(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Three hundred and seventy-nine Bringing in the sheaves Song number three hundred and seventy-nine Everybody sing it out together on the first Sowing in the morning Sowing seeds of kindness Sowing in the noontide and the dewy Waiting for the harvest and the time of reaping We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves Sowing in the sunshine, sowing in the shadows Fearing neither death nor grief Lying by the harvest and the labor ended We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves Going forth with weeping, sowing for the master Though the loss sustained, our spirit often reaps When our weeping's over, he will get us welcome We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves Great singing everybody. Now we can open up the service with a word of prayer. Lord, we love you and we just thank you again for Steadfast Baptist Church and we just appreciate you allowing us to gather here and blessing this church the way you have. We just ask that you bless it tonight and fill it with your spirit and we just ask all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, for our next song, let's go to song number 212, Oh Happy Day. Song number 212, Oh Happy Day. Oh happy day that fixed my choice I'll leave my Savior and my God We'll make this glowing heart rejoice And tell its raptures all abroad Happy day, happy day When Jesus washed my sins away He taught me how to watch and pray And live rejoicing every day Happy day, happy day When Jesus washed my sins away Oh happy bond that seals my vows To Him who merits all my love Let cheerful anthems fill His vows We'll give His name, with shrine I move Happy day, happy day When Jesus washed my sins away He taught me how to watch and pray And live rejoicing every day Happy day, happy day When Jesus washed my sins away Tis done the great transaction's done I am my Lord's and He is mine He drew me and I followed on Charmed to confess the voice divine Happy day, happy day When Jesus washed my sins away He taught me how to watch and pray And live rejoicing every day Happy day, happy day When Jesus washed my sins away Now rest my long, divided heart Based on this blissful sin to rest Nor ever from the North before With Him of every good possessed Happy day, happy day When Jesus washed my sins away He taught me how to watch and pray And live rejoicing every day Happy day, happy day When Jesus washed my sins away Thank you for coming to steadfast Baptist church If you need a bulletin you can lift your hand nice and high One of our ushers can come by and get you guys a bulletin On the front we have our Bible memory passage We're on a grace week and typically how this works is any child that's 18 or under that can quote the verse can get a special treat but since we're in a grace week I decided that all the kids get ice cream after the service right so that's what it is grace you don't deserve it all right none of you kids deserve ice cream that's what we're learning what grace means okay you get something you don't deserve so if your parents say it's okay it's okay with me all right there's there's your grace week um on the inside we have our service and so many times and also again if you it can quote the uh whole chapter word perfect to a non-family member by Saturday before the clock strikes 12 you can get a prize for that as well I think many people have already claimed their prize but is is anybody still working on that like they're they're hoping to finish it all right maybe there might be someone out there in the ether I don't know but just curious also on the inside we have our service so many times make sure to note uh it's not in the bulletin uh right now but we are updating our service times so Sunday mornings we're actually going to start our with our Spanish service first at 9 a.m and then our evening service has traditionally been 5 30 we're going to move that up to 4 30 and so I think that a lot of people have expressed that they're excited about that change they actually think that's a good idea and so even if you didn't I didn't really care what you thought but a lot of people did you know tell me they like that so I think I think it'll be a good transition for us and we do have the new cards uh have we already put those out okay so the new cards with the new dates or I'm sorry time specifically are already out and of course you can pass those a lot of our material is designed not even have that stuff on it so of course feel free to share that as well church that's make sure you're turning in whatever soul winning information you have into your soul winning captains on the right we have the list several expecting ladies continue to please be in prayer for all of them also our prayer list I'll go over that in just a minute but we'll go to the back we have the upcoming event we have the baby shower this Saturday for the Hernandez's we have a spring swap this Sunday May 11th is the Mother's Day tea please make sure to sign up this is this the last day to sign up all right you got to sign up if you're not here in person you're listening to my voice you better send an email then if you haven't signed up but we want to get make sure we have everybody signed up so we have all the spots designated for you guys and of course you're welcome to invite family member friends or anybody as well please do sign them up it should be a lot of fun May 18th is I believe the final preaching class for this season if you'd like to participate in that also the details about the Mother's Day tea are listed there below we have our service chimes details and then we have the note about the Jackson family who has been the Jackson family who had the birth of Jason Jared he was born on the 27th at 5.15 am 8 pounds 3 ounces and 21 inches long congratulations to them we'll go ahead and do our prayer list on the prayer list we have brother Hall will be continuing to pray for him miss Naeem her grandmother we've been praying for her vision health and salvation we've been praying for the Carlsen's mother as well for her health miss Miller wanted us to continue to pray for her friend Tamra for her cancer treatment and then also we're in prayer for the Zimino family so I'm going to go ahead and just say a quick word of prayer here as a church family and we'll just pray for those that are listed thank you Heavenly Father so much for our church and for this service time I pray that you would also bless all of these ladies who are expecting please help them during their pregnancies please help their children's development I pray that you'd also just be with our church family that's struggling with health issues right now I pray if possible you just give them a speedy recovery give them perfect health please also be with them while they're going through this trial just give them patience and comfort and peace I pray that you'd also just help give wisdom to our church family that needs that you give them favor and that you would continue to allow our church to be a bright and shining light for your honor and your glory in Jesus' name we pray Amen That's all I have as far as announcements so go ahead and sing our Psalm of the week Psalm 139 it is in the special handouts so if you want to follow along that's the best way to follow along Psalm 139 alright that was Psalm 139 everybody sing it out together on the first Surely thou wilt slay the wicked Surely thou wilt slay the wicked O God Depart from me therefore ye bloody men Depart from me therefore ye bloody men do not I hate them O Lord that hate me Do not I hate them O Lord that hate me In them I dream with those that rise up against thee do not I hate them O Lord that hate me For they speak against thee wickedly For they speak against thee wickedly And thine enemies take thy name in vain And thine enemies take thy name in vain do not I hate them O Lord that hate me do not I hate them O Lord that hate me In them I dream with those that rise up against thee do not I hate them O Lord that hate me I hate them with perfect hatred I hate them with perfect hatred I count them my enemies I count them my enemies Do not I hate them O Lord that hate me Do not I hate them O Lord that hate me In them I dream with those that rise up against thee Do not I hate them O Lord that hate me Great singing everybody now as the offering plates are being passed around go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Zechariah chapter 1 that's Zechariah chapter number 1 O Lord that hate me O Lord that hate me O Lord that hate me O Lord that hate me O Lord that hate me O Lord that hate me O Lord that hate me O Lord that hate me O Lord that hate me O Lord that hate me O Lord that hate me O Lord that hate me Zechariah chapter 1 the Bible reads in the 8th month in the second year of Darius came the word of the Lord unto Zechariah the son of Barachiah the son of Edo the prophet saying the Lord hath been sore displeased with your fathers therefore say thou unto them thus saith the Lord of hosts turn ye unto me saith the Lord of hosts and I will turn unto you saith the Lord of hosts be ye not as your fathers unto whom the former prophets have cried saying thus saith the Lord of hosts turn ye now from your evil ways and from your evil doings but they did not hear nor hearken unto me saith the Lord your fathers where are they and the prophets do they live forever but my words and my statutes which I commanded my servants the prophets did they not take hold of your fathers and they returned and said like as the Lord of hosts thought to do unto us according to our ways and according to our doings so hath he dealt with us upon the four and twentieth day of the eleventh month which is the month Sabbat in the seventh second year of Darius came the word of the Lord unto Zechariah the son of Barachiah the son of Edo the prophet saying I saw by night and behold a man riding upon a red horse and he stood upon the myrtle trees that were in the bottom and behind them were their red horses speckled in white then said I oh my Lord what are these and the angel that talked with me said unto me I will show thee what these be and the man that stood among the myrtle trees answered and said these are they whom the Lord hath sent to walk to and fro through the earth and they answered the angel of the Lord that stood among the myrtle trees and said we have walked to and fro through the earth and behold all the earth sit it still and is at rest then the angel of the Lord answered and said oh Lord of hosts how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah against which thou hast had indignation these three score and ten years and the Lord answered the angel that talked with me with good words and comfortable words so the angel that communed with me said unto me cry thou saying thus saith the Lord of hosts I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy and I am very sore displeased with the heathen that are at ease for I was but a little displeased and they helped forward the affliction therefore thus saith the Lord I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies my house shall be built in it saith the Lord of hosts and a line shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem cry yet saying thus saith the Lord of hosts my cities through prosperity shall yet be spread abroad and the Lord shall yet comfort Zion and shall yet choose Jerusalem then lifted I up mine eyes and saw and behold four horns and I said unto the angel that talked with me what be these and he answered me these are the horns which have scattered Judah Israel and Jerusalem and the Lord showed me four carpenters then said I what come these to do and he spake saying these are the horns which have scattered Judah so that no man did lift up his head but these are come to fray them they cast out the horns of the Gentiles which lifted up their horn over the land of Judah to scatter it let us pray heavenly father Lord thank you for Zechariah chapter number one Lord and I pray that you'd fill past Shelley with your Holy Spirit as he comes and preaches your word help us to learn from his sermon Lord and apply these things to our lives and I praise in Jesus name Amen Amen Zechariah is a interesting book because I think a lot of it towards the end also is kind of bringing up things that are prophesied about the end times and of course are also mentioned in the book of Revelation and so I think since we just finished the book of Revelation it might be good timing to go through the book of Zechariah just because we have a lot of those things more fresh on our mind we've kind of studied a lot of those things recently and so I'm excited to kind of go through the book of Zechariah and I think another thing that's important is understanding the timeline of the book of Zechariah where it's placed in scripture and in general history so that we can make sure that we're applying the verses appropriately because what's interesting is it seems like Zechariah is a book of the Bible that many Zionists will use to twist scripture and really to try to talk a lot about modern day Israel and I think when you slow down and actually just read the book of Zechariah you won't come to any of those conclusions they're simply cherry picking certain verses out to essentially prop up a particular viewpoint that they have but they ignore some really clear verses in the book of Zechariah that totally disprove their belief and their ideology of Zionism now just to give you a little bit of idea and you can read these books but the book of Zechariah is at the same timeline of the book of Haggai so you have those two prophets are basically the exact same time they overlap and they're essentially in the same couple years you also have the book of Ezra and Ezra is the timeline upon which we have the children of Israel returning back into the promised land and rebuilding the second temple now that is around 536 BC maybe 537 people kind of have different ideas on that exact timeline but that's essentially the year upon which King Cyrus made his proclamation for the children of Israel to go into or go back to the land the promised land and rebuild the temple now before we really dig into Zechariah I just want to prove a few of those things keep your finger here and go if you would to Ezra for a second and we just read this but in Zechariah did you notice that we were in the second year of King Darius well there's actually that name is a common name in the sense that it's not just one particular person named Darius sometimes you might think of a guy in the book of Daniel by the name of King Darius but it's not the same guy so it is the same name but it's not the same individual but there is a Darius that's mentioned in the book of Ezra and that is the same individual that we're talking about and so that kind of is something you might want to pay attention to Ezra chapter one look at verse one now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah be fulfilled the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and put it also in writing saying thus saith Cyrus king of Persia the Lord of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he hath charged me to build him and house at Jerusalem which is in Judah who is there among you of all his people his God be with him and let him go up to Jerusalem which is in Judah and build the house of the Lord God of Israel he is the God which is in Jerusalem so in Cyrus' first year this is when we have a proclamation being made for the children of Israel to return back into the promised land back to Jerusalem to build the temple of God and again historians will put this around 537 or 536 BC what's significant about this is the children of Israel have been in captivity for 70 years and that's why it's bringing up Jeremiah's prophecy because Jeremiah prophesied that the children of Israel would be in captivity for 70 years that was significant because God is basically saying for 490 years you guys have rebelled and not observed the Sabbath and so God's basically giving them a 70 year Sabbath cycle for the land to rest then they're returning back into the promised land and they're going to rebuild Jerusalem they're going to rebuild the temple that was destroyed under king Nebuchadnezzar now they start building right away or at least they travel there and then they start building essentially and after doing some of the construction it ends up getting halted the construction project stops look at chapter 4 for a moment towards the end of the chapter it says now when the copy of king Artaxerxes' letter was read before Reham and Shemshai the scribe and their companions they went up in haste to Jerusalem under the Jews and made them to cease by force and power then cease the work of the house of God which is at Jerusalem so it ceased under the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia now why I'm bringing these verses up is I'm trying to give you a little bit of a timeline here and we're just fast forwarding you'd have to read all of this to understand everything but essentially the work of the Lord was going forth there were certain evil people that didn't want the house of God to be built and so they tattled to king Artaxerxes and since he wasn't the one that made the original proclamation he's essentially a predecessor following after I'm not a predecessor but he's following after king Cyrus he doesn't necessarily know what Cyrus said or doesn't care or doesn't pay attention and so he causes the work of the Lord to stop and to be ceased for a period of time so they've gone back there's Jews in the land they're rebuilding the work stops but it says it picks back up in the second year of king Darius look at verse 1 of chapter 5 then the prophets Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Edo prophesied under the Jews that were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel even under them then rose up Zirubel the son of Shealtil and Jeshua the son of Josadak and began to build the house of God which is at Jerusalem and with them were the prophets of God helping them now again from a historical perspective from historians they're saying that this is around 521 or 520 BC essentially we're looking at around 16-17 years that have gone by from Cyrus making that proclamation them returning them starting construction it being stopped there being a period where it was stopped and then they reconstruct again in what's the second year of king Darius so go back if you went to Zechariah chapter 1 now why I bring all that up is I want to help you understand though that essentially the work of the lord has been ceased they've been by force and by the letter so they're essentially the political establishment the government whoever is in charge is not allowing them to build the house of God now in Zechariah chapter 1 nothing has changed politically nothing has changed from a perspective of oh now the government said you can build the house of God again they're still under the guise of hey you're not allowed to build this the government stopped them they've been told you know and been forced to stop doing the work by Artaxerxes and they kind of have a conflict of government where you have this initial proclamation from king Cyrus saying hey build the house of God nothing should stop you and then like someone coming down the pike someone later Artaxerxes saying like no stop it they're not allowed to do this and what this kind of reminds me of is how in America today you have like a constitution and then you have people coming after the constitution making unconstitutional laws and you have a lot of this happening right now where there's literally protests going on all over America and governors and police are trying to stop them because it's anti-semitic and here's the thing sorry free speech is still anti-semitic okay I'm not anti-semitic I don't believe in anti-semitism but at the same time it's still technically lawful if you actually abide by free speech law and you have to ask this question like can I say something that's anti-semitic should I say something that's anti-semitic well here's the first thing I want to say I don't believe in anti-semitism I'm not anti-semitic but here's the thing people have twisted this definition okay because being anti-semitic would mean you just like hate or dislike people that are semitic and again being semitic is essentially like a very broad category of like being of the children of Abraham it includes not just Jews it even includes like people from Ishmael so you would basically be just anybody from the Middle East from that generation or that group of people those would be the Semites and you know again I'm not just against everyone that's over there or just because of their ethnicity or their ethnic background I'm sure people in this room are pretty semitic okay and it doesn't make me anti them because they're semitic I might make fun of them because they're semitic okay but it doesn't mean I dislike them it doesn't mean that I hate them because of that it's just the reality so I'm not anti those individuals but here's the thing today in America governors like