Thank you.
And ever since that day, my dad and I were talking about it again.
He never brought up that day.
No, he didn't. He doesn't know what I'm talking about now.
Oh, he definitely did.
Because he thought he was going to make a mess.
He did not happen.
Thanks.
Yeah, come here.
Okay, how's it going?
Sure.
Gina?
Good to see you.
Okay, jump in.
Good seeing you.
Good to see you.
Everybody, welcome to Faithful Word Baptist Church.
If you would, please find your seats, and we'll begin our
service this evening.
Grab a hymnal and turn to song number 66 at Calvary, song number 66.
Years I spent in vanity and pride, carrying out my Lord God's crucified.
Song number 66.
Sing all four verses of this hymn, it's for the young girls.
It's the same thing as the empire.
We care for God, our Lord, who's crucified.
No, we've got it right for thee.
We've got it on Calvary.
Mercy there was ready, grace was free.
God in there was multiplied to be.
There my word and soul have been heard.
And Calvary.
By God's word has left my sin, I've learned.
Yet I travel down the hall, I turn.
Yet my guilty soul, my glory's turned to Calvary.
Mercy there was ready, grace was free.
God in there was multiplied to be.
By God's word has left my sin, I've learned.
Yet my guilty soul, my glory's turned to Calvary.
There my word and soul have been heard.
And Calvary.
Oh, the love that through salvation's bled.
Oh, the praise that brought it down to death.
Oh, the light that falls when God hits heaven.
Mercy there was ready, grace was free.
God in there was multiplied to be.
There my word and soul have been heard.
And Calvary.
Now I give to Jesus everything.
Now I gladly open as my King.
Now my ransomed soul can only sing of Calvary.
Mercy there was ready, grace was free.
God in there was multiplied to be.
There my word and soul have been heard.
And Calvary.
Very great singing.
Let's pray.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this day.
Thank you for the opportunity to be here this evening.
Please fill Pastor Thompson with your Holy Spirit.
And help us to listen to your word preached boldly.
And it's in Jesus' name I pray, amen.
All right, turn in your hymnals next to song number 245.
Song number 245, the old account was set.
One, two, three, four, five.
Sing it out.
There was a time when earth would make the poor girl mad.
And only now her city would save her from fear.
Her name was at the top, and many things were lost.
Our way into the deep earth had settled long ago, long ago,
long ago, long ago.
Yes, the old account was settled long ago.
Hallelujah!
He who ever stood today, now he washed my sins away.
When the old account was settled long ago,
the old account was large and growing every day.
For I was always sweet, and never tried to take
another day.
And so I was afraid of woe.
I said that I would stay.
I settled long ago, long ago, long ago, long ago.
I settled it all.
Yes, the old account was settled long ago.
Hallelujah!
He who ever stood today, now he washed my sins away.
When the old account was settled long ago,
he who ever stood in that happy home.
I saved his Omaha.
I'll sing redemption story.
Embrace him for his love.
A rock will hit that wood.
The cage is white as stone.
Because I didn't settle.
I settled long ago, long ago, long ago, long ago.
I settled it all.
Yes, the old account was settled long ago.
Hallelujah!
He who ever stood today, now he washed my sins away.
I saved the old account was settled long ago.
We'll take the choice of the Lord.
He takes up all your sin.
For mercy and for mighty, for victory and for me.
I guess the future's there.
A hundred years below, a care of God regaining.
I settled long ago, long ago, long ago, long ago.
Yes, the old account was settled long ago.
Hallelujah!
And the reckless wins today.
For he washed my sins away.
When the old account was settled long ago.
Amen.
Great singing.
Amen.
Like you said, good singing.
If you have a bulletin, please open it up.
If you need a bulletin, raise your hand.
We'll have an usher bring you a bulletin as soon as we possibly
can.
If you have your bulletin, on the left-hand side
is our service times and our soul winning
times.
At the very bottom is our salvations and baptisms
for the year.
Once again, congratulations to the Nulues, Mr.
and Mrs. Micaiah Furbe and their families.
Thank you to all who attended their wedding
and celebrated with them.
And please continue to pray for the expectant ladies
on the back of the bulletin.
You know, ladies, please join us for a baby shower in honor
of Lola Roe on Sunday, February 2 from 2 to 4 PM,
nursing only.
Please, food will be provided.
And of course, in case you don't know,
Pastor Aaron Thompson is preaching for us
and he's right over here in case you somehow
miss him.
But he will be preaching for us tonight.
And for those that are wondering,
I dropped out Pastor Anderson at the airport
Sunday night.
He's on another missions trip.
As you guys already know, we have a missions
trip coming up in March, at the end of March.
And so we're trying to get as much information
about these cruises so we can basically run them
as smooth as possible.
So pray for him while he's in the missions field.
He's in a totally different country than last time
when he was on the last cruise.
So him and another church member,
they'll be back on Saturday night.
So please pray for them as they're praying
throughout the week.
And besides that, let's do the sowing in for the week.
So if you got somebody saved on Monday,
Monday the 20th, I'll start on this side.
Looks like we got one right here.
Is that a one?
We got seven over here.
Anybody else?
Five?
Anybody else for Monday, Tuesday?
Three, four?
Four.
Three.
One.
Two.
My bad.
Anybody else in today?
One.
Amen.
Anybody else?
Is that a one?
All right, I can hear you from there.
Anybody else?
One's going twice.
All right.
What's that?
We got that.
Good initiative.
That man's going far in life.
Amen.
All right, there should be an insert in the front
with the song, or sorry, the psalm, psalm 19.
If you need an insert, raise your hand,
and one of the ushers will get you one.
Sing it out on the first.
The law of the Lord is prepared.
I'm working the soul.
The testimony of the Lord is sure.
Waking lies the simple.
More to be desired are they than those in the cross by force.
We are also in a body and a life form.
The gestures of the Lord arrive, rejoicing the heart.
The commandment of the Lord is pure.
And I need the eyes.
More to be desired are they than those in the cross by force.
We are also in a body and a life form.
The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever.
The judgments of the Lord are true.
And Christ is all together.
More to be desired are they than those in the cross by force.
We are also in a body and a life form.
And lastly, before the reading of the scripture,
we'll sing song number 359.
Song number 359, thy word have I hidden my heart.
Song number 359.
Sing it out on the first.
Praise the land of my King.
I'll fly to one path away.
To flight, to spaceship from sea.
And show me my heavenly way.
My morality, my law.
That I might not stand against thee.
That I might not stand.
But for have I hidden my heart.
And true hope is thy word.
Establish and face our eyes.
And forgive what is done to all men.
Our bodies forever kind.
And for have I hidden my heart.
That I might not sin, that I might not sin,
Thy word that I give my Lord.
And for Thee, and You, and I,
Whom I ever will give Thee praise.
For Thou art my question, O Lord,
And shall be through all my days.
Thy word that I give my Lord,
That I might not sin against Thee.
That I might not sin, that I might not sin,
Thy word that I give my Lord.
And for Thee, and You, and I,
Whom I ever will give Thee praise.
For Thou art my question, O Lord,
And shall be through all my days.
And for Thee, and You, and I,
Whom I ever will give Thee praise.
For Thou art my question, O Lord,
And shall be through all my days.
That I might not sin, that I might not sin,
Thy word that I give my Lord.
Amen, everybody, great singing.
Amen.
At this time, please turn your Bibles to 2 Kings chapter number 10,
2 Kings chapter number 10,
as the offering is being passed around.
