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["Piano Sonata No. 1 in C Major"] A little bit. Welcome to Straight Pass Baptist Church. If you could please find our seats and open up our windows to song number 23. We'll sing the song number 23. There is power in the body. Give us a song number 23. There is power in the blood. Power in the blood. There is power in the blood. There is power in the blood. There is power in the blood. There is power in the blood. There is power in the blood. There is power in the blood. There is power in the blood. There is power in the blood. There is power in the blood. There is power in the blood. There is power in the blood. There is power in the blood. the land. There is power, power, wonder, wondering, power, in the precious blood of the Lamb. Wishing he'd be free from the lashing in fire, there's power in the blood, power in the blood. Light through the night, send to Calvary's heart, there's wonder, no power in the blood. There is power, power, on your working ground. You're in the blood of the lamb. There is power, power, on your working ground. You're in the land of the sea. Power in the blood, power in the blood. Sing, sing to us in peace, right where we flow. There's one good word, power in the blood. There is power, power, on your working ground. You're in the blood of the lamb. There is power, power, on your working ground. You're in the precious blood of the lamb of us. There is service for Jesus indeed. There's power in the blood, power in the blood. In his praises we sing. There's one good word, power in the blood. There is power, power, on your working ground. You're in the body of the lamb. There is power, power, on your working ground. You're in the precious blood of the lamb. .... .. ... .. .. .. .. of the high and the new, high and the new. Just as I am, I am breathing hard to rid the storm of our dark night, to feel the new days, the storm of rain, of our new, high and new. Just as I am, I do survive, with rain on my ground, with many a turn, through the leaves and fields with me, without a prayer of God, I pray, I pray. Just as I am, I am reaching high, as I reach this feeling of the high, and all I need will be to find a way, of what I do. I pray. Just as I am, everything we see, will barely run for the things we fear, because I cry, beside, beneath the land of God, I pray, I pray. Alright, well great to see everybody back at the evening service here at Straight Paths. If you need a bulletin, go ahead and slip up your hand, one will be brought to you. On the back there we have the service times, we'll be back again Thursday at 7 for Genesis chapter number 41. We have the church-wide soul-winning times below that, as well as the regional soul-winning times, the salvations and baptisms for both the month and year. Our attendance annual records there, so this morning was another good one, we were right there at 40, so that was good to see this morning, and I know several folks are out of town again this morning, so hopefully we can break that again, one of these records, the AM service, you know, before the end of the year. And if we could just get everybody to show up at one service, you know, I think we could do that pretty easily, but, and as always, if we break the record, you know, we'll pop the popcorn. Speaking of food, we've got the annual chili cook-off coming up on Thursday, October 31st, so that's a week from this Thursday, so hopefully everyone's got their chilis dialed in or preparing to, who's going to enter a chili in the contest this year? I see one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, I feel like the Nunez house has got a chance here, because they've got a, it's all one chili? Alright, well now your odds went way down, so anyway, but it's always a good chili, I know, so we've got other people entering chilis as well, right, Raffa? You throwing one down? Rest, you might as well just not even bother. I'll just make a big pot, right, and then I'll eat that. No, I'm just kidding. It's always lots of great chilis, but come on out for that, and as always, you know the rules, everyone here, but just as a reminder, they've got to be made from scratch, and if you're going to enter a chili, you're allowed to vote, just not for your own. You've got to give your vote to somebody else. We'll have the sides, the spiced cider, the chips, the sour cream, the cheese, and so on and so forth. So let's go ahead and count up the soul winning real quick before we get into the preaching tonight. Let's go over to Friday, anything from Friday? And then, anything from Saturday? And then what about today? We've got the one today, praise the Lord. Alright, that'll do it for announcements. We'll go ahead and sing one more song before we get into the preaching tonight. Right, if you could please turn your hymnals to song number 227. Singing song number 227, C-5-O-4. And then the song number 227. Singing, C-5-O-4. Singing, C-5-O-4. Singing, C-5-O-4. Singing, C-5-O-4. Singing, C-5-O-4. Singing, C-5-O-4. Singing, C-5-O-4. Singing, C-5-O-4. Singing, C-5-O-4. Singing, C-5-O-4. Singing, C-5-O-4. Singing, C-5-O-4. Singing, C-5-O-4. Singing, C-5-O-4. Singing, C-5-O-4. Singing, C-5-O-4. Singing, C-5-O-4. Singing, C-5-O-4. Singing, C-5-O-4. Singing, C-5-O-4. Singing, C-5-O-4. Singing, C-5-O-4. Singing, C-5-O-4. Singing, C-5-O-4. Singing, C-5-O-4. Singing, C-5-O-4. Singing, C-5-O-4. Singing, C-5-O-4. Singing, C-5-O-4. Singing, C-5-O-4. Singing, C-5-O-4. Singing, C-5-O-4. Singing, C-5-O-4. Singing, C-5-O-4. Singing, C-5-O-4. Singing, C-5-O-4. Enter into the rock and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the Lord and for the glory of His majesty. The lofty looks of man shall be humble, and the haughtiness of man shall be bowed down. And the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. For the day of the Lord of the cold shall be upon everyone that is proud and lofty, and upon everyone that is lifted up. And he shall be brought low, and upon all the cedars in Lebanon that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Asian, and upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up, and upon every tower, and upon every fence wall, and upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant pictures. And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of man shall be made low, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. And the idol shall be utterly abolished, and they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth. For fear of the Lord, and for the glory of His majesty, He ariseth to shape the parity of the earth. In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats, to go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks. For fear of the Lord, and for the glory of His majesty, when He ariseth to shape the parity of the earth, ceasing from that whose breath is in His nostrils, but wherein is He to be counted? Brother Wally, can you pray for us? Lord, most gracias. Father, we thank you for allowing us this time to congregate together. We thank you for the soul-willing we had today, and the fellowship. Lord God, we ask you to mightily bless Pastor's voice. Bless his mouth, O child, that he may speak the word of God to us. We ask you to fill him with his host, with your Holy Spirit. And we ask you to bless our hearts and our ears, so that we may gladly receive your word. We ask you this in Jesus' name, Amen. Amen. So Isaiah chapter 2 is a very prophetic chapter, and you might even recognize some of the elements here that are being mentioned in relation to the millennium. So we have, of course, the house of God being established there in the mountains, as it says in verse 2, And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established and the top of the mountains shall be exalted above all hills, and all nations shall flow unto it. I believe this is very prophetic of the millennium, that when Christ comes to