Folks, welcome to Anchor Baptist Church. We're going to go ahead and get started this evening.
If you would, grab a hymnal and turn to hymn number 246.
Hymn number 246, redeemed.
246, two, four, six.
Hymn number 246, we'll think of a scene there starting on that first verse.
(singing)
If you'll bow your heads with me, heavenly father, we thank you for this day, for the opportunity to gather together freely to sing praises in your name and to learn from your word.
I pray that you would fill pastor with your spirit this evening and that you would open your ears and incline your ear to us as we sing out praises for you.
That everything would be done decently and in order for the service.
These things we pray in Jesus name. Amen.
Alright for our next hymn turn a couple pages if you would to 250.
Burdens are lifted at Calvary.
Hymn number 250, 250.
Burdens are lifted at Calvary.
We'll sing there 250 on the 1st.
Days are filled with sorrow and care.
Jesus is buried.
Raise your hand and Usher will bring you one.
On the front, you'll see our Bible memory passage of the week, Galatians chapter number 1, verse 10.
Make sure to keep working on this chapter here.
On the inside of your bulletin, you'll see our service times are listed Sunday morning at 1030, Sunday evening at 430, and our Wednesday evening Bible study at 7 o'clock.
Our soul winning times are all listed below that, and all those times meet here at the church building.
And, of course, we have our Saturday rally where we have a preacher preach a 10-minute soul winning challenge before,
and then go out into the community and preach the gospel.
Below that is our nursing home ministry schedule.
Below that is our year-to-date statistics.
Praise the Lord, we have 108 salvations so far for the year, and I heard that yesterday soul winning was very receptive.
Seven salvations yesterday, so keep up the great work on that soul winning time.
And, as always, if you have any numbers, please do report that.
We do have on the right our list of expecting ladies.
Please be in prayer for Ms. Whitney Reed, especially as the date is rapidly approaching for her.
So definitely pray for her extra next coming months.
Upcoming events, March 15th, that's this Saturday, is the baby shower for Ms. Whitney Reed.
And there's some more details on the back of the bulletin for that.
Also, a link was sent in our signal group for her baby shower if you'd like to purchase her gift on her Amazon list there.
In five weeks, we'll have another men's preaching night. That's April 13th, and we will have food after that.
And the sign-up sheet will be out in a couple weeks for that. It's still a while away there.
April 19th is our Easter soul-winning marathon here in Oklahoma City.
May 16th through the 18th is King James Conference at Sher Foundation Baptist Church.
Make sure to at least check out those sermons online. There's going to be some great information preached there.
May 31st, we're teaming up with our friends from Steadfast Baptist Church for the Durant Oklahoma soul-winning marathon, so we're looking forward to that.
June 28th, we're just having a fellowship day. We're going to go to the Tinker Air Show as a church, just hang out and have some fun.
August 27th through the 31st, Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship at Steadfast Baptist Church.
And October 6th through 11th, the Bahamas Mission Trip.
Pastor Anderson was just recently in the Bahamas. I think he might be there right now.
And he was preaching in the colleges there.
And he said that the colleges and the college-age students in the Caribbean Islands
is the most receptive, soul-winning he's ever seen.
So I'm telling you, the Bahamas is going to be great. If you can make it, please do.
It's going to be a wonderful, wonderful trip.
If you'd like to give to our church, there's some information below that.
On the back, we do have also, if you're a first-time visitor,
if you wouldn't mind scanning that QR code and just gets us your email,
we do send out events that our church is putting on
and sermons weekly that's preached here.
So if you wouldn't mind filling that out, we could get a record of your visit.
We'd appreciate that.
Information about the baby shower there as well, and we do have our prayer list.
The Hall family is looking at a house potentially.
We're going to be praying for them for that.
Brother Travis is praying for job opportunity.
Brother Alex had an interview this week that went really well,
and so we're going to be praying for him on that.
Thank you so much for all the changes for prayer requests this week.
So at this time, let's go ahead and go to the Lord in prayer as a church family.
Lord, we thank you for this day.
We thank you for Anchor Baptist Church and the opportunity to serve you freely.
We pray that you would bless the service this evening, Lord.
We pray that you bless the Hall family and their desire for a new home.
We pray that you would just bless them.
And we also pray for Brother Travis Habermann for his job opportunity that he's seeking.
We pray that things would go well for him, Lord.
It would be your will that he would just find favor in the eyes of the people hiring him.
And we pray for Miss Jennifer for her uncle's cancer treatment that you please would just bless
and work in that situation and please heal him of that cancer, Lord.
We also pray for Brother Alex that you just help him with different career decisions that he has to make.
And just pray that the right opportunities would open to him, Lord, that you would just bless him in his career.
And we also pray for Ms. Sean Furr, for her son Trevor's family situation, his daughter Hadley.
I just pray that you would bless them in that situation, God.
And we do pray also for Ms. Remy that you keep her safe as she's traveling and that you would just answer her request about her visa according to your will.
And also we pray that you please heal her for tumor, God.
And we also want to pray for the different members in this church who have loved ones that are unsaved.
Pray that she would just soften their hearts to the gospel.
And that we would be faithful soul winners, not just to the community here, but also to our family members.
We thank you for all that you do for us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Alright, that's going to be it for announcements. This time we'll go to our third song.
Alright, for our third song, this evening if you'll grab your white handouts, we're going to sing Psalm 139.
Psalm 139, 1-3-9 in your white handouts.
Psalm 139, we'll start there on that first verse.
Good singing this evening. If you would, as the offering plates are being passed, turn to 1 Samuel, chapter number 30.
Good evening, 1 Samuel, chapter number 30. Read the entire chapter, follow along silently in your Bibles.
1 Samuel 30, the Bible reads, "And it came to pass, when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day,
that the Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire,
and had taken the women captives that were therein.
They slew not any, either great or small, but carried them away, and went on their way."
So David and his men came to the city, and, behold, it was burned with fire,
and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters were taken captives.
Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voices and wept,
until they had no more power to weep.
And David's two wives were taken captives, Ehinoam the Jezrelaites,
and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite.
And David was greatly distressed, for the people spake of stoning him,
because the soul of all the people was aggrieved,
every man for his sons and for his daughters.
But David encouraged himself, in the Lord his God.
And David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech's son,
"I pray thee, bring me Hither the Ephod."
And Abiathar brought Hither the Ephod to David.
And David inquired at the Lord, saying,
"Shall I pursue after this troop? Shall I overtake them?"
And he answered him, "Pursue, for thou shalt surely overtake them,
and without fail recover all."
So David went, he and the six hundred men that were with him,
and came to the brook Besor, where those that were left behind stayed.
But David pursued, he and four hundred men, for two hundred abode behind,
which were so faint that they could not go over the brook Besor.
And they found an Egyptian in the field, and brought him to David,
and gave him bread, and heated to eat, and they made him drink water,
and they gave him a piece of a cake of figs, and two clusters of raisins.
And when he had eaten, his spirit came again to him,
for he had eaten no bread, nor drunk any water, three days and three nights.
And David said unto him, To whom belongest thou? And whence art thou?
And he said, I am a young man of Egypt, servant to an Amalekite,
and my master left me, because three days agone I fell sick.
We made an invasion upon the south of the Cherithites,
and upon the coast which belongeth to Judah,
and upon the south of Caleb, and we burned Ziklag with fire.
And David said to him, Canst thou bring me down to this company?
And he said, Swear unto me by God, that thou wilt neither kill me,
nor deliver me into the hands of my master, and I will bring thee down to this company.
And when he had brought him down, behold, they were spread abroad upon all the earth,
eating and drinking and dancing, because of all the great spoil that they had taken
out of the land of the Philistines and out of the land of Judah.
And David smote them from the twilight, even unto the evening of the next day.
And there escaped not a man of them, save four hundred young men, which rode upon camels and fled.
