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In your name we pray, in Jesus' name, Amen. Amen. Jeremiah chapter 41, we're in the part of the Book of Jeremiah where we're seeing all of Jeremiah's prophecies coming true. In chapters 1 through 38 of Jeremiah, he's preaching over and over again about how God's going to bring judgment upon the land of Judah. They're all going to be defeated. They're going to be carried away captive into Babylon. The ones who remain are going to be destroyed. Everybody's going to be judged. They're not going to be spared unless they obey the voice of the Lord, which of course they did not do. From chapter 39 onward, we start to see that coming true. So in chapter 39, Jerusalem is taken, the city's destroyed, burned, the king's eyes are put out, the princes are killed, and so forth. We're continuing on with that aftermath. And if you remember, what we talked about last week was that after they'd been defeated in battle, their army had been scattered, the king is blinded, the princes are put to death, Nebuchadnezzar puts a guy in charge named Gedaliah, and this man Gedaliah re-institutes order in the land after they've been defeated and destroyed. He sets up order, and he basically tells everybody, come back out of the field, come back to Jerusalem, those of you who are left, and all of the military leaders are going to be amnestied, they're going to be able to come back and live in peace, everything's going to be great, gather the summer fruits, gather wine, just enjoy life, move on with your life, serve the king of Babylon. As long as we serve the king of Babylon, everything's going to be fine. So they all rally around him, and they come back to Jerusalem, and they're living there, and everything's great. But of course we know that Jeremiah had preached over and over again that they're all going to be judged, they're all going to be punished, so it seemed a little too good to be true that after the battle's over, they could just rebuild, and they've got a leader, and everything's great again. Remember, God said that they're going to be destroyed and in captivity for 70 years, and 70 years hasn't gone by, only just a matter of days or weeks has gone by. So at the end of chapter 40, Johanan the son of Korea, he warns Gedaliah that this guy Ishmael has been hired by the Ammonites, who are the ancient enemy of Israel, to murder you. He's going to assassinate you, and we don't want that to happen because it's going to ruin the good thing that we have going here, and then all the Jews are going to be scattered again. And of course Gedaliah is seeing the world through rosy colored glasses, and he's very naive, and he says, oh no, no, that could never happen. So that brings us to where we are at the beginning of chapter 41. Look what the Bible says in verse 1. Now it came to pass in the seventh month that Ishmael, the son of Netheniah, the son of Elishama of the seed royal, and the princes of the king, even ten men with him, came unto Gedaliah the son of Ahikam to Mizpah, and there they did eat bread together in Mizpah. Now this guy Ishmael, probably the reason why he only brought ten men with him is because he didn't want to raise any eyebrows by bringing a great big army, and then maybe Gedaliah would have his guard up. So he just brings ten men, it's a small entourage, and supposedly they're just coming to eat a meal together. Verse 2, then arose Ishmael the son of Netheniah and the ten men that were with him, and smote Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan with the sword, and slew him, whom the king of Babylon had made governor over the land. So he kills Gedaliah, and then it says in verse 3, Ishmael also slew all the Jews that were with him, even with Gedaliah at Mizpah, and the Chaldeans that were found there, and the men of war. So this is Jeremiah's word coming true, God's word that Jeremiah preached, that they're all going to be destroyed, they're all going to be killed. They're not going to prosper because they would never get right with God. In verse number 4 it says it came to pass the second day after he had slain Gedaliah, and no man knew it, that there came certain from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from Samaria, even fourscore men, fourscore means eighty, fourscore men having their beards shaven and their clothes rent, and having cut themselves with offerings and incense in their hand to bring them to the house of the Lord. And Ishmael the son of Netheniah went forth from Mizpah to meet them, weeping all along as he went, and it came to pass as he met them, he said to them, come to Gedaliah the son of Ahicham. So, here's what's going on, Gedaliah has murdered, has been murdered, okay, by Ishmael, all the people that are there with him have been murdered, the Chaldeans troops that were there have been slaughtered, and now other people from other cities, eighty of them to be exact, they're just coming to make their normal trip to the house of the Lord, they're just coming to worship the Lord, and they have their beards shaven, their clothes rent, they have cut themselves, these are people who are in mourning, they're sad, and they're coming to pray unto the Lord. So Ishmael, just the duplicitous, murderous, conniving, wicked person that he is, he goes out there to meet them, and he's weeping and crying, basically he's trying to empathize with them, you know, they're weeping, so he goes out there and he pretends like he's sad too, and he weeps with them, and he says, alright, let's go see Gedaliah, he's already murdered Gedaliah, but he tells them, hey, we're going to go see, let me take you to the leader here, let me take you to the governor, let me take you to Gedaliah. Look what it says in verse 7, it was so when they came into the midst of the city, basically he's leading them into a trap, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah slew them, he killed them, and cast them into the midst of the pit, he and the men that were with him. But ten men were found among them that said unto Ishmael, slay us not, for we have treasures in the field of weed and of barley and of oil and of honey, so he forbear and slew them not among their brethren. So they get off the hook there just by promising to pay him with a bounty of riches and treasures and so forth. Now the pit wherein Ishmael had cast all the dead bodies of the men whom he had slain because of Gedaliah, was it which Asa the king had made, and we'll get to that in a moment. So let's back up a little bit