this evening by singing 124 this evening thank you for the opportunity to be gathered in your
house that she blessed this time we sing praises to your name sing out with love and understanding
in our hearts we love you in Jesus name we pray all right for a second song let's go to 421
verse 421 snow well thank you so much for coming to steadfast baptist church if you did not get a
bulletin you would like one please lift your hand up real quick and buy and get you a bulletin we
have 13 of proverbs 31 that we're working on as far as bible memory on the inside is our service
soul winning times um if you do have any church stats please submit those to your soul winning
captains and lieutenants that way we can update also please be in prayer for expecting ladies we
still have several ladies who are praying for we also have prayer list if you'd be in prayer for
our church family there if you'd like to be added to the prayer list just send us an email try to
get you updated into our next prayer request list also on the back is the note about the upcoming
events 24th is the cookie bake off and it's after our evening service since it is december 24th
we're going to just alter our schedule just a little bit so we'll probably just do what we did
for the fire breathing baptist fellowship similarly where we just take our 5 30 service and we just go
to the 4 30 and we just temporarily suspend the spanish service that way we can get out here a
little sooner especially since we're having cookies because obviously uh some parents may not mind
but a lot of us don't necessarily want our kids to only have cookies for dinner so um of course
we'll have some cookies and then we can go out and still have a reasonable hour so we'll probably
we'll just have our our evening service at 4 30 on the 24th but and then we'll have our cookie
fellowship right after so just fyi um also the 31st is our new year's eve party and then we have
the congratulations on just it's a boy party right on the birth of michael lee connor and on the birth
of axel scott so congratulations to both those families one other note uh just just as a friendly
reminder um we do have the spanish service and you know we want to treat that with some respect
so if you are coming in um to service a little early and they're still having spanish service
if you would please either just can come in just sit quietly or if you want to talk talk outside
but try not to just talk in the hallway and stuff just because since we're in such a small space it's
easily distracting and we want to be respectful of our spanish preachers our spanish service
and so um if you are coming and they're still having service just please if you don't mind just
be respectful of that um if people want to talk of course have fellowship outside or anything like
that there's nothing wrong with being in here especially if weather you know is kind of cold
or something but please just do be respectful of their services for us and that's pretty much all
i have as far as announcements we're going to go ahead and sing our psalm of the week psalm 150
it's in our separate handouts so if you if you want to use that that's the best you can still
use the king james bible if you need to psalm 150 where the dylan's going to lead us all right psalm
150 it's being passed for please turn in your bibles to exodus 32 to this chapter 32 32 to this
chapter 32 the bible reads when the people saw that moses delayed to come down out of the mount
people gather themselves together unto erin and said unto him make us gods which shall go before
us for as for this moses the man that brought us up out of the land of egypt we want not what has
become of him and erin said unto them break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your
wives of your sons and of your daughters and bring them unto me and all the people break off the
golden earrings which were in their ears and brought them unto erin and he received them at
their hand to fashion it with a graving tool after he had made it a molten calf and they said these
be thy gods oh israel which brought thee up out of the land of egypt when erin saw it he built an
altar before it and erin made proclamation and said tomorrow is the feast to the lord and they
rose up early on the morrow and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings and the
people sat down to eat and to drink and rose up to play and the lord said unto moses go get thee down
for thy people which thou brought us out of the land of egypt have corrupted themselves they have
turned aside quickly out of the way which i commanded them they have made them a molten calf
and have worshiped it and have sacrificed there onto and said these be thy gods oh israel which
have brought thee up out of the land of egypt and the lord said unto moses i have seen this people
and behold it is a stiff neck people now therefore let me alone that my wrath may wax hot against them
and then i may consume them and i will make of thee a great nation and moses besought the lord
his god and said lord why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people which thou was brought forth
out of the land of egypt with great power and with a mighty hand wherefore should the egyptians
speak and say for mischief did he bring them out to slay them in the mountains and to consume them
from the face of the earth turn from thy fierce wrath and repent of this evil against thy people
remember abraham isaac and israel thy servants to whom thou swears by thy own self
and said asun to them i will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven and all this land
that i have spoken of will i give unto your seed and they shall inherit it forever and the lord
repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people and moses turned and went down from
the mount and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand the tables were written on both their
sides on the one side and on the other were they written and the tables were the work of god and
the writing was the writing of god graven upon the tables and when joshua heard the noise of the
people as they shouted he said unto moses there is a noise of war in the camp and he said it is not
the voice of them that shout for mastery neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome
but the noise of them that sing do i hear and it came to pass as soon as he came nigh into the camp
that he saw the calf and the dancing and moses anger wax hot and he cast the tables out of his
stone and break them beneath the mount and he took the calf which they had made and burnt it in the
fire and ground it to powder and stradded upon the water and made the children of israel drink of it
and moses said unto erin what did this people unto thee that thou was brought so great sin upon them
and erin said let not the anger of my lord wax hot thou knowest the people that they are set on
mischief for they said unto me make us gods which shall go before us for as for this moses the man
that brought us up out of the land of egypt we whatnot is what become of him and i said unto them
whosoever have any gold let them break it off so they gave it me then i cast it into the fire and
there came out this calf and when moses saw that the people were naked for aaron had made them
naked under their shame among their enemies then moses stood in the gate of the camp and said who
is on the lord's side let him come unto me and all the sons of levi gathered themselves together
unto him and he said unto them thus saith the lord god of israel put every man his sword by his side
and go in and out from from gate to gate throughout the camp and slay every man his brother and every
man his companion and every man his neighbor and the children of levi did according to the word of
moses and there fell of the people that day about 3000 men for moses had said consecrate yourselves
today to the lord even every man upon his son and upon his brother that he may bestow upon you a
blessing this day and it came to pass in the morrow that moses said to the people you have
sinned a great sin and now i will go up under the lord para venture i shall make an atonement for
your sin and moses returned under the lord and said oh this people have sinned a great sin
and have made them gods of gold yet now if thou will forgive their sin and if not blot me i pray
thee out of thy book which thou has written and the lord said unto moses whosoever has sinned
against me him will i blot out of my book therefore now go lead the people unto the place of which i
have spoken unto thee behold my angel shall go before thee nevertheless in the day when i visit
i will visit their sin upon them and the lord plagued the people because they made the calf which
erin made let us pray father thank you so much for steadfast baptist church we thank you uh so
much for our pastor and his family and all the accomplishments that we did uh this year according
to your will lord i pray that you would help us even have a bigger 2024 and a bigger vision
to get the gospel out and we just also pray for pastor uh shelly this evening that you would fill
in with your holy spirit and uh help him to gather the words that he has to speak on to us this
evening and i pray that he would preach with power and authority and help us to walk away becoming
better christians lord and that we would do all these things according to you your will and your
son's will and we ask these things in jesus name amen amen the i want to kind of go back to the
beginning of this chapter and uh really what's interesting about this chapter is it kind of
shows and exemplifies the idea of weak leadership and that weak leadership is uh personified through
erin and kind of this story a little bit and i feel like we can learn some lessons from the
failures of erin in this chapter and we can kind of apply some of these things to ourselves uh we
look at verse one it says and when the people saw that moses delayed to come down out of the mount
the people gathered themselves together under erin and said unto him up make us gods which shall go
