SPEAKER_00: This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_01: So, Holy Spirit, come and just illuminate the word.
SPEAKER_01: We're not looking for something that's never been said before.
SPEAKER_01: We're looking to bring our lives into keeping with what's always been said.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Holy Spirit, speak to us about these realities from your word.
SPEAKER_01: Make it clear, make it obvious, and we'll do the rest with our living.
SPEAKER_01: We understand that we live in a day and age where just saying it's not enough.
SPEAKER_01: We have to live in such a way that's in keeping with our word.
SPEAKER_01: So, Holy Spirit, be over this today and say something this morning that has our name on it.
SPEAKER_01: We pray in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: And everyone say, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: You can have a seat.
SPEAKER_01: If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open it up to Exodus chapter 23.
SPEAKER_01: Exodus chapter 23.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't have a Bible, there's one on your row there.
SPEAKER_01: I'm on page 64.
SPEAKER_01: I want to talk to you this morning about how God relates to his people.
SPEAKER_01: About how God relates to his people.
SPEAKER_01: Because if you're not careful, then we can uh we we can let a lot of assumption uh get in into our relationship with God.
SPEAKER_01: We start assuming that God's a certain way and he thinks certain things.
SPEAKER_01: For example, when I grew up, uh my parents were separated and divorced, and my dad got divorced again, and my mom came to live with us.
SPEAKER_01: But my dad, who left us, but he lived like 30 minutes away.
SPEAKER_01: It's not like he moved to other side of the country or anything.
SPEAKER_01: My dad lived 30 minutes away, but he never came around.
SPEAKER_01: The only time my dad came around was when my brothers got in trouble.
SPEAKER_01: Then my dad would come around, my mom would call him and say, I need you to come discipline the boys.
SPEAKER_01: And so for me, being around my dad, my dad came to visit meant I was getting in trouble, I was gonna get a whipping, I was gonna get grounded, I was gonna get talked to or whatever.
SPEAKER_01: And so, in my mind, that's all my dad was like.
SPEAKER_01: He was this distant person, and when I got in trouble, he paid me a visit.
SPEAKER_01: Well, guess what?
SPEAKER_01: As I got older, you know, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, by the time I was 17, I believe that's what God was like.
SPEAKER_01: God was this distant person, lived way up in heaven, and the only time that he was really interested in me was when I screwed up and he was gonna come and get me.
SPEAKER_01: And so it really shaped the way I thought about God and the way I related to God.
SPEAKER_01: Well, when I was 18, I became a Christian, started reading the Bible, nutty concept, and came to realize God's nothing like that.
SPEAKER_01: So, what I'm gonna do today, if you're visiting, just relax, or if you're you're new, you're just exploring Christianity, just relax.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna we're going through the book of Exodus, we're to this part where God's got these people out of bondage, out of slavery, and uh he gave them the Ten Commandments and says, This is how you flourish as a person in a relationship with God.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and now he's kind of saying, This is where we're going, by the way, and this is what it's gonna be like along the way.
SPEAKER_01: God says, This is how I'm gonna relate to you.
SPEAKER_01: This is Exodus chapter 23, verse 20.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Behold, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and bring you to the place that I prepared.
SPEAKER_01: Pay careful attention to him and obey his voice.
SPEAKER_01: Do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression, for my name is in him.
SPEAKER_01: But if you carefully obey his voice and do all that I say, then I'll be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.
SPEAKER_01: When my angel goes before you and brings you to the Amorites, the Hittites, the Parasites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, and I blot them out.
SPEAKER_01: You shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do as they do, but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their pillars in pieces.
SPEAKER_01: You shall serve the Lord your God, and he will bless your bread and your water, and will take sickness away from among you.
SPEAKER_01: None shall miscarry or be barren in your land.
SPEAKER_01: I will fulfill the number of your days.
SPEAKER_01: I will send my terror before you, and will throw into confusion all the people against whom you shall come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you, and I will send the hornet before you, which shall drive I send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivites and the Canaanites and the Hittites from before you, and I will drive them out from before you in one year.
SPEAKER_01: I I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the wild beasts multiply against you.
SPEAKER_01: Little by little I will drive them out from before you until you have increased and possessed the land.
SPEAKER_01: And I will set your border from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the Euphrates, for I will give the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you.
SPEAKER_01: You shall make no covenant with them and their gods.
SPEAKER_01: You shall not dwell in your land lest they make you sin against me.
SPEAKER_01: For if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.
SPEAKER_01: Now God kind of just lays it out.
SPEAKER_01: Here's where we're going, here's some people we're going to encounter along the way, and here's how I want you to relate to them, because of how you relate to me.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, this is what it's going to be like when we get there.
SPEAKER_01: Pretty simple, you would think.
SPEAKER_01: As we continue through the book of Exodus, you'll see, not as simple as one would think.
SPEAKER_01: So, how does God relate to his people?
SPEAKER_01: I want to give you four words to think about and kind of frame out how God relates to his people.
SPEAKER_01: The first word is guidance, is guidance.
SPEAKER_01: The second word is longevity.
SPEAKER_01: Longevity.
SPEAKER_01: The third word I want to give you is worship.
SPEAKER_01: And the fourth word I want to give you is just big picture.
SPEAKER_01: You say that's two words.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, that's two words.
SPEAKER_01: Uh well, let's go back to the first word, guidance.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 20.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Behold, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and bring you to the place that I have prepared.
SPEAKER_01: Now, let me give you a question to think about on the way.
SPEAKER_01: This whole guidance thing.
SPEAKER_01: You can think about this as you're going to work or at lunch today or next time your small group meets.
SPEAKER_01: How often do you sense God's active leadership in your life?
SPEAKER_01: I met with a couple who was dating a while back and they said, Hey, we just want to get some spiritual advice.
SPEAKER_01: And I ask them this question.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Hey, do you how how often do you guys, when do you guys sense God's active leadership?
