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

... ... ... ... ... Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Good evening, everyone. Welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. You can all find your seats. We're going to get started. We're going to start this evening off in song number 389, Bring Them In. Song 389, Bring Them In. Song number 389, Bring Them In. Sing it out. 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 fold away. 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'll go to hell this shepherd kind? Help out 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, where'er 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. Let's go ahead and open this service up in a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you for this day. Thank you for this opportunity to be gathered together in your church, Lord God. Please fill Pastor Shelley with the Holy Spirit helping to preach an edifying sermon. Help us all to take what we learn with us throughout the rest of the week for your honor and glory. It's in Jesus' name I pray. Amen. All right, next up we have song number 221, A Child of the King. Song 221, A Child of the King. Song 221, A Child of the King. My Father is rich in houses and lands. Behold is the wealth of the world in his hands. Of rubies and diamonds of silver and gold. His covers are full, he has riches of gold. I'm a child of the King, a child of the King. With Jesus my Savior, I'm a child of the King. My Father's own Son, the Savior of men. Must wander on earth as the poorest of them. But now he is feeding our pardon on high. That he may be his when he comes high and high. I'm a child of the King, a child of the King. With Jesus my Savior, I'm a child of the King. I once was an outcast and stranger on earth. A sinner by choice and an alien by birth. But I've been adopted, my name's written down. An heir to a mansion, the robe and a crown. I'm a child of the King, a child of the King. With Jesus my Savior, I'm a child of the King. A central reconnaissance, what should I care? They're building a palace for me over there. No exile from home, yet still I may sing. All glory to God, I'm a child of the King. I'm a child of the King, a child of the King. With Jesus my Savior, I'm a child of the King. Great singing. God bless. Thank you so much for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you need a bulletin again, you can lift up your hand real quick. One of our ushers can come by and get you guys a bulletin on the front. We have our Bible memory passage, Psalm 59 verse 3. Any kiddos that can quote it can get an ice cream after the service. Our service and soul winning times are there on the left and regional. Make sure you're turning in your soul winning stats to the soul winning captains on the right. We have a list of several expecting ladies and then our prayer list down below. We'll get to that in just a second. Upcoming events this weekend, this Friday, I'm going to be preaching in Chicago, Illinois for an event hosted by Sure Foundation Baptist Church, which is our great friend, Pastor Aaron Thompson. And so it'll be great to go out there and see him. I know a few people are actually traveling with us up there from our church. And so there's a lot of people that are going to be organizing up there. We're going to have a soul winning event on Saturday specifically. And so we're really excited about going out there. And I'm really excited to see a lot of the brethren and hang out with them. And so I've only been to Chicago one time very briefly. And so I'm excited to see what the soul winning is like. And just pray that the soul winning and the event will go smoothly even if you're not able to attend. Also, June 8th is a wedding in honor of Joshua and Cynthia Garcia at 3 p.m. And then prayer list, we've been praying for Brother Hall continually for his leg. We've been praying for Miss Naim's grandmother. We've been praying for the Carlson's mother for her health. We've been praying for Miss Miller's friend, Miss Tamara, for cancer treatments as well. Also, if you've been praying for the Garcia's son in law, Eric, who's having knee surgery recovery. And then we also have a prayer request here for Brother Scott, his nephew, Mark, who's experiencing heart trouble. And then there's one other prayer request I added in here. And I usually don't give any updates because dates just change all the time. But it looks like this one's pretty well settled in. It's very likely to happen. But there is a trial of our church on June 3rd. And so I'm just asking you guys if you would like to at least pray for us that things would go well. This is in relation to the wrongful eviction that we experienced a few years ago. And, of course, justice is really speedily. And so, of course, we're now having finally a trial. And this case has been really crazy because we actually had filed our litigation before they'd even filed theirs. And so if you think about it, it's been a very long period of time. It got dismissed and then it got confirmed that it was dismissed. And then it went to an appeal appellate court which said that was wrong and kind of sided with us. So then it went back down. And then the landlord tried to, like, sue us for a whole bunch of other stuff. And then all of that got combined into this one. And then we've been supposed to have this trial. And then it just keeps getting delayed, delayed, delayed. But it looks like very likely it's going to happen June 3rd, which is a Monday. And so we'll be in court on that day and having, in theory, a full trial. So just pray that the Lord's will be done and that things go smoothly. And that He gives me and the few witnesses we have just wisdom to know what to say and to say the right things. And, of course, sometimes it's hard to remember all of that craziness and try to transport ourselves back into that timeline. And, you know, in speaking with our attorneys that are working with us on this, it sounds like no matter what the outcome of this specific trial is going to be, it will be appealed. So they're pretty confident that even if we win, they're going to appeal. And they're confident that, you know, since we're right, we would appeal as well. And so it's very likely going to just keep going up this chain. And so it may just be another couple years until the things even resolve theoretically. But just pray that, again, the Lord's will be done. And this is really important litigation considering the fact that it's in relation to free speech and being able to have a church and preach what the Bible literally says, no matter how ugly it could be sometimes. And so, you know, I feel like the Lord has been working in this situation. And I think He's going to continue to work through this situation. And no matter what the outcome, we're going to get the victory in a sense. And that the Lord will be glorified and honored, whether that's a complete loss or a complete win. I believe the Lord can be glorified through either of those. But I'm really looking forward to resolution at some point. So whatever that is. And I personally think, you know, I'm actually very optimistic. And I think that at the end of the day, we're going to be saying there's a God that judges in the earth. Okay? So, you know, I don't know what that is like. And I'm kind of like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. It's like I know He is able. And I know that I'm not going to bow. And He can deliver me from the fiery furnace. And I'm really hoping that's going to be the case, right? But, of course, I know the Lord's able. And I do believe it's probably His will to deliver us from that. But just pray, again, that that would go smoothly. So I just wanted to give a little update. And we'll pray for all the things that were mentioned here as a church family. Thank Heavenly Father so much for all of these ladies who are in a church and expecting. I pray that you be with them during their pregnancies. Please help them to have the timely birth that they need. Please help their children's development. I pray that you'd also help those who have these chronic health issues. Please help them with their cancer and with their body ailments. I pray that you would just give them a speedy recovery, give them health. Also, give them just peace during this time of difficulty. Help relieve their pain as much as possible. I pray that you'd also bless our church family with favor. I pray that you'd also bless our church in upcoming legal battles that you would get the honor and that you would get the glory. And that no matter what the outcome is, that we would just be faithful and draw closer to you. And I thank you for all that you give our church. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. One other thing to be in prayer for is our evangelist, Duncan Urbanic, out in the Philippines. And he had a companion out there that you probably didn't necessarily realize, but Brother James Perry has been out there for months just helping and assisting and going soul winning and doing a lot of work. And I asked him if he would just come up and just give us just a few minutes just to talk about his experiences over there, what Evangelist Urbanic has been accomplishing, and just to kind of give us a quick testimony. So would you come up here real quick? And we really appreciate you to give us some insight as to what's going on over there. Yes. Thank you. And so I'm glad to bring good tidings from the Philippines. Evangelist Urbanic is just doing a great job over there. He did it at Pure Words. He's carried that off into the Philippines. And he's just doing a lot of soul winning out there. And he has all these baptisms that he's been doing with his wife's family. I mean, he's just doing a lot of great work out there. But one thing I want to emphasize that I just really love is he's got three of his wife's family that he's been discipling, and they go out soul winning with him. They're eager. They want to go out. They have a heart for the lost. And he's been using them as an interpreter. And so they're helping him give the gospel sometimes. And what's happened through this process in a very short amount of time is they're now soul winning on their own and winning people to Christ. They're three teenagers. And I just heard the other day that the last one got his first salvation solo. And so Evangelist