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Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Good evening everyone. Welcome to our services here at Faith Ward Baptist Church. Very good to see you all here on this Wednesday night. If you all please find your seats and take a hymnal. Go to hymn 209. We'll begin tonight. Hymn number 209. 2-0-9. Sunshine in my soul. Hymn number 209. Once you find your place, we'll sing it out together on that first now. Hymn number 209. Hymn number 209. Hymn number 209. Hymn number 209. Hymn number 209. Hymn number 209. There's a sunshine in my soul today. For all angels stand by. And stand close to any earthly sky. For Jesus is my love. For his sunshine was his sunshine. Hymn number 209. Hymn number 109. Hymn number 109. Hymn number 109. Hymn number 109. Hymn number 109. Hymn number 109. Hymn number 109. Hymn number 109. Hymn number 109. Hymn number 109. Hymn number 109. Hymn number 109. Once again I sing. For his sunshine was his sunshine. When the peaceful happy moments roar. When Jesus shows his smiling face. There is sunshine in my soul. There is springtime in my soul today. For when the Lord is near. The dove of peace is in my heart. The clouds of grace appear. Oh when sunshine's blessing sunshine. When the peaceful happy moments roar. When Jesus shows his smiling face. There is sunshine in my soul. There is gladness in my soul today. And hope and praise and love. For blessing is here now. For joy's lit up above. Oh when sunshine blesses sunshine. When the peaceful happy moments roar. When Jesus shows his smiling face. There is sunshine in my soul. Thank you Lord for our singing tonight. Well I want to observe some prayers so if you would bow your heads together with me. Dear Heavenly Father we thank you for the opportunity that we have to be in church this Wednesday evening. We thank you for the safety that you've given us to be able to be here. We just ask your blessing upon us Lord as we lift our voices to you in praise. Help us to be filled with your spirit and to be encouraged to sing out these songs and that you would also prepare our hearts for the preaching of your word. Help our hearts and ears to be open to receive the message tonight. And that you feel pastored with your Holy Spirit. Thank you for his healing and for bringing him back to us this evening. And we just ask that everything that's said and done would give you the honor and glory that you deserve for it. And we'll thank you for it in Jesus' name. Amen. Hymn number 211. Hymn number 211 is whosoever meaneth me. Hymn number 211. We'll lift it up together on that first I am happy today and the sun shines bright. Hymn number 211. Sing it out together now. I am happy today and the sun shines bright The clouds have been rolled away For the Savior said that whosoever will May come with him to stay Whosoever surely meaneth me Whosoever surely meaneth me Whosoever surely meaneth me Whosoever meaneth me All my hopes have been raised Always making praise His glory has filled my soul I've been lifted up ever since and free Is what hath made me whole Whosoever surely meaneth me Surely meaneth me Oh, surely meaneth me Whosoever surely meaneth me Whosoever meaneth me Oh, what wonderful love Oh, what grace divine That Jesus should die for me I was lost in sin For the world I find But now I am set free Whosoever surely meaneth me Surely meaneth me Oh, surely meaneth me Whosoever surely meaneth me Whosoever surely meaneth me Alright, this is how we'll go through our announcements together. If you don't have a bulletin, slip up your hand nice and high. We'll get to you with one. 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're in 2 Chronicles, chapter number 12. We've got the soul winning times listed there below, as well as salvations and baptisms. Happy Father's Day. Sorry, that ship has already sailed. I hope that you enjoyed the root beer floats. While I was in bed sick as a dog not getting to drink one. Every door in Greenlee County has been knocked. So praise the Lord for that. It's pretty exciting. We've been knocking all the doors of all the Indian reservations. And then we also have a goal to ultimately just knock every door in the entire state of Arizona one county at a time. And so this is the first county that we've totally finished. So one down, 14 to go. But there are lots of other counties that we've done well over half of. So we're on our way. So thank you to those who continually participate in those trips to get these things done. Now there's going to be a special lunch on Sunday, June 30th. Which is, I suppose, not this coming Sunday, but the following Sunday after that. So about a week and a half from now. There's going to be a lunch served for anyone who specifically went on a soul winning trip either on the Hopi Reservation or Greenlee County. Because those are two things that we just finished of late. So who would raise your hand and say, I did soul winning either on the Hopi Reservation or in Greenlee County. If you did one of those things. Alright, so this is for you guys. So there's going to be a special lunch in your honor. But we would like you to sign up if you're planning on going so we'll know how much food we're going to need. And I'm planning on participating myself because I did go soul winning in Greenlee County myself. And so we're looking forward to that on June 30th. Below that we've got the schedule for the annual mega conference. We've got a great lineup here. Pastor Jonathan Shelley. Pastor Bruce Mejia. Pastor Aaron Thompson. Pastor Enrique Reyes. For those of you who don't know him, he's a pastor in Houston, Texas on the other side of town. From Pastor Shelley. He's been a good friend of ours for a long time. Comes to a lot of our events, etc. We've got Pastor David Berzins. Pastor Roger Jimenez. And then another name that might be new to you, Pastor David Mark. He's a pastor up in Roy, Utah. And many of our church members have visited his church and done soul winning with him up there. And so they told me about him and suggested that I invite him. So we checked him out and he seems like a really great guy. I talked to him on the phone. We listened to a bunch of his preaching. And a bunch of our members gave him a good report. So we're looking forward to having him come preach on Sunday, August the 4th. And then also Brother Dylan Oz. Now, you know, you say, wait a minute. You know, everybody else is a pastor and he's just a bro. What's going on? Well, here's the thing about Dylan Oz, though, is that he's one of the world's most famous people on TikTok and Instagram. So that's got to count for something. But anyway, I'm kidding because if you were at the Red Hot Preaching Conference or if you watch that sermon where Pastor Shelley was showing just the incredible stats of how many people had seen Brother Oz preaching. But anyway, he's a great guy. I know you're going to love hearing him preach on Wednesday, August 7th. He's on staff with Pastor Shelley. And so that's it for the lineup. And so I hope that you'll plan on coming out and hearing these guys. Also, as we've done the previous years, there will be a special prize for those who have perfect attendance during the mega conference. So if you plan on having perfect attendance, there will be a sign up sheet for you to sign up at. And there's no honor system here, folks. You've got to sign the sign in sheet when you're there. Right. Or we've got to have some kind of evidence, photographic evidence or something. So I want you to sign up when you're here. Please don't sign in if you've already missed a service. Because if you've already missed a service, you're not even in the running anyway. We're not just trying to fill a guest book for some kind of a souvenir. And so if you're