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Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. It's the same way, man. Deep breaths. Alright folks, welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. It is that time. So we're going to go ahead and get started. If you'd find a seat and grab a hymnal. If you grab your hymnal's turn, our first hymn this morning will be hymn number 65 just over in the glory land. Hymn number 65, 6-5 just over in the glory land. Thank you. Hymn number 65, 6-5 just over in the glory land. Hymn number 65, 6-5 just over in the glory land. Hymn number 65, 6-5 just over in the glory land. Hymn number 65, 6-5 just over in the glory land. Hymn number 65, 6-5 just over in the glory land. Hymn number 65, 6-5 just over in the glory land. Hymn number 65, 6-5 just over in the glory land. Hymn number 65, 6-5 just over in the glory land. Hymn number 65, 6-5 just over in the glory land. Hymn number 65, 6-5 just over in the glory land. Hymn number 65, 6-5 just over in the glory land. Hymn number 65, 6-5 just over in the glory land. Hymn number 65, 6-5 just over in the glory land. Hymn number 65, 6-5 just over in the glory land. Hymn number 65, 6-5 just over in the glory land. Hymn number 65, 6-5 just over in the glory land. Hymn number 65, 6-5 just over in the glory land. Hymn number 65, 6-5 just over in the glory land. Hymn number 65, 6-5 just over in the glory land. Hymn number 65, 6-5 just over in the glory land. Hymn number 65, 6-5 just over in the glory land. Hymn number 65, 6-5 just over in the glory land. Hymn number 65, 6-5 just over in the glory land. Hymn number 65, 6-5 just over in the glory land. Hymn number 65, 6-5 just over in the glory land. Hymn number 65, 6-5 just over in the glory land. Hymn number 65, 6-5 just over in the glory land. Hymn number 65, 6-5 just over in the glory land. Hymn number 65, 6-5 just over in the glory land. Hymn number 65, 6-5 just over in the glory land. Hymn number 65, 6-5 just over in the glory land. Hymn number 65, 6-5 just over in the glory land. Hymn number 65, 6-5 just over in the glory land. Hymn number 65, 6-5 just over in the glory land. Hymn number 65, 6-5 just over in the glory land. Hymn number 65, 6-5 just over in the glory land. Hymn number 65, 6-5 just over in the glory land. Hymn number 65, 6-5 just over in the glory land. Hymn number 65, 6-5 just over in the glory land. Hymn number 65, 6-5 just over in the glory land. Hymn number 65, 6-5 just over in the glory land. Hymn number 65, 6-5 just over in the glory land. Hymn number 65, 6-5 just over in the glory land. Amen, let's pray. Heavenly Father we thank you for this day we thank you for the opportunity to gather together and sing praises under your name. I pray that you'd be with us for this service that everything would be done decently and in order that you'd fill Pastor Shelley with your spirit for a bold sermon this morning and just incline your ear to us as we sing out praises unto you. These things we pray in Jesus' name, Amen. Alright for our next hymn this morning turn if you would to Hymn number 4 The Way of the Cross Leads Home. Hymn number 4 The Way of the Cross Leads Home I do want to draw your attention at the very last line which is going to be on the top of the second page there's two fermatas or as Brother Salvador has taught me, owl eyes is another way that people probably know it by. There's one over go and the. We're going to hold go the is going to be, we're just going to sing it straight through. So, sweet to know as I onward go the way of the cross leads home. We're going to do it that way, that's kind of how we practiced it so if you just have any questions watch me or Brother Salvador. Number 4, The Way of the Cross Leads Home. I must needs go home by the way of the cross there's no other way but this I shall there inside of the gates of life if the way of the cross I missed the way of the cross leads home the way of the cross leads home it is sweet to know as I onward go the way of the cross leads home I must needs go on in the blood sprinkled way the cap and the safe you're drawn if I ever climb to the heights of life where the soul is at home with God the way of the cross leads home the way of the cross leads home it is sweet to know as I onward go the way of the cross leads home then I bid farewell to the way of the world to walk in evermore for my Lord says come and I seek my home where He waits at the open door the way of the cross leads home the way of the cross leads home it is sweet to know as I onward go the way of the cross leads home Amen Good morning, thank you so much for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you need a bulletin, just slip your hand nice and high and one of our ushers can come by and get you a bulletin and we have 1 John chapter 2 verse 5 there for bio memory verse if you want to work on that. Also on the inside we have our service and soul winning times as well as our church stats The fifth Sunday fellowship is October 2nd and the theme is to be determined so that sounds pretty ominous but I'm sure it will be fun right? And then also we have our expecting ladies continue to pray for the reeds we have some upcoming events the 17th is the Steadfast Zoo field trip and on the 22nd I'll be back that Thursday preaching October 6th that's actually being adjusted I'm sure I think I moved when I'm preaching to another Thursday but we are actually having a conference in the Dallas Fort Worth area called the Heritage of the Lord conference and it's actually geared towards the youth and so we're going to have all the preaching and a lot of the activities and the events geared towards those ages between 5 and 18 approximately and so I'm going to be there for that we're actually having some guest preachers too that Thursday we're going to have a special service down there for us with Pastor Roger Menes coming and preaching for us from Verity Baptist Church and then Friday evening we're going to have Pastor Bruce Mejia from First Works Baptist Church coming and preaching for us on Saturday we're going to have a couple of events we're going to have a kids spelling bee and we'll have some other fun activities and some soul winning and things like that so it's just kind of a just kind of like a little mini conference specifically geared towards the youth and try to encourage them and kind of give them some fun things to do as well and so I'm not going to be here that Thursday I think I shifted it but then October 20th October 31st y'all are going to have a chili cook off and I guess you know you're trying to introduce Halloween with your beans being welcome or something you know we're supposed to try and keep the world out you know no longer going to walk in the way of the world I thought is what the song said but you know some people just won't listen and you know we just let them do their work you know some people say oh you can't disagree at steadfast Baptist Church but this is a major disagreement here okay it's major and maybe I'm a weak leader for even allowing that to happen but you know if you want to be full of hot air we'll let them so there you go also November 5th is the mid-city soul winning marathon there's a couple other soul winning events that our church down in Dallas Fort Worth area are having if you are interested we're going to have a Shreveport Louisiana soul winning marathon again this month the last Saturday of the month I believe it's the 24th let me just double check what that is yeah 24th so 24th of this month we're going to be going to Shreveport Louisiana and we went last year and it was very receptive a lot of fun and so I don't know exactly how far is it from here brother do you remember 5 hour drive okay yeah it's about 3 hours from the DFW area maybe about 5, 5 and a half hours from here but it's definitely a lot of fun the reason why I wanted to go there because I remember several years ago when I was researching just like the poorest cities in the United States it was like number 1 on almost every single list and so I just thought that might be a pretty good place to go soul winning and it really was it's a pretty it's still a pretty large area so a lot of people that live there and it kind of reminds me of Las Vegas too because they have a lot of casinos so they have like their little casino strip that's real nice but then everything else is just really deteriorated the roads are very deteriorated in that area you can tell that the government local government there is not putting a lot of money back into the city but that's good for soul winners you know soul winners look at the world in a different way you know you roll into an area and you feel like you're going to get shot but you're excited about the soul winning opportunities and you know most people where if you roll in the nice neighborhood and you're like this is really pretty but it's like if you were a soul winner you'd be like this looks terrible I don't want to go soul winning here and so it just changes your perspective on life also we're doing another Mexico missions trip so we went last year we pretty much go every year multiple times a year even just because it's so receptive but we're going to Matamoros again and we typically go down to Brownsville so that's the most southern tip of Texas basically and then Matamoros is just on the other side and it's so close that I mean it would be much closer than Oklahoma City is to Moore or Norman so it's essentially like the city just keeps running and then there's just a border just randomly in the middle of it and then you just go onto the Mexico side the only thing though is as soon as you cross that border I mean English has dissipated so you do definitely want to be able to speak Spanish if you're going to cross the border also you want to bring a passport if you're going to go with us just so you make sure you come back I heard you can still swim across but you know I prefer to just ride across so but it's great I mean honestly foreign missions is one of the funnest things you'll do because you don't really understand how people are just much different as far as receptivity to the gospel when you go to a different country and obviously there's a language barrier for Mexico but you know just even just going across the border and talking to these type of people they're much more receptive much more interested humble people willing to listen to people and so it's a lot of fun to go to other countries and preach the gospel so if you ever get a chance to go on a foreign missions trip I really encourage you I've taken a couple into the Caribbean as well and hopefully we'll do another one eventually but even just going to the Caribbean very receptive a lot of fun going and preaching to different parts of the world the closest thing I would say you can get to is Shreveport so even if you can't go Shreveport is probably one of the most receptive places I've ever gone soul winning and so it's a lot of fun honestly Oklahoma City is a pretty receptive place you know you guys are pretty fortunate you don't even realize it there's some churches in the United States where I go and I visit and we go soul winning they'll have 30 or 40 people go out soul winning on a Sunday afternoon