 If you have your Bibles and hopefully you do, why don't we turn to 2nd Kings chapter 9 and what I'm going to attempt to do and for all you guys who come to Tuesday morning, you've probably heard a little bit of this, but it's going to have a little bit of different twist on it, a little bit of refried manna with some manteca. You know that God's promises are always true. You know, when anytime that we're going through a difficult time, we can turn to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for the hope that we need. We know that God's promises are faithful and are always at work in our lives, even though it may not seem like it. I know this evening, many of us are going through a very difficult time. Some of it might be emotional crisis, some of it may be financial crisis, but whatever it is, just know that God's word is always working in your life. In Isaiah 55 verses 8 and 9 and 11, Isaiah says, For my thoughts are not your thoughts nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord, for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. So shall my word that goes forth from my mouth, it shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper for the thing which I sent it. In tonight's passage, in 2 Kings chapter 9, we're going to take a closer look on how God's word is effective in our lives and how his word will always come forth. Sometimes a lot of times when we're in a midst of a difficult time or we're in the midst of a great time, it's oftentimes that we can see that have a difficult time seeing God's work at work in our lives. And here in this passage this evening, we're going to see that God's word is faithful even to the minute timing. See, I don't know what you guys are going through this evening. Whatever it is, just know that God's word and his promises are working in your lives this evening. I love what it says in Romans 8, 28. We all know this passage and we know that all things work together for the good, to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. And yet in all of this, we as believers do have a responsibility when it comes to God's promises. I think a lot of times that we think we can just sit back and reap the fruits and the benefits of God's love, we can, but there's a responsibility that we must also as believers have to do to see the work of God's promises in our lives. We must always be ready and available to be used by the Lord. We must always be ready to be used by the Lord. We must never get too comfortable in our walks with the Lord and we must not get distracted in what God has called us to do. In 2 Kings chapter 9, we're going to get a firsthand look on God's work, even though it's against evilness, we're going to see how his word is faithful, his word is true, and his promises are yes and amen. So now here's going to be the difficult thing. I'm going to try to put three studies into one. So Jared said, New Year's, we should be done by then, you guys. I'm going to do my best to summarize. I'm going to do my best to hit the main points and because I think in this passage here, there's some great applications that we can only see God's word moving and God's promises at work, but there's a responsibility as believers that we have as well so that God's word and his promises can flow through us. In 1 Kings, have you guys ever heard of Elijah? We all know of Elijah, right? The showdown in Mount Carmel, 450 prophets of Baal were destroyed, and Elijah, who was the prophet at that time, has been giving three instructions up to this point in 2 Kings. These instructions have been given from God himself to anoint Elisha as his protestors, his protege, to anoint Heziel, king of Syria, and the last thing is to anoint Jehu, king of Israel. And so we see these three things that God has instructed Elisha to fulfill in his ministry. But when you look at the Old Testament here in 2 Kings, we see that only one of those things take place. Elijah anointed Elisha to take his place in the prophetic ministry. It was Elisha who anointed Heziel, king of Syria, and it was Elisha who anointed Jehu to be king of the northern kingdom. So we see here in verses 1 through 10, and I'm going to do a little bit of a summary, is that Elisha, the prophet of God, in verse 1, and one of the sons of the prophet said, get yourself ready, take this flask of oil in your hand, and go to Ramath Gilead. So let me provide a little bit of a context for you of what's going on so far in 2 Kings. Well, all the way back in 1 Kings, there has been this division of the kingdoms. Jeroboam, who has been by a prophet of the Lord, was told that you will be taken over 10 of the tribes of the north, and there will be two of the tribes in the south, which is referenced of Judah. And if you walk in my ways, Jeroboam, and you fulfill my statutes, and you follow all my laws, my name will be on your dynasty. So this prophet has this robe, and he comes