Kristi Noem, Ron DeSantis, Greg Abbott all kinds of other governors in our country are trying to adopt a definition of anti-Semitism which is described as saying if you say that the Jews were responsible for Jesus being killed then you're an anti-Semite well here's the thing that's what the Bible just says I mean the Bible just says that so here's the thing if you want to change the definition of anti-Semitic to saying you believe the Bible then I'm anti-Semitic okay but at the same time I'm not because that's not what that word means just like the word repent doesn't mean turn from sin it just means turn it doesn't matter how many people want to change the definition of that particular word and they'll say like you're against the word repent no no I'm for the word repent I'm against your wrong definition of the word repentance and you know what I'm against your wrong definition of anti-Semitism I'm against your wrong definition of love and I'm against your wrong definition of hate and I'm pretty much against pretty much every definition you have you need to get the right dictionary which is an English dictionary in the Bible you know people today are just redefining words and labels and terms and they're trying to gaslight everybody else but you know what it's a Jewish trick and I'm not going to fall for it okay I haven't even gotten to the chapter that much right but we're just getting started this is the thing about Zechariah this is a chapter that they just love to use you're not necessarily this chapter but this book I'm sorry this is a book they love to use to try and act as if modern day Israel is authorized by God and we need to just love and support those individuals no matter what and we can't say anything negative about them but you know that's just not biblical it's not biblical it's not what this chapter says and we're going to get into it but what I want to point out too is the context of this preaching is they're trying to rally God's people to do the Lord's will even though it's kind of illegal and I'm not saying that it is illegal because it's kind of a difficult thing to ascertain it's like well do we obey Cyrus or do we obey Artaxerxes and really here's how they get clarity we're going to obey God it's like are we obeying Artaxerxes are we being you know Cyrus well we're just obeying God so you know that's what we're doing and you guys can figure out who's right or wrong here but we're just going to do what the Bible says and you know at the end of the day the question's like hey should we obey this state law that says you can't be anti-Semitic or should we obey the Constitution which says that you can say whatever you want it's like I'm just going to do whatever the Bible says I'm not trying to figure out what your contradiction of state and federal law and whatever's going on I'm just going to do whatever God said period and ultimately we're supposed to obey the higher powers so if we were even going to use human reasoning we would obey the Constitution over state law anyways but that's a different point that I'm not going to get too much further into cause let's dig into this chapter for a minute look at verse 1 in the 8th month in the second year of Darius came the Lord Lord unto Zechariah the son of Barakiah the son of Edo the prophet saying the Lord hath been sore displeased with your fathers let me explain something to you that was Jews so God says I was really upset with Jews why would God ever be upset with Jews I thought they could never do any wrong well it says in verse 3 therefore say thou unto them thus saith the Lord of hosts turn ye unto me saith the Lord of hosts and I will turn unto you saith the Lord of hosts be not as your fathers unto whom the former prophets have cried saying thus saith the Lord of hosts turn ye now from your evil ways and from your evil doings but they did not hear nor hearken unto me saith the Lord so what is he trying to say he's trying to say guys wake up for a second you know why you're having to rebuild the temple because God was really mad at your fathers because they didn't obey me they didn't turn to me they didn't follow my commandments and so I literally destroyed them and destroyed their temple and caused them to be out of the land for 70 years and if you're going to rebuild this temple why would you think I would allow you to rebuild the temple if you're not going to turn to me and obey my commandments and actually hearken unto me right it would make no sense yet today the whole premise of Zionism is trying to get a whole bunch of people that do not hear God's voice that have not turned to the Lord that don't care what he believes that don't care what he says that don't hearken unto the prophets to rebuild the temple and I'm thinking like did you miss the first opening lines of the book of Zechariah and then they'll point to Zechariah and be like this is proof that God just is for Israel no no no no if you read the opening lines of the book of Zechariah it's only to people that are actually going to hearken unto God and turn to God and to follow his commandments and if you reject Jesus you reject the father so I don't want to hear this nonsense of like well they're doing what their father said well their father is the devil if they don't have Jesus because if you have Jesus then you have God the father if you don't have Jesus then your father is the devil and you're the synagogue of Satan and it makes absolutely no sense to allow any group of people to ever build a temple in Jerusalem that don't actually obey God or care what he says no it's just completely incompatible with the Old Testament and God's even saying unto them hey you guys want to do this you got to turn unto me that is step one if you want success and think about it are they building the temple and again you have to trust a little bit of what I'm saying but if you've read the Bible you read the few verses I showed you isn't the work of the Lord ceased how long is God going to allow that to cease as long as they don't hearken unto him so he's not going to allow them to have success or to prosper as long as they're not turning back to the Lord with their hearts and with their efforts and so we have to understand that this principle is for every generation too he's saying hey your fathers didn't do this but you know what you have an opportunity you're not your fathers you're you what are you going to do are you going to be like them or are you going to turn are you going to hearken and hey if you do that I'll turn unto you that's what he said if we turn unto him he'll turn unto us and that's the same promise that God gives us today that if we turn to God God will turn unto us and when we turn away from God God will turn away from us and so there's a reciprocal relationship with God God is not just going to grant you gifts and wonderful blessings when you don't do anything when you don't turn to him no no no he rewards us according to our works be not deceived you know you're going to reap what you sow I mean there's just there's no way to get around this reality now he says in verse 5 where your fathers where are they many of them are in hell and the prophets do they live forever even the people that are godly are they still around no because everyone's going to die verse 6 but my words and my statutes which I commanded my servants the prophets did they not take hold of your fathers and they return and said like as the Lord of hosts thought to do unto us according to our ways and according to our doings so hath he dealt with us God is saying it doesn't matter the people because the people will perish what matters is my word and my word is going to happen period he's saying you know Jeremiah is not even alive anymore but Jeremiah's words are coming true why because it was God's word that was coming through Jeremiah the prophet and we have to understand that the word of God is eternal and the word of God is not going to return void it's going to be accomplished everything that God said is going to happen God is not mocked whatsoever man soweth that shall he also reap is what the Bible says but people are deceived today and think somehow God's word won't necessarily be accomplished in their life or they're an exception to the rule or they don't have to abide by God's word but he's trying to point out hey what happened to your fathers where are they at what happened to the prophets and what happened to all of our fathers you look at people who reject God over and over and you see their life five years from now oh you can see the consequences ten years from now you can see the consequences twenty years from now you really see the consequences of that person's actions and so we should not be simple minded we should not allow ourselves to be confused and think that how we live our life won't dictate how God blesses us those individuals have turned away from God are reaping what they've sown and the Bible says when you sow to the flesh you're going to reap corruption corruption is the fact that it's going to deteriorate it's going to perish you're going to lose out on things it's nothing that you want to inherit and people that live today that are very old you know it's really easy to see in their lives the choices that they made how it affects them but for us that are younger and still have a lot of life ahead of us sometimes we still get deceived and we get confused about the choices that we're making we think we still have time or it's not as big a deal but you know what time goes by quick soon it's going to be you know another election I mean it's crazy to me to think that Biden's been our president almost for four years like in some ways it's felt like an eternity in other ways it seems like it's been a hot minute and you know honestly most recently I've been thinking like wow it's already been four years you know obviously everybody acted like it was going to be Armageddon we're all going to die but we're still here and in fact honestly our church is doing great you know there were some years it was rough you know it's like dicey but it's like going really well right now you know it started getting rough for everybody towards the end of Trump's presidency with all the COVID stuff and all the crazy stuff like the world changed a lot at that point in time but right now you know it's kind of steady and stable for now we don't know what will happen but it's just crazy how quick life goes and you look around at the people that you know are 70, 80, 90 years old look at their life and say hey is this person greatly blessed are