SPEAKER_01: Because not off the top, they started talking about 10 minutes in, I kind of sense these are two people that have just been together a long time and they just want to make this work because we've been together a long time, and I don't want to start over with somebody else, and he doesn't want to start over with anybody else, and we'll overlook each other's inconsistencies and sins and we'll just make this work.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm thinking, you are headed to a very hard marriage that's not gonna last long.
SPEAKER_01: And so I thought I would help and I asked this question.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Hey, do you guys sense God's leadership in this relationship?
SPEAKER_01: And they looked at me like I had a horn coming out of my head.
SPEAKER_01: And the girl said, Well, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Do you sense that this is not just your idea and his idea, but this is God's idea because what God orders, he pays for.
SPEAKER_01: And she was like, I don't get it.
SPEAKER_01: And I was looking at the guy, kind of like giving him his think eye, like, Ron, save yourself.
SPEAKER_01: No, I it's not a thing about her, it's just save both of you, save yourself from a relationship where you're just two ticks and no dog.
SPEAKER_01: There's nothing in this relationship bigger than you.
SPEAKER_01: So if you're dating somebody right now and you're not really sure about where this thing is or how it's going, here's the question you asked to clarify.
SPEAKER_01: And it's simply this very clear question.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, how do you sense God leading in our relationship and where do you think God's taking this relationship?
SPEAKER_01: If you want to see me after the service, ladies, I'll have that printed on small cards.
SPEAKER_01: You can stick it in your purse and pull it out.
SPEAKER_01: Because if you're dating a man and you've been dating like yesterday, I was at the med center, and the nurse walked in the room.
SPEAKER_01: We just got to just chatting, and Sephimony probably said, You do talk to people like this.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes, yes, I do.
SPEAKER_01: Got talking to a girl named Natalie, and Natalie's dating a guy I've been dating two years, and I said, Is he boyfriend or husband?
SPEAKER_01: She goes, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: I want to go to New York and be a traveling nurse, but he doesn't want me to go.
SPEAKER_01: I could, you're not his property.
SPEAKER_01: Why are you thinking about your future with him in the picture if he's not even committed to the relationship?
SPEAKER_01: If he's boyfriend, he doesn't get to determine your future until he becomes husband, even be a part of your future.
SPEAKER_01: Is he boyfriend?
SPEAKER_01: He's boyfriend.
SPEAKER_01: Leave him in the boyfriend camp.
SPEAKER_01: Go to New York and do what you want to do.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
SPEAKER_01: I think this was like a divine appointment.
SPEAKER_01: I wouldn't go that far, but anyway, here's the thing that I'm I'm blown away by.
SPEAKER_01: How many people are willing to engage in behaviors with no sense of God's leading in these behaviors?
SPEAKER_01: It's just kind of like, I'm gonna do this because you know it's easier to get forgiveness than permission.
SPEAKER_01: But yet the Bible says, look what God says in verse 20.
SPEAKER_01: I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and bring you to the place that I had prepared.
SPEAKER_01: Wouldn't you love to wake up tomorrow morning to be an angel beside your bed that says, Today I'm gonna be your tour guide, so you won't screw this up.
SPEAKER_01: That's what God says.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna send an angel.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, when you say this word angel, that's just like whoa, bells go off.
SPEAKER_01: How many in this room believe that angels exist?
SPEAKER_01: Can I see your hands?
SPEAKER_01: Yes, very much.
SPEAKER_01: Put your hands down.
SPEAKER_01: They do.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says they're God's messengers.
SPEAKER_01: You know this that more people believe in angels than believe in God?
SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of people, so I believe in angels, but I don't believe in God.
SPEAKER_01: If angels are God's messengers and you believe they exist, then how can you believe in them and not believe in God?
SPEAKER_01: How do we get these angels?
SPEAKER_01: They're like Donald Trump.
SPEAKER_01: How'd they get here?
SPEAKER_01: What are we doing here?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I mean, come on.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says that they're God's messengers.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, this is free for all you all you theological people in the room, a little Bible trivia.
SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of debate over who this angel is.
SPEAKER_01: A lot of people, there's four primary options.
SPEAKER_01: A lot of people say, well, this angel is kind of God's leading, his guiding presence, the pillar of cloud by day and pillar fire by night.
SPEAKER_01: That's one option.
SPEAKER_01: Uh but then they start thinking, no, this is more personal.
SPEAKER_01: They talk about this like it's a real personal being.
SPEAKER_01: And the second option is Moses.
SPEAKER_01: They say angel means messenger, and so he's been the messenger all along.
SPEAKER_01: The only problem is Moses doesn't make it into the promised land.
SPEAKER_01: I hate to spoil the end of this, but Moses doesn't make it because he disobeys God along the way.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and so it can't be Moses, and they say, well, it's Joshua, because Joshua, the Hebrew Yeshua, that's where we get Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And then the fourth option is that some people believe it's Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: It's a pre-incarnate uh uh uh uh uh occurrence with Jesus, who's always existed, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: Don't think about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Don't think Old Testaments mean no God, New Testament, sweet Jesus who loves people.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, Jesus has always existed.
SPEAKER_01: Back in Genesis, when God says, Come let us make man in our image, that's the plurality.
SPEAKER_01: God is speaking about God the Father, Son, the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus has always existed.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, the Bible tells us that by him all things were created, and for him all things were created.
SPEAKER_01: If all things are created by him, doesn't Jesus have to be there when they're created?
SPEAKER_01: Hello?
SPEAKER_01: Think a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: I know y'all are like, dude, come on, man.
SPEAKER_01: I had one too many tequilas last night.
SPEAKER_01: Slower, lower your voice.
SPEAKER_01: No, and so don't think about Jesus as kind of God's plan B.
SPEAKER_01: The Old Testament went really bad.
