You're Only Fooling Yourself
Lessons from Ezra & Daniel
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good morning welcome if you're new here Among Us my name is Gene and I serve here at C3 Church as your lead pastor and I like to tell stories it's kind of what I do so I heard a story about a married couple the wife was a Believer the husband was not the Bible kind of talks about this what do you do in that situation well when you're putting together first Corinthians 7 and first Peter I think three he put them together and you get this look just win over the spouse to the Faith by your example and so that's exactly what the wife was trying to do just being really kind really nice all the time good temperament not angry full of joy but here's the thing there were a lot of other people calling themselves Christians making it really difficult for her so that's like the plight of a pastor right so you're making this difficult for me so that's what's happening especially their neighbor this guy had the Jesus fish on the back of the car but whenever the kids would like play catch and the ball would accidentally hit it he would go nuts threatening to sue them and you know the husband's thinking like wait a minute you know I heard all these stories Jesus is all about sacrifice and really not caring about material things at all this guy's like the opposite so it's really difficult This Woman's getting frustrated so finally things she's like I'll invite my pastor over for dinner that'll be great right he can explain this to him and serve as a good example that's what a Christian should be doing at least he's trying so that's what happens Pastor gets to dinner and he notices an opportunity that's what we're looking for we're looking for an in you know like what can I use here with this person who's going to be difficult with me he sees a piano and he remembers that the wife had said the husband's a very good piano player and that he's teaching his daughter how to play the piano and he notices something because he's played a little piano he notices a little red book on there if you ever played piano maybe I'm just old but whatever teaching little fingers how to play right so it's that that initial book that you get when you're learning how to play but he also sees Beethoven on there and so he says you know I love Beethoven can you play me some Beethoven get your daughter to do that actually and the husband's like ooh that's advanced that's Advanced she's teaching little you know so she can do one of those you know here we go up a road to a birthday party so I can still play that right so so do that that'll be great no no I want the Beethoven you think this pastor's crazy right is this guy even a pastor so no no I just really I'm just yearning to hear Beethoven and I just love when the little kids can play it and he's like okay we'll give it a try since the girl down at the bench takes the other book away she's like you serious yeah give it a try she starts playing and she's butchering it like it's just terrible it's painful and the pastor just lets it go on and on and on the dad's about to stop her he's like no no no no finally she gets the end of the piece and he leans on the piano looks at the girl and says Beethoven was a horrible composer then looks at the dad and he could see the dad got what he was putting down you see just as you shouldn't judge a composer by a player especially a bad player you shouldn't judge Christianity by someone who isn't practicing it all right so this is going to work into our theme of course a little bit just to recap we're going to go back a little bit Daniel a man of integrity will you do the right thing even if it costs you so we're going to have that theme in mind today we're going to go a step or two further and some of you might not like it but that's okay so we're going to continue so first we'll do the chart start with the chart no jokes about the cartoon I made just the text part not the cartoon so here is where we have these historical books of the Bible like second chronicles and second Kings we're coming to a close of all that but there are still things happening that connect to it all throughout we saw that prophets weave their way through the account the Bible's not chronological so it's quick review because I've said this a million times the Bible is not chronological you have to kind of take it apart and put it back together again A lot of times it's based on themes or in the category what type of books they are like poetry books history books so the if you want to do a chronological you gotta take it apart put it back together and that's what I've done here for you all right so what we're going to do is we're going to run right into Ezra today and then we'll pop back in at Daniel so I'll show this a couple times so you can kind of see where we are so I want to take you back and you remember Daniel in the Lion's Den remember that right so we're going to kind of go back and forth on that one a lot of you know that story we saw that the king belt shazar and he was kind of bad or belshazzar sorry he said it backwards I made my own dyslexic mistake there so we'll go back to the lines then Daniel 6 28. So Daniel prospered during the reign of King Darius and the reign of Cyrus the Persian so remember Darius was the king then or is he so amazed it made a god worshiper out of him initially he's having people worship him and then Daniel amazes him the Lord right through Daniel amazes him and now he makes a decree you only worship the god of Daniel that's it so that's where we are in this thing we should keep that in mind now if we pair it together II Chronicles 36 22 in the first year of King Cyrus so just mentioned him of prayers of the Lord fulfilled the prophecy he had given through Jeremiah he stirred the heart of Cyrus to put his proclamation in writing and to send it throughout his kingdom this is what the king Cyrus of Persia says the Lord the god of Heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth he has appointed me to build a temple at Jerusalem which is in Judah any of you who are his people may go there for this task and may the Lord your God be with you the very