Hey man, so of course we're wrapping up that book of 2 Samuel tonight, and it's been a great book, but all good things must come to an end, I guess, right?
And if you're wondering what we're going to be starting next, well, you're just going to have to come to find out, so that's how we do it here, right?
But there's an interesting, it starts out here with kind of a, you know, it can be a little bit of a difficult passage.
People can kind of stumble on this a little bit and see what's kind of going on in the story.
Again, of course, these last few chapters are just kind of, you know, just kind of the behind the scenes type of thing going on,
that is just reminding us of some other things that took place throughout David's reign.
These aren't necessarily in chronological order, but if you notice there it says the first one,
and again, the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he moved against David to slay them,
to say, excuse me, against them, to say, go number Israel and Judah.
And if you would, keep your place there in 2 Samuel 24, but go over to 1 Chronicles chapter 21,
1 Chronicles chapter 21, which is a parallel passage here, and we'll see what's going on.
But first thing I want to point out is that, you know, this was the anger of the Lord that was kindled.
You know, that Israel had done something to upset the Lord.
This isn't just something that God did just on a whim.
This isn't something that he just felt like doing.
There was a reason behind all of this, and we say, well, what exactly was it that Israel did?
Well, I'm not exactly sure, but I can guarantee you they know.
And it really shouldn't surprise us that Israel at this point would do something that upsets God.
I mean, we just came through, you know, the times of the judges before we roll into the reign of the kings,
and if you remember, throughout the judges, it was just this constant cycle of them getting right with God,
getting backslidden, and then God having to punish them.
And we shouldn't expect that to end just because of the fact that, you know, they've got this new system of government,
and now that they have kings like the other heathen nations around them,
and now they're going to serve God even better.
This really shouldn't come as a surprise to us that Israel had kindled the anger of the Lord.
It just goes to show you that, you know, the form of government is not the problem with man.
Okay, that's not, you know, that's not the issue.
The problem is man himself.
Man cannot devise this perfect system of government in order that is just going to eliminate all suffering and be perfectly just.
It's never going to happen.
Now, obviously, some systems are better than others.
You know, some systems are, you know, better, you know, pretty much any system that competes, you know, communism or socialism,
you know, things of that nature.
We've seen just the horrific results of that.
I mean, history testifies to that.
You know, and the system of government that we have right now is pretty good.
I mean, you know, I dare say it's probably the best that we've ever had.
You know, it gives us a lot of liberty, a lot of freedoms.
But it's far from perfect, isn't it?
It's certainly not ideal.
And even the most ideal, even the best of governments ultimately are corrupted because of the fact that they're filled with sinful men.
So, you know, we could take that from this right away, right out of this first verse is that, you know, they've got this new system,
they've got the kings, they've gotten out of the judges, which is what God ordained, and they're still upsetting the Lord.
They're still doing things that are kindling His wrath, making Him upset, and causing Him to have to judge His people, okay?
Now, you're there in 1 Chronicles 21, parallel passage.
Notice what it says in verse 1, it says,
And Satan stood up against Israel, to provoke David to number Israel.
So in 2 Samuel, it's the anger of the Lord that was kindled, and He moved David against them.
It's the Lord that's moving David.
But when we get over to 1 Chronicles 21, it says that Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number Israel.
Say, well, what's going on here? Was it the Lord, or was it Satan that caused Israel to do this?
Well, it's both.
And what this would show us is that Satan is just subject unto the Lord.
It's not like Satan rebelled against God, and now he's just, you know, a lot of times, in Christianity,
people want to paint this picture that there's just eternal struggle between the Lord and Satan.
No, there isn't.
Satan has always been under the Lord's thumb, he always will be under the Lord's thumb.
He allows Satan to do certain things, he even uses Satan, like a tool, to accomplish his will.
And that's what that should show us, is that Satan is still subject unto the Lord.
In fact, he's just an instrument that God uses to judge man.
I mean, it was, you know, saying, well, what's going on here?
Well, the anger of the Lord was kindled, and he moved David.
How did he move David?
Well, he sent Satan.
He stirred up Satan.
He allowed Satan to do this.
So, you know, that's something you have to keep in mind.
And really, that should, you know, worry us a little bit.
You know, the fact that if we make God upset, you know, who knows what ends he's going to go to chasing us or to punish us.
Do I think God's going to send Satan after you and me personally if we get back something or something?
Probably not.
I don't think we're that big a deal, right?
But when you're, you know, when you're King David, and you're ruling over his people, you know, this is something that Satan or the Lord might do.
He might use Satan himself to judge you, right?
And what this also shows us is that not only is Satan subject in the Lord, but that he actually needs the Lord's permission often to do the things that he does.
Not in every instance.
I think that Satan, as we'll see here in a minute, is given a little bit of free reign here on earth.
But all in all, you know, he has to, in some instances, at least, he has to seek permission from the Lord.
And of course, we could go back to Job and look at that.
But if you would, go to 2 Corinthians 4.
2 Corinthians 4.
And if you remember the story of Job where, you know, where God is kind of bragging on Job about, on Job to Satan saying,
Have you considered my servant Job?
There's none like him in all the earth.
He's perfect.
He's upright.
And Satan says, Yea, you know, that's because you put a hedge about him.
The only reason Job loves you and serves you is because you protected him.
And he's saying, Hey, take that hedge of protection and we're going for him.
And he'll curse you to his face.
And of course, God gives him the permission, gives Satan access to Job to go and kill his family and to kill, you know, knock down his house.
He's sending wind and fire and all these things.
We know the story.
And then even goes to the point where God permits Satan to go and strike Job himself with boils.
Right?
We know that story.
But notice that wasn't just something that Satan could do on his own.
That was something that God actually allowed him to do.
That God actually used him and there was a purpose behind all of that.
We understand.
But we have to be reminded that Satan isn't just, you know, somehow on par with God.
It's kind of like, well, who's going to win?
You know, Satan isn't even close to the Lord.
Now, he's more powerful than any of us.
You know, we shouldn't say, you know, treat God or treat Satan like he's some, you know, just washed up has been or something like that.
He's got it coming.
He's still very powerful, far more powerful than any of us.
And look, sometimes people can Christians can get this type of attitude.
They say, well, you know, Satan's a defeated foe.
You know, I remember I always think about what I heard someone say once is that, yeah, he walks about as a roaring lion.
But, you know, he's a toothless lion.
You can't do anything like, no, that's not true.
He's got teeth.
It says seeking whom he may devour, meaning he has the ability to devour.
And we should never be these prideful, boastful people that think that we can somehow take on Satan just because we're saved.
You know, he's a far greater foe outside of Christ.
We cannot take on Satan.
We cannot withstand him.
But that's not to say that he isn't still a created being, that he is subject to the Lord.
You know, we could go to Ezekiel where it talks about how he was, you know, created, that he was actually the covering cherub that served a purpose in heaven at one point until pride is found in him.
But, you know, he does have power on the earth.
That's the other thing we can learn from this.
