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If you would, grab your hymnals and turn to page 260. He is able to deliver thee. That's 260. He is able to deliver thee. Tis the grandest theme through the ages run. Tis the grandest theme for a mortal tongue. Tis the grandest theme that the world e'er sung. Our God is able to deliver thee. He is able to deliver thee. He is able to deliver thee. Though by sin, all praise go to him, for rest our God is able to deliver thee. That's page 260. He is able to deliver thee. 260. Tis the grandest theme. Tis the grandest theme for a mortal strength. Tis the grandest theme to the world again. Our God is able to deliver thee. He is able to deliver thee. He is able to deliver thee. He when all praise go to him, for rest our God is able to deliver thee. Tis the grandest theme. Let the tidings roll till the guilty heart to the sinful soul. Look to God in faith. He will make thee whole. Our God is able to deliver thee. He is able to deliver thee. He is able to deliver thee. Though by sin, all praise go to him, for rest our God is able to deliver thee. Good job. Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer. Lord, I'm your father. We just thank you for this day, Lord. We thank you for the salvation that we saw. We ask that you bless the rest of the services today. We ask that you get all the families home safely, Lord. Bless the rest of our week, Lord. We love you. We thank you. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. All right, if you would, turn to page 236. No, not one. That's page 236. No, not one. There's not a friend like the lowly Jesus. No, not one. No, not one. None else could heal all our souls, disease us. No, not one. No, not one. Jesus knows all about our struggles. He will guide till the day is done. There is not a friend like the lowly Jesus. No, not one. No, not one. No friend like him is so high and lowly. No, not one. No, not one. And yet no friend is so meek and lowly. No, not one. No, not one. Jesus knows all about our struggles. He will guide till the day is done. There is not a friend like the lowly Jesus. No, not one. No, not one. There's not an hour that he's not near us. No, not one. No, not one. No night so dark but his love can cheer up. No, not one. No, not one. Jesus knows all about our struggles. He will guide till the day is done. There's not a friend like the lowly Jesus. No, not one. No, not one. Did our saint find his friend forsaken? No, not one. No, not one. Or sin or find that he did not take him. No, not one. No, not one. Jesus knows all about our struggles. He will guide till the day is done. There's not a friend like the lowly Jesus. No, not one. No, not one. Was there a gift like the Savior given? No, not one. No, not one. Well, he refused us a home in heaven. No, not one. No, not one. Jesus knows all about our struggles. He will guide till the day is done. There's not a friend like the lowly Jesus. No, not one. No, not one. Good job. Good evening, thank you for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you need a bulletin, lift your hand nice and high. We can get you a bulletin. If you missed one this morning or you need another one, on the inside we have our service and soul winning times. Is there by chance any soul winning numbers that you haven't reported to your captain that you need to get reported? Okay. Okay. Was that today? Yesterday. What about you, brother? Who is that with? Oh, with John? Okay. Anything else? Would you have? You and Tim? Okay. Anything else? All right. You can still also just report that to your soul winning captains and everything like that, but thanks for working really hard on the soul winning. Also, we have down below our church stats, on the right we have the expecting ladies. We have our prayer list. Keep them in prayer. We still have the congratulations of the Naeem family on the birth of Laila Grace Naeem. She was born on August 8th, 3 32 a.m. She was born 7 pounds, 5 ounces and measuring 21 and a half inches long. Congratulations to them. That's exciting. We all know Ben did basically nothing, but you know, he'd get to reach the rewards, right? So, also down below we have the upcoming events, our men's conference this week. Make sure to check your email, guys. Also, last Sunday, Sunday, Sundays, Sunday, Sunday, Sunday. All right. I don't know if we can we get a third one somehow? I don't know. And then to the 24th, a three port Louisiana. That's pretty much all I really have for announcements. Let's go ahead and go to our third song for the evening. 109, song 109 are hymnals. That's song 109, Savior Like a Shepherd Lead Us. Savior Like a Shepherd Lead Us. I'm the first. Savior like a shepherd lead us, much we need thy tender care. In thy pleasure and pastures feed us, for our youth thy foes prepare. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, thou has bought us, thine we are. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, thou has bought us, thine we are. We are thine, do thou befriend us, be the guardian of our way. Keep thy flock from sin, defend us, seek us when we go astray. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, early love. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, hear, oh, hear us when we pray. Thou has promised to receive us, poor and sinful though we be. Thou has mercy to relieve us, grace to cleanse and power to free. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, early let us turn to thee. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, early let us turn to thee. Early let us seek thy favor, early let us do thy will. Blessed Lord and only Savior, with thy love our bosom fill. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, thou has loved us, love us still. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, thou has loved us, love us still. As the offering plates are being passed around, please turn your Bibles to 2 Samuel, chapter number 15. 2 Samuel, chapter number 15, the Bible reads, And it came to pass after this, that Absalom prepared him chariots and horses and fifty men to run before him. And Absalom rose up early and stood beside the way of the gate, and it was so that when any man had a controversy came to the king for judgment, then Absalom called unto him and said, Of what city art thou? And he said, Thy servant is of one of the tribes of Israel. And Absalom said unto him, See, thy matters are good and right, but there is no man deputed of the king to hear thee. Absalom said, Moreover, O that I were made judge in the land, that every man which hath any suit or cause might come unto me, and I would do him justice. And it was so that when any man came nigh to him to do him obeisance, he put forth his hand and took him and kissed him. And on this manner did Absalom do all Israel that came to the king for judgment. So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel. And it came to pass after forty years that Absalom said unto the king, I pray thee, let me go and pay my vow, which I have vowed unto the Lord in Hebron. For thy servant vowed a vow, while I abode at Gishur in Syria, saying, If the Lord shall bring me again indeed to Jerusalem, then I will serve the Lord. And the king said unto him, Go in peace. So he arose and went to Hebron. But Absalom sent spies throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, As soon as ye hear the sound of the trumpet, then ye shall say, Absalom reigneth in Hebron. And with Absalom went two hundred men out of Jerusalem that were called, and they went in their simplicity, and they knew not anything. And Absalom sent for Ahithophel the Gileanite, David's counselor, from his city, even from Gilo, while he offered sacrifices, and the conspiracy was strong, for the people increased continually with Absalom. And there came a messenger to David, saying, The hearts of the men of Israel are after Absalom. And David said unto all his servants that were with him in Jerusalem, Arise, and let us flee, for we shall not else escape from Absalom. Make speed to depart, lest ye overtake us suddenly, and bring evil upon us, and smite the city with the edge of the sword. And the king's servants said unto the king, Behold, thy servants are ready to do whatsoever my lord the king shall appoint. And the king went forth, and all his household after him, and the king left ten women, which were concubines, to keep the house. And the king went forth, and all the people after him, and tarried in a place that was far off. And all his servants passed on beside him, and all the Cherithites, and all the Pelethites, and all the Gittites, six hundred men, which came after him from Gath, passed on before the king. Then said the king to Atai the Gittite, Wherefore goest thou also with us? Return to thy place, and abide with the king. For thou art a stranger, and also an exile. Whereas thou camest but yesterday, should I this day make thee go up and down with us? Seeing I go whither I may? Return now, and take back thy brethren. Mercy and truth be with thee. And Atai answered the king, and said, As the lord liveth, and as my lord the king liveth, surely in what place my lord the king shall be, whether in death or life, even there also will thy servant be. And David said to Atai, Go and pass over. And Atai the Gittite passed over, and all his men, and all his little ones that were with him. And all the country wept with a loud voice, and all the people passed over. The king also himself passed over the brook Cydron, and all the people passed over, toward the way of the wilderness. And lo, Zadok also, and all the Levites were with him, bearing the ark of the covenant of God. And they set down the ark of God, and Abiathar went up, until all the people had done passing out of the city. And the king said unto Zadok, Carry back the ark of God into the