would turn your Bibles to the book of Zechariah. You know, I was thinking about, thank you Pastor for letting me preach, but I was thinking about this, and you know, Pastor is always kind of remonstrating about titles for his message and points. And I don't really, it really doesn't bother me that much. So title of this message is just Zachariah part two. So keep it simple. You know, as a. As we, you know, we talked previously about the book of Zechariah and how Zechariah was this young man who had kind of traveled to the land of his ancestors and had heard about it from his grandfather whom he was very proud of, right? He's always mentioning that he is the grandson of a prophet and he's kind of proud of this religious heritage. And then also he is talking about these visions that he had. And we talked about some of the visions, about the first seven out of eight. And so we'll just go over them real quick, do a little bit of review. And then we'll get into the rest of the message that I had. If we look at the first part of Zachariah, it talks about his introduction. He introduces himself, his history, and the fact that he had these eight visions all in one night, which is kind of rough. I can't imagine getting eight messages from the Lord all at once. I can't even imagine writing eight sermons one night. It's kind of insane. But the first vision was about how God was telling the people that building His temple was a priority, and that if the people were struggling at this point, both financially and kind of you know, religiously, and he was like, God was essentially saying, if you make my house a priority in your life, I'll bring prosperity back to you. And, you know, that was an important thing. Like, even today, right, if you get kind of bogged down on trying to either, you know, grow your wealth, or, you know, trying to take care of yourself, and you ignore the things of the Lord, it's gonna, it won't lead to prosperity. But if you focus on the things of the Lord, you know, the Lord always takes care of his servants. And the second vision had to do with the Four Horns and the Four Carpenters. And the Four Horns kind of refer to the four empires that would scatter the Jews, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Greeks, and the Romans. And the Four Carpenters kind of a representation of how the people would be rebuilt, right? Carpenters, as you know, usually are always building things and, you know, focus on construction and also, kind of like the final carpenter, we think about Jesus and how that was his profession. And then also, and he is like, you know, the final carpenter to finish the work of the Lord and, you know, fully restore Zion. And the third vision has to do with a surveyor who was measuring kind of the perimeter of Jerusalem. And, you know, he was kind of making these measurements, but as Zachariah noted, he wasn't making measurements for walls. And Because at this point when they rebuild Jerusalem, it would no longer need walls because it would have the protection of the Lord, right? And it also points, kind of, the second part of that vision talks about how the Jews, because they had been in captivity for so long, they lived in the Babylonian Empire, they kind of embraced the lifestyle of Babylon, right? If you, you know, we all live in this world, but it's not, It's not good for us to kind of embrace what this world embraces, right? We all fall into this current culture of where, you know, there's various things, and that culture kind of changes and gets worse and worse. But there's things that we kind of fall into, or it just kind of, through osmosis, we kind of absorb parts of the culture, right? Because, you know, you go out to work, you have your coworkers, or you go hang out with some of your friends that are perhaps not saved, and then you kind of absorb the way they talk, you kind of start to think the way they think, right? You are the company that you keep. But, you know, the Lord says to let that all go because that is not, you know, that's not profitable to you, that's not profitable to the Lord, right? We are supposed to stay true to God's Word. We're not supposed to let the varyings of culture dictate how we live our lives, right? You can see even since since I was a kid, right, how much culture has changed just in 20, 30 years, and how culture will continue to change because unlike the Bible, which is certain, the world is always changing its mind about how things are supposed to be, or what's right and what's wrong. The fourth vision was a picture of how the people of Israel had, you know, continued to turn away from the Lord over the Old Testament. You can think about even from the time of Moses, through judges, through the kings, and through the prophets, they continued to turn away from the Lord, and then they would get into trouble, and then they'd turn back for a little bit, and then they'd turn away again, and then There was a picture where Joshua, the current high priest with Zechariah, he was standing before the Lord kind of as a picture wearing the sins of Israel and Satan was condemning him and through him condemning Israel for all their sins. However, the Lord rebukes Satan at this point and he lets Joshua know that He has been cleansed, and the robes of Joshua were replaced with the robes of the high priest. And the second part of this vision is talking about the coming of a branch, which is a clear reference to Jesus, who would take away the sins and would reign eventually. And the fifth vision is the golden lambstead, lampstand, which has seven lamps, and there was a bowl above these lamps that supplied them. And this one was talking about cleansing, right, instead of the previous visions where it talks about the people turning back to the Lord. This