Life Lessons of Judah’s Kings – Part 3 (Pastor Jeff Shipley)

Now, I want you to pay attention. It wasn't anything in Israel. It wasn't their military size.

It wasn't the type of people they were going to be. Last week, we talked about Asa.

And we saw Asa become the king of Judah. And remember, this is in the time frames of the 12 tribes of Israel and their solidity of a nation have been diffused.

They are now separated. The ten northern tribes and the two southern tribes are in a civil war one with another.

They have successive kings and Asa is the great grandson of Solomon.

And he is on the throne. And we saw last week Asa really showing great faith.

If you look in chapter 14, it says that as the

Ethiopians were coming to attack. You know, those bloodthirsty Ethiopians. As they're coming to attack in verse 11, it says,

And Asa cried to the Lord his God, O Lord, there is none like you to help.

Between the mighty and the weak, help us, O Lord our God. For we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this multitude.

O Lord, you are God. Let not man prevail against you.

And I love in that verse, he referred to himself and the people of Israel three times.

And referred to God ten times. He and his mind. Now they lined up for battle.

It's not like they had, you know, one of those modern day Christian faiths where they're like hiding in the closet going,

Oh God, help me. They went out and faced their demons. They went out and faced the reality of the threat.

They lined up. And they said, Okay God, we're here. God, you deliver us.

And if you choose not to deliver us, we're going to die right here. And if you choose to deliver us, we're going to make them die over there.

But either way, they had faith and did what was right. Have you ever had, in your

Christian life, Have you ever had that high moment? Okay, that's probably the wrong usage of the word in this church.

Thank you very much. Have you ever had that spiritual high moment? You remember, maybe for some of you, it's when you first got saved.

You know? Did you? Are you all here today? Okay. That place where you felt the weight lifted off your chest.

Now some of you maybe didn't feel that. And that's okay. That doesn't mean you're not saved. But you had that spiritual.

Maybe you went to a youth camp. Or maybe you went to a prayer retreat. Or a sermon struck your heart.

And you were on that spiritual high. That's where Israel is now. And let us look, from Asa's leadership, how

God's people responded. Turn with me to chapter 15. Chapter 15.

And we're going to look at the power of grace. The power of grace in commitment.

The power of grace in failings and failures. I'm sorry, falls and failures.

And then the power of grace in scar tissue. First of all, let's look at number one.

The Ethiopians have run off. And they have left countless amounts of money.

Everywhere. And the Israelites are just sitting there shoveling it up. Putting it in a pickup truck.

You know? Anachronistic. But they're just taking that money, man. They come back in Jerusalem.

And they are the bee's knees, man. They whooped a bigger force. Judah is secure.

And Asa and God's people capitalized on that win. It wasn't enough to see

God's deliverance and step back. They wanted to get right with God in every aspect of your life.

So, look at chapter 15, verses 10 through 14. I want you to show you what a church should look like.

Let me say that again. I want to show you what a church should look like.

Verse 10 says, They were gathered together at Jerusalem in the third month of the 15th year of the reign of Asa.

Some of you history nerds, you can look. That's some cool stuff to study.

Unfortunately, I don't have time right now. And they sacrificed the Lord on that day from the spoil that they had brought 700 mother -in -laws and 7 ,000 sheep.

I'm sorry, oxen. Same thing. And they entered into a covenant to seek the

Lord, the God, of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul. And that who would never not seek the

Lord, the God of Israel, should be put to death, whether young or old, man or woman.

I can worship God on a deer stand just like I can worship

God in a church building. No, you can't.

No, I feel a connection. No, redneck, white trash. That's not what you're feeling.

You're feeling an emotional. You're feeling a nostalgia. You're feeling a lot of other things.

Because here's the key thing missing in your worship is you are not together with God's people.

Hebrews tells us, do not forsake the assembling of ourselves together.

Guys, I'm going to be honest with you. I need you people to worship

God better. I just do. Maybe I'm a lame pastor. Maybe there are greater

Joelstein can do it better than me. But I need my people.

Guys, here, they gathered together to celebrate the victory of God in their life.

Now, you sit there and go, well, yeah, they just won a war. We don't have to do that. That's probably why you're a loser this morning.

