 Amen, so keep your place there in 2 Kings chapter 6 and we'll get to the story in just a minute. So this morning, this morning's sermon is going to be less about doctrine and more about just logic and just logic that we can use from the Bible. So I was reminded of Romans chapter 3 when I started writing this sermon and kind of the idea for this sermon. In the beginning of Romans, Paul was talking about how the Gentiles and the Jews are coming together and how, you know, it doesn't matter that you're a Jew, that's not going to get you to heaven. Everybody started with the same things, everybody has a conscience, everybody had the law written in their heart. And then in Romans chapter 3, Paul says, you know, in the beginning of that chapter, he says, well, what advantage, he's saying like, you know, that just being a Jew is not going to get you to heaven, you know, just because you're, you know, God's chosen people or whatever you want to call it. He said, so he says in Romans 3, he's like, what advantage hath the Jew? Everybody asks that question. And the advantage that the Jews had that he answers his own question in the same verses, he says that unto them were committed the oracles of God. So to us, you know, I was thinking about this and look, there's a lot of things in the Bible where it talks about, you know, there's a lot of bad things and Jesus actually said that just because you're, we're Christians, our lives are not just going to be great things. And you know, this prosperity gospel is a half truth because basically the prosperity gospel, you know, it may not always be that way. There's going to be things that are bad that happen to us because we're Christians, because we believe the Bible and because we live the Bible. So but the thing is, I mean, there's some advantage to, you know, it's not only that it's not really to us that the oracles of God were committed to us. They're not committed to us personally. They're committed to everyone in the world at this point. And it's just a choice of who decides to believe them or not. It's who decides to believe the oracles of God. So we're saved. We believe the oracles of God. So there's serious advantage to that and there's, there's, you know, bad things that may come from that we're going to talk about this morning. But there's advantage to having the Bible and believing the Bible. There's advantage to knowing that knowledge. So I was thinking about this in the context of preparedness, especially some things that happened in the country over the last couple of weeks. You know, the question is this, why wouldn't the Christian be prepared? Why wouldn't a Christian who believes the Bible be prepared? So this is going to be a logical sermon about why logically wouldn't we be prepared because of what the Bible tells us, okay? I mean, do we or do we not have an advantage? We do have an advantage because we believe the Bible. So we're going to talk about that in the context of preparedness this morning. So look, this Christian life we know from the Bible, this Christian life is not going to be all sunshine and rainbows. We know that for a fact. Why? Because we believe what the Bible says. That's why. You know, there's going to be persecution. There's going to be tribulation. But the one advantage that we have is we know what's coming. Is we know what's coming. You know, you say like, you know, the end of the world, yeah, we know how it all ends as well. But look, it's not just the end of the world. I'm not going to stand up here this morning and say the end of the world is going to be in 2023. Get prepared. I mean, people love messages like that. You know, cults are formed by messages like that. But the point is that it's not just the end times prophecy that, you know, should make us be thinking about being prepared. What are we learning from the book of Judges? If we don't, if you don't learn anything from the study of the book of Judges, learn this. It's that societies go through patterns. Societies, as they fall, go through patterns. And those patterns are always the same. They are always the same. The trends of human behavior are going to be the same in 100 years, in 200 years, as they were back thousands of years ago in the book of Judges. They're going to be the same. So, this morning, I want to give you a two-part sermon this morning. The first part is going to be doctrinal, and it's going to be why we should be prepared. Why according to the Bible that we know that we believe that nobody else believes should we be prepared? That's the first part, and then we're going to talk about how to be prepared. And the Bible actually tells us both of these things. But we'll put that in the context of things that we're seeing today as well. So, first of all, the idea this morning isn't to give you a detailed plan on how to be prepared in your life. I want to spark some thought this morning. That's all I want to do. I just want to spark some thought in your mind about some things that maybe you should be thinking about, maybe you have thought about, maybe you need to make some more action in certain areas. But the first thing I want to talk about this morning is why we should be prepared. Why? Why according to the Bible? Look at 2 Kings chapter 6. So there's a couple of different stories in 2 Kings chapter 6. But towards the end of 2 Kings chapter 6, Syria besieges the northern kingdom of Israel here. So it's King Joram is under attack by, he's under siege. Meaning, you know, there's been this long, you know, they're encamped against the city. This army is encamped