(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

I'm not going to lie, I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie, I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie, I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie, I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie, I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie, I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie, I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie, I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie, I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie, I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie, I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie, I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie, I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie, I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie, I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie, I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie, I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie, I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie, I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie, I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie, I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie, I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie, I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie, I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie, I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie, I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie, I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie, I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie, I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie, I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie, I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie, I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie, I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie, I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie, I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie, I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie, I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie, I'm not going to lie. On the inside we have our service time. Sunday mornings at 1030 is our preaching service. Sunday nights at 6. Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study. Tonight we will be in 2 Chronicles chapter 12. We've got the so many times listed there below as well as, or sorry, 2 Chronicles 11. We've got the so many times listed there below as well as salvation and baptisms. This Sunday is Father's Day so we will have root beer floats after the service for all the fathers. Not in honor of all the fathers, served to the fathers. There's kind of a big difference there. And then, Stronghold Baptist Church is planting a church in Greenville, South Carolina. This is really exciting for me because I've spent a bunch of time in Greenville. I've got a bunch of relatives there. And I know that this is an area where there's kind of a big demand for a church like this because there are already a lot of people commuting from South Carolina to Stronghold Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia just because they like the church so much. And so this will be cool to put a soul winning church right in their backyard. And so they're having a big grand opening service on July 7th. But on the weekend leading up to that grand opening there's going to be a soul winning marathon on Saturday. And I'm going to be preaching on Friday night, July 5th in Greenville. So spread the word about that. Pray that it's a big success. Also be praying for those that are in Nigeria soul winning that they would be safe and have an effective time there. On the back we've got the Navajo soul winning trip coming up on June 28th and 29th. This is going to include a visit to the Grand Canyon. So see Brother Raymond Cooper for more details when he gets back from Nigeria. But we've got details over here. You can ask me if you have a question as well or Brother Segura will try to help you out as best as we can. And yeah, all the information and the sign up should be over here to my right. There's no cost of course. We take care of the hotel, the food, transportation. We just want you to participate in the soul winning even as a silent partner. Keep praying for the expectant ladies in our church that they'll have a safe and healthy pregnancy and delivery. And that is about it for announcements. Let's go ahead and count up the soul winning for the past few days. So going back to Monday, anything to report from Monday? Right. Gotcha. Okay. Alright. Anything else from Monday? How about Tuesday? Okay. Okay. Alright. And then today, I know we had nine for the church van. Anything outside of the church van today? Okay. Anything else outside the church van? Very good. Keep up the great work on soul winning. And with that, let's sing our next song. Come lead us. Alright. Take your hymnals. Go to hymn number 202. Hymn number 202. Number 202, My Redeemer. We'll sing it out on that first verse together. Hymn number 202. Sing it out together now. I will sing of my Redeemer, and his wondrous love to me. On the cruel cause he suffered, from the curse he set me free. Sing, oh sing of my Redeemer, with his blood he purchased me. On the cross he sealed my pardon, made the dead and made me free. I will tell the wondrous glory, how my loss is dead to save. In his countless love and mercy, he loves handsome freely gave. Sing, oh sing of my Redeemer, with his blood he purchased me. On the cross he sealed my pardon, made the dead and made me free. I will praise my dear Redeemer, his triumphant power of self. How the victory he given, over sin and death and hell. Sing, oh sing of my Redeemer, with his blood he purchased me. On the cross he sealed my pardon, made the dead and made me free. I will sing of my Redeemer, and his heavenly love to me. Sing, oh sing of my Redeemer, with his blood he purchased me. On the cross he sealed my pardon, made the dead and made me free. Living for Jesus, a life that is true. Striding to peace him in all that I do. Kneeling allegiance, flat-hearted and free. This is the pathway of blessing for me. Oh Jesus, Lord and Savior, I give myself to thee. For thou in thy atonement, is give thy son for me. I am no other master, my heart shall be thy throne. My life I give hence for to live. Oh Christ, for thee alone. Living for Jesus, who died in my place. Bearing of Calvary, my sin and disgrace. Such love constrains me, to answer his call. Follow his leading, and give him my all. Oh Jesus, Lord and Savior, I give myself to thee. For thou in thy atonement, is give thy son for me. I am no other master, my heart shall be thy throne. My life I give hence for to live. Oh Christ, for thee alone. Living for Jesus, wherever I am. Doing his duty, in his holy name. Willing to suffer, affliction and loss. Keeping each trial, a part of my cross. Oh Jesus, Lord and Savior, I give myself to thee. For thou in thy atonement, is give thy son for me. I am no other master, my heart shall be thy throne. My life I give hence for to live. Oh Christ, for thee alone. Living for Jesus, through earth's little while. My dearest treasure, the light of his smile. Seeking the lost ones, he died to redeem. Bringing the weary, to find rest in him. Oh Jesus, Lord and Savior, I give myself to thee. For thou in thy atonement, is give thy son for me. I am no other master, my heart shall be thy throne. My life I give hence for to live. Oh Christ, for thee alone. All right, this time we'll pass our offering plates around. As the plates go around, let's turn in our Bibles to 2 Chronicles 11. 