Dale Draggart, that's the Tower of London. He's done something wrong. I don't know and he's been confined to a tower. Amen. All right. I hope everybody got notes for tonight. They are. Back on it. Did you get notes for tonight, Trish? Good, good, good, good. Everybody got notes? Good. What we want to talk about tonight is children in a declining nation. Children are an important thing, as I want to hope to show you tonight. But as we look our way through it, nations at times will do ugly things to their children. And we want to want to look at that and see what's going on with that. But let's have a word of prayer first. Father, thank you so much for letting us have this opportunity to be together, to serve you, to worship you, to learn from you. So we ask that your Holy Spirit will lead us tonight. Teach our minds and our hearts the truth and then teach our wills how to apply it. Thank you for what you're doing, Father. Guide us in our understanding, guide us in our application. We're going to thank you tonight as we thank you for what you're going to do with Mindy. We ask that you'd bring her into a recovery situation just now. Thank you for that, Father. Thank you for what you're going to do for her. We lift up others who are going through some real serious situations right now, Father. And we're going to thank you for it in Jesus' name. Amen. Our plan for prayer on these nights here has been this. There should be at least three movements of what you're doing. It comes from the Psalm, which says that you enter his gates with thanksgiving. Then once you're inside the gates, that's where the courts are. And when you're inside those courtyards, you're now into praise. So it's enter his gates with thanksgiving, enter into his courts with praise. Thanksgiving is things about what God has done. Praise is who he is. And he who he is is why he does what he does. So that's what the Thanksgiving is about. And that's what the prayer. But the plan for prayer we have for tonight is Thanksgiving because we're entering the gates with Thanksgiving. Then it's confession to make our confession known to God for for what we have done. And that's not so he can know what it is. He already knows what we've done. A confession is the Greek word homo logeo. Homo means the same, logeo is the word. So homo logeo means to say the same thing God says about your sin. It's so that we are in agreement with God. It's not so that He will find out what we've done. It's so that He will know from us and that we will understand that what He has called sin, I have also called sin. I'm not calling it a mistake. I'm not calling it an error. I'm not saying, whoops. I'm saying, I know that what I have done was a rebellious act of my own will. Now, if that was not a rebellious act, it was something you did by accident. You really didn't know that it was wrong when you did it. But as soon as you did it, you were convicted of it. You may have had to look it up in the Word to see, what did I do wrong? Oh, I see what it was. That came out of a heart of narcissism, whatever it was. I did that out of self-love. Then you know what you're doing. So it's Thanksgiving, confession, and then praise. So we may do a little more singing tonight. Let's go with this. What we're doing tonight is Thanksgiving for the gift of children and the child. That's the capital, C-H-I-L-D, all the way. Number one, Genesis 1, 26 to 28, God says, let us make man in our image. And it tells us that he made man in his image. He created a male and female in his image. So both male and female are in the image of God. And then he said, I blessed them and said, be fruitful and multiply. So in other words, being fruitful and multiply is not as much a command as it is a statement of fact that God's doing. Here's what I'm gonna bless you with. Did you know that we can have children? Yep, we can have children. Is it okay to have children? Yes, it's the blessing of God. And that's the first point I wanted to make. The blessing of God is in Genesis 1, 26 to 28 is his very purpose in creating us. He's wanting to fill the whole earth with his glory. He's got two people. And he's got this small space, it's called the Garden of Eden. So he's telling these two people, I want you to have more people because I want you to spread out. And as you're spreading out, I want you to have to take care of the land itself. So they're going from the garden that Eve and Adam are living in, that Eve was created in, and they're spreading out to the wilderness that Adam was created in. as they're going, they are filling the earth with the glory by making everything in the Garden of Eden spread out to the wilderness of the all around. Ultimately, as the earth is full of people, the whole earth is going to look like the Garden of Eden. Say, did you know that the new world that's coming, the new earth, the new heavens and new earth are exactly that? Already filled with the glory of the Lord. They're already around the whole globe filled with the glory of God. Isn't that exciting? And our task was to take this Garden of Eden that we've been living in, go from there, and turn the whole world into the Garden of Eden. But to do so, you gotta have enough people. And that's why we are being fruitful and multiplying. That's the blessing of God. Number two. It is the reward and the inheritance of the Lord. Psalm 127.3 says, woe, the fruit of the womb is God's reward, and the children, the offspring, are the heritage of the Lord. That word heritage means the inheritance. So it's always good to look up the verses I'm giving you there. They're worth it. Psalm 127.3, look it up, see what it says. That's one that talks about, first of all, If the God's not in the work that you're doing, you're working in vain. You're not getting anything done. If God's not watching the city, it's not safe. I don't care how many soldiers you put around it, if God's not watching over the city, it's not safe. Do you remember the night that Babylon was conquered by the forces of, I'm sorry, Darius, Cyrus? What he had done, he'd gone upstream. Babylon was built over the river. And it had a gate that ran through it, and they had bars on that gate. Well, you couldn't get in the city. Once the gates were locked and the river was stopped up, you couldn't get in it. So Cyrus did something really cool. He dammed it up, upriver. and rerouted the stream so it would go around Babylon. As it went around Babylon, the