they not and then evaluate the decisions that they made in their life and learn something from the elderly learn something from these individuals I always say this and it always seems so true and again I'm sure there's probably an exception but people that are older especially you know over 60 maybe 70, 80 when I talk to these individuals almost every single one of them they always say this to me I wish I had more kids you know and it's like today a lot of people they freak out when they see my whole family out like they're like those are all your kids and it's like I only have six like you know to the world that seems like just insane like six children just seems like so many kids but it's like you go back a hundred years or a couple hundred years it's like the average number of children was eight so if I had six they wouldn't be like whoa are all those yours they're like do you have any more like where's the rest you know it's all in perspective okay it's not it's not like and everybody just freaks out like so you're all done are you going to have any more like what why do you care you know I don't ever walk up to people that are just by themselves and like how many kids are you all going to have wouldn't that be weird if I walked up to a young couple and was like how many kids are you all going to have and they're like why why are you asking me it's like why do since I have six you get to ask me right it's just weird people are just weird they're freaked out but you know why they're freaked out because there's just something inside the heart of every person that knows they're supposed to have kids and they're supposed to have a lot of kids and it freaks them out because they're like oh wow there's someone actually doing it and it freaks them out and then when they get older they end up realizing wow that was the right thing to do in fact honestly most people that do say something they're very positive they're really like thank you and this is a good job and whatever sometimes they're like you know it causes that right and I'm like of course it's great buddy you know what do you mean they're like get a TV that'll fix it and I was like I don't want to fix it especially with TV you know that's stupid okay that's silly why I don't it's not broken I love all my kids I mean think about how how disrespectful that is actually to say what's what's broken about my six children that I need to fix you're going to look at any of my kids and say that they're a problem that they're a mistake I mean that's wicked none of my kids are a mistake none of them are broken they're a wonderful blessing they're a gift from God is what the Bible says okay and it's just silly because people are so short-sighted and they say well having kids is tough yeah it is especially newborns and our most recent has been the hardest newborn we've ever had but this is what I know it will not last she will get easier she will get better and pretty soon I'll have to give her away to somebody and I'll be mad about it okay you know right now it's like if someone else could hold her I'd be like sure please you know then I'll be like I don't want anybody else to take her right you know it's all perspective it's all but when you look at the elderly learn from them and recognize hey when I'm that age what am I going to feel like I'm going to say I wish I had done more I wish I had more children I'm not going to think like oh man children were such a burden back then no it'll be such a blessing it'll be such a wonderful thing and why would I think that I'm going to be any different than all those people I mean let's say there was a person that didn't say that 1 out of 100 well shouldn't I take the wisdom of the 99 and the multitude of counselors there is safety if 99% of people that aren't even Christian are selling to me the same thing everybody's saying the same thing shouldn't I take that wisdom and apply it to myself and you know what praise God our church really takes this to heart I mean have you seen our bulletin lately ok and this is like a low number I mean what do we have 1 2 3 4 5 6 we only have 13 ladies pregnant I mean only you know I feel like it was like almost up to 20 at one point it seems like it's been almost at a dozen or higher for like a really long period of time and you know what praise God praise God number one that people are willing and praise God that God is blessing us with children you know not everybody gets that blessing you can't even necessarily control it fully but you know what trusting in the Lord and saying you know what we are going to build our house we're going to build our family according to God and what he thinks and we're going to take his wisdom and I'm going to apply my life according to his word not what other people have done not what other people think you know what does the Bible say because God's word is what's going to last forever so whatever God's word says it doesn't matter what the society is doing it just matters what God says and you know what God said be fruitful and multiply that's what God said he didn't say us four no more he didn't say you know well when are you going to take care of that issue when are you going to fix that I don't have to fix it because God fixes it God has a limit on it and I'm sure that he's smarter than me so why would I try to end something early that he's not going to you know it's just silly to try and play God yourself and then to think that you're somehow righteous because you're playing God there are Bible colleges and there are Christians out there that are literally advocating for birth control and all kinds of other means of controlling the number of kids and they look down on people who are having large families I've had a lot of people criticize me say oh how are you going to hang out with all of them and pay for all of them and all this other stuff and it's like I don't know you have one kid and he doesn't even seem that great so how are you going to take care of that I mean a lot of these people that have one kid they're spoiled rotten brat and they don't even hang out with them I'm like I can still hang out with all my kids at the same time and I don't have to give them all individual attention because maybe that makes them a spoiled brat I don't have to give them you know if I only have one kid I could buy them everything they wanted they could have new clothes every year they could have every time they wanted ice cream they never wanted ice cream but you know today it's like hey to get ice cream it's like 50 bucks for the whole family so it's like we only get it every once in a while so it's like built in like you don't all get special treats just every single moment and you know what that probably helps them not be a spoiled brat you can't get them ice cream every single time they want it yeah well you know what that's a blessing because then they're not going to be a spoiled rotten brat like you're one little child and again if you have one child I'm not mad at you you can still raise a great kid but at the end of the day don't think that you're way superior God wouldn't want to put me in a situation that's going to make it impossible to raise godly family so if he's giving me the children I'm sure I can take care of it I'm sure it's going to work out just fine and in fact my kids love playing with each other they love having brothers and sisters and siblings they're really close friends why would I want to take that away from them you know I didn't get to raise I wasn't raised with lots of siblings my age so I didn't get to have that kind of an experience I'm sure it would have been cool I'm sure it would have been fun to you know not have to go and play outside in the backyard by myself every single day you know and do things by myself all the time like I'm sure it would have been more fun to play with your brother and sister and in fact people that are really good athletes a lot of times they have siblings that they played with that they practiced with so there's a lot of benefits to having a big family but people don't want to bring that up they want to just criticize and be negative and you know why they want to be negative because they know that it's right to have a big family they know what the Bible says in their heart and they want to justify their decision for breaking God's commandments you know instead of just why can't you just be like hey I made a mistake I'm glad you're doing the right thing you know it's like hey I walked over here and I stepped in a hole and hurt my ankle I'm going to cover that up with brush so the next guy can do the same thing or would you be like hey don't step in this hole that I stepped in and broke my ankle it's like that's common decency right when you make a mistake do not hope that other people make the exact same mistake and it's like why can't we apply that to the Christian life because you know what the word of God is forever and we need to live by the word of God and you know what many of us didn't really live very great Christian lives growing up or being young I hope that my children don't make all the mistakes that I did or live the exact same childhood I do I hope they live a better one I hope they make different decisions I hope they don't struggle with things that I struggle with or have the problems that I did or make decisions that I did I hope that they're better and more pure and have more wisdom and are going to serve God even greater I'm not trying to drag people down on my level let's try to build up the next generation and encourage them to serve the Lord because you know what I don't want my children to be worse than me I want them to be better than me to not want them to be better than you is just to be a selfish wicked person now it says in verse number seven it says upon the four and twentieth day of the eleventh month which is the month Seabat in the second year of Darius came the word of the Lord of Zechariah the son of Barakiah the son of Edo the prophet saying I saw by night and behold a man riding upon a red horse and he stood among the trees that were in the bottom behind him were their red horses speckled in white then said I oh my Lord what are these and the angel that talked with me said unto me I will show thee what these be now this is kind of interesting at first he's just telling them to turn to him this is a second vision it's a little bit later in time just a few months later he sees a man riding on a red horse and then there's other horses so there's this grouping of horses that are going out there among myrtle