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140. Song number 140. We have an anchor. Song number 140. Song number 140. We have an anchor. Everybody on the first. Will your anchor hold in the storms of life when the clouds unfold their wings of strife? When the strong tides lift and the cables strain, will your anchor drift or firm reframe? We have an anchor that keeps the soul steadfast and sure while the billows roll fastened to the rock which cannot move. Grounded firm and deep in the Savior's love. It is safely more twill the storms withstand for it is well secured by the Savior's hand. Through the tempest rage and the wild winds blow, not an angry wave shall our bark or flow. We have an anchor that keeps the soul steadfast and sure while the billows roll fastened to the rock which cannot move. Grounded firm and deep in the Savior's love. When our eyes behold through the gathering night, the city of gold our harbor bright, we shall anchor fast by the heavenly shore with the storms all past forevermore. We have an anchor that keeps the soul steadfast and sure while the billows roll fastened to the rock which cannot move. Grounded firm and deep in the Savior's love. All right, great job everybody. Let's all pray together. Thank you, Lord, for Steadfast Baptist Church. Thank you for allowing us to gather together here today and praise you, Lord, and we just ask that you bless the service and bless the preaching in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, for our next song, let's go to song number 146. Song number 146, a shelter in the time of storm. Song number 146, just a few pages over. Song number 146. Singing out real loud on the first. The Lord our rock, in him we hide, a shelter in the time of storm. Secure whatever ill be hide, a shelter in the time of storm. Oh Jesus is a rock in a weary land, a weary land, a weary land. Oh Jesus is a rock in a weary land, a shelter in the time of storm. A shade by day, defense by night, a shelter in the time of storm. No fears alarm, no foes of fright, a shelter in the time of storm. Oh Jesus is a rock in a weary land, a weary land, a weary land. Oh Jesus is a rock in a weary land, a shelter in the time of storm. The raging storms may round us beat, a shelter in the time of storm. We'll never leave our safe retreat, a shelter in the time of storm. Oh Jesus is a rock in a weary land, a weary land, a weary land. Oh Jesus is a rock in a weary land, a shelter in the time of storm. Oh rock divine, oh refuge dear, a shelter in the time of storm. Be thou our helper ever near, a shelter in the time of storm. Oh Jesus is a rock in a weary land, a weary land, a weary land. Oh Jesus is a rock in a weary land, a shelter in the time of storm. Thank you so much for coming to CFS Baptist Church. If you need a bulletin, lift up your hand nice and high. One of our officers can come by, get you guys a bulletin. On the front we have our Bible memory passage, Revelation 1 verse 7. If you can quote that after the service, as 18 or under, you can get a treat. On the inside we have our service and soul wanting times, our church stats. Please continue to send in your church stats to your tribe captains and leaders. Also please be in prayer for expecting ladies. We also have our prayer list which we like to go over on Wednesday nights. And so I'm gonna go ahead and go through that. We have the Negara's if you'd continue to pray for health there. Pray for Miss Lucy, her mother's tumors. We've been praying for Brother Cameron in Oklahoma City, his leg. We've been praying for Matt Pendleton for brain cancer. We've also been praying for Miss Eva Garcia's son in law, that their family would be located in a nearby convenient location. Also we've been praying for the Wallach's friend Juan, his cancer treatment. Miss Cooley's stepdad, also cancer treatment. The Scott family have been praying for health for them. Been praying for the Gail's father a kidney. Also been praying for Brother Suhail, his fiance, and getting here as soon as possible so we can have a summer wedding. Alright, that'll be exciting. And then also Miss Ophelia, we've been praying for her daughter who was recently diagnosed with inflammation of the heart. Brother Rich is asking for prayer for back pain and also Brother Randall is asking for prayer for his mother who is recently transported or taken to the hospital. So that's pretty much all I have as far as just requests that were turned in I think for this week but we also know other people are sick too and I like to just say a quick word of prayer as a church family for those. Thank you Heavenly Father for our gathering together this evening. Thank you for expecting ladies. Please be with them during their pregnancy. Please help them and help give them a safe delivery of their child. I pray that you'd also please be with our church family that's got some of these chronic health issues. Please I pray you just give grace unto them. Please give them healing. Please help them with their pain and their affliction. I pray that you'd also give them peace. You give them patience. I pray that you'd also help our church family that's temporarily sick that you would give them a speedy recovery so they get back in church. Pray that you would help our friends that need to hear the gospel that they would have a soul winner come and be able to present that to them and that their hearts would be softened and that they would decide to trust Christ. And I thank you so much for giving us this opportunity to serve you. I pray that this service would be in honor of your son in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Also in the back we have a list of upcoming events. The Dallas Texas Sony Marathon there is a sign up sheet in the hallway. Please please sign up. That way we can organize appropriately. We can anticipate food and everything like that. Who's in here and they're like I'm coming but I didn't do the sign up sheet. All right so okay we got some of you people because y'all might not sign up later either you'll forget. So I'm just trying to get an idea. All right make sure to sign up and then also the Bahamas missions trip April it's coming around it's coming up soon. We do have our new movie ticket invites as well. A lot of people have expressed that these they're really excited to use these and so we've got a ton and the goal is to keep making more and have a lot of alternatives so just make sure to grab tons of these and and be liberal and disseminating them or distributing them. That's pretty much all I have as far as announcements this evening. We'll go ahead and go to our third song Psalm 150 which can be used in our special handouts or you could just use a King James Bible. All right that was Psalm chapter 150. Psalm 150. Psalm 150. Praise ye the Lord praise God in his sanctuary praise him in the firmament of his power praise him for his mighty acts praise him according to his excellent greatness praise him with the sound of the trumpet praise him with the psaltery and harp praise him for the timbrel and dance praise him with stringed instruments and organs praise him upon the loud cymbals praise him upon the high sounding cymbals let everything that hath breath praise the Lord praise ye the Lord praise God the Father praise God the Son praise God the Holy Ghost praise God in three persons. All right great job everybody. Now as the offering plates are being passed around go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Hosea chapter 12. That's Hosea chapter 12. Hosea chapter 12. Hosea 12 the Bible reads Ephraim feedeth on wind and followeth after the east wind he daily increaseth lies and desolation and they do make a covenant with the Assyrians and oil is carried into Egypt the Lord hath also a controversy with Judah and will punish Jacob according to his ways according to his doings will he recompense him he took his brother by the heel in the womb and by his strength he had power with God yea he had power over the angel and prevailed he wept and made supplication unto him he found him in Bethel and there he spake with us even the Lord God of hosts the Lord is his memorial therefore turn thou to thy God keep mercy and judgment and wait on thy God continually he is a merchant the balances of the seed are in his hand he loveth to oppress and Ephraim said yet I am become rich I have found me out substance and all my labors they shall find none iniquity in me that were sin and I that am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt will yet make thee to dwell in tabernacles as in the days of the solemn feast I have also spoken by the prophets and I have multiplied visions and used similitudes by the ministry of the prophets is there iniquity in Gilead surely they are vanity they sacrifice bullocks and Gilgal yea their altars are as heaps in the furrows of the fields and Jacob fled into the country of Syria and Israel served for a wife and for a