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Music of the United States of America, the United States of America, and the United States of America. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Hymn number 262, the light of the world is Jesus. Hymn number 262. We'll go ahead and start there right on the first. The whole world was lost in the darkness of sin. The light of the world is Jesus. Like sunshine at noonday, his glory shone in. The light of the world is Jesus. Come to the light is shining for thee. Sweetly the light has dawned upon me. Once I was blind, but now I can see. The light of the world is Jesus. No darkness have we who in Jesus abide. The light of the world is Jesus. We walk in the light when we follow our guide. The light of the world is Jesus. Come to the light is shining for thee. Sweetly the light has dawned upon me. Once I was blind, but now I can see. The light of the world is Jesus. He dwellers in darkness with sin-blinded eyes. The light of the world is Jesus. The watchman is bidding and light will arise. The light of the world is Jesus. Come to the light is shining for thee. Sweetly the light has dawned upon me. Once I was blind, but now I can see. The light of the world is Jesus. No need of the sunlight, in heaven we're told. The light of the world is Jesus. The lamb is the light in the city of gold. The light of the world is Jesus. Come to the light is shining for thee. Sweetly the light has dawned upon me. Once I was blind, but now I can see. The light of the world is Jesus. Amen. We'll open with a word of prayer. Dear Father, thank you for this opportunity that we have to sing praises unto you and gather together as a church. I pray that you would be with the seeds that we planted out soul-winning and I pray that you would fill Brother Oz with your spirit as he preaches and give us as your congregation a tenet of ears to the message, Lord, in Jesus' name I pray, amen. For our next hymn, if you would, turn to hymn number 280. Softly and tenderly, Jesus is calling hymn number 280. Hymn number 280, we'll go ahead and start there right on the first. Softly and tenderly, Jesus is calling, calling for you and for me. See on the portals he's waiting and watching, watching for you and for me. Come home, come home, ye who are weary, come home. Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling, calling, O sinner, come home. Why should we tarry when Jesus is pleading, pleading for you and for me? Why should we linger and eat not his mercies, mercies for you and for me? Come home, come home, ye who are weary, come home. Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling, calling, O sinner, come home. Time is now fleeting, the moments are passing, passing from you and from me. Shadows are gathering, death bands are coming, coming for you and for me. Come home, come home, ye who are weary, come home. Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling, calling, O sinner, come home. O for the wonderful love he has promised, promised for you and for me. Though he has sent me as mercy and pardon, pardon for you and for me. Come home, come home, ye who are weary, come home. Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling, calling, O sinner, come home. Good evening, everyone. Welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. This time we'll go through our announcements. If you don't have a bulletin, raise your hand and an usher will bring you one. On the front is Hebrews chapter 6 verse 13. Again, anyone that can quote this by memory to an adult non-family member, by the end of this chapter we'll receive a prize between a couple different options that I ordered for this chapter. On the inside is our service times listed, Sunday evening, 4.30 p.m. and our Wednesday evening Bible study through 1 Samuel. Of course, tonight at 7. All of our soul winning times are listed there. Our Saturday rally is the one highlighted in gold. Nursing home ministry schedule coming up. Do take note of that. And let's see, November 10th is coming up. Does anyone know, is Theodore going to be in Phoenix all weekend? Yes. Okay, I'm going to get with one of you guys to cover for nursing home. But we'll work on that later. Steadfast salvation and baptism statistics are listed there on the bottom left. And as usual, please report those salvations to the soul winning leader or to that email address. On the top right, please keep Ms. Whitney Reed in prayer for her pregnancy. That this baby be healthy and everything would go well for their family. Upcoming events, really excited. This week, on Friday morning, I'm applying to Faithful Word and we're going to be helping out with the admissions conference there. Pastor Thompson is already there. And I'm really blessed and honored to preach about Germany that day. On Saturday, that is, November 6th through the 10th is that conference. November 24th is going to be the transition from Set Past Baptist Church to Anchor Baptist Church. Really looking forward to that. We're going to have Pastor Shelley and Pastor Thompson preaching for us that day. December 20th is the ladies' Christmas party. That's just in there so men can make note of that and plan on watching the kiddos. For that evening, that is going to be nurselings only preferred for that. And November 21st is going to be our Christmas soul winning push. It's going to be like our regular Saturday soul winning rally. We're just going to cater some food and coffee for that morning. There's also a couple different events that's going to be happening late December. I'll put those in the bulletin soon. Something that I've done at every church I've been at has been like a New Year's Eve party. I really enjoy doing stuff like that, Men's Preaching Night. So if that's something you guys are interested in, it's definitely something I'd like to host. QR code there if you'd like to give online, that is an option for you. And some church rules for you to read over at your own time there. Also, our prayer list is updated every week. Update that usually right before Wednesday service. So if you have a prayer request, please do email that to me. And I'd be happy to add that for you. At this time, let's go ahead and go to the Lord in prayer as a church. Lord, thank you for this day and thank you for Steadfast Baptist Church and faithful members that are here. I just pray that you would bless this congregation, Lord. That you'd help us to go out and reach people with the gospel. That you'd give us more laborers. And I just pray that you would be with all the different prayer requests that our members need from you this evening, Lord. That you'd answer these according to your will. And just pray for those that are looking at a new job, whether doing interviews or just searching. I just pray that you would bless those people, Lord. And we pray also for the Cameron's mother, Barbara. I just pray that she would recover well from her surgery. And that she would just continue to get the best treatment possible for her cancer. And more importantly, Lord, that you would just put your hand on her and heal her, Lord, and help her. And also that she would please just soften her heart and that she'd be receptive to the gospel. And we pray also for those needing healing from tumors and cancer, Ms. Terry and Ms. Remi. We pray also for the family members of church members here that need salvation. That those people's hearts would be softened and that they would just get clear opportunities to have the gospel preached to them in their lives. God, we pray for the Faith Ford Baptist Church Missions Conference that's starting this evening. I just pray that you would use this conference to inspire people to go out and preach the gospel. And that we could use the freedoms that we still have in this country and in this world to go out and reach people with the gospel freely. That you would just bless our efforts as we do that. That more people would be saved. We love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Alright, with that we're going to go to our third song. For our third song it's going to be the handout. If anyone does not have a handout, you can raise your hand. It's going to be a new song that we're going to sing. Psalm chapter number three. Since it is new, just let a couple verses go by before you're comfortable singing it. Just go ahead and jump in whenever you're comfortable. Psalm chapter number three. We're going to go ahead and start there right on the first. Lord, how are they in Greece that trouble me? Many are they that rise up against me. Many there be which say, of my soul there is no help for him in God's sila. There is no help for him in God's sila. But thou, O Lord, art a shield for me. My glory and the lifter above mine head I cried unto the Lord with my voice. And he heard me out of his holy hill. And he heard me out of his holy hill sila. I laid me down and slept. I awake for the Lord sustained me. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people that have set themselves against me round about. Arise, O Lord, save me, save me, O my God, for thou hast mitten all mine enemies upon the cheekbone. Thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly. Salvation belongeth unto the Lord. Thy blessing is upon thy people. Thy people sila. Amen. As the offering plates are being passed around, turn in your Bibles to 1 Samuel chapter number 13. Amen. Good evening, 1 Samuel 13. The Bible reads, Saul reigned one year, and when he had reigned two years over Israel, Saul chose him three thousand men of Israel, whereof two thousand were with Saul in Michmash and in Mount Bethel, and a thousand were with Jonathan and Gibeah of Benjamin, and the rest of the people he sent every man to his tent. And Jonathan smote the garrison of the Philistines that was in Gibeah, and the Philistines heard of it, and Saul blew the trumpet throughout all the land, saying, Let the Hebrews hear. And all Israel heard say that Saul had smitten the garrison of the Philistines, and that Israel also had an abomination with the Philistines, and the people were called together after Saul to Gilgal. And the Philistines gathered themselves together to fight with Israel thirty thousand chariots and six thousand horsemen and people as the sand which is on the seashore in multitude. And they came up and pitched in Michmash eastward from Bethavon, when the men of Israel saw that they were in a strait, for the people were distressed. Then the people did hide themselves in caves and in thickets and in rocks and in high places and in pits, and some of the Hebrews went over Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead. As for Saul, he was yet in Gilgal, and all the people followed him, trembling. And he tarried seven days according to the set time that Samuel had appointed, but Samuel came not to Gilgal, and the people were scattered from him. And Saul said, Bring hither a burnt offering to me, and peace offerings. And he offered the burnt offering, and it came to pass that as soon as he had made an end of offering, the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came, and Saul went out to meet him, that he might salute him. And Samuel said, What hast thou done? And Saul said, Because I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that thou camest not within the days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered themselves together at Michmash, therefore, said I, The Philistines will not come down now upon me to Gilgal, and I have not made supplication unto the Lord, I force myself therefore, and offer a burnt offering. And Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done foolishly, thou hast not kept the commandment of the Lord thy God, which he commanded thee, for now would the Lord have established thy kingdom upon Israel forever. But now thy kingdom shall not continue, though the Lord hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the Lord hath commanded him to be captain over his people, because thou hast not kept that which the Lord commanded thee. And Samuel rose, and got him up from Gilgal unto Gibeah of Benjamin, and Saul numbered the people that were present with him about six hundred men, and Saul and Jonathan his son, and the people that were present with them, abode in Gibeah of Benjamin, but the Philistines encamped in Michmash. And the spoilers came out of the camp of the Philistines in three companies, one company turned unto the way that leadeth to Ophrah unto the land of Sheuah, and another company turned the way of Beth-horon, and another company turned to the way of the border that looketh to the valley of Zebulun toward the wilderness. Now there was no smith found throughout all the land of Israel, for the Philistines said, Let the Hebrews make them swords or spears. But all the Israelites went down to the Philistines to sharpen every man his share, and his culture, and his acts, and his madoc. Yet they had a file for the madocs, and for the cultures, and for the forks, and for the axes, and to sharpen the goes. So it came to pass in the day of battle that there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people that were with Saul and Jonathan, but with Saul and with Jonathan his son was there found. And the garrison of the Philistines went out to the passage of Michmash. Let's bow our heads forward in prayer. Father in Heaven, we thank you for this day, and our church, and everyone gathered here, and we ask that you just please bless our pastor, and bless Brother Alden, and fill him with the Holy Spirit, and peace and the presence. Amen. Amen. Alright, well we are in 1 Samuel chapter number 13, and so far as we've been going through this book, it's been really focusing on the positive attributes of Saul, and we've been really talking about what a great leader that he has been, but it's this chapter where things start to change a little bit in the life of Saul. And we're going to take a look at that this evening. Let's start reading in verse number 1. The Bible says, Saul reigned one year, and when he had reigned two years over Israel, Saul chose him three thousand men of Israel, whereof two thousand were with Saul in Michmash and in Mount Bethel, and a thousand were with Jonathan and Gibeah of Benjamin, and the rest of the people he sent every man to his tent. And Jonathan smote the garrison, a garrison is just a body of troops, and Jonathan smote the garrison of the Philistines that was in Gibeah, and the Philistines heard it, and Saul blew the trumpet throughout all the land, saying, let the Hebrews hear. So, so far we have Saul, he's leading the army, and he's kind of split up the army into two different groups. He has two thousand people with Saul, if I remember correctly, yeah, two thousand people with Saul, and one thousand people with Jonathan. So, Saul's got more troops, but Jonathan is the one that actually, just with his one thousand, smites a garrison of the Philistines. And when he does that, it says that the Philistines hear of this. And you can imagine, they're probably pretty angry about that, they're ready to fight. And so Saul says, well, let's blow this trumpet and make sure that Israel also hears that this battle just took place. So, you can imagine they blow the trumpet, but look at verse number four, it says, And all Israel heard say, that Saul had smitten a garrison of the Philistines, and that Israel also had an abomination with the Philistines, and the people were called together after Saul to Gilgal. So, when Saul blows this trumpet, because he wants the children of Israel to hear that there was just this victory, what is it that they heard? They heard that Saul defeated the Philistines in battle, yet the Bible tells us that it was actually Jonathan, right? So, it's kind of interesting how Saul all of a sudden kind of translates that message to saying, well, it was actually Saul that got that victory. And it also says here that the children of Israel were held in abomination of the Philistines. That's because they were kind of held under tribute at this time. But what I really want to focus on, when it comes to that verse, is that you could start to see Saul struggling with pride a little bit in this chapter. This is where things start to change a little bit with Saul, and I'll prove that to you, because flip one chapter backwards, or I'm sorry, two chapters backwards, 1 Samuel 11. 1 Samuel 11, verse 13, After they had won a victory, this is what Saul said, And Saul said, There shall not be a man put to death this day, for today, notice, the Lord hath wrought salvation in Israel. So, in times past, when the children of Israel were blessed with some sort of victory over the enemies of God, Saul had no problem giving glory to God during that time, right? And he says, hey, we're not going to put anyone to death during this time, because God has given us this great victory. So, Saul, he didn't really have problems sharing glory with God, giving glory to God, but all of a sudden, when a different man got victory, when a different man did something good, Saul kind of had trouble sharing the spotlight with Jonathan. But you would think that Saul would want to glory in Jonathan, because Jonathan is literally his son. And every father, if they found out, like, hey, my son became a general and destroyed the enemies of God in battle, it'd be like, that's pretty cool. That's something to be proud of, right? But Saul here, he starts getting prideful, and when he blows the trumpet and wants the whole nation to know what happened in battle, what does the whole nation hear? That Saul defeated those Philistines in battle, which, of course, was not the truth. Go to Romans chapter 12, and I'm going to read for you Proverbs 27, verse 2. Proverbs 27, 2 says, let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth, a stranger, and not thine own lips. See, even if it was true that Saul was leading the army that killed the Philistines, it would be kind of prideful to blow a trumpet saying, like, hey, I want everyone to know that I won this battle. Because here's the thing, first of all, there's 2000 other men