🎵Music🎵
🎵Pray be the lord, pray be the lord, pray be the lord, pray be the lord🎵
Alright, great.
Welcome, everyone, to Steadfast Baptist Church.
If you'll please turn your songbooks to song number 100,
day by day.
Song 100, day by day.
🎵Music🎵
🎵Day by day and with each passing moment, strength I find to meet my trials here.
Loving in my father's wise bestowment, I've no cause for worry or for fear.
He whose heart is kind beyond all measure, gives unto each day what he deems best.
Bingling, it's part of pain and pleasure, bingling toil with peace and rest.
Every day the Lord himself is near me, with a special mercy for each hour.
All my cares he fain would bear and cheer me, he whose name is counselor and power.
The protection of this child and treasure is a charge that on himself he laid.
As thy days, thy strength shall be in measure, this the pledge to me he made.
Help me then in every tribulation, so to trust thy promises, O Lord,
that I lose not faith's sweet consolation, offered me within thy holy word.
Help me, Lord, with toil and trouble beating, ere to take us from a father's hand.
One by one, the days the moment's fleeting, till I reach the promised land.
Good singing. Let's open up in a word of prayer.
Heavenly Father, thank you for this beautiful morning and thank you for a whole church this morning.
Thank you for recovering so many people from illnesses.
And I just pray that you bless this service, pray that it would be honoring and glorifying to you.
We love you in Jesus' name. Amen.
All right, for our second song, we'll go to 472, This Is My Father's World.
472, This Is My Father's World.
472, And to my listening ears, all nature sings and round me rings the music of the spheres.
This is my father's world, I rest me in the thought of rocks and trees, of skies and seas, and the wonders wrought.
This is my father's world, the birds their carols raise.
The morning light the lily white declare their Maker's praise.
This is my father's world, he shines in all that's fair.
In the rustling grass I hear him pass, he speaks to me everywhere.
This is my father's world, oh let me ne'er forget, that though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.
This is my father's world, the battle is not done, Jesus who died shall be satisfied, and earth and heaven be won.
John chapter number 1, and we're on verse 49, so very close to getting to the end of John chapter number 1.
As a reminder, if you were able to quote the entire chapter, you can receive a prize.
Who has already accomplished this? Has anybody already done John chapter 1?
Okay, we've got a handful of people that have done that, that's great.
Who has not done it yet, but is planning on getting this thing done?
Alright, alright, I really encourage you to keep going, a lot of good verses.
The first half is pretty easy, it's that second half that's a real bear.
So, on the inside we have our service, Soul Winning Times, make note we have a Spanish service at 4.30.
We have a Sunday evening service at 5.30, and then we have our Bible study on Wednesday evenings at 7.
Currently we've been going through the book of 2 Samuel, and when we get to the end we'll start a new book of the Bible.
And you say, which book? You have to come to find out, alright?
So, yeah, you've got to come when we get, we're really close to finishing 2 Samuel, and it's been a lot of fun.
But it'll be nice to do a different book as well.
Our church-wide Soul Winning Times meter at the building, regional times meet at different parts of the DFW area, and even kind of outside.
So, if you'd like to participate in any of those Soul Winning Times, just see one of the respective leaders.
We have our church stats down below, we have our list of expecting ladies, please be praying for them.
Also, we have a prayer list, if you have any additional prayer requests, please email those in.
Or, if you'd just like to fill out a communication card, you can do that and put it into the offering plate if you're a visitor.
Or, if you just want to put a prayer request in, you can fill out a communication card and put that into our offering plate.
Also, we have a baby shower coming up, November 19th.
This is for Karen and Cody Cooley, for her baby girl, and they're registered at Walmart.
It's from 12.30 to 2.30, if you'd like to RSVP, please do so to Ms. Milstead.
It really helps so they can plan the event and make sure that they have all the accommodations.
So, as long as you RSVP, it should make it easier on them, and please do that.
Also, on the back, we have our upcoming events.
The Arlington Soul Winning Blitz is going to be Saturday, October 29th, and it's been really receptive over there.
I think we've already even sent an email out with some of the instructions on that.
What's our meeting location? Is it a park somewhere?
Okay, it's the same as last time, so perfect.
October 30th is the Sunday Sunday, and then October 31st is the Texas Chili Cook-Off, 5.30 to 9 p.m.
If you want to enter your chili, you have to bring it before 5.30.
If you'd like to eat chili, you're going to have to wait until 6.00, and that just gives us about 30 minutes to get all of the judging set up.
And yes, there will be winners and losers, okay?
Obviously, if you put beans in your chili, you're already a loser.
So, we're trying to help you at Steadfast Baptist Church learn not to be like that and to eat Texas chili correctly, okay?
Now, you can have heresy chili wherever you want, but Texas chili doesn't have beans in it.
And I know I always get reproved on this by other people, but they're wrong.
So, it's really just being lied about, slandered, and libeled.
So, to make it clear, Texas chili, a.k.a. God's chili, is without beans in it.
Okay, a little lemon left the whole lump, and we don't want to do that here.
And of course, Steadfast Baptist Church is all about the strong meat of the word.
We don't need those baby beans in there and everything like that.
You know, my little toddlers eat beans when they're babies, but they can't eat steak.
They can't eat the meat yet, so they have to grow up and mature.
So, those who still need some beans in their chili just haven't matured yet.
We're helping them come along.
If you need to, just go to Outback.
They'll give you some chili, and it doesn't have beans in it, all right?
There's my rant.
November 5th, the music recital from 2 to 4.
We had kind of just a rehearsal yesterday, and my wife said it went really well.
And really, thank you parents for working on that with your children.
And, you know, it's definitely something that you're never going to regret investing into your children
and trying to help them to cultivate all of the skills that God has given us.
And, you know, we sing here, and we play instruments here for church,
and so there's always a great need for people to be musical
and use the giftings that God has given them.
And I want to have an army of pianists.
You know, I saw there's some video online of like this independent Funnel Baptist Church,
and they have like four like savant piano players.
And so they'll like play, and then the next person will come and just start playing,
like while they're playing, and then they move out, and they'll just do like this carousel
where they can just basically like all just be playing the piano.
You can't even tell they switched pianists or whatever,
because they're just like playing, and it's like all awesome, whatever.
I'm not like that, okay guys?
But maybe we can raise a generation that's actually very gifted,
but of course talent can only go so far.
People that are really good at piano practice a lot and play a lot,
and so we want to encourage you to do that.
If you would like to visit our music recital,
even if you don't have a child participating, or your children are not participating,
you're still welcome to come if you'd like to hear the recital.
November 10th through the 12th is our Matamoros soloing trip.
A lot of people have expressed interest in this.
I think we're going to have a really good turnout,
and so we're going to have a lot of fun.
November 19th is our baby shower.
Again, November 23rd is the Thanksgiving dessert fellowship.
December 2nd is the ladies' Christmas party.
I don't see it in the bulletin anymore,
but as a reminder, we do have several church rules
that we want to make sure people are still following appropriately.
Please don't be letting your kids run through the building.
Please don't let them get on the stage to play on the stage.
Please watch them at all times.
Our mother baby room is for mothers and their children only.
Also, we have a lot of gliders in the auditorium,
and those are for the ladies that are pregnant or nursing.
So we don't want kids sitting in them.
We don't want the sound booth guys sitting in them.
And really, even if you are a lady,
but you're not going to be expecting or having a child anytime soon,
try to sit where you can let other ladies sit in those.
We just want to make sure that we're accommodating to them
as best as possible.
And we try to put them everywhere where it's as accommodating as possible.
So God willing, we'll have a bigger space in the future,
and we can even have more space and more rockers and everything for everybody.
But for now, we're just trying to make an efficient usage of our space.
And it's great to have a church full of people this morning.
But we want to help all of the parishioners
and all of our church members feel comfortable
and be able to use the facility to the best.
So don't be offended if an usher comes and says,
like, hey, move in the back.
It's not because you're black, all right?
Okay, it's just because we want...
I saw some articles, like some black lady got asked to move on an airline,
and she had to move backwards,
and she's like, it's like the new Rosa Parks or whatever.
And I'm just like, come on, folks.
I've had to move back too, okay?
So it's not like that.
Don't sue us, all right?
December 2nd is the ladies' Christmas party from 6 to 9 p.m.
And so all ladies are invited to participate.
