 Hey, man, so keep your face there in 1 Kings chapter 22. We're going to be looking at that story in just a little bit. We're going to focus on the beginning of this story, where, of course, Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat allies himself with King Ahab and goes to war in this ill-advised sermon, this even, this ill-advised alliance between these two men. You know, a good king, King Jehoshaphat, the son of Asa, and this wicked king of the north, King Ahab. That's what we're going to talk about this evening, and this evening's sermon is something, it's a topic that is very important, and it's very important that you get right, because this topic tonight could literally make you or break you in your Christian life and your actual life. Look at Proverbs chapter 11 verse 14 on the front of your bulletin. You don't even have to turn there, just look at the front of your bulletin, where the Bible says where no council is, and people fall, but in the multitude of counselors, there is safety. So we see here that council is a good thing, meaning advice that's given to you is a good thing that Proverbs 11 verse number 14 is telling you, but it has to be the right type of council, it has to be the right type of advice. As we see in 1 Kings chapter number 22, in look at verse, just look at verse number six of this story, Jehoshaphat wisely says, let's get some prophets and see, you know, and it's like, hey, come with me, you're like my brother, my enemy is your enemy, and let's go and fight the Syrians, let's go fight these people. And Jehoshaphat wisely says, let's get some prophets and see what the word of God says if we should do this. But look at verse number six, the Bible says then in King of Israel, this is Ahab, gathered the prophets together, about 400 men and said unto them, shall I go to Ramoth, Gilead to battle, or shall I forbear? And they said, go up, for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the King. Jehoshaphat is wise, he doesn't believe this, and he says, is there anybody else we can ask? Look at verse number seven, is there not here a prophet of the Lord besides that we might inquire of him? And the King of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, there is one man, Mekai, the son of Imlah, by whom we may inquire of the Lord, but I hate him, for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil. And Jehoshaphat said, let not the King say so. So basically he says that there is one prophet of what you're looking for, but he only prophesies evil towards me, meaning he only prophesies bad things about me. But the point I wanna make before we start the sermon this evening is that there was 400 people telling him the wrong thing to do. And there was only one telling him the right thing to do. And that's what I wanna talk about tonight. I wanna talk about this idea of bad advice or bad counsel in our lives. I mean, this is literally something, if you cannot figure out how to recognize good counsel from bad counsel, it could ruin your life. It's something that is that important. Now look, we're living, turn to Daniel chapter 12. We're living in an age, I mean, it's literally called the information age that we're living in right now. Ever since the late 19th or the late 20th century, we're living in this age where just information is just readily available to everybody. And you say, what information? All information. You can find out information about anything, any subject, anything. Anybody can, anybody with an internet connection, a library card, whatever. I mean, people, you don't even, people are like, what's a library today? But I mean, all information is available. Look at Daniel chapter 12 and look at verse number four. Daniel chapter 12 and verse number four. The Bible says, but thou, O Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, even to the time of the end, many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased. Now, this is talking about a sign of the end times, meaning many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased. Now I need knowledge here as information. I don't necessarily look at this as wisdom, okay? But I look at knowledge here as just information. Talking about information, the availability of information will be increased. I believe Daniel chapter 12 and verse number four is the strongest argument that we will see the end times in our lifetime. I don't know if that'll happen or not, but if there's a verse in the Bible that says that we might, it's this one. Because knowledge, there's never been a time where more knowledge is more available, more information is more available to more people than right now. But you ask yourself, you say, well then if so much information is available to everybody, why are we so dumb? Why are we so foolish? And I'm gonna talk a little bit about why that is, but I mean the main reason is that a lot of that information is bad. A lot of that knowledge is false. For somebody that needs to know or wants to know the truth, and the truth just eludes them, it's because they're not able to sort between the bad information and the good information. And that's super important that we understand how to do that. So tonight I wanna give you three categories of bad counsel that you can look for in your life. I'm gonna give you three biblical categories of just sources of bad counsel. So if you can recognize the bad counsel, maybe you'll be able to separate it from the good counsel and move forward in your Christian life in a proper way. The first one is this, turn to second Peter chapter two, second Peter chapter two. I'm gonna give you three sources of bad counsel. Remember, and look, you're gonna, we're gonna go through the sermon tonight and I hope you pay attention, but remember the bad counsel in your life will likely outweigh the good counsel. I'm kinda giving you an answer up front there. There was 400 prophets that, prophets that were giving bad advice, literally advice that killed the man. They were telling him to do something that would literally cost him his life. It was 400 to one. This kinda gives us an idea of how much bad counsel we will have to weed through in our lives. So I'm gonna give you three categories. And the first one is a huge one, especially where we live and when we live today. Look at second Peter chapter two, look at verse number one. Second Peter chapter two, look at verse number one. The Bible says, but there were false