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

you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you turn to song 112 song 112 be still my soul song 112 be still my soul the lord is on my side bear patiently the cross of grief or pain we need you, thy God to order and provide in every change in faithful will we be be still my soul thy best, thy happy friend you for me wait and to a joyful end be still my soul thy God doth undertake to guide the future as he has the past thy hope, thy confidence when not in shame all now this year this shall be bright and last be still my soul the waves and winds so warm his voice through the world and while he dares belong be still my soul the average is divine when we shall be forever with the lord when disappointed even we were gone sorrows forgot the fewest joys reside be still my soul when change and tears are past all safe and blessed to which shall be our last Amen. All right. Great singing. Welcome to Stronghold Baptist Church this Wednesday evening. This time we'll go through our announcements if I could get an extra bulletin. Anyone got one? Got one left. Amen. So if you don't have a bulletin, I guess you're out of luck. Just try to share one with someone around you. I stole the last one. If you open up if you got them to the first page, you'll see our service time. So this there Sunday morning at 10 30 Sunday evening again at 5 p.m. Then of course Wednesday night 7 is our Bible study. We've got the soul winning opportunities listed there as well as the Salvations and the baptisms for the month of March as well as for the year. Let's go ahead and count up the Salvations. If there's Salvations to report one on the Monday group. Amen. Yes, sir. One for Monday as well. Same different group. Just separate. Ah, cool. Amen. Great. Anyone else have anything to report for the week? Great. Well, keep up the good work, of course. Preaching the gospel and trying to seize every opportunity that you can to give the gospel. What day was that Sunday? About yesterday. So I'll put that down for Tuesday. Thanks for reminding me about that. I did forget about that. All right. Very good continuing on. We got the offering tolls received through the month of March down there at the bottom of the page. Prayer requests. We added Toby, which is Jaylene's friend who has a very aggressive M.S. Multiple sclerosis. So we're going to pray for him. He's in a lot of pain and not doing well. And then also Juana Martinez is still recovering. I decided to add her back on the list here because she's still dealing with some problems from that injury from the wreck that she had on New Year's. She's recovering, she said, which is taking a long time. Her daughter, Margaret, has cancer, so we're going to pray for her as well and pray that it will be operable and that hopefully the doctors will be able to just remove it completely from her body. Updates. Do we have any updates? Obviously, Leslie's here with us this evening, so I'm really happy about that. Things have been progressing really nicely just over the past few days and really the past week since we last were at the hospital. Things have gone much, much, much better, so very happy that she's able to be here with us today. Does anyone else have any updates for people who are currently on the prayer list right now? Anything to report, update? All right. And then on the back, of course, is the birth announcement for the Taylor family, Charlotte. Taylor was born on March 28th, so just a week ago. And you can see the stats there and everyone's doing really well. And I actually wanted to take a moment real quick. Brother Preston has been soul winning and stuff, and obviously they're staying in North Carolina for a little while until everyone's back to full health and everything from recovering from the birth of a child. He's been doing soul winning there. That's why I wanted to share this story with you. He apparently met a lot of opposition at an apartment complex they were soul winning at. And the police were called, and there was even people from the place kind of following him around and just giving him a hard time. The cops were called, and the cops were telling him, no, you've got to go, and he's trying to explain, like, no, we actually have to write the beer, no, no, no. So they left, and then Brother Preston wanted to talk to me about it. I talked to Esteban when he was here, and I think they probably relayed some of what I was talking to back to Brother Preston. He ended up calling up the police station then too, because that was my recommendation was, hey, you know, and we can do the same thing. Thankfully, the police here in our area in general, so far our interactions have been pretty positive. They are better trained than in many other places with what our rights are, because we have the right to go out and preach the gospel. It doesn't matter if it's apartment complex or condos or whatever, we have the right to go and do that. So, of course, I always leave that up to the individual to decide how far you want to, you know, use your rights. And I've always said that if, you know, even if you will get arrested for soul winning, then I'm here to back you up. Of course, if you engage in violent activity or something like that, and you start swinging on someone, I mean, I'm not going to back up that type of behavior. But if you're peacefully going around and soul winning and refuse to leave an area that you know you have every right to be going soul winning to, then I will back you up. I'll bail you out. I'll, you know, defend you to the best that I can. The church will support you for that. But it's up to you, right? And I'm not even saying that that's always the best way to do things. I suggested here. And if we run into big opposition, look, we could we have lots of doors to knock, first of all. It doesn't mean we're going to just abandon trying to knock the place that we get kicked out of. But we could just say, you know, we just come back here. It's not that big of a deal. And follow up in an orderly fashion of just saying, hey, we call up the police station, say, which is what he did. He got his facts together a little bit more. He gave them some case law and provided that to him over the phone. He says first interaction, whoever he spoke to at the police department was saying, no, I think he thought he was wrong. He said, but a look into it. And then he received further communication recognizing that, oh, yeah, you're right about this. So if you have any more problems about this, then go ahead and have them contact me personally. And, you know, we'll we'll we'll square settle this. And, you know, that's the right way of doing things and praise God that that, you know, things are working out that way. So we always want to try as peacefully as possible and just follow the right channels and the right avenues to just get the because what we care about the most is the information being out there. Right. It's not about getting in some fight with someone that wants to stop our soul winning. As much as you know, this with this way now, we don't have to have some big lawsuit. We don't have that people hating on us going out there. Right. Because even if you win a lawsuit, you know, you can sell the cops all hating you for that. And that's going to just cause you further problems when you're trying to do your your constitutionally and God given right. Ability to go out and preach a gospel. But if we can do things and not cause a big surf, we don't have to. Then obviously that's the best means for for everyone involved. We could gain the respect of the authorities out there. Maybe. I mean, at least by showing, hey, we're peaceful. We're doing this. But here this is also our rights. We're going to affirm our rights. And now if they, you know, getting that proper training out there, other soul winners to not just us can can also then enjoy the same liberty by getting the information, education out there. So I just wanted to share that. I thought was a great example. I'm glad that he did things the way that he did and followed up with it, too. You know, because a lot of people don't follow up with you get kicked out of somewhere. You know, people will even cops that don't know the laws and they don't know that you have the right to do that. It's good to follow up, get their name, get their information and just, you know, hey, contact the department. You don't have to win that person over right there. But if you could contact the department, get their superiors involved and just explain, hey, here's what happened. You know, appreciate if you can if you can. Better train your officers to recognize our rights. So anyways, just wanted to share that. And then I was I was happy to hear that I got that news today from Brother Preston. So that was good information on the next page here. You got in our in our regularly scheduled bulletin, the April challenge, which I know it says May there actually April challenge for April is to get at least one person baptized. So encourage however you want to, you know, just just if you have any involvement in someone getting baptized, whether it's our church, another church, encouraging people, talking to them, informing them about, hey, baptism is important and you can get them to get baptized within the month of April. Then you'll complete this challenge. So that's what we'll be focused on this month. We got the new church plant in Greenville. I'm still waiting to hear back on that. No news yet on that. So the ball's in their court. We submitted our own offer and we're waiting to hear back from them. Hopefully we'll hear back soon. So just be in prayer for that as well, that the things will work out and work out favorably and that there won't be someone else trying to swoop in and offer a lot more or whatever for the property than what we've got out there. So let's pray