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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lord, we thank you again for Steadfast Baptist Church. Such an awesome church. We get to gather together and sing unto you in, Lord. We love you, and we just ask you to bless this church and bless this service, and it's in Jesus' name we ask it. Amen. Amen. All right, for our next song, let's go to song number 397. Song number 397. Little is much when God is in it. Song number 397. Song number 397. Little is much when God is in it. Everybody sing it together on the first. In the harvest field now ripened There's a word for all to do Hark the voice of the Lord Hark the voice of the Lord Just for all to do Hark the voice of the Lord so God is calling to the harvest calling you Little is much when God is in it Little is much when God is in it Labor not for wealth or fame There's a crown That you can win in with the rolling default Does the place your crown Does the place you're called to labor seem so small and little known? It is great if God is in it and he'll not forget his own. Little is much when God is in it. Labor not for wealth or fame. There's a crown and you can win it if you'll go in Jesus' name. Are you laid aside from service, body warm for toil and care? You can still be in the battle, in the sacred place of prayer. Little is much when God is in it. Labor not for wealth or fame. There's a crown and you can win it if you'll go in Jesus' name. When the conflict here is ended and our race on earth is run, he will say to all the faithful, welcome home, my child well done. Little is much when God is in it. Labor not for wealth or fame. There's a crown and you can win it if you'll go in Jesus' name. Thanks for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you did not already get a bulletin and you would like one, just slip your hand up real quick. One of our ushers can come by and get you guys a bulletin on the front. We have our verse of the week, Proverbs 31 verse 6. If you can quote it, you can get ice cream after the service. Also, we have our service soul winning times, our church stats. Please make sure that you're submitting that into your soul winning captains and lieutenants. There is a newer regional soul winning time with brother Samuel on Mondays at 6 p.m. If you're interested in doing that, what part of town do you usually go in? Irving. Irving, so kind of near the Irving area. If you are interested, Mondays on 6. Instead of Monday night football, you can go soul winning. There you go. Then on the right, we have the list of expecting ladies. You can add one for Alisha Naeem for June. Congratulations to them. That's exciting. Yeah. This list is supposed to shrink, but it just keeps growing. I'm just kidding. It's great. Also, upcoming events. We have the Abilene, Texas soul winning marathon, the baby shower for the Goers. On the 11th, the Mexican missions trip at the end of November. We have the ladies Christmas party. December 8th, we have Christmas caroling on the 11th. We have a children's Christmas music recital on the 16th. And then cookie bake off on the 24th. The 31st is also going to be a special evening. And as we get a little bit closer to some of these other events, we'll give you the details. We're just trying to at least give you some dates just so that you have those to at least mark down. And on the back, we have the note about the details of that baby shower. And then we have our prayer list. I did want to say, so this Sunday evening, it's going to be a little bit different service in the sense that I made a public video about kind of an update regarding one of our legal situations and how we had ultimately just victory in that particular proceeding. And I kind of just made a real brief video about it. But I was going to afford our church one evening to where essentially I might go in a little more detail and then just kind of open it up if anybody had any questions. Just though that way we can kind of just once for all, all together, just talk about if you want to talk about it. And then we can just move on because obviously it'd be nice to move on as well. And I know sometimes people have genuine questions. And so if any of the men or households have a question, you know, the men can ask that on Sunday evening. And then I'll still preach a sermon. I'm planning on preaching a sermon in the evening. But I just wanted to at least let you know. So if you are interested, you say, man, I just really want to know. That's your chance, right? So it's better than just having like 10, 15 different people randomly come and ask me questions. And I have to answer the same things over and over or vice versa or whatever. It's just kind of our one fun tell all. And there's a couple of things that I think that you'll really enjoy that I share. So that being said, that's just the announcement for this upcoming Sunday. You have to be present to hear it. It's not going to be live streamed, recorded or anything like that. So if you're not in the flesh, you just don't get to enjoy. All right. That's how church should work. All right. Prayer list. We'll go over that quickly. We're praying for Brother Hall still for his leg to recover. I know it's been trending in the right direction, but we just want to continue praying for him on that. Brother Wallach's daughter is also pregnant. And it's exciting news. So we've been praying for her. We've been praying for his niece also, who unfortunately has cancer treatment. We've been praying for Miss Cooley's stepdad also has cancer treatments. We've been praying for the brother of Brother Oz. We've been praying for the name's grandmother. We've been praying for Miss Eva's sister, Brad's family. We've been praying for Craig for a job. We've been praying for Miss Ginger for her family member. And so it was the father of her children that's unfortunately on life support and passed away. So we've been praying for them. That's really all I have as far as our prayer list. So we'll just make a quick prayer as a church family and then we'll sing our third song. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for this evening. Thank you so much for all these ladies who are expecting. I pray that you just please be with them and their children. Please also just help our church family has a lot of health issues, especially these chronic issues. I pray that you'd also bless our church family that has temporary illness, that you'd help give them speedy recovery so they can get back into church. I pray that you would also give all of them peace during their affliction. I pray that you would also help give favor under these church members that need it in their lives right now. Please be with those that have suffered loss, that you'd comfort them, that you could use this as an opportunity to reach people with spiritual and eternal decisions. And I pray that you would just continue to use our church for your honor and glory. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So go to our third song. It's going to be our Psalm of the Week 119. If you have that special handout, it's really easy. You could use your Bible, but it's easier if you use the handout. Psalm 119. All right, Psalm 119. Psalm 119. Psalm 119. Everybody sing it out together on the first. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light, unto my hand. I am sworn in, I will bring you in, that I will keep thy righteous judgments. I am afflicted, very much wicked being, O Lord of orders, unto thy word. The wicked have laid a snip for me, and I am not from thy presence. Thy testimonies have not taken as inherent, to ever thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light, unto my hand. Except I beseech thee the freewill offerings of my mouth, O Lord, and teach me thy judgments. My soul is continually in mine, and yet do I not forget thy law. The wicked have laid a snip for me, and I am not from thy presence. Thy testimonies have not taken as inherent, to ever thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light, unto my hand. For they are the rejoicing of my heart, I have been fine. I will remember you, Lord, thy statutes await, even unto the end. I hate vain thoughts, but thy law do I love. The wicked have laid a snip for me, and I am not from thy presence. Thy testimonies have not taken as inherent, to ever thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light, unto my hand. All right, great singing everybody. Now with all the pledge we've passed around, go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Malachi chapter four. That's Malachi chapter number four. . . . . . . Malachi four, the Bible reads, For behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly shall be stubble. And the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear my name, shall the Son of righteousness arise with healing in his wings, and ye shall go forth and grow up as calves of the stall. And ye shall tread down the wicked, for they shall be ashes unto the soles of your feet, and the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts. Remember ye the law of Moses, my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer. Father in heaven, we thank you for Malachi chapter four, and I pray that you fill Pastor Shelley with your spirit and help him to expound the chapter to us. And Lord, I also pray that you would help us to pay attention so that we can learn about this section of scripture. We love you, and in Jesus' name I pray, amen. Amen. So we're wrapping up the book of Malachi, and since there's six verses, we'll probably just do a six-part series. No, I'm just kidding. And, you know, you gotta get a little bit of flavor from the previous verse in chapter three. It says in verse 18, Then shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth them not. So he's talking about kind of that end times judgment revealing of that distinction between who's really of God and who's really not of God, and that's why it starts off in chapter four with the word for, meaning how are we going to decide this or how are we going to know who is really the righteous and who is really the wicked and the ones that serve God and the ones that didn't? Well, behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly shall be stubble, and the day that cometh shall burn them up, sayeth the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. Now, that's, you