2 Chronicles 11, as we always do, we'll read the entire chapter, beginning in verse 1. We'll go along silently with brother Nick as he reads. 2 Chronicles 11, starting in verse 1. 2 Chronicles 11, the Bible reads. And when Rabom was come to Jerusalem, he gathered to the house of Judah and Benjamin in hundred and four-score thousand chosen men, which were warriors to fight against Israel, that he might bring the kingdom again to Rabom. But the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah, the man of God, saying, speak unto Rabom, the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all Israel, and Judah and Benjamin, saying, Thus saith the Lord, ye shall not go up, nor fight against your brethren. Return, every man, to his house, for this thing is done of me. And they obeyed the words of the Lord and returned from going against Jeroboam. And Rehoboam dwelt in Jerusalem and built cities for defense in Judah. And he built even Bethlehem, and Itaam, and Tekoa, and Bethjor, and Shoko, and Adulam, and Gath, and Marisha, and Zith, and Adraim, and Lachish, and Azekah, and Zorah, and Ijelon, and Hebron, which are in Judah and in Benjamin fenced cities. And he fortified the strongholds and put captains in them in store of vittles and of oil and wine. And in every several cities, he put shields and spears and made them exceeding strong, having Judah and Benjamin on his side. And the priests and the Levites that were in all Israel resorted to him out of all their coasts, for the Levites left their suburbs and their possession and came to Judah and Jerusalem, for Jeroboam and his sons had cast them off from executing the priest's office under the Lord. And he ordained him priests for the high places and for the devils and for the calves which he had made. And after them, out of all the tribes of Israel, such as set their hearts to seek the Lord God of Israel, came to Jerusalem to sacrifice under the Lord God of their fathers. So they strengthened the kingdom of Judah and made Reboam the son of Solomon strong three years. For three years, they walked in the way of David and Solomon. And Reboam took him Mahalap, the daughter of Jeroboam, the son of David, the wife, and Abbahel, the daughter of Eliab, the son of Jesse, which bear him children, Jehosh, and Shemariah, and Zeham. And after her he took Merkah, the daughter of Absalom, which bear him Abijah, and Atai, and Ziza, and Selemith. And Reboam loved Merkah, the daughter of Absalom, above all his wives and his concubines, for he took eighteen wives and threescore concubines and begat twenty and eight sons and threescore daughters. And Reboam made Abijah, the son of Merkah, the chief, to be ruler among his brethren, for he thought to make him king. He dealt wisely and dispersed of all his children throughout all the countries of Judah and Benjamin unto every fenced city, and he gave them vittle in abundance. And he desired many wives. Father in Heaven, we thank you for the opportunity to hear your word preached. We thank you for preserving your word to us. We ask you, Phil, Pastor Anderson, with your spirit and boldness to preach your word, Lord, and give us a tent of hearts to receive your word. We ask all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Man, of course, last week we saw that the kingdom was split between Reboam and Jeroboam. Solomon had dishonored the Lord toward the end of his life by sponsoring temples for the false gods that his wives were worshiping, and so he ended up committing these major sins. And so God had already prophesied before that this isn't really spelled out in 2 Chronicles, but we know this from reading 1 Kings, that the kingdom was going to be divided. And so Jeroboam had led that rebellion, if you remember last week, where he talked the people into confronting Reboam. Reboam gave them a bad answer, and so they ended up splitting. So if we start out in verse number 1 of chapter 11, it says, When Reboam was come to Jerusalem, he gathered of the house of Judah and Benjamin a hundred and four-score thousand chosen men. So he's got a hundred and eighty thousand warriors to fight against Israel, that he might bring the kingdom again to Reboam. But the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah, the man of God, saying, Speak unto Reboam the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all Israel and Judah and Benjamin, saying, Thus saith the Lord, Ye shall not go up, nor fight against your brethren. Return every man to his house, for this thing is of me. And they obeyed the words of the Lord, and returned from going after, or going against Jeroboam. So the idea here is that, you know, they're splitting, and Reboam and Judah and Benjamin, those are the two tribes that stayed with Reboam in the south. They're saying, nah, you can't leave, you know, we need to stay united. It's one kingdom, Israel, twelve tribes, I'm going to reign over all of you guys. You know, it kind of makes me think of the American Civil War, except it's the exact opposite, right? Instead of the south seceding, it's the north seceding, and leaving. And so Abraham Lincoln, you know, is ready to stop this, but God actually tells him, no, this is my will that the kingdom be split. I'm behind this, do not fight against your brethren, do not have this civil war. You just need to let those ten tribes go their separate ways. Now why did God want those ten tribes to go their separate ways? Number one, he was of course punishing Solomon for what he did, and so he's taking away a big part of the kingdom from his descendants. But you know, there's more to it than that. The northern kingdom ends up being super corrupt. Here's the thing, a lot of those northern tribes were already corrupt in the first place, and so I think part of what God's doing is allowing the wicked northern kingdom to sort of go their own way so that he can preserve the southern kingdom for longer. Ultimately the northern kingdom gets so wicked that God is just done with them and brings them into captivity, into Assyria. But the southern kingdom