Athaliah and Joash -- the Bible's MOST EVIL Grandmother

Transcript

Speaker: Alright, so I had three different things impressed on me this week to pray into, a but this morning I felt overwhelmingly that this was the one that God wanted us to look at.

Speaker: I had one half made, then thought of a different teaching, which was 100% made.

Speaker: about 2, 3am this morning. I felt God impressing this one in particular. So the other two were great and we'll come back to those again.

Speaker: But the Josh's generation we always want to be about the father's business.

Speaker: Operating on the father's clock. And meeting the needs of the day. Whatever that looks like on a given day.

Speaker: So in 2 Kings 11, it's a story about an evil woman who tries to kill a child.

Speaker: The child is protected by a very brave woman. And they all live happily ever after.

Speaker: And maybe that's why God impressed this story to me in particular. Because with Radiance coming up so soon in September, our focus prayerfully is and should be on women. I hope you're all praying into Radiance every day. And that God's been glorified, that he accomplished exactly what he intends to.

Speaker: that he sends all the women there that he wants there, that they answer the call in obedience, that they prepare their hearts in advance for what God wants to do, that they don't put their trust in a day, in an event, but in him, and that he can begin even now over the next 13 days tilling the soil, preparing the soil of their souls, and accomplish the Phenomenal, spectacular, life-changing things.

Speaker: And absolutely all of the attendees. Yourselves included. and Perhaps that's why God impressed this story to me.

Speaker: Because without one woman's bravery, happily ever after which comes as a result of the story would not have happened. It took a woman who knew God who knew who he was, who knew his ways, who knew his will, who knew his heart, to go against the will of an evil queen with very powerful support and backing, and demonic support, even, to see the will of God done in her kingdom, and to see

Speaker: the trajectory of that kingdom change. Maybe not entirely, maybe not forever, but in her day.

Speaker: We are looking at a kingdom that is thousands of years old in a different country and has been part of the world ours. So the names are a little bit strange, I'm gonna be honest with you.

Speaker: So wanna look at the names of the main characters first So we can get the pronunciation down. also there's something very important and very special about the names. When you're reading the Bible, it's always fun to go on Google um and then type in the name and say name meaning.

Speaker: So Adam, name meaning. Eve, name meaning. Moses, name meaning. Elijah, name meaning. And you tend to get invaluable insight into the heart and character of the person you're reading about by their name. A lot of the names are very, very path prophetic.

Speaker: So in our story last week, David had united the kingdom of Israel. He died. Solomon was sitting on the throne.

Speaker: And God promised multiple times that the kingdom of Israel would have incredible blessing and peace and prosperity and there would always a king sitting on their throne who would love righteousness and live rightly if they hearkened to the word of God, if they obeyed.

Speaker: David made some big mistakes, but by and large, he was an amazing man. He was great. Solomon started off wonderfully. And then things got very, very hairy.

Speaker: He married 700 women and had 300 concubines and probably political marriages. I doubt he actually loved them all. um With the wives, he may not even have had an intimate relationship with them all. Who knows?

Speaker: um But he allowed them to bring their demonic worship, their witchcraft, and their occultism into his kingdom.

Speaker: And all the enemy's looking for is a little bit of compromise. And my goodness, it can and will destroy a nation.

Speaker: I opened a box of kiwis this morning. Not for me, I don't need breakfast. But two of them looked totally fine. And i was just about to start peeling them and chopping them.

Speaker: And I picked up a third one. And oh my goodness, I do not know how many colors there were at the bottom of that kiwi, but none of them are colors you expect to find on a kiwi.

Speaker: And then the part on the box Where that kiwi had been with that was all slimy and gooey and had the same colours and it was more sprawled out. It looked disgusting. It was rank.

Speaker: A whole lot of it went into the bin. Why? ah Because a little bit of rot does a lot of corruption. A little bit of yeast works its way through the whole lot of dough.

Speaker: um And if you were making a chicken curry... and you used the freshest vegetables and the rice came from a rice patty in your own back garden but the chicken was bad you dumped the whole thing you wouldn't put on your plate and just eat around the chicken you would say, you know what, let's get a takeaway it'd be healthier than this and get rid of it the enemy looks for a little bit of compromise

Speaker: He makes it a lot of compromise. And when you are compromised, his stealing, killing, destroying agenda gets ramped up tonight. And that is what Solomon created.

Speaker: Now, at the very end of his life, he did turn back to God, but the damage had been done.

Speaker: Then Solomon had a son, Rehoboam, who was a vengeful and arrogant king. He surrounded himself with sycophants.

Speaker: With people who were yes men.

Speaker: Yes sir, no sir, three bags full sir. Whatever he said they would agree with. Why? Because they were his friends. They were from his peer group. They're all his age. They all thought he was amazing.

Speaker: He hated the wise counsel of older people. He just wanted people who would agree with him. And what ultimately happened was the kingdom of Israel split into the kingdom of Israel at the north and the kingdom of Judah in the south.

Speaker: So in your reading, first king, second king, second chronicles, it looks like you just have king, king, kinging king, king. Well, you've got two different kingdoms.

Speaker: The one country was divided. Think of Northern Ireland. The Republic of Ireland. Yeah. So in today's story, some of these names might be familiar to you. Some might be new to you. That's okay.

Speaker: In the kingdom of Israel, we have an evil king called Ahab.

Speaker: And his more evil wife, Queen Jezebel.

Speaker: I've said this before, i think some of you thought I was joking. They are Bill and Hillary Clinton. Someday i'm actually going to do a teaching on Ahab and Jezebel. I might have done one that's already on YouTube, but I'll pull it out again. um He's the man who's got the prestige of being the president, but everyone knows she's the one who wears the trousers.

Speaker: and If they don't like you, your vineyard tends to magically set on fire. a Or people turn up dead around them. There's a very strange pattern of corpses is just piling up. and They have a daughter named Atalia.

Speaker: In the south, in the kingdom of Judah, there's a king called Jehoram.

Speaker: Jehoram marries Atalia. So Atalia is the princess of Israel.

Speaker: She marries the king of Judah. She becomes the queen of Judah. So far so good. So Israel in the north, Ahab and Jezebel.

Speaker: They've got daughter, princess Atalia. In the southern kingdom, and you've got Jehoram. And he marries the princess from up north.

Speaker: So effectively, Ahab and Jezebel now have two kingdoms under their thumb, the kingdom that they run. and then their daughter has now infiltrated faith.

Speaker: Jezebel was a witch. Not an, we're going to have a big sale and spend it on, why light witch?

Speaker: She was a Baal and a Shearah worshipping witch. Baal was the god of abortion. and Well, today abortion, but then you would give birth to the child and then cruelly, disgustingly, with intense heat, burn your child alive to death.

Speaker: ah And an Asherah worshipper, Asherah was the goddess of transgenderism, where men would be castrated and dress as women and become priestesses.

Speaker: And the women would dress up as men and they would carry a spear to look like a penis, basically. um This is the wickedness that was going on in Israel. And now you've got Athaliah, the princess, who believes all this and practices all this.

Speaker: She's now the queen of Judah.

Speaker: Jehoram and Athaliah have a son, Ahaziah.

Speaker: Ahaziah eventually becomes the king, and Athaliah the queen mother. And Athaliah is a wicked king. Most of the kings were.

Speaker: David was great. We're going to look at a good one today. Hezekiah later on is great. Most of them were absolutely woeful. There are very, very few instances of good politicians in the Bible, comparatively.

Speaker: So, Athaliah and Jehoram have a son, Ahaziah. They also have a daughter, Jehoshabah. Again, that's a strange name, but we'll come to her name in a moment.

Speaker: Their daughter Jehoshabah, so the princess, marries the high priest Jehoiada.

Speaker: So you Talia and Jehoram. Their son is Ahaziah, their daughter's Jehoshabah. Princess Jehoshabah marries a priest.

Speaker: Ahaziah has a lot of sons. One of them is called Joash. Okay? So Ahab and Jezebel. Adali and Jehoram. Son Ahaziah has a son, Joash.

Speaker: Their daughter, Jehoshabah, marries a priest. Have I lost anyone? Or so far, so good? Because I know all these names and the fact they all be begin with J can get pretty confusing.

Speaker: Are we in crisis mode? or Are we good so far?

Speaker: Their names in English are incredible.

Speaker: Princess Jehoshabah means this. The name of the Lord is oath. The name of the Lord is promise.

Speaker: The name of the Lord can be trusted.

Speaker: The name of the Lord will not fail you. The name of the Lord is yes and amen.

Speaker: The name of the Lord is a firm foundation. The name of the Lord is something you can stand on. The name of the Lord will not let you down.

