All right, we're in second Kings chapter 30 or excuse me chapter 10 look down your Bibles at verse 32
The title of the sermon this morning is cut short cut short
and if you look at verse 32
it says in those days the Lord began to cut Israel short and has a I'll smote them in all the coasts of
Israel from Jordan eastward all the land of Gilead and the Gadites and the Reubenites and the Manasseh t's from arrow air
Which is by the River Arnon even Gilead and
Bashan and I want to preach on that phrase there. The Lord began to cut Israel
Short the Lord began to cut Israel short now
That's a phrase that we would typically use today when we talk about something being cut short
For example, what did that simply means is that basically a person does not reach their full potential, right?
You think of a person who dies young in their teenage years their life is cut short
They're not able to reach the full extent of their years of their life
You think of a successful athlete who receives a debilitating injury
we'll say that that person's career was cut short because of that and
We see here that that is that is exactly what we see in the nation of Israel
Is that due to the sins of Jeroboam because of what's taking place in Israel Israel is actually cut short
Because of it's not able to reach its full potential. It's not able to succeed as a nation because of that now
Why were they being cut short is the first question that we have to ask ourselves
The second is what was the potential that God was referring to and then what days is he referring to?
Well, if you look in the beginning at verse, excuse me
Verse number 28 it says then Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel
How be it from the sins of Jeroboam the sons of Nebat which 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 you because that was done well and executing that which is right in mine eyes and has 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
And then we see there that that's the reason why he cuts them short
So Jehu the king of Israel was basically one of the reasons why the nation of Israel did not reach its fullest potential
Why it was not able to succeed later on in the future and
What is it particularly that he's referring to? What is the sin of Jeroboam?
Well go with me if you went to first Kings chapter 12 first Kings chapter number 12
First Kings chapter 12 hold your place there in second Kings 10. We're gonna turn back to that
What is the sin of Jeroboam? First of all, who is Jeroboam and then what is his sin?
Well, let me give you just a brief concise history of the kingdom that we're looking at right here
Of course during second Kings chapter number 10 the kingdom has already been divided you have a northern and a southern kingdom
The northern kingdom being Israel the southern kingdom being Judah this took place years prior
Under the reign of Jeroboam now at one point the kingdom was united under one sovereign
You know you have Saul then you have David after David you have King Solomon and the Bible tells us that King Solomon made an affinity
With Egypt with Pharaoh of Egypt married his daughter took upon him 700 wives
300 concubines these were strange woman that drove Solomon's heart away from God
Okay, and the Bible tells us that his heart was not perfect with God for this reason
God judged Israel in a way that he basically removed ten tribes from Israel gave it to a different person and
Solomon stayed with two tribes
Okay, so he has two tribes which is Benjamin and Judah and then the rest of the ten tribes go with someone else now
Who's that person that it goes to? Well, the person's name is Jeroboam. Jeroboam according to the Bible was an industrious servant of
Solomon a prophet is sent unto Jeroboam to anoint him to be king and
He becomes king and he basically he says hey, you're gonna be king over Israel
You're gonna be given ten tribes and this guy's not necessarily a valiant man
So to speak because as soon as he gets word from that he takes off to Egypt
He's like afraid that he's gonna lose his life Solomon begins to seek after his life. So he stays in Egypt Solomon dies
He decides to return back and appeal to Solomon's son Rehoboam and to see hey
You know if you can if you can be speak kind to us and be kind to us
You know will serve you of course Rehoboam refuses to do that. The kingdom is split into two
But we see here the Jeroboam
Actually had a great a great opportunity to do something great for God
He's given a platform to succeed as the new kingdom. He's given ten tribes
He has God's blessing, you know, God's telling him
Hey, if you don't if you walk in the laws of the Lord you obey me, you know, you'll be a great king
You can lead the nation in the way of righteousness. You know, you're able to you can do something big
He's given this great opportunity to do something great for God and he just screws it all up
Why because we see that he begins to commit sin the sin of idolatry, which is the sin that's very abominable
abominable in the eyes of the Lord and
Look at look at the sins of Jeroboam in 1st Kings chapter 12 verse 25
it says then Jeroboam built Shechem in Mount Ephraim and dwelt there in and went out from thence and built Penuel and
Jeroboam said in his heart now shall the kingdom return to the house of David
If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem
Then shall the heart of this people turn again into their Lord
Even it's a rare bone king of Judah and they shall kill me and go against a rare bone king of Judah
So what do we see right off the bat? Well, we see the Jeroboam is very insecure
Okay, why is he insecure? Well, he's saying look. Oh man, if people go to worship in Jerusalem
They're gonna want ray of home to be their king and I'm gonna lose everyone, you know, they're gonna want to kill me
They're gonna return back to Judah. I'm not gonna have a kingdom. No one's gonna follow me
He's being insecure is what he's doing, right? So what is his remedy?
What is the solution to the problem that he's supposedly facing here? Look at verse 28?
where upon the king took counsel and made two calves of gold and
Said unto them it is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem behold thy gods
Oh Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt and he set the one in Bethel on the other put he and
Dan so this is a solution. Hey, I got a good idea
I'm I'll make two golden calves
I'll put one in Bethel one and then and you don't have to make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem. You can worship God here
Right, not a good solution
He's causing the people to commit whoredom
Idolatry so in order to help the people
Conveniently serve God he causes them to commit idolatry. Okay, all because of his insecurities
Verse 30 says and this thing became a sin for the people went to worship before the one even unto Dan and he made
Here's the second thing that it look at verse 31
And he made in house of high places and made priests of the lowest of the people which were not of the sons of Levi
So what's the problem there? He begins to ordain and deputize people who are not qualified to be priests
Okay, so the people who were
Chosen to be priests had to be from the tribe of Levi and more specifically from the house of Aaron
Instead what is what does your bone do? He just chooses the lowest of the people just whoever wants to you know
And in fact later on he says whosoever will
Hey, if you want to be a pastor you come to this college and we'll give you a diploma and you could be a pastor
You know online
Paid this man of money. Here's your diploma and you could be a pastor you could be the priest
Okay, it doesn't matter. He could be he chose of the lowest of the people to become their spiritual leaders strike two
Strike three look at verse 32 and Jeroboam ordained feast in the eighth month on the 15th day of the month
Like unto the feast that is in Judah and he offered upon the altar
So did he in Bethel?