and they might get one person saved if they have a really good day and that's going to the poorest areas the most receptive areas and so you know you come here to Oklahoma City and it's actually very likely if you go out soul winning that you could probably get someone saved maybe if you go into the nicer neighborhoods not as much but I mean you go to some of these poor apartments and it's just a lot of people are interested in hearing the gospel and so I love coming here and I love going soul winning last Thursday we went and someone got saved and it felt even more receptive than where we were at in the DFW area so it's definitely fun being here I brought my family today so it's great for them to be able to come up with me and I appreciate them coming and supporting me and so that's pretty much all I have four announcements we'll go ahead and go to our third song song number 18 Take the Name of Jesus with You song number 18 alright hymn number 18 Take the Name of Jesus with You take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you take the name of Jesus with you After this, 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 that had 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 one of the tribes of Israel and Absalom said unto him see thy matters are good and right but there is no man but there is no man but there is no man to but for the king to hear thee. Absalom said moreover oh 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 matter did Absalom to all Israel that came to the king for judgment and 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 in 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 rose 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 and with Absalom went two hundred men out of Jerusalem that were called and they went in their and they went in their simplicity and they knew not anything and Absalom sent sent for Ahiphathah the Gileanite, David's counselor from his city even from Gilo while he offered sacrifices and the conspiracy was strong for the people will increase 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 at Jerusalem arise and let us flee for we shall not else escape from Absalom make speed to depart lest he overtake us suddenly and bring evil unto us and smite the city with the edge of the sword and the king's servant 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 Carathites and all the Pelethites and all the Gittite, six hundred men which came after him from Gath passed on before the king then said the king to Tyah 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 whether I may return thou and take back thy brethren mercy and truth be with thee and Atai 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 rather 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 the little ones that were with him and all the country wept with a loud voice and all the people passed over and the king also himself passed over all the all the brook all the brook Kydron 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 to 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 in and show me both both it and his habitation but if he but if he does 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 thou a seer return into the city in peace and your two sons with you Ahimez 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 accent of all of it and wept as he went up and had his head covered and went bare foot 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 Ahiphathah is among the conspirators with Absalom and David said oh lord I pray thee turn the counsel of Ahiphathah unto foolishness and it came to pass that when David was come to the top of the mount where he worshipped God behold Hushai the archive came to meet him with his coat rent in the earth upon his head unto whom David said if thou passeth on with me then thou shalt be a burden unto me but if thou return to the city I say unto Absalom I will be thy servant oh king as I have been thy father's servant hitherto so will I also be thy servant then mayest thou for me defeat the counsel of Ahiphathah and hast thou not there with thee Zadok and Abiathar the priest therefore it shall be that what thing so ever thou shalt hear out of the king's house thou shalt tell it to Zadok and Abiathar the priest behold they have there with them their two sons Ahimez Zadok'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 unto the city and Absalom came unto Jerusalem heavenly father lord we just thank you so much that we could be here today lord we just ask you at this time to be with Pastor Shelley as he preaches your word we just pray that you fill him with your spirit and just be over this congregation and help us to focus and be edified by your word we love you and we thank you in Jesus precious name we pray amen you well they can hear me inside in here okay so that's that's the important part right so we have here this phrase found in verse number 12 the conspiracy was strong the conspiracy was strong and really the word conspire conspiracy or some equivalent is actually found in the Bible very often and I find that this chapter really focuses on the conspiracy of Absalom against his father David and I've been preaching through second Samuel and I've been going through kind of verse by verse and trying to talk about these subjects and you know this this sermon this morning is not really about a Bible study verse based on this this section it's more just kind of taking this one little topic and kind of expanding it because the Bible teaches that there's a lot of conspiracies that exist in the world that we live today and I find that there's a lot of varying degrees of views when it comes to conspiracy theories and I've also been preaching kind of a sermon series on extreme views and what you have to realize is that the Bible is actually not extreme it's usually just true and then there's extremes that go in every direction away from the truth and so the word of God is what's right it's normal it's what we should be striving for and the devil ends up trying to bend the truth or pervert the truth in every direction so as to try and get you away from what God would have you believe and there's no difference here when it comes to any topic I've already preached on a lot of subjects but this morning I want to preach on extreme views on conspiracy theories extreme views on conspiracy theories and you'd say why is that important well first of all you have to deal with just the reality of your society you have to determine who you're going to trust who you're not going to trust do I trust the institutions of this world do I trust the institutions that God has given me you know the Bible says that the church is the pillar and ground of the truth and really I personally believe the only place you are going to find truth unfiltered is the church that is the institution that God has established for you to find out the right information good information whereas all of these other institutions that exist in our world today because they are man made they have problems they're not always reliable they can be corrupted and the government is no different the government is corrupt in our country it always has been corrupt every other government is corrupt and every government we see in the Bible is corrupt now of course there's varying degrees of corruption you could even argue that David has a corrupt government because did he not in the previous chapters end up lying with another man's wife and trying to cover that up and even killed Uriah I mean isn't that a conspiracy now the Bible never even used the word conspiracy in connection with David doing all that but I would say it was a conspiracy now even to understand what is a conspiracy I looked up in the dictionary but I also looked up the Wikipedia definition and I think the Wikipedia one gives us a little bit broader of an understanding when it comes to what a conspiracy is but according to Wikipedia a conspiracy is a known plot is a secret plan I'm sorry it's known as a plot a secret plan or agreement between persons for an unlawful or harmful purpose such as murder or treason especially with political motivation while keeping their agreement secret from the public or from other people affected by it that seems to fit very well with what David did because David ended up concealing the death of Uriah and it was specific to murder him in an effort to conceal his sin, his wickedness to allow him to stay in power because if David everybody knows David's just killing people's husbands to steal their wives that could cause a lot of people to revolt or to overthrow him in his position of being king and so in an effort to basically conceal that maintain his position and everything to continue as it were he concealed that, he hid what he had done and the same is with Absalom here in chapters 15 where Absalom is wanting to overthrow his father in the government but he can't just walk up to David and just say hey dad I'm going to overthrow you today or hey dad I really want to conspire against you. Now the whole aspect of the conspiracy is that they're going to conceal their actions because if their actions were known or open they would be foiled, they would not go forth as needed and so the conspiracy in the Bible of here of Absalom is one that we find continually throughout the scriptures but I want to focus on it for just a moment to draw out a couple points whenever I'm evaluating whether something is true or not we need to kind of try to apply the same principles every single time and to me number one is you want to determine the motive is there a motive involved in this particular situation and when you can't have a clear motive often the conspiracy to me seems to fall flat. Motive is a very important aspect to a conspiracy for understanding why people are doing the things that they are doing now of course Absalom in his story, his brother Amnon is kind of a half brother ends up taking advantage of his sister Tamar who is a full sister and he ended up conspiring against his brother and slew him now he had to do that because his father David refused to put Amnon to death or to deal with that situation so I believe that you can kind of see there is a little bit of animosity built between Absalom and his father David Absalom probably perceives that he is a better judge or makes better decisions than David that may motivate him to have wanted to come into power to feel the necessity to take that position but we also have to think about Absalom as a person is Absalom a spiritual person or is Absalom a carnal person? we have to think about his actions and what he has done let's think about before this chapter look at chapter 14 and when Joab refuses to talk to Absalom, how does Absalom handle that situation? well, if we look at verse number 30 therefore he said unto his servants therefore Absalom sent for Joab to have sent him to the king but he would not come to him and when he sent again the second time he would not come so Absalom is like hey Joab, hey Joab no response, verse 30 therefore he said unto his servants see Joab's field is near mine and he has barley there go and set it on fire and Absalom's servants set the field on fire now does