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Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] All right, folks, it is about that time. We're going to go ahead and get started this evening. Welcome back to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you would, find a seat, grab a hymnal, and turn to hymn number 150, My Faith Has Found a Resting Place. Hymn number 150-150, My Faith Has Found a Resting Place. We'll sing there on the first. My faith has found a resting place Not in device nor cream I trust the ever-living one His works, Lord, he shall plead I need no other argument I need no other plea It is enough that Jesus died And that he died for me Enough for me that Jesus stays This ends my fear and doubt A sinful soul, I come to him He'll never cast me out I need no other argument I need no other plea It is enough that Jesus died And that he died for me My heart is leaning on the Word The written Word of God Salvation by my Savior's name Salvation through his blood I need no other argument I need no other plea It is enough that Jesus died And that he died for me My great physician Heals the sick of what he came to save For he his precious blood he shed For he his life he gave I need no other argument I need no other plea It is enough that Jesus died And that he died for me Amen. We'll open with a word of prayer this evening. Bow your heads with me. Heavenly Father, we thank you for just another day, Lord, that we hopefully are not taking for granted, that we can gather together and serve you. And Lord, I pray that that would never just be a meaningless repetition, that we would really understand how great and how blessed we are to be able to gather and sing and worship you and learn freely. I pray that you'd be with the souls that were warned this evening. I pray that you'd also be with us for the remainder of the service, that everything is done decently and in order. These things we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, for our next hymn, turn to 173. 173. I do have some instruction for this one. I know everyone generally likes to hold out at the end. Love lifted me Here's what we're going to do so that we're not holding it three different times. For the first and second verse, we're going to sing it straight through. So just love lifted me into the second verse. But at the third verse, the end of the third, we're going to hold it out like we've all heard it done before. So do normal the first two, hold on the third. 173. Love lifted me. There on the first. I'll sing deep and still, far from the peaceful shore. Buried deep we stand within, singing to Christ the Lord. But the Master of the sea, provide his very cry. From the waters lifted me, now staying half-life. Love lifted me, Love lifted me, when nothing else could help. Love lifted me, Love lifted me, Love lifted me, when nothing else could help. Love lifted me, all my heart to him I give, ever to him I'll cling. In his blessed presence live, ever his praise is sweet. Love so mighty and so true, bear it my soul's best want, faithful loving service due to him he longs. Love lifted me, Love lifted me, when nothing else could help. Love lifted me, Love lifted me, Love lifted me, when nothing else could help. Love lifted me, souls in danger look above, Jesus completely saves. He will lift you by his love, out of the angry ways. He's the Master of the sea, bear those whose will obey. He your Savior would certainly be saved today. Love lifted me, Love lifted me, when nothing else could help. Love lifted me, Love lifted me, Love lifted me, when nothing else could help. Love lifted me. Amen. Good singing this evening. Good evening everyone. Welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. This time we'll go through some announcements. On the front is our Bible memory passage of the week there, Hebrews chapter 6 verse 12. I encourage everyone to keep working on this. I did receive one shipment of one of our prize options today and I'm really excited about that so I think you guys will like it. Make sure to work hard on that chapter. On the inside, our service times are listed. Sunday morning at 10 30 a.m. Sunday evening at 4 30 p.m. and Wednesday evening at 7 o'clock p.m. Our soul winning times are all listed there and you'll notice our Saturday rally highlighted. That's where we have a quick soul winning challenge. We sing a hymn to get filled with the Spirit and go out into the community and preach the gospel and that's always a great time. Definitely encourage you to join us for that. Our nursing home ministry schedule is there if you participate in that as well as our year to date soul winning and baptism statistics. Make sure to report those salvations to the soul winning leader or to that church email address please. Please continue to be in prayer for Miss Whitney Reed for her pregnancy and tomorrow is finally the day. I'm really excited for our chili cook off right before service. I finished mine up. I'm not going to be in a competition but I did make one. If you really like spicy chilis, you will like mine. If you don't, you will absolutely hate it and you'll probably be thinking about it for several days. Let's just say that okay. But if you like spicy, you will like it alright. So looking forward to that. We got our prizes and everything like that and just as a quick reminder, I don't care if you put beans in your chili. Have fun. But there's a special prize for preacher's pick and that one has to have no beans. So again if only one person, if a child just shows up to church and just has a bowl of chili with no beans, that child will win. So we'll see who wins that if anyone. I'm bringing one without beans so we'll see you know. Maybe I'm the only one. But we'll see tomorrow. But I'm looking forward to it. After the service this evening, if I could have the men just quickly help disperse these chairs and set up tables that way tomorrow, we're just ready to roll. It does say 6, what does it say, 6.30. Yes, I wanted to ask if you are entering into the competition, please make sure your chili is here by 6.45. So we're going to gather at 6.30 and then at 6.46, the judges are going to start judging. So if your chili comes any time after 6.45, you're not going to be in the competition. Please make sure you're here on time so that we're not all just waiting all night for latecomers. That is that for the chili cook-off. November 6th through the 10th is the missions conference at Faith Ford Baptist Church. November 24th is going to be the transition from Steadfast Baptist Church to Anchor Baptist Church, Lord willing. Looking forward to that. A lot of people have been contacting me from Steadfast saying they're coming. So looking forward to seeing all of them for that exciting weekend. If you would like to give online, online giving is set up for our church. We just scanned that QR code and there is a website that's in the works right now for Anchor Baptist Church. On the back is our prayer list. There was one thing mentioned. I did not have time to do the bulletin right before service, but Cameron, your mother's having surgery on Monday, right? Okay, so just be in prayer for her for that. Everything else should be the same for that prayer list. So let's go ahead and go to the Lord in prayer as a church this evening. Lord, thank you for this day and thank you for the opportunity to come together as a church family and to sing praises to your name, to hear the word of God preached and just to have fellowship with other like-minded believers. I just pray that you would bless our prayer quest this evening, that you'd answer them according to your will. And we pray for Cameron's mother, Barbara, that her surgery would go well on Monday morning, Lord, and that you'd just help heal her cancer. And obviously, Lord, also that you would just soften her heart to the gospel. And we pray for Brother Alex, who is still looking for a job. I just pray that you'd help him to succeed in his upcoming interviews that he has and that you'd just give him wisdom on the correct job to choose. Lord, I also pray for Miss Shawn Furr for her coworker, Terry, that her cancer would be healed, as well as for Miss Remy's cancer, that she'd be healed from her tumor 100%. And we also pray for Miss Whitney and Brother Zach, who have family members needing salvation. I just pray that all of our lost loved ones in this room, that their hearts would be softened and that they would get good opportunities in their life through either us as soul winners or other saved Christians to hear a clear presentation of the gospel. I pray that you'd always help this church to have a heart for lost souls, that we would love people and that you would just give us more laborers to accomplish the great commission. And we just ask that you bless the service tonight, Lord. We love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, that's gonna be it for announcements this evening. Let's go ahead and go to our third song. All right, our third song this evening, the Psalm of the Week, Psalm 149 in your white handouts. 149, 149 in your white handouts. We'll sing there right on that first and only verse. Praise be the Lord. Sing unto the Lord a new song and His praise in the congregation of saints. Let Israel rejoice in Him, their faith in Him. Let the children of Zion be joyful in their peace. Let them praise His faith in the days. Let them sing praises unto Him with the timbrel and harp. Let the Lord take in pleasure in His people. He will beautify the meek with salvation. Let the saints be joyful in glory. Let them sing aloud of dawn, Let them sing aloud of bone, their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth and to end in sword in their hands. To execute vengeance upon the heathen and punishment upon the people, to find their kings where chains and men no hold with fetters of iron. To execute upon them the judgment written, this honor have all His saints. Praise He the Lord. Amen. As the offering plates are being passed, turn if you would to 1 Samuel chapter 12. 1 Samuel chapter number 12. 1 Samuel chapter 12. 2 Samuel chapter 12. Good evening. 