prophets among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you who privilege shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them and bring upon themselves swift destruction. So we're kinda talking about this case in our Sunday evening sermon series. We're talking about false prophets that teach Calvinism, false prophets that teach Lordship salvation. We talked about false prophets that teach dispensationalism. All these different false prophets are bringing in these damnable heresies, but look at what it says happens to them. It says they bring upon themselves swift destruction, meaning them doing this, spreading this falsehood is going to destroy themselves. But look at verse number two. And this is where we come in. It says, and many shall follow their pernicious ways. Now look, if the false prophet and the false teacher would just destroy themselves, fine, we wouldn't even have a sermon series about it. I mean, who cares? Let them get up and scream a bunch of stuff that's not true and nobody cares what they say and they die and they go to hell and whatever. But it's not that simple. Why? Because many people follow them. And what happens is the people that follow them, the people that take their counsel will bring upon themselves swift destruction as well. Look, somebody that follows a false prophet teaching workspace salvation and doesn't get saved is gonna go to hell just like the false prophet. This is why we're preaching about these things here, trying to warn people about the actual gospel, what the Bible says, and try to get people to warn people about this. That's the point of the sermon series. But look, look at verse number three. This is point number one in verse number three. It says, and through covetousness, they shall with feigned words make merchandise of you. That's the first thing, the first category of bad counsel you need to watch for in your life is people that want to make merchandise of you. We're not talking about, we're talking about the false prophets on Sunday evenings in our sermon series, but tonight I'm telling you a source of bad counsel in your life, a huge source of bad counsel in your life is people that wanna make merchandise of you. You say, what do you mean? What are you talking about? Look, our culture today is based on this. Our culture today is based on people trying to make merchandise of you. What does that mean? It means they're trying to make money off of you. They're trying to use you for financial gain. Turn to Proverbs chapter 21. Turn to Proverbs chapter 21. It's everywhere around you. And you're saying, I don't see it. Well, I'm glad that we're talking about it tonight because it is everywhere around you. Let me just give you some examples. This idea of just consumerism in the United States. This idea of all this advertising that is out there constantly in your face in every form of media. It's advising you. It is counseling you to do what? To spend all your money. And more. Just spend, spend, spend. And you don't have the money, so borrow the money. I was at, when we were in Sacramento, I went to a Bass Pro shop with Ashley last night. And I like going there. I like going there and looking around and I don't go there that much. I don't know who would ever actually go buy things there that they needed. But I like going there and looking at things and it's kind of an experience to go there and all of that. But we were walking through the boat section and looking at the brand new shiny boats and all this. And every single one of those boats had a pedestal in front of it with a price tag on it. And I told Ashley in preparation for this sermon, it was perfect. Because I told Ashley, there's one large number. They're very easy to see on the tag. And there was this brand new boat. And on the very large number, I just showed Ashley, she was about 15 feet away. And I said, what is the number that pops out to you on this price tag? And she said, $662. And that's how much that boat was per month. And then you see a tiny little number in the very corner that says $86,000. It's this tiny little number. You have to get right up to the tag and look right at it. And you see $86,000 for this brand new shiny boat. But what people see and what they want people to see is the $662 a month. Because they're like, you know what? I can do that. You know what's ironic? It's ironic that you could not afford to buy a pair of sunglasses at Bass Pro Shop. You could literally go there and have $12 in your checking account and not be able to buy a pair of sunglasses there but they will sell you an $86,000 boat. They will let you sign that paperwork and walk out that door and get yourself $86,000 in debt. Why? Because they're making merchandise of you. You're like, but I don't have the money. Why would they let me make that kind of decision? They don't care. They will find any way possible to get you approved to buy, they'll finance it over 22 years. They'll give you, I mean, whatever it takes, whatever it takes to get that payment down to, I can only afford $620 a month. They'll make it happen. So you can sign that paper. But what are they doing? They're making merchandise of you. It's bad advice. It's bad counsel. And I was on an airplane the other day and they were offering credit cards on the airplane. They're offering credit cards to buy your wifi and your peanuts on the credit card. You could literally get yourself in debt on a 45 minute flight from Phoenix to Fresno. It's crazy. I mean, who wants to pay 28% interest on a bag of peanuts? But they will do it. Why? They're making merchandise of you. It's everywhere, folks. Student loans. You'll have, you'll say, you'll go to a college advisor and you'll say, I want to be an underwater basket weaver that makes $0 a year. And they will say, that sounds great. Sign here. And they will let you take tens of thousands of dollars and yay hundreds of thousands of dollars out in debt and ruin your life. Student loans are extra wicked because there's one way to get out of them and that's to die. You can't declare bankruptcy. You have to die. They'll garnish your wages until you're dead. It's extra wicked. But they don't care why because they're making merchandise of you. You need to recognize this, folks. Everybody's trying to sell you something. Everybody's a car salesman out there today. If you gave everybody 25 bucks a month that won $25 a month, you'd be broke. I've told this one right