I've been thinking about over this past year, where she was, where she's going, whatever. As a preacher, maybe I'm the only one that does this, maybe not, but we think about maybe some of the messages that we preach through the year. Once again, I can only speak for myself. Sometimes you'll preach a message and you'll think, you'll see two outcomes of it. You know, the Lord told us as preachers, when Paul told Timothy, he said, with truth, rebuke, and exhort. Tonight, he would like to edify, but that was not what the Lord gave us to do tonight. that we were preaching on yesterday. You know, I knew that this was in the Bible. I read it many a time. I don't know how many times I've read 1 Corinthians. But we read it and it was, well actually we was listening to it on our MP3 player and it was just, it really spoke to our heart. And so we're going to If the Lord would allow, we're going to go ahead and read that again. Just a little portion of it. It's 1 Corinthians, the 10th chapter. Because it just amazes me at Paul's choice of words. Have you ever thought about the Bible? The Bible is really not very big when you compare it to the books of the law that man has got on record, I don't know, I haven't been in the new library and seen the law section. But I can remember going back into the law section in the old library and it just took up three aisles of all the laws just in Missouri. And I just, you know, you go back there and, I mean, we all are raised in the United States. We kind of think we know what it is to break the law and to keep the law. I'm working with a gentleman that he's taken a course to be certified to become a sheriff's deputy, and they were going through all the different laws, and he had no idea that it was against the law to do this. It just never even entered his mind. So with all that being said, just here in Missouri, just aisles and aisles of books that contain the laws that we as Missourians must obey, And then yet God has summed it all up in a rather small book. And because of it, I think that each and every word is precious. There's probably no idle sentences in the Bible. There's no sentences just to fill up space. Do you remember doing that when you was in school? I remember having to do term papers and I can't remember the number of words. I think I remember 800 words term paper. And boy, you know, I used and and the a lot. And I'd be counting down the words. Why? Because I was wanting to fill in space. But that's not what God, when He sent His Holy Word, that was not His intentions whatsoever. And I'm thankful that I can read God's Word and I can know beyond a shadow of any doubt that He sent it to bring clarity to my life. That He sent it so that I would not be deceived. That He sent it because He loved me. You know, sometimes people read the Bible and they They read it and it's pretty much plain in what it says, but yet they still try to find some secret hidden meaning in it. But the beauty of it is, is that the Lord, that He did not want us to be deceived. We're going to read, and then we're going to read a verse that we, as we was thinking about the messages that we preached, one stood out in our mind. Sometimes we preach a message and we have a face in our mind. Sometimes that face, I don't know, for whatever reason, I'm not to be so brave or bold as to say that that message is for that face. But sometimes we would preach a message and we can see, not a face as in your face, but just a human face. And we can see, as it were, a crossroads. I believe it's in Amos where it says, Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision. For the day of the Lord is nigh in the valley of decision. And I get a picture there of a crossroads. I get a picture of a Y of taking two different roads. We know that as a child sometimes we would be walking in a pathway and one way would seem to be foreboding. There would be in the evening, there would be trees, the big old oak trees or I can remember back east a lot of the maple trees and how big they were and how their branches would go over and they would cover they would cover a path. Well, you know, when you was in the evening time, that was a very spooky for a kid, that was a very spooky trail to go down. But you know, in the summertime, especially in the, or not in the summertime, but in the daytime, especially in the fall, it was a beautiful road to go in. And the only difference was, was the light that was given. So sometimes I think when we are at a crossroad, We are really at which end to know which way to go. But that's why we have a Savior. That's why we follow one that is faithful and just and will lead us wherever we need to go. I don't know what the future holds, but I'm thankful I know who holds the future. Okay, we're going to read in 1 Corinthians in the 9th chapter and the 26th verse. I like what Paul says when he says, Therefore so run, not as uncertainly so fight I, not as one that beateth the air, but I keep under my body, to bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. Now then we're going to continue into the sixth chapter. It says, Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all your fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and did all eat the same spiritual meat, and did all drink the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them. And that rock was Christ. But with many of them, God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. And last night, even though this might be a continuation, last night we went into the details of how it was through a lust, idolatry, fornication, attempting Christ and murdering, These, as it says here, that were overthrown in the wilderness, they committed these sins. And as we were thinking this day, maybe we didn't get that preached out last night, but we were thinking of all the messages that we preached. I don't know, I guess we could