not planning on being at every service or you've already missed one, don't bother. But we'll have a sign up sheet for you to just... I keep saying sign up sheet, but it's more like a sign in sheet. Right. So that you can log your perfect attendance. Who had perfect attendance either last year or the year before and you went to the special dinner? All right. See, lots of people do this. So there will be a special dinner for those who have perfect attendance. On the back, Moi, Pastor Anderson, will be preaching at Stronghold Baptist Church in Greenville, South Carolina. Not sure what that white space off to the right is for, but I guess you can draw a picture of what you think that that might look like. But I'm going to be preaching in Greenville, South Carolina on Friday, July 5th, because there is a brand new church plant that's opening on the 7th. So I'm preaching on the 5th. On the 6th, there's going to be a big soul winning marathon. And then the 7th is the grand opening. Below that is the note about the soul winning trip up to the Grand Canyon and the Navajo reservation. That's on June 28th and 29th. Sign up and details are over here to my right. All right, now we get to the big announcement. The roller skating night. August 15th from 5.30 to 8 p.m. We rent out the entire roller skating rink just for our church. And so it's totally free. You just show up. You can bring people as long as they're cool, as long as they're not bozos. And so everybody's welcome to attend. And it's, of course, free of charge, like all of our church events are always free of charge. We will also have a roller skating night during the missions conference. Keep the missions conference on your radar. That's November 6th through 10th. We'll also have a roller skating night on that as well. The men's preaching class has been put on ice for a while. So stay tuned for updates. And that is about it for announcements. Let's go ahead and count up the soul winning quickly over the last few days before we move on. Anything to report from Monday? Okay. All right. All right. Anything else from Monday? How about Tuesday? Okay. Gotcha. Is that a one? All right. Okay. All right. That's what I'm talking about. Ah, man. It's everything that I dreamed it would be. All right. This sermon's going to be powered by Root Beer Float. Anything else from Tuesday? All right. Gotcha. All right. And then today. You know, I was asking everybody in the church van, and I'm still feeling a little bit sick. And so I just totally forgot all the numbers. So let's just start over with the church van. So you and I had two. So that was our two, Johan and myself. And then, was it just five was the total? Okay, cool. All right. Well, that works out. Okay, outside of the van. Got another one over here. Anything else outside of the main group in the van? Gotcha. All right. Very good. Keep up the great work on soul winning. At this time, you guys are going to sing a song. I'm going to just go hide somewhere and consume this. All right. Come lead us. All right. In front of your hymnal, you should find the insert of God of our fathers. If you don't have an insert, you can raise your hand. We'll sing it on that first verse together. All right. In this we plan. By thee our law is passed. We vow our rulers are in guiding state. Thy word our law, Thy past our chosen way. From wars of arms, from death we best command. Defies our heart, forever sure defends. Thy true religion, in our hearts it frees. Thy boundless goodness will serve us in peace. We fetch thy people on their coarsome trails. Lead us on high, till never-ending day. We'll all arise, with blood and grace divine, and glory long, and praise be ever thine. Let's take our hymnals now. Go to hymn number 391. Hymn number 191. Sorry, 191. 191. In my heart there rings the melody. Hymn number 191. Let's sing it out. On that verse, number 191. I have a song that Jesus gave me. It was sang from heaven above. There was a sweeter melody. There's a melody of love. In my heart there rings a melody. There rings a melody with heaven's harmony. In my heart there rings a melody. There rings a melody of love. I'm on the rise to die on Calvary. Before you wash my sins away. In my heart there rings a melody. And I know it's there to stay. In my heart there rings a melody. There rings a melody with heaven's harmony. In my heart there rings a melody. There rings a melody of love. There's a sweeter melody of love. With endlessly made glory. When the angels I will sing. There'll be a song with glorious harmony. When the chords of heaven ring. In my heart there rings a melody. There rings a melody with heaven's harmony. All right, this time we will pass our offering plates around. And as the plates go around, let's turn our Bibles to 2 Chronicles chapter 12. 2 Chronicles chapter 12. Please pray for me because I do have a splitting headache. I'm not 100% from my, uh, whatever I had over the weekend. And so, pray that the root beer and the ice cream kicks in and does what it needs to do to fix my headache. 2 Chronicles chapter 12. Follow along with Brother Hester as he reads. 2 Chronicles chapter 12. Bible reads. 2 Chronicles chapter 12. And when the Lord saw that they humbled themselves, the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah, saying, They have humbled themselves. Therefore, I will not destroy them, but I will grant them some deliverance. My wrath shall not be poured out upon Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak. Nevertheless, they shall be his servants, that they may know my service and the service of the kingdoms of the countries. So Shishak, the king of Egypt, came up against Jerusalem and took away the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king's house. He took all. He carried away also the shields of gold which Solomon had made, instead of which King Rehoboam made shields of brass and committed them to the hands of the chief of the guard that kept the entrance of the king's house. And when the king entered into the house of the Lord, the guard came and fetched them and brought them again into the guard chamber. And when he humbled himself, the wrath of the Lord turned from him that he would not destroy him altogether and also in Judah things went well. So King Rehoboam strengthened himself in Jerusalem and reigned. For Rehoboam was one and forty years old when he began to reign and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel to put his name there. And his mother's name was Naaman, the Ammonitess, and he did evil because he prepared not his heart to seek the Lord. Now the acts of Rehoboam, first and last, are they not written in the book of Shemaiah, the prophet, and of Ito the seer concerning genealogies? And there were wars between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continually. Rehoboam slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David, and Abijah, his son, reigned in his stead. Father in heaven, I pray that you please heal Pastor Anderson of his headache and bless him with the power of the Holy Spirit and the fullness thereof so that he would preach your word with boldness and truth so that your word would sink into our ears, Father. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Men, 2 Chronicles chapter 12, the Bible reads in verse 1, 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 of course last week we already saw the lead up to this, how Rehoboam started out by doing all the right things for the first three years. But what we're going to find out in this chapter is that although he was doing the right things for those first three years, his heart was never right with the Lord. He was going through the motions. Now I'm not saying that he did not believe. I'm not saying that he wasn't saved. But guess what? There are a lot of saved Christians who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It doesn't necessarily mean that their heart is in the right place when it comes to the things of God. Because a lot of Christians are just kind of going through the motions of going to church. They believe in Christ, not saying they don't believe in it, but they're not passionate about it. They don't really care that much about it. Their heart is on the things of this world more than anything else. And the Bible says, Set your affection on things above, not on things on this earth. And if it were not a tendency in saved Christians to set our affections on the things of this earth, then the apostle Paul wouldn't even have to say that. The fact that he has to tell Christians, set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth, shows that there could be a tendency, even amongst the saved, to still be consumed by the things of this world, the cares of this world, the pleasures of this life. And we see that Rehoboam, in the previous chapter, of course, he had way too many wives and concubines. And yet, he desired more wives. And so this is part of his downfall. Now, just this first verse alone is really packed with a lot. And so I don't want to spend too much time on it because I want to get to the entire chapter. But 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. We talked about last week how when things are going good, that's when often people think they don't need God. And so we get that out of this verse. But also, you can just kind of see how he used the law of the Lord to rally people to him in the previous chapter. Because if you remember, in the northern kingdom, Jeroboam has totally forsaken the Bible, totally gotten away from the law of the Lord, set up idols, literal, molten images of golden calves for people to worship. And so that caused a lot of the Levites and the most spiritual people from the north to come down to the southern kingdom. And the Bible says that these spiritual people from the north who want to worship the Lord at Jerusalem, when they came down, they strengthened Rehoboam. And so when Rehoboam was strengthened in his kingdom, then he forsook the law of the Lord. It's almost like he's just following the law of the Lord to rally people to him. He's going through the motions, putting on a show. But then once he feels like he doesn't necessarily need their help, now all of a sudden, he forsakes the law of the Lord. And then lastly, the big thing is that when he forsook the law of the Lord, all Israel forsook it with him. And this is a pattern that we see over and over and over again in Scripture, that everything rises and falls on leadership. I mean, it's always mind-boggling to me how you can read these histories in Kings and Chronicles and see how you get a good king in there, and everybody's just serving the Lord, we're breaking idols, we're excited, you know. And then you get a bad king, and it all just turns around. It's mind-blowing, but I'm telling you, leadership is important. Leadership is important in our homes. It's important that we have a dad that's leading that home and that is, you know, I got to get in my father's day, I guess, because I wasn't here, you know. But, you know, it's important that we have a strong leader in the home that is setting the tone spiritually, and not just like, nah, whatever, you pick the church, whatever, you know. Nah, man, we need a man that cares about the things of God, that's passionate about serving God, and then the rest of the family will follow if you have that, if you have that strong leader. Now, let's say dad isn't saved, or let's say there is no dad in the home, then obviously mom needs to step up and lead the home spiritually. Somebody needs to lead the home spiritually because of the fact that without that leadership, you know, most people just aren't going to serve God, unfortunately. You think that people would just serve God on their own? Well, usually they don't. They need either a strong pastor, a strong political leader, a strong parent, you know, some kind of a mentor in their lives to keep them going for God. That's just human nature. It's just reality is what it is. And so it's important that we have good leadership because when a leader forsakes God, often, you know, his followers will also go down the same path. And again, I don't believe for one second that Rehoboam was unsaved or that, you know, that he stopped believing in the Lord or something. It's just that he stopped following the Bible. He stopped living by the laws of God that he was supposed to be following. He forsook the law of the Lord and all Israel with him. Here's the punishment. It came to pass that in the fifth year, verse 2, of King Rehoboam, Shishak, king of Egypt, came up against Jerusalem because they had transgressed against the Lord with twelve hundred chariots and three score thousand horsemen. And the people were without number that came with them out of Egypt, the Lubims, the Succims, and the Ethiopians. So basically it's just this absolute hoard of people coming out of Africa with Egypt to conquer Judah. And he took the fence. It says they're just without number. I mean, you can't even count just this massive hoard of people coming in to invade. And he took the fenced cities which pertained to Judah and came to Jerusalem. Now this is, again, a pattern that we see over and over again. And in fact, this part of the Bible is often called the Deuteronomistic history. You know, this type of pattern where we see history being written and it just says, you know, that basically, oh, they did evil and then this bad thing happened to them, right? Or they did good and then, you know, God blessed them as a result. That's known as like a Deuteronomistic mentality because of the fact that Deuteronomy says so many different times that that's what's going to happen, right? There's just chapter after chapter in Deuteronomy telling them that if they do well, they're going to be blessed. If they do evil, you know, they're going to be punished. That's why often, you know, books like Judges and 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings will sometimes be labeled as the Deuteronomistic history. Obviously we're in Chronicles, but still that same type of a philosophy, you can see it here that the author of 2 Chronicles and ultimately the Holy Ghost is trying to drive in this truth to us that the path to God's blessing is through the door of obedience. And that is still true today even in the New Testament, okay? I've heard some people try to say, oh, that's not a New Testament thing. There's just so much grace going on in the New Testament that that's just not even a thing anymore. Folks, that's crazy. The Old Testament is written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come. The New Testament is constantly pointing us back to these type of Old Testament stories and pointing us back to these Old Testament philosophies to see how we can be blessed in our lives. Look, obviously our salvation is based 100% on the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Salvation is a done deal, okay? We're not talking about how to get to heaven here. We're talking about how to be blessed on this earth. And if you want God to bless you on this earth, you've got to follow Christ. You've got to do what he wants you to do. Now, again, we're not saying follow Christ to be saved or do works to be saved or something like that. God's grace covers us when it comes to salvation. And even in our day-to-day lives, God is constantly giving us grace and looking the other way at some of our transgressions and letting things go. And he is very good to us and his mercies are new every morning. He's not just bringing down the hammer on us every time we mess up. Or we would just be constantly in trouble, wouldn't we? But that being said, even though, of course, there's grace when it comes to salvation and there's grace in our day-to-day Christian lives, obviously, if you don't follow the Bible and if you're not following Christ in your life, you're not going to live a blessed life. Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourges every son whom he receiveth. And so when you're reading this type of story, I hope you realize, you know, God deals with people the same way now as he did back then. And he deals with nations the same way now that he did back then. Otherwise, books like 2 Chronicles wouldn't even really be very relevant for us if God just is on a totally different program in the New Testament or something. Now, my friend, in the Old Testament, if the nation of Judah is disobeying God, they get punished. Well, guess what? In the New Testament, if the nation of the United States gets away from God, punishments will ensue. Right? George Washington famously said that nations are not punished in the next world. They have to be punished in this world. They have to be punished in this life. Right? Nations don't go to hell. Right? I mean, nations of people, in general, could. But I'm saying, you know, countries collectively don't go to hell. Right? Individuals go to heaven or hell. But when it comes to nations being judged by God, they get judged right here and right now. And America's no exception. You know, if America spits in the face of God, America's going to pay for it. Okay? If any country disobeys God, they get punished. And by the way, unto whom much is given, of him shall much be required. A nation that's been blessed by God like America. And let's just say it. America is the greatest nation in the history of mankind. It just is. I mean, you say, well, how can you say such a thing? You know, what about Israel or something? Folks, Israel at no point, at no point was Israel ever as powerful as the United States, as wealthy as the United States, or at any point was Israel ever as saturated with the Word of God and the gospel and soul winning as the United States of America has been. I mean, the United States of America has done more to preach the gospel all around the world than the nation of Israel ever did at any point. I don't care if it's under King David. I don't care if it's King Solomon. I don't care if it's Josiah, you know, or whatever. Okay? The United States is an unprecedented nation. It's a pretty amazing phenomenon. And, you know, I'm not saying that to be prideful because, you know, I can't really take credit for America because I was born in 1981. And America had already been around for a really long time and had already done most of its greatest deeds before I was even born. So I'm not being proud or boastful or something to say that America is a great nation. I'm just super thankful to be living in the most prosperous, powerful country in the world. And you should be thankful for that every day. And, you know, a lot of times we spend our lives whining and complaining about things that we don't like about our lives. But really, like, you know, the vast majority of the world is living in really bad conditions right now compared to the way that we live. You know, we go to the ghetto. We go to these really rundown areas, right? Well, go soul-winning with us in some of these, you know, undeveloped foreign countries that we go to and you'll realize that the poor areas here are actually super nice and super safe. You know, compared to a lot of places that we could be going outside of America. And so, you know, we are super blessed. We're in this tiny top percentile of just prosperity, freedom, and just, we got a lot going for us, my friend. And so there's a lot to be super thankful for. That's what I'm saying. And so it's nothing to be proud or boastful about. The only thing we should be proud of is the fact that we're Christians. Him that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. We boast in the Lord all day long, right? I'm not boasting about being an American. All I'm saying is that we live in, you know, a truly unique, special country that really has been blessed by God in an unprecedented way. I don't think you could point to any other nation that has had the amount of soul-winning and preaching and Bible that this country has had. So now if that same country that's had all that preaching, all that gospel, all those churches, all those missionaries that they sent out, all of that Bible teaching, then turns around and turns into some kind of a modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah? I mean, can you imagine the punishment that that country would have coming to it? It'd be like a child growing up in just the greatest, most godly, perfect Christian home and then just growing up to be an absolute reprobate. I mean, can you imagine how hot hell is for that person? And, folks, that's the thing about America. Like I said, unprecedented blessing, and it's going to be an unprecedented judgment, you know, if America doesn't get right with God. And so God still deals with countries the same way that he did it in 2 Chronicles 12. And, you know, obviously, yeah, America is not perfect. There are all kinds of problems with America. And, you know what, America is the second worst country in the world, but the first worst country is everywhere else, okay? It's just that simple. And, look, I'm not, obviously, look, human beings are sinners. Anywhere you go, there are going to be problems. And, you know, you could point to, you know, wicked things that our country has done, wicked movements in our past and wicked things that have happened, but at the end of the day, everywhere else is literally worse. So, you know, I rest my case. Actually, I just don't want to argue about it because I don't care. But anyway, let's move on with the Bible. It says that these bad things happen because they transgressed against the Lord, right? And so the author is kind of in this Deuteronomistic tradition of pointing out to us, hey, look, this is what happens. And, you know, when things go well, it's because we're serving God. Look at verse 5. It says, Then came Shemaiah the prophet to Rehoboam and to the princes of Judah that were gathered together to Jerusalem, because of Shishak, and Shishak is the king from Egypt that's invading, and said unto them, Thus saith the Lord, Ye have forsaken me, and therefore have I also left you in the hand of Shishak. So that's a super negative sermon. And then the guy takes off. But it says in verse 6, Whereupon the princes of Israel and the king humbled themselves, and they said, The Lord is righteous. See, hard preaching works. Okay? Preaching a negative sermon that people need to hear is often effective. You know, and we've got too many preachers that are afraid to say anything negative, afraid to preach the doom and gloom. They want to come and just say, hey, everything's going to be great. The Lord's with you. Don't worry about it. God bless Israel, and so forth. But no, this guy comes in and tells them what they need to hear, and says, You forsook the law of the Lord, and now God's going to forsake you into the hand of your enemy. That's the way it works, and that's it. Done. Sermon's over. But then it says in verse 6 that they humbled themselves and said, The Lord's righteous. What does it mean, the Lord's righteous? Basically what they're saying is, you know what? God's right to be punishing us. We deserve it, is what they're saying. You know, God's right to put us into the hand of Shishak. We're idiots. We have actually forsaken the Lord after even blessing us so much. And so that took some humility to admit that, but they