Latest / Faith by annm2705 / 677. Bible Study: Amos 3 (Prophets give Warnings about Judgement- "Repent")
Transcript
- 0:00Chapter 3 from the book of Amos. Dear God, please be with us as
- 0:05we read through this chapter and let the Holy Spirit give us
- 0:09wisdom, revelation, insight and application to our own lives so
- 0:15that we may respond to your word in Jesus name, Amen.
- 0:22So this witnesses summoned against Israel hear this word,
- 0:27people of Israel, the word the Lord has spoken against you,
- 0:32against the whole family I brought up out of Egypt.
- 0:36You only have I chosen of all the families on earth.
- 0:41Therefore I will punish you for all your sins.
- 0:45Do two walk together, unless they have agreed to do so.
- 0:49Does a lion roar in the thicket when it has no prey?
- 0:53Does it growl in its den when it has caught nothing?
- 0:57Does a bird swoop down to a trap on the ground when no bait is
- 1:01there? Does a trap spring up from the
- 1:04ground if it has not caught anything?
- 1:08When a trumpet sounds in a city, do not the people tremble?
- 1:14When disaster comes to a city, has not the Lord caused it?
- 1:21Surely the Lord does nothing without revealing His plan to
- 1:25His servants, the prophets. The lion has roared.
- 1:30Who will not fear? The sovereign Lord has spoken,
- 1:34but who can? Who can but prophecy?
- 1:38Proclaim the fortresses of Ashdod and to the fortresses of
- 1:43Egypt. Assemble yourselves on the
- 1:46mountains of Samaria. See the great unrest within her
- 1:51and the oppression among her people.
- 1:54They do not know how to do right, declares the Lord, who
- 1:57store up in their fortresses what they have plundered and
- 2:01looted. This is what the Sovereign Lord
- 2:04says. An enemy will overrun your land,
- 2:07pull down your strongholds, and plunder your forced fortresses.
- 2:11This is what the Lord says. As a shepherd rescues from the
- 2:16lions mouth only two leg bones or a piece of an ear, so will be
- 2:24the Israelites living in Samaria be rescued with only a head,
- 2:29head of a bed and a piece of fabric from a couch.
- 2:33Hear this and testify against the descendants of Jacob,
- 2:37declares the Lord Almighty. On the day I punish Israel for
- 2:42her sins, I will destroy the altars of Bethel.
- 2:46The horns of the altar will be cut off and fall to the ground.
- 2:50I will tear down the winter home along with the summer house.
- 2:53The houses adorned with ivory will be destroyed and the
- 2:56mansions will be demolished, declares the Lord.
- 3:00That's chapter 3, so I will read through the questions and
- 3:04answers on this one. Why did God punish his chosen
- 3:09people? Though Israel had a special
- 3:11relationship with God because of His covenant with Abraham, the
- 3:16people had grown complacent about their covenantal
- 3:21responsibilities. They knew from the law how to
- 3:25live a godly life and what God expected from them, yet they
- 3:29ignored it. It seems that God expected more
- 3:33of them because He had blessed them with so much.
- 3:37You only have one. You only have I chosen.
- 3:41Therefore I will punish you. What did these questions mean?
- 3:48Through the use of rhetorical questions, Amos was saying wake
- 3:52up Israel. Isn't it as obvious as all these
- 3:56things? The signs of imminent disaster
- 4:00are all around you. Sadly, Israel slept through this
- 4:05wake up call. Are disasters acts of God?
- 4:10Some disasters can be traced to the consequences of specific
- 4:15sins, but not all sin and its result.
- 4:19Suffering and evil entered the world through the fall and
- 4:23that's talked about in Genesis chapter 3 verses 6 through 7.
- 4:27So God often uses sins natural consequences to discipline his
- 4:33people for their rebellion. Still, many sinners seem to get
- 4:38off without punishment, and many innocent victims suffer through
- 4:43no fault of their own. This seems to be a long
- 4:50questioned AI guess. A long running question about
- 4:54the Bible and and about God and whenever I read things like this
- 4:59it partially answers it but it doesn't give a complete answer.
- 5:03But I believe that the answer is found in the Bible about this.
- 5:08And I do believe that I, I, we know, I mean like God is in
- 5:13ultimate control of everything. So nothing happens without God
- 5:18allowing it to happen. Nothing can happen without God
- 5:23allowing it to happen. So I personally do believe that
- 5:28when we see these things we are seeing in our world today, we
- 5:32need to review them rightfully. Like these are warnings from God
- 5:40and historically, if we look back, God used, whether he used
- 5:45hail, he used destructive forces to wake people up, to get them
- 5:52paying attention to him, to get them to repent and turn to him.