things will go well with that. Hebrews Chapter 11, our Bible memory passage, we've got a week and a half left to go to finish off these 20 verses. And of course, you'll get a prize if you can quote them word perfect by the deadline. Upcoming birthdays and anniversaries are listed there. So today, today is the third, right? So we've got two, two anniversaries today. So Vernon and Vernon Junior and Leah, happy anniversary to them today. And then, of course, Stephen Adams and his wife are sharing anniversary today as well. And then the rest of the birthdays and anniversaries, if there's any more in April, anniversaries. But the rest of the birthdays at least are there for the month. And then upcoming events at the bottom of the page. Youth rally is happening. What is that this week? Within just less than a week at Verity Baptist Church. They've got an awesome new building there in Sacramento. It looks amazing. Looking forward to going back out there and visiting again at some point in the future. But things are going really well out there. So that is happening next week. And then our homeschool field trip to the Botanical Gardens is going to be April 12th. April 27th is the next men's preaching and song leading class. And I'll bring this up again on Sunday, but I encourage any men if you want to just this isn't just for people who want to be pastors or something to attend this. It's my belief that just as a believer, as a Christian, we should all be striving to be used of God to the most that he wants to use us in the way that he wants to use us. Right. And the more skills, the more abilities that you can gain in this Christian life, then the more able you will be for God to use you when he as he sees fit. It may not be your calling to be a pastor or even necessarily a preacher. But you know what? You don't know if you don't come and at least try and learn. I mean, there's nothing wrong with learning stuff. Right. So I encourage you if you've got the time to come on out here. And it's always, always really, really, really helpful. The more people that we have in any events that happen, especially now with a new church plan, this could be some of our resources will be divided with people who have been very capable of stepping in and preaching. Whenever I'm out now, we're going to have two churches to support with people that that are able to fill the pulpit and not just a pulpit, but the song leading music playing all this, all the other things that go along with the service. So come on out. You may not be doing this all the time. You know, I plan doing all the time. But hey, if you can if you can fill in and step in an instance where we need you, then that would be excellent. And then not just to fill in, but be able to do a really good job and excel. So come on out to that men to learn these skills. I encourage you to do so. And then the church camp is going to be here before we know it. Just about six weeks away. And I'm really looking forward to it. It's going to be awesome. I think we're pretty full. We might have one cottage left. But other than that, I think we're full. So that's that's going to be a lot of fun beyond the lookout. Leslie, please remind me to print out some sign up sheets. We're going to ask for volunteers for anyone that wants to help provide meals for the pastor dinners for the pastors are going to be here that week. Church provides will pay for all the food. But we are asking we'd like to have people that are able to prepare the meal and cook it on site. Just one meal during the week because all the pastors and their families and the people are coming out here. We're taking care of them. We're supporting them. So anyone that wants to do that will have a sign up sheet here. And then Brother Peter will get in contact with you about that. And then I'm also going to create a list or a calendar, really more the week calendar for people who want to offer any type of activities that you think are fun during the week. You want to head up a specific activity. I know the Rogers family usually will do a day with a field day with the kids. And that's always a blast. And a lot of different people offer a lot of different things that are just fun to do while you're hanging out. And so if you want to do that, we'll have we'll have that, Lord willing. My memory serves well this Sunday. I'll try to bring those things. And that's why I make the mention, because Leslie is like my my memory at this point. I have to rely on her for for a lot of that. And yeah, that's about it. There's a Faithful Word missions trip down there at the bottom of the page. And I am going to. And we added another water cooler over by this other sink over here. So help yourself to that. We've got we've got two places now where you get some nice, fresh spring water. And I think that's it. So I'm going to turn the service back over to Brother Will, who will lead us our next song. Turn to song six. Song six. Song one of six. Song seven. Song eight. Song nine. Song eight. With the all the ushers now bring out the offering while the church. Song 98. Song 98. Well, what are my home? Once again, there's the book of Psalms, Psalm 98, as you do customer here, a struggle about the church. We read the entire chapter for long, slightly as we read Psalm 98 or reads. Oh, sing unto the Lord a new song for you have done marvelous things. His right hand and his holy arm have gotten him the victory. The Lord has made known his salvation, his righteousness. He openly showed in the sight of the heathen. He ever remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. Make a joyful noise unto the Lord. All the earth make a loud noise and rejoice and sing praise. Sing unto the Lord with the harp, with the harp and the voice of a psalm. With trumpets and sound of cornet, make a joyful noise before the Lord, the king. Let the sea roar and the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein. Let the floods clap their hands. Let the hills be joyful together before the Lord, for he cometh to judge the earth. With righteousness shall he judge the world and the people with equity. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you for the book of Psalms. We thank you for the King James Bible. We thank you for the noise that we're able to give you that we can just praise you and thank you for life, eternal life, God. We thank you for Pastor Burzis. We thank you for this church. Fill Pastor Burzis with your spirit. Allow for him to preach your boldness. Let our ears be attentive to your word that we can learn something new tonight. Once again, we praise you. We thank you. We say this in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. Of course, Psalm 98 is not a very long Psalm, but I'm not making any promises on how long the sermon is going to be tonight. I've only got a couple of main points, so I want to cover some of these things. Of course, the Psalms are a little repetitive as far as the themes that come up, but there's always, always very interesting truths that come up in every single one of these Psalms that do kind of make it somewhat unique. So let's dig into this one. And this one I just thought was very interesting, that the title, and I don't know why this is, but the title is just A Psalm, period. If your Bibles have that, I don't know. My Bible isn't here. It just says a Psalm. Normally, it could be like a Psalm of David, a Psalm of Asaph, or there'll be some other title there. This one just says a Psalm, and take that as it is. But it's a great Psalm, and we're going to dig into this now real quick. Look at verse number one. The Bible reads, Oh, sing unto the Lord a new song. And I've covered that in the past. We see this multiple times in different Psalms about a new song being sung. Of course, it doesn't always just have to be something that's just brand new for the sake of being new, but it's new because we're now praising the Lord with songs. With music, not just worldly songs or worldly music, which has just been around forever anyways. We're singing unto the Lord a new song for, a good reason for this, for he hath done marvelous things. His right hand and his holy arm hath gotten him the victory. So more rejoicing. Notice in these latter 90s Psalms here in the late 90s, we've got these Psalms that are very happy or rejoicing, you know, joyful Psalms, because of the Lord, because of his strength, because of his holy arm, because he brings a victory. Verse number two says, The Lord hath made known his salvation, his righteousness hath he openly showed in the sight of the heathen. And verses two and three, I'm going to be focusing on the majority of the time tonight. Verse three says, He hath remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. So verses two and three, what I'm highlighting here. Hey, the Lord has made known his salvation, his righteousness he's openly showed in the sight of the heathen, and all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. God is a God that wants his name to be known throughout the whole world. He's not just the God of Israel. He's not just the God of the Hebrews. He's not just the God of any one group of people. And this is an important distinction because there are other false gods out there and there have been false gods all throughout history. And people have had a tendency to be like, oh, this is the God of the Native Americans. This is the God of the white people. This is the God of black people. This is the God of this people, that people, this people. You know, all these different groups and this land and he's the God of the hills and he's the God of the valleys and he's the God of the, you know, all these various gods and all of these own little specific things. God is a God of the whole universe, of the world, of everything, of all creation, of everything that exists, of all life. And God has provided that for everyone. And God