Free Springs of Living Water, song 223,
Springs of Living Water.
I thirsted in the barren land of sin and shame,
and nothing satisfying there I found.
But to the blessed cross of Christ,
one day I came where springs of living water did abound.
Drinking at the springs of living water,
happy now am I, my soul they satisfy.
Drinking at the springs of living water,
oh, wonderful and bountiful supply.
How sweet the living water from the hills of God.
It makes me glad and happy all the way.
Now glory, grace, and blessing mark the path I've trod.
I'm shouting hallelujah every day.
Drinking at the springs of living water,
happy now am I, my soul they satisfy.
Drinking at the springs of living water,
oh, wonderful and bountiful supply.
Oh, sinner, won't you come today to Calvary?
A fountain there is glowing deep and wide.
The Savior now invites you to the water free,
where thirsting spirits can be satisfied.
Drinking at the springs of living water,
happy now am I, my soul they satisfy.
Drinking at the springs of living water,
oh, wonderful and bountiful supply.
Great singing.
Let's open up in a word of prayer.
Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this day,
and just the opportunity to serve you
and hear your word preached, to sing praises to your name.
Pray that you please fill us all with the Holy Spirit.
We bless every aspect of your service.
We love you so much.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
All right, for our second song, flip back to page 220.
Couple of pages to your left.
Jesus is all the world to me.
Jesus is all the world to me, 220.
220, Jesus is all the world to me.
Jesus is all the world to me, my life, my joy, my all.
He is my strength from day to day.
Without Him I would fall.
When I am sad, to Him I go.
No other one can cheer me so.
When I am sad, He makes me glad.
He's my friend.
Jesus is all the world to me, my friend, in trial sore.
I go to Him for blessings, and He gives them o'er and o'er.
Jesus is all the world to me, my friend, in trial sore.
He sends the sunshine and the rain.
He sends the harvest, golden grain, sunshine and rain,
harvest of grain.
He's my friend.
Jesus is all the world to me, and true to Him I'll be.
Oh, how could I, this friend, deny
when He's so true to me?
Following Him, I know I'm right.
He watches o'er me day and night.
Following Him, I day and night, He's my friend.
Jesus is all the world to me, my friend, in trial sore.
He's all the world to me, I want no better friend.
I trust Him now.
I'll trust Him when life's fleeting days shall end.
Beautiful life with such a friend.
Eternal life that has no end.
Eternal life, eternal joy, He's my friend.
Good singing, good evening.
If you don't have a bulletin, you'd like one,
lift up your hand, one of our ushers can come by
and get you guys a bulletin.
On the front we have the Bible memory passage.
John 1-28, any child that's able to quote the verse
and receive ice cream after the service.
And then we have service times, soul winning times,
or regional soul winning times.
The churchwide meets here at the building,
regional meets in different areas of the city.
Please make sure to continue turning in your stats
as well as your maps.
And we have our maps over here on the wall for right now,
so if you'd like to put those in there,
or if you have a question, you can ask Brother Dylan.
He can help you with the maps.
One note about our baptisms.
So we had a baptism competition,
and all four tribes are exactly tied.
So, well, you didn't come talk to me about it.
Yeah, we need to get the baptistry fixed or whatever.
It's going to be like another week or so
until I can get that fixed up.
But you say, see here is water, you know.
But they did, we all tied, so we're going to go into overtime.
So basically we're just rolling it into the next season.
But I'm going to double the prize.
So that way, you know, it's really bringing these people back, you know.
And then you're going to get right on the scoreboard,
right in the first quarter, and start leading.
So basically to the end of the year,
we're just going to extend our baptism competition.
And so whatever tribe has the most,
hopefully there's a clear winner at that point.
And if there is some other tie, we might have a break,
like a tiebreaker or something.
But because everybody tied,
we're just going to go and extend the baptism competition.
As a reminder, it's not people in your tribe that get baptized.
It's either a new convert,
or it's someone that you added to your tribe
that wasn't already part of your tribe, that then gets baptized.
So it's not just family members that visit.
It's not just random people that come in that I baptize either
that doesn't count.
So it's just essentially, or if your child gets saved
and they get baptized, they were already part of the tribe.
So it's basically if you add anybody to your tribe
and they eventually get baptized,
or you bring a new convert in and they get baptized,
that's what the competition is for.
So it makes it pretty hard to cheat, all right?
And I know you're Baptist,
but there's some people out there that like to bend the limits
even of being a Baptist, all right?
On the right, we have a list of expecting ladies.
Please pray for all of them as well as we have our prayer list.
I'm going to go over that quickly.
Continue to pray for the Negera family for their health,
for Miss Lucy's mother, for her tumors,
Brother Cameron Hall up in Oklahoma City.
Pray for his legs healing.
Also Verity Baptist Manila and Pastor Kevin Zobovita,
our friends abroad.
Continue to pray for the Goodwin family.
Continue to pray for Miss Stewart for her health.
Brother Suhail's traveling to the Philippines,
so he was asking that we would pray for him while he's abroad and coming back.
Miss Ophelia, one of her friends down south,
praying for her healing and recovery.
Also, the Holdens asked for prayer for Isabella for her health.
We also have Randall had a friend named Lee
who had just got out of surgery and is recovering,
so we're just praying for recovery for him.
And then also the Brooks.
Pray for health for the Brooks family for Sonny.
So that's pretty much all I have on the prayer list.
If you have anything else, please email those in.
We'll try to make sure we keep them in the bulletin.
I'll say a quick word of prayer,
and we can all pray for those that were mentioned.
Thank you, Heavenly Father, for our church,
for giving us this opportunity to be meeting together this evening
and to sing praises under your name,
to hear the word of God being preached.
I pray that you would bless all of the expecting ladies
that we have in our church,
that you would help them with their pregnancies,
that you would help them to have a smooth delivery,
and that you would bless their newborn children.
I pray that you would also bless our church family
that has various health concerns,
that you would please just give them health,
give them favor, give them wisdom in their decision-making.
Please also bless our friends abroad.
Please bring back Suhel safely.
Continue to help us as we go out and reach this area with the gospel,
that you would lead us to the right doors,
that you would soften people's hearts,
that you would give them a desire to be saved,
and that we would preach with boldness.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Down below we have the events, June 11th, Baby Shower for the Naims.
We have August 18th through the 20th Men's Conference.
There's a sign-up sheet back there.
Baby Shower is 12.30 to 2.30 if you'd like to bring a gift.
Amazon, if you'd like to bring a snack or dessert, that's also encouraged.
It is nursing's only preferred.
I think that's pretty much all I have for announcements.
Continue to pass out our moving cards until we run out.
And we do have these other pamphlets.
There is a soloing marathon in Lawton, Oklahoma this Saturday.
So I know a few people were going to head up there.
If you are not going, I mean most of us are not going,
we'll just pray that their soloing marathon goes well.
And everything's going really good up in the Oklahoma City Church,
so definitely encouraging that they're going over to Lawton.
I've heard that it's actually pretty receptive over there,
so that's definitely encouraging as well.
That's pretty much all I have for announcements.
We'll go ahead and go to our third song, 222 Moment by Moment.
Song 222.
222 Moment by Moment.
...
Hying with Jesus by death reckon mine,
Living with Jesus, a new life divine,
Looking to Jesus till glory doth shine,
Moment by moment, O Lord, I am thine,
Moment by moment, I'm kept in His love,
Moment by moment, I fly from above,
Looking to Jesus till glory doth shine,
Moment by moment, O Lord, I am thine,
Never a trial that He is not there,
Never a burden that He doth not bear,
Never a sorrow that He doth not share,
Moment by moment, I'm under His care,
Moment by moment, I'm kept in His love,
Moment by moment, I fly from above,
Looking to Jesus till glory doth shine,
Moment by moment, O Lord, I am thine,
A heartache and never a groan,
Never a teardrop and never a moan,
Never a danger but there on the throne,
Moment by moment, He thinks of His own,
Moment by moment, I'm kept in His love,
Moment by moment, I fly from above,
Looking to Jesus till glory doth shine,
Moment by moment, O Lord, I am thine,
Never a weakness that He doth not feel,
Never a sickness that He cannot heal,
Moment by moment in war and wheel,
Jesus my Savior abides with me still,
Moment by moment in love,
Moment by moment, I fly from above,
Looking to Jesus till glory doth shine,
Moment by moment, O Lord, I am thine.