here, I want to teach you a few things about these verses. First of all, in verse number 5, when it talks about these men that came from Shechem, from Shiloh and from Samaria, even four score men having their beards shaven and their clothes rent and having cut themselves with offerings and incense in their hand to bring them to the house of the Lord. Now I want to focus on that part where it says having cut themselves. Go back to Leviticus 19, keep your finger there in Jeremiah 41, go back to Leviticus chapter 19. You see people cutting themselves in the Bible is demonic, it's actually wicked, it's actually something that the Bible commands us not to do and not only that, but we see the prophets of Baal and we know Baal is Satan, Baal, Baal, Beelzebub, Beelzebub, these are just names for the devil, that the prophets of Baal, it says that when they were in that face off with Elijah on Mount Carmel, that they cut themselves until the blood came out as their manner was. So the Bible tells us that that was the manner of the prophets of Baal, they had a ritual that they would frequently perform where they would cut into their own flesh. Then when we get into the New Testament, we see that a man who is demon possessed in Mark chapter five is cutting himself with stones. So throughout the Bible, whether it's the Old Testament with the prophets of Baal or whether it's the New Testament with a man who is possessed of devils, cutting yourself is something that is satanic, it's not something that God wants us to do. See the devil wants us to be self-destructive, another person in the New Testament that was demon possessed, he threw himself in the water, he threw himself in the fire, people cutting themselves, this kind of self-destructive behavior is of the devil, it's not of God. Look at Leviticus chapter 19 verse 28, it says, ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead. So again, this is in a context of mourning, just like these guys are mourning where they're weeping and shave off their beard and cut themselves. So it's a custom that people would do when they were sad or depressed or mourning that they would actually cut themselves. But the Bible commands here that this is something that we should not do. This is a heathen practice, a wicked practice, a devilish practice. He says you shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead. And I remember when I was in high school, there were people there in the high school who would cut themselves. And I'm sure that as our country goes even deeper into just the sin and paganism and wickedness that I'm sure that there's probably even more people down at the local high school cutting themselves than when I was a young person. Now it baffled my mind why these girls would wear all black and cut themselves and hang around in the tombs, but the Bible describes that exactly in Mark chapter 5 as being demonic. That's what it is. Call it what it is. You can come at me with all your psycho babble and psychiatric explanation for that, but what does the Bible say that it's of the devil? And it's no surprise that the ones who would cut themselves are also the ones listening to Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson and the ones who are into all kinds of demonic and occultic things and they love death and gloom and darkness and evil. This is a scary thing when people are cutting themselves. This is of something wicked. But what's interesting is look at the latter half of the verse. It says, you shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead nor print any marks upon you. I am the Lord. So not only did he not want them cutting into their flesh, he also did not want them to print upon their flesh, which is obviously referring to a tattoo because a tattoo is printing on your flesh. You're printing either words or you're printing pictures. So let me say this. If that's put in the same breath with something as demonic as cutting yourself, it's something that no Christian should participate in. Now, here's the thing about tattoos. Once you get a tattoo, it's permanent. You can't get rid of it. So if you have a tattoo here tonight, I'm not trying to condemn you or make you feel bad because the sad thing is there's nothing you can do about it. But to those who do not have a tattoo, don't get a tattoo. The Bible says no. And to those who already have a tattoo, don't get another one because the Bible says no. We've all committed sin. We've all made mistakes in our life. But when you know what the Bible says, you should not knowingly go out and disobey the Word of God. Now if you made that mistake without knowing it or with knowing it and it's in the past, confess that sin to God, forsake it, move on, there's nothing you can do about it. And look, these tattoo removal ads are misleading. Don't fall for that stuff because I think some young people, they might see some of those tattoo removal ads and they might think to themselves, well, I can always get it removed. No you can't. Those tattoo removal, you see a video where they're just lasering it away and it's just disappearing. Oh, it's amazing. Yeah. Try talking to someone who's actually gone through that process. Don't just watch an infomercial and just take it as gospel. I mean there are a lot of other infomercials that show a lot of other crazy things where you know people are taking kitchen knives and cutting through copper plumbing pipe and the ginsu knife, it cuts through this plumbing pipe and then it cuts a tomato. This is great, the ShamWow, you know, you wash your whole car, you wring it out and you wash another one, you know. And the Hercules hook, you know, look at this piece of metal, you just stick it in the drywall, you can hang a gun safe on it, you know. It's a fraud. So, and look, if you've talked to somebody who had success with tattoo removal, great. But here's the thing about that, it depends on what color the ink is, what kind the ink is, where the tattoo is, what kind of skin you have, what kind of, there are a lot of variables folks. And what they're showing on the screen is the little unicorn situation where it's easy to remove. The people that I've seen go through this process, they were getting lasered and lasered and lasered and spending hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of dollars just for it to be faded a little bit. And their skin was bubbling up and, I mean, they burn you with a laser to get it off. And they said, oh, it's way more painful to try to get it removed than to get