 All right, so keep your place there in 1 Kings chapter 22. We're going to be going back and forth to this story. So this 1 Kings chapter 22, there's a lot, a lot happens in this story and this story reverberates through generations, you know, because of what happens here and we're not going to get too deep into all that. But basically, what I want to focus on this morning is this idea that, you know, Jehoshaphat, who is a king of Judah, this is where he allies himself with King Ahab in battle against Syria. So the story goes that, you know, Ahab wants to go to war with Syria and he convinces Jehoshaphat that, hey, this is your fight too and we're together and we're one. So basically what happens is Jehoshaphat, who is a good king in many respects, is basically convinced to ally himself with a wicked king who is King Ahab, right? And God obviously is going to judge King Ahab and, you know, just as an aside, you don't really want to get in the way, you know, you don't really want to be standing next to somebody who's going to be under the judgment of God. So that's the sermon in itself, which is not what we're going to talk about this morning. But basically that's what happens to Jehoshaphat here. He allies himself with a wicked man, all right? But what we're going to talk about in this morning's sermon is this idea of counsel and receiving counsel, hearing counsel, and actually receiving counsel in your life. Now, Jehoshaphat in this story was provided godly counsel. Jehoshaphat, he asked for godly counsel and it was given to him, okay? But look, he didn't listen. Look down at verse number 30 and we see the consequences of Jehoshaphat not listening to this counsel. And in verse number 30 of 1 Kings chapter 22, you know, now they've decided to go into the battle that no one has listened to the godly counsel. And the Bible says in 1 Kings 22 verse 30, And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, I will disguise myself and enter into the battle, but put thou on thy robes. So what is he telling Jehoshaphat here? He's telling Jehoshaphat, he's like, hey, I'm going to dress, you know, King Ahab says, I'm going to dress like all the other soldiers and I'm going to go into the fight. And what I want you to do is put on your robes, you look like a king, and go into the battle, okay? So basically, you know, there's some horrible advice as well because in verse number 31, the Bible says, But the king of Syria commanded his 30 and 2 captains that rule over his chariots saying fight neither a small or great, nor save only with the king of Israel. So the Syrian leader is telling his captains to just go after the king. He's like, just kill the king. That's what we want to do first. Now look, there's lots of rules of war throughout history where, you know, you're not supposed to just start shooting the officers, basically. It's basically against, you know, ethical warfare. And, you know, that's one of the things that, you know, the patriots in the Revolutionary War would do is that, you know, they would just shoot the officers, right? They would shoot the guy that's in the fanciest coat on the horse and then that helped them win fights, right? Well, that's exactly what the king of Syria is telling his men to do here. Hey, let's just cut the head off the snake. I mean, in war, I guess you could say in war, in total war, is there really any rules? Not really, I guess. So that's what the king of Syria says. And here, Jehoshaphat is the one that is dressed like a king. He's wearing his robes. He looks like a king. Look at verse 32. And what came to pass when the captains of the chariot saw Jehoshaphat, they said, surely it is the king of Israel. And they turned aside to fight against him and Jehoshaphat cried out. And it came to pass when the captains of the chariots perceived that it was not the king of Israel, that they turned back from pursuing him. And a certain man drew a bow at a venture and smote the king of Israel between the joints of the harness, wherefore he said under the driver of his chariot, this is Ahab saying this, turn thine hand and carry me out of the host for I am wounded. And the battle increased that day and the king was stayed up in his chariot against the Syrians, and he died at even. He died in the evening. And the blood ran out of the wound into the midst of the chariot. So here, you see, Jehoshaphat almost gets killed and king Ahab does get killed. Which is exactly what Micaiah said would happen. He said, look, he's like, if you do come back, if you do make it back, he said to king Ahab, he's like, then the word of the Lord has not spoken through me. He said, and of course, Ahab doesn't come back. So we know that Micaiah was telling the truth. He was prophesying good, godly counsel. So first, let's look at what is counsel? Turn to Proverbs chapter one. Let's look at what is counsel and how we can make sure that in our lives, we don't make the same mistake that Jehoshaphat was a godly man. Jehoshaphat was one of the best kings of the southern kingdom of Judah. He was one of the best kings in the history of that nation. So you're saying, wow, he