As the offering plates go around, please turn in your Bibles to 2 Samuel 7.
2 Samuel chapter 7.
As always, we'll read the whole chapter starting at verse number 1.
You can follow along silently there before the sermon begins.
2 Samuel chapter number 7 where the Bible reads,
And it came to pass, when the king sat in his house,
And the Lord had given him rest round about from all his enemies,
That the king said unto Nathan the prophet,
See now, I dwell in an house of cedar,
But the ark of God dwelleth within curtains.
Nathan said to the king, Go, do all that is in thine heart,
For the Lord is with thee.
And it came to pass that night that the word of the Lord came unto Nathan,
Saying, Go, and tell my servant David, Thus saith the Lord,
Shout thou, build me an house for me to dwell in?
For as I have not dwelt in any house since the time that I brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt,
Even to this day, but have walked in a tent and in a tabernacle,
And all the places wherein I have walked with all the children of Israel,
Spake I a word with any of the tribes of Israel,
Whom I commanded to feed my people Israel, saying,
Why build ye not me an house of cedar?
Now therefore, so shalt thou say unto my servant David,
Thus saith the Lord of hosts,
I took thee from the sheep-coat, from following the sheep,
To be ruler over my people, over Israel.
And I was with thee whithersoever thou wentest,
And have cut off all thine enemies out of thy sight,
And have made thee a great name, like unto the name of the great men that are in the earth.
Moreover, I will appoint a place for my people Israel,
And will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more.
Neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them any more, as before time.
And as since the time that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel,
And have caused thee to rest from all thine enemies,
Also the Lord telleth thee that he will make thee an house.
And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers,
I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy vows,
And I will establish his kingdom.
He shall build an house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
I will be his father, and he shall be my son.
If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men,
And with the stripes of the children of men.
But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee.
And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established forever before thee.
Thy throne shall be established forever.
According to all these words, and according to all this vision,
So did Nathan speak unto David.
Then went King David in, and sat before the Lord, and he said,
Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house that thou hast brought me hitherto?
And this was yet a small thing in thy sight, O Lord God,
But thou hast spoken also of thy servant's house for a great while to come.
And is this the manner of man, O Lord God?
And what can David say more unto thee? For thou, Lord God, knowest thy servant.
For thy word's sake, and according to thine own heart,
Hast thou done all these great things to make thy servant know them?
Wherefore, thou art great, O Lord God, for there is none like thee,
Neither is there any God beside thee, according to all that we have heard with our ears.
What nation in the earth is like thy people, even like Israel,
Whom God went to redeem for a people to himself,
And to make him a name, and to do for you great things and terrible,
For thy land before thy people, which thou redeemest to thee from Egypt,
From the nations and their gods.
For thou hast confirmed to thyself thy people Israel to be a people unto thee forever,
And now, Lord, art become their God.
And now, O Lord God, the word that thou hast spoken concerning thy servant,
And concerning his house, establish it forever, and do as thou hast said.
And let thy name be magnified forever, saying,
The Lord of hosts is the God over Israel,
And let the house of thy servant David be established before thee.
For thou, O Lord of hosts, God of Israel,
Hast revealed to thy servant, saying, I will build thee in house,
Therefore hath thy servant founded his heart to pray this prayer unto thee.
And now, O Lord God, thou art that God, and thy words be true,
And thou hast promised this goodness unto thy servant.
Therefore now, let it please thee to bless the house of thy servant,
That it may continue forever before thee.
For thou, O Lord God, hast spoken it,
And with thy blessing let the house of thy servant be blessed forever.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you for 2 Samuel 7,
and I pray that you would minimize distractions for us
so we can listen and learn and give us ears to hear
so that we can apply as much as possible from the message this evening.
In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
Amen. We're in 2 Samuel 7,
and we just came from chapter 6
where David was bringing the Ark of the Covenant into the city.
And really, as we kind of get into some of these chapters,
we see that David is really concerned with spiritual things.
You know, he's done a lot of fighting in his life.
He's gone out and he's fought the Philistines.
He's fought, and I mean specifically, Goliath.
And then he fought the Philistines as a whole,
and we see him warring with Saul,
and there's just all these battles, there's all these wars.
But he's gotten to a place where he's kind of conquered
all the immediate threats, all of the relevant foes.
And in chapter number 6, he's concerned with the things of God.
He has a time of peace so he can kind of focus on God
and essentially make sure that the house of God
and the things of God are going forward.
And I think this is kind of helpful because sometimes in our lives
we have different seasons or we have different moments in time
where we're kind of accomplishing different types of tasks.
As for our church specifically, sometimes I've been frustrated
because I feel like I want to accomplish all these works for the church,
but then they get put on hold because of all these enemies
or all these attacks or all this other stuff that's going on.
But sometimes it's just needful to just focus on that and deal with that,
and then later we'll kind of pick up these other things
and we'll kind of bring them back and get that focus again.
And so as a man, it's harder for us to multitask.
So sometimes you kind of focus on one thing at a time.
Let's build Goliath, let's get the Philistines, let's take care of Saul.
Okay, now it's Ark.
Now that he's got the Ark, we kind of focus in on something
a little bit more different.
Now we're focused in on the house of God.
And what I think is really good about the way this transitions
is you have to also think about the latter portion of chapter 6.
It was a lot about Michal and being kind of a downer on David,
kind of raining on his parade, kind of attacking him for serving God.
And even though they have a really bad kind of spat here,
notice it doesn't really stop David from continuing to want to serve God,
from doing that which is biblical, from him doing that which is right,
which also helps us confirm the fact that when it comes to David
and it comes to Michal who's right and who's wrong in this situation
and in this issue, because when we get into chapter 7,
God's not mad at David whatsoever.
In fact, it's almost the exact opposite.
I mean, it's to an extremity of how much God is blessing David,
mending David, and praising David, while on the other hand,
Michal was cursed for her attacking David
and not really caring about him wanting to serve God.
She doesn't even get to have children.
He has basically just, he gets to do nothing.
And that's what's interesting.
When you reject God, he'll easily take things away from you that you even enjoy,
whereas whenever you serve God,
he'll give you all the things that you weren't even asking for on top of.
So if you actually want your desires inside to be fulfilled,
it comes through serving God and seeking God,
and then he actually gives you the true desires of your heart.
Look at what it says in verse 1.
It came to pass when the king sat in his house,
and the Lord had given him rest round about from all his enemies,
that the king said unto Nathan the prophet,
See, now I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains.
Now, notice that it's saying that God had given David rest from all of his enemies.
This is a great time to focus on God when you don't have any other issues,
you don't have any other problems.
He can really focus on the things of God.
But what's really great about this chapter is he does,
because he doesn't have to.
We have free will.
We're not a Calvinistic church.
We don't believe in just these robots, and God just forces us to do things.
And at this point in time, it'd be really easy for David to just kind of phone it in,
or just relax.
I mean, man, I've been fighting so much,
and now I can just kind of relax and enjoy and have a good time.
He's got a great house, as the Bible's kind of describing him.
It says, I dwell in a house of cedar.
And so it's kind of illustrating, this is a fancy house, it's really nice,
everything's going well for him.
We need to be careful that in moments of prosperity,
in moments of goodness for us,
that we don't become complacent in our spiritual walk,
but rather we continue to be mindful of the fact that the only reason he even has rest
is because God gave it to him.
So if he ends up forsaking God, what is God going to do?
He's going to take that rest away and then give him more enemies.
And isn't that what we've seen consistently throughout the Bible?
I mean, when we have in the book of Judges, they're doing right,
it's resting in the land for 40 years.
And then when they forsake the Lord, it's all these enemies and bondage
and all this servitude to wicked people.
And it's just this kind of ebb and flow of just, hey, serving God, focused on God, peace.
And then whenever you're not focused on God, you forsake God,
just a bunch of oppression, evil people ruling over you,
horrible things are happening.
Which if we take this in context, if we kind of think about it,
what kind of ebb and flow do you think America's on right now?
I mean, our nation is just forsaking God.
It doesn't care about God. It doesn't care about the things of God.
It's forgotten what the Bible said. It's not seeking the Lord in any way.
So of course we're going to have evil, wicked people coming in and ruling over us as a nation
because we've basically just forsaken God as a nation.
And in years past, while not everyone was saved,
at least there was a lot more reverence to the things of God.