river dropped in its depth, and it could walk right in. That's why no one saw him coming while they're having their party. That's the night that the handwriting was on the wall. They were having a party that night, and that night those guys lowered the river, And the army came in under that whole thing, took the whole city over without ever having to build a fort, a siege mounds or anything like that. Isn't that cool? But if the Lord's not watching your city, you're watching in vain. It's not going to happen. You've got to let the Lord be the ruler of all. And then the third verse says, and children are a heritage of the womb. of the fruit of the womb is the inheritance of the Lord. Goes on to say then, like arrows in the hands of a mighty warrior. What's the benefit of having arrows, plural, instead of an arrow? If you're a warrior, what do you need to have? You want more than one arrow, right? You want as many arrows as you can get, so you want your quiver as full of them as possible. That's like having bullets for your gun. Not much point in going to war with a bullet. You better go with as much ammunition as you can. You're in a spiritual warfare, and God's wanting us to be prepared for that, and our children are a part of it, and he gives his children as an inheritance of the Lord. Number three, it's the continuation of the promise of God. Here's Abraham, he's promised that he's gonna be a great nation. The problem is, he and his wife don't have a single child. How am I gonna be a great nation when I don't even have one child? And God's saying, oh, watch this, your descendants are gonna be as many as the stars. How you gonna do that when I don't even have a child? When you gonna take care of this? God gives him a child. And that child is the continuation of God's promise. And every time one of those children had children, they're the continuation of the promise of God. So, you have Abraham that has a child, Isaac that has two children, and Jacob that has 12. It just kept getting bigger and bigger. Then all those boys and the daughters, they start having more and more kids. So you've got a nation that's starting to be built out of this thing. It's the continuation of the promise of God. It's the evidence of God's promise. As soon as Abraham sees Sarah is with child, man, that's the evidence of God's promise. If God promises me this, then what he said about having this land, having this future being a blessing, and if anybody curses me, God's going to curse them. If anybody blesses me, God's going to bless them. If all if if I can see my wife pregnant then I'm gonna know for sure God's gonna fulfill all those other promises, too So it's the evidence of God's promise and it's the future of our wealth When you're looking at that and you know that you're starting to have more and more children and they're starting to have more and more children, and they're prospering and they're doing well, now you're a rich person. The scriptures say, the man is blessed who sees his children's children. That means if you get to see your grandchildren, you're a blessed person, you're a rich person. Follow that? So if you get to see your children's children, what is it when you see your children's children's children? What did you get to see your great-great-grandchildren? We just had services for two great ladies in this church, both of whom had great-great children. That's fantastic. Those were wealthy women, okay? It is the promise of God's redemption and rulership. Isaiah 9, 6, and 7 says, for unto us a child is born. unto us a son is given, and the government will rest upon his shoulder, and he'll rule forever and ever." Okay? So that's Isaiah 9, 6, and 7. That's the promise of God's redemption. So we're going to have the child that's going to be born is going to be a child of redemption, and the child that's going to be born is also going to be the extended sovereign rulership of the living God. Luke 1, 26 to 38, that's the miracle of the gift of God. Let's just take a look at that one a minute. So if you've got your Bibles there, let's open up to Luke chapter one. It's getting close to that, what is called Christmas. So let's go ahead and read what that whole story is about, all right? So let's pick up. verse 26, and I'm gonna read quite a little bit here because it's a neat passage, Luke 1 26 to 38. Now in the sixth month, now that's the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, So that's what it means by the sixth month. Now in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. And having come in, the angel said to her, rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women. But when she saw him, she was troubled at this saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. Then the angel said to her, listen to this, do not be afraid. Now, guys, I'm gonna take this all the way back to Genesis 1. If there hadn't been a promise in Genesis 1 about being a blessing and having children, this one would be a little bit more difficult. Number two, if there hadn't been a promise in Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15 that a seed would be born to her, of the seed of the woman who was gonna be the Redeemer. then this one would not make as much sense. But that's what was said, that's what was promised. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a son, and he shall call his name Yeshua. He will be great, and he will be called the son of the highest. And the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. And of his kingdom there will be no end. Then Mary said to the angel, How can this be, since I do not know a man? And the angel answered and said to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the highest will overshadow you. Therefore also that holy one who is born will be called the Son of God. Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age, and is now in the sixth month for her who was called barren. For with God, nothing will be impossible. Then Mary said, behold, the maid servant of the Lord, let it be to me according to your word. And the angel departed from her. So having children, it brings us the child, the capital C, capital, a child into being. It's the miracle of the gift of God. And that because that's what took place We call it the praise of heaven. So, having that particular child is the praise of heaven. Let's take a look then at Luke chapter 2 while we're here. Let's look at verses 8 to 14. Luke chapter 2, 8 to 14 says, Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them. And they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you great tidings of great joy, which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you. You will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloth, lying in a manger. All right, now I want you to watch something here, because I may talk more about this on Sunday. Watch what it says here. Verse nine. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and then, it says, the glory of the Lord shone round about them. What was that glory? Let's just think our way through the scriptures and scripture history just a minute. You ever remember seeing the glory of the Lord talked about any place else? How about the exodus? Remember the exodus there, there was a cloud that led them and that cloud was the glory of the Lord. So it was a cloud by day and by night it was a light. This was a shining bright light. and that's what was surrounding this angel as he begins to speak, and that's what's gonna surround all of the angels that begin to speak. So I want you to get this. On the night it's born, in the sky, you're going to see a bright light, right? The angel's gonna see this bright light. Now, if you would, this is Bethlehem, and let's scoot our way on over to Iran. And over in Iran, there are astronomers looking the skies over. What is that? And there, shining there, is this bright light, which was, according to this, the night of the birth of the King of Kings, of the Lord of Lords, of God Almighty. Those guys in Iran are looking over there and they see that. They're going to take off after that. And as they take off after that, they're going to watch for that star. Because what do you suppose that looked like to them? A star. Now, watch this. They follow that star and it shows up and appears for them. Why is it that nobody else is seeing this star? You remember what the Egyptians saw? When Israel was seeing this bright light that kept their camp lit, the backside of it on the Egyptian side was darkness, spooky darkness. They couldn't see a thing. Isn't that strange that the same thing that provides light on one side provides darkness on the other? That's kind of like what happens when you go camping. If you've ever been camping, you got a fire that's going right here. And as long as you're looking at the fire, you can see everybody at that fire. My son and I were camping one night. We're enjoying the warmth of that fire and everything. And we start hearing something moving around in the woods behind us. So we look behind us. You know what's behind us? Darkness. That's what we could see was darkness. So we walk on over to see if we can see any more. It's armadillos. A whole family of armadillos just moving through the woods. They don't care about us at all, because guess what? They can't even see us. They're in darkness, too. So we go back to the campfire, and we're just enjoying what that campfire's doing. I said, what's that sound now? Kerplunk, kerplunk, kerplunk. We're hearing this water. Something's falling in the water. We think, what is that now? So we take our flashlights and go over and look at the river. There's a family of otters. I had never seen one like that. Here's this whole family of otters and they're just having more fun until they saw our light. They're scooting, they're going underwater, they're getting away from us. Wow, that's really weird. We couldn't see them without the flashlights because it was in darkness. So can I tell you that the light is showing to the ones that need to see it, but it's not showing to the ones who don't believe. Does that make sense? Now, the reason I'm saying this, and you're just getting a preview of Sunday, so don't, when we come to Sunday, just go, I didn't know that. Just shocks me, I didn't realize this, okay? Now watch what, it says that when the wise men came over, they followed the star again until it stood above the place where the child lay. Wait a minute. How many times have you been outside? I bet you if we went outside right now, it would look like the stars are just above us. But if I drive another 15 miles up there, same star is going to look the same place. So the star had to be moving because the star was the glory of the Lord. It's not a normal star. That's why all the astrological charts you want to look at and all the things you want to look up and say, well, it had to be this dark because that's when this comet was going through. And that's when this star was in the right moons in the seven thousand. Jupiter aligns with Mars and peace will guide the planet. None of that was going on. It was the glory of the Lord. So, anyway, I'll go past that. Let's do something right now. If you're understanding how important children are, that God sees them as a blessing, He sees them as a heritage. Matter of fact, that's the way He's gonna send the Messiah to the whole world. It's gonna come as a child, not coming as an angel, not coming as a bolt of lightning out. He's coming as a child, a family, because that's what He had blessed. Everybody cool with that? All right, if you are, let's do this then. We're ready to praise the Lord. So take out your hymn books, and let's turn to number 131. Poor Allie was looking up songs to sing tonight, and I said, look at my notes before you do. Don't sing any of those songs. We'll just sing the, no, I don't know. These are all good verses. It looks kind of a short song. Angels from the realms of glory, wing your flight o'er all the earth. Ye who sang creation's story, now proclaim Messiah's birth. Come and worship, come and worship, worship Christ the newborn King. Shepherds in the fields abiding, Watching o'er your flocks by night, God with men is now residing, Yonder shines the infant's light. Come and worship, come and worship, Worship Christ the newborn King. Sages, lead your contemplations, brighter visions beam afar. Seek the great desire of nations, ye have seen his little star. Come and worship, come and worship, worship Christ the newborn King. Saints before the altar bending, watching long in hope and fear. Suddenly the Lord descending in His temple shall appear. Come and worship, come and worship, worship Christ the newborn King. That started too high. All right, number 133. It's the praise of heaven, that's what we're singing about. It's the praise of heaven. ♪ Hark the herald angels singing ♪ ♪ Glory to the newborn king ♪ ♪ Peace on earth and mercy mild ♪ ♪ God and sinners reconciled ♪ Joyful all ye nations rise Join the triumph of the skies With angelic hosts proclaim Christ is born in Bethlehem Hark the herald angels sing Glory to the newborn King Christ by highest heaven adored, Christ the everlasting Lord. Late in time, behold Him come, offspring of the Virgin's womb. Veiled in flesh, the Godhead see, hail, incarnate Deity. Pleased as man with men to dwell, Jesus our Emmanuel, Hark! the herald angels sing, Glory to the newborn King! Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace! Hail the Son of Righteousness! Light and life to all He brings, Risen with healing in His wings. Mild He lays His glory by, Born that man no more may die, ♪ Born to raise the sons of earth ♪ ♪ Born to give them second birth ♪ ♪ Hark the herald angels sing ♪ ♪ Glory to the newborn king ♪ Since it's enter his gates with Thanksgiving, let's go ahead tonight, let's have some prayers of Thanksgiving. I gave some suggestions here, but obviously you can pray for any, but I want you to focus on Thanksgiving. Notice what it is. Thank you for our children. Thank you for the children for whom you shepherd, because there are people who do have, maybe now their children have all moved away, but they're watching over children. I'll tell you tonight, there's a group of Juana workers just down the hall from us here who are shepherding a group of children tonight. Let's pray for those children too. Thank you for grandchildren, yours and those of our church family. If you don't happen to have any grandchildren, thank God for everybody else who does have grandchildren. Grandchildren are a beautiful thing, all right? Thank you for your family. Thank you for homes. Thank you for discipleship aides like Awana and AHG and Trail Life and Berean Christian School and Legacy Christian Academy and for Children's Church, those kinds of ministries that God has given to us, all right? So we'll just take a few moments here to have some Thanksgiving, and I'll wait. And you don't have to pray long prayers. Just say, thank you for children. That's a great prayer, okay? Because if you mean it from your heart, that's a great prayer. So when I hear a silence, I'll go ahead and close up. We accept what you said that they are the gift of the Lord that they are reward Thank you father for the kindness you've shown to us by bringing his children in this church They give her the families that you've given it to us. Thank you. They're the children you've given to those families Thank you for the good life that they're getting to have father the things that you've blessed them with. I Please encourage them, build them up, and keep them strong. Keep them in the faith, Father, that their children might also walk in the faith. And now, Father, I'm asking that you would also bless all the ministries like Awana going on just down the hall from us here. Father, open those kids' hearts that they might see the Lord Jesus Christ, and then open the hearts of all the workers with compassion and love and discernment and just desire for the kids to know Jesus Christ and to walk in his ways. Thank you for what you're doing there, Father. You're a great and awesome God, so thank you for what you're doing with that. Thank you, Father, for AHG and Trail Life. Thank you for the ministries they get to have, helping those young men and young women understand the outdoors, understanding how to be leaders. Thank you for what you're doing there. I thank you for Marian Christian School, the things you're doing there. Thank you for our new office administrator. And I pray for Kenzie tonight, that Kenzie might be growing strong in the Lord and the powers might bring healing into her life, Father. I thank you for what you will do for her. She is such a blessed young lady. And I pray for Emily that you'll keep her strong, give her a good vision of what to do in the school. Thank you for that, Father. Watch over the staff and keep them all guided, focused, really looking to see how to build leaders and disciples out of all the young men and young women they have. Thank you, Father, for Legacy Christian Academy, and I ask that you would give them strong vision, strong love, strong compassion, and really good strength as they work with each of the kids you've given them. Then I pray for those kids. I'm asking, Father, in Jesus' name, open their hearts to see the Lord Jesus Christ. Give them a blessing of knowing God. Now, thank you for that again. Father, thank you so much. Children's Church and other ministries like that that keep our children strong Thank you for what you're gonna do in them just now in Jesus name and for his sake Amen We're gonna come to a section that I'm just simply calling confession confession. Where's with we're calling things the same way that God did and in confession where I'm looking at tonight because we're talking about children in a declining nation. This whole series has been about praying for a nation in decline, and we've tried to share with you different places that give evidence of the decline of this nation. And I think with our children, if you can just watch what took place on Monday of this week where a 15-year-old child can go into a school. We've tried to think our way through this. Much of what we try to do, we keep the doors locked and all those sort of things at the facility here so that there's not someone comes in and does something cruel to people. But that wasn't what this was. This was one of the students themselves, a 15-year-old girl. with, if anything's true about what manifesto she wrote, she hated life. She hated her parents. She was hating all kinds of things. She only appreciated two. How at 15 can you get there? You know, it shows something that's going on with our young people. You understand what I'm saying? It shows something's happening with them there. So, with that in mind, I thought what we do is look over what's going on with our children today. What's happening with the kids in this world? So I call this section, Confession, Destroying the Image of God. Destroying the image of God started at the beginning. I mean, what is the adversary after if he's not after cursing the blessing that God had given to them? He created two people in the image of God and told them be fruitful and multiply. They're supposed to have children. Well, what if he can get God to be angry with