it put on. Put it on, $50. Take it off, $2,000. Put it on, one session, somewhat painful, right? Get it off, you go back 30 times and go through excruciating pain. The pain killer is extra. And it's so expensive, you know, a lot of people, they don't want to pay for the extra pain killer. So they just grin and bear it and get their flesh burned with a laser just so it could be faded. I've never seen one be completely successfully removed. And again, I don't know everything. Maybe it's out there, but I've talked to several people who tried it and tried it and tried it. They just threw up their hands and said, forget it, I'm just going to live with this because it just doesn't come off. Somebody needs to tell this to young people today, tattoos are permanent. You think it's funny, you're 18, 19, 20, you print marks upon your body, you got to live with that for the rest of your life. It's not worth it. And I heard somebody say this, putting a bumper sticker on the back of your car, it doesn't add any value to your car. It doesn't make your car any nicer. It doesn't make it look any better. And tattoos are sort of like bumper stickers folks, except they're on your body. You know there's some people who have way too many bumper stickers and then there's some people who have way too many tattoos. You know what I mean? And it's not making your car look any better. It's not making you look any classier. And again, not trying to condemn the people who've already done it because there's no, I'm not trying to beat you over the head with it, but I'm talking to people who haven't made that mistake. You know, that this is something that the Bible does condemn. I heard that there's a Christian tattoo place in Mesa and they'll only give you a Christian tattoo of crosses and Bible verses, but that doesn't make any sense because God said don't do it. So why would you then tattoo his word? Maybe they, you know, maybe they should tattoo Leviticus 19, 28, right? That would be very ironic, wouldn't it? So anyway, go back to Jeremiah 41. And I just want to point that out because I don't want you to get the wrong idea that God is somehow condoning of people cutting themselves, but you say, yeah, but these people are on their way to church. But here's the thing, just because people go to church, just because people worship the Lord, it doesn't mean that everything they do is right. And this is a big mistake people make when they study the Bible. They think that if somebody in the Bible does something and they're a good person, that must be a good thing to do. But in reality, the Bible records lots of good people doing a lot of bad things. Why? Because we're all human. We're all sinners. Nobody's perfect. So you'll see men like Abraham or Moses or David commit sins even though they're good men, even though they're godly men, it doesn't mean that everything they did should be followed. What we should follow is what God tells us to do and not to do. We can't always follow the examples in the Bible because some examples in the Bible are a bad example. And these people kind of came to a bad end anyway. Now I'm not saying it had anything to do with them cutting into their own flesh, but these people, they're not worshiping the Lord properly. When they're cutting themselves on their way to church, that's not a proper worship of the Lord. That's not what God asked them to do. They're misguided. They haven't been reading the Bible. There are tons of people in 2017 who go to church every week without reading the Bible. All they hear is what comes across the pulpit, and they don't read the Bible Monday through Saturday. That's pretty common, especially Leviticus. Who reads Leviticus? People who don't get tattoos, for example, read Leviticus, and then other people wait to read Leviticus until they have a bunch of tattoos. Then they read Leviticus, and all of a sudden they're like, I should have read this a little sooner. But they think it's such a boring book, except that it has some important truths in it, just like every book in the Bible. We need to study. The moral of the story is read the whole Bible. Study the whole Bible. Don't just rely on your pastor to preach everything to you, because this is a big book. You can't get it all from church. You got to read it on your own. Let's keep reading here. They have their beard shaven. They have their clothes rent or torn as a sign of mourning. They cut themselves, and they have offering and incense in their hand to bring them to the house of the Lord. Of course, when they get there, it's a trap. He gets them within the city in a vulnerable place. He attacks them, slaughters them, except for the 10 men who were able to buy their way out of the situation. The next thing that it says there is that the bodies of those that are killed are thrown into this ditch. The Bible actually explains which ditch they're thrown into. Whenever the Bible mentions anything, there's always a significance. The Bible doesn't just give us random trivia for no reason. If the Bible brings up something, it must have some significance. It says in verse number 9, now the pit, and this is just kind of out of nowhere that God brings this up. Now the pit wherein Ishmael had cast all the dead bodies of the men whom he had slain because of Gedaliah, was it which Asa the king had made for fear of Baasha, king of Israel. Ishmael, the son of Netheniah, filled it with them that were slain. There's this ditch or trench or pit that was digged as a defensive measure against Baasha. Let's go look at that story, 2 Chronicles chapter 16. The Bible says that this mass grave where all of these slaughtered Jews are thrown was a pit that had been digged by king Asa for fear of king Baasha, a foreign king from the northern kingdom of Israel that was invading and that he filled it with the slain. Now what's the significance? Why bring that up? Why point that out that that's why that ditch was dug? In Proverbs it talks about how he that digget the pit shall fall there in two. Sometimes what goes around comes around. The story in 2 Chronicles chapter 16 about Asa is a significant story. In general, Asa was a man who did that which was right in the sight of the Lord. He was considered one of the good kings of Judah. But later on in his reign, he started to not trust in the Lord like he should. He didn't have all of his trust in the Lord. He was relying on the wrong things and he was putting his trust in the wrong places. Let's look at the story here. Verse number one of 2 Chronicles 