What a privilege to be gathered together in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is in his name that we greet you this evening. And what a privilege to travel for several hours and over and arrive in among the hills and the non-straight roads in the middle of Ohio to and find a group of people that believe in God. What a blessing. And Yes, we have been anticipating our time together here and looking forward to what God has for us from his word. Appreciated the introduction so much and just thoughts about God and God and his creation and And this evening as we think just a bit about that and about the events of the week, we thoroughly enjoyed the events of Monday and enjoying the eclipse. We had to travel just a little over an hour south to get into an area of totality. And just so enjoyed that with our school there. We took a school field trip. and watching kindergartners and first graders and 12th graders be amazed at God's creation and thoroughly enjoying it myself as well was a treat. And my first experience seeing totality and one of those things where you kind of had to be there to really be able to describe it. And isn't that what so much about the Christian life is like? we can share it, we can share experiences, we can interact, and we can fellowship as we heard at the beginning of the service. And in fact, if you don't mind, the brother who led the singing, if you don't mind me correcting you just a bit, as you began, as you started up here, some of your first words were, let's begin our worship with, next time, if you would use the word continue, I think it would be more fitting because what I heard behind me with the interaction, I believe is a very vital aspect of worship. It's called brotherhood, it's called fellowship. And praise the Lord for that. And praise the Lord that I can feel at home here this evening, even though I believe it's the first time visiting your church here and see a few familiar faces in the in the audience, got to spend time with Brother Benjamin in Romania a few years back, maybe a few more than a few years. But enjoyed learning to know him and his parents as well throughout the years. And so just a bit about myself. You'll pick up a few tidbits as we go along here. Yes, we are from Arthur, Illinois. I grew up there. And then in 20, sorry, in 1996, our family was called to go to Romania and joined Bill and Ellen there and several others of the CM workers there and were there for three years. And that is where I met my wife, who was a native of Romania there, lived in a village just behind the where the orphanage compound is there. And so, and she was a cook at the orphanage there. And so through that interaction, our lives intertwined. And we got married in 2001. Lived in the States for several years. And then in 2005 went back to Romania and served till 2011. And been back in Illinois ever since. I am a school administrator, been involved in Christian education for almost 15 years as high school teacher and more recently as administrator. And the thing that I enjoy most about being involved in education is the fact that I get to learn as well. And I enjoy studying, I enjoy learning, I enjoy giving people tools so that they can learn and do things better than I can. I enjoy having a financial advisor who's a former student of mine and some things like that. As we think about all the different ways that God has led us so that our lives intertwine just a bit this weekend, I believe we do well to just sit back and marvel at God's working in our lives. This evening, as we think about a question. Brother Phil mentioned that there are what, over 3,000 questions in the Bible. I was thinking, wow, we're gonna be here for a while. if we go through all of those. I enjoy questions. I like asking questions. I like trying to answer some questions. And as a teacher, the questions are so vital. And sometimes I get frustrated when someone who's under my care goes on and doesn't, and they keep on making the same mistakes. And finally it's like, would you please ask? If you don't know, just ask me what the formula is for that problem, or ask the right questions so that we can assist you with that. and so key to our Christian life as well is asking the right questions. One more tidbit about our family. Our youngest daughter's three years old. We have seven children, and our oldest is 22, so we have quite a span of ages there in our family, and keeps life quite interesting. As you can imagine, I'm glad to have my 10-year-old son, Andre, who his teacher graciously granted him leave from school for a couple days here so that he could join me. And we're looking forward to spending some time together as well. You're gonna be turning in your Bibles to 2 Kings chapter one. As a teacher, one of the things I enjoy Another thing that I enjoy is stories. I love stories. I love good stories, stories that I can learn from. And one thing that I've discovered with people that write good children's stories is that their actual focus, the focus of a good children's story is probably not the children. It's probably the people that are reading them because the older sibling or the adult that is reading that story is probably getting a little bit more of a depth of the moral of the lesson in that story than the child is. Now, the child understands the details and even my three-year-old daughter, she's a person of routine. She has