And David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away, and David rescued his two wives.
And there was nothing lacking to them, neither small nor great, neither sons nor daughters, neither spoil nor anything that they had taken to them.
David recovered all. And David took all the flocks and the herds, which they drove before those other cattle, and said,
This is David's spoil. And David came to the two hundred men, which were so faint that they could not follow David, whom they had made also to abide at the brook Besor.
And they went forth to meet David, and to meet the people that were with him. And when David came nearer to the people, he saluted them.
Then answered all the wicked men and the men of Belial, of those that went with David, and said, "Because they went not with us, we will not give them aught of the spoil that we have recovered, save to every man, his wife and his children, that they may lead them away and depart." Then said David, "You shall not do so, my brethren, with that which the Lord hath given us, who hath preserved us, and delivered the company that came against us into our hand."
"For who will hearken unto you in this matter? But as his part is that goeth down to the battle, so shall his part be that terrieth by the stuff; they shall part alike."
And it was so from that day forward that he made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel unto this day.
And when David came to Ziklag, he sent of the spoil unto the elders of Judah, even to his friends, saying,
"Behold, a present for you, of the spoil of the enemies of the Lord, to them which were in Bethel,
and to them which were in South Ramoth, and to them which were in Jetir, and to them which were in Aror,
and to them which were in Shiphmoth, and to them which were in Eshtemoah, and to them which were in Rakal,
and to them which were in the cities of the Jer-Malites, and to them which were in the cities of the Kenites,
and to them which were in Hormah, and to them which were in Korash, Korashan, and to them which were in Akta,
and to them which were in Hebron, and to all the places where David himself and his men were wont to haunt.
Let's bow our heads forward in prayer. Father in heaven, we thank you for this day, and we thank you for our church,
and everyone that's gathered here, and we just ask that you would fill our past with the Holy Spirit,
that you help us to pay attention to the word, apply it to our lives, and to do good and pray. Amen.
Alright, well we are in 1 Samuel chapter number 30 this evening, getting real close to the end of this study,
but if you remember, last week the Philistines kicked David out of their land.
You know, he had kind of lost some faith in the Lord, and he said, "One day I'm going to perish by the hand of Saul."
And he made the mistake of going to dwell with the Philistines, and he wasn't really fitting in there, of course,
because, you know, his heart is still with God's people, but he was feigning, you know, to be on the Philistines team,
and God kind of gave him an out of that situation by the Philistines kicking him out of that land.
That brings us to 1 Samuel chapter 30 verse 1, where the Bible says,
"And it came to pass when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day,
that the Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire."
So just immediately, as soon as he leaves the land of the Philistines, you know, he finds himself back in the fight,
back in another battle, and in verse 2 it says, "And had taken the women captives that were therein,
they slew not any, either great or small, but carried them away and went on their way.
So David and his men came to the city, and behold, it was burned with fire, and their wives, and their sons,
and their daughters were taken captives."
Now, what happened here is like one of the worst things a man could possibly fathom.
You know, could you imagine coming home and your wife's gone, your children's gone, everyone's gone.
I mean, this is like a man's worst nightmare, and that's what's happening to David here.
And obviously they're very upset about it.
It says in verse number four, "Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept until they had no more power to weep."
And obviously that's totally understandable that they're feeling these emotions, that they're experiencing this.
But we also have to remember that in a way, David is reaping what he's sown a little bit here.
Because you remember a couple of chapters ago, he was going into all these lands and all these people that God never told him to go to war against.
He just kind of took it upon himself and when he went into these towns, he killed man, woman, child.
He wiped out those cities completely because he didn't want any witnesses that he wasn't actually in the areas of Israel like he told Achish, the king of Gath.
So David actually just did something way worse than this and he's kind of reaping what he has sown.
And let's remind you of that. Go to 1 Samuel chapter 7 verse number 8.
Look what it says, "And David and his men went up and invaded the Gezerites and the Malachites.
For those nations were of old the inhabitants of the land, as thou goest up to Shur, even unto the land of Egypt.
And David smote the land, and left neither man nor woman alive, and took away the sheep, and the oxes, and the asses, and the camels, and the apparel, and returned and came to Achish."
So when David went on his little excursion here, he killed everyone.
And that was obviously not right. God did not tell him to go fight against those enemies.
There's times in the Bible where God says, "Go to these wicked lands and wipe out everything."
You know, God told Saul to go and wipe out, or Samuel, excuse me, to wipe out the Amalekites.
Saul didn't do it. Samuel took over and finished the job.
But God did not tell David to do that. David was just taking that upon himself.
And as a result, he's reaping what he has sown.
You know, the Bible says, "Be not deceived. God is not mocked.
For whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap."
And so, you know, we need to have this reminder as Christians that how we act,
the sins that we do, the way that we live our lives,
can often come back to bite us later.
You know, the world calls this karma.
Obviously karma is not a biblical concept,
but the idea of reaping what you sow is.
And David going around and just murdering people,
just taking over lands that God didn't tell him to do,
now he finds himself in a situation where an enemy has come into his land,
to his people, but he didn't get treated as bad as he treated other people.
And this is the truth, is that oftentimes God punishes us way less than our iniquities deserve.
And when that happens, we should be thankful to God.
Because David here, you know, he went and killed people's wives.
He went and killed people's mothers, people's dads, people's brothers,
that according to the Bible did not deserve to die, were not people that God said to kill,
yet he himself finds himself in a situation where people have taken his wives, his kids,
but hey, at least they're not dead.
I mean, at least that all of them are alive, but they don't know that yet.
They're weeping, they're distressed, they're upset.
Verse 5 said, "And David's two wives were taken captives,
Ahinoam the Jezreelitus and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite.
And David was greatly distressed, for the people spake of stoning him,
because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters."
Now actually put yourself in this story, because sometimes I think we're just,
we're doing our Bible reading, we're doing our chapter of the day.
Oh yeah, you know David was distressed.
But could you imagine your precious wife, men, could you imagine your children, your loved ones,
are just taken by an enemy force.
You don't know what their intentions are.
You don't, you know, obviously you're not thinking,
"Oh yeah, these are great guys that took my family."
I mean, you probably would just be losing your mind.
You'd be so stressed out.
You'd be crying.
You'd be begging God every second of every day.
You'd be doing everything you can to get them back.
If you could trade with them,
if you could die for them to make sure that they're safe,
every guy in here would do that, right?
So David's in this situation for real.
He's not just reading it on pages.
He's actually here in this story.
And he's greatly distressed.
And to make matters worse, put yourself in his position.
Now, all of his people want to kill him too, right?
And boy, do you reap what you sow.
You know, you got to be careful, Christian, and not play around with sin,
and not think you can go out into the world and live with the Philistines
and do a bunch of wicked things that the Bible condemns
because you are going to reap what you sow.
And here David is, he's in this situation.
Now his people want to kill him.
But notice, this is what makes David different.
It says, "But David," in verse 6,
"But David encouraged himself in the Lord his God."
And this is what separates David from people who quit,
from people who buckle under the pressure.
Because let me just let you in on a little secret.
Every single person in life is going to go through hardships,
struggles, trials, just devastations,
points in your life where you feel like it's all over.
When you feel like there's nothing else to have hope for,
every single person is going to experience that.
And the Bible even says,
"Many are the afflictions of the righteous."
So don't think that even by being a great person,
even by following the Lord and His commandments,
that you're just going to escape all suffering or all pain.
No, all of us are just going to experience pain and hardships in life.
That's just called being a human being.
And here's the thing, we could suffer for different reasons.
Sometimes people are suffering as a result of their own sin,
a result of their own trespasses against the Lord.
Other times we're suffering for righteousness sake,
for preaching the Word of God, for standing up for the truth.
But guess what? Everyone is going to suffer.
And your suffering might look different than mine.
I hope all of our suffering looks different than David's.
I hope none of us ever have to go through this.
