In verse 1, the title, the Lord takes away their life support. When I think of the word or phrase life support, I view it in our modern context of folks who are having health issues or went through a tragic accident and are just hanging on by life support. You pull the plug, they die. And we had a gentleman in our church a number of years ago who had certain health issues and it led to him being on life support. Mentally, 100% there. sharp as could be, and yet his body was gone. Without life support, he would live just for several minutes. He came to a point where he really felt that he needed to make a decision, and with the counsel of his family, to disconnect. He asked for myself and Pastor Joe, I think Pastor Larry, to come to the hospital to join the family, to sing carols, to sing hymns that season. And so we sat around him, stood around his hospital bed, and we sang hymns. And then I shared a few thoughts from the scriptures, and then he went around with his eyes and verbally and told everyone in the room, looking them in the eye, I love you, and I love you, and I love you. Went all the way around. There wasn't a dry eye in the room, and then they asked for the medical team to come in and disconnect him, take away his life support. And here's this very vibrant intellectual who is passionately addressing his family, and within minutes, because of the life support removed, was gone. thankfully into the presence of the Lord so we can rejoice with Him and His gain, His advantages, His benefit. It was really something I will never forget to see that process when the life support is pulled off it leads to death. This chapter really is illustrated in this similar way that certain things God's going to take away. Their support and at the end of it is the death of a nation. Historically, what is in view is the fall of Judah or Jerusalem, southern part of Israel, in the year 586 BC. So Isaiah is writing around 700 BC and he's warning the nation, if you do not repent and turn back to God, this is what it's going to look like. These will be the takeaways. God first is going to take away your life support. In verse 1, for behold, the Lord and the Lord of hosts doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff. So let's just look at the words stay and the staff. It's the same Hebrew word in one sense it's described in a feminine gender and the same word is also then written in a masculine gender. Rather redundant, repeated you could say. But with the two genders and the two words being used here it's to stress totality. What basically is going to happen, God's going to take away their support systems. You think of a staff. When I climb up a mountain out here, I usually take walking sticks with me, staffs, stays, maybe ski poles, and maybe more for coming down the hill than going up a hill. You take those away, you have more likelihood of stumbling or falling. Well, their stay and their staff is going to be removed. They're going to be taken away by the Lord. And then the whole stay of bread and the whole stay of water. A very simple way to say their supply line is going to be terminated. So when God's going to deal with His people in justice and judgment and in wrath, He begins to pull away their life support. And I think what is being seen here in Isaiah is that the people of God, at least who profess God but did not possess God, they were trusting in everything and everyone but God. And so they were trusting in the fruit of their labor, their own works, their own diligence, their own income, and their own physical things. Rather than looking to the author of life and the giver of every good gift, they were looking to the gifts instead. A very sad substitute. So the Lord begins a deal by taking away their life support. Now how could that apply to us today? There are times we go through trials. You may lose your job. You may lose your source of income. Sometimes that may simply be the testing of your faith. A Job situation. Sometimes it may be the result of your choices, your sin. In this case, it was the result of their nation's sin against God, that God begins to take away their life support. Now, of course, the goal of all of this process we're going to look at is corrective in nature. God wants His people to repent of their self-sufficiency, to repent of their independence of God, and to turn to the Lord and fully trust Him. And so that's the end game that God has here, is corrective this process. at least in its aim or intent. But first we see the Lord taking away their life support that bear basics for living. Secondly, in verses 2 and 3, we see the Lord taking away their leaders. And look at this long list, 11 different titles or descriptive offices being described here. And what happens is when God begins to deal with us, He's going to strip away those things and those people that we're trusting in more than we ought to. Very poor substitutes for God would be any one of these titles given in the list. And so because their trust