Now in 2 Samuel chapter 10, actually this starts really similar to the way 2 Samuel
9 started.
Because you remember back in chapter 9, look back there if you would at verse 1, it says,
And David said, Is there yet any that is left of the house of Saul, that I may show him
kindness for Jonathan's sake?
And if you remember, that whole chapter was about David wanting to show the kindness of
God unto one of the descendants of Saul, and he ends up taking that descendant, Mephibosheth,
and bringing him into the king's house, letting him eat at his own table, giving him an inheritance,
and things that he really didn't deserve.
And we talked about what a beautiful picture of salvation that is, how we get this great
inheritance that we don't deserve, and we're going to dwell in the house of the Lord forever
and eat at his table and so forth.
So that was a beautiful story in chapter 9, but it's funny because chapter 10 starts out
almost the same way, where it says in verse 1,
It came to pass after this, that the king of the children of Ammon died, and Hanan his
son reigned in his stead.
And said David, what?
I will show kindness unto Hanan.
So isn't that exactly what he had in his mind in chapter 9?
Hey, I'm going to show kindness unto one of the descendants of Saul, my enemies.
Here he's looking at a foreign leader.
This guy's dad just died, and he says, I'm going to show kindness unto this guy.
David was just a man with a lot of kindness in his heart.
He was a righteous man who loved people, and here he's being kind unto others once again.
So it says in verse 2, Then said David, I will show kindness unto Hanan the son of Nahash,
as his father showed kindness unto me.
And David sent to comfort him by the hand of his servants for his father, and David's
servants came into the land of the children of Ammon.
Now this is the type of thing that happens all the time today.
When a tragedy happens in another country or someone dies of importance, we would send
an ambassador to express our sympathy or to express our condolences just in order to
keep up friendly relations with other nations.
So that's all he's doing.
He's just sending ambassadors to say, hey, we're sorry to hear about him dying, but look
what the Bible says in verse 3.
And the princes of the children of Ammon said unto Hanan their lord, Thinkest thou that
David doth honor thy father, that he hath sent comforters unto thee?
Hath not David rather sent his servants unto thee to search the city and to spy it out
and to overthrow it?
Now these are the type of people that the Bible warns us about in Proverbs where it
talks about whisperers that separate chief friends or people that will sow strife among
brethren.
Basically, people are getting along.
People like each other and everything's great.
And then somebody comes in and says, well, you know what?
Actually this person said this about you or, well, actually this person doesn't like
you or whatever.
And they sow those seeds of strife.
These are wicked people and they're causing a lot of strife and bloodshed because as we
read in the chapter, there's going to be warfare.
People are going to be dying.
People are out on a battlefield and so forth.
Why?
Because of these idiots in verse number 3 who are just making this up, just a false
accusation.
I mean, David, of the kindness of his heart, sends ambassadors to give the condolences
and these people are like, oh, you think these people are here just to say that they're sorry
for your dad?
You think they're just honoring your dad?
No, they're spies.
They're here to spy out the nakedness of the land and they're going to invade and blah,
you know.
But there are people like this today on our personal lives that will come to us and try
to get us to think the worst about everybody.
Not only that, if we look at the global stage, there are people who foment wars where there
shouldn't be any wars, right?
I mean, there are people who basically just assume the worst about every person and every
nation.
And let me tell you something, I think these people probably just wanted to go to war.
I mean, that's one explanation for why they would do this.
Now, maybe they're just paranoid, right?
I mean, as we read this, we have to wonder, why are these people saying this?
Because their accusations are not based on any fact.
David and this guy's father have had a good relationship in the past.
This guy had been kind unto David, the father, and now David's being kind unto his son.
Where is this coming from of just, oh, they're here, they're spies.
They want to invade, whatever.
Either these people just want to go to war for whatever reason or they're just paranoid
or whatever.
But either way, they're committing sin because they are committing a false accusation.
Now, I find this passage to be extremely relevant today because of the fact that we have people
today that are always trying to scare us about foreign invaders.
That's what they're doing.
They're coming to him and saying, hey, this foreign invader is going to come and get you.
David's going to come to get you.
And there's no evidence.
That's not in David's heart at all.
David wants to be at peace.
And aren't there people today that want to scare us all the time about, oh, man, this
nation's going to come over and kill us all.
They're going to come invade us.
Now, we know the motive of the people today who do it because the Bible, first of all,
says the love of money is the root of all evil.
Not only that, the Bible talks about from whence come wars and fightings among us, come
they not.
Hence, even of your lusts that war in your members, you lust and desire to have.
That lust, that greed, that desire for money is what motivates a lot of the warfare in
our world today because people are making money off of warfare today.
They make money selling all the equipment.
They make money selling the weapons.
And then the bankers make more money than anybody because they loan money to governments.
Because you know what makes governments go into debt more than anything?
War.
They borrow all kinds of money to carry out wars.
And these bankers have an agenda, these multi-billionaire bankers have an agenda to foment the warfare,
to put these kind of ideas into our heads today through the media that they control
in order to get us to be scared of a boogeyman and an enemy that might not even exist, might
not even be something that we should be afraid of.
And so what we can take from this story is a warning that says, look, there are people
out there who are going to lie and say that there's a foreign invader coming that's not
really coming.
And we should not live in fear.
And you know what the Bible teaches?
That obviously self-defense is acceptable.
You know, when we were going through the laws of Moses, we talked about that.
You know, where it talks about, you know, you can defend yourself.
But this thing of preemptively attacking other people because of the fact that they might
attack you is something that we're being brainwashed with today in America, that this
is acceptable to do a preemptive military strike because I think that that person might
have been going to attack me.
And this is false.
I mean, that's what we hear today all the time, right?
They're a threat.
They have weapons of mass destruction.
They have nuclear capabilities and blah, blah, blah.
So do we.
We have nuclear capabilities.
We have weapons of mass destruction.
We have every weapon known to man.
Does that mean that we're just using it on everybody?
Well, you know, I guess we do sometimes use it on people.
But the bottom line is that this attitude, I mean, it would be like, just think about
it.
What if I just said, you know what, my neighbor down the street has got some big weapons and
he was looking at me funny.
So I'm going to go down there and I'm going to do a regime change in that house.
I'm going down there.
I'm going to invade.
I'm going to seize those weapons because this guy is a threat to me and my family because
he has weapons.
Of course, he's never said anything that he was going to, you know, attack or anything.
But this is the mentality today that we have today of, you know, oh, and look, you hear
about Iran.
Is that, I mean, what is it now?
It's all just ISIS or who's the boogeyman this week?
Are they done talking about Iran for now?
Iran too?
Okay.
I don't pay any attention to it because it's just all it is a bunch of lies.
It's all lies.
And you know what?
If you think that Jesus Christ is down at the TV station and down at the radio station
running the switchboard, you're wrong.
