 Hey man, all right, Exodus chapter 22, so in Exodus chapter 22 we see all sorts of rules for basically, I mean there's all kinds of different rules there, but the basic theme of Exodus 22 is all sorts of rules on how to, you know, treat property and things that belong to other people. We see, you know, in verse number 3 of Exodus 22 we see rules on, you know, stealing. If you were to steal something, then you owe, you owe, you have to pay that back, you have to make full restitution, and then if you don't have that money to pay back what you've stolen, you're actually to be sold for your theft and you're to work off what you've stolen. You owe something and you were to pay it back. We see rules on lending in verse number 25. In verse number 25 of Exodus 22 where it says, if I'll lend money to any of the people that is poor by thee, thou shalt not take, be to him or usurer. That's talking about, you know, charging interest to your brother, to, you know, God's people. All right? We see rules on borrowing in verse number 14 where it says, if a man borrow out of his neighbor, basically saying, what we're seeing in Exodus 22 is basically what is summed up in Romans 13.8 that says, basically, oh no man, anything. It's not saying, you know, you can never borrow from your neighbor. It's saying, but you need to pay that back. You need to make that right. And what we see in Exodus 22 is just this overarching theme of, you know, not, you know, making right, making, you know, fairness amongst, you know, the property between people. So the theme of this morning's sermon, the title of this morning's sermon, is borrowing and not repaying. Borrowing and not repaying. We're going to look at this morning like what the Bible says on debt. What the Bible says on having debt. What the Bible says on people that, you know, loan to people. What the Bible says about both sides of the debt situation. And then we're going to apply that personally to your life. And if you, you know, look at what will happen to you if you do apply biblical principles to your life and if you don't apply biblical principles to our life. And there's a lot of things, examples we can use today that make this very clear and it shows us today that the Bible's way is correct. All right? That's what we're going to look at this morning. Turn to Proverbs chapter 22. So we'll just do a Bible study for the first part of the sermon and just look at what the Bible says about debt. What does the Bible say about debt? The Bible says in Proverbs 22, look down at verse number seven. The Bible says, the rich ruleth over the poor and the borrower is servant to the lender. So this verse, this one verse right here explains so much to us about debt. It shows that how much you owe is inversely proportional to how free you are, is what the Bible says here. All right? Look, in Bible times, turn to 2 Kings chapter 4. Now in Bible times, this is literally how it worked. This is literally how the law was structured. Okay? It's a little bit different in our times today, but you will see it's not really that different. Even though the law is not the same, the results are very much the same. So let's look at how it actually worked in the Bible. Look at 2 Kings in chapter 4. Here's the widow woman that is coming to Elisha, all right? And she says to him in verse number 4, the Bible says, now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, thy servant, my husband is dead, and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord, and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen. Turn to Leviticus chapter 25. So here this woman is saying that her husband has died, and her husband had some people that he owed money to, so the creditors, you know, whether it be loans for his business or whatever it was, the Bible doesn't say, but there was people that were owed money, and now that her husband, who is the source of her income, the source of the income to pay that money back is dead, the creditor is coming to take her two sons into bond service. This is service to where they actually come in and just work off that debt. This isn't the, we've already talked about this. This isn't the slavery of, you know, early America. This is the bond service that these two sons of this lady are going to go and they're going to work off what their father owned, what this family owed, the creditors. Look at Leviticus chapter 25 in verse number 35. The Bible gives us some rules here. The Bible gives us some rules on how to treat your brother or somebody who owes you money. The Bible says in verse 35, and if thy brother be wax and poor, and fallen in decay with thee, then thou shalt relieve him, yea, though he be a stranger or a sojourner, that he may live with thee. Take thou no usury of him, or increase, but fear thy God, that thy brother may live with thee. Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury, nor lend him thy victuals for increase." So he's saying, you know, don't lend a people and get interest back on that if he's your brother. I am the Lord your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God. And if thy brother that dwelleth by thee wax and poor, and be sold unto thee, thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bond servant. So this is even taking it a step further, saying that, hey, if this guy's poor and he ends up owing money, you know, don't take him as a bond servant. Don't make him, you know, your forced servant, but hire him. Hire him, make him a hired servant, and as a sojourner he shall be with thee and shall serve thee until the year of jubilee. So God is saying here that I prefer, if somebody owes you money, that you just take him to come and hire him to work for you until he has worked off that money that he owes you. All right? Look, so waxing poor here, you can also see, again, just like Proverbs 22.7, waxing poor is equated to, you know, going into servitude and having, you know, less and less freedom. So as you wax poor and you end up owing money, then you become less free and eventually not free at all, the Bible says. All right? So look, whether you like it or not, it's no different today. All right? You say, so I mean, you need to think about these things before you decide that you're just going to go into a bunch of debt with people. All right? So you say, I want that nice car, I want that big house, all these types of things, I want that credit card. You know, welcome to America. America runs on debt, unfortunately. But look, the Bible doesn't teach this. You need to understand that the Bible teaches exactly what will happen to you today. And if you go into loads of debt and you wax poor from that, the Bible says that you will be less free. That's the first point I'm trying to get to you today. All right? Now look, turn to Deuteronomy 28. The Bible teaches something different. The Bible teaches something different. Turn to Deuteronomy 28 and look at verse number 12 first. Look at verse number 12 and then we'll go back a few verses and look at another verse. But in Deuteronomy 28, the Bible teaches what we should be doing and how we should operate. And in verse number 12, the Bible says, the Lord shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand, and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow. So the Bible, look, the Bible teaches producing and saving. That's what the Bible teaches. The Bible is here is teaching that a country that is a borrower and not a lender is under the, you know, not under the blessing of God. The Bible says that the country that is under, you know, speaking from a national level, the country that is lending to other nations will be, that's a blessing from God, the Bible says. It says, you know, God will bless all the work of thine hand. So that's a country that's producing. Okay, look back at verse number five. Look back at verse number five where it just simply says, blessed shall be thy basket and thy store. So when a country is under God's blessing, the Bible says that that country will be number one producing in verse number 12 and in verse number five it says that that country will be saving. Your store will be growing. Okay, blessed shall be thy basket and thy store. Now that is the opposite of the way that our country runs today. So you have to understand that our country runs on this idea of spending and borrowing as a nation. And the problem with that is, you know, look, we don't have to get all political and care about, you know, politics and all this kind of stuff and the national debt doesn't keep me awake at night. But the point is, is that it, the national philosophy filters down to the individual. And the problem with the individual is that us as individuals, we should follow the Bible. Not what the national philosophy is. Look, our country is in debt something like $25 trillion at this point. This debt is to the point where in four years they say it will double or nearly double. In four years, $25 trillion. Look, it's not the point of the sermon, but what I want to get across to you is that this philosophy, whether on a national level or an individual level, is not only against the Bible, but it is not, it cannot go on like that forever. It cannot go on like that forever. Look, the Bible is true. The borrower is servant to the lender. And it will work on a national level just like it does on the individual level. So America runs on spending and borrowing, not producing and saving. Look, money creation is debt in our society today. When you hear that they've just created money out of thin air, that's national debt that we've just incurred. Basically the way it works, not to get too deep into it, is the Federal Reserve buys bond. The US government sells bonds to the Federal Reserve. There's private conglomerate of banks. This private conglomerate of banks, they buy these bonds from the United States government that are backed by the United States government. And then the Federal Reserve then creates this money and they lend it to individual banks that lend it to you. And with the system that we have, basically if the Federal Reserve creates $1,000 and gives it to the banks, the way money is created, it's much more than just that $1,000. Because they basically keep the bank that loans you money, has to keep 10% of it and then they loan out 90% of it to you. And then you take that 90% and you buy your new whatever and somebody else puts in another bank and they loan out 90% of that. And the next bank loans out 90% of that. The next bank loans out 90% of that. So the money that's created is actually 10 times the original $1,000 that was put into the system by the Federal Reserve. It's money from thin air. But what it is, is it's really debt. So you see these are the bank's assets. The bank's assets are debt to you. So your loan is an asset to the bank. That's their business model. So it's the opposite of what the Bible teaches. So look, if you have a business, here's the problem, if you have a business and you're trying to make money, it works exactly opposite than you. Your assets are things that your business owns, things that your company owns that can provide future economic benefit. Your liabilities are what you owe to other parties. With the banks, it's exactly opposite. Your debt is their asset. And this is what