All right, thanks for staying with us. Now the chief observer of the European Union election observation mission Barry Andrews had in a press briefing last week noted that the February elections exposed an enduring systemic weaknesses and therefore signal a need for further legal and operational reforms to enhance transparency inclusiveness and accountability. He said that the shock coming in the law and electoral admission hindered the conduct of well-run and inclusive elections and damaged trust in the independent national election electoral commission. Now the EU that's the ECOM EU EOM then offered 23 recommendations for consideration by the Nigerian government that would be improved or that would improve other further elections or future elections. Now however the statement in the statement titled we reject European Union's conclusion on the 2023 general elections. The president's special advisor on special duties, communications and strategy daily, alleged bias and an intention to impeach the integrity of the 2023 election which is its base or which it described as the best organized general elections in Nigeria since 1999. So today we're asking see me opening my eyes the best what are your thoughts on the federal government's rejection of the European Union's election final report. Now please let's hear what you have to say remember you can join the conversation send us an SMS or WhatsApp to the red one 8034663 can also tweet at us at we show after one with the hashtag we show. Okay first of all let me come to you. We need to question your idea of best because we all saw it we let's not even be sentimental now right we all saw it we all we saw the news we saw people's experience experiences on social media and all of that this best is best because i don't think that there's we need to call it because best value after you call 150 your families see best okay please let's be very careful because the things that we we literally shoot ourselves in the food sometimes the like you have to say Odin D E U E U M came out okay fine we've seen several reports we've seen the Yerga reports as well which literally says the same thing that you know the EU AM has said how is it that you're now coming to tell us that first of all you are rejecting the report you need to state why you are rejecting the report have you guys even sat down to even analyze the report to say okay this is what these guys are saying this is what they're saying have they could lie about them they have rooms i've gone through the thing like everything that they say there is practically true so isn't the best thing to go back and say okay maybe this is where we messed up maybe this is what we should have done it's not outrightly saying oh you are rejecting the report and since 1999 you don't think that there's any other any other election that has been as coordinated as this 2023 weapons we know that that's a like any way but yeah let's keep it moving now okay let's now come back to the fact that what what's his name now they like has also come come out to say oh um EU has said that they are creating 23 they're giving 23 recommendations of you know what's an ethnic to do better the reforms that they need to do and all of that and you are rejecting that as well saying that you don't think that that's correct but we're doing ourselves how else can we be better if you cannot even take such constructive criticism how do you intend to do better in 2027 so you know i will stop here for now let me come to you dear like today i'm here to observe i'm an observer dear like let me hear your thoughts what do you think first of all have you gone through the report and what are your thoughts on it here um i have gone through my thoughts and honestly it's um as much as um there are facts truths and i mean observations according to their own mandate the truth is um i mean i i don't know if um if um it is okay so for me you know when i read it and then when i read what the government you know the when the government rejected the report um that was expected because i mean if you don't reject the report then it automatically gives credence to the fact that the whole election or the whole electoral process was a sham and at this point i think that the correct administration feel that they have gone too far to accept that so maybe it is pride maybe it is just i don't know um well i don't know i don't know because honestly i see no reason why they can't say that um these recommendations are taken in good faith and will be worked on towards the 2027 i mean if these are real students of democracy then they would understand that um democracy is all over the world are very interested in elections that are happening in Nigeria considering how popular Nigeria is and Nigeria's place in the League of Nations but um i don't know outside of that the truth is um European Union election whatever whatever whatever they're still almost like a civil society there the Nigeria is a sovereign state and um there is little or not they can't sanction Nigeria in terms of the fact that oh you must take our recommendation or the fact that we we disagree with the result of this election means that um there's something that can be done i'm not very sure that at that level there's anything that can be done except the reports that all the electoral um all the participants you know are going through now which is the court process you know so i think we just have to wait for the court to come out with their results and they are ready to let us put this down but um Nigeria is one of very good with criticism um we see it as um someone saying that um you know everything we're doing is wrong or we see it as we can't be corrected and i think that's a major problem in our our ambition to grow as a nation if we don't see constructive criticism you know i mean this is not just from EU the EU comm or electoral college or you know Yaiga or any other civil society out there this is just it's just simple common sense that um when people who's who's who have taken the responsibility to ensure that um were able to perpetuate democracy in Nigeria when they have put in the work and they have come up with recommendations or their fact-finding um reports it is it just makes sense you know to look at things and see where the gaps are and you know put to ensure that i mean going forward you know all these things are tackled but again and i honestly don't know again with all these things concerning Nigeria i won't just it's a retiring but let me come to because let's keep EU aside since they say that EU is the problem where they get electoral college right they were series of tweets that was posted on the 38th of march 2023 so if you're not following electoral college go on twitter and go and see it i just want to pick a few points right yeah it says it is key to know that electoral college as pioneer political literacy institution in Nigeria running a 27 course model that has educated over 10 000 Nigerians virtually added with its classes in states physically and using radio and its model per program went full circle on improving the base of political participation right we start at the starting point of every political race the electoral act 2022 states clearly that manual and physical copies right of lists of members of political parties must be submitted to INEC before conventions and primaries can be conducted they hear from the information that we have not one of the 18 registered political parties met this criteria this is from the section 77 subsection three of the electoral act in 2022 right so there is i mean let's even start from the basis the foundation so the electoral college Nigeria began its review on the electoral cycle from primaries and this was quite an occasion in Nigeria and must be very notable from them that not only did the currency of exchange of funds move to dollar the mode of emergence in 57 of the primaries can be questioned based on emergence of the candidate as states in the electoral or rather as stated in the electoral act now the campaigns by all a 18 political party were mad with nepotism religious undertone and all parameters are brought by the electoral act were in play in the 18 political parties and its supporters which is against the electoral act do you understand so if we are not going to be touching what what happened on election day from the foundation of the elections do you understand we didn't even get to try we saw dollar exchange here is that the white dollar started going when you were conducting primaries so when people then come out to bring their reports this is not the time for you to think that somebody's attacking it's trying to attack yeah it's what people will fail to realize as a leader and i'm saying this they don't you guys don't understand what you're doing what you are doing you might get away with this but what you are doing is continuous decay of the system when do we get to clean up the system when every single time wait till after my tone before we can fix the system it doesn't work that way so a lot of our