Shane Idleman emphasizes the church's comfort with spiritual abnormality, contrasting it with the early church's experience of the Holy Spirit's power. He calls for a return to a trembling fear of God, highlighting the need for genuine repentance and the active presence of the Holy Spirit in believers' lives. Idleman warns against complacency and urges the congregation to embrace the 'normal' workings of God, such as healing and deliverance, which have been dismissed as abnormal in modern times. He draws parallels between the days of Noah and today's society, stressing the importance of obedience and faith in God's covenant promises. Ultimately, he challenges listeners to come into the 'ark' of safety found in Christ amidst the chaos of the world.

But you see, we have become comfortable with abnormality. What I mean by that is, let me define it. Abnormality is deviating from what is normal in a way that is undesirable. So the church, especially in America, has become so comfortable with the abnormal. What I mean by that is, if the early church was here in America and at many church services, they would say, this is not church. You sing a few songs, a quick sermon, you close with the song and you go have lunch. Where's the power of the Holy Spirit? Where's the Holy Spirit setting people free? Get used to different. Get used to different. I want you to just think about this. Jesus said, when you believe in me, I'm assuming that's most of you, these signs might follow you. These signs will follow you. Now, I'm not a theologian. I don't have a degree in studying Greek, but these signs will follow those who believe. Now, the understanding, of course, is those who are filled with God's Spirit, those who have removed pride, have humbled themselves, they've removed bitterness and anger and unforgiveness, and they are cleansed by the Spirit of God, they are full of God's Spirit. Not perfect, or I wouldn't be up here, but there's a filling of the Holy Spirit that takes place. These who believe in my name, they might cast out demons. You see my dilemma with this scripture. They will cast out demons. They will speak with new tongues. If you don't know what that is, you can read 1 Corinthians 12, 13, 14. Paul talks about a gift that edifies the believer, a gift that is the Holy Spirit just praying and it's edification for the believer, praying to God and building themselves up. They will take up serpents, and they will drink things that are deadly, and it will not hurt them. They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover. So, do we dismiss that scripture? Of course not. For any Bible-believing Christian to say we should is dishonest. But we've become so used to normal, haven't we? That when the abnormal, what we consider abnormal, what I just read, is actually not abnormal. That's the normal. And so the early Christians say, what you're doing is abnormal. This is not church. It's great, come together, fellowship, sing songs, that's great, but where is the power of the Holy Spirit operating in your life? Now, I gave a confession last night. You can hear it all last night. I confessed that I can be a hindrance to revival as well. Do you know why? Because I was worried a lot about self-image. I came from a family where my dad was a tough, definitely tough guy. Son, you don't cry. We don't get emotional. Men don't do that. Men control the situation. Type A, alpha, you got it? I'm conservative. My Bible I use is not the Benny Hinn Study Bible. It's the John MacArthur Study Bible. And with that would come a certain amount of resistance to what God wants to do. I don't want that weird stuff happening. I don't want that stuff on TV that we see happening. But don't let that throw you off course from what God wants to do. Because if the Holy Spirit is moving and somebody is delivered, that's actually normal, but we think it's abnormal. Last night you could hear a half dozen people just crying out to God and just, oh God, would you break us? And at the altar and tears stained and people would walk in and go, oh, that's a little abnormal. No, actually that's very normal when God is moving. And so what's this have to do with being in Genesis, Shane? Nothing, absolutely nothing. But I'm setting the stage for you that when God begins to do things, people will think it's abnormal. Like I don't know about that stuff. Well, you better get plugged into New Testament Christianity because it's very normal. And so what happened on a Wednesday night is somebody was set free by the demonic power of darkness and he opened the door through marijuana use, continual marijuana use. It's a gateway drug. That's why they call it that. It begins to distort the mind and you actually open up the word. I don't wanna get too convicting because I know we need to go to the pharmacy sometimes, but actually the word comes from a Greek word from Achaia, sorcery. So we have to be very careful. And anytime I talk about this, I can already see the emails coming. But I need it for medicinal purposes. Okay, that's 1%. The other 99%, let me talk to them. Let me talk to the other 99%. That 1% that says, I can have a glass of wine now and then, good for you. But the other 99% who are addicted and in the throes of bondage, they have opened the door to the demonic realm. There is a demonic realm that'll latch on and he talked about the door. He didn't have to open the door for Satan. It was already open. And so when God sets him free, this is amazing. People say, I'm not coming back to that church anymore. That's abnormal. No, actually, that's very normal. You've just been conditioned to not experience the power of God. When have we prayed for the sick? Now, I could really throw a monkey wrench into this. Jesus said, you can raise the dead. Now, obviously, we don't know God's sovereign plans. If it's time for a person to go home, it's time for a person to go home. But if I pull a little three-year-old out of a pool who's drowned, I'm gonna pray to God that he revive that child. I'm gonna believe in faith. That you should be able to embrace that. Now, if you have a problem with that, bring me