The title of our sermon this morning is no longer drinking the cup. And that no longer drinking the cup stipulates not doing something that we formerly did. But of course, we continue to do just that, drinking of the cup, but it's a swapping of the cup. to changing of what we were doing. Sometime in life, some things that are not designated for us to do, we do. But then there comes a point in time that God changes the course of our life. God changes that trajectory in which we were on. And we see him changing the trajectory through the prophets preaching and prophesying here. So the prophet was talking in a dual sense. In other words, this was to be partially fulfilled during the time after they came through their Babylonian captivity. But in the latter day in which it was written for our admonition for the church, for God's people to awaken unto righteousness, to be Quickened by his spirit No longer follow the course of this world no longer follow the course of this world But wake up, and I think that was the ninth chapter of Daniel that you read this morning, and we go back and look a bit a little bit at that verse in which you read it because It's calling his people to awakening and once we have God quicken us, in other words, to make us alive, we're able to go on and work in the purpose in which he had designed us to do. And what it calls for is living a different way of waking up to the way we should live. So I say that it's doing, not doing what you used to do, but continually to do what he wants us to do, and we're still in that same world geographically, but it's almost like saying walking on a different level, a different plane. Reading scripture came from the book of Jeremiah, the 49th chapter, the 12th verse to where He had sent Jeremiah as a prophet, told him to go to all the nations, and calls them the drink of the wine of his wrath. The drink of the wine of the cup of his wrath. We know physically, geographically, Jeremiah didn't go to each specific nation throughout the world, but it was the figurative or the symbolism in which that was meant to understand, that that doctrine or the teaching would go out through the world. And drinking of the cup, I gave it to you Wednesday night and I'll give it to you again here, it was a figurative understanding of drinking of the cup, to consume a drink of the cup, meant to take a portion or have a portion in whatever was being done or whatever was in the cup. And here, drinking of the cup of his fury, whereas his people who were once in darkness, they once drunk of that same cup. they drunk of that cup, and things came upon them. But they no longer was to drink of that cup, but they was to drink of another cup. And we see in the 49th chapter in that 12th verse where it says, For thus said the Lord, Behold, they whose judgment was not to drink of that cup. In other words, his people wouldn't be judged if they walk according to his doctrine, because they were in effect judged themselves. If we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged as the world is judged. But throughout life, we've been going through the trials and tribulations and the wrath of God had fallen on us because we were once children of disobedience, just like Israel, as his chosen people were children of disobedience, who walked out the course of this world. who walked the course of this world. So we partook of the world's afflictions and the world's plagues, but at a point in time, He calls us out of the world. He calls us out of the world. That's what I was meaning by not geographically, but on a spiritual plane, on a different level, because We walk out to the manner of the second Adam of the last Adam, which is Jesus Christ, which is a spiritual man. So we're in the world, but not of the world. We no longer partake of that, a drink of that same cup. Let's go here where it started that at the 17th verse, it says, Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which has drunk at the hand of the Lord, the cup of his fury, thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of Trimony, and wrung them out." In other words, this has happened to him. They've been babbling, they've been to trial and tribulation and all of these things, but that's behind him then. That's behind him at that time, that he puts that behind him. Just as we hear him calling the church Awaken in the church as we continue on in our regular course of life as Job was in his regular course of life God intervened and asked Satan have you tried my servant Job? Well, Job was one that offered up prayer and supplications to the Lord and offered up oblations and sacrifices for each one of his children for perhaps they've sinned against the Lord. We see in the book of Daniel this ninth chapter where They were praying and confessing their sin. Daniel was praying and confessing his sin and the sin of the people. And the angel of the Lord answered him and spoke to him. And that's how we come to the knowledge or understanding of God is through consistent prayer and conversing in his word. So maybe I go over to one of my members house and I say, you're reading the word of God. Are you listening at the word of God? Are you listening at it? Because we could listen at all of the voices in the world, but that's not necessarily the voice of God or we're not gonna hear the instructions from God. We have to seek after the Lord while he may be found. So Daniel here was seeking after the Lord, and apparently these other saints was listening, and God called them, and says, Awaken, awaken, O Jerusalem. As he spoke in the 18th chapter of Revelations and called his people out of Babylon, God is consistently