wife he kept sheep and by a prophet the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt and by a prophet was he preserved Ephraim provoked him to anger most bitterly therefore shall he leave his blood upon him and his reproach shall his Lord return unto him let's bow our heads for a word of prayer father in heaven we thank you for Hosea chapter 12 and I pray that you would fill Pastor Shelley with your spirit and give him the clarity of mind Lord to teach this chapter to us and help us to pay attention and learn more about the scriptures this evening we pray for your hedge of protection over our church and that everyone would make it safely back home after the service we love you and in Jesus name I pray amen amen Hosea chapter 12 we hear in verse 1 the Bible says Ephraim feedeth on wind and followeth after the east wind he daily increaseth lies and desolation and they do make a covenant with the Assyrians and oil is carried into Egypt now throughout this book of the Bible God is constantly bringing up Ephraim as kind of the main leader or renegade really of the children of Israel and at this time we still have the northern kingdom we have the southern kingdom the northern kingdom is considered Israel the southern kingdom is considered Judah Israel is mostly comprising of Ephraim they're a very large group of Israel so they're often being referenced here as a majority and they're very sinful notice here in verse 1 he's saying that Ephraim is feeding on wind now what is the purpose of eating the purpose of eating is for strength you eat in order to gain strength the problem is when you're consuming lies you're not going to become stronger you're actually going to become weaker and we notice that Ephraim is feeding itself on wind and it uses wind here is kind of an analogy and it shows in the next part of this he daily increases lies and desolation so often the Bible will use wind as a picture of lies false doctrine heresy the Bible talks about being carried about of winds and it uses the that as a symbol or a metaphor for being carried about of divers doctrines false doctrine lies and wind in and of itself is is something that's kind of immaterial you can't really put your hand on it it's just there one minute and then it's gone the next and it's also to kind of just think about vanity and lies how they have such a fickle nature they're so immaterial they're just here one minute and gone the next and notice Ephraim is just consuming constant lies now that's easy for us as Americans to understand because our country by and large is feeding itself a lot of lies and feeding itself a lot of vanity and what does that result in a lot of desolation a lot of destruction a lot of things are being tearing torn down structures ideas institutions businesses all manner of things are being constantly destroyed and it's kind of the same situation here with Ephraim where there are culture and decline in the sense that they're constantly feeding themselves on all of these lies but what's also kind of reminiscent of our country is Ephraim is kind of alluded to in this particular passage being very strong and it to me it's kind of they're living off of their past a little bit same with America America kind of has a name that it lives it's considered very strong it's the only superpower in the world but a constant diet of wind or as it's being specific here lies and desolation will cause even the strongest to crumble to falter to be destroyed and to be conquered and so Ephraim is constantly feeding himself all of this this diet of lies and it's a crash course you cannot as a society continually base your reality on lies just like the current transgender movement a society cannot sustain itself when it literally believes that men are turning into women or that women are turning into men you know this is simply happened so fast so that we don't really understand what the ramifications of that ideology are but that ideology is self-destructive it's one that would completely just cave in on itself and cause an entire civilization and society to fold and destroy itself that's why you've never seen a nation built on that you never see a nation built on lies it destroys itself on lies a nation is built on truths and on God's Word and you know the closer you are to the principles of the Bible the more successful you will be the more you feed yourself lies and things that are not true the quicker they're going to crumble it's no coincidence that we see businesses who feed themselves life women run businesses or women only businesses they usually go bankrupt you know you see all these different liberals getting into positions of power throughout the country and their cities are in quick decline destroying themselves increasing in crime you know you have all these women coming into positions of power in the police force whether they're becoming the sergeant or the chief of police or mayors or district attorneys and when have we ever seen a successful city actually reduce its crime through the leadership of women why because it's a lie that women should be in those positions of leadership it's a lie that men can turn into women it's a lie that you can build anything apart from the Word of God and businesses that go quote woke go broke literally they are destroying themselves they're destroying their market and it's only in the short term only in the immediate can they feel like they've had some level of success or the things are working out for them but ultimately it's going to be destruction ultimately they are going to destroy themselves just like Ephraim is going to destroy itself and they make a covenant with the Assyrians but the Assyrians funny enough are going to be the ones to destroy them so even though you make a covenant with your enemy don't think that covenant they're going to keep that covenant when you're a liar typically the covenants you make people are going to break with you and there's no honor among thieves you can say that all you want but at the end of the day you don't want to be pals with a bunch of thieves and liars and everybody's ready to stab each other in the back you know if you look at Roman history and it's kind of interesting and fascinating that as Rome started to decline what would happen is a two-fold thing that was really obvious is they had economic problems and they had leadership problems in fact they had such leadership problems that they would constantly have a new leader be killed and just put a new one in and then just another new one and it got to a point where it suggested through history that those who would protect the Caesar or protect the the leader of Rome would actually sell that position so they would simply just say like hey when do you want us to kill the guy that's in charge and we'll just put another guy in it for you and they just went through emperors and they just went through Caesars like this because there was no honesty amongst any of them and in fact their currency got devalued so much at some points it was like a thousand percent inflation five thousand percent inflation because you know whenever you let corruption get into a civilization it's just headed for a freefall disaster and it's no different with America we're headed down the same road where if we don't have real elections we don't have real integrity in the White House they're gonna just sell that seat to the hottest bidder and pretty soon they'll just start trading in presidents like this they'll kill off presidents whenever they want some people believe they've been doing this for a while now but of course they could just keep changing that hot seat for whoever they want and of course currency could get really extreme you know we feel like we've gone through a hard time having inflation of ten percent fifteen percent it's probably even higher than that but that's what they claim but think about a thousand percent inflation think about five thousand percent inflation essentially what they did is they took their currency which was silver and the Emperor's would just take that coinage and they would take out some of the silver and replace it with other metals and then essentially through that taking of the other silver then they could make more coins but when they made more coins those coins intrinsically had less value this is the same principle we have with our Federal Reserve where they print money it and so essentially devalues the current dollar but it gives them more access to more money in the temporary but it's a it's a vicious cycle that never ends you just they keep printing and keep pretty and the Caesars would just spend all this money on frivolous things giving money to foreign countries I've never heard of that you know spending spending just money on luxuries and parties and on all kinds of frivolous activities bribes and all kinds of other things and even they started spending money on bread and circuses