trees and it doesn't initially say this but then in verse nine he says then said I oh my Lord there's also another individual here amongst these horses and trees who's described as the angel of the Lord and he's talking to this person seems likely that this is the person who's been giving him this vision and giving him the word of God here he's communicating with this particular person who's the angel of the Lord and in verse nine it says then said I oh my Lord what are these and the angel that talked with me said unto me I will show thee what these be it says and the man that stood among the myrtle trees answered and said these are they whom the Lord has sent to walk to and fro through the earth so he asks this angel hey who are these what are these horses and this guy on the horse like what are they doing and the angel is telling him these particular horses and this man is going and searching throughout the land searching throughout the earth and they're going to give a report back it says in verse number eleven and they answered the angel of the Lord that stood among the myrtle trees and said we have walked to and fro through the earth and behold all the earth sits still and is at rest so essentially you have an angel of the Lord then you have this battalion of red horses they go and search the land and they come back and give a report unto this angel of the Lord now red horses is not something that's really mentioned a lot in scripture but there's one other specific mention that we kind of looked at a little bit in the book of Revelation it's the second horse of the four horsemen of the apocalypse you essentially have the white horse with someone that's riding on it who we believe is the antichrist who's crowned and he's going forth to conquer and conquer the second comes a red horse and what was given under that red horse was the ability to take peace from the earth so the red horse in the book of Revelation is taking the peace here these red horses are going and basically just giving the status quo of how peaceful the earth is so there's kind of a loose connection here that these red horses have something to do with just the status of peace on the earth as a whole and in Revelation they're taking it away but here it's kind of different they're actually reporting that it's actually very peaceful they're saying hey there's peace everywhere in the earth now they give this report unto the angel specifically and it says in verse 12 then the angel of the Lord answered and said oh Lord of hosts how long will thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah against which thou has had indignation these three score in ten years now the angel of the Lord is a generic term the word angel can simply mean messenger sometimes the angel of the Lord is just a man sometimes the angel of the Lord is an angel of the being sometimes the angel of the Lord is Jesus Christ it seems likely to me that this angel of the Lord probably is the Lord Jesus Christ and it's probably in appearance I don't know that for sure in verse 9 when he talks to him he notices he said oh my Lord he's calling this person his Lord and what's interesting if this is the Lord Jesus Christ then you know what that would be another reference of the trinity because did you notice how the angel of the Lord is then talking to the Lord he says in verse 12 then the angel of the Lord answered and said oh Lord of hosts who's that that's God so we have the angel of the Lord then talking to God how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah against which thou has had indignation these three score in ten years and what I see this kind of being a picture of loosely again is the gospel because if you think about it we have a picture here of peace in the entire earth and you have a particular individual interceding to God for what for there to be peace on the earth which is a foreshadowing a picture of what Jesus Christ would do of how Jesus Christ brought peace onto the whole earth and as the intercessor to God from man he's going in between man and God he's that intercessor that ambassador that's petitioning and trying to reconcile God with man and the Bible talks about this in the book of Hebrews and other places how the Lord Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us so it's interesting how this particular angel of the Lord this messenger is making intercession for the people of God by saying hey can we have peace can we rebuild the house of God and rebuild the temple so again I think this is a loose reference or a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ and it shows a lot of similarities with the gospel now specifically he says in verse 12 they had indignation these three score in ten years that's a reference to the 70 years upon which the children of Israel were in captivity of Babylon before they ended up returning now in verse 13 it says and the Lord answered the angel that talked with me with good words and comfortable words when he makes intercession what happens then God responds with good words and with comfortable words also it's great to know that on a judgment day if I stand before God he's gonna answer me with good words and with comfortable words because of the righteousness of Jesus Christ and what he's done unto me and what's nice here is that God is trying to let the children of Israel know look we're in a time of peace we're in a time where God is extending favor and good and comfortable words unto you he says in verse 14 so the angel that I I'm sorry so the angel that communed with me said unto me cry thou saying thus saith the Lord of hosts I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy and I am very sore displeased with the heathen that are at ease for I was but a little displeased and they helped forward the affliction therefore thus saith the Lord I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies my house shall be built in it saith the Lord of hosts and a line shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem so God is saying specifically that he's jealous for Jerusalem he's jealous for Zion he wants to bring mercy back to it he said he's returning Jerusalem with mercy and specifically he wants his house to be built and he says about the heathen he was displeased with the heathen he doesn't like the heathen God doesn't like the heathen he doesn't want the heathen to be in charge of the earth he doesn't want the heathen to be in rule of the earth he wants his people and Jerusalem to be in charge of the earth but because he was upset with his people and with the people at Jerusalem and that's what he's saying in verse number 15 for I was but a little displeased he's saying there was a time where he's displeased with them and he's saying they helped for the affliction I believe he's trying to say that the Gentiles or the heathen helped God afflict the children of Israel so they were afflicted for 70 years and during that affliction he's trying to help them get back to being right with God having a heart towards God and now that they have that heart towards God he can return to Jerusalem with mercy he can rebuild Jerusalem and rebuild Zion specifically and he wants to comfort Zion and he wants to choose Jerusalem verse 18 then lifted up mine eyes and saw and behold four horns and I said to the angel that talked to me what be these and he answered me these are the horns which have scattered Judah Israel and Jerusalem and the Lord showed me four carpenters then said I what come these to do and he spake saying these are the horns which have scattered Judah so that no man did lift up his head but these are come to fray them to cast out the horns of the Gentiles which lifted up their horn over the land of Judah to scatter it so he sees another prophecy or vision sees four horns and these horns are representative of the Gentiles and the heathen that came and dispersed the children of Israel this would be Nebuchadnezzar Nebuchadnezzar came and essentially took the children of Israel out of the land and they were dispersed into all of the earth into all of the nations of the earth and he's saying that he sees four carpenters though coming and the Bible says specifically in verse number 21 that the carpenters are come to fray the horns fray means to drive away to drive away so again this horn is kind of acting as something that's going to drive the children of Israel away and cause them to be led out of the promised land into the other nations these carpenters are coming to drive away the horns and to drive away the Gentiles so really you know in this particular vision the main essence is that God can basically do whatever he wants to you and really it's based on how you respond to him if you turn away from God he can bring horns into your life that will drive you out of the land drive you out of the house of God and if you turn back to the Lord he can bring carpenters which will drive the horns out now if we kind of think about what these are representing a little bit they're kind of also representing government in a sense because the horns are representative of Nebuchadnezzar and his kingdom and that government and that political system is causing Jerusalem to be destroyed and to not prosper and not to build the house of God and then the carpenters are being commissioned by Cyrus and Darius and these other men to come and actually build the house of God it's interesting because none of these guys are really godly like it's not like Nebuchadnezzar Nebuchadnezzar is definitely not godly but again even like Cyrus and Darius there's no real mention of them being like some great Christian or anything like that we don't even know if they're saved maybe they were maybe they weren't it doesn't even matter what matters is this many times we think that the solution to a problem is the political powers that be or changing out the political powers but the reality is the solution to every single problem is turning to God and then God can put whatever political powers he wants into power he can bring more horns or he can bring some carpenters but you know what it's not our job to really be the horn or the carpenter we're supposed to be the one that's turning to God and then God can put in place the people that he wants and many times throughout the scripture and throughout history from a man's perspective or from a human's perspective it was impossible to change the political landscape things seemed like there was no opportunity to be rescued or delivered yet God performed miracles to bring in the right political powers to invite people