some scripture and let me hear your rebuke or your other side of it because there is no other side. I can keep going. Jesus said, you will do the works I do and even greater works will you do. Not greater in the type of work. Nothing can be greater than Jesus's work, but greater in scope. He was in Judea. His followers are all over the world. Greater in scope. And so, I've always wrestled with those scriptures. It's like, well, either the problems with me or the problems with scripture. And I think we know the answer to that. So, what I talked about yesterday and wanna remind you is get used to different. It's gonna look different. Get used to it. Don't give up, press in. We're still preaching the word with authority. We're still doing everything we've done, but we wanna be open to what God wants to do. Why shouldn't he heal someone? Why can't we pray for people in the prayer room and then be healed? Why? I think because our doubt and fear has really crept in and we don't see that. That's not normal. And we have to remember that God is not concerned about what we feel or what we think. Truth is truth. Get used to different. Make sure to listen to that message last night. So, now Genesis, how's that? The title this morning is We've Stopped Trembling. We've Stopped Trembling. And God said to Noah, chapter 16, verse 13, God said to Noah, the end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with violence. And behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make yourself an ark of gopher wood, make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch. Now, what's hard for me as someone who likes to study the Bible, likes to teach the Bible, I could spend a whole sermon right there. The size of the ark, the dimensions, how it's possible, the size of the ark, and what it could contain, and it is possible to fit every species, and what is gopher wood, and the stability of gopher wood, and what is pitch made of, and how does it keep everything sealed? But I think there's principles here that we need to look at and not get so caught up in the things that are not essential, even though it is important. What really stood out to me this week was last week, we ended with men begin to call upon the name of the Lord. Men begin to call upon the name of the Lord. Well, what happened here? We went from men begin to call upon the name of the Lord to I'm going to destroy everyone. Something is missing. Something's got to break. Something's missing here. And in case you're unaware, from the time of creation, possibly the time of the fall to this time, 1,500 years. 1,500 years. I take the Bible literally on the genealogy, on the years, on the dates, and there's 1,500 years. Men begin to call on the name of the Lord, and then they're so depraved, so wicked, that God has to destroy the earth. What happened? And as we talked about before, the more length of years we believe people lived, 600, 700, 800, 900 years, the more depraved you can become. As depraved as Hitler was at 25, what about if he was given 100 more years? And so you can see evil can be, evil can grow and push out the good if we're not careful. But what happened? Well, we don't know exactly, but I will tell you this. They stopped trembling. They stopped trembling before God. What do I mean by trembling? They lost the fear of God. Abram will talk about when we get into chapter 20, there is no fear of God in this place. There has to be a fear of God. There has to be a trembling before him, and my concern is found in the book of Matthew. As in the days of Noah, so will the coming of the Son of Man be as in the days of Noah. He's not talking about the good things. He's talking about the evil and the depravity and the wickedness, and we've stopped trembling. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of God is the beginning of understanding. Is the fear of God in this place? When you walk in and you feel the holy presence of God that sometimes will bring you to your knees, there's a respect and say, I can't come into the house of the living God the same as when I came in. I've gotta deal with my sin. I've gotta repent of my pride. I've gotta fully surrender my life. I can't leave different because there's an awe. There's a respect. The fear of God is heavy on me. The weight of his glory is pressing me down, and I need to leave here justified because Christ has set me free. There's a fear of God in this place. You know, over the years, there used to be a fear of God. I still have it from when I was a kid. My mom said, Lord, this is God's house. Don't be playing games in here. This is God's house, and it's still an early age. Now, this is not the kind of fear we would have towards an abusive stepfather or an abusive father, and you fear cowering down. An atheist will make fun of that type of God, or liberal churches will make fun of that type of God. We don't preach the fear of God, and they're proud about that. You better backtrack and preach the fear of God because it's a beginning of wisdom. It's a beginning of knowledge, a beginning of understanding. All great men and women of God preach the fear of God. It's a reverence and a respect, and some of you know this, others don't, but I used to operate heavy equipment, backhoes, excavators, big dozers, D5, D6, D7, D8s, dozers, and things. I love heavy equipment. I wish I could own some of that, and I actually had a, it was hard to give up my John Deere backhoe. I owned one for a while, and I had to sell it and save some money, but I would get to a job site, and I loved, loved, oh, I still love to this day when there's nothing written on the ground. You might know what I'm talking about, but do you ever see on telephone poles or written on the ground USA in white? Well, it's not patriotic. It stands for Underground Service Alert, and the white paint, the white paint tells you that's who it's, somebody's needing identification, and so I'll get to a job, and I'll say, oh my goodness, and there'll be six GHP, six-inch high-pressure gas line, and I've got a dig right there. I'm very reverent. I'm very respectful. I've got the throttle turned