next book of the Bible now it's chronological-ish just in this spot is Ezra we run right into Ezra and look at this it's kind of the same thing we have a recap if we go to Ezra in the first year of King Cyrus of Persia so the first three verses are basically the same except the last verse four wherever this Jewish Remnant is found let their neighbors contribute toward their expenses by giving them silver and gold supplies for the journey and livestock as well as a voluntary offering for the temple of God in Jerusalem so just keep that up for a second don't don't switch it so here I just want to make a brief mention we're going to talk about this more other books of the Bible the Bible of the early church this is where if you're in certain Bibles you'll run into first and second estrus so it's like Greek Ezra so just just to put that down and mention that I'm not skipping it it's kind of a mashup of a little bit of Nehemiah some of Ezra a couple stories that aren't in there so we can talk about that at Bible study just mentioning it so here we see how this attaches right so now we're in Ezra just the chart again and I'm going to give you a summary of 1 through 4. it's kind of lengthy in the sense people don't like reading genealogies but it's important so remember what we just talked about we talked about like hey give them the things they need give them the supplies they need to go back what's going on remember that they were in Exile you're in Exile 70 years now the Lord is using King Cyrus to send them back but he's sending them back with a lot of stuff so you're going to see remember the writing on the wall right we had that that thing there what was the problem why was that King judged well because he's using the temple items he's using the items stolen from the temple like so just imagine like if we're in a really traditional church and maybe we're doing you know communion with the Chalice or something right so it would be like you know taking that chalice home in like you know pouring a 40 into it you know and being like whoa you know so it's really irreverent it's not good you can laugh it's okay yeah Pastor just said that haven't always been a pastor so that'll become very obvious um anyway so they're taking these objects and they're just it's terrible right so they're being very irreverent and God is punishing him right in Parson right numbered wait divided you're done he dies and that's how we get Darius so there are all these items and they're like you know what go back build your temple again in Jerusalem and here's about 5 400 items that you're going to take with you it's a lot of stuff so then chapter two there's a list of all the people about 50 000 people there are not 50 000 people listed but it feels that way it's a big long genealogy basically the heads of the families all the people going back so these historical records they're really really detailed in the Bible and it can get long so we're not going to read all those things to you so then you see the rebuilding of the altar so they get there remember the Temple's been destroyed so they've got to rebuild it that's the first thing they want to do they rebuild the altar not completely but they're just set up and alter and they worship God this first thing they do then they get to work on what if you've built a building the foundation and when they finish building it the younger people are all like whoa yay they're really excited but the older people the Jeremiah 29 11 people right that the the people that this scripture actually applies to they're old there are very few of them they're old they come back but they remember the temple right so they're probably thinking of how it was destroyed all this stuff and they start weeping and so it's like if you know the word like a dissonance a cacophony just hard word harder word of like all this weird mix of this this worship or praise and this sorrow so it's really interesting sound that comes out of this now we get to Ezra 4. here's what we're going to see the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the Exiles were rebuilding a temple to the Lord the god of Israel so they approached zerubbabel and the other leaders and said let us build with you pay attention for we worship your God who is God just as you do we have sacrifice to him ever since King eser Hayden of Assyria brought us here but zerubbabel Yeshua and the other leaders of Israel replied you may have no part in this work we alone will build the temple for the Lord the god of Israel just as king Cyrus of Persia commanded us then the local residents tried to discourage and frighten the people of Judah to keep them from their work they bribed agents to work against them and to frustrate their plans this went on during the entire reign of King Cyrus of Persia and lasted until King Darius of Persia took the throne so there are more than one darius's and more than one cyruses so just keep that in mind that's why it gets really confusing that that's what's going on so we're building into our theme now of these people acting deceitfully what so yeah you know we want to worship your God you know they're letting it slip there I think right so uh-uh they're not genuine and now they're using deceit right to try to undermine the plans of the building of the temple it brings us back to the chart and why we're going to Daniel here so pay attention Daniel 10 1. in the third year of the reign of who King Cyrus of Persia so that's why you dropped that in there Daniel also known as Belta shazar that's where I even dyslexic myself belshazzar is the other king Daniel's other name is belt shazar had another Vision he understood that the vision concern events certainly happen in the future times of war and great hardship when this Vision came to an end I Daniel had been mourning for three whole weeks at that time I'd eaten no rich food no meat or wine crossed my lips and I use no fragrant lotions until those three weeks had passed so I'll give you a summary here of chapters 10 through 11 and then we'll hop into 12. it can get really confusing if you don't understand the rest of the Bible there are many similarities here to Chapters 789 these Visions remember