rule and reign upon the earth, that all the nations are going to come and worship before God's throne in Jerusalem. Verse 3, and it says that many people shall go and say, Come ye, let us go to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. So of course, again, the millennium is going to be this great time when Christ is ruling and reigning upon the earth, and we shall reign with him. And the law of God is going to be what is the law of the land. He's going to establish his rule, his reign, over the earth. And I think this is important because it gives us perspective about, you know, what is truly right when it comes to governance, and how, really, how our governance just falls so incredibly short of that. And this is kind of a political sermon tonight. I think it's an important one because we're, you know, less than, what, two weeks away from the election, and there's a lot of talk about who people are voting for and how things are going to go. And I think it's just a good reminder this evening to remember that whoever wins, they're just people. They're just men. Now, I understand there's a woman, right? But hopefully she doesn't get in, but if she does, you know, whatever. You know, if she gets in, if Trump gets in, whoever gets elected, in the long run, in the scheme of things, it really doesn't matter. And we need to be reminded that who we serve on this earth is God. We're here to serve the Lord. We're here to serve Christ. And that ultimately, one day, even the nations that are being run by these people, they are going to be subject even unto Christ. You know, we today, we're subject unto Christ in our hearts and our spirits. We serve Him. Of course, we obey the law of the land. You know, we live peaceably with all men. But ultimately, in the end of it all, all men, all people, all nations are going to end up serving God during this thousand-year reign of Christ. And I love how He kind of ends this chapter, such a great chapter. Look at verse 17. He says, And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. And today, we have a lot of people that are lifting up themselves and exalting themselves. They're very haughty in their spirit. This is why it's so hard to watch politics. It's why it's so hard sometimes to listen to politicians speak because they're always just bragging about themselves, telling you how great they are, how they're better than somebody else, and bringing the other person down. I don't know that it's always been that way, but it just seems like that's kind of the way it is anymore. It's not about necessarily talking about what's best for people or what ideas they're bringing. It's just trying to drag down the other person and lift the other person up. And it's a very haughty spirit that we see often in politics today. But you know what? The Lord alone is going to be exalted in that day. Look at verse 18. And the idols shall he utterly abolish, and they shall go into the holes of the rocks and the caves of the earth for the fear of the Lord and for the glory of his majesty when he ariseth to shake terribly of the earth. That's what we read about this morning in Mark 13 in Revelation 6 when you have that great earthquake and the great men and the chief captains are running into the mountains and asking the rocks to fall and then to hide them from the face of the land for the great day of his wrath is come. That's kind of a parallel there. In that day, verse 20, a man shall cast his idols of silver and his idols of gold which they made each one for himself to worship to the moles and to the bats and to the clefts of the rocks and to the tops of the ragged rocks for fear of the Lord and for the glory of his majesty when he ariseth to shake terribly of the earth. They're literally just going to forsake all their idols. They're going to forsake all their false gods. The things that they thought weren't so important, they're just going to leave behind and they're going to go and hide themselves because of the face of the land, because of God. And I love verse 22. Cease ye from man whose breath is in his nostrils, for wherein is he to be accounted of? At the end of the day, whoever it is that sits in that office on Pennsylvania Avenue is just a man. And where is he to be accounted of? His breath is in his nostrils. He's just a mortal man like anybody else. It's really not that big of a deal in the scheme of things. And I'll just say this. Whoever gets elected is exactly who this nation deserves. And I'm not saying that if Trump gets in, then we're blessed. Because I don't believe that. And again, I'm not trying to go out of my way to offend people. I know probably some people aren't going to like this sermon very much. And I don't very often preach, and not just to you, brother, I don't often preach a lot of political sermons. But it's kind of a relevant topic. And honestly, I've been mulling things over. I've been paying more attention this cycle than I normally have. And I've kind of had to come to my own conclusions about certain things. And I'm not trying to impose my opinion on anybody else. And I'm not trying to say you should do as I do. I think you should do according to the dictates of your own conscience on this one. Now, if you're voting for Kamala, we have an issue. In the past, I admittedly have been pretty cynical about our whole political system and voting in general. And I think for good reason. Because there's really no one to actually vote for without holding your nose. At the end of the day, that's who we're voting for. Someone we just have to kind of cringe and just pull the lever and say, well, it's the lesser of two evils. At least it's not this. That's not a very inspiring way to live your life. That's why I'm just checking out of it. And let me just come out and say it. I am not voting in this presidential election. I might go down there and cast some ballots and some propositions for some local matters and things like that. Maybe some local people. Maybe, I don't know if I can be bothered to even do that. But I was even kind of thinking, well, maybe this time I should be voting. Maybe I could just hold my nose and vote for Trump. But I'm not going to. And again, I'm not saying this to impose my will on you. If you feel like that's something you need to do, by all means. I'm not trying to convict you that it's wrong. That's the Holy Spirit that's doing it. No, I'm just kidding. I'm really not. And I think I have to kind of make my position clear a little bit because I am a pastor. I'm a preacher of the word of God, a man of God. And I don't want people to get the wrong impression that maybe I'm giving my approval of somebody. That I'm endorsing them. Not that my endorsement means anything. I understand. But I want to preach a sermon tonight called MAGA. MAGA. Now we all know what MAGA means. You know, Make America Great Again. And on the way over here, I was kind of thinking about the irony of that. Like, Make America Great Again. Is that Trump's slogan this time around? I know it was the first one. Did he revive that and bring it back? I know he's been saying it. You know, when you think about it, it's kind of ironic because is America really that bad? Like, Make America Great Again. How bad has it gotten? Like, I understand there's a lot of iniquity and there's a lot of bad things. We could criticize a lot of things about America. But it's like, people are almost just spoiled in this country. Where they're like, well, you know, we've got to make America great again because, you know, I've got to make sure that my air conditioning isn't that expensive or the fuel comes down. And again, we've all got to survive and things like that. But let's not forget how good we have it here. It's already pretty great in the United States. It's already pretty good. In fact, it's already great. Maybe the slogan should have been Make America Greater. And just leave the A off. I don't know. That