WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:00.480 to pray, amen. 00:01.740 --> 00:04.460 Men, so 2 Kings chapter number 15, 00:04.740 --> 00:07.400 we have just a lot of different kings listed 00:08.070 --> 00:09.800 and their reigns. 00:09.800 --> 00:14.400 And what you really see is just two different kings of Judah, 00:15.040 --> 00:19.600 both of whom are getting a passing score of they did that, 00:19.660 --> 00:20.820 which was right in the side of the Lord, 00:21.140 --> 00:24.420 but it's kind of like a C minus or maybe even like a D minus. 00:24.780 --> 00:26.860 And that's what we've seen in Judah 00:26.860 --> 00:28.960 for the last several generations 00:28.960 --> 00:33.580 is just these kings that are kind of just half in, half out. 00:33.820 --> 00:37.120 They're never really serving the Lord with all their heart. 00:37.240 --> 00:38.780 They're never really totally doing right. 00:39.020 --> 00:40.840 And as we saw with the last few kings, 00:41.200 --> 00:43.520 ultimately that kind of a person ends up 00:43.520 --> 00:45.220 crashing and burning spiritually. 00:45.580 --> 00:47.020 That's what happened to the last two kings 00:47.020 --> 00:47.700 that we looked at. 00:48.020 --> 00:51.700 Well, the same thing happens with Uzziah in this chapter. 00:51.840 --> 00:54.400 Now in this chapter it calls him Azariah, 00:54.660 --> 00:57.000 but most of the time we think of him as Uzziah 00:57.000 --> 00:58.780 because in second chronicles, 00:58.940 --> 01:00.920 his name is pronounced to Uzziah. 01:01.240 --> 01:03.900 Over here it's Azariah, same person, okay? 01:04.380 --> 01:07.100 And so we see kind of that same pattern again 01:07.480 --> 01:09.980 of the guy who's not very zealous for the Lord, 01:10.320 --> 01:13.700 not all the way in, not loving the Lord is God 01:13.700 --> 01:15.360 with all his heart, mind, soul, and strength. 01:15.840 --> 01:18.680 He screws up and gets messed up later in life. 01:19.160 --> 01:20.560 So that's the beginning of the chapter. 01:20.680 --> 01:23.260 Then the chapter ends on his son Jotham, 01:23.260 --> 01:26.800 which is again, like for the fourth generation in a row, 01:27.160 --> 01:30.180 again, just a lukewarm, watered down, 01:30.500 --> 01:33.580 barely C minus kind of a king of Judah. 01:34.000 --> 01:35.700 And then in between in this chapter, 01:36.200 --> 01:38.880 you have just all the kings of Israel listed, 01:39.300 --> 01:41.740 many of whom are only reigning for a very short time. 01:42.080 --> 01:44.480 They're getting assassinated, they're all wicked, 01:44.740 --> 01:46.120 every one of them is bad. 01:46.640 --> 01:49.400 And so it's kind of a negative chapter in that sense, 01:49.600 --> 01:51.060 but you know, it really just reflects 01:51.060 --> 01:53.080 the reality of the world that we live in. 01:53.340 --> 01:55.240 It kind of makes me think of my sermon on Sunday night 01:55.780 --> 01:58.340 about how man is not basically good 01:58.820 --> 02:00.500 and that we have a sinful nature 02:01.040 --> 02:02.660 and that all the way back in Genesis, 02:03.020 --> 02:04.180 all the way to the end of the Bible, 02:04.580 --> 02:08.720 we see that human beings are prone to sin unfortunately. 02:09.440 --> 02:11.760 So you have all the bad kings of Israel listed 02:11.760 --> 02:14.380 and then at the very end of the chapter, 02:14.500 --> 02:16.220 it talks about how Jotham died 02:16.660 --> 02:18.620 and Ahaz's son reigned instead. 02:19.100 --> 02:21.080 So we've had four generations or whatever 02:21.080 --> 02:24.480 of just kind of C minus guys who ultimately went bad. 02:24.780 --> 02:26.300 Now we're gonna get to Ahaz, 02:26.600 --> 02:28.940 who's just a fully totally wicked guy 02:28.940 --> 02:30.500 who's just gonna take Judah 02:30.500 --> 02:32.380 all the way off the cliff spiritually. 02:32.940 --> 02:35.260 So as I said, it's a pretty negative chapter. 02:35.680 --> 02:38.440 We don't have time to go into all of these different reigns 02:38.440 --> 02:39.960 because there are just so many people involved. 02:40.260 --> 02:42.540 So we're just gonna kind of hit the highlights tonight. 02:42.940 --> 02:45.580 But it says in chapter 15 verse one, 02:45.580 --> 02:48.500 in the 27th year of Jeroboam, 02:48.560 --> 02:50.320 King of Israel began Azariah. 02:50.480 --> 02:52.860 And again, this is also known as Uzziah. 02:53.240 --> 02:55.400 Son of Amaziah, King of Judah to reign. 02:55.840 --> 02:58.100 16 years old was he when he began to reign. 02:58.460 --> 03:01.240 And he reigned two and 50 years in Jerusalem. 03:01.740 --> 03:03.960 And his mother's name was Jekaliah of Jerusalem. 03:04.340 --> 03:06.700 And he did that, which was right in the sight of the Lord 03:07.200 --> 03:10.380 according to all that his father Amaziah had done. 03:10.480 --> 03:12.240 So basically saying to the degree 03:12.240 --> 03:14.420 that Amaziah was right with God, 03:14.420 --> 03:17.440 he was kind of the same way, like father, like son. 03:17.840 --> 03:22.080 And it says that he did not remove the high places. 03:22.300 --> 03:25.300 Verse four, the people sacrificed and burnt incense 03:25.300 --> 03:27.360 still on the high places. 03:27.520 --> 03:28.240 Now watch verse five. 03:28.400 --> 03:31.240 It says, the Lord smote the king 03:31.740 --> 03:35.180 so that he was a leper unto the day of his death 03:35.180 --> 03:37.640 and dwelt in a several house. 03:37.800 --> 03:39.020 And the word several here, 03:39.120 --> 03:41.200 this isn't the normal word that we use several. 03:41.620 --> 03:45.800 This is several as in like severed, like separate. 03:46.180 --> 03:48.520 He had to live in a separate dwelling 03:48.520 --> 03:52.340 because he has this contagious skin disease. 03:52.760 --> 03:55.120 And of course, leprosy is kind of a theme in the Bible, 03:55.260 --> 03:55.620 isn't it? 03:56.100 --> 03:58.300 Jesus is constantly healing lepers. 03:58.700 --> 04:00.800 In the Old Testament, you have famous stories 04:00.800 --> 04:03.060 about lepers like Naaman and so forth. 04:03.460 --> 04:07.960 And so this is kind of just the quintessential bad disease 04:07.960 --> 04:09.360 that you get in the Bible. 04:09.880 --> 04:13.440 It's just this skin flesh eating kind of disease 04:13.940 --> 04:17.020 and it ultimately kills you and it's contagious. 04:17.380 --> 04:20.420 So it ends up separating you from your fellow man 04:20.420 --> 04:23.260 and you have to go live in the several house, et cetera. 04:23.340 --> 04:24.520 And by the way, you know, 04:24.620 --> 04:26.300 how did I know that that's what several meant? 04:26.640 --> 04:27.180 Well, you know what? 04:27.240 --> 04:29.140 Because it doesn't really take a rocket scientist, 04:29.140 --> 04:33.440 even though we never in our lives in 2026 America 04:33.440 --> 04:36.560 have ever heard anyone use the word several in that way. 04:36.860 --> 04:38.220 You know, when you read in the context, 04:38.220 --> 04:41.660 it's just like he had to go dwell in a blank house 04:41.660 --> 04:43.320 because he had leprosy. 04:43.460 --> 04:46.520 You're kind of thinking like, okay, he's being quarantined. 04:47.040 --> 04:50.200 And then you think, okay, several, several. 04:50.720 --> 04:51.260 Okay, yeah. 04:51.580 --> 04:53.260 You know, people act like the King James 04:53.260 --> 04:55.020 is just way too hard 04:55.020 --> 04:57.740 and that it's just gonna just trip everybody up 04:57.740 --> 04:59.580 and nobody can figure it out. 04:59.860 --> 05:02.940 But the reality is that if you understand 05:02.940 --> 05:06.140 95% of the text on the page, 05:06.140 --> 05:09.100 your context clues are gonna fill in a lot of the rest. 05:09.260 --> 05:11.740 You can always reach for the dictionary and look up 05:11.740 --> 05:13.760 and it's gonna have these archaic meanings of words. 05:14.200 --> 05:16.320 And so yeah, occasionally you're gonna run into a word 05:16.320 --> 05:18.160 in the King James that is truly archaic. 05:18.420 --> 05:20.540 It's a lot more rare than people make it out to be. 05:20.920 --> 05:22.140 This is one of those times. 05:22.360 --> 05:23.860 And here's the other thing is that, 05:23.900 --> 05:25.400 let's say somebody runs into this word 05:25.400 --> 05:27.200 and they get confused and can't figure it out. 05:27.460 --> 05:30.120 It's probably not gonna affect the price of tea in China. 05:30.540 --> 05:32.760 Meanwhile, the modern versions are over here, 05:32.860 --> 05:34.120 attacking the virgin birth, 05:34.120 --> 05:35.940 attacking the deity of Christ, 05:36.140 --> 05:38.720 attacking the Trinity, removing the blood, 05:39.100 --> 05:41.360 removing 16 whole verses in the New Testament. 05:41.940 --> 05:43.660 The problems with the modern versions 05:43.660 --> 05:47.600 tend to be serious problems that affect doctrine. 05:48.620 --> 05:50.100 You know, you have verses that are teaching 05:50.100 --> 05:52.760 works-based salvation or, you know, 05:52.840 --> 05:54.100 attacking the Trinity or something. 05:54.940 --> 05:58.560 Whereas the problems with the King James 05:58.560 --> 06:01.500 are really just these minor issues 06:01.500 --> 06:05.620 that don't really affect our faith and practice at all. 06:06.220 --> 06:08.120 And again, reach for the dictionary. 06:08.620 --> 06:10.180 Or, you know, look it up. 06:10.380 --> 06:10.940 It's not that hard. 06:10.980 --> 06:13.320 But like I said, I didn't have to look this word up 06:13.320 --> 06:17.060 because again, you know, if you just speak English, 06:17.260 --> 06:19.060 you can usually just kind of figure it out 06:19.060 --> 06:21.320 from the context what these words are. 06:21.740 --> 06:24.500 So it says here that he was smitten with leprosy. 06:24.600 --> 06:26.820 This is obviously a severe punishment. 06:27.100 --> 06:27.640 This is bad. 06:27.940 --> 06:29.480 And if you remember, this is the same thing 06:29.480 --> 06:31.080 that happened earlier in the Book of Second Kings 06:31.080 --> 06:31.980 to Gehazi. 06:32.420 --> 06:35.460 You know, Gehazi was the guy who basically lied 06:35.460 --> 06:39.540 and cheated and stole and God smote him with leprosy 06:39.540 --> 06:40.320 as a punishment. 06:40.980 --> 06:43.060 So this is severe punishment from God. 06:43.320 --> 06:46.440 And it says he had to go dwell on a several house. 06:46.920 --> 06:49.120 So Jotham the King's son was over the house 06:49.120 --> 06:51.220 judging the people of the land. 06:51.380 --> 06:53.900 So even though he reigned for 52 years, 06:54.340 --> 06:57.300 a lot of that time Jotham is kind of doing 06:57.300 --> 06:59.720 the hands-on boots on the ground leadership 07:00.200 --> 07:03.780 while he's just kind of ruling from behind the curtain 07:04.280 --> 07:08.460 over at the leper colony in his own separate house. 07:09.220 --> 07:11.140 And so it says in verse number six, 07:11.280 --> 07:14.220 the rest of the acts of Azariah, also known as Uzziah, 07:14.540 --> 07:16.160 and all that he did, are they not written 07:16.160 --> 07:18.140 in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? 07:18.560 --> 07:19.340 Now, here's the thing. 07:19.440 --> 07:20.600 If we go over to Chronicles, 07:20.680 --> 07:21.620 and we're gonna do that right now, 07:21.700 --> 07:23.280 let's flip over there, Second Chronicles. 07:23.780 --> 07:26.440 And we're gonna look at like verse 15 07:26.440 --> 07:27.540 and onward perhaps. 