Sacrificing unto the calves that he had made and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made
So he offered upon the altar
Which he made in Bethel the 15th day of the eighth month even in the month
Which he had devised of his own heart and ordained a feast unto the children of Israel and he offered upon the altar and burnt
Incense. So what did he do here? He
Invented his own on holiday
What does that mean? He just created a holiday?
He's like we're gonna worship on this day. We're gonna sacrifice calves and he created his own unholy
Holiday to worship God, you know, what's the problem with that? Well because they're making sacrifices on to bail
They are worshipping false gods. Okay
So that's the third thing he does and out of all three of these things that got the thing that God really
You know hits on is the fact that he put two golden calves
One in Dan the other one in Bethel and he caused Israel to sin now. What's the problem with this?
You say well, why is this so obviously we know that idolatry is bad. Why is this so bad?
Well, because of the fact that Jeroboam is the first king of
that northern kingdom
so he became his sin became the catalyst and
Stigmatized every single king thereafter. Okay, because if you read the next nine kings or ten kings or even all the kings after that
They were all bad people
Committing idolatry and it often says they did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam
So think about this you have ten kings a succession of ten kings that come after Jeroboam
Right and every single one of those guys didn't think didn't think to take the initiative to remove the idols
From Dan and from Bethel, you know, and by the way, even Jehu who was a righteous King
He's I mean we're gonna get into the exploits of Jehu. He's one of my favorite Bible characters in the Old Testament
He did some amazing things
But one thing he didn't do is he just didn't take the initiative to remove the idols from Dan and Bethel
The sin that God really harped on a lot here. Okay
So this is the sin of Jeroboam. Okay, so we have Jehu he comes on the scene years later
He begins to clean house. I mean he's like this guy is the kind of church member every pastor likes
Okay, because he's taking the initiative he's just like, you know, he gets rid of Jezebel
He assassinated he he inspires eunuchs to kill Jezebel. I
Mean when you could inspire a eunuch to man up
That's that's a great feat right there, you know, you are a leader my friend, okay
He wipes out all the 70 sons of Ahab because Ahab was a wicked king and so were his sons
He removes the current kings of both Israel and Judah. He just assassinates both of them
We'll get into the story in just a little bit
And my favorite exploit is the fact that he held a feast for the prophets of Baal
So, you know he conspired a little bit
Yeah, he was a little dishonest because it's like, you know Ahab served Baal much or served him little I shall serve him much
And they're like man this king is great. So he creates this feast and then he tells them wipe them all out
And if anybody escapes your life shall go for his this is in the Bible, you know
And you know what one character quality first sum up his life in one word. It would be zeal
He was zealous for God. He did a lot for the Lord
Okay, but you wonder is like man. He did all these great things
Why is it that at the end of his life, you know, God basically said that in his days
Israel is still gonna be cut short
Well, it's because it's not because of what Jehu did do it's because of what he didn't do
You know, let me say this what we do is important
But if we choose not to do something what God tells us to do
That's just as equally bad as if you choose not to do something. That's good. Okay, or righteous in the eyes of the Lord
So not a single one of them corrected the sin of Jeroboam including Jehu and unfortunately and you wonder like why well
This is what happens when a previous generation
When sin becomes just normalized to a previous generation and then we inherit that generation
We inherit that practice and we don't question anything
You know, we might be sincere. We want to serve the Lord. We love God, but if we don't question
Certain things if we don't compare it if we don't prove all things hold fast that which is good
We can be guilty of what happened to Jehu that we're guilty of the sins of Jeroboam. Okay?
Now go back to 2nd Kings chapter 10 if you would
So the sin of Jeroboam was idolatry, you know
ordaining these
unqualified pastors and priests
Okay, and created in his own unholy holiday. All right
Because he's like he's just insecure. He doesn't want anybody to go to Jerusalem. He's afraid he's gonna lose his people. Okay, and
These are the sins that they didn't depart from and it says the second Kings 10 32 in those days the Lord began to cut
Israel short
Hazeel which is by the way the king of Syria north of Israel
Smote them on all the coast and then it gives the list of the coast that he's that he takes over
So what does it mean to cut Israel short? Well territory is
Removed from them is taken from them
So remember they have ten tribes, right? They have a lot of territory, but because of their disobedience
Their inability to correct the sins of the past what happens God allows someone to come in and remove territory from them
You see in these days success was equated or should I say territory was equated with God's blessing
The more God blesses you the more you're able to expand your influence expand your territory
overcome more enemies and take over more ground if
More ground is being removed from you though. You can basically say man God's judging us
He's allowing a foreign nation to come in and take away territory from us you think of the prayer of Jabez in 1st Chronicles chapter
10 where he specifically prays Lord bless me enlarge my coasts
Okay, this is a sign of blessing in the Bible when God begins to expand the territory of a kingdom now you say well
How do we apply that to us today?
Well, obviously we're not looking for territory. Okay, you know, we're not gangs here, right?
This is my side boo, you know
We don't care about territory the physical territory so to speak. Okay. We don't care about the land of Israel
You know, they can have that if they want. I don't care about those things, you know
We're seeking success from a spiritual standpoint, obviously
Okay, we want God to enlarge our coast of influence
You understand, you know, obviously, you know, we're not looking to
Expand our kingdom so to speak but we do want to expand the kingdom of God
by going out and preaching the gospel you see we want to see a lot of people saved and
Success of a church can be determined based upon the salvation that they're seeing right if they if they're winning people to Christ
In Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria in the uttermost parts of the world. That's how we determine our success
Hey, we want to see more baptisms
Within the last two months we've seen more baptisms that we've ever seen in the history of our church the two years that we've been
Here I mean, it's like baptism week after week after week after week Sunday morning Sunday night Thursday people are coming in
Hey, I got saved on Sunday. I'm here to get baptized, you know, that's great
What is that? That's success
That's the Lord allowing us to expand our territory of influence and success to excel in the work of the Lord
And that's what we want
Okay
We want to enlarge our coast of salvation's baptism and discipleship
You know, we want people to adhere to the message that we're bringing forth
Whether it's you know Bible preaching on salvation Bible preaching on holy living Bible preaching on vaccinations
We want to get it all out there. We want our influence to continue to expand and we don't want it to be cut short
We don't want our influence in our territory to be cut short. We want it to continue to expand
You know, I people obviously aren't you the gangster Church? You guys are like the gangster Church call it what you will we're expanding
Mock all you want aren't you guys the LA Church where all the gang members are?