SPEAKER_01: This thing came off the rails, and so plan B was Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: No, Jesus was plan A all along.
SPEAKER_01: And and by letting people try to live up to the law all through the Old Testament, God just establishes the need for Jesus more and more.
SPEAKER_01: So that when he comes, people are like, Oh, Hosanna, blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Translation, about time, where you been, man.
SPEAKER_01: He came in the fullness of time.
SPEAKER_01: So you say, What do you mean, why do you mean that?
SPEAKER_01: Three reasons.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, the Bible, he God says he bears, he says, he bears God's very name.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Hey, my name is in him.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 21.
SPEAKER_01: Pay careful attention to him and obey his voice.
SPEAKER_01: Do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression, for my name is in him.
SPEAKER_01: God says two things about him right there.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, he says, hey, uh, for he will not pardon your transgression.
SPEAKER_01: He will not forgive your sin.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, this angel has the capacity to forgive or to not forgive sin.
SPEAKER_01: Who has the capacity to forgive sin except God alone?
SPEAKER_01: Now don't turn there, but if you're taking notes, write down Mark chapter 2 and verse 7.
SPEAKER_01: Because in Mark chapter 2, it begins with this telling them, hey, there's this place and Jesus was talking, and the house was full, and so much so that people couldn't get in.
SPEAKER_01: And these guys, but they heard Jesus was there and they brought their friend who was paralyzed because they said, Jesus heals people.
SPEAKER_01: Our friend needs to be healed.
SPEAKER_01: So they brought him to Jesus to get down there and they couldn't get in.
SPEAKER_01: And so he goes around to the side, they climb up on the roof, they dig a hole in the roof, and they duct tape the guy to a stretcher and lower him down, dig a hole in the roof and lower him down in the midst of the room.
SPEAKER_01: Wouldn't you love to be sitting here one Sunday and all of a sudden the hole opens up in the roof?
SPEAKER_01: And some paralyzed guy comes down going, excuse me, my friends are crazy.
SPEAKER_01: It's like Stephen Hawking drops out of the sky, and you're just kind of like, Now it's a party.
SPEAKER_01: Now we're gonna get it on right here.
SPEAKER_01: This actually happens in the Bible, and everyone's freaking out, and Jesus says to the guy, Hey, take over your mat and walk.
SPEAKER_01: And the Pharisees are thinking to themselves, excuse me.
SPEAKER_01: And in verse 7, they say, Who can forgive sins?
SPEAKER_01: They think who can forgive sins but God alone?
SPEAKER_01: And the Bible says that Jesus knew what they were thinking.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, Jesus read their mail, which means he can read your mail right now.
SPEAKER_01: That's free.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, Hey, which is harder?
SPEAKER_01: Because he knew what they were thinking, he says, which is harder to heal this guy, to say, get up, take up your mat, or to forgive his sins, so that you'll know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins, and he and he just heals the guy to sends him home.
SPEAKER_01: Why do I say all that?
SPEAKER_01: Because when God speaks about this angel and says, Hey, hey, don't jerk with him because he won't forgive your sins, he's telling you something about himself.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the third reason I think it's Jesus, a preincarnate appearance of Jesus in the Old Testament, which happens at other places.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 22.
SPEAKER_01: He says, But if you carefully obey his voice and do all that I say.
SPEAKER_01: Now wait a minute.
SPEAKER_01: Do you hear the pronouns?
SPEAKER_01: If you carefully obey his voice and do all that I say.
SPEAKER_01: Remember when Jesus in the New Testament, one of the things that made religious people the most angry is that Jesus professed to be God.
SPEAKER_01: He said, If you've seen me, you've seen the Father.
SPEAKER_01: He said, I and the Father are one.
SPEAKER_01: See, if you get it wrong about Jesus, you can't get it right about anything else.
SPEAKER_01: So you see, you need to make sure you got this biblically informed Christology.
SPEAKER_01: What am I saying?
SPEAKER_01: I'm saying all that to say this: that God has been leading his people for a long time.
SPEAKER_01: And as we read the book of Exodus, you need to start thinking in terms of the parallels you see in the Christian life.
SPEAKER_01: These people come out of bondage to slavery, and yet they're not.
SPEAKER_01: It's one thing to come out of slavery, it's another thing to enter into the promised land.
SPEAKER_01: And there's this whole sanctifying process along the way of getting to where God says, I want you to be.
SPEAKER_01: But I want you to notice the word that God, the the the words that God uses, He uses words like guard and bring and prepared.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way, to bring you present tense to the place that I have prepared past tense.
SPEAKER_01: So let me ask you the question I asked my couple from a while back, and it's simply this How often do you sense God's active leadership in your life?
SPEAKER_01: How often do you sense God's active leadership in your life?
SPEAKER_01: Let me help us to apply this to our lives.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you had something frustrating happen this week?
SPEAKER_01: Because I see your hand.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, that's what I mean.
SPEAKER_01: Hold up your hand.
SPEAKER_01: Most of us in this room, I had some frustrating things happen this week.
SPEAKER_01: Now, here's the thing.
SPEAKER_01: If you're not careful when something happens that's frustrating, that's frustrating, what we tend to do is kind of this thing.
SPEAKER_01: I gotta take matters into my own hands here.
SPEAKER_01: And we we overwork the situation because we don't stop and ask the question, hey God, how are you at work?
SPEAKER_01: How are you intervening in this circumstance right now to do something about this?
SPEAKER_01: Otherwise, I'm gonna jump in there like my dad.
SPEAKER_01: What my dad used to do, they'd have friends over, they'd play dominoes and cards and just hang out, and all the kids, we were all back in one bedroom.
SPEAKER_01: I had me, two brothers, two stepsisters, and anybody else that came.
SPEAKER_01: Pretty soon we had a baseball or a football team, depending on who it was.
SPEAKER_01: And we were all in one room.