up to Jeroboam, and he rips his robe into 10, into 12 pieces, gives 10 to Jeroboam, and says, you will oversee the northern kingdom. The two other kingdoms will belong to Rehoboam, who is currently the king of Judah. And Jeroboam says, this is great. I'm going to follow all the Lord's ways. I'm going to follow his statutes, because I want to be a good king. There has not yet been a good king out of the north. And Jeroboam began to think in his heart. That's where we all go wrong. God's promises are a yes and a mineralized. He tells us that we are more than conquerors, that he'll never leave us nor forsake us, that when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death that he will be with us, thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. We have all these promises of God, yet we can lift up on our own hearts, our own version of what God told us. And Jeroboam begins to think if the people in the north go all the way to the south to worship in the true place of worship, they're going to come back and they're going to kill me. That prophet never mentioned anything like that to Jeroboam. But Jeroboam began to listen to the narrative of his heart. He began to listen to the voice of his heart. And we all know that when we begin to do that, we're in trouble. When we begin to listen to our heart more than we listen to God's word, we will find ourselves in a place that is upside down. And this is what Jeroboam does. He begins to listen in his heart and he begins to fabricate things of that God instructed him to do. All God said was to walk in my ways, walk in my statutes, and my name will be on your kingdom. Jeroboam goes, you know what, they're going to kill me. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to build an altar in the north in Dan, and I'm going to appoint my own priest. I don't need Levitical priest. I'm going to appoint my own priest out. And then he says, and instead of going all the way to Judah, I'm going to get a little bit close to Judah, and I'm going to set up another town place to worship, and it's going to be in Bethel. But instead of worshiping the Lord, I'm going to set up some golden calves there. The people need to see who they're worshiping. They need to see that they're actually worshiping the Lord through these golden calves. So I'm going to set these golden calves up, and the Lord, and they're going to worship the Lord, my priests are going to prophesy to them, and we're going to have this amazing kingdom. That's where the Northern Kingdom began to spiral down. Because all the way now here in Second Kings, we have seen nothing but destruction from one king after another in the Northern Kingdom. All the kings that have come from the North have been treacherous. And they continued in the ways of Jeroboam, building up idol worshiping, going to the place of worship. And what's so interesting about these places of worship is that it looked like the place of worship. It sounded like the place of worship, but it was not the true place of worship. And oftentimes if we are not mature in God's Word, we can fall for the subtleties of the lie of the enemy that we're worshiping the true God. And up to this point here, we have seen Elijah consistently confront these kings and saying, you are wrong, you are leading the people of Israel into idolatry, you will be judged. And the king that comes after Jeroboam, there's a series of kings that come. And the next king that is mentioned, that we will look at here, whose house, they call it, his kingdom will be dealt with. And that's King Ahab. Ahab was considered the most wicked king outside of Jeroboam in the Northern Kingdom. And yet he was bent on idol worshiping. He brought his dear wife into the picture, Jezebel, never name your kids Jezebel. Not even your dog. And they introduced a new worship into the idol worshiping. They began to worship Baal. Baal was the God of the Sidonians, who would actually take baby sacrifices and the people of Baal, or the people of Sidonia, would put these babies on these heated arms of Baal, or molek, and they would heat them up until the bronze turned bright orange, and they would lay their live babies on these arms. Imagine the screams. And they were given their families over to these false idols. But oh my gosh, John, that sounds so treacherous. Yes, it does. But we do the same thing today. We worship our children, we sacrifice our children for many things on Sundays. What's the difference? And so we see that this idol worshiping of Baal has infiltrated the Northern Kingdom, and it has turned the nation of Israel into a nation that is worshiping false gods. And we know that any time there is a worshiping of false God, that Jehovah God is going to deal with it. So God's word now begins to work in this amazing way to see his word be fulfilled. And so as we see here in verse nine, King Jo Ram, who is the son of Ahab, Ahab had been killed