against the city to the point where there's serious trouble at this point. Look at 2 Kings chapter 6 in verse number 26. The first reason I want to point out that we need to be prepared, why is because of God's judgment? That's the first thing. Look at 2 Kings chapter 6, look at verse 26. And as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman unto him saying, Help my Lord and O King. And he said, if the Lord do not help thee, when shall I help thee? Out of the barn floor or out of the wine press. So he's basically saying, there's nothing I can do for you. He's basically saying, if God won't help us, he's like, there's nothing I can do. So he's already kind of giving us the answer here in his response to this lady of why they're in all this trouble. He's saying, look, God is not helping us. He's like, there's a problem here. Look at verse 28. And the king said unto her, what alethy? And she answered, this woman said unto me, Give thy son that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow. So we boiled my son and did eat him. And I said unto her the next day, give thy son that we may eat him, and she hath hit her son. So this is a literal story. This is a literal story that happened. Okay, basically you had these two women, they're obviously starving to death, and they decided to eat their own children. And they made a deal to, you know, hey, we'll eat your son today, and we'll eat my child tomorrow. So they're literally killing and eating their, you know, and then, you know, this, the woman the next day says, you know, she hides her son because she doesn't want to kill her son. Look at verse 30. And it came to pass. When the king heard the words of the woman, that he rent his clothes and passed by upon the wall, and the people looked, and behold, he had sackcloth within upon his flesh. So look, look, here's the thing. This woman comes to him and she complains that this woman has broken her promise, but the king is looking at the situation as a whole, and he's like, the people are killing their children and eating them. The king looks at the thing, he rents his clothes, he's in terrible distress, and he doesn't even talk about the judging the situation. This isn't a Solomon judgment type situation. He's just like, my goodness, the people are eating each other. That's how bad things have gotten. So look, then he sends a man to assassinate Elijah. Look at verse 31. The Bible says, then he said, God so do, and also more to me, if the head of Elijah, the son of Shefetz, will stand on him this day. He's like, you know, the prophet of God is going to pay for this. So he sends somebody to kill Elijah, but Elijah sat in his house and the elder sat with him, and the king sent a man from before him, but ere the messenger came to him, and he said to the elders, see how this son of a murderer has sent to take away my head. Elijah has some strong words. Behold the messenger came down to the door and hold him fast at the door. It's not the sound of his master's feet behind him. And while he yet talked with them, behold, the messenger came down unto him and said, behold, this evil is of the Lord. What should I wait for the Lord any longer? So look, we get the answer here. They're under God's judgment. You know, they find out that this evil, meaning this hurts. You know, when the Bible talks about, you know, evil in these sense, a lot of times the evil came from the Lord. I mean, it's not evil like, you know, Satan. It's evil meaning hurt and pain. Like, God was going to go and he was going to destroy Nineveh. And then God repented of the evil that he had said that he was going to do unto them, and he did it not. So the Bible is using, the Bible uses the King James, the Bible uses the word evil as hurt, as judgment, as destruction. And this destruction, this hurt was from the Lord. It was the judgment of God that was under. And the judgment ends shortly hereafter. But the point is, they're under siege, they're in a famine, and their people, their people are literally eating each other. You know, they're murdering each other. And here's the thing. You think, oh, this is an extreme case. It's never happened. This happens all the time throughout history. This happens all the time. Just close to you in California, the Donner Party was a famous one that we always read about. And when we lived in Sacramento, we visited the museum a couple times. And it was just something that we were really interested in the history of that. But basically in 1846, you had a bunch of settlers coming across the mountains. In the wintertime, they got stuck in the mountains. And they literally, in order to survive the winter, they ate the dead bodies of the people that died. And they even murdered a couple people and ate them at the very beginning. But look, there were some people that didn't have to do that in that party. There was a family, the Reed family, and this daughter, Virginia Reed, actually wrote a book about this and she documented what happened that winter. And it was because her mother was prepared. Her mother was prepared and she was thinking through things and she was rationing things and she did things the right way. And not only did the kids not die, but they didn't have to eat anybody. Everybody else was just, you know, unprepared and then they ended up doing terrible things. The point I'm trying to make is that we see a terrible story in 2 Kings 6, but don't think it could never happen. Don't think, oh, that's ancient history. That could never happen. We don't know, look, I don't know what's coming this year, next year, two