Man is born in trouble as the sparks fly upward. We have received less than our sins deserve. You say, is God punishing you for your sins? No, if he was, I'd be dead. Besides that, he already got rid of him, so why would he punish me for something he eliminated? I punished you, why? For your sins. Why? Because I didn't take them all away. We sure get goofed up when we think like that. We do. What it does is it makes you fear God in a different way. Your fear of God should be awe, reverence mixed with adoration. And that's the kind of fear you should have. Anyway, we talked about something last week. Nobody remembered the week before. Say, well, we talk about this kind of crazy stuff. We should be talking about this stuff, but we shouldn't be talking about it to justify ourselves. We shouldn't be talking about it to prove our point. Have you ever heard two little kids arguing when they're arguing about something, you know, well mama said so-and-so, or daddy said so-and-so, no he didn't, he said this, or he wants this, or he wants that. You ever heard that kind of stuff? This shouldn't be a matter of invoking our father's power to try to control somebody else. Who? Our siblings, brethren and sistren. To prove our point, that's not what it's supposed to be. And yet, most of the stuff in the Laodicean church is exactly that. we begin to think of things in the Word of God that'll prove our point. I mean, for example, I believe this Bible, I believe this Bible's a preserved Word of God without proven error. I believe that. I mean, if it was up to me to have to pick which words are wrong or which words are right, especially after studying the Hebrew and the Greek, knowing in one Greek word you can translate it up to 27 different ways and it be grammatically correct, where's that gonna leave me? All I got to do is get in front of God and say, God, you didn't give me the brains to figure out what was right and what was wrong. You didn't give me anything that was right to start with. I had to figure it out. I was left on my own. But anyway, when you get thinking in those terms, you don't need to invoke the power of God to prove your point. The problem is we're still all about us. The reason we do that stuff is to prove I'm right. This particular study that I listened to to get this stuff off him is all about proven evolution was incorrect and that it was a matter of creationism. These things couldn't possibly have evolved. What's the difference between that and what we're trying to do? Well, what we're trying to do is Psalms 145, verse three and four. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised. And his greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise thy works. To another end shall declare thy mighty acts. We get to where we think that, well, the only thing God ever did for me was the miraculous. He saved my soul, and then he healed my wife, And outside of that, I can't think of much else He really did. That's because we're still all about us and we think more highly of the Lord when it's about us and how He benefited us. That's what we remember. Do you remember that without Him was nothing made that was made and this is a day that the Lord hath made? Do you think in those terms? Do you think in the terms that everything that you have came from your Creator? Or do you just think, you know, life's tough enough as it is. Well, God, help me out here again. I need some more help. Or sometimes you don't even think about him during the week until something bad happens. As soon as something bad happens, then, boy, he's got your attention, doesn't he? You're hoping to get his. He said, why shouldn't I bother messing with you? You don't bother with me. Only time you ever come see me is when you want something. How many of your friends would you keep as good friends if that's the way they treated you? We treat God that way? We do. Well, this stuff here is designed not around just when we need him, okay, or, okay, God, here, I'm serving you. You know what latency in church is like? Latency in church is like a bunch of kids invited to a birthday party. And those kids get all excited and cranked up, and they're going to go to the birthday party. And this particular kid and his family, they come up with this birthday present, boy, to give this kid. Man, it's going to be great. Boy, this is fantastic. That's the best present. This thing is incredible. Man, it's going to be great. All these people are going to be so impressed. They get to the party, you know, and they're handing the present, and they expect everybody's attention to turn. Oh, man, that's the greatest present ever. That's so great. You guys are just fantastic you could get something like that. That's the way we envision the judgment seat of Christ. We envision this thing, man, I'm right. I'm going to get up there and everything that I want, I'm going to get it now. Why? Because look at all I did for you. That's the legacy in church. The birthday party ain't about you or your gift. It's about the one who's having the birthday. I mean, if we're doing something for God, we shouldn't be doing it with the idea of, look what I'm doing for you, God. If you ever do anything for God whatsoever, you ought to do it with the attitude of, my God, look at all you did for me and I can't possibly pay you back and it's impossible, but I sure have a desire to try. You think that woman that broke that box, I went on him, you know, after weeping on his feet and then drying his feet with her hairs, you think she was thinking, oh, well, this ought to do something good for me at the judgment. All she wanted was a chance to just get near him. You say, well, is that all she wanted? That was all she wanted. She was just enthralled with a thought that maybe, maybe I can get close enough that I can do something for him. That's why she brought it with her. She didn't bring it to impress him. You can't impress somebody doing that kind of stuff. That is pure emotion. What's God want? He wants, number one, your love, doesn't he? Thou shalt love the Lord thy God. How much of your service for God is connected directly to that love? And how much of it's connected to your duty? We are really messed up. God is nothing almost more than a, I've said it over and over, but a mascot. He's like, hey, hey God, the big man in the sky, I need some help down here now. Okay, I won't bother you no more till next time. What do you