cares and loves everyone to the point where the Bible says for God, so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. Right? So God wants that attention. He wants the respect. He wants the worship from everyone in the world. And because of that, he's going to make sure that his name is made known unto the whole world. And we have specific examples, of course, in scripture of these things happening. Right? Where it's very clearly spelled out that this happens at very pivotal moments in history where this does happen. But it's not just those moments where the world is being declared the word of the Lord and hearing about God. This is happening continually because this is something that has been instructed to believers forever. God has always wanted people to get saved and he's always wanted his word to be out there and his name to be known. Now, just because he chose a people, he chose a people to be his faithful servants to go out and do this. He chose a people so that he could reveal himself unto them and then they can in turn go and spread forth that good word and that good news to the entire world. And of course, there are monumentous occasions that the Lord uses to help spread abroad the might, the power, and the fact that the Lord is God Almighty, that there is one God and that it is the Lord. Because when people come up with their idols and they worship devils and they worship these false gods, God sets the record straight from time to time so people can all just understand and realize, look, all these other gods, these little G gods, are nothing. And one of the ways that God does that is, of course, is by showing his power and his might through and upon wicked people like he did in Egypt. And we'll cover that in just a minute. But before we even get into that, one of the reasons I want to bring this up and you don't have to turn there. You can turn to Exodus 9 if you'd like. Of course, keep your place in Psalm 98. But in Matthew 24, there's a verse here. Matthew 24, of course, a famous passage that brings up a lot of events that are going to happen in the end times, right? Prophetic events that haven't happened yet at the second coming of Christ. And one of the statements that's made in Matthew 24, verse 14, is this. It says, In this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come. And I've heard people say before, you know, people talking about this, obviously end times events are something that a lot of people love to talk about. It's real interesting. And people talk different things. But I've kind of heard it said, like, well, you know, there's still not, the gospel really hasn't gone out everywhere yet because if it did, then the end would come. That's not exactly what this is saying. Now, of course it's saying that this kingdom, this gospel of the kingdom, shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations. That's absolutely true. And this gospel, you know, especially, is the gospel being preached by Christ. Christ being the Messiah, this New Testament, the New Covenant being preached in the whole world was going to happen. But don't forget, Matthew 24 was being spoken by Jesus Christ himself, right? So, of course, that had to happen first and then shall the end come. But from scripture, this has already happened. We don't have to wait. It's not like, well, there still might be this tribe somewhere in Africa, which is what everyone always wants. There's always a place that people go to. It's always some tribe in Africa. Why do you pick Africa anyways? I don't know. I would pick somewhere like Northern Russia or, you know, some super cold place that no one would ever want to be. I mean, at least there's places in Africa are like better climates and there's a lot more vegetation and means of living and stuff. It's kind of like I think there's probably more likelihood of people going to those areas than there is the super frigid, terrible desert wilderness of the extreme cold, right? Like if you're going to bring up anybody, I would say, yeah, maybe there's some hermit, some Eskimo somewhere, somewhere that's just way out in the middle of nowhere. But anyways, if you're going to make that point, do it a little bit more reasonably than that. But I think people say that because there are tribes that have gone off in Africa in the jungle and stuff that live and exist out there. But it's not that they haven't heard about Christ. It's that they choose to practice their heathen religion and live the way that they live. It's not that they've never heard. They might have heard and they might have killed the guy that went out to preach to him. I mean, no kidding. But it doesn't mean that it hasn't happened, right? It doesn't mean that someone hasn't gone out there and preached to him. And they have. And I believe personally that there is a minister assigned for everyone to believe. Like the Bible says that who is Paul, who is Apollos, ministers by whom you believe, even as the Lord appointed every man. So God wants, because he wants the whole world to be saved. He wants people to know. Now, of course, it's incumbent then on us if God's saying, hey, I want you to, I have a job for every believer here to preach to other people so that everyone can hear the gospel. Well, if we don't do our job of preaching the gospel, then the gospel is hid. It's hid to them that are lost. So it's incumbent upon us to do God's will by going out there and preaching the gospel to every creature as he's commanded. But he's also orchestrating, hey, I've got, I know that these paths will cross. I know that this person will be able to meet this person here and here's all these opportunities for people to get saved. And I do believe God's not just like giving people only one opportunity ever in their life to hear the gospel. I think there's probably multiple opportunities, meaning, hey, if a believer blows it here and doesn't share the gospel like they should, there's someone else that can also provide that. And God knows all, and we know that his judgment is just. But we can't just sit back on our heels and just pretend like a Calvinist might, oh, everything will just work out anyway, so I don't have to say anything or do anything. No, you have to woe unto me if I preach not the gospel. But this idea that, you know, well, the reason why the end hasn't come yet is because the gospel hasn't been preached yet, that's just, it's just simply not true. It's misapplying what this verse is actually saying. Hey, this gospel, the kingdom, still needed to be preached, right? The resurrection of Christ still needed to be preached because Jesus was still alive in Matthew 24 when he was preaching his disciples. And then that word did go out very shortly thereafter, too, and it went out into all the world. Now, we're going to come back to this in a minute, but first I want to look at Exodus chapter 9 because this is a very similar concept to what happened in Egypt. Look at verse number 13. The Bible says, And the Lord said unto Moses, Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me. For I will at this time send all my plagues upon thine heart, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, that thou mayest know that there is none like me in all the earth. For now I will stretch out my hand, that I may smite thee and thy people with pestilence, and thou shalt be cut off from the earth. And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to show in thee my power, and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth. This is the Lord's instruction to Pharaoh through Moses. Moses is speaking. The Lord's given Moses the instruction, and Moses goes and tells Pharaoh, Look, this is why God has raised you up. God raised you up. Put this in a position that you are right now. You're this great ruler, this great Pharaoh, and all the nations look to you. You're so mighty and so powerful. God allowed you to be put in this position, and he raised you up in this position just so that he could bring you down, just so that he could bring these plagues against your wicked nation, and that the whole world then will hear about all the terrible things, all the extraordinary, miraculous events that came upon Egypt, and everyone across the world will be talking about this, because this is too big of an event to happen to not have everybody talking about this. I mean, when there's big disasters, when there was the, you know, remember the great tsunami that hit the, in Fukushima, and hit the nuclear oil, the whole world knew about that. That wasn't some local news. It wasn't just a really bad storm, and there's, you know, like, there's a hurricane in Florida. It's like, when is there not a hurricane in Florida, right? Brother Lance, right? Am I right? Brother Lance does the insurance stuff. He's like, yeah. There's plenty of hurricanes that go down there, and we get, like, little storms as a result of that, so it's one of the great reasons to live in Georgia. We don't have to worry about all those, at least inland in Georgia, we don't have to worry about all those hurricanes. They just turn into little storms for us, but the smaller things localized, the big things worldwide, right? Everyone knows about this stuff. Well, with what happened in Egypt with all the plagues, all those crazy plagues with the darkness, with the lice, with the frogs, you know, I mean, it's stuff that literally you'd be like, is this a story? You know, but no, it really happened, which is all the more reason why it's going to get out and spread abroad, and spread like wildfire. I mean, the people knew right away, I know that Children of Israel spent 40 years in the wilderness, but they still knew about it even 40 years later. I mean, think about that. And they were still scared about the Children of Israel coming in and defeating and taking over the Promised Land because they knew what God had done in Egypt 40 