was in the wrong source, the wrong people, God begins to remove those. And so all of a sudden, at the end of these two verses, you find a nation who says, where do I turn to? Who's my leader? Who's my counselor? Who's going to help me? Who's going to come alongside of me? And so often in our lives, if we're not living for the Lord, what happens, our life support is being tampered with. And then those who maybe we used to confide in are being removed from us. And you feel very, very isolated. And the reason for that is God is seeking to isolate you so that you'll turn to Him where you have nowhere else to turn but to God. So here's a nation who took their eyes off the Lord and really were focusing on men. Look at the list, the mighty man, the warrior, the valiant person, these proven warriors, man of war, these judicial positions, religious offices of judge and prophet, the prudent and the ancient and the military leader, captain of 50, and honorable men, and the list goes on here in these two verses. And so God's saying, I'm gonna take away these leaders. So if these good leaders are taken away, what's left? There's a vacuum. There's a leadership vacuum. I would say in America today, we have a leadership vacuum. And we're asking ourselves, where are the good men? Where is the mighty man? Where is that man of war? Where is that good judge? And where is the man of God? And where is that prudent elder, an honorable one? It's hard to find in some cases. I think there's still some that are out there. Thank the Lord for that. But it seems to be going in the wrong direction. Where are the men? Where are the leaders? Thirdly, in this chapter we see another takeaway. Along with the life support being taken away and along with the leaders being taken away, we see as a result some of their liberties, some of their benefits being taken away and being replaced with some pretty sorry substitutes. Verse 4, and I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them. So what happens when God deals with a nation, He takes away the good leaders. Creates a vacuum. Nature hates a vacuum. And so what we see here, in place of the good leaders, we now have immature leaders being put in place. So the idea here of children or babes ruling isn't people in diapers sitting on a throne. It's people who may be immature, maybe even young. Sometimes they're not equated. But what you have here is very immature leadership. And I'm not going to make my sermon too political in my orientation. I'm not opposed to that. To present truth and to call a nation to repent and to seek the Lord. But you look at a lot of our leadership. They're babies. They're so selfish. They're so self-focused. And they don't speak Chinese, they speak whinies. And they're just big, big babies. And you watch, you listen to their speeches, you listen to their agendas, and you watch what they choose and vote. You say, goodnight, we're being led by a bunch of immature, incompetent people. But when you start to see that as the dominant theme in the political agenda or realm, mark it down. You're being judged by the Lord. You're in the process. When you don't have mature, good, solid statesmen and you now have, you know, slippery politicians and self-seeking offices. And now you've got big problems in a nation. So I'm going to give you, here's what's going to happen. I'm going to take away your leadership. I'm going to give you babes, incompetent, immature leaders. And what will happen then, you're going to leave hierarchy to, you'll leave hierarchy and move to anarchy. And the people shall be oppressed. Everyone by another and everyone by his neighbor. The Chatham shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, the base against the honorable. So whatever this political leadership looks like, it creates an environment of chaos, it creates confusion, and it creates a generation coming up that will dishonor their elders. and do it in great and proud ways. So what we see here is the Lord begins to strip a nation of their support line, their things, and then their leaders, and then He backfills with incompetent and immature people. When it comes to Israel's history, if you follow the kings After Isaiah makes this prophecy, the kings that follow in succession are listed above for you. Notice the ages of these kings when they started. Manasseh, age 12. Ammon, 22. Josiah, who will become a good king, starts at age 8. Jehoahaz, 23. Jehoiakim, 25. Jehoiachin, 18. And Setechiah, 21. Wow, that's some young guys sitting in an oval office. Those are young kings. And it just illustrates that God was pulling away His blessing from the nation of Judah and Israel and putting in its place very immature leaders. And it's a sign of God's judgment on a nation. In addition to these takeaways, verses 6 and 7, kind of reinforces what I've already said, but the Lord begins to take away legitimate options. You're looking for solutions and there's not many solutions on the shelf. So when a man shall take hold of