Beware of Led Poisoning

All right, just so we can have this, can you all read the title?

Beware of what?

Beware of lead, LED poisoning. Okay, maybe that will stand.

So that is the title, Beware of Lead Poisoning. Who or what are you led by? Can you be poisoned by one who is supposed to lead you?

Lead poisoning, L-E-A-D, is called plumbism. P-L-U-M-B-I-S-M. And it's usually a buildup of toxicity. Toxins that can be harmful or even deadly. It's interesting that Rome was one of the first, it was the first major city that had piping, water piped through aqueducts and through lead pipes, which they found, or can even blame for, the short life expectancy of Roman citizens at the time. But then they found that the rulers of Rome, the very hierarchy, they drank more wine than anyone else.

And they found that they put lead in wine. They added lead to their wine because it made it sweeter. Interesting as you go back to the emperors who drank more wine than most, and you see that some were what? Nero? Caligula? Ah, yes. Could be.

We, as Jeff could tell you, being a building inspector, oh no, what was it? 1983? 1984 is the date for paint when it stopped being allowed lead. Why did they use lead in paint? No, why did they use, why did they put it in there? Adhered. It adhered to the surface, stayed longer, and would bring out clear, more clear colors. So the reason, but then they found that children, because they painted a lot of window seals, that's where most of it. I remember asking building inspector the first time, well, you know, if kids are chewing on the wood seals, isn't that a bigger problem than the wood? And he looked at me and he said, how old are you? I said 32, and he said, you don't have kids yet, do you? He said, they chew on everything.

So one of the things is lead in paint that you have to be very aware of. Welding, if you've ever done any welding, they found the fumes and so forth from what they use in arc welding also was dangerous. But the health effects related to lead poisoning, LEAD, caused severe damage to the brain and to the nervous system. In children that are exposed, they found slow growth and a lack of development.

So the organ most affected by lead poisoning in paint in various things, the main one is the brain. The brain. The latest statistics show that over 43% of the United States population are threatened by exposure to various types of lead. They are still finding, finding things, as Jeff could probably tell you, that are endangering the U.S. population. Because lead was not always put on the labels. Lead was used in so many things 40, 50, 60, 70 years ago that we don't even know.

But I want to talk about the other lead. L-E-D. No, I'm not talking about the lights. But being lead. In this book, we have various stories of great leaders who led people and led nations. That those men and women were directed by God to lead. You had Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt. We all know that. Joshua then led those children's children into the Promised Land. David led Israel's army and then the entire nation as its king. Deborah led an army to a definite victory because the men were too coward to do it. But leaders... I heard that. We have the feminist side over here.

But the problem is there's leaders who can poison people's lives, even their destiny. There are examples of L-E-D poisoning in scriptures. Jeroboam led Israel to idolatry and paganism even when he was promised incredible wealth you could not even dream of by a servant of God. All he had to do was follow God and he would have wealth unseen and he had seen what God had given Solomon. But he led his country ultimately to captivity. Why do I say that? Because they existed for hundreds of years. Because after him followed 18 kings over the nation of Israel, all bad, all evil. There wasn't a one. You would think out of 19 kings you would have... Okay, what's the chance? Having one, two, three... None! None! Incredible!

But it's so interesting as you read in whether it's kings or chronicles about the nation of Israel and their downfall and their captivity. They had so many kings, even 150-200 years after Jeroboam, that the king would be described as the son of Jeroboam. Followed in the ways of his father, Jeroboam. And they went into captivity. Really sad! But even Judah, out of their 20 kings, had only about six or seven debatable conjugavos, five for sure, few questionables. But the worst king was Manasseh.

He led Judah down a road that, in reality, they never came back from. Oh, a few kings after that tried!

Thankfully, there were some healers along the way, like Josiah, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, that led a nation back to God. They just didn't stay with God. So, are you on the lookout for lead poisoning? LED. Lead poisoning. Are there warning labels? I don't know if you've bought a house in the last 15-20 years, but one of those things, if you sell a house, it has to be, if it's a certain year, it has to be put in there, that it's possible that there's lead paint in that house. There are warning labels putting a sign up, even in red, that you need to watch. Beware of, because it can be deadly.

There are cases where firemen went to put out a fire or contain a fire on a house that was painted 70-80 years ago, completely inside and outside with paint that was lead. And some of them even died from it, because it got in their lungs, and they were sick, and it eventually caused their death. That's why in some cities, we have older houses, special historic houses. The codes, city codes, will actually have inspection of the house to see if there's lead so that they can warn the firemen, in case there is. So it is serious, but not as serious as being led spiritually, completely away from God, or lead you somewhere that takes you away from God and His people. I guess I'm giving this split sermon because I want to make sure our eyes are wide open. Wide open to not being misled or led down a path that you cannot come back from. It's happened. It's happened religiously in the nation of Guyana, which is now one of my churches. I actually have two in Guyana. It is a place I haven't been to yet, but I will head back to the interior eventually. I've just been to Georgetown to that congregation, but we have another congregation about 10 miles away from Jonestown. You remember Jonestown, Guyana? Only about 10 miles away. The group of seven, eight hundred people were led to their death and destruction by a supposed, what? Religious leader, a preacher, a healer, one who was taking them to a place they commonly called the kingdom. Jim Jones. Believing that they were waiting there for Jesus Christ's return. And all but a few ended up dead. One of those being Jim Jones' son. The only way to avoid true LED poisoning is to do exactly what the Bible said the Bereans did. And what did they do? Why? Absolutely, to see if it was true. It studied the Bible daily to prove that what somebody stands up before them and says is true. And I want to admonish you and push you to always do that. If whatever is said from the pulpit does not line up with this, it's your job to point that out. Me or anyone else.

It is what we have to do for the sanctity of this church. I don't intend to. Never wanted to, never knew other than somebody telling me something and then I say it and found out it was not true and had to get up and say that was not true. As it should do.

Yes, it should be. So I would like to look at the short time I have left here because Christ warned us about LED poisoning.

See, I bring this up because I went to the Conference of Elders, general Conference of Elders. I talked to various ones there. But I also realize that because I've been going eleven years, there were some men that were not there anymore.

Elders, ministers who stood up before people and taught things that were not true. And the brethren ate it up. And so many of them followed this pastor or minister wherever they went. I don't want you to do that. I want you to be aware of LED poisoning. Now, do I expect it? No. But I realize it's a reality. It's happened before. And in the Bible, John talks about it. Peter talks about it. Paul talks about it. It's happened not only inside the Church of God, but also outside the Church of God. So if you believe this is the Word of God, it's one of the reasons you need to study, just like the Bereans. So no matter what happens, you're on solid ground. You're on biblical grounds.

Let's go. Matthew 24. In the hell of a prophecy, Jesus Christ no one better to teach us about LED poisoning than Him. And you all know this verse. Matthew 24 in verse 24 said, For false Christs and false prophets will arise. Do you think He's talking just about the world? No. No. No. And show great signs and wonders so as to deceive, if possible, even. What's your name? Put it there. Put it there. I've received stuff in emails from various people, ministers, that can just take the Scriptures and just twist them a little bit and then put this and then misquote this or use let me use four different translations and pull words out of four different translations to make it say anything you want to say.

Go with me to Psalm 143. Psalm 143. These are the things that I want you. Am I here to scare you because I just came back from General Conference and saw, you know, all these wolves and sheep's clothing? No. I'm yes. I'm hopefully stirring you up to say, yeah, I'm tired today. Well, I've got these things. Maybe I'll just read later tonight and then you find out you go to bed and you've read two sentences. This is your defense. Reading the Bible is your defense. It's why I love to have interactive Bible studies because I get to, we get to talk, we get to show these things and everybody here. It's a good way to stop splits in the church if a minister is getting off base because it opens it up to hundreds and hundreds of years of God's Holy Spirit rather than one, thinking he has some new truth. That's why it's so important. That's why I always do it. Let's go here. Verse 10, Psalm 143, verse 10. Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. For you are my God. Your Spirit is good. Lead me in the land of uprightness.

David telling God, you need to lead me. I need to be led. I've been so busy at times working on sermons and I just going through this that I actually skipped two days of Bible study. Now I was in the Bible, but I wasn't. I was working on sermons and I was checking this and checking it. Okay, you can say I could say, well, I'm Bible study. No, no, that's not Bible study. That's part of my work. Bible study is reading the Scriptures, laying them out, asking God to guide you through those Scriptures.

And you know, the two days after the two days didn't go near what I wanted them to go. I've learned. I can't just tune and look at things about it, but I need to look at that and start reading and pull out what God wants me to.

I mean, it's the way he talks to us through here. And so we need to make sure. Yes, I know you're going to say, well, I heard your sermon this morning on the man of God, and you keep going back to the Bible.

You keep going back to 2 Timothy 3 and verse 16 and 17. Yes, it is the Bible. It is the Word of God that's going to guide you and lead you into the kingdom of God. Not any man, not any preacher, not any pastor. But is Jesus Christ's words and the words that this book is put together with? That is why it's so important that you stay strong. That this church, if we get a church, if we're blessed, we are a church. But if we get a physical church, we don't have to move forever and ever and ever and ever. Okay. Then people start. God allows them to call more people.