07:27.920 --> 07:29.560 But if we go over to Second Chronicles, 07:29.560 --> 07:33.940 chapter 26, we can actually get much more of the story 07:33.940 --> 07:39.560 and we find out exactly why did God smite Uzziah with leprosy. 07:39.820 --> 07:41.060 But the first thing I wanna point out 07:41.060 --> 07:43.740 is that when you're reading the Book of the Kings, 07:44.000 --> 07:45.440 it'll constantly say like, 07:45.800 --> 07:47.200 hey, and the rest of his acts 07:47.200 --> 07:48.560 are they not written in the Book of Chronicles? 07:48.920 --> 07:50.180 And then when you're reading Chronicles, 07:50.320 --> 07:52.200 it'll be like, hey, and other things that he did 07:52.200 --> 07:53.460 are they not written in the Book of the Kings? 07:54.100 --> 07:56.880 So these books are constantly referring you 07:56.880 --> 07:59.500 to each other, to look at each other. 08:00.060 --> 08:02.320 And really, I think that the reason why 08:02.320 --> 08:04.340 God has that in there so many times 08:04.340 --> 08:08.080 and they just left that in there so many times repetitively 08:08.080 --> 08:10.080 is to teach us something 08:10.080 --> 08:12.320 about how we should study the Bible, 08:13.180 --> 08:15.360 comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 08:15.900 --> 08:18.160 And so it's not a bad practice 08:18.550 --> 08:20.700 to compare scripture with scripture. 08:21.200 --> 08:23.340 Now, obviously if we read the Book of Matthew, 08:23.780 --> 08:25.680 it's also good to just sit down 08:25.680 --> 08:27.860 and read the Gospel of Matthew 08:27.860 --> 08:29.940 without getting on rabbit trails 08:29.940 --> 08:32.180 and going and comparing and looking things up. 08:32.500 --> 08:34.740 It's good to sometimes just read the Book of Matthew 08:34.740 --> 08:37.700 and just get what Matthew is saying to you, right? 08:38.180 --> 08:39.720 Get what Mark is saying to you, 08:39.800 --> 08:41.400 get what Luke is saying to you 08:41.400 --> 08:44.900 and read the Bible and just read it from cover to cover. 08:45.020 --> 08:47.180 That's a good way to read the Bible, okay? 08:47.580 --> 08:50.840 But then there's also another way on top of that 08:50.840 --> 08:52.660 to do some study of the Bible 08:52.660 --> 08:54.500 where you compare scripture with scripture 08:54.500 --> 08:56.520 and where you run into something in Matthew 08:56.520 --> 08:58.040 and you say, oh, wait a minute, 08:58.160 --> 09:01.060 I can go over to Luke and get another angle on that. 09:01.160 --> 09:02.340 I can get another angle from Mark. 09:02.620 --> 09:05.040 That is a legitimate way to read the Bible as well 09:05.040 --> 09:06.560 when you're comparing these things. 09:07.080 --> 09:07.980 So the same thing, you know, 09:08.060 --> 09:11.280 I could just preach through the Book of Second Kings 09:11.820 --> 09:13.880 and just never even look at Chronicles 09:14.420 --> 09:17.380 and just get the message that Second Kings is giving us 09:17.380 --> 09:18.980 and that would be a legitimate way 09:18.980 --> 09:20.740 to preach through the Book of Second Kings. 09:21.000 --> 09:22.640 But another legitimate way 09:22.640 --> 09:25.720 would be to constantly take the rabbit trails 09:25.720 --> 09:28.860 over to Chronicles and to go to places like Isaiah 09:29.300 --> 09:33.200 and Jeremiah and to get other angles on the same story. 09:33.600 --> 09:35.380 This is what the Bible is showing us 09:35.380 --> 09:37.400 that that's a good way to study the Bible. 09:37.580 --> 09:38.760 It's a good way to teach the Bible. 09:38.900 --> 09:40.080 It's a good way to preach the Bible. 09:40.400 --> 09:42.480 And so either way is legitimate. 09:42.700 --> 09:44.740 You can either just look at the book by itself 09:44.740 --> 09:47.060 and get the message right there 09:47.060 --> 09:48.940 or you can compare scripture with scripture 09:48.940 --> 09:50.560 and we ultimately need to be doing both. 09:51.600 --> 09:53.480 But I would recommend that you 09:53.480 --> 09:55.100 in your personal Bible reading time, 09:55.460 --> 09:58.180 I think you're gonna get more out of your Bible reading 09:58.180 --> 10:00.260 the less rabbit trails you follow. 10:01.000 --> 10:02.720 You know, because I've known some people, 10:02.920 --> 10:05.380 they get like two verses into their Bible reading 10:05.380 --> 10:07.620 and then they're Googling stuff. 10:08.100 --> 10:09.820 They're asking AI about stuff. 10:10.180 --> 10:11.320 They're jumping all over. 10:11.420 --> 10:13.620 They're following every little rabbit trail 10:13.620 --> 10:15.320 in the column, all the different verses. 10:15.580 --> 10:17.520 And the problem is that they don't end up 10:17.520 --> 10:19.120 getting to the destination. 10:19.800 --> 10:21.200 They constantly get hijacked. 10:21.360 --> 10:23.280 Like they can't even get through the book of Genesis 10:23.780 --> 10:26.720 because every couple of verses, they're getting hijacked. 10:26.900 --> 10:30.220 So again, I think a good balance is that sometimes 10:30.920 --> 10:34.100 it's good to just read the Bible and read it 10:34.100 --> 10:36.900 and read it in order and just cruise through it 10:36.900 --> 10:38.300 and not get hijacked. 10:38.360 --> 10:39.360 But then other times, you know, 10:39.400 --> 10:42.680 when you do want to kind of dig deep and do a deep dive, 10:42.680 --> 10:44.700 then that's where comparing scripture 10:44.700 --> 10:46.060 with scripture comes in handy. 10:46.540 --> 10:48.140 And you know, the Bible also says this 10:48.140 --> 10:49.700 in 1 Corinthians chapter two. 10:49.780 --> 10:51.400 It says, which things also we speak, 10:52.040 --> 10:54.640 not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, 10:54.880 --> 10:57.060 but which the holy ghost teacheth, 10:58.020 --> 11:00.380 comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 11:01.000 --> 11:02.980 But the natural man received not the things 11:02.980 --> 11:05.320 of the spirit of God, for their foolishness unto him, 11:05.540 --> 11:06.560 neither can he know them 11:06.560 --> 11:08.560 because they are spiritually discerned. 11:08.960 --> 11:10.560 And so what the Bible is saying there is 11:10.560 --> 11:12.600 that when we teach and preach the Bible, 11:12.960 --> 11:15.300 we want to use biblical terminology, 11:15.780 --> 11:17.400 not words of man's wisdom. 11:17.400 --> 11:18.500 Here's what he's saying. 11:18.860 --> 11:22.880 Not a bunch of theological man-made jargon, right? 11:23.020 --> 11:24.480 And so let me tell you this, 11:24.720 --> 11:26.380 a lot of people spend way too much time 11:26.380 --> 11:29.100 reading about the Bible instead of reading the Bible. 11:29.740 --> 11:31.840 There's a huge difference between reading the Bible 11:32.240 --> 11:33.260 and reading about the Bible. 11:33.960 --> 11:37.700 And so when you're just constantly reading commentaries 11:37.700 --> 11:40.800 and devotional booklets that tell you about the Bible, 11:41.160 --> 11:44.780 a lot of those are just giving you a lot of philosophies 11:44.780 --> 11:47.800 and wisdom of man and traditions of man. 11:48.220 --> 11:51.960 So it's good rather to speak with the words 11:51.960 --> 11:54.800 that the holy ghost teaches, meaning biblical terminology, 11:55.400 --> 11:59.340 not getting bogged down in philosophy and vain tradition 11:59.970 --> 12:03.220 and also just comparing spiritual with spiritual, 12:03.680 --> 12:06.740 comparing second kings with second chronicles. 12:06.940 --> 12:09.500 Not necessarily second kings with this theologian, 12:09.760 --> 12:12.500 second chronicles with this scholar, with this philosopher. 12:12.960 --> 12:15.340 We need to a lot of times just leave that stuff out 12:15.340 --> 12:18.340 and just stick to the Bible itself. 12:19.340 --> 12:20.420 And so let's do that. 12:20.540 --> 12:21.880 We're gonna compare right now. 12:22.000 --> 12:23.100 We're gonna jump over to Chronicles 12:23.100 --> 12:24.520 and get more detail on the story. 12:24.680 --> 12:28.940 It says in verse number 15 of chapter 26, 12:29.140 --> 12:31.340 it says he made in Jerusalem engines 12:32.080 --> 12:35.360 invented by cunning men to be on the towers 12:35.360 --> 12:37.660 and upon the bulwarks to shoot arrows 12:37.660 --> 12:39.580 and great stones with all. 12:39.660 --> 12:42.100 So this is kind of primitive technology to us, 12:42.100 --> 12:43.880 but at the time it was pretty groundbreaking, 12:44.320 --> 12:50.940 innovative stuff, crossbows and giant harpoon guns 12:50.940 --> 12:54.980 and catapults and trebuchets and whatever, right? 12:55.460 --> 12:59.120 And so this stuff at the time was pretty cutting edge 12:59.120 --> 13:01.220 and it says his name spread far abroad 13:01.220 --> 13:04.960 and he was marvelously helped till he was strong, 13:05.300 --> 13:06.780 but when he was strong his heart 13:06.780 --> 13:08.040 was lifted up to his destruction. 13:08.560 --> 13:10.680 And so what we see in this chapter, 13:10.680 --> 13:11.860 and we're not gonna read the whole chapter 13:11.860 --> 13:13.700 for sake of time, but before this, 13:14.260 --> 13:16.140 Uzziah is just having all kinds of successes. 13:16.680 --> 13:19.380 I mean, he's having agricultural successes, 13:20.360 --> 13:23.660 military successes and technological successes. 13:24.100 --> 13:25.780 I mean, this guy is on the cutting edge, 13:26.200 --> 13:28.080 he's thriving, he's doing great 13:28.080 --> 13:31.680 and the Bible says that his name spread far abroad. 13:31.860 --> 13:34.560 I mean, he's also not just got power, 13:34.720 --> 13:35.520 but he's got fame. 13:36.180 --> 13:37.260 People are hearing about it. 13:37.340 --> 13:39.920 People are hearing about what an awesome king he is. 13:39.920 --> 13:41.660 I mean, he reigned for 52 years 13:41.660 --> 13:43.560 and he builds up a great reputation 13:44.100 --> 13:46.620 and the Bible says that it's because of God. 13:46.920 --> 13:49.560 You know, God is the one who did this for him. 13:49.940 --> 13:53.360 It's not just because he was just such an awesome guy. 13:53.720 --> 13:58.000 The Bible says that he was marvelously helped. 13:58.180 --> 13:59.980 That's why he got famous. 14:00.260 --> 14:02.280 That's why he had all the successes 14:02.760 --> 14:05.120 to God be the glory, great things he had done. 14:05.500 --> 14:07.260 And you know, the Bible says every good gift 14:07.260 --> 14:09.120 and every perfect gift is from above 14:09.570 --> 14:11.240 and coming down from the father of lights 14:11.240 --> 14:13.560 with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. 14:13.940 --> 14:16.860 And so we see here that all of the credit 14:16.860 --> 14:18.980 really ultimately goes to God. 14:19.140 --> 14:22.860 God is marvelously helping Uzziah, 14:23.600 --> 14:25.700 but then once he gets strong, 14:25.960 --> 14:29.140 instead of thinking to himself, wow, this is great. 14:29.460 --> 14:32.380 God's blessing me and I don't even deserve this 14:32.380 --> 14:34.220 and I just need to stay humble 14:34.220 --> 14:37.320 and realize that God gives and God takes away. 14:37.320 --> 14:38.740 Blessed be the name of the Lord. 14:39.280 --> 14:41.460 So I better mine my P's and my Q's 14:41.460 --> 14:43.120 so I don't lose everything. 