with him that share credit for this victory, if he was the person to actually get the victory. But the other big problem with that is that he didn't even get the victory in the first place. So the Bible is saying, let another man praise you, not your own lips. He's praising himself for something that he didn't even do, something that he didn't even accomplish. It's kind of like these stolen valor guys. Not quite, because obviously Saul is a warrior, and Saul did, you know, kill some people in battle. But he's taking credit for a battle that he didn't fight and didn't win. It's kind of like these guys that walk around in military uniforms and pretend to be ex-navy SEALs or, you know, ex-marines or something like that. And they usually get called out on it, right? Because what would be the only purpose? Let's say you've never served in the Marines, you've never been a Navy SEAL. What is the purpose of donning that uniform and walking around pretending that you are one so that people will think you're awesome? Right? So that you could just bask in vainglory and just be heaped up with praises that don't belong to you. Well, why would you want to lift up your name and take credit for something that you didn't do to bask in that same glory, right? It's a selfish motive that Saul is having here. And look what the Bible says in Romans chapter number 12, verse 10. The Bible says, be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love. Notice, in honor, preferring one another. So when it comes to, hey, someone's going to get honored, we should prefer other people to get honored. If anyone's going to get praise, if anyone's going to get recognition, a godly person actually desires other people to be given that honor and recognition. And how much more so when the other person actually did the work, actually won the battle, it would be so inappropriate. Like here's the thing, you know, let's say you go soul, let's say me and Eric go soul winning, right? And let's say that brother Eric got the salvation. Okay. I could see you coming into church and being like, hey, we got someone saved, right? Because I'm laboring with Eric, he's laboring with me, I'm a silent partner, he's the talker. You know, there's definitely credit being given to both those people there. But what if Eric was the talker, I was the silent partner and I walked in and I said, I got someone saved tonight. It's just, it would just strike me as a little odd to say something like that when it's like, why wouldn't you just want the team to get credit? Or why wouldn't you just want the honor being given to your brother? And just be like, hey, Eric got the person saved. Even though as a silent partner, I do believe you still get rewards for that. I do still think you're partaking in that labor. You know, I think it's better just to default to giving your brother the honor. Giving your friends the honor, giving your parents, your wife, whoever it is in life, we should prefer that other people are honored above ourselves. And you know what? Don't ever try to take credit for something that you don't do. People love to do this in the workplace, right? People love to, you know, the boss comes in and says, oh man, you know, great job on this wiring right here. Someone would be like, oh, thanks. It's just like, you didn't do that. That was, you know, Tom, that was a different person. What's going on? You know, people do that kind of stuff. But you know what? It's not right. It's not right even something as small as the workplace. It's not right even on the battlefield either. It's just uncommon for Christians. Go to Philippians chapter number two, Philippians chapter number two. Now think about it. Would Saul's credibility have even been hurt if Saul just got up and said, blew the trumpet and said, Jonathan got the victory? I don't think that would have hurt Saul's credibility one bit. If anything, it actually hurts his credibility lying about the situation and taking the credit for himself because the 1000 soldiers that were with Jonathan know for sure who actually won the battle. And actually, usually your credibility is bolstered when you as a leader are seen giving honor to other people and giving credit and recognition to other people. It doesn't diminish you as a leader. You know, it's actually showing like, hey, you know, you raised a pretty cool son, Jonathan, who's out slaying the enemies of God. You know, if anything, I think it would have helped. Look at Philippians two, verse three. So, you know, the Bible tells us not to do anything for strife or for vain glory. What is vain glory? What is something that's vain, meaning that it's empty, it's purposeless, it's meaningless. You're just getting glory, but it doesn't really mean anything. And a lot of people will do many different things in life simply for vain glory. Right. There's a lot of people, you know, think about this preaching in the 21st century. We use tools like YouTube, Rumble. We use live streams to try to get the word of God out to more people. But at the end of the day, a live stream is just simply a tool. Right. We're not behind this pulpit preaching to the Internet, preaching to people online. But there's ministers out there. There's churches out there where they tailor and focus their entire preaching ministry to try to get the people online. And they're not really worried about feeding people in their church. They're not really worried about preaching things that are relevant to the congregation. They're just simply wanting to get vain glory. They're simply just wanting to get as many views as possible. You know, that's a bad motivation to be preaching the word of God. Now, look, if someone's preaching the word of God for vain glory, I'm still happy that they're preaching the word of God in general. But really, our heart should be that where we're not trying to do things through strife or through vain glory. You know, some people, they want to go soul winning just for the simple fact that they want to come back to church and report how many people that they got saved. And if all of a sudden you weren't going to be reporting numbers anymore, that person would probably not be a soul winner. Right. And so, you know, we need to check our hearts every once in a while and make sure that the works that we're doing for God are not for ourselves, not to try to bring vain glory to ourselves, but rather to please the Lord. Go to John chapter number three, John chapter three. You know, a man who was the exact opposite of this was John the Baptist. And, you know, if there's anyone we should follow as Baptist, it should be John the Baptist. Right. Look at what the Bible says in John chapter three, verse twenty five. Then there arose a question between some of John's disciples and the Jews about purifying verse twenty six. And they came unto John and said unto him, Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou barest witness, behold, the same baptize it and all men come to him. So if you understand what the Jews are doing here is they're they're coming to John and they're trying to provoke John to envy. They're trying to say, hey, John, that guy that was out with you in the wilderness, haven't you noticed that all men are going to him? And what is a comment like that designed to make John feel like trying to make him feel little small, like he's not important, that he's not as cool, which he is not as cool. Right. I mean, Jesus is just factually cooler. Jesus is factually a better preacher. A better minister would be a better person to go to, of course. Right. But the people that are saying this, it's not like they have such a high regard for Jesus and they love Jesus. They're simply doing this just to try to tear a man of God down. Right. And don't be that person. Don't be that person that tries to compare one preacher to another. You know, why aren't you like this person? Why isn't this person have the same administration as the other? You know, that's just carnal. That's foolishness. It's not something that we need in any church. But I love John's answer in verse twenty seven. John answered and said, a man can receive nothing except to be given him from heaven. You know, he's saying, hey, any ministry, any influence, any power I have, any opportunity I have to minister was given to me from heaven, was given to me from God. And the influence and power and ability of the Lord Jesus Christ was given to him from heaven. Verse twenty eight. Ye yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before him. He's saying, like, when did I ever claim I was cooler than this guy? When did I ever claim that I was better than him? You know, why do you assume that I'm upset that people are going to Jesus to begin with when I openly told you I'm not the Christ? I was just sent before Christ. Verse twenty nine. He that hath the bride is the bridegroom, but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. This my joy, therefore, is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease. So, John, he actually compared himself to