before us for as for this moses the man that brought us up out of the land of egypt we will
not what has become of him now what's interesting in this chapter is i feel like there's a lot of
different things that we could really uh focus on and and look at but i kind of want to take
kind of a different angle here and this is the title of my sermon is why are you asking erin
okay that's the title of my sermon this evening is why why are you asking erin and and this is an
interesting thought because where else do you find in the children of israel's journey them asking
moses to make them false gods like at what point do they say hey moses will you just go ahead and
make us a golden calf they don't ever seem to ever ask moses that right and so my question is why are
you asking erin and the the reality is they know there's a difference between erin and there's a
difference between moses and so they're asking erin this question but they would never ask moses
that question they know they wouldn't ask moses that question and so i think what we can learn
from this is is kind of two-sided one when people ask us questions we should kind of ask ourselves
this question why are you asking me that and then additionally we should be careful about the
questions that we're asking and we should ask ourselves why are we asking that person that
question okay and i want to give you the few points that i have this more this i'm sorry evening
right now and then we're going to kind of you know dive into them here but number one we notice
that they're asking arian this question because they're impatient we notice the impatience of
them because it says in verse number one and when the people saw that moses delayed so this means
that maybe things aren't going to schedule or it's taking a while or they're they're not really
satisfied with the timing they don't like what's happening so in some way they're impatient and
often what happens is people ask a subordinate the staff or a lesser person in authority questions
because they're being impatient that's the reason why they're asking the question
is just simply coming from a place of impatience additionally now it says here that they wanted to
make gods right make false gods which also implies their rebellious nature why would you ask Aaron to
make false gods but you wouldn't ask Moses and and I would submit to you this they must have had some
inkling or some idea or known something about Aaron that Aaron wouldn't necessarily be as
against this particular question as Moses was that perhaps Aaron has a soft spot here
or Aaron has a tendency to give into these type of requests or perhaps even has his own personal
issue and kind of leans in this direction and so they're taking advantage of maybe Aaron's weakness
Aaron's softness or his particular sin proclivities and so we see a rebellious nature here
they're wanting to rebel and they're trying to find somebody to help them rebel or even trying
to entice other people to rebel against the Lord against the leadership against the plan so we see
the impatience we see the rebellion additionally notice what it says this is the first word that
comes out of their mouth did you notice that i mean when you go to leadership and the first
word that comes out of your mouth is up that's pretty demanding isn't it and sometimes you have
to you have to ask yourself like why is this person speaking to me in such a way like up like
who's in charge here why do you think that you're in charge and Aaron's all of a sudden not in
charge they're just like up make us gods and you'll notice that often people also are very
demanding of people that are not in the highest position of authority the lower level people the
employee or the subordinate or whoever they can just start being really demanding and ordering
that person around and then this is the last point i want to make is that you know when you
kind of get a little bit further into this chapter it talks about how they rose up to play and and
that kind of insinuates the idea that this is coming from a selfish perspective right the children
of israel these particular individuals they want to have this false god because they want to play
and they're playing it's not like they got out the chessboard and they're you know strategizing
or something the bible says that they were dancing they were dancing and they rose up to play
insinuating they have a proclivity for sin they want to sin they want to start their own little
nightclub out there in the wilderness and essentially they know that moses isn't going
to tolerate it but hey once we get the false gods in here oh yeah now we can just start
kind of doing our own thing we're going to bring in the music we're going to bring in the dancing
we're going to bring in all the other stuff that comes with that and so they have a very selfish
ambition they're not asking Aaron to make gods because they care for other people because they
want to do some charitable work because they're concerned for others they're doing it out of a
selfish ambition to satisfy their own lusts okay so that is the essence of my sermon now hey if
you're going to preach a five-minute sermon there you go there's an example of how you preach a
five-minute sermon now because i have a little bit more time we'll we'll dive in and we'll go
ahead and give you a few other words you know some people think that i can't preach a five-minute
sermon i can all right go through the psalms 37 let's go to psalm 37 and i'll explain the first
point let's talk about being impatient so many people are impatient and you know it's funny
there was a men's preaching class and we were telling we were giving them like five minutes
or ten minutes and i wasn't there so i wasn't necessarily leading the preaching class but some
guy preached for like 40 minutes and it's like okay look we get that you want to preach a long
sermon and like you're real excited or whatever but you know you don't have to be so impatient
to get your opportunity to preach a long sermon that when you get a five minute sermon you preach
for 40 minutes okay if you get a five minute sermon opportunity you know you should do
preach for five minutes not preach for 40 minutes that's that's just like being super impatient
right but and taking advantage of lower level leadership lower authority type people this
happened even when i was at faithful words sometimes pastor anderson wasn't in there in
the preaching class and uh i i kind of helped facilitate it but i wasn't really a leader i
wasn't necessarily in charge of anybody i'm just kind of like helping it go along and some people
just totally take advantage of the fact that pastor anderson is not there and preach for 20
minutes or preach all kinds of weird stuff and you're just thinking like you know it's just not
respectful when the leader's away to just take advantage of that and to be impatient and to
just do your own thing hey if things aren't going on your timeline you know what get over it because
the bible says over and over for us to be patient and we're supposed to wait on the lord and wait
on things you're not the leader so you don't understand necessarily why things take longer
or maybe why things are waiting it's pretty important that moses spends all the time that
he's spending up in the mount with the lord like we don't want to rush that we don't want to rush
the lord who's writing the 10 commandments with his own finger okay we don't we don't need to rush
that now it would be interesting i don't know how these people explain this but it's how did god
write the 10 commandments his own finger when he doesn't even have a body but you know those people
just will never figure that out right but the bible tells us that god is commuting with moses
they're having a special time they're doing their thing and of course if moses is spending that
time with god can he cater to everybody's needs at that moment no can he can he do everything that
they want out of him no but is it wrong for moses to be spending that time with the lord
so just because it doesn't meet your expectations or your goals or your schedule doesn't mean it's
wrong maybe you're the one that has a bad schedule maybe you're the one that has the
wrong expectations you know it's really important for the men of god to have their time with the
lord and to do things on the lord's schedule because frankly speaking now they're going to
end up wandering in the wilderness for 40 years when they could have just walked in at the right
timing but they were too impatient weren't they hey if you just hold your horses and just do what
the lord wants and a few weeks will be in the promised land but instead now they're going to
wander the wilderness for 40 years didn't really work out did it they tried to rush it they tried
to get impatient with it and you know what they made a huge mistake people do this in their lives
young people will sometimes get very impatient with their lives and they try to rush their lives
they get upset about things not being on the exact timetable that they want and they say well I need
a bigger house a bigger car they start getting credit card debt they start making risky life
decisions to try and get ahead and instead of just being patient they end up destroying themselves
getting taken advantage of or frankly speaking they rack up all the student loan debt that we
now have to pay for so thank you for that but at the end of the day we should be patient
because you know is also going to have to pay for that they are going to have to pay for that
it's not the student loan forgiveness is a joke because guess what they still have to pay for it
we all have to pay for it it's just more inflation oh your student loans got forgiven but guess what
the price of buying a new house just went up again too and the price of buying food just went up and
your rent just went up so wow i'm so glad that your student loans got paid off that doesn't really
benefit you know it's not like when these things get forgiven that they really get forgiven
