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This is the end of the video. Thank you for watching and have a great day. 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I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry I'm sorry, I'm sorry I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry I'm sorry, I'm sorry I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry I'm 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sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, if you want to go over there that's a great opportunity as well our prayer list that we go through on our midweek service we've been praying for the name's grandmother for revision health and salvation we've been praying for the carlson's mother for her health miss faith was asking for prayer for her friend miss tamera uh for cancer treatment we've also been praying for elijah Scott's nephew mark for his heart trouble we've been praying for brother robertson health brother Garcia recovery from work injury miss Garcia's daughter Christa's pregnancy that's exciting and then also praying for brother Guzman his father Jose for his health who's also in the hospital so we'll say a quick word of prayer for those who were mentioned thank you Heavenly Father so much for our services thank you so much for all these ladies who are expecting please be with their pregnancies please help them during their delivery I pray that you'd also help our church family and friends that are struggling with health issues please give them healing please give them patience and give them peace during this time of difficulty I pray that you could if possible give them a miracle and give them a full recovery please also just bless our friends and family that need to hear the gospel that you would just soften their hearts with the Holy Spirit that you would give us the opportunity to preach it with boldness and that we could see them saved I pray you'd also continue to give us favor and to bless all the endeavors that we have please bless our upcoming soul-winning events and please allow us to be a bright and shining light for your son's honor and glory in Jesus name we pray amen we're gonna sing our Psalm of the week Psalm 15 if you'd like to use your special handouts it's a great way to sing it Psalm 15 all right that was Psalm chapter 15 sing out together on the first Lord who shall abide in thy tabernacle, who shall dwell in thy holy hill. Lord who shall abide in thy tabernacle, who shall dwell in thy holy hill. He that walketh up brightly and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart. He that walketh up brightly and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart. He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor do with evil to his neighbor, nor take enough of reproach against his neighbor. He that backbiteth not with his tongue, in whose eyes a vile person is content, but he honoreth them that fear the Lord. In whose eyes a vile person is content, but he honoreth them that fear the Lord. He that swereth to his own hurt and change is not, he that putteth not out his money to use ring. He that swereth to his own hurt and change is not. He that putteth not out his money to use ring, nor take enough reward against the innocent, he that doeth these things shall never be known. Nor take enough reward against the innocent, he that doeth these things shall never be known. For who shall abide in thy tabernacle, who shall dwell in thy holy hill. Great singing everybody. Now as the offering plates are being passed around, go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Zechariah chapter 7. That's the book of Zechariah chapter number 7. Zechariah chapter number 7, the Bible reads, and it came to pass in the fourth year of King Darius, that the word of the Lord came unto Zechariah in the fourth day of the ninth month, even in Chislew, when they had sent unto the house of God, Charisar and Regimelech and their men to pray before the Lord, and to speak unto the priests which were in the house of the Lord of hosts, and to the prophet, saying, should I weep in the fifth month, separating myself as I have done these so many years? Then came the word of the Lord of hosts unto me, saying, speak unto all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, when ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month, even those seventy years, did ye at all fast unto me, even to me? And when ye did drink, and when ye did eat, and when ye did drink, did not ye eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves? Should ye not hear the words which the Lord hath cried by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, and their cities thereof round about her, when men inhabited the south and the plain? And the word of the Lord came unto Zechariah, saying, thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, execute true judgment, and show mercy and compassion every man to his brother, and oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor, and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart. But they refused to hearken, and pulled away their shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear. Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the Lord of hosts had sent in his spirit by the former prophets. Therefore came a great wrath from the Lord of hosts. Therefore it has come to pass, that as he cried, and they would not hear, so they cried, and I would not hear, saith the Lord of hosts. But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations, whom they knew not. Thus the land was desolate after them, that no man passed through nor returned, for they laid the pleasant land desolate. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you for allowing us to be in your house tonight. I just pray that you bless Pastor Shelley as he preaches your word, and that we would have soft hearts to hear your word and make applicable changes. Praise in Jesus' name. Amen. Zechariah chapter seven takes a little bit of a transition from the first six chapters because we had had a singular vision that was being expounded upon, and we had a certain timeline that was in the second year of Darius. Now in chapter number seven, we'll notice in verse number one, it transitions to the fourth year. It says, And it came to pass in the fourth year of King Darius. So we've made a little bit of a transition. Also, specifically this chapter, I find is a little bit more thematic than some of the other chapters, where it's not so much needful to necessarily go line by line as much as it is to focus on the overall message that's being communicated in this chapter. It's kind of almost one whole piece that's being communicated here in chapter number seven. From a big picture perspective, when we look at the timeline here, the children of Israel have come back to the promised land. They had started construction on the temple, and then it had halted. Then around the second year, we have here Zechariah and Haggai, they're preaching, they're prophesying, and through that, they start rebuilding the temple. Well, that comes into the ears of King Darius, who later ends up confirming that that's fine. We're going to allow them to continue building based on the prior commandments of Cyrus, who had given them the proclamation to build the temple of the Lord. If you look in Ezra, and we're not going to go there, but if you look in Ezra, essentially by the sixth year of King Darius, they finished that temple. So from about the second year to the sixth year, they're building. Here in the fourth year, we find ourselves just kind of in the middle of that building construction project still. So just kind of giving you a little bit of an idea where we are in the timeline. Additionally, in the six chapters that we've already gone through, it had a lot of prophecy of what's going to happen in that immediate future, as well as foreshadowing end times events, and it kind of ended with people building the temple of the Lord. So we kind of went through a lot of different phases, but essentially the main message was, hey, this temple is going to be built. Nothing can stop it. Even Satan himself isn't going to be able to stop this from happening. Joshua is going to build this place. Joshua is going to finish this place. Joshua is going to be the high priest of this specific temple. Now, this is an important concept because the children of Israel had the temple built by King Solomon, and then that temple stood for a long period of time, all the way up until the King Zedekiah. And that's when they were caught into Babylon, carried off, and they rested for 70 years. Now they're in the rebuilding phase, and then it's going to be completed. But what God doesn't want is the children of Israel to forget why they're even doing the things that they're doing. It's like, why are you even building a temple or what's going on? Or why do you have to rebuild the temple? Like what happened? Okay. And