Music
Three hundred and seventy-nine
Bringing in the sheaves
Song number three hundred and seventy-nine
Everybody sing it out together on the first
Sowing in the morning
Sowing seeds of kindness
Sowing in the noontide and the dewy
Waiting for the harvest and the time of reaping
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves
Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves
Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves
Sowing in the sunshine, sowing in the shadows
Fearing neither death nor grief
Lying by the harvest and the labor ended
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves
Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves
Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves
Going forth with weeping, sowing for the master
Though the loss sustained, our spirit often reaps
When our weeping's over, he will get us welcome
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves
Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves
Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves
Great singing everybody. Now we can open up the service with a word of prayer.
Lord, we love you and we just thank you again for Steadfast Baptist Church
and we just appreciate you allowing us to gather here
and blessing this church the way you have.
We just ask that you bless it tonight and fill it with your spirit
and we just ask all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
Alright, for our next song, let's go to song number 212,
Oh Happy Day.
Song number 212, Oh Happy Day.
Oh happy day that fixed my choice
I'll leave my Savior and my God
We'll make this glowing heart rejoice
And tell its raptures all abroad
Happy day, happy day
When Jesus washed my sins away
He taught me how to watch and pray
And live rejoicing every day
Happy day, happy day
When Jesus washed my sins away
Oh happy bond that seals my vows
To Him who merits all my love
Let cheerful anthems fill His vows
We'll give His name, with shrine I move
Happy day, happy day
When Jesus washed my sins away
He taught me how to watch and pray
And live rejoicing every day
Happy day, happy day
When Jesus washed my sins away
Tis done the great transaction's done
I am my Lord's and He is mine
He drew me and I followed on
Charmed to confess the voice divine
Happy day, happy day
When Jesus washed my sins away
He taught me how to watch and pray
And live rejoicing every day
Happy day, happy day
When Jesus washed my sins away
Now rest my long, divided heart
Based on this blissful sin to rest
Nor ever from the North before
With Him of every good possessed
Happy day, happy day
When Jesus washed my sins away
He taught me how to watch and pray
And live rejoicing every day
Happy day, happy day
When Jesus washed my sins away
Thank you for coming to steadfast Baptist church
If you need a bulletin you can lift your hand nice and high
One of our ushers can come by and get you guys a bulletin
On the front we have our Bible memory passage
We're on a grace week and typically
how this works is any child that's 18 or under
that can quote the verse can get a special treat
but since we're in a grace week I decided that all the kids
get ice cream after the service right so that's what it is grace you don't deserve it
all right none of you kids deserve ice cream that's what we're learning what grace
means okay you get something you don't deserve so
if your parents say it's okay it's okay with me all right there's there's
your grace week um on the inside we have our service and so many times
and also again if you it can quote the uh whole chapter
word perfect to a non-family member by Saturday
before the clock strikes 12 you can get a
prize for that as well I think many people have already claimed their prize but is is anybody
still working on that like they're they're hoping to finish it
all right maybe there might be someone out there in the ether I don't know but
just curious also on the inside we have our service so many times make sure to
note uh it's not in the bulletin uh right now
but we are updating our service times so Sunday mornings
we're actually going to start our with our Spanish service first at 9
a.m and then our evening service has
traditionally been 5 30 we're going to move that up to
4 30 and so I think that a lot of people have expressed
that they're excited about that change they actually think that's a good idea and so
even if you didn't I didn't really care what you thought but
a lot of people did you know tell me they like that so
I think I think it'll be a good transition for us and we do have
the new cards uh have we already put those out
okay so the new cards with the new dates or I'm sorry time specifically
are already out and of course you can pass those a lot of our
material is designed not even have that stuff on it so of course feel free to share that
as well church that's make sure you're turning in whatever
soul winning information you have into your soul winning captains on the right we
have the list several expecting ladies continue to
please be in prayer for all of them also our prayer list
I'll go over that in just a minute but we'll go to the
back we have the upcoming event we have the
baby shower this Saturday for the Hernandez's we have a
spring swap this Sunday May 11th is the
Mother's Day tea please make sure to sign up this
is this the last day to sign up all right you got to sign up
if you're not here in person you're listening to my voice you better send an email
then if you haven't signed up but we want to get make sure we have everybody signed up so we have all
the spots designated for you guys and of course
you're welcome to invite family member friends or anybody as well
please do sign them up it should be a lot of fun
May 18th is I believe the final preaching class
for this season if you'd like to participate in that
also the details about the Mother's Day tea are listed there below
we have our service chimes details and then we have the note
about the Jackson family who has been
the Jackson family who had the birth of Jason Jared
he was born on the 27th at 5.15 am
8 pounds 3 ounces and 21 inches long congratulations to them
we'll go ahead and do our prayer list
on the prayer list we have brother Hall will be continuing to pray for him
miss Naeem her grandmother we've been praying for her vision
health and salvation we've been praying for the Carlsen's mother as well
for her health miss Miller wanted us to continue to pray for her friend Tamra
for her cancer treatment and then also we're in prayer
for the Zimino family so I'm going to go ahead and just say a quick word of
prayer here as a church family and we'll just pray for those that are listed
thank you Heavenly Father so much for our church and for this service time I pray
that you would also bless all of these ladies who are expecting please help them during their
pregnancies please help their children's development I pray that you'd also
just be with our church family that's struggling with health issues right now
I pray if possible you just give them a speedy recovery
give them perfect health please also be with them while they're going through this
trial just give them patience and comfort and peace
I pray that you'd also just help give wisdom to our church family that needs that
you give them favor and that you would continue to allow our church to be a
bright and shining light for your honor and your glory in Jesus' name we pray Amen
That's all I have as far as announcements so go ahead and sing our
Psalm of the week Psalm 139
it is in the special handouts so if you want
to follow along that's the best way to follow along Psalm
139
alright
that was Psalm 139
everybody sing it out together on the first
Surely thou wilt slay the wicked
O God
Depart from me therefore ye bloody men
Depart from me therefore
ye bloody men do not
I hate them O Lord that hate me
Do not I hate them O Lord that hate me
In them I dream with those
that rise up against thee do not I hate them
O Lord that hate me
For they speak against thee wickedly
For they speak against
thee wickedly
And thine enemies take thy name in vain
And thine enemies take thy
name in vain do not I hate them
O Lord that hate me do not
I hate them O Lord that hate me
In them I dream with those that rise up
against thee do not I hate them
O Lord that hate me I hate
them with perfect hatred
I hate them with perfect
hatred I count
them my enemies I count
them my enemies
Do not I hate them O Lord
that hate me Do not I hate them
O Lord that hate me In them I
dream with those that rise up against thee
Do not I hate them O Lord that hate me
Great singing everybody now as the offering plates are being passed around
go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Zechariah chapter 1
that's Zechariah chapter number 1
O Lord that hate me
Zechariah chapter 1
the Bible reads in the 8th month in the
second year of Darius came the word of the Lord unto Zechariah
the son of Barachiah the son of Edo the prophet
saying the Lord hath been sore displeased with your fathers therefore
say thou unto them thus saith the Lord of hosts turn ye unto me
saith the Lord of hosts and I will turn unto you saith the Lord of hosts
be ye not as your fathers unto whom the former prophets have
cried saying thus saith the Lord of hosts turn ye now from
your evil ways and from your evil
doings but they did not hear nor hearken unto me saith the Lord
your fathers where are they and the prophets do they live forever
but my words and my statutes which I commanded my servants
the prophets did they not take hold of your fathers and
they returned and said like as the Lord of hosts thought to do unto us
according to our ways and according to our doings so
hath he dealt with us upon the four and twentieth day of the
eleventh month which is the month Sabbat in the seventh
second year of Darius came the word of the Lord unto Zechariah
the son of Barachiah the son of Edo the prophet saying
I saw by night and behold a man riding upon a red horse and he
stood upon the myrtle trees that were in the bottom and behind them
were their red horses speckled in white then said I oh my Lord
what are these and the angel that talked with me said unto me I will show
thee what these be and the man that stood among the myrtle trees answered
and said these are they whom the Lord hath sent to walk
to and fro through the earth and they answered the angel of the Lord that
stood among the myrtle trees and said we have walked to and fro through
the earth and behold all the earth sit it still and is
at rest then the angel of the Lord answered and said
oh Lord of hosts how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem
and on the cities of Judah against which thou hast had
indignation these three score and ten years and the Lord
answered the angel that talked with me with good words and comfortable words
so the angel that communed with me said unto me
cry thou saying thus saith the Lord of hosts I am jealous for Jerusalem
and for Zion with a great jealousy and I am very