A lot more people were concerned with the things of God.
Church was more important. Worshiping God was more important.
All these things are so much more important to Americans,
and that's why America's had the prosperity that it's had.
And yeah, it's not perfect. Yeah, it's had wicked leadership.
And that's similar to Israel.
If you think about Israel, Israel pretty much always has wicked leadership,
yet God still uses them and blesses those people at times,
despite their leadership.
And you can say that for America, that despite some of our leadership,
despite some of our flaws, God still uses America in a lot of great ways,
still blessed America, still kept it around.
But it's getting to a point where the decay and the rottenness from the top
is really just a consequence of its nation.
It's a consequence of the people that are in this area.
I like the positive aspect of this, but this isn't reality for us.
We're not in this situation.
We're not in a situation where we're a bunch of Davids here,
where we just have all peace and no enemies,
and we need to be focused on God.
If we want to get there, we need to go into battle,
and we need to fight and earnestly contend for the faith
which was once delivered unto the saints.
We have to get out the plow and break up the fallow ground
and essentially revitalize people's souls,
because people in this area are very hardened.
I didn't really understand what it would be like soul winning around our church,
and I haven't had a huge sample size yet,
but I have gone to a lot of places around here.
It is very unreceptive.
And not in the sense like they just don't like us.
It's just like they don't even like church.
And it's weird.
It's weird because sometimes people will be like,
oh man, those conservative areas, that's where you want to be.
But sometimes the conservative areas are worse.
And it's just all these prideful, arrogant people
that don't think they need God, and they've forsaken God,
and it ends up just becoming a den of iniquity and a God forsaken area.
Why do you think it is that the number one employer for Watauga,
or like the top five employers of Watauga,
used to be a Baptist church?
It's called Harvest Baptist Church.
It had hundreds of employees.
It was one of the number one employers of this area.
Now it's run by Todd White.
And I'm thinking, well, that makes perfect sense,
because this whole area just doesn't care about God anymore.
It doesn't care about the Bible.
It doesn't care about Christianity.
That's why when you go up and down these streets,
it's all these signs that say like, I don't want religion.
No religion.
Don't knock on my door.
And then, in fact, you knock on their door,
and they're like, didn't you read the sign?
It's just like, sure, but hey, I'm just trying to give you a chance here.
And the people here are just so hardened to the things of God.
It makes sense that a Baptist church would go out of business in this area
when nobody even wants to go to church, period.
The only people that went to church were like a Catholic
and some non-denom church.
And, of course, that's the kind of spiritual picture that we have in this area.
That's why you see just filth and all kinds of abomination
just running rampant in this area.
You know, you used to think, Texas, oh, this is a beacon of hope,
and it's just so conservative, and people love God,
and it's the Bible Belt.
Yeah, it's a fake Bible Belt.
It's one of those belts that is like reversible, and it always breaks.
You know what I mean?
You get that black-brown belt where you can basically just flop it.
Those things break after like five uses.
And it's like that's the type of Christianity we have here.
That's the kind of Bible Belt we have around here where they just flip it around.
It's just flippity-floppity, and it just breaks.
It's not genuine. It's not like genuine leather.
It's not been made legitimate like the King James Bible,
like fundamental Baptists used to be.
And you know what?
This place needs some breaking up of the foul ground.
And they're in danger of doing the opposite of what David did,
and their prosperity, they didn't seek God,
but David in his prosperity is saying, you know what?
I still need God.
That's the right attitude no matter where you're at.
You know, if you're doing well for yourself, if you feel comfortable,
things are going well, it's dangerous for you
that you might just feel like, I don't even feel like I need church anymore.
I don't feel like I need the things of God.
I mean, things are just going so good for me that I don't really need Him.
That is a time, a wake-up call.
And you know, often God will put us through hard times as a wake-up call,
or to take God more seriously.
Look what he says in verse number three.
And Nathan said to the king,
Go, do all that is in thine heart, for the Lord is with thee.
It came to pass that night that the word of the Lord came unto Nathan, saying,
Go and tell my servant David, Thus saith the Lord,
Thou shalt build me a house for me to dwell in?
Whereas I have not dwelled in any house since the time
that I brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt, even to this day,
but have walked in a tent and in a tabernacle.
And in all the places wherein I have walked with all the children of Israel,
spake I a word with any of the tribes of Israel,
whom I commanded to feed my people Israel, saying,
Why build ye not me a house of cedar?
So we have here David so concerned that God doesn't have a house,
and he does.
That's a legitimate thought.
Like, why is my house thriving and God's house doesn't even exist?
God doesn't even have a house.
That's concerning to David.
But God, he's simply saying,
Hey, I've been walking around in the wilderness,
I've been in a tent, and did I ever complain?
Did I ever say, Why have you guys not built me a house?
And the answer is no.
God didn't complain.
But there is a spiritual significance here to the fact that
why would we want to thrive personally when God is deteriorating?
And it really doesn't make a lot of sense.
In fact, I feel like there's a lot of principles here
that can be found in the Bible that are important.
Keep your finger and go to Proverbs chapter 24 for a moment.
Proverbs chapter 24.
But when it comes to our lives,
we have to make sure that we're putting God first in every area of our life.
And that's easy to say, hard to do.
One of those things that would be a practical perspective is
why would I want my house,
and when I say house, I'm saying like your literal dwelling,
to be thriving,
but then the house of God
to be desolate or to not be doing well whatsoever.
According to the Bible, we need to do the exact opposite.
We need to make sure that the house of God is thriving first
and then we take care of ourselves.
And there's a verse that, it's in Proverbs,
and I feel like it's a really important verse,
but look what it says in verse 27.
Proverbs 24 verse 27.
Prepare thy work without,
and make it fit for thyself in the field,
and afterwards build thine house.
Now, the primary application of this proverb is essentially the idea of,
hey, make sure you're going to be able to get your work taken care of
before you build a house.
Because it makes really no sense whatsoever
to just build some house somewhere and you have no job.
I mean, just think about just building this gorgeous mansion,
this great house,
but then you're going to work really far away from that house.
That doesn't really make very much sense
because it makes more sense to get established
in whatever work you're going to be doing,
whatever kind of occupation,
whatever kind of money you're going to be making,
and then build your house around that.
That's basically the essence of this proverb,
and it stems out from this.
Think about it from another perspective.
Why would I want to build this great house
when church is really far away?
Wouldn't I want to first get into the right church
and get established in a church
and then build my house around church
rather than the opposite?
Because I could build this big church
right next to Kenneth Copeland's compound or something like that,
but that's not where I'm going to go to church,
and that doesn't really make any sense whatsoever.
You know, many people,
their life is established around the wrong things
and they have the wrong priorities.
And in fact, I even think this.
If you're going to move into an area,
oftentimes it's better to just kind of like
have something temporary in mind at first,
figure out what you're going to actually do
and get established in the area, then plant yourself
because if you kind of plant yourself,
you could end up planting yourself in the wrong area.
And I'm not saying that it's wrong to move to an area
and buy a house immediately,
but if you do something like that,
you should think of that house as like
this is a temporary house though.
Like would I be able to sell this in a couple of years
and still get the same amount of money?
You know, I don't want to put myself in a bad situation
because of this.
And sometimes it's better to kind of just live in an area
because after living in an area,
you start realizing like where you want to live,
what things you like being close to,
all these different practical things.
And so sometimes you have to look at, you know,
your living situation as the last thing you want to work on.
And that makes a lot of sense.
You don't want that to be the first thing you work on
because all this other stuff is more important
and you can't move your house unless you have an RV, okay?
And that's not really a house, all right?
It's really hard to move your house.
That's why they always talk about in real estate
the most important thing is location, location, location
because once you kind of pick the location,
hey, you can make it look pretty on the inside
but you can't change the location.
The location is a permanent aspect of real estate.
That's why it's such an important aspect.
And even with God, if you think about it,
God did the same thing because God did not plant
the city of David first.
What he actually did, he took over the promised land
and they kind of had Bethel
and then after all the people have been conquered
and everything is kind of peace, then it's like, okay,
now we're going to establish it in Jerusalem
and now we're going to kind of set up the house.
Now we're going to build the temple.
What sense would it have made if the children of Israel
and the book of Joshua, they walk across the sea, the Jordan,
and then they just start building the temple?
