Atlanta Bible Baptist Church

Rev. Toby Monday: Let's go to the Word of God. That's why we're here. If you can, stand, take your Bibles one more time. We're going to look back at what Brother Jim had said in Proverbs 24, verse 21. I want to read that passage one more time. I'm going to read that from a New Living Translation so that you can hear what it says. Again, don't blame me, blame Pastor Ray for the New Living Translation. Proverbs 24, we're going to look at verse 21.

If you got it, say, "Yes, sir." All right, and if you don't have it, that's okay. I'm not going to get on you this time. But if you don't know where Proverbs is, you need Jesus. Proverbs 24, verse 21. It says this in the New Living Translation: "My child, fear the Lord and the king. Don't associate with rebels." Verse 22 says, "For disaster will hit them suddenly. Who knows what punishment will come from the Lord and the king?"

Let's pray together. Dear Heavenly Father, we just again want to say thank you so much for this time. I say thank you for Ms. Vicky, thank you for our teens and young adults. Thank you for even with all that was going on, you were able to allow them to be able to put the selections together that we could be able to worship the Lord in spirit and in truth and to focus on your holiness. Because God, you indeed are holy, holy, holy. There's none like you.

And Lord, as we look into the Wisdom book, as we look into this final portion, you have a word for your people. And so, Lord, I step back. As John the Baptist declares, I do the same. I decrease, Lord, you increase. I become less and less, you become more and more because the word that's being preached today is not from me, it's from you. It's not just for the teenagers, for the kids, it's for everyone, for the adults as well. So have your way. Speak as only you can, Holy Spirit.

We thank you so much for you having control in this place right now. And we thank you in Jesus' name, and everybody said, "Amen." You may be seated in the house of God. As mentioned on the screen, this is the last part, the series finale of the 30 Wise Sayings. Thank you all for going through this. I think this was almost two years that we've gone through this. But one of the things that I wanted to be able to share with the young people, just as what was laid before me and many others that worked in Intouch Ministries, the late Dr. Charles Stanley had spent time with his grandfather for a few weeks before his grandfather would pass.

His father and his grandfather were both preachers, but definitely his grandfather sure enough was a man of God. He spent some time with him, which led to what people know today as the 30 Life Principles to live by. And many of you possibly know a few of those life principles. One of the main principles that he would always share in his broadcasts was, "Obey God, leave all the consequences to Him." For me, that really stuck out in the 15 years of knowing him.

Really, I've known of Dr. Stanley many years before because on ABC he would be on and Dad would be doing his PT before he went to the drills in the reserves. He would have Dr. Stanley on, and Dr. Stanley had that voice that stuck out to you and it just made you sit down and listen to him. For some apparent reason, in my mind, I always thought that man sounds like Dr. McNeal in the sense of his style, his approach, his teachability. I was like, this is something else.

So what was awesome for me was I would listen to Dr. Stanley, and then Looney Tunes would come on right after that. So I had my weekend cartoons and I had the Word of God all wrapped in there. But that was the plus for me to know that he was a man that was not my pastor but preaching the Word of God and preaching it soundly and preaching it with the truth. I really enjoyed that. And in time, the Lord would allow me to spend time with him in person, face to face.

And that was a blessing which led to the first time in sharing the principles, not with these students here, but with the students before them. It led to that point to where if God had planted his grandfather to share principles with him, which would lead to him exposing more biblical principles, then taking a time to even listen to Dr. McNeal and receiving the principles that the Lord laid on his heart, it's not fair for me to keep that to myself. I need to take those principles and be able to give those principles to the kids that we have in front of us now.

And even now, those same principles are not just for the kids. They're for each and every one of us because they're based out of the Word of God. And so as we end this series, I want you to catch something that the author would bring out because it's true throughout the 30 Wise Principles. You notice two main things: there was the wise and there was the fool. I told you growing up, B.A. Baracus, aka Mr. T—Mr. T was the actor's name, but B.A. Baracus and then he had another character that he performed in Rocky III—he made the statement, Mr. T made the statement through one of his characters, "I pity the fool."

Well, I can tell you right now God don't pity the fool. He doesn't. And he's proven it in the text that we've just been looking at. And the author again will repeat a certain thing that you'll notice, even in what we're dealing with today. So let's do a little recap of last time because, again, blame Pastor Ray, because that's what he always does. We recap from what happened last time. It's been a long time since we met together, so let me go ahead and recap those last five.

