Count your blessings, see what God hath done Count your blessings, name them one by one
Count your many blessings, see what God hath done
Are you ever burdened with a load of care?
Does the cross seem heavy, you are called to bear
Count your many blessings, every doubt will fly And you will be singing as the days go by
Count your blessings, name them one by one Count your blessings, see what God hath done
Count your blessings, name them one by one
Count your many blessings, see what God hath done When you look at others with their lands and gold
Think that Christ has promised you his wealth untold Count your many blessings, money cannot buy
Your reward in heaven or your home on high Count your blessings, name them one by one
Count your blessings, see what God hath done Count your blessings, name them one by one
Count your many blessings, see what God hath done So amid the conflict, leather, great or small
Do not be discouraged, God is over all Count your many blessings, angels will attend
Help and comfort give you to your journeys and Count your blessings, name them one by one
Count your blessings, see what God hath done Count your blessings, name them one by one
Count your many blessings, see what God hath done
Amen. Good singing. Brother Robert, would you help us with a prayer?
Amen. For our second song, song number 440, Thanks to God. Song number 440, Thanks to God.
Song 440, Thanks to God. Let's sing it together on the first.
Thanks to God for my Redeemer Thanks for all Thou dost provide
Thanks for times but not but a memory Thanks for Jesus by my side
Thanks for pleasant balmy springtime Thanks for dark and dreary fall
Thanks for tears by now forgotten Thanks for peace within my soul
Thanks for prayers that Thou hast answered Thanks for what Thou dost deny
Thanks for storms that I have weathered Thanks for all Thou dost supply
Thanks for pain and thanks for pleasure Thanks for comfort and despair
Thanks for grace that none can measure Thanks for love beyond compare
Thanks for roses by the wayside Thanks for thorns their stems contain
Thanks for home and thanks for fireside Thanks for hope that sweet refrain
Thanks for joy and thanks for sorrow Thanks for heavenly peace with Thee
Thanks for hope in the tomorrow Thanks through all eternity
Amen. With that, we'll have our announcements.
Good evening, everybody. Welcome to Sure Foundation Baptist Church.
Let's take our bulletins and go through the announcements.
If you don't have a bulletin, just lift up your hand.
One of the ushers will bring you a bulletin.
If we have some left, do we have any left?
All right. Just keep your hand up in the sky on the front cover while they're getting those out to you.
I'll just read the verse of the week. It says,
I will praise Thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Marvelous are Thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well.
Psalm 139, verse 14. And that is one of the beautiful verses in Psalm 139.
Some of them are ones that people don't like to sing, but that is one of the more favored ones that people like.
On the inside page, there we have our service times. Sunday morning, 10 30 a.m.
Sunday evening, 3 30 p.m. We are currently in the book of Joshua on Sunday evenings.
And we'll be, let's see, I believe in chapter 5, coming up this Sunday night.
And Thursday evening Bible study, we're in 1 Chronicles chapter 14 tonight.
I'm going to find a way to work in Thanksgiving.
So, I've been preaching for a while, so I've been able to do those things from time to time.
So, let's see, are so many times we'll have to blow?
I don't think we had so many today. I think it ended up getting canceled in Beaverton there.
But we do have 20 salvations for the month.
And we aren't going to probably, I mean we might get close to what we had last year in our salvations.
Our baptisms are a little bit short from last year, but we still have had 30 baptisms this year.
The attendance from last week is down at the bottom of the page there.
And I did have a wonderful time in Oklahoma City, even though my wife got sick,
and she wasn't able to attend any of the services, so she's not with us tonight either.
So, she hasn't been feeling good, so if you'd pray for her, I'm sure she would appreciate that.
But it was nice to see Brother Dillon become Pastor Oz.
And so, it's very exciting to always see a new church start, and it's called Anchor Baptist Church.
So, hopefully you got a chance to see the ordination sermon.
And so, it's exciting to see a brand new start.
It was exciting to see my grandkids. It was exciting to see Dillon and Jasmine and a lot of old friends there.
So, that's exciting. And if you didn't get a chance to congratulate them, make sure you do so.
Just maybe send them a text or something on one of the social media sites that you use if you do.
Tonight, we're having a special Pi Social after the church service.
It's our way of just saying thank you to ourselves. No, I'm just kidding.
No, we're thankful to God for all the blessings that He's given to us for the year,
and we do that by just having some fellowship.
And the Lord loves us to have fellowship together as Christians,
and to be thankful for not just one time a year, but we should be thankful all year round for the blessings that God gives us.
And if you've had a particular tough year, you can still be thankful because there's going to be years to come that will be easier than this year was for you.
So, if we only lived one year of our life, and that year was just a bad year, then we could complain.
But I'm sure there's many good years that we all live also.
So, we should be thankful to the Lord for our salvation and for all the many blessings that He provides for us, our families.
And if you just sit and think about the many things that you have been blessed with, you'd probably come up with a huge list.
And we tend to be negative as human beings, and we live in a sin-cursed earth, and there's a lot of negative news.
And especially if you turn on social media, there's a lot of negative things that are on social media,
and that tends to kind of skew your view that everything bad is going on in the world.
But there are some good things going on in the world, too.
And obviously, we have the holiday coming up this week, so take some time with your families,
and just think about the things you're thankful for, and just be thankful to the Lord for all of His blessings.
So, that's tonight. We're going to have a pie social right after church,
and we're going to enjoy some very, it looks like some very tasty pie afterwards.
And it looks like the eggnog arrived just on time, Baptist time, so we appreciate that.
I'm going to bring some spare just in case, like I said.
But it looks like we've got plenty of stuff for everybody to eat, so that's going to be great.
And let's see, we've got the kids' choir practice starting this Sunday after.
So, after the first thing, so December 1st, this Sunday after the evening service,
we're going to have the kids' choir practice.
I think everybody has all the song lists.
And if you don't, see Rylan, and you can start practicing those songs
so they can all sing together for the Christmas service.
This will be December 22nd. We'll sing in the morning service.
So, let's see, the December 7th cookie exchange is going to be at 11 a.m. at Julene and Rylan's residence.
And that, see, Julene, for the details, there will be a white elephant gift exchange.
And then, what is the cookie amount that needs to be made? How many cookies?
Three dozen cookies, and then you all exchange them, and then you take them home to your husbands,
and they devour them. And then pastor gets 10%.
The juice is running. No, I'm just joking.
No, I'm just kidding. But that's always a good time for the ladies.
So, I'm sure the ladies are looking forward to that.
And then December 8th, we're going to have, which is the next day,
Brother Sean Conlon's ordination as evangelist.
He's going to be sent up to Seattle to run the Seattle church plant there.
And we are going to, so I'm going to ordain him.
And then we're going to have round table pizza after the church service.
And so we'll have a time of fellowship.
We'll go out soloing him for a little bit.
And then Brother Sean's going to preach the evening service for us on Sunday night.
So, that's December 8th.
So, make sure you get around and congratulate him on that.
But don't count the chickens before they hatch.
He could screw everything up before we get there.
So, hopefully that won't be the case.
But no, very excited about them.
He's already bought a house, so he's committed.
And so, looking forward to what Brother Sean and his family can do up there.
So, December 12th, we're going to have the kids' Christmas party here at the church building.
That's between 10 and 3.
There'll be games and I'm sure candy and sugar and, you know, all that kind of stuff.
So, I'm not sure exactly what the plan is, but I know that it's going to be fun.
So, if you want to ask my wife any questions about it, I think she's the one that's kind of putting it on.
So, and then December 15th is Dr. Stringer preaching for us both services Sunday morning and Sunday evening.