that sound like a pretty nice guy or a guy that is really spiritual hey if you don't call me back in five minutes I am going to set your field on fire I mean that's a pretty extreme emotion, this guy doesn't really seem to be very stable, not making very good judgments here, not necessarily very spiritual, think about how Jesus is telling you to turn the other cheek, if someone smites you on the cheek to turn them the other also this guy won't even allow you to ignore him I mean is it really the same, I mean would you say it's the same for someone to ignore you or to literally just smack you across the face, I would say getting smacked across the face is worse than being ignored, but according to Jesus you just turn the other cheek, what does Joab do I set your field on fire so you certainly wouldn't want to smack Absalom around, okay you smack Absalom on the cheek what would he have done to you, probably taking your head off and so we see he is a pretty unstable person, not a very spiritual person the very verse is beyond this in chapter 15, when people are coming to see David it says in verse number 3 and Absalom said to them, see thy matters are good and right, but there is no man deputed of the king to hear thee, Absalom said moreover oh 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 to all Israel that came to the king for judgment, so Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel now do you think it's good to steal away the hearts of the men of Israel from the king shouldn't a good loyal servant or a son bolster people's affections towards the king and try to encourage people to love the king more and to speak positive of the king yet what does Absalom do, he subverts the kingdom, he tries to plant bad ideas in people's minds suggesting oh David doesn't have time for you nobody wants to hear what you have to say but I would hear everything that you have to say and of course we see the flattery of Absalom, so Absalom is someone that's quick tempered, irrational we see that he's a flatterer also he's filled with pride now I believe this is before we read this passage in chapter number 15 based on the timeline but I can't be a thousand percent certain but if you go to chapter 18 and look at verse number 18 so this is further in the future but it's kind of remembering something in the past it says now Absalom in his lifetime had taken and reared up for himself a pillar which is in the king's dale for he said I have no son to keep my name in remembrance and he called a pillar after his own name and it is called on this day Absalom's place, now a couple things to think about, Absalom actually according to the bible does have a few sons so I believe that this pillar must have been set up prior to actually having any sons also in chapter 15 it's pretty quick paced because Absalom takes over the kingdom and then he goes out and then he's immediately killed so he doesn't have a lot of time to set up this pillar or whatever so I believe that that pillar had been set up prior to chapter number 15 so we can already discern a lot of things about Absalom prior to this situation that we're reading about where Absalom's setting people's fields on fire he's killed Amnon which was not according to the law, not only did he kill Amnon, he's being a flatterer and just telling everybody he loves everyone, I mean think about this, were there really no reprobates in all of Israel at that time, I mean he's like kissing the hands of reprobates and telling them how wonderful they are I mean this guy is really just a pretty scummy person, really just a politician at heart, right what do politicians do, they kill people in their past, they flatter everyone, they're really prideful they set up statues in their name and they call things after their name right, and really if you don't call them back you know, you don't want to get on their bad list right, so we kind of see though from Absalom's perspective, is this really a man up to God's own heart is he a humble shepherd is he like David that was going and killing the bear and killing the lion and keeping the sheep and the sweet psalmist of Israel, was he serving King Saul I mean think about David's life predecessor to being king, he is going and playing music for the king, playing spiritual songs, him spiritual songs, helping the evil spirits depart from Saul, he never says a crossword about Saul Saul even throws a javelin to try and kill him and he's not like you know going around telling everybody about it I mean if anybody had a reason to be mad about the king, wouldn't it be David couldn't David be like hey, you might be careful around Saul, he might throw a javelin at you, okay, but is that really fair for Absalom to be ripping on David and talking negatively about David, so we see like a diametrically opposed type person when it comes to David and Absalom, they're completely different people, David completely humble, meek lowly, spiritual Absalom is of high value importance, prideful, and a very wicked carnal person but think about David, David, this is his son and I believe because of nepotism he kind of probably has bad judgment here also he's been in sin so it's probably reverted his judgment a little bit but Absalom comes to David and look at verse number seven, and it came to pass after forty years I believe he's talking about Absalom being forty years old 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, now think about this, we have a forty year example of Absalom's life when has Absalom been spiritual in those forty years? So why would I then suggest, why would I then think okay here's a forty year old that's never been spiritual in their life but I think all of a sudden now they're just God's chosen, now all of a sudden they've got it right with the Lord, they're going to want to serve God with their life that's wishful thinking, now I'm not saying it couldn't happen, but I'm just saying we don't really have a pattern of that yet you could be a little skeptical of his spirituality at this point, he says in verse eight 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 will I serve the Lord and the king said to them go in peace so he rose and went to Hebron, now again this is bizarre why does he have to go to Jerusalem to serve God, number one why did he make a vow vows aren't even really necessarily the best course of action and additionally why if you're being brought back to Jerusalem then you go back to Hebron to then worship the Lord his story doesn't even make sense his story doesn't add up and number one we see there is a possible motive why would Absalom conspire against David, number one he doesn't like his judgment, number two because he wants to be king why is the motive oozing out every time he talks to all these different people all the children of Israel, oh that I were made judge of the land so don't we have a clear motive for Absalom's conspiracy, number two though is we need to examine the facts and anytime you're examining a situation you need to look at both sides of an argument or of a situation, let's give Absalom the benefit of the doubt and let's look at the most favorable options or information about the situation and then let's look at the least favorable and honestly when we examine the facts I don't know what the favorable things are for Absalom I mean in what way, you could say okay well Absalom took Tamar in after she was taken advantage of, that was a pretty nice thing to do seems like he loved his sister he cared about his sister, it's kind of a perverted justice but obviously slaying Amnon kind of shows that he thinks that obviously rape is a sin worthy of death but if we were to try to evaluate all these things like where we put an Absalom on the spiritual meter here I mean he's really wanting seems pretty carnal seems like he's got some really bad motives here, seems like he has a lot of negative facts stacked against him illustrating that this guy's not really wanting to serve God here and so when I'm trying to think about this conspiracy theory I want to think about the motive, I want to think about the facts but then I also want to think about Bible doctrine and think about does his actions match the scripture why what verses in the Bible relate to what Absalom is doing and illustrating his heart, so we've kind of seen these actions and some of these are really kind of overlapping related but what if we go to Proverbs and we look up some verses on flattery is this going to say that this person's a pretty good guy or is it going to say that this guy's got seven abominations in his heart is it going to say this guy you can't believe anything that comes out of his mouth I mean when someone flatters you you can't believe anything that they say and so we already see from a biblical perspective this looks like the writings on the wall, Absalom's going to commit this kind of conspiracy and then when we start reading it makes perfect sense the conspiracy was strong now let's look at a few more verses in this chapter look at verse 31 so again, what is a conspiracy? It's a plot that's secret to cause harm or evil who's the harm or evil against? David, and who are the conspirators? Ahithophel, Absalom, most of his servants didn't even actually know, the Bible says that when they went to Hebron they thought they were going to serve God that's how silly they were, you know and it's funny there's a lot of people that go to church today and they think that they're serving God with their little pastor, they think their pastor and their church is serving God, why? because they don't even know anything in the Bible and they don't even understand why all of the actions they're taking are actually not spiritual or not scriptural whatsoever, because they don't even know what the Bible says and you would think like, hey we're just going to Hebron to serve God with Absalom it's like, well he's like killing people and flattering people and it's like what do you think? You think he's going to serve God in Hebron? Really? it's like how dumb are you? but that's how a lot of people are, they're just so simple minded and so gullible, they just believe everything that someone tells them I mean, just anything someone says they just believe it all Go to 2 Kings 9 So we've kind of looked at a couple places where the Bible brings up conspiracy or conspirators and we've seen that there's some important elements when we evaluate a conspiracy, the motive, the facts and basically what does the Bible say about those facts? What is the doctrine associated with that? Now when it comes to extreme views I kind of want to identify a couple camps as it were when it comes to extreme views on conspiracies one side of the aisle is kind of this idea that you know what, I just inherently believe people are good and that the government would not lie to me and that conspiracies are just too difficult to pull off, so I honestly don't believe that there's any such thing as real conspiracies it's just hyperbolic and kooks and nuts believe in conspiracy theories, that's one side of the camp and also by the way I've had 10 booster shots and you know everything the government says I believe and I'm just really excited about the new 87,000 IRS agents I mean I'm glad