But there's a difference though between people who they go through the hardships,
they go through the trials, and then the weight of those trials causes them to quit.
They just say, "This is too hard. I didn't sign up for this.
I didn't sign up for these consequences.
You know, my wives have been taken, my kids have been taken,
and all my followers want to kill me now."
You know, he could have just quit at this point.
He could have just rolled over and died,
and a lot of people probably just quit in this situation.
But he was different. How?
He encouraged himself in the Lord his God.
And let me tell you, you do not get to control your trials.
You don't get to control oftentimes the pain and the struggles that you go through.
But here's what all of us can control every single time,
is how we respond to those trials.
How we respond to the issues and problems in our life.
Look at Ephesians chapter 6, if you'll turn there.
All of us get to choose how we respond to these things.
And like we talked about on Sunday,
all of us have a lot of things to be thankful for,
and a lot of things that we can be rooted and grounded with.
And no matter what you're going through,
there's always some way that you can encourage yourself in the Lord.
I mean it doesn't matter what the circumstances look like,
it can't really get much worse than this in my mind.
Like if David can encourage himself when his wives have been taken,
when his children have been taken,
when all the people are ready to stone him,
if he could encourage himself then,
you think you could encourage yourself when you're having financial problems,
when you have a fight with your wife?
Oh, and you get one protester?
I mean what did we have a few weeks ago?
We had two protesters, right?
I mean, come on, get over it.
We had one? Was it one? I thought it was two.
Okay, we had one protester.
See, I don't even care. I don't even look at them.
I mean it's small potatoes compared to what I've been through.
It's just like one protester, whatever.
But you know, some people, one protester, would shake them to their core.
Like coming to a church and getting a protester out there,
like it would just scare them.
It would blow their mind.
They would say, "This is a church. Why is there a protester out there?"
But for those of us who have been through some battles,
we're like, "Yeah, no big deal. No big deal, right?"
But here's the thing.
We're going to go through things that are harder than that,
and we get to decide to encourage ourselves in the Lord and say,
"You know what? Yeah, I'm going through problems, but I'm still saved.
But I still have eternal life.
But I still have the King James Bible.
But I still have fellow Christians in this room.
You know, I still have the sun shining.
I still have a place to live.
I still have all these blessings in my life."
You get to decide to encourage yourself in the Lord.
And not just sit here and focus on the negative.
Focus on the problems.
Focus on all the things that could bring you down.
Instead focusing on things that will encourage you.
Ephesians 6 verse 11.
"Put on the whole armor of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil."
Right, so we know as Christians that we're in a spiritual battle.
We know that we're in a fight spiritually with the devil, with the workers of the devil.
And so we should prepare for that battle in advance.
I mean, do you really think that it's ideal to go to war?
And as you start receiving gunfire, "Okay, let me put on my vest.
Let me put on my helmet. Let me get my gun. Let me start loading up.
Oh, did you guys, you know, prep for this at all?"
That wouldn't really be ideal, right?
But you know, this is how a lot of Christians live their life.
Is that they wait until they're in a David situation.
And they go, "Oh crap, I need to get spiritual."
"Oh crap, now I should go to church."
"Oh man, maybe now that I've been divorced."
"Oh, maybe now after I treated my spouse like garbage for 20 years and they finally left me."
"Maybe now that my kids are already grown up and out of the home and not serving God."
"Maybe now that everything's been broken and destroyed."
"Oh, now I'll start getting ready for the fight."
No, you get ready for the fight way before you're engaged in it.
You know, soldiers that go off to war, they train here in the United States.
They get ready for war here, then they go deploy and fight.
You don't go out into the middle of a firefight and say, "Hey, we should get ready for combat."
That doesn't make sense, right?
But you know, we're in a spiritual war.
Look at verse number 12. It says, "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities."
Against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
See, if you've read the Bible, you already know in advance that we are in a spiritual war.
That we are soldiers of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And a wise person would say, "Okay, I'm in the Lord's army. I'm in a fight. I'm in a battle. You know what I'm going to do?
I'm going to get prepared for that before the heat of the battle."
And so this is why David was able to stand in this evil day is because David has been a godly person for a long time before this.
Yes, he went through his seasons of backsliding. There's no doubt about that.
Of course, he's not perfect. He's a sinner. But David is a godly person.
David is a man after God's own heart. And you know what? David is the guy that had the full armor of God on.
And here he is when everyone else is getting discouraged. Everyone else is ready to kill him.
But he's the one that stands up and encourages himself in the Lord. Why? Because he thought about these things before.
Look what it says in verse 13. "Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand."
See, the Bible implies that there's the evil day that's coming in the future.
Here we are today. The Bible says, "Hey, the evil day is coming. How are you going to stand on that evil day?"
You've got to start putting on the armor of God now. You've got to start getting ready for these things now.
So you don't want to make this mistake of saying, "Oh, I'll start getting serious about God when I need Him."
That's a bad plan. Look, there's some people that God is just so merciful to them and so gracious to them
that they don't really serve God, and then they're in a bind, and they call out to Him, and God does deliver them.
God does show mercy on him. But you know what? That's not the best plan for getting the blessing of God on your life.
The Bible talks about how, "He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination to him."
Right? What is that saying? If you are receiving the Word of God, you're reading something in the Bible,
and you know what it says, you understand it, but you say, "You know what? I'm just not going to listen to this.
I'm not going to take it seriously. I'm not going to change." The Bible says that could have a direct effect on your relationship with God,
to the point where if you're just scorning His Word, you're not listening to what He says, you're not obeying the Bible,
you're turning away your ear, He says even your prayer can become abomination, to where you call out,
"God, help me! God, I'm going to bind! Help me! Save my wife! Save my kids!" Your prayer is an abomination.
Is that where you want to be? Because I'll tell you what, I want my chances of the Lord to hear me and help me to be as high as possible.
I want to be walking in the Spirit. I want to have the full armor of God on so that in that evil day I could stand.
I want to build my house on that sure foundation so that when the storms come that it beats upon that house and the house stands.
That it stands through the storm. It stands through the evil day.
But let me tell you, this does not happen overnight. This does not happen in one day.
You know what? Putting on that armor, being prepared for war, building a strong house on a strong foundation, it takes time.
It takes a time, a long stretch of years of being consistent in the things of God.
You know, that's how you build that sure foundation. That's how you become steadfast.
That's how you become anchored, is doing that for a long period of time.
You don't just decide one day, I'm going to be an amazing, phenomenal Christian.
And just in one day, you know the Bible super well, you're a great soul winner, you're, you know, obeying God's commandments.
No, it takes time. And so the evil day is coming, prepare now.
The storm's coming, build your house now.
Verse number 14 says, stand there for having your loins girt about with truth.
So he says, hey, in this armor that you're putting on for battle,
one of the things you may need to make sure you're doing is girding your loins with truth, right?
It's so important for us to know what the Bible says and to actually believe what the Bible says.
You know, so many Christians today or false versions of Christianity like Catholicism,
they'll tell you that they believe the Bible, but I'm telling you right now they don't have their loins gird about with truth
because constantly the Bible's just brought up to them of ways that their religion is against what the Bible says.
And you know what they do? They turn away their ear from hearing the law.
It's like, hey, here's where Jesus said not to call anyone father.
Call no man your father upon earth, for one is your father which is in heaven, right?
Now, of course, we know there's nothing wrong with calling your dad dad. There's nothing wrong calling your actual father father.
There's nothing wrong with being like a father unto someone.
You know, the Apostle Paul talked about how, hey, you have many instructors in Christ, but not many fathers, for I have begotten you through the gospel, right?
So he was like a father unto them in the sense that he preached them the gospel. He got them saved.
But was the Apostle Paul walking around calling himself Father Paul? Oh, Father Paul, you've come to see us.
No, because that's an unbiblical title. Why? Because Jesus' plain words said, "Call no man your father."