14:43.740 --> 14:45.800 Because look, it doesn't matter how famous you are, 14:45.940 --> 14:48.080 it doesn't matter how successful you are, 14:48.160 --> 14:50.600 how much money you have, how healthy you are, 14:50.940 --> 14:52.920 what kind of achievements and technology you have. 14:53.220 --> 14:53.780 You know, at the end of the day, 14:53.860 --> 14:55.600 God can always take you down. 14:56.540 --> 14:59.360 So you should always serve the Lord with fear 14:59.360 --> 15:00.400 and rejoice with trembling 15:00.400 --> 15:02.560 and not just think that you're untouchable 15:02.560 --> 15:04.640 or invincible or yeah, I don't need God anymore. 15:05.060 --> 15:06.320 No, we always need God. 15:06.320 --> 15:09.500 Every single day, we need God to be on our side. 15:09.640 --> 15:10.820 We need God to be blessing us 15:10.820 --> 15:12.680 or we are in peril, my friends, 15:12.920 --> 15:16.780 because any of us could crash and burn at any moment 15:16.780 --> 15:18.360 if the Lord's not on our side. 15:18.820 --> 15:21.140 So we don't want to get all puffed up thinking like, 15:21.480 --> 15:25.320 oh, I'm untouchable, I'm invincible, I'm the greatest. 15:25.660 --> 15:26.520 You know, and there's just nothing 15:26.900 --> 15:28.640 that anybody can do to take me down 15:28.640 --> 15:31.460 because look, this guy financially is doing great, 15:32.240 --> 15:34.700 militarily, everything else, but here's the thing, 15:34.700 --> 15:36.660 he got struck with a physical disease. 15:37.880 --> 15:40.020 I mean, this is an incurable disease. 15:40.220 --> 15:41.380 Any one of us could be struck 15:41.380 --> 15:43.000 with an incurable disease at any time 15:43.520 --> 15:47.060 because God is the one who holds our very breath 15:47.060 --> 15:47.820 in his hands. 15:48.120 --> 15:49.780 So we don't want to get puffed up. 15:49.840 --> 15:52.800 We always want to thank God and glorify God 15:52.800 --> 15:55.220 for all the successes in our lives 15:55.220 --> 15:57.820 and not just take the credit for ourselves, 15:57.920 --> 15:59.860 like it's somehow worse special or something. 16:00.460 --> 16:02.600 You know, no, the only thing that makes you special 16:02.600 --> 16:05.680 if you're saved and if you're dedicated to serving God, 16:05.940 --> 16:06.800 yeah, that does make you special 16:06.800 --> 16:08.460 because unfortunately a lot of people 16:08.460 --> 16:09.880 aren't that dedicated. 16:10.260 --> 16:11.720 So if you're saved and dedicated, 16:12.020 --> 16:13.960 but at the end of the day, him the gloryeth, 16:14.000 --> 16:14.920 let him glory in the Lord. 16:16.000 --> 16:18.320 And realize that as soon as you stop 16:19.000 --> 16:20.500 doing right in the side of the Lord, 16:21.040 --> 16:24.460 the blessings are often gonna stop flowing at that point. 16:25.160 --> 16:26.960 And so what we see here is that 16:27.880 --> 16:30.760 when he was strong, his heart was lifted up. 16:30.760 --> 16:33.700 I mean, just that phrase alone says so much. 16:34.160 --> 16:36.780 When he was strong, his heart was lifted up. 16:36.860 --> 16:39.160 Look, I don't want God to have to keep me weak 16:39.160 --> 16:42.220 and keep me poor and keep me lame 16:42.220 --> 16:44.220 just so that I don't get puffed up. 16:45.300 --> 16:47.980 You know, we want God to be able to bless us 16:47.980 --> 16:49.960 with a little bit of success, 16:50.520 --> 16:52.000 little bit of career success, 16:52.560 --> 16:53.980 little bit of family success, 16:54.400 --> 16:56.140 little bit of money in the bank or whatever 16:56.140 --> 16:58.020 without it just going to our heads 16:58.020 --> 16:59.420 and making us crazy. 17:00.460 --> 17:02.360 But if you're the kind of person 17:02.360 --> 17:03.760 who's gonna get prideful and arrogant, 17:03.960 --> 17:06.240 then God's just gonna have to keep you lean all the time. 17:06.940 --> 17:08.340 And obviously we don't want that. 17:08.720 --> 17:10.160 We want God to be able to bless us. 17:10.460 --> 17:13.020 We want to be strong without it going to our head 17:13.020 --> 17:14.960 because when your heart's lifted up, 17:15.160 --> 17:16.620 guess what, it's to your destruction 17:16.620 --> 17:18.940 because pride goes before destruction 17:18.940 --> 17:21.360 and a haughty spirit before the fall. 17:21.780 --> 17:25.040 And so his heart was lifted up to his destruction 17:25.540 --> 17:27.980 for he transgressed against the Lord his God 17:27.980 --> 17:30.080 and went into the temple of the Lord 17:30.080 --> 17:33.140 to burn incense upon the altar of incense. 17:33.460 --> 17:35.520 This might not really seem like a big deal 17:35.960 --> 17:37.500 to think like, well, so what? 17:38.680 --> 17:41.200 Uzziah, he gets puffed up so he decides 17:41.200 --> 17:43.680 to just go light up some incense in the house of God. 17:43.780 --> 17:44.600 What's the big deal? 17:45.220 --> 17:47.220 What you have to understand is that he is 17:47.220 --> 17:48.940 the king of the nation. 17:49.080 --> 17:52.060 He is the political authority, if you will. 17:52.460 --> 17:54.560 He's the secular authority, if you will. 17:54.880 --> 17:57.460 And what he's doing is he's getting out of his lane 17:57.460 --> 18:00.380 and invading the office of someone else. 18:00.680 --> 18:04.140 It's kind of like a separation of church and state here 18:04.520 --> 18:06.760 that basically the house of God 18:06.760 --> 18:09.800 is supposed to be run by the high priest 18:09.800 --> 18:12.180 and the priests are the ones who are supposed 18:12.180 --> 18:13.600 to be doing the stuff in the house of God, 18:13.900 --> 18:15.280 not the political leader. 18:15.420 --> 18:17.000 The king isn't supposed to go in there 18:17.000 --> 18:19.640 and take over the job of the high priest. 18:19.940 --> 18:21.480 But again, because he's puffed up, 18:21.720 --> 18:23.220 he's just like, well, I want to have it all. 18:23.760 --> 18:25.460 It's not enough for me to be the king. 18:25.460 --> 18:27.880 I also want to be the religious head 18:28.420 --> 18:29.820 as well as the political head. 18:30.160 --> 18:31.680 And of course, that's not right. 18:31.760 --> 18:34.000 There's supposed to be that separation there. 18:34.640 --> 18:37.740 And so it says that he went into the temple of the Lord 18:37.740 --> 18:40.500 to burn incense upon the altar of incense. 18:41.000 --> 18:43.400 And as a rye of the priests went in after him 18:43.400 --> 18:46.000 and with him forescore priests of the Lord 18:46.000 --> 18:46.860 that were valiant men. 18:46.980 --> 18:49.000 So he takes 80 priests to back them up 18:49.480 --> 18:51.400 and he picks guys that are actually 18:51.400 --> 18:53.840 not just religious guys, but these guys 18:53.840 --> 18:56.340 are valiant men, meaning that these guys know how to fight 18:56.880 --> 18:58.500 and that they're actually going to be able 18:58.500 --> 19:01.500 to put the herd on if they need to. 19:02.140 --> 19:04.180 And so he goes in there with 80 guys 19:04.180 --> 19:06.180 and they withstood Uzziah the king 19:06.180 --> 19:09.800 and said to him, it appertaineth not unto thee, Uzziah, 19:10.140 --> 19:11.460 to burn incense unto the Lord, 19:11.800 --> 19:13.420 but to the priests, the sons of Aaron 19:13.420 --> 19:15.060 that are consecrated to burn incense, 19:15.360 --> 19:18.220 go out of the sanctuary for thou hast trespassed, 19:18.600 --> 19:20.900 neither shall it be for thine honor from the Lord God. 19:20.900 --> 19:24.560 He's saying, look, the whole point of worshiping God 19:24.560 --> 19:25.820 is so that God will bless you. 19:26.900 --> 19:28.720 The whole point, if you're gonna burn incense 19:28.720 --> 19:32.120 in the temple to God, it's because you're trying to please God. 19:32.260 --> 19:35.880 You want it to be a sweet smelling savor in his nostrils, 19:36.080 --> 19:38.600 but if God specifically told you not to do it, 19:39.000 --> 19:40.120 then why would you do it? 19:40.240 --> 19:41.580 The whole point is to please God. 19:41.960 --> 19:42.440 Well, guess what? 19:43.040 --> 19:44.380 Disobedience doesn't please God. 19:44.900 --> 19:49.580 The Bible says that to obey is better than sacrifice. 19:51.520 --> 19:53.820 And obedience is what God's looking for. 19:53.880 --> 19:56.340 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft 19:56.340 --> 20:00.320 and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. 20:00.540 --> 20:04.840 So what good is it to do some spiritual activity, 20:05.100 --> 20:10.620 to do some missions trip or ministry or whatever, 20:10.780 --> 20:12.260 if it's against God's will, 20:12.420 --> 20:14.220 if it's in disobedience to the Lord, 20:14.420 --> 20:16.140 it's like, how's God gonna bless that? 20:17.820 --> 20:18.880 And you say, well, how do I know 20:18.880 --> 20:19.840 if I'm disobeying the Lord? 20:19.840 --> 20:20.960 Because you're disobeying the Bible. 20:22.040 --> 20:24.400 You know, if you're stealing, committing adultery, 20:24.800 --> 20:26.820 bearing false witness, coveting, 20:27.080 --> 20:29.560 those are things that God forbids. 20:29.660 --> 20:31.120 That's how you know you're not right with God 20:31.120 --> 20:32.100 when you're doing that kind of stuff. 20:33.340 --> 20:34.840 And so what does the Bible say? 20:35.320 --> 20:38.080 It says in verse 19, then Uzziah was wrong. 20:38.340 --> 20:40.940 So, you know, this is Uzziah's chance to get right. 20:41.560 --> 20:43.060 You know, as our eyes confronting him, 20:43.100 --> 20:45.420 he's got 80 rough necks behind him 20:45.960 --> 20:49.160 and he's telling him why he shouldn't be doing it. 20:49.160 --> 20:50.260 He's explaining it to him. 20:50.360 --> 20:52.200 Look, this doesn't make any sense. 20:52.580 --> 20:56.160 Stay in your lane, don't come and invade God's house. 20:56.660 --> 20:58.860 And instead of actually just saying, you know what? 20:59.140 --> 21:00.080 I don't know what I was thinking. 21:00.400 --> 21:01.100 This is stupid. 21:01.460 --> 21:01.980 I'm sorry. 21:02.520 --> 21:04.560 Instead, Uzziah just gets mad, right? 21:04.920 --> 21:06.700 And you know, this is how people often react 21:06.700 --> 21:07.620 to being corrected. 21:08.060 --> 21:10.120 They could either get mad or they get right. 21:11.200 --> 21:13.120 But remember, the reason why he gets mad 21:13.120 --> 21:13.980 is because he's puffed up. 21:14.640 --> 21:15.720 He feels invincible. 21:15.960 --> 21:17.200 He's had so much success 21:17.610 --> 21:19.400 that his heart is lifted up 21:20.010 --> 21:21.660 when he's strong and to his destruction. 21:21.980 --> 21:24.700 So he gets mad and he had a sensor in his hand 21:24.700 --> 21:28.360 to burn incense and while he was wrothed with the priest, 21:28.880 --> 21:31.180 the leprosy even rose up in his forehead 21:31.880 --> 21:33.700 before the priest in the house of the Lord 21:33.700 --> 21:34.840 from beside the incense altar. 21:35.040 --> 21:37.120 So it's kind of like symbolic. 21:37.500 --> 21:41.760 Like you can see the anger that Uzziah has 21:41.760 --> 21:44.500 and the anger is like being converted 21:45.860 --> 21:48.640 into actual disease on his face. 21:49.100 --> 21:49.740 Think about this. 21:50.100 --> 21:51.520 So, you know, when somebody gets mad, 21:51.960 --> 21:53.320 their face will turn colors, right? 21:53.440 --> 21:54.600 Like somebody will get really mad 21:54.600 --> 21:56.520 and they'll turn like bright red 21:56.520 --> 21:57.960 and get angry and whatever. 21:58.360 --> 22:00.280 And you know, and so it's like, you know, 22:00.340 --> 22:02.240 instead of turning bright red with anger, 22:02.600 --> 22:05.120 it's like the anger is just translating 22:05.120 --> 22:07.060 directly into disease. 