And even if you want to, invite your mom or your cousin or whatever.
But just as a reminder,
our Christmas parties for the ladies are typically nurslings only.
So just to make sure that everyone really enjoys their evening
and has a good time, it is nursings only.
What I mean by that announcement is dudes, watch your kids, okay?
That's what the real meaning of that announcement is.
And it's like one night of the year.
You can figure out how to watch your kids on one night.
And as I always say, just throw some peanuts at them
or popcorn or gushers or put them in bed.
Actually, you want them to go to bed, don't give them any of those things.
But reading the Bible puts people to sleep very easily.
So maybe just sit there and just read in the Bible until you all fall asleep.
I don't care what you do,
but try to make it to where your wife doesn't even have to wonder if she can go.
She just knows, yep, she's going and she's going to have the time of her life
and she's never going to need another event until next year's Christmas party.
No, I'm just kidding.
We all know that's not true.
But we can always wish for it, all right?
Now, we're going to go to our third song, but before we get there,
I just want to – it's going to be in our handouts.
It's a new song, okay?
It's Psalm 146, and Dylan's going to be up here singing it for us.
I'm going to try and play it for us.
Because it is new, I don't want Dylan to have to sing this thing by himself, okay?
So I'm going to try and help you kind of learn a little bit of the tune.
Now, it has five different verses,
so by the time you kind of get to the later portions of the song,
you should know it a little bit better.
You should be able to kind of start busting it out, singing it.
But Psalm 146, it's a little bit small.
Sorry if you have a hard time singing.
It is straight from the Bible,
but having the sheet music does help follow the text a little bit.
It kind of has a repeating chorus at the beginning.
But just to give you kind of a sample of what this is going to sound like is,
it starts out,
Praise ye the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul.
While I live, will I praise the Lord?
I will sing praises unto my God,
while I have any being.
Put not your trust in princes,
nor in the Son of Man,
in whom there is no help,
whom there is no help.
So that's what it's going to sound like.
Brother Dylan is going to sing for us,
but we want you to sing with us, all right?
So that's how it goes.
It's the same tune, five different times.
It's pretty simple.
Try to pick it up.
All right.
Psalm 146, and go ahead and share with a neighbor
if for some reason you don't have one.
Psalm 146.
Praise ye the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul.
While I live, will I praise the Lord?
I will sing praises unto my God,
while I have any being.
Put not your trust in princes,
nor in the Son of Man,
in whom there is no help,
whom there is no help.
Praise ye the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul.
His breath goeth forth,
and he returneth to his earth,
and that very day his thoughts perish.
Happy is he that hath come,
God of Jacob, for his help,
whose hope is in the Lord,
the Lord his God.
Praise ye the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul,
which made heaven and earth a sea,
and all that therein is,
keepeth truth for ever,
which executeth judgment
for the oppressed which giveth,
who to the hungry the Lord,
lucid the prisoners.
Praise ye the Lord, O my soul,
the Lord openeth you,
hope the blind, the Lord raiseth them,
that are bowed down,
the Lord loveth the righteous,
the Lord reserveth the strangers,
he relieveth the fatherless and widows.
Praise ye the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul,
but the way of the wicked
eterneth upside down,
the Lord shall reign for ever,
even thy God, O Zion,
unto all generations.
Praise ye the Lord, praise ye the Lord.
As the offering plates are passed around,
please turn in your Bibles to Luke 4.
Luke chapter 4.
And we'll read the whole chapter as is our custom.
Luke chapter 4, the Bible reads.
You can follow along silently starting at verse 1.
And Jesus, being full of the Holy Ghost,
returned from Jordan and was led by the Spirit
into the wilderness, being 40 days tempted of the devil.
And in those days, he did eat nothing.
And when they were ended, he afterward hungered.
And the devil said unto him,
If thou be the Son of God, command this stone,
that it be made bread.
And Jesus answered him, saying,
It is written that man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word of God.
And the devil, taking him up into one high mountain,
showed unto him all the kingdoms of the world
in a moment of time.
And the devil said unto him,
All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them,
for that is delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I will,
I give it.
If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.
And Jesus answered and said unto him,
Get thee behind me, Satan, for it is written,
Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God,
and him only shalt thou serve.
And he brought him to Jerusalem,
and set him on a pinnacle of the temple,
and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God,
cast thyself down from hence, for it is written,
He shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee,
and in their hands they shall bear thee up,
lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.
And Jesus answering said unto him,
It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
And when the devil had ended all the temptation,
he departed from him for a season.
And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee,
and there went out a fame of him throughout all the region round about.
And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all.
And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up,
and as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day,
and stood up for to read.
And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet,
and when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.
He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives,
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty them that are bruised,
to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister,
and sat down, and the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue
were fastened on him.
And he began to say unto them,
This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.
And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words
which proceeded out of his mouth.
And they said, Is not this Joseph's son?
And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb,
Physician, heal thyself.
Whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum,
do also here in thy country.
And he said, Barely I say unto you,
no prophet is accepted in his own country.
But I tell you of a truth.
Many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias,
when the heaven was shut up three years and six months,
when great famine was throughout all the land.
But unto none of them was Elias sent,
save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon,
unto a woman that was a widow.
And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elias the prophet,
and none of them was cleansed, saving Nahum in the Syrian.
And all day in the synagogue, when they heard these things
were filled with wrath, and rose up and thrust him out of the city,
and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built,
that they might cast him down headlong.
But he passing through the midst of them went his way,
and came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee,
and taught them on the Sabbath days.
And when they were astonished at his doctrine,
for his word was with power.
And in the synagogue there was a man
which had a spirit of an unclean devil,
and cried out with a loud voice, saying,
Let us alone, what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth?
Art thou come to destroy us?
I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God.
And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him.
And when the devil had thrown him in the midst,
he came out of him, and heard him not.
And they were all amazed, and spake among themselves, saying,
What a word is this!
For with authority and power he commanded the unclean spirits,
and they come out.
And the fame of him went out into every place of the country round about.
And he arose out of the synagogue, and entered into Simon's house.
And Simon's wife's mother was taken with a great fever,
and they besought him for her.
And he stood over her, and rebuked the fever,
and it left her, and immediately she arose and ministered unto them.
Now when the sun was setting,
all they that had any sick with diverse diseases brought them unto him,
and he laid his hands on every one of them.
And healed them.
And devils also came out of many,
crying out, and saying, Thou art Christ the Son of God.
And he rebuking them, suffered them not to speak,
for they knew that he was Christ.
And when it was day, he departed, and went into a desert place.
And the people sought him, and came unto him,
and stayed him, that he should not depart from them.
And he said unto them, I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also,
for therefore am I sent.
And he preached in the synagogues of Galilee.
Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you for Luke chapter 4,
and I just pray, Lord, that you fill Pastor Shelley with your spirit,
and help him to preach his sermon.
And Lord, I also pray that you would enable us to pay close attention,
and help us to walk out of the surface this morning as more complete Christians.
And we love you, and pray for protection over this church, Lord.
In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.
Amen.
This morning's sermon is a continuation of a couple sermon series that I had preached,
called Temptations of the Devil.
Temptations of the Devil.
And I had already preached on this passage, and kind of explained it.
So if you want an explanation of this passage,
you can go back to my previous sermon,
where I taught on the temptations of the devil, and I talked about pride.
And there's really kind of three ways that the devil seems to tempt
the Lord Jesus Christ here in Luke chapter number 4.
He tempts him here at the very beginning with bread, and with food, and provision.
And then he also tempts him with pride, kind of at the end,
talking about him jumping off of this tower.
But the part that I want to focus on this morning is that he tempts him with power.
He tempts him with power.
And look what it says in verse number 5 again.
And the devil, taking him up into a high mountain,
showed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee,
and the glory of them, for that is delivered unto me,
and to whomsoever I will, I give it.
If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.
And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan,
for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God,
and him only shalt thou serve.
So here in the Bible, we have the devil tempting the Lord Jesus Christ,
and I believe that this is a miracle in a sense,
where the devil is somehow showing the Lord Jesus Christ
all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
I don't know what that means exactly.
I don't know if this is like a vision, or in some case,
he just kind of transports the Lord Jesus Christ on a physical journey,
where he kind of just takes him to look at all the different locations.