down some. I'll actually expose that six-inch high-pressure gas line by hand with a shovel, open it up so I can see it, and then begin to dig on either side and then tunnel underneath. Reverence, a respect for that. That's the type of reverence and respect we are to have in God's Word. George, you know, huh, you're a handyman. You've done this kind of things. You see, and then I also see Edison, Southern California, Edison, high-voltage line, oh, thank you very much, and they can be, here's what's interesting. They can be off a foot or so on either side, and I still get in trouble for breaking that line. Verizon would charge $1,000 per hour to fix their fiber optic lines, $1,000 per hour that you're paying them to fix their fiber optic lines if you break them. There's a reverence, there's a respect that happens. It's the same thing, same thing with God, if not, obviously, a lot more. See, we've lost the fear of God in this place. Can you imagine the Biden administration fearing God? Can you imagine our governor in Sacramento fearing God and having a respect? Can you imagine everyone on the Supreme Court fearing God? They would be reminded that they do not set the law of the land. They submit underneath the lawgiver of the land, and then they judge according to that. Woe be to those who call good evil and evil good. Woe be, I mean, I cringed, I literally cringed when they said gay marriage is okay. What does God say? Because you are not the final authority on creation. He is, every man will be a liar, but God will be true. You cannot change God's mind. God's law will still stand. Yes, we can love those who struggle, but fight against the agenda. You cannot change God's mind. And I tremble for God's people when they're so brazen, the demonic that is out there are so brazen. God's people watching demonic things and just being entertained by darkness. There's no fear of God in this place. Did you know our nation was built on the fear of God? Yes, there were men who were sinners. We didn't do everything right. But Robert Winthrop, he was born in 1809. He was in legislation. He said, men, men must be controlled, either by a power within them or by a power without them, either by the word of God or by the strong arm of men, either by the Bible or by the bayonet. You see, man has to be governed. And that governing authority and that governing body should be within. The fear of God should govern. If you survey the 1950s to now, even unbelievers were more graceful. And they feared God. There was, you know, I don't have religion, but I know there's a God. And there was just, there was a greater respect for the things of God. And now they mock him, they despise him, as in the days of Noah. So will be now when the coming of man comes again. And with this governing from within or without, it often does come up. People say, but Shane, Shane, Shane, hold on. Don't you know, you can't legislate morality, correct? We can't pass laws that say you better be a good person. Oh, okay, that doesn't change the heart. You can't legislate morality, but you can restrain evil. See, if a person knew that they were, if they were caught doing something to a child, that they could be tried death penalty or life in prison, they would guess again, especially here in California, LA County, they don't even go after people if the theft is under $1,000. I'll never forget Vons, right over the hill. I'm in Vons and here comes these guys. They're running out the store, arms full, three or four, two or three of them. I'm like, what was that I just saw? And they're like, oh yeah, there's nothing we can do. It's under $1,000. What in the world? Releasing those back on the streets who are not ready. There's no fear of God in this place. And this is a good reminder. I'm gonna get political. Oh, hold on. You might not clap after you hear what I say. But it's, my wife would tell you, I laugh sometimes at this. People don't like me getting political if I say what they don't agree with. But if I say what they agree with, oh, be political. Pastor, please be political, yes. The Bible is political. Here's where I'm going with this. God actually instituted the government, Romans 13, to be a tear to those who do evil. That is the role of government, to be a tear to those who do evil. So when we talk about, and I believe we can talk about all issues from social reform to a critical race theory, to borders, to who should be leading our nation, to all these things from a biblical perspective. But this issue with borders, the government, has the authority of God, I believe, to protect and secure her people. That's the role of government. You can't just let, well, let's just let anyone come in. Why don't you try that tonight? Leave your front door wide open, put a sign, say anybody needs food or clothing or water, come right in. Nobody would do that. Well, how's this any different? But see, then we have to have a plan in place where we help those who need the help. We need to help those who are coming in and need the love of Christ. And reaching out to our neighbor and caring for the sojourner, because we are sojourners. That's the church's job. See, the government can't turn the other cheek. That is a personal application to us. The government is to be a tear to those who do evil. That's what we understand. And getting into, I've actually had people, I'm about to tell you right now, I've had people leave this church. So one of the reasons that I felt the last administration, I won't say names, because it offends people, the last presidential administration, what was so important is the policies that were being implemented. I was on conference calls with Mike Pompeo, Ben Carson, Secretary of Education. All these people, high levels in high levels of office, making a difference. Okay, you don't like somebody's tweets or attitude? Got it. But I'm looking at the overall principles of what are being brought in. I'm looking at stopping the murdering of innocent children. I'm talking about stopping the sex trafficking and going into countries and making a difference. All the, see the policies, the policies can