him? And since the wages of sin is death, what should happen to him if he can get them to sin? They would die. So, he's then destroyed the image of God, and he's got a chance to be the king of kings, the Lord of lords, instead of Adam or whatever descendant of Adams there's going to be. So, destroying the image of God started at the beginning. Well, from that beginning then, the next thing we see in that is murdering the image of God. There's Cain and Abel. Here's Cain, who gets so angry with God. that he can't stand what his brother, what blessing his brother gets. So because he can't kill God, he destroys the image of God. His brother is in the image of God just like he is. So here we have two people in the image of God and one is killing the other because he's angry with God. That's been going on since the beginning, murdering the image of God. That's why Jesus would say to us, look, It is true that you're not supposed to murder. But he said, if a man is angry with his brother without cause, what do you suppose he's looking at? He's going all the way back here to the original murder. Is Cain angry at his brother with a cause? No. His brother simply offered an offering, and God had respect for that offering. So Cain doesn't really have a reason to be angry with his brother, but that anger is going to spill over ultimately into a murder. That's why we want to stay free from anger with our brothers, because it spills over into, it can spill over, there's a lot of ways to murder somebody, isn't there? How about character assassination? Man, if you can destroy the character of a person or defame a person and put him in a place where his friends don't want to be around him anymore because they think he's done something really wrong, man, we want to stop that. And that's what's going on in our country. I want you to just think with me for a moment. Candidates, let's go back and just look a moment at the presidential race. Who was righteous in that thing? You've got them attacking each other in character assassination all the time. And it didn't matter which party you're looking at. Republicans and Democrats are doing the same thing. That's character assassination. That's being angry at your brother. You follow me? That's gonna lead to murder. And ultimately, that kind of talk spills over. You have an assassination attempt on the would-be president. You've got that kind of thing going on. You've got now threats of more murder to go on to other people. That all comes because of that first murder that went on and of the one who was behind it. Obviously, Satan was behind that one too. Well, if murdering doesn't, it's not going to work, how about altering the image of God, Genesis chapter 6. It's a genetic modification to prevent the Messiah from coming. If it's going to be a human that gives birth to a Messiah, and it's got to be a human Messiah, then obviously if you can genetically modify people so that they're no longer pure human, that they are something else. So you had angels and people marrying together, having children that are neither human nor God. They are demigods, whatever that's going to be. So whatever they're going to have as children are not going to be human to bring the Messiah in. So, altering the image of God was the next thing that happened. How about defiling the image of God? That same defiling goes on this day. We have that same altering. We got people who want to alter the image of God. Goodness, they're willing to take the reproductive organs of children, cut them off, let them become something else. That's been going on a long time. That's probably what happened to Daniel, the prophet. That probably is what they did, because that's usually what Babylon did with any captives they brought over, any captive males. They brought them over and castrated them, made them eunuchs into the thing. That's not unusual for that to take place. Now we've got that same thing going on today as people are trying to alter the image of God. We've got others who want to do it genetically and make transhumans out of us. Now, we're beyond just being human, we're transhuman. We're passing on from there into becoming something that is genetically engineered to become something else. Defiling the image of God and I use Sodom and Gomorrah here as the example. That's about abuse and homosexuality abuse of the poor because they paid no attention to the poor they were Fat and sassy themselves and I've taken real good care of themselves But there were poor living in the community that didn't have anything to eat so they had a lot of food and leisure time and but they had no compassion for the poor. So I counted that as abuse. And then we know about their homosexuality. That's defiling the image of God. Does that make sense? So does anything like that go on today? All the time. Whole big movements about that. That's defiling the image of God. Then I go to this next point, sacrificing the image of God. That's the idolatrous human, especially child, sacrifice. Man, that that started going on and God hated it. There was this whole idolatrous group in Moloch, in Baal, in Ashtoreth, that whole group that was willing to sacrifice children. Matter of fact, that the goal was if you had sex and you had a child, hallelujah, that meant that you could offer that child for fertility of the ground. Does that make sense? a pregnancy became a sign of fertility. Obviously, only fertile women could have a child, and since the gods, Baal, had honored that and given him a child, that was in order that that child could be sacrificed so that the land would be fertile and all your cattle would be fertile. So you would take that child and slice it up with Baal. That's the way he cut it. He did it. Moloch liked them burned. So, he liked to have children just put on the fire and burned. That's wicked. Am I making sense to you here? That's wicked. We don't now have idols that we do that for. Now, even as I'm saying that, there are some practices still in the world where people are doing that kind of thing. That's not the way. We're too sophisticated to do it that way. we just offer up more than anyone else in the world in biblical history. We're offering up, what, 55 million children now? You gotta be kidding, that's crazy. What wickedness in this? We're going to, like Baal, slice them up, suck them out of the body. That's just wickedness. So I call that sacrificing the image of God. There are, well, I