at the right time to just shift everything so then the children of God succeeded I mean you look at this with Pharaoh Pharaoh is a horn Pharaoh is one that's causing the children of Israel to suffer great affliction and even in the short term they even had to suffer even greater affliction right before they were then delivered you have with the book of Daniel specifically you kind of have an ebb and flow where they're trying to put pressure on them the Shadrach Meshach and Abednego and Daniel to eat the king's meat they resist and then they get blessed then they're commanded to worship a false god and they resist and then they're blessed and then they get worshiped then Daniel is literally commanded I mean they literally pass a law where you can't even pray for 30 days straight and Daniel just prays then is thrown in the lions then but then he comes back out of it and you see just in Daniel's lifetime just a constant political battle of his Christian faith being tested and tried and yet what delivered him it wasn't getting the right guy in charge in fact many times it was the same guy it was the same guy changing his mind back and forth at the very beginning Nebuchadnezzar is constantly going back and forth on like you know you've finished the chapter and you're thinking like and then they lived happily ever after but then it's like all of a sudden it's like now I worship this graven image and you're like what happened you know it's like the guy can't even think straight he's bipolar okay essentially and he constantly forgets the Lord and makes all kinds of mistakes and you know what that's what politicians are like they're just vacuous souls you know the Bible says in the book of Proverbs that the Lord is turning the heart of the king whether so ever he will and look it wouldn't be that hard to imagine Biden just being at somebody else's beck and call okay I don't know if that guy knows what he's doing alright someone else is pulling all those strings that marionette doll that's up there that we call president you know that's all the political escapes there are in the world today and God can constantly shift them and change them to his will and sometimes he's giving us horns and sometimes he's giving us carpenters but if we really want carpenters in our lives and in our world you know what we need to do is not vote in the right guy we need to turn back to God and specifically when we talk about this chapter what is it that they're supposed to do they're supposed to build the house of God now I want to go to a few passages more this evening before I finish this chapter but go to Jeremiah chapter 23 go to Jeremiah chapter 23 we've kind of gotten the essence of this particular chapter I want to read a few more verses that kind of talk about this concept Jeremiah 23 look at verse 19 the Bible says behold a whirlwind of the Lord has gone forth in fury even a grievous whirlwind it shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked the anger of the Lord shall not return until he has executed until he has performed the thoughts of his heart in the latter days he shall consider it perfectly this kind of reminds me of what he had said about remember your fathers where are they and he's saying but later you're going to consider that everything I said came to pass exactly like I said it verse 21 I have not sent these prophets yet they ran this is like Stephen Furtick, Kenneth Copeland all them right I have not spoken to them definitely not Kenneth Copeland yet they prophesied but if they had stood in my council and it caused my people to hear my words then they should have turned from their evil way and from their evil doings that's such an interesting verse to me it's like saying you know all these false prophets I didn't send them I didn't even want them but you know if they had just actually preached what the Bible said people would have actually gotten right with God you know the reason why America is failing is because we have bad churches if all the preachers in our country like if there wasn't a bad option people would still go to church but then they would be forced to hear the right kind of message and after being forced to hear the right kind of message they would actually make changes in their life you know a lot of people don't want to come to a church like ours and it's because if they get enough conviction they'll actually change and the reality is they just don't want to change they would actually change how they act how they behave how they dress they would actually go and do things that they didn't want to do but you know they just know that they would make those changes and they know they don't want to make those changes so they heap up to themselves teachers having itching ears and they turn away their ears from the truth and they turn onto fables and because of false preaching and false prophets it causes so many people to go astray don't think that oh well I'm going to this church and I know it's not that great and I know they don't really preach what the Bible says and everything like that but it's not going to affect me no it does affect you you need to go to the right kind of church you need to go to a church where the man of God is going to challenge you to actually follow the Bible and actually do the right things say yeah well the sermon is a little boring well maybe you need a little boring in your life sorry it's not a six second TikTok reel that you can constantly scroll every six seconds you know it's like oh man we had to read a lot of verses you know and it's like hard language and he uses the word F at the end of some of the words you know yeah well maybe you need a couple F's in your life alright you need to be grounded in something that's real this world is so fake I mean do you not realize that there's so much money in videos and online and social media when there's a lot of money do you think that people are really putting it up to chance that they're going to make good content or things that are funny or do you think they're like hey we could make a fake scenario and it'd be funny and people would laugh and we'd make a lot of money so you know what the vast majority of videos and things on our line are fake they're not real and you're just sitting there scrolling just like oh this is cool you see it's all fake you know what this is real and all those things are going to perish but you know what the word of God is not going to perish don't be like your fathers that hearkened unto fables and hearkened unto things that are just not even real the Bible says Jewish fables okay why don't you get grounded in some reality in the Bible you know the TV social media and all these things are constantly trying to brainwash you and propagandize you and to thinking certain things that are not true not real not sincere that we need to hear some Bible I guarantee vast majority if not almost every single person spends more time on their phone like ten to one than how much they read the Bible you're preaching long not long enough you apparently can sit I mean some people sit there and stare at social media for a couple of hours you can hear the Bible being preached for an hour if they had preached the Bible people would have turned from their evil way from their evil doings verse 23 am I a God at hand say the Lord and not a God far off can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him say the Lord do not I fill heaven and earth say the Lord you know it's like you can't escape God folks where are you going to go go to 2 Chronicles chapter 7 I want to go to another place here 2 Chronicles chapter 7 think about the context of this chapter that we've read though how does any of it fit with modern day Israel when in 1948 did all the Jews say you know what we killed the Messiah we're so wicked our fathers killed the Messiah let's believe in Jesus let's all get King James Bibles and start reading the King James Bible let's start singing the Psalms we embrace the New Testament we're going to fall on our knees and we're going to pray and beg God for forgiveness we're going to be like Ezra and Nehemiah we're going to give up all of our usury even the 100th part because you know he was mad in the book of Nehemiah for charging people interest 1% saying don't even charge 1% and he was like God's mad at you until you give this up when did the Jews give up interest and give up the Talmud and when did they embrace the New Testament and when did they embrace Jesus you know in fact you know if you study Hebrew like math they won't even put a plus symbol because it looks like a cross they take out the bottom hash so it's just like this weird upside down T or something it's like a missing plus sign that's how much they hate Jesus and then I'm supposed to believe that God's blessing these people to come back to the land and rebuild the temple and they're so wonderful it's like this is nonsense oh Zechariah you haven't read Zechariah no you haven't read Zechariah John Hagee and you're not Haggai you're Hagee ok fake 2nd chronicles look at chapter 7 this is a famous verse verse we're going to read it some context though look at verse 12 and the Lord appeared to Solomon by night and said to him I have heard thy prayer and have chosen this place to myself or in house of sacrifice if I should of heaven that there be no rain or if I command the locust to devour the land or if I send pestilence among my people if my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land that's like a super famous verse people love this verse they love to quote it and it's true but what is the context the context is the first temple being built and he's saying hey you guys turn away from me and I start punishing you but then you turn back and you pray and you seek God again then you know what I'll heal the land and this literally comes true because Daniel makes a prayer about this and seeks the Lord and confesses the sins of him and his fathers and God hearkens unto that prayer and then when he hearkens unto that prayer and then with Cyrus brings them back into the land so this verse definitely applied to that context I would say it extends beyond that context though in the sense that yeah hey we as God's people in America our land's broken too and we have a lot of issues and if we seek God if we humble ourselves I believe God can make our area and make our land better and make our country better but it's dependent upon us seeking God and you have to understand that he's really clear though what if they don't and I want to read the rest of this chapter because we don't