they have guns and you know I mean honestly it's hard to even put a lot of people in this camp because typically even people that trust the government they believe that Donald Trump's a conspirator you know so they, it's usually it's very hard to find people that just believe no conspiracies whatsoever but essentially from a grander perspective we're saying this person kind of just believes all government conspiracies are a lie the government's trustworthy, they would never do anything wrong now the other side is the side that believes everyone's lying about everything and that you can't trust any institution nothing the government has ever said or done is true everything's an illusion we are probably living in the matrix so this is this is kind of like the other side of that extremity where they start denying just the nose on your face as it were they deny that the earth is a sphere okay this is your flat earth crowd okay so you got your flat earth crowd and you got your 10 boosters guy alright this is kind of our two extreme views when it comes to conspiracy and really from a biblical perspective the bible is saying don't be either of these guys you know don't be the guy that just says the government can't lie to me and then don't be the guy that says they lied about everything you know this is not a healthy perspective on life and you can find yourself going in really weird directions with both of these perspectives now I get why people gravitate to either of these aisles and this is why it's easy to just be black and white but the bible teaches that you have to use discretion about events and circumstances here here's the ways that christianity likes to be black and white love everybody right I mean isn't that easy isn't it easy to just say love everybody doesn't matter if they're a serial rapist a child molester sex trafficker it doesn't matter if they're just the most hardened satanist you know just love love love love love or you could have an opposite side like just hate hate hate I don't like anyone I'm an incel I just stay home and everybody's bad you know that's easy what's takes a little bit of effort is to say you know what there's some people we love and there's some people we hate you know and you say well what's the determining factor whether you have any potential of being saved or saved love if you can't ever be saved and you're damned for hell I don't love you you know now that's it's really not that much more complicated it just takes a little bit of biblical discernment so the same would be applied in this conspiracy idea of like well I don't want to have to evaluate conspiracies they you know they're not interesting to me pastor Shelley I don't care you know what's going on but this is a foolish attitude because you live in a world that's dominated by a government that's constantly mandating and forcing you to do all kinds of activities and things to just suggest like I'm just going to believe it all or I'm just going to reject it all is going to put you in a dangerous environment a dangerous situation so you have to as the Bible describes prove all things we as God's people should be highly educated we should constantly be testing things the Bible says test the spirits why do we test the spirits because some spirits are bad some spirits are good it's not okay to be apathetic in this area of life because if you're apathetic in this area of life you will make bad decisions and you'll make decisions that affect you and your children for their entire lifetime what are these decisions I don't know how to educate your children what kind of health choices you're going to make for your children what kind of religious decisions are you going to make for your children all of these things honestly stem a lot from your even views when it comes to conspiracy theories and how much trust you're going to put in the government how much trust you're going to put in church how much trust you're going to put in the Bible how much trust you're going to put in your parents and where you're actually lining these priorities up and of course what does the Bible teach we should put all our trust in this number number one is the Bible number two from my personal opinion would be the institution of your family so this would be your father your mother number three would be your church so whatever your pastor and whatever the church is teaching would be your number three so if there's a misalignment here who am I going to believe well if the world's telling me one thing and my church is telling me another I'm going to believe church if church is telling me something and my father or the husband is saying something I'm going to believe the father or the husband if the father or husband is saying something but the Bible is saying something well I'm going to believe the Bible right so we kind of have these spheres of influence and who's over who and who we're going to trust whereas the world just simply says government right parents wrong church wrong Bible wrong that is a dangerous philosophy is a dangerous perspective on life we want to say Bible number one your father figure the head of the house number two church number three and everything else we don't care about so no I'm not saying obviously we still want to then put some level of trust even in the institutions we have in this world okay but we want to make sure they're all in alignment we don't want them to get out of whack and we never also want to let the institutions of this world redefine what the Bible says for us we let the Bible and our father and their church to tell us what how to interpret the world and how to view life so that just gives you kind of a little sample here let's look at some more verses here about conspiracy 2 Kings chapter 9 verse 14 so the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshai conspired against Joram so you see a king conspiring against another king look at chapter 10 verse 9 and it came to pass in the morning that he went out and stood and said to all the people he be righteous behold I conspired against my master and slew him but who slew all these so not only did you conspire all of the nobles all of the princes conspired against Ahab's household and slew all of the wicked kings and leaders that were basically the sons of Ahab look at chapter 12 verse number 20 and his servants arose and made what a conspiracy and slew Joash in the house of Mylo look at chapter 14 and look at verse number 19 now they made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem look at chapter 15 verse 15 and the rest of the acts of Shalom and his conspiracy which he made behold they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel look at verse 25 but Pekah the son of Amaliah a captain of his conspired against him look at verse 30 and Osheh the son of Elah made a conspiracy against Pekah I mean how many times does the Bible have to bring this up for you to realize this is not a one-off thing we see end of the biblical record and of course it makes sense that it's in this section of the scripture because what is this section of scripture it's king coming after king after king after king after king what do we see a king conspiring against another king after another king after another king there's always these all these vying for power everybody wants power everybody's constantly trying to overthrow and there's no new thing under the sun the world that we live in today is no different where kingdoms and rulers and leaders and presidents are constantly involved in conspiracies to overthrow one another governments overthrowing each other all these different plotting and planning and all kinds of assassination attempts that are continually happening even in today's world and it would be naive to think that it just all stopped everybody's now just happy and we just go with the flow and no one's ever conspiring against another person every conspiracy theory is just bogus you know that would be a very naive approach now I looked up a couple articles and they talk about conspiracies that are true so they'll say like you can even find websites though you go on and they'll just say look these are conspiracies that everyone just agrees that they're true the US government won't even deny that these things happen and I didn't use all of them I'm just using a few one of them was that in the past big tobacco knew that cigarettes cause cancer and lied about it now it says the conspiracy for decades tobacco companies buried evidence that smoking is deadly and in fact in the 1950s research was shown an indisputable statistical link between smoking and lung cancer but it wasn't until the late 1990s that Philip Morris the nation's largest cigarette maker at the time even admitted that smoking could cause cancer so we're talking about decades and decades of propagandistic type messaging coming from cigarette manufacturers even articles even just advertisement like TV commercials where they're saying the exact opposite of the truth I remember I watched a clip of this and this ladies like you know they find a really attractive woman you know smoking a cigarette and it's like ooh the clean air that's coming from the cigarette it's like what are you talking about you know it's so funny to look at these things from hindsight obviously and just to realize how willing they were to lie back then and then think like oh but they wouldn't do that today right the government and manufacturing companies and industries would never lie to the American people about the effects of drugs or alcohol these different type of marketing ploys that they have I mean there's products that were made in the past Coca-Cola who knows is that Coca-Cola is literally infused with cocaine at the beginning they were putting cocaine and they said man they're really addicted to this drink and why would I think okay they're putting cocaine and coke back then given cigarettes saying that they're good and they were lying about it what kind of health and medical advice is the government telling me today that might later be found out to be a fraud that might later be realized like you know what that's not actually good medicine they were suppressing certain information about it I mean when it comes to vaccination I believe that there's a lot of questions there that we don't know simply because they won't do double blind studies on it simply because vaccine manufacturers can't even be sued for the ramifications of their product you know that sounds like they're pretty have a lot of reliability in their products you know we don't want to sue we don't want you to sue us for that you can't even talk about it or you're just instantly censored or deplatformed or this YouTube channel probably shut down pretty soon just for mentioning that you know that how does that not rise suspicion in your heart I mean think about this you say okay well let's examine it for a second let's just examine vaccination for a second motive is there any motive I don't know how about the trillions of dollars that are given in government money to buy a product that's given to you for free so then you don't even have to market it really because frankly speaking it's already been paid for and I think that a couple