would just be called MAG. Right? But here's the thing. America's not that bad. I mean, for all the things we've got going against us, you know, how bad things have been, you know, we're still way better off than the vast majority of the world by far. Way better off than the vast majority of the world throughout all of history. You know, I was trying to explain this to my children that, you know, hot indoor, not indoor plumbing, but just hot water is a recent, you know, development within the last century or so. You know, 99% of human history, that's not been a thing. You had to boil water and pour it in a tub and hurry up and get in. Right? And that wasn't an everyday occurrence. We have air conditioning. We have temperate control in our water. It's plumbed. We have all these luxuries. I mean, good night. I'm thinking about this driving over in my leather seat in my car with cruise control and AC, you know, and adding notes on my smartphone to my sermon. I was like, you know, not while I was driving, but, you know, we have all these luxuries. We have all these great things. Is America really in that much need of a revival? I don't think it is. Now, I understand there's issues that are facing this country that are important. The border, abortion, and things like that. But even then, when it comes to Trump, it's like he's not exactly anti-abortion. I mean, I know he turned it over to the states, right? And that's good. I guess that's a step in the right direction. But has he just come out and said, I'm against all abortion? Has he taken that strong of a stand? No, he's kind of punted on that one. And look, we can all debate the politics around that and his policies and things. But, you know, I just want people to be reminded that Donald Trump is just a man. And where is he to be accounted of? In the millennium, you know, he's going to be a nobody. He's not going to be anybody even worth remembering. And this is something that, you know, we have to be reminded of. And often it's the job of the preacher to kind of remind us of these things. Look at verse 4 of Jeremiah, Isaiah chapter 2. And he shall judge among the nations and shall rebuke many people. He shall judge among the nations and rebuke many people. So he's going to be judging and he's going to judge them and the determination he's going to come to is that there's many people that need to be rebuked. There's many people that have to be straightened out. You know, the same thing could happen today. If the Lord were to judge America, I wonder what conclusion he would come to. That he'd probably come to the conclusion that it's a nation that deserves the wrath of God to be poured out upon it. And that's just a fact. I mean, you can't shed as much innocent blood as this country has shed and not have the wrath of God come upon you. And look, all the voting in the world, all the policies that they want enacted, there's nothing you can do to avoid that. The land is polluted. And I get it. We're not the only ones. We're not the only ones. There's other nations that are guilty of those things and other things. We are the ambassadors of sodomy across the country in the United States. That's a fact. You know, and we promote the most filth and the most abominable things throughout the whole world. You say, oh, that doesn't sound very patriotic. Look, I'd love to be patriotic, but I'm not going to do it, I'm not going to be blindly patriotic. And again, I'm glad, I'm grateful to be living in this country. I wouldn't want to live anywhere else in the world. Because of the freedoms that we have here, the luxuries that we enjoy, the conveniences, the amenities, everything. Don't get me wrong, it's great. But, you know, let's not suppose that gain is godliness. Because it's not. The devil has a lot of money. And I didn't really, I wasn't going to develop any of this, but, and I don't like to just throw things out there, but I think everybody here for the most part is on the same page that, you know, if we're living in the end times, which I believe we are, this is Babylon. We're in it. America is the end times Babylon, in my opinion. And I think if God were to judge the nations today, there would be a lot of, you know, American leaders that would be rebuked. There's a lot of Americans that would be rebuked. Go over to Psalm chapter 9, Psalm chapter number 9. Say, I don't know if you should preach about this. Well, Jeremiah was set, the Bible says, over the nations and over the kingdom to root out, to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, and to build, and to plant. That's what the Lord said to Jeremiah. See, I have set thee this day over the nations, over the kingdoms. To what? To destroy, to throw down, to build, and to plant. And we know that many of God's prophets would rebuke nations. They would rebuke leaders. They would go in there and they would say, thus saith the Lord. And, you know, this is something that I think as a pastor sometimes you have to do. You just have to kind of make your opinion known. Because I don't want people to get the mixed message up here and think that somehow I think Donald Trump is a great guy. Because he's not. Okay? He isn't. Look, he might have some great ideas. He's probably obviously a very good businessman. But this all just plays to my point that people today, they're just more concerned about their pocketbook than anything. I've said this before. You know what elections are about? Money. They're about money. And I get it. There's other issues that we could point to. So I know it's not just about money this time around. I agree that the border is a mess. That that is a huge issue that needs to be addressed. It's terrible what's going on down there. And I'll be perfectly honest. If someone put a gun to my head and said, you're going to pick the next president, who's it going to be? I would say, without hesitation, Donald Trump. I mean, I wouldn't even have to think twice about that. One, because he's a man. That right there, between the two, it's like, do I want to be ruled over by a man or a woman? Man. What about his policies? Don't care. Give me the man. But that doesn't mean that I think he's some beacon of morality that we should look to. Because he isn't. I mean, the guy's on his third marriage. And I know there's been a lot of unproven allegations about all his adultery. But, you know, there's also been a few hot mics that have caught him. There's been some hot mics where he's been saying some pretty lewd things about committing adultery. You know, and honestly, you know, the founding fathers, I honestly believe if they looked at what we had to pick from today, they would hang their heads in shame. I have a hard time believing a lot of the founding fathers would be smiling and nodding over this election. Oh, Donald Trump, great, yeah, excellent choice. It's bizarre. But it's the perfect picture of where we are as a nation. You know, you've got some wino aunt that no one trusts, right? And Kamala, you've got some cackling woman, you know, some feminist, some Marxist, some socialist, and then you have some adulterer. I mean, that's the perfect picture of America. An adulterous and perverse generation. Among whom we ought to shine as lights, okay? And again, I call this sermon Maggot. I know it's kind of ranty this evening. Forgive me. But my acronym is not Make America Great Again, it's Make America Godly Again. You want to do something for America? You know, go vote for whoever you've got to go for. Go cast your ballot. You know, go help resolve some of these issues. That's fine. Do what you've got to do. But I'm not going to go do that. I'm not going to get over there and cast a ballot for an adulterer. And I'm not saying, because I'm a pastor. I'm a man of God. You know, I'm someone who has to be an example to the flock of, you know, of righteousness. And adultery is a big deal in the Bible. Huge deal. And he's guilty of