be thoroughly biblical, even though you don't like the one who's behind the policies, if that makes sense. God doesn't judge a nation based on a man's character. He judges a nation based on her laws and her legislation, how she treats people, her governing officials. Is she seeking justice and righteousness? And what was gonna go on with the housing urban development with Ben Carson and Tony Perkins, Family Research Council and Mike Pompeo, what they were leaning towards was incredible. The policies to help bring back life, help bring, they were trying to get some aspects of God's work back in the schools and all that just comes to an end because that's the government's role is to begin to implement God's word. Not perfectly, but in the right way and at the right time. There's no fear of God in this place. I wanna put up some scriptures just to give you an idea of what was happening then and what could happen now. Proverbs 14, 26, in the fear of the Lord, there is strong confidence. If you need confidence this morning, if you need confidence knowing God is with you, God is working in your life, would you fear him again? Would you fear him again and respect and have an awe for him and obey him and obey his principles? Then your children will have refuge. There's safety in the fear of God. See, when I look at safety, there's a refuge. We don't understand some Old Testament imagery. You have to look at historical facts and how they lived, but they needed refuge. They didn't have a Walmart on every corner or houses or hotels. They would need to seek refuge from the storm or from criminals or different things. And there's actually cities of refuge in the Old Testament we'll get to and how God would build those. But they say if you want a refuge, a place of safety for your children, fear God. Fear the Lord. Proverbs 14, in the fear of the Lord, there's strong confidence. Proverbs 19, the fear of the Lord leads to life so that one may sleep satisfied, untouched by evil. Do you want good sleep? Do you want good sleep? Then fear God again. Psalm 33, let all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. Genesis 20, 11, there is no fear of God in this place. Isaiah 66, but one, but on this one, think about this. God says, and I believe he's seeking those who will worship him, we talked about. The eyes of the Lord go to and fro throughout the whole earth on behalf of those whose hearts are loyal to him. God is seeking, God is looking for certain things. And he said, on this one person, I will look. If you want to be sought by God, you want the blessings of God, he said, on him who is poor and contrite of spirit. And those who tremble at my word, oh, if we could tremble at his word. The anointing of God's so strong that when you open up the word of God, there is a holy respect, there is a holy awe, there is a reverence that captivates your heart. That's the God of the Bible. The holy respect for the word of God. Verse 14, it's interesting. Make yourself an ark, make yourself an ark. And this is where obedience, I have up there for you. Obedience and faith play a huge role. Guys, these are the big two. You hear the top 10 in college football, these are the big two in Christian ministry. Obedience and faith. Look at the faith. And Noah, and Noah being worn by God, moved with fear, moved with reverence to the building of an ark and the saving of his family. He moved with faith and fear. He built a shelter for his family. And there's something to that. Noah being worn by God of things not yet seen. Uh-oh, faith is the evidence of things not seen. So he moved with faith to the building of an ark and the saving of his family. I don't know about you, my faith isn't gone, but it can be damaged. It can be damaged. You're in good company. David doubted his calling. David doubted his calling. When the anointing oil wasn't flowing and Samuel couldn't anoint all of David's sons, sons of Jesse, he said, the oil's not flowing. This is not God's will. What's going on? Do you have any other sons? And the dad said, oh, just this little kid, this teenager out tending to the sheep. He said, go get him. Go get him right now. And David came in and it said, the Bible actually says, and the anointing oil literally flowed forth over David. He was called of God. He was anointed of God. But even of that, David doubted. Am I truly called of this? And what am I gonna do? I've got as a rock and a slingshot. What am I gonna do against the giants? Moses doubted that God, I'm stuttering, how do you use me? And God said, I'm gonna use you still, even with the speech impediment. Thank God for that. Job doubted his relationship with God when God began to allow Satan to take everything from him. Gideon doubted God's victory. Gideon doubted God's victory. I love this story, because it reminds me of me. God said, Gideon, go out and defeat this army. Go out right now. Hold on, is this really you? I'm gonna put out a fleece. That's where that saying comes from. So don't necessarily do it. It's okay to ask for confirmation, but just be careful. Okay, Lord, if it's wet, then I'll know it's you, and then it was wet. Okay, one more time, one more time. This time, I'm gonna flip it over. And if everything else is wet, and this is dry. And so he was not trusting, he was doubting. God, is this really you? Thomas doubted Jesus Christ. It's throughout church history. The faith isn't necessarily gone in some of us, but it is damaged. It's been marred. It's been hurt by others. And God says, take those thoughts captive this morning. Embrace me by faith. And faith is believing that something is true, then committing our lives to it. We can't just believe one thing and not act upon it. That's called wavering. Faith, I believe it, but I'm not gonna do it. Double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. True faith is, I believe it, I'm acting on it. Because the trust comes in the action, not in the believing. We said for a month, we're gonna have services every night, starting this date, services every night. It was easy to say it, but hard to do it. Stepping out in that faith. It's been