Because, A, you don't see the victories that God already gave you. Watch this. If you can do this in this room,

God gave you the will to do that. God gave you breath this morning.

Yeah, whatever. Yeah, that ungratefulness is probably why your life is so miserable today.

Look at the second thing. They worshiped God together. They sought him together. And through together, they offered a sacrifice.

Oh, Lord. Here, right now, for some of our visitors, I had a lady write on the pastor's things.

Pastor, could you dial down the sarcasm? Because it might scare some visitors off.

If that scares the visitors off, they ain't the right material for this church. Oh, my gosh.

Okay? Right now, for $49 .95, you will get a

CD of my best sermons. Amen? You, right now, give that money.

And God will give you a sweat cloth. Do you know people actually pay money to get a dude's nasty old sweat rag?

And you know that ain't his because that boy has so much makeup, he ain't sweated in 35 years.

You know? That's nasty. But the other side of that token is this.

Yes, there are idiot preachers out there who are looking to get rich.

But the other side is that is not an excuse for you to hoard what God has given you to yourself.

You see, you're selfish. You're self -centered. You say, well, pastor, I can't afford to give.

No? Let me tell you what the problem is. You don't know how to manage your money properly. Right?

And you will still have that problem for the rest of your life. Oh, if I make $2 more. Oh, if you make $80 more a week, everything's going to be okay.

How about this? How about you stop relying on paper with dead white dudes' faces on it, and you start relying on the

God who has gold as asphalt in heaven? Maybe you need to readjust your mind of thinking and have faith.

Well, pastor, how do I have faith? You give back to God. But we'll get to more of that in a second.

Look at verse 12. Here's where some of us are failing. Okay? I want to do what's right.

And I want to do this, but I don't want to give up my porn. You know what I mean? I don't want to give up my porn.

I don't want to give up that codependent girlfriend. I don't want to give up that whiskey. I hear drunks say it all the time.

I want to be in that place where I can drink and get buzzed without becoming an alcoholic. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. Okay. You know what your problem is?

You have no labem shaleth. Yeah. You know what that means? In Hebrew, that's what the word here, they sought

Him completely or with the whole heart of peace. The whole heart.

You see, when God becomes Lord of your life, and this is why so many people are going to be in hell, they want to surrender their

Sunday mornings and their moral problems to God, but they don't want to surrender the rest of their life.

Lordship is everything. You can't be Lord over 50%. That just don't even make sense.

Right? Guys, they surrendered completely. And they did it together.

Look at the next thing they did. Verse 13. Where's my chairman of the deacons?

Where's the wheelchair man? He's in the kitchen where our deacons should be. That's right.

I say we make a new bylaw for our church. If you miss more than one

Sunday a month, we should shoot you. Maybe, that's probably a little drastic, right?

That's probably a little drastic. Okay. Maybe if you don't tithe every week, we should make you sit and listen to Jake, Pastor Jeremiah, and Tim Nichols for like six hours.

I will repent or I will shoot myself. Right? Holy man.

Jake rolls up. Pastor, I have one thing. And he always holds his finger like this. I have one thing.

I'm like, okay, Brother Jake, what is it? Four hours later, educated on the landings of every major D -Day operation in the history of man.

Oh my man. But here it says, if someone doesn't follow through with the covenant, let us put them to death.

That's not very what would Jesus do, right? I mean, that's a little harsh, isn't it?

Well, yeah. It is. For that time. You see, in that time, that nation was so small and had enemies surrounding it.

And God said, as it is in the beginning, it will be at last time. And that's exactly how Israel is now.

But I don't want to like confuse any keyboard warriors. But anyways, we're surrounded, man.

If we ain't all on the same page, we're having to pull our weight and your weight. And so you're dead weight.

And since you're dead weight, we're just going to eliminate you. I love,

I know this doesn't translate. Like, you know, it's so unfair.

Like, let's say a guy who broke into this country illegally, I don't know, like killed a little girl who was jogging on a trail.

And then now we get to spend the rest of his life paying for his three meals a day in a cot.

I'm sorry. I mean, I don't like that. I vote no.

I say, let's see, let me quote somebody. Oh yeah, if any man kills another man with malice, drag him from my altar and put him to the sword.

Let's see, who was that? That was Nietzsche. Yeah, that's right. Oh no, that was God. That was

God. Some of you dope smoking hippies need to grow up. Guys, there is grace in commitment.