He's going to be coming back from his trip to Egypt.
So, he's going to tell us all about it.
And that's my Egyptian dance, I guess, whatever.
But excited about hearing about what he gets to do over there.
And kind of jealous a little bit that he gets to go to Egypt because it's something I've always wanted to go do.
At least to just see the pyramids or something.
So, anyway, December 22nd is our Christmas service.
We're going to have the children's choir singing in the morning.
And we're going to have a Christmas dinner potluck service between the first and second service.
And it's not actually Christmas day, so it'll be just normal services as usual.
But the church will provide the meat for the church for the main meal.
But on the 21st, I'm planning on doing some extra soul winning.
So, the 21st, which is a Saturday. So, we'll do our Super Saturday that day before.
So, I'll probably just make it a four-hour stretch.
Normally that would be our full soul-winning marathon.
But it's going to be the dead of winter.
So, probably just do the four-hour thing.
We'll find some place good to warm ourselves up and get a nice meal afterwards.
And then, of course, all the other stuff you guys already know.
The rules and all that stuff. The offerings have come in so far.
And Jazzy, did we get to sing happy birthday to you?
Okay. Happy birthday.
And then Nicky Richie is on the 25th.
Keziah Acorda is on the 30th.
And we already sang happy anniversary to Brandon and Nia.
Alright, that's all we have for announcements.
Go ahead and sing another song.
And then we'll receive the offering.
Our next song will be song number 441, Great Is Thy Faithfulness.
Song 441, Great Is Thy Faithfulness.
Song 441, Great Is Thy Faithfulness. Let's sing it together on the first.
Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father.
There is no shadow of turning with Thee.
Thou changest not thy compassions, they fail not.
As thou hast been, thou forever will be.
Great is thy faithfulness, great is thy faithfulness.
Morning by morning new mercies I see.
All I have needed thy hand hath provided.
Great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me.
Summer and winter and springtime and harvest.
Sun, moon and stars in their courses above.
Join with all nature in manifold witness.
To thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.
Great is thy faithfulness, great is thy faithfulness.
Morning by morning new mercies I see.
All I have needed thy hand hath provided.
Great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me.
Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth.
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide.
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow.
Blessings all mine with ten thousand beside.
Great is thy faithfulness, great is thy faithfulness.
Morning by morning new mercies I see.
All I have needed thy hand hath provided.
Great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me.
Amen. Good to see you. Brother Jesse, would you bless your offering for us?
Good to see you.
All right, go ahead and open your Bibles to 1 Corinthians, chapter number 14.
1 Corinthians 14, if you don't have a Bible, there should be one under the seat in front of you.
1 Corinthians, chapter 14.
1 Corinthians 14, the Bible reads,
Follow after charity and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy.
For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God.
For no...
Uh-oh.
You did.
1 Chronicles 14.
What's that?
Yeah.
Okay, 1 Chronicles 14.
Now Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David and timber of cedars with masons and carpenters to build him house.
David perceived that the Lord had confirmed him king over Israel, for his kingdom was lifted up on high because of his people Israel.
And David took more wives at Jerusalem, and David begat more sons and daughters.
And these are the names of his children, which he had in Jerusalem.
Shemua and Shobab, Nathan and Solomon, and Ibhar.
Elishua and Elpalit, and Nogah, and Nepheg, and Japheth.
And Eli-shammah and Belatia, and Eliphelet.
And when the Philistines heard that David was anointed king over Israel, all the Philistines went up to seek David.
And David heard of it, and went out against them.
And the Philistines came and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim.
And David inquired of God, saying, Shall I go up against the Philistines, and wilt thou deliver them into mine hand?
And the Lord said unto him, Go up, for I will deliver them into thine hand.
So they came unto Baal-parism, and David smote them there.
And then David said, God hath spoken in upon mine enemies by mine hand, like the breaking forth of waters.
Therefore they called the name of that place Baal-parism.
And when they had left their gods there, David gave a commandment, and they were burned with fire.
And the Philistines yet again spread themselves abroad in the valley.
Therefore David inquired again of God, and God said unto him, Go not up after them, turn away from them, and come upon them over against the mulberry trees.
And it shall be, when thou shalt hear a sound of going in the tops of the mulberry trees, that then thou shalt go out to battle.
For God has gone forth before thee, to smite the host of the Philistines.
David therefore did as God commanded him, and they smote the host of the Philistines, from Gibeon even to Gezer.
And the fame of David went out into all lands, and the Lord brought the fear of him upon all nations.
Brother Bill, will you pray for us?
Then he had to read all those names that he hadn't practiced beforehand, so I apologize for that.
Alright, 1 Chronicles chapter 14.
The title of my sermon tonight is Friends, Family, and Foes.
Friends, Family, and Foes.
And point number one is David's friend Hyrum.
So, in verse number one the Bible says,
Now Hyrum king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and timber of cedars, with masons and carpenters to build him an house.
And David perceived that the Lord had confirmed him king over Israel, for his kingdom was lifted up on high because of his people Israel.
So, here we have this guy named Hyrum, who is the king of Tyre, and he is obviously not of Israel.
He is a heathen king, but I would say to you that Hyrum probably ended up being a saved man.
He obviously loves David.
It doesn't say that in this passage, but if we go to 1 Kings, go ahead and go over to 1 Kings, and we'll learn a little bit more about Hyrum.
But Hyrum is a friend of David, and he's also a fellow king.
And a lot of times when you meet friends, a lot of times you meet them as people you deal with in business.
Maybe they're just fellow workers that you've worked with.
But, you know, they're in the same business. They're in the king business.
So, you know, they're both equals in the same field of work.
So, it makes sense that they would deal with each other, and, you know, kings deal with other kings.
So, for whatever reason, they end up becoming friends, and, you know, David has pretty much secured the kingdom of Israel,
but this is really becoming the zenith of when the children of Israel were their most effective,
where God starts to impress upon the heathen, you know, who really is, you know, the most powerful.
You know, the only true God is God, you know, the God of the Bible.
There's no other God beside him, and it becomes very evident to some of the kings that, you know, the God of the Bible is the right God.
And that's why he always says, you know, that the whole earth may know that there's a God in Israel.
So, Hyrum apparently understands this, and I would say if I had to, you know, just put all the combined writings about Hyrum together,
you know, it's not like he just is doing it because David's making him do all this,
but he supplies David with all the stuff that's needed to build the temple, his house, and then later on Solomon's house.
As you'll see in 1 Kings 5, verse 1, it says,
And Hyrum king of Tyre sent his servants unto Solomon, so this is after David's already dead,
for he had heard that he had anointed him king in the room of his father, for Hyrum was ever a lover of David.
So, Hyrum loved David. Hyrum was obviously a friend of David, and it said,
And Solomon sent to Hyrum, saying, Thou knowest how the David my father could not build a house unto the name of the Lord his God,
for the wars which were about him on every side, until the Lord put them under the soles of his feet.
But now the Lord my God hath given me rest on every side, so that there is neither adversary nor evil occurrence.
And behold I purpose to build an house unto the name of the Lord my God, as the Lord spake unto David my father,
saying, Thy son whom I will set upon my throne in thy room, he shall build an house unto my name.
Now therefore command thou that they hew me cedar trees out of Lebanon, and my servants shall be with thy servants,
and unto thee will I give hire for thy servants according to all that thou shalt appoint.
For thou knowest that there is not among us any that can skill to hew timber like unto the Sidonians.
So, now that David, you know, this is going obviously way into the future, where David has,
you know, this is, you know, at the beginning of this story, David has just become king,
but now we're in 1 Kings 5 where Solomon has been made king, so early in Solomon's.
