You
Folks, at this time, welcome back to Anchor Baptist Church.
We're gonna go ahead and get started this evening.
If you'll grab a hymnal, turn to our first hymn, number 420.
There's a song in the air.
Hymn number 420, 420.
And there's a song in the air.
We'll sing there right on the first.
heads with me. Heavenly Father, we just thank you again for another opportunity
this evening to gather together. Lord, we just thank you for leading us to the
doors of folks that wanted to receive the gospel very easily, that the
salvations that we had today. I just pray that you would help those be led
into a good church and into a life of service toward you. I also pray that you
just be with us for this service this evening, that you would continue to fill
Pastor Oz with your spirit, and that you would open our ears to the message to be
edified so that we could grow and apply to our lives.
These things we pray in Jesus' name, amen.
All right, for our next hymn,
turn if you went to 422,
Thou didst leave thy throne.
422, Thou didst leave thy throne.
We'll sing there on the first.
Thou didst leave thy throne
And I came to be crowned
Anchor Baptist Church, thanks for joining us this evening.
On the front, you'll see we are on our grace week
for our Bible memory passage.
So last week to be working on that,
we'll hand out the prizes next Sunday
and we will start a new Bible memory passage next week.
So looking forward to that.
Let's do Psalm 119, huh? How's that sound?
Here we go. On the left side is our service times, 10.30 a.m. Sunday morning, Sunday evening at 4.30,
and our Wednesday evening Bible study at 7 o'clock p.m.
And we had a little pause in our study through First Samuel this Wednesday.
Thank you, Brother Cameron, for preaching for us.
And we're actually going to pick that up tonight since we missed Wednesday,
so we'll be going through First Samuel this evening,
Remember that Tuesday is our midweek service this week also our soul winning times are listed there all those meet here at the church building
Definitely want to encourage you to make it out to our Saturday rally every week. That's a great time
It's usually our most receptive time of the week
So do join us if you would for that our nursing home ministry schedule there as well as our year-to-date
Statistics for soul winning. I know we had at least three salvations today. So great job on that
On the right, please be in prayer for miss Whitney read for her pregnancy and also
I think their family is not feeling too great. So be praying for them that they would feel better soon
and our upcoming event last one of the year is our New Year's Eve party on December 31st
at seven o'clock p.m. we're gonna start with the men's preaching night it's gonna be 15 minute
sermons for everybody that signed up so i think there's a total of five guys that signed up so
please at the 15 minutes just wherever you're at just start praying you know i don't know if we
need like an airsoft gun or something if you start going past the time but just 15 minutes that way
But looking forward to that after that we're going to have food of course and games
Then if you'd like to give online that code is there for you
As well as our prayer list make sure we're keeping each other in prayer as a church
And if you have any requests to be happy to add that for you
Just let me know you can email the church or message me on the backs a place for you to take notes
If you'd like that's going to be it for announcements this evening. We'll go ahead and go to our third song
All right, our third hymn this evening, number 424.
O come, all ye faithful.
424, 424.
O come, all ye faithful.
We'll sing there on the first.
O come, all ye faithful.
and as the offering plates are being passed,
turn, if you would, to First Samuel chapter 19.
First Samuel chapter 19.
1st Samuel chapter 19, and Saul spoke to Jonathan his son and to all his servants
that they should kill David. But Jonathan saw son delighted much in David, and Jonathan told David,
saying, Saul my father seeketh to kill thee, now therefore I pray thee, take heed to thyself until
And I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where thou art, and I will commune with my father of thee, and what I see, that I will tell thee.
And Jonathan spake good of David unto Saul his father, and said unto him, Let not the king sin against his servant, against David, because he hath not sinned against thee, and because his works have been to thee word very good.
for he did put his life in his hand and
Slew the Philistine and the Lord brought a great salvation for all Israel thou sawest it and its rejoice
there wherefore
Then will thou sin against innocent blood to slay David without a cause
and David Harkin under the voice of Jonathan and
And Saul swear as the Lord libeth
He shall not be slain and Jonathan called David and
Jonathan showed him all those things and Jonathan brought
David to Saul and he was in his presence as in time past times past and there was
War again and David went out and fought with the Philistines and slew them with a great slaughter
And they fled from him
And the evil spirit from the Lord was upon Saul as he sat in his house with his javelin in his hand, and David played with his hand.
And Saul sought to smite David even to the wall with the javelin, but he slipped away out of Saul's presence, and he smote the javelin into the wall, and David fled and escaped that night.
Saul also sent messengers into David's house to watch him and to slay him in the morning and
Micahal David's wife told him saying if thou save not thy life tonight tomorrow
Thou shalt be slain
So Micahal
Let David down through a wall and he went and fled and escaped
and Micahal took an image and
laid it in the bed
and put a pillow of goat's hair for his bolster and covered it with a cloth.
And when Saul sent messengers to take David, she said he is sick.
And Saul sent the messengers again to see David saying bring him up to me in the bed that I may slay him.
And when the messengers were come in, behold, there was an image in the bed with a pillow of goat's hair for his bolster
And Saul said to Michael, why hast thou deceived me so?
And sent away my enemy, that he is escaped.
And Michael answered Saul, he said unto me, let me go,
why should I kill thee?
So David fled and escaped, and came to Saul, to Ramah,
and told him all that Saul had done to him.
And he and Samuel went and dwelt in Neoth.
And it was told Saul saying, behold, David is at Neoth in Ramah.
And Saul sent messengers to take David.
And when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying and Samuel standing as appointed over him,
the Spirit of God was upon the messengers of Saul, and they also prophesied.
And it was told Saul,
He sent other messengers, and they prophesied likewise,
and Saul sent messengers again the third time,
and they prophesied also.
And when, and went he also to Ramah,
and came to a great well that is at Sikhu,
and he asked and said,
where are Samuel and David?
The one said, behold, they be at Neoth in Ramah,
And he went dither to Neoth in Ramah and the Spirit of God was upon him also and he went on and prophesied until he came to Neoth in Ramah.
And he stripped off his clothes also and prophesied before Samuel in like manner and lay down naked all that day and all that night.
Wherefore they say is Saul also among the prophets.
Let's pray.
Your Lord we're thankful to be gathered again this evening. I pray Lord that you fill Pastor Oz
Amen.
All right.
Well, like I had mentioned, we're kind of making up for missing a Wednesday through our Bible
study.
