In this sermon, the preacher discusses the dangers of getting caught up in the excitement and emotions of worldly competitions, such as sports games. He uses the example of a recent football game that everyone was talking about at his workplace. The preacher emphasizes that even though people may exalt themselves and feel secure, God can bring them down and execute judgment upon them. He also warns against allowing negative emotions and words to contaminate relationships, as this can lead to actions of wickedness and betrayal. The preacher concludes by reminding the audience of God's promise of deliverance and mercy for those who remain faithful.

Hello, this is Brother Denny. Welcome to Charity Ministries. Our desire is that your life would be blessed and changed by this message. This message is not copyrighted and is not to be bought or sold. You are welcome to make copies for your friends and neighbors. If you would like additional messages, please go to our website for a complete listing at www.charityministries.org. If you would like a catalog of other sermons, please call 1-800-227-7902 or write to Charity Ministries, 400 West Main Street, Suite 1, EFRA PA 17522. These messages are offered to all without charge by the free will offerings of God's people. A special thank you to all who support this ministry. Let us stay standing for an opening prayer, please. O dear Lord, we come before you this morning with open hearts. We come before you, Lord, knowing that great truth. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever. O Lord, we are so thankful, dear Jesus, that you are that living bread. May we partake of you this morning, Lord. We have begun to partake as we have lifted our voices in song to you. As we have opened your word and heard its truth spoken to us and its truth spoken to our children. O Lord, it is a great privilege to be in your presence this morning and in the preaching of your word. Lord, open our hearts. Teach us the things that you would have us learn today. And help us, Lord, look to you for our strength. Help us look to you for our sustenance. Help us trust in you in all things. For you are a merciful God, yet you are a God of judgment. May we live lives, Lord, that bring glory to your name. Help us this day. Help us every day, Lord. And may we, with urgency, be about your work. And may we, Lord, look to your coming return with joy and with thankfulness. Lord, we thank you. And we pray these things, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. You may be seated. Well, I too would like to give greetings this morning to our visitors here. Franklin, God bless you for being here. I see you have a group of young men, and you brought some of your young ladies with you. Welcome. For others of you that have traveled, I know there's a family here that's traveled from a couple hours away here this morning as well. I just want to welcome you here. May you sense God's presence as we hear God's word preached this morning. And afterwards, may you sense God's presence in the fellowship here as you're greeted and as people meet you in the name of Jesus. Because it's only in His name that we meet. We don't meet here because we're after a Christian fellowship. We don't meet here because we're any particular group or type or band of people. We meet here because of Jesus Christ. And it's for Him that we gather this morning. Well, I would like to just make a statement here, and I think it applies probably to most of us. You know, many of us at some point in life have attended or participated in some contest or some form of competition. You know, maybe the competition involved a sports activity. Maybe the competition or the contest involved maybe singing. Maybe there was singing groups and maybe a singing competition or a contest. Or maybe your competitions or contests were held in a school setting. You know, where you have many schools, I don't know about the Christian schools here, but many of the public schools have academic teams. You know, those that have maybe a lot of knowledge in science. They'll have competitions on their science knowledge with other teams, other school teams that have science knowledge. Or it could be maybe a history knowledge, or it might be maybe even a debate team where there'll be a subject given and one debate team from one school will debate the team of another school. Even within churches we see those things in many churches. I don't know about our circles, I don't think in our circles, but there are many churches where there are teams and competitions and contests where there are Bible memorization teams where one church team tries to outdo the other church team on how many Bible verses they can know. Or maybe how much Bible trivia, little details of Scripture somebody might know. You know, I even know of churches where they even have preaching contests where they have preaching contests with a young person of who is the best preacher among this church or among that church and they put them up against each other and have preaching contests. Oh God forbid, I feel that's a travesty of what preaching should really be. It shouldn't be a contest, it should be a competition. But the reality is no matter what the contest, no matter what the setting, there always is a winner, isn't there? And there's always a loser. And so often when we get caught up many times in some of the exhilaration, some of the excitement, some of the emotion of those competitions and those contests, our emotions get riled up and they get going. And I think of the world where there's sports activities like a football game. I know this last week there was a big football game. Everyone at work was talking about this game that was going to happen this past week and who was going to be the number one college football team in the United States and they had this big football game that was going to decide that. And everyone was talking about that at work where I work. I work in a secular setting so that seemed to be the topic of conversation among many of the men there. But the big thing that comes up when you have those competitions is this little phrase that comes up that we're number one. We're number one. And many of you that have been at those activities or some of you have been at those activities know that people start picking up a thing and say we're number one, we're number one and they get all excited and they start basically saying that we're invincible. We're the best. No one can touch us becomes basically the heart and the emotion behind all of that. We're invincible. And no one can touch us. Well we know from human experience that that's not true. We know that those days of victory are fleeting. They're gone. But some people just don't get that. And they begin to actually convince themselves that they are number one. That they are invincible. That they are the best. Well in scripture we see this same concept, this same idea among groups of people in the Bible thinking and believing that their group, that their nation, that their team of people if I can put it that way, that they were invincible. And they could not be defeated by anyone. Boasting, at that same time boasting to the world and boasting to the Lord that no one could defeat them because they were so, so great of a people. So great of a nation. Well today the Lord's laid on my heart to discuss a nation like that and share a lesson with you or several lessons for you from the shortest book in the Old Testament, the book of Obadiah. It's a short book. Got 21 verses in it. But yet through that book, God reflects to us his judgment on a people that were so convinced that they were invincible. They were so convinced that they had everything right. That they actually believed that they were so great, so perfect, so smart, so safe and secure that no one could bring them down and defeat. And the title of today's message is a question. The question is, who shall bring me down? Question mark. Who shall bring me down? You know the book of Obadiah speaks of the plight and the relationship of the Jews, the house of Jacob and the Edomites who were the descendants of Esau, Jacob's brother. Jacob's older brother actually. They were twins but all of us know the story and I'm going to read the story here in just a few minutes of that encounter, of that relationship between those two brothers. And this little book is almost entirely devoted to God's prophecy and God's judgment against the nation of Edom because of their treatment of Jacob's descendants. As preparation for today, let's turn to Genesis 27 verses 18 and I'm going to read through verse 41. Just to give a background, I know most of us remember