in the battle with Ramath Gilead by a king named Ben Haddad of Syria. Syria and Israel have always been at war. And Ahab was pretending to be a soldier, and as he goes out to war, the Bible says that a random arrow was drawn back to its full force and it was let go and it struck him between the joints of his armor. Pretty interesting that he was struck randomly by this arrow that was shot by a random person, and it struck him between the joints of his armor. What are the chances? See, this is another illustration for us, and I'll get into this in a little bit when we talk about the importance of being in God's word. See, God has given us all his armor, and a lot of times we don't take the time to examine our armor, and a lot of times we can find little chinks here and little creases here because we spend so much time ignoring the armor that God has given us that the enemy will expose any piece of the armor that is not examined. And all it took was one arrow to kill King Ahab. Now we're here in 2 Kings chapter 9 and Jo Ram, his son, is king of Israel, and in the south his cousin is named Azahaya, who's the king of Judah. And what is going on right now is the second thing or the third thing that was given up to Elijah to do is, Jehu is now being anointed to be king of the north to fulfill God's word. So who's this Jehu guy that we see here in chapter 9? Well, before we get into that, one of the first things that I want to point out to you is that in verse 1, as we are talking about the three things as God's word and his promises are to be faithful in our lives, in which they are, there are things that we must do. And the first thing I want to point out here that is a responsibility that we must have as believers is found in verse 1. It says, in Elisha said to the sons of the prophet, get yourself ready. How many of you are here tonight are ready to serve the Lord? If God has called you tonight for a specific mission, would you be ready? Or would you have too much of the world in your heart that Lord, I cannot be ready? I heard of a man that was struggling with drinking as an elder in the church. And the Lord was telling him, you keep messy with my grace. I will not use you. And this man says, but Lord, your grace is sufficient. I have freedoms in you. And so he would drink and drink and drink and drink. And one day he was called to a hospital deathbed to minister to the family. And when he gets there and begins to minister, the smell of the alcohol in his breath stumbled the family. Are you ready to be used by the Lord tonight? What has gotten in the way of your life for God to call you at any specific time to complete a mission for him? What have you allowed to get in your way? Or in the way for the Lord to say, I want to use you because I have a specific mission or a call in your life. But sometimes we aren't ready because we allow so many things of the world to infiltrate our hearts that we begin to compromise in a lot of ways. So if God was to call you tonight for a specific purpose, would you be ready? Because this man here who's unmentioned, he's called the sons of the prophets, he's given a task to go to this man named Jehu who is a commander. And it tells us here that when you're to go there, take this flask of oil and anoint it on his head and then run. Run. Would you be willing and are you willing to take on a task that is dangerous for the Lord? But you know, John, I need to grow more spiritually. You know, that's telling me that you want to get in shape first before you go to the gym. We always must be ready for God's call in our life. Or to never allow ourselves to get in a place where we're comfortable, where we think that we're doing good. And in reality, we've been being rocked to sleep by the world. We must always be in a place where God can say, I am calling on you this evening, because there's a specific task and a purpose that I want you to fulfill. Are you willing to go and are you ready to go? Are you at a place that where God calls you right now that you can go out and do something even if it's dangerous? Second Timothy chapter four verse two says, Preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and teaching. See the Lord will not use any of those who have not fully surrendered their lives to Christ. Oftentimes we're wanting to be used, but there sometimes can be so much or too little or a little bit of flesh in us. Psalm 142 says the Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there are anyone who understand who seek God. So what's interesting here is that this man named Jehu or this man of the sons of the Prophet is to go and anoint this man named Jehu so that God's word will be fulfilled. And what's interesting here is as Elisha instructs the son of the Prophet to go speak to this man named Jehu, he's given specific instructions to speak to him. He tells him that when he sees them that you're to take this flask