said that we need to let our faith roar so loud that you cannot hear what doubt is saying. Let our faith roar so loud, like a lion, let it roar so loud that faith is so built up in your heart, so strengthened that I'm not gonna hear the voice of doubt. Because doubt, I don't know about you, but doubt comes into me every single day. Even driving here, preaching. Man, this is gonna be a tough sermon. I don't think people are gonna like it. I better backtrack, I better ease up a little bit. Doubting certain things that God's doing, doubting, and when doubt comes in, faith must shout even louder. But on this point, make yourself an ark. Make yourself an ark. I wanna remind all of us this morning, God is practical. God is practical. What do you have? Use it for God's calling on your life. Let him add to it. Why didn't God say, hey, about 10 miles from here, up on this little hill is an ark. It's already ready for you. He said, you go and build it. Take what you have. Moses, what is that in your hand? David, what is that in your hand? He goes out and he chooses five smooth stones, David did, for the Philistine. Could have been five stones to represent the gods of the Philistines, or the leaders of Philistines, Ekron and the Gath, and all these things, and five stones, and God said, I just need one. What's in your hand? Are you discouraged that you don't have enough money? You don't have enough time? You don't think you have the resources? God wants you to, I can't do that, I don't have. I remember, starting this church was a very challenging process. Not only is God in it, but so is the enemy. And many times, Morgan and I were like, wow, this doesn't make any sense. You can't do this, we don't have a building. Don't have any money, right? So we opened an account with $100. No building, nothing, couldn't find a building. And I went to my friend and I said, well, I guess it's not God's calling because I can't find a building. Woo, that was a close one. Man, we almost planted a church. Praise God, closed door, closed door. I'll never forget that lunch. He said, you can use our building, free of charge. Oh. But here's the kicker, Saturday nights. And then I told a few people, you know what I heard? Oh, praise God, nope. I don't know if anybody started church on a Saturday night, Shane. That's like, you do that later when the church is growing. Like, I don't know of any church that succeeded. Like, oh, that's true, what am I thinking? That can't be God. Saturday, who's gonna come to church at 5.30 on a Saturday night? And then it grew, we had to go to church and we had to do 4 p.m., who's gonna come to church? And then both services are full and then we end up here. But see, that doubt, yeah, that's a good point. Saturday night's not gonna work. We don't have any children's ministry, we don't have any worship, we have nothing. This can't be of God. Shane, what do you have? Let me add to that. How are we gonna feed this great multitude? What do you have, fish, loaves of bread? God is practical, God is practical. And a lot of times we get hindered because we want the ark already built. We want the church already established. What do you have in your hand? What do you have, what can you do? Even to today, one of the biggest things that I am absolutely amazed by, and I think God does things like this, just so you know it's him. Anybody been there? You say, if it wasn't for God. Like, when people say, oh, you write books, I laugh inside. Like, you should have seen my first manuscript. It looked like a seventh grader wrote it. It was just pathetic. I still say, I still have it. And when I shared before, barely graduating high school, I lasted at AV College about two months, and just learning, reading, I couldn't do any of that. Just speech, and I'd spell all these words wrong. Still do, still very challenging for me. And God says, now go write a book. I can't, I'm not gifted. I don't have an editorial background. I don't know grammar. Preposition, what's a preposition? Do what, Shane, start with what you do have. Get the words down on paper. And then gave it to my mom, and oh my goodness. I've never seen more red marks on a piece of paper in all of my life. And through a series of months, years of editing, and editing, and editing. That's why I always give her all the credit. A lot of the cleanness, the sharpness is because of her editing. But I had to start, I had to do the work. And I remember I gave it to her. She goes, oh, son, this is so sweet. It's gonna take me a few months, though, to really clean this up. I'm like, okay. I thought it'd be pretty clean. And it's like, I'm not kidding you. The whole page has an X. And she says, people don't care about all this. Get to the point. Good point, right? Because we like to, you don't speak like you're right. When you speak, there's some liberty. And the car was wide. And I ran across this and did this. And you can take a whole page, but when you're writing, newspaper, get right to the point, right to the point, right to the point. Start with what you do have. And I've had, even just weeks, somebody says, I feel called to write a book. Well, just start with what you do have. Write it down in a Word document. You'll find it real quick if you're called to write a book, because you'll quit really quick if you're not called. Everybody thinks you're gonna be a famous author and makes a lot of money. That's why they, oh, if I could just get my book. I remember my first time, we went, me and Morgan, we didn't have any kids. I went to Barnes & Noble a lot and did book signings. You learn a lot. They would say, we're gonna put the book on the shelf for three months. If it doesn't sell well, back to you. We're done with it. It's all about numbers. I've had big publishing companies, and I wanna mention some of them, but like Multnomah or Penguin Putnam, and they would come to me, and they would say, we wanna publish your book. But how many followers do you have? And I remember I submitted the manuscript for Desperate for More of God. And he rejected it. And he said, Shane, you're talking about the desperate need for truth. People