One thing that I wanted to really speak about is just how beautiful, how amazing our Bible is.
Of course, you know, when you think about what is the most published book of all time, it's the Bible, we understand that.
And when it comes to, you know, from an English translation, what is the most popular Bible of all time?
Of course, it's the King James Bible.
But you know, there are so many things that makes our Bible interesting.
When I was preaching through the Statement of Faith, you know, we talked about the Holy Scriptures.
There are certain facts that I put out in that sermon that I want to repeat to you today.
And you know, we've been given this great privilege to have a perfect translation into the English language.
Okay. It's not easy to translate from one language to another.
But you know, I can speak Spanish, I can speak English.
Anything that I can say in Spanish, I can communicate to you in English and vice versa.
It's just that sometimes translation requires to be adjusted somewhat differently so it can be understood to that certain audience.
We've been given an English translation that translates the Hebrew, the Greek, the Old Testament, the New Testament, perfectly in the King James Bible.
I've already done sermons on that before.
But what also amazes me about the Bible that we use, and yes, we do use the King James Bible in this church.
It's the one that we recommend, of course, because we believe it's perfect.
We believe it's a perfect translation without any mistakes.
And the other thing that's amazing about this book is how it's changed and shaped our English language.
You see, the King James Bible is translated in 1611.
Okay. It was a seven-year project.
Finally, in 1611, it was done and it started to be available to the common man.
A great work of literature.
And of course, in 1611, our English language was quite different, wasn't it?
I wouldn't say it was in its infancy because there were great literature around that time period like Shakespearean writings that he wrote.
The language was very rich.
Okay. It wasn't in its infancy but it was still a modern type of English.
You know, when we read the King James Bible, we're not going like, that seems like a strange language to me.
You know, we can understand it as we read the scriptures.
At least most of it you can pretty much gather.
You can understand what's being communicated there.
But there were still things that weren't fully developed like spelling.
Spelling back in 1611 was quite different which is why we have different editions of the King James Bible.
The editions aren't changes to the Bible, just updated spelling because English had been updated.
Of course, the pronunciation was different.
Just maybe even the way you pronounce certain words were different.
The punctuation use was different as well.
Like when you read your King James Bible, you're not going to find inverted commas when people speak.
Things like that. Okay.
But, you know, as the Bible was translated in 1611, this King James Bible also helped shape our language, our English language.
Okay. There are many things, many sayings that we say, many idioms, many expressions that we use in the English language
that you probably haven't realised have come from the King James Bible.
Like you would not be using these idioms, okay, if it were not for the Bible.
Like you probably don't even realise just how much it has shaped our language.
And just to give you some very quick facts that I've given you before,
but, you know, I struggle to believe that we're ever going to have a better Bible than this one.
You know, even if this world continues for another thousand years.
And you say, well that sounds crazy to me, Pastor, because don't you know languages change over the years, you know.
There are languages that people don't speak anymore, like Latin and there are changes to languages, there are new languages that get developed over time.
But here's the thing, we live in such a different world.
Like, you know, obviously there was a time where I recall if my parents, my parents migrated from Chile,
if they wanted to communicate to their family in Chile, they would have to write letters.
I remember being a child and my mum and my dad writing lengthy letters for the mail, okay.
And it would literally take weeks and weeks and weeks for that to reach them.
And then they'd read it and then they'd respond back and take weeks and weeks and weeks for that letter to come back
and we could understand what's happening on the other side of the world.
Well then soon after the letters my dad, you know, started to record, he bought himself a little stereo system thing and a microphone.
He started to record his voice, you know, on cassette tapes.
Do you remember cassette tapes, people?
Okay, he started to record those cassette tapes so the family could hear our voices,
you could communicate much quicker and then we would ship that cassette tape over to Chile
and, you know, let's say it was my auntie that received the tape message,
she would get all the family that was there in Chile to come together
and they'd press play and listen to my dad speak about Australia and the family, et cetera, et cetera.
And like that wasn't even that long ago, like I'm not that old of a person.
But I remember that time when it was like that, okay, where we're so separated,
where the world seemed so large and so big.
You know, even when I came from Sydney to Queensland, you know, the first few weeks, the first few months,
I would have conversations with you guys and you'd be saying things and I don't know what you're talking about.
Like you pronounce certain items in a way that we don't pronounce it in Sydney.
And right now I can't even tell you what they are because I've become accustomed to everything.
Like I hear it now and I don't even think about it.
But honestly, when he first came to Sydney, I would often talk about,
oh man, these Queenslanders speak differently.
You guys have different ways of saying things.
And maybe when I preach, maybe you notice there are things that I say that are more of a Sydney or New South Wales type origin.
But even when you think about that, you know, because Australia is quite a large country.
You know, we're divided by states.
Even then, in that separation, our languages start to change over time.
And so because we've come from this very big world, languages change.
You know, the English that you hear from Britain is very different to the English that you hear from the United States
and very different to the English you hear from Canada,
very different to the English that you hear from Australia, et cetera, et cetera.