think I made you for? I made you for my pleasure. I made you for my glory. How do I get glory from selfish children, self-serving children, self-centered children? He doesn't. He gets glory and praise when we realize who he is and how we just stand in awe of how he made us and what all he's done for us and what he's planning on doing for us in the future. But why would he do that? It's because of his magnificence, because he is worthy. And if you ever get anything in this life, it'll be because he is worthy. It won't be because you were. Man in his best state is altogether vanity, of no purpose. I hate to get on you every week, but unfortunately, I need it. I need to be reminded of these things. If you guys remember it, you're doing better than I am. All right, well, let's move on now. We've been looking at the millennium a little bit here. Now, who's the millennium all about? If you didn't know anything else in your life, you ought to know that when he shows up, he's got written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and he sets up his kingdom and he rules and he reigns with a rod of iron. And he isn't just beating everybody around. He's got all kinds of things that he does to keep everything in line. But this thing is about him. And when we look at this stuff, like I said a few weeks back, you think about the millennium, and what you think about primarily is, what's going on in the millennium? Well, what happens to these people? Or what happens to those people? Or what happens at the end when Satan's loosed? What's going on there? And your curiosity stops with, how did God do that? That's where it stops. And as soon as that little bit of curiosity is satisfied, you're done asking questions. That curiosity you should have is about who made you and why he made you the way he made you and what he does. That's what it's supposed to be. He didn't build that curiosity in you to say, well, how did that woodpecker do that? Well, look, he's got different feet. Oh, that's how he does it. Okay, let's move on. Remember I said something about that magician? That stuff is designed for you to see something and be impressed by what he does. When you're done, if you know the answer, all of a sudden, the magician isn't all that great anymore, right? I said, oh, that's how he did it. I thought you were special. You realize when God created living creatures and he created a fowl, he didn't have to sit there for eons describing every detail and how that stuff is supposed to work. He created that stuff by let the earth bring forth a living creature. What was involved? All the details. And we think it's tough for him to count the hairs on your head every day? Man, if he can do that by just speaking that stuff into existence, counting hairs, not any big deal at all. Who made you? When you go see your maker, what's he gonna be thinking? Or are you concerned with what you're thinking? We gotta get beyond ourselves. We really do. And if we don't get beyond ourselves, we're gonna be nothing more than self-centered and self-serving children. And God wants you to put away childish things. He wants you to grow in what? Grace? Yes. But he wants you to grow in the knowledge of him. How much do you know about the one that made you? How much do you really know about him? If you were gonna do something that'd make him happy, What would you do? Oh, I'd come to church. I'd pray more. I'd read my Bible more. Oh, really? You missed the whole point. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. That's the first one. That'd be like skipping kindergarten and trying to graduate at five years old or six years old. I'm just gonna skip through all this stuff. Let's get on to some of the other stuff. No. He started with that first commandment being where it was because that's the most important. And if you ever get that, what you do attain will be a lot easier. It won't be you fighting to get it done. And then when you get it done, it'll be like, oh, now I'm better than them because look at how good I am and they're not as good as me. None of us are any good. If we saw ourselves as God sees us, you know, you'd never have another argument with another Christian on this planet. In fact, you wouldn't even have problems with road rage. Only by pride come with contention. Anyway, we were looking over at Zechariah 14. Let's go back over to Zechariah 14. Zechariah 14, now this whole chapter is about the millennium. And in that particular portion of the Word of God, we'd looked first of all at that business about the earthquake and his foot touching the Mount of Olives and it cleaving asunder and part of it going to the north, part of it going to the south and opening up from the top of the Mount of Olives to the Dead Sea and that fault line that runs through there and what kind of stress it's under and the reason they won't look for oil over in that area although they believe it's there. Anyway, moving on, let's look over here at the next verses. Verses five to seven. 14, five to seven. It says, and you shall flee into the valley of the mountains, for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Eziel. Yea, you shall flee like as you fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah. And 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 a day which shall be known to the Lord, not day nor night, but it shall come to pass that at even time it shall be light. You say, what is he talking about? Well, let's look over into Isaiah and we'll find out. Isaiah chapter 30, not clear nor dark. Well, that sounds like kind of one of those overcast days with the clouds, right? It's not clear and it's not dark. It's just kind of in the middle. Oh no, that's not what he's saying at all. Isaiah chapter 30. Let's look at verse 26 and 27. Well, we'll start with 25 just so you'll know where we're at. 25 says, and there shall be upon every high mountain and upon every high hill rivers and streams of water in the day of the great slaughter when the towers fall. 26, moreover, the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold as the light of seven days in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of his people and healeth the stroke of their wound. That's when he delivers Israel, when he shows up. Now God said, you know what, when I show up, not only is there gonna be this earthquake, but I'm gonna do some really unusual things. It's going to be a bright day. It's going