drives the whole system. To the bank, the asset is the loan. Any deposit in the bank that you've put in there is a liability to the bank. The asset is the loan. It's exactly opposite. So look, it's contrary to what the Bible says and it's contrary to what the Bible says would be good for you as an individual and how you should operate is what I'm trying to get at. So let's go back to the individual. So we see that debt basically equals servitude. You say that our society doesn't work that way. OK, let me prove it different to you. Go out and buy that expensive car, buy that huge house, live your life on how much of a payment you can afford, and save nothing and you will quickly realize that you are a slave. You will quickly realize that you have zero freedom. I used to carpool with a guy 15 years ago and he lived his life this way. He lived his life on this idea that if I can afford the payment, I'm going to have the thing in my driveway. And I mean the guy had a brand new diesel pickup. He had a brand new RV. He had the nicest boat you could ever see. He had a Harley. He had a Corvette. He had all these different things. We added it up together, him and I, on the way to work one day. And it was over $240,000 worth of just vehicles, things with wheels and motors that he had sitting in his driveway and his garage. And I told him, I said, how do you sleep at night? And he said to me, he said, well, I just like nice stuff. But I guarantee you that that is not going to work out well for him in 10 years, 15 years, whatever it is. So look, this is also the sad thing about student loan debt, by the way. Student loan debt, at the end of the day, most of these kids will have nothing to show for their student loan debt other than the money that they owe. I mean, they'll have, I'm not saying there's not degrees that will make you money, but most of these kids are going to end up with no degree or a worthless degree. But they will have a ton of debt. I mean, when you think about it, it's really criminal when you think about it. I mean, when you think about it, I mean, these universities, they're thieves in a lot of ways, in my opinion. They're peddlers of false hope, and they're selling things that have no value, and they're pushing it on, I mean, they're ruining the country, they're ruining an entire generation in this country. Look, I mean, imagine being a 20-year-old kid and having no hope. I mean, I'm starting to see some of that on the news right now. Imagine being a 20-year-old kid, having $150,000 in student loans that you can't get rid of, that you have to pay for. You know, and some people maybe have their parents to fall back on, but you know, a lot of these kids don't. And a lot of these kids, you know, they're just stuck with this debt, and you're just done. Imagine living your life that way, where it's like you have no hope of any kind of family or being able to support a family or having a normal financial life in this country. Everybody else does, but not you, because of what decisions you made when you were 16. I mean, it's really, really sad when you think about it. But look, here's the problem. The Bible doesn't necessarily say you should never take a loan, or you should never borrow from somebody. But what it does say, what it is very clear about, it is that repaying or making that loan right is your obligation. Turn to Psalm 37, or just look at the front of your bulletin. It's simply, you know, the Bible simply warns you about this debt. It simply warns you about your freedom and its relationship with debt. But it does say if you do borrow, you had better repay. That's the bottom line. Psalm 3721 says the wicked borroweth and payeth not again. But the righteous showeth mercy and giveeth. So I mean, that's pretty strong language. The Bible says that, look, if you borrow something from somebody and say you will pay it back over whatever the terms are, and you don't do it, that's wicked. And it says the wicked. It means you are wicked. If you do that. Ecclesiastes 5.5 says, I'll just read it for you. It says, better is it that thou should not vow than thou should vow and not pay. So it says, look, just don't enter into those agreements. It's better that you just didn't do it in the first place than if you do it and then don't pay. And then in Psalms 37 it says that you're wicked if you do that. So look, I mean, there's real consequences of not repaying. Look, today you say, well, no one's gonna put me into servitude if I don't repay something that I borrowed today. But look, if you default on a loan today, turn to Exodus 21. If you default on a loan today, you will have no credit, no one will loan to you for seven years. That's actually based on the Bible. Did you know that? That actually is based on Exodus chapter 21. In Exodus chapter 21, look at verse number two. The Bible says, if thou buy in Hebrew servant, six years shall he serve. And in the seventh, he shall go out free for nothing. You say, look, what is this slavery in the Bible? No, this is somebody who was sold because he couldn't pay what he owed. So he was, he's working off his debt. But the Bible says it puts a protection in there. It says that he is to serve, he is to pay for six years. And after that, he's done, he's out. The seventh year, he's to be let go. All right, turn to Jeremiah chapter 34. God took this very seriously. The people of Judah were going against this and they were just keeping their bond servants for, and they were not letting them go. They were not following this rule. And God took it very, very seriously. In verse, look at Jeremiah 34 in verse number 13. The Bible says, by the way, just