22:07.340 --> 22:09.780 He's just like, and just breaking out 22:09.780 --> 22:14.600 in this horrible, deadly, you know, contagious disease. 22:16.040 --> 22:18.220 And so the priests are looking at this 22:18.220 --> 22:19.100 and they're freaked out. 22:19.180 --> 22:19.980 It says in verse 20, 22:20.120 --> 22:21.700 and as a riot, the chief priests and all the priests 22:21.700 --> 22:25.160 looked upon him and be told he was leprous in his forehead 22:25.680 --> 22:27.580 and they thrust him out from thence. 22:27.580 --> 22:29.380 Yay, himself hasted also to go out. 22:29.460 --> 22:31.660 So like at this point, he's not trying to stay anymore 22:32.260 --> 22:34.680 because they go to shove him out of the house of God 22:34.680 --> 22:35.820 because he's defiling it. 22:36.020 --> 22:38.280 Because remember the whole point of the house of God 22:38.280 --> 22:41.940 being, you know, a sanctuary, which means holy place, 22:42.280 --> 22:43.780 is they weren't supposed to bring in that 22:43.780 --> 22:45.600 which is unclean and defiling. 22:46.100 --> 22:49.660 And obviously leprosy is super unclean, super defiling. 22:49.660 --> 22:51.820 So they're like, we gotta get this guy out of here. 22:52.200 --> 22:54.380 But then he's like, hey guys, I'm leaving. 22:55.020 --> 22:56.860 Trust me, because he knows what's happening 22:56.860 --> 22:57.820 to his forehead also. 22:58.300 --> 23:00.280 So he realizes, what have I done? 23:00.420 --> 23:02.540 I screwed up, but at that point it's too late. 23:03.300 --> 23:05.100 And so, you know, the smart thing to do 23:05.100 --> 23:06.840 is just listen to the word of God 23:07.300 --> 23:08.540 when the Bible's warning you. 23:08.900 --> 23:10.580 Don't wait to get punished by God. 23:11.200 --> 23:12.980 You have to wait until you get punished 23:12.980 --> 23:15.400 and then now I wanna get right with God 23:15.400 --> 23:17.620 because sometimes the damage from the punishment 23:17.620 --> 23:18.180 is permanent. 23:19.160 --> 23:21.300 So it's a lot smarter to get right with God 23:21.300 --> 23:22.920 before the punishment comes. 23:23.160 --> 23:25.000 When the verbal correction comes, 23:25.480 --> 23:26.840 that's when you wanna get right with God, 23:27.000 --> 23:28.800 not when the physical punishment comes. 23:29.440 --> 23:31.240 Now obviously when the physical punishment comes, 23:31.320 --> 23:32.420 yeah, you better get out of there 23:32.420 --> 23:33.780 because otherwise, you know, 23:33.840 --> 23:36.120 God might just kill you on the spot here, Uzziah. 23:36.120 --> 23:38.100 So Uzziah is like, yeah, I gotta get out of here 23:38.100 --> 23:40.440 before something even worse happens to me, 23:41.080 --> 23:42.540 but it's already bad. 23:42.600 --> 23:44.440 He's gonna spend the rest of his life 23:45.260 --> 23:46.920 quarantined the rest of his life. 23:46.960 --> 23:50.700 He's on lockdown because of this stupid thing that he did. 23:51.520 --> 23:54.320 And so, you know, the Bible talks about how 23:54.320 --> 23:58.960 a rebuke, a reproof enters more into a wise man 23:58.960 --> 24:02.260 than a hundred stripes into a fool, right? 24:02.580 --> 24:04.720 You could beat a fool a hundred times 24:04.720 --> 24:05.840 and they don't get the message, 24:06.160 --> 24:08.940 whereas you could just tell the wise man verbally, 24:09.720 --> 24:11.140 hey, this is why you shouldn't do that. 24:11.240 --> 24:13.680 Here's what the Bible says, oh, okay, yeah, okay, 24:13.780 --> 24:15.540 let me get that fixed right away. 24:16.500 --> 24:17.560 And you know, at the end of the day, 24:18.220 --> 24:22.220 people need to care what the Bible says today in 2026. 24:22.500 --> 24:24.520 And you know, the most frustrating thing for me 24:24.520 --> 24:27.020 is just Christians not caring about 24:27.020 --> 24:28.640 the absolute truth of the Bible 24:28.640 --> 24:30.340 and everything's just based on feelings. 24:31.540 --> 24:32.740 Just all based on feelings. 24:32.740 --> 24:33.760 And if you think about it, 24:33.900 --> 24:35.840 if you judge this story by your feelings, 24:36.400 --> 24:38.120 it's just like, oh, what's the matter? 24:38.340 --> 24:40.540 He's just trying to burn a little incense under the Lord. 24:40.860 --> 24:43.340 He's just worshiping God the best he knows how. 24:43.760 --> 24:45.300 I mean, his heart's in the right place. 24:45.740 --> 24:47.560 I mean, he's just trying to worship the Lord. 24:47.800 --> 24:49.060 Is he doing something bad? 24:49.300 --> 24:50.900 I mean, hey, we should just be happy 24:50.900 --> 24:52.720 that he's just worshiping the Lord at all. 24:53.000 --> 24:54.860 We should just be happy that he's even in church. 24:55.220 --> 24:59.000 But no, because there's some absolute lines 24:59.000 --> 25:01.500 that you just don't cross, right? 25:01.500 --> 25:04.260 God has all these lines in the sand. 25:04.740 --> 25:07.360 Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery, 25:07.500 --> 25:08.360 thou shalt not steal, 25:08.740 --> 25:13.400 thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor, 25:13.540 --> 25:14.380 thou shalt not covet. 25:15.280 --> 25:17.460 That's not make unto thee any graven image. 25:18.260 --> 25:21.300 Oh, but you don't understand this little carved 25:21.300 --> 25:24.680 plastic Jesus just makes me feel so close to the Lord. 25:24.960 --> 25:27.320 Oh, I just love this little bobble head Mary 25:27.320 --> 25:28.500 on my dash or whatever. 25:28.880 --> 25:29.460 Look, my friend. 25:29.840 --> 25:30.800 Just don't do it. 25:31.460 --> 25:33.960 There's certain lines that you just don't cross. 25:34.080 --> 25:36.440 We need some moral absolutes in this country 25:36.980 --> 25:40.360 instead of just this fluid, emotion-based, 25:40.980 --> 25:44.300 whatever kind of seems right in your own eyes 25:44.300 --> 25:44.660 and whatever. 25:45.160 --> 25:47.760 That's the problem with Christianity today 25:48.420 --> 25:52.180 is that we just have lost our thus sayeth the Lord 25:52.720 --> 25:54.620 and just, you know, this is what it is. 25:54.880 --> 25:55.840 Don't cross that line. 25:56.420 --> 25:58.380 And so what he did here is he's crossing a line. 25:59.580 --> 26:01.640 Now you could also read this story 26:02.160 --> 26:04.060 and think about it metaphorically 26:04.060 --> 26:06.540 and think about the fact that this is kind of like 26:06.540 --> 26:10.640 the government invading the church house in a sense. 26:10.880 --> 26:11.800 Now here's the thing. 26:12.120 --> 26:15.100 Throughout history, you've had state-run churches. 26:15.860 --> 26:16.620 They're all bad. 26:17.680 --> 26:18.580 They're all bad. 26:19.100 --> 26:19.760 Which one's good? 26:19.920 --> 26:20.460 The Church of England? 26:21.800 --> 26:24.760 You know, the state Roman Catholic Church in Germany, 26:24.760 --> 26:27.400 the state evangelical Lutheran Church in Germany. 26:27.700 --> 26:29.200 Are those great churches? 26:29.380 --> 26:31.640 Are those great success stories spiritually? 26:32.440 --> 26:32.900 No. 26:33.600 --> 26:33.900 Okay? 26:34.220 --> 26:35.260 And you know, the Armenians, 26:35.340 --> 26:38.840 they brag about being the first Christian country 26:38.840 --> 26:40.040 because they're basically the first ones 26:40.040 --> 26:41.140 with a state church. 26:41.560 --> 26:44.500 I wanna say it was like 309 AD. 26:44.680 --> 26:46.720 It was like 306, 309, somewhere in there. 26:47.080 --> 26:48.960 You know, the Armenian Apostolic Church 26:48.960 --> 26:50.860 which is a state-run church. 26:50.960 --> 26:52.980 And of course, it's an apostate church. 26:52.980 --> 26:54.280 It's idolatry. 26:55.100 --> 26:57.160 You know, it's all the kind of false doctrine 26:57.160 --> 26:59.640 that you're gonna find in like a Greek Orthodox Church 26:59.640 --> 27:02.360 or a Roman Catholic Church or something like that. 27:02.860 --> 27:04.800 You know, and then just a couple years later, 27:04.840 --> 27:06.360 they're just like, bro, we were first, 27:06.440 --> 27:07.680 we did it before, it was cool. 27:07.920 --> 27:10.220 Because a couple years later in 313 AD, 27:10.800 --> 27:12.660 of course, you have Constantine 27:12.660 --> 27:15.180 making Christianity, quote, unquote, 27:15.600 --> 27:17.440 the official religion of the Roman Empire. 27:17.740 --> 27:20.360 And then you end up with the Roman Catholic Church. 27:20.820 --> 27:22.400 And you know, at the end of the day, 27:22.400 --> 27:25.620 these are all ending up being apostate. 27:26.720 --> 27:29.140 Whether it's a state Lutheran church over here. 27:29.460 --> 27:32.640 You know, when I was soul-winning in Norway in 2008, 27:32.900 --> 27:34.660 pretty much every single door we knocked, 27:35.000 --> 27:37.160 you'd ask them if they are a Christian 27:37.160 --> 27:39.720 and they said, they didn't say, yeah, I'm a Christian. 27:39.860 --> 27:41.200 I believe in Jesus Christ. 27:41.780 --> 27:45.120 You know, I'm saved by the blood of the crucified one. 27:45.660 --> 27:46.780 No, no, you knocked the door 27:46.780 --> 27:47.840 and this is what they say. 27:47.980 --> 27:48.780 Hey, are you a Christian? 27:48.920 --> 27:49.420 Are you saved? 27:49.600 --> 27:50.360 Do you know for sure you're gonna have it? 27:50.540 --> 27:51.380 This is the answer you get. 27:51.380 --> 27:53.360 Yeah, I till her, I start here again. 27:53.740 --> 27:55.260 You know, everybody knows what that means, right? 27:55.600 --> 27:56.300 They're just basically saying, 27:56.360 --> 27:58.480 I belong to the state church. 27:59.100 --> 28:00.400 That's pretty much what everybody, 28:00.760 --> 28:01.520 it's like, are you a Christian? 28:01.660 --> 28:03.180 Well, I belong to the state church. 28:03.320 --> 28:04.140 I belong in the state church. 28:04.460 --> 28:06.140 And I don't know what the statistics are now, 28:06.340 --> 28:07.760 but at the time in Norway, 28:07.960 --> 28:08.820 which country of about, 28:08.980 --> 28:11.980 at the time maybe 4.7, 4.8 million people 28:11.980 --> 28:12.700 to put it in perspective, 28:12.920 --> 28:14.860 that's how many people live in Maricopa County. 28:15.480 --> 28:17.640 So, you know, in this big, giant, 28:17.640 --> 28:18.620 long country of Norway, 28:19.060 --> 28:21.100 it's basically less than the population 28:21.100 --> 28:22.020 of Maricopa County. 28:22.700 --> 28:26.660 And basically it was like 94% Lutheran at the time, 28:26.780 --> 28:30.680 I believe, like 94% of people belong to the state church. 28:30.900 --> 28:32.420 And yeah, we went door to door, 28:32.960 --> 28:35.880 you know, for four days, like pretty much all day. 28:36.160 --> 28:38.120 And yeah, that statistics accurate. 28:38.220 --> 28:41.080 Cause that's what everybody was telling us all day long. 28:41.300 --> 28:42.720 But you know what, do they know they're going to heaven? 28:43.100 --> 28:44.000 Well, this is what they say. 28:44.380 --> 28:45.680 They say, yeah, I know I'm going to heaven. 28:45.820 --> 28:46.700 Why are you going to heaven? 28:46.980 --> 28:48.300 Oh, I'm going to heaven cause I, 28:49.260 --> 28:50.880 and it's such a weird answer, 28:51.040 --> 28:52.440 but I got this answer so many times. 28:52.780 --> 28:54.440 They'd say, well, I'm going to heaven 28:54.440 --> 28:58.240 because I used to believe in Christianity when I was a kid. 28:59.260 --> 29:00.940 So they said that basically like, 29:01.240 --> 29:03.000 they got baptized as a baby. 29:03.420 --> 29:05.200 They're like, I got baptized as a baby. 29:05.540 --> 29:08.720 And when I was a kid, I went through the process. 