sit down and we could count them out. But you know, sometimes, as Paul said, that we are to reprove, rebuke, and exhort. That's my job. And sometimes as a preacher, we preach our heart out, and we sit down, and we think somehow that we just didn't get that point across. Sometimes we think that, Lord, I don't know how it got any cleaner, but I don't know if it's sunken yet or not. job is not to look where he's digging. Have you ever been in a position I can remember as a kid and maybe that was the only reason? We mentioned a lot preaching but my daddy gave me a job and it was to dig a ditch from the house to the road. And I would dig and it wasn't so important. Darryl got discouraged when Darryl would look up and see how far he was from the road. But Daryl needed to get his head down and he just needed to dig. Listen church, so many times we're looking all around and God just wants us to dig a little further. He just wants us to be a little obedient. So it ain't my job I figure out whether God's message is getting through, but I see a picture tonight. The Bible says in 1 Samuel, I can't remember the chapter. Go over and turn over to it if you would. But it says, and we've preached it already, and I'm afraid there was something And we see where, the Bible said, Samuel said it. Not only Samuel, who was looking to his past. I'm only 37 years old. But children's names, there's some things that Daryl's seen that he wished he hadn't. But because he's seen them, he can cry out to The children of Israel in the wilderness, Samuel knew the word of the account very well. When old Saul the king was not obeying God, Samuel said these words, not to speak as it were a prophecy, so much to Saul, but as to look back at the history of the children of Israel, to look in his own life, to look in Eli and his sons, and I believe when Samuel said it, he said it with passion, Why? Because he'd seen what rebellion would do. That's why when Samuel said, The Lord is great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord. Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fight of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. Now listen, we ain't I know we're preaching it on the eve of a new year, but I think it would do us all well to see this pervasive sin that's sweeping the country. To call it what it is, the Bible says here, for rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Thou hast rejected the word of the Lord. He hath also rejected thee from being king. Well we read this verse. We could preach if you would. I don't know why we're so tarred tonight. We picked up some wood today. Seems like we're a little short on wind. But we want to get this preached out. I'd like to thank the Lord. for blessing me to have a father and two boys that I couldn't be more proud of. We was out there working and I want to tell you daddy, you might be a little bit older than me, but all I've got to say to my My boys, you need to be a worker like my daddy. He's an example to me. He was when I was a little kid, and I'm thankful his mother's already said. When he heard the Lord healed him, no doubt, when I was in that bedroom praying, I weren't married yet. that my daddy could be an example, that my boys that were yet to be born, glory be to God, if we would just obey God, dig that ditch a little further, get our eyes off the man, and follow him, in humble obedience, we could walk in greener pastures, I know that to be true, I've lived long enough to see what God can do in a life of war that follows Him in blind obedience. Amen. We find here the Savior was telling the king, Now let's think about it for a little bit. Of all the kingdoms in the world, there's only been one nation that God put his name on. Only one city that he would choose to dwell in. and that was Jerusalem and there's Samuel by himself talking to the king of Israel and he's looking at him and he said rebellion is as witchcraft and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry and we go back and we think about what Paul was saying about the children of Israel in the wilderness I would encourage every one of you that you might read 1 Corinthians the 10th chapter. Maybe it'll help you as much as it's helped me to think and to go back. He says it over and over that the children of God in the wilderness were our example. So it would do us well to read it because let's think of it just a little bit. He said they had all come through the flood, all through the water. That they had all been under the cloud. That they had all eaten the same spiritual bread. That they had swallowed the rock which was Christ. It would do us well to search it out, to find out. The Bible said in that verse, when you think you stand, pay heed, lest you fall. What was Paul talking about? Listen to the Bible. We was riding on the trailer. But today my dad was on a four-wheeler and it's got a high and it's got a low and he ought to have been in low but he was in high and because of what the manual says when you're in high you're not supposed to go any slower than what, 10 miles an hour? Seven mile an hour. I thought he was doing faster than that. But anyway, me and the boys was on the trailer. And after about half of my tailbone, I drove to the top of my head a few times and I was trying to hold my weight off. I stood up and I wanted to take the shock and the bump out of my head. And my boys, I told them to get off their bottom. And they were sitting on the trailer like that. Well, I had surgery on both of my knees. And though I can squat like this, I sure couldn't take the bouncing like that. So I was standing on the trailer. It was probably pretty funny to look at. Daddy never looked around. He cared. His back's a stiff. So on and on he went. I didn't want to holler. I just thought, well, I need to tell him when we get stopped to slow down a little bit. But we were there, and we were