That wouldn't have made very much sense
and, in fact, many times when they were going all these
back and forth between the enemies and being wicked,
it could have gotten knocked down a bunch of times
and they had to rebuild it like a bunch of times.
It makes more sense that now we've conquered everything
and we have no enemies and we're doing really well,
now let's really establish our house.
That's kind of the principle and the idea
that we're kind of learning here.
Go to Haggai chapter one, Haggai chapter one.
So when you think about some of the applications for us,
number one, I would say it makes sense to establish your work
before you really plant yourself as far as a house
or something like that.
Again, I'm not saying you shouldn't buy a house
because many times buying a house is better than renting
in every capacity, myself included.
When I moved to Faithful Word,
I knew I was going to probably be there temporarily
because my goal was to eventually become a pastor
and, God willing, that would happen
and I wasn't planning for failure,
I was planning for success.
So when buying a house, I'm thinking,
what's a house that would probably sell quickly
if I had to sell or anything like that?
And I couldn't even afford to rent
because if I had had a similar house,
like the exact same square footage and same model,
it would have been like $1,800 or $2,000 a month to rent
and it cost me like $800 a month to own it.
And I'm like, well, that's a no-brainer.
I'm saving like $1,000 a month just by owning.
Plus then it protects you from inflation
and just happened to be that because our government
prints dollars every single day,
that the price of the house went up like $50,000
just in the two years I was there.
So it was like a double win on the fact
that I'm not even paying as much to rent
and then I get a bunch of equity just,
well, it wasn't equity.
It was basically hedging your bet against inflation, honestly.
But I hedged my bet against inflation
and then it just works out way better.
So in that scenario, buying made a lot of sense right away.
But here's the thing.
I wasn't buying a house permanently
because it was a three-bedroom and I'm like,
I know I'm not going to be able to survive
in a three-bedroom with my family for forever,
but I know I can do it now.
And so sometimes it's good to make sure,
hey, this is a wise investment for now.
It's a temporary solution for now.
And then later I can go on.
But I don't want to move to Phoenix
hoping to move and be a pastor somewhere
and build my dream home while I'm there.
That doesn't really make that much sense
to invest all this money or to like spend a bunch of money
fixing the house up that I wouldn't get a return on.
Because sometimes you can replace things in your house
and it doesn't add any value.
You put an above-ground pool, it decreases value.
You put in a below-ground pool
and honestly, your return on investment
is typically only like 5% to 10%.
And I only say that because it's kind of true.
Now, I'm not saying you can't put a pool in your house.
I'm just saying you want to know,
if you're not planning on being there for a really long time,
it's usually not a very good investment.
It's adding a pool to a property.
Because you bought the house for let's say $100,000.
You put a $50,000 pool in, you're like,
oh, my house is worth $150,000.
Now it's worth $105,000.
That's kind of how it works typically.
And so that's not always the best idea.
So if I'm not rooted in my work,
if I'm not rooted in my church and all these other things,
why would I invest all this money into something like a pool
or something like that when it's not really something
that's going to last for a long time?
Those are just things to think about
from a practical perspective.
Additionally, when it comes to church,
I'd rather make sure that I'm established into a good church
than building my dream home when there isn't a good one.
Look, I know people that are literally building their dream home
where there's no good church.
I know people that they move out in the boondocks
to have their land or to have their farm or to have whatever,
but there's no good church in that area.
They know there's no good church in that area.
There's no likelihood of a good church
ever going into their area any time soon,
but they'd rather just have this great house.
And I'm telling you, it's more important to be serving God
than serving yourself, than to be focused on your own house.
And look how God feels in Haggai chapter 1 verse 4.
Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your sealed houses
and this house lay waste?
Now therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts,
Consider your waste.
Ye have sown much and bring in little.
Ye eat, ye have not enough.
Ye drink, ye are not filled with drink.
Ye clothe you, there is none warm.
And he that earneth wages,
earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.
That sounds like bad taxes, you know.
What is God saying?
God's saying because you're so focused on yourselves,
because you're so focused on your house and on your things,
but you're allowing church to just basically go by the wayside,
I'm plaguing you financially.
I'm not even allowing you to financially succeed.
And you know, it's not that God doesn't want you to be filled.
Notice that God is showing this as like a curse,
meaning that when God's blessing you,
you're going to have your eat and your drink to the fill.
God's going to make sure that all of your needs are taken well care of.
But he's saying when you do not want to serve me,
I'm going to take, I mean, all of the money,
your alimony, it's like alimony or something.
I mean, it's just like taking money out of your bank account
without you wanting it.
You're putting money into a bag with holes.
I mean, how would you feel if the bank said,
hey, you know what, from now on, every month,
we're just going to take a couple hundred bucks out.
You're like, what?
Why?
It's because, I mean, that would be terrible.
You wouldn't want to keep putting money into that bank account.
You would say like, well, I'm swapping banks.
What if every bank said that?
Then you're like, well, I don't know what to do.
And really, that's how inflation works.
You put your money in the bank, and then the inflation goes up,
and your money just turned into nothing.
And really, it's like the game of Monopoly
where the prices just keep going up,
but your money stayed the same that you're holding on in your hand.
That's really dangerous.
But God is saying this is a curse because they're not focused on God.
You say, hey, how are we going to fix America?
We need a better economic policy.
We need a better foreign policy.
We need more military spending.
We need to fund the police more
so they can have a response time of an hour and a half
for a school shooting, right?
I mean, we need to give more money to the public school system.
We need to give more money to this, this, this.
Here's where the money needs to be going, into the house of God.
That's where it needs to be going.
Hey, you want to fix America, fix church in America.
You know, we have so much bad church.
And look, there is a lot of money being poured into church right now,
but it's not the right church. It's Todd White's church.
It's Kenneth Copeland's back pocket.
And guess what? It's not really going into his church building.
It's going into his sealed houses.
It's going into his gold-plated toilets
and all of his airplanes or everything else that he has.
That guy is wicked. That guy's a false prophet.
But because people have forsaken what the Bible actually says,
they give money to these losers.
They give money to these idiots.
They give money to these charlatans.
Look what it says in verse number eight.
Go up to the mountain and bring wood and build the house,
and I will take pleasure in it.
And I will be glorified, saith the Lord.
He looked for much, and lo, it came to little.
And when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it.
Why, saith the Lord of hosts, because mine house, that is waste.
And ye run every man unto his own house.
Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew,
and the earth is stayed from her fruit,
and I call for a drought upon the land
and upon the mountains and upon the corn
and upon the new wine and upon the oil.
Gas prices are going up, man.
And upon that which the ground bringeth forth
and upon men and upon cattle and upon all the labor.
I mean, this sounds like rampant inflation, doesn't it?
Then Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel,
and Joshua, the son of Josedek, the high priest,
with all the remnant of the people,
obeyed the voice of the Lord their God,
and the words of Haggai the prophet,
as the Lord their God had sent him.
And the people that feared before the Lord,
then spake Haggai the Lord's messenger
and the Lord's message unto the people, saying,
I am with you, saith the Lord.
And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel,
the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah,
and the spirit of Joshua, the son of Josedek,
the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people,
and they came and did work in the house of the Lord of hosts,
their God.
You know, this hard preaching can work,
but sometimes they need God to just rain on them
all kinds of problems to get people's attention.
It's like people need to have bad times or hard things
to be able to wake up and say, oh, wow, I need God.
It's a process of humbling you.
David, praise the Lord, doesn't need that humility,
but, you know, we need that humility,
and we need to learn from his example
of how we're supposed to handle ourselves.
Go to Deuteronomy chapter 8 for a moment.
Go to Deuteronomy chapter number 8 for a moment.
And look at verse number 2.
The Bible says,
And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee,
these forty years in the wilderness,
to humble thee and to prove thee,
to know what was in thine heart,
whether thou wouldst keep his commandments or not.
God wanted them to go through the wilderness
to do something to them, to humble them.
And, you know, you sometimes have to wonder, like,
why do we have all this bad stuff happening in America?
Why do we look at it as an opportunity to humble ourselves?
But, you know, it seems like America is going in the exact opposite direction
by then celebrating for an entire month the idea of pride.
I mean, what's the exact opposite of humility?
It's pride.
And why would our nation,
when it's going through the worst economics it's had in a long time,
some of the worst problems it's had in a long time,
and all kinds of future problems on the horizon,
to then say, hey, let's be even more proud.
