of why we bow or worship only God, the creator. And I think I was closing out last time, Book of Romans, about presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice unto God. Because he's the one creator that's in it. We in his likeness and his image. There's no other likeness that we should bow down to or worship. You know, he given us a, himself and by faith, you know, we don't need to actually see God. We know God, we've been born again, he births us again, and it's something that he does within us. That's the circumcision of the heart, where he gives us a new heart. And by hearing of the gospel, we are born again to become children of God. Immediately, what starts to happen, you want to have a reciprocal action. As you learn of him, there's a reciprocal action going on when you begin to know him and what he did for you because he created us. He made us. He had shaped us and formed us. As he told Jeremiah, he shaped him and formed him in the womb. Even before Jeremiah known him, before anyone had known him, he had shaped us in the womb. And once we start or start realizing the God we serve, we are debtors. As we pray that prayer, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Start thinking about the man that owed the king such an awesome amount of money that he would never be able to repay him. He gave me eternal life. He gave me a new life. He redeemed me. He bought me back. And I feel an obligation or responsibility to him to give him my life back. Because he's the maker of it. He manufactured it. He made that life. He knows what to do best with it, so I give him my body as a living sacrifice to use it whatever way he wants to use it. Apostle Paul said a couple of times he described his life as an offering to God in the book of Philippians 2 and 17 and 2 Timothy 4 and 6. He used a metaphor of a drink offering to symbolize his life service to God. It says Paul said, but even if I'm being poured out like a drink offering. And he was joyful to serve God, even if his life ended in death. As Job says, though he slay me, yet shall I serve him. So each day as a way of life, we wanna give unto God. It is our purpose to serve him in whatever way we can and in whatever service I can do unto God, that's a reasonable service to do because he had done so much for me. It says redeeming the time because the days are evil. So every minute that I can use, that he gives me to use, I want to try to use it for his benefit. In other words, in ways that benefit the body of Christ. Representative of him. Second Timothy four and six says, for I'm already being poured out as a drink offering and the time of my departure has come. So he kind of viewed death as a transition to eternal life. rather than defeat. As Job says, I know one day I shall see him, and I shall see him for myself. I'm looking at it, myself, as laboring, and I found what he had created me for. He had created me for good works, to do good, to represent him, to be, as he said in the book of Psalms, lo, I've come in the volume of the book. in which it is written of me. You require not sacrifice of that which he would give it, but we present our body unto him. That's the only thing that we can give to him as a life. We no longer own our lives and we allow him to live his life through us. We put the old man to death. That's a voluntary sacrifice to present, not living for ourselves. We want to deny ourselves. He said, deny yourself and take up your cross and follow after me. So Paul's message was that believers should offer themselves as God's living sacrifices, not like in the old Testament, just as animal sacrifices. He encouraged believers to serve God without complaining. And a burnt offering, I think, as I was rounding it off, I was telling you about a burnt offering, what a burnt offering was. And a burnt offering was completely burned up. The ashes was completely... Something that's dedicated to God is no more because it belongs to God. You can't use that. A burnt offering symbolizes a life dedicated to God. A burnt offering symbolizes a loyal love. You giving Him is your all. There's nothing else you can give and nothing else you can do with it. A burnt offering symbolized consecration to God's will. You remember Jesus said, not thy will be done, but thy will be done. Not my will, but thy will be done. And as we pray, we pray that thy will be done, his kingdom come. We're looking for God and we're presenting ourselves and asking God to send more laborers into the vineyard to help us. Now, burnt offering also symbolizes self-examination, and that's what we do coming up the communion week, is we examine ourselves as the woman that had poured the oil on Christ's foot. She's seen her depravity, and she's seen herself as she really was, and that he was the one worthy of honor and worship. All of that money, that box of alabaster oil that she burst and spread out on his feet, he said that was going to be a memorial to remember her because that was the greatest thing that she could do for him. Judas said, well, why didn't we take that money and use it for the poor? He was greedy. He was stealing out the bag. He was going to use some of the money. Jesus said the poor you have with you all the time, but you don't have him with us. But in a way now we can have with him with us all the time by him saving us and reconciling us to him. And we're pulling off the old man and putting on