this but for some of our younger ones and maybe some of our younger teenagers, it would be good to read this again for them. So let's follow along. Genesis chapter 27 verses 18. I'll start at verse 18. Now Rebecca had somewhat set Jacob up to deceive his father and this is what takes place. And he, thus Jacob, came unto his father and said, My father. And he said, Here am I, who art thou my son? And Jacob said unto his father, I am Esau, thy firstborn. I have done according as thou hast badest me. Arise, I pray thee. Sit and eat of my venison, that thy soul may bless me. And Isaac said unto his son, How is it that thou hast found it so quickly, my son? And he said, Because the Lord thy God brought it to me. And Isaac said unto Jacob, Come near, I pray thee, that I may feel thee, my son, whether thou be my very son Esau or not. And Jacob went near unto Isaac his father, and he felt him, and said, The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau. And he discerned him not, because his hands were hairy as his brother Esau's hands. So he blessed him, and he said, Art thou my very son Esau? And he said, I am. And he said, Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son's venison, that my soul may bless thee. And he brought it near to him, and he did eat, and he brought him wine, and he drank. And his father Isaac said unto him, Come near now, and kiss me, my son. And he came near and kissed him, and he smelled the smell of his raiment, and blessed him, and said, See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed. Therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine. Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee. Be Lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother's sons bow down to thee. Cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee. And it came to pass, as soon as Isaac had made an end of blessing Jacob, and Jacob was yet scarce gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting. And he also had made savory meat, and brought it unto his father, and said unto his father, Let my father arise in need of his son's venison, that thy soul may bless me. And Isaac his father said unto him, Who art thou? And he said, I am thy son, thy firstborn Esau. And Isaac trembled very exceedingly, and said, Who? Where is he that hath taken venison, and brought it to me? And I have eaten of all before thou camest, and have blessed him, yea, and he shall be blessed. And when Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry, and said unto his father, Bless me, even me also, O my father. And he said, Thy brother came with subtlety, and hath taken away thy blessing. And he said, Is not he rightly named Jacob? For he hath supplanted me these two times, he took away my birthright, and behold, now he hath taken away my blessing. And he said, Hast thou not reserved a blessing for me? And Isaac answered and said unto Esau, Behold, I have made him thy lord, and all his brethren have I given to him for servants, and with corn and wine have I sustained him. And what shall I do now unto thee, my son? And Esau said unto his father, Hast thou but one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, O my father. And Esau lifted up his voice and wept. And Isaac his father answered and said unto him, Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above. And by thy sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother. And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck. And Esau hated Jacob, because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him. And Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are at hand. Then will I slay my brother Jacob. Well, this hatred went on to contaminate all the descendants of Esau. And those descendants, as I mentioned earlier, united together and formed the nation of Edom. And it's interesting when we look at the Old Testament, especially of all those nations that were aligned or related to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The nation that is most spoken about by God as one that needed to be destroyed or that one that was an enemy of God's people was the nation of Edom. In fact, eight different books in the Bible speak of God's condemnation and wrath on the nation of Edom. You know, the book of Jeremiah, Isaiah, other books speak often of this nation in wicked terms, because they were a wicked nation. And in this book, God has his prophets speak the most condemning prophecies against that nation in the book of Obadiah. And it was written by Obadiah, not much is known about him. You know, commentators think his name probably means servant or worshipper of Jehovah. But there's not a whole lot known about this prophet, except what he spoke from the Lord. In Genesis 25, just a few verses, a couple chapters before the one we just read, we see that this conflict, this relationship between these two men and their nations started even before this exchange that we just read about between Isaac and Jacob and Esau. In Genesis 25, verses 21 through 26, we read that even as they were in their mother's womb, the conflict was there. Verse 21 of chapter 25 of Genesis, And Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife, because she was barren, and the Lord was entreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived. And the children struggled together within her, and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to inquire of the Lord. And the Lord said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels. And the one people shall be stronger than the other people, and the elder shall serve the younger. And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb. And the first came out red all over like a hairy garment, and they called his name Esau. And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold of Esau's heel, and his name was called Jacob. And Isaac was threescore years old when she bare him. So we saw there was a struggle even in that womb. And even in that womb, there were characteristics in those two men, those two little boys, who later became men, who later became the fathers of these two great nations. There were struggles there. And we are told even in the womb, there was a struggle. Well, Esau hated Jacob, and he resented Jacob's descendants. And at every opportunity, those descendants hindered and got in the way of Jacob's descendants. Even to the point of hindering them from entering the promised land. The Edomites would not let them go through their land. They tried to obstruct, they tried to block their entry and their travel. There were times over and over again in Scripture where you'll read about the Edomites and their conflicts with Israel, with the descendants of Jacob. But you know, God had a different plan. And if you look in Deuteronomy, there was a statement made in the book of Deuteronomy where God gave instruction to Jacob, to Israel, and to his descendants. And it's found in the book of Deuteronomy, and I just want to leave this as a groundwork before I start reading the book of Obadiah. In the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 23, verse 7, this is what God tells the descendants of Jacob. In verse 7 of chapter 23 of Deuteronomy, Thou shalt not abhor an Edomite. Thou shalt not abhor an Edomite. So the descendants of Jacob were told not to hate their brethren, the Edomites. And why? For he is thy brother. He is thy brother. So even though they were enemies, they were told not to hate them because they were brothers. But later here in this book, Obadiah is sent to bring judgment upon them because while Jacob's descendants, for the most part, kept their end of that promise, Edom, Esau's descendants, did not. And we're going to read a little bit here in this book why God brought that judgment upon them. It's interesting that God's judgment in the book of Obadiah calls for complete destruction, for complete destruction of the Edomites. But that destruction, if you follow the history through, does not complete itself in the Old Testament because it carries on into the New Testament. Because Herod the Great, and those of you who remember who Herod the Great is, he was the one who was ruling when our Lord was born. And when he was a child, I remember the wise men, the Magi, came from the East and went to King Herod and asked, you know, where is the King of the Jews? Where is he at? And they were following this star. And you remember the conversation went somewhat like that. And Herod said, well, go find him. When you find him, come back to me. Because, of course, in his own mind, Herod the Great, being a wicked man, wanted to assassinate, to murder that child. Well, the wise men, the Magi, they