Let's be even more prideful.
You know, it makes me think of a town called Sodom.
You know, they declare their sin.
They just are so excited.
They're just so prideful in their sin.
And you know what?
God had to destroy them because of their pride.
You know, and if we want God's blessing as a nation,
we have to humble ourselves.
Verse 3 says this,
And he humbled thee and suffered thee to hunger,
and fed thee with manna, which thou knowest not.
Neither did thy fathers know that he might make thee know
that man doth not live by bread only,
but by every word that proceedeth of the mouth of the Lord doth man live.
You know what's so important about this verse?
Most people, when hard times come,
or hard times are on the horizon,
you know what their number one thought is?
What am I going to eat?
What am I going to feed my kids?
What am I going to feed myself with?
You know, God's saying,
Hey, I made you hunger so that you'd realize food is not the most important thing.
The word of God is the most important thing.
And you know what?
Some people are more worried about their bank account
and getting money than being able to preach the word of God.
You know what?
There's so many Baptists today that are hiding and cowering in the month of June
because they're more afraid of how they're going to feed themselves physically
than being able to feed the flock of God,
than being able to get up and thunder forth and preach the whole Bible.
They say,
Oh, Pastor Shelley, he doesn't know what the Bible says on those topics.
He's so hateful and he misinterprets the Scriptures.
Okay, well then tell us what Genesis 19 means.
Well, I don't want to preach on that.
That's not, you know.
You're wrong, but I don't want to talk about it.
But see, here's the thing.
By not talking about it, you're basically saying,
I'm never going to talk about it.
I'm never going to be allowed to talk about it.
If every Baptist and every Christian in our nation
shuts up on that topic,
stops talking about Pride Month,
then they're going to make it illegal to even talk about it.
They will.
And then,
I'm pretty sorry.
That's like getting loud.
And then, essentially, whatever next topic it is,
they'll put pressure,
they'll stop talking about it,
and they'll make that illegal.
And then they stop talking about it,
and eventually it just won't have anything.
And if you actually want to have freedoms,
you have to exercise them.
You have to push the limits.
You have to push back.
You have to make it clear where you stand.
You have to make it clear what you believe.
And it's funny that all these Baptists that disagree with us,
I never hear them making the news for whatever they believe.
They're a soft version.
I don't even know what it is.
I don't even know where they are.
Where do they go?
Where are all the Baptists?
I mean, where are all the men of God in this area?
Why don't they stand up?
Why don't they actually say what needs to be said in this country?
You know, it's actually humbling to say,
hey, I'm going to say what the Bible says.
It doesn't matter what my personal opinion is.
I'm going to say what the Bible says.
I don't care what happens to me.
I don't care if I have to hunger a little bit,
or suffer a little bit,
or walk through the wilderness a little bit,
or be unpopular for a little while.
I mean, do you really think that Moses was a beacon of popularity?
Have you ever read the Bible?
I mean, at times they want to kill the guy.
At times the entire group wants to leave him and go back.
And you know what?
Sometimes the preacher has to preach things that are unpopular.
He has to make people a little mad.
He has to step on a few toes.
People have to feel uncomfortable in church a little bit
so they can get right with God.
And you know, I'm sure Haggai's sermon wasn't the most popular sermon.
Hey, why are you guys padding your 401k when church is decaying?
Why are you guys padding your houses and having all this money and luxury
when, hey, you're not even going to church?
You don't even care about church.
You just stay home.
You know, it's Wednesday night and I'm preaching to the choir.
You know, there's a lot of people that are just not going to church tonight that could.
Here's my question.
Where are you?
Are you so prideful to think you don't need church?
You don't need church on a Wednesday night.
You don't need church on a Sunday night.
You don't need church every single week.
You don't need to read the Bible.
You don't need to pray.
You don't need to go out and preach the gospel.
No, you need it all.
It humbles you.
It tells you, hey, I can't do this on my own.
I need God.
Hey, I need someone else's help.
Oh, well, I'm smarter than Pastor Shelley.
Well, great.
I'm glad that you're smarter than me.
Because you know what?
I'm not hoping that I'm smarter than everybody else.
You know what?
Coming to church and listening to someone else preach, thinking that they might know
something more than you, that's humility.
Pride says I don't need church.
I don't need Pastor Shelley.
And I didn't know that every single person arrived and is smarter than every Baptist
preacher in this area.
Because you know what?
If I'm not smart, then go somewhere else.
Because I guarantee there's plenty of pastors in America that are smart enough to teach
you something, to teach you from the Word of God.
And if anything, many times, hey, just reading the verses, the Holy Spirit will teach you
something.
There's been plenty of times where people after the service, they come up to me and
they say, hey, while you were preaching and when you read this verse, you know, God just
laid this on my heart or this other verse came to my mind or whatever.
The Holy Spirit is just like working in their heart and teaching them something.
I didn't even do it.
I was up here just yelling and foaming at the mouth and they're sitting over here having
a private Bible study.
But I'm just thinking like, hey, at least you humbled yourself enough to realize you
needed God.
To say, hey, I don't need God.
I got this.
I can go do whatever I want.
Wednesday, Sunday morning, Sunday night.
Hey, I need to make some more money on Wednesday.
Why not go to church?
You know, we could all make more money on Wednesday if we didn't go to church.
I could make more money.
I could spend more time.
I have plenty of opportunities to go out and make more money.
I could spend.
There's so many projects in my house that I'm not doing.
Ask my wife.
I got a big honey to do this, okay?
I have so many things like I could be having like fun, things that I just love doing.
You know, I could go play some golf or, you know, go do anything.
Ride a bike.
I mean, just have, you know, a picnic.
I could just take a nap.
That just sounds great.
You know, I wouldn't have to see like a bunch of freaks staring at me either all the time.
But, you know, I come to church because I realize I need church.
That's why you're supposed to go.
Not because it's like, oh, you know, I'm so great.
I'm so wonderful and I'm going to go bless church.
No, no, no.
You go to church to get blessed.
You go to church to praise the Lord.
And, you know, David is realizing, hey, I have all these great things because of God.
I need to keep that going.
I need to worry about God.
I need to worry if God's still pleased with me.
You know, how can I sit here and enjoy my life while God doesn't have everything that
he could possibly need or want?
Hey, if God's in a tabernacle, can I get him a better house somehow?
Can I build him something better?
Can I do something better?
That doesn't seem right that I'm living better than God is what he's thinking.
And you know what?
Some people have the wrong mentality.
So if you would, back to our story, 2 Samuel 7.
2 Samuel 7.
And I kind of stopped here in verse number 7.
Like, why build ye not me in houses here?
He's saying this in a rhetorical question like, did I ever say that?
That's verse 8.
Now, therefore, so shalt thou say unto my servant David, thus saith the Lord of hosts,
I took thee from the sheep coat, from following the sheep to be ruler over my people over
Israel.
And I was with thee whithersoever thou winest, and have cut off all thine enemies out of
thy side, and have made thee a great name, like unto the name of the great men that are
in the earth.
Moreover, I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may
dwell in a place of their own, and move no more.
Neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them any more as before time.
And as since the time that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel, and have caused
thee to rest from all thine enemies, also the Lord telleth thee that he will make thee
in house.
And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy
seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom.
And he shall build an house for my name, and will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
I will be his father, and he shall be my son.
If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the
children of men.
But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before
thee.
And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established forever before thee, thy throne shall be established
forever according to all these words, and according to all this vision.
So did Nathan speak unto David."
So, God's saying to David, hey, I took you from the sheep code, I took you from a really
humbling position, and I gave you all these victories, and the same things with my people,
I've taken them out of a bad situation, and I'm trying to plant you guys where you never
have to move again, where you have one place that you're finally just established in, and
Jerusalem, you know, the city of David is where this is going to be.
But he makes it clear to David that he's not going to have this be fulfilled in his lifetime.
He says in verse number 12, and when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy
fathers.
So, and I believe that's a euphemism for the fact that you go to heaven.
Sleep with your fathers is kind of a euphemism for you went to heaven.
He dies, goes to heaven.
He says, I will set up thy seed after thee.
And we know that seed is Solomon.
His next son in the lineage is going to be the one whom he appoints to build the house
of God.
And it says, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom.
He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
Now, what's interesting about this passage, I believe it has a little bit of dual fulfillment.
So you have to be careful about that dual fulfillment because some of this applies to
only Solomon, and some of it's kind of applying to Christ here.
