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praise him praise him one six four praise him praise him song 164 praise him praise him praise him praise him jesus our blessed redeemer sing all worth his wonderful love proclaim hail him hail him highest arc angels in glory strength and honor give to his holy name like a shepherd Jesus will guard his children in his arms he carries them all day long praise him praise him tell of his excellent praise him praise him ever in joyful song praise him praise him jesus our blessed redeemer for our sins he suffered and bled and died he our rock our hope of eternal salvation Jesus the crucified sound his praises Jesus who bore our sorrows love unbounded wonderful deep and strong praise him praise him tell of his excellent greatness praise him praise him ever in joyful song praise him praise him jesus our blessed redeemer portals loud with hosanna's ring Jesus save your reign it forever and ever crown him crown him prophet and priest and King Christ is coming over the world victorious power and glory unto the Lord be long praise him praise him tell of his excellent greatness praise him praise him ever in joyful song let's open up in a word of prayer Heavenly Father thank you for this evening and thank you for the opportunity to be gathered together to meet as a church freely Lord and just to worship you to hear the Word of God preached pray that we would never take it for granted pray that we'd all pay attention tonight that you'd fill our pastor the Holy Spirit we love you in Jesus name amen all right let's go to our second song 150 my faith has found a resting place song 150 my faith has found a resting place song 1 5 0 my faith has found a resting place my faith has found a resting place not in device nor creed I trust the ever-living one his wounds for me shall plead I need no other argument I need no other plea it is enough that Jesus died and that he died for me enough for me that Jesus saves this is my fear and doubt a sinful soul I come to him he'll never cast me out I need no other argument I need no other plea it is enough that Jesus died and that he died for me my heart is leaning on the word the written Word of God salvation by my Savior's name salvation through his blood I need no other argument I need no other plea it is enough that Jesus died died for me my great physician heals the sick the lost he came to save for me his precious blood he shed for me his life he gave I need no other argument I need no other plea it is enough that Jesus died and that he died for me good evening thank you so much for coming to steadfast Baptist Church if you didn't already get a bulletin you'd like one please lift up your hand nice and high one of our ushers will come by get you guys a bulletin we're on our psalm 146 verse 8 any child that's able to quote that can get a couple pieces of candy right after the service we have our service times or so winning times church stats please make sure to continue to report that to your so winning captains or your lieutenants whoever you have in your group also we have on the right hand side our list of expecting ladies continue to pray for all of our expecting ladies and we're missing one because we have a congratulations to the Cooley's I know that they had their birth and I don't have the stats I need I need someone to give me the stats maybe someone can text me that I don't know but that's a congratulations to them also we have our prayer list and we can go ahead and cover that really quickly we have the nigers continue to pray for health for Miss Lucy's mother been praying for brother Cameron's his leg we've been praying for brother Pendleton his brain cancer been praying for brother Goodwin's son Daniel his surgery on February 6th we've been praying for the Garcia's son-in-law and family that they would be stationed close by also we've been praying for Sue Hill and his travel back from the Philippines I don't know exactly when he's getting back with us I think it's pretty soon also brother Alex we've been praying for a job we've been praying for brother Wallach's his children and their health we've been praying for his friend Juan we've been praying for Anthony's wife Sarah's health we've been praying for the Scott family for kovat brother Conley was asking prayer for his friend Nick Edwards for spiritual growth I guess it's brother yeah brother Edwards and then we've been praying for salvation for Randall's son so that's pretty much all I have as far as prayer requests in the bulletin I'll go ahead and say we'll go ahead and as a group say a quick prayer for all of those mentioned thank Heavenly Father for our church services evening I pray that you would be with those that are not able to make it this evening you'd be with those that are sick please help give them a speedy recovery I pray that you'd help those that have chronic issues and illnesses that you would please just give them a miracle please give them expedited health please give them a full recovery I pray that you would just help our expecting ladies that you would be with them during the pregnancies help them with their children and they'd have a timely birth I pray that you would help our our church family that needs a job that needs favor in their business world that I pray that you just help them with that I pray that you would also be with our friends that are traveling that you'd help bring them home safely and I pray that you'd also help us to be a faithful witness under our family members and our friends those who need to hear the gospel that we could preach that unto them that they could be saved and I thank you so much for all that you give us in Jesus name we pray Amen on the back a couple upcoming events and I also wanted to bring up a couple more that aren't on the bulletin we we have our movie premiere on January 30th and I believe we've been asking for people to sign up via email so that we can make sure we have a prayer place so you have not already emailed us please email us and we're gonna be sending out the information for where the theater is if you went to one of our movies a few years ago it's the same place that we went to back then so we're excited about having a theater premiere and thank you I have the stats for the Cooley so miss Karen Cooley had her baby Victoria Estelle on the 8th at 1059 p.m. 7 pounds 14 ounces and 20 and a half inches long congratulations then that's exciting to eat do we have a meal train or anything like that set up okay we have a meal train see miss Milstead and she can help you if you'd like to be a blessing unto the Cooley's and also like I was saying about our movie if you are wanting to participate please email us we'll send out the instructions as far as all that it's gonna be around it's gonna be at 7 p.m. so the film will be at 7 there is gonna be a voucher for you to get a popcorn and a coke so if you if you want to have popcorn and coke and everything like that will accommodate you I'm really excited about the film we're gonna be premiering in several different theaters Oklahoma City Houston we have one in Phoenix I know Tucson's gonna be airing the film that day also Vancouver Washington's gonna have an airing I think theirs is gonna be Saturday though so they're not doing work for whatever reason they get to do it on Saturday I'm sorry okay they get to do it two days early but they can tell us if it was good or not all right and then everybody else has to be the 30th okay and then we're gonna be releasing it online the 31st so definitely something that I hope you can share if you you know you like the film and everything like that if you don't like the film tell Ben he's the person to tell and the person to blame not on the bulletin but I wanted I had in our notes we were gonna do a small-town soul winning marathon February 4th that is a Saturday now I haven't I haven't locked in the location but I just want to at least put it on your calendar February 4th is we're gonna do a kind of a small town so any typically they're not gonna be that far from the DFW area so probably within an hour or so of the DFW area maybe an hour and a half we'll probably pick something and we've kind of looked at a couple places but we're still evaluating exactly when April 1st is going to be a Dallas soul winning marathon and then April 24th through the 29th is going to be our Bahamas missions trip so definitely been a long awaited missions trip if you are able to get out there the church is trying to plan on accommodating housing for people that would like to do the housing and so it's it's I looked it up it's about seven hundred dollars a ticket to fly out there right now that could obviously change in any moment and you'd probably only need like a couple hundred bucks for food so you know under a thousand dollars you could you could make a whole week of you know one of the greatest missions trips you could probably ever go in honestly because not only is it very receptive it's probably one of the most beautiful places in the world and the beach and the the ocean water there was was incredible I've never really seen a beach like that obviously going to Galveston you get a different perspective and Galveston seems like a mud hole you know in comparison no the Bahamas is like one of the most beautiful beaches I've ever seen the weather is amazing the atmosphere is a lot of fun it was it was I've been there one time and I've really enjoyed it other people have been there a lot I think faithful word they had a small group go out near Christmas time and their small group I've heard I don't know the exact numbers but I think they had around 400 salvations or something like that just a small group going for a shorter period of time the island that we're going to is Nassau which is the main island and because I guess there's technically other islands but all the other islands are uninhabited virtually speaking so it's in Nassau is the place that you would go it's about a quarter million people on that island so there's a lot of people there if you can find some of the pockets where there's a lot of young people very interested very receptive to the gospel and so looking forward to it we have we have some contacts down there and they're gonna try and see what kind of appointments we can make for maybe school maybe visiting some schools and some of that stuff I don't know we'll kind of see what the Lord allows and opens doors but you know I I've been on some of these missions trips and you know if we get a lot of school appointments we may need some men to step up and be willing to preach some sermons and and preach to the kids and everything like that so I don't know what opportunities are going to happen but we can pray that the Lord would open up some doors and we're hoping to take a lot of information we can take our new film we can take a lot of gospel tracts and things like that and hand out we might