all it's just saying is that america keeps buying it america keeps paying for it you and i have to
keep paying for everything that the government's doing you know it's it's really uh it's they're
trying to just kind of pull the wool over your eyes a little bit on how the government manages
our country but they keep putting the burden on us and extracting the wealth from us that's a
different sermon sorry i'm getting a little bit upset about the government right it's easy to do
you know what you have to do though sometimes we just have to be patient with our wicked government
and allow the lord to take care of them in his timing and i could tell you i can get impatient
with them fast okay but at the end of the day you know you could be like lord when are you coming
right i mean you kind of kind of get upset like how long are you gonna let this happen or
how long is an america gonna be like this how long is joe biden gonna live
how long is george soros gonna live i mean you're just like man how long is hillary clinton gonna
live i mean sometimes you just kind of it's easy to get impatient and not to see what's going on
even in our situations we've had opportunities to be impatient and this is this is what happens
a lot of times people won't complain to me in our situations but they complain to other people
you know probably the number one or really it's kind of shared it's kind of between my wife or
probably brother dylan but between those two boy that's where a lot of the the conversation
gets aimed at or talked at but even other people whether it be our ushers soul winning leaders just
other people even just friends sometimes people get really impatient and so they'll go up to one
of them and they'll be like when are we going to get a new building boy if i had a dollar for every
time someone asked that question we would have a nice building by now okay but it was just like
man especially when we were going through a lot of the hotel church and a lot of the other
situations now again i don't want to necessarily get mad at people when we're going through that
because i get it but we're not going through that right now so i can get on people for a little bit
okay and here's the rally that's annoying that's annoying and it's like oh you don't think that
pastor shelly is concerned with that you don't think that pastor shelly has even considered the
idea of getting a building sometimes people are like have you ever thought about buying a building
oh you're a genius we should hire you on staff it's like what are you talking about it's like
yeah but they'll just go around all these other people and they're just like oh man pastor shelly
they're taking a long time to figure out the building it's just like dude seriously i mean
i probably looked at thousands and thousands of properties i went looked at all kinds of places
when we ever even bought this building i think i filled out like 18 to 19 financial applications
like loan applications and these things are intense filling these things out talking to banks
providing them every single document you could ever imagine plus more than i could even imagine
i mean it's like a long process it takes a lot of work and people are just like it's a bad building
people that are renting that have never owned anything in their life who have no idea what
it's like to buy something let alone a commercial property and then it's just it's just like just
that's annoying now this is what's funny though no one asked me that really they just ask other
people okay they they go find Aaron and they go complain to Aaron or they're impatient to Aaron
or they're asked it's like Aaron can't get the building anyways why are you asking Aaron about
that right but then you have to ask yourself if you're that Aaron why is this person talking to
me like this why are they being impatient to me you know that's a bad sign because sometimes it's
putting animosity towards the leadership or towards the pastor and maybe it's not even purposeful
you know what it's just a bad attitude don't be impatient with the leadership
when's the next documentary well you know what when's the next time that you're gonna
give me some more money like when's the last time you paid for a documentary right
it must be nice to have free documentary like when we can go the movies watch another documentary
poster surely i don't know maybe once we make it first okay it's like it's just people just get so
entitled and they just they want to they get so impatient about everything and they can't even
enjoy but that was the next behama's trip well go ahead and give us you know 50 grand and we'll
talk okay but it's just like people they just want to go around and they're just so impatient
with leadership when's the next event when's the next trip when's the next documentary where's the
next building hey pastor shelly you know the park is a little tight out there oh really shocker you
know it's just it's just so funny how people just get so impatient and they don't even really most
of it doesn't even come to me personally it's to the lower leadership and you know they can't do
anything about it anyways and you know what complaining like that being impatient like that
is not a godly attribute we should not be like that you know we should be like x i'm sorry psalm
37 verse 7 rest in the lord and wait patiently for him fret not thyself because of him who
prospered in his way because of the man who bringeth wicked device devices to pass you know we're
going through a lot of protests and a lot of that heat it'd be real easy to get impatient with the
lord but look where we are now wasn't it nice to just rest and just wait on the lord and say hey
somehow the lord's gonna make this work somehow the lord's gonna bring us through somehow they're
going to get discouraged and walk away somehow all the devices and all the works and all the
complaining and all the things that they've done are just going to come to naught and no one's
going to care and they're going to be so discouraged and the lord's going to deliver us you know what it
just takes that patience it just takes that patience of just waiting on the lord just trusting in him
go view the ecclesiastes chapter number seven don't go find erin and complain to him don't go
find erin and get impatient with him you know it's like hey brother ben where's the daniel series
okay he's working on it folks okay it's about to come out all right we're excited okay don't go
find him he's like volunteering and just giving of his free time and effort and energy to make
something really great for you to watch and then you get impatient it's like when are you going
to volunteer to do something like that when are you going to put in all the extra effort and energy
you know instead of just being so concerned with yourself and watching whatever you want
why don't you you know stop complaining and find something to do why don't you make something
happen and it's just it's just so frustrating how people they just get so just wrapped up in
themselves and their own interests and then they go complain to everybody else about everything
you know that makes a bad church and i don't care if you never come back to this church
don't ask the next Aaron either if you go to another church or you move or you go to some
other place don't be like this to people don't go around and complaining and being impatient
and finding lower lower level people to be like oh yeah where's pastor Shelley what's going on
pastor Shelley what is he doing why is it taking so long i mean if we got so many people saying
Bahamas why don't we just go there every week that's ridiculous and you know what no one's stopping
you from going there whenever you want i don't you know i don't open and close the border to the
Bahamas i don't know if you know this you don't have to get a passport with pastor Shelley okay
you know you can go there whenever you want i will never stop you i'll be like go i'll bless i'll
pray for you how about that okay but but it's just so funny how people they're just so quick to just
when are we going to do this when are we going to have that it's like why don't you do something
with your life instead of just always waiting for other people to do something for you and i was
like why do you have to get so impatient about everything maybe moses is doing something important
that you don't know about maybe the pastor or the leadership or whoever in your life maybe even your
boss at work this applies to every area of your life folks maybe sometimes you get frustrated with
the leadership at your work or with your ceo or with your manager or with your boss and you kind
of wonder like why aren't we doing more or when's the next area when am i getting promoted or all
these different things and you know the worst attitude you can have is when you're just
constantly being impatient going around to be like when am i going to get promoted when you know
what's what's going on with the company when are we going to go do this when are we going to have
this event when are we going to and you just keep asking all these questions you know and it really
just rubs people the wrong way just be patient with the leadership be patient with your family
hey kiddos when y'all are taking a long car ride be patient with your parents on getting there
it's like we're driving to canada don't ask five minutes later are we there yet okay you got to be
patient and just let them get there i guarantee your dad wants to get there sooner than you do
okay he's already done with the car drive all right but isn't it just so annoying when people
just constantly pester like oh i just hate so long why are we doing this you know it just it's it
really just destroys the work of god when you're just being impatient about everything look what
the bible says in ecclesiastes chapter 7 verse number 8 better is the end of a thing than the
beginning thereof and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit notice what we
should strive for is not to be proud but to be patient we should strive to be patient in spirit