political leaders right you get things done you enter anyhow you are mad you emerge you know leaders and all of that what happens afterwards somebody else will say okay no i have to also do right and that's why you would see that from the EU's report they said that whatever happened with the presidential it had an adverse effect on the state elections and which was what we saw that were on ground so i don't know where the line is in all of this i don't know whether where they misrepresented the fact and it is not because somebody is trying to favor a particular candidate or something yes we saw the elections people were brutal brutally um um was called assaulted people were people people could not vote we saw um what's called um cards voters cards being thrown in the lagoon we were harvesting people's voters cards from the bush we saw all of these things happen right they gave them the one thing that we asked inek to do which was electronic transmission of results from the polling units right that did not happen so when there is a report it is not for us to say oh no no no no no you people are getting it all wrong no when you're really really transparent i said if you are if you align to yourself but you cannot lie to nigerians there was no transparency in these elections right so a lot has happened what i would expect right from the presidency is saying you know what let us accept the fact that they were mistaken you cannot just call and say no no no no no this is the best election never this is not it can never be the best election wrong i was in the 2015 general elections when the emergence of president mohammed buhari by was his his his emergence and i know that election you know a lot of things happen and guess what when president then president jonathan saw that come this is the will of the people he hand stopped and made a phone call and said you know congratulations this one was like you had a cutlass to your neck is either you you vote i mean we saw threats people coming out openly to threaten people certain tribes were being you know threatened leave the state and all so what are you saying we'll take a break when we come back from that break we want to hear more of your thoughts then if you can have questions stay with us all right thanks for staying with us now if you just tuned in we're discussing the federal government's rejection of the european union election final report now please let's hear what you have to remember you can join the conversation send us an sms or what's up just wait one eight zero three four six six three you can also do that as a way show after one with the hashtag way show all right you like you wanted to come in it yeah um i would say that um you know it's surprising i mean reading um moley law was um of um electoral college report um when he said that um the very basic you know um some of the rules were were not adhered to that's um on the part of i-neck it begs the question is it that um i-neck just um sit down and create um policies or Nigeria in terms of the law makers they just create policies nobody bothers to go read them because i mean if you read those policies these policies are supposed to guide your actions are supposed to guide your deliverables the fundamental things that were very wrong and that begins to even state to i-neck you know what and again i think some things that they have become political you know i-neck's role is supposed to be very bipartisan they're not supposed to be for one or any party you know so what we're seeing playing out is i-neck not understanding its role the the the people sit at the elms of affairs that should conduct you know should should ensure that there is a free and fair election do not even understand what the constitution says about what is expected of them during electoral you know processes so they can't do it better they they're doing is as if they're just pulling things from the top of their head because i really honestly i mean when i read these school reports the best thing he said just knocked me off like in all honesty there should have there students have even been an election at that point i mean when i-neck already saw what was going on they should have somehow found a way to say okay you know what x y z are being contravened this subsection is being contravened this is being called this is happening this is happening i thought we may need to expand you know the dates but again i mean i-neck at this point so so let me even read some of this thing that comes to each other so there's a context five it says parties particularly the larger parties pdp apc this is not the eom for the eu right it says pdp apc labor party charged charged excessive fees for participation in legally mandated primary elections free tickets were offered on some occasions for women to contest and reduce costs for women but many people including youth remained excluded due to the lack of funds now recommendation was remove unreasonable restrictions to the rights to stand by curbing the charging of excessive fees for consideration as a candidate in party primary election so where is the line in this right we know when you say that the hamlet was the form again was it nothing hundred million right hundred million okay so now it says ahead of the elections there were various allegations of illicit cash hoarding and in one case estc reportedly seized some 32 million narrates seemingly intended for vote buying in Lagos evidence of official spending by political parties in traditional and online media where west um oh sorry i can read this it said the use of paid on advertising on meta platforms where was relatively low accountability for parties candidate and their third parties is absence of the requirement of the traceability of the fund's source yeah and they recommended that promote transparency and accountability in campaign of finances finances by include a introduction of a mandatory requirement on political party candidate and third parties to operate pre notified um dictated bank accounts right or the catered bank account for donations revenue spending subject to clear rules and accounting reporting and public disclosure before during and after campaign with robust sanction for non-compliance remember that labor party had organized what they called now what's the word now that they did um a telecom where crowdfunding where they did a telecom it was it was 24 hours they were on tv trying to raise funds right so they just a lot of things you know from this report and the recommendations to be very honest there's no lie in it and i like what the eum has done because they have now identified the different areas it's well labeled new but like look at this one electoral administration which is very true how did you pick the rss how i did how was the commissioner selected or elected in different in the first place so this year so examination of the selection process signaled that the selection process of both anne commissioners and rss were neither transparent nor in line with the non-partisan requirements which is very true we could tell that that there were sentiments here and there there were there was some sort of bias you know i mean even though they claim that it is the best and i'm saying that they claim it is the best maybe because of the introduction of electoral or election technology that's talking about the beaver systems and all of that but again it has we've come here and they said hardware and software specifications of beavers test results audits basic program procurement details and so on and so forth and so and so on rather we're not we're very unclear and not published transparency is a key component in adopting election technology and building trust and confidence into the system that is used i would have thought that's because we're now introducing technology in this into this whole thing it's just like when you run an organization if you're logging in electronically it means that nobody can tell you lie if you log in at 7 30 to 7 30 you cannot go and manipulate that this jam you cannot go and manipulate and you know claim that you log in at 6 30 which i thought was that was the thing that was going to happen for the elections but unfortunately that is not what happened and now the recommendation for that is ensure transparency and allow for public scrutiny of election technology by mandating a law that is timely okay mandating timely disclosure of test and audit results we definitely didn't see that happen so you cannot come and tell me that that one i even saw that happen in my polling units anyway now let's now come to um um voters registration every Nigerian citizen 18 years of age and over may votes provided that their residents are working in we know that story already we saw what happened with under age 40 exactly we saw the videos so what is in life there's no lie so that's what i'm saying to to to the federal government right nobody is i mean what has happened has happened the person that is there is already dead i mean there's really nothing court cases are still ongoing you