years from now, 10 years from now. I don't know what's coming, but what I do know is that we deserve judgment in this country. I know that. I know that we deserve judgment. I know that things are not getting better in this country. They're getting worse. I can see that with my own eyes. I can see that especially in the last year or two. You know, the economy is getting worse. The government is getting worse. Everything is getting worse. And the thing is, we read these stories in the Bible. Don't just disconnect yourself from the stories in the Bible. It's about judges. Every time that it begins a new chapter in Judges where it says, and again, the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. And again, the children of Israel turned from the Lord. And again, and again, don't disconnect yourself from that and say, oh man, these people are crazy. Look, it's the same. We're going to see even with these crazy stories at the end of the book of Judges that the parallels to our current society are coming. We deserve the judgment. But here's the difference. Here's the difference with us sitting in this church. We know what's coming. We literally have a book that tells us the future. Think about it. I mean, is that not an advantage? We have a book that tells us the future. We have a book that not only tells us the future, but tells us what happens to people when they go through each stage of these different stages of society. We know the answer. So we see that God's judgment is a reason that we should think about being prepared. That's a reason. I don't know when it's coming, but I know it's coming. You don't accept all the unnatural garbage in our country and think that God's not going to judge that. You don't murder 55 million babies in the last 40 years and think that everything's going to be okay. We know God's judgment is coming. So we should pay attention to that. Here's the second reason. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 4. What's the second reason that we should think about why we might want to be prepared? We're going to talk about the why's. The first why is because God's judgment is coming. I'm not going to sit up here and say the end of the world is going to be at this day or God's judgment. One thing I've learned over the last couple of years is I'm also not going to declare God's judgment. I'm not going to... make a personal decision on my part. But I'm just not going to declare God's judgment as coming on a certain day or declare something as God's judgment. But look, I know we deserve it and I know it's coming. And that's all we really need to know. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 4. The second reason is this. Persecution. We know from the Bible that as Bible-believing Christians as saved believers, especially that are living lives as disciples that are actually following Jesus, we know that persecution is coming. We know it. Look at 2 Corinthians 4, verse number 8. The Bible says and look, I could read you verses and passages on this for the rest of the sermon for hours. There's so much in it. I'll just read you one and we'll understand the concept. But look, verse number 8. We are troubled on every side yet not distressed. We are distressed but not in despair. Persecuted but not forsaken. Cast down but not destroyed. Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh in us but life in you. And look, by our death we are giving life to others. He's saying our lives our lives as a witness as disciples Paul is saying. Our lives to the point of our death is life to others. He's talking about salvation. He's talking about our physical death will mean salvation for others. Our martyrdom. Look, all these guys were martyred except for John. All these guys every single one of these disciples that you read about in the New Testament they were all killed except for John. Every single one of them in the worst possible ways you could imagine. It's documented in history. It's documented. So he's saying that look he's like we just get that's just the life of the disciple. Jesus said I bring the sword. He meant not I give you a sword to go fight people. That's not what he meant. I bring the sword. Look, the Christian the Bible believing Christian would never advocate violence. That's what really upsets me by the way. When people start saying that because of our beliefs we're advocating violence. Oh no. History backs us up. We are the ones that violence is coming against. And it will always be that way. When Jesus says I bring the sword he meant I bring it to you. He meant I bring the sword to you. He's like I'm not going to bring peace I'm not going to become a saved disciple and just live this peaceful wonderful life. People are going to come at you with swords. People are going to be violent against you. And Paul here is saying whatever. He's saying whatever. When we die mortally we give life to others. That is the Bible believing Christian. The Bible believing Christian will believe and preach and teach the truth unto death. Onto death. We live, we literally what Paul is saying is that we literally live our lives unto death for others. And you know we live our lives for others as we go out preaching the gospel. Think about it. What is more peaceful than going out and sharing the word of God with people. Showing people that you don't even know that you care about them. That you love them. Nothing upsets me more. This isn't even part of the sermon but I can't tell you how upset I get. It's just false. It's just wrong. It's just fake. When people say Christians are