 to be here this evening and I want to share out of Second Kings this evening, Second Kings chapter 1. But as you guys are turning to the passage, the title of this is the Fruit of Disobedience. We want to keep our pastor and Marian prayer as they're resting and just keep them in prayer and God willing, Pastor David will be back on Wednesday to resume our marriage and family series. I want to welcome those who are joining us online and those who may be in the patio. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your mercy, your grace, and your love. So, Lord, as we look at this passage this evening, may your name be glorified, may our hearts be opened in Jesus' name. Amen. What I like to do is read verses 1 through 4 and then get into our study. But you notice today in our life around us is that disobedience has kind of lost its sting. I remember when I was growing up, the challenge between obedience and disobedience was a real war. But it seems like today, even in Christianity, that disobedience has taken over obedience in the name of Christianity. A lot of times we will see that there are disobedient Christians that are living a life thinking that they're fruitful when in reality the fruit of disobedience is God's judgment. And I want to share a little bit about this, reflecting on this from a king in 2 Kings chapter 1 named King Asahaya. And what I want to do is share a little bit about what he has done and kind of use that as an application for our lives this evening. How does this apply to us? I remember in my life that there was a time where I walked this line of disobedience thinking that I would be able to still call myself a Christian, but later on I realized that the two do not mix and that there is a cost to pay in disobedience. And this evening I want to take some time to look at that and then at the end I want to wrap it up. I want to wrap it up with a more positive note because my question to you is at the end is going to be how are you recognized? If I were to go into a crowded, my wife would recognize my beautiful bald head. Why are you guys laughing? There's characteristic traits that we have that we are recognizable by people. But how are we recognized as Christians? And that's the point I want to get to at the end here. But first let's take a look at the first four verses. I'd like to read 2 Kings chapter 1 beginning with verse 1. It says, Moab rebelled against Israel after the death of Ahab. Now as Ahaya fell through the lattice of his upper room in Samaria and was injured. So he sent messengers and said to them, Go inquire of Ba'al Zabab, the God of Ekron, whether I shall recover from this injury. But the angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite arise. Go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria and say to him, is it because there's no God in Israel that you are going to inquire of Ba'al Zabab, the God of Ekron? Now therefore thus says the Lord, you shall not come down from the bed for which you have gone up, but you shall surely die. So Elijah departed. You know faith and obedience goes hand in hand and at one point all of us have probably experienced disobedience in our lives. We may be even struggling with some sense of disobedience this evening. Even as we go through seasons of our lives, there can be times where we feel that we're disobedient. But as followers of Jesus Christ, it is our daily commitment to live and act more like Jesus than the day before. So the question is, how do we submit to Jesus's authority completely rather than just most of the time? The writer for Hebrews talks about the people of Israel while they wandered in the desert because of disobedience. In Hebrews chapter three verses 18 and 19 it says, and to whom God, excuse me, and to whom did God swear that they would not enter his rest if not for those who disobeyed. So we see that we are not able to enter because of their unbelief. We see that the Israelites continue to disobey God's commandments throughout the book of Exodus. Scripture is very clear and later confirmed in the New Testament that the reason for their rebellion was their lack of trust and belief in God. They didn't believe God was their source. They didn't believe that God was their best way and they suffered for it. And so throughout Scripture, we see the fruit of disobedience is God's wrath and his judgment. Colossians chapter three verses five through seven says, therefore put to death the members, your members, which are on earth fornication, uncleanliness, passion, evil desires, covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience in which you yourself once walked when you lived in them. Deuteronomy chapter 28 verse 15 says, but it shall come about that if you do not obey the Lord your God to assert all his commandments and his statutes with which I charge you today that these curses will come upon you and overtake you. The fruit of disobedience, the fruit of disobedience will always bring about God's wrath and God's judgment in our lives. And this is the ultimate choice that we have on a daily basis. Whom do will you obey today? A lot of times we have the draw to follow and obey the ways of the world or our hearts lead us in certain situations that brings disobedience to God. And then there's times where we want to be obedient to the Lord and we're striving to be obedient to the Lord. And then we feel the pull of disobedience. And so every