you know or the what the gladiator games to distract everybody from the fact that they were destroying the country from the fact that they were actually just driving the entire country off of a cliff economically but if they had stopped at any point if they had stopped everybody would recognize and overthrow the government so they just basically lulled them to sleep with games and parties and the NFL and in MLB and just you know all kinds of activities music rock concerts cell phones and sorry maybe that was today I got confused while the whole world just constantly crumbled around it and let me tell you something Ephraim is not any different than any civilization before it and guess what America is not any different than any civilization before it either and whenever a civilization feeds itself with lies it's headed down a path of destruction now God also brings up Judah here verse 2 the Lord have also a controversy with Judah and will punish Jacob according to his ways according to his doings will he recommends him I like how God words these things so we are understanding it notice what God is going to do he's going to punish him according to what his doings notice you reap what you sow as a society as a country as a culture in any capacity you will reap what you sow and you cannot continually sow evil and so wickedness and think that you're not going to reap anything of that you know as a country we've been sowing a lot of wickedness in the last 10 years let me tell you something we're going to reap from that we will reap from that and we're reaping currently I mean the children of the current generation are guinea pigs to our experiment and they are going to be permanent many of them are permanently damaged many of them will be permanently damaged mentally physically spiritually emotionally every every category you can even imagine and that's going to cause a lot of collateral damage what do you do with an entire generation of children that have been just brutally savagely you know experimented on it makes me think of Daniel and his friends because you know the Bible says that Daniel was under the authority or was under the master of the eunuchs and what is a eunuch well a eunuch is one who cannot perform in the bedroom now there's a couple reasons why that happens the Bible Jesus explained to us why someone could be a eunuch you could be born a eunuch meaning you had some deformity and you can't perform in the bedroom or it says that sometimes men make men eunuchs this is essentially kind of like a castration process or something that's very you know evil in sense but you basically hurt and permanently damaged someone and make them eunuch and then there was a third category where someone doesn't perform in the bedroom by by personal choice not that they couldn't physically but that they choose not to they are like Apostle Paul where they just decide I'm just going to choose not to get married and to just serve God with my life or a widow could decide I'm no longer going to be active in a relationship I'm just going to simply submit myself unto God and that's your three eunuchs that you have in the Bible but let me tell you something our culture right now through this transgender nonsense is creating a litany of eunuchs through taking them through these processes and you know I don't think that every single one of these children is a reprobate some of them probably are but I think a lot of them are just going to be permanent eunuchs and that's that's sad it's it's a curse it's a curse when all the children are turned into eunuchs it's a curse when you're just destroying the youth and destroying the next generation and of course it's coming from a place of hatred it's a satanic thing Satan always wants to destroy children have you read the Bible he'll throw them in the river he'll castrate them he'll sacrifice them into Moloch he'll do anything he can I mean he loses the abortion battle so now it's the mutilation battle that he wants to get them on but you know anything that the devil can do to hurt and harm children he will do it because the devil doesn't fight fair the devil doesn't play nice the devil will go after the most vulnerable in the most weak which are children and you know what we need men of God and we need men in our country that are actually willing to defend children and to stand up and to say something about it instead of constantly feeding yourself with lies and constantly being well what people do in private that's their own business not when you're hurting children and here's the sick thing as people think that you can be a disgusting sodomite and just live privately but you never can they never will they always go after children and they always will go after children and that's why God put the death penalty on it because if they could just go off and hurt themselves and leave everybody else alone it might not have been a capital punishment worthy of offense but because they can never keep themselves to themselves they're always going to be a predator in nature they're always going to prey on the weak God says look this is worthy of death this is not something to tolerate this is not something to allow to exist in society and to allow that to exist in the society is to hate children it's the hate the youth it's the hate the innocent and it's to love perversion and filth and we can't allow such lies to go on and if we just turn a blind eye if we look the other way as our nation sacrifices the youth under Moloch you know what God's gonna hold us responsible as well read Leviticus chapter 20 read the first part of it because it makes it abundantly clear we as the people of the land cannot just pretend like children aren't getting hurt or the innocent people aren't being sacrificed because when they are it's our fault too for not standing up against it it's our fault too for just feeding ourselves with lies or pretending like it's not a big deal or allowing churches to actually teach that is somehow tolerable or okay or we could never even have of a vile attitude towards those living in that sin John Getch I mean think about that John Getch could have pedophiles coming to his church mutilating their children and we're not even allowed to have a vile attitude towards those people the people doing that type of an activity what what kind of bizarre world do we live in John Getch is guilty of all the wicked filth that's going in in our country for not standing against it and so is that church because his wicked sermons are still up Paul chapels responsible for that because you know what the pastor is responsible for everything preached behind his pulpit and if he's gonna allow that filth and smut to go across his pulpit you know what God is gonna hold him responsible according to what his doings and you know what we have to take responsibility for our actions and we cannot just pretend like well I'm Judah one saved well I'm Baptist well I'm new IV or whatever no no no God will judge you according to your doings you know it's not just faith alone that causes you to have grace all over your life in this life no no your doings are also important and God is going to recompense us according to our ways that's why we you know I'm preaching the choir to those coming on a Wednesday night but let me remind you good decision good decision to show up to church when the doors are open good decision actually raise your children to love God good decision actually read the Bible today because guess what God is gonna judge you according your doings and those who decide you know what church isn't as important for me today church I don't need the Bible I you know and I could just listen online to the sermons I like or something no no no God will judge you according your doings you better you know get your butt in church and sit down right now I want to keep reading here look at verse 3 he took his brother this is talking about Jacob still he took his brother by the heel in the womb and by his strength in power with God yay he had power over the angel and prevailed he wept and made supplication on him he found him in Bethel and there he spake with us even the Lord God of hosts Lord is his memorial now again the context of this passage a lot about strength Ephraim it has strength but he makes this allusion to Jacob also having strength and Jacob is not representative of just Judah Jacobs representative all Israel because that's his name literally he was changed to Israel and Jacob according to verse number 3 it's bringing up he had he had basically grabbed his brother by the heels talking about their birth and it says that he had strength and had power with God if you think about the birth order Esau is the one that was supposed to have the birthright inheritance and the blessing of God but who took that Jacob took it and Jacob took it away from his brother kind of alluding to and showing Jacob's strength and Jacob