And what does the Catholic Church do, though? They see those words of Jesus Christ and they say,
"Oh, no, you have to have the Catholic Church interpret that for you."
And this is what people who don't believe the Bible do, is they hide behind this word called interpretation.
This is what they do. There's a clear verse. And let me tell you, that verse does not need interpretation.
Jesus said, "Call no man father." I mean, it's clear. It's plain.
But they'll just say, "Oh, there's a different interpretation for that."
Or, you know, 1 Timothy chapter 3 will say that if a man desires the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.
A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife. So you have a clear verse.
The Bible says that to be a bishop, you must be married. It's not optional. You have to be married to be a bishop.
And then the Catholic Church says, actually, the Catholic Church teaches that you must not be married to be a bishop.
And it's like, what is wrong with you? I'll tell you what's wrong with them. They don't have their loins girt about with truth.
They could lie to you and say that you do. They could lie and say, oh yeah, we believe the Bible.
No, you don't believe the Bible because if you believe the Bible, you would be saved.
You would believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and not believe in your works based false religion, your pagan idolatry religion.
No, your loins aren't gird about with truth. If you're going to fight the spiritual fight, you got to have the truth on your side.
You got to know what the Bible says so that you could stand in that fight and earnestly contend for the faith.
Let's keep reading this and having on the breastplate of righteousness.
You know, a breastplate in our modern times would be like a bulletproof vest.
And, you know, I've never fought. I've never done any of that stuff.
But I would imagine that wearing a bulletproof vest gives you a little bit feeling of comfort or confidence knowing,
"Hey, I've got something to protect me. Even if I take a round, probably not going to die. Sure, it might hurt."
But, you know, you have a little bit more confidence knowing that you are protected, right?
And here's the thing about being righteous, meaning walking in the spirit, living a godly life,
you know, following the Bible to the best of your ability, is that it gives you something called peace.
And you know what that is? It's a confidence that knows, "Hey, I'm doing the best I can here.
I'm living a godly life. Yeah, I'm not perfect, but you know, I'm not out committing adultery.
I'm not out drinking alcohol. I'm not out doing drugs. I'm not committing these grievous sins."
And you put on the breastplate of righteousness and you could go into battle saying,
"Hey, I'm confident. I'm protected. I've got peace."
And it says, "And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace."
You know, you wouldn't want to go into combat without shoes on.
I mean, could you imagine how terrible that would be?
But, you know, a lot of Christians, they completely ignore this part of the armor.
And a lot of people act like this is just optional, that it's not a big deal,
that only those really extreme fundamentalist churches go out and preach the gospel.
Again, are we going to believe the Bible or not?
The Bible says when you're putting on the full armor of God,
you've got to have your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
You know, you ought to be a soul winner.
You ought to learn how to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.
You ought to go out knocking doors with us on one of our soul winning times.
Well, do you want to stand in the evil day or not?
Because you know how you stand in the evil day?
You put on the whole armor of God, not just parts of it.
It's not enough to just be King James only and think,
"Oh, I'm good for all the trials of life just because I am King James only."
Or, "I'm saved so I'm good for all the trials of life."
No, you want to go out to war with your full kit on, with the full armor on.
It wouldn't make sense to go out to war and it's like,
"Alright, you've got your bulletproof vest, you've got your helmet,
you've got your belt on, and you have no weapon."
It's like, "Well, that sucks. That doesn't sound like a very fun mission to go on."
Or, "You know, you've got your weapon, you've got your bulletproof vest,
you've got your helmet, but you're barefoot."
You're going to be so ineffective and in pain and it's just not going to be a fun time.
You have to have the whole package, all of it.
"Of all, taking the shield of faith," verse 16, "wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked."
See, when you have truth, when you have the Word of God, you know what that's going to give you is faith.
Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.
You know, you read the Bible and you see, oh, here's where God came through for this person.
Oh, here's the promise of God in this verse.
Hey, I can hang my hat on this promise because God can't lie, right?
And you could have that shield of faith that'll quench all the fiery darts of the wicked
and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit,
which is the Word of God.
So putting on salvation like a helmet and taking the sword of the Spirit,
which is the Word of God.
Of course, our weapon in this war is not carnal.
It's a spiritual weapon, the Word of God.
Go to Job chapter number 23, Job chapter number 23.
So you know, here's the thing, when you're doing all those things,
when you're reading the Bible, when you're going soul winning,
when you're praying, when you're living a godly life,
you're going to be able to encourage yourself in the Lord
in a lot of situations where other people would not,
where other people are quitting, other people are giving up.
You're going to have this inner strength that doesn't come from your flesh, right?
It's a spiritual strength.
It's the power of the Holy Spirit enabling you to keep going in fights,
in battles, and in persecutions.
It's a spiritual power.
You know, Job was another person who went through a lot of persecution,
and even after losing his children and losing his health and losing his wealth,
notice how he encouraged himself in the Lord in Job chapter 23 verse 10.
It says, "But he knoweth the way that I take."
That he is referring to God, of course.
And he's having peace from this inner thought that he's having saying,
"Hey, God knows what's happening in this situation."
Isn't that a comforting thought?
That's a thought that not everyone has.
That the unsaved definitely don't have.
And even Christians that are very carnal,
they don't often consider the fact that,
"Hey, God knows what's happening right now."
And let's keep reading.
He says, "When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold."
Notice the confidence that he has saying,
"Look, I know this trial is terrible.
It sucks. It's not fun.
But I know that God understands what's happening right now,
even if I don't fully understand it.
But here's what I do know."
How does he know?
Well, from the Word of God, of course.
How does he know?
He says, "That when he's tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
My foot hath held his steps.
His way have I kept."
That's that breastplate of righteousness, right?
"His way have I kept and not declined."
See the confidence he has?
There's confidence to be had from living a righteous life.
"Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips.
I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food."
Let's compare and contrast a couple cases here.
Job, who at the time that he was alive, the Bible says,
was the most righteous man that was living.
Job goes through an insane trial where all ten of his children die,
where he loses his wealth, all of his money, all of his assets.
And to make everything worse, he starts getting covered with these boils.
He loses his health.
Then his three friends are just berating him over and over,
accusing him of being a wicked person, saying basically,
"Job, you deserve this. You asked for this.
Why are you being so prideful, Job?"
Then on top of that, the worst of everything is his wife nags him.
I mean, talk about making a man just want to kill himself,
is you just add that on top of it.
But yet Job still was confident and still had faith in the Lord.
Why?
Well, because Job wasn't one of these people that just last minute,
as his life was falling apart, decides to get spiritual.
He was spiritual way before that.
He put on the full armor of God way before that.
He started building his house on a rock, on the sure foundation,
way before the evil day.
And so even though he almost fell off, there was times he was despairing of life,
there was times he was ready to give up.
Job stood in the evil day.
And it came from him preparing for a long time.
David stood in the evil day.
It came from him preparing for a long time.
Now let's contrast this with other people.
Here's most Christians.
They don't go to church.
Or if they do go to church, it's on Easter and Christmas.
They don't read the Bible.
Maybe they get a verse of the day app that sends them a little notification on their phone.
Maybe they read a verse a day.
You know, they're not really being faithful to reading the word of God.
They're not out preaching the gospel.
They're not soul winners.
They're not praying every day.
They're not leading their families spiritually and teaching them to follow the Lord.
But then the evil day will come because guess what?
Like I said, the evil day is coming for you whether you're saved or unsaved or godly or wicked.
If you're a human being, that evil day is coming for you.
And so which person are you going to be?
Are you just going to leave it up to chance that God will be extra merciful and extra gracious with you
and just decide to bail you out anyways?
God does that for people sometimes.
But is that really, you want to just leave that up to chance?
Because chances are to whom much is given of him much shall be required.
And I'm going to tell you right now, you are probably not that person.