trillion dollars would motivate a few people out there I've heard I don't know you could think about that for yourself what about just the facts on it okay fact double blind studies not being done you can't sue the manufacturer there's no a lot of the more recent vaccines especially related to COVID-19 we haven't even had time to experiment that like it's basically a brand new technology that hasn't stood the test of time hasn't gone through a lot of experiments to see what's actually going on plus people don't even realize the complexity of the human body to understand how difficult it would even be to understand the ramifications of a vaccination in your body I mean because there's so many different environmental factors that affect your health and your you know your future plus how do we even know that you could take the vaccination and it wouldn't hurt you five years from now 10 years from now 20 years from now we don't even know that because we haven't had the time to study it so it's like there's all these different facts that are asking you saying like this is weird this is suspicious this doesn't really make any sense and then if you look at it from a biblical perspective from a biblical doctrine show me vaccination in the Bible show me anywhere in the Bible that teaches that you're not healthy and you need to be injected with some kind of disease in order to be healthier show me that logic the Bible typically has the exact opposite logic saying hey if someone's sick stay away from them hey if there's something unclean wash your whole body and stay away from everyone else until you basically had enough time for those germs or that bacteria to dissipate and no longer be active on your body I mean the Bible has really extreme standards when it comes to sanitation and health that most of our society doesn't even employ I mean if a woman gave birth in the Bible they would have to stay shut up and kept up for a long period of time several weeks here whereas most women they'll give birth and they'll be out in about five days later seven days later and I'm not telling you how to live your life I'm just saying that obviously the Bible's standard for health and practice is often a little bit more stringent than we even employ today but it's certainly not saying hey drink poison inject yourself with disease hey someone's sick and they're coughing get in their face and just kind of like soak it in or whatever my mom took me to what would call a pox party when I was little who took their kids or knows their kids went to yeah my mom would take me to this and it's like to me the logic of that's kind of bizarre now I'm not saying that you're a bad person for doing this I'm just saying that really does that fit the biblical model though does the Bible say like hey someone got leprosy over here let's all go have a party at their house or does it say like let's get them outside of the camp you know let's not talk to them and let's have them cover their mouth even just masks in general you know they want to force you to put a mask over your nose but did the Bible when it talked about someone with leprosy to cover their nose or just cover their mouth it's like why is me not being able to breathe help you not get sick also where in the Bible did it say that healthy people wear masks I thought it was the sick people that were wearing the mask so when we start looking at biblical doctrine we say this doesn't line up we see the motives there the facts aren't making sense and the Bible's not making sense sounds like a conspiracy sounds like something that I should be skeptical of here's another admitted conspiracy by the US government it's called Operation Northwoods now who knows anything about this or heard about that Operation Northwoods this is a proposed false flag operation against American citizens that originated within the US Department of Defense of the United States government in 1962 so in the 60s there was a cold war situation there was a lot of pressure from Russia where America and Russia were kind of at odds with one another there was a lot of threats of nuclear warfare and Russia had basically procured some kind of an agreement or affinity with Cuba and why that's important is Cuba's pretty close to the United States so if you could actually put nuclear weapons in Cuba then they could actually launch from Cuba into America and actually hit some really important target cities in America whereas Russia and America were pretty far apart they couldn't necessarily send missiles that far from parts of Russia over in America at the time okay I'm not saying I don't even know what the technology is today I think it's advanced quite a bit or maybe that's more realistic today but at least back then that was a threat Cuba was a very unstable place had a lot of communism so the US department organized a bunch of documents suggesting that the government would perform false flag operations as a pretext to invade Cuba and just to ensure that they didn't have these nuclear weapons or they couldn't actually nuke the United States that was basically the essence of what this was now John F. Kennedy was the president at the time and John F. Kennedy was assassinated I'm not going to talk about that that would be an interesting subject for this sermon but John F. Kennedy had a lot of investigations later into his assassination and things and some of the documents associated with him being president were released later this was one of them so it's an unclassified document that we get to see what they literally set before the president to say hey John F. Kennedy do you want to do this now I've read the actual document I looked at the actual documents you can go look this up you can just type it in the internet you can read it and when you read it it will really blow you away what they wanted to do I'm not going to read all of it but I'm going to read some of it this is what the US government was wanting to do we could blow up a US ship in Guantanamo Bay and blame Cuba so they said we'll just blow up a military ship and we'll just blame the Cuban this is what they're saying hey president do you want to do this talk about domestic terrorism they said we could develop a communist Cuban terror campaign in the Miami area in other Florida cities and even in Washington now this what they're suggesting is that they would have fake people in Miami that are Cuban terrorists doing terrorist type activities in the area and then just blaming Cuba like I don't antifa or something right here's one hijacking attempts against civil air and surface craft should appear to continue as a harassing measures are condoned by the government of Cuba so they said they want to hijack civil airplanes and water crafts and then blame the Cubans for having hijacked these vehicles this is not 2001 this is 1960 ok folks just wait number 8 this is all of the suggestions it is possible to create an incident which will demonstrate, I'm sorry this is in context of hijacking it is possible to create an incident which will demonstrate convincingly that a Cuban aircraft has attacked and shot down a chartered civil airliner in route from the United States to Jamaica, Guatemala Panama or Venezuela the destination would be chosen only to cause the flight plan route across Cuba passengers could be a group of college students off on holiday or any grouping of persons with a common interest to support chartering a non-scheduled flight since they want to get a bunch of college students in an airplane fly it over Cuba and shoot it down they say this also about this plan specific to this airliner the aircraft an Eglin AFB would be painted and numbered as an exact duplicate for a civilian registered aircraft belonging to a CIA proprietary organization in the Miami area at a designated time the duplicate would be substituted for the actual aircraft and will be loaded with the selected passengers all boarded under carefully prepared aliases the actual registered aircraft would be converted to a drone take off times of the drone aircraft and the actual aircraft will be scheduled to allow a rendezvous south of Florida from the rendezvous point the passenger carrying aircraft will descend to minimum altitude and go directly into an auxiliary field at Eglin AFB where arrangements have been made to evacuate the passengers and return the aircraft to its original status the drone aircraft meanwhile will continue to fly the flight plan when over Cuba the drone will be being transmitted on the international distress frequency a mayday message stating he's under attack by Cuban MiG aircraft the transmission will be interrupted by destruction of the aircraft which will be triggered by radio signal this will allow ICAO or that's the international I think like commercial airline organization radio stations in the western hemisphere to tell the US what has happened to the aircraft instead of the US trying to sell the incident this is what they're proposing they're saying they're going to get a bunch of just government workers to pretend like they're college students get on an airplane that's a military plane that's been painted to look like a commercial airliner they're going to fly near Cuba and then once they're going to go really low where radar can't quite detect them and they're going to have a drone kind of fly and then kind of pick up that pattern and they're going to go down and land so that way from like a radar perspective that you just see the dot going and then it just keeps going essentially or it just kind of appears like the plane just kept going whereas the plane will deboard everybody will get off and they were all fake just paid you know government workers whatever to get off of that flight and then they'll just blow up this plane somewhere in the ocean and say Susie died and Johnny died and all these fake people that they've created they'll say all these US citizens died get everybody all upset about it and then say we got invade Cuba that's what they're saying number nine this is another suggestion is it is possible to create an incident which will make it appear that the communist Cuban MiGs have destroyed a USAF aircraft over international waters and unprovoked attack. Approximately four or five F-101 aircraft will be dispatched and trail from Homestead AFB, Florida to the vicinity of Cuba. The mission will be to reverse course and simulate faker aircraft for an air defense exercise in southern Florida. These aircraft will conduct variations of these flights at frequent intervals crews would be briefed to remain at least 12 miles off the Cuban coast however they would be required to carry live ammunition in the event the hostile actions were taken by the Cuban MiGs on one such flight a pre-briefed pilot would fly tail end Charlie at considerable interval between aircraft while near the Cuban island this pilot would broadcast that he had been jumped by MiGs and was going down no other calls would be made the pilot would then fly directly west at extremely low altitude and land at a secure base at Eglon auxiliary the aircraft would be met by the proper people quickly stored and given a new tail number the pilot who had performed the mission under an alias would resume his proper