even maybe make some just audio CDs and stuff like that or make some flash drives or something whatever we can make to just kind of take down there and just kind of flood them with a lot of the gospel and the good news and another good preaching so I'm really excited about our trip and hopefully if you can you will participate there was also one other event so March 15th this is a Wednesday service and we're gonna be planning Old West Wednesday and we probably won't have it at our actual church location we're gonna probably have another space that we're going to but what they're gonna do is we're all gonna dress up like old Texas West and we're gonna have like a dinner we'll have a church service a dinner and then we'll have a lot of events for the evening and so if you'd like to participate in something fun maybe you can already start getting your your get-up and your gear all right and so it's we you know we got to celebrate that we live in Texas you know and so we'll have an Old West Wednesday it'll be a lot of fun cowboy hats are welcome and you know beans and chili or not so there you go all right even the Old West knew it was right and but I'm really excited about it we have a lot of other events already scheduled for the year but that's just kind of give you a preview for the first half of everything that we're going to be doing and I look forward to it so with that let's go to our third Psalm Psalm 149 are we doing I'm sorry 29 29 we're doing at the cross first that might just be the offertory song 29 at the cross while you're turning there as well we do have to sign up sheets for the Bahamas and for the Dallas Sony Marathon and if you don't send us your itinerary for the Bahamas then we're not counting you as signed up so you got to send us your itinerary to the email please all right song 29 at the cross oh laughs and did my Savior bleed and did my sovereign die would he devote that sacred head for such a worm as I at the cross at the cross when I first saw the light and the burden of my heart rolled away it was there by faith I received my side and now I am happy all the day was it for crimes that I have done he groaned upon the tree amazing pity grace unknown and love beyond degree at the cross at the cross where I first saw the light and the burden of my heart rolled away it was there by faith I received my sighs and now I am happy all the day well might the Sun in darkness I can shut his glories in when Christ the mighty maker died for man the creature sin at the cross at the cross where I first saw the light and the burden of my heart rolled away it was there by faith I received my side and now I am happy all the day but drops of grief can repay the dead of love I'll hear Lord I give myself away is all that I can do at the cross at the cross where I first saw the light and the burden of my heart rolled away it was there by faith I received my side and now I am happy all the day good singing as the offering place are being passed around please turn your Bibles to Hosea chapter 4 Hosea chapter 4 you chapter 4 the Bible reads here the word of the Lord ye children of Israel for the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land because there is no truth nor mercy nor knowledge of God in the land by swearing and lying and killing and stealing and committing adultery they break out and blood touch it blood therefore shall the land mourn and everyone that dwell at their end shall languish with the beasts of the field and with the fowls of heaven yay the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away yet let no man strive nor reprove another for thy people are as they that strive with the priest therefore shalt thou fall in the day and the Prophet also shall fall with thee in the night and I will destroy thy mother my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge because thou hast rejected knowledge I will also reject thee that thou shalt be no priest to me seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God I will also forget thy children as they were increased so they sinned against me therefore will I change their glory into shame they eat up the sin of my people and they set their heart on their iniquity and there shall be like people like priests and I will punish them for their ways and reward them for their doings for they shall eat and not have enough they shall commit whoredom and shall not increase because they have left off to take heed to the Lord whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart my people ask counsel at their stocks and their staff declare it unto them for the spirit of whoredoms have caused them to err and they have gone a whoring from under their God they sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains and burn incense upon the hills under Oaks and poplars and elms because the shadow thereof is good therefore your daughters shall commit whoredom and your spouses shall commit adultery I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredom nor your spouses when they commit adultery for themselves are separated with whores and they sacrifice with harlots therefore the people that does not understand shall fall though thou Israel play the harlot yet let Judah offend let not Judah offend and come not ye unto Gilgal neither go ye up to Beth Avon nor swear the Lord liveth for Israel slide it back as a backsliding heifer now the Lord will feed them as a lamb in a large place Ephraim is joined to idols let him alone their drink is sour they have committed whoredom continually her rulers with shame do love give ye the wind hath bound her up in her wings and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices let's pray men so we've been going through the book of Hosea and as you can tell Hosea is a really encouraging and uplifting book of the Bible and actually that's not really the case now what's interesting about Hosea chapter 4 a little bit is we take a little bit of a break from the original narrative where we're really talking about Hosea the person and his wife and we kind of had taken a little bit of break in chapter 3 God was trying to illustrate how this woman being bought to not whore against him is how God is kind of trying to redeem the nation of Israel as a whole and kind of purchase them back to themselves so they wouldn't whore against him but he explains how that's really the land and it's really the people it's not so much about this marriage he's using that as a metaphor as a type or shadow of himself and the children of Israel as a whole as a nation now in in chapter 4 he's really just focusing only on the nation of Israel as a whole he's not really not really talking so much about Hosea and his wife carnally it's more just we're continuing the metaphor itself of what that really means and God's talking about the children of Israel as a whole and it says in verse 1 hear the word of the Lord you children of Israel for the Lord at the controversy with the inhabitants of the land because there is no truth nor mercy nor knowledge of God in the land so the Bible talks about there was a time in history where an entire nation which is dedicated to God is quote unquote the Christian nation exists and yet somehow they have no truth somehow they have no mercy somehow they have no knowledge of God in the land now of course when God speaks in such a manner it's not to the extremity of 100% we always know there's going to be exceptions there's always a Hosea around there's always a Daniel there's always someone that exists that still loves God but he's basically saying within your culture within your society as a whole you guys have no truth as a society as a culture you have no mercy as a society as a culture the people in your culture in your nation in your area they have no knowledge of God and really you know when I read the book of Hosea it often makes me just think of America and the reason why is because America has been historically a Christian nation if there's been ever a Christian nation in our generation it's been America I mean there's not really a nation that rivals America in the context of number of churches or number professing Christians or those who would even claim the name of Jesus Christ we're pretty much by and large the largest evangelical nation in the world and have been historically yet art seems like our nation is getting to a point where there's no knowledge of God there's no truth there's no mercy it's it's astounding what's actually happening in our public schools today I mean the the lunacy that is happening in college campuses is not just affecting crazy liberal colleges anymore it's now being brought into the mainstream being brought into the public school system and we're having debates as a culture if a woman is really a woman we're having debates if a man is really a man people are being fired for not denying reality I mean you have professors that are being fired in academia for calling a woman a woman you're having people being threatened in their job for mispronouning someone and it's gotten to such an extremity that now Stanford is saying that we shouldn't use any pronouns you know you know the new definition of cussing is ever increasing and according to Stanford they put out a new it's kind of a relatively new standard where they want to eliminate harmful language and they want to get rid of all this really toxic language and you read through their pamphlet that they put out and their initiative is basically to update the language on all of Stanford's websites and their literature and just everything that they do all of the curriculum they want to get rid of words like he I mean that's so offensive she they want to get rid of he she guys you can't say guys you can say folks okay you know all kinds of just strange bizarre ideas are being floated in our society why we live in a society that by and large has rejected the knowledge of God and has gotten to a place where we could get to a point where there's literally no knowledge where there's no truth and of course when there's no truth and there's no knowledge of God and everything's upside down you know it also goes away as mercy mercy seems to eviscerate from a society and the Bible is teaching that God is a controversy with this group of people especially considering the fact they claim God they claim to be one who loves the Lord who's their priest who's serving God yet they still have absolutely no knowledge of him also meaning this you could have a giant group of people that call themselves Christians and know nothing about Jesus Christ welcome to America there are churches in this area that will claim they love God and they love Jesus Christ and they don't know anything in the Bible in fact sometimes they'll quote things that they think are in the Bible and they're quoting Gandhi they're quoting humanists they're quoting atheists they don't even realize that the things that they're saying