found the Lord, who was a child at that time. And we know, of course, the story that an angel came and warned him to go back by another way and not go back to Herod. But Herod got word of it. And Herod got very, very angry about it. And we read about it in Matthew chapter 2, what his reaction was. His reaction was, which kind of was in keeping with the whole heart of the Edomites against God's people. In chapter 2, verse 16, it says here, Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth and sent forth and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem and in all the coast thereof from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men. So even in the New Testament, the Edomites had hatred against the descendants of Jacob. Herod did not want a king of the Jews. He wanted him to be assassinated and murdered, and he took all he could to do that, even to the point of having all the male children, two years and younger, slaughtered in Bethlehem. But as a nation, the Edomites were eventually wiped out as a nation in A.D. 70, in the destruction of Jerusalem. That was finally when it finally took place. And I'm sharing that little bit of history with you to tell you that this prophecy given in Obadiah took many, many years because of God's timing, because God had a perfect timing in it all. But it took many years to take place. And sometimes I think we look at some of the things taking place around us, maybe even in our own lives, maybe in our own families, maybe in our own churches. We know we see it in our own nation today, and we keep wondering, Lord, why are you taking so long? Abortion's been taking place since 1972. That's 36 years ago, Lord. Why haven't you stopped the murdering of all these unborn children? And many of them even born now. Lord, why haven't you stopped the agenda of the perversions in our country? Why haven't you stopped these things, Lord? These have been going on for a long, long time here in our country. And here recently with the downfall of our economic system and its weakening, we see the corruptness of many people that were entrusted with billions and billions of dollars, of people who had trusted them with their retirements, trusted them with their savings, and it's all gone because these men squandered it. And we wonder, Lord, why didn't you do something about these men? And we want action now. But here in the book of Obadiah, we see that God had a plan. He had a prophecy. And He fulfilled it in His time. And it took hundreds of years to take place. But God's judgment is sure. It might not be as swift as we think, but of course you've got to remember, because of our sinful, fallen nature, we're locked in this thing called time. I talk to my family a lot about that during the week as we sit around the table. We're locked in this thing called time. God is not locked in time. It's swift to Him. It might not seem swift to us, but it's swift, and it's the right time for the Lord. Well, let's turn to the book of Obadiah, and let's look and see what's going to happen here. And I'd like to just glean some lessons out of this book. Because it seems like maybe it's so focused on the Edomites. But, you know, I think there are things that we as a church here, those of you who are visiting here from other churches, that maybe we can glean some wisdom from God here and apply those things to our lives as well. And that's really the purpose of why I'm up here today. It's not for a history lesson. It's not to talk about Jacob and Esau. It's about to talk about us, us individually and us as a church. So let's turn to the book of Obadiah. It's found right after the book of Amos and right before the book of John. It's kind of squeezed in between there. And again, it's a short little book. And we'll get through as many of those verses as we can this morning. I think you'll find it quite interesting to see what God's going to do here. Well, first of all, let's go to verse 1. Because, see, verse 1 lays the groundwork for the whole rest of the book. In verse 1, we see God's heart. We see God's vision. We see God's groundwork or foundation of what he's going to do to these people. The vision of Obadiah. See, critics could say, well, Obadiah was, you know, of Jacob's lineage. So he was just giving this condemnation of Edom because, you know, he wanted to get vengeance on them. But no, this was a vision of Obadiah. And he goes on to say, It's God who gave Obadiah these words. It's not Obadiah himself seeking vengeance upon these enemies of theirs. But it's Obadiah speaking what the Lord has said concerning Edom. And this is what he said. This verse says, We have heard a rumor. Now, here, a rumor from the Lord does not mean the same as we mean rumor here today in English. Today, we mean rumor as maybe a little bit of gossip, maybe something that might be happening. But in the original, in the Hebrew, the word rumor means a command. It means a direct statement. It indicates that there is going to be a fact carried out. So a rumor. We have heard a rumor. We've heard a fact. We've heard a command from the Lord. And an ambassador. Ambassador here means messenger. A messenger has been sent out among the heathen. The heathen were the surrounding nations that surrounded Edom. And we're going to talk about those nations in just a little bit, because the Lord addresses them here a few verses from now. And here is the battle cry that Obadiah sends on behalf of the Lord. And this battle cry is going not to Edom, but it's going to the surrounding nations that surround Edom. And it says, Arise ye and let us rise up against her in battle. It's a battle cry. Let us invade and let us destroy Edom. Now, I don't know who the messenger is, but somehow there was someone that went through there. And I don't know how it took place, but all I know is it took place. The battle cry went out. And Obadiah continues on in verse 2. The Lord speaking, Behold, I have made thee small among the heathen, and thou art greatly despised. Now, this is a prophecy. See, at the moment that this was spoken by Obadiah, this was not true of Edom, because Edom was a huge nation. It was a powerful nation. It was a well-respected nation. It was a much feared nation by all of the heathen around them. Obadiah is saying, through God's eyes, I see the future. You're going to be small, Edom. You're going to be small. You're not going to be large. You're not going to be powerful anymore. You're not going to be powerful anymore. And he finishes that verse by saying, Thou art greatly despised. Now, that's a powerful word, despised. It's not like you're just somewhat disliked, or we don't agree with you. The Lord is speaking powerful words of condemnation here. Thou art despised. And the Hebrew viewpoint of being despised is that you lift your head and you turn it away from the person. You can't even stand to look at them. They're so despised. And that's how God was beginning to look, and God was warning this country, this nation, that that's how God looked at them, that they were despised by Him. Interestingly, the Edomites treated the surrounding nations the same way. They despised the surrounding nations. They despised the descendants of Jacob. And God said, because you despise them, I will despise you. And this is what He despised them for. Look at verse 3. The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee. The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee. You know, Edom thought it was invincible. They thought it was number one, like the main team, the best nation, the strongest nation. And God said, you are greatly despised because of the pride of thine heart. And they were so convinced that they were deceiving themselves that they were invincible. Their pride deceived them. Their pride deceived them. And where did their pride come from? Let's read the rest of the verse. Where did their pride come from? Look. The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high, that sayeth in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground? Which is where, by the way, the title of today's sermon comes from. Who shall bring me down? Who shall bring me down to the ground? You see, their source of pride was their security. It was their security and it was their, what I would call, their inaccessibility. They felt they were beyond reach of judgment. They felt they were beyond reach of any of their enemies. And see, do you catch the glimpse here of what God's trying to maybe speak to us? Individually? Their security was their location of where they were. See, the Edomites lived on these high-cliffed mountains. And they lived, many of them, up on the sides of these mountains in caves that