his brother in the house of his father, saying, Thou hast clothing, be Thou our ruler. You think about that for a moment. In this text, what is the qualification that allows this person to be selected for an office? It doesn't look like he's very qualified. He has a cloak, he has some clothing, and that makes him fit for the office. That's some pretty thin standards. So thou as clothing be thou a ruler and let this ruin be under thy hand. So take the mess that we're in and since you have at least something to your name, you be the leader. And of course the response to that is the guy says, I will not be a healer. I'm not going to come in here and bind up this nation, heal this nation. I just have enough for myself and my house is neither bread nor clothing. Make me not a ruler of the people. So Lord's taking away the leadership. You have folks trying to fill the vacuum who are immature and incompetent. And then if there's any other possibilities, they don't want to do it. You know, we just think of Westminster, Colorado. We have a city council. How many folks would be willing to run for city council? I'm too busy. I can't do that. How about for state, be a state representative? I'm too busy. I can't do that. I don't have enough time for myself. I hardly have enough money to provide our present needs for our family. What about running for the state here? Senator in the state of Colorado. What about governor? Do we have a governor in the House? Do we have someone willing to step in the gap, whether it's in the political realm, or whether it's in the educational realm, or whether it's in the spiritual, local church realm? You know, where are the men? Where are folks who are willing to volunteer and work hard and say, I'll do it, choose me. For Isaiah, the Lord was looking for such a man, and Isaiah said, Lord, send me. That's at the heart of our unit. Someone volunteered. Someone was willing to go to represent the Lord and to speak the truth, and why do we need such people? I will say this about our church family. I'm so thankful for people who are willing to volunteer. And I do want to just safeguard that. There are times when you're asked to do something that after prayer, the Lord might say no to you. It's okay to say no if you've prayed about it. And the Lord says, no, this isn't the time to do something. That's just fine. You don't have to live in guilt because you said no to the pastor, no to a Sunday school teacher, no to someone in the church. But the church is run largely by volunteer workers. The advance of the church is volunteer workers. Over the last 10 days, you realize we had over 250 volunteers? That's amazing. To do the ministries that this church does, it takes a lot of workers. When you add a Juana, Volunteers, when you add choir in the orchestra, those are volunteers. I don't think anyone's being paid. Colin, are we paying you anything? I don't think so. Anyone in the orchestra? Kids, are you getting a check each week? No, it's all volunteer. It's all volunteer. The nursery workers, some 40 plus workers a week needed, they're all volunteers. The food bank, Bill Jump, I don't know, 70, 80, 90 people, they're all volunteers. Bill, is Bill in the payroll? I don't think Bill's in the payroll. Bill's a volunteer. Last week for our Asian New Year, I got the list in front of me, and this isn't even the sub-teams under them. I could talk about the primary cooks, first Colin and Katie kind of overseeing it, Eunice Young, egg rolls, Tiffany Lightchip, chicken and pork, Kelly Nguyen, noodles, Janice Truman, Asian cabbage salad. She's not even Asian, she did that. Stephanie Wright, Passion Fruitcake, Susie Risman had a team for beverages, a non-alcoholic. Debbie Dirksen, as far as I know they were. Debbie Dirksen, the list goes on. The Kitchen Help, the Runners, the Whiteley's, the Truman's, the Dinnikers, the Shahada's, the Lightjib's, the Spencer's, Barbara Okamoto, General Okamoto. Risman's, Blumenthal's, Dirksen's, Risman's, Young's, Lorna Averico, Nguyen's, Wright's, Richards, Cleanup crew, Malik, Spencer, Schreckengas, Wilhelm, Stedmans, Villa, Miller, Hunter, Wright, Hendricks, Villa, Robbins, Dorsling, Steele, Crane. Just to run one event, not counting subteams, that's 100 plus people. Add to that Children's Church and ABF and Nursing Home Ministries are going while we go on here. In the last 10 days, we had nearly 300 volunteer workers. Some of them are repeated. Someone's in the choir and doing the kitchen. 