Second Kings chapter 13. I'll begin there in verse 1, make our way down to about verse 7 here in just a minute. They're getting situated. We do praise the Lord. This week, our sermon audio Man, the Lord really blessed. We was at 135 countries just, I believe, a couple of weeks ago or so. And now our sermon audio is at 155 countries. So we praise the Lord for that. That in 155 countries the sermons of gospel are going out to the world. What a blessing. Tremendous ministry. We're very thankful for that. Now God has blessed that. And you can hear our sermons on Sermon Audio, not just from me, but from some others as well that have been here to our church, folks that teach in our church. You can hear them on Sermon Audio. If you've got a gospel-like Baptist on Sermon Audio, you can download the app from your phone, or you can just search it up on your search bar, and you'll see that. Just type in who we are, and it'll come up. We appreciate that ministry. What a blessing to take on another 20 countries in just a couple of weeks. That's awesome. All right, 2 Kings chapter 13. In there in verse 1, when you find your place, stand with me if you would. We're ready to learn to God together. 2 Corinthians chapter 13. I've entitled this message, The Good News of the Savior. Praise the Lord for that. And we had the good news of his Savior this morning, a Savior that died on the cross to shed his blood for our sins. We put our faith and trust in him. God will save us or Jesus will save. I'm thankful for that. 2 Kings chapter 13. Let's take a look at it. In the 3 and 20th year of Joash, the son of Ahaziah, king of Judah, Jehoash, the son of Jehu, began to reign over Israel in Samaria and reigned 17 years. He did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord and followed the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebeth, which made Israel to sin, and he departed not therefrom. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he delivered them and to the hand of Hazel, king of Syria, and to the hand of Ben-Hadad, the son of Hazel, all their days. Jehoasmus sought the Lord, and the Lord hearkened unto him. For he saw the oppression of Israel, because the king of Syria oppressed them. The Lord gave Israel a Savior, so that they went out from under the hand of the Syrians, and the children of Israel dwelled in their tents as before time. Nevertheless, they departed not from the sins of the house of Jeroboam, who made Israel to sin, but walked therein, and there remained a grove also in Samaria. Neither did he leave of the people to Jehoaz, but fifty horsemen and ten chariots and ten thousand footmen, for the king of Syria had destroyed them and made them like the dust by threshing." Let's pray. Father, we come to you this morning. We thank you, God, for your blessings. Lord, we thank you Lord, that we have a Savior today that we can call upon, call out to, God for salvation. Lord, we're thankful for sending your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to die on that cross for us all. Lord, I pray today, if there's anybody here this morning that's never accepted your Son, the Lord Jesus, as their Savior, that today would be the day that they would hear that still small voice in their heart. Lord, I then call out to you. Lord, I pray that you'd bless the message today. God, you'd help me as I preach. Lord, help me not to speak of man's opinion in my own will, but Lord, help me to do that which you've called me to do and asked me to do. Lord, help me to be an empty vessel filled with your spirit. Lord, I pray that you would just help me to preach with power and precision this morning. Give the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I pray, God, you'd help us as a congregation today to shut out the world just for a little while and let you speak to our hearts. God, you know what we need to hear in our hearts. Lord, I pray that you take your word that you said would not return void. Lord, let it have its perfect word in our heart and our lives today. Lord, we love you. We thank you for all that we know you're going to do in this. We pray and ask in Jesus' name. Amen. May we be seated. As we look here in our text this morning, as I said, the title of the message today is The Good News of a Savior. And in these verses in which we have just read, something that we have seen is, I believe, somewhere, perhaps where maybe in life we have all fit in these passages. And today, what I want to do is to kind of bring this out in some truths that I pray that you will receive as a blessing as much as I did when I was reading it because I could see myself as clear as day in times in my life. And I pray that you this morning will see the same. As we began this morning, we saw that to end the text that there was a man by the name of Jehoaz there in verse one. Jehoaz was a man that we see that was doing evil in the sight of the Lord. He was a man that wasn't walking in the ways of God. Now Jehoaz, his name means Yahweh grips or Jehovah holds. That's what his name means. And so we think about what his name means and we think about the direction that he's going. We open up the Bible and the first thing that we see is that we see him, who he is. We see that he's the king of the nation of Israel, but we also see that he's not living for God. Of course, he's going in his own direction. He's living