1 Samuel chapter 12. The Bible reads, And Samuel said unto all Israel, Behold, I have hearkened unto your voice, and all that ye said unto me, and have made a king over you. And now, behold, the king walketh before you, and I am old and greatheaded. And behold, my sons are with you, and I have walked before you from my childhood unto this day. Behold, here I am witness against me before the Lord and before His anointed. Whose ox have I taken, or whose ass have I taken, or whom have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed, or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith? And I will restore you. And I said, That hast not defrauded us nor oppressed us, neither hast thou taken aught of any man's hand. And he said unto them, The Lord is witness against you, and His anointed is witness this day, that ye have not found aught in my hand. And they answered, He is witness. And Samuel said unto the people, It is the Lord that advanced Moses and Aaron, and that brought your fathers up out of the land of Egypt. Now therefore stand still, that I may reason with you before the Lord of all the righteous acts of the Lord, which He did to you and to your fathers. When Jacob was come into Egypt, and your fathers cried unto the Lord, then the Lord sent Moses and Aaron, which brought forth your fathers out of Egypt, and made them dwell in this place. And when they forgot the Lord their God, He sold them into the hand of Sisera, captain of the host of Hazor, and into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the king of Moab, and they fought against them, and they cried unto the Lord, and said, We have sinned, because we have forsaken the Lord, and have served Balaam and Ashtaroth, but now deliver us out of the hand of our enemies, and we will serve thee. And the Lord sent Jerubabal and Bedan and Jephthah and Samuel, and delivered you out of the hand of your enemies on every side, and ye dwelled safe. And when ye saw that Nahash, the king of the children of Ammon, came against you, ye said unto me, Nay, but a king shall reign over us, when the Lord your God was your king. Now therefore, behold, the king whom ye have chosen, and whom ye have desired, and behold, the Lord hath set a king over you. If ye will fear the Lord, and serve him, and obey his voice, and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then shall both ye, and also the king that reigneth over you, continue following the Lord your God. But if ye will not obey the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then shall the hand of the Lord be against you, as it was against your fathers. Now therefore, stand and see this great thing which the Lord will do before your eyes. Is it not wheat harvest today? I will call unto the Lord, and he shall send thunder and rain, that ye may perceive and see that your wickedness is great, which ye have done in the sight of the Lord, in asking you a king. So Samuel called unto the Lord, and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day, and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel. And all the people said unto Samuel, Pray for thy servants unto the Lord thy God, that we die not, for we have added unto our sins this evil, to ask us a king. And Samuel said unto the people, Fear not, ye have done all this wickedness, yet turn not aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart, and turn ye not aside, for then should ye go after vain things, which cannot profit nor deliver, for they are vain. For the Lord will not forsake his people for his great name's sake, because it hath pleased the Lord to make you his people. Moreover, as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you, but I will teach you the good and the right way. Only fear the Lord, and serve him in truth with all your heart, for consider how great things he hath done for you. But if ye shall still do wickedly, then shall ye be consumed, both ye and your king. Amen. All right. Well, we're in 1 Samuel chapter number 12. If you remember, last chapter Nahash came against Israel, and King Saul led them to a great victory, and it was at the end of that victory that he really rallied the whole nation together behind him, and he was pretty much publicly acknowledged king at this point. And that brings us to 1 Samuel chapter 12, verse 1, where the Bible says, And Samuel said unto all Israel, Behold, I have hearkened unto your voice, and all that ye said unto me, and have made a king over you. So Samuel's letting him know, hey, I've listened to you. This is your request that is asked for a king. This is not something that God set up. Remember, God set up the system of the judges, and Samuel was the last judge in that system. And he says, You know what? I've listened to you. I've hearkened to you. And here you are now with King Saul. And number one, what I want to point out in this chapter this evening is the longevity of Samuel, the longevity of Samuel. And you're going to see that in verse number two, where the Bible reads, And now behold, the king walketh before you, and I, that's Samuel, am old and gray headed. And behold, my sons are with you, and I have walked before you from my childhood unto this day. And I think here, Samuel serves a really great example that all of us want to strive to get to, that we would serve God as long as humanly possible on this earth. Right? We don't want to be the types of Christians where we kind of get excited about the things of God for a few months or a few years. Rather, we want to have the testimony that from the time that we got saved, we stuck with it. We remained steadfast until we're old and gray headed. And Samuel here specifically says that he walked before them and he walked with God since his childhood, because you remember the beginning of First Samuel records the childhood of Samuel, how he started hearing the voice of the Lord as a child. So Samuel has walked with the Lord for decades and decades and decades. And quite honestly, there's probably no one, maybe maybe one or two people in this room that have done that for multiple, multiple decades. And that's pretty impressive. That's something that we should strive to. And, you know, when we see a person, even in our own personal lives, that we could look to that's been serving God for decades and decades, that person has figured out a thing or two about Christianity. And one of the things that they figured out is longevity. Longevity is a very important trait in a Christian. Why? Because, like I said, we don't want to just fizzle out. We want to serve God for our whole lives. Go to Second Timothy, chapter number four, Second Timothy, chapter number four. I'll show you a couple more scriptures that show this principle. Second Timothy four, verse six. This is the Apostle Paul. And he said this, for I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand. And he's talking about his death here. It says in verse seven, I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. Henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. And so here the Apostle Paul is saying that he has fought the good fight, that he has finished his course. You see, what's a lot more important than starting a race is finishing a race. And, you know, everybody runs at different paces. But, you know, I have respect for someone that at least finishes the race. You know, it's not really that cool if you sign up for a marathon or one of these, you know, just insane Iron Man challenges. And it's like, all right, I'm signing up for the Iron Man. And then you go one mile. It's like, cool. You signed up for the Iron Man, but you ran at a high school PE level. Like, that's not really cool. What I have respect for someone that finishes the Iron Man or finishes the marathon, even if they come in last place or even if they go really slow, it just shows the character of that person that signs up to do something that goes through the pain, that goes through the training and that continues all the way to the end of the race. That is a great example. Go to, if you would, 1 Corinthians chapter 9. And while you're turning there, I'll read for you. Ecclesiastes 7, 8 says this. Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof. And the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. So notice the Bible is highlighting that the end of something is often better than the beginning thereof. And we could think about this in a lot of ways. You know, how about your journey as a soul winner? You know, if you reach to your old and gray headed years, still a soul winner, that is better than the day you started soul winning. Because let's be honest, anyone can start soul winning. That's safe. I mean, anyone can go to a soul winning marathon and participate in soul winning one time. But you know what's really amazing is someone that's old and gray headed and still a soul winner. And I've known several people like this in my life that are soul winners into their 60s, into their 70s. And, you know, that is a special thing. That's a rare thing to see someone has gone through the marathon of life. They've experienced Christian longevity. And that's where Samuel's at. He's standing before God's people saying, hey, I've stood before you basically all the days of my life. You know, what's better than starting a church plant is 70 years after a church was started. You know, 50 years, 100 years, 150 years after when things are still going to me. That's more impressive than someone just starting doing something right. Look at, if you would, or actually before I read this, you know, I was just thinking, what are some of the things that causes someone to have longevity in their life? Right. Because I don't think that you just accidentally get to your old age serving God. You just accidentally are old and gray headed and you're walking in a right way. That does not happen by accident. And I think one of the principles that the Bible teaches that would help us to experience longevity is something called temperance. Temperance. Now, what is temperance? Here's the dictionary definition of temperance. It says moderation or self-restraint in action, statement or self-control. Another definition is habitual moderation in the indulgence of a natural appetite or passion, especially in the use of alcoholic liquors. Definition three, total abstinence from alcoholic liquors. I like all of these definitions. And if you think about someone that's going to experience or participate in a physical competition, what do they have to show? They have to show temperance. Right. Because they have to bring their body under control, show self-restraint, self-control. You know, right now, the World Series is happening right now. And some of these guys are clearly just beasts, for lack of a better word, like they're just insane athletes. And how did they get that way? Through temperance, through diligently and consistently following a routine, whether that's a workout routine or diet or both. But what are they doing? They're showing temperance. Well, it's the same thing for us spiritually. Look at First Corinthians nine, verse 24. Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize. So run that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is, notice, temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. So the Apostle Paul is actually using the same analogy that I brought up. He's bringing some sort of an athletic competition and he's saying, hey, anyone that strives to actually win that thing, to actually be successful in that thing is going to have to be temperate in all things, in all areas. And when you look at the best of the best of the athletes, they are extremely well-disciplined people. And they're extremely consistent people in restraining themselves from not eating certain food or not, you know, doing certain things that are unhealthy. But he says they're doing this to obtain a corruptible crown. Right. Something meaningless, like a World Series trophy. And growing up, I thought that a World Series trophy was like the coolest thing ever. But when you actually get saved and learn the Bible and learn that this life outside of serving God is vain and meaningless, you know, the trophies that you get at the Olympics or at the World Series or the Super Bowl trophy, it's just completely meaningless. Right. But we notice what he says. We're trying to obtain an incorruptible crown that he talked about in Second Timothy, Chapter four, the crown of righteousness that we will receive if we finish our course, if we fight the good fight of faith. And that is obviously a lot more valuable than some corruptible crown. Look at verse twenty six. He says, I therefore so run not as uncertainly. So fight I not as one that beateth the air, but I keep under my body and bring it into subjection. That's temperance right there, lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. So notice when he's running this Christian race and he's desiring to make it to the end to finish his course, what does he have to do? He has to bring under his body. He has to bring his flesh under subjection to his spirit. Now, this is a lot easier said than done. Right. The Bible gives us ways to do this by teaching us to walk in the spirit and that by walking in the spirit, we're not going to fulfill the lusts of the flesh. And we could do that by, of course, praying, asking for the Holy Spirit, singing hymns and godly music that can fill us with the Holy Spirit. But at the end of the day, that's a lot easier said than done because we still have the flesh. Right. So what it's going to take to walk in a godly way to live a godly life is temperance, being diligent to restrain yourself. And notice he's saying that he's bringing his body into subjection. When I think about people that fall out of the Christian race, just people that I've seen in life where they serve God for a few months or they serve God for a few years, but they stopped. I think one of the biggest reasons why this happens is they get involved in some sort of major sin. You know, you see someone, they're in church for a year or two, and all of a sudden they fall off the face of the earth and you find out they got back into drinking. You know, someone's serving God and then all of a sudden they're gone, you find out that they went off into fornication and forsook the things of God. Why? Because in order to fight the good fight to the end, we're going to have to have temperance. We're going to have to bring our bodies under subjection. And if you don't do that and you decide, you know, I'm going to go out and start drinking alcohol, you're going to find yourself outside of church. Because the truth is people generally who have a conscience can't just continue living in major sins in a church like this. That's going to preach against those things really hard and talk about them often. And even a church that practices church discipline, when someone's involved in these type of sins, you know what they become? A castaway. And isn't that what Paul said? He's saying the reason why I'm being temperate, the reason why I'm controlling myself is so that I don't wake up one day realizing that while I've been preaching to others, I am now a castaway. And so that tells me something about Samuel. I know Samuel's a sinner because for all of sin and come short of the glory of God, right? We're all sinners for sure. But what I know about Samuel is that Samuel was not involved in some super wicked lifestyle. Samuel was not out boozing it up. Samuel was not out committing adultery. Samuel was not an idolater. Samuel was not a railer. Right? He was not involved in these super major wicked sins. And really how the Bible paints Samuel is honestly one of the most righteous characters in the Old Testament. Because I could pretty much think of Daniel and Samuel as one of probably the two most righteous guys in the Old Testament as far as the Bible describing their life. Like the Bible doesn't really describe much negative about Daniel. And really the only negative thing I could find about Samuel is that God gives him a light correction when he's still mourning for Saul towards the end of the book, which we'll look at. And then his kids didn't turn out great. But again, we talked about that in 1 Samuel 8, how his children didn't walk in his ways, meaning his ways were good. His ways were right. He was godly, but his children weren't. But overall, the Bible paints Samuel as just an awesome guy, a very spiritual guy. And so how did he have Christian longevity? Well, he had it by living a really godly life. He had it by being temperate. Go to Psalm chapter 23, Psalm 23. So I think by making sure that we're being very temperate in our lives, that we're practicing self-discipline and consistency is going to help us to have Christian longevity. Also, it's just simply allowing God to lead our lives. Allowing him to correct us and change us when we move off path is another way that we can have a better chance of making it to our old age, serving the Lord. I'll show you that in Psalm 23, verse 1. The Bible says, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. So the Bible is comparing God to a shepherd. And if God is our shepherd, what are we? Sheep, right? What does a shepherd do? It kind of corrals the sheep, guides them where to go, keeps them from danger. And look at verse number 2. It says, he maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. So notice this person is allowing God to lead them in the paths of righteousness. And this is a choice that we get to make because you could read the Bible. You could listen to preaching. But if you don't actually allow that to cause a change in your life, then you're not really being led to the paths of righteousness. You're just a forgetful hearer is what you are. Look at verse number 4. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil. My cup runneth over. Notice this in verse 6. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me. How long? All the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Who's the person that's going to have goodness and mercy following them all the days of their life and dwelling in the house of the Lord? It's the person who actually looks at God as their shepherd and actually allows God to lead us in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Right? Because just coming to church, this is what people think, well I go to church, so I'm right with God. Or I read my Bible, and I'm right with God. But that's not necessarily the case. Those are great things to do. But you know God has given us all scripture for doctrine, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. Right? So the Bible is there to correct us. So if you're reading it, but you're not actually thinking about how you could change, how the Bible can be correcting you, well then it's almost unprofitable to you at that point. You actually have to be reading it for the purpose of, yes edification, yes building up your faith, but also just wanting to be corrected, wanting to be led, because that's what being led is. It's allowing yourself to be corrected. And so if God is our shepherd, then he's going to take that rod and that staff and he's going to push us where to go. You know, the Bible talks about how preaching in the words of God is like goads. Right? Something that sticks an animal to tell them where to go. That's correcting the animal saying like, hey animal, you're going the wrong way. You're going out the wrong gate here and I'm going to push you this way. Right? So if you want to have longevity, dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of your life, you're going to actually have to allow yourself to be corrected. Go back to 1 Samuel chapter 12, 1 Samuel chapter 12. Number two, I want you to notice Samuel's integrity. Samuel's integrity. You know, he's reached the end of his life and this is what he says in verse three. Behold, here am I. Witness against me before the Lord and before his anointed. Whose ox have I taken? Or whose ass have I taken? Or whom have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed? Or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith? And I will restore it you. And they said, thou hast not defrauded us nor oppressed us. Neither hast thou taken aught of any man's hand. This is a man that had integrity. To be able to stand before all the people and just bring it out into the open and just challenge anyone. Hey, if anyone has a problem with anything I've done, go ahead and tell me right now. Have I stolen from anyone? Have I defrauded anyone? Have I taken anyone's ox or their ass? And everyone's saying like, no. And here's the thing that we need to understand is that credibility comes from integrity. If you want to have credibility as a person and especially as a leader, it comes from having integrity on a consistent basis. Right? And what is integrity? Well, it's basically doing what's right when no one's looking. That's what integrity is. And, you know, it's funny. I had a