Christ and walking in his presence. By an offering symbolized giving oneself as a living sacrifice Unto God you remember the first flock the first fruit we offered the first fruit to God When we get paid our tithes we give him the first of our blessings Because he had given it us and we dedicated the first portion to him that the best portion The first of their flock were to be offered to God. The firstborn was to be offered to God. Jesus has the preeminence and he said he's first and we're not even second. We're not in the class because he says there should be no other. We shouldn't worship any other. He's the first. He's the only one. He's the only one living in true God. So we shouldn't have any images or anything else that we prize or possess more either on a level with him. Why do we worship God? In the book of Psalms 99 and five it says, exalt ye the Lord our God and worship at his footstool for he is holy. God wants us to worship him because of what he is and what he does. And I say as a creator, the sustainer, the supplier, he's everything. He's our all in all. He's everything. He's our sufficiency. He's our life. He has become something to us that we realizing the more and more we learn of him, the more intimate our relationship and knowledge of him, the more we love him and the more we worship him. We won't forever, we'll ever worship God because of who he is, what he is, what he has done. the sufficiency of the Easter rewarder. to relate it. You understand? He's awesome. No one deserves that term awesome but God. But we call everything not awesome, the game, the dance, everything else because we are idolaters. We go worship something and if we don't worship God, we go look at other things as being great or significant or whatever, but they pale in comparison to what God is or what the worship we give to Him. He wants us to worship him because of his attributes and what they produce, because we become what we worship. If you worship devils, if you worship evil, As a man thinketh, so he is. That's why he tells us to meditate on his word day and night. That's the sufficiency of our lives. That's how man shall live, by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God. It goes into our making. Our very being is the worship of God because human nature, the way humans are, we will worship something. Yes, yes. Shirley Caesar, I think she made the song after Bob Dylan had made the thing, made the song about you go worship somebody. everybody's go worship some, I didn't figure out how that song goes or whatever, but we just was to worship the Lord. And I don't like it when it says we just was to, I think we need to worship the Lord. That's who we were born to worship. Anything else is false worship. It's false, it's idolatry, it's covetousness, it's whatever it may be, but it's not true worship. True worship is those that worship the Lord in spirit and in truth. In other words, their whole heart's in it. Their whole heart, their whole being. He talks about the people in the book of Malachi that were coming before him. Malachi 1 through 13, and also, I may not have it right now on here, but it was in Isaiah, the first chapter. through the 13th or the 15th verse when he was talking about destroying his vineyards because of the same thing that was going on in this nation today, that it was vain worship or idle worship, Isaiah 1, 13 through 15, Malachi, the 10th verse says, oh, that there were even one among you whose duty it is to minister to me, who would shut the gates so that you would not kindle fire on my altar uselessly. With an empty, worthless pretense, I am not pleased with you, says the Lord of hosts. Nor will I accept an offering from your hand. The living Bible reads, oh, to find one priest among you who would shut the doors Refuse this kind of sacrifice. I have no pleasure in it says the Lord Almighty. I will not accept your offering Here he is wanting to close the doors of the temple, of the church, and saying, look, let's just close the door so you won't commit these violations, because I'm not listening, I'm not hearing, these are not acceptable. It's like Cain's office offering, the disposition of Cain's offering caused Cain's offering to be rejected. Cain had a mind and a thought already to murder his brother Abel. He was envious, jealous, and we don't know all of the intricacies as we learn more of God's word. God may show us the deep things in that because we shouldn't hate our brother in our heart. He tells us if we hate our brother, if we have art against our brother, before you come to his altar making an offering, you need to get right with your brother first. It's no use coming to church being pretentious as we are pretentious in a hypocritical nation drawing near to God. God would rather us just not even have church services doing these things. That's what happened in Isaiah, the first chapter, first verse to the 15th verse when he was talking about it. The context gives no indication that those Israelites during that time were not observing the Sabbath on the seventh day. rather their attitude and the way they were observing it contrasted with God's desires. In other words, it was their heart, it was their attitude, it was their disposition. Just like come this Sunday, a lot of people are going to church services. They may come in to worship God, they may love God, but the Superbowl's gonna have a focus. Those