how he wants to live. The Bible says in essence that he is living and doing evil in the sight of the Lord. And I can know, and I know this just for myself, listen, I know that there was a time in my life when I was definitely doing that everything in my, listen, I'm not perfect today either. How many of us today are still a work in progress this morning? Listen, all of us are, and we by no means make any, Uh, any, uh, uh, any way of saying that any of us are perfect because we're not, but listen, there was a time in my life when I wasn't even choosing to live for God. There was a time in my life when, listen, I was lost and I was on my way to a devil's hell and I was serving me. It was all about me. It didn't have nothing to do with God. I didn't care nothing about church. Didn't care nothing about none of those things and living for the Lord. And listen, you've heard me say this too in my congregation. Listen, I got saved when I was 10 years old. And when I was 10 years old, I mean, listen, I realized that I was a sinner. And I saw that there was a lot of things I needed to do in my life to get my life right. But the worst things I ever committed and done in my life were after I got saved. After my salvation. Because I got saved when I was 10. And listen, there was a time in my life when Pastor Ryan, listen, I'm nowhere near have arrived. But listen, I thank God I'm not what I used to be. Amen. And I'm thankful this morning that even though I listen, I'm on this, I'm on this Christian journey and I'm living in my Christian journey just like you are. And I'm nowhere near perfect in what I need to be all the time. But I am thankful that I'm not the man that I used to be. And we see Jehovah as there was a moment and a point in his life when he was living evil in the sight of God. And so what I want us to do this morning is because listen, throughout every single one of these verses, One of the things that we're going to see there is somewhere that we fit inside every single one. And it could be that in verses one and two, we may see our very selves where we are right now. So we ask ourselves, am I like Jehovah at this point? Have I given my life to Christ? Is my life about the Lord Jesus? Or is my life all about me? Is it all about my will? Is it all about what I want to do? Or is my life about Christ? Is it about serving God? Is it about loving on Him? Is it about doing His will for my life? Or am I so consumed and self-centered in my own self, that it's just always about me. Listen, there was a moment in time in my life that I was very selfish and very self-centered. It was about how I wanted to live and about how I wanted to do. And listen, even after I got saved, like I said, I got saved when I was 10. And even after I got saved, there was a time period in my life, listen, I was saved, I was on my way to heaven, but it was still about me. It was still about how I wanted to live. It was still about what I wanted to do in life. But then there came a moment in my life. where I began to see that, listen, man, I gotta get my life right, man, I know I'm saved, I know I'm on my way to heaven, but man, I really need to, man, I need to serve God, and I can't keep continuing to live like this, and so in my 20s, I finally said, okay, God, I surrender, I give my life to you, I'm tired of living this way, Lord, I'm just gonna give you myself, God, whatever it is that you want me to do, then God, that's what I wanna do, and if somebody woulda told you then, Now, if somebody would have told me then that, OK, well, one of these days it's not going to be long from now. I'm going to call you to be a pastor. I just said, you are crazy. You're crazy. But what I'm trying to get you to see is this. As we surrender ourselves to God, you'll never know what God will ever do through you and use you for if we just surrender ourselves to him. But at moments in my life and times in my life, when like Jehovah's, I was lost. I was on my way to a devil's hell. The Bible says that he's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. I was lost. I was lost and I was on my way to a devil's hell. And just like, just like Jehovah, as we see that he did evil in the sight of the Lord. So what's the very first truth this morning? The very first truth today is that we see a grieving God, grieving God. I believe it grieves the heart of God. The Bible says that he's not willing that any should perish. but that all should come to repentance. Listen, every single person, that everybody would get saved, that everybody would see their need of a Savior, that everybody would see that they've missed the mark, that everybody would see that, listen, you're lost and dead and trespassed in sin, and the only way to get to heaven is through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen, He's not willing that any should perish, but that all should be saved. And so I say this morning, I believe from a grieving heart that God, as He looks down on His creation, He sees lots of people, perhaps, that were just like Jehoias. Because, listen, I was one of them. I was lost. And God saw these people just like Jehoias that are walking away from Him, who were not following His will for their life. And I believe it grieves the heart of God when He looks down and sees His creation continuing to live in sin. walk away from him. The Bible says this right here