I mean, the Bible tells us in the next passage
that he took him to the pinnacle of a temple,
so clearly the devil has the ability to transport himself,
maybe in a speedily manner.
Think about this.
They were in the wilderness just by themselves,
and that's where he's being tempted,
and then just all of a sudden they're on a pinnacle of a temple.
That almost makes it appear as if the devil himself
is able to travel great distances at a very quick pace,
or do some kind of a miracle here to us.
Not necessarily to him, but he has some kind of an ability
that we don't have, right, where he can transport himself.
You know, the Bible talks about him going to heaven.
The Bible talks about him walking to and fro in the earth.
So, the devil definitely has an ability
to travel great distances very quickly.
Additionally, the Bible, whenever God is talking with the devil,
he brings up his servant Job, and he's like,
have you considered Job?
And the devil's not, like, ignorant of who Job is.
So, the devil has a lot of knowledge.
The devil has a lot of awareness.
The devil is able to transport himself to very great distances
in a very quick amount of time.
Now, I don't know exactly what that means.
I'm just telling you, you know, to travel wherever God is,
down to the earth, has got to be an incredible journey,
and the devil's making this journey on a regular basis,
according to scripture.
So, we can tell that the devil himself has a lot of power.
But here's the thing.
The power that the devil has and the power that's been granted
unto the devil is not the same as the power of God.
There is a power that the devil has.
So, of course, the devil wants to lie to the Lord Jesus Christ
and wants to offer him or try to seduce him
with the power that he has.
However, the power that the devil has is only given to him by God anyways.
It would be simply as if the manager tried to sell a company to you.
It's like it's not the manager's company to sell.
It's the CEO.
It's the owner that could sell the property, right?
And so, the devil's trying to sell the Lord Jesus Christ a bill of goods.
He's trying to give him the deed to the company,
the deed or the title to the land.
But the problem is he doesn't actually own it.
He's just simply a manager of what God has given him to manage.
Now, he's obviously a bad manager.
He's a bad steward.
But nevertheless, according to the scripture,
he is the God of this world.
And according to the Bible, the devil has some power.
The reality is, though, that the only power the devil has
has been given him from heaven.
As evidenced by John the Baptist in John chapter number 3,
and Jesus Christ, where they talk about,
hey, all this power is coming from above.
And, you know, Jesus is even telling Pilate,
hey, you couldn't have any power unless it was given thee from above.
So, the only reason the devil even has this power is it's coming from God.
So, to go against God and then think you're going to get the power
that actually ultimately comes from God is counterintuitive.
It actually doesn't make any sense.
Yet, this is what the devil wants to offer you.
This is what the devil wants to give you.
You know, there's a lot of power that people are after in this world.
Most of it comes through the love of money.
They believe that money is going to give them power.
And, of course, money does have a certain power associated with it.
When you have money, when you have riches, you can buy a lot of things.
You know, you could have the power to commit a crime and get off
because you have enough money to pay people off
or hire an expensive attorney or whatever is needed to essentially whisk that away.
You have a problem that you can't fix, you could hire someone to fix it for you.
You want something done at your house and you can't fix it,
you could pay for someone to fix whatever issue is going on at your house.
You don't have the ability to butcher cattle and prepare the meal perfectly.
You can just go to Outback and pay them and they'll serve you some Outback, right?
I mean, money is an answer to a lot of things.
But money can only buy you physical, carnal things.
It doesn't have any power in the spiritual realm.
So, of course, the devil will offer you money.
The devil will offer you promotion.
The devil will offer you positions in government, positions in authority.
And the devil will ultimately offer you this, freedom.
But the problem with all of these offers is you actually don't get any of them
when you go against God and you actually serve the devil.
He might give it to you temporarily, but you'll end up being stripped from that.
You'll lose all of whatever he offered you
and you'll end up having no money, no promotion, no government, and no freedom.
Now, the Lord Jesus Christ, realizing, of course, that this is the devil
and realizing he's not going to bow down to him, he's not going to worship him,
which you have to understand the word worship in the Bible is virtually synonymous
with the phrasing, bow down.
That's what it usually means almost every single time, if not every single time.
So, when he's talking about worshiping the devil,
he's not saying, like, let's have a rock concert.
You know, woo, go devil, or something.
No, no, no.
He's saying he wants him to just literally get down in a particular position
and he wants to prostrate himself and just basically get down
and literally just bow down unto the devil.
That's what the devil is asking for the Lord Jesus Christ to do.
It's a picture of servitude.
It's a picture of humbling yourself, lowering yourself, and worshiping or honoring someone else.
Because think about it.
You're doing a physical act to represent a symbolic act.
Even someone that was of a small stature, if you bow down, you are going to be lower than them.
And the whole point of this is to simply say, hey, I will lower myself before you
so that you're higher than me so as to try and elevate you by lowering myself.
This is the whole essence of humbling, lowering, worshiping.
So, of course, when we worship the Lord Jesus Christ,
what we should be doing is we should be lowering ourselves
and humbling ourselves and trying to elevate him.
That's why I don't like worship songs that are self-centered.
It's really counterintuitive to the whole point of even singing a song to worship the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's when it's all about the self, when it's all about me.
Everything in the song should be the lowering parts of us and the elevating parts of him.
You think about lots of songs that will talk about how we're sinners, how we're guilty,
how we can't save ourselves, and yet the Lord Jesus Christ gives us the victory.
He's the one that washes us in the blood.
Nothing but the blood is a simple tune, but you know why it's so great?
It's because it's not about the person.
It's about the Lord Jesus Christ who's saving us. It's about his blood.
Whereas a lot of Christian churches today and a lot of Christianity,
some of their music and some of their worship songs,
they just really turn me off because it's just so much of an endorsement of the self.
Like, I am great because of him.
It's like, well, are you great anyways?
It's like, I don't even know if you're that great.
It's like, he is great.
Our God is so great, so strong and so mighty.
It's not like I'm strong and I'm mighty.
So we have to be careful, even the things that we're singing,
because we don't want to get it in our mind and our heart that it's about us.
It's not about us. It's about him.
Now, the devil doesn't really ultimately care as much who you serve
as long as it's not God, but of course he wants that worship himself.
So a lot of people in Satanism worship themselves.
But he also desires that same worship.
He wants people to literally bow down and worship him.
And if you think about in the New Testament,
the Bible talks about idols as being representative of devils.
How much false religion is literally just bowing down to a rock?
Of course that is bowing down to a devil,
and probably even in some cases it might be the devil himself.
Not even just his minions, but whoever the devil represents.
Money.
Worshipping money a lot of times is kind of an abstract form of worshipping the devil,
and worshipping the promotion and the titles that he gives.
This is kind of a form of worship.
But according to the Scripture and Jesus Christ, notice,
Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
So the reason I bring those other things up is because it's not like,
okay, so the application is that the devil shows up in my living room,
I don't bow down.
No, no, no. You don't bow down to anything.
That is what Jesus Christ said.
He didn't say just to the devil incarnate.
He's saying, hey, zero.
There is no alternative to bowing down.
It's the Lord and nothing else.
I don't bow.
And this causes a lot of issue for people that are prideful, for the devil and everyone else.
Go to Exodus 34.
Keep your finger in Luke because we might come back to Luke pretty close to now.
But I want to go to Exodus 34.
Let's just look at a couple verses that the Bible brings up about this subject,
and let's get the clear Scripture on how we're supposed to behave ourselves.
But Exodus 34, look at verse 14.
For thou shalt worship no other god.
For the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.
Oh, I don't like the Bible that says God's jealous.
Well, that's because you're an idiot and you don't know what jealous means.
Jealous simply means that God does not want to share his possessions with someone else who's going to trash them.
Now, again, God the Father will share his possessions.
Because you know what? He shares them with the Lord Jesus Christ.
He literally is going to give all of his possessions unto his own son.
But you know what? Jesus Christ isn't going to trash God the Father's possessions.
Okay? I share my children with someone. My wife.
And you know what? It's because she's not going to trash my children.
But you know what? I am jealous for my children. I'm not going to give them to your wife.
But you know what? I'll give them to my wife.
And so it's okay to share things, but if you're really jealous for something, you would never share it or allow someone else to have anything to do with it that's going to trash it, ruin it, or defile it.
And you know what? God is jealous for us, so he's not going to allow us to worship another god and get defiled or trashed by this other false religion.
Oh, that makes God bad. That doesn't make God bad. That makes God good.