But what has happened over the last, you know, what, 10, 20 years is, of course, social media, the internet,
the world has become a very small place, very small place.
I mean, my brother is in the United States.
I can just literally pick up my phone right now and see him on a video call straight away
and talk to him face to face immediately if I wanted to.
And so because our world has become smaller, I don't expect there to be much more change to our languages.
Because, you know, most people in the world speak English.
Like, the international language in the world is English.
And just some very quick stats.
We've got 1.5 billion people right now.
There's 8 billion people in the world.
1.5 billion can speak English.
Okay.
It's the official language.
English is the official language in 67 countries.
I've given you these stats before.
Like, if God was ever going to reach the world of the gospel and the need of a perfect Bible,
what language would he use today?
It'd have to be English.
You know, it'd have to be.
Because it's the international language.
67 countries list it as an official language.
And even countries that do not list it as an official language, they teach it to students in schools.
It's still being taught in many more countries than what we understand.
Some other stats as well when it comes to our language.
Let me just find them very quickly.
Oh.
Talk about the Bible.
You know, the unique thought that we have this perfect Bible in English,
we obviously understand that this Bible, it's not just one book, is it?
It's 66 books.
You've got Old Testament books.
You have New Testament books.
66 books, how many authors?
At least 40 different authors.
Okay.
At least 40 different authors from kings to fishermen and everything in between.
Okay.
All writing about God, all writing about religion, all writing about serving the Lord and salvation,
and it's all on the same page.
Like, there's no inconsistencies.
And I've used this analogy before.
That if each one of us right here in this church building wrote about the events of church tonight,
we're going to have contradictions all over the place.
You know, if we wrote about, hey, what song did we sing first?
What song did we sing second?
Et cetera.
You know, who did the Bible reading?
You're going to find that there's going to be mistakes and errors.
There's going to be contradictions.
Hey, who walked into the church building first?
Who was the last one into the church building?
Who left first?
Who left last?
We're going to have all manner of contradiction, and we're right here all together anyway,
if we all wrote about the events of today.
What's amazing about the Bible, we've got 1600 years of this being written,
40 different authors of all backgrounds, and it's one book.
It feels like one book.
There's one voice.
It's the voice of God, which makes it impossible, an effort that is impossible to man,
and of course, possible to God.
So this is the main reason why I believe in the Bible,
because I know how impossible this book is.
And God has given us this English language, and you know,
I personally believe that this English language is going to continue
to the day that Jesus Christ comes back.
Now, I don't know when Christ comes back,
but I believe English will be the main language to reach the nations of this world,
because again, we live in such a small world.
Like English, the languages aren't going to develop all that much now,
constant communication, all across the world, all the time.
It's not like all of a sudden there's going to be a brand new language,
because people are so distant and far away.
We're such a close world.
It's such a small world today.
And so, as I said to you, the Bible has shaped our language.
And so I'm starting a miniseries on this thought,
and the title for the sermon is English Idioms Influenced by the Bible.
English idioms.
I've used that word before, idioms.
Or English sayings, if you want.
English sayings influenced by the Bible.
Now, if you don't know what an idiom is,
I'll just read to you a dictionary definition.
An idiom is an expression of language.
It's an expression, okay, whose meaning is not predictable
from the usual meanings of its constituent elements.
In other words, you can't take it completely literal, okay?
An idiom that commonly gets used or people are familiar with
is you might be saying, it's raining cats and dogs, right?
It's raining cats and dogs.
And let's pretend that was in the Bible.
Let's say the prophet Jeremiah was speaking about Judah in his time,
and he writes, it's raining cats and dogs.
Now, someone might say, well, you know, Pastor,
I just take the Bible literally.
I just believe every word.
And so I believe literally God let cats and dogs fall from heaven
when Jeremiah wrote those words.
And you'd say, how foolish.
Don't you know that's an idiom?
Don't you know that's a form of expression?
Poetic language, if you will, you know?
And the reason I'm going through this series is because
some people are that literal when it comes to God's word.
You know, God's word, the Bible is so rich.
Yes, most of it is to be taken literally, okay?
But there's poetic language.
There's expression.
There are idioms, okay?
There's hyperbole.
There's exaggeration sometimes in God's word
because God's word is rich.
He's given us a rich language.
You know, language is a work of God.
Remember that God is the one that divided the people
into different languages when you read about that in the book of Genesis.
You know, language is the work of God.
And so he's got a richness in his language.
And God has given us idioms that we use.
It's raining cats and dogs.
Say, Pastor, I take that literally because God can do anything.
He can cause cats and dogs to fall from heaven if he wants.
But, you know, you say, well, how do we know if it's not, you know,
literal to be taken literally?
How do we know if it's an idiom?
Common sense, really.
If you understand any form of language, you'll understand these things, okay?
Something like an idiom.
But idiom makes language interesting, okay?
When someone says it's raining cats and dogs, what do you say?
It's raining heavily.
It's just pouring down, okay?
Now what part do we take literally?
It's raining.
That's literal.
Cats and dogs.
That's not to be taken literally, okay?
That's just an expression, an expression.
That, you know, you can't take literally.
Otherwise, you'll start falling into bad doctrines, bad ideas.
You know, bad thoughts on the Bible.
And I've seen this happen to Christians, you know, even amongst my church members.
Sometimes we talk about things and, you know, something is taken so literal.
I think it's an expression.
It's a form of language, you know.
It's given our English language a richness in God's Word.
You know, it's poetic.
It's an exaggeration, as it were.
But there's still truth in that exaggeration.
You know, if it's raining cats and dogs, it is literally raining.
The truth is it's raining and it's raining heavily.
It's just that you don't understand that it's an idiom, for example.
As I said to you, the title for the sermon is English Idioms Influenced by the Bible.
And I had a look at this and apparently there's over 250 idioms in the Bible.
So I'm going to do a whole miniseries on all 250.
No, I'm not.
Okay, I'm not.
I've just gone through some that I'm very familiar with.
And I want to basically go through this and show you how the Bible has influenced our language.
You cannot separate our English language from the King James Bible.
Because it's part of what's made the language what it is today.
Now we're there in Leviticus 16.
Leviticus 16.
Why did we read Leviticus 16?
Because look at verse number 7.
Now Moses was instructed by God to take two goats.
It says in Leviticus 16 verse 7, it says,
And he shall take the two goats and present them before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats.
So it's kind of like they're going to roll dice, kind of, to decide which one they're going to use for what purpose.
And it says there are one lot for the Lord and the other lot for the scapegoat.
The scapegoat.
Is that something we use today in our English language?
When we refer to something as the scapegoat.
Say, here was the scapegoat.
I know, I've heard this many times in business.
I remember I was working and, you know, and sometimes you wanted to, you know, if the company was not performing the way that it should,
they would try to find one person, one manager, one department to be the scapegoat.
Instead of saying, hey, you know, we're not hitting our sales targets, let's blame customer service department.
They're not working with the customers, they're not providing good service, therefore our sales are dropping.
Or let's blame the finance department because they're not chasing up customers for their invoices and their payments the way that they ought to.
And so they cause departments or certain people to become the scapegoat.
All right, now, if we were to take this very literally, of course, escape comes from the word escape, escape goat.
So is this a goat that just escapes?
Is this a goat that, you know, they were aiming to sacrifice but somebody just escaped out of the hands of Moses?
No, no, no, they'll be taking this too far, okay.
But this goat is allowed to go free when we look at this, okay.
But when we talk about the scapegoat, again, in our English language, it's a person blamed for the wrongdoings.
A person blamed for the wrongdoings.
You know, just recently, I think just the last couple of days, not that I care that much,
but obviously you guys know about the company Disney, most of you know about Disney, probably grew up watching many Disney cartoons, okay.
Well, their CEO was recently fired, okay.
He served there for like two years and he's been fired and he's literally the scapegoat, okay.
Let me explain what happened.
So before COVID and brother Matthew, you've been telling me this, you know, leading up to COVID,
there were many CEOs of major corporations that were quitting their positions, okay.
And you say, why were they doing that?
Because they knew when COVID would come, they knew all the restrictions that would happen, okay.
They knew people would not be allowed into cinemas and things like that.
There was going to be effects on the sales.
So instead of taking the blame during COVID, many CEOs would step down and appoint someone else.
So you can take care of things, you know, go do another job.
Well, this new CEO was given, you know, Disney to take care of, not that I care about Disney, but this is what happens, okay.
And of course, during COVID, people aren't going to cinemas, during COVID, you know, there are all these restrictions.
So they're not making the sales, they're not going to Disneyland, they're not making the big profits, things like that, okay.
And so the shares of Disney have been collapsing, all right.
And so the boards got in together and said, well, we need a scapegoat.
Let's blame the CEO that was appointed there to be the scapegoat.
And then the former CEO that put that guy into place has come back, he's back as the new CEO, now that COVID's all done with, and he's become the hero.
Very smart man, okay.
To use another man to be the scapegoat, even though it was his plan and his forecast that led the company to lose so much money during COVID.
So you're trying to give someone else the blame, okay, when you yourself, you know, the blame belongs elsewhere.
And we use this language in English.
Where does it come from? It comes from the King James Bible.
It comes from the richness of God's word, that Moses would have these two goats and one would be the scapegoat.
Let's keep going there, drop down to verse number 21.
Let's understand what the point of the scapegoat was, verse number 21.
And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goats and confess, actually before I keep reading, let me just bring you up to speed.
So because there were two goats, one goat would be sacrificed, okay.
One goat would become the burnt offering, as it were, okay, it would lose its life.
The other goat would escape, the scapegoat.
The other goat would be let free, okay.
So once they have sacrificed that first goat, then the scapegoat will come into the picture, that's what we're reading back here in verse number 21.
And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel
and all their transgressions in all their sins put in them upon the head of the goat
and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness.
So what's happening? All the sins of the people of Israel were symbolically being put on that goat.
The goat is taking the blame for all of the sins of Israel.
So you can see someone else is taking the blame, the goat's taking the blame.
It's the goat's fault that we become sinners, okay.
And of course the goat represents Jesus Christ, that all of our blame, all of our sin, all of it, okay.
Your past sins, your present sins, your future sins, all of your sins have been put on Jesus Christ, okay.
He bore the burden of our sins. The punishment of God fell upon Jesus.
And of course this is what he would picture, the scapegoat.
And not only that, it keeps going there, verse number 22.
And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited.
And he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.
So this goat would be let free into the wilderness, let go, he would not die.
But symbolically it would picture that all of the sins have been taken away out of the camp.
Taken away, away from Israel.
And of course this is to remind us the great truth of our salvation.
The moment that we've trusted Christ as our Savior, our sins have been forgiven.
They've been put away, the Lord promises us in Psalm 103 verse 12,
as far as the east is from the west, so far have he removed our transgressions from us.
As far as the east is from the west, that's how far our sins have been removed from us.
You never get to the end of it.
Because as you keep traveling east, you keep going, okay.
You're eventually going to come back to the same place and you keep going.
East never stops. That's how far east is from the west.
Once God has forgiven us, our sins are not remembered by the Lord.
They are the furthest thing from us.
And of course the scapegoat represents not only that Jesus bore our sins,
but our sins have been taken far away.
They're not imputed upon us any longer.
And so I just want to show you that's one idiom that we use, you know that enriches our English language.
And it's been formulated, it's come from, it's been influenced by the King James Bible.
Can you please turn with me to Deuteronomy 13.
Deuteronomy 13.
And so this will be a bit of a mini-series.
I don't know how many idioms I'm going to get through tonight, but I'll continue them next Wednesday, you know.
And so, you know, we'll just have a look at how we use it in our English language today,
what the Bible teaches about it, and see what kind of differences.
Are there any similarities, are there any differences with how we use it today,
versus how these words or these phrases were used in the Bible.
But Deuteronomy 13 verse number 6.
Now this one has many, many references, many idioms.
Not many idioms, one idiom, but many references in the Bible.
Let's read it from verse number 6.
Deuteronomy 13 verse number 6.
It says,
If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom,
or thy friend, which is thine own soul, enticed thee secretly, saying,
Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou nor thy fathers.
So this is talking to the nation of Israel, remember they're a covenanted people,
they've come into this promise with God, this old covenant,
that the Lord God will be their only God.
And they will be the people of God.
And so we hear, hey, if anyone comes to you, family, friends, relatives, anyone you know,
that comes alongside you to tell you, hey, let's go worship some other god,
let's go worship some false god, what were they to do?
Verse number 7,
Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee,
from the one end of the earth, even unto the other end of the earth.
There's another idiom that we use in our English language.
To the ends of the earth.
To the ends, are you familiar with that saying?
Alright, you know, if Christina, I don't know, let's say Christina,
let's say I'm feeling really romantic, alright?
And Christina's like, you know, Kevin, you know, we've run out of onions,
can you go and buy some onions?
Unless I'm feeling really romantic.
I'm like, honey, I'll go find those onions unto the ends of the earth if I have to.
Alright, I'm using poetic language, I'm using expressions here.
And of course, to the ends of the earth means to do everything possible to achieve something.
To do everything possible to achieve something.
Now this phrase is found many, many times in the Bible,
I think I just found the first one, the first time it's used,
so this is why I'm reading it to you from here.
But you use these words, don't you?
To the ends of the earth.
And again, be careful about taking things so literal, okay?
There isn't an end of the earth that you can fall off or anything like that, okay?
This is an idiom, this is poetic language, this is an expression of our language,
to the ends of the earth.
Now let's keep going there, what do we learn about this?
If someone comes to you seeking for you to worship a false god,
it says thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him,
neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare,
neither shalt thou conceal him, but thou shalt surely kill him.
Thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death,
and afterwards the hand of all the people.
That's pretty full on.
If anybody in the nation of Israel sought to worship another god,
it was a death penalty.
Under the old covenant in Israel, if they were to worship some false god,
it was the death penalty.
Again, why don't we enforce that today in Australia, Pastor?
Because we're not under the old covenant, all right?
The Israelites were under that old covenant as a nation, okay?
That was another reason why people were put to death in the Old Testament,
for worshiping a false god, okay?
So I just want to show you the context that this phrase or this idiom fits in
and how we use it today, but in what way can we then apply this to our lives today?
And of course we have the one true god that has created us,
that has created this world, that's given us a soul and spirit.
We have the one true god that even in our sin sent his only begotten son
to die in our place.
This is the god that we are to worship.
And if the ends of the earth means, as we do today,
to do everything possible to achieve something,
then we ought to do everything possible to love and serve our Lord
the way that we ought to.
Remember the first commandments?
To love the Lord our God with all of our heart, with all of our soul,
with all of our might, and the Jesus Christ adds in the New Testament,
with all of our mind.
You know, to use all that we have, everything that God has given us,
to love and worship the one true God.
Brethren, that's our calling today, to love and worship our God,
to give it everything we've got, all right?
To give it everything, to give the best of the best,
to give God the best, that's definitely our calling.
And so to the ends of the earth, I like it,
to do everything possible to achieve something,
even though that's not really the meaning that we obviously
was found in the Bible there, but I like the thought
that they were to just worship the one true God,
and then we ought to give everything we can to do that.
To love the Lord, he has done so much for us.
Can you please turn with me to chapter 32?
Deuteronomy chapter 32 verse number 9.
Deuteronomy chapter 32 and verse number 9.
Let's have a look at another idiom.
It says here in Deuteronomy 32 verse number 9,
for the Lord's portion is his people.
Again, the Israelites here under the old covenant.
It says Jacob is a lot of his inheritance,
and don't forget Jacob's name was changed to Israel,
and the descendants are the children of Israel,
so Jacob here represents the nation of Israel.
It keeps going there, verse number 10.
He found him in a desert land,
and in the waste howling wilderness,
he led him about, he instructed him,
he kept him as the apple of his eye.
The apple of my eye, or the apple of his eye.
Another English idiom that we use today, don't we?
You've heard of the apple.
The first person is the apple of my eye.
What does that mean?
It means it's someone that you cherish greatly,
someone that you love so much
that you're maybe a little bit overly protective even
of that individual.
Sometimes parents are accused of having a favorite child,
and it's like, well, that's the apple of their eye.
That's kind of that thought.
Well, you know what?
That comes from the Bible,
that God will look at his people.
Now, it says Jacob there.
He's talking about all the people of Israel.
All of his people, under that old covenant,
he says this is the apple of my eye.
Now, when we think about the apple of the eye in our English,
how we use it today, we think about the apple being the object,
the person that we cherish, the person that we love.
But in the Bible, the apple of the eye refers to more
the pupil of the eye.
And so it's kind of like your eyes are sensitive
and important to you.
And so it's referring to the pupil as it were,
and I'll show you this shortly.
But of course, God is saying that his eyes are upon his people.
And brethren, we are not under the Old Testament,
but we are under the New Testament.
You know, if you've been saved and you've believed on Jesus Christ,
you know him as your savior,
then you are the people of God.
You are his children.
You know, you too are the apple of his eye.
Okay, God is very protective towards you,
very loving towards you.
And I've been teaching a lot about going through problems and trials.
You know, even then, God wants to protect you.
He wants to help you through those trials.
He loves you.
He cherishes you.
You're so important to him.
Again, that he sent his son to die in your place.
If you can, please turn with me to Zechariah.
Turn with me to Zechariah toward the end of your Bible,
of the Old Testament, I should say.
Zechariah chapter two.
Zechariah chapter two, please.
Verse number seven.
Zechariah chapter two and verse number seven.
And as you're turning there, what we saw earlier is,
you know, the nation of Israel being the apple of his eye,
it says he found him in a desert land,
in the waste-hailing wilderness.
He led him about.
He instructed him.
He kept him.
You know, the Lord instructs us.
We're in church today to be instructed.
Okay, this is one way that God is showing you
that you are the apple of his eye,
that you're receiving instruction,
you're learning something from God's word.
You know, he leads you about.
He wants you to take the best decisions,
the best options in life.
You're his apple.
And in Zechariah chapter two, verse number seven, please,
Zechariah chapter two, verse number seven,
we fast forward in Israel's history here,
and this is, again, referring to the captivity
of the nation of Judah, the Jews.
It says there in verse number seven,
Zechariah chapter two, verse number seven,
deliver thyself, O Zion,
that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon.
So, of course, again,
the idea of being taken into captivity by Babylon.
For thus saith the Lord of hosts,
after the glory hath he sent me unto the nations
which spoiled you.
So the Babylonian nations are a little bit cruel
toward the Jews.
It says, for he that toucheth you,
toucheth the apple of his eye.
That same idea, have you ever been poked in the eye?
It's like, ah, like sensitive, right?
It's like you're touching,
like you're poking my eye, okay?
See, the Lord is very protective of us
The Lord is very protective of us, brethren,
very protective of his people.
If we're being persecuted just like they were,
you know, God does not like that.
God does not enjoy seeing his children suffer
and being persecuted.
So, boy, imagine people coming against God's children.
How is God going to respond to them
if it's like you've literally just poked him in the eye,
you know, the way you've treated God's people?
Well, let's keep going there.
Verse number nine, it says,
For behold, I will shake mine hand upon them,
and they shall be a spoil to their servants,
and ye shall know that the Lord of hosts have sent me.
So once again, brethren, the Lord is protective of you.