just stop at verse 14 verse 15 now my eyes shall be opened and my ears a tent under the prayer that is made in this place for now I have chosen and sanctified this house that my name may be there forever and my eyes and my heart shall be there perpetually this is where the Jews would stop reading oh it's forever it's perpetual never going to change verse 17 and as for the if thou will walk before me as David thy father walked and do according to all that I have commanded thee and shalt observe my statutes and my judgments then will I establish the throne of thy kingdom according as I have covenanted with David thy father saying there shall not fail thee a man to be ruler in Israel now here's a question did Solomon do that what happened at the end of Solomon did Rehoboam his son inherit all 12 tribes no in fact he even said that he wasn't even going to give his son the tribes because of Solomon he was going to give him a tribe because of David and it was actually stripped from him and then you have the northern kingdom of Israel and then the southern kingdom of Judah it's interesting that the rebellious kingdom was named Israel and then today we have modern day Israel that's probably a coincidence huh verse 19 but if he turn away and forsake my statutes and my commandments which I have set before you and shall go and serve other gods and worship them then will I pluck them up by the roots out of my land which I have given them and this house which I have sanctified for my name will I cast out of my sight and will make it to be a proverb and a byword among all nations and this house which is high shall be an astonishment to everyone that passeth by it so that he shall say why hath the Lord done thus unto this land and unto this house and it shall be answered because they forsook the Lord God of their fathers which brought them forth out of the land of Egypt and laid hold on other gods and worshipped them and served them therefore hath he brought all this evil upon them so you have to ask this question why was the temple that was rebuilt destroyed in 70 AD what happened let me tell you it was because they forsook the Lord God of their fathers which brought them forth out of the land of Egypt and laid hold on other gods and worshipped them and served them therefore hath he brought all this evil upon them and you know what's so interesting is I never hear anybody ever explain to me like the zionists like why God cursed them and got them out of the land what was the reason why he destroyed the temple the second time oh yeah it was because they rejected Jesus so you would think if he destroyed the temple because they were worshipping false gods and rejected Jesus what would cause them to get back in the land and get to rebuild it again be worshipping him and accepting Jesus right but then that never happened and then they go and they point out they're like well what about Abraham yeah what about Abraham you know I kind of brought this analogy up and I thought about it and I thought I didn't do it justice in this analogy but I was saying something about if you leased the house and then later you got kicked out and then you came back that wasn't even the right analogy the right analogy would be like if a hundred generations ago your grandpa had a house and he lived in it and then somewhere down the lineage his children ended up breaking the rental contract that they had and then you are now saying hey I get to have this house and they're like how is it your house well my grandfather used to have a lease yeah but somewhere down that lineage your other grandpa broke it and you've never lived here so how in the world is this your house it's not just like it's someone whatever house you have or you live in you probably didn't buy it or build it at first it's probably somebody else imagine if they came and knocked on your door tonight and said hey this is my house get out you'd be like no you sold it or you got rid of it or you're leasing it like that contract isn't forever now it might be forever until it changes right and that's how the old testament was you know a lot of people point out these verses like perpetual forever but didn't we just read in second chronicle chapter number seven in verse number 16 for now have I chosen and sanctified this house that my name may be there forever but then didn't he say hey but if you break these commandments then I'm literally going to destroy it and take you out of there so it's not like it wasn't forever it's just it's forever with a condition just like till death do us part hey I'm married to my wife forever until death do us part it's forever until she dies it doesn't mean like hey if she lives to be a thousand and I'm a thousand we're still married if she lives to be a billion and I'm a billion we're still married but as soon as we die it's over it's not Mormon marriage okay you don't stay married in heaven all right sorry for some people that's like man I married up and other people it's like whew you know for me I'm disappointed of course right okay go to another go to one more place go to Haggai I hope my wife's still my friend when we get in heaven okay how can we apply this to us well here's the thing if we turn to God he can give us peace and help us build in our land but here is what was also happening at the exact same time that Zechariah is basically being preached and this is the same year it's only separated by a few months but Haggai chapter 1 verse 1 it says this in the second year of Darius the king so the same year and the sixth month and the first day of the month so this is a few months prior came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtil governor of Judah and to Joshua the son of Josadeh the high priest saying thus speak of the Lord of hosts saying this people say the time has not come the time that the Lord's house should be built so what was the attitude of the people of this day well they've been told by Artaxerxes not to build the house of God they're saying this is not a time to build the house of God verse 3 then came the Lord the Lord by Haggai the prophet saying is it time for you oh ye to dwell in your sealed houses and this house lie waste now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts consider your ways you have so much and bring in little ye eat but ye have not enough ye drink but ye are not filled with drink ye clothe you but there is none warm and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes thus saith the Lord of hosts consider your ways go up to the mountain and bring wood and build the house and I will take pleasure in it and I will be glorified saith the Lord ye looked for much and lo it came to little and when ye brought it home I did blow upon it why saith the Lord of hosts because mine house that is laid waste and ye run every man unto his own house what is he saying the people even though they returned back to the land because there was a little bit of persecution because there was political pressure because things have stopped what did they do they stopped building the house of God and they just built their own houses and then God is basically destroying and not blessing them in their personal lives they're not being satisfied with their food with their drink they're losing their money and boy I just have to say it just sounds like America there's a lot of parallels and especially with inflation boy inflation it seems like we're earning more wages and we have less money we can't seem to have enough and I wonder if it's because Christians in America today are not worried about building the house of God they're worried about building their house they're worried about building their 401K and their house being sealed and them having all the luxuries and the delicacies of their life but they're not building the house of God and God's not blessing America you know they're so concerned with building the synagogue of Satan over in Jerusalem today and they're ignoring the real house of God that should be built the church of God the pillar and ground of the truth and you know what people are giving their money to all the wrong things in our country today and they're destroying our country today people should be investing into the house of God and building the house of God he's saying where are your priorities you're saying it's not a time to build the house of God I'm saying it is a time to build the house of God and no matter what political pressure no matter what the environment what the situation is we should prioritize building the house of God over our own selfish ambitions now God is not saying it's wrong for you to have a nice house he's not saying it's wrong to build yourself a really nice place to live or to work on your own house what is wrong is to be focused in on your house and ignoring the house of God he's saying hey let's first build the house of God and then go ahead build your house take care of your land take care of what's going on and so many people today they have it backwards today they want to build their house first and then they'll build church you know what you need to build church first and then build your house there's just a lot of people that have the wrong mentality and they have the wrong priorities and they're not putting God first in their life when you think about a house this is not a temporary dwelling place a tent is a temporary dwelling place a tabernacle is a temporary dwelling place booths are temporary dwelling places a house is something you're investing in some time some effort some energy and here's the thing that everybody knows about real estate what's the most important thing about real estate this is not in the bible for all your real estate location it's location location location you know why because the only thing you can't change about your house you can change a lot of stuff about your house but you can't change the location and if my priorities in my life are hey I want to seek a house first and not church well sometimes that house may not be really suitable for church and I know lots of people they've thought about like hey you know what I want for my life I just want to live on this really cool farm and I just want to go out there and build a really big nice house but you know what they're not prioritizing it being near a church and so they just build this nice house or they go live in some farm and they're just so far away from a good church that they're not going to church folks they don't drive to church because they literally are building and see once you put that much time effort energy