You know, where Satan's standing up against Israel, God's using and that just goes to show us that Satan has power on this earth.
And again, that's another reason why man is never going to have this idyllic system.
He's never going to reach this, you know, world peace or he's never going to have this perfect form of human government because lost, unsaved man never takes into account the existence of Satan.
You know, we understand that as Christians, as Bible believers, that there is, you know, that Satan is real, that he does have power on this earth.
If you look there in 2 Corinthians 4, look at verse 3, it says,
But if our gospel be hid, it is said to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not.
Now, that's lowercase G there, right?
That's referring to the prince of the power of the air.
That's referring to Satan, the God of this world.
God meaning he's like a Lord, right?
He is somebody in authority, somebody that has, you know, power in this world.
And we should not underestimate that.
That Satan is still very real.
Satan can move against people, against whole nations, as we saw here.
If you would, go over to Luke chapter 4.
Luke chapter number 4.
You know, and this should clue us in on, into, you know, how the world works.
And the Bible talks about how we wrestle against principalities and powers in high places.
You know, we wrestle against the rulers of darkness of this world.
You know, there are spiritual wickedness in high places.
Now, you know, I believe that is referring to, you know, some of the highest forms of our government.
And yeah, even some of the lower ones, probably.
That people do, are put in these places by the God of this world, by Satan himself.
And look, you start to talk like that, people think you're some kind of conspiracy nut.
Like, what do you mean Satan's, you know, responsible for that?
Like, I don't know to what extent.
I don't know what exactly takes place.
I don't know if they're, you know, worshipping Satan directly or whatever.
But they're definitely in league.
And the people that get into power are at least allowed to be there by the God of this world.
Because it's his to give, folks.
And again, people are going to dismiss that.
But if you would, look at Luke chapter 4.
Did I have you go there? Luke chapter 4.
This is the temptation of Christ when he's gone into the wilderness.
And it says in verse 5,
And the devil, taking up into a high mountain, showed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
And the devil said unto him,
And this is a supernatural event that's taking place.
To see all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
This is beyond, you say, how did he do that?
Well, you know, it's beyond our understanding.
One, it's God, and it's an angel, Satan.
The Bible's just telling, it happened.
We don't need to try to figure out the nuts and bolts of this, of how it happened.
The fact is that it happened.
But what I want to focus on is verse 6.
Notice what the devil said.
And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them, that is delivered unto me, and to whomsoever, for that is delivered unto me, and to whomsoever will I give it.
So what is Satan saying here?
He's saying, look, if you worship me, he's telling Jesus, look, if you worship me, I'll give you all the power.
I'll cause you to reign over all these kingdoms, because it's given to me to give to whom I, that power is given to me.
Let's just read it again.
All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them, for that is delivered unto me.
He's saying, it's given unto me, it's delivered unto me, to grant this power unto other people.
That's what he's saying here.
And to whomsoever I will give it.
So, you know, you say, well, some people read that and say, well, he's lying.
He's lying here.
But, you know, I don't believe that he is.
I don't think everything that came out of Satan's mouth is a lie.
He's definitely the father of lies.
But I believe that he is saying that he could do this.
That this is a promise that he can make.
That's why the Bible calls him the god of this world, the prince of the power of the air.
That's why we wrestle against principalities and places and spiritual wickedness in high places.
That's why we wrestle against those things.
Because Satan ultimately rules over those things.
And I believe that.
You know, people can have a different opinion about that, but I believe he's telling the truth there.
That was his to give.
That he could give that power to whosoever he wanted.
Now, it's ironic that he's offering it to the Lord who's going to take that anyway.
You know, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.
You know, it just shows you how, you know, short-sighted Satan is.
You know, he's blinded himself.
Well, you know, we can learn a few things just out of verse one there, can't we?
We can learn that Satan's still subject unto the Lord.
That God uses Satan to punish nations.
You know, people want to, you know, say, well, you know, certain things that happen in our country aren't the judgment of God.
You know, COVID, that wasn't, you know, that wasn't God's chaste thing.
That was, you know, some, you know, some scientist playing fast and loose over in Wuhan or something like that.
You know, that probably is where it came from.
You know, that probably is what happened.
But you know what? God allowed that to happen.
You know, God allows these punishments.
God allows man to do certain things that come back on his own head.
You know, God will use those type of things.
God judging mankind isn't always going to come in the form of fire and brimstone
and everything else.
A lot of times God just uses the devices that we're responsible for to judge us.
So we can learn that.
We can learn that Satan still has power on the earth.
And what we need to understand, because this story gets kind of grim here, right?
The story goes on and talks about how God just starts killing people in Israel.
But we have to understand that Israel had provoked God.
This wasn't just something he did, you know, just all of a sudden.
They had provoked the Lord.
And we were talking about that, how that shouldn't really surprise any of us.
And it shows us that God uses the civil authority to judge people still, doesn't he?
If you look there in verse 2, it says, going back to Samuel 24,
it says,
For the king said to Joab, the captain of the host which was with him,
Go now through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba,
and number ye the people, that I may know the number of the people.
And Joab said unto the king, Now the Lord thy God,
add unto the people how many soever they be, and hundredfold,
and that the eyes of my Lord the king may see it.
But why doth my Lord the king delight in this thing?
Notwithstanding the king's words prevailed against Joab and against the captains of the host,
and the Joab and the captains of the host went out from the presence of the king to number the people of Israel.
So when we read this, you can see that Joab and these other captains, they're objecting.
You know, David's saying, hey, go out and number the people.
They've already got a bad feeling about this.
They already understand that this isn't something that they should be doing.
And he said, well, what's so wrong about this?
What's going on here?
If you would, go to 1 Samuel chapter 8, 1 Samuel chapter 8.
These guys are in opposition to it, you know, and for good reason.
And you say, well, what exactly is the problem?
Well, you know, it's not just that I believe there was more going on here.
Of course, this is just shows us that, you know, how much Israel is kind of relying on the king
and their new system of government.
They're not really relying on the Lord like they ought to.
And David, you know, what was the purpose behind this numbering?
You know, this might have been because he's thinking about how many more people he could take to be his servants.
It could be that there was some kind of a draft he wanted to do, which is what God warned them would happen.
He said, look, if you take a king, this is what's going to happen.
That's what he said in 1 Samuel chapter 8.
He said in verse 9, he said, now therefore harken unto their voice, howbeit yet protest solidly unto them,
and show them the man or the king that shall reign over them.
Now, if you remember, this is when they're Israel's first crying out for a king,
and they want them to make unto them a king like all the other nations around them.
And God comes to Samuel and says, look, they haven't rejected you, they rejected me.
So this whole system of taking on a king is Israel showing that they are rejecting what God wants
and want to do things their own way.
So when it comes to this numbering, God is using this to kind of show them, I believe,
that they've kind of gotten puffed up, that they think as a nation, that they're relying too much on this new government.
But look there in verse 9, he says, now therefore harken unto their voice,
howbeit yet protest solemnly unto them, and show them the man or the king that shall reign over them.
