["Pomp and Circumstance"]
picking up the bibles and reading them and meditating on your word and praying and
and talking to you throughout our day lord lord i just pray for the souls that were saved
over this past week in this past month as well and obviously for the year but um
lord i just also want to pray for protection of our church and our and the families that
are in the church and keep us safe as we're going to and from work and and to and from
church lord um well we're just pray that um that you have had a protection and and safety
over us lord and lord i just also want to pray for a church van that uh for a van that can be
able to meet the needs of our church so that we can do missions trips to different locations
and lord just pray that that need gets filled lord i want to pray for the new people that
are coming into our church i pray that um that they're able to ultimately start coming to
church and and get acclimated to the christian life um trying to serve you and learning
what it means to be a christian getting plugged into the christian life lord lord i also want to
pray that you continue to allow families to grow um please continue blessing us in this
aspect and lord i just pray that um that the women that are pregnant that they're that they're
healthy and they're they're feeding their their bodies and with things that are appropriate for
them lord lord i just want to pray for um uh just thank you for the family night series
that we've had over the the the past weeks here lord and uh lord it's been it's been a blessing
and lord i just pray that um that it's a tradition we keep going and and um and as we conclude
this week with the bonfire lord i just also want to pray for charlie chimp and his family
please have a hand of healing and protection over them and console the family and and lord
be with them and and lord have your hand over the doctors that are that are taking care of
him and lord pray that uh pay for a recovery and we think about his family and just lord be
with them and be be in their hearts lord we also want to pray um for the pastors that are
labor in america uh we live in a great country where obviously there's bad things that happen
here lord but we're able to serve you freely and lord i just um i pray that um that you
continue allowing us to be able to serve you and and uh and reach lost souls for the name
of jesus christ uh lord thank you for just giving us another day and lord we pray that we're
able to be attentive to the message and that we're able to grow thereby from the message
that past me is prepared for us um lord i pray the sample name amen all right please
open up your hymnals to uh song number 15 lead me to calvary song number 15
song number 15 for a third song lead me to calvary song 15 lead me to calvary everyone
nice and strong all together king of my life i crown thee now thine shall the glory be
thee lest i forget thy thorn crown brow lead me to calvary lest i forget
lest i forget thy agony lest i forget thy love for me lead me to calvary
me show me the tomb where thou was slain tenderly mourned and wept
angels and rose of light arrayed guarded thee whilst thou slept lest i forget gasamony
lest i forget thy agony lest i forget thy love for me lead me to calvary
let me like mary through the gloom come with a gift to thee
me show to me now the empty tomb lead me to calvary lest i forget gasamony
lest i forget thy agony lest i forget thy love for me lead me to calvary
may i be willing lord to bear daily my cross for thee
even thy cup of cream to share thou hast borne all for me
me
this time the ushers will collect the offering tonight will be in first samuel chapter number 27
i forgot to mention you can keep playing brother eric uh i didn't forget to mention i didn't even
know about this this is actually by the ushers station and so it has all the details on that
for the newport bonfire location and info even has a picture where we're going to be at and
has all the info at the bottom so before you leave tonight make sure you grab one of
these if you're going to go all right that's it
so
good evening we're in first samuel chapter 27
and the bible reads and david said in his heart i shall not perish one day by the hand of saul
there is nothing better for me than that i should speedily escape into the land of the
philistines and saul shall despair of me to seek me anymore in the coast of israel
so shall i escape out of his hand and david arose and he passed over with 600 men that
were with him onto akish the son of mayok king of gath and david dwelt with akish at gath
he and his men every man with his household even david with his two wives
the hinoim the jesuit and abigail the carmelitis navel's wife and was told saul that
david was fled to gath and he sought no more again for him and david said onto akish if i
have not found grace in thine eyes let them give me a place in some town in the country that
i might dwell there for why should thy servant dwell in the royal city with thee then akish gave
him ziklag that day wherefore ziklag pertaineth unto the kings of judo unto this day
and the time that david dwelt in the country of the philistines was a full year and four months
and david and his men went up and invaded the gessurites and the gesurites and the amelikites
for those nations were of the old inhabitants of the land as our goal is to sure even onto
the land of egypt and david smote the land left neither man nor woman alive and took away
the sheep and oxen and asses and the camels and apparel and returned and came to akish
and akish said whether have he made a road today and david said against the south of judah and
against the south of the jeremy lights and against the south of the kennites and david
saved neither man nor woman alive to bring tidings to gath saying that they should tell
on us saying so did david and so will be his manner all the while he dwelleth in the
country the philistines and akish believed david saying he hath made his people israel
utterly to abhor him therefore he shall be my servant forever let's pray we thank the heavenly
father for this church here god we thank you for every precious soul in it thank you for
uh pastor and we ask that you please bless him with your holy spirit as he preaches your
word tonight in jesus name amen amen okay we continue this evening with the book of
first samuel we're in chapter 27 tonight and tonight we're really going to look at david
going rogue and we're going to look at some behavior that david is exerting here that's
not necessarily comely for a believer let alone of course for a future king and it's kind of
david's low point here where he begins to uh go outside of the scope or he's outside of israel
and he's leaning on his own understanding and he's really doing some pretty bad stuff here
in chapter 27 but before i get into that of course let me just give you a review of what
happened last week in chapter 26 we have david's last encounter with saul saul of course has
been pursuing after david but he sees pursuing after him for a while until uh the zippites really