It's the devil because look at all the other filth that's on TV and all the other garbage
on the radio.
And so all this stuff is just lies and brainwashing to keep us at a continual state of warfare
and so that we can have a world empire and run the whole world and have our military
bases all over the world.
And if you think it's right for America to have military bases in almost every country
in the world, well, you know what?
Just go ahead and just line up for the one world government and the antichrist because
this United Nations is leading us to a world government just as predicted in the book of
Revelation and it is the one world government, cashless society, one world religion, everything
we talked about when we went through Revelation.
And why would we think that America is not the leader of it when the United Nations is
in America, sponsored by America, and we're the one who is the lone superpower that has
bases all over the world in every country.
You know, I saw a funny picture where somebody had a picture of Iran and they show how we
just have like military bases all over the right side of Iran and all over the left side
of Iran and it says Iran wants war because look how close they put their country to our
military bases.
That proves they want war.
I mean can you imagine, just think about this, and you're like, wait a minute, Pastor Anderson
probably doesn't like apple pie either.
And you're checking to make sure there's an American flag and everything, you know, what's
going on here, you know, is Pastor Anderson not an apple pie eating patriotic, you know,
flag waving, whatever.
But hold on, stop and think about it.
We have invaded the country just west of Iran and just east of Iran because you know where
Iran is on a map, folks?
It's right between Iraq and Afghanistan, between them.
So just imagine, what if a foreign invader invaded Mexico and Canada, put a whole bunch
of bases in Canada and a whole bunch of bases in Mexico and said, why are you making a nuclear
reactor?
What are you doing, you know?
Who do you think you are?
I mean that, yeah, that wouldn't be threatening at all.
So when did Iran ever attack us?
When was the last time Iran ever attacked anyone?
Can somebody help me out and tell me when the last time Iran invaded anyone or attacked
anyone?
Does anybody know?
And when was that?
Yeah, they had a war with Iraq like many decades ago.
That's true, yeah.
That's what they say, all right.
So it all goes back to the chosen, the special chosen ones, all right, over in Israel.
So you know, there we go.
Well, but you know, they didn't actually do it, but they sponsored it, you know.
But of course we don't sponsor anybody.
We didn't sponsor Al-Qaeda.
We didn't fund and train Al-Qaeda or anything.
You know what?
It's a bunch of lies and hypocrisy and garbage that's coming across the media.
And listen, don't be like this guy, Hanen, where you just believe in just, oh, they're
coming to get us.
They're coming to invade us.
You know what?
We should wait until we are attacked before we go and attack people, okay, because it's
not self-defense when you're like, well, they might attack.
So I'm going to go ahead and attack first.
I'm going to get them before they get me.
Once they attack, it's too late.
So I'm just going to go around just smiting people on the playground as a kid because
I don't know why I'm not going to wait until they hit me.
They're acting aggressively toward me.
Look, you know and I know that doesn't make any sense, but a lot of people just hate this
kind of talk because they're just so into like America can do no wrong and you're unpatriotic
and you hate America.
No, I hate the devil and I hate murder and I hate innocent civilians being killed by
bombs and guns.
You know, I'm sorry, I don't like to hear about pregnant women being ripped up and people
being shot and men, women and children being bombed and nuked and fire bombed.
I think that stuff's all horrible.
And you know what?
You know why that stuff exists?
Because we live in a wicked, sinful world and you know, we're not going to bring about
peace because there's no peace to the wicked and we're only going to have peace in this
world when Jesus Christ returns and sets up his kingdom.
Okay, so that's not the point, but the point is we shouldn't participate in it.
That's my point.
I don't want anything to do with it and I'm not going to get all fired up about this war
and this, that and all the, and listen to these people, but, but not only that, we see
in this story that these people are trying to invoke or provoke a war by saying, oh,
they're here.
They're spies.
They, they're saying that they're for peace, but they're really evil intended.
So look what they do in verse four, wherefore Hanen took David's servants and shaved off
the one half of their beards and cut off their garments in the middle, even to their buttocks
and sent them away.
So what is this saying?
Basically these guys show up and say, hey, we're peaceful ambassadors that want to basically
just give our condolences for your dad that died and they say, oh yeah, we'll show you.
So they shave off half like right down the middle of this way.
Okay.
They shave off half their hair.
They shave off half their beard.
So they leave the hair here, leave the beard here.
Then they cut their clothes like this and they are, and the Bible says even to their
buttocks, I mean they're stark naked from the left side over and then they just have
the right side of their clothing and then they're sent home like that with no change
of clothes.
Now can you imagine how humiliated that you would be?
You're stripped half naked, literally, literally half and not only that, but just this weird
haircut and this, it reminds me of when, when brother Gregory went to surgery.
I went and visited him after his surgery and I said, you're like those guys in the
Bible.
Cause they had shaved off half of his hair to do the surgery and I asked him, I said,
why didn't they cut the whole thing?
He's like, I don't know.
You know, they just saved half of it.
I was like, what in the world?
So I, I asked for it.
I asked for a pair of scissors and I gave him a haircut and made it look good.
You know what I mean?
And balance it out, you know, because it just, it was just like, you don't want to go around
looking like that.
So I, you know, I fixed it for him.
But the thing is, you know, that's the thing.
As a pastor, I do other stuff, you know, as you know, I'm offering, I'm baptizing people.
I'm offering haircuts.
I'm doing, you know, you gotta, you wear a lot of hats as a pastor.
Okay.
But that was the only, I think that was the only haircut I've ever given.
I mean, I've, I used to trim my mom's hair.
My wife won't let me trim her hair.
She doesn't trust me with it, but I don't, you know, but you know what, it was better
than the haircut that he had.
You know, I did what I could for him.
But here's the thing that's interesting about this story.
So they send him back like that.
When they told it unto David, he sent to meet them because the men are greatly ashamed.
So they're embarrassed.
I mean, you'd be embarrassed too, right?
If somebody did that to you, you'd feel like an idiot.
So David wants to reach out to them and let them know that he doesn't look down on them,
that it wasn't their fault.
So he sends to meet them, to be respectful unto them, and they're greatly ashamed.
And look what the Bible says.
It says, the king said, tarry at Jerusalem, meaning stay at Jerusalem, until your beards
be grown and then return.
So he tells them, look, don't even come home looking like that because I don't want you
guys to be embarrassed.
I don't want you to be ashamed.
So let's let your beard be grown and you can return.
Now let's talk about the issue of having a beard versus not having a beard, OK?
Because of the fact that there are basically three camps on this.
There are people out there who say, you must have a beard to be right with God.
I mean, there are people out there who believe that.
You must have a beard in order to be right with the Lord as a man.
And you know, there are people who don't have beards and they're called women.
You know, you've heard that mentality or they're called little boys or whatever.
So there's that mentality over here.
Then there's a mentality that says like, you must not have a beard.
