criticizing
their church and no church is ever good enough
and they end up
just hopping from church to
church and just kind of wandering in the wilderness
and that's not healthy
okay I'm thankful that I've been
at the same church for the last 18 and a half
years there's a lot
to be said for that
you know and the church
I was at before that I was at for
you know not counting going to Bible
college you know the church I was at before that
I was there for five years
and I was at the same church for five years
and then I went to Bible college
and then I started this church and I've been here for
18 years and I've tried to be
steady you know and
staying with the same
thing right because you say well you're the pastor
of course you're going to stay with it really
because the average length
of a stay of a pastor at a church in America
is like two years
and you see pastors constantly
jumping around in fact there's a church
I'm not going to name the name of this church because you know
I don't have anything against this church
but there's a church just like a couple miles
from here and I think they've had like
19 pastors
not even kidding
and I mean there are other churches
in small towns people that I've talked to
and I mean they're getting a new pastor every six months
every year, year and a half
and I've known pastors who you know they're on their
fifth church they're pastoring the fifth church
that they're pastoring and again I'm not saying that
there's never a reason to move
but when you're switching churches every two
years what's up with that
right and you're the pastor
but church members are like that too
and what that
sometimes ultimately leads to
this thing of just constantly being a
church hopper
is that you start getting this puffed up
arrogant prideful attitude
because you're constantly focusing on what's
bad about every church which is why
you keep church hopping
and then you kind of get this attitude that
you've got all the answers you're right about everything
and it's just all these church
and then ultimately you just end up getting out of church
right
and you know this is ultimately
what happened to my grandpa
and my grandpa passed away many many years ago
he passed away when I was 11 years old
and he was a great man
he was a godly man
he was a great soul winner, he was a deacon
in the church and he actually also
founded a church that is still existing
to this day in Southern California
and so my grandpa
was a godly man, great
soul winner, anybody that you talk
to who knew him
will say good things about him like oh man
that guy won souls and he would
get the hard cases saved
I mean people had a loved one and they wanted
him to get saved, it's like
they get my grandpa in there, he'll get him saved
because he'd get the hard cases saved
that was the reputation that he had
and so you know
I wish I could have known him more because
unfortunately he passed away when I was 11
I barely knew him, I didn't really get
to spend a whole lot of time with him
but you know I was able to get a little bit
from him but the point is
that he eventually though
got to a place
where no church was good enough for him
you know he hopped around
hopped around and ultimately at the end
of his life he got to a place
where no church was good enough
and then he's just not going to church
he would just sit and do like a Bible study
with his wife and yeah
he knew the Bible super well
and he's reading the Bible a ton
and reading the Bible with his wife
and going through the Bible at the kitchen table
and he would still win people to Christ
from time to time but you know what
that is not right to get out of church
we are not to forsake the assembling of ourselves
together
okay and I guarantee you that he was
winning way more souls
when he was plugged into a local church
than when he was just kind of doing his own thing
out of church
and so I'm not bringing that up
to disparage him at all because like I said
he was a great man, he was a godly man, he was a righteous man
and you know he passed away
literally over 30 years ago
but
it's a cautionary tale that even
a guy like that
can go down that wrong path
of saying no church is good enough
and I'm just going to
you know do it at home myself
but you know what
along the path to that point
before you get to that point
you become a church hopper
and I can tell you people that I know
you know people in my extended family
or just friends of ours and people that we know
that have literally
you know in the last 20 years it's like
they just keep switching churches
they're just constantly switching churches
like every year or two they're switching churches
and they've been to like 12 churches
in the last 20 years or something like that
right? This is not
God's plan for your life
okay like I said if there's a need
to change then change
but you don't want to be this person who's a church hopper
because the reason that they're church hoppers
is because the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence
and what it is is they just
they run into problems
and then it's like they just run away and go
find something else
instead of staying and dealing with it
and pushing through
and again some you know
obviously some churches are irredeemable
you know and some churches
aren't worth it you just
you're throwing good money after bad just cut your losses
and get out
you know because the church is a loser
the church is going nowhere
but you don't want to be this person that just has
this attitude of oh
anytime there's a problem at my job I'm just going to get a different job