of oil in verse three and put it on his head and say thus says the Lord I have anointed you king over Israel and then open the door and flee, do not delay. What a dangerous mission. Imagine this guy comes in, he's a son of the Prophet, he's a part of a student of the current day seminary at that time, and he goes into all these commanders are sitting and he goes up and says hi I'm one of the sons of the prophets, I'm here to anoint you, anoint you and then takes off. Imagine that. But it's interesting here when you take a look a little bit closer to this, he goes up he anoints him and he says in verse four in verse five I have a message for you and listen to what he tells him. When you look at verse seven here is the the the mission that Jehu is going to be given by the sons of the Prophet that's going to fulfill the third thing that was commissioned by Elijah. Listen to what he says here in verse seven you shall strike down the house of Ahab your master that I might avenge the blood of my servants and prophets the blood of all servants of the Lord at the hand of Jezebel for the whole house of Ahab shall perish and it will cut off from Ahab all the males in Israel both bond and free. So I'll make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam son of Nebet and like the house of Baasha the son of Haisha. Now look at verse 10 says and the dogs shall eat Jezebel on the plot of ground at Jezreel and there shall be none to barrier and he opened the door and he fled. Would you be willing to do something like this for the Lord? No Lord send me to Hawaii send me to Hawaii that would be easy but see in order for the Lord to use us in situation like this we must be in God's word we must allow his Holy Spirit to permeate in our lives we must allow Jesus Christ to take a hold of our lives and have our hearts surrendered for him. Are you available? The second point I want to point out and the responsibility that we must do here is found in verse 15 look what it says here the king of Joram had returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds which the Syrians had inflicted on him and when he fought with Hezal king of Syria and Jehu said if you are so minded let when let no one leave nor escape from the city so go and tell it in Jezreel. So Jehu verse 16 wrote in the chariot and he went to Jezreel for Joram was laid up there and as a high king of Judah had come down to see him. See we can look at this and we can pass this very easy very easy to read over. See remember with me Joram the king of Israel Ahab's son has been fighting against Hezal and Ben Haddad in Syria. When you look at chapter 8 verses 28 and 29 it says that King Joram was wounded in this battle and he was inflicted by him by the Syrians. So what's the point here? I'm glad you asked. See friends there can be a place where we feel it's a safe place. See what's going on here in verse 15 is that Joram has left the heat of battle against the Syrians and he is now going back to Jezreel because it's a safe place for me to go so I can recover from my wounds. You notice that it says here in verse 15 that he was to recover from his wounds. These were wounds that were inflicted in battle. The Bible is not clear in what type of wounds they were but it was so bad that he had to leave battle and find himself at a safe place and he goes to Jezreel. Now what's interesting about this is that he goes and he leaves the battle and he goes to this place to recover. What's interesting about this is how God's word is always at work. Jehu gets word of this. Remember he's been appointed now to destroy the whole house of Ahab. Joram is the son of Ahab. Jehu has been instructed now to wipe the entire kingdom of Ahab out. How did Jehu know that Joram was there? What's interesting about this whole thing is that God's timing is always perfect because if Jehu would have left any time sooner or left any time later he would have never met Joram in Jezreel. I'm going to get there in a second. What's so important about Joram going to Jezreel? He comes to the safe place to recover from his wounds but in order to be healed from his wounds he had to remove his armor. He had to go to a place where he was safe. His all his military captains and all his advisors and everybody's in battle at Ramath Gilad in the heat of battle with the Syrians and he's thinking okay I'm going to go to this place. I'm going to recover. I need to take off my armor so my wounds can heal. Sometimes we think that there's a safe place in our lives. Sometimes we think that we can go somewhere where we can take off the armor of God. Sometimes we think that you know what I've been doing pretty good now. I don't really need to take the armor of God on. I can just take it off because I'm doing good right now. I'm going to relax a little bit in my walk. You know what I'm going to give up reading the Bible every day. I'm going to stop praying for a few