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All right, we're in second Kings chapter 30 or excuse me chapter 10 look down your Bibles at verse 32 The title of the sermon this morning is cut short cut short and if you look at verse 32 it says in those days the Lord began to cut Israel short and has a I'll smote them in all the coasts of Israel from Jordan eastward all the land of Gilead and the Gadites and the Reubenites and the Manasseh t's from arrow air Which is by the River Arnon even Gilead and Bashan and I want to preach on that phrase there. The Lord began to cut Israel Short the Lord began to cut Israel short now That's a phrase that we would typically use today when we talk about something being cut short For example, what did that simply means is that basically a person does not reach their full potential, right? You think of a person who dies young in their teenage years their life is cut short They're not able to reach the full extent of their years of their life You think of a successful athlete who receives a debilitating injury we'll say that that person's career was cut short because of that and We see here that that is that is exactly what we see in the nation of Israel Is that due to the sins of Jeroboam because of what's taking place in Israel Israel is actually cut short Because of it's not able to reach its full potential. It's not able to succeed as a nation because of that now Why were they being cut short is the first question that we have to ask ourselves The second is what was the potential that God was referring to and then what days is he referring to? Well, if you look in the beginning at verse, excuse me Verse number 28 it says then Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel How be it from the sins of Jeroboam the sons of Nebat which made Israel to sin? Jehu departed not from after them to wit the golden calves that were in Bethel and that were in Dan And the Lord said unto you because that was done well and executing that which is right in mine eyes and has done unto The house of Ahab according to all that was in mine heart thy children of the fourth generation Shall sit on the throne of Israel But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart For he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam which made Israel to sin And then we see there that that's the reason why he cuts them short So Jehu the king of Israel was basically one of the reasons why the nation of Israel did not reach its fullest potential Why it was not able to succeed later on in the future and What is it particularly that he's referring to? What is the sin of Jeroboam? Well go with me if you went to first Kings chapter 12 first Kings chapter number 12 First Kings chapter 12 hold your place there in second Kings 10. We're gonna turn back to that What is the sin of Jeroboam? First of all, who is Jeroboam and then what is his sin? Well, let me give you just a brief concise history of the kingdom that we're looking at right here Of course during second Kings chapter number 10 the kingdom has already been divided you have a northern and a southern kingdom The northern kingdom being Israel the southern kingdom being Judah this took place years prior Under the reign of Jeroboam now at one point the kingdom was united under one sovereign You know you have Saul then you have David after David you have King Solomon and the Bible tells us that King Solomon made an affinity With Egypt with Pharaoh of Egypt married his daughter took upon him 700 wives 300 concubines these were strange woman that drove Solomon's heart away from God Okay, and the Bible tells us that his heart was not perfect with God for this reason God judged Israel in a way that he basically removed ten tribes from Israel gave it to a different person and Solomon stayed with two tribes Okay, so he has two tribes which is Benjamin and Judah and then the rest of the ten tribes go with someone else now Who's that person that it goes to? Well, the person's name is Jeroboam. Jeroboam according to the Bible was an industrious servant of Solomon a prophet is sent unto Jeroboam to anoint him to be king and He becomes king and he basically he says hey, you're gonna be king over Israel You're gonna be given ten tribes and this guy's not necessarily a valiant man So to speak because as soon as he gets word from that he takes off to Egypt He's like afraid that he's gonna lose his life Solomon begins to seek after his life. So he stays in Egypt Solomon dies He decides to return back and appeal to Solomon's son Rehoboam and to see hey You know if you can if you can be speak kind to us and be kind to us You know will serve you of course Rehoboam refuses to do that. The kingdom is split into two But we see here the Jeroboam Actually had a great a great opportunity to do something great for God He's given a platform to succeed as the new kingdom. He's given ten tribes He has God's blessing, you know, God's telling him Hey, if you don't if you walk in the laws of the Lord you obey me, you know, you'll be a great king You can lead the nation in the way of righteousness. You know, you're able to you can do something big He's given this great opportunity to do something great for God and he just screws it all up Why because we see that he begins to commit sin the sin of idolatry, which is the sin that's very abominable abominable in the eyes of the Lord and Look at look at the sins of Jeroboam in 1st Kings chapter 12 verse 25 it says then Jeroboam built Shechem in Mount Ephraim and dwelt there in and went out from thence and built Penuel and Jeroboam said in his heart now shall the kingdom return to the house of David If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem Then shall the heart of this people turn again into their Lord Even it's a rare bone king of Judah and they shall kill me and go against a rare bone king of Judah So what do we see right off the bat? Well, we see the Jeroboam is very insecure Okay, why is he insecure? Well, he's saying look. Oh man, if people go to worship in Jerusalem They're gonna want ray of home to be their king and I'm gonna lose everyone, you know, they're gonna want to kill me They're gonna return back to Judah. I'm not gonna have a kingdom. No one's gonna follow me He's being insecure is what he's doing, right? So what is his remedy? What is the solution to the problem that he's supposedly facing here? Look at verse 28? where upon the king took counsel and made two calves of gold and Said unto them it is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem behold thy gods Oh Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt and he set the one in Bethel on the other put he and Dan so this is a solution. Hey, I got a good idea I'm I'll make two golden calves I'll put one in Bethel one and then and you don't have to make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem. You can worship God here Right, not a good solution He's causing the people to commit whoredom Idolatry so in order to help the people Conveniently serve God he causes them to commit idolatry. Okay, all because of his insecurities Verse 30 says and this thing became a sin for the people went to worship before the one even unto Dan and he made Here's the second thing that it look at verse 31 And he made in house of high places and made priests of the lowest of the people which were not of the sons of Levi So what's the problem there? He begins to ordain and deputize people who are not qualified to be priests Okay, so the people who were Chosen to be priests had to be from the tribe of Levi and more specifically from the house of Aaron Instead what is what does your bone do? He just chooses the lowest of the people just whoever wants to you know And in fact later on he says whosoever will Hey, if you want to be a pastor you come to this college and we'll give you a diploma and you could be a pastor You know online Paid this man of money. Here's your diploma and you could be a pastor you could be the priest Okay, it doesn't matter. He could be he chose of the lowest of the people to become their spiritual leaders strike two Strike three look at verse 32 and Jeroboam ordained feast in the eighth month on the 15th day of the month Like unto the feast that is in Judah and he offered upon the altar So