law enforcement class in high school and the law enforcement instructor told me that the police academy that he went to back in the late 80s, that what they would do for some of the recruits is they would have like these vending machines in the hallways. And sometimes the drill instructors would purposely like put a ten dollar bill kind of sticking out a little machine to test people's integrity. And that if the drill instructors ever caught anyone just taking that, just putting in their pocket, that they would immediately be booted out of the police academy. Why? Because being a police officer is a serious responsibility. You have a lot of discretion in your job. You have a lot of authority. You have the ability to take advantage of that authority and to defraud people, to steal from people, to do wrong things where people wouldn't really see it, especially back then when body cams were not as common as they are now. And so these drill instructors, they said, well, let's just put money hanging out. And if we see these recruits stealing them when they think no one's watching, we're booting them out because that's not the type of people that we need in law enforcement. And I think that's a that's a good idea. You know, someone that lacks integrity, someone that is not willing to do the small things right when no one's watching, you know, someone that is just covetous when no one's around, you know, that person's willing to transgress for a piece of bread. And so you need to realize that integrity is so, so important. And the person you really are is not the person that you show to other people. The person that you really are is the person you are when you are alone or when you think you're alone. Because the truth is, we're never really alone. You know, God really sees everything God is with us. He sees the imagination of man's hearts. He sees our thoughts. He sees what we do. He sees what we think we're getting away with in the dark. And that is the person that you really are. And Samuel was able to stand before people that he's been around for decades and decades and say, have I transgressed in any of these ways? And all of them said, nope. That's a really credible leader right there. And you know why he had that credibility is because of his integrity. Go to Proverbs chapter number 10. I want to show you a couple of verses here on this idea of integrity. And I'm really thankful for that class that I took because of all the things that he taught us, that was the one thing that he hammered just every day is just having integrity, having integrity. He did not put up with people cheating, lying or stealing. And I really am thankful that he instilled that in us. You know, imagine if before we read this, just imagine if politicians today got up and just said, whose ox have I stolen? Who have I defrauded? Like who in government would be able to stand up and actually say that to that level of scrutiny? Basically, no one. And that's why they are bad leaders in our country today is full of bad leaders. They would not be able to stand up and have that level of integrity. And so, you know, they're not really worthy of that much respect. Sure, their position is, but them as a person, they're not really respectable. Look at Proverbs 10, verse nine. He that walketh uprightly walketh surely, but he that perverted his ways, notice, shall be known. People that live a fake life, live a double life. They want to present to you that they are a godly person, that they do have integrity, that they are humble. Well, you know what? If that's not true, it will be found out. It will be made known. And there's been many times in my life where I've seen a person and I've thought to myself, this is a great person. This is a great leader. This is a great Christian. And then it comes out that this person was a complete fraud, a complete fake. And you think about Judas, right? Judas was very unsuspecting. It's not like every single person knew who who was the traitor. You know, oftentimes Jesus was making it so clear to the disciples and they still didn't get it. So sometimes people can just trick us. But you know what? You can't trick God and God will eventually make your ways known. Go to Proverbs 11. Proverbs 11. Look at verse number three. The integrity of the upright shall guide them, but the perverseness of transgressors shall destroy them. So notice by having integrity, you are going to have a path in life. You're going to have a guide in life. Why? Because someone that's fake, they're not thinking about what's right. What does the Bible say? They're thinking about what do I need to do in this situation to be a chameleon? What do I need to do to trick people in this situation and to make them think a certain way about me? And they don't really have a guide in life. They're kind of just being tossed to and fro in whatever situation they're in. They change to adapt to that. But someone that has integrity, it says the integrity of the upright shall guide them. You know, when we're faced with difficult situations, but you have integrity, you're going to do what's right no matter what. Well, then you have a guide called the Word of God that's going to lead you in life. And you could know you could have a maybe a moral conundrum where your boss is telling you to lie, which I've literally had that happen before when I worked for a company back in like twenty nineteen, where I had a boss that wanted me to lie to the customer about when we were going to deliver their goods. And that could be a, you know, issue for some people where they're torn. What do I do? But here's the thing. The person that has integrity sees the word of God that we're not supposed to bear false witness. And that's going to be our guide. That's going to guide us in the right way. But someone without integrity, they'll say, you know what? My brothers in Christ will never know about this phone call. My wife won't know about this phone call. My friends won't know. I could just call this person and lie to them. And no one will know except my boss. But you know what? You are destroying yourself when you do that. You are weakening yourself when you do that. When you sin against God that way and you know what's right. But just out of pressure, you transgress and you sin. You are making yourself a weak person. You really are. Because what builds strength is doing the right thing when it's hard over and over and over again. So that when temptation comes, you can say, I've been through this. I've done what's right before. I know that God can bring me through this. But the person that just transgresses like that. Man, they have no integrity. And just every time they'll transgress. Every single time. Go to Proverbs 28. Flip a couple pages. Proverbs 28 verse 6. Better is the poor that walketh in his uprightness than he that is perverse in his ways, though he be rich. And again, it just makes me think of Congress, because a lot of these congressmen and congresswomen, they're not rich before they go into Congress. But they're filthy rich by the time they come out. And how did they get that wealth? Not by walking uprightly, but from perverting judgment, from insider trading, from, you know, doing bribes. Hey, I'll pass that bill if you give me your million dollar contract from Pfizer or whatever, things like that. And so it's better to be poor. It's better to be poor and have integrity than to be rich and to just be a wicked person. Because God's hand can still be on you when you're poor. And oftentimes, isn't it the poor that is receptive to the gospel? Why? Because they have a good heart. And oftentimes people that are rich, not all, but oftentimes people that are rich are that way because they're sleazy people. And because they were willing to do anything to get money, it was their only goal in life. They didn't care who they stepped on. They didn't care what commandments of God they transgressed. They didn't care that they never went to church on Sunday. They never went to church on Wednesday. They didn't care that they don't go soloing. This is just how rich people often are. Not all, but that is definitely the case many times. Go to 1 Peter chapter 3, 1 Peter chapter 3. You know, it's important to do what's right, even if it's going to cost you, even if it's going to be uncomfortable, even if it's going to be embarrassing. It's very important that us as Christians, that we maintain integrity and do what is right. Look at 1 Peter 3 verse 14. It says, But, and if ye suffer for righteousness sake, happy are ye, and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear, having a good conscience, that whereas they speak evil of you as evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well-doing than for evildoing. So, sometimes you can literally, in life, suffer for doing well, suffer for following God's commandments. But, you know, us as God's people, we should be willing to suffer to do what's right. And sometimes it's something as simple as just, you know, you're not going to engage in that dirty joke at work, and people are going to think you're weird, right? But, you know what, I'd rather people think I'm weird and maintain my integrity before God, and to suffer for righteousness sakes and for doing well, right? Or you're that one guy at work that doesn't use the Lord's name in vain, and people will make fun of you about the way you talk. That happened to me today. But I don't care because I'm not going to go use the Lord's name in vain. Think that I'm weird, I don't care. Oh, we can't cuss around Dylan. It's just like, hey, you know, the Bible says bastard, hell, piss, ass, no problem with any of those words. But yeah, using the Lord's name in vain is wrong. It is a sin. And the Bible says God's not going to hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. So who should I care more about? People thinking, oh, Dylan's weird. Or God looking down and saying, I'm not going to hold Dylan guiltless because he's using God's name in vain. You know, we should be willing to suffer and maintain our integrity. Go to Titus chapter number one, Titus chapter number one. And when I'm thinking about Samuel having integrity, you know, this is something that we should look for in leaders. This should be something that we strive for as leaders. You know, virtually everyone has some leadership. I mean, really, everyone, if