a friend of the groom. Right. And when you go to when you go to a wedding, if you go to a wedding of your friend, unless you're a complete narcissist, you're happy for your friend. You're there to celebrate your friend. You're excited for your friend. You know, the day that I got married, believe it or not, I had someone came up to me and said, man, I wish I was getting married today. Not just like, oh, that's a little cringy, you know. But look, if you go to a wedding, if you go to a wedding of your friend, you should be happy for your friend. Right. You should be happy for the groom. You're there to support the groom. You're there to congratulate the groom. You know, ladies, if you go, it's not about dressing up to see how pretty you can look. It's about everyone. Look at the bride. OK, this is just normal life skills that people need to learn. It's a basic common sense. And John saying like, this is common sense. Jesus is the groom. I'm just the friend of the groom. I'm just excited to be with him. I'm just happy that he's being exalted. He must increase. I must decrease. You know, this is the attitude that Saul should have had. Saul should have had the attitude that, hey, Jonathan's doing something good. Jonathan is on God's side. Jonathan's on my side. He's my son, for crying out loud. You know, Jonathan has done something good. Jonathan should get recognized. Jonathan should get the praise. But instead, he just wants to take it for himself. And this is an indication that Saul is going down a dark path spiritually. Go back to First Samuel Chapter 13. First Samuel Chapter 13. Verse number five. And the Philistines gathered themselves together to fight with Israel. Thirty thousand chariots and six thousand horsemen and people as the sand, which is on the seashore in multitude. And they came up and pitched in Micmash eastward from Beth Avon. So if you remember, at the beginning of the chapter, we were told that Saul had three thousand people total, two thousand with him, one thousand with Jonathan. Now he's coming up against an army that has thirty thousand chariots. That's not thirty thousand soldiers. That's just chariots. Beyond that, six thousand horsemen. That's not including footmen. You know, foot soldiers. And then it says and just people as the sand, which is on the seashore in multitude. I mean, good luck counting that. Right. So, I mean, they're just like astronomically outnumbered here. This just humanly speaking, you're looking at this and it's just an impossible situation. Really, really bad situation that they're in here. Verse number six says, when the men of Israel saw that they were in a strait, for the people were distressed, rightly so, then the people did hide themselves in caves and in thickets and in rocks and in high places and in pits. Now go to Psalm 118. So here's the thing. I can understand being stressed out in this situation. Right. Who among us would not be stressed out if, you know, we have the size of this church and we're fighting against an army of thirty thousand people? You know, we would be stressed out. But I think that sometimes this I think this could be a picture about sometimes in life or throughout the Bible. You see God's people facing impossible situations, physically speaking. Right. But the truth is, when God is on your side, it doesn't matter if you're facing a situation that's impossible from a carnal standpoint, because we have a secret weapon that the world doesn't have. And that is the Lord. That is God. Now you're going to Psalm 118. I'm going to read for you Psalm 24 10. The Bible says, if thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small. So however you want to slice it, whether you justify these men's fears or not, the truth is the people that left Saul are weak, because when the day of adversity came for them, they fainted. They quit. They fell away. And the Bible says that when you do that, when you quit, when you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small. Look at Psalm 118, verse eight. The Bible says it is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. You know, if you apply that to warfare, you know, this would be saying that it's better to trust that God is on your side than to put confidence in the fact that you have a really big army or that you have the greatest weapons or that you have the best training, because what beats the armies, the training, the weapons is the Lord. He can beat all of those things. So it's better to put your trust, to put your confidence in the Lord rather than in man. Verse nine. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes. That's leadership. So it's better to trust God than to even just trust Saul. Right. You want to just trust Saul because Saul is a man and Saul is about to go down a dark path. But the one that you could always trust no matter what is God. Right. This is why, you know, no, I'm not against voting. I'm not against Christians being involved to a certain level of politics, but I am against Christians putting their trust in human leadership to deliver our nation. I am against Christians putting all of their trust in Donald Trump that, oh, if Donald Trump gets in office, then all our problems will be solved. That's not true, because if our nation is ungodly, if our nation is not putting their trust in the Lord, you know what? We're in dangerous territory. And while I think it's just blatantly obvious to say, of course, Trump is better than the communist whore, Kamala Harris, obviously, that doesn't necessarily mean that our country is all of a sudden going to be saved from every problem that we have. Would we probably have had way worse problems under her? Absolutely. I think so. I thank God that she did not become our president last night. OK. Thank the Lord for that. But at the end of the day, my trust is not in Donald Trump. My confidence is not in him. It's not in his cabinet. It's not in police officers. It's not in any of those things. At the end of the day, my trust is in the Lord. My trust is in the King James Bible, the promises of God, not the promises of government. What a sad thing to trust in. You know, Ronald Reagan talked about how some of the scariest words in the human language or in the English language is, I'm from the government and I'm here to help. That's not someone you want to trust. Right. But the Lord is someone that we could trust. Why? Look at verse 10. All nations compass me about. But in the name of the Lord, will I destroy them? How would you like to be in battle against all nations? Because the Bible is saying, if God is with you, you can destroy all nations. They compass me about. Yea, they compass me about. But in the name of the Lord, I will destroy them. They compass me about like bees. They are quenched as the fire thorns for in the name of the Lord, I will destroy them. And, you know, this is the confidence that the children of Israel should have had during this time, even though humanly speaking, you just look at the situation from a carnal eye. You say, yeah, you guys are toast. Yeah, you guys have no hope. Yeah, it's 3000 people versus people innumerable like the sand on the seashore. But how much more people is just all nations because the Bible saying here, all nations compass me about. They compass me about. But in the name of the Lord, I will destroy them. So, you know, if God is on our side, if God be for us, who can be against us? And so it does not matter how many people hate us, how many people speak against us, how many people fight against us, how many people try to stop what we're doing. If we trust in the Lord, that is the only hope that we have. You know what? We can't ever put our hope in how many members we have or how much money we have or what type of building we have. The only thing we could trust in is God, not in human leadership, just the Lord. Go back to First Samuel 13, verse number seven, First Samuel 13, verse seven. And some of the Hebrews went over Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead. As for Saul, he was yet in Gilgal and all the people followed him trembling. So some of the Hebrews, they just bounced. They just crossed the Jordan River to Gad and Gilead. They just said, I'm out of here. I'm quitting. So now Saul's in an even worse situation. He went from having 3000 verses innumerable to a bunch of people just leaving him, just leaving him high and dry. You know, I could see how Saul is in a stressful situation here, which oftentimes when you're stressed out, when things are not going well, could be the time of temptation for you. It could be the time where Satan tempts you. It could be a time where your faith is tested. And where a lot of people make mistakes in the Christian life when they're stressed out, when they're overburdened. Verse eight, and he tarried seven days according to the set time that Samuel had appointed. But Samuel came not to Gilgal and the people were scattered from him. Go back to First Samuel 10. Flip a few pages. So he says he he waited there. He tarried there seven days according