in our text, there in verse two, the Bible says he did that, which was evil in the sight of the Lord. And notice this now notice there in verse two, the Bible says that he followed the sins of Jeroboam. And so let me ask you this today, as we, as we look at ourselves here this morning, What are we following? Who are we following? What is leading us away from God? We see here that he followed in the sins of Jeroboam. What are we following today? What is it that we have learned, maybe perhaps, from other folks? What is it that we're getting ourself into? Listen, maybe perhaps today you're doing something that you never thought you would ever do, or have never even thought of, but because you started hanging around the wrong people, or got yourself involved in some things that you knew shouldn't be involved in. Now we find ourselves following and doing some things that other people are doing that we never thought that we ever would. And so we can see right here, the Bible says he followed in the sins of Jeroboam. And so we ask ourselves this morning, who am I following? Where am I going? Am I walking towards God? Or am I walking away from God? It's that which I'm following, whether it's a person or whether it's sin. Am I following God to get closer to Him and becoming more like Him, being more conformed into His image? and being holy as he is holy as he's called us to be, or am I walking away from God and allowing the things I'm following and the people that I'm following in my life to take me further and further away from God? And not only that, if he followed the sins of Jeroboam, think about this, other people that say watch us do the same thing and continue to follow things that bring us away from God. Our kids see that too. Our kids see that too. And it's our kids. and our grandkids going to see the things that we follow in our life that's taken us away from God and say, well, if mom and dad followed this, then I'll follow the same. What are we, what precedent are we setting for them? Because they're looking at us. If mom and dad see that it's important to follow God, then listen, maybe we should too, you know. And I'm raising you this morning, bringing you kids here and letting them go to Good News Bible Club because that, I mean, that is obviously something that you want your kids to be involved in. Jesus is what you want your kids to know about. And they serve the Lord there, and you serve the Lord here this morning, and you're serving the Lord in your heart and your life and your church, wherever you are. And I commend you and I praise you for that because this one got a lot of young people that are following some things that they don't need to be following, looking at some things they don't need to be looking at. Idols that have been set up ahead of them. They're saying, listen, I want to follow this person and I want to follow that person and I want to idolize them and go in the direction that they're going. And those people in those scenes are taking them away from God. So we ask ourselves, what are we following? Who are we following? The Bible says here that He did evil in the sight of the Lord. Why was he doing evil in the sight of the Lord? Because of what he was following. Because of who he was following. And we see that he got himself to a place. Notice the latter part of the verse. The latter part of verse two, notice what it says as we see a grieving God, because I believe this grieves the heart of God. When we follow after things that are not righteous and not good and not holy, things that are not going to bring us closer to the Lord. I believe it grieves the heart of God. Notice it. The latter part of verse two, notice what happened. The Bible says, and the son of me beg, which made Israel to sin. Watch what happened there. The latter part of verse two, he departed not therefrom. these things that he learned in his life. He wasn't apart from it. Listen, he grabbed a hold of these things. These things grabbed a hold of him. Neither one of them would let each other go. It's almost like a, it was almost like a marriage. He had a hold of his sin and he had a hold of his way. He had a hold of his own selfish ambition. And man, that stuff had a hold of him. It had sunk its claws deep inside of him. He wasn't letting it go. It wasn't letting him go. And there we see both of them in essence just hanging on to each other, the Bible says, and he would not depart from them. What things have we followed in life that we cannot give up? with things that have we followed in life that have in essence sunk themselves and ingrained themselves so much in our life. They're leading us away from God. But listen, we just can't let go of it. We can't get rid of it. It's got a hold of us and we got a hold of it. But that is it. But that is the one thing or those things that are keeping us from serving God the way we want to. But we see that there was some things in his life that he could not depart from. So we ask ourselves, As we talked at Sunday school this morning, the Bible says, let every man examine himself. We open ourselves up. We do an operation on our own selves. And we say, OK, what is it that is here that is not pleasing to God? What is it that is here that is not pleasing to God? How much of Jesus does he have you? How much of Jesus does he have in my life? How much is how much of Jesus is he