Just like no one has respect for a man that shares his wife with other men.
That's disgusting. Any man that would do that, you wouldn't say, oh, that's a good attribute in a person.
That's a pervert, is what that is. And a weak, coward, ball-less freak, okay?
That's another way you could word it. Go to Deuteronomy chapter 6. Go to Deuteronomy chapter 6.
I have no respect for any man that would ever do that, because that is one of the most primal instincts inside of a man, is to not allow his wife to get touched by another man. Period.
You know, that's why it's kind of hard to read Judges 19 about how that loser just like hands over his concubine to those reprobates.
I'm just thinking like, man, you're such a scumbag. You know, you're such a loser to just have let that happen.
You know, I'd rather die trying than to let my wife just go be fed to the wolves.
You know, what a weird story. Don't use that story as ever an example of anything to do.
There's nothing in that story. Like Genesis 19, Judges 19, these are not examples of anything to do at all.
They are just total train wrecks and total just disasters, okay?
So if you want to be a disaster of a person, follow their example.
Deuteronomy 6, look at verse 13.
Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and serve him, and shalt swear by his name.
Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are round about you.
So of course the Lord Jesus Christ, being the word of God, understands the word of God, rebukes the devil in his place, and says, hey, him only shalt thou serve.
I'm only going to serve the Lord God. I'm not going to serve the devil. I'm not going to worship anything else. He's the only one I will bow down to.
And when do we see in Scripture, I'll ask you this question, when do we ever find Jesus Christ bowing down or worshipping anyone at any time in the Scripture?
Never. Now we do have a lot of people worshipping in the New Testament and specifically in the Gospels.
You know what they're all doing? They're worshipping him.
We see tons of people coming and worshipping him and bowing down before him.
We even have certain rulers of the east coming and even bowing to the infant and the baby Lord Jesus Christ.
I mean, just a toddler, they come and they're bowing down and they're giving gifts unto the Lord Jesus Christ.
Why? Because he was king even when he was conceived in his mother's womb.
He was king before he was conceived in his mother's womb. He always was the king.
Now, go back to Luke chapter 10. Go back to Luke and look at chapter 10 for a moment.
So I'm just kind of giving you a little bit of a foundation and we're going to get a little more serious about our sermon here.
In Luke chapter 10 verse 27, the Bible says,
And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself.
Now, this is not the Lord Jesus Christ speaking. If you have a red letter Bible, you'll notice that it's not red letter.
But what does it say in the next verse? And he said to them, Thou hast answered right. This do and thou shalt live.
So we always want to make sure, too, when we base any of our doctrine, that it's on the clear teachings of the Bible.
So when someone else is speaking, we can't necessarily know that it's right.
But you know how you know if something's right? When Jesus Christ says this is right.
Isn't that a pretty clear way to interpret the Bible? I mean, hey, thou hast answered right.
I mean, you want to know if this is right or not? It's right, okay?
And what's right is worshiping God or loving God with all thy strength.
Now, a synonym to power is strength. And I can show you that in the Bible here in a minute.
But if I have power, it should be used to serve the Lord Jesus Christ.
So if I'm worshiping the devil, it doesn't matter what power he's giving me. I'm now not giving that to God.
You know, the commandment clearly in the Scripture is to give all of my strength, all of my might,
everything that I've got, and give it all to God, never to worship or to serve anyone else.
God created me for one purpose, and it's to serve me.
Just like my wife has one husband to serve on this planet, it's me.
You say, what other husbands can she serve? None. Zero.
I don't like it. I don't want it. All of her energy should be to serve me. No other husband, right?
And just in the same way, as an employee, you should serve your boss, you know, wholeheartedly.
You know, as a child, you should serve your parents wholeheartedly.
But all of us need to realize the most important thing is that we all serve God wholeheartedly.
That is the primary instruction that we have in the Scripture, and that we would never worship anyone else.
Now, there's going to be a lot of pressure on you to not do this.
Go, if you would, to Daniel chapter number 3. Go to Daniel chapter number 3.
We're going to see some physical examples of this. I'll give you a Scripture to think about while you're turning there.
The Bible says in Psalm 62, 11,
God hath spoken once, twice have I heard this, that power belongeth unto God.
Power belongeth unto God.
God. So who ultimately has all of the power in the world? It's God.
Don't get confused and think, oh, the Jews have all the power in this world. No, no, no, no, no.
The devil has all the power in this world. Nope. George Soros has all the power in the world. Nope.
Biden certainly doesn't have any power. It's all coming from God. All of it. Every ounce of it.
Power belongs to God. So what does that mean?
It means all strength, all of the might that exists in the whole world is coming from God.
The strength of the sun belongs to God.
The strength of the gravitational forces that exist in our solar system belong to God.
Everything, the bacteria in this planet belong to God. The locusts in hell belong to God.
Everything is subject to Him. The rocks, the inanimate objects of this world belong to God,
and God could command them to start singing and they would sing.
God can cause whatever He wants to happen to happen whenever, however, exactly as He likes it.
So it's silly to then try to transfer any power to anybody else because nobody else has it except for what God gives them.
God could take my breath like that, and He could take the breath of any person like that,
and all of their power would cease to exist immediately. He would just return all the power back to Himself.
He is the ultimate creditor when it comes to power. He lends it to us, expecting us to use that properly.
And, of course, we, as stewards of God, stewards of the things He's lended to us that He's allowing us to borrow and to use,
we should be a good steward of that gift that He's given us.
God gave me legs to stand on, so I should use that power to stand when the devil is telling me to kneel.
The old adage, stand for the flag, kneel for the cross.
Why? Because I'm not going to kneel for the flag. I'll tell you what.
I'll tell you what. I'm not going to bow down to America. I'm not going to bow down to Babylon.
But you know what? I'll bow down to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And whether you like this or not, you'll bow down to the Lord Jesus Christ one day anyways.
Now, Daniel chapter 3 is an important story about this.
Verse 1, Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold whose height was three score cubits.
So this is very tall. Score in the Bible means 20. So it's saying it's 60 cubits tall.
A cubit is approximately 18 inches. Okay, so this is like 90 feet tall approximately.
And that's pretty giant. That's like a nine-story building approximately.
If you could think of that in your mind, it would be giant.
Obviously, think about this. They built a 90-foot, a nine-story tall graven image without cranes.
I mean, they didn't have all of the machinery and equipment that we have today.
But for them to be able to build this shows they had some technology that we don't really know about.
They were a little bit smarter than your average bear.
So don't get this idea that everybody was cavemen before 2022.
In fact, most of us are devolving. We're not actually getting smarter as a general populace.
There are exceptions to the rule. There are still smart people that exist on this planet.
But by and large, the general populace is very uneducated and very dumbed down in comparison to what education levels have been like in the past.
Now, it says in this passage that they made this six-cubic statue.
He set it up in the Plate of Dura in the province of Babylon.
Then Nebuchadnezzar the king sent to gather together the princes.
Now, you know, another thing that's interesting is that he didn't set it up in the main part of the city.
It's like out in the wilderness somewhere. It's out in the grove or something.
It's like out hidden or whatever.
And that's what a lot of these people do is they go and worship weird images out in the middle of nowhere.
There's this place in California called Bohemian Grove. Who's heard of this place?
Okay, everybody. Alright, I'm educating the choir this morning.
But, you know, they're worshiping like a golden, or not a golden, like a big giant owl image or something.
Now, I don't even think that thing's 90 feet tall.
But, of course, they're prostrating themselves.
They're bowing down to this stupid graven image out in the middle of the wilderness.
And you know who goes there? All of the princes and all the governors and all the leaders and all the future presidents.
And just everybody goes out there and has a bunch of disgusting perverted sin.
I'm not even going to go into the detail of that. It's gross.
But, it says in verse 2,
Then Nebuchadnezzar the king sent to gather together the princes, the governors, and the captains, the judges, the treasurers,
the counselors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image,
which Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.
Now, I want to point this out.
If Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are dragged out here to do this,
that means that sometimes even good people get mixed up in this junk.
Maybe through coercion, or through threat, or the drug out there they don't know.
So, you can't think that just because every single person in our politics is seemingly bad that they all are.
Sometimes there's still people like a Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego snuck in there.
Also, additionally to this, sometimes we have the tendency to think that everybody that goes to one of these events
is just like a reprobate or something.
