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So 1 Kings 13, this chapter in the Bible really just blows my mind. Every time I read it, it just takes me... I'm always surprised when I read this. I feel horrible for this young preacher who was doing what the Lord asked of him and then he was misguided, misled by an older preacher and then he ended up losing his life because of it. But let's look at verse number 1. It says, And behold, there came a man of God out of Judah, by the word of the Lord unto Bethel, and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense. You can see here that in this verse, verse number 1, we merely says that he came to Judah, he came from Judah by the word of the Lord. The title of the sermon tonight is Give Attention to the Word of the Lord. Give Attention to the Word of the Lord. Now, what's also interesting about this chapter is that this chapter contains the most references to the phrase the word of the Lord. Okay? Like if you were to compare this chapter to all other chapters of the Bible, this one has the phrase the word of the Lord 10 times. I think the second most chapter with the most word of the Lord was about six times, I can't remember where it was. Okay, so by far, this chapter contains that phrase the word of the Lord over and over throughout the whole chapter. In fact, yeah, like I said, it's got 10 times. You can have a look at it for yourself. And so, you know, I believe this chapter is here to help us, you know, think about the word of God and how it allows us to do great works for him and that we do need to pay attention. We do need to heed if we disobey God's word, well, bad times will fall upon us. And before I go into the points, I believe I have five points for you tonight on this chapter. I just want to quickly summarize the story. I know we had the reading, but let me just summarize very quickly my own words, the story. So remember that after King Solomon, the nation of Israel was divided into two kingdoms, right? The northern kingdom with 10 tribes became known, retained the name of Israel. Then you had the southern kingdom with the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. And of course the Levites, because they were serving in the house of the Lord in the temple, you know, they became known as Judah, the southern kingdom. You know, for all intents and purposes, they're two separate nations as they are at this point in time. Okay. And usually, usually in the history of Judah, the kings were pretty okay. You know, they mostly did things right in the sight of the Lord until toward the end when they were taken into captivity by Babylon. But the northern kingdom of Israel really messed it up. I mean, the majority of the kings there were extremely wicked. All right. And so what we have here, when we talk about King Jeroboam about to burn incense on the altar, this is the bad king. He's the king of Israel and he's not burning incense on the altar in Judah, which is in the southern kingdom. No, he's created his own altars. He's created his own religion. Okay. It's a false religion that he's giving worship toward. And so God will send that king, King Jeroboam of the northern kingdom of Israel, he sends him a prophet. But instead of sending, we saw an old prophet, instead of sending the old prophet, which is from Bethel in the same place, which is from the northern kingdom of Israel, God goes all the way to the southern kingdom, another nation at this point in time, and brings a prophet from there. Now this prophet, we don't have his name. We just know that it's a prophet that God has sent by the word of the Lord. Okay, this is a prophet that knows God's word, right, the Lord's been working in him, and he goes and rebukes the king of Israel. Remember, he's not from Israel. Like think of the courage, think of this mission that God gave this prophet to go and rebuke the king of Israel. Okay, so this guy knows the word of the Lord and he's also mighty in the word of the Lord, is he not? A prophet that's been selected by God to go speak against, you know, the most important man of the nation of Israel. And he rebukes, he rebukes the altar where he's been an incense. And of course the king gets upset and he stretches out his hands and he says, you know, take hold of that prophet. And as the king stretches out his hands and says those words, his hand withers away. It all kind of gets all stiff and strange looking, withered away, like old, and you know, maybe like almost, you know, skeletal or something like that. And then the king, he can't even move, he can't even bring his hand back. It's like stuck in his position, all right? So he begs the prophet, can you pray for me? Can you fix this? Like for God to be doing this great miracle by this prophet, again, don't you think it's a great man, a great prophet? It's not like every prophet was performing miracles. Okay, but this prophet, you know, again, knows the word of the Lord, is able to confront even a king. You know, in his ministry, we see a great miracle of God. Of course, the prophet prays for him and the hand gets restored by the king. The king is thankful, all right? It seems like the king might change his ways, and you know, spoilers, he doesn't, but it doesn't matter. You know, he's grateful to the prophet. He says, look, can you stay with me? You know, I'll make sure you're comfortable, I'll feed you, I'll nourish you. And the prophet says, well, no, God told me not to eat, not to drink. As soon as I've given the prophecy, I've got to head back home, but I've got to take a different