All right, I'm back. So we have the, we need healing in our wings, don't we, Brother Joe? The two sprained feet guys in the wings of our auditorium. Pastor Voegelin preached yesterday, and his message was a message to the messengers, a message to the messengers. And I kind of had a different direction I was leaning for today, but it just, it hit me. I said, I need to preach this. Lord laid that on my heart yesterday as he was preaching, because it goes along with what he was preaching about. So as I was thinking, about what a privilege it is to carry God's words. And again, our words, there's a reason why they say talk is cheap, isn't there? Because our words are so cheap. We say something and something may happen. And there's a good chance nothing will happen. And sometimes a lot of what we say is just empty anyway. Nobody's expecting something to happen because we're just jabber-jawing, going on and on about nothing. But when we are able to carry God's message, that's very important. So go ahead and turn to 1 Kings chapter 13. 1 Kings chapter 13. And at the beginning, we see kind of an exciting story. 1 Kings 13. And behold, there came a man of God out of Judah. So that's the southern kingdom, by the word of the Lord unto Bethel. So he was commanded by God to go to the northern kingdom where Bethel was, one of the religious seats in the northern kingdom, and Jeroboam. So the king, the big cheese. was up there at Bethel doing wrong. Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense. Now this was a false worship system. He didn't want his people going down and taking part in the God-ordained worship system, traveling from the northern kingdom to the southern kingdom. Boy, their hearts would turn again, possibly, to the king of the southern kingdom. And one way or the other, it just didn't seem a good idea for business reasons. He needed to make sure his people had somewhere nearby to go. They would spend their money in the northern kingdom, not heading to the southern kingdom. So he came up with this. He commissioned some golden calves to be built, and he set up the the different worship systems up in Dan and there at Bethel, and he said, we're going to follow Jehovah, but not the way he wants, the way we want, the way that makes more sense from a business standpoint. The idea of a seeker-friendly type thing. I don't want my people going and doing this, I'm going to make it more enjoyable. We're going to figure out what they enjoy, what they love, and we'll do that. So he was doing things against the set religious system that the Lord had set up. So there is Jeroboam, and he's sacrificing. He's got all these people around, and he's hired all the wrong people to be in the priestly service. He would take the low people and the base people, and he just set them up and give them positions, and it was a big crock, a big sham. But that's okay. As long as we go through the motions, we'll have fun. You see, we are religious people. We're built as a religious people, but there's counterfeit ways to satisfy our need to worship. There are lots of counterfeit ways to satisfy our need to worship. We are a religious people, and we need to worship. It's built into us. We know there's a God, and we know we need to do something about it. But there's counterfeit ways of satisfying those needs, and the King of the North had set that up. So God said to this unnamed man, you, head up to the northern kingdom and deliver a message for me. And he's like, OK. And I'm not sure. How scared he was, if he was the kind of person, I'll go and yell at them, that'll be fun. They might kill me, but anyway, if it was one of us, I think there'd be some nervousness there. So let me get this straight. I'm going to go up where basically the king's word is law. I'm going to put my bony finger in his face and tell him why he's wrong. He's going to be surrounded by people with no moral ethics, and he's going to be whooping them up into a frenzy, and they're the type of people that don't care about law and order. Maybe they'll be calling for my head, and it'll be fun for him to give it to them. Sure, sounds like a plan. He cried against the altar. So he got up there, verse 2, he got up there, cried against the altar in the word of the Lord and said, Oh, altar, altar, thus saith the Lord. And I'm not sure he said it this way. Maybe there were some nerves that he was trying to get over. Oh, altar, altar. There's some nerves, but he got his message out. Thus saith the Lord, behold, a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name. So he's telling some prophecy from hundreds of years down the road. Josiah by name, and upon thee shall he offer the priests of the high place that burn incense upon thee, and men's bones shall be burnt upon thee. And he gave a sign the same day, saying, This is the sign which the Lord has spoken. Behold, the altar shall be rent, and the ashes that are upon it shall be poured out. And again, that shall be. It would really back up the message if that happened first. You know, he's like, No! And the altar was like, And stuff was pouring out. But it didn't happen yet. He's like, And this shall be the sign. This shall happen. And so he's just like, And nothing happened. So he's like, Yep. So, and verse four, you're like, Lord, it'd be really great if that could happen like right when I'm done. So that