here and all the other kids since they were this tall that it doesn't matter how much money you make, you can spend it all. You can spend every single penny. A lot of people think that all my problems will go away if I just make a little bit more money but you can spend every penny. It doesn't matter how much you make. Are you in Proverbs 21? Look at verse number 20. It's bad advice. It's bad advice and it's people trying to make merchandise of you. Look at Proverbs 21 in verse number 20. The Bible says, here's the Bible advice on this topic. It says there's treasure to be desired and oil in the dwelling of the wise. You know what it says? In the dwelling in the house of somebody that's wise that doesn't spend all their money, you'll find value there. You'll find things that have value. But a foolish man spendeth it up. A foolish person listens to this counsel and spends every dollar and then more. A foolish person does that. Turn one chapter over to Proverbs 22 in verse number seven. Here's a universal truth. No matter what country you live in, no matter what culture you live in, Proverbs 22.7 is a universal truth. You're like, America, freedom, I'm free. I'm America, I got a gun and I'm free. But look at Proverbs 22.7. This is a universal truth. The Bible says the rich rule with over the poor and the borrower is servant to the lender. You get it yourself into a bunch of debt and you got nothing to show for it. You're a servant. I don't care what country you live in. I don't care what century you live in. This is true. Get yourself into a point where you got a bunch of debt you can't pay back. You're a servant. That's just the way it is. And look, it's all about people making merchandise of you. You can't follow this. Our entire culture is based on this. Our entire culture is based on constant consumption. Unfortunately, look, it's not my problem. It's not my problem that the culture of this country just based itself on people just needing to constantly consume. That's not my problem. The Bible says I shouldn't operate that way. Just because that's what everybody else does and that's the counsel that everybody's trying to lead me into doesn't mean that I should go against what the Bible says. We're talking about how to filter out bad advice. And I'm talking about people are gonna make merchandise to you and they don't care if it destroys you. Spending and not saving is bad, the Bible says. Things, stuff is made this way on purpose. We just talked about this the other night with the guys in the church. But there's something I brought up the other night. It's called the Great Lightbulb Conspiracy. And this is a true story. In 1910 or 1920, right around that time, there was a cartel, meaning a group. We're talking about the electrification of America. This huge new technology had come out where electricity was coming to normal everyday general population American. And light bulbs were a big deal. So the light bulb manufacturers got together and they called it a cartel because it was basically this group of manufacturers that all got together and they decided that they were going to limit the lifespan of a light bulb to 1,000 hours. You say, why in the world would they do that? I thought light bulbs just burned out because you know, it just wears out. There's a light bulb in Livermore, California that's been burning for over 100 years. Livermore, California, it's in a fire station there. They know how to make a light bulb that can burn for 100 years. But guess what? It doesn't fit this idea that we have to constantly consume. They want to sell you more light bulbs. They want to what? They want to make merchandise of you. Raise your hand if you own a printer in your house. You want a printer? Am I the only one that owns a printer? Raise your hand if you own a printer. Raise your hand if you've ever, now put your hands down. Raise your hand if you've ever been to the printer parts store. It doesn't exist. Because every error code on the printer, look, I've looked them all up. You get an error code, it's like you look it up. How can I fix this? Buy a new printer. Every code, it's like a joke. It leads you to the same place you need to replace your printer. Why? Because they're made to fail. They're made to just, you have to buy a new printer every single year. Every year and a half, whatever it is. It's people making merchandise out of you. It's, I mean, there's multiple applications of this. I can go on all day long. The military industrial complex. What do they do? They build stuff just so it can be destroyed. What do they do? They build tanks and they build bombs. They don't wanna build a tank that lasts forever. They wanna keep selling tanks and they wanna keep building bombs and they wanna keep exploiting. The problem is somebody's gotta drive those tanks and somebody's gotta get blown up by the bombs. So what are they doing? They're literally making merchandise of human lives. I mean, it's a real thing. For them to make money, they just build things for the purpose of them being destroyed. But they're destroying human lives but they don't care. The medical industrial complex. What do they do? What do they do? They make pills and they make shots. Somebody's gotta take the pills. Somebody's gotta take the shots. They're making merchandise of people. They're making merchandise of human lives. This is politicians today. You were coming up on an election season and I can already feel myself getting sick. But politicians, they run on all these promises. They run on all these promises. We're gonna do this and this and this and this and this and I don't care. Republican, Democrat, whatever it is. They run on all these promises and then they get elected and they do none of it. You say why? Look at what's happening today. Is anything that's happening with any wars or borders or whatever it is. Anything that's happening today is it what is in the best interest of any American? I mean you think people start asking what's going on. What's going on is they promise certain things and then they get elected and they start working for the people that pay the bills. They start working for the lobbyists and the special interests and the industrial complexes. That's what happens folks. Why? Because they're making merchandise of you. Building codes. I mean we were at a new hotel last night and there's an exit sign every 15 feet on the ceiling. I'm just like, this is ridiculous. I mean it's