direction. I can't even go back the same way that I came to Israel. I've got to go a separate way, a different way. And so he knows God's word. He knows what God has asked of the prophet. And so the king can't compel the prophet to stay, so the prophet leaves and goes a separate way. He's following God's word the whole way. And then the old prophet, the old prophet from Israel, the old prophet from Bethel, where the offering, where the king was trying to burn incense, hears about the young prophet. And so he wants to go and meet him. He goes, catches up to him, and he says, hey, come to my house. You know, I'm a prophet as well, come to my house. And you know, the young prophet says, no, no, God's word says, I've got to go back, separate way, I can't eat, I can't drink. I'm doing what God's asked of me. And the old prophet says, hey, don't worry, I'm a prophet too. And the angel came to me and told me that you can come and stay at my house. So the young prophet listens to the old prophet. I mean, you kind of, kind of make sense, right? I mean, this is an old experienced prophet. God has used him before, you know, surely he's not lying to me. Guess what? Yes, the old prophet was lying. The young prophet comes to his house, eats and drinks and you know, has, I guess, a time of fellowship. And then suddenly the spirit of God comes upon the old prophet and the old prophet starts to preach and says, look, because you've disobeyed the word of the Lord, you're going to perish. You're going to die. And of course, when the young prophet leaves the house, he gets on his ass and then he, you know, a lion finds him, he gets destroyed, gets killed by the lion. Like such a sad story. I feel so sad for this young, I don't know, do you feel that way? I feel really bad for this young prophet, right? He got deceived by the old prophet. The old prophet feels horrible about this, takes the body of the young prophet and he buries the young prophet in his grave. And then he asks his sons, look, when I pass away, can you bury me together with the young prophet? Because truly, yeah, this was a man that was speaking God's word and God's word will come true. And so the old prophet feels horrible because he's played this horrible role, you know, in causing this young prophet to lose his life. All right, that's the summary of the chapter in my own words, okay? But I want to get five points out of this chapter. And the first thing I want you to notice again, if you look at verse number one, you're in 1 Kings 13, verse number one, let's start again. It says, and behold, there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of the Lord unto Bethel. All right, so it's obeying God's word. God said, go to Bethel. And Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense. The king's about to burn incense. Okay, false religion. Look at verse number two, look what the prophet says. And he cried against the altar in the word of the Lord. I love that. Okay, he starts to preach against the altar, but he does it in the word of the Lord, right? He's not preaching his own words, all right? He's not got his own personal offenses that he's trying to vent and get off his chest. No, he starts preaching against it exactly what God's word said. Like you can see that this preacher loves God's word. He makes sure when he rebukes, he rebukes it by the word of God. It says here, unto Bethel, sorry, and said, oh, altar, altar, thus saith the Lord. Behold, a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name, and upon thee shall he offer the priest of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men's bones shall be burnt upon thee. I won't go into all of that right now, but I want to show you what this young prophet, hey, he hears God's word, he obeys God's word, and when he preaches, he preaches God's word, does he not? He's interested in preaching God's word. He's not interested in preaching his own opinions, his own wisdom. He preaches exactly what God's word told him to preach. The first point that I have for you, brethren, is that God will use the man who is faithful to the word of the Lord. God will use the man who is faithful to the word of the Lord. God already had a prophet in Bethel, the old preacher, the old preacher, the old pastor. He's got more experience. He's been around a lot longer. God has used him before, but what do we learn about that old man? He was preaching lies, wasn't he? There was a time he was being used by God. There was a time when he would preach according to God's word, but you know what sometimes that happens with experience? This is what I'm scared about as a pastor, is that I get too comfortable when I preach and before you know it, I'm just preaching you my opinions, my wisdom. You know what? I learned from this that God will use the man who is faithful to his word. I don't care how long you've been a pastor, 50 years, you still have to preach the word of the Lord. And I encourage young men who want to preach one day, stick to the word of the Lord. Don't worry. Look, I'm sure you got great wisdom. I'm sure you got great ways to reconcile this passage with that passage, but just tell us what God's word says and that'll suffice. That's how God will use you. We don't need to use all our intellect and look, we all have intellect, we all have opinions and you know when I give my opinion at church, I try to be very careful, I try to say, hey, okay, this is what I think about this topic or whatever it is, I try to separate my opinion with God's word. But why? God, there's an old preacher in Bethel, in the