violent. No, that's not what the Bible teaches. And what history teaches us is that the violence is against us. We got proof. We got hundreds and hundreds of years of proof. And that's why our lives unto death are such a profit to others. So look, the Bible is saying that there will be physical persecution. Look at my point. There will be physical persecution of the Christians. All the disciples were killed. That's as physically persecuted as you can get. When they literally come to kill you that's as physically persecuted as you can get. But wait, there's more persecution. You say just physical? No. We turn to Revelation chapter 13. And I'm segwaying into my third point but I mean this is persecution as well. There will also be economic persecution against the Christian. Look at Revelation chapter 13. The Bible says that Christians will be economically persecuted. Not just physically not just killed but economically. Look at Revelation 13 verse 11. The Bible says and I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth. And he had two horns like a lamb and he spake as a dragon. Sounds like a nice guy. And he exercised all power on the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast whose deadly wound was healed. And he doeth great wonders so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast saying to them that dwell on the earth that they should make an image to the beast which had the wound by a sword and did live. So here he had this beast. This is the Antichrist. Now they're going to make an image so people worship this image of him and he causeth all, both small and great rich and poor, free and bond to receive a mark in their right hand or in their foreheads. And that no man, so they're going to have to worship the beast this image of the beast of the Antichrist and then they're also going to have to take a mark in their right hands or in their forehead. It's interesting by the way we went and had a laser tag event the other night or not the other night a few months ago and you know my theory on the mark of the beast in the right hand is because everyone's right-handed. Now I didn't say anything but the lady would always ask to put a wristband on you and I didn't tell anybody anything and every single person you could give her either hand and guess which hand every single person had the wristband put on. It was their right hand. Anyway, just food for thought. Anyway, no man, look at verse 17 so the mark of the beast happens you have to worship the image of the beast but then look at verse 17 it says save that you have the marker in the name of the beast or the number of his name. So we know that no saved believer will take the mark of the beast the Bible tells us that. And if you don't take the mark of the beast you can't buy or sell. So if I told you today you can't buy or sell how would that go for you? How would that go for your life? I mean it would be terrible you would be hurting in like a day if you couldn't buy or sell. I mean think you couldn't even buy anything on Amazon. No more Amazon packages for you. Christians would be economically persecuted in the end times. But even more than that, back on judgment go to Deuteronomy chapter 28. Nations specifically the economic well-being of a nation is a direct effect of judgment from God as well. Look it's part of blessings it's part of blessings we'll see in Deuteronomy chapter 28 look at verse number 8 the Lord says this the Lord shall command the blessing upon thee and thy storehouses and in all that set us thine hand unto he shall bless thee in the land which the Lord, thy God giveth thee. Now turn to Jeremiah 50. So here we say that God a nation a nation that is following the Lord and that is following the statutes of God and how he blesses them right here. He says that nation's storehouses will be full and all the land will produce and everything would just be great and their storehouses will be full. It's talking about economic blessing here in Deuteronomy 28 but in the same manner also the Bible says that curses that a nation under judgment will suffer in the same area. In Deuteronomy 15 verse 26 the Bible says this talking about the judgment of this same nation come against her from the utmost border open her storehouses cast her up as heaps and destroy her utterly let nothing of her be left when a nation is under judgment the storehouses will be empty there will be nothing left all of that will be gone just the judgment of God on the economy of a nation. So we see that judgment is part of why we should think about being prepared. We see that persecution that we know is coming judgment that we know is coming persecution that we know is coming and then finally this end times events end times events turn to Matthew 24 I mean the events of revelation I mean forget about it revelation but let's just look at Matthew 24 just real quickly. I mean mainly for us what we need to worry about is the coming tribulation against Christians we need to think about if we are in the end times or if that's going to happen in our lifetime the Bible says there's going to be tribulation against us well how bad? You say how bad a tribulation how bad it's going to be well the Bible tells us that too we know how bad it's going to be we know specifically how bad it's going to be look at Matthew 24 in verse 15 the Bible says this back to the antichrist again when you therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet stand in the holy place whosoever readeth let him understand this is the point where the antichrist is standing in the temple