they had made. And because they were up high, they felt very secure. That's why he says here, Thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock. They dwelt on little ledges that they had constructed, in caves that they had constructed, that made them almost invincible to any enemy, they thought. And they prided themselves on that. They could go out, they could invade nations, they could take the spoil, they could come back, but those nations had a hard time coming back and attacking them because they could see the nations were far off and prepare for battle and defeat them. So no nations would attack them because they knew that they could be defeated rather rapidly because of their position. And Edom was proud of that. They felt secure. Well, where's your security come from? You know, so often, don't we at times, I mean, our nation's being rocked right now. There's a lot of things not going so well in our nation and even worldwide that aren't going that well for our country. And many people in our country were realizing had their security in the wrong places, in investments and real estate that did not have value. Some put a lot of their hope in a political system that they hope and some still hope are going to correct the ills of this nation. And we know from the Word of God that's not going to happen that way. But yet, let us not be deceived as the Edomites were and become proud because we're secure. Or become proud because, oh, we're an effort of Christian fellowship or we're at some church where we're secure, we're ready, we have good elders, we have strong brothers, you know, we're this and we're that and we're that. And we take our eyes off the Lord and realize all that we have isn't because of what we do, it's because of the Lord and our faithfulness and obedience to Him. Well, the Edomites lost track of that. And their security developed into pride. A national pride, maybe we could call it at this point in this book here, but it could also become a personal pride in each one of us here, no matter what our situation would be. Let's be aware of that. And then they were also proud of their inaccessibility. That means that they couldn't be reached, that they were beyond reach of anyone else. And they had this vain boast that who can bring me down to the ground? And they would just boast and boast to each other. Who can bring me down to the ground? And of course, they knew what the answer would be, at least from their minds. Well, no one can. No one can, they felt, because they had deceived themselves for so long that they felt they were beyond God's reach because they failed to realize that God, yes, He can bring them down. And He was planning to, and He did. Inaccessibility, because their dwelling places were so high up in the air, they couldn't be reached without the enemy being destroyed before they could reach them. You know, I think of inaccessibility, I came from an area of the country, many of you know, and some of you still live in some parts of those countries where people go to hideout. Do you know what I mean, to hideout? They figure they're going to escape the IRS, the tax people. They figure they're going to escape government influence. They're going to change their identity and move somewhere else. If you haven't been around those kind of people, they're an interesting group of people. And many of them call themselves Christians, interestingly. They're going to make themselves inaccessible. They're going to put themselves in a part of the country where they can't be reached, where no one's going to find them. When, you know, the end times come and the society falls apart, they're going to be safe, they feel. They're going to be out of reach. And sometimes I wonder if maybe some of that permeates some of our churches or some of the churches in this land, not necessarily our churches, but churches in this land with that mentality. Sometimes I wonder if maybe that's not some of the motivating factor with some of the home churches in our nation, that they're going to make themselves secure and inaccessible. They're going to withstand all these storms that are going to hit, quote-unquote, us bigger churches. But you know, the Lord says, let's not deceive ourselves. Let's not deceive ourselves. If we get prideful in those things, if we get prideful in those things, God will deal with us. Those who think well of themselves soon trick themselves into believing that others think as well of them too. Let me read that again to you. Those who think well of themselves soon trick themselves into believing that others think as well of them too. Sooner or later, though in times of trial, in times of great heat, they will be proven wrong and the pride that deceived them will destroy them. And that's what happened here in verse 3. Look at verse 4. Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, thou shalt set thy nest, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord. You see, at the end of verse 3, they challenge. Edom says, who can bring me down? And God responds in verse 4. Thence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord. You see, they had lifted themselves so high, they were so prideful, they were flying high like the eagle. We call it flying high now, right? Their emotions were high. Their expectations were high. Their view of themselves was high. They saw themselves, exalted themselves as an eagle. And they even set themselves, they figure we're so secure, we're just as pure as being up in the space, in the stars, up in the heavens. They felt. But God said, even though you think that way, I will bring you down. I will bring you down. Look at verse 5. If thieves came to thee, now God's pronouncing what kind of judgment He's going to bring upon them. You know, what kind of judgment He's going to bring upon them. If thieves came to thee, if robbers by night, how art thou cut off? Would they not have stolen till they had enough? If the great gatherers came to thee, would they not leave some grapes? And this is what the Lord's telling them. A number of years ago, our house got robbed. Thieves broke in. They kicked in the back door of our house. And my wife and I hadn't been married very long. We didn't really have a whole lot. But we had, for our wedding, we got silverware. Really nice silverware. And I bought a nice little box to keep all this nice silverware in. It was probably the most valuable thing we had. And we had a little radio, stereo thing to play music with. And when the thieves broke in, kicked in the back door, they grabbed that little box, took off with it, grabbed our stereo, took off with it. But you know, interestingly, they didn't take our sofa. They didn't take our mattress. They did not take our table or our chairs. But they did take the silverware. And they did take the stereo. But they didn't take everything else. Also, grapes are always of interest to me because many of you know I farmed for a long time in California. And I farmed vineyards. I farmed grapes. And one of my responsibilities on our farm was to oversee the harvesting operation. And we had, a lot of times, 200, 250 Mexican farm laborers out there harvesting our fields. And one of my jobs was to go to the different fields and make sure the foreman and the crew bosses were handling their people right and the harvest was getting done correctly. And I would spot check and I'd walk down different rows of grape vineyards and I would make sure all the grapes were getting picked. And every once in a while I'd come across a little stretch where there were, you know, a number of grape bunches hanging from the vines still that the harvester had missed. And I'd go up to the harvester and I'd tell them in Spanish they missed some and time to pick some more and pick them and they'd come back and they'd pick them. Just oversight. But, they were harvesting as best as they could. Well in Bible times sometimes they would leave grapes behind on purpose so that the poor people could come along and harvest those and have food and have nutrition from that food source. But what God is telling them here is that, you know, in normal circumstances thieves will break through and they'll take what they want but they're not going to take everything. And the same with harvesting grapes. The harvesters will go through but they'll leave some behind. But when I judge you, Edom, look at verse six. How are the things of Esau searched out? How are his hidden things sought up? You see, God is saying, when I come in and judge you there's going to be nothing left. Everything's going to be gone. It's just not going to be the silverware and the stereo. The sofa's going to be gone. The