He's saying, look, you want a king so bad? This is what it's going to be like.
He says in verse 10, and Samuel told all the words of the Lord unto the people that asked him of him a king,
and said, this will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you.
He will take your sons and appoint them for himself, for his chariots and for his horsemen,
and some shall run before his chariots.
So what's that? That's a draft.
He's saying, look, you get a king, he's just going to start drafting your sons.
He's going to take them into the army and they're going to fight his battles.
Verse 12, when he appointed captains over thousands and captains over fifties,
and will set them to ear his ground and reap his harvest,
and to make him instruments of war and instruments of chariots.
He's saying, look, your sons are going to be conscripted, basically, right?
So you can kind of see maybe that's what was going on here with this numbering.
You know, David might have this in mind.
I'm not saying that he did, but it sounds to me like that's potentially what's going on.
And that's not enough.
Verse 13, he'll take your daughters to be confectionaries and to be cooks and to be bakers,
so he's going to put them to work in the kitchen, right?
And he's going to make these guys, the sons, go fight.
And when they're not busy fighting, they're going to go sow his ground
and they're going to make instruments of war.
They're not going to go work for you, mom and dad.
They're not going to work in their villages and their local places.
They're going to come serve the king.
Verse 14, and he will take your fields and your vineyards and your olive yards,
even the best of them, and give them to his servants.
And he will take the tenth of your seed and of your vineyards to give to his officers and to his servants.
And he will take your men servants and your maid servants and your goodly-ass young men and your asses
and put them to his work.
And he will take the tenth of your sheep, and he shall be his servants.
And he shall cry out in that day because of your king, which he have chosen you,
and the Lord will not hear you in that day.
Nevertheless, the people refuse to obey the voice of Samuel, and they say,
Nay, but we will have a king over us.
So, I mean, imagine that year.
You know, that's some political campaign that Samuel's making right there, right?
Well, what will the king be like?
Well, as your king, here's what I promise to do.
I'm going to take a tenth of all your goods, the best of your vineyards.
I'm going to take your sons and your daughters and make them work for me.
And I'm going to take your lands.
You know, so that's not really a campaign promise you want to make.
I mean, if we had some political candidate, that was his platform.
You know, he'd be run out of town on a rail, right?
But this is what's going on in the story.
That's exactly what's taking place.
Samuel gets up and says, Oh, you want a king?
This is what he's going to be like.
And you think of people and be like, you know what? Never mind.
You're right. Let's just stick with what we got.
We'll fight and we'll stick with the judges.
But that's not what they said, is it?
It says in verse 21, or excuse me, in 20, it says, verse 19,
Nevertheless, the people who refused to obey the voice of Samuel said, Nay, but we will have a king over us.
They said, Oh, that sounds pretty good.
Let's go with that system.
Let's go ahead and have all those things happen to us.
And why? Well, you say, what was wrong?
What was the reasoning?
Who would go along with that?
Well, it's because they wanted to fit in.
It's because they wanted to be like all the other nations.
Look at verse 20.
That we may also be like all the nations,
and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.
Samuel, we don't like this system that God set up.
We want the kings.
We just want to be like everybody else.
But look, that's not what God has called us to be.
God has called us to be a peculiar people, right?
He's called us to be a holy nation, right?
And you know, that's what we are spiritually today.
And we shouldn't get saved and think, well, I'm going to serve God,
but only if I can be like everybody else around me.
Look, if you're going to serve God,
and you're going to live for the Lord and live a godly life,
you should stick out like a sore thumb.
You should be different.
You know, a lot of Christians, they don't want to serve God
because they know it will make them stick out.
Because they want to be what?
They want to be like Old Testament Israel that says,
I just want to be like everybody else around me.
And I don't get it.
I mean, why would you want to be like everybody else around you?
Why would Israel want a king like this?
Who's going to do all these things then?
I mean, that's what all the other kings were doing.
They didn't hear that and go, oh, what a shock.
We had no idea.
They're like, yeah, that's what kings do.
They conscript people.
They take lands.
They help themselves.
They give stuff away.
You know, they tax us.
You know, that's what the kings did around them.
And they said, that's what we want.
Why? Because we just don't want to be different, right?
But here's the thing.
Israel originally was meant to rely solely on the Lord.
Only on the Lord.
That was how they were supposed to conduct themselves.
By using God's word, the system of the judges.
And if you would, go over to Deuteronomy chapter 17.
Deuteronomy chapter 17.
You're going to Deuteronomy chapter 17.
Look at verse 14.
It says in Deuteronomy 17, 14,
When thou art come unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee,
and shall possess it, and shall dwell therein,
and shall say, I will set a king over me,
like as the nations that are about me.
And God just saw it coming over that Deuteronomy.
He's like, you're going to do this eventually.
I'm not saying He's endorsing it.
God just knows what man's going to do and says,
when you do it, it's just like divorce.
God says, you know,
for this reason shall a man leave his father and mother
and cleave unto his wife,
and they twain shall be one flesh.
What God's joined us together,
let not man put asunder.
You know, the Bible says that the Lord
hateth putting away.
But does that mean people aren't going to do it?
No, people are still going to do it.
So that's why He gave a clause and said,
look, if you do it,
you know, let there be a bill of divorcement.
He said, because I know you're going to go ahead and do it anyway.
Just like He said, you know,
you should only have one wife.
You know, God is against polygamy.
But it happens in the Bible and God says,
well, if you're going to do it anyway,
here's what you do.
Here's how to do it.
So this is what He's saying here.
Look, I don't want you to have a king,
but since you're going to go ahead and do it anyway
and not listen to me,
He's saying,
thou shalt in any wise set him a king over thee,
whom the Lord thy God shall choose.
One and from among thy brethren
shalt thou set king over thee.
Thou mayest not set a stranger over thee,
which is not thy brother.
He's saying, you're not going to bring some foreigner in,
like Obama, and set him up as king.
What? I had a cough.
And set some foreigner up over you.
Right?
That isn't part of your kindred.
That isn't part of your nation.
And that's the law of the United States, by the way.
You can't make a foreigner an immigrant president.
This is where they get it from.
That's what God said.
He said, you're not going to bring in some foreigner,
which is not thy brother, verse 16.
And it goes on and says,
but he shall not multiply horses to himself,
nor cause the people to return to Egypt,
to the end that they should multiply horses.
For as much as the Lord hath said unto you,
you shall henceforth return no more that way.
He's saying, I don't want you to go back to the world,
go back to Egypt.
Neither shall he multiply wives to himself,
that his heart turn not away.
Solomon should have read that.
Neither shall he multiply, excuse me,
shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.
You can't just walk into Congress penniless
and then walk out a millionaire
when you only make a six figure income per year.
Explain that.
How do these Congressmen leave millionaires
when they have a very reasonable small salary?
Their salaries, it's like, what's going on there?
Well, it's called corruption.
And God's forbidding it here too.
Don't go multiplying silver and gold
and just make about ruling
just an opportunity for you to get wealth.