Are you here this morning and you didn't feel like you and God are this far apart? I promise you it's not

God who moved. Okay. And I promise you he is no further away than the first step of repentance.

Man, he will come a rushing. So when I went and hugged someone the other day, please, nobody hugged me this morning.

I'm feeling a little yucky, but I think it was Mike Burkett or somebody. I saw him and I just got so excited to see him.

And I just went Mikey and I ran and I went to hug him and it was like, you know, I didn't mean to, you know, but I love him.

And it just almost knocked him over and I can't help it. I see my people and it's just like every

Sunday I come in here. It's like Christmas, you know, it's like look at all the babies. It's so cool.

You know, do you feel that way? I'm going to tell you why you don't because you and God are this far apart.

And you know what? You take that first step of repentance and you really truly repent. It'll feel like me.

That one sounded heretical. It'll be like God tackling you in love. Next thing.

What's the difference between falls and failures? How many of y 'all are failures in here? You lesser

Christians. I'm so glad that with my ordination papers, I got a dispensation of perfection.

Well guys, can I ask you maybe for a minute to let's look at some colloquialisms and maybe change the lexicon of the church?

Because see, if you're in here this morning and you want to do what God wants you to do, I'm sorry.

I can't call you a failure. I can say that you have fallen, but I can't say that you're a failure.

When we train fighters over here, you know the guy I'm looking for? It ain't the guy that can do the jump spinning wheel tornado kick because you're just going to get your butt candied to you in the ring doing that stuff.

But you know the guy? I'm looking for the guy that gets hit in his face whose knees do this right here.

You coaches know what I'm talking about. And this is what he does after that. That's the guy

I want on my team. That's the guy. Because although he falters, although he may fall, he is never going to let his place be with those losers who look for an excuse to quit.

He wants to win. Do you know there are people out there that do just enough to say that they tried when they never had the intention of trying to win anyways?

Those guys drive me up the wall. And I'm not talking about just in the gym. I'm talking about in life.

Dear Jesus, save me so I won't go to hell. Amen. You sit over there, I'm going to go live the rest of my life the way

I want. No, I don't think so. I don't think so. I gave my life to Jesus, I'm good to go.

Yeah, but did you? But did you? Guys, I want you to come to a place that if you are falling, you'd quit getting in that failure mentality.

Look at verses 1 -6. Now this is Asa. Asa is like, it says, you know, oh my gosh,

Asa followed the Lord his God all the days of his life. He was a stud. He wore suits and ties, didn't have tattoos.

He was white with blonde hair and blue eyes and a 10 inch part. He was a Republican and of course was a fan of the

University of Tennessee. He was perfect in every way. Huh. Let's see how long that goes.

Verse, or chapter 16. Now remember, they just had a chart service. In the 36th year of the reign of Asa, Basha, king of Israel, went up against Judah and built

Ramah. That he might permit no one to go out or come in to Asa, king of Judah.

Remember I told you the civil war happened? So this is what Basha, it's a brilliant move strategically.

Go talk to Jake if you want to hear about it in excess. But it's a brilliant move. He went in,

Basha came up and he took this city, which was the main, I mean he didn't took it.

He built this city, which was on the main thoroughfare from the east to Jerusalem.

And he didn't stop the thoroughfare, right? Because you ain't getting rich killing all the merchants. Here's what he did.

And this is what it says in the Hebrew. Basha walks up to the merchants and goes, Yo, my name is

Vinny. You want to come through here, you got to pay a tax. You know what I mean? You got to pay a little tax.

We built this road from here to here. And so if you want to cross it, you got to pay a tax.

We'll go around. Yeah, well, you might not want to do that. You will fall off a building with an ice pick stuck in your back 32 times.

Accidents happen. You know what I mean? And it was brilliant. Strategically what he did is instead of attacking

Jerusalem and losing men, he attacked the treasury and hit them financially.

Oh, beautiful. Here's what Asa did. Now watch. Verse 2.

Then Asa took silver and gold from the treasures of the house of the

Lord and the king's house and sent them to Bahad, king of Syria, who lived in Damascus.

If you turn your little paper over, this wonderful map that I drew. Oh, you can't maybe see it too good.