lasts longer than the northern kingdom. And if you study the Bible, of course there are hundreds and hundreds of years of history of this divided kingdom. What you'll find is that in the southern kingdom, sometimes you have a godly king, sometimes you have an ungodly king. Whereas in the northern kingdom of Israel, it's always an ungodly king. They never have a righteous government up there, and they're pretty much idolatrous the entire time. Now there are men like Elijah and Elisha that preach to them, and of course many other prophets that preach to them. But in general, they're a wicked kingdom. God's people, the house of God, you know, the true worship of God is centered in the southern kingdom in Jerusalem. And that southern kingdom consists primarily of these two tribes, right? Benjamin and Judah. And then the northern ten tribes are part of that nation of Israel. They ultimately go into captivity in Assyria, and they never come back. Which is why they are known as the ten lost tribes. Lost to history. Whatever happened to them? Well here's what happened. They got scattered into all nations, and they assimilated into those populations. And after centuries go by, you don't even remember that they were ever Israelites in the first place. And so those are the ten lost tribes. Here's an important thing to note. People that are part of that northern kingdom of Israel are never called Jews in the Bible. The term Jew comes from the name of the southern kingdom of Judah. In fact, if you start reading your Bible in Genesis, the first time you're going to come to the word Jew is in 2 Kings 16. That's pretty late in the Bible. It's toward the very end of the Old Testament history. 2 Kings 16, and it's talking about the Jews fighting against Israel in that verse. But a lot of people just conflate these two things. They just conflate Jews and Israel. They think that's the same thing. But in reality, no. You have the northern kingdom of Israel. Capital city ultimately becomes Samaria. And then you have the southern kingdom of Judah, capital city Jerusalem. And that southern kingdom of Judah is where the Jews get their name. In the New Testament, this is the Roman province of Judea. And so the reason I make a big deal about this is because a lot of people today, they will think, oh, the 12 tribes of Israel, that's Jews. But hold on a second. Jews are predominantly, by and large, the lion's share of them are from two tribes, Benjamin and Judah. Also the Levites mixed in. They're a special tribe. Now, we're going to see in this chapter, though, that there are going to be some individuals, some stragglers, who do obviously migrate from the northern tribes down into the southern kingdom. So yeah, in the southern kingdom of Judah, yeah, you're going to have a few people from Simeon. You're going to have some people from Issachar. You're going to have some people from Asher. But the lion's share, by far, it's all Judah and Benjamin. Just a tiny bit of people from those northern tribes. And so it is wrong to say, oh, 12 tribes of Israel, that's Jews. Here's why this becomes significant when you're studying the book of Revelation. And you have all these Bible teachers coming at you, telling you, oh, the tribulation's all about the Jews. And oh, man, the book of Revelation's all about the Jews and stuff. And then you point out to them that the book of Revelation never mentions the Jews, except in chapters 2 and 3, to say that they're the synagogue of Satan. So in chapter 2, he says, I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. In chapter 3, he says, I will make them which are of the synagogue of Satan, who say they're Jews and they're not, but they do lie. That's it. And that's not even the futuristic part of Revelation. That's just the letters to the seven churches in the prologue. And so in the actual end times part of Revelation, chapter 6 through 22 is kind of the meat of the end times stuff. There's no mention of Jews, but then they'll point you to the 144,000. 12,000 from each of the 12 tribes and try to claim that that's Jews. Well, here's the problem with that. There's no 12 tribes of Israel today. If we went over to the so-called nation of Israel in the Middle East, there's no 12 tribes. There's just Israelis and they're just Jews. And none of them can trace their genealogy, not even one of them. We asked a bunch of rabbis. They said none of them could trace their genealogy to the time of Christ, not even one. And some of them vaguely think that they're priests or Levites or whatever because their last name's Cohen or whatever. They think that makes them a priest. But if they were of certain tribes, it would be Benjamin and Judah. It wouldn't be Issachar, Reuben, Zebulun, because very few of those people actually even made it to the southern kingdom. And the ones who did assimilated and became part of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin in many cases. And at the end of the day, there is no one on this planet who says, I'm a Reubenite except some black Heber Israelite bozo or whatever who thinks that Puerto Rico is the Reubenites or something, some kind of crazy theory like that. Or white supremacists who think that England is the 10 lost tribes or something. But the bottom line is that in the actual real world of thinking people who actually know stuff, the 10 tribes are lost. They don't exist. There are no Reubenites. There are no Issacharites. And so you can't just plug in Jews there because the Reubenites were never Jews. The Issacharites were never Jews. Does everybody understand what I'm saying? And of course today, Jew is a religious designation, not a nationality anyway. It's a religion. It just means that you don't believe in Jesus. You're waiting for some other Antichrist to show up. That's all it means. You could be red, yellow, black, or white and be a Jew. It has nothing to do with your ethnicity, which is why most of the Jews are whiter than I am even though they're supposedly from this desert in the Middle East. It makes a lot of sense. You want to know why I'm white? Because my ancestors aren't from a desert in the Middle East. My ancestors are from northern climates, obviously. And so do the math, folks. Anyway, that was a little bit of a rabbit trail, but I'm just trying to give you kind of a big picture because I don't want to take for granted that everybody understands the history of the Old Testament and that you have the United Kingdom under Saul, David, Solomon. Then you have the divided kingdom, and the first king of the north is Jeroboam. First king of the south is Rehoboam. And Rehoboam, when he loses those 10 tribes, his first instinct is, let's get 180,000 warriors, and we're going to go fight Jeroboam. We're going to fight the northern kingdom because I'm going to rule everybody. But God sends a prophet to tell him, no, you're not going to rule everybody. These