29:09.080 --> 29:11.640 And so like, I think that my childhood faith 29:11.640 --> 29:12.600 is going to save me. 29:12.980 --> 29:14.640 But here's the thing, people who, 29:14.880 --> 29:17.980 and look, obviously getting saved as a little kid 29:17.980 --> 29:20.180 is great believing on the Lord Jesus Christ 29:20.180 --> 29:21.300 as a little kid is great. 29:21.500 --> 29:23.480 And if you truly understand the gospel 29:23.480 --> 29:25.500 and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as a little kid, 29:25.780 --> 29:27.040 you are saved for life. 29:27.520 --> 29:29.500 Of course, cause you can never lose your salvation 29:29.500 --> 29:31.200 cause God gives us eternal life 29:31.200 --> 29:32.860 and we shall never perish. 29:33.120 --> 29:35.160 Neither shall any man pluck us out of his hand 29:35.160 --> 29:38.520 and we, you know, nothing could separate us 29:38.520 --> 29:39.260 from the love of God, 29:39.400 --> 29:40.540 which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 29:41.200 --> 29:43.320 But the thing is that, you know, 29:43.640 --> 29:46.080 their, you know, childhood faith though 29:46.080 --> 29:47.620 is in just a bunch of 29:49.640 --> 29:50.780 pagan mumbo jumbo. 29:50.940 --> 29:52.840 They don't actually get the gospel, you know. 29:53.120 --> 29:54.840 I got saved when I was six years old, 29:55.060 --> 29:56.300 but when I was six years old, 29:56.320 --> 29:57.540 I understood that I was a sinner. 29:58.240 --> 30:00.100 I understood that there's a heaven and hell 30:00.460 --> 30:02.320 and I believed that Jesus Christ 30:02.320 --> 30:03.740 is the only way to be saved. 30:03.900 --> 30:06.140 And that if I put all my faith and trust in him, 30:06.580 --> 30:09.460 I'll be saved, not by works, not by earning it. 30:09.500 --> 30:11.260 It's just by putting my faith and trust in Christ. 30:11.500 --> 30:13.260 And that if I believe in him, I'll be saved forever. 30:14.240 --> 30:15.680 Now look, if that's what they believe 30:15.680 --> 30:16.820 when they were little kids, they're gonna be saved. 30:17.100 --> 30:18.960 But they're flat out telling you right now 30:18.960 --> 30:20.580 that they don't believe in it. 30:21.300 --> 30:23.580 They say, well, I don't believe in it now, but I used to. 30:24.320 --> 30:25.740 Well, here's the, anybody who says 30:25.740 --> 30:26.800 I don't believe in it now, 30:26.840 --> 30:28.760 but I used to never really believed in it. 30:29.480 --> 30:31.720 Because, you know, the Bible says they went out from us, 30:31.800 --> 30:33.080 but they were not all of us. 30:33.300 --> 30:34.480 For if they had been of us, 30:34.540 --> 30:36.940 they would no doubt have continued with us, 30:37.160 --> 30:38.960 but they went out, that they might be made manifest, 30:39.160 --> 30:40.820 that they were not all of us. 30:41.300 --> 30:43.720 Once you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ 30:43.720 --> 30:47.580 as your Savior, whether you're six or 16 or 106, 30:48.280 --> 30:50.340 the Holy Spirit moves in 30:51.280 --> 30:53.540 and he will never leave you nor forsake you. 30:54.020 --> 30:56.540 And so you have Christ in your heart, 30:56.980 --> 30:59.580 Christ in you, the hope of glory, the Bible says, 31:00.180 --> 31:02.980 that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. 31:03.500 --> 31:05.940 So when you truly believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, 31:06.300 --> 31:08.980 you have Christ living inside of you. 31:09.220 --> 31:11.880 You have the Holy Spirit in dwelling you. 31:11.880 --> 31:14.800 You also have your new man that was quickened, 31:15.000 --> 31:18.040 not the old Stephen Anderson, but the new Stephen Anderson, 31:18.560 --> 31:21.740 the inward man, these things are permanent. 31:22.140 --> 31:23.540 So you don't just later just go, 31:23.880 --> 31:25.080 nah, I don't believe in it. 31:25.440 --> 31:27.840 People who later say, nah, I don't believe in it, 31:27.880 --> 31:29.100 were never saved in the first place. 31:30.400 --> 31:32.360 Anybody who quote unquote stops believing, 31:32.600 --> 31:34.300 it's because they never truly believed in the first place. 31:34.740 --> 31:37.400 Because, you know, and I kind of use this illustration 31:37.400 --> 31:40.080 to people sometimes is like when you're a kid, 31:40.080 --> 31:42.600 you might be told that Santa Claus is real. 31:43.360 --> 31:45.020 So you believe in Santa Claus, right? 31:45.500 --> 31:46.800 And then at some point you realize 31:46.800 --> 31:47.940 that Santa Claus isn't real. 31:48.520 --> 31:51.900 You learn that at some, now my mom never taught us 31:51.900 --> 31:53.180 Santa Claus because she said, 31:53.440 --> 31:55.420 I want to get credit for these presents that I'm buying. 31:55.720 --> 31:58.220 I don't want Santa taking the credit. 31:58.420 --> 31:59.880 I bought this stuff, you know, 31:59.940 --> 32:01.840 I want you to know it's coming from me. 32:02.300 --> 32:05.060 So the thing is, we never learned about Santa Claus, 32:05.280 --> 32:08.140 but here's the thing, once you get to a certain age, 32:08.140 --> 32:11.000 you'll learn that Santa Claus isn't real. 32:12.080 --> 32:13.300 But let me ask you this, 32:13.380 --> 32:15.540 do you think that anybody later in life 32:15.960 --> 32:17.840 goes back to believing in Santa Claus? 32:17.980 --> 32:20.200 And goes like, nah, you know what, 32:20.280 --> 32:22.080 I'm starting to think Santa Claus really was real. 32:23.080 --> 32:25.400 No, it's kind of a one way valve, isn't it? 32:25.720 --> 32:29.840 You go from believing something that's totally wrong, 32:30.200 --> 32:31.560 that makes no sense, 32:31.960 --> 32:34.780 that's just a goofy, stupid thing to believe, right? 32:34.780 --> 32:37.760 And then you actually get the truth. 32:38.540 --> 32:40.920 And here's the thing, have you ever heard people say this? 32:40.960 --> 32:43.800 You can't unsee this, you can't unhear this. 32:43.880 --> 32:46.300 Once you know the truth, you can't unknow it. 32:46.920 --> 32:48.780 You can't unsee it, you can't unhear it. 32:48.980 --> 32:51.500 And here's the thing, the Bible calls being saved 32:51.500 --> 32:52.720 being enlightened. 32:53.680 --> 32:55.860 Move over Buddha, right? 32:56.060 --> 32:57.640 Because the real enlightenment 32:58.320 --> 33:00.140 is believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. 33:00.400 --> 33:02.200 You don't have to sit under the lotus tree, 33:02.200 --> 33:04.560 in some kind of a pretzel position 33:04.560 --> 33:06.380 in order to get enlightenment, my friend. 33:06.680 --> 33:08.280 You just believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, 33:08.780 --> 33:10.220 and you know what, you get illuminated. 33:11.140 --> 33:12.340 You get enlightened. 33:13.000 --> 33:14.180 And you understand the truth. 33:14.320 --> 33:16.760 It's like, I once was lost, but now I'm found. 33:17.040 --> 33:19.840 I was blind, but now I see. 33:20.600 --> 33:21.860 So here's the thing, when you get saved, 33:22.060 --> 33:24.240 it's like the scales fall off your eyes. 33:24.520 --> 33:26.500 You go from blindness to sight, 33:26.920 --> 33:29.100 you're saved, the Holy Spirit lives inside you, 33:29.120 --> 33:29.660 the new creature. 33:29.660 --> 33:32.180 You don't just go back to believing in Santa Claus. 33:32.760 --> 33:35.940 You don't go back to, oh, I changed my mind, 33:36.040 --> 33:36.800 I don't believe in Jesus. 33:37.040 --> 33:39.520 It's like, anybody who does that was not truly enlightened. 33:40.120 --> 33:41.800 The scales did not fall off. 33:42.440 --> 33:43.560 They were not truly illuminated. 33:44.100 --> 33:46.220 They did not actually go from blindness to sight. 33:46.440 --> 33:48.000 They have not been passed from death into life. 33:48.220 --> 33:51.000 And the evidence is that they did not continue 33:51.580 --> 33:52.500 in the faith. 33:52.900 --> 33:54.540 And again, I'm not talking about works, 33:54.860 --> 33:57.300 because you could get saved and believe in Christ 33:57.300 --> 33:59.560 and do no works and you're still saved. 34:00.520 --> 34:03.500 That just means that you're not walking in the spirit. 34:03.740 --> 34:05.260 It means you're not putting on the new man. 34:05.340 --> 34:06.580 It means you're walking in the flesh, 34:06.720 --> 34:08.720 so you're gonna continue to fulfill the lust of flesh. 34:09.040 --> 34:10.620 And look, there are people that we know 34:10.620 --> 34:13.780 that got saved and they spent a decade or more 34:14.340 --> 34:16.560 after getting saved, living a very sinful life. 34:17.660 --> 34:18.880 Nothing outwardly changed. 34:19.180 --> 34:20.580 If you looked at them from the outside, 34:21.140 --> 34:23.820 you would say this person didn't change at all, 34:24.160 --> 34:25.500 yet they were saved. 34:25.500 --> 34:26.320 And let me tell you something. 34:26.500 --> 34:28.800 On the inside, there was a dramatic change 34:30.160 --> 34:32.380 of being passed from death to life. 34:32.900 --> 34:34.420 Dead spirit is quickened. 34:34.660 --> 34:36.640 Christ is dwelling within. 34:37.280 --> 34:38.860 But here's the thing that, unfortunately, 34:39.180 --> 34:42.140 that change on the inside did not manifest on the outside 34:42.140 --> 34:45.440 because they didn't get any discipleship or growth 34:45.440 --> 34:46.820 or anything like that. 34:47.560 --> 34:48.800 You take that same person. 34:49.840 --> 34:51.920 And if you talk to that person, here's what they'll tell you. 34:52.260 --> 34:54.420 Oh, well, that whole time I knew I was saved, 34:54.980 --> 34:57.240 I knew the gospel, I knew I believed in Jesus, 34:57.500 --> 35:00.040 and I knew that the way I was living was wrong. 35:00.680 --> 35:03.040 And I felt bad about the way I was living. 35:03.360 --> 35:05.120 They're not just going through life with no conscience. 35:05.880 --> 35:07.480 If you're going through life and just live 35:07.480 --> 35:09.360 in a super simple life and have no conscience about it, 35:09.420 --> 35:10.780 that's another sign that you're not saved. 35:11.500 --> 35:13.100 So they're going through life 35:13.100 --> 35:15.440 and doing all the same things that they used to do, 35:15.500 --> 35:17.300 but they feel bad about it. 35:17.340 --> 35:18.160 They know they're saved. 35:18.320 --> 35:19.120 They believe in Christ. 35:19.580 --> 35:22.320 They're just not living it, unfortunately. 35:22.320 --> 35:23.220 Because guess what? 35:23.340 --> 35:25.720 The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. 35:26.260 --> 35:27.400 And then that same person, 35:27.780 --> 35:30.240 after being in that kind of condition for 10 years 35:30.240 --> 35:32.760 or more sometimes, will all of a sudden 35:32.760 --> 35:34.740 get plugged into a church like Faithful Word? 35:35.440 --> 35:37.280 And they get plugged into a church like Faithful Word? 35:37.520 --> 35:38.980 And all of a sudden it's like, boom, 35:39.200 --> 35:39.800 they're getting baptized. 35:40.600 --> 35:41.900 Boom, they're going soul-winning. 35:42.080 --> 35:42.920 They're listening to preaching. 35:43.140 --> 35:44.400 They're reading the Bible every day. 35:44.520 --> 35:44.720 They're praying. 35:44.980 --> 35:47.060 And then they just start growing like crazy. 35:49.020 --> 35:52.220 Now, people who misunderstand spiritual things 35:52.220 --> 35:53.220 and the gospel would look at that and say, 35:53.420 --> 35:55.000 well, that's when they really got saved. 