sitting on the throne? I mean, let's open it up and look. Is Christ on the throne of my heart today? And if he's not, what is there? If grace is not on the throne, then who is and what is? And so we have to open up ourselves this morning and be real with ourselves. Listen, that's the best thing we can do this morning is be real and honest with ourselves. We open up ourselves and we say, what is going on? What is happening here? The Bible says that he had some things in his life that he could not depart from. These sins that were in his life, the Bible says he did not depart there from. What are those sins? What are those things that we're holding on to? What are those things that are holding on to us? The Bible says he couldn't depart from it. He wouldn't depart from it. And I see this and I think to myself, oh, the heart of a grieving God that looks down on his people who's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And he sees a man who was latched on to sin and will not let it go. But I'm thankful this morning for the good news of the gospel. I'm thankful this morning for my Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. That no matter what it is that maybe at some point in my life that I have really grabbed a hold of and no matter what it is in my life that has really maybe perhaps grabbed a hold of me. Listen, maybe I was following down the road and wasn't anticipating on following this or maybe I was going in this direction. and wasn't planning on something like this happening and participating in that. But Lord, now I have, and now it's done, and now I find myself hanging on to it, and it's hanging on to me. But I'm thankful today that I serve a God in heaven, that sin is only begotten son, that what the Bible says that when Jesus died for us, and then we can say that sin can have none more dominion over you. The Bible shows us that we can have victory. over these things. We can get saved. The Holy Spirit of God can come and live and dwell inside of you and give you hope and peace and joy and all these things that the world cannot possibly give. Jesus says, come and yoke up with me. So we get saved and the Holy Spirit of God lives and dwells inside of us. And then we quote Philippians 4.13, which we quote all the time. And I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. Why is that? Because I'm submitting myself to him. and I'm following in His will and I'm doing that which He wants me to do. And I'm thankful that even though there was a time and moments in my life where even that, listen, even now I have to say, God, forgive me. Every single day, I wake up in the morning and I say, God, forgive me. Lord, I shouldn't maybe, maybe I shouldn't have said that. Maybe I shouldn't have done that. Or Lord, just help me, God, just to live for you today. Because listen, I need God every single second. I need God every single hour of the day. You've heard me say this before. Some people will say, well, God, it's just a curse through life. No, listen, I need more than a crutch. I'm on total life support here. Listen, he's the very breath that I breathe. He's the very heartbeat. He's the one that's in control of it all. I don't just need a crutch to get through life. Listen, I'm on life support today. And if I didn't have Jesus, where would I be? Trying to get us to see today that we need Christ. I'm thankful that even though there was a moment in time in my life when I was living like Jehoash without any repentance, whatsoever, when I was walking like him and living like him, that it grieved the heart of God. But I'm so painful for verses such as verse four. The Bible says, we go from a grieving God to a gracious God. The Bible says, And Jehoash besought the Lord, and the Lord hearkened unto him. Not only do we see a grieving God, but then we see a gracious God, a gracious God who is willing to save, a gracious God who is willing to answer a man who was called out to him, a gracious God that is despite the direction that he's gone and despite the things that he's done, despite the pit that he's crying out from and the darkness that surround him, despite the fact that he's in the miry clay and can't get out, We see a God that's willing to help and a God that's willing to listen. Listen, the Bible says that He can lift us up out of that miry clay. He can set our feet on the rock, establish our steps, and put a new song in our mouth. And so we can see that a man just like Jehoaz, and just like me, and just like you this morning, that despite where we've been, and despite what we've done, and despite how many years that it's been since we've been away from God, that whenever He called out to God, that the Bible says that God hearkened unto Him. Aren't you glad that day when you called out to God, you said, God, I know I've been living like I should, but Lord, I'm asking that you forgive me. And Lord, just help me to start over. Let's like to slay clean and start over. Aren't you glad God heard you where you were and gave you the opportunity to start over? Praise God for that. He hearkened to them where he was. God knew where Jehoaz was. He knew the pit that he was in. He knew the stuff that he got himself into. He knew the misery that surrounded his life. And at some point, at some moment, he said, God, I don't want to keep living this way. God, I'm tired of dealing with all this. Lord, can