is described in the Bible as being a very strong man he's in fact so strong he can just lift the lid off of the well he doesn't need any comrades he's just like I got it just knocks it off just just picks it up he's like I'm gonna get the girl and we see his strength and overcoming his elder brother his elder brother you know you think the elder brother is a strength we see in other places in the in the scripture how the firstborn is considered the one to have strength Ruben is supposed to be a strength but yet Jacob stronger and you know what strength is a virtue strength is a good thing we should desire to have strength and in fact Jacob's strength was so overwhelming notice in verse 4 he had power over the angel now who's the angel this is when Jacob wrestled with God and specifically the angel of God which we know to be the pre-incarnate Christ the Lord Jesus Christ was there with Jacob he met a man and they just wrestle like all day and it actually was the Lord Jesus Christ and according to the Bible notice what it says he prevailed not only did he wrestle with Jesus literally he he won in essence now while he's wrestling with Jesus though and he's winning Jesus kind of you know pulls out the tricks okay he pulls how he pulls out his like secret card all right go if you would to Genesis chapter 32 we'll read this a little bit but in order to essentially get out of the situation he initially tries to touch the hollow of his thigh and and and kind of you know I don't know if this is playing by the rules or not but you know I guess you could do whatever you want in this wrestling match but he's not he's done wrestling he's like now I'm gonna just you know touch you and let's read where it says in verse 24 and Jacob was left alone and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day so this is a long this is a long wrestling match verse 25 when he saw that he prevailed not against him so notice the angels realizing he didn't win he touched the hollowest thigh and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint as he wrestled with them so Jacob's winning and then the angel touches him and injures him okay but notice as we keep reading in verse 26 and he said let me go for the day breaketh and he said I will not let thee go except thou bless me not only to Jacob when he then gets you know this you know almost like a cheap shot and then he's still winning did you notice that because he still can't even get out he still wrestled him down he still got him hold it held up and he's like I will not let you go until you bless me so even though he's injured he's still winning about talk about strength talk about a real man you know he didn't he didn't cry when he got a little injured or he got it you know he got a little hurt here he's just still getting the job done he's still moving on and you know you can always tell the real men they keep fighting even when they're hurt you know they're not always just like a quitter they're not just like well my fingernail broke you know no no this guy literally has bones like break you know he's got like stuff going on internally he's just like I'm still fighting and he's still winning and he won't let the angel go until he gets blessed and as we keep reading here it says in verse number 29 and Jacob asked him and said tell me I pray thee thy name and he said wherefore is it that thou does ask after my name and he blessed him there and there's a little bit of a mystery of the name who's the name of this angel the angel bless him in verse 30 and Jacob called the name of that of the place Peniel for I've seen God face to face and my life is preserved and as he passed over a pen well the Sun rose upon him and he halted upon his thigh therefore the children of Israel eat not of the sinew which shrank which is upon the hollow of the thigh under this day because he touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh and the snow that shrank so Jacob is permanently damaged from this fight he wins the fight he gets the blessing there's this interesting mystery of the name of this particular angel and you know praise God we live in the New Testament so we know that name Jesus Christ that is the name of the angel vision or a foreshadowing of how the Jews are going to kill Jesus Christ and they have that temporary moment where they prevail over Jesus and they're going to kill him and yet through that victory we receive the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ now of course Jacob wrestling with this man here I don't think there's anything wrong with it I don't know that there was anything wrong with him winning but obviously the killing of the Lord Jesus Christ was wicked okay we're not we're not comparing these things in the say that they were both good you know Jacob good Jews bad all right but sometimes God can use stories of good and bad to represent future prophetic events regardless of how good or bad they are God compares himself to an unjust judge at one point in the parables that's not because God's an unjust judge it's just the parable fits you know there's other gruesome stories in the Bible like the woman that's the concubine and of the Levite and judges 19 has delivered over to the sons of Belial to be destroyed it's kind of a picture of Christ but you know what that story is messed up you know we're not going to apply a lot of that story to Jesus but we have an illusion there right and even in this story we have a minor illusion here was it right for the Jews to kill Jesus no but did they do it yes and it's kind of foreshadowed here we see Jacob having the strength prevailing over getting that blessing and he doesn't even know the name is so I think that that kind of also alludes to the fact that if you think about it the Jews didn't really know who Jesus was did they didn't really understand who they were crucifying when they crucified him and so there's kind of that mystery element as well but if you think about it he did win but go back to Hosea chapter number 12 wouldn't that potentially give rise to the idea of being really prideful or kind of trusting in your own strength I mean if you wrestled Jesus in one wouldn't that give you kind of a little bit of an opportunity there in the flesh to think like wow look how strong I am but we understand that him wrestling with Jesus is kind of like when dad wrestles with his little kids you know it's not like and sometimes the kids win right it's not because the kids really can win it's because dad let them win all right and we all know that and my kids you can't beat me okay if you win it was me letting you win all right you'll never win don't you but we understand that Jesus is just kind of letting him win he's kind of giving it think about this isn't that the same with crucifixion didn't Jesus kind of let them win it's not like Jesus was really conquered by the Jews he had they had no chance he's like hey at any moment's notice I could have a legion of angels right here you know in fact when he just spoke he's just like hey I'm he you know I'm I am it's like you could fall down they can't even stand in this present I mean it's not like there's a fair fight here folks when Jesus comes in the book of Revelation I mean just the sword that proceeds out of his mouth just consumes all of his enemies and just just like that I mean God is so powerful there's no real comparison but he allowed him to prevail and that sometimes can get to man's head to our flesh same way with us maybe you you are witty maybe you're smart maybe you're cunning maybe you make good business deals maybe you have skill right couldn't you think like oh well I'm really good at basketball or football or I'm really good at making things or making buildings you know it could get to our head where we think like oh wow look how amazing and strong I am but the reality is it's like yeah but by comparison to God it's nothing oh wow you built a building God built the universe I mean just one of God's creations just a bacteria man can't even come you know comprehend how complex that is man can't comprehend a complex the I is or even if even if man could create a physical item that's superior to one of God's creations how can man create free will how can man create the soul how could me I mean there's there's immaterial things that good luck ever creating that create gravity create the laws of thermodynamics create math you know create sigh I mean you can't do these type of things I mean our creations our wealth our strength our knowledge is nothing in comparison to God and yet man wants to glory and himself and his own wisdom and his own strength and his own might and his own achievements often Ephraim is no different Ephraim thinks look how amazing we are look how significant we are yet it's not really by their own strength that they have those things there's nothing wrong with being strong we should be strong we should strive to be the best