then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains not come down to take anything out of his house neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes and woe unto them that are with child and to them that give suck in those days but pray ye that your flight be not in the winter neither on the Sabbath day for then shall be great tribulation okay well great's kind of relative I mean great tribulation that's like a lot of tribulation that's like you know big tribulation okay compared to what well here you go such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time oh man I mean think about that think about that he's saying that at this moment in verse 21 whenever this is look I don't know if this is going to be in 10 years if this is going to be in 150 years I don't know I don't know but the point is when this happens it will be worse than any tribulation against Christians before this that's bad that's bad I mean when you think about the martyrs and the disciples and the things that happen to them you're like how could it be worse than that it's going to be worse than that it says it's going to be it's going to be great tribulation such as not since the beginning of the world to this time it's going to be worse than anything that's ever happened it's going to be ugly it's going to be bad and it says if it went on for longer than it went on there wouldn't be no one that would survive is what it continues to say but look that's quite a statement because it's been really bad in the past so we can use that as a measuring stick bad I mean it won't last forever I mean we know it won't last forever this great tribulation but here's what makes me wonder it makes me wonder so you got this antichrist guy I mean just let me think about you got this antichrist he comes on the scene he declares himself to be God and then there's this great tribulation that happens and then of course Christians are spared from it it doesn't go on forever otherwise no one would survive the bible says but here's the thing he's obviously hunting and killing Christians bible believing Christians people that didn't take the mark he's hunting these people down in that time to the effectiveness to where if it went on longer then the bible says it will no one would even survive so it's that bad but think about this for a second how bad was it at that point when that started imagine there's no world leader right now that can stand up and say we're going to hunt all Christians in the world and get them all and kill them all there's nobody that can do that right now people wouldn't stand for that nations wouldn't stand for that nobody would jump on board with that so when we think about the great tribulation oh it's only going to last 70 some days or whatever you know it's going to last think about how bad it is up to this point because the people of the world are clearly wicked as hell at this point if everyone's just like hey we're going to start great tribulation mode now and everyone's like hey sounds good things were probably not great last week for the Christians before the mark of the beast for the Christians so I mean we can only speculate but those are just things I think about I mean the world has obviously gotten to a point at that moment and it probably didn't just happen overnight let's hate Christians now it probably was something that was gradual it just got worse and worse and worse to the point where a world leader could stand up and do that and be very popular for doing so so look things were bad leading up to that things are going to be bad even leading up to the great tribulation we can see that why? because we have the oracles of God because we have the Bible so think about the Bible the Bible what this means for us think about the judgment we know it's coming think about persecution we know it's coming think about the end times we know it's coming at some point we need to be teaching our children as well our children need to have this mindset because maybe it's not in our lifetime maybe it's in theirs but they're definitely going to be dealing with judgment, persecution, end times things, one of those in their life for sure especially the first two if we never see the end times look I hope we don't I hope we have some time left on this earth for our children and grandchildren but I'm telling you with the first two signs already just think about it nations have been judged and destroyed and it wasn't end times it wasn't end times the nation of Israel has been judged destroyed, taken over freed, taken over again many times in the Old Testament and it wasn't the end times so it doesn't mean that hard times coming has to be the end times it could just be the judgment of God never so we see the signs already in this country is what I'm saying so that's the first reason why? because we know what's coming for all these different reasons we know what's coming so the second question is how how? I mean what are you talking about what kind of preparedness are you talking about? well I'm kind of talking about you know the whole package turn to Psalm 23 the first thing that we need and this will be probably the biggest shortcoming I think with people is spiritual preparedness I mean that's the first I think that's going to be the big miss I think that's going to be the big miss of the Christian right here spiritual preparedness because look if you're not spiritually prepared everything's just going to fall apart no matter if you have a garage full of supplies if you're not spiritually prepared I think you know I mean even the last