day it's a daily struggle between obedience and disobedience. And as we draw closer to Jesus Christ, our lives are to be more obedient today than they were yesterday. And so we see in verse one immediately that the king of Israel is facing a crisis. And I like what the writer's doing here because he's right away showing the result of disobedience because of the king of Israel is wicked. And so we see here right off the bat in verse one that it says Moab rebelled against Israel after the death of Ahab. Just a little bit of a history here. Ahab was the king of Israel. So the nation of Israel was divided. The king of the north was Ahab around this time. The kingdom was divided initially by a prophet who came to Jeroboam and said, Jeroboam, if you walk in all the ways of the Lord, walk in all of his statutes and do as I command you, my name will be on your dynasty. And so this prophet is wearing this robe and he comes up to Jeroboam and he rips it off and it's ripped into 10 pieces, 11 pieces. 10 he gives to Jeroboam and one he says is for the king of Judah, Rehoboam, which is the son of Solomon. And so the Jeroboam is given the northern kingdom, which is referenced the nation of Israel. And the south was reigned by Rehoboam at that time, which is considered Judah. So now here in the Old Testament, when you see that there is the king of Israel, it's referencing the northern tribes. And what happens is as Jeroboam became king, it's the king that the people wanted. But what happened was he started listening to his own heart. And I don't know about you guys, but when we begin to listen to our hearts rather than God's word, we will find ourselves in trouble. Because what happens is it tells us in First Kings that Jeroboam began to say in this art that if the people in the north start going down to the true place of worship in Judah, King Rehoboam is going to send people up to kill me. And so therefore I'm going to set up altars here in the north in Dan. And I'm going to set up an altar in Bethel. And I'm going to set up these golden calves and people, instead of leaving the northern tribes, they can go here as a convenience place to worship. It was a house of worship. They had priests. They were sacrificing. They were doing all the things that looked like Christianity, but they were actually worshiping idols. And so as Jeroboam began to listen to his own heart, he began to introduce more idolatry. And from First Kings chapter 15 all the way to First Kings chapter 22, the writer takes us through this journey of these wicked kings of the north that continue to worship idolatry. And so here as Ahab dies, he's the most wicked king of the north. And he has a wife named Jezebel, which I would recommend that to ever name your daughters Jezebel, not even your dog or not even your fish. But Jezebel was a wicked queen. So Ahab dies. And his son as a hyac comes into the kingdom in the north. And at first thing that it tells us about his reign is that Moab rebels against Israel. We see that the immediate crisis of the result of king as Ahaya's disobedience is a rebellion. Anytime that we are walking in disobedience against the Lord, we are in rebellion against God's word, against his spirit and against him himself. So the first thing that the writer points out to us here is that there is a consequence, there is a fruit of as Ahaya's disobedience that came from his father Ahab. For context purposes, if you look at chapter, excuse me, First Kings chapter 22, the last couple of verses, gives us a little bit of context. Look what it says here. He, he's talking about as Ahaya, did evil in the side of the Lord. And he walked in the ways of his father in the way of his mother and in the way of Jeroboam, the son of Nabat, who made Israel sin. For he served Baal and worshiped him and provoked the Lord God of Israel to anger according to all that his father has done. So the result of as Ahaya's disobedience right away, there's rebellion. And there's a little bit of an application here that we can see right off the bat. See, there were three main things in verses 52 and 53 that led to as Ahaya's disobedience. The first thing that it says that he walked in the ways of Jeroboam, that Jeroboam entered, was maintaining and introduced calf worship to the nation of the northern tribes, to Israel. Then he's walking in the ways of his father as Ahaya who was neglecting to worship the true God. And then it tells us that here in verse 52 that he walked in the ways of his mother who introduced Baal, the Canaanite storm God. But what's the application here right off the bat? How many parents do we have in here? How many grandparents? For the rest of you guys, you guys are living the vidaloka, right? You don't have any kids. But an application right off the bat. We see King as Ahaya here following the ways of his mother, following the ways of our father, parents. Always know what we're doing is set an example for our children. And what you do, they will follow. Grandparents who are being influenced to your children and to your grandchildren, always know the way that you do things and the way you respond to crisis and the way that you respond when you're upset and the way you come to church. Read your Bible. Don't read your Bible. Pray. Don't pray. You're set an example for your children. And here we see in verses 52 and 53 of 1 Kings chapter 22 that Ahaya is following in the footsteps of his parents. So we see here that God's judgment now is on Ahaya. Moab rebels. Now we're going to keep Moab there for a moment and if you go on to read 2 Kings chapter 3, Moab will come back up this nation, will come back up and will have a pretty significant role in 2 Kings chapter 3. But for the most part, the writer just leaves it here because he's telling us that rebellions already started. But in verse 2, we see another fruit of disobedience. We see that as Ahaya fell through a lattice of his upper room in Samaria and he was injured. So he fell. Now what's interesting about this is that I'm jumping ahead of myself, you guys here. Let me back up a second, you guys. Going back to the first verse, Moab rebelled. Moab has been under the rule of Israel since the time of King David. 