did he in Bethel? Sacrificing unto the calves that he had made and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made So he offered upon the altar Which he made in Bethel the 15th day of the eighth month even in the month Which he had devised of his own heart and ordained a feast unto the children of Israel and he offered upon the altar and burnt Incense. So what did he do here? He Invented his own on holiday What does that mean? He just created a holiday? He's like we're gonna worship on this day. We're gonna sacrifice calves and he created his own unholy Holiday to worship God, you know, what's the problem with that? Well because they're making sacrifices on to bail They are worshipping false gods. Okay So that's the third thing he does and out of all three of these things that got the thing that God really You know hits on is the fact that he put two golden calves One in Dan the other one in Bethel and he caused Israel to sin now. What's the problem with this? You say well, why is this so obviously we know that idolatry is bad. Why is this so bad? Well, because of the fact that Jeroboam is the first king of that northern kingdom so he became his sin became the catalyst and Stigmatized every single king thereafter. Okay, because if you read the next nine kings or ten kings or even all the kings after that They were all bad people Committing idolatry and it often says they did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam So think about this you have ten kings a succession of ten kings that come after Jeroboam Right and every single one of those guys didn't think didn't think to take the initiative to remove the idols From Dan and from Bethel, you know, and by the way, even Jehu who was a righteous King He's I mean we're gonna get into the exploits of Jehu. He's one of my favorite Bible characters in the Old Testament He did some amazing things But one thing he didn't do is he just didn't take the initiative to remove the idols from Dan and Bethel The sin that God really harped on a lot here. Okay So this is the sin of Jeroboam. Okay, so we have Jehu he comes on the scene years later He begins to clean house. I mean he's like this guy is the kind of church member every pastor likes Okay, because he's taking the initiative he's just like, you know, he gets rid of Jezebel He assassinated he he inspires eunuchs to kill Jezebel. I Mean when you could inspire a eunuch to man up That's that's a great feat right there, you know, you are a leader my friend, okay He wipes out all the 70 sons of Ahab because Ahab was a wicked king and so were his sons He removes the current kings of both Israel and Judah. He just assassinates both of them We'll get into the story in just a little bit And my favorite exploit is the fact that he held a feast for the prophets of Baal So, you know he conspired a little bit Yeah, he was a little dishonest because it's like, you know Ahab served Baal much or served him little I shall serve him much And they're like man this king is great. So he creates this feast and then he tells them wipe them all out And if anybody escapes your life shall go for his this is in the Bible, you know And you know what one character quality first sum up his life in one word. It would be zeal He was zealous for God. He did a lot for the Lord Okay, but you wonder is like man. He did all these great things Why is it that at the end of his life, you know, God basically said that in his days Israel is still gonna be cut short Well, it's because it's not because of what Jehu did do it's because of what he didn't do You know, let me say this what we do is important But if we choose not to do something what God tells us to do That's just as equally bad as if you choose not to do something. That's good. Okay, or righteous in the eyes of the Lord So not a single one of them corrected the sin of Jeroboam including Jehu and unfortunately and you wonder like why well This is what happens when a previous generation When sin becomes just normalized to a previous generation and then we inherit that generation We inherit that practice and we don't question anything You know, we might be sincere. We want to serve the Lord. We love God, but if we don't question Certain things if we don't compare it if we don't prove all things hold fast that which is good We can be guilty of what happened to Jehu that we're guilty of the sins of Jeroboam. Okay? Now go back to 2nd Kings chapter 10 if you would So the sin of Jeroboam was idolatry, you know ordaining these unqualified pastors and priests Okay, and created in his own unholy holiday. All right Because he's like he's just insecure. He doesn't want anybody to go to Jerusalem. He's afraid he's gonna lose his people. Okay, and These are the sins that they didn't depart from and it says the second Kings 10 32 in those days the Lord began to cut Israel short Hazeel which is by the way the king of Syria north of Israel Smote them on all the coast and then it gives the list of the coast that he's that he takes over So what does it mean to cut Israel short? Well territory is Removed from them is taken from them So remember they have ten tribes, right? They have a lot of territory, but because of their disobedience Their inability to correct the sins of the past what happens God allows someone to come in and remove territory from them You see in these days success was equated or should I say territory was equated with God's blessing The more God blesses you the more you're able to expand your influence expand your territory overcome more enemies and take over more ground if More ground is being removed from you though. You can basically say man God's judging us He's allowing a foreign nation to come in and take away territory from us you think of the prayer of Jabez in 1st Chronicles chapter 10 where he specifically prays Lord bless me enlarge my coasts Okay, this is a sign of blessing in the Bible when God begins to expand the territory of a kingdom now you say well How do we apply that to us today? Well, obviously we're not looking for territory. Okay, you know, we're not gangs here, right? This is my side boo, you know We don't care about territory the physical territory so to speak. Okay. We don't care about the land of Israel You know, they can have that if they want. I don't care about those things, you know We're seeking success from a spiritual standpoint, obviously Okay, we want God to enlarge our coast of influence You understand, you know, obviously, you know, we're not looking to Expand our kingdom so to speak but we do want to expand the kingdom of God by going out and preaching the gospel you see we want to see a lot of people saved and Success of a church can be determined based upon the salvation that they're seeing right if they if they're winning people to Christ In Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria in the uttermost parts of the world. That's how we determine our success Hey, we want to see more baptisms Within the last two months we've seen more baptisms that we've ever seen in the history of our church the two years that we've been Here I mean, it's like baptism week after week after week after week Sunday morning Sunday night Thursday people are coming in Hey, I got saved on Sunday. I'm here to get baptized, you know, that's great What is that? That's success That's the Lord allowing us to expand our territory of influence and success to excel in the work of the Lord And that's what we want Okay We want to enlarge our coast of salvation's baptism and discipleship You know, we want people to adhere to the message that we're bringing forth Whether it's you know Bible preaching on salvation Bible preaching on holy living Bible preaching on vaccinations We want to get it all out there. We want our influence to continue to expand and we don't want it to be cut short We don't want our influence in our territory to be cut short. We want it to continue to expand You know, I people obviously aren't you the gangster Church? You guys are like the gangster Church call it what you will we're expanding Mock all you want aren't you guys the LA Church where all the gang members are? Yeah, we're coming to you We're coming to your town You know, we're going to Belize tonight The gangsters are going to Belize Come April, I'm