same place where the incense is being offered to the altar, but God refuses to use him. Again, we saw why, he's willing to lie, he's willing to preach his opinions, he's willing to mislead, isn't he? Look, if one day you wanna do something, look, and not just one day, you wanna do something great for God today, you'd be faithful to his word. You understand that is the ultimate wisdom. That is why we come together at New Life Baptist Church on Sundays and on Wednesdays, not to hear Pastor Kevin Zepulveda, but to hear the word of the Lord, that's what I wanna come to church for. We know there are churches all across Australia where the preacher might read one Bible verse and that's it, that's it for the word of the Lord, it's done, okay? And the rest of it is just a feel good 30 minute sermon that tickles your ears and makes you feel better about yourself, about your life, and God's not mad at you or anything like that, you don't have to fix anything in your life, you don't have to improve, you don't have to mature, there are plenty of preachers like that. Boy, you know, I'm thankful that we can be in a church and not because it's me, I'm thankful there are many churches where pastors want to get out the word of the Lord and feed and nourish God's people. Man, like out of all places, God's gotta go to the southern kingdom, right? Where's the preacher that I can use against Jeroboam? Where is he? Well, the experienced pastor's over here. Nah, he's not faithful to the word of the Lord. Nah, he preaches his own words. Nah, he preaches lies. Let me find someone, where is he? All the way to Judah, gotta go that far to a literal another nation at this point in time and send that guy to walk up and preach against the king. Point number one, brethren, is God will use the man who is faithful to the word of the Lord. And you know what? When you go door to door soul winning, same thing. Be faithful to the word of the Lord. Use the scriptures. You know the passage, faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of the Lord, the word of God. All right, you know that's the passage. We don't knock doors and try to convince them by our fancy arguments and our intellects. No, we tell them God's word and then we help them understand what God's word says. Please don't tell me that you go door to the soul winning. You don't use any Bible verses. You just give your paraphrase story of the gospel. That person calls upon the name of the Lord and you believe you're saved. Don't tell me that. Because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, word of the Lord. You know, that's, you know, those are the words that the Holy Spirit will use, you know, to plant a seed in the heart of the hearer. And God was looking for a preacher. Man, I gotta go to Judah. I gotta find this guy. This guy's faithful to my word. And God gives him clear instructions. And we see from the very beginning, yes, he follows the clear instructions that God has given him in his word. Look at 1 Kings 13, drop down to verse number 15. So after the preacher, the young preacher preaches against the king. Okay, he starts heading home, right? He starts heading in a different direction though. I don't know why, exactly why. It doesn't matter, doesn't like, I would be wondering God, you told me to go a different direction. I mean, I came the quickest route, I think. You know, and you're asking me to go a different way. I don't understand, but hey, when we don't understand, what do we do? We still obey God's word, don't we? That's the right thing to do. We still obey God's word if we don't fully understand. And so he's making his way home and the sons of the old preacher tells the dad, hey, the young preacher is on his way. We can find him down here. Let's catch up with him. And in 1 Kings 13, 15, it says, then he said unto him, this is the old preacher, to the young preacher, come home with me and eat bread. And he said, I may not return with thee. All right, like he's not being rude. He goes, I may not return with thee, nor go in with thee. The young preacher is like, I can't hang out with you, old preacher. Look, I know we both serve the Lord Jesus Christ. I know we're both preachers or we're both pastors, but I can't hang out with you. You know, it's not nothing personal against you. It's just that he continues and he says there, neither will I eat bread nor drink water with thee in this place. For it was said to me by the word of the Lord. I'll tell you something. Preachers don't like it when other preachers open God's word. And let me tell you what God's word says. It's true, I've experienced it. Hey pastor, nice to meet you. We're both serving, praise God. We love God's people. Yes, let's open God's word, no. That's what's happening. He's saying, look, according to God's word, I can't, you know, no offense. Love your brother, but I can't hang out with you. God told me. I've got to follow the word of the Lord. And then it says in verse 18, he said unto him, this is the old preacher, I'm a prophet also, as thou art. And an angel spake unto me by the word of the Lord, saying, bring him back with thee into thine house, that he may eat bread and drink water. But he lied unto him. The preachers lie. Hey, this old preacher is literally, he's not a false prophet. He's a prophet that's been used by God. God later uses him to prophesy even more truth. He's been used by God before. That's what I told you, my biggest fear as I get more and more experienced as a pastor, maybe I get too comfortable, and before I know it, I'm preaching lies. There's a reason why