to the set time that Samuel had appointed. So Samuel told him this back in First Samuel 10. Look at verse eight. The Bible says, And thou shalt go down before me to Gilgal and behold, I will come down unto thee to offer burnt offerings and to sacrifice sacrifices of peace offerings. Seven days shalt thou tarry till I come to thee and show thee what thou shalt do. So Samuel's job, Samuel was the priest, right? Saul was the king. They had different titles. They had different responsibilities. It was Samuel's job and Samuel's authority only to do the sacrifices. This is not something that was appropriate or allowed for kings to do. Yes, Saul was a king. Yes, he had authority, but he did not just have unlimited authority, unlimited scope. He was not into venture into things like doing the sacrifices. Why? Because that was the high priest's job. That was Samuel's job. No one else is. And he told Saul, you need to wait there in Gilgal for seven days and then I'm going to come and I'm going to take care of those sacrifices. But Saul's in a straight. He's in a really bad situation. He's really stressed out. Things are going poorly for him. And so he's about to make a really big mistake in his life. Look at verse nine of First Samuel 13. So he waited there seven days, then verse nine. And Saul said, Bring hither a burnt offering to me and peace offerings. And he offered the burnt offering and it came to pass that as soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt offering. Behold, Samuel came and Saul went out to meet him that he might salute him. And Samuel said, What has thou done? Saul said, Because I saw that the people were scattered from me and that thou came is not within the days appointed and that the Philistines gathered themselves together at McMash. Therefore, said I, the Philistines will come down now upon me to Gilgal and I have not made supplication to unto the Lord. I forced myself, therefore, and offered a burnt offering. Get the picture here. Don't miss this story. He's there for seven days, according to the time that Samuel told him to wait. He's in a bad situation. He thinks that they're probably all about to die. And so in a impatient moment for him, he just decides, you know what? I'm just going to do the sacrifice. Bring me the stuff to do the sacrifice. I'm just going to do it myself. He does it. And as soon as he gets done offering the sacrifices, immediately Samuel shows up and then he makes this excuse saying, Well, basically, you told me that you'd be here in seven days and you weren't. But here's the thing. If he waited seven days, he did the offering and immediately Samuel came. Samuel did make it within the seven days. He may have made it in the evening or later than Saul would have liked. But Samuel did make it there, according to the time that he said. But Saul, what he did here was he committed a sin of presumptuous presumption. OK. And I want to explain that. Go to Numbers chapter 15, Numbers chapter 15. I'm going to read for you a verse in second Peter to verse 10. The Bible says, But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise government, presumptuous are they self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignities. So in second Peter to the Bible describes someone that's presumptuous as someone who is self-willed. Right. They just make their own decisions. They just call the shots. They make their own rules. That is what someone who is presumptuous is like. And Saul may not have his whole life just been a presumptuous person necessarily. But in this moment, he is a committing a sin where he is being a presumptuous person. He's being a self-willed person. Let's look at some more examples of this. Numbers 15, verse 30. The Bible says, But the soul that doeth ought presumptuously, whether he be born in the land or a stranger, the same reproacheth the Lord. And that soul shall be cut off from among his people. So the Bible saying when someone does something presumptuously, they're reproaching God, meaning that they are being blatantly disrespectful to God. And really, someone that's presumptuous, just self-willed, they're being blatantly disrespectful just to any authority. OK, that's what presumptuous people are like. They are being disrespectful to authority. Verse 31, because he hath despised the word of the Lord. So someone that's presumptuous, they are contempting. They are reproaching God and they're despising word of the Lord. And hath broken his commandment, that soul shall be utterly cut off. His iniquity shall be upon him. And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the Sabbath day. So the Bible is explaining what a presumptuous person is like, why that's something that's a big problem, the consequences of that. And then the Bible is going to give us an example of someone that does this. And it brings up a man that picks up sticks on the Sabbath day. And a lot of people read this and they think, what's the big deal about picking up sticks on the Sabbath day? Stay there. I'll read for you Exodus 35 to the Bible says six days shall work be done. But on the seventh day there shall be to you and holy day a Sabbath of rest to the Lord. Whosoever doeth work therein shall be put to death. Sounds like God was very clear about the Sabbath. He is saying, look, anyone that violates the Sabbath, if you do work on the Sabbath, you are to be put to death. Now, I don't know about you, if God told me that, I would be very scared to break the Sabbath. And it would take a very presumptuous person to just be like, oh, I don't care. I'm just going to build a fire real quick. I'm gonna start stacking up firewood, making sure that I'm good to go for the winter. That's someone that is just reproaching God. They just don't really care. They're despising the word of the Lord. Right. Because that was God's commandments. And why is the death penalty given for breaking the Sabbath? I think it's to highlight the severity of the New Testament version of the Sabbath, which is faith in Jesus Christ. Which if you break that Sabbath, if you don't get on the New Testament Sabbath program, faith in Jesus Christ, you know what the penalty is? Eternal death in hell. So physical death is nothing compared to what people who break the Sabbath in the New Testament are going to experience. Eternal hell. Because, of course, we know Jesus is our rest. We that have ceased from our own works have entered into his rest by faith in Jesus Christ. With all that being said, look at verse 33 of Numbers 15. And they that found him gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron and unto all the congregation. And they put him in ward because it was not declared what should be done to him. So they kind of detain him. They put him in some sort of makeshift jail. And they're talking about what should the penalty be for this crime that has been committed. Verse 35. And the Lord said unto Moses, the man shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp. And why did Moses give that severe of a penalty? Not because it was just Moses's opinion. He's just a mean guy. He's just a mean leader. No, that was just what the Bible said in Exodus. And he's just executing what God said. Go back to First Samuel Chapter number 13. First Samuel Chapter 13. So we kind of got a picture of what this presumptuous style of a sin is. And look at verse 13. The Bible says, And Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done foolishly. Thou hast not kept the commandment of the Lord thy God, which he commanded thee. For now with the Lord have established thy kingdom upon Israel forever. So this was a very foolish mistake because it was something that literally cost him his kingdom in the long run. And Samuel saying, look, God was ready to establish you as the leader. He was willing to continue to use you. But now he's going to strip that from you. And, you know, even in the New Testament in First Timothy three and Titus one talks about how a pastor cannot be self willed. Right. Because any sin of presumptuous presumption is a very serious issue. And, you know, it's it's really easy to just look at the story of Saul and just apply this to Saul. But, you know, we should be doing is we should be applying this to ourselves. Let's apply this to you this evening. OK, let's talk about the authority structure of a church, because in a church like this, this has been a satellite plant for five, six years, something like that. And in those six years, there's been a variety of different leaders that have filled in and preached and stuff like that. Boots on the ground leaders, great guys like evangelist for. Right. We've had all those different types of leaders. But this church has never had a pastor that is full time day to day running things from a human perspective here at a church. But what you have to understand about the New Testament, how the Bible describes the church authority, it is a pastor led church, meaning that the human authority in a local church is the pastor. OK, I'm going to show you this from the Bible. Go to