that have late afternoon church, I don't know what time the Superbowl, I think that it start moving it to five, 5.30 or later in the afternoon, so everybody, because that's the worldwide focus, it's the Super Bowl. And they have those televisions and big screens and things, even in the church now, giving God, pushing God to the side, giving sports to center stage. They're images, they're idols. Carnally, man feels free to worship God as he good and well pleases. These attitudes, as well as the practice, breaks the second commandment that's breaking that second commandment of making graven images, worshiping something other than God. He, talking about the people in the time of Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament, he says, they go through the temple rituals and perform all your sacrifices. And it does not mean a thing to me because your attitude is right. You do not realize who I am. You're just going through the motions and it's half-hearted service. It's like, You know, I don't like watching TV with my family anymore. You know, it's not the same because no one is focused on the television as what's going on there. Watching television and texting and doing other things. A lot of families have to come up and say, no tech, no phones or whatever at the dinner table. If the family's eating together, the family eating together has kind of disappeared. During holidays, you know, some of them we eat at varying times or whatever, but it's hard to get everybody there with one meal focused on each other. A family communion meal, that's always something will come up. What's the gift first place, you know, and you go to churches and go to different places people supposedly hearing the sermon and everything and cell phones and things going off and that's an interruption. What's more important, God or the interruption? Unless you're a heart surgeon or something that's desperately needed and your phone go off and you have your emergency responder or something, you should learn to cut those things off. Learn where the off button is. Learn even if you have to take the battery out of it or whatever because If God's speaking, if a man of God's speaking, you wouldn't want to disinterrupt the man of God. You wouldn't want to disinterrupt the focus of the thought. You have to be considerate of those around you. Worshiping the creation is wrong, and that's where we go off into idolatry, and God talks about that in the book of Romans, the first chapter of Romans. Now, we're not just looking at the Old Testament of building idols and idolatry because we learned that covetousness is idolatry, but we also learned that when you drawn away from the word of God into false worship, in other words, these preachers in the word of God, different things become graven images of your place before God. before the true spirit of worship and in truth. Romans 1 18 through 25 says, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness, because that which may be known of God is manifest to them, for God has showed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. Because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were they thankful, but became vain in their imaginations and in their thoughts. And their foolish hearts was darkened. And I talked about the thoughts and imaginations last week. and that's what has happened to America. We're becoming like our politician and religious leaders who have led us in darkness and kind of the book and revelations are kind of in the condition as it was in Malachi that they need repentance, they need turning back to God. We're being shaped and formed in the image of the beast. It's a beast world system, a Babylonian world system to where the false prophets are making us worship the beast. In other words, it's our religion that has taught us, preached to us, and taught to us doctrinally error. Doctrinal error. We've erred from the truth. So Israel knew, Israel, I'm not saying that that worship day had changed, but the worship wasn't from the heart. The worship wasn't sincere. The people were not worshiping God as they were. And he said that in the book of Matthew, that this people honor me with their mouths, but their hearts are far from me. This is replicative of this nation today. This is a very wicked and evil propagandized place to be. We have to stand up because only a remnant would be saved because the beast, the devil has deceived the whole nation, the whole world. Well, whatever nation you be in, they're all fallen. They all have become Babylon because all of the nations of the world are being smitten by that stone that's been cut out without hands. So God's people are rising, but the mass multitude are going the broad way to destruction because of wrong worship. the way they worship and what they're worshiping. So God has made it evident to them since the creation and they had rejected this. They're worshiping the things that are made with men's hands. So they fail to believe and trust in him and they are without excuse and without a defense. On the contrary, they became worthless in their thinking, godless with pointless reasonings and silly speculations. Claiming to be wise, they became fools in exchange to glory and majesty and excellence of the immortal God for an image of worthless idols in the shape of mortal man and birds and four-footed reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the