carpet's going to be gone. The wallpaper's going to be stripped off. Everything's going to be gone. And there's not going to be one grape bunch left for anyone. It was going to be total, total destruction and total annihilation of that, of that nation. And you know, it is a pretty powerful, pretty powerful judgment. Pretty powerful judgment. You see, when God's judgment is carried out, it's complete. It's complete. And even in verse six, I've been talking, I've talked to a man here a couple weeks ago. He said, you know, with this economy going down, I think I'm going to take a lot of my money out of the bank. He didn't have it in the bank. He had it in some investment firm. I'm going to take some of my money out of the bank and I'm going to build myself a safe in my house. And I'm just going to keep a large amount of cash in my house. Because I don't trust the banks anymore. I don't trust the stock market anymore. And I'm going to take a good sizeable amount of my numbers, build myself a safe in my house, and nobody's going to know about it. He'd already told me, so I know about it. Okay? That's how sometimes we kind of lose track of reality as we're talking about these things. But look in verse six. How are the things of Esau searched out? In other words, God says, I'm going to find everything you've got. You know, they lived in caves. And they had developed this nice system of caves up on the side of these cliffs. And in these caves, they had probably put little secret rooms, maybe behind a big rock or something, something where they could hide valuables or maybe hide maybe their wife or their children or something of great value to them. And they were so sure, well, if we ever got invaded and people ever came in here, it's okay. You know, the gold will be safe. You know, our money will be safe. So once the invaders leave, we'll just get out all of our wealth and we'll just rebuild and have life like it always was again. But God is saying, no, it's not going to be like it was again. It's not going to be like it was before. All the secret things will be searched out. How hidden, how are his hidden things sought up, it said. You know, it's pretty interesting. I read a quote along with this verse and it says this, Treasures on earth, though ever so securely locked up and ever so craftily hidden, cannot be so safely concealed that thieves may break through and steal. It is therefore to our best wisdom to lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven. Treasures in heaven. But you know what, it's just not material things here. It's easy to say, well, we're talking gold, we're talking money, we're talking material things. But how about those things that are hidden in your heart? How about those things that are hidden in your heart? You know, those areas of pride, those areas of, you know, feeling of superiority. You know, those things. I mean, these people felt superior. How many of you here feel superior to somebody else? How many of you look down on somebody else with disdain? See, God is going to judge. And those hidden things will be found out. Just as it was in the Edomites. It'll be found out in our lives. And that's why God wants heaven cleared above us, that we confess those things, that we get those things out of our life, out of our heart. If we think we can hide them in our heart from God, we're deceiving ourselves. Just as the Edomites deceived themselves that they were invincible. God brought judgment upon them. And He can bring judgment upon us. Well, in verses 7 through 9, let's see what the Edomites had done to keep themselves secure. Verse 7, All the men of thy confederacy have brought thee even to the border. The men that were at peace with thee have deceived thee and prevailed against thee. They that eat thy bread have laid a wound under thee. There is none understanding in him. See, they got their security, the Edomites got their security by forming all these alliances, unholy alliances, with the heathen, with the nations around them. They had signed treaties, peace agreements with these nations. We're so mighty, we won't invade you, but you promise not to invade us. And they had all these alliances so they could live at peace with all the ungodly. But in doing so, they compromised. They compromised over and over and over again. And you know, compromise with the ungodly does not bring lasting fruit. Compromise with the ungodly does not bring lasting fruit. And you know, we know that, but sometimes I wonder, you know, let us not be deceived, brethren. I mean, I've known from my past, you know, pro-life groups that include the cults in them because, you know, they're all against abortion, including these cult people. And they join alliances where they say, well, we're all one, we at least have the same goal. But the reality is, is along the way, you get contaminated and you compromise other things in your life. And a conversation comes up and you nod yes when they're saying something about their cult that seems like you're in agreement in it when God is there and God knows. And we need to be very careful of those things with the world. Whether it's a cult or whether it's worldliness, that we're trying to make some connection with them to get some goal accomplished. And we lose. And we lose so much. And the Edomites did that to keep peace. They made these confederacies. And look what happened. All the men of thy confederacies, all the people of your peace treaties, of all your written agreements, have brought thee even to the border. In other words, they're right here to destroy you now. Those peace treaties mean nothing. And that men that were at peace with thee have deceived thee. Those were their friendly neighbors. Not the ones that they had to sign peace treaties with. Just their friendly neighbors. A person down the street. See, God even rose them up to attack them. So they couldn't even count on their friends to help them out. Let alone the people they had legal agreements with. The Edomites couldn't even count on their friends. And then look what it says here. And prevailed against thee. And they that eat thy bread have laid a wound under thee. And those that eat bread. Those were just their, not their relatives, but people from their neighboring tribes. And they were kind of like almost the same kind of people. Even those people turned upon them. Even those people turned upon them. And as they turned upon them, they were devoured as well. We can't depend on those alliances, brethren. No matter what they are. And I don't know why the Lord has this here for us this morning. I don't know what's going on in your heart or your life. But God is saying, don't make those alliances. And maybe there's just one person here that God wants to hear that this morning. There might be the other 99% of you or so that maybe are wondering, well, that doesn't apply to me. I don't understand. But maybe for one percent here or one person, maybe it does. Stay away from unholy alliances. They will compromise you and your faith. They will compromise you and your church. They'll compromise you in the end. And God will bring judgment upon you. So don't do those things. Don't do those things to make your church larger, too, by the way. I think that's what happens so much with seeker-friendly churches. And we could fall into that same trap. Any church can. We're not immune to those things. We think, well, we're getting a little smaller in numbers. Let's do some outreach and let's get some people in here, just some warm bodies in here. Well, let's be careful of the warm bodies that we have in here, that they're real seekers, number one. And number two, that they're not wolves in sheep's clothing or that they're not false prophets or false teachers. But we need to be careful that we don't form unholy alliances to increase the size of a church. Well, these human connections even failed. All these, the allies, the friends, the neighbors. Then God turned all of these individuals, all these groups against proud Edom. And it's true, God can use and does often use, and we've heard a priest here, uses the ungodly oftentimes in judging nations, even his own people. Look at verse eight. Shall I not in that day, saith the Lord, even destroy the wise men out of Edom and understanding out of the mount of Esau? And thy mighty men, O temen, shall be dismayed to the end that every one of the mount of Esau may be cut off by slaughter. See, Edom felt they were so wise, that they were so smart, that they were so shrewd, that no one could penetrate them because they were so wide. No one could trick them because they would figure it out before they got tricked. And they deceived themselves