made such a foolish mistake. Well, let's make sure that we don't make the same mistakes in our lives. Look at Proverbs chapter one. Look, first of all, the book of Proverbs is counsel, the entire book. The entire book of Proverbs is godly counsel for us, for everything in our lives, for all the relationships in our lives, for all the business dealings we'll have in our lives, for all the friendships that we'll have in our lives, for how we're to live this Christian life. The book of Proverbs pretty much covers it all. But look at Proverbs chapter one and verse number one. The book of Proverbs kind of gives us some direction on how to take this counsel. Proverbs one and verse one, the Bible says, the Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel. To know wisdom and instruction to perceive the words of understanding and to receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity. So notice how it says, number one in verse two, it says to know. And then in verse three, it says to receive. Turn to Proverbs 19. You're going to keep your place in Proverbs throughout the whole sermon. We're going to be going back and forth all over the book of Proverbs. Look at Proverbs chapter 19 and look at verse number 20. So in Proverbs one, it says that there's two steps. It says to know and then it says to receive. So there's two steps here to counsel. Look at Proverbs 19 and verse number 20. Again, we see this repeated. It says here counsel, there's here, and receive instruction that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end. So look, there's two steps to properly utilizing counsel in your life. The first is, you know, hearing it or knowing it. And the second is actually receiving it, right? So we're going to look at this in more detail, these two steps at the end. But first let's look at what the benefits of counsel are in our life. You're saying, why would I want somebody telling me something, giving me advice on something? Why would I want that? Well, let's look at it. Turn to Proverbs 24. Proverbs chapter 24. The first point is this, the first point is on counsel is this. Counsel keeps you safe, the Bible says. Okay, in Proverbs 24, look at verse number six. The Bible says, for by wise counsel thou shalt make thy war, and in the multitude of counselors there is safety. Now doesn't this apply to our story we just saw, we just read? It says, for by wise counsel thou shalt make thy war. Is that how they made their war by wise counsel? No, they ignored wise counsel. So what happened? It was a disaster, right? And in the multitude of counselors there is what? There is safety. So look, here's the thing, turn to Proverbs chapter 11. You don't have to know everything. You know, when you think about the situations in your life, you really don't have to know everything. All you have to do is know who to take counsel from. You know, I mean that's kind of a comfort. Look at Proverbs 11 in verse number 14. The Bible says this. It says where no counsel is, the people fall. But in the multitude of counselors there is safety. Turn to Proverbs 21. So we see that this counsel, where there's counselors, the Bible says that there is literal safety. Okay, there's literal safety. Look at Proverbs 21, look at verse 31. The Bible says the horse is prepared against the day of battle, but safety is of the Lord. So we see that counsel equals safety, and safety is of the Lord. So we're kind of in this A equals B and B equals C, so A must equal C situation. You see what I'm saying? Basically what I'm saying is if counsel equals safety, and safety is of the Lord, then good counsel is of the Lord. So look, there's two ways to learn in life. There's two ways to learn things. One way is the safe way. One way is the safe way. You avoid falling, you avoid sin, you avoid disasters like Ahab and Jehoshaphat found themselves in, you avoid the consequences of all these different sins. That's the beauty of Proverbs. That's the beauty of Proverbs is that it's a safe book. If you read Proverbs and you follow Proverbs, there's a lot of safety there for you. There's a lot of safety in your life. So that's one way to learn. That's one way to operate your life. But the other way is not safe. Look, there's other ways to learn. There's other ways to learn things. There's a safe way is what the Bible is saying. Then there's a way that's not safe. Look, you could learn everything the hard way. Many people do this. Many people do this. You could fall into sin. You could just ignore all sorts of counsel on alcohol and drugs and fornication and whatever else. You could just bear all the consequences of that sin. That's one way to learn. That's one way to learn. You could bear the scars of that sin. You could have all kinds of health effects. You could have disease, damaged relationships. Some of these effects could last for your whole life. You could drink your whole life and you could just destroy your body. That could just last for the rest of your life. You could destroy your mind with drugs and alcohol. But look, it is one way to learn. If you do finally learn, it's one way to go. But look, some