city. If I shall find favor in the eyes of the lord, he will bring me again, and show me both it and his habitation. But if he thus say, I have no delight in thee, behold, here am I, let him do to me as seemeth good unto him. The king said also unto Zadok the priest, Art not thou a seer? Return into the city in peace, and your two sons with you, Ahimaz thy son, and Jonathan the son of Abiathar. See, I will tarry in the plain of the wilderness, until there come word from you to certify me. Zadok therefore and Abiathar carried the ark of God again to Jerusalem, and they tarried there. And David went up by the ascent of Mount Olivet, and wept as he went up, and had his head covered, and he went barefoot, and all the people that was with him covered every man his head, and they went up, weeping as they went up. And one told David, saying, Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom. And David said, O Lord, I pray thee, turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness. And it came to pass that when David was come to the top of the mount where he worshipped God, behold, who Shai the Archite came to meet him with his coat rent and earth upon his head. Unto whom David said, If thou passest on with me, then thou shalt be a burden unto me. But if thou return to the city, and say unto Absalom, I will be thy servant, O king, as I have been thy father's servant hitherto, so will I now also be thy servant. Then mayest thou for me defeat the counsel of Ahithophel. And hast thou not there with thee Zadok and Abiathar the priests? Therefore it shall be that what thing soever thou shalt hear out of the king's house, thou shalt tell it to Zadok and Abiathar the priests. Behold, they have there with them their two sons, Ahimaz, Zadok's son, and Jonathan, Abiathar's son. And by them you shall send unto me everything that ye can hear. So Hushai, David's friend, came into the city, and Absalom came into Jerusalem. Let's have a word of prayer. Lord, thank you very much for this evening's service. I pray that you would fill our pastor with the Holy Spirit and help him expound this chapter to us. I pray that you help us to pay close attention, that you please minimize distractions in the room so we can just pay attention to your word being preached. We love you. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. So Wednesday, I've been going through the book of 2 Samuel. And this past Wednesday, I did not preach very many verses of 2 Samuel chapter 15. So the goal is to kind of finish 2 Samuel chapter 15. This is kind of a part two. And I know I didn't cover any verses. We're hopefully going to cover the rest of this chapter this evening. And just to catch you up, even if you didn't catch the first part, the story that we find ourselves in has to deal with David's son Absalom. And Absalom has essentially picked the fight with his own father. Now, the Bible does not explicitly say why Absalom is mad at his father or why he wants to usurp his position of authority. But from just understanding certain elements and certain aspects of how the story has unfolded, it seems pretty clear that Absalom does not agree with his father's judgment. Perhaps he has some disdain towards David's judgment specifically in regards to Amnon. And you can see how Absalom has a little bit of anger or bitterness towards David in the sense that Absalom's sister was the one who was taken advantage of by Amnon. And so not only did Tamar get defiled, but she ended up living with Absalom. So just living with Absalom and having been around her, it probably vexed Absalom more than it vexed David himself. And we understand that, in essence, this is a daughter of David. But because of David having so many wives and so many children, his affection towards his children may not even be as strong as Absalom's affection would be towards his sister. And so that affection and that desire he has towards his sister may have caused him to be very angry at his father for not having dealt with Amnon, not revenging Tamar. And that could cause Absalom to have some hatred towards his father, even perceived that he just genuinely would be a better judge than his father. And what you have to understand is that even though people in the Bible are very wicked and they do very wicked things, many times in their mind and to them, they're justified in their actions. So they think that what they're doing is right, even though it's wicked or wrong. So what would be an example of this? Well, perhaps you could see someone illegitimately climbing into power or doing something wrong or being a bad leader. And you think, well, I would be a better leader, so I'm going to go ahead and usurp that authority. Even though that's wicked and wrong, the ends justify the means. And a lot of times, people kind of have this idea of the ends justify the means. Well, yeah, it's kind of wrong for me to kill my dad or take over the kingdom or do whatever, but he needs to go. I should be in charge and whatever. But from a biblical perspective, we should always follow God's commandments and never allow the ends to justify the means. God doesn't basically just look the other way to sin and say, well, I know your heart was in the right place. Obviously, sometimes God gives us grace, but he's not going to excuse this type of attitude, especially when the ends justifying the means is only in Absalom's mind. It's not like God said, hey, you need to be in charge. Now, you could look at a story like Jehu, and I know I'm just kind of talking, but I want you to kind of pay attention to these stories in the Bible. Jehu in the scripture is told by God. He's anointed by a prophet of God to become king, and he ends up rebelling against his master and kills a lot of people. And even in fact, in some of his tactics, he lies in getting the job done because he lies to all the false prophets saying to them, hey, Ahub served Baal little. Jehu will serve him much. Now, I believe he was lying. The only way I could get out of it is if he's like, well, technically, this is a sacrifice to Baal. It's just not exactly what Baal was wanting, right? Because he then sacrifices all of the, it's kind of a, maybe it's in jest. It's like, I had a sacrifice, and it was going to be in Baal's house, but it wasn't what you were thinking, you know? But either way, he was being a little bit sly. He was going to be a little bit cunning. And yet, God, essentially, when he's done, looks at Jehu and says, hey, I'm glad that you've accomplished that was in my heart. Killing the false prophets, becoming the king. But here's the difference between Jehu and Absalom. God told Jehu to become king. God told him to destroy all the people that he destroyed. When, at any point in this story, has Absalom been told by God to do anything? Never, OK? And of course, in his mind, he's thinking like, oh, I'm doing right. So often, you'll find very wicked people, they'll do bizarre, wicked things, and then you corner them, and you say, why are you doing this? And they'll be like, oh, because they're bad, or I'm right, or I need to do this, or I'm justified, or whatever. Whatever the ends justify the means. You know, cops could do this, where they see a guy that's bad, and they think he's bad, so then they plant evidence on him, and then they basically just decide that he deserved it. You know, what about this recent thing that happened? How about Trump getting raided by the FBI? Now, I don't know anything about it, as far as the specifics. I don't think anybody does. I think that's, in fact, why most people are upset about the whole situation, because they're thinking like, is the FBI just going in and just looking for things? They're like, hoping that there's actually a case there? Or do they actually have probable cause to do an FBI raid? Which, in fact, I believe if you are following the law legally, you have to present to a judge that the individual that you need to raid is not going to comply, and you have evidence of the fact they're not going to comply. And by not raiding them, you're assisting them in some further criminal action. So it's like a pretty high threshold of why you should particularly raid an individual, that you have to present all this evidence of like, they're committing this crime, and if we don't raid and stop them right now, essentially this crime is gonna go on further, or worse things are gonna happen, or whatever. So it's like, that's a pretty big threshold, and you have to ask this question like, what did Donald Trump do? What are these pieces of paper doing in his house in Mar-a-Lago gonna accomplish if the FBI doesn't immediately go in there and seize them or whatever? It's a pretty lofty thing. You know, it's wicked to raid someone like this, and then hoping later you'll end up finding something that justified the raid. Because that's not the legitimate thing. In fact, we used to have this thing called the Constitution in the United States that said you were protected from unreasonable seizures and searches and everything like that. But apparently, that's just been thrown out the window. I mean, you don't have the First Amendment anymore. You can literally be evicted for preaching the Bible. First Amendment gone. You can't own, I mean, you can't own an automatic weapon. And in fact, some states, you can only own a handgun if it's like a certain number of rounds. It's like, where in the Constitution does it say like, oh, only if it's a seven-round mag? It's like, what kind of weird rules and laws in society do we even live in? I mean, you have, the first two aspects of our Constitution are really important, too. Because the first one says that you can say whatever you want, which protects you from tyranny and lies. And then the second one gives you an ability to defend yourself when people try to take away