But we can't necessarily say that. Sometimes they'll do by association, right?
And there's this thing online where basically they'll just show a picture of someone standing next to Jeffrey Epstein.
And it's like an automatic reprobate bad person card.
But what if I played the same game, right?
What if I tried to find pictures of anybody in this room that stood next to Donny Romero, Tyler Baker, Adam Fan...
How about got baptized by Adam Fanon?
Or baptized by Donny Romero?
Or sat in a car next to anybody that was a bad person at any time?
Does that automatically make you a horrible bad person?
No.
Now, of course, if you're standing next to Jeffrey Epstein and a hooker on his island, that's a different picture.
But I'm saying if you're just at a gala event that everyone's at and you just took a picture near the person,
we can't just blame him as just being this horrible evil person just because he happened to be in a weird photo op.
So we want to be careful how we delineate these situations.
But if you find yourself near a giant owl statue in the middle of the forest and they're telling you to worship,
we need to learn what we're supposed to do here. Look at verse 3.
Then the princes and the governors and captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counselors, the sheriffs,
and all the rulers of the provinces were gathered together in the Freemasons Lodge.
I'm sorry.
That was the wrong person. That was just me thinking out loud.
Gathered together under the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up,
and they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up.
Oh, yeah, by the way, all the governors and judges and all the people in our nation pretty much are all members of these weird,
satanic cults like the Freemasons, okay? FYI.
So they gather everybody together.
What's the whole point? They have to worship this thing.
Look at verse 4.
Then the herald cried aloud,
to you it is commanded, O people, nations, and languages,
that at what time you hear the sound of the cornet, flutes, heart, sack, butt, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of music,
ye fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.
So notice the synonym here, or the comparison of falling down and worshiping.
Because that's what they really want, is you to fall down and to worship this image,
and of course it's through the advent of music,
which the devil is a musical being, and of course he likes to influence people through music,
and music is probably one of the greatest influencers in the world today.
This is why it's so important not to listen to satanic music,
and to listen to the filth of this world,
because it will have an impact on your life, whether you like it or not.
Of course they want you to fall down and worship at the rock concert.
And if you don't, you're burnt in the fiery furnace.
That's what it says in verse 6.
But skip down, let's get a little bit further into this, verse 12.
There are certain Jews whom thou hast set over the affairs of the province of Babylon,
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, these men, O king, have not regarded thee.
They served not thy gods, nor worshiped the golden image which thou set up.
So they're saying, hey, there's three guys that didn't do this.
Everybody did it, but three guys.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
And notice they're saying they're not worshiping this graven image.
Similar to how the Lord Jesus Christ refuses to worship the devil in the wilderness, right?
Hey, I'm not going to worship this, the devil.
But the reason why I bring up this story is because some people will say,
oh, of course, if the devil shows up, then I wouldn't worship him.
Here's another example of you not bowing down and worshiping something
when someone says, hey, bow down to Islam.
No!
When someone says bow down to Hinduism, no!
When someone says bow down to Judaism, no!
Why would I ever?
Oh, you're one of those Judeo-Christians.
No, I'm 0% Judeo and 100% Christian.
I don't bow down to some Jewish god in their context.
Obviously, we understand that the Lord Jesus Christ is the king of Judah.
But you know what? I don't partake in the fake religion of Judaism.
And I will not worship it. I will not bow down to it.
You know what I won't do?
I won't put a flag of Israel in my church to have you literally worship and honor and look at and praise.
There are even Christian churches in this area, like Gateway, which is the broad way to hell, FYI.
Gateway with Robert Morris, they have a messianic service where you can go and worship Israel together.
You can go put on the silly hat and blow the shofar and get the prayer shawl and do whatever weird satanic practices you want to do with them.
But you know, I don't worship the star of Rembrandt.
And show me that flag in the Bible.
The only time they're like championing around a weird flag, it's like a flag of a false god that God constantly brings up.
Because show me in the Bible where it says, hey, get a flag and run around with a flag.
Worship a flag. Where does it say that?
Oh, you're so unpatriotic. No, I'm biblical. That's what I am.
Well, but you don't understand. We made a bunch of imaginary lines and we called the United States and we have a flag. You need to worship it now.
Worship. No.
We need to pledge allegiance to the flag.
Why?
Has anybody ever asked that question? Why would I pledge allegiance to a flag?
What did the flag do for me?
It's getting real quiet in here.
Oh, you hate the military. You hate America.
No, no. I'm not saying this because I live in America.
I'm saying what country am I supposed to go to and worship their flag?
It makes no sense.
Just like if I came and I said, you know what, we redistrict this area and now Tarrant County is in your area.
You all live in Tarrant County now. Congratulations.
And we made a little flag. The Tarrant County flag.
We all require you to now pledge allegiance to the Tarrant County flag.
I'd be like, no.
But then why is it cool when it's the American flag?
Or the Texas flag?
Which, you know, the Texas flag is the only state that can fly as high as the American flag.
Which, you know, it should fly higher because it's better than America.
Okay.
But, you know, and look, I'm not down on saying, like, you should love your country.
I'm not down on loving the area that I live in.
I love Texas. I mean, have you met me?
I love Texas. Okay.
I want to make Texas more Texas.
But you know what's not making Texas, Texas? A flag.
You know what's not making America, America? A flag.
And honestly, what's sick and stupid about it is the symbol of the flag is literally not even being honored in our country anymore anyways.
It's like we have these great symbols of a constitution and the flag and all this stuff, but people don't even really honor that anymore.
And then you have losers in, you know, the NFL that say, I won't, I won't, you know, pledge allegiance to the flag, I'll kneel during it.
And I'm thinking, like, I'm not going to kneel either.
Like, why would I kneel?
Instead, you know, I could just, like, refuse to pledge, right?
But I don't have to, I don't, they're just dumb on every level, okay?
So, you know, some people get offended by me, you know, when I'll be in a room and they're, like, asking everybody to pledge allegiance to this flag that I just don't do it.
You know, I love America and I want America to be the godliest nation it can be and I want them to all be saved and I want our country to have the blessings of the Lord.
I truly do. But you know what, it has nothing to do with a stupid flag.
It has nothing to do with me bowing down and worshiping it.
And here's the thing, my allegiance ultimately is not to the flag anyways.
You know what, you could tear it down and put up a new flag tomorrow and it wouldn't even change anything about how I feel.
Now, of course, what that flag or what that symbol represents might be objectionable to me, right?
If you tear it down and put up a rainbow flag, I would obviously hate that.
But what if they tore it down and put up a cross? Hey, that's even better.
You know, they're like, oh, Christian nationalism. Praise God, let's go for it, you know.
I'm all on board. Let's tear down the American flag and let's put up a Christian flag. I'll do it.
But you know what, I'm not going to pledge allegiance to just a country or a state or a nation because it's stupid.
You know what will not fix this country? Patriotism.
They'll say, like, oh, they're trying to depatrionize everybody in America.
Well, the problem is that our unity was about patriotism and not the Lord Jesus Christ.
Because if our unity was about the Lord Jesus Christ, you know what we would not let in? Satanism.
Whereas patriotism let in Satanism. Patriotism lets in the drag queens.
Patriotism, I mean, we have tranny service members and tranny people in our military and tranny people that say, I pledge allegiance to the flag.
But you know what they don't pledge allegiance to? The King James Bible.
Let's put a King James, let's put Leviticus 2013 on a flag and raise that up.
Ah, that's mean. That's Bible. Okay, you know the Bible says to decorate with the word of God.
Sorry to offend you this morning, but let me tell you something, I'm not sorry, okay?
Because I don't care about your stupid flag. Quit showing it to me.
Quit pretending, quit wrapping yourself in a flag and start wrapping yourself in the Lord Jesus Christ.
You know, and I don't care what they tell me to what song or whatever, you know, I will not kneel for the flag, all right?
I'm going to stand for the flag, okay?
Look at verse number 13.
Then Nebuchadnezzar in his rage and fury. Oh, how are you not American?
Pushing up that flag.
Commanded to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
Then they brought these men before the king.
Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
do not ye serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up?
Now, if ye be ready that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackpot, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of music,
ye fall down and worship the image which I have made well.
But if ye worship not, ye should be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.
And who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?
Now think about what Nebuchadnezzar is saying.
Who shall deliver you out of my hands? My what? Power.