where the goat rammed the RAM and then I had a hard time expressing that because the goat is doing the ramming of the ram so anyway that's what happened so you're looking at different kingdoms and they're just these things symbolize the different kingdoms and different Kings like the horn and it breaks off and that kind of thing so a Heavenly visitor comes probably Gabriel and he gives Daniel this sweeping vision of History like nearer to them history and so basically from the Persian Empire all the way to Antiochus that one of the smaller little horns and historically I'll just keep this short what happens is after Alexander the Great dies four generals come into play the main ones that are talked about if you read these books like Maccabees in the Bible it's a historical account of this you have ptolemies right and so you think Egypt and then seleucid and just think like Syria area over there by turkey or whatever maybe not that far north but they're going at it with one another now so the Jewish people are in the middle of this so this is what is going on here that's who they're talking about Antiochus and this time where they're they're kind of going at it uh what you'll read in there too it's kind of strange it might say Spirit princes or Spirit Messengers and then Michael the Archangel shows up and the point of all of that is to remind us that our battle isn't against flesh and blood right so people are used like I think Judas right Satan entered into Judas right so there's a spiritual battle going on behind all of these things doesn't mean that you know like the spirit made me do it right or the devil maybe do it no it doesn't excuse us from any type of responsibility however it's a reminder that even in these kingdoms there are like these archangels behind it waging a spiritual war that's where the battle is won or lost so that's what's going on here in this text which brings us to the end times we talked about this in prophecies right so you'll get these prophecies are really confusing if you don't read them carefully because they're talking about a near future and that already happened but then they'll kind of zoom out to a far future so that's what's going on here does it all over the place so here we're talking about the end time Daniel 12 1. at that time Michael the Archangel who stands guard over your nation will arise then there will be a time of Anguish greater than any since Nations first came into existence but at that time every one of your people whose name is written in the book will be rescued many of those whose bodies lie dead and buried will rise up some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting disgrace those were wise will shine as bright as the sky and those who lead many to righteousness will shine like the stars forever but you Daniel keep this prophecy a secret seal up the book until the time of the end when many will Rush here and there and knowledge will increase so you see clearly that is the end time and now look at that they're talking about a resurrection from the dead pretty neat so there's a discussion now how long will these things happen Daniel's confused when will this time finally come and then he's encouraged and what's said here is go now Daniel for what I've said has kept secret and sealed to the time of the end many will be purified cleansed and refined by these trials but the wicked will continue in their wickedness right so people are going to choose their own past they talk about that sacrilegious object that causes desecration people get confused Jesus talks about this they're two different times when this could have happened here Romans destroyed the temple in 70 A.D and they set up sacrilegious object right in the temple Antiochus did the same thing set up the religious object but way before so that's talked about but as for you Daniel go your way until the end you will rest and at the end of your days you will rise again to receive the inheritance set aside for you all right so as the Book of Daniel comes to a close here I want to mention something that we've talked about in our series and it'll play right into this theme today it's kind of interesting how that always seems to work seems we've talked about it in the past and it really took me a while because just to give you a little background I was raised Catholic and I don't know about other Catholic churches we didn't read a Bible I didn't have a Bible in my house I didn't know anything about the bible really except what the priest preached to me on Sunday so I don't know what that's about but if generally you go into a Catholic Church you usually see a lot of like the hymnals but sometimes bibles are not there in my church that's the way it was so then when I came to Christ I explored so many other World Views it's unbelievable I was I'm not even joking I was a Satanist at one point uh you know at one point I was a Taoist or whatever you know I just change it every whatever I thought was cool I did it right but then I came to Christ and I entered into a non-denominational church that wasn't really non-denominational because most whether they're not that it was Protestant and so anything like Catholic would set you on fire you know what I mean like you told the pope is the Antichrist there's this really anti-catholic sentiment which is just was really not right it's not you don't throw out the baby with the bathroom they're Christians so anyway you're not encouraged to look at anything else like if you look at any other denomination you will burn up like that's the attitude right you're dead right nobody else except your denomination is a Christian it's horrible it's like Paul's worst nightmare whereas we all know the gospel is the center of it and if this person wants to go eat meat sacrificed Idols that's what Paul's saying let them it doesn't make him not a Christian right so just a long short of it so now I get to this point where especially Protestants they have to realize you have to look I looked at what's called like textual history like what the Bible was like in the very beginning right and then work my way from there and here's where my mind went like this I didn't have to go more