think I've got that down here a little bit lower. Yeah, we'll come to that in just a minute. Subjugating the image of God. That's conquest, human trafficking, and ethnic slavery. that came from Babylon in Revelation 17. Babylon was convincing kings to go out and conquer people. And when they would conquer people, they took those people, and the ones they didn't kill, often it was not unusual for them to kill the children, often children in the womb of a pregnant woman, and to, as they killed that child, They would keep some of those children for sacrifices. Man, when I think about how many people the Aztecs sacrificed within a five, 10-day period there, it was unbelievable, the number of people. It was just so much, well, anyway, gross, just gross. But with that conquest, they could traffic those kids. So if they didn't kill them, they kept them to be slaves for them. to be sex slaves for them. They kept them for doing all kinds of things like that. That's what I'm calling subjugating the image of God. And then preventing the true image of God being born or surviving. That was the dragon's plan in Revelation 12. So let's just look at Revelation 12 just a minute and see if you can follow my thinking here on what's going on. Revelation 12 I've passed it by twice now Revelation 12 says start with verse 1 now a great sign appeared in heaven a woman clothed with the Sun and the moon under her feet and on her head a garland of 12 stars then being with child She cried out in labor and in pain to give birth. I'm gonna stop just a moment right here being with child that means this is a blessed woman and You following that? That's a blessed woman. Because many women in that time were pleading with God, give me pregnancy. Give me a pregnancy. Give me children. I want to have children. That's what God had blessed them with. They wanted to have children. Now, notice this. It says, then being with child, she cried out in labor in pain to give birth. Now, maybe we'll get to see what the point of that was in the next part of this. So, what's he wanting to do? He wanted to kill the baby. He knows there's gonna be a Messiah born. What if he could kill that baby before it's got a chance to do anything at all? What if he could catch it while it's still young like that? Then the Messiah would be done. So his plan was to kill those children. Then consider with me Herod's complicity. Herod's complicity in the dragon's plan. If you remember when the children were born, And the wise men came to see it. The wise men told Herod about it, telling Herod about it. He said, well, as soon as you find it, come back and tell me, then I'll come and worship the child too. Well, they did find the child, but they were warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, go back a different way. Herod found out about it. He was ticked. And it was not unusual for Herod to kill a lot of people. He killed his own family so he could keep his own throne. So Herod then devises a plan since he realized that it had to be using the description that the wise men gave. It was probably two years ago when they started their journey. So he goes to kill every child that's two years and younger. And that if it hadn't been that Joseph was worn in a dream to get Jesus out of there. Jesus would have been one of these casualties. And that devil's plan would have worked out just like he wanted it to. Then if you would, consider this. There have been multiple plans of genocide all throughout history. I was thinking of Haman and what he had in mind. But then Hitler, he had some things in mind. And believe me, he was not the first one. What was his name? Louis, no, no, no, no. Is that right? Am I saying that right? I'm trying to think which one it was that started the Holy Roman Empire. Oh, yeah. I'll think of it in a minute. But anyway, his goal and plan was to bring everybody into subjection to Christianity. When they didn't, he just slaughtered them. And oftentimes he would find large groups of people who We're not going to submit. So he did some ethnic cleansing of his own. Do you follow that? And that's a term that's used many times. Ethnic cleansing. Think about the wars that were in Rwanda. There was a serious ethnic cleansing going on there. The wars that were in Bosnia, Serbia, and Croatia. That was about ethnic cleansing. That was about getting rid of different kinds of people. That's not, this has been going on for centuries, guys. It's going on to this day. Some of it we know about, some of it we don't get to know about. You have to find out some things through a different method of information in what you do. There's lots of things that went on with Armenians, lots of things that went on with Kurds, lots of things that went on with, it's in one of the stands. I'm trying to think which stand. It's in the southern part of that stand that's right on the Caspian Sea, killing off a bunch of people there. They're killing off a bunch of people in Georgia. So, these things have gone on for a long time. Multiple plans have genocided throughout history. Let's talk about what goes on today. Current manifestations of this ancient hatred. Abortion. That's one that's used worldwide, globally. Abuse. Man, the children that get abused every day. The children are abused all over the world. That's not just In America, that's not just in Mexico. That's everywhere. Pedophilia, that's becoming more and more acceptable all the time. Trafficking, where kids are not only sold for sexual purposes, they're sold for labor. You just plain take those kids and have them dig up your lithium. Yeah, they get damaged by it, but they're just kids. They're expendable. They're just property. Organ theft. There are many children and adults that are killed for their organ. They are taken for the organ, and that's called organ harvesting. And that's more than just simply gangs that catch people and harvest organs from there. That often happens with abortion, too. Many children are killed just for their organs, and those organs are sold, all right? Genetic engineering. Commercial poisoning for profit. Now, guys, I know this may not be, it may not sound like the right thing, but here's what I know is taking place. We know that the food industry has found the right combination of salt and sugar that when used together are like the old nicotine was in the cigarettes. Remember how they took nicotine and tobacco and increased the addictive part of