And it says there,
and it shall be when he sitteth
upon the throne of his kingdom,
that he shall write him a copy of the law
in a book out of,
which is before the priests and Levites,
and it shall be with them,
and he shall read therein all the days of life,
that he may learn to fear the Lord as God.
So when you start to see these kings
start to do these exact things
that God forbid and wonder why,
it's because they didn't follow that community.
It's because they didn't have,
if they had actually followed through on this one,
where they wrote out a copy of the law,
look, if you had to sit down
and write out the five books of Moses in my hand
and make sure it was word perfect,
you'd probably remember quite a bit of it.
And if you took the time
to put that kind of investment,
you'd probably say, well, you know what?
I took the time to write all that out.
I might as well go ahead and do what it says.
And since they didn't do that,
they didn't learn to fear their God.
That's why they multiplied forces.
That's why they multiplied wives and gold and silver
and did all these things.
But notice verse 20,
that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren,
that he turned on a side of the commandment
to the right hand or the left
and then he prolonged his days in his kingdom,
he and his children in the midst of Israel.
So, you know, there's this principle here
of what I'm getting at is this,
is that God intended Israel
to rely solely upon him for leadership.
And he's saying, even when you reject me
in the system of leadership
that I've set up and we choose a king,
he still needs to be relying on me, right?
And not being lifted up above his brethren,
not thinking too highly of himself.
And I believe that's maybe what we see
going on here in 2 Samuel 24
with this numbering.
It's kind of lifting himself up
and forgetting that it was God
that put him in that position.
And really you say, well, what's the point?
What's the application we can make here?
Well, one application is that
we're supposed to do the same thing as a church.
We're supposed to rely on the Lord
to build the church.
You know, it'd be real easy to build
the church fast overnight.
It happens all the time.
I mean, isn't this town just full of big churches?
Are they running hundreds of people?
I mean, some of them,
they could start tomorrow.
They could start next Sunday, right?
And within a few years,
they could be running hundreds,
maybe even thousands.
Well, why not?
Well, what's the deal?
Why are we doing that?
Because we're not relying on gimmicks.
We're not relying on advertising.
We're relying on God
to actually build this church.
And, you know,
I know we've seen some exciting things this year,
and we've got this new space,
and we've more than doubled our space.
We've set record attendance,
and it's great,
and I pray that it keeps happening.
But at the same time,
and I don't mean to be a wet blanket,
but I'm just being honest here,
you know, we're going to get less popular,
not more, as we go along.
As we continue to stick by the word of God,
you know, we're going to be more,
we're going to stick out.
We're going to be more and more
of a popular people
as the world gets further
and further away from the Lord,
and we stick by,
we're not moving where we've always been,
not on the word of God,
but the further they get away from the word of God,
the more they're going to hate us,
the less popular that we're going to be.
You say, well, what should we do?
Well, let's do what Israel did.
Let's just be like everybody else.
Let's bring in the same music that they have.
You know, let's soften the message.
Let's get an updated version of the Bible.
Let's get some new version that's easy to understand.
Right?
Which is not true.
Most of them are actually,
sometimes you read these new verses,
you're like, what are they even saying?
It doesn't even make sense.
Right?
You know, let's just go ahead
and drop our standards.
Let's just be just like the world.
You know, I'll get,
we'll get rid of this old wool puppet,
wool pulpit.
I'll just get a bar stool up here.
You know, I'll get that little,
that little mic right here like that.
You know, that little tiny mic that comes around.
And I'll just share with you guys.
You know, I'll just come up here
on Sunday morning.
We'll just, we'll go down to one service a week
and we'll get a rock band
and I'll start preaching like this
and I'll never raise my voice again
and I'll just talk to you in this
nice, sweet sounding voice
and I'll just share with you
and we'll just talk,
we'll talk only about the love of God.
Right?
I mean, look, am I exaggerating?
I've been in those churches
and that's, this is how they talk.
This is what they do.
Beloved, you know, and they just,
and I don't want to go down with it.
Right? But that's what it's like out there.
And look, we all go, ugh, you know.
We don't like it, but you know what?
There's people out there eating it up.
They love it.
They go there, they feel all spiritual.
No one's told them,
hey, you're in sin.
No one's told them,
hey, you need to get right with God.
No one says, there's no judgment,
there's no fire, there's no brimstone.
You know, everyone's saved,
everyone's going to find, you know,
they're not even preaching
the right gospel anymore.
You know, but people go there
and they went to church
so they feel spiritual.
You know, they got their,
they got their little,
they got their earlobes massaged,
they got their back scratched,
their itching ears got scratched,
and they walked out feeling spiritual.
But they're no more spiritual
than anybody else.
You know, if anything,
they're less spiritual
than most people.
And here's the thing,
is that how we're supposed
to build a church?
By relying on man's gimmicks?
Let's just get a big billboard.
And look, if somebody out there
has a billboard somewhere,
that's their deal.
Maybe that actually works.
To me, billboards, I don't know.
Billboards are for like impulsive things,
don't you think?
People sometimes ask me,
why don't we have a better sign
up on the road?
Because that's not what,
you know, that's not what billboards
and signs like that are made for.
Our sign is there for people
that are trying to find us.
It's not for people driving by
and go, see it, and go,
oh, you know what?
I feel like going to church
all of a sudden.
I mean, that's what Taco Bell does.
That's what Burger King and McDonald's,
that's why they have big
illuminated boards everywhere.
That's why they buy billboards,
hey, next exit, you know,
when's the last time you had a whopper?
You know, because that's impulsive, right?
No one does that for church.
You know, there's no impulsive.
Now, it might work for some people
that are looking for church
and they'll put out their signs
on the tent.
Are you tired of boring churches?
Come to a church that's exciting.
You know, they'll have the picture
of the purple lights and the smoke
and everyone raising their hands
and rocking out, right?
And people go there,
and look, it is exciting.
It is like a rock concert in there.
Man, I was in the club Saturday night
and it feels like I haven't left Sunday morning.
You know, they change some of the lyrics around,
but it's the same beat,
it's the same fog,
the girls on the stage
are dressed the same way,
they all look like hoochie mamas up there.
And we're all dancing
and having a good time, right?
That's out there,
but look, God's not in that.
God's not behind that.
You can't sit there and tell me,
well, you know,
look how many more people.
Yeah, supposing that gain is godliness.
Gain does not mean godliness, friend.
You know, what we're relying on here
is for the Lord to build his church.
And praise God he's done that.
Look, it's going to be a slow burn,
we're not going to blow up overnight,
but I don't want to do that.
People sometimes are like,
don't you wish the church was bigger?
I think more people means more problems.
And I don't mean that in a bad way,
but it's the truth, right?
More people just means
we have more issues to deal with,
we have more to manage.
I'm not against having a big church.
I'll take as big a church
as God wants to build here.
I mean, hopefully in the next few years
we can knock down some more walls
or find a bigger space.
I don't know.
I mean, but we've got some room
to grow right now.
But whether it's 10 years
or this is it,
you know, or we don't add anymore,
it's whatever God wants.