than about 150 years back to realize there are several extra books in the Old Testament even in a 1611 King James Bible so your great great Granddaddy's King James Bible had extra books in it and it literally blew my mind and when you look at the Bible of the early church yeah up to 14 extra books consistently in their Bibles we look at the oldest copy of the Christian Bible we have they're all in there with no apologies or extra like these are the apocryphal this doesn't even say that so here when we look at Daniel if you study Christian texts like I do and the real Bible of the early church again with the apostles are reading they're fine with it it's all good you're going to get a different Daniel that's really funny it blows people's mind even in the Orthodox Bible they put it in different spots it's really interesting so the way the Orthodox Church does it is uh it starts with Susanna I'm just gonna say I could be wrong it starts with Susanna yes and then it goes through Daniel so it's like the Prelude and then you're going to get uh just a longer Daniel this is Daniel with extra verses and oh yeah the the Orthodox Study Bible has a mistake in it so I'm going to be emailing them because when I was doing this I looked at it and at the end it doesn't say Daniel 12 it says Daniel 21 and I was like what you know what I mean I'm like trying to separate the pages or no I'm like oh they made a mistake so I'm gonna email them I'll share it with you yup so anyway uh so it's a different Daniel just looks different and I'm going to go through these accounts with you because it's fun um but if you look in certain Bibles it's uh there's four fourteen chapters in Daniel so it's Daniel 13 is Susanna and Daniel 14 is this weird story Belle and the dragon but let me share them with you and if you have read these stories if you know about these stories I'm not going to get every detail and it's not going to be totally precise I just want you guys to get the point right so these books are in there if you want more on this I'll explain it to you a friendly way is not a pro apocryphal saying this it's deutero canonical it's fun to say deuterocononical that's what they are they're second to scripture and that's even the way I don't know about the Arthur lectures but I think a Catholic priest would tell you that these are deuterocanonical they're not on the same playing field but we've looked at Maccabees right and I showed you why it was really important to read that to understand Daniel you really can't understand Daniel everything I'm telling you about Antiochus that's all coming from those books because the writers of the New Testament especially all be aware of these books right so they have them in their minds right so they may or may not be scripture but like other books you should read them right so here's the thing we'll look at Belle and the dragon first even though it's backwards and it's really to be honest it's kind of an unusual tale so again I'm gonna display this uh Bellon the dragon that's a 1611 King James Bible it's mine show and tell so so it's in there it's right there and so it's actually the the history that's an S the history of the destruction of Belle all right so what is that Bell is an idol that they have like a the Babylonians they're saying they have this Idol up in the Temple and so they're in like Exile the Jewish people and there's this the Babylonians are worshiping this Idol this fake Idol and so the king and the Osiris in this account is like Daniel don't you worship this and Daniel's like no it's not a real God it's made out of bronze and has clay in the inside it's not real so there's like a little bit of a back and forth in there and he's insulted he's mad he kind of laughs at him Daniel laughs at the king like this is stupid basically he's saying he says all right that's fine you know what prove to me that it's not real because here's what's going on they're bringing massive amounts like I don't think it's like 40 sheep a day like massive amounts of stuff you know water all this stuff so there's like 70 priests and they're all bringing it in and they're leaving around this fake Idol and then when they go away the king comes back it's all gone and so he's like you must be eating it you know so Daniel's like fine so there's this like little contest basically look Daniel you proved to me that it's not real or die and then brings the priest in says the same thing to the priests so they're going to seal the door so familiar with seals and things what Daniel does he has some servants come in and he scatters like it says ashes some accounts all over the floor lets the king seal it up because he knows what's going on the priests are coming in through a trap door at night and then leaving so they're they're taking all the food or eating all the food so so he daily knows what's going to happen so they get to the place and then the King goes haha see all the food's going down like stop whose Footprints are these and the King realizes it and has all these priests and their families killed so and then allows Daniel to destroy this Temple the the idol all the stuff so then the king says well okay fine but this dragon and the Greek says Dragon literally but think like komodo dragon or maybe alligator I don't know something like that this is clearly alive and Daniel's like so that's a God right so he's like listen Okay allow me to kill the dragon without using a sword so Daniel makes a concoction it's like there are three ingredients I'm gonna leave one out like MacGyver so you guys don't try this at home so nobody okay so a lot of old people here I'm MacGyver is he's still a thing I don't know but anyway he makes these cakes out of tar and hair and then something else and then when it feeds it to the dragon and it makes the dragon explode it's weird what I know so anyway like that's why I leave out the other ingredient because some of you are going to try to make a cat explode or something like that we cannot have that so look it happens so so now he makes a dragon explode but now all the people are angry and they get angry at the king like they're gonna do I'm going to Dethrone you we're gonna take over right