Speaker: Her name is God's promise. I trust God. And what is the Lord's name? Jesus Christ.

Speaker: She marries the high priest Jehoiada.

Speaker: Jehoiada, the priest's name, means the Lord knows. Knowledge. Familiarity. So being familiar with the Lord's knowledge, God's knowledge.

Speaker: God's report.

Speaker: God's perspective, God's opinion. This is what the Bible says.

Speaker: You know, whenever someone goes for i report from a doctor, a GP, hospital, i always pray, God, give your report.

Speaker: We don't need a diagnosis for this and a diagnosis for this. And yes, sorry, this is a terminal. Yes, this fatal. Oh, sorry. Google says you'll be dead in center of two hours. What's God's report?

Speaker: Princess Jehoshaphat is the only princess of Judah or Israel that I can find that we know that we know that we know married a priest, married a high priest.

Speaker: The only one. And she's the hero of today's story. So this is significant.

Speaker: And then we have Joash. Joash is her nephew. Her brother, Ahaziah's son.

Speaker: Joash, in this story, is child. He's going range from a baby to seven years of age. And his name means the Lord. Not sure why they have that in the past tense.

Speaker: The Lord has given or the fiery power of the Lord. The Lord has given and the fiery power of God. That God moves in fire. What does fire do?

Speaker: Well, fire burns up what is not good and it purifies precious metals.

Speaker: It's destructive, but it's also so cleansing. It gives heat, keeps you from dying of the cold.

Speaker: So these are our main characters today. Athaliah, villain. Ahaziah, villain.

Speaker: Princess Jehoiada, heroine, she's good.

Speaker: Sorry, she's Jehoshabah. High Priest Jehoiada, he's good. And Joash will also be good. So these are our heroes and our villains.

Speaker: All right. Let's go. Second Kings 11. eleven I'm going start in verse one.

Speaker: When Athaliah, a villainess, the mother of Ahaziah, not a good king, saw that her son was dead,

Speaker: she proceeded to destroy the whole royal family. Her parents are evil. Her husband, not so great. He's dead too. Now her wicked son is dead.

Speaker: And her first solution is to assume power. I'm going and throw it. I'm the queen mother. I'm in charge now. And to kill every member of the royal family.

Speaker: Now, we're going to find out in verse two. that her daughter is still alive. She's fine. So obviously, Atalia has a certain sympathy for women.

Speaker: It's the men she wants to eliminate. You might say she's a fourth wave feminist. Think of how feminism as a movement has been one of the biggest social rots in the Western world last century.

Speaker: um Godly feminism? Amazing. Women of purpose, women of destiny, women of the word. Feminism was created by and large by Marxists or communists who want to overthrow the Western world. And it's exactly what they have been doing.

Speaker: But what is her particular vendetta against men? Well, remember the prophecy that David was given about Solomon. If the king will live righteously.

Speaker: And do what God says. and hate evil. The nation will prosper. And there will always be a king sitting on the throne. Well, the ultimate king of Israel was supposed to be and one day will be Jesus.

Speaker: So Athaliah is basically trying to stop Bible prophecy coming to pass. She knows the prophecies of the house. And she is actively trying to suppress them.

Speaker: she is an antichrist not their antichrist there is an antichrist in the book of revelation the big bad um that satan will indwell not saying she's the capital a antichrist but she is an antichrist she is absolutely sold out determined and bent on evil destruction and stopping the word of god coming to pass

Speaker: Steve, if you can unmute, will you please read verses two and three?

Speaker: Okay, maybe you can't. Okay.

Speaker: But Jehoshaphat, there's the princess, the daughter of King Jehoram and sister of Ahaziah, took Joash, son of Ahaziah, and stole him away from among the royal princes who were about to be murdered.

Speaker: So Avaliah's daughter is betraying her. Atalia's daughter has been married to the high priest, God's knowledge, the knowledge of God.

Speaker: She knows the word of God. She knows the will of God. She knows the heart of God. And she is determined to see the will of God done in her day, in her time.

Speaker: And she's not going to turn away from it. She's going to be instrumental in seeing the word of God come to pass.

Speaker: This is a woman who owned her zone. She faced death for treason. She faced the wrath of her Baal worshipping mother.

Speaker: She faced the threat of all the palace guards turning against her. law are killing her for doing what was right.

Speaker: But she knew what was right. And she determined to see it through to the bitter end. So she took her nephew, baby, Joash, and his nurse, and hid them away.

Speaker: Verse three, he remained hidden with his nurse at the temple of the Lord for six years while Italia ruled the land.

Speaker: So Italia has killed his brothers, has killed his male cousins, any uncles, any male in the royal line has just been eliminated.

Speaker: And Jehoshua has him hiding in the temple, which her husband runs.

Speaker: And there he's protected. But he just fades out of cultural memory. People assume he's dead. if they even had known was born, which they probably had been aware.

Speaker: And six years pass. Six years under a tyrant. Six years under a wicked, evil force.

Speaker: Six years under a woman absolutely determined to see the opposite of God's will done. Now, God's will is for salvation, redemption, healing, restoration, breakthrough, dismantling the operations of darkness.

Speaker: What do six years under that look like?

Speaker: Verse four. In the seventh year, Jehoiada, this is the high priest, who with his wife and the nurse had been protecting the child, sent for the commanders of units of 100.

Speaker: The Karaites, they're bodyguards, usually foreign mercenary bodyguards. a king needed his enemies arrested or killed, he called in the Karaites.

Speaker: And the guards, and had them brought to him at the Temple of the Lords.

Speaker: He made a covenant with them and put them under oath at the Temple of the Lords. So he said, lads, I'm going to show you something.

Speaker: Zip it. You cannot speak. It's a secret. And if you tell someone, so help me, I'm going to absolutely obliterate you.

Speaker: Not if you understand. This is happening. This is serious. And they're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, we would promise. We promise we swear to secrecy.

Speaker: Then he showed them the dead king's son. So even the guards The royal guard, the bodyguard had no idea that the boy was still alive.

Speaker: Verse five. Jehoiada, high priest, commanded them, saying, this is what you are to do. You who are in the three companies that are going on duty on the Sabbath, a Saturday.

Speaker: A third of you guarding the royal palace. A third of the surrogate. Circle the word gate. We're going to come back to gates later on God showed me something this morning about gates.

Speaker: People have different names for this one. Some called a foundation gate. Some called the horse gate. Here it's called the surrogate. Probably three names, same gate. So surrogate, foundation gate, horse gate.

Speaker: And a third of the gate behind the guard. Another gate. They take turns guarding the temple. And you who are in the other two companies that normally go off Sabbath duty and all to guard the temple for the king.

Speaker: Station yourselves around the king. Each man with his weapon in his hands.

Speaker: Anyone who approaches your ranks must be put to death. He wants the revelation of the king kept secret until he's ready to share it. Stay close to the king wherever he goes.

Speaker: Okay. I know that there's a lot going on there, especially in terms of military. So again, going simplify it.

Speaker: Athali is the evil queen. She's the queen mother. She's taken control of the kingdom. She's killed the male royal line. She's an antichrist. She does not want a king sitting on the throne of Israel or Judah.

Speaker: Well... In Israel, it's her father, but he's only half a man anyway. um But here, now She does not want God's promises to David about Solomon coming to pass.

Speaker: The princess and the high priest who are married have hidden the child. Seven years have passed. And now the priest is ready to bring out the king.

Speaker: To reveal the king. And he has all the the bodyguards protecting the child.

Speaker: Again. This is significant. If you read the book of Revelation. Maybe you've read it before and it didn't make sense to you. Maybe you've read it before and it made partial sense. Maybe you've never read it.

Speaker: In our discipleship Wednesday starting in October. We're looking at the end times. I'll be explaining this in a lot more detail then. But here and in the end times, you see that there's a six year long apocalypse.

Speaker: And the seventh year is just as bad. But that's when King Jesus comes. The King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, on a supernatural white horse.

Speaker: With double edged sword in his hands. And he destroys the Antichrist and the false prophets. And he effectively becomes the actual legitimate king of Israel with the crown. And he lived in the temple of Israel, the temple of God in Israel. And he brings in world peace for a millennium and yada, yada, yada. It's great. It's amazing. That's the end of the Bible.

Speaker: But here you see something very similar. You see this queen has sat on her throne for seven years, but it's in that seventh year that the king reveals himself. That's what I mean. She is an Antichrist. She is a picture of the Antichrist.

Speaker: Verse nine. The commanders of units of 100 did just as Jehoiada the priest ordered. What he said. They dotted every I, they crossed every T, they followed the instruction to the letter.