Hebrews Chapter 13, because, look, there's just some people have are new to church. Some people have never experienced a church like this. And quite frankly, you guys have been without a pastor in person for six years. So there could be in your mind a dynamic difference that you're used to compared to other churches that you would visit. OK, look at Hebrews Chapter 13 while you're turning there. I'm going to read for you. First Timothy 517, the Bible says, let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the word and doctrine. So the Bible is describing the elder, the pastor. What is he doing? He's ruling well, meaning that he's in charge. A ruler makes rules. OK. And people that are under a ruler follow those rules. OK, this is pretty simple, but let's just explain all this. Hebrews 13, verse 17. Notice the Bible says, obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves, for they watch for your souls as they must give an account that they may do it with joy and not with grief. For that is unprofitable for you. So the Bible gives us the admonition to obey those that have a rule over us. And honestly, that's applied to any authority, wives to husbands, employees to bosses, people to government, church to pastor. You're just supposed to obey those that have the rule over you, specifically pastors. This is talking about it says to submit yourselves for they watch for your souls as they that must give account. OK, James three talks about my brethren be not many masters, knowing that you shall receive the greater condemnation. You know, the pastor is in charge, but there's a great deal of responsibility that is on that person, because that person is going to be judged by God for the decisions that that person makes. Right. So someone that's in that position needs to be someone that's not self-willed because, yes, they are the human authority. And while that gives them a lot of discretion and autonomy, the pastor is still under someone, though, the Lord Jesus Christ, and that person must be following what the Bible says. But things outside of the Bible, the person that is in charge in a church is the pastor. So you know who decides when the service times are? The pastor. You know who decides how to set up the church, where to go soul winning, what missions trips to do, how the music ministry is going to be run, how all sorts of different things in the church is going to be run, who decides that is the pastor. Now, of course, the pastor can delegate authority to other people. Right. For example, I am not a pastor. I am here in charge of this church only because Pastor Shelley has commissioned me to do that. He said, you're in charge of this church. You run this church. Right now, Pastor Shelley tells me what to do at any time. I must obey him because he's the pastor. I'm not the pastor. Right. And when I worked for him, you know, for example, he gave me some responsibility running music ministry. I would make the song list. I would make the song schedule. But at any time, Pastor Shelley could say, no, we're not singing that song. Sing something else. Or he would tell me, I don't like how you sound saying that sing it a different way. And I just said, yes, sir. I would never have imagined in a million years walking up to Pastor Shelley as being like, hey, this is what we're doing. No, that's not how church works. You don't get to just walk up to the pastor and tell him, hey, this is what we're doing. Hey, I just want to let you know this is the mission strip that we're doing next year. No, that's not how church works. You know, and no one's done these things. So I'm just bringing random examples. But it's be like, hey, Dylan, you know, when steadfast Baptist Church becomes anchor, we're just going to start anchor Baptist Church podcast. It's like that would be presumptuous. Right. Or just being like, hey, you know, Dylan, you're going to preach on this topic next week or like someone has told me before. Don't preach on vegetarianism because it'll make me look bad to my kids. And I just said, well, I know what one of the first sermons I'm going to be preaching is. Don't ever tell me what I can and cannot preach. That's a bad idea. That's a terrible, terrible, terrible idea. But look, the Bible does not teach that churches should be deacon board led where you get all the rich businessmen of the church and they get together and they vote and decide what the pastor is going to do. This is what a lot of churches do. Church is not a congregation led establishment. Churches in the old IFB do this where they literally take a vote on how to spend every dollar like like, hey, we need to buy, I don't know, more toilet paper. Let's just do a quick, quick vote. Hands up for yay. Like, that's ridiculous. That's insanity. Right. This is not going to be a church member led church. This is not going to be deacon board church. This is not going to be a woman run led church. This is going to be a pastor led church. And that is something that this church, quite honestly, has never experienced. But I would just rather just make it make it plain now. That way, everyone understands in the future, like, hey, this is how a church runs. Because quite honestly, it's it's kind of hard if you're just like the boots on the ground guy and you're just being asked to help the church to preach, to really like assert any authority, because you're not really the one that has the ownership over that. You haven't really been given that authority. So I'm not even blaming the men that have filled that role in the past in this church. I think that they've done a great job except for Bo Ballard, of course. He's wicked as hell. But I'm just trying to get you to understand that if this church becomes an independent Baptist church, this will be a pastor led church. And there are some things that are just inappropriate to assert yourself over sins of presumption. So let me just make it super clear. If there's a pastor here that's running things, that's ruling that is over God's people in the Lord, obviously not not lording over God's heritage. This means that you have to ask permission to do things. OK, this means you can't just say, hey, I'm starting this ministry. That's not how church works. Hey, we're just going to start this anchor Baptist church podcast. That's not how church works. Oh, I'm just I'm just going to run this event. I just want to let you know I'm running this event. Did anyone ask you to do that? Because if no one asked you to do that, you have no authority over that. And here's what you should do. Unless you have been specifically delegated authority, you should assume that you have zero authority. Right now, here's the thing. There's been in this church that I've even asked to help me with things. I asked men to be like, hey, will you help me make so many maps for Sunday? I don't tell them where to go. So any I just want them to figure it out. Right. And they totally have the authority to choose where to go. That's great. But at any time, if I just want to say like, hey, this Sunday we're going here. The answer should be let's do it. Right. That's just how a church works. And someone that just wants to do their own thing, do their own program, not ask for permission. Hey, Brother Dylan, next weekend, I'm using the church building for my kid's birthday party. No, you're not. OK. And look, I'm not a pastor right now. I've never claimed to be a pastor. No one can ever lay this accusation to me that I've been trying to take authority on myself or anything like that. I've always said I'm under Pastor Shelley's authority. But as long as he's given me any authority to rule over this church, you must ask me permission to do things. And if I'm the pastor, you dead sure must ask me permission to do things. You can't just, you know, make things up on your own. That would be being presumptuous. OK. And look, I understand this church hasn't always had that dynamic. That's OK. That's why I'm trying to let that be known to you right now. That way it's very clear. Go to if you would. Titus or no, let's go back to First Samuel 13. And think about it. This doesn't just apply to work or church. This applies to work, too. Don't just go to your boss and be like, boss, I just bought you a new saw today. It's like, what was wrong with our old saw? Nothing. I just thought you would want the new or cool one. But that costs money. It's like you don't just do that to your boss. You don't just like presume, oh, boss will be cool with it. Hey, boss, I just decided I changed the blueprints today on the construction project. It's like, what are you doing? That's not how authority works. Right. And this applies in any area of authority. Don't be presumptuous. If you've been delegated a task, do that. If your boss has given you some autonomy. This is my recommendation. Find out what your left and right parameters are. Don't just assume like, oh, cool. Boss told me I could do this. That means that I could do anything I want. Find out, like, hey, what's my left and right parameters? What's your