days. You know it's getting a little boring and we think that we're going to a safe place to rest and every time we go to these places to rest and we think it's safe we have a tendency of removing the armor of God in our lives and this this became fatal for Joram. We can begin to think that my walk is strong. I went to church on Wednesday night saw this boring speaker and then I listened to K-wave in the morning. I'm good. I don't need to go to church. I listened to seminary 24-7. I think that's their jingle right. I don't need to go to church. I don't need to go lying tamers. I don't need to go to the men's study. I don't need to go to the women's study. I watched it online. I listened to it on the radio and we think we can go to those safe places because we think we're doing well and in reality we're removing the armor of God from our lives. We begin to allow compromise to creep into our lives and and our armor begins not to fit. We begin to think that I don't need to do this anymore than the helmet of salvation becomes a little looser. We begin to feel that I'm in a good place now and our breastplate of righteousness begins to fit a little looser. Well you know what I've been watching other teachers and you know yeah they may be a little bit different and they're and they're considered false prophets and but you know what it's making me feel good. It's making my ears feel good. I love what I'm hearing and the belt of truth becomes a little looser and the next thing we know we have removed our armor. Going to that safe place for Joram to recover he didn't think he need protection at all because he was going to this very safe place. You know that the enemy is always in pursuit of you. He wants you to think that you can let your guard down and when we know that the enemy is thinking one thing from you is he's seeking to devour you. I love what it says in 1st Peter 5.8 be sober be vigilant because your adversary the devil walks around like a rowing lion seeking whom he may devour. Friends we must stand guard. Have you examined your armor lately? Have you looked in the places where there has been some compromise that has come in? Has there been a little bit of pride? Has there been a little bit of self that has come in that has caused our armor not to fit because when it tells us in Ephesians it says that God has given us his armor to fit perfectly on us but we allow compromise. We allow these things and those things and we next thing you know we have areas of our armor that are exposed if not removed. For the word of God to be effective in our lives we must always be ready for the task. We must always be vigilant in our walk and now and not allowing compromise to take place. When's the last time you examined your armor? For me I have to examine it every day because I know me. I just get a little bit of full of self and my breastplate of righteousness is exposed right open. I begin to think weird things and my helmet of salvation in my head is not fitting right and these are open targets for the enemy. Remember the enemy wants to destroy you. He wants to devour you. He's seeking and pursuing you. We must always examine our armors and to never fall for the lie that you're good. Take your armor off. You deserve it. Never fall for that because it's a setup. When you look at verses 16 to 20 you see that as Jehu finds out where Jo Ram is at and Jo Ram sees this man driving fiercely from a chariot. It tells us here in chapter 9 verse 20 that he drove fiercely on a chariot. This dude must be from Tijuana. He drives fiercely. But the word of God to fulfill what was called by Elijah is starting to be fulfilled. So remember friends, God's word is always at work in your lives. You may not see it. You may not feel it but you're to know that our Lord Jesus Christ is always making things good in your life. I don't mean good like you're going to flourish but to work out for His good. So when you look at verses 16 through 20 it's interesting because once Jehu finds out that Jo Ram is in Jezreel, Jo Ram begins to send out messengers to him. And Jo Ram and Jehu tells him, are you for me or against me? If you're for me, I'm going to kill you. You need to follow me. And he gets on. These people say, we're going to stay with you. And they don't go back. And Jehu, Jo Ram begins to think, I send out one messenger. I send out a second messenger. You know what? I'm going to go out myself and see what's going on. So he says, mount up my chariot. Mount up my chariot. And I'm going to go out there. And so we see in verse 21 that Jo Ram says, make my chariot ready. And then Jo Ram, the king of Israel and as a high king of Judah went in the chariot to meet Jehu. What's interesting here is that we see that Jo Ram has here, Jo Ram become the third attempt to meet Jehu before he arrives in Jezreel. Now what's interesting in verse 21, you guys, that I want to point out really quickly. There's