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Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Thank you for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church. Let's go to Psalm 150 and the white handouts. Psalm 150 and the white handouts. Underneath the seats in front of you or behind you. Psalm 150. Let's sing it out. Praise ye the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary. Praise him with the sound of his power. Praise him for his mighty acts. Praise him according to his excellent goodness. Praise him with the sound of the trumpet. Praise him with the soul to be at heart. Praise him with the timbrel and bass. Praise him with instruments and organs. Praise him upon the loud cymbals. Praise him upon the high sounding cymbals and everything at that breath. Praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord. Praise God the Father. Praise God the Son. Praise God the Holy Ghost. Praise God in three first sons. And let's pray. Father, thank you for this opportunity to be in your house again. I pray you please help us to sing with understanding, Lord, and the Spirit. I pray you bless the preaching later on that you be with Pastor Anderson and fill him with your Holy Spirit. And we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's go to hymn number 263. Hymn number 263. Oh what a Savior that he died for me. From condemnation he hath made me free. He that believeth on the Son said, He hath everlasting life. Verily, verily, I say unto you. Verily, verily, message ever new. He that believeth on the Son is true, hath everlasting life. All my iniquities on him were laid. All my invettedness by him was paid. All who believe on him the Lord hath said, hath everlasting life. Verily, verily, I say unto you. Verily, verily, message ever new. He that believeth on the Son is true, hath everlasting life. Though for a needy I can trust my Lord, Though evil's sinful I receive his word, O glad message every child of God, hath everlasting life. Verily, verily, I say unto you. Verily, verily, message ever new. He that believeth on the Son is true, hath everlasting life. Though all unworthy and I will not doubt, For in the comet we will not cast out. He that believeth, though the good news shout, hath everlasting life. Verily, verily, I say unto you. Verily, verily, message ever new. He that believeth on the Son is true, hath everlasting life. All right good singing at this time we'll go through our announcements so if you need a bulletin raise your hand nice and high and we can have some of the men come around and get that to you on the front of our bulletin we have the verse for the week psalm chapter number 12 verse number 3 so if you can quote that to a non-family member by the end of next service you can receive a ice cream treat directly after the service if you're under the age of 18 and so i encourage you to memorize the scriptures we've got our service times listed there along with our soul winning times we will have so many this afternoon at 2 p.m and we'd love to have you uh stick around and go out soul winning with us there at two and we'll pair you up and send you out and so hope to see you there and of course we've got our month to date year to date stats there at the bottom and we want to keep our expecting mother and prayer miss hasmeen alvarez she is expecting any time now and so definitely excited for them and want to keep them in our prayers and as you all know and the reason why many of you all are here this morning is we have a guest preacher pastor steven anderson from tempe arizona he is here going to be preaching for us both the am and the pm service and as a church we did gather a a care package for them because we know that they have a long a trip ahead of them as well so hopefully this kind of helped them get through that and so just a few things um to kind of help them with gaming and and some snacks and stuff i know right is so we definitely pick things that we thought would be perfect for each one of them so i'm glad to have them here this morning and then on july 23rd we are going to do our which will be our next so many marathon is in tulsa oklahoma july 23rd so if you can make it out to that we'd love to have you it's about an hour and a half from the oklahoma city area and i definitely want to put that on your calendar and then august 18th through the 20th is going to be the mighty men's conference at the riverbend retreat center down in texas and that is a a joint conference for men for the steadfast churches and then pure words baptist church and so if you want any information on that you can see me after the church there is a sign-up sheet on the back table as well and then september 3rd which is labor day weekend we're going to do another so many marathon in fort smith arkansas and so i'm really excited about this one this will be the first cross state so many marathon that we've hosted for oklahoma city and so definitely looking forward to that as well just for the guests here this morning i did want to give kind of a lay of the land if you haven't already found some of the amenities of the church there is a toddler area here to my right and then also a mother baby room there is a bathroom in that area as well all the way to the back with a changing table and there's another changing table in the mother baby room and then the other bathroom is going to look be located through the kitchen area and so please feel free to help yourself um to anything that you need there and it's good to see everyone here good singing this morning we'll go right to our next song hymn number 43 in your hymnal we're marching to zion one of my favorites hymn number 43 we're marching to zion all right hymn number 43 we're marching to zion sweet we're marching of but children of the heavenly king to we're marching upward to the thousand sacred sweet before we reach the fields before we reach the we're marching to zion beautiful beautiful we're marching upward to the beautiful sea of god then let our songs abound and every tear be dry we're marching through emmanuel's ground we're marching through emmanuel's ground on high to fairer worlds on high we're marching to zion beautiful beautiful we're marching upward to amen great singing let's go to second chronicles chapter 30 second chronicles chapter 30 as the men take up the offering good morning second chronicles chapter number 30 second chronicles chapter number 30 the bible reads and hezekiah sent to all israel and judah and wrote letters also into ephraim and menasseh that they should come to the house of the lord at jerusalem to keep the passover unto the lord god of israel for the king had taken counsel on his princes and all the congregation in jerusalem to keep the passover in the second month for they could not keep it at that time because the priests had not sanctified themselves sufficiently neither had the people gathered themselves together to jerusalem and the thing pleased the king and all the congregation so they established a decree to make proclamation throughout all israel from beersheba even a dan that they should come to keep the passover and to the lord god of israel at jerusalem for they had not i'm sorry for they had not done it of a long time in such sort in such sort as it was written so the post went with the letters from the king and his princes throughout all israel and judah and according to the commandment of the king saying you children turn again unto the lord god of abraham the lord god of abraham isaac and israel and he will return to the remnant of you that are escaped out of the hand of the kings of iseria and be and be not like your fathers and like your brethren which trespass against the lord lord god of their fathers who therefore gave them up to desolation as you see now be not stiff-necked as your fathers were but yield yourselves unto the lord and enter into his sanctuary which he has sanctified forever and serve the lord your god that the fierceness of his wrath may turn away from you for if you turn again unto the lord your brethren and your children shall find compassion before them that lead them captive so that they shall come again into the land for the lord your god is gracious and merciful and will not turn away his face from you if you return unto him so the post passed from the city to to city through the country of ephraim and manasseh even unto zebulun but they laughed them to scorn and mock them nevertheless divers of asher and manasseh and of zebulun humbled themselves and came to jerusalem also in juda the hand of god was was to give them one heart to do the commandment of the king and of the princes by the word of the lord and there assembled that jerusalem much people to keep the feast of unleavened bread in the second month and every great congregate and every great congregation and they rose and took away the altars that were in jerusalem and all the altars for instance for incense took they away and cast them into the brook of kydron then they killed the passover on the 14th day of the second month and the priest and the levites were ashamed and sanctified themselves and brought in burnt offerings into the house of the lord and they stood in their place after the manner according to the law of moses the man of god the priest sprinkled the blood which they received of the hand of the levites for there were many in the congregation that were not sanctified therefore the levites had the charge of the killing of the passover for every one that was not claimed to sanctify them unto the lord for the for the multi for a multitude of the people even many in ephraim and manasseh and isekar and zebulun had not cleansed themselves yet did they eat the passover otherwise than it was then it was written but hezekiah prayed for them saying the good lord pardon everyone that prepareth his heart to seek god the lord of his fathers though he be not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary and the lord hearken to hezekiah and healed the people and the children of israel that were present at jerusalem kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with great gladness and the levites and the priest praised the lord day by day singing with loud instruments unto the lord and hezekiah spake comfortably unto all the levites that taught the good knowledge of the lord and they did eat throughout the feast seven days offering offering peace offerings and making confession to the lord god of their fathers and the whole assembly took council to keep other seven days and they kept other seven days with gladness and hezekiah king of judah did give to the congregation a thousand bullock and seven thousand sheep and the princes gave to the congregation a thousand bullocks and ten thousand sheep and a great number of the priests sanctified themselves and all and all the congregation of with the priest and the levites and all the congregation that came out of israel and the strangers that came out of the land of israel and that dwelt in judah rejoiced so there was great joy in jerusalem for since the time of solomon the son of david king of israel there was not the there was not there was not the like in jerusalem then the priests and the levites rose and blessed the people and their voice was heard and their prayer came up to his holy dwelling place even unto heaven heavenly father lord we just thank you so much that we can be here today lord we just pray that you'd fill pastor anderson with your spirit lord and i just pray that you'd give this congregation the ability to focus on the sermon that they might be edified lord we ask in your for your glory in jesus precious name we pray amen men well it's great to be here and i appreciate all of the faithful members of this church here in oklahoma and i also appreciate people who've driven a long way to be here for today that really means a lot to me that you came all the way out here to hear the sermons and participate in the activities of the church here as you know i'm on a road trip where i'm traveling all across the country and we've already gone well over 4 000 miles and we've still got a couple thousand more to go and so i've been to la fresno portland spokane boise the the worst drive was the voice to hear just because it was like 21 hours or something so we got through the hardest leg of the trip it's all downhill from here right famous last words and so i'm preaching on this road trip a series where i'm going through the 12 sons of jacob which are also the 12 tribes of israel so i've already done seven of them i've done rubin simian levi juda dan naphtali and gad and so this morning we're on asher now when it was possible i preached on the actual person rubin simian etc but with many of these sons of jacob we don't have any information about the person asher we don't really know anything that he specifically did in his lifetime so in the asher sermon i'm going to be preaching about the tribe of asher and again not necessarily one of the big famous tribes that you would think about a lot but i want to preach on this specific episode that involves the asherites in second chronicles chapter number 30 and how it has great significance even into the new testament the significance of this remains so in second chronicles chapter 30 look down at your bible there and it says in verse 9 for if you turn again unto the lord your brethren and your children shall find compassion before them that lead them captive so that they shall come again into this land for the lord your god is gracious and merciful and will not turn away his face from you if you return unto him so the post passed from city to city throughout the country of ephraim and manasseh even unto zebulun but they laughed them to scorn and mocked them nevertheless divers of asher and manasseh and of zebulun humbled themselves and came to jerusalem they came to jerusalem now let me give you the historical context here of what's going on in this story so the children of israel had dwelled in the promised land in the time of the judges and then eventually they wanted a king to rule over them they had saul then they had david then they had solomon well after solomon that united kingdom under the monarchy is broken into two different halves you have the northern kingdom called israel and the northern and the southern kingdom called judah okay now the southern kingdom called judah sometimes they had good kings sometimes they had bad kings but in general that was the godlier kingdom that in general stayed with the lord they're worshiping the lord they've got the temple in jerusalem they still are following the bible the northern kingdom pretty much had only bad kings they had some kings that were a little bit bad and they had some kings that were really bad but they never actually had a godly king that properly worshiped the lord they had idolatry set up in dan and in bethel and that was their religion continually sometimes they mixed in a little worship of bale but they always had those idols in dan and bethel they were always wicked they were always ungodly from the time that the split took place well eventually both of these kingdoms get judged the northern kingdom of israel gets taken captive by the asyrians and then later of course the southern kingdom was it was godlier so it lasted longer but eventually it got too wicked and the southern kingdom ended up going into captivity to the babylonians okay so that's kind of just a basic historical overview of what we're looking at here now hezekiah is a southern king he's a king of judah and he did that which is right in the side of the lord but unlike other southern kings who just led the nation of judah to do right he actually reached out to the northern kingdom and wanted to give them an opportunity to get right with god he wanted to not just evangelize his own area or just lead his own nation in a godly way but he wanted to actually reach out to the northern kingdom and try to get them worshiping the lord and so he sends out what we would think of as missionaries in a sense he sends out messengers and preachers to go to the northern kingdom and say look you need to get right with god the god that we're worshiping down here is the god of abraham isaac and jacob jerusalem is the place that god has chosen to put his name there it's the city of david david is a man after god's own heart this is what god has ordained you need to come down here and keep the passover remember the passover you need to come down here and keep the passover with us and get right with god and if you'll do it god's going to accept you god's going to forgive all the bad stuff you guys have been doing up in that northern kingdom but you need to come down here and get right with god so when this message goes out it says in verse 10 so the post passed from city to city through the country of ephraim and menasseh even under zebulun those are all northern tribes of this northern kingdom of israel but they laughed them to scorn and mock them so the message in general is rejected the northern kingdom doesn't just get right with god and listen to the preaching in general they made fun of it they laughed at it it's a big joke you think we're going to go down to jerusalem no way and part of this had to do with a national pride or rivalry where both of these kingdoms kind of thought that they're better than the other the northern kingdom is proud of being northern the southern kingdom is proud of being southern and so there's this bit of a rivalry and so that's what's partially feeding into this thing of making fun of the messengers and saying we don't want to go to jerusalem because here's the thing in order to serve god in the old testament properly in order to worship the lord properly you have to do it in jerusalem you don't just go wherever god had a place that he chose to put his name there and if you remember in the new testament jesus deals with the woman in the well on this issue where she says well you know our fathers worship god in this mountain but you say that jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship and he told her he said well let me just get this one thing straight salvations of the jews so he basically told her your religion's wrong the northern kingdom samaria northern israel that's a false religion salvations of the jews so let's just get it straight that who's right in this argument are the people that are going to jerusalem okay but then he also said you know the time is coming when men shall neither in this mountain nor in jerusalem worship god they're going to worship god in spirit and truth because obviously the new testaments right around the corner and we don't need to go to jerusalem we can do it right here in oklahoma or anywhere else we don't need to go anywhere special in order to worship the lord but back then they did back then there's a physical center for the worship of the lord the place that he had chosen to put his name there is jerusalem the temple is there the house of god is there and so that was the place where men ought to worship god at that time and so they mocked them they laughed in the scorn but the bible says nevertheless in verse 11 divers meaning like various people of asher and manasseh and zebulun humbled themselves and came to jerusalem so in order to come to jerusalem and get right with god they're gonna have to humble themselves a little bit and say hey we're wrong up here our nation is wrong our country is wrong they had to maybe put aside the flag-waving apple pie eating for a minute and say you know what god isn't restricted to a certain nation or you know it's not some kind of a thing where you know the god of oklahoma versus the god of california the god of mexico the god of you know because god's the god of the whole earth he's not restricted to a certain geography but at that time people had this attitude of well that's the god of the philistines this is the god of israel that's the god of juda you know here's the god of the hit tights over here the gods of the egyptians and god's constantly hammering the fact that no god's the god of the whole earth it's