your First Amendment. When you have neither of those, it's just total tyranny. And then pretty much every other piece of our Bill of Rights or other aspects of the Constitution are really just more specifics related to these events like unreasonable searches and seizures and these type of tyranny that's kind of being presented in our country. I mean, I don't know how far it's gonna go, but it doesn't look good. People being upset about this makes a lot of sense. Because you shouldn't just decide someone's bad and you need to replace them. But I can see how a lot of people in their mind would think like, I just think Trump's bad, he needs to go. We need to get him out of here. You know, just justifying. Even the fact, even Biden. You could say, I think Biden's bad, but you know what, it should be done correctly. Not planting evidence, not doing something illegally. I mean, how about just do a real FBI investigation into Hunter Biden? That should probably fix the problem pretty quick. How about we just actually investigate all the voting machines and the voting things that happen? How about we investigate all the money that was poured in from big tech into the voting process? You know, I mean, there's a lot of like legal things that could literally be done that would solve those problems quickly. But let me tell you something. None of those things even matter one bit because the only thing that matters is if you're right with God. Like I think that some people just don't realize this fact that they think like, okay, if we start voting conservative now and we get Trump in office, America will be good. It's like America in 2020 was worse than America in 2016. And let me tell you who did that, Trump. In fact, some of the worst rules, the worst totalitarian things that we had to experience were under Trump. Operation Warp Speed and all the COVID lockdowns and shutdowns and all the other stuff. I mean, all the Democrats had to do is just keep going with whatever he did. I mean, if you think about it, things have been lifted during Biden as opposed to when Trump was in office. Oh, but if Trump gets back in office, that'll just fix everything in our country. That won't fix anything in our country. In fact, I would argue what's frustrating is how our country is going in the toilet, how literally communism and Satanism is taking over our nation, how everything is just being destroyed before our eyes and people are still not spiritual. People still don't want God. People still aren't going to church. People still aren't reading the Bible. People still don't care about the things of God. It's like, how low do you have to go? And I fear for our nation because when you look at Jeremiah and you look at some of these other people, the people got to a point where they're eating their own children and they still won't turn back to God. You look at the people in the book of Revelation and they're literally being plagued by God with the worst wrath imaginable that no one's ever seen and they still don't turn back to God. It's like Pharaoh. It's like it doesn't matter what you do. But let me just make something clear. Trump will not fix America. Republicans will not fix America. Conservatives will not fix America. You know what would fix America? Christians being Christian again. Let's make Christians Christian again. And I'm telling you, I don't care what the unsaved people do. I don't care what the Republicans do. If just every Christian would start being Christian, we would fix our nation quick. Things would change overnight, okay? But the problem is Christians don't want to be Christians anymore. Christians are hearkening into lies. Christians aren't reading the Bible. And essentially what happens is when you have a downfall of a nation, you give rise to wicked leaders. How did they get to this point? Through having itching ears. Okay, the Bible talks about in the end times in Timothy chapter number four, having itching ears, they're gonna heap them to the self's teachers, okay? Now why am I bringing all this up? Think about our chapter, and hopefully you were here Wednesday. But with Absalom, Absalom, as the Bible describe it, stole the hearts of the people, didn't he? Notice in our chapter here, and I'm not gonna pre-preach what I already did, but I'm just kind of bringing some things to remembrance. But look at verse six. And on this manner did Absalom to all Israel that came to the king for judgment. So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel. So at the point that we find ourselves in the story, the entire nation has been corrupted, the entire nation has been perverted, the entire nation has been stolen to Absalom. The whole heart of the whole people, the whole country is towards him. So it's like it doesn't matter if the whole nation is communist in their heart, it doesn't matter how Republican you wanna be. If the whole country just wants to give all their liberties away, if the whole country doesn't like free speech, they all believe in hate speech now, it doesn't matter what the Constitution says. If the whole country thinks guns are bad, it doesn't matter what the Second Amendment says. If the whole country hates Christianity, it doesn't matter what kind of religious protection we're supposed to have. They will literally outlaw Christianity, keep every other religion, and then suggest that we still have a Constitution. And they'll even say that we're defending the Constitution while doing it. I mean, they will kill Christians and eliminate free speech and eliminate gun laws all while pretending like they are actually protecting the Constitution and protecting democracy, or democracy's under attack. Can you believe that these people are allowed to go online and say whatever they want to attacking our democracy? Can you imagine all these people going out there and buying guns legally? That's attacking our democracy. It's like these people are projecting the fact that they're attacking democracy. But why this is so important is because when there's a conflict between Absalom and David, and when these things come to a head, the only thing that matters is what the people believe. Because you cannot corrupt an entire nation or fix an entire nation overnight. It takes a lot of time, it takes a lot of planning. And if you look at America, America would not have been easily taken over by communists, by Satanists, by evil people overnight. It took generations and decades of TV, Hollywood, music, movies, debauchery, and false teaching to get us to the point we're at. And let me tell you something, we cannot fix it overnight. It would take, again, decades and generations of God-fearing Christians to rebuild this nation and get people to fear God again. The problem took 40 years to get here. It's gonna take 40 years to get back. It takes people actually serving God to do this. And if we kind of pick up our story, look what it says in verse 12. This is where I left off. It says, an Absalom sent for Ahithophel the Gilanite, David's counselor from his city, even from Gilo, while he offered sacrifices, and the conspiracy was strong for the people increased continually with Absalom. So Absalom is one of these type of people that's patient. He realizes that he can win the long battle. So he just got people on his side, flattered, flattered, flattered, getting people. Now he's getting conspiracy, and people are just constantly being added to his side like all the time. Now the word conspiracy is not a conspiracy theory, okay? You know, people are like, oh, you believe in conspiracies. Well, the Bible talks about conspiracies. Am I even allowed to believe the conspiracies mentioned in the Bible? And look, what is a conspiracy? If you look at the dictionary, it's a secret plan by a group of individuals to commit an illegal or a wrongful act. Oh, you believe in conspiracies. You better believe that. You're telling me that there's no one on this planet that has ever decided to do something wrong or illegal in secret, like a bank robbery, like fraud. I mean, conspiracies is obviously so prevalent in our nation, so prevalent, and in fact, even at the highest order in our government. And you say, well, why do you think there's conspiracies in our government? Have you ever read the Bible? You read the Bible, and it's just constantly, kings are overthrowing kings, constantly being usurped by servants, constant conspiracies over and over. Why would I think if the Bible's full of conspiracies of kings overthrowing kings and wars and all these things that it wouldn't exist in our day? Of course it exists in our day. Of course all the same elements exist today. We even have illegitimate leaders. You have puppets that are in positions of power. You have legitimate leaders. You have leaders just conquering the entire earth and the whole world. You have all these values of power. You have this constant just power shift always happening in the Bible. So of course it's gonna happen in our world today, too, and the leadership in our country is really no different. Lots of wicked people. I mean, really, if you take out kings of Judah, there is no good leader in the history of the Bible, virtually. I mean, they're all super wicked, super corrupt, very satanic, even the kings of Israel. I mean, these are kings of Israel, and they're super wicked. I mean, let alone the president of the United States. I mean, these guys are very wicked, very evil, because in order to get to that slimy position, you have to be a slimy person. They do all kinds of weird, corrupt things. There's all kinds of secret groups out there, and you say, you sound like a conspiracy theorist. No, I'm a realist. I just believe the truth. Now, of course, there's plenty of stupid conspiracy theories out there. Elvis is dead, folks. I mean, I'm sorry. Okay, and his