I tell you guys I have a great fear of God when I get behind this pulpit. You know, I don't want to be that old preacher. I don't want to be that experienced preacher that starts preaching lies. It's convenient for me. I want to hang out with you. I want to get to know you. But he lies. He said an angel of the Lord gave me the word of the Lord and God said, it's okay for you to hang out with me. Come and spend time with me. I'll take care of you. It's a positive thing, is it not? Come and come to my house. I'll feed you. I'll give you a drink. I'll nourish you on your journey before you head home. I mean, it sounds wonderful. Sounds helpful. Sounds very loving. But the old preacher lied to the young preacher. Look, this happens. Even with the best preachers that you're going to find, the most experienced preachers, they're going to tell you, oh, God's word said, you know, an angel told me God's word said this. Hey, what are we to do when we are confronted with a situation like that? Verse number 19, it says, so he went back with him and did eat bread in his house and drank water. So the young preacher listens to the old preacher, okay? Point number two, brethren, is test, test the words of a preacher with the word of the Lord. Test the words of a preacher with the word of the Lord. It doesn't, you can't turn around and say, but pastor, he's been preaching for the last 40 years. He's an experienced old preacher. He's taught us wonderful things. Okay, great. For the last 40 years, he's been teaching you wonderful things. But he's still teaching the truth today because they can lie and they do lie. And I don't want to lie to you. You know, I mean, if you've been around churches long enough and you've been hearing preachers long enough, forget the false prophet right now, forget that. That's a different kettle of fish. I'm talking about just brethren that will openly lie to you. Lie to you about doctrines, will give you their opinions. And on Sunday, some of the men we spoke about, you know, things of a conscience based, they'll preach their conscience and override your conscience and make it appear that it's the word of the Lord when it's not the word of the Lord, it's just their opinion. It's just their position, which is okay to have, but is it the word of the Lord? Look, he's lying. He's lying to the young preacher and the young preacher just swallows it up. You know, the young preacher, remember we've seen, he's not like some weakling, he's not like some young in the faith recently saved kind of guy. He's a prophet. I mean, God's using him. He must be a man of character, a man of faith, a man who deeply knows the word of God, a man who loves God, surely. I don't know how mature you see yourselves as God's people. You know, this prophet, this young prophet was a mature believer. So mature that God utilized him to preach against the king. I mean, that takes courage. It takes boldness, does it not? This guy's not some weakling. His young preacher himself is a man of character. Okay, he knows what God's word says, you know what happened? Oh, the more experienced preacher said, I guess I'm gonna go with what he said. But you know what God's word says. Yeah, but the preacher. Husbands and wives, you know, I say to wives, wives, the Bible says to submit to your husbands, not to your pastors. You know, I know stories where husbands and wives are having marital issues, okay, struggles. And husband who's the head of the wife, according to the Bible, is trying to lead one way. The wife runs to the pastor. Pastor gets involved in a situation which he's not used to getting involved with and gives advice to the wife another way. Then what happens? Husband says, honey, we're going this way. Wife says, no, the pastor said, we're going this way. Destroys marriages. The Bible says, husbands, you are the head of the wife. Wives, when I finished preaching and you drive home with your husband and husband says, pastor Kevin was wrong, an issue, whatever. You know, this is what the Bible teaches. You listen to your husband. He's the head of the family, okay? Oh, maybe I'm the old preacher who preached a lie. Not intentionally, I don't know. That's not what I want to do. Okay, but you listen to your husbands. You know, we've got to be careful. We've got to test the words of the preacher. Oh, but I got saved by this preacher. Great, praise God, praise Jesus Christ. But is he preaching the truth today? Oh, but I was baptized by the preacher. Great, praise God. But is he preaching the truth today? Oh, but he's been there for me all these years. Praise God. But if he tells you a lie, when you know God's word, you need to go by God's word. That comes first. And look, you guys know, I don't mind if you disagree with me on this a little. You know what, the things that we talk about sometimes and you disagree with me, they're so insignificant, really, like really when you measure it, like maybe we have a different view on what that passage said or this or that. Like we're never really going to disagree on some of the major, most fundamental issues, right? But look, what we're seeing here, this is not just some small disagreement. Oh, you know, I think Babylon is this city or Babylon is that city. And what we're seeing, it's a clear contradiction. The word of God said, no, you go, don't eat, don't drink, don't stay, go a different direction. And now, no, hold on, God's word is really saying, you can stay, you can eat and drink, complete contradictions. We're not talking about just a different matter of opinion here. We're talking