Yeah, we're coming to you
We're coming to your town
You know, we're going to Belize tonight
The gangsters are going to Belize
Come April, I'm we're going to I'm going to Ireland
Have you ever heard of a Guatemalan going to Ireland
He said what do you know about Ireland Lucky Charms
Irish spring and leprechauns
That's what I'm looking for when I go out there. I'm just kidding
but what I'm saying is this is we want to expand our influence, okay, and
Lord willing and I believe he is he's gonna allow us to do so, okay
But we don't want to be cut short
Okay, we want to meet make sure that we reach our full potential as a church
But what about the building? I'm looking for like the fountains and all these beautiful things and high steeple few people
You know, we don't care about those things
you know, we want to make sure that we succeed as a church as
Individuals as family members as husbands as fathers, you know as children that we're just excelling that we're succeeding that we're growing
Okay, they were expanding our territory. We're not cut short
But look, I believe we can do great things for God and we are doing great things for God thankfully
Amen, but I think that the the best days are ahead of us
Okay, the amount of salvation that we've seen since the church started does not compare to what we're gonna see in years to come
The great works in the future are gonna be great and I believe something's great is gonna continue to happen
But here's the thing if we're not careful we can be cut short
Okay, you as an individual can be cut short
Now you say oh how can I as an individual be cut short in my Christian life well number one you can just die
Point number one, okay
Because if you die, you're done, you know, you go to heaven and that's it. You can't do anything else
I know that's profound. All right, go to 2nd Kings if you would chapter number 9 2nd Kings chapter number 9
Well, let's look at Jehu because Jehu because of him Israel was cut short. Why is that?
let's apply what happened to him and apply it to ourselves, but
Let me just say off first and foremost is that you did a lot of great things and I mentioned them already
But let's go through some of them. He removes the previous kings of both kingdoms both Joram and
Ahaziah in 2nd Kings 9 23 look what it says
He says in Joram turned his hand and fled and said to Ahaziah
There is treachery O Ahaziah and Jehu drew a bow with his full strength and smote
Jehoram between his arms and the arrow went out of his heart and he sunk down in his chariot then said Jehu and
So on and so on and so forth. So what happens here?
well
The way Jehu's ministry got started was pretty unique because he's he's living during the time of Elisha the prophet
Elisha sends one of his prophets to go anoint Jehu as king. He comes there and he's just like what do you want?
And he's like, I'm here to annoy you King. He's all right. Let's do it
He anoints him King Jehu goes to his friends and they're like, what does this mad fellow want?
You know and he and you basically tells them, you know what he's here for
You know his communication and he says it is false in other words like you lying. He's like no, I'm King
So they begin to prepare his chariot they lay the garments he becomes king and immediately he goes to work
What does he do? He just dethrones the two weakling kings that are in power
Immediately. He just goes after the weaklings. Okay, that's great
You said why is that because it just shows that he's a man of execution
He's a man who does not waste time
Soon as he's in. All right, let's go to work. Let's remove these weakling of kings
Let lead the kingdom in the way of righteousness and the way we're gonna do that
We got to remove all the wicked people the kings, okay
So he does that and then he inspires the eunuchs to kill Jezebel. Okay, go to
verse 29 if you would
And when she who was come to Jezreel Jezebel heard of it and she painted her face
the Bible uses very
Interesting terminology there, right and teared her head and looked out of out of a window and as Jehu entered into the gate
She said had Zimra peace who slew his master and he lifted up his face to the window and said who is on my side?
Who and there looked out to him two or three eunuchs and he said throw her down
So they threw her down and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall and on the horses and he trode her underfoot
This guy's gangster
He didn't even acknowledge her and by the way, you're like oh poor Jezebel
You haven't read the Bible
Jezebel was a wicked woman
Jezebel
Murdered a bunch of prophets and threatened the life of Elijah
Okay, I mean Jehu is pretty crazy because even Elisha or Elijah was afraid of Jezebel unfortunately, you know
So he comes and she's trying to speak. She's obviously heard of Jehu
She comes just like trying to you know, basically appease him
he just ignores her and he looks up he's like who's on my side and
Then the units are like, you know us and he's like throw her down
you know and they fulfill prophecy because of that because God actually foretold of that in previous times that that's exactly what was gonna happen to
her and
You know her blood sprinkles on the wall and then he takes his horse and he just just tramples her just to finish the job
This is pretty morbid, but it's in the Bible. I love this stuff
This is good
Verse 34 says and when he had come in he did eat and drink
I'm hungry and said go see now that this cursed woman would bury her for she is a king's daughter and they went to bury her
But they found no more of her than the skull and the feet in the palm of her palms of her hands
Wherefore they came again and told him and he said this is the word of the Lord which he spake by the servant Elijah the
Tishbite saying in the portion of Jezreel shall dogs eat the flesh of Jezebel and the carcass of Jezebel shall be as dung upon
The face of the field and the portion of Jezreel so that they shall not say this is Jezebel
I mean he knew he's like, well, this is bound to happen. This is what took place
So, you know Elijah ran from from Jezebel, you know, Jehu ran toward Jezebel
Took her out
So then he inspires the the assassination of the 70 sons of Ahab in chapter number 10. He gets rid of them all and
He inspires zeal, you know the famous verse look at verse 15 of chapter 10
It says when he was departed thence
He lighted on Jehonadab the son of Rekab
Coming to him to meet him and he saluted him and said to him is thine heart right as my heart is
With thine 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 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 he was a zealous man now
The last thing he does is obviously he conspires the assassination of all the prophets of Baal
Let's just read it because I love this story. Can we just read it? Look what it says
in verse number
18 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 and all his servants and all his priests let none be wanting
For I have a great sacrifice to do to Baal whose server shall be wanting he shall not live
So he's like hey, whoever misses this I'm gonna kill you and he's gonna kill him anyways
But Jehu did it in subtlety
to the intent that he might destroy the worshipers of Baal and
Jehu said proclaim a solemn assembly for Baal and they proclaimed it and Jehu sent through all
Israel and all the worshipers 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 the other and
He said unto him that was over the vestry bring forth vestments for all the worshipers of Baal and he brought them forth vestments
So what is he doing? He's basically marking them
All the worshipers about hey you guys get special clothing, you know with a nice little target on your back there verse 23
And you went and Jehonadab the son of Rekab into the house of Baal and said unto the worshipers of Baal
Search and look that there be here with you
None of the servants of the Lord but the worshipers of Baal only and when they went in to offer
Sacrifices and burnt offerings Jehu appointed four score men without and said if any of the men whom I have brought into your hand
Escaped he that letteth him go his life shall be for the life of him and it came to pass as soon as he had
made an end of
Offering the burnt offering that Jehu said to the guard and to the captain's go in and slay them
Let none come forth and they smote them with the edge of the sword and the guard and the captain's cast him 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 man
This guy took care of business
So he's not he wasn't going he wasn't gonna have a campaign to go to just look for every individual
Baal worshiper he just collected them all in one place and just said hey, you know all these prophets of Baal with one stone
Bring them all into one house make them think they were worshiping Baal and just wipe them all out. Okay, I
Like that, you know you read that it's just like man. This guy's cool. This guy was righteous
This guy was zealous for the Lord and I think of second you don't have to turn I think of 2nd Chronicles 11
711 it says before behold the self same thing that you saw it after a godly sword
What carefulness it wrought in you yea what clearing of yourselves?