Urbanic is doing just such a great job out there. And it couldn't be better out there as far as the soul winning goes. There are so many stories I could tell you. But if you ever get a chance to go out there, please go visit the Philippines. It's something that can change your life, just all of the people that are ready to be saved out there. And if Pastor has another Bahamas trip, I would say that you probably want to go to that one first. It's way more feasible. It's closer. You're in the same time zone. It's super receptive as well. But if you get a chance, go to the Philippines if you can. And the last thing I want to say is that Brother Urbanic, Evangelist Urbanic, yes, he's been doing such a great job, but he is out there with his family, but he's kind of out on an island, right? Not literally, but, well, in a sense literally. But please pray for him. Please send him texts, Facebook. Anytime you get a chance and you're just thinking about him, let him know. It would be a great encouragement to him. He would love to hear from all of you guys and help keep him motivated. But he's definitely motivated. He's out there doing a great job. I've seen it with my eyes, and I'm just glad to let everybody know that. So thank you. Oh, yeah, and Pastor Stuckey. So we've been going to church at Pastor Stuckey's church out there, and it's great. He is a very hard preacher. He's not jumping up on the pulpit and screaming and yelling, but he is giving you a message where it's bringing you to a decision. Are you going to do what the Bible says? Are you going to just keep being prideful? And I just love that preaching. He's doing such a great job out there. He's doing so much out there. I don't know how many churches he has, six or so. And so they're moving into a new building. They'll be into it in September. And so if you guys ever wanted to just give an offering to a place that you're going to see results from that offer and you're going to see a lot of fruit from it, I would send him money out there for his building. And so just keep him in your prayers as well. The Philippines is a little bit different. You don't have the free speech that you have here. And so he has to watch what he says about certain people in public and can't say Biden's a fumbling idiot or something like that. And so just keep pastor stuck in your prayers and just keep Verity Baptist Church Manila in your prayers. And most of all, because he's one of you guys, he's a very special guy, is Evangelist Urbanic. Keep him in your prayers and just let him know that you're thinking about him. Thank you. Thanks for those testimonies. How much are they paying you exactly? I've seen their salaries. They can't be paying you much. No, definitely keep Evangelist Urbanic and Pastor Stuckey in your prayers. And I know a lot of people from our church have visited out there and they really enjoy the soul winning. And these guys are on the front lines of doing a big spiritual work. And so we definitely don't want to ever forget about them. Just continue to think about them, pray about them. And of course our church very much supports both of those guys. If you ever are interested in contacting them or getting in touch with them or something, just let us know and we'd love to assist you in that way as well. We're going to sing our Psalm of the Week, Psalm 148. Brother Oz is going to come lead this for us, Psalm 148. All right, let's sing it out together, Psalm 148. Praise ye the Lord, praise ye the Lord from the heavens. Praise him in the heights, praise him. All his angels praise him. All his hosts praise him. Sun and moon praise him. All you stars of life praise him. Ye heavens of heavens and ye waters that be above the heavens. Praise the name of the Lord. For he commanded and they were created. He hath also established them forever and ever. He hath made a decree which shall not pass. Praise the Lord from the earth. He, dragons and all beings, fire and hail, snow and vapor, stormy wind, love filling his word mountains. And all hills, fruitful trees, and all cedars peace. And all cattle, creeping things, and flying fowl, kings of the earth and all people, princes and all judges of the earth. Both young men and maidens, old men and children, let them praise the name of the Lord. For his name alone is excellent. His glory is above the earth, and heaven he also exalted the morn. Of his people the praise of all his saints. He known the children of Israel. Of people near unto him praise he the morn. As the offering plates are being passed around, please turn in your Bibles to Zechariah chapter 4. Zechariah chapter number 4. Zechariah chapter 4. Zechariah chapter number 4. The Bible reads, And the angel that talked with me came again and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep, and said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have looked and behold a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps which are upon the top thereof, and two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof. So I answered and spake to the angel that talked with me, saying, What are these, my lord? Then the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord. And he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. Who art thou, O great mountain, before Zerubbabel? Thou shalt become a plain, and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof, with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace, unto it. Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house. His hands shall also finish it, and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto you. For who hath despised the day of small things? For they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven. They are the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro throughout the whole earth. Then answered I and said unto him, What are these two olive trees, upon the right side of the candlestick, and upon the left side thereof? And I answered again and said unto him, What be these two olive branches, which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves? And he answered me and said, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my Lord. Then said he, These are the two anointed ones that stand by the Lord of the whole earth. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you for your word, and thank you because we have the King James Bible, Lord. I just pray that you fill Pastor Shelley with your Holy Spirit, help us to make changes in our lives as applicable, Lord, and let your word be plain unto us. And I praise in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. I want to just give a quick recap of the Book of Zechariah for a second. And in chapter number one, we have a lot of visions and things that are being given unto Zechariah. But generally speaking, I feel like chapter one really emphasized the idea of peace that's coming on the earth and then rebuilding the temple. That's kind of the message communicated in the visions of chapter one. In chapter two, he emphasizes how the children of Israel are going to be the apple of God's eye and how he's going to watch over them and care for them in this rebuilding process. And in chapter three, Joshua is considered a brand plucked out of the fire, and he's kind of rebuking to Satan by telling him, you know, you're not going to be successful. Joshua is going to be successful, messing with him is only going to cause you problems. And it kind of finishes by also reiterating the fact that the branch is coming, which is talking about the Lord Jesus Christ and how that's unstoppable. It doesn't matter what the devil does. The Lord Jesus Christ is going to come. He's going to die on the cross. The gospel message is going to go forward. And so what God has ordained will come to pass. And when we get into chapter number four, I believe kind of the main emphasis here is the idea of the Spirit of God is what gives us success. It's the Spirit of God that is going to enable us and empower us to have that success when we talk about having peace and building, be the apple of God's eye and resisting the devil. And here in chapter four, starting in verse one, he says, And the angel that talked with me came again and waked me as a man that is wakened out of his sleep. And he said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have looked and behold, a candlestick, all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and its seven lamps therein, or thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps which are upon the top thereof, and to all of trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof. So we have a vision here of a candlestick, and this has seven branches, seven lamps, seven pipes. And we typically refer to this as a menorah, as a candlestick that has this seven figures here, these seven bowls, these seven pipes, this specific type of a candlestick. But on each side, there's also an olive tree that's mentioned. Now, I believe that this specific vision has a couple different applications. One application is actually just given to us in the text itself, just a little bit later in Scripture. Look at verse number 11. Then answered I, and I said unto him, What are these two olive trees, upon the right side of the candlestick, and upon the left side thereof? And I answered again and said unto him, What be these two olive branches, which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves? And he answered me and said, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my Lord. Then said he, These are the two anointed ones that stand by the Lord of the whole earth. I love how it's almost it's just funny to me how it's like, Hey, what are these things? He's like, You don't know. No, that's why I'm asking. And he's like, Hey, these are the two anointed ones and they're standing by the Lord of the whole earth. Well, I believe this is a picture of and reminds us of something in the book of Revelation. Keep your finger and go to Revelation chapter number 11. Revelation chapter number 11. And look at verse number four. Actually, just for sake of context, we'll read verse three. And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth. So notice we actually have pretty much the same language here. It does mention two candlesticks. That's a little bit different, but he mentions these two witnesses as being two olive trees, just like it's mentioned here