we're going to I'm going to Ireland Have you ever heard of a Guatemalan going to Ireland He said what do you know about Ireland Lucky Charms Irish spring and leprechauns That's what I'm looking for when I go out there. I'm just kidding but what I'm saying is this is we want to expand our influence, okay, and Lord willing and I believe he is he's gonna allow us to do so, okay But we don't want to be cut short Okay, we want to meet make sure that we reach our full potential as a church But what about the building? I'm looking for like the fountains and all these beautiful things and high steeple few people You know, we don't care about those things you know, we want to make sure that we succeed as a church as Individuals as family members as husbands as fathers, you know as children that we're just excelling that we're succeeding that we're growing Okay, they were expanding our territory. We're not cut short But look, I believe we can do great things for God and we are doing great things for God thankfully Amen, but I think that the the best days are ahead of us Okay, the amount of salvation that we've seen since the church started does not compare to what we're gonna see in years to come The great works in the future are gonna be great and I believe something's great is gonna continue to happen But here's the thing if we're not careful we can be cut short Okay, you as an individual can be cut short Now you say oh how can I as an individual be cut short in my Christian life well number one you can just die Point number one, okay Because if you die, you're done, you know, you go to heaven and that's it. You can't do anything else I know that's profound. All right, go to 2nd Kings if you would chapter number 9 2nd Kings chapter number 9 Well, let's look at Jehu because Jehu because of him Israel was cut short. Why is that? let's apply what happened to him and apply it to ourselves, but Let me just say off first and foremost is that you did a lot of great things and I mentioned them already But let's go through some of them. He removes the previous kings of both kingdoms both Joram and Ahaziah in 2nd Kings 9 23 look what it says He says in Joram turned his hand and fled and said to Ahaziah There is treachery O Ahaziah and Jehu drew a bow with his full strength and smote Jehoram between his arms and the arrow went out of his heart and he sunk down in his chariot then said Jehu and So on and so on and so forth. So what happens here? well The way Jehu's ministry got started was pretty unique because he's he's living during the time of Elisha the prophet Elisha sends one of his prophets to go anoint Jehu as king. He comes there and he's just like what do you want? And he's like, I'm here to annoy you King. He's all right. Let's do it He anoints him King Jehu goes to his friends and they're like, what does this mad fellow want? You know and he and you basically tells them, you know what he's here for You know his communication and he says it is false in other words like you lying. He's like no, I'm King So they begin to prepare his chariot they lay the garments he becomes king and immediately he goes to work What does he do? He just dethrones the two weakling kings that are in power Immediately. He just goes after the weaklings. Okay, that's great You said why is that because it just shows that he's a man of execution He's a man who does not waste time Soon as he's in. All right, let's go to work. Let's remove these weakling of kings Let lead the kingdom in the way of righteousness and the way we're gonna do that We got to remove all the wicked people the kings, okay So he does that and then he inspires the eunuchs to kill Jezebel. Okay, go to verse 29 if you would And when she who was come to Jezreel Jezebel heard of it and she painted her face the Bible uses very Interesting terminology there, right and teared her head and looked out of out of a window and as Jehu entered into the gate She said had Zimra peace who slew his master and he lifted up his face to the window and said who is on my side? Who and there looked out to him two or three eunuchs and he said throw her down So they threw her down and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall and on the horses and he trode her underfoot This guy's gangster He didn't even acknowledge her and by the way, you're like oh poor Jezebel You haven't read the Bible Jezebel was a wicked woman Jezebel Murdered a bunch of prophets and threatened the life of Elijah Okay, I mean Jehu is pretty crazy because even Elisha or Elijah was afraid of Jezebel unfortunately, you know So he comes and she's trying to speak. She's obviously heard of Jehu She comes just like trying to you know, basically appease him he just ignores her and he looks up he's like who's on my side and Then the units are like, you know us and he's like throw her down you know and they fulfill prophecy because of that because God actually foretold of that in previous times that that's exactly what was gonna happen to her and You know her blood sprinkles on the wall and then he takes his horse and he just just tramples her just to finish the job This is pretty morbid, but it's in the Bible. I love this stuff This is good Verse 34 says and when he had come in he did eat and drink I'm hungry and said go see now that this cursed woman would bury her for she is a king's daughter and they went to bury her But they found no more of her than the skull and the feet in the palm of her palms of her hands Wherefore they came again and told him and he said this is the word of the Lord which he spake by the servant Elijah the Tishbite saying in the portion of Jezreel shall dogs eat the flesh of Jezebel and the carcass of Jezebel shall be as dung upon The face of the field and the portion of Jezreel so that they shall not say this is Jezebel I mean he knew he's like, well, this is bound to happen. This is what took place So, you know Elijah ran from from Jezebel, you know, Jehu ran toward Jezebel Took her out So then he inspires the the assassination of the 70 sons of Ahab in chapter number 10. He gets rid of them all and He inspires zeal, you know the famous verse look at verse 15 of chapter 10 It says when he was departed thence He lighted on Jehonadab the son of Rekab Coming to him to meet him and he saluted him and said to him is thine heart right as my heart is With thine heart and Jehonadab answered it is if it be give me thine hand and he gave him his hand and he took him up To him in the into the chariot and he said come with me and see my zeal for the Lord So they made him ride in his chariot and he was a zealous man now The last thing he does is obviously he conspires the assassination of all the prophets of Baal Let's just read it because I love this story. Can we just read it? Look what it says in verse number 18 and Jehu gathered all the people together and said unto them Ahab served Baal a little but Jehu shall serve him much Now therefore call unto me all the prophets of Baal and all his servants and all his priests let none be wanting For I have a great sacrifice to do to Baal whose server shall be wanting he shall not live So he's like hey, whoever misses this I'm gonna kill you and he's gonna kill him anyways But Jehu did it in subtlety to the intent that he might destroy the worshipers of Baal and Jehu said proclaim a solemn assembly for Baal and they proclaimed it and Jehu sent through all Israel and all the worshipers of Baal came so that there was not a man left that came not and they came into the house of Baal and the house of Baal was full from one end to the other and He said unto him that was over the vestry bring forth vestments for all the worshipers of Baal and he brought them forth vestments So what is he doing? He's basically marking them All the worshipers about hey you guys get special clothing, you know with a nice little target on your back there verse 23 And you went and Jehonadab the son of Rekab into the house of Baal and said unto the worshipers of Baal Search and look that there be here with you None of the servants of the Lord but the worshipers of Baal only and when they went in to offer Sacrifices and burnt offerings Jehu appointed four score men without and said if any of the men whom I have brought into your hand Escaped he that letteth him go his