they're less inclined to say, grab him and skin him alive. If it can happen right away, you know, I just had this idea about how timing should go. Can we practice it? Can we choreograph this a little bit? Nothing happens. Verse four, and it came to pass when King Jeroboam heard the saying, so at least it was loud enough for the king to hear. You know, like my kids, like, you got in trouble? Tell me what you did. You know, like. I can't understand you. Normally I'm telling you to quiet down, but I cannot get one word of what you're saying. But here, so this is good. He didn't come up at the altar. At least he was clear enough that Jeroboam is saying, he heard the saying of the man of God, which cried out against the altar. And Bethlehem put forth his hand from the altar saying, lay hold on him. And I'll guarantee you there weren't like nerves of There wasn't nervousness in his voice. There was anger, where there should have been nervousness in his voice, because apparently he had done something against God in heaven. But isn't it funny how brave we are on this earth? Lay hold on him! And his hand, which he put forth against him, dried up, so he could not pull it in again to him. So it became like a dried up branch. And there he's looking at it. And he's like, even if I did try to bring it to myself, it would just snap off and fall off my body. He's looking, he's like, oh no. And then finally, verse five. The altar also was rent. So that's good. So adding to this, you know, and the ashes poured out from the altar according to the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the Lord. Oh, man, this is exciting. This is exciting. Don't you wish you could just walk up to somebody, knock on the door, say, behold, God has a message for you. You better respond or that tree is going to burst into flame, you know. It's like, yes, yes, I'm listening. This is pretty exciting and he's got the king's attention. Things wonderful, maybe the northern kingdom will turn to God. Wouldn't that be wonderful? Maybe the northern, he's got a message. God says, I'm not pleased with what's going on here. We don't carry a message because we get to yell at people. That's not why we carry a message. Because it's just so fun to get up and scream and holler at people. We carry the message because we want the people that receive the message to respond to it and have their lives changed. This is exciting. The North has the chance to change and get serious about the things of God, but it didn't happen. Let's jump to the end of the chapter, verses 23, 24. It came to pass, after he had eaten bread, this is the man of God, the unnamed prophet, and after he had drunk, that he settled from the ass to wit the prophet to whom he had brought back. And when he was gone, a lion met him by the way and slew him, and his carcass was cast in the way. and the ass stood by it, the lion also stood by the carcass." Those words there in verse 24, his carcass was cast in the way. His carcass was cast in the way. Behold, men passed by and saw the carcass cast in the way, and the lion standing by the carcass. Again, it keeps on saying carcass. How disrespectful, just carcass. You don't want to say that when you're dealing with a body. You know, when you're doing a funeral, like, here we have the carcass of our dearly beloved, you know, whomever. Carcass is not the word you want to slipping out, you know. But it's almost like the Bible is making a point here. A carcass cast in the way and the lion standing by the carcass, and they came and told it in the city. They came and told in the city where the old prophet dwell, but others are hearing the message. And so what's sad to me, verse 33, after this thing Jeroboam returned not from his evil way. but made again of the lowest of the people, priests of the high places." That word again, it was almost like maybe the evil of the North had come to a halt. Maybe they were thinking some things over as the king's like, I love having my hand back. It's wonderful. Maybe I should think about what God wants me to do. I mean, what am I? If he can just shrivel up my appendages, what am I without my appendages? That was just one. What if he decides to shrivel up all four? Man, I should think about what God wants. Oh, it's wonderful. Maybe I should rethink some of the things we're doing. Hey, the guy that preached and all this happened, he's dead. Is he? Is that right? And I'm not. He's dead and I'm not dead. I'm doing good. Whosoever would he consecrated him and he became one of the priests of the high places and this thing became sin unto the house of Jeroboam even to cut it off and to destroy it from off the face of the earth. And I don't we don't know that this happened but I can just see King Jeroboam he's dead. The guy that like had me scared to death, is dead. I wonder if King Jeroboam, you know, said, can I go see the body? Now, we know the old prophet collected the body, but I don't know for sure that King Jeroboam didn't get a chance to see the body first. And I don't know, it just kind of scares me, just the thought of him standing over that body, you know, like, hey, buddy, remember this hand that didn't work that long ago? Check out this whole body that doesn't work anymore. Huh? See this hand? It works good, pal. I don't like being scared, and you scared me. All right, look what happened to you now. And