in the book of Zechariah. And it says that these two are standing by the Lord of the whole earth. So I believe one application is in reference to the two witnesses and that that is what's being described here in the book of Zechariah. And so there is a little bit of an end times prophecy that's being mentioned here. One thought that I have is there's a theory that the two witnesses are Moses and Elijah. Well, I would think that this Zechariah prophecy a little bit helps with that ideology or coincides with that particular ideology or is compatible with because it sounds like these two witnesses already exist in the book of Zechariah because he's describing how these are two anointed ones that are already there with the Lord. Well, that's fine if it's Moses and Elijah because they have already lived and died and are with the Lord, so they would be eligible. To me, if we take this application to be the two witnesses and they were present there at the time of Zechariah, well, that would mean it's not you and me. That would mean it's not somebody down the pike or someone future. It kind of seems like this is lending itself to the idea that these specific olive trees have already been there, they already exist. Now, of course, God can sometimes speak of things before they end up happening and so that's not for sure. But to me, it seems to fit or maybe give a little bit of credence to the idea that these two witnesses have been there for a while or that they are already established by the time of the book of Zechariah specifically. So go back if you went to Zechariah. Here's another idea or application I believe that we could take though from this specific passage is if you think about what's being pictured here, you have a candlestick. Now, from our Bible study in the book of Revelation, we learn that candlesticks are representative of something. What is that? Churches, exactly. Churches is what was mentioned as being candlesticks. So we have churches and then we have in this vision olive trees. Well, what are these olive trees doing? Essentially, their branches have oil and that oil is coming off of those branches and they're going on to this specific candlestick and that candlestick needs oil to do what? To burn the fire, for the fire to keep burning. So the point of a candlestick is to give light. The point of a candlestick is to provide light unto people. But in antiquity, how did these candlesticks operate? Well, they used oil. They would have oil in their lamp and that was causing the fire to keep burning. In order to keep the fire going, you have to keep pouring oil. What is this picture? Well, what is the church supposed to do? The church is supposed to be the light of the world. It's supposed to give light just like a candlestick gives light. Jesus gives reverence to this in Matthew 5. And what is it that keeps that light burning? What is it that causes the church to keep going? Well, that would be the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is that oil that is keeping that fire burning. Well, what do we have when we have these two olive trees? Well, I believe that that is a picture of the Old and the New Testament. And now the Old and the New Testament are what's giving and feeding the church that oil that's causing it to burn and to give light unto the world. And so that's what's provided here in this specific illustration. You know, go if you would to chapter 3, verse 9. Notice it says this, For behold, the stone that I have laid before Joshua, upon one stone, shall be seven eyes. Behold, I will engrave the graving thereof, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land one day. In chapter 3, we talked about those seven eyes, compared them with Isaiah chapter number 11. And in Isaiah chapter number 11, I want you to actually go there, if you would. We read about seven specific spirits. The Bible tells us in Revelation that the Lamb has seven eyes and seven horns, and that it is seven spirits of God. We have here in the chapter preceding a stone with seven eyes, and then we have here in chapter 4 a candlestick, and that candlestick has what? Seven pipes. Seven pipes specifically. So what this can be in reference to is the seven spirits of God. Now, it's not, I don't believe this is necessarily trying to illustrate spirits in the same way that we talk about the Father or the Holy Ghost. It's more the idea of like a character, the character or the attributes of the spirit, that there's seven spirits to God specifically, and those seven spirits are mentioned and demonstrated in Isaiah chapter number 11, and look what it says in verse number 2. And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. So we have these seven spirits, and when Jesus Christ was on this earth, the Bible says that the spirit was not given to him by measure, okay? So what does that mean? He had all seven of these spirits to the fullest while he was on this earth, and what is gonna give the church success today? What is gonna give us success today as Christians? It is the spirit of God. The spirit of God is what's gonna give us success and help us to be a bright and shining light in such a dark world. What are these seven spirits? Well, the first one was the spirit of the Lord. What is the spirit of the Lord? Well, what do you think that this is? It's talking about the Lord himself and who he is and the character of the Lord, so the spirit of the Lord is the character of the Lord. What is the character of the Lord? He's pure, he's righteous, he's holy, he's long-suffering, and here's one, he's not willing that any should perish but that all should come under the knowledge of the truth. That is one of the spirits of the Lord, that is the spirit of the Lord, that they should repent and believe the gospel. And so you know what's gonna motivate me to go out and preach the gospel is having that same spirit of the Lord that says, hey, I'm not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance, that all should come to the acknowledging of the truth, that many should be saved, and so by that same spirit empowering me, I have boldness to go out there and preach the gospel. I have a desire to be righteous. I have a desire to be holy. I have a desire to do that which is pleasing unto God because I have the spirit of the Lord. That is what the Bible is referencing, and that's what's gonna truly motivate someone to live the Christian life. It's not a 12-step program. It's not walking down here and me slapping you on the forehead and saying, shalalalala. No, no, no. It's the spirit of the Lord coming upon you and not just the spirit of the Lord. What are other spirits? The spirit of wisdom. What is the spirit of wisdom? It's knowing what to do, and boy, is that useful. Isn't it useful when you just know exactly what to do? The spirit of understanding, what is that? That's knowing why you're doing that. Not only is it helpful to know what to do, sometimes it's really helpful to know why you're doing that and why that works or why that's the reason why you should be doing what you're doing. You also have the spirit of counsel. What is the spirit of counsel? It's your ability to tell others what to do. So not only do you know what to do, not only do you know why you're doing it, but you also are capable of instructing others and helping them to know what to do. This is a great package so far of these four. What will be these four? How about soul winning? The spirit of the Lord coming upon you and knowing that I need to go out there and preach the gospel, having the wisdom to be a soul winner, understanding that that's how people go to heaven and that's the main job that you have in your life, and then the ability of having that spirit of counsel to where you can take other people with you and you can train them to be soul winners too. Not only should you care about being a soul winner, you should care about training other people to be good soul winners too. And I think that sometimes our carnal nature, we almost want to think like, oh, I'm a better soul winner than this person or I'm better than other people, as opposed to thinking, I want to help this person get better or I want to motivate someone to be even better than me or help them or work on their soul winning. You might think like, I should get every door because I'm better, but maybe you should want other people, your silent partner, to get the door to train them and to help them and to encourage them to become a great soul winner too. Everybody's at a different stage in their soul winning. We can all get better and the spirit of counsel is one that's coming alongside other believers and trying to help them and encourage them and iron sharpening iron and us being better. And that's the spirit of the Lord where he wants us to counsel one another. What's another spirit? The spirit of might. That's the courage and the boldness to do what's right when there's opposition, when there's persecution, when there's tribulation, when there's forces opposing you, you have the might of the Lord to just do it anyways, do difficult things. You have the spirit of knowledge. That's information. It's great to know about a lot of subjects. Isn't that great that the Bible is so broad in its application that you truly can learn about so many different subjects, cover so many different topics, and one of the aspects of the spirit of the Lord or the spirit that he gives us is the spirit of knowledge and that spirit of knowledge is in all areas of life. You know, the Bible is a complete book. I'm not against reading other books. I think you should read as much as you can, but generally speaking, there is not some really needful information out there that the Bible does not cover. The Bible truly covers every area of life and all godliness and all righteousness. You could truly only have the Bible and you would have everything you need. It's not to say that you shouldn't learn more or you couldn't have more, but you know what, it's great to have the spirit of knowledge and here's the thing, the Holy Ghost will come and teach you and guide you into all truth. He'll help you understand all kinds of different things and have a great breadth of knowledge. And lastly, the fear of the Lord. This is one that's an attitude that cares about God and recognizes the rewards and consequences of our actions because you could have, think about this, you could have