year has shown me this quite frankly look at Psalm 23 verse 4 very famous passage here in the Bible it's a lot of people's favorites you know this Psalm 23 I wish it was in people's hearts and not just memorized in their head but look at Psalm 23 verse 4 yea though I walked through the valley of the shadow of death look that's not a great place the valley of the shadow of death the Psalmist here is talking about if I am walking through a situation in my life that will literally kill me he's like if I'm just walking to my death if I'm in a battle if I'm in a place where David is talking about and Psalms so much about his enemies everyone's just trying to kill me like if you read Psalms you just I mean David's like everybody's trying to kill me all the time that's kind of the message you get from it he's like begging God protect me against my enemies he's like just saying God I just have so much faith in you I love you I love your word I love your commandments I will share it with you and just like everyone's trying to kill me all the time and again here he's like I'm walking through the valley of the shadow of death I don't know what's going on in your life but you're not walking through the valley of the shadow of death but what does he say he says I will fear no evil what does that mean I will fear nothing I will fear no hurt I will fear no danger I will fear no anyone trying to get me I will fear nothing I will fear no evil he doesn't say I will fear a little bit he says I will fear no evil why for thou art with me thy rod and thy staff they comfort me thou preparest the table before me in the presence of my enemies there's those enemies again thou anointest my head with oil my cup runneth over I mean this guy is just everyone's trying to kill him I mean how many people are trying to kill you this morning I mean look at David take his life you're literally trying to end his life on this earth and here he's just like I just fear nothing why because God you're with me he says thou preparest the table before me in the presence of my enemies thou anointest my head with oil my cup runneth over surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever look this is a great faith passage is what this is a great faith passage that everybody needs to have in their heart it's a sermon in itself it's like no matter what happens like no matter what happens no matter how hard things get in my life I will just fear nothing I will just put my faith in the Lord I will just put my faith in the Lord but here's the way it really works with people here's the way it really works with people they're like I'm 25 or so I'm 23 and they're like oh that's beautiful that's great and then things get hard in their life and they're just like how can I possibly get out of this how can I possibly stop this evil how can I possibly stop these bad things how can I possibly get out of this situation how can I pragmatically in my own mind you know that faith just crumbles it just crumbles it's fear and they start to rely on man's wisdom, on their own wisdom their fleshly wisdom but like notice the action here notice the action from David he's in a bad spot he's in a worse spot than any of you are here today he's gonna be killed he's walking through the valley in the shadow of death he's got enemies everywhere on all sides and what's his action item his action item is I will just not fear that's it I will just not fear because God is with me I will not be afraid look if you can face tough times if you can face tough times and just look and just know that the Lord's will will be done just know look and accept that it will be very simple for you look if I I mean I thought about this for a year if I died a coronavirus I guess God didn't want me running this church that's exactly how I feel if I was going to not be protected by God look that's God's will if I get sick and die that's God's will it's not that I know I'm not gonna get sick I know that I will never get sick no God's will be done God's will be done God's plan God's plan doesn't change God's plan for me to come here every Sunday every Wednesday and just come here and just do what I'm supposed to do God's will be done that's it it's so simple like every decision in your life is so simple when you think of it that way because people the problem is the problem is that your circumstances don't change God's plan your circumstances whether they be physical circumstances whether they be economic circumstances that doesn't change God's plan that doesn't change God's will for your life it's just God's will be done and that's what David was saying David was saying God's will be done he's like I don't fear he didn't say he didn't say I'll never be killed he's just like I just won't fear he's like I'll dwell in the house of the Lord forever true no matter what you die tomorrow you'll dwell in the house of the Lord forever if you're saved the idea the idea that you're going to make it through the judgment of our nation the persecution as a Christian and even in the end times should that come the idea that you're going to make it through that unless you have this kind of spiritual preparedness look it's a very simple concept it's just to do what you're supposed to be doing the way God wants you to do it no matter what so I mean whatever if it becomes illegal to preach certain things I mean just whatever we're just going to keep preaching those things and just keep and God's will be done see how simple that is it's very very simple it's hard to do though it's hard to do because people want to get into