16 says, in the sixth and thirtieth year of the reign of Asa. So he's been reigning a long time, right? Thirty-six years into his reign. So things have been going great. He's reigned a long time. He's done what was right in the sight of the Lord. Baasha, king of Israel, came up against Judah and built Ramah to the intent that he might let none go out or come in to Asa, king of Judah. Then Asa brought out silver and gold out of the treasures of the house of the Lord and of the king's house and sent to Ben-Hadad, king of Syria, that dwelt at Damascus, saying, There's a league between me and thee, as there was between my father and thy father. Behold, I have sent thee silver and gold. Go break thy league with Baasha, king of Israel, that he made apart for me. So the king of Judah, Asa, good godly king, is under attack from the wicked king, Baasha, and because he's afraid of this invasion, he takes all the gold and silver that he has, but then he also plunders the house of God. He actually robs God by taking the gold and silver out of God's house, and he uses all that money to buy the support of the king of Syria. So he gives all this gold and silver to the king of Syria and says, Listen, you need to break your treaty, break your alliance with Israel, and come fight against Israel with me because I'm paying you to do that. So there's a lot of things wrong with this. Number one, he's robbing the house of God. Number two, he's leaning upon a wicked nation to protect him when the Old Testament nation of Israel was supposed to rely on the Lord to protect them and follow his way of going into battle and so forth. And number three, he's telling someone to break their vow and break their word and break their treaty. He's telling someone basically to lie, and so there's a lot wrong with what he does here. So the Bible says in verse four, Benhadad hearkened unto king Asa and sent the captains of his armies against the cities of Israel, and they smote Ijon and Dan and Abel-mayem and all the store cities of Naphtali. And it came to pass when Baasha heard it, that he left off building of Ramah and let his work cease. So Ramah is the city that's going to be the staging point to fight against Judah. So he can't finish it because the Syrians come and fight him. It says in verse six, then Asa the king took all Judah, and they carried away the stones of Ramah and the timber thereof, wherewith Baasha was building, and he built there with Geba and Mizpah. And at that time, Hanani the seer, seer is a prophet, that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said unto him, Because thou hast relied on the king of Syria, and not relied on the Lord thy God, therefore is the host of the king of Syria escaped out of thine hand. Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubims a huge host with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet because thou didst rely on the Lord, he delivered them into thy hand. And this is a great verse, For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward it. Herein thou hast done foolishly, therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars. So the Bible says that God is literally just up in heaven, just looking for opportunities to bless people who have their trust fully in him. He's just looking to show himself mighty on the behalf of those who trust him. And that's still true today in 2017. God is just looking for people to bless, and looking for people to protect, and looking for people to use in a great way to do great things for him. This foolish teaching of we're praying for revival is foolishness. It's unbiblical and it's foolish. We're praying for us. We don't know when it's going to come, but we're just praying for revival. But here's the thing. God is ready for revival at any time. God's ready to do great works at any time. It's us that either hold back the work of God or get the work of God going, depending on whether we obey what he told us to do. We decide whether there's going to be revival or not, because we decide whether we're going to obey him, and follow him, and serve him, and work hard for him, and preach hard, and pray hard, and go soul winning, and read our Bible. Look, we can have revival whenever we want. And look, our church is in a perpetual state of revival. It's true. We have people every single day, seven days a week, knocking doors, telling people how to be saved. We have more people saved in our church on a weekly basis. We have more people baptized on a weekly basis than a typical revival has on their typical night of their once a year specialty revival. We live there. Why? Because God is literally just up in heaven, just looking for people to bless, looking for places to do a great work, looking to save. He's not just asleep up there, and then every once in a while, every 100 years or something, he kind of, eh, let's do a revival. What kind of bizarre teaching is that? But yet, that's what most Baptists, they talk like, we're just praying that God will send revival as they sit on their rear ends doing nothing. Instead of praying for revival, why don't you do the work that God told you to do? Why don't you go preach the gospel to every creature, and then see what happens? revival will happen. So God's just looking for people to bless. He's looking for people to show his power and show his might. We need to fully trust in him, rely on him, obey him, and see what God can do. He's looking for those where he can show himself strong. Now when Asa heard this preaching, instead of responding to the preaching and saying, you know what? You're right. I shouldn't have done that. I need to trust in the Lord. I'm sorry. I did the wrong thing. But other than that, God would have been merciful to him with that attitude. But look, it says in verse 10, then Asa was wroth with the seer. Wroth is the same as the word wrath. Wroth is an adjective. Wrath is a noun. Then Asa was wroth with the seer. He's very angry and put him in a prison house, and he was in a rage with him because of this thing. Now, does this sound familiar? Isn't this sort of like the life of Jeremiah? God basically pronounces judgment on the king, judgment on the leaders. And what do they do? They get mad at Jeremiah, and they throw him in prison. So it's a very similar situation, right, between Hanani and Jeremiah. History repeats itself. So he's thrown in the prison house, for he was in a rage with him because of this thing. And you know, sometimes that's how people react to preaching. Preacher gets up and