generations ago. That's the impact that what God did here had on the whole world. And these people just knew, they heard about this, and they're like, man, how many people, I wonder, were like, the Lord is God? You know, through his terrible works, through his mighty works, his power, just making himself known, look, there is no God like the Lord. And he does these things, look, all the good that ends up being done, yeah, sometimes there's bad people that come into power. Pharaoh was a bad guy. I mean, he hardened his heart against the Lord to the point to where God hardened his heart. And God just said, okay, now you're done. And he was, you know, for no reason, harassing God's people and enslaving and poorly entreating God's people to the point where then God, of course, steps in, he frees them, sets them free, and God did all that so that his name, as it says there in verse 16, that my name may be declared throughout all the earth. As yet, exaltest thou thyself against my people, that thou wilt not let them go? Behold, tomorrow about this time, I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail such as hath not been in Egypt since the foundation thereof even until now. So these are things that had never happened before. He's like, there's gonna be hail. Yeah, you might have had hail before, but it's never been on this wise ever. So this is headlining news. This is something that's going to, in every single one of these events, every single plague was like that. Everything was this, it's never been like this before. And you have multiple plagues just going on and on, one after the other, all the way up until the firstborn sons dying, right? And then the children of Israel being kicked out and then the sea being parted and then crashing down on Pharaoh's armies. Like, talk about global news. That's a big deal. And the might and power of Egypt was definitely hurt, you know, harmed by losing all the people that were chasing after the children of Israel that died in the Red Sea when they were trying to pursue after them. Guaranteed. The chariots, the horses, the soldiers that all died chasing the people that God protected. So big, big, big news. But this is also similar. So like we see about Matthew 24 with, hey, the gospel kingdoms will be preached in all the world. I believe there's definitely times where there's probably more of an emphasis of God's word getting out there and more activity. There's always a certain level of evangelism and missionary work and people just preaching the word of God. But then I think there's heightened times where that happens a lot more, right? So this, in Egypt, this would be a heightened time where there's all this oppression, but then there's all these miracles and there's all these great works and exploits being done. Well, the same thing is gonna happen in the end times as well. There's gonna be the more pressure, the more attacks, the harder things get for believers is gonna ramp up the amount of work that at least some believers will be doing. When the pressure comes, it's gonna be like, no, we really need to get the word out now and there's gonna be martyrs, there's gonna be people publicly just making known the word of the Lord that is going to gain a lot more attention because of the opposition to it. I mean, think about it. When people speak out against the things that the world hates right now, look at the spotlight that's put on it. I mean, everyone that preaches against and stands out against the big things like the LGBT terrorists when you speak out against that, then you get the spotlight, right? And now you're being put out for everyone to see. Same thing with COVID and everyone's fighting against the COVID stuff or whatever big thing is happening at the moment, whatever's contrary to the way of the world is going to be highlighted and there's gonna be that much more, even though there may be a lot of hate coming at you for it, there's gonna be that much more publicity over it as well. And in the end times, and especially, I mean, technology just continues to increase, people more and more and more are gonna be hearing about the exploits being done by the believers in those end days. And as people get more and more wicked in general in the world, they're gonna be, of course, a lot more malicious and they're gonna be a lot more hateful against Christianity. We know it's coming. It's gonna happen as a certainty. But in those days, as things are happening, now instead of against Pharaoh, it's gonna be against God's people. The persecution and tribulation is gonna be as it wasn't in the past. There's still gonna be a lot of gospel preaching going forward into all the ends of the earth because you're also gonna have Christians being hunted throughout all the ends of the earth as well. But that same message of God, hey, whether it's the heathen being punished or whether it's persecution coming upon God's people, either way, the name of the Lord is gonna be preached and these big events are gonna cause for that many more people to hear the word of God. The Lord raised up Pharaoh to make his name declared throughout all the earth. Hey, the antichrist is gonna be raised up to bring persecution. But the name of the Lord will also be proclaimed at that time as well. Turn to Romans chapter 10. And of course, Paul's abysmal to the Romans happens, I mean, I don't know the exact time, but significant amount of time after Jesus Christ was preaching the Olivet Discourse, right, before Paul's abysmal to the Romans. Of course, right, before his death and burial and resurrection, of course, this epistle written to the Romans is much later than that. So Jesus was the one that said, hey, this gospel of the kingdom is gonna be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations and then shall the end come. Well, we're gonna see in Romans chapter 10 that, hey, the gospel has been brought about the whole world even already. Look at verse number 15, the Bible says, and how shall they preach, except they be sent as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things. And just remember that, just the phrase here, how beautiful are the feet, because we're also gonna go and look back at Isaiah 52 in a minute as well, which is also referenced in that passage. But let's keep reading here, verse number 16. But they have not all obeyed the gospel, for Isaiah saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Verse 18, but I say, have they not heard? Wait, have they not heard? Are there people out there that haven't heard? He says, yes, verily their sound went into all the earth and their words unto the ends of the world. The gospel was preached and it went out and it went out to all the earth. It went into the ends of the world. It went everywhere. Far and wide. So we know that this has happened, and like I said, it continues to happen. And it happens over and over and over again because you're always having more people being born, dying, so there's always new generations and there's always more people that continue to need to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. But absolutely, it's already been sent abroad and it continues to be. Let's go back to Isaiah chapter 52. Isaiah 52. So no, I mean, as we see this and continue, look at this, we're not waiting around for, well, we just gotta wait. As soon as the gospel's preached everywhere, as soon as that last person's heard it, well, then what about the next person being born? Right? So I just wanna make sure I kinda dispel that thought about Matthew 24. No, the gospel did have to be preached. Of course it did. But it has already, but there's many other things that still happen before the end comes and that was just one of them in that one verse that needs to be done, that needed to be done, and it has been. And I think as we get closer to that time again and we continue to, the sowing will ramp up and people all over the earth will hear the word of God. And people will be like, look, we know the justice of God. We know how righteous God is and the holiness of God. God's gonna make sure before he comes and literally just judges the earth that people have had that opportunity to hear the word of God before he comes down and rains fire and brimstone down on this earth and just has this great destruction on this planet. It wouldn't make sense otherwise, right? And people become reprobate by and large by just rejecting Christ anyway. So in order to reject, they're gonna have to have heard about it. And we know there's gonna be that many more God haters, which means they're hearing the word of God and they're just rejecting it. Isaiah 52, look at verse number four. The Bible reads, "'For thus saith the Lord God, "'My people went down aforetime into Egypt "'to sojourn there, "'and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause. "'Now therefore, what have I here,' saith the Lord, "'that my people is taken away for naught? "'They that rule over them make them to howl,' saith the Lord, "'and my name continually every day is blasphemed.'" Now, doesn't this sound like the way things are also described in the end times as well as the way things are gonna be? Just like the children of Israel are being persecuted in Egypt, there's gonna be a persecution of God's people to come in the future. There's going to be, you know, the people that are ruling over them, making them to howl, and God's name continually being blasphemed. He says, "'Every day my name is just blasphemed, "'blasphemed, blasphemy coming forth "'against the Lord every day by a wicked people.'" Verse six, "'Therefore, my people shall know my name. "'Therefore, they shall know in that day "'that I am He that doth speak. "'Behold, it is I. "'How beautiful upon the mountains "'are the feet of Him that bringeth good tidings, "'that publisheth peace, "'that bringeth good tidings of good, "'that publisheth