SPEAKER_01: One night there was 12 of us back there playing Twister, and somebody jumped off the bunk bed onto one of those bean bags that has those little tiny styrofoam balls in it.
SPEAKER_01: And they tore the the bean bag and it started shooting out of there, and so we were just covered, those things little particles come out, charged with static electricity.
SPEAKER_01: And so they stick all to you, and so we just thought that was hilarious.
SPEAKER_01: So we would line up, jump off the bed, and we were just getting covered in that stuff, playing twister.
SPEAKER_01: And my dad just assumed if there was noise, it was bad.
SPEAKER_01: And so my dad always, he cut me.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, he cut, he'd been back there a couple times and said, Hey, y'all hold it down because we were doing bad stuff, but we were just wrestling and tearing stuff up.
SPEAKER_01: This time we weren't doing anything wrong.
SPEAKER_01: My dad just opened the door.
SPEAKER_01: What are you doing?
SPEAKER_01: Knock it off, whatever you're doing.
SPEAKER_01: And we tried to explain, yeah, we're not doing anything, we're just having fun.
SPEAKER_01: No one's fighting, no one's hurting anybody.
SPEAKER_01: I gotta come back here.
SPEAKER_01: I'm whipping all y'all.
SPEAKER_01: So one kid said, He ain't whipping me.
SPEAKER_01: I said, No, Leon whipped everybody.
SPEAKER_01: My dad whipped a little leak team one time.
SPEAKER_01: He got a degree in whipping people.
SPEAKER_01: And he goes, Your dad like whips you with his belt?
SPEAKER_01: Anything he can do.
SPEAKER_01: One time my dad was siphoning gas out of a truck, and I said something uh disrespectful.
SPEAKER_01: He yanked the siphon hose out of the truck and whipped me with that.
SPEAKER_01: He was like now, some of y'all are thinking you should have called CPS.
SPEAKER_01: It did not exist back then.
SPEAKER_01: I'd have had him on speed dial.
SPEAKER_01: It's me again.
SPEAKER_01: He's doing it again.
SPEAKER_01: Get over here.
SPEAKER_01: Here's my point, and don't miss it, okay?
SPEAKER_01: The point is that my dad related to us like anything, if there was noise taking place, then bad stuff was happening.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, that's that's not at all what's going on here.
SPEAKER_01: My dad would jump in and just overwork the situation instead of figuring out, hey, what's what's really at work here?
SPEAKER_01: If you're not careful, you can be the same way.
SPEAKER_01: These frustrating situations.
SPEAKER_01: Stop and ask yourself a couple questions.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, God, how are you at work?
SPEAKER_01: No, no, excuse me.
SPEAKER_01: God, are you at work?
SPEAKER_01: And secondly, God, how are you at work in in this circumstantial situation?
SPEAKER_01: Otherwise, you're gonna work yourself to death.
SPEAKER_01: And you know why you're gonna work yourself to death?
SPEAKER_01: Because you're gonna get in there and try to be God.
SPEAKER_01: And only God can be God.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what I was trying to say to this couple that's kind of like, eh, we like each other, we kind of, you know, hang out, we live together.
SPEAKER_01: Uh I'm not mad at you.
SPEAKER_01: Just I just don't sense any kind of future to this.
SPEAKER_01: I just sense a bunch of tolerance.
SPEAKER_01: Is God at work in this?
SPEAKER_01: You gotta learn to relate to God with a sense of, hey, he's just guiding reality in my life.
SPEAKER_01: The second way I want us to think about and relate to God is is with longevity.
SPEAKER_01: Longevity.
SPEAKER_01: You say, well, what what do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: He's talking along there.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just pick up after he says in verse 23, when my angel goes before you and brings you into the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, and the Jebusites, I will blot them out, and you shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do as they do, but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their pillars in pieces.
SPEAKER_01: Actually, I gave you the wrong word.
SPEAKER_01: The second word is worship, is it is worship.
SPEAKER_01: Because what God's saying when he says, Hey, you shall not serve them, that's what he's saying, you shall not worship, you shall serve the Lord your God, and he will bless.
SPEAKER_01: And then he starts talking about all the consequences.
SPEAKER_01: He will bless your bread and your water and take sickness away from among you, and none will miscarry and all this stuff.
SPEAKER_01: But the second way God relates to us is with worship.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because God knows that we're gonna be in the context of a bunch of other people who worship a bunch of other things.
SPEAKER_01: And in our day and age, they do not have words like parasites and Canaanites and Hittites and Amorites and Hives and Jebusites.
SPEAKER_01: In our day and age, they have uh uh titles like mayor and governor and senator, and they talk about things like who should use what bathroom.
SPEAKER_01: Y'all are like, hmm, the preacher's got a TV.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01: See, we're we're we're in this culture that's kind of surrounded with this all moral sense about it.
SPEAKER_01: It's just got now the NBA is like, we're gonna take the All-Star game away from North Carolina, and our president, if they don't change the law, our president is in other countries apologizing and trying to explain to people.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody in North Carolina is not a bigot and hates transgendered people.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, folks, here's here's why God says worship.
SPEAKER_01: Now just stay with me just for a second and just think a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Hey, my angel goes before you and brings you to the Amorites, the Hittites, the Parasites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, the Jabusites.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I'll blot them out.
SPEAKER_01: You shall not bow down to their gods.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, you should not worship.
SPEAKER_01: You shall not worship what they worship, nor serve them, nor do as they do, but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their pillars in pieces.
SPEAKER_01: You shall serve, you shall worship the Lord your God.
SPEAKER_01: Uh if you come into my office and you walk in the door, there's a bookshelf along the wall here.
SPEAKER_01: Right there, about waist high, is a white cowbell.
SPEAKER_01: Uh they gave them out.
SPEAKER_01: My old roommate Joey was a big Mississippi State fan.