don't even exist in scripture you can't even find most of their beliefs most of their morals because they're not even coming from the Bible whatsoever and it's sad that we live in a society that is so brain dead when it comes to truth knowledge information and frankly speaking knowledge of God you'll bring up things you'll preach stuff and people say the Bible doesn't say that anywhere it's like it's right here what about these verses you know and it's getting to a point where knowledge of the scripture is dwindling to a point where people have no idea anything in the Bible anymore they hardly could even quote John 3 16 anymore and you know in years past everyone could quote John 3 16 but it's getting a point now where some people don't even know what you're talking about I've run into people they don't even know that Jesus is the son of God and you know you're thinking like wow how far has America fallen to the point where people haven't even heard that Jesus is the son of God look what it says in verse 2 what's a consequence of this by swearing and lying and killing and stealing and committing adultery they break out and blood touches blood so when you have no truth in a society when you have no knowledge of God what ends up happening is there's no mercy and when there's no mercy what happens all manner of evil all manner of lying and stealing all manner of adultery all manner of killing and in fact the Bible says it was so extreme the murder was so extreme that blood touches blood what does that mean well this is the idea of mass murder mass murder because if you kill one person that's blood how can blood touch blood you have to have multiple people dying in the same proximity to the point where their blood is being spilt and it's literally touching he's saying there's pools of blood that are touching other pools of blood from two separate victims that's how extreme and dangerous the society has become and it seems more common in America they where you have these mass shootings we have people being mass killed in mass and people are being slaughtered all over the place this world is becoming a danger zone and you know America is probably still one of the most safe places in the world but it's still having mass casualty mass killings mass all kinds of homicides and events all over you know in Europe it's really bad other places of the world it's getting more and more extreme but he's saying this is a consequence to not having the knowledge of God why is it that crime is just continually increasing in America why is it that we have more theft than we've ever had before I mean I see videos all the time of these days of people just walking into stores and just looting Apple seems to have to have a security guard on staff all the time now because people just run in and steal all the phones out on display on a regular basis there's so many high-end retailers in California they're having to shut down get armed security move out of areas because looters are just running in there and just stealing all of their merchandise on a regular basis why are we having increases in stealing why are we having increases in adultery because as a society it's not even shameful anymore I mean in society it's not even considered taboo you can even have the President of the United States commit adultery in the Oval Office and it doesn't isn't people are like okay well I guess we're mad that he lied about it it's like why wouldn't you be more mad about the adultery I mean honestly if I I will be more mad about someone committing adultery than the fact that they lied about it yet that was the big deal that he lied about and then he gets caught lying and committing adultery and then still nothing happens he still wasn't impeached you know they impeached Donald Trump for getting up and asking protesters to peacefully return but then we we we don't you know fully impeach and get rid of Bill Clinton for having committed adultery in government property I mean imagine you committing adultery in your your office at work and lying about it and then them being like oh no problem everyone would get fired from their job I mean that's so ridiculous for the president to be able to do something like that and nobody cares because in America adultery is not a big deal anymore you have a billboard out here advertising adulterous websites advertising Ashley Madison advertising adult friend finder or whatever weird stupid adultery website that they have for people to hook up they'll say you know for people that you know want a divorce or something or they'll advertise have an affair you know I've seen all kinds of weird filthy billboards out there you know you asked to put a Christian billboard up there or Bible verses and they'll shut you down I've had billboard companies shut me down and say that our views don't align with their morality well they have adult bookstores adultery websites beer and alcohol and every trans freak thing you could ever imagine on there I'm like what's your morality anything but the Bible and that's the answer it's just anything but the Bible and why is that because they have no knowledge of God I mean if you had any fear of God you wouldn't put this giant billboard up advertising adultery advertising alcohol advertising smut and filth and all kinds of degeneracy but we live in a society today that has no knowledge of God they have no truth and they have no mercy just merciless and you know it's a consequence of that mass killing murder danger go to keep your finger go to Ecclesiastes chapter 8 just flip to the left go back a little bit and go to the book of Ecclesiastes and look at chapter 8 you want to know why there's so much evil in our society today it's because people forgot about the law of God and you know what the law of God has it has punishments for criminals when you commit murder according to the Bible you're to be put to death you know in a Texas unless you kill a police officer it's not usually the death penalty you know you have to commit a crime against like a government official a paramedic a fireman or a police officer in order to even be on the hook for the death penalty which is crazy to me it's like why why have you killed like a little child is that not the death penalty but you kill a police officer and that is are we really saying police officers are more value than a little child or a woman or or any I mean look I don't think that police officers have less value it's equivalent but why are we putting these like limitations on the death penalty for certain individuals and it almost seems like these individuals are worth more or something that that's bizarre you know we kill children regularly through abortion and a lot of people haven't cared a lot of people actually champion that in our society where is the Bible again teaches the death penalty for that the Bible talks about the death penalty for people that would commit force on another person you know people that are committing all kinds of weird perverted acts the Bible describes the death penalty for them the Bible also just describes harsh penalties not even for just a capital punishment but just stealing you know if you steal something according to the Bible you'd have to pay back two times three times four I mean it could be anywhere up to five seven times depending on the item exactly what the situation was and if you couldn't afford that then you'd become the person's servant or slave until you could pay it back you know we go and we steal people's money out of their bank account for child alam for like child support alimony things like that imagine if you stole from someone and they were just gonna siphon your paycheck until you had to pay that that theft back it would actually cause a lot of people to probably not steal as much anymore when they actually have some kind of a consequence yet people today will steal and no consequence people will burglarize no consequence people will do all kinds of evil things with no consequence and look at the Bible in Ecclesiastes chapter 8 what it says in verse 11 because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully setting them to do evil notice the Bible says hey when you don't punish criminals right away when you don't give them some kind of a speedy execution of their crime then they're gonna be emboldened to constantly commit that crime they're gonna go out and they're gonna commit more crime they're gonna be encouraged to do so you know the same even applies your children you know if your children misbehave they need a speedy sentence they don't need some you know delayed reaction they need immediate attention immediate sentencing otherwise you're gonna embolden your children to do evil and we live in America where you can commit crimes and you may not even go to jail for ten years after committing that crime and then even if you get convicted it could be 10 20 30 40 years until you're even punished for that crime whereas in the Bible you commit a crime you could be immediately punished it could be a speedy trial and of course America set it up that way you're supposed to have a speedy trial yet you know speedy is apparently you know five ten twelve twenty years or whatever where the changes to ten different judges and all kinds of weird things happen and really if you're rich enough you can just pay for the thing to go away typically or the statute of limitations applies well the statute of limitations wouldn't even be a thing if we had a speedy sentencing there wouldn't be this need for the statute of limitations or all those kind of different things and of course they're trying to make it to where no one can be punished for anything you know I don't see any legislative work typically increasing crime I mean there's virtually no one trying to make execution of criminals increased in our society why please they have no knowledge of God and when you have no knowledge of God you're gonna live in a society where blood touches blood until you have a speedy execution of criminals we're gonna just continually live in a society like it's gonna only get worse go back to Isaiah chapter 4 Hosea chapter 4 and it's a sad reality for those that forget God's Word that don't care about the Bible there are countries in this world that aren't Christian necessarily but at least they follow some of these biblical principles and they're better off often cases than even our country because they least they do punish criminals or they at least do follow the principles of the Bible when you don't follow the principles of the Bible claiming that you love God isn't gonna fix anything claiming that you're a Christian won't fix it going to a church isn't gonna fix it you know you actually have to follow God's principles for them to be applied in your life you know showing up at this church isn't gonna make you a better person you actually have to implement the instructions of God's Word to