You
Good evening we're in Isaiah chapter 45 and the Bible reads does say the Lord to his anointed
the Cyrus whose right hand I have holden to subdue nations before him and I will loose the loins of
kings to open before him the two leaf gates and the gate shall not be shut I will go before thee
and make the crooked places straight I will break in pieces the gates of brass and cut in
I'll give thee the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places that I may know that I the Lord
Which call thee by thy name and the God of Israel for Jacob my servant's sake and Israel mine elect
I have even called thee by thy name. I have surnamed thee though thou has not known me
I am the Lord and there is none else. There is no God beside me
I girded thee though thou has not known me that they may know from the rising of the Sun and from the West that there is none beside me
I am the Lord, and there is none else.
I form the light and create darkness.
I make peace and create evil.
I have the Lord do all these things.
Drop down ye heavens from above,
and let the skies pour down righteousness.
Let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation,
and let righteousness bring up together.
I have the Lord have created it.
We'll all entomb that strives with his maker.
Let the potchers strive with the potchers of the earth.
Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What maketh thou, o'er thy work, he hath no hands?
Will unto him that saith unto his father, What begetst thou, or to the woman, what hast thou brought forth?
Thou saith the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, And his Maker, ask me of things to come concerning my sons,
And concerning the work of my hands command ye me. I have made the earth and created man upon it.
I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their hosts have I commanded.
I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways.
He shall build my city, and he shall let go my captives.
Not for price, no reward, saith the Lord of hosts.
Thus saith the Lord the labor of Egypt and merchandise of Ethiopia and of the
Sabians men of stature shall come over on to thee and they shall be thine
They shall come after thee and change they shall come over
They shall fall down on to thee they shall make supplication on to thee saying surely God is in thee and there is none else
There is no God
Verily thou art a God that hightest thyself for God of Israel the Savior
They shall be ashamed and also confounded all of them. They shall go to confusion together that
That are makers of idols
But Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation
Shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end for it does say to the Lord that created the heavens
God himself that formed the earth and made it he hath established it. He created it not in vain
He formed it to be inhabited. I am the Lord and there is none else
I have not spoken in secret in a dark place of the earth. I said not on to the seat of Jacob seeking seeking me in vain
I, the Lord, speak with righteousness.
I declare things that are right.
Assemble yourselves and come, draw near together,
ye that are escaped with the nations.
They have no knowledge that set up the wood
of their graven image and pray unto God that cannot save.
Tell ye and bring them near, yea,
let them take counsel together,
who I declare this time from ancient time,
who have told it from that time.
Have not I, the Lord?
And there is no God else beside me, a just God and a Savior.
There is none beside me.
Look on to me, and be saved all the ends of the earth,
for I am God, and there is none else.
I have sworn by myself the word has gone out of my mouth
in righteousness, and shall not return.
That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.
Surely shall one say, and the Lord I have righteousness
and strength, even to him shall men come.
and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed.
And the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified
and shall glory.
Let's pray.
Father God, we thank you for the King James Bible
you've given us to your Lord and preserved it for us.
Thank you for this wonderful church
you've given us to your Lord.
Just please bless the preaching of your word,
bless the pastor and just bless us
in our congregation to your Lord.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
Amen. Okay. We're in Isaiah chapter 45 this evening and tonight I'm going to cover three things. I'm going to cover the prophecy of Cyrus, the power of the creator and the proclamation of his council, the prophecy of Cyrus, power of the creator and lastly the proclamation of his council.
I'm going to spend a lot of time talking about Cyrus the Great, Cyrus the King of Persia because he does play a significant role in the history of Israel and especially in this particular chapter.
this prophecy that we see here and the one that we see in the previous chapter,
you got to keep in mind that this is actually being made about 200 years prior to the birth of Cyrus.
So, obviously, God is prophesying, he's predicting.
Regarding this king, the liberator of the nation of Israel, bringing him back to the land at least 200 years before this guy even exists.
And obviously there's many instances in the Bible where prophetic statements are made about certain kings.
But what's unique about this prediction is the fact that he's actually calling him out by name.
So he's talking about Cyrus and the exploits that he's going to do.
So this is very notable.
after he kind of pictures the Lord Jesus Christ. We know that he is called here the anointed
and of course Jesus Christ is the anointed one. He's the Messiah and he's also historically
known as the King of Kings. Just as Jesus Christ is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords
The Bible's concern, Christianity's concern, is that he's known for the liberation of the Jewish people
just as Jesus Christ is the liberator of the human race from the bondage of sin and from the consequence of sin, which is hell.
And so there are a lot of parallels there between Cyrus and Jesus Christ.
Now, let's talk about the fact that he was anointed by God.
And a couple of things I want to talk about when it comes to Cyrus is, number one, was he saved?
And, you know, I'm going to kind of give some reasons why I believe he was saved,
but I'm also going to give some reasons why it's possible that he wasn't saved.
And then I'm going to cover the reason why it actually doesn't matter at all, okay?
And this is actually a common, not a debate, but, you know, people speculate
and they'll say, you know, I really do think he was saved
because of these particular passages here.
Other people say, I don't think he was saved at all.
And I'm going to show you from this passage why it's possible.
You know, one of two for sure exists and then why at the end of the day it honestly does not matter to us.
It obviously matters to him, but it doesn't matter to us at all.
And so let's let's talk about this.
Look at verse one.
It says here does say the Lord to his anointed to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden to subdue nations before him.
And I will loose the loins of kings to open before him.
The two leave gates and the gates shall not be shut.
So first and foremost we would make the argument those of us who may believe
that he is saved you remember we'd make the argument well it.
You know, the Lord refers to him as the anointed, right?
It's his anointed.
It's somewhat of a possessive type of a statement
that he makes there.
And so reason would have it,
it's possible that King Cyrus believed on the Lord
and he was saved.
And I agree with that to a certain degree.
I can see how that argument can be made.
And I would say, yeah,
if God is calling him his anointed,
it's possible that he was saved.
Okay, even though anointed simply means like a deliverer and he's going to be used as an instrument of God to deliver
Israel out of the hand of the Babylonians to bring them back to Israel
But here's the thing is that when you actually study the life of Cyrus, you know
He does stand out from a lot of different leaders throughout history
in the sense that he was very benevolent, just naturally.
He was a very benevolent leader.
He was known for just being very kind and gracious
and somewhat of a humanitarian.