So, obviously, David's an older man than Hyrum is, or at least he, you know, this is what it appears to be.
And Hyrum, because Hyrum lives deep into Solomon's reign also.
But, you know, Solomon is seeking a friendship with David's old friend, which is Hyrum, king of Tyre.
Look at verse 7, it says, And it came to pass when Hyrum heard the words of Solomon,
that he rejoiced greatly, and said, Blessed be the Lord this day.
Sounds kind of weird if he wasn't saved that he would say that, right?
You know, Hyrum, this king, is saying, Blessed be the Lord this day, which hath given unto David a wise son over this great people.
So, he's blessing the people of the Lord, he's blessing Solomon, and he's talking about David having this wise son.
So, it sounds to me like he at least is, in lip service at least, blessing the Lord God, you know.
Now turn to 2 Samuel, chapter 5, verse 11.
2 Samuel, chapter 5, verse 11.
And so, you know, David and Hyrum had this relationship where, you know, you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours.
They kind of traded in the things that they had in common, you know,
but it kind of seemed like Hyrum gave a lot more in this relationship than they did to him,
but, you know, he wanted to be a blessing, it seems like.
You know, he wanted to be a blessing to his friend David, and said,
And Hyrum king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and cedar trees, and carpenters, and masons, and they built David in house.
And not only this, but like when the temple was being built, he sent his most skilled worker,
a man that was so skilled that he was able to build all these great pieces of work to go into the furniture of the house of the Lord.
So, the original stuff that was built in the tabernacle was built on a grander scale in the temple itself,
and this, you know, it was, we're talking about brass without weight, like they stopped weighing stuff,
it was so much and so excessive compared to what the other temple, or the tabernacle was like when the temple was built,
it was on a way more grander scale, and he sent another guy named Hyrum,
and this is where the masons get all this, you know, weird stuff, and they're like,
they take Hyrum and say this guy's name was Hyrum Abiff, and he knew the secrets of masonry or whatever,
and, you know, anyway, it's a bunch of mumbo jumbo,
but this guy Hyrum, king of Tyre, sent this guy Hyrum, who was, he was a skilled man, and built all this stuff.
So, Hyrum, king of Tyre, you know, did a lot of great things for David and for Solomon for the kingdom of Israel.
So, but he also, you know, he provided these labors and things like this, so he built a house for David,
I mean, who's had a friend in here that built a house for them before, anybody?
I mean, wouldn't that be nice?
Hey, you know, I like you so much, I'm gonna build a house for you.
I'll be like, dude, you are the best friend I've ever had.
You know, like, that'd be a nice gift, wouldn't it?
Turn to Proverbs chapter 27.
So, you know, I mean, guys like this are, you know, friends like, good friends are hard to come by,
and, you know, it's, there's a saying in this proverb here that's a really important thing to remember.
You know, your dad's friend, you know, the one that is a good friend to your dad,
and Solomon should have lived by this, but Solomon, I think, forgot this as time went on with Hyrum,
because Solomon started off really good, but then he kind of ended off his life not very good,
and he, obviously, he forsook the Lord and married a whole bunch of wives, and they turned his heart away, right?
Look at verse 9, it says,
So it's good to have friends, to have hearty counsel by them,
because thine own friend and thine father's friend forsake not.
See, when we have friends, we should be good friends to them,
so it says thine own friend and thy father's friend forsake not.
We should not forsake our friends, especially in their time of need,
and that is really when the rubber meets the road when it comes to friendships,
like, you know, how do your friends treat you when you're in need?
You know, when you actually need them to be friends,
because most of the time, you know, when you're friends,
you know, there's not, like, this great need that they need to do stuff for you all the time,
and, you know, a good code to live by to be friends is that there shouldn't be any stipulations to,
you know, you're my friend if you do this, this, and this.
There shouldn't be, like, you're my friend unless you do this,
or, you know, I mean, obviously there's things that you shouldn't do to your friends,
but I'm just saying that, like, there shouldn't be, like, this strings attached type of friendship,
but, you know, this thine own friend and thine father's friend forsake not,
we should not forsake our friends in their time of need.
You know, we should help them when it's time to help,
and be there for them when it's time to be there for them,
but, you know, it's like Reb Boam did the same thing when it came to, you know,
listening to his father's counsel, his father's friend's counsel,
the people that advised his father, they didn't, he didn't, his son didn't listen to them,
he listened to the young, to the young counselors, and then it ruined everything.
Of course, it was of God, but he still forsook the old man's counsel and listened to the young men,
and then the ten tribes rebelled.
But even with his friend Hiram, he soured that relationship later on.
Look at 1 Kings 9, verse 10.
It's very important, you know, because friends are hard to come by.
Real, true friends are hard to come by,
and we have enough problem having a lot of great character ourselves
because we're human, because we're air, because we make mistakes,
and, you know, every person in this room makes mistakes,
and maybe we've been bad friends at times ourselves.
Maybe we said something about a friend that we shouldn't have said,
or we weren't there for a friend when we should have been,
but we can remedy those mistakes.
You know, we can change and say, hey, you know what, I know I haven't been a good friend before,
maybe I was a bad friend in the past, but I want to change those things about myself
and be a friend of character, be a friend that people can count on,
be a friend that when I'm called upon, then I'll be there for them when they need me.
Look at 1 Kings 9, verse 10.
It says, and it came to pass at the end of 20 years.
So this is 20 years after Hiram starts dealing with Solomon.
So it says, when Solomon had built the two houses,
the house of the Lord and the king's house.
So he built the house of the Lord in seven years,
so it took, what, 13 years to build his own house?
Or it took, however long it took, it's 20 years from that time.
Now Hiram, the king of Tyre, had furnished Solomon with cedar trees and fir trees,
and with gold according to all his desire,
that then King Solomon gave Hiram 20 cities in the land of Galilee.
So the place where Jesus was from, he gave him 20 cities up there by that Sea of Chenareth,
which is the Sea of Galilee, right?
And Hiram came out from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him,
and they pleased him not.
And he said, what cities are these that thou hast given me, my brother?
And he called them the land of Kabul unto this day.
There's another place called Kabul today.
It's in Afghanistan, it's not very, it's kind of like a byword or something, right?
I'm not exactly sure what Kabul even means, I forgot to look it up,
but it probably doesn't mean something very nice though, I'm guessing.
So if anybody has a smartphone, you can look it up real quick for me and help me out here.
But nonetheless, you know, after giving him everything he asked for,
he gave him everything he desired.
He built his dad's house, gave him all the supplies for the house of the Lord,
which were limitless brass, everything that he wanted built,
and then gave him all the supplies for his own palace that was like magnificent,
so much that none the like was built like it ever before.
People came from all over the world to look at Solomon's house
and look at how majestic it was.
Nothing was like it ever built before it.
And what's he do?
What's he do? He builds him 20 cities that apparently he's not too impressed with.
What's it mean, brother Bill?
AI says it's either what does not please or like nothing.
What does not please or like nothing.
The margin though is that is displeasing or dirty.
So none of those things sound very good, do they?
So I mean, he's really not happy about the return, you know,
but he gives him everything his heart desires,
and then in return he gives him some gnarly old beach towns or something,
you know, some lake towns that are not pleasing, right?
So unfortunately, there are very few friends out there today,
and you know, it's just the truth that you can't really count
how many true friends you have in this world,
and it seems like people, you know, you'll think that they're your true friends
and then they stab you in the back.
But that's never stopped me from still trying to continue to make true friends
and to still try to be a true friend to people,
even though I've been stabbed in the back countless times
by people who say that they're my friend.
So let's look at some scriptures though about this.