calling and talking to his people. We have to get in a position to hear God. The world will drown out those voices, the things of the world, the love of the world would drown out that voice. If we see as us being the elect of God, believe in Christ and Him crucified and all that entails, then we must recognize the need for suffering and trial to drink of the cup that God has prepared for each one of us, just as He did for our Savior. The Apostle Peter encourages us that if we partake in Christ's suffering, It would be well with us, 1 Peter 4, chapter 12 through 13 verse, that if we partake of his suffering, and I tell you the drinking of the cup, in other words, we engage ourselves in that which Jesus went through. And as the bride of Christ, we last week memorialized it through the Passover drinking of the table. And with that cup, he says, this cup was the blood that was shed for you. The breaking of the bread, eating of that bread was the body broken. In other words, as the bride of Christ, he's offering us a different cup. A different way, but we must suffer with him. We must go through trial and tribulations with him. But he's taking away that other cup that doesn't have judgment in it. He's taking away that cup that ends in death and offering us one that has eternal life. We have the rewards and the blessings of God because we as the bride of Christ, Now there are particular things we have to do in order to drink of that cup. We have to examine ourselves. We have to allow his word to speak to us and cleanse us. There must be some doing in the word of God. Doing the word of God that it becomes written on our hearts. That is etched in righteousness and he writes his laws upon our hearts. Listen at this, it says, you remember, second verse, look unto Abraham your father, unto Sarah that bare you, for I called him alone and blessed him alone. upon the people, to my people, and give ear unto me, O nations. For a law shall proceed from me, and I will make judgments to rest for a light of the people. My righteousness is near." And he talks about that righteousness that's right here. But on the plane that we're on, everybody can't imbibe of that righteousness. that some of them will drink unto damnation. In other words, partake of the judgment of God. If there's a blessing, there's also a cursing off that, because he's doing a separation. There's a purpose and a work going on, and all of us can't see that work, only those that he had called. So there's something going on in the world, and as God's children, we have to, with fear and trembling, work out our salvation. And that salvation requires consistently praying unto God. It says, cease not to pray. You start, as this becomes a reality to you, as you awaken, as you arise to righteousness, you'll start seeing the dangers that are in the world. Not that you become paranoid to those dangers, but you start being aware that your very enemy are those of your own household. Those that are around you because the world is attempting to draw you away from God. draw you to the things of the world and this world is passing away this world is dead in a putrefying corpse that we don't see so he tells us love not the world or the things of the world and the more we awaken to God the more we can see into the future in other words into seeing things as God sees things because we're walking by faith and not by sight so his word is instructing us he says his righteousness is dear but you have to hunger and thirst for that righteousness and not the righteousness of the world or the righteousness that's at hand of the righteousness your own righteousness it has to be his imputed righteousness which is a different righteousness because all our righteousness So we have to be dying the self into the things of self to living in pleasure, living after what proceeds from us. But this is a tricky task. It's a very tricky task because the natural man which cannot perceive the things of God, which is imitated to God, it makes it seems as though these things are right and these things are the things to do because it's a counterfeit of what God really is. So you have to walk circumspective. You have to be careful. In other words, you have to depend on God to lead and guide you if you will be one of his sheep. You will have to hear the word of God and distinguish the word of God from the world. because that cup that's out of there that you're drinking of the wine of the harlot of Babylon. It's a counterfeit of what God has for you. So that's what come a day. And you know, a lot of people say that's my favorite scripture. I'm kind of like, Oh, acts two 38. You remember I told you the preacher that was his jumping off log there. But I'm saying that there will be those that says, didn't we do these works in your name? Didn't we feed the needy? In other words, the works things, they're looking for their works to save them. Works doesn't save us. So by them feeding the needy, doing good works, that's what they're depending on instead of a relationship and knowing Jesus Christ and being led by the Spirit of Christ. And Christ would say, I never knew you. Because they're drunken of the wine of the world, which was a duplicate of what God was offering. It's another Jesus. It doesn't distinguish dying from self, and it has the love of the world, the love of this putrefying corpse. Read here where it says, lift up your eyes, O heavens, and look up on the earth beneath. For the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner. But my salvation shall be forever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished. Those that love the world and the things of the world, they shall die from dust to dust, ashes to ashes. They will return to ashes. They love the world and the things of the world and the ways of the world like Lot's wife. They are not running away from Sodom and Gomorrah. They love the things of Sodom and Gomorrah. They love the world, in other words, they walk by sight. Consistently, he's saying though, his salvation is at hand, his righteousness at hand. So as God's writing those laws on his heart, as God is offering up this cup for you to drink of, he's trying to take it out of your hand. Listen at that 19, or what it was, 22nd verse, thus said the Lord God and thy maker. He says, therefore, hear now this, thou afflicted and drunken, but not with wine. Thus said the Lord, thy Lord, the Lord and thy God that pleaded the cause of the people. Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury. Thou shall no more drink of it. Remember what Christ says, if it's another way, if he didn't have to partake of the cup, but nevertheless, thy will be done. He took that cup and he drunk that cup. He drunk the death that was in that cup. So we threw him as his bride at that Passover drinking of the cup that he substituted for us. That he had drunk it out of that cup for us. He took it from our hands and he drunk that death. Because he didn't really, he wanted to do it, but he says, was there any other way to get this accomplished? Well, he says, nevertheless, thy will be done. So he died, he took upon himself the sins of the people of the world, of his people, those that would believe upon him. Now those that believe upon him have to abandon themselves. They have to deny themselves and take up their cross and follow after him. Now it's a lot of them realize that holiness is a hard way. Remember, he says, unless you eat of my body and drink of my blood, you have no life in you. You have to do these things. So we have to drink of his cup, but that cup requires a denial of self. But the world don't want to deny self. The world want to live in the pleasures and the luxuries of life. But his is a way of suffering. His is a way of affliction. But then there's a time where you may pass by that. He may pass that by you because it's a cup of blessing. It's a cup of salvation. If the Lord is your shepherd, the Lord's not everybody's shepherd. It says the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Now see, after you grow in the Lord, after you grow in the Lord, you realize who he says thy Lord the Lord thy God a lot of people don't realize that Jesus is the Lord thy God in him is the fullness of that God here the fullness of the God here unless we continue in his word We have to continue in his word, then are we his disciples. And that's the only way. That's why he says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. But a lot of them go those other ways. And broad is the way to destruction. That's the other way. But narrow is the way to salvation. He says, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside still waters. He restores my soul, because we were dead in sins and transgression, and now He takes and He leads us in paths of righteousness for His namesake. So He's only talking to those that walk in righteousness, that have His righteousness upon their heart, that are leaning unto His righteousness. He says, Through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff in comfort." In other words, his word. That word afflicts us sometimes. That word is that rod. Sometimes he hits us pretty hard with that rod. David say, I was afflicted before I went astray. So we've been in the world, we've drunk enough that cup. So we know what it is to go through those challenges because we once walked in darkness as children of disobedience. I was talking to someone the other day about something, and it's kind of personal. A lot of the things I do is so personal that I can't mention names or whatever. I have to come up with different things where you realize this. But they kept blaming their ex, and say the ex is doing this and they're doing that. I said, well, you can't blame your ex. If you decided to marry someone else or leave someone else, and now this other person is responsible as your husband or whoever he is. See, because when Abraham left Ishmael, God says, I'll make that child a nation. So Hagar had to find another husband because Abraham was no longer in the picture. She couldn't blame Abraham. So we can't blame anybody else for the things that we've done in life. We have to stop pointing the finger at others and say, I'm to blame for this. I'm responsible for these things. We have to awaken unto righteousness. We have to awaken unto that which is godly and that which is right to shape and form our lives. The blame lies with us. Now we can be truly blessed if we realize these things. And that's why we have to come into the house of the Lord, for him to restore our soul and lead us in paths of righteousness. And then your cup shall run it over. He says, thou prepared the table in the presence of my enemy, thou anointest my head with oil, my cup run it over. What cup run it over? The cup of salvation, the cup of joy. That's the cup we're drinking from. Now he says it in the midst of his enemy. Think like a shepherd would. Think like these sheeps are. That shepherd is out there during that summertime or during that time getting that plateau ready for the sheep to eat from. Well, all of those wolves, all of those things see that shepherd preparing this eating place for those sheep. Now they don't want to come in in sheep's clothing. Those wolves don't want to come in and partake of that feast. And it's the shepherd's job to take that same