begin to stir up his wrath against him and kind of remind him and you know they have him kind
of provoking him and instigating uh the king there to continue to pursue after david and he
finds himself in a trench a deep sleep before the lord comes upon him and david has this
opportunity to take his life of course he extends his mercy unto saul he chooses not to kill him
he scolds abner for not protecting the king and then of course he makes the appeal to saul to
basically uh leave him alone and of course saul sees this he recognizes that he sins he's
sinned against david and he essentially says that he's not going to pursue him anymore
he's not going to seek his harm anymore and in a sense they kind of reconcile their differences
there uh and they part ways and although saul he goes back to his home david continues
in that foreign land he's not ready to go back yet of course he knows that saul is fickle and
his behavior he can change he can flip on a dime and and continue to pursue after david so david
is in this situation where he has his 600 plus men with him along with his wives his family
and he's kind of outside of the outskirts of israel in behind enemy territory and he's not
willing to go back to israel yet now in chapter 27 of course excuse me the latter end of
chapter 26 they part ways look at verse number one of chapter 27 it says and david said in his
heart i shall now perish one day by the hand of saul there is nothing better for me than that
i should speedily escape into the land of the philistines and saul shall despair be to seek
me anymore in any coast of israel so shall i escape out of his hand so first and foremost
we're going to look at david's greatest fear and what is his greatest fear that he's going to
fall into the hands of saul his enemy that you know obviously saul in his pursuit of david
eventually is going to catch up to david eventually david's going to die this is what
he's thinking and he isn't publicizing this to his men he's not publicizing it to his wives
he's not saying it to anybody he's saying it in his heart okay and this statement or this
fear that he has in his heart ends up manifesting in a way where it causes david
to move his entire operation to the land of the philistines which is behind enemy lines
because he's afraid that one day he will fall by the hand of saul now the first thing we're
going to look at here is the result of his imagination okay now obviously when you look
at what he's thinking about you know you can see why he's thinking that you know it's been
happening these last couple of years saul's been pursuing them these last couple of years
he's been trying to kill him but here's the thing is that every time saul has sought to kill
david god has always delivered david so no matter how many times saul has attempted to do so no
matter how many times the zip fights ratted him out no matter how many times he was he was
in a precarious situation where saul could have taken his life every single time god came through
and delivered him out of the hand of his enemies and and protected him and preserved him
there hasn't been one instance where god allowed saul to even harm david one bit right we can see
god's providential hand over david this entire time and although yeah there's numerous times
where saul did this there was also numerous times where god came in there's also numerous
times where god showed himself strong on his behalf and it's interesting that you know instead
of saying in his heart hey god's gonna deliver me he's done it so many times he decides to say
in his heart that which he fears the most right and this is an imagination that he has here
that obviously is going to cause him to make a very unbiblical unwise decision which is to go
into the land of the philistines and this is an imagination and you know the point that i
want to make with this particular verse here is how powerful our imaginations can be you know
they can really screw up our lives if we're not careful you know they can cause us to make
unbiblical unwise decisions you know based upon fear and the bible tells us that the fear of man
is a snare unto us though we have to we have to trust in the lord and not lean onto our own
understanding and all our ways acknowledge him and he shall direct our paths you know and the
reason obviously he has his imagination is because of his fear of saul and and his desire to kill
him but you know the bible tells us that there is no fear and love for perfect love cast
without fear the reality is this is that you know the bible continuously talks about
what we think about right what we meditate upon what we think about and god always wants us as
christians and as believers to get a hold of our thoughts why because our thoughts can determine
how we eventually act how we behave and what we do and you know the bible tells us in the new
testament it tells us that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through god
to the pulling down of strongholds casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalted
itself against the knowledge of god and bringing into captivity every thoughts of the obedience
of christ what is the bible telling us it's telling us that you know when we have imaginations
god essentially refers to them as these strongholds think of these strongholds in the
bible where a foreign nation has set up camp and they set up base and they they keep the people
in subjection right that's a stronghold that a person that a foreign nation could have on
god's people well in like manner you know satan can set up strongholds in our mind
by the things that we believe by the fears that we have by you know the disparities of this
world the cares of this life can cause us to have these strongholds and the bible tells us
that we need to cast those imaginations down now look this isn't a pentecostal church
we don't believe and you know rebuking the demon that's you know the demon of whatever
when it says cast down imaginations it's essentially telling us to get a hold of our
thoughts and in fact that's what it says it says bring everything into every thought to the
captivity to the obedience of christ okay and an imagination of fear an unbiblical ideology
is essentially that which is usurping the knowledge of god that's what it is right whenever we have
a fear in our life a worry a care and and you know it's determining it's it's it's causing
us to make unbiblical decisions it's essentially a thought an ideology that is usurping the
knowledge of god okay so the bible tells us to cast those things down every imagination that
exalts itself against the knowledge of god and then it tells us to bring into captivity every
thought to the obedience of christ what this means is that when you have these imaginations
when you have these fears when you have these unfounded worries and cares we need to pay
attention and say okay i can't think this way i need to combat this thought with scripture
i need to combat this thought with biblical thinking i need to make sure that i'm not
allowing myself to just give in and feed imaginations and feed fears and feed