focus into that house it's so hard to walk away from that it's so hard to leave something like that and so so many people they're not thinking like my first priority is church and once I've built that up then I'm going to build my house they're like I want to build my house and then later I'll think about church but you know what happens they never end up thinking about the church you know when it comes to your house you know location the money the time people are just putting all of their effort and energy into them and their lives and their luxury and what they want and God is saying hey I'm not going to bless you when you're doing that I'm going to bless you when you prioritize church first and that's where your heart's at that's where your mind's at and you know what I'm going to greatly bless you when you put church first and again I'm not saying that you can't it's not like one or the other it's not like well I can only ever do this and I can never have a house obviously we all need a place to live and there's nothing wrong with having a house but you know what I would not want to build a house where there's no church or there's no stable option or where church is bad or church is deteriorating I mean there's so many people today that live in an area where they say they don't have a good church or the church is getting worse or they have bad options well you know what I would not build a house there you know I would make sure that I'm putting church first and then and then I'm going to figure out where I'm going to live then I'm going to try to establish myself somewhere and you know the way our housing market works is probably different than back then cause it's a lot easier today to move I mean back then it may not have been very realistic that after you built a house someone would even come and buy it or want it or anything like that there might not have been a market there might not have been Realtors there's not an app called Realtor or Zillow or all these places you can sell so like for them when they built a house it was a it was a really long term commitment to that location and today obviously we can buy and sell houses and move around a little bit easier but what's the concept? The concept is what are you building your life around and are you building your life around church and the building the house of God and putting that as a priority or are you putting you and what you want and the luxuries that you can have and you know instead of considering where you want to live for selfish ambition you should consider how am I going to serve God? The first house that I ever bought my parents helped me buy it and it was one block away from my parents I would have never chosen that okay They liked that I guess right and I even remember my parents had this philosophy like children should never leave their parents like as far as changing cities or something like that cause you just always live near them well that's kind of strange since Abraham really early in the bible Abraham is told to leave his father and his father's house that would be weird for God to give Abraham such a commandment when it's not a good idea I mean it's really clear in the bible that's not what it says okay but I liked that house I invested a lot in that house I redid the fence I redid the garage door we redid the kitchen we redid bathrooms I redid that same bathroom maybe even three times the flooring I don't remember it was a lot okay and I thought I was never going to sell that house ever it was a great location right by college college is thriving amazing rental market I'm like I'm going to keep this house forever I had a three percent interest rate I'm like you know my mortgage payment was like six hundred and fifty dollars a month for a three bedroom two bath house about twelve hundred foot it was nice big yard almost a half I was like probably like a point four acres or something it would probably rent for like fifteen sixteen hundred dollars a month but you know what I at some point I said you know there's not a good church here and I want to serve I want to serve God and I want to go to a church that does soul winning I can't find it here I said if I can't find it I'm sure other people can't find it and I wanted to move to faithful word to train to possibly become a pastor to one day help other people have a church that can go soul winning but you know what I didn't make enough money to move to Phoenix and to rent so you know what I had to do I had to sell my house I had to sell it so that I could move and that was the only way I could move there because the rent was like again fifteen sixteen seven hundred dollars for a small thing and it's like if I because I had equity in the house or whatever my next mortgage payment again was like eight hundred bucks or something super cheap because the property taxes in Arizona make you want to hate Texas okay my property taxes in Arizona were seven hundred and fifty dollars for the year this is like what that's insane when you think about how much the property taxes are here okay oh man I'm still getting over it okay so that was the only way I could move out there you know what if I just said but I love this house and I love you know making the money on this you know I would have never moved and I know I know other people and there's a person I really like great guy likes the Bible believes pretty much everything we believe but you know what he's building his dream home next to all of his family and a place that doesn't have a good church and he'll admit that to me there's not a good church there but you know what here's the thing that's the wrong decision it's the wrong decision to build your dream home in a place that you're not going to be serving God faithfully you need to plant yourself at church first and then establish your home don't get these out of order don't try to establish your home and then try to establish church you establish church first and then you establish your home and you know what we'll see where those people are that establish their home first and church second versus the people that establish their church first and home second and you know at first you might think like well look at that great house and they have this nice thing well we'll see where they ended up and we'll see the house of the person that put church first 50 years from now and we'll see the guy's house that put house first and not only will we see the physical structure we'll also see his wife and his children because that's also another aspect of your house and you know what you want your house to be blessed you want to have a great house well you know what you need to put church first and God first and turn to the Lord and put that as a priority and you know I'm preaching to the choir on a Wednesday night but let me tell you something you are here as a carpenter to build the house of God and to drive away the horns in your life do not allow the horns to take you away from God no you be the carpenter to fray away the horns and to build the house of God and you know what God will bless you and prosper you oh you know I'm wasting time at church no no no you're building your house and when you build the house of God he's going to take care of you when you don't well you know what you're putting your money in bags with holes in them money comes and goes there's been plenty of times where I've gotten great sums and lost great sums for all kinds of things in my control and out of my control and the one thing I've greatly learned is it doesn't matter how smart you are and how many good decisions you make God can take away all the chunks of money you have like this and no matter how dumb and silly and foolish you are and you make sinful decisions God can sometimes just pour money in your lap too but this is what I know when you serve God faithfully and you put him first you'll never be without and he'll always take care of you and you know what you're going to have a blessed end at the later end like Job as opposed to the guy that's building himself up first and even if I never have the nicest house as the guy that you know built his house first nuts to it because it's all going to burn anyways but I you know God's not mocked I believe that the guys that put church first are still going to have the house that God wants to give them and bless them financially later too but you know what don't be the person that tries to have your cake and eat it too just put God first and he'll give you the rest and even if he doesn't you'll get it in heaven anyways and you try to have what you want in this world usually you'll lose it anyways and then you won't have anything and you'll die alone with a bunch of cats I don't even like cats okay so you know let us read the book of Zechariah and study it and you know don't get fooled into this stupid Zionist stuff it's junk we need to apply these verses to us and to Christians and we need to turn America back to the word of God and we need people to preach the word of God thank you Heavenly Father so much for the book of Zechariah thank you so much for being such a gracious God that wants to turn mercy back to the house of Jerusalem and I pray that Christians in this country would wake up they'd wake up and recognize who the real Israel is who the real Jerusalem is I pray that you would help preachers that are scared or nervous about preaching what the Bible says that they'd actually preach it I pray that you'd actually get a group of people together that actually want to build the house of God that you would touch their hearts that you'd help them to put building the house of God first in their lives and I pray that as they make the right decision as they turn to you that you would turn to them that you would bless them that you would prosper them and that you would buy a miracle bring us some carpenters to drive away the horns in our country and our lives please give us a time of peace and allow us to build as we turn to you and in Jesus' name we pray, Amen Alright, in closing let's go to song number 129 song number 129, Rock of Ages song number 129 everybody sing it out with a verse stay from wrath and make me pure could my tears forever flow could my zeal no anger know these for sin could not atone thou must save and thou alone in my hand no price I bring simply to the cross I cling while I draw this fleeting breath when my eyes are frozen dead when I rise to worlds unknown and behold beyond my throne the rock of ages clap for me let me hide myself in need great singing everybody, we're all dismissed