If you're coming to this church, if you're hearing the word of God being preached,
if you read your Bible, you're probably not that person.
You're the person that's going to fall on the evil day and fall and crash and burn hard.
So why don't you just say right now, okay, the evil day is coming anyways,
so I'm just going to put on the armor of God now.
I'm going to build the house on the rock.
Now, I'm going to prepare for it now.
That's the decision that you need to make today.
Don't make that decision when the evil day comes.
Make that decision today.
Job, or we're just in Job.
Go back to 1 Samuel chapter number 30, 1 Samuel chapter number 30.
I didn't finish Job's quote here.
As you're turning back to 1 Samuel 30, let me read for you.
Verse 25 says, "For I know that my Redeemer liveth,
and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.
And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God,
whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold,
and not another, though my reigns be consumed within me."
Talk about confidence.
Talk about something to encourage yourself in the Lord with,
is the fact that, hey, we're saved, and no matter what we go through in this life,
at least we know that someday we're going to see our Redeemer,
and we're going to see him in our flesh,
because we're going to be resurrected from the dead,
we're getting new bodies, we're going to heaven,
we could have confidence in that.
Verse 7, so remember David, he encouraged himself in the Lord and says,
"And David said to Abiathar the priest, to him elect son,
'I pray thee, bring me hither the ephod.'
And Abiathar brought hither the ephod to David."
Verse 8 says, "And David inquired at the Lord,
saying, 'Shall I pursue after this troop? Shall I overtake them?'
And he answered him, 'Pursue, for thou shalt surely overtake them,
and without fail recover all.'"
See, David does the right thing here.
He's been godly for many years, the evil day comes,
he doesn't quit, he encourages himself in the Lord,
and on top of that, he seeks God, and he inquires of the Lord.
See, you don't want to be the person where you're living a super wicked life,
and then the evil day comes, "Oh, let me inquire of the Lord real quick."
No, what you want is be living a really godly life,
and then when the evil day comes, also inquire of the Lord.
I'm not telling you don't call out to God and ask him to save you in tough situations.
Do that. Do that no matter what, because that's the only hope you have.
But it's better to be living a godly life before that.
Stay there. James 5.13 says, "Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray."
So you know that is the answer when you're going through affliction, is to pray.
But make sure that you're putting on that armor now.
Make sure that you're building the house now.
Verse 9 says, "So David went, he and the six hundred men that were with him,
and came to the brook Besor, where those that were left behind stayed.
But David pursued, he and four hundred men, four two hundred abode behind,
which were so faint that they could not go over the brook Besor."
So, on top of this terrible situation that David's in,
where the women and children are all taken, everything's gone,
and he's having to encourage himself, the people want to kill him, he inquires of God,
saying, "God, should I go pursue after this troop?"
God tells him yes, and as he's going, a bunch of his men fall out,
because they're so faint, and so just physically exhausted, that they literally cannot go anymore.
And, you know, this should just teach us that we should expect issues,
expect setbacks, expect problems, have low expectations of things turning out perfectly,
just expect everything to go haywire, and then you're going to be dealing with those situations a lot better.
You know, you don't want to make plans for your life, where it's like,
if one little thing of your perfect little fairy tale plan in your mind goes wrong,
that just everything's derailed, just like, plan for everything to suck, okay?
You know, just plan for the kids to get sick on your vacation.
I mean, don't you just love it?
Men, you men that work super hard, 60 hours a week, 70 hours a week,
and you get a day off, wow, isn't that just nice when that happens every once in a while?
Or, you know, you get a vacation, you've been planning for so long,
and you go and it's just like vomit the whole time.
Just all the kids are throwing up, and just everything's terrible,
and, you know, you lose your wallet, and the car breaks down, the tire's flat, the dog dies.
I mean, just, you know how, you know, sometimes we just have those days, right?
We have those times.
But, you know, you just got to just, right now, just realize that life is just hard sometimes.
Just things that are going to happen that are bad, that are outside of your control,
That's what we talked about on Sunday about just only focus on the things that you can
control.
Don't sit here and worry about the what if, what if, what if, because remember, what if
a bomb drops on your head, as President Trump said, right?
That's a great quote.
What if Putin breaks the agreement?
What if a bomb drops on your head right now?
That's a good way to live your life.
It is.
And you know, it's like, all right, God, you told me to do this.
You told me to pursue after.
You told me to go to church.
You told me to go soul winning.
Well, what if?
If, you know, I go soul winning and someone yells at you, expect them to yell at you.
Just expect it.
And then when it doesn't happen, you're like, wow, that was easy.
That was so, you know, no problem.
Smooth sailing.
I mean, that was great.
Just expect things to go wrong.
Have low expectations.
And then when things go right, you could just be extra happy, extra excited.
And like you go on a vacation, you're like, wait a sec, were we all healthy that whole
time?
Like, that's awesome.
That's great.
That's one for the books, right?
And you're going to have weeks like that too.
But don't have this expectation of life that everything's going to go perfect.
No, sometimes even when you're doing what's right, even when God says, go pursue, go destroy
these guys, things still will go wrong sometimes.
And just, we need to realize that as a church.
Like, I don't have some sort of crystal ball that tells you, here's our 15 year growth
plan.
You know, here's exactly where we're going to be in this part of town.
Let me tell you, I know about moving churches.
Because when I worked at Steadfast, we did it for three years in a row, didn't we, right?
We moved three times in three years.
We're, you know, having lawsuits, we're having protests, we're having a hotel and church,
or I'm sorry, church and hotel conference rooms.
And let me tell you, we didn't have like this grand master plan of what Steadfast Church
would look like in five years.
We're just thinking like, okay, let's book next week's hotel.
Okay?
Oh, great.
The protesters called that one and got us canceled.
All right, life sucks.
Go to the next one, right?
But you'll see in this story that sometimes things change.
Look at verse number 11 says, and they found an Egyptian in the field and brought him to
David and gave him bread and he did eat and they made him drink water.
So in the midst of David, he's having this struggle, he's having this problem.
Now a bunch of his men are falling out.
Now all of a sudden there's this Egyptian guy that comes into the story.
Verse 12, it says, and they gave him a piece of a cake of figs and two clusters of raisins.
When he had eaten, his spirit came again to him, for he had eaten no bread, nor drunk
any water, three days and three nights.
And David said unto him, To whom belongest thou?
And whence art thou?
And he said, I am a young man of Egypt, servant to an Amalekite, and my master left me, because
three days ago I fell sick.
We made an invasion upon the south of the Cherrathites and upon the coast, which belongeth
to Judah, and upon the south of Caleb, and we burned Ziklag with fire.
And David said to him, "Canst thou bring me down to this company?"
That's what he wants, right?
He wants to find out where the enemy is.
And he said, "Swear unto me by God, that thou wilt neither kill me nor deliver me into the
hands of my master, and I will bring thee down to this company."
Notice how David, you know, he could have just sulked and just had a self-pity party
and just felt hopeless, or he could have just been focused so much on his problems and his
issues.
He could have thrown up his hands and said, "Man, now a bunch of my guys are too tired
to go and fight." He could have just focused on himself, focused on his problems, yet here
comes this random individual, and David could have ignored this guy, not cared about him,
not paid him any attention, but David actually showed him compassion, showed him love, gave
him food, gave him water, kept this guy alive, and when this interaction started, there was
nothing really in it for David, right? David was just doing the right thing. Yet, sometimes
in life, you'll realize that as you're going through a trial, through a battle, through
a dark time where you don't know where the end is, you don't see the end in sight, oftentimes
God will just give you a solution to your problems if you seek him first, if you do
what's right, if you continue in the paths of righteousness and not just focus on yourself,
throw yourself a pity party, focus on your problems, focus on other people, and in the
midst of focusing on other people, David's solution came right to him. This guy now is
able to lead him to the enemies that he wants to go seek. Would he have ever gotten that
if David would have just brushed this guy off and not cared, right? And here's the thing.