Let's look at Exodus chapter 33 verse 11.
And I know I've preached about friendship fairly recently,
but I still think it's a good thing to cover these things
because, I mean, we're talking about David's friend Hyrum here.
I've got three alliterated points and one of them is friends,
so let's delve into this a little bit.
So Exodus 33, 11, all right?
So the Bible says,
And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face,
as a man speaketh unto his friend.
So what is something that we think about
when we think about friends?
Well, friends talk.
God talked to Moses like a man speaks face to face to his friend.
So what does that tell you?
Well, friends should probably talk to each other at some point, right?
So if you're saying that you're friends with somebody
and you never talk with them, you know,
communication is a two-way street.
So if you're the one that's always calling the other friend
and that friend never calls you, never communicates with you,
that's not a very, that's what's called a one-way friendship.
You know, if you're the one that's always doing like in this situation,
it's like Hyrum's doing, doing, doing, doing, doing for Solomon,
and then when it comes time to do back, it's like he gives this half effort
and gives him something that's kabul.
Thanks for kabul, you know?
It's the rat nest of the armpit of Israel or something.
It's the washing pot of Israel, you know?
That's not a true friendship.
Proverbs 18 verse 24 says,
A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly.
So if you have friends, you still must shew yourself friendly.
So it's not, you know, hey, yeah, I got a lot of friends.
Well, are you friendly to them?
Do you shew yourself as a friend to them from time to time?
Because that is kind of a requirement and people are like,
well, I just don't have any friends.
Well, maybe you're not very friendly.
Have you ever thought about that?
Do you shew yourself friendly?
Do you do friendly acts to let people know that you are actually friends with them?
You know, it's kind of weird to say, oh, yeah, these people are all my friends,
but you never talk to them?
How is that being a friend?
I mean, obviously people get busy and life happens
and you kind of drift away sometimes from your high school friends
or whatever and all that,
and sometimes there's people that you just need to drift away from.
They can be friends from a distance
because you just don't have much in common with them.
Maybe they're not saved.
They're not Christians.
They're not someone you would hang around with.
I get that,
but when you have a friendship with somebody that you have things in common with,
friendship is a two-way street.
Friendship is something that both people participate in,
and so you can't really say that you're a friend to someone
if you never are showing yourself friendly to them,
if that makes sense.
It says, and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.
Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 13, verse 6.
Deuteronomy chapter 13, verse 6.
The Bible says in Deuteronomy 13, verse 6, it says,
If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter,
or thy wife, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend,
which is as thine own soul enticed thee secretly, saying,
Let us go and serve other gods which thou hast not known, thou nor thy fathers.
So if this situation happens,
if you're friends with someone that's gonna tell you to go serve other gods,
friends shouldn't be a detriment to your spiritual walk.
That is probably a friend that you should no longer be friends with.
If that's your friend, and then you're forsaking people
that are actually a friend that you should be hanging around with,
friends should not be a detriment to your spiritual walk.
They should be someone that's a positive,
and I'm talking about Christian people here.
We're all Christians in here. We're in church tonight.
So hopefully your friends that you're hanging out with on a regular basis
are not the heathens of the world.
They shouldn't be people,
Hey, let's go serve other gods.
Hey, let's go to the bar.
I mean, because what are they serving?
Themselves beer at the bar.
They're serving themselves football, and darts, and women,
and gambling, and keno, and whatever else stupid things that they're doing,
and fights, and saying perverted things to women,
and whatever else they're doing at these places.
Look at Judges chapter 14, verse 20.
Judges chapter 14, verse 20.
You're like, well, this isn't a very good Thanksgiving Day sermon.
Well, I mean, welcome to a Baptist church, folks.
Judges chapter 14, verse 20.
I didn't say I was preaching hearts and flowers tonight.
I just said there will be some Thanksgiving worked into it, okay?
Judges chapter 14, verse 20.
But Samson's wife was given to his companion whom he had used as his friend.
You shouldn't have friends just to use them for what you want,
or what you can get from them,
or as a means to an end.
Hey, this guy is 16.
He's got a car, so let's all use him so we can get rides places.
That's what people used to do in high school.
Hey, I know this guy's kind of a dork, but let's go ride with him anyway,
because he's got a car.
What, you don't think that happens?
Of course it does.
People use people for all kinds of things,
and so we shouldn't be being friends with people just so we can use them
for some sort of advantage, whether it be business
or whatever advantage you think it's going to get you.
This is what Samson was doing.
He used him as a companion,
and then he ended up paying the price for it
because his wife got given to his friend that he used.
So when you use people, guess what happens to you?
You reap what you sow, you get used in the end, right?
Second Samuel chapter 13, verse 3.
Second Samuel chapter 13, verse number 3.
Let me tell you something, kids.
Peer pressure is a real thing.
You're like, what is that?
Well, that's where people that are the same age as you
put pressure on you to do things that you shouldn't want to do
or that you shouldn't be doing, that you know is wrong
and you know will get you into some sort of trouble.
It says in Second Samuel 13, verse 3, it says,
But Amnon had a friend whose name was Jonadab,
the son of Shemaiah, David's brother,
and Jonadab was a very subtle man.
So subtle man means he was a very cunning man.
He was smart in a very clever way
to where he was able to get his way by back dooring things.
You just couldn't tell that he was trying to lead you
to do something that you didn't want to do
or that you shouldn't be doing.
But Jonadab was a friend that helped ruin Amnon's life.
And in the end, it cost him his life.
And David did have this warning in his heart
to not let him allow his daughter to go visit Amnon.
But David ignored that feeling.
And then his daughter ends up getting violated by his own son,
and it just ruined his family.
You know, it ended up causing a lot of problems.
So what happened?
Well, Jonadab pressured him to do something
that he shouldn't have done,
and then it ended up causing this young man to lose his life.
Obviously, he didn't have to choose what he did,
but peer pressure is a real thing.
And so we shouldn't want to be friends with people
that are going to pressure us to do things that are wrong and wicked.
Turn to 2 Samuel chapter 15.
2 Samuel chapter 15. Not all of these are negative.
I just had a negative bunch there.
But it's very important who we choose to be friends with.
Sometimes we want to be friends with people
because we think they're cool or something,
or they make us laugh or whatever.
But a froward man is not a good person to be friends with,
a person that, just because they're funny
doesn't mean that they're somebody we should hang around with.
2 Samuel chapter 15 verse 37 says,
So Hushai, David's friend, came into the city,
and Absalom came into Jerusalem.
So David had other good friends,
and fortunately, Hushai was one of those friends,
and Hushai is the one that broke the counsel of Ahithophel,
and he was such a good friend that he risked his life.
You know, David is on the run,
and he risked his life to pretend to betray David,
and goes to Absalom, and Absalom says,
hey, what kind of friend are you?
You know, ditching your friend like that.
He's like, well, you know,
I'm just gonna be on the winning side or whatever,
and then that was enough to convince him.
And then he actually takes his counsel over Ahithophel's.
Ahithophel goes and hangs himself.
He hanged himself, excuse me.
But this is an example of a good friend.
Ahithophel's that type of person,
that's the type of friend that you actually want,
someone that's actually willing
to put their neck out on the line for their friend.
That's a true friend.
A true friend is going to see the predicament
and say, hey, you know what, I mean, that's my friend.
I'm gonna go stick my neck out on the line for him.
He wasn't like, oh, David, you need to step down as king
and let Absalom take over.
That's not what he was saying, was it?
He was like, hey, I know you screwed up, David,
but I'm still your man.
I'm still your friend, and I'm still gonna help you.
He wasn't like, you wicked adulterer.
You wife-stealing pig.
I'm glad your baby died.