thinking that they were superior to other people. And God was telling them here, even your wise men will be destroyed. Even your mighty men will be dismayed. That means they'll be confused. They're going to try to figure out what's going on. They're going to say, what's going on? I don't understand it. These people were neighbors. We had treaties. These people were from tribes that we knew. They're attacking us. They're destroying us. Our fortifications, our mountains, our caves, they're not protecting us anymore. What's going on? We don't know what's going on. They're confused. They're dismayed. And that's the way it will be among us when God brings judgment to this land of America, when He brings judgment to the church. We're going to wonder, what happened, Lord? What's going on? So let's be careful. Let's be careful. Verse 9. God gives us reason why He brings His judgment. For thy violence against thy brother Jacob, shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off forever. Remember that Deuteronomy passage where God commanded Jacob not to hate Edom, not to abhor Edom, because he is thy brother? Well, as I mentioned earlier, Edom did not do likewise. They were violent against their brother Jacob. And let's see how they were violent. Look. In verse 11. In the day that thou stoodest on the other side... In other words, when the enemies of Jacob invaded them, of Judah, got invaded by the enemies, Edom just stood by and watched it happen. They just stood by and watched it happen. And in the day that the strangers carried away the captive, his forces, and foreigners entered into his gates and cast lots upon Jerusalem, even thou wast as one of them. So not only did they just stand there, but they almost, God's almost implying, they almost helped them, helped these invaders destroy the descendants of Jacob and attack them. The Edomites didn't lift a hand to help their brethren, to help those that were related to them through blood, through their uncle Jacob. They didn't lift a hand. They didn't lift a hand. And they let the enemies come in. Verse 12. But thou shouldest not have looked on the day of thy brother and the day that he became a stranger. In other words, that Jacob was destroyed and carried away into captivity. Neither shouldest thou have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction. See, they not only stood by, they not only stood by, they not only almost helped encourage the invaders, probably showed them the weak places so they could get in and invade Judah, but they actually rejoiced. They figured finally, after all these centuries, the hatred of Esau, our father, against Jacob, who took away his birthright, which really Esau just gave away, and the deception of receiving the blessing from Isaac, they finally, finally we get our due. Finally we get our revenge, they felt. So they not only stood by, they not only encouraged, but they rejoiced. They rejoiced in the destruction of Judah. Neither shouldest thou have spoken proudly in the day of distress. So they boasted. And they said, See, we were a stronger nation than they were. We should have gotten the blessing in the first place. See, they're weak. They got destroyed. We're still strong. We still have our mountainsides and our caves and we still have all of our treaties. See, we're better than they are. And they just continued to boast. We're number one. We're the best. You see, we're the better of the two nations. Jacob all along, he was the wrong one. Now he's going to get his due. Their heart was wrong. Their heart was wicked. And for that reason, God brought judgment on them. Thirteen. Thou shouldest not have entered into the gate of my people in the day of their calamity. See, they went in. During the destruction time, they went in and probably helped. Yea, thou shouldest not have looked on their affliction in the day of their calamity, nor have laid hands on their substance in the day of their calamity. So they went in while the fighting and destruction was going on. They went in and they actually started to take and take the spoil. They actually started to steal the stuff that was left behind from their own brethren. From the descendants of Jacob, from those in Judah. Verse 14. Neither shouldst thou have stood in the crossway to cut off those of his that did escape. So, you know, not only were they participating in all these other things, but as people tried to escape, they put up blockades. Fences, let's say. So the people couldn't escape, could not escape. The people from Judah could not escape, so they would be caught by their enemies and murdered or taken into captivity. Neither shouldst thou have delivered up those of his that did remain in the day of distress. For those that did get away and were able to hide, the Edomites went and found them and betrayed them to the enemy and turned them over to their enemies. So, we see the wickedness that Edom did out of hatred, out of hatred for Jacob's descendants. They became partakers of the wickedness of the enemies of God upon God's people. And for that, God executes judgment and it starts in verse 15. For the day of the Lord is near upon all the heathen, as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee. Thy reward shall return upon thine own head. Powerful phrase there in the middle of verse 14. As thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee. Verse 16. For as ye have drunk upon my holy mountain, so shall all the heathen drink continually. Yea, they shall drink and they shall swallow down and they shall be as though they had not been. So, they're going to be destroyed. Edom's going to be destroyed and then eventually all the heathen that invaded Judah and destroyed Judah and the descendants of Jacob, they too will be destroyed. They too will be destroyed. Now, God turns his prophecy to the descendants of Jacob and here he says, verse 17. But upon Mount Zion shall be deliverance and there shall be holiness and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions and the house of Jacob shall be afire and the house of Joseph aflame and the house of Esau for stubble and they shall kindle in them and devour them and there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau for the Lord hath spoken it. Brother Steve's children's lesson here about the fire children comes to play here when you think about God is going to raise up the descendants of Jacob, the descendants there. He's going to raise them up and they're going to be a powerful nation and they're going to turn around and God is going to destroy Edom and while the descendants of Jacob rise up as a flame, the descendants of Edom and the nation of Edom will be like stubble. It will be like dry grass. It will catch on fire and it will burn up and be gone and there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau for the Lord hath spoken it. God's judgment was final. It was not being changed. The Lord hath spoken it. Obadiah couldn't change it. All the treaties, all the maneuvering, all the wise men of Edom, all their shrewdness and strategic planning couldn't change it. The Lord had spoken it. And this is the restoration that's going to take place to God's people. Verse 19 And they of the south shall possess the mount of Esau and they of the plain, the Philistines and they shall possess the fields of Ephraim and the fields of Samaria and Benjamin shall possess Gilead and the captivity of this host of the children of Israel shall possess that of the Canaanites even unto Zarephath and the captivity of Jerusalem which is in Saraphat shall possess the cities of the south and saviors shall come up on Mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau and the kingdom shall be the Lord's. You see, God brings a balance here. The wickedness of Edom and the righteousness and justice of God. You see, Edom gloated over his brother's day of misfortune. They rejoiced over their brother's day of destruction. Edom boasted proudly over his brother's day of distress. Edom entered the gate of the city in his brother's day of disaster. Edom delighted in his brother's destruction. Edom looted his brother's wealth. Edom prevented the escape of any survivors. And then Edom even imprisoned and turned over any survivors that they did find to the enemies. And if you look at that progression and we've seen and heard that progression preached a lot here from this pulpit. The progression of sin. There's look. They looked. They gloated over their brother's day of destruction. And then their words took effect. They started to boast over their brother's day. And they rejoiced. Remember, they rejoiced. They boasted over the fact that good, they're finally getting their due. And