But, obviously, Solomon specifically is not going to live forever.
We understand that Solomon died, right?
And we even understand that there was even breaks in the kingdom in the sense that they
have the Babylonian kingdom, you know, or the Babylonian captivity.
There's a break.
But there is a continual succession of kings of Judah that goes from the lineage of David
all the way to Christ, and then there's no ceasing of break from that throne.
What's interesting, if you think about it, because you do have breaks, right?
You have a break with the Babylonian captivity.
And then you have a break when Jesus basically goes back up into heaven until now.
There has been no king of Judah.
There's been no king of Jerusalem.
And, in fact, I don't believe there will be one until you have the pseudo king of the Antichrist.
But then Christ is going to come and he's going to be the rightful king and establish his kingdom.
And then the question is, how long forever?
So this prophecy is being a picture of Christ and the fact that the seed of Christ is going to come through who?
David, Solomon, and it's going to go through that lineage, essentially, of David.
Now, it says in verse number 13, or 14, I will be his father and he shall be my son.
I've heard some people, and I don't know, I've heard some people try to take verses like this or in other places
and say that this is a proof of, like, oneness, that somehow, like, Jesus wasn't his son.
He's going to, like, play the role of a father and then play the role of a son.
But here's the thing. This passage isn't about Jesus, because look at the next phrase, if he commit iniquity.
You know what Jesus Christ never is going to do? Commit iniquity.
And then he even says this, I will chasten him with the rod of men.
There's not even bringing this, like, a hypothetical, like, that Jesus could even do, because Jesus could never do that.
It's impossible for him to do that.
And it doesn't, like, he's going to play the role of a father and play the role of a son.
Jesus Christ is just the son of God. Period. Okay? He's always been the son.
This verse, it would be foolish to take this verse so out of context, even out of its own verse context,
and then try to say that, you know, Jesus wasn't really the son, he's just playing the son.
He'll be a son. Meaning that it's happened at some point. No, no, no. Jesus has always been the son. Okay?
It's talking about Solomon is going to be like this picture of the father and the son.
Now, why? Because Solomon's reign is very reminiscent, or it's a foreshadowing, of Christ's reign.
Because when Christ rules, it's going to be a lot like Solomon.
He's going to be the wisest person on the planet, there's just peace everywhere, untold riches.
So there's all these similarities, so it makes sense that you kind of have this picture of, like, God the father and Solomon,
because it's going to be God the father and the son, Jesus Christ, and that's kind of the foreshadowing and the picturing that's taking place.
He says that he's going to chasten him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the children of men.
Now that's what happens to Solomon in the later portion of his reign.
He gets a couple enemies, and then eventually even loses the kingdom, because he's not Jesus.
And I think that that's important too, and I know I'm going a little out of this chapter,
but I believe the reason why Solomon had a downfall at the end of his life is just to help us realize that Solomon's a man.
Because what if Solomon, just 18, took over the kingdom, was perfect, was the smartest guy, and then had no problems?
It's kind of like, oh wow, I guess you can be this great, perfect person or whatever.
Maybe we could get a guy like Solomon back in, and he could rule forever.
But here's the thing, man can't rule forever because it's simple.
The only person that can handle all the wealth, and all the money, and all the accolades, and all the things that come with that power is Jesus.
Because he's the ultimate picture of someone that would humble themselves.
He had it all, and he was willing to give it all up so that he could just rescue us, so that he could save us.
Whereas man, man can't really handle that.
And I think all of us would like to think that we could, like, oh man, I bet I could.
I could handle all the money, and all the women, and all the whatever.
It's like, no you can't.
No guy before you has, no guy after you will, you certainly won't.
Okay, so we need to have a humble view of ourselves and realize that we need God to stay humble.
Keep your finger and go to Deuteronomy chapter 17 for a moment.
Go to Deuteronomy chapter 17.
Why is David able to get this blessing?
You know, I believe that from reading the scripture, he must have been someone that read a lot of Bible.
And it makes sense, because think about it.
We have all these Psalms of whom? David.
So David's obviously meditating on the word of God on a regular basis.
Knowing what the Bible says.
And really, the more you read the Bible, the more you study the Bible, the more humble of a person you are.
Like if you say, like, I struggle with pride, like probably one of the best ways to cure that is just a lot of Bible.
And of course there's probably more than that, but I'm just saying that's a cure according to the scriptures.
Look what it says in Deuteronomy chapter 17 verse 18.
And it shall be, and this is talking about a king, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom,
that he shall write him a copy of this law and a book out of that which is before the priests, the Levites.
And it shall be with him.
And he shall read there in all the days of his life that he may learn to fear the Lord his God to keep all the words of this law and these statutes to do them.
That his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, that he turn not aside from the commandment to the right hand or the left, to the end that he may prolong his days and his kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel.
So being in an elevated position automatically makes it more difficult to be humble, because you have things.
Having money makes you prideful.
Having a nice house makes you prideful.
Having a good job where you make a lot of money makes you prideful.
Being a leader makes you prideful.
If you're someone in this room that says, I have a lot of money, I lead people, I'm a manager, I own my own company, or any of those type of things, I'm a manager, you are going to be very susceptible to pride, because you have the opportunity to be prideful.
When you have nothing, it's sometimes harder to be prideful.
Now, homeless people can do it, so it's not like saying you can't.
I'm telling you that you're more prone to it.
So being put in a position of king, it's real easy to start thinking you're better than other people.
Well, I'm King David.
I'm better than Benaiah, or I'm better than Nathan.
But here's the thing.
Is David really a better person than Nathan?
Did Nathan commit adultery?
Did Nathan commit murder?
Is he really a better person than Nathan, or is Nathan just a different person, and Nathan has his own importance and role and job and the work of God?
It would be really easy for anybody to start thinking they're better than other people because of the position they're put in, or because of a leadership role, or because of the money they make, or any of these type of things.
But you know what? The Bible is supposed to help humble us by, when we read it, we realize how bad we really are, number one.
Number two, how insignificant we are in the scheme of God, in the sense of how much power, might, understanding, and wisdom He has.
And then additionally, that the Bible's constantly instructing us to care about other people.
And when you're focused on other people, you're not prideful.
When you're focused on yourself, you're prideful.
So if I'm focused on my house, pride.
When I'm focused on God's house, I'm humble.
When I'm focused on my job, pride.
When I'm focused on other people's job, I'm humble.
When I'm focused on other people's salvation, humble.
When I'm focused on my salvation, I'm prideful.
That's why Calvinists are the most prideful people ever, because they're so concerned with their salvation.
They're not even saved.
The Pharisees, so concerned with their salvation, and their righteousness, and their accolades, and their walk with God.
What's one of the most humble people ever is the poor widow who cast in two mites.
She's not concerned with where she's going to get fed, or with her money.
She's concerned with the things of God.
Whereas the rich guy, hoarding all of his money, is more concerned with what?
How he's going to get fed, and the things he's going to be doing.
So again, humility is taking the focus off yourself and putting it on other people.
Coming to church helps you with that, because you're putting the focus on God, and not on yourself.
Saying, hey, I'm here for God.
In what way? Well, I need to figure out what ways I need to change to be more pleasing to Him.
What things do I need to work on? What things do I need to improve on?
You know, how can I learn more and grow more for God?
We're going to finish this chapter here.
I really feel like this chapter, we need to take away from it the importance of humility.
The importance of humbling ourselves, and seeing a need for God.
I really love David in this chapter, the humility he has, that even in a moment of prosperity,
even in a moment of great success, he's still willing to say, you know what, I need to focus on God.
That's why I got here.
The moment that David takes his eyesight off of God is when he ends up getting a lot of problems and a lot of trouble.
When he starts coveting things that aren't his.
When he starts focusing on himself rather than on other people and their good and their need,
and sacrificing and serving others.
You know, a good way to get out of trouble? Serve other people.
Work hard.
You know, when you're serving yourself, that's a dangerous place to be in.
It says in verse number...
One other moment, he took out Saul in verse 15. This is one other thing I wanted to mention.
What was the reason why Saul got replaced?
He was prideful.
He was arrogant.
And God even rebuked him and said, hey, when you were humble and when you were little in your own sight,
that's when I elevated you.
Now that he's prideful, thinking that he can do the sacrifice of God without the priest,
thinking that he doesn't have to obey God's commandments. He's above that.