know, there's a lot to verse one that we could probably explore, but just what's kind of the general picture here is just the idea that there is a coming judgment day for the wicked and they're going to be destroyed. They're going to be destroyed in a final type way because it's saying that they're not going to have a root or a branch. Now, the root is kind of what gives life to that particular plant and the branch is its product, so it's basically saying like their parents and their children are going out with them and so basically there's just going to be nothing left of them whatsoever. They're just going to be destroyed forever and permanently. Now, you can even see this sometimes in the Old Testament where you have a certain nation that God gets so mad at and wants to wipe them off the face of the map and he basically comes in and destroys them and there's no more memory of them. There's no more future progeneration of them. They're not going to have any more progenitors. They're not going to have any more children. They're just gone. And in fact, in some cases, if they weren't even mentioned in the Bible, no one would have even known they've ever existed. And so this is kind of the same way as what he's trying to allude to is how in the coming future judgments of the Lord that the wicked are going to be destroyed so much so that there won't even be memory of them nor any person that's coming from them. There won't be like, hey, this is so-and-so's son. That person doesn't exist and we'll have forgotten that they've even existed and we won't even care. And sometimes in our minds it's hard to think of the idea of forgetting things but what you have to realize is that for the last 2,000 years of the New Testament, you know there's been a lot of bad people, like a lot of bad people. Today we can think of lots of people that we think are pretty bad, right? Maybe like the Clintons, you know. Maybe like Joe Biden. Maybe George Soros. We're kind of thinking of all these different people. But it's like, you know, those type of people existed in the 1700s and in the 1500s and in the 1300s. And as you kind of go further, further back in time, most people in this room wouldn't even be able to name one bad person, let alone the hundreds and hundreds of bad people. Why? Because most bad people, they've already been forgotten, we already don't know who they are, and we already don't care. There's another thing. This leftist ideology that exists in our culture is a death cult and what many of these people don't realize is by them being so pro-vaccine, so pro-abortion, and in fact these women that are really just whores and stuff, no one's going to end up marrying them. They're going to get past child-birthing years. And even if they could, they're going to have sterilized themselves so much, they're going to cease to exist. They're not going to have any offspring. They're wiping themselves off the map. That's why it's called a death cult, because living their lifestyle only brings death and destruction and their ultimate demise. They're headed for a crash course. They can't sustain themselves. And so got some microcosm, but God is saying there's going to even be a day when he just pretty much cleans everything up, when he just says, and why is it picturing stubble? Well, stubble burns really well. Stubble is that dry leftovers of the wheat harvest, and it's just ready for the kindling. It's just ready to just burn up like wildfire and just be shredded into pieces. And so he's just basically saying this stubble, which is kind of worthless, man, it's just going to be lit on fire and just going to be consumed all the way up. There's really no use for it except for to burn it. Now, this makes me think of some other passages. Keep your finger here. Go to Matthew chapter 13 for a moment. Go to Matthew chapter 13. You know, the Bible alludes to the fact that there's going to be a coming baptism of the world in fire, and God's going to literally burn things up. But, you know, it's funny that, you know, some people, they live their lives with this rainbow, okay, and they're kind of laughing at God, thinking, like, you're never going to drown us. But that doesn't mean he won't burn you. You know, it's like you wave that little flag, thinking, like, oh, I'm protected from water, but not fire. And, you know, if we lived in a righteous nation, we would get a millstone when we teach you about water. But, you know, it's just funny. You know, you can think that, well, God's not going to get me, but that doesn't change anything. He can still get you, and he is still going to get you. And, you know, they've already spelled their fate. Why is it that they raised the rainbow flag? You know, I mean, have you ever wondered that? Isn't there other religions and other deities and other stories out there about gods and judging people? It's like, why are they raising the rainbow flag? Have you ever wondered that? Because think about it, like, why aren't they saying, like, Zeus isn't going to get me, you know, oh, the god of Islam, Allah, isn't going to get me, and why don't they wave, like, a Palestinian flag, you know, against it? Obviously, they wave it for it, right? It's really funny, but it's just, it's like, why are they waving the rainbow flag? It's because they know that there's only one real God, and it's the God of the Bible, and they're trying to mock that specific god with the promise that he gave to them about the fact that he wasn't going to drown them. And so they're kind of trying to mock him and provoke him or whatever. It's like, why aren't they trying to provoke some other god that they don't think exists or whatever, right? Why aren't they so interested in making fun? You know, why do they use Jesus' name as a cuss word? And why do they use the rainbow as their logo and their emblem and what they champion up and down the street? I mean, it's really obvious, folks, that the God of the Bible is the one that everyone believes in. Even the atheist believes in him, even because he, when he makes his fake little religion, the Flying Spaghetti Monster, you know what religion sounds exactly like? Christianity. Why didn't he make a Flying Spaghetti Monster that sounds like Hinduism or the Flying Spaghetti Monster to be, you know, some other fake religion? It's because they know that Christianity is the only real religion with the only real god, and reprobates know who the real Lord is. They know who the real... I mean, there... Why is it that Marilyn Manson, in his concerts, is ripping up and burning King James Bibles in his concert? Why isn't he doing that to the Quran? Why isn't he doing that to some other manuscript or text or to the Book of Mormon or something like that? It's because they know that the King James Bible is what has the power. It has the authority. And there are people out there that are just reprobate. Now, the Bible kind of talks about these people. Look at what it says in Matthew chapter 13, verse 30. Let both grow together until the harvest. You say, what are we talking about? Let's read a couple of verses preceding this, actually. We'll start in verse 25. But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. And when the blade was sprung forth and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the servants of the householder came and said to them, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? From whence then hath it tares? You know, this is a good question. Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? This is like all the atheists out there saying, well, if God exists, then why do bad people exist? Why did God make bad people? Didn't you just sow your field with good seed? Why wouldn't God just sow the earth with good seed? And it's like he did. But here's the problem. He says, then he said to them, an enemy hath done this. Hey, you want to know where all these bad people are coming from? It's coming from their father, the devil. The devil's the one sowing this wicked seed in the world. The servants said unto them, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay, lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn. Notice again the same language that these tares are going to be like that stubble and they're going to end up being burned and this is a picture of what's going to happen in the future. We're talking about the end times. We're talking about that day of judgment where God is going to literally burn the wicked and he's going to literally burn these people up and he's going to destroy them. One thing I find interesting, because, you know, especially our church, you kind of sometimes you kind of like wonder like, why hasn't God dealt with some of these protesters yet? You know, and like Pure Words, they've been being protested every single Sunday for like the last 33 Sundays in a row. It's going to be 34 next week, so don't get too superstitious about that number, but it's just, you know, that's where they're at right now. But what I'm saying is why is it, sometimes you can't you have that feeling, I've had that feeling. Who's had that feeling? Like, why hasn't something happened? But notice there's an answer in this actual parable, isn't there? Isn't there an answer? He says, like, hey, you want us to gather them? And we're over here like, get them, you know. And he said, nay, lest while you gather up the tares you root up also some of the wheat with them. So you know why God wouldn't do it? To actually preserve you. Actually preserving us somehow. Somehow, by not getting taken care of them, it's somehow preserving us in some manner or some way. And you know what? Okay, then that makes sense. You know, if God's saying I want to preserve those people, so the fact that you get to be here, they get to be here because you get to be here. And in some cases, you know, taking some of them out would take some of us out apparently. I don't know how. I'm not really interested in that. But what I am interested, at least it gives me some indication that it's not like God doesn't care. Wouldn't you say God cares then? You know, imagine it's like, hey, why don't you shoot the enemy? And it's like, well, if we shoot the enemy, we might accidentally hit, you know, some children or we might hit some women or we might like have some casualties and for their sake, we're not going to shoot at the enemy. It's not that