life shall be for the life of him and it came to pass as soon as he had made an end of Offering the burnt offering that Jehu said to the guard and to the captain's go in and slay them Let none come forth and they smote them with the edge of the sword and the guard and the captain's cast him out and went To the city of the house of Baal and they brought forth the images out of the house of Baal and burned them man This guy took care of business So he's not he wasn't going he wasn't gonna have a campaign to go to just look for every individual Baal worshiper he just collected them all in one place and just said hey, you know all these prophets of Baal with one stone Bring them all into one house make them think they were worshiping Baal and just wipe them all out. Okay, I Like that, you know you read that it's just like man. This guy's cool. This guy was righteous This guy was zealous for the Lord and I think of second you don't have to turn I think of 2nd Chronicles 11 711 it says before behold the self same thing that you saw it after a godly sword What carefulness it wrought in you yea what clearing of yourselves? Yea, what indignation? Yea, what fear? Yea, what behemoth desire? Yea, what zeal? Yea, what revenge and all things you have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter And that's exactly who Jehu was. He was a man who was very much zealous for the things of God now But Unfortunately, what was his downfall? Well, the Bible tells us that he didn't follow the Lord He took no heat to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart Which is kind of interesting you wonder like wait a minute. It looks like that's what he did though Didn't he like? Destroy the prophets of Baal. They didn't get rid of Jezebel. They didn't get rid of the 70 sons of Ahab How is it that he chose not to walk in the law of the Lord? How does that compatible with one another? What does that mean? Well again the quality of Jehu is that he was zealous When it says that he chose not to walk to take heat to walk in the law of the Lord in other words He was kind of ignorant of the Word of God So we could say what he had a zeal that was not according to knowledge He executed the Word of the Lord. He was very zealous. He did a lot of great exploits, but you know He didn't know the Bible. You say well, how do you know that? Well, if you read in Deuteronomy chapter 17 one of the requirements for the Kings was that they were supposed to write out the law By hand so they can be with them so they could know What is it that God required of them and they can grow in their fear of God? You see if he would have read the law of God, he would have wiped out the the two calves there in Dan and Bethel but because he didn't know what the Word of God said he just went according to what the Prophet told him to do You know, it's like church You can be zealous for God zealous for the things of the Lord You could even do what I tell you to do sometimes and you still succeed But you know what if you're ignorant of God's Word, you're gonna cut yourself short Because at the end of the day, guess what zeal is great, but it needs to be coupled with knowledge My people the Bible says are destroyed for lack of knowledge You can't just come to church and expect yourself to be a great Christian just because you attend the assembly of God You have to put into practice. You have to read the Word of God yourself. You have to make the Bible your core values You know, these have to be core values. Do you believe yourself, you know, if there is no church on earth Which obviously is never gonna happen. You can still live right because you know what the Word of God says, you know You come to church to confirm what you're already getting out of the Word of God Look this is not a church where I tell you to close your Bible and don't read it. Just take my word for it Just listen to me. Don't listen to anybody else No We just teach you right you confirm it through your own walk with God and you're depending you could just depend on the Lord yourself You're learning yourself And look this is dangerous right here if you have zeal without knowledge because you're gonna fizzle out one day You will not remain in the will of God for very long if you're not reading the Word of God Oh, but I listen to YouTube preaching all the times I mean, I just got it my playlist and just live for hours on end. That's not sufficient You need to read the Word of God yourself You need to give attendance to reading to exhortation and to doctrine the Bible says you need to read the Word of God yourself If not, you're gonna cut yourself short and we don't want that Okay, you know if you act right but don't but don't believe right you're cutting yourself short You act right, you know, you got your life cleaned up. You're not smoking pot. You're not drinking alcohol You're not fornicating, but you don't know what the Bible says about that You can't even point your verse in the Bible that tells you not to do those things Eventually, you're gonna go back to that because it's not a it's not a conviction Or how about this you believe right, but you don't act right? What does that mean? Well, you got replacement theology down You got the reprobate doctrine down you got the end times Bible prophecy down, but you're as worldly as the day is long You're not living righteously Okay, you don't have the breastplate of righteousness. You need both In order for you not to be cut short you need the knowledge, but you also need the zeal you need both Hey, look, if you have knowledge of no zeal, you're just a born Christian You're just lame Because you know what the Bible says, but you have no zeal no emotion you're not excited about the things of God You're lukewarm. Okay in order for us to reach our full potential We have to do the right things and believe the right things, you know But let me say this is that we also have to remove the sins of Jeroboam. Okay, what is that? What does that picture it pictures the practices of the previous generation that screwed up this generation? That's what it is. Okay, and this could be applicable to like a lot of things obviously Time will not permit for me to go through all The examples that I can give but let me just say this is that our church is different in a lot of ways Is it not? It's different in a lot of ways in comparison to other independent fundamental Baptist churches or just churches in general Our church is very much different now. We have like-minded churches like our churches like our church that practices the same There's different operations different administrations, but we believe the same we kind of operate similar to one another but In comparison to other churches, we are very much different Okay, but it's not for it's not so we can it's not for shock value You know, we we don't operate the way we operate just to like make you go. Ooh, wow, that's cool If there's there's there's method to the madness here Okay I'm gonna go through some of the things that some of the sins of Jeroboam that we removed from our church That I removed from the church in Order for us not to be cut short in the future. Okay now What are some of the things that we removed that our previous rulers so to speak did? Okay, and as I go through these lists look and the reason I'm going through this some of you already know these things and If you if this bores you then either go to sleep Or get out. I'm just kidding Well, we have a lot of new people in our church You know fall program brought in a lot of new people and so this is new to a lot of people Okay, and if you know this that I'm just reaffirming what you already believe All right So what are the what are some of the things that we removed from the previous generation? That I believe will cut us short if we didn't remove. Well number one Sunday school classes and nurseries Can cut it short. I'm talking about the practices of the church. Okay. What is Sunday school class a Sunday school class is basically when you go to church and The adults stay in the main service But the little ones teenagers and even you know The little infants they go in they basically separate all of them to go into different rooms to be taught by different people It's basically when you delegate your responsibility