ridiculous. And then there's exit signs on the floor. On the wall like two inches off the floor every 15 feet. Because I suppose somebody thought of in a conference room at one time, you know, what if there's smoke in there or whatever and probably somebody had a buddy that makes exit signs. You laugh but that's exactly how it works. You say well the light bulb thing's over, right? LED light bulbs, they last 120,000 hours. That's over for the average lifespan of a light bulb being used every hour of every day for a certain period of hours, that's over 20 years. Now raise your hand if you've ever changed in LED light bulb. Do they last over 20 years? No, they don't. They last about as long as the incandescent ones did. Why? Because they're designed to fail. I actually used to work in the industry that made the chips that went on the circuit boards. Guess what? We designed them for five years. On purpose. We literally designed them for five years. We quit and designed them for 50 years. But we didn't. We designed them for five. Why? We sell more. Money. TV's, not that you should have one, used to last 30 years. Now they'll last what? Five. And they burn out. They break. They stop working. You need to save. You need to consume less. You need to not fall into this garbage advice that is everywhere in our culture today. Because if you spend, you go in debt, you're gonna be in servitude. It's all bad advice. It's bad counsel. Turn to 1 Timothy chapter one. Turn to 1 Timothy chapter number one. Here's the second one. So the first one is this. You need to just be aware of people that are counseling you or giving you advice that are simply trying to make merchandise of you. Look, I just touched on a couple things. It's everywhere today. Just follow what the Bible says and be like, you know what, there's nothing I tell the kids all the time. If you save money and you have savings, you have options. If you don't, you're a slave. That's it. It's that simple. It's that simple, folks. There's everybody out there is trying to make merchandise of you. That's why you see people in such bad situations today. Cause someone just made merchandise of them. Someone just ripped them off. Someone just made them make a bunch of bad decisions so they could make money. They don't care about you, these people that are pushing this idea. The second one is counterintuitive. The second one, you're going to 1 Timothy chapter one and you're gonna look at verse number five, but the second one is counterintuitive and the second one is many times people who failed in a particular area are ones that are very happy to give you advice in that area. And the first Timothy chapter one kind of explains this and the second topic of bad advice, the second area of bad advice that you need to avoid is what I'm calling vein jangling, vein janglers. Look at verse number five of first Timothy chapter one. Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart and out of a good conscience and a faith unfaigned from which some having show swerved have turned aside onto vein jangling. You say, what is that? Verse number seven starts to explain it to us. It says, desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor whereof they affirm. That is just think of that for a second in verse number seven. Here's people that desire to teach. Think of someone that reads a manual about something. Think of somebody that reads a manual and how to operate something in their house, their blender, and they don't understand it at all. They read the manual, they don't understand it, they don't get it. But they're just like, I really want to teach this. I really want to teach people how to use this blender even though I understand nothing about it. We talked about this with dysfunctionalism last Sunday night where you have people doing this with the Bible. They don't understand the Bible. They don't understand any of it. They just really want to teach. Why? For their own vanity. Because they're vain for themselves. Look, teachers should want to teach to show other people things. I mean, a good teacher, I've said this, a good teacher will take something complicated and make somebody able to understand it in a simple way. But a good teacher does that for the other people, not for themselves. The history of dispensationalism, we talked about this last Sunday night, I'm not gonna spend a ton of time on this, but it's a perfect example of this. It's just these vain janglers that were teaching this false doctrine, they didn't understand the Bible. How do I know that? Because you could never read the Bible. You would never sit down with yourself and the Holy Spirit and read the Bible and come up with that garbage. It would be impossible. Because it's not there. You would have to find somebody that drew a bunch of diagrams and came up with all this fake stuff and then just duplicate and add on to all of that. But they were not qualified to be talking about or teaching what they were teaching in the first place. This is the problem. Vain janglers, they're not qualified to be giving advice in the area that they're giving advice. So this is, I mean, to avoid vain jangler that you just have to ask yourself, does this person have credibility in this subject? Does this person credible in the area that they are advising me or trying to give me counsel right now? And this is why, like, failures in areas, and look, I'm not trying to beat up on anybody tonight, but you'll find people that have failed in certain areas in life just giving all kinds of advice in those areas. You'll see it again and again and again. And many times it's unsolicited advice. Many times it's just advice. They're just, like, vomiting upon you and you didn't even ask for it. But it's coming from people that have not succeeded there. It doesn't make any sense. This is the guy that's been married several times given marital advice. I mean, I don't have any times that I need to see this. He's, you know, he's been married. He's on his third marriage and he's telling people, don't get married. Marriage is bad. He's never telling people not to get married. Or he's literally telling people, how to be married? It's crazy, but it happens all the time. Talking about people that have raised disasters in their family, their family's a train wreck and they're giving people advice on how to raise kids. It happens all the time. Did you know, and somebody mentioned to me, somebody mentioned to me