2 Kings chapter 10,
And Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria,
and Jehu wrote letters and sent to Samaria,
unto the rulers of Jezreel to the elders,
and to them that brought up Ahab's children, saying,
Now as soon as this letter cometh to you,
seeing your master's sons are with you,
and there are with you chariots and horses,
a fenced city also, and armor,
look even out the best and meatiest of your master's sons,
and set him on his father's throne,
and fight for your master's house.
But they were exceedingly afraid, and said,
Behold, two kings stood not before him,
how then shall we stand?
And he that was over the house, and he that was over the city,
the elders also, and the bringers up of the children,
sent to Jehu, saying,
We are thy servants, and will do all that thou shalt bid us.
We will not make any king do thou that which is good in thine eyes.
Then he wrote a letter the second time to them, saying,
If you be mine, and if you will hearken unto my voice,
take ye the heads of the men of your master's sons,
and come to me to Jezreel by tomorrow this time.
Now the king's sons, being seventy persons,
were with the great men of the city, which brought them up.
And it came to pass, when the letter came to them,
that they took the king's sons, and slew seventy persons,
and put their heads in baskets, and sent him them to Jezreel.
And there came a messenger, and told him, saying,
They have brought the heads of the king's sons, and he said,
Lay them in two heaps at the entering in of the gate until the morning.
And it came to pass in the morning that he went out and stood,
and said to all the people, Ye be righteous, behold,
I conspired against my master, and slew him, but who slew all these?
Know now that there shall fall unto the earth nothing of the word of the Lord,
which the Lord spake concerning the house of Ahab,
for the Lord had done that which he spake by his servant Elijah.
So Jehu slew all that remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel,
and all his great men, and his kinsfolks, and his priests,
until he left him, none remaining.
And he arose and departed, and came to Samaria.
And as he was at the shearing house in the way,
Jehu met with the brethren of Ahaziah king of Judah, and said,
Who are ye? And they answered, We are the brethren of Ahaziah,
and we go down to salute the children of the king, and the children of the queen.
And he said, Take them alive, and they took them alive,
and slew them at the pit of the shearing house, even two and forty men,
neither left he any of them.
And when he was a departed thence, he lighted on Jehonadab the son of Rekab,
coming to meet him, and he saluted him, and said to him,
Is thine heart right, as my heart is with thy heart?
And Jehonadab answered, It is, if it be, give me thine hand.
And he gave him his hand, and he took him up to him into the chariot.
And he said, Come with me, and see my zeal for the Lord.
So they made him ride in his chariot.
And when he came to Samaria, he slew all that remained unto Ahab in Samaria,
till he had destroyed him according to the saying of the Lord,
which he spake to Elijah.
And Jehu gathered all the people together, and said unto them,
Ahab served Baal a little, but Jehu shall serve him much.
Now therefore, call unto me all the prophets of Baal,
all his servants, and all his priests. Let none be wanting,
for I have a great sacrifice to do to Baal.
Whosoever shall be wanting, he shall not live.
But Jehu did it in subtlety, to the intent that he might destroy the worshippers of Baal.
And Jehu said, Proclaim a solemn assembly for Baal, and they proclaimed it.
And Jehu sent through all Israel, and all the worshippers of Baal came,
so that there was not a man left that came not.
And they came into the house of Baal, and the house of Baal was full from one end to another.
And he said unto him that was over the vestry, Bring forth vestments for all the worshippers of Baal.
And he brought them forth vestments.
And Jehu went, and Jehonadab the son of Rekab into the house of Baal,
and said unto the worshippers of Baal, Search, and look that there be here with you
none of the servants of the Lord, but the worshippers of Baal only.
And when they went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings,
Jehu appointed fourscore men without, and said, If any of the men whom I have brought into your hands escape,
he that letteth him go, his life shall be for the life of him.
And it came to pass, as soon as he made an end of offering, the burnt offering,
that Jehu said to the guard and to the captains, Go in and slay them, let none come forth.
And they smote them with the edge of the sword, and the guard and the captains cast them out,
and went to the city of the house of Baal.
And they brought forth the images out of the house of Baal, and burned them.
And they break down the image of Baal, and break down the house of Baal, and made it a draught house unto this day.
Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel.
Howbeit from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin,
Jehu departed not from after them, to wit the golden calves that were in Bethel and that were in Dan.
And the Lord said unto Jehu, Because thou hast done well in executing that which is right in mine eyes,
and hast done unto the house of Ahab according to all that was in mine heart,
thy children of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel.
But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart,
for he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, which made Israel to sin.
In those days the Lord began to cut Israel short, and Israel smote them in all the coasts of Israel,
from Jordan eastward all the land of Gilead, and the Gadites, and the Reubenites, and the Manassehites,
from Aror, which is by the river Arnon, even Gilead and Bashan.
Now the rest of the acts of Jehu, and all that he did, and all his might,
are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.
And Jehu slept with his fathers, and they buried him in Samaria.
And Jehoias, his son, reigned in his stead, and the time that Jehu reigned over Israel in Samaria was twenty and eight years.
Dear Lord, thank you for the opportunity to be in your house.
Please bless the service, and bless the word.
Open our hearts to hear your word, and help us work in your path.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Amen. It's great to be here. Faithful Word, great church.
And I just want to say thank you to Pastor Anderson for inviting me here.
And, of course, the great hospitality I always receive.
Thank you, Brother Chris. Thank you, Mrs. Anderson.
And thank you, Faithful Word Baptist Church, for all the great work you're doing,
and for the warm reception I got when I got here. I appreciate that.
Tonight is going to kind of be like a regular Bible study in a way,
but there's going to be preaching involved in it too.
And I've been kind of doing this deep dive study into some of the genealogy of Jehonadab lately.
And I've preached some sermons about it, but it wasn't exactly a whole sermon.
But really what I want to do is I want to teach about Jehu specifically in Jehonadab.
So my sermon title is Jehu and Jehonadab. It's nothing fancy.
But, yeah, let's look at verse number 15 in the chapter.
Of course, there's a great chapter in the Bible, a lot of great stuff you could preach out of here.
But look at verse number 15. The Bible says,
And when he was departed thence, he lighted on Jehonadab the son of Rekab,
coming to meet him, and he saluted him, and said to him,
Is thine heart right, as my heart is with thy heart?
And Jehonadab answered, It is, if it be, give me thine hand.
And he gave him his hand, and he took him up to him in the chariot.
Now, who really knows, and just be honest, who really knows who Jehonadab actually is?
Raise your hand if you actually know a lot about him.
Not, I mean, don't be shy. Just raise your hand if you know a lot about him.
What about Jehu? Who's heard of Jehu before? Raise your hand.
Okay. That's kind of what I thought.
So, some, I mean, we've probably read this in church, or this has been read.
There's lots of sermons that have been preached out of this chapter.
I'm sure you've heard many sermons, and you're like,
You might have, maybe you just never have thought this,
because I really didn't think about it too much either.
But it's like, who the heck is Jehonadab?
You know, what's significant, like, why does this guy just come up out of the blue?
Why is this guy even in the story?
He's not really mentioned much in the chapter, just a couple times.
But this is a significant part of the chapter, whether people realize that or not.
And he basically has this meeting with Jehu, who is now the king.
And in the last chapter, Jehu's already killed Joram,
which was the wicked king of Israel, which is Ahab's son.
He's killed his mother Jezebel, and, you know, the eunuchs threw out the window.
I mean, everybody knows who Jehu is because, you know, let's just face it,
the guy's kind of a bad dude, right?