humbled themselves and said the Lord's right, we're wrong. It says in verse number 7, when the Lord saw that they humbled themselves, the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah, saying, They've humbled themselves. Therefore I will not destroy them, but I will grant them some deliverance, and my wrath shall not be poured out upon Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak. Nevertheless, they shall be his servants, that they may know my service and the service of the kingdoms of the countries. And so now the prophet has a positive message. Okay, now you're doing right. Now I'm going to tell you some good news, is that because you've humbled yourselves, God is not going to completely wipe you out. Now look, Egypt is a major world power at that time. Not today, okay. At least I don't think so. But I don't, I don't claim to know a lot about geopolitics, but I don't think that they're one of the biggest key players right now. But back then, man, they were, they were like the number one power in the world at one point. I mean, they were big, they were powerful, they were important. And throughout the period of Israel and Judah, and those different monarchies, you see the big players are like Assyria, Babylon, Egypt comes up a lot as kind of going back and forth with those bigger powers to the east. And so Egypt, humanly speaking, you would think has the power to wipe out Israel completely and just take over. Because look at a map, my friend, Israel is pretty close to Egypt. And so if Egypt is a major superpower, not only that, Egypt had clearly rallied a whole bunch of other troops from deeper into Africa, right? The Ethiopians and the Sukums and the Lubims and, you know, all these other people from deeper into the continent. And they have a horde that can't even be numbered. Humanly speaking, they should be able to take over. If God's not protecting them, they're doomed. And so it's a good thing they humbled themselves because now Shemaiah says, you know what, because you've humbled yourselves, you're not going to be completely wiped out. This is good news because right now it kind of looks like they are going to be totally wiped out. But God ends up protecting them. God ends up working it out to where they do not get completely destroyed. God says, part way through verse 7, I will grant them some deliverance. Okay? Here's the thing about it. When you sin against the Lord, a lot of times your sin is going to have consequences that go on. Even after you get right with God. So you go out and live a sinful life and then you say, okay, now I'm going to get right with God. God is ready to be merciful. God's mercies are new every morning. God is there with His grace and where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. But there are still consequences for the stuff you did before you got right with God. Now here's the thing. If you don't get right with God, you can just really crash and burn. But if you do get right with God, then God will grant you some deliverance. Okay? But it doesn't mean that your life is necessarily going to be perfect. Right? The best way to live your best possible life is to never get away from God's word in the first place. Right? If you're growing up in a Christian home and look, did Rehoboam grow up in a Christian home? Yes, he did. Right? He is growing up in the nation of Israel. King Solomon's his dad. He knows the word of God. He knows what the Bible says. Okay, if you grow up in that Christian home and you know the Bible, you better just stay with it the whole time. Stay in church the whole time. Stay in the Bible the whole time. Don't get into fornication. Don't get into drinking. Don't get into drugs. Don't get into that party lifestyle. Stay on the right path. That is going to be your most blessed, prosperous, happy, godly life. That's what you want. But let's say you do go out and feel like you need to experiment with the world or whatever. Well, you know what? After the world chews you up and spits you out, which it inevitably will, then come back. Don't just stay out there and be like, oh, you know, I'm a loser now. No, man. Come back. If you're saved and you go out there and screw up your life, you can always come back and get right with God and make things right. It's not too late. As long as you're breathing air, you can still do something for God. Come back. But when you come back, you know, obviously it's our job as Christians to treat you well, forgive and forget, you know, just give you a fresh start, let you live it down. Of course, that's what, you know, godly people are going to do. But your life's never going to be as good as it was going to be if you would have stayed on the right path in the first place. It's just reality. There's God's plan A for your life. And then after you go out and sow your wild oats, now you're on God's plan B for your life. Now, God's plan B is still way better than being out there just ruining your life more. But plan B is not as good as plan A. Right? Plan A is the best case scenario. That's what you need to shoot for. You need to strive for the high calling of God in Christ Jesus and not, you know, just settle for the, you know, something that's a little bit of deliverance, you know. But hey, some deliverance is better than none. Half a loaf is better than none. If you stay out there in the world, that's super foolish, man. Come back, get right with God and salvage what you can and live the best life you can from here on out. And obviously we've all made mistakes. None of us are perfect. But people who mess up their lives royally, obviously there are going to be some scars. There are going to be some consequences. Listen to me. You go out and commit fornication, you are doing irreparable damage to your life, period. You just are. It's that simple. Okay? Now look, obviously you should remain pure from here on out. You should remain pure, get married, stay faithful to your spouse. But going out and sleeping around, if you think that there's just going to be no consequence, that is going to haunt you for the rest of your life. It just is because you're a human being. And it is the consequences of that wrong lifestyle. The Bible says in verse number 8, nevertheless, they shall be his servants. He says, I'm going to give them a little bit of deliverance, but they're going to be Shishak's servants that they may know my service and the service of the kingdoms of the country. See, here's the thing. You're going to end up serving somebody in your life. You're going to serve, right? I want to serve God. If you don't serve, you go, oh, I don't want to serve anybody, I'm just going to do my own thing. You're going to end up serving someone else, right? God is constantly taking people who don't serve him and forcing them to serve other people that are bad people, right? He's constantly taking God's people in the Old Testament and saying, oh, you won't serve me? Well, you're going to serve the Canaanites. You're going to serve the Philistines. You're going to serve the Midianites. You're going to serve these other people. What does that mean? You're going to serve them. You know, being taxed, huge amounts of money, right? Or just having to work for rotten people and stuff like that. And look, you could see how analogous things could happen in our lives in 2024, right? Oh, man, you know, I just want to do what I want on Sundays, you know? I don't want to serve God. I don't want to come to church. I want to do what I want to do instead of going to church on Sunday. I want to go have fun on Sunday. You know what? If God sees you doing that, God could just work it out to where you have to work some totally crappy job on Sundays. And you're just going to some crappy job that you hate on a Sunday. And, you