rod and staff to beat those enemies to death. That's the same rod and staff that we learned to wield to defeat our enemies with. We have to do the same job as that shepherd. Once we partake of that cup, we use that same gospel to defeat the enemies, to encourage our brethren. So right in the midst of the enemies, you no longer like Abraham. When you say consider Abraham, Abraham was able to get away from around his kindred. God called him away from around his kindred. But now he leaves us in the world and we have to fight our enemies right where we find them, right in the midst of our enemies. Though we walk through the shadow of the valley of death, we shall fear no evil. We're right there with the enemy. Sometime you could be married to the enemy. Sometime the enemy might be your children. You remember I said Job offered up Sacrifices for his children. He says for perhaps if sin against God now I don't know what was the problem or whatever, but we know God moved those children out of the way I Don't know if he eventually moved mrs. Job out of the way we see where Samuel's children were moved out of the way and You know, sometimes you have to answer for your sin. Whatever the problem is, God moves the problem. That's why it says, fret not thyself because of evildoers. Don't let your children drag you along that beaten trail away from God. Don't let your spouse drag you away from God. Don't let your family, don't let your relatives or friends or associates drag you away from God. You have to do battle with the Word of God. And since you've been in that battle, since you've been in the world, you can recognize these things. You see, that's the best experience. Learning and living it is the best experience you should be able to know and not succumb to the enemy. That's why I say, it may be your children, it may be your, but whoever the enemy, we have to meet the enemy and put the enemy away. It was one of the kings, you remember, that had to put his mother away, the mother-in-law away. See, because It's going to be a hard battle, but we must fight it with the Word of God. Notice that Joseph didn't get too close to his brother, even though he was a keeper of his brother, because familiarity breeds contempt. Sometime, when you go in to the enemy, and if you compromise, the enemy is going to want to teach you and say we learn from one another. Sometime that's not the truth. That's not the way. We may not learn. That's why it says, watch it when you go among the enemy and he left those enemies in the land to teach his people how to fight. But you can't let the enemy teach you or you learn from that enemy or that enemy will put you in worse shape than he is. Like I said, now this is tall cotton that we in. Because what God has did in the New Testament church in this time and dispensation that's different from Old Testament time, he said, let the wheat and tare grow together and I'll separate them. The angels, the messengers of God are separated when he comes. So to separate them, you have to know the word of God and it keeps the enemy in his prospective place. Sometimes you have to rebuke, sometimes you have to say different things, and then sometimes you have to learn to keep quiet. So this is a battle that we're in, and that's why I say with fear and trembling, you have to work out your own salvation, because this is not a universal fix. In other words, the Word is universal, but you can't use it the same in each situation. It varies. The Word is Catholic. The Word is universal. But you have to learn to wield the Word. You have to learn by exercise of use. That's why I say we have to pray to God. And we have to ask him to fill us with his word and with his laws, which is righteousness, so we'll learn how to stem off the enemy. Now, as you beat the enemy in place, that same enemy can be won over to you if that enemy is children of God. Not all enemies are children of God. You can't turn a goat into a sheep. That's why Paul says, such was some of you. So there were people that were prostitutes, homosexuals, gamblers, and led all kinds of vices that were able to change. But there were also those in the church that were dogs, that you can't change a dog. That dog could turn back to the vomit sooner or later because as a hog, they love wallowing in the mud. Don't let them cause you to wallow back in the mud. Because if you turn back to the corruption that you once escaped, your latter end could be worse than the first. it's going to be like people that pull you down, and once they pull you down, then they're going to dog you, they're going to walk on you. That's what the Bible says. Listen at that 22nd verse and 23rd verse. Thus saith the Lord thy God, and the God that pleaded the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury, and thou shalt drink it no more. Don't let anyone cause you to go back and wallow in the mud. Don't care how close they are to your church, your family, or whatever it is, to keep your clothing white that he's trying to present you as a chaste virgin unto Christ. Because remember the wheat and tarrot is growing together. You remember, the enemy is right there amongst you. But listen to the 23rd verse. But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee. I will put it into their hand that afflict thee, which have said to thine soul, Lay down, or bow down, that we may go over, and thou hast laid down that body as the ground and the street to them that went over. In other words, that woman that walked on you, that misappropriated the funds, that did this to her husband and that husband that mistreated that wife or did all this. It's some people that'll take your