Yea, what indignation?
Yea, what fear?
Yea, what behemoth desire? Yea, what zeal? Yea, what revenge and all things you have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter
And that's exactly who Jehu was. He was a man who was very much zealous for the things of God now
But
Unfortunately, what was his downfall? Well, the Bible tells us that he didn't follow the Lord
He took no heat to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart
Which is kind of interesting you wonder like wait a minute. It looks like that's what he did though
Didn't he like?
Destroy the prophets of Baal. They didn't get rid of Jezebel. They didn't get rid of the 70 sons of Ahab
How is it that he chose not to walk in the law of the Lord? How does that compatible with one another?
What does that mean? Well again the quality of Jehu is that he was zealous
When it says that he chose not to walk to take heat to walk in the law of the Lord in other words
He was kind of ignorant of the Word of God
So we could say what he had a zeal that was not according to knowledge
He executed the Word of the Lord. He was very zealous. He did a lot of great exploits, but you know
He didn't know the Bible. You say well, how do you know that?
Well, if you read in Deuteronomy chapter 17 one of the requirements for the Kings was that they were supposed to write out the law
By hand so they can be with them so they could know
What is it that God required of them and they can grow in their fear of God?
You see if he would have read the law of God, he would have wiped out the the two calves
there in Dan and
Bethel but because he didn't know what the Word of God said he just went according to what the Prophet told him to do
You know, it's like church
You can be zealous for God
zealous for the things of the Lord
You could even do what I tell you to do sometimes and you still succeed
But you know what if you're ignorant of God's Word, you're gonna cut yourself short
Because at the end of the day, guess what zeal is great, but it needs to be coupled with knowledge
My people the Bible says are destroyed for lack of knowledge
You can't just come to church and expect yourself to be a great Christian just because you attend the assembly of God
You have to put into practice. You have to read the Word of God yourself. You have to make the Bible your core values
You know, these have to be core values. Do you believe yourself, you know, if there is no church on earth
Which obviously is never gonna happen. You can still live right because you know what the Word of God says, you know
You come to church to confirm what you're already getting out of the Word of God
Look this is not a church where I tell you to close your Bible and don't read it. Just take my word for it
Just listen to me. Don't listen to anybody else
No
We just teach you right you confirm it through your own walk with God and you're depending you could just depend on the Lord yourself
You're learning yourself
And look this is dangerous right here if you have zeal without knowledge because you're gonna fizzle out one day
You will not remain in the will of God for very long if you're not reading the Word of God
Oh, but I listen to YouTube preaching all the times
I mean, I just got it my playlist and just live for hours on end. That's not sufficient
You need to read the Word of God yourself
You need to give attendance to reading to exhortation and to doctrine the Bible says you need to read the Word of God yourself
If not, you're gonna cut yourself short and we don't want that
Okay, you know if you act right but don't but don't believe right you're cutting yourself short
You act right, you know, you got your life cleaned up. You're not smoking pot. You're not drinking alcohol
You're not fornicating, but you don't know what the Bible says about that
You can't even point your verse in the Bible that tells you not to do those things
Eventually, you're gonna go back to that because it's not a it's not a conviction
Or how about this you believe right, but you don't act right?
What does that mean? Well, you got replacement theology down
You got the reprobate doctrine down you got the end times Bible prophecy down, but you're as worldly as the day is long
You're not living righteously
Okay, you don't have the breastplate of righteousness. You need both
In order for you not to be cut short you need the knowledge, but you also need the zeal you need both
Hey, look, if you have knowledge of no zeal, you're just a born Christian
You're just lame
Because you know what the Bible says, but you have no zeal no emotion you're not excited about the things of God
You're lukewarm. Okay in order for us to reach our full potential
We have to do the right things and believe the right things, you know
But let me say this is that we also have to remove the sins of Jeroboam. Okay, what is that?
What does that picture it pictures the practices of the previous generation that screwed up this generation?
That's what it is. Okay, and this could be applicable to like a lot of things obviously
Time will not permit for me to go through all
The examples that I can give but let me just say this is that our church is different in a lot of ways
Is it not?
It's different in a lot of ways in comparison to other
independent fundamental Baptist churches or just churches in general
Our church is very much different now. We have like-minded churches like our churches like our church that practices the same
There's different operations different administrations, but we believe the same we kind of operate similar to one another
but
In comparison to other churches, we are very much different
Okay, but it's not for it's not so we can it's not for shock value
You know, we we don't operate the way we operate just to like make you go. Ooh, wow, that's cool
If there's there's there's method to the madness here
Okay
I'm gonna go through some of the things that some of the sins of Jeroboam that we removed from our church
That I removed from the church in
Order for us not to be cut short in the future. Okay now
What are some of the things that we removed that our previous rulers so to speak did?
Okay, and as I go through these lists look and the reason I'm going through this some of you already know these things and
If you if this bores you then either go to sleep
Or get out. I'm just kidding
Well, we have a lot of new people in our church
You know fall program brought in a lot of new people and so this is new to a lot of people
Okay, and if you know this that I'm just reaffirming what you already believe
All right
So what are the what are some of the things that we removed from the previous generation?