And in fact, in Xenophon's book that he wrote,
He quotes Cyrus, and this is what Cyrus said,
and it's a very good quote, but you know,
reading this, you can kind of make the argument,
yeah, he was possibly saved, but others can say,
well, this is kind of proof that he was just a good guy.
It wasn't necessary that he was saved.
And he says this, this is a quote from Cyrus.
He says, whenever you can, act as a liberator.
Freedom, dignity, wealth, these three together constitute the greatest happiness of humanity.
If you bequeath all three to your people, their love for you will never die.
So it just sounds like from a secular standpoint that Cyrus was just a really good leader.
He was a person.
who loved people and was very noble just in a natural sense.
And obviously we know there's none to do with good,
no, not one, there's none righteous, no, not one.
And at the end of the day, you know, no one is good
as far as the perfect standard of God.
But I think all of us can say
that there's good people out there, quote, unquote, right?
Not necessarily perfect.
but good and as far as noble is concerned,
and I would say Cyrus is one of those.
And here's the thing is that I think Christians
have the temptation, myself included,
that when we hear about people throughout history,
Especially even in the Bible, where they do very noble actions, we want to say that that person was possibly saved.
Because our hearts are endeared towards people who want the good of God's people, who want the good of things that are righteous,
who are being used of God in a certain specific way.
And we often associate a noble nature with godly virtue.
So when we look at the actions of Cyrus throughout history and some of the statements that are made about him in the Bible,
You know, our temptation is to say,
oh man, he probably was saved, you know?
Because we hope that.
And I think that's just the temptation for Christians, period.
I mean, people will look at a current leader, for example,
and some of the favor that he's shown towards believers,
towards Christians, towards, you know,
just showing favor towards, you know, conservative values.
And, you know, there's a lot of Christians out there
that want to say, well, maybe President Donald Trump
is saying, you know, he seems to like Christians.
And so, and I just think it's just a natural temptation
for believers to associate
Noble actions and noble accomplishments of a person in power with possible godly virtue and maybe that guy does believe in Christ
You know and so that is often the case here and of obviously Cyrus
is the successor of the Babylonian Empire, right?
You know, he essentially took over Babylon in 539 BC.
He conquered it in a very, very unique manner.
But, and I'll cover some of that later
because this chapter actually talks about it a little bit.
But let me read to you a couple of things here.
There's a, an artifact that's actually found,
it's called the Cyrus Cylinder.
Anybody has ever heard of the Cyrus Cylinder?
And basically, you know, most,
Scholars would essentially say that this is the first human rights charter.
So after the conquering of the Babylonian Empire, when Cyrus takes over,
this is a charter that was written out and it was essentially a lot of his decrees that he made.
Cyrus, King of Persia.
And there's a lot of people who see the Cyrus cylinder
as simply propaganda to slander the former ruler.
You know, because the former ruler that they had
was just not a good ruler, he was very oppressive,
and the people of the land just did not like him at all.
And so when this was made, they would say,
well, that's just propaganda to kind of make him look bad,
drag his name through the mud,
and just kind of prop up.
Cyrus has been the savior of the Babylonian people.
And so they would ride it off
as not being necessarily accurate.
But it does have a lot of decrees that he didn't make, and one of the decrees that he made, aside from the restoration or the deportation of the Jewish people back to Israel,
he did make a decree to restore shrines, objects of worship within Mesopotamia.
So often when we look at the Bible and the fact that God used Cyrus to bring back the Jewish people, we don't realize that he actually showed favor to a lot of the pagans as well.
You know and so you know he restored those shrines a lot of those objects of worship and Mesopotamia
And in fact many of the people and particularly what stated in the sire cylinder is that he declares they declare that
that Cyrus essentially took care of Mar the gods called his name is Marduk's
cult which is a false religion within Babylon so he's just like kind of taking
over for them he's making sure they have religious liberty religious freedom so
you see how he's just kind of for religious freedom in general okay
A lot of people can say, yeah, but that doesn't outrule the fact that he's possibly saved though,
because he's showing favor to the Jewish people, and I would agree to that,
but at the same time you can see an argument could be made, well, he's just kind of showing
favor to all religions within Babylon as well. And, you know, the same could be said of Donald
Trump, right? You know, people want to say that he's Christian, that he's saved, but, you know,
he is showing favor to Catholics, he's showing favor to just pretty much anybody within, you know,
And so, and by the way, in the Cyrus cylinder, there's actually no mention of the Jewish people, of Judea, of Jerusalem, or the deportation of the Jews back to Jerusalem at all.
It's just kind of putting this canopy over anyone who's in Babylon at the time and specifically those of Mesopotamia and the religions that are involved in there
But obviously we have a far more reliable declaration in the word of God that tells us that happened
And then Cyrus did make a declaration and there was something actually written down though
It's not in this whatever the sire cylinder that's that people talk about
And so the point that I'm making with this is that you know Cyrus when you look at him historically
He just sounds like a really good guy.
He just seemed like a really good political leader
who was for the people and had just a noble nature about him.
And whoever came into contact with him,
essentially, they benefited from his benevolence
in a lot of ways, regardless of what
cultural religious background they came from.
And God used that as an instrument
to get the Jews back to the land.
Now,
Obviously from a secular perspective we can see them and say well maybe he was and say maybe he was just a great guy
But obviously there's portions of scripture that we see that can possibly hint towards the fact that he was now the first thing
We're gonna look at here actually go to Ezra chapter 1 if you would Ezra chapter 1
We're gonna go back and forth here from
Isaiah and Ezra and the first thing I want to mention of course is the fact that he's anointed
He's selected by God. Is that just an ironclad proof that he is saved? Absolutely not because anointed
Yes, could mean Messiah, but it just means someone who's separated by God to a specific work and Cyrus was separated
by God for a specific task, for a specific work.
But we also know that God actually worked
within the heart of Cyrus, King of Persia.
It wasn't that he was just kind of moving him
to make certain decisions.
He actually stirred him up personally
to do that particular work.
Look at Ezra, chapter one and verse number one.
It says, now in the first year of Cyrus, King of Persia,
that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled.
The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia
that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom
and put it also in writing saying thus say Cyrus king of Persia
the Lord God of heaven had given me all the kingdoms of the earth
and he has charged me to build him in house at Jerusalem
which is in Judah. Now I could look at something like this and say okay
you know he's talking about the Lord God of heaven he's the more responsible for
all these kingdoms he's accrediting God with all of these great exploits and I
think that is great proof there that it's possible that the man was saved in
the sense that he's talking about the God of the Bible as though it's his God
right or at least he knows that the God of the Bible is heavily involved in his
life in his conquest so on and so forth but I want you to notice that it says
that the Lord stirred him up
So, God is the one moving in his heart, he's moving in his spirit, he's causing him to
have compassion and obviously wanting to deliver the children of Israel from Babylon.