preaches hard on sin, preaches that something that they did was wrong, you know, preaches against their tattoo or whatever, and gets them mad. And then they get in a rage with the pastor, instead of just accepting the word of God, they get mad. Look, they got mad at Jesus because of his preaching. Jesus said, the world cannot hate you, but me it hateth because I testify of it that the works thereof are evil. Why did they hate Jesus? Jesus said in John chapter 7 verse 7, they hated him because he testified of their works that they were evil. So when you testify of the works of the world that they're evil, they get in a rage. They stoned Stephen. They crucified Jesus. They threw Jeremiah in prison. They threw Hanani in prison. Says in verse number 10 at the end, and Asa oppressed some of the people at the same time. No coincidence, of course. The Bible never mentions anything by accident. So what do we see here? Because Asa did not trust in the Lord, because he did that which was wrong, what's the punishment? At the end of verse 9, from henceforth, from here on out, thou shalt have wars. Now look, that's where the United States of America lives, by the way, a constant state of warfare, right? For the last, what, how many years have we been in a constant state of warfare? I know the whole time Obama was in office, we were in a constant state of warfare. I know most of Bush's term, we were in a constant state of war. That's not the blessing of God when you're in a constant state of warfare. That's actually a curse of God. And so because you've done foolishly, America, from henceforth, thou shalt have wars. And America gets mad at the preaching, and then America begins to oppress some of its own people at the same time. See, when you live in a sinful nation, oppression from the government is part of that package. Oppression comes when the spirit of the Lord departs. Why? Where the spirit of the Lord is, there's liberty. And where the spirit of the Lord is not, there's oppression. And that's the opposite of liberty. So of course, Asa oppressed some of the people at the same time. Verse 11, behold the acts of Asa, first and last, lo, they're written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel, and Asa, in the 30th and 9th year of his reign, was diseased in his feet. So in the 36th year, he relies on Syria instead of trusting in the Lord. In the 39th year, he's diseased in his feet until his disease was exceeding great. Yet in his disease, he sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians. Now there's nothing wrong with going to the doctor, but you should seek the Lord first. He didn't seek the Lord at all. He just goes straight to the doctor with no regard for praying to the Lord for healing, trusting in the Lord. Why? Because this whole chapter has a theme of Asa not trusting in the Lord. He trusts the Syrians, not the Lord. He trusts the doctor, but he doesn't trust the Lord. And that's why he was failing in his later life. It says Asa slept with his fathers and died in the one and 40th year of his reign. So he only lives another five years after that incident with Baasha. And they buried him in his own sepulcher, which he made for himself in the city of David, and laid him in the bed, which was filled with sweet odors and diverse kinds of spices prepared by the apothecary zard, and they made a very great burning for him. So we see here when it says that he was buried in his own sepulcher, which he had made for himself, there's a symbolism there of kind of like you made your own bed now lay in it. He dug his own grave is what it's basically saying, the symbolic meaning there, because of the fact that he didn't trust in the Lord. So go back to Jeremiah with that in mind. So that's the pit where the children of Judah, who were left with Gedaliah, and they thought they were going to escape, they thought they were going to be okay. But they didn't trust in the Lord. They're trusting in Gedaliah. They never got right with God. They never listened to Jeremiah's preaching. They were just like the people in Asa's day. And so it's just perfectly fitting that they would be thrown into that pit that Asa dug. Why? Because they're a lot like Asa, because they don't trust in the Lord. They trust everything else. And we in America today, we need to make sure that we trust in the Lord for our protection, for our safety, for everything that we need, all of our needs, financial needs, health needs, just our family needs. We need to trust in the Lord. We need to always go to him first in prayer and ask him to give us what we need. You see people today, they think that they have to just go everywhere else to get what they need instead of trusting in the Lord. That God is just not even a part of the equation to them. They don't realize that God is the one who ultimately holds our destiny in his hand. If God wants us to succeed at work, he can make us succeed at work. God can cause us to be a failure at work, no matter how hard we work and no matter how well we do. If God wants us to fail, he can make us fail. If God wants you to be sick, he can make you sick. If God wants our church to fail, he could destroy this church if it was displeasing to him. The bottom line is we need to focus more on keeping God happy with us, making sure we're obeying the Lord, trusting in the Lord, understanding that he's the one who gives us the power to get wealth. He's the one who holds our very breath in his hand. He's the one who builds the church. He's the one who will do anything for us or take anything away from us. He is ultimately the one who decides whether we succeed or fail in life. So we need to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and then God will take care of our needs. Now, obviously, yeah, we need to go to work. We need to do things for ourself, but we need to make sure that we keep God happy and trust him and put him first and do his work and obey his commandments, because ultimately he's the one who holds our fate in his hands. And so that was the problem with Asa. Instead of trusting the Lord, he breaks God's law. I mean, look, is robbing the house of God, is that going to make God happy or is that going to get God on your bad side? See what I'm saying? So what is he thinking about? He's just thinking, well, I need Syria on my side, so I'm willing to risk God not being on my side by robbing the house of God of gold and silver. I'm willing to risk that because I just need Syria on my side. And that's the same thing that they did in