about complete contradictions. How do you know, brethren, how do you know if the words I'm preaching today come from the word of the Lord? You have to read the Bible, don't you? You have to read the Bible yourself. You need to feed on God's word yourself. Every word of God. Look, as a preacher, I'm not here to be your enemy. I hope I can feed you as well. That's my goal as a shepherd, okay? But I feel like if you're not reading your Bibles, I feel like I failed as a pastor. You need to read your Bibles and you need to test what you hear according to God's word. Test it. Don't get comfortable. Oh, Pastor Kevin's been preaching for the last six years, almost seven years at New Life Baptist Church. He's all right. Good, I'm all right, okay? But don't get so comfortable that you're like, well, hey, we can go without the word of God now. We're just going to trust what Pastor Kevin says. We're gonna test the words of a preacher with the word of the Lord. Can you keep your finger there and come with me to Jeremiah 23. Jeremiah 23. Now let me challenge you tonight. The doctrines that you hold, the beliefs that you hold, do you hold them because you found them in the word of the Lord? Because you read it in the word of the Lord? Because you saw it black and white in the word of the Lord? Is that why you hold your belief, whatever belief it is? Or do you believe it because you heard the words of a preacher? There's nothing wrong with the words of a preacher. But how do you know if they're true if you've not seen them for yourself in the word of the Lord? I can tell you, I'm still having to unlearn things in my life. You know, when you go to church your whole life and you hear all kinds of preaching, some things just stay with you. There are a lot of things when I started this church that I thought were just 100% truth, clear doctrine, must be somewhere in the Bible. But as you explore the Bible, you don't find what you hear sometimes breach. Hold on, did I believe that because I read it for myself? Or did I believe it because I trusted the words of the old preacher? Previn, there's nothing wrong with the words of the preacher. There's nothing wrong with it, in of itself. But once you learn a truth, what are you meant to do? Open the word of the Lord and cement it for yourself. And if you can't cement it, there's something wrong. Either you got to conclude, well, I'm just not ready to receive that just yet. I don't see what the preacher sees. Or sometimes you got to conclude that preacher lied. It happens, even in the best churches, it happens. Okay, because the weakness of man, we're not infallible. Preachers are not infallible. Preachers can preach their bias as much as we may not want to, it can happen. Did I get to turn to Jeremiah 23? I did, didn't I, sorry guys. Jeremiah 23, verse number 29. Jeremiah 23, 29. Is not my word like as a fire, sayeth the Lord, and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces? Therefore behold, I am against the prophets, sayeth the Lord, that steal my words, everyone from his neighbor. That's what the old preacher just did. He stole God's word away from the young preacher. The young preacher gets deceived. God says, I'm against the prophets. Verse number 31. Behold, I'm against the prophets, sayeth the Lord, that use their tongues and say, he sayeth. Prophets say, God said this, and nowhere in the scriptures does God say that. Look at verse number 32. Behold, I'm against them that prophesy false dreams, sayeth the Lord, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their likeness. Yet I set them not, nor commanded them. Therefore they shall not profit these people at all, sayeth the Lord. Not profit the people at all. You wanna go to church your whole life and get no profit? Like no benefit? That's a, what a waste of life. What a waste of time. You gotta make sure you get under the right preacher. The one that holds to the word of the Lord. Why? Because prophets, they prophesy the false dreams. That's the charismatic movements. You know that, okay? They've, oh, just had a vision. The word of the Lord just came upon me, and they start speaking their dreams and their visions, but never show you God's word teaching those things. It's just their imagination. No, how do we test the prophet? Like, you know, the charismatic preacher, I've just received the word of the Lord. You know, the Holy Spirit fires about to descend upon Australia. There's gonna be a great movement of the churches in the coming decade. They always grandiose. Everyone gets excited, woo! How do you test the words of that preacher? You go to the preacher, you're meant to go to the preacher with the Bible. Preacher, can you show me where God's word says the Holy Spirit's going to have a great movement in Australia? And he's gonna say, it's not in the Bible. And then you say, see you later, false prophet. That's what's meant to happen, right? That's what's meant to happen. But so many people, I'm not saying you guys, but some people just accept the words of a preacher because he's charismatic, because he's a big talker. Okay, because hey, he says, God said, and God never said. Well, God's against those preachers. Okay, test the words of a preacher with the word of the Lord. Can you come with me back to 1 Kings 13? 