["Pomp and Circumstance"]
To be working on that we'll hand out the prizes next Sunday, and we will start a new Bible memory passage next week
So looking forward to that
Let's do someone 119, huh? How's that sound? I'm just kidding. There we go on the left side is our service times
1030 a.m. Sunday morning Sunday evening at 4 30 and our Wednesday evening Bible study at 7 o'clock p.m
And we had a little pause in our study through first Samuel this Wednesday
Thank you brother Cameron for preaching for us and we're actually gonna pick that up tonight since we missed Wednesday
so we'll be going through first Samuel this evening and then
Remember that Tuesday is our midweek service this week
Also, our soul winning times are listed there all those meet here at the church building
I definitely want to encourage you to make it out to our Saturday rally every week. That's a great time
It's usually our most receptive time of the week
So do join us if you would for that our nursing home ministry schedule there as well as our year-to-date
Statistics for soul winning. I know we had at least three salvations today. So a great job on that
On the right, please be in prayer for miss Whitney Reed for her pregnancy. And also I think their family's not feeling too great
so be praying for them that they would feel better soon and
Our upcoming event last one of the year is our New Year's Eve party on December 31st at 7 o'clock p.m
We're gonna start with the men's preaching night. It's gonna be 15 minute sermons for everybody that signed up
So I think there's a total of five guys that signed up. So please at the 15 minutes just wherever you're at
Just start praying, you know
I don't know if we need like an airsoft gun or something if you start going past the time
But just 15 minutes that way we're not here letting the food get cold while we're listening to you guys
But looking forward to that after that we're gonna have food, of course and games
Then if you'd like to give online that code is there for you as well as our prayer list
Make sure we're keeping each other in prayer as a church
And if you have any requests, I'd be happy to add that for you
Just let me know you can email the church or message me on the back
It's a place for you to take notes if you'd like that's gonna be it for our announcements this evening
We'll go ahead and go to our third song
All right our third hymn this evening number 424, oh come all ye faithful
Four hundred twenty-four four two four. Oh come all ye faithful
We'll sing there on the first
O come all ye faithful
Joyful and triumphant
O come ye, O come ye to God
O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem
Come and behold Him
O'er the King of Angels
O come let us adore Him
Christ the Lord
Sing choirs of angels
Sing in exultation
O sing all ye rivals of heaven above
Glory to God, all glory in the highest
O come let us adore Him
Christ the Lord
Yea, Lord we greet Thee
Born this happy morning
Jesus to Thee
All glory give
Word of the Father
Now with flesh appearing
O come let us adore Him
Christ the Lord
Amen. As the offering plates are being passed, turn, if you would, to 1 Samuel 19.
1 Samuel 19
And Saul spake to Jonathan his son, and to all his servants, that they should kill David.
But Jonathan, Saul's son, delighted much in David, and Jonathan told David, saying,
Saul my father, seek it to kill thee, now therefore I pray thee, take heed to thyself until the morning, and abide in a secret place, and hide thyself.
And I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where thou art, and I will commune with my father of thee, and what I see, that I will tell thee.
And Jonathan spake good of David unto Saul his father, and said unto him, Let not the king sin against his servant, against David, because he hath not sinned against thee, and because his works have been to thee were very good.
For he did put his life in his hand, and slew the Philistine, and the Lord wrought a great salvation for all Israel, thou sawest it, and didst rejoice.
Wherefore, then, wilt thou sin against innocent blood, to slay David without a cause?
And David hearkened unto the voice of Jonathan, and Saul sware, As the Lord liveth, he shall not be slain.
And Jonathan called David, and Jonathan showed him all those things, and Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence as in times past, and there was war again.
And David went out, and fought with the Philistines, and slew them with a great slaughter, and they fled from him.
And the evil spirit from the Lord was upon Saul, as he sat in his house with his javelin in his hand, and David played with his hand.
And Saul sought to smite David even to the wall with the javelin, but he slipped away out of Saul's presence, and he smote the javelin into the wall, and David fled and escaped that night.
Saul also sent messengers into David's house to watch him, and to slay him in the morning, and Michal, David's wife, told him, saying, If thou save not thy life tonight, tomorrow, thou shalt be slain.
So Michal let David down through a wall, and he went and fled and escaped.
And Michal took an image, and laid it in the bed, and put a pillow of goat's hair for his bolster, and covered it with a cloth.
And when Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, He is sick.
And Saul sent the messengers again to see David, saying, Bring him up to me in the bed, that I may slay him.
And when the messengers were come in, behold, there was an image in the bed, with a pillow of goat's hair for his bolster.
And Saul said to Michal, Why hast thou deceived me so, and sent away mine enemy, that he is escaped?
And Michal answered Saul, He said unto me, Let me go, why should I kill thee?
So David fled and escaped, and came to Saul to Ramah, and told him all that Saul had done to him.
And he and Samuel went and dwelt in Nahoth.
And it was told Saul, saying, Behold, David is at Nahoth in Ramah.
And Saul sent messengers to take David.
And when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing as appointed over him,
the Spirit of God was upon the messengers of Saul, and they also prophesied.
And it was told Saul, He sent other messengers, and they prophesied likewise.
And Saul sent messengers again the third time, and they prophesied also.
And went he also to Ramah, and came to a great well that is at Siku.
And he asked and said, Where are Samuel and David?
The one said, Behold, they be at Nahoth in Ramah.
And he went thither to Nahoth in Ramah, and the Spirit of God was upon him also.
And he went on and prophesied until he came to Nahoth in Ramah.
And he stripped off his clothes also, and prophesied before Samuel in like manner,
and lay down naked all that day and all that night.
Wherefore, they say, is Saul also among the prophets.
Let's pray.
Dear Lord, we're thankful to be gathered again this evening.
I pray, Lord, that You fill the pastoral offices.
Dear Lord, help them to expound this chapter into us.
For help us to have good understanding, Lord, good focus,
and set aside the distractions of the week.
And pray these things in Jesus' precious name.
Amen.
All right.
Well, like I had mentioned, we're kind of making up for missing a Wednesday through our Bible study.
So we're going to be going through 1 Samuel chapter 19 this evening.
And it's a shorter chapter than what we've been going through, so it shouldn't take too long.
But let's start reading in verse number one.
The Bible says,
So now, pretty much from this point on, we're entering the phase of David's life
where he's just constantly on the run from King Saul.