to teach your children to someone else It's Christian daycare. That's what it is. It's a Christian babysitting center that you get every Sunday and Thursday at different types of churches and Look people who churches who practice this some of them are well-meaning Okay, and let me just say this this is not an old IFB bashing sermon. You'll get that tonight This is not an old IV bashing sermon because look I was a Sunday school teacher I Was a Sunday school teacher I was this I was the same school superintendent you said what is that I have no idea I Have no idea what that is So that's what Sunday school class is nurseries is basically, you know Because the pastor doesn't have the discipline to just drown out certain distractions from the church They want all the babies to remove be removed from the service to go in different rooms with strangers to watch over your children You know while you get fed Spiritually speaking, you know, we would consider ourselves to be a family integrated church But in actuality, it's just a biblical church is what it is Family integrated is just the term that we have to use in order to distinguish between those who use nurseries and Sunday school classes and Those who don't but in actuality is just a biblical way of doing church Okay, go with me if you went to Deuteronomy chapter number 31 Deuteronomy 31 So Sunday school classes you have you know your children they go to these Sunday school classes they get taught by a teacher and Let me just say this is that as sincere as these people might be they're cutting their children short First of all, they're cutting their children short of real Bible knowledge because these people typically are the children get a really diluted water down cotton candy message It's like 15 20 minutes long and then they sugar them up to give them. I mean talk to dr. Rita about that They're giving them like sugar like crazy because they're bouncing off the walls They're seeing these weird songs that have nothing to do with doctrine It's an entertainment center for these children is what it is and it cuts The next generation short people get offended at that that we don't do Sunday school classes and nurseries And people people look down at family integrated churches, but you know at the end of the day, it's just not biblical to have Sunday school classes or nurseries, okay, and Even when like my previous pastor You Know when he found out that I was new I have be here or whatever, you know One of the first questions he asked me was this do you believe in family integrated church? Yes You know, but here's the thing That wasn't family integrated. I was going according to the program of their church, but I did have the conviction of being family integrated That's what I preferred and it was like it was like a like a demonic thing or something to be family integrated I was like, is it really that bad for me to want to have my children in the service with me? Hearing the same preaching that I'm hearing You tell me why is that wicked you explain to me? What is the problem with that biblically speaking? Okay, because I could point to you many scriptures what the Bible tells us that this is exactly the way we should do it let me read to you from Deuteronomy chapter number 6 verse 4 says hero Israel The Lord our God is one Lord and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart with all thy soul with all thy might and these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart and The Sunday school teacher shall teach them diligently unto thy children Okay, that's like another version right and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children and shall talk of them when thou Citizen thine house and when I'll walk us by the way and when thou lies down and when thou rises up the Bible says So what is it telling us? It's telling us that the responsibility to teach the Word of God is on the parents Obviously, I have the responsibility to preach the Word of God, but guess what? This is a biblical institution that has been established by God, which is the church not Sunday school not nurseries And look, you know, why parents like nurseries and Sunday school classes and teen services and all these other Extracurricular events that take place because it removes the responsibility from them to learn the Bible themselves If we don't have Sunday school class that means I'm gonna have to actually know what the Bible says Yeah, you got it, right? Good job. You got it You actually have to know what you believe to teach it to your children because you are your children's best teacher Not just by example, but by what you teach as well Okay, and Sunday school class basically delegates that responsibility you take them to that class and look Let me just be honest with you. There's exceptions to the rule. I understand that but for the most part They're not learning anything in those Sunday school classes There's good Sunday school teachers out there. Don't get me wrong. I believe I was a good Sunday school teacher I cared for the kids were in my class. I tried to give them deep doctrine. You know what I mean? I tried my best, but you know what in my observation of a decade-long of doing Sunday school class and Observing that it's it's shown itself to be unfruitful Okay, whereas when you have children in the service with you. They actually take in more than you think You know the kids pay attention in church here And yeah, you have you know a baby every now and then scream Me Lon's daughter where she had you know, I was talking about your daughter Right, they're getting the full experience now Oh Here at a young age I Don't want when you grow up they leave Conservative just right beings in a phenomenal Baptist Church in life because the fact that you've been giving them That's right. Yeah, you've been giving them cotton candy, you know, why you just want to be children or these adults Right, that's the fact that when they were children, all they had was soda hot Cheetos In Life matter if you give them worldly appetites in church Why Oh So they have to give a lot of fluff cotton candy sermons a lot of extrication No On your life Time Right This is why we 31 Now shall read this before all Israel in their hearing Men and women and children And I stranger that is within that case that they may hear and then you learn and fear the Lord Your God and observe you all the words of this law. Oh But it's another service. They're not learning anything. Oh, no, they're gonna learn a lot They will learn about the sponge or soaking everything in Guaranteed. I've seen it. Go to Ephesians chapter 6. Well, that's Old Testament The Old Testament else for Israel. They didn't have a church building different What if these in chapter 6 Frayed we have the best week They're assembled on to an out of Israel a very great Man and women and children for the people who have very sore now if that was true We have a very big problem Because of the fact that we see the Apostle Paul and others Addressing churches through these letters that are meant to be bred out out in church So these letters will fail to these churches like for example Ephesus that letter was supposed to be read before the entire congregation Look at verse 1 of Ephesians 6 Children Oh He's reading this because we read in church No respect for people right? Hey man, right? He wants his word not just to go to the adults He wants teenagers and children as well That's the reason is there's some kids there For you to listen to this is not for you All right, father and mother wishes the first commandment promised a very wealthy that makes live longer here Good night Hey Paul And still the fear of God in their hearts now All your parents hate you want life insurance this is the best life insurance you can get right Long on the earth, you know children if you want to live long on the earth you need to honor your parents Don't disrespect them obey it And Ephesians 6 is a chapter as a person is needed in 2019 Disrespectful rebellious teenagers Right She's gonna be so hard on my actual statement That's abuse Take that nonsense and lay it right somewhere else You don't mind there's so many people in prison systems, you don't mind there's so many people in graves You don't mind there's so many delinquent, just