people will never learn. Like these people sleeping under bridges and out here on the sidewalks and just going to the bathroom in public. These are people that will just never learn. These are people that have taken counsel in their life and they've not taken any of it. And you say, how do I know? Because I'm sure that there was somebody in their life at one point that said, hey, don't drink alcohol. That's not good. Hey, don't do drugs. Look, everybody has heard that at least once in their life. And look, some people that just ignore that and ignore that and ignore that and ignore that, they're just going to bear the consequences of that until eventually, look, eventually they're just going to die. They're just going to kill them. So like some people never learn, but if you do learn, I would prefer to learn the safe way and not by just damaging myself and my family and my relationships and all those types of things and learning the hard way. Look, because I mean, these people, I mean, you could see the marks that they bear on their bodies from not learning lessons. Where they could just read the book of Proverbs and everything would be fine. They wouldn't have to learn all these hard lessons. So how do we utilize counsel in our life? That's the question. Because here at Jehoshaphat, one of the wisest, most righteous kings in the kingdom of Judah, he failed at this. So how can we not fail at this? So I want to give you two steps on how to utilize counsel in your life this morning. The first step is this. The first step to utilizing counsel in your life is seeking counsel. I mean, basically recognizing that you need it. I mean, many people will go through life and they'll just be having all these problems and they won't recognize that they even need counsel. Because look, I mean, most people aren't going to just hunt you down and just start giving you orders on how to run your life. I mean, you need to seek counsel. Jehoshaphat, look, Jehoshaphat turned back to 1 Kings chapter 22. Look, he got this part right. He knew the other prophets were liars right away. Jehoshaphat did. Look back at 1 Kings 22 and look at verse number 5. So remember, they had all these prophets that were just like, oh, you're going to win the greatest battle and all this stuff. And look at 1 Kings 22 in verse number 5 where the Bible says that Jehoshaphat said unto the king of Israel, inquire, I pray thee, at the word of the Lord today. 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 should I forbear? And they said, go up. For the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king. And Jehoshaphat said, I mean, right away, Jehoshaphat says, is there not a prophet of the Lord besides that we might inquire of him? He's like, what a joke. He's like, is there someone that we could ask that actually is a prophet of the Lord? That's what he's saying. The very next thing. He's like, I mean, think of it, 400 prophets. I'm like, go to battle. You're going to win and all this. And he's like, is there a prophet? Jehoshaphat's like, is there a prophet of the Lord here? Anywhere? Anybody? Look at verse number 11. How did he recognize it? Well, first of all, you know, Jehoshaphat, I'm sure was saved. And, you know, he recognized this lying spirit. Right? But look at this in verse number 11. The son of Chaniah made him horns of iron and said, thus saith the Lord, with thee shall thou push the Syrians until thou have consumed them. This is like the biggest, you know, weasel that's trying to, you know, just butter up the king is what he's trying to do. Right? He makes these horns and he's like, this is you, King Ahab, you know. And you can just see Jehoshaphat like, we're probably going to die. You know, could we get a real prophet anywhere here? Look at Proverbs 29 in verse number 5. Another thing that Jehoshaphat recognized was this. Look at Proverbs chapter 29 in verse number 5. So he recognizes just this over-the-top, you know, flattery, basically is what it was. And Proverbs 29.5 says, a man that flattereth his neighbor spreadeth a net for his feet. This is what Jehoshaphat recognized. He's like, look, you know, this is going to probably get us in trouble. He's like, this guy, these people are not telling us the truth. And, you know, something about, he could tell the spirit within him. He could tell that this was not right. So look at verse 22 of 1 Kings chapter 22. Where the Bible says, and the Lord said unto him, wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be at, see, this is what happened. This is God was judging Ahab. Okay? God put a lying spirit in the mouth of these prophets. And in verse 22 it explains this to us. It says, and the Lord said unto him, wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also, go forth, and do so. Right? So look, basically a lying spirit was put into the mouth of all of Ahab's prophets, so he would go into this battle and die. Because that's what God wanted to happen to him. And here's Jehoshaphat hanging out with him. I mean, this is a good lesson on who not to be your friends, right? So look, in verse number seven, Jehoshaphat is like, is there