And this kind of helps us understand verses like we read in Psalms this morning
because many of the Psalms that David wrote,
he wrote while he was under the threat of death and running away from his father-in-law,
King Saul.
And of course, he was at a very down point in his life.
And during this down point, it actually caused him to write a lot of Psalms,
which is kind of an interesting tactic to also get through rough times,
is to sing unto the Lord and make a joyful noise unto the Lord.
That could help with things like that.
But really, the main theme that we really see in this chapter is faithfulness.
And number one, I want to look at this evening, Jonathan's faithfulness.
Look at verse number two.
The Bible says,
So, of course, this is a very reasonable thing to do as a friend is,
hey, let your friend know when he's about to be killed.
All right, this is just good advice.
If someone's hunting your friend down and trying to kill them,
you want to let them know about that so they can make arrangements.
So that's a good, faithful thing to do.
But he ends up doing more than that.
In verse three, it says,
Verse four,
Because he hath not sinned against thee,
and because his works have been to thee were very good.
And here the loyalty that we see in Jonathan is,
first of all, to his friend David.
And that's a good admiral trait to have,
is someone that's loyal to his friends.
But beyond that, really what what Jonathan is doing here is
he's really being loyal to the principles of the Bible
and he's being loyal to God's law, even above people,
because you could look at this story in one way and say,
well, he's kind of going against his father.
But hold on a second.
His father is trying to do something wrong.
So should your loyalty always be to blood,
always be to kin, no matter what?
No, our loyalty should always be to principles above people.
Now, it so happens that Jonathan does love David.
Jonathan wants to be there for David.
But more importantly than that,
notice his excuse, if you will,
for why David is standing or why Jonathan is standing with David.
In verse four, again, notice what he says to Saul.
He says, let not the king go against my friend,
go against David, who I like, who's a good guy.
Notice, let not the king sin against his servant.
See, the problem wasn't just that his dad was going against David,
who he just happened to like, who was just his friend.
It was that his dad was about to sin.
His dad was trying to do something sinful.
And you know what?
Our loyalty should always be to principles above people.
Not just family, not just friends, but people.
Go to Matthew chapter, or principles.
Go to Matthew chapter number 10, Matthew chapter number 10.
And of course, we understand, like I said,
it's good to be loyal to people,
and it's good also to be long suffering with people.
The Bible talks about how charity suffereth long, right?
We know that everyone in this room is a sinner.
We're all going to do things that are wrong,
and we want to be long suffering with each other.
But it's like, hey, someone's conspiring murder.
That's not a time where you bring out the long suffering.
That's a time where you're 100% loyal to the principles of the Bible.
Go to Matthew 10, verse 37, the Bible says,
he that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.
So notice the level of loyalty
that the Lord Jesus Christ requires of us
if we're going to be disciples of him
is that we need to love Jesus Christ.
And of course, we know that Jesus is the word of God.
We need to be loyal to Jesus, to the word of God,
to the things of God more than even our own mother and father.
That's a pretty tight bond that God wants to have with us
because especially in other cultures,
like I think that in America, yeah, we're close as a family.
We love our mom and dad.
But even in other cultures, this is even more so in the United States,
like in Mexico or in the Philippines, for example.
The family unit is even more tight in places like that.
But really it doesn't matter what the culture is or where you live.
Jesus demands a closer bond with you
than you even have with your own mother and father.
And he says, in fact, if you even love your mom and dad
more than you love me, then you're not even worthy of me.
I mean, that's a high level of commitment that he's asking
of us. But you know what? We should adhere to that.
And we should say, you know, if mom and dad want to go down a sinful path,
then we should not just follow mom and dad to do something sinful.
Or if in this case, you know, for Jonathan,
his father was both his dad and also his government authority
and also his boss, if you will.
But hold on. If those people are not doing the things that Christ would approve of,
if they're going down a dark road and sinning like committing murder,
then your loyalty should always be to the word of God.
Now, this is a lot easier said than done
because it's really easy to say, yeah, stand with the Bible, stand with the word of God.
But oftentimes when people actually make that decision
to stand with Jesus Christ, sometimes that means cutting off family members from your life.
And that's not a fun thing to do.
And that's not something I think that you should do just flippantly.
But there actually can be instances in your life
where that would be the wise and sometimes necessary thing to do.
Let's keep reading that verse. He says,
And he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
And he that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me.
So it's not just your parents. It's even your own children.
And really, the amount of love that we should have for the Lord Jesus Christ,
the amount of loyalty we should have to him and to his words,
it should be so far above any human relationship that we have in life.
Because, you know, when you get married,
that is your closest human relationship that you have in this world.
And when it comes to your wife versus your friends, it shouldn't even be close.
But if it comes between your wife and even your church family or people like that,
it shouldn't even be close.
But here's the thing.
When it comes to the Lord Jesus Christ and your wife or the Lord Jesus Christ
and your husband, that shouldn't even be close either.
It should be so far and above that our loyalty is to Jesus Christ above all else,
that he is the one that we're looking to.
It doesn't matter what anyone else is doing in life.
We are going to follow Jesus Christ.
That's what a real disciple is. Someone that truly loves Jesus more than anyone else.
Now go to, if you would, Acts, chapter number five, Acts chapter number five.
But basically, you know, this is the mentality that you should have
when it comes to your relationships and your friends and your family,
is that if someone crosses Jesus, they're crossing you.
You know, if you have a friend or family member who is crossing your boundaries,
your love for God, they're blaspheming Christ.
You know, they're teaching your kids that you're in a cult.
You know, that happens all the time. All the time.
The grandparents or the in-laws will want to take your children aside and tell you,
hey, your mom and dad is in a cult. What you guys believe is wrong.
Hey, why are you always wearing dresses, little Susie? Things like that.
Look, that's something that you need to deal with,
because you are not allowed to love father or mother more than the Lord Jesus Christ.
And if someone crosses Jesus, this is your attitude, someone's crossed me.
It's like, hey, if Saul is crossing the commandments of God
and he's wanting to commit murder here. Yeah, he's my dad.
Yeah, he's my governmental authority. But you know what?
He's now crossed me, too. And I'm going to try to stop him from doing this.
And he says, hey, why are you going to sin against your servant David?
Look at Acts chapter five, verse twenty five.
You know, the same holds true with government.
In verse twenty five, the Bible says, Then came one out and told them, saying,
Behold, the men whom ye put in prison are standing in the temple
and teaching the people.
Then went the captain with the officers and brought them without violence,
for they feared the people lest they should have been stoned.