then what followed were actions. They started to loot. They took part of the looting. They stole the possessions of the defeated people. And they even turned their people over to the enemies. And isn't that the way sin enters our own life? We look. We start to talk. As we start to talk and say those things that are wicked, we start carrying out those wicked actions. And God will not tolerate that. He won't tolerate. He didn't tolerate it then. And He won't tolerate it now. And as we live our lives here, brethren, let us be very careful that as we look, that we look with righteous eyes. That we don't look with self-righteous eyes. That we don't look proudly. And then as we look, that we start speaking words of whether it's gossip or backbiting or judgmentalism or manipulation or whatever it would be. Because then our words will then turn into action. And we will do the wicked things that God hates and that God despises, just as the Edomites did here. So let's not be that way. Let's evaluate the relationships that we have with one another. Let's evaluate them. Let's make sure they are holy. That they are not relationships that are there for our own self-serving, for our own pride. But that we will look at our relationships with one another. That we not have God's judgment, God's discipline fall upon us. That we not let our eyes covet. Our eyes be jealous. Our eyes be full of hatred and anger. Our eyes be full of lust. Our eyes be full of those things that are not righteous in God's eyes. Because if we keep looking at our relationships that way, pretty soon our words are going to come out that way. And they are going to contaminate our relationships with our words. And it will spread through a fellowship. It will spread through a family. And then the actions will take place. The actions of wickedness. The actions of betrayal. And we are not immune to that. And God will execute judgment. And we saw the judgment executed here. And he brought his cup of wrath upon that people. And God gives us promise, as we just read in verses 17 and 18 there. But upon Mount Zion shall be deliverance. See, God gives us a vision of hope and mercy here. A vision of hope and mercy not only for this nation, but a vision of hope and mercy for us. That he will preserve a remnant a remnant from Judah. And he has done that in his church today. And he will continue to do that in his church. You know, we can somewhat be shaken up. I've talked to a number of Christians. I've talked to a number of secular people who are not Christians. Heathen, I guess you could call them. Who are very, very concerned about what's going to happen to America. What's going to happen to their job. What's going to happen to the economy. And I have to say, I mean, praise the Lord, I think Lancaster County here, our little area here has been a little bit immune. But I was out in California here a few weeks ago. And it's pretty bad out there. I mean, people are losing their houses left and right. We went through housing developments where the houses were abandoned. Big, beautiful $300,000 homes. Empty. No one can buy them. People have lost them. You know, you hear in the news people losing jobs all the time. And we can get fearful. We can start to tremble. But you know, God says here he will preserve a remnant. He will preserve a people. But we need to be faithful. We need to be faithful. Now, are we going to be preserved the way maybe we have been living maybe the last number of years? Probably not. God will have us make changes, but he will give us the grace to make those changes. But he will promise us to preserve a remnant. And the remnant, in verse 17, will be characterized by holiness. There shall be holiness. You see, Edom was not a holy nation. And God destroyed it. But God will preserve a remnant. Not only will he preserve a remnant from Judah, but he'll preserve a remnant from the church today. And he will have a holy remnant. And we need to begin to live that way, brethren. A holy life. A life of faith. A life of obedience given to our Lord Jesus. Because that remnant will be characterized and known by its holiness. And that remnant, its destiny will be to possess all the possessions of their enemies. We will reign someday. And I don't know what your eschatology is. I don't know what your millennial view is and all of those things. But we will reign someday. We will reign with him forever. Not just for a thousand years. But forever. And ever. And we will inherit their inheritance. And the houses of Judah and Jacob and Joseph or Ephraim will join and they'll form one kingdom. And I think of us. God's people. No matter what nationality. No matter what land they're from. Whether from Asia. Whether from Indonesia. Whether from South America. Whether from North America. No matter from where. God will bring his people together. And we will be one nation. And we will rule forever with him and his kingdom. And that's the promise that God gives us. And it says here, And the Lord hath spoken it. Not only had the Lord spoken final judgment for Edom and for the enemies of God and for today for those who are in sin and unrepentantly so. But God has also spoken deliverance. He has spoken hope. And he has spoken mercy to his children and to the followers of the Lord Jesus. Our hope is with him. And there's a real interesting twist in verse 21. And then I want to close here. And saviors shall come up on Mount Zion to judge the Mount of Esau. And the kingdom shall be the Lord's. You know, saviors in the immediate sense right here in verse 21. The saviors would be you know, the messengers. The judges that would come along. The judges of truth that would come along to save the people and to dispense justice against the wicked. And justice for those that were being persecuted. But you know, it's a little bit more than that if you look at it. Because we do have a Savior, don't we? And that Savior is Jesus Christ. And he will come and he shall come up on Mount Zion which is Jerusalem. He will come up and he will rule on the Mount of Esau. He will rule the people. You see, in Obadiah in a prophetic way in this book here at the end Christ acts as both judge over Israel's Jacob's enemies and he will also be here the Savior of that nation. You see, ultimately the final triumph that will come will come when Christ returns. That will be the final destruction of all those nations that congregated and went up against Judah that went against God's people. Those nations that come against God's people today by the way we are a nation, are we not? A priest and the Lord we are a nation and we have we will have enemy nations coming against us. And we call that persecution. But you know there will come a day just as it was here in the book of Obadiah there will come a day when all those nations will be destroyed. And our Savior our Lord Jesus Christ he will reign and that final triumph will come. And what evidence is given here of that it's right here in verse 21 when it says in verse 15 excuse me where it says that for the day of the Lord is near. And the day of the Lord is usually a phrase in the Bible reserved for when Christ returns the second time triumphantly to deliver his people. In this Edom's humiliation and destruction foreshadows for us what the Lord will do to all nations who mistreat his children. And that should be a comfort to us because it's the same Lord the same God still sits on his throne today watching over us. And he will bring humiliation and destruction to all nations and all peoples who mistreat his children. Well let me close with these closing statements. You know the Edomites had been a great people in the Bible lands for centuries but God had declared their destruction and doom through the prophet Obadiah that we just read about because of their pride and their rebellion and mistreatment of their brethren. And no one knows exactly for sure how it all came about but today the land of Eden is just kind of a little part of the land of Jordan today which is a nation of Jordan. But it really as a nation no longer exists. It's gone. And for the most part all of its people obliterated. And in the end before the Lord returns there's going to be an uprising of nations against the Lord Jesus there that are going to meet in that battle of Armageddon some day. And again I'm not a student of eschatology an expert in all of that but I believe there's probably going to be a few Edomites that are going to probably pop up in that group and find that God's going to destroy them completely and all the enemies of God completely at that time. Because many other great nations of the past Assyria Babylon the Philistines Moab, Moab, the Moabites