But right here, this blue part in the middle, that's Israel. This kind of pinkish red part right here, that's

Judah. Well, if you look up north and east, you'll see the kingdom of Syria.

So here's what Asa did. So they attacked him economically. So Asa went down to the church, took out every dime the church had, sent it to Syria and said this.

You, we have a treaty now. I'm going to pay you money. I'm going to hire mercenaries.

You attack the north of Israel so they got to come deal with you and then I'll come up from the south.

That's a smart plan. Except notice the contrast. Notice the contrast from last week.

You see, he went out to take care of it himself. He didn't send his soldiers out. He led his soldiers into battle.

Men, husbands, he led his soldiers into battle. My wife nags me.

My wife's this. My wife's that. My wife's a brat. Well, it's probably because you ain't leading, punk.

So grow up and be a man, okay? So he led them out. Now what he does is he writes a check.

He writes a check. But he robbed

God. He took what didn't belong to him. It wasn't out of the king's treasury.

I want you to make that distinction. Listen up. He didn't take it out of the national treasury.

He took it from the church. The temple. Man, that takes some guts, right?

By the way, I still only have a two -wheel drive truck.

Hence, you know, I mean, I could do so much more work for the Lord if I had my own helicopter.

You know what I'm saying? Thank you. God, wait a minute. It's a vision.

God said. Alright, anyways. God saw what happened.

And I want you to know that that was a fall on Asa's part. That was.

That was a fall on Asa's part. Now why do we fall? I'm going to tell you why we fall.

When we get success, how many of you got a report back from the doctor with a little spot on the x -ray?

Or, you know, you got a bump here. You know. And, man, you get that long eye from the doctor.

What are you doing? You sound like 27 Pentecostals on a Saturday night revival. Oh, Lord, help me.

Please God. Oh, man. You're calling Pastor Christian up, man. He's bringing a fire hose of oil over.

Just spraying you down. Pastor Jeff Sermons, if you just get me out of this.

Maybe for some of you, you see the blue lights. Oh, man, there's a pucker factor there that some of y 'all.

I always laughed at my wife. She's like, we're not doing anything wrong. I just chuckle and laugh and pat her head.

You don't have to be, at least in my day. Right? But that's another story for another time.

Pigs. But they sit there and they have a little victory.

And they get apathetic. Then God will shake you up a little bit. You'll hear a sermon or something will happen in your life.

Here's my favorite. My marriage is in trouble. Let's get back into church. No. How about get back to Christ?

Because this place can't fix anything. I'm just a fat, bald dude just like you. The same spirit of God is in you.

The same spirit of God is in me. I ain't got no magic. Right? You need to get back humble before God. But in our falls, we get apathetic.

Then we start robbing. Now, I am going to chat about this for a minute. He took the treasury out of God's temple.

I'm going to read. Y 'all write this down in the abundant amount of room that I gave you. Malachi chapter 3, verse 7 and 9.

One of the beautiful things that I love about cruising and talking to other

Christians in the world or other faiths in the world is I get to see the trends that spark.

Every 30, 40 years, somebody gets up and goes, Nobody's doing it right.

I'm going to fix it. We're going to be Torah observant. Or we're going to do this. Or one in Pentecostal.

For 2 ,000 years, the church has been wrong. Nobody from South Mississippi can fix this disaster called the kingdom of God.

And I just reach this in my brain going, Wow, man, that is arrogant. But here's one of those teachings they teach now.

Tithing is not a command of God in the New Testament. And they're right.

They're right. It's not. I know some of you old Baptists and some of you people in the treasury are going,

Pastor, shut up. Well, no, I can't. Because I can't always preach just what I want.

I've got to preach the whole gospel. Nowhere in the New Testament does it say to tithe.

Now, let me help you understand why. Bubba. Hey, little gorilla.

If you ever watch Little Emmet, you won't ever unsee it if you see it. Watch. My grandson, he walks like this.

He looks like Clyde from one of the Clint Eastwood movies. He walks like, I want to give him a banana and a swinging tire, man.

Because he's just like, oh, food. Right? He's so cute.

Scott. I look at him, and I see this awesome potential.

And I look at my son Jeremiah, and I watch Jeremiah raise him.

I watch Aisha raise him, and it's hilarious. But my son and daughter -in -law are so lame.