you hear me? God, I'm calling out to you. God, will you save me? Lord, please forgive me. The Bible says that God hearkened unto him. How many of you remember the day he got saved? Man, praise God. What a day. The day that you got saved and all your sins were completely forgiven. It's written down in the Lamb's Book of Life in heaven. That glorious day you called out to the Lord. Wherever you were, whether you was at church or sitting at the house or whether you was at work or out in the woods doing something or wherever it is that you were, you called out to God. When God was dealing with your heart and you called out to the Lord, wherever you are, just like Jehovah is, He called out to the Lord. The Bible says that God heard him. God's desire was to save him. God's desire was to help him in the situation that he was in. No matter what pit, no matter what darkness, no matter how far down, no matter how long it had been, the Bible don't say that he called out to God and God said, man, I sure do wish I could get to you. And you're too far down there, man. I sure wish I could reach you, but you've gone down too far. My Bible tells me this end is not short that it cannot save. There's nothing that hinders God. He didn't say, well, I would help you, Jehoash. I would save you, and I would change your life. But man, you've been gone for such a long time. He didn't say that. He was willing to help you. Willing to save you. Willing to forgive you. just like he is every single one of us here this morning. Every single one of us. The Bible says that he called out to God and a gracious God in heaven heard him. A gracious God in heaven was willing to forgive, was willing to save, was willing to wipe the slate clean. We see there in verse four. The Bible says that Jehoshaphat besought the LORD, and the LORD hearkened unto him, for he saw the oppression of Israel, because the king of Syria oppressed them. He began to look around himself and began to see all the things that was happening around himself. God could see it. He could see it. He looked around and he thought to himself, you know what? I need to, I need to, I need to stop going in this direction. And God heard him as he looked around and as God can see where he was. Bible says that God heard him. The fact that a gracious God be willing to hear and reach down to a man that had been in sin for so long, that had been in the darkness of the pits of sin for so long. The fact that God would still be willing to say, I hear you. I'm willing to help you. Let's start this thing over. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord. The Bible says in Isaiah 1, 18 and 19. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow. I'm ready to wash it away and forgive. And so we can see, a man in this pit, the grace of God is willing to reach down to him and save him. The Bible says, the Lord harketh unto him. Thankful God heard me the day that I called out to him. You remember the day that you got saved. Maybe perhaps you remember the direction you were going. Maybe perhaps you remember what God saved you from, or maybe what you were getting yourself into, or maybe the situation that you was in. And there was a moment, there was a time. Whenever you said to yourself, just like the prodigal son, the Bible says he came to his senses as he sat out there in the pig slop. You know, when he went out into the far country, sold everything he had, lived like the devil, and then he lost everything that he had, was living out there in the pig pen, eating the pig slop of the world. And then the Bible says he came to his senses. Listen, maybe that's what we have to do. We have to see where we are. Listen, I'm thankful. that regardless of what big pin we were in, God was willing to reach down there and save us out of it. What a gracious God this morning. Get the third truth. Not only is that gracious God, but we also see a giving God. Notice what happened there in verse five. The Bible says, and the Lord gave Israel a what? Everybody say it with me. Say it. He gave them a what? Say it again. The Bible says there in verse 5, and the Lord gave Israel a Savior, a Savior. So they went out from under the hand of the Syrians. This Savior here, lowercase, lowercase here, God raised up a man. This wasn't Jesus, but God raised up a man. If it was Jesus, it would be a capital S. But here we see God raised up a man. He was a Savior to them. He was a Redeemer, in essence, for them, that He was bringing them out from where they were to a place that would be free from oppression, from a place that would be free from the heavy hand of the Syrians. Christ is that Savior to us today. Here we see that God gave them the Savior. But listen, God also gave us a Savior. What was going on right here? The people were oppressed in sin. They had lost everything they had. Their army had been decimated, and they were being oppressed and oppressed and oppressed. The people were miserable. And the Bible says in verse 5 that after he hearkened unto Jehoias, the Bible says he gave Israel a Savior. What I'm trying to get us to see this morning is that when we see where we're at and we cry out to God because we're in misery and sorrow and pain and in recognition of our sin and we come to God with a repentant heart and we say, Lord, I need to start over. God, I need to get saved. Lord, would you please forgive me