Now, this is one of the reasons why I might lean towards the possibility that he was saved
and that's in verse 3.
It says, Who is there among you of all his people?
and let him go up to Jerusalem which is in Judah and build the house of the Lord God of Israel,
he is the God which is in Jerusalem. So he's kind of like, you know, showing favor to the people
but he's talking about the fact, he's talking about the house of the Lord is God, he is the God,
right? So it's kind of like Cyrus talking of the God of the Bible as though he's the only God.
And this chapter and the chapter previous to this really kind of focuses in and emphasizes
the fact that God is the only God in this universe, right?
There's no one beside Him, there's no Savior next to Him.
So God is allowing these passages to be here for a particular reason, just to kind of point
towards God.
it's possible that he believed on the Lord.
And of course it says in verse four,
and whosoever remaineth in any place where he sojourneth,
let the men of his place help him with silver,
and with gold, and with goods, and with beast,
beside the free will offering for the house of God,
that is in Jerusalem.
Now obviously we could look at the statements
made by Cyrus regarding liberation.
Right his his humanitarian side and we can say well, you know
He's just kind of saying this because of the fact that he just favors people and he wants people to be free
You know, he is just a really good leader and that's true.
It's true for sure.
That could be the case as well or it could be that God is just using his natural benevolent nature and directing it towards God's people after he believes on him in order to help them get back to Jerusalem.
The point that I'm making here is the fact that at the end of the day, God does stir and move the hearts of rulers, whether they're saved or not, okay?
God can work in their hearts, He can stir up their spirit, He can give us favor in the
eyes of rulers throughout history, and in fact the Bible says in Proverbs 21 verse 1,
the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord.
As the rivers of water, he turneth it, with it so ever he will the Bible says.
So according to the Bible, leader's hearts are in God's hands and he can easily just reach in there
and turn their motives, turn their favor towards God's people at any given time.
Now, the principle that Proverbs 21 is teaching us is that we should vote for the right rulers.
That's what it's teaching us.
Psyche?
No, actually what it's telling us is that we should want favor with God
Because it's at the end of the day the most important person in the equation is the Lord
You know, God is not putting rulers on a pedestal.
He's essentially saying, if you want favor with the ruler, you need to make sure that
I favor you, right?
In order for God to bless God's people, we need to make sure that we are living a life
that is pleasing unto the Lord.
Because the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord.
And you know, as rivers of water, he turned to the weather service, he will.
So this isn't like, well, let's get favor with the king.
No, get favor with the king is what you need to get favor with, right?
So God stirs and moves the hearts of the rulers,
and we need to take that into account.
You know, if we as God's people, as Christians in the United States of America,
experience four years of great prosperity,
you know, you can praise Donald Trump all you want,
but I'm just going to praise the Lord Jesus Christ.
because he's the one who's favoring us at the end of the day, right?
He's the one who's blessing us with all the prosperity, all the success,
everything that we have.
And this is really what the chapter is all about, because you kind of read it
and it spends a good chunk of time talking about Cyrus, King of Persia,
but then God kind of flips it on us and he's just like,
You know and obviously Cyrus is essentially a picture of Jesus Christ, but at the end of the day
He is just like every other king. He needs to be saved as well
And at the end of the day, he's at the end of the day the ultimate ruler
Okay, now when you think of Cyrus and how it just how is it that he's stirred?
How is it that he was stirred by God?
You know, to show favor to the Jews, to return back to Jerusalem, how does he do it?
Well, the same way that God stirs your heart today.
How does he do it?
They're preaching.
And it's of my personal belief that it's possible there is a prophet of the Lord in his day
who's preaching the word of God and stirring his heart to favor God's people.
And I specifically believe that it's probably the prophet Daniel, okay?
Because the Bible says in Daniel chapter 6 verse 28, so this Daniel prospered in the
So, he was there during that particular time, and we also know that he is referencing the
book of Isaiah, he's referencing the book of Jeremiah, which both books essentially
have to do with the Babylonian captivity.
and the position that they're in.
So it's possible that God is using Daniel
to kind of preach to the king and stir up his heart.
You know, obviously God can reach into anyone's heart
and just, you know, touch them
and cause them to change their mind.
But ultimately, let's just be realistic here.
How does he do it?
He does it through preaching.
He stirs us up through the preaching of God's word. It's the Bible that has power
It's the Bible that is capable of going into the inner recesses of the heart
The word of God is quick and powerful sharper than any two-edged sword
It pierces even to the dividing center and can affect the church member that sits in the pew
But can also affect the person that's in the White House
Now if we could just get Donald Trump under some hot preaching maybe he'll you know, maybe he'll become get saved or something
I don't know you like well. I don't know about that. Well. I have faith in God's word obviously
You know, and I believe it can happen because he turned the heart of Cyrus
I believe through the prophecy of Daniel the Bible is not explicit about that
This is obviously me surmising the possibility of that through biblical principles
But at the end of the day, I do believe that Daniel played some form some role in
Stirring up the harbina instrument that stirred up Cyrus, King of Persia to make those decrees. Okay now this chapter is essentially highlighting
What is it that God is going to use?
How is he going to use Cyrus in the world, in the nation of Israel?
Well, first and foremost, you know, Cyrus is the king of kings because he conquered many different nations
and obviously God used him as an instrument to punish those nations, right?
I mean, he used it to essentially punish Babylon and the surrounding nations.
He also used him to free the Israelites and allow them to return to Judah.
God was going to use him to communicate the fact that there is only one God
So, you know, it could be the Cyrus is just a compromiser
He did believe that God was the God of the Bible and that was the only God but then to placate the other religious groups
You know, he just kind of
Fancy them or whatever
Because according to these passages he's proclaiming that the God of the Bible is the one true God, okay?
And of course he pictures he's gonna use him as picturing Jesus Christ setting humanity free and by the way
When the Babylonian captivity ended and the Jews came back to the land not everyone came back
There's some that stayed there in Babylon
Cyrus King of Persia basically said whoever wants to go can go back, right?
You can go back and there's many that went back
But there's some that stayed and you know what that pictures is the fact that Jesus Christ
Who's the anointed one calls many to be saved, but not everyone's gonna be saved
The Bible talks about many are called, but few are chosen.