to be so bright that the sun will be seven times as bright. Did he say hot? You know how you know God knows what he's talking about? Because somebody else would think immediately, if it's seven times, then it's got to be seven times hotter. It's got to be seven. Man, you talk about global warming. Boy, look out. Find a hole. Dig down in it, you know, and hide. He said it won't be clear and it won't be dark. What is that? You know what clear sunlight is? That's that stuff beating down with a UV intensity of way off the charts and don't go to the beach and stay out there more than 30 minutes because it's going to eat you up. You ever get around a fluorescent light? You ever get to a point where you don't cast a shadow? You ever been in a place that was so bright you didn't even cast a shadow? Most of the stores are lit like that. They count lumens per square foot. That's how they light places. And in a lot of places, especially jewelry stores, light is really important. I mean, if you want that diamond to sparkle, you hit that thing with some bright blue light. Not red, but blue. You get that intensity up there, you get those halogen bulbs and those super high intense bulbs, and those things will just sparkle. But with God, he says, seven times as bright, and it won't be dark, and it won't be clear. And then back over here, he says it's gonna be seven times what? More light. Well, when you get into a place where it's super light, you don't even cast a shadow, you can look down at your feet and you barely have a spot underneath you. You get enough light shining at every angle, it lights everything up. God is light and in him is no darkness at all. What do you think he's gonna do this stuff for? He's gonna do this stuff to show you that this is different now. Things have changed. Here comes nighttime and the moon's as bright as the sun. and here comes daytime, and now it's seven times brighter. It's gonna be like no night whatsoever that particular night, and that one day is gonna be really bright. And there's all kinds of things in the Word of God about this kind of crazy stuff. One time there was a college student, and he was studying history, and he got into some of these ancient texts and these other cultures and stuff, and as he started reading through there, he found a spot in it where it says, here's this one day was extra long. And he finds it in another culture, and he finds it in another culture, and he goes to his professor, and he says, man, there's something going on back there. He said, what's the matter? He said, they got this day that's not just 24 hours, you know, and something happened back there where they're all agreeing that the sun didn't go down that day. It stayed up for a long, long, long time. And he says, I can't find it, what happened? He said, you got a Bible? Yeah, start reading. So the kid went home and got his Bible. And as he read through the thing, he started finding some things that were really interesting. What'd he find? Well, he found out over in Joshua 10, 12 to 14, there's this battle going on. And Lord says, you guys are gonna win. Battle's being fought. I think it was Gideon back there. I can go back and find it real quick. These are verses 12-14. It's only a couple verses. He said, then spake Joshua unto the Lord, when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel. And he said, at the sight of Israel, sun stand out still upon Gibeon and moon in the valley of Ajalon. And the sun stood still and the moon stayed until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jehoshua? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven and haste not to go down about a whole day. I mean, this thing just kind of slowed down. He said, well, it says it stopped. No, it didn't. It said, haste not to go down about a whole day. So what happened was this period of time, instead of being a 24-hour day, ends up the way this kid calculates it all out. He says, man, this thing ended up an extra 23 hours and 45 minutes. He goes back to his professor. I found it. He says, you did, huh? Yeah, right here. Well, you found part of it. He said, what do you mean? He said, is that 24 hours? Well, almost. He said, keep reading. So what'd he find out then? Well, he gets over to another part of the Bible where this guy's told certain things are gonna happen. It's over in 2 Kings 20. 2 Kings 20, eight to 11. And Hezekiah said unto Isaiah, What shall be the sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I shall go up into the house of the Lord the third day? And Isaiah said, This sign shalt thou have of the Lord, that the Lord will do this thing that he hath spoken. Shall the shadow go forward ten degrees, or backward ten degrees? And Hezekiah answered, it's a light thing for the shadow to go down 10 degrees, nay, but let the shadow return back 10 degrees. And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the Lord, and he brought the shadow 10 degrees backward by which he had gone down by the dial of Ahaz. You say, well, that can't happen. Man, if he did that, if he backed the earth up, boy, all the seas would go sloshing over the continents, right? Isn't that the kind of stuff you get from scientists? Isn't that stuff you get from atheists? You know why? because they're not in awe of their creator. They have no fear of God. There's no fear of God before their eyes. They think they're the greatest thing that ever existed and beyond mankind, there's nothing higher. Unless it's something in outer space, maybe on one of the stars out there. But that poor critter out there ain't any better than us because he hadn't come to show himself to us yet. No, God can do anything he wants. Listen, you remember where it says he made the stars also? You know how far some of them things are from us? Some of them are billions of light years. You know what that means? That means that when he made that star, he made a billion year light trail all the way to the earth immediately. I mean, we're not having stars just now coming on. Oh, there it is. It took that long for it to get here after God made it? No, when he makes something, he makes it complete, just like that woodpecker. The ones that he didn't make complete was us. Why? Because he gave us a free will, and he's gonna let us make a choice, and the choices you make in life are gonna have an effect on you and him for eternity. Hope the ones you make are good ones. Let's close in prayer.