and cleanse me of all that sin? The Bible shows us that God, in this day in which we live, God sent us a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. That word Savior there, interesting word used there The Hebrew word for that is actually the same word that is used to describe God in Isaiah 43, 11, which says, I, even I am the Lord. And beside me, there is no savior. Same Hebrew word used there. Because the idea is that God is safe, that God can forgive, and that God can redeem, and that God can deliver, no matter where you listen. The Syrians here is a good picture of the world, and it's a good picture of the devil, how they seek to bring us down, seek to destroy everything we have, seek to bring us to a place of I've sent you a Savior, one that can take you out of that stuff and bring you out and give you freedom and bring you out of that darkness and bring you to a place of light where in this day we also see for us as a church in this time and age that God also sent His only begotten Son so that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. And so God is saying, listen, I've sent my Son to bring you, to bring the captives out of the darkness so that you can see and trust in my only begotten Son because through Him We say through him, your sins can be forgiven through him. Your name will be written down in the lamb's book of life because Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. So God shows them even here in a tremendous picture, we see of Christ. He shows us here, Satan. So they went out from under the hand of the Syrians. And that's what I want to get us to see before we leave this verse is that God has made a for us to be out from under the hands of the oppressor. God has made a way. for us to be out from under the hand of the one that seeks to steal, kill, and destroy our life and our family. And what is that way? That is through Christ. Who is this person? That is through Christ. He is the Savior, the one that can take us away. Listen, there was nobody else. God didn't raise up nobody. Listen, God brought his only begotten son into the world. Just like right here, he says, listen, the Bible shows that he He brought a man in there so that he could deliver them out from under the hands of that which was oppressing them and their life. That is, today, that is our Jesus. And I'm thankful for the one that came and delivered us out from the hand of sin. Verse 6, the Bible says, nevertheless, watch this now, this is another place where we can fit in in life. Nevertheless, the Bible says, they departed not from the sins of the house of Jeroboam, who made Israel sin to walk therein, and there remained a grove also in Samaria. Now we get to verse 6 and we see that though God delivered them, though God had sent them a Savior and delivered them out from the hand of the Syrian, now we see these very same people that He saved. very same people that he delivered from this, the oppression of sin and the oppression of the series, very same people continue to walk in their sin. And we look at ourselves today. We say, okay, for those of us that are saved, those of us that are saved and us, God say, am I still choosing to live for him? Or am I still going to choose to live for the things that I was serving and live in life before I got saved? Before God delivered me. Because we see right here, God delivered them. God sent them as saviors and rescued them out from the hands of the Syrians. God did everything for them, gave them exactly what they needed in life. And then after he did that, They continued in their seat. And so we ask ourselves today, what am I doing after my salvation? Am I living for God? I mean, God's asked, God's called me to and asked me to live for Him. Am I doing that? Am I actively pursuing to grow in the grace and knowledge of God? Am I actively pursuing to be more like Him every single day? Or have I pushed that off to the side and said, well, you know, I know I'm sane, but you know, I still want to do these things and I still want to live this way. And so instead of pursuing my life for Christ, I continue to pursue the ways of my old life. The Bible says that's what these people were doing. God had saved them, but yet they still didn't depart from what they were doing. So where do we fit in in that this morning? Look at ourselves. We say, okay, I'm saving them on my way to heaven, but I'm living like God's asking me to. None of this is perfect, we get it. Let's don't let that, let's don't use that as an excuse just not to live for God. Hold on, I'm not going to that church down there and there's a bunch of hypocrites. They was at Walmart too, it didn't keep you from going. They was at the lake, it didn't keep you from going there neither. They was at the racetrack, didn't keep you from going. The devil will give you any excuse possible for you not to do what you know you should do. Here we see a groaning God. What is God groaning for? He's groaning for a people who he has saved. And he desires for them to live for him. Because God didn't save us to keep going in the same direction that we were going. I mean, we did cry out for God to save us because of what we were doing. And God delivers us by the road to back. Make any sense? So what we want to do is, groaned the heart of God, but lived for it. The Bible says in verse six, nevertheless, they departed not from