So we're going to be going through 1 Samuel chapter 19 this evening.
And it's a shorter chapter than what we've been going through, so it shouldn't take too
long.
But let's start reading in verse number one.
The Bible says, And Saul spake to Jonathan his son and to all his servants that they
David. So now pretty much from this point on, we're entering the phase of David's life where
he's just constantly on the run from King Saul. And this kind of helps us understand versus like
we read in Psalms this morning, because many of the Psalms that David wrote, he wrote while he
was under the threat of death and running away from his father-in-law King Saul. And of course,
And during this down point it actually caused him to write a lot of Psalms which is kind of interesting tactic to also get through rough times is to sing unto the Lord and and make a joyful noise unto the Lord that could help with things like that but.
Really, the main theme that we really see in this chapter is faithfulness.
And number one, I want to look at this evening, Jonathan's faithfulness.
Look at verse number two.
The Bible says, but Jonathan Saul's son delighted much in David.
And Jonathan told David, saying, Saul, my father, seeketh to kill thee.
Now therefore I pray thee, take heed to thyself until the morning, and abide in a secret place and hide thyself."
So of course, this is a very reasonable thing to do as a friend is, hey, let your friend know when he's about to be killed, alright?
This is just good advice. If someone's hunting your friend down and trying to kill them, you want to let them know about that so they can make arrangements.
So that's a good, faithful thing to do. But he ends up doing more than that. In verse 3 it says,
In the field where thou art, and I will commune with my father of thee, and what I see, that I will tell thee."
Verse 4, And Jonathan spake good of David unto Saul his father, and said unto him,
Let not the king sin against his servant, against David, because he hath not sinned against thee,
good and here the loyalty that we see in Jonathan is first of all to his friend David
and that's a good admiral trait to have is someone that's loyal to his friends
but beyond that really what what Jonathan is doing here is he's really being
loyal to the principles of the Bible and he's being loyal to God's law.
even above people because you could look at this story in one way and say well he's kind of going
against his father but hold on a second his father is trying to do something wrong so should your
loyalty always be to blood always be to kin no matter what no our loyalty should always be to
Jonathan wants to be there for David, but more importantly than that notice his excuse if you will for why David is standing or why?
Jonathan is standing with David in verse 4 again. Notice what he says to Saul. He says let not the king
Go against my friend go against David who I like who's a good guy notice. Let not the king sin
against his servant.
See, the problem wasn't just that his dad
was going against David, who he just happened to like,
who was just his friend.
It was that his dad was about to sin.
His dad was trying to do something sinful,
and you know what, our loyalty should always be
to principles above people.
Not just family, not just friends, but people.
Go to Matthew, or principles,
go to Matthew chapter number 10,
Matthew chapter number 10.
And of course we understand, like I said,
it's good to be loyal to people,
and it's good also to be long-suffering with people.
The Bible talks about how charity suffereth long, right?
We know that everyone in this room is a sinner.
We're all gonna do things that are wrong.
We wanna be long-suffering with each other,
but it's like, hey, someone's conspiring murder.
That's not a time where you bring out the long suffering.
That's a time where you're 100% loyal
to the principles of the Bible.
But in Matthew 10, verse 37, the Bible says,
he that loveth father or mother more than me
is not worthy of me."
So notice the level of loyalty
that the Lord Jesus Christ requires of us,
if we're gonna be disciples of him,
is that we need to love Jesus Christ.
And of course we know that Jesus is the word of God.
We need to be loyal to Jesus, to the word of God,
to the things of God more than even our own mother
and father.
That's a pretty tight bond that God wants to have with us because especially in other cultures like I think that in America
Yeah, we're close as a family. We love our mom and dad
But even in other cultures, this is even more so in the United States like in Mexico or in the Philippines
For example, the family unit is even more tight in places like that
But really doesn't matter what the culture is or where you live
Jesus demands a closer bond with you than you even have with your own mother and father.
And he says, in fact, if you even love your mom and dad more than you love me,
then you're not even worthy of me.
I mean, that's a high level of commitment that he's asking of us.
But you know what? We should adhere to that.
And we should say, you know, if mom and dad want to go down a sinful path,
then we should not just follow mom and dad to do something sinful.
Or if in this case, you know, for Jonathan, his father was both his dad and also his government authority and also his boss, if you will.
But hold on, if those people are not doing the things that Christ would approve of, if they're going down a dark road and sinning like committing murder, then your loyalty should always be to the word of God.
Now, this is a lot easier said than done.
Because it's real easy to say, yeah, stand with the Bible, stand with the Word of God.
But oftentimes, when people actually make that decision to stand with Jesus Christ,
sometimes that means cutting off family members from your life.
And that's not a fun thing to do.
And that's not something I think that you should do just flippantly.
But there actually can be instances in your life where that would be the
wise and sometimes necessary thing to do.
And he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
And he that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me.
So it's not just your parents, it's even your own children.
And really the amount of love that we should have for the Lord Jesus Christ, the amount
of loyalty we should have to him and to his words, it should be so far above any human
Because, you know, when you get married, that is your closest human relationship that you have in this world.
And when it comes to your wife versus your friends, it shouldn't even be close.
But if it comes between your wife and even your church family or people like that, it shouldn't even be close.
But here's the thing, when it comes to the Lord Jesus Christ and your wife, or the Lord Jesus Christ and your husband,
that shouldn't even be close either.
It should be so far and above that our loyalty is to Jesus Christ above all else that He is the one that we're looking to.
It doesn't matter what anyone else is doing in life, we are going to follow Jesus Christ.
That's what a real disciple is, someone that truly loves Jesus more than anyone else.
Now, go to, if you would, Acts chapter number five, Acts chapter number five.
But basically, you know, this is the mentality that you should have when it comes to your relationships and your friends and your family
Is that if someone crosses Jesus, they're crossing you
You know, if you have a friend or family member who is crossing your boundaries your love for God
They're blaspheming Christ, you know, they're teaching your kids that you're in a cult. You know, that happens all the time
all the time. The grandparents or the in-laws will want to take your children
aside and tell you, hey, your mom and dad is in a cold. What you guys believe is
wrong. Hey, why are you always wearing dresses, little Susie, things like that?
Look, that's something that you need to deal with because you are not allowed to
love father or mother more than the Lord Jesus Christ. And if someone crosses
Jesus, this is your attitude, someone's crossed me.