today, and I looked it up and it's true, but how about, how's this one? Psychology, psychology, like first of all, there may be no faker science than psychology. But psychologists are their profession with, I won't say highest, but I'll say one of the highest because I did find several corroborating studies that show this, but they have the highest rates of suicide. You say, you mean of people that are counseling? No, themselves, the psychologist. And the person that told me this said that they think that in a lot of these articles that I read today on this, they were saying, well, we need to stop, they're depressed because they're just, they have such a heavy burden. No, they're suicidal because they have problems themselves. They're secretly trying to fix themselves. But the point is, what are they doing? They're advising other people in an area they have no qualifications to advise anybody. I mean, this is Jordan Peterson. He's an ex-drug addict and he suffers from depression and every time you see him talking about anything important, he starts crying and all these things like, what are you doing advising anyone? He's not qualified in the subject. Look, I'm just saying, I'm trying to beat up on anybody this morning that's not perfect, I'm certainly not perfect, but I'm just saying, you need to consider the source for the advice, the counsel that's coming towards you. Because look, you're gonna have 400 people counseling you in a bad way. And you're probably only gonna have one that's giving you a good counseling. You need to recognize that. So you need to consider the source, no matter how good that counsel sounds, you need to consider the source. If you're new to a situation or new to a church, you know, this is why, you know, you need to stick to the pastor of the church. You need to stick to the deacon of the church. We don't have a deacon here. But why? Because there's specific qualifications for that job. And let me just show you two things that the pastor, two responsibilities that the pastor has underneath him that nobody else that will give you counsel has. Turn to 1 Timothy chapter three. Turn to 1 Timothy chapter three. There's two things that make the pastor uniquely qualified to give you better advice than other people. And this is for your safety and there's a reason that God made it this way. Look at 1 Timothy chapter three in verse number one. The first one is the pastor has qualifications that he has to meet. So the pastor has very specific qualifications. Look, if you're going to a church, you should make sure that the pastor of the church that you're going to, if you're listening to this online, meets these qualifications. Otherwise, this doesn't even apply to you. If you're going to a church and the pastor doesn't even meet these qualifications, he's not even qualified to be the pastor of that church. Look at 1 Timothy chapter three, verse number one. The first thing that the pastor has that is safe for you is qualifications. This is a true saying. If a man desired the office of a bishop, he desired the good work. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach. Meaning he has the ability to teach. Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre. That means, what does that mean? That means he's not going to make merchandise of you. You got some pastor, some pastor and there's plenty of pastors like this that are just out to just make merchandise of people. These are the false prophets that the Bible was talking about in 2 Peter chapter two. But patient, not a brawler, not covetous. And then verse number four and verse number five are super important. One that ruleeth well his own house. Having his children a subjection with all gravity, for if any man not know how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God? There's the guy given family advice that's wrecked his own family right there. That is not to be the pastor because it's important that the pastor's family is in order, why? So he has credibility. So you can take counsel from that man and say, you know what, I can expect those results. Who would take counsel from somebody that is on their fourth marriage and take marital counsel from, but there's lots of people out there giving that type of counsel. Not a novice, that means he knows the Bible. Unless being lifted up with pride, he fall into condemnation of the devil. Look, it's a tall order. These qualifications for a pastor and for a deacon is the same qualifications. It's a tall order, but it's for your safety. It's for your safety so you can know that you can get good advice from that source. Now go to Hebrews chapter 13 and this is the one that really your pastor has different from even a good friend of yours. Look at Hebrews chapter 13 in verse number 17. And I've offended some people in this church by saying this statement, but I'm just gonna say it again. As the pastor of the church, I'm not really your friend. And look, I mean that in the nicest way, don't be offended. And it's really because of Hebrews chapter 13 in verse number 17. Look at Hebrews chapter 13 in verse number 17. The Bible says, obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves. Look at this next statement though. It says, for they watch for your souls as they must give account that they may do it with joy and not with grief or that is unprofitable for you. What the Bible here is saying is that the pastor has a responsibility to watch out for you. And he's gonna give account of how well he did that to God one day. Nobody else in the church has that. That's a super safe situation for you to be in. Look, that's a heavy burden for the pastor. You know what that means? That means the pastor is gonna give you counsel at times that your friend is not gonna give you. That means the pastor is gonna give you counsel at times that he knows is gonna make you upset. It means he's gonna tell you at times something that may make you dislike him or dislike what he said. But he has a responsibility to God, not to you. He has a responsibility to watch over the flock. He's the under shepherd of the flock. Guess what? You're the flock. So he has to do a good job there because he's gonna stand before the Lord Jesus Christ and explain how well he did it. And if he cowers and stands in front of you and just like is afraid or stands up here at the pulpit and is afraid, if I say this, they're gonna be mad at me, he's gonna have to answer to the Lord Jesus