Speaker: Each one took his men. Those who are going on duty on the Sabbath and those who are going off duty. And came to Jehoiada the priest.

Speaker: Then he gave the commanders the spears and shields that had belonged to King David, and they were the temple of the Lord.

Speaker: Hey, we're... That's Organization 101 this morning, and go on. How

Speaker: are you? yeah are You're right, you're fine. It's just one of those days.

Speaker: right That's fine. Take your time. You're right. No, you're fine. Just battle in. Okay, verse 10. Then he gave the commanders the spears and shields that belonged to King David, who we're very well acquainted with now, and they were in the temple of the Lord.

Speaker: The guards, each of those weapons in his hands, stationed themselves around the king. Near the altar of the temple. From the south side. To the north side.

Speaker: Of the temple.

Speaker: Verse 12. Jehoiada brought out the king's son. So the new king. Joash. The seven year old. And put the crown on him. He presented him with a copy of the covenant.

Speaker: The Old Testament law. Revealed to Moses. First five books the Bible. and proclaimed him king. This is his coronation, if you will.

Speaker: They anointed him. And the people clapped their hands and shouted, Long live the king.

Speaker: When Athaliah heard the noise made by the guards and the people, she went to the people at the temple of the Lord's. which she probably had not stepped foot in, being, you know, a witch.

Speaker: She looked, and there was the king. King Joash, seven years of age.

Speaker: Standing by the pillar, as the custom was. The officers and the trumpeters were beside the king, and all the people of the land were rejoicing and blowing trumpets.

Speaker: Then Apalia tore her robes and called out trees and treason, treason. Interesting, given that she had committed treason against the rest her family.

Speaker: All right, so we've got the evil Queen Athalia, the Queen Mother, who's been running the shop for seven years.

Speaker: Unbeknownst to her, the priest and the princess have been hiding the princess's nephew, the legitimate heir the throne, in the temple.

Speaker: And then we have the priest after seven years.

Speaker: Let's see if I can move you from here.

Speaker: Great. And then we have the priest seven years later. Takes out the boy. He's like, you know, ta-da, he's alive.

Speaker: Puts him in the temple, gives him the covenants, gives him the Old Testament law.

Speaker: And the kingdom are shouting, long live the king, long live the king, long live the queen. The queen mother finds out about this and she's trying to treat the action. She's having a bloody connection. Again, this is very similar to the end times.

Speaker: Because at the end times, you have a seven year perilous season where hell is basically being unleashed on the earth. By the end of this, Jesus comes back.

Speaker: He is seen as the king of Israel. Think of all those Christmas songs. so okay israel He was literally supposed to the king of Israel, but Israel didn't want him.

Speaker: By and large, they still don't. By the end of the apocalypse, they will recognize him as their king. He's not need a palace. He's going to live a castle.

Speaker: He's going to live in the rebuilt temple. of God. you see very similar, very close parallels here.

Speaker: Then we've got verse 15. Dehoida the priest ordered the commanders of unit of a hundred who were in charge of the troops.

Speaker: Bring her out between the ranks. So we're talking about the evil queen, neith the queen mother. Bring her out between the ranks and put to the sword anyone who follows her.

Speaker: For the priest had said, she must not be put to death in the temple of the Lord. So don't kill her here, but she's evil.

Speaker: You get what you deserve in a country run by justice. This has to be dealt with. She's a murderer.

Speaker: So they seized her as she reached the place of the horses and to the palace grounds. And there she was put to death. So again, circle the word horses because we have a few references now to gate.

Speaker: Exactly. Yep. And I said earlier, the surrogate is the foundation gate and the horse's gate. So God gave me revelation this morning at about 940 a.m.

Speaker: on gates. And we're going come to that in just a moment.

Speaker: Jehoiada, so still the priest, then made a covenant between the Lord and the king and people. that they would be the Lord's people. Why would he say that?

Speaker: Because for seven years they had very much lived like they were not the Lord's people. He also made a covenant between the king and the people. All the people of the land went to the temple of Baal and tore it down.

Speaker: They smashed the altars and idols to pieces and killed Matan, the priest of Baal, in front of the altars. Again, i got a couple things to say here.

Speaker: Apparently it's not their Antichrist. If you want to find out out about him, read the book of Revelation. She is an Antichrist. Because in the Apocalypse, you've got the Holy Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, god the Holy Spirit, in a seven-year-long war with the unholy Trinity.

Speaker: Satan, the Antichrist and the false prophet, who is a counterfeit miracle worker who, and it would seem on the surface, validate the one world government of the apocalypse.

Speaker: He's like, oh, I can make fire fall from the sky. Oh, I can heal the sick. Oh, I can raid the dead. He does all this for the power of the devil. And here you've got Italia, the Antichrist,

Speaker: You have Baal, the devil, and you have Matin, the priest, who's her false prophet, probably a counterfeit miracle worker, a magician, sorcerer. Now, why is this actually significant?

Speaker: Some people would say, oh yeah, but you know, live and let live, it's okay to have different religions. Well, let's have a look at who Baal was, yeah?

Speaker: Baal was seen as the lord of the earth. As the ride of the clouds. As the lord of rain and dew. As the giver of oil.

Speaker: As a healing gods. The god of storms, who was often pictured at lightning bolt. The god of grain. the god of the fertility of humans and animals. and He was in a war with another god called Mott.

Speaker: But if you gave you the best of your best to Baal in a seven-year cycle, he'd bless you with fertility. Crops, a god of fire, god of resurrection, and the supreme god.

Speaker: Baal is Satan. And he's just running around under a false identity, pretending to be Jesus. Basically, he is an Antichrist spirit.

Speaker: This is the devil masquerading as God. But if you wanted Baal's favour, there was one thing you had to do. You had to give him your children.

Speaker: And by giving your children, I mean child sacrifice. And in the Western world today especially, a the biggest financers of abortion...

Speaker: are Baal worshippers. Freemasons worship Baal. So many of these secret cults, well Freemasons worship a lot of different gods, but Baal is one of them.

Speaker: lot of these cults will worship Baal and they know exactly what they're doing and they take the wealth of the world and they intentionally pump it into anti-life causes.

Speaker: All right, 18. Then Jehoiada, the priest, posted guards at the temple of the Lord.

Speaker: He took with him the commanders of hundreds, the carites, so the bodyguards, the guards and all the people of the land. And together they brought the king down to the temple of the Lord and went into the palace, entering by way of the gate of the guards.

Speaker: The king then took his place on the royal throne at seven years of age and all the people of the land rejoiced. And the city was quiet because Athalia had been slain with the sword at the palace.

Speaker: Joash was seven years old when he began reign. And obviously you didn't have seven-year-old making political decisions. You had joy to wait the priest helping him and assisting along the way.

Speaker: Alright, going to take a peek at what his reign looks like as he got older and in just a moment. Are there any comments, queries questions so far? Are they all good?

Speaker: Okay. Alright then, yep.

Speaker: I think remembering the names is going to be hard, Brendan. It's a lot of information that I think I'm going to have to Go over it ten times. You've taken so much in. It's a lot.

Speaker: I did this with kids before, Mandy, and I just said, guys, give names the characters yourselves. And I just said the princess, they called her Jaffa Cates. I think it was the first J word they could think of. And I read the story and I called her Princess Jaffa Cates.

Speaker: Fair enough. So I need this. so I need the kids study on this. I like it. I like it. than of magic ah It doesn't matter. Once I get the story in my head, I think God will help me that way.

Speaker: Absolutely. But you know what? You can also just translate the name into English. Where for the princess. Maybe the the Lord's name is an oath, is a bit of is but long, but God's promise.

Speaker: And for the high priest. Maybe calling him the knowledge of the Lord and being familiar with the knowledge of the lord Is it that long? Call him knowledge. Our God's knowledge.

Speaker: Where the whole story, you have this anti-Christ regime forcing its way into the kingdom to create a culture of literally what they would did they do to kill the children. They would make demonic statues out of metal without a stretch of arms.

Speaker: And they would put the baby on the statue's arms. And they would light a fire under the statue and they would burn the child to death. That was going on in God's country. other times they would create a hollow, an empty belly. Yeah. And a lever.

Speaker: So you'd put the baby on the demon's hands. You would pull the lever on the back. The arms would roll up and the baby would roll into the open bed. It would look like the statue eating the baby and the fire inside the statue.

Speaker: This was happening in God's country.

Speaker: and yeah So demonic. It's the definition of demonic. Yes. There is one priest in the temple of God, which let's be honest, people probably were not going into.