you know first you let this Daniel guy tear down our temple in a statue now he makes the dragon explode and the King's forced into a position where he has to give up Daniel he does and it's essentially the Lion's Den part two except it has a couple other interesting features there are seven lions in there and they feed him two dead bodies and two sheep every day they appease them but they stop doing it and make sure that this lion is real hungry for Daniel and it's like stop feeding them and throw him in there he's in there for six days something else weird happens the prophet habakkuk is all of a sudden in Judea and an angel comes to him he's like habakkuk you got to go see Daniel in Babylon the Lion's Den he's like I've never been to to Babylon and here's the other problem is that a back hook has been dead for like a hundred years now so why is this happening it doesn't make sense but then all of a sudden an angel picks him up from the hair he was about to deliver stew to the workers in the field I know and he picks him up by the hair and he takes them above the lines then so that he can feed Daniel Daniel Praises God he saved the king shows up on the seventh day to mourn for Daniel but he sees Daniel in there he Praises God and like there's has all the other people who tried to accuse him kill and that is Belle and the dragon now here's the thing though I started thinking about when I first read this I was like are you kidding me like this is really weird but but think about it for a second we've like habakkuk how did he get there I don't know we see people rise from the dead all the time in the Bible it kind of talks about that could have been that right so just just bear with me for a second you can make some good Arguments for this if you match it with the rest of the text you know the story about Saul and the medium he conjures up Samuel from the dead and has a conversation with him that happened right and everyone's like ah of course that's good Ezekiel he was whisked up by the head of the hair and taken away again says will what about Philip and then that's just Old Testament well Philip in the New Testament some pretty weird things happen now I'll give the other side of the aisle exploding dragons weird Okay so anyway has some similarities so again probably deutering they're not it's not scripture but it was written to teach us something about Daniel the theme the deceit the deceitful priests and things so it's building into these parts here Susanna Susanna is actually rightly a beloved story among a lot of people I just tell it very quickly and so it can be confusing the problem with some of these books is they really should be all based on the Greek uh because that's the original the Greek is the original that's it these were all originally written in the Christian church there it was a Greek Old Testament that they were using not a new testament so it all needs to come from that to get it right otherwise you're using something like the Latin Vulgate which is like a translation of a translation it's not as good so it gets confusing but there's this guy and some versions will say jehoiakim and it gets really confusing because is that the king no Joachim is probably a better translation of his name so remember we don't all have the same like sounds in our alphabets when you go from language to language so you gotta kind of make the best of it in your language that's what's going on here and you have Susanna she's married to him he's really wealthy so wealthy that he has a garden and they're holding core Court in his house so you think maybe think like he has like this thing that looks like a palace like a really nice place Susanna's wife she's really beautiful her dad's name is hilkaya I think it is not the same one if you know the Bible that you might be thinking of so enter in two Elders or judges and so remember they're like out in Exile or whatever and so they appoint judges out there to rule over their own Jewish Affairs their own rules but the problem with the elders are they're Wicked they start lusting after Susanna she's really beautiful and they see her in the garden it gives you like this Proverbs kind of look like as I looked through the lattice you know I saw this foolish man so similar type of thing going on here and so they both decide you know they're going to have their way with her or they're going to obsess over her for a while so they go their separate ways and they decide they're both decide separately they're going to go back to the Garden kind of spy on Susanna and they're like what are you doing back here you know they both make their stories up but then eventually they confess to one another and this leads to them concocting a plan to have their way with her and so one day it's really hot she decides in this Garden to take a bath and tells your servants go away get me some like perfume and bathing oil and lock the doors so she thinks she's locked in there but the elders what they've done is they've snuck in the garden and kind of hidden there waited for all this to happen then they spring out and they say let us have our way with you or we'll tell everybody that we saw you sleeping with another man that's on that in the law of Moses that would get her stoned to death she would get killed and so she's like no you know I won't do this unrighteous thing I'd rather you know fall into your hands meaning like let you judge me and get me killed than sin against the Lord not going to partake in this so she screams and now you know one of them bolts opens the door up the servants come in they make their accusation uh oh so now there's like a trial scene going on like at her house and these Elders are going to pronounce judgment over her she comes in and she has a veil on her family is there with her it even says her children are there with her she walks in and the accusers are there and they want to make sure everyone knows she's beautiful right so they pull up the veil and it's kind of a scene like Stephen you get it reminds me of that where she's crying she's looking up to heaven that's what's going on here and they Place their hands on her head pronounce the Judgment against her and she's