lust of their own hearts to sexual impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them, abandoning themselves to degrading power of sin, because by choice they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worship and serve the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever. God had put this knowledge in their hearts and they rejected God. Their devotion is not to God, but it's to themselves, to their finances. And that's where their hearts are, wherever your heart is. Matthew 6, 21. A lot of people came up during this lecture and they said, well, they know the candidate was flawed. They know his character is not right, but he's able to make us money. So Mama being their God, but they finding out that that's a flawed image because you rejected God, you rejected the truth. You chose that which is betraying you already. It's already a betrayal and it's being built on the wrong foundation that has to fall. That's why I say Babylon is falling. No matter how sorry you are or turning, unless you a child of God and God grant you repentance, you're part of fallen Babylon. You've drunk the wine of the wrath of the fornication of the harlot of Babylon. Matthew 6, 21, he says, but store for yourselves treasure in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart your heart's desires, your life centers on that. That's what your life centers on. Which way the stock market's going, where's the money, what's it gonna cost me? No matter what I say, no matter what principles, they was talking about the tariffs this weekend that would take effect, but when those tariffs were supposed to take effect, immediately the stock market crashed Monday morning and they had to pause the markets. And they say our leader lied to us and say he don't watch the market or attend to the market. Well, if he doesn't, that would be an error on the leader's part. Now, just to say he backtracked and changed his mind, because when you waffle, when you double-minded, not just in secular things, it's not permitted at all in spiritual things to waffle, to be double-minded. the kingdom of, if they were seeking the kingdom of God and his righteousness, they would suffer through the things that they put in place. They've already said there's gonna be pain and suffering. So if God's leading you, why not stay the course? God doesn't change the course. We need to stay the course. But God may be showing us other things, but if we worship these things, our images, you're swayed by your image as to your image could makes all sort of excuse and you don't call your image to accountability. Because you worship that. Some people's spouses can do no wrong, or their children can't do any wrong. And instead of disciplining them, or confronting the problem, they're ignoring the problem, or smoothing it out, or compromise, or tolerate the problem, which only makes it worse. So God tells us to worship Him, and He's gonna lead us through the light and the darkness. He's gonna lead us through the shadow of the valley of evil. Now, that achieving dominates our thinking, planning, and conduct if we're thinking on the kingdom of God, if we're meditating on the things of the, but if we follow the dictates of the world, that changing, we will be twist and turn, making all sorts of excuses. The desire to get this thing replaces devotion, and we should give to God and forces us into sins in other areas. Thus, we become idolaters because now we retrieving and backing back from full-time commitments. Now, treasure doesn't necessarily have to be money. Treasure is whatever we value highly, what we take great pains to serve, honor, preserve, and embellish. So, if you're not known for your word, some people are not known for having a word, and That's what I say. We see that we have leaders that are untrustworthy. They're corruptible on His face. And if we can't see this, God has darkened our minds. He tells us about turning them over to a reprobate mind to whereby they believe a lie. Because in becoming like their idols and not allowing God's word to wash and cleanse them in receiving the love of the truth, they believe a lie and love a lie. So there, as Jesus told the Pharisees and the people that are approaching him. He says no you're not of Abraham you of your father the devil because why of their Characteristics. Yes. So if you like lying and wheeling and dealing the works of the flesh See, because those of us that are born again, those of us that are worshiping God, we become so thankful because God is consistently showing us our depravity in the mirror to where we can change those vices into virtues. He cleanses us up. He doesn't save us in our sin. He saves us from our sin. So we can't continue to see, and as Joshua told his people, you can't serve the Lord. You need to choose the God that you can serve. But as a whole, he told them, you can't serve the Lord. At that time, they still had other gods among them. They still had other gods along with them, and among them, we'll see when they captured, when the king captured Asenacherib, I think it was, the king of Assyria, He displaced the people in the Northern Kingdom because their idolatry had brought about their captivity. Idolatry brings you into captivity. When you worship other gods, whether that be through covetous or whatever, and I told you, covetousness is idolatry. That's why a lot of us can't see the characteristics of being an idolater, is that we're covetous and not knowing that covetousness is a sin, that it's idolatry. 