the fact that God would let someone go into bond service to pay back their debt, it shows you how serious God takes repaying what you owe. I mean, it shows you how serious God takes that. You are to repay what you owe. And the Bible says that if you have nothing in your pockets that your labor is to pay that back for you. Your labor, your own labor will pay back what you owe. Look at verse 13 of Jeremiah 34. The Bible says, thus sayeth the Lord God of Israel, I made a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them forethought of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bond men saying, at the end of seven years, let ye go every man and his brother in Hebrew, which hath been sold unto thee. When ye hath served these six years, thou shalt let him go free from thee. But your fathers harken not unto me, neither incline their ear. And when ye now turned and had done this right thing in my sight in proclaiming liberty every man to his neighbor, and ye had made a covenant before me in the house, which is called by my name, but ye turned and polluted my name and caused every man his servant, and every man his handmade, whom he had said at liberty at their pleasure to return, and be brought them into subjection and to be to you servants and for handmaids. So look, the nation of Judah was being judged for not following this rule. Then they got right real quick and they let him go, but then he decided, hey, we're just gonna bring him back. So they weren't following this rule, and God brought the hammer down on him for it. So look, in America, no one's gonna come and make you go into bond service. But look, no one's gonna lend to you for seven years in this country if your credit gets destroyed. So the point I'm trying to make here is that the Bible clearly teaches at the beginning, this is our Bible study part, the Bible teaches that debt equals slavery, that debt equals no freedom. It's very clear. And that repaying that debt is a serious command from the Bible. So you say, how do we apply that to your life today? How do we live in this society knowing those two rules? Well, first of all, we need to understand that America and the philosophies that America teaches today versus what the Bible teaches are completely opposite on this. So you are going to have to understand that. So look, in a debt-based society, it is harder and harder for a normal person to operate without taking loans because everybody does it, that's the problem. Look, most people, most normal people could never buy a house without taking out a loan. Most people could never do that. Most people today could never operate a business without having some sort of operating loan to run their business from year to year. However, I will say this, there is a difference between taking out a loan on something that has value or will hold its value or will increase in value, then there is on something that will decrease in value over time, every time. What I'm talking about is like a car, all right? So if you take out a loan on a car, the minute you buy a new car, that value of that car starts heading towards zero immediately after you buy that car. So these are things that are probably not smart to take out loans on, period, all right? So I mean, the value from the time that they are new is converging to zero, that's the bottom line. They wear out, they decay, they eventually become worth nothing. So you need to restrain yourself in those areas. That'd be my advice to you. Look, especially young people, look, young people you make no money. You make no money and you want everything right now. That's the problem with young people today. They look at what everybody else has and they want everything right now, but what you need to be doing is what the Bible teaches. You need to be producing and you need to be saving. That's what you need to be doing as a young person today. Don't fall into this debt trap because it will take you years to get out of it, if ever. As soon as you start, look, getting into the workforce and getting into, you know, where you're getting some paychecks and maybe you have a checking account now, people are gonna start sending you things in the mail. Hey, zero interest, hey, take out this and you're like, I could have this card and I could just go spend all this money. Look, those are traps that will take you years of ever to get out of if you fall into those types of things. And remember this, so you be careful on debt, period, but you remember this, that whatever you do spend and whatever you do borrow, you are obligated Christian to pay, to pay back. And that's really the problem, right? Because, you know, you get that credit card and you just start spending, that's a lot of fun. Going out and just spending and spending and spending. You just swipe this thing over and over and they just keep giving you stuff. But look, you're gonna have to repay all of that. And the law says that you should have to, but look, God says that you have to as well. All right, look, this is why I have a problem with this, you know, this kind of this philosophy of like the evil bankers. I mean, I don't really like that. Because guess what? No one's putting a gun to your head and telling you to go out and take some huge loan out. No one's making you sign a piece of paper and borrow a bunch of money. No one's forcing you into that. But guess what? When you do sign that, you have just taken a vow and the Bible says that you're wicked if you don't repay it. So look, I mean, the whole 2008 thing was a tragedy and a lot of people lost their jobs. But look, nobody forced people to go out and take a loan on a house that