God, they're such horrible parents. Do you know Aisha still cooks and cleans around the house?

What is the use of having children if you are not going to put them into slave labor?

Right? You know what I'm saying? It's like, Emmet, you can walk. Go cut the grass.

Well, y 'all live in an apartment. Come cut Pops's grass. Right? I'm old. Now, that's ridiculous, right?

Because of the infancy of that individual, giving them something greater than would be stupid.

But you give examples of it. Let's pick up your toys. Can we do that? Let's pick up your toys.

By the time they're 16, Jeremiah ain't going to be saying, let's pick up the toys.

Clean up. Clean up. I guarantee it, if Emmet ain't cleaning his room, you're going to hear something like, and he's going to go, and that's right,

Aisha. I mean, Emmet. You remember that. He hits her,

I'm killing him. Tithing, listen to me, kids. Tithing is the child's lowest common denominator.

Oh, well, I gave 10%. Whoop -a -dee -doo. I beat up Jameson in a sparring match.

Whoo! It don't make sense. Guys, it says right here,

Malachi 3, 7 -9, From the days of your fathers, you have turned aside from my statues and have not kept them.

Return to me, and I will return to you. Let me say that again. Return to me, causality, effect,

I will return to you. But, says the Lord your host, you say, how shall we return?

Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, hell if we robbed you.

God responds in your tithes and contributions.

How do you say that? Yeah, that thing. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole notion.

Well, pastor, that's Old Testament. Okay, Skippy, 1 Corinthians chapter 16. 1

Corinthians chapter 16, verses 1 -4. Watch this. Now, concerning the collection of the saints, as I have directed the churches of Galatia, so people say, well, that was only that one church.

No, we're talking about an entire national region. So that you are to do the same thing.

On the first day of the week, Torah observant dorks, on the first day of the week, we should worship on the

Sabbath. On the first day of the week, and for those of y 'all that went to Bartley Public School System, that is

Sunday. Sunday. On the first day of the week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper.

So that there will be no collecting when I come, and when I arrive, now watch this, I will send those whom you accredit by letter to carry your gift to Jerusalem.

If it seems advisable that I should go also, they will accompany me.

Huh. Wow. So every Sunday, people set stuff aside.

Wait a minute, not 10%, but as they prospered. As they prospered.

You cops, you school teachers, you making the cash money.

You know what I'm saying? You making that cash money. Maybe you make a stop, and you have, you know, probable cause, you know what

I'm saying? No, don't do that. But, but, as you prosper, that's the level, wait a minute, that's the standard.

Don't say nothing about no 10%. It talks about as you prosper. I remember one of our church members told me, weeping, years ago, we can't give, we can't give.

And the next week, they pulled up in a car, they paid for in cash, brand new. And I didn't say anything, because that's between them and God.

It ain't between me. I don't care. I ain't got nothing to do with that. I'm just telling you, you might want to quit poking the bear, and then whining that your ends ain't coming together and meeting.

You hear what I'm saying? Guys, you need to give. That is a falling that some

Christians do. Procrastination, men. Can I say that to you again?

Procrastination, men. Guys, you know, when you're apathetic, and you procrastinate, that's when pornography and all that stuff will sneak in.

In the studies that I've done with folks, the boredom is what breeds failures.

Okay? Guys, they sat there, and God's calling them to repentance.

And they didn't do it. Guys, remember that compromise on your standards today will lead to your defeat tomorrow.

You're buying it. Last thing, and I'm done. So, pastor, those are some fallings.

What about failure? Well, read with me starting in verse 7. Here's where you fail.

At that time, Hannah the seer, that's a prophet of God, came to Asa, king of Judah, and said to him,

Because you relied on the king of Syria and did not rely on the

Lord your God, the army of the king of Syria, has escaped you. Were not the

Ethiopians and Libyans a huge army with many chariots and horsemen?

Yet because you relied on the Lord, He gave them into your hand. Now listen to this verse. Listen to this verse.

It's so beautiful. For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless towards Him.

You have done foolish in this, and from now on, you will have wars.

So he got called out. That's not where he failed. It's getting busted.

He wasn't busted, and that's where the failure was. Watch. Listen to me.

Watch how he responds. Now, we're going to have an invitation in a second.