2nd Kings 17 chapter the 33rd verses is They feared the Lord and served their own gods after the manner of the nations whom they carried away from hence the people that were among the Jewish people, among the people in the northern kingdom, the lions, God has sent lions to destroy them because they said the people that's brought into the land don't know how to worship the gods of that land. So the people begin to fear God. They brought in priests to teach them. the fear of God, but they feared the Lord and served their own gods. That's what we're doing today. They may have a fear of God, but it's not a reverential fear of God. It's a slight knowing of God. It's an ignorance of God. In other words, they don't realize that you can't serve God and hold on to your idols and hold on to evil and hatred and bitterness, you have to repent. All of this is an action that God doesn't allow, but the preaching and teaching has taught you religiously that God tolerates these things and they've compromised with sin. That's why he was telling them in the book of Tyre that you have that woman Jezebel there. who have taught my servants to commit fornication and eat things sacrificed unto idols. I'll kill her and her children, throw them in a bed of death. Same as the church that was in Sperner, where was this other church at, that they had the Nicene's there, the Nicolaceans there, those that had the doctrines of the Nicolaceans. It had those that held to the doctrine of Balaam. They allowed the doctrine of Balaam there. And so we see intertwined into the churches, they call in the name of Jesus Christ. Satan's ministers have been transformed into angels of light, but they're not true preachers of the word of God. And they have conformed the churches and allowing the churches to tolerate, you'll see homosexuality, same-sex marriage, heterosexuals living a life with binary sexual orientations and all of these other things that have been synergized. You have a synergistic religion. They brought all these tight pagan religions in there, Halloween, Easter, Christmas, All of these paganistic, the ones that was weeping for Tamu and offering up fire to the queen of heaven and all of these things, they were afraid of God, but it didn't really change their lives. If you see somebody that says that they are Christian, but they don't have a change of life, there's a problem there. They hadn't been converted. They hadn't, but they're like Simon the Saucer. He was baptized. but it didn't change him. Many a people are baptized in water, but they hadn't received the promise of the spirit. Simon's seen this action, this power going on. He said, well, look, let me buy that power. Give me that power to where I can lay hands. You're trying to buy something that you don't have even yourself. The way to get that and the way to give it to others is that you truly repent and turn to God, but that's something you can't do. That's something God has to do. He has to choose you to birth you into his family. That's why I say, that's why we worship him because he has made us and he thankful. It's just like a spouse, whether it's male or female and wanting to get married has been all made for a long time or has been, unmarried for many a year, but in desiring a spouse, but desiring a mate, and God blesses them with a husband or wife. And years later, they start taking that spouse for granted, not cooking, not working, not doing the things of a spouse, not doing the things that they did when they first got married. that's a sign of unthankfulness, a sign of ungratefulness. All of these things reflect on God because the attributes of God's people are opposite of the world. And he tells us in the book of Romans that they become unthankful, unholy, Covenant breakers? They break in the marriage vows. That's what they were doing in the book of Malachi. They was dealing treacherously with the spouses of their youth. God is no longer, if you read that chapter, chapter two of Kings 17 chapter, going down in there, God no longer is addressing the Samaritans about what they were doing worshiping God and the other gods that they knew. But God is saying that he was driven to defeat and scatter Israel because they were guilty of the exact same sin, and that's why the northern tribes were scattered. That's what scattered the northern tribes. They too had blended the worship of the true God with outright paganism. utterly corrupting the relationship he had established with them. He told them that they would be thorns in your flesh unless you completely get rid of the inhabitants of the land. Unless we tear down the idols, we can't Compromise that's why it's dangerous eating it. That's why Daniel didn't compromise He says he didn't want to defile himself Don't get too close and make the associations and things you do because you'll see yourself bowing down We have a senator here in Louisiana Bill Cassidy He's trying to save his job, but at the cost of saving jobs he's going against a some principles that he stood for. But as he stood for those principles, you remember, Satan or the people of the world are very unforgiving. Sooner or later, he'll have to pay that same price Jeff Sessions did there already. They already have Fleming to run against him in the primary. Whether he vote for JFK or not, they