you're a soul winner leading someone to Christ, you know, if you're a husband, you're a leader. If you're a mother, you're a leader of your children. Men, you could be leaders at work. You could be a preacher and be a leader. There's many different areas where likely every single person in here is a leader. But I think about the office of a bishop, which is supposed to be the example of the believers. God gives details of the qualifications that involve integrity. Look at Titus one five. It says, for this cause, left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting and ordained elders in every city as I had appointed thee. And elders just means pastors there. It says, if any be notice blameless, the husband of one wife having faithful children not accused of right or unruly for a bishop must be blameless as the steward of God, not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre. And while Samuel, of course, was not a pastor, he was a judge. And I think it's a great example to pastors now and just to Christians now that Samuel, at the end of his life, stood before the people. And his integrity was unquestionable. He had impeccable integrity. He was blameless. Right. Because if Samuel had been out taking bribes, like our politicians do, or stealing people's oxes or their asses, how could you say then that he's blameless? Right. That would be a serious issue. That'd be a huge, you know, blight in his Christianity and his testimony. And so, you know, God is pointing out that even in the New Testament, when it comes to the person that's supposed to be an example of what a model Christian should look like, this person should be blameless. This person should have integrity. Go back to First Samuel, chapter number twelve. You know, there's a lot of pastors out there that don't have integrity. They will cave to the pressure. They will cave when they're getting pressure from their friends. Well, if I don't preach the post-trib, like the Bible says, then I won't be invited to that conference or whatever. Right. But that's a pastor that lacks integrity because someone that has integrity should be willing to suffer anything for what they know is right out of the Bible. Right. Or you have pastors today that their staff, someone on their staff or someone under them will get busted for being a child predator. And instead of exposing that to the congregation or calling the police or whatever, sometimes they'll just quietly, you know, shuffle that person on to a different church or to a different ministry for fear of being shamed as being the leader that that happened or something like that. You know what? That's not having integrity. Integrity means you do what's right when no one's looking and you do what's right even when it hurts. And so that's the type of people that we need in leadership. Look at verse number five. And of course, that's a great truth to constantly remind ourselves of that God is always witness of what we're doing. You know, the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth. God is omnipresent. He knows all things. He sees all things. And you are never getting away with your sin. Yet us as human beings, we're so stupid sometimes that we think, oh, yeah, no one will see this. But God always sees it. God knows who you are. And so that's why it's so foolish to lie to yourself and to act like you're better than you are. You know, God knows who you are. And when you're praying to the Lord, you should just be honest with him about who you are, because God knows. You know, ask him to forgive you of your sins. Ask him to cleanse you of secret faults, because God knows who you really are. Look at verse number six. So notice when he's going to address them, Samuel's kind of giving the people his farewell address in a sense, and he tells them to stand still. You know, he wants them to remove the distractions, to really pay attention to what he's saying. And what he brings up is he wants them to remember the great victory that was God allowing Moses to lead the people out of Egypt. And of course, that was a wonderful, amazing victory that God's people had being in slavery for hundreds of years. And God literally opening up the Red Sea to make a path of dry land for the children of Israel to escape from the Egyptians to close that thing up on the Egyptians and kill them all. He's saying, remember those things. Stand still and remember the great thing that God has done for you. And I think the principle for us is that we should, from time to time, just stand still and think about all the great things that God has done for us, because it's so easy for us as people to always be looking forward to the future or always be, you know, concerned with our problems right now. But part of the things that will help you with your problems right now, and part of the things that will give you clarity for vision for the future is thinking about all the great things that God has done for you in the past. I'm going to read for you Psalm 103 2. It says, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. You know, it's good to remember all the beneficial things that God gives us and has done for us. You know, how about the most basic of just salvation? You know, once you've been saved for a long time, you could start to take for granted the truly amazing, awesome thing that God did for you by his perfect son that never sinned, dying on the cross for you, a sinner, that deserved hell. And the fact that Jesus allowed himself to be brutally tortured and murdered and descend into hell so that we could be safe. And isn't it an amazing, wonderful thought that we have that salvation and that we can never lose it for any reason? You know, that's something that every once in a while we should just stand still and just say, thank you, Lord, that I am saved. Thank you, God, that I never have to experience hell. And whatever other issue you have in life, thank God that we're saved, because it could always, always, always be worse. You know, when I think about some things in my life that every once in a while, I just I like to think back on and think about how it was really cool that God did that for me. I think about the first person that I ever got saved because it was not a normal experience and I was doing everything wrong. But yet God still allowed me to get that first person saved. What do I mean by that? I knew nothing about soul winning other than I'd watch the soul winning instructional videos from Pastor Anderson and he explained how to preach the gospel. And I marked up my Bible and I underlined the verses. And I didn't have a silent partner because the church I went to didn't like soul winning. So I kind of just threw myself into the fire. I was I was clueless what I was doing, had no experience. And for me, I didn't understand there's this thing of like the poor areas are receptive and the rich areas aren't. So I just went to the part of town I liked, which was the Boise foothills with all the multimillion dollar mansions in the beautiful foothills of Boise, Idaho. Bad, bad idea. Don't go to those areas for soul winning. You know, Nichols Hills is not the best part of town for soul winning. You know, the historic district just north of downtown OKC with those big historic houses. A lot of Kamala signs there. Not not the greatest area of soul winning. But I went into the richest area in Boise, Idaho, and I started knocking doors. And the first time I ever went there, I got a gentleman saved. And guess what? I went back there for like the next six months and got no one saved. So I think it was God just like throwing me a bone like, hey, good job. You're starting to go soul winning. I'm going to help you. I'm going to give you this this really receptive guy in the midst of a wicked and perverse generation. But, you know, I think back about that and I just like that was God like, thank you, Lord, for helping me get someone safe. And, you know, that first salvation just got me hooked. Seeing a man look at the Bible, realize that he's a sinner. See what Jesus Christ did for him and him decide to trust in him for his salvation. You know that that was amazing. And sometimes we just get people saved every week. Yeah, we're in Oklahoma. It's very receptive to get people saved all the time. But what an awesome thing it is that we can get someone saved. What an awesome thing it is. And if you've never gotten someone say personally, you need to become a silent partner. You need to come out with us and you need to see how amazing it is, because once you see it, you'll realize, yeah, it lives up to the hype. Yeah, it is a beautiful thing to see someone converted and believe in Jesus Christ. And, you know, you'll probably do. You'll probably want to become a talker after that and you'll love it. I think about the first service I ever went to in a new IP church is a great memory for me. And it was at the time Verity Baptist Church Vancouver. And Pastor Thompson was preaching. I remember exactly what he's preaching on. It was a midweek service and he was preaching Matthew 24. And me having been in a pre-trib Ruckmanite church for three years and just going to new IP church, where Pastor Thompson's actually preaching the correct doctrine on the rapture was just a breath of fresh air. And every once in a while we get spoiled and we get complacent. We're like, yeah, we're a church that preaches the right doctrines. Yeah, we're a church that goes soul winning. But I remember that first time that I went to what's now Sure Foundation Baptist Church. And I was excited. I was pumped. I thought it was so cool to hear a preacher say that the rapture happens after the tribulation. I was like, did he just say that? Because all I've been hearing for the last three years is Sam Gipp. And it was terrible. Right. And you know what? I still love church. I still get excited when I hear the word of God preached. I still love those things. But you know why? Is because every once in a while I just stand still and think about how great it is. And I think about how much of a blessing it is. The people that don't do this, they don't stand still. They don't think about all the great things God has done for them. You know, you can you can harden your heart that way. I think about having children and how the first time that I looked into Bethany's eyes as a baby, you know, is the most beautiful, magical