It's like, hey, if Saul is crossing the commandments of God and he's wanting to commit murder here. Yeah, he's my dad
Yeah, he's my governmental authority, but you know what?
He's now crossed me to and I'm gonna try to stop him from doing this and he says hey
Why are you gonna sin against your servant David?
Look at Acts chapter 5 verse 25, you know the same holds true with government in verse 25
The Bible says then came one out and told them saying behold the men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and
teaching the people
Then went the captain with the officers, and brought them without violence, for they feared the people, lest they should have been stoned.
And when they had brought them, they set them before the council, and the high priest asked them, saying,
Did not we straightly command you, that ye should not teach in this name?
And behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine and intend to bring this man's blood upon us.
Here we have the governmental authorities telling the disciples, telling the apostles,
hey, we straightly commanded you.
You are not allowed to preach in the name of Jesus anymore.
You are not allowed to go around saying the things that you're saying.
But if this actually happens, and it's happening in this world right now, it's happening in places like Germany.
where they have hate speech laws where certain parts of the Bible are not allowed to be preached.
It's happening in Canada. There's a movement of people that want this to happen in the United States.
Okay, if that happens, what is the response? Look at verse 29.
Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said,
See God wants us to have loyalty to people God even probably wants us to have loyalty to our government to some degree if they're
Telling us to do things that aren't sinful, but if they're just straightly commanding us not to preach the Bible
Well at that point our loyalty has to be to principles above people and we have to say no
We're gonna obey God rather than men
I had some Karen call me last week because some guy over here was out preaching the gospel and doing a good job at it
And some random lady got mad that he was out soliciting.
And in her voicemail, she said, I straightly told these people.
I directly told these people to leave.
And they kept knocking.
And I'm just like, OK, so you're not an apartment manager.
You're not a cop.
You're just some angry feminist just
straightly telling us to leave.
OK, here's the answer.
No.
No, we're not going to.
Because we are going to be more loyal to principles than whoever the heck you are.
We don't even know who you are. We don't care who you are.
All I know is that Jesus sent us to preach the gospel to every creature,
and that's what we're here to do.
If it offends you, so what? It doesn't matter.
And, you know, we're not even facing any persecution or consequence as a result of that, but I'm
just saying we need to just have this mentality now where it's like, oh, someone tells us
to leave and we just immediately run.
There's not even a police order.
There's nothing.
Just some rando ask us to leave or no, we're not going to do that.
We're going to stay.
We're going to keep preaching because someone with higher authority has already told us
what we need to do.
Go back to 1 Samuel chapter 19.
And this person was like, yeah, there's no soliciting signs all over our apartment complex.
So we're going to call the police.
And I was like, well, that's great because one of our church members reached out to the
city and asked for a solicitation permit for what we're doing.
And they were told that we don't need one because we're not soliciting.
And they're like, oh, you buy definition R. And I said, OK, we'll just contact the city
then.
And they're like, no, I don't need to contact the city.
I'm going to contact the police department.
I was like.
That is the city, but okay. Just contact the police. Let us know how that goes. We'll be back
We'll continue knocking this place and every apartment that we can in this entire city. That's our goal
Look at verse number five first Samuel chapter 19 says for he did
Put his life and before I get into this remember he's saying hey, don't sin against your servant David
Why for he did put his life in his hand and slew the flisting
and the Lord wrought a great salvation for all Israel, thou sawest it in distrajoice,
wherefore then wilt thou sin against innocent blood to slay David without a cause."
And this is something that carnal people do because remember,
Saul kind of represents someone that's saved but very backslidden, very worldly,
very carnal, very envious, very self-centered.
And Jonathan is trying to remind him,
wait, why are you trying to kill this guy
that has done so much good for our nation?
Why are you trying to attack this person
who killed Goliath,
who's done all these great works for God?
But what you have to realize is that carnal people,
they often focus on the person, not the works.
They focus on the person, not the mission.
Because he's envious of David,
because he's mad that David's got some attention,
the ladies are singing that he's killed his 10,000s,
Saul has been so blinded by his pride
that he no longer sees or cares about all the good
that David's doing.
He's just obsessed with attacking David
because Saul is obsessed with that person.
Saul isn't thinking about the work of God,
the mission of the nation of Israel.
And sometimes you see people like this
when they become obsessed with hating a particular person.
It just becomes their life, where their life is about looking at this pastor and attacking this pastor's ministry,
and their whole ministry is dedicated to making videos exposing this pastor.
It's like, they don't care about all the mission strips that's been done.
They don't care about all the great sermons that have been preached.
They don't care about the millions of souls that have been saved or all the great things that have happened,
the lives that have been changed because they're just obsessed with wanting to kill David.
That's all that they can think about.
Because for them, it was never about the mission.
It was never about the works.
It was always about the person.
And when that person is in their good graces, everything's fine.
But when that person no longer is liked by them,
now they are the sole focus of their lives.
Saul spends the rest of his life attacking David
and he forgets about all the great things that David did
because he's obsessed with him as a person.
And Jonathan's trying to remind him of that,
saying, look, why are you gonna sin against this guy
when this guy's done nothing but good to you?
This guy's never harmed you in any way. This guy's only helped your kingdom. This guy's only been your friend.
He's only been your brother. He's only been assisting you in the ministry, assisting you in your kingdom.
Why would you attack this guy?
And, you know, these are the questions that I think in my mind towards the Saul's of
our day.
When we see Saul's of our day that just spend their life attacking David's and it's just
like, but why?
What has he done to you?
Hasn't he only ever blessed your church?
Hasn't he only ever given you members?
Hasn't he only ever blessed you with good doctrines and good sermons?
Why are you dedicated to attacking him?
It makes no sense whatsoever.
Go to verse six, number two this evening.
and Saul hearkened unto the voice of Jonathan, and Saul swear, as the Lord liveth, he shall not be slain.
Now, turn to Matthew chapter number five. So what do we see here?
Jonathan says, hey, don't sin against this guy.
Don't you remember all the good that he's done?
And for a split second, Saul listens to Jonathan, his son.
He hearkens unto him, but what he does is he swears,
meaning he makes an oath.
He says, as the Lord liveth, he's saying,
as sure as it is that God exists,
he says, he shall not be slain.
This is something that is a red flag.
It is a red flag.
when people make these over the top oaths or swears or insane promises to try to convince
a person that they're sincere. Like, you shouldn't have to feel like you have to swear to God that
you're not going to murder someone. You should be like, I'm not going to murder anyone. Like, no,
I'm not going to do that. But you have to be like, I swear to God, I am never going to kill this person.