again, a sensible person would realize that God means business, and that's an evidence of that, but this world isn't full of sensible people. They look at a person that carried the message for God, and then fail him, and say, oh, good, I can go back to my evil ways, because the conviction is gone. So just this idea of carrying this message, I titled this, How Does a Powerful Preacher Become a Carcass Cast in the Way? How Does a Powerful Preacher Become a Carcass Cast in the Way? Let's pray. Lord, I do pray that you bless these ideas. I pray that you help it to be a blessing. Lord, I really kind of hope that it will coincide with what Dr. Volgin was saying yesterday with how serious things are. Lord, he talked about the priests wouldn't even open the door if there wasn't enough money. Lord, they just turned it into a business. And Lord, that's exactly what the Northern Kingdom had done. It wasn't about you at all, Lord. It was about money. and convenience and self-satisfaction, Lord, and you had a man that was gonna go up there and yes, cry out your message of condemnation, but the whole intention was so that those people could return back to you, Lord. That's your heart. Your heart is not that people get screamed at and hollered at and then punished for all eternity, Lord. You would rather that people respond to your message. And Lord, we in this room have been given so much. And we hope to carry your message to people, Lord, but we, I just pray that we would understand there's a very, there's a seriousness about these things. And I pray you help me to be clear as we look at these things, ask these things in Jesus' name, amen. Okay, so 1 Kings 13. And again, you'd say, oh, no, the devil destroyed his message. And of course, we would say that we have a couple things we could bring up about that. Did the devil destroy the message? No, the message went forth. But the messenger is part of the message, isn't it? We can't separate. But really, the message went forth, but because of what happened, the message was set aside. The message was still valid. It came from God. God still meant what he said. But it seemed like the message was destroyed. And you say, oh no, how can the devil destroy a message like this? Because it seems like he did what he wanted with that message. And what's the scary thought is, in a scary way, it doesn't seem like the devil destroyed the message. The devil got the messenger to destroy the message. And that's what's scary. If we're not careful, we'll destroy the message that we were told to carry. And that's pretty powerful. Think of a pastor that preaches for years and years, and then it's discovered that he's in gross sin. All right? All those wonderful sermons, I'm going to have a hard time going back and listening to them. Aren't you? I'm going to have a hard time because it just seems like, I don't know. And he might have been Holy Spirit filled and preached that message. It was powerful, but it just casts a dark light on everything he's ever said. And those things and the people that's like, well, my pastor told me this, and at the time it really helped me, but I wonder if it was even valid. And there's a lot of stuff going on. Even I was talking to my children this morning. And like, what if dad jumps into this gross sin? You guys are gonna be forever plagued with, I love my dad, but you're gonna be forever plagued with, boy, my dad put that ahead of us. I wonder how many other places he put those things ahead of us. Now, he said he loved us, but he was hiding all these things. His true heart was given over to this. I never was in, I never was a part of his true heart. What a scary thought. If the devil can get us to destroy the message, it's far more effective than him going about to destroy it himself. Because again, the word of God, the devil can't do anything to the word of God. God's already made promises that the devil can do what he wants. My word is established. It's forever settled in heaven. Not one jot or one tittle will depart. I mean, I've promised preservation. The devil can do what he wants. It's going to be available. You're going to be able to get access to it. There's nothing you can do to stop it. But if he can get us to destroy the very message we carry, boy, that'll be pretty effective. So how does a powerful preacher become a carcass cast in the way? Well, I kind of see some things that happen. First of all, the king is looking at him like, for real? Look at all these people that are pumped about being here, and you're going to come up here and preach against me. Where's your little army that's going to protect you from my wrath? I think of Nebuchadnezzar. Who is that God that will deliver you out of my hand? And praise God, he met him. What's sad is Jeroboam already had heard from God and has turned his back on the things that God wanted him to do. God gave him the northern kingdom and made promises that he didn't claim. So he knows about what God's like, I prefer this. Jerry Bowman already met God. God gave him the kingdom and said, I'll establish you if you'll do that. I just prefer doing it my own way. So he had made some decisions. He had purposely turned his back on what God wanted. And so this wasn't sin and ignorance because he just makes sense to set up. No, no, he knew what he was doing. And so when somebody comes in, especially when you