that's the main essence of this specific chapter is thinking about why are we rebuilding this temple? What's really going on? And what is God's attitude towards this situation? If we read verse one, it says, And it came to pass in the fourth year of King Darius, that the word of the Lord came unto Zechariah in the fourth day of the ninth month, even in Kislu, when they had sent unto the house of God, Charisar, and Riga-Melech, and their men, to pray before the Lord, and to speak unto the priests, which were in the house of the Lord of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, should I weep in the fifth month, separating myself, as I have done these so many years. And so there's men that are sent to the house of God to pray, and specifically they even say, should I weep? And they're asking about weeping before the Lord, and praying before the Lord. And in verse four, we get our answer, Then came the word of the Lord of hosts unto me, saying, Speak unto all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month, even those seventy years, did ye at all fast unto me, even to me? And when ye did eat, and when ye did drink, did ye not eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves? Should ye not hear the words which the Lord hath cried by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, and the cities thereof round about her, when men inhabited the south and the plain? So what is God's initial response here? Well, when they're coming and asking, should we weep before the Lord, and should we come and pray before the Lord, like we've been doing, and as we've done before? Well, God says, okay, well, let's just think about the last 70 years. When you were in captivity in Babylon, you guys went and prayed in the fifth month and the seventh month for 70 straight years. But then he asked this question, what were you doing, though? What was the spirit behind that? What was the purpose of you doing that? Were you doing that because you actually were seeking God and seeking the Lord and actually having a contrite heart? Or were you just doing it for yourself? And that's what he alludes to by asking some of these rhetorical questions, specifically in verse number six, when you did eat and when you did drink, did you not eat for yourselves and drink for yourself? So again, this is kind of a rhetorical response that God's saying, hey, you weren't really doing this for me. You were doing this for yourselves. Now, I don't want to get off on a rabbit trail, but in my Bible, it even has a note here to go to 1 Corinthians, chapter number 11. And I find that an interesting reference because it's kind of alluding to the idea of how the church at Corinth was not doing the Lord's Supper correctly. And essentially they were just feasting and gorging themselves and just having a big meal time, whereas they weren't really observing the Lord's Supper, which is not really to engorge yourself on food, but rather is to picture the sacrifice of Christ they're eating. And especially nowadays, we have just a small portion of juice and just a small little cracker. I mean, there's no way to get full off of such a meal. That's why he even rebukes them and says, have you not houses to eat and to drink in? Meaning, hey, there's nothing wrong with eating and drinking, but do that at home, right? The sacrifices of the Lord were not to just satisfy the flesh. They were a spiritual, symbolic picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, especially at this time. And so they're supposed to be done in reverence. They're supposed to be done in honor of the Lord Jesus Christ, not to just get fat off of them. Hophni and Phineas in the book of Samuel, they're eating and gorging themselves on the sacrifice. And what the Bible says, they even made men to abhor the offering of the Lord, because again, they weren't doing it in honor, reverence of the Lord Jesus Christ and foreshadowing and picturing him coming. But rather they were doing it simply just to engage in a meal, gorging themselves and eating themselves fat. And so he's saying, well, let's think about y'all's practice of religion. Is your practice of religion really for me or is it for you? It's kind of the essence of the question that he's asking. What are you really doing? And in verse number seven, he says, should we not consider what some of the prophets have said in times past, whenever they specifically preached to you guys and you guys were in prosperity, do you not remember some of the words that they had spake? Now that's the verse that I really want to focus a lot of our sermon on this evening and do a little bit of Bible study on. But for sake of just understanding this chapter, I feel like we're just going to read through the whole chapter and then we'll kind of go back and cherry pick and kind of talk about this a little bit. But it also says in verse number eight, and the word of the Lord came unto Zechariah saying, thus speak of the Lord of hosts saying, execute true judgment and show mercy and compassion every man to his brother and oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor, and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart. So what God's doing here is he's saying, do you not remember what was preached unto you in times past? Let me remind you. And then this is him reminding them in verses number nine and 10, thus speak of the Lord of hosts saying, execute true judgment and show mercy and compassion every man to his brother and oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor, and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart. So God is saying, I preach this to you in times past. And specifically in verse number seven, notice it says when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity. So in a time of prosperity, he was rebuking them and saying, you guys need to change. You guys need to execute true judgment. You guys need to not allow the widows and the fatherless to be oppressed and taken advantage of, and you need to do good under your neighbor, is what he was saying unto them. Verse 11, but they refused to hearken and pulled away the shoulder and stopped their ears that they should not hear. Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law and the words which the Lord of hosts had sent in his spirit by the former prophets. Therefore came a great wrath from the Lord of hosts. So he's constantly rebuking them in their prosperity, telling them to turn, telling them to change. But what does the Bible says? The Bible says they refused to hearken, meaning they did not want to hear the word of God. They didn't like the Bible. They didn't want to listen to the word of God. And specifically, it also says that they pulled away the shoulder. Now that's a really confusing phrase to me at first, but it kind of helps, especially if you've ever had someone be a little dicey towards you. And it's basically just imagine, and this is a hypothetical, it's never happened for me. Just imagine your wife's a little upset with you, a little icy, you know, and you reach out to embrace her and she kind of does like one of these. She's kind of like, or maybe sometimes your kids do this. This is actually applicable. But you know, your kids are a little bit upset and you kind of reach out and it's like, you know, and they just kind of, they kind of pull the shoulder. That's the picture that God is giving. That's what he's trying to communicate. He's saying God is kind of reaching out towards the children of Israel and they're just, they're just kind of turning their shoulder. They're kind of pulling it back. They're kind of getting, no, I don't want to hear that. I don't want to hear what the Bible says on that issue. That's the picture that God is painting of the attitude of the spirit of the children of Israel saying, hey, you're pulled, you pulled back the shoulder, pulled away and stop their ears. You know, just imagine someone plugging their ears that they should not hear. Now, of course, were they really doing this physically? No, he's giving a lot of just analogy. He's just giving some metaphors or just some symbolism of what they were like. What does this look like practically? You know what this looks like practically? Not going to church. That's what it looks like practically. Not reading the Bible. Or even worse, going to bad churches. Going to churches and listening to liars and refusing to hear what the Bible says. Not liking the word of God. And this is nothing new under the sun. Now I'm trying to give you a sense of this chapter before we kind of dig in a little bit more. It also said they made their hearts as an adamant stone. Notice what it says in verse 12 though, that they made their hearts as an adamant stone lest they should hear the law. Meaning that they had to actually harden their hearts so that they wouldn't make a change. They kind of knew, well, if I just soak in a lot of the Bible, I'll end up realizing that I'll feel bad about it. And