Not a hair of his head shall perish. He will not be slain. I mean that's just like why do you have to swear like that?
Why do you have to go over the top like that?
Well, Jesus tells us that it's actually coming from an evil motive when someone does this. Matthew chapter 5 look at verse 33.
Again, you have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not first
swear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths.
And you know, that is something in the Old Testament that's taught that if you make an
oath to God, you should keep it.
Verse 34, But I say unto you, swear not at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne.
Nor by the earth, for it is his footstool, neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king."
He's saying, like, regardless of what you're swearing on at the end of the day,
it's coming back to swearing to God is what you're doing. Verse 36,
Neither shall thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black.
You know, it's silly to swear something anyways because you really can't control the future.
You can't say like, I swear to God I'll be at work tomorrow because you could die on
the way home this evening in a car crash.
And so it's just a stupid thing to say to swear like that.
verse 37, but let your communication be yea, yea, nay, nay, for whatsoever is more than
these cometh of evil.
What's he saying?
Hey, if you're going to do something, if you're going to tell someone that you're going to
do something, you don't need to sit here and swear by the temple or the altar or by heaven
or by God or by your own head because you can't really change these things.
You're not in control of this situation.
and let it be at that.
You know, someone asks you,
hey, did you say this?
You don't need to swear to God
to prove your innocence or something like that.
In fact, Jesus said anything more than this
actually comes from evil.
It comes from some harmful intention
to try to lie to someone,
to try to convince someone of something.
And when someone is asked a question
and they have to swear to God
or swear by something to convince you,
that is a good indicator that they are lying to you.
That is a good indicator that they're trying to sell you or sell themselves on something that isn't true
You know, this is something in law enforcement where if people go to the detectives and there's like, oh, I swear this
I swear that I swear that it's like you're basically telling on yourself and you're sending out red flags the detectives like okay
This is weird that this person is swearing like that because Jesus said anything more than that comes of evil go to Matthew 23 Matthew chapter 23
Why? Well, because, again, no normal person would feel the need to swear to God that they're not going to murder someone.
That's just insane. That's way over the top.
Matthew 23, verse 16, Jesus said,
but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor."
So notice, the Jews, they had like these little rules for when it's okay to swear.
And you could, it's okay if you swear by the temple, that's nothing.
And you know, I've seen in places like the Talmud where they have certain rules of who it's okay to lie to,
and who it's okay not to lie to.
You know, what type of person it's okay to violate in a certain way?
What type of person it's not okay?
And these Pharisees are kind of doing the same thing here where it's like,
well, if you swear by the temple, that's not really binding.
That's nothing.
But whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor.
So, like, that's a real promise, according to the Jews.
Verse 17, notice Jesus' response to this.
He says,
He fools and blind.
For whether is greater the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold.
It's not the gold that makes the temple special.
It's the temple that makes the special gold,
or the gold special, excuse me.
And it's kind of like, what's more important,
having like a really beautiful building
or having a righteous, godly church.
You know what I mean?
Like having a congregation that actually believes
the right things, a church that teaches the right doctrine,
a church that goes out soul-winning,
that's what makes anything else special
in a house of God or something like that.
Look at verse number 20, it says,
who so therefore shall swear by the altar,
sweareth by it, and by all things thereon?
And who so shall swear by the temple,
sweareth by it, and him that dwelleth therein?
So look, eventually it's just getting back
to swearing to God again, right?
And he that shall swear by heaven,
sweareth by the throne of God,
and by him that sitteth thereon.
So look, this is just a basic lesson that every Christian needs to learn, that it is
not right to sit here and swear to the Lord.
It's not right to sit here and swear by anything.
And this is why passages like this, this is why the founding of our nation set it up to
where even if you go to court today, they'll ask you to basically swear in by oath or affirmation.
People ask you like, do you so swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the
truth, whatever.
You don't have to say, yeah, I swear to God, I'm going to do that.
No, you could just affirm, you could let your Yabea, your Nabenei, you know,
that's how we should be as Christians, not going around swearing to the Lord.
Go to first Samuel chapter number 19, first Samuel chapter 19.
First number seven, verse number seven, it says, and Jonathan called David.
and Jonathan showed him all those things and Jonathan brought David to Saul and
He was in his presence as in times past. So Saul was going to try to kill David
Jonathan temporarily at least on the surface. It seems like he's talked him out of it
Saul makes this over-the-top oath that he's never gonna be slain
so because of that Jonathan brings David back and now
He's back serving Saul again.
He's playing in music again.
He's in his presence once again.
Number three, notice Saul's instability.
Verse number eight, the Bible says,
and there was war again.
And David went out and fought with the Philistines and slew them with a great slaughter and they fled from him.
So notice David is just remaining steadfast.
He was a great awesome warrior before Saul went all weird on him.
And now that he's back in his house, he's still just doing the work of God,
plugging away, being the same person he's always been.
And notice God is blessing him.
He's going out, he's fighting, he's destroying the enemies.
They're fleeing from him.
And the evil spirit from the Lord was upon Saul, as he sat in his house with his javelin in his hand and David played with his hand.
So remember, Saul...
I believe is under the direct punishment of God and that the punishment that Saul is experiencing is losing his mind.
You know, he's being troubled by the evil spirit from the Lord and one second everything's fine, the next second he's trying to kill David.
And so this evil spirit again comes upon Saul and notice when the evil spirit comes upon him, once again it was when David was doing something good.
There's nothing that made Saul mad because David was doing something wrong or sinful.
It was, there goes David again, doing something awesome.
There goes David again, going and destroying the Lord's enemies, doing something good.
But again, what is Saul's problem?
Envy.
And so when anyone else is doing something other than him, it eats him up.
The evil spirit of the Lord comes upon him again.
He's unstable as a person.
And notice what he's doing, he's sitting in his house with his javelin in his hand.
This is a bad idea.
If you have a track record of being mentally insane and trying to kill people for no reason
in your house, it might be a good idea to not sit around in your house with the javelin
in your hand.
You know, someone should have told him, be like,
hey, remember those couple of times
where you just tried to murder your son-in-law
for no reason whatsoever?
Yeah, can you like put that in the armory or something?
Can that go locked in a closet?
But no, Saul's just sitting with his javelin in his hand,
in his house, and he's losing his mind.