He's been tasked with fulfilling the prophecy of Elijah,
where he's going to cut off the house of Ahab, the most wicked king to date so far of Israel.
And probably men really like this character more than anybody else, right?
Let's just be honest.
I'm sure the ladies like him too, but, you know, men like these types of characters.
You know, we like the gruff, tough guys.
I mean, you know, they throw Jezebel out the window and kind of blood splatters as she falls down.
You know, the prophecy is that the dogs will eat Jezebel in Jezreel, right?
And, you know, there's nothing left after the dogs eat her but the skull and the hands, right?
And, but what's, you know, what's cool, I think it's cool anyway, he doesn't even break stride.
He just like, as soon as she falls out the window and splatters or whatever,
he just walks right over the top of her dead body and goes in and eats some food.
I mean, that might not be cool to some people, but I just think that's a cool detail of the story.
I don't know why, you know, you're like, you love violence.
I don't love violence, but this is a wicked witch that just did lots of evil to the house of, you know, God's people.
And she was just a really wicked person.
But Jehu's just that kind of guy that you'd like, you know, if we could actually make a clean Hollywood movie,
which is not really necessarily possible, one that's accurate, Jehu would be a pretty cool movie story, right?
Where he's just going in and he's just, you know, wrecking the house of Ahab.
He destroys the prophets of Baal.
But along the way, after he's already done some of this, he's already killed all of Ahab's sons at this point.
You know, if you were following along with the reading, you know, he's killed 70 of his sons.
He's killed Ahaziah.
He's killed his brothers and he's basically done everything except for destroy the house of Baal at this point.
So he's really done all the damage. He's done all the fighting.
And now he picks up this guy named Jehonadab, who nobody in here knows much about.
And I'll just admit that I didn't really know much about him either.
I'm like, who is this guy, you know?
So I kind of did a deep study on him a while back.
And we'll go through it here, but look at verse number 16.
It says, and he said, come with me and see my zeal for the Lord.
So they made him ride in his chariot.
So basically Jehonadab pulls up in his fast and furious chariot because he driveth furiously, right?
That's one of the, you know, the king recognized him when he came up to kill the king.
Someone's like, I think it's Jehonadab because he driveth furiously, you know?
And I just like, that's another thing I like about him because he drives a lot like I do, okay?
Church members get in and drive with me and they're like, you know, their fingers are like attached to the dashboard after they get out or whatever.
I've tried to chill, but it's just hard.
So anyway, he's a man after my own heart in that way, but he driveth furiously.
And so getting into this chariot is kind of a big deal.
I mean, he's got a choice to make here, but he makes it pretty quickly.
He's like, is your heart right, like my heart is right with yours?
And he's like, if it is, then get in the chariot.
And it's like, you know, there's this commercial for Pepsi Max that was like, I can't remember how long ago it was,
where Jeff Gordon, who's a NASCAR race driver, and I really know a lot about NASCAR, I'm not like a big NASCAR guy,
but I know who Jeff Gordon is because he was, for a while he was like the Michael Jordan of racing, okay?
And he pranks this car dealership person and the guy comes out and he's like looking at this 09 Camaro or something
and Jeff Gordon's got like a fake beard mustache, he can't really recognize, he looks older or whatever.
And he's like, hey, let's take this for a spin.
And then, you know, the manager takes him inside, makes him sign this waiver.
He's like, don't worry, you're not going to be liable for anything.
So they get in the car and he's like, and he kind of pretends like he doesn't really know how to drive it very well.
And he's like, you know, going back and forth.
And the guy's just like, oh, just chill, you know, it's okay.
So then he just pulls it out and then he just starts hitting all these turns and driving super fast
and the guy's just freaking out.
He's like, stop, stop, stop.
And then Jeff Gordon just takes him on this ride that just, I mean, he's just freaking out like his neck rolls are like into the,
he's like turning all these crazy corners.
And it made me think of that because this guy is probably thinking, I've heard of D who's driving too,
maybe I shouldn't get into this period.
Anyway, you know, then I think, is that what my church members think about me?
Anyway, so look at verse 17, it says,
And he came to Samaria and slew all that remained unto Ahab in Samaria,
till he had destroyed him according to the saying of the Lord, which he spake to Elijah.
So we've got two different guys here, one everybody pretty much knows about, one nobody really knows about.
So I want to give you a little back story about these guys, a little bit of history about these guys.
And really, the kings of Israel don't get a lot of history.
You know, we don't really know much about their genealogies and stuff like that because it really doesn't matter.
God just kind of picked these guys and then, you know, the ones that would rule and reign and stuff like that.
Let's look at, just turn back to 2 Kings chapter 9 verse 14.
This is pretty much what we know about Jehu and who he hails from.
It says,
So really that's what we know about him is that he is the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi.
But this is not the same Jehoshaphat because the father of Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, is Asa.
This is the things, the details that are kind of important to get because there's a lot of repeated names in the Bible.
So I would just say this to the men when you're researching a sermon that these are the kind of things that can mess you up when you're preaching.
Is that if it says Jehoshaphat, it's not always the same Jehoshaphat, okay?
Because his dad is not Nimshi, it's Asa, okay?
So that's pretty much what we're going to get for the background.
God just tells them to go anoint him as the king.
The guy is supposed to tell him and then run off basically, right?
That's what happens and then his men are like, what did he say to you?
And he's like, oh, you know how the manner of that guy is and then they're like, it is false.
You know, they just call him on it right away.
He's like, all right, if you want to follow me, let's shut the city down and lock it down.
Then he ends up killing him and so here we go.
So that's basically the history that we know of Jehu and he's a king.
So God can make whoever he wants to be the king.
It's not like King Saul has some royal line or something.
He just made Saul the king because that's the guy that he wanted to be the king.
And David, same thing, right?
It's not like he came from some royal line of whatever.
God makes people royalty.
God picks who's going to be the royal person.
Anyway, so now Jehonadab is a little more complicated.
Go ahead and turn to Genesis chapter 15, Genesis chapter 15.
So Jehonadab, he hails from a line that is pretty ancient in the Bible.
And the Kenites, who's heard of the Kenites or have seen their names in the Bible before?
Anybody?
Okay, the Kenites are a nomadic tribe that's related to the Midianites.
They probably branched off from the Midianites.
But look at verse Genesis 15, 18, it says,
In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying unto thy seed have I given this land,
from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates.
The Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims,
and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Gergashites, and the Jebusites.
A lot of ites in there, right?
But the Kenites are part of those people that God said that these are the people that you're going to be amongst,
and these are the people that I'm giving it, you know,
these are the ones that he's going to ultimately be conquering over at some point.
Turn to Numbers chapter 10, verse 28.
Numbers chapter 10, verse 28.
It says in Numbers chapter 10, hold on a second, I might have to have you go someplace else.
Actually, let me have you go over to, I think I didn't put it in my notes somehow.
That's never good.
Alright, turn to Exodus chapter 18.
Exodus chapter 18.
So Moses gets a visit from his, because remember Moses escaped Egypt and went to Midian,
and he lived with a man named Jethro, and he gave his daughter to wife, right?
Now Exodus chapter 18 says in verse 1, it says,
When Jethro the priest of Midian, Moses' father-in-law, heard of all that God had done for Moses,
and for Israel, his people, and the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt,
then Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, took Zipporah, Moses' wife, after he had sent her back.
So Jethro, just this guy appears, and the Bible says that he's the priest of Midian, Moses' father-in-law.
Now this priest of Midian, of course Midian is one of the sons of Abraham,
after, you know, Sarah dies and he marries other wives.