For example, when I was at Bible college, no beards allowed.
I mean, you could be a 40-year-old man and it's like, you must shave your beard to go
to school here.
Or I've been in many churches where you were not allowed to lead the singing or preach
if you had a beard.
No beard allowed.
And then there's another camp that would just say, hey, it's up to you whether you want
to have a beard or not.
It's not something that the Bible commands, okay?
Now I believe in the third category, that you don't have to have a beard or not have
to have a beard.
Now out of all three of these camps, the no beard position is the stupidest one.
I mean, think about it.
The stupidest, out of all three of those positions, the stupidest one is saying it's wrong to
have a beard when Jesus probably had a beard.
The Bible doesn't specifically explicitly say that Jesus had a beard, but in Isaiah,
there's something that's prophetic.
You won't find it in the four gospels about his beard, but in Isaiah, there's a prophetic
passage about his beard being plucked that I believe is referring to Jesus.
You could say, oh, it's just about Isaiah himself.
But I believe it's a messianic, prophetic passage about Jesus having his beard ripped
from his face when he's being crucified.
So Jesus, I'm sure, had a beard.
The disciples probably had beards, but in the Old Testament, the prophets, it specifically
spells out that many of them had beards.
And here, the culture, you can tell from the culture in this chapter that it would be humiliating
for them to come home with a bald face.
Think about it.
Because they're saying, Terry, until your beards be grown.
Why wouldn't he just say, well, instead of coming back with half a beard, shade the whole
thing.
He says, no, wait for it to grow in so that they could come back, look in the same way
that they looked when they left, and basically in that culture, they obviously had beards.
Now go to Leviticus chapter 19.
So out of all three of those positions, I would say that the one that is just the most
ridiculous is saying, you need to shave every day.
And it's like, good night.
Where are you getting that?
The only thing you can find, the only person that you even find shaving in the Bible.
Obviously the Nazarites, when they finished their vow, they'd shave everything.
And obviously people who had leprosy and are trying to be cleansed of disease would even
shave off their eyebrows and shave everything just to get rid of all the germs and whatever.
But the only person that you really see shaving in the Bible is Joseph.
When he's down in Egypt, Joseph shaved his face before appearing unto Pharaoh.
But look at Leviticus 19, because some people will point to this verse and they'll say that
this verse says that you must have a beard.
Look at Leviticus 19 verse 27.
It says, ye shall not round the corners of your head, neither shalt thou mar the corners
of thy beard.
Now a lot of people will take this verse and say, see right there, you can't trim your
beard.
You can't cut your beard.
You can't shave your beard.
But that's not what it says.
It says don't round the corners of your head and don't mar the corners of your beard.
Now what does it mean to mar something?
I mean the word mar is a very negative word.
The word mar means to disfigure, destroy, ruin it.
So what you'll see is sometimes, don't the Jews do this where they leave this one part,
the corner, and just let it go?
Now the Jews get everything wrong it seems like.
And that's why it's so funny when Christians are like, let's go to the Jews to see how
to really interpret the Old Testament.
Because you know, we stupid Gentile Christians, we don't know what the Bible means.
But oh, thou chosen special Hebrew one, tell us what the Bible means.
Then the Bible flat out says that when they read the Old Testament, they have the veil
over their face.
The Bible says even today, 2 Corinthians 4, when the Jews read the Old Testament, they
have the veil and that that veil is done away in Christ.
Therefore every unregenerate Jew, every Christ rejecting Jew is reading the Bible blindfolded.
Oh, please explain it to us, Rabbi.
No.
Why would we want somebody's blood?
And they get it totally wrong.
You know what this reminds me of?
Reading this verse and saying, you can't ever cut that part of your beard.
It reminds me of how they misinterpret a lot of other things too.
Because like for example, this thing is like, it says don't mar the corner of it.
Take a chunk out of it is what mar would mean.
Shaving off the corner, rounding the corner of your head, rounding the corner of your
beard.
Okay.
That's not saying just never trim it, just let it go.
You must have a beard, whatever.
That reminds me of when the Bible says thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God
in vain.
And then the Jews take that as just, don't even say God's name.
Don't even say it.
So God says, don't say it in vain.
And they're like, just don't say it.
So you know what they call God?
They'll call him Hashem, the name.
The name.
That's what they'll call.
Or they'll just, sometimes you'll see them write it, have you ever seen this?
G-D.
L-R-D.
You know, it's okay to use God's name.
We should proclaim the name of the Lord.
And we should use the name of the Lord.
I mean, look how many times the Bible, they're praising the Lord by his name.
Praise him by his name of Jah, the Bible says, okay?
So if these names are so sacred that they can never be pronounced, why is God telling
us to praise him by his name over and over again?
But they're misinterpreting it because they're blind and so they cannot see.
So they'll take it too far.
And that's what they're doing with this verse.
So if we eliminate this verse, which clearly does not say you must have a beard or you
must never trim your beard or you must never even trim the corners of it, this verse doesn't
teach that.
I think what this verse is teaching is don't have a weird haircut or a weird beard.
You know, basically modifying it, you see a lot of weird beards and a lot of weird haircuts
out there.
I think that's what he's saying.
That's my opinion of what this verse is saying.
But either way, it's definitely not saying you must have a beard.
So here's the thing, if you eliminate this verse, you don't ever have a commandment in
the Bible telling you you must have a beard.
And if there's not a commandment, then it can't be a sin because sin is the transgression
of the law.
There's nothing in God's law that says you must have a beard.
Now you can say, yeah, but the principle's there where David says, hey, don't come home
with a bald face.
Okay?
Well, okay, but here's the thing.
That's not authoritative.
That's man talking.
That's David saying, hey, don't come home.
That's not God saying thou shalt have a beard.
Now here's the biggest evidence, though, for why I don't fall into the you must have a
beard camp is the fact that there are a lot of men in this world who don't grow a beard.
They can't grow a beard.
So if God demanded that men have beards and women don't, then why did he create literally
millions and millions and millions of people who cannot grow a beard to save their life?
Well, then how can he demand that we have a beard when men can't even grow one?
Now there are a lot of Asians that can grow beards, a lot of Asians that can't grow beards.
And amongst the Native Americans, there are some that don't grow a beard.
You might just think they're shaving every day.
But one time, for example, am I right?
Is this true?
The Navajo's nodding her head.
You know, I have been out soloing one time in an area where there are a lot of Native
Americans.
I kid you not.
And he had about seven hairs coming out of his face.
And let me tell you this.
This guy was not marring the corner of his beard.
Okay.
This guy, they were just untrimmed.
He literally just had a single black hair coming out here, about eight inches long.
He had another one right here, eight inches long.
Another one here, eight inches long.
Another one here.
I'm not kidding.
I could have counted on less than ten fingers how many hairs were coming out of this guy's
face, just distributed, randomly.