certain books that we read at certain times of the day. And every once in a while, we get to deviate from that routine just a little bit. And so, as a parent, sometimes we... You read the same book again and so you have this habit of trying to omit certain phrases so you get to the next page a little bit quicker. And the other day she caught me two times in a row and she said, hey, where's the phrase such and such? And I'm like, that was one that I skipped. Stories. I praise the Lord for the Old Testament because we have so many amazing stories in the Old Testament. Now, I enjoy learning and preaching from the New Testament as well, things about examples that Jesus had for his disciples there, but I've grown to really love and appreciate the stories of the Old Testament that have such truths for them. So many foundational things, especially about God and His ways. Now, obviously, Jesus, in the New Testament, as He was building on that, there are things that we need to pay attention there as well. Second Kings, chapter one, verse one. Then Moab rebelled against Israel after the death of Ahab. And Ahaziah fell down through a lattice in his upper chamber that was in Samaria and was sick. And he sent messengers and said unto them, go, inquire of Beelzebub, the god of Ekron, whether I shall recover of this disease. I just need to stop right there. Because it feels very much like I've just dropped right in the middle of a story. Because I have, I'm thinking of a lot of questions I need to ask. Moab, who's Moab? Rebelled against Israel. Where's Israel? The death of Ahab. Hmm, that name sounds familiar, but who's Ahab? Ahaziah, okay, who's that? And he falls down through a lattice in his upper chamber. Okay, he's in Samaria, he's sick, he sends messengers. The name of the God he's going to inquire of is Beelzebub. Well, that sounds a little strange. And he's the God of Ekron. Well, that sounds kind of strange too. It feels like there's a lot of pieces of this story that we're missing. So let's back up a little bit and figure out what is happening in Samaria. this story. So let's just flip back a few pages and try to pick up a few things here in 1 Kings chapter 22. Ahab, we know him as a notorious king of Israel, a man who had a hard time making right decisions. didn't help that his wife's name was Jezebel and influenced him in many instances in making a wrong decision worse. And that's who Ahab is. As we pick up a story here in 22, and just to give us an idea of where we're at in this timeline, by the way, I enjoy thinking of the Bible and trying to have in my mind the timeline of the Bible of where we're at in history here so that we know some of the pieces of the story. So Elijah is the main prophets in Israel at this time. And in 1 Kings 18, we have the confrontation between Elijah and Ahab. We have the Mount Carmel experience. And we have the false prophets being killed there at the end. Elijah flees to Mount Horeb. God speaks to him there. And then we have Elijah calling Elisha. And we have in chapter 20 we have the Syrian army surrounding Samaria. And we have Ahab defeating Syria again. So we have Ahab being on the right side of a few decisions there. And then in chapter 21 we have the story of Naboth's vineyard where Ahab pouts and his wife helps him get his way. But that's obviously not the right way to do it. And then we come to chapter 22. And they continued three years without war between Syria and Israel. And it came to pass in the third year that Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, came down to the king of Israel. And the king of Israel said unto his servants, know ye that Ramoth and Gilead is ours, and we be still and take it not out of the hand of the king of Syria. And he said unto Jehoshaphat, wilt thou go with me to battle to Ramoth Gilead? And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, I am as thou art. My people are as thy people, and my horses as thy horses. And Jehoshaphat said unto the king of Israel, inquire, I pray thee, at the word of the Lord today. Let's pause there. Maybe we'll paraphrase the rest of the story. So we are in a divided kingdom. We have Israel, in the north, Judah in the south, and we have Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, and Ahab as king of Israel, and they are going to work together on this problem that the Syrians are still in control of Ramoth, Gilead, and they agreed together, let's go ahead and take that back, because those are our people, that's our land, and let's work together on this. Now, Jehoshaphat is used to a good procedure in these things, and the first thing he says is, okay, we agreed to do this, but let's make sure we have God's favor in this. Let's ask God, let's ask the Lord, what we should do, if we should go do this, or if we should not. What he's saying is, these are our ideas, but do they align with God's will for our lives? Does God really want us to do this? It would seem to us to be a good thing, but in God's eyes, is it actually a good thing? That sounds like that would apply to my life. So Jehoshaphat encourages the king of Israel, who is Ahab, to pursue the word of the Lord. And so the king of Israel has means of doing this. He gathers together the prophets, 400 of them. Let's see, we have a hard time getting all of those in this sanctuary. we'd have to use the entrance and probably the fellowship hall behind there in order to fill