Wise Saying 21 says: God's wisdom outranks man's muscle any day. And hopefully you're seeing that right now in real time. Man thinks they can do anything, and then God just shows it up. Time after time after time after time, he shows it up. And if you're going to rely on your own muscle, you're going to lose. You will lose. God's wisdom outranks man's muscle anytime. Wise Saying 22: A fool will never understand a wise person. They'll never understand. They don't understand why me and you come and meet corporately.

They don't understand, "Wait a minute, I'm not going to make that decision just yet, I need to pray about it." A fool can't never grasp it. They don't understand, young people, why you're waiting until you get married before you do all that other stuff. Because a wise person recognizes what the Word of God says. A foolish person is going to act on their own impulses because they believe in their heart there is no God, that God does not exist. But you believe someone does exist, and the one that does exist is a rewarder of them that diligently seeks him.

23 says: If you want a good name, watch what you say and do. And again, you've seen that in real time. I hope you notice that. Somebody's name, you don't got to say in the third person, "I'm this and I'm that." No, a good name is going to speak for itself. And other people are going to speak on its behalf. So you ain't got to worry about that. 24: Don't fall apart at the time of adversity. You'll show your true self. And it's not an if, but when. Don't fall apart when adversity comes.

There's no ifs when it comes to adversity. It's when. 25: If you can help someone, do it before it's too late. If you know when God told you to help somebody, and if you don't, you know what that is? That's disobedience. And boy, we want to strive to be obedient because obedience brings blessing. All right, let's get to the meat of what we're doing here. Verse 24:13 says these words: "My child, eat honey, for it is good and the honeycomb is sweet to the taste. In the same way, wisdom is sweet to your soul. If you find it, you will have a bright future and your hopes will not be cut short."

I didn't make this up. That's what the author said. You see how I highlighted the word "eat." Wisdom is sweet, just like honey. And those of you that have had honey, you know so many benefits health-wise honey has in it. Matter of fact, even in the early part of me when I was dealing with reflux back in 2020, that was one of the things I did every day was take a tablespoon of honey and just let it go down. It was a little tough, but it got down in there and it did the work.

Or you mix it in with some kind of juice or something like that. Some of us, if we want that sweetness in the grits, we put a little honey in there, too. You all know about that. It's like I said, you have some that are sweet and some that are savory. I do a little bit of both. It doesn't matter on me, but I'm just trying to tell you what some people do. But again, it's good. Most of you know honey's good. It's real good. It is good for you.

But just like honey is good for you physically for your body, wisdom is good for you for your soul. It's good for you. But look at what it says in that next highlighted part: "If you find it." So to the younger generation, it's true. You got to find it. It's easy for me as a father, as a husband, as youth pastor, to be able to take your hand and say, "Here, okay, here's the Bible, let me give it to you." No, you got to take the time, get into the Word of God yourself.

But just like it is for you to all the older and seasoned adults up in the room, all the pastors in the room, we can't hold your hand. You got to get in the book for yourself. Monday through Saturday, I love you but I got a family. You need to get in the Word for yourself. Find it. It's sweet. You got to find it. Which leads to the last. 26 says: Eat, sleep, dream wisdom and knowledge. Why? Because you will be settled. Eat, sleep, and dream wisdom.

The reason why I say this, growing up, my father used to take me to NBA games, hawk games. And in my time, I'm showing my age now, but in the time growing up, there were certain players that I loved watching. Couldn't stand them because they were on opposing teams, they weren't the Hawks. But I loved watching them play. Number one guy I used to love watching play was Julius Erving, Dr. J. That was a bad man. I got in on the tail end of his career.

But man, he was still doing some things even on the tail end of his career. Windmill dunking, three-point shooting, all that stuff. You couldn't stop him. Larry Bird, God help him. That man could close his eyes and just throw the ball up and it probably goes through. Couldn't stand him. One of the baddest three-point shooters in the world. In this day and time, it's Steph Curry. But back in the day, Larry Bird, that dude would just light three-pointers in. I mean just shoot anywhere and they go in.