is about the people being cleansed and restoring Israel as a kingdom under God. And this is kind of like how Israel needed to turn back to the Lord and to start to become a witness once again for how the Lord has blessed them and taken care of them throughout these years. And the same thing applies to us as a church. We need to be a lampstand, a light in the darkness of this world, showing the world that Christ is king and he has these promises that he's made to us and he blesses us. for those. And then the sixth vision is a flying scroll. And, you know, there is this vision is interesting because it talks about like this large scroll that goes across the sky. And it talks about how the people need to not to have excuses or try to get out of the promises that they made to the Lord, the things that we are supposed to do. It's easy to kind of let the world put problems in your lives that'll stop you from serving the Lord, or try to convince you what the Lord wants. First Peter 2.9 talks about it, and it's real good proof about what God expects you from as His children. Now, the seventh vision talks about how Babylon and wealth can cause your heart to become corrupt. And, you know, the Israelites and even Christians today, right, you're trying to think about the blessings of the world and how, like the world says, if you, you know, you focus on your job, focus on your career, or you focus on various things, you get these blessings of the world, right? You may get wealth, you may get power, you may get various things, but that's not what we're seeking as Christians, right? You're seeking the blessings of the God. and there is a picture here of a woman sitting on a ipa flower, kind of relishing in her wealth, right, and is put upon a pedestal, and we looked and saw how this woman was a picture of Babylon, and how people would, towards the end times, start putting wealth and prestige and power over the Lord. And, you know, worship that instead of worshiping the Lord. Now, that's the first seven visions. We're going to talk about the eighth vision and the rest of Zechariah. We'll close my eyes and pray real quick, and then we'll get started. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you, Lord, for this day. Thank you, Lord, for bringing us all to your house tonight, O Lord, for all the blessings you've given, O Lord. Just bless this sermon, O Lord. Help me to preach whatever you need me to preach, O Lord. Help me to be a mouthpiece for you, O Lord. Just bless it out as it goes out to the ears of the hearer, O Lord, and just help them to take something from this message, O Lord. I pray this in your name, amen. So the eighth vision of Zachariah starts in chapter six, verse one. And it says, and I turned and lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold, there came four chariots out from between two mountains, and the mountains were mountains of brass. In the first chariots were red horses, in the second chariot black horses, and in the third chariot white horses, and in the fourth chariot grizzled and bay horses. Then I answered and said unto the angel that talked with me, what are these, my Lord? And the angel answered and said unto me, These are the four spirits of heavens, which go forth from standing before the Lord of all the earth. The black horses which are therein go forth into the north country, and the white go forth after them, and the gristle go forth toward the south country. And the bay went forth and sought to go, that they might walk to and fro through the earth. And he said, Get your hands, walk to and fro through the earth. So they walked to and fro through the earth. Then cried he upon me and spake unto me, saying, Behold, these that go toward the north country have quieted my spirit in the north country. And these horses and these chariots is kind of an interesting picture. If you think about their colors, they kind of represent the four horsemen of the apocalypse. And this is a kind of final judgment that the Lord is going to place upon all the people. Right? And if you think about chariots, right, they are tools of war. And if you think about the armies of this time, right, there are no real professional armies during this time. This is like the Bronze Age. And, you know, people are generally farmers at this point, right? They toil at their lands. And then the king calls up the armies, and that's just the people. And so there's no, like, you know, you got to take your things, you got to provide your own armor, your own clothing, your own food, even your own weapons, right? That's why you hear, like, in Isaiah 2, 4, and they shall beat their swords into plowshares. And, you know, you think about that, and these, at this point in the Bronze Age, right, people had tools that were made out of bronze, and bronze is a pretty soft metal. You could just toss it in the fire, let it heat up, and then you could beat it into whatever you need. You know, you think about chariots and how devastating they are against untrained, not professional armies, right? You can just think about two horses or four horses pulling this large iron or brass chariot. And, you know, I'm sure many of you have seen movies of that time period, right? Or seen, like, Gladiator or, you know, whatever you've watched. You've seen, like, where people are destroyed by just this large force. And you can, same thing applies here to these horsemen on these chariots, right? And the horses all have different meanings, right? We talk about The black horses, and they represent famine and death. White horses represent victory. Red generally represents blood and vengeance. And then the gristled horses, or the bay horses, represent the judgment and plagues. And the chariots are sent here to scatter the enemies of the Lord. who are coming to, you know, and the Lord who is coming to establish his reign on this earth, right? And you think about that picture, right, there's this, like, archaic, if you think about modern times, right, a chariot is pretty archaic, but still, like, they come with such power that they scatter the armies of the Lord, armies of the enemies of the Lord, right? And verses nine through 15, it talks about the crowning of Jesus at the end. Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, behold the man whose name is the branch, and he shall go up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord, even he shall build the temple of the Lord, and he shall bear the glory, and shall rule upon his throne, and he shall be a priest upon his throne, and the council of peace shall be between them both. And this is a beautiful promise that we can all look forward to at the end times, where Jesus finally comes back again, and he's able to set up his millennial reign and his kingdom, and we no longer have to worry about wars or trials or tribulations, and there's finally a complete peace upon the earth. And the following vision in chapter seven and eight, where people are crying about the coming kingdom of God and asks if they can finally stop grieving, we look at these verses, chapter seven, verse four. It says, then came the word of the Lord of hosts unto me saying, speak unto all the people of the land and to the priest saying, when ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month, even though 70 years, did ye at all fast unto me, even to me? And when ye did eat, and when ye did drink, did not ye eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves? Should ye not? Hear the words which the Lord hath cried by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, and the cities thereof round about her, when men inhabited the south and the plain. And the word of the Lord came unto Zechariah, saying, Thus speak the Lord of hosts, saying, Execute true judgment, and shew mercy and compassion every man to his brother. And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor, and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart. But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear. Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law and the words of God, words which the Lord of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets. Therefore came a great wrath from the Lord of hosts. Therefore it is come to pass, as he cried, And they would not hear, so they cried. And I would not hear, saith the Lord of hosts. But I scattered them with the world, when amongst all the nations, whom ye knew not, thus the land was desolate after them. And no man passed through nor returned, for they laid the pleasant land desolate. The people here heard the words of Zechariah talking about the future kingdom of the Lord. And they were kind of anxious about it. And they wanted God to come right away and establish his kingdom. And God asks them, are you worthy of this kingdom? He's like, how different are you from your ancestors? How much have you changed? And he talks about all the things, how they oppressed. He talks about executing true judgment and how they would oppress the widow, the fatherless, the stranger, the poor. And he talks about how they are still breaking these laws and how they are not. you know, thinking about the Lord at all, you know, they eat their food, they drink their drink, and none of it is to the Lord. It's all because, you know, they give credit to themselves. And, you know, they harden their hearts, and, you know, it hearkens back to Moses, right? When he was facing the Pharaoh, and, you know, Pharaoh would listen and see all these miracles Moses did, and it hardened his heart, right? You know, he took for, granted what God did, the same way the Jews were taking for granted what the Lord has done for them, right? All the miracles he provided, the kings he provided, the judges he provided, right? To rescue them from all their troubles. And here they were, you know, they continued to sin. and decided, you know what, it's fine, God will rescue us eventually, right? And that's something that we need to be careful of as Christians, right? Where we feel like, I've heard this a lot of times when I was young, and I think it's a pretty old saying, but I think it's a pretty true saying, where Christians think that salvation is like fire insurance, right? Where you get saved, and God will be there, God loves you, He's gonna always be there to bail you out. And that's not the case, right? God says clearly here, right, you will be, we're all judged at the end, right, for everything we've done. You know, God keeps an account. God will forgive you for the sins, that's for sure. But that doesn't mean God doesn't remember what you've done, right? There's a clear account that we're supposed to give for all the things we've done and why. And the same thing is true for the Jews here. They talk about how they want God to come and rule, but at the same time, they don't want to give up their worldly lifestyle, their desire for the wealth of this world, for power, for fame, for fortune. and, you know, they choose, you know, you can still be a follower of God, you know, you still, God can still give you wealth, God will still give you, you know, prestige or power and things like that, but it's not, it should not be the focus of our life, right? You shouldn't strive for those things at the expense of the things of the Lord or the expense of your relationships, right? They were, even though they'd spent 70 years in Babylon under the yoke of the Babylonians, they were still following after Mammon, right? They were still oppressing their neighbors, they were still trying to extract usury, and they