i want to go to one more place go to uh go to luke 21 in the new testament luke chapter 21
patience is not a skill that people have automatically it is something that we have
to work on it's something that you have to strive for and you have to consider and i would even
argue that being patient i i think that some people have a misconception about how life works
and they they kind of think that people that do right or do good or exhibit good characteristics
it's easy for them automatic or natural and what i mean by that is they think oh this person's
really patient like they're a really patient person it must be easy for them but that's not
necessarily true patience isn't like i'm just naturally patient it's choosing to be patient
even though you're not okay there's gonna be plenty of times where i am very impatient
internally and i have to say you know what i'm just not gonna say anything i'm not gonna think
about it i'm gonna have to change my attitude and my mind because right now i don't want to have
patience and i'm honestly not patient i would almost argue that i'm possibly the most impatient
person internally that lives that like is anywhere like almost everything bothers me and i mean it in
the most literal way like when i'm driving i'm really mad at every other person on the road
like just every move i'm just thinking go get out of the way why did you do that i just like that's
me internally but when i'm driving i'm not sitting there saying all that you know just like yeah
whatever you know hey how's it going yeah i like that person no of course i'm not trying to be fake
i'm just trying to be patient okay when i get in a line somewhere and the person's just like yeah i
don't know what i want to order i know i've been standing for 15 minutes but i just it's like the
first time i'm looking at the menu what do you think should i get on on wheat what's wheat like
yeah how much manages on it it's like order order get out of the way you know that's how i feel i
literally in my mind play grand theft auto when cars drive by where i'm like thinking like i wish
i had a bazooka and i could just shoot at that car you know i'm like saying this is how i feel
inside okay there are so many people that irritate the fire out of me when someone is speaking and
they just can't even speak quickly i'm thinking like today junior get it out why are you wasting
my time i don't care about these details this is what i'm saying inside okay people are going to
think of me differently now okay i'm just trying to tell you inside i am like the most impatient
person that probably exists i mean it drives me insane just how long it takes my kids to get out
of the car and it may only be even just like 10 seconds or whatever but it feels like two hours
and i'm just thinking like get out of the car get out of the car sometimes i say that okay i'll just
be honest right but i'm just i'm just really really really really impatient of a person
i'm just trying to let you know that that's how i honestly feel inside but i don't think that most
people that deal with me would ever think that most people especially in the workplace or another
like they wouldn't think that i'm an impatient person at all they would think oh he seems pretty
patient he you know he deals with things why because i'm not just letting the inside old man
just rule and reign because then i would just be a jerk people think that i'm a jerk and super
sarcastic and just uh really arrogant if i just kind of said everything that came into my mind
because that's my natural personality okay i have to suppress that and i have to try and exhibit
patience and grace and look i'm not saying i'm the most patient person out there i'm sure i'm not
just because it's very difficult for me what i am saying is that if you think oh well i'm just not
a patient person naturally join the club okay but you know what work on it you
know people think like oh love is just it's just automatic loving your spouse
is automatic that's not always true that might have been on the five first five
minutes of your honeymoon okay but let's be real loving your spouse sometimes is
not necessarily what you want to do naturally sometimes you want to do other
things okay and you want to be mean and you want to be rude and you want to be
selfish and whatever attitude.
The people that exhibit great character attributes, it's not like they're just easy for them.
They just make that decision.
They choose to love someone.
They choose to be patient.
They choose to be kind.
They choose to be charitable.
And what I'm telling you is that don't wait for your emotions to magically do what the
Bible says.
You have to choose to do the right thing.
You have to choose to be patient.
You have to choose to be loving.
You have to choose to be kind.
You have to choose to do the right thing, and you know what?
It's hard work.
It's not natural.
That's why the Bible's constantly reminding us to do these things.
Because if everyone was naturally patient, why would the Bible even have to tell us?
It's telling people like me that are not patient at all and need some reminders of, "Okay,
yeah, I need to be more patient.
I need to be, you know, taking captive every imagination that I have and every thought
that I have because some of them just aren't that great, okay?
They're not really a holy..."
And I'll even catch myself.
Sometimes I'm in the car and, you know, I use special language, you know, but then I'm
thinking like, "Well, you know what?
This person could be having a bad day and whatever and, you know, I just try to be gracious."
And sometimes I try to plan to have patience.
So I've already decided, like, if someone's not in the right lane and they need to get
over real quick and they make a real decisive good move to get over, but it cuts me off
a little bit, I'm just not going to be mad at that person.
Because you know what, that's the move that I would make if I'm driving and I'm not in
the right lane and I need to get into this lane and I can make an aggressive move and
get in there, but it cuts you off a little bit, I'm going to make that move.
So I'm just letting you know, like, I would do that.
So then I'd be a complete hypocrite if then I get mad at someone that does the exact same
thing to me.
So you know what, I've decided from now on when someone does that to me, I say, "Good
move.
I like that."
But see, I already decided that.
Now sometimes, this is what makes me mad though, is people that don't make a decision.
You know that lady that's trying to get over, and she could get over, but she just kind
of won't do it, and then everyone has to slam on their brakes?
You know it's true, okay?
That person really irritates the fire out of me because I would never make that decision.
But at the same time, I'm just thinking like, "Well, poor little woman.
She doesn't know how to drive.
Just go.
Whatever.
Get out.
Go."
So, we have to exercise self-control, temperance.
We have to work on these things.
Sometimes it helps to, like I said, pre-plan grace, like already kind of evaluate, "Okay.
Things are going to be perfect."
You know, mothers out there, you should already pre-plan that your children are going to do
some bad things tomorrow because they're going to do some bad things tomorrow, okay?
They're going to cause some problems, some issues are going to happen.
And so, we have to just have that expectation so that we're going to be patient with them.
Teaching your children how to use the potty can be very difficult, teaching them how to
read can be very difficult, teaching them really frankly anything, teaching your children
how to have patience, that can be extremely frustrating.
And so, we have to learn ourselves to have patience.
Look at Luke 21 verse 19, this is when we go through a lot of tribulation, Christ is
trying to remind us of this.
Look at verse 19, "In your patience possess your souls."
So, in the end times, it's going to be very hard on Christians.
And I think that what God wants to remind us of is, hey, we even need to be patient
when we're going through some pretty difficult things.
Even though we see the darkness coming upon us and the evil and we're kind of like hoping
that Christ comes back sooner than later, we have to be careful that we don't get impatient
with Christ's return.
Just like they got impatient with Moses coming off the mount, is actually the direct parallel
and a foreshadowing of the end times where people could get impatient with Christ's return.
And what the false Christians and the fake Christians do is they get so impatient with
Christ's return, they actually turn to false religion.
They turn to false gods and many of them will even turn to the antichrist.
There are going to be a lot of people that believe in the preacher of rapture that accept
the antichrist and it's basically a direct result of being too impatient and just of
course they didn't get saved, they didn't believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, but because
of their impatience and not seeking the truth, they end up receiving a lie and they end up
accepting a lie and it destroys them.
The Bible reminds us in all kinds of ways, be patient in tribulation.
I'm not going to go to all these verses, but go to 2 Samuel chapter 14, go to 2 Samuel
chapter 14.
We need to learn patience and we need to learn it.
We learn patience.
Patience is not automatic and sometimes people confuse this.
If someone seems to be patient naturally, usually it's not that they're patient, it's
that they're apathetic or lazy, but that is not patience, being apathetic or lazy.
We need to be zealous and we need to be confident and we need to care about the things that
are in this world and exercising patience at the same time.
Just being like, "Well, I just don't care about anything."
Okay, sure, that might seem like that person's a patient person, but they're not even actually
really exhibiting patience, that apathy is going to destroy them as well.
So don't get confused about, "Well, I just don't care about anything.