vision? What's your idea for this? How much money are you wanting to spend on this project? Not just like, all right, leave this project. It's just like seven million dollars. Like, let's just go. No, you know, you need to not be presumptuous and just assume those things because look at the consequence of this. Verse 14. But now thy kingdom shall not continue. What was the consequence of Saul being presumptuous, being self-willed? It was called demotion, demotion, saying, look, you're not going to be the king anymore at the end of the day. And you want to get fired real quick. You want to lose your place in ministry real quick. Just start making up your own rules and doing whatever you want and not asking for permission for things. That is a really quick way to get demoted. That's a quick way to get fired at your job. OK. The Lord had sought him a man after his own heart, which we know is talking about David. And the Lord had commanded him to be captain over his people because thou has not kept that which the Lord commanded thee. There never even would have been a King David if Saul would have just done what God told him to do through Samuel, the man of God, if he would have just obeyed the man of God, if he would have just stayed in his lane as king. I mean, you're already king. Isn't that cool enough? Isn't that good enough? Aren't you just content with your position, Saul? But no, he also had to do the job of a priest. Why? Because he was self-willed and presumptuous. And that's the only reason David even came into the picture, because Saul was told your kingdom is not going to continue. Verse 15, And Samuel arose and got him up from Gilgal unto Gibeah of Benjamin. And Saul numbered the people that were present with him, about six hundred men. So he went from three thousand to six hundred. And Saul and Jonathan, his son, and the people that were present with them, abode in Gibeah of Benjamin, but the Philistines encamped in Michmash. And the spoilers came out of the camp of the Philistines and three companies. One company turned unto the way that leadeth to Avra, unto the land of Sheol. And another company turned to the way of Beth-Haron. And another company turned to the way of the border that looketh to the valley of Zeboim, toward the wilderness. Now there was no smith found throughout all the land of Israel, for the Philistines said, lest the Hebrews make them swords or spears. Now, let's shift gears a little bit here. There's no smith that's found in the land of Israel. Smith there, I believe, is just referring to a blacksmith. And at this time, what does a blacksmith do? They can make weapons. They can make swords. And the Bible is saying there was no weapons manufacturing facility at all in the land of Israel. Why? Because their enemies, the Philistines, said, lest so that the Hebrews don't make them swords or spears. So the Philistines looked at Israel, who were under their subjection, and they said, you know what? We're not going to allow you to make any weapons whatsoever. We're not going to let you have these smiths so that you don't make any swords or spears. Let me just tell you this. Anyone that wants to disarm you is your enemy. Anyone that wants to disarm you wants to hurt you. Okay? There's no reason why the Philistines should have any problem with the children of Israel having blacksmiths, unless they had some nefarious reason why they wanted to take away their firearms. And you just, you look at history, you look at dictatorships in the past, they always, without fail, want to disarm the population. Because when they want to hurt you, when they want to do harm to you, they don't want to meet any resistance. This is one thing that is unique to America that no other country has. It's called the Second Amendment. And, you know, our founders recognized that a tyrannical government could literally be a threat to your life. And that what deters a government from becoming too tyrannical or wanting to put you in subjection, like the Philistines had to the children of Israel, is people being armed. Right? And so thank God in the United States of America, we do have the right to keep and bear arms. And that was given to us not for hunting, okay, not for sport. It was given to us to protect ourselves and our families. And, you know, I don't believe you should ever give up your guns for any reason. You say, well, what if the government orders you to? Well, obey the higher powers. Last time I checked, the Second Amendment is the highest law of the land. It's called the U.S. Constitution. Okay? So I think I don't think you should ever give up your firearms. It's a terrible idea because any government that wants to disarm you wants to eventually kill you. Whether you want to live in liberal, you know, fufu latte Starbucks land or not. And just believe that here's the thing people don't understand. And if you actually read books, you'll understand this. Is that the thin line between our soft, cushy, easy lives in 2024 America and complete hell on earth and utter chaos is such a thin line. Many people have no clue unless you're like a war veteran or you've read some books. Go read the Gulag archipelago about the 20th century in the Soviet Union where people are being rounded up and charged with crimes against the state, anti-communist propaganda, which are just completely made up charges that have nothing to do with anything. Just arrested in the middle of the night, taken to a gulag where you're packed into a room this size with like 15 other people standing up and people are literally eating their shoe leather to survive. That's how bad communism got in the Soviet Union, where tens of millions of people starve to death. And guess what? That population was disarmed. And you want to know why? Probably stuff like this doesn't happen in the United States of America is because our leaders aren't that stupid because they know if they start coming and rounding people up that they're going to face resistance to that. And guess what? I don't think that's a wrong thing to do. Someone tries to round up your family? Yeah, over my dead body. And you know, if more people had that mentality and had that mindset, it would keep people scared from doing something like that. You know, we got the Philistines here. They're banning they're banning the extended magazines, right? They're they're doing extra background checks on buying anything metal. They're making sure that there's no gun manufacturing plants going on. Why? Because they're enemies that want to kill them in war. And, you know, there's a famous quote by the leader of Japan, whatever he was called, emperor, I think in World War Two, where he was asked, why don't you just invade the mainland? Why don't you just invade California? And what's interesting, if you go to the West Coast all along the coast, there's bunkers, there's lookouts, there's all these World War Two things looking for bombers coming on the West Coast. And he's like, well, the problem with that is that in America, there's a gun under every blade of grass. And it literally prevented an invasion of our western coast just by Americans being armed. Let's bring that back. Let's get that culture back where American men are strong, armed and dangerous, not just fat, lazy and addicted to video games and pornography. You know, we could actually if we got godly again, we could actually put the fear of God into other nations again, like we used to. Now we're the laughing stock of the world. And we would have been even more so if the stupid whore Kamala Harris got elected last night. Oh, that's going to scare Russia. That's going to scare China. Unburdened by thoughts in my brain. Oh, thank God we don't have to hear that for the next four years. Can I get an amen on that? I'm going to read for you. Luke twenty to thirty six then said he unto them. But now he that hath a purse, let him take it. And likewise his script. And he he that hath no sword. Let him sell his garment and buy one. Jesus said, you don't have a sword. You're better off selling your clothing and buying a sword. And, you know, I thank God in America. We have the right to do that without being molested or harmed by the government. It's actually legal here and even more so in Oklahoma, you could carry that thing without a permit. Look, you should take advantage of that. And my recommendation to every single man is to get a firearm to train with it regularly and to carry it every single day of your life. That is my recommendation to you. Do with that whatever you will. That's my opinion. All right. I'm just I'm telling you, that's my opinion. I'm not preaching the Bible right now. My opinion is men should carry a gun every single day. That's what I do. That's what I think you should do with training. Verse 20. Go back to First Samuel, chapter number 13. And isn't this what the enemy always likes to do? Disarm you. Like this effeminate guy, Mark Ward, that wants to disarm you from the King James Bible and wants to put a new King James in your hand. You know, he wants he wants to