Speaker: Because people, for some bizarre reason, are more attached to things of the devil and of God anyway. And yet there's one priest in there whose name is God's knowledge.

Speaker: He just knows what God's word is. And he said, if I have to raise this child who is not my own in secret for seven years in a back room, I'm going to do it.

Speaker: And you have a princess whose name is God's promise. Yeah. I feel sick in my stomach hearing all this. Right. so really but i And I know it's been done and dusted, but why do I feel so protected? Like, I am protective to children. I get involved in that, and it just makes me so... yeah i feel so ill from the pit in my stomach. I really do.

Speaker: Yeah. But the reality is the story is done and dusted, but actually... Globally, it's not. It still happens now in and our own country.

Speaker: That's right. With an abortion, without going into all the specifics on Sunday afternoon. Horrendous. have to say it involves the burning of the baby, the removing of limbs, and yeah li the skull, the hook, sucking it with a mini Hoover.

Speaker: And that's happening. right But still it's still burning. it's it's still It's the same. They just use different instruments. You know? Yeah. Yeah, oh, it's mortal. and It is, but yes, in this story, it was the trajectory of the kingdom was changed by a man whose name is God's knowledge and a woman whose name is God's promise.

Speaker: I'm not saying they knew the Bible cover to cover. No. They knew what God told them. Such a heart for the right living and the peace, the quiet, the sanctification, the redemption of their nation, of their kingdom.

Speaker: And he wanted a holy, righteous king, Jesus, sitting on the throne, ruling over it. And all it took was one couple who knew the word of God and said, we will go against the Antichrist regime.

Speaker: We'll go against our family. We'll go against The Temple of Baal, which probably had more members and congregants than Temple of the Lord. We're going to go against the current.

Speaker: We're going to go against the political regime. We're going against people in our own palace. Because who do you think went around killing the princesses, cousins and the nephews and all sorts?

Speaker: Her employees. Her employees were the ones who butchered her family and gotten paid for it. And yes... A man and a woman with unpronounceable names.

Speaker: The likes of which you don't hear in the world today. that Just for the fun of it. Let's actually do what God said. Amen. Let's yeah break the rule. Let's go against the grain.

Speaker: and here's the thing. It didn't look phenomenal. For her, she got a nurse and a baby e and put them in it in in a hidden room. For him, he put them in a hidden room in the back end of the temple of God.

Speaker: It was subtle. It was thankless. They probably did not get much gratitude because no one knew. They, okay they would have had to get food for the child, maybe take a few extra apples or bread rolls from the palace kitchen, there you know they go.

Speaker: But by and large, very subtle. very thankless, very under the radar, not showy, no one made YouTube videos of it two and a half hours long and put them on YouTube and Zencast or on Spotify, Google Podcasts.

Speaker: No one knew, but but God knew. God saw it. And of all the incredible people there are around the world whose names are the top of everyone's lips and days of the year are named after them and they have their own victory parades and Yadda yadda.

Speaker: Here we have two people, a man and a woman, unpronounceable names, that if I were to read you this story next week, you'd ask me, gosh, what's happening? But God knows.

Speaker: And he's immortalizing his words because it wasn't showy. It wasn't spectacular. It wasn't i amazing. But it was brave. It was courageous.

Speaker: And it was sincere. And it was for That's all that matters. It's what God says. That's what God says. What God puts in your heart, do your best to follow what he says. will reward us for that. And that's something we can all do.

Speaker: Yeah. He meant that. Yeah. Yeah. That's something we can all do. Thanks for highlighting that, Brendan. home Scare me some little bit, but it really makes me revolt. yeah The more that that's going out there or, you know, anything happening to children. Not that I don't care for al doddle's adults and elderly, you know. your're Children, that's the one thing we should all be able to agree on at the very least.

Speaker: yeah They're the future generation and we have to help them. That's right. That's right. And in chapter 12, we get a look at when we do help them, when we are brave, what that can look like.

Speaker: a So this's this time is less dramatic than the last one but it's it's good to know. I just thought God impressing both of these on me this morning. and So again, with no attention we we'll see what happens. We'll see what he does. We'll see what he says.

Speaker: See God is walking in you Brendan to show us some other different sights of things whether it's hard to face. I do believe that it's it's for us all to watch out and help out and look out you know for one another anne And if you see something that you can do, don't ignore it.

Speaker: You know?

Speaker: And when he says to do something, it will often be counter... Here's the You have a personality that God wants you to have, and then you have a personality because people have butchered your soul.

Speaker: And talking about the real you personality. It will be normally It will seem counterintuitive in certain ways and countercultural.

Speaker: There are often things God will tell you to do. So in this palace, you sat down, you kept your mouth shut. And if you knew where one of these male heirs was, you pointed to the door and you let the guard in.

Speaker: That was the culture Queen Mother Italia was creating. So therefore, hero of the story was the one who said, you know what, let's take this little boy, ah baby, let's put him in there with a nurse.

Speaker: Let's shut the door. And somehow they went into the palace to the temple. How did she do it? I don't know, did she wear rags and pretend she was like a peasant to sneak him out?

Speaker: And did she put him in a food cart and have one of the servants, you know, say, oh, I don't like this watermelon. Please take it to the temple of God for some reason. And if it cries, it's a magic watermelon. Don't question it.

Speaker: However, she got the baby from that palace and temple. All subtle. All sneaky. All under the razor. All thankless. All unseen.

Speaker: But seen by God. Loved by God. Treasured by God. And now her name has been immortalized the word of God. I believe God showed her the way to get the child out. You know, she wouldn't have done it on her own strength. No. She followed the Lord, what he was leading in her heart. And he brought it.

Speaker: You know, he always brings things to God. So he brought it that the child would be saved. and know And I, you know fair you know, I love when I hear stories like that part, you know, that You're saving a life.

Speaker: Life is so precious. not Not white people, not black people. We are all God's creation. That's right. That's exactly it. 100%. in this story, you know we start off, okay, they're in the palace. Next thing, the babies in the temple. Next thing, seven years have passed.

Speaker: This chapter is just snapshot, snapchats snapchat snapshott snapshot, In fact, the only details you really get are when the priest is telling all the soldiers what to do, and because we're not military men, that goes over our heads. But this was a decision she had to make, and a decision she had to make every day.

Speaker: So when that child got sick, when that child got a stomach bug, when that child and realized he had gluten intolerance or an allergy to peanuts, whatever it was,

Speaker: She had to make that decision again and again and again again be, I was brave this day, I'm so be committed this day. I will have courage on a Tuesday, i will stand by that decision on a Wednesday.

Speaker: Rescuing the baby when he was two months old was fine because babies mostly sleep anyway. All of a sudden he's five years of age and wants to play a soccer with all other kids in the streets. And I need to think of a new reason to tell him why not to because his grandmother wants him dead.

Speaker: But having to make that decision again and again and again again. It's the courage and the bravery. And then comes the commitment. Making a decision and making it a week later, a month later, ah year later, seven years later. The consistency, the steadfastness.

Speaker: And that's something that's not easy because we can talk ourselves out of it. That's something that's not. a

Speaker: It's not typical insofar it's counterproductive because nowadays we live in such a a snapshot world. Oh, I was here on Instagram this week Oh, look at me with this celebrity. went to this. People just post the highlights of their life. It feels like you always have to be keeping up with the Joneses, doing something new, doing something vivid, doing something exciting, doing something algorithm friendly.

Speaker: But actually the Lord's looking. I'm not saying that's bad. It's not. But the Lord's looking for steadfastness. Commitment. Say something.

Speaker: Do you still mean it's an hour later? I'll be out there at times I've prayed something to Jesus in the last few weeks. And like two minutes later i did the exact opposite and I said, God, I'm glad you're absolutely good because I ain't. And if the world depending on me, would be screwed?

Speaker: Well, you wake up the next day and you say, all right, yesterday was not good. Let's, let's try again. Let's rework this. Let's reframe this. Let's get back on the same page.

Speaker: um But again, here you see the snapshot, but she had to do this for for seven years. No thank you, no gratitude, no path to the back, no one she could confide in, no one she could trust, no church circle where she could meet in person and on Zoom and on WhatsApp during the week. But no, just, I said yes.

Speaker: I'm saying it again. I'm saying it again. God gave a promise. His promise is the same yesterday, today, and forever. God's revealed his knowledge, his in insight, his wisdom, his understanding, and he hasn't changed his mind, so therefore I can't change his mind either.

Speaker: And I subscribed what God said. God's word's eternal. The commitment commitments I made to him has to last just as long. and

Speaker: we Even in in the longevity, it can be intimidating, but instead just break it down the day today. The day today. But it started with bravery.