all these prophets of the Lord that are gathering to give the word of the Lord to the kings. And so the question is, shall we go up to Ramoth Gilead to battle? And they said, they said, it seemed like a common word from all of these prophets, go up. And verse six, for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king. And so we have 400, prophets, they're speaking together. Yes, go up. Can you hear 400 men speaking in unison? Yes, go up. It rings. It fills the room. Okay, they're in an outside courtyard, but they get their message across. Jehoshaphat is like, hmm. And he says, is there not here a prophet of the Lord besides that we might inquire of him? There's something that just doesn't feel right. Yes, all these men, they're saying, they're giving their approval, but something's not quite right. And so Jehoshaphat wisely asks, Ahab, he's in Ahab's territory. Is there not here a prophet of the Lord's besides that we might inquire of him? Now, this is, verse eight, it's a verse in the Bible. I'm not making this up. And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, there is yet one man, Micaiah, the son of Imlah, by whom we may inquire of the Lord. But I hate him, for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil. And Jehoshaphat said, Let not the king say so." We have one king reprimanding another one because of what he's saying. Ahab is admitting, yes, Micaiah is a prophet of the Lord, but I don't use him because he doesn't speak good things against me, or about me. He's always getting in the way of my plans, and I can never do the things that I want because he's always prophesying against me, so I just don't use him. A prophet of God? And you claim to say that I want my life to conform to God's will, but yet as soon as someone doesn't give me the advice that I want, then I just sideline that person? I'm sure we'd never do anything like that. Then the king of Israel called an officer and said, hasten hither Micaiah the son of Imlah. And so Ahab says, okay, I get the picture. I guess we'll have to call Micaiah too. So he sends an officer. Now this officer had been instructed and so as, in the meantime, some of the other prophets get very adamant about the fact that God is going to deliver Ramoth Gilead into their hands. and verse 13, and the messenger that was gone to call Micaiah spake unto him saying, and so this messenger goes to Micaiah and calls him to come speak to the kings, but he gives him a little bit of, some friendly advice as he goes, says, now Micaiah, you're gonna be joining 400 other prophets of God, and they've all said that the king should go up to this battle because And it would be good for them, that God is with them. So if you could kindly conform your message to fit those other 400, it would be a good day, if you could do that. We thought we had political maneuvering in our day. And so this messenger has the nerve to tell Micaiah that. Verse 14, Micaiah wisely said, as the Lord liveth, what the Lord saith unto me, that will I speak. So he came to the king, and the king said unto him, verse 15, Micaiah, shall we go against Ramoth Gilead to battle, or shall we forbear? And he answered him, go and prosper, for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king. I love the fact that we have the Bible. We have God's words. One thing we're missing is the tone of voice. I would love to be able to hear the tone of voice that Micaiah was using when he gave that to the king. Because the king gets mad. And he said, how many times shall I adjure thee that thou tell me nothing but that which is true in the name of the Lord? Look at the words that he said. And he just started off, said, go and prosper. Go, do it, win it. But look at the wording that he used. For the Lord shall deliver it. Now the word it is added in the English language because we use the word it. For the Lord shall deliver into the hand of the king. Does he mention which king is gonna win? No. He just said God's gonna give it into the hand of, probably a better translation would be a king. He's not prophesying good or bad. And the king picks up on that. And Micaiah says, okay, you want me to prophesy exactly what God told me? Let's go to verse 17. I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills as sheep that have not a shepherd. And the Lord said, these have no master. Let them return every man to his house in peace. Sheep that have no shepherd? Who's the shepherd? Ahab and Jehoshaphat, the masters, the kings. The kings are gone. These men are going to return. And the way they did their, when they went into battle, the captains, the kings that were with them were so very important because as soon as their leaders were taken away, the men had, without that leadership, they just scattered. We saw that in numerous battles throughout the Old Testament. When the leader is taken out, then the people just scattered. And that's the vision that Micaiah saw. And that's the vision that he gave to these kings. And of course, they were not happy. And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, did I not tell thee that he would prophesy no good concerning me, but evil? I think he's whining. He's telling Jehoshaphat, see, I told you so. We bring this guy in and he prophesies nothing but evil against me. He even said that I'm going to die in this battle. the nerve, but yet he's a prophet of God. Could you see how Ahab has hardened