they couldn't afford. Nobody forced people to do that. People did that on their own. I mean, personal responsibility has just gone out the window in our society today. So nobody's forcing you into that. But if you do and it's your choice, you are obligated to repay. You are obligated to pay your bills. You are obligated to pay your rent. We're hearing a lot about that lately. You know, nobody should have to pay rent anymore. I mean, that's not biblical. Look, I mean, you're stealing if you don't, like it's, look, it's moral and legal to have somebody pay rent. You're stealing if you're not paying your rent. You are stealing if you're not paying your bills. I mean, it's, you don't take, you take a loan out on a car. You don't pay, you stole the car. And guess what they'll do? They'll send some thug to your house to take the car back in the middle of the night. And you know, rightly so, and you know, you should be glad that's not all they're doing because the good thing that there's a decent chance that whoever loaned you that money on that car has lost money on it anyway. After they take it back from you and you've dented it up and it's not worth anything and you still owe over half of what you borrowed on it. I mean, I mean, imagine these people that, that just, you know, the evil bankers in 2008. Look, I'm not saying bankers are nice people, but look, you buy a house for $300,000. It suddenly becomes, you know, worth 100,000. You just give it back to the bank and say, I don't want it anymore. Look, you just stole 200 grand. I mean, there's no personal responsibility in this country anymore. And the Bible's against that. The Bible's against it. So look, be careful with debt is what the Bible is teaching us, especially on things that, you know, have little to no value every single day that goes by. So the conclusion on the matter is this. How does it all, you know, how does it all, how does it all play out? You know, it really comes down to this. It really comes down to sustainability in your life. I mean, think about this. I often joke with my wife, maybe I don't really make the joke anymore, but I mean, I used to joke with my wife when we used to get all these credit card applications and people were constantly trying to get you to take loans out on everything. I was like, man, you know, maybe we should take out every single loan we possibly can and just like have fun for like six months. Just like travel the world. Just like take out all this money on these credit cards and then just like after that, just like, you know, buy furniture. Because look, here's another problem with our society today. They will give you a loan on everything. And that's another thing, young people, you need to understand. What during, you know, during the whole coronavirus thing, I was, you know, when I was working from home, I was taking my cars in to get them fixed because I never had time to do it. So I'm like, all right, I'll use this opportunity. And I'm going to the Midas shop like every other day and you can take out loans on your break service. I'm like, so you can take out a loan on the car and then the Midas shop will give you a loan on, you know, the $1,000 break service. You can take out loans on TVs. You can take out loans on furniture. You can, I mean, I'm sure that there's many other things that you can take out loans on. If you do that, you will be toast after a while. Because I told my wife, we can, hey, we can go do this. And then, you know, but then we just have to move to like Puerto Rico or, you know, Africa or something. But that's the rub, right? I mean, after a while, the party comes to an end, right? So look, it's not sustainable for you to do that, right? It will come to an end. The jig eventually will be up. I mean, hard times are coming for you if that happens. Look, you won't be thrown in prison. You won't be sold. But they'll take your house away. They'll take your car away. They'll take, you know, they'll probably garnish your wages after you go to court and they show that you owe all this money. Everything will be gone. Your furniture will be gone. Everything that you've taken loans out on will be gone and you will still owe all this money. No one will ever give you money ever again or for at least seven years. And I mean, it will end horribly for you. And you will find yourself in a situation where, look, you'll feel not free like the Bible says way before it gets to that point. Because you'll just have to be working two jobs and you'll have to make more money and more money and more money to cover all these payments. Look, it would be a disaster. But then, and this is the one that everybody always forgets about, remember the Bible says the wicked, borroweth and payeth not. Look, you'll be chastised by God. Everyone always forgets that part. Everyone always thinks about all just the actual things that are gonna happen, right? In our society, the carnal things, the secular things that are gonna happen. All bad things, I just listed all that to you. But look, God calls you wicked in that case. There was a law, there's a law now where I don't have to pay my mortgage. I can go without paying my mortgage for six months with no penalty, nothing wrong to my credit, whatever. You know, that's wicked. If I would do that, I would never do that. Look, that would really help my bottom line every single month. I'm telling you, that would help my bottom line. But look, God will punish me for that. Because I'm not repaying what I said I would. I'm not doing what I said I would do. No one forced me to take a mortgage out on a house. No one forced me to do that, so it's my obligation. So