Speaker: It started with courage. She knew what she knew. However or much that was. And she made the decision. And she thought through.

Speaker: And. She kind of fades out the story after that actually. That is her contribution. But let's see what her nephew. New King Joash did as a result.

Speaker: Because while she fades out of the Bible narrative. The impact she had on him was to go further, was to go beyond, was to do more. Let's see what happened there. What can you please read, actually?

Speaker: a

Speaker: Let's go 2 Kings 12, 1 to 5, I believe God shows something.

Speaker: 2 Kings 12, 1 to 5. These names are 1 to 5 in the frame, I think.

Speaker: If guys can use go, drop the cakes, drop the cakes, drop the cakes. In the seventh year, Joshua became king and he resigned in Jerusalem 40 years. His mother name was Zabaya and she was from Sheba.

Speaker: Duash did what was right and in the eyes of the Lord. All the years, your e the priest instructed him. The high places, however, were not removed.

Speaker: The people can continued to our offer sacrifice and burn incense there. Uash said to the priest, collect all the money that is brought as sacrifice offerings to the temple of the Lord.

Speaker: The money collected in the sense, the money received from personal vows and the money brought voluntary to the temple. Let every priest receive the money from one of the treasures and let it be used to repair whatever damage is found in the temple.

Speaker: Okay, thank you. That's brilliant. Awesome. you get all You did a wonderful job with the Hebrew names.

Speaker: I even loved how Joshua became Joash within two lines. Very impressive. 180 degrees turned into positivity. and Alright, so here we see he's in everything in agreement with the eyes of God, the word of God, which awesome, it's brilliant.

Speaker: But, look at this. They leave the high places untouched.

Speaker: When did that become a problem? In the days of Solomon. David's son. David was a great king. Solomon had a lot of good things going for him, but spiritually he compromised his nation a lot.

Speaker: And what they were doing was on the mountaintops, especially where there were trees and groves, they would create a counterfeit garden of Eden.

Speaker: So you would be lovely, thank you. So, in Eden, Garden of Eden was on a mountaintop, Ezekiel 28, God's only mountain. Thank you, yeah. Or Sweden, whichever.

Speaker: There'd be a mountaintop, and there were all kinds of trees with all kinds of food that Adam and Eve could eat from, and there the Lord would come down and encounter him. What the false religions did and do is they go on to mountaintops,

Speaker: And they create and these groves of trees and places sacrifice to demons, to worship demons. And to sacrifice whether it was food, people, incense, it was all happening.

Speaker: So Joash did great a great job in the day today on the ground level, but he did not deal with the high plates tearing them down.

Speaker: Then verse 6. But by the 23rd year of King Joash. So he was seven when he became king. Now we're flipping forward 23 years. He's now 13.

Speaker: be The same year Jesus was when Jesus began ministering on the earth.

Speaker: By the 23rd year of King Joash, the priest still had not repaired the temple. So the temple had suffered damage. He'd collected money for it.

Speaker: And the priests have not done the job.

Speaker: Therefore, King Joash summoned Jehoiada, the priest, his uncle, and other priests and asked them, why aren't you repairing the damage done the temple?

Speaker: Take no more money from your treasuries, but hand it over repairing the temple. So basically, he thinks there's been a bit of sticky finger nonsense, taking money from here, putting in their pockets, lining their pockets, he's calling them to account. He wants them to be accountable for how they've spent the money.

Speaker: Verse 8, the priests agreed that they would not collect any more money from the temple or aside from the people and that they would not repair the temple themselves.

Speaker: Jehoiada, the priest, took a chest and bore a hole in its lid. He placed it inside the altar on the right side as one entered the temple of the Lord. The priests who guard the entrance put into the chest all the money that was brought to the temple of the Lord.

Speaker: Whenever they saw there was a large amount of money in the chest, the royal secretary and the high priest came, counted the money that had been brought to the temple of the Lord and put it into bank.

Speaker: When the amount had been determined, they gave the money to the men appointed to supervise the work of the temple. With this, they paid those who worked in the temple of Lord, the carpenters and builders, the masons and stone cutters.

Speaker: They purchased timber and dressed stone for the repair of the temple of Lord, and at all the other expenses of repairing the temple.

Speaker: So they're being diligent with how they spend the finances. It's doing what God wants done.

Speaker: Verse 13, the money brought into the temple was not spent for making and silver basins, wick trimmers, sprinkling bowls, trumpets, or any other article of gold or silver for the temple of the Lord.

Speaker: It was paid to the workmen who used it to repair the temple. They did not require an accounting from those who gave the money to pay the workers. because they acted with complete honesty.

Speaker: There's a lot to be said serving being men and women of integrity. Letting your yes be yes. Being steadfast, being trustworthy.

Speaker: The money from the guilt offerings and sin offerings was not brought into the temple of the Lord. It belongs the priests. So, you know, they still have to make a living.

Speaker: And at this time, Hazel, king of Aram, that would be Syria today, went up and attacked Gath and captured it. Gath was where the Philistines had been operating from at the start of 1 Samuel.

Speaker: Then he turned to attack Jerusalem, which is the capital of Judah. Okay, so you've got two kingdoms, that Israel. Their capital is Samaria. In Judah in the south, Jerusalem the capital.

Speaker: But Joash, king of Judah, took all the sacred objects dedicated by his fathers, Jehoshaphat, Jehoram and Isaiah, the kings of Judah, and the gifts he himself had dedicated.

Speaker: And all the gold found the treasuries the temple of Lord and the royal palace. And he sent them to Haziel, king of Aram, who then withdrew from Jerusalem.

Speaker: So he had all this money, all this gold, and he paid off the king of Syria to leave him be. Said, here's some money. Walk away. Don't attack my country.

Speaker: Don't attack my kingdom.

Speaker: As for the other events of the reign of Joash and all he did, is are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah?

Speaker: His officials, and he sadly met a very unfortunate end, an assassination. His officials conspired against him and assassinated him at Beth Millow on the road down to Silla.

Speaker: So he reigned for 40 years.

Speaker: was betrayed and assassinated by his own officials, an inside job. You might say the deep state. The officials who murdered him were Jazabad, son of Shimeoth, and another Jazabad, son of Shomer.

Speaker: He died and was buried with his fathers in the city of David, Jerusalem, and Amaziah, his son, succeeded him as king.

Speaker: So all in all, ah phenomenal reign. became king at seven for 40 years, got to work on the reparations of the temple of God so that the nations could come in, encounter God and be blessed.

Speaker: You might say have a revival.

Speaker: And made sure those working for him were people all of integrity they said yes, it was yes, but that they'd know it was no. They had to be true to their words.

Speaker: Made sure that they were in right standing. Held them accountable. None of this, just sweeping everything under the carpet, sweeping things under the rug. Oh, I'll deal with this five years from now.

Speaker: And when trouble came, he dealt with it. Even if it was costly. Even if it hurts his pocket. He dealt this.

Speaker: Decisively. Immediately. And we have absolutely no records of any casualties or fatalities in his kingdom.

Speaker: He saw an attack was coming. And he shot straight. He dealt this. He hit the nail on the head. And again...

Speaker: not the most exciting hero in the Bible. In terms of his reign, he gets one chapter. In 2 Chronicles, his story reappears. There's not much more added to it.

Speaker: Effectively, he is a one-chapter hero in the Bible. It's not like David, where he gets, you know, multiple books. But his contribution was just as important in God's eyes.

Speaker: The clarity of his heart. was just as important in God's eyes. His right standing, his seal for truth, for integrity, for honesty, for accountability, was just as important.

Speaker: The one thing you should have done in addition to all this was tearing down the demonic altars in the high places. And even in Ireland, I think it's in Wicklow, and there was a mountain and up until only a few months ago, because I was actually going to go and start, like, you know, gas and things out of it myself and possibly damaging public property.

Speaker: It was full of, like, demonic Hindu gods. And if you've ever seen a Hindu god, looks like. I mean, you can tell. i mean, even the Hindus really tell if they're demonic. um But just few months ago, someone beat me to it. And they're all taken down.

Speaker: a So that still happens. It still happens in the Western world. It still happens in our very nation. and But we can also make sure the good happens.

Speaker: Being a Joash. Being our Princess Jehoshaphat. being a high priest, Jehoiada, people who aren't overly spectacular, but they made a decision.

Speaker: And they made it when it was easy, and they made it when it was hard, and they made it when they were the only ones who knew, and they made the same decision when they were in public, and they saw it through to completion.

Speaker: and That's what God's looking for. People who will make ah a decision.