crying out for help and this is where the Lord stirs up Daniel and so Daniel comes in so everyone believes the elders in the meantime of course right so so they're the judges anyway and so they're taking out to kill her and she cries out to help for help Daniel comes in he says fools you know you foolish people how dare you you know proclaimer innocent you didn't even like examine everybody right you didn't do this right bring him back in I want to speak to these Elders these judges one person at a time I'm going to cross-examine them so he does and he kind of gives the same type of speech to each one of them you know Angel's ready to cut you in half you're a liar even before you ask them any questions he's saying this because he knows or God has told him the truth you're Liars so here's his thing what kind of tree were they under and some versions will say like a gum tree I saw them under a gum tree like basically just think a smaller tree you're a liar you know guys already judged you for this bring the other one in separately does the whole thing again what kind of tree did you see them under and he's like an oak tree a different tree and that's it he's like see and he proves to everyone that they're liars and then according to the law of Moses they get the punishment that they wanted to give to this woman and so you're getting a theme Here and this themes on one side of it and we talked about this right the virtue of Daniel so we can look at the virtue of Susanna so you see one side of the coin all throughout there's another side of the coin in all these accounts whether it be in Ezra and so you have this thing where the people they're deceivable they're saying oh yeah we worship that God too right you know then they're going around they're trying to deceive people and acting like this on the back end like liars so you see it also again Susanna you see it there these deceitful Elders are trying to come up with this plan deceive everyone Bell in the Dragon same type of seam here on the other side we have Daniel's virtue right it's a risky move you're gonna get killed if you can't prove wrong but on the other side of it what happens you know these deceitful people here's the theme it all falls back on them it all falls back on them so that's what we have to pay attention to we see here that when people set out to deceive others they're only fooling themselves that's it and still today and it just amazes me how many people who identify as Christians you know go out with the Jesus fish on the car all that other stuff right they live their lives in a way where they're acting deceitfully they're trying to make people think they're somebody that they're really not but again and again when we look at them they're only fooling themselves or making fools of themselves in reality they're not living with this type of integrity and the other thing that is disturbing to me is they will think it's no big deal that's okay here's the thing I would be negligent negligent as a pastor negligent as a teacher if I didn't say these words Jesus says it's a really big deal a really big deal I'm going to show you some scriptures it's not just Gene saying I'm not trying to knock on anybody I just I'm here to preach the truth and so as we look at these accounts right and if you've heard the story Susanna you think oh Susanna's righteous that's great you know what I mean but you don't think the other side of the coin there and those characters are developed in the story for a reason you know so we're given like a good bad example careful with that so excuse me what are the problems first like the illustration this morning you make for a bad witness if you're doing that you know it is frustrating guys just to like you know I'm not going to complain too much today but as a pastor that's what I'm that's a Crux of the whole thing so it doesn't matter it doesn't matter what I do so I'm I'm teaching it's my first priority and honoring the word of God and trying to teach you guys from the Bible accurately and intelligently got to be in the word a lot how to pray but whatever I do if I go do something for someone if I visit someone on the house whatever it is that a pastor does it's all for the gospel like everything that's it all right so that's the center and I'm just trying so hard I'm trying to get everybody to Jesus come to Jesus and then I have like 10 other people making Christianity look terrible or like a country club that they don't want to be a part of and so it can be really frustrating it's a really frustrating thing for a pastor you know and the answer isn't to take the Jesus fish off the car because that's already a proclamation that you're going to do something wrong doesn't make sense no keep it on there and change so that's the first part you can chase a lot of people away from the faith but let's get our train of thought in line here with the passages that we're doing so I want to take you back to Daniel you'll get what I'm building on in a sec so we see many trials before Jesus comes back that is the correct Christian way to see things it's not going to be all fun and games we go through trials so over and over and over again whether it's Daniel whether it's Revelation whether it's Jesus warning us Paul they're all saying the same thing so Daniel 12 10. the trials here many will be purified cleansed and refined by what these trials right but the wicked so you see the difference who's getting refined me Christians right you we're getting refined by these trials but the wicked will continue in their wickedness and none of them will understand only those who are wise will know what it means and then we see that object of desecration again that's in there then Daniel 12 13 as for you go your way until the end you will rest and then at the end of the days you'll rise again to receive the inheritance set aside for you well done good and faithful slave you're going to come up and then there's going to be the resurrection so now I'm going to kind of go back and we're going to move in this train of thought Daniel 12 1. look at it again at that time Michael the Archangel who stands guard over your nation will arise then there will be a time of