aren't concerned with that. You need to address a felt need. And I said, okay, this is when I'm doing it myself then, because I'm not gonna address a felt need. Do with what God gives you. The irony is, you know, you get frustrated things. I spent months writing this manuscript for this company, and I forgot that just six months prior, I prayed, and I have it in my journal. Lord, if you want me to write this book, that's a lot of work. I don't like writing, but it's a lot of work. I said, but if you do, I need the motivation, because I can't do it. So here comes this major publisher. Oh, that's motivating. Got it written. And now I say, oh, we don't want it. Okay, well, now it's written, though, at least. See, it's done. And so that's one of the reasons we put all the, you can download all the books for free on our church website. All the books are downloadable for free. Now, of course, we have to get on Amazon and other places, and I found out early on, they don't let you do it for free because they wanna make some money. They're not gonna print your book on their paper and color things for free. You've gotta charge a little so they can hold it for you. We got the principles here, but they go a different direction. But that's my point with faith. And he often uses what you have. What do you have? Don't let that hinder you from ministry. Don't not let that hinder you from doing something for God, because you're not gonna wait. Lord, once that $10,000 check comes in the mail, then I'll get started. Well, it might not be coming. You might have to open the bank account with $100. And I'll never forget, I'll never forget, God put on my heart, and we still do it today, do not ask for money. Do not make it a part of your message. Do not talk about it at all. Do those guys ever make you sick on the radio or TV? It's my goodness. I know there's some of you here that can keep our power on, and we're about ready to lose three transmitters if you just give this week. And the poor little kids next door are cold right now because that heater's out. If you could just give after, we're giving another offering later today as you leave. Could you just find it in the bottom of your heart to give? Pull out deep within the wells. I don't like that. I can't do that. I don't like passing the plate. People are like, ah. So we said, well, Lord, okay. It's your will, it's your bill. Where you guide, you provide. Hey, I can go into Joelstein real quick here. All the little sayings. Don't worry. So we didn't do anything. We just put a box in the back, and our treasurer called me later that night and goes, you know what? We had $2,200. This first night. And then God just, people drop off $10,000 checks. $20,000, $5,000, $1,000, $10, it doesn't matter. When God loves a cheerful giver, he puts on the heart of his people. He does those things. Start with what you do have, $100. And guess what? I didn't have a corporation. You can't just start a church, a nonprofit 501c3 without a corporation, without incorporating papers, without board of directors. Lord, I can't do it. I guess it's not you. And my friend said, why don't you come underneath our corporation temporarily and open your own checking account as a doing business as, and then work to get your own corporation. Oh, problem solved. I mean, I can give you list after list after list of God says, what do you have? Verse 17, and behold, I am bringing floodwaters on the earth to destroy everything that is under heaven, all the flesh in which there is the breath of life. Everything that is on the earth shall die. Boy, that's pretty depressing until verse 18 for Noah. But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall go into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons, and your wives with you. Guys, I wish I could really just do this text justice. I will establish my covenant with you. God is a covenant keeping God. He will never, never let you go. He will never deny, never back off his word, never renege, none of those things, nothing. He is a covenant keeping God. When he says, if you seek me, you will find me. If you search for me with all of your heart, you will find me. He is a covenant keeping God. He said, I'm gonna make a covenant with you, Noah. And we all know what the covenant is, right? And that's why I think we should take back the rainbow from time to time. That it's a sign of God's covenant to not judge the people. It's interesting how pride and rainbow, and it's like, no, no, that's not a good thing. That's not a good thing. That's a sign of judgment. And God said, I will keep a covenant with you. And in the Bible, they have covenants, like the Abrahamic covenant, the Davidic covenant, and this covenant with Noah. And what is this covenant? He said, I will not flood the earth again. Noahic covenant is what they would call it, Davidic covenant, Abrahamic covenant, I guess putting icy after all these names is how they would establish a covenant. And the covenant with Abraham, Abraham took a she-goat, a heifer, a turtle dove, a ram, and he sacrificed things to the Lord. He had this dream, and God said, I'm a covenant keeping God. Your seed is going to prosper and fill the entire earth. He kept that covenantal promise. And what about the Davidic covenant? He said, David, you will not stop having a ruler that will sit on your throne for eternity. That didn't work, because the Babylonians came in, and I don't know about that, God. Well, hold on, who comes from the line of David, from the line of the tribe of the Masonic reign, the Messianic Christians and things, the Jews, and they know there is a Messiah who has come. He will rule and reign again. That is a covenant you can take to the bank. Don't trust your cryptocurrency. Don't trust your Wells Fargo. Don't trust your gold, your silver, or your stock options or anything. Don't trust the 2022 elections or the 2024. The answer's here. No, the answer is a covenant keeping God. And we need to get back to remembering that when God says something, when God says something, he will do it. When God says something, he will do it, but you better