are going to be separate kingdoms. This is my will. And it stays that way. These kingdoms never reunite. Keep that in mind. Centuries and centuries of history, they're going to be separate. They're going to be separate forever. And until the 10 tribes go into captivity and never come back, they remain separate. So here we are. They're told not to fight the civil war. Verse 5, Rehoboam dwelled in Jerusalem and built cities for defense in Judah. So Rehoboam wisely follows God's advice and does not attack the northern kingdom. But he decides to defend himself in case the northern kingdom decides to come take over the southern kingdom and bring it all under Jeroboam. And so he builds defense cities to defend both against the northern kingdom and against other potentially hostile neighbors. Now that Solomon is no longer on the throne, those other neighbors might get hostile, try to take some territory. So he built cities for defense in Judah. He built even Bethlehem and Etum and Tekoa and Bethzor and Shoko and Adullam and Gath and Marisha and Ziph and Adoram and Lakish and Ezekiel and Zorah and Eijalon and Hebron, which are in Judah and in Benjamin, fenced cities. So he fortified the strongholds and put captains in them and store a vittle and of oil and wine. So he's just basically shoring up things at home. He says, okay, whatever. If I lost the 10 tribes, that's okay. I'm just going to do the best job I can, reigning over what I've got and just take care of what I've got, be the best king I can down here and just defend ourselves. Let's store up supplies and let's just have a great kingdom down here in the south. And in every several city, he put shields and spears and made them exceeding strong, having Judah and Benjamin on his side. So he's got two great tribes. Everybody's united with him. Everybody likes him as far as those tribes. And so they're on his side. They've got shields. They've got spears. They've got walled cities, fenced cities. They are in good shape. They could just keep on serving the Lord and having a good life in the southern kingdom of Judah. And the priests and the Levites that were in all Israel resorted to him out of all their coasts. So obviously because in the southern kingdom, they're still worshipping the Lord. You've got the temple, Jerusalem. That's where God chose to put his name there. That's where the presence of God is. That's where the Bible says they should be worshipping God. So the Levites, they basically had been previously scattered throughout the whole nation. Because if you remember in the Mosaic law, the Levites were distributed throughout the land so that they would teach the people in all parts of the nation. And so you had the cities of refuge. And the cities of refuge were spread out. And then those cities belonged to the Levites. And then also the Levites had the suburbs. And so they had all these dwellings and land holdings in both north and south. But because of the fact that the north is no longer worshipping the Lord, now they're worshipping idols. Now a lot of the Levites are saying, you know, we're going to immigrate to Judah because we want to be where the temple is and worship the Lord and be with the people that are actually following the Bible. And so the priests and the Levites that were in all Israel resorted to him out of all their coasts. For the Levites left their suburbs in their possession and came to Judah and Jerusalem. For Jeroboam and his sons had cast them off from executing the priests' office under the Lord because he started his own new religion. And he ordained him priests for the high places and for the devils and for the calves which he had made. Make no mistake, people who worship idols are worshipping demons, devils, right? Pagan religion. And I don't care if it's Norwegian pagans or if it's, you know, some kind of an ancient Celtic religion of northern Europe. I don't care if it's a Native American religion of the Navajos or the Apaches. Look, when you're worshipping gods, quote unquote, other than the Lord God, other than the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, you're worshipping demons. The Bible says the things which the Gentiles offer in sacrifice unto idols, they sacrifice unto devils. And so these idols, even though they're just wood or stone or metal and they can't speak, you know, the Bible says that they can't hear, they can't see, and those who worship them are like unto them. They're also blinded. They also can't hear and comprehend truth. And so obviously you could look at that inanimate object and say that it's nothing, but it represents something real because behind every idol there is an actual evil spirit. A demon that is being worshipped. And that is something very real. And that's why, on the one hand, the idol's nothing in the world, as the Apostle Paul says, but he says, wait a minute, the idol's nothing, but they're actually worshipping demons, and I don't want you to have fellowship with devils, right? And I'm using the word demon and devil interchangeably. Devil is the word that the King James Bible uses. In our modern vernacular, a lot of people are probably more familiar with the word demon, which is just a transliteration from the Greek. The Greek word is demon, but it's just transliterated into English as demon, but the King James uses the word devils, and so I'll use those interchangeably for understandability's sake, right? Demons, right, because we think about people who are demonic, demon-possessed, right? They're possessed with devils. And so that's what they're worshipping. I mean, the author of 2 Chronicles here is making this really clear. You know, Jeroboam is worshipping Satan, okay? Salvation is of the Jews. Now, when the Bible says that statement, salvation's of the Jews, what it means is that salvation is of that southern kingdom, not the northern kingdom, because that is said by Jesus to the woman at the well when she's talking about Samaritan religion of the north. Obviously, it's different than the Jeroboam religion, but it's another false religion coming out of the north, out of Samaria, the Samaritan religion, and Jesus says to her, you worship, you know not what. We know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews. What's he saying? He's saying the true worshippers of God at this time in the Old Testament, Old Covenant, they're supposed to be at the house of God, at Jerusalem, the word of God, the Bible points to Jerusalem as being the place of worship, and it points to the son of David as being the savior. The Messiah is the son of David, and Jerusalem's the city of David, right? But then Jesus says this important thing that a lot of people forget. You know, we were talking this afternoon, one of our soldiers had knocked the door of some kind of a Judaizer type. I knocked the door of a Judaizer in the same complex as well, and then he knocked