that we can the strongest that we can be the mightiest that we can be the smartest that we can be hey I'm all for competing in every area and doing the best that you humanly can but let's not let's not forget that dad is wrestling us with one arm tied behind his back let's not forget that without dad we wouldn't have anything carnally speaking and spiritually speaking or Heavenly Father we would have nothing without him we're but dust and so when Jacob is wrestling with this angel even though he wins notice what it says in verse 4 he wept and made supplication unto him so notice he still recognizes who's the real boss here he still recognizes who's the real authority here yeah did you win a little fight here okay but it'd be just like my kids we have a little wrestling match and maybe they win right but when some scary guy knocks on the door who's gonna go get the door dad's gonna get the door oh who's gonna pay the bills dad's gonna pay the bills who's gonna put food on the table dad's gonna put food on the table so there's no question of who's really the supreme being in the situation there's no question of who's the real authority here there's no real question of who your strength is derived from it's coming from God and even though Jacob had great strength he had to recognize well it's really God though that's a sustaining me it's really God though that's blessing me it's really God that I have my ability it's not of my own strength and of my own will you know I need to weep and make supplication unto him and notice he found him in Bethel and there he spake with us meaning and it was as even specifically the Lord God of hosts the Lord is his memorial so when we read in the Bible here what we're understanding is that Jacob still sought the Lord he sought that what is Bethel you know that root word L is kind of God if you understand Hebrew and Beth is in in reference to house so it's the house of God Bethel just generally means house of God and so we have Jacob seeking the house of God we have Jacob seeking the Lord speaking with the Lord making supplication unto the Lord telling me this Jacob is deriving his strength from the house of God Church from God from the Word of God even though he might be the mightiest man ever he might have the most strength the most wealth he might have gotten the most beautiful wife but guess what he's still seeking the Lord and he's still putting God first and we in the same vein need to make sure that we don't get puffed up on our own achievements that we don't rely too much on our strength on our abilities but rather we realize you know what I need God I need to still seek after him he's what's actually giving me my true power and might in this world and I think that another thing that you have to understand is if you're going to do something great for God you know there's going to be a price to pay so we've looked at a couple different aspects of this and this is kind of a really important verse I think so we're kind of spend a little time on it but first application you know is the sense that this is pictures Christ and you know pictures the the death of resurrection and pictures the gospel second thing that I think we can draw from this is it shows how we need to not rely on our own strength we need to rely on the Lord ultimately no matter how much power God gives us no matter how much strength we end up inevitably having but thirdly if you want to do something great with your life if you really want to come alongside God and work with him and do some mighty work for God there is going to be a cost associated you know when the Lord Jesus Christ talked to his disciples he told them to count the cost he didn't say hey you want to be a disciple it's going to be the greatest thing ever it's it's the most prized possession everybody wants to do it you're going to have women and cars and money and houses no no he didn't say that he said you're gonna have to forsake all those things is what he said hey you're gonna ever take houses and lands and wives and children he said you better count the cost to be a disciple and if you're gonna wrestle with Jesus hey count that cost hey you want to win the wrestling match okay be crippled for the rest of your life that's not very much fun is it that's pretty humbling isn't it and of course why does God often do this God will often do this to us to humble us to keep us humble and of a low mindset so we don't get this prideful over-the-top behavior go to 2nd Corinthians chapter 12 let me show you this in the Bible 2nd Corinthians chapter number 12 but you know great men of God often had to pay a very steep price for doing great things for God and we have to understand you know okay Daniel got some of the greatest revelations ever yeah because he was under the master of the Unix how many men want to pay that price right now I'm not willing to pay that price you know and I don't even know if Daniel was that was kind of forced upon him probably but you know what hey you want to you want all these great revelations pay that price you want to be the Apostle Paul here's one price he had to pay how about the fact they never got married you know I don't I can't do that I wouldn't be I'm not strong enough you know he talks about having power over the or power over your will I don't have power over that there's no way I could be like the Apostle Paul so I have to live a different kind of life than he does but that's a big sacrifice you know he was really never in a state of stability either I mean he's in a constant just traveling the world constantly going from town to town having lots of persecution but it gets even more extreme because if you look at 2nd chapter chapter 12 look at verse 7 unless I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations there was given to me a thorn in the flesh the messenger of Satan to buffet me lest I should be exalted above measure for this thing I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me and he said unto me my grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect and weakness most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me therefore I take pleasure in infirmities and reproaches and necessities and persecutions and distresses for Christ's sake for when I am weak then am I strong now there's a really important phrase here for our passage that you know I want you to pay attention to but notice what he says in verse number nine at the end most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me notice in order for the power of Christ to rest upon the Apostle Paul what does he say he has to experience I would rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me so notice he has to actually go through difficulty so that the power of God can rest upon him and that his glory is in his infirmities that the power of God can rest upon him because you know what if the Apostle Paul was the strongest smartest greatest guy to ever live well then maybe the glory would be stripped away from Christ but if the Apostle Paul is contemptible in the flesh if he's rude in speech if he has a shameful past then all the glory goes to who God and of course God loves to use those who are weak because then it shows his what strength it shows the strength of the Lord you know of course when it comes to sports and athletics everybody likes to win but you know sometimes those who are really great they like to win with the biggest group of losers because it just shows how much better they are right they're like look I won with all these scrubs on my team and I don't think that that's necessarily the exact analogy I'm trying to portray here that we're all losers but at the end of the day God loves using people that are just weak not necessarily losers but just weak to show how strong he really is I I'll even do this sometimes I feel like with my own children where I'll take one of the younger ones and we'll team up against Clayton there will team up against the older one and and I love to let the younger one win why so that you know hum a little bit right and and he can show look you think you're great but I can win with a little toddler I can win with whoever's on my team you know and that's the same with God God can win with anybody on his team anybody that puts faith in him and God loves to show how strong he really is God loves to show the glory that yes God loves for you to be backed up against the Red Sea with no escape so he can show you he can open the Red Sea God loves to have you be thrown into a fiery furnace to show that not even your clothes are gonna get burned God loves for you to be thrown into a pit of hungry lions to show you that the the Lions won't even touch you unless God allows it God loves for there to be a storm that's never been seen before and for you to be able to just walk out and gallop upon the sea like Peter did why God loves to show his power and his might but he shows it through