Isiah Thomas. And not just Isiah Thomas, but the Detroit Pistons were known as the bad boys. You didn't want to play them. You came out with bruises, they broke your bones when you played them. But Isiah Thomas was one of those guys where he could dribble circles around you. And don't put him on the foul line. Do not put him on the foul line. You wouldn't have to question it. He was going to hit his free throws.

And then hit home, we had Dominique Wilkins, the human highlight reel himself. Dominique Wilkins. And there were games that I saw live, and there were games that I saw at home on the TV. I couldn't believe that Dominique would do certain things he did. I remember one time I was at the Omni again, showing my age, I was at the Omni. My man, I swear he got a steal breakaway, he did a 360 double pump back dunk. That was Dominique. Bad man.

You couldn't stop him. I wish you would try to go on him while he's coming down dunking on you, you're going to find out. And not only was he bad, but his brother was bad too. Gerald Wilkins was a bad dunker as well. But then there was this guy called Michael Jordan. Still can't stand him to this day. His talk says his nephew can't stand him to this day. He was just one of those ones you just think, "Lord, man."

I don't care what he did. Fadeaway jumper, layup, and he had the nerve to stick his tongue out on you as he did it. And there were many a times when he would hit buzzer-beaters on Atlanta. Many of our playoffs were shut down because of Michael Jordan. But one thing that all these guys had in common, and my dad brought it out to me, he said, "Toby, you want to be like these guys right here? You're going to have to eat, sleep, and dream basketball."

And if you ever read any stories of Magic Johnson too—how are you going to have Magic in your name even though Earvin is his real name? But Magic because he could do all the back-passes and look-away stuff. That's what he was. The whole Lakers team was called Showtime. These guys were unique in all their ways. And if you ever get a chance to hear their personal stories, they'll tell you different things. I can tell you in particular, Michael Jordan and Isiah Thomas, they would always strive to shoot a thousand free throws before and after the game.

Without a doubt, you could not stop them when it came to free throw shooting because they kept practicing it. Same was said about Larry Bird. A thousand three-pointers before and after. They were constantly training, constantly doing things. Even guys growing up into the '90s and 2000s, the same guys that wanted to get better, they kept training with the best, doing those things that would help them to be better. And these guys still to this day, again we're talking almost 20, 30 years past their prime years, we're still talking about them.

Why? Because they were the best at what they did. Why? Because they ate, slept, and dreamed their craft. Brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, if you want to be wise, to be like those giants of old, you're going to have to eat, sleep, and dream wisdom. You're going to have to find it out. And the only way you're going to do that is that you've got to be able to read it, you got to study it, and you got to practice it.

I know for many of us, Toby can testify, how many of you heard about Hooked on Phonics? Raise your hand if you heard on Hooked on Phonics. It probably worked for you like it worked for me. Because that was the slogan, "Hooked on Phonics worked for me." Because I couldn't stand reading either. God would work that thing in, and then CSU for sure enough did some stuff, and even now Central, Lord have mercy, help them, Jesus. But reading is not one of the best things for me.

But I'm just keeping it 100 with you. But God is saying if you want to know more about me, you're going to have to get into His instruction manual to know. And not only do you have to get in there and read it, but He wants you to know it. Not just hear, but He wants you to know it here. You got to study. What I mean by studying is this: I love what the King James says. The King James says how Timothy was explained: "Study to show yourself approved."

But the New King James says, "Be diligent." I want you to think about this when it comes to studying. Have you ever followed your favorite foodie? What I mean by that is they have people that go out to various restaurants and they'll get certain entrees and they'll test it out and they'll give you a rating of one to ten, what they thought about it. And you notice when they eat the food, how they would take the time and really take the time to ingest the food.

Some of them smell it, don't know why, but some would take time to ingest the food. And you can tell right off the bat, if it's a zero out of ten, you can tell. But if it's a ten out of ten, Lord, they can't hold back the motivation, they can't hold back the influence, they can't hold back the passion, they can't hold back what they have experienced. That's what it is when it comes to the Word of God for you.

You want to look at the Word of God in that manner when it comes to studying it. Take the time to ingest it in. Don't just read through it and then, "Okay, I'm done." Don't make it ritual. Ingest it. Going through Deuteronomy, it's very easy to brush Deuteronomy aside because a lot of Deuteronomy sounds like Exodus. But what was the reminder that we had to grab out of that? Here was a generation that was new. The older generation had died off.