The evil spirit comes upon him.
You know, this is kind of a picture
of how we should separate things, sorry,
separate ourselves from things that cause us to sin.
Go to Matthew chapter number 18.
Matthew chapter number 18.
Let's look at this principle quickly in Matthew.
Matthew 18 verse 8.
And cast them from thee, it is better for thee to enter into life, halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire.
And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee, it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye.
Than rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire
Now I think there's part of this passage that is as literal as literal can be and that is that it is better
To literally lose your eyes and your arms and your feet and your legs
It's better to lose your body than to go to hell
That is one thing about this passage that is as literal as can be there's nothing worse than hell
And you should, you know, be able to depart from anything
that might cause you to go there, which of course, to be saved from hell, you have to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
But you know, sometimes people will hang on to false religion because my family goes to the Catholic Church.
Well, it's been a tradition, right? But hey, cut that off.
Cut off your hand if you have to, your foot, take your eyes out.
Anything is better than going to hell.
But also, though, I think there's more of a figurative message here, that we should be willing to separate from whatever it is in life that causes us to offend, that causes us to sin.
And, you know, there's some things that are just besetting sins.
There's some things that some people struggle with that other people don't.
You know, someone who's never tasted a drop of alcohol in their entire life is not really going to be struggling with the desire to get drunk.
They're not going to really be thinking and fantasizing about alcohol, but someone who
spent their teenage years, their 20s drinking alcohol, they will experience that craving
likely for the rest of their life.
And so, you know, the wise thing for that person would to be in their home to not be
sitting at their dinner table with a fifth of whiskey on the table, just ready for them
when they screw up, when they're having a bad day.
The right thing to do is just have that thing far away from you, in fact, don't even have
it in your house at all.
And here's the thing, Saul, he should have been sitting there with his javelin when he has a track record of doing stupid things with it.
And, you know, maybe some people need to apply this physically.
Maybe you shouldn't be playing around too much with guns in your house if you're blowing
out stuff in your home, okay?
But look, same thing with all sorts of different things that could cause us to sin.
You know, maybe if this causes you to sin, maybe you need to go put this in a different
room or something.
Maybe you need to lock this up or something when you get home from work if this is causing
you to sin.
Don't have any paraphernalia or any of the stupid rap music that glorifies the drugs or anything like that.
Whatever it is that's causing you to trigger you to sin, you need to just get that stuff away from you.
Again.
What do we talk about this morning?
You can't rely on your motivation, right?
And you can't just be like,
well, I'm just gonna willpower myself through not sinning.
No, you just need to have the discipline
to just say, I'm gonna make it as hard on myself
as possible to ever sin, if not impossible, if I can.
We need to make not provision for the flesh to make,
man, I'm gonna misquote that.
Go to Romans chapter 13.
I believe it's in Romans chapter 13.
It's always fun when your brain won't work.
Romans chapter number 13.
Let's see if I can find it here.
Yeah, look at verse number 13.
It says, let us walk honestly, as in the day,
not in rioting and drunkenness,
not in chambering and wantonness,
not in strife and envying.
So obviously a list of sins there.
Verse 14 says, but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ
and make not provision for the flesh
to fulfill the lusts thereof.
You don't even wanna provide for
your flesh to be able to fulfill the lust of the flesh.
You know, listing things there like,
what do we talk about?
Drunkenness being one of those.
Chambering and wantoness, you know,
that's related to fornication.
It's a good idea to have safeguards in your life
to where you can't even provide for that lust.
How about by not being alone
with someone of the opposite gender?
You know, that's a really good strategy to have.
It's a bad idea when you're dating and you're like,
Hey, let's go hang out at my apartment in our room and watch some movies.
Like that's a bad plan to keeping yourself pure.
Really, you should not make provision for the flesh.
Go back to, if you would, first Samuel, chapter number 19, first Samuel 19.
Let's look at verse number 10.
Verse number 10, it says, and Saul.
sought to smite David even to the wall with the javelin,
but he slipped away out of Saul's presence
and he smote the javelin into the wall
and David fled and escaped that night.
And remember, this is right after Saul had what?
Sweared on God basically that he was not going to die,
that he was not going to do anything to David.
And just a few verses later, what do we see?
We see Saul trying to kill David once again.
And this goes back to what I was saying.
Earlier in this book is that there's no helping Saul.
There's no talking to him.
There's no reasoning with him and him all of a sudden realizing, oh yeah, I'm wrong.
I'm doing something wrong.
The only thing you could do with a Saul is get away from Saul.
Stay away from Saul only God can help Saul even if he's saying everything verbally to you. Hey, I've repented
Yeah, no worries. I swear to God. I'm not gonna kill David
He's still losing his mind as a punishment from God and you just have to stay away from Saul
Number four this evening, notice my cow's loyalty verse 11 says Saul also sent
messengers unto David's house to watch him and to slay him in the morning.
So notice it's not just a heat of the moment rage that he has.
He's actually just sending messengers to hunt him down and kill him.
And Michael, David's wife, told him saying,
if thou save not thy life tonight,
tomorrow thou shalt be slain.
So two people in the story has warned David,
hey, this guy's trying to kill you,
you need to escape.
Verse 12.
So Michael let David down through a window and he went and fled and escaped and Michael took an image and
Layed it in the bed and put a pillow of goat's hair for his bolster and covered it with a cloth now
Let's take a little pause here. What is she's doing? She's taking an idol
putting it in the bed and making some sort of shape of a human being to try to
convince these people that he's just laying down in bed. Now let's just
acknowledge the elephant in the room that it's super weird that Michael has
idols in her home. I mean this is the wife of King David and you know sometimes
I've seen
in people's lives. I've seen marriages where it just seems like the husband has no clue what his wife is doing,
saying the things that she's into in life, the things that she's doing.
And, you know, this is kind of a reminder for us men that you are the king of the castle in your home.
You're the one that is spiritually responsible for your wife.
You're to wash her by the washing of the water of the word to present her spotless to the Lord and you know you should know if your wife has literal idols in your home.
I mean, David kind of dropped the ball here and this is a good reason why polygamy is
a bad idea.
Okay.
Cause when you got all these women, you know, it's kind of hard to keep track of what they're
all doing.
But look, we have one wife in this world, thank God, not multiple.
You should be keeping track of what she's doing.
You should know if there's major sin issues in your wife's life.