all first six spirits and without the spirit of the fear of the Lord, you're not going to do any of it. You could know like, hey, I have the same desire for people to be saved and I have the capability, I have the wisdom to get people saved and I know why it's important to get people saved and I could tell other people how to get saved, I could teach other people to be soul winners and I have the courage and the boldness to do it and I have the knowledge about all things in the Bible but I just don't want to do it. But you know what, the spirit of the fear of the Lord will come alongside all of those others and say, you know what, you need to get your butt out there and soul win. Hey, you need to fear God tonight. You need to recognize that there is a consequence to your actions and we need to fear God. Yeah, I'm not fearing him like I'm going to go to hell. I can't go to hell. I've already been saved. You know what, I should still fear God. He is still a God to be feared and the Bible even says that judgment must first begin at the house of God. You know, it's not like God just decides that now that you're saved, he'll never judge you or punish you or do anything to you. In fact, it's a fearful thing to fall in the hands of the living God. And you know what causes you to fear God? The spirit of the fear of the Lord. And you say, where do you get the spirit of the fear of the Lord? From the Old Testament and the New Testament. And in fact, you probably need a lot more Old Testament to help increase your fear. People talk about how he's so harsh in the Old Testament. Well, maybe you need that, okay? I don't even think that's true necessarily but even if it is true, objectively speaking, you know, we need both oil. We need the oil from the old, we need the oil from the new to give us that spirit. And of course, you know, the Holy Ghost is the author of this book, folks. The inspiration of God came by the spirit of God. And you know what, that's what we have. We have the Holy Ghost speaking to us with the word of God and that is what's gonna give us these seven spirits and embolden us to go out there and preach the gospel, to live a Christian life. You know, this church is not gonna be successful without the spirit of God. This book is, the reason why it's so wonderful is because of the inspiration of God. Because that inspiration was coming from the Holy Ghost. You know why the other versions aren't good? Because they're not inspired. And you say, oh, you sound like a ruckmanite. No, look, anything can be inspired as long as it's translating the original correctly. You know what I love? That the translators to the reader, what they said about the Bible. I wanna read this for you. This is from the translation out of the Hebrew and Greek and Latin. This is the section in the translators to the reader that they wrote. This is what they said. If you ask what they had before them, truly, it was the Hebrew text of the Old Testament, the Greek of the new. So they're explaining that original Latin translation by Jerome and what they used to translate it. He said they translated truly the Hebrew of the Old Testament and the Greek of the New Testament. That's where they got the Latin. This is what they say about that Hebrew and that Greek. These are the two golden pipes, or rather conduits, where through the olive branches empty themselves into the gold. That's what they said about the Old and the New Testament. Even the translators to the reader are referencing and recognizing what Zechariah chapter number four clearly is teaching here of the Word of God pouring that Holy Spirit into the Bible and how the Bible itself is that source of the Holy Spirit. And you wanna be filled with the Spirit? Read your Bible. It's not what the Pentecostals say. It's not what the Charismaniacs say. It's not what a lot of weirdos say today. You know what? The Holy Spirit is gonna come and He's going to reveal more truth to you the more you're reading His Word and you're studying His Word and meditating on His Word. That is how you become filled with the Spirit. I mean, how does the Bible say to be filled with the Spirit? Speaking to yourselves in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing, making melody in your heart unto the Lord. The Bible says singing the Bible will literally fill you with the Spirit. Singing Pantera will do the opposite. Singing the world's music today. And frankly speaking, our world loves music. People listen to music all day, every day. They're constantly singing all kinds of different messages. You know what the Bible is saying? We should be filling ourselves with this book and with these words and that Spirit and that's what's gonna give this church, that's what's gonna give our Christian life success is the Spirit of God. These two olive trees pouring their oil into that candlestick. What is that candlestick? It's our church. You know, our church, even though it's not that big in my opinion, I mean, it's a pretty medium, small, medium-sized church, think about all the things that we're doing. I mean, we've got a church plant in Houston right now that's looking to, very soon, very likely, Brother Salvador is going to take on that church and be its pastor. We're trying to transition and send Brother Oz up in Oklahoma City. Start a church up there. We have an evangelist in the Philippines that's doing a great work over there. We're training up more people here. We're building a church here. We're going soul winning all kinds of different areas. We've done foreign missions trips. I mean, just think about all the works that we've done. The only reason we could have done those works, the only reason we're gonna continue doing works like that is because of the work and the power of the Holy Spirit. It's the Holy Spirit that is giving us this success. And we don't want to, we don't want to be ignorant of what's causing our success. We want the spirit of understanding. We want to know why we're having success. It's gonna come from this book specifically, and it's gonna come from the Holy Spirit. Look at the churches that aren't using this oil. Show me the churches that are not using the King James Bible oil, and I'll show you a church that's dead, that's burnt out, that isn't using this oil. That's burnt out, that isn't shining a bright light, that isn't doing much work for the Lord. And then you know what? Look at the churches that are bright and shining light, and I guarantee you this is a lot of the oil that's being poured on that church. That's why we're King James only. I mean, they want to, they want to sit here and talk about all the different existing manuscripts, and let's talk about the comma Johannium, and let's talk about all these different fancy theological terminologies. Let's talk about this text, and this Greek, and this Syriac, and whatever, and they're just ignoring the giant issue that's super evident is that this book is producing results, and the other books are producing trash, literal trash, literal false doctrine. Some of those wicked churches we've ever seen in our lives are being produced by these modern versions. You run into people, and they're just like, I don't use any, I just use all the versions or whatever. They're always screwed up on doctrine. They don't care about church. They don't care about God. They don't care about the candlestick. Why? Because their candlestick is burnt out, and if we want our church to brightly shine the word of God, we better adhere to this book specifically, the King James Bible, and we better appreciate it for what it is, and recognize that this is what's giving us success, and this is what will continue to give us success. A lot of churches today, they're trying to figure out how to bring more people in. They're trying to figure out how to grow. They're trying to figure out how to reach people, and they're trying to come up with things that have nothing to do with this book. All the different programs and activities and all the different strategies and marketing ploys and business ideas, and let's be more ecumenical. Let's preach softer. Let's bring in the movies, literally. Let's dress up for the football game, and let's try to bring people in because people like football games, so we'll dress up like the Cowboys, and we'll dress up like the Chiefs, and we'll bring people in, but you know what? Yes, because they're not doing it with this book. You say, well, you're not bringing people in with that book. Well, you know what? I don't care how many people I'm bringing in. I care if I'm being successful according to God's word, and frankly speaking, we are bringing people in, so you're wrong anyways. You're double wrong, but you know what? I don't want to bring in a bunch of people that don't want this book. I don't want to bring a whole bunch of people in that don't want to go soul winning. I don't want to bring in a whole bunch of people that think the earth is flat, okay? It's like, man, you seem really mad and angry about that. Good. You seem unapproachable about that. I hope so. It doesn't seem like it's a friendly environment. Good. You know, I don't want to have a friendly environment to false doctrine. I don't want to have a friendly environment to other Bible versions. I don't want to have a friendly environment to false doctrine. You know what? I want to be hostile to all of those things because we want to keep our oil pure. We have the pure words of God. Sounds like a good name for a church, but you know what? We're not going to change from them. We're using the same oil and it works and I love it. Go back to Zechariah chapter number four. What a great vision that we have here mentioned at the beginning and the end of this specific chapter in Zechariah chapter number four. It gets me fired up and it helps me to think, you know, we need to get more spiritual, not less. Like, if we want to be successful in this Christian life, we want to do things that are pleasing to God, not the spirit and having the right spirit and having God's spirit, okay? And I think that when we have God's spirit, everything else is going to fix itself. We're going to have to worry about all the problems. There's too many problems to fix in this world. There's too many things to think about. You know, God tries to emphasize this in the New Testament and Jesus Christ mentions this many times about like tomorrow worrying about