- 5:56I truly believe we are seeing that today.
- 6:00And this is a warning from God for all of us, all of us on the
- 6:04planet that we need to turn to God.
- 6:08And there's just, you know, there's, there's all these
- 6:11signs, these biblical prophetic signs that are happening in the
- 6:15world. And there are so many people who
- 6:17are still unaware that this is even going on, unaware that
- 6:24prophetically significant events are occurring throughout the
- 6:29whole world. And we are getting very close to
- 6:32something significant in terms of a war based on what's
- 6:37happening in the Middle East. It just keeps escalating worse
- 6:40and worse starting. I mean, the wars kind of started
- 6:43in 2022 with Russia and Ukraine and then the Middle East
- 6:48started, You know, it's always been at war, but it really got
- 6:51significant October 7th of 2023. And Jesus said there will be
- 6:56wars and rumors of wars all the way until his returning.
- 7:00So we are not going to have this truly peaceful time until Jesus
- 7:05returns. There will be a a time period
- 7:09where there is going to be a fake peace, where people will
- 7:12think they are in peace, but then destruction will come along
- 7:18very quickly after that. So we don't have, I mean, not to
- 7:23be pessimistic about this, but in the Bible prophecy is true.
- 7:28So we don't really have that to look forward to.
- 7:31What we do have to look forward to is the return of Jesus, the
- 7:35restoration of the Kingdom, what Jesus has planned for all of
- 7:40God's children, that he will restore this earth that we're
- 7:45living on when he returns. And there will be 1000 year
- 7:48period of restoration and peace when Jesus returns, but not
- 7:53until then. So who knows when that's going
- 7:57to be. But we all would benefit from
- 8:03preparing now because we don't know the future.
- 8:08We don't know what is going to happen tonight or today, or if
- 8:16we will even be around tomorrow. So why delay this relationship
- 8:21with God, who is our Creator, who wants to give us an
- 8:25inheritance? But it does involve us accepting
- 8:29His invitation. He's inviting us into His
- 8:33Kingdom and to live there in eternity as an inheritance.
- 8:39But people have to make a decision, and if you don't make
- 8:43a decision or you postpone your decision, it is a rejection.
- 8:47Unfortunately, it's a rejection of God.
- 8:49It's not turning to Him. So now is a time to turn to God.
- 8:54And once you turn to God, you don't have anything to fear.
- 8:58Now this this Bible does talk about these natural disasters.
- 9:02They're saying some of them are, and I would agree with that.
- 9:04Some of them are consequences of sin.
- 9:07What the other ones are, people don't always understand.
- 9:10All you have to do is read the book of Job and understand this
- 9:13is just evil pursuing God's people.
- 9:17When other bad events happen to people who are close to God,
- 9:21that is a period of testing. And yet God does allow that and
- 9:27I, I think all believers, I, I don't know for sure though, that
- 9:33all believers will be tested by God to see how sincere they're
- 9:38turning towards God is. Joe was known as a righteous man
- 9:43and he was he was tested. God allowed Satan to test him.
- 9:50Satan was saying if I, you know, if I did all these, if all these
- 9:53bad things, he, you know, he acknowledged God.
- 9:55You know, you are right with with Job and you have this hedge
- 10:01of protect, protection around him, which is what God does.
- 10:04He protects his children. And then Satan, who is the
- 10:07accuser was saying to God, but if sudden destruction, if stuff
- 10:12comes upon these Job watch what he does, he's going to turn away
- 10:16from you. That was Satan saying to God and
- 10:20God allowed Satan to test Job but told him he couldn't have
- 10:25Job like he was still protecting him ultimate ultimately I guess
- 10:29his eternity God was protecting, but he allowed he allowed
- 10:34everything to be taken away from him.
- 10:36Job's family, his, his wealth I believe and his health.
- 10:43I mean like every single thing and Job couldn't understand.
- 10:47He's like why? What have I done?
- 10:49Because all Job would think about was and his friends
- 10:53started telling Job, well you must have done something wrong
- 10:56and that's why all this stuff is coming upon you.
- 10:58But Job was like, no, I haven't done anything wrong.
- 11:01And he is crying out to God and asking God why?
- 11:04Why have have you done this? And God, God does respond to him
- 11:10and he says, like, who are you to question me?
- 11:13And he, you know, Job realizes that of who he's, you know,
- 11:20speaking to and the power that is within him.