sore displeased with the heathen that are at ease for I was
but a little displeased and they helped forward the affliction therefore
thus saith the Lord I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies
my house shall be built in it saith the Lord of hosts and a line
shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem cry yet saying thus
saith the Lord of hosts my cities through prosperity shall yet
be spread abroad and the Lord shall yet comfort Zion and shall yet
choose Jerusalem then lifted I up mine eyes and saw and behold
four horns and I said unto the angel that talked with me
what be these and he answered me these are the horns which have scattered Judah
Israel and Jerusalem and the Lord showed me four carpenters
then said I what come these to do and he spake saying these
are the horns which have scattered Judah so that no man did lift up his
head but these are come to fray them they cast
out the horns of the Gentiles which lifted up their horn over the land of Judah
to scatter it let us pray heavenly father Lord thank you
for Zechariah chapter number one Lord and I pray that you'd fill past Shelley with your Holy Spirit
as he comes and preaches your word help us to learn from his sermon Lord and apply
these things to our lives and I praise in Jesus name Amen
Amen Zechariah is a
interesting book because I think a lot
of it towards the end also is kind of bringing up
things that are prophesied about the end times
and of course are also mentioned in the book of Revelation and so I think
since we just finished the book of Revelation it might be good timing
to go through the book of Zechariah just because we have a lot of those things more fresh on our mind
we've kind of studied a lot of those things recently and so I'm excited
to kind of go through the book of Zechariah and I think another thing
that's important is understanding the timeline of the book of Zechariah
where it's placed in scripture and in general
history so that we can make sure that we're applying the verses
appropriately because what's interesting is it seems like
Zechariah is a book of the Bible that many Zionists will use
to twist scripture and really to try
to talk a lot about modern day Israel and I think when you slow down
and actually just read the book of Zechariah you won't come to any of those conclusions
they're simply cherry picking certain verses out to
essentially prop up a particular viewpoint that they have but they ignore
some really clear verses in the book of Zechariah that totally disprove
their belief and their ideology of Zionism
now just to give you a little bit of idea
and you can read these books but the book of Zechariah is at the same
timeline of the book of Haggai so you have those
two prophets are basically the exact same time they
overlap and they're essentially in the same couple years
you also have the book of Ezra and Ezra is the
timeline upon which we have the children of Israel
returning back into the promised land and rebuilding the second
temple now that is around
536 BC maybe 537
people kind of have different ideas on that exact timeline
but that's essentially the year upon which King Cyrus made
his proclamation for the children of Israel to go into
or go back to the land the promised land and rebuild the temple
now before we really dig into Zechariah I just want to prove a few of those things keep your finger here
and go if you would to Ezra for a second
and we just read this but in Zechariah did you notice that we were in the second
year of King Darius well there's actually that name
is a common name in the sense that it's not just
one particular person named Darius sometimes you might think of a guy
in the book of Daniel by the name of King Darius but it's not
the same guy so it is the same name but it's not the same
individual but there is a Darius that's mentioned in the book of
Ezra and that is the same individual that we're talking about
and so that kind of is something you might want to pay attention to
Ezra chapter one look at verse one now in the first year of
Cyrus king of Persia that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah be
fulfilled the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia
that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and put it also in writing
saying thus saith Cyrus king of Persia the Lord
of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he hath charged me to
build him and house at Jerusalem which is in
Judah who is there among you of all his people
his God be with him and let him go up to Jerusalem which is in Judah and
build the house of the Lord God of Israel he is the God which is
in Jerusalem so in Cyrus' first year
this is when we have a proclamation being made
for the children of Israel to return back into the promised land back to
Jerusalem to build the temple of God and again historians
will put this around 537 or
536 BC what's significant about this is the
children of Israel have been in captivity for 70 years and that's why
it's bringing up Jeremiah's prophecy because Jeremiah
prophesied that the children of Israel would be in captivity for 70 years
that was significant because God is basically saying for 490
years you guys have rebelled and not observed the Sabbath
and so God's basically giving them a 70 year Sabbath cycle
for the land to rest then they're returning back into the promised
land and they're going to rebuild Jerusalem they're going to rebuild
the temple that was destroyed under king Nebuchadnezzar
now they start building right away or
at least they travel there and then they start building essentially and
after doing some of the construction it ends
up getting halted the construction project stops
look at chapter 4 for a moment towards the end of the chapter
it says now when the copy of king
Artaxerxes' letter was read before Reham and Shemshai
the scribe and their companions they went up in haste to Jerusalem under the Jews
and made them to cease by force and power then cease
the work of the house of God which is at Jerusalem so it ceased under the second year
of the reign of Darius king of Persia now why I'm bringing these
verses up is I'm trying to give you a little bit of a timeline here and
we're just fast forwarding you'd have to read all of this to understand everything but
essentially the work of the Lord was going forth there were certain evil people that
didn't want the house of God to be built and so they tattled
to king Artaxerxes and since he wasn't the one that made the original
proclamation he's essentially a predecessor following
after I'm not a predecessor but he's following after king Cyrus
he doesn't necessarily know what Cyrus said or doesn't care or doesn't pay attention
and so he causes the work of the Lord to stop and to be ceased
for a period of time so they've gone back there's Jews in the
land they're rebuilding the work stops
but it says it picks back up in the second year of
king Darius look at verse 1 of chapter 5
then the prophets Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son
of Edo prophesied under the Jews that were in Judah and
Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel even under them
then rose up Zirubel the son of Shealtil and Jeshua the son of Josadak and began
to build the house of God which is at Jerusalem and with them were the prophets of God
helping them now again from a historical perspective from
historians they're saying that this is around
521 or 520 BC
essentially we're looking at around 16-17 years
that have gone by from Cyrus making that proclamation
them returning them starting construction it being stopped
there being a period where it was stopped and then they reconstruct
again in what's the second year of king
Darius so go back if you went to Zechariah chapter 1
now why I bring all that up is I want to help you understand
though that essentially the work of the lord has been ceased
they've been by force and by the letter
so they're essentially the political establishment
the government whoever is in charge
is not allowing them to build the house of God now in
Zechariah chapter 1 nothing
has changed politically nothing has changed
from a perspective of oh now the government said you can build the house
of God again they're still under the guise of
hey you're not allowed to build this the government stopped them they've been told
you know and been forced to stop doing the work by Artaxerxes
and they kind of have a conflict of
government where you have this initial proclamation
from king Cyrus saying hey build the house of God
nothing should stop you and then like someone coming down the pike
someone later Artaxerxes saying like no stop it they're not allowed to do this
and what this kind of reminds me of is how in America today you have
like a constitution and then you have people coming after
the constitution making unconstitutional laws
and you have a lot of this happening right now where there's literally
protests going on all over America and governors
and police are trying to stop them because it's anti-semitic
and here's the thing sorry free speech is still
anti-semitic okay I'm not anti-semitic
I don't believe in anti-semitism but at the same time
it's still technically lawful if you actually abide by free speech
law and you have to ask this question like can I say something
that's anti-semitic should I say something that's anti-semitic
well here's the first thing I want to say I don't
believe in anti-semitism I'm not anti-semitic but here's the thing
people have twisted this definition okay because being anti-semitic
would mean you just like hate or dislike people that are semitic
and again being semitic is essentially like a very broad
category of like being of the children of Abraham it includes
not just Jews it even includes like people from
Ishmael so you would basically be just anybody from the Middle East
from that generation or that
group of people those would be the Semites and
you know again I'm not just against everyone that's over there
or just because of their ethnicity or their ethnic background
I'm sure people in this room are pretty semitic okay
and it doesn't make me anti them because they're semitic I might make fun of them
because they're semitic okay but it doesn't mean I dislike them it doesn't mean that
I hate them because of that it's just the reality
so I'm not anti those individuals but here's the thing
today in America governors like Kristi
Noem, Ron DeSantis, Greg Abbott
all kinds of other governors in our country are trying to adopt
a definition of anti-Semitism which is described as saying
if you say that the Jews were responsible for Jesus being
killed then you're an anti-Semite
well here's the thing that's what the Bible just says I mean the Bible just says that
so here's the thing if you want to change the definition of anti-Semitic to saying
you believe the Bible then I'm anti-Semitic okay
but at the same time I'm not because that's not what that word means
just like the word repent doesn't mean turn from sin it just means turn