itself. You know, I think that sometimes we just get so fixated on all the problems and all the issues and trying to regulate everything and micromanage everything, and it's really just as simple as just like getting the right spirit, just having the right spirit and being, drawing close to God and just working on your spiritual life, that everything else just starts to fall in place. And when you get away from God, your problems just magnify and they get out of control and you think like, oh, I got to keep working on all those problems to fix them. And it's like, no, no, this is the leak in the boat. You know, it's right here. You just need to get this back in order and everything else and slowly trickle back into the right place. Look what it says in verse number four. So I answered and spake to the angel that talked to me saying, what are these my Lord? Now he doesn't really answer it yet. He answers it later, but so I just, I didn't read that verse yet, but verse five, then the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, knowest thou not what these be? And I said, no, my Lord. Then he answered and spake unto me saying, this is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. So notice he's saying, specifically, it's not by your physical ability. It's not by your power, but it's by his spirit. What does that mean? This is in context of what we just brought up. What is gonna give our church access? It's not our power. It's not our might. It's the spirit of God. So I think of it So I think of it just personally, if I just take this as my own personal, I think what's gonna make me successful as a preacher? My ability to preach, my strength, my might, my mental prowess, my ability, my creativity. Nope. The only thing that will give me success is if I have the spirit of God. That's what's gonna give me success. When I go soul winning, what's gonna make me a great soul winner? It's not my power and might. It's me having the spirit of the Lord, the spirit of God in my heart, and being filled with the spirit. That's what's gonna make me more successful as a soul winner. If you think like, oh, I'm gonna be a good soul winner because I'm really smart and really good at talking, that may not give you success. What's gonna give you success is being filled with the spirit of God. And sometimes you see people that are not very gifted as far as how they speak. Maybe they're a little shy. Maybe they're not the most articulate. They don't have the most ability. But you know what? They really love God and they have the right spirit and they're just a good soul winner. Because again, it's not by power. It's not by might. It's by what? It's by his spirit. And you look at a church like ours and you say, oh, well what power do y'all have? Not much. What might do y'all have? Not much. You know what? Little is much when God is in it. Well, how much money do you have? We're broke. But you know what? We're rich and you know what? That is what's going to give us success. I guarantee, if we were to evaluate all the churches in our area, we are at the bottom of the list, financially speaking. I mean, there's probably very few churches that have less money than us. Okay? But you know what? Who cares about that? It's not about money. We're poor, but you know what? We're rich in faith. And you know what? That's what God is going to use and that's what God is going to cause people to do great works but they're rich in the Spirit. They're rich in faith. You know, some of the best soul winners in our church don't have much money. Like they're not like, it's not like there's a correlation of I've noticed like all the rich people in our church, they're the most plugged in and they're doing the most soul winning. Nope, it's usually not that case. Now there's exceptions to every rule, but at the same time, you know, you probably find it somewhere in the middle or maybe even trending towards the lowest income numbers, the people that are doing the most for God, the people that are most plugged in, the people that are most soul winning and generally speaking, if we just compare ourselves with the world, of course that's the case. I mean, we don't have Elon Musk coming down the aisle. We don't have any of the super wealthy, you know, Jerry Jones isn't planning on a visit anytime soon. Okay. That's the owner of the Cowboys. Sorry if you didn't know. Okay. We don't have any of the rich billionaire. I mean, we're not filled with billionaires and millionaires growing up. I think like 10, don't quote me on this. I think it's around 10 to 15% of the United States has over a million dollar net worth. So if you think about it, that's a pretty high percentage if you think about it. I mean, 15% potentially. I mean, that would be one out of every 10 people is a millionaire. Yet I guarantee that's not the size of the percentages that we have. Okay. Why? Because you know what? Rich people, they care better than they do serving God. And people that are really athletic, they're usually not coming down the aisle either. They're out playing games, aren't they? They're playing at the Cowboys stadium, right? We're not filled with a bunch of star athletes and the smartest people and the richest people. You know what our church is filled with? The spirit of God. And that's what he's trying to say. It's not by might. It's not by power. It's by his spirit. You know what? You look through the centuries. It was never the strongest. It was never the smartest. It was never the richest that did great things for God. It was the people that had great faith. Those were the ones that did great things for God. It wasn't Goliath. Goliath got his head chopped off. It was David who was little in Goliath's sight. But you know what? He had a humble spirit, a humble attitude, and he was right with God, and so God used him greatly. It was by his spirit. David was, of course, I'm sure, capable physically, but the reason why he won battles was not because of his physical prowess. It was because of the spirit that was upon him. It was because he was filled with God's spirit. And you know what? In this world and this life, it is not based on who you are physically. It's based on who you are spiritually. And I love this message because that means that no matter where you are physically and you find yourself, that's not holding you back from serving God. Anybody can be greatly used by God right now if they would humble themselves and fill themselves with God's spirit and allow him to do a mighty work in your life. And that's the message here of Zechariah is how the spirit is what's going to give you great success. You say, hey, I'm not as gifted as other Christians. That doesn't matter. If you allow the Holy Spirit to work in your life, you can do greater works than them. You know, the best pastors in this world are not going to be those who are the smartest or the best might physically or the best orators. It's going to be the people that allow the spirit to work through them the most. The best evangelists, the best missionaries, the best deacons, the best soul winning captains, the best of the soul winners in this world are going to be the people that care more about the spirit than the physical. And we need to stop worrying about the physical so much and worry about the spiritual and worry about being filled with the spirit of God. By getting on our knees and praying and asking God to fill us with his spirit. By humbling ourselves and saying it's not by my might or power. I can't even do it. I'm weak. But you know what? I'm willing. I may be weak, but I'm willing. Hear my Lord. Send me. And God is trying to communicate this message to them because why? There are small people without any power. I mean the children of Israel are returning out of captivity. They're slaves. They're not coming out with great riches. They're not coming out with a big net worth. They're not coming out as a mighty nation. They're coming back as scavengers. They're small. They're regrouping. They don't have hardly any wealth, any assets, anything. But he's saying, well, it's not gonna be by power might. Lucky for y'all, it's gonna be by my spirit. And with my spirit upon you, you're gonna have success. You know, we could look at our church and say like, oh, you guys don't have a lot of money, and y'all don't have a lot of assets, and you don't have a lot of wonderful people, you know, physically speaking. Okay. You know what? It's not by that. It's by his spirit anyways. So nuts to that. And in fact, God likes to use things that are weak just to give him more glory anyways, just to give him more honor anyways. So instead of looking at it through carnal eyes, why don't we look at it through spiritual eyes? Look at verse seven. Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel, thou shalt become a plain, and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying grace, grace unto it. Now what is this in reference to? Well, I believe that that mountain is in reference to the nation of Israel specifically. This kingdom of Israel. And this is a prophecy about what's gonna happen in the future. What's gonna happen to Israel? It's gonna become a great mountain. It is a great mountain, but it's gonna become a plain. It's gonna become nothing at some point. And specifically, notice before Zerubbabel, thou shalt become a plain. So somehow through Zerubbabel is what's gonna cause them to end up going from being a mountain unto a plain. Why is he bringing this up? Well, they're gonna rebuild Jerusalem, and then Jerusalem's gonna become a great place again. Jerusalem's gonna become a great mountain, gonna become a great country, gonna become a great nation upon the earth again, and they're gonna have prosperity, and they're gonna have success, and they're gonna have a multitude of people in their nation again. They're gonna be restored. But through Zerubbabel, they're gonna become a plain. Okay? And specifically, it also says here, and he shall bring forth the headstone. Who's the he? Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel. It's saying, Zerubbabel shall bring forth the headstone. What is this in reference? Well, go to Matthew chapter one. Keep your finger, and go to Matthew chapter one. What does the Bible say in Luke, and I'll just read for you, in Luke chapter number three, verse 27, the Bible says, which was the son of Joanna, which was the son of Risa, which was the son of Zerubbabel, which was the son of Salathiel. So in the lineage of the Lord Jesus Christ, you know who's in there? Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel is a, I guess a grandfather, in a sense, of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is a descendant of Zerubbabel. Matthew chapter number one gives testimony to the same thing. Matthew chapter one, look at verse number 17. So all the generations from Abraham to David are 14 generations, and from David unto the carrying away into Babylon are 14 generations, and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are 14 generations. So you have these 14 generations. Notice there was a breaking point of the carrying away into Babylon, okay? And then there's another 14 that are coming after this. Go back to verse 11. It says, in Josias begat Jeconias and his brethren about the time they were carried away to Babylon. So the children of Israel were carried into Babylon. They were there for 70 years. So of course, there's gonna be a couple generations that go through this Babylonian time, right? And who is that? Well, verse 12, and after they were brought to Babylon, Jeconias begat Salathiel, and Salathiel begat who? Zerubbabel, and Zerubbabel begat Abioth. So Salathiel in captivity is giving birth to Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel's growing up, but then he's returning back into the Promised Land, and who is gonna come down the pike through Zerubbabel is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ, who is that headstone. And that headstone is gonna end up causing that great mountain to become a plain. Now, I wanna prove that in a moment. Keep your finger in Matthew. Go to Psalm 118 for a second. Go to Psalm 118. We have some great prophecies here of the Lord Jesus Christ. Psalm 118, look at verse 22. The stone which the builders refused is become the headstone of the corner. This is the Lord's doing. It is marvelous in our eyes. The Bible is saying that there is a stone which the builders refused, and it's become the headstone of the corner. That's a really, really powerful verse if we unpack what it's saying. And if we think about it, what was mentioned in Zechariah 3? A stone with seven eyes. That was the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, who are the builders here that it's referencing? I believe, in general, it's talking about the religious leaders. And specifically, it'd be the children of Israel. They all count. But specifically, the religious leaders. And the leaders, in a carnal sense, in a building construction, they're the builders, right? They're the ones that are crafting the architect and the contractor and the master planner. These individuals, they're the ones deciding how to build this property. And whenever you're building a building, you have what's called the cornerstone, or the headstone. This is specifically the first stone laid to set everything else up. Because once you lay the headstone, then every other stone has to go and perfectly match it, right? All the different lines, all the lines from the length to the width to the breadth to the height, all of the other stones are going to be based on this one stone. So you've got to get that one set exactly how you want, measured in, dialed in, perfectly level, perfectly stable. Like that's what everything else is going to be built based upon, is this specific headstone. And it's saying the builders rejected this stone, and then what happened to it? What did it say? It became the headstone of the corner. Meaning when it got rejected, a new building got constructed. Something new is being built now. By them refusing it is what's literally causing a completely new construction, and that thing that got rejected is what's going to start something new, a new building project. Okay? Go if you would to Matthew chapter number 21. Go to Matthew chapter number 21. So I think we've heard that verse a lot, but I think when you slow down and really think about what it's saying, it's kind of powerful. Matthew 21, look at verse 42. Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures the stone which the builders rejected? The same is become the head of the corner. This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. So there's a quote. He's quoting that verse. Then what does it say? Therefore, say I unto you, the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof, and whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken, but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. So what is Jesus Christ trying to teach them here? He's trying to teach them how they're gonna reject him, and by rejecting him, he is gonna end up becoming the headstone or the cornerstone of a new structure. And what is that new structure? The New Testament. The New Testament specifically, which is built upon Jesus Christ. He's the foundation, and we're built upon him specifically. And notice what he says, that kingdom is gonna be taken from you, even though y'all are a great mountain. Israel is that great mountain. It's gonna become a plain. What is a plain? It's a completely flat piece of land. Now, it's not a flat earth, okay? It's just a specific part of the earth that's flat in that area, okay? But if you think about it, if you were to look at a flat plain, there is no existence of a mountain. There's no evidence that a mountain was ever there. It's gone. It's completely done away. And that's exactly what happened when Jesus Christ was rejected, that the New Testament did away with the Old Testament completely, and the old nation of Israel was completely replaced with a new construction project, and that new construction project was the Lord Jesus Christ. And those who are Christ's are Israel, the true Jews, the true spiritual nation that he built. And those that are in the old project, they become a plain where they're meaningless, worthless, gone, completely replaced. And he says that he's this stone whom they fall on, shall be broken. So what is this a picture of? It's, you know, Jesus Christ is considered a stumbling stone in a sense. A rock of offense is what the Bible constantly is bringing up. And what is that offense? What is that stumbling? The stumbling is the fact that you're a sinner. So if you stumble on Jesus, what is it trying to say? It's like, you can't make it. So when you stumble on him, you are falling here in a sense, okay? And you're gonna be broken. So in the sense that, hey, I'm a sinner, I need a savior, and that is the spirit that gets saved as a broken and a contrite spirit that says, I need a savior. And when you recognize that Jesus is the only one that can save you and accept him, that's what saves you. But when you say, I don't need you, well then he's gonna come and he's gonna crush you and you're gonna be turned into powder and be nothing. And so the children of Israel by and large rejected the Lord Jesus Christ and so he's gonna come and take that mountain and he's gonna crush them into powder to where they're gonna be a flat plane and they're gonna be discarded completely. Go over to Acts 4. Let's read a couple more verses on this. Acts 4. This is a great spiritual truth. And really, it helps us recognize that Zechariah does not teach Zionism, folks. Teaches replacement theology. Why? Because the whole Bible teaches replacement theology, right? Acts 4. Look at verse 11. This is the stone which was set at naught of you builders, which has become the head of the corner. So even if you didn't understand what Jesus said, later, the disciples they make it plain. Hey, you know when he was talking about these builders rejecting? That was you. I know you perceived he was talking about you but let me just clarify it was definitely you that he was talking about. You guys are the builders. You guys set at naught and he's become the head of the corner. Notice verse 12. Neither is there salvation in any other for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. So notice the gospel message is tied to this specific message of by them rejecting that headstone, that cornerstone, that is what gave us salvation. They rejected salvation. They rejected the new building, the New Testament, the new kingdom, the new heaven. They rejected all of it. And you know what? That is what gives us salvation. That's why they're saying you guys rejected it but of course the disciples didn't. And what he's done is he set up a new kingdom, a new spiritual priesthood for them to enter into. The Bible tells us in the Old Testament that God was going to make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. But very few of them entered into that new covenant. Very few of them accepted that new covenant. By and large, they rejected that and of course that stone is going to come crushing down on them. There's liars out there that say hey, they have their covenant. Nope. You're not getting into heaven without the new covenant. You had to believe in Jesus to be saved in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. Go to 1 Peter, chapter number 2. Go to 1 Peter, chapter number 2. In the Old Testament, they believed in the coming Messiah and in the New Testament, we believe in this Messiah that's come. Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. And those who deny that are anti-Christ. And you know what the spirit of anti-Christ was before the New Testament? Denying the Messiah was coming. Those who didn't believe in a Messiah, didn't have a Messiah, okay, or a Messiah that was going to come cartily and they rejected the Messiah that was there. You know what? The spirit of anti-Christ is alive and well today where they reject the Messiah that came. You know what? Our Messiah has already come. The Messiah has already come. There's no other Messiah and so we have to believe in Him to be saved and that's what causes us to be a part of a spiritual Israel. 