 Amen. So keep your place again in 1 Kings chapter 13. We're going to continue through the rest of this story. And tonight we're going to look at the perspective of the prophet or the old prophet as the Bible calls him here at the beginning. So we saw this morning how the man of God was able to rebuke and defend the enticement from Jeroboam to disobey God's word. But this old prophet comes and lies to him and gets him to disobey the Lord. But now let's look at what happens after he actually disobeys God and goes with this prophet that lies to him. The Bible says, look at 1 Kings 13 and look at verse number 20, verse number 20. So here they are and they're sitting there and they're eating bread and he's disobeyed God. The man of God is disobeyed God and he's eating and drinking water with the false, not the false prophet, the old prophet. And it came to pass as they sat at the table. The word of the Lord came unto the prophet that brought him back. And he cried unto the man of God that came from Judah saying, Thus saith the Lord, For as much as thou hast disobeyed the mouth of the Lord and hath not kept the commandment which the Lord thy God commanded thee, But came his back and his eaten bread and drunk water in the place of which the Lord did say to thee, Eat no bread and drink no water, thy carcass shall not come unto the sepiculture of thy fathers. Now that had to be an awkward conversation right there because here this old prophet lies to the man of God. Just a picture of the scene here. The guy lies to him to get him to come back to his house so they can fellowship and hang out. And as they're fellowshiping and hanging out, the actual word of the Lord comes to the old prophet and tells him. And then the old prophet actually at that point tells the man of God the truth. And he tells him, you know, by the way God said you've disobeyed him and you're going to die. You know, it's like awkward, you know, so I mean this could not be a very happy goodbye between these two. The Bible says in verse 23 it says it came to pass that after he'd eaten bread and after he had drunk, that he saddled for him the ass to wit for the prophet whom he had brought back. And when he was gone, a lion met him in the way, so he gives him an ass to ride on and he sends him on his way. And he has gone, a lion met him by the way, the man of God and slew him and his carcass was cast in the way. And the ass stood by it and the lion also stood by the carcass. And behold, the men passed by and saw the carcass cast in the way and the lion standing by the carcass. And they came and told it in the city where the old prophet dwelt. So they go back, the guy, the guy packs him up right away. The old prophet packs up the man of God and sends him on his way. I'm sure it was a kind of a bitter goodbye. I don't know that but you could about imagine. And sends him on his way and then the guy gets killed by a lion. The Lord sends a lion to kill this man, this man of God that disobeyed him. And then everybody hears about it and the old prophet hears about it. And the prophet, they went and they told him, verse 26, and the prophet that brought him back from the way heard thereof, he said, it is the man of God who is disobedient unto the word of the Lord. He was disobedient because this guy lied to him. Therefore the Lord had delivered him unto the lion which had torn him and slain him according to the word of the Lord, which he spake unto him. And he spake to his son saying, saddle me the ass, and they saddled him. And when he went he found his carcass cast in the way and he asked the lion standing by the carcass. The lion had not eaten the carcass nor torn the ass. The prophet took up the carcass of the man of God and laid it upon the ass and brought it back. And the old prophet came to the city to mourn and to bury him. And he laid his carcass in his own grave, because remember this was one of the judgments of God coming to the prophet to tell the man of God that you're not going to be laid in the sepiculture of your father. So this prophet, he gives him his own grave. He gives him his own, you know, sepiculture. And then he says, look what he says, and he mourned over him saying, Alas, my brother. Now, Alas is a great word. Alas is a great word that I don't really think that we have like an equivalent of today. But basically Alas means it's like one word for just like, ah, what have I done? Kind of thing. Or just like extreme sorrow for something. Like Alas, I mean Alas, we should implement this in the culture today. Like Alas could replace every swear word that we ever have. So when somebody on the job would just like start swearing because they could just say, Alas. They could say Alas, it's just like a deep sorrow. Hit your hand with a hammer, bam, Alas. You know, that's not really what happens today. But that's what Alas means, it's just this out crying of sorrow that this man has. He's sorry for what he did. He's upset, he's trying to fix it. He's like, hey, give him my grave. Give