we don't want to take the enemy out, it's that we don't want to be like Israel and just bomb a bunch of women and children and then claim that it's justified. So you know, you can put that in your Israel pipe and smoke it, okay? Go back to Malachi chapter four. Oh, but it's justified because Hamas is so bad. Well, you know, sure, just because Hamas is bad doesn't give you the right to just bomb their women and children. Like vice versa. Just like, hey, oh, okay, there's some bad Jews out there. Are we allowed to just say all Jews are bad now? Oh, no, you get really offended at that, don't you? And say we're anti-Semitic because, just because 99.99% of Jews are bad, you know, and we sometimes lump in that .0000000001% with them, you know, it's like you guys get all offended and act like we don't like the Jews as a whole or something like that. But you know, Jesus never seemed to caveat. Paul never seemed to caveat. He just said Jews, Jews, you know, he's just saying it without having to give reverence to that little caveat. But you know what, even Jesus himself, when confronted with his disciples, like, hey, let's burn some of these Samaritans, he's like, hey, you don't know what spirit you're of. Okay, you know not what spirit you're of because we shouldn't just want to just have as many casualties as possible. Jonah was wrong for wanting to destroy all of Nineveh. And it's not that God doesn't want to take care of the wicked. It's just he doesn't want to have collateral damage. And that's kind of sometimes the reason why he's waiting. And we even see that. We see that he's like waiting for the appropriate time so that there's no collateral damage. He goes, hey, I've gathered all my wheat into the barn. Now have fun with the stubble. Right? Now have fun burning the rest of this. And it kind of makes sense because that's why we in our church are pre-wrath as far as we're post-trib, but we're pre-wrath. Meaning that we believe that God would wait until he gets all of his people out before he then unleashes his wrath. Now of course the devil is constantly unleashing his wrath on the earth as he sees fit and as God allows. Right? He did it to Job. He does it to all kinds of different people. And the devil is constantly wanting to attack God's people and God's kind of holding him back. He's kind of like that nasty pit bull on a chain. You know? And eventually God's going to kind of take the devil off the chain and just kind of let go. And that's where we have that tribulation and great tribulation period. But then eventually God is going to gather all of his people out and then it's like, now it's my turn to unleash a bunch of wrath and pour it out. Just like Noah and his family got on the ark and then it's like, oh, God's turn. Okay. And so we have to understand that God is waiting to judge many times for our sake, for our benefit. And that's why we have these epic build-ups. Plus when God judges, it's over so quickly that, you know, and there's such a cataclysmic judgment. I mean, think about it. God judged, oh, yeah, I just drowned the entire world. I mean, literally everything that has breath died. That's a pretty big judgment, wouldn't you say? I mean, you read Revelation, pretty big judgments. You know, comets coming out of the sky, smashing into the earth, causing all the water to be bitter. You have locusts coming out of hell. I mean, these are some pretty extreme events. All the grass is burned up. I mean, it's going to look like Phoenix whether you live there or not. No green thing. I mean, can you imagine the world where you can't even see? Green's my favorite color. Can you imagine just zero green? Nothing. It is all El Paso. It's all Phoenix. I mean, it's just all just like dirt and just barren, a wasteland. It's the Middle East, you know. And isn't it funny that the Middle East kind of looks like God already did that on many levels. Like, you know, like little mini areas that kind of already looks like that. Sodom and Gomorrah. He's going to do that to the earth. The whole earth is just going to be just destroyed. And the whole earth is going to be burned up. Now, it says in verse 2, But unto you that fear my name shall the son of righteousness arise with healing in his wings, and he shall go forth and grow up as calves of the stall. It's interesting wording here in verse 2 that says son, but it's S-U-N. So talking about what we would know as, you know, this fireball in the sky, okay. And as Elon Musk describes it, a nuclear reactor up in the sky. But he's kind of right that, you know, and he was saying something, I was listening to something he said recently about if you just got like a, I think it was like a hundred square miles or something of surface area and you just put there solar panels, you could power the entire United States only on solar. And he was just saying like a lot of times people aren't doing these things very efficiently. But he was basically saying it in the context of how powerful the sun is. And it's true that the sun does a lot of things for our universe and for our planet. You know, he also believes that he can terraform Mars. And, you know, here's the thing. I don't think that it's impossible for Mars to be terraformed into the earth. But what I do believe is it's impossible for us to do that. Like I don't think that we have enough time, resources, energy or capability to probably do that. And if we ever did, it would probably be way further in the future. You know, obviously the Bible talks about God made us in his image. And, you know, if we're given infinite time and infinite resources, you know, because he's so intelligent, maybe he's given us the capability of getting there. But, you know, a problem with Mars and sustaining life on there is all the water on Mars is like frozen ice because it's just not hot enough. It's not heating enough. And they theorize that if it got, if the planet got warmer and got closer to the earth's heat level, then all that water would turn into oceans, which we see on our planet, right? Because our planet's covered in something. Water, isn't it? And, you know, a lot of things that exist on our planet are a direct relation to how the sun interacts with our planet. If the sun were further away or closer, that would have a dramatic impact on the oceans. And look, the oceans, they need to be exactly how they are for our lives to be sustained the way that they are. You know, I mean like everything about our planet and solar system is in such precision that even altering them slightly makes huge changes to our environment, to, you know, all kinds of different things. Even just the moon itself is believed to have a direct impact on the tidal waves and how the ocean flows. But think about it, if the entire earth was covered in water at some point, you know, that tells you how delicate some of these things are because if the entire earth was covered in water 15 feet or 15 cubits above the highest hills, you know, you'd have large sections of the continents that we know today covered in ice. Even areas that would be habitable right now just because it would take so long for all that ice to melt and to kind of shift and then to form into the oceans that we see today. Plus the continents that we have today have large continental shelves which some people don't necessarily understand. You know, if you look at the geology, you kind of learn that if you took the water out, that Florida and Texas and Africa and some of these other countries, like they have large sections that are very similar in sea level to where the coastline is for large sections. And then they have these big drop-offs in the middle parts of the ocean. You know, there's always this idea of like Pangea where all of the continents used to be connected on one little island or something like that and then over millions of years they separated. This is kind of something you'd be taught in the public fool system. Well, you know, one thing that they never really account for is how those continental shelves work because those continental shelves would change the shape of these giant continents and frankly speaking these continents aren't lily pads either. They're not just like floating, you know, on a little pond and they just kind of like are spinning or something like that. If you took all the water off of the earth, you know what would be under the water? Dirt. Okay. You know, there's still a giant section of dirt between Africa and South America. Now they'll say, oh, well, you don't understand plate tectonics and how these things shift or whatever, but it's like, yeah, but you don't even know what you're talking about when you say the earth is, you know, 4.5 billion years old and then you don't understand all the science of this. But what I'm saying is the sun, its distance to the earth has a major impact on how the oceans even function because if it was a little bit cooler we'd have larger sections of ice, larger sections where you don't have this travel capability. Some people even theorize that after the arc, you know, because there was large sections of ice, there was land bridges of ice and stuff like that or maybe continental shelves appeared in areas where they're not appearing right now and that's how people migrated on certain areas. You know, when we talk about, you know, we don't really know this area very well, but you look at like Australia and like south west or southeastern Asia, there's a lot of little tiny islands out there and, you know, maybe people just travel in both. That's very capable, but it could be that there could have been some land bridges accessible there in the early stages after the flood. And so a lot of people travel or migrated in different ways at that point in time. Obviously things like the Grand Canyon and stuff would have formed probably after that ice age when you had a giant section of water basically deposit itself back into the oceans. And so, you know, I think all that stuff is really interesting. We have to understand that the sun is playing a vital role and the Bible even tells us something about the sun. What does it say? Arise with healing in its wings. Apparently the sun has healing properties. And for some people this is even just reality. Like you need vitamin D from sunlight. And in fact sometimes babies even get what's called jaundiced because they haven't had enough natural sunlight. And