And when they had brought them, they set them before the council.
And the high priest asked them, saying, Did not we straightly command you
that you should not teach in this name?
And behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine
and intend to bring this man's blood upon us.
Here we have the governmental authorities telling the disciples,
telling the apostles, hey, we straightly commanded you.
You are not allowed to preach in the name of Jesus anymore.
You are not allowed to go around saying the things that you're saying.
But if this actually happens and it's happening in this world right now,
it's happening in places like Germany, where they have hate speech laws,
where certain parts of the Bible are not allowed to be preached.
It's happening in Canada.
There's a movement of people that want this to happen in the United States.
Okay, if that happens, what is the response?
Look at verse 29.
Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said,
We ought to obey God rather than men.
See, God wants us to have loyalty to people.
God even probably wants us to have loyalty to our government to some degree
if they're telling us to do things that aren't sinful.
But if they're just straightly commanding us not to preach the Bible,
well, at that point, our loyalty has to be to principles above people.
And we have to say, no, we're going to obey God rather than men.
I had some Karen call me last week because some guy over here
was out preaching the gospel and doing a good job at it.
And some random lady got mad that he was out soliciting.
And in her voicemail, she said, I straightly told these people,
I directly told these people to leave and they kept knocking.
And I'm just like, okay, so you're not an apartment manager.
You're not a cop.
You're just some angry feminist just straightly telling us to leave.
Okay, here's the answer.
No.
No, we're not going to.
Because we are going to be more loyal to principles than whoever the heck you are.
We don't even know who you are.
We don't care who you are.
All I know is that Jesus sent us to preach the gospel to every creature
and that's what we're here to do.
If it offends you, so what?
It doesn't matter.
And, you know, we're not even facing any persecution or consequence
as a result of that.
But I'm just saying we need to just have this mentality now
where it's like, oh, someone tells us to leave and we just immediately run.
There's not even a police order.
There's nothing.
Just some rando asks us to leave.
No, we're not going to do that.
We're going to stay.
We're going to keep preaching because someone with higher authority
has already told us what we need to do.
Go back to 1 Samuel chapter 19, 1 Samuel 19.
And this person was like, yeah, there's no soliciting signs
all over our apartment complex, so we're going to call the police.
And I was like, well, that's great because one of our church members
reached out to the city and asked for a solicitation permit
for what we're doing and they were told that we don't need one
because we're not soliciting.
And they're like, oh, you by definition are.
And I said, okay, we'll just contact the city then.
They're like, no, I don't need to contact the city.
I'm going to contact the police department.
I was like, that is the city, but okay.
Just contact the police.
Let us know how that goes.
We'll be back.
We'll continue knocking this place and every apartment that we can
in this entire city.
That's our goal.
Look at verse number 5, 1 Samuel chapter 19 says,
for he did put his life, and before I get into this, remember,
he's saying, hey, don't sin against your servant David.
Why?
For he did put his life in his hand and slew the Philistine,
and the Lord wrought a great salvation for all Israel.
Thou sawest it and didst rejoice.
Wherefore then wilt out sin against innocent blood to slay
David without a cause.
And this is something that carnal people do because remember,
Saul kind of represents someone that's saved,
but very backslidden, very worldly, very carnal,
very envious, very self-centered.
And Jonathan is trying to remind him, wait,
why are you trying to kill this guy that has done so much good
for our nation?
Why are you trying to attack this person who killed Goliath,
who's done all these great works for God,
but what you have to realize is that carnal people,
they often focus on the person, not the works.
They focus on the person, not the mission.
Because he's envious of David,
because he's mad that David's got some attention,
the ladies are singing that he's killed his ten thousands.
Saul has been so blinded by his pride that he no longer sees or
cares about all the good that David's doing.
He's just obsessed with attacking David because Saul is obsessed with
that person.
Saul isn't thinking about the work of God,
the mission of the nation of Israel.
And sometimes you see people like this when they become obsessed with
hating a particular person and just becomes their life where their life
is about looking at this pastor and attacking this pastor's ministry.
And their,
their whole ministry is dedicated to making videos, exposing this pastor.
It's like, they don't care about all the mission strips that's been done.
They don't care about all the great sermons that have been preached.
They don't care about the millions of souls that have been saved or all
the great things that have happened,
the lives that have been changed because they're just obsessed with
wanting to kill David.
That's all that they could think about because for them,
it was never about the mission.
It was never about the works.
It was always about the person.
And when that person is in their good graces, everything's fine.
But when that person no longer is liked by them,
now they are the sole focus of their lives.
Saul spends the rest of his life attacking David.
And he forgets about all the great things that David did because he's
obsessed with him as a person.
And Jonathan's trying to remind him of that saying, look,
why are you going to sin against this guy when this guy has done nothing
but good to you? This guy's never harmed you in any way.
This guy's only helped your kingdom. This guy's only been your friend.
He's only been your brother.
He's only been assisting you in the ministry assisting you in your
kingdom. Why would you attack this guy? And you know,
these are the questions that I think in my mind towards the Sauls of our
day, when we see Sauls of our day,
that just spend their life attacking David's. And it's just like, but why,
what has he done to you? Has he, hasn't he only ever blessed your church?
Hasn't he only ever given you members? Haven't he,
hasn't he only ever blessed you with good doctrines and good sermons?
Why are you dedicated to attacking him? It makes no sense whatsoever.
Go to verse six, number two this evening, notice Saul's oath,
Saul's oath.
And Saul hearkened unto the voice of Jonathan and Saul swear as the Lord
liveth, he shall not be slain.
Now turn to Matthew chapter number five. So what do we hear, see here?
Jonathan says, Hey, don't sin against this guy.
Don't you remember all the good that he's done? And for a split second,
Saul listens to Jonathan, his son, he hearkens unto him.
But what he does is he swears, meaning he makes an oath.
He says, as the Lord liveth,
he's saying as sure as it is that God exists,
he says, he shall not be slain.
This is something that is a red flag.
It is a red flag when people make these over the top oaths or
swears or,
or insane promises to try to convince a person that they're sincere.
Like you shouldn't have to feel like you have to swear to God that you're not
going to murder someone. You just be like, I'm not going to murder anyone.
Like, no, I'm not going to do that. But you have to be like,
I swear to God, I'm never going to kill this person. As,
as the Lord liveth, not a hair of his head shall perish.
He will not be slain. I mean, that's just like,
why do you have to swear like that?