That I believe will cut us short if we didn't remove. Well number one Sunday school classes and nurseries
Can cut it short. I'm talking about the practices of the church. Okay. What is Sunday school class a
Sunday school class is basically when you go to church and
The adults stay in the main service
But the little ones teenagers and even you know
The little infants they go in they basically separate all of them to go into different rooms to be taught by different people
It's basically when you delegate your responsibility to teach your children to someone else
It's Christian daycare. That's what it is. It's a Christian babysitting center
that you get every Sunday and Thursday at different types of churches and
Look people who churches who practice this some of them are well-meaning
Okay, and let me just say this this is not an old IFB bashing sermon. You'll get that tonight
This is not an old IV bashing sermon because look I was a Sunday school teacher I
Was a Sunday school teacher I was this I was the same school superintendent you said what is that I have no idea I
Have no idea what that is
So that's what Sunday school class is nurseries is basically, you know
Because the pastor doesn't have the discipline to just drown out certain distractions from the church
They want all the babies to remove be removed from the service to go in different rooms with strangers to watch over your children
You know while you get fed
Spiritually speaking, you know, we would consider ourselves to be a family integrated church
But in actuality, it's just a biblical church is what it is
Family integrated is just the term that we have to use in order to distinguish between those who use nurseries and Sunday school classes and
Those who don't but in actuality is just a biblical way of doing church
Okay, go with me if you went to Deuteronomy chapter number 31 Deuteronomy 31
So Sunday school classes you have you know your children they go to these Sunday school classes they get taught by a teacher and
Let me just say this is that as sincere as these people might be they're cutting their children short
First of all, they're cutting their children short of real Bible knowledge because these people typically are the children get a really diluted
water down
cotton candy
message
It's like 15 20 minutes long and then they sugar them up to give them. I mean talk to dr. Rita about that
They're giving them like sugar like crazy because they're bouncing off the walls
They're seeing these weird songs that have nothing to do with doctrine
It's an entertainment center for these children is what it is and it cuts
The next generation short people get offended at that that we don't do Sunday school classes and nurseries
And people people look down at family integrated churches, but you know at the end of the day, it's just not biblical
to have Sunday school classes or nurseries, okay, and
Even when like my previous pastor
You
Know when he found out that I was new I have be here or whatever, you know
One of the first questions he asked me was this do you believe in family integrated church?
Yes
You know, but here's the thing
That wasn't family integrated. I was going according to the program of their church, but I did have the conviction of being family integrated
That's what I preferred and it was like it was like a like a demonic thing or something to be family integrated
I was like, is it really that bad for me to want to have my children in the service with me?
Hearing the same preaching that I'm hearing
You tell me why is that wicked you explain to me? What is the problem with that biblically speaking?
Okay, because I could point to you many scriptures what the Bible tells us that this is exactly the way we should do it
let me read to you from
Deuteronomy chapter number 6 verse 4 says hero Israel
The Lord our God is one Lord and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart with all thy soul with all
thy might and these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart and
The Sunday school teacher shall teach them diligently unto thy children
Okay, that's like another version right and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children and shall talk of them when thou
Citizen thine house and when I'll walk us by the way and when thou lies down and when thou rises up the Bible says
So what is it telling us? It's telling us that the responsibility to teach the Word of God is on the parents
Obviously, I have the responsibility to preach the Word of God, but guess what?
This is a biblical institution that has been established by God, which is the church not Sunday school not nurseries
And look, you know, why parents like nurseries and Sunday school classes and teen services and all these other
Extracurricular events that take place because it removes the responsibility from them to learn the Bible themselves
If we don't have Sunday school class that means I'm gonna have to actually know what the Bible says
Yeah, you got it, right?
Good job. You got it
You actually have to know what you believe to teach it to your children because you are your children's best teacher
Not just by example, but by what you teach as well
Okay, and Sunday school class basically delegates that responsibility you take them to that class and look
Let me just be honest with you. There's exceptions to the rule. I understand that but for the most part
They're not learning anything in those Sunday school classes
There's good Sunday school teachers out there. Don't get me wrong. I believe I was a good Sunday school teacher
I cared for the kids were in my class. I tried to give them deep doctrine. You know what I mean?
I tried my best, but you know what in my observation of a decade-long of doing Sunday school class and
Observing that it's it's shown itself to be unfruitful
Okay, whereas when you have children in the service with you. They actually take in more than you think
You know the kids pay attention in church here
And yeah, you have you know a baby every now and then scream
Me Lon's daughter where she had you know, I was talking about your daughter
Right, they're getting the full experience now
Oh
Here at a young age
I
Don't want when you grow up they leave
Conservative just right beings in a phenomenal Baptist Church in life because the fact that you've been giving them
That's right. Yeah, you've been giving them cotton candy, you know, why you just want to be children or these adults
Right, that's the fact that when they were children, all they had was soda hot Cheetos
In
Life matter if you give them worldly appetites in church
Why
Oh
So they have to give a lot of fluff cotton candy sermons a lot of extrication
No
On your life
Time
Right
This is why we
31
Now shall read this before all Israel in their hearing
Men and women and children
And I stranger that is within that case that they may hear and then you learn and fear the Lord
Your God and observe you all the words of this law. Oh
But it's another service. They're not learning anything. Oh, no, they're gonna learn a lot
They will learn about the sponge or soaking everything in
Guaranteed. I've seen it. Go to Ephesians chapter 6. Well, that's Old Testament
The Old Testament else for Israel. They didn't have a church building
different
What if these in chapter 6
Frayed we have the best week
They're assembled on to an out of Israel a very great
Man and women and children for the people who have very sore now if that was true
We have a very big problem
Because of the fact that we see the Apostle Paul and others
Addressing churches through these letters that are meant to be bred out out in church
So these letters will fail to these churches like for example
Ephesus that letter was supposed to be read before the entire congregation
Look at verse 1 of Ephesians 6
Children
Oh
He's reading this because we read in church
No respect for people right? Hey man, right? He wants his word not just to go to the adults
He wants teenagers and children as well
That's the reason is there's some kids there
For you to listen to this is not for you
All right, father and mother wishes the first commandment promised a very wealthy that makes live longer here
Good night
Hey Paul
And still the fear of God in their hearts now
All your parents hate you want life insurance this is the best life insurance you can get right
Long on the earth, you know children if you want to live long on the earth you need to honor your parents
Don't disrespect them
obey it
And Ephesians 6 is a chapter as a person is needed in 2019
Disrespectful rebellious teenagers
Right
She's gonna be so hard on my actual statement
That's abuse
Take that nonsense and lay it right somewhere else
You don't mind there's so many people in prison systems, you don't mind there's so many people in graves
You don't mind there's so many delinquent, just disrespectful rebellious teenagers
We need to go back to a time
Where the parents took it upon themselves to discipline their children
No, she did not defend it by the way
Like yeah, I'd be like that one lady who just walked out
Like that teenager or something
And then your people walk out and you're like
Show me that fucker
So we see Ephesians 6 and he's addressing his children
So what does that tell us? It tells us that we as pastors are adjusting to them
And look, we believe in spanking in our church
So much that hey if you need to go distance with your child, there's someone who's very afraid to go do that
And I'm not going to look down on you, you go up the handle business
Do what you need to do
If the church was not being integrated, it would cut our church short
It would cut the future, the spiritual lives of our children
We would not be building the right type of appetites in our spiritual lives
And look, those of you who maybe are not used to something like that, you better be used to it
Your church is going to continue to have lots of babies
There's two ways the church is growing
There's so many of your babies
Keep having more babies and more babies and guess what?