it doesn't matter how many people want to change the definition of that
particular word and they'll say like you're against the word repent no no I'm
for the word repent I'm against your wrong definition of the word repentance
and you know what I'm against your wrong definition of anti-Semitism
I'm against your wrong definition of love and I'm against your wrong definition of hate
and I'm pretty much against pretty much every definition you have
you need to get the right dictionary which is an English dictionary in the Bible
you know people today are just redefining words and labels and terms
and they're trying to gaslight everybody else but you know what it's a Jewish trick
and I'm not going to fall for it okay
I haven't even gotten to the chapter that much right but we're just getting started
this is the thing about Zechariah this is a chapter that they just love
to use you're not necessarily this chapter but this book I'm sorry
this is a book they love to use to try and act as if modern day Israel
is authorized by God and we need to just love
and support those individuals no matter what and we can't say anything negative
about them but you know that's just not biblical it's not biblical
it's not what this chapter says and we're going to get into it but what I want to
point out too is the context of this preaching
is they're trying to rally God's people to do the
Lord's will even though it's kind of illegal
and I'm not saying that it is illegal because it's kind of a
difficult thing to ascertain it's like well do we
obey Cyrus or do we obey Artaxerxes
and really here's how they get clarity we're going to obey God
it's like are we obeying Artaxerxes are we being
you know Cyrus well we're just obeying God so you know that's
what we're doing and you guys can figure out who's right or wrong
here but we're just going to do what the Bible says and you know at the end of the day
the question's like hey should we obey this state law
that says you can't be anti-Semitic or should we obey the Constitution
which says that you can say whatever you want it's like I'm just going to do whatever the Bible
says I'm not trying to figure out what your contradiction
of state and federal law and whatever's going on I'm just going to
do whatever God said period and ultimately we're supposed
to obey the higher powers so if we were even going to use human reasoning
we would obey the Constitution over state law anyways
but that's a different point that I'm not going to get too much further into
cause let's dig into this chapter for a minute look at verse 1 in the 8th month
in the second year of Darius came the Lord Lord unto Zechariah the son of
Barakiah the son of Edo the prophet saying the Lord hath been
sore displeased with your fathers
let me explain something to you that was Jews
so God says I was really upset with Jews
why would God ever be upset with Jews I thought they could never do any wrong
well it says in verse 3 therefore say thou
unto them thus saith the Lord of hosts turn ye unto
me saith the Lord of hosts and I will turn unto you
saith the Lord of hosts be not as your fathers unto whom
the former prophets have cried saying thus saith the Lord of hosts
turn ye now from your evil ways and from your evil doings
but they did not hear nor hearken unto me
saith the Lord so what is he trying to say he's trying to say
guys wake up for a second you know why you're having to rebuild
the temple because God was really mad at your
fathers because they didn't obey me they didn't turn
to me they didn't follow my commandments and so I literally destroyed
them and destroyed their temple and caused them to be out of the land
for 70 years and if you're going to rebuild this
temple why would you think I would allow you to rebuild the temple
if you're not going to turn to me and obey my commandments
and actually hearken unto me right it would make
no sense yet today the whole premise of
Zionism is trying to get a whole bunch of people that do not hear God's
voice that have not turned to the Lord that don't care what he believes
that don't care what he says that don't hearken unto the prophets
to rebuild the temple and I'm thinking like did you miss
the first opening lines of the book of Zechariah and then they'll point
to Zechariah and be like this is proof that God just is for
Israel no no no no if you read the opening
lines of the book of Zechariah it's only to people that are actually going to hearken
unto God and turn to God and to follow his commandments
and if you reject Jesus you reject the father so I don't want to hear this nonsense
of like well they're doing what their father said well their father is the devil if they don't have
Jesus because if you have Jesus then you have God the father
if you don't have Jesus then your father is the devil and you're the
synagogue of Satan and it makes absolutely no sense
to allow any group of people to ever build a temple in Jerusalem
that don't actually obey God or care what he says
no it's just completely incompatible with the Old Testament
and God's even saying unto them hey you guys want to do this
you got to turn unto me that is step one
if you want success and think about it are they building the temple
and again you have to trust a little bit of what I'm saying but if you've read the Bible
you read the few verses I showed you isn't the work of the Lord ceased
how long is God going to allow that to cease
as long as they don't hearken unto him so he's not
going to allow them to have success or to prosper as long
as they're not turning back to the Lord with their hearts and with their
efforts and so we have to understand that this principle
is for every generation too he's saying hey your
fathers didn't do this but you know what you have an opportunity
you're not your fathers you're you what are you going to do are you going
to be like them or are you going to turn are you going to hearken
and hey if you do that I'll turn unto you that's what he said
if we turn unto him he'll turn unto us and that's the same
promise that God gives us today that if we turn to God
God will turn unto us and when we turn away from God
God will turn away from us and so there's a reciprocal
relationship with God God is not just going to
grant you gifts and wonderful blessings when you don't
do anything when you don't turn to him no no no he rewards
us according to our works be not deceived you know
you're going to reap what you sow I mean there's just there's no way to get
around this reality now he says in verse 5 where your fathers
where are they many of them are in hell
and the prophets do they live forever even the people that are
godly are they still around no because everyone's going to die
verse 6 but my words and my
statutes which I commanded my servants the prophets did they not take hold of
your fathers and they return and said like as the Lord of hosts thought to do
unto us according to our ways and according to our doings so hath he
dealt with us God is saying it doesn't matter
the people because the people will perish what matters
is my word and my word is going to happen period
he's saying you know Jeremiah is not even alive anymore but Jeremiah's
words are coming true why because it was God's word that was coming through
Jeremiah the prophet and we have to understand that the word of God is eternal
and the word of God is not going to return void it's going to be accomplished
everything that God said is going to happen God is not
mocked whatsoever man soweth that shall he also reap is what the Bible says
but people are deceived today and think somehow God's word won't
necessarily be accomplished in their life or they're an exception
to the rule or they don't have to abide by God's word but he's
trying to point out hey what happened to your fathers where are they at what happened
to the prophets and what happened to all of our fathers
you look at people who reject God over
and over and you see their life five years from now
oh you can see the consequences ten years from now you can see the consequences
twenty years from now you really see the consequences
of that person's actions and so we should not
be simple minded we should not allow ourselves to be confused
and think that how we live our life won't dictate how God
blesses us those individuals have turned away from God
are reaping what they've sown and the Bible says when you sow to the
flesh you're going to reap corruption corruption is the fact that it's
going to deteriorate it's going to perish you're going to lose
out on things it's nothing that you want to inherit
and people that live today that are very old
you know it's really easy to see in their lives
the choices that they made how it affects them but for us that are younger
and still have a lot of life ahead of us sometimes we still get
deceived and we get confused about the choices that we're making we think we still
have time or it's not as big a deal but you know what time goes by
quick soon it's going to be you know another
election I mean it's crazy to me to think that Biden's been our president almost for four years
like in some ways
it's felt like an eternity in other ways it seems like it's been a hot minute
and you know honestly most recently I've been thinking like wow
it's already been four years you know
obviously everybody acted like it was going to be Armageddon we're all going to die but we're still here
and in fact honestly our church is doing great you know
there were some years it was rough you know it's like
dicey but it's like going really well right now
you know it started getting rough for everybody towards the end of Trump's presidency
with all the COVID stuff and all the crazy stuff
like the world changed a lot at that point in time but right now you know it's kind of
steady and stable for now we don't know what will happen
but it's just crazy how quick life goes and you
look around at the people that you know are 70, 80, 90 years old
look at their life and say hey is this person greatly blessed
are they not and then evaluate the decisions that they made in their life
and learn something from the elderly learn something from these individuals
I always say this and it always seems so true and again I'm sure there's
probably an exception but people that are older especially you know
over 60 maybe 70, 80 when I talk to these
individuals almost every single one of them they always say this to me I wish I had
more kids you know and it's like today a lot
of people they freak out when they see my
whole family out like they're like those are all your kids
and it's like I only have six like you know to the world that seems
like just insane like six children just seems like so many
kids but it's like you go back a hundred years or a couple hundred years it's like the average
number of children was eight so if I had six they
wouldn't be like whoa are all those yours they're like do you have any more
like where's the rest you know it's all in perspective
okay it's not it's not like and everybody just freaks out like so you're all done are you