so like actually being in sunlight is positive for you. People that live underground or hide from the sun all the time, sometimes they can have more health problems because they're not getting enough sunlight. They're not getting some of the healing properties of the sun. Additionally, a lot of us, you know, myself included, sometimes you get more sick in the winter. Don't you notice that? And through cold, sometimes when your body is colder, it just makes your body more susceptible to illness or anything like that. Whereas heat, sometimes a lot of times will help. And you know there's sometimes where cold is good and heat is good. Obviously we get that. But generally speaking the sun has healing properties. Not only that, according to verse 2 it says, and grow up as calves of the stall. Meaning the sun also has something to do with growth. And of course this is very evident from anybody that studied anything about agriculture, plants, photosynthesis, the process by which plants receive sunlight and use that in their growth process and not only just growing but even producing fruit. And so the sun, just biologically speaking, has a lot of these carnal truths. How it keeps our planet exactly functioning how it's supposed to be functioning. How not only that it heals our planet and not only that it causes growth on our planet. And all of these things are to help us understand the spiritual truths of how the sun is like the son of God. And it's nice in the English language that that's like the same word. Because it almost sounds, it's like a homonym where it sounds the same but it's spelled different. But in our case it kind of has the same carnal and spiritual truths. What are those things? Like Jesus is literally keeping our planet together. It's so fragile and all, there's so many intricacies to our economy, to our environment, to our world, to just everything that Jesus himself is literally holding this planet together. And you know the Bible talks about in the end times how God himself will remove peace from the earth and then there's just going to be extraordinary violence. Meaning that God himself, Jesus Christ himself is literally keeping the planet together he's keeping humanity at bay. And haven't you noticed and of course the newspapers want us to believe this but it seems true that violence has been increasing in the earth. Not only that just hatred in general. We've seen you know for a long time without technology especially most nations have been able to kind of stay pure to their national identity. You know if you're from China you're pretty much Chinese. If you're from Japan you're pretty much Japanese. If you're from America we don't know. If you're from Canada you play hockey okay and you like syrup right. Now you go visit Canada and it's like who are all these people? It used to be if you lived in the UK you spoke the king's English. Now it's a bunch of Muslims. It's like what third world country did I enter into? You know you travel in many places in America and you would think like this is in America. Like where am I? You know it's very confusing. And so we've seen like just kind of even the world as a whole changing its dynamic a lot. And as a result of this it's escalating tension. It's escalating hatred. It's escalating violence. It's causing a lot of issues. And of course the Middle East has always been known for conflict. Today is no exception. But there really is a lot of bubbling tension. And it doesn't seem very far-fetched that you can see how Jesus at some point could just say you know what? There's been a lot of peaceful Muslims living around the world for a long time. But now all of a sudden I'm just going to take peace and all Muslims and Christians and Jews are going to be at each other's throats. And you know a lot of people are already there. But I'm just saying like for you know a lot of Muslims they just think you know hey I'm a peaceful Muslim. And maybe they are. But here's the problem. If they see a bunch of people killing all of their Muslim brethren and massacring them and saying we need to eradicate all of them. They might change their perception of peace. And it might be like how God is taking peace from the earth saying like you guys are a victim. It wouldn't matter what group we identify and isolate and say you are bad. They're going to turn violent eventually. Right? If we just said hey all people over six feet tall need to be hunted down and killed. Well pretty soon all the six foot people are going to start kind of looking over their shoulder and start forming little clubs and being like hey do we need to do something about this? Right? And whether that's white people, black people, Asian people, American people, Jews, Muslims, Christians, whatever it is it doesn't matter. When they start getting targeted they're going to start you know changing their behavior, their attitude and everything like that. And our culture, our country, our world, it seems like it's just being barely held together. But it's Jesus. Jesus has got his grip on it. You know Jesus is there. He's holding it all. It's really delicate. Any little tiny change. And you know it's funny to me how these climate activists they think like they're going to somehow affect things. And it's like dude you don't have any control. Like you're not going to affect anything. Jesus has got it. Okay. But at the same time we have to realize that it's you know him that also brings healing too to the earth. You say oh it's really tumultuous and there's all these problems and there's all these issues. What would bring peace to the world? Jesus Christ will. Okay. Especially look if we could get a megaphone and scream to every Christian in America and say look the Christians replaced Jews. You know what would happen? America would be like uh we're not giving money to Israel. And then you know what Israel would do? Uh crap I'm not going to keep poking all these Palestinians in the eye if America is not going to help me. Okay. And then they might have to they might even have to acquiesce and say all right we'll give the Palestinians some land over here. Right. And if we say hey we're not going to fund Iran either and we're not going to you know hey we're going to start importing our own goods. And we're going to actually drill our own oil. And then the Saudis are like crap no one's buying our stuff anymore. Okay. We're going to have to figure out some other form of commerce. Right. You know what would happen is it would lower the tensions of war and a lot of the problems. And you know hey a bunch of Christians start going to the Middle East and Israel and all these other places preaching the gospel and getting people saved and putting them in positions of authority. You know what that would bring? More peace. See what's the healing for the world? It's Jesus Christ. It's the King James Bible. It's the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is what brings healing to our world's problems. Okay. And the problem with America. Why is America in shambles? A lack of Christianity. A lack of biblical understanding. I mean the only thing that's going to heal our country is Jesus Christ. And what would bring growth? Obviously Jesus Christ is what brings growth as a nation. I mean look at the countries that don't have the gospel or Jesus Christ or Christianity. They live in tents folks. They live in shanties. They live in mud roofed huts. Okay. And then you look at the people that brought Christianity. They have castles and towers and brick roads and like you look at Europe where Christianity has dominated in the most recent past. And it's like their cities are amazing. With the most amazing architecture and innovation. It's like who brought the printing press into production? Christians because they want a Bible. It's like who is making the English language better? Christians with their King James Bible. Okay. And anti-Christianity, it destroys everything. It's just a destructive force. Christianity is a building, edifying, healing, growing force. And you know we're the salt that literally preserves. You know the Bible tells us how we're the salt of the earth. But think about it. If you get a chunk of meat and you just sit it out on the counter, it's rotting. It's not getting better. It gets worse every second. Every single second that meat is deteriorating, rotting. It's just a rotten thing that is slowly rotting, getting worse and worse and worse, browning and whatever. And the only thing that will keep that thing from just going totally bad is salt. You put salt on it and you can put so much salt on it that it will turn into McDonald's fries where they never go bad. Okay. You know. And it's just like many meats that have been very salted, they become preserved, right? Beef jerky, pepperoni, some of these other meats. They've been so salted. And it's like what would preserve a nation? A lot of salt. What makes a nation really bad? No salt. Okay. And so we have to make sure that we understand where these things come from. And it's obviously the Son, Jesus Christ, that gives us this healing. Verse 3. And ye shall tread down the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts. Now, keep your finger and go to 2 Peter chapter 3. Go to 2 Peter chapter 3 for a second. He kind of alludes back to this ashes. And I think why the context of the Son is there is because it's kind of like he's talking about, hey, there's going to be a day of judgment. The earth is going to be burned up. But you know what's going to bring health and restoration? That Son of righteousness is going to rise. And we're going to kind of have renewal again. But those people that were destroyed are going to be like the ashes under our feet. Now, I believe if you study Ezekiel and kind of the end times correctly, that you'll understand there's a marriage supper of the Lamb event. And basically all the wicked are kind of destroyed by Jesus Christ as a sword that comes out of his mouth. And he destroys all these wicked people. And for a long period of time, according to Ezekiel, we're like burying their dead bodies. And then we're kind of like rebuilding. And I think that that's kind of an allusion to what this is also in reference to of the fact that there's this destruction period. And then there's this rebuilding phase. And you kind of go through two phases of this. Because in the plagues of God, in