music sucks. I never even liked it, all right? There I said it. Elvis sucks. Why do you have to be all whiny? Oh, yeah. It's like so stupid. I'm like, I'm listening to this. I'm like, this was popular? Like, this sounds like garbage. It sounds like a cat being strangled or something. Or a dog or something. He's just like, what is this? Ain't nothing but a hound dog. I mean, this is the dumbest stuff, okay? Elvis is dead. Bigfoot isn't real. There isn't this intergalactic conspiracy of aliens and reptiles. I don't care what Alex Jones says. We're not fighting space aliens, okay? He can get up there and say the biggest battle of our generation is to fight all the space aliens and whatever, and it's like, no, it's not. Okay? And there's plenty of conspiracy theories that I totally believe in. 9-11 was an inside job, just fact. Okay? The America trying to replace white people as a conspiracy, fact. They're so excited about that. The election being a fraud, I believe that's a fact. I believe that, you know, COVID was a pseudo flu that they lied about. Hey, there's lots of things out there that are, you know, I don't even believe the Sandy Hook thing's legit. Now, of course, your conspiracy buddy, Alex, went ahead and reneged on that because he's not really a truther. He's a give me money guy. Because a truther, why would, if you're a truther, why would you back away from that situation? Okay? Because he's getting sued because of money. And now he's raising money for the parents of the event. It's like, talk about controlled opposition here, folks. Okay, it's funny, someone sent me an article, he's like interviewing this guy and he's like talking about Muslims. And it feels like Alex Jones is nervous about he's talking about Muslims. It's like these people aren't standing for truth. But you know, there's also dumb conspiracy theories out there to trick people because that's how the government works. It's called like a psyop, where they just come up with these dumb things that aren't real and they try to trick people. Like the Earth being flat. You have to be like the dumbest person on the planet if you truly believe this. Now, I think some people can get sucked into it a little bit just because they've heard a lot of conspiracy theories that kind of feel like everybody lied to them. But man, if you really go down this train, you are a complete idiot and a moron. You say like, you're trying to make it feel like you shouldn't be long if you're a flat earther. Fine. I already said it, I won't get in the car with you, I won't let you drive me anywhere. Because you'll drive me off the edge, okay. And I'm not interested, if you're not competent enough to realize that the Earth is not flat, why would I want you to be behind a wheel making judgments or making decisions? What other kinds of realities do you deny? I mean, have you ever seen the sun rise? Done, it's not flat. It goes, it just goes over their head every day. I mean, the sun just every day, just in a circle, just around their head and they just think it's flat. Because they're a moron, okay. Now, I'll say another, I know I'm spending a second on this, right. Sunday night preaching, okay. We'll get through this chapter. I know you're nervous. Not a conspiracy, all right. Is the moon landing? Okay, now here's the thing. I am not really strong on this particular conspiracy. I don't care what you believe. But here's the thing, I personally believe we land on the moon, okay. And the reason why I dislike this conspiracy theory, because people think that you're a literal freak when you tell them you don't even think you land on the moon. And here's the thing. There's really no evidence to suggest that we didn't. There's a lot of speculation. There's a lot of good questions. It's funny because when I was in like seventh grade or eighth grade, in my science class, our teacher made us watch a film on why the moon landing was a conspiracy and it was why it was fake. And I remember just watching them like, this is weird. And it was all stupid stuff like, nobody knows what's going on in Area 51. That doesn't prove we didn't land on the moon. Just proves that the government's shady, okay. Okay, check, I got that one, right. Or they'll be like, well, they took a picture and there's no stars in the picture. It's like, have you ever taken a picture of anything that didn't look right? I mean, you just don't understand anything about exposure or how cameras, and I mean, think about this. This is a camera from the 60s. We're not talking about a camera that you have today. I mean, you're talking about cameras that they took out in space. But here's another reason why. What's the real motivation to lie about landing on the moon? Obviously, pride, okay, but outside of just pride and saying we're better than Russia, which we're better than them anyways, okay, done. Oh, that was hard. But you know, you'll notice a common theme. Like, 9-11, almost every country, the vast majority of people in those countries think it's an inside job and their governments will even come out and say it's an inside job and say we hate America. And here's the thing, even though we're prideful, everyone hates America and would love to rub it in our face that we are wrong about anything. So if we were wrong about the moon landing, of course there'd be tons of other countries that would be like, that's impossible. There's this belt that you can't pass through or whatever. And look, I get that there's legitimate questions surrounding that, but I think it's stupid to get off on these type of conspiracy theories. You know, 9-11, there's all this gold that just disappeared underneath the Twin Towers. There's a 47-story skyscraper that just falls seven seconds flat that can only be described as a controlled demolition. I mean, it's like, whoa, this kind of stuff is weird, right? But even 9-11, I don't care about going around and convincing people this, because most people still don't, they're still brain dead, okay? It's like, you can't even convince them that Michelle Obama's a dude, and it's like, well, have you ever seen it? Have you looked at it? I mean, that thing could bench press Obama. It's like, what are you talking about? Show me a picture of her pregnant, and then I'll change my mind, all right? But, you know, why I don't like, here's one thing I've heard on the moon later. They say, oh, well, I saw this interview, and they said that they lost the technology. And that's, there's no way you could lose the technology. But here's the thing that you just, you live in this little bubble world that you just don't understand how history and technology work together, is the fact that in the 60s, they didn't have a cell phone in their pocket that's like a little mini computer. The computers in the 60s were the size of a room, and they could do less than most, like mathematical calculators can do. So, you know where most of the technology for going to space existed? Here. It existed in the minds of all the brilliant people that worked for NASA. And the people that worked for NASA in the 60s were hired in like the 40s and 50s, and they themselves were 40, 50, 70-year-old type people. So they were born in a generation where education was actually real, where people are actually intelligent, where people could spell, they could read and write, where people didn't think men were women, okay? Now that we live in a society where you can literally have your phone do everything for you, and graduation is the most ridiculous joke of a society that we live in today, yeah, I can see how we lost the technology because it existed in people's hands, in their minds. They didn't write everything down necessarily, and even if they did, it might have been too complicated for you to even realize what to do. I mean, yeah, we can't even figure out how to build the pyramids. We don't even know how, the technology and information they used to do that, but we're gonna figure out all the technology they used necessarily to go to NASA, probably not. We'd have to recreate it. That's why you have companies like Elon Musk and other things going back into space, developing these kind of programs. But you know, you gotta think about it. That's a giant waste of money and effort and energy just to go to the moon and just say like, we did it. And we're not like reaping a lot of money and resources and anything from that type of program. I know we invented duct tape, I think, because of it. Yay, duct tape, right? I mean, there's some certain things that we're positive about it. We learn more about the environment or the atmosphere or rockets, and you know, obviously controlling space is really important when it comes to satellites, technology, information, warfare, a lot of aspects like that. You can actually see that the Earth is not a flat disc spinning on a duck's back or something or you know, whatever other kind of nonsense that exists. I mean, NASA literally uploads just live streams of the Earth rotating just hours and hours of that all day long, every single day. I guess it's just a big sigh up though, you know? Yeah, CGI, right? They can't even make good movies anymore, but they're making just live streams of the Earth just every second, right? With all these lightning storms and it's stupid, okay? But yes, I do believe in conspiracies and it's important to realize, look, the biggest conspiracy ever of all time is that against the Lord Jesus Christ killing him. Go to Matthew chapter number 26, go to Matthew chapter number 26. So Absalom conspiring against David is not a new thing under the sun. In fact, it just foreshadows how everyone is gonna conspire against the Lord Jesus Christ and have him killed. And in Matthew chapter 26, look what it says in verse number 15. The Bible says this, and said unto them, what will you give