And so that pictures the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ calls many to repentance, many
to salvation, many to believe on him, but the reality is this, it's up to them if they
really want to go.
If they really want to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
We're gonna see that he was selected. He's the anointed to conquer and succeed Babylon
It says I will go before thee and make the crooked places straight
I will break in pieces the gates of brass and cut in some of the bars of iron and I will give thee the treasures of darkness and
Hidden treasures of secret places that thou mayest know that I the Lord which called thee by thy name and the God of Israel
I believe he's addressing
Cyrus, King of Persia
So he's saying like, you know, he's doing this that thou mayest know that who that Cyrus may know
That the Lord which called him is the God of Israel so regardless if he made a public decree in a secular realm
Proclaiming that God is the God of Israel, you know somewhere in his heart. He knew that because God is saying I'm gonna lie you to do
So that you know that I'm the one who's in charge basically, okay?
Now this was actually fulfilled in Daniel chapter 5. We're not gonna go through the passage tonight
But we know the story of Daniel chapter 5 with the removal of Belshazzar
right? Belshazzar was having a party and he takes all the holy things of the house of God
and they begin to use them for abominable means. And of course he begins to see the writing on the
wall. Daniel comes and he translates that and to summarize he basically says, you're dead,
you know, it's over with you and you know, the Persians are gonna come, they're gonna come
Well, historically, it is said that it was in that night that Cyrus King of Persia actually conquered Babylon and he did it without any war because according to the account, he essentially you have Babylon, the walls of Babylon, they were actually surrounded by a moat that historically people said were about two men deep, so it's very deep, protecting the walls.
And what Cyrus did was that he cut down trees,
using his men, he's cut down trees,
and he put those in the mud to redirect the water
from the Euphrates in a different direction.
Causing the water to become shallow,
his men crossed through, climbed over the wall,
and they were able to take over,
and essentially annex Babylon.
And so it's considered one of the greatest ideas
to come up with just to redirect the water
and really no loss of men.
And when he ended up taking over the people battle on loved him like they were just like all for him because they were being oppressed by the previous king and you know once he took over he lower taxes gas prices were doing great.
Oh wait there was no gas you know Dung was great you know whatever they had back then.
You know everything was just going good like the economy was was great
They proclaimed liberation for everyone and quite frankly the common man during that time in Babylon
Uplifted Cyrus is being a great leader and they loved him because he proclaimed liberty not just for the Jews
But just everyone in Mesopotamia look at Ezra chapter 1
And verse 7, because in Isaiah the Lord says,
I'm going to give you the treasures of darkness.
He says hidden treasures, hidden riches of secret places.
He's allowing them to have these riches,
but it says in Ezra 1, verse 7,
also Cyrus the king brought forth the vessels
of the house of the Lord,
which Nebuchadnezzar had brought forth out of Jerusalem
and had put them in the house of his gods.
Even those that Cyrus king of Persia bring forth
by the hand of Mithridath,
the treasurer and numbered them unto Shazbazar, the Prince of Judah, and this is the number
of them, 30 charges of gold, 1000 charges of silver, 9 and 20 knives, it says 30 basins
of gold, silver basins of a second sort, 410, and other vessels, 1000.
All the vessels of gold and of silver were 5,400.
of the captivity that were brought up from Babylon
unto Jerusalem. So we see here that he truly does give him the hidden treasures
of darkness, right?
He takes it from Babylon. Now what's interesting about this
is that most kings, when they go and conquer something
and they find spoils, they take it into themselves, right?
They keep it, take it unto themselves, to make themselves richer with the exception of Cyrus
King of Persia.
It actually tells us in this chapter in Isaiah 45 that he didn't do this for a reward.
So he didn't conquer Babylon necessary for a reward or take these treasures unto himself
for a reward.
And in fact, what did he do?
He put them back into the house of God.
So that is obviously an act of God that is something that God put in his heart because what key ruler wouldn't just take it into themselves
Right, like yeah, I'll let you go, but I'm gonna keep this stuff
You know, I'm not a believer so this is we'll just make a trade-off here
But he's just like take it all to the house of the Lord God. That's what he decreed for them to do
And so that is a miracle now obviously people could look at something like this and say well, this is a self-fulfilling prophecy
Because if this was prophesied 200 years prior to his birth,
someone came to him and said, hey, your name's right here.
Why don't you fulfill this?
But folks, how can it be done to the T?
And at the end of the day, you know,
Who's the one who opened the gates? Who's the one who prospered, you know Cyrus's way?
It's obviously God and Cyrus very much could have just said no, I'm not gonna do that
These Jews are gonna stay here. You know what? I mean, I'll just give him liberty within this area right here
But you know, he he basically got no gain
From liberating them allowing them to go back
There was no benefit under him for himself to allow them to go back to Jerusalem
It's obviously God working in his heart to do so
Now let me give you some possible evidence as to why maybe he wasn't saved okay
Look at verse 4 of Isaiah 45 if you would go back to Isaiah 45
Can you put that at like 69?
Let's say we're gonna look at the purpose of his selection. Look at verse 4 says for Jacob my servant's sake and Israel mine elect
I have even called thee by thy name. I have some name deal listen to this though
Thou hast not known me
So it's basically saying there that God is selecting Cyrus
He's using him and he says though you don't know who I am
You know and you know that could be an indication that maybe he wasn't saved and obviously we can go really deep into this
It was like well, you know, he's to be known of God
You know, that's what salvation is and it doesn't but you know, obviously this is all speculation
I'm just giving you reasons why it's possible that he wasn't saved
You know, he's acting on God's behalf and doing things without what necessary him knowing that this is a very supernatural thing
And if he wasn't saved he might be reading about these prophecies
and it might appeal to his benevolent nature, right?
He's looking at these prophecies about the children of Israel going back
and how God's going to use him.
And let's say, let's just kind of throw out there that maybe he wasn't saved.
He could look at that and it could appeal to just his noble nature
of being a humanitarian, wanting to help people.
And he said, you know what? I'm going to do this, right?
That could be the possible case and obviously through that that's how God is stirring them to do so and you know what?
The same happens today. I mean how many unsay people out there quote scripture
They put a Bible verse on their stories
They use it to inspire themselves to go to work
You know or whatever they use it for all kinds of reasons even though they're not even saved people do that all the time, right?
The word of God is not only powerful, but it's also inspirational
And there's some awesome passages in the Bible
that can stir you up as an unsafe person
to go run a mile or something, right?