2 Samuel chapter 8 verse 2 tells us that he, David, defeated Moab, forcing them down to the ground. He measured them off with the line. With two lines, he measured off to be put to death and with the one full line to those kept alive. So the Moab acts became David's servant and bought tribute. So the death of Ahab and the succession of Ahaya was immediate cause for the Moabites to rebel. And so they were paying tributary to the king of Israel. When you look in 2 Kings chapter 3, you'll see that they brought 1,000, 100,000 lambs and 100,000 wool of goats and they would pay tributary to the king of Israel. But now that Ahab died and as Ahayas become king, they rebelled. And no longer are they paying tribute to the king of Israel. But the word rebelled here speaks of, it's an interesting word. It speaks of breaking away from. One commentator says that to behave as a criminal. And I think about the many times in my life, you guys, that I've broken away from God in an act of rebellion by listening to my own heart. By taking my eyes off of the Lord, by taking my time away from God's word and praying to the Lord, my heart began to turn in disobedience. And now my heart was in rebellion, which is a criminal activity towards the Lord. It was a breaking away from God. But what was Moab, this city of Moab, what were they breaking from? What were they rebelling against? Well, when you look at 2 Kings chapter 3, verse 4, it says, Now Misha the king of Moab was a sheep reader and he regularly paid the king of Israel 100,000 lambs and the wool of 100,000 rams. So this revolt of Moab was great loss to Israel. The fruit of disobedience will bring great loss to our lives. The joy that we once had in walking in the presence of the Lord, the joy that we once had having communion with the Holy Spirit is now broken away when we are in disobedience. And instead of pursuing that, we see that Ahab's as a high as affairs are not focused on what he's lost. Sounds like rebellion. And this is how disobedience works. See, when he rebelled against God and he revolted from his allegiance from him, Moab rebelled against Israel and revolted from the persecution that had long paid the king of Israel. Disobedience and sin often weakens and undermines us as Christians. And we see God's to continue judgment and crisis in verse 2. Now I like the transition words. I'm one of these guys in the Bible that when I read scripture, I like looking at the words that are that transition. And here it says now. So right after the first crisis is mentioned, there is another crisis mentioned saying now, now as Ahaya fell through the lattice of the upper room. And what's interesting about this is that this transitional word is also introducing us to more of the fruit of disobedience of King as Ahaya. But don't we know this, you guys? I don't know how many of you guys have ever experienced an emergency? Probably not, right? You know, emergencies are the real test of what we have learned. Whether it's medically or spiritually, when crisis comes, where do you turn for help? This answer is important because how much help you actually get depends entirely on whom you ask. And we're going to see this here. Because what you turn to in crisis or in difficult times is what you serve. Think about a crisis you just recently went through. It could be a huge, a big crisis, could have been a small crisis. But think about it. And who did you turn to? Was it Oprah? Dr. Phil? Your friends? Because who you turn to in crisis or what you turn to in crisis will determine what you are serving or whom you are serving. And we see here that this crisis comes that as Ahaya fell through the lattice and has this unexpected crisis. But we know that unexpected crisis comes to the good and to the evil. Such accidents happen to both kings and to us peasants. Matthew chapter 5 verse 45 says, For he makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and unjust. But he fell. Now if we're to look at this from a spiritual perspective, we can see that this is something that we all need to be aware of. We need to be aware that disobedience will often take us to a place that we will fall. We will fall spiritually. Ephesians chapter 5 tells us to walk circumspectly because the enemy will have pitfalls in front of us all the time. And if we're walking in disobedience, it will just be a matter of time until we fall spiritually. We see that his fall is a physical result of his disobedience to the Lord, but it also can be a spiritual result of disobedience from the Lord. The fall of any man is a result of disobedience. So when Azahaya here is severely injured by falling through the