Life Lessons of Judah’s Kings – Part 1 (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. Man, are you free this morning?

Has God set you free? I ain't talking about that religion, garbage. I'm talking about God has set you free from the power of shame, sin, and death.

Amen. God gone. You feel like you can go ten rounds after one of them.

We're going to be in 2 Chronicles chapters 10, 11, and 12. 2 Chronicles chapters 10, 11, and 12.

And I'm going to be honest with you. This is a difficult sermon historically to grasp.

And I know some folks sit there and go, I hate history. You have to understand, you are a part of history.

To hate history is to hate your being within a certain sphere or epoch of time.

God has set you here. He didn't have you born 2 ,000 years ago or 20 years from now.

You are a part of where we are and we can learn lessons from history that we can't learn from the present.

Now, you were all given a piece of paper this morning, or hopefully you should have. If you don't have one, we'll try to get one to you.

Raise your hand and some of the men will try to hook you up. But it's important for you to have hermeneutically a comprehension of our historical context of which we're speaking.

And I'm going to look, if you will, to the back of that page. I'm going to give you a brief outline.

Does anyone need one of these? There's a couple here, a couple here. Yeah. Basically, I'm going to pick it up.

You know, Abraham left Ur, came to the Promised Land. God said, this is the land I'm giving you and your descendants.

People of Israel didn't listen and went to Egypt. They got put into slavery.

Were there for 400 years. God sent Moses. They delivered them. And then the people complained again.

They wandered around the wilderness for 40 years. God said, you guys have got to grow up.

He waited for that generation to die out. Then God raised up a new people under Joshua.

And they went in to the land of Canaan, Judea, Palestine, whatever you want to call it.

It's the same land. They went in there and they took it over.

And after a while, being ruled by judges, they said, hey, we want a king. We want to be like everybody else.

We want a king. And so God said, you really don't, but okay, Skippy.

We'll give you one. And so Saul became the first king of Israel. Then after Saul, David, who is very important in soteriology, in the study of the word of God, David became king.

And David ruled and was very successful militarily. And his son Solomon, you know, that guy dividing the baby, that thing.

Yeah, he became king. But Solomon, although he was very wise administratively, and he was extremely wealthy,

Solomon had an eye for the ladies. You know, he liked to party, man.

He liked to watch Netflix and chill. And so he had a bunch of wives and a bunch of concubines.

And the only son we know of from all of those unions is a guy named

Rehoboam. Rehoboam. And that's who we're looking at today. So Solomon dies.

If you look at the last part of chapter 9 there, it talks about Solomon dying. And in chapter 10 is where we pick up the story.

Now, understand all those dates I just gave you. Forget them all for a second. Okay? 400 years later, when this 1st and 2nd

Chronicles, which was originally one book, was written, there was no more Israel.

There was no more Judah. Because they had rebelled against God and God had taken them out.

Actually, when this was written, it was about 425 AD and the remnants or descendants of the

Israeli people are living in what used to be a mighty empire, but now it's ruined.

I don't know. I'm trying to find... Think of like a country who had been founded on the

Judeo -Christian principles of God. Who God had blessed militarily and economically where they became a world power.

And then they slowly turned their backs on God. And they started seeing their power ebb and flow.

And the people were divided one against another. And they no longer talked or conversed.

Everybody was a Nazi or everybody was a heathen. And everybody was the worst because they did not agree with them.

Sound familiar? If you need to catch that Tuesday night, you'll see it in perfection.

And so the children of Israel were asking, how did we get here? How did we get where we are?

We were once so great. We loved God and God protected us and God blessed us and now we are post -captivity in a land laying in ruins.

I promise you it is very important for you as God's people to hear this and to teach it to your children for I fear one day your children will see it first hand.

If God does not punish America he owes Sodom and Gomorrah an apology.

So they're sitting there and Ezra who wrote this says, well let me tell you the story. And he gets up to the place where Solomon dies and the first king of Judah after Solomon is his kid named

Rehoboam. I'm going to give you three lessons today. Three lessons today. Chapters 10, 11 and 12.

A lesson in leadership a lesson in strength and a lesson about hypocrisy.

Let's look at the life of Rehoboam which is summed up in these three kind of distressful chapters.

Read with me verses 1 through 4 of 2 Chronicles chapter 10. Rehoboam went to Shechem which was kind of the middle ground between the ten northern tribes and the two southern tribes.

This place where Abraham worshiped God. The bones of Joseph were buried. It was a very holy place but it was kind of a middle ground between the two opposing sides.