Jeremiah's day. They say, well, we just need Egypt on our side. And God's telling them, don't rely on Egypt, don't lean on Egypt, don't trust in Egypt. But they're saying, no, no, no, Egypt's got a big military, we're going to trust in Egypt instead of obeying the voice of the Lord. And we have decisions like that in our life all the time, whether we're going to trust in the Lord and obey his word and do things the way that he said, or whether we're going to lean upon our own understanding. The Bible says, trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. Where you basically say, well, I know that's what the Bible says, but the way I see it, I just have to do this. I just have to take things into my own hands, I just have to do it and violate scripture. You know, look, if the Bible tells you how to have a marriage, obey the Bible. And there are a lot of people who think like, well, yeah, but I can't obey the Bible because if I do, then no, no, you're leaning on your own understanding at that point. You know, when it comes to raising your kids, the Bible tells you how to raise your kids. Do it the way God said, you know, and the Bible says to spank your kids by the way. But then some people say, well, but I'm just afraid that if I spank my kids, well, quit leaning on your own understanding. If that's what the Bible said to do, you do it. You know, whatever God tells us to do, if God tells us to put him first, if God tells us the works that we need to do, if God tells me as a preacher what I'm supposed to preach, I mean, look, there are a lot of preachers out there leaning on their own understanding saying, well, if I preach negative, it's going to turn people away. So if I want to draw people in, you know, so I can reach more people, really, they want to reach a higher level in their bank account. But basically, you know, they want to reach more people. Even if they sincerely do just want to reach more people, if they're trimming the message and censoring God's word and cutting out unpopular parts of God's word in order to reach more people, you know what, their heart might be in the right place, but they are leaning on their own understanding, instead of trusting the Lord. When the Lord gave us this book and said that all scripture is profitable for doctrine, all scripture is profitable for instruction, preach the whole word, all the counsel of God, you know, we need to just trust God that we should preach everything in this book and let the chips fall where they may, instead of leaning on our own understanding and saying, well, I'm afraid that in America in 2017, people just can't handle this particular chapter, so we'll skip that, or this is going to offend the women in the church, or this is going to offend the men in the church, or whatever. You know, great peace have they which love thy law and nothing shall offend them, the Bible says. And we need to stop trying to rationalize not obeying God's word and just realize that if we trust in the Lord, he's going to bless us. He's going to take care of us. So we don't want to fall into the trap that the Jews fell into in Asa's day and in Zedekiah's day and in Jeremiah's day. Go back to Jeremiah chapter 41, we need to trust the Lord, obey him, do what he says, and not use our own logic to contradict God's word and say, well, yeah, but how's it going to work out? Well, wait, you know, God's just up in heaven just waiting for somebody to find out, waiting for somebody to obey him and trust him and do it his way, and then he'll show what mighty works can be done. You know, I just, you know, thinking back to when I started Faith Forward Baptist Church 11 years ago in my living room, you know, I was given all kinds of advice on how to start the church and hey, read this book and here's the advice. And basically all of the advice that I was given and all of the books that I was given to read on how to start a church, I felt that it was all unbiblical. And I felt like, you know, this is man's wisdom, this is not biblical. But people said, hey, you just need to follow that because it's the tried and the true. It works. But I'm looking at it, though, and I'm thinking, like, no, this doesn't jive with the Bible. You know, you're given all kinds of advice, like they say, hey, for the first year, don't preach hard on sin. You know, just keep it positive. I'm thinking, like, what in the world? Why, you know, because they say, well, these people are brand new. But I'm thinking to myself, aren't we always going to have new people every week? Who's here for the very first time tonight? This is your first time at Faith Forward Baptist Church. See, there's always going to be new people. There's always people here for the first time, right? Every service. So if you're going to wait until, you know, but what really happens is they start out with the soft preaching for the first year, and then that's what everybody's used to, and then they just keep on preaching soft. And then also, the teaching of the books that I read was, when you start a church, don't go soul winning. Just go around just inviting as many people. Just try to knock, like, 20,000 doors. Try to knock, like, 30,000 doors. Just invite people with a flyer to get them to come. I thought to myself, you know, that sounds like a big waste of time, because I remember other churches I've been to, I handed out a lot of flyers, and nobody even showed up. I'd rather just go out and just win people the Lord, just preach the Gospel. Because then even if nobody shows up, at least I'm getting people saved. At least I'm preaching the Gospel. You know, there were a lot of things they said, hey, start with a Sunday morning only. And then three months later, come out with the Sunday night service. Three months after that, come out with the Wednesday night service. And I'm thinking to myself, well, no, I want my family to be in church three times a week from day one. You know, why? Because we should be assembling ourselves together so much the more as we see the day approaching. We don't need less church, we need more church. So, you know, I grew up in church three times a week, that's the way I grew up. I'm not going to scale that back, I'm just going to continue that tradition, because why would we scale back to church as we approach the second coming of Christ? So much the more as we see the day approaching. You know, I'm just throwing out a bunch of examples, there were a whole bunch of examples. And you know, another guy, when he found out I didn't believe in