Revelation, there's a lot of burning. Like again, all the green grass is burnt. All the green trees, like a third of the green trees are burned up. And you just have this kind of destruction everywhere. But then when we have the millennial reign, we're going to go through a rebuilding phase. We're going to actually have restoration, rebuilding, and everything like that. But then at the end of all of that, you're going to have one more final event where the devil's led out and he gathers all of the whole earth. And they're going to come against Jerusalem. And all the saints are going to be gathered in Jerusalem. And then the Bible says that God the Father is going to literally rain fire out and just burn everything up. And then, you know, the heaven and the earth is going to fly away, like flee away. We're going to have the great white throne judgment. And then we're going to have a new heaven and a new earth. Now the Bible tells us kind of this in 2 Peter chapter number 3 in talking about the earth that we have. Look what it says in verse 8. The earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner a person ought you to be in all holy conversation and godliness. It says, Nevertheless, we, according to this promise, look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwell with righteousness. So, according to the Bible, at some point, the entire heavens and earth is going to literally be destroyed by fire. You know, they always talk about global warming. How about this one? Okay, we're not going to survive it, alright? Naturally speaking, no one could survive this. It's saying, and you know, you're all excited about that house that you have, but it's going to burn up. You're all excited about that car, that Tesla Cybertruck or whatever. And you know what? I saw Joe Rogan can't shoot arrows through it or whatever. But you know what? God's going to melt it. And melt it with fervent heat. It's going to be destroyed. Everything that's precious unto us. Even this wonderful steadfast sign. It's going to burn up, folks, okay? And all of it's going to burn up. And so he's saying like, then what manner a person's ought you to be realizing that it's all going to burn. It's all going to be destroyed. And especially the wicked. What are they going to be? For they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, say the Lord of hosts. You know, they're going to be ashes. We're going to still have our new spirit, our new soul. But you know, frankly speaking, we're going to lose everything else. They're going to have nothing. They're literally just ashes. I guess that's why they love being cremated. Because it just reminds them of what their future is like. They're just ashes because that's all that they are. Dust they came from and dust they're going to return to, right? But at the end of the day, you know, we are different and so we should live differently. How should we live differently? Look at verse 4. Malachi chapter 4 verse 4. Remember ye the law of Moses my servant which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel with the statutes and judgments. We're supposed to remember the law of God. Again, I brought this up in the previous chapter, but why is it if Malachi is kind of this apocalyptic end times book talking a lot about Christ coming. Is it reminding us of all these things that just somehow have no relevance once that happens, right? Of course, the New Testament doesn't say, oh, the law of Moses, ignore that, doesn't matter. None of it applies anymore. No, obviously the law is still really important in the New Testament. And the law is something we should remember all the way to the bitter end. Just like, you know, I brought up tithing. It's brought up in chapter 3. And really all the law is important. Now, there is a change of the law and we talked about that. The Bible says that some things change. But I want you to understand something about this. Go to Genesis chapter 4 for a moment. Because this is what I hear. And it doesn't really matter what topic we bring up. All of them, usually there's gainsayers. Tithing is a pretty big one just because it shows that person has a heart issue. But some people, this is what they'll say. And it doesn't matter if we're talking about tithing or another one. They'll say, oh, well, where in the New Testament does it say thou shalt tithe? And it's like, okay, well, where in the New Testament does it say thou shalt not be a bestophile? Show me. Show me in the New Testament where it says thou shalt not rape. Show me in the New Testament where it says thou shalt not put a Star of David in between your eyeballs on your forehead. I mean, is that the type of logic that you want to have? Where you have to have a New Testament thou shalt not for you to identify it as right or wrong or sin or good or bad? No. This is not the way to interpret the Bible. And I'm going to prove this. I'm going to prove what I'm going to say. But let me explain something. Anything, anything that is not loving God has and always will be a sin. It doesn't matter if we're talking about pre-law, during the law, post-law. It was always a sin. And let me explain something. The Bible doesn't have to say thou shalt not fill in the blank for it to be a sin. It's a sin period if it was not loving God, if it was wrong. Okay. Now, how do you know this? Well, let's look at Genesis chapter 4. Look at verse number 7. Let me ask this question. Did Cain sin when he killed his brother? Okay. Where in Genesis 1, 2, and 3 did it say thou shalt not murder? When did it say thou shalt not kill thy brother? Then how in the world was that a sin? Okay. Let's keep going. Let's go to chapter 13. Go to chapter 13 and look at verse 13. I mean, do you think that Cain enables before the law of Moses or what? How about Genesis 13, verse 13. Where before Genesis chapter 13 did it ever say that a man lying with man is a sin? When did it ever say that? It didn't, did it? How are these people sinners? And what way were they sinners then? Look at chapter 18. Look at chapter 18 and look at verse 20. How is it that these people are sinners when there's not a commandment of the law? Because you're an idiot. And you're not being honest with the text. Look, if you did something that's against loving God, it was a sin. Now let me explain something to you. If you get the bulletin and you notice some of the church rules that we have and you say, well, you know what, Pastor Shelley? You never said that I couldn't pour goat's blood on the carpet on the stage. So it must not have been wrong because you never said that. No, it was obvious. But, you know, if someone did that regularly, I would maybe add it to the bulletin. You know, it was like God is like seeing men being with men, and it's like, wow, I need to put this down. Not because now all of a sudden it's bad. It was always bad. It was always a sin. It was always wrong. And God didn't give the law to say, like, oh, now it's a sin. He's saying, hey, I want to make it clear to you that this is a sin. It wasn't like, oh, you know, this was never wrong beforehand. No, of course it was. Look at Genesis chapter 18 and look at verse 20. And the Lord said, because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great and because their sin is very grievous, how are they sinning? How did they sin? Because it was always wrong what they were doing. Look at chapter 20 and look at verse number 6. Look at Genesis chapter 20 and verse 6. Well, I don't even know how you would say this, but, you know, God gave commandments to his people. What about people that weren't even his people, quote, unquote? How about Abimelech? Is Abimelech the children of God or Israel of God or something like that? No, he's just a random dude in the Old Testament. Look at what it says in Genesis chapter number 20, verse number 6. And God said unto him in a dream, yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart, for I also withheld thee from sinning against me, therefore suffered I thee not to touch her. When did God tell Abimelech at any time that committing adultery was a sin? Did he ever say that? So then how in the world is it a sin for him to commit adultery? And why is it important that he doesn't sin against God? Oh, the law is only for the children of Israel. Look, the law was for every person. If you were a Gentile during the law, you know what you should have done? Gotten saved, joined the nation of Israel, got circumcised if you were a male, and kept the Passover. It didn't matter if you were born into that tribe, you were supposed to go join one. And you know what? It doesn't matter if you started off born in a tribe of steadfast, if you're not in one, you need to join one. You show up and we'll put you in a tribe. But you know what? Everybody's supposed to be in a tribe. Everybody's supposed to follow the law of God. You know, Herod, which I believe was Roman in the New Testament, is rebuked by John the Baptist for having been with his brother's wife. How did that apply to Herod if he wasn't an Israelite? But again, that's my personal opinion. I don't think there's any evidence the Bible suggests that Herod was an Israelite or Pilate or any of these other people. Why would he be rebuking him with the law of God? Because everyone's under the law of God. How is God going to even judge the Gentiles? Oh, you didn't have the law, so I guess you did nothing wrong. Stupid. Obviously, your interpretation of the facts is really misguided. Oh, well where in the Bible does it say in the New Testament, thou shalt not tithe? It doesn't. But you know what? It says it's the law of God. And Abraham did it. And lots of people did it. Why in the world would Abraham tithe before the law if he didn't need to? If he didn't have to? Why is it a sin to commit adultery before the law? Because it was always wrong. And it's always right. Do you think honoring your father and mother was only when the law came in? Or do you think you should have always honored your father and mother? Yeah, you should have always honored your father and mother. And you should have always tithed. But it doesn't matter what genre or time period that we're talking about. It was always right. Go to Genesis 14. Go back to Genesis chapter number 14. So when we're in the New Testament and someone's like, Well, I think we should get tattoos. No, the law says that you shouldn't put print