the door of a so-called messianic Jew that was saying all these things, and so, you know, you'll run into these types that'll pull out this like, salvation is of the Jews quote, but what they forget is to read the rest of the passage, because what Jesus goes on to say is, because she says, you know, well, our fathers worshiped God in this mountain, but you say that Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship, and so there's like this argument between the north and the south, and Jesus just tells her the south is right. You know, the problem isn't that you're not worshipping at Jerusalem as much as you don't even know what you're worshipping, because your religion is just totally a false religion. As the author of 2 Chronicles is telling us here, you're worshipping devils. You know, he talks about this era of false religion in the northern kingdom, and then Jesus tells the woman at the well, you don't even know what you're worshipping. We know what we worship, the salvation of the Jews, but then he says, hey, let's quit arguing about geography, because he says the time is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will men worship. He says, you know, that they that worship God must worship Him in spirit and in truth, and there's a time, I'm paraphrasing because I don't, it's slipping my mind right now, but the bottom line is he's saying, you know, in a very short time, it's not going to be about Jerusalem or this mountain. It's going to be about Tempe, Arizona. It's going to be about Atlanta, Georgia. It's going to be about Warsaw, Poland. It's going to be about Manila, Philippines. It's just going to be everywhere. It's not going to be in this mountain. It's not going to be in Jerusalem. It's just going to be people worshipping God in spirit and in truth all over the world, because the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea, and so Christianity is everywhere in the entire world, all over the globe, and so it's not about Jerusalem versus whatever. That's why I don't feel like I need to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. I saw Jerusalem from far away. I looked at it, but I did not enter. I looked at the Promised Land, but I didn't go there. Okay, so why not, you know? Because, you know, am I going to get some, like, spiritual power boost or something? Am I going to get some kind of a spiritual weapons upgrade or some kind of a class change or something if I go to Jerusalem? No, because we can worship God anywhere. It's not about some holy land or holy ground. No, my friend. It's about worshipping God in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and that happens anywhere, and so we need to not be so obsessed with geography. You know, oh, man, I was in the Holy Land, and the Bible just really came alive. Man, my Bible came alive in my bedroom in Sacramento, California, more than it ever came alive in the Holy Land, you know, because I did go to the Palestine side. The point is that being in a special geography didn't make me tingle, okay? But I've tingled before. It just wasn't over there. But I digress. The priest and the Levites, verse 13, that were in all Israel, resorted to him out of all their coasts, for the Levites left their suburbs in their possession and came to Judah and Jerusalem, for Jeroboam and his sons had cast them off from executing the priest's office under the Lord, so they have no gig in the northern kingdom. They're out of a job. They want to be priests to the Lord. The south is their only option. They don't want to worship Satan, so they want to come down to the south and worship the Lord. And it talks about, in verse 15, how Jeroboam ordained him, Jeroboam ordained him priests for the high places. And notice, it's interesting how it says he ordained him. He ordained him priests for the high places. You know, what does that mean? Why didn't it just say he ordained priests for the high places? Well, what is that him doing there? It means, like, he ordained them for him. I'm doing this for myself. He's not doing it for God. He's doing it for himself. He's ordaining for his own advantage, for his own benefit, priests for the high places, oh, and for the devils, and for the calves which he had made. And after them, out of all the tribes of Israel, such as set their hearts to seek the Lord God of Israel, came to Jerusalem to sacrifice unto the Lord God of their fathers. Now, this does not necessarily mean that they're coming to live there. Now, I'm sure that there were some people who decided to just move to the southern kingdom because they just want to live in the southern kingdom because they feel like it's a godlier place. But if you read this verse carefully, this verse is saying that they went there to sacrifice to the Lord. This could just be the three times yearly trip that they're required to make because they're supposed to come to the house of God three times yearly. And like I said, I'm sure that some of them did move down there as well, but what you don't have is just a mass of people coming from the north to the south. You have some, I'm sure, just like we have people that move between the U.S. and Canada or something. You know, you have people who move from Canada to the U.S. and vice versa. But it's not like some mass movement of just like, you know, half of Canada moves into the U.S. or something. Otherwise, we're going to have to build a wall, amen? No, I'm just kidding. So it says here in verse number 17, So they strengthened the kingdom of Judah and made Rehoboam the son of Solomon strong. So who strengthened the kingdom of Judah and who made Rehoboam the son of Solomon strong? You know, it's these godly people from the north that are saying, Hey, I don't care what my country is doing. I don't care what the culture is doing. I don't care what the government is doing. I'm going to keep serving the Lord and I'm going to go down there, even if no one else is doing it, I'm going to go down there and serve the Lord, even if it's more patriotic or whatever to be in the north. Those people that were really dedicated to the worship of God down in Jerusalem, those people strengthened Rehoboam. They made him strong. They were a good influence on him as well. They supported him and, you know, helped him to be encouraged in the Lord. Now, this is a little depressing, though, because everything sounds great. I mean, they're, you know, they're defending the cities. They've got all kinds of wealth. They're stockpiling supplies. They're worshiping God. People are coming from other countries and worshiping God. And, you know, it seems like, hey, at least the southern kingdom's got their act together. But then you get to this verse and it says, They made Rehoboam the son of Solomon strong three years. What? What is that? Three years? And then it says, For three years they walked in the way of David and Solomon. So you've