me and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for 30 pieces of silver. Notice the conspiracy. Notice the money. Notice the Jews. And yeah, you wanna know what's going on in our world? Money, conspiracies, evil and Jews. A lot of that is going on, okay? No new thing under the sun. In fact, you constantly see this theme in the Bible of who's doing most of the conspiracy, most of the money handling, most of the evil, it's the Jews. They're the ones shelling out the money, paying for all these type of things. Haman does the same thing. Go back to 2 Samuel. The apostle Paul in the book of Acts in chapter 23, there's 40 men, as the Bible describes them, who make a conspiracy, and they say they won't eat or drink until they kill Paul. I mean, measly old Paul. And Paul, the Bible talks about him being contemptible in the flesh. Obviously, it was a pejorative statement, but arguably, he probably couldn't do anything physically. I mean, Paul wasn't necessarily gonna just take on Goliath or take on the Roman Empire by himself physically, but you know what they didn't like about him was his doctrine. They didn't like the spiritual power that he had. The apostle Paul was a mighty man in power through word and deed and preaching the gospel and turning the whole world upside down and getting everybody saved and starting churches literally single-handedly. I mean, virtually, the Christian church is like single-handedly owed to the apostle Paul. And so you gotta believe that if a single man is just a fire starter of churches all over the entire world, there's gonna be conspiracies against him. There's gonna be conspiracies to kill him. And let me tell you something. The new IFB is spreading like wildfire in America right now. You better believe there's gonna be some conspiracies to stop that train, to stop that wildfire, to stop the main people involved doing that kind of work. Yeah, my sending pastor, there's been, I hear there's all kinds of conspiracies against him, all kinds of, I mean, he's literally been banned from like so many countries in the world. Why, because they're so afraid of him coming in there and starting a wildfire of churches like he's already done here. So you know what, we need more men to rise up and more men to start spreading fires like this and getting more people involved and spreading the gospel and getting it to go out. You know, you got basically like one guy willing to just put his life on the line, the apostle Paul, and he literally just starts churches everywhere. So of course that train's gotta stop. Who's the most important man in the world at the time of 2 Samuel? David. David is bringing so many people to righteousness. He's united the entire nation along with him. He is the most capable and powerful nation. I mean, there's no nation that can rival David's kingdom at this point in time. Everyone's paying tribute unto David. He subdued all of his enemies. I mean, the only way to destroy David is from within. And so Absalom went on this long journey and because of David being a little bit negligent and because of David's success, he kind of went on coast mode and he allowed all the rottenness to come from underneath. And that's a lesson to us that when you're going well, things are going well, you're having a lot of success, that you don't just kind of ease off, stop paying attention and just let other people come right behind you to steal everything or take advantage of things or corrupt from underneath. That's why it's important that I hammer all kinds of doctrines and weed out bad people at all times because our church is going well and I believe that we're having a lot of success, spiritually speaking, and so it'd be real easy to kind of coast spiritually and then just like let a lot of bad people come in here and just start building rebellion and building this faction and getting everybody on the wrong side. And look, once all the people have gone bad, it doesn't matter what the pastor says. You can just destroy the church like that. Says in verse number 13, and there came a messenger to David saying, the hearts of the men of Israel are after Absalom. So here's the point. Hey, Absalom's conspiring against you. Okay, why doesn't David just walk over there and chop his head off? Well, here's the problem. Everyone's behind Absalom. He doesn't stand a chance. It's done. The situation's already evident. And you know, sometimes you have to just realize you're in a bad situation and just walk away or realize you've already lost a little bit and concede and just live the fight another day. David is like, this is bad news. Look at verse 14. David said, and all the servants that were with him at Jerusalem, arise and let us flee. For you should not else escape from Absalom. Make speed it apart, lest you overtake us suddenly and bring evil upon us and smite the city with the edge of the sword. So David's realizing, you know, at least he's willing to realize like, I can't stay here. It's over for me. I gotta flee. Verse 14, and the king's servants said unto the king, behold, thy servants are ready to do what server by the Lord the king shall appoint. Hey, I like his servants. You know, the people closest to David were still loyal. They're still like, you know what, wherever you go, we're going. Watauga, let's do it. You know, it's like, I don't even know what that is, but is that a name of a city or did you cough wrong? You know, it's like, what is that? Like, I've never met a single person in my life where I've said Watauga, Texas, and they were like, oh, I know where that's at. They're like, what? What did you say? It's like, it's there, you know, it's just this little tiny island in between North Richland Hills and Keller and whatever. It's like, I don't get it either, okay, Watauga. Says in verse number 16, and the king went forth and all his household after him, and the king left 10 women, which were concubines, to keep the house. Now, I think a parallel in this chapter, and you have to kind of understand the story, is Absalom pictures a lot of things here, but one of the pictures is that conspiracy against Jesus Christ with Judas and the Jews, and David is Jesus Christ and how he's gonna be crucified, and this is kind of leading up to that, but David ends up leaving 10 concubines at the house. A lot of things this could mean, I think one of the pictures here is kind of how Jesus Christ after the gospel leaves us here, and why I say that is why it's a concubine, she's also called a wife, so it's like the bride in a sense, and we are kind of the bride of Christ in a general sense and a conglomerate as the bride of Christ as a collective, and so, you know, he kind of left them to do what? Keep the house, and what did Jesus leave us to do? Keep the house, you know, we're supposed to keep the house of God, we're supposed to keep the church of God, we're supposed to do the work, and so he left us here to do that kind of a job. You know, the number 10's also kind of interesting, I have no idea, this is a thought I had, but it's like you kind of see Peter and John following Christ initially after he's taken, but the other 10, you don't know anything, like there's no real mention of them. Now, Peter eventually bails, because he has a little girl ask him if she knows the man, John's there, so you could almost look at the 10 being like the other 10 disciples, just, you know, okay, whatever, obviously you got Judas and things, I don't know, that's just a thought, but it's kind of interesting that you leave 10. It says also in verse 17, and the king went forth and all the people after him and tarried in a place that was afar off, and all his servants passed on beside him, and all the Carathites, and all the Pelethites, and all the Gittite, 600 men which came after him from Gath passed on before the king, then said the king to Ittai the Gittite, wherefore goest thou also with us? Turn to thy place and abide with the king, for thou art a stranger and also an exile. Whereas thou camest but yesterday, should I this day make thee go up and down with us? Seeing I go whither I may, return now and take back thy brethren, mercy and truth be with thee. Now, this is really interesting. Ittai is known as a Gittite. Now, for sake of time, I'm not gonna even turn there. If you go back into Joshua and stuff, you learn that the Gittites are of Gath, of the Philistines. So, he's saying to this guy like, look, you just showed up not that long ago from Gath, just go back. No harm, no foul, why should I make you come out here with me? You know, it makes me think of like, it'd be like someone that like moved for our church, and then it's like our church is just moving like somewhere else or we're going somewhere else or some, it's like, you know, just go back home or do whatever you want. But he's like, no, no, no, no. Verse 21. And Ittai answered the king and said, as the Lord liveth, as my lord the king liveth, surely in what place my lord the king shall be, whether in death or life, even there also will I servant be. He said, hey, no, no, no, wherever you're gonna go, I'm going. You know what I like about this, is think about the timing. When he's gonna have to go and depart, that's a picture of what? The gospel. And when does this guy show up? Right at the gospel timeline. And guess who's not gonna depart from Christ? The Gentiles. The Ittai is not willing to depart from Christ. The Gentile's not willing to go back to the Gentiles. He's not willing to be with them. He's in exile. He says, you know what, I've burned that bridge of the world no turning back, I'm gonna follow Jesus. It's no coincidence of the timing of this guy. It's also no coincidence that look, Gentiles were serving Jesus Christ in the Old Testament. I literally have had a family member tell me, they said, oh, in order to serve