You're going to hear crying and blowing you up
Take that as an opportunity to learn how to focus in church
I'm having a hard time
Stop drinking soda so late at night
So the blood from your brain is not working to digest all the food
You can focus while you're in church
Church should make you a bad person
So when we have these things, you hear yourself short
And look, like I said, I know people who are sincere who did Sunday School classes
And they came out great Christians, they're sincere people
And look, most of the people who I've known who were involved in Sunday School class
They're still great Christians today
You know why? Because they've just always been on the program, that's why
They've always been on board, and they recognize it's wrong
So they forsake that, they adapt, and they adopt a new way
Which is the middle way
That means a new generation of the old and poor in the Bible
And they continue to succeed
So these are the things that will cut us short
Number two is Bible college
Well, part of it
Well, let me just say this, alright
Before everyone starts eating, please shine your light
Look, this is not a Bible college snatching sermon
What is Bible college? First and foremost
Bible college is an institution
That leaders of the church will establish
In order to train future pastors and missionaries
So what they'll do is they'll have an institute
Where people have to pay
Well, she's going to come back
You know, they'll establish this institution
This institution
Where they will
You have to pay
To learn the Bible options
This is known as Bible college
And it's all across
America
Even in different countries, but obviously it came from America
And
This is something that
Will cut a church short
But before
You just start going on this
Rampage and witch hunt
Just remember this
Your pastor
Is a Bible college student
Hey, your pastor is a Bible college teacher
And let me think of several others
At least three of the pastors in the new IFB
Were also Bible college students
Including Pastor Anderson himself
So look, what I'm saying is this
Is that not everyone goes
We should never have this attitude
And I will rebuke you if I hear this
We should never have this attitude
What is that? In other words
When you have a Bible college in church
You actually divide the church into classes
I don't mean like classrooms, I mean like classes of people
Those who are in Bible college
They refer to as
The premium of the problem
In other words, these are like the best people
These are like
These people are paying
These people are training for the ministry
So they get favored
More than anybody else
In the church
Look, this is why pastors don't like to teach
Deep doctrine in church
If someone comes to them and says
Pastors, can we just go through the book of Hebrews?
Can we go through
In the book of Mosiah in church
You want to learn that?
So they'll give the deep doctrine
Which by the way
Is as deep as a cup
We'll just say that
Because they use the cloud
They want to teach you something
They'll tell you
If you want to learn deep doctrine
You got to work out a book
You got to pay 400 bucks a month
To take these classes
In order to learn these doctrines
This is not right
And so what they do is like
Well the Bible college students
These are the people in the cross
These are the services
As they're preparing for full time Christian service
What about everyone else?
What I mean is this
The people in church who are not in the Bible college
They're not going to get very far in the Christian life
They're just going to be faithful servants in church
They're just going to go to church
We just want to make sure we get their tithes
I mean their attendance
And stuff like that
And this is the kind of attitude
That it creates
Everyone else can serve God
At that capacity
I know people who will say
A gentleman will come and say
I want to be a pastor
And if they think they're too big
If they're too far along to even get into Bible college
They'll say well I don't know if that's what I want you to do
Because then the way they determine
Whether someone can be a pastor or not
Is not according to the Bible
It's not the qualifications of the Bible
What is it?
It's if they're old enough to go to Bible college
They have to finish Bible college
I mean you didn't see that in First Timothy?
You didn't see that in First Timothy and in Titus?
One of the qualifications of a bishop is Bible college
You have to graduate from Bible college
I'm kidding
But it is for them
And in order for you to even be considered to be
A pastor, a missionary
Or to get into full time Christian service period
You need to graduate from Bible college
That's their requirement
And that's how they qualify you to be
Actually be in full time Christian service
This is not right
It becomes the marker that determines
Whether someone can be a pastor or a missionary
You know they'll tell you well if you're gonna learn
The right people skills
You gotta go to Bible college
In order for you to learn
The right doctrine you gotta go to Bible college
But what is the biggest sin of Bible college?
Well it's the fact that they're charging people
Money
To learn doctrine
Doctrine
First of all nothing should ever be filled with a house of God
Not a house of God
A house of persons
We won't sell a styrofoam cup to you
It's free
You say well what if you run out
And there's no more free something in it
That's all it is
Don't have an entitlement mentality by the way
No
But they charge for that
So they're making a house of God
A house of persons
They're charging people what God says is free
Doctrine should be free
Deep doctrine should be free
Doctrine should always be free
Well you know but if you don't charge them
They're not gonna appreciate it
There's nothing in the Bible that tells us
That that's all the determinants
If we sell information or not
Go to James chapter number 2
James chapter number 2
Why do you cut the church short
If you have Bible college?