lattice, look who he turns to. Because remember again, whatever you turn to in a time of crisis is what you serve or who you serve. And we see here that Azahaya falls through this lattice from this upper room. There's not a whole lot of commentators that say how high this was, but the fact is he fell and he fell hard. And when he falls, he turns to guidance. He now wants to inquire what's going to happen to me from this fall. But instead of turning to the Lord, look who he turns to in the second part of verse 2. He says, so he sent his messengers and said, go inquire of Ba'al Zabab, the God of Ekron, whether I should recover from this injury. Now this is mind blowing because this man is a Jewish king. He was raised since he was five years old in the ways of the Torah. Any Jewish boy at the age of five years old will start beginning to memorize their first five books of the Old Testament. So he's seen how God worked in Genesis and he sees the great hand of God in Exodus and Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy. He sees the power and the deliverance of God, but yet he turns to a false God to inquire whether he will survive this fall. That blows me away, but yet it doesn't. Because there's many times in my life I've done the same thing. God has delivered me from addictions. God has delivered me from this and slavery and that. He's delivered me from this and he's delivered me from that, but why do I go and inquire of other things other than the Lord? That is the fruit of disobedience. Because what we turn to in the time of crisis is what or who we are, that who are we are serving. What's interesting here that this word Ba'al Zabab, this name here, simply Ba'al means Lord. Ba'al Zabal means Ba'al as Prince. But what the writer here has done in 2 Kings has made a little bit of a ridicule of this name by referencing him Ba'al Zabab which means the Lord of Dung. I don't know if you need the Hebrew or Greek for Dung, right? Dung is Dung. Also known as the Lord of the Flies. But what's interesting here is that this same name Ba'al Zabab is one of the names that Jesus's enemies used to insult him in Matthew chapter 10. But it tells us that Ba'al Zabab, he's the God of Ekron. He is the God of the Philistines. And they believe that this God would be able to deliver people from pestilences and diseases but not injury. So it's possible that as a high as injury resulted in some type of disease or infection because the inquiring of Ba'al Zabab usually would mean that they are inquiring for somebody who has a pestilence or disease in regards to idols. And it's not, I didn't give it to the guys for notes, but listen what it says to idols in Psalm chapter 135. The idols of nations are silverling and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths but they do not speak, eyes but they do not see. They have ears but they do not hear. Nor is there any breath in their mouths. Those who make them are like them and so everyone who trusts in them. When we read about it, it seems pretty disgusting that this Jewish Israeli king would now turn to a false God. But we often do the same thing because we're pursuing money. We're pursuing recognition. We're pursuing titles. We're pursuing relationships. We're pursuing the things of the world and the things that have been set before us to follow the Lord have now we are inquiring of these different gods. And we have to be careful for that because we know that the enemy is walking around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. And when he sees a Christian that is in disobedience, that is lunch for him. And so what's interesting here is that as Ahaya now sends these messengers and it says at the end of verse two, to go inquire of Ba'al Zabab. Now the word inquire here is an interesting word. It means that go and worship Ba'al Zabab and bring some consultation to me of what he says. Divination. Cultic practices. The word inquire here speaks of a divination practice that is forbidden by God's people. It would be like going to a tarot card reader or a poem reader or something like that where they are wanting to hear what they want to hear. Leviticus chapter 19 verse 31 says, give no regard to mediums and familiar spirits. Do not seek after them to be defiled by them. I am the Lord your God. So this was a common practice at this time where consultation regarding an outcome of an injury or sickness was often sought out. And the result was usually given in a medical prognosis such as he shall surely die or he shall surely live. Those were the two main answers that they would receive when they would inquire regarding their life due from an injury. They won't say, oh you're probably going to make it. They're going to say you shall surely live or you shall surely die. Remember what we worship will determine what we turn to which determines what we serve. And so we see here in verse three, but the angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite, arise go up and meet the messengers of the king of Samaria and say to him it is because there is no God in Israel that you're going to inquire of Ba'alzebub the God of Ekron. Notice with me here that the Lord sends his messengers to Elijah as Ahaya sends his messengers to Ba'alzebub. And we see right off the bat here that the Lord, that God, Jehovah God here sends the angel of the Lord. Now if you look in your Bible it doesn't say unangel of the Lord it says