You know, if thou faint in the day of adversity,
thy strength is small.
Therefore, I'm gonna hit this PR or something, you know?
I'm gonna, you know, and they'll put that verse there.
They're not even saying they don't know the Lord Jesus Christ.
You know, they don't know salvation.
But here specifically says that, you know,
he did not know the Lord, okay?
And look at verse 5 says I am the Lord and there is none else there is no God beside me
I girded thee though thou hast not known me
That they may know from the rising of the Sun and from the West that there is none beside me
I am the Lord there is none else now a couple things that I want to say about this is that the Lord is making it pretty
You know clear the first and foremost Cyrus does not know the Lord and you know
From a human perspective we're like oh man, you know like I wish you would have known him. It was just made more sense
Right, it would have just been more romanticized if he did but
He says there I am the Lord
And he says there's none else and then in verse 6 he says that they who's they the Israelites
May know from the rising of the Sun from the West that there is none beside me. I am the Lord there is none else
So in other words, he's allowing this could be interpreted as he's allowing this
Foreigner ruler to deliver them
Who doesn't know God as a supernatural miracle to prove to them that hey God is the one doing this
Because this man does not know the Lord.
He's a Persian, the man has his own agenda,
God is stirring him, you know,
his religion is not the God of the Bible,
and so he's using them, why?
So to prove to the Israelites,
hey, I'm the one who's saving you, not Cyrus.
I'm using Cyrus as an instrument to deliver you.
So it's really made to kind of direct their attention
back to God.
You know why because it's in man's nature to idolize a man, right?
It's in man's nature to want to attribute God in this to a great leader and accredit that person for salvation
For liberation for great gas prices for whatever
It's in our nature to do so we want to follow a physical man
I mean, that's what the nation of Israel did, you know
Give us a king like all the other nations, right?
We may be like all the other nations and what God is trying to do is like I'm gonna send a foreign king
to come rescue you someone who doesn't know me just to prove to you that I'm God and I can do this
even through an unsafe vessel if he was unsaved okay and so what is God trying to do here he's
trying to take the attention off of Cyrus and off of the other kings and like trying to redirect
So those Cyrus was instrumental in bringing the children of Israel back into the land and sanctioning the rebuilding of the house of God
The Lord ultimately is the one responsible for doing it. And what does God want? He wants credit
That's what he wants
That's what he wants from Israel. He's like, can you give me the credit because I'm the one doing it
Whereas it seems the children of Israel really want to solely focus on the instrument itself. Okay
You know the Bible tells us the divine sentence is in the lips of the king his mouth transgressed not in judgment
You know God can often put that divine sentence that divine decree that divine law
Though it's not something that's personally in his heart. He can move you know that leader to say you know
Christianity is a religion of America now or something or you know praise Jesus Christ and everyone's like oh man, that's awesome
But the problem is that sometimes people take that and they're just like the instrument
The leader, you know, whereas God's like no, how about me? I'm the Lord. I'm your deliverer. Okay
look at verse 7 and
again, I'm still on the
Potential that he's not saved and again
I'm just gonna go ahead and believe that maybe he was because it's just cool if he was
But I can definitely see it from the other end that maybe he wasn't and the same goes from Nebuchadnezzar
I think within all of us we just want these cool leaders is like maybe there's someone in power that was just you know
If we could just get a fundamental Baptist in the office or something. It's one of those kind of things, right?
But this is in its context look at verse 7 I form the light and create darkness
I make peace and create evil. I the Lord do all these things
So he's like give me credit for these things
You know he's saying that he forms the lie creates darkness and let me just kind of
Go off track here and talk about the fact that he says he creates evil now evil in the Bible
There's instances where it is referring to that which is sinful that which is wicked that which is associated with iniquity
But there are other instances where evil is just referring to judgment, right?
you talk about the evil day and of course probably the most famous passage that we all know about
is in Amos chapter 3 verse 6 where the Bible says shall there be evil in the city and the Lord
hath not done it shall there be judgment shall there be you know an evil day judgment coming upon
people and the Lord hath not done it now we know this isn't referring to in Isaiah 45 it's not
referring to evil as in sin because God cannot be tempted with evil neither tempted he any man the
And that, in its context, is referring to that which is sinful, that which is associated with transgression.
But God is responsible for evil as in judgment.
And you know what, sometimes judgment comes upon even good people.
In fact, there's people that suffer under the hand of judgment just because a city or a nation or a state is suffering collectively.
You know, sometimes good people end up suffering the consequences of a nation's sin, a city's sin, that happens.
And, you know, if evil comes upon a good righteous, or a good person, a righteous, or a moral person at that,
you know, we can't not accredit that to God, because God still allowed it.
Right? Why? Because he creates evil.
You know he allows that and here's the thing as we're going to look at later on in the passage
We as that which is created can't look at God and say why has that made me thus?
You know, why did you do this?
Because in his infinite wisdom he has a plan even behind that as well
Okay, and you know probably the most recent thing that I can think about is the fires right and thank God that we were spared from the fires
But you know what I guarantee you there's a ton of people this side of the fires are probably wicked and evil
and they didn't suffer in those fires.
And I guarantee you there's people over there
who there's maybe a sprinkling of good people
in that area.
I'm sure there's really good moral people over there.
I'm sure there's even saved people over there
that may have suffered severe consequences of those fires
and it's absolutely true.
And I think it's wrong for Christians to say,
well, because good people suffered,
therefore that can't be of God.
But you don't know exactly how God's gonna use that suffering in that person's life though
You know, you don't really know maybe that person needs an evil day to turn them under Christ
Have you ever thought about that?
You know, oh, I just don't see I can't see how God can do that to really good people I can
Because there's there's a guy who was like perfect and upright
One who is chewed evil
And he got worse than a fire
I mean his kids were they're all killed his resources were taken
I mean evil came upon that man, and it didn't take away the fact that he was good
It just that it ended up turning them to an even better person. He came forth as gold
So you don't really know, you know, there's people in those fires, and you know what I pray for those people
When that was happening, I pray I'm not just like burn it all to the ground. You all deserve it
Because we're not for the grace of God. I mean that could have happened to us, right?
And during that time I'm praying for them and I'm also praying Lord spare us
Because if we burn down to the ground, I want people point. Oh, that's because of first words back to church
No, it's probably because we just live in a wicked state a wicked nation and God's just so chose to select this particular area to burn
You know, it doesn't mean God hates me or hates us or is not favoring us
It's just that we collectively suffer for the consequences of our nation
And you know what, when those fires are going on,
I'm thinking about those people, you know,
and there's even people in our church
who live in close proximity to that area
who are slightly affected by that.