Look, obviously we're not going to know every single thing about each other, but you should
know.
when there's literally 1 Corinthians 5 violations going on here,
something that would get you kicked out of church idolatry.
I mean, how is David just unaware that his wife has literal idols in his home?
I mean, that's shameful, honestly, on David's part.
And every once in a while, I just wish husbands would just actually care enough about their family
to look at their wife and be like, okay, what are you watching?
What are you reading?
What are you doing?
and actually care enough to be like, okay, no, we're getting rid of the idols from our home,
literally. I mean, maybe some of you guys around Christmas time need to look at some
of your decorations to be like, oh, this is from when you were Catholic 15 years ago.
Yeah, we're throwing this away and not just be like, oh, I just didn't know that for decades,
there was literal idols in my home. Look, that's a failure on the husband right there.
And while she used this situation to be loyal to David and that's all good,
it still is very weird that she had idols in her home and that's something that David should have taken care of.
Verse 14,
And when Saul sent messengers to take David, she said he is sick.
And Saul sent the messengers again to see David saying bring him up to me in the bed that I may slay him.
He doesn't even care, you know, even if he thinks he's sick, he's just ready to kill David no matter what.
Verse 16, And when the messengers were come in, behold, there was an image in the bed
with a pillow of goats, with a pillow of goats hair for his bolster.
And Saul said unto Michael, Why hast thou deceived me so, and sent away mine enemy,
that he is escaped?
And Michael answered Saul, He said unto me, Let me go, why should I kill thee?
Now there's a couple different aspects of this story.
There's some things that she clearly did that were wrong.
Having an idol was wrong.
lying was wrong.
You know, I've heard people say
that there are sometimes that it's acceptable to lie.
Nowhere, absolutely nowhere in the King James Bible
does the Bible ever say that it is okay to lie.
Okay, now I'm not gonna stand up here and say,
well, I've never lied, I'm perfect.
We all have lied, people do lie,
but I'm not gonna get up here as a preacher of God's word
and ever say that it's okay to lie.
I'm just not going to have that on my conscience.
I've heard people say that, and that is absolute trash doctor
right there.
It's never OK to lie under any circumstances.
But even though we could look at those two things
and say, OK, wrong to have idols, that was a sin.
Wrong to lie, that was a sin.
Here's the thing, though, that I like about this story
is I do like seeing Michael be loyal to her husband.
Okay, that is something that we need in our culture to realize that husbands and wives
should be more loyal to each other than any other human relationship in this world.
And guess what?
My call is the daughter of who, Saul.
And, you know, today, oftentimes daughters, and praise God for that, they have a close
relationship with their father, they love their father.
But you know what?
The loyalty that ladies have for their dad should be nothing close to the loyalty that
they should have for their husbands.
And I do appreciate...
that at least here, she was willing to stick up for her husband.
She was willing to try to protect him.
And though what she did was wrong in some ways, you know,
I'm not going to sit here and judge her super harshly for doing it
because I at least appreciate that she was defending her husband.
Go to Genesis chapter number two, Genesis chapter number two.
And you know, this is something that I've noticed kind of in my generation.
That's very strange and it's a non-biblical concept that my generation kind of has a problem
recognizing that when you get married that you are a separate new family unit.
Look at this in the Bible, Genesis 2, 23, and Adam said, this is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh.
She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man.
Therefore, shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife,
and they shall be one flesh."
See God teaches the leave and cleave doctrine.
When you get married men, you leave mother and father, you cleave unto your wife, and
vice versa for ladies too.
And while this doesn't necessarily mean a specific physical distance or anything like
your your love, your loyalty, your energy, your time should be more invested into your spouse
than your parents. And you know, this is just something that is just a reality of life.
Parents, they want to hang on to their kids for as long as possible. And I get it. I love my
daughters dearly. But you got to realize that when your children get married, they're signing up to
love someone more than they love you.
Children, whoever you marry, you should love your spouse more than you love your mom and
dad.
You should be more loyal to your spouse than you should be to your mom and dad.
And sometimes we have in our culture parents and in-laws that want to meddle in their children's
marriage, that want to separate husband and wife or take sides or try to pit them against
each other.
You know, a husband and wife should be an ironclad unit that is together, that is faithful
and not even their parents should get in the way of that.
You know, I appreciate when I got married,
my father-in-law, Pastor Thompson actually believes
the Bible and understands this.
And I remember him saying,
hey, if Jasmine never tries to come back,
I'm just gonna return her right back to you.
He's like, I'm never gonna harbor terrorists.
I'm never gonna harbor fugitives.
Like if she tries to come crying to us,
I'll just give her right back.
And that's how every dad should be.
You shouldn't be trying to like harbor
some man's wife from him.
I mean, that's a dangerous situation.
I don't even care if your dad start harboring some man's wife like that.
That's a stupid thing to do.
And guess what?
Grandpa, father-in-law, you are not the authority of that home.
The husband is the authority.
Period.
Go to Song of Solomon chapter number five, Song of Solomon.
She was your girl from birth until whenever she got married and you know what during that time
fathers should be good stewards of those ladies protect those ladies love those ladies
But when those ladies walk the aisle she is not your responsibility anymore
She has you have no authority over that girl anymore. It is the husband that is in charge of her
That's why in marriage. It's who gives away this bride and it's usually the dad says her mother and I do
And the lady literally walks away from the dad and goes into the arms of her husband because it's leave and cleave
Look at song of Solomon chapter 5 verse 10
Notice how the wife here viewed her husband verse 10 says my beloved is white and ruddy
Notice this the chiefest among
10,000 you know, I like that attitude that she had of her husband that
My husband is the best.
My husband is one out of 10,000.
He's the number one guy.
And here, Michael, she esteemed her husband
highly enough to where she's like,
I'm gonna protect David.
I'm gonna be loyal to David.
And ladies, that is how you should treat your husband
that he is one in 10,000 and not be looking for
or longing after other men or other relationships.
It should be that your husband is the chiefest of 10,000.
Go to 1 Samuel chapter 19 1 Samuel chapter 19
So again, we're seeing a lot of just themes of loyalty in this chapter and we're gonna see that again in verse 18
Number five Samuels loyalty look at verse 18
It says so David fled and escaped and came to Samuel to Ramah and told him all that Saul had done to him and
He and Samuel went and dwelt in Nayoth. So this is interesting because
Samuel is someone who previously had been very loyal to King Saul.