Because then everyone else who's not in Bible college
Feels inferior
To the students themselves
You know
In other words the people who are in the feuds
The people who are in the feuds
Who are not in Bible college
They're like well I'm not gonna try even half as hard
Because I'm not a Bible college student
You know I'm not gonna try to learn the Bible as much
As in Bible college student because I'm not a Bible college student
Well everyone's supposed to learn the Bible
Everyone should be reading the Bible
Cover and cover it doesn't matter who you are
Whether you're planning to be a pastor
Missionary full-time Christian church or not
You should be reading the Bible
Hey I hold Dr. Rita to that same standard
Well she's a doctor though
She's a woman
She might be a pastor it doesn't matter
She has a responsibility as everyone else
To learn the word of God
But when you have Bible college
That responsibility
Is delegated to the Supreme
Now what is that called
It's called partiality
It says in James 2 verse 1
Have not the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ
With respect of persons
For if it comes you are assembling a man
With gold ring and good lead and hero
And there come in also a foreman in Bob Raymond
And he had respect in him that will wear it
The cave clothing and say to him
Sit down here in a good place and say to the poor
Stand out there or sit here on my footstool
Are you not then partial in yourselves
And are become judges of evil thoughts
So when you have a Bible college
They are favored more than the church members themselves
Now here's the thing
And this is the thing that really makes me mad
It really makes me mad about our culture
Is the hypocrisy that takes us home
When I go to college
Often we'll have rules for the students
That are supposed to be executed
In the house of God
So for example
If you have a student who is involved in fornication
They'll give you that personal help
If you have a student that smokes weed
Or drinks
Or is involved in any of the cities of West Virginia
And is fired, they're out of it
But they don't hold that same standard for the church
The church is supposed to be a good place
So they're like
Well yeah, these people are hating
That's what they'll tell you
They're like
Wake up
You are disciplining people
In an institution that you created
And this discipline is delegated for the church itself
Why is it that you permit and tolerate these sins in church
But not in your Bible college
Answer me this
Why is that?
I'll tell you why
Because they're paying
They're paying money in order to be there
So they have to establish these rules
They hold them to a higher standard
And look
I believe in Bible college
This is the Bible college right here
We just call it church
You want Bible college?
That's where you get
You want to learn the Word God?
Show up to church
I want to learn a book in the Bible
Come on there's this
You'll learn a book in the Bible
All three
And by the way
It's not a 30 minute sermon either
Sometimes I get a little overboard
And I go an hour and 10 minutes or something
Amen
You watch TV for an hour and 10 minutes?
Yeah
Oh
This gives you some preaching
That is a hot trick
Man
Quoting Ephesians chapter number 4
Ephesians chapter number 4
A church is cut short if they have Bible college
Because they relegate the responsibility to learn the Bible
And look
Another thing is this
These guys go to Bible college and they come out
They graduate and come after
They're still in our culture
Still in our culture
They don't have children
Or worse than that
Sometimes they're just not even safe
Yeah
I've known students in college and I'm like
That guy for sure is not safe
Yeah
How can you judge them?
Did you say he's an atheist?
How can you say you can't say that?
That's right
I mean
Wake up
Get yourself a hot cup of coffee
And a cup
Do you have these people who are Bible college
Look
I'm going to tell you another reason why Bible college is dangerous
Because it teaches
Wolves
How to wear sheets of oil
Yeah
It teaches wolves how to wear sheets of oil
Right
A lot of reverberates are produced in Bible college
That's right
A lot of reverberates are produced in Christian school
And they go to Bible college
Don't believe me
Just look at all the controversy
In the fundamental Baptist churches and all the pedophilians
Yeah
Where all these leaders
Youth ministry directors
Youth pastors
All these people who
Are Bible college graduates
Their roots are reverberates
They're pedophiles
And they use Bible college
Just to learn
How to be a Baptist
How to say the right things, look the right way
That's why it's dangerous
Now look if you go to Bible college
I'm not leading on you, I just told you
I'm pregnant
Civic Baptist Bible college
That's the college that I went to
Now if you go there and you ask them
They will completely deny you
I don't know if you feel it
They're stupid
They were probably just like
They will completely deny you
I went
I was there for about 5 years
I've been there for a very long time
And again
There's people who are there who are not
Basically very sincere people
There's people who are in Bible college who listen to our preaching
That's right
They say here in the other preaching
You're like
We need to sneak in some
I'm not joking
Hey I have Bible college teachers
Listen to me
I have Bible college teachers who still
Contact me for my Bible
Content
So they can teach their students
I'm still teaching with Bible college
They're like
Hey
I need to go to college
And I'm not going to be like
I'm a sculptor
Because the thing is
The students are already listening to me
Yes
How are we supposed to learn the Bible?
In Ephesians 4 verse 11
He gave some of the apostles and some of the prophets
And some evangelists
And some pastors and some teachers
And some Bible college institutions
For the perfecting of the saints
For the work of the ministry
For the edifying of the body of Christ
Till we all come in the unity of the faith
And of the knowledge of the Son of God
To a perfect measure
So the responsibility
Your eyes will be
To train you if you want to be a pastor
This is what pastors do
This is why Bible college exists
It's like I don't want to train someone
So I'll just send them off to a different state
And this is what happens
This person who is excited
About learning more
They move to a different state
And then they go to this huge Bible college
With all these girls
All the collective clamor
And you know what happens? They stay there
And therefore the laborers
Of that church are diminished
Because of the fact that all the students
Are allowed to be in Bible college
Hey I'll train you here
We have a great training program
In our church
It's called Solely Teens
And you know
That doesn't sound very...
We have people who start off
In the Solely teams
And now they're team leaders leading their own teams
Producing people
Who are going to be team leaders
Who are going to train those people
You know what guys?
Men
Fathers
Husbands
Well this is what I charge them
Their time
I charge them time
Time for what?
They need to be out of solar
If you want to be a team leader in our church
You don't have to put yourself under a team leader
Learn how to do solo
And take correction and review
In order for you to be involved
Where is that in the Bible?
Well you know what? It's not in the Bible
But the training of someone exists
And we're not charging anybody here
Anybody to do that
So what I'm saying is this
Is that the church
Is the institution where people learn
To do ministry
And look we're not going to send
A group out there to different churches
And sing at churches
For people to come to their college
I'm here
If you want to serve the Lord and you want to learn how to
You become me I'm not going to be here
Because that saves me the trouble of the church
You have to come to me and say
Hey I want to be a team leader
I want to be a pastor one day
And I'll see how serious you really are
If you're serious you're just going to do what we tell you to do
And be a part of the training program
But we're not going to have Aaron come up here
With his piano
The four guys in the brother hour are going at the same
Brother hour and brother and niece
And the two all have great seats with blue ties
The trio group up here
Here am I
I want to go
I'm just going to be a half train here
We're talking about cutting the church short
This is why we don't have these things
Why don't you have some classes
Why don't you have nurseries
Why don't you do Bible college
Why don't you do this, why don't you do that
Because we don't want to be cut short
We reach our full potential when we do it God's way
Go to John chapter
Actually go to
Go to 2 Timothy 4
I'm out of time so why don't you just stick to something
Right this way
Try to make the preaching towel won't be cut short
When you don't want to offend anybody
From the preaching about the word
So you just give a soft sissy sermon
So as to not to offend anybody
What if visitors come to the church
Well you know
At least they know that
There's no fluff coming from this pulpit
At least they know that I'm going to give them the truth
At least they can trust that the pastor here is going to give it to them
The way it's supposed to be given
You know when someone has fluffy sermons
They're lying
They're deceiving you
Someone just tells you how it is
It shows you
At least I know the person who it really is
Can't have a sermon short
Selling things in the house of God
Is cut short
This house is not a house of merchandise
That's why everything is free
Activities are free
You know
The DVDs are free
Sweatshirts, whatever it may be
You don't have to pay for anything
Then we run out
But until then, it's all free
Everything is free
Even if you want a songbook
Take it, it's free
What if I want fire?