look, that's the most serious thing for you sitting here. I mean, forget all the credit score and the material stuff, forget all that. You'll be chastised by God. God will think what you're doing is wicked. I mean, God can do way more to you than any credit agency can, you know, to get you right. So look, you'll be counted amongst the wicked. I mean, that's bad. So, if it's not sustainable, just something to think about. If it's not sustainable, which I think it's pretty easy to see, that this just constant debt that you could never, ever repay. If you go into so much debt that you could ever, never repay it. Number one, it's wicked. Number two, all these horrible things will happen to you even with the laws in this country. I mean, how could you think that it's good on a national level? I mean, look, eventually it will cause bad things to happen to you. And look, once God counts you amongst the wicked, I think we could say that the blessing of God has been taken off your life. And we saw in Deuteronomy 28 that the country that is blessed will be borrowing to other countries. Their storehouses will be full. They will be producing all these things. They will be saving, and they will be borrowing to other countries. It says the country that doesn't do those things, it's the opposite. That's not the blessing of God. Look, eventually people will stop lending to someone who can't pay back their debts. Eventually that will happen. It's guaranteed. Look, SpaceX yesterday. I don't know if any of you saw it, but SpaceX launched two NASA astronauts into space so they could go to the International Space Station. You know if you took, so here's a trillion dollars. If you took $100 bills and you stacked them half a mile high, you would have a billion dollars just in $100 bills. If you took that same philosophy and stacked a trillion dollars worth of $100 bills, it would go twice as high as the International Space Station. That stack of $100 bills. Look, it's not, everyone knows at this point that that level of national debt is not repayable. Everyone knows it. It's a struggle. I don't even think that they can repay the interest on it. That's why they have to keep interest rates so low all the time. Look, if you have to be careful to keep the blessing of God on your life to repay your debt, a nation should operate in the same way, the Bible says. And when it gets out of control, bad things are not coming from that. You know, eventually people are gonna say we're not borrowing to you anymore. And as soon as that happens, terrible things will happen. And I don't know when that's gonna be and I don't pretend to even really care about when that's gonna be at this point, but it's coming. I'm just trying to get you to understand that the national philosophy is the same as, the problem is we have this national philosophy that is filtering down to all the individuals in this country and it is exactly backwards. It is that you need to spend and borrow and spend and go in debt. When the Bible says that you should produce and you should be under the blessing of God and that you should save. And God, look, when you're under the blessing of God and you're doing what you're supposed to do, God's gonna fill your storehouses, the Bible says. And that's the opposite of what we're being taught today. So you need to be careful. I'm not saying that, look, I'm not saying never take a loan out on anything. Look, I have a loan on my house, but you need to be very careful and you need to understand, you need to young people especially, don't ruin yourself before you're 20 years old because it's possible. And I really do feel bad for this whole generation of people that's just been, they've been driven down this road of debt and no one, it's just been a terrible misguidance for them. And you can see the frustration in the country. You can see the frustration with all these young people that just have no hope. You know, I had, I worked with a, I'll tell you one last story and then we'll be done, but I worked with a guy that was my age and he was raised in Russia. I worked with him many years ago and we ended up working all these long hours and all these different things and I would talk to him about, you know, growing up in the United States and he would talk to me about growing up in Russia and one thing that he always said about the USSR, growing up in that system was that there was no hope. There was no hope. And if you have $100,000 in debt before you are 20 years old, there's very little hope for you. And that is sad. And that is sad. So we should not operate that way. We as Christians should operate differently and forget what society is telling us. It's just one more thing. We have to shut off what the world is saying and we have to listen to what the Bible is saying. We are to produce, we are to go, we are to work hard. We are to, you know, be good stewards of what God has blessed us with and we are to produce and save, not spend and borrow, all right? That's debt from the Bible. Let's borrow heads and have a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for all these words of wisdom in the Bible. We ask that you just help us, you know, kind of buck the status quo and what we're being told today. Help us to, you know, understand that what the Bible says is true no matter what the laws are today. The Bible will always end up being true and it still works the same and that's why you gave us the rules that you gave us in the Bible. Well, we love you. I ask that you bless the rest of today and bless soul winning this afternoon and church this evening. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.