thing. I loved it. And all my children since it's been the same exact way. But sometimes when life can get hard, you can think about like, you know, you're only thinking about the challenges with having kids and the problems. But you know what? Every once in a while you need to stand still and think about what a blessing it is that you have them. You know, same thing getting married to my wife. You know, everyone, when they get married, they're so excited during the honeymoon phase and they're so in love and they're so thankful. And then sometimes it just becomes normal to them. They forget that special relationship that they have and it can become cold. They can become dead. But you know what? Every once in a while you just stand still and think about what a blessing it is to be married to your spouse. And think about how great it is that you have a companion in this life that wants to serve God with you because not everyone has that. And so you should thank God. You should stand still and think about those things. Go to 1 Timothy 1. You know, I think about, when I just stand still and think about some of the best memories of my life, I think about working for Steadfast Baptist Church. That was amazing. You know, that was probably the best four years of my life. And I just thank God that I didn't even know Pastor Shelley really. And he just called me, just asked if I would ever want to be in the ministry or ever work for a church or ever be a pastor or anything like that. And I just said, yeah, I think that is something I'd be interested in. And he's like, hey, you want to move to Texas in like a couple weeks and work for me? It's just like, if God's opening this door, yes, I do. And you know what? That experience was the best four years of my life. It was amazing seeing God work through intense persecution, seeing Pastor Shelley, a man of God, be a steadfast pastor. You know, seeing that example, seeing our church be unified during problems, seeing a church where people just love each other. They're there for each other. They help each other through life's problems. You know, seeing a church that's on fire for soul winning, that wants to go out and reach the loss, that wants to change the culture, too. You know, that was an amazing four years of my life. And it's just it's funny how quick life goes where I could just I could think back to the day I got saved in my room as a child, calling upon the name of the Lord, and I could just snap my fingers. And here we are today in twenty twenty four. And it's just crazy to think about sometimes. But as life is moving so fast, we just need to take Samuel's advice every once in a while. Just stand still and be like, whoa, we're here in a great church with great people that we love, that are there for each other. We have a great mission to fulfill in the Great Commission. And we should just stand still and think about these things every once in a while. I told you, go to First Timothy 112 says, and I think Christ Jesus, our Lord, who hath enabled me for that, he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry. You know, I'm very thankful for where I am now. I'm very thankful that God has allowed me and my family to move here to this church from the first time I ever visited this church. This felt like a very special church. My wife and I immediately loved it and talked about what a great congregation this is. And it's just a miracle to me that we're here and we love being here. We're excited to be here. We're happy to be here. You know, thank God that he put me into the ministry and for all of us, we have the Ministry of Reconciliation and you are in the ministry, too. And every once in a while, you need to stand still and like thank God that you're an ambassador for Christ. Thank God that you have the opportunity to go win someone to him. That's amazing. Go back to First Samuel 12, but I want you to notice what Samuel's about to say, because he brought up the good. He says, stand still and think about when God brought you out of Egypt. But you know what? He also wanted them to think about the negative, too. And I'll show you that verse nine. And when they forgot the Lord their God. So now here it's going to turn. He sold them into the hand of Sisera, captain of the host of Hazor and into the hand of the Philistines and into the hand of the king of Moab. And they fought against him and they cried unto the Lord and said, we have sinned because we have forsaken the Lord and have served Balaam and Ashtaroth. But now deliver us out of the hand of our enemies and we will serve you. So notice when they forgot God, what happened? They were sold into the hand of the enemy. And he's saying, I want you to stand still. Remember this great victory that you had in Egypt. You know, we should do the same thing. We should stand still and think about all the great things God has done for us. But you know what? If we've been through something negative, if we've been punished by God, if there was a time in our life where we did forget the Lord in our lives, as it were, we're sold into the hand of Sisera. You know, every once in a while you need to stand still and remember that, too, because oftentimes people are in church. They're living the Christian life. It's three to thrive. They're soul winning. But they kind of get bored of the same routine. And sometimes our fleshly mind will wander and think, man, wouldn't my life be cool if I kind of went back to how I was before? But it's like how you were before was a slave in Egypt. How you were before, when you forgot about God last time, was that you were sold into the hand of Sisera. And so if you don't want to keep repeating those same mistakes in your life, where you get right with God, and then you just completely go off the trail and just get back into wicked sin, and then you get right with God again, and then you're just way off again into left field. You know what you need to do? You need to sit down every once in a while and just remember, hey, life apart from serving God is not that great. Sometimes you think, man, there were certain benefits that I had. There were certain activities that I partook in. But, yeah, don't forget Sisera, though, because it wasn't that great. You know, people like to romanticize the past back when they were drinking, and they could think of one or two fun experiences they had when they were drinking, and they conveniently forget all the times they were puking in the toilet. They conveniently forget the time that they slept with someone that wasn't their spouse. They conveniently forget their teen pregnancy that they had while they were drunk. Right? So every once in a while, you know, it's good. Stand still. Remember the good. But stand still and remember the evil that you've gone through, too, because oftentimes God brought us through those situations for a reason. And you know what? It's so pointless to go through chastisement and punishment and not even learn from it. That is just insane. You know, it's like a child. Don't steal. You spank them. They steal again. It's like, OK, I guess you're just going to keep wanting to get spanked. I guess this is just your life now. And that's how a lot of Christians are. It's like they get right with God. God just wrecks them. And then there's like, OK, God got his hand off me. Sweet. Right back to the sin. It's just like, what is wrong with you? You know what's better is just stand still. Remember that evil you went through and then don't repeat that same mistake. That's the key there. Verse 11. So, again, this wasn't God's will. God didn't want them to have a king. But here they are. They're in the situation. They're in plan B for their life, if you will. And now they just need to make the most of it. Now they actually need to follow the king, obey the king, honor the king, do what's right in the sight of the Lord and not repeat the same mistakes that they keep doing. Number three this evening, I want you to notice the need to fear the Lord. Look at verse 14. It says, You know, today, fearing God is kind of a doctrine that's lost on many Christians. Many churches, they don't teach on fearing God or they pervert fearing God. They turn fearing God into like a warm, fuzzy love feeling. But over and over, tons of time, if you've read the Bible cover to cover, you will constantly see this phrase. Fear the Lord. Fear the Lord thy God. Fear God. Why? Because God is someone to be feared. God, the Bible says, is terrible. That doesn't mean that he's bad. That means that he is able to inflict terror on your life. I don't know. Kind of like drowning the entire Egyptian army in the Red Sea. I mean, we read those stories. But could you imagine that? Could you imagine a whole army going through a body of water and God just closing that on them and just killing them? Could you imagine God killing over twenty three thousand people in one day for fornication? I mean, can you imagine God raining down fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah and killing every single person in the city? Can you imagine God flooding the entire earth and killing every single human being except for Noah and his family? Sounds like God should be feared. Sounds like we should be terrified of God. And Samuels reminding them of that, saying, hey, if you will fear the Lord and serve him and obey his voice and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then shall both ye and also the king that reigneth over you continue following the Lord. Go to Joshua Chapter 20. Joshua 20. I want to show you a few verses on fearing the Lord. Joshua Chapter 20, verse one, it says in those are sorry, verse 20. And those twelve stones which they took out of Jordan did Joshua pitch in Gilgal. And he spake unto the children of Israel, saying, When your children shall ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean these stones? Then you shall let your children know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land for the Lord your God dried up the waters of Jordan from before you until you were passed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up from before us until we were gone over, that all the people of the earth might know the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty that ye might fear the Lord your God for ever. So I think this story in Joshua 20, it kind of fits perfectly with this