anyone else we can ask? And he got what he asked for. Here Micaiah comes in, and he tells him the truth, and he's like, look, you're going to be like sheep scattered without a shepherd. And he's like, you're going to die. He got Godly counsel. He got exactly what he asked for. Micaiah came in and bravely told the king prophesied what the Lord actually wanted him to hear. But the problem was, is that Jehoshaphat didn't listen. That was the problem. So the first thing that we see is that you need to seek Godly counsel. That's the first step. Jehoshaphat got that part right. But you have to get both parts right, or it's worthless. And the second part is receiving counsel. Remember in Proverbs one, it says to know and to receive. So it's not good enough that somebody just gives you counsel. You actually have to receive that counsel and do something with it. And follow that counsel. Otherwise it's worthless. I mean, all that came out of this was Micaiah. I mean, poor Micaiah just got thrown in prison. That's it. That's all that came out of the whole thing. He got smacked in the face by Zedekiah, the guy with the horns of iron. He got thrown in prison. He's like, yes, I'm good. You know, thanks for calling me. Thanks for asking the advice that, you know, I was supposed to give you. They throw him in prison and feed him, you know, the bread of affliction. So look, receiving counsel is the next step. That you would think that this is the easy part. But unfortunately, and especially in the Bible, this is where most people go wrong. And in our lives too, this is where most people go wrong. Let's look at 1 Kings chapter 12. Let's look at another example of this. Let's look at another example of this. Another king of all things. 1 Kings chapter 12. Look down to verse number six. This, of course, is King Rehoboam. King Rehoboam, Solomon's son. You know, he's faced with a question. He asks the people. He's like, hey, what do we need? What do I need to do, you know, for you to follow me? And the people say, hey, you know, lighten the load on us. And I'm not going to get into the whole story, but they're basically like, your father had this yoke that was heavy on us. He taxed us too much. He worked us too hard. And, you know, lighten the load on us. And, you know, we'll serve you. And so he goes and he consults. In verse number six, the Bible says in King Rehoboam, consulted with the old men that stood before Solomon his father while he yet lived and said, how do you advise that Emmy answer these people? So these old men are the men that consulted Solomon. I mean, think about who these men were. I mean, these number one, they were old men. Number two, they were counselors to the wisest king that had ever lived. So, I mean, this is a serious advantage to have men like these able to counsel you and give you counsel. So basically, he asks them what to do. And they're like, hey, you know, listen to the people. You know, be nice to them. You know, listen to what they need and lighten their load. And he's saying, be a good king to them. Listen to their concerns. And instead, you know, Rehoboam goes and he listens to his buddies who basically say, I just tell them how it's going to be. And he forsakes the counsel of the old men. So he received, he seek the counsel, but he did not receive it. See, same mistake that Jehoshaphat made. So look, he just said, you know, do what I say to the people and it didn't work out, right? So look, it's harder. I just want to point out that it's harder to work with people. You know, that's what Rehoboam must have been thinking, right? It's harder to actually listen to what the people want and try to make things better for them. It's much easier for him in his situation to just be like, do what I say, right? So this is the road that he takes just to drop the hammer on these people. And look, it's usually what everybody else is doing is why people would, you know, reject counsel as well. But look, Jehoshaphat in the whole situation where he did not receive the counsel it almost cost him his life, number one. And Rehoboam lost the kingdom. I mean, he literally, the kingdom was split and he lost all but two tribes of the kingdom. So I mean, it didn't work out. So I mean, they may have thought that it was the easy road at the beginning to not take the counsel, but it didn't turn out to be that way in the end, in the long run. Of course, we have the whole Bible in front of us. We see how it all worked out and we're like, man, these guys, what a bunch of morons. But at the time, they rejected the counsel. So it's something that we need to take seriously and look at it, right? So why, the question is this, why don't most people take counsel? All that to say this, why don't most people do it? Because most people, number one, most people will always take the easy road. Most of the time in your life the correct road that the counsel is going to give you is not going to be what seems like the easy road to you. And of course, we look at the story of Jehoshaphat, where he went into this battle and he was literally running and fighting for his life. And you think, is