because I'll feel bad about it, I'll probably make a change. But if I just never hear about it, you know, out of sight, out of mind, right? If I don't really ever think about it, not really hearing it, well, then I'm never gonna have to make that kind of a change. Again, what does this look like practically? Not going to church. Because when you don't go to church and you don't read your Bible, what can happen is your heart's gonna harden through the deceitfulness of sin. You know, that's the rocks and the stony ground and the thorns and all the different stuff that comes and chokes the word, chokes whatever you have, and it makes that ground hard and it makes it where it won't produce any fruit, where it's not gonna do anything. And so a lot of people just allow their heart to become hard as a rock. And they just, they're not interested in church. And you know what's sad? We run into a lot of people like that today. Honestly, what's really sad and really terrifying at the same time is how many people you just knock on the doors of and they just say, I'm not interested in the church. I don't wanna go to church. Yeah, I'm a Christian, not interested in church. And you're just thinking like, why? Like I can understand not going to my church if you're going to some other good church, that makes sense. But I just don't understand just being like, why don't you go to church? And what they've done, they've allowed their heart to become an adamant stone. They've come to a point where they just reject the things of God. And they know why they're doing it is because they're living in sin. And if they went to church and heard how bad their sin was, they'd be convicted to make a change. But they don't wanna make a change. They wanna stay a drunkard. They wanna stay lazy. They wanna keep committing fornication. They wanna get divorced and remarried. They wanna just keep doing wickedness and evil. They don't wanna make a change. So they refuse to go to church. They refuse to dress right. They refuse to parent their children. They refuse to actually put clothes on their daughters. They actually refuse to work hard and provide for their daughters and not just ship them off to college to get a bunch of student loans, herpes, and all kinds of ex-boyfriends. But you know what? The reason why they don't wanna go to a church like ours is because they've made their heart like a stone lest they should change. Lest they should change. You say, I don't like hard preaching. Well, it sounds like a hard issue because you know what? You should love hard preaching. God sent hard preaching and even in times of prosperity. Well, I don't like that. Well, you know why you don't like it? Because you don't wanna change. It's not like I said anything wrong. I mean, where in the Bible does it promote fornication and promote drunkenness and promote being lazy and promote avoiding church. Everything I said is straight from the book. What do they not like? They just don't like this book. And of course, so many people they'll give you all these excuses. Well, I don't like church because of hypocrites. Well, you're a hypocrite. You said you're a Christian. You don't go to church, hypocrite. You know what Christian means? Christ-like. Well, you're not Christ-like because you're not going to church. Oh, well, I don't go to church because the one I went to is mean. What does that even mean? Or I don't, you know, it's too far or they just make some kind of an excuse. Well, that's pretty funny because the Cowboy Stadium is twice as far and you go there every single weekend. That's interesting. That's interesting that you drive even further to work. You can find all kinds of excuses to drive to the NASCAR races over here or the Texas Motor Speedway, which is literally on the other side of town. You can find your way over there somehow, but you can't find your way into a church. And look, I'm not against having fun and doing other things, but we can see the hypocrisy of people who they just make excuses and the excuses are lame. You know why they're lame? Because there's no good reason and not to go to church. There's never been one. There never will be one. Obviously, if you're literally giving birth, if you're sick, we get it, but that's not skipping church. That's not skipping church. But you know what? All the other excuses, they're just always lame. They sound lame. There's never a good reason. And of course, people just want to keep making them. Why? Because they're afraid of changing. They're afraid of being convicted. They don't want to hear what the Word of God says. That's what they're really afraid of. Well, I don't like that preacher. Okay, then find a preacher that's preaching the Bible. But you're going to find preachers that preach the Bible. Almost every independent fundamental Baptist church, almost all of their sermons are just coming straight from the Bible. Now, I get it. Some churches may avoid certain parts of the Bible, but hey, a lot of their preaching is still in the Bible. I mean, even the lamest independent fundamental Baptist church, they're still pretty much just preaching the same Bible, the same King James Bible. And you say, yeah, well, it's the same messages. You know, they just keep harking on church or whatever. Well, it sounds like you need that message. Isn't that funny? Maybe God keeps giving you the same lame message because you won't change and actually do right. You know, it's funny. If you would actually take what God has given you, maybe he'll give you a little bit more. If you actually do something with what he's given you. But these people, they don't want to change. They don't want to convert. They don't want to hear the law because it's going to make them feel bad. And so God had to bring great wrath upon them. Verse 13, Therefore it has come to pass that as he cried and they would not hear, so they cried and I would not hear, say the Lord of hosts. But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations whom they knew not. Thus the land was desolate after them that no man passed through nor return, for they laid the pleasant land desolate. So what is the essence of this chapter? What is it communicating? Well, because they rejected the Lord's word because they didn't want to hear it. He cried unto them and they wouldn't hear. Well, then they end up crying. Why? Because of oppression, poverty, destruction, God persecuting them. They cried, but then he wouldn't hear. He says, Hey, you don't want to listen to me? Then I'm not going to listen to you. And as a result, he just wiped them off the face of the map, took them out of the land and took the pleasant land and made it desolate. He's reminding them of why they're here. Why do you have to rebuild the temple? Because they wouldn't hear the law. Why are you having to rebuild the temple? Because they didn't listen to what the former prophet said. Why are you here rebuilding the temple? Because their prayers were done in vain. It wasn't just some checklist. It wasn't just some ritual. Yep, we did the sacrifice. Check mark. We went and prayed. Check mark. We must be good. No, God actually cares about your heart and he actually cares about you actually doing what the Bible says and hearkening under the law. And the Pharisees were a check mark religion. They're coming down the pike, but they are basically, we got all the check marks, but you know what? They were hypocrites. Their spirit and their attitude wasn't in it. And of course, God came and destroyed them again. So we see today really kind of the same thing. But I want to read a lot of other Bible because I think this is important. When we look at verses number 10 and 11, we see this message mentioned multiple times in the Old Testament. Go to Jeremiah Chapter 22 for a moment. Go to Jeremiah Chapter 22. It must be really important to do whatever he's saying here. And why I think that is because it's mentioned so many times what he brought up. What do you bring up? True judgment, showing mercy, compassion, oppressing not the widow, nor the fatherless, nor the stranger, nor the poor. I mean, that's what he brought up in Zechariah Chapter 7. I want to show you in Jeremiah 22. Look at verse number 3. This is God preaching through the prophet Jeremiah right before the destruction of Babylon. Verse 3, Thus saith the Lord, execute ye judgment and righteousness and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor and do no wrong. Do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place. Doesn't that sound like a pretty similar list? You know why it's going to sound similar? Because God was repeating himself in Zechariah. He's repeating what he had said here in Jeremiah, saying, Hey, remember when I told him this? Remember when I preached this unto them right before I literally wiped them off the map? Yeah, you guys need to do that stuff. Otherwise, it's going to be a repeat. Just like the rebuilding repeat, me removing you from the temple is going to be a