the angel of the Lord. And there's two different types of school of thought regarding the angel of the Lord. Who is this angel of the Lord? Who is he truly? Some say that he is a superior angel and others say that is an appearance of Christ pre-incarnate also known as a Christophany. But we're not here this evening to study whether this was Christ pre-incarnate. What's important here is the message and instructions given to Elijah. Look what it says here but look what the message of this angel of the Lord says. Arise and go and meet the messengers and the king of Samaria. God is so disgusted by this king he doesn't even reference him as king of Israel he calls him king of Samaria. And he says to him is there not a God in Israel that you're going to inquire but also above the king of Ekron? The message here that is asked is there's no God in Israel? When God is removed from the equation and replaced with idol worshiping there's big trouble and judgment coming. When God is removed people will turn to other things. When Jesus is removed people will turn to other things. Jesus has been removed from our nation that was once founded as a nation under God and look at the condition of our nation. God has been removed from our schools and our colleges and our universities. God is being removed from the institution of marriages and from the institution of the family and families and marriages are now turning to Baal. Parents, God has been taken out of parenting. God has been taken out of the church. And when Elijah in verse four intercepts this convoy of messengers he will give them a message that would both rebuke and sober the king. So why did Azahaya want to consult the dead God of Ekron when the living God is available to tell him what would happen? That he would surely die. Instead of being a spokesman for Baal the messengers became messengers to the true king of Israel, the Lord God our king. In verse four he tells him this he's telling the messengers Elijah's now intercepted these messengers. And remember these messengers have been sent by a king. They're sent out to do one job to inquire whether I'm going to live or I'm going to die. So messengers go to Ekron and go see the priest of Baal Zabab, inquire, worship, divination practice, come back and tell me what my fate is going to be. And so we see in verse five and when the messengers returned to him he said to them why have you come back? And the messengers so they said to him a man came up and met us and said to us go return to the king who sent you and say to him thus says the Lord it is because there's no God in Israel that you are sending that you're sending to inquire of Baal Zabab the God of Ekron therefore you shall not come down from the bed which you have gone up but you shall surely die. Then he said to him what kind of man was it who came up to meet you and told you of these words? And he answered him a hairy man wearing a leather belt around his waist and he said it is Elijah the Tishbite. So the messengers are intercepted by Elijah. Elijah gives him this word telling that since there's no God of Israel you're going to go to the God of Ekron so tell your king that he's going to die. He's not even going to be able to come down from his bed that he's going to die. God's judgment against disobedience is always swift. This trip from Samaria to Ekron was about 83 miles so it would take about a 21 hour walk to get from Samaria to Ekron which shows on the Philistine Judea border which is modern Gaza. So it's a little bit of a trip and they say to the king a man came up to meet us. They were sent to seek a word from a pagan priest of Baal Zabab but the word from Elijah persuaded them so much that they didn't even follow through with their original orders. I want to stop and take a look at this for a second. These men were sent out on a mission from a king. They were fulfilling king's orders. When you did not fulfill the order of a king it usually meant off with your head or some type of execution where you lost your life. These men were ordered to go and inquire of Baal Zabab but yet they meet this hairy man as the Bible describes with a leather belt and there must have been something about him that turned away these men who were instructed to bring news to the king and inquire to these priests of Baal Zabab. What was it about Elijah that persuaded these men to turn away and possibly face death? What was it about this man that made them turn back and not complete their mission from the king? The messengers according to verse six were sent back with the word of the Lord and they gave it as a hyah. So my question is why didn't that as a hyah didn't inquire of the Lord? Well I think about my own life when the times where I didn't want to inquire of the Lord because I didn't want to hear the answer that the Lord wanted to give me or wanted to give me instead. I wanted to hear what I wanted to hear which would give me an excuse to go continue to do what I wanted to do and so I would inquire of the Lord. I would rather inquire of the things that would give me the answers that I wanted to hear and this is what as a hyah did. He knew he was in disobedience but he wanted to go somewhere where he would be told kind of scratching and itching his ears the things that he wanted to hear. He didn't want to seek counsel from the Lord. He already knew what the answer would be but in seeking of Ba'al's above for an answer