his heart and is not planning on listening to what God is so obviously telling him? And he said, hear thou therefore the word of the Lord. I saw the Lord sitting on his throne and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left. And the Lord said, who shall persuade Ahab that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead? And one said on this manner and another said on that manner. And there came forth a spirit and stood before the Lord and said, I will persuade him. And the Lord said unto him, wherewith? And he said, I will go forth and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. Well, that'll light a fire right there. You have 400 men, and now you have this one prophet that says, all you 400 men have been possessed with a lying spirit. All this is happening And I can't help but think that off to the side is a young man, Ahab's son, Ahaziah. He's watching all this. He sees his father go directly against the word of the Lord from the prophet. He sees the prophets themselves going against Micaiah. And then he watches as Jehoshaphat and Ahab make the decision to move ahead with this battle. We are going to go against Ramoth Gilead. We are going to push those Syrians out with the horns of iron, as one of the false prophets had said, and we are going to win this. That's what they said. The results, exactly the opposite. In fact, the results align perfectly. with what Micaiah has said was going to happen, as his word from the Lord came true, and that Ahab dies in that battle. See, that brings us to Second Kings chapter one. And now when we read this, then Moab rebelled against Israel after the death of Ahab. And Ahaziah fell down through a lattice in his upper chamber that was in Samaria and was sick. And he sent messengers. So let's stop there. So now we've had Ahab's death. We've had Moab rebelling against Israel. And We have Ahaziah falling down through a lattice in his upper chamber. Possibly a balcony type thing and he fell through the, it doesn't give us a lot of details here, but he obviously fell from a high point and he's sick, he's wounded, and based on his message, he's afraid he's going to die. Now, after seeing all that's happened to Ahab, you would think that he would get the message and he would have made choices to align his kingship with the Lord God of Israel. I don't know exactly how old he was or might have been when Mount Carmel happened, He could have very easily been right beside his father on, let's see, was Ahab actually on Mount Carmel? Was he back in the capital? But he would have heard about that. he saw the prophecies, and he saw them being fulfilled before his very eyes, and still chose, in some of the last verses in 1 Kings, verse 53, for he served Baal and worshiped him and provoked to anger the Lord God of Israel according to all that his father had done. Now, His father has died, Moab's rebelled, and he has fallen down and is sick, and he makes this choice. He sent messengers and said, go inquire of Beelzebub. Beelzebub, one interpretation of that name is the god of the flies. That sounds encouraging, doesn't it? Wow, let's go inquire of the god of the flies. But he believes enough in Beelzebub whose, his center of worship was in Ekron, which is a Palestinian city, and go ask him whether I'm going to recover. One person made a comment, said, hmm, I guess he had to send, he didn't have any other prophets of Baal in his own country because they were all killed in Mount Carmel, so now he has to import pagan prophets, or he has to go to Ekron to inquire of Beelzebub whether I shall recover of this disease. And we get to verse three. But the angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite, arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria and say unto them, is it not because there is not a god in Israel that ye go to inquire of Beelzebub, the god of Ekron? And that's our question for this evening. Is there not a God in Israel? Elijah stands before those messengers and stops them before they get out of Samaria. And he's standing before them in the road and saying, where are you going? Is there not a God in Israel that you could ask him if the king is going to live or die? Do you have to go to the false prophets of Ekron and to the idols of Ekron to inquire of them? Is there not a God in Israel? The messengers return and they get back, they mess up just a little bit, they get back too quick. And the king says, what's going on? You couldn't have made it all the way down to Ekron and back in this time, something's up. They said, yeah, so we met this man and said, go turn again to the king, verse six, that sent you and say to him, thus saith the Lord, is it not because there is not a God in Israel that thou sendest to inquire of Beelzebub, the god of Ekron? These messengers, they had just been sent by the king. So when this man met them in the road and told them where they're going and what their question was, shouldn't that have been raising flags? Wait a minute, how'd you know where we were going? How did you know what we were gonna ask the people of Akron at the temple of Beelzebub? I see all these signals in here that God was trying to get their attention. God is saying, please listen. The king. He's not so much interested in the message as in the messenger. Verse seven, he says, what manner of man was he which came up to meet you and told you these words? It's like, wait