- 11:23And then with all of this, Job ends up praying for his friends.
- 11:29So Job is the one who's being afflicted with everything, but
- 11:33he ends up praying for his his friends.
- 11:36So this is a completely selfless act.
- 11:40This is like, you know, like I mean there's no greater selfless
- 11:45act than to lay ones life down for others, which is what Jesus
- 11:49did for us. But Job is essentially, he has
- 11:53all the problems, but yet he prays for his friends.
- 11:57And at that time, that's when God restored everything.
- 12:01And I guess that's when the testing was proven with Job that
- 12:05he turned to God. He didn't reject God.
- 12:09And this also shows us that we can bring our questions to God.
- 12:14God will answer us. And the bad things that happened
- 12:17to people who are on a good path, that's the enemy targeting
- 12:22a person. So when you are on a good path
- 12:26and bad things happen, don't think you know, don't get mad at
- 12:31God about it, just get through it with God.
- 12:36Like get closer to God. And that's what the enemy
- 12:38doesn't want us to do. The enemy does not want us to
- 12:42get closer to God when we are being afflicted, when we have
- 12:46bad things happen to us. The enemy wants us to get angry
- 12:49at God and separate ourselves from God.
- 12:52And some people do that when bad things happen, but other people
- 12:56draw closer to to God during that time.
- 12:59And when we draw closer to God, the enemy probably, you know,
- 13:05how long are they going? How long is the enemy going to
- 13:08keep doing these horrible things to people of God when all they
- 13:14see the result of it is drawing closer to God?
- 13:18So it you know, the best thing that you could do is praise God,
- 13:23like Paul says in all circumstances, praise God
- 13:27because the enemy doesn't want you, doesn't want us to praise
- 13:31God. So when bad things happen, look
- 13:34beyond that, think about eternity and praise God that he
- 13:39has offered that to us and that if we have accepted his
- 13:43invitation and we have the Holy Spirit, Jesus took care of the
- 13:48hard part by dying on the cross, then we will be in God's
- 13:51Kingdom. And so it's that's what we need
- 13:54to have our hope and, and look beyond these things.
- 13:58But also know that when our faith is strong, God protects
- 14:03us. It is through when we are weak,
- 14:06it's when God is strong. So we rely on God for our
- 14:11strength. So anyway, I know I got a little
- 14:14bit sidetracked on that. There's a couple more questions
- 14:16than answers, which I will go over.
- 14:18Did did God tell the prophets all of his plans?
- 14:23Amos was emphasizing that God used prophets to warn his people
- 14:28about impending doom, not necessarily to give a total
- 14:32revelation of his plans. In other words, disaster that
- 14:35occurred because of the people's sin was never a surprise.
- 14:39God dispatched prophets, in this case Amos to warn his people.
- 14:45So God does always warn his people.
- 14:50Jesus tells a parable of the vineyard and the watchtower and
- 14:55about the the owner, which is who is God sending servants,
- 15:00prophets. But they were killed, they were
- 15:02targeted by the enemy. So the enemy wants to wipe out
- 15:06prophets too, because the enemy doesn't want people to be warned
- 15:10because if they listen to the prophet then and they will be
- 15:13spared or they may not have the disaster come upon them if they
- 15:17repent and turn to God. So the enemy wants to wipe out
- 15:20profits. There's always going to be a
- 15:21target on the on the prophets back because they need to be
- 15:25eliminated because the warning the people who are warning other
- 15:29people. And so that's, you know,
- 15:32something that, you know, if all these people that claim to be
- 15:35prophets online, they need to know that too, that well, if you
- 15:41are that comes with a high responsibility because the enemy
- 15:44is going to be targeting you and but you do have God's
- 15:48protection. But God doesn't do things
- 15:51without warning. He's warning people and I
- 15:53believe he is warning us right now to turn to him.
- 15:57We are on the verge, well, not on the verge in the if you're in
- 16:00the Middle East, you are in the midst of war right now, but
- 16:04surrounding. There are some areas like the
- 16:07United States that haven't yet experienced it, but the Bible
- 16:12tells us that we will. I mean, it's going to come upon
- 16:15the whole world. So there's, it's only a matter
- 16:19of time and we need to get right with God, every one of us,
- 16:25because we don't know when that time's going to be.
- 16:28There's a surprise time when it happens.
- 16:32Typically, nobody expects that to happen.