as a hyah wanted to find a God that would tell him what he wanted to hear and this is what has crept into Christianity today. Tell me what I want to hear and don't convict me. Don't you dare talk to me about my sin. I was born this way and we see that the cross has been taken out of the equation. I want my walk with the Lord to always feel good. I don't want to talk about sin because it's not sin. It's illness. It's because I have daddy issues. It was because my cat died when I was four years old and we hear the list goes on and on and on and because of this I want to seek out what I want to hear but how is this working out for King as a hyah? Second Timothy chapter 3 verse 5 says having a form of godliness but denying its power thereof. So in verse 7 we see that as a hyah starts to suspect who this person is because he says to him to the he said to these messengers what kind of man was it who came up meet you and told you these things notice he didn't ask who who was the man rather he says what kind of man he was already suspicious and they answered him and said a hairy man wearing a leather belt around his waist and he said it is Elijah the Tishbite. His suspicion was confirmed when they described a hairy man wearing a leather belt around his waist the word hairy man which I probably have no understanding of means possessor of hair. One commentator says that it was more likely that the skin of animal hair that he was wearing and he would wear a belt around his waist but identifying Elijah by his clothes he was recognized as a prophet of the Lord. John the Baptist dressed in a similar way as hairy skins from an animal is seen in Matthew chapter 3 verse 4 it says now John himself clothes himself in camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist and his food was locust and wild honey. Couple of points that I want to use to wrap up here there's always a price to disobedience it will always produce fruit in our lives but the main fruit that it will produce is the spiritual falling of one's life you show me a man that has fallen you will show you can also see the life being fulfilled of disobedience because what we worship is what we turn to to serve. The last thing I want to cover here and I want to tie this up here in a moment is that Elijah is recognized by the description that is given to Azahaya. These men came back and said King Azahaya this man is hairy this man wore leather belt around his waist and right away Azahaya knew who he was speaking about can we be recognized as men and women of God can we be recognized as men and women of God by the way we speak can we be recognized as men and women of God by the way we act or the way we conduct ourselves or when we go through crisis do our children recognize that we are godly parents do our grandchildren recognize that we are godly parents do those at work around you recognize you as a man or woman of God because if they don't that means that you have enough mixture of the world to identify yourself as someone who lives in the world what our wives and our friends and our children say that we are men and women of God if I were to ask my wife I paid her 50 bucks before we got her answer yes hopefully she would say yes or do they seek elsewhere because there is no god of Israel around one time you guys I was at another church years and years ago and I thought it was time for me that this walk that I was doing with the Lord this Christian walk I needed to spice it up a little bit I was going to church I was coming home I was going to work coming to going to church coming home going to work and I thought you know what I'm missing a little bit of something here so I decided that at I heard that at my job there was going to be a party and I had been sober and clean for a number of years and so I could decide to go to this party and I start partaking in the things that they're offering at this party and the next thing you know I'm like well this feels good I've missed this I've deserved this and and kept indulging in things at this party making a ultimate complete fool of myself and so the next day as I put on my Christian mask and carried my big black Bible and began to speak Christianese again we were going to go door to door inviting people to come join our church for Easter Sunday and I was teamed up with the pastor so I was trying to keep my distance because I reeked of alcohol I was sweating I had the whole nine yards but yet I was smiling and God bless you and I remember going to a house and and I wanted to impress this pastor by letting him know how spiritual I really am and went to the door and knocked and it was one of those screen doors that you can't see in but you can see out and I knock on this door and I hear this lady answer the door and says how can I help you and I said we're from such and such church my name is John and this is the pastor and we would like to invite you to our Easter Sunday service here's a flyer and can I pray with you and then I hear these footsteps walking in the background mom who is that and I can't even see in and I hear oh it's you and I'm thinking oh I'm done she says you were the one at the party last night you were the one that was acting stupid saying all kinds of things drinking and going on and and if you're what a Christian is I want nothing to do with Christianity I often think about that young lady how she now views Christianity because of my witness