sin knowing what you're doing, and somebody comes up and messes up your birthday party. Comes and puts their finger in your face on your special day. Man, they're toast. So basically, he says, seize him. I didn't really look at it a ton, but they're talking about these gender pronouns out in California. Like if you work at a nursing home and old man, Phillips, decides he's a woman now. He's, I'm a woman now, you have to call me she and her. I have specific gender pronouns that apply to me now. The headline, I didn't even read it that much, but you can go to jail if you don't use the gender pronoun that people prefer. My Bible says there's men and there's women. There's marriage. There are things that make sense, but there's political pressure like jail, that's scary. If they come into my business and say, I want a cake that says this, that blasphemes God or whatever, but you can go to jail. I'm not free to follow God anymore. All my freedoms are gone. What am I going to do? There's going to be political pressure to back off from the message God has given you. That seize him didn't happen. That happened before the altar was rent. And again, he didn't know. He said, it shall be rent. And it sure would be wonder. It would be wonderful if they go seize him and the earth opens up with the soldiers that are rushing toward you. That'd be great. That'd be wonderful. But it's probably not going to happen. When you proclaim God's message and somebody says, seize him, there's a good chance you're going to be seized. All right? The devil knows, and it's not new. It goes all the way back to 1 Kings 13, where he's going to use political pressure or some sort of authority that says, shut your mouth or else. All right? You're free to worship God in your home, but keep it there. The moment you step out your door, you're infringing on other people's rights. All right? So hide it, you can do it in your home. You come out here, you're infringing on other people's rights to be free from your, but the Bible says that I'm supposed to go out. Paul talked about going everywhere from house to house and sharing the gospel and caring about people. What are you going to do with that political pressure? The three Hebrew children, the three Hebrew 30-somethings. When they said, hey, guess what? You're going to bow before this idol. We can't. Political pressure to do what's wrong. What about the disciples in Acts when they said, it's OK for you to be religious, but you can't bring up the name of Jesus anymore. And they're like, there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. There is no other name. You tell me I can't bring up Jesus. There's nothing to say. Now you tell me. You judge. Judge ye. God wants us to preach Jesus. And you don't want us to preach Jesus. You explain to me what I should do. It's real clear that He wants this. And it's real clear that you want something completely contrary to what He wants. You tell me what I should do. Whether it's more important to obey God or men, judge ye. And they went through persecution. They went through hard times. and God spread his truth throughout the known world. Political pressure, what else? What else? Okay, so we love it. The king, all right? So the king, in verse six, the king is begging the man of God for help. Don't you love it? I'm sure he did. You know, you're like, oh, and then you're like, that's pretty cool. the altar just splits, and the king's arm is all shriveled, and he was on top of his high horse, and he's like, oh no, it just occurred to me, I'm nothing compared to God. I don't know why it didn't occur to me before. Why doesn't it occur, why do things always, why is hindsight 20-20 vision? Why is it after I do something stupid, I see how stupid it was? Why don't I see how stupid it is before I do it? Oh no, it hits me now, I'm nothing. The king answered and said unto the man of God, entreat now the face of the Lord thy God, and pray for me that my hand may be restored me again. And again, it's the Lord thy God, the Lord thy God. He recognized that he had turned his back on what the true God wanted, even though he had this false way of worshiping him. He recognized that this false way of worshiping is no worship at all. It wasn't about God at all. It was about their own convenience. And the man of God besought the Lord, and the king's hand was restored, and it became as it was before. That's exciting. Like, Father, I think you've seen the error of his ways. If you'd like, you can give his hand back to him. You know, that would be pretty fun. And it's like, you know, just life comes back. He's like, oh, oh, you know, and he's just like, oh, thank you. Thank you so much. Oh, it's wonderful. And the king said unto the man of God, Come home with me and refresh thyself and I will give thee a reward. I will pay you. All right. You come home with me. So the first thing he'll do to silence our message is he'll put that political or the authority will come down on us and say, shut your mouth or else. And if you can get past that, if the world can't own you, if the world can't beat you, it will try to own you. If the world can't beat you, it will try to own you. He says, come home with me. Again, who gets to go home with the king? You know, go home with the king. Not a lot of people get to go home with the king. He says, and then my casa es su casa. Refresh