more than one form of adultery. You know, getting divorced and remarrying is adultery. That's what the Bible says. I make no apologies for that. You know, actually going out and sleeping with somebody other than your spouse, that's another form of adultery that was actually punishable by death. You know, I have a hard time voting for somebody that I probably wouldn't even be able to allow in my church. That I'd probably have to kick out. Because, you know, 1 Corinthians 5, you can't be covetous. And that guy is a covetous guy. When you're painting everything gold, when you're owning casinos, when your life revolves around money, well, he's not a covetous guy. Come on. Right? And again, I'm not saying that you can't go vote or that you're in sin if you do. I can understand why people want to vote for him. Because they're concerned about some of these issues. I get it. Believe me. In my flesh, I'm like, yeah. I want to go vote for him, too. But it's like, I have to hold a standard up here that, hey, we take a stand against some things. I'm not going to be approving of somebody that's guilty of these sins. That's how I judge it. As a pastor, I'm just saying, if I can't let this guy in my church, if I'd have to kick him out, I'm not going to go elect him to try to get him elected as president. I really don't care who becomes president. I'm just being perfectly honest. Because this nation's doomed either way. You know, maybe one will get us there a little bit quicker than the other. I understand that. But my position is, you know, I can't just give my stamp of approval to people that are covetous, to people that are adulterers. That alone is a big issue. Is it really that big of a deal? The fact that you're asking that, if you're even thinking that, proves that it's a big deal. Because we're living in a country where adultery and divorce are not a big deal anymore. That's how far down we've stooped. I mean, should we just look at some statistics this morning, or this evening, about adultery? I think I had them pulled up earlier. Maybe they're right here. Yeah, Forbes.com. Which, last I checked, I don't know, is Forbes a super conservative site? I mean, they seem generally to be pretty neutral. They could go either way. But they're just citing things. Good news, the divorce rate has decreased from a rate of 4.0 to 2.4 per 1,000 since 2000. What they don't tell you is that the rate of marriage has also gone down drastically, too. And third marriages have the highest rate of divorce rate of 73%. Good luck, Milana. Right, that's his third wife, Milana, right? The second one was the woman he was sleeping with with his first wife. Is that right? They say it's character assassination. This is just a matter of public record. And again, I don't care if people go vote for him. I'm not trying to convince anybody not to. I'm just telling you why I'm not going to vote for him as a pastor. Because I cannot endorse people that are guilty of sins like this. And again, if the founding fathers have got to be rolling over in their grave over some of this stuff, I, again, have a hard time seeing them smile about our current political cycle. Forty percent of new marriages include a partner who is remarrying. That's adultery, according to the Bible. But again, that's not that big of a deal. People don't think that's that big of a deal. The Bible calls it adultery. God says he hates putting away. Only six percent of divorced couples remarry each other. That's God's will. Reconciliation, when people get divorced, your options are to stay unmarried, according to God. If you want to be right with God, if you want to be right with God and get a divorce, then you either remarry your spouse as long as they haven't remarried and divorced somebody else. That's called an abomination in the sight of God. Or you just stay unmarried. That's your options. And only six percent of people are doing that to get divorced today. Because it's not that big a deal. Because we have presidents and we have leaders and we have movie stars who just, it's no big deal to just be wracked with disease. It's no big deal to just be committing adultery. It's no big deal to just get divorced two, three, four times and get remarried. You know, you want to make America great again, you know where you start? The home. That's where you start. You know what the foundation, you know what the bedrock, you know what the fabric of the society is? The family unit. And I don't care what other policies you pass, if you're destroying the home, it doesn't matter how many illegal immigrants you get out of here, it doesn't matter how much lower you make gas prices, it doesn't matter what you do with inflation, if you're destroying the home, you're destroying this country. That's a fact. You know, and that's, you know, being married, the home life is not a real big deal to any of these candidates that are up there. You know, maybe Vance, I don't know. Divorcees are more likely to die earlier than married people. You want to live a long time, stay married to your spouse. You want to live longer, stay married to your spouse if you want to live longer than the average person. You know, I was talking to my wife about this, and she remembers talking to people in older, you know, older people, you know, from previous generations. They said, you know, I can't remember exactly how she put it, but she said, you know, you just made it work. You didn't get a divorce, you just made it work. People that stayed married for a long time, they weren't saying, oh, he's just so great, oh, she's just so wonderful. They weren't just saying, oh, you know, I got lucky, you know, I just married a great spouse. They just, their attitude was back then, back in the days, you just don't do it. You just don't get divorced. You just make it work. People, you know, the words till death do us part used to mean something in this country. So again, I'm not, I'm saying make America godly again. Okay, and I'm not against, I'm not mad at anybody who wants to come in here and stump for Trump and talk about it. Honestly, I'll talk to you about it. I've had conversations. I get it. I see the appeal. If I had to choose, if I could vote and not feel guilty about it, I would. But I'm a pastor. I'm somebody that has to have some integrity about these things and has to be an example. And again, I'm not trying to say you shouldn't vote for somebody. I don't care what you do. I care if you vote for Kamala. Let me say that again, all right? In fact, some of you, I hope you can vote twice. Once for me. But I can't go down there in good conscience as a pastor and vote for a guy who's on his third wife and is just openly talks about divorce and affairs and adultery as if, he just has a very laissez-faire attitude towards adultery, folks. He's a womanizer. Well, is it that big of a deal? He's the leader of this nation. Couples who live together before marriage are more likely to divorce. Since I'm just reading some of these bullet points. I'm just reading some of these bullet points. You want to stay married to the person that you marry? Don't commit fornication with them. Don't live with them before you get married. Statistically, you'll be far less likely to get a divorce. Having friends who are divorced increases your risk of divorce. I wonder what having a president who's been divorced multiple times is going to do for this nation. That's the example that we're lifting up in front of young people. You can be a divorced. You can commit adultery. You can be covetous and still do great things. And the world will praise you and love you. Look, the guy needs to be brought down a notch a little bit. He can make America great again, whatever that means. I just want to make America godly again. And let me tell you something. If our motto is make America godly again, that guy ain't going to do it. He ain't about that. He's not trying to make that happen. There's