Why? Because they fell away from the Lord. They didn't follow what He instructed. And so here comes Moses to remind the new generation, "Hey, follow God's instruction." If you do, blessing. If you don't, curse. Let it sink in. Follow God's instruction. If you do, blessings. If you don't, consequences. One particular instruction that Moses gave, I think it was either in 16 or 17, where Moses had told the people, "Hey, if you're going to worship the Lord, don't have just an altar of God up, but then also have an altar to the false god up in the same position, same place."

God doesn't want that. He's not pleased with that. So if He's not pleased with that, don't do it. Jesus made a reminder of us: "You can't serve two masters. You can't serve God and you can't serve money." Apostle John was given this command, he says, "I wish that you would be cold or hot because if you're lukewarm then guess what I'm going to do? I'm going to spit you out my mouth."

What are we getting here? God is trying to instruct us: here's what you need to do and here's what you should not do. But again, that comes in studying it. And as you're studying it, you're learning more what God wants you to do and then put into practice. I know some of you are thinking, "Toby, these words sound like school." Yeah, they do. But the joy that I love, especially for those in 4:12, is that we're going to do 2:7 starting next month and we're going to do an expanded version of it.

And we're going to be able to take those steps slow it down, but we're going to be doing those things. And those of you that have gone through 2:7 or you're currently in 2:7, you're seeing those steps being applied right now. You're reading the Word of God, hearing what God is saying to you, putting it down, and then being able to speak it forth because it was that rich to you that you had no choice but to share it.

Then you're putting it in a practice, you're living it out. That's the desire of God's heart. You need an example? Remember Enoch. The Bible says Enoch walked with God. He walked with God. That's how deep that relationship was. So deep there was no funeral service, no homegoing service for Enoch. There was no time when Enoch had to have a hospital visit. There was no time where Enoch was bedridden.

Bible says that his relationship with the Lord was so tight that the Bible says that Enoch was no more. That's how tight his relationship was. That's the only human that I know biblically that had that type of relationship with the Lord. But again, that should get us to strive to want to reach that position to where we're talking with the Lord so much so that it's that rich, that it's that intimate, that it can be just as powerful and positive.

Next verse, 15 and 16 says these words: "Don't wait in ambush at the home of the godly. Don't raid the house where the godly live. The godly may trip seven times, but they will get up again. But one disaster is enough to overthrow the wicked." Which leads to this saying here: Don't mess with godly people. Because they may fall, but they won't stay down. You got to understand some things here.

And hopefully you saw that in the time of your Bible reading. When the children of Israel didn't do what was right in the sight of God, God dealt with them. But then you notice the enemies, even some of the psalmists would say, "Lord, and the enemies they talk about me, they say where are you at? They don't believe you're alive, they don't believe that you are with me." And here you see what God is saying: Don't mess with godly people.

Why? Because they may fall, because they're human. They may fall, but they won't stay down. Why? Wise people recognize one thing: they ain't God. I know that's bad English. But wise recognize one thing: they ain't God. And because they ain't God, then guess what? When we mess up, we fess up. Did you hear me? When we mess up, we fess up. Now David's story is hilarious as you remember when Nathan gave him that story about the man that had the little lamb, and his lamb was white as snow, and everywhere the lamb went, the lamb was sure to go with the wind.

But then there was a rich man that saw that little white lamb and took that little white lamb and made him into a dinner plate for his neighbor. And you all know the story, David heard that and said, "Oh, we need to go get this rich man!" Nathan told him, "That rich man is you." It clicked. Now David could have said, "Hey, I'm king, I can do whatever I want. Get him out of here, kill him." No, the Bible made it perfectly clear he confessed, and you all see it in the various psalms.

He confessed his sins to the Lord and the Lord made things right. That's what a wise person recognizes. They recognize their position, that they made the mistake, they messed up. "Yes, I did wrong. Lord, forgive me, I know that you can cleanse me and make me right. I can't do it, you can do it." So watch out for the godly person. I'm telling you, you'll see God dealing with them, but don't you mess with them because that's Daddy.

Daddy's going to handle his children, but he's going to handle you messing with his children. You remember the Edomites? Those Edomites, they're cousins. They looked at them Israelites, "Look at what Babylon doing to y'all. Look at what Assyria doing to y'all. Y'all deserve it." And the whole time they're getting set up. If you read Obadiah, you'll see what I'm talking about. They're over there messing with their cousin, talking about them instead of praying for them.