Why do you have to go over the top like that? Well,
Jesus tells us that it's actually coming from an evil motive when someone does
this. Matthew chapter five, look at verse 33. Again,
you have heard that it had been said by them of old time,
thou shalt not first swear thyself,
but shall perform unto the Lord thine oaths. And you know,
that is something in the old Testament that's taught that if you make an oath
to God, you should keep it. Verse 34, but I say unto you,
swear not at all, neither by heaven for it is God's throne,
nor by the earth for it is his footstool,
neither by Jerusalem for it is the city of the great King.
He's saying like, regardless of what you're swearing on at the end of the day,
it's coming back to swearing to God is what you're doing. Verse 36,
neither shalt thou swear by thy head because thou canst not make one
hair white or black. You know,
it's silly to swear something anyways because you really can't control the
future. You can't say like, I swear to God,
I'll be at work tomorrow because you could die on the way home this evening in
a car crash. And so it's just a stupid thing to say to swear like that.
Verse 37, but let your communication be yay, yay, nay,
for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.
What's he saying? Hey, if you're going to do something,
if you're going to tell someone that you're going to do something,
you don't need to sit here and swear by the temple or the altar or by heaven or
by God or by your own head because you can't really change these things.
You're not in control of this situation.
What you need to do is just say yes or no and let it be at that. You know,
someone asks you, Hey, did you say this?
You don't need to swear to God to prove your innocence or something like that.
In fact, Jesus said anything more than this actually comes from evil.
It comes from some harmful intention to try to lie to someone,
to try to convince someone of something.
And when someone is asked a question and they have to swear to God or swear by
something to convince you, that is a good indicator that they are lying to you.
That is a good indicator that they're trying to sell you or sell themselves on
something that isn't true. You know,
this is something in law enforcement where if people go to the detectives and
there's like, Oh, I swear this, I swear that, I swear that.
It's like you're basically telling on yourself and you're sending out red flags
to the detectives like, okay,
this is weird that this person is swearing like that because Jesus said anything
more than that comes of evil. Go to Matthew 23, Matthew chapter 23.
Why? Well, because again,
no normal person would feel the need to swear to God that they're not going to
murder someone. That's just insane. That's way over the top.
Matthew 23 verse 16, Jesus said, woe unto you,
ye blind guides, which say, whosoever shall swear by the temple,
it is nothing, but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple,
he is a debtor. So notice the Jews,
they had like these little rules for when it's okay to swear and you could,
it's okay if you swear by the temple, that's nothing. And you know,
I've seen in places like the Talmud where they have certain rules of who it's
okay to lie to and who it's okay not to lie to, you know,
what type of person it's okay to violate in a certain way,
what type of person it's not okay.
And these Pharisees are kind of doing the same thing here where it's like,
well, if you swear by the temple, that's not really binding, that's nothing,
but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor.
So like that's a real promise. According to the Jews, verse 17,
notice Jesus's response to this. He says he fools and blind for weather is
greater, the gold or the temple that sanctify the goal.
It's not the gold that makes the temple special.
It's the temple that makes the special goal or the gold special, excuse me.
And it's kind of like what's more important,
having like a really beautiful building or having a righteous godly church.
You know what I mean?
Like having a congregation that actually believes the right things,
a church that teaches the right doctrine, a church that goes out soul winning.
That's what makes anything else special in a house of God or something like that.
Look at verse number 20, it says,
whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, swearth by it and by all things thereon.
And whoso shall swear by the temple, swearth by it and him that dwelleth therein.
So eventually it's just getting back to swearing to God again, right?
And he that shall swear by heaven,
swearth by the throne of God and by him that sitteth thereon.
So look, this is just a basic lesson that every Christian needs to learn,
that it is not right to sit here and swear to the Lord.
It's not right to sit here and swear by anything.
And this is why, passages like this,
this is why the founding of our nation set it up to where even if you go to court today,
they'll ask you to basically swear in by oath or affirmation.
People ask you, like, do you so swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth, whatever.
And you could just say, I affirm.
You don't have to say, yeah, I swear to God, I'm going to do that.
No, you could just affirm.
You could let your yea be yea, your nay be nay.
You know, that's how we should be as Christians, not going around swearing to the Lord.
Go to 1 Samuel chapter number 19, 1 Samuel chapter 19.
Verse number seven, verse number seven, it says,
And Jonathan called David and Jonathan showed him all those things.
And Jonathan brought David to Saul and he was in his presence as in times past.
So Saul was going to try to kill David.
Jonathan temporarily, at least on the surface, it seems like he's talked him out of it.
Saul makes this over the top oath that he's never going to be slain.
So because of that, Jonathan brings David back.
And now he's back serving Saul again.
He's playing a music again.
He's in his presence once again.
Number three, notice Saul's instability.
Verse number eight, the Bible says,
And there was war again.
And David went out and fought with the Philistines and slew them with a great slaughter and they fled from him.
So notice David is just remaining steadfast.
He was a great, awesome warrior before Saul went all weird on him.
And now that he's back in his house, he's still just doing the work of God,
plugging away, being the same person he's always been.
And notice God is blessing him.
He's going out, he's fighting, he's destroying the enemies.
They're fleeing from him.
Verse number nine,
And the evil spirit from the Lord was upon Saul,
as he sat in his house with his javelin in his hand,
and David played with his hand.
So remember, Saul, I believe, is under the direct punishment of God
and that the punishment that Saul is experiencing is losing his mind.
You know, he's being troubled by the evil spirit from the Lord.
And one second, everything's fine.
The next second, he's trying to kill David.
And so this evil spirit, again, comes upon Saul.
And notice when the evil spirit comes upon him,
once again, it was when David was doing something good.
There's nothing that made Saul mad because David was doing something wrong or sinful.
It was, there goes David again, doing something awesome.
There goes David again, going and destroying the Lord's enemies, doing something good.
But again, what is Saul's problem? Envy.
And so when anyone else is doing something other than him,
it eats him up.
The evil spirit of the Lord comes upon him again.
He's unstable as a person.
And notice what he's doing.
He's sitting in his house with his javelin in his hand.
You know, this is a bad idea.
You know, if you have a track record of being mentally insane
and trying to kill people for no reason in your house,
it might be a good idea to not sit around in your house with the javelin in your hand.
You know, someone should have told him, be like,
hey, remember those couple of times where you just tried to murder your son-in-law for no reason whatsoever?
Yeah. Can you like put that in the armory or something?
Can that go locked in the closet?