the pre-trib rapture, he said, well, you know, don't preach on that, because that's going to freak people out, he said. He said, I'll tell you what, why don't you do this, this is what an older, more experienced preacher told me. Of course, he's not even a pastor anymore. But he told me, he said, he was fired by his church, but he told me, he said, here's what you do. He said, first build up a following, you know, then come out with that, you know, like once you're popular. Get popular first, then come out with that doctrine. But the problem is that when people seek that path of get popular first, you know what, they start liking being popular. And then they just want to stay popular. No, no, no. I decided, when I started the church, I decided, you know what, from day one, I just need to preach the whole Bible, go soul winning, and just do it as I see it in the Bible. Now when I started doing that, it didn't seem like it was working. Because I mean, I'd go soul winning, and every day I went soul winning for the first several weeks. And you know, there'd be just a handful of people that would come to church. I mean, the early services, there'd be my family plus three people, plus two people, plus one people, plus four people. You know, just very few people trickling in, and people would come for a few months, and they'd quit coming, and they'd come. It was like, after a year, we were averaging like 10, including my family. So it didn't really seem like, wow, what a success. I didn't start writing my book on how to start a church at that point, you know what I mean, which I don't have a book like that, even to this day. But by man's wisdom, it probably seemed like, hey, well, that's not working. But I remember, I just prayed to God, and I said, God, what I'm doing is biblical. What I'm preaching is biblical. I'm not going to change. And I said, this is exactly what I said to God. I said, God, if this church doesn't succeed, and if this church doesn't grow, then when I get to heaven, the first thing I'm going to do is ask you why you told me to do it in a way that doesn't work, because I'm doing it the way you told me to do it. You said you were going to build this thing. And I'm going to expect an explanation of why it's not working. But I said, I'm not going to change, though. And I just kept doing it, kept doing it, kept doing it. But look where we are now, 11 years later. I mean, we've accomplished more than I ever would have dreamed. You know, now the church is running 300 on a Sunday morning. The church has like 200 people out soul-winning every week, which is unheard of in any church I've ever seen. Just an amazing amount of work is being done. Millions and millions of people all over the world have heard the preaching, downloaded it on YouTube, MP3s that are being downloaded. I mean, it's just mind-blowing what God has done, you know, because I think God just likes it when people take him up on the challenge and just do. But it's not overnight. It's not like you just, you trust in the Lord and then boom, it's all right there for you. That was easy. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it, right? We have to trust in the Lord and then you do it God's way and a year into doing it God's way, sometimes it still doesn't seem like it's working. Two years into doing it God's way, three years into doing it God's way, four years into doing it God's way. I mean, look at Abraham. Here's Abraham staying faithful to his wife, Sarah, right? Faithful to his wife, Sarah, for 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, for you, trusting the Lord, trusting the Lord, having no kids. She's barren. She can't have a kid. God comes to him and tells him, you're going to be a father of many nations. He says, I don't even have one kid. I'm an old man. I mean, finally he gets to where he's 86 years old. He's 86. His wife is 76. He has no kid. And then that's when he lapses in faith, understandably so, I mean, right? He's waiting and waiting and waiting, trusting the Lord. And then he lapses in faith and he ends up taking on Hagar as a concubine, having the kid with Hagar, Ishmael. And then for 13 years, he doesn't really necessarily know where God stands on what he did. He just doesn't really hear from God. And then when he's 99 years old, God comes to him and tells him, you're going to have a child with Sarah, the original wife. And he laughs at him. The Bible records Abraham. He's on his face before the Lord. And he just laughs into the ground. Just like, what are you talking about? I'm 99 years old, my wife's 89 years old. You know? And he says, no one, you know, one year from now you're going to, you're going to have this child. And sure enough, God performed that miracle. And Isaac is born and it's an amazing miracle. And of course, you know, you know the rest of the story or if not, then read your Bible. It's called the book of Genesis, great book. But you know, that just shows what it's like with God. It's not like I trust the Lord today and by Monday all my problems are solved. No, no, no. Trusting the Lord is not a trial size, okay? It's a lifetime supply. It's you decide it's do or die. You trust in the Lord with all your heart, no turning back, you burn your bridges behind you and you stay on that course and you will be blessed in the end. And you will look back over your life and say, Jesus led me all the way. And you'll look back over your life and you'll see how everything in your life, literally everything worked together for good. The Bible says all things work together for good to them that love God and them who are the called according to his purpose. But you got to just keep trusting the Lord. You got to just stay with it. Stay on that righteous path, you know, and obviously we're all going to make mistakes along the way, but you get back on that path. You keep doing what you're supposed to do and God eventually comes through. He always does every single time, but you got to trust him. The people in this story here in Jeremiah, the people over in the story with Asa, they don't trust in the Lord. They think it has nothing to do with the Lord. There's an army coming. What are you talking about? Religion. Talk about the Lord. There's an army coming. We need, you know, we need an ally. We need Syria. We need Egypt. No, you need the Lord. God can do all kinds of miracles. I mean, all throughout history, there've been battles where, where the enemy was defeated because of weather. Right. And obviously that could be God's hand