oh problem
with my spouse I'm out
divorce my spouse
problem move
leave switch churches that's a wrong
mentality we need to be planted
we don't want to be like cane where we're just
wandering around all the time
you want to be planted
don't flee
from your problems because your problems
will be faster than you and they will follow you
and chase you
the bible says in verse 18
and therefore will the lord wait
that he may be gracious unto you
and therefore will he be
exalted that he may have
mercy upon you for the lord
is a god of judgment
are all they that wait
for him
for the people shall dwell in
Zion thou shalt weep no more
he will be very gracious
unto thee at the voice of thy cry
when he shall hear it
he will answer thee
and so the idea here is that look
hang in there and wait upon the lord
and god's going to take
care of you god's going to come through
the world doesn't have the answer
quitting on god
is not the answer
trading up spouses is not the answer
switching churches is not necessarily
the answer you know unless you're going
to a bad church which you're not because you're
at faithful word
but
you've got to be patient
and keep serving god
and keep working the
program keep following
the bible and don't
necessarily just expect for everything to perfect
to be perfect or for everything to work
instantly and just
oh that's it I'm going to go I need Egypt to help me
you know oh god's not coming through for me
alright let's take all the treasures
out of the house of god and let's put them on donkeys
and send them to Egypt
let's just have Egypt
they're not god they can't fix it
god has the answers for your problems
and so be patient wait for him
stick to the word
stick to the hard preaching
stick with your spouse
stick with your job
stick with things in general
and only change things
when they need to be changed
but don't just be one who's just
constantly hopping around
and can't stay on anything
and stay with anything okay
and look at faithful word baptist church
we've got a good thing going here
and we've had a good thing going here
for 18 and a half years
we have done amazing works for god
every single year including
2024 in fact in
anyways 2024 is our greatest year
by a lot of metrics
and so
you know we've got a
good thing going here
now look if you want to leave
don't let the door hit you where the good lord split you
but
here's the thing about that is that
these other churches out there
that some people are enamored with
you know what you're going to find
is that they have their own set
of problems they're not necessarily
all that they're cracked up to be
and you were probably just trading
one set of problems for another
and it's the same thing
if you divorce your spouse
you are going to
just end up trading one
set of problems for another
because there is no perfect woman out there
there is no perfect guy out there
they just aren't out there
and chances are
even just carnally
speaking you're probably better off staying with
the person that you're married to right now
even if you could list
all the problems you're better off
figuring things out and learning
and becoming a better person
and pushing through that difficulty
and you know I'm so glad
that my wife and I have stayed married
for the last 24
some odd years I hope that's right
because of the fact
that our marriage is better than ever
and I love my wife and I can't even
imagine being with someone else
you know what I mean it's just like
but you know what there are times
where humanly speaking
it gets rough and you get discouraged
and so forth man push through
stay with it
stay with it don't be a quitter
alright be diligent
and be planted
and stay with things
and become stronger and become
better don't just flee
problems
Father we thank you so much for your
word Lord we thank you for this passage
in Isaiah 30 and 31
about the vanity of listening to
Egypt's advice
and Egypt's council
and how Egypt they make themselves
look so successful and
prosperous and good Lord help us never to be
stupid enough to think that Egypt has
anything real to offer Lord
help us to be patient
stay in Zion
stay in the promised land and just
wait for you to come through for us because we know
that you inevitably will
Lord you've come through for us so many times in our
lives in the past Lord we believe you'll
always do it in the future as well
and so Lord God I pray that everyone who's
here would take this message to heart
and would understand
that your word
and preaching and church
is not a
trial subscription
but that it's a permanent way of life
help us to stick to it
and in Jesus name we pray, Amen
when
the clouds
fall
their wings
are dry
when the
strong tides
land
will your anchor
trim or burn
remain
we have an
anchor
that feeds the soul
listen to the rock
that cannot move
grounded
permanently
then the Savior's blood
is
safely born
will the storm
withstand
the Lord is well
sanctured by the Savior's
hand
those heavens
raging
will float
not an angry wave
shall our far floor
flow
we have an anchor
that feeds the soul
stand past the shore
while the billows roll
fasten to the rock
which cannot
move
grounded permanently
then the Savior's
blood
can our eyes be
opened again
with night
the scaling of
gold are
on the line
we shall anchor
fast on the
heavenly shore
when the storm
has forever
more
we have an anchor
that feeds the soul
stand past the shore
while the billows roll
fasten to the rock
which cannot
move
grounded
permanently
then the Savior's
blood
will the storm
fall
down
the
earth
will the
earth
fall
down
the
earth
will the
earth
fall
down