I must be really patient."
That doesn't make you patient just because you have apathy.
We need to be people that actually care about things, are excited about things, and at the
same time, we are willing to be patient about them.
Now 2 Samuel chapter 14 verse 1 is kind of the second point that I brought up, and that
is how people ask questions of Aaron because they are rebellious.
Now in 2 Samuel chapter 14, just to give you a little bit of context before we read here,
this is after Absalom has killed his brother Amnon, and is kind of run for his life, and
rightfully so, because of that murder, he would be worthy of the death penalty to be
put to death, and David doesn't really have a relationship with Absalom.
Now it says in verse 1, "Now Joab the son of Zeruiah perceived that the king's heart
was toward Absalom.
So what's interesting here is that Joab kind of understands that he has a soft spot towards
Absalom, and Joab wants to kind of take advantage of that.
He wants to take advantage of David's soft spot for Absalom when he shouldn't have that
soft spot.
His son should be dealt with properly.
He should have put Amnon to death, and because he didn't do that, it now caused Absalom to
basically be guilty of the death penalty.
And as a king, you can't just let your sons do whatever they want and get away with it.
It sets a really bad precedent for the entire kingdom.
Hunter Biden.
I mean, Hunter Biden is getting away with so many crimes, so many sins, so many issues,
and it's not being dealt with, and it just makes our country look like a joke.
It makes our government look like a joke.
It looks like there's no justice in the nation, and it makes it where people have no respect
for justice, actually.
Oh, well, if Hunter can do that, then let's just buy off every judge and buy off every
justice, and let's just have no real justice.
It's just paying people off and doing whatever.
That destroys the kingdom.
That destroys the government, okay?
And David needs to deal with his son.
Sorry, I know you love him.
We all love our sons, but if your son is in that position, you need to have righteous
judgment.
He should have been willing to put him to death.
But Joab perceived what?
That David's heart was toward Absalom.
Okay?
Look at verse 2, "And Joab sent to Tekoa, and fetched thence a wise woman, and said
unto her, I pray thee, feign thyself to be a mourner, and put on now mourning apparel,
and anoint not thyself with oil, but be as a woman that had a long time mourn for the
dead.
And come to the king, and speak on this manner on him."
So Joab put the words in her mouth.
Notice Joab perceives that David has a soft spot.
But instead of just going to David himself and trying to exploit that particular weakness,
what does he do?
He asks some other person to do it for him.
And what we can learn from this is that wise woman should have said, "Why is Joab asking
me?"
You know, why are you asking Aaron?
Why are you asking the wise woman?
And she should have not done this and gone down this road and had Absalom being brought
in back into the kingdom.
But we see the rebellious nature to bring Absalom back in.
And a lot of times, this will happen where, "Oh, well, we don't want Joe Biden to directly
pardon Hunter Biden, so we need some intermediaries or some other people to exonerate him, come
into play, and do whatever."
And wink, wink, nod, nod, still get the outcome that they want.
And this happens a lot in everyday scenarios.
Think about in the household, they may know, "Hey, Dad doesn't want the kids to have
cookies before dinner or something," let's just say that's just the example.
But they know Mom doesn't care.
So then, you know, what the brother will do is just say, "Hey, go ask Mom if we can have
cookies," knowing that Mom has a soft spot already and knowing if they'll get their
younger sibling that Mom can't say no to, right?
The cute toddler.
It's like, "Mama, cookie."
And she's just thinking like, "I can't say no to her.
I can't say no to her.
She's so cute.
And I know Dad already said no cookies, but she's asking."
And so the older brother knows, "Hey, we'll send in the younger one, and we'll get a,
hey, will you ask Mom for a cookie or whatever?"
And what is it?
It's because they're rebellious.
It's a rebellious spirit, it's a rebellious nature, and they're asking them to do that.
Hey, beware, children, when your brother's asking you to ask Mom and Dad for something.
Beware when you're asking your sibling to ask something.
Beware.
You know, this could even happen at work, right?
What if another coworker comes up to you and says, "Hey, why don't you ask the boss so
and so this and that?"
It's like, "Hey, why don't you ask the boss if we can just go home or skip work or not
wear that?"
You know, why don't you ask the boss, "Why do we have to wear this uniform?"
I know the CEO wants us to, but I know the manager doesn't want it, the manager doesn't
like it, so why don't you go ask him or whatever.
Be careful, why is this person asking you to ask this question?
Why are they involving you in this matter?
Why are they trying to employ you?
It's because they're a rebellious person, that's why.
And they want to rebel, but they're too coward to do it themselves.
I mean, why don't these people just walk straight up to Moses and be like, "Hey, make us cast,
make us God."
And Moses would be like, "Burn them with fire, hang their heads up, kill these people."
He'd be like, "Lord, take care of them."
That's why they didn't ask Moses.
So they kind of have to find someone else like, "Hey, you ask.
I don't want to die, but I'm willing to risk your life, go for it."
And they just bring other people in to ask things they shouldn't ask or shouldn't do
because they themselves want to rebel.
And we need to be careful why people are asking these questions.
They knew that Aaron would do it.
I think that's why they asked him.
Aaron had a soft spot and they wanted to rebel so they asked Aaron because they knew Aaron
would have done it.
Now go to chapter 15 for a moment and look at the result of this.
Verse 1, it says, "And it came to pass after this that Absalom prepared him chariots and
horses and fifty men to run before him."
So this woman talks to David, kind of convinces him.
They bring in Absalom.
Now Absalom is kind of setting up this mini army.
Think about what happened.
Absalom killed someone.
Absalom is worthy of death, and then when confronted by the king of the entire kingdom,
what does the king do?
Oh, no problem.
Come back in.
You know what that says to Absalom?
I can do whatever I want.
I mean, there's no accountability.
No one will hold me responsible for what I've done, including death penalty worthy crimes.
That's a dangerous person.
When you say to Hunter Biden, "You can rip as many people off as you want.
You can do open bribery, open prostitution.
You can do open child, you know, acts or whatever, the disgusting things he does.
You can do anything you want.
You can have felony gun charges.
And you know what?
No consequences.
In fact, you can just have public statements with the press and just say, "Hey, I'm right
here.
What are you going to do about it?"
And no one does anything about it.
You know what you're telling that person?
Do more.
Be more brazen in your wickedness.
Be more brazen.
And of course, what left for Absalom to do?
How about just take the entire kingdom over?
Just become the king because no one's going to stop him.
No one's going to say anything to him.
Verse two, "And Absalom rose up early and stood beside the way of the gate.
And it was so that when any man that had a controversy came to the king for judgment,
then Absalom called unto him and said, 'Of what city art thou?'
And he said, 'Thy servant is of one of the tribes of Israel.'
And Absalom said unto him, 'See, thy matters are good and right, but there is no man deputed
of the king to hear thee.'
Absalom said moreover, 'Oh, that I were made judge in the land, that every man which hath
any suit or cause might come unto me, and I would do him justice.'
You wouldn't do anyone justice because you just said everybody's matters are right.
How does that work?
If two people came in here and said, 'Think about Solomon with the two Arlots both asking
for the baby.'
You're both right.
How does that work?
So were they going to literally divide the child then?
Are they going to literally cut it in half?
And that's what happens.
You just literally, I mean how does that work in any situation?
That's not what the Bible said.
The Bible said in this morning's sermon we're supposed to justify the righteous and condemn
the wicked.