heart and wipe their feet on it. Those good deeds you do being good to some people don't pay off. You have to learn the wolf and the sheep, and you have to learn sometimes you have to bruise the head of the wolf. There are people that use you, misuse you, and abuse you. They are enemies of the cross. There are people out there preaching the word of God that'll take your last dime and then throw you to the curb. There are women and men out there that marry or have boyfriends and girlfriends and then throw them to the curb or throw their own children to the curb. So we have to learn what's in the world. He said don't drink of it anymore. Now a lot of his people do drink of it some more and they die this death in this life because the enemy is very deadly. That's why I say, watch the devil. Stop rebuking and fighting with that devil. Let God fight the devil. The battle is too large. But you must submit yourself unto God and resist the devil. Sometime it takes divorces. That's why divorces are in the Bible. Sometime it takes leaving home and not coming back. That's why Paul talked about that being estranged from your wife. That's why I said, father, the son or the daughter leave home and marry them, marry. So watch mother-in-law, father-in-law, sister-in-law, because now you and your wife, or you and your husband, or one individual, don't let your parents talk you against your husband or your wife. But here and again, be careful though. You be very careful. We have to be careful. It says, thy sons have fainted. They lie at the head of all the streets as a wild bull in a net. They are full of the fury of the Lord, the rebuke of thine God. In other words, your children not to be able to help you. The world has them bound and tied up. You might not hear from them for days or months at a time. Back in the Old Testament days or whatever, that's why the women wanted, that's why they had children or whatever, because the oldest child got a double portion. He was responsible for taking care of the mother. He was responsible for taking care of his widowed family. That widowed, her husband died or whatever, that child takes her in. And he takes care of her. That's the double portion. That's one of the reasons he got that double portion. But there are children that Jesus accosted. He says, your traditions you give into the church and the way, the lifestyle you live, you make void the commandments of God because the commandment of God says, Honor thy parent that thy days be long, but now you didn't took off and went away somewhere or whatever You're not helping your old parents. You're not helping your old father your mother, whatever You didn't throw them in a nursing home or throw them to the side. Somebody else is taking care of them and that's your responsibility before God He says and you call it Corbain. In other words, this is dedicated to the Lord and And you're not honoring your parents. He says, by your tradition, you've made void the commandments of God, because all of this was commanded of God that you do these things. See, that's why they're not watching the Social Security program. They're not watching a lot of the entitlement. Those same parents that stood there in their home and raised you and helped you when you was helpless, now you've turned and you're like a bull in a net that you tie and you can't do anything, your hands are tied. You're living to the maximum. In other words, you're driving your nice car, living in your nice home or whatever, and you can't even lend a hand here or there. You can't come by and do anything for them. You're no help at all. And that's why God said he'll be a father to the fatherless. He'll be a husband to the widows. He'll be wise to those that need. In other words, God's gonna be our all in all. He had loosed that, but we have to recognize and wake up. And that's why he says in the church you will have brethren and sister. There are people in the church, and that's what I said, that are helping the fatherless, that are helping those that are oppressed and that need food or that need help with the doctors or whatever help they need. Those in the church are the helping hand. He says those that do what the will of his fathers, those are his sisters and brothers and mothers. Those are the same as those. Because this cup of trembling, if you didn't experience that, you ought to be able to help others. It says he comforts us with the same comfort wherewith we learn to comfort others. But if you ain't been through nothing, you can't bring nobody else through nothing because you don't know how to go through anything. But if you didn't suffer and you didn't been outside, you'd have been lost or trapped up in some of these situations. You can help someone else. Your cup run it over, but God allows that cup to run it over for a purpose. Because why do God give us money or why do we have funds? It's not for us, it's to help others. That we may have something to help others with. How many times somebody done helped you and said, well, look, let me get it to you. No, I don't need your money. I don't need anything. I don't need no gas. I don't need nothing. I'm helping you because that's what God had given to me for, is to help others. It's people out there helping others more than their own children or more than their own relatives are helping. There are people that are doing more for those that are disenfranchised. And that's why God had placed us in there. He says, let the wheat and tare grow together. That's why I say, sometime those enemies that are helping us, they may be helping us for the wrong reason or the wrong meaning. But that's why I say, he causes Satan