him my grave. And he's just deeply, he's mourning, he's upset. Look at verse 31. And it came to pass after he buried him that he spake to his son saying, when I am dead, then bury me in the sepiculture where the man of God is buried. Lay my bones beside his bones for the same which he cried by the word of the Lord against the altar in Bethel and against the houses of the high places which are in the cities of Sumeria shall surely come to pass. He reiterates the prophecy from verse 1. Look at verse number 1 of 1 Kings chapter 13. Just go back to verse number 1. This was, remember, the man of God comes in and he gives this prophecy before he even starts preaching against Jeroboam. And he says in verse number 1, he says, And behold, there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of the Lord unto Bethel and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense. This is the golden calf altar. And he cried against the altar and the word of the Lord saying, oh, altar, altar. He's crying against the altar. He's like, he's preaching against this altar itself. Okay? A child shall be born into the house of David. Remember, remember, Judah, it was a promise that Judah would always be a son of David. Son of son of son of son of son of David. So he's saying in the house of David in Judah, like we don't know what generation it's going to be, but at some point down the road one of the kings of Judah, it's really saying it's going to be a king of Judah, Josiah by name, and upon thee shall he offer the priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men's bones shall be burnt upon thee. So this actually came to pass. Turn to 2 Kings chapter 23. This prophecy actually came to pass. So the old prophet repeats this prophecy and says that this is going to happen. So the context of 2 Kings chapter 23 is there is a King Josiah, and King Josiah has found, look, the book of the law and what they had been doing had been forgotten for years. They had forgotten it. Josiah finds the book of the law. They read the book of the law. They realize we're not doing any of this stuff. They're actually having false altars and all these things. So Josiah starts cleaning house. Josiah starts going and just getting things right. He starts burning altars. He pulls the false prophets out of the grave, smashes their bones, starts burning them on the altar. I mean, the guy is going crazy on this. Look at verse 15 of 2 Kings chapter 23. So as he's doing this, he gets to the altar that was at Bethel, it says. Moreover, the altar that was at Bethel and the high place with Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made both the altar and the high place he break down. This is Josiah. And burned the high place and stamped it to small powder and burned the grove. And as Josiah turned himself, he spied the sepicultures, the graves, that were there in the mount and sent and took the bones out of the sepicultures and burned them upon the altar and polluted it according to the word of the Lord which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these words. Then he said, so he basically, he's fulfilling the man of God's prophecy right here. Then he says, look verse 17, then he said, what title is this that I see? And the men of the city told him, it was the sepiculture of what? The man of God, which came from Judah and proclaimed these things that thou has done against the altar of Bethel. And he said, let him alone, let no man move his bones. So he's smashing bones, burning bones, smashing altars to powder, just going crazy. And he finds this sepiculture and he says, no, don't touch those bones. He says, leave that man alone because he knew who he was. So they let his bones alone, but look who else's. The old prophet wanted to be buried with the man of God. So he let the old prophet's bones alone along with the man of God's bones. So these two men did not get burned and smashed and brought down with Josiah's judgment, both of them. So I mean that's why I believe that the old prophet was just an old retired prophet that was an actual prophet that just lied because he wanted to hang out with the man of God. He just made a grievous sin. He fooled his brother. But the points I'm making today doesn't really matter whether or not he was a false prophet or not. The points both stand the same. But the point I'm trying to make here is that in Josiah's time, some 300 years or whatever it is, I'd have to look back on it, a long time they all knew this story. They all knew what had happened with Jeroboam in the man of God and the old prophet. They all knew about it. So yes, the prophecy of Josiah came true. But this grievous sin that this prophet committed against this man was remembered centuries later. Think about that. I mean that's what he was remembered for. So tonight, the sermon, we talked about influence this morning and no one, whether it looks like a prophet or it looks like it, no one should be able to influence you away from the Bible. No one. But tonight, I