no one in his cabinet that's going to be advising him on how to make America godly again. Because in his mind, making America great again just means making him more prosperous and having more money. Covetousness. Even though we have more than heart could wish in this country. People are so ungrateful for all the things they already have. And look, I'm all for bringing down gas prices. Great, I hope somebody does it. But you know what? My happiness does not depend on that. Look at Psalms verse 17. The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all nations that forget God. All nations that forget God. Unless they get the right president in there, right? No. All nations that forget God shall be turned into hell. They shall be destroyed. There's a couple ways you can look at that verse. You know, there's entire people, nations, countries that get away from God and just don't have the gospel, that just go dark on the gospel. There's no light there. It means entire nations, entire people groups just going to hell. That's a scary thought. When the gospel stops being preached and just generations, entire nations of people go without Christ, go to hell. That's what happens when you forget God. And look, America is not above that. This could happen here. And thank God we live in a country where we have the liberties that we do. Where we can go out and preach the gospel. Where we can go out and proclaim the name of the Lord. Where we can get up and just freely exercise our freedom of religion. I hope that that continues. I really do. But you know, we're not above it. And it just seems like our nation is just getting more and more forgetful when it comes to God. We're less and less concerned as being a godly nation. We're more concerned about being a great nation than a godly one. I like verse 20, Put them to inferior, O Lord, that the nations may know themselves to be but men. They're just men. Go over to Psalm 22, Psalm 22. And I want to make this nation godly again. That's what I want to do. And look, I'm all for people going out and voting for their favorite candidate. If you can go out there and do that, you know, go rock the vote. Go exercise your right to vote. Get out there, you know, bring your friend, whatever. Do what you got to do. But all I'm saying tonight is that if that should not be more important to you, you want to make America great again, go ahead. But let's not forget to make America godly again. That's what we should really be concerned about. That's what we should be the most concerned about. Look, I know this the last three and a half to four years with under Biden, Harris has not been in some ways has not been great. Inflation, Bidenomics, all that. But you know what? What I've noticed is it hasn't made a dent in our soul winning. Hasn't changed a single sermon of mine. You know, I haven't been more reluctant. You know, I've had the same amount of religious freedom as I had under the previous four years and the four years before that. Nothing, you know, nothing's changed. And all I'm saying tonight is look, whoever gets elected, so what? The world will not end. Well, yeah, but what if, you know, our nation is dissolved? What if just so many illegal immigrants come into our country that we just cease to be a nation anymore? Well, then I'll just chalk it up as the judgment of God, which we deserve as a nation. This nation deserves to be judged by God. It deserves it. And it will be. You know what? Look at the Bible. How does that often happen? The invasion of foreign hordes, pouring coming into a country. That's not, that's a biblical judgment. Maybe that's what we deserve. It doesn't matter who sits in the Oval Office because God sits on the throne. Because there's still God in heaven. That's who I'm more concerned about serving. Look at Psalms 22, verse 25. My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation. I will pay my vows before them that fear Him. The meek shall eat and be satisfied. God's not going to let you starve. Well, I just don't know what's going to happen. Well, you know what? You need to go watch the birds. God cares for the sparrow. Not one of them falls to the ground and your heavenly Father doesn't know it. He feedeth them. They gather not, neither do they toil, yet He feedeth them. The lilies of the field, you know, God erased the field with the lilies. He closed them and He's going to cast that into the oven. How much more you? How much more does it care about you as a person? You. Your needs. You are, you know, you are of much more value than they. That's what Jesus taught. The meek shall eat and be satisfied. They shall praise the Lord that seek Him. Your heart shall live forever. The ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord. And all the kindreds of the nation shall worship before thee. You know, Kamala gets elected. Trump gets elected. It doesn't matter because at the end of the day, all the kindreds of the nations are going to come and worship before God. Go ahead, make America great again. I'm going to be busy making America godly again. That's the push that we need. For the kingdom is the Lord's and He is the governor among the nations. Go to Psalm 66. Psalm 72. Yea, all kings shall fall down before Him. All nations shall serve Him. I'm just saying tonight, let's not forget to keep serving Him. Go vote for Him. You've got to go for it. Go do your thing. But don't, you better be serving God. You better be serving the Lord. You want to make America great again? Go ahead. But you better be working hard at making America godly again. Because all nations are going to serve Him. All these kings, all these rulers, they're going to bow down before Him. All things that are in the earth and all things that are under the earth are going to praise God. I thought about that phrase. All things that are under the earth are going to confess that Jesus Christ is the glory of Father. All the things that are in the earth and all things that are under the earth. I'm thinking that's got to be a reference to hell. Because that's the core of the earth. Even the people that are in hell today are going to give glory to God. All the rulers, all the wicked rulers from the past, all the ungodly rulers throughout all of history, one day are going to stand before God and give Jesus Christ glory. They're all going to go and serve Him, at least to that degree. Psalm 66, look at verse 5. Come and see the works of God. He is terrible in His doing toward the children of men. He turned at the sea into dry land. They went through the flood on foot. There did we rejoice in Him. He ruleth by His power forever. His eyes behold the nations. Let not the rebellious exalt themselves. God is beholding this nation and people need to acknowledge that. Our rulers need to start acknowledging God again if they want to make America great again. Truly. If they want to make America godly again, they need to acknowledge the fact that God's eyes behold the nation. And not exalt themselves. But you know what? Today it's the exact opposite. We have rebellious people who scoff at the word of God that don't consider God, God is not in all their thoughts, and they exalt themselves. Look, you know, maybe having a bullet whizzed by his head has woken up Trump to the reality of God. I know he's made a few comments to that, right? I hope that's the case. I hope that's the case. Maybe he'll turn into a very godly man. I'm not saying he's not beyond repenting and getting right with God, you know, but I'm not holding my breath either. It wouldn't be unlike a politician. I mean, don't you think that's kind of convenient? What was God? God did that. And all the Catholics and all the Christians, God preserved President Trump. And maybe God did. I don't know. But let not the rebellious exalt themselves. I sure wish the guy would, you know, stop being an adulterer. I hope he quits that. You know, hopefully he's not going