line up with his will, because not only is there a covenant keeping God, there's different covenants that center around the word if. These don't. These covenants, here's what I'm gonna do, end of story, done deal. But there are if covenants. There's something out there, if my people. I've seen that verse somewhere. If my people, if my people are called by my name, humble themselves, then I can heal the land. Now, the context was Solomon. I got it, but the principle still applies. If you do this, Israel, I will do this. If you do this, I will set you up above other nations. If you continue to keep my covenant, and Solomon, if you continue to do this, and that's why actually the ifs weren't followed, and you go from one king, from Saul, David, Solomon, and then it breaks up, Rehoboam, Jeroboam, and these different kingdoms start to, the northern and southern kingdoms of Judah and Israel now are divided, and now you see it falling apart because the ifs were not kept conditional. There are conditions. I've talked to so many people. Shane, what's happening? I don't understand. I'm distant from God. Look what the word says. What's wrong with me? Okay, but don't forget this word. If you seek me, you will find me. You're not seeking him. If you're out of his will, if you're living in disobedience, if you're a naysayer and complaining, and outside of God's will, you need to come back into the ark, come into that safety of protection, and fulfill that word that he gave to you, and seek him with all of your heart. Fully surrender everything, and the God who forgives will set you up again on the right path. Conditional, conditional. It's interesting. He didn't force Noah into the ark. Get in. Come on, come on, come on. Guys, you know how you grab your dog when it doesn't want to go to the dog groomers? Come on. We used to go hunting. Quail hunting, pheasant hunting, chukar, whatever it was. And my dad, the dogs did not want to go in their kennel, because they knew what that meant. Come on, you're going. Come on. Close that door real quick. And the ark wasn't like that. The door was open. He said, come, come. And then so many scriptures come to mind. Come to me, all you're weak and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Come if you're a wearer. Come if you're a broken. Come if you're humble. Come if you're prideful. Come if you're caught in sin. Come to the Lord, and drink deeply from the waters of the fountain of living water, in which you will never thirst again. And it goes out, the call goes out to men. Come, all you're weak and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. And if those aren't coming, Jesus said, go out into the byways. Grab the homeless. Grab the destitute. Grab the prostitute. Grab the drug dealer. Come into the house of God. Come into the ark of safety, and be healed and be set free. It's always a call to come to him. But let's talk about that briefly. The old covenant, there also is another covenant. The old, to some degree, it's conditional. The old covenant was this. We are guilty before God, and we need someone to bear the guilt. That's the Old Testament. So that's what the shedding of blood was for in the animals. People, why, that seems gross. What, I don't understand that. Now, I will tell you, I don't understand it, but I'm not gonna go to hell over a mystery. Okay, understand the Leviticus, without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. So the blood of bulls and goats temporarily covered the sins of the people, temporarily looking for the foreshadowing of Jesus Christ, the final, the final, final, final shedding of blood. And then right before his death, when he was doing communion, we have communion available as well, on the balcony, during the closing worship, you can come and take it at your convenience. I'm not coming back up. It's for believers to get our hearts right before God. If you don't know Jesus Christ today, you can make that decision and take of communion. Jesus said, this is the cup of the new covenant. The new covenant I give you is in my blood, which is poured out for the remission of sin. So the old covenant was just a temporary fix. Have you ever put a Band-Aid on something when it needs complete healing? Or you put duct tape on a water leak pipe and it's not gonna work? It's just a temporary covering. That was the old. He said, here is the new. This new is the shedding of my blood, of the remission of sins of the people. This is a type of blood which you will never thirst again in this relationship. There isn't a second work. Jesus said, to Telestai, it is finished on the cross and the gateway that you can go boldly to the throne room of God now because of that paved way in Jesus Christ. He said, this is a new covenant. This is a covenant of which you will never need another covenant. This covenant will stand forever. 19, and then we'll close out shortly. And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring into the ark and you will take for yourself all kinds of food that is eaten for them. And it shall be food for you and for them. Thus Noah did, here we go, according to most of the things that God commanded him. What's this word all? It's everywhere. If you seek me with all of your heart. If you lay down all your sin. If you follow me all wholeheartedly, give up every, what's this all word? Because partial obedience is not obedience. Most problems that you are facing today could end here. Right here. He did all that God commanded him to do. If you're tired of many problems that you're facing, it begins here. Not all problems, I understand. We all have problems. But many of our problems are self-created because we're rejecting the will of God for our life. And he said this, he said, Noah, gather everything and come into the ark. Come in quickly, I'm commanding it to you. So this is what was interesting to me. The ark was a sanctuary when the great waters of wrath broke open. The Bible says, and we'll get to that, that the great waters of the deep broke open. This is where they think that the mountain ranges were formed and the continents were, I mean, this is