Christ one day for that. And look, if a pastor does that, stands up and feeds you a bunch of gummy bears constantly, he's not profitable to you. That's what the Bible is saying here. So look, the pastor is safe, is safe, especially if you're new to a church and you don't really know anybody else. You don't really know other people in the church. I'm not saying that men can't identify other men and ladies can't identify ladies. Don't get me wrong, but if you don't know people and you don't know who's who, the safest bet is the pastor because he's got responsibilities that nobody else has. And look, it's a tall order. And you know, it's a servant. It's a servant position that may not always go well for him. Turn to Psalm chapter one. So what do we see so far? We see people that wanna make merchandise of you are gonna give you bad counsel. You need to be watching for people that don't have your best interests in mind. And then vange anglers are these people that they just wanna teach. They just wanna be teachers. They just wanna stand in the place of an actual pastor and they wanna spew a bunch of stuff they don't understand and they want to just, but they're gonna drive you right into swift destruction right along beside themselves. But the third one is this. Look at Psalm chapter one. Look at verse number one. The Bible says in Psalm 11, it says, blessed is the man that walketh not in the council of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. So the third group of people that you need to be aware of and especially not be taking counsel from is simply ungodly people. Notice here it doesn't say unsaved people. It says ungodly people. Let me tell you something. There are plenty of unsaved people that are not godly people. I don't know, plenty of unsaved people that are not walking the way they should walk and you should not be taking counsel from those people. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter six. There's plenty of ungodly, saved people out there, folks. I hate to report that to you tonight, but there is. Shouldn't be walking in that council. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter six. As a matter of fact, even saved people when they get backslidden and they get ungodly and they start getting more and more ungodly, they're gonna try to get you to be ungodly too. You need to be aware of that council. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter six. Look at verse number one. Look what Paul says here. He's kind of rebuking this church because they're suing each other. They're suing each other in outside courts, in secular courts. Look what he says in verse number one. He says, dare any of you. Who's he talking to here? He's talking to the people in this church. He's not talking to saved people that they got saved that don't go to church. He's talking about people in the church at Corinth. Says, dare any of you having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust and not before the saints. Do you not know that the saints shall judge the world and the world shall be judged by you are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? He's talking about the people in the church. He's like, why would you not use the judgment of the godly people in the church and instead go to the world for this, for this judgment. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter three, just a couple chapters back. He's saying, why in the world would you be using the wisdom of the world over the wisdom that is in the house of God? Look at 1 Corinthians chapter three in verse 18. The Bible puts it this way. 1 Corinthians three verse 18 says, let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seem to be wise in this world, let him become a fool. That he may be wise. Notice the Bible there is saying, if a man thinks he's wise in the things of the world, he's like, he needs to forget everything he knows. I mean, I've said this so many times to you. You just need to forget, as soon as you get saved and you start reading the Bible, you just need to forget everything you've ever been taught ever. And just start going with what the Bible says. You can't read the Bible with your own culture in mind. Delete your culture and pick up the culture of the Bible. Look at verse 19. Why? For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. This is what Paul is saying. Why would you be using the wisdom of the world because in truth, they're a bunch of fools. Tell me we don't see that today. People don't even know if they're men or women today. People are teaching that if you think you're a man, you can become a man. If you think you're a woman, you can become a woman. You've got people dressing up like animals now. Thinking that they're animals. This is like, you have to like read these things twice and be like, is that real or is this a joke? We become a gazing stock of the world. We've got, I mean, it's such a mess out there in the world, just our culture in America, in the West today that you literally have un-vandalized nations like India and China and Russia and all these different countries in Africa looking at us going, we don't wanna be like them. Looking at what we're doing over here going, whoa, that's crazy. Look, it's all foolishness. It's all foolishness. That is the wisdom that is out there today. Even in our own cities. Even in our own cities. You know these cities that we're living in that are just trashed and wrecked? You know these cities have leaders that are in charge of them? These cities have their mayors and they have city council leaders. They have people that are in charge. It's not like there's nobody in charge. It kinda seems like it. But there's actually a structure and people in charge. My wife saw a sign the other day we were in a coastal town right on the ocean and my wife saw a sign the other day and it said this, it said, don't feed the birds. It was a serious sign. You're gonna laugh before I even finish reading it but it said, this sign said, don't feed the birds. They'll become dependent on the food and they'll make a mess all over town. I took my wife and I were laughing. We just need to replace birds there with able-bodied male. Don't feed the men that are able to work. Why? Because they'll become dependent on the food and they'll make a mess all over town. Whoever wrote that sign should be the mayor of that city. Just hire them. Just hire them, because they've got it. Like that's the answer