The Midianites are children of Abraham, but Moses obviously is with this guy for 40 years.
I'm sure his influence has gotten him saved, and he becomes this priest.
I mean, that's just what the Bible says. I don't want to elaborate more than what the Bible says,
but he does come with them. Moses takes his advice on not judging the children of Israel from the morning to the evening.
He gives them some advice that's really solid, says, hey, break this up.
And he is actually also not only a Midianite, but he is a Kenite also.
So that's how you know that they're kind of related.
But when he goes back, when he goes back to his land, he also, it's stated that he is a Kenite later.
Let's go back to Numbers 10. Go back to Numbers 10.
So Moses' father-in-law is a Kenite, and I'll show you that. Hopefully I put that in my notes. Good night.
Numbers 10, verse 28. So he's called Jethro, but he's also called different names.
Moses' father-in-law, but it is the same person, I believe.
Numbers 10, 28 says, thus were the journeyings of the children of Israel according to their armies when they set forward.
And Moses said unto Hobab, the son of Reguel, the Midianite, Moses' father-in-law,
we are journeying unto the place of which the Lord said, I will give it you, come thou with us,
and we will do thee good, for the Lord has spoken good concerning Israel.
So Moses is trying to get him to come with them to the promised land.
He's like, I don't want you to go back to Midian. I want you to come with me to Israel.
And he said unto him, I will not go, but I will depart to mine own land and to my kindred.
And he said, leave us not, I pray thee, for as much as thou knowest how we are to encamp in the wilderness,
now mayest be to us instead of I.
So he's asking him to be like a guide in the land to them.
And it shall be, if thou go with us, yea it shall be that what goodness the Lord shall do unto us, the same will we do unto thee.
So he's saying, you're going to be blessed like we're being blessed.
And so Moses is trying to get his father-in-law to go with him.
Now look at Numbers 24, verse 21. Numbers chapter 24, verse 21.
Numbers 24, 21, the Bible says, and he looked on the Kenites and took up his parables.
It's just talking about Balaam.
And he said, strong is thy dwelling place, and thou putest thy nest in a rock.
Nevertheless the Kenite shall be wasted until Asur shall carry thee away captive.
So there's this overall judgment being pronounced upon the Kenite.
But not all, you know, just like there's a remnant according to the election of grace for the children of Israel right now.
I believe that there's also, along the same lines, a remnant of the Kenites that is blessed with the children of Israel.
The ones that leave of the sons of the children of Moses' father-in-law.
They come into the promised land with Moses and the children, or not with Moses, but with the children of Israel.
And I'll prove that to you in the next verse that we go to, which is Judges chapter 1.
Judges chapter 1, and it says in Judges chapter 1, in verse number 12, it says,
And Caleb said, He that smiteth Kerjath-Sefer, and taketh it to him, will I give Aksa my wife, or my daughter to wife.
Not my wife to daughter, my daughter to wife.
And Othniel, the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, took it, and he gave him Aksa his daughter to wife.
It came to pass, when she came to him, she moved him to ask of her father a field, and she lighted from off her ass.
And Caleb said unto her, What wilt thou? And she said unto him, Give me a blessing, for thou hast given me a south land,
give me also springs of water. And Caleb gave her the upper springs and the nether springs.
And the children of, what's it say there? The Kenite, Moses' father-in-law.
So see, he's called the Midianite, and then you see here he's called Moses, or the Kenite, Moses' father-in-law.
So the Kenite and the Midianite are the same, are the same cut of people there, right?
So they're connected with the Midianites, and it says,
Went up out of the city of palm trees, and the children of Judah, into the wilderness of Judah, which lieth in the south of Arad.
And they, it says, they went and dwelt among the people.
So the Kenites, you know, this group of Kenites that are related to Moses' father-in-law, of the children of Moses' father-in-law.
Yeah, it says, and the children of the Kenite, Moses' father-in-law.
So his direct relatives, you know, Moses is by marriage, go with the children of Israel.
And when Moses offered that offer to his father-in-law, some people took that offer apparently.
Doesn't say that in the text, but here they are in Judges chapter 1, going and being with the children of Judah.
Look at Judges chapter 4, Judges chapter 4, verse number 1.
I'm only doing this just to kind of show you, I'm not showing you every verse, but I'm trying to kind of take you on a little journey here,
to kind of help you understand who Jehonadab is, alright?
And Judges 4-11.
Now Heber, the Kenite, what is he? He's a Kenite, which was of the children of Hobab, the father-in-law of Moses.
So he's one of those children, right?
So, now this is during, when the children of Israel have done evil on the side of the Lord,
and Sisera is kind of vexing them and messing with them.
Look at verse 17, it says,
So what is she? Well, she's a Kenite also.
It says,
So, what do you know about Jael now?
Well, she's the one that put the tent stake in between his forehead,
and it says later in the Song of Deborah and Barak that she smote off his head, right?
So, look at Judges 5, verse 24.
So what you have here is you have like, kind of this remnant of the Kenites,
that they followed the children of Israel all the way out in the time of Exodus,
and they're in, you know, and so they're kind of just tagging along here and being blessed,
like the children of Israel are, but yet they're not the children of Israel.
Some of them join the tribes and some of them don't.
Some of them stay nomads and do certain things on their own,
but they're still friendly with the children of Israel for the most part.
Now look at Judges 5, verse 24, it says,
So, that might have been something that you kind of overlooked in your Bible reading,
and didn't realize that she's this Kenite lady or whatever,
but she kind of was the hero of the day.
You know, she comes and brings him butter and a lordly dish,
and then she's like, oh, go to sleep, buddy.
You know, oh, yeah, it's going to be okay.
And then, you know, just, I don't know how many times it took her to get one,
maybe she got one hit, I don't know.
But anyway, it's a pretty slick cover, right?
So, they're allies of the children of Israel.
Look at 1 Samuel, chapter 15, I'm almost done with this portion and I'll move on here.
1 Samuel, chapter 15, and you know, Saul kind of just, you know,
it goes bad, he starts just killing everybody.
He doesn't really, he just kills anything that moves, basically, at a certain point.
Except for the Kenites, these guys are just pretty lovable people for the most part, it seems like.
But 1 Samuel, chapter 15, 6, it says,
And Saul said unto the Kenites, Go, depart, get you down from among the Amalekites,
lest I destroy you with them.
For you showed kindness to the children of Israel when they came up out of Egypt,
so the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites.
So, you know, again, they're these nomadic tribal people.
Apparently, the Amalekites are okay with them, but Saul's just like cutting them a break.
He's not just like, I'm going to kill them all.
You know, he killed the Gibeonites, which he wasn't supposed to do,
and that's why some of his relatives got hung from trees later on.
But, he apparently has mercy on the Kenites.
So, now what great things did Jehu do?
So, we've seen kind of the history here.
Now, we haven't seen the full history yet,
but I'm going to show you some of that stuff here in a little bit.
But, what did Jehu do?
What was his great works that he did?
Well, I kind of already went over some of them, but he killed Joram.
He killed Joram's mother Jezebel.
He killed the Ahab family tree, basically, all of them.
There's some interesting foreshadowing in 2 Kings 10.
You see the 70 heads divided into two equal piles, you know.
Daniel's 70th week is what that makes me think of.
Daniel's 70th week is divided into two equal parts, right, when the Antichrist comes.
And then you've got all these evil people being killed by God and God's wrath.
So Jezebel, and she's being killed, why is God killing her?
Because she persecuted, you know, the prophets.