that an easy road? But at the time, look, at the time it was the easy road to just not offend Ahab, to just go along with the flow, to just go with, I mean, look, it takes strength to swim against the current. It takes strength to do that. Look, he would have angered King Ahab, maybe he lost an ally if he would have done that and said, hey, I'm going to listen to Micaiah and I'm not going to go with you. Who knows, maybe it would have been war between them. But that's the road that should have been taken, but it wasn't the seemingly easy road in front of him. All right, so look, until you look back at the consequences, his actions had on future generations of his family, it might seem like it was the easy road at the time. But we know from what Jehoshaphat's family looked like one, two, three generations down the road from this situation, we know that he did actually not take the easy road, even though it seemed like it at the time. Look, in Ray Abome's case, it was much easier to just say, do what I say. That seemed like the easy road to him, then to work with them, to be nice, to collaborate with them, to listen to their concerns, to try to figure out where the best solutions work. It seemed like the easy road. So most people, a lot of people, reject counsel just because it seems like the easy road is to just keep doing what they're doing. But we know from these two situations that it turns out to be the very difficult road that you're putting yourself in once you reject counsel. If you reject Godly counsel, you're heading down a long and painful path, unfortunately. So what's the second reason people reject counsel? Turn to Proverbs chapter 12. Proverbs chapter 12. The second reason people reject counsel is this. Look at Proverbs 12 and verse number 15. The second reason is this. People are foolish and prideful. It's that simple. The Bible says in Proverbs 12, 15, the way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he that hearkenedeth unto counsel is wise. Turn to Proverbs 13, verse number 10. So there we see the way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he that hearketh unto counsel is wise. So if you don't listen to counsel, you're a fool, the Bible says. Look at Proverbs 13, 10. Only by pride cometh contention, but with the well advised is wisdom. So let me explain how Proverbs works. Proverbs works in these opposites. So what it's giving you here is the way of the fool is right in his own eyes, but if you don't want to be a fool, it says hearkened unto counsel. So it's giving you these opposites. It's giving you one side of the coin, the other side of the coin, and then in 13, 10, it says, only by pride cometh contention, but with the well advised is wisdom. So it's saying, look, the well advised are not prideful. Or, better said is, you know, the prideful will not be well advised. Does that make sense? In Proverbs 13, 10, it says, if you're prideful, you will not be well advised. Meaning, you won't seek it, you won't want it, you won't receive it, even if you do seek it, even if you do get it, you're not going to receive it. So being prideful is, you know, this is the guy who just knows everything, right? I mean, haven't you ever said that? Like, man, you can't tell that guy anything. This is the prideful guy. This is the guy who's going to learn everything the hard way. Because you can't tell him anything. That's what the Bible is saying here. Maybe one of the most dangerous aspects of pride, right here, is that, look, when you get counsel, you will not listen to it. I mean, that's a dangerous, you know, that was Rehoboam, by the way. That was his main problem, was he was prideful. He went to his young buddies, and they, what did they do? They lifted him up, just like, you know, all the prophets did to King Ahab, they lifted him up, he was super prideful, and he just wasn't going to receive any counsel. It's that simple. So look, let's look at some tips. Like, how do we not be this way? Some tips for receiving counsel. Look, here's the first one right here. Whenever you receive counsel, just expect that it's not going to be what you want to hear. Just expect that. If you ever go and say, hey, I need counsel on this situation, you know, it's never going to be the easy path that you have in your mind. Just decide that. Before you even ask for counsel. I mean, think about some examples, like a career path. I mean, look, people that make enough money to support a family have gone through a long road of education and training and experience, and look, it just didn't happen overnight. They just didn't wake up and were like, just got some dream job that just allows them with no experience or anything to support their family. It didn't happen like that. So don't think you're going to get in a similar spot without traveling a road that's similar to that. That's simple. So if you receive that type of counsel, you have to just kind of expect that. I mean, it's the same with anything else. Raising kids, you know, in order to raise your kids properly, you have to discipline them properly. You know, that takes diligence and work. I mean, it takes