know, you're going to think, like, I would love to be sitting in church right now rather than doing this garbage. You know what I'm saying? Like God has a way of, you know, you know what I've noticed is that there's a lot of poetic justice in this life. And God has a way of making sure that you end up getting hit with something one way or the other. You know, it's like you're in the forest and you're running away from the bear and you get into the cabin and you shut the door and you lean your hand on the wall and the serpent bites you. You know, that's the way God deals with people that he's punishing. Like you can't get away. It's going to happen. And so, you know, you're either going to serve God or you're going to serve someone else. You know, God can just take it and make it to where you don't have as much time to do the stuff you want to do. Because, like, oh, you're not going to make time to read your Bible? You're not going to make time to pray? You're not going to make time to go to church? Oh, well, I'll just make you have even less time. You know how easy it is for God to just suck time out of our day? Because haven't you had those days where the day's just flying by and you're just getting nothing done because everything's just taking way longer than it should? And then other days it's like 10 a.m. and you're just like, wow, I'm done with everything. What do I do now? Got all this free time. You know what? God can make your day be one of those two things. He's got a lot of power, my friend, to change circumstances. He can put you in all kinds of traffic jams. He can mess things up at work for you. He can mess things up at home. Or He can make everything go well. You know, you've got to respect the fact that God holds your destiny in His hands. And so He says, I'm going to have them serve Him. You know, they didn't serve Me, so they're going to serve Him. And then they can understand what it is to serve Me versus serving Him. You like serving Me or do you like serving Shishak? Because serving God is a pleasure. Paying a bunch of taxes to Shishak is not cool. And so it says in verse number 9, So Shishak, king of Egypt, came up against Jerusalem and took away the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king's house. He took all. He carried away also the shields of gold which Solomon had made. Now notice, he took away the treasures of the house of the Lord. Remember, the house of the Lord has all these golden vessels. You know, possibly even the Ark of the Covenant. You know, of course, we know later the Ark of the Covenant is in Israel. Perhaps it was taken to Egypt at this time. We don't know because it says He took everything. You know, depending on how you interpret this verse. If He did take the Ark of the Covenant, it was brought back at some point. Maybe ransomed back or maybe, you know, they got plagued and sent it back. Like we see so many other times in scripture. But the bottom line is that He raided all of those wonderful treasures from Solomon's temple of the golden vessels and, you know, expensive things. And then He carried those away. And then also the shields of gold which Solomon had made. Instead of which, King Rehoboam made shields of brass and committed them to the hands of the chief of the guard that kept the entrance of the king's house. Now look, that's all you can do at that point. You know, when you lose the shields of gold, all you can do is make the shields of brass. The shields of brass are plan B. Shields of gold are plan A, right? You'd rather have the shields of gold but shields of brass are better than nothing. And so like I said, serve God even if you have a messed up past. Even if you've done a lot of stupid things in the past, you know, get it right from here on out. Say, okay, I've lost the shields of gold. I blew it. Those are gone. There's nothing I can do to get those shields of gold back. I don't have the power to go up against Shishak. But here's what I can do. I can make shields of brass. You know what I mean? I can do what I can do to try to rebuild my life and try to live the best life I can following God from here on out. I've heard a lot of negative sermons about the shields of brass and of course those are legitimate sermons. But I think you could also look at this from another angle of, you know, doing what you can to rebuild after you get right with God, after you've humbled yourself, realizing that there are certain consequences that you just can't undo. You can only do the best you can moving forward. So he made the shields of brass. It says in verse 11, When the king entered into the house of the Lord, the guard came and fetched them and brought them again into the guard chamber. And when he humbled himself, the wrath of the Lord turned from him that he would not destroy him altogether. So he's not going to be removed from the throne. He's not going to be killed. He's not going to be brought in chains to Egypt and a puppet king put on the throne instead from Egypt. But he doesn't get completely destroyed. And I love this last phrase at the end of verse 12. It says, And also in Judah things went well. You know, sometimes the Bible is just so simple in the way that it communicates to us. You know, the King James Bible is just, you know, so hard to understand. This is one of those examples where, you know, you're scratching your head for hours trying to interpret the old English. Things went well in Judah. Now, why do I like this statement? You know, I just I like the simplicity of the fact that, you know what, one guy, Rehoboam, his fate is kind of in the balance. And let's face it, the Old Testament tends to emphasize big characters. Right? As opposed to everyday people. It's kind of about, that's why it's called the book of the kings. And it's the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah. So the books of the kings, the books of the chronicles, even books like Genesis, Exodus, they're always about the big characters, right? Moses, Aaron, Miriam, you know. And so obviously Rehoboam is the guy we're kind of focusing on. He screws up. He gets punished. He gets right with God. God still chastises him, but he doesn't totally destroy him. He gives him a break. He gives him some deliverance. He picks up the pieces. He does the best he can. But also, in Judah, things went well. And so what the Bible is saying here is that, you know, for the everyday people, for the nation themselves, now that Rehoboam has got on the right path, now things are going well in the nation as well. Things are going well in Judah. Now I don't think that Rehoboam ever really, truly got totally right with God or spiritually got to where he needed to be. Okay, and I'm basing that on what we're going to read in the next few verses. But even just having a leader that goes through the motions of following the laws of God, things go well in the nation, right? Regardless of what's going on in that guy's heart, that's kind of between him and God. But when the nation's leadership in general is on God's program, morally, spiritually, you know, somewhat following the Bible, things are going to go well. And I think that the more Christian our nation is, the more things are going to go well, and the more weird and heathen and pagan things get in our government, you know, that's just going to make things go not as well. But let's look at these last four verses because these give us, I think, a little more insight into what the problem is with Rehoboam. It says in verse 13, so King Rehoboam strengthened himself in Jerusalem. He's kind of back to where he started because remember in the last chapter, it's like he strengthened himself, he's making shields or, you know, he's building fences around cities, he's reinforcing things, he's