Some of you, while you've been sitting there, not me, I'm an idiot, but the words that have been spoken from God's Word has done this.

Yeah, boy, that's you I'm talking to. Yeah, that applies to you. You can suppress that, leave this place, and not do anything to change it, and you will have failed today.

We get that you fell. Welcome to the Christian life. What are you going to do without falling?

Watch what Asa does. Verse 10. Then Asa was angry.

You know how many people I've confronted over... That's between me and God. Ain't nobody bigger than me and God.

I'm talking about me and God. The Bible says, If any brother be found in fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such one in a spirit of meekness, considering yourself, lest they also be tempted.

Confess your faults one to another that you may be... You can quote man's stupidity. I have to follow

God's Word, and so do all of us in this room. You as a man or woman of God in His house do not have the comfort and the ability to disengage from holding people that you say you love to account.

You spend so much time enabling people to live in their sin by never confronting because you don't want to lose a friend.

How much of a friend are you? Is comfort so precious that your life becomes of no matter and that cheap?

Or are you going to stand and in a loving manner try to correct a brother? And when you correct them, if they get angry right away, they're guilty.

A hundred percent of the time. Now you say, how do you know that? Many decades of experience.

Many decades of experience. I promise you. And you think, wow, you've corrected that many people?

I'm talking about me. I'm talking about me. People have come and said,

Pastor, you ought not to do that. Who exactly are you again? If I want your opinion,

I'll slap you in the teeth, pull a string, and then I'll move your mouth like a puppet. Yeah?

I did. Well, I practice it, you know. My wife, never mind. But they will become angry.

Look, here's where you become failure. Asa was angry with the seer and put him in stocks in prison.

For he was enraged with him because of this. Now watch what happens with your anger and unrepentant heart.

And Asa inflicted cruelties upon some of the people at the same time.

Oh, man. You know what's rough about being leadership? Husband, father, you know.

You know what's rough? Is sometimes the people under you got to pick up some of the tab for you standing strong.

You know? It's just part of. And here's what stinks.

If your wife and family is not fully convinced of your calling or if they're not fully invested in you taking that leadership role, here's what's going to happen.

You're going to catch it from this way and then you're going to catch it from this way going home. Oh, my gosh.

It stinks. Now, my wife has only been crazy one or two times in my marriage, right?

And I've just gave her a bottle of Benadryl, shoved her in the closet, latched it, and she worked it out.

She worked it out. But one of the things I've enjoyed with being married to my wife,

I was like, hey, we're moving to Wyoming. Let's go. Well, okay. I'm going to go get some U -Haul boxes.

Yeah. Hey, baby, we're moving to Georgia. Okie dokie. Not worrying about friends.

Not worrying about why. Not worrying about what are we going to do. Just okay. Let's go.

I remember I had a guy blow his brains out in Nashville at my church in Nashville.

And, I mean, his eyeballs were on the ground. And so I called the deacons up one by one. Hey, man,

I want to get that cleaned up before his family comes over. Well, I'm busy today.

I'm writing a Bible study. I'm preparing a Sunday school lesson. Called my wife.

Hey, baby, I need some help. Okay. There, three o 'clock in the morning.

Cleaning up dude's brains. It's easy -er to stand, ladies.

It's easier to stand, ladies. Oh, by the way, for you new age people, yes,

God, man, woman, children. Understand? Alright, so, it's easier to stand as a leader if you guys get behind him.

Well, pastor, my husband's stupid. I know all men are. They're idiots. We are dumb as a load of bricks.

But that's why God made fat, bald pastors. Bring them on over. We'll straighten them out for you.

Okay? Alright. Here's failures. Here's failures.

You get angry. You refuse to repent. And you take it out on everybody else.

Mmm. Look at this. Look at this. And Asa, uh, uh, uh,

Cruel Despondent, something else. Alright. I, I, I, I, we're, just hold on. I'm getting a little nauseous again.

Alright. Mmm. Um, pastor,

I have fallen. Pastor, I am being a failure. Pastor, what am I doing wrong?

Oh. No. No. I would have said lesser, pastor.

It's Dr. Dana Sneed. Hey, baby, Dana. I love her so much. She's so cute.

Alright. I, I, I would just skip on, but this is the most important part of the sermon.