Out of my might. Out of my strength.
Who's stronger than me? Who has more power than me?
God. Sorry, buddy.
There is a God that has more power than you.
And he's trying to say, Oh, maybe you didn't hear right.
I'll give you a second chance.
You know, this is like the devil's attempt at claiming that he's merciful.
You know, or the sodomites, or the reprobates, or the evil people in our country.
They'll talk about how merciful they are.
It's like, Oh, you didn't pay your taxes that are oppressing you?
Well, we'll give you an extension. Aren't we so merciful?
It's like, no.
It's like, we'll give you a second chance to pay us all that money and oppress you with it, okay?
It's like, I don't care that you're giving me a second chance.
I'm still not going to do it.
You're still not being merciful.
It's kind of like that fake landlord that I had.
I call him fake because he's just like a piece of crap.
But one of our previous landlords came to me in his office,
and he's trying to threaten me and trying to throw us out of our building.
And he's like, I'm just coming here just offering you this option.
I'm just trying to be helpful and just offering this great thing of you.
And I said, you're not offering me anything.
You said get out or I'll sue you.
I was like, how is that being merciful?
Hey, get out and I'll sue you and take all your money and throw you out or just leave.
It's like, those are good options.
You're so merciful.
Thank you so much, buddy.
You're such a great guy, such a great pal.
You know, it's like, oh, thanks for giving me this second opportunity.
Because you know what would probably happen?
Let me explain something to you.
You know what would have happened?
They would have bowed down and worshiped, and then Nebuchadnezzar would have said,
all right, now throw them in the fire because you never disobey me.
And they would have compromised and then lost.
This is what happens in the leftist media all the time.
They say, hey, did you say the wrong thing about the LGBT or the Jews or whatever?
And they're like, I'm so sorry.
And they're like, canceled anyways.
But they weren't like, hey, we're going to give you another chance here to get canceled for sure
and for us to mock you and ridicule you for all time, and you took it back.
Don't take it back.
Never take it back.
You know, get up behind the pulpit and say, hey, why we won't shut up.
Preach that sermon.
It's like, you find these articles, it's like, Texas pastor doubles down.
Well, you better make a deal with triples down, quadruples down.
He's not careful to answer us.
You know, I like it funny when they're like, they weren't available for a comment.
It's usually because they didn't even ask me.
I'll give you a comment, okay?
I'll give you a live interview.
I'll tell you everything I believe.
Hey, I'll put it on the website.
It's like, oh, man, you know, they're a cult.
How am I a cult when I tell you everything I believe?
Well, they're a cult.
Every sermon broadcasted publicly.
Well, I can't find them.
That's because you censored them.
I didn't censor them.
Who's the cult now, buddy?
You're afraid of what I have to say?
Oh, words are hurting you.
You're such a, I mean, you're such an effeminate loser
if you can't handle words that no one even asked you to listen to.
Think about that.
I'm not even doing a megaphone in their ear.
I can handle a megaphone of things that I don't want to hear.
You can't even handle me just talking online when you don't even have to listen.
But you know why they're so mad?
Because they have to listen.
They're addicted.
Just like a drug addict.
All the people that hate our church are so addicted
they could never stop listening to us.
They're like that alcoholic that's like, I could quit anytime.
What steadfast reason?
Does anybody know where Pastor Joe's last sermon was?
It's like, they can't stop listening.
They're drug addicted, folks.
And let me tell you something.
They're listening right now.
Before the end of this sermon, they'll have a clip out on Twitter.
Oh, man, did you see he still hates us?
Shocker.
Oh, he still thinks we're predators and pedophiles.
He's the pedophile.
He's the hobo.
You know, it's so funny that 90% of the accusations against me are that I'm a hobo.
And I'm thinking like, is that an insult?
Why is that such a bad thing, according to you?
I mean, again, I never accused them of being fundamental Baptists.
You secreted new eye of beer.
Now, of course, they watch all of our sermons, but they're a hater.
Don't compromise.
Don't back down.
They'll throw you in the fire anyways.
Here's the thing you have to understand.
You're going in the fire whether you like it or not.
So the question is, when you get thrown in the fire,
do you want to go thrown in the fire as a compromiser,
or do you want to go hoping that God might rescue you?
I know which one I want, and I feel less confident that God's going to rescue me
after I just bow down and worship this graven image.
Okay?
It's like, hey, if our church goes down in flames,
I'd rather go down in flames knowing, knowing that I never compromised.
Because either way I'm going in the fire, I just want Jesus to be there with me.
Now, look how they respond to this.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said, oh, Nebuchadnezzar,
we're not careful to answer the endless matter.
Hey, I'm not worried.
What does it be careful?
Worried, timid, shy.
They're also not even mumbling.
I'm not going to do it.
No.
They're like just, hey, hey, Nebuchadnezzar, I'm not careful to answer you.
Hey, I'm not going to bow down, buddy.
Verse 17.
If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning,
fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.
Hey, I know someone that can deliver us, God.
And you know what?
He's going to do it.
Uh-oh.
He's calling the bluff.
When you call the guy's bluff, though, be sure you're definitely going into the fire.
Okay?
I just want you to realize that this is going to happen now.
All right.
So, of course, that's what they do.
They burn it seven times hotter.
Verse 20.
To command the most mighty men that were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
to cast them into the burning, fiery furnace.
So they're arrested, put in prison.
Now they're going to be thrown in the fire, executed.
Then these men were bound in their coats, their hosen.
That's their pants, folks.
Yeah, men wear pants.
And their hats and their other garments and were cast into the midst of the burning, fiery furnace.
You know, even back then they weren't wearing these homo robes that they always show you pictures of.
You know how you look like every Bible cartoon, they're never wearing pants.
And I'm thinking like, what Bible are you reading?
Why are you so weird and perverted to put every dude in a dress?
It's like they're wearing hosen, folks.
They're wearing pants.
Okay?
Pants weren't invented in the 1600s or 1700s.
They existed always.
Verse 22.
Therefore, because the king's command was urgent and the furnace exceeding hot,
the flame of the fire slew those men that took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
Oh, I'm just doing, I'm just following orders to your death.
Hey, you better be careful when you're following Satan's orders no matter who's coming from.
Oh, I'm just the officer, I'm just the policeman, I'm just the judge, I'm just the secretary.
Whatever.
Hey, you might die.
Don't be a partaker of their evil deeds.
If a ruler harken to lies, all his servants are wicked.
And you know what?
God doesn't have any mercy on these people.
And nor does Nebuchadnezzar even care.
You know, these people will put their minions out to die.
They don't even care about them.
And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down in the midst of the burning fiery furnace.
Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counselors,
Did not we cast three men bound in the midst of the fire?
They answered and said unto the king, True, O king.
He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt.
And the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.
That's a King James Bible verse right there.
Like the Son of God, not a son of the gods, you NIV pervert.
Hey, it's the Son of God.
Even Nebuchadnezzar, who I believe is an unsaid reprobate, could recognize the Son of God.
Hey, even the devils knew who the Son of God was.
And they have no hurt.
Man, you know, it would be the coolest thing ever to be Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
Hey, remember when I was thrown in the fire and nothing bad happened to me?
People would be afraid of you.
They would be terrified of you.
They would have so much respect forever.
But you know what? You have to get there by going into the fire furnace.
No one will have this mad respect for you for going to Gateway Light Baptist Church
and never having gone through any persecution or trial or tribulation and be like, I go to Gateway Light.
They give me a back massage while I listen to the sermon.
People are going to have mad respect for the church that's surrounded by enemies
and get pulled out of the fire with no hurt.
So you say, I don't know if I want to go to Step Past Baptist Church.
Well, in hindsight, wouldn't you have said, hey, I want to go in the fire with them
because there's not going to be any hurt to me.
But why is it that you're afraid to actually stand with the men of God in the Bible?
It's because you think that you're going to get burned in the fire.
But if you just purpose in your heart, I'd rather burn in the fire.
I'd rather just die burning alive, having not worshipped the devil than the other.
Usually you get rescued anyways.
Usually you have the deliverance.
You know, the devil's going to tempt you with power.
The devil's going to tempt you with all kinds of things.
But you know what? You just say no.
And of course, these men were already men of great power.
They're already of the chief princes.
Notice who came to the meeting.
It was all the people in power.
And it's like, hey, you want to keep that power, buddy?