But Saul's just sitting with his javelin in his hand, in his house,
and he's losing his mind.
The evil spirit comes upon him.
You know, this is kind of a picture of how we should separate things.
Sorry, separate ourselves from things that cause us to sin.
Go to Matthew chapter number 18, Matthew chapter number 18.
Let's look at this principle quickly in Matthew.
Matthew 18, verse 8.
Jesus said, Wherefore, if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off and cast them from thee.
It is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed
rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire.
And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee.
It is better for thee to enter into life with one eye rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.
Now, I think there's part of this passage that is as literal as literal can be.
And that is that it is better to literally lose your eyes and your arms and your feet and your legs.
It's better to lose your body than to go to hell.
That is one thing about this passage that is as literal as can be.
There's nothing worse than hell.
And you should, you know, be able to depart from anything that might cause you to go there,
which, of course, to be saved from hell, you have to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
But, you know, sometimes people will hang on to false religion because my family goes to the Catholic Church.
Well, it's been a tradition, right?
But, hey, cut that off, cut off your hand if you have to, your foot, take your eyes out.
Anything is better than going to hell.
But also, though, I think there's more of a figurative message here that we should be willing to separate from whatever it is in life that causes us to offend, that causes us to sin.
And, you know, there's some things that are just besetting sins.
There's some things that some people struggle with that other people don't.
You know, someone who's never tasted a drop of alcohol in their entire life is not really going to be struggling with the desire to get drunk.
They're not going to really be thinking and fantasizing about alcohol.
But someone who spent their teenage years, their 20s drinking alcohol, they will experience that craving likely for the rest of their life.
And so, you know, the wise thing for that person would to be in their home to not be sitting at their dinner table with a fifth of whiskey on the table,
just ready for them when they screw up, when they're having a bad day.
The right thing to do is just have that thing far away from you.
In fact, don't even have it in your house at all.
Right. And here's the thing.
Saul, he should have been sitting there with his javelin when he has a track record of doing stupid things with it.
And, you know, maybe some people need to apply this physically.
Maybe you shouldn't be playing around too much with guns in your house if you're blowing out stuff in your home.
OK. But look, same thing with all sorts of different things that could cause us to sin.
You know, maybe if this causes you to sin, maybe you need to go put this in a different room or something.
Maybe you need to lock this up or something when you get home from work if this is causing you to sin.
Or, you know, if someone spent a lifelong life doing drugs or something like that,
don't have any paraphernalia or any of the stupid rap music that glorifies the drugs or anything like that.
Whatever it is that's causing you to trigger you to sin, you need to just get that stuff away from you.
Again, what we talked about this morning, you can't rely on your motivation.
Right? You can't just be like, well, I'm just going to willpower myself through not sinning.
No, you just need to have the discipline to just say, I'm going to make it as hard on myself as possible to ever sin, if not impossible, if I can.
We need to make not provision for the flesh to make we man, I'm going to misquote that.
Go to Romans Chapter 13. I believe it's in Romans Chapter 13.
That's always fun when your brain won't work. Romans Chapter number 13.
Let's see if I can find it here. Yeah, look at verse number 13.
It says, Let us walk honestly as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.
So obviously the list of sins there. Verse 14 says,
But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof.
You don't even want to provide for your flesh to be able to fulfill the lusts of the flesh.
You know, listing things there, like what do we talk about? Drunkenness being one of those chambering and wantonness.
You know, that's related to fornication. It's a good idea to have safeguards in your life to where you can't even provide for that lust.
How about by not being alone with someone of the opposite gender? You know, that's a really good strategy to have.
It's a bad idea when you're dating. You're like, hey, let's go hang out at my apartment in our room and watch some movies.
Like, that's a bad plan to keeping yourself pure. Really, you should not make provision for the flesh.
Go back to, if you would. First Samuel, chapter number 19. First Samuel 19. Let's look at verse number 10.
Verse number 10, it says, And Saul sought to smite David even to the wall with the javelin, but he slipped away out of Saul's presence.
And he smote the javelin into the wall. And David fled and escaped that night.
And remember, this is right after Saul had what? Swared on God, basically, that he was not going to die, that he was not going to do anything to David.
And just a few verses later, what do we see? We see Saul trying to kill David once again.
And this goes back to what I was saying earlier in this book is that there's no helping Saul.
There's no talking to him. There's no reasoning with him and him all of a sudden realizing, oh, yeah, I'm wrong.
I'm doing something wrong. The only thing you could do with us all is get away from Saul.
Stay away from Saul. Only God can help Saul, even if he's saying everything verbally to you.
Hey, I've repented. Yeah, no worries. I swear to God, I'm not going to kill David.
He's still losing his mind as a punishment from God. And you just have to stay away from Saul.
Number four this evening. Notice Michal's loyalty.
Verse 11 says Saul also sent messengers unto David's house to watch him and to slay him in the morning.
So notice it's not just a heat of the moment rage that he has. He's actually just sending messengers to hunt him down and kill him.
And Michael, David's wife, told him, saying, if thou save not thy life tonight, tomorrow thou shalt be slain.
So two people in the story has warned David, hey, this guy's trying to kill you.
You need to escape. Verse 12. So Michael let David down through a window and he went and fled and escaped.
And Michael took an image and laid it in the bed and put a pillow of goat's hair for his bolster and covered it with a cloth.
Now, let's take a little pause here. What is she doing?
She's taking an idol and putting it in the bed and making some sort of shape of a human being to try to convince these people that he's just laying down in bed.
Now, let's just acknowledge the elephant in the room that it's super weird that Michael has idols in her home.
I mean, this is the wife of King David. And, you know, sometimes I've seen in people's lives,
I've seen marriages where it just seems like the husband has no clue what his wife is doing, saying the things that she's into in life, the things that she's doing.
And, you know, this is kind of a reminder for us men that you are the king of the castle in your home.
You're the one that is spiritually responsible for your wife.
You're to wash her by the washing of the water of the word to present her spotless to the Lord.
And, you know, you should know if your wife has literal idols in your home.
Well, I mean, David kind of dropped the ball here. And this is a good reason why polygamy is a bad idea.
OK, because when you got all these women, you know, it's kind of hard to keep track of what they're all doing.
But look, we have one wife in this world. Thank God. Not multiple.
You should be keeping track of what she's doing. You should know if there's major sin issues in your wife's life.
Look, obviously, we're not going to know every single thing about each other, but you should know when there's literally First Corinthians five violations going on here.