300 volunteer workers. You know, that's encouraging to see. We've been here for nearly 17 years, and I can tell you how it was earlier as the church evolves. If the church is evolving in the right direction, you get more and more lay volunteers. That's a God thing when God's blessing. When God is stripping away and judging, you have less volunteers. Folks don't step up. Don't pick me. I can't do it. I don't have any, I'm not qualified, blah, blah, blah. Growing people are involved people. And when God is dealing with a nation, there's no one volunteering. No one wants to do it. So the Lord takes away their legitimate options. There are none. And then we see here that the Lord takes away their land. As you walk through this progression of thought, they're going to lose everything because they have idols in their heart. God is not the center of their heart. So for Jerusalem is ruined and Judah is fallen. Because why? Because their tongue and their doings are great against the Lord to provoke the eyes of His glory. Those glorious eyes see all things. And the idea is that they're sinning with their words, they're sinning with their works, and they don't care. They just don't care. They don't care what the Lord sees. It's in His face is the idea. They are defying the God of creation, their God of Israel, to His face. And as a result, the Lord takes away their land. Another takeaway. That is continued to be seen in the next verse. Same theme. This is our memory verse for the week. The show of their countenance doth witness against Him. They declare their sin as Sodom. Sodom is a really nasty place. Sodom is where they just, they sinned in the daylight and they sinned in the darkness. It didn't matter. Their sin was very public, very open, very much in your face. Not in the closet. It is out in front of the people. Out in front of the city. And Judah had become like the people in Sodom. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine a culture where You have this type of behavior just out in front in promotion. Can you imagine this kind of culture promoting an educational bill? Can you imagine that? This is unbelievable. You wouldn't think of that, would you? I don't even know what to say on this subject anymore. I can say that the Bible makes it very clear that the definition of marriage is between one man and one woman. I say that, I go to jail. I go to jail. I believe with all my heart that the definition of marriage is between one man and one woman. Do you realize how close we are to the liberties and what's being stripped away from us? The freedoms of speech? Do you realize how close I am to a hate crime as seen by the state of Colorado? Do you realize how close I am? I'm going to have to do it like Dante did it. Have you ever read the Divine Comedy? It's not so funny. In the Divine Comedy, Dante writes about a pope And there was a conflict between the popes. At one time there was multiple popes at the same time. Who's the real pope? That's a real problem, you know, if you're a follower of the pope, which one do you follow? Because this guy's claiming to be the head of the church, and this guy over here's claiming to be the head of the church, and they're simultaneous. In fact, there's one time there's three popes at the same time. So who do you follow? And so Dante had a very clever technique. He said, ah, there was a dream, and in my dream there was a pope in hell. There was a pope in hell. That's very clever. He didn't get up and say the Pope's going to hell. He didn't say the Pope is in hell. He said I had a dream. And the Pope happened to be in hell. Okay, you keep your head. So I'm going to tell you a dream. Okay? I'm going to have to tell you a number of dreams. I'd like to stay out of jail if possible. If possible. I don't mind going. I have a lot of writing projects. And I can get it done if they give me a computer. If they give me a computer. I'm good with that. I'm really good with that. But we are getting our liberties and our freedoms, and in this wonderful country of America, our freedom of speech is about ready to go. We're on the skinny line, folks. And when these things start to be taken away, I think it's signs and indications that God is judging a nation. So we like to say, oh, God's going to judge America down the road. As I look at this chapter, I see God judging the nation now. So we need to make that discernment. Is indeed God dealing with America now? I think God's people need to humble themselves. And as we talk about singing this morning, bowing the knee to come before the Lord on our knees and humbly seeking Him and asking for grace and mercy, that God's people will live like God's people should live. So the Lord takes away their land. The Lord takes away their life's work, everything they work for. Self-absorbed, materialistic ends in view, especially verse 11. Woe unto the wicked, it should be ill with him, for the reward of his hand should be given him. Just a matter of time. We know there are some short-term paradoxes, but in the long run, those who live in defiance will reap evil. It's just a matter of truth. So the Lord's going to take away people's whole lives. If you spent your whole life on self, when you die, you can't take anything with you. And there is a day of reaping. Be not mocked. God is not mocked. So we have here the Lord taking away life's work. We have here the Lord takes away their lighted paths. Look at this text and look at the heart of God in the text. Two times, My people, My people. God