be a better person you know it's not like just coming into a building and it's a church you just oh now I'm a good person oh I went and listened to the advice from someone you know listening to advice is great but if you don't follow that advice it's really a vain exercise anyways what's the point what's the way you know you could read the Bible cover to cover and still not even be a better person because you choose not to implement any of it you know there's plenty of people that read the Bible cover to cover and then they become a reprobate they didn't even get better they got worse why because they didn't follow the instruction and often God is more merciful with those that are ignorant than those that have the knowledge so in fact if you come to a church like this and you're not implementing God's Word you could become a worse person than if you stayed home why because following God's instructions is the chief duty of man if you read Ecclesiastes it's like what's the main thing that we're supposed to do fear God and keep his commandments this is the whole duty of man yeah of course we want to get saved and salvation is a free gift it's just a one-time trusting in Christ and you're saved but that was a moment in time now what do you do for the other 70 years you have to fear God and keep his commandments if you want God to bless you in your life God is not mocked whatever you're gonna whatever you reap you're gonna sow look at verse 3 therefore shall the land mourn and everyone that dwelleth therein shall languish with the beasts of the field and with the fowls of heaven yea the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away so he's saying hey because y'all are so evil I'm gonna literally destroy your nation so badly that even animals won't live there anymore I mean that's how that's how bad the punishment is gonna be he's saying I'm gonna take away the birds the fishes there's gonna be no life here and isn't is it any coincidence that if you look at a map today and you look at the Middle East regions it is some of the the areas that look like they've been the most desecrated like you'll just see you just look at the whole world's like green and these look at the millions and they're just all just giant just desert wilderness just it's like all right over there it's like that's what most of humanity was in the beginning and they were just so wicked then God's just like well taking that place away and then it's like move over here like taking that place away and they take that place away and they just all this uninhabitable land out there in the Middle East parts because these are some of these areas that just forsook God and hated God he just wiped them off of the planet it's where no one wanted to inhabit that place ever again like Babylon Babylon became an uninhabited place Sodom and Gomorrah is an uninhabited place and is it any coincidence that those all exist in the biblical areas I mean where are the uninhabitable places in other parts of the world you know pretty much every other place of the world's always been rebuilt or reestablished or had at least animals and things like that it's like where are all these crazy desert areas that virtually nothing can live and survive it's all in these biblical sites aren't they now it says in verse 4 yet let no man strive nor approve another for thy people are as they that strive with the priest so God's kind of saying something tongue-in-cheek here he's saying hey I know you guys are really bad but don't let anybody you know don't let the society correct itself because you guys aren't even give good advice you know what's the point of listening to Sean Hannity when he's not even to tell you what the Bible says what's the point of listening to the Republicans and listening to the the Democrats and listening to all the top radio and all these other people if they're not going to bring up the Bible all of their correction all of their instruction to improve to approve you is going to be vain anyways why because they argue with the priest they don't actually care what the Bible says and they would argue with the Bible and what I've noticed about a lot of these talk show hosts and a lot of these conservatives is their anti-church the Alex Jones of this world the Steven Crowder's of this world I hear him all the time you know Steven Crowder he's based out of the Dallas-Fort Worth area and I hear him all the time he said there's no church out there that's standing up against the homosexuals there's no one that's willing to preach you know about these topics and things like and I'm thinking like what what are you talking about yeah okay and then they'll just they'll be like you know all the churches are just going bad you know Alex Jones is like all the church is going bad you know you need to stand with us if we're gonna get the truth out there you know Alex Jones isn't getting any truth out there because he doesn't have the gospel of Jesus Christ and he's not preaching any truth why those are the type of you let's strive with the priest and you know striving with the priest is a really interesting topic keep your finger go to Deuteronomy chapter 17 go to Deuteronomy chapter 17 and you know why I find it as an interesting topic is it's almost virtually the only industry that people by and large have no respect for and and what I mean by that is you know if you had some kind of a lump in your body or you had you know your arm chopped off and you're rushed to the hospital and the surgeon came in and said well this is what we're gonna do is how we do the stitches you'd be like no no let me tell you how to do it I mean if you were gonna have someone build a house for you unless you actually work in the construction industry you're pretty much not going to argue with the contractor in the plumber and the electrician about how to do their job you're not going to argue with the engineer you know if you if you're not in software developer you're certainly not going to argue with a software developer about how a computer works or how a computer application works you know you usually aren't going to argue with the people that are in a paid profession that have experience and knowledge and have been doing it for their whole life yet I find that everyone is smarter than the pastor everyone's smarter than the priests everyone knows more than the guy that's read the Bible and studied it and dedicated his life to it and preaches on a regular basis it's like there are people that have never even read the Bible cover to cover one time and they'll get up and be like you don't know anything and you're like really you're just mister know it all when it comes to the Bible and you've never even read it what what that's impressive look what it says in Deuteronomy 17 about this attitude of correcting the priests Deuteronomy 17 verse 8 if there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment between blood and blood between plea and plea and between stroke and stroke being matters of controversy within my gates now shall arise and get thee up into the place which the Lord thy God shall choose and thou shalt come under the priests the Levites and under the judge that shall be in those days and inquire and they shall show the descent into judgment and I shall do you according to the sentence which they of that place which the Lord shall choose shall show thee and thou shalt observe they do according to all that they informed me according to the sentence of the law which they shall teach thee and according to the judgment which they shall tell thee thou shalt do thou shalt not decline from the sentence which they shall show thee to the right hand, nor to the left. What does it say next? And the man that will do presumptuously and will not hearken unto the priest that standeth the minister there before the Lord thy God, or unto the judge, even that man shall die and thou shalt put away the evil from Israel. Now what did the Bible just say? This is not Pastor Shelley's opinion, this is the Bible. The Bible said if you come to the pastor, quote-unquote, you come to the priest, and you ask his advice, and he gives you advice, and you don't do it, what was your punishment? Death. That's what the Bible said. And yet, there are so many people, I kid you not, they'll come to me and they'll ask my advice and I'll give them advice and then they just won't do it. Now, you know, I have not, I didn't kill any of them, okay? Just, just be careful, all right? I didn't, I didn't do that. Go to First Timothy chapter 5, First Timothy chapter 5. But you know, God wrote the law and he said how you're supposed to behave, so when people don't do this and it's even customary for them not do it, it's not like God changed his opinion though. Just because people aren't doing something doesn't mean that God's not mad about it. God is still mad about that. God is mad that people would not hearken to the man that he's put in a position of authority over them. You know, how did God feel about the children of Israel when they rebelled against Moses? He didn't like that either, did he? In fact, he would just open up the earth and let them go straight into hell. I mean, one of the most special miracles of the Bible was people getting a straight ticket into hell and what was their problem? I mean, you think of all the sins that happened in the Bible and I would say that was the worst punishment. I mean, a ticket straight to hell, there's nothing worse that's ever happened. That's ever happened. And what was their sin? Arguing with the man of God. Yeah, people today, I mean, it is not even controversial in America culture to argue with the pastor or to talk badly about the pastor, go against their advice or not care what they have to say. Yet the Bible teaches an exact opposite opinion. The Bible acts as if you should have such a high regard and value for the leaders, the spiritual authorities in your life to the extremity that you would do everything that they said it said you wouldn't decline to the left hand or to the right. You would do everything that they said, even unto the punishment of death. The Bible says in verse 75 1 rebuke not an elder. I mean, the Bible could not be clearer that you're not supposed to rebuke a pastor. Look a little bit further down in this chapter. Verse number 19 against an elder received not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses, then that sin rebuke before all that others also may fear. Look what the Bible saying. If someone is making an accusation against the pastor as a singular witness, the Bible says you're not even allowed to listen to it. You're not allowed to receive it. Meaning what? No, I don't. I don't know that that's true. If someone comes to you and they have one witness against someone and especially a pastor, the Bible is saying that you would never just receive that. You would never think that that's true. You would have