repeat. Okay, so it's important to do these things and to follow verse 4. For if you do this thing indeed, then shall they enter in by the gates of this house, kings sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, he and his servants and his people. So hey, you do good. You guys are going to prosper. You're going to have kings. You're going to have chariots. Everything's going to go great. What happens when you don't? Verse five. But if you will not hear these words, I swear by myself, say the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation for thus saith the Lord unto the king's house of Judah. Thou art Gilead unto me and the head of Lebanon. Yet surely I will make thee a wilderness and cities which are not inhabited, and I will prepare destroyers against thee. Everyone with his weapons, and they shall cut down thy choice leaders and cast them into the fire, and many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say every man to his neighbor. Wherefore hath the Lord done this, thus unto this great city? Then they shall answer, because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God and worshipped other gods and served them. Notice that even the unsaved can recognize why is Jerusalem destroyed? It's because they forsook God. It's because they went after other gods. That's why he destroyed them, and they forsaken the law of God. They've no longer continued in judgment, mercy, and helping those that are less fortunate, like the widows, fathers, strangers, and poor, but rather they've oppressed them, taken advantage of them, ripped them off. Look at verse 13. Woe in him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness and his chambers by wrong, that useth his neighbor's service without wages, and giveth them not for his work, that saith, I will build me a wide house and large chambers, and cutteth him out of windows, and it is sealed with cedar and painted with vermilion. Shout thou rain, because thou closeth thyself in cedar? Did not thy father eat and drink and do judgment and justice, and then it was well with him? He judged the cause of the poor and needy, then it was well with him, was not this to know me, saith the Lord. So notice he's bringing up an explanation here. What is one of the common things it's bringing out is to do judgment. And he's saying when they did judgment and justice, it was well with them. And specifically, judging the cause of the poor and needy, it was well with him. And that was how you even knew God. Knowing God was attached to and related to judging the poor and needy, executing true judgment. But today, we don't see true judgment in America. Today, we don't see people trying to determine who's right and who's wrong. But rather, it's the rich men are right and the poor men are wrong. Those who have an agenda are right. Those who don't have an agenda are wrong. And we aren't exercising true judgment in this country judges have fallen victim to all kinds of bribery and all kinds of thievery and politics and pressure and money and wealth. And they don't care anymore deciding who's right and wrong. The deciding factor in judges, you know, in Across America is not whether or not someone committed a crime or not, but whether they're related to Hunter Biden or Joe Biden or whether they have dirt on Hillary Clinton or whether they're running for political office or whether they're not or whether they question an official narrative or whether they have information that could be damaging to the pharmaceutical industry. And we don't see judges today ruling what's right and ruling what's equitable, but rather ruling because of what's going to give them a benefit, what's going to bless them, what's going to do good under them. And so there's no sense of morality anymore. And who gets taken advantage of the most is the poor and the needy, the poor and the needy. Today, it's so expensive to go to court. Lawyers are just astronomical in their price and in their fees and how much money everything costs. And what ends up happening is people that are poor get taken advantage of, they have no recourse for that action. They get ripped off by someone, they get taken advantage of. Well, who's going to come to their cause? They can't hire an attorney. Attorneys aren't cheap. And even if they go to the judge, well, the rich guy has got way more money, way better attorneys. He can drag this thing out. And in fact, many legal processes are one, not because of who's right, but because of just gaining the system, just making it too costly for the other party to win and they'll quit or making it so costly that they'll end up just paying out or just doing something. And there's just so much robbery going on in our justice system today, it's a lack of justice in many ways. And God is getting mad at this kind of thing. God gets furious when a nation is like this. How you can determine as a nation that you have good judgment is if the poor have a chance, if the needy have a chance. Those who don't have any funds, don't have any money, they have an opportunity. I mean, why do we even have to have lawyers? You know, so frustrating is when you've been wronged and you don't even get to speak on your behalf. You know, I can almost appreciate the Roman court system more than some of times ours, because at least the Apostle Paul says, hey, I'm happy that I get to speak for myself. You know, in many cases, you don't even get to speak for yourself. You don't even get to present the evidence you have. You don't even get to talk through the situation. You're like, well, I've seen this thing on TV. That's fake. OK, that's just for ratings. It's just for to wow you or something. But most legal proceedings, most court cases, they're not like that. There's not really any legitimate justice. The only people that get rich are the lawyers. And they have almost no incentive, really, to even help people do right. Because, OK, well, if I drag out this case, I get more money. And here's something you don't realize, you know, on the onset, but I kind of realize later, is even if your attorney loses and does a horrible job, they still get paid the exact same as if they won. Did you realize that? What kind of industry is this? This is like communism or something where basically you don't even have to do anything and you still get paid somehow. Right. And in fact, by doing a terrible job but just dragging it out forever, that's how you maximize revenue. So in fact, it seems like a lot of attorneys, they're not good at actually winning cases or actually bringing people to justice. They're good at just dragging it out. Just making it take forever and just belaboring the point and just just doing all this extra work and labor. And they just make so much money. Just laugh all the way to the bank. I mean, in a divorce, the only people that win are the divorce lawyers. Just taking advantage of people in their most vulnerable states. Widows taken advantage of by probate and lawyers and all kinds of vultures coming in, praying on them when they're weak, when they don't have a husband, when they don't have a man to help them, praying on the fatherless who potentially inherit things from their parents, taking, swooping in. Notice there's a common thing. People that are less fortunate or not well off are getting ripped off here. And here's something about fatherless children and about the youth that is happening in our country and is happening throughout time is because they're not well off, what will end up happening is they put so much burden on them and they take away their future earning potential. So they're basically borrowing and taking and zapping all this money from the youth and they don't have that money. But what they have is earning potential. And so essentially they're just lading all these debts on them that they're going to have to pay for the next five, 10, 20, maybe even virtually their whole lifetime where they're getting high interest credit card loans. They're getting high interest car loans. High interest house loans. The reality is almost everybody in America has a mortgage. I'm not going to ask for a raise of hands, but any almost anybody that owns a home has a mortgage. And if you just do simple math, you just do simple math on a mortgage, especially if you have a 30 year mortgage, you're almost paying double or triple whatever that house is worth. And it's everyone. And you say, well, why in the world do people have a mortgage? Because we're all poor and none of us can just buy a house. And not only that, because the government keeps printing more and more money. And when they keep printing more money, that causes all the prices to just keep getting jacked way up. And those who don't have any money, they get ripped off. You make the poor way more poor when you print a bunch of money. Because if you don't have any resources, if you don't have any goods to hedge that bet of inflation, well, you just get ripped off even more and more. And they