just effort. But look, it's just much easier to just say, hey, don't do that. You know, it's much easier to just say, hey, stop. Then it is to actually get up and grab them and properly discipline them. Look, it takes time. It takes diligence. It's not the easy way. So when you get counsel that tells you those things, it's much easier just to like keep doing what you're doing. You see what I'm saying? So the answer is this. I'm sitting there, I'm thinking about this sermon, and I'm like, how, you know, it reminded me of this phrase in the Bible. This phrase happens twice in the Bible. So you're saying, how do you convince people to go down what they think is the difficult road in their life? You know, how do you convince people? So I mean, here, you know, we're talking and, you know, I'm telling you, hey, this is the road you need to go down, and you're like, man, but I just want to go like right there. It seems easier, you know, other than this long, complicated path of whether it's, you know, anything in this Christian life, right? How do you convince people to take the hard path or what seems like the hard path of them? Because look, it's actually not the hard path, right? Because if you don't do these things the right way, you're going to, it's going to be a long, painful journey for you. Let's put it that way. But look, there's this phrase. Turn to 1 Samuel, chapter 4. There's this phrase used in the Bible that kind of popped into my head when I was wondering about, and this is mainly, I'm going to beat up on the guys a little bit here. But this is mainly for the guys here. But in 1 Samuel, chapter 4, there's a phrase used twice in the Bible that kind of explains, you know, the methodology of how to handle, you know, when you get, you know, wise, godly counsel and how to make sure that you follow that counsel. Look at 1 Samuel, chapter 4. Look at verse number 8. The Bible says, woe unto us. So this is the Philistine army. So they're going to war against Israel and they see that the Ark of the Covenant has come into the camp and they said, woe unto us. Who shall deliver us out of the hand of these mighty gods? These are the gods that smote the Egyptians with all the plagues and the wilderness. And then their commander says, be strong and quit yourselves like men, O ye Philistines, that ye be not servants unto the Hebrews as they have been to you. Quit yourselves like men and fight. Turn to 1 Corinthians, chapter 16. So we see this phrase used in 1 Samuel 4 that says, quit yourselves like men and fight. And in 1 Corinthians, chapter 16, we see the same statement. And look what it says in 1 Corinthians 16 and verse number 13. 1 Corinthians 16, verse number 13, the Bible says, watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. So quit in this phrase means act. That's what it means. So what he's saying, what the Philistine commander was saying to them and what Paul is saying here is he's saying, act like a man. Well, you say, I don't know how to act like a man. Well, I'm going to tell you. So that's why you came to church this morning. So what does that mean? What does that mean? So we see that quit ye like men, that act like a man. In these two cases it means be strong. And in the case of the Philistines, it means to fight, right? So they were to fight. Turn to 1 Peter chapter 3. 1 Peter chapter 3. And look at verse number 7. 1 Peter chapter 3 and verse number 7. So we see in these specific cases that they're to be strong in 1 Corinthians 16 and that it meant quit yourselves like men and fight in 1 Samuel chapter 4. Look at 1 Peter chapter 3 and verse number 7. The Bible says, likewise ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel. It is being heirs together of the grace of life that your prayers be not hindered. So here the Bible says that husbands, your wife is weaker than you. So your wife is the weak one in the relationship. She's physically weaker. She's emotionally weaker than you. The Bible says that the women are the weaker vessel. Look, that's just the way God designed it. So that's why the Bible is saying be strong, fight, act like a man. Don't be weak. So look, let me give you an example of where I'm headed with this. Many times raising our kids, I would get a call at work from my wife and she would say, so and so did this. And she was usually a little irate over the situation. So and so did this and you're gonna have to give him a spanking when you get home. And I'm like, okay. Many times I would get home, not every time, but many times I would get home. I'm sorry, honey. Many times I would get home and she would say, you know what, we worked it out and it's fine. He doesn't need a spanking. And I'm just like, I'm sorry. The jury has already ruled guilty. And I would take the child that needed the spanking and I would administer the spanking. Okay, now what? Do you think that I want to come home from work and the first thing that I do is spank my kids? No. I want to come home and I've been at some dumb job that I wouldn't go to if they didn't pay me. I'd rather be home with my family every day but I go to work and I make money and I come