loves His people, but He's watching His people drift away from Him. They've lost their sight of God. He is not their priority. They're pursuing other vanities. As for My people, children are their oppressors. Wow. Again, immature leaders. And women rule over them. And women rule over them. Now let me safeguard this statement or I'll lose every woman in the church. When we talk about lady leadership in this text, and I'll show you a picture in a moment, the issue is not the ladies, let's say. I would say the major issue is where are the men? And I'm not saying that ladies are inferior to us as men and as leaders. I'm not saying that either. Before Christ, men and women are on equal ground. At the cross, we're on equal ground. Now our roles are clearly spelled out in Scripture. The man is to be the loving leader and the wife is to be a sweet and surrendered follower. We know that. It doesn't make her less than or us greater than. That's not the point at all. And so I see a vacuum in America where we're getting immature leaders, whether they're male or female. But in this text, the idea is these are very self-absorbed, immature, ungodly women, would be the context. Can you imagine our country being led by Jezebels and Athalias? Well, if you're being judged, you're going to be judged by immature leaders, And with the context I've stated, women, ruling over them. Can you imagine? Will that ever happen? Will that ever happen to America? And I am not attacking godly women who are doing their jobs and what God's maybe called them to do. That's not my point. You're getting it, I hope. So please don't quote me out of context. Well, what I'm seeing in America right now, if you watch the State of the Union, whether you like our president or not, But when you say things like we're against drug trafficking and you can't share that, something's really wrong with you. Something's really off, really wrong. And we're being ruled today in many cases by very immature leaders that are self-absorbed all about their greed and their pride, their ego. And that's what it's saying here. As for my people, children are their impressors. They have immature workers. And women roll over them. This is a sign of judgment. Oh, my people, they which lead thee calls thee to err. You know, my parents live in New York State. I never thought I'd hear. There's two New Yorks, by the way. There's New York City and then there's upstate New York, okay? My folks are from upstate New York. They're farmers. They're farmers. They're taxed to death, but they've hung in there for many, many years. You know, 29 years of farming. They put 12,000 hay bales in a barn every year, and they live off the hay bales. They work there. They love it there. It's on the Finger Lakes. It's beautiful. I've never heard my mom ever say, we're going to move from New York State. Never, until just two weeks ago. She said, our state has just approved this third term abortion. And this heinous approval that you can destroy life. I don't care from conception to the third term. It's all wrong. In any term, it's wrong. But she says, with what our leaders, our women, and our immature leaders are doing, we're thinking of leaving the state. And I said, well, mom, I get it. But which state are you going to go to? Because we're not doing our job in Colorado as Christians, I'll tell you that. We're not the salt and light here we should be. This is caving in around us on our watch. Sinners are just doing what sinners do. It's the Christian that needs to make the difference. We're not making the difference. So mom, where are you going to go? Where are you going to go? We're in a mess. It's not that God's going to judge America in the future. God is judging America now. You get it? You start to see the parallels? So what's the answer to it? It's turn your eyes upon Jesus. You've got to get to the Lord. He needs to be the focus of our heart, our life, our dedication, and to serve Him, and make a difference with the Gospel of Christ. The Lord here is seen in the next paragraph in legal terms. The language of the courtroom is used in verses 13 through 15. And what you have here is God is the prosecutor and the judge. He is accusing someone with accusations, the nation of Israel. And these are, you look at the text and you say, okay, who's defending Israel? Where's the defendant? Where's the lawyers protecting Israel? And what you find here is the lawyers taking away their lawyer. There is no advocate. There is no legal defense. God says, I stand up to plead and stand to judge the people. The Lord will enter into judgment the ancients of his people and the princes thereof, for you have eaten up the vineyard. That's an interesting statement. You have eaten up the vineyard. He's saying your political leaders have eaten up the vineyard. Your political leaders have eaten up the profit of the nation. They have used their office and your work to serve themselves. And we know we might be in a little bubble here economically, But I