We just will have five less people in the church who can sing on us
Over and over
Everything is free
Because this is God's house and that's how you expect it to be
And the literal soul shall be made fat
We don't want to be
Like the old IMB
Where they charge for everything
They charge for
Coffee
They charge for a stack of trash
I mean they try to make money off
Everything
You know
You're cutting yourself short
And then lastly
This is relevant to us today because of tonight
It's misguided missions
Look
Let me just say this
Our churches are not always pastors
And in other churches
That's how they kind of get known as
It's like, well, in order for you to be a missionary
You've got to be a pastor, you've got to go on vacation
You've got to visit like 50,000 churches
For four or five years
And get $25 for each church
In order to
Accumulate all the finances
Necessary to go to
TK
I'm being facetious, but I'm saying
This is actually true
That's misguided
This is the way we do missions
Here at our church
In order for us not to be cut short
You buy a plane ticket
I buy a plane ticket
We go to our country, we stay there for 10 days
And we win a bunch of people a prize
And guess what? You get to be a missionary
Wait a minute man, where's the altar?
I would be like, be called
I'm calling you right now
Are you coming?
The more you're going to get us to vote
Please say, hey, change your mind or you'll still come
Well, I mean, don't I have to vote for your deputation?
No
Don't I have to like graduate from Bible college?
No
Don't I have to
What do I have to do to be a missionary?
You have to learn how to be a good soul winner
And even if you're not
You can go and be a solid partner
To be inspired to go the next time
And help your soul
You know, brother Elon and myself
Brother, did you go to Bible college before?
No, worldly college
You know brother Eddie
Who's in his 70's
Brother Robinson
We're all going tonight to Belize
And look, they're not in full-time Christian service
So to speak, as in being
Full-time Christian service, they're getting paid
But they're going to be doing full-time for the next couple of days
You're going to be
Missionaries for the next couple of days
Hey guys, you don't need to put
We're going to have a presentation
You don't need a pair of cards
You don't need anything
You just need a plate ticket
A New Testament
We'll get some YouTube cards
And we'll do more
You can be a missionary
What does missionary mean by the way? It's an evangelist
Missionary is not in the Bible
Let's use the word commissionary
Because it's an evangelist who's fulfilling the great commission
By preaching the gospel
It's an evangelist who goes to other countries
To win people the price
You know, for the will
He's like our church missionary around the Philippines
He goes there like four months
We don't see him
He died or something
He goes back and he's like
Hey, he's saved
Amen
Do you go to Bible college?
No
What I'm saying is this
We need to redefine
What mission is
We need to redefine
Because some people are like
Well, I'm not called to missions
Oh, actually you are called to missions
Yeah, sorry to break it to you
You are called to missions
We're called to reach the entire world with the gospel
Everyone is
That's right
You are called to the mission field
Look, this is what missions is
In other churches
They do get the education for whatever
How many years
You go to a foreign field far, far, far, far away from where you can see
They rent a nice little building
And they just do nothing for blood on it
Yes
And then they'll send a prayer letter
Three, four, where we're told
We've been working on him for six months
We just got a church van
We're going to a nursing home
And we're not going to get it done
You know why?
Because no one is watching
You're not accountable
That's not missionary
That's right
Like a survey trip
This is what a survey trip is for most churches
They take all their teenagers
To a mission field
And they dig well
They feel well
That's what it is
Or they watch other people work
And they come back
Oh, we're a missionary
No, a survey trip
We're going to see if the land is fertile
By going out there and preaching the gospel
When we go to Belize tonight
When we get there, we have no car
I've never been to Belize
I don't exist
I've seen it on Google Maps
That's about it
We're going to Belize, we're landing
And we're saying, alright, let's get on the bus
And go to San Ignacio
When people are on the way, figure it out
New Testament, the Book of Acts time is shifting
They say, well, I mean
Aren't you going to wear a student shirt?
Why?
Aren't you going to do that? Isn't that what you're supposed to do?
No, I'm wearing shorts
Shorts, shirt
My New Testament
YouTube cards
Let's try to win as many people's prizes as we possibly can
Because we want to come back
And say, hey, we've got a bunch of people saved
All you want to do is come with us and march
Ten days to go to the land
Be some missionaries
We need to redefine the mission field
Some of the people from the missions conference
Is coming up in January
Is that his real mission?
And we're going to change this
Next generation
Hey
We don't want you to cut short
What's the sermon today?
It simply is, hey, we need to reach our full potential
As a church
But the way we do that is by coming up with
The sins of Jeroboam
Some of those people
Some of the Jeroboam in the times past
They were welcoming people
I know them, I love them
I still love them, I still respect them
But you know what? Some of the things that they did
And it cut them short
We need to remove those things
And do things the right way
So we can reach our full potential
As individuals and as a church
Turn our heads around
We're probably taking so much for your word
Lord, help us
To have the Z-O-G movement
But also to acknowledge that
It's almost like we cut short
Something like this is going to offend a lot of people
You know
It rubs us the wrong way
It's simply because of the gap
And Lord, I just pray that you'd help us
To recognize these things
Thank you for using your church
To help us to remain humble before you
So that we can continue to be humble
We want to continue to be useful
We want our people to be humble
We want to continue to see people stay
We want to be where it works for you
And I pray that you help us to remain in the law of God
Help us to read it every single day
And to remove things that shouldn't be there
To look in the past
The sins of Jeroboam
And make sure that we remove those golden caps
That no one removed in times past
Because they were just normal
I pray God that you help us to do so
We love you so much, we thank you