1 Kings 13, and look, some of these points are gonna overlap. Sorry, I've gone a bit off. Anyway, it doesn't matter. But while you're there in 1 Kings 13, I'm gonna quickly read to you from Proverbs 24, 23, which says, these things also belong to the wise. It is not good to have respect of persons in judgments. You know, we are not to be respecter of persons. God is not a respecter of persons. Now you're in 1 Kings 13, verse 11. It says, now dwelt an old prophet in Bethel, and his sons came and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel, the words which he had spoken unto the king, them they told also to their father. What does this old prophet have going for him? He's old, he's experienced, he's been doing this for a long time. What mistake does a young prophet make? Respect your persons. I guess so. The old prophet said so. Drop down to verse 18. He said unto him, I am a prophet also as thou art. Well, I've got the ministry. I've got the office like you do. And an angel spake unto me by the word of the Lord. And so on and so forth. But what is it that this old man is doing? Again, he thinks, hey, I'm old, I'm experienced. You've got to listen to what I have to say. Maybe envious. Maybe envious that God is using some young man. Why aren't you using me? You know, I live in Bethel. Maybe that's the problem with this old preacher. I don't know. But you see the young man, the young preacher, he became a respecter of persons. Well, this is the old man, this is the old preacher. He's got experience, he's got a reputation. I mean, I know what God's word says, but I mean, here's the man. I get, he's got the experience. Maybe I've misunderstood God's word. He should know better than I do. I guess I'll go with what he said. Brethren, we cannot be respecter of persons. We cannot be respecter of preachers. Okay, just because he's got the title, just because he's got the office, just because Pastor Kevin's been ordained as the pastor, we must always just accept everything he has to say, even though I clearly saw in God's word something opposite. I hope that never happens, but that's what I need to be careful of. It is, that's what it is. It's been a respecter of persons. Now, I can appreciate people's service for the Lord. I can appreciate the hard work that they do. Now, brethren, if they are contrary to God's word, we have to say no. I don't care how respected you are. I don't care how many letters you've got after your name. I don't care how many books you wrote. I don't care how many books you've got in your library that you've probably never read yourself anyway. Okay, but that's what a lot of people do that. You know, again, I've spoken about the getting the expert, whatever, right, on the end times or the expert on music or the expert on, what else do people bring experts in for at churches? Anyone know? On creation, the expert on creation, the expert on Jewish fables and, you know, we'll get them behind the pulpit because he's Dr. So-and-so, we've led a so-and-so, and he's been passing for the last 15 years or 20 years, 50 years. I've always had a hard time accepting that when my pastor would get some expert preacher. And I'm like, as I mean, you know, look, I don't mind getting preachers to come here, but that's just my brother in the Lord. Like we're on the same level here, right? He's been used by the Holy Spirit. He's not going to preach anything different than what you can find yourself in the scriptures. I've always found it weird when you get the expert preacher. I attended one time a charismatic church and the pastor was preaching and he's like, now we're going to bring in the apostle. And then the music starts playing and the light starts flashing and in comes apostle wherever his name was. And he's gets behind the pulpit and yeah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, speaking with tongue and was like, whoa, lifting the hands, catch the Holy Spirit. Never once opened God's word. Never once spoke God's word. It's crazy. But people are respecter of persons, respecter of preachers. Please don't be that way. And I love you guys. I want you to trust me, but don't trust me so far where I get away with preaching against God's word. Preaching my wisdom. I'll just quickly read to you from 1 Timothy 4.12. The apostle Paul says to Timothy, let no man despise thy youth, but be thou an example of the believers in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. So Timothy was a young pastor. All right, must've been husband of one wife, having faithful children, but I don't think he was in his 50s probably. Don't think he was maybe even in his 40s. Maybe he was in his 30s or something like that. And you know, people were despised in his youth. Paul's encouraging, don't let them despise your youth. You know, and like, instead of it being, hey, oh, that's the older preacher. Let's listen to him. And he's a younger man, we shouldn't listen to him. Paul gives an example and says, you know what, you as a younger person, this is what the example you need to be. Be an example in word. Be an example in conversation. Be an example in charity. Be an example in spirit, in faith, in purity. Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. He tells young Timothy, and I don't think he's even that young because he must be a man who's married and have kids. But he says, look, give your time to reading. Read the word of the Lord. Give your time to exhortation, encourage and build up the people at church and to doctrine. The teachings, ground yourself, what? In your reading. Ground yourself as you read God's word and then exhort people with the things that you've learnt in the word of the Lord. Look, if your pastor's doing that, he's a good pastor. You know, he's a good preacher. He's doing the best that he can for you in his limited human understanding. Okay? As best as he knows how. If your preacher's doing that, then you've got a good pastor. Come back with me to 1 Kings 13, 1 Kings 13. By the way, I do wanna end on one point there before we get to the next point. So I'm not gonna be here this Sunday. All right, I'm gonna be, where am I gonna be? Oh, in Sydney. That's right, sorry. I got a wedding that I gotta get done on Saturday and then I'll be there on Sunday preaching. So brother Oliver's gonna be preaching Sunday morning. All right? Hey, don't despise his youth. I don't think he's that much younger than me, really, in context of life. Okay? Whatever other preacher gets behind here. Like don't have the mindset that I can only learn from pastor Kevin. That's been a respect of persons. Let younger people come up here. Even younger people in the faith. Hey, as long as they've been faithful to God's word. Okay? Maybe they, I'm not trying to say that I'm this amazing preacher, but you know, people need time to learn and to grow and maybe people may not be as, I don't know, maybe some preachers might sound a bit monotone. They might not be as excited or something like that. Hey, but if they've been faithful to the word of the Lord hey, you pay attention. You take heed, you listen because there's gonna be profit in learning God's word. But 1 Kings 13 verse number 20. It says, and it came to pass as they sat at the table that the word of the Lord came upon the prophet. That's the old prophet that brought him back. And he cried unto the man of God that came from Judah saying, thus saith the Lord for as much as thou has disobeyed the mouth of the Lord and has not kept the commandments which the Lord thy God commanded thee, but came us back and has eaten bread and drunk water in the place of the which the Lord did say to thee, eat no bread and drink no water. Thy carcass shall not come unto the sepulchre of thy fathers. He said, your dead body is not even going to reach your grave, the grave of your forefathers. You're gonna die before you get there, before you get back home. And he came to pass after he had eaten bread and after he had drunk, that he saddled, bore him the ass to wit for the prophet whom he had brought back. And when he was gone, a lion met him by the way and slew him and his carcass was cast in the way and the ass stood by it. The lion also stood by the carcass. So my fourth point Brevin is disobedience opens the door to the lion. Disobeying God's word, disobeying the word of the Lord opens the door to the lion. And you know who the lion is for us, okay? 1 Peter 5-8 says, be sober, be vigilant because your adversary, the devil as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour, whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. Brevin, there is a lion outside walking about seeking whom he may devour. I want you to walk away from God's house tonight and saying, I'm gonna obey God's word. I'm not going to disobey his word. The lion's waiting for you to disobey, right? We're meant to be walking with the Lord, walking in fellowship and faithfulness with the Lord. And then, hey, when we say, Lord, you know what? Yeah, I know what your word says, but I'd rather do this. I'll catch you later, Lord, I'll see you on Sunday. All right, I'm going to go my way for the next, after Wednesday night service, I'm going Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Lord, I'm gonna do it my way. I'm gonna live for myself. I'll meet you again on Sunday, don't worry. New life after church, I'll meet you again, Lord. We'll sort the Lord out then. Hey, those days that you're walking away from the Lord, that lion is just waiting to pounce. That lion is waiting to attack, to inflict damage in your life. Brevin, when God's word clearly says, and you know what it clearly says to do, you do it. You say pastor, but we make mistakes sometimes. Of course we do. That's why you quickly go to the Lord and say, Lord, I'm sorry, forgive me. You know, don't let the lion come close to me. Don't let the devil come close to me, Lord. Lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil. Like the example that Jesus Christ gave us. Brevin, we got the word of the Lord. And God's word is there to protect us from the lion. It's there to protect us from destruction. It's there to protect us from destroying our testimony, our lives, our families. The lion is waiting to pounce. And look, maybe, yeah, maybe if the man went the same way that he came, the lion would have found him. The lion found him because he stopped and ate. Hey, he delayed. He stopped and ate at the old preacher's house. He delayed his journey. Hey, if he went earlier, like was expected, the lion would have completely missed him. But he ate, he drank, got comfortable, listening to the lion preacher and he lost his life. Like, I'm so sad for this preacher. I'm really sad for him because I feel like, boy, you made one mistake. Like you did everything right. You stood up to the king. You were used so powerfully by God. God did a miracle and you prayed to the Lord and he undid that miracle. And you make one mistake. You went with the word of the old preacher rather than the word of God and you destroyed yourself. Like, it sounds kind of unfair for us, I suppose, because you know and I know how many times we disobey the Lord and we have not been destroyed by a lion just yet. But these stories are there. True stories, so we can learn from them. So we can be aware that the lion is out there. Satan is out there, you know, waiting for you to just wander far enough from God where you can just come in and destroy your life. Disobedience