to get a divorce again for the fourth time and continue being an adulterer. Maybe he could stop being a little covetous a little bit. Maybe he could sell that casino. Oh, bless our God, you people! I make the voice of His praise to be heard, which holdeth our soul in life, and self-worth not our feet to be moved. Go to Psalm 86. Actually, go to Psalm 117. I'll read from Psalm 86. I've got to hurry up because it's really quiet in here tonight. It's getting really uncomfortable. I can feel it. It's palpable. It's alright. I'm not mad at anyone who wants to vote for Trump. I'm not. I'm really not. I don't care. I'm glad you're not voting for, you know, Kamalathiah. Right? Queen Kamalathiah. Like Athaliah? Remember her? I almost hope she does get elected just so I can preach that sermon. Queen Kamalathiah. Just so I can get one sermon out of it. I'm kidding. Okay? I'm kidding. I don't hope she gets elected. I don't care who gets elected. Whoever gets elected is who we deserve. That's what we're going to get, folks. And look, if it turns out that Trump's going to be this great leader that's going to bring this nation back to righteousness, amen. I just don't think that's what he's about. And I get it. You know, people are patriotic. They want to see. This nation is a great nation. It has been in the past. It stands for a lot of great things that we want to continue to see happen and continue on. Our religious freedoms, our liberties and things like that. It's a city set on a hill, right? But at some point, you just have to accept the fact that it's become very corrupt. And it's got a lot of blood on its hands. And I don't think it is anything like what it used to be in a lot of ways. It's a nation in decline. I mean, how can you not see that? How can you not agree with me that this nation is a nation that's just barreling towards hell? Look at the things that this nation stands for anymore. I mean, if you're just on the moral front, you know, let's just forget about all the innocent bloodshed for a second and just talk about the fact that it just openly promotes sodomy. That it's a safe haven for faggotry. That's what this country is. And I get it, there's some people that are opposed to it, but it's like, it's getting worse and worse and worse all the time. And you say, well, what's the big deal about that? The Bible says, God says it's an abomination. It's an abomination to the sight of God. God has literally burned cities to the ground for being sodomites. Called Sodom and Gomorrah, remember that story? God said that they should be put to death. That was the Leviticus, that was the Old Testament law. You know, and we have a country today with leadership that is just wrapping their arms around just the most filthy, abominable lifestyles, death styles, whatever you want to call it there is. You know, it started out, it was just like, oh, well, we just want to let them get married. And that was the big controversial issue. I wish that was what we were debating still, which wasn't even that long ago. I was just of voting age when that was the big debate. Now today it's like, well, should we, should we, should we or shouldn't we allow our minor children go and mutilate their bodies without letting their parents know? Is it or isn't it child abuse to let your children transition, your minor children transition? Should we or shouldn't we allow drag queens to go into public libraries and read stories to our children? That's where we are as a country. And it's like sometimes you just need these sermons, you just need to be reminded because it goes on for so long and it's just like the frog getting boiled and we just get used to it and more and more used to it and it's just normal. And then we have a president who's trying to get elected who's just committed adultery. I know adultery is not that big a deal, getting divorced isn't that big of a deal because just everybody's doing it. We got people in leadership doing it. They're all promoting all this other stuff. Is it really that big of a deal? It's in the schools, it's in the universities, it's on television. And people just kind of go numb to this stuff. And it's my job to get up and try to remind people that God calls these things filth, God calls these things abomination, God calls these things disgusting. God is disgusted by these things. He hates these things. He hateth putting away. He hates these things. So yeah, go vote for whoever you got to vote for. But don't you forget that our job here as Christians is to make America godly again. And I don't even know if that's possible. At least make ourselves godly. Make this church godly. Make, you know, some little corner in Tucson godly. I'm not even sure where I was anymore. Psalm 117. Go to Luke 12. I'll just read it. Oh praise the Lord all you nations, praise Him all you people, for His merciful kindness is great toward us and the truth of the Lord endureth forever. That's who we should be praising tonight, the Lord. Luke 12. You know, I don't even want to go there. I'm sorry. I know I got you going everywhere. I feel like I'm just going to totally misapply that passage. Just go to Psalm 36. Psalm 36. I got you in Psalms already. I apologize. Fret not thyself because of evildoers, the Bible says, for they shall soon be cut down like the grass. Jesus said blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. You know, it doesn't matter who's going to get in office because eventually it's all ours. It's all going to go back to the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. You know, these guys just got it on loan for a minute. You're in Psalm 36. Look at verse 1. Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be envious against the workers of iniquity. Isn't that crazy? Don't be envious against the workers of iniquity. Don't envy people who work iniquity. You have to be told that. And look, people can start to look at some of these wicked rulers and these wicked people in the world and they can actually start to become envious of them. Well, I mean, if he can get divorced and remarried, why can't I? Doesn't seem fair that the president gets to go around and commit adultery. And I don't. That sounds crazy. But, you know, people think like this. Don't be envious of these workers of iniquity. And I know people don't like to hear it. But Trump is a guy who works iniquity. Okay? You can't commit adultery on your wife. You know, and that's just, there's just one case in which they can actually be proven. But that happened. There's a multitude of allegations. Good night. The guy's paying off a porn star. That's the next president, potentially. That's who people want as president next. The guy who's paying off porn stars to shut their mouth about his adulterous, supposed affair with them. You know how bizarre it is to even just say that? You know how strange that is? And look, I know a lot of people who are iniquity. And look, I know that our country wasn't always like this. We didn't have rule. Like, we used to have godly leadership in this country. I believe the founding fathers were godly men. God-fearing men. Except for maybe Jefferson that deists to reprobate. Jefferson rewrote the Bible, which instantly makes you a reprobate. Aside from him, Jefferson. You know, a lot of those founding fathers, congregationalist men who believed the Bible, men who believed the King James Bible, men who believed in salvation by grace through faith. We've come a long way from that, haven't we? Where our leadership is committing adultery. I mean, Kamala's no better. I mean, how'd she get her start in politics? Do I even gotta say it? Jim Brown can tell you. Well, he was separated from his spouse. Doesn't matter. He's still a married man. She's still a homewrecker. She still slept her way. She's a literal whore who slept her way into politics. This is who we have to choose between. And I just don't want people to have this over, you