right there. But here's the point. The wisdom of this world is foolishness. These answers are easy. These are not complicated things to solve. This is why I'm not worried about AI taking over the world. Like the AI thing, it's gonna go away. It's a fad and everyone's worried about it because AI, artificial intelligence is just a computer program designed by a human being that is supposed to have intelligence and I'm not seeing a lot of intelligence out there today. So I'm not too worried about the machines taking over. But look, in 1 Corinthians chapter six he is talking about just throwing off all this foolishness that is outside and relying on the counsel, the judgment of the people in the church. So look, especially in matters that pertain to this life, your family, your children, all these different things, your marriage, and by the way, you should be the only one counseling your children. Don't you let this foolishness from the world creep in and start, because they'll teach your kids all this stuff. There's 400 prophets ready to teach all this trash and all this garbage to your kids. You better make sure that you have, you're a helicopter that is hovering and they've got that vault around your kids, walk down because they'll try to sneak it in any way they can. This foolishness of the world, they'll try to get to your kids in the craziest ways. But it's all foolishness. We need to make sure that we keep those 400 foolish prophets away from our families. Stick to godly people. Stick to people that are walking the walk. Turn to 2 Samuel chapter 13. Actually, I'll just tell you that story. 2 Samuel chapter 13, you see a man, you see David's son Amnon. And Amnon has this wicked desire towards his sister Tamar. And then he has, you know, there was no indication he was gonna do anything about it, but then he has this wicked friend Jonadab that comes up to him, he's like, what's going on? What's the problem? All this, and then Jonadab gives him this, this wicked plan to assault his sister and he goes and he does it. So one thing that you need to understand about the foolishness of the world and the counsel of the world is that there's a lot of bad people out there that will give you counsel. There's a lot of bad people out there that want you to be bad with them. They want you to go, because look, misery loves company. Criminals love company. Drugs loves company. Drinking loves company. Sin never wants to be alone. There's a lot of Jonadabs out there. How many people do you know that? Like, oh, he just fell into the wrong crowd. What does that mean? He took bad counsel. Bad people gave him bad counsel and just like Amnon, he listened. But you know what? If you take bad counsel from bad people, you become a bad person. That is the, I mean, I have seen this so many times, especially with young people, where they're at a crossroads and somebody giving them good counsel and they have somebody giving them bad counsel and they choose the bad counsel and guess what? They become a bad person. They lose everything. They literally destroy themselves. Why? Because these bad people, they don't have their friends' interest in mind. They just want people to be bad and do bad things with them. They have theirs. They have their interests in mind. Bad people will make you bad. So look, folks, knowing who to take counsel from and who not to, knowing what counsel to take and what counsel not to take will have a major impact on your life. You need to check people's motives. When people are giving you counsel, you need to check people's motives. Is this person trying to make merchandise of me? Is this person trying to rip me off? Does this person gain from this advice that they're giving me? What does this person have to gain? You know, is he trying to get me an appearance gain that he's in? That right there will just weed out a lot of counsel. You need to check the source. You need to check the source. Do I want, here's a really easy question to ask yourself. Somebody that's trying to give you counsel, especially unsolicited advice, meaning advice that you didn't ask for, do I want the results that this person has? They're giving you a business advice. They're giving you financial advice and they're broke. They're telling you how to do things in your life and you don't want the results that they have. You need to just run away from that counsel. Do I want those results? One of the things we went out fishing in this last couple of days, one of my favorite things to do, I think even more than fishing at this point. As I like to go out in the dark, very early in the morning at like five o'clock, five thirty in the morning, when all the, I mean, you're going out in the ocean in the dark, that's some, as the Bible would say, that's some stones right there. I like to go out and talk, especially to the older guys. They're heading out in the dark, they're like five o'clock in the morning. I just like to go down there with a cup of coffee and just banter back and forth and just, hey, what are you guys fishing for? What are you using? And then they just kind of start talking to you and showing you stuff and all these different things. I just love it. But you know what I also do? I also like talking to the same people as they come back in the afternoon. Why? Because you get to see the results. You get to figure out, like you got some guys that went out at five o'clock in the morning and they went 15 miles an hour out and they come back with some bluefin tuna. Like, okay, I'm gonna listen to that advice. I'm gonna listen to what those people were saying. Why? Because they're credible, I want those results. Check the source. Is all I'm trying to tell you this evening. But here's the coup de gras right here. Turn to 2 Timothy chapter three. Here's your ultimate protection on bad counsel. Turn to 2 Timothy chapter three. The ultimate protection for you for bad counsel is this. You need to know the Bible. You need to understand what the Bible says. You see, it's kind of a trap. It's kind of a trap because what happens is if you don't know the Bible, you're gonna need a lot of counsel. But if you don't know the Bible, you're not gonna recognize bad counsel. So hopefully, you know, I'm giving you some ideas tonight to weed out some of this bad counsel. But if you know the Bible and you treat the Bible as your highest power, which it is. So no matter, look, Romans 13 says, you know, obey the higher powers. Meaning, no matter what, the word of God is the highest power. And if you know what it says, it doesn't matter what counsel's coming your way. If you compare it to the word of God it's like, ah, that doesn't jive. You need to go with the higher power. You need to go with the Bible. Look at 1 Timothy 3 in verse number 16. The Bible says all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable. Look at that. For doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. The Bible is ultimately your protection. Turn back to 1 Kings chapter 22, turn back to 1 Kings chapter 22. I wanna show you one more thing. The problem is, is people don't recognize bad counsel as bad counsel because they don't know the Bible. They're in this cycle. They're in this cycle. Look at 1 Kings chapter 22. 