So Rehoboam went to Shechem. For all have Israel had come to Shechem to make him king.

And when he had come to Shechem, as soon as Jeroboam the son of Nabat heard of it, for he was in Egypt where he had fled from King Solomon then

Joaboam returned from Egypt. And listen to verse 3. And they sent and called him and Jeroboam and all of Israel came and said to Rehoboam your father made our yoke heavy.

Now therefore lighten the hard service your father and this heavy yoke on us and we will serve you.

So let me explain who everybody is. Rehoboam is the son of Solomon. Solomon's dead.

He is the first child now outside of that Davidic line or that Davidic line who was going to rule a split country.

The ten northern tribes of Israel known as Israel and the two southern tribes of Judah.

Jeroboam was a green beret navy seal stud under Solomon.

He took care of all of Solomon's military problems. But he got kind of big headed and he decided

I'm going to take over the kingdom and he was going to kill Solomon and take it over. But Solomon found out and put a contract out on it.

He was like hey Viniguito, go make sure Jeroboam falls off the roof. Right? And so Jeroboam took off for Egypt and he's sitting there.

Now Solomon's dead. Here's some lessons about leadership. Number one, listen and husbands, fathers

I need you to pay, grandfathers I need you to pay attention here. You need to listen before you make a decision.

Now both sides were equally guilty. The ten northern tribes really in the back of their mind wanted

Jeroboam to become king over everything. Rehoboam was like there is no way

I'm going to allow that to happen. I'm the bloodline. I'm it. I'm going to rule everything.

And so they came to Shechem to discuss this. But I want you to know that all the words and the platitudes of we're going to cooperate, we're going to work together, we're going to listen to each other were all lies.

If you look at verse 3 before they even met with Rehoboam all of the democrats in Israel had decided

Jeroboam's going to be a king. It doesn't really matter what Rehoboam said. They had already sent for him and pulled him back from Egypt because they were going to take over.

Husbands, listen to me for a second. You are to be the head of your house.

Now if you're a feminist in here you're about to have a really bad day. So take an

Adderall, chill out and sit back. But husbands, you're supposed to lead.

I'm sorry. I don't care what culture says. God said the man is the head of the house.

Period. Titus, it says the woman is the keeper of the home. That means you can't work outside of it.

Proverbs 31 proves that. But you are the head of the house. Period.

But you will do yourself, your wife, your home and your children a massive disservice if you do not listen to the wisdom of your wives.

I'm telling you. You young men out there, you young men out there, she might look good, the girl you're dating, but she's dumb as a post.

You might want to keep looking. Okay? There is this new thing I hear kids talking about all the time.

Are you a 1 through a 10? What are you? And they start rating themselves like 6, 7.

And I'm like, really? And you know the only thing they're really rating themselves on is how they look.

Guys, I would rather have an ugly wife who is wise in the ways of the Lord than a number 10.

The Word of God says that a woman nagging is like the pitter patter of rain upon a tin roof.

It doesn't stop. You want to make a life, a happy life? You can party with them down at 616 and they look good and dance good, but you marry them and your life turns to garbage.

I don't hear a lot of amens. Y 'all know what I'm talking about. You know what I'm talking about.

If she isn't godly, you don't need to date her. Period.

You young women, if you can't see Jesus in front of him as he leads you, you need to go find yourself another man to date.

I'm telling you. Oh, well, you don't understand. No, crackhead, you don't understand because you two are the ones that are going to be in my office in about three or four years going, we don't know what happened.

Yeah, you do. You followed your flesh instead of following the Word of God. And then you're arrogant enough to sit there and go, well, this is just an unfortunate set of circumstances or you'll use past trauma as an excuse of why you can't be where you need to be now.

And you'll blame everything and everyone else for it. Is that too much true for a Sunday morning?

Come on now. Verse 5.

Watch this. Verse 5. So, he goes to the older men that serve

Solomon. Rehoboam says, hey, what should I say to these people? They want me to like chill out on the taxes and the workload.

What should I say? And they said, hey, you need to treat with them fairly. Man, because Solomon was a building fool, man.

He built everything. And the people were taxed unbelievably. Can you believe in societies they get taxed like 50 %?

This is what he said to them. Husbands, fathers, listen to me. And he said to them, come to me again in three days.

So the people went away. The Word of God says in the book of James, let your yes be yes and your no be no.

Husbands, fathers, mothers, wives, listen to me. Do not say we'll see to your children.