a couple of points that I want to tie together. But what's interesting about verse 21 is that he says that they met him on the property of Naboth, the Jezreelite. When you go back to 1 Kings chapter 19, there was a time where Ahab, Jo Ram's father, saw a vineyard in the city of Jezreel. And this vineyard was pleasing to his eyes. It was a picture of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Because he sees this vineyard and he tells Naboth, I want to buy your vineyard. And Naboth says, you know what? My vineyard's not for sale. It belongs to my forefathers. I cannot sell that. And he says, I want your vineyard. So what does he do? Ahab goes and cries to his wife, Jezrebel. And Jezrebel says, you want that vineyard? Yes, mama, I want my vineyard. Jezrebel goes and she has Naboth set up and he's killed. And God says, because you have killed a righteous man, you, Ahab, you will be thrown, your body will be thrown dead in that vineyard. And so interesting that they are now meeting at the exact same spot. Look at the timing of God's word again that I want to bring out. Jehu gets this commission to wipe out the house of Ahab. He's going to go and wipe it out. Jo Ram and Azahaya, king of the north and king of Judah, are going to go to Jezrebel to recover. Now if Jehu would have left 10 minutes earlier, he would arrive 10 minutes sooner and would have not seen Jo Ram. If he would have made it 15 minutes later, he would have never got there in time because they probably would have left knowing that he was on their way. But you see that God's timing is perfect. And whenever you're going through this evening, my friends, just know that God's timing in your lives is always perfect. It may not fit our timeline. It may not fit the way we see things, but his timeline is always perfect. So they meet in this area where this man was killed, where his vineyard was at. And Jehu says, and Jo Ram says, Jehu, do you come at peace? And he says, your mom is a daltress and a witch, Jezrebel. And when he says, when Jo Ram, Jehu says that to Jo Ram, Jo Ram makes a U-turn. And look it, we know that Jo Ram wasn't Mexicano, right? We know he wasn't a Mexican because if anybody talked about his mom like that and he was Mexican, he probably would have threw down, right? What are you talking about? It's my mom. But what's interesting here is that when Jehu says your mom's an adulteress and your mom is full of witchcraft and harlotry, Jo Ram makes a U-turn and he splits. And Jehu takes his arrow and pulls it back at full strength and strikes him between the shoulders and it comes out of his heart. Pretty gruesome. So as he's recuperating from these wounds, he's not wearing his armor. Jehu draws back his arrow and strikes him and he is killed. So now we see God's word being fulfilled. Ahab's house is slowly being destroyed. A Jo Ram was going to be killed on the vineyard of Naboth. God's word told us that. And now there's one more person to go after. But when we look at verses 25 to 29, I want to summarize this here that when they pick Jo Ram's body up, they throw him in the field of Naboth. And he says here in verse 27 that now as Ahaya, King of Judah also takes off and Jehu goes and kills him. Now I don't remember when I read to you earlier that there was an instruction to kill as Ahaya, King of Judah. That was never mentioned. But because as Ahaya was related and was introducing idol worshiping, Jehu took it upon himself to wipe him out as well. So now the King of Israel, Jo Ram is dead and the King of Judah, as Ahaya is dead. And there's one person to go after. And I want to spend some time of this here. So they throw, as Ahaya he's dead, they end up burying him because he's a King of Judah. Jo Ram, they throw him in the field of Naboth where Naboth, when the vineyard of Naboth, when he was murdered. And we come up to verse 30. Look what it says, when Jehu had come to Jezebel, Jezebel heard of it. Now Jezebel has been very wicked up to this point. She killed prophets of the Lord. She went after Elijah. She is a picture of sin itself. I mean, if you guys ever, how many hands here have ever heard of Jezebel? Pretty much all of you. You guys have friends named Jezebel? Anybody act like Jezebel? One more person in this chapter for Jehu to kill, for God's word to become fulfilled. You know, it's interesting when you look a little bit at, before the first Kings chapter 21, verse 23, Elisha says that Jezebel, the dogs that shall eat Jezebel within the city walls. That's a pretty gruesome prophecy. But we're told here in verse 30 that Jezebel heard of it. What does she hear? She heard that Jo Ram, her son, was killed. She heard that Azahaya was killed and that Jehu's coming after her. She hears that. And so what does she do? Well, it's interesting. I don't know if this is a woman thing. She says what she heard of it, she put paint on her eyes and her dawned her head and looked