And then look at what God does. God tears them apart because they're messing with His. Don't mess with God's people. Pray for them. You don't know what God could be doing in their lives. And I'm telling you today, children of God, it's best for us to love each other, support each other, look out for each other. Don't put down one another. Why? Because you just don't know what the Lord is doing in that person's life.

He could be setting them up to be a blessing to someone that's going through something. But don't be like Job's friends. Job's friends were like, "You sinned! Get right with God!" And Job's like, "I ain't done nothing." "I know you done something, confess!" And you all know what happened, God dealt with them. Same thing goes, you just don't know, so you pray. Ask the Lord. Because if you mess with His people, there's a problem on your hands. And you shouldn't be doing it because you're kinfolk. You shouldn't be doing that.

All right, next verse. Verse 17 and 18 says these words: "Don't rejoice when your enemies fall. Don't be happy when they stumble, for the Lord will be displeased with you and will turn his anger away from them." Which leads to this saying: Don't laugh and gloat over your enemy falling because God will flip the script. How many of you ever been in a play growing up, maybe elementary school, middle school, whatever? And you normally would be the tree, you'd be the rock, you'd be a farm animal, no speaking part.

And then one of your buddies, one of the classmates, they're over there acting a fool. They got a good speaking part, maybe one of the main characters. And the teacher kept telling them over and over again, "Stop acting up! I'm going to give your script to somebody else." Well, that time came. And you know who that script went to? Me and you. Because they kept acting up. The script was flipped. Well, I want to let you know something here.

Don't—remember we talked about with the Edomites again—God can flip the script. Don't laugh, learn. Because it could have been you. It either could have been, or is going to be you. And that's what happened. I laughed, and I learned way back then. It reminds me of the only whipping that I got from my Grandma Helen. Only whipping I got from her. It wasn't my fault even, Aunt's in the room, it wasn't my fault, Auntie. It was Aunt Martha's fault.

Back in the day kids, most of us usually when it came to sleep time or bedtime, and you got me and all your cousins, usually it's not just you, it's usually you and your cousins. Grandma had that flip bed and so this time it was me and my cousin Lee. We were sleeping. Grandma worked, she was the cafeteria lady at the town elementary school. And she told us, "Now y'all can't be acting up, I got to get my sleep because I got to get up early in the morning."

Lee just kept acting up. And she just said, "Lee, I'm telling y'all I'm going to have to come in there." She didn't get no belt. She didn't get no flip-flops. She got a switch. And she said, "Now don't let me get the switch, now don't let me get the switch." And Lee just kept acting up and I tried to get Lee to stop, but Lee he couldn't stop. So Grandma came in, tore Lee up. I mean tore him up! I'm next to Lee.

So as Lee is getting the punishment, I'm trying my best not to laugh. My face is in the pillow. I'm holding it in as best as I can. And then Aunt Martha, Grandma, Toby over there laughing! And just when I could say, "Grandma, I didn't!" Grandma just started tearing me up too. Couldn't say nothing, was tore up. And let me tell you the reason why I was laughing and holding it in. Because at the time, my Aunt Martha, she had this laugh.

She's upgraded over the years, but she had this laugh when she was a teenager in college. She had this laugh, "Hee-hee-hee-hee-hee!" I'm sorry, you're going to laugh. You're going to laugh. And that's what happened to me. I was listening to her laugh. And so in the midst of my tears, "Grandma, she made me laugh!" And I was thinking, "Lord, I don't know what happened." But Lee Ray got it with me too and I refused this day to see how much Grandma was fed up.

She got all of us. But it was a great reminder to do this: don't you laugh, but learn. Don't laugh, you got to learn. Why? Because it could have been you. It either could have been, or is going to be you. And that's what happened. I laughed, and I learned way back then. From that time frame on, if somebody's getting it, just get out the danger zone. Just get out the danger zone. If you want to laugh, laugh outside. Laugh on the street, away from the house, not in the midst of a weapon that can be used to punish you.