just keep stealing from your future, your future wages, your future earnings, all kinds of different things. And you say like, is it bad to have a mortgage? I'm not, I don't think it's bad to have a mortgage because we've got to live somewhere. And what's better, renting, you're still getting ripped off. Okay. That's a different way to get ripped off. It's like, yes, this is all bad. But what you have to understand is this is our country. Our country by and large is just oppressing its citizens, oppressing the poor by and large. And the vast majority of us are poor in a certain context. Now it's hard to, it's hard for someone to fathom that because in some ways we're the richest of the world. But even though we may be the richest, we're still poor in many ways. If you kind of just think about it as a standard, like what was a person that was just the basic standard Israelite? Well, he has a lot of acres of land. He has a house. He has cattle. He has goods. He would basically have a no debt with a lot of assets. He would probably have a large net worth. Just the average Israelite just starting off right off the bat, not talking about working his whole life and acquiring a lot more resources and goods. Just saying like day one, that's how he would start off. And it's like the average American doesn't even have that. Even the average American that's worked for 20, 30, 40, 50 years probably doesn't even have that. Okay. So we have this like debt mindset of America and just because we have cell phones and nice clothes and eat a lot of good food, we kind of think that we're not poor or not a slave when in many cases we really are. And we're being taken advantage of and we're constantly being oppressed. Now the people that are being the most oppressed though, the most oppressed are the people that have no assets and the people that have no way to earn money today, which would be widows, the fatherless, the stranger. And how do we oppress strangers? Well, we import all kinds of people in our country illegally and then we put them in a purgatory as a sense where essentially they can't become a citizen and actually get a real job and get into the system. But at the same time, we're not going to deport them so they can actually be in some system. So they're just kind of in this no man's land where they have no rights. They can't, I mean, and I know the Democrats want to change this and I don't know, don't quote me on this, but I know for in times past at least, if you weren't a citizen, you can't vote, right? But think about it. What's the difference between an illegal immigrant? What's the difference between someone that crossed from Mexico into America and the literal slaves that we had in times past? Both can't vote. They probably can't read English or write English in many cases. They can't have a W-2 job. They have to work for cash under the table. Most all of them rent and have a small shack or whatever that they live in and they pretty much all do hard manual labor, right? I mean, they're pretty much the carpenters. They're pretty much the agricultural specialists. They're laying bricks. They're working in the restaurant. I mean, pretty much all the low level jobs these people are filling. They're mowing all the lawns. They're washing the dishes. They're washing the cars. They basically are doing, they're doing the maid service and that's basically, we just basically imported a slave class and many of these people are very hardworking. Many of them are even intelligent, albeit they may not necessarily understand English or speak English. That doesn't take away from the fact that they have a lot of intelligence to offer, but we're basically just taking advantage of them and ripping them off, even though many of them probably even work harder than most Americans and they have a lot of wages and we're just ripping them off, taking advantage of them through rents and you say, well, they're not taxed. Yeah, but have you ever noticed how everything's taxed literally? And in fact, most of these people, wages aren't very high. They wouldn't even be paying that much in federal anyways. So that's why the government has a sales tax on everything. That's why it has all kinds of other taxes. I mean, things are taxed to death in our country and taxed to death in our state. Oh, well, they don't pay property tax. Yeah, but they pay rent and the owner pays property tax. So they're paying that property tax. I mean, virtually every tax you can think of, they're still paying and then they don't get really a lot of the benefits of being an actual citizen or having some of the more high paying job opportunities. They're not going to get Social Security and some of those things, but none of us will anyway. So that's a different story. But I mean, this is the state of our nation, our country, and it's basically the same as what God's mad at. I'm just trying to help you understand what this even means. What does it mean to have essentially a government or a country where there's no judgment, where there's no mercy, where there's no compassion, where we're oppressing widows and the fatherless and the strangers and the poor? You know what's also oppressing the widow and the fatherless and the poor? Is inflation. Again, because a lot of these people, they saved up all this money for their retirement. But what happens is, well, because we just keep printing money, their value of their money that is saved up decreases. And yet their property taxes, the price of goods, keep going up and they don't have ability to earn wages again. So who's taking the most advantage of people that are not being able to make wages, right? The fatherless, the widows, the poor, the stranger. And again, the fatherless, the children, once they grow up, they can potentially enter into labor force again, but they don't have anybody taking care of them, providing for them, protecting them, guarding them. A lot of them are sold into slavery, like literal kinds of slavery, human trafficking. They're put into gangs and cartels and they're becoming drug runners. And of course, the government knows a lot about that and has no problem with that and running their operations. And in fact, some people just don't understand, like the government doesn't want to fix the drug problem. The government doesn't want to fix the cartel problem. You want to know why? Because they're just the lower level running the game for them. All these druggies are going and giving money to their little, you know, kid that got put in a gang and that gang guy is giving it to his gang boss. And then what happens is the government swoops in and takes the money from them. You know, and of course, then they get to seize all these assets, all of these goods. They dominate those groups. They can put whoever they want in prison and jail whenever they want. And of course, then they can use these people for all kinds of things, right? For hits, for controlling other politicians. Because they have all this under the table cash, they can come and they say, Hey, we're going to arrest your entire gang and throw you all in federal prison unless you give a bunch of your money to this specific political candidate. And then they'll give all this money to a certain political candidate. And this certain political candidate will set up a front and basically put a few different people within the government. And then they'll create a money laundering scheme. This is what's happening in Arizona by a lot of people's testimony where essentially the, the governor and other people are involved in a major money laundering scheme where essentially they have created a rental property company that's fake. And it'll just sell a house that doesn't exist. And then someone in the county clerk's office will write a fake deed and just sign it. And then they can just deposit $500,000 or $1.2 million because they sold this house into an account. And then it's not laundered money because it came from the sale of a property. Because there's a thing you have to take all this cash and you have to put it back in the system somehow. And this is what money laundering is. I'm teaching you how to launder money. Don't do this. This is what's literally happening. And of course, the government loves to keep all of these criminals on their bank because they control these politicians and there's just this vicious cycle that just keeps repeating and keeps repeating. And then they have to pay off all these judges. And so they have all these judges on the payroll, governors on the payroll, city officials on the payroll. You don't know how bad it really is. And then you kind of wonder like, why are these people so bad? Oh yeah, because these people are on the take because these people are being controlled. And of course, it goes all the way back to the devil. Somewhere in the middle was Jews. Okay, I get it. But you know, it really goes all the way back to the devil. It's well with a country when the judges