Speaker: And lastly, we're going look at the gates. Again, this is something God spoke to me about at about 9.40 this morning while the worship was going on. i The worship playing on one laptop, but on the other laptop I was ah trying to get as much of this down as possible. a And again...

Speaker: a This is rough and ready, but there may just be something in it that speaks to your heart vaguely in some.

Speaker: And it's gait.

Speaker: And the word I really believe God's impression this morning, well, this afternoon, is repair your gait. Fix your gait.

Speaker: And here's the thing, we all have gate. We have an eye gate. The things you're looking at, the things you're absorbing with your eyes, you know. When did this become a word? Doomscrolling.

Speaker: I don't know exactly what it means, but I think it's when you go on social media or, you know, Google News and you just read all the bad stuff on purpose. As an aphrodisiac or something. And we have an ear gate.

Speaker: What... Are you sitting around listening to you? What songs are you listening to? What news sources are you listening to?

Speaker: What reports and diagnoses are you listening to? What conversations are you facilitating or allowing in your car at your coffee table, at your picnic bench in your garden?

Speaker: And Without being crass, just about every hole in your body is also at gate. Taking that what you will. What I felt... hundred percent he point dog to an entry but doesn't That is the best way of putting it. Yeah, Exactly. And also,

Speaker: people don't watch down us the way the walk Sure. Yeah. house that's white And people are steady on their feet and they would say they're gay. yeah Yes. so Yes. Very good. Yeah. Yeah. whatever canant can also Very true. And the physical is a picture of of the internal of the spiritual.

Speaker: So, yeah, when someone's shaky in themselves on the inside, it it's going to be reflected on the outside. Absolutely.

Speaker: So in the days of Athalia, the evil queen mother of Jehoiada the high priest of Joash, gate controlled access.

Speaker: You would have a gatekeeper and he was in charge of who got into your city or your kingdom or your town or your village and who got out.

Speaker: They're place of protection. And it's okay to tell someone you're not coming through this gate. I've had to say that to a lot of people. had to say to people recently. Or maybe they can come as far as the gate, but not cross the threshold.

Speaker: They were places of commerce, places of exchange. What you take from that person, what you give to them.

Speaker: And they could be places of authority and judgment. as in the case of this one, this story, where we have the she gate or the surrogate, which a lot of the story is likened to the foundation gate or the horse gate.

Speaker: and And then ultimately, her end is related to horses, and even her mother, Jezebel, that there's a relation to horses there, too, and her death. Her daughter trampled by horses and eaten by dogs.

Speaker: You've got to guard your gates. You are solely responsible. Maybe as as a child, okay, there's a bit of room for leeway.

Speaker: As an adult, you are responsible for what you look at. You're responsible for what you're listening to. You're responsible what you receive at those entry points and what you say no to, what you shut the door on.

Speaker: And in the book of Nehemiah, which takes place later than today's story, Joash was a good king. he was a He was an exception. It was rare. Most of them were woeful.

Speaker: And eventually the Babylonian Empire would come in and obliterate them. Many years would pass, 70, and then people, the Jews, got back into their kingdom again. Nehemiah was part of that rebuilding process.

Speaker: And one of his jobs was the reparation of the gate. And in Nehemiah 1 verse 3, the wall and the gates of the city were broken.

Speaker: And restoration happened gate by gate. And everyone had to do their part in the fixing. They had trowel in one hand, they had sword in the other.

Speaker: The sword is the word of God. It's our weapon in spiritual warfare. sword of the spirit. And the travel is being about the prophet's business, doing what he's told you to do.

Speaker: In Nehemiah 3, ten gates are mentioned. And these are ten gates, which supernaturally we all have.

Speaker: One of them was the Sheep Gate.

Speaker: The Sheep Gate was and represents a place of sacrifice and worship. Giving God what he's due You know, Jesus is the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

Speaker: He's already given up everything us. What will you give up for him?

Speaker: We don't surrender things to get good with God. We surrender to him because we are good with him. If you have a best friend and your best friend really hates chicken.

Speaker: When you're around that friend, you don't want one necessarily provoke your chicken hater. So maybe just stick to your ham and cheese samples. Or if you've got a friend and maybe they find electronic music triggering for some reason.

Speaker: You know what? Stick to your classical music or your ABBA. And maybe don't provoke them unnecessarily. How much more so it got.

Speaker: Then you got the fish gate. The fish gate represents trade and provision. Because you would catch the fish and sell the fish, or you go to the docks, you bring fish in.

Speaker: What are your access and your exit points. What's coming in what are you pouring out.

Speaker: Then we have the old gate. The old gate, I don't mean you in with the new, out with the old. I mean stability. Your sure foundations, the things in which you stand.

Speaker: start that what You can't be steadfast without the foundation. It's essential. And it's like what I said earlier, you know, when talking about my mother and mill her pelt issues and the likes.

Speaker: I could stand on diagnosing. I could stand on feelings or on how she looks one day, what's how she feels another day. or I could stand on stability itself.

Speaker: I could stand on truth itself. I could stand on the word of God, which says, i make all things new.

Speaker: When you're weak, bear on strong.

Speaker: In Jesus Christ, there is only yes and amen. Let the weak say I am strong. In your weakness, I made strong. My grace is sufficient for you.

Speaker: I am Rapha, I am the God who heals you.

Speaker: Then there's the Valley Gate.

Speaker: When you're on the mountaintop moments, you know, that's when everything's easy and light and breezy and you're like, wow, isn't this so wonderful? It's in the valley, the day today, real life.

Speaker: That humility and dependence come in. Yet though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I'll fear no evil, for you are with me.

Speaker: Your staff and your rod sticks. Your sticks comfort me. Why two sticks? Because that's the cross.

Speaker: David did not say yeah Though I walked through the valley of shadow death and and say, yeah, I'm going to. He said, I'm, I'm there. I'm walking. in Why? Because every single day that you are not dead, you are still walking in death's shadow.

Speaker: Every single day. Let's say this is where you are. the bible My Bible is where you're walking. The enemy has, let's say, One plan per second, if don't take your argument, to kill you, to steal you, to destroy you.

Speaker: You are ever walking in that shadow. You're ever walking in that valley. The chance and the potential your destruction is not only daily, it is second by second.

Speaker: That is where we walk. That is where we live. We live in a world at war with innumerable traps all around to destroy us. But I'm gonna fear no evil.

Speaker: But I will not be afraid. Why not? Because you're with me. And your staff, one stick, and your rod, your other stick, they comfort me. The cross comforts me.

Speaker: I look at the cross and I see that my sins are put to death. God looks at me, chooses with an act of his will to look at me like I'm not a sinner.

Speaker: My sickness is on that cross. What does that mean? It means I'm walking in hell. Let the sick say I am well.

Speaker: I look at that cross and I see all my anxiety and all my fear crucified or placed, so I'm going to walk in faith. going to walk in trust. I'm going to walk in belief.

Speaker: When I say God is absolutely good, I'm actually gonna believe it.

Speaker: When I look at that cross and I see that there's a corpse hanging on it, but three days later he's going to walk out of his grave, I'm going to look at things in my life that are dead.

Speaker: Things that are dead because I let them die or because I killed them. I know that the same resurrection power that raised Jesus in the dead is in me.

Speaker: And then we have perhaps the most unsightly, the smelliest of them all, the dungate. The crap gate. I made an allusion earlier on we were praying to a crap hole, like in Russia.

Speaker: That represents sin. Sin stinks. God can't stand the smell of it.

Speaker: The story in Zechariah chapter three, where there's a priest and Satan is accusing oh, Jesus, look at this one. and You call this a good man? He's bad man. And the priest is wearing a robe.

Speaker: It's a filthy robe. The Hebrew says it's covered in fecal matter. But his sin had met was metaphysical in the spirit realm. You can see it, you can smell it.

Speaker: The devil could point it out. And Jesus said to an angel, take that off and put on something clean. Put on spiritual clothes. He's clean in my eyes.

Speaker: Okay, well, spiritually you're clean. Is your soul clean? Are your physical hands clean?

Speaker: Ditch them. Just dump it. With the same immediacy. How automatically you would flush a toilet you just crapped in. You wouldn't think of it, you'd just do it.

Speaker: If I asked you to describe last time you pressed the flush button or you pulled down the flusher, you wouldn't remember because it's that automatic. That's how automatically we've got to deal with them.

Speaker: If I asked you to describe in intimate detail the last time you put a cap on a toothpaste tube, you probably couldn't because you brush your teeth multiple times a day automatically. That's how automatically we've got deal with them.

Speaker: Then there's the fountain gate. What's fencing, it's water. Cleansing. And refreshment. That can be through prayer.