35:55.260 --> 35:57.420 It's like, no, no, they got saved a long time ago. 35:57.980 --> 36:00.000 It's just that's when they start putting on the new man. 36:00.640 --> 36:02.200 That's when they start walking in the spirit. 36:02.540 --> 36:04.420 That's when they start growing in grace 36:04.420 --> 36:06.420 and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. 36:07.100 --> 36:09.120 You know, and of course there's the cliche about, 36:09.280 --> 36:11.360 you know, there's two wolves inside of you or whatever, 36:11.740 --> 36:14.180 you know, and whichever one you feed the most 36:14.180 --> 36:16.960 is going to be in charge of some Indian, whatever. 36:17.420 --> 36:19.020 But really, at the end of the day, 36:19.140 --> 36:20.420 not your kind of Indian, other kind. 36:20.980 --> 36:22.920 But talking feather, not dot. 36:23.420 --> 36:26.520 But the thing about this is that when it comes to 36:27.060 --> 36:28.940 the spirit and the flesh, 36:29.180 --> 36:30.760 the new man and the old man, it's true. 36:30.900 --> 36:32.180 If you feed the new man, 36:32.280 --> 36:33.520 the new man's gonna take over. 36:34.320 --> 36:36.120 And if you're feeding the old man, 36:36.240 --> 36:37.440 the old man's gonna be in charge. 36:38.200 --> 36:41.680 So, you know, listen, Kimo Sabe, 36:42.200 --> 36:44.860 you know, throw the meat to the white dog, 36:44.940 --> 36:45.820 not the black dog. 36:47.160 --> 36:48.040 You know, whatever. 36:48.560 --> 36:52.460 So, and I'm just teasing, we love Indians at our church. 36:52.700 --> 36:54.100 And so, we always have. 36:54.680 --> 36:57.000 From the beginning, we've been getting them saved 36:57.000 --> 36:59.340 and loving going up there and spending time with them 36:59.340 --> 37:00.200 and preaching to them. 37:00.400 --> 37:02.100 At the end of the day, you know, 37:02.440 --> 37:04.940 it's which one do you feed the most 37:04.940 --> 37:06.560 is gonna be the one that takes over. 37:06.640 --> 37:08.720 And so, you know, yeah, you could have someone 37:08.720 --> 37:12.300 who is truly saved on their way to heaven, 37:12.480 --> 37:14.180 just as much as I'm on my way to heaven, 37:14.220 --> 37:15.100 just as much as you're on your way, 37:15.100 --> 37:19.040 still living terribly if they're walking in the flesh. 37:20.360 --> 37:23.440 But, something dramatic has changed on the inside. 37:24.660 --> 37:26.860 We want that change to work its way out. 37:27.580 --> 37:29.660 We want to work out our salvation 37:29.660 --> 37:32.660 and we want it to manifest publicly 37:32.660 --> 37:36.260 so that we can show other people our faith by our works. 37:36.940 --> 37:39.160 Okay, but at the end of the day, unfortunately, 37:39.780 --> 37:42.020 most saved Christians are not living for God. 37:43.060 --> 37:45.240 And most of them never will get serious 37:45.240 --> 37:46.160 about their walk with God. 37:46.400 --> 37:49.600 Most of them, at best, are gonna be these like C-guys 37:49.600 --> 37:51.360 that we're reading about in 2 Kings 15. 37:52.000 --> 37:54.820 That is just the reality of the world that we live in. 37:55.040 --> 37:56.440 And it's like the rare exception 37:56.440 --> 37:58.380 when you get these people that really love the Lord, 37:58.460 --> 38:00.020 their God, with all their heart, mind, soul, 38:00.060 --> 38:02.480 and strength in the Bible, the Davids of this world. 38:02.920 --> 38:04.200 You know, not that they're perfect, 38:04.300 --> 38:06.620 but at least they love the Lord 100% 38:07.280 --> 38:09.300 and they're zealous for God, okay? 38:09.300 --> 38:11.560 So that's the thing, these people in Norway 38:12.390 --> 38:14.460 that are part of the state church, 38:15.120 --> 38:17.080 they're basically just growing up 38:17.080 --> 38:19.280 with a bunch of Bible stories 38:20.010 --> 38:21.780 and a bunch of false doctrine 38:21.780 --> 38:23.980 and whatever, they don't actually get the gospel 38:24.500 --> 38:26.980 explained to them because newsflash, 38:27.260 --> 38:30.780 the Lutheran church, despite their slogans, 38:31.000 --> 38:33.500 does not teach that salvation is by faith alone 38:33.500 --> 38:36.260 and they do not teach the eternal security of the believer. 38:36.800 --> 38:38.620 They believe you can lose your salvation 38:39.560 --> 38:41.680 and just, if you don't believe me, 38:42.020 --> 38:44.320 go out soul winning, knock the doors of Lutherans 38:44.320 --> 38:45.900 and how many of them are gonna give Christ 38:45.900 --> 38:47.140 the glory for their salvation 38:47.140 --> 38:48.540 and tell you it's all by faith? 38:48.980 --> 38:51.480 Now, they're trusting works, which is ironic 38:52.060 --> 38:54.640 because Martin Luther is the one 38:54.640 --> 38:56.040 that goes down in the history books 38:56.040 --> 38:58.700 for talking about how salvation is all by faith 38:59.280 --> 39:01.200 and yet it's amazing how his followers 39:01.200 --> 39:02.420 don't believe that, unfortunately. 39:03.420 --> 39:06.000 And so that's what it's like with these state churches, 39:06.000 --> 39:09.460 that's just one example, Norwegian state church, 39:09.900 --> 39:11.600 but I guarantee you that if we talked about 39:11.600 --> 39:12.840 the state church in Sweden, 39:13.600 --> 39:14.940 I mean, that's the ones where you just see 39:14.940 --> 39:16.920 news stories probably, but I don't know, 39:16.960 --> 39:20.820 they're probably like a Muslim, lesbian, transgender. 39:22.200 --> 39:24.600 I don't know what else to tag onto that list, 39:24.700 --> 39:27.960 but anyway, you know, there was just wild things 39:27.960 --> 39:29.880 going on in the Church of England. 39:30.260 --> 39:32.600 I mean, Church of England is super apostate, 39:32.600 --> 39:36.100 super liberal, super messed up, okay? 39:36.440 --> 39:38.600 Why? Because we don't need a state church. 39:39.340 --> 39:42.580 What we actually need is we need the house of God 39:42.580 --> 39:48.760 to be run by people who are all in spiritually. 39:50.460 --> 39:52.800 So basically, here's who you want running the church. 39:53.300 --> 39:55.180 You want a guy running the church 39:55.180 --> 39:57.680 who eats, breathes, and sleeps the Word of God. 39:58.520 --> 40:00.760 This is what he does, this is what he's into, right? 40:00.760 --> 40:03.620 You want the pastor, you want the deacons, 40:03.800 --> 40:06.700 you want any leaders in the church to be people 40:06.700 --> 40:09.080 who are walking with God every day. 40:09.500 --> 40:12.600 They eat, breathe, and sleep the Word of God. 40:13.060 --> 40:15.540 Christ is our life, okay? 40:15.680 --> 40:16.800 The rest is just details. 40:17.520 --> 40:19.060 That is who you want running the church. 40:19.280 --> 40:20.840 You don't want some secular guy 40:20.840 --> 40:22.480 who's running the government all day 40:22.960 --> 40:25.760 to come in and start fiddling around with the church, 40:25.840 --> 40:26.120 do you? 40:27.020 --> 40:28.700 No, because the person who's running the church 40:28.700 --> 40:34.600 needs to be 100% all in, this is their life, okay? 40:35.080 --> 40:35.960 That's what you want. 40:36.500 --> 40:40.220 So you don't want somebody who is just kind of casual 40:40.840 --> 40:42.220 and it's a side gig. 40:42.360 --> 40:43.900 No, look, I'm not saying that they don't have 40:43.900 --> 40:45.580 a secular job, but here's the thing. 40:45.580 --> 40:47.240 I guarantee you that my pastor friends 40:47.240 --> 40:48.480 who have secular jobs though, 40:48.760 --> 40:49.920 they're eating, breathing, 40:50.100 --> 40:51.680 and sleeping the Word of God all the time. 40:51.920 --> 40:53.200 Like even while they're at work, 40:53.540 --> 40:55.460 they're still meditating on the things of God. 40:55.900 --> 40:56.980 Even their secular job, 40:56.980 --> 40:58.340 they're doing it as unto the Lord. 40:58.920 --> 41:00.360 I did that for many years. 41:00.780 --> 41:04.400 I worked and was bivocational for many years, 41:04.640 --> 41:05.880 for the first, what, I don't know, 41:05.940 --> 41:07.860 seven years of pastoring this church or something. 41:08.280 --> 41:09.920 I actually worked a secular job. 41:10.220 --> 41:11.380 That's not what I'm talking about. 41:11.700 --> 41:14.580 I'm talking about a guy where this is his life 41:14.580 --> 41:17.060 and he's just loving the Word of God, 41:17.520 --> 41:20.140 consuming it in mass amounts, really into it. 41:20.300 --> 41:21.460 Not a guy who's like, well, 41:21.520 --> 41:23.260 my main gig is government over here. 41:23.400 --> 41:24.380 This is my life's work, 41:24.740 --> 41:25.900 but here, let me just go in 41:25.900 --> 41:28.340 and just light up some incense on the side. 41:28.560 --> 41:30.480 Here, let me just tell you how to run the church. 41:30.840 --> 41:33.560 I mean, do you want the Arizona state government 41:34.100 --> 41:36.320 telling us anything about how we do our church here? 41:36.480 --> 41:37.920 Like, do you want them coming in here 41:37.920 --> 41:39.360 and talking to me about my preaching 41:40.220 --> 41:42.500 and setting the policies for soul winning 41:42.500 --> 41:43.520 and stuff like that? 41:43.920 --> 41:44.920 And no, of course not. 41:46.320 --> 41:48.460 Obviously, the government is involved 41:48.460 --> 41:51.640 in like building codes or something like that. 41:52.020 --> 41:53.280 Like, okay, at the end of the day, 41:53.800 --> 41:56.620 that's not necessarily a problem. 41:56.960 --> 41:57.500 I'm not saying that, 41:57.620 --> 41:59.320 obviously I don't like big government. 41:59.540 --> 42:01.580 I don't like dealing with regulations and stuff, 42:01.860 --> 42:03.280 but at the end of the day, that's not like, 42:03.560 --> 42:05.300 oh, the government's taking over our church 42:05.300 --> 42:07.500 because they made us put up a handicap sign or something. 42:07.960 --> 42:08.840 What I'm talking about 42:08.840 --> 42:10.660 is when the government is telling you the doctrine 42:11.540 --> 42:13.440 and they're telling you what you can and can't preach 42:14.020 --> 42:15.380 and when they're telling you 42:15.380 --> 42:17.960 what you can and can't do with regard to evangelism. 42:18.320 --> 42:22.540 And for many years, there was a law in Tempe 42:23.060 --> 42:25.200 that we couldn't go soul winning without a permit. 42:26.120 --> 42:27.260 I mean, what is that? 42:27.400 --> 42:28.960 Like, oh, you can't go soul winning without a permit. 42:29.400 --> 42:30.320 And guess what we did? 42:30.760 --> 42:32.100 We just kept going soul winning 42:32.980 --> 42:34.420 and we're not gonna get a permit. 42:34.520 --> 42:36.720 We don't need permission from the city of Tempe 42:37.240 --> 42:39.460 to go soul winning to obey the Bible 42:39.460 --> 42:41.840 because number one, we're commanded by God 42:41.840 --> 42:43.020 and number two, even legally, 42:43.180 --> 42:44.740 we're protected by the First Amendment. 42:45.560 --> 42:47.300 We've obviously done a lot of soul winning 42:47.300 --> 42:48.560 up on the Indian reservations 42:49.260 --> 42:51.260 and the big one is the Navajo reservation. 42:51.640 --> 42:53.140 Well, you know, many, many years ago, 42:53.640 --> 42:56.880 we were doing tons of soul winning on the Navajo reservation. 