they all rebelled against their creator and all of them all like Edom have vanished off the face of the earth just as the Lord had warned. In Psalm 917 the Lord says this The wicked shall be turned into hell and all the nations that forget God. And my plea with you this morning is let's not forget God let's remember that He will bring He will bring down the proud and the haughty. He will bring down a nation like America who has gotten proud and haughty. But He will preserve His church the true followers of Christ. And I don't mean the church by just this building and these people I mean the body of Christ the true followers of Christ. He will preserve us. The one who responds in obedience to the grace of God has everything to gain brethren. But a person who rejects His grace in pride has everything to lose. So who can bring you down? The Lord Jesus can bring you down. But if we humble ourselves before the Lord He will lift us up. And He will place us in a place where His name will be glorified forever and ever. So let's take this lesson from Moabidiah I know I've had to go through it rather quickly this morning but there are some beautiful lessons for us some beautiful warnings for the church today as well as for this nation. May the Lord bless the preaching of His Word. God bless you. Does anyone have any testimony or something they'd like to add to the message this morning? Just raise your hand and we'll get a microphone to you. I was thinking as Brother David was preaching there of the words in the New Testament that say that you should leave room for the vengeance of God. Not to take vengeance for ourselves, but we should leave room for the vengeance of God. And one of the real problems with Edom, the root problem was the Bible says that he despised God. Edom did not have a heart after God. He did not value Him. He despised God as though He was not something to pursue. And it says God had a reciprocating attitude toward Esau. It says He hated him. Because Esau turned his back to God. God turned His back to Edom. And that was the real root problem in Esau's life. Brother Steve. I appreciated the message this morning. And it seems to me that this is a message that God has repeated for us here as well in Revelation 3. It's definitely a tendency that we all have as we grow in our Christian life and we kind of have a tendency to think that maybe we've arrived and maybe we're a people that are like those Edomites dwelling on those hills and that we can't be reproached. And here in Revelation 3, Jesus speaks to the church and He says here in verse 17, Because thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing. And that just seems like the attitude that the Edomites had. I have need of nothing. And then it's interesting because Jesus said you don't know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. And then His counsel was to buy of Him gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear. And anoint thine eyes with eye salve that thou mayest see. And then He says, Because as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous therefore and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear My voice and open the door, I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with Me. And I think that the way we must receive that is we must allow that Scripture to search our hearts and ask ourselves the question, are we in fact also as the nation of Esau, the nation of Edom? And if so, then what He's asking us to do is to repent of that, to repent of our pride, to repent of the attitude that we are rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing, and instead to open the door. But then the blessing is, He said, I will come in and sup with Him, which to me is a tremendous blessing. But then the next verse says, to Him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne. And I'm sorry, but I cannot escape that is the place that we want to be. We want to be overcomers of pride. We want to be not like Esau. We want to be those overcomers that He's saying that we might sit in the throne with the Lord Jesus Christ. But it's pretty clear here that we won't if that's our attitude is that I'm rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing. So I very much appreciated what Brother David brought out. Thank you. God bless the Word to us here this morning. Our Lord Jesus has commanded us to love our neighbors as ourselves. And I appreciate from the book of Abadiah this verse 12 God has used before to convince me of my sin in that area. Where it says, neither should thou have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction. And sometimes I would think, well, I think I love everyone and I think in my heart there is love for my neighbor. But then if something evil would happen to my neighbor or to somebody whom I don't... I may think I like him, but I can rejoice a little bit when I see things are not going the way they should. That's a sign for me that there is no love in my heart for those people. There wasn't compassion or grief, but rather a little bit of joy. Like they are getting what they deserve kind of attitude. And I believe this verse exposes that sin in our heart. I can say in my life that God has used this verse before to point out that sin in my life. Yeah, I think that Jesus speaks to that, brother. I was thinking those thoughts myself. What should Edom have done when he saw... Because Jerusalem was being judged by God. I mean, they were an idolatrous and perverted nation. And the judgment of God was upon them. I had to think of David's psalm. He says, when my enemy was sick, I fasted for him like he was my brother. I mean, I put on ashes and sackcloth. I prayed for him. And then when I got in my place, he came against me to destroy me. And I also remember the words of the Lord Jesus that commanded us to pray for our enemies. And sometimes we can think that that's just a legalistic rule that oh yes, I have to pray for my enemy. But I think Christ had more in that than just like you're saying, but a heart that prayed for that man in reciprocation to his relationship of enmity with me. I prayed for that man. I care about his soul. I care about his life. And I think Esau would have done well to call a fast. What would the judgment of God against Esau have been like while that judgment was taking place? Esau had a national day of fasting for Jerusalem or a day of prayer for Jerusalem while they were under the judgment of God. I think there's room for that in our lives too. Anyone else have something to share? Yeah, it reminds me of my testimony again how I had pride in my heart and had to be taken down to get to the born again process. To make a long story short, I thought I could really do it where I was and then I saw it still not working out and just had to come to the end of myself and just cry out to the Lord for help. That was my only source and it still is. Praise God. He led me to that and He's still showing some light in my life. I'm glad He doesn't do it all at once but I'm glad He does it in the way I can handle it. The glory all goes to God and there's nothing good that comes from flesh and it's really the Spirit that makes the fruit grow. So, praise God for the message and the children's lesson was touching to my heart too even though I was between the 5 and 12 bracket, I still consider myself as a child and I remember one time when we were out in the barn and we had a lantern out there and I was playing with fire but it didn't do anything but that still doesn't make an excuse. It still was playing with fire and fire is not a toy and I've heard it often already that buildings were burnt down by playing with fire. So, thank you for the message. I think God was speaking. Anyone else? The Bible says, looking to yourselves in 1 Corinthians 10, 11 and 12, it says, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. I thought that's a fitting word in a case like this. You know, when things are going well and I don't think it's wrong to say they are going well, I've gained victory in this area of my life. And to say, I have come into the land which the Lord sware unto my fathers. But then, to always carry with us a caution that says, I'm not here. What have I that I did not receive? I received it all. God gave it to me. And that I have no room for boasting like I did it myself. And that God has given this to me and God can take it from me. And that we should walk then in the fear of the Lord, not boasting ourselves over others, but rejoicing in the Lord and what He's doing in our lives, and praying for others that He'll do the same in their lives. I think that's a practical application for the book of Obadiah there.