continued to harden their hearts against the guiding of the Lord, right? Trying to be a little holy and just a little bit worldly, right? And how often it is for Christians such as us to kind of, you know, we're a little bit holy, right? We come to church Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, maybe even when we go soul winning. But at the same time, once we're done with those things, we go back into the world and we kind of become like the world, right? You know, you go to work, You kind of, you know, whatever your profession is, you can be a little bit cutthroat, be a little bit unethical, right, to try to get ahead. You can do all these things that kind of the world encourages you to do, right, to cast your fellows aside and try to get whatever you can for yourself, right? The world kind of tells you, like, it's like a zero-sum game for the world, right? You have winners and losers. And the world tells you, if you don't strive to be a winner, somebody else is going to win, and you're going to end up being a loser. And that's something that the world says, but that's not what God says. God will take care of you just as he takes care of the sparrow. God always provides for us. I mean, I'm sure there's times where you've been in trouble, and you've been thinking, Lord, how am I going to make this through? Whether it's something that occurs, like unexpected damage to your house, or to your car, or perhaps you lose your job out of nowhere, and then you're out here with no real savings, and you're kind of stuck, and then the Lord will provide for you, the Lord will take care of you. You shouldn't think of the world's answer to those solutions, right? The world will tell you you should keep your job at all costs, even if you have to undercut your coworkers, or you have to keep your prestige, even if you have to talk bad about somebody else. Right? But that's not what the Jews did, and sometimes, you know, we need to be careful of how is your heart towards the Lord, right? How ready are you to receive His teachings, even His chastisements, right? You know, there's many times in your life when you're in a tough place, And Lord is like, you know, trying to tell you something, but you're so focused on like the trouble that you have that you ignore the Lord's teaching. And, you know, it's true for all of us. Sometimes you get focused on the things in front of you instead of things of God. And, you know, that's... That's simply the wrong thing to do, right? If you focus on the Lord, the Lord will take care of those troubles in front of you. You won't have to worry about the stumbling blocks because his light will lighten your path. And the next chapter is kind of a counter question that God presents to the people through Zachariah and whether the people are ready for him to come back. It says, In chapter 8, for thus saith the Lord of hosts, as I thought to punish you when your fathers provoked me to wrath, saith the Lord of hosts, and I repented not. So again have I thought in these days to do well unto Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. Fear ye not. These are the things that ye shall do. Speak ye every man truth to his neighbor. Execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates. And let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbor. And love no false oath for all these things that I hate. All these things, all these are things that I hate, saith the Lord. Right here, God is like continuing to show them how they are doing wrong, how they are start straying away from being holy. They talk about speaking truth to your neighbor. That doesn't mean you have to be rude or blunt. It doesn't mean if your neighbor asks you how his grass looks, you don't have to be mean and it looks like it hasn't been watered in 100 years. It's not telling you to be blunt or rude, but speak truth to your neighbor when you're I think sometimes, like, when people ask you what you're doing, sometimes, you know, I've done it many times, especially when I was younger, like, sometimes I don't tell people that, oh, I'm on my way to church, or I have to do something, you know, I have to go to church, or I can't be there, I have to do something for church, and I'm like, oh, I just have something planned, right? And very many times we are afraid to tell the world that we are trying to live for the Lord, right? Because the world mocks us and mocks us openly, right? And many times, you know, nobody likes to be mocked, right? And we all feel kind of bad, but I think it's good to, you know, let your neighbor know that, you know, I can't, or let your friends know that I can't be here. I have to, you know, go to, I have to go for soul winning, or I have to, you know, I have church that day, I can't make it out. and things like that. And the next thing, you know, execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates, right? And that, you know, just being fair and not being biased, right? And, you know, not judging people for perhaps how they look or who they are, right? Just, you know, being fair and taking care of people regardless of what your personal biases might be, right? And there's plenty of evidence in the Old Testament about how Jewish people do not take care of strangers in their land, how they look down upon others who are not Jewish of origin or ancestry, and, you know, there's There is no reason for us to do that. We are supposed to reach out to all men, right? Both to the Jew and the Gentile. We're not supposed to look at people sideways, right? And it's kind of easy for us to do. You know, everybody makes snap judgments, right, about how certain people look. or how they dress, but we're supposed to have an open heart to these people. And also, we look at verse 17, where it