42:57.240 --> 42:58.440 Of course, we were just there last weekend, 42:58.800 --> 43:02.180 but I mean, many years ago, we were up there 43:02.180 --> 43:05.120 like every weekend and we were knocking thousands of doors 43:05.120 --> 43:07.760 and handing out all of our Navajo music CDs 43:07.760 --> 43:10.340 that we recorded with the gospel on them 43:10.340 --> 43:12.160 and just going crazy up there, 43:12.300 --> 43:14.400 giving out DVDs of after the tribulation, 43:14.720 --> 43:17.100 marching design, and we really made a big impact 43:17.100 --> 43:20.480 up there to the point where the Navajo tribal government 43:20.480 --> 43:23.580 literally got together and they literally passed a law 43:23.580 --> 43:25.420 against us coming up there and doing that. 43:26.440 --> 43:29.120 You know, and we've never even thought about it. 43:29.280 --> 43:30.780 Like mostly, who would say, 43:30.860 --> 43:32.680 this is the first time I've ever heard that? 43:32.740 --> 43:34.200 I don't remember ever hearing that, 43:34.700 --> 43:37.100 that there was a law passed by the Navajo tribal government. 43:37.380 --> 43:38.480 Yep, so look at all the hands. 43:38.600 --> 43:39.680 These are people that don't care. 43:40.740 --> 43:42.280 Don't care, we don't know, we don't care. 43:42.420 --> 43:43.280 Who already knew that? 43:44.280 --> 43:47.200 Who already knew that the Navajo government did that? 43:47.540 --> 43:48.940 Yeah, virtually no one. 43:49.260 --> 43:50.320 Nobody cares, because you know what? 43:50.320 --> 43:51.420 I didn't get up and say like, 43:51.600 --> 43:54.080 hey guys, we gotta stop doing it. 43:54.300 --> 43:56.660 They passed, you know, just because the Indians got together 43:56.660 --> 43:58.800 and made some law that we can't go up there 43:58.800 --> 43:59.720 and preach the gospel to them, 43:59.780 --> 44:00.660 doesn't mean we're gonna stop. 44:01.740 --> 44:03.760 We didn't miss a beat, we don't care. 44:04.340 --> 44:05.440 Come stop us. 44:06.400 --> 44:08.140 You know, because hey, number one, 44:08.440 --> 44:09.860 we obey God rather than men. 44:10.060 --> 44:11.420 Number one, number two, 44:11.900 --> 44:14.680 I don't care if your reservation is sovereign land, 44:15.040 --> 44:16.920 you're in the United States of America. 44:18.240 --> 44:22.060 You can't make a law against the exercise of religion 44:22.060 --> 44:23.020 in America. 44:24.120 --> 44:26.060 I mean, I could just own my property 44:26.060 --> 44:28.540 and just say, well, on my property, murders allowed, 44:29.080 --> 44:31.300 and you know, blood sacrifices are allowed. 44:31.420 --> 44:32.300 It's like, what, no. 44:33.220 --> 44:35.600 You're in America, you know, 44:35.780 --> 44:37.880 the bill of rights applies everywhere, friend. 44:39.660 --> 44:41.680 And so yeah, they passed some law, 44:41.820 --> 44:44.380 it was in the news, how they passed some law, 44:44.440 --> 44:45.960 because you know, people are going up there 44:45.960 --> 44:47.900 and aggressively evangelizing 44:47.900 --> 44:50.860 and they defended them about their traditional religion 44:50.860 --> 44:51.760 because we're telling them 44:51.760 --> 44:53.620 that there's none other name under heaven 44:53.620 --> 44:55.640 than the name of Jesus of Nazareth, 44:55.780 --> 44:57.240 whereby we must be saved. 44:58.040 --> 45:00.080 And so you know, they're like, no, no, 45:00.220 --> 45:01.700 we gotta pray to the great spirit 45:02.080 --> 45:06.060 and great grandfather and peyote religion and whatever. 45:06.840 --> 45:08.660 And that's literally, their religion up there 45:08.660 --> 45:11.820 is literally called peyote religion. 45:12.220 --> 45:14.420 Now, the official name of it is called, quote, 45:14.420 --> 45:16.080 native American church. 45:17.080 --> 45:19.600 And it's a religion that started in the 1890s 45:19.600 --> 45:24.040 in Oklahoma by a guy who's half white, half Indian, 45:24.460 --> 45:26.700 and it's like a hybrid of Christianity 45:27.520 --> 45:29.420 and old tribal practices. 45:29.860 --> 45:32.340 And it's a religion that is based on peyote. 45:32.500 --> 45:34.820 So if you talk to the natives themselves, 45:34.980 --> 45:36.520 they usually don't call it native American church. 45:36.620 --> 45:38.340 Sometimes they do, but usually they'll just say, 45:38.400 --> 45:40.120 I'm follow peyote religion. 45:40.480 --> 45:41.240 That's what they call it, peyote. 45:41.480 --> 45:42.480 I mean, can you imagine if I just said, 45:42.480 --> 45:44.360 well, I'm just a member of LSD religion. 45:44.880 --> 45:47.540 And I didn't say LDS now, I'm saying LSD. 45:47.760 --> 45:49.840 Like, oh yeah, I'm part of the acid church. 45:50.940 --> 45:54.680 Yeah, we drop acid, commune with the Lord, you know. 45:55.720 --> 46:00.420 I'm a member of the Jack Daniels Baptist, you know. 46:01.360 --> 46:03.760 Also known as Apology of Church, you know. 46:04.400 --> 46:06.520 Like, oh, you know, I'm a member 46:06.520 --> 46:08.720 of the marijuana religion. 46:09.440 --> 46:12.440 I follow the religion of cocaine, actually. 46:12.580 --> 46:15.320 I'm a member of the heroin church. 46:15.920 --> 46:17.420 Now, isn't that weird? 46:18.440 --> 46:20.500 And they say, well yeah, but you're making fun 46:20.500 --> 46:22.020 of our ancient ancestral practices. 46:22.380 --> 46:24.220 That's funny because peyote doesn't grow in Arizona. 46:24.880 --> 46:27.200 So I'm trying to figure out how this can be 46:27.200 --> 46:30.040 your ancestral practice when the Navajos and Apaches 46:30.040 --> 46:33.560 came to Arizona from Northern Canada 46:34.200 --> 46:36.240 in and around the year 1600. 46:37.020 --> 46:42.180 So about 425 years ago, the Apaches and the Navajos 46:42.180 --> 46:46.520 came down from the Athabascan regions 46:46.520 --> 46:50.060 of Northern Canada and they came down into Arizona. 46:50.440 --> 46:52.620 There's no peyote in Canada 46:53.260 --> 46:55.320 and there's no peyote in Arizona. 46:55.760 --> 46:57.840 How is this your ancestral religion 46:57.840 --> 47:01.620 when peyote is something that grows in Mexico 47:02.100 --> 47:03.780 and a very small part of Texas 47:03.780 --> 47:05.340 but it mainly grows in Mexico? 47:06.160 --> 47:09.540 But again, this religion goes back to the 1890s. 47:09.960 --> 47:13.140 Their ancient religion goes back to 1890s. 47:13.300 --> 47:17.660 But at the end of the day, we obey God rather than men. 47:18.100 --> 47:20.280 We don't want the government telling us 47:20.280 --> 47:21.880 where we can and can't go soul winning. 47:22.440 --> 47:24.280 We don't want them telling us what to preach. 47:24.720 --> 47:27.560 And so this image of Uzziah going in 47:27.560 --> 47:29.440 and burning incense in the house of the Lord 47:29.440 --> 47:31.980 could be also read as this is 47:31.980 --> 47:33.680 the government invading church. 47:34.600 --> 47:38.060 This is the government wanting to come in 47:38.060 --> 47:40.320 and say, okay, we're gonna be in charge. 47:40.960 --> 47:42.980 We're gonna move over high priest, 47:43.740 --> 47:44.920 the king is coming in. 47:45.360 --> 47:48.280 Now, we need the high priest running things, not the king. 47:48.640 --> 47:50.460 And you know what, our high priest is Jesus. 47:51.520 --> 47:53.140 The head of the church is Jesus. 47:53.540 --> 47:54.840 And by the way, when we say 47:54.840 --> 47:56.200 that the head of the church is Jesus, 47:56.480 --> 47:58.840 we understand that Jesus is the word. 47:59.420 --> 48:00.340 And so at the end of the day, 48:00.440 --> 48:02.900 the words of Christ are the boss 48:02.900 --> 48:06.880 because de facto, when we say Jesus runs the church, 48:06.960 --> 48:10.240 what we mean is that his word is in authority. 48:10.400 --> 48:11.940 Meaning this is the final authority 48:12.320 --> 48:13.660 in all matters of faith and practice. 48:14.040 --> 48:18.140 And then we have a human overseer, pastor, bishop. 48:18.300 --> 48:20.460 The word bishop literally means overseer. 48:20.900 --> 48:25.620 The human overseer is under the true head 48:25.620 --> 48:28.020 which is Jesus Christ, the word of God. 48:28.840 --> 48:30.700 And that human overseer, like I said, 48:30.700 --> 48:34.900 needs to be somebody who lives, eats, breathes, sleep, 48:35.120 --> 48:36.780 meditates on the word of God day and night. 48:36.940 --> 48:38.960 I mean, you can't be a pastor 48:39.500 --> 48:42.660 if you don't love the Bible, right? 48:42.980 --> 48:44.680 And it's funny when you run into pastors 48:44.680 --> 48:46.900 have read the Bible cover to cover like one or two times. 48:47.140 --> 48:47.680 It's like, wow. 48:49.000 --> 48:50.720 There are even some pastors in this world 48:50.720 --> 48:52.300 that have probably never even read the whole thing 48:52.300 --> 48:55.220 cover to cover, which is crazy to even think about, 48:55.520 --> 48:56.440 but it's out there. 48:59.340 --> 49:01.360 Yeah, okay, well, let's not bring that up, 49:01.360 --> 49:04.300 but keep that under your hat. 49:06.080 --> 49:11.610 But the point is like, you gotta love the Bible, right? 49:12.520 --> 49:15.480 You gotta read it every day. 49:15.600 --> 49:16.980 I mean, here's the thing, I think 49:16.980 --> 49:20.580 that the average Christian man, woman, boy, girl, 49:20.580 --> 49:22.540 as you know, obviously if you're old enough 49:22.540 --> 49:25.120 to be this proficient, you know, 49:25.120 --> 49:26.600 I think reading the Bible once a year 49:26.600 --> 49:28.940 is a great standard, right? 49:29.160 --> 49:31.340 I mean, it takes about 20 minutes a day. 49:31.640 --> 49:33.500 You know, you pull 20 minutes out of your day, 49:33.640 --> 49:35.580 15, 20 minutes, and you could even split it up 49:35.580 --> 49:37.880 and do 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes at night. 49:38.220 --> 49:39.440 You could do this on your commute, 49:39.960 --> 49:42.060 you could do this, you know, on audio, 49:42.360 --> 49:44.180 you can read it, whatever you do 49:44.180 --> 49:46.020 to spend your time in the Bible. 49:46.120 --> 49:47.740 You could get through the whole Bible cover to cover 49:47.740 --> 49:50.260 in one year in about 15, 20 minutes a day. 49:50.560 --> 49:52.300 I think that's a great baseline. 49:52.620 --> 49:54.160 I think that's a great starting point. 49:54.160 --> 49:56.760 I mean, nobody can say they're too busy for that. 49:57.640 --> 50:00.800 Ain't nobody not got time for that, okay? 50:01.300 --> 50:03.420 You know, reading the Bible once a year, cover to cover. 50:03.720 --> 50:05.960 But here's the thing, as a pastor, you know, 50:06.080 --> 50:10.340 you'd think, okay, that's just for the layman. 50:11.040 --> 50:12.280 You gotta read more than that. 50:12.400 --> 50:14.700 You know, you should be really dwelling on 50:14.700 --> 50:16.920 the word of God, memorizing scripture, 50:17.480 --> 50:19.760 reading the Bible for hours, you know, 50:19.860 --> 50:21.300 getting really deep into it 50:21.300 --> 50:23.360 to where you're cranking through it repeatedly 50:23.820 --> 50:25.100 and you're going through it dozens of, 50:25.240 --> 50:26.940 I mean, you know, we have a standard at our church. 50:27.040 --> 50:28.840 No one's gonna be ordained as a pastor 50:29.340 --> 50:30.460 unless they've read the Bible at least 50:30.460 --> 50:31.700 10 times cover to cover. 50:32.300 --> 50:33.500 That's our minimum standard. 50:33.780 --> 50:35.900 It's like, obviously the Bible has its qualifications, 50:36.060 --> 50:39.080 but also we have another standard that we just say, 50:39.120 --> 50:40.480 hey, if you can't read the Bible 50:40.480 --> 50:42.640 10 times cover to cover, you're not ready to pastor. 