salvation, "'that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth.'" And that, you know, God reigning and the gospel go hand in hand in a lot of these passages, right? There's God bringing His judgment. There's joy, and even in this psalm as well, previous psalms we've seen it, the joy and the rejoicing, why? Because God's gonna reign. Why? Because God's in charge. Why? Because God's gonna set things right. A great reason to rejoice. Hey, He's publishing salvation. Salvation to who? Salvation to His people. Now, the good news is you can become His people by just believing on Christ. So, amen, you know, the door's open there for people to become His people. It's not closed, like, oh, no, it's just if you have this certain ancestry. No, you know, avoid genealogies, what the Bible teaches. It's not about being a physical seed of Abraham. It's about being one of God's people, and, hey, bring the good tidings of good. Publish that salvation throughout to all the ends of the earth. Verse 8, Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice, with the voice together shall they sing, for they shall see eye to eye and the Lord shall bring again. Zion, break forth into joy. Sing together. And this is also what we're seeing in Psalm 98 as well. The rejoicing, the singing, the publishing of salvation. It says sing together. You waste places of Jerusalem, for the Lord hath comforted His people. He hath redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord hath made bare His holy arm in the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth to see the salvation of our God. And people will know God one way or another, right? You're either going to hear the good, you're going to hear the good news, you're going to hear the gospel, you're going to hear how you can be saved, or you're going to see the actual salvation of God when He comes and saves His people, and you're going to see that mighty arm come down and bring salvation to His people against all the people that hate Him. Either way, His power and His might is going to be made known, and the name of the Lord is going to be known throughout all the world and everybody. No one will have any doubt about who is God and about who the Lord is. And people have the opportunity either to humble themselves before they see that strong arm of the Lord come down and accept that salvation, or they can wait and be on the other end and be on the receiving end of the mighty arm of the Lord, and that's not going to be a place where you want to be. All the more reason to be incumbent upon us to go and preach the gospel of good things and publish peace to the world. Revelation 14, one more place I want to look at regarding this particular subject. We see one more reference of the gospel going out into all the world. Because like I said, this isn't something that's only mentioned like one time, like Matthew 24 or something. This is a concept that's brought up multiple times where God's word absolutely is going out into all the world multiple times. Revelation chapter 14, verse number 6, the Bible reads, And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth and to every nation and kindred and tongue and people. So the everlasting gospel again is preached, and this is after the second coming, by the way, now with this angel coming and preaching the everlasting gospel to preach to them that dwell on the earth. Verse 7 says, Saying with a loud voice, Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come and worship Him that made heaven and earth and the sea and the fountains of waters. So this is happening then. And that's like when the 144,000 are preaching the gospel as well while God is still pouring out His wrath on the earth to still reach the people who maybe haven't received the mark of the beast, but they also didn't get saved yet, right? The people who still have hope while the mighty arm of the Lord is being demonstrated and is being shown clearly who God is, that gospel is going to continue to be preached to the whole world during that time as well. So, I mean, over and over again, God wants people to be saved. Which is why Jesus commanded, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Go ye into all the world, everywhere, and preach the gospel to every creature. Let's go back to Psalm 98. There's a couple other points I want to make in this psalm. Verse number 4, the Bible reads, Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth. Make a loud noise and rejoice and sing praise. And now let's make this little comment here. Hey, make a loud noise to the Lord when you sing, when we play, right? It's okay to have some volume, to be heard, right? To make your voice heard. It doesn't mean you have to, like, scream. You're not going to probably hit the notes as well if you're screaming when we're singing. But, hey, be loud. You know, don't kind of whisper under your breath or sing so that you can just make sure that nobody else hears you. The congregational singing is designed to be done in a way to bring glory. Think about this from a listener's perspective. Okay, a listener's perspective. Let's say you didn't do any of the singing, right? For those of you that don't really like to or don't really want to, for whatever reason, you don't sing. What is more impactful if you went and just visited another church? What's going to be more joyful? What's going to have that much more of an impact on you if you go into a church where almost nobody's singing and, like, someone, like, dropped something and everyone could turn because they could hear whatever it is, followed around. It's like people hear that. Wait, wait, what's that? Versus you go in somewhere and everybody is just singing out to the Lord. You've got instruments. You've got the music. I mean, what church would you rather be in if it was just based on the music? Of course, you want to be in that one, right? And you're going to feel the difference. You're going to know the difference. I mean, there is a significant difference. If I could do that very same thing and no one even bats an eye because no one even hears it because of all the music that's being brought forth, the joy, the singing. Hey, that's what God wants to hear, and that's what God deserves, by the way. God deserves your praise. God deserves the sacrifice of praise coming out of your lips and using your voice that God gave you to give praise unto his name. And don't be so selfish to think that, like, oh, I don't really want to sing because, you know, it's not about you. It isn't. And look, if you don't sing very well at all and your voice cracks and you can't carry a tune, work on it. But still sing, but work on it, right? Like, in all areas of praise, of worship, of prayer, of, you know, some people pray better than others. Work on it, right? Some people read better than others. Work on it. Some people give the gospel better than others. Work on it, right? Let's improve every area and not just neglect any one area, but, hey, let's make that loud noise and rejoice and sing praise. I mean, I hope you're happy. I hope you think that God's worthy of all the praise and that we should be rejoicing in the Lord as our Savior, as our defender, as all of the things that God is to us. Yes, let's make that loud noise and rejoice and sing praise. Amen. Sing unto the Lord with the harp, with the harp in the voice of a psalm, with trumpets and sound of cornet. Make a joyful noise before the Lord, the King. He's worthy. And, you know, I read things like this and there's a really small group of people. I hesitate to even bring it up because it's not some, like, big movement out there, but I can't help but wonder, like, the people who think that, well, there should be no musical instruments in a New Testament church because we don't see musical instruments in a New Testament church, like, you never see it prohibited, and how do you read through these psalms and just think, like, yeah, but God doesn't want that now in his church. Like, how? How? Are you even saved? I mean, like a preacher saved. Not some person who gets sucked up in a weird doctrine, but, like, it literally almost makes me think, like, how can you have such an absurd thought that you want to have a church with no musical instruments when we see so much about this and so much, let's go from being loud and using harps and all this music to, yeah, we just don't do that anymore. Why? There would have to be a reason why. Well, I mean, they don't really talk about it. Yeah, there's a lot of things that don't get talked about from the Old Testament to the New. It doesn't mean you just drop it off. It's ridiculous. The New Testament does say, you know, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, so I guess we should just be acapella singing about the loud noises, right? Like, literally this song, this psalm, this psalm. So we should only be singing this out and we'll sing all about the instruments, but don't you have an instrument playing in that church? Isn't that silly? It's mind-boggling to me. I've heard that before. I remember the first time I heard that, I'm like, that's a thing? Like, there's actually people who believe that or teach that. It was blowing away. Like, what a dumb thought. The thought of foolishness is sin. That's a pretty foolish thought. Sorry. I mean, there's a lot of things we could disagree on. There's a lot of doctrines that, you know, people have different opinions about, but that one, I mean, that's like flat earth level. Verse number seven, let's continue here. Let the sea roar and the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein. God wants everyone praising His name. He wants His name praised all over the world. Verse eight, let the floods clap their hands. Let the hills be joyful together before the Lord, for He cometh to judge the earth. And as we've seen in other recent Psalms, why are we bringing all this joy? Oh, because