you know whatever it is that's causing me to think this way i need to make sure that i
captivate my thoughts and bring it to the obedience of christ and this is essentially what
the bible tells us you know the bible says in ephesians chapter 4 but ye have not so
learned christ if so be that you have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is
in jesus that he put off the former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the
deceitful lust and then it says and be renewed in the spirit of your mind which in god is created
in righteousness and true holiness and that's like a perpetual thing that we have to do we
have to constantly try to renew our minds right how do you do that well you know you
got to be careful what you put into your brain you got to be careful what you put into
your heart what you put into your brain making sure that you're filling your mind with
scripture you're filling your mind with godly music you're filling your mind with you know
things that are pleasing unto the lord things that are not going to pervert your mind
or cause you to fear you know turn off the social media turn off the news if these things
are causing you to not trust in god it's causing you to become afraid it's causing you to not put
your confidence in the lord then guess what that stronghold needs to be cast down
you need to cast down that news app or whatever you cast down that subscription to that youtube
channel that's causing you to fear and be afraid because it's not helping you spiritually
you understand you know the bible tells us you know i beseech you therefore brethren by the
mercies of god that you present your bodies a living sacrifice wholly acceptable to god
which is your reasonable service and then it says it may not conform to this world but be
transformed by the renewing of your mind so how do we conform our minds to this world by just
you know uplifting the things of this world the ideologies of this world in our mind
you understand and so he tells us to transform our minds to gird up the loins of our mind
to captivate those thoughts so we're not held captive by false ideologies false doctrines
you know we're really good at you know determining what is a false doctrine
we're really good at identifying you know a false doctrine when we hear some some lame
preacher or some repent of your sins preacher or some false prophet we're really good at
identifying that and and and we should be amen but sometimes christians are not good at
identifying the wolf in sheep's clothing who's not necessarily teaching false doctrine
they're just causing you to be afraid they're just instilling fear in your hearts
they're instilling care and and causing you to be covetous causing you to to not walk
according to the biblical principles that we see in god's word you know these are imaginations
that we need to get rid of okay and david you know the reason i appreciate this particular part
is the fact that you know this is david this is a man after god after god's own heart
yet david himself was subject to fear he was subject to imaginations but unfortunately he
didn't respond the right way and cast these things down he allowed them to fester and allowed
him to make an unbiblical unwise decision and so the result of his imagination is what
he not only moves himself but he moves his wife and his 600 men
behind enemy lines into a land of people that he's been killing for years
i mean that's a pretty stupid thing to do right he's been slaying philistines since like
the beginning of his ministry he's just no i mean he he collected how many foreskins
of the philistines 200 you know he's well known amongst the philistines as being the
philistine killer right but yeah in his mind he's like oh the best thing for me to do is just
go behind enemy lines and live there now let me just say this is that you know obviously
david is not walking in the spirit he's not walking circumspectly he's not making wise
decisions you know in times past the bible says that he would walk wisely he would behave
himself wisely he's not doing that right now he's not making wise decisions and i want you
to notice this statement that he says right here in verse number one says the david said
in his heart i shall not perish one day by the hand of saul listen to this there is nothing
better for me than that i should speedily escape to the land of the philistines now let
me just say this when someone is just not right with god or maybe they're not walking in the
spirit or maybe they're just being a little emotional they have a tendency to narrow their
options themselves what i mean by that is like oh there's just there's no other options i just
have to go to the land of the philistines but is that really true i'm sure there's other places
that david could have gone to and it didn't have to be the land of the philistines where
they're worshiping false gods you know where they are worshiping not the god of the bible
they're the enemies of the lord that's where he chose to go but in his mind like oh there's
nothing better for me to do there's no i have no other option but here's the thing is that
people when they become emotional when they they give into their imaginations they give into their
fears they also have a tendency to narrow their options as well and say well there's nothing better
for me to do i have to leave my husband there's nothing better for me to do i have to leave my
wife oh there's nothing better for me to do i need to move out of state you know there's
nothing better for me to do i need to quit my job it's like maybe there is a better option
you just need to chill out okay but this is what people do they narrow their they become
narrow in their options they just disregard everything else and often what a person like this
needs is is someone outside of this circumstance who's not biased towards the circumstances of
this world but they have a bias towards god's word to basically tell them you know this is
probably not the best decision for you to make okay let me show you your other options
and often i you know i counsel people sometimes and who are in this particular situation where
you know they only have this one option they can only do this one thing and if i can't convince
them otherwise you know what i typically do is i say well just sleep on it for a couple of days
or something go get a bite to eat go sleep go chill out go to church go lift weights go read
don't make a hasty decision don't decide that you're going to do it just just just wait on
it for a couple weeks why not you know and typically what happens is if they when they
when they just wait it out they realize that they exaggerated just a little bit
and they're like man i'm glad i didn't make that decision
and my father-in-law used to say this don't make a decision when your decision maker is
broken that's what he used to say and every once in a while we get into a situation where
our decision maker is broken where we can't necessarily we're incapable of discerning just the
simplest of things and it's during that time that you have two options number one
you could either go get godly counsel to to help you make the right decision or if you don't
want to do that then just don't make any decision for a couple weeks and then you realize
at the end of those couple of weeks couple days couple months or whatever you know i'm glad
i didn't make that decision okay don't be this person where it's like oh there's nothing
better for me to do i just i don't i have no other option i just have to make the decision
now it's like no you don't okay you don't have to do that you can just chill okay
you don't you know i know you're scared of california you're scared of the governor you're
fearful of of everything that's going on but you know what why don't where's god in all this
though david you know when how about i put my trust in the and it's interesting because
you know when you study the psalms this is a period where you don't really have david
writing any psalms because you know the the first and second samuel essentially or the
book of psalms or some where david writes these psalms you can kind of pinpoint where
he's writing these particular psalms throughout his life and it just so happens that during
this time he's not writing any songs you know coincidence i think not you know because then he
would be you know you're gonna see what he's gonna be doing soon okay obviously he can't
write songs about what he's these sins that he's committing here okay so he's like i should
speedily escape into the land of the philistines and saul shall despair of me like saul's already
forgotten about you dude you're the one despairing of saul so shall i escape out of his hand
david arose and he passed over with 600 men that were with him unto akish the son of mayock
king of gath now if if that name rings a bell if you remember that's from chapter 20
akish was the king where uh david when he first went out of israel because he was being
persecuted by saul he went to gath and he's the king that essentially david started acting
all crazy remember he allowed his spittle to fall to his beard he started acting like a madman
because he didn't want to arouse any suspicion because obviously he had a reputation amongst
the heathen that he just hated everyone that you know hated the lord and he would whack
everyone that god told him to act specifically the philistines so akish lives among you know
this is in the land of the philistines and so he went david went there and so he started
acting crazy not to arouse suspicion well he's coming back to akish again okay
and so he goes back to akish it says in verse number three and david dwelt with akish at gath
he and his men every man with his household even david with his two wives a hinawam the
geserolitis and abigail the carmelitis nabal's wife now here's another thing that we can point
out in regards to this story is the fact that david when he goes to the land of the
philistines he doesn't go alone when he makes a bad decision he takes everyone with him in that
bad decision his wife the men who are following him and it may not be that everyone agrees with
them but because he's the leader they're following him off that cliff as well okay
and you know when when it comes to influence this is how it typically works okay you can
influence a multitude of people for righteousness if you live righteously and you influence people
in a righteous way you can help people turn people to righteousness and help them make
the right decisions but the the flip side of that is that if you make bad decisions and you
have influence you can also cause those under you to go with you you can affect them in a
negative way as well so give me an example okay adam damned us all right that's like a really
big example okay and i'm not talking about that adam right there you know adam for by one man
the bible says right but you know in on a practical level you know for example a father
can affect the direction of his family right by his decisions a mother can can affect the
direction of her children by her decisions a pastor can can affect the direction of the church by
his decisions and so on and so forth but you know david's not necessarily in a position to
make any good decisions right now but he's making a decision it's a bad decision and it's
affecting other people and think of this think of someone who is bitter okay the bible talks
about that what is bitterness this is when someone is offended at another brother or sister
in christ they're offended maybe even at god for whatever reason and they have bitterness
you know the bible talks about making sure that you don't fail the grace of god lest any
root of bitterness springing up trouble you and listen to this and many be defiled you know
when you have a bitter person the bitter person is not the only one who's being affected
everyone who's in that immediate sphere of influence of that individual is affected by that
person's bitterness that's why if you have a father or a mother who is just a bitter person
in a home they're going to raise bitter children
bottom line you have a bitter pastor he's going to produce bitter church members
okay you have a bitter individual you're going to you're going to the individuals who follow
that person who are led by that individual are going to be bitter as well it affects other
people okay so that should encourage us and motivate us to make sure that we thank god for the
influence that we have but also recognize you know it could be a dangerous thing
if you make dumb decisions okay you know he's taking everyone with them to gath
because of his actions so his actions affected others our actions can affect others as well and
look at verse number four it says and it was told saul that david was fled into gath and he
sought no more again for him verse five says and david said unto akish if i have now found
grace in thine eyes let them give me a place in some town in the country that i may dwell
there for why should thy servant dwell in the royal city with thee so the first thing we
looked at is david's uh greatest fear which is that saul was going to kill him that caused
him to move to the land of the philistines in gath with akish now we're going to look at
david's guile some behavior okay now here we see that he moves and he or he moves to gath
he talks to akish and he tells akish if i found grace in thy sight and i nice you know move me
to a town or a city and he says this that i may dwell there for why should thy servant dwell
in the royal city with thee now you read that you're like oh yeah he's just being humble
david's a humble guy you know but this is not him being humble okay first and foremost
he's flattering akish by saying if i found grace in thine eyes by saying thy servant by
saying in the royal city with thee you know because obviously gath you know is at odds with
israel they're at war with one another and now you have this champion of the israelites
known as david kind of submitting himself to akish okay calling himself a servant unto akish
saying you know i'm at your mercy if i found grace in your eyes etc and you know put me
somewhere else in some other town not in the royal city because you know i'm an israelite kind
of a thing he's saying this not because he's trying to be humble let me tell you why he's saying this
because he doesn't want akish to enter metal with his operation basically david wants to
run this independent policy in his own area because we're going to see later on that david's
going to be doing some pretty unlawful things okay and he's going to be doing unlawful things
with the inhabitants of the land of the philistines okay and he doesn't want akish to find out but he
wants akish to allow him to live among them you understand so he requests his own city only
because he wants to run his own policy he doesn't he doesn't want accountability you
understand so he doesn't want akish knowing what's going on he says in verse number six
then akish gave him ziklag that day where wherefore ziklag pertaining them to the kings of
juda unto this day look at verse seven in the time that david dwelt in the country of the
philistines was a full year and four months so this took david out of the land of israel
for a year and four months you say what's the significance of that sin will take you farther
than you want to go cost you more than you want to pay and keep you longer than you want
to stay it's not good for him to be absent from israel for a year and four months but you
know what sin nature is sin nature and people do this today it's like well i'm gonna take a
break from church for a little bit just for a couple weeks a couple weeks turns into like
a couple months and then a couple months turns into a year and then a year turns into
a year and a half a year and four months why because of the fact that what sin does
is it doesn't deliver or what sin doesn't do is it doesn't deliver on its promise
you know sin says oh you just take a break you work so hard you're so tired
you're already key james only you already hate sodomites you're not like these other
independent fundamental baptists or pre-trib zionists and stuff like that you're right
on all that other stuff you're better off than the preachers who actually go to church
but they believe wrong but yeah hey i said just stay home and chill out and look pastor
and look pastor mahia has a live stream
i mean you could watch it from home just this once and then once on sunday morning turns into
why not sunday night just go next week and it's like i'll go on thursday and then what
happens on thursday well the live stream la traffic is bad and you know there's nothing
better for me than to stay home and just watch the live stream and then it's just like all
right well sunday for sure sunday for sure but then you know there's some sort of birthday
party going on or something on sunday right there's some sort of trip you know your your
in-laws come in maybe that's not a good illustration that would be a reason for you
to come to church amen you know you have family members that are coming to visit or something
and they're not believers and you're going to witness to them of course
you know you gotta you gotta win your your family to the lord so i think it's justifiable
for you to stay home and it's like all right well be there for sure sunday night okay because
i've been out of church for too long but you know you gotta work early in the morning on
monday you gotta get up nice and early in the morning on monday you know hey if you
don't provide for your family you're worse than an infidel so you need to you need to get
your rest because you don't want to be worse than an infidel and you might get kicked out of
church for that go thursday but then you know thursday comes around and you know of
course one of the kids gets sick or something right so when one kid gets sick that basically
means that the whole family you can't go to church or something you know i mean just like
one kid gets sick it's just like we're all staying home just because that one kid is sick
and it's just like well by the time sunday comes around again we'll be all good to go okay
but then sunday comes around and you see how you see how that goes now that's already two weeks
right then sunday comes around and it's just like yeah my wife you know her head
hurts right now or you know we're just we're just pray for his brother we're just not feeling
about very good okay come back next week but then next week comes around
and someone invited you to go eat polka the chow
and not the one that's by the church like in irvine like one that's like by beverly hills
and when do you ever go to polka the chow i mean that's that's like a
once in a lifetime opportunity kind of thing we don't just always go there
so i'll just miss this one sunday again and let me say this we can come up with the plethora
you say how do you know all these how did you know about all these because i hear
i've been a christian for 15 years i've had i've heard every legitimate excuse in the book
okay you say have you been guilty of some of those maybe probably i don't know
i mean i don't think so i mean for me like we've just always determined we're always going to be
in church understand it's like no matter what and church has always listen to this church has
always been a priority it's like a part it's like a part of our life it's not just something
we do every once in a while it's a part of our life you know when the bible says forsake not
the assembling of ourselves together as a matter of something is like we take that serious
okay you know it's not like we we we take it serious sometimes but then we're like house
church people other times or something we're just like that doesn't mean the church or whatever
you know we've always just taken that serious okay what i'm saying is that you know people
can come up with all kinds of reasons not to be not to be in church oh man and then you
you know the the the third week this is the excuse for the third week
well i heard someone was sick at the church
i can't i can't no we you know someone was sick at the church who
well someone was i heard on the chat i heard somewhere pastor mentioned something about praying
for people there's someone who's sick at the church i can't go there right now
but of course you'll go everywhere else though
right
and of course there's legitimate reasons for missing church right i'm just saying sometimes
people are seeking the legitimate reasons whereas you should be looking for reasons to
come to church okay and again let me just make this disclaimer once again if you're running
a fever stay home obviously if you have this uncontrollable cough and you just can't hack it
stay home if you got a little bit of a cold you come but you know don't be
going to people two feet away from you and just let me tell you a secret
i'm sick okay be considerate
you know someone got sick so obviously they're gonna you know i'm just saying there's always
a reason okay and let me give you a legitimate reason to stay home okay let me give you a
legitimate reason why sometimes people have to stay home my wife included not me because
i can't stay home i gotta i'm like the pastor here so it's like i have to be here so i really
got no choice you know what i mean but you know let me give you an example you know
sometimes when ladies have babies it's important for them to stay home for quite some time
till they recover amen that's biblical and people have differing opinions as far as how long
to stay home or whatever and that's everyone to you know let every man be persuaded in his own
mind okay but let me tell you something
a lot of disciplines in the christian life require or excuse me a lot of
commandments that god gives us requires a lot of discipline
okay because you know we have a lot of liberty in christ right we have a lot of liberty in
christ but you know liberty requires discipline because then sometimes people use liberty as an
occasion to the flesh right so it's just like freedom requires a form of discipline
you understand you understand what i'm saying by that and you know we obviously understand that
we you know ladies can they stay home but let me just say this is that sometimes
people can have babies and let's just say they stay out for six weeks or seven weeks or
whatever you know being out for that long can get you in a rut of just being out of church
longer where it's just like months on end and i've seen this before even at my old church
you know people there's certain things that would get people out of church or
get people out of serving in their ministry one believe it or not was marriage
which i don't understand that but i saw it you know couples would get married and couples
that you know individually they were just serving god they were just on fire
but then when they got married they just didn't really come to church as much
or even serve in their ministry anymore because you know they're dealing with all the newness
of being married and stuff and then it's just like well you know they're just too tired and
they have two jobs and they have all you know just a list of things and then the second one was
babies babies would often take people out of church now this is not a lesson on don't have
babies amen because the bible teaches that we should multiply the bible says it's a blessing
to have children the fruit of the womb is his reward and uh you know happy is the man who
hath his quiver full okay and so let me just make that very clear okay but let me just say
this is that sometimes parents will use a baby as a reason why not to come to church
for extended periods of time
and sometimes you know parents can use their responsibility as a family or as a as a father
as a mother as a husband as a wife as reasons not to obey god in certain other areas
i hate this thing i can't do this i feel like a pharisee with a phylactery over my
hand you understand what i'm saying and obviously you know that's fine for a season because
sometimes you know it's required you understand you know my son for example his eyes he has a
fever right now so he's mom's staying home with him and so you know they have to stay home
but here's the thing i'm here with my son i don't get to sit next to him
i'm here with him he's sitting right there with grandma he needs to be in church too
my other daughter's feeling kind of sick too and obviously helen's gonna stay with mom because
she's the baby you understand but we don't want never want to turn this into just a habit
of just stay home i just stay home just for another week just for another week you understand
liberty requires and by the way that would be a good sermon i'm just thinking you know liberty
requires discipline i know you like to enjoy your the liberty that you have in christ but make
sure you attach some discipline to that liberty and not use it as an occasion to the flesh to
disobey god you understand and so the point that i'm trying to make here is that staying
at a church or not reading your bible for lengthy periods of time all of them have good
excuses as to why you're not and what you'll find is that you'll stay out longer right it'll
keep you longer it will take you farther than you want to go cost you more than you want to
pay keep you longer than you want to stay like oh man i i miss my bible reading today but
tomorrow for sure i'll get 10 chapters in i'm gonna make up for it tomorrow but then tomorrow
comes around and something more important comes up and then another day goes by another more
important thing comes up and by the time you know you're just like depressed because you're
just you feel as backslidden as the day is long because you've fallen behind in your bible
reading and the pastor gets up and he talks about bible and you're like oh man i haven't read my
bible i know i haven't heard my bible liberty requires discipline my friends and so you know
make sure that you enjoy your liberty as a christian but also make sure that you structure
your life as a christian where you have discipline where it's just like okay we need
to go back well you know we do have a barbecue this sunday and and my cousin's coming over
let them come over but we ain't gonna be here we're going to church
you know yeah but you know there's a quinceañera coming up
well we gotta win quincea soles to the lord on sunday so what's more important right now okay
you know well you know this and that you know and here's the thing
husbands you need to make sure you put your foot down
and and don't be a husband who's just easily persuaded to just stay home
because you know our wives they they know how to persuade us really well to just you know if
they wanted to you know what i mean like you're trying to eat healthy and then and then your
wife's like are you sure you don't want something in and out are you sure you don't
want chicken are you sure it's just like i'll sin with you you know it's just like
kind of thing and my wife doesn't do that i do that to my wife actually
but you know sometimes i'm sure couples can do that to each other even when it comes to
things of church and all that it's just like are you sure you want to go let's just stay
live streams on you know and you can just watch it through the live stream and
come up with all kinds of reasons you know the gas you know what about the gas
you know and all these and so men you need to put your foot down and say
yes i want to stay home but we can't stay home because we're raising children in order for us to
raise them in the nurturing and admonition of the lord we have to get the church involved
like we're setting a bad example for our kids right now every time we stay home because our
hair hurts or because it's too gloomy outside or it's because i have a headache or something
or it's just you know i'm tired i got to wake up early in the morning and you know you know
you know millions of christians have gone to church throughout the ages with probably worse
problems than that worst obstacles than that and we're still faithful
you understand i know this is uncomfortable folks but hey the spirit i am full of judgment
the spirit of the lord is upon me and i think this is important i don't even have this in my
notes this is just coming to me right now and you know it's important okay and so you know
set it be an example to your children be an example to your wife you know be an example to
other church members you know to just be in church whenever you can be in church
okay and again i'm not i'm not saying you know if you have a legitimate reason your arm
got chopped off or something like you know you should still come or whatever because you
know there's there's certain injuries where you can't come to church right there's certain
injuries or setbacks you get in a car accident or your car's broken down you know what i mean
but you know hey call mark when your car is broken down though don't wait two weeks
yeah you know what i mean like oh my car's broken down dang it we got a mechanic at the church i'll
wait a couple weeks before i tell mark or something because you know mark he's got like
the golden touch and here's the thing what you think will take like weeks to fix mark
this is what i'm gonna tell you just bring it to church bring it to church i'll fix it right
there that's cool yeah it's not a problem mark's the most positive mark's negative everywhere else
but when it comes to cars he's like the most your car could be on fire
100 on fire and you're just like oh that's fine you know or just like
no we'll find you a better car yeah it gives you so much hope what i'm saying is that you
know make sure that if you made the bad decision to go to the land of the philistines
don't be standing there for a year and four months okay you know or if you didn't make a
bad decision you're just in a situation where you're out for a little bit determine
that you don't stay out permanently to the point where now because here's the thing you
stay out here's another thing you stay out for like three months and now everything's fine
you ran out of excuses you no longer have an excuse of why not to come to church
except for this one golden excuse what are people going to think of me when i go back
what is that embarrassment because you know you always have that one church member that
will come through and be like hey brother where you been it's like right just like
where you been man like i haven't seen you so long you backslid or what
you haven't filed an application man or what are you drunk or what
you're just a person with just no discretion whatsoever or something you know
but you know what eat crow and come back to church
and look if you've been out of church for a while and it feels of course it's gonna
feel uncomfortable you know what i mean you know if here's what you could tell them okay
you just say yeah we just got out of the habit but we're back and you know we're back
just got out of the habit so now we're back there's not one single church member here that's
going to scoff at that in fact i don't encourage them because it's always encouraging to us
as church members when someone who hasn't been in church comes back to church
and we see that they're making an effort to make it a part of their lives again
that's a huge encouragement to me as a pastor but just to christians just in general
because we love seeing people get right with god we love seeing people just come back to
church and making effort to just come back to fold and get things right and and prosper
as a christian that's a blessing to see that there's not a single church member here that's
that's just like you know they're they're not like the older brother of the prodigal son
you know what i mean where he's just like oh well we're gonna throw we're gonna go to
canes for this guy or something just because he's bad he never took me to canes while we're here
this guy spent all his inheritance with harlots and stuff like whoa bro chill you know
it wasn't that bad
you know we rejoice when people come back it's a great thing it's a blessing
and so you know the the point that i'm trying to make and you know i'm i know i'm spending a
lot of time with this is just you know make sure you're assessing your life spiritually
and make sure that there's there's not areas in your life that you've you you put the pause
button on for just a little too long every once in a while we put a pause and we put it on
cruise control because we have to do some sort of life change that we had or whatever
but some people keep it on there and you go back to that little you know vcr you know
and it looks like is this thing on pause though we need to put it on play again okay and you
and you say well i just you know i'm just having a hard time doing that well stop being lazy
just stop being lazy okay there's no easier way of saying it there's just no easier way
of saying it my friends stop being lazy okay and and one thing you'll notice is where when
you get back into it you just get back into the groove of things and it'll fall back into
place once again and so let's get back to the text here the time verse number seven says the
time that david dwelt in the country of the philistines was a full year and four months
and of course akish doesn't really have a problem with him him being there because
now they both have a common enemy which is saw right and you know he's kind of like i got a
champion of the israelites with me you know what i mean i kind of have it made and you know
i'm thinking that maybe akish is thinking whoa it's not only david but it's his 600 men
i could probably use these guys as mercenaries or something you know
and so you know he's not gonna he's not gonna fight david on and he gives him zigzag
verse number eight says and david and his men went up and invaded the gesherites and the
gesherites and the amalekites for those nations were of old the inhabitants of the land
as thou goest to sure even unto the land of egypt and david smote the land and left neither
man nor woman alive and took away the sheep and oxen and the asses and camels and apparel and
returned and came to akish so now we're starting to see david's guile some behavior okay because
of the fact that you know in times past david would fight against the philistines he would fight
against the philistines or the amalekites and the philistines all these four nations by the
command of god to bring god glory as a means of obedience unto the lord that ain't the case
anymore he is invading for profit now so he's doing something that he was doing before but
now he's not doing it because god's commanded him to do it he's not doing it because it's
the right thing to do now he's doing it for personal profit okay he is invading the people
for profit now akish if he found out that david was invading these areas he'd be completely
against what david is doing because this is like the land of the philistines
not supposed to be doing that these are their neighbors or whatever
so he's no longer doing it to obey god and here's the thing is that you know think about
david for a minute and think about our sinful nature okay because david could be doing a lot
worse right he could be worshiping false gods he can just be just completely involved in some
wicked sin at least he's taken out you know the amalekites and the gesherites and all
these other people you know so you can see how david might justify his actions and let me say
this is that every human being every christian when they get involved in some first layer type
of a sin where like they're living in disobedience to god by not coming to church or
you know whatever they always find a way to justify that it was like well hey at least i'm
not smoking marijuana it's like they stay home you know they don't go to church but they're
like hey you know at least we're not drunkers though at least we're not involved in fornication
you know at least you know and they like to point out a lot of worse sins that they can be
involved in but hold on a second he that knoweth to do good and doeth not to him at his sin
that's what the bible says and to whosoever much is given of him shall be much required
so you're not going to get a pat on the back for not committing fornication
that's what god requires of you is just is for you to possess your vessel in sanctification
and honor that's what's required of you the bible says if you've done that which is required
of you guess what god calls you an unprofitable servant think about that for a second so yeah david
he could be saying he could say all he wants you know we're getting we're invading these people
they're enemies of god but hold on a second you're still not right with god right now though
because you're not doing it at the command of the lord okay he's justifying himself here
so he takes all this stuff he's invading these areas taking their camels their asses their ox or
sheep and then he comes back to akish verse number 10 and akish said whether have you made
a road today and david said against the south of judah and against the south of jeremy lights
and against the south of the kinites what is he saying he's insinuating that he's invading
israelites he's not really saying it because he keeps saying like the south of
the south of but basically the south of these areas are israeli areas okay because he doesn't
want akish to know that he's that's not because that's not what he's doing he's
invading the land of the philistines okay he's essentially infiltrated the land of the
philistines to be protected by the philistines as he's killing the philistines
do you see why i say now the guile some behavior of david this is pretty bad okay
and you know akish is like so you know what'd you do today what did you accomplish today
and then you know he's he's trying to insinuate that he's that he's taken over
israelites so he can gain more favor with akish because akish and akish is mine i was like oh
okay so you're really down for the set
you know because now you're whacking your own kind now okay i see
verse 10 and akish said whether have you made a road today david said against the south of
judah against the south of the jeremy lights and against the south of the kinites verse 10
verse 11 and david saved neither man nor woman alive why to bring tidings to gath
so he's like he's commanding his men to wipe them all out so that
no one goes back to akish and tells them what we're doing that's pretty wicked saying
lest they should tell on us saying so did david and so will be his manner all the while
he dwelleth in the country of the philistines he's like you know lest they should escape
and go to akish and say see see how he's behaving in your land
and your country amongst your people he's just killing everybody
this is how he's going to be all the days that he inhabits gath okay
so this is this is evil it's wicked and in fact it's hypocritical because of the fact that
he was angry at the zippites for ratting him out right he was angry at them because
he ratted about to saw or whatever but he's trying to keep everyone else from writing on him
you know about his wicked behavior
so we see that he loses his his his piety his godliness by this type of behavior
he says in verse number 12 and akish believed david saying he hath made his people israel
utterly to abhor him therefore he shall be my servant forever so what is akish saying he's like
oh yeah he sealed he sealed his fate with israel the israelites must hate this guy because
he's invading them and by the way in the next chapter he joins the enemies to fight against
israel i mean david's doing really bad right here okay but akish is like oh great you
know he basically sealed his fate he sealed the deal now he's destroying his reputation
amongst the israelites now for sure he's going to be my servant forever okay so obviously akish
is not a righteous person he's not a righteous man he is a person who is only looking out for
himself and what he can gain from david it's not because he loves his 600 men or the israelites
it's because he loves what david can do for him understand and so we see here david's not
doing well this is a very low point in the life of david and um you know it really shows
us that you know christian can go pretty far in his way of thinking understand to the point where
we'll see in the next chapter where he joins the enemies to fight against god's people
you know sometimes christians can get that far you know where they backslide so much or
they begin to criticize men of god and churches or whatever because they're not renewing their
minds they're just away from the lord so much that they don't correct their behavior
and then they're just kind of they're just fleshly and so that's pretty much it this
is a shorter chapter but a lot of truth here that we can learn from david's actions and
we'll pick up next week with chapter 28 and see that he actually begins to wax worse let's pray
father we thank you so much for this particular story lord and um sad to see david kind of spiral
out of control in this area and uh lord you know one thing that i guess we can learn from
this as well is that he david spent so much time building up what a godly reputation but
just a few decisions uh he just kind of destroyed it and i pray lord that you'd help us to recognize
that and and help us to apply these principles to our lives lord help us not to be like david
controlled by our fears our imaginations our doubts and um help us lord to to make sure that
we never go into the land of the philistines and if we're ever in that situation where we're
out of god's will so to speak uh we don't stay there long help us to recognize that and and
to come back as soon as we can and lord bless us as we go on our way bless the bonfire tomorrow
as we fellowship uh with god's people and and and just enjoy the evening and of course
this weekend uh may you prepare the hearts of those we're going to speak to when we go out
soul winning lord bless sunday the services and all there is lord we love you we thank
you pray these things in jesus name amen
all right we got one last song song number 37 there'll be no dark valley
song number 37 there'll be no dark valley
one nice and strong all together there'll be no dark valley when jesus comes
together
there'll be no more sorrow when jesus comes there'll be no more sorrow when jesus comes
love
there'll be no dark valley when jesus comes
when jesus comes
there'll be no dark valley when jesus comes together
songs of
And then one of the singing yard