1 Peter 2 mentions this a little bit. Look at verse 3. If so be he had tasted that the Lord is gracious. Do you remember what it said in Zechariah chapter 4 about this headstone? He said something. Grace! Grace unto it. Why? Because that is what gives us salvation is this headstone which is giving us grace and that grace is coming through the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and we taste that the Lord is gracious unto us by giving us salvation, by giving us the Lord Jesus Christ. In what ways is there this grace? Well, think about this. When the Lord Jesus Christ was born, it was goodwill towards men. It was the grace of God that sent Jesus Christ to this earth. That's part of the grace. Another grace is the fact that we get salvation, that salvation is a free gift by grace and another aspect of grace is this, that us as Gentiles, we get to get into the new covenant by grace specifically and that's what he's mentioning here to these Gentiles is how we can taste that the Lord is gracious. Verse four, to whom coming has unto a living stone disallowed indeed of men but chosen of God and precious. Disallowed meaning they rejected, indeed meaning truly. So he was truly rejected of men. Jesus was rejected by the Jews. They'll want to say we didn't reject anybody. No, they rejected the Lord and Savior. They rejected God manifest in the flesh. They rejected the miracles that Jesus Christ performed before their eyes. They rejected the words which he spake and they couldn't gainsay nor resist the spirit by which he spake. All they could do was kill him. He was disallowed indeed of men but chosen of God and precious. He also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore also it is contained in the Scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. Undo you therefore which believe he is precious, but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word. Being disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed. But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praise of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. So there's us as Gentiles getting in on the New Testament, now we've obtained mercy, grace, grace be unto it, the grace that came by Jesus Christ to allow us in, and specifically the Jews, notice in verse number eight, it was a rock of offense unto them, meaning what? Specifically to them which stumble at the word, meaning that they reject the word of God, they reject the gospel, they reject what Jesus Christ had said, and they were disobedient unto the gospel message, and they were appointed to do so, meaning God knew it would happen. God knew that they would be, I mean he wrote about it in Psalms, didn't he? That the builders would reject the headstone of the corner. Go back to Zechariah chapter number four. It's kind of interesting because in Zechariah he's giving them a positive message, but then he's also giving them an inevitable truth that hey, I'm gonna rebuild you and restore you and they're gonna have peace and this is gonna happen, but the whole reason is so that I can bring in the branch. The whole reason is so I can bring in the stone and when that happens you guys are gonna reject it. You know that's actually the exact same way it happened in the Old Testament. He gave them the Old Testament law and then at the end of the Old Testament if you remember, Moses said very clearly, you guys are gonna break this and not follow it and be disobedient and God's gonna have to make a new covenant with y'all. So every time he's kind of telling them this and I think it's the same thing that we hear even today in the New Testament if you think about it, for all of sin and come short of the glory of God. No one can keep God's covenant. We all just recognize we're all gonna break it, but those who accept the fact that they're gonna break it will embrace salvation. Those who think they're good enough will reject the gospel and try to earn it by their works of the law. Zechariah chapter number four let's read verse seven again now that we've talked about all that. Who art thou, O great mountain? That's Israel. Before Zerubabel thou shalt become a plane. That's replacement theology. And he, talking about Zerubabel, shall bring forth the headstone. That's talking about the descendants of Jesus Christ is gonna come through the lineage specifically of Zerubabel. Therefore, I'm sorry, thereof with shoutings, crying, grace, grace unto it and talking about what he's bringing forth. This headstone is gonna be grace cause Jesus Christ is the grace that came unto all men. The salvation is the grace that came unto all men and he extends to us grace. The grace of God that came unto all men. Verse eight, Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me saying, The hands of Zerubel have laid this, or laid the foundation of this house. His hands also shall finish it and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts has sent me unto you. So he's saying, hey, Zerubel started this project. He's gonna finish it. You guys are gonna definitely get this thing done. Verse number nine, the hands of Zerubabel have, I'm sorry, verse 10, For who hath despised the day of small things? That's an interesting question. This is what I believe that this verse is saying and this is, maybe there's other ideas, but this is what I was thinking he was saying here. In order for Zerubabel to finish this project, they have to start again, right? They have to rebuild. If you think about the context of the book of Zechariah that we've been talking about, they had been stopped for a while through the commandment of Artaxerxes. But in order to finish, they have to start again. And in a building project, not every day is the start or the finish. You're gonna have a lot of days in between. And a lot of those days are arguably maybe the small days, right? It's just a regular Tuesday or a regular Wednesday or you're just doing some menial, supposed task or you're just doing little things. Not everybody's gonna be a big day because then it wouldn't be a big day. You can't have a big day without a bunch of small days. But you know what? You'll never have a big day without the small days. If you never go back and start building again and start doing the hard work, then you're never gonna have that big day if we finished it. You're never gonna have that grand finale of now here we are. And the same can be said with anything. How about our church? We're never gonna have that big day or have those big conferences or have those big things without the small days. And who is it that despises the small day? Who is it that despises? Well, this isn't Sunday morning. This isn't the big service. Okay, well, who despises the small day, the Wednesday night Bible study? Who is it that despises the Sunday night service? Who is it that despises the Spanish service? Who is it that despises the soul winning when it's not necessarily the marathon? Well, you know what? You're never gonna have the big days without the small days. You know, you're never gonna be that guy that wins the championship without all those practices, without all those workouts, without all the small things that you built up to. You wanna have great children? Well, you don't start with great children. You're gonna have a lot of small days. Takes all the small days to build up. And you know what? He's trying to tell you, hey, put in the work right now, put in the small days now, and then you'll have big days. You'll have the big payoffs later. You're never gonna reap what you sow. But who's the person that despises the small days? It's the guy that doesn't ever have any big days too. Never gonna accomplish anything in his life. Who has despised the day of small things? For they shall rejoice and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubel with those seven. They are the eyes of the Lord which run to and fro through the whole earth. So he's saying, hey, don't despise the small days. You will rejoice. He's saying, hey, if you put in the work, if you do it right, if you start working now, you're gonna have that day of rejoicing. Just kind of like our Christian life. You know, you could despise all the days of your life right now, but let me tell you something. If you put in the hard work, there will be a day of rejoicing in the future. Even if it's not this side of heaven, there will be a day of rejoicing and you will have loved that you put in the work for all those small days. And we'll have the big day when Christ returns. We'll have the big day when he hands out his rewards. You know what? It takes faith to recognize that day that's coming. And he's trying to motivate the children of Israel, let's rebuild. We're gonna have success only by his spirit, not by our might. And there's gonna be a day when you're gonna see the plummet in the hand of Zerubel with those seven. What is a plummet? A plummet is a device used to measure things vertically, okay? So, on our planet, we have a thing called gravity. Yeah, sorry, flat tards. You're never gonna understand this. And in order to measure things when they're building them vertically, you know, they didn't have the fancy levels that you have the day with the bubble, but what they have as a device is a plummet. And what a plummet does is you basically get a string, you tie it to a lead weight, and then you drop it, but you hold onto the string. And you know what gravity will do for you? It'll give you a perfectly straight line. It'll give you a perfectly vertical line perpendicular to the ground through the process of gravity. So throughout time, builders and people that were constructing projects used plummets to make sure. Well, what is he measuring? Well, you put that headstone in, well, you're gonna be building and stacking on it. So what does this plummet do? It helps you make sure that all of those are perfectly level, that you're not getting a little bit off like the Leaning Tower of Pisa or something, okay? You don't want to have that kind of a building construction. Who even built it? I don't know. I don't think anybody wanted to take credit for that one, okay? It's like you want to take credit for the things that are straight, right? Not the things that are a fag. It's crooked, sorry. Right, everybody likes the straight things, okay, in life. And here this plummet is helping to make sure and to measure, and he's saying, the Rubel's gonna have this plummet. He's gonna measure this thing and we're gonna see that it's perfectly constructed. We're gonna see that there's nothing wanting, that everything lines up, okay, and specifically mentions here also with those seven, they are the eyes of the Lord which run to and fro through the whole earth. So what do I do with the plummet? As I'm building a construction project, you know what I'm doing? I'm checking to make sure that everything's right. I'm checking to make sure that everything's level, and here's