SPEAKER_01: If you've ever been to Mississippi State football game, they ring cowbells the whole game.
SPEAKER_01: So at Joey's funeral, they gave out cowbells.
SPEAKER_01: I was like, this is great.
SPEAKER_01: This is all we need.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, what could be more redneck?
SPEAKER_01: And at his funeral, they rang the cowbells.
SPEAKER_01: I was like, of course they did.
SPEAKER_01: But also there's little pieces of paper tied on there, and printing on those pieces of paper are all these sayings that Joey would say all through life.
SPEAKER_01: Like one of them is deliberate tension.
SPEAKER_01: And you're like, you shake your eye.
SPEAKER_01: What?
SPEAKER_01: We would be in situations.
SPEAKER_01: Here's another one.
SPEAKER_01: We'd be in situations like there'd be a planning meeting or something going on for a youth camp or at a church or whatever, and it'd be crazy, and people would be talking about, hey, what about this?
SPEAKER_01: What about this?
SPEAKER_01: And Joey would say, Hey, let's get the top button right.
SPEAKER_01: And you'd be like, people just look at all the right, they'd look at me like McClendon.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, what he's saying is, hey, when he's a little kid, Joey could never get his shirt buttoned up the right way.
SPEAKER_01: He'd every day he'd come out and it'd be all crooked and stuff, and his dad would be like, son, come here and he'd unbutton it and start at the top.
SPEAKER_01: And his dad said, I don't want to, I don't want to teach you how to button a shirt.
SPEAKER_01: I want to teach you how to get the top button right.
SPEAKER_01: Because the son, if you get the top button right, all the other buttons will naturally fall into place.
SPEAKER_01: When God says, Hey, don't worship what they worship, you're gonna worship me in a context and in a culture where people worship everybody, anybody and everything else.
SPEAKER_01: What God is saying is, get the top button right, and a lot of this other stuff will take care of itself.
SPEAKER_01: Because a yes to God is a no to a lot of other things.
SPEAKER_01: It's not political uh uh uh uh ill will, it's not being angry, it's not going out and shaking our fists at the culture, but here's what it is.
SPEAKER_01: Let's think this a little bit deeper just for a second.
SPEAKER_01: Are you willing to do that this morning?
SPEAKER_01: Like this whole transgender, you know, who are we to tell them what to do?
SPEAKER_01: The issue is not about what who gets to use what bathroom.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what the issue is: who gets to be God?
SPEAKER_01: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says that male and female, he created them.
SPEAKER_01: In his image, he created them.
SPEAKER_01: And so the issue is not, well, do you love or these people, do you hate these people?
SPEAKER_01: Because I don't have to agree with you to love you.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, sometimes loving you is disagreeing with you.
SPEAKER_01: Parents, write that down and remind your kids.
SPEAKER_01: I gotta say to my kids every once in a while, hey, I love you.
SPEAKER_01: I just disagree with you, and that's okay.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, the hardest thing, this is not a sermon on parenting, this is a little sidebar.
SPEAKER_01: The hardest thing to endure as a parent is your kids' wrath.
SPEAKER_01: The most necessary.
SPEAKER_01: thing to endure as a parent is your kid's wrath.
SPEAKER_01: Because if they can get angry and change your mind, guess what you're going to get the rest of your life?
SPEAKER_01: That's exactly right.
SPEAKER_01: But back to what I was saying.
SPEAKER_01: Sidebars over.
SPEAKER_01: This whole thing about the transgendered in the bathroom, everything, it the issue is who gets to be God.
SPEAKER_01: Because what they're saying is, hey, I was born a woman and the media just celebrates this.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, here's this girl that swims for Harvard.
SPEAKER_01: She was a girl and now she's a boy and we got Caitlin Jenner who was just named.
SPEAKER_01: His real name is Bruce, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: He was just named one of the most, by Time Magazine, one of the most 100 influential people in the world.
SPEAKER_01: And my thought was, are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_01: Do you not know anybody else?
SPEAKER_01: And this is not a sexual transgender thing.
SPEAKER_01: It's just, what have you done except marry into a crazy family of Kardashians, have a car wreck and kill a person and then did pull this publicity stunt?
SPEAKER_01: But again, at the core, don't listen to what the media says get drill down.
SPEAKER_01: Male and female, he created them.
SPEAKER_01: If we can say, if we have the power to say, no, no, no, I was born a man but I'm going to be a woman and wear a dress and you got to let me do however I want then what we're really saying is I'm creator.
SPEAKER_01: I decide my sexuality not some divine being who created me in the first place.
SPEAKER_01: He made a mistake and so therefore I get to choose.
SPEAKER_01: Think folks how does God relate to his people to this sense of worship.
SPEAKER_01: One of the things by the way that kind of helps us uh worship God and under un uh understand a sense of God is a we'll just keep reading he says hey and he will bless your bread and your water and take sickness away from among you verse 26 none shall miscarry be barren in the land and I will fulfill the number of your days.
SPEAKER_01: Here verse 27 I will send my terror before you and will throw into confusion all the people against whom you shall come and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you.
SPEAKER_01: That's one of those verses you read in the Bible and you just keep going.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever heard a sermon about the terror of God?
SPEAKER_01: Like if I said hey remember when they dropped the bomb on Nagasaki you would go oh yeah yeah or remember Hiroshima when they dropped you you have a frame of reference for that we do not have a frame of reference you're talking about a weapon of mass destruction the atom bombs got nothing on this did you know that all through the Bible the Bible references the terror of God?
SPEAKER_01: That there was a war broke out between the Philistines and the Israelites and the Israelites were losing so they went and got the Ark of the covenant which was the presence of God and they rolled it out to the battle lines and the other the Philistines the other army couldn't even see but they sensed they heard this big uproar and they said a God has entered into their camp.