God's coming to judge the earth. Amen. God's coming to judge. Amen. Good. He's good. He's righteous and He's long suffering. He's not willing that He should perish, but He still has to bring His judgment and it's still going to be a good thing when He does. It's a good thing. Why? Because He cometh to judge the earth. That's a good thing. The Lord's going to be here. And look at this. With righteousness shall He judge the world. That will be a new thing. The world to see righteous judgment. And again, what a good thing that will be. Righteous judgment on the earth. And this last phrase, and the people with equity. Now I'm going to take the last portion of the sermon here. I'm going to focus on that, just that one word, equity. This is the first time in the Bible that this word is used, and it's not used a whole lot, but equity. And we've got to be careful and pay attention to definitions of things because what they mean in the Bible isn't always what they mean today, and the world is always trying to twist and confuse things to mean things they don't really mean and just change definitions of words. And in our society, in our culture today, there's a huge attack on definitions of words in general, like just politically out there, there's all these wicked movements of people who are trying to change definitions of words. I mean, from racism to all manner of things. And listen, there is a big attack to divide the people in our country, too. Like, that is, you've got to open up your eyes and see what's happening out there to bring this division and to just promote all manner of wickedness. But they always want to do it in a way that's going to sound like it's right, or they're going to use these words or these positive words and positive meanings to say, oh, here's what we're doing. And the one I'm going to focus on today is this DEI, the diversity, equity, and inclusion that's being pushed mostly in corporate America, but kind of all across the board. It's in politics, it's in the news, it's going to be in the media, it's going to be at work. And these are the buzzwords that are going out there today, but you've got to be aware of what they're actually pushing. What they're pushing, it's a whole different culture that's not a Christian culture. Now, they're going to use words that sound good. Equity, for example, is one of those words, diversity, equity, and inclusion. Well, hey, God's going to judge the people with equity, so isn't equity a good thing? Yes, equity is a good thing, but what does equity mean in the Bible? When God judges with equity, he's judging fairly, right? It's righteous judgment. It is fair. God sees all things. He knows right and he knows wrong and distinguishes. There's no respecter of persons. It doesn't matter what color you are. It doesn't matter what your background. None of that matters. What matters is what's righteous. What is right? That is judging with equity. That is just, hey, everything's equal. This is why even our country had a founding. You know, Lady Justice, those values that were pushed is, hey, justice is supposed to be blind, which is why you have Lady Justice with a blindfold around her eyes and the scales in her hands to be a proper balance to make judgment of things so that whatever the crime is, the penalty is going to be equal. It's going to be just, and the eyes being blindfolded is supposed to be it doesn't matter if you're rich or poor. It doesn't matter if you're black or white or yellow or brown or anything. None of that should matter. It just matters what's done, what's right. Here's the judgment. That's equity. And that is a very good thing. And that is something that should be promoted. Absolutely. But when the people who are pushing these agendas use that word, that's not what they mean. It's not. I mean, we ought to be aware of these things and just be wise to what's going on in the world around us and not think that, oh, yeah, you're just kind of, you know, I don't know what you might think. Think that just to be aware of the wickedness that's going on and what's being pushed. I'm going to read for you about this DEI from Wikipedia. Okay, now, look, I'm not saying Wikipedia is a great source for everything in the world, but when I read this, it is a good summary of what is being published out there today. It is. It's spot on with how this is being promoted in the world today, and I'm going to read just a short paragraph for you that's going to define these things, and this is the way I've been hearing these things be defined and pushed out in the world today. So this is what the source at Wikipedia says, and there's multiple sources quoted here and quotes from other publications that are being used in the world today. Here's what the excerpt says. Diversity refers to the presence of variety within the organizational workforce such as in identity and identity politics. And right away, I mean, if you don't think about identity politics, it's just, well, I just like this person, so I'm just going to associate it and agree with everything that this person says, and that's dumb. Identity politics is stupid because you just, I mean, you might like one thing about one guy, and then it's like all of a sudden now everything that person says, I'm just going to follow what that person says. No. That's not equity. That's not fairness. That's not righteousness. That's just I just like this person. That's identity politics, but even diversity itself, before we even continue, the virtue, what is the virtue of diversity? What is it? Like, what is it really? What does it matter? Because when people typically are talking about diversity in a workforce, they could be talking about different races or different cultures or whatever, but how does that make anyone, any company organization better? I don't understand that. I don't know what, like, I don't care who I'm working with, like if you're from Asia or if you're from Africa, like that shouldn't matter to us, but what I fail to see is why is that a virtue of just saying, oh, yes, look, well, we're going to strive to have all these people from all over the places, all these different places, you could say, oh, but it's different ways of thinking and different thoughts. Maybe in some very, very specific situations of development or research, maybe that could be helpful. Maybe. But in general, organizations, you want to just be very cohesive in general. You want to have a similar culture where everyone could come in and, yeah, you can have respect for each other, but you don't need to have a bunch of people from all different walks of life. It doesn't really add any value to the organization. It just sounds good. Oh, we're going to be real inclusive and diverse and just bring a bunch of people for the sake of bringing them in, but it's not really going to do you any good. And, in fact, some of the people they want to bring in are not very good people. Like, oh, we just want to pretend like we're inclusive. And they're going to be the people that bring you the most problems at work. The people that want to complain about which pronouns, can we put our pronouns in the email and make sure everyone knows what pronouns to use for me? They're going to cause you the most problems and the most headaches and probably the most lawsuits. And they're going to be the biggest pain in your rear end that you have to deal with. Why in the world would any company want to strive for this because they don't want to, but then they don't want to be demonized, so it's the wicked people that push this stuff. By and large, of course, not necessarily every person that pushes for this is automatically wicked, but it is a push that's being done primarily through the people who cause the problems that are not going to use it for the good. It's all for their own benefit, ultimately, is what it is. But the workforce should be based on, if we're using Christian principles, it's just going to be like, hey, I don't care where you're from. Just as God's house is a house of prayer to all nations, the place I work can be a place of business for all nations. Who cares? That shouldn't matter at all. But what should matter is we're all coming in here for the same purpose. Any successful company is going to have, we're all coming together for the same purpose. There's a unity in anything that you do. Families, hey, we should all be unified in the purpose of the family. That's why you should have a good leader and a dad, a husband at home, to be able to unify the family. And then your family is going to succeed and do really well when everyone can join together and help out as a team, right? Churches, do great. When you can have a good leader, they can come in and unify. Let's get everyone helping, everyone in place, everyone doing a good work. We're all together. We're all unified. We want to serve the Lord, and here's how we're going to do it. And we all come here. We can do great things for the Lord here. The same thing out in the world in businesses and everything. You want to have people unified and following a certain culture, but not have to go in and have things crammed down your throat. But that's what this is trying to do, is trying to forcibly change cultures throughout the country. Even just the American culture is trying to be forcibly changed through efforts like this. And just by exalting, as a virtue, diversity, as if inherently it just has some automatic virtue, which it doesn't. It doesn't. There's nothing virtuous. What do I care if a bunch of people from any one particular area or any one particular skin tone all want to get together and do something? Who cares? They're no worse off if they don't have other people there. And whether that's white, black, brown, it doesn't matter. And if there's particular cultures where people culturally, let's just use this, we're in an area that's highly Hispanic, what