just needed him to put forth that nomination, but he's gonna be cast aside. He won't make re-election, I don't think. Because we have to stand and go down. We have to do like the Hebrew boys. That's why I talked to you about the Hebrew boys. We have to go into the flaming fire. We have to do as Whitman, as Liz Cheney, as Adam Kinzinger. You have to just go on into the fire. You have to sacrifice yourself. There's no use changing because God hates a quitter. If you on God's side, you just have to be, that's what Paul said. He was poured out like a drink offering. He went out, they chopped his head off. He wasn't gonna deny God though. He had fought a good fight, he's seen his death, but he's seen eternal life as he stayed, of course. You remember, I was preaching steadfast and immovable in the faith. So worship is devotion. This leader, their leader, the leader of this nation, he requires 100% devotion to him. You can't be devoted to any principles or anything else. You must vote the party line that he's telling you to do. You can't, they're saying that him and one of his advisors, one of his friends go meet head to head because it's two batmen and you can't have two batmen. One, somebody has to be Robin. So you got two narcissists and somebody has to be the head. You got two narcissistic people. You see, it's just like Jesus Christ, when he came, that's why God has Jesus Christ, the only begotten of the father, because he said his father was greater than he was, even though he laid aside his deity. He laid aside and came as a man. He humbled himself. That's why it's humility involved. We see that this anointing in Galilee, this woman I was telling you about, one of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him and he went to the Pharisee's house. in a region of Galilee and reclined at the table. Now there was a woman in the city who was known as a sinner. And when she found out that he was reclining at the table in the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster vial of perfume and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began wetting his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and respectfully kissed his feet as an act signifying both affection and submission and anointed them with perfume. Now, Simon the Pharisee, seeing this, who had invited Jesus, he said to himself, if this man was a prophet, he would know who and what sort of woman this is who has touched him, as she is a notorious sinner and outcast. So Jesus answered and said unto Simon, and he says, Simon, I have something to say to you. He said, reply, teacher, say it. He says, a certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed him 500 denarii and the other 50. When they had no means of repaying the debts, he freely forgave them both. So which of them will love him more? Simon answered, the one I take it for whom he forgave more. Jesus said to him, you've decided correctly. Then turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, do you see this woman? I came into your house, but you failed to extend me the usual courtesy shown to a guest. You gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair demonstrating love. You gave me no welcoming kiss, but from the moment I came in, she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not even anoint my head with ordinary oil, but she's anointed my feet with a costly and rare perfume. Therefore I say unto you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loves much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little. Then he said to her, your sins are forgiven. Those who are reclining at the table begin to say unto themselves, who is this who has the power to forgive sin? Notice she's like, I told you, sometimes you have to go down with the ship. You're fully devoted to him. You don't care who sees you. She, in a humiliating gesture, was kissing his feet as a sign of devotion, not caring what public opinion was. She was doing the act of a slave by washing his feet. And that showed gratitude for her many sins. She said, this is a notorious sin, though her sins be many, because she was a true worshiper of him. She realized her depravity, what her life had held, and she's gonna worship him. And I'm sure that was a lifelong test. It's memorialized in the Bible. her dedication, her devotion to him. And devotion comes and devotion leaves. Cassidy, if he's seen a flawed principle in a man that is in his administration, he voted to impeach on those characteristics. If a person is flawed, if we are flawed, we have to say when the emperor doesn't have any clothes on. We have to say when our children are not right. We have to say, we have to count the cost of following after the Lord. We have to stand for the truth. So if that's a principle, if that's a belief that he held, if God's working, and that's what I say, God has to, build up the belief systems in our lives, he has to build the virtues that we stand on. And the Hebrew boys were standing on the virtue that no matter what comes of them, they wasn't gonna bow and they wasn't gonna worship an image because our God who created us, who's sufficient, he is able to deliver us. Whether he delivers or not, we're not gonna transgress that God. Job didn't curse God. His wife taught him to curse God and die. But Job knew this. That's why I say God has to give you that devotion to Him. You just have to lose your