want to talk about from the perspective of this old prophet the source of regret. This old prophet had a lot of regret in his life. I want to talk about the source of regret. All of that was just introduction to the title of the sermon tonight as the source of regret. Luke chapter 6 and verse 36. Luke chapter 6 and verse 36. Look, we talk a lot about mercy here. We talk a lot about mercy here. The Bible talks a lot about mercy. Mercy is a great thing. Mercy should be given when the Bible says it should be given. And look at Luke chapter 6 and verse 36. The Bible says be therefore merciful as your father also is merciful. The Bible kind of teaches this concept that the more mercy you give to people is the amount of mercy that God is going to show you. So if you're this person that's just ultra, just unmerciful, just like, you know, no one can... I mean, everyone has to be just perfect. You're just going to come down on them like a ton of bricks. The Bible says you're not going to have much mercy is what the Bible teaches. So the Bible says be merciful. We talk a lot about that here. We talk a lot about forgiveness here. How much should we forgive, you know, our brothers and sisters in Christ? The Bible says in Matthew 18 verse 21, then Peter came to him and said, Lord, how off shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Tell seven times. And Jesus said on him, I say unto you until seven times, not until seven times, but until 70 times seven. And Jesus isn't saying, you know, 490 times, if it's 491 they're done. He's saying like just keep forgiving people is what he's saying. Look, we talk a lot about mercy. We talk a lot about forgiveness. We talk a lot about these things because the Bible talks a lot about these things. But tonight let's talk about the source of regret, the source of regret in the Bible. I'm going to show you where that comes from. We all have regrets in our life. We all have regrets in our life. Where does that come from? I'm going to show you tonight. First of all, the first thing is this, forgiveness. Forgiveness, here's the first part where it comes from. Forgiveness does not mean forgetfulness. Okay, forgiveness does not mean forgiveness. The prophet, this old prophet, he lived with this all of his days. He lived with the idea, the fact that he did this. And it was remembered for centuries. It was remembered for millennia. We're talking about it today. Talk about how you don't want to be immortalized. You know, you're like, oh man, the guy got in the Bible. You don't want to get in the Bible this way. You know, you don't want to get in the Bible this way. He's immortalized. What he did is forever got, I mean, God promises to preserve what this guy did. Think about that. He's immortalized in the Bible. Forgiveness also doesn't mean that consequences aren't real. You can be forgiven, but consequences are still there. And this story is a perfect example of this. Well, look, he was sorry. Alas! Alas! He was like, he was sorrowful. He was crying out sorrowful. And you know what? He did everything that he could to make it right. He did everything that he could. He told him to go. He told him what the word of the Lord came to him. He told him to go. And he gave him a burying place. You know, the guy wasn't going to be able to be buried with his father. He gave him a burying place. He did everything he could do to try to make it right. Go back to 1 Kings chapter 13. I mean, he clearly felt bad. He says, Alas! He laid his carcass in his own grave, verse 30. And they mourned over him, saying, Alas, my brother! He did what he could. He did what he could. He clearly felt bad. But here's the thing. The guy was dead. The guy was dead. God killed the man of God here because he didn't listen to him. God took him home. God took him home. So the first source and the main source that we need to look at for regret in our lives. The reason that we have regret. You're like, I have regret. I can think about regrets that I have right now. If you can't think of a regret that you have, you're not being honest with yourself. The regrets that you have in your life is because consequences are real. Very simple. All the things that we do when we do not obey God, well, look, well, we can receive forgiveness. We can receive forgiveness from our brothers and sisters. We can receive forgiveness from the Lord. We can receive forgiveness, but consequences are still there. Consequences are still there. I mean, think about it just from a personal perspective. Certain decisions. Let me just give you an example of a couple. Look at Matthew chapter 19. Matthew chapter 19. Certain decisions. Certain sins that we could fall into in our lives. If I bring up something that you have regret over, I'm not trying to beat anybody up. I'm just saying these are just examples of these sins will have consequences. You think about certain decisions or sins that we fall into. One example is divorce. This is one example. We go on for hours and hours and hours and every single sin and the consequences. But one of the examples in the Bible about a sin that you can receive forgiveness for it. You can receive forgiveness for anything is divorce. Think about it. Matthew chapter 19. Look at verse number nine. One of the consequences of getting divorced is that you can't get remarried, the Bible says. And I say unto you, whosoever shall put away his wife, accept it be for fornication, and shall marry another, commit adultery. And whosoever shall marry her that was put away, doth commit adultery. So not to get into the doctrine of divorce, but the point is if you get divorced, you're to stay single. That's a consequence. That's a consequence in your life. Another one in 1 Timothy chapter three and verse two. You don't have to turn there. It says a bishop must be blameless the husband of one wife. So if you end up getting divorced, you can't be a pastor. That's a consequence. Look, that doesn't mean you can't be forgiven. It just means that you know that plan A for your life is no longer possible. That plan A is now plan B. And then it's possible you just make other mistakes and other sins. And then you're on plan C. Then you're on plan D. Plan E. I mean, it just, you know, one beautiful thing about God is he does provide other plans for us in our lives after we've messed up, you know, our plan A for our lives. So there's lots of sins personally that we could get into that we could commit that have consequences that could last for the rest of our lives on this earth. There's lots of those. Okay, things that you could do. I mean, you know, things that people did things when they were younger, maybe things, you know, and they just, they're just consequences that they're just going to, they're just going to have those consequences. That's a source of regret for people. That's where that feeling, that's where that regret comes from because that consequence is always there to remind you. It's always with you, especially consequences, you know, that last your whole life. You know, that's always there to remind you. How about this one? How about this one? Parenting. Parenting. Look, every parent will have regrets. Every single parent. You're like, even you, the pastor, look, I have regrets as parents. As a parent, you're like, if you haven't done, unless you can stand up as a parent and say, I've done everything exactly perfect, you will have regrets as a parent. But the trick with parenting is to make as few mistakes as possible and make mistakes that are small, hopefully. So the consequences are small, you know, as parents. You don't want to have lasting consequences as a parent. But, you know, you'll see people, you know, you'll see people make mistakes as parents that even if they get them right, there's consequences. You know, there's consequences for the next generation, which means generations. You know, one of the scariest stories in the Bible, turn to 2 Kings chapter 8, talking about consequences. One of the scariest stories of consequences for a parent in the Bible is, you know, look, all you have to do, I mean, the parenting thing is really scary because all you really have to do with your kids is expose them to the wrong people. You don't have to be a bad person. You don't have to be wicked yourself. All you have to do is just expose your kids to the wrong people and you can have lasting consequences for the rest of your life. Look at 2 Kings chapter 8. 2 Kings chapter 8. This is the story of Josephat. Josephat, if you go and you're going to rank kings of Judah, Josephat's like, I mean, aside from David, Josephat's probably number one or number two. I mean, Josephat's up there, you know, Hezekiah, Josephat, these are the guys that did right. These are the guys that did right like the whole reign. They served the Lord, they did right. Josephat made one mistake. I mean, I'm not saying he didn't make more mistakes, but he made one clear mistake in the Bible. Look at 2 Kings chapter 8, verse number 16. And in the fifth year of Joram, the son of Ahab, king of Israel, Josephat being the king of Judah, Joram the son of Josephat, king of Judah began to reign. Thirty and two years old was he when he began to reign and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. And he walked in the way of his dad, Josephat. No, he didn't. He walked in the way of the kings of Israel as did the house of Ahab. Why? You remember when Josephat teamed up with Ahab to go to war with Ahab? Ahab convinced Josephat. It's very similar to the old prophet. Ahab comes to Josephat and he says, hey, you know, your enemies are my enemies and my enemies are your enemies. He's like, come yoke up with me and let's go fight this battle against this third party and Josephat does it. Josephat had an alliance with a very wicked person. With Ahab, he was not a wicked person but he had an alliance with one. And look at verse 18. It says, he walked in the ways, so his son walked in the ways of the kings of Israel as did the house of Ahab. For the daughter of Ahab was his wife and he did evil in the sight of the Lord. He married this gal, Athaliah, who was like the most wicked murdering demon of a woman, you know, maybe in the entire Bible. And it destroyed his family for generations. Look, it began with a good king just hanging out with Ahab, a wicked person. Look, a seemingly simple small mistake, but it just had big consequences. It had big consequences. He delivered a life sentence to his son and his son's son. And he delivered, I mean just by just exposing them, just exposing them to the wrong people. This is chapter 49. So the point is, is that sin has consequences and consequences beget regret. Consequences, they bring regret. This is, I mean, the story of Jehoshaphat is very, I mean, I take that very seriously. It's one of my biggest nightmares of my life that one of my children would, you know, go off or marry somebody that's the wrong, that's a bad person. It's a horrible thing to even think about. And I'm very like, I'm very in tune to this story. I'm scared of this story and I think about this story because it seems like a small mistake. It seems like a small mistake that had large consequences and I'm sure there was a lot of regret throughout generations in that family. But look, I told you this morning, I told you this morning about the church and how I believe in the church. And this is one of the reasons right here. I believe in the church for this reason. There's such power in a group of like-minded believers like this. There's such power to protect from the things that happen to Jehoshaphat that cause these consequences and subsequent regret. And it's just, it's scary when you think about how easily it can happen. Just your children meeting the wrong people, you know, marrying the wrong people. It's a scary thought. Look at your invitation. You should have an invitation on your chair somewhere. This is one of the greatest powers of the church right here. Look at your invitation. Look at your invitation. You should have one somewhere near you. But look at the back of the invitation. To me, this is one of the reasons that this church is priceless. And I mean priceless. Look at this. About us. The Bible, or not the Bible, this invitation. This is a mission statement is what this is. Okay? It says we are an independent, fundamental, soul-winning, separated. I mean, hopefully we know why we're all those things. King James Bible-believing Baptist church and not ashamed to say so. Our mission is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, disciple believers with unfiltered Bible preaching and build strong lifelong relationships. Your lifelong friendships. Look, this is one of the powers of the church right here. Is that in a good Bible-believing church, Bible preaching church, separated church, soul-winning church, you will know who people are. And like if nothing's been proven, we will eventually find out who everybody is in a church like this. And look, that's great protection for your families, for your children. That's great protection. Look, it's difficult to know who people are. It's difficult to know who people are. But this is essential that you know who people are. I mean, one of the biggest motivations for me to follow through on moving to California. You know, there was lots of doubts. There was lots of doubts when I thought, okay, what about this? What about that? What about everything that's been done here? What about the job? What about the farm? What about this? What about all these things I've done here? There was no answer for my children there. There was no answer for my children there. And that was one of the greatest motivations. And the answer for your children is a good church. The answer for your children is knowing people that are in a good church. Knowing other people that are in a good church. Because you know who people are. You know who people are. Now you say, like, everybody wants this. And I, you know, I believe most people would say, yeah, I want this. I would want that. I want to make a Jehoshaphat type decision that would, you know, hurt my family for generations. You know, that would have those big consequences. That's what we're talking about. Consequences leading to regrets for my children's future. And you say, well, everybody wants it, but why can't some people make it? And the answer is in Genesis chapter 49. The core, look, there's lots of different, maybe micro reasons or side reasons. But here's the core of it right here. Here's the core of it right here. In Genesis chapter 49, you see, you see Jacob giving blessings to his children. And look at verse number four. He talks to Reuben, and he says, he doesn't give a blessing here. Look what he says. He says, unstable as water. He's talking to Reuben, one of his sons. Thou shalt not excel. That's not a blessing. That's not a blessing. You know what he's doing? He's handing out blessings, and here he hands out a curse. This is why not everybody can make it. It's because of instability right