SPEAKER_01: When Nehemiah built the wall around Jerusalem in 52 days the Bible says that they realized this was done with the help of their God and they lost confidence.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible also says this in Genesis 35 verse 5 as they journeyed a terror from God fell upon the cities that were around them so that they did not pursue the sons of Jacob.
SPEAKER_01: This is Jeremiah 32 21 talking about Exodus he says you brought your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and wonders with a strong hand and an outstretched arm and with great terror.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says in the New Testament in 2 Corinthians 5 verse 11 therefore knowing the terror of the Lord we try to persuade others.
SPEAKER_01: Most people translate that word terror fear but the literal in the Greek is terror it's phobia.
SPEAKER_01: It's it's it's I I got this deep innate sense of I do not want now by the way hear this this is not about fear but it's about understanding do you hear the difference?
SPEAKER_01: The terror of God is not about fear it's about understanding here's a definition for the terror of God the terror of God is a biblically informed understanding of God's nature his capacity and his willingness it's a biblically informed understanding of his nature his capacity have you noticed in our culture all God can do is love and forgive my God's a God of love.
SPEAKER_01: When's the last time you heard somebody say my God is a God of terror and if you transgress him he will send his terror to befall you and that's the worst thing to ever happen to you that's how you greet boys at the door men when they come to date your daughter son what do you understand about the terror of God?
SPEAKER_01: You're like Robert Duvall in open range you slide off the back of that horse and say they don't know but the wrath of the Lord's about to sit down on them right here.
SPEAKER_01: You meet him at the door and say son have you ever experienced the terror of God because I'm praying that God puts it on you if you mess with my kid come on in my wife's the good cop she's in the kitchen.
SPEAKER_01: No God just says hey here's here here here's the deal now by the way why why does God take such an look at me don't check out on me.
SPEAKER_01: Why does God have this sense of sobering kind of warning hey I'll send my terror ahead of you and it's going to accomplish for for you what you could never accomplish for yourself because God does not want them to get around these other people and begin to compromise in what and who they worship.
SPEAKER_01: So much so look at down in verse 32 let me ask you if there's the students that are in the room or the children in the room do you ever have friends and you you bring their name up your mom and dad are kind of like yeah our oldest Madison had a friend when she was seven every time that little girl came to my house she's like a wild animal I was like do y'all do your parents discipline you at all?
SPEAKER_01: I mean I just my spirit was like and I said to my wife I don't trust that little girl and finally I said to Madison Hey your little friend so and so what you get a sense about her in your spirit she goes yeah Dad I don't think she's good I said okay now by the way I'm not making value judgments but I am making spiritual assessment and I said what's it like when you go to her house because she spent the night over there once and she said yeah she lives in a second story bedroom and one night she said let's crawl out the window and craw up on the roof of the house because I remember thinking why do I want to whip this kid every time I get around it that's my spirit telling me something's off here.
SPEAKER_01: And so I said to my wife because sometimes my wife has a problem being direct because she's nice.
SPEAKER_01: It's not that I'm mean it's just that because the woman's like oh I I really like my daughter spend time with your daughter because it's just good for her.
SPEAKER_01: Well my kid ain't therapy for your kid okay go get a therapist.
SPEAKER_01: And I said hey tell that woman I don't want her around my I don't want my kid around her kid that's why we can't do play dates anymore.
SPEAKER_01: Oh babe that's not what you say.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah that's what you say because anything else is a lie hey your lazy parenting is already showing up at seven years old.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: It's like what do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 32 you shall make no covenant with them and their gods.
SPEAKER_01: They shall not dwell in your land lest they make you sin against me.
SPEAKER_01: See that's the triangle that your parents need to always have their eye on.
SPEAKER_01: They make you sin against me.
SPEAKER_01: Who's they?
SPEAKER_01: It's those people that have an undue influence over you.
SPEAKER_01: Those people that you're your you're they is those people who have undue influence over you and often seek to use it for ungodly means it's they make you sin against me.
SPEAKER_01: Your mom and dad ought to all they have a God given responsibility to put the eye on your they because sometimes in the name of friendship we're just fitting in you kind of lower your standards of friendship but God says hey I you do I don't want you around these people because they will make you sin against me.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you another question to think about maybe talk about at lunch who's your they these days who's your they if you say I ain't got anybody ask your mom and dad who your they is especially if you're over the age of 13 they know your mom you some of you guys have brought girls home you're like oh yeah this is my girlfriend your mom comes downstairs she's all June cleaver up and everything she opens the door in a meeting in a nanosecond your mom looks at her and goes oh no I'm gonna have to kill this little tramp.
SPEAKER_01: Come up in here to get in my son's life no no come on in girlfriend uh you're hey that's why when your son's off at college well if you met anybody I met this girl the minute you tell your mom her name your mom's on Facebook she's doing a background check of course she's looking into this why because she wants to know about the they that you are going to be spending time with that's just the way it is and so God says hey guidance number two worship number three longevity longevity after God he's listening all this stuff in verse 25 he'll bless your bread and your water will take sickness away from among you none will miscarry be buried in your land I will fulfill the number of your days what do you mean longevity?
SPEAKER_01: God relates to you with a sense of longevity in mind.
SPEAKER_01: Now let me say this keep in mind that what God is doing here is he's using material blessings to teach a spiritual truth to a specific people.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say that again God is using material blessings to teach a spiritual truth to a specific people because if you're not careful you can read that and go, well I've had a miscarriage does that mean God doesn't like me?
SPEAKER_01: My wife and I had a miscarriage we love Jesus no God's now I'm not saying oh that doesn't apply to us today and this whole thing about uh he says I will fulfill the number of your days that's not a one-off in the Bible that's all through the Bible you read in 1 Peter God says hey if anyone seek life and and and and and you desire long days here's the things that you got to do because you can't act like a goofball and enjoy long days.
SPEAKER_01: You say what do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: I talk out of my own life my dad smoked for like 69 years.