Bow down.
And it's like, no.
And you know what?
Our country would be better off if our governors and our leaders and our legislators
and our Senate representatives and our House representatives
would say, I'm done bowing down to the Republican Party.
I'm going to worship God.
And you know what? I'm going to say what's right from now on.
I don't care what happens to me.
I don't care what fiery furnace you want to throw me in.
You know what? I'm done bowing down to this political office.
I'm done bowing down to the establishment.
I'm done bowing down to Biden and his regime.
I'm done bowing down to Jews.
Whoo!
You know, it's like, GAB is known as being this anti-Semitic platform.
Any time one of these politicians gets known for being on GAB,
they'll run away screaming.
Well, I'm not anti-Semitic.
I want to make it clear.
I know.
It's like, of course, no one is anti-Semitic,
but why don't you then say, but I hate the religion of Judaism?
You're like, I love Jews.
You know, Jews are great. Jews are wonderful.
It's because they're afraid of burning.
But let me tell you something.
Those compromises are going to get burned anyways.
They're going to get burned by those Jews that hate them.
You don't back down.
Even Kanye, I heard, like, apologized partly or something,
which is like an anti-Christ anyways.
But I'm just saying, like, of course the little, you know, compromiser,
he says he's going to go DEFCON 3 on Jews or something like that, I think.
But then they all came after him, like, hard.
Like, super hard.
And then he went on some, like, Pierce Morgan interview or something like that
and, like, apologized in part or something.
I don't even know.
But why don't you just stick to your guns?
Because, you know, if you get three people to stand up and they don't get burned,
more people will stand up.
But it just takes a few to stand up and not get burned
for everybody else to have the courage to stand up with them.
And, you know, we shouldn't bow down to the devil.
Go to Isaiah 14.
For the sake of time, I'm not going to expound on this part of my sermon too much
because I want to get to some other things.
But, you know, Nebuchadnezzar is an unsaved reprobate who still went to hell.
Even though he could recognize who the Lord was.
And I say that with confidence just because of Isaiah is really, really clear on this passage.
But, you know, if I bow down to these compromisers, I'm going to basically end in some horrible fate
and they're going to hell.
Why would I care what they think?
Why do I care what Nebuchadnezzar, what his opinion is of me?
Because eventually when we get into the scope of eternity, nobody will even care about his opinion.
Look at verse 4.
Thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon.
So, who's this about?
The king of Babylon.
And let me explain to you who the king of Babylon is.
Nebuchadnezzar.
Now, Isaiah, you have to understand about Nebuchadnezzar.
It's written way before Nebuchadnezzar ever comes into power.
Okay?
It's a future prophecy of what's going to happen.
There is a king of Babylon at this time.
It's like Meryl Baladac or whatever.
He's like the king of Babylon at this time.
But that's not the king that it's talking about.
It's talking about the one that took captive the children of Israel as expressed in chapter 13.
Chapter 13 is about how the Babylon that took them captive is going to be destroyed by the Medes.
And then it's saying after they're destroyed, you're going to take up this proverb about the people that took you in captivity.
Who took the children of Israel in captivity?
Nebuchadnezzar.
It's unequivocal.
It's very clear.
So, we're talking about him.
Look at verse 9.
Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming.
Now, if I were to try to find a verse that could prove that someone's going to hell, it's this verse.
It says that hell is going to meet you at your coming.
It stirs up the dead for thee.
It says, even all the cheap ones of the earth hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.
Sounds like a lot of kings are going to hell.
FYI.
All they shall speak and say unto thee, art thou also become weak as we?
Art thou become like unto us?
Notice, they became what?
Weak.
Why?
Because all the power that they once had has been taken back from them to God.
God took it from them and now they're weak.
They're burning in hell where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched.
And they're described as a worm.
Some weirdos think that you're being eaten by worms or something in hell.
I don't know if God added that as a punishment, but that's what the Bible means in that passage.
The Bible is saying that you are the worm if you're in hell.
What's a worm?
It's despised.
It's something in the earth.
Think about a worm.
It's in the earth.
It's gross.
Nobody likes it.
It's meaningless.
It's worthless.
It's hard to even, does it even have an existence?
Who cares?
That's what it's like for people in hell.
But it's saying their worm, meaning who they are as a person, it'll never burn up.
Ever.
Nebuchadnezzar is burning in hell right now.
And 10,000 years from now, he'll still be burning in hell.
And in a million years from now, he'll still be burning in hell.
And then in infinity after that, to infinity and beyond, Buzz Lightyear and him are still burning in hell.
Okay?
I mean, there's just no redeeming of these people.
You say, how do you know Buzz Lightyear is going to hell?
Isn't he like a homo or something in the newest film?
We all know where homos go.
Hell.
Now, go if you would back to Daniel chapter number 4.
I just wanted to prove that for a second because then people get confused about Daniel chapter 4.
They'll say like, oh, this is when Nebuchadnezzar got saved.
But here's the thing.
Nebuchadnezzar becomes a physical reprobate in the Bible to illustrate the spiritual reprobateness of his condition.
Now, he does get restored in his mind to some degree and he ends up worshipping the Lord at the end of the latter portion of this passage.
But, you know, that does not change the fact to me that he's a reprobate or that he's unsaved.
Just like so many people in the Bible have the same fate.
Proverbs chapter 1 verse 28 talks about a group of people that will call upon the Lord eventually and then they're not heard because it was too late.
Judas Iscariot said that he betrayed innocent blood and then went and hanged himself, still burning in hell.
Did he recognize who the Lord was?
I mean, to say that Jesus was innocent is to say that he's the Lord Jesus Christ.
And think about this.
For Judas to have said that Jesus is innocent is to exonerate every claim that Jesus said about himself.
Because Jesus claimed to be the Son of God.
Jesus claimed to be equal with God.
Jesus claimed to have been given the power to forgive sin on earth.
So for Judas Iscariot to say that Jesus was innocent, because all that would be blasphemy if he wasn't the Lord Jesus Christ, if he wasn't God manifest in the flesh, is for him to acknowledge all of that was true.
So, it's not like Judas Iscariot, think about what Judas Iscariot is saying by saying he betrayed innocent blood.
This is what Judas Iscariot is saying.
Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
Jesus Christ is God in the flesh.
He's equal with God.
He has the power to forgive sin.
All of those statements can be attached to Judas Iscariot.
All of them.
So then why would I sit here and think, oh, but now he's saved because he can acknowledge the truth.
Look, it's not that the reprobates can't acknowledge truth, it's that they hate the truth and they resist the truth.
But they hold the truth in unrighteousness.
You can hold truth and still be an unrighteous person.
As evidenced by the fact in Daniel chapter number 3, Nebuchadnezzar realized who God was very evidently
and he made a proclamation that Noah could say anything amidst the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in chapter number 3.
But then in chapter number 4, look what it says in verse 8.
But at the last, Daniel came in before me, whose name was Belteshazzar, according to the name of my God.
Did Nebuchadnezzar change religion in chapter number 4?
Oh, but in chapter number 3, he proclaimed who God was.
That didn't make him saved.
It didn't even mean he changed religions.
It just said this guy is powerful.
That's all he recognizes is the power of God.
Recognizing the power of God doesn't make you saved.
Acknowledging that God exists does not make you saved.
Fearing God doesn't make you saved.
Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ is what makes you saved.
And let me tell you something, Nebuchadnezzar didn't believe in chapter number 4.
He told me the evidence of that.
And even in this passage, he says, In whom is the spirit of the holy gods?
He didn't even understand Daniel's religion still.
He's saying that he has holy gods inside him?
If he knew Daniel's religion, he wouldn't even say that.
It just evidences the fact that this guy is still not 2 Corinthians.
When someone says 2 Corinthians, you know that they don't understand anything in the Bible.
Here's another wink, wink, nod, nod.
You have the spirit of the holy gods inside of you.
You don't know anything about Christianity.
Okay?
So why would I think in Daniel chapter number 3, when he acknowledged who God was,
and he's clearly not saved later in the passage in chapter 4,
that he gets saved when he acknowledges him in chapter number 4?
No.
What happens is clearly he became a reprobate.
And it makes some good statements here.
Verse 25, though, it says that they shall drive thee from men,
and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field,
and they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen,
and they shall wet thee with the dew of heaven,
and seven times shall pass over thee, till thou know that the most high rule is in the kingdom of men,
and giveth it to whosoever he will.