We're not just a space to say 'oh you're right, yeah, your matters are good and right,
everything you're asking, everything you're saying is good.'
You know this is a bad person's attitude.
That's why they want to bring him in.
Think about, it's kind of like Aaron, 'oh do something, he just does it.'
We need leadership that sometimes says 'that's a dumb question, that was a dumb thing to
say.'
But if you're in a position where people are coming to you and you're their Aaron, you
know how you stop that from happening?
That was a dumb question.
Don't ask me.
Or hey, let's go ask Moses.
You and me, let's go right now and let's go ask Moses, 'hey I've got Moses up there,
I got him on the phone though, let's call him.'
And you can ask him right now.
And you know what they're going to be like, 'oh I didn't want to ask him that.'
You know, because this is what's so funny to me.
I'll have Dylan or other people talk to me about this and they'll say, 'hey somebody
asked me this question and I just said ask pastor about it.'
And you know what?
They never asked pastor about it.
And I'm thinking like, you know what?
They were just trying to get feelers.
They're just trying to go around and you know what?
That makes me think that person's kind of bad when they literally get told, 'go tell
pastor' or 'go ask pastor' and then they don't.
It's like, why didn't you?
Imagine the kids asking mom, 'hey mom can I do this?
Go ask dad.'
And then they just don't ask dad.
It's like, well why did you ask mom then?
Why did you go around on the other side?
You know what?
Don't be like that.
Don't be that person.
Don't try to be rebellious and sneak around and get your way.
And of course, Absalom is just trying to make people get on his side so they can steal
the kingdom, take away from David, undermine authority, which of course he does.
And we should be leery of individuals like this.
Go to 1st Corinthians, chapter 16, go to 1st Corinthians, chapter 16.
Be careful of the person that wants to ask questions that they would never ask the leadership.
Be careful of the person that asked you to help ask a question, or wants to know the
answer to something that they refuse to ask the head or the leadership on.
If it's not a question they would ask the leadership on, they shouldn't ask you.
And frankly speaking, it's not Aaron's authority to even make that decision.
Why are you even asking that person to make this decision?
They don't even have authority to do this, why do you care what their opinion is?
You should even tell people that.
I know my wife's even said that sometimes, she just said, "I'm not the pastor, ask
my husband."
You know, or my employees, I don't have the authority to make that decision.
Some people just don't understand how or why people are employed or exist.
Dillon specifically right now is my personal assistant, but you know what, he's not your
personal assistant.
Just like Aaron is Moses' personal assistant, but Aaron is not their personal assistant.
They don't get to walk up to Aaron and be like, "Up, make us gods."
That's not how this works.
Now, of course, Moses can go to Aaron and say, "Up, let's go serve the Lord."
He can tell Aaron whatever he wants all day long, and he has to do exactly what he says.
And you know what, there's nothing wrong with me saying to Dillon, "Up, let's go do this."
But you know who doesn't get to say that?
You guys, anybody else.
Dillon is not your personal assistant.
You know who's also not your personal assistant?
The volunteers of our church that clean the church.
They're not your personal assistant.
Hey, the trash needs to be taken out.
Why would you say that to a volunteer cleaning the church?
You could take it out.
It's not for you to go around.
You know, the ushers, they're not your personal assistants.
They're mine.
Now again, there's nothing wrong with asking people for help, okay?
"Hey, can I get a bulletin?"
That's fine.
"Up, get me a bulletin."
No, don't ever act like that to the usher.
Don't ever act like that to people.
You know, my wife is my wife.
She's not your wife.
My wife is my friend.
Maybe she's your friend.
I don't know.
You know, this is obviously...
You want to be friends with someone, you have to show yourself friendly, right?
That's how it works, right?
But here's the thing.
Don't demand things of people when they're not your direct subordinate.
You know who I can demand things of?
My wife, my children, my employees.
That's who I can demand things of.
You know who I cannot demand things of?
People that are not in my authority.
I don't even think I can demand you guys to do anything.
You're just my churchmen.
We're just fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.
I can't demand you to do anything.
Now obviously, someone has to be in charge.
Obviously there's leadership.
But you know, I try really hard, especially when it comes to volunteers, to never demand
them to do anything.
Because frankly speaking, I'm not even paying them.
So if I'm not even paying you, I don't really have the right to demand things of you.
I can ask you to do things, but I should be polite and respectful of your time, your effort,
your energy.
And the Bible is really clear on this that we should not go around demanding things of
people that are on the same level as us.
We should be having the exact opposite attitude where we're submissive, we're humble, we're
gracious, we're kind to one another.
I want to show you First Corinthians chapter 16, look at verse 15, "I beseech you brethren,
ye know the house of Stephanas, that it is the first roots of Achaia, and that they have
addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints, that ye submit yourselves unto such,
and to every one that helpeth with us and laboreth."
You know what the attitude should be of a congregation towards the pastor and the staff
and the leadership is to be submissive, not demanding, submissive, not demanding.
Hey Dylan, go get this for me.
Hey Dylan, we need this.
Hey Dylan, blah, blah, blah.
You should be like, "Dylan, what can I do to help you?"
I wonder how many people do that.
I wonder how many people go to my employee and are just like, "Hey Dylan, I want to
help unload things.
Hey Dylan, I want to help go do this.
Hey, how can I submit under my sole winning captain and leader and usher?"
Or just like, "Hey, clean that, get this, come over here, mow my yard."
I mean it's just like, "Who are you?
Back off!"
And look, I'm saying a lot of this and it's hyperbole because not that many people are
acting like that, but don't even try it.
Don't even think this is like a cool thing to see how it works.
And no matter where you go, at your workplace, you have other coworkers, don't demand things
of them.
Don't demand things of the lower level management.
You know what?
You should be gracious, you should be kind, you should be submissive.
Notice what the Bible says that we're supposed to submit ourselves unto such.
To people that are addicted to the ministry, let's help them not demand things of them.
When you go to someone else's church, if you go to Verity Baptist Church, if you go to
Faithward Baptist Church, and you run into Oliver, you run into Brother Segura, do not
demand them to do anything.
Don't tell them what to do.
Don't go somewhere else and demand these people to serve you.
They're not there as your subordinate, as your employee.
You know what you should do?
You should submit yourself unto them.
They've addicted themselves to the ministry, you should submit yourself unto them.
That's what the Bible says.
Go to Ephesians, chapter number five, go to Ephesians, just a little bit to the right
there in your Bible.
And people, they go around and they're just so demanding of the lower level people.
Again, they don't really do it to me as much, but then they're just like, "Hey, where's
the food?"
Or, "Why can't we get more food?"
Or, "When are we going to have more coffee?"
Which I don't care about coffee, you really don't want to ask me that kind of question.
You go to some fellowship event and they just get demanding about everything.
"Where's the juice for my kid?"
At the store.
Have fun.
It's like, "What are you talking about?"
It's just like, "Well, we need to have more holiday things at the church."
Go for it.
You can have a holiday thing at your house whenever you want.
It's like, the church is not here to provide for your social life and for all of your food
and clothing.
And you know what?
There's nothing wrong with asking a question, but don't be demanding and don't be going
around and just being unsatisfied.
Why wish the church would give me more social life and more food and more friends and more
coffee and more holiday?
Look, we already do a lot and I know that for a fact, but unfortunately what happens
is people start getting an entitled mentality and attitude about it.