- 16:35However, at the same time, you can almost anticipate that
- 16:39something will happen because for #1 Iran, you know, doesn't
- 16:46like the United States. The, the regime, the current
- 16:49regime in Iran does not like the United States in a bigger way
- 16:53than they don't like Israel. And they're already at war with
- 16:56Israel. Israel's closer.
- 16:58But do you think that if that current regime stays in power,
- 17:03that they're not going to come against the United States?
- 17:06They want to eliminate the United States.
- 17:09They want to eliminate Israel And if we all believed in the
- 17:15same God, then they wouldn't want to eliminate the United
- 17:20States or Israel. But the fact is we don't believe
- 17:23in the same God. So anyway, going back to
- 17:27Scripture, what do these body parts represent?
- 17:32A lion after killing a lamb will not eat every part of the
- 17:35carcass. It may lead to the hooves or a
- 17:37bone from the leg, for example. Amos was saying that these
- 17:41leftovers would be all that remained of Israel after God
- 17:44judged them. This occurred when the Assyrian
- 17:47king Sargon the Second led the inhabitants of Samaria and the
- 17:53rest of the northern Kingdom into exile 1000 miles away to
- 17:57the eastern regions of his empire.
- 17:59Only the the poorest were left behind.
- 18:03So this is interesting too. Like they they didn't really
- 18:07have any use for the poor people.
- 18:09Apparently they weren't the ones who were the other ones were
- 18:14taken, but those were left And blessed are the poor in spirit,
- 18:20you know, for theirs will be the Kingdom of God that when Jesus
- 18:24gave the Sermon on the Mount, he talked about these things.
- 18:28The less will be the greatest in the you know, it's like there's
- 18:31a different not status, but there's a different outcome.
- 18:38People who have high prestige here on earth may not have it in
- 18:43God's Kingdom depending on what they did with the resources they
- 18:47got, they received. Did they honor God with them or
- 18:53did they just use it selfishly? And there will be a reconciling
- 19:00of of the way we use the resources God gave us when
- 19:04Judgement day comes and there will be a remnant of Israel that
- 19:09God protects. The Book of Revelation talks
- 19:12about it. There's 144,012 thousand from
- 19:16each tribe except the tribe of Dan that's not mentioned.
- 19:19Whether this is a literal number or a metaphorical number, we
- 19:24won't know until it's over. And it's probably useless to
- 19:29debate that, but it will happen. Who were these people who sat on
- 19:36a bed and a couch? These were the wealthy elite of
- 19:39Israel who lived in luxury with no thought of the future.
- 19:43They refused to worry about God's warnings or to believe
- 19:47there would come a day of reckoning.
- 19:49Well, that we can all relate to today.
- 19:52So there are people who are unaware of what's going on
- 19:55around us as it relates to the Bible.
- 19:58They know what's happening in the world, but they don't see
- 20:00the application in the Bible sometimes got.
- 20:04I mean this could be. The fulfillment of prophecy, or
- 20:09it could be a foreshadowing of a much greater event that's going
- 20:14to happen in the distant future. We don't know.
- 20:19And as it escalates, we don't know really what's going to
- 20:23happen in the Bible. In the Bible's prophetic details
- 20:28are so broad that so many different things can be applied
- 20:35to it. And I think that's probably why
- 20:37God gives prophecy the way he does to the prophets, because he
- 20:42doesn't reveal everything in detail.
- 20:44He only gives a little bit. But it's not so much about
- 20:47knowing what the future is as it is a warning to prepare for
- 20:54God's Kingdom, to get ourselves right with God.
- 20:58You know, why does God want to let anybody know about what the
- 21:01future is going to be? It's not.
- 21:04So you can say, haha, I know this and you don't.
- 21:06I mean, that's ridiculous. The reason God gives anything to
- 21:11anyone is for the benefit of others, not for the benefit of a
- 21:16certain person. And it's all too bring others
- 21:20into the Kingdom of God. It's all about getting closer to
- 21:24God. And that's what God cares about.
- 21:27Not like I know what's going to happen in the future and you
- 21:30don't. I mean, if we start reading the
- 21:33Bible, we we see what God is going to do and it really
- 21:37ultimately shouldn't matter about the timing of things.
- 21:41With the exception that I would say is people who are not taking
- 21:47the Bible seriously. That is something that I feel
- 21:52very urgent, a sense of urgency about that people who are
- 21:56saying, I'll deal with this later.
- 21:58I don't know that we have later to deal with this.
- 22:04I think the time is now. And once you have done that,
- 22:09once you have reconciled with God personally and God gives you
- 22:14the Holy Spirit, then you don't need to worry about anything.