So what was the whole point of chapter 4?
Just to even take the most prideful person on the planet and let them realize,
hey, God's in charge.
Hey, you know the reason why you're in charge?
Because God allowed you to be in charge.
Don't get a haughty attitude.
It's God that gives you the power to get wealth, as the Bible says.
But we're supposed to be humble and realize that it's God that gives us that power,
and gives us that strength, and gives us that might,
and not try to take it upon ourselves.
Now go to Luke chapter 10, and I'm going to finish with a few verses here in a row.
What's the point of the sermon?
The point of the sermon is to realize that the devil is going to tempt you with power.
Money, promotion, government, freedom.
But he won't give you any of that.
And you'll end up losing all of it. You'll be thrown in the fire.
If you actually want these things, you should really serve God.
Because he gives you the power to get wealth.
And I'm not going to that verse, but I'm going to give you some examples of the things that God will give you.
One of them is the power to get wealth.
So if you actually want to be prosperous financially, it comes through serving God.
Now that might be really counterintuitive because you think,
well, I'm not spending time at work right now, and people may associate me with your church,
and I have to tithe. None of that's going to make me have money.
But you know what? I know lots of people that are doing well financially, and they're doing all of those things.
Coming to my church, tithing, and associating with us.
But you know what? It's because God is the one that gives you the power to get wealth.
To make wealth.
Now, here's another one. Luke 10, verse 18.
And he said to them, I beheld Satan as light and falling from heaven.
Behold, I give you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
Here's some cool power. We can tread on the serpent.
And you know what that serpent is? It's the devil.
I get to dance on top of the devil's head through the power of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I get up here, and I get to preach the Bible, and make it clear all the serpents and minions of the devil are nothing to me.
I will not bow down to them. I will constantly tread on them with the word of God.
And I'm not afraid of them. I'm not afraid of you.
You know what? Why? Because I've been given power by God to tread on them.
And you know what? He's not just talking about literal snakes and literal scorpions here.
He's talking about the wicked freaks of this world.
How I get to sit here and trample on them with the Bible.
And you know what? They're so...
I can't think of words that are appropriate this morning, but...
They're so hurt inside. They're just so distraught that we get to just constantly keep doing our thing.
It just irks them that I get to just live as a person.
That we have church service just bothers them so much inside, but we just keep trampling on them.
And you know what? That comes through worshiping God.
If we came here this morning, though, and we were not here to serve God,
we're here to serve ourselves. If we were prideful, if we were arrogant,
if we were here to have a self-glorification service,
or to worship another God, or to use a different Bible.
You know, we don't have any guarantee that God is going to give us that power over that serpent.
You might actually get bit. You might actually get stung by that scorpion.
Go to John chapter number one. John chapter number one.
So it's God that gives us that power.
So we have to constantly make sure that we're worshiping God, otherwise all this power is going to be stripped from us.
The power to get wealth, the power to tread on the enemy.
Here's a great power, John 1-12.
But as many as received him, to them gave you power to become the sons of God, even to believe on his name.
You know what? You believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you become a child of God.
You have the power to become a son of God.
What an amazing power.
You know how you'll never get that power? Through any means of the devil.
Through any means of this world.
Go to Romans chapter one. Go to Romans chapter number one.
So we're seeing the counter act to this.
You know, when you start worshiping God, he gives you tons of power.
It's silly to worship the devil because he won't give you that power that you thought you were going to get.
And then when you actually worship God, he gives you all the power you could ever want.
How can you have more power than being made like unto the Lord Jesus Christ and being a son of God, too?
And getting to rule and inherit with him on over all the...
I mean, you realize, coming shortly, coming soon, new heaven and new earth,
and those who are the most faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ are going to rule and reign the entire earth with him.
Talk about a great privilege. Talk about real power.
You know, if the devil grabbed me and was like,
Hey, I'm going to show you all the Kings in this world, San Francisco, New York, you know, Detroit.
No, I'm just kidding. I'm like, you can have it.
It's like, I'm like, Tel Aviv. Oh, Baghdad.
You know, it's like, what? I don't even want these places.
You can have them, buddy. Go for it. Rome.
All these places are gross now. They've been... they're so defiled.
You know, I'll take... I'll take the Texas cities that are going to be the new heaven and new earth, OK?
I don't know what they are, but they're going to be there, all right?
I'll take whatever city God will give me in the new heaven and earth over any city here. Dubai.
I don't care what your city looks like. It's gross in comparison.
Romans 1, verse 16. Here's some power.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God and of salvation to everyone that believeth the Jude first and also the Greek.
You know, go to 1 Corinthians, chapter 1. 1 Corinthians, chapter 1.
You know, the real power of God is the gospel.
You say, Hey, I'm not going to... I'm not going to have any power if I don't worship the devil in this world, Pastor Shelley.
If I don't bow down to the Sodomite flag, how am I going to have any power in this world?
Well, number one, God gives you the power to get wealth. Check.
God is the one that's going to give you the power to be saved from all those people, to tread on them.
Number three, he's going to give you the power to get saved, if you're not already.
Obviously you are, so you already got that power. Didn't you notice how great that power was? That was a great power.
Because you know when you get saved, you actually understand the Bible.
Have you ever noticed how people aren't saved? They can't even understand anything in this book.
They have no power. They have no strength to understand it. They're foolish.
You know, just getting saved is such a privilege.
Not only that, though, you have the power to get other people saved.
You know, all the real power that matters comes from God in this world.
And you have so much power if you won't bow down to the devil and you'll actually worship God.
You'll actually serve God.
You know, Matthew 28, Jesus Christ told us that all power was given him in heaven and earth.
And you know what we're supposed to do? Teach all nations.
He didn't say, hey, I've gotten all the power, but make sure to give the devil his, you know, do as well.
Make sure to bow down every once in a while to the weird flag.
No, 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 18.
For the preaching of the cross is of them that perish foolishness, but in us which are saved it is the power of God.
You know what? We have power in our hands today.
And you know what? There's going to be a lot of soul winners in this room that go out this afternoon.
And we're going to show the power of God because we will not worship the devil.
We will not bow down.
Hey, in fact, you know what we're going to do?
We're going to tread on the enemy by handing out sodomite deceptions this afternoon.
And we're going to just be like, hey, here's the real power.
I have the freedom, I have the real power to believe what the Bible says.
You know what? I feel so privileged that I get to live on this planet and the state that it's in right now,
and I can believe everything that I want to believe.
Not only can I believe it, I can say it.
Not only can I say it, I can sing it.
Psalm 139.
Not only can I sing it, I can put it on a DVD.
Not only can I put it on a DVD, I can hand it out to people for free.
I can just go out.
I mean, talk about how much power God has given us today.
Not only that, I have the power to open up my Bible and take someone who was a Catholic their whole life and make them a Christian in 15 minutes.
I can take an atheist and make him a Christian in 15 minutes.
I can take all kinds of dumb, stupid philosophies, worldly philosophies.
I can take a Church of Christ and make him a Christian in 15 minutes.
That is some power, folks.
That's the real power that you should be after.
And you say, how do I get that power?
Serving God.
Stop bowing down to the devil.
Stop worshipping the devil.
The Bible says, and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
If you want to have real freedom in your life, it only comes from God.
And we need to make sure that that's the one that we're worshipping and serving.
Let's close in prayer.
Thank you, Heavenly Father, for giving us this opportunity to be meeting together and to believe the Bible.
Thank you for not only giving us just the opportunity to be saved, but also to have power to get wealth, the power to tread on the enemy, to have safety because we know it's coming from you.
And not only do we have this great privilege and honor, but we can share with others through preaching of the gospel.
I pray that you would just help motivate the members of our church to realize where the real power is and to exercise that power and to take it to the enemy.
And not to bow down and worship them, but rather to say, him only will I serve.
In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
For a final song, we'll go to song 195.
I will sing of the mercies.
Song 195, I will sing of the mercies.
I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever.
I will sing, I will sing, I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever.
I will sing of the mercies of the Lord.
With my mouth will I make known.
Thy faithfulness, thy faithfulness.
With my mouth will I make known.
Thy faithfulness to all generations.
I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever.
I will sing of the mercies of the Lord.
Good singing.
God bless you.
You are dismissed.
Good singing.
God bless you.
You are dismissed.