don't know what the outcomes will be but my point is right it is okay for you you know how you say that this person is um if the person is um if you are not favoring if the person you're not being favored you see you call the person a criminal but if the person is if you are being favored there's a way they they coin that phrase right um the person is is a thief when the person is not you're not favoring but if the person ah no no no the person is actually helping helping the masses right that's what is happening so we we are not asking that the system be cleaned up just because for the now right there is there is what is called um ripple effect right yeah for everyone wrong that we continue to condone and we continue to tolerate and accommodate as a people we are seeing already how it is translating in our society the ripple effect and it's a snowball effect it will keep on growing bigger and bigger and it will be a point in time that even us we cannot control it anymore right i always say this thing and i'm afraid we are sitting on a keg of gunpowder in this country there are so many things that we are tolerating and allowing to happen that will continue to eat us up as a people right at some point it will not become we will turn on each other right if there's no if there's nothing else to do you would not have to literally turn on each other and so when when people bring our reports like this before you say you want to condemn or whatever and call call them out right can you go back to your books you cannot tell anybody in this country even even your supporters your supporters as like you know your supporters they know that these elections were flawed i was in a polling unit in margodo right there was over voting technically they were supposed to cancel that in something but because they had brought in terms this was the governorship elections they had brought in thoughts because in presidential election a certain candidate won so governorship they were prepared right they had brought in thoughts they had to just say you know what just remove the excess and just you know because there was over voting technically what happens with over voting are you not supposed to continue to you know cancel that entire thing they were results that were supposed to i mean elections that were supposed to be uh reconducted they were not it didn't happen so there's this when you say you're rejecting a report right rejected come with your own counter and facts do you understand and figures and counter them don't come and say oh no no they don't know what they're saying you're not accepting their their result where are your facts and your figures that have come to say wait this your elections that was conducted was credible even the i-lecture man himself cannot come out to say that this election was credible where is he by the way we are still looking for him we are still looking for him right you know so and if you if you look at the summary of the report right it's not like they are coming out to say they are condemning and i i don't like it when people's when when people come out with statements and making it look like oh it's because your candidate yes that's not all we are saying that's not what we are saying do you understand we need to start questioning a lot of things it's just like parents that have um what's he called parents that have what's the word now um children that they are paying examiners to to to give them are you going to follow that child i know some children that that had to they've had to drop out of university to to go and start all over again because even if you pass the exam now what happens how would you cope how would you go it goes beyond just just thank you it goes beyond now yeah i think we have some comments let's quickly take some before okay let me take this one good evening ladies welcome back to live broadcast hope you all had a good break and happy birthday to each another thank you so much he reports on last conducted elections should be welcome all advice to perform in credible elections in future should also be followed the last election was a fraud and a slap on the endurance no hard feelings mr larkin special advice as a president be it so this is from adi regards adi thank you so much adi um ijela you have a comment um yes um so this one says um good evening um my beautiful sisters i'm joseph from mainland if we cannot tell ourselves the truth i don't know who can tell us it was very obvious that the election was car characterized with violence and fraud okay so my dear beautiful sisters of what are you saying oh we miss you it's a special comments rejection of the european union election um final report my dear beautiful sister were made mention of two things which is right without a shadow of doubt there was exchange of dollars and an eye net did not do what was expected of them the election was a terrible bad luck and nightmare the handwriting was clear on the wall anyone who says this election was the best hope and knows nothing and will forever know nothing two weeks without this program oh my goodness i miss your sister congratulations on your son's outcome rubbish oh thank you so much and um my runaway sister chinello happy birthday to you and welcome back thank you thank you thank you i feel that i neck chairman has apologized to nigerians okay how true is this this can somebody but this is from angola right the person wrote the message from angola i don't know how true that is honestly but the truth is is beyond an apology you see i i say to people right i am learning okay he didn't apologize okay somebody's saying he didn't apologize because i've not heard that but you see i was just going to touch on a little bit of an apology you see you know what i see in nigeria do and first what i'm not sorry that's what we do all the time you are on the road you are acting funny you hit the person now you're not lying down on the ground and be begging edge on my head it doesn't make any sense i always say now that see i would weigh my actions i take my time do you understand so that whatever happened i will hold you my full chest i did the consequences of what i have done i will chest it and say i did it do you understand not apologizing and coming back to say you know okay she's saying i i next should apologize okay that's what she meant i next chairman should apologize to nigerians oh okay okay he should apologize but my sister we don't need apology you know honestly we don't need apology what we need is accountability yes we need accountability we need we need this the court case to continue to go on we need to see i like i have always said on this table and i would keep on saying it anywhere if the reports come back right and the result remains the same but after a thorough investigation investigation every nigerian would accept the result yeah what we feel i think what what what pains us is like i see you trumpeting yes that's the best of painful cards yes because you told me that carry your pvc and one vote i carried my pvc and i went to vote so it's like you say okay no no no you your your your mouth right now your opinion don't matter that's what is that's what i think is aggravating a lot of you know and tension amongst nigerians and a lot of people are leaving the country because they just feel like you know what at this point there's no giving up you know but let's hear your final thoughts generally let me come to you then come back to you children well we just need a system that works we need a accountability we need everybody to rise to the occasion we need citizens that are knowledgeable citizens that excuse me oh i lost you for a second go ahead oh okay sorry i mean we need citizens that understand their responsibilities and role and they're ready to play their part in the you know in the process of governance and that means rising up to the challenge being a better versions of themselves because it is only when we're better that we can actually replicate ourselves in government and we can demand better absolutely absolutely so do you like even if i agree with you that we need to become more politically literate we also well yes that's also because we also need to become more active in government spaces as well so in the next elections we also need to go out there put ourselves in offices and now is the time to actually start join a party today look for a party to join today so that we can stop stop complaining about what the government is doing what the government and we become the government ourselves and then absolutely and that is why for us every monday we are in partnership with enough is enough is it was not because we felt like doing partnership no we actually understand that there's a fundamental problem right that office of the citizen we're not owning that office we need to own it you understand and i like what i'm chinella and yola have said get involved right it's not enough for you to sit on the sidelines get involved join a political party you are not see let me tell you something at the point of polling unit is