idea of standing still and thinking and dwelling and remembering things. And first he said positive, then he said negative, because when Joshua, he set up these stones and they said, why are you setting up these stones? He says, I'm setting it up so that your children will ask you, why are you setting up these stones? And he's saying, the reason I want them to ask you that question is so that you can remind them how terrifying God is. And the fact that God dried up Jordan and allowed us to walk through in the same way that he opened up the Red Sea and allowed us to come through and then killed all the Egyptians. He says, I want you to tell your children that. Oh, you know, don't read to your children certain parts of the Bible like Revelation that are scary. Like Steven Crowder says, don't read Revelation to your children. No, actually, you should stand still and remember some of the harmful, you know, terrible things that God has done. And you should specifically tell your children about those things. Why? So that your children fear God. There's a reason why you want your children to fear God. Go to Proverbs 16. There's a reason why you need to fear God. Why I need to fear God. Proverbs 16. Because today people be like, doesn't God love us? Yes, he does love us. Well, why would a loving God want us to be scared of him? Why would he want us to fear him? This is why. Proverbs 16, verse six. By mercy and truth, iniquity is purged and by the fear of the Lord, men depart from evil. What causes a person to depart from sin, to cease from living a wicked life, fearing God? And when you see a person or family or church or a nation that's just abounding in wickedness, I could tell you something about that. They have no fear of God. Why? Because if you fear the Lord, it causes men to depart from evil. Go to Romans 13. Romans 13. Now, obviously, you want to grow in your Christian life to the point where you are doing things out of love for God. Right. You know, we want to go soul winning because we love God. We want to keep his commandments. We want to love people. We want to get them safe. That is a mature level of Christianity. But honestly, at first, the reason why people start serving God is because of fear. This is why also hard preaching is so important and why the seeker sensitive church model is so misguided because they think, well, someone's someone's new. Someone's a babe in Christ. So we don't really want to give them the hard truths of the Bible. But hold on a second. The Bible says that we need the fear of God so that we could depart from wickedness. And so let the chips fall where they may. If someone gets offended, they get offended. Someone quits that they quit. But we're looking for people that actually want to fear God, that actually want to change. While you're turning to Romans 13, I'll read Hebrews 10 three. It says it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God. Look at Romans 13 eight. It says, Oh, no, man, anything but to love one another for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law for this. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness. Thou shalt not covet. And if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. So, you know, eventually you want to get to the to the place where you just truly love people. You truly love God. And what is love? The Bible says love is the fulfilling of the law, because if you love your neighbor, you're not going to commit adultery with your neighbor's wife. Right. If you love your neighbor, you're not going to go steal their car or do wickedness unto them or sin against them. Right. But don't forget, that's usually farther down the road for Christian. Before that, you know, what comes is just the fear of God. And today, when I look around, when I see the direction our country is heading, I just see a nation that no longer fears God, that no longer cares what God thinks, that no longer wants to even pretend to respect the Bible. Why? Because you have Kamala Harris running for president that she just says openly, yeah, I just want to bring abortion back. Yeah, we just want to have a nation where you can just murder babies. But you know what someone that would actually fear God would do is preserve life. You know, like the women in Egypt that the I want to say handmaids, but it's the women that help with pregnancy, the midwives. Yes. The midwives, when they were instructed to kill the children, they didn't. And the Bible tells us why they feared God, because I mean, my brain can't comprehend this. You know, killing a child like, how are you not terrified what God is going to do to you? You're killing a pure, innocent baby. How are you not so afraid that God is just going to take your heart and just crush it in your chest? You know, I can't imagine doing something so evil, but you know what it takes? It takes a person who has no fear of God. You know, the Bible talks about how all that are proud in heart are an abomination to the Lord. And us as a nation, every June, what do we do? We celebrate pride. We have businesses hanging their pride flags off their businesses. We have government offices. We have government buildings doing the same thing. And it's just a big middle finger to God because they don't fear the Lord. And you know what? We need to bring back a culture in America where we model what it means to actually fear God. It's like, oh, why aren't you just blaspheming God's name like everyone else? Because I'm scared of God. That's why. Because I fear what he's going to do to me, because I know the one that actually holds power in my life and in this world is God. He could choose to prosper me. He could choose to curse me. He could choose my family and my children to be blessed or for us all to die young in a fiery car accident. God can choose for those things to happen. And so you know what? Every single moment, every single decision of your life, you should be thinking about the fear of God. You know, it brings back to the earlier part of the sermon, what would cause you to have integrity knowing that God always sees things, right? So if you know God always sees things and you know God is a terrible God, that should motivate you to fear him. That should motivate you to be scared of him. Go back to 1 Samuel 12. Another thing I want to point out with this verse in verse 14 is it tells them, hey, fear the Lord, serve him, don't rebel. But notice the last part of verse 14 says, if you do that, then shall both ye and also the king that reigneth over you continue following the Lord, your God. So notice if the people feared God, if the people obeyed God, if the people were not rebelling against God, the king also would fear God. The king also would not turn away from following the commandments of God. And the truth is, oftentimes we get the leadership that reflects us. We get the leadership that we deserve. I want to read this verse to you. Proverbs 21, one, the Bible says, the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord as the rivers of water. He turneth it whithersoever he will. And, you know, again, it just makes me think of our current day in America. It's like, why do we have the most prideful person ever, Donald Trump, who loves money, who has been a whoremonger in the past, who has been an adulterer, who has ran casinos, who says, I would ask God for forgiveness if I had something to ask him for forgiveness of. Right. Who is just always just singing his own praises, talking about how wonderful he is. Why is a guy like that the leader of the Conservative Party, the Republicans? Well, because many Christians today are self-obsessed, money loving, whore loving, prideful people. And so today God looks down from heaven and says, all right, this is how you are. Well, this is how your king is, too. And then on the other hand, we have a bloodthirsty, child murdering, literal whore, communist in Kamala Harris. It's like, why is she an option for the Democratic ticket? Because many people in America are a bunch of whores and whoremongers are a bunch of commies and are a bunch of bloodthirsty baby killers. And so you want to be a bunch of baby killers. OK, well, just we'll make your queen a baby killer. I mean, God forbid she probably will win, though, because it's kind of what America deserves. Not saying I want that, but I'm just saying it might happen. Verse 15. But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then shall the hand of the Lord be against you as it was against your fathers. Remember, he's talking to a nation here and he's saying, if you rebel, if you don't obey, if you don't fear God, my hand will be against you as a nation. And boy, have we seen God's hand be against Israel as a nation. I mean, Babylonian captivity, the diaspora after that, and then even today that nation is cursed. But, you know, it's the same thing for us. You know, all the nations that forget God, the Bible says, will be turned into hell. And so us as a nation, too, if we don't fear God, if we don't keep his commandments, God's hand will be against us. And we like to think like, well, we're America, we're the superpower of the world. You know, we haven't had a war on our soil pretty much since 1814, unless you count Pearl Harbor. And we think like we're invincible. We can't be touched. But you know what? If God's hand turns against us, we could lose everything in one moment. We could be destroyed as a nation and God can humble us so quickly. And you know what? I don't want that to happen. God forbid that would happen. You know, our ministry is here. Our church is here. Our families are here. Our loved ones are here. Our children are here. That's not what I want for America. So what America has to do is to repent and to fear God. Because, you know, individuals can be judged in the next life, but nations are judged in this life. And so if our nation does not fear God, then we will be turned into hell. Number four, I want you to notice the punishment for Israel demanding a king. Verse 16 says, Now therefore stand and see this great thing which the Lord will do before your eyes. And great here isn't going to mean good. It just means like a big thing that he's about to do. He says, Is not wheat harvest today? That's an important detail. Remember that. I will call unto the Lord and he shall send thunder and rain that you may perceive and see that your wickedness is