stockpiling provisions. You know, this idea of Rehoboam strengthening himself is where we started. Then he went through this cycle where he like forsook the law of the Lord, humbled himself, God gives him some deliverance. Now he's kind of back in business and he's back kind of where he was, you know, strengthening himself, doing what he's supposed to be doing for the Lord because he learned his lesson. If I forsake the law of the Lord, I get punished. And so he kind of just learns from the discipline, but I think that he's still kind of the same guy that he was at the beginning. He has not become a spiritual giant. He has simply become, first he was kind of going through the motions of following God's law. His heart wasn't really that in it, which is why he then forsook the law of God, got punished, learned his lesson. Now he's going through the motions again. But his heart's never in it, folks. Let me tell you why I think that. Let's keep reading. It says, Rehoboam strengthened himself in Jerusalem. Again, that right there is reminiscent of where we started. That wording is bringing us back in our mind to where we started. And he reigned, for Rehoboam was one and forty years old when he began to reign. And he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem. So remember, the first three years, he's following God. Three years in, he forsakes the law of the Lord. Punishment comes. God gives him some deliverance. So he continues to reign for a long time after that. Because he has seventeen year reign. All that drama was happening about like three, four years in. And then he's still got, you know, over a decade left to reign after that. So, because he reigned a total of seventeen years in Jerusalem. The cities which the Lord, or excuse me, in Jerusalem, the city which the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel to put his name there. And his mother's name was Nehemah and Ammonitis. And he did evil because he prepared not his heart to seek the Lord. Like, why did he do evil? And notice, God is kind of just giving the final epitaph on this guy. And the final word on this guy isn't like, well, you know, he did poorly at one point. But man, then he got right and just became this awesome spiritual giant. No, it's more like just, let's talk about his screw up again. In the final analysis, let's talk about the bad that he did. Even though he spent most of his reign doing right. Did he not? I mean, do the math. First three years he's doing right. And then probably, you know, it's hard to know exactly, but probably over a decade after the whole Shishak incident. I don't know if that took a few years or if that was all happening in the same year or whatever. But the bottom line is, over a decade of following the law of the Lord again. But yet, in the final analysis, it's like, you know what? Rehoboam did evil because he prepared not his heart to seek the Lord. Now the Bible is not saying that everything he did was evil because obviously most of his reign was good. The Bible is explaining why he did that evil three years in. And the reason that he still is getting hammered for it is because he still kind of has the same problem. OK, he did not prepare his heart to seek the Lord. I don't think he prepared his heart to seek the Lord before Shishak came. I don't think he prepared his heart to seek the Lord after Shishak came. I think he more just kind of figured out, hey, I pushed a button and the light bulb came on. I forsook the Lord. A preacher came and explained it to me. This is why things are not going well. I got right with God. God spared me. Now things are going well now that I'm serving God. OK, I'm just going to serve God. I mean, look, that's better than nothing. And look, I guarantee you that there are a lot of Christians today. I'm talking saved Christians and I'm talking Christians who go to church every week for decades because they just kind of know I need to go to church so that I don't mess up my life. And they just kind of go to church, put in their time, go through the motions, get it done because it's just sort of like doing the minimum just to keep the wolf away from the door, just to keep Shishak away from our lives. That's where a lot of Christians are at today. I think it's always been that way and I think it always will be that way. But we don't want to be that person. We want to prepare our heart to seek the Lord, OK? It's not enough to just do the right things, although that is better than nothing. It is best for us to prepare our heart to seek the Lord. How do we prepare our heart to seek the Lord? Well, you know, we've got to keep our heart with all diligence. We've got to put in some good input. We've got to put in the Word of God, right? Read our Bibles, pray, follow God's commandments, go to church, sing hymns, right? And try to keep out as much garbage as we can. But if you're just filling your mind with garbage, let me ask you this. Let me ask you this. If you're not reading your Bible, not praying, not going to church, but you're just filling your mind with worldly entertainment all day, do you think you're really like, all right, I'm just preparing my heart to seek the Lord right now? Just preparing my heart, right? Just surfing the Internet to just prepare my heart to seek the Lord, all the worldly stuff I can find. Or do you think reading your Bible is going to prepare your heart to seek the Lord? Do you think they're going to church listening to preaching, right? You know, listening to some, you know, worldly podcasts. And look, I know there are a lot of secular podcasts that are not bad. They're just educational or something. But when you're listening to these bros like telling you how to live your life, and they're not saved, and they take drugs, and they're womanizers, and they're, you know, pickup artists or whatever, and you're listening to that kind of stuff, you're not preparing your heart to seek the Lord, my friend. Obviously, I'm 100% for you listening to some educational podcast or some benign, clean, you know, totally normal podcast. I'm talking about these personalities of, you know, these Joe Rogans and everything, you know, that are going to tell you all about how to live your life and be manly and, you know, how to have a family or job or whatever. You know, like, do you really think that that's who should be our life coach or life guru, Joe Rogan? And I'm just naming him just because that's the name that I know, you know. And here's another name, Andrew Tate, you know. I mean, talk about an evil piece of trash. And, look, I don't know the names, but I'm just saying, like, I guarantee you there are a bunch of guys out there with a podcast with millions of people listening, and they're going to tell you, here's how you deal with women, here's how you deal with your girlfriend, here's how you deal with your wife, here's how you deal with your job, here's how you live your life, here's how to be a man, here's how to be manly and masculine, here's how to, you know, and it's not godly advice. Be careful who you're listening to. Is that person preparing your heart to seek the Lord? Or is that person just pointing you to everything else? Oh, you know, it doesn't affect me. Everything affects us. You know, we are in many ways the product of our environment, and so we got to put ourselves in an environment that helps us be prepared to seek the Lord. Now, look, if your heart is not right with God, let's say you're sitting out there right now, just as cold as ice right now, and you're just like, when is this sermon going to be over, because I don't even care. I don't care about Shishak. I don't care about Rehoboam. I don't care about the Sukkims and anybody else, okay? But let me tell you, if that's you, I'm still glad that you at