family. You have to lose your life. That devotion is permanent. When God draws you, He continues. You come into a greater knowledge and understanding of God. And as Paul said, all his Phariseeism, he Encountered his loss. He was one of the most profitable Apostles to Jesus Christ after he denied his phariseeism He wasn't allowed in the ranks of them. He used to be a Pharisee of Pharisees, but now he's preaching the gospel the very gospel he persecuted God has a greater things for us I'm sure that this box of alabaster oil, no matter how much the wealth, is like the wealth that Moses left behind in Egypt for doing the right thing. He could have been a pharaoh over Egypt, but through faith, through faith we have to leave Egypt, through faith we have to leave Babylon. Hadid expressed her love and her gratitude, springing from the recognition of a faith in the greatness in what she did and her unworthiness. Whereas Simon may have thought himself on the same par as Jesus, because here he was judging Jesus, because you see, if this man was a prophet, he would no matter what man or woman this is, she wouldn't even allow him to touch her. a self-evaluation of himself. It's just like the Pharisees that went in and prayed with the public and says, I'm not like him. I fast and I tithe. See, they don't, we are blinded to our own depravity. To me, the leadership we have in this nation, the people, we have a professor that's, Troy, he's a tenured professor, so I don't know, if he can be fired or not, but they're trying to come up against him. More or less, since we are a nation of lawbreakers, see, the Constitution and none of that matters because even though we said that that's our law, it's a hypocritical nation. They'll find a way to do wrong. There's injustices in the nation. It's not a nation that follows the rule of law. That's why the insurrectionists of January 6th in high positions now and doing all of these things because they're calling good evil and evil good. That's why I said during the time of Isaiah, during the time injustice was rampant, social and civil, that's why we mourn and sigh for what has happened in the nation. and to the good people and what's happening to the people of the nation. The worship has to be of the heart. God has to change the heart. So worship is the way we live. It's a life of worship. This was her life, this is the life she had. But Simon's life, it was a life that didn't give him a sense of obligation to Jesus because he felt he was just about all right. You know, a lot of people feel, you know, this leader, I think he said he didn't have nothing to repent of and nothing to pray about or whatever. You know, we have people that feel, see, if you feel you're all right, that you really don't need God, that you're good. That's why Jesus say the whole deed, not a physician. I've come for the sinners. I've come for the sick among you. He come to heal those that realize their depravity. Until we realize our depravity, we can't worship. Worship is a way of life. It's walking in a way of life. And as I said, The people that are walking in the image and out of this world are being turned over to darkness because they love darkness and that's what's forming them. You become what you worship. But if he's the light, if Jesus Christ is the light, we're drawing to the light and we are ever increasing and getting more light as we worship God. And the book of Exodus 20 and seven says, you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. that he is irreverently in false affirmation and ways that impugn the character of God. For the Lord will not hold you guiltless, nor leave you unpunished for the one who takes his name in vain." Now with that commandment, we see the punishment coming to those that are calling on the name of Jesus who did not repent of their sins, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness." Those are the ones he's talking about in Romans. They knew God, they once knew God, but they didn't glorify God because they loved the world and the things of the world, the ways of the world. That's blasphemy of the Holy Ghost. They love darkness rather than truth, and they fight against the truth. Those are the ones that Jesus says kill the prophets, and they rose up and killed Jesus. It involves glorifying God in every aspect of our lives. So these people are lying and they're using the name of God. Paul had those during his time that were preaching the gospel for arterial motives other than the salvation of mankind. These wasn't true preachers of the gospel. But they was trying to preach the gospel policy to add to his barn. They was preaching for profit. They were hirelings There's many a reason people preach the gospel and that's why I said God examines the thoughts and the intents Now God does not want us concerned with what he looked like and that's what we're doing in the world We walking by sight and not by faith. I We're walking by sight and all of this that looks good, but that's the temptation that Satan offered to Jesus. And same thing she offered to Eve, the lust of the eyes. The lust of the eyes. He says, look at that fruit. Is it one to make one wise? Doesn't it look good to eat? All of these things looks good, but we have to be able to examine them in discerning these things because it seemed as though these people have no need of nothing and they're not desirous, but they're led to sins. Jesus