And he was like, I'm having a beard, you know.
I don't care what my DNA says, I'm growing a beard.
And it looked horrible.
I mean, it looked horrible.
I mean, just imagine it.
Just boom, boom, boom, boom.
It was like, dude, you know, I mean, like, I wanted to trim it right then and there.
I mean, it was that bad.
So you know, that's, no, that's not cool.
You know, I mean, just, this is what I would do with that.
But there are a lot of men who are just, you know, they don't even grow those five.
I mean, they just have a bald face.
I mean, it's just, they just don't have a beard, right?
There are people, I mean, there are millions of people in China that are like that.
There are a bunch of Native Americans that are like that.
Even white people.
Or I've seen people where literally they let their beard grow wild and it comes out a goatee.
And literally, I had always thought that they had trimmed, you know, it was cool, have a
goatee, you know, make the Van Dyke, as they call it, or the goatee or whatever.
And I just thought that was just the look they were going for.
But it's like, no, this is what grows, a goatee, right?
And I've seen some guys where if they let it grow wild, they'll end up with like long
sideburns, then there's a gap with nothing, and then they have a goatee.
I mean, that's just how it comes in.
Or sometimes it just comes in real sparse and just real, you know, mix and everything.
And look, there are white guys like this, Hispanic.
It's not even just like a certain race.
It's all nations that have this issue from time to time.
Now, there are some people that are like, they have to shave like three times a day
if they want to be clean-shaven.
So that's why I just, I don't think it makes any sense to sit there, first of all, there's
no command in the Bible, and second of all, I don't think it would make sense for God
to just demand that you have a beard and you're like, I'm trying, you know, I can't.
So now here's the thing, you know where my preference is, because I'm wearing it.
You know, and I was clean-shaven for a long time.
I grew this beard back in July of 2010, and I'm not going back.
You know, this is how I'm going to look till Jesus comes.
I mean, that's the plan.
But here's the thing, if you have no beard, that's fine.
There's nothing wrong with that.
And it doesn't mean that you're feminine or anything, because you know, God created us
all different.
Some of us have beards, some don't.
It doesn't make you feminine, it doesn't make you less of a man, despite all those memes
on Facebook to that effect.
It doesn't mean that you're not right with God, or it's not like, well, I've even heard
this stupidity.
In the Old Testament, you had to have a beard, but in the New Testament, you know, this part
of the New Testament is we get shaved now.
I mean, are you insane?
Like you must not understand Jesus dying on the cross, if you think it had anything to
do with your facial hair.
Okay, so anyway, I don't believe any of that.
So let's go back to 2 Samuel chapter 10.
Just wanted to clear that I believe that this was just a cultural thing, that for these
guys, it would have been humiliating to show up with a clean-shaven look, because it just
wasn't the style, you know, it wasn't what they did.
And honestly, I think part of the reason was that, you know, back then, it was probably
not as convenient to shave as it is now.
I mean, now it's real convenient to shave.
It's still too inconvenient for me, so I just don't do it, you know.
And I let my beard grow kind of wild.
I don't have one of these really like manicured beards, you know.
So I just let it grow and let the chips fall where they may.
I mean, I definitely trim it, otherwise by, you know, by now it would have been, you know,
down to here or whatever.
I'm not really into that.
But you say, well, my wife doesn't let me have a beard.
Well, you know, it's time for you to take charge in that home and have the beard, you
know.
But if you don't want to have a beard and you want to be clean-shaven, then be clean-shaven.
I mean, it's just, you know, you can't just always impose your opinions and your views
on other people.
And that's what you're doing when you demand people to be clean-shaven or demand people
to be bearded.
You're basically teaching for doctrines the commandments of men at that point.
You know, you're putting man's rules on people.
I remember there was a missionary friend that I had and he was, he had a big thick beard.
And I said, how come on, I said, I was looking through a photo album with him because I stayed
at his house when I was in Germany.
And I was like, why do all the pictures of you in America, you're clean-shaven and every
picture of you in Germany, you always have a beard and then you go back and you shave
it every time you go back.
He's like, well, you know, cause I don't want to offend people in the churches.
So I have to shave my beard to, I mean, it's so stupid.
Like, like they won't let him on the platform if he's, if he's bearded.
I mean, again, it's, it's, it's madness, my friend, you know, I guess, no, I guess Elijah
is not allowed to preach, you know.
I guess Jesus and John the Baptist and all the apostles, I'm sure they all had beards.
You know, I don't care what Leonardo da Vinci painted.
You know what I mean?
Some, some, some guy that has like the tiniest little blonde goatee or whatever on the cross.
I mean, that's not probably what Jesus looked like.
Okay.
But that's irrelevant.
Let's go ahead and move on.
Second Samuel chapter 10.
So he says, Terry and Jericho, till your beards be grown and then return.
And when the children of Ammon saw that they stank before David, the children of Ammon
sent and hired the Syrians of Beth Rehob and the Syrians of Zobah, 20,000 men and of
King Maacah, 1,000 men and Ishtob, 12,000 men.
And when David heard of it, he sent Joab and all the hosts of the mighty men and the children
of Ammon came out and put the battle in array in the entering in of the gate and the Syrians
of Zobah and of Rehob and of Ishtob and Maacah were by themselves in the field.
So here's how this event happened.
David sends his men to be peaceful and friendly.
They humiliate them, rip off half their clothes, shave off half their beards and send them
home.
And then they hear that David didn't like it.
Oh wow, I'm shocked.
Oh, that made them mad.
So now they're going to attack Israel.
So basically they do something to humiliate Israel.
And then they're like, now we're going to attack Israel because of what we did.
But you know what's funny is that you'll find this in life.
When people do you wrong, they get mad at you.
Now logic would tell us that when I do something wrong, that's going to make people mad at
me.
But actually when I do something wrong, I end up being mad at the person that I did
wrong too often.
Have you ever been at work and somebody shows up late for work and then they're mad at you
or mad at the boss for the rest of the day when they showed up late and then they're
mad at the boss?
And I remember, you know, one time when I was real young and inexperienced, one of my
early jobs, I remember, because I was like never late, set two alarms, I'm just not late.
You know, because there are two kinds of people in this world.
People are always late and people are always on time.
And I remember one time, something, just everything went wrong, both of my alarms, and you could
ask my wife, I mean I get like obsessive about setting multiple alarms around the room and
what am I going to do if this one doesn't work, what if there's a power failure?
You know, so I always have all the backups and everything because I hate being late.
I can't stand it.
So one time I was late to a job and it just, ugh.
I mean one time I kicked in the door of my apartment just not to be late because we accidentally
locked ourselves out and I was just like, I got to be on time, I was like, I just kicked
in the door, got the keys, and we got to go, fix it later, let's go, be on time, you know, late.
So one time I got to work late and I was so upset about being late and, you know, I was
kind of in a bad mood and I was, you know, maybe a little bit rude or angry in my demeanor
and I remember my boss said to me, he's like, he said, you know, are you still mad at me
because you were late?
And I remember when he said that I'm thinking like, yeah, I am, and then I was just, and
I felt like an idiot.
And then I was like, man, what's my problem, you know, and then after that I, you know,
I had a good attitude and a good spirit.
But he hit the nail on the head when he said to me, are you still mad at me because you
were late?
Which doesn't make any sense because he would be mad at me if I'm late.
But instead he's like, are you still mad at me because you showed up late?
And he didn't even rebuke me or anything.
It was just, I was mad at him because I was late.
So what happens is a lot of times we will do wrong to somebody, listen to me now, we'll
do wrong to somebody.
It's our fault.
But here's the thing, we as human beings hate to admit that we're wrong about stuff.
So here's what we'll start doing, searching for reasons to be mad at that person so that
we can kind of be like, well, I know I did wrong, but you know, he did this or she did
this.
We don't want to admit that we did something wrong.
I mean, nobody likes to admit that they're wrong, but you know what?
The difference between a godly person after God's own heart and a person who rebels and
gets into sin is we have to be willing to admit that we're wrong.
And some of the biggest mistakes people made in the Bible is when they just refuse to admit
that they're wrong.
And we talked about it recently in the sermon with Simon the sorcerer, where he's rebuked
and he took it right.
He immediately got things right.
That was a great example of someone who took correction well.
Cain is an example of somebody who took correction poorly, where God corrects him and he gets
mad.
So because we don't like to admit that we're wrong, then we have to find fault.
For example, when the police bashed in my windows, tasered me and bashed my face in
the broken glass, they have to find a reason.
They can't just say like, we did this to an innocent person for no reason.
We bashed your face and it tasered you for 22 seconds straight.
So they have to then try to charge you with something.
So they're like, you were blocking the road, even though they stopped me and wouldn't let
me leave.
But they're like, you obstructed the highway.
So why?
Because they have to charge you with something.
Because they just beat the living fire out of you and they have to justify it now.
And you'll see this over and over again.
Do you think we would ever admit as a nation, yeah, we invaded a country and we shouldn't
have.
Yeah, we bombed a bunch of innocent people and killed them and whatever.
So then they have to sit there and say like, well, but this is what they did.
And sometimes make up stuff that they did to justify.
Well yeah, I know we slaughtered a lot of innocent people, but you know, here's what
they did.
And fabricate stuff, fabricate.
And look, after World War II, evidence was fabricated.
By the United States and by the Soviet Union.
There was evidence that was fabricated that's now been admitted to have been fabricated.
Lamp shades made out of human skin, fabrication.
Soap made from the fat of Jews, fabrication.
Everyone has admitted that these things are fabrications.
This is not a conspiracy theory.
So why would they do that?
Why would they sit there and make, look, this lampshade, it's tested years later, it's an
animal skin.
Look at this soap is from the fat, why?
Because they want to basically, you know, demonize the enemy.
And I'm not saying that people didn't do wrong on all sides in that war because they did.
But what I am saying is that governments fabricate evidence to justify things that
they've done.
And we gotta be careful that we don't do this in our personal lives, where sometimes we
make a mistake, we do something wrong, and then what we do, we try to find fault in the
other person to try to justify, well okay, I shouldn't have done that, but what about
what he said two weeks ago?
And just digging and grasping at straws to justify ourselves, instead of just saying,
you know what, we made a mistake, we did something wrong, and being humble.
And you know, even in our marriage, we do something wrong to our spouse.
It's like, but you said this, or you did that, you know, and just trying to justify it.
And that's what I see here is like, okay, we did you wrong, we humiliated your ambassadors,
so now we're gonna attack you, you know, because we stink to you.
Of course you stink to us.
And what they should have been doing is saying, you know what, we're sorry, we were wrong,
we shouldn't have humiliated those guys, we shouldn't have, you know, made them go half
naked and whatever.
But that's what we see happening in this story.
Now they're being attacked.
So when Israel sees that this foreign army is coming, and not only just the children
of Ammon, but the children of Ammon hire the Syrians also, and bring in the foreign troops,
the mercenaries, to come in, and they're all converging toward Israel.
So now Israel sends out its army to face them, okay?
So look at verse number nine, it says, when Joab saw that the front of the battle was
against him before and behind, he chose of all the choice men of Israel and put them
in a ray against the Syrians, and the rest of the people he delivered into the hand of
Abishai his brother, that he might put them in a ray against the children of Ammon.
So here's what he does.
He takes all the best troops and puts them in one army.
And then the rest of the people, you know, the people who aren't the best fighters, he
puts them under the charge of his brother.
And he puts them against the weaker enemy, the children of Ammon.
So he says, I'm going to fight the children of Syria with the best troops against the
huge army.
You guys are going to fight against the children of Ammon with the guys who aren't as good
at fighting.
Now this is the worst nightmare in any war is you don't want to fight a two-fronted war.
You don't want to have it coming at you from both sides.
You know, you'd rather just fight a single front where you can put all your forces.
So they're in a scary position here where they've got, they're being outflanked in a
sense where they have their rear exposed to the enemy and they're coming at them from
both sides.
So they have to divide their forces.
And look what the Bible says.
And he said, verse 11, if the Syrians be too strong for me, then thou shalt help me.
But if the children of Ammon be too strong for thee, then I will come and help thee.
Be of good courage and let us play the men for our people and for the cities of our God
and the Lord do that which seemeth them good.
Now I think that's a funny phrase where he says, let us play the men.
Now when we think of playing, we think of like an actor who plays a certain part.
Now it doesn't mean that that's really what they are.
It doesn't mean that that's really how they feel, but they're acting that way, right?
That's what it means when it says to play the men, okay?
So what's interesting about that is he's basically saying, act like men.
Now you say, well, aren't they men?
But here's the reality.
The reality is that humans have weakness.
And I'm sure that a lot of these guys on a human level, when they see the enemy forces
coming from the front and behind, are fearful in their hearts, right?
And what he's telling them is to at least not let that show.
If you're weak, if you're scared, if you're fearful, play the men.
On the outside, you need to look manly here and you need to be...
Because why?
First of all, the enemy can read your fear.
The enemy can smell your fear.
It's like when a dog is coming at you.
The dog smells fear and then they'll attack you because they perceive you as weak.
But it's the same thing with people in a fight, even in a fist fight.
You don't ever want to show fear to your opponent.
Show weakness.
You want to be just a wall of just impenetrable resolve and courage and no fear and intimidate
them.
You don't want them to intimidate you.
Also, fear is contagious.
Because the Bible said that in the Old Testament, when they would go out to war, they were supposed
to at every battle.
And it's funny because Gideon is the only one you ever see actually doing this.