He loved King Saul. He anointed him to be the king of Israel.
But again, Samuel's a golly man, so what?
He's more loyal to principles than he is to people.
See, he was loyal to the Lord's anointed when that was King Saul.
But now the David is the Lord's anointed.
Now he's loyal to David because it's not about the person,
it's about who is the Lord's anointed.
And that's who Samuel is going to stand with.
And kind of get into an interesting story here.
It says, and it was told Saul saying,
behold, David is at Nioth to Ramah.
So I don't know if there's some sort of Judas or spy
giving away intelligence there,
but he finds out about it and Saul sent messengers
to take David.
And when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying, Samuel standing as appointed over them,
the Spirit of God was upon the messengers of Saul, and they also prophesied.
Now this is a very interesting story, how Saul literally sends a band of soldiers to go arrest David, to go take him.
But as they go, they see the company of the prophets preaching, they see Samuel presiding over them and all of a sudden the Spirit of God comes upon them and they join in and they start preaching.
Now, I don't think this is some weird Pentecostal thing because the Bible says, I'll quote for you in 1 Corinthians 14-32, it says, the spirits of the prophets are subject unto the prophets.
of something called mechanical dictation where people believe that the word of God was given by
some sort of mechanical inspiration where God was literally moving the mouth of prophets and
he was moving their tongue kind of to force them to say words against their will.
I don't believe that's biblical.
You do kind of see exceptions to that.
For example, like Balaam's ass speaking,
yeah, God is actually moving that donkey's mouth
because animals can't talk.
I don't know if you didn't know that.
But the rest of the Bible is what's given
what I know as dynamic inspiration.
Meaning that these men have their own personalities,
their own thoughts.
but they were still being moved by the Holy Ghost
to speak God's word.
And look, these people lived lives
where not everything that was coming out of their mouth
was the word of God, right?
So there's plenty of things that Jeremiah said
that are not in the Bible.
There's plenty of things that Paul said
that are not in the Bible.
Plenty of things that Samuel said,
likewise not in the Bible.
But when they were saying things that were God's word,
that all got recorded.
That all got put down here.
So what I don't want you to look at this story
is think like, oh man, these guys got like possessed
by the Holy Spirit.
and they just started saying things against their will.
What happened here is that they were moved by the preaching
and that they joined in on the spiritual event happening here.
And that's going to lead us to number six this evening,
the power of preaching.
The power of preaching I think that's really what this story is getting at is it's showing the power of
The preaching of the word of God on a person's life where here these guys are they're being sent to arrest David
But when they get around spiritual people preaching the word of God something changes inside of them
And they're no longer thinking about what they were there to do.
They're thinking about the power of whatever was being preached by these prophets,
and it moved them and it filled them with the Holy Ghost,
and they themselves wanted a part of that.
They themselves started preaching the Word of God.
Look at verse 21, it says,
And when it was told Saul, he sent other messengers, and they prophesied likewise.
So he sends a new group, same thing happens.
They show up, they see the prophets prophesying, they see Samuel biding over them,
they get filled with the Spirit of God, they start joining in, they start preaching.
It's like a men's preaching night going on or something.
They're just getting excited, they hear the Word of God being preached, they're like,
man, I want in on that, I'm going to preach the Word of God too.
Verse 22.
came to a great well that is in Siku and he asked and said where are Samuel and David and one said behold they be at
Neoth in Ramah and he went thither to Neoth and Ramah and the spirit of God was upon him also.
and he went on and prophesied until he came to Neoth in Ramah.
So notice, even Saul himself, who I believe again is a saved person,
when he was around the preaching of God's word,
when all these other messengers and saved people were around the preaching of God's word,
it changed them, it made a change inside of their heart,
they got filled with the Spirit and they wanted to preach as well.
And here's what I think is cool.
Samuel, he didn't do anything extravagant or new to help David with his problem of Saul,
you know, wanting to kill him.
Samuel just kept doing the same thing that he's always done, being a man of God, and
by him just being a godly person, that actually orchestrated this situation to temporarily
help David.
And, you know, that oftentimes is the right way to approach problems in your life is to
You have problems in your life, you don't need to reinvent the wheel.
The answer is always the same, draw a night of God and He will draw a night of you.
The answer is always the same, keep reading your Bible, keep praying,
keep going to church, keep preaching the Word of God, keep loving people,
keep believing the right doctrines. That is always the right answer to
any problem in life. Go to 2 Timothy chapter 4, 2 Timothy chapter number 4.
This is the charge for us here in the New Testament.
In 2 Timothy chapter number 4, verse 2, the Bible says preach the word.
Be instant. In season, out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine.
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine,
but after their own lusts shall they heep to themselves, teachers having itching ears,
and they shall turn away their tears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables.
But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist,
make full proof of thy ministry."
See, the Bible tells us here to just preach the word in season.
and out of season. Whether it's popular, whether it's not, whether you think it's
the right time for someone to hear something or not the right time, whether it brings persecution,
whether people like it, whether they don't, the Bible says just preach the word.
And here, what did Samuel do? He just kept doing what was right, regardless of what was going on
around him. You know, that's the attitude that we should have as Christians of being steadfast of,
hey, we keep going soul winning, we keep going to church, we keep reading the Bible.
We keep doing what's right.
Go back to First Samuel chapter number 19.
First Samuel chapter number 19.
And so, I think it's cool to see here a story of seeing the word of God having a profound impact on someone's life.
Because we don't even know what these guys were preaching.
It just says that they prophesied.
I don't know what the sermon was, but whatever it was, it was needful for these people and it moved these people.
And it kind of also highlights the importance of why it's necessary to go to church.
Because what's funny is, when saved people get around a bunch of other saved people who are actually spiritual,
you know what ends up happening?
Is that rubs off on them and they too become spiritual.
often you're just a product of who you hang out with. If you're saved and
you're just hanging out with King Saul all day, you're not going to be very
spiritual. You're not going to be filled with the spirit, you're not going to be
prophesying, but when you go to Samuel and you're around God's people and
they're spiritual, they're prophesying the Word of God, you know what? That's
going to make you a spiritual person as well. And we as Christians, we need each
other to get through life. You know, me, I'm a pastor, I've been in church for over
I've read my Bible faithfully over a decade,
but if I did not have church,
I probably would slow down big time
on my Bible reading, on my soul winning.
I may even quit doing those things quite honestly
because in life we need each other.