Something that would get you kicked out of church idolatry. I mean, how is David just unaware that his wife has literal idols in his home?
I mean, that is that's shameful, honestly, on David's part.
And, you know, every once in a while, I just wish husbands would just actually care enough about their family to look at their wife and be like, OK, what are you watching?
What are you reading? What are you doing? And actually care enough to be like, OK, no, we're getting rid of the idols from our home, literally.
I mean, maybe some of you guys around Christmas time need to look at some of your decorations to be like, oh, this is from when you were Catholic 15 years ago.
Yeah, we're throwing this away and not just be like, oh, I just didn't know that for decades there was literal idols in my home.
Look, that's a failure on the husband right there. And while she used this situation to be loyal to David and that's all good.
It still is very weird that she had idols in her home. And that's something that David should have taken care of.
Verse 14. And when Saul sent messengers to take David, she said he is sick.
And Saul sent the messengers again to see David, saying, bring him up to me in the bed that I may slay him.
He doesn't even care. You know, even if he thinks he's sick, he's just ready to kill David no matter what.
Verse 16. And when the messengers were come in, behold, there was an image in the bed with a pillow of goats, with a pillow of goats hair for his bolster.
And Saul said unto Michal, Why hast thou deceived me so and sent away mine enemy that he is escaped?
Michal answered Saul. He said unto me, Let me go. Why should I kill thee?
Now, there's a couple of different aspects of this story. There's some things that she clearly did that were wrong.
OK, having an idol was wrong. Lying was wrong.
You know, I've heard people say that there are some times that it's acceptable to lie.
Nowhere, absolutely nowhere in the King James Bible does the Bible ever say that it is OK to lie.
OK, now I'm not going to stand up here and say, well, I've never lied. I'm perfect.
We all have lied. People do lie. But I'm not going to get up here as a preacher of God's word and ever say that it's OK to lie.
I'm just not going to have that on my conscience. I've heard people say that. And that is absolute trash doctrine right there.
It's never OK to lie under any circumstances. But even though we could look at those two things and say, OK, wrong to have idols.
That was a sin. Wrong to lie. That was a sin.
Here's the thing, though, that I like about this story is I do like seeing Michal be loyal to her husband.
OK, that is something that we need in our culture to realize that husbands and wives should be more loyal to each other than any other human relationship in this world.
And guess what? My call is the daughter of who? Saul. And, you know, today, oftentimes daughters and praise God for that.
They have a close relationship with their father. They love their father. But you know what?
The loyalty that ladies have for their dad should be nothing close to the loyalty that they should have for their husbands.
And I do appreciate that at least here she was willing to stick up for her husband.
She was willing to try to protect him. And though what she did was wrong in some ways.
You know, I'm not going to sit here and judge her super harshly for doing it because I at least appreciate that she was defending her husband.
Go to Genesis chapter number two, Genesis chapter number two.
And, you know, this is something that I've noticed kind of in my generation that's very strange and it's a non biblical concept that are my generation kind of has a problem.
Recognizing that when you get married, that you are a separate new family unit.
Look at this in the Bible. Genesis two of twenty three. And Adam said, this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.
She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man.
Therefore, shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they shall be one flesh.
See, God teaches the leave and cleave doctrine. When you get married, man, you leave mother and father.
You cleave unto your wife and vice versa for ladies, too.
And while this doesn't necessarily mean a specific physical distance or anything like this, what it does mean is that your your love, your loyalty, your energy, your time should be more invested into your spouse than your parents.
And this is just something that is just a reality of life.
Parents, they want to hang on to their kids for as long as possible. And I get it. I love my daughters dearly.
But you've got to realize that when your children get married, they're signing up to love someone more than they love you.
Children, whoever you marry, you should love your spouse more than you love your mom and dad.
You should be more loyal to your spouse than you should be to your mom and dad.
And sometimes we have in our culture parents and in-laws that want to meddle in their children's marriage.
They want to separate husband and wife or take sides or try to pit them against each other.
You know, a husband and wife should be an ironclad unit that is together, that is faithful to each other, that is loyal to each other.
And not even their parents should get in the way of that. You know, I appreciate when I got married.
My father in law, Pastor Thompson, actually believes the Bible and understands this.
I remember him saying, hey, if Jasmine never tries to come back, I'm just going to return it right back to you.
He's like, I'm never going to harbor terrorists. I'm never going to harbor fugitives.
Like if she tries to come crying to us, I'll just give her right back.
And that's how every dad should be. You shouldn't be trying to like harbor some man's wife from him.
I mean, that's a dangerous situation. I don't even care if your dad start harboring some man's wife like that.
That's a stupid thing to do. And guess what? Grandpa, father in law, you are not the authority of that home.
The husband is the authority. Period. Go to Song of Solomon, chapter number five, Song of Solomon.
She was your girl from birth until whenever she got married.
And you know what? During that time, fathers should be good stewards of those ladies, protect those ladies, love those ladies.
But when those ladies walk the aisle, she is not your responsibility anymore.
She has you have no authority over that girl anymore. It is the husband that is in charge of her.
That's why in marriage, it's who gives away this bride. And it's usually the dad says her mother and I do.
And the lady literally walks away from the dad and goes into the arms of her husband because it's leave and cleave.
Look at Song of Solomon, chapter five, verse 10. Notice how the wife here viewed her husband.
Verse 10 says, My beloved is white and ruddy. Notice this. The chiefest among ten thousand.
You know, I like that attitude that she had of her husband, that my husband is the best.
My husband is one out of ten thousand. He's the number one guy.
And here, Michael, she esteemed her husband highly enough to where she's like, I'm going to protect David.
I'm going to be loyal to David. And you know, ladies, that is how you should treat your husband, that he is one in ten thousand and not be looking for or longing after other men or other relationships.
It should be that your husband is the chiefest of ten thousand. Go to First Samuel, chapter 19, First Samuel, chapter 19.
So, again, we're seeing a lot of just themes of loyalty in this chapter, and we're going to see that again in verse 18, number five, Samuel's loyalty.
Look at verse 18. It says, So David fled and escaped and came to Samuel to Rhema and told him all that Saul had done to him.
And he and Samuel went and dwelt in Naoth.
So this is interesting because Samuel is someone who previously had been very loyal to King Saul.
He loved King Saul. He anointed him to be the king of Israel. But again, Samuel's a godly man.
So what? He's more loyal to principles than he is to people.
See, he was loyal to the Lord's anointed when that was King Saul.