weakness he throws it shows it through adversity he shows it through difficulty and you know what Jacob had power with God you know what he had to be marked for the rest of his life he had a consequence of that he had to count the cost what we would do Galatians chapter 6 Galatians chapter 6 and those of you in this room that say I want to do something big for God let me ask you this question do you want to walk with a limp for the rest of your life do you want a thorn in the flesh for the rest of your life do you want someone to just harass you and I mean the messenger of Satan to Buffett you I don't know what this is but it sounds terrible now I've had some glimpses of what this could possibly be but hey but wait a minute doesn't the power of God rest upon you when you get that there's a there's a cost associated and you know why do I why do we need to be lifted up why do we need to have something to glory in you know not only I mean to some degree our body is the most important thing to us if you read Job the devil is trying to get job to basically curse God and to go against God and he takes a few things away and in specific order you know he takes away his children he takes away his money and really when it kind of comes down to it the devil's like well skin for skin all that a man hath is a skin he's like saying this is the last wrong you know the Bible says no man ever yet hated his own flesh but nourished and cherished it so you know when it comes to our health when it comes to our physical body in many cases it's the most precious thing to us many rich people would be willing to give away all of their money just so they could have better health just so they could have youth again or whatever it is string people are paying all kinds of money for plastic surgery just so they can look a certain way because they they care so much about their physical appearance but notice hey being halt that's not a that's not a good thing and you know the Apostle Paul his body ended up having to go on this on the chopping block had to be sacrificed for the cause of Christ and look what it says in Galatians chapter 6 verse 17 for the flesh lusteth against the spirit I'm sorry 617 I read chapter 5 from henceforth let no man trouble me for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus his body was marred for Christ think about this does God get more glory and you being super handsome attractive and physically fit or does he get more glory and you getting beaten up for being a Christian you know what sad to say but he actually gets more glory and those who are willing to take the scars and bear marks in their body for the cause of Christ as opposed to being some great athlete being Tiger Woods or Michael Jordan or LeBron James that doesn't bring glory to God you know that brings glory to LeBron James Tiger Woods to whatever sports athlete it's so funny to me when they always always want to be like I'm doing this for God it's like really that's not the marks that Jesus wants in your body he doesn't want these and again don't hear me wrong I'm not saying don't be athletic I'm not saying don't be strong physically what I am saying is that the true bodily achievements are not what you think there are costs there are their mark because Christ didn't come here to win some sporting events you be it known he would have won them all he would have been had to compete he would have been the top he would have been the first in the draft he would have been the only thing in the draft it wouldn't even matter they would shut down all sporting events because he would have just won he wasn't here for some great physical achievement he was here to show himself as a sacrifice and the Bible says that we're supposed to be a living sacrifice and when we look at Jacob's life it's not to show how strong we are but it's rather to use our strength for him and to put our bodies on the line for him what kind of strength is it hey even when you're physically injured to keep wrestling and you know what for the Apostle Paul to be physically injured and to keep wrestling with the spiritual wickedness in high places for the Apostle Paul to fight the good fight of faith and to say you know what I'm not gonna let go I'm not gonna stop fighting I'm gonna bear the marks of the Lord Jesus Christ in my body and in my infirmities so that I can have the power of God rest upon me so that I can do great things for God because he counted the cost oh I can't even go to Wednesday night church well then how are you gonna take a physical beating for Christ you know people don't even understand what the Christianity is of the Bible when we live in America we're so blessed we have so much prosperity we don't even know what it's like but you know what we should get the right perspective because I believe those that have a purpose in their heart to do great things for God you know big things can be done by them but you know what big costs might have to be encouraged well big costs might have to be heard and you know there are Christians in this world right now that have to suffer great cost to be a Christian beatings martyrs all manner of things that are going on and we ought not to be disillusioned with what Christianity really is just because we live in such a wonderful period of time where we don't have to go through such evil yet I mean we really haven't we haven't seen this level of persecution very much in our country in our homeland hey you know I'm not asking for it I don't want it but what we should do is we should be willing in our minds to do that and not be those who start to build and then later can't finish how embarrassing you know if we say that we're like Peter I'll die with you and then a little girls like hey are you you were you were with Jesus and it's like I know not the man you know that you think Peter loves it when people bring up that part of the Bible Peter's like oh man again it's like don't you'll have another story of the Bible y'all can bring up but you know what even though Peter had his failures he ended up he finished strong and you know how many people are named Peter in this world a lot a lot of people are named Peter even though he had arguably probably the one of the worst failures ever I mean one of the worst failures a lot of Paul's some of some really bad setbacks and some failures in his life so it's not so much how you start you know a lot started pretty good but how many people are named lot didn't finish very strong did he he didn't really count the cost he wanted to keep living in Sodom United States of America his wife sure did she couldn't stop watching RuPaul's Drag Race and so she just turned an assault you know got to turn that stuff off okay you got to get rid of jutube okay that's just the TV in general go back to Isaiah chapter 12 go back to Isaiah chapter 12 I spent a long time on that section but you know it's a powerful section of Scripture and there's some great truths here that we can really unpack and it ultimately is the entire context of this chapter that we've been talking about so it's really good that we've spent time on this because we're not changing our context here look what it says in verse number six therefore what's the therefore because Jacob did not trust in his strength ultimately but made supplication Lord and realize that's where his real strength is coming from turned out of thy God keep mercy and judgment and wait on thy God continually wait often we think of being patient often we think of waiting as just sitting by idly or something but wait can also mean to serve and I believe when he's using it in this context he's saying look serve the Lord wait on the Lord okay not waiting on yourself not waiting on others you know be a servant unto God be like Jacob and seek unto thy God find God speak unto make the Lord your more you know what was Jacob's memorial God you know what Jacob's moral was not himself you know made a memorial of himself Absalom but it was tear it was torn down it was destroyed those who make memorials of themselves will be forgotten those who make the Lord the memorial will be remembered forever says of verse seven he is a merchant the balances of deceit are in his hand he loveth to oppress so you know this is a hard chapter because it just switches a little bit in the context but I believe if you kind of pay attention in verse seven when he brings up the he he's bringing up Ephraim again so he's basically saying hey be like Jacob you know where he's going to sup you know basis up make supplication of the Lord and turn to the Lord but Ephraim's the merchant bounces his heater in his hand he loveth to oppress and Ephraim said yet I am become rich I have found me out substance and all my labors they shall find none iniquity and me that were sin so notice how Ephraim whose Ephraim sound like he's trusting in himself he's trusting his own strength oh I am a merchant oh I've become rich oh I found me out substance I mean look how wonderful I am look how smart I am but how did he get all that money through deceit through unjust gain and additionally he doesn't even think he has any sin now man you want to talk about modern-day Jews this is just like exactly who they are they get their money through through stealing and deceit and they don't think they have any sin do they they're just right with God they don't have any problems verse 9 and I that am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt will yet make thee to dwell in tabernacles as in the days of the solemn feast I have also spoken by the prophets and I have multiplied visions and use similitude by the ministry of the prophets is there iniquity and Gilead surely they are vanity they sacrifice bullocks and Gilgal yay their altars are as heaps in the furrows of the fields so God's saying like oh you don't have any sin oh yes you do why do you think I keep sending all these prophets unto you why do you think I keep showing you all of your problems all of your sins why do I keep showing that there's going to be coming destruction why do I keep I mean think about some of the men that were we're coming at them Isaiah and Ezekiel and Jeremiah these guys had some of the most unique ministries and the fact that they were doing crazy things I mean Ezekiel's laying on his side and eating you know special bread we have you know Jeremiah and Isaiah are doing all kinds of crazy things Jeremiah specifically is like building stuff you know and remember is like what are you doing and they're like planning their underwear by the wall then they're putting it on and it's like what are you doing you know it's all weird they're preaching naked and you're just like this is this is weird and he's like look you know why we're doing all this because you're going into captivity because you're not going to be here because you're going to be punished for your sins because you guys are wicked just as gross as it would be to bury underwear and then put it on it's like what you guys are like embarrassing gross corroded rotten and he's saying I'm showing you how wicked you are of course he brings up Gilead go to chapter 6 he had brought up Gilead before they're like oh we don't have any sin well what did God say about Gilead chapter 6 verse 8 Gilead is a city of them that work iniquity and is polluted with blood so how does God feel about Gilead God's saying like look Gilead is wicked Gilead is full of iniquity it's destroying innocent blood you know innocent children innocent babies you know he's thinking like how can you guys look at what you're doing and then claim that you're sinless and yet it's the same thing even in our country you have these people just I mean they're so full of sin and iniquity and destroying the innocent and blood and it's just like oh we're great you know no problem we don't have any sin issues you know it's absurd it's absurd how prideful they are and of course why do they think that they're good because they're rich because they found out substance you know supposing that gain is godliness supposing that gain is godliness you know churches could get that attitude couldn't they couldn't a church think like well look we've been increasing attendance and are we have a big building we have tons more money than we've ever had we have more staff and they could look at these metrics and say obviously God's pleased with us but wait a minute are the churches with the most money and pastors and buildings today are those the ones that are really serving God the most in America in 2023 I mean if we were to name off the most prosperous churches in America let's judge them for a moment Gateway with Pastor Robert Morris Life Church with Craig Groeschel and Oklahoma City TD Jakes Kenneth Copeland Joel Osteen I'm sure I'm missing some that are out there they're all in Texas it seems like Ed Young I think it's now called Fellowship Church here in the Dallas Fort Worth area I mean are these the ones that are really taking it to the devil the ones who are turning the world upside down with the gospel getting people saved and turned to righteousness no not not all yet they think that they're great don't they why do they think they're great we're adding more campuses I've heard that Life Church is exploding they're gonna start having campuses down here I mean Gateway is exploding there's a gateway everywhere there's a gateway in every part of the city you can find them I mean they just got more money than they know what to do with I think I read one time because they have to put their numbers out publicly they like release their income I think they have like 60 million dollars in income for one year 60 million dollars that's a lot folks that's a lot of money I mean you could do a lot of things with that kind of money when it's coming in and you know I guarantee they looked at that and they said look how great we were doing look how much the Lord's blessing us I found out substance I am rich you know there was a church in the Bible that said that we're rich and increased with goods but what did God say about them they were blind poor miserable and naked and they weren't really seeking God were they Ephraim is no different Ephraim is one and we don't want to be Christians we don't want to be a church we never want to get down this road where we look at ourselves and think oh look how rich we are look how strong we are look how mighty we are look at the things that we've gotten personal no we want to be the ones that are seeking after God we're weeping after God we're making supplication unto him we're finding him out says in verse 12 and Jacob fled into the country of Syria and Israel served for a wife and for a wife he kept sheep now the last three verses are very interesting I'm just going to kind of give my opinion but if you have a different idea you could share that but here's the here's the thing when it talks about Jacob fleeing into another country I think he's kind of alluding to the fact that how they're gonna have to go into Syria Jacob had to go for a period of time in Syria and if you think about it Jacob was kind of punished in Syria because he had to serve Laban and when he describes that that time that he was there as a time of affliction the time where Laban changes wages ten times and how he was afflicted and his fingers were frostbitten and he basically went through affliction and he was serving for a wife you know it's it's sad because you wouldn't you really shouldn't have to serve that long for the wife you know it was kind of like it was like overabundance to have to just get a wife just to get a wife you have to serve seven years and I believe it's kind of just an illusion again to the fact that the children of Israel gonna go into Syria they're gonna have to work way harder for the blessings that they could have normally gotten a lot easier like you could have gotten a wife a lot easier but because of your rebellion of God now you're gonna have to serve for a long time and then even when you get that wife it's not even the wife that you wanted it's not you get you get you get cheated how to the wife you were even serving for you know because you're in this other land that's not really where you're wanting to be and so Jacob had to go there he had to serve but of course he's serving her wife and for a wife he kept cheap and another thing though is what rescued him out of that land well he was still a servant of God and you know a keeper of sheep is a shepherd so what leads Jacob and his whole family out of this bad situation the shepherd does Jacob does a spiritual leader brings people out of bondage out of affliction out of oppression what does it say in the next verse and by a prophet the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt and by a prophet was he preserved what also brought the children of Israel out of Egypt out of their oppression a prophet a prophet not a strong guy you know at first Moses tried to muscle his way out of Egypt he killed the Egyptian and he's strong but you know what that wasn't the way out of Egypt the way out of Egypt wasn't through physical strength it was through trusting in God and allowing God to deliver them what was Jacob's ticket out of Laban it wasn't his physical strength it was trusting in God and it was God that delivered him out of the hand of Laban and out of the hand of Esau and brought him back with great substance and what what is the Bible trying to emphasize it's always a spiritual victory that brings you out of affliction let me tell you something what is the solution for America in 2023 it's a prophet it is a shepherd it is a spiritual solution it is men of God preaching the Bible guiding the flock and allowing the Lord to deliver us the Lord to rescue us every problem is always a spiritual problem and God wants us to not trust in our own strength but rather seek the