You know, the Lord loves you.
Please remember that the trials, the difficulties
that you face in life are good for you.
They're profitable for you.
They're going to help you in life.
God sees fit to let you go through some difficulties,
but I never want you to forget
that you are the apple of his eye.
He's protective.
He's loving towards you.
He's protective towards you.
He's not going to be pushed beyond a level
that you cannot be pushed, okay?
He wants us to grow and mature,
and sometimes we need to go through those tough times
to learn something greater
that Jesus Christ is teaching us,
the apple of his eye.
I love that truth.
Please turn with me to 2 Samuel.
Turn with me to 2 Samuel 1.
2 Samuel 1, verse number 17.
Let's see if you can pick up where this idiom is,
but let's look at verse number 17 first,
and let's just get the context here.
2 Samuel 1, verse number 17.
It says,
And David lamented with the lamentation over Saul
and over Jonathan his son.
So King Saul and Jonathan,
they perished because Israel had gone to war
against the Philistines, all right?
And of course, David loved Saul,
even though Saul was trying to seek to kill David,
but he loved Saul.
He knew that he was the Lord's appointed,
and of course, he loved Jonathan,
Saul's son, very much.
They were best friends, okay?
And to hear this news that the king had perished
as well as his son,
obviously this caused David to lament.
To lament is to be sorrowful, tearful, weeping, okay?
He starts to lament and he starts to say these words.
Let's drop down to verse number 19.
He says,
The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places.
How are the mighty fallen?
Do you see where the idiom is there?
Drop down to verse number 25.
How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle?
O Jonathan, thou wast slain in thine high places.
Drop down to verse number 27.
How are the mighty fallen and the weapons of war perished?
Okay, so what's another idiom that we see there?
How the mighty have fallen.
Isn't that what people say?
How the mighty have fallen.
This means the decline of a once great person.
That statement gets used over and over again.
I see this even in the media.
Let's say someone of prominence, of a high position,
a very famous person gets arrested for some filthy acts
or something and they get thrown into prison.
You see something like how the mighty have fallen.
Say, wow, that's in the Bible?
Yeah, that comes from the Bible.
I'm just trying to show you just how much,
how amazing actually this book is.
It's shaped our language.
And you probably use these sayings
and you don't even realize that it's come from God's word.
Okay, how the mighty have fallen.
This is the lamentation of David, he's weeping.
He loves Saul, he loves Jonathan
and to know that the Philistines have taken out
these people, have slain them, it just burdens him.
Because how is it?
Saul, a mighty king, the mighty king of Israel.
His son, my best friend, they've fallen.
They've been destroyed by the enemy.
And of course this is a great lament,
a great sadness for David.
And sometimes this phrase how the mighty have fallen
is kind of used today like sarcastically almost.
It's almost like mocking those that have fallen
but that's not how it gets used by David.
He is truly lamenting.
He is truly sorrowful that these mighty men
that he looked up to have been destroyed, have died.
Sometimes I think about pastors in my life
that I've looked up to, pastors that I thought,
man, what a great man of God.
And then they fall.
They fall into grave sin, commit adultery,
divorce, lose their family.
These things happen to even great men
that we kind of look up to sometimes.
How the mighty have fallen.
When I think about that, it's not like I'm mocking them
or being sarcastic.
I'm truly sorrowful, truly sad that Satan has gotten
a hold of these people and destroyed their lives.
We should be praying for our pastors.
We should be praying for people that take a stand
on God's word.
I'm not saying that I'm mighty or anything like that
but of course people that have a prominent position
especially in leadership in a church,
the office of a bishop, the office of a deacon,
please be praying for myself, be praying for other men.
Pastor Stevenson's a good friend of ours.
Other pastors that you know and love
that have been a blessing to you,
we should be praying for these people.
We don't want to see them fall.
I don't want to lament like David's been lamenting,
seeing his friends fail in this way
or be killed in this way.
But that's where the statement comes from.
So what can we learn out of this?
I'll quickly read to you from 1 Corinthians 10 verse 12.
1 Corinthians 10 verse 12.
It says, I'll just read it to you.
Wherefore, let him that thinketh he standeth,
take heed lest he fall.
It's a great teaching in the New Testament.
Listen, the moment that you think you're right with God
and you're on fire, you're just serving the Lord faithfully,
you say, man, I'm on a spiritual high,
things are going well with me.
That's when you better take heed.
That's when you better listen, pay attention,
lest he fall.
It's so easy to fall.
It's so easy to make such a grave mistake.
Don't forget we have the flesh.
The flesh wants the sin.
There are probably sins that you committed before you were saved potentially
that were grave serious sins.
Things that were destroying your life, destroying your health,
destroying your mental health potentially, I don't know.
That addiction, that lust is still in your flesh.
I want you to understand.
It's still there.
So we have to walk in a new man.
It's how we have victory over our sins.
But if you give yourself just an opportunity to look at these sins
that you once appreciated, it's so easy to fall.