the sins of the house of Jeroboam. They didn't shop to go in the direction they were going. Notice the latter part of verse six. The Bible says the grove also in Samaria. They still had things that were there that were tempting them, and they didn't get rid of it. You know what the best thing you can do? Man, you got something in your life that's tempting you and keeps you away from God all the time. You know the best thing you can do with it? Destroy it. Get rid of it. Get it out of the way. Listen, if it is something, whatever it is, if it is something that continuously hinders our life and keeps us from serving God and keeps us from living holy as He's holy, then listen, the best thing that we can do is absolutely get rid of it in our life. Get rid of it. The Bible shows us right here that, man, God saved him. God gave him a savior. God delivered them. But notice the latter part of verse six, we see that the things that were, the things that were leading them away from God were still there. It's like, well, you know, I'm saved. I'm strong enough. Can't get rid of it. I'll just put it on the shelf. Walk away. As long as it's sitting over there, I probably won't touch it. As long as it's over there, I probably won't bother with it. But you know what's going to happen every time you get in England of a close by? You're always going to look over here. You're always going to see it. The devil's always going to be up here, hey, remember me? I'm still over here. I'm still over here. Don't forget about me. You know you want to come back over here. You know you want to pick me back up. Come on, come on. Remember the good times we had? Remember the good times we had? And you're sitting up here saying, No, I can't do it, man. I'm trying to live for God. No, I don't want to do it. I'm not going to do that. The next thing you know, you may win today. Then the next day happens. Same thing. Next day happens. Same thing. Eventually, you say, well, especially when you're having a bad day, the devil loves to hit you when you're having a bad day. You remember what makes you feel so good over here? Come on over here. Come on over this way. You know what today is? You're discouraged in your heart for whatever reason. You say, I don't know how I'm going to do it. Find yourself over here. Pull it off the shelf. You'll be right back when you ask God to forgive you and save you from it. So what's the best thing to do? You've got to get it out. You've got to pull that stuff out. You've got to get it out. You've got to throw it out the door. You've got to crush it under your foot. You've got to destroy that thing, whatever it is that is a parasite in your life. The devil will continue to use it all the time to bring you down. They left what was a temptation to them in their life. We've got to get rid of that. Lastly, as we look at the groaning of God, notice the Bible says in verse 7, Neither did he leave of the people to Jehoaz, but 50 horsemen and 10 chariots and 10,000 footmen, for the king of Syria had destroyed them and had made them like the dust by threshing. As I said, Syria is a good picture of the devil in this world. And what do they seek to do to your life? To destroy you, to minimize you, to take everything that you love and have. The Bible said in verse 7, the king of Syria destroyed them. The Bible shows us there that he left them in essence, with holding no military whatsoever. He had decimated their life. He had decimated their military. He had taken all their people. He had enslaved them. And now they have been set free. But now that they're set free, they're looking back and they can see that, listen, they have lost nearly everything that they had. And that's exactly what the devil does. To bring you to a place where you lose everything you got. What was the purpose? Notice there in the verse. The Bible says in verse 7, He made them like what? Turn them into dust. He made them like dust. And that is what the devil seeks every day. Your life, your marriage, everything that you care and hold dear for. Turn it to rubble. Turn it to nothing. And if we're not careful, we're not careful. We'll allow ourselves to let him come in. How does this threshing take place? I'll give you these three things real quick. We'll go to the back and get some chicken. Bible says, well, Bible don't say this, but number one, well, I guess it does. Number one, how does the threshing take place? Number one, happens through trampling, even by oxen, Deuteronomy 25, four. How many of you felt like the devil just trampled all over your life? How many of you feel like the world is trampled all over your life sometimes? Listen, the devil's desire is to trample you into nothing. Second way threshing takes place, not just through trampling, but dragging. 