thyself. If you like it, come in and just, yeah, it'll be wonderful, and I will give thee a reward. I want you on my payroll. So, the first thing is political pressure. The next thing is prestige. The world will offer you popularity, and money, and prestige. Oh man, Judas Iscariot. Can you just see him? He's like, no man, gather round. Bring it in. I got someone that I can sell you. And they're like, yes, yes. And he feels like he's got their ear. And he's like, nah, I'm going to sell the Lord Jesus to you. Here's the plan. I'm going to go in and plant a kiss on his cheek, and then you know who it is, and then this and that. And boy, he's somebody. He's somebody before those guys. And then afterwards, when they come in and they cart Jesus off, and Judas is seeing, I am, and everyone falls over. And they come up, and Jesus is carted off, and he just sees how Jesus didn't react with, how dare you, man, attack! And Jesus is like, no, no, it's all right. Peter, don't cut that man's ear off. Here, let me put it back on. There probably wasn't, I don't know if there was a sound. Oh, you know, puts it back on and sings. Oh, can you hear that? Good, your ear's working. He puts it back on and Judas is like, what have I done? And then he goes back to those men that respected him so highly, right? He's like, hey, no, and they're like, get out of here, we have no respect for you. We have no respect for you. What have I done? And he just throws the money in there. And he goes out and kills himself. All right? Jesus, the devil came to Jesus and said, if you'll bow down to me, I'll give you the kingdoms of the world. Again, that's how insane the devil is. Because the kingdoms, the world was made by the Lord Jesus. All right? But he's like, if you'll just bow down to me, I'll give what I've taken from you back to you. And again, he's like, devil, I'm not doing that. I'm not doing that. I can't be purchased. I'm not for sale. What about Gehazi? Remember Gehazi in the Old Testament when Naaman came and offered the riches to the man of God? And Gehazi, when the man of God says, I don't need that. The man of God said, I'm not for sale. But Gehazi is like, I am. So Naaman left and Gehazi runs after him and says, hey, you know, and he tells him this story about that we have need of all these riches. Naaman pays him and he heads back. Gehazi was for sale. And again, the question is, why do we reach for these other blessings? Well, we say that God, what you're giving me isn't enough. What you're doing for me isn't enough. I need these other things. And the moment you've decided that serving God isn't quite enough, you become a monster. You have sold yourself. For the man of God to say I'm not for sale meant that God takes care of me far above and beyond that which I deserve. But when you get to the point where like, yeah, I could probably use a little extra from you, you're saying that God isn't taking care of me above and beyond what I deserve. In fact, God isn't taking care of me the way I deserve at all. Yes, I'm not completely for sale. I'm only partially for sale. But once you sell yourself, you're sold. You can't serve two masters. How many preachers do we know who lost everything because of some little fling with the church secretary? We talked about hindsight being 20-20 vision. God's blessings weren't enough until after they were lost. And then it becomes so apparent. Oh, no. I had it all. I had it all. a loving family, a church to lead, people being changed. Then somewhere along the line, I decided I didn't have enough, but now I see I had it all. I had it all and I sold. Prestige. Now, this wasn't even enough, but you can tell pride starting to work on this man. He's like, no, can't do it. But there's a twinkle in his heart that's saying, that's pretty neat. I mean, when I came, I was despised in his eyes. And now he's like wishing that I was his best friend. And why not? I am pretty likable. Why doesn't, why wouldn't he want me to go back to his house? I mean, I'm the guy that came in and brought that thing to a halt. You should have seen me when I, when I, when I, when I, when I caused his arm to shrivel up. I don't know that he thought all these thoughts, but I know he's human. And I know that by the time he gets to the end of this chapter, something happened where he's not doing what he should. And I know things happen incrementally in our own hearts and lives. The third thing I want you to see is pride. Pride. All right. So it says here. So he says, come home with me. And the man of God said unto the king, if thou would give me up to half thy house, I will not go with thee, neither will I eat bread or drink water in this place. For so it was charged me by the word of the Lord, saying, eat no bread, nor drink water, nor turn again by the same way that thou camest. So he went another way in return, not by the way that he came to Bethel. Now there dwelt an old prophet in Bethel, and his sons came and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel. The words which had been spoken, which had Which he had spoken unto the king, them they told also to their father. And their father said unto them, What way went he? For his sons had seen what way the man of God went, which came from Judah. And he said unto his sons, Saddle me the ass. And they saddled him the ass, and he rode thereon. And he