to have multiple witnesses or lots of information proving something, and you shouldn't even treat that person differently based on one accusation. And you know why this is the case? It's because anybody that tries to do anything for God is going to have a litany of false accusers. Show me the man of God throughout history or the Bible that did not have just constant slander and railers attacking them viciously. It's always the case. They always have detractors, and of course we are not to just adhere to everything that we hear or say or anything like this. You know that's why the news media is such a flawed institution is because they run with stories of one witness all the time. And they try to disguise the fact that they have multiple witnesses. What they do is the Associated Press will break a story and then 20 news agencies will all report on that report from the Associated Press. And then you'll have another group of news reporters that'll all base their thing. Multiple sources are saying, even though they're all quoting the exact same one source, and that one source was an anonymous source from the FBI, and that anonymous source of the FBI is a liar, is a fraud. And yet they just run with an anonymous singular source. That is the worst thing you could ever base information on. You need public, multiple witnesses. And the Bible is saying when people are accepting accusations against the pastor, or they're caught lying or railing, you're supposed to publicly rebuke them before every person so that people would be afraid to falsely accuse men of God. You know, when Miriam spoke against Moses, God plagued her with leprosy and had her go without the camp. And he likened it unto a father spitting in the face of his daughter. And that's pretty extreme. The Bible could go elaborate on this a lot more. I want to go to another place. Go to Hebrews 13. Go to Hebrews chapter 13. But why is America just destroying itself? Well, because it's full of people that strive with the priest. Frankly speaking, they don't care what the pastors say. They don't care what the men of God say. They'll get advice and they won't do it. And God is saying, hey, if you won't listen to the pastor, then why in the world does it matter to listen to other people? Don't let the other people strive and try to convince people of anything because they won't even listen to the priest. They won't even listen to the man of God. And we live in a society today where people have no respect for pastors anymore, no respect for church authority, no respect for men of God. I mean, you can have a man of God read the Bible cover to cover dozens and dozens and dozens of times, memorize chapters and books of the Bible, know the Bible in and out, preach the whole Bible for years and decades, sacrifice his whole life for the Word of God, and then someone will come up and be like, well, I think you're wrong. Have you even read the Bible? No. It's like you're an idiot. You are a fool to sit here and criticize and attack and think that you're smarter than the man of God. Anytime I thought I was right and my pastor was wrong, I always gave him the benefit of the doubt and thought maybe I'm wrong, even when I disagreed. And you know why? Because a lot of times I ended up realizing he was right later and I was wrong. And at least I had the respect to realize, you know what? Just because I disagree with this person doesn't mean I'm right. That's a stupid attitude that America has. Like, well, I disagree. Yeah, because you're wrong. You know, have you ever thought about that? Maybe you need to change your mind that repent, you know, just because you disagree doesn't make your your opinion even valid. You could have a stupid opinion. You could have a foolish opinion. There are foolish questions even. Oh, there's no such thing as the fullest question. Well, that was a foolish statement. Look at Hebrews chapter 13 verse 17. Obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves for they watch for your souls as they that must give account that they may do it with joy and not with grief for that is unprofitable for you. The Bible could not be clearer that you're supposed to obey the men of God that God puts in your life. And, you know, if you don't like your pastor, then go find a pastor that you do like. But whatever pastor you have, you should obey them. You should listen to their advice. And you know, you should never ask for their advice and take it lightly. You know, the Children of Israel after they get destroyed, and it's really the Children of Judah after they get destroyed from the from the Babylonians, there's like a small remnant left over. And this small remnant ends up even going through another issue where an Israelite comes in and tries to kill them and take some captive. And then you have another guy come in of Korea, and he comes and rescues them. And they're like, Man, we're just we're just so rebellious, and we've caused all the problems for ourselves. We're going to finally start serving God. And they say, Hey, Jeremiah, what do we do? Do we go to Egypt or not? And he said, No matter what you say, good or bad, we'll do it. And then Jeremiah is like, that was a dumb thing, because you're not going to do what I said. And they strive with Jeremiah, and they go down to Egypt, and they all die a horrible death. But this is the point. Don't ask the man of God for advice, if you're not willing to follow it 100%, regardless of what he says. That should be your attitude. But this is the attitude typically, well, I want to just shop my opinion around, I want to shop their opinion and see what I like. But you know what, that's actually not biblical, the right approach is if you're willing to ask the man of God, or get advice, then you should be willing to follow it 100%. Now you say, Well, I don't want advice from you. Okay, well, then go find a pastor that you like, like I said, you know, I, and a lot of people ask for advice for me. And I try to give it to them. But I always try to give them in my opinion, what's the best advice for them, because it's typically easy to give good advice to people that are not you. You know, because I, I'm just invested in what's best for you, you kind of can have a lot of blind spots, we all have a lot of blind spots about ourselves, it's usually easy to tell other people what's the right thing to do. It's like, well, you should do this, it's often hard for you to do it. So that's why it is good to ask for advice. But you know, if you're going to ask advice from a sound person, you know what, then you need to follow it, you need to do that kind of advice, go back to Hosea. But what is the Children of Israel like they strive with the priests, they argue with the priest, they're not willing to follow his vice. And, you know, I can think of a ton of people that have asked for my opinion have asked for my advice on something, I gave them a very clear, specific answer or advice, and they did not follow it. And now they're suffering greatly for having not done it. And it wasn't like, you know, typically advice is really easy, because it's not it's not like I'm getting up here and saying like, buy the red Ferrari or, you know, buy Apple stock, it's like, you know, submit your husband or you know, love your wife, or you know, things that are obviously clearly just coming straight from the Bible, but they decide not to do it, they decide not to follow, they ask my personal opinion, and they don't want to do it. And then they suffer greatly for it, you know, and I'm sure I could give bad advice. And I'm not saying that I give perfect advice, the Bible is the only one that gives perfect advice. But you know, I, I haven't experienced it yet, where someone came up to me as I did exactly what you said, it really turned out terrible. It hasn't happened yet. It could happen. And you know, I would try to help them or fix them. But you know, it almost always happens is they don't do it. And then it really, their life gets screwed up. They have a horrible situation happen to them. Why? Because usually, it's not hard to know what to do. It's hard to do it. And if you're going to ask a man of God what to do, do it. You know, when I asked my pastors what I want, what to do or ask for advice in a scenario, I always took it seriously. And I even said, Look, if they're going to say A or B, I'm going to do A or B. I'm not going to sit here and argue and strive with the guy. You know, I'm going to do if I'm going to ask this person's advice, I'm going to mean it. I asked for people's advice on, you know, I asked my friend for advice on our movie. You know, I asked Pastor Anderson's advice on our movie, and he gave me advice, and I followed all of his advice 100%. You know, I didn't even I didn't even strive with him. Okay. I was like, I agree. This is a good this is good advice. And you know, I took the advice. Now, obviously, if I didn't agree, maybe I would have, you know, tried to try to talk to him about why I might not agree and then and then kind of reevaluate. But ultimately, why would I ask for someone's advice if they give it to me, and I'm not willing to actually follow it? It means that you didn't really care what their advice was. Think about it. I mean, if you're choking, can't say mom and dad, should I do a or b and you're like a and like woman to be? Does it seem like they cared about your choice? Like your opinion? It seems like a vain exercise. And it's like, why ask a pastor's advice if you're not even gonna follow it, or if you don't even care what they have to say? You know, don't ask for a rubber stamp. Rubber stamps are pointless anyways. You know, if you're going to ask for advice, it should be had with the opinion that I'm going to do what the advice is. Otherwise, there's no point in asking for the advice. Look at Isaiah Chapter four. And look at verse number five. The Bible says Therefore, shalt thou fall in the day, and the prophet also shall fall with thee in the night and I will destroy thy mother. My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge, because that was rejected knowledge. I will also reject me, that thou shalt be no priest to me, seeing else forgotten the law of God of thy God. I will also forget thy children. This is some harsh punishment, God saying, Hey, you reject the Bible, I'll reject you. Even at the point where their entire generate the next generation's forsaken. And you know, sad, we live in a world today with a lot of children that don't have a strong opportunity to be saved because their parents hate God, because their parents have rejected God. Verse seven, as they were increased, so they sinned against me, therefore, will I change their glory into shame. You know, America is becoming a shameful nation, because we've, we forsaken God, and he's taking all the things that we can glory in and just making it shameful. You know, the American flag used to be something of