going to have any more like what why do you care
you know I don't ever walk up to people that are just by themselves and like how many kids are you all going to have
wouldn't
that be weird if I walked up to a young couple and was like how many kids are you all going to have
and they're like why why are you asking me it's like why do since I have six
you get to ask me right it's just weird people are
just weird they're freaked out but you know why they're freaked out because there's just something
inside the heart of every person that knows they're supposed to have kids and
they're supposed to have a lot of kids and it freaks them out because they're like oh wow there's someone
actually doing it and it freaks them out and then
when they get older they end up realizing wow that was the right thing to do
in fact honestly most people that do say something they're very positive they're
really like thank you and this is a good job
and whatever sometimes they're like you know it causes that right
and I'm like of course it's great buddy you know
what do you mean they're like get a TV that'll fix it and I was like I don't want to fix
it especially with TV you know that's stupid okay
that's silly why I don't it's not broken I love all my kids
I mean think about how how disrespectful that is
actually to say what's what's broken about
my six children that I need to fix
you're going to look at any of my kids and say that they're a problem that they're a mistake
I mean that's wicked none of my kids are a mistake
none of them are broken they're a wonderful blessing they're a gift from God is what the Bible says
okay and it's just silly because people
are so short-sighted and they say well having kids is tough yeah it is
especially newborns and our most recent has been
the hardest newborn we've ever had but this is what I know
it will not last she will get easier she will get better
and pretty soon I'll have to give her away to somebody and I'll be mad about it
okay you know right now it's like
if someone else could hold her I'd be like sure please you know
then I'll be like I don't want anybody else to take her right you know it's all
perspective it's all but when you look at the elderly learn from them
and recognize hey when I'm that age what am I going to feel like I'm going to say
I wish I had done more
I wish I had more children I'm not going to think like oh man children were such a burden back then
no it'll be such a blessing it'll be such a wonderful thing
and why would I think that I'm going to be any different than all those people
I mean let's say there was a person that didn't say that
1 out of 100 well shouldn't I take the wisdom of the 99
and the multitude of counselors there is safety if 99%
of people that aren't even Christian are selling to me the same thing everybody's saying
the same thing shouldn't I take that wisdom and apply it to myself
and you know what praise God our church really takes this to heart I mean have you seen our bulletin
lately ok and this is like a low number I mean what do we have
1 2 3 4 5 6 we only have 13
ladies pregnant I mean only you know I feel like it was like
almost up to 20 at one point it seems like it's been almost
at a dozen or higher for like a really long period of time and you
know what praise God praise God number one that people are willing and
praise God that God is blessing us with children you know not everybody
gets that blessing you can't even necessarily control it fully but you know what
trusting in the Lord and saying you know what we are going to build our house we're going to
build our family according to God and what he thinks and we're going to
take his wisdom and I'm going to apply
my life according to his word not what other people have done not
what other people think you know what does the Bible say
because God's word is what's going to last forever
so whatever God's word says it doesn't matter what the society is doing it just matters what God says
and you know what God said be fruitful and multiply that's what God said
he didn't say us four no more
he didn't say you know well when are you going to take care of that
issue when are you going to fix that I don't have to
fix it because God fixes it God has a limit on it
and I'm sure that he's smarter than me so why would I try to end something
early that he's not going to you know
it's just silly to try and play God yourself and then to think
that you're somehow righteous because you're playing God
there are Bible colleges and there are Christians out there that are literally advocating for birth
control and all kinds of other means of controlling the number of kids
and they look down on people who are having large families I've had a lot of people
criticize me say oh how are you going to hang out with all of them and pay for
all of them and all this other stuff and it's like I don't know
you have one kid and he doesn't even seem that great
so how are you going to take care of that
I mean a lot of these people that have one kid they're spoiled rotten brat
and they don't even hang out with them I'm like
I can still hang out with all my kids at the same time and I don't have to
give them all individual attention because maybe that makes them a spoiled brat
I don't have to give them you know if I only have one kid
I could buy them everything they wanted they could have new clothes
every year they could have every time they wanted
ice cream they never wanted ice cream but you know today it's like hey to get ice cream
it's like 50 bucks for the whole family so it's like we only get it
every once in a while so it's like built in like you don't all get
special treats just every single moment and you know what that probably helps them not
be a spoiled brat you can't get them
ice cream every single time they want it yeah well you know what that's a blessing because then
they're not going to be a spoiled rotten brat
like you're one little child and again if you have one child
I'm not mad at you you can still raise a great kid but at the end of the day
don't think that you're way superior
God wouldn't want to put me in a situation that's going to make it
impossible to raise godly family so if he's giving me the children
I'm sure I can take care of it I'm sure it's going to work out just
fine and in fact my kids love playing with each other they love having
brothers and sisters and siblings they're really close friends why would I want to
take that away from them you know I didn't get to raise I wasn't raised with lots of siblings
my age so I didn't get to have that kind of an experience I'm sure it would have been cool
I'm sure it would have been fun to you know not have to go and play outside in the backyard
by myself every single day you know and do things by
myself all the time like I'm sure it would have been more fun to
play with your brother and sister and in fact people that are really good athletes a lot of times
they have siblings that they played with that they practiced with so there's
a lot of benefits to having a big family but people don't want to bring that up
they want to just criticize and be negative and you know why they want to be negative
because they know that it's right to have a big family they know what
the Bible says in their heart and they want to justify their decision for
breaking God's commandments you know instead of just why
can't you just be like hey I made a mistake I'm glad you're doing the right thing
you know it's like hey I walked over
here and I stepped in a hole and hurt my ankle I'm going to
cover that up with brush so the next guy can do the same thing or would you be like hey
don't step in this hole that I stepped in and broke my ankle it's like that's
common decency right when you make a mistake do not hope that other people
make the exact same mistake and it's like why can't we apply that to the Christian
life because you know what the word of God is forever and we
need to live by the word of God and you know what many of us didn't
really live very great Christian lives growing up or being young
I hope that my children don't make all the mistakes that I did or live the exact same
childhood I do I hope they live a better one I hope they make
different decisions I hope they don't struggle with things that I struggle with or have the
problems that I did or make decisions that I did I hope that they're
better and more pure and have more wisdom and are
going to serve God even greater I'm not trying to drag people
down on my level let's try to build up the next generation and encourage them to
serve the Lord because you know what I don't want my children to be worse
than me I want them to be better than me to
not want them to be better than you is just to be a selfish wicked person
now it says in verse number seven it says
upon the four and twentieth day of the eleventh month which is the month
Seabat in the second year of Darius came the word of the Lord of Zechariah the
son of Barakiah the son of Edo the prophet saying
I saw by night and behold a man riding upon a red horse and he stood among the
trees that were in the bottom behind him were their red horses speckled
in white then said I oh my Lord what are these and the angel that talked with me
said unto me I will show thee what these be now this is kind
of interesting at first he's just telling them to turn to him
this is a second vision it's a little bit later in time just a few months
later he sees a man riding on a red
horse and then there's other horses so there's this
grouping of horses that are going out there
among myrtle trees and it doesn't initially say this but then
in verse nine he says then said I oh my Lord there's also another individual
here amongst these horses and trees who's described as the
angel of the Lord and he's talking to this person seems
likely that this is the person who's been giving him this vision and giving him the word of
God here he's communicating with this particular person who's
the angel of the Lord and in verse nine it says then said I oh my
Lord what are these and the angel that talked with me said
unto me I will show thee what these be it says and the man that stood among the myrtle trees
answered and said these are they whom the Lord
has sent to walk to and fro through the earth so he asks this angel
hey who are these what are these horses and this guy on the horse like what are they doing
and the angel is telling him these particular
horses and this man is going and searching throughout the land searching
throughout the earth and they're going to give a report back
it says in verse number eleven and they answered the angel
of the Lord that stood among the myrtle trees and said we have walked
to and fro through the earth and behold all the earth sits still and is at rest
so essentially you have an angel of the Lord then you have this
battalion of red horses they go and search the land
and they come back and give a report unto this angel of the Lord
now red horses is not something that's really mentioned