Y 'all bear with me. If you gotta go, go on. Go. But, I, I just, I need y 'all to hear this part.

What happens, pastor, when I am a failure? What happens when I fall? Well, when the pain comes, seek

God. When the conviction comes, seek

God. Do not wait to be emotionally ready to fix a spiritual problem today.

Quit worrying about what other people think. If God is calling you,

He is calling to you and you alone. When I stand before God, there ain't gonna be no

Wynton Baptist Church standing with me. Ain't gonna be no deacons or committees or my wife or anybody else.

I'm gonna stand before God alone. There is nothing in this world so precious that you suppress the conviction of the

Holy Spirit of God. For I warn you, that conviction will lessen and lessen and lessen and lessen till you apply that conviction back.

Because the only who was in conviction of the Holy Spirit because you were living in such rebellion.

God will quit annoying you one day. And it is the most miserable place to be in the world.

Miserable. Now, if you're not really a Christian, you ain't studying. You're like, whatever. But man, if you're a

Christian, that's why I always like when I hear people say, Well, I ain't been in church in about 15 years and I really hadn't missed it.

You're on the way to hell. There's no way you are a child of God. There ain't no way.

Pastor, that's judgmental. No, that's called accurate. You liberal idiot. Go read your Bible.

Watch this. It says in verse 9. God is looking throughout the whole earth.

The whole earth. Do you ever feel like you escaped God? You know, you really like psyched

God out. You really think you that day on Sanders?

No, man. No. Here's the reality.

Even though you don't feel. Is anybody feeling conviction right now about anything? Okay.

A few of you. The rest of you. Some of you are probably lying. But okay. That's cool. What are you going to do with it?

God's looking all over. You say, but my pastor, my heart is not wholesome and righteous.

If you're feeling the conviction of God and wanting to submit, guess what? It's holy and righteous.

You want to do and you're going to do it. Not next week. Not next month.

Right now. The Bible says all heaven rejoices at the repentance.

The repentance of one person. Where are you today? Some of you sitting back there.

Playing on your phone. Stretching because you're bored. You the godless dope smoking heathen that's pissing away your life that I'm talking to.

You looking around like I ain't looking at you. Guys, regardless of age, ministry, position, or status, we can all fall.

A hundred percent. I've done it. And I am the senior pastor.

That means I'm just the biggest loser in here. That's what I feel like sometimes. Second Chronicles.

Here's another reason we need to learn from our scars. Even though we mess up, there's still grace.

The babies are watching. The babies are watching you. Oh, they are.

Trust me. Second Chronicles. You can write it down. Verses 31 and 32.

Thus Jehoshaphat reigned over Judah. This is Asa's son. He reigned 35 years old and began to reign.

Asa, yeah. And he reigned 25 more years in Jerusalem. Verse 32.

He walked in the way of Asa his father and did not turn aside of it. Doing what is right in the sight of the

Lord. You know where he learned that? Of course. From Adrian Rogers.

Ministry in touch. Love. Oh, if I get my son to read this book.

Or talk to this guy because he was on drugs. Or I'm going to get him to talk to him because he was an alcoholic. And I don't fix it all up.

I hate those phone calls. I literally hate those phone calls. But here's what it means.

I have not submitted to doing what God called me to do as a parent in my child's life.

Screwed them all up. And now I'm going to base my hope in God reclaiming my son through your past addiction.

Do you see a problem with that strategy? I mean, do you see it? How about this?

How about sitting in front of your child and going whether this takes or not. I messed up with you.

Fabled you. I did this. And I am repenting now. Before God Almighty.

And asking for you for your forgiveness. Maybe humble and repentance will do more than another speech from a pastor.

Or maybe I'm just an idiot and don't know what I'm talking about. Baby, I'll talk to your drug out kid.

No problem. They're not going to like me. They won't. They're not going to.

I don't trauma bond with people. I don't. Well, my husband beat me up.

And I've been on meth ever since. Okay. Why are you still on meth?

No. You were a drug addict and you want to get high. Well, right.

No one else in the whole world has a problem but you. Let's trauma bond.

And in that connection somehow you'll find God. You ain't going to find God. You're going to find religion. Get codependent on me.

Looking for me to solve you and your problems when only an eternal God can do it. And I'm sorry.