I'm praying for them, right?
I don't want evil to come upon them.
But you know what, I guarantee you,
maybe there's a saved person
or there's just the person who's not saved.
Evil came upon that person
and maybe it stirred their heart
to start searching after God.
And you know what, if that person ended up getting saved,
believing on Jesus Christ,
it was worth every single ash.
Every single inch of fire to get that person saved and so let's not just like question God
Well, God wouldn't do that. How do you know you don't know the hearts of those people?
Maybe they're just
You know a natural disaster away from getting saved
right
Maybe they're just a natural disaster away from actually believing on the Lord or maybe there's just some super backslidden Christian out
There who's just living a life of sin
God allowed their area to be burned down to strike fear in that person's heart and they went back to church the very next week
You don't know. Well, well that wasn't on the news. Yeah, of course. It's not gonna be on the news. Who cares?
Who cares where it is God knows and God is working in those people's hearts
The point that I'm making here though is that evil came upon that area
Evil came upon in multiple areas and you know what God is the one responsible for because he said it. He says I create evil
Okay, he formed the light he formed darkness
That is what he does. Okay, and in fact, let me read you from Proverbs 16 because this is still in context of Cyrus
Right, and he's saying, you know, I formed the light create darkness. He created evil all in context of Cyrus
Let me read to you from Proverbs 16 verse 4 the Lord has made all things for himself
Yay, even the wicked for the day of evil
So God is saying like I even raise up evil people allow people evil people to exist in order to use them as an instrument
To judge other people and we can see that that the Old Testament is replete with examples like that, right?
So you can kind of see how it can also imply there
that maybe Cyrus King of Persia was not a safe person.
He's just someone who God used because from once come wars and findings among you come they none of your own lust.
You know, Cyrus King of Persia might have been noble and a humanitarian
and all for the liberation of people and religious freedom.
All the while he's just like, you know, destroying nations and trying to conquer people, right?
He's like, what if he's killing people?
He's like, all right, what's the next area
we're gonna take over?
So there's some lust in that man that stems from,
you know, or there's war in that man
that stems from his lust.
So we can look at him and say, man,
that's an evil person, right?
He's just a greedy evil person who just wants more land.
And you know what, God can use the desires of that person
to say, okay, I'll allow that,
and I'm gonna allow you to broaden the scope
of your influence and your rule just for my people.
You're like, would God do that just for,
I mean, that's literally what he says.
He says, for my servant, Jacob's sake, he says.
That's why I did it.
So literally, the scholars would hate this.
The secular world would hate this.
But the pure the only reason according to the Bible, which is the only thing that really matters
According to the Bible, you know Cyrus King of Persia was able to conquer so much only for God's people
Just to bring him to the point where he would liberate God's people
Bring him back to Jerusalem because he was chastising the Jews, which is what the Babylonian captivity was all about in the first place
You know, they're there for 70 years for the rejection of the God of the Bible.
God, you know, he raised up Nebuchadnezzar, an evil person, to essentially take them into captivity,
and then he raised up another evil person who just lusts after more territory,
and he just used him to bring them back.
He's just using them as instruments.
You know what that teaches me? The rules of this world are used as instruments.
to carry out a specific task and so you know don't put your all your eggs in one
basket don't put so much so much faith into one man because at the end of the
day the only faith you should be putting you know putting in man the only man
you should put your faith in is the Lord right and so cursed it is every man
to make it the armist flesh when you depend on the man because he ultimately
will fail you
Point that I'm making here. I think the reason God is saying like I create darkness. I form the lie. I create evil
He's basically saying like I'm raising him up for a specific task
Okay, look at verse 8. He continues here with that thought of him working through Cyrus
Let's read verse 7 again says I formed the light I create darkness. I make peace and create evil
I Lord do all these things by the way. He makes peace
These next four years are going to be peaceful according to the new administration, and you know what? I'll take it
Right. I'll take it
But you know who I'm going to give credit to is the Lord Jesus Christ
And by the way, that's why I believe
Like forget what the conspiracy theories theorists say I believe God delivered Donald Trump from that assassination attempt
You know people were like no's fake
Yeah, he just knew exactly when to turn
At the right moment so the bullet can nick his ear. Yeah, that he planned that all out
It's nonsense. It's called an act of God
Now obviously the crazy conservatives worshipers of Donald Trump
They're gonna look at that and say oh man, it's cuz he's a godly person. Oh
It's because God is the one in charge. He has to use him for a particular reason
So he's gonna keep him alive. So he made him just turn at that moment
He's just like, you know the heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord, but the head of the king too
You know, he's just like
And people could come up with all kinds of conspiracy theories, I'm not interested
When it comes to that it's an act of God stop taking away from God's supernatural intervention
And me saying that is not me just like worshiping Trump. It's me worshiping God
Because Trump he didn't know he was gonna get shot
You know, he's not like trying to time it right. It's the Lord who knows these things
Okay, the point that I'm making here is the fact that God is the one who makes peace
So if we experience peace throughout these next four years is because of the Lord
And by the way, we've had peace even before that.
Like the past four years we had peace.
If you didn't have peace, then you're not serving God.
Plain and simple.
If you didn't have peace the last four years,
it's because you're not praying, you're not serving God,
because true peace comes from the Lord, right?
The peace of God, the passage of understanding.
And so he says, I do all these things.
Look at verse eight.
It says, drop down ye heavens from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness.
Let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up
together.
I, the Lord, have created it.
Now what is this telling us?
It's telling us that God is responsible also for the good of this world.
You know what's crazy is that people are like, well, if God is such a good God, why is all this evil happening?
I got a better question. The question you should be asking is, you know, oh, because there's so much good going on in this world,
that must be God. Why do they only want to give credit for all the bad stuff?
But when everything is going good in someone's life, they don't give credit to God.
All these atheists and
agnostics, you know, they only want to talk about the negative things to say, oh, yeah, if you're God's so loving,
why is he allowing this? Well, that's funny. You're breathing today.
You've had meals, you have a functioning brain, supposedly.
Your organs are up to par, I mean you're living a life.
God sends the rain upon the just as well as the unjust.
Give God credit for that.