through the window. She put her makeup on. What's interesting here is that there's a couple of commentators that differ on this view here. One commentator says she's going to go out like a queen. She's putting paint on her face. She's putting makeup and then she's adorning her hair. If she's going to go out, she's going to go out looking good. Other commentators are saying, well, she's trying to seduce Jehu. She thought that if she can seduce him and get him to join her forces, then they'll have an unstoppable force. Another commentator says that she was there to distract him. I believe more of that. See, what's interesting about this situation here is that she painted herself up. She made herself look pretty and she was now presenting herself to Jehu, who was there to kill her. And she looked down from a window and was looking at him. And one of the things that we have to understand is that when we are to be used by the Lord, it is our responsibility not to be distracted. There are many Jezebel's that will distract us from being used by the Lord in what she's called us. She can put her makeup on and adorn her hair, and a lot of times we see people that are distracted by the things of the world and they become sitting ducks. Jezebel was serving as a distraction for Jehu fulfilling the work that he was called to do from the Lord. So it's our responsibility to always be ready. Even when it's difficult. The other responsibility is that we're to examine our armor and to never take off the armor of God. To never find our place, self in a place where I feel good, now I'm going to take my armor off because it's a lie from the enemy. And we're to never be distracted, especially from the things of the world that can take us away from what God has called us to do. And what's interesting is that when Jehu in verse 31 looks up at the gate, she answers the gate, it's interesting what she says to him in verse 31. Is it peace, Zimri, murder of your master? Zimri, who's Zimri? Not only she put her paint on, but she might be a little crazy. No, what she was saying was something very, very derogative to him. See Zimri, some many years before that, about 50 years, Zimri killed his king. And she's saying, you're like, you're like Benedict Arnold, you're like Judas, you're going to come, you killed your king, you're a traitor. And that's what she's saying to him. She was saying that you are like, you're like Zimri, just like we would call somebody a Benedict Arnold or even a Judas. This was a pretty clever taunt because Zimri murdered his master. She was being sarcastic and she's also saying that your victory is going to be short-lived. But Jehu knew his call from the Lord. He wasn't distracted by her looks, her charm, her sarcasm, her taunts. He wasn't distracted like that and that's the same way the enemy distracts us. He will taunt us He'll adorn himself. He will criticize us. He will say, you're worthless, you're that, you're this, you're that and we're not to be distracted from that because we're to know who we are in the Lord and what Jesus has called us to do. And so what he does, it's interesting is that in verse 32 it tells us that all he did is look about the window and he said to these eunuchs that are there, who's on my side? And he said, throw her out the window. Now the Bible doesn't tell us how high this fall was but the fall was big enough as we see here in verse 33 that she was thrown down and her blood spattered. Spattered on the wall and on the horses and not only that, Jehu trampled her underfoot. I'm going to make sure you're done. Now imagine the sound and the next thing you know there's spatter of blood on the walls and on the horses. What's interesting about this is that you see these faithful eunuchs that all that Jehu had to do was look at them and they threw her down. See God's word is at work here and you see that not only is he bringing judgment to the evilness of idolatry but his word is being fulfilled. And again it reminds me of what we must be going through that knowing that God's word is at work in your lives. And so as we see that her death is obviously a, is justice. She has been so ruthless but her blood spattered on the wall and and Jehu got his horse and rode over her body until she was he was sure she was dead. This is how gangster Jehu is because after he's done that in verse 34 he goes in eats and drinks. I mean I would be right. He kind of see his confidence. He goes in and and he has a banquet and he begins to think you know what her dad was a king. Her dad was a king in the Sidonians. His name was F Baal. You know what go back and get her and let's give her a burial. Well just like God's word said that she will be eaten by dogs within the city gate. Well they went to bury her in verse 35 and look what they found in her. They found no more of her than skull, feet and palms of her hands. The dogs came and ate her. Amazing how God's