a lot in scripture but there's one other specific mention that we kind of looked at
a little bit in the book of Revelation it's the second horse
of the four horsemen of the apocalypse you essentially have the white horse with someone that's riding
on it who we believe is the antichrist who's crowned
and he's going forth to conquer and conquer the second comes a red horse and
what was given under that red horse was the ability to take peace
from the earth so the red horse in the book of Revelation is
taking the peace here these red horses are going and
basically just giving the status quo of how peaceful the earth is
so there's kind of a loose connection here that these
red horses have something to do with just the status of peace
on the earth as a whole and in Revelation they're taking it
away but here it's kind of different they're actually reporting that it's actually very peaceful
they're saying hey there's peace everywhere in the earth
now they give this report unto the angel specifically
and it says in verse 12 then the angel of the Lord answered and said
oh Lord of hosts how long will thou not have
mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah against
which thou has had indignation these three score in ten years
now the angel of the Lord is a
generic term the word angel can simply
mean messenger sometimes the angel of the Lord
is just a man sometimes the angel of the Lord is an angel of the being
sometimes the angel of the Lord is Jesus Christ
it seems likely to me that this angel of the Lord
probably is the Lord Jesus Christ and it's probably in appearance
I don't know that for sure in verse 9 when he talks to him he notices
he said oh my Lord he's calling this person
his Lord and what's interesting if this is the Lord Jesus Christ then you know what that would be
another reference of the trinity because did you notice how the angel of the Lord
is then talking to the Lord he says in verse 12 then the
angel of the Lord answered and said oh Lord of hosts who's that that's God
so we have the angel of the Lord then talking to God
how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah
against which thou has had indignation these three score in ten years
and what I see this kind of being a picture of loosely
again is the gospel because if you think about it we have a picture here of
peace in the entire earth and you have a particular individual
interceding to God for what for there to be
peace on the earth which is a foreshadowing a picture of what Jesus Christ
would do of how Jesus Christ brought peace onto the whole earth and as the
intercessor to God from man he's going
in between man and God he's that intercessor that ambassador
that's petitioning and trying to reconcile
God with man and the Bible talks about this in the book of
Hebrews and other places how the Lord Jesus Christ is seated at the
right hand of the Father making intercession for us so it's interesting
how this particular angel of the Lord this messenger is making intercession
for the people of God by saying hey can we have
peace can we rebuild the house of God and rebuild
the temple so again I think this is a loose reference or a foreshadowing
of Jesus Christ and it shows a lot of similarities with
the gospel now specifically he says in verse 12
they had indignation these three score in ten years that's a reference to
the 70 years upon which the children of Israel were in captivity of Babylon
before they ended up returning now in verse
13 it says and the Lord answered the angel that talked with me with good words
and comfortable words when he makes intercession
what happens then God responds with good words
and with comfortable words also it's great to know
that on a judgment day if I stand before God he's gonna
answer me with good words and with comfortable words because of the righteousness of Jesus
Christ and what he's done unto me and
what's nice here is that God is trying to let the children
of Israel know look we're in a time of peace
we're in a time where God is extending favor and good and comfortable
words unto you he says in verse 14
so the angel that I I'm sorry so the angel that communed with me said unto me
cry thou saying thus saith the Lord of hosts I am jealous
for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy
and I am very sore displeased with the heathen that are at ease
for I was but a little displeased and they helped forward
the affliction therefore thus saith the Lord I am returned to Jerusalem
with mercies my house shall be built in it saith the Lord of hosts and a line
shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem so God
is saying specifically that he's jealous
for Jerusalem he's jealous for Zion he wants to bring mercy
back to it he said he's returning Jerusalem with mercy
and specifically he wants his house to be built
and he says about the heathen he was
displeased with the heathen he doesn't like the heathen God doesn't
like the heathen he doesn't want the heathen to be in charge of the earth
he doesn't want the heathen to be in rule of the earth he wants his
people and Jerusalem to be in charge of the earth but because
he was upset with his people and with the people at Jerusalem
and that's what he's saying in verse number 15 for I was but a little
displeased he's saying there was a time where he's displeased with them
and he's saying they helped for the affliction I believe he's trying to say that the
Gentiles or the heathen helped God afflict
the children of Israel so they were afflicted for 70 years
and during that affliction he's trying to help them get back
to being right with God having a heart towards God and now
that they have that heart towards God he can return to Jerusalem
with mercy he can rebuild Jerusalem and rebuild
Zion specifically and
he wants to comfort Zion and he wants to choose Jerusalem
verse 18 then lifted up mine eyes and saw and behold four horns
and I said to the angel that talked to me what be these and he answered me these are the
horns which have scattered Judah Israel and Jerusalem and
the Lord showed me four carpenters then said I what come these
to do and he spake saying these are the horns which have
scattered Judah so that no man did lift up his head but these are
come to fray them to cast out the horns of the Gentiles
which lifted up their horn over the land of Judah to scatter
it so he sees another
prophecy or vision sees four horns and these horns are representative
of the Gentiles and the heathen that came and dispersed the children of Israel
this would be Nebuchadnezzar Nebuchadnezzar came
and essentially took the children of Israel out of the land and they were
dispersed into all of the earth into all of the
nations of the earth and he's saying that he
sees four carpenters though coming and the Bible says specifically in verse number
21 that the carpenters are come to fray
the horns fray means to drive
away to drive away so again this horn
is kind of acting as something that's going to
drive the children of Israel away and cause
them to be led out of the promised land into the other nations these carpenters
are coming to drive away the horns and to drive away
the Gentiles so really you know
in this particular vision the
main essence is that God can basically do
whatever he wants to you and really it's based on how you
respond to him if you turn away from God he can bring horns
into your life that will drive you out of the land drive you out of the house
of God and if you turn back to the Lord he can bring carpenters
which will drive the horns out now
if we kind of think about what these are representing a little bit
they're kind of also representing government in a sense because the horns
are representative of Nebuchadnezzar and his kingdom and that government and that political
system is causing Jerusalem to be destroyed
and to not prosper and not to build the house of God and then the carpenters
are being commissioned by Cyrus and Darius
and these other men to come and actually build the house of God
it's interesting because none of these guys are really godly like it's not like
Nebuchadnezzar Nebuchadnezzar is definitely not godly but again even like
Cyrus and Darius there's no real mention of them being like some great
Christian or anything like that we don't even know if they're saved maybe they were maybe they weren't
it doesn't even matter what matters is this many times we
think that the solution to a problem is the political
powers that be or changing out the political powers
but the reality is the solution to every single problem is turning to God
and then God can put whatever political powers he wants into power
he can bring more horns or he can bring some carpenters
but you know what it's not our job to really be the horn or the carpenter
we're supposed to be the one that's turning to God
and then God can put in place the people that he wants
and many times throughout the scripture and throughout history
from a man's perspective or from a human's perspective
it was impossible to change the political landscape
things seemed like there was no opportunity to be rescued or delivered
yet God performed miracles to bring in the right political powers
to invite people at the right time to just shift everything so then the children
of God succeeded I mean you look at this with Pharaoh
Pharaoh is a horn Pharaoh is one that's causing the children of Israel to suffer
great affliction and even in the short term they even had to suffer even greater affliction
right before they were then delivered
you have with the book of Daniel specifically you kind of have
an ebb and flow where they're trying to put pressure
on them the Shadrach Meshach and Abednego and Daniel to eat the king's meat
they resist and then they get blessed then they're
commanded to worship a false god and they resist and then they're blessed
and then they get worshiped then Daniel is literally commanded
I mean they literally pass a law where you can't even pray for 30 days straight
and Daniel just prays then is thrown in the lions then
but then he comes back out of it and you see just in Daniel's lifetime
just a constant political battle of his
Christian faith being tested and tried and yet what delivered
him it wasn't getting the right guy in charge in fact many times it was the same
guy it was the same guy changing his mind back and forth
at the very beginning Nebuchadnezzar is constantly going back and forth on like you know you've finished the
chapter and you're thinking like and then they lived happily ever after but then it's like all of a sudden it's like
now I worship this graven image and you're like what happened you know it's like
the guy can't even think straight he's bipolar
okay essentially and he constantly forgets the Lord
and makes all kinds of mistakes and you know what that's what politicians are like they're just
vacuous souls you know the Bible says in the book of Proverbs that the Lord
is turning the heart of the king whether so ever he will
and look it wouldn't be that hard to imagine Biden just
being at somebody else's beck and call okay I don't know if that guy