disrespectful rebellious teenagers We need to go back to a time Where the parents took it upon themselves to discipline their children No, she did not defend it by the way Like yeah, I'd be like that one lady who just walked out Like that teenager or something And then your people walk out and you're like Show me that fucker So we see Ephesians 6 and he's addressing his children So what does that tell us? It tells us that we as pastors are adjusting to them And look, we believe in spanking in our church So much that hey if you need to go distance with your child, there's someone who's very afraid to go do that And I'm not going to look down on you, you go up the handle business Do what you need to do If the church was not being integrated, it would cut our church short It would cut the future, the spiritual lives of our children We would not be building the right type of appetites in our spiritual lives And look, those of you who maybe are not used to something like that, you better be used to it Your church is going to continue to have lots of babies There's two ways the church is growing There's so many of your babies Keep having more babies and more babies and guess what? You're going to hear crying and blowing you up Take that as an opportunity to learn how to focus in church I'm having a hard time Stop drinking soda so late at night So the blood from your brain is not working to digest all the food You can focus while you're in church Church should make you a bad person So when we have these things, you hear yourself short And look, like I said, I know people who are sincere who did Sunday School classes And they came out great Christians, they're sincere people And look, most of the people who I've known who were involved in Sunday School class They're still great Christians today You know why? Because they've just always been on the program, that's why They've always been on board, and they recognize it's wrong So they forsake that, they adapt, and they adopt a new way Which is the middle way That means a new generation of the old and poor in the Bible And they continue to succeed So these are the things that will cut us short Number two is Bible college Well, part of it Well, part of it Well, part of it Well, let me just say this, alright Before everyone starts eating, please shine your light Look, this is not a Bible college snatching sermon Look, this is not a Bible college snatching sermon Look, this is not a Bible college snatching sermon What is Bible college? First and foremost Bible college is an institution That leaders of the church will establish That leaders of the church will establish In order to train future pastors and missionaries In order to train future pastors and missionaries So what they'll do is they'll have an institute So what they'll do is they'll have an institute Where people have to pay Well, she's going to come back You know, they'll establish this institution This institution Where they will You have to pay To learn the Bible options This is known as Bible college And it's all across America Even in different countries, but obviously it came from America And This is something that Will cut a church short But before You just start going on this Rampage and witch hunt Just remember this Your pastor Is a Bible college student Hey, your pastor is a Bible college teacher And let me think of several others At least three of the pastors in the new IFB Were also Bible college students Including Pastor Anderson himself So look, what I'm saying is this Is that not everyone goes We should never have this attitude And I will rebuke you if I hear this We should never have this attitude We should never have this attitude We should never have this attitude We should never have this attitude We should never have this attitude We should never have this attitude We should never have this attitude We should never have this attitude We should never have this attitude We should never have this attitude We should never have this attitude We should never have this attitude We should never have this attitude We should never have this attitude We should never have this attitude We should never have this attitude We should never have this attitude We should never have this attitude We should never have this attitude We should never have this attitude We should never have this attitude We should never have this attitude We should never have this attitude We should never have this attitude We should never have this attitude We should never have this attitude We should never have this attitude We should never have this attitude We should never have this attitude What is that? In other words When you have a Bible college in church You actually divide the church into classes I don't mean like classrooms, I mean like classes of people Those who are in Bible college They refer to as The premium of the problem In other words, these are like the best people These are like These people are paying These people are training for the ministry So they get favored More than anybody else In the church Look, this is why pastors don't like to teach Deep doctrine in church If someone comes to them and says Pastors, can we just go through the book of Hebrews? Can we go through In the book of Mosiah in church You want to learn that? So they'll give the deep doctrine Which by the way Is as deep as a cup We'll just say that Because they use the cloud They want to teach you something They'll tell you If you want to learn deep doctrine You got to work out a book You got to pay 400 bucks a month To take these classes In order to learn these doctrines This is not right And so what they do is like Well the Bible college students These are the people in the cross These are the services As they're preparing for full time Christian service What about everyone else? What I mean is this The people in church who are not in the Bible college They're not going to get very far in the Christian life They're just going to be faithful servants in church They're just going to go to church We just want to make sure we get their tithes I mean their attendance And stuff like that And this is the kind of attitude That it creates Everyone else can serve God At that capacity I know people who will say A gentleman will come and say I want to be a pastor And if they think they're too big If they're too far along to even get into Bible college They'll say well I don't know if that's what I want you to do Because then the way they determine Whether someone can be a pastor or not Is not according to the Bible It's not the qualifications of the Bible What is it? It's if they're old enough to go to Bible college They have to finish Bible college I mean you didn't see that in First Timothy? You didn't see that in First Timothy and in Titus? One of the qualifications of a bishop is Bible college You have to graduate from Bible college I'm kidding But it is for them And in order for you to even be considered to be A pastor, a missionary Or to get into full time Christian service period You need to graduate from Bible college That's their requirement And that's how they qualify you to be Actually be in full time Christian service This is not right It becomes the marker that determines Whether someone can be a pastor or a missionary You know they'll tell you well if you're gonna learn The right people skills You gotta go to Bible college In order for you to learn The right doctrine you gotta go to Bible college But what is the biggest sin of Bible college? Well it's the fact that they're charging people Money To learn doctrine Doctrine First of all nothing should ever be filled with a house of God Not a house of God A house of persons We won't sell a styrofoam cup to you It's free It's free You say well what if you run out And there's no more free something in it That's all it is Don't have an entitlement mentality by the way No But they charge for that So they're making a house of God A house of persons They're charging people what God says is free Doctrine should be free Deep doctrine should be free Doctrine should always be free Well you know but if you don't charge them They're not gonna appreciate it There's nothing in the Bible that tells us That that's all the determinants If we sell information or not Go to James chapter