says, let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbor, and love no false oath for all these things, all these are things that I hate, right? So, you know, don't wish evil on your neighbor, even if they win lawn of the year, right? Don't worry about what you're, you know, don't hold hardness or don't hold wickedness in your heart just because perhaps your neighbor did something bad towards you. Maybe they accidentally let your dog out or whatever, you know, just let you, because, you know, everybody has like these weird relationships with their neighbors, right? Because like you live next to somebody for like 17 years and you might see them like six times and then, You know, you're wondering about your neighbors and what they're doing and things like that, but you know, or make speculations about how they live. But, you know, we're not supposed to do that, right? We're supposed to look at everybody as somebody that needs to be saved, right? As somebody that needs the Word of the Lord shown to them, right? I mean, it might be that your neighbor that you've seen six times just goes to a different church for their whole life, but it doesn't mean, or perhaps they practice a different religion, or, you know, whatever they do, we're supposed to keep our hearts open to other people, right? And it's easy in this world where insults and memes are thrown at each other for various reasons, right? Mostly to make either fun of you or to hold something against you, right? But we're supposed to keep our hearts open, right? But this world kind of tells you to shield your heart, right? Because there are always people out there trying to hurt your feelings or hurt who you are as a person, but we are supposed to, you know, have an open heart. Just like, you know, Jesus had an open heart. He was willing to talk to anybody and everybody. He ate with publicans and sinners, right? And we're supposed to have that same attitude. And then, you know, God continues to ask them if they are ready, and how come if they are ready, they are doing the things, the sins your fathers have done in the past, right? We, and you know, as Christians, we also always think about the coming of Jesus, right? We're always talking about looking forward to the coming of the Lord, but many times, I think that is kind of done in error, because although we should look forward to the coming of the Lord, There is also a kind of finality of the coming of the Lord, right? You think about all your co-workers, your neighbors, perhaps your friends that you haven't really reached with the gospel or had a chance to explain to the gospel. We look forward to the end times, but it's not a good time for them, right? And we think about all the people that, when the rapture occurs, we leave behind. because we didn't get a chance to explain the gospel of them, and perhaps in the same way the Jews were looking forward to the coming of the Lord because, you know, it finally established reign and peace, there's also this finality that we look at, right? This dark about the tribulations and about the final judgment where everybody has to go before the Lord and be judged. And the rest of Zechariah are various other visions about the coming of Christ. The first section kind of is talking about the coming of a humble king riding a donkey into Jerusalem. That's chapters 9 through 11. Kind of chapter 9, verse 9, it talks about, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, thy king cometh unto thee. He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the full of an ass. Right? Kind of a great picture of what happens when Jesus comes in to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off. And he shall speak peace unto the heathen, and his dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth. And this passage and the following two chapters are all about the judgment of the Lord upon those that were surrounding Israel and oppressing Judah. And the thing we have to be grateful for is that God always holds true to his covenants, his promises, and he promises vengeance and retribution to those who harm his children. And God says, vengeance is mine, and that's another thing we need to take to our hearts, is that you may be done wrong, Somebody may cut you off in traffic. You don't have to hold that in your hearts, right? You don't have to speed up and then go cut them off in traffic, right? Just leave it to the Lord. They'll get pulled over eventually, right? And, you know, we need to leave these things behind because we have to make ourselves pure. We have to make ourselves more holy, more worthy of the Lord and the things that He's given us, right? And that's something, you know, Pastor, kind of the theme for this year is to be holy, right? Be more holy. And, you know, we need to show ourselves worthy of the things that Christ has done for us, for the blessings he's given us. And continuing down, if you look at chapter 10, verse three, mine anger was kindled against the shepherds, and I punished the goats, for the Lord of hosts has visited his flock, the house of Judah, and hath made them as his godly horse in battle. Right? And, you know, it talks, once again, more foreshadowing about the end times and the coming of Christ and how Judah will be used as kind of a sword by the Lord at the end times. And chapter 11, verse 13, it says, a prize of them, and I took 30 pieces of silver and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord." Right? And that's a very clear picture of what happens to Judas and how his 30 silvers were used to pay for a potter's field, right, in which he was buried. And a potter's field is kind of like just a kind of almost destroyed piece of land, right, as people, as potters go to dig up clay, kind of like Judas was just tossed away into