do I care if some business owner wants to have a culture where they're going to have Mexican music being played, they're going to have Mexican food being prepared, they're going to work on a schedule that is similar to what they're used to working, maybe they'll have a siesta in the middle of the afternoon, whatever, whatever people decide, hey, this is how we kind of want to do things, great! Do that! If that's what works for you, then go ahead and do it. People are freely able to just associate and do whatever you want to do, that's great. When you start forcing all these different things on people, and here's what's going to happen. I say things like this, people say, well, you're just saying that because you're racist and you just want to have a bunch of what? Oh man, use some sense, like think about these things. But people who don't have real arguments and can't defend their point of view, that's just what they want to do, they just want to smear and just call names. And that's why you'll hear pastors being called, they'll be called racists and homophobes and all these other, just try to be, you know, people trying to say derogatory words because they can't actually bring forward a legitimate argument, something that has value and is thoughtful. Let me keep reading this though because I kind of got a little bit derailed. So it says diversity refers to the presence of variety within the organizational workforce such as in identity and identity politics. It includes gender, culture, ethnicity, religion, disability, class, age, or opinion. Equity refers to concepts of fairness and justice. Now look, that's right. But then it says such as fair compensation and substantive equality. And equity and equality, first of all, are not the same thing. It's not the same thing. Equity and equality are not the same thing. You say, well, equality could be good, but it depends on what you mean by that. So if you mean, for example, that like, well, equality. I mean, if you have the WNBA, the women's NBA, and the men's NBA, they're all professional basketball players, so they should all be making the same amount of money, and then there should just be equality, right? I mean, that's just the way it should be. Well, no, hold on. There's quite a few other factors involved there, like the men's NBA brings in a lot more money because a lot more people want to watch them play that sport. It's all entertainment, but people want to spend their money here, and more and more revenue is being generated here versus in this other WNBA. And it is what it is. So why do you have to just say that, well, they should be equal, and why? Now, the fair thing is, oh, well, they're producing this, and it brings forth this value, so they'll get paid appropriately for that, and then they're bringing forth this thing, and it provides this much value, so they'll get, that's fairness, that's equity. But what they try to do is change this idea of fairness and justice into including things that are actually unjust and unfair to bring about an equality that shouldn't be there to begin with. And we see this all over the place with things, you know, I mean, equality, this is what you end up, at the end of the day, we end up with is communism, like kind of the end result. Oh, we should all be equal. Like, no, you shouldn't. I mean, the job that I work for, we have big machines, and people, there's different machine operators, well, some are better than others. But, hey, they're doing the same job, so they just all get paid the same amount of money? No. The ones that are more productive, the ones that are better at their job, the ones that make less mistakes, they should be getting more money than the guy that doesn't. Why? Because it helps the company make more money. They're more valuable. They bring more value to the table. So, of course, the equitable thing, the fair thing is you're being a more positive net result to the company, so you should be compensated more positively as opposed to someone who doesn't. That's equitable, but it's not equal. Does that make sense? But what's being promoted is like it says right here. And that's why you've got to be careful, because it sounds good. Hey, equity refers to concepts of fairness and justice, yeah, such as fair compensation and substantive equality. And now you've just gone and twisted that definition. More specifically, equity usually also includes a focus on societal disparities and allocating resources and decision-making authority to groups that have historically been disadvantaged. So what this is saying is what has happened is, well, we need to now change things forcibly because this group of people, whoever it is, however they've been designated, has historically been disadvantaged by being able to make decisions and have authority, so we're just going to change that and just make this different regardless of even what the best outcome is. Well, hey, you've been, we have this idea that everyone should just be involved in this, so we're just going to change it and mix it up. And why is that all of a sudden the virtue? And look, I'm not defending injustice that's been done in the past of different groups of people that were unjustly treated poorly, right? The biggest example, like African-American slaves. Okay, yeah, that was injustice for people who were kidnapped and brought to another country to be forced into labor. Absolutely, I think everyone can agree that that's an injustice. And that injustice has been dealt with, that wrong has been corrected. Because of my knowledge here in this country, I don't think we have any more people being brought over that are just forced into labor like that. I mean, obviously, and anywhere that may be happening, it's wrong. It should be fought against completely. But now, because that happened, that doesn't mean all of a sudden, well, now we must take someone who's been a victim of injustice and just artificially put them into some position just because they've been victimized. That makes sense. Like, oh, well, now all of a sudden I'm going to take this person who might not even have any skills and let's just make them a governor and let's just make them a senator or something. Like, why? Why? Because they've been a victim? That doesn't really help. What's going to help is people with the best skills to still do those, whatever the functions are to get the best person for the job and whatever the job is. It says, and taking into consideration a person's unique circumstances, adjusting treatment accordingly so that the end result is equal. So the value that's being pushed here is just equality for everyone. But that isn't a Christian value. That's not God's value. Even in heaven, everyone is not equal. Now, you're equal in the sense that God loves you equally. But at the judgment seat of Christ, I'll tell you what, it's not all going to be equal. It's not. If you just think, hey, I'm saved and you're saved and we're both sinners and we're saved by grace, that's absolutely true 100%. But if you think that there's not going to be any difference in the rewards that are given to both people who are saved by grace, you're sorely mistaken. Everyone is not equal in the sense of being receiving the same amount of gifts and rewards from the Lord. That's not the way it is. It's based on what you've done, on your labor. Labor being compensated, that's what we see in scripture. This is more of a let's just focus more on getting everyone to be equal as opposed to encouraging everyone to work harder to receive more. Two different concepts. Finally, inclusion refers to creating an organizational culture. So that's what they're going after, is the culture. That creates an experience. Like when I go to work, I'm not looking for an experience. I'm just looking to get my job done. All employees feel their voices will be heard. I'm not worried about my feelings at work either, by the way. And hey, you want your voice to be heard? Show why your voice should be heard instead of just making some demand and throwing a tantrum about it and complaining to everyone about it. Why don't you show why your voice should be heard? Because any place that I've ever worked, when someone has shown themselves to be really valuable, no matter who that person is, people will listen. That's happened like everywhere. Anyone who cares about their business and their company will listen to the people, to the workers, to the doers, to the ones who are invested in their job and not just going, well, I'm only going to give you what I think I'm worth or what you're paying me. Like that attitude, you're not going to have your voice heard. And you know what? We're going to see what happens with all this stuff, too. I'm sorry, I'm getting a little political tonight, but we're going to see how this happens in places like California that have just been increasing their minimum wage to now where you have fast food employees making 20 bucks an hour. I'm not kidding. It's a series of years where that minimum wage is going to continue to increase, and I forget exactly what year it's going to be bumped up again, but I think they're at $15 an hour right now at just like minimum wage. And that's going to be moved up to 20 here in the next, I don't know how long, couple years or something like that, whatever it is. And then you wonder like, oh, man, this really stinks. I don't know why I have to spend $15 at McDonald's or at Burger King or some of the cheapest food places, Taco Bell, where you used to be able to get six tacos for a couple bucks. Now you've got to spend like $15 just to have a whatever, a burrito or something like that. It's crazy. But that's what you're going to get when you're paying all of your employees all this crazy amount of money. Or what you're going to get is, hello, welcome to self-service. Welcome to our kiosk. And you're going to push your button, and