number 2 James chapter number 2 Why do you cut the church short If you have Bible college? Because then everyone else who's not in Bible college Feels inferior To the students themselves You know In other words the people who are in the feuds The people who are in the feuds Who are not in Bible college They're like well I'm not gonna try even half as hard Because I'm not a Bible college student You know I'm not gonna try to learn the Bible as much As in Bible college student because I'm not a Bible college student Well everyone's supposed to learn the Bible Everyone should be reading the Bible Cover and cover it doesn't matter who you are Whether you're planning to be a pastor Missionary full-time Christian church or not You should be reading the Bible Hey I hold Dr. Rita to that same standard Hey I hold Dr. Rita to that same standard Well she's a doctor though She's a woman She might be a pastor it doesn't matter She has a responsibility as everyone else To learn the word of God But when you have Bible college That responsibility Is delegated to the Supreme Now what is that called It's called partiality It's called partiality It says in James 2 verse 1 Have not the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ With respect of persons For if it comes you are assembling a man With gold ring and good lead and hero And there come in also a foreman in Bob Raymond And he had respect in him that will wear it The cave clothing and say to him Sit down here in a good place and say to the poor Stand out there or sit here on my footstool Are you not then partial in yourselves And are become judges of evil thoughts So when you have a Bible college They are favored more than the church members themselves Now here's the thing And this is the thing that really makes me mad It really makes me mad about our culture Is the hypocrisy that takes us home When I go to college Often we'll have rules for the students That are supposed to be executed In the house of God So for example If you have a student who is involved in fornication They'll give you that personal help If you have a student that smokes weed Or drinks Or is involved in any of the cities of West Virginia And is fired, they're out of it But they don't hold that same standard for the church The church is supposed to be a good place So they're like Well yeah, these people are hating That's what they'll tell you They're like Wake up You are disciplining people In an institution that you created And this discipline is delegated for the church itself Why is it that you permit and tolerate these sins in church But not in your Bible college Answer me this Why is that? I'll tell you why Because they're paying They're paying money in order to be there So they have to establish these rules They hold them to a higher standard And look I believe in Bible college This is the Bible college right here We just call it church You want Bible college? That's where you get You want to learn the Word God? Show up to church I want to learn a book in the Bible Come on there's this You'll learn a book in the Bible All three And by the way It's not a 30 minute sermon either Sometimes I get a little overboard And I go an hour and 10 minutes or something Amen You watch TV for an hour and 10 minutes? Yeah Oh This gives you some preaching That is a hot trick Man Quoting Ephesians chapter number 4 Ephesians chapter number 4 A church is cut short if they have Bible college Because they relegate the responsibility to learn the Bible And look Another thing is this These guys go to Bible college and they come out They graduate and come after They're still in our culture Still in our culture They don't have children Or worse than that Sometimes they're just not even safe Yeah I've known students in college and I'm like That guy for sure is not safe Yeah How can you judge them? Did you say he's an atheist? How can you say you can't say that? That's right I mean Wake up Get yourself a hot cup of coffee And a cup Do you have these people who are Bible college Look I'm going to tell you another reason why Bible college is dangerous Because it teaches Wolves How to wear sheets of oil Yeah It teaches wolves how to wear sheets of oil Right A lot of reverberates are produced in Bible college That's right A lot of reverberates are produced in Christian school And they go to Bible college Don't believe me Just look at all the controversy In the fundamental Baptist churches and all the pedophilians Yeah Where all these leaders Youth ministry directors Youth pastors All these people who Are Bible college graduates Their roots are reverberates They're pedophiles And they use Bible college Just to learn How to be a Baptist How to say the right things, look the right way That's why it's dangerous Now look if you go to Bible college I'm not leading on you, I just told you I'm pregnant Civic Baptist Bible college That's the college that I went to Now if you go there and you ask them They will completely deny you I don't know if you feel it They're stupid They were probably just like They will completely deny you I went I was there for about 5 years I've been there for a very long time And again There's people who are there who are not Basically very sincere people There's people who are in Bible college who listen to our preaching That's right They say here in the other preaching You're like We need to sneak in some I'm not joking Hey I have Bible college teachers Listen to me I have Bible college teachers who still Contact me for my Bible Content So they can teach their students I'm still teaching with Bible college They're like Hey I need to go to college I need to go to college And I'm not going to be like I'm a sculptor Because the thing is The students are already listening to me Yes How are we supposed to learn the Bible? In Ephesians 4 verse 11 He gave some of the apostles and some of the prophets And some evangelists And some pastors and some teachers And some Bible college institutions For the perfecting of the saints For the work of the ministry For the edifying of the body of Christ Till we all come in the unity of the faith And of the knowledge of the Son of God To a perfect measure So the responsibility Your eyes will be To train you if you want to be a pastor This is what pastors do This is why Bible college exists It's like I don't want to train someone So I'll just send them off to a different state And this is what happens This person who is excited About learning more They move to a different state And then they go to this huge Bible college With all these girls All the collective clamor And you know what happens? They stay there And therefore the laborers Of that church are diminished Because of the fact that all the students Are allowed to be in Bible college Hey I'll train you here We have a great training program In our church It's called Solely Teens And you know That doesn't sound very... We have people who start off In the Solely teams And now they're team leaders leading their own teams Producing people Who are going to be team leaders Who are going to train those people You know what guys? Men Fathers Husbands Well this is what I charge them Their time I charge them time Time for what? They need to be out of solar If you want to be a team leader in our church You don't have to put yourself under a team leader Learn how to do solo And take correction and review In order for you to be involved Where is that in the Bible? Well you know what? It's not in the Bible But the training of someone exists And we're not charging anybody here Anybody to do that So what I'm saying is this Is that the church Is the institution where people learn To do ministry And look we're not going to send A group out there to different churches And sing at churches For people to come to their college I'm here If you want to serve the Lord and you want to learn how to You become me I'm not going to be here Because that saves me the trouble of the church You have to come to me and say Hey I want to be a team leader I want to be a pastor one day And I'll see how serious you really are If you're serious you're just going to do what we tell you to do And be a part of the training program But we're not going to have Aaron come up here With his piano The four guys in the brother hour are going at the same Brother hour and brother and niece And the two all have great seats with blue ties The trio group up here Here am I I want to go I'm just going to be a half train here We're talking about cutting the church short This is why we don't have these things Why don't you have some classes Why don't you have nurseries Why don't you do Bible college Why don't you do this, why don't you do that Because we don't want to be cut short We reach our full potential when we do it God's way Go to John chapter Actually go to Go to 2 Timothy 4 I'm out of time so why don't you just stick to something Right this way Try to make the preaching towel won't be cut short When you don't want to offend anybody From the preaching about the word So you just give a soft sissy sermon So as to not to offend anybody What if visitors come to the church Well you know At least they know that There's no fluff coming from this pulpit At least they know that I'm going to give them the truth At least they can trust that the pastor here is going to give it to them The way it's supposed to be given You know when someone has fluffy sermons They're lying They're deceiving you Someone just tells you how it is It shows you At least I know the person who it really is Can't have a sermon short Selling things in the house of God Is cut short This house is not a house of merchandise That's why everything is free Activities are free You know The DVDs are free Sweatshirts, whatever it may be You don't have to pay for anything Then we run out But until then, it's all free Everything is free Even if you want a songbook Take it, it's free What if I want fire? We just will have five less people in the church who can sing on us Over and over Everything is free Because this is God's house and that's how you expect it to be And the literal soul shall be made fat We don't want to be Like the old IMB Where they charge for everything They charge for Coffee They charge for a stack of trash I mean they try to make money off Everything You know You're cutting yourself short And then lastly This is relevant to us today because of tonight It's misguided missions Look Let me just say this Our churches are not always pastors And in other churches That's how they kind of get known as It's like, well, in order for you to be a missionary You've got to be a pastor, you've got to go on vacation You've got to visit like 50,000 churches For four or five years And get $25 for each church In order to Accumulate all the finances Necessary to go to TK I'm being facetious, but I'm saying This is actually true That's misguided This is the way we do missions Here at our church In order for us not to be cut short You buy a plane ticket I buy a plane ticket We go to our country, we stay there for 10 days And we win a bunch of people a prize And guess what? You get to be a missionary Wait a minute man, where's the altar? I would be like, be called I'm calling you right now Are you coming? Are you coming? The more you're going to get us to vote Please say, hey, change your mind or you'll still come Well, I mean, don't I have to vote for your deputation? No Don't I have to like graduate from Bible college? No Don't I have to What do I have to do to be a missionary? You have to learn how to be a good soul winner And even if you're not You can go and be a solid partner To be inspired to go the next time And help your soul You know, brother Elon and myself Brother, did you go to Bible college before? No, worldly college You know brother Eddie Who's in his 70's Brother Robinson We're all going tonight to Belize And look, they're not in full-time Christian service So to speak, as in being Full-time Christian service, they're getting paid But they're going to be doing full-time for the next couple of days You're going to be Missionaries for the next couple of days Hey guys, you don't need to put We're going to have a presentation You don't need a pair of cards You don't need anything You just need a plate ticket A New Testament We'll get some YouTube cards And we'll do more You can be a missionary What does missionary mean by the way? It's an evangelist Missionary is not in the Bible Let's use the word commissionary Because it's an evangelist who's fulfilling the great commission By preaching the gospel It's an evangelist who goes to other countries To win people the price You know, for the will He's like our church missionary around the Philippines He goes there like four months We don't see him He died or something He goes back and he's like Hey, he's saved Amen Do you go to Bible college? No What I'm saying is this We need to redefine What mission is We need to redefine Because some people are like Well, I'm not called to missions Oh, actually you are called to missions Yeah, sorry to break it to you You are called to missions We're called to reach the entire world with the gospel Everyone is That's right You are called to the mission field Look, this is what missions is In other churches They do get the education for whatever How many years You go to a foreign field far, far, far, far away from where you can see They rent a nice little building And they just do nothing for blood on it Yes And then they'll send a prayer letter Three, four, where we're told We've been working on him for six months We just got a church van We're going to a nursing home And we're not going to get it done You know why? Because no one is watching You're not accountable That's not missionary That's right Like a survey trip This is what a survey trip is for most churches They take all their teenagers To a mission field And they dig well They feel well That's what it is Or they watch other people work And they come back Oh, we're a missionary No, a survey trip We're going to see if the land is fertile By going out there and preaching the gospel When we go to Belize tonight When we get there, we have no car I've never been to Belize I don't exist I've seen it on Google Maps That's about it We're going to Belize, we're landing And we're saying, alright, let's get on the bus And go to San Ignacio When people are on the way, figure it out New Testament, the Book of Acts time is shifting They say, well, I mean Aren't you going to wear a student shirt? Why? Aren't you going to do that? Isn't that what you're supposed to do? No, I'm wearing shorts Shorts, shirt My New Testament YouTube cards Let's try to win as many people's prizes as we possibly can Because we want to come back And say, hey, we've got a bunch of people saved All you want to do is come with us and march Ten days to go to the land Be some missionaries We need to redefine the mission field Some of the people from the missions conference Is coming up in January Is that his real mission? And we're going to change this Next generation Hey We don't want you to cut short What's the sermon today? What's the sermon today? It simply is, hey, we need to reach our full potential As a church But the way we do that is by coming up with The sins of Jeroboam Some of those people Some of the Jeroboam in the times past They were welcoming people I know them, I love them I still love them, I still respect them But you know what? Some of the things that they did And it cut them short We need to remove those things And do things the right way So we can reach our full potential As individuals and as a church Turn our heads around We're probably taking so much for your word Lord, help us To have the Z-O-G movement But also to acknowledge that It's almost like we cut short Something like this is going to offend a lot of people You know It rubs us the wrong way It's simply because of the gap And Lord, I just pray that you'd help us To recognize these things Thank you for using your church To help us to remain humble before you So that we can continue to be humble We want to continue to be useful We want our people to be humble We want to continue to see people stay We want to be where it works for you And I pray that you help us to remain in the law of God Help us to read it every single day And to remove things that shouldn't be there To look in the past The sins of Jeroboam And make sure that we remove those golden caps That no one removed in times past Because they were just normal I pray God that you help us to do so We love you so much, we thank you