She had the prophets and the sons of the prophets persecuted,
and it actually spells that out in chapter 9.
But, yeah, so there's some interesting parallels in there.
Sometimes it'd be cool to study that up and find out exactly what that stuff is.
But, yeah, so let's see.
Yeah, so what else did he do?
Well, he destroyed Baal completely out of the land, his temple, and the idol that was set up there.
He executed God's wrath, completely fulfilled the prophecy of Elijah.
And so I was going to, if I had some time, let some of the guys pick out some of their favorite parts of Jehu,
but does anybody want to?
Is there any verse that you guys want to look at that you want to have me read here?
Or you want to read?
Anything?
I kind of told my favorite part when he comes and kills Jezebel,
but is there anything else that you guys like in there?
No?
Those are all the best parts, yeah.
Alright, I'll just move on here then.
So let's go to Jeremiah chapter 35.
Okay, so Jehu, you know, he, again, his story is the story that everybody gets excited about,
because it is exciting, you know.
He executes God's wrath, and he, you know, does these great things.
And when he says, come and see my zeal for the Lord, he has Jehonadab with him.
And Jehonadab, he could have said, nah, you know, I don't really want to ride in your chariot.
I know how you drive, buddy.
He could have chosen not to do that, but what he did is he did see his zeal for the Lord.
And he did get involved with what he did, and he went to the house of Baal with him.
It actually explains that in the story that he went with him.
He was with him when it was going on.
It doesn't necessarily say that he did it, but he was with him when he did it,
so he took part in it, so he was part of what happened.
So, and whatever it was that he did rubbed off so much on him that that zeal did get transferred to him.
And he, you know, it doesn't say what he did after that, except for a couple hundred years later
when God has Jeremiah go and gather up these Rechabites.
And you're like, Rechabites? What is a Rechabite?
Well, the Rechabites are a family that are from the Kenites.
And I'll show you that here in just a second, but let's go to Jeremiah chapter 35,
Jeremiah chapter 35, and look at what's so cool about Jehonadab.
He didn't kill Jezebel. He didn't kill Ahab.
He didn't do all those things before he met, you know.
He didn't have any great stories to tell.
There's not a lot of great sermons about what he specifically did
because the Bible doesn't say what he specifically did
besides just jumping in that chariot that day and going with him and helping him out.
But look what the Bible says about him later in Jeremiah chapter 35 verse 1.
The Bible says,
The word which came unto Jeremiah from the LORD in the days of Jehoiakim,
the son of Josiah king of Judah, saying,
Go unto the house of the Rechabites, and speak unto them,
and bring them into the house of the LORD,
into one of the chambers, and give them wine to drink.
Then I took Jazaniah the son of Jeremiah, the son of Habazaniah and his brethren,
and all his sons, and the whole house of the Rechabites.
Skip to verse 5, it says,
And I set before the sons of the house of the Rechabites pots full of wine and cups,
and I said unto them, Drink ye wine.
But they said, We will not drink, we will drink no wine,
for Jonadab, it's the same person as Jehonadab,
the son of Rechab, your father commanded us, saying,
Ye shall drink no wine, neither ye nor your sons forever.
So the Bible doesn't say when this happened, but it did happen.
And this is the same guy, so he's exactly the same guy.
But what did he tell them? Don't drink wine.
How long ago was this? Well, or how long after the events of Jehu was this?
Two hundred and twenty years approximately.
So for two hundred and twenty years, and then they go,
he sets this wine in front of his descendants and say, drink this wine.
They're like, nope, we're not drinking it.
We're not drinking it. We're not going to do that.
Why? Jehonadab, our father, commanded us not to.
So they're holding to this standard of not drinking wine
just because their father, Jehonadab, said no.
He said this also,
Neither shall ye build house, nor sow seed, nor plant, vineyard, nor have any,
but all your days ye shall dwell in tents,
that ye may live many days in the land where ye be strangers.
Thus have we obeyed the voice of Jehonadab, the son of Rechab,
our father, in all that he hath charged us to drink no wine all our days.
We, our wives, our sons, nor our daughters,
nor to build houses for us to dwell in,
neither have we vineyard, nor field, nor seed.
And you're like, well, that seems kind of extreme.
We can't have houses. We can't plant corn or any kind of veggies or anything like that.
We can't build a house. We've got to live in these tents.
I mean, it must have been kind of a rough life, right?
But why not have these things?
Why not have these specific luxuries?
Well, maybe he thought that having those types of luxuries
was going to get them to do what he didn't want them to end up doing,
which was to get into alcohol.
You know, I mean, Native Americans have a real problem in this country.
If they drink alcohol, they just have this really hard issue with,
they cannot handle alcohol.
Maybe they couldn't handle alcohol.
Maybe he saw all these people that were his relatives get destroyed by alcohol
and he's just like, hey, I'm going to take some of the zeal that I got from Jehu
and I'm going to say, you know what, we're just not going to do this.
And this is going to ensure that we don't do this.
We're going to stay away from people that are like this
and kind of just, you know, it's not like they just completely took themselves out of society,
but they did to an extent where they wouldn't be tempted to do these things.
I don't know exactly the reasons why, but he said, and have no vineyards, you know,
it makes it a little easier to not have wine if you don't have a vineyard right next to your house, doesn't it?
It takes away the temptation, doesn't it?
And it says in verse 16, because the sons of Jonadab, the son of Rekab,
have performed the commandment.
Oh, sorry, yeah, skip to verse 16, excuse me.
So yeah, because, so God's saying this, because the sons of Jonadab, the son of Rekab,
have performed the commandment of their father.
It wasn't God's commandment, which of course God doesn't want us drinking, you know, alcoholic wine for sure,
but he's just saying they kept the commandment of their father.
Are we supposed to keep the commandments of our father?
Yeah, especially if it's something that's already something God commands,
which he commanded them, but this people have not hearkened unto me.
He's talking about the children of Israel who these people followed from their own country
and then they're watching them get taken away to Babylon and they watch that city get destroyed
because at this point they're actually in Jerusalem because the Babylonians have been going around killing
and just destroying every little city that they can get ahold of.
And it says in verse 17,
The God of Israel, because you have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab your father
and kept all of his precepts and done according unto all he hath commanded you.
Therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Jonadab the son of Rekab,
shall not want a man to stand before me forever.
How long is that?
Yeah, it's forever, isn't it?
That's a long time.
So because they have done this thing and just listen to what their father said for the last 220 years
after he had that little chariot ride with Jehu the crazy driver.
And yeah, he did great things.
Yes, he destroyed Baal out of the land.
Yes, he killed all of Ahab's wicked family members and killed the wicked witch of the west or whatever.
He did all those things and they're great stories are great things to preach about.
But who really was a better man in the long run?
Who really did the most effective things?
Because you know what?
We can be zealous.
There's a lot of people that are zealous for short periods of time and then they stop keeping the commandments of the Lord.
They stop going to church.
They stop serving the Lord.
They stop coming to church three times a week.
And things just start, you know, a church that's as great as this church can just seem like any other church.
What a shame.
What a shame when people just drop off and stop keeping the commandments.
I mean, what do you think that going to church isn't a commandment?
You're like, well, it's not a commandment to go three times a week.
I'll tell you what, it's good for you though.
It's good for you to be in the house of the Lord.
And you know what I know as a pastor that the moment people just stop coming three times a week
and they're just like, then there's Sunday morning, Sunday evening, no Wednesday night.
Or they just drop one service and then they start dropping two.
Then they're just one service.
And then next thing you know, they're just out.