you're going to hit this button, and there's going to be a machine back there that's going to put together, put your burger in the microwave and then take it back out and put it on the conveyor belt, and there you go. And that's the service you're going to get. And then people won't be employed as much because you don't want to pay them because you need to be able to keep things affordable because if you just keep employing a bunch of people and you have all this cost, no one's going to spend that much money for your lousy cheeseburger. But that's not what they care about anyways. Then they're going to be like, well, no, you have to stay open. No, we have to have our McDonald's. They're too big to fail. We need to have our quarter pounders with cheese. And then you just get government subsidies, and then you just, again, turn more communists, whatever. It doesn't work. But this is what's being pushed all over the place. And the last phrase here, after the all employees feel their voices to be heard and a sense of belonging and integration. Turn to Micah Chapter 3. I will close on this. Good night. I didn't think I was going to preach that long tonight. Because this is what the DEI type of stuff is doing, and we're going to see here in Micah Chapter 3 the reality of the situation. It's not equitable, even though equity is in the name. It's not fairness that they want. They just want to change culture. They want to bring in sodomites. They want to bring in people to just change culture, change the way that everyone thinks and everyone operates at work, and people get along just fine, and now you're going to have to force stuff in and say, no, you have to do this and you have to do that under threat. Ultimately a threat of lawsuit and probably someday soon threat of prison time or something for not including people that you're told to include. Micah Chapter 3, verse number 8, the Bible says, But truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord and of judgment and of might to declare unto Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin. Isn't that interesting? Hey, I'm full of power by the Spirit of the Lord. I'm full of judgment. I'm full of might to declare unto Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin. No one likes hearing about their sin, but that's what happens here. You say, hey, I'm full of the power of the Spirit to do this. I'm full of power and might and judgment, and that's a good thing, and that's what the Bible is teaching here that needs to be done, that needs to be brought up, and it needs to be preached against and the sin needs to be declared because if it's not declared, then people are just going to continue doing it thinking it's okay. Verse 9, hear this. I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob and princes of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment, look at this, and pervert all equity. This is the spiritual wickedness in high places here in Israel at this time, and it's the same thing that's going on now. It's a spiritual wickedness in high places where equity is actually being perverted, is being perverted under the guise of equity. How ironic is that? But that's how they want to spin things and make themselves. That's like Satan. He's going to try to make sin and wickedness look as good and palatable as possible and just be deceitful. It's a perversion of equity. They build up Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity. The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money. Yet will they lean upon the Lord and say, Is not the Lord among us? None evil can come upon us. So, on the one hand, all they care about is the money, and they're doing everything for money, and they're doing everything for profit, they're just doing it all so that they can get gain from it, but then they're bringing God into it, too, and saying, Well, look, isn't God among us? Nothing bad's going to happen to us because God's for us. It's like, No, He's not. Not when you're doing these things. Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps in the mountains of the house as the high places of the forest. And the more we see this perversion of equity and transgression and sin needs to be proclaimed because if it's not and this continues, God will just plow down and make the United States a parking lot if He wants to because of the perversion of justice and judgment and equity, especially when people who know better aren't bold in the spirit and proclaiming what's right and what's true instead of just allowing everything to continue the way that it is. We need more people to say, Look, I'm not doing this. We all have a line in the sand. We want to live peaceably with all men and kind of go along and get things done. But at the end of the day, there's some things that just, you know, need to be done correctly. And here's, you know what? One of the ways you're going to do that? If we can build up a Christian culture, churches full of people that are living right, that are going to have the right attitude at work, that are going to have the right attitude out in the world, that are going to be the ones you will get your voices heard. You will get into positions to where your voice will matter, like Daniel. Right? Daniel didn't live and put all of his heart's desire on becoming so powerful. But you know what? It came that way. And it came that way from his faithfulness. It came that way from him just doing what's right, living a certain way. Hey, that got him to the position. Of course, the Lord, you know, lifted him up. But these values, the Christian values, are desirable out in the world, especially in companies and businesses everywhere. Because the Christian value of working really hard and not complaining and not crying over every little thing and causing problems over everything and just being able to say, hey, you know, I'm just going to work. I'm going to work as if I'm working for Christ. And I'm going to give it my best and I'm going to do my best and I'm going to pour myself into this. And you know what? You're going to be promoted. You will. Because one, God's going to be pleased with that attitude. And your employer's going to be pleased with that attitude. And there's no reason why at some point, then, people will be able to rise up to be in positions, whether it be in their own businesses or in other people's businesses, to have your voice heard. So then when this DEI garbage comes rolling around, then we can at least have maybe some solid Christians that have already proven themselves to be someone to be listened to that can be like, hey, look, I don't think we ought to do this. And when you're living the life and when you have the knowledge and you have wisdom from the Word of God, you can articulate and explain why that's not a good idea. And you can have your voice heard. And that helps overall in the culture at large. You can have that impact even without being a preacher, so to speak, behind a pulpit or something. Right? Your influence in your life, in your sphere, and what you're doing will help overall. God can use you, but you have to be doing. It has to be your life. It's part of your life. The Christian life has to be part of your life. It has to be your life, not just a part. To really have that influence, to really make that change. Because we want that to happen, but if you just let it go, well, the loud voices are just going to take over. Right? That no one wants to hear anyways. So be that solid voice of reason on the other end, going, yeah, we don't need this stuff. You know it's because it's not right from the wisdom you gain from Scripture. But even if you have unbelieving bosses or coworkers or whatever, you can still have your voice respected and bring about that change that way too. Let's bow our heads in a word of prayer. Dear Lord, thank you so much for this great psalm. And I pray that you would please just help us to be strong in your word and to gain more wisdom. Lord, we pray that you would please also just help us to be bold in preaching the gospel and making sure that it continually will be spread unto all the ends of the world as it already has been multiple times in the past, dear Lord. Help us to do great exploits, especially as we near and get closer and closer to the end times. And I pray that you would please strengthen us and embolden us, Lord, in a world that grows increasingly dark. We love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, we're going to sing one last song before we are dismissed. Brother Will, will you please lead us? For our final song, let's turn to song 441. Song 441, great is thy faithfulness, song 441. Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father. There is no shadow of turning with thee. Thou changest God thy compassions may rail on. As thou hast been, thou forever will be. Great is thy faithfulness, great is thy faithfulness. Morning by morning, new mercies I see. All I can be in thy hand hath provided. Great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me. Summer and winter and springtime and harvest, sun, moon, and stars in their courses above, join with all nature in many fullness. To thy great faithfulness, mercy and love. Great is thy faithfulness, great is thy faithfulness. Morning by morning, new mercies I see. All I can be in thy hand hath provided. Great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me. Pardon for sin and the peace that endureth. My own dear presence to cheer and to guide. Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow. Blessings, O mine, with dim clouds in the sky. Great is thy faithfulness, great is thy faithfulness. Morning by morning, new mercies I see. All I can be in thy hand hath provided. Great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me. All I can be in thy hand hath provided. Great is thy faithfulness, great is thy faithfulness. Thank you.