went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak. If you ever read in the Bible accounts of the angels of God, they almost seem like hummingbirds. You know hummingbirds dart like. On the angels, it seems like it's funny, but you almost get the impression that in the throne room of heaven, the angel is just to do what they're supposed to do. They're almost like humming, and it seems to indicate that they move like lightning. I can just see Peter when he was rescued from the jail in Acts. He wants to make some small talk with the angel, and it seems like the angel's all business. He's like, okay, you're out, goodbye. He gets him out, and I wish Christians were all business. Again, I teach my children that delayed obedience is, How about casual obedience? So this man, he's supposed to get home, but there's time to rest. And what do we do when we rest? What's going through his mind? What just happened? I'm going to sit here and think about how awesome that was. Oh, man. And he's sitting, and I so wish that the old prophet couldn't catch him because he was obeying so quickly. Don't you? He saddled him the ass, went after him, and found that he was already gone. Oh, man, I wish the story would have ended there. And then maybe the King Jeroboam, maybe those verses that said that he returned to the wicked way, maybe the northern kingdom, I mean, Assyria comes along and carts them off, and they basically vanish. It's the southern kingdom that goes off into captivity, and there's some semblance of them that returns. The northern kingdom gets carried off and they're basically, they kind of just vanish. I wonder if that would have been delayed or even possibly changed for a time. I don't know. I wish they had zipped right home. Those feelings of pride, they're going to attack us. They're going to be in our heart. But Lord, help me keep those things down. Help me keep those things down and help me be so busy obeying and pleasing you that I don't stop and think about, did you see? Did you see the way that crowd hated me? Then all of a sudden I was something as I stand up there and the king's like, please, please, you know, please, you know, and there he is, you know, he looks out across the crowds in slow motion. See, I had total control. They were in the palm of my hand, every one of them. Whose hand? Whose hand? Man, I wish that he wouldn't have caught him sitting under a tree. I wish that he would have just been, what's next, Lord? Enough of me. Remember that yesterday? I'm just a messenger. That was such a good illustration. Dr. Fogan delivers the message. So, you know, just drop off the vanilla envelope. And then you're like, so. What in the world? Thanks. Be off. Be off. All right? You're like, oh. All right? He should have said, the people are like, and I wonder if people are like, you're amazing. Little kids, can you sign my Bible? You know, I dusted it off after I heard what you said. And people are like, you're amazing. And he's like, no, listen, please stop. I'm just a sinner that God mercifully and gracefully chooses to use. I'm nothing. I'm nothing. God is everything. I'm nothing. But somehow he started thinking he was something. He's sitting there and not obeying. So the prophet said, I am a prophet also as thou art, and an angel. Well, this idea of pride, pride kind of messed up King David. He should have been out fighting. And he was back where he saw Bathsheba reveling in his glories. He commits great sin. What about Saul in 1 Samuel 15, 17? The man of God says, Saul, do you remember when you were little in your own sight? Do you remember those days? Back when it used to be, I can't believe that God would use me. Something changed and now it's, I can't believe that he'll ask me to do that for so little. Something changed, Saul. Do you remember when you were little in your own sight? This man comes along and he says, come back with me and refresh thyself. And he's like, can't do it. And the man said, I am a prophet as thou art. By the way, when you somebody comes up to you and tells you they're just like you and they're not, they're not crying out against sin. They're living in a place that's that's pursuing sin. And they're just comfortably I mean, maybe a new evangelical Christian. All right, comfortable, completely comfortable with the world. completely comfortable with living there and not crying out against sin, and completely comfortable with the world, and they come up to you and say, I'm just like you. You need to have the sense to say, no, you're not. No, you're not. You live up here and you don't cry out against this? How can you be comfortable with that? He says, I'm just like you. An angel came to me and said, you should come back to my house. So another thing that he'll use is peer pressure. peer pressure, someone that says, I'm just like you. I'm just like you. He tried to use peer pressure with Job and his three friends, right? And one peer, his wife. His wife. Curse God and die. What about Amnon? When he looked and he saw his half-sister, Tamar, and he goes, man, I'm sick with love for her. And the Bible says he thought it hard to do something against her. Then Jonadab helped him see everything through a different perspective. You're the king's son. You should have whatever you want. So, his mind was on her and he goes, I care about her. I think it hard to do something against her. Jonadab