But now that David is the Lord's anointed, now he's loyal to David because it's not about the person.
It's about who is the Lord's anointed. And that's who Samuel is going to stand with.
Look at verse 19. It says, we kind of get into an interesting story here.
It says, And it was told Saul, saying, Behold, David is at Naoth to Rhema.
So I don't know if there's some sort of Judas or spy giving away intelligence there, but he finds out about it.
And Saul sent messengers to take David.
And when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying, Samuel standing as appointed over them,
the Spirit of God was upon the messengers of Saul, and they also prophesied.
Now, this is a very interesting story, how Saul literally sends a band of soldiers to go arrest David, to go take him.
But as they go, they see the company of the prophets preaching.
They see Samuel presiding over them.
And all of a sudden, the Spirit of God comes upon them and they join in and they start preaching.
Now, I don't think this is some weird Pentecostal thing, because the Bible says, I'll quote for you in First Corinthians 14 32 says,
The spirits of the prophets are subject unto the prophets.
So you have like this doctrine today of something called mechanical dictation,
where people believe that the word of God was given by some sort of mechanical inspiration,
where God was literally moving the mouth of prophets and and he was moving their tongue,
kind of to force them to say words against their will.
I don't believe that's biblical. You do kind of see exceptions to that.
For example, like Balaam's ass speaking. Yeah.
God is actually moving that donkey's mouth because animals can't talk.
I don't know if you didn't know that.
But the rest of the Bible is what's given what I know as dynamic inspiration,
meaning that these men have their own personalities, their own thoughts,
but they were still being moved by the Holy Ghost to speak God's word.
And look, these people live lives where not everything that was coming out of their mouth was the word of God.
Right. So there was plenty of things that Jeremiah said that are not in the Bible.
There's plenty of things that Paul said that are not in the Bible.
Plenty of things that Samuel said. Likewise, not in the Bible.
But when they were saying things that were God's word, that all got recorded.
That all got put down here. So what I don't what I don't want you to look at this story is think like,
oh, man, these guys got like possessed by the Holy Spirit and they just started saying things against their will.
What happened here is that they were moved by the preaching and that they joined in on the spiritual event happening here.
And that's going to lead us to number six this evening. The power of preaching, the power of preaching.
I think that's really what this story is getting at,
is it's showing the power of the preaching of the word of God on a person's life where here these guys are.
They're being sent to arrest David. But when they get around spiritual people preaching the word of God, something changes inside of them.
And they're no longer thinking about what they were there to do.
They're thinking about the power of whatever was being preached by these prophets.
And it moved them and it filled them with the Holy Ghost. And they themselves wanted a part of that.
They themselves started preaching the word of God. Look at verse 21.
It says, and when it was told, Saul, he sent other messengers and they prophesied likewise.
So he sends a new group. Same thing happens. They show up.
They see the prophets prophesying. They see Samuel abiding over them. They get filled with the Spirit of God.
They start joining in. They start preaching. It's like it's like a men's preaching night going on or something.
They're just getting excited. They hear the word of God being preached. They're like, man, I want in on that.
I'm going to preach the word of God to verse 22.
Then went he also to Rhema and came to a great well that is in Siku.
And he asked and said, where are Samuel and David? And one said, behold, they be at Neoth in Rhema.
And he went thither to Neoth and Rhema. And the Spirit of God was upon him also.
And he went on and prophesied until he came to Neoth in Rhema.
So notice even Saul himself, who I believe again is a saved person, when he was around the preaching of God's word,
when all these other messengers and saved people were around the preaching of God's word, it changed them.
It made a change inside of their heart. They got filled with the Spirit and they wanted to preach as well.
And here's what I think is cool. Samuel,
he didn't do anything extravagant or new to help David with his problem of Saul, you know, wanting to kill him.
Samuel just kept doing the same thing that he's always done, being a man of God.
And by him just being a godly person, that actually orchestrated this situation to temporarily help David.
And, you know, that oftentimes is the right way to approach problems in your life is to just keep doing the things that you know are right.
You have problems in your life. You don't need to reinvent the wheel. The answer is always the same.
Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you. The answer is always the same.
Keep reading your Bible. Keep praying. Keep going to church. Keep preaching the word of God.
Keep loving people. Keep believing the right doctrines. That is always the right answer to any problem in life.
Go to Second Timothy, Chapter four, Second Timothy, Chapter number four.
This is the charge for us here in the New Testament. In Second Timothy, Chapter number four.
Verse two, the Bible says, preach the word, be instant in season, out of season,
reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine.
But after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables.
But watch thou in all things endure afflictions. Do the work of an evangelist. Make full proof of thy ministry.
See, the Bible tells us here to just preach the word in season and out of season, whether it's in whether it's popular,
whether it's not, whether you think it's the right time for someone to hear something or not the right time,
whether it brings persecution, whether people like it, whether they don't.
The Bible says, just preach the word. And here, what did Samuel do?
He just kept doing what was right, regardless of what was going on around him.
You know, that's the attitude that we should have as Christians of being steadfast.
Hey, we keep going soul winning. We keep going to church. We keep reading the Bible. We keep doing what's right.
Go back to First Samuel, chapter number 19. First Samuel, chapter number 19.
And so I think it's cool to see here a story of seeing the word of God having a profound impact on someone's life,
because we don't even know what these guys were preaching. It just says that they prophesied.
I don't know what the sermon was, but whatever it was, it was needful for these people and it moved these people.
And it kind of also highlights the importance of why it's necessary to go to church,
because what's funny is when saved people get around a bunch of other saved people who are actually spiritual,
you know what ends up happening is that rubs off on them and they too become spiritual.
And often you're just a product of who you hang out with.
If you're saved and you're just hanging out with King Saul all day, you're not going to be very spiritual.
You're not going to be filled with the spirit. You're not going to be prophesying.
But when you go to Samuel and you're around God's people and they're spiritual, they're prophesying the word of God.
You know what? That's going to make you a spiritual person as well. And we as Christians, we need each other to get through life.
You know me, I'm a pastor. I've been in church for over a decade.
I've read my Bible faithfully over a decade. But if I did not have church, I probably would slow down big time on my Bible reading, on my soul winning.
I may even quit doing those things, quite honestly, because in life we need each other to keep each other going.
Because just because I'm the pastor doesn't mean that it doesn't inspire me and get me fired up when I see other people love God.
When I see other men get up and preach sermons, that fires me up.
You know what? I get excited when I hear truths out of the Bible preached, just like you guys do.