aren't on the take. It's well with a country when they're actually judging the poor and the needy and they're not letting them die on fentanyl. They're not letting them die on illicit drugs and just zapping all of the money from them. And of course, it's another money laundering scheme because we have welfare programs and our government literally feeds all these tax dollars to all these drug junkies who then give that money to the cartel who then gives it back to the government. And it's just another way to line their pockets through our tax dollars. Okay, we are being ripped off and taken advantage of more than you could even imagine. Pay your taxes, all right? Look at verse 18. Therefore, thus say the Lord concerning Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, they shall not lament for him, saying, Ah, my brother, or Ah, my sister, they shall not lament for him, saying, Ah, Lord, or Ah, his glory. He shall be buried with the burial of an ass drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem. So unfortunately, Jehoiakim is not going to do it. So he's going to be destroyed. Verse 20, Go up to Lebanon and cry and lift up thy voice in Bashan and cry from the passages, for all thy lovers are destroyed. I spake unto thee in thy prosperity, but thou saidst, I will not hear. That sounds familiar, doesn't it? It's exactly what Zedekiah 7 said. Hey, I spake you in prosperity, but you just wouldn't hear it. You just didn't want to hear. You're just so consumed with your house and with your goods and with all your sports and with all your purses and your pools and all your trips and just all your luxury and excess and you're just having so much fun that you didn't want to hear the word of God. Well, I don't have time for church because I'm riding on my seedoo. I don't have time for church because of baseball and football and soccer and golf and just after that, then we're going to play basketball and then we're going to go shopping and then we're going to go on this trip and then we're going to do this fun activity. Then we're gonna go see this movie and then we're gonna go see that movie. They just wouldn't hear. They don't care. This has been thy manner from thy youth, that thou abatest not my voice. The wind shall eat up all thy pastors, Joel Osteen, and thy lovers shall go into captivity. Surely, then shalt thou be ashamed and confounded for all thy wickedness. O, inhabitant of Lebanon, that makest thy nest in the cedars, how gracious shalt thou be when pangs come upon thee, the pain as of a woman travail. As I live, say the Lord, though Kaniyia the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet upon my right hand, yet would I pluck thee from thence, or pluck thee thence. This is this is funny to me because it's like Jews think that they're so special that God can never be mad at them. But in this analysis he's saying like even if you were the most special ring on my finger that I loved, I would literally pick you off my finger and toss you. You can be replaced, Israel. Now he says also in verse 25, and I will give thee into the hand of them that seek thy life, and in the hand of them whose face thou fearest, even at the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and into the hand of Chaldeans. And I will cast thee out and thy mother that bare thee into another country where ye were not born, and there shall ye die. But to the land whereunto they desire to return, thither shall they not return. So again, what happens when you won't execute judgment? What happens when you do oppress the widow and the fatherless and the stranger? What happens? Well, but we're weeping. Pastor Shelley, there's a prayer conference happening at Joel Osteen's church. We're having a prayer meeting at the church. I know that we're constantly oppressing people, and I know that we're perverting judgment, and I know that we don't care what the Bible says, but you know what? We prayed. Well, he says, I don't care about those prayers. I don't care about your religiosity. I don't care about you pretending like you just checked things off of a list. I care that you actually do what the Bible says. Go to Isaiah chapter one. Here's even before this. He gave them a long time to change their mind. A long time. You can almost argue that America is getting a long time to change his mind. A long time. Who knows how long? Isaiah chapter one, look at verse 10. Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom. Give ear under the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? Say, Lord, I am full of burnt offerings of rams into the fat of fed beasts, and I delight not in the blood of bullocks or of lambs or of he goats. When you come to appear before me, you must require this at your hand to tread my courts. Bring no more vain oblations. Incense is an abomination unto me. The new moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies. I cannot away with it. It is iniquity. Even the solemn meeting. The solemn meeting. This is your prayer meeting. This is your special service at church. Your new moons and your appointed feast. My soul hateth. They are a trouble unto me. I am weary to bear them. When you spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you. Yea, when you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. How many Christians today are committing an abortion and they're getting on their knees and praying to God? How many Christians today refuse to hear the word of God, don't care what it says? They're living in open fornication. I mean, they're an open drunkard. I mean, 1 Corinthians chapter 5 says they'd be thrown out of the church. How do you think God feels when they show up to prayer meeting? When they show up to the solemn meeting? God's just saying like, I'm just, I hate this. My soul abhors this. You're not winning any prizes. You're not getting any favor with God just because you pray. People think like, oh, well I pray. Okay, but what is your life like? What is your heart like? Keep your finger here. I want you to go into place. Go to Proverbs just for a second. It's real close. Proverbs chapter 28. Just flip back a few pages. I want to look at an important verse here. I feel like this proverb encapsulates the essence of the sermon more than any of the verse and it really just emphasizes what we're trying to say. Proverbs 28. Look at verse 9. He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination. Hey, should we go and weep before you, God? This is what they're saying. Hey, like we did in the fifth month and in the seventh month. He says, well, why? Because if you won't hear the law, your prayer is an abomination unto me. If you won't execute judgment, then your prayer is an abomination. If you're oppressing the widow and the poor and the stranger and the fatherless, your prayer is an abomination unto me. You know, and it's so sick how many Christians while they're being taken advantage of and oppressed by our government, by usury, by banks, they do the same to other people anyways. They themselves are the same kind of money lenders. They're the same kind of usurers. They're the same kind of people taking advantage of others, ripping them off, giving them strong drink, giving them booze, being permissive about fornication and all kinds of other sins of adultery. Oh, but we pray. Oh, we cry, we weep. We're going to all go weep before the Lord. We need revival. Give us Trump. God, don't give us Biden. Give us Trump so we can drink more liquor. So we can jack up our interest rates higher so that we can have two boats. So that I can afford my second home again. And they just weep. But they don't want to hear the law. They don't want to hear what the Bible says. They don't want to have freedom so they can actually help a poor person. They don't want more money so they can actually help a widow. They don't want more money so they can help their needy neighbor. They don't want more money so they can build the house of God. They want to build a third baseball stadium. I mean, the Rangers don't have enough stadiums. Let's give them a third baseball stadium, right? Let's build another football stadium. Let's build another hotel. Let's build another whatever. A concert hall so we can all sing music about how much we love fornication and adultery. And we can all get drunk at that institution. I mean, how many Christians today even care what the Bible has to say? And you know what? We're doomed as a nation when we turn our ear away from the law of God. And what could encapsulate that more than the month of pride? We have a literal month of pride. And pastors today are terrified to preach what the Bible says on that issue. And they just turn their ear away from Leviticus and they say, I don't want to hear the law. Turn the law away from me. I'll get on my knees and pray that God will save us though. Well, you know what? Your prayer is an abomination. You know what? Either faggots are an abomination or your prayer is an abomination but you