Do not say we'll see. All that is is a cover up of I am either too apathetic or lazy at this point to make a decision because I really don't want to think about it.

Don't do it. Let your yes be yes and your no be no. You know why some of your kids are godless heathens?

It's because of the inconsistency of what you stand for. You know what I'm saying?

You're inconsistent. Your yes on Tuesday may be a no on Wednesday. Let your yes be yes and your no be no.

What time do I have to be home? What time was it yesterday, Skippy? 10 o 'clock? Well, shazam, guess what time it is today?

Well, you don't understand, mom and dad, this party of this boy, I like... O 'clock.

And actually, that's way too late for me. But, you know, whatever. Verse 6. Watch this.

Listen before decisions. Let your yes be yes and seek counsel.

Seek counsel. Look at verse 6. Then King Rehoboam took counsel with the old men who had stood before Solomon, his father, while he was yet alive, saying,

How do you advise me to answer these people? Guys, you young people, listen to me.

Titus, in the book of Titus, we are told let the old men counsel the young men and let the old women counsel the young women.

I got a wife who's older than dirt. Young people in here, you young women, need to get a notepad, take her out to lunch and go, what's up, babe?

How am I doing this? We got some vestiged old women in here.

And I know some of y 'all are going that's a bad word. Since when did become old mean bad?

Stop listening to the culture. I'm 56 years old. I've been around the block a few times.

I might have some things that you need to know. Right? One of the classes,

I know some of y 'all are going to freak out. One of the classes that I want us to do, and it's amazing, none of the young women will take, is a menopause class.

I know. It's one of those things you shouldn't talk about. That's why I you know what

I'm trying to do? I'm trying to work myself out of a job. Okay? I am. Because if you older women will get with these 30 and 40 year old and go look, you're about to go crazy.

Okay? You're about to go crazy. Your feelings are going to tell you

X, Y and Z. They're not real. You're not crazy.

You're not stupid. It's a chemical thing. It's okay. You will get through it.

You men vote yes on this. Right.

The rest of you are cowards. Guys, seek counsel.

Some of you are struggling with depression and anxiety and you feel it's best to isolate.

Come here. Don't isolate because when you isolate, it gets worse.

So much worse. Trust me, I know. This is the beginning of hell month for me.

Because the time just changed. Why in God's name does it have to be dark when you get up and you go to sleep?

Popping Zoloft like they're But you know what?

When it gets rough, I got a Bill I can talk to. I got a Bill Floyd. I can sit there and go,

I got a James Egbert. He walked up to me this morning and said, How you doing? I said, I'm good. He goes, How you doing?

Counsel. And let me tell you something. Watch this. Let me tell you something. Don't just get counsel from people who are in your camp.

Look at this. He sits there and he disregarded the old men's counsel.

But verse, I'm sorry. If you go to verse 10 And the young men who had grown up with him said to him,

Thus shall you speak to the people who said to you, Your father made us yoke and you will lighten us where you shall say to them,

My little finger is thicker than your father's thigh. Here's what's happening. You don't like the counsel you get.

So you go find some that you want. How many of you drug addicts in here ever doctor shopped?

Yeah. Oh, my legs hurt. Yeah, but I gave you a whole prescription of Percocet.

You ain't getting no more. You go find somebody else. But it doesn't have to be that horrible.

How many of you, when you know you're wrong and need to repent, will find people who are not courageous enough and listen to this line,

Who do not love you enough to tell you the truth? Hmm. Oh, yeah, you got friends.

You got friends. You think they're friends. But they don't sit there and tell you,

Man, you stink. Take a shower. Now you're saying, Well, I don't stink.

Yeah, you do. You see, some of you actually think you can drink vodka and it don't stink.

You're that stupid. We got a whole church full of ex -whatevers.

You ain't getting away with it in here. So what you do is you say, Well, I don't like the music in that church.

I'm going to go find... No, what you don't like is being held accountable. See? What you don't like is someone calling you out for your failure.

What you don't like is somebody telling you what to do, which is the same thing you were doing at 13 and they could say,

If you're laundering, you will continue that for generation after generation.

And it's the government's fault, the church's fault, the teacher's fault, it's everyone else's fault, but you not seeking out that godly wisdom.

You want your ears tickled. You want to be affirmed in your sin. And you enablers in here.

Some of you mamas in here. I know.

I crossed that line again. Some of you mamas in here and wives in here.

You hold your husband back from laying the hammer down because it's too harsh.

Well, you need to go on and take your hippie self and go put a down payment at Lakeside.