Speaker: It can come from the words. It can come from soaking worship.

Speaker: And it comes from obedience. When God says something, do it. I reached a point a number of years ago and it was the most ordinary day, but my goodness, it changed my life and made me the man I am today.

Speaker: i stopped reading all these amazing promises in the Bible and saying, there, that's someone else. I stopped reading all these great things in the Bible and saying, gosh, you know what?

Speaker: Well, isn't that not lovely for so-and-so? Isn't that lovely for such-and-such? Yeah, maybe in 25 years, I'll get there. um Or, oh yeah, sure, it great back then, but they didn't know what it like living the 21st century.

Speaker: I stopped making excuses. And I just said, you know what? I'm actually going to believe that this is for me. I'm actually going to I'm going to take a risk, take a gamble, and just assume that if God says something, he means it.

Speaker: And there's a beautiful sentence here that God impressed me to pray. it was Tuesday morning this week. And it's Ephesians. If you struggle with your identity in Christ, if you don't know how God sees you, if you don't know your heavenly passport says, read Ephesians chapters. The whole thing's amazing.

Speaker: One to three in particular. That is your heavenly passport.

Speaker: It's all about your identity, how God sees you. But like I said, all Ephesians are brilliant. And Ephesians, fine. Verse 26 and 27.

Speaker: Ephesians 5, 26 and 27. I'll even backtrack a little bit 25, but it's all good. And it says, Husband, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy,

Speaker: Cleansing her by the washing with water through the words. The word of God cleans you. And to present her to himself as a radiant church.

Speaker: We don't even call the waiting and women's conference radiant this verse, but my goodness, we appropriate on this brain this week. Without any stain or wrinkle or any other blemish.

Speaker: but holy and blameless. If you struggle with your identity, or you woke up this morning feeling like a figure of shame.

Speaker: Yeah, that was nice. On a Monday, you're like, I think God hates me. Right, Ephesians 5, start at 25, the whole thing's bright. Only keep our husbands, if it's relevant for you, if not start halfway through sentence, down to 27 and stick it on every mirror in your house.

Speaker: Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. Let's make that personal. Christ loved me and gave himself up for me to make me holy cleansing me by the washing with water through the word, and to present me to himself as a radiant me, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.

Speaker: Any word in your head Any word on anyone else's lips that is contrary to that, that is someone who does not know what a heavenly passport is.

Speaker: That is how God sees you.

Speaker: There was also a water gate in Nehemiah 3. And again, that's the word of God. It's reading scripture, listening to scripture, and especially reading it aloud.

Speaker: Reading it quietly is is is fine. But there is something about speaking the word of God into the atmosphere. That's amazing. and Especially with Ephesians.

Speaker: The first three chapters. It's all about who you are. It's exactly how God sees you. It's how he has changed you on a spiritual level.

Speaker: In the conformity of Jesus.

Speaker: Then we have the horse gate, is probably the one from our story today, in which what are horses? Well, they're they're powerful animals. They're animals of war.

Speaker: It's about strength, warfare, and readiness for warfare. I'm going to be honest with you. For me personally, it's been a great week.

Speaker: A lot of different challenges going on. And this morning, I woke up with such... heaviness. I almost pulled the plug on this morning, on church this morning, I almost text someone to say, hey, listen, and can you just do it for me?

Speaker: And then i made a decision. I was literally just putting the communion elements on the sitting room table, which I'll have to open there in a moment.

Speaker: And something just hit me. Two things but I'll just share the one. And it was, again, Ephesians, one chapter later. Verse 6. Like I said, today is bit scattered. all over the place. All this just rough, ready, and raw. But that's just how I feel God's leading it today.

Speaker: And... but

Speaker: This would be easier if were wearing my glasses. Read Ephesians 6. It's all in spiritual warfare. And it's about on the day of battle. battle on the day of spiritual warfare. There we

Speaker: You're found standing when the war begins. You stand during the battle. And when the battle is over, you are found still standing on your feet.

Speaker: And it's Ephesians 6, 10 to 11. Finally, be strong in the Lord. and in his mighty power. And I think for me, that was where I went wrong this week. I tried being strong in my power, and that's, well, allowed to be bit of fix.

Speaker: Put on the full arm of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.

Speaker: And then describes the different levels of the demonic, but verse 13, Therefore puts on the full armor of God, just in case you didn't do it, you know, in verse 11, you're reminded.

Speaker: So that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground. And after you have done everything to stand.

Speaker: You're not found lying on your back in a heap. You're not found broken. You're not found destroyed. No limbs are missing. You haven't suffered major casualties.

Speaker: You stand in the day of battle and you're still standing afterwards. If a horse can stand while it sleeps and there's horse gate, you are the horse gate.

Speaker: You're still found your feet afterwards.

Speaker: Then there's the East Gate, which was pointing to the mountain on which Jesus would be crucified, Mount Calvary. It's wherever you are, you keep your eyes on the cross of Jesus.

Speaker: That's why you're not a single Sunday goes by without us referring to the cross, whether in a teaching or through communion.

Speaker: i have gone to so many hundred church services over the years, maybe thousands, isnt where the cross was not mentioned once, mentioned once,

Speaker: And I don't care how nice the teaching was. I don't care how holy spirit aura like the smoke machines were.

Speaker: i don't care how flashingly the lights clicked and turned on when they're supposed to and got technicolor when they needed to be. If the cross and or the resurrection were not mentioned once, I was like, yeah, I'll get just wasted and I'm fine listening to you.

Speaker: And then we have the inspection gate. That's the 10th one that Hermione mentioned. Heart checks. Search my heart and know me, oh God, know all my inmost ways.

Speaker: And highlight anything that is displeasing to you. Doing heart check. Doing a finance check.

Speaker: Doing a how I spend my time check. doing it. Do I spend so much time in ministry that I'm neglecting other people in my life? Check. But taking stock and letting God speak very pointedly and very directly and not if, when he does, hearkening to his will and doing something about it.

Speaker: And then just in addition to that,

Speaker: There are four more gates mentioned. These ones are mentioned in the New Testament.

Speaker: Even when Jesus was on the earth. In Israel, the country would have all the Old Testament to the Bible as it was back then. And the religious leader Pharisees didn't even know who he was.

Speaker: In fact, they point-blank told people to reject him.

Speaker: And Jesus said, there is a narrow gate that leads to everlasting life. Now, everlasting life then was not heaven. It meant the kingdom he wanted to bring in that only a few people actually believed in him.

Speaker: If rejection is something that has followed you your whole life long, Jesus knows that feels. Because you might think, oh my goodness, I'm so hated. I'm so despised. Nobody loves me.

Speaker: Jesus is love himself. And after 30 to 33 years on earth, whenever he said it, comparatively very few actually believed in him and were willing to follow him.

Speaker: To the point where he could say there's a narrow gate that are actually following me into everlasting life. The vast majority of my own countrymen hate me.

Speaker: In fact, even his younger brothers, Mary and Joseph, would get married and they'd have a very normal married life. His own siblings rejected him before he came back from the dead.

Speaker: They would go on to write the New Testament, James and Jude, but and initially even they thought he was a bat-crap-crake, right, or even a cult. So you're in good company, and Jesus understands.

Speaker: This is one I believe is going be so true for so many of you this month. And Jesus Apostle Peter. The one who would walk on water.

Speaker: The one whose shadow would heal the sick. That Peter got arrested for ridiculous reasons.

Speaker: And next thing, a supernatural event occurred. And the iron gate swung open. And out he walked. And I believe for so many of you who right now feel like you're in prison.

Speaker: Feel like you are imprisoned. Feel like the Iron Gate is shut. Barred. Hemmed in. There's no way out. so You're stuck.

Speaker: I and actually going to prophesy right now. That's how strong I feel it. That September is the month of the iron gates swinging open, the chains falling, can't even hear chains falling right now in the spirit realm, and shackles swinging off your ankles and your wrists.

Speaker: That's September, 2026, marks the month of freedom and the swinging open of iron gates.

Speaker: We looked this one and a half ago. Hell has gates. It has an entry point. so Sadly, those gates swing widely for many people. Oh yeah. and For people, they only get in.

Speaker: They don't get out. So you start seeing people who you believe should be in hell popping up around you. They're demons. They're not the people. It's a one way of trip. But they swing widely and they consume very, very many people every day, which breaks the father's heart.

Speaker: But at the end of time, even after the Day of Judgment, the Lord scraps up reality and he remakes it, good as new, better than it ever was.

Speaker: And he remakes planet Earth. And Israel, the new Israel, will be the capital of it. And there'll be city, we're told a cuboid city. There'll be 12 precious stones, each a different color.