already too late i mean couldn't allow us to have that thing a lot at the point of polling unit is too late you have to be part of the people that are not collecting dollars to to appoint or to elect a presidential candidate or a gubernatorial candidate or whatever at the point of primaries where they select the people right that is where your power lies just imagine if you become a delegate you will not collect right because you know that this your role is very crucial to who will eventually emerge we need to get to that point where we're no longer choosing between the devil and the deep blue sea but choosing between one saint and another saint so anybody that wins may the best man win so instead of that point where we're saying oh the devil and the deep blue sea let's start to um get involved politically in political parties so that we can get the right candidates to make it to the ballot boxes that way we are sure that whoever we pick they will get the job yeah thank you so much ladies it's good to be back yeah even though all the reds that are resting you are maybe to get that again today all right so before we go and show you follow us across all social media handles and waste your Africa you can interact with us for the drop a comment and more importantly follow all our engagements on social media like share and invite your families and friends to watch and follow the conversation thank you to everyone that sent in our messages and wants to miss us we miss you too uh so please share the links so don't watch alone don't be stingy let other people watch all right so um if you missed our quote for today this is on the precedence I like the last part it says in just one moment or rather one month in office Nigerians appear satisfied with the decisive leadership of president tenable and the manner he is redirecting the country to the path of fiscal sustainability and social economic reforms that we urge the EU and other foreign interests to be objective in all the assessments of the internal affairs of our country and allow Nigerians to what? Belief please next time we want a phone to let them know that Nigerian language Niners are joking though Niners are not breathing but hey thank you so much guys see you tomorrow at 8 p.m as we bring another great conversation to you screen enjoy


Amen. I'll write over there in 1 Kings chapter number 17 just in context before we get started. Right now we are in the nation of Israel and during the reign of King Ahab which was not in the entirety of the nation. He was not the worst king but at this point in time he was the worst king so far, the Bible tells us. He was a very wicked king and he was so bad at that God actually used this prophet Elijah to cause this drought in the nation of Israel due to their sin. And so right now as we open 1 Kings 17 that is what is happening. There is a drought that is a very severe drought due to the sins of the nation of Israel. And here God is telling Elijah how he's going to take care of Elijah. He says, I'm going to send you to this woman and she's going to take care of you and you will be fine Elijah. You don't have to worry Elijah. So let's look at verse 8. Let's start in 1 Kings 17 in verse number 8. And the word of the Lord came unto him, Elijah saying, arise, get thee to Zeraphath which belongeth to Zion and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain. And so he rose and went to Zeraphath and when he came to the gate of the city behold the widow woman was their gathering of sticks. So here's this woman that God was telling him about but she doesn't know any of this. She doesn't know who Elijah is yet. She doesn't know what's about to happen. And we see her gathering sticks. You say, why is she doing that? Let's keep reading. And he, Elijah called to her and said, I pray thee a little water and a vessel that I may drink and as she was going to fetch it. So we asked her for some water and she's on her way to go get him some water. Which says a little bit about this woman already. Here they're in a, they're in a drought. That's the problem. There is no water. And here this total stranger comes up to her and asks her for some water. She goes right away to get it. And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her and said, bring me, I pray thee a morsel of bread in thine hands. So now he's asking for food. Now he's asking for something else. And notice her reply. And she said, as the Lord that I got to liveth, I have not a cake, but a handful of meal in a barrel and a little oil and a cruise. And behold, I am gathering two sticks that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it and die. So now we get a little more context here.  All I have is a little bit of oil and a little bit of meal. Meal being like flour, you know, like ground seeds to make bread. And she's saying, I just have a little bit of this left and right now I'm gathering sticks so I can take the rest of this food I have. And we're going to eat the rest of it and we're going to starve. She's starving. She's on the verge of death with her and her son. It's a very severe, severe time here. But notice what Elijah says, verse 13. Elijah said unto her, fear not, fear not, go and do as thou has said, but make me thereof a little cake first and bring it unto me. And after make for thee and thy son. Verse 14, for thus saith the Lord God of Israel, don't miss this. The barrel of meal shall not waste. Neither shall the crews of oil fail until the day that the Lord send and thrain upon the earth. So we're going to see a miracle about to happen here where Elijah says to her, you know, don't worry about that, that a little bit of flour, that little bit of meal you have in that barrel and the little bit of oil that you have left. Don't worry about that. That will never run out. Verse 15, and she went and did according to the saying of Elijah. And she and he and her house did eat many days. Verse 16, don't miss this again. And the barrel of meal wasted not. Neither did the crews of oil fail according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by Elijah. So God performs this miracle here similar to, I guess the miracles that Jesus did in the New Testament when he fed people where here she has this little bit of oil and this little bit of meal and it doesn't run out. It's a limitless supply, it's a miracle that God performs. And so what I want to do this evening, the title of the sermon this evening is what never fails, what never fails. And I want to use this story here. It's just a bit of an analogy, just a little bit of an icebreaker to kind of get us thinking about some things this evening. Because here we see this woman, she is granted this miracle in a difficult time she's in. She's granted this miracle where this supply of essentially flour of bread and oil never run out. Now in the word of God, two very strong themes that you see all over the Bible in New Andal Testament is that bread, in this case the meal, bread is often compared to the word of God. The word of God is often compared to bread and man shall not live by bread alone but by every mouth, the procedure of the mouth of God. Jesus compared the word of God to eating a piece of oil is always referred to or the Holy Spirit is typically referred to as oil, is usually pictured by oil in the Bible. And so in this same way, as with this woman she had this bread and this oil that never ran out.  Regardless of what happens in your life or how difficult things get, those are two things that you will always have. There will be a limitless supply and you will never run out of them. So the question is, now that we know these two things, the Holy Spirit and the word of God, like in our analogy is with this woman, we know these things will never go away. How do we use them? The Holy Spirit, the word of God, I don't know about you but if I had a limitless supply of something, I wouldn't want to know how to use it. I don't want to know how to get the most out of it for myself, so that's what we're going to look at this evening. We're going to look at the word of God and we're going to look at the Holy Spirit. We're going to look at how to use these things. We know that they're a limitless supply. We know that we will never run out of those things. They'll always be there. So how do we get the most out of it? Turn to Deuteronomy 17, Deuteronomy chapter number 17. So first this evening, let's look at how to use the word of God. How to use the word of God. So we have these two things and I'll give you a few points on how to use the word of God and a few points on how to use the Holy Spirit this evening. The first way to use the word of God is this, is to read it, is to read it. You're there in Deuteronomy chapter number 17.  