think this text will be quite apropos, maybe in two years or six years, whatever, where all of a sudden you see a regime come in, and it's all about destroying, eating up the vineyard of America, and devouring the profits, and socializing our country. You watch that thing unfold. This text will resound quite brilliantly. Explore the pores in your houses. What mean you that you beat my people to pieces? You crush my people. The leadership's crushing. And then look at the next verb, grinding. Grinding, and then the verb here is to reduce the powder by rubbing it between hard objects. Grind. In the morning, I love coffee. I've got a grinder. I put my coffee beans in there and it grinds it into a nice, you know, coffee. I think of it second grade, this word grind came to my mind. We were at recess, my favorite class in school, and we were playing softball. And I was trying to wow Susan Shaw, my second grade sweetheart. And so I got up to the plate, Charlie Brown at the plate, and I crushed it. I crushed it. First word, I crushed it. I hit it. Just a screaming home run. Ran around the bases and was very pleased with myself and thought Susan would just, you know, would do that. Well, she did until Mitch Philman stepped in, who also likes Susan Shaw. and was much bigger than me and he didn't like my whatever upstaging him, so he took my head with my body and put my head onto the asphalt and grinded me into the asphalt. That actually hurt. But I learned something very important, guys, single guys, this is very important. Who do you think Susan's going to like? The guy that grinds the dude's head into the asphalt or the poor guy with the grinded head? I learned something in second grade that girls go after the guy with the grinded head. She felt so sorry for me, she sat next to me on bus number four that day going home. The only day she ever did that. Because I had a head that was kind of flattened on one side. So if you can get beat up and live through it, I think it's a great technique. If you're still single, you may want to use it. But here we have, you beat my people, you crush my people, you grind my people. Sayeth the Lord God of hosts, man, there's no defense to this. It's coming. And then finally, and I think this is a fascinating section of scripture, and I have to walk really delicate now, really delicate. Now we're talking about women, even beyond the ruling women, the ungodly ruling women I referenced earlier. This is quite a passage to the end of the chapter, and we'll just kind of highlight it. I once preached out of Amos in 2000, I think year two or three, about the cows of Beishan, and Larry Robbins has never let me live that down. Amos was talking about these high roller women, these arrogant women, and he called them cows. And I think I preached on women cows. It wasn't a very tasteful message. Actually, it was utterly disastrous. I'll never preach it again. But the Lord's going to take away these ladies' beauty, glory, call it what you like. So you have in Judah a very affluent culture, and they're loving their staff and stay. They have a lot in the pantry when it comes to food and water. They're trusting in their human abilities and leaders. They're thinking they'll never be moved from the land. They're very smug. And the women are being described here. I'm sure it doesn't describe all the women, but enough to get the notice of Isaiah and the Spirit of God to pen these words. So let's look at the women that God's going to take away, or at least take away certain things from them. Because the daughters of Zion are haughty. You don't want to be called that if you're a guy or a woman. You want to be called humble, not haughty. Notice how they walk. They are strutting their stuff. And walk with stretched forth necks. So these little peacocks of beauty are stretching their necks. And they're flaunting themselves. And they have wanton eyes. Wanton eyes. That's flirting eyes. Flirting eyes. So these ones are flirting. but their eyes that are looking at others to see if you're looking at them. Have you ever seen a lady or a man do this where they want, they're dressed to whatever, they're trying to impress you and are watching the reactions in the eyes of others to be impressed with their beauty. This is the idea here. So they have this huge desire to draw attention to themselves. And this is very easy for us to do, is look at me, look at me, look at me. And God's people are being humble people, not drawing attention to ourselves. We are to decrease. Christ is to increase. That's the right direction it should be going. But here it's all about their looks. It's all about having people watch them. This is very important. They want people to just track them wherever they go. It's all about attention getting. Notice they're making a tinkling with their feet. So they don't have banjos around their feet, they have banjols. And they're little things you put around your legs with like bells on them. So they're just strutting their stuff, and