and often wonder will she ever give her heart to the Lord we know that the Holy Spirit can break through any hardened heart but I was the vehicle to show her the hypocrisy that many Christians play today because they think they can walk in disobedience friends we have to remember that Jesus died on the cross for us not to live in the lives of disobedience he forgave us of all of our sins not so we can walk in disobedience he has given us power in the Holy Spirit and he's given us a new life but not to walk in disobedience he has given his us his spirit that we may walk in his power and that our lives will always reflect Jesus and that we may be recognized as men and women of God may we always walk in obedience friends there's nothing over there for us anymore it's about walking in Jesus you know you guys I'm gonna close with this I keep saying I'm gonna close we'll be here another hour you know this this Sunday is Father's Day and Father's Day is pretty significant for me and it kind of tying this up there was a time as you guys know I've shared this many times that my life was full of addictions and and this was way years before I became a father and and I was caught up in this lifestyle for a very long time and because of this lifestyle my my relationship with my parents and my sister were practically severed it is because I was the biggest thief around it was because that I would steal and I would anything I can do to support my habit that was me and it was and this is why Father's Day is very significant to me there was a time in my life where I was walking in disobedience with the Lord but there was a time where I felt the tugging of the Holy Spirit drawing me in and I would fight it and I would push it off it yet I would feel the spirit of God drawing me in and and I would start thinking about my parents I thought thinking about my sister I start thinking about my family I start thinking about the Lord and and little by little these things that I was caught up in were becoming less and less interesting to me I had been kicked out of the house I had been severed and separated from my family and and and and there was this tugging in my heart that if I go to my grandma's house I can get help because my grandma would be the buffer between me and my parents because I have did them very very wrong I betrayed them and miss and and misused their trust I was that son that know that he did that my parents didn't want me around and I remember going to a house where we were going to use drugs and I remember going in there and sitting in this room thinking what am I doing here and I thought the spirit of the Lord drawn me because as a drug addict you never leave a drug house if there's drugs there you don't leave but I found myself getting up and walking out then I remember getting in the vehicle that was in and I find myself heading to my grandmother's house and I was weeping broken and I remember pulling up to my father's my grandma's house it was father's day and I pull up and I see my mom and dad's car there and my heart sank I haven't seen them for a couple of years they didn't want me around and I sat in that car and I wept and I said you know what I have to go in and so when I walked in I remember that they were having a father's day lunch my grandma my my my parents my family members they were there celebrating father's day and I was thinking to myself how can my dad be sitting here celebrating father's day when his own very son is out there destroying his life and destroyed their lives and it hit me and I was weeping and weeping and weeping and I was like the shame that I brought my parents and I remember opening the door and sticking my head in there and I see my dad's back was facing me and my mom was giving me that glare the chunk leg layer right and I said dad and his back stiffens up and my uncles around the table they they have a nickname for me watch I won't share they said hey nickname I said dad can I speak to you outside his back stiffs up dad can I please talk to you and I'm crying and I'm crying he comes out and he comes outside the first thing I do is I fall to my knees and I'm right my arms around him and said dad I'm sorry I'm tired of this lifestyle I need help and this is why father's day is so significant for me because the love of Jesus Christ that was demonstrated through my dad he didn't push me away he put his arms around me and says I love you I said what kind of dad does that a man who was recognized as a man of God and I remember from that point forward that my dad continued to love me and that was a demonstration a true life demonstration to me for the very first time in all of my life that I felt the presence and love of Jesus Christ are we those people because there's people around us that are hurting but yet we're so caught up in the church politics that he looked at me different or he said this at me knowing that there's somebody next to us this evening who is broken are we being recognized as men and women of God well when my mom came out she wasn't as gracious why why why right but I seen for the first time a true demonstration of God's love through my dad are we recognized as men and women of God and for us men as we're going to celebrate us fathers that would be celebrating Father's Day coming up may we be encouraged and challenged to be recognized as men of God as fathers of God amen let's pray amen am I fired you guys