that oh I can fix this problem this way and I can just jump outside God's will I'm going to get that plan for a little bit I'll fix it and I'll get back in now just stick to God's plan you know what it is stick to it God will take care of the rest and if it means that tomorrow is your last day on earth whatever I mean I don't want to die tomorrow but if that's God's will that's God's will I'm not in charge here okay the next thing is this we know we need to be spiritually prepared especially things get hard that you know just reliance on God turn to Proverbs 21 you might actually need to be prepared that might actually physically prepared that might be smart to actually be physically prepared for things in your life look at Proverbs 21 look at verse number 20 the Bible says in Proverbs 21 I mean let's talk about being economically prepared for hard times the Bible says that look what the Bible says there is treasure to be desired and oil in the dwelling of the wise but a foolish man spendeth it up he's talking about you know having not to be spending everything you make and actually having some things on hand like physical things you know I mean look you're going to even on a small scale don't be spending all your money you need to have some savings you need to have some savings for emergencies even on a small scale we're talking about physical preparedness now actual things look if you know all this stuff's coming you know bad times are coming for some reason why wouldn't you be physically prepared you know have some savings even on a small scale by the way I mean things are always coming up unexpected events, economic emergencies on a small scale every single month when you're making your budget you better have an emergency fund because something always comes up he's talking about you know have some money on hand you know have some actual money you know on hand you know he's talking about the oil have some food on hand I mean look at the thing that happened you know the average American household has three days of food that's the average American household they have three days of food in their house you know that if the trucks and the trains stop running that within just a few days cities will run out of food and fuel there will be no gas and there will be no food you say how did it get to the point in 2 Kings chapter 6 where people were well I mean obviously they're besieged by an army they're not getting supplies the trucks and trains stopped at that point you say that could never happen here well why are we seeing people when you know things happen people still die because they don't have the right supplies look you should have your opinion you should have two weeks of food in your house that's my opinion even if you had to leave this at least gives you options this gives you options you know supplies to take other supplies other things to think about think about this you know what do you need what do you live on every day what do your kids need your kids need glasses your kids need contacts your kids take medication that they would be in serious trouble without you should have extra stuff if things get bad and these things are not available you should have these things on hand you should be thinking about this medications, medical kits basic first aid you should have these things on hand you never know if something is just going to happen an accident in your house and you don't have anything like that I mean you should have it you need to stock these items in your home you need to think about you know building these types of supplies look I'm not trying to I'm just trying to spark some thoughts for you this morning if you know bad times are coming why wouldn't you think like this I mean it only makes think about this there's another thought experiment that we don't have to think too hard about what if power and water stopped flowing think about that where would you get you know where would you get water where would you get you know what would you do without electricity you know think about it two weeks could you survive two weeks without electricity and water think about this Texas situation think about this Texas situation people will die people will probably continue to die you know there's actual studies there's actual studies that if the power goes out and like utilities have these types of studies that if their power generation goes down so many people will die in certain types of scenarios they study that type of thing there's actual studies like real engineering studies that show if the power went out in the United States 90% of the population would die within one year uh oh that's how big of a deal it is Texas situation I'm not going to go off on this but the news I don't know I guess you can't even read the news anymore I guess you can't even read the news because here let me just like point out some irony of the Texas situation so I came from this industry you know that I was in for over 10 years where you know I come from thermal plants you know coal fired power plants natural gas these types of things where if you talk to somebody who's worked the past 50 years an engineer mechanic in this industry his job was reliability redundancy keeping things running at all costs over the last 20 years this man that has worked in that industry this engineer that's worked in this industry has watched politics come into his industry and watched all these stable systems that he's built over the last 50 years become made unstable by policy you want to talk about irony a bunch of stable structure built by men