identity and return to his normal place of business the pilot and aircraft would then have disappeared at precisely the same time that the aircraft was presumably shot down a submarine or small service craft would disperse F-101 parts parachute etc. at approximately 15 to 20 miles off the Cuban coast and depart the pilots returning to Homestead would have a true story as far as they knew such search ships and aircraft could be dispatched and parts of aircraft found so they're basically saying they're going to take an aircraft fly it low again make it land and then they're going to have him make the distress calls like he got blown up then they're going to take a bunch of blown up aircraft parts dump them in the sea and then just pretend like our pilots are being shot out of the sky and killed and this guy was being murdered this is what the government was proposing in 1960 they're handing it to the president saying we're ready to go like we're ready to plan this and get this stuff underway not only that I mean there's a lot more elaborate they were going to take a bunch of military bases and like bomb them and pretend like there's like actual war and all these threats they're going to do a lot of stuff in Texas because it's close to Cuba this is what they were literally planning and it's funny to me because you'll bring up certain things that have happened in our country's history and say like I think the government might have faked this or there might have been crisis actors or something like that oh you believe in crisis actors what do you think these people were according to the actual government documents and they weren't even suggesting like it couldn't happen they're saying like oh yeah definitely these are the people that would work with us or do the thing go to Ezekiel 22 for a moment go to Ezekiel 22 for a moment now it's funny is September 11th you know we need to remember September 11th right 9-11 now what happened in 9-11 didn't a bunch of airplanes get hijacked as a pretext to say that these bad people that we should go to war with that doesn't sound like a familiar narrative that doesn't sound like and you know people say like oh you really think the government's going to kill a bunch of people well number one yeah I do but number two notice that in a lot of their plans the people that were actually on these flights were just fake people they weren't actually real people they're personalities that have been made up and they're government workers essentially I think that one of the air flights the one either the Pentagon or the one that crashed down in Pennsylvania because there was four planes that were hijacked supposedly in 2001 it was like you know 180 seats or something like that or 150 seats type of airline but it was only like 30 people on the flight and they just all worked for like the Pentagon or like the airplane company and it's just like oh okay I wonder you know why they have only specific government workers that were on this flight that were scheduled if they could just walk away after this flight wasn't really going to hit into any kind of building plus you know a lot of eye witnesses in 9-11 said that when they saw these planes going in they didn't actually even look like commercial airlines they're dark looking or they're different shapes they're different sizes different speeds different all kinds of eye witness accounts that happen but if we were going to evaluate 9-11 let's just again think about my three fold test right what was the number one thing how about motive okay well is there any motive for 9-11 to have been fake well it's the world's largest gold repository was under the twin towers and the majority of that gold was not recovered after the 9-11 attacks that sounds like a possible motive Larry Silverstein who had an insurance policy on building 7 was the first person to ever get a domestic terrace insurance on a building and collected on that policy a multi billion dollar policy I don't know if that's a motive to you know collect on a big insurance policy insurance scams never happen right how about the Patriot Act which is already written before this then just is easily passed in Congress stripping people of a lot of privileges and rights how about the war in Iraq which then affords us oil also heroin and a lot of other things that were going on in the Middle East that give us how about just all the manufacturers of military equipment that we're going to later leave and give to the Middle East you know to the Afghan East or whatever I mean I think there's like so many motives it's not even funny number two how about the facts you know this is what I say if someone's like I don't think that 9-11 is an inside job I don't think there was anything weird about it I just say okay well how did a 47 story skyscraper building 7 fall in 7 seconds flat due to office fires you know it's like that's a pretty big smoking gun like explain to me how has no building ever fallen to fires like that before that event and after that event like it's just never happened what he's like well I mean I don't even know what they say they just don't say anything and you can't even talk about it right there used to be all kinds of videos online of this but a free fall speed means that there's zero resistance from a building most controlled demolition experts will suggest like that's not even possible unless you take out the lower beams and it's just falling straight down because the structure itself would slow down any type of collapse let alone office fires this the 47 story skyscraper Solomon's building which is building 7 which did not get hit by a plane in the middle of it had a bunker built specifically for Rudy Giuliani the governor of New York to withstand the most intense hurricanes and all kinds of natural disaster events that if there was anything bad ever happening in New York he could be safely and secure in this one building but this is the building that failed with office fires right a government building filled with all kinds of government institutions ranging from like IRS activities other type of government agencies has the most secure bunker ever built in it fell in seven seconds flat due to office fires what a house of cards that is I mean who knew it was like hey we can withstand any kind of hurricane any kind of natural disaster what about a small office fire well no I mean that's just gonna totally the building's gonna fall in its own footprint like that it's like oh man you know that's that's scary I mean this this is the kind of bizarre logic yep but so many people today you bring this up and they'll just no that's dumb you're you're not you're cuckoo whatever you really are just showing that you don't care to know what the truth is about a subject and you know I'm not saying you have to believe that 9-11 is a conspiracy theory to be right with God or to be a Christian or any of those things but it just shows that you kind of have an issue with truth in general and if you're gonna be so gullible as to believe those type of things what else are you gonna believe the government what other kind of information would you just say no problem in fact you might just believe anything anybody will tell you which is scary because even churches can lie to you now you say I don't think churches would do that I don't think pastors would lie I don't think pastors would be involved in conspiracy we'll look at Ezekiel 22 verse 25 there is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof like a roaring lion ravening the prey they have devoured souls they have taken the treasure and precious things they have made her many widows in the midst thereof the Bible is saying that the prophets were even conspiring together and it's a sad day that we live in America where so much Christianity is so apostate and the preachers and all these prophets are just on the take and you say well how do they conspire you know I think a lot of them if you think about it a lot of these churches nowadays are these mega corporation types you guys know it very well because you have Life Church this Life Church thing that exists here is so giant I mean it is a major company bringing in millions and millions and millions of dollars tons of locations this is a serious operation here's the question what kind of things would people look the other way to just to make sure that this organization keeps running and often that's what happens a lot of these churches they get so big and there's so much concentrated power so much money being poured in that when pastors start doing shady things start being pedophiles or all kinds of weird junk they always want to sweep it under the rug or they want to conceal it or hide these things look the other way because they just don't want the whole thing to get turned down for the house of cards they are and they end up conspiring against the people concealing information from the people allowing wolves to come in allowing people to hurt and harm on top of the fact that they don't have the right Bible doctrine I mean Life Church is a joke ok folks they're not serious about the things of God this is like going and following Absalom to Hebron to serve God you're an idiot if you think that Life Church is serious about the things of God just like if you think that 9-11 official story is legit you're also an idiot now maybe you could be ignorant you know you could be pretty ignorant if you've never looked into those things I can get that but you know if you've looked at the facts and you still just walk away saying everything seems reasonable then you really just are so detached from reality that you need a reality check that's why I'm calling you an idiot ok Acts chapter 23 go to Acts chapter 23 for a second now I kind of talked about one side mostly people that are just so anti conspiracy theory these people need a reality check hey there's some conspiracies out there see the Bible 9-11 was an inside job folks ok now I'm not going to get up and tell you exactly all the ins and outs of that you say ok well how many people really died or what planes did they use or which government officials are in on it I don't know I just know that what they're telling us is not true I just know there's a lot of shady stuff going on I just know that the building that fell instantly in its own footprint the passport didn't you know magically make it through all that you know we didn't find the black box on the airplane but we found the hijackers passport laying on the street and you think I'm joking that is the official story they say that there was people just walking up and down the street of all the debris of all the destruction and they just found the passport of one of these hijackers you're an idiot if you think that happened I mean that is bizarre that people could even kind of believe these things ok but let's let's talk about the other side for a moment because then you start thinking like oh man the government is lying about everything everything the government said everything the government did is just all fake and to me it always leads to flat earth that's where you finally just get to the point where you're just a complete brain dead person where you literally get to the point where