got to see where this is going. Apparently, after three years, something's going to change. There's a foreshadowing of this by saying, hey, man, everything was great for three years. It's kind of like, well, OK, and then what happened? And Rehoboam took him Mahalath, the daughter of Jeramoth, the son of David the wife, and Abbahel, the daughter of Eliab, the son of Jesse, which bear him children, Jeesh and Shamariah and Zam. And by the way, this doesn't mean that it's actually, when it says the son of Jesse, you know, well, Eliab, OK, Eliab is the brother. Of course, we know him to be the brother of David. So the daughter of Eliab, the son of Jesse, what I want to say is we don't necessarily know that it's actually his daughter. It could be like a granddaughter is what I want to say. Sorry, got a little tongue tied there for a second. Because of the fact that when the Bible uses the word son and daughter, sometimes it's just a descendant. So we don't want to necessarily assume that it's only one generation that happened there because a lot of begetting and sons and daughters can skip generations. It's just significant that he's marrying a woman in the family is the idea here. He's from the south. Remember, he's the southern kingdom, so it makes sense. He's marrying a relative. Which bear him children, Jeush, and Shamariah, and Zaham. And after he took Mayukah, the daughter of Absalom, which bear him Abijah, and Atai, and Ziza, and Shalometh. And Rehoboam loved Mayukah, the daughter of Absalom, above all his wives and his concubines. You know, that's what your wife really wants to hear. You know, I just love you so much more than the rest of my wives and concubines. Because a concubine is a woman that you sleep with, but she's, you know, she's exclusive to you, but she's not of the status of your wife. It's like just, you know, she doesn't reach that level of being a wife, but you sleep with her anyway. So he's got the wives and the concubines, 18 wives, 3 score, that's 60 concubines, and begat 20 and 8 sons and 3 score daughters. And Rehoboam made Abijah, the son of Mayukah, the chief, to be ruler among his brethren, for he thought to make him king. So, you know, he takes the, you know, the son of the favorite wife, and he's sort of grooming him to be the next king. He thought to make Abijah, the son of Mayukah, the chief. Now, right away we can see the problem, because it says here that for 3 years they walked in the ways of David and Solomon. Is it a coincidence that in the next breath we start just getting this rundown of all of Rehoboam's wives and concubines? You know, it sounds to me like he's going down the same road that Solomon went down, and he's making the same mistakes that Solomon made, and that's probably where some of his downfall is going to come from, because why does he stop serving the Lord after 3 years? Could it be the fact that the cares of this world and the pleasures of this life are taking over, and that he's just thinking all about gratifying his carnal desires with just this excessive number of wives? Now, why didn't he take it to the extremes that Solomon did? Because he can't. If he could have, he would have gone full Solomon and had 700 wives and 300 concubines, because look what it says. Verse 23, he dealt wisely and dispersed of all his children throughout all the countries of Judah and Benjamin, unto every fenced city, and he gave them vittle and abundance. Vittle is just food. And he desired many wives. So this guy already has 78 women that he is with. 18 wives, 3 score concubines. He's got 78 women. I mean, that's just a ridiculous number of women. It's absurd. It's crazy. Like, what are you going to do with 78 women? It's excessive by any metric, but it's not enough for him, because it says, you've got to love just this short little sentence at the end. And he desired many wives. It's like, bro, you already have many wives. Like, how are you desiring many wives? You have 78 right now. You have 18 wives and 60 concubines. How are you desiring more wives? That doesn't make any sense, does it? But you see, he's trying to, well, I think he just has a greedy nature, because everybody, humanly speaking, all of us, when it comes to our flesh, are greedy by nature. Human beings are greedy. That's where most of the problems in our world come from, is just the inherent greediness of man. Now, think about it. From whence come wars and fighting among you? Come they not hence even of your lusts which war in your members? So inside all of us, the lusts that war in our members, that plays out on the macro, on the geopolitical stage in warfare, right? People always wanting more. He's not just happy to just rule over his little kingdom and just have his wife, have his kids, have his kingdom, live a good life. No, he's got to rule over the northern kingdom, too. And if he can't do that, well, then he can just stack up as many wives as he possibly can. Why? It's excessive. It's ludicrous. Now, it's easy for us to stand in judgment of these men of the Old Testament and think, well, these guys are total idiots. I would never make these stupid mistakes. But yet, the Bible talks about how wise Solomon was and how humble he was and how godly he was in the beginning, and yet he goes down this dark path. Well, you know what that tells me is that I or you could also go down a dark path. Therefore, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. And I think one part of the battle is just realizing that we all have this inherent greediness inside of us, where nothing's ever enough. God blesses us with something, and we're really happy about some blessing from God, but then we're immediately just wanting more. Somebody hands you a hundred bucks, you've already spent 300 in your mind. And that's just how people are. It's just always more, more, more, more. We've got to learn to be content with such things as we have. Now, obviously, it's good to be ambitious. It's good to want to accomplish a lot and to achieve a lot and to have big goals and big dreams. But there's an excessive greediness where you go beyond what God has ordained. You know, God says one wife, whoso findeth a wife, findeth a good thing, and obtaineth the favor of the Lord. Having a wife is a blessing. Well, okay, well then why not two? How about three? How about four? You're just being greedy. It'd be like if you offered a child an ice cream cone and they just said, Well, this isn't enough. I need two. Give me two scoops. No, here's a scoop of ice cream. No, I want two. Well, no, you're only having one. Well, then I won't have any at all. You know, or kids will just throw a fit and scream and cry because they just, you know, they get greedy. Instead of just being thankful for that blessing that we get. You know, we need to practice in our lives moderation, moderation, right? You know, hey, enjoy honey. If you find that