Don't be like that.
You know, if you go to your work and your work has some kind of perk, like maybe they
give you like free coffee or maybe they give you like free food.
I worked for a place and they would give us like unlimited, you know, granola bars, fruit,
candy, drinks, soda, water, just like everything you could imagine basically, just for free,
just in the kitchen.
And if for some reason they just said, you know what, we're making some cuts and we're
going to get rid of this or whatever, how appropriate would it have been like, I need
my Coke, I need my candy bar, I need whatever, you know, like they didn't have to do that.
But what happens is it breeds contempt.
It breeds contempt in people when you just start giving them all this stuff for free and
you just help them out.
And then now all of a sudden they're kind of like demanding it, expecting it, like where's
my conference, where's my conference t-shirt, where's my documentary, oh, you know what,
make sure to give me the DVDs and ship it to my house, okay, here's my address, Dylan,
do it now, okay.
It's like, what are you talking about?
Like don't start getting this demanding attitude, demanding people, and you know what, kids
can get this too.
When they start demanding their parents and ordering their parents around, you better
nip that in the bud with your kids.
My kids do not tell me what to do, they don't demand things of me, and you know what, they
definitely don't demand things of my wife.
You men, don't let your kids tell your wife what to do.
They better get in line, and you know what, they, your wife does not, does not answer
to the children whatsoever.
The children answer to the wife, okay, and we need to make sure we get the priorities
straight, and we tell them who's in charge here, and they're supposed to be submitting
themselves, and you know, if you get less Christmas presents this year, don't be demanding
more.
Oh, well, you used to always take us to this fancy restaurant.
Well, it's more expensive now.
Don't demand it, and the food's worse.
You know who gets to demand things in the relationship?
The husband gets to demand things with the wife.
The wife does not get to demand anything of her husband.
I'm going to tell him later when I get home, well, you're stubborn and rebellious, okay?
You know what, and as the man, you need to nip these things in the bud, and we need to
get things in control, and you know what, why are you asking people to do things that
you shouldn't, okay?
Why are you going around asking Dylan for a social life?
He can't give you a social life, folks.
He doesn't make these decisions, you know.
If you want Dylan to give you social life, invite him over and make him a meal, and be
a friend to him.
How about that?
Don't demand him in the church to do things.
And you know, he might buy a lot of stuff for a church, but that's because I told him.
Not like, "Hey, will you go buy this for the church?"
He's going to be like, "No."
Or "Why don't you ask pastor?"
And then they won't ask me.
Okay.
Don't ask him.
Don't ask my wife.
Don't ask other people, random people, to do whatever.
"Hey, in the next documentary, Ben, will you feature me?"
"No."
"Will you put me in the, will you put me in the head credits?"
"No, we won't."
Okay.
It's like, people just get such a puffed up attitude.
You know, go to, go to 1 Peter chapter 5.
You know, the Bible says, "For whosoever exalted themselves shall be abased, and he that humble
of himself shall be exalted."
Oh, make us gods!
Well, you know what?
They might have been in charge that day, but when Moses came back down the mount, we know
he was really in charge.
And we know it really happened.
Okay.
And, and sometimes people, they love to go ahead and just put themselves in positions
of authority when no one else did.
And you know what?
They'll get knocked down eventually.
Okay.
Don't put yourself in a position of authority.
Be humble.
God will give you positions of authority in due time if you deserve it.
And if you don't, then just keep serving humbly, because it doesn't matter anyways.
Okay.
Authority is not all that is cracked up anyways.
How many people are really excited to be in authority now?
I mean, this is like, it's kind of taxing.
Moses really didn't love it.
Okay.
I don't know if you read the Bible or not, but it was a big burden.
And you know, Aaron was really bad at it.
Sometimes people, they think they're good at leadership, and then they realize like
it's hard.
Because you know what?
When people ask questions and you have to tell them no, it hurts their feelings.
You know, don't be the person that when you get told no, that it lets you affect that
relationship or you get mad at that person or get bitter.
Just move on with life, okay?
Be thankful that sometimes someone will tell you no, because we probably all need to be
told no a little bit more.
If Americans need something, it's to be told no, because credit cards and everything else
just tells everybody, "Yes, yes, yes, buy, buy, buy, get charged, charge, charge, you
can have it, you can have it, yeah."
You know, we need more people to say like, "No, hey, I want to own a five-car garage
when I'm 25, no!
I want a worthless college degree and someone else to pay it, no!"
You know, all these people, all these selfish people, "Oh, I want to live with someone before
I get married, no!
Oh, I want a test drive before I get married, no!"
Over my dead body, you know, we need people to say no.
You know what, we need young women to tell men no, and to not just give in to everything.
We need people to say, "Hey, I want to drink alcohol," and it's like, "No."
I want to have fun?
No.
I want to rise up and play?
No.
You know what's wrong with some of these kids in this world today?
They're never told no.
And you know why?
You watch them.
You watch their parents tell them no, and they scream and throw a fit and get their
way?
It irks me.
I think like, "That kid needs to be told no."
You know why it irks me?
Because I know that person's going to be a bad person the rest of their life.
And I love that kid too much to just let them go over to the dark side, okay, "Go to the
good side."
Okay, I'm not going to use the Star Wars reference, I don't like it anyway.
But you know what?
Sometimes we need to be told no, okay?
"Hey, you can't be Grandmaster, Anakin, because you're not humble enough."
And then he went to the dark side.
Sorry, there you go, all right?
He couldn't handle being told no.
First Peter chapter number five, look at verse five.
"Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder.
Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility.
For God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace unto the humble."
You know, we need to make sure that we are humble.
And you know, if you're freezing like I am, just don't say anything about it, I'm just
kidding.
I don't know what's going on here, all right?
It's cold.
All of y'all are like shivering or something.
Go to first Kings chapter two, we'll finish here shortly.
Look, why are you asking Aaron, and look at it from the flip side, why is someone asking
me this?
You know, are they, are they being impatient?
Don't be impatient, don't be rebellious, don't be demanding, and be aware or be leery of
the person that's coming to you with an impatient request, with a rebellious request, they're
demanding things of you.
You know, why are they demanding things?
Because they know what they're doing is wrong, so they have to exert some kind of authority
to try and make, persuade you.
They're just confident.
I've noticed sometimes there's these like false prophet trolls online, and what they're
saying is complete trash.
But a lot of people fall for it just because they're so confident.
They're just like, they just act like what they're saying just makes so much sense, and
they know what they're saying is right, and they try to appeal to certain sources.
They're just like, "Of course I'm right on this."
And it's just like, just because they're confident doesn't make them right.
Make us gods.
I'm sure they're real confident about that.
You know what?
They're wrong.
They're wrong about that decision.
Be leery of the person that's demanding you of these things, and think about what they're
doing.
Is it what they're doing right, or is it selfish?
And if it's selfish, you should recognize, like, I need to not partake in this activity.
Right?
I need to get away from this and have nothing to do with this.
One of the examples here is 1 Kings chapter number 2, which is Adonijah.
And Adonijah tried to steal the kingdom for herself, already showing a very selfish ambition.
And it ends up giving, you know, it ends up getting to the point where David has to appoint
King Solomon right before he dies, just to make sure that the kingdom is transferred.
It happens, then Adonijah and all the people following him just kind of run away.
Now all of a sudden, Adonijah is asking this question, and it's interesting.