Remember where Gideon actually says, whosoever is fearful, go home.
He was following the law of God.
And that was something that they were supposed to do for every battle.
Anybody who has just bought a field in the last year, anybody who has just married a
wife in the last year, you can go home.
Anybody who is fearful, go home.
Because he said, you know what?
If you're fearful, you're going to cause the people around you to be fearful.
And we don't need that.
So go home.
And remember, when he says it to Gideon, there's 32,000 troops, he says, whosoever is fearful,
go home.
How many thousand people go home?
Wait a minute, I didn't mean that many.
Because of the fact that there was such a huge enemy.
And then God, of course, said 10,000 is too many.
He said, I want to get all the glory.
He whittled it down to 300 men, which is just ridiculous.
But then it goes down in history as a great event, great miracle.
So fear is infectious.
So when they're saying, look, play the men, he's saying, look, even if you're afraid that
you got put on the B team, I mean, which of these groups would you like to be in?
The choice men or the rest of the people?
So let's say you're a pretty good fighter, but you're like sent over to the rest of the
people side.
You're like, oh, great.
Like I remember when I was in PE in Christian school, I remember being in like eighth, ninth,
tenth grade.
In PE, they would always divide up when we were in basketball season.
They were really into winning at basketball for the school.
And so even at PE, they wanted the people who were good to get the best practice.
So they would always divide us up into the choice basketball players and the rest of
the people.
Well, I was always on the rest of side.
I'm not too proud to admit that I was always set to the rest of side.
But there were some people who had a bad attitude about that.
I was just like, I'm not in denial here.
I know that I belong on the rest of, you know.
So I was fine.
I was fine with being on the B side, you know.
But honestly, a lot of people were just like, man, what's going on, what do you mean, you
know.
Now you're over there, buddy.
You're playing with Steven Anderson over there, okay, with the rest of people, you know.
You're not on the A team over here.
So, you know, you can imagine it'd probably be scarier to be on the B team here going
against the Ammonites.
You'd probably rather be with all the choice guys, kind of ride on their coattails, you
know, watch them do their thing over against the Syrians.
So he's telling them, look, you know, and also the general, he's talking to the general
because Joab's telling his brother, now I just put all the losers with you, okay.
I'm taking the choice men with me.
You're having the rest of the people, but don't be scared, all right.
You know, so you can see why he could be scared because he's got a bunch of guys behind him
that aren't really the choice fighters.
So he says play, let's play the man for our people.
And you know what, this is what we need to do in our lives because there are going to
be times as a husband where maybe you start to get fearful about your situation, you're
fearful about the finances, you're fearful about whatever the case may be.
But it's important that we as men play the man in our home, even when we're not feeling
total courage, total steadfast boldness, that's the image that we need to portray.
Why?
Because we want to give our wife and our children security.
And we're always like, oh, I don't know what to do, you know, I just paid.
Or like here's the thing, if you're really indecisive as a man, that's not a manly attribute,
being indecisive.
So you need to be indecisive up here and just, oh yeah, I got this, I got this, you know,
on the outside.
You know, and go be indecisive tomorrow.
There's just a fundamental difference between men and women.
Men are more decisive.
If you don't believe me, just go through the drive-thru with men and women.
Men go through the drive-thru and they're just like, give me a number one.
Super size or whatever, right?
That's how men order.
Or a lot of times I'll go to a restaurant and just be like, to the waitress, what do
you think is the best thing here?
Give it to me.
So I've literally gone into restaurants multiple times and just said, surprise me.
And they're like, but sir.
And I'm like, no, surprise me.
It's like, okay.
Because you know, it's just you get in a rut where you keep ordering the same thing.
I've literally walked into a restaurant and just by faith I said, surprise me.
And then I think it was my son John, didn't he do that?
He was trying to be like, dad, we went to a restaurant and he just, he tells the waiter,
surprise me.
And they did.
I mean, they were, they're like, well, that's, we've never seen a kid do that, you know.
It's good that you're not picky, you know.
But you know, you go in there and you're just like, give me a number one, medium well, next.
Right?
And then a woman goes to order.
It's like, oh, go ahead and give me this.
Oh wait, I changed my mind.
How about this?
And then asking all kinds of questions about the menu and just, and sometimes you want
to tell your wife, like, did you know that we're going to eat other meals in our life?
And that this doesn't have to be the ultimate meal that you've ever had.
You know, did you know that we can actually come back to this restaurant another time
and try all the other things?
It's like, oh, there's so many good, or like, this one always blows me away.
Like there's so many good things on the menu.
I don't know what to get.
It's like, well, if there's so many good things, it should be really easy because you can just
pick one and they're all good.
There's so many good things.
Then just go with the first one.
So I mean, it's just a fundamental, I'm not down on women.
I'm just saying there's a difference between men and women, the way that they order.
I mean, when men order, it's like the law of the Medes and the Persians.
It cannot be altered.
Whereas women, they'll pull up to the window.
They've already ordered, they've paid.
And then it's like, I changed my mind.
It's like, honey, no.
And then your wife's like, please change my order.
Please.
You're like, no, it's been ordered.
It's done.
It's settled.
We cannot change.
No, change it.
Change it.
Please change.
You know, you're just like, ah.
So it's just a difference.
Men, part of being manly is decisiveness.
Why?
Because why would a woman want a leader who doesn't know what he's doing?
It makes you scared.
I mean, what if you got on an airplane and the pilot came to you in the seat and just
said to you like, you know what?
What do you think is the best altitude?
I mean, it's real windy.
What do you think?
Should we even do this flight?
Is it too dangerous?
Is it clear?
What are you guys?
Let's have a vote.
Let's go ahead and vote.
Who here thinks we should take off even though it's about to start pouring rain and lightning
and everything?
Okay.
Who thinks we should not go?
I mean, would you feel good on that flight?
You'd be like, oh man, what in the world?
This guy doesn't know what he's doing.
Get me off this plane.
So that's how your wife feels if you're not given clear direction of this is where we're
going, this is what we're doing, and fearless.
It's going to be great.
It's fine.
I've got this.
We're going to fix it.
Rather than just like, I just don't know what we're going to do, honey.
I just don't know.
I lost my job.
What do we do?
You need to have a plan as men, and you might go through a little session like that in your
mind.
Hopefully you don't.
But if you're going to have a crying breakdown, don't have it in front of your family.
Do that somewhere else, and get it all figured out, and just come back.
I know what we're going to do.
We got this.
Play the man.
Don't just exude weakness, and exude femininity.
Be a man.
Play the man.
Ideally, be a man, but if you can't be a man, at least play the man, you know what I mean?
Help us.
So fake it till you make it, right?
Be of good courage.
And by the way, part of being a man is having courage.
Not being scared, not being a weakling.
Let us play the man for our people and for the cities of our God, and the Lord do that
which seemeth him good.