In this story soon, we're going to see that David does go and he does find the enemy and
God does bless David, but it happened through this man. It happened through David caring
about other people still. And you know, Pastor Shelley and I and Set Fast Baptist Church,
we could have just been so focused on all of our problems and our hotel issues and our
lawsuits and our protests, and we could have just said, what was me? Look at all these
problems. But you know what Pastor Shelley did as a leader? He led the church to say,
hey, let's still go soul winning. Oh, we're in hotel church. Who cares? Let's go preach
the gospel still. Hey, let's still make documentaries. Let's still get people baptized. Let's still
have missions trips over the world. Let's still love other people. And you know, through
the midst of those trials, let me tell you, we did not know what was going to happen.
We did not see an end in sight. We did not see a solution. We just said we just have
to keep going. We don't see the solution. We don't know how this is going to end. I
don't know how this is going to get fixed. But here's what Pastor Shelley and I knew
that we were going to be steadfast, that we were going to keep serving God no matter what,
that we were still going to love and minister to other people no matter what. And you know
what happened is eventually God just opened a door for that church that we never expected
and God bless Verity Baptist Church gave just a ton of money to steadfast and enable them
to buy a church building and you know that was unforeseen. That's not something that
we said oh no worries because in exactly this amount of time we're going to be getting this
and God's going to bail us out of this situation. We didn't know that but Pastor Shelley his
leadership style was hey we don't know but I know what we should be doing we should be
preaching gospel we should be having church we should be serving God we should be loving
other people and you know when you focus on those things oftentimes God orchestrates things
in your life to fix your problems to help you through your battles verse number 16 of
first Samuel 30 says and when he had brought him down behold they were spread about abroad
upon all the earth eating and drinking and dancing because of all the great spoil that
they had taken out of the land of the Philistines and out of the land of Judah so the wicked
here that had just taken the wives and the children you know David and his men he goes
to them and he sees them and they're just partying they're just having a great time
they're dancing they're eating and drinking and making merry and you know sometimes Christians
as well could look at the world could look at wicked people and wicked people often times
put on this illusion that their life is so wonderful that they're just having a big party
and for some Christians this actually causes Christians to get disillusioned and to get
discouraged is when they themselves are living a good life they're following God's commandments
and they're going through struggles they're going through problems yet sometimes they'll
look at someone who's very wicked you know Hollywood actors these real famous celebrities
or something like that and it just looks like their life is one big party looks like they're
having fun looks like they're enjoying themselves right go to Psalm chapter 37 Psalm chapter
number 37 here's what you have to realize is that it's a facade and even if there is
any iota of superficial happiness I'm telling you it's so on the surface it's so fake it's
not real it's not lasting it's not deep look at Psalm 37 verse 1 fret not thyself because
of evil doers neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity saying when you see
wicked people don't be envious of them don't have a wicked thought within your heart saying
man I wish I had the life of this Hollywood actor let me tell you you don't wish you had
their life because if you had their life you would be sinning greatly against God because
I'm just gonna tell you if you didn't know these Hollywood actors and celebrities are
not exactly following the Bible they're not exactly living clean lives they're often involved
in all sorts of debauchery and wicked lifestyles so don't envy them verse 2 says for they shall
soon be cut down like the grass and wither as the green herb trust in the Lord and do
good so shalt thou dwell in the land and verily thou shalt be fed delight thyself also in
the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart so he's trying to get us to
have some perspective don't envy the wicked don't wish that you're like them don't fret
yourself because of evil doers here's why because they're gonna be cut down like the
grass the bible says that our life is a vapor it's here one moment and it vanisheth away
and it's gone and someone could on the surface seem wow they're living such a great life
they're so rich they have everything they could ever want but here's the thing they
die and they spend eternity in a fiery hell and they spend all of eternity burning and
suffering and torment and anguish in outer darkness where there's weeping and gnashing
of teeth and they're doing that one year then they're doing that the next year then they're
doing that the next billion years and the next billion years after that and the next
billion years after that why would you ever be envious of those people?
I mean go ahead live it up have all the great luxuries and pleasures of this life you have
fun if that means that I'm gonna go to hell though like if I could push a button it's
like have the greatest life all the money you could ever want but at the end of it you
have to go to hell or like be the the worst experience of human life in this existence
be born a paraplegic you know get kicked every day I don't know just whatever you want to
imagine right go through all this you know suffering and pain and torment in life but
at the end I go to heaven for all of eternity I'm picking the second option every single
day right so we don't want to be envious of them they're going to be cut down like the
grass go back to first Samuel chapter number 30 so keep that in mind has this been turned
off okay let's turn that off so keep that in mind that they're going to be cut down
soon he shows up it looks like they're having fun looks like they're having a party but
verse 17 says and David smote them boom cut down like grass from the twilight even unto
the evening of the next day and they're escaped not a man of them save four hundred young
men which rode upon camels and fled see the wicked one day they're living it up they're
living the dream they're having fun they're drinking they're eating they're partying they're
reveling having this great time and then all of a sudden boom cut down like the grass David
comes in kills these guys and you know what their party ended really quick didn't they
so how much sense would it make to look at the party and be like oh man it looks so much
fun looks so wonderful boom lawnmower of life just cuts it off it's like well that was over
that wasn't really worth anything why was I sitting here being envious of that you know
it's foolish and here's the thing verse 18 says and David recovered all that the Amalekites
had carried away and David rescued his two wives man sometimes when you do what's right
when you're trying to serve the Lord sometimes you're gonna have struggles but other times
when you stay steadfast and when you continue through those struggles sometimes God blesses
you in such an immense way that you could have never imagined I mean this is an act
of God here to where an enemy army takes all of your people you would expect even if you
did rescue some of them you would expect there to be some casualties you would have expect
some of the women to have been ravished you would have expect some of them to have been
killed some of them to have suffered right but David recovers all I mean that's amazing
praise God for that and sometimes God when he sees you being faithful when he sees you
being steadfast and you finally get through the end of that trial sometimes he blesses
you in ways that you just could not have even fathomed before you know like like the building
at Steadfast Baptist Church never could have fathomed it so much above and beyond what
we were able to do yet God is exceeding able to do abundantly above I'm not going to misquote
that verse above that we ask or think you know what I'm talking about right it's just
true God can bless us in great ways go to second Corinthians chapter number four but
also think about this aspect of this verse David made the decision to encourage himself
and the Lord David made the decision to be steadfast to do what was right and as a result
all of those people were saved you know where I'm going with this second Corinthians chapter
four verse three but if our gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost in whom the
God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not lest the light of the
glorious gospel of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto them what would have
happened if David would have quit what would have happened if David said this is too hard
you know my people are quitting they're around me they're they're too weak to go I have less
people to go now you know what I'm just not going to fight this battle I'm not going to
keep going if he would have just given up what would have happened none of those people
would have been saved and let me tell you something as a Christian God has given you
the charge to fulfill the great commission to go out into all the world and to preach
the gospel to every creature we have the gospel and the Bible says if our gospel is hid it's
hid to those that are lost and when a Christian quits when a Christian decides I'm not going
to take the Bible seriously I'm not going to listen to preaching that's telling me to
go out and preach the gospel and be a soul winner let me just tell you the reality of
what happens people go to hell who could have been saved who could have gone to heaven if
you had been a soul winner if you had taken it seriously if you had encouraged yourself
in the Lord and said hey yeah this is uncharted territory yeah I've never done it before but
you know what I trust in the Lord I know what the Bible says I'm gonna trust the Lord and
do what he says then you know what happens people get saved and you know praise the Lord
so far this year our church has had over a hundred salvations that's a hundred souls
that Jesus Christ died on the cross for who are gonna spend eternity in heaven with him
but what if we as a church just quit just gave up just went home just said you know