He can keep Agag and the best of the flock.
Thinking that when he gets confronted, he doesn't even have to confess his sin.
He can just kind of be stubborn and continue being rebellious.
And you know what? That's just a dangerous road to go down.
They're like, I've already served God enough. I don't need more church.
I don't need more of the Word of God.
I don't need his blessing anymore. I got this.
That's a dangerous road to be down.
He says in verse number 18, then went King David in and sat before the Lord and said, who am I, O Lord God?
And what is my house that thou has brought me hitherto?
This was yet a small thing in thy sight, O Lord God.
Thou has spoken also of thy servant's house for a great while to come.
And is this the manner of man, O Lord God?
What can David say more unto thee?
For thou, Lord God, knowest thy servant.
For thy word's sake, and according to thine own heart, hast thou done all these great things?
Make thy servant know them.
David was humbled to seek after the Lord, to seek the house.
Then Nathan's like saying, you are just, you know, I've elevated you.
You're the greatest guy, and you're going to build this house, and your lineage is never going to end.
That was a lot of just God just like praising David.
And then notice David's immediate response is just like, why me?
He's like, how could you do this unto me?
You know, he's saying, verse 18, who am I, O Lord God?
Saying like, I don't deserve any of this.
David wasn't like, of course it's me.
Of course my lineage is going to be the lineage that would never end.
I mean, I killed Goliath. Nobody can defeat me.
I'm David, you know.
What is David's attitude? I mean, this is why David is in charge.
Because David is the most humble person that we can even find on the planet.
He cares so much more about other people, and even when God himself is praising him, he's still humble.
He still thinks little of himself.
He still is thinking, I'm not qualified for the job.
That's why you constantly see men that are greatly used of God, they can't even believe it that God would use them.
Moses is just like, it's anybody else.
Peter, Lord, depart from me, for I'm a sinful man.
You see, David, who am I?
You know, these men are not saying like, of course, it's definitely me.
Why wouldn't you pick me already?
You know, it's like, no, of course.
He's picking people that think very lowly of themselves.
They understand the magnitude of who God truly is.
That's what it is.
When you realize how big God is, you start realizing how little you are.
When you have a flat earth view of God, it's really distorted.
When you start realizing the universe is literally just infinite in every direction, and that God's bigger than all of that,
and you realize the speck of dust that we are, and the vapor that our life truly is,
you start realizing how impressive God is, you start realizing, why would you even want to fellowship with me?
I'm like, nothing.
You know, it's like an adult sitting down on the floor and playing with babies.
You know, that's a humbling thing to do, because a baby can't engage you intellectually.
It's not going to play ping pong with you, okay?
It can't even do it.
I mean, it can't play any sports with you.
It can't have any intelligent conversations with you.
It's just like, whatever.
But you know what?
Just loving on that little baby is a humbling experience.
And that's kind of how we have to look at it from God's perspective.
We're like little babies in a sight, in the sense that we can't compete with Him.
We can't even have discussions on the same level as Him.
We can't do anything.
Yet He still loves us and cares about us so much.
It should be really honoring that God will even have anything to do with us.
And that's kind of how David's perspective is.
Like, who am I that you would even do these things to me?
But you decided.
It's your words, your heart.
And basically, you've told me all this just so I could even know that it was going to happen.
I could just be blessed by the knowledge of God.
Verse 22,
Wherefore thou art great, O Lord God, for there is none like thee,
neither is there any God beside thee,
according to all that we have heard with our ears.
And what one nation in the earth is like thy people,
even like Israel, whom God went to redeem before a people to Himself,
and to make Him a name, and to do for you great things and terrible for thy land,
for thy people,
that thou redeemest thee from Egypt, from the nations and their gods,
that thou hast confirmed with thyself, thy people Israel, to be a people unto thee forever,
and thou, Lord, art become their God.
Now, O Lord, the words that thou spake concerning thy servant,
and concerning his house, established it forever,
and do as thou hast said.
Let thy name be magnified forever,
saying, The Lord of hosts is the God over Israel.
Let the house of thy servant David be established before thee.
For thou, O Lord of hosts, God of Israel,
hast revealed to thy servant, saying, I will build thee a house.
Therefore, hath thy servant found in his heart to pray this prayer unto thee.
And now, O Lord God, thou art that God,
that thy words be true, and thou hast promised this goodness unto thy servant.
Therefore, now let it please thee to bless the house of thy servant,
that it may continue forever before thee.
For thou, O Lord God, has spoken it,
and with thy blessing the house of thy servant be blessed forever.
So here's the last thought that I think is really important in this chapter,
and there's a lot more, but verse 26 he says,
And let thy name be magnified forever.
Why is it so important to David that he builds a house of God?
It's so that God gets praise.
It's so that God gets the honor that he deserves.
So that when all the world looks to the God of the Bible,
they don't think of him as this tent-dwelling, walking in the wilderness God,
but rather a God that has the greatest house on all the earth.
I mean, the greatest temple that was ever built.
Everybody wanted to go and see Solomon's temple.
Everyone wanted to hear about the God of the Bible.
Everyone looked at the nation of Israel and said,
Oh, what God is like their God, which can deliver like their God,
can provide like their God, has laws and statutes like their God,
has a name like their God.
I mean, what name of any other God sounds like the name of our God?
Jesus.
You know, these false gods have weird names.
They're not even worthy to be othered in the same name as Jesus or as Jehovah
or as God the Father or God Almighty.
Why do you think it is that people blaspheme that name?
Because it's the greatest name.
Allah.
No one cares, all right?
Or some Hindu God or whatever.
Nobody cares because those names are garbage anyways.
And in fact, most of the names in the Bible you can clearly tell
they have like a definition built in to the name.
And it's the same with God, with Jehovah and Jesus.
Some of the names of God are saying that God saves or Jehovah saves.
How beautiful is we have a name that's literally telling us
that our Savior is the Savior in His name.
And then you have other wicked people that have a name that's just like,
this guy's wicked, you know.
This guy's evil.
This guy's a supplanter, you know.
This guy, whatever, Jacob, you know.
But that's why he changed Israel, okay.
Previous names like Bethel, the house of God.
And you've got Jerusalem.
You've got all these bringing peace, you know.
Names of God are like bringing peace and wonderful and counselor.
And you know, why is it that we dedicate our lives to church?
It's so that God can get glory.
I mean, isn't it kind of a shame if we say,
hey, we believe the God of the universe,
that's the one that we worship, can't even provide us anything.
I mean, we can't be provided for financially.
We can't even have a house.
We can't even have a church.
We can't even have a Bible.
You know, we're constantly trying to find the Bible.
I mean, that's kind of a shame.
Kind of an embarrassment.
And you know what?
I believe that God has a desire to bless his house
and to restore it and to bring great glory unto his name.
You know, there's been giant churches that were really good churches in the past.
Jack Heil's had a great big church.
He had the biggest church in America at one point in time.
You know, we have great movements like here in Fort Worth with J. Frank Norris.
I mean, one of the biggest churches ever.
Threading all over the earth.
Everybody's heard of it.
Everybody knows what's going on.
You know, church should be magnified so that God is magnified.
It's not about us.
It's not about one person.
It's about the works that God can do.
And if we would humble ourselves and elevate God, he'd elevate us with him.
If David elevates the Lord, God elevates David.
And he gives him a name, you know, that's greater than all the other men of the earth.
You know, you want to be great.
It comes through blessing other people, and specifically the Lord.
Honoring the Lord, giving glory unto his name.
We shouldn't be embarrassed that our God is the God of the Bible.
We shouldn't be embarrassed to be a Christian.
We shouldn't be embarrassed to believe anything in the Bible.
You know, when you become embarrassed of the things of God,
when you shy away from the things of God, that's how you get embarrassed.
Our country is in embarrassment.
Why?
Because we don't have the Bible as our foundation.
You know, I would never be embarrassed if our country said,
hey, Leviticus 20-13 is the law of the land.
That wouldn't be embarrassing to me.
What's embarrassing to me is these pride parades going up and down the streets.
That's embarrassing.
You know, what's embarrassing is a country that claims to be Christian,
yet all it can think about is drugs, alcohol, sports, and whores.
I mean, that's basically what our country has devolved down into.
That's all anything everybody can care about anymore is essentially just whores and drinking.
I mean, that is like almost the only things that men care about anymore.