That's not what he said.
He was like, I'm your friend.
He wasn't helping Absalom.
Absalom who's going to his concubines
and trying to murder his own father.
So how did the Absalom crew, what ended up happening to them?
Well, he ends up hanging from a tree
in a dart being thrust through his liver.
How did Ahithophel, who betrayed David,
who was his friend also, how did he end up
hanging himself from the nearest oak tree?
And how did the guy who was kicking rocks at him,
Shimei, how did he end up?
Well, he ended up, you know, he lived a little bit longer,
but then his hoary head went down to the grave in blood,
didn't it?
So, you know, it's just,
being a loyal friend, there's something to be said about that,
and like, all the people that were disloyal to David
ended up just dying these terrible deaths,
but, you know, was David a perfect guy?
Of course he wasn't.
But it was very clear who was on the right side here, isn't it?
Like, David was on the, David did wrong,
David was judged for what he did,
but it was very clear who was right here.
It wasn't Absalom.
It wasn't the guy trying to murder his own father.
So, and then you got people like Job's friends,
the miserable comforters, who just for chapter,
I mean, you know, I'm not trying to be,
I'm not trying to be sacrilegious or something,
but one of the books that I didn't like the most
early on in my Christianity was the Book of Job.
Because a lot of it is just his friends talking crap to him
for like chapter after chapter after chapter in poetry.
I'm not much of a poet, okay?
But I've learned to love the Book of Job
because now I understand a lot of what is going on there,
but what's really just miserable about the whole story
is the fact that Job finally just says,
miserable comforters are you all.
And it's like, instead of just saying,
hey Job, you know, they did comfort him for seven days,
they laid down, they shut their mouths,
but they should've just kept doing that.
But instead, then they just started blaming him
and telling him all the wicked things he did.
Instead of just saying, hey, you know, whatever,
comforting him, giving him the benefit of the doubt,
they just wanna make him into the worst sinner
that ever walked the face of the planet,
and God at the end says, you guys are wrong.
And Job is right.
And Job is gonna pray for you,
and then Job prays for them,
and then God's wrath comes off of them.
But, you know, it's funny,
we just think that we know everything
because someone's going through a hard time,
and we don't always know what's going on.
So instead of just acting like we know,
we should probably give our friends
the benefit of the doubt sometimes
instead of just thinking we know everything.
Look at Psalm chapter 41 verse nine.
Psalm chapter 41 verse nine.
How does that verse go, even a fool,
when he closes his mouth, has counted his wives?
I know that's not quoting the word perfect,
but it's true.
It's better to just keep your mouth shut
when you don't know something
than to just run your mouth
when you don't know what you're talking about.
Psalm chapter 41 verse nine.
This is written about Judas,
and it's quoted in the New Testament
where Judas betrayed Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ was nothing but a good friend to Judas
even though he knew the whole time
he was gonna betray him.
How hard must that have been to be?
Knowing he's a devil,
knowing he was gonna betray him,
knowing what exactly everything that he was gonna do,
knowing he was destined for hell,
that he was always gonna be a devil,
he was nothing he ever said was ever gonna affect him,
he was never gonna get saved,
but he still treated him as a friend, didn't he?
And the Bible says in Proverbs 17 verse 17,
it says, a friend loveth at all times
and a brother is born for adversity.
A friend loveth at all times
and a brother is born for adversity,
and look, Jesus practiced this.
Even though Judas was a devil,
even though he picked Judas and knew what he was gonna do,
he still loved him at all times, even up until the end.
And the Bible says, faithful are the wounds of a friend
in Proverbs 27 verse six,
but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.
Faithful are the wounds of a friend.
You can take this two ways.
Faithful are the wounds of a friend.
Proverbs can be taken in different ways.
It can be interpreted in different ways,
but yeah, your friends are gonna tell you the truth
when you need to hear the truth.
That's one way of interpreting this,
but the other way of interpreting this
is your friends are gonna betray you
and stab you in the back too.
There's another way of interpreting it.
You can interpret it both ways,
but I think that the first one
is probably the main interpretation of that
because it says, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful
because it's saying a but.
So the true interpretation is the first interpretation.
But the Bible says, iron sharpened with iron
so a man sharpened with the countenance of his friend.
We're here to sharpen each other as friends.
If you can't say something honestly to a friend
without them crying about it,
without them melting like a snowflake,
we should be able to be honest to our friends
without them never being friends with us again.
You know, especially Christians.
We should not be just offended over every little thing.
You say one thing and we're like,
I'm never friends with you again.
And I've said this before.
When I worked at the city,
we would get in some of the biggest screaming matches
even in the middle of the street sometimes,
you know, sorry, but it's true.
Or we're just like, ah!
I mean, the sun is beating down on you,
it's 100 degrees outside, it's the end of the day,
you've already worked 12 hours,
and you're burning with a blowtorch basically
trying to get all these emblems in
and everybody wants to go home,
you've been on 300 degree, hot and mad all day,
you're done.
You're ready to go home.
And people are making dumb mistakes
because they're tired and the crew leader's just like,
ah!
And then you're like, ah!
Everybody's just yelling at each other.
And then the next day you all come in
and everybody's cool and laughing
and just having a good time.
Nothing is even remembered.
How come heathen can do that,
but Christians can't?
Isn't that weird?
But if that happens with the Christians,
like, I'm done with them forever.
I can't be friends with them anymore forever.
Blocked in perpetuity on all social media accounts forever.
And that is the new reprobating or whatever.
Not reprobating, but just, it might as well be.
It's just bizarre.
I don't understand why Christians can't be
a little more thick-skinned about stuff.
But they can't be.
So, look at Matthew chapter 26 verse 47.
Matthew chapter 26 verse 47.
I'm gonna have to really hurry up here.
Matthew chapter 26 verse 47.
Excuse me.
And while he had spake, lo Judas, one of the 12, came,
and with him a great multitude with swords and staves,
and from the chief priests and elders of the people.
Now he that betrayed him gave them a sign,
saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss,
that same as he, hold him fast.
And forthwith he came to Jesus and said,
Hail, master, and kissed him.
And Jesus said unto him, Friend, friend,
even when he's betrayed him, what's he call him?
Friend, wherefore art thou come?
Then came they and laid hands on Jesus and took him.
I mean, even unto the end,
when he's kissing him on the face
and betraying him to be crucified,
he calls him friend.
A friend loveth at all times.
And Jesus proved that that can be done.
But yet we can't even get over
some little Facebook post or something.
It's sickening.
We can't get past yelling at somebody
getting mad about something.
It's just ridiculous.
So, let's look at a couple more verses here.
Let's just look at Zechariah 13.
I'll read for you Proverbs 16, 28.
It says, A froward man soweth strife,
and a whisperer separated chief friends.
People like to try to start fights between people
by sending little clips to the other person.
Oh, look at this.
Look at what they said here.
And don't even put the whole thing in context
and try to start fights between friends.
That's what people do though.
They wanna start fights between,
and what is chief friends?
That means best friends.
The best friends that you have.
And they're gonna try to start a fight with you?
It's ridiculous.
He that covereth transgressions seeketh love,
and he that repeateth the matter
seperateth very friends.
You start repeating,
look, somebody does something
and you have to repeat that matter to somebody
instead of just saying,
you know what, I can just pass over that.
Do you have to just answer every transgression
that happens?
No, you don't.
You don't have to repeat that.
See it's saying repeating the matter
is separating friends,
but covering it, seeking love.
So you don't have to,
people just think that they have to
just repeat everything that they hear.
Every slight that they've heard against somebody.
You don't have to do that.
As a matter of fact,
the Bible's saying don't do that.
You wanna be loving?
Don't do that.
That's what it's saying.
Zechariah 13, six says,
and one shall say unto him,
what are these wounds in thine hands?
Then he shall answer,
those with which I was wounded
in the house of my friends.
It's a real shame that Jesus
went to his friends.
He went to his own
and they received him not.
And what this is talking about
is his family, his house.
He goes to them
and they're like,
where'd you get the wounds
in your hands and your feet?
Oh my friends did this to me.
Faithful are the wounds of a friend, right?
I mean, they actually,
his own people killed him
and crucified him.
Sickening.
But that's what his friends did to him.
You know, we should be better friends.
We really should be.
So what's our application?
Well, how about be the friend
that you want others to be to you?
How about that?
How about we just start being the friend
that we want to,
we want people to be good friends to us.
Well, why don't you be the friend
that you want others to be to you?
How about that?
How about follow that golden rule?
Therefore, all things whatsoever
you would that men should do to you,
do ye even so to them.
Well, my friends never call me.
Well, why don't you call them?
You ever thought about that?
Well, my friends never want to hang out with me.
Do you ever try to hang out with them?
Well, nobody likes me.
Do you like them?
Do you like other people?
Or do you just have your own little circle
that nobody else can get into?
You don't like people coming over.
You don't like people getting into,
oh, someone tries to get into your circle
and then you just hate on that person.
Like, that's not how it should be, folks.
So the Thanksgiving takeaway should be
be thankful for the friends that you do have,
if you have any, by the way,
because true friends are a very rare thing.
True friends.
And they're more rare than precious gold also,
the ones that you can actually count on,
the ones that actually truly will be there
when you need them.
And if you're saved tonight
and you don't have any friends at all,
like you have zero friends,
Jesus is still your friend,
so you do actually have one friend, okay?
So don't be so sad,
because you have the best friend
that anybody could ever have.
We all have at least one friend here.
We all have Jesus as our friend,
as long as you're not a friend of the world, right?
But he'll never lie to you.
He'll never sell you out.
He'll never cheat you.
He'll never run off with your woman.
He'll never steal from you.
He'll never borrow and never pay you back.
He'll never move in as a roommate
and leave you with all the bills to pay.
He'll never pretend to be your friend
and talk crap behind your back.
He'll never leave you nor forsake you.
And he likes you despite the fact
that you have all the flaws that you have,
all the character flaws that people don't like about you.
He likes you even though you have him.
He'll never use you for what he can get from you
or what you can do for him.
He likes you anyway.
And that's cool.
I like that.
And I'm glad, you know,
even if you have to pay people to be your friends
here on earth,
you don't have to pay Jesus to be your friend, all right?
That was a long point number one,
but let's get to the point number two here.
David furthers his family, all right?
Let's go back to our text, verse number three.
It says, David took more wives at Jerusalem
and David begat more sons and daughters.
So he took more wives.
That means he already had plural wives.
And he took more wives.
So the Bible specifically commands kings
not to multiply wives in Deuteronomy chapter 17.
The Bible specifically spells this out.
I'm just gonna have you turn over to Deuteronomy 17.
We'll look at that real quickly.
Deuteronomy 17, verse 14.
It says, I'll just chop this down
so that we don't have to cover the whole chapter here.
And this really kind of goes to,
you're not supposed to multiply power to yourself.
That's why they weren't supposed to multiply
all these horses.
Because with horses is power.
It's kind of like back then,
it was kind of like having tanks.
Because those horses pulled what?
Chariots.
That's why they had stalls with the horses
and the chariots, right?
So that's like having military might.
Don't go to Egypt to get your horses
and multiply horses to yourself.
Don't multiply wives to yourselves.
And verse 17 says,
neither shall he multiply wives to himself
that his heart turn not away.
Neither shall he greatly multiply to himself
silver and gold,
amassing great amounts of wealth.
Because what?
That will also corrupt you.
Riches, the love of money,
is the root of all evil, right?
And so David,
where he's sitting here multiplying wives,
last week we kind of learned that
he learned the hard way
by one of his people getting killed
because he touched the ark, right?
Others have reached forth and touched the ark,
but he never should have been put in that position
because David should have known
not to carry the ark that way.
So now he's gonna learn some other hard lessons in life
because he's choosing to multiply wives
and multiply wives unto himself.
And it does kind of turn his heart away
because his man's eyes are never satisfied.
And David's eyes obviously has a problem
with wanting to look at other women
because he's married to all these wives
but then he still looks at Bathsheba later on.
And he still commits this sin with Bathsheba
that really causes all the problems in his house.
And so let's go back to our text here.
In First Chronicles chapter 14 verse four.
But David has an issue that many men have,
like just not being able to keep their eyes
where they belong.
And he should have stopped at one wife.
But that wife didn't work out
and then he went on the run
and then he picked up himself some other wives
and then he comes back to Jerusalem to be king
and then he picks up more wives.
So he's got wives
and now it's about to mention all these sons that he has
but verse four says,
verse four says,
Now these are the names of his children
which he had in Jerusalem.
Shemua, which if you're looking for baby names
here's a list here.
And Shobab and Nathan, here's a normal one.
And Solomon.
So Solomon of course is the son that becomes the king.
Nathan, actually if you look in the genealogies
when we first went through all the first genealogies,
Nathan, his children end up living on into,
they're not in the line of the king
but they do live on into the Babylonian captivity.
And probably some of the other ones I can't,
I'm not gonna read all those names.
CJ had a hard enough time so I know I'm going to too.
So but verse five, six and seven
lists some of the other children
that were born in Jerusalem.
But the problem with what David's doing here
is that Solomon is the one
that does in excess what his dad did in moderation.
And so we have to remember as parents
that what we do in moderation
that our children will probably do in excess
so we gotta try to limit the things that we do
here on earth, the sins that we commit.
And obviously everybody commits sin though
so that is a problem.
But there are inherited sins
and I wouldn't say they're,
people talk about generational curses.
Well the curse of the law is sin.
So if you want to call that a sin
then I would say that that's a generational curse.
So but do people, my grandpa always said,
well he doesn't always say it but he said it once,
he said the only thing I ever inherited
from my dad was alcoholism.
Which you know, I laughed when he said it
but it's really not funny because it's kind of true.
You know, some people have a proclivity to alcohol
so they should, if they know that they're,
they had come from a long line of alcoholics,
maybe you shouldn't pick up the bottle.
Ever.
You know.
If the gambling bug had your family members
then maybe you should just stay away from Keno
and Blackjack and going to Vegas
and all those other things
or any scratch off tickets
because, and you might not even know
who had proclivity.
I mean how far can you really go back
with your ancestry?
I mean some of these Appalachian people
you might be able to,
Brother Bill might know some things
about his family history.
I think he does.
But I can't really go back that far.
I mean I know some cities where
my family members used to live
but that's pretty much it.
Who do you really know,
do you really know your great great grandparents
that well?
I mean you used to kiss them on the cheek
every once in a while when you see them
at Christmas and Thanksgiving or whatever
but most people don't know their great great
or great great grandparents
if they even knew them that well.
So we don't know very far back
what our family members were doing.
So we just gotta be careful
when it comes to what kind of things,
hey I've never tried that before.
Well you don't know how deep that runs back
in your family to how much of a problem
you're gonna have with it.
So we should limit the things that we would do
that would be a sin.
Obviously we're not trying to get into sin
but there's a lot of people,
like alcoholism is one thing I can think of.
When the natives,
when we came over here
and Native Americans were introduced to alcohol
it destroyed them.
It destroyed them.
And they were trading everything they could
for fire water basically.