least dragged your butt to church tonight, because you know what? You're a lot better off being backslidden and not into the things of God and still dragging your butt to church anyway than to just throw in the towel and do nothing. I mean, I'd rather, and I believe God would rather, that you at least go through the motions, at least come to church, do the minimum, do the basics. You know, read the Bible whether you even care about it or not, okay? Now look, obviously every saved Christian deep down somewhere loves God, because that's called the new man, and cares about things. I mean, if you look inside and there's no love for God anywhere in there, then you're just not even saved, because obviously the new man is in there somewhere if you're saved. But I know that even for those that are saved, though, that new man can be in a very, very deep recess at times, because you are just so consumed with the things of this world that you are just walking in the old man and you're not walking in the new man. And so I could see how you could be super apathetic toward the things of God. And I think that we've all been there. You know, I can think of times in my life when I was a teenager when I would go days without even thinking about God. I can remember thinking as a teenager, man, I haven't even thought about the fact that even God even exists for two or three days. And I remember feeling kind of bad about that, just that I just didn't think about God, that I was just thinking about everything else. But, you know, that's not where I live today. You know, I'm thinking about God. I'm thinking about the Word of God throughout the day. That's where we should be, right? God should be in our hearts and minds, and we should love Him and think about Him and acknowledge Him, pray to Him. But you know what, if you're there at a spiritual doldrum and you are cold and apathetic toward the things of God, please, by all means, go through the motions so that things can at least go well. And if that's what you do until the rest of your life is over, that's still better than just forsaking the law of the Lord. But my friend, you know, if you want to actually be blessed, if you want to actually live a good life, well then you need to prepare your heart to serve the Lord. Because here's the thing, if you don't prepare your heart to serve the Lord, you're in danger of doing what Rehoboam did, forsaking the law of the Lord, and getting majorly punished like he was majorly punished by Shishak. And so why did he do evil? Because he prepared not his heart to seek the Lord. It all starts in the heart, we've got to take care of the heart. And look, I'm all for going through the motions. I'm all for dragging yourself to church when you don't feel like it. Look, if I only went to church when I felt like it throughout life, or if I only went soul winning when I felt like it, or if I only read my Bible when I felt like it, you know, I would have read a lot less Bible. And I don't regret any of it that I read. I would have attended a lot less church services, and I would have went soul winning a lot less if I only went when I felt like it. There were times when I just said, I don't want to go soul winning, I don't feel like going soul winning, I'm not inspired to go soul winning, I'm not excited about soul winning, I'm just going to drag myself out of soul winning anyway. And just kind of go through the motions. You know, and then a lot of times once you get out there, now all of a sudden, you know what, you're feeling it. You know, and God's spirit is at work, and you're able to do something great there for God. But other times, you just drag yourself through that hour or two of soul winning, and it is what it is. You know, I've never one time said, you know, I just wish I had stayed home from soul winning today because my heart wasn't really in it. I just thought, you know, my heart wasn't in it today, but hey, at least I was out there. At least I planted some seeds. At least I tried. You know what, half a loaf is better than none. But that is no way to live your Christian life, my friend. Prepare your heart to seek the Lord. God cares about what's inside. And not only does God care about it, it's going to manifest outwardly. You know, and I don't want it to be said, well, you know, Stephen Anderson did evil later in life because he didn't prepare his heart to seek the Lord. You know, he was zealous for the Lord in his early days, but then, you know, later in life, he didn't prepare his heart. I don't want that to be said of me. I want it to be said that I was passionate for the things of God that I loved the Lord with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength all the way to the end. And so that's why he did evil. He prepared not his heart to seek the Lord. That's just an overall statement. Looking at his whole life, his whole 17-year reign. Now the Acts of Rehoboam, first and last, are they not written in the book of Shemaiah the prophet and of Edo the seer concerning genealogies? Now look, I'm sure Edo the seer's book on genealogies is a real page turner. But frankly, I'm kind of glad that it's been left out of the Bible. Because I think that we have the exact Bible that God wants us to have. It's as long as it should be. It doesn't need just this extra Edo the seer's book on genealogies. I'm sure Edo the seer was a great man of God. And I'm, you know, but it's probably best that we skipped it. God knows what we need. God's given us exactly what we need in the word of God. We don't need to go digging for it either. And by the way, if somebody discovers tomorrow a new scroll of the book of Edo the seer, it's a fraud. The devil's constantly producing all these forgeries and fake, you know, scriptures out there pretending to be. You know, the reason that Edo the seer's book on genealogies didn't survive is because God knew that we didn't need it. That it was never intended to be part of the Bible. You know, it was just kind of a coffee table book for that generation. You know, some people had it on the back of the john in those days. But it's just not, we don't need it now. It says in verse number 16, Rehoboam slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David and Abijah his son reigned in his stead. So of course next week we'll talk about the reign of Abijah. Let's probably have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for the example of Rehoboam, Lord. And Lord, help this to really sink in with people that if they break God's commandments, there will be consequences. And some of those consequences are permanent. But Lord, help us all to realize that we can always replace those golden shields with brazen shields and at least live your plan B for our lives. But Lord God, I pray most of all that if anyone here today has a heart that's cold or apathetic toward you and your word, that that person would spend some time this week preparing their heart to serve you and spend some time this week just actually working on stoking the fires of desire for you and your word. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Man, take your hymnals. Go to hymn 316. Hymn 316. 316, I have decided to follow Jesus. Hymn 316, we'll sing it out together on that verse. 316, sing it out. I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back. No turning back. No turning back. No turning back. No turning back. No turning back. No turning back. No turning back. No turning back. No turning back. No turning back. No turning back. No turning back. No turning back. No turning back. No turning back. No turning back. No turning back. No turning back. No turning back. No turning back. No turning back. No turning back. No turning back. No turning back. No turning back. No turning back. No turning back.