But what I'm not going to do
is start to rely on gimmicks
and try to just be like everybody else around us
in order to just,
so I can sit back like David
and number the people.
You're like, well, you know,
we're running 586 on Sunday morning now.
You know?
Yeah, but how did you achieve that?
Did you achieve that
through biblical preaching?
Did you achieve that
through hard preaching,
through strong doctrine?
Did you achieve that
through separation,
by having, you know,
preaching about separation
and godliness and sin?
No.
Well, then it's all for naught.
Yeah, I've got hundreds of people
and none of them honor God.
None of them live for the Lord.
Half of them aren't saved.
What good is it then?
It's vanity.
It's just numbering people.
It doesn't mean anything.
You know, I'm just relying on God.
I mean, isn't that what Jesus said?
He said, I will build my church.
Yeah.
Either he meant that
or he didn't.
Amen.
You know, and I remember,
you know, just recently,
you know, Pastor Anderson
reminded me of that.
Because, you know, you can.
You can say, well,
I'm building this church.
I mean, what's taking so long?
Why isn't there more people here?
And he said, look,
the church grew for him.
He said, the church in Tempe
grew when I stopped
caring about numbers.
About the time I quit
caring about whether or not
it's growing is when
it started to grow.
You know, and I thought about
that for a while,
and the exact same thing
happened here.
This space is a perfect
example of that.
You know, because we were
over in that space
and we were running about
30 or whatever.
And I was like, man,
it's getting kind of tight.
You know, we should probably
get a bigger space.
But then the more I thought of,
you know,
you could fit 100 people
in here and you did it once.
It's like, yeah, I don't want
to do that every Sunday.
Right?
But then I thought about it.
I was like, you know what?
He's right.
We could make this work.
We could knock down that
part of the wall.
We could put some more
benches outside,
encourage people to sit out there.
We could make this work.
And about the time
I quit caring about
getting a new space
is when the landlord called
and was like, hey,
we've got a bigger space.
And I was like, amen.
And I told the pastor,
and he's like, go for it.
You know, obviously,
God wants to have it.
And you know what?
We could use it.
We need it.
We've been averaging
higher tendencies,
and I believe we're going
to continue to grow.
But that's my point,
is that when we stop caring
so much about the numbers,
that's when God
started building it.
Because if we just start out
this thing going, well,
it's all about how many
people we have in church,
if that's our motivation,
is just to count numbers,
just to number people,
what are we going to do
in order to achieve that?
What are we willing to give up?
If that's the motivation,
then we're willing to compromise
on things, aren't we?
We'd be more tempted,
well, if it's all about
the numbers and having
a big church,
then we have to change
some things around here
to get more people in.
But you know what?
That's not the motive.
I'd rather have a smaller
church of zealous people
who actually love God
and love His word
and actually want to serve Him
in sincerity than twice as many
people who are half in,
half out, or flaky,
that don't love the Lord
in sincerity.
So that's one application
we can get out of it.
Let's move on to the story, though.
I know I got a lot
to cover here,
but we'll get through it quickly.
We'll go back to
2 Samuel 24.
It says in verse 5,
they go out to number,
of course, and they
passed over Jordan
and pitched an Aurora,
and it just kind of
describes where they went
to go do the numbering.
It says, verse 8,
so when they had
gone through the land,
they came to Jerusalem
at the end of
nine months and 20 days,
so that's how long it took.
And Joab gave the sum of
the number of the people
unto the king,
and there were in
Israel 800,000 valiant
men that drew sword.
So you can kind of see,
you know, what is it
that he counted?
These valiant men
that drew swords.
You might kind of see
what was really behind
this number,
because then David
might have had
other things in mind,
like a conscription
and all that,
like we read about.
In verse 10,
and David's heart smote him
after he had
numbered the people.
And David's son
of the Lord,
I have sinned greatly
in that I have done.
And now I beseech thee,
O Lord,
take away the iniquity
of thy servant,
for I have done
very foolishly.
And notice David does
this before God
even does anything.
You know,
if you do something wrong,
this is a really
great reaction.
You don't wait for God
to have to chase
and you go,
yeah, or to get busted.
Right?
When you do something wrong
and you're immediately
just smitten by it
like David is here,
that's a good sign.
That's a good thing.
You know,
that shows you
at least you have
some spirituality,
at least you feel bad.
And he says in verse 11,
For when David was up
in the morning,
the word of the Lord
came unto the prophet Gad,
Seir, saying,
Go and say unto David,
Thus saith the Lord,
I offer thee three things,
choose one of them,
that I may do it
unto thee.
So the other thing
we understand here
is that, you know,
just because we feel bad
about it and we do
something wrong,
something we shouldn't
have done,
we've done something
sinful, right?
And then we feel
bad about it,
that doesn't mean
there isn't any
consequences still.
We still have to deal
with sin.
It's great to confess sin,
it's great to forsake sin,
it's great to, you know,
get sin on your life,
but that does not,
you know,
that one action alone
does not avoid you
having to deal
with the consequences.
You know,
sin always has consequences
whether you feel
bad about it or not,
you know?
And that's what's
going on here.
God's like,
You know what?
I'm glad you're sorry,
but here,
choose these three things.
One of them's
going to happen.
And we understand
ultimately the overarching
picture here
is that God
says,
but that's a principle
that's there.
Excuse me.
Verse 13,
So Gad came to David
and told him
and said unto him
Shall seven years
of famine
come unto thee
in the land?
Or wilt thou flee
three months
from before
thine enemies
while they pursue thee?
Or that there be
three days'
pestilence
in thy land?
Now advise
and see what I
shall answer
I shall return
to him that sent me.
You know,
and again,
this is another principle
that I want to point out.
You know,
imagine being
faced with this.
Imagine someone
sitting down and saying,
Okay, you're going to
have to suffer
one of these three
punishments.
I mean,
which one would you choose?
Which one sounds best?
They all don't
sound good, right?
And look,
people get themselves
into situations
all the time.
They write to church.
They reach out to us.
They get themselves
in these situations
and they go,
What should I do?
You know,
my husband's this.
My wife's that.
And it's a terrible
situation.
So does that mean
I get to divorce them
and leave them
and find another spouse?
Like, nope.
Well, what do you mean?
And here's the answer.
There is no good option.
You know,
that's why you should
be careful about the
choices you make in life
because you could find
yourself in a position
where there is
no good option.
You know,
getting divorced,
not a good option.
Staying with that
spouse,
not a very good
sounding option.
But that's what
that's the situation
people get themselves
with.
The only options
is to find such
a way to avoid
that situation.
Okay?
And that's a whole
sermon in and of itself.
And so he says,
Hey, you pick one,
David.
And David said unto Gad,
I am in a great strait.
You know,
that's what these
people are like,
that write and call
and ask us for help.
They're in a great
strait and it's like,
well, pick your poison.
They're all
going to be bitter.
They're all not
going to be fun.
And David said unto Gad,
I'm in a great strait.
Let us fall now
into the hand of the
Lord for his
mercies are great
things.
And so, you know,
some discernment there
there is, you know,
David obviously is
using his head here
and saying, Hey,
let's take the three
days pestilence.
I mean, it's only
three days.
At least it's the
shortest one.
I mean, God can do
a lot in three days,
but notice why
he's doing that.
He's saying, you know,
I would rather fall
into the hand of the
Lord than fall into
the hand of my
enemies, you know,
because God might stop.
And this is something
that, that David,
you know, has
experienced before.
You remember with
David, the child's
going to die, right?
And what's he do?
He prays and fasts
all day and eventually
the child dies, right?
And then he gets up
and he washes himself
and he sits down and
he eats and his
servants are like,
what, you know,
when he was alive,
he felt so bad.
And all of a sudden
you hear, you know,
you're, you're eating
and acting like
everything's okay.
You're going back
to normal.
What's the deal?
And he's saying, look,
well, the child
was, was yet alive.
There was a chance
that God would
spare him.
So God, you know,
when God is coming
down on us, when God
is chasing us, you know,
God's, there is still
a possibility for God
to show mercy.
You know, if we take
correction well, if we,
if we acknowledge it's
God's hand that's
chasing us, you know,
God might lighten up
upon us a little bit.
It's just like anyone
that, that, that
properly disciplines
their child.
You know, sometimes
they really got to
have it.
Like they've done
something bad, but
sometimes when you're
giving it to them,
you know, they're
taking that spanking.
It's like, you can
tell that it's
intense.
Other times, you know,
you got to really let
them have it because
you can tell it's not
getting through, right?
When they're, when
they're yelling back
at you as you do it.
Anyone who's done it
knows what I'm talking
about, right?
When they're taking
their, and they're,
they're growling back.
It's like, oh really?
You want to fight?
You want to, you want
to get into this a
little bit more, huh?
But you know what?
Sometimes they come in
and they're already sad.
They're already sorry.
They're already
feeling terrible.
It's like, well, I can,
I can go a little
lighter this time.
Cause what's the desired
effect for me to just,
you know, lay into them
or to get something
into their heart, right?
To help, you know,
loosen up the foolishness
that's done in their heart.
Look, if it's already
happening, if they're
already acknowledging what
they've done is wrong,
you know, then I don't
have to be as intense,
right?
I don't have to do it
as a great of a punishment
because the message is
already getting across.
And that's what David
is kind of understanding
here.
And this is still even,
you know, that's why
Habakkuk prayed, you
know, in wrath,
because God, even in
his wrath, is a merciful God.
I mean, think about,
you know, the great
tribulation when God's
pouring out his wrath
upon the earth.
You still have the
gospel being preached.
You still have the
144,000 all those years.
You still have the
angels of heaven and
it's just obvious
what's going on.
And God is still
preaching the gospel.
We got the two witnesses.
Even when God is
judging the earth like
he's never judged it
before, God is still in
his wrath remembering
mercy.
So that's, you know,
David is at least making
the choice here and
saying, you know what,
I'm just going to put
myself in the hands of
God and God will just
give me a just punishment.
Whatever he sees fit,
that's what we need.
Now, if you would,
well, we'll just
continue on here.
And, you know, the
story reminds me too
that, you know, there's
a purpose to this
punishment.
You know, obviously,
God is trying to get
something across to Israel.
They have done
something.
They have provoked the
Lord.
And this whole story is
about his way of
punishing them.
So look at verse 15 of
that line.
It says, so the Lord
sent a pestilence upon
Israel from the morning
even to the time
appointed, and there
died of the people from
Dan even to Beersheba.
Now, when you see that
Dan to Beersheba,
that's talking about the
whole nation, you know,
from one end to the
other, from Dan even to
Beersheba.
And it says there,
there died of the
people from Dan even to
Beersheba, 70,000 men,
right?
But notice how long that
went.
It went from morning
until evening.
And it says, and the
angel stretched out his
hand upon Jerusalem to
destroy it, and the
Lord repented the evil
and said, the angel that
destroyed the people, it
is enough, stay now thine
hand.
So God stops it, but
was that, what did
David choose?
He chose three days
pestilence in thine land.
That was the option,
right?
And God only gives him
a third of that.
So David was right.
David made the right
decision and said, hey,
I'm gonna put my hands
to the Lord.
You know, his mercies
are great.
It made, you know, it
beats falling into the
hand of man.
You know, there's less
of a chance that he's
gonna be merciful.
So God, even in this
wrath, was merciful.
Because remember, the
option was three days
pestilence.
He gives them morning
to night.
You know, obviously a lot
of people still died.
But God, it says he
repented him of the
evil, verse 16, and said
to the angel that
destroyed the people, it
is enough, stay now thine
hand.
And the angel, Lord, was
by the threshing place
of Arunah the Jebusite.
And David spake to the
Lord when he saw the
angel that smelt with
the people and said,
lo, I have sinned, and
I have done wickedly,
but these sheep, what
have they done?
Let thine hand, I pray
thee, be against me and
against my father's
house.
And Gad came to David
that day and said unto him,
go up and rear and alter
unto the Lord on the
threshing floor of
Arunah the Jebusite.
So it's great here
again that David, you
know, is lamenting, and
he feels like he's to
blame for this.
And in a way he is,
because he's the one
that did the numbering
and all of that.
But I want to point out
this, is that, you
know, godly sorrow is
not enough, is it?
You know, it's not
just enough to be
sorry, is it?
That's what, that's
what's going on in
this direction.
And it's not just
enough to be sorry, is
it?
That's what, that's
what's going on in this
direction.
That's what we're about
to see in this story,
right?
The pestilence comes,
you know, God
shortens the pestilence,
you know, gives him
one day instead of three.
David sees the angel,
he sees what's taking
place, and he's saying,
look, you know,
what have they done?
What have these sheep
done?
He's like, I'm the
one that's done
wickedly.
You know, and he's
very, he's expressing
his sorrow.
So God hears that
and he sends,
he sends Gad to him
and he says,
you know what?
You're right.
That's how the story
goes, right?
He's saying,
I'm glad you're
feeling sorry.
And he tells him
to do something, okay?
And this is the point
I want to close on.
This is what the
application I'll make
here at the end is
that, you know,
godly sorrow requires
action.
It's not just enough
to be sorry about things.
You know, when we mess
up, we do things
we shouldn't do,
and look, we all do.
We sing,
we make mistakes.
You know,
we feel bad about it.
That's great.
That's half the
equation though.
The other half
of it is that God
wants us to do
something about it
and not just to
feel bad about it.
To take action.
Godly sorrow
requires action.
If you would,
very quickly,
turn over to
2 Corinthians chapter 7.
I'll begin in verse 9.
If you remember,
2 Corinthians,
it comes after
1 Corinthians,
obviously,
where Paul wrote
that 1 Corinthians
was a scathing rebuke
of the church.
He rewrote a letter
and told him
in 1 Corinthians 5
to kick out,
you know,
the one that
had taken his
own father's wife.