knows what he's doing alright someone else is pulling all those strings that
marionette doll that's up there that we call president you know that's
all the political escapes there are in the world today and God can constantly
shift them and change them to his will and sometimes he's giving us horns
and sometimes he's giving us carpenters but
if we really want carpenters in our lives and in our world you know what we need to
do is not vote in the right guy we need to
turn back to God and specifically
when we talk about this chapter what is it that they're supposed to do they're supposed to build the house
of God now I want to go to a few passages more
this evening before I finish this chapter but go to Jeremiah chapter 23 go to Jeremiah chapter
23 we've kind of gotten the essence of this
particular chapter I want to read a few more
verses that kind of talk about this concept Jeremiah 23 look at verse 19
the Bible says behold a whirlwind of the Lord has gone forth
in fury even a grievous whirlwind it shall fall
grievously upon the head of the wicked the anger of the Lord shall
not return until he has executed until he has performed the
thoughts of his heart in the latter days he shall consider
it perfectly this kind of reminds me of what he had said about
remember your fathers where are they and he's saying
but later you're going to consider that everything I said came to pass
exactly like I said it verse 21 I have not
sent these prophets yet they ran this is like Stephen Furtick, Kenneth Copeland
all them right I have not spoken to them definitely not Kenneth Copeland
yet they prophesied but if they had stood in my council
and it caused my people to hear my words then they should
have turned from their evil way and from their evil doings
that's such an interesting verse to me it's like saying you know all these false
prophets I didn't send them I didn't even want them but you know
if they had just actually preached what the Bible said people would have
actually gotten right with God you know the reason why
America is failing is because we have bad churches
if all the preachers in our country like if there wasn't a bad option
people would still go to church but then they would be forced
to hear the right kind of message and after being forced to hear the right kind of message
they would actually make changes in their life you know a lot of people don't want to come to a church like
ours and it's because if they get enough conviction they'll actually
change and the reality is they just don't want to change
they would actually change how they act how they behave how they dress
they would actually go and do things that they didn't want to do
but you know they just know that they would make those changes and they know they don't want to make
those changes so they heap up to themselves teachers having itching ears
and they turn away their ears from the truth and they turn onto fables
and because of false preaching and false prophets
it causes so many people to go astray don't think that
oh well I'm going to this church and I know it's not that great and I know they don't really preach what the Bible
says and everything like that but it's not going to affect me no it does affect you you need to go
to the right kind of church you need to go to a church where the man of God is going to
challenge you to actually follow the Bible and actually do the right things
say yeah well the sermon is a little boring well maybe you need a little boring in your life
sorry it's not a six second TikTok reel
that you can constantly scroll every six seconds you know it's like
oh man we had to read a lot of verses you know and it's like hard language and he uses
the word F at the end of some of the words you know yeah well maybe you need
a couple F's in your life alright you need to be grounded
in something that's real this world is so fake
I mean do you not realize that there's so much money
in videos and online and social media
when there's a lot of money do you think that people are really putting it up
to chance that they're going to make good content
or things that are funny or do you think they're like hey we could make
a fake scenario and it'd be funny and people would laugh and we'd make a lot of money
so you know what the vast majority of videos and things on our line are fake
they're not real and you're just sitting there scrolling
just like oh this is cool you see it's all fake
you know what this is real and all those
things are going to perish but you know what the word of God is not going to perish
don't be like your fathers that hearkened unto fables
and hearkened unto things that are just not even real
the Bible says Jewish fables okay why don't you get grounded
in some reality in the Bible you know the TV
social media and all these things are constantly trying to brainwash you and propagandize you
and to thinking certain things that are not true not real
not sincere that we need to hear some Bible
I guarantee vast majority if not almost
every single person spends more time on their phone like ten to one
than how much they read the Bible
you're preaching long not long enough you apparently can sit
I mean some people sit there and stare at social media for a couple of hours
you can hear the Bible being preached for an hour
if they had preached
the Bible people would have turned from their evil way from their evil doings
verse 23 am I a God at hand say the Lord and not a God far off
can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him
say the Lord do not I fill heaven and earth say the Lord
you know it's like you can't escape God folks where are you going to go
go to 2 Chronicles chapter 7 I want to go to another place here 2 Chronicles chapter 7
think about the context
of this chapter that we've read though how does
any of it fit with modern day Israel
when in 1948 did all the Jews say you know what
we killed the Messiah
we're so wicked our fathers killed the Messiah let's believe in Jesus
let's all get King James Bibles and start reading the King James Bible
let's start singing the Psalms we embrace the New Testament
we're going to fall on our knees and we're going to pray and beg God for forgiveness
we're going to be like Ezra and Nehemiah we're going to give up all of our
usury even
the 100th part because you know he was mad
in the book of Nehemiah for charging people interest 1%
saying don't even charge 1% and he was like
God's mad at you until you give this up when did the Jews give up
interest and give up the Talmud and when did they embrace
the New Testament and when did they embrace Jesus you know in fact
you know if you study Hebrew like math they won't
even put a plus symbol because it looks like a cross they take out the bottom
hash so it's just like this weird upside down
T or something it's like a missing plus sign
that's how much they hate Jesus and then I'm supposed
to believe that God's blessing these people to come back to the land
and rebuild the temple and they're so wonderful it's like this is nonsense
oh Zechariah you haven't read Zechariah no you haven't read Zechariah John Hagee
and you're not Haggai you're Hagee ok
fake
2nd chronicles look at chapter 7 this is a famous verse
verse we're going to read it some context though look at verse 12
and the Lord appeared to Solomon by night and said to him I have heard thy prayer
and have chosen this place to myself or in house of sacrifice if I should
of heaven that there be no rain or if I command the locust to devour the land
or if I send pestilence among my people if my people which are called by my name
shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways
then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal
their land that's like a super famous verse people love this
verse they love to quote it and it's true
but what is the context the context is
the first temple being built and he's saying hey you guys turn away from me
and I start punishing you
but then you turn back and you pray and you seek God again then you know what
I'll heal the land and this literally comes true because
Daniel makes a prayer about this and seeks the Lord
and confesses the sins of him and his fathers
and God hearkens unto that prayer and then when he
hearkens unto that prayer and then with Cyrus brings them back into the
land so this verse definitely applied to that context
I would say it extends beyond that context though in the sense that yeah
hey we as God's people in America our land's broken
too and we have a lot of issues and if we seek God if we humble
ourselves I believe God can make our area and make our land
better and make our country better but it's dependent upon us seeking God
and you have to understand that he's really clear though what if they
don't and I want to read the rest of this chapter because we don't just stop at verse 14
verse 15 now my eyes shall be opened and my ears a tent under the prayer
that is made in this place for now I have chosen and sanctified this house that my
name may be there forever and my eyes and my heart
shall be there perpetually this is where the Jews would stop reading oh it's forever
it's perpetual never going to change verse 17 and as for the if thou
will walk before me as David thy father walked and do according to all that I have commanded
thee and shalt observe my statutes and my judgments then will I
establish the throne of thy kingdom according as
I have covenanted with David thy father saying there shall not fail thee a man
to be ruler in Israel now here's a question did Solomon do that
what happened at the end of Solomon
did Rehoboam his son inherit all 12 tribes no
in fact he even said that he wasn't even going to give his son
the tribes because of Solomon he was going to give him a tribe because of David
and it was actually stripped from him and then you have the northern kingdom of Israel
and then the southern kingdom of Judah it's interesting that the rebellious
kingdom was named Israel and then today we have modern day Israel
that's probably a coincidence huh
verse 19 but if he turn away and forsake my statutes
and my commandments which I have set before you and shall go and serve other gods
and worship them then will I pluck them up by the roots
out of my land which I have given them and this house which I have sanctified
for my name will I cast out of my sight
and will make it to be a proverb and a byword
among all nations and this house which is high shall be an
astonishment to everyone that passeth by it so that he shall say
why hath the Lord done thus unto this land and unto this house
and it shall be answered because they forsook the Lord
God of their fathers which brought them forth out of the land of Egypt and laid
hold on other gods and worshipped them and served them therefore hath he brought all
this evil upon them so you have to ask this question why was
the temple that was rebuilt destroyed in 70 AD
what happened let me tell you
it was because they forsook the Lord God of their fathers
which brought them forth out of the land of Egypt and laid hold on other gods and worshipped them
and served them therefore hath he brought all this evil upon them
and you know what's so interesting is I never hear anybody ever explain to me
like the zionists like why God cursed them
and got them out of the land
what was the reason why he destroyed the temple the second time
oh yeah it was because they rejected Jesus
so you would think if he destroyed the temple because they were worshipping false
gods and rejected Jesus what would cause them
to get back in the land and get to rebuild it again be worshipping him
and accepting Jesus right but then that never happened
and then they go and they point out they're like well what about Abraham
yeah what about Abraham
you know I kind of brought this analogy up and I thought about
it and I thought I didn't do it justice in this analogy but I was saying
something about if you leased the house and then later you got kicked out and then you came back
that wasn't even the right analogy the right analogy would be like
if a hundred generations ago your grandpa
had a house and he lived in it
and then somewhere down the lineage his
children ended up breaking the rental contract
that they had and then you are now saying hey I get to have
this house and they're like how is it your house
well my grandfather used to have a lease
yeah but somewhere down that lineage your other grandpa
broke it and you've never lived here
so how in the world is this your house it's not
just like it's someone whatever house you have or you
live in you probably didn't buy it or build it at first it's probably somebody else
imagine if they came and knocked on your door tonight and said hey this is my house
get out you'd be like no you sold it or you got rid
of it or you're leasing it like that contract isn't forever
now it might be forever until it changes
right and that's how the old testament was you know a lot of people point out these verses like perpetual forever
but didn't we just read in second chronicle chapter number seven
in verse number 16 for now have I chosen and sanctified this house that my name
may be there forever but then didn't he say
hey but if you break these commandments then I'm literally going to destroy it and take you out of there
so it's not like it wasn't forever it's just it's forever
with a condition just like till death do us part
hey I'm married to my wife forever
until death do us part it's forever
until she dies it doesn't mean like hey if she lives
to be a thousand and I'm a thousand we're still married
if she lives to be a billion and I'm a billion we're still married
but as soon as we die it's over
it's not Mormon marriage okay you don't stay married in heaven all right
sorry for some people that's like man I married up
and other people it's like whew you know
for me I'm disappointed of course right okay go to another go to one
more place go to Haggai I hope my wife's still my friend when we get in heaven
okay
how can we apply this to us well here's the thing if we turn to God
he can give us peace and help us build in our land
but here is what was also happening
at the exact same time that Zechariah is basically being preached and this is the same year
it's only separated by a few months but Haggai chapter
1 verse 1 it says this in the second year of Darius the king
so the same year and the sixth month and the first day of the month so this is a few months
prior came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel
the son of Shealtil governor of Judah and to Joshua the son of Josadeh
the high priest saying thus speak of the Lord of hosts saying this people say
the time has not come the time that the Lord's house should be built
so what was the attitude of the people of this day well they've been told by Artaxerxes not
to build the house of God they're saying this is not a time to build the house of God
verse 3 then came the Lord the Lord by Haggai the prophet saying
is it time for you oh ye to dwell in your sealed
houses and this house lie waste now therefore thus
saith the Lord of hosts consider your ways you have so much and bring in little ye
eat but ye have not enough ye drink but ye are not
filled with drink ye clothe you but there is none warm
and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag
with holes thus saith the Lord of hosts consider your ways
go up to the mountain and bring wood and build the house and I will take pleasure
in it and I will be glorified saith the Lord ye looked for much
and lo it came to little and when ye brought it home I did
blow upon it why saith the Lord of hosts because mine house that is laid waste
and ye run every man unto his own
house what is he saying the people
even though they returned back to the land because there was a little bit of persecution
because there was political pressure because things have stopped what did they do they stopped
building the house of God and they just built their own houses
and then God is basically destroying and not blessing
them in their personal lives they're not being satisfied
with their food with their drink they're losing their money and boy
I just have to say it just sounds like America there's a lot of
parallels and especially with inflation boy inflation
it seems like we're earning more wages and we have less money
we can't seem to have enough and I
wonder if it's because Christians in America today are
not worried about building the house of God they're worried about building their house
they're worried about building their 401K
and their house being sealed and them having all the luxuries
and the delicacies of their life but they're not building the house of God
and God's not blessing America you know they're so concerned with building
the synagogue of Satan over in Jerusalem today
and they're ignoring the real house of God that should be built the church of God
the pillar and ground of the truth and you know what people are giving their money
to all the wrong things in our country today and they're destroying our
country today people should be investing into the house of God and
building the house of God he's saying where are your priorities you're saying
it's not a time to build the house of God I'm saying it is a time to build the house of God
and no matter what political pressure no matter what the environment
what the situation is we should prioritize building the house of God
over our own selfish ambitions now God is not saying
it's wrong for you to have a nice house he's not saying it's wrong to build
yourself a really nice place to live or to work on your own house
what is wrong is to be focused in on your house
and ignoring the house of God he's saying hey let's first build
the house of God and then go ahead build your house take care of your land
take care of what's going on and so many people today they have it backwards today
they want to build their house first and then they'll build church you know what you need to
build church first and then build your house
there's just a lot of people that have the wrong mentality and they have the wrong priorities
and they're not putting God first in their life when you think about
a house this is not a temporary dwelling place
a tent is a temporary dwelling place a tabernacle
is a temporary dwelling place booths are temporary dwelling places
a house is something you're investing in some time some effort some energy
and here's the thing that everybody knows about real estate what's the most important thing
about real estate this is not in the bible for all your real estate
location it's location location location you know why
because the only thing you can't change about your house you can
change a lot of stuff about your house but you can't change the location
and if my priorities in my life are hey
I want to seek a house first and not church
well sometimes that house may not be really suitable for
church and I know lots of
people they've thought about like hey you know what I want for
my life I just want to live on this really cool farm
and I just want to go out there and build a really big nice house but you know what
they're not prioritizing it being near a church and so they just build this nice
house or they go live in some farm and they're just so far
away from a good church that they're not going to church folks
they don't drive to church because they literally are building and see once you put that
much time effort energy focus
into that house it's so hard to walk away from that it's so hard to leave something
like that and so so many people they're not thinking like my first priority
is church and once I've built that up then I'm going to build my house
they're like I want to build my house and then later I'll think about church but you know what happens
they never end up thinking about the church
you know when it comes to your house you know location the money the time
people are just putting all of their effort and energy into them and their lives and
their luxury and what they want and God is saying hey I'm not going to bless you when you're
doing that I'm going to bless you when you prioritize church first
and that's where your heart's at that's where your mind's at
and you know what I'm going to greatly bless you when you put church first
and again I'm not saying that you can't
it's not like one or the other it's not like well I can only ever do
this and I can never have a house obviously we all need a place to live and there's
nothing wrong with having a house but you know what I would not want to build a house
where there's no church or there's no stable option or where
church is bad or church is deteriorating I mean there's so many people today that live
in an area where they say they don't have a good church or the church is getting worse or they have bad options
well you know what I would not build a house there
you know I would make sure
that I'm putting church first and then
and then I'm going to figure out where I'm going to live then I'm going to
try to establish myself somewhere and you know the way
our housing market works is probably different than back then
cause it's a lot easier today to move
I mean back then it may not have been very realistic that after you built a house
someone would even come and buy it or want it or anything like that there might not have been a market
there might not have been Realtors there's not an app called Realtor or Zillow or all these places
you can sell so like for them when they built a house it was a
it was a really long term commitment to that location
and today obviously we can buy and sell houses and move around a little bit easier
but what's the concept? The concept is what are you building your life around
and are you building your life around church and the building the house
of God and putting that as a priority or are you putting you and what you want
and the luxuries that you can have and you know instead of considering
where you want to live for selfish ambition you should consider
how am I going to serve God?