Don't laugh, learn. Makes me think about former President Barack Obama when he was speaking at a rally. And as he spoke about the certain ills that the opposing party was doing, people booed. President Obama would say, "Don't boo, vote!" That was the vote that was going to make the difference. Learning is going to make the difference in this situation. Learn from your enemy. Learn from what you're reading in the scriptures right now.

Every nation that fell, you can look at what they got and say, "Yeah, they deserved it." Yeah, they deserved it, but you better look out, you better watch out, because it could be you next if you're not careful. So don't laugh, learn. Next verse. "Don't fret because of evildoers. Don't envy the wicked. For evil people have no future; the light of the wicked will be snuffed out." Which leads to this saying: Don't ever wish that you could be like the wicked. They are headed for destruction.

Kids, it's very interesting in this time with all the reality shows. And y'all can testify, adults in here, you can testify, it seems like the crazier people get, the more people are attracted to that. The more off the wall you are, the people are attracted to that. Don't be like, don't wish that you could be like them because again, I'll put it like this: a fool's prosperity is only temporary. It's only temporary. You think that they have popularity right now, but one year from now, five years from now, ten years from now, could it be that you'll hear these words?

"So-and-so, he gone. So-and-so, she died." Or they're in jail, or they're messed up mentally, or they're messed up from drugs. It's because it's only temporary. Don't envy. Reminds me of the Pharisees and Sadducees when Jesus told them, "Hey, you see how they praying? Yeah, they getting their big-ups right now, they getting their showtime right now." But God, in other words, He ain't impressed. They're getting man's approval when really they need God's approval, His actions to take place.

That's what God is desiring. Don't, I know it looks so good for now, but then it will change. But then it will change. You think about the individuals that have sexual relationships before marriage and it seems like everything's great. But then one day, and I hope you're seeing the same thing I'm saying on both ends of the spectrum, one decided to take off. Now you've got to start all over again. Matter of fact, they've moved on to the next conquest.

But you got sisters out there too, same thing. They out with you now they left you and now your heart is just crushed because you didn't do it God's way. When God tells you this: "Marriage is honorable and the bed is undefiled." It's only temporary. What we want you to understand that your life as a wise person is going to lead to is eternal impact. The things that you're hearing about right now, even in church right now, even in the midst of things like the praying-go, like 4:12, like 2:7, all these things make it have an eternal impact.

Because not only is it affecting you eternally, but it's affecting someone else for eternity. And that's why you want to get all you can while you can. Why? Because we want to make an impact for eternity and not just a temporary fix. Don't envy the wicked. I think about a mighty man of God who just went to be with the Lord, John Perkins. That's the one you want to strive after. Eternal fix, eternal impact for years to come.

"My child, fear the Lord and the king. Don't associate with rebels, for disaster will hit them suddenly. Who knows what punishment will come from the Lord and the king?" Last saying: Fear God, respect your leaders, don't follow the crowd. Rebellion will lead to punishment. Fear God, respect your leaders, don't follow the crowd. One thing that you need to grab hold of, if it's anything outside of God and the king, is this: what they say goes.

What makes the difference with God and with the king is what they say goes. It's a blessing that I got each king so we don't have to lean on but in the text here, really all of the writing came from what scholars believe was from King Solomon. So he was a king. So here he's telling the student, here he's telling his son, "Hey, respect the king. Honor, respect the king, follow, fear God." Why? Because they're hand in hand. When they speak, you know power and authority is with them.

Now some of you could easily look at that passage and easily you could say, "Well that's why you need to follow Donald Trump." You can do that if you want to. But in our country, in a Democratic Republic, you voted, I hope you did. If you didn't vote, but if you voted, because we're in a Democratic Republic, then guess what? If they're not following what they've said they were going to do, then as a citizen who voted—if you ain't voted, you can't say nothing—but if you voted then you could say, "Hey, Mr. or Ms. Congressperson, Senator, President, Mayor, you said you were going to do this and you haven't followed through. When are you going to do it?" because you said you were going to do it. I voted for you to do it.

But when it comes to God, whose Word is true, He never changes. What He says goes. You respect Him because He's going to follow through with what He says. Because we're in a theocratic rule when it comes to Him. When it's a king, it's a monarchy, so yeah, whenever they say, yeah, they're going to do all kinds of off the wall stuff because it's a monarchy. But we're under a theocratic rule when it comes to God, so what He says goes because we trust Him, we believe Him, we know He knows what's best for us.