- 22:18You can live life and just help other people.
- 22:21There's no, you don't have anxiety then because you know
- 22:24where your security is in heaven.
- 22:27It says that life is but a vapor.
- 22:30Like the time that we're here on earth is a short time and we
- 22:33need to not be short sighted. We need to look at the big
- 22:36picture, look at eternity. Where we reside in eternity is
- 22:41much more important than what we have here on earth today.
- 22:46So be eternally God's Kingdom oriented, God's Kingdom mindset.
- 22:53I mean, have that mindset where we think about the eternal
- 22:57consequences of our actions and just get right with God and then
- 23:03enjoy things like even though there's a lot of bad stuff
- 23:07happening around, enjoy the things that God, I mean, look
- 23:11at. Pay attention to the beautiful
- 23:13things that God gives us on a daily basis.
- 23:16So no matter what's going on around us, there is there are
- 23:20things that we can see if we put our mind to it, the good that
- 23:25God gives, that God puts in front of us despite the, the,
- 23:30the bad that surrounds. So there's always something good
- 23:32that God gives. And they could be small things,
- 23:36but they are from God. All good things come from God.
- 23:40So why cut off the horns of the altar?
- 23:42The horns of the altar provided a safe haven for those who might
- 23:46be guilty of crimes. You can find that in Exodus
- 23:49chapter 21 verse 14 and 1st Kings chapter 2 verse 28.
- 23:55The accused could lay hold of these horns and be safe.
- 23:58When judgement fell on Israel for her crimes, however, the
- 24:01horns of protection would be cut off, removing the safety they
- 24:06might offer. The imagery is an unimportant
- 24:09reminder of the seriousness and effectiveness of God's
- 24:13judgement. Who needed a summer house in
- 24:17Israel? The Mediterranean climate varies
- 24:19tremendously depending on the altitude and proximity to the
- 24:23water. During the hottest days of
- 24:25summer, the kings of Israel retreated to a summer palace in
- 24:29a cooler location at a higher altitude in the hilltop city of
- 24:33Jezreel near Mount Gilboa. The regular palace was about 20
- 24:38miles farther South in Samaria. And I think that's that's all
- 24:46for chapter 3. So I think I will keep this
- 24:50recording a little bit shorter. And I guess there's a few things
- 24:55that I noted when I was reading through this, so I'll mention
- 24:58those and then I'll wrap it up. But in verse 6, when a trumpet
- 25:02sounds in a city, do not the people tremble?
- 25:05So the trumpet is a sound of war, is a sound of conquering.
- 25:09If it's producing the tremble. There were there were horns that
- 25:14were sounded within the tribes of Israel.
- 25:18And some of the horns were for gathering purposes and others
- 25:23were sending out to war. And if you recall the wall of
- 25:27Jericho that they were supposed to to March around it 6 times
- 25:31and then on the 7th the walls would collapse and that did
- 25:34happen. That was a supernatural event by
- 25:36God in conquering. So trumpet sounds are either a
- 25:42gathering of people or sending out to war.
- 25:45And I think we should just remember that and then relate
- 25:49that to prophecy as well. Like in the Book of Revelation
- 25:54there are 7 trumpets that are sounded and those I believe are
- 25:58warning trumpets about war coming against the people.
- 26:02So just something to pay attention to.
- 26:06And and God does reveal things to people and He does it to warn
- 26:13people. And so I believe there are
- 26:15people today who are receiving dreams and visions.
- 26:21And it ironically, it says in the Bible, I think it's in Joel
- 26:24that it says, you know, young, young men will see visions and
- 26:27old men will dream dreams and even women will prophecy.
- 26:32So there's, there's a lot of that happening right now.
- 26:36And so with that happening, it does feel like things are very
- 26:43close, but we also have to remember that a day is like 1000
- 26:48years to God and 1000 years is like today.
- 26:51So personally, from everything that I've looked at as far as
- 26:57timing goes, I think, you know, this is a significant Jubilee
- 27:02year. And, and so there theoretically
- 27:07or historically, a lot of prophetic events tend to happen
- 27:11in a Jubilee year. And because this is a Jubilee
- 27:14year, there are, if you go to the Dead Sea scroll calendars
- 27:19that the Essenes kept, that means that we have 50 more years
- 27:25until the year 6000. So sometime between now and 50
- 27:29years from now, it is very likely that Jesus will return
- 27:35because of so many symbolic things and we just, we just
- 27:41don't know. So I guess it would be, it could
- 27:43go out as far as 2075. A lot of people don't think it's
- 27:48going to go that long, but we don't we really don't know.