You know, we're going to do our part and let the chips fall where they may.
And it says, then Joab drew nigh, and the people that were with him, under the battle
against the Syrians, and they fled before him.
And when the children of Ammon saw that the Syrians were fled, then fled they also before
Abishai and entered into the city.
So Joab returned from the children of Ammon and came to Jerusalem.
It's kind of funny because you don't really see these, the B team, really defeating the
Ammonites, do you?
What made the Ammonites flee?
Not because the B team defeated them, but because they saw the Syrians get defeated,
and they're like, the choice men are going to turn around and come at us.
You know, so what we can learn from that is that, you know what, God can use the B team.
Even if we as a Christian are not the greatest Christian in the world, and you know, we're
not a mighty warrior for the Lord like we should be, you know what though, God can still
use us to at least just hold off the enemy, you know, just, I mean, at least this B team,
even though they weren't just these great warriors that are going to go out and just
totally slay the Ammonites, what did they do though?
You know what, they did the best they could, and God used them, and God gave the victory
because of the fact that the Syrians were defeated, and that put fear in the hearts
of the Ammonites.
Look, sometimes in life, we're not just going to be winning and just going from victory
to victory and just, yeah, everything's great and everything, you know, sometimes we're
going to face defeat in our life or even just we're going to face things that are just too
hard for us, but this shows us that if we just stand our ground and just kind of hang
on and just do the best we can.
You know, it's like this, the Bible talks about having done all to stand.
And the evil day withstand, okay, because here's the thing, if you can't run, then walk,
and if you can't walk, then stand, but don't go backwards, don't flee, don't retreat.
And so what we see here is that these guys, if they could have just said, well, we're
not winning, we're the B team, we don't know what we're doing, and just fled, this could
have turned out different, you know, because then the Syrians might have seen the Ammonites
winning and thought, yeah, we got this, the pincher attack, or how could Joab even beat
the Syrians if he's got the Ammonites coming from behind, if the Israelites would have
just folded like a deck of cards, the B team, the rest of the people.
So you know what, there are going to be people in this world, there are going to be Christians
that are the choice servants of God, and then there's going to be the rest of the people,
the rest of the saved.
And you know what, we're all at different stages of growth.
And you know what, if you're kind of at a rest of the people stage of your life, maybe
you're a new believer, or you're not really that zealous for God, you know what, you need
to still stand and do what you can.
Do the best you can, even if you're one of the rest of the people, and hopefully you'll
work up to where in the next battle you'll be on that eight.
You know, I'm sure if I really wanted to, I could have got on, okay, maybe not, I could
have got on that basketball side where the good players were playing, okay, maybe.
I'm just saying it might have been possible, I don't know.
But the point is though, you know, there were people who did graduate from the Steven Anderson
side to the A team of basketball, and it was kind of like a rite of passage as it were,
like, you know, when they're dividing up PE, hey, you're going over here on the A side,
they're like, yeah, you know, all right, I'm finally moving on up, right?
There were other people who got demoted to the B team, and it was more like, you know.
So, look, maybe you're one of the rest of the people, don't just get down, don't just
think like, well, I can't do anything for God, you know, I'm not like brother so-and-so
or sister so-and-so that's just, you know, a soul winning machine, reading the Bible,
you know, four times a year, and memorizing chapters, and out soul winning, and just,
you know, all this, you know, so I just kind of give up.
You know what, that's foolish, because God can still use you on the B team.
Now I'm not saying, hey, just stay on the B team, just be content to be the least in
the kingdom of God.
No, but you know what, just because you're on the B team doesn't mean that God doesn't
need you, because somebody needs to hold off the enemy on the B team.
The B team is needed, and where do the A team players come from?
The B team, you know, they get better, they're faithful, they serve the Lord, and they graduate
to the A team, and get on the front lines, as it were, for the kingdom of God, so you
know, it's just encouragement to those that are the rest of the Christians, you know,
that God can still use you.
It says in verse 15, when the Syrians saw that they were smitten before Israel, they
gathered themselves together, and Hadarizah sent and brought out the Syrians that were
beyond the river, and they came to Helam and show back the captain of the host of Hadarizah
when before them, and when it was told David, he gathered all Israel together and passed
over Jordan, and came to Helam, and the Syrians set themselves in array against David and
fought with him, and the Syrians fled before Israel, and David slew the men of seven hundred
chariots of the Syrians, and forty thousand horsemen, and showed back the captain of their
host who died there, and when all the kings that were servants to Hadarizah saw that they
were smitten before Israel, they made peace with Israel and served them, so the Syrians
feared to help the children of Ammon anymore, you know, we're never helping the children
of Ammon again.
Now look, Syria didn't even have a beef with Israel.
They were hired by the Ammonites.
Now that they fought with the Ammonites against Israel, now they've become Israel's servants.
Now they're paying taxes to Israel.
Now look, what if Syria would have just stayed out of it and minded their own business?
Would they be paying taxes to Israel?
Would they be servants to David?
No.
It was because they got involved in a fight that had nothing to do with them, just for
the love of money.
Money is what they wanted.
They're hired by the Ammonites, mercenaries, and because of the love of money, they get
in a fight that has nothing to do with them, and what did they end up doing?
Losing and losing freedom for their country, and becoming servants to David.
We should not meddle with strife not belonging to us.
That's what the Bible says.
He that meddleth with strife not belonging to him is like one that taketh a dog by the
ears, because you get involved in other people's fight, and then you end up losing, and so
it's better just to stay out of it, you know, and our country would do well to keep that
advice.
Well, but we don't want to lose our place of leadership in the world.
God never gave you that place of leadership in the world, America.
God ordained separate nations.
God doesn't want a one-world system.
We're supposed to have separate countries, separate nations, sovereign in their own right.
Well, you know, we've got to be the leader of the free world, so we can make everybody
love faggots.
That's what we're promoting all over the world.
Hello?
Is anybody home?
It's true.
What does America stand for anymore?
Sodomy, abortion, Hollywood, filth, feminism.
I mean, it's the three F's, filth, feminism, and faggotry.
I mean, it's what we stand for in this country.
If I'm lying, I'm dying.
It's filth, feminism, and faggotry is what we're exporting to the whole world through
Hollywood, through Madison Avenue, through our music industry, and we're like, we need
to keep our leadership.
Why?
Are we teaching people about the New Testament?
Is that what we're doing all over the world?
Is that what our embassies are doing?
Are our embassies, let me ask you this, are our embassies handing out New Testaments?
Because if so, I think that's great.
I think that's wonderful.
I would love to shine the light.
I would love for America to be a city on a hill.
You know, it's funny, who was it, wasn't that Ronald Reagan?
America needs to be a city on a hill.
Let's get that in context.
A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.
Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, put it on a candlestick, and give
it light unto all that are in the house.