The first house that I ever bought my parents helped me buy it
and it was one block away from my parents
I would have never chosen that okay
They liked that I guess right and I even remember my parents had this philosophy like
children should never leave their parents like as far as
changing cities or something like that cause you just always
live near them well that's kind of strange since Abraham
really early in the bible Abraham is told to leave his father and his father's house
that would be weird for God to give Abraham such a commandment
when it's not a good idea I mean it's really
clear in the bible that's not what it says okay but I
liked that house I invested a lot in that house I redid the fence
I redid the garage door we redid the kitchen
we redid bathrooms I redid that same bathroom maybe even
three times the flooring I don't remember it was a lot okay
and I thought I was never
going to sell that house ever it was a great location right by
college college is thriving amazing rental market I'm like
I'm going to keep this house forever I had a three percent interest rate I'm like
you know my mortgage payment was like six hundred and fifty
dollars a month for a three bedroom two bath house about twelve hundred
foot it was nice big yard almost a half I was like probably like a point
four acres or something it would probably rent for like
fifteen sixteen hundred dollars a month but you know what
I at some point I said you know there's not a good church here
and I want to serve I want to serve God and I want to go to a
church that does soul winning I can't find it here I said if I can't find it I'm sure other people
can't find it and I wanted to move to faithful word to train to
possibly become a pastor to one day help other people have a church that can go soul winning
but you know what I didn't make enough money to move
to Phoenix and to rent so you know what I had to do I had to sell my house
I had to sell it so that I could
move and that was the only way I could move there because the rent was
like again fifteen sixteen seven hundred dollars for a small thing
and it's like if I because I had equity in the house or whatever
my next mortgage payment again was like eight hundred bucks or something super cheap
because the property taxes in Arizona make you want to hate Texas
okay my property taxes in Arizona were
seven hundred and fifty dollars for the year
this is like what that's insane when
you think about how much the property taxes are here okay oh man
I'm still getting over it okay so that was
the only way I could move out there you know
what if I just said but I love this house and I love you know making the money on this
you know I would have never moved and I know I know other people
and there's a person I really like great guy likes
the Bible believes pretty much everything we believe but you know what he's building his dream home
next to all of his family and a place
that doesn't have a good church and he'll admit that to me there's not a good church
there but you know what here's the thing that's the wrong
decision it's the wrong decision to build your dream home
in a place that you're not going to be serving God faithfully
you need to plant yourself at church first
and then establish your home don't get these out of order
don't try to establish your home and then try to establish church you establish church
first and then you establish your home and you know what we'll
see where those people are that establish their home first and
church second versus the people that establish their church
first and home second and you know at first you might think like well look at that great house
and they have this nice thing well we'll see where they ended up and we'll see the house
of the person that put church first 50 years from now and
we'll see the guy's house that put house first
and not only will we see the physical structure we'll also see his wife and his children
because that's also another aspect of your house and you know what you want your house
to be blessed you want to have a great house
well you know what you need to put church first and God first and turn to the Lord
and put that as a priority and you know I'm preaching to the choir on a Wednesday night but let me tell you
something you are here as a carpenter to build the house of God and to drive
away the horns in your life do not allow the horns to take
you away from God no you be the carpenter to fray away the
horns and to build the house of God and you know what God will bless you and prosper you
oh you know I'm wasting time at church no no no
you're building your house and when you build the house
of God he's going to take care of you when you don't well you know what you're putting your money
in bags with holes in them
money comes and goes
there's been plenty of times where I've gotten great sums
and lost great sums for all kinds of things in my control
and out of my control and the one thing I've greatly learned is it doesn't matter how
smart you are and how many good decisions you make God can take away
all the chunks of money you have like this
and no matter how dumb and silly and foolish you are
and you make sinful decisions God can sometimes just pour money in your lap too
but this is what I know when you serve God faithfully
and you put him first you'll never be without and he'll always take care
of you and you know what you're going to have a blessed end at the later end like
Job as opposed to the guy that's building himself up first
and even if I never have the nicest
house as the guy that you know built his house first nuts to it because it's all going to
burn anyways but I you know God's not mocked
I believe that the guys that put church first are still going to have
the house that God wants to give them and bless them financially later too
but you know what don't be the person that tries to have your cake and eat it too
just put God first and he'll give you the rest and even if he doesn't you'll get it in heaven
anyways and you try to
have what you want in this world usually you'll lose it anyways
and then you won't have anything and you'll die alone with a bunch of cats
I don't even like cats okay
so you know let us read the book of Zechariah
and study it and you know don't get fooled into this stupid Zionist stuff it's junk
we need to apply these verses to us and to Christians and we need to turn America
back to the word of God and we need people to preach the word of God
thank you Heavenly Father so much for the book of Zechariah thank you so much for being
such a gracious God that wants to turn mercy back to
the house of Jerusalem and I pray that Christians in this country
would wake up they'd wake up and recognize who the real Israel is who the real
Jerusalem is I pray that you would help
preachers that are scared or nervous about preaching what the Bible says that they'd actually
preach it I pray that you'd actually get a group
of people together that actually want to build the house of God that you would touch their hearts
that you'd help them to put building the house of God first in their lives and I pray
that as they make the right decision as they turn to you that you would turn to them that you would bless them
that you would prosper them and that you would
buy a miracle bring us some carpenters to drive away the horns in our country and our lives
please give us a time of peace and allow us to build as we turn
to you and in Jesus' name we pray, Amen
Alright, in closing let's go to song number
129
song number 129, Rock of Ages
song number 129
everybody sing it out with a verse
stay from wrath and
make me pure could my tears
forever flow could
my zeal no anger know
these for sin could not
atone thou must save and thou
alone in my hand
no price I bring simply
to the cross I cling
while I draw this fleeting breath
when my eyes are
frozen dead when I rise
to worlds unknown and behold
beyond my throne
the rock of ages clap for me
let me hide myself
in need
great singing everybody, we're all dismissed