here. Instability. Instability is a curse. It's a curse. It's a curse that Reuben had. An instability in your life, in my life, in anybody's life will be a curse upon you. It will be a curse upon you. Look, and the consequences. That's what we're talking about tonight. The consequences of this curse are grave. Notice how he says, unstable as water. Thou shalt not excel. In what? In anything. If you are unstable, this is why everybody wants it. Everybody wants it. Everybody would say, oh, I want lifelong friendships. Oh, I want to be in a church. Oh, I want this. I want my children to meet people in a church, but they're unstable as water, and they will not make it, and the consequences are grave. It's a curse upon them. It's a curse. It's not just work. It's not that you just, look, and you'll see this curse. It's easy to see. You can't hide it. It's not that they just, it's not just work. I was talking with one of the men of the church today, and we're just kind of talking about this idea, this instability, and how it affects you in your life. It's not just that you can't hold a job. I mean, that's one sign of it. It's not that you just can't hold a job. It's not just a church. It's not just you can't stay in a church. It's not just that, you know, like I said, we're not the first one. We're not the last one. We're just the next one. It's not just that, but it's friendships too. What a curse that is. What a curse that is. Look, think about this for a second. You should have lifelong friendships. The Bible is saying that that is possible. Look, friendships, you should have friendships that last for years. You should have friendships that last for decades. I mean, you should have a marriage for your whole life. But if you're not stable, you will not have those things. You will not have those things. And guess what? Here's the really sad part. If you have this curse, guess who else will learn it? Your children. Your children. They will also learn it. And then you'll just get more of the same. You'll just get more of the same. So look, but to have lifelong friendships and to have stability in your life, it takes maturity. Look, if you're going to have two friends, they're going to be friends for like years and years and years and decades, that takes maturity on both sides. Because I mean, you shouldn't just be friends with somebody just because like, you're friends with them. Maybe they go off into some horrible thing and want you to get into some horrible thing and look, that's going to hurt that relationship. Or it should. You shouldn't just like follow them no matter what. It takes maturity on both sides. But that takes stability on both sides. But look, as instability being unstable is a curse, if you pass on stability to your children, that's a great blessing. That's a great blessing. It's one. It's one you want to pass on in your life. Definitely. And look, those consequences that come from all those things, that's where those regrets come from. So back to the story. Back to our idea this evening. Mercy is real. Forgiveness is real. But regret is real as well if you don't follow God's word. You will have regret. You say, why aren't we supposed to look forward? Aren't we supposed to look forward and put our hand of the plow in our lives? Turn to 2nd Corinthians chapter 7. Yes, yes you are. You are not supposed to let yourself be burned to the ground with regret. You're supposed to get right, get that forgiveness, get that mercy and move on with your Christian life. That is true. But look at 2nd Corinthians chapter 7. I believe regret is there. Consequences are real. That's where regret comes from. But it's there to help us in our lives not hinder us. Look at 2nd Corinthians chapter 7 verse number 11. This is a really powerful verse here on what godly sorrow is. How can you really tell if someone's really sorry? That guy was like, Alas, what have I done? Alas, I've killed this man. We look at him, he's sorry. But look at verse number 11 of 2nd Corinthians 7. The Bible says, for behold, this is the same thing. That he sorrowed after a godly sort. Now he gives us details of what that looks like. He says, what carefulness it rod in you? So he's saying, this person he's talking about here is like, they're sorry for something. They're sorry and they're more careful now. But that regret is there to, your regret should make you careful that you don't fall into that again. He says, what regret it rod in you, or what carefulness it rod in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation. You're just like, you're just upset. You're just like, I can't believe I killed the man of God. I can't believe I lied to that man. And you're just Alas. You know, you're upset. And then look at this one. Yay, what fear. Yay, what fear. I mean, that regret, yes, Luke 9.62 says that we need to put our hand to the plow and move forward in our life. But that regret should be used to make us fearful. That we don't fall back into, you know, something that we should