home and I'd rather just play with my kids. I'd rather go outside and throw a football around. That's what I would like to do. But instead, you know, you put aside your emotions and you act like a man. That's what you do. You quit yourself like men. Women are more emotional. Look, thank God there's two parents. It balances nicely. That's why God designed it that way. But you are to act like a man. So when you're ruled by your emotions turn to Jeremiah chapter 51. We need to be able to, as a man, you need to be able to see what needs to be done and just do it regardless of how you feel about it. That's where I'm headed with this. That's why God gave families a mom and a dad. Turn to Jeremiah chapter 51. Jeremiah chapter 51, look at verse 30. As a man, if you're ruled by your emotions here you are right here in Jeremiah 51 verse 30. The mighty men of Babylon have foreborn to fight. They have remained in their holds. Their might hath failed. They became as women. They have burned their dwelling places. Her bars are broken. You say, you know, I just don't want to, I just don't want to spank my kids when I get home because that makes me sad. Well, you're like a woman. That's what the Bible says. And, you know, the Bible says that, look, the Philistines, they were being ruled by their emotions. They were afraid. They were afraid. The guys act like a man. Don't be ruled by your emotions. It's very simple. Look, I don't want to make all these changes in my life that are constantly talked about in these sermons because it might offend people and it might make people uncomfortable. Act like a man. That's the answer. Quit ye like men. Don't be ruled by your emotions. You know, I don't want to go down this road for my career where the council has been given to me because it's just like, it's really hard. It seems like, you know, it seems difficult and that stresses me out to even think about it. Quit acting like a woman is what I would say. Quit being ruled by your emotions. You know what you need to do, do it. That is acting like a man. That is being strong. That is standing fast in the faith. Look, there's many times it says stand fast in the faith. Quit ye like men because there's going to be times when you don't feel like coming to church or you don't feel like going soul winning or you don't feel like doing what you're supposed to do but you know what you're supposed to do. So act like a man. So look, I mean, don't be ruled by your emotions. That's one way to just get past a lot of this for the men. Inclusion. If you're prideful. Let me just talk for a couple minutes on pride. Especially men. If you're prideful, you're not going to receive any counsel. Pride will destroy you. That's what destroyed Jeroboam. If you're prideful, especially men, or if you're ruled by your emotions, you will not heed any counsel. Look, there's a tough road ahead for you. That's who you are. If you're going to be ruled by your emotions and or you're prideful, you're just going to, the pits in your life, you're just going to fall into every single one. I mean, who wants to do that? Every single pit you'll fall into. Every single obstacle you'll smash into it with your face. I mean, who wants to do that? Who wants to live their life that way? And look, especially the men. I told you I was going to beat up on the men. Here's the thing. People will suffer with you. Because you're in charge. So if you cannot get past your pride, if you cannot get past, you know, just being ruled by your emotions and just like, you know, being as a woman. Look, I'm not, I'm not denigrating women. It's just different roles. And you're not to have that role, man. You're not to have that role. I mean, thank God that there's a woman in a family to just like pour love and emotion constantly on the kids. I mean, thank God for that. I mean, thank God that, you know, I mean, you don't think, look, we took some classes like, many years ago, and we took some classes on early childhood development. And I was shocked at how much, how important it is for like a mom just to hold her baby and to just, you know, I mean, all these connections are just being made in the kids' minds from zero to like two years old. And if they don't have that, they don't have that mother that's just constantly touching them and loving on them and all these things, look, they just don't, they don't develop right. They're designed that way. So it's supposed to be that way. But look, men, if you don't get this right and you don't take counsel and, whether it's your pride or your emotionalism or whatever it is, you know, look, people are going to suffer with you. You're going to take, I mean, there's other people on the ship with you. And, you know, you could steer it in the wrong direction and they're all, I mean, look at Jehoshaphat. He destroyed generations of his family. Over one thing that he did, it's an incredibly sobering story in the Bible. Look, counsel is a blessing that God has provided for you for your safety. And for the safety of your family, use it. Hear it and receive it. Both things. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.