Why because he's also responsible for the good of this world, you know
He's responsible for the evil that comes upon people
But he's also responsible for the good that comes upon you because why because every good gift and every perfect gift
Coming from above from the father of lights and whom there is no turning neither
Variableness nor neither shadow of turning the Bible says James chapter 1, you know God is responsible for every good
What good gift did you receive today?
From another person guess what it came from God
What good thing did you receive this month?
Did you get something good?
It came from God.
Why?
Because he's the one who opens the heavens
and allows that to come to you.
It's not like, you know, you get something good out of life
and then God's like, oh, that's nice, wow, that's,
I didn't think of that, you know?
Who gave that to you, you know?
God allows any good thing that you have.
He allowed for you to participate in that.
Look at verse nine.
Won't to him that strives with his maker.
Let the pot sherd strive with the pot sherds of the earth.
That's hilarious a pot shirt is just like earth earthenware that is just broken like shivers
And he's like why is the earth and why is this thing arguing with me?
Referring to his people right?
It's like let that argue with another pot shirt
Okay, shall the clay say to him that fashion a tip what make a style or thy work he hath no hands
He's basically pointing out the ridiculousness of the fact that
Creation or the created beings the nation of Israel specifically
Can often point their finger at God and say why are you even doing that?
What's the point of that or there's others that was it says there or thy work?
He had no hands. It's just like well. I don't have a God. God doesn't exist
They're like the fact that you exist is proof that God exists
This is a verse 10 won't him that say then to his father what but get a style or to the woman. What has thou brought forth?
What is he saying? He said we should never reply against God
You know the creation has no right to question the Creator the Bible tells us that you know
Can the thing form say to him that formed it? Why has that made me thus? Why am I this brown?
Why am I this light? Why can't I have blonde hair? Why can't I have hair?
Why do I have to be you can't reply against God just be happy with the way God made you
And let me say this be happy with the way God made others to
This Twitter type of ambiance needs to change in our church, folks, and we need to get back
to just the Bible, the biblical perspective of things.
And I'm not talking about culture.
This culture is out there that are wicked, that are disgusting and abominable, and we
need to have a Christian culture, amen.
But here's the thing, folks, is that there should be no hatred or prejudice or racism
Because at the end of the day, that's how God made them you have a problem of how God made that person
You know, are you a Mormon that believes they have the mark of Cain or something like that? It's crazy
It's crazy the thing that people will think themselves to be something
Because they were born a way that they didn't control. It's just like warm white
Yeah, what did you do to participate in that though? You were just born and
Then you want to judge other people and hate other people for their skin color
When, literally, listen to me, that's how God made them.
Everyone listening?
That's how the Lord created them.
Don't reply against God and say,
Why hast thou made them thus?
Right?
Because the way they look.
Now, obviously, you know, they need a Christian culture,
but let me just be honest with you.
Cyrus was not a Christian.
Right?
As far as we know.
Obviously Christianity didn't exist, but you know, he didn't he didn't he didn't necessarily uphold biblical religion as far as we know historically speaking
But he was a noble person and you know what there's people out in this world who are not Christians. There are still good people
They can still be good people and you know what stop getting your opinions from social media
Stop coming up with the narrative just from Twitter stop being a Twitter chud. I just learned that word from Adam
Be a Christian be a bully be a Baptist
Okay, like well, you know, I just can't stand these people. Yeah, but you've never had contact with them though
So, how do you even know look?
I've had contact with other races who are very racist against me.
I grew up that way.
You know, I was jumped by black people.
I was hated by Asians.
And that's why I can't stand.
I'm just kidding.
I love Asians and I love black people.
And you know what?
You say, well, don't you have a little bit of prejudice?
Well, here's the thing is that do I have prejudice
against certain cultures?
Absolutely.
But I never allow that to manipulate or influence
my attitude towards people when they come to that door.
That's at the end of the day, you know, whatever we have in this church. I'm not like
Hey, look if an Indian walks in our church
And his name is Poochee
I'm not gonna be like oh heck no
Oh
No, oh
No
You know, I'm not gonna be that way you say what are you gonna be?
I'm gonna be like this person needs the Lord Jesus Christ
This person literally followed the light that God gave him brought him to a church like this to be saved to live a godly life
I'm not gonna be like, you know, I've seen all the reels
Now for sure, we'll tell that bird like I don't like your food. Oh wait, that's just true. It's facts
Does anybody here like Indian food raise your hand if you like Indian food that ham was a little too. All right
Yeah, you know
You know, I went up to I don't like Indian food, you know
And I don't think that's racist to say that
And some of you Jen's ears if you think that's racist you're you're you're a weenie
If you think that's racist to say you don't like another culture's food folks. I'm Mexican. I don't even like Mexican food
I'll eat it if I have to if my wife wants it or something but give me all American food. That's just
That's what I like, you know
The point that I'm making here is that we as created beings don't be criticizing the way someone else has created
Okay, and and here's the thing folks you like well again the culture
Okay, but let me ask you does does the culture get fixed by just telling them to just fix it
Or does it get fixed by giving them getting them saved getting them the Bible?
That's what changes culture, you know, I know this one person is just really ghetto
Well, they need the but they need the word of God
Why don't you go actually win him to Christ and teach him what the Bible says?
right
That should be you know that should be our driving agenda is that we want everyone to convert to a Christian culture
Regardless of what skin color you have okay
Well, I just pursue I just you know, I just prefer a white man to preach behind the pulpit
You know Pastor Shelly says something like that
He sent me a screenshot of that on Twitter and I just said bro you listen to me. He's like well. I love your preaching
Well, there you go, right? I
Like hearing white people preach to them white people are great preachers
Now I think about I think I only listen to white
No, I listened to Pastor Jimenez too. Pastor Jimenez is darker than me, you know.
So, he's a really good preacher.
The point that I'm making here is that we need to make sure we uphold Christian culture,
promote Christian culture, seek to get people to adopt Christian culture, right,
and not say, well, that race is just doomed.
That those those people that skin color. They're just doomed. They just can't folks
We believe Jews can get saved
And look the only reason I even pick on Jews probably more than any other race or ethnicity in this world
It's because literally the Bible picks on them more than any ethnicity
Okay, and the Bible specifically single them out as being a cursed nation
But folks, we've had Jews come to this church though, and we've given them the gospel and we showed them love, right?