They find a reason why it's the pastor's fault.
They find a reason why it's somebody else in the church upset them or something and they stop coming to church.
And look, you can blame whoever you want but ultimately you just need to look in the mirror and figure it out for yourself.
Quit trying to blame other people as to why you did something.
I'm sure these people could have made up an excuse to drink wine.
Well, it would be nice to have a crop outside.
We could have some fresh tomatoes, right?
I mean, what's wrong with having some grapes?
We don't have to make wine.
Look, you'll start making up excuses in your head to do anything.
Sometimes it just doesn't start with, you know, nobody just says, you know, I'm quitting tomorrow, that's it.
That's not usually how it goes.
It's a gradual thing that happens and you might not even know you're doing it.
Next thing you know, you're out of church.
It's like, so look, I'm not saying Jehu was totally bad or something but he wasn't totally good either, was he?
Look, and here I wanted to prove to you that the children of the Recubites are related directly to the Kenites.
Let's look at 1 Chronicles chapter 2 verse 55.
Here's the smoking gun on this one because I didn't really prove that yet.
And also, 1 and 2 Chronicles are like probably the last books written, you know, in the Old Testament or at least close to the last ones.
But there, you know, a lot of the people that came back from the exiles, names are in 1 Chronicles and genealogies.
So you know that that's, you know, after, of course, Jeremiah had this conversation with the Recubites, right?
Look at 1 Chronicles chapter 2 verse 55.
It says, and the families of the scribes which dwelt at Jabez, the Tirithites, the Shimeothites, and the Suchithites, or the Succothites, these are what?
The Kenites that came of Hamath, the father of the house of Rechab, or Rechab.
So there's your connection right there.
These are the Kenites, the house of Rechab.
That's where, so isn't Jehonadab or Jonadab the son of who?
Rechab.
And these are the Kenites.
So there's a direct connection.
So we don't know where these guys are today, but what was God's promise?
That they would not want a man to stand before me forever of the son of Jonathan of Rechab.
So I'm sure that there's people still getting saved that are related to him today.
We just don't know who they are necessarily.
But what do we know about the old boy Jehu?
Let's turn back to 2 Kings chapter 10 verse 28.
7 Kings chapter 10 verse 28.
And again, I love the character of Jehu.
I love everything he did, but except after he gets done doing his task.
See, the Christian life is about balance, people.
And we can't just, you know, I know that your pastors talked about the Roman Candle Christian lots of times.
I've seen a lot of them come and go.
You know, they're super on fire.
You know, I'm going to be a pastor and have 12 kids and I'm going to, you know, blaze the trip.
I'm going to go on all these trips and I'm going to do all these things.
And then it's like, where are they now?
They're gone.
Because you kind of, you have to, we're running the race.
We're running a race and when you're running a race you have to pace yourself.
You can't just sprint the whole time.
So you do have to, you know, prepare yourself.
First of all, you have to get rooted and grounded in the truth.
And how do you do that?
Well, you plant yourself in the house of the Lord and you'll be fat and flourishing.
Alright?
That's what the Bible says, right?
So look at 2 Kings chapter 10 verse 28 where we started here in that chapter.
It says, Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel.
Great job.
Howbeit from the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin,
Jehu departed not from after them, to wit the golden calves that were in Bethel and that were in Dan.
So what's his problem?
He's still down with this idolatrous cult that started.
He's still down with that.
How is that possible?
I mean, to me I just think, how is that possible?
But the guy, you know, because he's just so zealous to destroy Baal, he turns it into an outhouse basically.
The house of Baal, when it says drop house, that's what it's talking about.
It's talking about the porta potty.
I don't want to be too, you know, blunt here or whatever.
But that's, you know, the piss house basically is what it's talking about.
So when I was in England, there's places that are called drought houses.
And when someone's drunk, they say you're pissed.
They don't say you're drunk like we would say.
They say, oh, that guy's pissed.
And when they first started saying that, they're like, oh, that guy's a piss head.
And I'm like, that's what they call people that are drunk.
So then when I saw that there's places called drought houses that are spelled just like this,
I was like, oh, that's what that means.
Because when you drink a lot, you've got to piss a lot.
So they just kind of, you know what I'm saying?
That's why they say they're pissed.
Or if someone's, you know, giving you a hard time and joking around with you too much,
or, you know, they say they're taking the piss out of you.
I don't know. It's England.
They'll find they've got a real interesting way of saying things sometimes.
It's kind of funny though.
Anyway, now you're educated about the drought house.
So that's what it's talking about.
Anyway, let's see, where was I?
Verse number, oh, yeah, 30.
So, and the Lord said unto Jehu, because thou hast done well in executing that which is right in my eyes,
God's happy with what he did there.
And that's done unto the house of Ahab according to all that was in my heart,
thy children of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel.
That's a different blessing than Jonadab got, isn't it?
That's a far different blessing.
He doesn't even say they're going to be saved.
They're not going to stand before the Lord forever.
It just says, thy children of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel.
But do you think they were saved?
Probably not if you just look at the kings that followed after.
So they get the same treatment that Ahab and his children get
because Jehu's line gets cut off exactly pretty much the same way.
Maybe not in such dramatic fashion, but they still get cut off and their line is no more.
Jehu does not have any relatives living today because they all got chopped up
just like Ahab's family did also.
So, I mean, he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, but what's the difference?
Well, one kept, you know, living godly.
And, you know, it's kind of sad though because Jehu's the one that taught him that zeal.
He said, come, come with me and let me show you the zeal, my zeal for the Lord.
And he showed him.
And it rubbed off on him because you know what?
Zeal rubs off on other people.
You know why your pastor has, you know, why this, you guys are all here
is because his zeal rubbed off on you.
His zeal rubbed off on me, his zeal rubbed off on a lot of people
and there's a reason why people want to follow him because of his great zeal.
So, I mean, other things also, but like his zeal, you can't fake zeal.
Some people can pretend to do stuff, but faking zeal is not easy to do.
Did Jehu have genuine zeal?
Yes. Was it the right kind of zeal?
Yes, it was.
But somewhere it died.
And it was right after he got done doing everything he was going to do.
He's just like, oh, you know, I've done all the great works that I need to do.
Let me just kick back.
Oh, and I don't want my subjects to leave me, so I'll just do the same stupid things that Jeroboam did.
The whole reason why Jeroboam set those calves up is so that people wouldn't go to Jerusalem to worship.
Holding on to power.
I mean, God could still bless them if they still let them go to Jerusalem.
It's like they're just afraid of losing their people.
That's what it is.
So, really, what is the difference between these guys?
Well, here's the difference.
But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart.
That was his problem.
He didn't take any heed.
Maybe he should have, you know, he said, hey, is your heart right, like my heart's right?
Somewhere his heart stopped being right.
And Jehonadab's heart stayed right.
And Jehonadab's heart taught his sons and his children and their children after them,
his zeal rubbed off on generations of his family.
And they, you know, kept doing and keeping those commandments.
And God blessed them tremendously for it as he watched his nation, the children of Israel, blow it time after time after time.
So Jehu was basically like this flash in the pan and Jehonadab saw that zeal and did something permanent with it.
And, you know, maybe, you know, all those living in tents and doing all that stuff,
stopped them from turning wicked, stopped them from turning, you know, obviously there's a method to his madness.
I'm not saying, hey, let's all go live in tents.
That'd be, you know, really bad in this area for sure, in summertime.
But, you know, it obviously affected people.
Maybe he read the book of Proverbs and he was like, hey, alcohol is bad, you know, wine bad, tent good or something.