marks on your body. Oh, well we're not under the law. Yeah, but it's just telling you it was wrong. It doesn't matter that, Oh, well that time period is wrong. No, no, no, it's just wrong. Just like adultery was wrong. What time period? All of them. What time period? It's just like the law was helping you understand that it's wrong. Not just for this time period is it wrong. Now, yes, were there certain aspects of the law that were locked in time or ceremonial? Sure. And we get that. That's why the Bible talks about the change of the law. The meats, the drinks, the divers, washings, and the cardinal ordinances were things that were locked into time. You know, they don't really have a lot to do with like moral issues or getting close to God. Whereas these other things have a lot to do with harming your neighbor, harming society, not loving God. It's super clear. And in Genesis chapter 14, look at verse number 19. The Bible says, And he blessed him and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies in thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all. Why in the world would Abraham give him tithes of everything if it wasn't the right thing to do? It was obviously the right thing to do. And notice how much he gave tithes of all. Not tithes of some, tithes of all. That's what Abraham did. Oh, well, I just think you're teaching false doctrine by saying tithing is still biblical. Where's your evidence? My evidence is it was Abraham, it's in the law, and in the New Testament it's brought up in Hebrews chapter number 7. And, you know, in the Old Testament, they were tithing and the focus was on the Levitical priesthood. The New Testament is Jesus. And the Bible says at any time, whenever Abraham gave money to Melchizedek, he was giving it to Jesus. When in the Old Testament they were giving it to the Levites, they were giving it to Jesus. Now in the New Testament, it's saying that you're giving it to Jesus. Now, what do you think makes the most sense? When the emphasis of the priest is the Levites, or when the emphasis of the priest is Jesus, when do you think it would be more important to give money to Jesus? Like, it was more important to give money to the Levites than it is to give it to Jesus? Like, what are you talking about? It's like, it makes more sense that if we're going to give money to Melchizedek, that we would give it to Melchizedek than the Levites were. Like, oh, it was so much more important to give money to the priesthood when it was the Levitical priesthood than when it's the literal priesthood of Jesus Christ. It's like, that makes less sense. You would think it would be more important to do it when Jesus is at the head of the priesthood, when he's the one running the show, than when it's just the foreshadowing with the Levites. It's not even the real thing. It's just kind of the foreshadowing. It's just a silly situation. But you know, I use that as one example. We're not talking about just tithing. We're talking about anything in the Bible. If the law says something, you need to take that serious. We need to remember the law of Moses. Why? Because, look folks, I'm not going to put in this bulletin every single thing I could possibly think of you doing wrong in this building. Like, don't draw on the walls with crayon. Don't draw on the walls with marker. Don't draw on the walls with goat's blood, okay? Don't roll around on the ground and pretend like you're on fire when you're not. Like, I'm not going to just try and think of, like, what are all the things that you shouldn't do? Okay, don't throw baseballs at the lights inside the building, right? Don't punch people with your right hand in the building. Don't pinch people with your left hand in the building. Don't kick them in the neck with an ice skate and then call it an accident, okay? Like, do I have to just come up with every single thing that is somehow wrong? No. Just like God wasn't going to, like, hey, I'm going to just have to spell every single thing. Genesis 1. Here's everything you could possibly ever do that's wrong. So that way we have it established. Or could it just be like, hey, love God, and then when you're doing anything that's somehow not loving God, it's a sin. And you say, well, how would I know? Well, didn't he write the law in your heart? I mean, it's already there, folks. You already know. And so that's why I say when someone doesn't like tithing, you know it is a heart issue. It's already written on your heart, buddy, and it's real touchy, you know, because it's got that heart issue. Just like every sin is a heart issue. Fornication, drinking. Why do people that drink it, I mean, they get really upset if you point out how drinking alcohol is a sin. I mean, you want to see someone get mad. Boy, tell someone that drinks alcohol not to drink alcohol or that it's somehow wicked. And it's just, Jesus, drink alcohol! And you're just like, no, he didn't. I mean, they get touchy fast. Okay. We'll go back to Malachi, chapter number four. We'll finish this chapter. Obviously, the law, it just kind of, it kind of just peels back and just says like, hey, here's a lot of things that are covered in what's wrong. Here's a lot of really good ideas of what are those most common sins, right? And it just kind of helped us realize. Plus, what the law did is it kind of helped people realize, uh, I'm not perfect. Because, think about these like, um, non-evangelical churches out there. Because they don't ever talk about the law, they actually think that they're not really sinning ever. Do you know that? Do you know that? Like, you talk to these people out there that go to these fun centers and they like almost think that they never sin or something. And you're thinking like, what do you mean? Like, let me show you some verses, you know. Him that knoweth to do good and doeth not to him that is sin. You ever think of doing something right and you didn't do it? I'm like, well, yeah. It's like, hey, if you look at someone, you know, well, and I'm getting ahead of myself. If I'm just printing marks on your body, how many people in the fun centers have tattoos? How many of them commit fornication? They're like, oh, man, that's the sin? Fornication and tattoos and drinking alcohol? I do that all the time, right? But then Jesus showed up and he's like, for all of you Pharisees out there that think you still keep the law, let me go ahead and expand on it a little bit more for you. Not only is adultery wrong, just thinking about another woman. And they're like, crap, you know. I mean, what guy isn't going to admit to that, right? He's like, hey, oh, you think murder? Just hating someone. I'm like, just hating? What are you talking about? You're not talking about like hating Gentiles, are you? You're not talking about hating Hamas and like, you know, hating Palestinians and hating all those people, right? You're not talking about hating people that ride on magic carpets or anything, are you? You know, you're not saying hate the people that work at 7-Eleven or, you know, work at McDonald's or something, right? It's like, you know, even them. He's like, dang, that's everybody. Dude, I remember talking to this ghetto guy in Arizona. He just got out of jail or something. And we're reading Revelation 21, 8. And I didn't even have to get to liars because I got the fornicator and he's like, what's that? And I was like, that's someone who goes to bed with someone that they're not married to. And he goes, beep, that's everybody. He was convinced that just that one alone, everybody was on the list. And he's like, dude, everybody's going to hell. It says if you, you know, go to bed with someone, you're going to hell. He's like, that's everybody. I'm like, yep, you know, I mean, probably not. But, you know, there are virgins out there, OK, contrary to your opinion. But obviously you're not or any of your friends or anybody that you know. I know what music you listen to, right? But it was just like Jesus is trying to show like, hey, you're a sinner. You know, he went above the law. He's like saying, hey, just even the spirit of the law makes abundantly clear how bad you guys are, too. And that's why we need to remember the law of Moses so that we don't get lifted up. You know, the king's supposed to read it regularly so he doesn't get lifted up and prideful and think like how wonderful he is. Because when you're in a position of power and authority and people like you and you have money and whatever, like you can get this idea of like you're so awesome. I mean, it's going to build you up. What's going to make you feel special? Everybody likes you, everybody talks to you, you have power, you have authority, you have money, you have all the women. Like that's going to just kind of, that's the ego builder. He had everything feeding his ego. What's the one thing that will not feed your ego? It is this. This doesn't feed your ego at all if you read it right. Obviously, false prophets somehow, they read this and they're thinking like, well, I don't sin at all. Just nailed that check mark. Yep. Got this. Yep. I, of course, give alms to the poor and tell everyone about it. Check mark on that one. I am fasting right now. I'm going to tell everyone. They're like, saying not to do that, bro. Look at verse 5. So this is where it ends ominously about this coming Elijah. Now, I'll go to a couple places. Keep your finger here, go to Matthew chapter 17, we'll finish. This is very clearly John the Baptist in one interpretation because Jesus even says, you know, this is Elias. And so, obviously, I don't believe what Jesus is saying. This is literally Elijah. It's that John the Baptist somehow in some way came in the spirit of Elijah. What does that mean? You know, I don't know. He came in the spirit of Elijah. Elijah was a great preacher. John the Baptist was a great preacher. They do a lot of, you know, turning up the world, turning the world upside down with the message of God. And so, you know, they share some similarities. And so, you know, obviously, they're both firebrands. Elijah did a lot of miracles. John the Baptist didn't. So in some ways, they're not the same. But John the Baptist got his head chopped off. Elijah got to ride up on a chariot to heaven. You know, that's kind of, obviously, John the Baptist is like, what's the deal? You know, like, I was figuring I was going to get a chariot out of here. You