honor. And people used to really treat the American flag with a lot of respect. But the day it's almost becoming shameful to fly the American flag, because of our nation says in verse eight, they eat up the sin of my people, and they set their heart on their iniquity. People that just love sin, their heart and affection and passion is only about sin. They care more about sin than anything else. Verse nine, and there should be like people like priest, and I will punish them for their ways and reward them for their doings. You know, something that a lot of people don't realize is that a priest is often a reflection of the people. You say, oh, I want a better pastor will become a better person. And why that works is because if you guys all become just such a so much better of a person than me as a pastor or whatever pastor you have, then you might end up realizing like, I don't like this pastor, and you might find a better pastor. You know, think about it this way. There's a lot of people that move for a church. Why is it that they move for a church? Because they can't find a pastor that reflects what they're wanting. So they end up moving to a church or an area where they get a pastor that's going to reflect the desires of their heart, reflect what they actually want. And if everyone had that attitude, false prophets couldn't even exist. Go to second Timothy chapter four. Why is it that Joel Osteen exists? It's because people have apostatized. It's because people want someone to lie to them. It's because people like lies and deception and fraud and insincerity. People like a vain show. People just want to be encouraged. I mean, if you listen to Joel Osteen, which I've listened to some of his preaching, it is always an encouragement. Everything's just encouraged. And you know, sometimes we need encouragement. I'm not against encouragement. But I don't care what it is, you find any Joel Osteen sermon, you just drop the hammer, just drop into the middle of the sermon, and it'll immediately be encouraging. The world's getting you down and just pick yourself up. And you know, the Lord, He just loves you. And He's just there by your side. And you know, He'll never leave thee nor forsake thee. There's the world will say forsake you. He won't forsake you. And He's not mad at you. And He loves you. And you're special. Everybody in here is special. Everyone here is wonderful. You know, you've been having a hard time this week. Well, you know, God's God's gonna bless you. I feel like you're gonna have a breakthrough. When you put money in that plate, God's gonna make a breakthrough in your finances. And then God's gonna make a breakthrough in your marriage. And I feel I feel that there is chains on you right now and God's gonna break them. And you're just gonna be lifted up. I feel like this is gonna be a year of lifting up. And God's gonna lift us all up. And then we're gonna be up. And then we're gonna be lifted up again. And then just give me some more lifting. You know, we should call it the lifting year. This is his preaching. And it doesn't matter what sermon. You just flip it on and you're just lifted up and encouraged and he's for everybody and it's just great and it's just wonderful. Why? Because that's what they want to hear. Second Timothy chapter number four. Look what the Bible says. In verse three for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and return to the fables. Now that's what the Bible says. It says they shall heap to themselves teachers. You know a lot of people look at these false prophets and say oh they're charlatans gathering in the gullible. But the Bible actually kind of flips the script and says it's not like these charlatans are out and gathering the gullible. It's the gullible gathering a charlatan. The gullible are going out there and saying who will lie to me? And it's just like Joel Osteen is like well I will. This is my Bible and I am what it says I am. A sheep. A sheep in wolves clothing. He's not even faking OK. You know this is obvious that he's a wolf all right. But he's not really a sheep. All right let's go if you would back to Hosea for a moment. Here's the reality. You get the pastor you deserve in many cases. And you say well I don't like my pastor. Well then you need to become a better person. And you say why did I come and hear this sermon. Because you wanted to apparently. You know this is what you wanted to hear. OK. You wanted to hear the Bible. Good bad or ugly. You said hey whatever the priest says good bad evil ugly let's hear it. I just want the truth. You know I love people that just love the truth good bad or ugly. You know what's frustrating is people that actually enjoy lies or deception or don't really care what's the truth. Well if it sounded good then whatever. No I want it to be true even if it sounds ugly. Even if it's not the best most pleasing thing I've ever heard. Yet they didn't want to hearken unto God's word so he gives them a like priest and they're going to be rewarded. Verse 10 for they shall eat and not have enough. They shall commit whoredom and shall not increase because they have left off to take heed to the Lord. Notice what the problem is. They're not taking heed to the Lord. Why because they strove with the priest and replaced him with Joel Osteen. They don't want to hear what God has to say. Verse 11 whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart. You know there used to be a phrase that someone was more nervous than a whore in church. So you know what the whore did. They threw out that pastor and got a new pastor that will never preach about them being a whore so they can feel comfortable in church. And you know we have churches all over America they're filled with whores filled with whoremongers filled with drunkards. In fact there are Baptist churches I've seen it where they drink beer while they sing their hymns. It's called beer and hymns. I mean think about taking away the heart. I mean how are you going to really sing out of a pure heart unto God while you're drinking an alcoholic beverage. You're drinking poison let alone drinking anything. How are you going to be singing while you're drinking. What kind of nonsense is the world that we live in that people are drinking alcohol in church. It's taking away their heart. You know we live in a society that's only mostly about drinking alcohol and committing adultery and fornication. I mean what is it that college men want more than anything anymore is pretty much to just get a hook up and to drink alcohol and usually use alcohol to even get the hook up in the first place. It's just about alcohol and hook ups and whoredom. And you know our society is being destroyed because of alcohol. I mean our society is being destroyed by whores by women dressed in scantily clad clothing that are revealing all parts of their body. And the Bible teaches that when you do this you're going to take the way you're going to take the heart away from a man. You know men have an important role in society. They're supposed to build society and protect society and allow it to function. And when they're distracted by whoredom and wine all the time then society is going to suffer. And why is America's society suffering so much. Because the devil has used whoredom and wine to take away the heart of men today to where they don't care about anything else. You know we often look down upon someone that's a drug addict. You know someone is addicted to LSD addicted to meth addicted of these things. Why because that person has now become just a just a zombie. They're just kind of like just and they just live only for their next high. They live for the next hit. They live for the next you know joint that they can smoke or whatever drug it is that they're addicted to and they have no life apart from that. Really the only other parts of their life are just to get to that next hit. You know why don't someone become a crack whore. It's because the woman has lost all of her money all of her friends and she has no resources in order to get more drugs. So the only way for her to get more drugs is the whore herself to get enough money to then buy drugs again. And the only reason she even lives is just to get the next drug dose. And we have men today where they live for one purpose to get drunk one more time or to sleep with the next girl. That's the only thing that they're living for. They're not living for a career. They're not living for a wife. They're not living for a family. They're not living for a job. They're not living for society. They're not living to do anything. They're not living for God. They're not living for the word of God. They're not living with any real purpose in this life because they've been sucked dry through alcohol and through whoredom. Also this list has new wine which is rich as money. Which is saying that they become a zombie. They become an NPC a non playable character where essentially they have no real opinion no critical thinking no real zeal no real passion. The only thing they want is they just move to the next drug dose that they can get the next high the next. And of course this is why the Bible warns so much against us in the book of Proverbs for young men because he doesn't want the young men to succumb to these evils and for society to destroy itself. You know China and other countries in this world are not afraid of a bunch of drug addicted overweight feminized beer hops men that are just chasing the next whore. They know they can win that battle. There are plenty of areas in the world where you can't even drink out. You know the Muslims when they had the FIFA like World Cup everybody was shocked. This like you can't even drink alcohol in the stadium. They're like well how do you enjoy a sporting event without alcohol. It's like you know it's not baseball. That's how I'm getting it's because you know being sober actually makes your life more enjoyable folks and people that can't have a good time without drinking alcohol are the most boring people ever. And if you're sober hanging out with drunk people you realize real soon it's not fun. It's not enjoyable. No one wants to be around these toddlers that are considered adults. I mean why do you think it is that the bar everything is bolted to the ground and is metal that can be sprayed down to the hose because people that are drunks are glorified toddlers and they're a danger to themselves. They're a danger to the establishment and they vomit and they defecate on themselves and they pee on themselves and they basically can't even drive. They can't even walk. They can't even talk. I mean what is a toddler. It's one who can't talk who can't drive who can't use the bathroom appropriately that vomits need someone to take care of them is an emotional roller coaster. I mean you look at these people that are drunk and they're emotional roller coaster. They go from happy to sad like that like a man. Hey