cataclysmic. We see a volcano somewhere or a big thunderstorm. That's not even on the radar with what happened. It was a cataclysmic event that all hell broke loose and the world just flooded. The only place of safety, the only place of safety from all of God's wrath was in the inside of this little ark, pitched with gopher wood, made with gopher wood, and pitch was around it. And it was so interesting, it just shot out to me. Wrath was on the outside, but hope was on the inside. Let me tell you that this morning. Wrath is on the outside. All hell is breaking loose. The globalist agenda, the politicizing, the narratives, the gas prices, the inflation and everything. You think all that's just gonna fix itself? You're gonna wake up someday and read the news? Oh, everything's back to normal. Oh no, sir, wrath is on the outside. There is only one place of safety and hope in these desperate times. That place is in the ark of Jesus Christ. You come back into that ark and you say, Lord, it's all wrath on the outside, but I have the hope on the inside. Isn't that true? All hell is breaking loose. There is sex trafficking right down the street in Palmdale and Lancaster and all hell. Pornography right over the hill in Santa Clarita and in Valencia and Northridge. That's the top rated place for making pornographic films and all kinds of abuse and murder is happening all on the outside. But you come into the ark of safety of God's church and you begin to worship him and cry out to God. And Lord, we need the ark of your covenant. We need to be blessed and strengthen us in this place. On Sunday night, October 8th, 1871, D.L. Moody preached in Chicago. His text was this. What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ? At the conclusion of his sermon, he said something that we should never say. Come back next week and we'll decide to do, we'll decide what to do with Jesus who is called Christ. Well, as Sankey came up, I think it's Ira Sankey his name, and he began to lead the hymn, the roar of fire trucks began to crowd out the singing of the hymns. And that was the night of the great Chicago fire that took out a majority of the city. D.L. Moody never got an opportunity to tell people about this Christ they are considering. His biggest regret in all of ministry, it'd be like me doing a funeral and neglecting the most important part of salvation. And then never seeing that group of people again. So you must ask the question this morning, what shall I do then with Jesus which is called the Christ? The Lord said, Noah, get into the ark, come into the ark. See, there's that word, come into the ark. It's not a pushing again, it's not a pleading, it's actually a pleading, come into the ark. Come to me, come to me, come to me, come to me. All you weak or heavy laden, come and grab the fountain of life. Martin Luther said this, there are only two days on my calendar, today and the day of judgment. Today and the day of judgment. I love that song we just sang. There will be a day when all will bow before him. There will be a day when death will be no more. There's a day where you must come into the ark and make that decision. I don't know of those listening online, I don't know of those who've come in here, a lot of new faces, but have you truly come into the ark of safety and hope? Have you repented of your sins and said, I need that ark of safety and hope. I see the wrath of God outside and as a matter of fact, Romans says, the wrath of God abideth on my heart. The wrath of God is on us without Christ and we are dead to our spiritual need for Jesus Christ. We're outside of him and he says, come to me and receive of this living water. And so you must make that decision today. Have you been playing church? Have you been worshiping the Lord in vain? Do you truly have this relationship where you can say, my heart cries, Abba, Father, not get away from me, Father. I've been broken, I've been humbled, I confess Christ as Lord and Savior. And if you have not, this is the time to do it. Well, Shane, that sounds pretty urgent. Oh, you're darn right, it's urgent. It's absolutely, these are desperate times. They call for desperate measures. I don't know what night it was, maybe Thursday night. Found out the road here was closed and there's a road that gets over here by Vons and Rancho Vista and there's a motorcycle on the ground with a guy laying down and there's a covering. Just pulling out from going shopping. We can't play games with the grace of God. So two people, obviously, first person, you need to make that decision. You need to fully repent, give your life to Jesus Christ, let him fill you with the spirit. The second person that I'm addressing is those who are not fully surrendering everything. They're fighting God, they're manipulating God, they're manipulating things. Actually, the bottom line is we enjoy our sin. Ever been there? Oh, just me, okay, that's good to know. Oh, I know there's a lot. Thanks, Henry. This whole crowd could put up their hand just about. That's what keeps us from God. Sin seems fine for a season, but then there's hell to pay. I don't wanna, oh, and that was what he talked about. You gotta listen to last night. He said that marijuana, that addiction, had become an idol, idolatry. You know what an idol is? Anything I put before God. So if there's something between me and God, it's an idol. I don't wanna come to Jesus Christ and give up that, you fill in the blank. I can tell you the biggies, sexual sin, alcoholism, drug abuse, drug use, opiates, pride. I don't wanna come to God. I'm gonna act like Shane. That's too intense. That's too extreme. He's a Jesus freak, but at least I'm not lukewarm. Now, before you lecture me, I did not say that in pride because I can be lukewarm, but by the grace of God, many of us here this morning are not lukewarm. Jesus said, be hot, be cold, make your choice, make your decision, stop playing games, and if you feel led to come to this altar, come to this altar and let God change your heart, change your life. The lives that have been changed here are absolutely amazing, and I don't think God's done yet.