And they put them in all the same place.
I mean, you go to Hooters, you got whores and alcohol, right?
You go to Buffalo Wild Wings, whores and alcohol.
I mean, you go to the gentlemen's club, whores and alcohol.
I mean, that's basically what every establishment out here is that every man's interested in anymore.
Why can't men be interested in the things of God?
You know, it's embarrassing that we live in a country, we live in a nation that thinks it doesn't need God anymore.
If we want to fix our area, if we want to fix our nation, we want to fix our houses,
we have to elevate God above ourselves and say God is more important than I am.
The house of God is more important than I am.
Christianity is more important than I am.
And from a practical perspective, I mean, you have to decide if you're going to put God first every single day of your life.
What is more important?
And, you know, it frightens me when I think about the direction that our nation is headed in,
but I'll tell you this, the only way we're going to fix anything is by just humbling ourselves to say
I'm going to trust whatever God wants me to do regardless of what threats are coming my way.
I mean, when you got a Philistine standing nine and a half feet tall, got a sword that's probably bigger than you,
you know, it's real easy to think like how are we going to fix this problem?
Well, you know what? You're never going to fix it by getting a bigger sword.
You're never going to fix it by getting a bigger bow.
You know you're going to fix it? Trusting God.
You say, how are we going to enter the promised land full of giants?
And, you know, you look at America, I'll be honest with you, it is a train wreck.
Like, America is just going down the dumps.
You say, how are we going to fix it? It's impossible.
It's impossible to defeat Goliath physically.
It is impossible to take over the promised land physically.
It is impossible for an entire city, all of its walls, to just fall straight down.
It is impossible for a 47-story skyscraper to fall due to office fires.
Okay? That is impossible.
You know what? It's impossible for our country to fix itself without God.
And you know what? It's impossible to build a fundamental church without Leviticus 2013.
It's impossible to build a fundamental Baptist church.
It's impossible to build steadfast without standing on every word of God.
Without doing the soul winning, without believing and trusting that he can deliver us.
And let me tell you something. I'm not strong enough to fight all these enemies by myself.
In fact, I would say we're doomed.
You know what? I believe this.
If we just humble ourselves and say, hey, I'm going to do whatever God said,
I'm going to preach whatever God wants me to say, he's going to somehow deliver me out of this.
You know, it's impossible to be thrown into a fiery furnace and survive.
It's impossible to be thrown into a den full of lions that haven't eaten and survive.
I mean, everything in the Bible is saying you can't survive. You can't make it.
And then how do they get through? With God's power.
But let me tell you something. God didn't stop being miraculous in the New Testament.
I mean, have you ever read the New Testament? I mean, they're walking out of jail.
God's just opened up the jail doors and they're just walking straight through.
Paul was stoned to death multiple times and survived it.
And you know what? When you read in the book of Matthew, when you read 24 and you read about the end times,
let me tell you something. It sounds impossible.
When I think about how many listening devices exist,
when I think about how Teslas can just, you know, when everybody's forced to buy one,
we all are driving electric cars whether you like it or not,
and that thing can just drive you wherever it wants, whenever it wants.
And you've got 25 listening devices and all kinds of cameras everywhere.
And you say, how are you going to survive the tribulation? I'm thinking like it's impossible.
But you know what? If I just trust in God, He could somehow make it happen. He could just deliver me.
You know, when it talks about praying, it's saying pray that you're worthy to be delivered to these things.
You're counted worthy to escape all these things.
You know who's going to escape? Not the prepper, the guy that's serving God.
Not the guy that's hiding in a bunker somewhere.
Not some guy that's buying land out in the middle of nowhere, not serving God, building some fancy house.
That guy's not going to survive. It's the guy that's building God's house.
It's the guy that's serving God. It's the guy that's going to put God first.
You know what? Why did David survive all the battles he did?
Because he put God first and he entered into the hottest battles.
Not because he backed off and went and hid himself.
And you know what? This church is never going to be a church that hides itself.
We're going to enter into the hottest battles saying, how are we going to get out of here?
Only God can deliver us. Only God can get us through.
Only God, we're just going to rely upon his strength.
And let me tell you something, I need all of it.
I'm not smart enough. I'm not wise enough. I don't have enough money.
I don't have enough physical strength. I don't have enough endurance. I can't do it.
I'm weak. But you know what? He is strong.
And I believe that if we just trust in God, he would show himself strong on our behalf.
And he can build this church better than I can and any of us can.
You know what? It's not going to be built when we're worried about ourselves.
We're focused on our thing.
We're so concerned about, well, am I ever going to get my dream house?
Let me tell you something. How about just build God's house?
Because you're going to get a dream house in heaven anyways.
Where you can actually enjoy it.
Am I going to get the dream job?
Hey, you might get a dream job in heaven.
You know, quit worrying about this life and start worrying about God.
This life sucks anyways.
You could build that dream house and the economy could crash and you'd lose it tomorrow.
And I mean, that's not even that far-fetched.
I'm just being honest with you. Okay?
You know, communism could be around the corner.
You say, I don't think God would let us have that happen.
Have you ever read what God was doing to the children of Israel in the book of Judges?
I mean, it was way worse.
Did you see what Pharaoh did?
He was literally forcing people to throw their children in the river.
And you know what? I think some of these weak, fake Christians would probably throw their children in the river if the government told them to.
You know what? I won't.
Many people are doing it already through birth control anyways and through abortion anyways.
You know what? And if our country is going to survive any storm, it's going to be because Christians humbled themselves and said,
We need God right now. I don't need Donald Trump. I don't need MAGA. I don't need Republicans.
I don't need any of this junk because it's all junk. It's all garbage and it'll never fix anything.
The only thing that'll fix this country is the King James Bible.
Let's bring back Christianity. Let's bring back the thing that really matters.
And let us be a church that's steadfast in the things of God and never cowering to the predators of today.
Close in prayer.
Thank you Heavenly Father so much for this chapter.
Thank you for giving us the ability to serve you.
It's a great honor to be able to serve the God of the universe.
To be able to be gathered in His house.
To be even called by His name.
To be called the sons of God. To be called the daughters of God.
To have the great blessing that you humble yourself so much to come down here and just fellowship with us.
To die for us. Sending your son to die for us.
I pray that we would get a big view of you so that we could have a little view of ourselves.
I pray that we would humble ourselves and quit worrying about this world so much and worry more about the things of God.
And that we would have a spiritual desire today to invest in the things of God.
And that you would just deliver us from all this evil and all this oppression that you'd somehow just allow us to just be in the eye of the storm.
And we realize that it's dark out there. We realize that there's a lot of evil out there.
I pray that you would just protect us. I pray that you would show yourself strong on our behalf.
I pray that you would just destroy our enemies. That you would just crush them.
That you would just bring calamity upon them.
That just sudden destruction would just befall them and there would be no remedy.
And that you would destroy them and just everyone around them and everything that they touch.
That they would just be dried up like a fig tree was dried up and just destroyed, just twice dead.
And I pray that you would just bring us great deliverance.
I pray that you would just cause people's hearts in this area to soften.
Whatever it takes so that people could serve you.
So that you could get more honor. You could get more glory.
That you'd help us to just throw some of these fake mountains into the sea.
Some of these fake churches and these false prophets.
That you could just use us to destroy them through the Word of God.
So that you could get all the honor and glory.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
364, standing on the promises of God.
Standing on the promises of Christ my King.
Through eternal ages let His praises ring.
Glory in the highest I will shout and sing.
Standing on the promises of God.
Standing, standing, standing on the promises of God my Savior.
Standing, standing, I'm standing on the promises of God.
Standing on the promises that cannot fail.
When the howling storms of doubt and fear assail.
By the living Word of God I shall prevail.
Standing on the promises of God.
Standing, standing, standing on the promises of God my Savior.
Standing, standing, I'm standing on the promises of God.
Standing on the promises of Christ the Lord.
Bound to Him eternally by love's strong core.
Overcoming daily with the Spirit's sword.
Standing on the promises of God.
Standing, standing, standing on the promises of God my Savior.
Standing, standing, I'm standing on the promises of God.
Standing on the promises I cannot fall.
Listening every moment to the Spirit's call.
Resting in my Savior as my all in all.
Standing on the promises of God.
Standing, standing, standing on the promises of God my Savior.
Standing, standing, I'm standing on the promises of God.