buddy. We're the best. Hey did you just hit me. Hey I could. Let's go to the parking lot man. I'll fight you. It's stupid. And they're stupid. They're not you know what they're not talking about in the bars. The textus receptus you know what they're not talking about Deuteronomy Leviticus. They're not talking about the finer points of society. You know what they're talking about whores. Oh did you see that movie man. Yeah I saw it. Yeah. Super cool man. Do you see the football game. Yeah I did. It's like that's what they talk about. And they have no heart. They have no real passion. They're weak. They're they've been drug. They're just drug addicted losers. They have nothing to live for. And because they're just drinking alcohol all the time and chasing horse. You know what happens their wives and daughters turn against them. Let's keep reading verse 12. My people ask counsel at their stocks and their staff declare none of them for the spirit of whoredoms have caused them to err. And they have gone a whoring from under their God. They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains and burn incense upon the hills under oaks and poplars and elms because the shadow thereof is good. Therefore your daughters shall commit whoredom and your spouses shall commit adultery. I will not punish your daughters when they commit adult or commit whoredom nor your spouses when they commit adultery for themselves are separated with whores and they sacrifice with harlots. Therefore the people that does not understand to fall. What God is saying is saying look if the man of society are just going to chase whores all day then what's going to happen is you're going to raise your daughters to be whores and because your daughters are whores and because you're not with your wife you're going to drive your wife to be with another man and they're going to commit adultery and whoredom because of the men in society. Why is it that in America there are so many whores and so much adultery. It's men's fault. It's because men did not marry a virgin and love their wife. That is why if men in society would marry a virgin and would love their virgin and be faithful under their virgin we could eliminate whoredom and adultery in our society. It is not the women's fault. A man going out to the bar every single night and chasing whores will drive his wife to adultery will drive his daughters to whoredom will destroy his family. What does the Bible say in Deuteronomy. I'm sorry go to Leviticus. I want to go to Leviticus for a second. Keep your finger here. You know we often want to blame whores for being whores but you know what it's their dad's it's their dad's fault. You know my daughter does not have the choice to become a whore or not on her own. I can help her with that decision but I could also drive her to that decision and look what the Bible warns against it says Leviticus 19 verse 29 do not prostitute by daughter to cause her to be a whore. Let's the land fall to whoredom and the land become full of wickedness. Notice the progress that happened a dog a dad prostitutes his daughter then the whole land becomes obsessed with whores and then the whole land becomes wicked. That is the cycle and it's a side. You know why is it that the Jews of Hollywood wanted to go and get all these scantily clad women on the television screen because they were prostituting their daughters to be whores on the television screen and it caused a whole generation of men to chase whores. You know it used to be in society as a woman you couldn't even go in public wearing a bikini. It was it was like illegal for them to show off that much of their body. Women were arrested at public beaches for wearing bikinis in our society because it was shameful because it's whoredom. But you know who introduced that topic that no one could tell them no was the television was movies was Hollywood and because of their influence and because the Jews were willing to prostitute their daughters on the screen and were willing to allow their daughters to become the Hollywood horrors and celebrities of our society. It has caused our entire nation to fall to wickedness because we have the Miley Cyrus dads out there and we have the Britney Spears dads out there and we have the Jessica Simpson dads out there allowing their daughters to prostitute themselves and to go out and dress like a whore. It's caused our entire society and nation to fall to wickedness. You say what is the problem with society. Britney Spears dad Jessica Simpson's dad Miley Cyrus is dead. All the dads out there that would allow their daughters to go out and dress like whores. And you know what if every man in America today stopped their daughters from going out and dressing like whores things would change like that because there wouldn't be any options. There wouldn't be any there wouldn't be all this excess out there. It's because there's so much option. There's so much available today. It's destroying our society is destroying America. And you know what as a godly man you should never ever ever ever ever let your daughter dress like a whore. That's shameful. How can you as a man and you know what every other man thinks. Let your daughter go out and dress like a whore. It's so shameful today. And don't let the television try to brainwash you. They'll try to be like oh you've got to fight with dad about what to wear. You better believe it because my daughter is never going out in public dressed like a whore. Plus she's also not going out with her friends by herself. She's not going out with you Shekim by herself because we know what every guy's like. And you know what you can make it where your daughter's a virgin on her wedding night. Say how never ever ever ever allow her to not be around you or your wife. So that's that's extreme. Well you know it's extreme letting your daughter be a whore. I think that you allowing your daughter to just sleep with a random dude that doesn't love her is way more extreme than me always being a chaperone to my daughter. That's not extreme. You're crazy. You're crazy if you think it's cool to just let your daughter get violated by the men of this world and take an advantage by the men of this world. And how many men end up lying with a woman outside of marriage and then marrying them. I mean I don't know what the statistics are anymore but it seems very low. It's very shameful today that we live in a society. Go back if you would. I want to read a few more verses here. You say when are you going to stop yelling. Well we'll be done preaching pretty soon. OK. Look what did you come to hear. What book of the Bible you want you want Joel Osteen part four. It doesn't exist in the Bible. You know that's the thing that most people don't realize. Show me all the chapters that are just pure just encouragement and just love and sweet and light. It's like it always has something gnarly in it. Especially if it's I mean especially the minor prophets. I mean man they're pretty gnarly. That's why. Why is it that almost no one knows the minor prophets because they're gnarly. Why is it that everybody likes Jonah because it's like the least gnarly one. It's like the most encouraging kind of. It's like God is going to destroy the city and he didn't. OK. It was like most of the rest of them like destruction doomed. I will love them no more. I mean that's the vast majority. What does the Bible say in verse 15. Though thou Israel play the harlot yet let not Judah offend nor and come not you into Gilgal. Neither go you up to Beth Avon nor swear the Lord liveth for Israel slide back as a bike backsliding heifer. Now the Lord will feed them as lamb in a large place. Ephraim is joined to idols let him alone. Their drink is sour. They have committed whoredom continually. Her rulers with shame do love give ye the wind have bound her up in her wings and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifice. The Bible says look when you do wickedness ultimately shame is going to come upon you. And you know our country is becoming more wicked by the day but you know it's also becoming more shameful by the day and hasn't even taken long for people to realize how shameful it is. Now I thought it was interesting it says in verse 15 that he doesn't want them to swear the Lord liveth. That's a verse that a lot of people should memorize. Just just so they realize what the word swear even means you know a lot of a lot of idiots out there will just say like the word swear means to use like a four letter word. And it's like that's so stupid because the word swear means to make an oath or a promise is what it means. And God's telling them not this is that I can imagine people get up to me like Pastor Shelley the Bible says not to swear nor swear but what is it the what are they swearing the Lord liveth. Why. He's saying don't don't go around as the children of Israel committing all kinds of sin and wickedness and then just being like oh well the Lord liveth you know he's going to bless us he's going to take care of us or often what people will do is they will make an oath they'll make a promise to you and they're lying. They already know they're lying. So they'll swear in this context say I'm coming to church you know you go out you knock on someone's door and you'll get them safe and they're like I'm coming to church and they say I swear. How would they do this Old Testament they say as the Lord liveth I'm coming to church. So they're saying as certain as God lives which what certainty level is that. That's 100 percent. OK. It's beyond that. That's more trustworthy than anything. He's saying just as certain just as truth worthiness as the Lord liveth I'm going to do what I said. And the Bible tells us not to swear in that context. You know Jesus even tells us swear not at all in the New Testament. What does he mean he's saying the same thing here. You know some people like oh in the New Testament Matthew chapter 5 Jesus taught a lot of different things in the Old Testament. No it's the same doctrines folks. God's telling him not to swear here either. Why. Because swearing is often a signal or a sign that the person's lying. If I say I'm going to do something I just do it. But if you know I'm worried about them believing me that's when the swears come in over the top like I swear on my mother's grave or as the Lord liveth or you bet your last dollar. You know that's a dumb thing to say because what the person is trying to do they're trying to overcompensate for the fact that you know they're being deceitful. You know that they're not really being honest with you. They're just making all these great O's and they're just constantly breaking their oath. And you know we live in a society where people constantly break their word. People sign contracts they'll sign lease agreements they'll sign all kinds of commercial deals they'll sign all kinds of things out there and then they'll just break it like a