a potter's field. And you know, there's, and it's just another thing about how complete this word of the Lord is, right? How everything here is kind of one message, fully unified. There's no kind of crossways or crosswords, right? Everything points to the Lord, to his coming, and then his second coming. And you know, we don't, have to wonder what the Lord wants of us. It's all clearly written here in his word. And we don't have to, you know, ponder on what ifs or try to interpret it. It's very clear in this book what God wants of us, what he expects us to do every day in this world, and how we are supposed to work towards the future coming of Jesus Christ. And the next two chapters are all about God's judgment of Israel and the fact that they rejected his son and shepherd that he had built up for them. And, you know, we look at the final chapter of Zechariah, and it is about how the Lord will rescue Jerusalem from the nations that are going to destroy it, regardless of the fact that the Jews had rejected his son. It says, Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoils shall be divided in the midst of thee. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished, and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then shall the Lord go forth and fight against the nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. "'The Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee, "'and it shall come to pass in that day "'that the light shall not be clear nor dark, "'but it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord, "'not day nor night, but it shall come to pass "'that at evening time it shall be light.' And it shall come to pass that every one of that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the king, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. In that day shall there be upon the bells of horses holiness under the Lord, and the pots in the Lord's house shall be like bowls before the altar. Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness under the Lord of hosts, And all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them, and see therein. And in that day there shall be no more Canaanite in the house of the Lord of Hosts." Right? And you know, this section of beautiful verses is not only meant for the Jews, but for us as Christians as well. The Lord promised that he is coming back and will be there to drive away all the wickedness of this world. And you know, there's coming a day when the holiness of the Lord shall fill this earth and we will finally be at peace. There will no longer be rumors of wars or wars. There will no longer be rumors of disasters or disasters that occur. There will no longer be Satan out there scheming to destroy your life, to drive you to wickedness. But while we are here, before the Lord comes back, we are still to be on guard, right? Kind of the song Hold the Fort comes to mind, right? We are here on this earth, and we are here to be a light to this world about the future that is coming to pass. And as Christianity comes continually under attack more and more, And as churches kind of fall away and give to worldliness and start to embrace various aspects of the world in order to entice people to come to them, we are still supposed to stand strong for the Lord against this world, right? Much like how the early saints of the church did. They stood regardless of persecution. They stood regardless of the fact that they were driven from their homes, that they had to flee and oftentimes had to die for their faith, right? And 1 Peter, in verses 13 through 16, it says, Wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ, as obedient children and not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts of your ignorance, But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, because it is written, be ye holy, for I am holy. Right, Zechariah encouraged the people of Israel, this small remnant of people that had come back to rebuild this holy city of Jerusalem, and were discouraged by her devastation, he encouraged them to be holy, and to keep the Lord's charge, and to follow the Lord as the Lord watched over them. And that is also what we are called to do. We are called to be holy. We are called to follow the example Jesus set for us while he was on this earth. We are to be humble but steadfast. We are to care for our neighbors. We are to care for those next to us. And, you know, there is a great responsibility, right, a duty to be a Christian, to be a good Christian, but their awards are even greater than what we can imagine. And, you know, we all live in this world, but, you know, it's more important what we hear in the next life, right? What we hear in heaven, right? And you know, we think about what we all wanna hear when we see Jesus or when we see the Lord face to face, right? Just that simple phrase of, well done, thou good and faithful servant. And that's, you know, that's all that God wants from us, right? He wants us to be good and faithful to him, to be a good servant, and to follow his word as he has laid it out for us. And that's all I had from Zachariah. If you want to, I'll pray real quick, and then we'll be done. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you, Lord, for this message. Thank you, Lord, for the book of Zechariah that you left in your word. For us, Lord, thank you, Lord, for always telling us, Lord, encouraging us, asking us to strive to be holy, Lord, to be like unto you. Just help us, Lord, as we go out into this world, Lord, to stay steadfast to you. to your word, O Lord, to the life that you want us to live, O Lord. Help us to stay true to you, true to the will that you have laid out before us. And just bless us, O Lord. Bless the congregation, O Lord. I pray this in your name. Amen.