1 Kings chapter 22. Here's something that people do, though. Giving a comparison on what Ahab did here with 1 Kings chapter 22. Look at verse number six. It says, then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together about 400 men and said unto them, shall I go against Ramoth Gilead to battle or shall I forbear, meaning shall I not go? And they said, go up, for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king. What people will do is they will literally not go to people that they know will give good counsel because they don't want that answer. And this is what King Ahab was doing. Joseph that was smart enough to know these guys are full of it. Can we get somebody that's real here? But ultimately King Ahab, he just wanted to go. And that's what people will do. People will go to all their buddies that they know are just a bunch of yes men and tell them all their bad ideas that they wanna do and they won't go to the pastor because they know that the pastor's gonna like just smack them right in the face with it and tell them like, no, that's obviously not the right thing you should do and here's why, but they don't wanna hear that answer. So they'll go to the 400 prophets and they'll literally solicit bad advice which is what Ahab did here. And then the one prophet gets up and what does he have? What does McKay I have? He has that responsibility. He's like, I have to tell you what the Lord said. And what happens to him? He gets punched in the face for it. He gets thrown in prison for it. They feed him with the bread of affliction for it. He doesn't have to suffer, but he told them. But he told them the truth. So don't be that guy. If you find yourself in the position where you're like, I don't wanna ask this godly person or I don't wanna ask the pastor because of this, you're already in a very bad place. You're already in a place where you're in a lot of trouble. If you're looking for people to just validate your bad counsel that you're giving yourself, that's not a good place that you need to be. So look folks, to wrap it up here. You need to be getting counsel from godly people. You know, your pastor's there to protect you. You know, it's not for my own gain, trust me. Like plenty of people have been mad at me for what I've told them, but I wouldn't do it different. Plenty of people and people that aren't here anymore, I've told them to their face that they were doing the wrong thing. And so be it. I'll tell them again. I don't take that back because, you know, the Bible is clear on what my responsibility is. So you gotta watch out for qualified people. You gotta watch for godly people. These are where the good advice is gonna come from. You gotta watch for people that are gonna make merchandise. So you're like, man, you're really narrowing down. You're really narrowing down the field here pastor. This is what I'm trying to get you to understand. It's 400 to one. It's 400 to one, the people that wanna give you counsel. It's 400 to one. It's 0.25% of the people that wanna give you counsel are gonna give you good counsel. And that's what you need to see. The people that give you counsel in your life should be a short list. Let me tell you something. A lot of people give me counsel. Multiple times a week, I will get emails. I will have first time visitors come here and tell me what I need to do at this church. No joke. It happens all the time. People send me emails all the time. People call me. People send me letters. I just got a letter yesterday on how we need to change our soul wedding plan. It happens all the time, but the people that I take counsel from, I can count on one hand. And that's how you need to be. You need to, you know, you need to listen for the voice of the shepherd as it says in John chapter five, as Jesus says. And if you know the voice of the shepherd, it helps. And then you'll be able to filter out all this bad counsel that's coming your way. Because look, there's people out there. It's like it's depressing almost, right? People out there trying to ruin you. I mean, who do we talk about about two months ago? Andrew Tate. What's he doing? You know what he's doing? He's making merchandise of people. He's found a niche. He's got a bunch of young men that things sound good to them. And look, if you're a young man, if you're a man and you're ruled by your emotions or you're ruled by how things make you feel, you're a fool. This is a man who's ruled by his wife right here. Whose wife gets emotional and just like you're a man and you're ruled by an emotional wife. You're ruled by your own emotions. That's not being a man. A man is supposed to be ruled by the word of God. He's supposed to lead his family by the word of God. This Andrew Tate, he's out there and he says a couple of things and people follow him. And it's a bunch of people, they're never gonna be him because the reason he got rich is by making merchandise of them. And if you have these sins in your life, like I wanna be rich quick, I wanna get rich without working. Someone's gonna come and they're gonna make merchandise for you. Someone's gonna come and they're gonna put you in some scheme. They're gonna put you in some scam because they got ways to identify people like you. They got ways to find you and snag you. So if you're in some kind of sin and you follow that sin, somebody's gonna get you. And they're gonna give you the counsel that you think you wanna hear and they're gonna destroy you. So you gotta follow what the Bible says about counsel because following the wrong counsel will literally ruin your life. Maybe even before you get started, let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.