opens the door to the lion. 1 Kings 13, let's continue. Point number five, 1 Kings 13. Verse number 31. And it came to pass after he had buried him that he spake to his son, saying, when I am dead, then bury me in the sepulchre wherein the man of God is buried. Lay my bones beside his bones. And I love what he says in verse number 32, the old preacher, he gets something right here. He says, for the same which he cried by the word of the Lord. So it says, look, what he preached which was by the word of the Lord, you know, when he preached against the king, he gets against the altar in Bethel and against all the houses of the high places which are in the cities of Samaria shall surely come to pass. The last point that I have for you, brethren, is that the word of the Lord will be fulfilled. Even when we mess up. The Lord will be fulfilled, even when we mess up. You know, I'll give you a quick example. I've told you many times, but boy, I really appreciate my first IFB pastor. I was there for two years. I got baptized, got married. So I appreciate that part of it, but I also appreciate the great teaching that I had. Yes, it was dispensational. Yes, it was all that, okay. But put that aside, you know, I learned so many great things about just growing up and being a man, you know, growing up and stop being childish and you know, and great doctrines of God's word that to this day I still hold, that's given me a strong foundation to be the man that I am today. I'm very thankful. But I told you, he destroyed his ministry. The lion found him. He committed adultery, destroyed his ministry, no longer pastoring. And I remember just contemplating that in my mind. Boy, it's so sad that he's destroyed himself, destroyed his family. Then I wondered, but what about the two years that I learned great things from him? The two years where I learned the word of the Lord. Is that, I mean, is that a waste or was it profitable? And I had to conclude, hold on, no, no, no. Just because he's destroyed his ministry, the great things that I've heard from the word of the Lord that's still gonna help me in life. If anything, if I'm going to give some honor to my old pastor who destroyed his ministry, the probably the best thing I can do is to walk according to the things that I learned him teach me and be a better man. And then eventually be the pastor, you know, and not make the mistakes that he made. You see, the word of the Lord will be fulfilled. Even when men mess up, like God's word will still happen. And the old preacher recognizes that. He's like, man, I lied, I made a mistake. I killed a man, literally. And this man made a mistake. He listened to the preacher, then the word of God. And I want you to remember that pastor's gonna mess up. Preachers are gonna make big mistakes. Preachers are gonna make big mistakes, but I never want you to take your eye off the word of the Lord. Please understand the word of the Lord is superior than the preacher, okay? If one day I'm no longer your pastor, I want you to walk away and say, you know what? Okay, that pastor Kevin, no longer my pastor. The things I heard from the Bible, they're true and they'll be fulfilled and they're gonna profit my life. The Bible says in Titus one, two, in the hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie, promised before the world began. You know what? Our God cannot lie. Can prophets lie? Can preachers lie? Absolutely. Intentionally, like the old prophet, yes, even intentionally. Unintentionally, yes. Okay, it can happen. Mistakes, whatever it is. But God's word is always true. You need to understand that. Please, if one day you hate my guts, okay, I offend you so badly that you hate my guts. So I never wanna see that pastor Kevin ever again in my life. Please don't throw away all the things you've learned. Because if they've come from the word of the Lord, it's gonna help you in life. And even if I never see you ever again in my life, I'm gonna be like, I'm gonna be like, even if I never see you ever again in my life, and you hate my guts till we meet again in heaven, then I just appreciate if you can say, you know what? Hey, you still taught me some good things, pastor. According to God's word, still helped my life, still helped me grow and mature, even though I don't like it right now. But I love the word of the Lord is what I love. So point number five, brethren, was that the word of the Lord will be fulfilled. Men mess up. Pastors destroy their ministry. It happens. But please don't throw out the baby with the bathwater as the saying goes. Don't throw out God's word. Never gets to the point where you say, well, what's the point of it all? You know, my pastor messed up. Maybe God's word is too hard to follow or all the things that I heard, taught was rubbish and I need to throw it all out. No, no, no, wrong attitude. Because you should have tested what the prophet said with the word of God. And if the word of God was taught, then you need to hold true to what you've learned. Hold true to the doctrines that you've learned according to God's word. Okay, because God's word will be fulfilled. All right, brethren, in summary, let me give you those five points once again. Number one, God will use the man who is faithful to the word of the Lord. Number two, test the words of the preacher with the word of the Lord. Number three, don't be a respecter of preachers, of prophets. Number four, disobedience opens the door to the lion. And number five, just remember that the word of the Lord will be fulfilled, even when preachers stuff up. Okay, let's pray.