it, increased the nicotine in it so that you would buy more. That same thing is true with our food today. You ever try to eat one potato chip? Once it's in your mouth, you're gonna eat the second one. and the third until you finish the bag. And then if you can, you might find another bag. What I'm saying is that's not because you just have such a wonderful appetite. That's because the endorphins and all the good, good, um, what I've dismissed the word hormones inside you get, uh, loving what you just did. And it's like an addiction to heroin or cocaine that sets up an addiction for you. Does that make sense? And it's damaging us. You know, I think the FDA finally admitted here, you got Robert Kennedy coming in and saying, we're going to change a bunch of stuff. I thought, how hilarious. Now the FDA decided with Robert Kennedy coming in, what if we do some things in advance of that to show that we're not the criminals you think we are? No, no, no. They finally have decided that Red 3 and Red 40 really might not be good for you, since everybody else in the world already said, that better not show up in our stuff. That's carcinogenic. That'll hurt you. I remember one day we were taking, one of my sons took his grandson and we all went to breakfast down at, I don't know, Hardee's or someplace. I don't remember where it was exactly, nothing important. We were having a relatively good time. He's sitting right there I think he had a high chair at that time and we're sitting on a high chair and he's looking at his really fine little Biscuit or whatever it was. He's having there and his father bought him a Red high-c He took two or three drinks and and turned into some kind of monster in that high chair. I mean, he was just like this. He was throwing his biscuit all over the place. He was crying about everything. He wanted everything. And I said, why did you give him something red? That's red three or red 40, and that's bad for you. That stuff has been being fed to us for so long. Kids, that's why we're having ADHD. That's why we're having kids that are unable to focus and concentrate. That stuff's been killing us. Many other nations, the rest of the world said, do not let that in our country. It's not coming in here. Why is this country doing that? What's taken us so long to say, stop killing us with our food? You know, it's a true saying. If you're going to buy groceries, do it only on the perimeter. Don't buy anything inside that, because inside that's processed foods that's loaded up with all kinds of things that are addictive and not nutritious. Does that make sense? Kids, that's all about destroying the image of God. Because what's going to happen? When you get sick, where do you get to go next? Now I've got to take some pharmaceuticals to take care of my sickness. And when I take the pharmaceuticals, that's creating a problem for me. All right, well, anyway, I won't go any further with that. Yes, sir. I ate a whole bag of croissants the other day, 10 croissants at once and twice. What day was that, Wayne? Do you remember? It was what? Yesterday. And he slept for the last, he's been sleeping since just this afternoon. The whole bag of croissants? Oh my goodness. Okay. Yep, it's all clean. Yes, it's all clean. It's not processed like the same way we do here. Well, the Child, capital C, is our only hope. We're not going to be able to stop people from destroying the image of God unless we can bring them to faith in Christ. Because when you come to faith in Christ, all of a sudden people start looking different to you. You start thinking of children differently than you did before. You start thinking of families differently than you did before. You start thinking of the people who are around you differently than you did before. People need the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not just nice to have him. It's not just a nice little addition to your life. They need him. All right, I better get going here. All right, let's sing some songs. Let's go to hymn number 124. Hymn number 124. You know, I shouldn't turn my microphone off, I think, when I do this, because someone said, I forget where it was now, I was talking to somebody, they said, oh, and I got to hear you sing last week. And I thought, that was not necessarily a good thing, because I go back and listen to it, and yeah. But we're still going to sing this song right here, OK? Come, Thou long-expected Jesus, born to set Thy people free. From our fears and sins release us, let us find our rest in Thee. Israel, strength and consolation, hope of all the earth thou art. Dear desire of every nation, joy of every loving heart. Born thy people to deliver, born a child and yet a king. Born to reign in us forever, now thy gracious kingdom bring. By thine own eternal spirit, rule in all our hearts alone. By thine all-sufficient merit, raise us to thy glorious throne. I love that. That's who we need. That's who rescue us from our wrong and the things that we're doing there. Now, 315, song number 315. It's got a lot of verses, so we may not sing all these verses tonight. Nope, let's, let, Oh, I'm your brother. Let your heart be broken for a world in need. Feed the mouths that hunger, soothe the wings that flee. Give the cup of water and the loaf of bread. Be the hands of Jesus serving in His stead. Here on earth applying principles of love, visible expression, God still rules above. Living illustration of the living God. To the minds of all who've never seen and heard, Blessed to be a blessing, privileged to care. Challenged by the need of parents everywhere. Where mankind is wanting, fill the vacant place. Be the means through which the Lord reveals His grace. Add to your believing deeds and prove it true. Knowing Christ as Savior, make Him master too. Follow in His footsteps, know where He has trod. In the world's great trouble, risk yourself for God. Let your heart be tender and your vision clear. See mankind as God sees, serve him far and near. Let your heart be broken by a brother's pain. Share your rich resources, give and give again. So I picked out some things here that are prayers of repentance and confession. And these prayers of confession are, here's just some suggestions. Confession of hardness of heart. Confession of lack of compassion. Confession of narcissistic love. I love me more than I love anybody else. Confession of bitterness. Confession of national sin of killing our own children. Confession of human trafficking. Confession of ethnic prejudice and hatred. Confession of self-centeredness. Confession of lack of respect for the image of God in every person. Confession of, and then you name the thing. I don't know what it might be. But let's go to prayer just now. And again, I'll give us a little time. It's okay to pray out loud. Don't be bashful. You wanna pray out loud, you sure can. But you don't have to. I'll just give us some time. So pray out of your heart. If you see any of these things you wanna pray for, or whatever you wanna pray for, all right? Father, we confess to the hard-heartedness that brought us to be killing our own children. Forgive us for that, Father. And I know that we have much to confess as we've shown even among our own believers. And we want to do everything we can to stop having children, which you've said are your blessing, your heritage, your reward. Please forgive us for having a bad attitude about children. We ask that in Jesus name you would receive our confession as we speak of our lack of compassion. Father, this border situation has brought out in us some things that are really hard for us, because though we want people to do the right thing, It's often brought us to a place of not being able to have compassion on those who innocently do what to do. There's a pile of them who are just being wicked, mean people who are looking for a way to come into our country and make havoc of it. But I know there are others who are just looking for a pathway to prosperity, which they think they're gonna get by being here. Father, in the name of Jesus, forgive us for not being able to have compassion on all those. But we ask in Jesus' name, you would guide us away. Give us wisdom about that border, Father. Find out ways that we can do things a legal way. I pray that in Jesus' name, this whole thing will change. It needs to be done properly. So I ask you to give them a lot of wisdom, those who are in charge, to get it done properly as it's supposed to be done. I thank you, Father, for the image of God that's found in so many people. Forgive us. when we have often castigated people who are in the image of God because of some behavior they've done. We ask in Jesus' name that you would have mercy on us. And we want to ask you to have mercy on us as we have mercy on others. So teach us to be merciful and compassionate. And I'm gonna thank you for it in Jesus' name, amen. All right, last thing, praise of God for redemption. All right. I'm just going to ask you to take out your notes and let's read some verses together, all right? Let's just read them out loud. First one, if we're going to praise God for the redemption we have, it's about restoring the image of God by faith. The way we are restored, the way that we can get away from being this destructive people who are out to kill the destroy the image of God, to sacrifice the image of God, to prevent the image of God. The way we do that is by faith in Christ. By faith in Christ, we are restored people. He's restoring us to the proper relationship, the proper thing we're supposed to be in. And here are just a couple of verses, or I should say a couple of passages, that talk just about that. Would you read Romans 5, 6 and following with me? We start out with, for when we were still without strength, In due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man would one die, yet perhaps for a good man some would even dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. In John 5 24 Isn't that great? Great promises of His redemption. So, A song of praise we'd sing for that. How about number 125? I bet you already know what that one is, if you know what this songbook is about. It's a good favorite song of many people. 125. I wanna sing verses one, three. So let's just sing verses one and three right now, shall we? Joy to the world, the Lord is come. Let earth receive her King. Let every heart prepare Him room. And heaven and nature sing. And heaven and nature sing. And heaven and heaven and nature sing. No more let sins and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground. He comes to make his blessings flow. Far as the curse is found. Far as the curse is found. Far as, far as the curse is found. And now, number 151. That's the song. Good Christian men rejoice, with heart and soul and voice, if ye do what we say. News, news, Jesus Christ is born today. Well, am I singing the right song? Is that the right tune? Do I have the right melody? You got me, buddy. Okay. That's the melody that works. Yeah. Okay, I'll tell you what, since I may have the wrong melody, just say it with me, will you? Here we go. Good Christian men rejoice with heart and soul and voice. Give heed to what we say. News, news, Jesus Christ is born today. Oxen ask before him, bow, and he is in the manger now. Christ is born today. Christ is born today. Good Christian men rejoice with heart and soul and voice. Now to be here of endless bliss, joy, joy. Jesus Christ was born for this. He has opened heaven's door and man is blessed evermore. Christ was born for this. Christ was born for this. Good Christian men rejoice with heart and soul and voice. Now you need not fear the grave. Peace, peace. Jesus Christ was born to save. Call as you want and call as you want to gain his everlasting hope. Christ was born to save. Christ was born to save. I like that. Praise the Lord. All right. Now, let's just close with some prayers of praise. Anybody got anything you want to praise God for? Just say it out loud. Praise God for my kids, amen. Praise the Lord. Anybody else? Praise God for? Oh boy, job, that's good to have. Yeah, amen. Yes indeed, yes indeed. Amen. Man, you could look around here and just say, I am praising the Lord because he's always present. I'm praising the Lord because he's my healer, the one that makes me strong. I'm praising the Lord for he's the one that sanctifies me. I'm praising the Lord because he's my shepherd. I'm praising the Lord because he's my righteousness. I praise the Lord because he's my provider. I praise the Lord because he's my banner, he's what's over me, he's loving me and he cares for me. And I praise the Lord because he's my peace. That's our prayer tonight. You don't even have to bow your head or close your eyes. You can simply say, I'm praising the Lord tonight for these things. Thank you, Father, for who you are. All right. God bless you. See you another time. All right.