I don't know.
Whatever the reason, what he did paid off, it worked.
So the more influential man was obviously Jehonadab who nobody knew anything about until you listen to this sermon.
So hopefully you know a little bit more about him.
But listen, zeal isn't worth much to God if it isn't according to knowledge.
And the Apostle Paul, you know, he had a lot of zeal before he was saved, didn't he?
But it was not zeal according to knowledge.
But God picked Saul as one born out of due time.
Why did he do that?
I mean, have you ever wondered why he picked Saul?
And I kind of just came to this little epiphany of it.
One of the reasons why I think he did, obviously he knew what Saul was going to do with his salvation.
But he was already going door to door when he was not saved.
He was already knocking every door.
He was already just trying, but he had a different mission with his door knocking.
His mission was like house to house searches.
Look at Acts chapter 8 verse 3.
Acts chapter 8 verse 3.
He was going house to house with search warrants trying to find out who the Christians were.
It says, as for Saul, he made havoc of the church entering to every house and hailing men and women committed them to prison.
But notice how it says, entering into every house and hailing men and women.
But this same man gets saved and went to every house hailing men and women committing to getting them out of the prison that the devil has them in.
And getting them saved and waking them up from the blindness that they're in and turning the world upside down.
Why did God seek out Saul?
Because he had great zeal.
He just didn't have it for the right things.
I'm sure he thought, well hey if this guy gets saved, what's he going to do for the kingdom of God?
He's already knocking doors so let's just get him knocking doors for the right reason.
Going house to house searching people for stuff and taking them and making them recant.
But he just turns out and does the opposite of everything he was doing because he was creating havoc in the church.
I mean people were leaving Jerusalem because of him.
That's the kind of zeal that we need.
But the other thing about Paul is that he just didn't quit.
He never stopped.
He just kept going.
Look at Philippians chapter 3 verse 13.
Philippians chapter 3 verse 13.
Philippians 3, 13.
The Bible says, Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do,
forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before.
And that's the thing that we as Christians, sometimes we mess up along the way.
No Christian is perfect and we've all lost our zeal from time to time.
And we've probably gone through times where we're super zealous about stuff and then kind of fall back a little bit.
But the good thing is that we can forget those things.
That's what's nice about New Year.
Is that we can just kind of, you know people make fun of, oh they've got these New Year's resolutions.
So what? It's better than not having any goals.
It's better than just being in apathy and not caring about anything.
So we reach forth unto those things which are before.
The things in front of us and stop looking in the rear view mirror.
Stop parenting out of guilt from the bad parenting you did before.
Stop going to church and just going to church and thinking about the guilty things you did before.
Hey, as Christians, we're new creatures.
What if the Apostle Paul just, all he ever did is went around and preached about how bad he felt because of what he did before.
That's not what he did.
I'm sure that he probably had to explain himself to some people, you know.
I'm changed, you know.
Like, he had my son killed.
I mean, think about that.
They were afraid of him.
They didn't even, they were like, this dude, I know who this guy is.
He's an agent.
He would have come to faithful word.
He would have been like, I know what he's done.
This dude works for the FBI.
I mean, any church.
He would have been suspect.
I would have been too.
It's like, I know what you've done, Paul.
But he would have been like, I know what you've done.
I know what you've done, Paul.
But he didn't let that stop him.
It's not like he's just like, oh, you know, I'm so sad about what I did.
I'm sure he was.
But he didn't let that stop him and we don't need to just live in the guilt of our past.
You know, we've sinned before.
We've done some, everybody in here has done things that we regret.
And probably things that people have never even shared to other people.
And good keep it that way.
Look, let that be between you and God.
Don't let people throw your past in your face.
Because that's all under the blood.
And it's a wicked thing when people want to just bring up people's past and throw it in their face all the time.
You know, I kind of thought we were Christians.
That we're supposed to let things go.
And not keep bringing stuff up.
Once something's forgiven and it's over with, you don't just keep throwing that in people's faces and holding those things against them.
God doesn't do it.
And He forgave you.
He forgave me.
If you're saved, He's forgiven you.
So it's just, you know, seeing people do that kind of stuff, it's trash.
It's trashy.
Look at Revelation chapter, oh no, I'm sorry.
Let's look at verse 14 here in the text.
It says, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Look, we've got to put some pressure on ourselves as Christians to, you know, because look, staying zealous isn't always easy.
Staying on fire isn't easy.
And yeah, even for me, yeah, I'm a pastor, so what, I'm a human being just like all of you are.
And yeah, it's hard to always stay zealous, always stay fired up.
But that's why you have to put pressure on yourself.
You know, that saying, I press toward the mark, it's pressure.
You know, I always use this example in basketball, when people are down, their score, they're down and they want to put pressure on the offense, they trap them.
They put pressure defenses on them so they make a mistake.
But we don't want to make ourselves make a mistake, we want to make ourselves do better.
So we press upon ourselves and try to do better than we've done before.
And we need to hold ourselves accountable to live the Christian life.
Because it's real easy to do things when it's all exciting and stuff.
When you're on a missions trip in some foreign country and the water's blue, it's 70 degrees, you know, people are jumping in the net.
They're like, salvation, salvation, salvation, salvation.
That's the fun times.
You know, church attendance is never better when a bunch of sodomites come and protest against our church or something.
But where are those people when it comes to coming soul winning on Sunday afternoon?
Where are those people when it comes to going soul winning on any of our soul winning times?
A lot of them are there.
But some people, you know, they're just spiritual adrenaline junkies and they want to be there, they want to do the Jehu things, but they don't want to do the John and Dad things.
Like just keeping God's commandments, going to church, reading your Bible, praying, getting sin out of your life, holding yourself accountable, you know, pressing towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Look at Revelation chapter 3 verse 15. Revelation chapter 3 verse 15.
Revelation 3, 15, the Bible says, I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot, I would thou were it cold or hot.
So then because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth.
Because thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing.
And knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.
We don't want to be in that state where we're just thinking that everything is all good.
But in reality you're miserable, you're poor, you're blind to the thing, your inconsistencies, you know, and you're naked to the fact that, you know, everybody can see that you're having problems except for you.
Everybody can see that you're one step out the door except for you.
It says, I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire that thou mayest be rich and white raiment that thou mayest be clothed and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve that thou mayest see.
What is Jesus saying here? He wants you to see. He wants you to see the state of where you're at.
He wants you to get some clothes on so the shame of your nakedness does not appear.
It says, as many as I love I rebuke and chasten.
You know, if you're like going through chastening and you're going through rebuke, maybe it's because Jesus is trying to get a hold of you.
And don't be so numb to everything that you don't realize that that's what's going on.
And it says, be zealous, therefore, and repent. Be zealous.
And Jehu was zealous for the things of God, but he turned it off as soon as he was done doing what was fun.
And, you know, I mean, I guess murdering people or killing people, you know, not murdering, but killing people that God said to kill.
That was where his fun ended.
But not Jehonadab. He just kept on going. Doesn't say what he did, but obviously he taught his people, his family what to do.
So go to church whenever the doors are open. Sing unto the Lord.
You know, every time you come to church you have a chance to sing unto God and praise him.
It's not just about coming to listen to preaching. It's also about worshiping the Lord.
You guys have a great music program and be, you know, it's a blessing. So be a part of it.
Read your Bible. Pray. Do you actually think about God?
Because thinking about God is something you should be doing every single day.
But you know what? We can get busy and, you know, it's really sad when I'm being like, oh man, have I even thought about God today?