But the Bible says if our gospel be hid, it's hid to them that are lost and whom the God
of this world has blinded the minds of them that believe not.
Look, the light that needs to shine is the New Testament of Jesus Christ.
It's the Holy Bible.
Is that what we're handing out?
No, we're handing out contraceptives.
That's what we're handing out.
We're handing out vaccines and contraceptives and Hollywood movies, is what we're handing
out.
Okay?
And so let me ask you this.
Are they flying the flag of our Lord Jesus Christ down at the embassy?
Or are they flying the gay pride flag?
Because you know what?
In Tel Aviv, Israel, for the entire month of June, the United States embassy flew a
US flag with a gay pride flag under it.
That's our embassy.
That's where it's like, we're representing America in your country in the Middle East.
Here's the United States flag and here's a rainbow sodomite flag.
This is who we are as Americans.
And did you know that just literally a couple weeks ago, an ambassador was just named by
President Obama to basically be our special envoy to the nations to promote gay rights
around the world on behalf of America.
So this guy's full-time job, he's an ambassador of the US and he travels to countries telling
their governments, you need to accept homos.
You need to have just wild free sodomy.
Because did you know that there are 79 countries in the world today where sodomy is illegal?
It was illegal in 12 states until 2003.
Bet you didn't know that, did you?
In America, 12 states in 2003.
And not only that, but in 79 countries today, it's illegal.
In many countries, it's punishable by death.
I think I heard that somewhere.
I think it was in the Bible.
It was in Leviticus 2013.
So here we have all these countries that are actually right about that.
Not saying they're right about everything, but they're right on that.
And then here we are going around trying to evangelize the whole world with the gospel
of homosexuality.
The gospel of feminism and women's rights.
These are not biblical principles.
These are actually godless, wicked principles.
And even many of our soldiers have been penalized for handing out New Testaments in places like
Iraq and Afghanistan.
Hey, that's not what we're here to do.
But I'm sure that they can hand out contraceptives, they can hand out Hollywood movies, they can
blast the world's music, and they can go there and teach them about women's rights.
And look, you have to understand, they hate us for our freedom.
Maybe they hate us because we're a bunch of faggots.
You ever stop and think about that?
And you know what, the truth hurts, and a lot of people don't like this kind of preaching.
But you know what, there's plenty of people that do, because look how many people we have
here tonight on a Wednesday night.
I've been preaching this way for a long time.
Not everybody wants this Sissified pansy watered down preaching down the street.
Some people actually believe the truth and want to know what the Bible says.
And you know what, some people don't just say, well, you know what, no matter what our
country does, you know what, it's just God bless America.
No matter what we do, right?
No matter what, no matter how weird it gets.
Even if we're going around and paying for abortions in Africa and sponsoring sodomy
worldwide and literally preshing, I mean, the president of Uganda is like, Obama, leave
us alone.
Respect our culture.
That's what the president of Uganda said.
He literally said like, you need to respect our culture.
We don't believe in homosexuality.
We don't like it.
This is what the people of Uganda want.
They want it to be illegal.
Mind your own business.
Leave us alone.
Because he's trying to force homosexuality on African countries.
Because he's black or whatever.
Sort of.
His mom's as white as snow.
He's kind of black a little bit.
So he just has the right to tell all these blacks in Africa, you know, I'm black, sort
of, you're black.
So except homos.
No.
You know, we need to trade presidents with Uganda.
I mean, we'd probably be willing to trade with just about anybody at this point.
You know what I mean?
We'd pretty much be willing to trade with just about anybody, okay?
Because our president, he's not even, forget being a man, he's not even playing a man.
He doesn't even play one on TV.
He is such a queer little sissy.
And so, you know, all that, I don't know how I got off on that, but I, you know, can somebody
tell me what any of this has to do with 2 Samuel chapter 10?
Play the men.
No, we already got past that, I thought.
Just fighting battles that we have no business fighting, meddling and strife not belonging
to us.
Yeah, that's what it was.
Yeah.
Meddling and strife not belonging to us.
Why don't we just mind our own business?
Well, but we're so good and we have to make everybody look good like us.
Are we really that good anymore though?
I don't know what your definition of good is.
Maybe you and I just have a different definition of good.
But to me, like, I think that good means that we follow the Bible.
That's what good means to me.
To me, being good means you're straight, you're married to one woman, right?
You're married to one woman and you're straight and you are honest and, you know, you men
dress like men, women dress like women and you work hard and you pay your bills and you
read the Bible and you preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and even if people are not saved,
you know, you'd expect that in a good country that at least there'd be like freedom of religion
where people could, you know, believe the Bible and practice it if they want to, you
know, and that being good would involve like disciplining your children the way the Bible
says, you know, and being good would be, you know, I mean, who thinks that Hollywood's
movies are good as far as moral?
So, you know, and wouldn't you say that it would be good to not smite people who have
not smitten you?
You know, so I mean, it's just, what does good mean anymore?
You know, our country and the people running it have a different idea of what's good than
you do.
Oh, they're spreading good all over the world, but is it good?
Because actually some people in this world other than the United States, you know, I'm
not saying that they have everything right.
I'm sure they have a lot of things wrong.
I heard somebody say, you know, America is the second, America is the second worst place
to live in the world and the first worst is everywhere else.
So anyway, I'm not saying that I'd rather live somewhere else because it's like, if
you don't love America, then you can leave.
You can go somewhere.
Well, where am I going to go when we've screwed up every country almost?
When we're ex, it's like, you know, I'm sick of all these faggots, I want to go somewhere
else.
Okay, we've already taught them all to do it.
I'm just not comfortable with that.
Well, you know what, go to Comfortable Baptist down the street because you know what, I'm
sick of this flag waving, apple pie eating, America can do no wrong attitude because you
know what, just in this chapter alone, the sins of America have been exposed.
Preemptive strikes, boogeyman, getting in fights that we don't belong in because of
money, because of oil, because of opium, because of the military industrial complex.
It's all in the passage, folks.
This Bible is just as relevant as today's newspaper.
In fact, it's more relevant because it's actually true.
Let's pray and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for this chapter, Lord, and what we can learn.
And dear God, I pray that we would never fall into this trap of either meddling in
strife not belonging to us, trying to pick fights between people that are at peace, preemptively
attacking people just in case they might attack us, fighting for money, warring for the profits
of money.
Lord, if people are having a fight that doesn't involve us, help us to just stay out of it,
whether that's in the church, whether that's in the home, whether that's in our job.
Help us to not feel like we have to get involved in every bit of strife in this world.
Help us to live at peace as much as is possible within us, Lord.
Help us to be at peace with all men.
And Lord, help us never to be so brainwashed that we just accept the filth and wickedness
that our country now thinks is normal because it's not normal.
And help us never to be brainwashed by it, Lord.
Help us to stick with your word on these subjects.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.