- 27:51So the important thing is that we are prepared.
- 27:56I mean, me personally, because of my dreams, I think it's
- 27:59coming up really soon. And so I'm just warning people
- 28:04or preparing people or wanting people to prepare.
- 28:06And maybe that's why I was given a dream like that, to just get
- 28:12people prepared. Maybe there is still a lot of
- 28:15time, maybe there isn't. I don't know.
- 28:18But I'm just doing what I feel like God would want me to do.
- 28:24It doesn't ever hurt to warn people.
- 28:26And that's, you know, I'm, I'm trying to do what I think is the
- 28:31right thing to do and to get people prepared.
- 28:35It's not a thing about fear or anything like that.
- 28:37Because once you have the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit gives
- 28:40you power and courage and everything.
- 28:42And there's nothing to fear because you know who is within
- 28:47you. You know that God is all
- 28:49powerful. We have a part of God in us with
- 28:53the Holy Spirit. So there is nothing to fear and
- 28:56the Holy Spirit protects us. I mean, the eternal protection
- 29:00is what is important. As long as we stay in agreement
- 29:03with God that we don't wander away from God.
- 29:06Because it does say that those who have fallen away and refused
- 29:11to go back to God, there, there, there are consequences.
- 29:16I get concerned about churches teaching about grace, and the
- 29:21easiest thing to compare it to would probably be that grace is
- 29:25actually the power of the Holy Spirit, and if you don't have
- 29:28the power of the Holy Spirit within you, do you have grace
- 29:32and the church. So many churches teach about
- 29:36like, teach about grace, that like people can keep on sinning,
- 29:41knowingly sinning and doing what they know God is not happy about
- 29:45and still be protected by grace. And I believe that's a false
- 29:49teaching. And I believe that those
- 29:52teachers will be reprimanded by God for that.
- 29:57And they are leading people to destruction.
- 30:00So I would say read scripture, search it for yourself, see what
- 30:05you come up with, Pray about it to God too.
- 30:09I talk to God honestly about it and I believe God will let you
- 30:12know what the truth is about it. But if you it just, it's a very
- 30:18concerning thing to me because I think with everything, the more
- 30:22accepting the world becomes of sin, it's leading people into
- 30:27destruction. And that is not what God wants.
- 30:31People are perverting the word of God to make people feel
- 30:34comfortable in their sin. And God is not OK with that.
- 30:38He says be holy because I am holy.
- 30:41He wants us to. Now, is anybody going to be
- 30:45perfect? No, the answer to that is no.
- 30:48But there's a difference between choosing to continue in a life
- 30:53of sin and actually messing up occasionally, but then asking
- 30:58God for forgiveness and being sincere with your request.
- 31:02You know the difference. I mean, it's that's just don't
- 31:06try to make excuses for it. You know, whether you are
- 31:10intentionally choosing something or if you are just so weak.
- 31:14But it says that I am strong in your weakness.
- 31:18So when we are weak, that's when we call on God.
- 31:22Help me with this temptation. Help me with the sin, help me
- 31:26overcome it. And God provides a way out.
- 31:30So in that regard, we can overcome sin.
- 31:34And that's why I also get aggravated with churches that
- 31:37don't talk about the power of the Holy Spirit, because you can
- 31:43overcome sin. The Bible clearly tells us that
- 31:46and we just, we just need to be in the word more and read what
- 31:51it says. And unfortunately there's a lot
- 31:55of lukewarm churches out there and the outcome for them will
- 31:59not be so great. They will probably have to go
- 32:01through more testing so that they become ready for God's
- 32:09Kingdom. And it's going to come with
- 32:12severe consequences. If we don't listen, if we don't
- 32:15heed the warnings early, then we're going to have more severe
- 32:19consequences later because God has to ramp up his.
- 32:25If we don't pay attention to the warnings, He's just going to
- 32:28have to keep making it tougher and tougher.
- 32:31And that's why a lot of people who hit rock bottom turn to God
- 32:34because there were probably warnings all along the way, but
- 32:38they didn't listen to him. And then God has to do a little
- 32:41bit more and a little bit more, and eventually either they will
- 32:44just reject God completely, or they will turn to God.
- 32:48But just know that the power of the Holy Spirit can help each of
- 32:54us overcome whatever sin it is. That's a challenge for us, so
- 32:59rely on God when it comes to temptation.
- 33:02Immediately call out to God. Pray to God immediately and you
- 33:07will be able to overcome it.