bumping around. Listen, when you think you stand, take heed lest you fall. We didn't see what we're standing on if we're standing on that solid rock. Because when the world rocks to and fro, the Bible says, as a drunkard, the true church of God, Well, they own the solid rock, aren't you glad that he's made a way and he will provide for us? All right now, the Bible says here that rebellion is a witchcraft. Let's look at the children of Israel. What did they do in the wilderness? Did they doubt God? Did they doubt in His existence? We live in a day-to-day where people say you gotta believe in Jesus Christ. But the devil has been so successful in defining who Christ is in everyone's mind. Absent and outside of the Bible. But when the apostles said, does thou believe in Christ? They were essentially saying, does thou believe in the word? You say, well Daryl, the New Testament wasn't wrote yet. And we find out in John, he says, And the beginning was the Word, and the Word was made flesh, and the Word dwelt amongst us. But we live in a culture today that has, in their minds, been so successful at separating Jesus Christ from His Word. But I'm telling you, when we stand before God, we'll find out who He is. But yet we don't have to wait until that point, because we have His Word. us at that beautiful church that we can look in God's Word and we can find out who He is just like the children of Israel. They went, the Bible said they dwelt under the cloud. The Bible tells that there was a cloud by day and there was a pillar of fire by night. Satan would have come and whispered into their ears And says, I want to tell you something. I want to tell you something, Cora. God, is it real? He'd say, wait a minute. He'd say, wait a minute. I know he's real. I see his cloud out there. I see the pillar of fire. Oh, what are you talking about? If Satan would have come to one and said, I want to tell you something, I'd have gone instead. He'd say, wait a minute, wait a minute, what do you mean instead? I see the cloud by day, I see the pillar of fire by night, and every morning I've got man to feed. But what did Satan come to man do? He come to them that they might rebel. Because he knows in rebellion That if you do just a little of it The next day it'll be a little more and a little more And time and time again What did Cora do? We know that if you look back in numbers It speaks about him there Now let's look at who Cora was He was the grandson of Kohan Who was the son of Levi And his job was the Kohan as they called them. Their job was to light the candles. Their job was to take care of the ornaments. To take care of the altars. To take care of those things right in him. The tabernacle and later on the temple. But can you imagine now? To be able, though there was many a Jew and many an Israel that didn't get to see parts of the tabernacle. They got to see Satan come to Cora and say, wait a minute, there you are. You're taking care of lighting the candles. You're taking care of the altar. You're taking care of their jobs to carry the Ark. In their awareness, he's sacrificing. If Aaron is what we know as such, weren't there examples as they should have been? There was those that were slain because of their rebellion. No doubt Codcore had many a reason, many examples. But I think because I carry the Ark of the Covenant, I can do Aaron's job. Just a little bit better. Boy, that's a flimsy statement. But we find out that it was his rebellion that caused him to perish. Listen, the Bible says that rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. I would pray to God tonight that the Lord would speak to each and every one of our hearts and that stubbornness as idolatry himself higher than God himself. But he wanted to worship God his own way. He wanted to worship God as he seen fit, just as we have those today that say, do you believe in Jesus Christ? And the man on the street says, yes, I do. But the Jesus Christ in his mind is one that he has created. That good is totally separate and different. I'm from the God of the Bible. He's given it to us. Oh, there's no reason to fail this test. It's an open book test. I heard a man say once, think about it. Paul said, I would not have you to be ignorant. And yet today there are so many that are ignorant. We preach this message on stubbornness as being as idolatry and rebellion as witchcraft. And there was those there, that was in the audience, and I didn't think, sometimes you have an idea of maybe where a message is going, and it went a totally different direction, and we didn't think about it, but since then we've seen one more example of how rebellion will clutter and confuse your mind. Witchcraft. Why would anybody want to serve Satan when he was thrown out of heaven? Think about it. Okay? Satan tried to raise himself up above God. God said, wait a minute, what are you doing? Get out of here. And he cast him out of heaven. Why on earth would anybody want to serve Satan? Because the Bible says that we're going to have to stand before God one of these days. And probably if you was going to have any lawyer, you know I've seen some lawyers that probably, you know, I say this suggests that I could probably be the brother to the devil. But probably there is no better lawyer that could represent a lost man than the devil himself. So, when you stand before God, what will it profit you if Satan pleads your case? As for me and my family, I look at my boys, and they're young yet, but I won't. Men, when they stand before God, I won't. The one to plead their case, who will plead mine. Let us get some songs to sing. When you think you stand, take heed lest you fall. I think it would do us well from time to time to see what we're standing on, don't you? You say we're better? If I don't move and I'm standing on my rock now, why do I need to check from time to time? Because Paul warned us. He