I'm just not that smart. I'm not that kind of a pastor. I'm kind of fat. I'm bald.

And I didn't graduate high school. Why are you looking at me? I'm the last guy. Josiah's got a master's degree.

Dana has a doctorate. Jeremiah, have you got your master's degree yet?

He coaches football. I mean, guys, please listen to me.

Trust in grace. Lead your children. And if you have failed them, you truly haven't failed unless you are dead.

If you are hearing the words coming out of my mouth, you have an opportunity to turn that falling into a victory.

How do you know all this, pastor? Well, I actually read. 1

Kings says this. Now, Asa basically told the prophet of God, Whatever.

Whatever. And then he threw him in jail. Then he started smacking people around because he was having a bad day.

1 Kings 15, 12 through 15. But the high places were not taken away.

In other words, Asa did good at first, but then he let them build false idol temples all over the place.

Now, I want you to hear. Did I write this on your little paper for you? Okay, good. Nevertheless.

Now, watch this. Let's talk about grace. Nevertheless, the heart of Asa was wholly true to the

Lord all his days. Dude, why do

I smoke and preach and shit fit?

The heart of Asa was wholly true to the Lord all his days.

Let me teach you a little bit about grace. Let me teach you just a little bit about grace. Oh my gosh.

Never mind. We don't have time to talk about grace and salvation. Okay, okay. Yeah, I was going to anyways.

Listen, listen, listen. I promise I won't be long. Listen. Ephesians 1 says this.

But God chose them in Him, for the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless.

You rob God, you throw good people in jail, you're true and perfect.

You know what I'm saying? How does that make sense? How does that make sense?

Grace is not based upon what you do.

Watch. Good or bad. I always just think it's so intellectually redundant and stupid when people say, well, you know,

I've done bad things. Yes, we know. You are a totally depraved human being.

God, you were so sinful while you were that age. When that little sperm hit that little egg, you were totally depraved from that moment.

You didn't have to get born and grow up for a few years before you became sinful.

When you, out of the womb, you were a godless pig to begin with. Oh, that's not true,

Pastor. You ain't have kids or you smoking crack. I've had five of them.

They were almost self -centered, selfish, narcissistic little idiots in the whole world. I just started, you know, get them out of here.

Except for my daughter. She was perfect. Guys, God knows that you're already screwed up.

That's where grace comes from. Watch this. It says holy and blameless. Agios.

It means separated. Guess what you're being separated from? Your sin.

Watch this. And blameless. Yeah, you're blameless.

I don't know. Let's say this. Let's say you're a teenage kid. You have a lot of insecurities.

You're trying to be accepted. You want to escape some realities. You haven't dealt with it. So you take a hit from a

THP pen, you know. And you hardcore, man. You end up in the ER because, man, you are hardcore.

You know what I'm saying? God done with you. God done with you.

You are going to be nothing more than the firewood for hell. Yeah, this ain't

Bellevue. You can actually speak. Okay? No. You see, before time began.

Notice the time. Before time began, God chose you.

And God chose you to be holy and blameless. Now, it doesn't say sinless.

It says blameless. You know what that means?

That means in the imputation understanding of salvation. The righteousness of a

Christ. My sinful nature was given to Jesus on the cross. His, watch.

His righteous nature filled the vacuum that Jesus died for me. Isn't that beautiful?

I want to get a really cool hoodie thing.

It's, I forget what they're called. But it looks really cool. Because I can picture myself being

Aragon in it. You know, fur gandalf or whatever. I don't really know. But I want to get it hunting.

It's so warm. And what's so cool is you can put a fire hose on the back of it. And the water just sheets right off.

Oh, it's getting wet. But ain't nothing sticking. It don't go through. Guys, I can be a sinner and still be blameless because of the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

Pastor, why are you saying all this? Because instead of beating yourself up, calling you a failure and a loser.

How about let's try a different strategy. How about come forward and say, Jesus, I need help.

Pastor, my friends in church, I need help. And if you're doing that, you're no longer a failure.

Well, Pastor, I don't feel it. I don't care about your feelings. Actions define character. Actions define truth.

If you try. Well, Pastor, I've tried 8 ,000 times and I always fail. Join the party.

Okay? Join the party. Guys, let go.