a word that is plum. Have you ever heard that? Is it plum? Meaning is it square? Is it fit right? And that's where that's coming from. It's coming from this specific term that it fits plum, okay. Well, he's referencing this as the seven spirits or the seven eyes that are the Lord that are running to and fro throughout the whole earth. That's a verse that we've heard a lot, haven't we? You've probably heard it. That's kind of a famous verse that you Well, I want to go to one other place and we'll be finished because we've already talked about the other verses, but go with the Second Chronicles chapter number 16. Second Chronicles chapter number 16. I think he's referencing the plummet to give us a spiritual truth here, and what is that spiritual truth? The spiritual truth is just like a builder will use a plummet to make sure everything is lined up, perfect, and exactly where it's supposed to fit and put into the construction project God's seven spirits or the eyes of the Lord are doing the exact same thing. Now, Second Chronicles chapter 16 gives us a little more insight, but it uses the same wording, okay? That's why I want to use this verse. Look at verse nine. For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. Herein, thou is done foolishly. Therefore, from henceforth thou shalt have worth. So the Bible references again that same idea of the eyes of the Lord running to and fro throughout the whole earth. Now, this does not mean that the eyes of the Lord literally have legs and are really running, okay? What is it saying? It's trying to give us this idea of how God is constantly measuring things, and he's testing things, and he's trying to make sure that they are right, that they're square, that they're level, that they can be used properly in this building construction. And when he finds one that he can use, well, what is he gonna do? He's gonna show him so strong in the behalf of them that have their heart perfect toward him. So if I see a stone, and I put a stone on this building, and the plummet says, you know what? This isn't square. This isn't lined up. This doesn't fit. You know what? I'm gonna throw it out. I'm gonna get rid of it. You know what? He's only gonna keep the stones and use the stones that are plumb, that are measured in there, that are matching, that are right. And what he's trying to say is God is doing the same thing constantly in his building construction and saying the people that I'm gonna use the greatest in this world are the people that have a perfect heart towards him, that are square, that are lined up, that are straight. Those are the hearts that God is gonna use in this world, and he's gonna use his spirit. His spirit is what is going to give them success. The spirit is constantly measuring and evaluating us. The Bible talks about how God is constantly searching and looking for someone to use. It's a building construction. He's looking at all the bricks and all the stones and saying, which one am I gonna use next in this construction project? Well, he's gonna use the one that fits and matches with the plummet the same way with the eyes of the Lord looking in the whole earth and saying, what guy am I gonna use? Where can I find a guy that has his heart right towards the Lord? Where is a lady that has her heart right towards the Lord? And instead of worrying about our might and our power and our riches and our carnal goodness, and rather we should be worried about is my heart right with God? I can do great things for God if I get my heart right. You can do great things for God if you can get your heart right. Instead of worrying about how to be a great spouse, you should worry about is your heart right? That'll make you a good spouse. You know who's gonna be the greatest spouse? The person that has a heart that's willing to allow the spirit of the Lord to come into that heart and to motivate them and to help them to be a good spouse. Hey, men that desire to preach, you know what? How God's gonna decide to use you? Not you working on your carnal skills of being a preacher, but rather having your heart right with God and allowing his spirit to come inside of you, being filled with the olive branches of this book by allowing this spirit to be poured on you. Hey, we want more charity towards the brethren, well you know what? It's gonna come from a heart that's allowing God's oil and his spirit to come upon you. That's how you're gonna have more charity in this world. You know what? If we want people to take church seriously, you know what's gonna make people take church seriously? Having the right oil, having the right spirit, being filled with the spirit of God. That is how we're gonna have more people taking church seriously, being filled with the Old and New Testament. Why are we going through the Book of Zechariah? We're trying to get more oil under your fire. We need more oil from both the Old and the New Testament, and we need more of God's spirit, and that is gonna give us more success. That is gonna help us to be better spouses and better husbands and better wives and better children and better employees and better Christians and better soul winners and better evangelists and better pastors and better teachers and better Christians, better everything. It's getting our hearts right with God and saying it's not by power, it's not by might, but it's by his spirit that's gonna give us success in our lives. By not despising the small things, but saying, you know what? I need church. I need the Old Testament. I need the book of Zechariah. I don't despise the minor prophets. I don't despise the minor books of the Bible. Well, this isn't a cool book of the Bible. Well, you know what? You, by despising it, you're not gonna be used, because God's constantly searching up and down this entire area. He's running through this building. He's running through your house. He's running through the whole state of Texas, and he's looking for someone that has their heart perfect towards him, and he's gonna show himself strong on their behalf. You know what? I want the guy that has cattle on a thousand hills to show himself strong on my behalf. I want the guy that created the entire universe to show himself strong on my behalf. You know, because there's a lot of problems in this world. There's a lot of enemies. There's a lot of foes. There's a lot of things that are going on. You know what? I need his help. It's not by my power in mind. It's by his spirit, but it's that prideful nature in our hearts that thinks, no, I'm smart. No, I can make plenty of money. I can make all the right decisions. I know how to lead my family. I know how to lead my life. I know what I need to do. You know, that person is gonna be crushed. It's the person that gets on his knees and says, you know what, Lord? I'm weak. I don't have a lot of the might. I don't have a lot of the power, but you know what? Fill me with your Holy Spirit so I can have the spirit of the Lord, so I can have a spirit of wisdom, so I have a spirit of understanding, a spirit that fears the Lord, the spirit of counsel. You know, we need a spirit of knowledge where it gives me information in all areas. You know, I could press a button to get a trillion dollars or just have more of the spirit of the Lord. You know what's gonna make me more successful? The spirit of the Lord because you can lose that money like that. Let's ask Donald Trump how that's working out for him. Ask Kanye West how that's working out for him. You know, you can lose your money just like that. It can be taken from you. But you know what? They can't take the spirit from you. They can take your head, but they can't take your soul. They can't take that spirit. And you know what? Our church needs to recognize our need for this book, our need for those two olive trees, and we need the book of Zechariah. Don't think like, oh, I don't need Zechariah Chapter 5. I don't need Zechariah anymore. I don't need Leviticus. I don't need these things. I need the heart that says I want more of God's spirit, not less. Let's close in prayer. Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for giving us this book and for giving us the grace of your son and the gospel message. I pray that you would motivate us to read our Bibles more and to be filled more with the oil that's coming from this book, from the Holy Spirit. I pray that you would help us to recognize that we're not going to have success on our own. Our success is only going to come from you so that we can give you all the honor and all the glory and all the praise in our victories. I pray as we face the foe, as we go out and continue to strive against this world for the gospel's sake, that you would greatly use us not because of our might, not because of our power, but because of your spirit. And it's in your son's name we pray in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. All right, for our last song we're going to turn to song number 227, Saved by the Blood. 227. Song 227, Saved by the Blood. Sing it out. Saved by the blood of the crucified one, now ransomed from sin and a new work begun. Sing praise to the Father and praise to the Son. Saved by the blood of the crucified one, glory I'm saved, glory I'm saved, my sins are all pardoned, my guilt is all gone, glory I'm saved, glory I'm saved, I'm saved by the blood of the crucified one. Saved by the blood of the crucified one, the angels rejoicing because it is done. A child of the Father I dare with the Son, Saved by the blood of the crucified one, glory I'm saved, glory I'm saved, my sins are all pardoned, my guilt is all gone, glory I'm saved, glory I'm saved, I'm saved by the blood of the crucified one. Saved by the blood of the crucified one, the Father he spake and his will it was done, great prize of mine, pardon his own precious Son. Saved by the blood of the crucified one, glory I'm saved, glory I'm saved, my sins are all pardoned, my guilt is all gone, glory I'm saved, glory I'm saved, I'm saved by the blood of the crucified one. Saved by the blood of the crucified one, all hail to the Father, all hail to the Son, all hail to the Spirit, the great three in one. Saved by the blood of the crucified one, glory I'm saved, glory I'm saved, my sins are all pardoned, my guilt is all gone, glory I'm saved, glory I'm saved, I'm saved by the blood of the crucified one. Great singing everybody, you are all dismissed. Thank you.