Because your child will be there. Go down to Adams Street and find that juvenile justice judge because you are going to meet him face to face.

And here's what's the saddest part. You are going to be weeping over the grave of your child.

Or in his incarceration because you listened to the counsel of people who affirmed the sin and the enabling in which you were causing that person to die in.

The book of Jeremiah says, if a man dies in his sin and you warn him not,

God said, I will require his blood by your hands. We as the children of God are responsible for each other.

Listen, real leadership is hard. It's hard. And confrontation stinks.

I hate confrontation. Is there anyone in this room that loves confrontation? If you do, you have some serious psychological problems.

I hate it. Hate it. Hate it. But I love you more than I hate it.

You hear what I'm saying? Verse 11, 10 and 11.

Let me read it to you again. Do you know what leadership is? Leadership is leading and not ruling.

Husbands, fathers, pastors, listen to me. Leadership is leading, not ruling.

Now listen. Listen to verse 10 and 11. Listen to verse 10 again.

Here we go. And the young man who had grown up with him said to him, thus shall you speak to the people who said to you, your father made our yoke heavy, but you lighten it for us.

Thus shall you say to them, my little finger is thicker than my father's thighs. Now, for those of you that are visiting once again and you're used to First Baptist Memphis, this probably part's not going to sit well with you.

Okay? But just take a baby aspirin, slow down, and actually learn some good hermeneutics.

How is this such a cut down? Your little finger is bigger than your dad's thigh.

What is Dad Miss Leg Day at the gym? What is he talking about? In some of your Bibles it says, your little finger is bigger than his waist.

So I'm really felt. I got the V shape. The Hebrew word is mothin.

And how it should correctly be translated is loins. Yeah. Some of y 'all are going, oh, yes.

That's what it's saying. Do you know how juvenile you got to be?

Now some of you Old Baptists are looking at me, why did you say that? I didn't. God's word did. Get over it and grow up.

There's no smile on my face. Grow up. Don't change God's word to make your cultural comforts fit.

That's why some of you still have children in a rebellion because you are more worried about polishing the outside than changing the inside.

But I want you to take the lesson in leadership here. You know when I know someone is not a leader?

When the first thing when they're called on the carpet is this. They start trashing someone who is successful. First thing they do.

First thing they do. You people take a loss and then you sit there and go, yeah, but I'm not as bad as they are.

Oh, yeah, that person thinks they're so godly, but man, I saw them the other day and they said, gosh, darn.

Guys, you don't advance yourself one step by pointing out the fallacies and others.

And trash talk is the weak leader's vocabulary. I'm not in competition with Bellevue.

I joke about them all the time. I love Bellevue. I think they're one of the finest churches in the world. If you're not familiar with all the ministries they do, holy mackerel.

They have a dental truck that goes into the hood and does people's teeth for free.

Praise God. Because I ain't got a dental truck. But I'm all for them because they're on the same team

I am. I'm not in competition with, I ain't even in competition with 2nd Prez, them frozen chosen.

I ain't. They good Calvinist folk. They good Calvinists. Now, they might be a little uppity up and you got to wear a polo shirt to walk in the door, but I'm alright with that.

Preppy, God loves preppies too. Some of them. Guys, for you to be leaders, and I see this in single moms a lot.

Now, y 'all listen to me as I'm fixing to make some folks angry, but I'm telling it to you in love. Please, please listen to me.

Stop trying to convince the whole world that you're bulletproof. Stop trying to convince your children that they need to be scared of you because you see their fear as their power.

That will not work when they get to adolescence. It won't work.

See, I want people to follow me because they know that I love them and they can see

Christ in front of me. I used to bounce a bar and I was never worried about the guy cussing me from across the bar talking about how tough he was.

He's just a chump showing off for his girlfriend. And you know what? I let him. You know why?

Because he chilled out. I didn't have to thump his skull to prove who was tougher. I just wanted to get paid and go home.

Right? Guys, quit blowing your own horn by trashing other people.

Don't do it. You know as a Christian, let us provoke, Hebrews 10, 24 and 25, let us provoke unto one another love and good works.

My job here today is to look at all these beautiful people and go, well, to the boys.

Atta boy! Go get them! To the girls, go get them. You know? Hey, you can do this.

Yeah, but pastor, you don't understand. No! You are the one who's not understanding. Not because I'm smarter, but because I'm going by this and you're going by your feelings.

You're not a loser. You're not pathetic. You're not washed up. You're not a whore. You're not crazy.