like nothing. They'll sign it and be like yep yep yep yep and then they'll just break their word change their word. You know that is a wicked society when you can't trust people when people will just tell you one thing and others do the other thing. You have no honesty no integrity nothing's happening. You know that's what he said in the earlier part of the chapter literally says in verse 2 by swearing and lying. And of course swearing always increases when you live in a society that's full of lies. When you live in a society that can never be honest or never promise you anything or keep their word then what happens they constantly increase their swearing because they need to constantly try to convince you that they're actually a genuine person. You know used to be in society that if someone said they would do something they just always did it. An American society I mean people would used to be a contract the handshake deal. You know you could just it was as good as a literal written contract but what happened over time people kept breaking their word in America and we've gotten to a point where nobody honors their word that everybody has these written these written contracts and you look at the written contracts. I mean they're 20 pages 30 pages 40 pages of every possible contingency of this what happens here and you're going to have to pay my attorney's fees and blah. And it's just like an insane contract you have to sign. Why. Because nobody keeps their word because there's no honesty and integrity in our society. Go back to Leviticus one more time. Leviticus chapter number five. And look at verse number four. What does the Bible say? Or of a sole swearer pronouncing with his lips to do evil or to do good whatsoever it be that a man shall pronounce with an oath and it be hit from him when he knoweth of it then he shall be guilty and one of these. So according to the Bible and again this chapter is kind of talking about oaths and things like that. Whatever you swear eat whether it's evil or good you're supposed to do it. You're supposed to keep that notice what the definition of swearing is pronouncing with your lips to do evil or good. Right. It's that you're going to do something so that that's the definition of swearing. OK. Look at chapter six verse three. Or if he law or if you have found that which was lost and lieth concerning it and notice this and sweareth falsely and any of sorry in any of all these that a man do with sinning therein. So you know it's swearing falsely is a sin. You know it's swearing honestly is not a sin. So is swearing a sin. Well according to the Bible if you're swearing in a context where you say as the Lord liveth I believe that's a sin you're not supposed to do that it's over the top. But I don't believe it's wrong to make a promise. And you know some people get weirded out about this. Obviously promises can't be off the table. Otherwise you could never have any kind of society right. Someone said hey will you come here. It's like well I don't want to promise you anything. You know how could you even get married. Obviously a marriage vow is a promise that you're promising to love them till death do us part. You know you're not doing as the Lord liveth I do. You say I do. You just mean your word. And of course God says let your yay be yay or nay be nay. So of course he's not saying you can't say yes or no. He's saying don't go over the top. But one thing you don't do is you don't promise someone yes and then do no. You don't promise someone no and then do yes. And you certainly don't vote God's name and say yes and then not do it. We need to be a people that swear it to his own hurt and change it not. You know the Bible talks positively about the person that swears. He that swear it to his own hurt and change it not. It didn't say the person that never swore it saying the guy that swore. Go to Hebrews chapter number six. Hebrews chapter number six. You know let's be a group of people that keep their word. Hey pastor whatever you say I'll do it. That was in that was a swear. So what are you going to do. You have to then keep that word don't you. Now in Hebrews for all those people that you know get so bent out of shape about the word swear look what the Bible says here in verse 13 for when God made promise to Abraham because he could swear by no greater he swear by himself. The Bible says that God swear. So if you're going to interpret the Bible to say swear always means using cuss words and it's always a sin. How do you interpret that verse. The Bible says that God swear by himself meaning what he made an oath or a promise to himself. That's what that's saying clearly. Go to Psalm 63 this was I'm going to return this evening Psalm 63. You know people today have no knowledge of the Bible and they will strive with the priest and they will falsely accuse the priests of all kinds of different things and they just look like idiots because they don't know what the Bible says. You know before I'm going to criticize a surgeon maybe I should learn a little bit about medical you know anatomy or something like learn a little bit of you know the practice of medicine. You know it's kind of foolish for me to start criticizing surgeons and start criticizing experts in their field of study when I have no knowledge about the topic and yet so many people want to criticize pastors and want to criticize the men of God when they have no idea what they're saying. They desire to be a teacher of the law understanding neither what they say nor where they affirm. And of course when you're not a pastor it's easy to have a bozo opinion because it doesn't affect anybody. You know if I have weird opinions it affects a lot of people potentially. You know a lot of people come to our church a lot of people listen to our sermons and people make changes based on sermons which is great. So you know I have to be careful what I say and what I teach because if I say something wrong or amiss or whatever it could cause people to make a devastating change in their life but it could also cause them to make a positive change in their life. You know that the tongue has the power of death and life according to the scripture and it's so important what we say. Yet there's so many bozos out there that just want to blow their mouth off online and they have no congregation. Beware of that person because they have no real recourse. It's not it's not hard to see it's not it's not easy to see what the ramifications are of people following their doctrine whereas when you actually come to a church filled with tons of people and they're listening to the preacher and they all seem to be having successful lives. Well then you can actually see wow this isn't necessarily dangerous advice because look at all the fruit look what's happening with those people. You know a church is going to ultimately be the byproduct of a preaching in many cases and you can judge a preacher oftentimes by the congregation because the congregation is going to be a direct reflection of the preaching and vice versa. It is a nice mirror to those things. Psalms 63. Look what it says in verse number 11. But the king shall rejoice in God. Everyone that sweareth by him shall glory but the mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped. You know we should be the type of people that make o's and promises to God and keep our word to God and say hey you know what I'm going to go to church. Hey you know what I'm going to read the Bible. Hey I'm going to serve God with my life not be those who constantly speak lies and teach false doctrine. And you know the Bible says they're eventually going to get their mouth stopped. You know God doesn't like lies. He's going to shut the mouths of the false teachers and of the false preachers and those who preach all kinds of nonsense. Why is it that Christianity is the most popular religion and there's so many other religions that have failed been squashed been snuffed out destroyed people you know constantly just being eliminated because they're speaking lies. Those who speak lies will eventually destroy themselves and those who harken to them and those who speak the truth can actually minister to people's lives and we need people that are going to keep you know appreciating truth. Go to a church where you're going to have truth being spoken and when you have the truth being spoken and you know that it's the truth you need to honor that truth. Let us not become a church let us not become a people that are like Hosea chapter number four and our society is going to be that way but we can be you know a shining light and a crooked and perverse nation we can be different than this this this world and we're supposed to be separate from this world we're supposed to be unique. Let us not be those who care so much about whoredom and wine and and and we're lying and we're swearing falsely and we're breaking our word. Let us be people who are dedicated to God and keeping our promises. Let's close in prayer. Thank you Heavenly Father for the scripture thank you for this chapter. I pray that you would help the young men in this room to not be taken away their hearts to be stolen by the whoredom and the alcohol and the drugs and by all the temptations of the devil out there. We live in a society that's very perverse and there's a lot of temptation there's a lot of things that would try to destroy men's hearts and destroy their faith and destroy their lives and I pray that they would hearken to the scripture. They would dedicate themselves that they would get temperance and self-control that they would be strong men to lead their families and to protect their wives and protect their daughters and that you would help us to be a people that love the Lord that love truth that love the knowledge of God and when challenged and confronted with the scripture we don't turn to the left hand or the right hand but we do exactly what you would have us do and in Jesus name we pray Amen. All right for our final song this evening we're going to go to 248 Now I Belong to Jesus 248 Now I Belong to Jesus song 248 Now I Belong to Jesus. kJesus, my Lord, will love me forever. From him no power of evil can sever. He gave his life to ransom my soul. Now I Belong to him. Now I Belong to Jesus. I now belong to him. to Him. Now I belong to Jesus. Jesus belongs to me, not for the years of time alone, but for eternity. Once I was lost in sin's degradation, Jesus came down to bring me salvation. From sorrow and shame, now I belong to Him. Now I belong to Jesus. Jesus belongs to me, not for the years of time alone, but for eternity. Joy floods my soul, for Jesus has saved me, freed me from sin that long had enslaved me. His precious blood He gave to redeem, now I belong to Him. Now I belong to Jesus. Jesus belongs to me, not for the years of time alone, but for eternity. God bless you all. Thank you for coming. You are dismissed. Thank you.