And just because I'm a pastor doesn't mean like, oh, I'm just a one man show and I could just get through life on my own.
No, I need to be around other spiritual people, which is why I go to church.
And which is why you should go to church, too, because you cannot make it in your life by yourself.
You will not continue to be spiritual for a long time by yourself.
Look at verse number 24. It says,
Now, this is kind of a weird story, but I have a connection here.
Go to Second Chronicles, chapter number 34, Second Chronicles 34.
Why is he doing this?
And again, some people, they read this story and they say this is all mechanical dictation.
This is what's happening is they're kind of getting possessed by the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit's causing them to prophesy.
You know, here's Saul's getting possessed. He's taking his clothes off.
That's not what I think is happening, though he does take his clothes off.
That's not why I think that happened. Look at Second Chronicles 34, verse 27.
Notice what it says. It says,
Why did Saul all of a sudden just strip off all of his clothes
and lay there naked all day and all night, not because he was being possessed.
But I think that he had a temporary moment here where he wasn't losing his mind,
where the preaching of God's word did humble him.
He did realize how wicked he is.
And he was kind of just lamenting and humbling himself and doing what this verse said.
He was rending his clothes. Now, it sounds like he took that to a pretty large extreme,
just laying there like that all the time.
Don't do this if you're ever convicted by the preaching, please.
The ushers will remove you from the building.
But this is just what happened.
And it goes to show the power of the preaching of God's word, where even someone extremely backslidden,
envious, wicked, quite frankly, but who is saved.
That person still has the Holy Ghost inside of them.
And anybody that has the spirit of God inside of them, no matter how far you are from God,
there's only one thing that could fix you.
What did I say? It's God that can fix you. It's God's word that can fix you.
It's preaching from God's word that can fix you.
It's not Jonathan trying to reason with you. It's not Samuel trying to reason with you.
The only thing that could help a really backslidden Christian or someone that's wicked and saved is the word of God.
And while it didn't last long for him, because in order to continue growing as a Christian,
you actually have to walk in the spirit and keep going and keep growing.
But, you know, at least in this temporary moment, he was humbled.
It did have an effect on him.
He rent his clothes, was likely weeping and feeling sorry for his sin.
Go back to 1 Samuel, chapter 19, 1 Samuel 19.
We're going to look at two more places.
Hebrews 10, 1 Samuel 19.
1 Samuel, chapter 19, verse 20. Let's read this again. It says,
And Saul sent messengers to take David. Notice this.
And when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying,
Samuel standing as appointed over them, the Spirit of God was upon the messengers of Saul and they also prophesied.
If you want to be spiritual, you have to be around other people that are spiritual.
We're going to end it with Hebrews, chapter number 10, Hebrews 10.
Notice it was when they saw other people doing right, they wanted to do right.
And it's the same thing for us.
When we see our brothers in Christ going out and preaching the gospel on a Sunday afternoon,
preaching the gospel on a Saturday morning, you know what it makes us want to do?
It makes us want to do that right there with them.
And likewise, you know, when you're a teenager, you're going to school, there's the peer pressure.
When you see your friends doing stupid things, isn't there that peer pressure to do stupid things with them?
This is why it's important to surround yourself with God's people.
And, you know, we're coming up on the New Year and everyone's thinking about their goals and their New Year's resolutions.
Why don't you just purpose in your heart and say in 2025, I will be a three to thrive Christian.
I will be in church every time the doors are open.
Why? Because when I see other people being spiritual, it causes me to want to be spiritual.
And we need more of that in our lives. Look at Hebrews 10, verse 24.
And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works,
not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is,
but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching.
Notice we are to be provoking one another, trying to get one another to do something.
And what is that? To love and to good works.
And I like how in verse 24 it says, let us consider one another, because oftentimes people say,
Oh, I don't go to church because I don't need church. I could read the Bible on my own.
That's true. You can read the Bible on your own. And it's true.
The Holy Spirit can teach you everything that you need to know from the word of God.
But you know what you should do is you should consider one another.
And instead of telling me, oh, yeah, I don't go to church because I don't need it.
I could read the Bible. I'm fine on my own.
OK, what about your brothers in Christ, though?
Because what you're doing by going to church is you're setting an example for your brothers in Christ saying,
hey, look, I'm doing the work of God. Let's do it together.
Join. Join the bandwagon. Yeah, we're all soul winners here.
You should become one, too. Yeah, we all believe the King James Bible here.
You should get rid of your NIV, too. You should get a King James Bible.
Yeah, we hate faggots here. You should scream amen when Pastor Oz is screaming about it, too.
Right. We should provoke one another to love and to good works.
And it says so much the more as you see the day approaching.
You know, 2025 is closer to the Lord coming than 2024.
And so because of that, so much the more it's even more important next year to be in church than it was last year.
And it was this year. It's always more important to go to church.
I'll read for you this last verse. Philippians 127 says, only let your conversation be as it become at the gospel of Christ,
that whether I come and see you or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs,
that you stand fast in one spirit with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel.
And here we see this story in First Samuel where all these men just started joining the bandwagon and preaching the word of God and getting on fire for God.
And why is it is because there was a group of men.
There's a group of Christians that were on fire for the Lord, striving together for that which is right.
You know, if we want to reach people, if we want people to change their lives, us in this room,
we need to strive together and be an example to other Christians who may come to this church.
Let's pray. Lord, thank you for this chapter. Thank you for the word of God and for Anchor Baptist Church.
I just pray that next year we would be even more dedicated to the things of God,
that we would realize that every single person in here is an example to someone.
Just help us to be zealous Christians that are on fire for you so that other people can do likewise.
We love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Alright, if you'll grab a hymnal, our last hymn this evening, number 426,
I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.
Hymn number 426, 4-2-6, I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.
We'll sing there starting on the first.
I heard the bells on Christmas Day Their old familiar carols play
And while it's sweet the words repeat Of peace on earth, goodwill to men.
I thought now as the training had come The bell, peace of old, christendom,
Had rolled along a broken song Of peace on earth, goodwill to men.
And in despair I bowed my head There is no peace on earth, I said,
For hate is strong and bonds the song Of peace on earth, goodwill to men.
Then healed the bells more loud and deep God is not dead, nor doth he see
The wrongs shall fail, the right prevail With peace on earth, goodwill to men.
Till ringing, singing on its way The world with hope from night till day
A voice of time, a chance Of life of peace on earth, goodwill to men.