came back and said, hey, enough of her. What do you want? Focus on what you want and you're not getting and what you need to do to get what you want. All right, what a friend, peer pressure. So this friend comes along and says, Prophet, what do you want? Well, I am hungry. And it would be fun to sit down with you and kind of rehash what just happened. And what, you said that an angel said it was fine? Uh-huh, okay, I'm there. All right, so peer pressure. And then, at the end of the story, God kills. the unnamed prophet. And God doesn't kill innocent people. All right. He was guilty because he knew better. All right. He wanted to be fooled by sin. And we've all been there. All right. I want it. I'm not supposed to have it. But if I if I recolor the whole thing this way I can actually have it and it's not sin anymore. So, sorry about this point, but I call it plausible deniability. Plausible deniability. He'll give you an excuse. He'll give you a way out. All right, if you can say it's sin, unless you rename it this. Unless you think of it this way. God didn't tell this backslidden person that I should go home and have dinner with him, but I can have dinner with him and say that he took me in. I can do what I want and say that I was fooled. Right? Guys, you're going through the grocery store and you're like, oops, I'm in the aisle with the magazines or whatever. Oops. I mean, the section I'm headed to is back there. And oops, oh, I'm just looking around and my eyes caught this or that. Joseph, they set it up so Joseph could have plausible deniability. Potiphar's wife emptied the house and said, it's just us. Who will know? Who will know? If something happens, you can just say this, because who will know? All right? They set it all up. And he's like, I'm not taking that bait. I'm not doing that. And he fled and got him out of there. So at the end of the story, it says that The man of God received, the lying prophet received a real message from God and told him, you're going to die. Talk about awkward, right? What an awkward way to end your meal. I have the Cree goes over to my house. And I'm like, you're not supposed to be here. You're going to die before you make it home. I was right in the middle of a story, and my punchline was coming. But all of a sudden, it's like, that's the punchline? No, no, I'm sorry. It just came to me. It's like, how awkward is that? And so he leaves, and he dies. And the lion stands beside the carcass. And the mule stands there. And it's told in the city what happened. And word spreads around. When God gives us a message, when we're in that exalted place, we're in a special place, and it can be dangerous when you defile that place and treat it like it's nothing. Now, we know the lion stood there, and of course, a lion is a symbol in the Bible. The devil is as a roaring lion, he pretends. The devil's as a roaring lion, he pretends. But we know that the Lord is called the lion of the tribe of Judah. And so the Lord, the picture here is that God said, I'm going to take your life. You didn't honor me, and so I'm going to take your life. And by the way, you go, God, don't do that. I don't care what people think. I don't do what I do because of what people will think. I do what I do because my ways are above all your ways, and I don't care what people think. Yes, it's going to hurt my message. But that person was given an opportunity to carry my message and he defiled the position. I'm taking his life. Think of Moses. Think of Moses. Moses is in that exalted position, that he spoke face to face with God. And when Moses had a message to give, and he gave the message however way he wanted, the wrath of man didn't work the righteousness of God, and he misrepresented the message to the people, the Lion of the tribe of Judah took him up on top of a mountain, said, look at the promised land, you'll never go there, and took his life. When you ascend the holy hill with God, that's very special. And you should fear treating it like it isn't. Just in conclusion, Paul was scared to death of this, and we see it in the end of 1 Corinthians 9. And he said, I keep my body under subjection, lest that by any means when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. I'm scared to death of what I will do if I don't keep me in check. I'm scared to death. So I keep my body under. I'm asking you to stay scared to death of you until you die. So that you can carry that message faithfully and honestly and in purity and sobriety, vigilantly, carefully, making sure that every day we are small and he is big. Let's pray. Lord, I do I do pray that this this message would have been a help to these folks here today, Lord. I think it kind of goes along, Lord, I believe that you kind of laid it on my heart yesterday as Dr. Volgin preached. I pray, Lord, that it, Lord, that I, that everyone in here would take these ideas very seriously and be very careful with the message that you've allowed us to carry. And to be honest, Lord, in dealing with it, making sure that you receive all the glory and I don't steal any from you. Lord, I pray that you'd be with us at this time of invitation. I ask these things in Christ's name, amen. You can stand to your seat as the pianist comes and plays. If you want to pray about anything, you can come forward and do that, or you can spend some time with God in your chair.