great, which you have done in the sight of the Lord in asking you a king. So Samuel called unto the Lord and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day. And all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel. So you say, hey, notice now you're going to get your punishment for asking a king. Why? You reap what you sow. God didn't want them to have a king. It was a sin to reject the system of the judges that God laid out. And he says, OK, now you're going to see this great thing that I'm going to do isn't today harvest. Now that's important because what is harvest? It's when farmers go out and they gather their crops, which is kind of important if you want to live. Because we need food, right? He says, hey, today's harvest. Today's the day when you're going to get all your food. You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to send thunder and rain. And what he's implying here is that he's going to cause a really big storm that's going to destroy all their crops. And, you know, we live in such a detached society from living in that type of a world. But, you know, we just go to Wal-Mart, we go to Sam's Club or whatever, we get our food. But, you know, the real world that actually feeds us are farmers. And if all the crops go away, we starve to death. The world starves to death. And so, again, this is it just makes me think about how quickly a nation can fall. Everything's good. Right. And then all of a sudden, God sends this storm and causes them to lose all of their food. That's intense. And that's how quickly God can judge. Look at verse number 19. Notice number five, the mercy of God says, And all the people said unto Samuel, Pray for thy servants unto the Lord thy God that we die not, for we have added unto all our sins this evil to ask us a king. So notice they were mercy. They were humble. They admitted that what they did was wrong. They're asking God to forgive them and to be merciful unto them. And so you're going to see in a minute that God is merciful to them. But just notice they were this close. They were this close to getting destroyed by God. And again, that should cause us to fear the Lord. But also, the fact is that God is merciful. Look at verse 20. And Samuel said unto the people, Fear not. Ye have done all this wickedness, yet turn not aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. He's basically saying like, hey, don't worry. God's not going to kill you all. You're not going to starve to death, but you need to do what's right now. Now you should fear God. Now that he's shown mercy on you, it should lead to repentance. Look at verse number 21. And turn ye not aside, for then should ye go after vain things, which cannot profit nor deliver, for they are vain. Notice he's saying serve God. Trust in the Lord. Only want to serve him. Because if you don't, you're going to turn aside to something else. That's vain. Right? And us as a people, as a church, as a nation, we need to trust in the Lord for our safety. We need to trust in the Lord and his mercy, not in something vain like, you know, a military, like missiles, like fighter jets, like battleships. You know, at the end of the day, those are cool tools and I think we should have them. But it's vain if we don't have God's protection. It's completely vain. You could have the best military. You could have the billions of dollars of equipment. But if God's hand is against you, you will be destroyed. Period. Verse 22. For the Lord will not forsake his people for his great name's sake, because it hath pleased the Lord to make you his people. Moreover, as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you. But I will teach you the good and the right way. Only fear the Lord and serve him in truth with all your heart. For consider how great things he hath done for you. But if ye shall still do wickedly, ye shall be consumed, both ye and your king. And at the end of this chapter, I just want you to notice that Samuel, you know, though he is here a hard preacher, he's telling them, like, hey, if you don't do what's right, you're going to be destroyed and your king. But I want you to notice that this was coming from a place of love still. Samuel still did love the people. How do you know that? Because he says, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you. And so while Samuel's up delivering the message, delivering positive messages, sometimes delivering messages of condemnation and punishment at other times, he still loves the people he's preaching to so much so that he's saying, hey, I'm not going to cease praying for you. I'm not going to cease loving you. Last verse we're gonna go to tonight is Second Timothy, chapter four, Second Timothy, chapter number four. Second Timothy four, verse two says this, preach the word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort. Notice this with all long suffering and doctrine. You know, we're living in some really crazy times. We're living in some times where wickedness is abounding. Our country seems to be getting worse in a lot of ways. And sometimes I think it could be easy for us to kind of get jaded against people and to kind of stop loving people where we really like the first part of this verse, preach the word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort. We're like, yeah, we need some reproving. We need some rebuking. Right. We love that. We love hard preaching. Amen. But notice the caveat at the end there with all long suffering, meaning that you're willing to put up with things you don't like. You're willing to put up with stupidity. You're willing to put up with sinners. You're willing to put up with bad ideas. You're willing to put up with stiff necked people. You know, think about this outsole winning, right? Man, sometimes it can be so frustrating outsole winning. Let's just be honest. You run into that person that's super prideful and they act like they know everything, but you hear what's coming out of their mouth and they know nothing whatsoever. Sometimes we kind of just want to get jaded away from those people and be like, all right, I'm done with you. But you know what we should be? Long suffering. Willing to put up with those things, right? When you are at work or in your family relationships and people aren't doing the right thing right away. People aren't receiving the words that you're giving them right away. You're not receiving the gospel or not receiving things you're explaining out of the Bible. Don't just be quick to judge them and quick to cut off from them. You know, we should be long suffering. And, you know, this last part of advice I want to give to any man that ever preaches a sermon, because I thought of this when I read this chapter of Samuel, how he's not going to stop praying for the people and he's up delivering a message. He's up preaching. He's preaching good. He's preaching bad. But he's not going to cease to pray for the people. One thing that I learned from this chapter that I try to incorporate that I highly recommend you do if you ever preach a sermon is oftentimes preachers. They'll pray for themselves, which is good, right? Please fill me with the Holy Spirit. Lord, help me to deliver this message. Help me to understand the scripture. Be with me when I'm preaching. That's great. But you know what else preachers should do is they should also pray for the people they're preaching to. And I wonder how many preachers, and obviously I have no idea because I'm not in their head when they're praying. I wonder how many preachers only pray for themselves when they preach. When we see an example of Samuel here when he's preaching to the people, he's saying, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you. And I think what will help get God's blessing on a man's preaching and on just the ministry in general is the preacher actually praying like, hey God, please open up the hearts of the people that are going to hear the message. Help people to love your word. Help people be willing to be corrected by your words, right? Help people to have a love for the things of God. Lord, please be merciful to people that hear this sermon. Help them help to have forgiveness on their sins. You know, that's good things to pray for. And I think that Samuel here models that great example. And so, you know, out in this world, when you see your coworker with a Kamala sticker, right? Or you hear someone saying that ancient Egypt was actually in the Grand Canyon like I heard this week. It could be tempting to be jaded. But you know what? Let's still love them. Let's still be long suffering. And let's not cease to pray for other people. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for this day. Thank you for our church. Thank you for this great book in the Bible. I pray that you'd help all of us to apply the truths that we're reading to our lives, that you would help us all to fear you, Lord. And help us just to stand still every once in a while and think about all the great things that you've done in all of our lives. Help us to learn from our mistakes and the times that you've had to punish us and correct us. Help us not to repeat those things, but going forward to make sure that we're being steadfast, that we're being temperate, that we're being diligent to follow your commandments. We love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. The love of God. We'll sing there starting on the first. God gave His Son to win. His every child He reconciled and parted from His sin. O love of God, how rich and pure, how measureless and strong, it shall forevermore endure the saints and angels song. When holy time shall pass away and earthly thrones and kingdoms fall, when men who yearn refuse to pray on rocks and hills and mountains tall, God's love so sure shall still endure, all measureless and strong. We deem He praise to let us praise saints and angels song. O love of God, how rich and pure, how measureless and strong, it shall forevermore endure the saints and angels song. Could we with hate the ocean fill, and were the skies of fortune paint, were every spot on earth a cliff and every bend, a stride like train to right the love of God above Would train the ocean pride, nor could the scroll contain the hole, though stretched from sky to sky. O love of God, how rich and pure, how measureless and strong, it shall forevermore endure the saints and angels song.