SPEAKER_01: My dad has COPD and emphysema has 15% of his lung capacity.
SPEAKER_01: My dad came to faith uh about 18, 19 months ago now uh there's people in my family well God's gonna multiply dad's years.
SPEAKER_01: No dad's gonna die of this because dad smoked for his whole life like oh man you're a preacher you should be more positive I should be more truthful.
SPEAKER_01: You crazy people watch somebody on TV and just because they stirred your emotions you think they're telling you the truth.
SPEAKER_01: That's not the truth.
SPEAKER_01: And so I got to be the guy in our family that my dad's like hey shoot straight with me.
SPEAKER_01: Oh dad it's not a matter of if it's just a matter of when and I'm I'm praying that God has mercy on you and lets you live a lot longer.
SPEAKER_01: But my dad'll tell you God doesn't owe me another day.
SPEAKER_01: Now I'm 51.
SPEAKER_01: I got more life behind me than I got left in front of me.
SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm if you're 17 you're kind of thinking oh what does that mean?
SPEAKER_01: Let me show you in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: This is 139th Psalm starting in verse 13 David says for you formed my inward parts and you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
SPEAKER_01: I praise you for I'm fearfully and wonderfully made wonderful are your works let me pause right here you ever look in the mirror and think that one of the most spiritual things you could do today is go home and learn to like what you see in the mirror yeah David's not looking around mountains going look wonderful are your works Lord thank you for making Mount Gerizim everybody likes to say oh David was looking around no look at the flow of thought hey you knit me together my mother's womb I praise you for I'm fearfully and wonderfully made wonderful are your works my soul knows it very well here's why you've got to teach your kids to have a biblical view of themselves because if they go out into this culture and they're that they're a little bit empty in how they think about themselves some boy's gonna come along and want to fill that up with a bunch of nonsense talk.
SPEAKER_01: Hey baby you know I love you nah I'm good I love myself so you loving me doesn't really do anything for me.
SPEAKER_01: I just met you ten minutes ago my soul knows it very well my frame was not hidden from you when I was being made in secret intricately woven in the depths of the earth your eyes saw my unformed substance and in your book were written every one of them the days that were formed for me when as yet there was none of them.
SPEAKER_01: Now David says hey your eyes saw my unformed substance but also your eyes saw all the days every one of them the days that were formed for me when as yet there was none of them so he says your eyes saw my unformed substance but also saw my unformed days and and and by the way every one of those before they ever came to be they were ordained by God they were set aside now you say I I I don't know that's good or bad what what does that mean?
SPEAKER_01: It means that God used as much intentionality to form your days as he did to form you.
SPEAKER_01: And so having a right biblical view of what I would call biblical self-image helps you to kind of think rightly and have a biblical view of your days and how they're being used.
SPEAKER_01: So let me give you a couple of questions to think about around this how does it shape how you think about tomorrow when the Bible says that before one of your days came to be, God formed them maybe this will help us get at it if you could know how many days you had left would you want to know there's a movie I think Justin Timberlake was in it which that's a bad sign right there.
SPEAKER_01: He's not an actor okay but it's out of time or something my kids I walk through the living room and I said what are you doing she goes oh this is so sad because they had these little like watches that were counting down their time and they could get more time and and so he loved some girl and they ran out of time and I was just kind of standing there because I ask a question though to my oldest when she's watching a movie you got to sit down because she wants to tell you everything has happened up to now and then wants you to watch the rest of the movie where it's got an hour left or 10 minutes left.
SPEAKER_01: So I sit down and basically he she runs out of time and he can't save her and isn't that sad and I just said you know the Bible says the same thing right oh dad oh dad does that mean you understand I'm right oh dad oh dad the Bible says your days are numbered out and if you want to have long days and you want to live long life you got to do what God says sometimes your life gets cut short not because God's bad but but but because you made simple choices that have consequences well I just thanks for ruining the movie for me I ruined this for you this was somehow good for you and so I stood up I thought I thought I need to end this on a good note so I stood up and walked to my bedroom and I went bye bye bye she didn't enjoy that either question to ask yourself and if you and if you knew if if you knew how many days you had left how would it change what would it change about the way you live because what God says to these people is hey I will fulfill the number of your days fourthly and finally how does God relate to his people just two words big picture.
SPEAKER_01: Big picture you still with me I want to show you something in the Bible you still with me?
SPEAKER_01: I don't want you to miss this what do you mean big picture?
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes God speaks something into our life and it's not a now word it's a then word a then word in other words it's so big that right now we just kind of hear it and kind of go, ah okay thanks that sounds really good kind of sort of I think maybe you say what do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Get the context these people just got out of slavery.