We, we are those walls of that city. That is what all of you need to be. Romans 8 and verse 14. As many as are led by the Spirit. These are the sons of God, the daughters of God. We need to be led by that Spirit. And we all know the story, right? In Matthew 4, I always know because, you know, it says, and the Spirit led Jesus into the mountain to be tempted. Right? Do you rely? Most of us would say, Satan, the devil. No, I'll stay down. No, I'll stay down here. Of course, Christ did not fear.

But sometimes you can read those, read that scripture and the Spirit may lead you into some things you really don't want to do. Christ is going to have to fast 40 days and 40 nights and he gets so hungry. Okay. Now, that spirit's not going to lead you off into Guyana into Jonestown. But the Spirit may lead you to where you need to make some changes in your life. And we need to follow it. We're not perfect yet. I haven't met one. We had over 250-300 ministers up there. I didn't meet a perfect one up there. And they didn't meet one from Florida, either.

Let's go as I wrap this up. John 16. Can we go there? John 16 and verse 13. However, when he, masculine, that they just used here, when he, describing the Holy Spirit, when he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth. It's about truth. The Spirit's not going to lead you to untruth. You're not going to be reading this book and go, huh, I guess Sunday is the day.

Huh. I'm glad the Bible taught me that. Glad God taught me to do that. Oh, wow! Look at that! Scriptures! I can eat anything I want to eat. That's not going to happen. The Spirit's going to lead you to what? To the perfect man. The perfect man was Jesus Christ. Just look, if you have any questions, look what Christ, look how He did it. If He didn't do it, don't do it. If He did it, do it. This is how He lived. Perfect example for each and every one of us. And it will guide you.

It will lead you if you listen. Let's go to my next and last Scripture. Love this one. And you all know it. Go with me to Psalm. That long, long chapter. Psalm 119.

Which one do you think I'm going to choose? How about 105? Boy, this is so important for us. Read from the New King James. Your word is a lamp to my what? Feet and a light to my path. I could close it up right there because that's it. Just keep this and we'll be fine. I could be in the biggest church in United. I got this. I'm fine. I could be out by myself. We have a man. We have a few people on different islands in the Caribbean. They're the only people there keeping the truth. They're the only ones. It doesn't matter. If I get together with them sometimes at the feast, guess what we do? The same thing. The same thing. Because we're reading from the same book, looking to go to the same place, the kingdom of God. So this is how we know we can have a unity. Because there's one spirit. So you will be led by the world or by the spirit. God's laid it out. It's that simple. You can either feed the spirit or you can point it. It's your choice. I'm part German. A big part of me is German. My family was German.

But it's so interesting because I thought Mary brought this example to me. I guess because she thinks I'm a hard-headed German. But you remember just a few years ago that Martin Withercorn, the CEO, had to resign from Volkswagen Company. He was the CEO and everything because he found out that the missions they had fudged on all the admissions and it went on for two years and they got away with it. And so it wasn't until some of the cars were here in the United States they had to be tested. They're going, wait a minute, how could this be? And they found out he knew, he knew, they had falsified the test and he okayed it. Well, of course, as you know, he had to resign. He got a fine of $33 billion from the United States for what they'd done. Serious money.

And you know, Volkswagen, it was actually, the company was put together in 1937 by Adolf Hitler and his cronies and that the word Volkswagen's means people's car because they want to make something. I grew up, that's the first car I learned. Well, I almost learned to drive on. My parents had a Volkswagen. Okay, very well. But it's so interesting that if you read Mein Kampf, which you can get an English translation of the German, which was Hitler's book called My Struggle, and that's how he became popular, is he wrote this book and everybody began to follow him. What a great lead and look what it calls their nation. There are two examples of lead poisoning because so many people lost their jobs at Volkswagen. The company itself has taken years and they're still not back to the reputation they once had, just because they were led by one man who could have stopped it. He had complete control in stopping it when he found out. No integrity. So let me leave you with this. Go with me to 1 John 4 and verse 1. John's 90 years old when he writes this, got off the island of Patmos, came back to Ephesus, was living out his life, primarily in his 90s. He tried to go to some other churches and the church God that Christ had built and all this had ruined, they wouldn't even want him there. Have people turn against him. So he said in 1 John 4 and verse 1, test the spirits, whether they are of God. Brethren, I just ask you, test the spirits. You have God's spirit. There's a spirit of disobedience. There's a spirit of the world. There's some of their spirit of the evil one. There are spirits. And he says test them because you are able to because you have the word of God. So beware.

My family in Vero Beach, my family in this area, beware of lead poisoning. No matter who it is, this is not a downer message. I don't want you to feel that way. To me, it's an empowering message that each and every one of us should have so that we can empower each other because the only time that we can look forward to when we're not, we don't have to worry about being misled. It's in the coming kingdom of God.