at each walk, ching, ching, little bells, ching, ching. So you smell them, you see them, and you hear them. You ever been in a room when a lady comes in and the whole room takes on a whole new whatever? You start sneezing a stort and whatever, because all the, whatever just came in. This lady, wherever she goes, she wants you looking at her. It's all about her. So the Lord says, enough of that, enough of that. Verse 17, therefore, in view of what I just described, the Lord will smite, He's going to take away their beauty with a scab, the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion. So again, the hair of a woman is her glory. Instead of beautiful hair, a scab is her crown. Nothing worse than a scabby hag. That's a bad combination. And then I won't even go into the next phrase of our mixed audience and some of our young people in here, but it's not good. It's just not good, okay? Now let's walk what the Lord takes away. There are 21 different things that these women are described wearing. 21 different things. How many things are you wearing? Okay, I've got one, two, three, four. I'm not going to go beyond that, but I don't have more than 12 things, okay? These are 21 visible things. 21 visible things. These ladies are the engines to the economy. So here they are. And we're going to describe their clothes. Now, please keep in mind, I had three sons. I am one of three boys. My dad is one of five sons. We haven't had a girl born to our family for 100 years until Bella Jane was born. I told my three boys, the first one of you that have a girl, I will give $5,000. And John and Stephanie had Bella Jane. I have a $50 a month payment plan to pay them off. It's true. It's true. And I went shopping for Bella Jane yesterday. I had so much fun. I've never shopped for a little girl. It was adorable. I went to Costco. I think it's one of the hottest places to buy clothing. What's so funny? It's a great place to take your wife on a date. You know what I'm saying? I think of February 14th coming up, Costco's, guys, think about it. The money you save. And you can shop for it. So I got a 4T dress. There's two beautiful dresses, 4T size for Bella Jane. And I didn't know which one to pick. So you know what I did? Amen. I bought it. I can't. I've got a date with her in two weeks. We're going to go to a play together. I can't wait. Oh my. I'm just in love with Bella Jane. So again, keep in mind I didn't have girls and I wasn't one. So, I'm going to go down the list. So I'm going to kind of describe what I think this looks like from a guy view. Alright? So let's just read it and things will come to your mind. Look at the take away. In that day, the day where Israel is going to be judged, 586 B.C., the Lord will take away the bravery, the bravery, of their tinkling ornaments about their feet, and their calls, and their round tires like the moon, the chains, and the bracelets, and the mufflers, the bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, and the headbands, and the tablets, and the earrings, the rings and nose jewels, the changeable suits of apparel, and the mantles, and the wimples, and the crisping pins, the glasses, and the fine linen, and the hoods, and the veils. All right, 21 things. I have no idea what this thing is. So these are my thoughts. The tinkling ornament, and the round tire. And I have Logos is my Bible program. So this is deep study. This is Logos. All right. And then the chains and the mufflers. I get it. Headbands and tablets. Nike, baby. Nike. Headbands and tablets. Rings, pistons, and nose jewels. Mantles and pins. I like Mickey. He got saved just before he died. Mickey Mantle got saved just before he got died. Mantles and pins? Bowling pins? Rolling pins? Glasses and hoods? So this was my best dad. This is a guy, no daughters, no sisters. Okay? It's my best dad. You put it all together, this is the best I could come up with. Is that awesome? I don't find that real attractive, but apparently these girls thought this was attractive. All right? So they thought they were beautiful. I think that's ridiculous. So you have these 21 different things. I actually have notes to describe every single one of them and they're probably a little different than the picture I gave you. The point is they went to great expense and great excess to draw attention to themselves. And now they were quite the show. They were quite the show. And the Lord says, I am going to strip you of your glory and your beauty. And what you have in these next verses, 24 and 25 and 26, you have the Lord's substitution. There's five times the word instead of is used here, where He takes something that was attractive, and then there's something put in its place. Instead of the perfume, now there's a stench. Instead of them wearing a sash, now they are seen as slaves with a rope around them. Instead of a nice hairdo, there's baldness. Instead of whatever, you have a robe, that's robe, not rope, robe, now they're wearing sackcloth, if they're wearing