hate those things that we've done that cause us these regrets in our lives. So the consequences should just be a reminder of these things, to keep us fearful and to make us careful in our lives. So that these things that we, look, you have regrets. You all have regrets. I have regrets. If you're a sinner, you have regrets in your life. But you look at those sins and you look at those things that I have regrets for. And all you have to do is just say, okay, let me use that regret properly. I don't want to sit down and just have regrets and cry on the ground and let it just stop me in my tracks. No, I'm going to put my hand to the plow. I'm going to keep going in the Christian life. I'm going to keep moving forward, but I'm going to have that regret wrought carefulness and fear in me. So I don't have these things repeat themselves. I mean, the prophet regretted this. I mean, I have to think that the prophet regretted this his whole life. Can you imagine? He regretted what happened here, his whole life. And hopefully, you know, hopefully we have to think that, you know, this mistake, you know, kept him obedient going forward. You know, I mean, the prophet, he probably shouldn't have been there in the first place. That's another thought we probably have. He's living in a wicked place when, you know, the Jeroboams just making anybody a priest and he's living in this wicked place, but it led him to these things, which is another story in itself. But look, hopefully he used this regret to move him in a positive direction and that's what we should do. That's what we should do. We should use regret in our life, which we're reminded of it, right? Any consequences that we have today, some consequences are just going to last forever. Some consequences are worse than others. This is why also, you know, you can't really say that all sin is equal. You can prove that with a proof, because not all consequences are equal. You know, some things are definitely, I mean, even the consequences in the law that God puts forth. You know, some things are under death, some things are not, but consequences, they vary, which means that sin varies and we need to be careful about these things. So we should use this. Use the consequences in your life. Yeah, maybe you're on plan B, plan C, plan D, whatever, it doesn't even matter. At least God provided another plan for you. That's another great beautiful sermon in itself that no matter what you've done or where you are, God's got to plan something for you. You know, whether it's just serving in a church and just, you know, whatever. I mean, there's always another plan, but use those consequences in your life to not just bury you in regret in the ground so you do nothing, but to just, you know, rot fear and carefulness in you. Is what it should do. So look, we saw the man of God. We saw the man of God, we just wrap up this story. Hopefully when you read this story now, hopefully when you read this story, you think about these two sermons and it makes sense to you now. It can be a confusing story when you look at it. You're like, here's the guy who lies to him and then they're sitting down to eat and then he tells them, well, you shouldn't be here, you're gonna die. You know, it can be a little bit of a confusing story, but look, you had a guy make a mistake because he wanted something selfishly and the man of God should have known better. The man of God should have known better because, you know, the devil suit came up to him. Jeroboam came up to him in a devil suit and said, I want you to disobey God. He said, no, I can see you in the devil suit. And then it was a very subtle attack. So you need to watch for subtle attacks in our lives, always. They will always come. They're always gonna be after you, especially you, especially all of you. And then from the side of the prophet, we need to look, and here's another thing. Use these consequences and these regrets that you have in your life to not want more of them. You know, you shouldn't want more consequences because you'll have more regret in your life. So it's just a great story of these two sides of just making sure we always just keep our eyes focused on the Bible and just keep walking the way God wants us to walk. No matter what, no matter what. No matter anything. I mean, it doesn't matter. It's really, really simple when you think about it. You just kind of have to ask yourself all the time, is this decision going to be better or worse for my spiritual life? I mean, that's a pretty good question to ask yourself all the time. What's going on in your life is this decision going to help me get closer to church, gonna help me get closer to the Lord, closer to service, closer to soul winning, or further away. I mean, when you put it like that, it's pretty clear. And then you can see these subtle attacks coming from a ways out. And once you see that, you'll be able to avoid the consequences and the regret that will follow. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.