know, like, how does that work? I can see why he's in prison. He's thinking, like, I've read about Elijah. This doesn't seem right. They're coming to chop my head off. Jesus, is this really it? You know, what's going on here? You can see the doubt that man could have in that dark moment. But I also want to talk about the idea that maybe this could have a dual fulfillment. And if we're talking about the day of the Lord, we're talking about the future coming. And the Bible talks about, if you look at the timeline, that in the midst of the week or the kind of the middle portion of that final seven years, there is two witnesses that show up. And this is technically before Jesus Christ returns. Because of the fact that it's not pre-trib. Okay, that's another important thing to understand. You know, when you're pre-trib, it screws up a lot of things. It even screws up the timing of these two witnesses. These two witnesses kind of show up right at that midpoint, right when some guy stands in the Middle East and declares himself God. Okay, and they're supposed to continue 42 months. So, you know, if you follow our timeline, and you follow what our church believes about this, it's most likely that Christ would possibly return about 75 days from that midpoint excursion. So that gives about a 75 day precursor of these two witnesses coming before the day of the Lord. So that fits a timeline. Now, the question would be, what does this mean, if Elijah is coming? It could be literal. And I'm open to that. Now, I'm not going to say, you know, I'm not going to be dogmatic about anything in what I'm talking about. I'm just kind of putting out there a few ideas. And you can kind of make up your own mind. Well, probably none of us know until it actually happens, and maybe even then we might not know. I mean, John the Baptist showed up, and they were kind of like, is this Elijah? Is it not? They weren't really sure. And Jesus had to kind of like plainly state, like, this is Elias, if you'll accept it. So, the Bible does talk about two witnesses. One theory about the two witnesses is that it's Moses and Elijah. Some of the evidence of this, there's a lot of different things and thoughts, but look at chapter 17, verse 1. And after six days, Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringing them up into a high mountain apart, and was transfigured before them, and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. And behold, there appeared unto him Moses and Elias, talking with them. Now, chapter 17, obviously in our Bible, there's a break in the text, and it says chapter 17, right? But what was the last verse in chapter 16? Verily I say unto you, there be some standing here which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. So, what was the context that we rolled into those last three verses? Christ returning. And then, in the context of Christ returning, and of course what he was really talking about here is this Mount Transfiguration event, where a few of the disciples, three, get James, John, and Peter, get to see Jesus Christ literally transformed before their eyes. And then, who are two people that are there at the coming of Christ? Moses and Elias. So that's one reason why it's possible that Moses and Elias could be those two witnesses. It kind of fits this picture. It kind of fits a lot of other things in the Bible. You know, there's a disputing of where Moses' body is. I don't know what that means. Elijah was kind of carried up into heaven. Some people suggest that Enoch could be one of the two witnesses, for a couple reasons. Number one, Enoch was translated that he should not see death. Additionally, Jude brings Enoch back up, and what is Enoch talking about? The coming of the Lord with ten thousands of his saints. So, some people have theorized that. There's kind of pros and cons to that. Enoch also, it's kind of weird that he's translated that he should not see death, but then he's going to come back as one of the two witnesses and die. It kind of counterfeits the fact that he never died, so maybe there's good reason that he's not one of those two people. Also, you kind of don't have Enoch connected to Moses or Elias, and these two guys are connected, and they're connected in a parable or a foreshadowing of Christ's literal return. So, those are some theories. It could just be two random guys. Go to Revelation chapter 11. I don't know. This is what would be weird, if it's two random guys, because I was just kind of thinking, if all of a sudden you go home tonight, and then this bright light comes out of nowhere, and a guy shows up that's an angel, and he says, I need you to get on a flight to Israel, because you're one of the witnesses. I was talking to a pastor friend of mine about this, and I was just thinking, he's like, what would you do? And I was just like, I think I would need a second time of that, because I'm like, I don't even know if I could, I would think like, no, I don't think so. And he was like, that kind of makes sense, because most of the guys in the Bible are like that. They're kind of like, why would you pick me? I'm not worthy. This doesn't make sense. I need a sign. I need some proof. What's going on? I mean, that's kind of weird, but I'm not saying it couldn't happen. I am saying this, I don't believe even 1% that I'm one of those two people, okay? Just for the record, all right? Somebody's going to be like, Pastor Schiller thinks he's one of three witnesses. No, I don't, okay? And even if I'm visited by an angel, I'll still be skeptical and probably not believe it. I'll have to be like John, the Baptist's dad, where essentially I get like cursed, and I'm mute, because I just didn't even believe the angel. I feel like I'm more likely to be that person than to think, I'll be thinking like, is this the devil? Like, what's going on? Is this Isaiah Salvador? Like, what is happening? I mean, I'm just kidding. Isaiah Salvador is not one of the two witnesses, folks, okay? But Revelation chapter 11, look at verse 3. And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth. So, you know, we have them there. They're here for approximately 42 months. That's what, you know, two hundred and threescore days kind of equivalates to. So it's going to happen. Who these two people are, I don't know. I just bring it up because an interesting theory, and one I kind of lean towards as being very probable, is that it could literally be Elijah, and that the Bible was being metaphorical when talking about John the Baptist, but it was actually being literal when it talked about Elijah coming before that great day. And again, if you go back to Malachi chapter number 4, you know, it's actually kind of alluding more to the return of Christ than that first coming anyways. Like, it wasn't really emphasizing that first turn. That first coming of Christ is kind of mentioned in chapter 3 more, where it's talking about He's turning away iniquity, and He's purifying, and He's that refiner's fire. This is kind of more almost alluding to that second coming anyways. So, of course, the Bible's so incredible that God can make multiple prophecies out of one text. You know, one scripture can can fulfill them all, but it's talking about that, look at this, the great and dreadful day of the Lord. Would you say when Christ first came that was the great and dreadful day of the Lord? That kind of gives us more of the idea of that future coming, right? And that's a day that's a great and dreadful day. I mean, literally, the whole earth is going to be screaming for the rocks to fall on them and to hide them from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne and of the Lamb. And so, they're definitely afraid of that particular day. And, you know, when Christ comes, initially, I think it also, verse 6, could apply to both. Of course, we want to turn the hearts of the father's children and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with the curse. You know, that tells me that honoring your father and mother is pretty important. If He's saying He's going to literally curse the entire earth when children don't like their parents and parents don't like their children. And you could almost look at our culture and our world today getting to this point, isn't it? Especially, maybe social media has exacerbated this a little bit, but, you know, it just seems like there's so much animosity between parents and their children today. And it's very frustrating. You know, even in America, I know that certain states are trying to pass legislation. I think some kids can go get decisions decided for with a medical attention, apart from their parents' authority. And, you know, there's all this grooming stuff that's going on. You know, it's a very dangerous time for children to be away from their parents, because there's a lot of wolves, there's a lot of groomers, there's a lot of bad people. And, you know, if you're someone that does not homeschool or keep your children with you all the time, or maybe you have children from a mixed family, or you have children that's, like, in a divorce, remarriage situation, so they're not always in your custody or always in your control, or maybe you have grandchildren in this situation or you have cousins, you know, it's really important that you spend time with them and you talk to them about these things. Talk to them about salvation. Talk to them about the Bible. And try to create an environment where they can talk to you about stuff and you're not just always just instantly condemning them or making them feel bad. Like, it's not a kid's fault that he goes to public school. It's not a kid's fault that he lives in a dysfunctional household where the parents got divorced or did something wrong. And sometimes they feel embarrassed, like they think that, you know, they're screwed up because of what they've done, and many times it's sometimes just the environment or what they're brought up in, they have bad friends or whatever. And, you know, kids need a parent to come alongside of them and to talk about these issues. You know, I wish that my parents had asked me a lot more questions when I was going to school. You know, I got introduced to a lot of different subjects and a lot of different things in public school. And, you know, my parents just never talked to me about these things. My parents didn't talk to me about salvation. My parents