honey, enjoy it. But if you eat too much, you're going to vomit it up, the Bible says, right? Hey, enjoy that piece of buttered bread. Enjoy that glass of milk. You know, but don't overindulge. You're going to get obese if you overindulge, right? You've got to learn to just enjoy a cookie. You know, or to just enjoy, you know, just something small and not just, and look, I struggle with this. You say, why you got to bring up food? You know, I struggle with this when it comes to food. People who know me know that I am a big time glutton, okay? I just, I just other times starve myself and exercise ridiculous amounts, which is why I don't necessarily show it. But, you know, if you could see me on the inside, man, I'm the most obese person that you've ever seen. Deep down, you know, the flesh. The point is that, you know, I tend to be greedy when it comes to food. It's like, it's like, you know, once you pop, you can't stop. And it's just, you know, you start eating and you just get greedy. And it's just, you just want another one. You just want more. And I mean, sometimes my stomach is full, but my mouth just wants more. I just want to keep having that party in my mouth. And then afterward I regret it because my stomach is like, oh man. And then I know like I'm going to have to like starve myself to try to fix it later. I'm going to have to fast. And, you know, this kind goes not out but by prayer and fasting, you know. And so I'm overdoing it because I'm greedy. Because all of us in our flesh are greedy. And if we're not greedy about food, it's something else. People are greedy about money. People are greedy about women or whatever, right? No, we've got to be content with one wife, you know, with the food that's the amount of nourishment that we need to maintain, right? We don't want to overindulge. You know, we've got to just be moderate in the things that we do. And when it comes to having fun, right? Kids just want to play all day. But they need to understand that there's work to do. There's studying to do. They've got to learn how to read and write and do math and learn the science and history and all that, you know. But they just want to play. You give them a little time on a video game. Hey, here's a little fun game for you. But no, it's not enough. You know, it's got to be hour after hour after hour after hour in front of that video game to the point of excess. If you realize this about yourself, then you can actually fix it and moderate your behavior and not overindulge. And look, I'm not talking about sinful things because we shouldn't be indulging in sinful things at all, right? I'm not saying, hey, don't snort too much cocaine because you shouldn't be snorting any cocaine. You shouldn't be smoking any weed. You shouldn't be drinking any alcohol, right? You shouldn't be committing any fornication. You shouldn't be committing any adultery. But I'm saying even good things like food, drink, you know, good things, fun, entertainment that's clean, good entertainment, even those things can be overindulged in. Having a wife is good, but you could overindulge, you know? And then it's like you're trying to have another wife, you know? Thankfully in America, that's not even a thing. But in other parts of the world, it is. Obviously in biblical times, it was a thing. And so this guy is proof that even if you had 78 women, it still wouldn't be enough. So you might as well just be happy with one because 78's not enough because it's not 1,000. And so that's what we see with Rehoboam. He desired many wives. I don't think it's a coincidence that it says for three years, they walked in the way of David and Solomon, talking about Solomon, you know, when he was doing well, the good part of his behavior. Then all of a sudden, it's him and his women. It's just several verses about his multiplicity of wives. And then look, we're going to talk about chapter 12 next week, but I just want to touch on the beginning of chapter 12 just to kind of tie it in. It says it came to pass when Rehoboam had established the kingdom and had strengthened himself, he forsook the law of the Lord and all Israel with him. And so the idea here is that things are going good. He's got 78 wives. He's too comfortable. He's just into pleasure and enjoyment. He's just living large as the king of Judah. Everything is safe and secure and good for him. And so he gets to the point where he just feels like he doesn't need God. He just becomes full of himself, prideful, and he forsakes the Lord. And here's the sad thing. When he forsakes the Lord, everybody else does, too. Because everything rises and falls on leadership. You know, when a leader forsakes the Lord, a lot of times they end up taking a lot of people with them. Obviously, of course, when it says all Israel with them, obviously there are individuals who are always going to be the righteous remnant. But in general, the entire nation goes bad when Rehoboam goes bad. Why did Rehoboam go bad? Because he's too focused on the cares of this life. He's too into women and he's just too into the material possessions because he's strong and established and he's got everything going for him. He forsook the Lord. When things go well in our lives, sometimes that tends to be our spiritual downfall. Ironically. And then when things are going poorly, then all of a sudden we're on our knees praying. Right? You know, I mean, the worse things get, the more we pray. Well, the sad thing about that is that sometimes God will have to put us in bad situations just in order to get us to seek the Lord. Well, if you're smart, you'll seek the Lord while things are going good so that God won't have to put you in a bad situation to get you to turn back to him. Because, of course, what do you think is coming in chapter 12? God's going to punish. Why? Because whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth every sudden he receiveth. And so when we start getting away from God, then God has to send hard times into our life. You know, you sometimes see these graphics and things of like, you know, weak men make hard times and then hard times make strong men and then strong men make good times. And then good times make weak men and then weak men make hard times. Who knows what I'm talking about? That's Epigram. Wow. Okay. Wow. Okay. Okay. Yeah. All right. We're on the same page here. Well, but here's the thing about that. You know, a better way of explaining that instead of like weak men, strong men. It's how about like godly men create good times. And then the problem is that the good times create apathetic, lazy, watered-down Christians, weak Christians. Right? And then the weak Christians create the bad times and then the bad times create the strong Christians or the godly men. It's really more of a spiritual cycle. It's not really… What does that mean? You know, weak, strong? How weak, strong? You know, morally