a minute, what kind of man was this that stopped you and told you where you were going and what you were supposed to ask the people of Ekron? That almost sounds like Like if someone gets found out about something, they're more worried about how they got found out than the fact that they did something wrong. That's too close to home, let's keep on moving. Verse eight, and they answered him, he was a hairy man and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins. And he said, it is Elijah the Tishbite. Ah, I knew it. Elijah is, these prophets, they're just always in our way. And now he's even stopping my messengers from going to inquire of Beelzebub, whether I'm going to be, whether I'm going to get healed or whether I'm going to die. Now, how am I going to know if I'm going to live or die? You know, the Bible talks about God blinding the eyes of some people who have chosen not to see, of stopping the ears of people who have chosen not to hear, but it also talks about opening the eyes of people who have a desire to see and opening the ears of people who want to hear. I pray that's our desire this evening. Well, the King has a solution for this. Remember, this is one man who's standing in the middle of the road. What does the king do? He sends 50 soldiers with a captain, 51 men to bring in one man, 51 to one. What do you think the king's attitude was toward Elijah? He knew that Elijah had power and he tries to overcome that power with manpower. We know the story, it doesn't work. Fire comes down and consumes those 51. The king, I preach this sermon several times and I always come to it, a mental roadblock here, that the king doesn't get it. He sends another 51 men and the same thing happens. He sends a third, I don't know how many groups of 51 men he has at his disposal that he's gonna send here. But finally, the third time, we find a captain that gets the picture, that realizes that this is a man of God, and the captain falls down before Elijah and says, would you please spare me and my men? Finally, someone who's willing to listen to the word of God. And because of him, he and his men are spared. In verse 13, his words are, oh man of God, I pray thee, let my life and the life of these 50 thy servants be precious in thy sight. Verse 15, and the angel of the Lord said unto Elijah, go down with him, be not afraid of him. And he arose and went down with him unto the king. It doesn't say that they had to put him in chains and drag him, kicking and screaming down the road. No, he said, go with him, don't be afraid of him. Just go. And he said unto him, unto the king, verse 16, thus saith the Lord, for as much as thou hast sent messengers to inquire of Beelzebub, the god of Ekron, is it not because there is no god in Israel to inquire of his word? Therefore thou shalt not come down off that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die. I read from this verse that if Ahab would have asked the right prophet, if Ahab would have called Elijah and said, Elijah, would you inquire of the Lord God of Israel whether I'm going to live or die? I think God's answer would have been different. But here, because he asked the false prophets, because he sent messengers to Beelzebub, the god of Ekron, then God said, you will not come down off that bed, but you will die. The beginning of verse 17, so he died. It was the word of the Lord, so he died. According to the word of the Lord, which Elijah had spoken, and Jehoram reigned in his stead in the second year of Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, because he had no son. Ahaziah had only reigned for two years, but he meets his death like this. because he wasn't willing to recognize the Lord God of Israel. Is there not a God in Israel? What does that mean for us today? Another way of stating that would be, why can't we do this God's way? Do we have to look to the world for the solutions to our problems? We have them, they're all around us. It's called life. Do we have to look to the world for those solutions? Or can we look to God for those solutions? Does the evidence of God working in our lives not compel us to defer to his leading in our lives? As I think back over my life and sometimes in conversations with high school students, the big questions are, what kind of job am I going to have? Should I go to Bible school? Where should I go to service? Who am I going to marry? Does God want me to stay in this community? Does he want me to move somewhere else? Big questions, real questions. And I've often used the phrase, God enjoys leading his children. God is not a God who sits up there and says, hmm, wonder if he can figure this one out. That's not who God is. God enjoys leading his children. He enjoys giving us principles of life, principles from his word that we can apply to our lives. They give us the keys to these problems. Whether it's relationships within the church or in the family. God has the keys. Even if we go back to Genesis. And just a chapter or two after the chapter that we read about in the devotional where God said, God did all of this, we have Satan coming on the scene. And we have the fall that happened in the Garden of Eden. But God immediately had a plan in the same verse that he gives Satan his judgment, he puts the seed of the Redeemer God has the solution. So for things in our life, how do we look at these things in life? I'd like to bring out some practical