Jesus in the Old Testament, I would have had to been a Jew. And I'm like, well, first of all, there was 12 tribes. No. Second of all, we have Gentiles constantly following Jesus Christ in the Bible. How about Ruth, the Moabitess? I mean, you have constant pictures of great people in the Bible that were not Gentile. You even have the Roman, at the time of Christ, talking about asking for his servant to be healed, and when Jesus Christ heals his servant, he said he's never seen greater faith than that man. He's saying the greatest man of faith in all of the earth is a Roman soldier? That would be like saying it's the police chief. Like the greatest Christian, the greatest man of faith in all of Texas is the police chief. He'd be like, are you sure about that? It's like, that's what Jesus said. Now, obviously, he's usurped later by his disciples, and we understand that it's not like we see the Roman soldier doing anything great beyond that, but he had a lot of great faith at that moment, and he's kind of contrasting that faith with a lot of his disciples even in that moment who struggled to believe in everything Jesus said, struggled with faith at times. It's about this stranger who wants to serve Christ, you know, and Jesus even brings us up. He says, many are gonna come from the east and the west, and they're gonna sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but the children of the kingdom should be cast out, meaning, you know, God's not a respecter of persons. It wasn't about Jews being God's chosen people. It wasn't about a certain ethnicity, and it certainly wasn't about an anti-Christ religion. It was about people having their heart right with God. It's what it's always been about. Even Jesus, I mean, Jesus Christ himself, Jesus Christ himself is from Ruth the Moabitess. You could not even say that Jesus himself is a pure-blood Jew, because you've got all kinds of Gentiles coming into that lineage. I mean, you've got all kinds of wives and all things that are going on. Yeah, obviously, we realize that they were Jewish in the sense of their religion at the time. They were following Christ, but you know what? There's a lot of mixing going on. It's silly to think of it, just all these pure-breds or something. There's no pure-bred. If you were pure-bred, you would look weird anyways, okay? You would look like the Rothschilds or something. Now, as we keep reading verse 23, it says, and all the country, wet with a loud voice, and all the people passed over, the king also himself passed over the book Cudron, and all the people passed over toward the way of the wilderness, and lo, Zadok also, and all the Levites were with them, bearing the ark of God, I think I went out, oh, there we go, okay. And the king also himself passed over the book Cudron, and all the people passed over toward the way of the wilderness, and lo, Zadok also, and all the Levites were with them, bearing the ark of the covenant of God, and they set down the ark of God, and Abiathar went up, until all the people had done passing out of the city. And the king said unto Zadok, carry back the ark of God in the city. If I shall find favor in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me again, and show me both it and his habitation. But if he thus say, I have no delight in thee, behold, here am I. Let him do to me as he seemeth good unto him. The king said also unto Zadok the priest, Art not thou a seer? Return in the city in peace, and your two sons with you, a high man as thy son, and Jonathan the son of Abiathar. See, I will tarry in the plain of the wilderness until there come word from you to certify me. Zadok, therefore, and Abiathar carried the ark of God again to Jerusalem, and they tarried there. Now, not only does he leave the 10 concubines, he leaves the ark of God and these priests, which also, not only is it the church in the general sense, it's like the church leadership that he's leaving behind. And I think both of these are pictures of how God let Jesus go back up, but then he left us prophets. He left us the pastors, the teachers, the evangelists. He left the ark of God, which is kind of symbolic of the word of God, symbolic of the church, symbolic of serving God, the priests. And so God left those things, and he said, hey, I'll return if God so please. And you know who's going to return is Jesus Christ. He's going to return one day. And so he's left us here to do the work of God and to keep things going. It says in verse number 30, and David went up by the ascent of Mount Olivet and wept as he went up and had his head covered. And he went barefoot, and all the people that was with him covered every man his head, and they went up weeping as they went up. So it's a really sad picture. Keep your finger here and go to a place if you would. Go to Luke chapter 22. Go to Luke chapter 22. And we have what, I mean, the Bible is so incredible because not only does the Bible give us pictures, figures, symbols, but what's so incredible is the precision of the foreshadowing that God uses in the Old Testament. He's got to think about this. This is David, which there's probably not a person on the planet that pictures Jesus more than David. David is in Jerusalem. David leaves Jerusalem, walks out of Jerusalem, and goes to the Mount Olivet. And that's where he's weeping and wailing as he's being betrayed by Absalom. Well, here's the thing. Jesus Christ in the Passover week was going into Jerusalem, going into the temple, preaching unto them. They had the Last Supper in Jerusalem. And then they have to leave, and guess where they go? To the Mount Olivet. And that's where he's betrayed. And that's where you're going to have, even Jesus Christ is weeping in the garden, in essence, asking the Lord to not make him go, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but thine, be done. And look what it even says in Luke 22, verse 39. And he came out and went, and as he won't, and as he was won't, to the Mount of Olives. And his disciples also followed with him. And when he was at the place, he said unto them, pray, that ye enter not into temptation. So you have this dramatic picture of Jesus Christ going to the Mount of Olives, praying and sorrowful, betrayed. And of course, all of his disciples are going to be so sad. I mean, they basically just cried and wept from this night all the way into the Resurrection, and when Jesus basically presents himself back to them. You have this horrible scene of all these people weeping and wailing, obviously observing him going to the cross, obviously observing all the evil that has befallen him. And this is the exact physical location that David went to weeping with all of his servants when Absalom betrayed him. If that is not just the most incredible thing, I mean, how can people say that this was written by a bunch of shepherds or something, or a bunch of ignorant buffoons, or cavemen, or whatever? It's just like, look, the Bible's precision of historical events, foreshadowing of truth, there is nothing you could say against the word of God. It is always right. Everything that it says, it fits together perfectly. The foreshadowing blows and shatters the mind of any skeptic that you could ever want. I mean, you should believe the Bible without faith, but of course, it takes faith to believe it. It's so incredible. Luke chapter 22, look at verse 47. And it says, and while he had spake beyond the multitude, and he that was called Judas one of the twelve went before him and drew near on Jesus to kiss him. But Jesus said unto him, Judas, betrayest thou the son of man of the kiss? Notice he gets betrayed in the mount of olives, literally. Go back, if you would, to our chapter. We'll kind of finish here. Says in verse 31, and one told David, saying, Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom. And David said, O Lord, I pray thee, turn the council of Ahithophel into foolishness. And it came to pass that when David was come to the top of the mount where he worshiped God, behold, Hushai the Archite came to meet him with his coat rent and earthen upon his head. On whom David said, if thou passest on with me, then thou shalt be a burden unto me. And if thou return to the city and say unto Absalom, I will be thy servant, O king, as I have been thy father's servant hitherto, so will I now also be thy servant. Then mayest thou for me defeat the council of Ahithophel. And hast thou not there with thee Zadok and Abiathar the priests? Therefore, it shall be that whatsoever thing or what thingsoever thou shalt hear out of the king's house, thou shalt tell it to Zadok and Abiathar the priests. Ye'll they have there with them their two sons, Ahimezadeh's son and Jonathan Abiathar's son. And by them, ye shall send unto me everything that ye can hear. So Hushai David's friend came into the city, and Absalom came in Jerusalem. So we finish the story by one guy going back and kind of being a spy for David. Now, why is this important to David is that Ahithophel has really good wisdom. He's a very smart guy. And so David's worried because, essentially, what they're suggesting is there's no way we can win because Ahithophel's the smartest guy. They already got the smartest guy on their team. So David's praying like, OK, God, you're going to have to turn this guy into a fool because he's too smart for us. And then he's going to send his buddy in there to defeat his counsel. Now, it makes me think of a passage in the scripture. Go to 1 Corinthians, chapter 1, 1 Corinthians, chapter 1. We have to understand about Ahithophel. And the Bible says that if you inquire of Ahithophel, it's like inquiring of an oracle of God, it says in the later chapter. But what I believe that's saying and what I believe the Bible describes about Ahithophel is that Ahithophel is just simply a smart guy. He's arguably like the Elon Musk of their time. He's the Albert Einstein. He's the Isaac Newton. He's the Winston Churchill. He's the whatever. He's the brilliant mind of their generation. He has all the wisdom that a man could want. He's the greatest of just understanding, humanly speaking. But here's the problem. You can be literally the smartest guy on the planet and be a complete idiot at the same time. You could be Richard Dawkins. Oh, so brilliant. Oh, my. The guy's a complete idiot. And he's a pedophile, folks. Justifies pedophilia. He's sick and disgusting. You could be Stephen Hawking. You could be the Stephen Hawking and be a complete moron. The Neil deGrasse Tyson and be just a complete imbecile. And the Bible teaches in 1 Corinthians 1, look at verse 20, where is the wise, where is the scribe, where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? You know what? If you choose the wisdom of this world, God will make you look like an idiot. And Absalom chose the wisdom of this world by taking a hit the fail rather than seeking to the wisdom that comes from the Bible from the word of God. And I don't care if you get everyone on your team, you have the smartest people on your team, you will lose when you're not on God's team. Notice what it says in the next verse. For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that belief. You know what, God can take a simple guy who has trust in the word of God and make him wise and make him win and let the smartest guys lose because they weren't humble enough to trust in the Lord. Go to Luke chapter 10. I don't want to go there. Go to Isaiah 54, last place of your turn. The Bible says, go your ways. Behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves. Let me tell you something. This world is full of wolves. And in fact, it's even filled with people that are very brilliant that can come up with many ingenious and evil ideas against God's people. They can come up with all manner of ideas and inventions and devices and situations and tactics to attack you and to try to defeat you. And from a human perspective, you have no chance. It's not possible. Can't escape it. This is similar to how David's going to be. And what he's doing is he's relying on God to turn that wisdom into foolishness. Now what's funny is, I'm getting a little ahead of myself, but when we get to the next chapter, ahead of the bell ends up giving all the right advice. But the problem is, they're too stupid to even realize it was the right advice, and they don't take it. Absalom doesn't end up doing the right thing. From his plan and perspective to win the battle, he ends up getting tricked and fooled and deceived and then ends up making the wrong decision. And here's the thing, when you're not on God's team, he'll trick you and fool you into making some dumb decision, into partnering with the wrong people, into going and making the wrong decision. Even when the right decision is presented right before you, you just can't even see it for the right decision that it is. And you'll end up just nuking yourself or destroying yourself or doing some bad action. And the Bible teaches, though, that there's a conspiracy against you and against me and against the word of God, and the devil wants nothing more than for the Bible to be destroyed, for all of us to die, and then everyone to go to hell. And look, if you could get rid of the King James Bible and the remnant of us that are saved, what hope does the world have? Now, of course, getting rid of every King James Bible on this planet is a daunting task. So what the devil does is he snows you with all these other versions. He snows you with all these other religions. It was so frustrating today, I preached to a lady in Spanish for like an hour, and it seemed like she believed everything. But then at the very end, she's just like, I just don't know if I can fully believe that, because the Jehovah's Witnesses, they say that their Bible is the Bible. And the Catholics, they say that their Bible is the Bible. And everyone says that their Bible is the Bible. And you tell me that your Bible is the Bible. How do I know that that's the right one? How do I know that your religion is the right religion? How do I know? It's just like, that's what the devil's winning in that type of situation, because he just brought all this confusion. And look, she just admitted, I'm confused. She was very receptive. She wanted to hear, but she just couldn't pull the trigger, because she just still felt genuinely confused, even after explaining so much of the truth. And you know what, that's what the devil wants to do, is he wants you to get so confused that you just decide to make no decision. And I tried to tell her, I said, look, worse than picking the wrong religion is picking nothing, because you're for sure doomed. I'm like, it makes no sense to just pick nothing. And I said, and what I'm presenting to you is straight from the Bible. It's the word of God. What I'm presenting to you is different than every other religion. Hey, the Jehovah's Witness and the Catholics both want you to work, and you could never know if you're saved, and none of it makes sense. And she's like, right. And I'm like, everything I showed you said you made sense, and it's the easiest salvation you could ever imagine. It's like, why wouldn't you just pick that one? I mean, if I have to pick, even if all the religions weren't real, which I know that's not true, even if they weren't, Christianity just sounds the greatest anyways. All I have to do is believe in Jesus, and I go to heaven? I mean, what other religion has a plan like that? I mean, the only thing that sounds good other than that would be atheism or Satanism, because it just says do whatever you want. But here's the problem with that religion. As soon as you're done, you're done. I mean, and if you're wrong, you go to hell for forever. If you're right, you benefit in nothing. In fact, if atheism was true, the worst thing you could do is convince anybody else that it's true. Because if every single person realized that there was no God and no consequences or actions, everyone would just kill each other immediately. And best case scenario, religion's subduing everybody while you live your high life as an atheist. But the problem is it's not true, and you know it's not true. That's why they fight Christianity. There's a reason why they fight Christianity, not any other religion. There's a reason why, when they blaspheme, they don't use Allah's name. I mean, when's the last time you saw one of these protesters with an Allah billboard? I thought Muslims were throwing sodomites off of buildings. Explain something to me. I've never thrown anybody off a building. I've never hurt a single sodomite a single time. I've never flicked their ear. I've never tripped them. I've never tied their shoelaces together. No one in my church that I even know of has done anything to any of them ever. Muslims are throwing them off of buildings and then who are they mad at? Us. Right? How does that make sense? You know how it makes sense? Because that's a false religion, and they know it's a false religion. So they don't care. They only hate Christianity because they know it's the true God. And the reason why they're reprobate is because they hated God in the first place. The reason why they're disgusting is because they hated God. And it makes them hate God even more, because they realize how disgusting they are. And then when they hate God more, he makes them more disgusting. And then they hate God more, and then they're more disgusting. It's a vicious cycle. And they just keep getting worse and worse and worse and worse and worse and worse and worse. And then pretty soon, it's Elton John. Pretty soon, it's Richard Simmons or something. Pretty soon, it's just some disgusting tranny. It's the person in charge of the Department of Health or whatever. Richard or whatever it's named. Richard Levine. He goes by Rachel. I don't care what he goes by. He's a disgusting freak. But there is a conspiracy to destroy you and me. But I have good news. Look what the Bible says in verse 17. No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper. Now, what does that mean? Well, first of all, there's two options. Option A, that whatever they plan against us physically just completely fails. And it backfires. And then we win. Or the alternative is they beat you physically. They destroy you. But then God rewards you so much more because of that happening. So think about it. From an eternity perspective, it's a win-win. It's like, OK, I either win physically. Win. Or I get destroyed. And then for all of eternity, I have all these extra awards and glory and brightness that's going to just make them met. I mean, they can't beat you. It's like they chop off one of your heads and two grow back. It's like, oh, man, that didn't really work out for you, did it? It's like, well, we'll destroy you. I'm still going to heaven, and I'll get more rewards. And in fact, more people will hear about Christianity and get saved because I was a martyr. Like, everything that you do is just going to fail. Like, you literally can't win in any way. You can leave me alone, and I'll just win. You can kill me, and I'll win. You can try to kill me, and I'll win. It doesn't matter what you do. To God's people, no weapon formed against thee shall prosper. You know, the only thing that's going to win is when we quit ourselves. You know what? This is the only way the enemy can win is when you quit, when you give up, when you stop fighting, when you stop doing the work of God, when you stop going to church, when you stop going slow winning, when you stop raising your children to love God, when you stop being willing to fight. You know, and people want to do that. They're like, oh, man, I just can't stand