anything, and instead of beauty, there's a burning brand on their body, the mark of a slave. So this, they were stripped of their beauty, now it's a picture of disgrace and humiliation. God humble them, God humble them. The Lord took away their beauty, because their focus was all the outward man, all this junk, I'll tell you, something that's really precious for Christian women is to have a meek and a quiet spirit, to work on the inner man, the inner woman. There's nothing more beautiful than a Christian woman, whatever age, to be yielded to the Spirit of God, to be a spirit-filled woman. There's something beautiful about a spirit-filled woman at all ages. Here, these women, they were stripped of their pride in very humiliating ways. And then lastly, this is very sad, The Lord's gonna take away their lovers. When Jerusalem falls, there's a war. And wars do a lot of damage. Your men are gonna fall by the sword. You're mighty in the war. You look about what wars do. You know, World War II, Germany and France said they've lost one million men each. Britain, 500,000. Actually, that's World War I figures. So when you have war, you lose your men, you lose your lovers, ladies. And the men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in that war, and her gates," now that's metaphorical, Israel, Judah, "...shall lament and mourn, and she being desolate shall sit upon the ground." Your city's coming down, Judah's coming down, Jerusalem's coming down. Everything's being taken away. And sadly, there's going to be a shortage of men. Technically, verse 1 is the end of the chapter, so I'll read it. And someone said that this describes Tri-City Baptist Church. We have seven single women grabbing a hold of one poor guy that comes in the door. I didn't say that. I'm referencing someone. Some girl said, who I don't know, said that if a man-eating lion was delivered into our auditorium, it would starve. It would starve. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Where are the men? Where are the men? In that day, in the day of judgment, when Judah comes down, in that day seven women shall take hold of one man. Shortage of men, word does that. Same will eat our own bread and wear our own apparel, only let us be called by thy name to take away, to take away, to take away, our reproach. This chapter is all about God's takeaways. Starts with that word, it ends with that word. So when God is judging, these are the things that he is starting to take away, to peel away. What's the end of it? Where's it all going? Chapter 4, next week. Chapter 4. This is where it's all going. It's going to God. It's going to turn to Christ, this glorious person, this glorious branch, to turn to Jesus. I'd say as we close this morning, there's no doubt in my mind that God's dealing with our nation. Christians are not are not what we ought to be. We are more like the world. We are not unique. We're not distinct. We're not holy. We're not making much of a difference overall, big picture. And as a result, God is taking certain things away from us. In just a matter of time, He takes it all away. You have the collapse of a nation, the collapse of a nation. The only difference is God hasn't promised. There are not prophetic promises for America. We are not Israel. Israel will rebound. Israel will have a glorious day in the future. We're not Israel. And I see a nation declining and just being eroded. And I think we are to take responsibility for a lot of that, for a lot of that. And we need to step in the gap. We need an Isaiah who'll say, Lord, here am I. I volunteer. I'm going to be a volunteer. I want to serve you. I want to be a good witness. I want to have a consistent Christian life that stands behind this witness. And I really want to make a difference. And individuals like that and churches like that can make a difference in their area and can make a difference in this world. There's hope. There's encouragement. But it's going to take effort. It's going to take the grace of God for us as a church to really pull some things back. And I love our state of Colorado. I love it. I love it. I love it. But where it's leading and where it's going right now, I'm concerned and burdened. It breaks my heart to see the direction of our state. And here we are as Christians in this state. What are we doing about it? Are we standing in the gap? Are we praying for those in authority? Are we praying, Lord, use me? I want to make a difference, Lord. Would you this morning as we close in prayer, would you seek the Lord and ask him to make you an Isaiah, to make you a good witness for God, to represent him properly? We need 100% on this. We have a lot of volunteers. We need everyone to serve. Everyone has a niche here. If this is where God wants you to be, God has a ministry for you. Our goal is 100% involvement. No one's sitting on the bench. Everyone working, being co-laborers together, serving our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Let's bow for prayer. Heads are back.