You're not all that. You're not trapped. You're not all. You know, that's our job as Christians.

The world knows us, not by what we're against, but who we're for. And the love we have one to another.

Guys, have a little leadership. I'm seeing crossed over eyes. Stay with me just for a second.

Verse 13, this is how he responds. Verse 13, And the king answered them harshly.

Now guys, there is a time for the hammer. There is a time for the hammer.

I won't say which child this was, but my wife was feeding broccoli to one of my sons.

And she says, you gotta eat your broccoli. And he was sitting in the high chair. And I was busy eating.

And she was like, eat your broccoli. And this child went, no!

Now, I don't know if you ever watch wrestling. Do you know what tag team wrestling is?

Right, where one guy is in there and he's like, I'm done. And he tags out.

Yeah, I jumped over the top rope. I walked up and I'm like, did you just tell your mama no?

Harshly. There is a time for that.

But most problems can be dealt without lowering the hammer.

If the first thing you reach for all the time is strength in words or intimidation, you are insecure and afraid of the situation.

And you're doing damage to overcompensate for your fear. And here's why you're afraid, parents.

Here's why you're afraid, husbands. Here's why you're afraid. Because you're standing on an unsteady foundation.

A double -minded man is unstable in all the ways. You praise God on Sunday, but the rest of the week you're living to the culture of this world.

And you don't have the security of what it means to be standing on the rock of Jesus Christ.

That's what you need to change first. Quit reaching for the hammer every single time.

Guys, also remember this. Wisdom is not automatic, and it doesn't come with old age.

Let me say that again. Some of the people you need to seek counsel of, yes, older people are good, but you need to seek the multiplicity of counselors, but the most important thing is to superimpose that over the

Word of God. Because if what they're saying doesn't match Scripture, you don't need to go with them. Guys, when

Rehoboam's sitting there, he's asked and he seeks out counsel that affirms himself, and he totally discounts the

Word of God. Verse 16. So, Rehoboam says this to the people of Israel.

I don't care what you're complaining about. My dad made you do X. I'm going to do 10 times more.

I'm going to do 10 times more. And here's what the people of Israel said. We're all gone.

We're all finished in the house of David. We're done. Don't throw the baby out with the bath water.

Guys, I see we have people coming to this place all the time. We're not happy at my church. Well, I don't really know that I want you at this one.

I'm going to be real honest with you. Why aren't you happy there? Are they teaching heresy? Well, no.

Are they godless? Well, no. But they wouldn't let me, you know, be the Mary Poppins at the trunk and treat.

This ain't the place for you. This is not the place. You are going to get your feelings hurt, in fact, right now.

You are that dumb. Okay? I don't want those kind of folks here.

And it's not because I don't want to minister to them. I've got this thing wide out just like this where everything's in balance.

I don't need another whiner. We've spent decades getting rid of those folks.

Guys, if you're in that place where something doesn't go right and you're ready to give up and just quit and throw everything away, you are so immature.

You need to go into the children's Sunday school class before you come into the big kids class. You need to grow up a little bit.

I've got people in here that hold grudges against women in the kitchen.

Oh, my God. You put nine women in that kitchen to cook for a

Wednesday night meal and think there ain't going to be some drama. You smoke and crack.

My gosh. And I know this is offensive to some of y 'all. get over it.

We've got to remember this. Not everybody does everything exactly like I do it.

In other words, not everybody is as perfect as I am. I get that. I allow the lesser pastors that are here to preach so they can get some training because they don't do as good a job as me.

This is where you say amen. Just laughter. Check. Got it. Guys, don't lower the hammer all the time and quit being arrogant.

Don't throw the baby at the bathwater. I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I know I've been preaching for a minute.

I'm just going to skip just a little bit. I know some of y 'all are going to yell at me for that. Just a little bit and just do a couple of things in Lessons of Strength.

Go to chapter 11. Rehoboam hears all these people say, no, we ain't going to follow you.

You know the first thing he does? He gathers up an army and he says, we're going to go kill them all.

And a prophet of God comes up to Rehoboam and says, thus saith the Lord your God, you might want to rethink that.

Verse 4, you might want to slow your roll because that is not God's plan.

And Rehoboam listened. He listened and they did not attack.

But here's what he did in verse 5 and verses 11 and 12 of chapter 11. This is what he did.

Instead of attacking, he took all those men and he built up all of his defenses.

He thought that being militarily strong was the only thing he needed to worry about.

Listen, a nation who does not follow the Lord is God. Who was founded on the principles of the

Lord. The Lord God. If you abandon those, cause and effect.

Can you believe that? We actually listen real quick.

And this is really going to jack some of y 'all up and I love you. But I just want you to hear the truth. We are actually living in a time.

We are living in a time where they are castrating 9 year old boys because they feel like girls.

That's not hyperbole. They're literally giving them pills to castrate them.

14 year old girls are having their breasts cut off because they feel like a boy. We actually believe we evolved from gorillas.

And I know this is offensive and hurtful. And I'm not doing this to show off. And I'm not doing this to sound mean.

I'm trying to wake up God's people in the realities of what we're facing.

This country has fallen away from God. And we blame the

Democrats. Are you that stupid? We blame the Republicans. Really?

We blame drugs and guns. Those are non -sentient things.

The problem is the sinful people who have rebelled against their God who refuse to repent. That's reality.

Well, I don't agree with that. Okay. You might want to seek out some more counsel. My office, go see

Kaylee. I'll have lunch with you. I'll be more than happy to discuss this with you. Last thing.

This is for church folk. Let's learn a lesson in hypocrisy.

Chapter 12 verse 1 and 2. When the rule of Rehoboam was established and he was strong, he abandoned the law of the

Lord and all of Israel with him. Two things from that. Do you know that there are actually

Christians out there who don't follow the Lord until they're in trouble? Is that shocking to you?

Yeah, because I'm one. I'll be honest with you. I've had those moments in life. You get that long look and that spot on the x -ray from your doctor.

Oh dear Jesus! Forgive me of my marriages and shambles.

Oh! You get back in church, you need to get back on your knees.

We as people sometimes are so hypocritical. Just like Rehoboam. When bad things happen, we repent.

But when times are good, we put God on the shelf. Well, I ain't gonna speak for all y 'all.

People at Bellevue, they put God on the shelf. They ain't real Christians like you folk. Please note sarcasm.

People will follow. People will follow. Men, I know this sounds horrible, but if your children ain't following you to worship, following you in daily

Bible reading, they're gonna follow something. They're gonna follow something.

I promise you. In a vacuum, leadership will be filled.

Last thing. So God sends Shishak, a pharaoh, an

Egyptian pharaoh, to ransack Jerusalem. And by the way, you keyboard warriors, there's a picture of him on your piece of paper taken from Barak, Egypt.

Occasionally, oh, the Bible's just a thorn written by a dope smoker. Actually, study something other than the internet.

But anyways, Pharaoh of Egypt comes in and God doesn't tell him or allow him to destroy everything.

He just allows him to steal everything. And so they stole all the money out of Jerusalem.

And Solomon had made these huge shields of gold. Huge shields of gold and they were mounted in the temple where they worship

God. And Shishak came up there and he was walking like an Egyptian. And he took those shields and carried them back to Egypt with him.

So now, here's what Rehoboam did.

He made more shields, but he didn't have no more gold, so he made them out of brass.

God ever convicted you and you repented halfway?

You wanted to cover up the need of real repentance. In other words, yeah, I struggle with this.

And me and God will deal with it because it's a me and God thing. It doesn't involve all of you. Let me tell you how that strategy is going to work for you, champ.

It ain't. Confess your faults one to another that you may be healed.

How's that private repentance going? Now, there are some things that we as Christians can truly repent from.

But if that repentance is yes, no, yes, no, yes, no, for decades you might want to try a different strategy.

Okay? I know y 'all are getting bored. Stay with me because this is really important. Okay? Focus on this.

Are you struggling with drugs? Are you struggling with alcohol? And some of you are like, no,

I'm not. That reference to the vodka smell, I did not make that up. One of you in this room came up to me this morning and was like, hey, how you doing?

And you smelled like a brewery. It's Sunday morning.

My God, really? And with that same mouth you praise in the

Lord. You have a problem. No, I don't, Pastor. Yes, you do.

I'm in control. You are in denial. Come down here and don't just pray on them stairs.

Say, I'm an alcoholic and I need help. And I promise you within 35 seconds

I'll swing a dead cat and here's someone that has the same struggle as you. And we will help you today.

Some of you are struggling with your marriages. Some of you are struggling I promise you,

I promise you if you need help come here today.

Come today. Because here's what you're going to do if you don't. You're going to keep polishing brass to try to make it like good gold and it will always tarnish.

And you will spend your life trying to make yourself look religiously acceptable and it will never work.

In other words, you need to truly repent and find help. And that's what church is here to do.