says you poor wretched and negative and that you need to have your eyes anointed and your ears open. These people in destitute shape So we know that God generally looks like a man. That's what Jesus Christ came in, but the image of God. You see, we have to be able to see that. That's why Paul says, follow me as I follow Christ. So that's what I was saying about Cassidy. If you see the image is flawed, what Vindman was standing up on was the truth. This person doesn't tell the truth. What does the truth does? The truth makes you free. Whereas a lie brings you into bondage and further into captivity. That's why they were in captivity, they became idolaters. They were covetous, they went after things of the flesh. He wants us to know him and an intimate knowledge of God comes through worshiping him. And the entire Bible reveals God's mind, his character, his attributes, office, power, will, his promises, his plans, and his relationship with us. It's all in studying the word and being a doer of the word, praying and staying in the presence of God and having a relationship with God. You have to have that relationship with God. Whereas these people in Isaiah didn't have a relationship with God. And God said he was gonna dig up his vineyard that he was gonna destroy and let his vineyard be destroyed. And we right now at a time when Babylon is about to fall. Babylon is falling and we have to take it as falling because if God's word says this shall come to pass, it's a done deal. So it's not like Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar built this golden image, and that's what the people have been doing, laboring on the golden image. But the true children of God Why did the Hebrews didn't bow? Because you remember, they seen the same, God gave them the same interpretation of that dream as Daniel had, because you remember Daniel says, let us go back and pray to God for the interpretation of that dream. So all four of them knew God had showed them what would happen is that kingdom would fall, that that was a declining value in that image. So it wouldn't be no use in bowing to an image that was false, it wasn't true, it was made after man, man-made, that's not made by God. So we can't worship that because we know the true God accomplished what he said he's gonna accomplish. So as God has a true preacher to come in and preach his word, It doesn't give it all to you at one time, but it causes a hunger into you. If you go back and meditate on the teaching and the preaching, as you living a life of goodness, as you doing all these things, it takes a life lived for God to reveal more unto you because God is not like man. He can't be deceived. And God knows, and like I said, this works, we're growing by the principles of God, being doers of God's word and children of God's word. That's why God's children continue to worship him no matter how many. He says, I'll be the God in the midst of you wherever two or three are gathered together. So no matter how small you become, that little flock, it takes a true minister of God speaking the truth of God for people to be prepared in the image of God. That's why so many today, no matter how mega churches they're going to or whatever, if it's a flawed image, you're being gathered together to be burned. because each man's works could be tried by fire. So I'm not here to argue the point with you. I'm here to declare the word of God, to walk in the way of God, to not be a judge of those others because I can't change the path of the trajectory in which the world is on. But I can only pray and rejoice in the fact that his will is being done, and it will be done on earth as it is in heaven, and that he's gonna save everyone, that none would be lost. So I'm gonna put that same effort, whatever I do, I do it as unto the Lord, and I'm gonna put my best into it. Whatever you do, whatever you lay your hand to, do it as if you were doing it for the Lord. Put 100% in it. You're not worshiping the works of your hand because you're working the works of God, because it's God in us that both will and to do. We're sitting in heavenly places. We're being led by the Spirit of God. That's why each morning I pray, let me be led by the Spirit of God. Guide me and lead me and deliver me from evil. And so walking by faith each and everything I do that day is a faith. Why is that? Why is that? Because whatever is not a faith is sin. Whatever is not a faith is sin. And we serve a God of faith. We have faith in Christ, but we also have the faith of Christ. We're contending for that faith that was once delivered unto the saint. But you watch it, there's different faith, there's faith in faith. There's a sensual devilish wisdom. These charlatans that are coming along, they have some schemes and devices, but they are of Satan. the essential and devilish. We have to be aware. So the prophet Ezekiel, I was going to say something else, as long as a false god is before them, they will be going in the wrong direction. And until God removes those false prophets and false teachers, they'll be continually making those idols in their own image because why? They don't have the fear or reverence of God in them, they fear man. And at some point of time, that becomes fixed and fitted in. That's why we bow or worship only God the creator. We don't worship anything else, anyone else. And Heavenly Father, as we come before you, Lord God, help us to