2 Samuel 24, 22. Threshing takes place. It's a farmer's term when they get to separate the wheat from the chaff. And so we see that this takes place by a threshing process. And this threshing process endures a dragging. How many of you felt like you've been drug around before? Man, I feel like the devil dragging me through everything. Man, I feel like this world dragging me through everything. You ever said, man, I feel like I've been drug through the dirt and hit every rock all the way through. Number three, beating with sticks. Judges 6-11. How many have ever said, and I tell you what I feel like this world, beat me half to death. Man, the devil's beat me half to death. What did Jesus tell Simon Peter? Peter, the devil desires to sit you as a beating. How's that going to happen? He's going to about beat you to death. He's going to drag you around. He's going to stamp all over you and turn you to dust. Here this morning we have a decision to say, you know what? I don't want to let the devil do that to me. Now, I've got a God that sent a Savior, and the good news is that God sent His only begotten Son so that we can be more than conquerors through Christ. The greater is He that is in me than he that is in this world. And I can do all things through Christ, which strengthens me. And though, yes, Jesus did say that in this life we would have trials and tribulations, But in the midst of it all, I still know that I have a powerful God that can equip me and help me, that can get me through every single situation. No matter what it is. Sometimes the world will trample you, the devil will trample on you. Sometimes, listen, we can feel like we've been drug around, feel like we've been beat half to death. But man, I got a God that loves me. A God that's a present help in time of trouble. A God that says, I'm your shield, your buffer, your high tower. A God that says, I am here for you and I love you. Just put your faith and trust in me. I'll be your pavilion. I'll be your place of rest. Just come to me, those that are weak and heavy laden, I will give you rest. What are we following this morning? Who are we following? In these scriptures, as we close, we can see, maybe ourselves, many different parts of these verses. The good news is, is that there was a Savior that was given to deliver. That's what we have this morning, too. A Savior that can deliver. Let's pray. As the piano comes, we think to ourselves here this morning, am I saved? Do I know I'm on my way to heaven? If I put my faith and trust in Christ, plus nothing, minus nothing. Maybe you're here today and you say, you know what? I've never, I've never trusted the Lord. But yeah, I feel like man, the devil has drug me through some stuff. It's like the world and the devil has just beat me half to death. And yeah, I've been away from God, I've been living in sin, been doing all these things, but I've never put my faith and trust in an almighty Savior to save me. And here today, I share my life. I want you to know that God said His Son is only begotten Son to die on an old rugged cross. And if you'll put your faith and trust in Him, He'll forgive you today and He'll save you from everything you've ever done. If you're like that here this morning and you say, yeah, you know what, preacher, I need to get saved. Yes, preacher, I need to give my life to Christ. Yes, I'm looking at myself and I don't want to keep going in this direction. Yes, I know that there needs to be a change. I need to give my life to Jesus today. As the piano plays, maybe you lift up your hand and say, preacher, that's me. I want to, I want to get saved. Everybody's looking at me and God. Would you just lift your hand up so I can see you, preacher. I want to get saved. Never trust in Christ as my Savior, but I sure would like to. I want all my sins to be forgiven. I want to know without a shadow of doubt that if I died today, I'd go to heaven. I want to make sure that my eternity is already prepared. Anybody like that here this morning? I need to be saved. I need my sins forgiven. Listen, it could be you're sitting here this morning saying, you know what? I just want to, I know I'm saving. I know I'm on my way to heaven, but I just want to make sure this morning that God knows Even though sometimes I go in my own direction and sometimes I get in my own way. It's from God to know God, I love you. I still want to serve you. Lord, I pray that you'd help me to be more like you today. As we stand to our feet this morning and open up the altar. You want to come and pray? Come and pray. You need to give your life to the Lord Jesus Christ. You make sure you come on up here. You take this preacher by the hand and say, preacher, I want to get saved this morning. I want to give my life to Christ. Can you show me from the Word of God how I can get saved? Listen, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says, and thou shalt be saved. Just believe. Put your faith and trust in what Christ has already done. And the Bible says, and thou shalt be saved. I just want to give God praise and glory for what He's done in my life. I know I'm not perfect by no means, but I'm thankful that I have a God that I can come to that's willing to start over. A God that I can come to that's willing to hearken unto my voice from the depths of sin and darkness. A God that's willing to listen. There's a man that sings. Won't you come? All to Jesus I surrender all, to Him I freely go. I will ever live and trust in Him. His presence daily man, I surrender thee. Amen. I surrender all. All to Thee, my risen Savior, I owe to Jesus, I surrender love. Lay at his feet, I bow. Worldly pleasure, Lord, forsaken tears. May Jesus take me back. I surrender back. All to Jesus I surrenderly We sing your holy name Let me feel the Holy Spirit Truly know that Thou art mine I surrender all Thank you so much for being here this morning. I pray the morning has been a blessing to you and uh what we're gonna do right now is we're