You know,
he committed such
fornication that had
not so much been
named among the
Gentiles.
And he was ashamed
of the church.
He was rebuking
the whole church
for not dealing
with the situation.
2 Corinthians is
a follow-up where
we read about
how they did
deal with it.
They did what
Paul said.
They had a
godly sorrow, right?
He says in
2 Corinthians chapter 7,
that's the
context here.
Verse 9,
now rejoice,
sorrow to repentance.
Saying,
I'm not rejoicing
because they made
you sorry.
I'm rejoicing
because you did
something about it
and you felt bad.
I mean,
what good would it do
any of us,
you know,
if our kids,
they did something wrong
and they just said,
I'm real sorry
about that.
And then just
turned around
and did it again.
Would that make,
well, at least
they're sorry
about it when
they do it.
You know,
we want them
to stop doing
the godly manner,
he goes on and says,
that you might
receive damage by us
and nothing.
Saying,
I don't have to come
and punish you more
because you've
taken care of it.
You don't have to
receive damage by us
because you've already
sorrowed after
a godly manner.
You've repented.
Verse 10,
for godly sorrow
worketh repentance
to salvation
not to be
repented of.
Now,
you know,
I don't understand,
we all get the
gospel here,
but you know,
when he's talking
about,
you know,
being saved from
hell, okay?
He's talking about
being saved from
further punishment,
alright?
That's another sermon.
But the sorrow
of the world
worketh death.
Look at verse 11,
before behold,
the self saying thing
that you sorrowed
after a godly sword.
What carefulness
it wrought in you.
You know,
you were like,
checking yourself.
I'm gonna be
more careful.
Yea,
what clearing of yourselves.
You know,
you got things right.
You felt sorry
about your sin.
You're not,
this is the part I like.
What indignation,
you got mad about
what you did wrong.
That's good.
Why?
Cause that's gonna
cause you to take action.
Yea,
what fear.
Yea,
what vehement desire.
Yea,
what zeal.
Yea,
what revenge.
There's an exclamation point there.
You know,
godly sorrow causes
us to take action
and not just this
half hearted,
oh you know,
I shouldn't do that anymore.
If we're really
sorry about something,
it makes us mad
and it makes us
indignant against that sin.
We get upset with ourselves.
We get upset with sin.
We want to clear ourselves.
You know,
godly sorrow makes us
a zealous person.
And he says,
he goes on and says,
in all things,
you have approved
yourselves to be
clear in this matter.
And how do they do that?
By just feeling sorry?
No,
by taking action.
By changing what was wrong
and doing it with zeal.
And you know,
that's what god is
wanting David to do here.
If you go back
to where we were,
2 Samuel 24.
David's saying,
he's seeing the punishment
being doled out.
He sees god's punishment.
You know,
the angel of the lord
and the pestilence
and he's feeling bad.
And god takes the opportunity
to tell him to do something.
And what he does is,
you know,
very significant.
Of course,
this is how the temple
of the lord is established.
Okay?
The location of it.
And he tells him
in verse 18,
and Gad came to David
that day and said unto him,
go up,
rear and alter the lord
and the threshing floor
of Ariunah the Jebusite.
He said,
if you feel bad about it,
then go make me an altar.
Take some action.
19,
verse 19,
and David,
according to say,
the lord of Gad,
excuse me,
went up as the lord
commanded,
and Ariunah looked
and saw the king
and his servants
coming on toward him.
And Ariunah went out
and bowed himself
before the king
on his face
and upon the ground.
And Ariunah said,
wherefore is my lord
the king?
Come to his servant.
And David said,
behold unto the lord
that the plague
may be stayed
from the people.
And Ariunah said unto the lord,
let my lord the king
take the offer,
take and offer
of that which seemeth
good unto him.
Behold,
here are the oxen
for burnt sacrifice
and threshing instruments
and other instruments
for the oxen for wood.
Now,
I love this guy,
Ariunah.
We don't really
learn a lot about him.
You know,
he's a Jebusite.
He's not of Israel.
You know,
but he's,
it's his threshing floor
that is,
this is eventually
his threshing floor.
And what I love about him
is the fact that
he's not,
he's not bitter about this.
You know,
he's not upset.
And he's,
and David,
if you notice there,
it says,
he says,
he's come to buy
the threshing floor
of thee.
David didn't just show up
and say,
give me your threshing floor.
He said,
I'm here to buy it
from you.
And Ariunah says,
no,
you know what,
take it.
You can have it.
You can have the
threshing floor.
Oh,
And he's telling this
to the king.
Like,
like David's some popper.
Like David needs it.
As if David doesn't have it.
David and Ariunah
both show us something here
that they both want to,
you know,
they want to sacrifice.
They want it to cost them
something.
That's what David goes on
and says.
And he says in verse 23,
all these things did Ariunah
as a king give unto a king.
And Ariunah said unto the king,
the Lord,
the Lord thy God accept thee.
And the king said to Ariunah,
nay,
but I will surely buy it
of thee at a price.
Neither will I offer
burnt offerings unto the
Lord my God of that which
cost me nothing.
You know,
the first time I read that
that just jumped out at me,
you know,
and that's something
I've thought about.
This passage is something
I thought about
throughout the years
is that,
you know,
God doesn't want us
to just,
we don't want to just
serve God when it's easy,
right?
We don't want to just,
you know,
I'll live for the Lord
when it's easy.
As long as it
doesn't cost anything.
And look,
there's a lot of people
that have this mentality
out there today.
The vast majority of
Christians are like this.
You say,
well, how do you know?
Because,
whenever it gets,
you know,
whenever the man of God
gets up and actually
preaches a hard sermon,
they all turn tail.
They don't speak up.
You know,
they'll turn to that
difficult passage and just go,
well,
that might cost me something.
You know,
if I actually read that
and actually preach
what it says,
that might upset some people.
You know,
that guy who drops
the big offering plate
might walk out.
You know,
the 11 o'clock news
might show up.
You know,
that could cost me something.
People might think poorly
of me.
Well, you know what?
Then you really
don't want to serve God now.
Because serving God
is preaching the whole counsel
of the word,
and if it costs you
something, great.
It should cost us
something to serve God.
And that's what
David's attitude was.
Look,
I'm not just gonna
go do the sacrifice
and not have it
cost me anything.
That's why he's saying,
I'm gonna buy it
from you,
Arianna.
And Arianna's
got the same mentality.
He says,
look,
I'm making sure
that we're both in it
and have the right motives.
And of course,
you know,
he's the king.
He gets his way.
David buys it from him.
And it says there,
and he says,
so David bought
the threshing floor
and the oxen
for 50 shekels of silver.
And David built
an altar under the Lord
and offered
burnt offerings
and peace offerings
so the Lord
is a tree to land
and the plague
was stayed from Israel.
But look,
David wasn't gonna
go do that
and not have
it cost him something.
And this is the mentality
in life,
when it comes
to the Christian life.
And I'm gonna end
with this alliteration, okay?
Sincere service
requires sacrifice.