weak, morally strong. We're not talking about how much you can lift. We're talking about your character. And, of course, we're talking about Christian character. We're talking about biblical godly character. And so that's what we see that when things get good, people just get too comfortable. So sometimes God has to keep us all a little bit hungry, running a little bit scared, a little bit uncomfortable in order to keep us serving Him. It's a shame. But if you're smart, you'll serve God when it's good. You'll give God 100% when things are going good in your life because then God won't have to mess with you. You know, you think about how whenever people go to prison, they end up reading the Bible a lot. You know, how many times have you run into somebody, oh, I read the Bible cover to cover when I was in prison or something? Because there's just not a lot to do. So they read the Bible. Well, you know what? I've prayed to God a bunch of times and said, hey, God, look, I'm reading my Bible without being in prison. So you don't have to send me to prison to get me to read my Bible because I'm reading my Bible not in prison. So, you know, hopefully I will go to the grave without ever going to prison. I don't want to go to prison. You know, if I need to go to prison for preaching the word of God, so be it. But I don't want to go there. And I prayed to God and said, well, God, I already read my Bible like a prisoner. I'm reading my Bible like a dude in prison. So why send me to prison? I'm already doing it. I'm living that prison life, you know, outside of prison. And so you don't want God to have to put you in a position where you're forced to pray, forced to read your Bible. You know, you don't want to just find yourself in solitary confinement and a meal and a Bible gets slipped under the door. And you're like, okay, now I know why I'm here. I didn't read my Bible. And God's punishing me for not reading my Bible. And so now I've got to read it. You know, I'd rather have my wife slide the food under the door, eat my food, and then go out of the door and go wherever I want and do whatever I want after I've eaten the food and read the Bible. And so I want to make sure that we serve God while it's good. We don't want to be like Proverbs 30 where it says, you know, give me neither poverty nor riches lest I be full and deny thee and say, who is the Lord? Or lest I be poor and steal and take the name of my God in vain. He said, I want to be on the middle path because if I'm poor, then I could get bitter or angry or upset at God. And if I'm rich, I could get puffed up and think I don't need God. You know, so I want to be in the middle where I have what I need but I'm not arrogant, I'm not bitter, right? That's what we all want, right? We all want to be just getting by, living our lives, you know. And look, that's where Rehoboam was. I mean, but then he got greedy. Starts just having all these wives. And then, next thing you know, his heart's not with the Lord. His heart's on the characters. I mean, look, when you got 78 wives, what does the Bible say in 1 Corinthians 7? You know, 1 Corinthians 7 says, the man that has a wife, you know, he cares for the things of this world how he might please his wife. Obviously, when you're married, you know, that takes some of your attention. Some of your heart is there. Some of your affection is there. Some of your time and energy and commitment is there. Well, times that by 78. How well are you serving God at that point? You know, I mean, if maintaining one wife is obviously going to take time and energy, and that's why he's saying that, you know, there are some special people who can handle being single, and they can really just serve God in a special way, like the Apostle Paul, where they're just serving God without the encumbrance of a family, but that most people, you know, are going to be married and have a family, and still serve God in that situation. That's the norm. But there are going to be some people who are just totally dedicated to the Lord, and they don't even have a family. Okay, well, I get it. Those are the two options. But now let's take the guy who's busy with a wife and times it by 78, and you've got a guy who probably doesn't care about the things of God very much, so after three short years, he's done serving God. And you know what? I'm not impressed that you serve God for three years, because serving God for three years is what a lot of people do. And then they'll be in church for a couple years, then the honeymoon's over, the newness wears off, the excitement wears off, and they're gone. I can tell you about all the zealous new believers that have come through our church. They come to the church, they get excited, they serve God, you know, and then after two, three years, they're gone. But Christianity's not measured in years, it's measured in decades. How many decades have you been serving God? That's what we ought to be asking ourselves. And so we don't want to be a Rehoboam, we don't want to quit after three years because we're so caught up in the things of this world. Look, I believe in enjoying what this world has to offer as long as it's not sinful and as long as it's in moderation. You know, I believe that we should enjoy the good food and enjoy recreation and enjoy our families, enjoy the wife and the kids and so forth. But you need to do those things in moderation and you need to always keep the Lord in His primary place in your life where you're always reading your Bible, going to church, soul-winning, and realizing, yes, God has blessed us in this life, but let's not get greedy. God gives us a cookie, doesn't mean we have to eat the whole bag. You know, God offers us a little individual-sized Cinnamon Toast Crunch. You know, we don't have to get five of them. We don't have to eat a whole box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and I've done it more times than I can count, on camera. So, some men's sins are opened before it, you know. That's why those videos are called Pastor Anderson Exposed. It has nothing to do with the preaching or the, you know, the stuff. It's really just about the insane amount of cereal that was consumed in that series. Okay. That was what was actually being exposed. So, learn from Rehoboam and be moderate, don't get greedy, and don't be a three-year Christian, right? Be a 30-year Christian. Be a lifetime Christian. Let's bow our heads in our word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord. Thank you for these examples of biblical characters that we can learn from, the good things they did, and also the bad things that they did. Lord, bless everyone who made a point to be here in the midweek service, Lord, in the middle of the week. They came out to church, Lord. Bless every single person who came, and give us safety as we go our separate ways. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.