Lord what could be the physical solution well you know we do we need to get more arms we need to get more it we need to get some 3d printers and start making some unregistered guns and you know we read to do we need to start rounding up a militia called proud boys super proud you know because prides not an abomination according to the Bible let's literally name our group proud I know another group that names themselves proud a bunch of disgusting faggots why would I want to then name my group proud I want to stay away from that word proud and proud boys that sounds queer get a different name okay like here's a good name steadfast Baptist Church that's a pretty good name how about Baptist how about a fundamentalist not proud boys you know you know when I became a man I put away childish things you know it's not gonna be a physical battle that we win it's not oh I stored up enough food I built a bunker I went and hid I went and did something by my own might I started working out no no let me tell you something I got spiritual that's what actually gave me the fight and the victory is because I sought God and he gave us the victory hey you know what delivered the children of Israel out of Egypt God did hey you know what delivered Moses and the children of Israel you know out of the hand of the Egyptians caught by the Red Sea God did you know it delivered Daniel from the lion's den God you not delivered every single person in the Bible God not man not their strength what kept the Apostle Paul from the mouth of the lion the Lord the Lord did and why would I think if I've read every story in the Bible if I've had every promise in the Bible that I would think oh it's me no it's certainly not Trump folks stop giving your money to Egypt stop giving your money to the Assyrians stop making a covenants with the Republicans the Republicans will always fail you the Republicans will always lie to you look obviously no one's trusting in the Democrats to do anything good but you know there's still a lot of people out there think like well the Republicans though look the Republicans are terrible I despise Republicans because you know they're way more fake the Democrats are just like we worship Satan and you're just like yes you do the Democrats are like we love the Lord bless that Jew it's like wait a minute what'd you say why do you why do you have a little hat on why are you at the Wailing Wall why is it that you're at the synagogue why is it that you're passing bills making it illegal to say anything against Israel you know the country that's outlawing the gospel really I'm not allowed to speak against a nation that's outlawing the gospel of Jesus Christ and then you're gonna tell me you're Christian what kind of a joke what kind of a liar you know it may you know what it makes me think of I think the Republicans are the Pharisees and the Democrats are the Sadducees the Sadducees are just of the devil okay but the Pharisees they're fake they pretend like they're godly but 90 some percent of them are fake and yeah you got a handful of Pharisees that were okay but even they were kind of messed up you know Nicodemus is even still kind of like you know you got some problems buddy okay but you know the Apostle Paul came out of them and you know we need you know what the Apostle Paul became really awesome when he left the Republican Party when he left the Pharisees I mean he wasn't he was never great when he was a Pharisee and let me tell you some there's some probably some great people in the Republican Party but they need to stop becoming or being Republican and they need to start being Baptist and they not need to start being a Christian and they need to start being someone that loves the Lord Jesus Christ and seeks unto God and counts the cost and laid down his life and says you know it as for me in my house we will serve the Lord instead of just you know what let's keep feeding ourselves lies the lies of the Republican Party matter lies that our country is godly or Christian in any manner no no if you really care about America you'd become spiritual look at verse 14 Ephraim provoked him to anger most bitterly therefore shall I leave his blood upon him and his approach shall his Lord return unto him hey we can just keep thumbing our nose at God and just saying you know what we don't care go to Psalms 20 last verse I want you to go to Psalms 20 like the Bible is very clear it's the same message over and over I mean you would think people would wake up and finally get it but I'm telling you the problem with our country is not with the Satanists and the atheists and whatever you know what it's with all the weak lame Christians that won't do anything for God that's our problem in this country if we actually had Christians aside to put God first and actually make Church a priority and actually make reading the Bible a priority and actually started raising their family to serve God we could actually make a big difference in this country the problem is there's so few Christians willing to stand up for God and there's so few people to put their trust in the Lord and to say you know what I'm safer in God's house than anywhere else in this world I'm safer reading the Bible than reading any other literature in this world I'm safer trusting in God's plan for my life than the vaccine you know disgusting lies of this world why I mean the world wants to sterilize you folks the world wants to sterilize you and give you drugs and give you aids and give you herpes through all kinds of fornication literally that's what they want to do they want you to go out and whore yourself and contract every STD get COVID shots until you just get clots all in your body they want you to just you know be just an NPC just plugged into the system how can I serve Satan that's what they want to do just keep feeding yourself those lies and the resistance is not much better folks the so-called resistance out there look if you really want to be the true resistance it's conformity to the Bible it's submitting yourself under the Lord it's humbling yourself and saying I can't do anything I can't do anything but you know what I can do I can just trust in the Lord and let him win the battle for me and if we would just all just you know become weak then God could become strong for us look at Psalm 20 verse 7 some trust in chariots and some in horses but we will remember the name of the Lord our God who are you trusting in today are you trusting in physical safety from physical and carnal things because you'll never have it it'll never come don't feed yourself lies feed yourselves the the word of God you know we live by faith we walk by faith and and of course our faith is what sustains us don't keep taking steps carnally take steps spiritually through the lenses of Scripture and trust in the Lord not in you know what what the Conservatives and the Republicans want to lie to you and tell you today it's closing prayer thank you Heavenly Father for this great chapter of the Bible thank you for always being willing to rescue us and to deliver us and to protect us and to give us guidance and wisdom I pray that we would not rely on our own strength we would never have this prideful attitude that those of Ephraim had where we look at our own riches and successes and wealth and we think to ourselves to be so blameless but rather we would look at our lives with humble eyes we would realize that our strength is given to us by you that ultimately you're the one in control and I pray that as we humbly seek the Lord that you would show yourself strong on our behalf that you could show us true revival in this country that you would change men's hearts to start trusting in the Lord that men would remember the name of the Lord that men would submit unto the Lord that men would decide to dedicate their lives to the things of God rather than the pleasures of this life I pray that you would see we would see many men and women and children deciding to dedicate their lives to God not to the pleasures of this world in Jesus name we pray amen all right in closing let's go to song number 158 song number 158 oh for a thousand tongues to sing song number one five eight oh for a thousand tongues to sing song number 158 everybody singing out on the first oh for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer's praise the glories of my God in King the triumphs of his grace my gracious master and my God assist me to proclaim to spread through all the earth abroad the honors of thy name Jesus the name that charms our fears that bids our sorrow cease tis music in the sinners ears tis life and health and peace he breaks the power of cancelled sin he sets the prisoner free his blood can make the phallus clean his blood availed for me hear him ye deaf his praise ye dumb your loosens tongues employ ye blind behold your Savior come and leap ye lame for joy all right great singing everybody you are dismissed