to build back that which you've torn down. Sometime God sends the enemy in, the pagan enemy, the heathen, to build that that was torn down. Because God's people shall inherit the earth. But God causes all this. So sometime in life, we've paid our dues, he says, you've received double for your sins and transgression. So if you've lived a life and don't look like you've ever able to catch grip and that you were serving God for naught, But then God did call you. You heard the Word of God. You heard the preaching of God. God calling you. When you pursue after God and seek after Him, and He'll start causing you to be able to walk on level ground, He'll start sending blessings unto you because the Lord is your shepherd. You shall not want. You shall not suffer a lack. You will lend to others and others won't have to lend to you. and why they're borrowing from you. God had made you to hear it and not to tell. You have to realize who you are. You're the children of God. So that's why you're drinking from his cup. Salvation is from the Lord. He's right there now. But what you have to do is pull off the old man. You have to put him to death. But you can't drink out of both cups, though. You can't drink the cup of demons and the cup of the Lord. You can't serve Mama and God. You have to yield your members unto righteousness for righteousness' sake. But you can't walk in the middle. You have to be steadfast and immovable in the faith. I was watching a picture the other day, the FBI. And they have this guy, I think it's OC or something or whatever. He's a complicated character and they show, they took away from his character. Because they put this young agent in there who was dedicated to the faith in which he believed in. And at the end, he had ended up saving O.A.' 's life. He had to kill this man. O.A. telling me, it gets easy as it goes along. He said, well, no, I can't be an agent because I can't do this. Why? Because he had to compromise his faith. he had to tolerate doing wrong sometimes. And that's why, oh, he fell out in my eyesight. No longer could I even stomach him almost because if you have a religion and where you can lay it down, you don't have a religion. If your religion allows you to pick and choose and live certain ways when you want to, you have a mighty poor religion. And the lady had asked him, well, you hadn't been going to, I think it was Ramadan or whatever, or he was eating, he shouldn't have been eating, he should have been fasting. You follow God if you will follow God. But if you're not gonna follow God, get out. That's why I say, if you're in the church, it's better for you not to be in the church. I would rather my children outside the church and living like they're outside the church than to be inside the church and living like they're outside the church. That's a hypocrite. There's no way out for them. That's like Judas Iscariot. So if you will be in the church, you walk according to the beliefs of that church or that religion. You can't lay your religion down. Any religion that you can lay down is not a religion. So when you drink of the Lord's cup, you can't drink of Satan's cup. Now Satan is different. That's one thing about Babylon, they believe in polytheism. God is a monotheist. In other words, he's a jealous God. He's not gonna allow you to serve any other God. He's not gonna have any other God. Not before him, not after him. Whereas Babylon, you can serve a pantheon of gods. Remember, Egypt had many different gods that they served. But we're looking at one God, the true and living God. He's not to tolerate. He's a very jealous God. You can't have many other gods, any of them. It's like a jealous husband, a husband that his wife can have as many lovers as she want. He's not a very good husband. Got a problem, have a problem. So God says, the captive exile hasten that he may be loose, and that he should not die in the pit, not that his bread should fail. But I am the Lord thy God, that divided the sea, whose waves roar, the Lord of hosts is his name. I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have uncovered thee in the shadow of my hand. that I may plant the heavens and lay the foundations of the earth, and say on the Zion, thou art my people. Awake, awake, O Jerusalem. That's why they come with singing, and that's why they come with rejoicing and praising God, because this is the God of creation. This is the God that called Abraham by himself. God had chosen us. If he had chosen us, we have to walk as so. We have to walk in that blessing and he's gonna bless us in his cup, run it over. Our cup, run it over. He's gonna pour it full. But one thing about it, you can't turn back into the world. You can't look back into the world. You have to leave the world behind. Now, I ain't got way away from my notes here. Matthew 20 and 23 says, and it says to them, you shall indeed drink of my cup and be baptized with the baptism I'm baptized with. But to sit on my right hand and my left hand is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared for by my father. The mother was asking, let my son sit on the right hand and the left hand. We can't determine what positions we have. God says, make sure you're calling, make your vocation sure. God might not even call you to be a preacher and your mama can't make you a preacher, your daddy can't make you a preacher. Somebody said, well, you ought to be a preacher and you preaching is running through, it doesn't do that way. That's why Jesus, now this is Jesus saying, you shall drink of the cup that I drink. In other words, you will go through what I'm going through, the suffering, but just the exact same cup. You