better pick one. You know what? It is sick. How many preachers can't even get up and just read the Bible out loud? Well, I don't like the way you word it. Okay, well just read it out loud once. Right? I mean, they'll talk about sodomy and they'll say, you know, it's not the best lifestyle. Or, you know, I know you may be born that way but you need to be born again. This is their talking points. You weren't born that way. You died that way. And why can't they just read what verse says it's a sin? Because there's no verse in the Bible that says homosexuality is a sin. It says that they're brute beasts. It says that they're an abomination. It says they should be put to death. That's what it says. I would almost be satisfied if they read that and said, I don't necessarily agree with the death penalty today, but it was for sure done in the Old Testament. Can we even get to base one with you? But they won't even say that, will they? But we're going to pray. We've got a prayer meeting. You better come and pray for America. Pray for revival. You know what? I'm praying that you'll actually believe the Bible. I'm praying that you'll actually open Leviticus and believe it. And have some courage to preach it, because if you won't preach it now, it's not getting prettier in the future, my friend. It's not been getting easier. There's more censorship today than there was five years ago. There's more oppression than there was 10 years ago. There's more animosity than there was in times past. Oh, you'll get canceled. Well, you know what? Just get canceled, and then you don't have to worry about being canceled anymore, right? I mean, it's like, that doesn't really scare me anymore because I'm already canceled. Just get canceled. Well, but then how are you going to... I don't care about that stuff. You know what? It's nuts to a preacher that's worried about being canceled. That's the kind of pastor you want? Well, you know what? I know what your heart's like. It's an adamant stone. Go back to Isaiah chapter one. We need to be a country and nation that harkens back to the word of God. That'll fix our nation. There's only one solution. Saying the King James Bible is right and doing what it says. That's the only solution. That's the only solution that's ever existed and ever will exist. You want to know why America is so blessed? Read its laws from the 1600s. Read its laws from the 1700s. Read its laws from the 1800s, where they literally just quote the Bible, where when you went to a courtroom, this book was the most important book in the room, where this book is the one that was verifying if it was right or not, where you would actually look at a legal precedent and they would cite the Bible. But today you bring this in and they say, oh, you actually said that out loud? You're evicted. You can't preach what the Bible says. It's like, where did you even get the law in the first place? Where did you even get the authority to judge me from this book? And then you're going to throw out this book? Hypocrisy at its finest. Woe unto a nation that rejects the Bible. What does it say in verse 16? Wash you, make you clean, put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes. Cease to do evil. Learn to do well. Seek judgment. Relieve the oppressed. Judge the fatherless. Plead for the widow. Come now and let us reason together, say the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If he be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land. It doesn't matter how bad a nation gets. At any point that it just turns back to God and just starts doing right, it'll immediately have prosperity. I noticed that this word just keeps ringing in my ears every time I see it. Judgment. This is a seek judgment. But isn't it just a common buzzword among Christians today? Why don't judge anybody? Yeah, you're the problem. You are a problem. The Bible is saying the solution is judgment. Seek judgment. You know, judgment is good. We want judgment. You know who doesn't want judgment? Evil people. Wicked people. People that have done wrong. You know, when you go before the judge and you're wrong, you're hoping the judge won't give the right judgment. He won't seek judgment. He'll take the bribe. He'll take the payoff. He'll cover his eyes. He'll hide his eyes. Well, what does it say in verse 20? But if he refuse and rebel, he shall be devoured with the sword for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. How has the faithful city become in harlot? It was full of judgment. Righteousness lodged in it. But now murderers. Thy silver has become dross, thy wine mixed with water. Thy princes are rebellious and companions of thieves. Oh, remember when I was talking about how they are buddies with the cartel? Yeah, the Bible knew that before it ever happened. Everyone loveth gifts and followeth after rewards. They judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come into them. Say, hey, pastor, how do you know those things are happening? Because the Bible told me. The judges, they love gifts and bribes, and they're perverted, they're perverting judgment. They're not doing right. And you know what is happening in our nation right now? We need to get back to the word of God. We need to judge every institution based on this book. Every judge, every political office, every political system, every department of the government should be examined through the lens of this and to see what we should do. Oh, the Federal Reserve, bye. Usury, it's gone. You know, I was thinking about this. Everybody really wants to have a Zechariah moment. You know, all these Zionists where they want basically the Jews to return to the Promised Land. And I'm just thinking like, what's holding them back? I will pay. Let's all, let's print money again and send every Jew back to Israel. I'm in. You know, let's fix our problems. You say that they shouldn't be here. They should be in the Middle East. Let's go. We'll send them all. We'll all buy them a plane ticket, boat ride, whatever. You know, I'm willing to do that. But let's judge the Department of Education with this book. Let's judge every single institution by this book. And you know what? We'll find out that a lot of our institutions are fake and frauds and not based on the scripture and probably need to be destroyed. And we need to replace our judges with ones that hate covetousness. That's what the Bible says will make a good nation is when you have judges that hate covetousness. Maybe we could have a presidential candidate that's not a serial adulterer. I mean, can I just at least ask for that? People are like, why don't you like Trump? The casino owning adulterer? Like, what do you what do you like about the guy? That he's not the devil incarnate? I mean, is that the only requirement? That he's a couple stages away from the devil, literally or something? That he's he's able to actually use the bathroom on his own? I guess that's what you like about him, right? I don't like the other guy because he can't even use the bathroom, right? Well, I get it. Go to Psalm 51. I could preach on this forever, but you get the point. What's the point? The point is that just because you pray doesn't mean you're right with God. And God's way more interested in you actually just being a good Christian than praying than thinking like, well, I'm I go and pray even though I literally break every commandment. It's like, OK, look, I'm not against prayer. God's not against prayer. You know what? God doesn't look down from heaven and say, you know, I'm just hoping that you pray no matter how wicked you are. He's saying, no, I want you to be right. In fact, the Bible even says when you're going to pray that if you remember ought with your brother or you remember you did something wrong with your brother, you're supposed to first go and reconcile yourself with your brother. Then come and offer to the Lord. He's not saying like, just just keep praying and just keep doing whatever. No, no, no. Get right with God, then pray. It's not about just this routine of just like, why pray every morning that makes me right with God? What makes you right with God is being right with God. And what he really wants is your heart. Look at Psalm 51, verse 16. For thou desire's not sacrifice, else would I give it. Thou delight'st not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart. Oh, God, thou wilt not despise. What does God want? God wants us to have our hearts actually feel guilty about the sins that we have and then change. He wants us to actually make a change. He doesn't want us to just go through the motions. He doesn't want us to forget our sin. He wants us to be reminded of our sin, to feel guilty and to change, to actually repent of our sin. Now again, do we have to do that to be saved? Praise God, the answer is no, because then no one would be saved. Because no one can repent of all their sins. No one can stop sinning. And praise God that he gives us mercy. You know, another aspect of