Speaker: And on top of it, a city in a cube that will glisten and shine, a supernatural city called the New Jerusalem, which will have 12 gates that never shut. And all the people who live on the earth will be able to go in. And that is where Jesus is going to live.

Speaker: And again, if that goes right over your heads, do not hear, because we will be looking at it in our Disciple of Wedding stays, starting in October. And that again is revealed the Revelation.

Speaker: ah That is not only at the end of time, that is the start of the new galaxy.

Speaker: Yeah, good, good stuff because I have lot of questions about that. Good, a lot of people do, Stephen. I hear people every single week tell them, like, the end times, the apocalypse, the end of Christ.

Speaker: I remember growing up and being told the end of Christ was Tony Blair. Two years later, it was Brackaback. And as far as I know, the rapture is still happening yet, because we're all here.

Speaker: So... You know what I heard the other day who it possibly was? To know your man, MrBeast on YouTube. I'm getting answers. Like, MrBeast on YouTube is going to be the Antichrist. Like, hello? I don't know. but you You don't know, but like, come on.

Speaker: You know what? What I've come to realize with some conspiracy theory Christians, and I don't mean that word as a slight... I believe a lot of conspiracy theories is actually... How do I put that?

Speaker: I believe a lot of conspiracy theories are Holy Spirit revelations six months ahead of RTE confirming them. That's being honest. A lot of it in these days of exposure is God actually saying, alright, look here, look there, look more into that, don't trust this, question narrative, sure.

Speaker: Christian conspiracy theories... basically happen when one church fellowship is jealous that another one is bigger and they need to create a reason to explain that that one is bigger illegitimately that person's popular illegitimately that person has the money that we want and obviously we deserve it and they don't and here are 10 reasons why and so they tend to just like poke fun or insults at people who are doing a better job than they are or more successful job or more fruitful job or more financially overgrowth of job.

Speaker: And that person is automatically the antichrist. And did I get caught up in that? Yeah. Maybe in like, you know, the 20 noughties. but And then there comes the point is I have to say,

Speaker: Pop yourself on. simply yeah Yeah, sometimes you just don't know who to listen to, Brendan, you know? Yeah, I know. You really don't. So yeah yeah, that'll be cool when you do that, yeah, for sure.

Speaker: We listen to Jesus. Yeah. And here's the thing eat Some Christians kind sound mad nonsense and they do love the Lord. They do. And they they just hear alarm bells that aren't ringing.

Speaker: Yeah. and i just feel this compulsion to sound the alarm so the worlds not fall into deception while they're deceiving them and some of it it comes from such a good place it genuinely comes from place of care and concern They just need to sit down, chill out, and have a cuppa.

Speaker: so Yeah. And you said, listen to the Lord. you know And listen to the Lord, words exactly. If a little bit more of that were going on, and yeah, the world would be in a better place, and God's house would be in much healthier place.

Speaker: Yeah, absolutely, yeah. Cool. that And then...

Speaker: And Lord, I declare,

Speaker: is a Star Trek reference, but it comes from the Bible, that living, long, and prospering God over all of us, as we, now God, take a time of communion, where we were not living well, and we were not prospering, and the spirit, the soul, the body.

Speaker: But then, Jesus, that's you gave up your body for us. You tore it to pieces and you said, this is gonna happen to me. I'm gonna be shredded for you.

Speaker: And you took out the cup

Speaker: and you said, I'm gonna be poured out like wine. And that's exactly what happened to your blood on the cross. e But Lord, your body was broken so every part of our lives could be fixed.

Speaker: And your blood was poured out so that our sins, our were unattended dungate could be washed, could be cleansed.

Speaker: And you've given us the full 66 book collection that is the Bible. 66 books of Holy Spirit revelation. You gave to about 40 different authors to get the fullest understanding of you.

Speaker: And with that, Lord,

Speaker: you did it because you loved your church. You loved your people. You loved your body. You loved your house on the earth.

Speaker: And your word

Speaker: makes us holy. Cleanses us by the washing with water through the word.

Speaker: Presents us to you as radiant.

Speaker: Stainless.

Speaker: Without wrinkle. Without blemish.

Speaker: And holy. And blameless. That is how you see us, God.

Speaker: And just like Princess Jehoshaphat and High Priest Jehoiada, they had to make a decision. And make it again. And make it again. And make it again. And make it and we make that decision, Lord, to see ourselves as you see us.

Speaker: as we have this time of communion, God, we are reintroducing ourselves to ourselves

Speaker: as per your perspective, not as sinners, but as saved by grace, not as beggars, but as people who have every good thing God wants us to, everything we need in order to thrive.

Speaker: Not as people who are in bits and pieces and falling apart, but as people who are prospering.

Speaker: Not as people on the destiny train has passed us by, as people who are on the destiny train.

Speaker: This time of communion, Lord,

Speaker: is where we put our focus back on what you did on the cross, on the resurrection power you exhibited in that cave. for ourselves and for every prayer that we pray today.

Speaker: really In Jesus' name. Amen. What's your favorite? Your friend.

Speaker: Mm-hmm.

Speaker: Mm-hmm.

Speaker: Thank you for the cross.

Speaker: Thank you for crucifying our sin. our shame, our physical pain, our emotional pain, our wrinkles, our blemishes, our stains.

Speaker: We're burying them in the grave, in the pit of hell. yeah

Speaker: in the And you arose in new life And that's the life you're offering.

Speaker: Abundant life. Exceeding life. Super added life.

Speaker: Life forevermore.

Speaker: ah life of purpose, a life of destiny, a life of take back.

Speaker: A life of recompense. doing damage to the forces that have been damaging us and taking back what they stole.

Speaker: A resurrected life of seeing what's been killed come back to life again.

Speaker: life of regeneration and rejuvenation, restoration. as you resuscitate everything in us and in our lives that's been destroyed. all because of the cross and the empty grave.

Speaker: We thank you for that, Father. Thank you, Jesus. We thank you, Holy Spirit.

Speaker: Okay guys, thank you so much for joining this morning, this afternoon. It was a different Sunday, probably the most different of our different Sundays. But different isn't bad. Every day should be different.

Speaker: We have different needs. Every Sunday, different demands. Every Sunday, day God has a different focus. every Sunday and it's important that we we meet those needs that we're sensitive to the Holy Spirit and there we give our little, we might think our little is big comparatively, it's all small and we let God do something amazing with us.

Speaker: So I thank you for ah for your time, for your attention, for your engagement, for your prayer, your intercession. a your commitment, your trust, and go about this week power, in authority, you might feel like a princess Jehoshaphat where everything's falling apart and there are enemies all around and the people who...

Speaker: you've paid to do what you say, you'd be able to trust, are doing most wicked, reprehensible things, but you can still find the baby Joash's in the margins of your day, the people that God has for you to impact, for you to protect, for you to rescue.

Speaker: It might be practical, it might be prayer, it might just be sitting with them, it might be a call, it might be a conversation, But the world is full of baby Joash's. Vulnerable people in danger.

Speaker: And there is only one group of people on this entire planet who actually spiritually really have the ability to protect them.

Speaker: And it's the body of Christ. The authorities will do whatever the Queen of Talies tell them to do. It's the Jehoshaphat's And it's the High Priest Jehoiada's.

Speaker: It's the God's Promise Says. And it's the I know God's Word. I'm familiar with God's Word. And God's Word says it's the Christians whose job it is to actually turn this upside down world the right way up.

Speaker: To find the baby Joe Ashes, to be about the father's business, to be involved the course correction, to dismantle the operations of darkness and to help rescue those vulnerable, beautiful people so the plans of God can take place. And it's not always showy and doesn't always involve a microphone and a camera and it shouldn't.

Speaker: But God sees. And there's a book in heaven. That has your name on the front cover. And the Bible tells us the book of deeds, every good thing you've ever said, thought or done is written in that book. And on the day of judgment, God going to open up that book and he's going to read you your life story.

Speaker: Only the highlights. And you'll be rewarded. on the basis of those highlights. And.

Speaker: You'll take those rewards with you. into the remade reality, the remade heaven, and God got always knows.

Speaker: God always sees. God always appreciates, he's always cheering you on. Don't try to do in your own strength. You won't accomplish all that much. Be strong and mighty in his power.

Speaker: Because he's the all-sufficient one. The all- soul energizing one the strength giving one and yeah god is absolutely good amen amen amen god bless your friends have a super special love for the rest your sunday i'm a branch make i on you in the day

Speaker: Thank you so much, Brendan. See you during in the week. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. yeah