applications. Music is an interesting... We could talk a lot about music. Music in and of itself is an amazing gift that God has given us. I so enjoyed the song service at the beginning of the service here, and just joining with you all in song and in the harmony and the text that was so rich. So if God created something so beautiful, rest assured that Satan is going to do his best to try and twist that. There's so much power in music. I believe Satan recognizes that power in music. recently ran across an article where in, I believe it was in Switzerland, one of the European countries that they're known for their cheese making. And someone had the strange idea where they have these aging shelves, these big warehouses where they have these big rounds of cheese that they let set for a certain amount of time, different lengths of time for different types of cheeses, and it affects the values. And someone got the bright idea to play music to the cheese. And for six months they, I just read a snippet of the article, but for six months they were playing music to these rolls of cheese and it affected the taste and the texture of the cheese. For some reason hip hop music made it a lot more, made the flavor a lot stronger. I wonder why. I'd never heard of anything quite like that, in that music can actually affect the texture and flavor of cheese over a six-month period. I'll let someone else figure out all the scientific parts behind that. But we realized that music affects us. The world says the more beat the better, the more funny, corny, the lyrics the better. God says I've created a world of order and order in music is amazing. If you study the order in music and even in music theory, by the way if you're If you think, well, I don't know much about music theory, take heart. About 80 to 90% of music theory you already know because you know what sounds right. You know when it sounds good. Music theory is simply being able to put on paper a lot of what you already know sounds right. But we're aware that Satan has enjoyed taking what God has designed for beauty and turned it into the instigators of so many wrong things in people's lives. Avenues of drugs and other addictions that have come through music. Society says, stay married till it doesn't make you happy anymore, then go find another avenue of happiness. God says, one man, one woman for life. Society says, you can choose what gender you want to be. God says, I have formed you in the womb. I know you. Society says, love your neighbors, hate your enemies. That sounds, sounds right to the natural man. Like if someone's going to hate me, I mean, just be normal for me to hate him back. That way we're on even ground, right? Jesus says, love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus says, love your enemies. In fact, if someone, your enemy, out of spite, tries to take your coat, well then, give him a bonus and give him your coat too. Give him your shirt. And now we're thinking, wait a minute, that's a solution to my problem? And all of a sudden we realize that if my enemy out of spite takes my coat and then I get mad at him and hold a grudge against him for the next 15 years because he took my coat, well then I'm actually harming myself by holding that grudge. And so if I take, the truth that we find here and recognize that if I love him and say, oh, you need my coat? Well, here, I have something else to give you that could maybe help you in life. And then you're free of that grudge. You're free of that unforgiveness and realize that actually your life can move on. You're not allowing yourself to be bound to that person and to that situation. And the freedom that comes with that, And all of a sudden you discover that, wait, that principle actually works in my life. Because there's a God in Israel and there's a God who has the answers to our problems. Let's go to Matthew 5, 38. Go to the New Testament here and take a look at some of Jesus' teachings. And we find the Sermon on the Mount as a starting point for so many of these teachings and things that we can apply to our lives. And the Sermon on the Mount, so many things here as Jesus was teaching with his disciples and talking to the people there and realizing that they have that many of these people knew the Old Testament. They knew the things that were back there. And so Jesus could appeal to that and then build on it. And he said, I didn't come to destroy that. I'm not throwing that away. I'm building on it. Matthew 5.38, you have heard that it hath been said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. If we'd follow that then We'd have a lot of people walking around without eyes or teeth. But I say unto you that you resist not evil, but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. That you resist not evil, well, wait a minute, doesn't that mean that evil will take the upper hand? Doesn't that mean that evil will just take over if we don't resist it? Isn't that our God-given duty to stand against evil? Yes, to a certain extent. Had a fascinating conversation with an uncle of mine, and he was sharing is in his, the church affiliation there, significantly more liberal than where we find ourselves today. And with his connections with non-Mennonite churches and some of the people that he's been talking with and some of the things he's been reading, he was sharing some of the things that he's been gleaning in that this this