SPEAKER_01: They just got the Ten Commandments they've been in slavery for hundreds of years it's all they've ever known okay and they're just like uh uh it's kind of like your office is a five by five cubicle and all you do is go in and sit down and answer the phone and work all day you come out for 30 minutes to go to the break room to get lunch you come back you work the rest of the day you go home you've done that for 30 years and then one day the the the president of the company comes down and says come on come with me gets on the elevator takes you up to the top floor and says this is your new office you're kind of like y'all right now some of you are thinking yeah you don't know my boss do you I tell you the story of my own life I went to Singapore to preach one time and and that flew over there long way uh got there they picked me up at the airport they took me to this they got me a taxi they said hey this guy's gonna take you to the all to the apartment with his family you're gonna stay with so I get there go to to the uh drop me off he says just go on the elevator the apartment's on the 10th floor I get on hit 10 I think there'll be a directory up there the elevator opens the whole 10th floor is their apartment this cat is the vice president of Dow Chemical and he's over all of Asia and the lady comes up and goes you must be Neil and I'm like uh expecting a hallway it was the house the whole tenth floor this lady comes up and she says this is Rose our housekeeper she's on call 247 she'll make you anything you want to eat or drink at any time of the day and I like just like at home except my housekeeper is named Marcy this is awesome takes me in there and she says by the way Cuban cigars are not illegal here in Singapore and this is my husband's pearl inlaid humidor you can have any of these you want my boys heard you speak and they said Mom we want to talk to this guy and I and she comes over there and she says by the way we have they have a stainless steel cappuccino machine as big as that piano and she says Rose can make cappuccino frappuccino she can make this she can make that blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah and she's on call 247 it was here's why I tell you all the details it was so good I felt guilty I was uncomfortable the whole time every day I would get up and Rose would bow to me and say what would you like for breakfast today nothing I'm serious I was like nothing I'm good because it was so good it was just awkward I was like nothing I'd be starving and she goes I'll make whatever you want you like bacon and eggs would you like ham would you like pancakes would you like waffles or would you like cereal or I can make you a Singapore I was like not nothing good I'm just here to talk about Jesus and I go down the street to a Starbucks and get a stale muffin why because I didn't have a frame of reference for it being that good because I I I was prepared to they said you're staying with a family I was like oh this will be great I'll have a five by five little bedroom I'll sleep in the fetal position all week every day every time I'd come up there on the elevator it would ding and she would come running hello Neil can I get you anything I was like I can't wait to get back and tell my wife about this we're gonna have to make some changes at our house what am I saying?
SPEAKER_01: Hey look at me I'm gonna show you this in the Bible here when God released you with a big picture some of the things God's going to show you are so big you won't experience them in your lifetime.
SPEAKER_01: Your grandkids will have to experience them.
SPEAKER_01: But you will have to steward them.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean look at the Bible let's be done verse 30 he says little by little I will drive them out from before you until you have increased and possessed the land verse 31 I will set your border from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines by the way notice how subtle the Bible is God starts with something they're familiar with.
SPEAKER_01: I will set your border from the Red Sea and they're like yeah we just came through that to the sea of the Philistines and from the wilderness to the Euphrates for I will give the inhabitants of the land into your hand and you shall drive them out before you they're thinking to themselves get the context beloved don't miss this they're thinking man we just a bunch of slaves we just want just show us to our cubicle we'll work hard man come on we don't and God's like no no no no that's too small this is so big it's gonna be from the Red Sea to all the way to here and they're like yeah well okay I guess thanks it's so good they're uncomfortable now why do I tell you the area that they they conquered they actually conquered it and it was centuries later when they conquered it because God makes promises that are so big he relates to us with a big picture in mind.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes we got to steward that picture and it's so that our kids and our grandkids can experience it.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: This is 1 Kings chapter 4 verse 20 it says Judah and Israel see they Israel's come out and they like a dysfunctional family they've been fighting they divided into two kingdoms the north and south kingdom Judah and Israel were as many as the sand by the sea they ate and they drank and they were happy underline that in in your mind they ate and they drank and were happy God didn't come back there and open the bedroom door and go, what are you doing?
SPEAKER_01: I hear laughter shut up they ate and they drank and they were happy hear this Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the Euphrates to the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt sound familiar?
SPEAKER_01: They brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life here's what I'm saying to us beloved these people were going down the street to get a stale day old muffin at Starbucks and a hot cup of coffee.
SPEAKER_01: And God had in mind that they were going to eat and drink and be happy.
SPEAKER_01: And Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms.
SPEAKER_01: God says way back here hundreds of years earlier he says I will set your border from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines and from the wilderness to the Euphrates Solomon ruled over the kingdoms from the Euphrates to the land of the Philistines to the border of Egypt see God relates to you from this big picture perspective.
SPEAKER_01: He says I'm gonna send my angel and he's gonna guard you along the way and bring you present tense to a place I have prepared past tense.
SPEAKER_01: Look at me and I'm done what God has prepared for you is bigger than you can fathom as you sit in those seats right now.
SPEAKER_01: And so while every once in a while you you you don't parent your kids out of fear hey hey don't do that because you're gonna get in trouble.
SPEAKER_01: No no parent your kids out of understanding hey you don't want to miss out on what God has in store for our family.
SPEAKER_01: God's been so good to our family for so long.
SPEAKER_01: You could get you could get in line and experience that or you you could be the guy that misses out on it.
SPEAKER_01: And mom and dad can't control that for you.
SPEAKER_01: But there there's got God's got a big big picture that's why the Bible says this no eye has seen nor ear has heard nor mind has conceived what God has in store for those who love him.
SPEAKER_01: If you believe that then how do you live Father we want to understand as much as we can in this life and be good stewards of that understanding.
SPEAKER_01: We don't want to just get information we want to get intimacy as a result of our understanding so let us walk out of here a little closer into our affection and in our actions than we were when we walked in we understand that you're a God of guidance that you're a God that says worship me while everyone around you worships anybody and anything else you keep worshiping me.
SPEAKER_01: You're a God of longevity you relate to us you bless people that they obey you with a fullness to life and you come at us from the big picture.
SPEAKER_01: Just set the big picture down over those who maybe lost sight of it and feel like they're all on their own.
SPEAKER_01: They're just really determined but they're not bound for anything there's not a sense of purpose and joy and intentionality to their life or how it's lived just a lot of angry determination and poor choices along the way God I pray you just set the big picture down in front of them and say eat, drink and be happy.
SPEAKER_01: Stop fighting me I'm for you are you kidding me God show us finally what's necessary and what's unnecessary.
SPEAKER_01: And let us be the better for it we pray in Jesus' name and everyone said Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Stand to your feet let me speak a blessing over you hold your hands out because the kingdom belongs to God that means you're the guest so eat drink and be happy he's not afraid you're gonna be too happy.
SPEAKER_01: He's probably more afraid that you're not happy enough.
SPEAKER_01: So depart now and give yourself to being happy in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Bless you dismissed