who built it 50 years ago made unstable by green energy and all these different things and all these different policies to stop global warming is taken down by a cold spell define irony define irony but all these policies and everything have been pushed against the technical community for decades and we're seeing the results of it we're seeing the results of it but you read the news and it's just all wrong look what happened here is math it is not politics it's math you know machines broke because of this you couldn't get supply to things because of this and it had to do with this green infrastructure destabilizing the entire grid and then all the grid back up was also reliant on the same power from those green sources no engineer 50 years ago would have ever done something like that that's all I'm trying to say you have the politicians taking over but anyway it's just ironic I wanted to point that out now look but the point I'm trying to make is this do you think about what if all these things would just go away do you think about how your family would be able to survive like California does not have this mentality in North Dakota we had this mentality and we had this mentality because if the power goes out and it's 20 degrees below zero you're all just going to die you're all going to die all the animals are going to die within just a few hours or a couple of days if you don't have backups so everybody in North Dakota constantly has this mentality of backups to the backups it's just how you're raised everybody has dual fuel furnaces everybody has fuel on hand on the farms they have generators they can back up everything I mean it's just normal but the point is have you thought about these things because if the power goes out there's a good chance especially in North Dakota if that stuff stopped and nobody had any backups you would just die California maybe just needs some blankets but I mean do you have blankets think about food refrigeration don't go out and buy two weeks of hamburger that you put in your freezer and then have no way to keep your freezer running you just have to think about these types of things look you have to I'm not trying to give you all the answers to everything I'm trying to spark some thought because you're a Bible believing Christian this morning that's what I'm trying to do turn to first chronicles chapter 28 here's another thing you're going to need in times of crisis in times of persecution if God brings his judgment down on this country here's another thing you're going to need you're going to need knowledge you need to know how to do stuff what you need look at first chronicles chapter 28 I'm sorry go to first chronicles chapter 28 and look at verse 20 so David is talking about Solomon's about to embark on this big mission and David's telling him what he's going to need look when there's times of important things going on if there's times of crisis here's what you're going to need look at verse 20 Solomon and his son be strong and of good courage so there's Psalm 23 right there he just gives them Psalm 23 first off you better have some faith say you better have some faith and do it and what fear not he says fear not when times get tough nor be dismayed for the Lord God even my God will be with thee I mean that's Psalm 23 right there same guy same spirit he will not fail thee nor forsake thee until thou has finished all the work for the service of the house of the Lord talking about the temple in this case but it applies to anything any hard time any hard thing any persecution any hard times that you would go through verse 21 and behold the courses of the priests and the Levites even they shall be with thee for all the service of the house of God and there shall be with thee for all manner of workmanship every willing skillful man for any manner of service also the princes and the people that will be holy in that commandment without having knowledge in that people that have knowledge around you and he's talking about support from other people which I'll get to in a minute but he's saying look skills and knowledge could be the meaning the difference between life and death in difficult situations knowledgeable people skillful people look I don't care and I don't want to beat up on the young man again this morning I kind of do so that wasn't true but the point is is that knowledge and skill will always be valuable even in the worst times even in the worst times you look at the worst you look at the worst downturns economically in the past 100 years you know who always had jobs engineers people that know how to build things electricians there I go pitching electricians again I will not stop until every young man is an electrician in this church just kidding look no the point is that the skillful people will always be needed the skillful people will always be needed if you don't know how to do anything you're not going to be needed by anybody you're not going to do anything you're not going to make money in the good times and you're not going to be needed at all in the bad times to always be in demand knowledgeable skillful people think about these things and I'm not talking about just work think about having your family prepared for a couple of weeks think about all the scenarios think about all the things that you would need to learn how to do things about all the things that you might need to learn how to hook up, how to run just do these what if scenarios what if no power, what if no water what would you do other than I don't know turn the faucet handle 50 more times no you need to