And let's look at verse 18. Deuteronomy 17, 18 says this, and it shall be when he, the king, said that upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book of that which is before the priest of Levites, and it shall be with him. And notice this, he shall read therein all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God to keep all the words of this law and the statutes to do them. So what God expected of this king was two things, to take his word, to take the book of the law and to write himself a copy of it. But in verse 19, we see the emphasis on he's to take this law of God, he's to take the word of God, he's expected to read out of it, to read part of it all the days of his life, every single day. And you read this and you say, oh, great, but I'm not a king. Let's keep reading, we'll get to that in a minute. Verse 20, you say, why was, okay, why did God want him to do this? Why was he expected to read every single day out of the word of God? What was the point of this? What was accomplished by this? Here's why, verse 20, that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren and that he turn not aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left to the end that he may prolong his days and his kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel. So for a moment, and we're gonna get to that in a minute, but for a moment, let's forget about who was supposed to keep this commandment and why, and let's just think about what was the purpose, forget who it was, forget if it was the king or the janitor or whoever it was, let's put that aside for a minute. Why did God want, what was the point of this being done?  What was accomplished by that? The point was so that in this particular situation, the king would not depart from the commandment to God. Now, here's the point of this. You say, I'm not a king, I'm not a president, I'm not a politician, hopefully you're not and I'm not in the charge of a nation, but here's the thing, irregardless of that, that does not change the fact that it doesn't matter who you are, if you do this, if you read therein all the days of your life, you will get the same result. You don't have to be a king, you don't have to, it's not like this was some loophole that only worked for a certain person, I don't care who you are, if you read in the word of God, if you read the laws of God, all the days of your life, you will get the same exact result that the king was to get in this chapter. And as far as not being a king, look, the reason that you say, why was the king supposed to do this, there's no, you don't see any indication that everyone else was supposed to do this, so why the king? Well, here's the reason, because when God is laying out these rules, not just these verses that we're reading, but all this entire chapter of what God wanted for the king, the reason God gave the king these rules is because God wanted his king, he expected this king to be the standard of his will for the entire nation. God wanted this king to be the example, the testimony, the mirror of what God wanted everyone to be, he wanted him to be the demonstration of that, similar to how with the pastor, the Bible, in the New Testament, we'll talk about how a pastor is supposed to be an example of the believers, meaning not necessarily to be an example to the other believers, but an example of what a believer should be. Then that is the same thing with the king.    So in that same way, you ought to be doing this. You don't have to turn there, but Joshua 1-8 says this, this book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein in the word of God day and night, that thou mayst observe to do according to all that is written therein. Same reason as we saw in Deuteronomy. For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous and then thou shalt have good success. So here's the thing, you say, how often should I read the word of God? You should read it every day. Just like in Deuteronomy, it says, he was to read therein all the days of his life. In Joshua, it says to meditate therein day and night. Look, if you read your Bible once a week, if you read your Bible once a month, or whenever you feel guilty that you haven't read it in a while and then you open it up and you read half a chapter, that's not meditating therein day and night. Meditating there, in order to meditate on something day and night, you need to be reading the Bible every single day. It takes consistency. Because look, in Joshua 1-8, I'll reread part of it again. It's the same promises in Deuteronomy where if you do it, it says you will observe to do according to all that is written therein. You will make your own process. You will have good success. Look, if you don't keep the cause, you're not gonna get the effect. If you don't meditate therein in the word of God day and night, there's no guarantee that you're gonna get that promise. So we're talking about how to use the word of God. We'll get to the Holy Spirit later. But just with the word of God, how to use it? Well, one, we should read it. Turn to Joshua 8. Second, we should learn it. Not only does God expect His people to read for themselves in the word of God, but He expects them to learn it in a very specific way. There's been different ways God's ordained it. If you're sitting here in 2023, in the year of our Lord, 2023, it's the local New Testament church.  But nevertheless, we're gonna look at all these examples although there's different ways it was supposed to be done. God wanted the same points to be kept as far as how it was preached in every single instance. Let's look at that. If they're in Joshua 8, real quick, I'll read to you Nehemiah chapter 8 where the word of God is preached. It says, so they read in the book of the law of God distinctly and gave the sense and caused them to understand the reading. Look when God's word is preached, when you come to church here, someone just doesn't just get up and read the chapter and we all go home. Someone gets up and then we read the chapter and we get the context and then a man of God comes up, the pastor comes up and he causes the people to understand the reading. It's not just reading the word of God, it's preaching that what God means and what he's trying to get across. They're in Joshua 8. This is perhaps, I believe this is the, if there's any verse in the Bible that embodies what biblical preaching is to be like, what God wants His word to be preached, I believe this is it. Joshua 8, look at verse 34, it says this, and afterward he read all the words of the law. Not some of the words, not the most popular words, every single word, all the words of the law and just in case we're too dumb to get it, it says the blessings and the cursings. Just in case we're still too dumb to get it, he continues and he drives in further according to all that is written in the book of the law. God says, I want every word preached, because there's many blessings in the Bible, but there's a lot more cursings. I want the blessings, the cursings, all the words, everything that is written in the book of the law. Verse 35, he continues, there was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua read not. And he goes into further detail, okay, I get it. God, every word should be preached, every single word, but who's supposed to hear it? Just the adults. No, it says before all the congregation of Israel. Say, well, maybe he just wasn't talking about the kids.  Everyone was supposed to hear it. Isaiah 58 verse one, you say, okay, but does the pastor need to yell? Does he need to yell, does he need to raise his voice? Why can't he just have a talk with us? Isaiah chapter 58, the Bible says this, you don't have to turn there. Here God is talking to Isaiah and God is speaking to his prophet on how he wants him to preach the word of God. He says this, cry aloud. Now in the king of his Bible, that's not talking about weeping, it's talking about yelling. He says cry aloud, spare not. That means don't leave anything out. Don't spare anything, don't skip over anything. Yell it, cry aloud, spare not. Well, maybe he wasn't talking about being audibly loud. Lift up thy voice like a trumpet, he says. That means be loud and trumpet is loud. When a revelation describes the voice of Christ as a trumpet, it doesn't mean that his voice sounded like the adults in Charlie Brown. It means that it was loud. Lift up thy voice like a trumpet. And you say why, why all this, why all this trouble? In Ezekiel, God tells Ezekiel to stop with thy foot.    Why, why people, their transgression in the house of Jacob, their sins. Preaching is to show us our sins. Because here's the thing, as people, we can lie to ourselves sometimes.  Sometimes we can read the word of God and intentionally steer around our sins or steer around what we need to work on.  