Please be careful, brethren.
I want us to be brethren in this church that continue on the up and up.
And if you say, Pastor, I've been growing and I feel closer to the Lord,
I know the Bible more, take heed.
Please be careful.
Please understand that it's so easy to fall.
Take heed lest he fall.
It says in verse number 13, continues there.
There have no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man.
But God is faithful and will not suffer you or allow you
to be tempted above that you're able.
But will with the temptation also make a way of escape
that you may be able to bear it.
All right.
So even if you're going through difficulties,
God is going to give you a way to escape that temptation.
God will give you an opportunity so you do not fall.
Brethren, when you're being tempted to fall,
go to the Lord in prayer and say, Lord, you promised me.
You're not going to tempt me above what I'm able.
Where's my way of escape?
What do I do, Lord?
And I guarantee you the Lord's going to show you a way of escape.
Okay.
He's going to show you.
And when you defeat a temptation, when you have victory over sin,
you'll be stronger to overcome other sins.
Hope it never gets said about us as a church,
you know, how the mighty have fallen.
All right, brethren, let's go to another one.
Please turn with me.
You're there in 2 Samuel.
So stay in 2 Samuel.
Please go to chapter 14.
2 Samuel chapter 14 and verse number 1.
Let's see if you catch the idiom.
If you catch the idiom, can I just see a show of hand?
All right.
Just go like this so I know.
All right.
Let's read it from verse number 1.
Now Joab, don't miss the story as well because I'm going to explain the story to you.
Now Joab, the son of Zeruiah, perceived that the king's heart,
that's David's heart, was toward Absalom.
Absalom was his son.
Now Joab, the son of Zeruiah, perceived that the king's heart,
was toward Absalom.
Absalom was his son.
And Joab sent to Tekoa and fetched thence a wise woman
and said unto her, I pray thee, feign thyself to be a mourner
and put on now morning apparel and anoint not thyself with oil
but be as a woman that had a long time mourned for the dead
and come to the king and speak on this manner unto him.
So Joab put the words in her mouth.
All right.
Two hands, three hands, four hands, five hands, six hands.
All right.
Good.
Okay.
So what's the idiom?
Putting words into my mouth or your mouth.
Putting words into my mouth.
This comes from this story here in 2 Samuel 14.
Isn't that amazing?
So how do we use that idiom today?
Putting words into my mouth.
Basically it means to suggest that someone said or meant something
that he or she did not actually mean to say.
Okay.
Or actually say or mean.
Okay.
You're putting words into my mouth.
I've had to say that sometimes.
You know.
And people ask you a question and you answer the question
and they're like, so are you saying?
So you're saying.
It's like, well, no, no.
I'm not saying that.
You're saying that I'm saying that.
You're putting words into my mouth.
Okay.
It's kind of a negative thing when you kind of consider it.
And you know what's very dangerous today?
Social media.
Texting.
Okay.
Texting.
Reverend, if you ever have a conflict.
In fact, if you want to get into conflict, start texting.
Even when you mean well and you text a good meaning message
because it doesn't carry the tone, the body language, your face.
Okay.
If you read in a negative tone to the person receiving it
and they can be adding words to your mouth
or adding words to your text.
Things that you did not mean to say.
It's so easy.
I've seen this over and over again on social media, texting.
It's a horrible way to communicate.
You know, I text all the time.
But you know, my advice is, and you don't have to do my advice here,
but my advice is, this is in the book of Kevin.
Okay.
My advice is use text for just short, simple, straightforward black and white things.
You know, oh brother, what time are we meeting at 6.30?
Okay, see you there.
Stuff like that.
Okay.
Long conversations, back and forth.
You know, sometimes I get emails from people asking me questions
and it's like a long back and forth.
Eventually I'm like, can I just have your phone number?
Just send me your phone number so I can talk to you face to face.
Because I don't know, I'm reading the message
but it seems like things are much more deeper, more thorough
beyond what you're actually saying.
Let's have a conversation over the phone so I get the big picture.
But yeah, putting words into your mouth doesn't feel good
if you've ever had it happen to you.
And I'm sure I've done it to other people
where someone has said something to me innocently
and I've just assumed they meant something bad about that
or critical toward me.
You know, assuming they've meant something when they've never meant that.
Well, it comes from this passage here in 2 Samuel 14.
Now let me just quickly explain to you what's actually happening here
and the lesson that we can take out of this.
So very quickly, back to verse number 1.
Now Joab, Joab was the nephew of King David.
Okay, the nephew.
He was also like a counsellor.
He was a mighty man, he was a man of war.
But he was also kind of a counsellor to David.
Now David, or Absalom had, I won't go into all the story
but his sister was raped and he killed the man that raped his sister
which was his half brother, if you know the story.
And because Absalom murdered, he kind of ran away.
He kind of became a fugitive in this part of the story.
And of course David's not happy with Absalom, he killed his son.
He killed his half brother.
I won't go into all that story, you can read it on your own time.