warned us one and all. We already preached yesterday. We read that chapter. It is a warning for all. It's not just a warning for the lost, it's not just a warning for the churchgoer, it's not just a warning for a church member of 20 years, it is a warning to all of mankind. The children of Israel that perished in the wilderness, of us to be an example to us. Good examples? No. Examples of which we are not to follow. But examples as we look around us, though we may be young, we will see throughout our life that there will be people making the same mistakes as Coram, making the same mistakes as those that complained. You know, when the Bible says there, Paul was talking about, he said that those that tempted Christ, I thought that was an interesting way of saying it, but tempted Christ in the wilderness and was bitten by serpents. and perished. Well, you know, I thought, well, what is it, the Tempt Christ? So, although we knew the passage, I was very familiar with it, once again, because then after the next verse, what Paul was speaking about, and he says, murmur not as those in the wilderness murmured. And I thought, well, I thought that's what they did. We went back there in the Tempt Christ. What the children of Israel did was, they were murmuring of the Lord. This light bread is what they call of the manna from heaven. And they murmured and it says, and the Lord sent fiery serpents amongst them and it got their attention. And they come to Moses and said, we have sinned and we would want you to pray that you might remove these serpents. Simple request, is it not? They said, okay, Lord, we see the error of our ways. Now remove these serpents, but God seemed fit to work his own way. And he didn't remove the serpents, but he told Moses to place a raising serpent, a fiery serpent on a pole, and any that are bitten are to look on it. Why? Wouldn't it be a whole lot better You've got snakes running around, biting and killing people. Wouldn't it be a whole lot better to just get rid of the snakes? We are human. God is God. That's what a rebellious heart would think. Sometimes we find ourselves in a position to where we say, wait, why is this happening to me? I don't understand this. This doesn't make any sense. I thought I was getting ahead of this a little bit. And you know what, if you don't check that at your heart's door, it's already a secret rebellion and it will blossom into something that will destroy the joy in your life. And before, if it's left unchecked, you'll be Justice Corwin, telling the men of God what they ought to do, and better yet, what you could do even better. But rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as idolatry. Let's look this year, this Christmas, or this New Year's Eve, and look in our heart. Do we have any room for rebellion and stubbornness? Why don't we ask ourselves, is it possible for Daryl to be stubborn? Well, I could give you an answer, but you might better ask my wife. Is it possible for me to be rebellious? Well, I could give you an answer, but it would probably be better if you asked my parents and my wife. That would be alright. Maybe I'd be able to give a better answer on the state of her situation. See, I said all of that to say that there's another one of us. that cannot rebel. I guess some of them, they cannot be stubborn. And stubbornness is not necessarily a bad thing if we're stubborn for the right reasons. But if God has showed us something and we say, wait a minute, that's outside of my box. I've heard a man say once that surely Jesus Christ wouldn't do this, this and this. After I just quoted the scripture that said he would, I see it was foreign to him because the Jesus Christ he had created was separate from the Bible. I heard a man, when I worked nights at Detroit Toll, he'd sit there and he'd consider himself to be a good person, consider himself to, that when he dies he's going to go to heaven. And he was sitting there and he said, well, you know, I won't say nothing against the Koran. After all, it might be right. I said, well, have you ever read it? Well, no. I said, have you ever read the Bible? Well, not much. But these are questions with eternal consequences. Do you realize that? Well, the Bible teaches us that God has created us in His own image. That He has given mankind a soul. It's a very popular idea today. They're teaching it in a seminary. They're teaching it in different schools of theology. I forget the fancy word. Annihilation, I think, is the word they use. Teaching the doctrine of hell, the doctrine of annihilation, that we'll go to hell and that we'll burn. That is, if you're not born again. And that you'll burn and you'll burn up. And you know, that might be believable except for one thing. We are created in God's image and he gave us a soul and though we are not eternal in the sense that we are from everlasting to everlasting we have a beginning but the bible teaches us that we have a soul that will live forever. So the question is where are we going to spend eternity? get some song to sing. I don't think any Christian can not read 1 Corinthians 10 and say Darrell have you heeded all the examples that are given here? That's the purpose of God's word. is that He might communicate His will to us, and that He might point out our imperfections, and that we might come to Him and say, Lord, forgive us. And that we might be as those that come to Moses and said, we have sinned, might you remove the fiery serpents. Have you ever prayed that? Have you ever thought that you knew best, that you knew better than God? God showed you that you didn't? Instead of saying, all right, Lord, I don't know nothing. I'm just going to follow you and not ask any questions. We'll say, all right, Lord, I shouldn't have done that. Might you do this? And once again, we're trying to tell God to do something. And that's what got us there in the first place.