couldn't do what Jesus did. None of us can do what Jesus did. He was the perfect example. That's why it says, follow me as I follow Christ. And that's why it wasn't any other way that he had to do it. He wasn't complaining or whatever. He was making an analogy that this is the only other way. This is the God and there's no other way. This is the way God resolved these things. Now you will have trouble in tribulation. You shall drink of that cup. You remember I said we shall all drink of his cup. Suffering and affliction and tribulation will come our way. But he says, take my yoke upon you for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. He's not gonna require you something that you can't do because he said to me, without me, you can do nothing. But we say in Christ, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, so we can't exclude him for anything we do. Because it is him that living in us and through us. The zeal of the Lord of hosts performs this. So we have to follow Christ here in this cup of fury. Sooner or later, he takes it out of our hand. There's enough chastening. And he says, that's enough. He scorns every child that he received. He marks them. But now God has taken us past that. You know, a lot of people hadn't been through what we've been through. I was talking to Brother Parker yesterday evening. I went over for our weekly talk there, and we were sitting there talking. He said, you know, I couldn't tell you all the troubles and all the things that I've been through. It's hard to tell other people what you've been through or what you've experienced. And that's why Peter says, think it not strange of the fiery trials that shall try you. You know, I've had, me and my wife had five kids. And I don't know about nowadays, people have baby showers and all of these. I don't know about all of these things or whatever. All this thing is new thing. But you know, I think about my wife and my mother, and as we go farther and farther back, it seemed as though those women were much stronger. And today, these little things, they're going through it. They have baby showers here. They have wedding showers. They have all of these different things. But you know, a lot of these women, you couldn't get them to cook breakfast after you got married to them for a while. I can't find them. They have to have a babysitter here and a babysitter here. We raised our kids. But they look for the grandparents and everybody else to raise their kids for. That's what I was telling you about yesterday. I was talking to somebody. Well, if you end up leaving this man as are leaving this woman, well, that new woman and that new man is responsible for you help raising your children or whatever. Don't keep looking back to that old man. Abraham didn't come back trying to raise Ishmael or whatever. You understand what I'm saying? And so nowadays, you have all of these things, and it's a new way. And probably that's why God doesn't remove the barriers and things that are there because men ain't, as Mr. Parker was saying, that men ain't what men used to be. They'd be on the phone talking to one another. Have you ever seen as many men on the phone as you see nowadays? The infeminate man or whatever you see, that's why I guess so many men has this effeminacy to them. You didn't know anything about baby showers and things. They was telling me the other day that the men had more games and playing more stuff at the baby showers. Have any of y'all ever went to baby showers? I'm talking to the older men. You see, this life has changed and the world has changed so much. that we've pulled down the barriers that God maybe have put up, put those barriers and says, don't remove those landmarks, you will cause a problem. You know, a lot of times the man want a man cave and want to say about the job of the man and the Proverbs 431 woman or whatever, but they're not even understanding what they're saying, what they're preaching and teaching. You know, that's why they have novice as pastors and everything. Well, these men hadn't been married. I don't know how you're pastoring a church or whatever, that you could tell the men that have, you remember I was telling you Wednesday or the other day about this guy was telling me the sacrifices that you need to make in marriage and about the different things in marriage. And I said, well, man, you're on the right trail. I said, how long have you been married? Well, I ain't never been married. I've been married 42 years and you're trying to tell us about marriage and you hadn't been married. You know, we have a problem nowadays. We have people that are very educated. Intellectually, but that doesn't transfer over and that's why God says he was but transfer this cup over because you've been afflicted you've you've been through something and Now I'm gonna take that out of your hand and put the cup of blessing in your hand and you could be able to treat other people because you've been through trial and tribulation you've been through this affliction or whatever. Now, I'm going to bless you, but somebody's been blessed all their life. They've been wealthy all their life. Things have been handed to them all their lives. Well, you can't tell me much if you didn't learn the scrap to how to make it. You're understanding, hopefully you're understanding what I'm saying. These people, it's like the angels, they look and try to look into what's going on, but they hadn't been human before. And that's why Jesus, he had been a man and he walked his trails as a man. And that's why we tell you when people talk about the God man, no, he didn't do it as God, he did it as a man. He know what it is to