this is mercy and compassion. Praise God for his mercy that endureth forever. Praise God that he's long suffering with us. But at the same time, that long suffering ends. It's not unconditional mercy. Long suffering means that there's an expiration. It's not unlimited suffering. It's long suffering. So hey, he might give you a long time, but then there's a reckoning. And that's why it's important to change. That's why it's important to get right with God. You know, that's why it's important to understand that whatever you sow, you're going to reap. God is not mocked. And God wasn't mocked with the children of Israel. They broke all of his law. They broke all his commandments, but then he literally wiped them out. America is not going to get away with its sin. And I would even venture to say this. There's no way to stop God from destroying America. But we can delay it. Just like Josiah. When God came into Josiah, he said, well, because of the sins of your fathers, because of what Manasseh did, I'm going to destroy. Like it's already been decided. It's over. But I'm not going to bring the evil in your, in your days because you turn back to the law. And so if you're, if you're worried about anything, if you're worried about the end times, if you're worried about God judging you, if you're worried about your country, if you're worried about the election, if you're, I don't care what you're worried about. There's only one solution. And that solution is for you to hearken back to the law, to have a contrite spirit and to get right with God and to make sure that when you're praying, you're not turning your ears off from the word of God. Look, I'm all for prayer. And we need to pray more as a, as a people. And we need sermons on prayer. We also want to check and balance and make sure that we're not just praying vain repetitions. That we're not just praying because it's just a habit or just robots or something. And that the words actually have meaning. And that we actually feel bad about the sins that we've committed. And that we're actually telling God that we're sorry for them, that we actually want to seek forgiveness. We actually want to seek his mercy, that we actually want to change. God wants us to change. And you know, that's why it's also important to go to church, to read your Bible, to be surrounded around other like-minded believers so that you will be convicted. Because if I stop going to church and I stopped reading my Bible and I stopped hanging out with y'all, I'll completely change. I'll become a completely different person. My heart will just get super hard, just hard like a rock. And I just won't be interested in those things anymore. And then it's like, what's the point of prayer? Well, I still pray though. That probably makes it worse. That kind of makes it worse. I mean, think about it this way. You know, if your children say, Daddy, I want ice cream. Daddy, I want ice cream. Well, go clean your room and I'll give you ice cream. No, give me ice cream. Give me ice cream. Well, I already told you, clean your room and I will. But if you don't, I'm not. Give me ice cream. Well, it's like the first time you asked, you weren't that mad about it. But now it's starting to get irritating. Give me ice cream. Give me ice cream. And then pretty soon it's like, you know what you're going to get? The paddle. That's what you're getting. Don't ask me again. No, give me ice cream. Give me ice cream. And it's like, this is how God is trying to relate to us, to saying, why won't you just do what I said? I'll give you the ice cream. I'll give you the milk. I'll give you the honey. I'll give you the prosperity. I'll give you the grace. I'll give you whatever you want. Hey, though your sins are like scarlet, we can make them white as wool. But you got to go back and you got to do what I said. Hey, America, it can be the land flowing with milk and honey again. But you know what? We got to implement Leviticus 2013. And that's what's so silly about these Christians that say like, oh, well, I don't think that's for today. Look, that's the only thing for today. That is the solution. You want prosperity? It's not Donald Trump. It's Leviticus 2013. And it's not just Leviticus 2013. It's all of Leviticus chapter number 20. It's Proverbs chapter 23 that says, stop being a drunkard. It's all the sins against fornication and adults. It's all the law. It's all of it. We got to get rid of the usury and the blasphemy. We got to get rid of all the disgusting stuff that's in our nation. And if you actually understood where America came from, you'd realize that our forefathers would be horrified. People that set up this country wouldn't even believe it. So many people bled and died to give us this book. And then we, you know, Christians don't even care. I mean, William Tyndale was burned at the stake, so you could read Leviticus 2013, and they won't even read it in the church. It's embarrassing. It's embarrassing. It's embarrassing the state of our nation. It's embarrassing that being a good preacher these days is just being willing to read sections of the Bible out loud. Because I'm not even that great. There's a lot of guys that are way more talented than me and have so much more ability and options, and they have a better church building, and they've got all these things. But it's like, people want to come to this church just because I'll read it out loud. They're like, say it. You know, I just wanted to read it. I just want to read it that section of the Bible. You know, that's a sad day in America when the good preachers are the ones that just read it. But you know what? We need some more that'll just read it out loud, too, anyways. And you know what? God can use people that aren't that great and aren't that special if they just put all their trust in Him. And that's what I like about our church, is that our church isn't relying on our own wisdom or understanding or prosperity or accolades. We're just relying on this book, and we need to continue to do so, and we need to challenge ourselves. Where is your heart? Where is your heart tonight? What are you setting your affections on? What are you thinking about? When you go to pray tonight, where are you at with God before you pray? And don't just sit here and just, well, I'm going to pray just to pray. Say, if there's a change that I need to make, make it. Figure out a way to fix it. Change it. Do something different. Don't just continue in the same old patterns, the same habits. Evaluate your life and say, am I participating in oppression? Am I taking advantage of these people? Am I ripping these people off? What am I really living for? Don't just go home and just repeat. Don't be a Biden. Don't just scream for ice cream again tonight. Think about what God's actually saying in the Bible and see where you're at. And let us be a church that actually harkens to the law and doesn't turn our ear away. Let's close in prayer. Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for giving us this chapter and for giving us the Bible so that we could know what to do. I pray that we wouldn't allow our hearts to get hardened, that we wouldn't just turn our ears away from what the Bible says. We wouldn't just pull our shoulder away from the things of God, but rather we would allow our hearts to be convicted by the scripture. That before we pray, we'd actually think about our walk with God and where we're at. And please help give us strength to change. Please help give us grace and long suffering for the sins that we struggle with. Please help us to be careful in the way that we carry ourselves and if possible, please turn other people's attention back to the things of God. Please help our country to recognize that we need to turn back to the law. Please raise up more preachers and more churches that actually care about the Bible and care about the law than political correctness. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, in closing, let's go to song number 256. Song number 256, Look to the Lamb of God. Song number 256. Everybody's singing out together on the first. You died on Calvary. Look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God. For He alone is able to save you. Look to the Lamb of God. When Satan, tennis, sand, doubts and fears assail, look to the Lamb of God. You and your strength shall over all prevail. Look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God. For He alone is able to save you. Look to the Lamb of God. Are you weary? Does the way seem long? Look to the Lamb of God. His love will cheer and fill your heart with song. Look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God. For He alone is able to save you. Look to the Lamb of God. Fear not what shadows on your pathway fall. Look to the Lamb of God. Enjoy your sorrow. Christ is all in all. Look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God. For He alone is able to save you. Look to the Lamb of God. Great singing. You are all dismissed.