You're gonna hear everything, the things that you skipped over in your Bible reading or the things that you didn't read because you didn't read it in with, you're gonna hear all of it. And the point is to show us our transgressions in the house of Jacob, their sins. So how do we use the word of God? Well first, we gotta read it. We gotta be reading it every single day. We gotta be reading at least a few chapters every single day. I believe if you read it somewhere between two or three chapters a day, I believe you'll read the word of God in one year. That's a great place to start. That's a perfect place to start. Read it, learn it. Come to a church and by the way, not every church is going to preach like this. Not every church is going to preach all the words. When you don't, something that God wants done is not done the way he wanted, it's not preaching. A church that does not preach every single word of the Bible, that's not preaching. In the same way, if you have an ESV or an NIV, it's not the Anglo-standard version of the Bible. It's not a Bible, it's the ESV. Serving God the way he wants minus all these things that we take out, it's not preaching. It's a waste of time. A knockoff is not the real thing. Here's the third way to use the word of God, apply it. Okay, you're reading the word of God, that's great. You're learning it. There's one more thing you have to do though to make it all worth it. You have to apply it, you have to apply it. Turn to Ezekiel 33, I may have had you turn there. Ezekiel chapter 33, here God is speaking to Ezekiel and he's describing to Ezekiel the situation with his preaching. Here Ezekiel is preaching, he's with the captives of one of the first captives of Judah and he's like other prophets like Jeremiah was around this time. He's preaching of the final captivity that's going to come. And we look at verse 31, it's interesting because it's kind of a different scene than Jeremiah. Jeremiah preached and they hated him. They hated what he said, they didn't believe what he said and they actually hated him. But here we're gonna see with Ezekiel it's a little bit different where they didn't really have anything wrong with Ezekiel. They liked Ezekiel but they didn't listen to what he actually said. Ezekiel 33, let's look at verse 31, here God is speaking to Ezekiel, he says, and they talking about the people he's preaching to and they come unto thee as the people comeeth, he says they show up, they come to you, they show up to church and they sit before these my people, they show up, they sit down in the pews and they hear the words, they show up, they sit in the pews and they're listening, they hear the sermon, they hear everything. But notice this, come unto thee, sit before thee, hear thy words, but they will not do them. For with their mouth they show forth much love. This is what Jesus would end up saying about the Pharisees years and years and years later. For with their mouth they show forth much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness. Verse 32, and lo, thou word unto them is a very lovely song of one that has a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument.  They like, we have to say, for they hear thy words, but they do them not. And when this comeeth the past, about the judgment he's preaching about, when this comeeth the past, he's preaching to them and they're listening and they enjoy hearing it, but they don't really believe what he says. They're not listening to what he's telling them to do. When this comeeth the past, for lo, it will come, then they shall know that a prophet had been among them. This is kind of a somber verse, because this is when we, even if we read the word of God and we learn it, when we hear preaching and we read out of the word of God, but we refuse to do it, this is what happens to us. Because what he's saying with these people is they hear it and they're not doing it. So when the judgment finally comes to pass, because it will come, it's going to come, because I said so, God's saying, when it comes, then they shall know. Then at that moment, when it's too late, then they're going to know that they should have been paying attention. And it's unfortunate, because that's how sin works with us. We go and we don't listen to the word of God and we push past the word of God and we ignore the word of God and finally when it's too late and we've already dug ourselves into a hole, then we realize that a prophet was among us. Then we realize that it was the truth that was being preached to us all along. That's how it works. They hear thy words, but they will not do them. They will not do them. It reminds me of how in the Bible, when you read in the Kings and Chronicles, and it describes the fall because you have the nation of Israel and the nation of Judah and Israel was the first to fall. And when Israel falls, it's one of my favorite parts of the Bible. God kind of gives this, it's almost a chapter long, but he kind of gives this before he closes out the history of Israel. Before we close the final chapter on the history of Israel, God kind of gives this treatise of explaining, but he sent them prophets and explaining that God, it was not God's fault, explaining that God did everything he could possibly do to try to get them back and he sent them the prophets and it describes the nation of Israel as this. It describes it as what they would not hear. Just the refusal to hear. God forbid that that's us. Especially if we go through the trouble of using the word of God, right? Because look, you can read the word of God, you need to. If necessary, you must read the word of God. We can learn the word of God, which again is necessary, you must. But if we don't apply it, it's all for nothing. Matthew chapter seven, I'll read it for you. Matthew chapter seven, verse 24, Jesus gives an analogy here. He says this, therefore whosoever hath these sayings of mine. Jesus is gonna give, you've probably heard this story before, but he gives the example of the two people who built their houses. And in both scenarios of these two people, they both heard the word of God and in both cases, a storm came. Because no matter where you are in life, a storm will come, for sure. So let's look at the first person. Therefore whosoever hath these sayings of mine and do with them. I will liken him to a wise man which built his house upon a rock and the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house. And it fell not, why? Before it was founded upon a rock. Okay, let's look at the second person. Everyone that hears these sayings of mine, same thing, and do with them not. This person read their Bible, they came to church, but they never applied anything. They didn't change anything in their life. They read it, they heard it, but they just kept going along doing the same thing they were doing before. Shall be likened to a foolish man which built his house upon the sand. And the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house. And it fell, and great was the fall of it. One person fell because, notice, he doesn't say because the framing was a strong enough. Because the structure wasn't strong enough. The reason that the one house fell was because of the foundation that it was built upon.  If the foundation of who you are and the foundation of why you do what you do and the core of your beliefs, if that's just built upon you wanting to have a pleasurable life, or you going after money, or whatever it is, if that foundation is something of mammon, of something of no worth, it will fall. Doesn't matter what the house is built on. But if your foundation is a rock, if your foundation is the Word of God, then no matter what the house is built of, no matter what the other circumstances are, it will never fall, for it was founded upon a rock. But the point being here, it's not enough to read, it's not enough to listen, although those things are necessary, it has to be applied to our life. Turn to chapter one. Hearing is the necessary step that only works if it is coupled with doing. James chapter one, so the last verse we'll look at on this subject. There in James chapter one, look at verse 22. James chapter one, verse 22, this gives a really great example of this. Verse 22 says, but be doers of the Word, and not hearers only deceiving your own selves. So now he's going to give an example, and I want you to just to pay attention to what the analogy he's getting here. For if any be a hearer of the Word and not a doer. So it's saying someone here is preaching, but they don't actually do it. Here's what this person is like. He is like and do a man, beholding his natural face in a glass. Glass here talking about a mirror. So it's saying, if you hear the Word of God and don't do it, it's like you're looking in a mirror.  So it's saying if you read and hear the Word of God, you don't actually do it.  That's what it's like, because verse 25, but who's so looketh into the perfect law of liberty? That's the Word of God, that's the Bible. And continue with therein, he being not a forgetful here, but a doer of work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. So the analogy is that when you read and hear the Word of God, the Word of God is a mirror to us. The perfect law of liberty is a mirror, because the Bible shows us everything wrong with us. The Bible is perfect, and so when we compare ourselves to what the Bible says, and when we compare ourselves to what God wants, we all fall short.  