be tired. He know what it is to have been betrayed. He know what all these things. You have a high priest that's able to be touched by the feelings of your infirmities. You know, but if you hadn't been through some things, I don't think you can tell me about going through these things. That's why a lot of times back in the old days, those preachers, some of them may not have knew how to read or whatever, but they knew about life. They knew about going through life. They knew about people. That's what's wrong with our politicians today. That's what's wrong with our churches today. And so what has happened, they've had this handed to them on silver platters. So they don't know what fights to fight and what a real fight is. You don't want to get in a fight. Anybody that's ever been in a fight, you don't want to get in a fight while fighting something else. People, I'm all, how'd he hit him here and did this? Fight goes very quick. It moves very fast. And I was like, I was telling you about the guy that said he didn't want to kill anyone. You know, God says thou shall not kill. He has that for a reason. But I hear the churches nowadays and the politicians and people talking about killing. If you can kill and it doesn't have any conscience or wherewith to you, it's like a video game. People go around killing in these video games and in these wars, dropping a bomb and doing all these things. You're not a conscionable person. And that's why Jesus He's sympathetic to us. He's able to be sympathetic to us. He know what it is to be tired. He know what it is to be hungry. But if you had never been hungry, and you can't really understand the symbolism in the Bible about a cool and a refreshing drink of water. It sounds simple, huh? About that cool and refreshing drink of water. Me and Brother Parker was talking about that yesterday. And that I have two sizes of bottled water. I have a 16-ounce size and we buy a little 8-ounce size. Because there are grown people that come to my house that I give a bottle of water, say, you want something to drink or whatever? But I don't give them that 16-ounce bottle of water no more. I give them that little old bottle of water. Because now we don't even drink out of glasses anymore. We usually drink a bottle of water, but we take a 16 ounce bottle of water and sip out of it and leave it sitting there. We are wasteful people. But the people of that time, or whatever, when they had to go to the well and draw water, or they had to carry water in a canteen, and they didn't have refrigerated water, and they didn't have a cool and refreshing sip of water, that's a reward. And that's why they talk about a prophet's reward for giving a cool sip of water. We very wasteful. We throw away money, don't children? They don't want pennies and nipples and dimes and quarters. They don't even really want dollars no more. It's fives, tens, hundreds, or twenties. They carry around with their debit cards and all of these things. We've lost the value of society. There's no value in anything. Our last president had been married three different times. What happened to, like I said, I've been married 42 years. God had set it to where? to death do you part. But now you try it out. If it don't work, you could have a no-fault divorce or irreconcilable differences or whatever. We don't know the value of marriage and the sacredness of a love relationship. We have this thing they call friends with benefit and casual sex and all of these different things. We've took the essence out of what God had said there should be. We're drinking of the wrong cup. But if we have drunken of the wrong cup, and God converts us and awakens us and says, I'll drink out of my cup. Notice that Paul says to present you as a chaste virgin unto the Lord. You know the value of virginity. You know the value of sacredness. But we've profaned religion. We've profaned everything we've touched. And God invites us to drink of his cup. But if you drink of the Lord's cup, notice the death penalty is imbibed in that because it says, he who drinketh unworthily, that's why some of us are dead and that's why some of us are sleeping. If you're sick all the time, If some of us dine, maybe you should examine taking the Lord's Supper. A lot of people take the Lord's Supper or take of that Passover without examining themselves. What life are you living before you take drink of that cup? That's why Paul says before you drink of the cup, examine yourself, before you go into that church. See, because God, the world is already condemned. And the church is the exclusive place. It's something else to come into the church and damn yourself to hell. And that's why he says, blasphemy of the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven you. You can commit all kinds of sin, but blasphemy against the Holy Ghost is not forgivable. In other words, when you come in and fight against and speak against the truth, don't go against the truth. And so God freely gives. But as he gives, he awakens us and we find out that we have to pull off self and deny ourself and take up our cross to follow after him. That that is conditional. That's why he says, take my yoke upon you and learn of me. Learn of me. Freely. It is wonderful serving God and his cup truly running over. But we have to not forsake the assembling together of ourselves and actually learn of him. That doctrine is a strong doctrine. And he says no other doctrine, tell them to teach no other doctrine, no other instructions. And there are a lot of false teachings and a lot of things out there that's heretical that draw us away from God. Heavenly Fathers, we come before you this day, Lord God.