And they still to this day,
it destroys those tribes.
The reservations are just littered
with problems with alcohol and drugs.
And they still have problems this day.
So it's just something that their bodies
genetically could not handle
because it was not introduced into their
bloodstream or whatever for all those generations
and so when they finally got it
just their body couldn't handle it.
It's just like any kind of diseases
like small and smallpox came over to this continent
it just decimated millions of people
because they had never encountered it before.
So it just wiped out all these people.
So anyway I'm off in the weeds here.
But the problem with Solomon
is that he married 700 wives and 300 concubines.
Where David had wives
like Solomon was just like
let me just quadrillion down on this
and like you know
let's just outdo dad here.
And it ruined his life.
And it ruined his son's life.
And it really was a vexation upon the rest of
the kings from here on out.
But it really did start with David didn't it?
For the multiplying of wives.
And some of the kings were able to
to reign it in a little bit.
But you know Solomon obviously went big or go home
but the rest of the kings were just like that.
I mean Rehoboam still had a lot of wives too.
So I would just say this.
What's the takeaway for us for Thanksgiving?
Well be thankful for the wife that you have.
And don't seek another.
It's against the law anyway.
You know be thankful for the wife that you do have
and if you don't have a wife well I got a verse for you.
Not that I speak for respect of want
for I have learned in whatsoever state I am there with
to be content.
And you know there's a lot of little ones that don't have spouses in here.
You know be content with the phase of life that you're at.
And I'm not saying don't you know
be content and be like Paul or whatever.
I'm not saying to anybody in here that's single
don't seek a wife or whatever.
If you want a wife then go get one.
But I'm just saying that
be content though
with the fact that like hey
you're not married at this point
and you know if you're seeking a wife
that's great you know get married whatever
it's your choice.
But as for like children
you know at this stage of your life
don't try to grow up so fast.
Enjoy your childhood.
You know some day you're going to be paying bills
working for the man
every night and day
right. You're going to be
paying bills or you're going to be married
and working for your husband
and your children.
And in life it doesn't get any easier than it does
when you're children. You think oh it's so hard
I have to do these chores.
Wait till doing chores is like
mandatory.
Or you get fired
and you have no home
and you live in a tent on the side of the road
over there with all the other losers.
So
you know you
if I could go back to being
a kid I probably wouldn't but
because
I just you know
I'm content with my life but
where I'm at now but
I mean I liked being a kid
if I could go back to being a kid
just for one year
it'd be 1985.
I was ten
years old. My best year.
But
I can't.
But that would be the year. Anyway
now I'm dreaming. But I'm thankful
for where I'm at now. I'm thankful for the family
I have. I'm thankful for my grandchildren. I'm thankful
for my children. I'm thankful
for my church. I'm thankful for my church
family. I'm thankful for my friends.
I'm thankful for my wife.
And we shouldn't seek
another.
Let's go on to the final point here
and that's David
fights with his foes.
So and obviously be thankful for your children
parents before I move on
because David went on to have a bunch more
children there's nothing wrong with that.
So be thankful for your children
don't seek to have
you know I wish my kid was like so and so's
kid. Hey be thankful for the kids that you
have.
Mold that child that you have.
Be thankful for them.
Because God gave you that specific child
for you to raise.
You know he forms
the child in the womb. He's the one
that allows
people to have children and he
made that child to be born by you.
So
do your best that you can with them.
Love them. Number three David
fights his foes the Philistines
verse eight it says and when the
Philistines heard that David was anointed king
over all Israel the
Philistines went up to seek David
and David heard of it and went
out against them. So David's got
friends he's got family
he's the king he's
living he's on top of the world right now
and what happens the foes
come out to fight him and
who are their main foes? The
Philistines. How did David make
the Philistines his foes?
Well he killed the biggest one that they had
Goliath.
It was a showdown he won the
gunfight at the OK Corral
cut his head off
and walked around with it for a while and gave it
to Saul. And then he
kind of fought on the side of the Philistines for a while
but now
he's about ready to show him
who the new sheriff in town is
and who the boss is here.
But it says the Philistines
came in so
the Philistines went up to seek David and David heard
of it and went out against them.
So David's not afraid of them
David's ready to go and it says and the
Philistines came and spread themselves in the valley of
Rephaim and David
inquired of God
saying shall I go up
against the Philistines? So this
is a very important point about David.
David just doesn't go willy nilly
out and just do whatever he
wants. When the enemy
comes David's like
I'm going to the Lord first
I'm going to figure out what God
wants me to do here.
Shall I go up against
the Philistines? This is the question he
has he inquires of God and wilt
thou deliver them into mine
hand? So he asks them two
questions shall I go up against
them and will I win?
Am I going to win this fight?
And the Lord said unto him go up
for I will deliver them into
thine hand. And that's all David
needs to hear right? So
this is something that David
always does before he
goes into battle it seems.
If you even go back to first Samuel go ahead and go
to first Samuel chapter 30 real quick.
First Samuel chapter 30
when the Amalekites before David's king
the Amalekites come and they
take their wives when
David's gone they come into the town that he
has and they come and
take the wives and all their stuff
and remember he has 600 people with him
and they come back to the town
and everybody's gone and they want
to kill David. They speak of
stoning him. And David
is distraught.
And it says in verse 1
it says and it came to pass when David
and his men were come to Ziklag
on the third day that the Amalekites had
invaded the south in Ziklag and smitten
Ziklag and burned it with fire. And he had
taken the women captives and that
were therein and they slew not
any either great or
small but carried them away and went
on their way so David and his men
came to the city and behold
it was burned with fire and their wives and their sons
and their daughters were taken captives. Then
David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice
and wept until they had no more power
to weep and David's
two wives were taken captive Ahinoam
the Jezrelitess and
Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite
and David was greatly distressed
for the people spake of stoning him
because of the soul of the people was grieved.