know, this, this, this, to think more highly of Donald Trump than they ought to think. And I just feel like some people can do that. That's a trap we can fall into. And this is where we are as a nation. Where it's like, do we vote for the whore? Or the adulterer? And look, I get it. Some people are going to go make that choice, and that's fine. And again, as it's been said, and as I have said, these words have come out of my mouth, we don't elect people for their spiritual leadership. You know why that is? Because we can't. Because there are no spiritual leaders at all. We're just electing them for their public policy. Okay, as long as we all understand that. That he's there to make America great again and we just need to be worried about making America godly again. You want to go cast a ballot, go ahead, but you better be out soul winning. You want to take in all the news, you want to listen, read all the polls, you better be reading your Bible. You want to go down to the voting booth, you want to go, you know, talk politics, you better be in church, because you're so worried about making America great again, right? But you're not going to make America great again just by voting for somebody. By voting for a literal adulterer. A serial adulterer is not going to make America great again in the sense that we need it to be made great again. We need to make it godly again. That happens here, that happens in the church house, that happens in your prayer closet, that happens out on the pavement, pounding the pavement, not going out trying to get people registered to vote, but trying to get people signed up to heaven. Trying to get them into God's kingdom. That's where we are as a nation. Who am I going to pick from? I'm so sick and tired of voting for the lesser of two evils. I'm so sick of it. And that's just every, you know, and I, yeah, you say you're jaded, you bet I am. You better believe I'm jaded with American politics. It's every election, it's every election since I've been old enough to vote. The lesser of two evils. That's so inspiring. I mean, I don't know if there's been anyone really worth voting for since Reagan. And I can't even say that because I was a child when he was president. You know? But it seems to me like that might have been the last great American president that at least had some virtue. I got two thumbs up for a frack checker back there. You know, I got a book from the Hillsdale College like this thick that has all of the, all the Federalist papers, the Constitution, all these things, all the, and it goes back to, you know, the founding fathers and it just cites all these different papers, all these presidential speeches, just document after document. You know who it ends with? Reagan's first inaugural address. That's the last entry in that book. And to me, I'm thinking even the world's kind of like, well, beyond that, it's like, these guys aren't exactly that inspiring anymore. You know, they're like, you know, they should all wear, you know, an outfit with all the sponsorships that, you know, all the corporate backing that's behind them. Exxon, Halliburton, Johnson & Johnson, whatever. This nation's gotten so corrupt. Leadership has become so corrupt. Near jaded, yep, and for good reason. I wish there was a godly person we could vote for. I wish there was somebody that had some actual moral virtue that I could endorse from the pulpit. But there isn't. There just isn't. Look at verse 3. Trust in the Lord and do good. So shalt thou dwell in the land and verily thou shalt be fed. President Donald Trump is not going to solve all your problems. You know, if you want to do good and be fed, trust in the Lord and do good. Trust in the Lord and do good. Trust in the Lord and do good. Be working for God. Delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord, trust him, and he shall bring it to pass. He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light and thy judgment as the noon day. We should just be more concerned with serving God, more concerned with walking with the Lord, more concerned with doing good. Rest in the Lord, verse 7, and wait patiently for him. Fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in the way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. You know, I don't care who gets in that White House. I'm just going to continue to rest in the Lord. I'm just waiting patiently for God. Oh, don't you think you should vote? Nope. I don't think it's a must. I don't think I have to. In fact, as a person, I don't think I have to. In fact, as a pastor, I'm not going to say it's wrong for any pastor. In my own conscience, I can't in a good conscience as a pastor go vote for that guy. I can't do it. I can't make America godly again or great again. You know what I can do? I can make it godly again. I can make it godly again. I can serve God. I can rest and wait patiently in him. I can do good. I can walk with the Lord. I can read my Bible. I can preach the gospel. I can get up behind this pulpit and teach people the word of God. That's what we ought to be concerned with. Let's go out there and win souls and let's get them in this church. Let's preach to them. Let's change lives. And let's make at least some part of America godly again. And let the rest of the world just do whatever it is they're going to do. Because they're going to do it anyway. Nine, verse nine. Evil doers shall be cut off, but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. Oh, what's going to happen to America? I don't care. I don't care. Because, you know, we're going to inherit the earth. And if America has to go down in a blaze of glory, whatever you want to call it, I don't even call it a blaze of glory. If it's just got to crumble and fall in order for that to happen, so be it. It's got everything that it's got coming to it. It deserves everything it's got coming to it, this country. Go to Luke chapter 24. I'll wrap up. I know I'm just getting some things off my chest. I know this is the most eloquent sermon tonight. But I'm just trying to get some of us to wake up, any of us that need it, and understand. All Trump is going to do is things that are just going to make, you know, he's probably going to do some things that are better for the economy. Better for things that are better for, you know, the border. But you know what? He's not going to make this country any godlier. He isn't. That's not his motive. That's not what he cares about. The only people that can make this country godly again are sitting in this room. They're sitting in this church and churches like it. It's on us. And I don't know that we can turn that tide. I don't know that we can reverse that. Because it, I mean, it's bad. People don't care about church. People don't care about the word of God. People don't care about righteousness. People care about the same thing that all these politicians care about. Their pocketbook. Their bank account. That's all they care about. Who's going to line my pockets better? Who's going to put more money in my bank? That's what people care about. You know what? We can go out there and we can get a few. We can snag a few of them. We can get a hundred. We can get a thousand maybe. Look at Luke 24 verse 45. You know, it just seems to me like God isn't really that concerned. About who gets elected. I don't think he's really that worried about it. What he's more concerned with is that the gospel is preached to every creature. That remission of sins is preached and his name is preached among all nations. That's what God wants. That's what God wants. Jesus said, if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight? My kingdom, he said, is not of this world. And again, I'm not against people that want to talk politics, be involved with politics. I get it. You're talking to a guy, you're listening to a guy right now who's listened to more than his fair share. I've probably listened to more talk radio