like today if i would witness unto the native americans and they oh that's a white man's god no he's the god of the whole earth he's not a white man's god he's not a black man's god he's everybody's god because there is only but one god okay and so they had to humble themselves and maybe put aside that kind of nationalistic idea or the the pride of their ethnicity or nation or whatever and admit that they're wrong and say yeah we're going to go down to jerusalem and we're going to do this the right way we're going to get right with god we're going to seek the lord and so they humbled themselves and came to jerusalem and the bible says in verse 12 also in juda the hand of god was to give them one heart to do the commandment of the king and of the princes by the word of the lord so what can we learn from this episode with regard to the asherites because the bible singles out a few tribes and says you know these are the tribes where they had some success with their preaching because most people are making fun of them laughing them to scorn but in certain places they had success and the first one listed as being a place where they did reach people was asher there were asherites who moved from israel to jerusalem they came down and they wanted to worship the lord and get right with god so what can we learn from this episode in the tribe of asher where they get right with god in the days of hezekiah well the most important thing that we'll learn is the importance of being humble with regard to getting right with god okay anytime we get right with god it's going to take some humility because by very definition getting right with god is to admit that we're wrong with god you know we've got a problem we've been doing something wrong we made a mistake we need to change and today unfortunately we live in a society that's very much like that northern kingdom of israel today why because we live in a society that mocks and scoffs at the things of god and is filled with pride and is more interested in being american is more interested in being right and just doing what their parents have done or just following the crowd or whatever than actually doing what's right and getting right with god and as a nation today unfortunately our culture is being de-christianized and so in the past being american in the past you know would have probably meant that you have respect for the things of god or that you worship the lord because in history our country has been a christian nation now not necessarily the leadership people would point to you know founding fathers that were wicked or something or something wrong with this founding father or that founding father or or that our government did wrong things back then but i'm talking about the people of the country not necessarily always the leadership but the people of our country have historically been christian america has been a christian nation where the vast majority of people whether saved or unsaved would have claimed the name of christ would have respected the bible and it was a part of the culture in america that we would have known the bible people knew the stories of the bible they would have known who samson is they're going to know about noah's ark they're going to know who moses is they're going to know the basic disciples peter james john but today my friend we're living in a day where people don't even know who those people are you know they could name all their disney characters they could name the marvel comic characters they could name your dc comic characters and superheroes but they couldn't tell you who abraham isaac and jacob are today and i'm telling you i talk to people all the time i'll go out soul winning and i'll be talking to somebody about the gospel and maybe they're having trouble understanding something and so you know i want to bring in a bible story and kind of illustrate them i'm like well you know are you familiar with adam and eve no like huh like okay you know you'd be talking along well you know the story about jonah and the whale who oh that pinnochio getting swallowed by well no no i'm talking about jonah getting swallowed by a whale they're like no you know uh samson you familiar with samson no i'm telling you today children teenagers and even young adults are completely unfamiliar with these stories but it was not so in the past you know i read a chronicle of my family history on my mom's side that went back about 150 years and in that chronicle uh this branch of the family at this time was not even going to church they weren't christians they probably weren't even saved you know let alone living a christian life but yet in this chronicle talked about them reading the bible and and telling bible stories and they didn't even go to church it was just like they're americans it was just kind of part of our culture who we were as a nation even up through the 1960s and 70s it was still that way okay it's only very recently that our country is being de-christianized where that stuff is being removed from the culture and where now to be an american is no longer to be christian i remember my grandpa went soul winning you know 50 some years ago he knocked on a woman's door and said are you a christian and she said well i'm not a cannibal you know and to her those are the two choices you know you're a christian or a cannibal you're christian or a savage like she what did she mean by that she basically meant well isn't everybody why because in the culture virtually everybody would have identified as christian whether they're actually saved or believe the bible or not they would have identified that way now more and more even in the last 16 years of pastoring i knock on people's doors and more and more you ask someone are you a christian they say no and more and more people are even hostile toward christianity they're not christian they don't claim the name of christ they don't know anything about the bible they don't know the stories they don't know the teachings of the bible and they want nothing to do with it because our country our nation is being de-christianized even though historically we've been christian and that's kind of similar to the northern kingdom of israel you know historically these people do go back to abraham isaac and jacob they do go back to saul and david and solomon who were all three men who believed in and worshiped the lord but now they're at a time in their history where they've been de-christianized you know and obviously they weren't christian because the old testament but i'm obviously relating it to today right they've been uh d old testamentized but you know they've been they've been de-christianized would be how we would look at it today right and so we can relate to a lot of this and we could see that the northern kingdom of israel has a lot in common with our country today and today we have people that mock and scoff at the preaching of god's word you know somebody gets up and calls america to repentance and preaches out against the wickedness and the vile things that are going on and they basically end up like your pastor pastor jonathan shelley right they end up getting lambasted mocked hated you know i just just googling your church or looking up your church on youtube you know there's all this junk that comes up of people just attacking and hating on the church and you know what they are filled with pride they're scorners they're scoffers they're mockers at the things of god okay and that's what we see in this day where they they laughed them to scorn and mocked people who are preaching the word of god you know i used to say that pastor shelley was probably the second most hated preacher of the new ifb but i can't say that anymore because he's the number one most hated preacher way more people hate him than hate me you know i'm starting to feel popular you know i'm starting to feel beloved uh compared to him because man he is he's been uh attacked hard you know you need to pray for him and support him because he is standing up for god and the bible in a time when it's not popular to do so and when he will be attacked and laughed to scorn and mocked by the wicked but why does he keep preaching why continue to serve god because they're you're doing it for those divers of asher that are going to humble themselves and get right with god and that makes it all worthwhile those few people that you can reach and so today in america if we as individuals are going to be right with god we've got to humble ourselves and realize hey we don't have it all right as a nation okay we have drifted from god we have become wicked you know we need to be different than the people around us in 2022 because our country's going a wrong direction and that was hard for these people to do you know they had to admit hey the northern kingdom of israel is wrong we need to get right with god and they had to humble themselves now why else did they have to humble themselves because the bible says in verse 12 also in juda the hand of god was to give them one heart to do the commandment of the king and of the princes by the word of the lord notice the middle man there between the people and the word of the lord it says there that they had to do the commandment of the king and of the princes by the word of the lord okay so the who are they directly obeying when they show up to jerusalem you know the asherites they humble themselves and come down who they end up directly obeying is hezekiah the godly king who made all this happen you know the godly king who sent out the messengers and and is rallying the people to god they had to obey the commandment of hezekiah and the princes by the word of the lord you see jesus christ himself is not going door to door this afternoon and telling people how to be saved jesus christ himself is not showing up in any pulpits in america this morning he's not going to be preaching any sunday night services he is not going to physically come to people and speak to them no it's it's going to be human beings men of god women children with the word of god in their hand that are going to actually do the preaching and give the commandments and tell people what the word of the lord is and it's up to the humble to listen to and obey the commandments that are coming from the kings and the princes by the word of the lord so we want to make sure that obviously we're listening to people that are actually getting what they believe from the word of the lord but we're not just supposed to only obey the word of the lord directly no we're supposed to obey the preaching of god's word because god uses human beings to preach his message to us and today not only do we live in a time in america where we would say that you know we're not a christian nation we're a secular nation that's what that's what our nation would say today wouldn't they not only do we live in a day where people scoff and mock at the word of god and make fun of bible preaching they make fun of me they make fun of your pastor they make fun of anybody who gets up and preaches the word of god with boldness they make fun of you sometimes when you go out soul winning they might laugh at you or whatever but we're also living in a day where people don't want to listen to or learn from someone else because they're too prideful so they don't want to listen to anybody i'm gonna do it myself is the attitude today in america isn't it it's all about i'm gonna do it my way i want to make my own decisions i'm gonna be myself i don't need anybody to tell me i'm wrong don't correct me don't preach to me only god can judge me and even this attitude that's in our culture today has permeated into churches where now even born again christians will have this attitude well i don't follow any man i only follow god that's a prideful arrogant attitude because the apostle paul said follow me as i follow christ and all throughout the bible that admonition is given the bible says brethren be ye followers of me that's what's the apostle paul speaking brethren be ye followers of me and mark them which walk so as you have us for and samples you say look follow righteous men of god follow the apostle paul follow us as an example but today that's not what americans want to hear and even american christians don't necessarily want to hear that they just want to say i only listen to god i only follow god you know and that is a carnal prideful arrogant it sounds spiritual on the surface doesn't it i don't follow any man i only follow god but guess what when we're kids we follow our parents and when we grow up we go to work we follow our supervisor at work we listen to the boss at work okay and godly wives submit to and follow the leadership of their husbands and we as men in a church we follow the leadership of the pastor okay and pastors obviously are following the leadership of the word of god and the bible and jesus and you say well who are they following you know well they're following the pope no i'm just kidding they don't they don't need a pope here's who they follow they follow christ you say well how come they don't follow man because guess what in order to get to the position of pastor righteously you followed man your whole life to get there okay it's sort of like the question comes up in hebrews about the tides and and how you know the the children of israel they paid tithes to the levites and so forth and it's like well why what about the tribe of levi who do they tithe to because they're the ones who receive ties but then it said well levi paid tithes when he was in the loins of abraham and abraham paid the tithes to melchizedek so what i'm saying is this is that every pastor who became a pastor the right way started out by obeying his parents and then he was a member in a local church and he followed and he obeyed the leadership and he followed the program of the church you know your pastor pastor shelley he was a faithful member of faithful word baptist church so he when he was a faithful word baptist church he humbly you know participated in the program of the church and so he followed the leadership of faithful word and then now he's a leader okay you start out by being a good follower before you can ever be a good leader now today you have people who rebel against all the leadership in their life and have never been a successful church member anywhere and then they go out and start a church now that's skipping a step because you need to be a good follower before you can be a good leader but in order to be a follower you got to be humble now it sounds spiritual to say well i only follow god but here's the thing about that here's what you're saying you're saying there's nobody above me except god it's sort of like kanye west's type of an attitude where he said well god's the most high but i'm a close high you know and i don't even know what that means but the point is he's basically saying that you know well god's the almighty but i'm like a close second second only to god that's a super wicked prideful attitude well let me explain something to you that's the attitude that says well i can't follow any man i can only follow god you're basically saying like nobody on this earth is qualified to be my superior you have to go to heaven to find somebody better than me i mean that's a super arrogant prideful attitude and you know even as a pastor you know there are times when i follow other people's leadership where for example maybe there's an event in the church that's run by one of my staff or church members and i show up and i follow their program and they tell me where which doors i'm going to knock and they tell me to go here and do that you know or maybe i'm visiting other churches and i jump in and participate in the program of that church or whatever look a humble person can follow other people's instructions and follow other people's leadership and we ought not be of this prideful mentality that can never be taught by anyone never wants to have anything explained by anyone never wants to be instructed by anyone never wants to be taught or corrected or have someone show us that we're wrong humble yourself and be teachable okay be teachable and be one who can follow not just god but he can follow the kings and princes that are following god he can follow a pastor that's following god he can follow a mother or father that's following god he can listen to other people and take advice from people if you're smart you'll take other people's advice listen to people learn from others and humble yourselves in in various situations now we see here that they're humbling themselves by doing the commandment of the kings and of the princes by the word of the lord go back one chapter let's see something about this king that they're following so the asherites they're humbling themselves and getting right with god but directly that involves following a man hezekiah hezekiah is the man whom god is raised up and in order to do right by god they need to follow hezekiah they need to go to the place where hezekiah is at jerusalem they need to get on his program that he has put in place for doing the passover as a people look at chapter 29 verse 1 it says hezekiah began to reign when he was five and 20 years old now right away you know it takes a little bit of humility sometimes to follow a 25 year old when maybe you're in your 30s maybe you're in your 40s maybe you're even in 50s 60s maybe you're in your 70s maybe you're in your 80s and you're thinking i'm gonna follow a 25 year old no way i'm so much more uh mature and i'm older and whatever but you know what sometimes we do need to listen to people that are younger than us and follow people that are younger than us i mean when i started faith forward baptist church i was 24 years old so i was kind of similar to hezekiah when pastor he menes started uh verity baptist church he was also 24 years old and a lot of our pastor friends are are in their late 20s or early 30s you know i'm i'm no longer a young man i'm now 40 so now i'm officially you know over the hill right so but the bottom line is that sometimes in life we need to follow a young preacher maybe maybe he is 25 years old hezekiah was 25 and some of these asterites maybe they're 30 40 50 60 70 hey there's nothing wrong with humbling yourself and following a young preacher if that young preacher is is serving the lord and doing what's right you know paul told timothy let no man despise thy youth why did he say that why did he say let no man despise thy youth because there could be a tendency to despise the youth and they all these young guys they don't know anything you know here's the thing i'm 40 and a lot of my preacher friends are you know late 20s early 30s that doesn't make me superior to them in any way because i'm looking at them and admiring them and i'm admiring their youthful zeal and i'm admiring their stands on the word of god because of the fact that a humble person can listen to preaching from a 25 year old man and not say well he doesn't know anything he's too young you know i've met a lot of 25 year olds that were wiser than 65 year olds now you know obviously we should get older and wiser with age and it's great to have older saints in the church that do have that wisdom and experience that comes with age okay the the hoary head is the crown of glory if it be found in the way of righteousness so old age does not automatically guarantee wisdom but it should be a sign of wisdom okay but even let's say the wisest oldest man if he's truly wise then part of wisdom is being able to listen to other people and take instruction and follow the man so the wisest old man is probably gonna have the easiest time following the guy in his 20s 30s or 40s who's serving god rather than the unwise old man who's oh you know these young guys they don't know anything and and maybe they would desire to go to a church where everyone is old and there are churches like that you know i'm preaching to you guys in the back all right no i'm just kidding you know i'm glad you know god bless these guys in the back it's good to have some older saints in the church with the wisdom that comes with life experience okay but but here's the thing about that some people that are older they're not able to adapt to anything new they're stuck and they're not growing they're not learning and that's why in many cases in the new ifb you don't see a whole lot of older people because of the fact that a lot of times they're just set in their ways and they're not interested in learning and you know they're they're two kinds of of old people they're old people are still learning still growing still living and then they're the ones who are just so set in their ways they can't do anything new they can't learn anything new and they're they're you know i'm telling you i've i've been out soul winning before and i've spoken to older people that you could tell that they weren't even capable of forming a new thought or a new sentence where it was almost like they just had like a a computer bank of pre-recorded statements and you'd talk to you try to talk to them and they would just kind of be like they would pick the one that's appropriate and say it to you because they've just they've gotten to a point where they're they're set in patterns and they can't get out of that anymore you know and you know you talk to them and kind of realize okay this person's probably not a candidate for getting saved because i'm trying to explain the gospel to them and they're just going to kind of repeat to me whatever catholicism or whatever it is that they've been taught and believe and they're not really able to process anything new but then i've met other elderly people that are constantly learning and growing and i think a great example of this is uh the late pastor roland rasmussen so he was a pastor in los angeles and he won my parents to the lord back in the 1960s so back in the 1960s he won my dad to christ my grandpa to christ and also my mother got saved in his church and so pastor raspes and he just passed away about uh maybe two years ago i believe it was 2020 and i believe he was about 95 years old or somewhere thereabouts don't quote me on that but he was definitely in his 90s and i used to talk to pastor raspes and on the phone from time to time when he was in his 90s and pastor raspes and i when he was in his 90s would actually be on the phone and we'd be talking bible doctrine and we'd be going back and forth on bible prophecy and different things and you know he had all kinds of great wisdom and things that he'd learned over the years that i was gleaning from him and you know we made that documentary film babylon usa and a lot of the ideas in babylon usa came from phone calls with pastor raspes and i got some of the ideas in that film from him from just hashing out the subject of babylon for hours and hours and hours on the phone with a man in his 90s okay and so as i would talk to him it wasn't a one-way valve not only did i get good ideas from him but i actually explained some biblical things to him that he wasn't familiar with but here's what was good is that two months later when i would talk to him again he would come back at me and say hey you remember what you were explaining last time well you know yeah you're right and here's what i found and we were kind of like building on it so not only was he able to listen to what i was saying he was able to process it digest it make it a part of his paradigm and his thinking and then come back at me with something actually relevant not just like oh let me find my pre-recorded thing to say about the good old days you know from back when i was in my heyday back in 1906 or whatever okay you know so that that goes to show you you know an old man can still learn and grow and process new information and think and you know a guy like that is what we're talking about here where he can follow Hezekiah no matter how old he is and by the way the same man pastor Rasmussen i asked him about something and we wanted him to participate in something and he said well i have to ask my pastor and his pastor was his son who was many decades younger than him and he said well you know uh you know he i'm not going to be able to participate because i asked him and he said that i can't do it and you know i need to respect him as my pastor and listen to him now we were kind of irritated because we wanted pastor ron rassen to participate in what we're asking but at the same time you know you gotta respect the fact that this man who you know founded the church and is in his 90s is able to say well i'm going to respect my son's views because he's the pastor and he's the leader and i need to respect his leadership and follow him now i don't think it's a coincidence that the same man that could learn something new in his 90s is that you know from a young whippersnapper like myself was also able to respect the pastoral authority of his own son and not just say well son i'm your dad who do you think you are telling me what to do why because the tables had turned because the son was the pastor and he had to respect that and so hezekiah began to reign when he was five and 20 years old that's another reason why it took humility for them of asher to get right with god and follow this man they could have just written him off as a young upstart and what does he know he's 25 you know let him gain more experience no he was 25 he reigned 29 years in jerusalem we're there in chapter 29 of second chronicles look at verse two he did that which was right in the side of the lord according to all that david his father had done he in the first year of his reign in the first month opened the doors of the house of the lord and repaired them now why was hezekiah a great man that was worth following at age 25 because in the first year of his reign in the first month he opened the doors of the house of the lord and repaired them because the previous generation the previous regime had allowed the altar of the lord and the house of god to fall into disuse and disrepair and so he made it the first order of business to fix things at the house of god you know the bible says seek ye first the kingdom of god and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you the bible commands us to put god first put the things of god first the house of god first he makes this the first order of business and notice before he's ever going to reach out to them of ephraim and manasseh and zebulun and asher he gets his own house in order first judgment begins at the house of god he ends up getting things straight in his own kingdom then he's able to evangelize the adjacent kingdom and so he in the first month repairs the house of god verse 4 he brought in the priests and the levites and gathered them together into the east street and said unto them hear me ye levites sanctify now yourselves and sanctify the house of the lord god of your fathers and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place for our fathers have trespassed and done that which was evil in the eyes of the lord our god and have forsaken him and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the lord and turned their backs now look hezekiah is a man who practiced what he preached what is he preaching to the northern kingdom you know what he's preaching to them don't be like your fathers don't be stiff-necked don't be like northern israel typically is don't follow the culture around you don't oh i don't care if your mom was catholic and your grandma's catholic and your great-great grandfather's catholic hey catholicism is a false religion you need to get right with god quit being an idolater and believe on the lord jesus christ and him alone for salvation not mary not the saints hey i don't care what your family heritage is you need to follow the lord that's what hezekiah is preaching in the northern kingdom hey i don't care if your dad and your great-grandfather have been worshiping this golden calf at bethel and dan hey you guys need to be different and get right that's what hezekiah is preaching but notice how first he practiced that because this is at the beginning of his reign what does he say first year first month he says in verse 6 our fathers have trespassed our fathers have trespassed he says look down here in juda we're supposed to be the christian nation down here obviously i'm updating it to our lingo we're supposed to be the christian nation down here we're supposed to be godly but guess what we've trespassed we need to fix things here and then when he fixes things there now he's able to reach out to that northern kingdom and say okay you know what you guys your fathers have trespassed time to get right with god and you know we as christians when we go soul winning and evangelizing with our bible in hand what are we expecting people to do when we show them what the bible says what do we expect them to do we expect them to change what they believe am i right i mean let's say somebody believes that salvation is by works we open the bible and show them it's not of works lest any man should boast it's of faith that we're saved what do we expect them to do just say well i'm going to stick with what i believe no we expect them to repent we expect them to see that and say you know what okay i'm going to change what i believe because that's what the bible says i mean isn't that what we're doing when we're out soul winning we're trying to get people to change what they believe based on the truth of god's word they've been mistaken they've been in error we're showing them the truth and we expect them to respond to that by saying hey you're right that's what the bible says we want them to change okay well then guess what we need to be willing to change when people show us things in the bible where we're wrong okay if we're going to expect other people to do that and we want other people to humble themselves because it takes humility for that person at the door to basically say okay you're right it's by faith we need to practice that same humility where when we're shown that we're wrong we would also be willing to change with the word of god and you know this is where the old ifb falls short okay is that they have become so set in their ways that they're not interested in learning anything new and they're not interested in being corrected by the word of god no nobody's perfect nobody's doctrine is perfect i guarantee you that there is something in the bible or about the bible that i believe where i am misinterpreting something or wrong about something and years later i'll figure it out and look back on it and say okay yeah i have a better understanding now i was wrong about that back then you know we're constantly learning we're constantly growing nobody's perfect no one knows everything no one has all knowledge or wisdom there are certain things in sermons that i said in 2006 or 2007 or 8 or something where i look back at that and i say you know what i was wrong about that that statement that i made there you know what and there's like well how can i trust anything that you say pastor folks preachers are never going to be perfect only the word of god is perfect this is the final authority we all have blind spots we all have areas that need improvement we're all constantly learning and growing or at least should be okay but here's the thing about that you know we're learning we're growing we're correcting things we don't want to get in a situation like the old ifb where they're locked into a certain dogma and they're just not open to any kind of correction even things that they are blatantly wrong about okay there are some things that the old ifb is blatantly wrong about they're clearly wrong they've clearly been wrong but they are just married to it and they will go to the grave with those false doctrines because they're not interested in changing anything or correcting anything but then these same people in the old ifb would go out soul and expect people to change what they believe they're going to knock on somebody's door and show them thus saith the lord it's right here in the bible you need to change what you believe but then that same person you take them aside and show them crystal clear scripture where they're wrong they're not interested that's hypocrisy okay and i'm not you know i could sit here and go through the things that the old ifb is wrong about the jews israel i mean these things are that are so clear there's so much evidence there's so many bible verses but they are not interested and in fact even as we enter years like 2022 that prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that everything that they told us about 1948 and all the predictions that they made have not happened there has not been revival in israel israel is not becoming christian they're not all getting saved and getting right with god the 144 000 aren't starting to metastasize over there like they told us they would it's not happening it won't happen because that's not what the bible teaches that's not what it ever taught but yet they cling to those ideas and they cling to that dispensational junk that they got sucked into in the 20th century and they just don't want to let it go the the dispensational junk the israel junk the pre-trib junk you know they've got these things that are easily debunked from scripture i mean debunking the pre-trib rapture is like taking candy from a baby my friend okay it's easier it's like it's like easier to prove than salvation by faith i mean it's like so easy they i mean at least you know when you're preaching the gospel at the door sometimes you'll get some feisty work salvationist that'll try to hit you with james too you know at least they have something to twist at least they at least they're misusing scripture the pre-tribbers don't even have any scripture to state what they believe but yet they stubbornly hang on to it don't they why because of pride because of the arrogance of thinking we as independent fundamental baptists have it all right and you know what i grew up as an independent fundamental baptist i was born and raised independent fundamental baptist i was brought up with these teachings that the old ifb holds dear and let me tell you something as a young man as a teenager as a man in my early 20s i tested the beliefs that i was raised with against scripture and i proved all things and i held fast that which was good and i discarded that which was an error and that's why then i was able at 24 years old to get up and tell other people hey your fathers have transgressed here's what the bible actually says that's why i'm able to go soul winning and expect people to change what they believe that's why i'm able to get up behind the pulpit sunday morning sunday night wednesday night and call people to repentance because i started out by getting my own house in order as a teenager and saying hey is what i've been taught biblical and i thank god that the vast majority of what i was taught was biblical i thank god that the vast majority of what i got in the old ifb and what i got from my parents was biblical but guess what all of it wasn't biblical and there were things that i needed to discard and correct and tighten up and adjust and the next generation is going to have to do the same thing where they're going to look at what we've handed them and they're going to have to look at it and examine it with scripture and prove it for themselves test it for themselves and at the end of the day the only thing that lasts forever is the bible you know if the lord tarries is coming let's say 200-300 years from now nobody's going to know who stephen anderson is nobody's going to know who steadfast baptist church is nobody's going to know about any of this but this word will still be around the holy spirit will still be around and and and there will be people just like me and just like pastor shelley 300 years from now preaching the message for that day in a similar manner and so we need to understand that humility is not just for the unsaved but it's for christians also to be corrected on the things that they need to be corrected on and so hezekiah starts by cleaning up his own house getting his own house in order getting right with god himself acknowledging that everything he was taught by his parents and grandparents isn't necessarily biblical and then he's able to preach that message to someone else so then it goes on here and says verse six our fathers have trespassed and done that which was evil in the eyes of the lord our god and have forsaken him and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the lord and turned their backs also they've shut up the doors of the porch and put out the lamps and have not burned incense nor offered burnt offerings in the holy place under the god of israel wherefore the wrath of the lord were in verse 8 of second chronicles 29 was upon judah and jerusalem and he had delivered them to trouble to astonishment and to hissing as you see with your eyes for lo our fathers have fallen by the sword and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the lord god of israel that his fierce wrath may turn away from us my sons be not now negligent for the lord has chosen you to stand before him to serve him and that you should minister unto him and burn incense he's saying look i've got a vision for serving god in my heart god has put this burning desire in my heart to bring the nation back to god don't be negligent get on board with the program let's do it okay so then we fast forward to chapter 30 verse 1 hezekiah sent to all israel and judah and wrote letters also to ephraim and manasseh that they should come to the house of the lord at jerusalem to keep the passover and the lord god of israel for the king had taken counsel and his princes and all the congregation in jerusalem to keep the passover in second month jumped down to verse five so they established a decree to make proclamation throughout all israel from beer sheba even to dan that they should come to keep the passover under the lord god of israel at jerusalem for they had not done it of a long time in such sort as it was written now look when the young guy who's 25 years old or whatever gets up and preaches the word of god tells it like it is tries to bring us back to what scripture says a lot of people's attitude is well well i've how come i've never heard this before you know i've been in church for decades i never heard of this i never heard of a preacher that taught this i've never heard this doctrine but here's the thing you know it's it's possible for something that's actually biblical to fall into disuse for long periods of time because here we have hezekiah getting up and preaching hey we need to get right with god we need to do what the bible says and it's like well wait we haven't done this in the hundred years that that you know that so on old brother so-and-so has been alive this never happened we haven't done that in 200 years but it's possible for something biblical something right to fall into disuse and let me just assure you there is no new thing under the sun there's no new thing under the sun whenever somebody tries to claim oh this has never been done this has never been taught nobody's ever heard of this it you know it's really always been around whether that goes for bad doctrines or good doctrines there's always been some bozo with that false doctrine and there have always been right men of god teaching the truth and a lot of people will sit there and say that you know well you know the new ifb is teaching stuff that's newfangled or whatever but you know there's nothing that we're teaching that's new it's it's all in the bible and people have done it in the past or believed in the past period now here's the problem a lot of people they rely on history to tell them what people believed in the past okay so they'll say show me a preacher in the 1500s who believed like you show me a preacher in the 1600s who believed like you and they think that's some kind of a checkmate or something like you know and then this is where the calvinists have erred this is where the reform have erred this is where the reformed baptists and the presbyterians have erred where they're so into reading these dead theologians from the past and saying well if i can't find it in the 1500s 1600s you know it's too new i can't i can't believe in it here's the thing about that is that 99.99999 percent of what was written in the 1500s no longer exists today because paper doesn't last or whatever they're writing on what things decay i mean look pick up a book from a hundred years ago or 150 years ago but pick it up carefully because if you don't it will crumble in your hands who's ever picked up a book and started reading it just had it start disintegrating in your hand and turning to dust and crumbling who knows what i'm talking about yeah i mean you know i was i was gifted a really nice greek new testament from the 1800s but and i was like oh man i'm gonna you know on my next read through of the greek new testament i'm gonna read this one because it's so cool but then i was like you know i can't take this thing off the shelf too many times because i you know i start reading it and it's the thing started disintegrating so i'm like you know it's probably better just leave it on the shelf and just just reference it every once in a while look at it for fun every once in a while but that's not going to be my go-to throw it in the backpack you know take it to the park and do some some bible reading why because and that's only 200 years old it's already crumbling and falling apart turning to dust 99 of what was out there doesn't exist any longer number one but number two is that you know who typically gets their work published today is it the bible believing faithful soul winners who are reaching tens of thousands of people with the gospel through door-to-door soul winning is that who's on the shelf at barnes and noble is that who's on the show does barnes and noble even exist anymore i don't know you know but is that is that who's on the shelf at borders no i'm just kidding who knows what borders is all right all the old guys no i'm just kidding but you know is that even on the shelf guess what's on the shelf at the christian bookstore guess what's on the shelf at barnes and noble guess what's on the shelf at walmart guess what's on the shelf at the gas station you can stop at the gas station at loves or flying jay or pilot and they have a few religious books don't they you know they got pastor jimenez they got pastor shelly they got pastor person no what's on the shelf at the loves truck stop is going to be you know uh rick warren and joel osteen and then you know you got your love five love languages over here and then you got your purpose-driven life over here you got a crossword puzzle over here you know folks is that how we're going to reconstruct biblical doctrine from 2022 because if we destroyed 99.99 of books what are the chances that a book from a godly preacher would be surviving okay what are the chances that your best life now is going to be in the pile hey your best life now is going to survive a nuclear attack if the city were to be nuked somewhere in the rubble you're going to find a copy of your best life now by joel osteen that just happened to be you know under something made out of lead or something you know a piece of lead fell over your best life now and it's unearthed folks what am i saying the popular preachers of today are bad all of them all of them if they're popular bad well you don't even know what they believe yet bad why because we know that the true prophets are hated of this world and the false woe unto you when all men speak well of you for so did their fathers under the false prophets so let me ask you this why would the famous popular preachers of the 1600s 1700s 1800s all be godly all be righteous and and the first half of the 1900s they're all good and then except now they're all bad do you think that just changed no the popular preachers today are bad the popular preachers in the 20th century were bad the popular preachers in the 19th century were bad the popular preachers in the 18th century were bad the popular preachers in the 17th century were bad folks there's no new thing under the sun and so if we're going to say well we got to go to what was historically believed and taught let's get to a historical fundamentalism historical baptist historical protestantism historical christianity what you're getting is some less than point zero zero one percent of what was out there at the time that's just the most popular stuff that survived the most famous guys the top guys you know i remember there's this one baptist preacher he said well you know i defy anyone to show me an old-time preacher and he named a year and he said show me a preacher before this year saying that repentance is just a change of mind and that it's believing in christ that that it's talking about changing what you believe you know they taught repentance from sin right and that's what this guy said then in the same article that he said that he had a quote from spurgeon from well over 100 years ago and in the spurgeon quote it said now there's a lot of preachers right now teaching that repentance is just a change of mind and that it's just changing what you believe but they're wrong now here's the thing we don't have the writings of any of those guys but yet we have spurgeon saying there's a whole bunch of guys out there teaching that it's just faith alone and then he's going to correct them and straighten them out well the fact that spurgeon said there's a bunch of people teaching this you know what that proves that there were a bunch of people teaching it that's why he felt the need to rebuke it because it's out there well guess what there have always been a bunch of people teaching that salvation is by faith because the bible states that the that salvation is by faith alone not works and anybody who's honest with themselves can understand that living a godly christian life is a lot of work turning from all your sins is a lot of work living for god is work and they would realize that turning from your sins works and the bible actually calls it that in jonah 310 god saw their works that they turn from the evil way well guess what there's always been the bible there's always been the holy spirit there's always been somebody who opened the bible and said you know i know the roman catholic church is saying this i know the lutherans are telling me this but the bible just says if i believe on jesus i'll be saved the bible's not teaching the baptism saves the bible's not teaching that i have to confess my sins to a priest to be saved no the bible says that if i just believe in jesus i'll be saved the bible's not saying i have to turn away from all my sins to be saved that's impossible the bible says if i believe in christ my sins are forgiven and forgotten there's always been people who believe that well show me the documents from the 1600s i promise you no matter what i don't care if it's the 1500s 1400s 1300s 1200s someone has always believed that salvation was by faith alone and the baptism was by immersion after you get saved you get dunked after you get saved well how do you know that what name the name the group that believed that name the theologian folks most great men of god are not theologians god has chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise okay and god has chosen the foolishness of preaching to save them that belief not necessarily the phd dissertation but rather the leather lung sermon from a man of god who walks the walk and reads the bible and so this attitude that says well you know i don't know if this is the way things have been historically you know the new ifbs is too new for me you know we didn't say it with the old stuff but here's the thing about that is that sometimes the old stuff gets old and moldy and needs to get thrown out and we need to get a we need to get a new lump and throw out the old leaven sometimes that's just the way life works my friend you have to have a reboot you have to have a reassessment you know it happened for me personally in my own life i'm raised as an independent fundamental baptist and then i become a teenager and i start reading the bible on my own and what do i do i push a reset button and say you know what i need to reassess where i'm at spiritually what have i been taught what does the bible say and like i said thank god most of what i was taught was right you know if i would have been raised roman catholic or something i would have had to discard a lot more but even as a baptist there were some things that i said okay you know the baptists are not 100 on this let's go with the bible then you know i went for years and years like that then i went to bible college and i ended up leaving bible college because they were teaching heresy and that was another time i kind of pushed a reset button and i started to evaluate because the bible college started to get so weird that it made me question everything that the bible college had taught me because i was like i need to reevaluate and i ended up discarding even more things about around the time i left bible college and started faith forward baptist church because there were just it was just another reset point these reset points need to happen okay every restaurant chain started out as being good or wouldn't have become a chain that's why they made a thousand of them because it was good you know i would never eat a mcdonald's i don't eat a mcdonald's you won't catch me i wouldn't be caught dead eating a mcdonald's okay i'm just i don't need a mcdonald's because i consider it just junk food it's just it's it's getting awfully quiet in here but here's the thing about that though if i got a time machine and went back to the 1950s mcdonald's would have been awesome in the 1950s and it's not just because old people have like glorified it in their mind it really was awesome in the 50s because if you study the history of mcdonald's i mean they were literally getting like locally raised beef and stuff i mean it was actually real food back then i mean if you would have been in los angeles california and the first mcdonald's you could have pulled out a