what let's not go soul-winning there's a hundred souls that would spend eternity in hell that could
have been saved and it's like David's wives David's kids all the family members of the rest of the men
of that army here they are in the grasp of the enemy's hand just like the world is in the devil's
grasp walking according to the prince of this world right blinded and we have an opportunity
to rescue them we have an opportunity to save them but do you actually care enough do you actually
have the fortitude to be steadfast to endure the challenges of life to be able to encourage
yourself in the lord and not just go soul winning one time in your life one saturday i went soul
winning but to actually become a soldier of the lord jesus christ and go out and battle week after
week after week for decades someone that does that you know what's going to happen they're going to
save a lot of people and you know people could look at our church and say wow you know you guys
aren't that big of a church but let me tell you what happens when a church stays steadfast
and does what's right over a long period of time is that this church is going to get thousands and
thousands of people saved let me tell you it hasn't even happened yet i'm telling you right now
anchor baptist church will get multitudes of thousands of people saved why because god's
commanded us to go god wants people to get to get saved i want people to get saved i'm going to be
steadfast you're going to be steadfast i hope and when that happens the recipe is salvation the
recipe is thousands of people are going to get saved and yeah you know we only have 100 so far
this year but what happens when we actually stick with it through the battles through the trials
encourage ourselves in the lord and what's those numbers going to look like 20 years from now 15
years from now 50 years from now you know lots of lots of people will get saved but you know what's
going to happen is if you remain steadfast if you put on the full armor of god if you encourage
yourself in the lord and you actually stay with it verse 19 of first samuel chapter 30 and there was
nothing lacking to them neither small nor great neither sons nor daughters neither spoil nor
anything that they had taken to them david recovered all amazing verse 20 david took all
the flocks and the herds which they draved before those other cattle and said this is david's spoil
see you know there's ups and downs in the christian life there's battles there's struggles
there's pain there's problems but then there's days where you get the spoil then there's days
where things are just going great and you know i don't know about you but i have a lot of those
days i have days where i'm just like thank you god for this amazing life lord thank you for my
family thank you for the state of oklahoma thank you for anchor baptist church thank you for my job
thank you for the great weather i mean some days it's just like wow god is so good to us
and of course the lord's good to us all the time but i'm just saying some days it's just like you
know there wasn't really a battle today you know the government wasn't hunting me down like our
brothers in germany have been dealing with you know we've had one protester big deal a lot of
days were coming in it's peaceful right some days man it just feels like you're getting the spoils
verse 21 david came to the 200 men which were so faint that they could not follow david whom they
had made also to abide at the brook visor and they went forth to meet david and to meet the people
that were with them and when david came near to the people he saluted them so these people that
were really tired and faint and they couldn't fight they come they meet david and david's
attitude towards them is he greets them he salutes them you know he's happy to see them
but look at this attitude in verse 22 then answer notice all the wicked men and men of belial of
those that went with david by the way there's usually men of belial infiltrated amongst god's
people and said because they went not with us we will not give them out of the spoil that we have
recovered save to every man his wife and his children that they may lead them away and depart
go to proverbs chapter number six proverbs chapter number six now here's the thing these wicked men
here these children of belial have a terrible terrible attitude because here's the truth is that
their fellow countrymen here it's not that they didn't go to the battle because they were too
scared it's that they were literally physically exhausted like you know the human body could
actually like pass certain limitations to where you're just exhausted right that's where these
people were at so it's not like they didn't care about the battle i mean they lost their
wives and kids too they're wanting to win the victory just as much as everyone else is
but they literally could not go and on top of that it's not like they were serving no purpose
because they were staying with the stuff think about it if someone had been performing this task
before all the women and children were taken they wouldn't have been able to take the women and
children if there was an army there staying with the stuff right i mean you got to bind the good
man of the house first right so these people staying by the stuff is actually serving a purpose
yet these wicked men they want to be greedy with the spoil david he sees someone in need he helps
him gives them food and water the wicked men they get the spoil and they just want to keep it all to
themselves and they want to cause division while doing it verse 16 of proverbs six says these six
things that the lord hate yea seven are an abomination unto him a proud look a lying tongue
and hands that shed innocent blood in heart that deviseth wicked imaginations feet that be swift
and running to mischief a false witness that speaketh lies notice and he that soweth discord among
brethren notice how the bible said in first samuel 30 that these were the wicked men and the men of
belial and what were they doing sowing discord causing division causing an us versus them mentality
amongst their fellow countrymen their fellow soldiers who they were on the same team as
trying to cause a wedge to be driven between them david's receiving them david saying hey we're on
the same side the wicked are the ones that cause division and thank the lord we don't have this
issue in our church right now but it bears repeating often that if someone comes in this
church and they want to take you aside and talk crap about our church talk crap about me talk crap
about our doctrine that is a wicked person and let me tell you this that may even be a child of the
devil that may even be a judas reprobate why because it's the children of the devil and it's
the wicked that want to cause division amongst god's people you know he's the he that loveth
seeketh peace right and we are for peace obviously but there's going to be people that hate the lord
that hate the work of god that want to come into a church and destroy what's going on there and
they're going to do it by division go to axe chapter number 20 axe chapter number 20 we need
to make sure that at our church we have a spirit of teamwork you know that we're on the same side
that we want the same things accomplished you know contrary to what the world tells you diversity is
not our strength yeah having diversity of skills that's a strength having diversity of desired
outcome is not a strength like i want the great commission to be fulfilled and if you are not on
that program we don't want you i want the word of god to be spread out into the world i want the word
of god to be preached and if you don't share that vision you're not going to fit in here we're not
going to have unity acts chapter two verse 28 take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock
over which the holy ghost hath made you overseers to feed the church of god which he hath purchased
with his own blood for i know this that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you
not sparing the flock also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away
disciples after them therefore watch and remember that by the space of three years i ceased not to
warn everyone day night and day with tears i mean the apostle paul was so concerned about this threat
of wicked people rising up even from among our own selves trying to cause division trying to
heap people to themselves and cause little you know factions within the church that the apostle
paul warned day and night about this for three years so you know as the apostle paul warned you
so i warn you now watch out for people sowing division watch out for people sowing discord
in this church and like i said thank god we don't have this problem our church is very unified
our church is doing great we're getting lots of people saved we've had four first time visitors
four weeks in a row you know praise the lord our church is doing well but i'm just telling you as
things go on there's going to be people rising up trying to infiltrate trying to do wicked things
and notice the motivation of these people if you'll go to romans chapter number 16
romans chapter number 16 one of the things that i love about the bible and i'm going to preach a
whole sermon about this on sunday is that the bible not only tells you what people do it not
only defines what human beings do but it also tells you why they do things you know the bible
talks about how the word of god is uh sharper than any two-edged sword um actually go keep your finger
in uh roman 16 and also flip to heber's chapter 4 this verse is too good i want to make sure that
it's word perfect for you guys and we'll talk about this a lot more on sunday of course but
heber's chapter 4 says in verse 12 for the word of god is quick and powerful and sharper than any
two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints
and marrow and is notice a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart so the bible
is going to define to you what you're thinking what you're doing and the motivation that you
have behind that okay now with that in mind look at roman 16 i told you to keep your place there
it says now i beseech you brethren mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to
the doctrine which you have learned and avoid them for they that are such serve not our lord
jesus christ but their own bellies and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of
the simple here's what people do when they cause division when they quit a church and they act like
oh we're we're good we're leaving amicably we're leaving on good terms and then you find out that
they're talking crap to everyone behind your back they're on little texting campaigns talking crap
about the pastor this is what they'll do they'll act like they're so sweet they're so serpy they're
so loving in fact they'll usually criticize the church that they left they weren't loving enough
you know i miss the old ifb where when when someone was backslidden and about to quit a church the
pastor would run after me and just try to get me to stay i don't want to do that you know that
sounds like pretty gay if you ask me you know if you want to leave go ahead and leave how about that
i want people that want to be here oh you know you think that anchor baptist church is so bad
it's so terrible and so hateful okay bye you're wrong but you know have fun have a good life enjoy
the old ifb i don't care just go serve god right but this is what they'll do like oh man you know
i'm just such a loving person i just care so much about the truth and i just i really care about the
direction of the church and i just care about righteousness and i just care that the church
is standing up for what's right and you're preaching what's right you know what they'll
do they have all these fair speeches that deceive the hearts of the simple what does that mean stupid
stupid people are deceived by people that in the midst of sowing division in the midst of texting
people oh pastor dylan aus is a piece of beep to all of his friends and family members in the
midst as as they're texting people like that they'll say oh man there wasn't enough love
at this church let me tell you i'm just i'm so concerned about the truth and so concerned about
the word of god being preached correctly it's like okay why don't we actually just look at your
actions and say look this person's causing division i could tell you the intent of their heart not
based on my own opinion not based on my human reasoning and logic but because the bible says
that people that cause division serve not our lord jesus christ so don't sit here and tell me oh i'm
just so concerned about the work of god so concerned about the right doctrine i'm so
concerned about it being a loving church no no no you don't serve jesus christ you know i know
that because you're causing division you know what what i know about you is that you're serving your
own belly own lusts your own interests your own self-gratification you want to heap teachers you
know come into you and have all these little factions and cliques and you want to have little
special doctrines that you whisper to people about that you don't tell the pastor about and you want
to have these little secret groups where you talk crap about the pastor i'm just telling you like i
know for a fact the intentions of that person's heart and you can too because of what the bible
says so here you have these wicked men in first samuel chapter 30 the bible says that they were
causing division they were trying to like have us versus them mentality these people didn't go
fight we're not going to share the spoils with them what did the bible call those people wicked
men and men of belial so you could look at someone's actions and you could say wow this
fits with what the bible says hey you're wicked no you're not loving no you're not concerned
about the work of god because if you were you wouldn't be trying to destroy good churches you
wouldn't be trying to destroy good pastors you wouldn't be trying to sow division amongst god's
people and i'm just telling you lest you be one of these simple people that are deceived by the
fair speeches no look at their actions go back to first samuel chapter 30 first samuel chapter number
30 well that wasn't in my notes uh verse number 23 says then said david ye shall not do so my
brethren with that which the lord hath given us who hath preserved us and delivered the company
that came against us into our hand for who will hearken unto you in this matter but as his part
is that goeth down to the battle so shall his part be that tarryeth by the stuff they shall part
alike you know we have to have this mentality like i said in church of teamwork that hey not all of us
have the same job in church we don't all serve the same function and quite frankly there's not
going to be a church that exists in the world where every single person does the exact same amount of
work there's going to be some people in the church that contribute a lot more in a lot of different
areas than other people here's the thing i'm not going to start just looking down though on people
that aren't on the same spiritual level as the guy who's been saved for a decade two decades
right we're all on the same team we all serve an important function we all have a lot riding on us
continuing serving god because here's the thing if you quit all the people that you could have
gotten saved i mean now it's going to take double the work to get them right those opportunities
are not going to be there oftentimes you know every single person in our church serves an
important role and don't ever look down on one group you know don't be like and i'm not saying
we have this attitude but don't be like you know us single guys you know we go soul winning every
day it's like yeah bro when i was a single guy i went soul winning every day too but i have you
know this thing called a wife now and kids and all these responsibilities and i'm not doing as much
soul winning as the single guys and that's okay right and i'm saying this attitude does not exist
here so i'm not picking on you guys all right but that would be weird right that would be so weird
for like one faction to be like oh i'm doing so much more than you or it's like i'm a single guy
yeah i go soul winning every day what are you pregnant women doing huh you pregnant women need
to get up to my level and go out soul winning every single day in the 100 degree heat and the
negative 30 temperatures you guys are so weak it's like that's so stupid right hey sometimes
people are going to be tearing by the stuff sometimes people are going to be going out to war
but we're on the same team as long as we're not causing division right we're on the same team
and the people that are tearing by the stuff are serving an important role i don't know about you
but i think that we need to be fruitful and multiply right hey we need some pregnant ladies
around here to bring forth the next generation of christians not gonna look down on them because
they're not going soul winning as much as single guys like that's ridiculous right but look these
attitudes exist out in the world we don't want to have it verse 25 says and it was so from that
day forward that he made it a statute and an ordinance for israel unto this day when david
came to ziklag he sent of the spoil unto the elders of juda even to his friends saying behold
a present for you of the spoil of the enemies of the Lord. Now, we're wrapping up pretty quick,
but think about this. A few chapters ago, David and his men came up to Nabal and his servants,
and they were dead broke, right? They're just in the wilderness running from Saul,
and he's like, "Hey, Nabal, just give us some of your stuff." Like, he's basically asking for a
favor. Now, David, he's got the spoil, right? He's got the money, he's got the assets now,
he's got the animals. But the first thing that he does when he gets the spoils is he's generous to
other people. He gives a present. He sends the spoil to the elders of Judah. You know,
that's a good leader right there. Someone that's not always just concerned about themselves
and it's like, "Oh yes, finally I'm comfortable now. Oh, finally I've got the money now. I've
got it." No, it's just like he gets the payday and immediately he's just like wanting to
bless other people. You know, that's a great leader. That's a great example. Verse 27,
"To them which were in Bethel, and to them which were in South Ramoth, and to them which
were in Jetir, and to them which were in Arora, and to them which were in Sifmoth, and to
them which were in Eshtemoah, and to them which were in Rakal, and to them which were in the cities
of the Jeremyites, and to them which were in the cities of the Kenites, and to them which were in
Hormah, and to them which were in Terashan, and to them which were in Athak, and to them which were
in Hebron, and to all the places where David himself and his men were wont to haunt." We'll
finish in Proverbs chapter number 11. Proverbs 11, this will be the last place that we go to.
Proverbs chapter 11, and then I'll read one more verse for you guys. Proverbs chapter 11 verse 24
says, "There is that scattereth and yet increaseth, and there is that withholdeth more than his meat,
but it tendeth to poverty. The liberal soul shall be made fat, and he that watereth shall be watered
also himself." You know David went from being broke for a really long time, struggling, being on the
run to all of the sudden having this great income, having these great blessings, and as we saw he was
considerate of other people. He was liberal with his money, not, you know, politics liberal, but
liberal as in giving, right, to other people, and we see David in his life being a very blessed man,
right? I mean he's king, he's respected and followed by everyone, he's feared by the enemies of God,
he's got, you know, he's got plenty of ladies, okay? Polygamy is a bad idea. He didn't struggle
with finding ladies or anything like that, right? So David, he has a lot of things going for him in
his life, but he wasn't a selfish person. He wasn't just hoarding things onto himself. I just want all
the blessing. He was liberal to other people, and then he also was blessed. That's how it works.
We'll close in this verse. I'll read for you. Matthew 6 19 says, "Lay not up for yourselves
treasures upon earth, for moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through in steel.
But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt,
where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is,
there will your heart be also." Let's have a word of prayer. Lord, thank you for this chapter. Thank
you for first Samuel. I just pray that you would help us all, Lord, to settle it in our hearts now
that we're going to start today building our house on the rock, that we're going to start putting on
the full armor of God and preparing and training for the evil day that's coming. I just pray that
you help all of us to be serious about the things of God. I pray that you help us all to be willing
to fight for our wives and kids, to be willing to save the lost, and I pray that you would help us
to always be considerate, loving, and caring about other people in the process. In Jesus' name we
pray. Amen. This time we'll go to our last hymn for the evening. If you'll grab a hymnal, turn to number
260, "He is able to deliver thee." Hymn number 260, 260, "He is able to deliver thee." Sing there 260 on the
[singing]