verse right here that you resist not evil, non-resistance, within the seminaries of non-Anabaptists people, this thought is taking root again. And it's not just Anabaptists that have picked up on this. I was blessed at Ministers Week a month or so ago with Jonathan Kinner and Phil was there and Jonathan was, as he was sharing in his class, he shared some of his personal story how he was, he grew up in a Baptist setting, went to a seminary, was a active pastor in a Baptist church, and he loved to study. And he has a gift for studying, he has a gift for teaching and for sharing what he's learned. But he said he kept coming to passages like this and what he had been taught, what he believed, but yet didn't quite mesh with what he found in scripture. And he joined, I believe it was a brethren church. They're close to Dayton, Ohio, where they live. And it was some of these teachings of Jesus that brought him to the point where he realized that if the Bible says it, then I need to believe it. Verse 40, and if any man will sue thee at the law and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also, and whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow thee, turn not thou away. Is it possible that the one who created us knows the best solutions to conflict in our lives? Romans 12. Numerous of you could probably quote these first two verses by heart. Romans 12, one and two. It says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God. It seems like we need that mercy to keep on going with this verse. "'that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, "'holy, acceptable unto God, "'which is your reasonable service. "'And be not conformed to this world, "'but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, "'that ye may prove what is that good "'and acceptable and perfect will of God.'" The gospel in a nutshell. and be not conformed to this world. It sounds like there's a conflict there, like there's a battle there, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. See, our sin nature, because of our sin nature, we start off in life, the saying is on your left foot. I have a problem with that because I used to be left-handed and so I still am a little partial to left-handed people. But you get the idea. We have to overcome that. And that's only possible by the mercy of God who has granted us access into his kingdom, into his family by calling us joint heirs with Jesus Christ through faith. in Christ Jesus as our Lord and our Savior. Verse three, he follows it up with a qualification there. It says, for I say through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. And it goes on and talks about the members of the body. realizing that we need each other. Do you realize that you're being here this evening, you're recognizing the fact that I can't do this on my own? Do you realize that's why church membership, I believe is so important and plays such a significant part in our lives because we're recognizing that I need the people around us. Hopefully that's something we learned during COVID. when all of a sudden we weren't supposed to meet like this. I know for our church that was one of the significant aspects of that is all of a sudden we couldn't meet together. Yeah, you can call someone on the phone, you can send them a text, but you couldn't sit down and talk to them face to face. You couldn't sing together. You couldn't have Sunday school together. And to realize that we need that. In Ephesians 6, it talks just briefly about, it talks there and not going to go into in depth into the armor of God. But the armor of God is put there for our blessing. And as we realize that the armor of God is our tools that we can use to show the world that we have chosen to believe. We've chosen the truth that there is a God in Israel, which means that I've chosen to do it God's way. I'm not going to listen to the influences of the world. I'm going to live my life as God would have me live it. I'm going to do the things God would have me do. That might mean going into service for two years. You mean a 20-year-old young man who can make some pretty nice money these days, he would give all that up for two years to go to service? Or might mean six weeks of Bible school. You mean I should teach school in a mission setting and not make very much money for a while? It's okay. If God calls, God will provide. Can we stand for a word of prayer? Heavenly Father, we come before you this evening thanking you for your love. Lord, thank you for the word of Scripture that we have. the principles that we find there. Lord, I pray that you would help us to take them to heart, to realize that, to make the decision that yes, I will follow these principles in my life. Even though at times it may not make sense right away, but yet as we move ahead in faith, we realize that you are faithful. Pray a blessing on each one here this evening. I pray that as we spend time together this weekend, that your name would be lifted up and glorified because you alone are worthy. We pray this in your name. Amen. Could we sing that chorus, Alive, Alive, as we close? Is there anything else for this evening? Okay, let's sing Alive, Alive. Alive, alive, alive forevermore. My Jesus is alive, alive forevermore. Alive, alive, alive forevermore My Jesus is alive Sing Alleluia, sing Alleluia My Jesus is alive forevermore Sing Alleluia My Jesus is alive. Amen. You are dismissed.