Every man for his sons and for his daughters
but David encouraged himself and the Lord is
God. And David said to Abiathar the
priest Amalek's son
I pray thee bring
me hither the Ephod and
Abiathar brought thither the Ephod
to David. So this is just
important because this is how he
inquires of the Lord. He doesn't just pray
right there he goes to the
priest and he gets the
Ephod and this is how he does it right
and David inquired
at the Lord saying
shall I pursue after this troop
shall I overtake them
and he answered him pursue
for thou shalt surely overtake them
and without fail
recover all. So this is
something that David is already in the habit
of doing so when we are fast
forwarded into this chapter
this is the first thing he does. So what
does that tell you that David is a man of habit
of prayer and
you know if you want things in life
if you want things to go your way
you know don't forget about God and the
equation. You think that God
is just going to lay it all out for you
all the time without you ever having to ask for
something. You have not because you
ask not and David
was always wanting to know
shall I do this thing
shall I go up and fight against the
Philistines. You know because look we have
foes and you might your foe might not be
the Philistines but it might be some
co-workers at work that are sabotaging you
it might be the boss that hates you
it might be
you know the the lady in the homeschool
group that's trying to hate on you or whatever that doesn't
want you to get whatever you're supposed to be getting I don't know
what whatever you guys are doing out there
but I'm just saying it could be just something in your
daily life some foe
shall you know and then
we don't go to God about things and
we just complain well God
is there to
help us you know what we don't have to put on
some special ephod
we don't have to go to some priest to do this
you know this is what it's showing
us in this chapter but
David had to do those things
but we don't have to we can just go right to God
that's our advantage
look at verse 11 back in our chapter I'm almost done here
hang with me
verse 11
so they came up to Baal
Perazim and David smote them
there then David said
God hath broken in
upon my enemies by mine
hand like the breaking forth of waters
therefore they called the place
Baal
Perazim
the name of that place
Baal Perazim I'm sorry I think that
my words got jumbled up here
anyway
so the breaking forth of waters remember
last week it was that
Peraz
so Baal Perazim the breaking
forth of waters like the
you know talking about the
the breach
so the Perazim
there is a similar word there
the breaking forth of the waters
and when they had left their gods there David
gave a commandment and they
were burned with fire
David doesn't leave
stuff around like Saul did
so you see the difference between him and Saul
Saul is like let's leave the best stuff to sacrifice
for no David is just like burn
it all burn it with fire
get rid of it and the Philistines
yet again spread themselves abroad in the valley
therefore David inquired again
of God and God said unto him
go not up after them turn away
from them and come upon them
over against the mulberry trees
this is where the song you know pop goes the weasel came from
but anyway and it shall be
when thou shall hear the sound going in the tops
of the mulberry trees that
then thou shall go out
to battle for God is gone
forth before thee to smite the host
of the Philistines and when they hear the
rustling then pop goes the weasel and
they killed them all right David
therefore did as God commanded
him and they smote the host of the Philistines
from Gibeon even to
Gazer so
God just said it wasn't like
he said you're not going to defeat him
it's just like let's not meet him in
the open field let's come around and flank them
verse 17
and the fame of David went out
into all lands and the Lord
brought the fear of him
upon all nations
so this is the beginning
of David just being the
the top dog in all
the areas everybody else is afraid
of him but this is also
a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ
and you know his first
his first coming where he's on the earth
it pictures that
because of the fame
of the Lord Jesus Christ he was very
famous the Bible says in Matthew chapter
424 it says and his fame went forth
throughout all Syria and they brought
him all sick people and they were
taken with diverse diseases and torments
and those that were possessed with devils
and those which were lunatic those that
had the palsy and he healed them
in Luke chapter 4 verse 37
it says and the fame of him went out
into every place of the
country round about so David
of course again pictures the Lord
Jesus Christ and so the fame
of David goes out into all the
lands just like
in the New Testament the fame of the
Lord Jesus Christ goes out into
all the country round about him
but that's not where the fame is going to
end the fame is also
going to be in the millennial reign
of Christ when the fear of
all the nations also
is going to be shown to everybody
else because
he's going to be ruling
and we're going to be ruling and reigning with him
and he's going to dash anybody that comes
against him like a potter's
vessel he's going to rule with a
rod of iron
that's not just like hyperbole
he's he's going to be
like literally ruling
people and showing people
how it's done turn to Isaiah 66
the last verse I'll have you turn to
Isaiah 66
it says
in Isaiah 66
it's the last chapter in Isaiah
Isaiah 66 verse 18
the Bible says
for I know their works
their thoughts
it shall come that I will gather all nations
and tongues and they shall come and see my glory
and I will set a sign
among them and I will send those
that escape of them onto
the nations to Tarshish, Pole,
Lud and draw the bow to
Tubal and Javin to the isles
afar off that have not heard of
my fame neither have
they seen my glory and
they shall declare my glory
among the Gentiles and they shall
and they shall bring
all your brethren for an offering
unto the Lord out of the nations upon horses
and in chariots and in litters
and upon mules and upon swift beasts
to my holy mount in Jerusalem saith the Lord
as the children of Israel
bring an offering and a clean vessel
unto the house of the Lord and I will also
take of them for priests and
Levites saith the Lord for as
the new heavens and the new earth will I
make shall remain before
me saith the Lord so shall
your seed and your name remain and it shall come to
pass that from one new moon to another
from one Sabbath to another shall all
flesh come to worship before me saith the Lord
so you know obviously
this transcends into the new heaven
to the new earth but it goes
from you know it's probably
talking about the
the millennial reign into
heaven evermore
but the point is is that
that Jesus Christ is
going to be famous
forever
his fame is going to
be in the millennial reign of Christ
where he's going to rule and reign
and he is going
to be that conquering
king when he comes back
when he comes back his eyes are going to
be like a flame of fire
and his name is going to be called the word of God
and everybody's going to come and bow
themselves before him and
you know we do have foes these
days but you know the thing that we can be
thankful for is that
we don't have to be afraid of them
anymore and really we shouldn't be now
we really shouldn't be now
we shouldn't be afraid of our
enemies and our foes
they should be afraid of what's coming
for them
Jesus is going to come back
and you know he
is going to you know the Bible says that
we shall
the you know
the righteous will rejoice
when they see the vengeance
that we shall
that we shall bathe
in the blood of the wicked that's what the Bible says
I mean that's pretty gross but like
it's true
you know
so there's going to come a time when
you know these wicked people that are
ruling our world are not going to be ruling it anymore
these Philistines these
evil people so we should be thankful
you know we got a lot of things to be thankful for this year
I know this isn't the traditional
thanksgiving you know
sermon but we should be thankful for
the good friends that we have and for the good
church that we have and for the lord and savior
of Jesus Christ for our families
and we should be thankful
for our you know if you're married for your spouse
for your children if you have children
and you know for your friends if you're single
you know and
we should be thankful for the fact that we
have a great church to go to we should be thankful
that God is always going to
give us the victory through our lord
Jesus Christ just like he gave David
the victory when he inquired
of the lord and he's going to give us the
victory in the end just like
it says in Isaiah 66
and you know
what's really cool is that our
best friend the lord Jesus Christ
is also our
king he's also
God he's also the most
famous person
in the whole universe and
you know there's nothing that beats him
I mean we got it all
we got everything
you know we might just be a little ragtag
group of soul winners here
but you know
we have it all coming to us
and we should really be thankful
for that we should be thankful for
every blessing that we get here
on this earth because we have
all of eternity to enjoy it
so happy thanksgiving
let's pray lord we thank you so much
for the bible
thank you so much for our church we thank you so much for
all the people that are
here tonight lord we pray that you just bless
those that couldn't be here tonight
and lord those that are going through
hard times
lord I pray that you just bless
all of our churches lord all of our church families
all the church plants that we have
lord I pray that you just bless each and every leader
that we have that are
standing in the gap in Washington
state and Canada
all the churches we've started lord I pray
for our church in Indianapolis
I pray for the church we started
in England
pray that you just bless each and every
place and lord the ones that we haven't started yet
that are in the
future lord I pray that you just bless
each and every single person in our church
and the husbands
the wives the men
the ladies
and all the children in our church lord
pray that you give us a special
holiday season to enjoy
and lord that you give us some peace and rest
from our enemies
and lord that you give us victory
over them and I pray that you
just bless your foundation Baptist Church in a very
special way this coming year
and I pray these things in Jesus name Amen
Song number 198
Joy Unspeakable
Song 198 on the first
Full of glory
it is joy unspeakable
and full of
glory all the half
has never yet been
told
I have found the pleasure
I once
craved it is joy
and peace within
what a wondrous
blessing I am
saved from the awful
gulf of
sin
it is joy unspeakable
and full of
glory full
of glory
full of glory
it is joy unspeakable
and full of
glory all the half
has never yet
been told
I have found that
hope so bright and
clear living in
the realm of
grace
oh the savior's
presence is so
near I can see
his smiling
face
it is joy unspeakable
and full of
glory full
of glory
full of glory
it is joy unspeakable
and full of
glory all the half
has never yet
been told
I have found the
joy no tongue
can tell how its
waves of glory
roll
it is like a
grain or flowing
well springing up
within my
soul
it is joy unspeakable
and full of
glory full
of glory
full of glory
it is joy unspeakable
and full of
glory all the half
has never yet
been told
Amen, good to see you brother Alex, can you close a word of prayer?
Thank you.