you think the earth is flat because if you think the earth is flat you are an idiot at best case scenario you're an idiot worst case scenario you're wicked too and it's just a complete and absolute denial of all reality and truth and I think that there's some gateways to flat earth some gateway drugs here's one that just bothers me personally and I'm going to get a few things off my chest this morning but it's the moon landing being fake ok people will will start falling for the idea that the moon landing is fake and then they'll eventually become a flat earther just because it's kind of it's a lot of the same concepts because all it's just saying is everything that NASA does is fake everything NASA does is wrong and you kind of have to buy into all that to even get to flat earth because of all the thousands of images and videos and just anything that has anything with math or science or reasoning or logic you have to deny all of that to then say that the earth is flat well stair stepping that is saying like well if the earth is is flat then we didn't go to the moon because they have pictures of them being on the moon and looking at the earth and it being a sphere so it's like you'd have to believe in that you'd have to believe in a lot of weird things you know you have a lot of bizarre attitudes and energy and frankly I won't ride in the car with someone that's a flat earther so you know if I ask if I haven't ridden with you before and I ask you don't be too offended because it's not that I take I'm not saying that you're a bad person I just ask everybody okay it's kind of like at the door right I ask everybody if they're going to heaven and I ask everybody that's going to drive me anywhere what shape is the earth okay because I don't want them to drive me off the edge folks okay now when it comes to the moon landing being fake I surprisingly enough it's weird going to public school my science teacher in the sixth grade I believe it was six or seven something like that made us watch an entire documentary about how the moon landing was fake and I didn't believe it then and I've never believed that it was fake so it's not that I haven't been exposed to it it's not that I haven't sat down and heard all the evidence you know there was a special done on NBC I think it was where they aired a whole documentary exposing the moon landing being fake and that was kind of like where a lot of this is coming from and most all the arguments they use in this documentary in the 90s or whatever it was is where what everybody still says today it's just the same tired old arguments of the same stuff they just keep recirculating and it just really bothers me because if you just take like five seconds to examine any of the evidences they bring up it just instantly shows that these people don't do any real research just kind of like flat earthers they'll literally take a level and put on the ground and be like see it's flat you're just like what or they'll take binoculars at sea and they'll look out and they can see a little bit further oh see it's flat I'm like are you looking at the horizon do you realize that there's clouds touching the horizon have you ever just looked at the highway and you see clouds touching the horizon and then if you drive like an hour in that direction those exact clouds that you were looking at are now above your head and then they go over your head and then everything that's true just goes over the flat earthers head okay it's like whoa buddy you're that dumb but it's kind of similar with the moon landing stuff now go I had you keep say say where you are in X but go to Proverbs 2 go to Proverbs chapter 20 I want to show you in the verse here but let's think about it my three test motive what is the motive of lying about going to the moon it's like oh well we wanted to we want bragging rights against Russia you know space race yeah but that's kind of silly because technology was advancing so rapidly at that point and people didn't really know where it was going that if we lied about it how we wouldn't how would we know that Russia wouldn't figure out that we lied about it and then make us look like idiots for having lied about it or faked it or something like that and it's kind of a bizarre motive plus what does that really accomplish I mean oh we went to the moon and you didn't okay you know like we're still going to send nukes into Cuba and nuke you it's like you know how does that impact anything really you know oh well money the money grants for NASA research to go into space they probably have plenty of money anyways I mean yeah I get that there's some money to be spent there but that would be to suggest that every government institution is in the same way like I don't even believe there's roads no the Department of Transportation really makes roads it's like well they're getting they're they're taking skimming money off the top sure but they're still building roads I mean have you seen only the roads have you ever used water or electricity did you realize the government's giving water electricity public transportation police force fire department I mean yeah I believe in government corruption at every level but let's not forget that they actually provide a lot of services military there really is a navy there really is an army there really is an air force there really is satellites I mean we're benefiting from so many things that come from the government institutions why am I thinking to say but but NASA there's no benefit they're not doing anything it's just all a scam for money it's like that's a little bit extreme that would be almost suggesting to me there's no roads or something of course we sent rockets off we've seen it people have seen them shooting the rockets off we have satellites we use the satellites for all kinds of technology that we have today so really you would have to suggest that we went all the way near the moon but we just didn't get on the surface or we just shot rockets up and just pretended as we went in a little circle or something but this is what I thought was funny I saw someone making fun of these people that don't believe we went to the moon saying it would be more difficult to fake the moon landing than just going to the moon so like I think we just went you know it's like but here's usually the number one evidence that I see is they'll have pictures of the American flag on the moon's surface and it'll be it'll look like the flag's waving and they'll say well there's no wind in a vacuum so therefore it's obviously done in a studio by Stanley Kubrick and they had a fan and I'm like okay well let's just take five seconds to look at the picture because if you just look at the picture there's a giant metal rod stretched across the top of the American flag and you can see that the flag's scrunched up on top of the metal rod so because here's the thing they aren't stupid like you they realized too that there wasn't wind in space and that if they just took a flag it'd just be you know just limp that doesn't make a good photo op does it so of course they put a metal rod at the top of an American flag so they could scrunch out the flag over and again it's a little wavy on purpose so it looks like it's blowing it's a picture it wasn't a video of it waving it was a picture you can't tell if something's in motion in a picture necessarily you can do all kinds of tricks you can make it look like someone's running backwards just because you're playing in reverse right or you could make the flag but that's a silly thing I don't believe you're laying on the moon just because a picture of the flag looks like it's waving that's a silly argument number two reason I've seen they say well you can't see any of the stars in any of the photos but anybody that's ever taken a picture or realized that the exposure rate on any camera affects lighting so much because if you turn the exposure high enough up to see the light it would just be all white the screen would just be white whereas if you turn it all the way down then you can't see any of the lights in the background it's you know I've been working on this film for our King James Bible documentary and some of our filming didn't come out that great so we'll try to change like the exposure and stuff sometimes even the settings get a little weird but we filmed this guy named Dr. Phil Stringer and he's wearing kind of like a light colored shirt and he's kind of on a light colored background like this and when it exposed it looks like a floating head with a tie on because the shirt and the background just to get so white it's just colored out of the white and it'd be like oh color making things up with floating heads on ties or something it's like no it's just the filming didn't go that well and we're talking about modern day cameras we're not even talking about the cameras that they're using in the 1960s folks sorry that they didn't get all of the stars exactly how you wanted in every single photo that they took in space that's not, how can I just instantly disprove the moon landing because their exposure rate is not capturing every single light source that's out there number three I've seen oh the shadows aren't right well most of the time this is what they say about this is you'll see images of Neil Armstrong or somebody coming off of the spacecraft and they're in the shadow so like you have the sun obviously as a main light source and he's kind of on the back side of it so there's a shadow but he's like lit up and they're like well that means there had to have been another light source Ergo, Stanley Kubrick, he had all these lights in his studio or something but have you ever read in the Bible where God made two great lights or made two lights a greater light and a lesser light do you ever realize that the moon is a light have you ever seen the moon you know walking on the moon it's like you're walking on an illuminated surface so of course all of the sunlight hitting the moon you know what happens it bounces off the moon and it creates light I mean the moon is bright can you imagine walking on something like that of course it's going to be lit up you're going to have all the light reflecting off of the moon's surface and coming onto you so of course that's instantly disproven as well and then they have the Van Allen radiation belts which I'll talk about in a second look at Proverbs 20 verse 14 the Bible says it is not saith the buyer I brought up this proverb for a reason because the point of this proverb is that people will conceal their motives they'll tell you one thing but they conceal their true motives and then later when they get what they want out of you they'll brag about it and this is what I kind of would call the guru fallacy and this is what's frustrating that people will do is they will reject a whole group of people it's information and advice for a guru so you will literally the people will watch a YouTube video with one person saying things like the moon landing is fake and radiation belt blah blah blah and then you'll reject all of what NASA is saying for this one person and let's be real people who don't believe in the moon landing they are not radiation experts they did not study and develop testing for the Van Allen radiation belts that they've gone through and seen how it doesn't work they're trusting the opinion of this random person on YouTube saying you can't travel through the Van Allen radiation belts but they don't actually know any of that they have no idea why that's true they don't understand radiation they don't even understand how many rads are there they don't know anything about a CAT scan they don't know anything about going to the dentist and getting their teeth on an x-ray right? they're going to do nothing but they're just going to reject all of the moon landing for this one person's opinion and that's going to be the same with purchasing or buying something right? if you just get one person that has a vested interest in it they might just give you false information hey I want to buy your house and you're like oh okay I was thinking like $100,000 for it oh man it's not worth that at all you'd be lucky to get 50 you know what I'll give you 60 for it you know it's like you're trusting the guru whereas wouldn't it be better to get a bunch of people together and a bunch of counselors and the multitude of counselors that are safety and get a lot of opinions you know isn't that what they do truly to find the price of a property is they'll go and get comps they'll go and see a lot of houses that have all been sold that are relatively equivalent to your particular property and then by that research they'll suggest a price whereas you get this one person that wants to buy it but he's telling you how terrible it is how can you even trust that person's opinion so you get one flat earther on a YouTube video that's telling you oh the moon landing is fake why because the moon landing has to be fake or his stupid flat earth nonsense even makes sense so he's lying to you about it and just making stuff up and just throwing information at you that you don't know anything about to try and conceal his true motives this makes me think of a lot of pastors in this world today that'll get up and say you know what that's not what it says actually in the Greek let me tell you what the Bible actually says here but you don't know Greek and so you're going to throw out the 54 scholars of the King James Bible you're going to throw out William Tyndale you're going to throw out the Bishop's Bible you're going to throw out all the manuscript evidence that throughout all history is pointing you to the actual words that you have on your hands today for one guru to just stand up and just say you know what actually this is what the English Bible should say that is a dangerous philosophy and people constantly do this why would I sit here and just accept a guru over the multitude of counselors in any subject especially when I'm not well versed in it myself I don't have the time ever and energy to go and read all the Greek and study every aspect of it all the Hebrew and study every aspect of it look at every manuscript that's ever existent and then decide if I believe that this is the proper English translation or not I have to put my trust in someone am I going to put my trust in the King James translators and the history of the King James Bible or am I going to put in this guru who has a vested interest to tell me whatever he wants oh am I going to believe all of NASA and all of the United States and all of history or this one guru on a YouTube channel that happens to also be a flatheard you know I saw some guys say the reason why the moon landing was fake is because there wasn't six million years of dust in the set well that's because the earth isn't six million years old buddy you know it's like what kind of stupid logic was that and again it just it makes me mad because well there's no way to get to the Van Allen radiation belts how do you know that you really know that according to NASA and a lot of the research they say that if you go through the thinnest parts of the radiation belts it's only point one six or one point one four rads approximately which I know all of you know everything what that means right of course since all these gurus going to tell you that you can't do it if you were to get a CAT scan or something like that it's about two CAT scans worth of radiation someone that works in a radiation profession they can get annually five rads or five REMs and it's still be considered so these astronauts are getting less than one fifth of that in many cases maybe about one fifth of the radiation that people that work in a radiation atmosphere where they do the radiologist or whatever they a dentist or something like that so again you know who are you going to trust well I'm going to I have I have not enough time to finish this but I just want to reflect on what we've kind of talked about quickly there's a lot of conspiracies out there you know and from a biblical perspective the Bible basically teaches that this is the truth and everybody else is a liar every man's a liar whereas the other philosophy typically tries to say you know what I think that everyone's telling me the truth everyone's kind of a good hearted person we don't want to get to that extreme we want to say that this is the only source of truth but then we don't want to get such an extreme that everyone's always a liar about everything because then you just start denying reality you start denying the world that we live in and you start becoming crazy why would I bring up the moon landing being fake because here's the thing our church obviously does a lot of people in this room do believe that a lot of conspiracies are true but I don't want us to walk around looking like flat earth retards and ruining our testimony with normal people out there that maybe are a little they don't necessarily haven't considered a lot of these conspiracies or a lot of the truth in general because what's the biggest conspiracy isn't the biggest conspiracy the devil just sending everybody to hell and what is what is he trying to do he's trying to get you to not trust this not trust the word of God not trust salvation by faith and when we look at the Bible itself you know it really it really passes our our tests when we think about it because what's the motive I mean what is the motive of God giving us this Bible and letting us do whatever we want I don't see an ulterior motive I mean how could how could giving you complete free will you know be a negative thing or a bad thing and I mean from the Bible respective God's letting you do whatever you want when we look at the facts everything in the Bible is always true it's the most reliable document that we've ever had of antiquity it's the the document we have the most of from antiquity it's the number one best selling literature in the world everything that you could ever think of is found in the scripture I mean you can't think of any situation that the Bible doesn't address you can't think of any topic that the Bible doesn't address and of course from a doctrine perspective the Bible especially the King James Bible doesn't have any kind of error it doesn't have any kind of what's I can't think of the word contradiction it doesn't have any contradictions in it so this seems like a reliable source of information you know the conspiracy is really on the devil's side it wants us to go to hell reject the reality there is no God well all physical reality you know testifies there's a God the Bible itself testifies that there's a God you know where did this book come from that's what I would ask the people that don't believe in the Bible okay well where did this come from where did the greatest literature that's ever been written the most complete narrative and story that's ever been told I mean show me a work that's outdone this show me a work that's more cohesive show me something that explains the beginning from the end you can't find it that's why we put our trust in the word of God and in the Bible and we need to be skeptical of man's institutions that exist in this world that are arguably designed from the devil to take away our trust in this because all of these institutions are basically saying trust the Bible or trust the government over the Bible trust the public school over the Bible trust whatever this is what we trust number one because you guys are a bunch of conspiracy people the government is a bunch of conspirators the public institution is a bunch of conspirators medical industry has a bunch of conspirators there's a lot of people out there that want to hurt you and harm you and they're all under the influence of the devil and even any lie even believing that the earth is flat or the moon landing is fake that will cause you to get into some weird heresy weird junk it'll destroy your life believing everything will put weird stuff in your body weird chemicals and everything else so we want to have the right balance of saying what does the Bible say about this test all things and make sure that we're not just a simpleton that believes everything don't believe everything and don't be so apathetic that you're not going to test it out be the person that tests everything trust but verify right let's go some prayer thank you Heavenly Father for the word of God thank you for giving us a way to test things that we can check the scripture that we can see does this match with reality with facts thank you for giving us logic so that we could understand how things actually work that we wouldn't just have incoherent thinking we understand that we get reasoning and logic and truth and math and science all these things from you from the word of God I pray that we wouldn't venture off into weird ideas to strange ideas we wouldn't trust the wrong people but rather we would be diligent we'd be vigilant that we would test the spirits we would try the spirits we would try to see if people are lying to us we could discern flattery we could discern ulterior motives we could discern those that want to hurt and harm our family that want to steal our money and ultimately want to dam our soul want to dam the souls of our family and dam the souls of our city I pray that we be motivated by the truth by the scripture to go out and preach the gospel and to bring people to the truth which would set them free and in Jesus name we pray Amen Final song is 110 in the hymnal, song 110 Alright hymn number 110 All the way my savior leads me 110 All the way my savior leads me All the way my savior leads me What have I to ask beside Can I now extend her mercy Through July and past with my guide Let me be divided stronger Where I pray with him to dwell For I know what e'er befall me Jesus to evolve things well For I know what e'er befall me Jesus to evolve things well All the way my savior leads me shares each mighty path I tread gives me grace for every child leads me there above every thread For my peace gushing from the rock before me lo a spring of joy I see gushing from the rock before me lo a spring of joy I see All the way my savior leads me Oh the fullness of his love to me is promised in my father's house above when my spirit glowed immortal wings its flight to realms of day This my song through endless ages Jesus led me all the way This my song through endless ages Jesus led me all the way Amen. Good singing this morning and with that you are dismissed.