Anguish greater than any since the Nations first came into existence but at that time every one of your people whose name is written in the book will be rescued many of those whose bodies lie dead and buried will rise up some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting disgrace those who are wise will shine as bright as the sky and those who lead many to righteousness Will Shine Like Stars forever last week I paired Daniel and Revelation for you let's go back and do it again and then I will show you on our application what we will see Revelation 2011 and I saw a great says at the time of the end I saw a great white throne and one sitting on it the one sitting on it the Earth and Sky fled from his presence they found no place to hide I saw the dead both great and small standing before God's throne and the books were open including the book of life and the dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books the sea gave up its dead and death and the grave gave up their dead and all were judged according to their deeds then death in the grave were thrown into the Lake of Fire this Lake of Fire is the second death and anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the Lake of Fire we now if you don't believe me I'm not going to go through all the different scriptures but they're there I'll point you to a few places if you're somebody who likes to take notes I make a statement but all of these scriptures back it up all everybody Christians will be judged we will be judged the word of God says that extremely clearly Romans 14 2nd Corinthians 5. if you want to look at it for yourself first Peter 4 verse 17 and if judgment begins with us right how will the ungodly be saved so just remember that in Revelations his way it ends here and so many people it just well don't even get me started well I'll keep I just read the word of God for you Revelation 20. so if you want those scriptures I'll be more than happy to give them to you read them to you whatever you want revelation 21 1 then I saw a new Heaven and a new Earth for the old Heaven the old Earth had disappeared and the sea was also gone I and I also saw the holy city the New Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband I heard a loud shout from the throne saying look God's home is now among his people he will live with them and they will be his people God himself will be with them he will wipe every tear from their eyes and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain all these things are gone forever and the one sitting on the throne said look I'm making everything new and he said to me it's John write this down for what I tell you is trustworthy and true and he also said it is finished I am the Alpha and the Omega the beginning and the end to all who are thirsty I will give freely from the Springs of the Water of Life all who are victorious remember from the beginning of revelation will inherit all these blessings and it will be their God and it will be my children but the cowards unbelievers the corrupt murders the immoral and all who practice witchcraft Idol worshipers wow those are all really bad things Pastor Gina couldn't be any one of them and all liars yup and you know what I can read the Greek that's what it says it's not just because every time I do this I get somebody coming up to me going what version was that the version I checked out and made sure was right that that's the version their fate is in the fiery Lake of burning sulfur this is the second death say what when I heard that read that for the first time I was like stop it's worth thinking about all liars Liars the deceivers are not getting in that's what it says not me now listen it must be really important because it says it two more times at least look Revelation 21 27 nothing nothing evil would be allowed to enter nor anyone who practices shameful idolatry and now it's getting narrowed down and dishonesty not getting in but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life revelation 22 12. look I'm coming soon bring my reward with me to repay all people according to their deeds I am Alpha and the Omega the first and the last the beginning and the end blessed are those who wash their robes they will be permitted to enter through the gates of the city and eat the fruit from the Tree of Life outside the city are dogs sorcers those who uh the sexually immoral the murderers the idol worshipers and all who love to live a life better translation all who live a lie all who are living in deceit not in there now here's the thing hard to reconcile but here's why I'll give you a Kia if you've been here for a while know the key it's easy to reconcile when you read the whole thing so first John and somebody's actually made the big mistake of throwing this back at me I'm like oh boy this is too easy first John it ends right so if we say we have no sin we're deceiving ourselves this is what the average person does great wait hold on have sin right we have a sinful nature we're human beings we'll have sin it doesn't say if we say we don't go around sinning all the time we're Liars maybe but that's not what it says very first line of First John 2 is I write this to you so that you do not sin chapter three gets worse those who make a practice of sinning are children of the devil they belong to the devil not God please read it for yourself please read it for yourself but then we get to we go further right and we get it's a revelation and what does it say and Liars is coming up three times it's crazy so there are many many people saying they are Christians but with the word of God essentially says is what you do says more about what you believe than anything you could possibly say here's the thing I want to make this very very clear we are saved by grace through our faith in Jesus Christ and Christ Alone did you hear that but read Ephesians 2 8 say I've read all this Ephesians 3 keep reading why well we are Christ we are God's Masterpiece created in Christ Jesus for good works is a reason right so the idea here is that we know we're saved by grace and that should compel us right to deliver more and more and more and more of that Grace by helping people out loving