But I digress because I still need to finish this. I just need to get that off my chest
Look at verse 11
Obviously, I'm preaching to the choir because you listen to a Mexican pre-train out, you know
So you gotta you can't be that prejudice if you're listening to me, you know
Says in verse 11 does say the Lord the holy one of Israel and his maker asked me of things to come to come
Concerning my sons and concerning the work of my hands commande me
I'm gonna skip some of this right here. Look at verse 13. Actually says I have raised him up
In righteousness and I will direct all his ways. He shall build my city and he shall let go my captives
Not for price nor reward say the Lord of hosts. So again talking about Cyrus
He's like I'm raising him up and the miracle that he's providing here is that Cyrus is doing this not for a reward
Which is pretty amazing, right?
He's doing it because God certainly inspired him to do a humanitarian act of some of sorts that God's gonna use
Okay, and you know
I think of one time where like,
let me give you this really shallow example,
but I think it works here, okay?
I remember years ago, when I first got saved,
I was going through just a really hard time.
I was really discouraged.
You know, my family was not in church,
and I just felt like, I remember being like a single
in church, a young person, I'm like, man,
like no man cares for my soul.
Like I'm just going through a hard time.
I don't have anybody to talk to,
and like just no one's there for me, you know?
And I just felt discouraged.
And I was just feeling like I wanted to quit.
And I remember just one night it was just like,
life sucks and you know like,
you know I had those thoughts and it was just like,
if I left no one would even care,
no one would even notice.
And it was just like these dark thoughts
of just wanting to quit.
And I remember like I think I was selling something on on like
What's that? What's that?
Not not eBay. What's the other one off? No, not off of it's the old Craigslist
I was selling something and this guy came this is black guy
He came and he came to purchase it of whatever I had
And then I was just kind of like, you know here and he's like, oh, you know, thanks a lot
And then I was and and somehow he knew that I was a Christian he goes
Oh, I think I was the way I was dressed. He's like, oh, you're just sharp. You what do you work?
I was like, well, I'm actually a Christian. He goes, I'm a Christian too and I'm all cool
You know, and then he's just like man. It's great to be a Christian is not
Awesome. It's a blessing to be a Christian and at that moment. I was just not feeling that way
And I was like, yeah, sometimes it's hard,
you know, I'm just going through a hard time.
He said, you're going through a hard time?
And I said, yeah.
And he's like, let me pray for you.
And he prayed for me and he's just like,
Lord, I know God has a big plan for this guy
and I know the devil's trying to get him down,
but Lord, help him to just stick it out
because he needs you, he needs your strength,
help him to walk with you, to read the Bible, to pray.
And man, that man's prayer was so edifying.
That's like exactly what I needed.
And I was like in tears.
Cause I was just like, I was like literally just on the brink of quitting and this random
black guy, this man of color, you know, he came and he edified me through his prayer
and look, he wasn't getting anything out of me.
Like I didn't lower the price for him or anything like, oh, just take it for free.
We haven't already done the transaction.
And then he's like, and then afterwards he's like, are you a preacher?
And I was like, I am.
I'm trying to be a pastor one day.
He's like, don't quit.
Just keep at it.
He's like you'll go through hard times like this and he's like God bless you and man
I'm telling you right now. I feel like God and you know, I don't know if the guy probably wasn't even saved
He might have been like a Cyrus
Where God's just like you know, let me just use this man's eloquent speech and his ha, you know his his soul
to kind of like
inspire
You know, you know just
The fact that he's just, you know, he's just a man
who just doesn't like to see another man down.
For I don't know, the guy I probably believe
in a repenting, I have no idea.
But whatever words he said, though,
I felt like they were just for me at that exact moment.
And I remember walking back into the house,
thinking to myself, like, God is still with me.
Like, I can't quit.
And, you know, the point that I'm making here
is the fact that, you know, what this chapter is doing
is it's showing us that Cyrus did a lot of great things.
But at the end of the day, folks, he was just an instrument in the hand of God to get something done for God's people.
And you know what? People don't have to be safe for God to use them.
And don't put so much faith in the instrument.
Don't put so much love and faith into the instrument where you actually forget about the Creator who used him.
And here's the last thing I want to say here because I'm already out of time.
Let me skip some of this and go to skip down a verse number.
Go to verse 23
It says I have sworn by myself the word is gone out of my mouth and righteousness and shall not return that unto me
Every knee shall bow every tongue shall swear
Shirley
Shall one say in the Lord have I righteousness and strength even to him shall men come and all that are incensed against him
Shall be ashamed in the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory so what is he saying?
You know, he's propping up this man Cyrus and through him many people were saved
Through him many people were were destroyed and demolished
But he's saying you know at the end of the day though every now every knee shall bow before me and
Obviously, that's a quote from you know, that's what the New Testament quotes
about Jesus Christ and what this is showing us is that you know what he's
what the Lord is telling the world is is be saved willingly or bow down
forcefully one of the two because at the end of the day every knee will bow you
know use Cyrus to make you bow down forcefully or he can just choose to
believe on me
So he exalts the greatness of Cyrus king of Persia only to overshadow him and say like
I'm the one you should be worshiping he did a lot for you, but keep in mind
I'm the one who moved him to help you
What is the sermon tonight the sermon is simply this
You know don't put your faith in me as your pastor. Just remember. I'm just God's man
Right, don't put your faith in any one man because they're just the instrument that God is using
To edify you, you know, don't put your faith in the president. We're gonna enjoy these next four years
But just remember like God allowed him to do that for our benefit
Right, and so at the end of the day, let's not glory in the instrument glory in the ax
But may we look at the works of the instrument the works of the ax and say man, we got a great God
We have a wonderful God who can do great things and I need I just need to make sure that I have favor with him
Amen.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you so much for chapter 45 and great truths there and principles that
we can all learn and apply to ourselves, Lord.
You are the one and true God, Lord.
You've always been.
We're so thankful that you are not only our God, you're our Heavenly Father, and we are
your children.
And Lord, we're so thankful that there are certain things that happen in this nation
that, yes, collectively affect everyone, whether saved or unsaved,
but at the end of the day, there's only one story that matters in this world.
There's only one work that truly matters.
There's only one religion that truly matters to you.
And quite frankly, there's only one people that really are near and dear to your heart,
and that is your people.
Save Christians.
I pray that you help us as your people to appreciate that Lord and of course if you
Allow this nation to be blessed over the next four years
Maybe realize that it's it's not necessary just a time of peace so we can kick back and not do anything
It's a time that we can recharge and get more people saved
Help us to preach the gospel to more people so they can get saved willingly and not have to bow down forcefully one day
And I pray that you'd bless us as we go on our way. We love you. We thank you pray this things in Jesus name
It's all in number 63, what a day that will be.