sending that wind of destruction, sending that cold front, sending the Hornets or sending all the different pestilences and, and, and, and things to the enemy disease, whatever all throughout the Bible and all throughout history. We see that happening. And so we need to understand as Americans that in all things, the Lord must have the preeminence. So we shouldn't just lean on the government as our savior and say like, well, Trump is going to save us. He's going to fix everything. Right. Because here's the thing. Only the Lord can save us. Only the Lord can fix it. So what we ought to do is focus on getting him happy, you know, because honestly the unicorn known as Donald Trump is not going to fix everything. Now look, if he, if he fixes everything, then I'll stand up here and say, I was wrong. He fixed it all. He did it all. He was the greatest president. You know, I'll admit if I'm wrong, but you know what? It's not going to happen. I mean, our country is so far gone. That these, you know, he's, he, he, I know he adjusted the deck chairs on the Titanic a little bit. Okay, great. I like the feng shui of the, the new arrangement of the deck chairs on the Titanic, but we're still heading toward a giant iceberg. Right, right. So we need to, we need to get off a mindset of like, government is our salvation. Or, or, you know, the military is our salvation or whatever. No, no, no. We've got to trust in the Lord. And look, the best thing that you can do for America is to go soul winning, win somebody the Lord. And how about this? The best thing you can do for America is get right with God in your own personal life and obey the Lord and teach others to obey the Lord. And as for you in your house, you serve the Lord. That's the best thing. You know, instead of putting on a sticker that says I voted today, why don't you put on a sticker that says, I read my Bible today. I prayed today. I went soul winning today. I went to church today because that's going to do more to help America. Why? Because there's a spiritual battle going on. That's far greater than a physical battle that's going on. And if we're going to win the battle, it's going to be a spiritual victory. It's going to be through faith in the Lord. It's going to be through the preaching of God's word, both in the pulpits of America, but also from the people of America to go out and win people to Christ. So in this chapter, let's just quickly wrap up the story here. The Bible says then Ishmael in verse number 10, carried away captive all the residue of the people that were in Mizpah, even the King's daughters and all the people that remained in Mizpah, who Nebuchadnezzar Adan, the captain of the guard had committed to get Elijah, the son of Ahicham and Ishmael, the son of Netheniah, carried them away captives and departed to go over to the Ammonites. So remember, he was hired by the Ammonites, their enemy, to slay them. So he kills Gedaliah. He kills the men that are with Gedaliah. But the women and the children and the people who were not warriors, he takes a lot of the people captives. And he's going to take them to the Ammonites so they can be slaves in the land of Ammon. Right? But verse 11, when Johanan, the son of Korea, and all the captains of the forces that were with them, heard of all the evil that Ishmael, the son of Netheniah, had done. Then they took all the men and went to fight with Ishmael, the son of Netheniah, and found him by the great waters that are in Gibeon. Now it came to pass that when all the people which were with Ishmael saw Johanan, the son of Korea, and all the captains of the forces that were with them, then they were glad. So basically, this guy Johanan, the son of Korea, he gets some troops together and he says, all right, we're going to go fight against this guy Ishmael, who murdered everybody and has taken everybody captive to Ammon. When he shows up with his army, which is more powerful than what Ishmael has, then all the captives that are with Ishmael, they just kind of run away and run to the safety of Johanan. And then Ishmael, with only eight guys, flees into the land of the children of Ammon and he escapes. He gets away with it. So the Bible says in verse number 15, but Ishmael, the son of Netheniah, escaped from Johanan with eight men and went to the Ammonites. Then took Johanan, the son of Korea, and all the captains of the forces that were with them, all the remnant of the people whom he had recovered from Ishmael, the son of Netheniah, from Mizpah. After that, he had slain Gedaliah, the son of Ahicham, even mighty men of war, and the women and the children and the eunuchs whom he had brought again from Gibeon, and they departed and dwelt in the habitation of Kimham, which is by Bethlehem, to enter into Egypt because of the Chaldeans, for they were afraid of them because Ishmael, the son of Netheniah, had slain Gedaliah, the son of Ahicham, whom the king of Babylon made governor in the land. So again, there's some people that have made it. Some people have survived. Johanan is there with the people that survived and made it. In the next chapter, they're going to ask Jeremiah's advice. Say, okay, Jeremiah, what should we do? Okay. But listen, it doesn't bode well for these people. Because remember what God's been saying for 38 chapters of this book. You're all doomed. This guy Johanan doesn't trust in the Lord. He doesn't have his faith in God. He's just doing whatever he feels is expedient, whatever gets the Jews the most prosperity. But he didn't care what God says or what the man of God says. And we're going to see that next week. So we need to make sure in our lives that we take heed onto the word of God. Because our life, our prosperity, our success or failure in every area of life depends on our standing with God. Now being saved is easy. All you have to do to be saved is just believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved. But when it comes to God blessing you, you got to obey the commandments of the Lord in order to get the blessings of God. And if you want to succeed in life, don't trust in your own understanding. Put all of your trust in the Lord. And specifically I'm saying, trust the word of God. Trust the advice that God gives you through his word. Let's have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for the Bible, the light unto our feet, a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path, Lord. Help us to trust in you and trust in your word and not to lean upon the flesh. And in Jesus name, we pray. Amen.