going to church and seeing those people, so I just won't go, or I'll go somewhere else, or I'll do something. It's just like, that's the only way to lose. Why in the world would I let some disgusting freak stop me from going to church, no matter what they do? And especially from going to the church that's doing the most for God, the church that's actually winning souls to Christ on a regular basis is baptizing people, seeing people's lives changed, seeing people literally birthing. I mean, just our church and churches like ours, there is so many people that just physically exist because our church exists. And you say, what do you mean by that? It's like, they literally have a child that they would not have if they had never heard one of our sermons. I personally don't even know if I would have had all the children I have in the sequential order that I have if I hadn't heard this kind of preaching. People wouldn't even gotten married, because a lot of people hooked up, or found each other, or met each other because of a church like ours, because of preaching, because of conferences, because of events. I mean, and because of that particular event, they then end up having a child, and that child literally exists because of the work that we're doing. I mean, we are changing lives, whether you realize it or not. And it's like, we constantly think like, oh, man, this thing didn't work out for me. But then we get somebody saved because of that. We have some weird situation happen. You know, your car breaks down, but then you run into a guy, and you get him saved, and you're like, hey, that worked out. You know, they persecute you in one city, flee to another, and you get somebody saved in another area. I mean, it's like, it doesn't matter what they do, they can't win. So quit letting them win by quitting. The only way you can let the enemy win is if you quit. In my opinion, it's like basically the only way you can fail. Obviously, if you get into sin and stuff, that could be detriment to the work of Christ. But really, ultimately, in your own personal life, the only way to truly just be a loser is just to be a quitter. Like, the only real losers are quitters. And you know what? Our church is called steadfast for a reason. Because we don't want to be losers, we want to be winners. And here's the thing, as long as you're steadfast, you always win. You're always victorious. You say, well, do I have to go to this church? No, but you can just be a steadfast Christian all your life. Nothing's going to stop you except for yourself. You just decide, you know what, I'm just going to go to church. And look, the people that do this, their lives just keep getting better, and they keep getting blessed. It's not a coincidence. I've seen tons of people's lives get way better and changed for the better when they get plugged in and serving God. And I see the opposite all the time. People getting out of church, and their life goes to crap. And then they come to me, and they're just like, hey, my life sucks. What should I do? And it's just like, get back in church. And it's like, no, and then it gets worse. You know, it's like, church isn't your problem. Your problem is the flesh. And you know, the devil is going to appeal to that flesh and try to get you to stop serving him, get you off the track. And I don't care what device. I mean, if 40 men tonight say, you know what, we won't eat or drink until we kill Pastor Shelley, enjoy dying a painful death is all I have to say. Because I don't think God would let that happen, number one. Number two, I got a lot of little friends that are going to be on my team on my hip and in my house that you're going to have to meet first. OK? That's not even including all the guardian angels that exist. And even if you were successful, I'll still win. I'll still troll you in your nightmares. And then you'll have to see me at the Great White Throne Judgment shining for being a martyr for Christ. And you'll be like, how did he get up there? You killed him. You'll be like, you did that. You made him a great Christian. It's like, because think about it. Even if you were like a really bad Christian your whole life or you did nothing for God, just by martyring, you're just going to be like instant, way up on the totem pole. So it's like, that's what you should hope for. If you got saved later in life or you're really sinful or backslidden, just try to hold out for getting martyred or something. Because then it's just like, well, at least I was martyred. At least I finished the race, right? At least I finished the course. I finished strong, OK? And then at least you get all kinds of epic rewards for doing that. Because there's going to be tons of people that lived a really good life and then just kind of bailed out of the last and they get nothing. Because they didn't stay faithful. They're going to not get a full reward. Whereas you just getting martyred, it's like, bam, yeah. It's like, so just hang on, OK? Just keep fighting. Don't let the devil get you discouraged. Don't let Absalom get the better of you. I don't care what. I mean, it looks really bad for David. But pretty soon we're going to figure out he was on the wrong side. He was on the wrong team. And it can look bad for God's people. But ultimately, they're going to win, period. Show me the Bible story where they don't ultimately win. Show me the Bible story where they don't typically win physically even. I mean, they almost always win physically and spiritually and every way you could possibly imagine. I mean, Trump's like, you're going to be tired of winning. He's not going to win. Christians are the only ones winning. And we're never going to stop winning as long as you just keep playing. Let's close in prayer. Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for this church, for the word of God. Thank you for just giving us victory after victory after victory no matter what happens to us. Death, disease, evil, persecution, famine, you name it, we're going to win. And I pray that you would just help us have the right mentality, the right heart, the right steadfast mind to just continue serving you and trusting you, not relying upon man's wisdom, relying upon the wisdom of God. And I pray that the Absaloms and the Hithophels and all these wicked Judases and all these people out there conspiring against God's people, conspiring against our church, conspiring against our movement, our families, just turn all of their wisdom into foolishness. Just confound them and destroy them and bring destruction upon them, humiliate them, and just increase our faith and just help people to just see faith come to fruition, to see that there's a judge that judges in the earth. And I just thank you that we have the opportunity to serve you and to walk by faith. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, in closing, we would grab your hymnals and turn to page 169. And if you would, please stick around. We have a baptism after the service. That's page 169. Come Thou Fount, 169. Come Thou Fount. Come Thou Fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing Thy grace. Streams of mercy never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some melodious sonnet sung by flaming tongues above. Praise the mount, I'm fixed upon it, mount of Thy redeeming love. Here I raise my Ebenezer, here thereby Thy help I'm come. And I know by Thy good pleasure, safely I'll arrive at home. Jesus sought me when a stranger wandering from the fold of God, He to rescue me from danger interposed His precious blood. Oh, to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be. Let Thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to be. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, oh, take and seal it, seal it for Thy courts above. All right, if you will, let's turn to one more song, already. So we have the Gale family coming. Michael, you want to do it first? All right, we're going to have Brother Michael coming for baptism. Just go ahead and get in. I'm going to have you stand right here. Just stand right here, okay? And when I say the name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, we're going to hold your nose. I'll dip you all the way down and bring you back up, okay? Okay. Michael, have you trusted Christ as your Savior? Yes. Then I baptize you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, buried in the likeness of His death, raised to walk in newness of life. Congratulations. We have Natalie also coming. All right, I'll have you just stand right here. Whenever I say the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, hold your nose, and I'll dip you all the way down and bring you back up, okay? Sister Natalie, have you trusted Christ as your Savior? Yes. Then I baptize you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, buried in the likeness of His death, raised to walk in newness of life. Good job. All right, Ms. Kristen. Just sit all the way down on your bottom. Put your knees out because I just want to hurt your knees. Sister Kristen, have you trusted Christ as your Savior? Yes. Then I baptize you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, buried in the likeness of His death, raised to walk in newness of life, buried in the likeness of His death, buried in the likeness of His death, raised to walk in newness of life. Buried in the likeness of His death, raised to walk in newness of life. Brother Paul. All right. Just sit down on your bottom all the way. Perfect. Brother Paul, have you trusted Christ as your Savior? Yes. Then I baptize you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, buried in the likeness of His death, raised to walk in newness of life. Congratulations. Thank you. Congratulations to the Gale family. Make sure to congratulate them after the service. God bless you.