Look at 1 Kings chapter 2, verse number 13.
This is just kind of like random in the storyline, but, "And Adonijah the son of Agath came to
Bathsheba the mother of Solomon, and she said, 'Comeest thou peaceably?'
And he said, 'Peaceably.'
He said, 'Moreover, I have somewhat to say unto thee.'
And she said, 'Say on.'
And he said, 'Thou knowest that the kingdom is mine, and that all Israel set their faces
on me, that I should reign.
Howbeit the kingdom is turned about and has become my brother's, for it was his from the
Lord.'
Do we learn anything already?
Didn't we learn that he's rebellious?
He's admitting it.
He's openly saying, like, 'Hey, you know the kingdom was your son's, and I stole it anyways.'
But now, somehow, it's gotten to him.
Verse 16, 'And now I ask one petition of thee, deny me not.'
That's pretty demanding.
You notice?
He's following the same thing.
He's impatient because he wanted to get the kingdom when it wasn't his.
He's rebellious, openly admitted it.
Now he's being demanding.
Let's also think what he says, 'Deny me not.'
And she said to him, 'Say on.'
And he said, 'Speak, I pray thee, unto Solomon the king, for he will not say thee name that
he give me Abishag the shoe of my wife.'
Notice he comes unto her, 'I know that he won't deny you, so why don't you ask for me?'
And you have to say, you have to put yourself in Solomon's mother's shoes for a moment and
say why am I being asked?
Why does Adonijah not go and ask Solomon himself?
Well, number one, because he's being impatient and stole the kingdom.
Number two, because it's a rebellious even thing to even want.
He was already a rebellious.
He's demanding things.
And of course, this is a selfish request.
Who is this going to benefit?
It only benefits Adonijah.
We don't even know if Abishag wants this necessarily.
But albeit, it's certainly just a selfish request and it's a very wicked request when
you think about it.
According to the Bible, you're not supposed to have your father's wife, and his father
was married to her.
This is a wicked, weird request.
Bathsheba goes and still makes it unto Solomon.
Look what Solomon answers in verse 22, "And King Solomon answered and said unto his mother,
And why dost thou ask Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah?"
Solomon is the wisest person in the Bible.
Notice that he asks a question.
Why are you asking this question?
Sometimes when someone asks you a question, you need to ask this question.
Why are you asking me this question?
Why are you asking Aaron?
Why are you asking Bathsheba?
Why are you asking the wise woman?
Why are you asking this individual?
Why are you asking me?
And the pride of man always wants to think, "Of course they would ask me.
Of course they want my attention.
I wish that I were the judge of the land.
Oh, that everybody would come before me and I would do them obeisance and I would kiss
them and tell them that they're mad and they're good and right."
And everybody has that prideful attitude.
You know, sometimes you have to have a humble view of yourself and say, "Why in the world
would you ever ask me that?"
And you know what that'll do?
It'll prevent you from making bad decisions, asking dumb questions, and going down a very
rebellious path.
I like this question by Solomon, "Why does thou ask?
Why are you asking this?
Why in the world would you ever want this?
Ask for him the kingdom also?
He saw right through this, oh, so this guy wants to take his father's wife.
What would that do again?
If Solomon gave David's wife, that would say, "You can do whatever you want."
And you know what it would do?
It would strengthen those men's hands that had come and already partnered themselves
with Adonijah to say, "Oh, Solomon's weak here.
Solomon's going to let Adonijah have whatever he wants."
And you know what?
He could have had another rebellion Adonijah could have taken the whole kingdom.
Solomon's wise enough to look through this and see, "Hey, I can't let him have this.
I can't be weak here.
I can't give in to this wicked request."
And so he is going to destroy it.
You know what?
Bathsheba shouldn't even ask the question.
He's like, "Why are you asking me this question?
Are you also asking for him to have the kingdom?
Do you even realize what you're doing?"
And you know what?
We need to prevent ourselves from being like Bathsheba, being like Aaron, being like the
wise woman, going and asking bad questions.
We need to nip it in the bud right at the onset and just notice you're being impatient,
you're being rebellious, you're being demanding, you're being selfish, and not even ask the
question.
I mean if someone came up to me and was just like, "Where are we going to get a building?
What do you think Pastor Shelley's doing?"
I would have been like, "You're being impatient, knock it off."
If they came up to me and they were just asking some kind of question to do something wicked
or something that Pastor Shelley said no to, I'd be like, "Pastor Shelley said no, or the
church said no, or dad said no, we're not going to do that.
Dad said no cookies.
So no cookies, right?
Whatever the authority is, we're going to abide by that.
If someone comes up to me and says, "Up!
Make us gods!"
Who are you to tell me what to do?
Why are you telling me what to do?
Don't talk to me like that.
Don't act like I'm your employee.
And if they're asking something that obviously is for selfish reasons, I don't think you're
asking that for the right reason.
That sounds a little selfish.
That sounds like that's just for you.
Why would we give just you that?
James 4, the Bible says you receive not, I'm sorry, just go to James chapter 4, you have
not because you ask not, and you receive not because you ask amiss that you may consume
it upon your lust.
Why do you not get certain things that you want?
Because you ask amiss that you can consume it upon your lust.
Sometimes people will ask things, but you know what?
It's not the right kind of thing to ask for.
You shouldn't be getting this.
Look what it says again in verse number four, James chapter four, verse four, I'm sorry,
verse three.
"You ask and receive not, because you ask amiss that you may consume it upon your lust."
Notice they're asking amiss.
Wrong question asked.
Some people say, "There's not a dumb question."
Well, there's a selfish question for sure.
And yeah, there are dumb questions, okay?
For sure there's dumb questions out there.
And there's dumb people, and there's dumb decisions, and there's wicked people out there.
You know, and if you're in a position of leadership, don't be like Aaron and just do whatever they
ask.
Pay attention.
Say, "Hey, this is impatience right here.
This is rebellion.
This is demanding.
This is selfish."
And what Aaron should have done is Aaron should have been like, "I'm going to get all of y'all's
names and then when Moses comes back down off the mount, I'm going to tell them what
you asked me to do."
That's what he should have done.
He should have said, "I don't have the authority to make that decision, but go ahead and fill
out this paperwork and everybody that wants to do that, come sign up.
And we'll go ahead and tell Moses that that's what you want to do and that's what you said."
He shouldn't have then taken all the gold, I mean he literally, he's like, "Oh, cool.
Take off all the gold."
And he gets the graving tool out there and he's like, "I can make really good looking
calves."
Although, whenever Moses comes back out on the mat, he forgot that part of the story.
"I just threw it in the fire and out came this calf, I don't know what happened!"
That's such a weird story.
But you know, learn from Aaron's mistake, learn from these other people's mistake and
ask yourself this question, why are you asking Aaron?
Alright, let's go to the prayer.
Thank you, Holy Father, so much for the Word of God and for giving us wisdom and discretion.
I pray that we wouldn't fall victim to bad questions, to people trying to take advantage
of us, for people using us.
And I pray that we also wouldn't have a bad attitude, that we wouldn't have misguided
attempts to undermine or usurp authority, that we wouldn't demand things of people
when we shouldn't.
But rather, we would have a humble servant spirit, and that we would desire to do good
unto people, not to undermine authority, not to criticize, not to destroy the work of God,
but rather to help support it.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
For our final song this evening, we're going to go to 428, "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear."