Well, guys, as you can see, people are pushing back. Thank God for that. Amen. Because you've got to take your stand at some point in time, man. You just can't let them take more and more, because that's all they'll do is just keep taking more and more. And they'll promise you, oh, your life will return back to normal. No, it won't. The more they take, the less liberties you get. So it's now time to take a stand. I think it's apropos where we're at in the scriptures, as you know, we're going through Exodus and we're going chapter by chapter, verse by verse, and here we are, we've landed in the section of the golden calf. And I think it couldn't be a more appropriate time to study this because it shows you the intricacies of what happened to Israel, what happened to Aaron, as they compromised. And we're all susceptible to compromise. Because right now, what's being pushed on us is a test, a test of whether or not you and I are going to compromise and give in to government mandates, give in to what they want. And with the promise of, oh, you'll finally reach the promised land if you listen to Joe Biden or you listen to Gavin Newsom. We'll take you to the promised land. No, thank you. You're taking me straight to Hades is what you're doing. But at the end of the day, this is where the test is. And all of you, I've talked to many of you, you're on the brink of possibly losing your job, losing your insurance, losing all the benefits that you had stored up, and then all of the stuff that you did to get into your career. The education, all the credentialing that you had to do, and nursing school, and all kinds of stuff. All that money that you sunk into that now is looking like, I may not be able to do that career. So, that will be what the temptation is that Satan will throw in front of you. Will you give all that up to live by the truth? Or will you live by a lie? See, the thing is, you and I cannot, cannot live according to lies. They are pushing things on us that has an agenda behind it that is a lie. It was one thing if it was true, but it's not true. And anybody with any common sense can see the agenda behind it. Why do you think they have to hang out these carrots in front of us saying, well, you can win a million dollars, you can have free donuts, free pizza if you get vaccinated. And now we've seen them even are vaccinating kids without parental permission. Hey man, time out buddy. You don't mess with our kids. And that's what they're trying to do. So we're in a very difficult time, but we can stand. We can do the right thing. So what I want to do is take us through the issue that Aaron went through. We looked last time about what Israel went through as a group of why they compromised. But I want to focus on Aaron. And I'm not here to beat up Aaron, because he's a picture of you and I, OK? He's going to be put against a corner with no way out, OK? It's a hostile crowd coming around him. Just imagine yourself that the BLM or Antifa mob is coming around you and demanding, you do something, you do something now. And you're in this corner. you're gonna see Aaron fall and compromise but again learn from this because we can be susceptible to this as well when they push us against the corner okay we could possibly compromise and what now you know you see in the church has been plenty of compromise so far morally all the things that the churches are doing now now you have woke ism involved in the church you have all kinds of crazy Marxism and that shows you that the the Christian churches are starting to compromise. So anyway, we want to learn from a bad example, don't want to beat Aaron up because there's a picture of us, but let's dive into the text and let's just focus in on Aaron and learn the principles there that keeps us from compromising, okay? So let's do the setting real quick. The setting, as you know, is this. Now, when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together. Now, again, the setting. Moses is called up by Yahweh to Mount Sinai. He's on the top. He is now receiving the stone tablets and the rest of the law, the 613 commands. But Israel has been told what the law is verbally already. OK, so now God's put it into stone. So Moses has been up there 40 days, 40 nights. But Israel doesn't know when he's coming back. So they get impatient with the Lord, impatient with Moses. And so now here's the pressure. And when it says in the scripture that they gather together to Aaron, your English doesn't translate this good. The Hebrew says it's against Aaron. OK, so there's a hostility here. So it'd be like your employer getting hostile to you saying, hey, man, you can't work here unless you're vaccinated. Put that mask on. Have you had the masked Nazis come at you lately? The masked Nazis are all over the place. They're the ones who drive their car with gloves on and a mask while they're in the car. Right. And they're just driving. And it's like, are you guys crazy, man? You know, they believe the lie. Lying Fauci is now their god. Anyway, I do digress. And said to him, come, make us gods that shall go before us. And they're forcing Aaron into this. Do something now. And notice what they say. They want a god that goes before them. What they want is to go into the promised land and take it. No, they're not ready for that. They are not equipped, and they're not gonna do it by themselves. They want Yahweh, but then so they're gonna fabricate a counterfeit of Yahweh to lead them into the Promised Land. As you know, they're not prepared. As you know, there are Nephilim in the land. As you know, they will be 40 years in the desert because they attempted to go in, or the spies went in and came back saying, we can't do it, there's Nephilim, remember that? Okay, so they're not prepared, but they think they are. So they are pressuring Aaron, we wanna go in now. See, one of the things you'll see about Israel, or you'll see about us personally as the church, is we wanna run ahead of God. We wanna get ahead of him a lot of times. He has promised the promised land, he's told him this, but it's in his timing. And that's the key, it's in his timing, it can't be our timing. Anyway, for as this Moses, look at how they disdain Moses. They've already given up on him, he's done. The man who brought us up out of the land of Eden, we showed you last week that that was a misnomer. Moses did not bring them up, it was Yahweh. We do not know what has become of him. Well you do know, you're lying! You're lying because the leadership told you he's going on the mountain to get the Ten Commandments, to get the stone tablets and the rest of the law. They know where he's at. By the way, they can see the mountain he's on. And on top of that mountain is the Shekinah glory and the glory clouds are on top of it. So they're in eyesight of seeing Mount Sinai. It's not like they don't know what's going on. They see it and they do this despite seeing the evidence that Yahweh is present on the mountain with them and with Moses. Anyway, that gives the setting. So now they're gonna hassle Aaron. And Aaron said to them, so he breaks down, he compromises. Break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, your daughters, and bring them to me." So here's the thing. There's a deal being struck. They pressure him, do this for us, and he says, okay, I'll do this for you if you give me back something. And what he wants from them is their earrings, basically their jewelry that they got from Egypt. Okay, I'll go more into the jewelry and the goods of it in just a bit. But remember, when Yahweh set them free from Egypt, he plundered the Egyptians without the Israelites ever having to lift a finger, and the Egyptians just gave over their wealth to Israel. Remember that? They left with a bunch of gold and jewelry and everything. Now, why? Well, the jewelry was going to be eventually used for the tabernacle, but that plunder would be used for when they do go into the Promised Land, how they establish their nation. They're going to have to have money to establish things and grow things and buy things. And that's how they're going to have a kickstart from Yahweh. But what Aaron is doing is using coercion. He's saying, you give me this and I'll give you that back. That's a contract, okay? Now, what you should see is this, that when leadership asks you for something, and you give it to them, you're going to lose it. So leadership right now in the world and in America is asking you, well, give me some of your freedom, and I'll give you peace and security. I'll make sure you're OK, Dr. Fauci. I'll make sure that you get multiple boosters after this one, four, and five, and six, and pills, and everything else. But give me some of your liberty. Look what's happening in Australia. In Australia they can't even go outside in some of these provinces. In Australia, I mean, they're locked down for all day long, and they can only go out for like an hour a day? Yeah, comply with us, and we'll give you an hour of freedom. How would you like that? See, Australia's a preview of what's coming here, what's already happening in Canada, and other Western world types of countries that are governed by Judeo-Christian principles. So there's coercion being used. So Aaron already sunk into coercion. Give me something, I'll give you your freedom back, or I'll give you what you want. Sad, isn't it? Think about the pressure that's being put by the millennial generation of unbelievers on our government. What do they want? Free college. Okay, yeah, who's gonna pay for that? Oh, I want free health care. Okay, who's gonna pay for that? See, there's a coercion. So the politician says, I'll give you that, you give me back your medical liberty. That's how the coercion works. It devolves quickly here, as you can see. The demands are then issued. You will do this. That's a mandate. You will do this. If you want that, you will do this. If you want peace and security, you want medical safety, then you will do this, according to the federal government or the CDC or whoever. That's what's happening, guys. So when you see Aaron and this situation, my goodness, it's speaking to us right now. This is going on right now on a global scale. So all the people broke off the golden earrings, which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. You might as well just translate that. And all the people decided to take a jab. Right? It's the same thing. Almost. Okay. Let's talk about the bad stewardship. The bad stewardship, again, remember I said, the gold and stuff's supposed to be used for the tabernacle, the making of the tabernacle, the articles in the tabernacle and the furniture, okay? And then it's supposed to be used in the promised land. But they decide to make a golden calf out of it. That's a misuse of the gift of God to them, the stewardship of money. They wouldn't have had it had not God gave that to them through the Egyptians. And the same thing is true today. What you have is your God-given freedom. It is inalienable to you. It means it only comes from God, not from the government. And therefore... You are to be a good steward and not give away your freedom, not bargain your freedom away for what they promise you. Don't do that. And then what they do is they exalt the leader. So Aaron now has usurped Moses. Moses is out, Aaron's in, and they start looking to him to solve the problem. And this is typical of ancient paganism or even today. Ancient paganism wants a leader that can see, touch, whatever, all their five senses. Paganism doesn't want to follow an invisible God. That's hard for them. But yet, that's what God requires, is faith. Faith in the invisible God. You believe in Jesus, yet you have never seen him, right? But you believe. You've never seen him, but you do believe. Paganism says, no, no, we need to have a man with a plan right there in a leadership position that you can see, and he's gonna be the guy who brings you peace and security. Guess who that will be in the future? Antichrist. So they can see him, touch him, feel him, all that stuff, and then he's gonna be able to do miracles. See, that's paganism. Paganism wants that. So Aaron's exalted, he's the leader, we'll use him. 4, verse 4. And he received the gold from their hand, and he fashioned it into an engraving tool and made a molded calf. Now here's the thing. Aaron, for instance, and a lot of the individuals who will be used to create the tabernacle were gifted by the Holy Spirit in order to have a certain amount of artisan gifts to be able to fashion these things as Moses directed. It was a gift to be able to do this. Aaron misuses his gift and makes a golden calf out of it. So what was happening was a molded piece of wood, probably, and then they overlaid it with gold. That's what it would have been. But it's a misuse of gifts is what's happening here. And then notice that the people are spectators. that they don't join in, they just watch Aaron do this. Now, you might not pick up on this, but if you study ancient paganism, this is exactly what their religions taught them. Let me explain. In ancient paganism, the people who are worshiping that idol or whatever stay passive in the worship. They just sit back and let the religious leaders do all the work. Okay, that's how it is. So if you wanna think of a modern day example, think of the Catholic Church, okay, where everyone's passive and then the priest does all the work. If you wanna move into Protestantism, I can do the same thing. When you go to a church and all they do is entertain you and the pastor's a motivational speaker, not giving you the truth, and they say, sit back, we'll entertain you, and then the church service becomes entertainment, that's a ancient form of paganism. When we worship with Lev Shiloh and the great job they did, we all together worship together. Notice that? Now we're studying the scriptures together. Okay, that is what the worship of Yahweh is. It's a communal worship. Paganism is say, sit back, let us entertain you. We'll do all the work. So that's already starting to happen this quick in Israel. It's already starting to happen. The people are spectators and Aaron's misusing his gifts. Okay, then they said, this is your God, oh Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt. Now here's the thing. They're not saying that the statue of the golden calf is another God, but that it represents Yahweh. See, it won't be until Jezebel comes in Israel's history that she introduces foreign gods into Israel. So even when they make these idols, it will always be to Yahweh, okay? But now what's happened is Aaron has created a situation where they're now worshiping the creation rather than the creator. They're worshiping a golden calf, for goodness sake. Yahweh then is distorted. They don't have a real picture of Yahweh now when you introduce an idol. And then the people get alienated from Yahweh because they're now out of fellowship with Yahweh because they're worshiping an idol. So it triggers a spiritual collapse in Israel all of a sudden. That's what idolatry does. Now, the thing about it is this creation of worship. It's ancient paganism, okay? And ancient paganism has not really went away. It's actually on the forefront. It's what's being pushed in society now. OK. The other crisis they're going to push to you and I is we've got to save the planet, guys. We've got to. The mother earth, Gaia, is groaning and she needs help because there's just too many people on this earth and there's too many people putting carbon emissions out. I'm telling you, this is the real deal. It's not going away because not last Friday, but the Friday before Biden came out on a Friday afternoon and said, we're instituting a roadmap to build a climate resilient economy. Now, if you read the 40-page document, it tells you that our economy is going to change from a capitalistic society, a capitalistic economy, a free market, to a economy that's based on saving the planet. Now, what do you mean, Brandon? What's the implications? Oh, it has far-reaching implications, and it's all due to the worship of the planet, worship of creation. So, for instance, what they're going to do, and we're here still for this, I don't know, hopefully we'll get raptured soon, but if we're still here for this, What they plan to do is base your spending habits on how well you're taking care of the planet. So for instance, if there's certain items you like to buy, but it gives a carbon footprint that's too much, you will be limited in buying those things because you're emitting too much carbon footprint. So you'll be limited on the resources that you can buy. Furthermore, in your gas consumption, you will be limited on your gas consumption if you go too far. So Visa, MasterCard, all your credit cards, your debit cards will have a limit on how much you can purchase gas. and how much you can travel because you're emitting carbon emissions. It's crazy. I know. You can't even believe we're here, man. But we are. And then, the other thought in these knuckleheads' minds is that, oh, because Biden said it. This is a national threat. It's an existential threat. They said this is worse than Iran. That's crazy, right? Thinking like that. Okay, so because of that, we all gotta do our part. We all gotta do our part. Well, how do you think that's gonna come about, doing our part? Picking up trash? Is that what it is? No, no, no, no, no. They're getting in your pocketbooks. They're gonna get in your pocketbooks. Before you know it, you'll have another tax that's gonna come out in your paycheck for offsetting carbon emissions. And they've even talked about, this is such a catastrophe, we might have to dip into people's pensions, or we'll have to talk about insurance and all kinds of different things. Guys, this is gonna hit us economically if it's not stopped. But what is the basis of this? The basis of this is creation worship. Now, let's take a step back. Is the planet doing that? No. Is there plenty of space on the planet? Yes. You can fit everybody on the planet in Texas, for goodness sake. There's plenty of space. But this is all part of the depopulation, echo-friendly stuff. Now, the upper echelon knows that this is a lie. But this is the lie that everyone else believes and is going for it. The banks are involved in this. The high-dollar economic institutions, BlackRock, Vanguard, State Street own everything. Everything. Those three companies own everything in this world. They own nine-tenths of the world's economy. Blackrock, Vanguard, State Street. And they're all in bed with the World Economic Forum to save the planet. And no one's escaping it. But what does it come back to? Worshiping the creation rather than the creator. And what happens when you worship the creation? You go crazy. Should we expect anything like that to happen in our society? Absolutely. They're already going crazy. What is the deal about the bull? Why did they fashion it into a bull? Why did they want a bull to represent Yahweh? Well, first of all, a bull in the ancient pagan world represented power, control, and fertility. Pretty simple. But see, what pagan worshipers did is they made sacrifices to these idols. And they expected the idol to give back to them those three elements. power, control, and fertility. That's how paganism works. It's how it works today. Ancient paganism is still with us today. What do the globalists want? Power. What do they want? Control. And what about fertility? What is it that they want about fertility? Oh, remember I told you, depopulation. They want to control the fertility rates of people. A bill has been set up. It hasn't been passed, but it's been pushed through Washington. to limit how many kids you can have. They say after 40, you should not be able to have kids, and they want to limit you to the maximum of three kids. It's kind of like what China's doing with the one-child law. And they're proposing this. So when you get to fertility, you have to understand what it means. It means birthing. It means having procreation and creating. Humans. What did God say to all people in Genesis? Be fruitful and multiply. So this goes against what God has said by limiting children. Abortion plays a part in that. Homosexuality plays a part in that. Transgender plays a part in it. How so? Because you can't reproduce. That's why it's pushed. You can't reproduce. And so when we see this, this is nothing but ancient paganism, man. Now, this is what they would try to capture. This is what the world leaders are trying to capture. Okay, so check this out. So when Aaron saw it, after they built the golden calf, they put it on this rock, and I'll show you the rock in just a bit, he built an altar before it, and Aaron made a proclamation and said, tomorrow is a feast of the Lord. So now he's acting arbitrarily, God's not directing him, he's just doing his own thing, okay? Be careful, this is when you compromise, you start doing your own thing, making your own plans, getting ahead of God. Well, he has no authority to do this, but he does it. But what he's doing is notice that he puts an altar before the calf. An altar before the calf. See, in ancient paganism, This is how they thought, that when I do my sacrifices to these gods, in order for my god to see the sacrifice, I gotta do it before him. Because the idea of omniscient is really not, that comes from the Bible, that doesn't come from paganism. So they wanted to make sure the deity saw them make the sacrifice. So they did it before the altar. So in the pagan mind, it's seeing is believing, right? In the Bible, Faith is not seeing but believing, right? It's the opposite. But that's what ancient paganism is. And let me show you how Yahweh corrected this with the worship of him. Notice this is the tabernacle, and notice where the altar is. You see the altar in front of the tabernacle, but what is different? There's a curtain. In fact, there's two curtains, and it shuts the believer off from the presence of Yahweh, and the believer has to go to the altar, make a sacrifice with the priest there in front of the tabernacle. But look what it forced the person making the sacrifice to do. It forced him to believe by faith that Yahweh saw their sacrifice. See, the curtain was down so they didn't have the pagan idea that Yahweh has to see my sacrifice. In the temple, how many times was the curtain opened? One time per year, that's it. And that's when the high priest went in on Yom Kippur, right? So the idea is always closed because when you made your sacrifice, you had to have the faith that Yahweh saw your sacrifice. Okay, I know that sounds in our world a little bit strange, but you start realizing, wait a second, the issue that's being promoted is faith, faith. Does God know when you believe, when you trust Christ? Of course, do you see it? No, but it happens, right? It's by faith. And the promises that God makes, you have to take them by faith. You don't see them, but you believe in those promises by faith. That's the idea here. So they instantly go to paganism, instantly. Anyway, look what happened. Then they arose early on the next day and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So they start sacrificing to this bull. And that's the problem with idolatry. People want to say, well, Brandon, how do I know if I'm in idolatry? Well, the way to find out if you're in idolatry is what you will sacrifice your life for. Are you sacrificing your life for your career? Sacrificing your life for money, for power, for whatever it might be? And so you look at what you're sacrificing. You should be sacrificing to Jesus, so to speak. You're a living sacrifice. Your life is to be lived in sacrificial mode to Jesus as a living sacrifice, right? According to Apostle Paul. But if you crawl off that altar of sacrifice and then start sacrificing to an idol, you will sacrifice, because you will give to get. And that's what starts happening. You'll give your time, your energy, your resources to whatever that idol is in hopes that this idol will give back to you. That's how the game is played in idolatry. So they start doing that. And then basically they're counterfeiting the worship of Yahweh with idolatry. That's what it is. Now check this out. This is interesting. And the people sat down to eat and drink. So they're all around this idol eating and drinking and then they start to play and rose up to play. Now your English is not translating it good. What the Hebrew is trying to say is that they start a cultic erotic dance. around the idol, around the whole area, the perimeter of it. And it basically suggests immorality. So this is erotic, cultic dancing that led to sexual immorality. Okay, what is the deal here? Well, let me show you the principle. Wherever you see idolatry, there will be sexual immorality. So if I take a step back and I look at our culture and I see how sexually immoral our culture is, that tells me the culture's worshiping an idol. Whether that idol is themselves, or sex, or whatever it might be, they're worshiping an idol, and the telltale sign is sexual immorality. Well, we're exploded with sexual immorality now, okay? But there's an idol behind it. Now, here's the question. I know what you're probably saying. Why is sexual immorality attached to idolatry? Well, let me parse it out a little bit. Paul will say that behind an idol is a demon. So that when you worship an idol, whatever that might be, a car, money, whatever it might be, whatever that is, behind the idol is a demon that you're actually worshiping. And so that's very dangerous in that sense. That's why idolatry is dangerous. But here's the thing. Once you start worshiping a demon unbeknownst to you, and you're worshiping an idol, what the demon will target is your sexual morality. Instantly, it goes hand in hand. Why? Why do they target that area? It is the most powerful and yet weakest element in us. It is a creative power that God gave us to reproduce after our own kind, right? Angels do not have this power. Neither does Satan. Fallen angels are demons. They don't have the power to procreate one-on-one, because all angels are male. Okay? So the issue is, with that, they then start going after our most powerful gift, the ability to procreate, and they start messing that up. You might say, why? Well, it's this. If I can mess up someone sexually and get them in sexual immorality, then Satan says, I know what the next thing will happen. It'll destroy their family. And if I can destroy their family and their home, I can destroy their culture. I can destroy their society, and then I can destroy a nation, and then I can destroy the world. Because the foundation of every society that you learned in the Ten Commandments is the family unit. So he figures out that he can mess the family unit through sexual immorality and mess up the whole nation through that. That is the problem in America, in Australia, in Canada. When the sexual revolution came to America in the 60s, and it blossomed into the 70s, and then it started allowing homosexuality and lesbianism, and then it started allowing transgenderism like we have today, and now we have drag queen story hour, that is a sign that there's heavy demonic activity and it started with destroying the family. So the two go hand in hand. Destruction of the family and sexual immorality go hand in hand. Okay, that's what's happening. That's why they get into this like right away. They start worshiping idol, boom, they're right into sexual immorality. It's a telltale sign, okay. So let me show you the rock. So this is right below Mount Sinai. This is an outcropping of rocks, and the Saudi Arabian government has put a fence around it. And they know there's something there. They do admit that this is the altar in which Aaron used. They don't want us to know that. They don't want tourists going there. You have to sneak in. The reason they don't, because they don't want any validation of the Jewish history, okay? So they're always trying to upset the Jewish history, but they all believe it's there. And then we've had Christians go in there and do some archeology in there, and yes, it sure is. It matches everything up to what the site is saying. You can see the flat part of the rock. That's where they would have put the idol. And this is where the camp would have been spread out below it. And there's another picture of the rock. You can see the fence around it. It's a massive outcropping. But there's interesting things around it that I'll show you. The thing around it on the rock is engraved these apis bulls. Now the apis bull comes from Egypt. That's where they got the modeling. So when you see this, it's all around the rock on this outcropping, it's amazing. That is an Egyptian bull. So somebody was there that knew Egyptian art and brought it there and this apis bull is all around the area. Look at it, it's everywhere. Oh, by the way, I didn't show this the last time. I should have pointed this out. You see the menorah? Now wait a second. There's a menorah there. This is probably the earliest etchings of a menorah in history. And it's next to these apis bulls. And then the other one, you see the sandals outlined? That's a passage from Deuteronomy that God told Israel, everywhere you step on the ground will be yours. And this person took it literally, and they outlined their own sandal. So you're seeing a menorah, you're seeing Apis Bull. So some Semitic group that only has a menorah is in the vicinity and putting Apis Bulls around it. You do the math, okay? It's Israel. and the signs of her all over the place, right? And by the way, I'll show you next week the graveyard. There's a graveyard of thousands of people buried right next to the site. Because I'll show you next week what Moses did after this is all said and done. Let me show you a video so you can have a better perspective on it, okay? And there's Mount Sinai straight in the back. See the blackened peak? That's how in eyeshot they were to Mount Sinai. That's where the camp would have been right here. That's fascinating, isn't it? It's funny, when you look at archeology, God has his fingerprints all over archeology. You can see where Israel was at, what they did. It's amazing. That stuff blows me away, but it encourages me in the same way because, yeah, that's where it happened. That's what went down right there, and there's all the evidence. Anyway, we gotta figure out what happened to Aaron, man, because if we don't figure him out, we won't figure ourselves out. So why did Aaron buckle under the pressure? How are you and I gonna not buckle under the pressure? Well, first of all, we have to understand this. He compromised because there's a lack of commitment and loyalty to the Lord based on his spiritual immaturity. Now, I'm not to fault Aaron on this. Moses is different. Moses has been with the Lord one-on-one for 40 years in the desert. He's had a lot of time to grow. And that's why Moses is unmovable, man. He's totally unmovable. But Aaron is different. Aaron didn't spend 40 years in the desert. Aaron basically is three months out of the exodus, and so is Israel. They're three months out. So you don't want to get too hard on Aaron, but we've got to get the principle. The principle is spiritual immaturity can cause you to stumble and compromise, because you don't know where the rock is. You're looking all over it. And so James will say you're like a wave tossed to and fro when you don't know where the truth is. That's what happens to new believers. They get swayed by things very easily. Look how easily they're swaying the church now to embrace paganism and all kinds of crazy stuff. But anyway, there's categories of believers. Right? And there's immature believers, or baby Christians, or whatever you want to call them, carnal, worldly, Laodicean, apostate, Pergamon, Thyatira, Sardis believers. All these types of different believers that, if you read in Revelation 2-3, explains what kind of believers they are, and why they compromise. It's all through the church aspect in Revelation 2 through 3. And the issue becomes they don't possess the spiritual maturity, withstand this test of being loyal to Yahweh. You have to say to yourself, could I be put in a corner where I have hostility coming at me and still be able to stand, or would I fold? Would I compromise to keep something of my life? We can't, because if you do, if you're immature and you stay immature, there are a host of false teachers out there to deceive you. More than this, hundreds of them. Apostles of Satan wanting to take you away. And we see this in the church. Practicing now, wokeism in the church. Practicing, you know, Christian yoga, prayer labyrinths, prayer circles, all this other junk. And people are just, Okay, that's fine, let's do it, and just brand it Christianity, and it's not, it's ancient paganism. But this is what happens when you stay immature. This is what happens when people go to churches, and the churches are just giving them a cotton candy version of Christianity. Never tell them the truth, tell them, hey, you're good, we're all good, bless you on the way. That's how the churches are, they're not equipping anybody. Anyway, why else did Aaron buckle? So we have an immaturity problem, but he compromised because he was too worried about his own life. I get it, man, his life's on the line. They're being hostile to him. They might attack him, they might kill him. In fact, many times they'll try to kill Moses and Aaron. If you watch the rest of this drama play out, they will actually get that hostile towards him. And so Aaron, in one sense, is fearing losing his life. Man, I get that, I get that. But sometimes it's not just physical life, it's the loss of what you have, okay? Loss of what you have. Look what Jesus said about this. Then he said to them all, if anyone desires to come after me, that's a discipleship term, not a salvation term, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. Follow me is another discipleship term. So the context is discipleship. So he's asking believers, if you really want to be my disciple and follow me and go to spiritual maturity, the first thing you have to do is deny yourself. What do you mean? Well, take up your cross. Well, what does that mean? It means this. That if I'm going to stand on the rock of Christ, I have to bear the shame that the culture and the world will give to me. That's what being on the cross meant. It's a Jewish idiom. When Christ is on the cross, He's taking the shame for us, on himself, as they mocked him, right? Told him to come down, they're mocking him. See, what he's saying is every day you gotta take up your cross and be willing to be mocked and ridiculed by this world. They're gonna call you racist, they're gonna call you xenophobe, they're gonna call you whatever, everything under the sun, homophobic, whatever. But you gotta be willing, strong enough to take that, knowing you're standing on the truth. Know what they're saying is wrong. I'm not a super spreader. I'm not the one causing the deaths in America because I'm unvaccinated. You're not that one. Even though the Fauci and all of them tell you that, you're not that guy. You're not the one. And so you have to be able to take the ridicule and the shame from the mask Nazis and everyone else that tells you to put on your mask. That's what it means to take up your cross. Okay, for whoever desires to save his life will lose it. Well that's odd, that seems like a paradox. But whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. So what is Messiah saying? He says, look man, you gotta be willing in your life, if you're not gonna cave in, to lose your life, your earthly life, your physical life, if possible. For what? If you're willing to lose your life, you'll gain the abundant life. but you can't have the abundant life unless you're willing to lose it. Well, losing what, Brandon? Well, he may not call you to lose it in death like he asks other Christians around the world to, but it's about losing your career possibly, losing your plans for your life. People said, man, Brandon, I had about five more years till retirement, but this whole thing threw a monkey wrench. I'm gonna have to retire now because I'm not gonna be vaccinated. Bingo, bingo, that's what we're talking about, losing your life. You lost your plans, didn't you? That's okay. You gotta be willing to lose your career. Lose your money. You know Nicodemus died as a pauper? I've told you that story, but many times people don't know in church history what happened to Nicodemus. He stood for the Lord, buried the Lord's body right there, man. He was cut off from the synagogue. And that meant no one did business with you. No one. And so Nicodemus started off a very wealthy man. He died a pauper, according to church history. No money. Because he'd lost his life in order to gain the abundant life. For what profit is a man if he gains the whole world and is himself destroyed or lost? I'm not talking about going into perdition, the lake of fire. He's talking about if you decide to cave in right now, if you decide to compromise to keep your measly salary, you're gonna ruin yourself. You're gonna destroy yourself. You're gonna be the one that does it. Now let me take you to Nazi Germany and give you an example of this. In Nazi Germany, Hitler said something about the German pastors that I will never forget. He said this about the German pastors. These pastors will compromise for their measly salary. And you know what? He was right. 80% of the pastors in Germany took down crosses of Jesus and put up pictures of Hitler. And they went along with the program. Why? They didn't want to lose their stinking salary. That's a sellout. That's a Judas. You can't be like that. Lose your life, and do you believe that God can provide? Of course. Then go for it. Take your stand. That's how you gain your life. Look at this guy, Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Scheller. Lost everything. Got out of the military because the woke generals in our government did that in Afghanistan, left $85 billion of material and weapons and military to the Taliban, a terrorist organization. And you've got Biden saying, oh, they're very businesslike. What are you talking about? They cut people's heads off. What, are you crazy? Yeah, he's crazy. He's eating too much ice cream. Anyway, my whole thing, let me give you something prophetically about this, which possibly could happen. And I think it will. We left the biggest military dump of equipment in Afghanistan ever in history. No, there's nothing on record of any nation leaving that kind of wealth as far as military equipment in a nation. I'm gonna tell you what, America sealed its deal when it did that because that weaponry is gonna be used by the Taliban, it's gonna be used by Iran, it's gonna be used by Pakistan to come against Israel. Our own weapons that Biden sold and left there, sold us out for, sold Americans out there, will be one day used against Israel in the Gog of Magog war. Oh my land. Is it that bad? Yeah, it's that bad. That's satanic, dude. Why did he buckle under the pressure? Compromised because he feared man instead of God and this is a common thing man You're only gonna live in two ways. You're gonna either fear God or fear man. That's that's how life is And so if you fear man, what happens there is you have a desire for popularity desire to be liked desired for acceptance Desire for appeasement. It's the worst place you could be. This is like this is what a politician is, right? This is what they do popularity acceptance appeasement folks You and I cannot appease evil. It doesn't work. If you give evil Gavin Newsom your rights, you won't appease him. He wants more. When you try to appease the Ayatollahs, or Hezbollah, or any of these groups, or Winnie the Pooh in China, or Rocket Man in North Carolina, North Korea, In North Korea, what are you going to do to Rocket Man? He's not going to say, yeah, I want to be nice now. Let's play. No, no. These are evil. Putin, all those guys are evil. You can't appease evil. That's the whole point. This is what the American people and the Australians and the Canadians don't understand. They're giving in to these evil, corrupt politicians, thinking that it will appease them and they'll back off on them. They're not. They're not. Look at what they just did. We went through the whole shutdown of the churches. Some churches never reopened their doors and we were told to shut up, don't question. Something's wrong here. And then you have 70% of born-again Christians who are appeasing the masses because the new thing is tolerance. We've got to be tolerant for everybody. So Christians now, because of their tolerance, are moving into saying, well, yeah, there's many ways to heaven other than Jesus. No, there isn't. There's one way. Yeshua said it. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. We don't give up on that. But 70% of our brothers and sisters are giving up on the exclusivity of the gospel? That's apostasy. Otherwise, these Christians that are doing that and becoming Neville Chamberlains, man, they're doing deals with the devil. They're selling out our Savior, trampling on the blood of Christ, to what, appease people in this world? It's one thing you want to reach them. We don't reach people by appeasement. That doesn't work. 4. He compromised the second commandment because he was trying to maintain the worship of Yahweh and not offend them at the same time. Can't be done, guys. Just can't be done. I know the churches are trying right now. You can't do it. You can't mix the worship of Yahweh with immorality or idolatry. This doesn't work. It's called accommodation. This is why you'll see people try to accommodate the stories of the Bible and say, well, these are just narratives for a learning lesson. No, no, it's history. Don't try to accommodate them, the scholars, academia. These are real stories that happen in history, and archeology proves it. But oh, yeah, David didn't exist, and Solomon, we don't even know if he, what are you talking about? We have archaeological evidence, but see, it's accommodation. And right now the church is accommodating sexual immorality, aren't they? That's the new trend now. You can believe in Jesus and keep practicing sodomy, no problem. This is what the churches are now pushing. And now we have now transgender. Oh yeah, you can be a transgender Christian. Excuse me? That's an oxymoron. That's like saying, I'm a bank robber Christian. Nice to meet you. How does that work? And again, we're not saved on our words. We're saved by faith. But this is crazy. This is called accommodation. These are transgender people pretending to be pastors. I call them impastors, or impostors. And this is accommodation? Yeah, this is accommodation. This is what you get from Pandora's box. And now it's even hit the heights of, you can be a porn star and be in ministry, apparently. Are you kidding me? No, I'm not kidding you, man. I don't make this stuff up. Pandora's box was opened a long time ago. What did I say was behind idolatry? Sexual immorality, right? So we have the church practicing idolatry, and you can see it in the sexual immorality in the pastor leadership. Scary, isn't it? And now you see wokeism, social justice, critical race theory, social gospel, just all through the church now, all through. It's not going away. Lastly, we gotta end on this. Why did he buckle? He compromised because he did not want the consequences of confronting and standing for the truth. And hey, it's not easy. It's not going to be easy. Jesus promised you it's not going to be easy to stand for the truth. This world hated him, and so it will hate you. So when you stand for the truth, you've got to expect the pushback, the name-calling. Could it turn physical? Yes. They're arresting Archer Pulaski in Canada. They just said that he could only speak if he gives a disclaimer about the vaccines. They're trying to control his speech. That's in Canada, man. And so he paid a price for standing for the truth. He's in 18 months of confinement in his home or something like that on the Providence. He can't leave it now. That's crazy, man. But see, that's the consequence of standing for the truth. Understand, you're going to stand for the truth. You might lose your job. You may lose your health care. You may lose your insurance. You may lose that stuff. But do you have enough faith to believe that God can provide? That's the issue. Can he show you another door? Yes, he can. But you have to believe that in order to take your stand, right? Look what's happening. All these people are taking a stand. Why can't you? All these people are losing their jobs. They're showing you it can be done. State troopers, Washington, all over, police are refusing the mandates. Even college football coaches getting fired, refusing to be vaccinated. Then his staff followed with him later on, refusing it. No, we will not be dictated to. These teachers saying, you're not going to force this on me. Listen to these teachers in New York. USA! USA! USA! We work for the DOE, and they're telling us that we can't come to work unless we're fully vaccinated. And we worked all year without a vaccine. Our children were protected. We wore masks. We social distanced. We've done everything that we've been asked. And we worked during the entire pandemic, and we were OK. So now they're switching things up on us, and we're angry. I'm a centrist. I like liberty. And I would prefer to die a free man. Amen. I am prepared to end this now, and I am officially announcing my exit from the UFT. So your question was, am I prepared to lose it all? And the answer is yes. Because I do not believe that this is just about a vaccine, and I do not believe that this is just about our health. This is about medical freedom. This is about totalitarianism. This is about... We are headed into a very dangerous area. And if we comply with this, we are setting a terrible precedent for our future. Amen. Amen. God bless her. And it was Solzhenitsyn that said, after being in the gulags of the Russian Communist Party there in Soviet Union, he said, live not by lies. See, what they're perpetrating on us is a lie. And they want you to live a lie. When you live a lie, you actually will corrupt yourself. We just don't go along, even when we know it's a lie, just to get along. If you know it's a lie, do not live by the lie. Take for instance, and I'll leave you with this, whatchamacallit, In-N-Out did. So today, go to our picnic, but then someday this week, go get an In-N-Out burger. They pulled out of San Francisco saying, you're not going to tell us what to do, man. So they said this in their statement. We refuse to become the vaccination police for any government. It is unreasonable, invasive, and unsafe to force our restaurant associates to segregate customers into those who may be served and those who may not. The vaccinated versus the unvaccinated. So the unvaccinated is unclean. You can't come in. We fiercely disagree with any government dictate that forces a private company to discriminate against customers who choose to patronize their business. This is a clear governmental overreach and is intrusive, improper, and offensive. So you know what In-N-Out did? They shut it down. We're not going to have a place in San Francisco. Good for them. Amen. If they can do it, you can do it. You can stand in the Lord, He will strengthen you, He will empower you, and He will provide for you. He just simply asks this, believe Him. Let's pray.