So we fear Him because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. So fear God. God says do so-and-so. But the crowd, and how broad the path with the crowd has in front of me, they say we're going to go this way, but it's leading to destruction. You remember the children of Israel, God help them. They got tired of manna. And we remember manna, right? Manna fell from the sky, food from the sky.

That's a miracle. No microwave, no stove, no oven, food just came from the sky. All you had to do is pick it up and eat it. And then God gave specific instruction on what to do. And it was only supposed to be for a short period of time, but then they acted a fool: "We don't want that no more, God! We're tired of this! We want meat!" And they just kept fussing, kept fussing at Moses. And God said, "Okay, I'll give them what they want."

So I'll give them so much meat they can't stand it. And sure enough, God gave them a whole lot of quail. But they started doing this: they started picking up the quail and eating the Bible says, I'm not making this up, eating it raw. And they went against the instruction God said, "You should not eat an animal that has blood in it." And they just ate because, "I want, want meat," instead of picking up the thing, doing the proper things that God instructed, and they could have had their fill. But no.

Then a plague came on them and then God dealt with them. God's reminding us the same way. Just because the crowd wants meat, don't you follow it. Think about this kids: maybe you guys might have the school uniforms and have any issues with the school uniforms, but just think of this situation. You have school uniforms, you protest against it, but yet you're going to skip class, not let teachers know, you're going just get up and walk out of class, disrupting the class, disrupting the hallway, and then protest because you don't want the uniforms.

That ain't the way to do it. Because now you're going get in trouble, you're going be in detention and maybe you might be like me when you're in detention, now you're going miss your bus route. Now you got to walk home because your mama and daddy ain't going pick you up. And for me that's like three miles, that's a three-mile walk. And then who's to say you'd be tardy, who's to say that you'd get an F on your grade? But there's a way to do it. There's a way to do it.

Don't follow the crowd, follow what the Lord tells you. The Lord says this: "Be in class, study, get what you need to do." Now if you and your classmates want to be able to do something before school, after school or they coordinated with the principal, coordinated with the staff so you can be able to do those things, then go at it. But just to get up out of class because you just because I'm tired of this and I don't want no uniform, no, slow your roll because rebellion's going to lead to punishment.

The reason why I'm stressing this and again as I close, it's Palm Sunday. And the reason why we're fearing God is because God gave us his best, his son. You know the crowd was headed and is headed for destruction because of sin. And because of sin, sin is anything that you think, that you say, that you do that displeases God, because of sin the punishment for our rebellion is death. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus.

That's according to Romans 6:23. Jesus, He came. Pastor mentioned that earlier. Here He comes, the people are lifting up their voices, raising their praises because they're thinking of a physical redemption, a physical taking over of the Roman Empire when all Jesus came to do was to be able to save them from their sin sickness and atone them of their sin. And as time went on during that week, the same crowds that would say "Hosanna" now would say "Crucify Him."

Because like even many today, matter of fact one of the top media moguls said this statement that Jesus got Himself, His foolish self killed because they didn't see Jesus like me and you see Him. But during this season we're reminded of what Jesus would come to do. He would come to sacrificially give His life as a ransom for many. And the reason why we fear the Lord is because the Lord did too much.

Nobody else can love us like He does. Nobody else can ever do the things that He's done. Why? Because He's done so much. He proved it by giving Himself. And as we reflect this week on His passion, maybe there's somebody in your life that needs to see this love. And you know how that love is going to be reflected? Through you, because you're being obedient and striving to be wise. To those of you that don't know Jesus as Lord and Savior, we again tell you, we really implore you, please let today be the day that you come to know Him as Lord and Savior so that you can step out of the pathway of the foolish and into the pathway of the wise.

And then those of you that are saved, understand that the message that we preach is not our own, but it's a message that was set in pace through the love and the sacrifice that only the Savior can give. Let's pray together. Dear Heavenly Father, we just want to say thank you for our time together. And Lord, I ask right now that you would undertake these words in a special way. We want you to have your way right now.

We strive to be wise because of benefits in being wise, and we strive to reach out to the foolish to let them know that there is a way of escape and that's only through the Savior. And so Lord, now I ask that you would just undertake your people in a special way. Touch hearts as only you can. And we thank you so much in Jesus' name, Amen.