didn't talk to me about the Bible. My parents didn't talk to me about what kind of church we go to or why we should or shouldn't. My parents didn't talk to me about, you know, what the world's going to say about the bedroom, what the world's going to say about drugs, and what the world's going to say, and what my friends are going to do, what my friends are going to be like. You know, occasionally my parents would give me advice, but most of the time I didn't even believe them because it wasn't very welcoming in an environment and it didn't seem very realistic. My mom was always just like, there's all these girls out there, John, and they're just, they're going to try and get you to commit fornication with them so that you'll be forced to marry them. And I'm like, no they're not. Like, there's not any girls that even like me, let alone what you're saying, okay? But that was a little bit of my, you know, being naive, okay? Because, especially when I was in school, I was really short, and for whatever reason, girls don't like short guys, okay? Just putting out there, sorry short guys, I was there, okay? But they just don't, I was really short, and they would always be like, you're like my little brother. It's like, that's how you know you've been friend-carded, okay? It's like the last thing you want to hear when you like a girl. You're like, you tell her that she's pretty, and she's like, oh you're cute like my little brother. You're like, dang it, okay, you know? But eventually I grew up, and I got taller, and then my mom was right that there's a lot of whores out there, okay? Like a lot. And I didn't understand all that as a young man. And you know, we need some more mothers of Lemuel that are out there teaching their sons these things. And you know, just because you're a woman, don't feel intimidated about talking to your teenage sons about these issues. Because, you know what? If you don't talk to him about it, you know who's going to talk to him about it? A whore. Jezebel. And you know what? She's going to lie to him. She's going to take advantage of him. She's going to potentially even destroy him. And there's a lot of bad people out there. I saw a recent article, it was like, some female teacher was committing adultery on her husband with like a 16-year-old student. It was like recently it came out, and now she's going to prison, praise God, for being such a freak groomer. According to the Bible, she deserves the death penalty for being an adulterer. But look, you think that like, hey, my kids, this stuff isn't happening. Look, if your kids are in any of these environments or hang out with people like this, they've heard things that you can't even imagine already. They've seen things that you can't imagine already. They've been exposed to everything bad. I mean, public school was horrifying when I went. And a conservative small town in Texas. They're really bad now. And I'll even say this. Even the kids in this room, they get tainted, and then you know what they do? They taint their friends too. And you need to be careful even about the kids in this room and what they're sharing with the other kids in this room. And you know what? We need to have a safe space, and you as parents need to talk to your kids about everything. About literally everything and bring up these subjects and regularly, you know, address these issues. Talk about, hey, what did you and so-and-so talk about church today? What does this person talk about when you go over to their house? What does this person say when you bring up? What do these parents talk about? I've known friends, they go to people's houses, and the parents are drinking and offering alcoholic beverages to their little kids. I've seen people, I mean, they're offering alcoholic beverages to their little kids like under the age of 10. Little kids are drinking alcohol because their parents think it's cool. Their parents think it's fun. I know people in my personal life that say, well, I want my kids and all their friends to drink alcohol at our house. And he says, he's like, I encourage them to have parties at our house where they drink alcohol. And he said, because if I don't, then they're going to go drink at someone else's house. And I feel like they'll be less protected at their house than mine. So since they're going to already do it, I'm just going to make sure I facilitate that household. I'm thinking, like, that is the dumbest idea. That is a foolish idea. But, you know, I wonder if this guy is telling all the other parents that. Or if they just think, oh, I'm just going to hang out with so-and-so. And they don't even realize what they're letting them facilitate. There are many parents today, which this blows my mind. There are parents today that know that their kids are committing fornication with their boyfriends and girlfriends at their house in their bedrooms. Look, if there was a young man in my house trying to touch my daughter, he might die. Unless he escaped. That is never happening. Even after they get married, I might make them sleep in separate bedrooms. Okay, I'm just kidding. I'm like, you know, that is ridiculous. The world that we've come to. And I'm telling you, you can't trust this world at all. Don't. Don't trust this world. And you know what, don't trust anybody in this room either. I don't trust you. Don't trust me. Don't trust anyone. Okay? And we need parents to love their children again. We need children to love their parents. And you talk about these issues. You bring these things up. They better get ten times parent and one percent the bad people. Because it's a scary world out there. And kids are naive. They don't know what's going on. They need someone loving to come and to talk to them. And you know what, if you don't talk to your kids, they might not like you. How do we turn the hearts back? You've got to talk to them. You've got to build them up. You've got to encourage them. You've got to bring these things. You know, spend as much time as you can. Don't be afraid to engage them in these issues. Make an environment where they feel as comfortable as they can. Obviously, sometimes it's uncomfortable. But you know what? It becomes more comfortable the more you talk about it, the more they know. And you know, try not to be naive. I think another thing, I'm spending a while. I'll finish on this point, okay? Another thing that I know that my parents did, I wish they hadn't, is they kind of acted a little naive to how bad the world was. And they kind of acted like people just are real innocent, and guys and girls can go on dates alone and go hang out at each other's houses late at night, and nothing's going to happen. They just play checkers and chess and pray and have Bible studies and whatever. And you know, like, no one's going to offer you drugs ever. And just like, you know, that's just not how life works. Okay? And I'm not naive at all. And you know, you need to not be naive either. And I'll say this. Whatever people do in private, I'm sorry, in public, they're doing ten times worse in private. So if the guy's all over her in your face, like if a guy's willing to touch your daughter in front of you, wow. You already know what's happening. You should already know what's happening. Okay? And, you know, if she's willing to reveal that much skin in public, you know, how much is she willing to reveal in private? You know, don't let your daughters dress like whores. Don't let men touch them anywhere, okay, that you wouldn't want to be touched. And, you know, we need to make sure that we have fathers and mothers loving their children again. Otherwise, God's going to smite the earth with a curse. Do you want God to smite the earth with a curse? I don't like what you're saying, Pastor Shelley. Well, I don't like curses from God. Okay? How about that? Hey, you know what? I feel like America's a curse right now because we're filled with a bunch of whores and whoremongers. And we're filled with a bunch of kids on drugs. And we're filled with a bunch of arrogant, prideful punks. And if we actually had parents that loved their kids again, it would change things. I feel like there's kids going up and stealing and robbing and murdering and doing all kinds of crazy stuff nowadays. We need someone to love them. We need real parents again, okay? Let's close in prayer. Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for giving us this book of the Bible and this chapter. I pray that we wouldn't be those who anger you by not loving the children you've given us, but rather we would love our children, which means that we're going to have to give them attention. We're going to have to focus on them. We're going to have to appreciate them. We're going to have to do things that aren't convenient. And even when they don't deserve it, we're going to have to be good unto them. We're going to have to be gracious unto them. That's what love means. And we look forward to the return of Christ, where you're going to destroy all the wicked. I pray that in the time that we wait that we continue to remember the law and that we clean up our hearts and that we wouldn't have these heart issues, but rather we'd embrace what the Bible teaches from Genesis to Revelation. And I pray that you would just help us to better understand the times that we live in. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right. In closing, let's go to song number 389. Song number 389, Bring Them In. Song number 389. Song number 389. Everybody sing it out in the verse. Heart is the shepherd's voice I hear Out in the desert, dark and drear Calling the sheep who've gone astray Far from the shepherd's foldaway Bring them in, bring them in Bring them in from the fields of sin Bring them in, bring them in Bring the wandering ones to Jesus Who go through this shepherd kind Help him, the wandering ones, to find Who'll bring the lost ones to the fold Where they'll be sheltered from the cold Bring them in, bring them in Bring them in from the fields of sin Bring them in, bring them in Bring the wandering ones to Jesus Out in the desert, hear their cry Out on the mountains, wild and high Heart is the master, speaks to thee Go find my sheep, wherever they be Bring them in, bring them in Bring them in from the fields of sin Bring them in, bring them in Bring the wandering ones to Jesus Great singing everybody. We're all dismissed. We're all dismissed.