Sincere
service
requires
sacrifice.
If you wanna serve
God sincerely,
you're going to have
to sacrifice some things.
I mean,
think about,
you know,
you think,
well, am I gonna have
to go buy oxen
and build an altar?
No.
You don't have
to go buy land
or anything like that.
You don't have
to have
50 shekels of silver.
I mean,
doesn't church
cost you something?
Yeah,
it costs you time.
It costs you money, right?
I mean,
you guys could all
be at home
or wherever else,
doing whatever you want
right now,
but you came here.
And you know,
what surprised me
was something you thought,
I'd rather not
be there tonight.
And that's fine.
You know,
I'm sure we don't
all wanna be at church
every single time it's open.
Well, you know what?
We go ahead anyway
because we don't,
we say,
hey, I wanna serve God
and if it means
whatever it is,
I'm gonna go ahead
and be there.
You know,
that is a sacrifice.
That's a form of sacrifice.
Not just doing
whatever I want
all the time.
You know,
and you can think
about soul-witting.
You know,
people that go out,
you know,
no matter,
any time,
you know,
it's the same thing.
You go out on a Saturday,
you know,
a lot of people
could do a lot
of other things
on their Saturday mornings
and come down here,
climb in that van
that smells like
a gym locker
or somebody they
never met.
Right?
That's a sacrifice though,
isn't it?
You know,
people get,
you know,
they give money,
put money in the
offering plate,
you know,
they tithe,
which is the Lord's
anyways,
but you know,
they might put more
in there and say,
I want a sacrifice.
You know,
people that are
working on this building,
look,
we could go on and on.
People that come down here
and they say,
hey,
I'm gonna sacrifice
in my time
and I'm gonna help
in some way.
That's all a sacrifice.
You know where that comes from?
A place of wanting
to serve God
with sincerity.
Not just people that are like,
well,
I'll serve God
when it's easy.
And look,
I've known Christians
like that.
Say,
oh,
I want to help
in the church.
Great.
Grab,
grab a toilet wand
and start scrubbing.
Grab a broom
and start sweeping.
Grab a mop
and start mopping.
Grab that vacuum.
Grab that duster.
Do some menial task
and look,
we need song leaders.
We need people
to get involved
in the spotlight ministries,
too.
But if that's all
you're good for,
then are you really
that sincere about it?
And I understand
that that's all a sacrifice,
too.
Learning the songs
and getting up here
and all that.
But look,
I've known people like that.
They only want to serve God
when it's not gonna
cost them anything,
when it's gonna be easy.
Well,
you know what?
That's not
the Christian life.
So you might as well
just wrap it up now.
You might as well
just go find that
purple light church
where they're not gonna
ask anything from you.
Because that's not
this church.
And that's why we're,
you know, another reason
why we're not, you know,
the most popular
church in Tucson.
You know,
I've thought about
what name,
when we go independent,
what should we call
the church?
Well, I thought,
well,
Laborer Baptist Church.
Workman Baptist Church.
Those are cool names.
Then I think,
no one's gonna like
the sound of that.
Labor Baptist Church.
Workman?
Yeah.
I mean,
isn't God worth it?
God's worth the sacrifice.
I mean,
what are we gonna
offer to God
that's gonna compare
to the sacrifice
that he made for us?
Well,
I went out Saturday,
I went soloing.
Great.
Amen.
You've done that,
which is your duty to do.
Well,
I showed up to church
and managed
to keep my eyes open.
Well,
Amen.
You know,
praise God for that.
But that's just
what your duty is,
isn't it?
And God's like,
well,
I sent my son to die for you.
Jesus is saying,
I suffered,
bled,
and died.
I spent three days
and three nights in hell.
Jesus has spent more time
in hell
than any of us ever will
because of his sacrifice.
Yeah.
And but,
so many Christians today,
they don't want
to sacrifice anything.
They don't want
to be inconvenienced.
They don't want
to have to change
anything in their life.
They don't want
to have to give up
some sin.
They don't want
to have to start
to get some standard
in their life
and you know,
the poor little thing
that God would actually
expect something in return
after he saved your soul.
Not in order
to save your soul.
We understand that.
But you know what?
God,
you know,
we should offer our bodies
a living sacrifice
unto God,
which is our reasonable
service,
the Bible says.
That's your reasonable service.
God isn't asking too much
for you to lay
it all on the altar.
And that's what
sincere service requires.
It requires sacrifice.
And you know,
the Christian life
is one of sacrifice.
Yea, all that
the Godly Christ Jesus
shall suffer persecution.
You know,
if you're going to live
for the Lord,
you're going to have
to suffer.
There's going to be
sacrifices that come.
But here's the thing,
you know,
in David's case,
he wouldn't make
that sacrifice, right?
He wouldn't bought
that threshing floor
and bought those oxen.
He gave that
50 shekels of silver
to set up that altar.
Why?
So that he could
stay the plague
of sin.
You know, he said,
well, what's the point
of all the sacrifice?
What's the point
of all the service?
Is because sincere
sacrifice spares others.
It spares other people,
doesn't it?
You know, you sacrifice
in your time
to read your Bible,
to pray, to get
filled with the Holy Spirit,
to go out on some
soul winning time
and learn how to
give the gospel
and go through
all that awkwardness
and putting in that
dedication.
You know, that sacrifice
that you make
in order to do that,
that's going to
spare other people.
That's going to
save the plague
of sin in their life.
You know, if you
make that sacrifice,
you know, and you
save one soul from
hell, it's worth it,
Fred.
If you do all that,
and look, soul winning's
hard work.
You know, when we
emphasize it here,
I'm not downplaying like,
oh, it's nothing.
Just go ahead and do it.
You know, it gets
easier as we go,
but especially at the
beginning, it's tough
to learn how to talk
to people, especially
about their soul.
You know, I've never
met you before.
I've talked to you
about 10 seconds
and I'm going to ask
you about where
you're from.
You know, I get it,
especially if we're
introverted or we're not
our personality.
I understand.
But look, it's worth it.
Because when we are
sincere and when we
sacrifice, other people
are spared.
And you know, that's
the mentality we
have to have.
Is that you've got
to be like David.
You know, there is a
plague on this nation
today.
God is judging.
You know?
God, there might not
be a literal angel
out there with a
sword drawn, you know,
and with a pestilence.
But God is judging
this nation.
God is judging
this world.
People are dying
all the time
and going to hell.
What do you call that?
That's the judgment.
How is that not
the judgment of God?
Right?
And look, it's up
to us to be like
King David to have
this mentality of being
willing to make
a sacrifice.
It's something that's
going to cost us
something.
But it's worth it
in the long run.
You know, because
it results in the
salvation of other
people, of people
being spared from
having to suffer
So that's the book
of 2 Samuel.
There's a lot of
applications we're
going to make, but
that's just one of
them here at the end.
You know, that God
has Satan under his thumb.
He uses Satan, you know,
and that God is judging
and we need to be
willing to go out there
and to make a sacrifice
in order to spare others.
Let's go ahead and pray.