people that's the point it's the other side of the coin very important now here's the thing for those who are working in the light a lot of these things come as a comfort so you know if you're thinking about it these are persecuted Christians John is writing this he's encouraging them right for those of you who are being wronged this comes as a comfort it really does right so we don't need to take revenge we look forward to a place where there will be no more people accusing us there will be no Liars or deceivers around and so it sounds great it's like that's really cool there'll be no more suffering and pain the thorn in our side will be removed right but when I started taking some self-inventory instead of doing this all the time put up a mirroring for myself I saw the other things in there I saw the other side of that uh-oh do I lie because it doesn't say unless but the white Liars now you know what I'm saying like the ones who tell white lies I'm gonna get myself in a lot of trouble today no one to stop and start again okay you can cut that so anyway but it doesn't say right like but you know the little lies you know the little ones are okay it just doesn't it doesn't and so it scared me I was like oh I gotta get right so it comes as a comfort now this is a crazy thing as I close it I'm going to share something with you it's not even in my notes because it couldn't be it happened this morning every day I wake up and I try to get to the word of God first like because y'all are crazy but anyway so I tried to get I try to I try to get there first and I'm like just no no stop like I do a Psalm and you guys know I do a proverb right and so then maybe I pray and then I pray again and pray again and then I start like you know texting people to proverb my thoughts and praying for people right so this morning same process especially on a Sunday I'm about to preach the word of God got to get in there first and just stop right so this is do you know the topic right Psalm 120 was on the list so it's just a different Psalm every day but this was on in other words I didn't know my body this was the assigned Psalm and it's been assigned all month I have my reading plan for the month that I'm going to do it was in there check this out this is what came up today Psalm 120. I took my troubles to the Lord I cried out to him and he answered my prayer Rescue Me O Lord from liars and from all deceitful people that's the first thing I read I was like okay you're supposed to preach that again it's a comfort the truth will be revealed you want to know what the other verses are oh deceptive tongue what will God do to you how will he increase your punishment you will be pierced with sharp arrows and burned with glowing coals that's the other side of it you can't fool God so those who live a lie will find out whether it's now or in the end that they've only been fooling themselves that's it so that is why Paul's writing to the church in Rome he Echoes what Jesus says in The Sermon on the Mount that we looked at last week and says this Romans 12 14 bless those who persecute you don't curse them pray that God will bless them be happy with those who are happy and weep with those who weep live in harmony with each other don't be too proud to enjoy the company of ordinary people and don't think you know it all never pay back evil with more evil do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honorable do all that you can to live in peace peace with everyone dear friends never take revenge leave that to the righteous anger of God for the scriptures say I will take revenge I will pay them back says the Lord so it is my prayer that those who are suffering persecution lies slander deceit be encouraged be encouraged no matter what happens to you in a human Court right you are right before God and His you're good just keep doing what you're doing that's it and to those who are fooling themselves as commanded in scripture I pray for them I pray for them Mercy is in my heart towards those people because I know what the word of God says is going to happen to them so I pray the Lord blesses them with with the knowledge that they walk in the light and just if if that is for anyone we have a lot of people watch online anyone who's not walking in the light with Christ listen I'm really praying for you but I'm going to give you some encouragement too if that's you I don't know who it is I'm no one in mind I'm going to give some encouragement to you as I close in in the light at first it seems hard like anything else when we're trying to get it right and I'm not perfect no I never said that I do things wrong it's just that I'm in light so it gets exposed quickly and it's like okay I gotta change that whether I realize that Holy Spirit tells me or my wife so you're right a lot so it's okay right but but I allow myself to be exposed I have accountability so I'm not perfect I sin don't hear like I don't say it never said that but Lord take it from me I don't want it and that's what Christ does to us when we have in our hearts we won't want it anymore I don't want to sin when it comes up I'm like I just I hate it so those are just you're in the hamster wheel if that's you you're hearing this now here's the thing in the light there's no more regret in the light there's no more shame if you're living with that burden you don't need that anymore in the light there are none of they don't exist no regret no deceit no shame no more sorrow no more thinking over and over on no more of that self-hate and frustration just the love of Christ the joy peace love kindness that comes in him so I just invite you into that today let me pray for you Lord thank you for this church this time these people their willingness to come and hear your word no matter what else is going on on the outside the world that just made this a priority they've made you a priority and that's just the first step so if someone's tuning in if they're here we love you thank you thank you for taking that first step and just be encouraged come on in and take the next steps that you need to take to come into the peace and joy that is only found in Jesus Christ I asked these things in Jesus name foreign