word is faithful to the point of that she was going to be eaten by dogs. They told her to go bury her body but it was too late. The smelling of human blood and wild dogs showed up and ate her body leaving her skull her feet and the palms of hands. Imagine that that scene. Pretty crazy. So why all of this? To point out that God's word never fails but will always accomplish his purposes on earth. But as my question to you this evening is that will you allow God's word to work in your life? Are you ready to be used by him? Or have you allowed your armor to fit a little loosely? Are you willing to do the thing even if it looks dangerous? Are you allowing God's word to work in your life? Are we taking the time to make ourselves useful for the Lord? Are we taking our time to examine our hearts and examine our armor? Are we taking the time or are we taking the time to allow compromise to enter into our lives? Have we been distracted by the Jezebel's who try to keep us from being used by God? Or how we become like Jehu who know God's call, who knows that he is called to do a work for him and will not be distracted? See what's amazing friends is that we are already victorious through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. When he came and he died for our sins and he shed his blood for the forgiveness of our sins and that he rose from the grave three days later and he's given us that same power to that same resurrection power to tread on scorpions and to tread on snakes and to be overcomers and to be conquerors but sometimes we do not walk in that. And I'm here to tell us that we have been called. Are you willing to be used? Are you willing to be used? I've closed with this story many times and I'm going to make it very short of a man and a son and I think of the hat fields because they know that they know that story. Of a man, a father and a son who were into pieces of art and they would spend time in the room they would look at these pieces of rare art that was Picasso and Van Gogh and all these rare pieces that were extraordinary rare and they would spend time talking about them. Well then the son went off until the military and ultimately went off to war and the father would go into that house while he was gone and he would say my son liked that piece there, my son liked that piece there, how he'd like this piece here. And then one day he got the dreaded news that any parent could give can get is that his son was killed in action and no longer did the father want to go into this room to spend time because it reminded him too much of his son and it just was too painful. So he lost interest. Well one day there was a knock on the door and a young man there was dressed in his military uniform he comes and says sir you don't know who I am but I want to tell you that it was because your son is that I have life today. See your son jumped on a grenade that saved the entire troop of ours and because of your son I'm alive and I knew that you guys like art so I wanted you to I wanted to draw a portrait of your son and I want to give it to you. And the father gets this portrait and it's obviously an amateur painting but it really captured the contours of his smile the way his lip would turn when he smiled and the father got that picture and he held it to his chest and he wept. And he took that picture and he went back into that room and he put it right in the center of that room and he would sit in that room and stare at that picture all day long. Well eventually he died and because there were so many pieces of rare art there and so many pictures there that there was an estate that was going to go on there was going to be a auction of all these fine pieces of art and paintings and an auctioneer comes up and he says all first order of business that he hits the gavel and all these connoisseurs of art people are there from all over the world they come to bid on these pieces of art and the first order of business that man gets up there hits the gavel and he says the portrait of the sun and there's a little bit of murmuring and laughter in the in the in the audience and finally the guy says going once and now people are getting upset well somebody just buy this junk so we can get to the real stuff and a man in the back says $20 and the man says $20 once $20 twice sold slams the gavel down old man walks up takes the picture looks at it gets it presses against his chest and walks out the auctioneer gets back up there and says this concludes our auction and everybody was up in arms what do you mean what do you mean this concludes our auction what do you mean we're done with everything he says we're done he says we demand an explanation and the auctioneer the auctioneer says whoever has the son gets everything whoever has jesus has everything are you willing to be used by him because he gave you everything whoever has the son gets everything amen father we thank you