But because Absalom is so far away, we get to verse number 1 here
and Joab, the nephew of David, sees that the king's heart is toward Absalom.
So even though David wants nothing to do with Absalom, he misses his son.
He obviously loves his son.
He wishes this didn't happen.
He wants Absalom in his presence but he knows that he's done such a wicked thing.
So Joab finds this wise woman and puts words into her mouth.
This wise woman pretends to be someone that she isn't
and you can read it on your own time.
She gives a story about how her family's been pulled apart,
her family's fallen apart and there are people trying to destroy them.
She gives this story and King David basically reinforces her
that he'll keep her protected, that no one else in her family is going to suffer
and then she turns the story around and says, well, what about Absalom?
So this whole story that was being made up by this woman,
you know, these words that were put into her mouth by Joab
was to reunite King David with his son Absalom
and then Absalom, David sees, he recognises that, well, you know, yeah, you know what,
I should bring him back into Jerusalem.
He brings him back and he takes the counsel of this woman
but it was used in a positive way.
You know, it was kind of like a positive, you know,
we use that words into your mouth as a negative thing today
but in this story it's actually quite a positive message
and what we learn in this story is that we ought to listen to the counsel
of the people who love you, listen to their counsel,
listen to the people that love you.
You know, children, listen to the counsel of your mum and dad.
Sometimes when it's someone that we know very well like family,
like Joab, a nephew, we won't take the counsel.
Like Joab just coming to David and saying, hey, you know what,
you should reunite with Absalom, bring him back into the kingdom,
you know, Joab knew that they would not listen to him
even though he was a counsellor.
You know, sometimes people go to someone else, you know,
and this wise woman would be that source, you know,
to bring to remembrance, you know, that David, yeah,
I should reach out to Absalom, I should try to make peace with him,
you know, but it was used by, you know, Joab used a different person
and I find this sometimes in church.
You know, not just, I'm not saying so much here
because I feel like I've talked a lot on this issue
but in other churches where, you know, I might see a young person
and, you know, they're kind of frustrated and worried,
they want to talk to the pastor, they're going through a tough time
or they've got to make a certain decision and, you know,
I've got to talk to the pastor and they're waiting for the pastor
to talk to other people and, you know, I might come along,
hey, brother, you all right?
Yeah, I've just got to talk to the pastor.
I'm like, well, what about?
He says, well, my dad says I ought to do this or that
but I want to check with the pastor.
And I say, well, what's your dad saying?
Well, this and that.
That sounds like good advice.
Why don't you go to what your dad says?
Like your dad loves you.
Like your dad has invested his years of his life,
of his money, of his influence on your life.
Of course he's going to want the best for you.
That sounds like good advice.
Why don't you just do what your dad says?
Why do you have to go to the pastor and check with him?
It's not like he's been asked to sin or anything like that.
It's just giving him direction in life, you know?
Or young girls, you know, seeking to get married to a man
and it's like, well, you want counsel?
Talk to mum and dad.
Talk to the ones that love you, all right?
The ones that have all these years that have raised you,
that love you.
You know, dad who's gone to work Monday to Friday,
you know, to pay for, you know, your education,
to pay for your clothes, to pay for your food, all right?
To pay for you to have a decent and happy life.
Go to them and get their advice.
See, Job was family.
Job was the nephew.
You know, he was a mighty man, a counsellor
but David had to hear it from someone else.
Have you heard these stories where,
or has this ever happened to you,
where maybe someone's come to you,
you've given them some counsel, hey, maybe do this,
I don't know, your situation, all right?
This is what I would do, I believe, if I was in your shoes
and they're like, ah, yeah, no, I don't think I'll do that.
Then they'll go to someone else
and they hear it from someone else
but they'll hear like exactly the same thing
and they're like, man, that's really good advice.
That's really good advice.
It's like, it's the same advice that I just gave you, okay?
But, you know, because it's come from someone else,
but here's the thing, brethren,
and young people, you get some, you know,
I know, because I was, we were young too,
so we think everyone else knows better than our own family,
like the ones that care about us.
Job, obviously, was very loyal to David.
He cares for David.
He sees that his heart is heavy for Absalom.
He doesn't want David to go his whole life
depressed and sad that Absalom's this fugitive
so he does the best that he can, okay?
He realises David's not gonna hear him
so he gets this other woman to basically say the same thing
that he wanted to communicate to David
but you don't need to waste your time.
You don't need to put words in someone else's mouth.
You know what, children, young people,
I strongly recommend listen to mum and dad, okay?
They've lived longer than you.
They've been your age.
They've had your same emotions and your same feelings.
They've gone through the same things
that you've gone through.
You know, they're gonna be the best source
of counsel and advice,
just like Joab would have been the best counsel and advice
for King David in this situation.
All right, so idioms in the Bible.
I think I'll stop there, Brevin.
English idioms influenced by the Bible, part one.
We're gonna continue this series next Wednesday.
All right, let's pray.