than probably everybody else in this room except for maybe brother Andrew. And we were talking about it earlier. That's why I say that boldly because we were talking about it earlier this morning. I mean, I've paid attention to it. I've just kind of come to the determination that it doesn't really matter. They're going to do whatever they're going to do. In Proverbs 14 says this in verse 34, righteousness exalted the nation. Righteousness. You want to make America great again? Make it godly again. And I pray that four years from now, my prayer is that there's someone that's actually running for the president of the United States that I don't have to hold my nose and vote for. That I don't have to just kind of pretend he isn't all these other things and vote for. As a pastor, as a preacher. Righteousness exalted the nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. Look, it's a reproach to us to have an adulterer in the White House. Sin is a reproach to any people. Righteousness exalts the nation and sin is a reproach. It's embarrassing that that's who our leader could potentially be. I'm sorry. That's how I feel about it. You know, I've been mulling this over in my mind too. I've been thinking about which direction, what I'm going to do. And it's just I'm going to the Bible and I'm reading verses like this. That hey, it's righteousness that's going to exalt us. But if we have a serial adulterer, it's actually a reproach to us. Because you know what it is? It's a reflection of the people. That's what it is. As I said this morning, when we were talking about after service, politicians are just weather vanes that blow in the direction of the winds of the people. They're like a weather vane. Whichever way the wind's blowing, that's the direction they point. That's what you get. So that, you know, I just read all those stats on divorce and adultery. Did you know the number one reason for divorce is infidelity? Adultery? That's the number one reason. And it's the vast majority of cases is infidelity. Is that really that big of a deal? You've been watching too much TV. If you think that that's not a big deal. You haven't been reading your Bible enough. If you think that adultery and divorce is not a big deal, it's a huge deal with God. It's the home that we're talking about. And I've preached whole sermons on the devastating effects of divorce. We've looked at the statistics. That's what's tearing this nation apart. Is when you tear apart the home. And I'm not saying this to make anybody feel bad that's committed that sin. I'm not mad at people that have done that. But I have to point out the elephant in the room in this nation. That it's divorce. And you know what Trump is? He's a reflection of a bunch of adulterous, divorced people in this country. That's why people don't bat an eye. Let's vote for this guy. This multiple adulterer. The serial adulterer. It's a reproach, friend. I don't care what policy he's right on. I don't care how good he is about this or good about that. The fact that that's the guy that's going to sit in the White House is a reproach to this nation. Because it's a reflection of the people. And people, they don't even bat an eye on it. There's probably people out there thinking, No, I disagree. That guy is a reflection of the people. People just think, oh, a serial adulterer? No problem. No problem with that. It's a reproach, my friend. And the eyes of the Lord behold the nations. And if all the Bible I haven't read for you isn't enough to convince you that it's a shame that we even have to vote for someone like that, that those are our options, let me just read to you from John Adams, the second President of the United States. We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. You see, I don't care how strong our national defense is. I don't care how big our military is, how powerful it is. If you unbridle the hearts of men, their passions, if you remove religion and the Bible from society, there's no way you contend with it. You'll destroy a nation. Your nations are destroyed. And that's what he said. Let me read it to you again. We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. That's what holds nations together, morality and religion. And it's going out the window. And it's already gone out the window. So we have presidents that are committing adultery with interns in the Oval Office, Bill Clinton. Not that big a deal. And now we have a serial adulterer who's paying off porn stars to shut them up in office. Well, is it really that big of a deal? It's a reproach. It's sin. And that's where we are as a nation. People need to worry about making America great again and start making it godly again. Stop being so worried about what lever you're going to pull in some booth somewhere behind some curtain and ask yourself what you're doing to propagate the gospel, to preach the gospel to every creature. He goes on and says avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution is designed for a moral and religious people. This is John Adams, the second president of the United States that said that. A founding father who said that our Constitution is designed for a moral and religious people. It won't work for anybody else. It's made for people who can self-govern, people who have self-restraint. People who just don't give in aren't a bunch of hedonists who just give in to the lust of the flesh. People who don't commit adultery on their wives. It's wholly inadequate for any other. That's what he said. That's John Adams. I'm telling you what, he's rolling in his grave. Kamala gets elected, he's rolling in his grave. Donald Trump gets elected, he's rolling in his grave. Because that guy is far from the beacon of morality. And I don't care how good he is on any policy you want to name. The guy is a serial adulterer. It's a big deal and it's our approach to any people. And any nation, even ours. Let's go ahead and close with a word of prayer. Dear Lord, again, thank you that no matter what is going on around us, no matter who our leaders are, that we can look to God in heaven. That we have a king, immortal, invisible, the only wise God who lives and rules forever. And Lord, we look forward to the day when all nations shall flow in your holy hill and you shall teach them out of your law. We praise you for it in Christ's name, Amen. Alright, we'll go ahead and sing one more song before we are dismissed. Merging, please grab your hammers and turn to song number 374. Perfect song, the fastest, best of this evening, song number 374. Set the light and give that song number 372. Here's the altos, here's the call, home free for the restless waves. Set the light, set the light, give our souls to rest, give our souls to stay. Set the light, set the light, set the light. Keep the blessed gospel and let it shine, from shore to shore. Set the light, the blessed gospel and let it shine forevermore. We have heard the blessing going on today, set the light, set the light. Let the golden hour forget the cross we lay. Set the light, set the light, set the light. Keep the blessed gospel and let it shine, from shore to shore. Set the light, the blessed gospel and let it shine forevermore. Let it rain and grace be everywhere around. Set the light, set the light, let the Christ my spirit everywhere be found. Set the light, set the light, set the light. Keep the blessed gospel and let it shine, from shore to shore. Set the light, the blessed gospel and let it shine forevermore. Let us not go weary in the work of love. Set the light, set the light, let us gather just to account above. Set the light, set the light, set the light. Keep the blessed gospel and let it shine, from shore to shore. Set the light, the blessed gospel and let it shine forevermore. Keep the blessed gospel and let it shine forevermore. Set the light, the blessed gospel and let it shine forevermore. Keep the blessed gospel and let it shine forevermore.