We should be thinking about God every day.
He should be on our heart, on our mind, and also our people.
We go to church with this bit. You guys have a big church here.
Do you think about your brothers and sisters in Christ and what they're going through?
Because everybody's going through something. Everybody has problems.
Go soul winning. Love people. Get out there. Stay zealous.
Work on getting that sin out of your life. Repent of your sins.
I never thought I'd say that. But I don't mean to be saved.
Repent of your sins though. Try to get sin out of your life.
And you know what? Keep yourself from alcohol and fornication kids.
Because one thing leads to another.
And, you know, we're supposed to be a shining light. A bright and shining light.
And you know what sin does? It dulls that light.
So listen to your parents, kids. Do what they say.
And, you know, that goes for adults too, you know.
So the final thoughts here on Jehu and Jehonadab are both are great men in the Bible.
There's no doubt about that.
But Jehu is much more exciting. He accomplishes all those tasks.
But he, you know, he would make, like you said, he would make a better action packed movie.
If you had the movie about Jehonadab, he'd be like, he gets in a chariot.
He helps destroy the thing about and then like you don't really know what else he does until Jeremiah 35 or whatever.
And then it's just like shown, you know, it'd be like one of those slow movies with a lot of dialogue and acting.
But like he wouldn't really be in it much.
But with Jehu, you can make a pretty action packed movie.
Okay. I admit that.
But Jehonadab is a great man in his own right.
He works a lot less. He's highlighted a lot less as far as his personal works go.
But he went for the chariot ride of a lifetime.
And it affected him. It's obvious.
And he helped. His name is in there. He helped.
He helped.
And he could have said no.
But he said yes.
And we should say yes.
When it's time to pick up our zeal.
Hey, you know, there's a lot of people, a lot of Christians with no zeal.
And we need to have zeal.
If we don't have it, we need to repent and get it.
What does he say to them?
Is thine heart right? Is my heart is right?
And Jehonadab answered, it is.
If it be, give me thine hand.
And he gave him his hand and he took him up into his chariot.
We have the choice to be zealous.
We have the choice to keep God's commandments.
We have the ability to finish the course and keep the faith.
That's what we're called to do.
And really, that's the most important thing we can do.
Is not only stay zealous and keep God's commandments, but finish the course.
I mean, we got to finish.
I mean, Paul just, you know, he hammers that home about us.
Jesus talks about it and he's like, hey, you know, do you have sufficient to finish?
And then when we don't finish, what happens?
People begin to mock and to laugh at us.
Your family's going to mock you.
Your friends are going to mock you.
You don't think so?
You think they're, oh, I just tried that, you know, that crazy cult for a while, but now I'm back.
They're going to still laugh at you.
I told you.
Told you it wasn't.
I told you they were crazy.
No, you're crazy for quitting on God.
That's what you're crazy for.
There's a lot of people that owe some apologies.
And they're probably wishing that they were here right now.
They're probably wishing they were back at this church, but they probably said too much.
But you know what?
You know what's funny is that people say that, you know, our type of churches are all, we're hateful and we don't forgive.
And, you know, we just reprobate everybody and all this other stuff.
But you know what?
I've seen a lot more forgiveness in these types of churches than I ever did in the old IFP.
It's just true.
I'm not saying that the old IFP doesn't have forgiveness.
They do.
But they forgive people that they shouldn't forgive a lot of times.
And will hate people that shouldn't be hated at all.
So, a lot of weird stuff.
But look, there's people that probably haven't said too much that they would be forgiven on the spot.
All you have to do is just humble yourself and say you're sorry.
And a lot of people would just be like, hey, it's cool.
We have a guy that goes to our church and he preaches all the time.
And he was offended about the reprobate doctrine.
He never heard of it.
I remember he was fighting with everybody online about it one time.
And he was like, I'm done.
And then he comes back.
He's like, you guys were right.
And everybody's cool to him.
And he's just one of the gang.
It's like, oh, we're just not forgiving.
It's not true.
It's a lie.
So, the final application.
Let's just turn to one last verse and we'll be done.
2 Timothy chapter 4.
So, I guess the final application would be this.
Be zealous and keep the commandments.
That's really what was missing with Jehu.
And he would have been good.
He just had to keep the commandments.
His heart was not right because he wasn't keeping God's commandments after that.
So, that's how we kind of get the package right.
Be zealous, repent, and keep the commandments.
Do the exciting things and the boring things.
But I don't think it's boring to go to church.
I like going to church.
I'd feel like something was wrong with me if I just was like, I'm not going to church.
If you just start getting in the habit of doing it.
Like, if it's just non-negotiable, you will go to every service.
It's a habit that you'll get into.
And it's a habit you should get into.
I can't read the Bible. It's boring.
Well, stop watching your stupid Hollywood movies and just start loving the Bible.
It's God's word.
There's some cool stories in here, like the ones we read tonight.
Read the chapter before. It's pretty cool too.
It's boring.
Well, maybe you just need to quit having the fun, fun party, party, everything's a party every day, every night, party, party, video games, cookies, Kool-Aid, whatever.
It's all got to be fun, entertainment all the time.
Be balanced.
Look, our zealous works can have a long lasting effect on people that you'll never even realize and you just don't even know it.
Do you think that he actually knew that 200 years, 220 years later Jeremiah was going to be having a conversation with his relatives?
He probably didn't know that.
He's probably up in heaven like, huh, who knew?
Who knows what your zealousness can do to affect other people and infect other people with that zealous bug or whatever.
Or someone else is inspired by what you've done and goes out and does great things for God.
That's why it's so important that we're here.
But someone's like, oh, where's that zealous person?
Oh, they had something more important to do.
The game was on or whatever.
So, in conclusion, should we be Jehu or Jehonadab?
Be both.
Do the exciting stuff and the quote unquote boring stuff, okay.
But just cut out the negative wherever you can.
Cut out the negative part of what Jehu did and just add that other positive part and you'll be good.
So look at the last verse here and we'll be done.
Second Timothy chapter 4 verse 6 says, for I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand.
I have fought a good fight.
I have finished my course.
I have kept the faith.
I want to have those things said about, to be able to at least say those things when I know it's my time to go.
I at least finished.
I at least kept the faith.
I fought with everything I could.
And it says henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me at that day and not me only but unto all them that love is appearing.
It's not just about the apostle Paul.
It's not just about pastors.
It's about everybody.
He's going to give it to everybody.
Anybody that loves him, loves his appearing, wants to see Jesus come back, hey just keep fighting and stay in the fight.
Stay in the fight.
Stay zealous and keep God's commandments.
Do the boring stuff.
Do the fun stuff.
Alright.
Let's pray.
Lord we thank you so much for this great church here and Lord they're known for being a zealous church but I pray Lord that we'd also just not let our candle go out.
Not be Roman candle Christians but we would strive to stay in it for the long haul and our Christian faith is measured by decades.
And that we should just look at it that way.
That we're going to stay in this until the end and Lord that we were going to stay zealous and keep your commandments Lord.
I pray that you'd help us to do those things.
Help us to get sin out of our life.
Help us to walk the Christian faith and walk in the light of your love.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
Lastly let's turn in our hymnals if you need the words to the song.
The B-I-B-L-E song number 467.
We're going to sing the song twice and do a key change for the second time so pay attention.
Song number 467.
The B-I-B-L-E.
Yes that's the hope for me.
I stand alone in the world of God.
The B-I-B-L-E.
Yes that's the hope for me.
I stand alone in the world of God.
The B-I-B-L-E.