You see everything, that's when we see all of our sin and our faults, and if we sit in church, and we sit down, we read our Bible, and we see everything wrong with us, and everything that we're not doing, and we just close the Bible, or get out of our cares and go home and change nothing in our life, that's exactly what we're doing. We're acknowledging our faults and then we're just moving on like nothing ever happened. Turn to Galatians chapter five. So how do we use the Word of God? It's limitless to us. The Word of God is endless. How do we use it? We have to read it. We have to learn it. Most importantly, we have to actually apply it to our life to use it. So we talked about the Word of God. How about the Holy Spirit? How about the Holy Spirit? Well, let's look at a few things about the Holy Spirit. How do we use the Holy Spirit? Well, the first thing, the first way to use the Holy Spirit is this. Follow it. Follow it. If you're saved, the Bible says that you've been indwelled with the Holy Spirit.  What does the Holy Spirit do? Galatians chapter five, let's look at verse 16. This I say then, walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Theme the Bible, and we're going to read a little bit about it here, but in the New Testament where, if you're saved, you have two things inside of you that are fighting each other constantly. You have the Holy Spirit that is leading you. That's what we're going to see in these verses. The Holy Spirit is leading you into what God wants, and it's leading you into what God's will for your life is, and everything God wants from you. And then you have the flesh. This is your sinful nature that, because look, when you got saved, you didn't become perfect. You still have the sinful nature with you. You may have been given the Holy Spirit, but you will not get rid of your sinful nature until you are in heaven. You will not get rid of your sinful nature until you are standing before Jesus Christ in heaven. So you have these two things that are fighting against you in your life that constantly, and that's what it's talking about here, verse 17, for the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary one to the other so that you cannot do the things that you would. Verse 18, but if you be led of the Spirit, if you're following the Holy Spirit, you're not under the law. Now it's going to describe here what the flesh wants and what the Spirit wants. It's going to give some examples here. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, adultery, witchcraft, hatred, variance, relations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envings, murders, drunkenness, revelings and such like. Although which I tell you before is I've also told you in the past that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Again, just speaking to the fact that when we're in the kingdom of God, we won't have any of these things when once we're in heaven. But that's not the case on this earth though. Verse 22, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, against such, there is no law. So we see what the flesh is leading us into. We see the Spirit is trying to pull us the opposite direction. As Jesus said in the Garden of Gethsemane, he said, the Spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Turn to first Corinthians 2. I'll read you John 14.26. This is Jesus speaking to his disciples. He says, but the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost. So Jesus referred to the Holy Spirit as he called it the Comforter. But the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send to my name, he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I said unto you. Here he says that the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, it's teaching you the Word of God. It's trying to teach you what God wants for your life. So follow it. So follow it. How else can I use the Holy Spirit? Well, you can follow it. You can follow it into God's will into what it wants, but here's what else you can do. You can listen to it. The Bible says that if you're saved and you have a Holy Spirit, you have, the Holy Spirit will help you to understand the Word of God. It's a unique ability that you have that unsaved people do not have. First Corinthians chapter two, look at verse 12. It says this. It says, now we have received, it's talking about saved believers. Now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is God. That we might know the things that are freely given to us in God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but again, which the Holy Ghost teacheth. Comparing spiritual things with spiritual. It's saying we can, we're able to, because we have the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, it says we are able to know the things that God gives us. We're able to know the Word of God. It teaches us the Word of God. And in verse 14, it explains that this is not the case with someone who's not saved. Verse 14, but the natural man, this is the man that's not saved. He doesn't have the Holy Spirit yet. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them because they're spiritually discerned. This is why we go soul-winning and we don't just leave Bibles on people's doors. Because the unsaved man, the person that does not have the Holy Spirit, he cannot understand the Word of God on his own. He needs someone who has the Holy Spirit in them, who has the ability to understand it. He needs someone to go up to him and explain to him what it means. A great example of this is in the book of Acts where the Ethiopian eunuch is in his chariot and he's, and Philip comes up to him. Philip, the soul-winner, the same believer. And he says to him, he says, understandest thou without readers? He's saying here, this man is reading the Word of God. He's reading the Bible. And Philip comes up and says, do you understand what you're reading? And the man says, how can I accept some man should guide me? Everyone out there who is not saved do reason that there is no other way to get someone saved. Look, if that was the case, it'd be easy.  But it's not that simple because someone who's unsaved, they cannot understand the Word of God on their own. They need to have someone explain it to them who is saved. And that's why we must go soul-wining. But as a Christian, you have that unique ability. You have the unique ability where you have, now obviously there are certain things in the Bible that we're not gonna understand every single thing that's in the Bible. But if you are saved, you have a special unique power to sit down and open your Bible and read it and pray and ask God to help you understand it and to actually understand what you're reading. Most people don't have that. The vast majority of people will never have that. So appreciate that and use it. Turn to Romans 8. Here's the third way you can use the Holy Spirit. Romans chapter 8. You can use it to pray to God. Bible says that the Holy Spirit intercedes for us to God. While you're turning to Romans 8, I'll read you Ephesians 2.18. The Bible says this, for through him, talking about Jesus Christ, we both have access by one spirit under the Father. The Bible talks about how it is the Holy Spirit where if we don't know, we're gonna read you in Romans 8, but if we don't know what to pray for, at the end of the day, we're just mortal human beings. We don't know. God knows everything about our situation and what we need and what we don't need, but we don't know that all the time. Most of the time we don't know that. And many times we don't know what to ask for. We don't know what we need. Romans 8 verse 26 says this, likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities. How does it do that? For we know not what we should pray for as we are. There are times where we don't know what we need. Even if we think we know what we need, we don't know what we need. Many times this is the case with us. But look at what it says here. It says, but the Spirit itself make it intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered. Say, you know, I don't know what to pray for. I don't know necessarily what I need in my life. Well, you don't have to worry about that because the Bible says that the Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God, God, the Holy Spirit that is inside of you will intercede for you to God. Verse 27, and he that searches the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit. And he, again, may get intercession intercession for the saints according to the will of God. So if you don't know what to pray for and you don't know what you need and you need direction in your life, you have the ability to go and pray to God and say, God, I don't know what I need, but I pray you would give it to me. And the Holy Spirit that is inside of you, even if you're praying for the wrong thing, the Holy Spirit will take what you need and he will bring it before God and say, God, he doesn't know what he needs or he thinks he needs this, but here's what he really needs. He doesn't understand what to do in his life and he doesn't understand what he needs, but God, this is what he needs and God the Holy Spirit will intercede with you to God the Father. That's pretty cool. That's a very special ability. So the Holy Spirit, how can we use it? Well, we