To keep each other going because just because I'm the pastor doesn't mean that it doesn't inspire me and get me fired up
When I see other people love God when I see other men get up and preach sermons that fires me up
You know what?
I get excited when I hear truths out of the Bible preach just like you guys do and just because I'm a pastor doesn't mean like
Oh, I'm just a one-man show and I could just get through life on my own
No, I need to be around other spiritual people, which is why I go to church
And which is why you should go to church too,
because you cannot make it in your life by yourself.
You will not continue to be spiritual
for a long time by yourself.
Look at verse number 24, it says,
And he stripped off his clothes also and prophesied before Samuel in like manner
and laid down naked all that day and all that night.
Wherefore they say, is Saul also among the prophets?
Now, this is kind of a weird story.
But I have a connection here and go to 2 Chronicles chapter 34, 2 Chronicles 34.
Why is he doing this?
And again, some people, they read this story and they say,
This is all mechanical dictation.
This is what's happening is they're kind of getting possessed by the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit's causing them to prophesy.
You know, here's Saul's getting possessed.
He's taking his clothes off.
That's not what I think is happening.
Though he does take his clothes off, that's not why I think that happened.
Look at 2 Chronicles 34 verse 27.
Notice what it says.
It says,
When thou hurtest his words against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, and humblest
thyself before me, notice, and ditched rend thy clothes, and weep before me, I have even heard the
also sayeth the Lord. Why did Saul all of a sudden just strip off all of his clothes and lay there
naked all day and all night? Not because he was being possessed, but I think that he had a temporary
did humble him. He did realize how wicked he is and he was kind of just lamenting and humbling
himself and doing what this verse said he was rending his clothes. Now sounds like he took
that to a pretty large extreme just laying there like that all the time. Don't do this if you're
ever convicted by the preaching please the ushers will remove you from the building but this is
just what happened and it goes to show the power of the preaching of God's work where even someone
Envious, wicked, quite frankly, but who is saved?
That person still has the Holy Ghost inside of them.
And anybody that has the Spirit of God inside of them, no matter how far you are from God.
There's only one thing that could fix you. What did I say? It's God that can fix you. It's God's word that can fix you
It's preaching from God's word that can fix you. It's not Jonathan trying to reason with you
It's not
Samuel trying to reason with you the only thing that could help a really backslidden Christian or someone that's wicked and saved is the word of God
And while it didn't last long for him because in order to continue growing as a Christian,
you actually have to walk in the Spirit and keep going and keep growing.
But, you know, at least in this temporary moment, he was humbled.
It did have an effect on him.
He rent his clothes.
It was likely weeping and feeling sorry for his sin.
Go back to 1 Samuel chapter 19, 1 Samuel 19.
We're going to look at two more places.
Hebrews 10, 1 Samuel 19.
First Samuel chapter 19 verse 20. Let's read this again. It says in Saul sent messengers to take David
notice this and when they saw
The company of the prophets prophesying
Samuel standing as appointed over them the spirit of God was upon the messengers of Saul and they also
prophesied if you want to be spiritual
You have to be around other people that are spiritual.
We're gonna end it with Hebrews chapter number 10, Hebrews 10.
Notice it was when they saw other people doing right,
they wanted to do right.
And it's the same thing for us.
When we see our brothers in Christ going out
and preaching the gospel on a Sunday afternoon,
preaching the gospel on a Saturday morning,
you know what it makes us wanna do?
Makes us wanna do that right there with them.
And likewise, you know, when you're a teenager, you're going to school, there's the peer
pressure.
When you see your friends doing stupid things, isn't there that peer pressure to do stupid
things with them?
This is why it's important to surround yourself with God's people and, you know, we're coming
up on the New Year and everyone's thinking about their goals and their New Year's resolutions.
Why don't you just purpose in your heart and say in 2025, I will be a three to thrive Christian.
Every time the doors are open why because when I see other people being spiritual it causes me to want to be
Spiritual and we need more of that in our lives. Look at Hebrews 10 verse 24 and let us consider one another
to provoke unto love and to good works.
Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together
as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another
and so much the more as he see the day approaching.
Notice we are to be provoking one another,
trying to get one another to do something
and what is that?
To love and to good works.
And I like how in verse 24 it says,
let us consider one another.
Because often times people say,
oh, I don't go to church because I don't need church.
I could read the Bible on my own.
That's true.
You can read the Bible on your own.
And it's true.
The Holy Spirit can't teach you everything
that you need to know from the Word of God.
But you know what you should do?
Is you should consider one another.
And instead of telling me,
oh yeah, I don't go to church because I don't need it.
I could read the Bible.
I'm fine on my own.
Okay, what about your brothers in Christ though?
Because what you're doing by going to church is you're setting an example for your brothers in Christ saying hey look
I'm doing the work of God. Let's do it together
Join join the bag bandwagon. Yeah, we're all soul winners here. You should become one, too
Yeah, we all believe the King James Bible here. You should get rid of your NIV too. You should get a King James Bible
Yeah, we hate faggots here. You should scream amen when Pastor Oz is screaming about it, too
Right, we should provoke one another to love and to good works and it says
so much the more as you see the day approaching, you know 2025 is closer to the Lord coming
than 2024. And so because of that, so much the more it's even more important next year to be in
church than it was last year.
And it was this year. It's always more important to go to church.
I'll read for you this last verse, Philippians 1.27 says,
Only let your conversation be as it become at the gospel of Christ.
That whether I come and see you or else be absent,
I may hear of your affairs that you stand fast in one spirit
with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.
And here we see this story in 1 Samuel where all these men just started joining the bandwagon
and preaching the word of God and getting on fire for God.
And why is it?
It was because there was a group of men, there was a group of Christians that were on fire
for the Lord, striving together for that which is right.
You know, if we want to reach people, if we want people to change their lives, us in this
room, we need to strive together and be an example to other Christians who may come to
this church.
Let's pray.
Thank you for the Word of God and for Anchor Baptist Church.
I just pray that next year we would be even more dedicated to the things of God
that we would realize that every single person in here is an example to someone.
Just help us to be zealous Christians that are on fire for you so that other people can do likewise.
We love you and you send me pray. Amen.
All right, if you'll grab a hymnal.
Our last hymn this evening, number 426.
I heard the bells on Christmas day.
Hymn number 426, 426, I heard the bells on Christmas day.
We'll sing their starting on the first