little bit of spare change throw down 15 cents 25 cents you could have got a quality great tasting nutritious burger fresh local it would have been like today getting some organic fresh thing because back then it was more normal the food production but what happens you know over time corporate greed i hope i'm not offending any mcdonald's fans okay just just if if this bothers you just just plug your ears on this part okay but i'm saying you know a business like mcdonald's starts out making a good burger they're making it fast they're making it cheap it's good everybody loves it and so it spreads like wildfire but then people just get greedy people get lazy things start to go downhill and every business over time decays and degenerates and it's just not as good as it used to be the quality goes down people get greedy maybe maybe the new ownership comes in and they just want to make money and so they're willing to trash quality and just say ride on that old reputation and guess what it's the same way with anything that human beings are involved in any institution you know a movement starts out great and then that generation dies and then a new generation comes in and and maybe they keep it going but eventually somebody's going to ruin it eventually okay institutions decay restaurants start out being really good and then they get worse and worse nations might start out as a godly nation and then they go downhill stores other businesses it's like well churches it can often be the same way my dad always told me never go to the first baptist church in a town because it's had time to become liberal he said if it's that old it's probably liberal so much for the older is better argument that's not what dad taught me okay he taught me go to the newer churches where they're pushing a reset button and you do have that young fired up pastor maybe he's in his 20s 30s 40s whatever and he's fired up and he's getting back to the word of god and he's preaching hard he wants to win souls he wants to do something big for god not the first church of the deep freeze down the street that says we've got history on our side but hezekiah here he comes along and says you know we haven't done this in years he gets up and says we haven't been doing this right since the days of solomon let's go with what the bible says let's do the passover the way god said to do it we're going to do it the right way well you know i've never heard of this in my lifetime well you're hearing it now you know whenever people tell me you know well i've never heard of anything like this i just say well you know sorry that you went to churches that preached wrong sorry that you're so sheltered from what the bible actually said well i've just never heard of anybody saying that god hates anybody oh well then shut my stupid mouth here's 19 verses that say that but let me close on this thought so what what's the sermon about the asherites humbling themselves and getting on board with hezekiah's program right getting right with god humbling themselves following a young hezekiah as he brings revival and brings the nation back to god let's look at the conclusion here in verse 18 it says for a multitude of the people even many of ephraim and menasseh is a car and zebulun had not cleansed themselves yet did they eat the passover otherwise than it was written so hezekiah he's a reformer he's going to bring the nation back to god he even reaches out to the northern kingdom gets them to come and it's you know his vision is to serve god the right way biblically but here's the reality nothing's ever going to be perfect is it nothing's ever going to be perfect i'm not perfect pastor shelley's not perfect right nothing's ever going to be perfect but here's the thing even though hezekiah is a great leader and the you know the people of asher that that humble themselves and come down you know they're they're their hearts right their hearts in the right place but guess what it's never going to be perfect so they end up not doing it according to the letter of the law of what the passover was supposed to be like they're trying they're doing the best they can but they didn't get it exactly perfect and so they did it otherwise than it was written but hezekiah prayed for them the bible says at the end of verse 18 saying the good lord pardon everyone that prepareth his heart to seek god the lord god of his fathers though he be not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary and watch this the lord hearkened to hezekiah and healed the people i love stuff like this in the bible like this is my favorite stuff in the bible is reading about people falling a little short making mistakes doing their best but not quite getting there and god looking down and forgiving and pardoning and being merciful you know i love that like i love you know my favorite things in the new testament is you know lord i believe help thou my unbelief i love it because it's so relatable to us we're human and so when we see these people who who you know they they love the lord and they're trying and they come short and god says hey you know what i'm here to forgive i'm here to be merciful you know that that makes us feel better and realize hey you know what i just need to do my best and and love the lord and have a sincere heart because thank god that his mercies are new every morning and so when i look at this and see that the people came a little short and hezekiah prays for them and says god pardon these people because you know their heart is in the right place they're trying and god harken to them and here's the verse i want to close on god resisted the proud but giveth grace to the humble god resisted the proud but giveth grace to the humble and so if you and i will humble ourselves because that's what it's all about this morning with the sermon asherites humbled themselves they were willing to admit that their country was wrong about some things they were willing to admit that their church was wrong about some things they were willing to admit that their parents had been wrong about some things they were willing to admit that they were wrong about some things and then they had to humble themselves and submit to a younger man that was preaching god's word they submitted to that 25 year old young pup whippersnapper hezekiah they weren't saying well i don't follow god i can't listen to man no no they're saying hey we're gonna follow this man hezekiah because he's leading us according to the word of god they humbled themselves they followed the man of god and in the end even though the church wasn't perfect even though the movement wasn't perfect even though the pastor wasn't perfect even though nothing's ever going to be perfect you know what they prayed and said lord you know what we love you and this is what we're doing and we're following it the best we can we did the best we could they're not ignoring god's word they're trying to do it by the letter but they're human and they come short and god gives grace to the humble and so it's encouraging for us that if we today july 3rd 2022 if we today say you know what i'm willing to humble myself and submit to the word of god i'm willing to humble myself and follow the man of god and follow the church's leadership and get on board with the church's program you know if we'll just try and love the lord and be sincere and be humble about it you know what god will make up the difference in our lives and he'll look down and say you know what oh you believe yes i will help your unbelief oh you know you love the lord you're trying you're going to a good church you're involved in the program hey i know it's not perfect but you know he'll accept that he'll take it thank god because if he didn't take it we'd all be in trouble because we all need mercy and grace every single day and so don't expect it to be perfect god does not just uh you know have an all or nothing of you make one mistake and you're doomed in situations like this now if you're prideful yeah he'll nail you on the technicality if you're prideful god resists the proud he'll nail you on that technicality but god gives grace to the humble and that's what we see in this passage that's why in other passages god's super strict and he's like nope no exceptions but then here he makes an exception and says you know what i like your attitude why because they're humble god gives grace to the humble let's provide that word of prayer father we thank you so much for this great story lord about the asherites humbling themselves and and and getting behind hezekiah and and submitting themselves to hezekiah lord we just pray that you would help us all in our own personal lives to be humble and to be teachable and to keep on growing in grace and the knowledge of our lord and savior jesus christ and lord help us to reach out to those other asherites and and lord help us never to get discouraged if we're soul winning and people mock and scorn help us to hang in there until we get to that asherite who's ready to actually repent when they see what the word of god says in jesus name we pray amen all right let's try to say him number 397 397 little as much when god is in it this is kind of the theme song for the church so let's sing it out in the harvest field now ripen there's a word for all to do is there's a crown and you can win if you'll go in jesus name to labor seems so small and little known it is great if god is in it and he'll not forget his own little is much when god is in labor not for wealth or pain there's a crown and you can win it if you'll go in jesus name are you laid aside from service body worn from toilet care you can still be in the battle in the sacred place of prayer little is much when god is in it labor not for wealth or fame there's a crown and you can win it if you'll go in jesus name when the conflict here is ended and our race on earth is run he will say to all the faithful welcome home my child well done little is much when god is in it labor not for wealth or fame there's a crown and you can win it if you'll go in jesus name