can follow it. The Holy Spirit, it will show you the word, granted you're reading the word of God and you know what the Bible says. The Holy Spirit will teach you the things of God. It will convict your conscience. That's why the Bible talks about grieving the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit inside of you is pulling you in the right direction and you'll feel this because if you start doing the wrong thing, you'll know it's wrong. You'll know it's wrong. You'll be guilty. You'll feel guilty. You'll know it's wrong because that's the Holy Spirit inside of you that's saying, no, no, no, no, you need to go this way. That's not what God wants. God wants this for you and deep down inside, even in our moments where maybe we're in denial, we know it's wrong. We know it and we can cover it up and we can act like, no, everything's fine. I'm doing fine. I'm not doing terrible, but deep down inside, we know it and that's the Holy Spirit in you. That's leading you, so follow it. But not only that, but let it teach you the Word of God as you read it. Holy Spirit will interpret the Word of God for you. You have the ability to understand what is in the Word of God because of the Holy Spirit. And course third, it will intercede with you to God. Again, you need to be reading your Bible, right? The Holy Spirit can't help you if you're not praying to begin with. It doesn't pray for you. It intercedes for you when you pray. It doesn't read the Bible for you. It helps you understand it and lead you in the right direction when you read it. So you see how these things build upon each other. They're both independently important in and of themselves, but they need to be done together to work. So we're saved and we have these abilities. One more verse on this, I'm sorry. Turn to 1 Thessalonians 519. 1 Thessalonians 519, very short verse, but I want you to read it just to close out this point. 1 Thessalonians 519. It's a unique ability to the Holy Spirit. Helps us to when we pray before God as Hebrews talks about when we come into the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace in help of time of need. 1 Thessalonians 519 says very simply, quench not the spirit. So in summary, as we're talking about the spirit and everything it does for us, the biggest way to use it is don't quench it. The Holy Spirit kind of works on its own. If you're reading the Word of God, it's going to reveal what's in the Word of God to you. If you're praying, it's just automatically gonna intercede for you to God. It's automatically going to lead you in the right direction unless you intentionally quench it.   Holy Spirit, it's like a light. And you can take a light and you can throw blankets over it and you can cover it up and you can put a trash can over it and you can cover it up if you really try hard enough. But don't do that. Use it to your advantage as a same believer. It's a very special tool that many people, most people do not have. So turn to 1 Kings 17. 1 Kings chapter 17. We'll end our story here. 1 Kings chapter 17, where we begin. So in conclusion, we talked about, we have these two limitless resources. We have the Word of God and we have the Holy Spirit. We learned on how to use them in detail. Let's look at one more main thing we can learn from this story. Verse 17, the story goes on. And it came to pass after these things that things take a turn for the worse. It says that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house fell sick and his sickness was so sore that there was no breath left in him. Her son dies. Her son dies. And notice what she says. She said unto Elijah, what have I to do with thee, oh, thou man of God? art thou common to me to call my sin to remembrance and to slay my son? And so this woman here, this particular story, this woman, she doesn't necessarily blame the man of God, but you can tell she definitely is speaking to him and she's not understanding. You can tell she's talking to him like she thinks. She's basically saying to him, did you only come into my life just to cause me harm? Are you only here to call past sins I've committed to remembrance?  Is that the only reason you are here? Here's the thing, we do the same thing. See, how do we do the same thing?  She was in a pretty rough spot when she was starving, but now someone's actually dead. Now someone's actually dead. We're actually gonna end the story here because it's irrelevant. We know that her son ends up being raised to life, but whether or not, let's pretend that her son never came back to life. Let's say that that's just how it was. It was left like that, her son died. Here's the thing, we can do the same thing to God sometimes because what we can do is when things take a turn for the worse. When things get real bad sometimes, we can get this mentality with God where maybe we're not necessarily blaming God, but we're thinking of God. Is God only just trying to destroy me? Is God only trying to? Because look, sometimes we can, look, maybe this woman, she says, are you coming to call my sins to remembrance? We don't know. Maybe this did happen because of her sin. We don't know of past sins she committed. And sometimes maybe if we are, even if we are dealing, you know, being punished for past sins we committed, we can get the mentality of going to God like this woman went to Elijah, the man of God, and think, God, are you only just trying to cause destruction? Are you only here to cause harm? But here's the thing, at this moment, with this woman, where she is standing face to face with Elijah, her son is dead and she's faced with Elijah.  Are you only here to cause destruction? Are you only here?  You know what she was forgetting? Is she was forgetting that she was in the room. There was a barrel of meal and a cruise of oil that was still, and look, we have the word of God, and we have the Holy Spirit and they will never run out on us. That is no guarantee of what your life will look like. Does not mean that you will have a, this is not a prosperity gospel.  Things can still take a turn from the worst, but in the same way with you and with me, with us, when those times when life takes a turn from the worst and we're in our darkest hour and we're in our worst moment, don't let yourself go to God and maybe not blame him, but say, God, are you only here to cause destruction in my life? Because here's the thing. The Bible says in Ezekiel where God says, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that rather he should turn from his wickedness and live. Even when God is punishing us for our sins, the goal is not just to destroy us. God wants us to get right. God is still looking out for our best interest even in our darkest hour. Don't let yourself get to the point where you are looking at God and thinking that God does not have your best interest in mind. You're thinking that God is only there to cause destruction in your life because no matter how bad things get, you will always have the Holy Spirit and you will always have a cruise of oil that are full to the brim that God has given you. But those things are worthless to us. If all that limits that, it's not that it's not full, but the only thing that limits our ability to access those things is our ability to properly use them in our faith to believe that they're there. Because look, you may have those things in your life.  And if you don't have faith to believe that they're there. So that's why I said with this woman, with her son, it's irrelevant, what if her son stayed dead? What if her son was never, what if this situation never got better for her? What if her situation got worse? It's irrelevant because no matter how bad things get, we will always have those two things that are there for us at our disposal only limited by our ability to use them. So this evening, let's remember that. So remember that no matter what happens in our life, we have these two things, they're full to the brim, they'll never run out, they are not limited, they are at our disposal, we just need to be sure that we use them properly. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.


Hey guys, what's up Aragorn here and welcome to Gamer's Chat, the show where we ask only the most serious of doggy questions.


Good morning. How are you doing today? When I greet my students in the morning, I like to give them a handshake, a smile, and a good morning. How are you? This just allows me to kind of get the feeling of how their morning is going and for them to be greeted at the door with a positive message. I also have them sign in on a clipboard here that I just leave on a file cabinet. They have their name and they have the day of the week they're decided and they also write the time. So I have a digital clock here that they use to write the time in and this is what that looks like. While they're signing in, I like to greet other students again with a handshake of hello and a good morning. Getting your students off on a positive note is a great way to get them started on their day and they are ready to go. Try this in your classroom today.