50:43.500 --> 50:45.780 You know, and you got doctors over here 50:45.780 --> 50:46.980 studying for years. 50:47.220 --> 50:49.620 You got lawyers over here studying for years, 50:50.080 --> 50:52.260 memorizing things, learning things, reading books. 50:52.260 --> 50:54.340 Hey, you know, we're doing an important job here 50:54.340 --> 50:56.280 and we need to be into it. 50:56.420 --> 51:00.340 And so we don't want a casual running the house of God. 51:00.680 --> 51:02.260 We want somebody who's into it. 51:02.580 --> 51:05.720 And the government is more into governing 51:05.720 --> 51:07.660 and the government and secular things. 51:07.840 --> 51:10.280 So we need the church to be separate 51:10.280 --> 51:13.820 in the sense that it's run by men of God, 51:14.000 --> 51:18.020 not by government bureaucrats, okay, or government rulers. 51:19.180 --> 51:21.640 And when we talk about the separation of church and state, 51:21.640 --> 51:24.920 obviously we're not saying that we don't want religion 51:24.920 --> 51:26.080 to influence government. 51:26.580 --> 51:28.940 Obviously we want the Bible to influence government. 51:29.200 --> 51:30.860 We want Christian to influence government. 51:31.100 --> 51:32.660 If we have a representative government 51:32.660 --> 51:36.040 and most of America are evangelical Christians, right, 51:36.140 --> 51:39.220 then the government should reflect those Christian values. 51:39.680 --> 51:40.980 We want the government, 51:41.400 --> 51:42.920 but we want it to be a one-way valve. 51:43.020 --> 51:45.100 We want the church to influence the government 51:45.100 --> 51:49.900 in the sense of morality, basic Christianity, basic Bible, 51:49.900 --> 51:51.680 but we don't want them coming in here 51:51.680 --> 51:52.700 and telling us what to do. 51:53.320 --> 51:56.080 And we also don't want one particular church 51:56.080 --> 51:57.620 or denomination going down there 51:57.620 --> 51:58.580 and running the government either. 51:59.020 --> 52:00.980 So we do want there to be a separation 52:00.980 --> 52:03.380 because we want the church to be the church 52:03.380 --> 52:04.960 and want the government to be the government. 52:05.280 --> 52:07.220 So do I believe in separation of church and state? 52:07.340 --> 52:08.660 Absolutely, yes, I do, 52:08.820 --> 52:11.520 because I don't want the Catholic church 52:11.520 --> 52:12.380 running the government. 52:13.200 --> 52:15.820 And I don't want the government running our church 52:15.820 --> 52:16.560 or any church. 52:17.000 --> 52:18.480 We don't need a state church. 52:18.730 --> 52:21.500 The government tends to screw up everything that they touch. 52:22.660 --> 52:23.700 Religion included. 52:24.340 --> 52:25.520 What a shock, huh? 52:26.960 --> 52:29.400 And so let's just go back quickly to 2 Kings 15 52:29.400 --> 52:31.100 and just wrap up super quickly. 52:31.480 --> 52:33.880 So we understand what went wrong with Uzziah. 52:34.220 --> 52:35.240 He was doing great. 52:35.580 --> 52:37.460 He got puffed up, it went to his head. 52:37.880 --> 52:40.220 He ends up crossing a line. 52:40.800 --> 52:43.320 He breaks the morality that's clearly laid out 52:43.320 --> 52:45.300 in the Bible, the separation of powers. 52:45.940 --> 52:47.400 God's word is broken. 52:47.940 --> 52:49.640 When he's rebuked by the man of God 52:49.640 --> 52:51.660 who's giving him a biblical reason to stop, 52:52.200 --> 52:53.240 he just gets mad. 52:53.680 --> 52:55.420 And then unfortunately gets punished. 52:56.500 --> 52:59.320 And it's too late to fix it at that point. 52:59.440 --> 53:00.860 He does repent because he's like, 53:00.900 --> 53:02.160 oh yeah, you're right, I gotta get out of here. 53:02.580 --> 53:04.860 But he spends the rest of his life suffering 53:05.380 --> 53:08.480 in a several house due to his leprosy. 53:08.840 --> 53:13.420 So if we go back to chapter 15 of 2 Kings here, 53:13.820 --> 53:17.080 and we'll just go down to the very end of the chapter here. 53:17.680 --> 53:19.680 And we see that in verse number 32, 53:19.880 --> 53:20.900 it says in the second year, 53:20.980 --> 53:22.820 Pika, the son of Ramaliah, king of Israel, 53:23.620 --> 53:26.100 began Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah to reign. 53:26.840 --> 53:28.460 And we're skipping all the northern kings 53:28.460 --> 53:29.360 just for a second of time. 53:30.940 --> 53:33.900 25 and 20 years old was he when he began to reign 53:33.900 --> 53:35.560 and he reigned 16 years in Jerusalem. 53:36.140 --> 53:38.920 His mother's name was Jerushah, daughter of Zedek. 53:39.040 --> 53:40.840 He did that which was right in the side of the Lord. 53:40.840 --> 53:44.100 He did according to all that his father Uzziah had done. 53:44.300 --> 53:46.980 How be it, how many times are we gonna get this caveat? 53:47.720 --> 53:49.140 It's like the fourth time, right? 53:49.680 --> 53:51.880 How be it, the high places were not removed 53:51.880 --> 53:53.980 and the people sacrificed and burned incense 53:53.980 --> 53:55.340 still in the high place. 53:55.920 --> 53:57.200 And he built the higher place 53:57.700 --> 53:58.940 or the higher gate of the house of God. 53:59.220 --> 54:02.960 So again, what you see here is just this pattern 54:02.960 --> 54:05.840 of just never going all the way. 54:06.760 --> 54:09.220 You know, for four generations in a row, 54:09.560 --> 54:10.220 these kings of Judah, 54:10.220 --> 54:12.720 it's like they just never will take that step. 54:12.920 --> 54:15.720 And you know what's interesting is that all four guys, 54:15.960 --> 54:17.460 it's like, oh, the people, 54:18.020 --> 54:20.220 the people are still doing the high places. 54:20.540 --> 54:22.660 The people are still sacrificing and gross. 54:22.920 --> 54:24.600 The people with their high places. 54:24.960 --> 54:26.560 So what you have here is a leader 54:27.220 --> 54:29.340 who's not willing to say no to the people. 54:30.440 --> 54:33.900 You know, it's like, we gotta go all the way. 54:34.880 --> 54:35.960 We gotta get the Bible, 54:36.400 --> 54:37.840 we gotta make the Bible the standard 54:37.840 --> 54:39.240 and we gotta go all the way 54:39.700 --> 54:41.200 and not be like, oh man, 54:41.320 --> 54:44.120 I don't think people can handle us going all the way. 54:44.560 --> 54:46.020 Yeah, we're gonna worship the Lord. 54:46.460 --> 54:47.920 Hey, let's get a passing grade. 54:48.240 --> 54:49.220 Let's get a 70. 54:49.660 --> 54:50.720 Let's get a C minus. 54:51.180 --> 54:52.280 Let's just get through it. 54:52.560 --> 54:54.160 C's get degrees or whatever. 54:54.500 --> 54:55.820 But just think when you're serving the Lord, 54:55.920 --> 54:56.880 you want to be all in. 54:57.840 --> 55:00.540 And what we need is a man of God who says, 55:00.660 --> 55:01.560 you know what, I don't care 55:01.560 --> 55:03.520 if the people can handle it or not. 55:03.900 --> 55:04.980 I'm gonna give him the whole thing. 55:06.060 --> 55:07.080 You know, I don't sit around 55:07.080 --> 55:08.660 wondering like what people can handle. 55:09.920 --> 55:11.680 You know, I just get up and preach the Bible. 55:11.800 --> 55:12.700 I'm gonna preach the whole Bible 55:13.260 --> 55:14.380 and certain things that I preach 55:14.380 --> 55:17.040 are super unpopular in 2026 America. 55:17.300 --> 55:19.760 And that just tells me I need to preach a more, not less. 55:20.680 --> 55:22.100 Because we gotta change things. 55:22.400 --> 55:23.160 We gotta fix things. 55:23.260 --> 55:26.680 Because the people are sacrificing in the high places, 55:26.900 --> 55:29.380 violating the word of God, disregarding the Bible. 55:29.660 --> 55:31.600 And then God's looking at the leader and saying, 55:31.960 --> 55:35.240 well, you know, he did right, but you know, 55:36.100 --> 55:38.640 yeah, he was like Amaziah. 55:39.120 --> 55:40.880 I mean, he was like these other guys 55:40.880 --> 55:42.140 that are half in, half out. 55:43.600 --> 55:45.700 He's like, you know, Joe Ash or whatever. 55:46.000 --> 55:48.460 Like, why not go all the way? 55:49.020 --> 55:50.560 You know, and so we need a pastor 55:51.040 --> 55:53.080 who's willing to preach every word of the Bible 55:53.840 --> 55:58.160 and not hold back and say, well, the people, you know? 55:58.320 --> 56:02.460 And look, remember when Aaron failed as a leader 56:02.460 --> 56:03.980 when Moses is up on Mount Sinai 56:03.980 --> 56:05.800 and Aaron's left in charge, the second in command. 56:06.380 --> 56:09.020 And he's like, oh, well, the people made me do it. 56:09.540 --> 56:11.320 You know, I mean, we had a sermon on Sunday morning 56:11.320 --> 56:12.540 called the devil made me do it. 56:12.660 --> 56:13.560 We could have another sermon called 56:13.560 --> 56:14.600 the people made me do it. 56:15.400 --> 56:17.900 You know, and I guess that's just pastor's excuse 56:17.900 --> 56:19.520 is like, well, the people made me do it. 56:20.040 --> 56:21.380 Aaron says, the people made me do it. 56:21.540 --> 56:23.620 But here's the thing, Aaron, it's your job, Aaron, 56:24.060 --> 56:26.100 to get the people serving God 56:26.540 --> 56:29.060 and don't let them get you into idolatry. 56:29.820 --> 56:31.880 You know, and the whole point of being a leader 56:32.460 --> 56:35.700 is that you're gonna go against the bad trends 56:35.700 --> 56:36.500 amongst the people. 56:37.160 --> 56:40.020 And because these guys just let the people do whatever 56:40.630 --> 56:42.740 and did it actually go all the way, 56:42.940 --> 56:44.220 getting the nation right with God, 56:44.700 --> 56:46.640 well, then, you know, it just kind of 56:46.640 --> 56:48.080 is a generational thing. 56:48.560 --> 56:51.380 And then ultimately it goes from just lame, 56:51.680 --> 56:54.220 C minus, C minus, C minus, C minus. 56:54.560 --> 56:55.960 Then you get to the next guy, 56:56.180 --> 56:57.320 A has is just an F. 56:58.340 --> 57:00.840 A has is just totally bad. 57:01.840 --> 57:04.240 Just do an evil in the side of the Lord 57:04.720 --> 57:07.420 and just takes the country all the way off the cliff. 57:07.740 --> 57:09.800 Because you know, when you're half in, half out, 57:09.960 --> 57:11.680 you end up falling out, right? 57:11.780 --> 57:13.720 And remember the guy in the book of Acts, Eutychus, 57:14.220 --> 57:16.980 he's in church, but he's sitting in the window 57:17.540 --> 57:18.860 of the church in Acts. 57:19.100 --> 57:20.700 So he's half in, half out. 57:21.220 --> 57:24.240 And Eutychus falls out and, you know, 57:24.440 --> 57:26.840 he's basically dead, but then, you know, 57:26.940 --> 57:28.880 the Lord ends up sparing him and he survives. 57:29.500 --> 57:30.580 Let's bow our heads in our board of prayer. 57:30.680 --> 57:33.960 Father, we thank you so much for this chapter 57:34.460 --> 57:37.060 about all these failed kings in the northern kingdom 57:37.560 --> 57:40.040 and about the compromised, watered down kings 57:40.040 --> 57:41.100 of the southern kingdom, Lord. 57:41.460 --> 57:44.220 Help us as a church to be all the way in. 57:44.580 --> 57:46.400 Help us to be zealous for you 57:46.400 --> 57:48.380 and help us personally, individually, 57:48.840 --> 57:51.580 to love you with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. 57:52.220 --> 57:53.580 And Lord God, please bless us now 57:53.580 --> 57:54.520 as we go our separate ways. 57:54.680 --> 57:55.800 And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.