take away your Glock and give you a Nerf gun, right? He wants to take away your Smith and Wesson and give you like one of those like pool noodles to try to fight off bad guys with. It's like, no, I'll stick with the King James. OK, I'll stick with the 50 cal right here. This is what I like. Verse 20. But all the Israelites went down to the Philistines to sharpen every man his share in his culture and his acts and his matter. So they have to go to the enemy to sharpen their equipment. That's really sad. Being dependent upon the enemy for anything. Verse 21. Yet they had a file for the Maddocks and for the cultures and for the forks and for the axes and to sharpen the goads. So it came to pass in the day of battle that there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people that were with Saul and Jonathan. But with Saul and with Jonathan, his son was there found and the garrison of the Philistines went out to the passage of Micmash. So notice when it actually came to the day of battle, they were so weak. They were so disarmed that the only people that had weapons was the privileged leaders themselves, Saul and Jonathan. And, you know, that is a bad state to be in physically. That's a bad state to be in spiritually as well. You know, we need to make sure that in a church, in any church, that it's not just the leader that has the sword. It's not just the leader that is trained how to use the sword and knows how to use the sword. You know, we want as we're going out to battle spiritually, this whole army to be well armed, well trained and ready to kick some spiritual butt. That's what we need in a church today. Not just because you go to a lot of churches. I visited churches before where the pastor was cool. The pastor was knowledgeable. The pastor was a sole winner, but not really anyone in this congregation was. And that's an imbalanced church. That'd be an imbalanced army. Right. If just the general is armed. Well, how do we make sure that all of us are armed? Go to Ephesians chapter number six, Ephesians chapter number six. You don't want to be going into battle with just your shield or just your helmet on or just, you know, your armor plates or whatever. You want the full armor, don't you? Ephesians six, verse 10. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. So, you know, today we're not going out to war against the Philistines or the Amorites or anything like that. We're going out to war against the Mormons. We're going out to war against the Jehovah's Witnesses, against the Catholics, against false religions that are battling for men's souls right now. Right. There's a spiritual battle going on between the devil and between God and his children. The devil's trying to drag as many people as possible to hell with him. And we're trying to go reach people before he does that and to get them saved. And so what we need to do, verse 13, wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand. Stand, therefore, having your loins girt about with truth and having on the breastplate of righteousness. So you want to have truth. You want to be reading the Bible. But not just that, you also want to be living a righteous life, being separated. Verse 15, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. You want to be a soul winner. Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. So, you know, if you were to go out today and engage in a physical battle, I'd probably ask Brother John all the things that we need. He'll tell me the things we're missing. But, you know, I'd want a gun. I'd want medical gear. I'd want armor plates. I'd want helicopters and air strikes and whatever. I want all this stuff, right? I wouldn't want to just go in with an old revolver or something like that. I'd want as much arsenal as possible. You know, it's the same thing spiritually. You don't want to just be going in a spiritual battle and you've only got your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. But you have no, you know, truth. You have no righteousness. You have no faith. You have no helmet of salvation. We want to make sure that as Christians, we're giving diligence and paying attention to all the different Christian disciplines in life so that we are well-rounded soldiers spiritually, that we're well-armed and well-defended. Go to 2 Samuel chapter 12, 2 Samuel chapter 12. So, you know, just in recap here, this is where things start turning really bad for Saul. And he went from being blessed and exalted and lifted up as the leader to now just in one chapter being told, hey, this kingdom isn't going to last. God's actually seeking him, a man after God's own heart, and he's going to take over. And of course, we know that man to be David. But here's what's interesting is that in David's life, he commits a very serious sin in his life. And honestly, his sin was way worse than what Saul did. Saul, he was presumptuous. He tried to exercise himself in something that wasn't his authority. Yes, that was wrong. Yes, that was bad. But David literally committed adultery, a sin worthy of death. Not only that, he went and got the husband of Bathsheba purposely killed in combat, guilty of adultery and of murder. He arguably is the worst sinner in this situation. Yet David's reign continued. David received mercy of God. Saul did not. David was a man after God's own heart. Saul was not. What was the difference between them? Second Samuel twelve verse seven. And Nathan said to David, thou art the man. He's rebuking him for a sin. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel. I anointed the king over Israel and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul. And I gave thee thy master's house and thy master's wives into thy bosom and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah. And if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things. Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in his sight? Thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword and hast taken his wife to be thy wife and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house because thou hast despised me and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife. Thus saith the Lord, behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house. And I will lay I will take thy wives before thine eyes and give them unto thy neighbor. And he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this son for thou didst it secretly. But I will do this thing before all Israel and before the son. And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, The Lord also hath put away thy sin. Thou shalt not die. What was the difference? Go to 1 Samuel 13. What was the difference between David and Saul? Why did David receive mercy? Why was David a man's after God's own heart? Even though he committed a very serious sin. And if you read that what we're reading right there is punishment is severe. Sword's never going to depart out of his house. One of his children is going to sleep with all his wives in the sight of all of Israel. I mean, it's terrible, his punishment. But when he hears that, he doesn't make excuses. He doesn't try to justify his actions. He simply just says, I have sinned. He wasn't so prideful to say, Who are you talking to? I'm the king. You know, I am King David. I could do whatever I want. Don't sit here and reproach me. No, he just takes it. He says, I have sinned. What did Samuel or Saul do? However, 1 Samuel 13, 11. And Samuel said, What has thou done? And Saul said, I have sinned. No, because I saw that the people were scattered from me. He's scared. And that thou camest not within the days appointed. Excuses. And that the Philistines gathered themselves together at Michmash. More excuses. Therefore, said I, the Philistines will come down now upon me to Gilgal. And here comes the real spiritual excuse. And I have not made supplication unto the Lord. Don't people love to do that? Justify their sins with some spiritual reason. Well, here's why I broke the commandment of God. Because I hadn't yet prayed to the Lord. It's like that doesn't make any sense. You don't don't sit here and transgress God's commandments and disobey the man of God. Because I haven't yet made supplication to God. Yeah. No crap. Because Samuel's the one supposed to be doing that. That's why you haven't done that yet. Because Samuel said he would come do it. And when he rebukes him for this, Saul's like, Well, you got to understand, I was scared. You got to understand the situation I was in. All the enemies were coming after me. Well, you got to understand, you know, I was afraid that the Philistines would come here and I would go engage them in battle before I had done business with God. Right. These are the excuses that he's given. Verse 13. And Samuel said to Saul, Thou was done foolishly. Notice his answer wasn't, Hey, the Lord's taken away thy sin. Thou shalt not die. No, he's just saying you've done foolishly. You're an idiot is what he's saying. Thou has not kept the commandment of the Lord thy God, which he commanded thee. For now would the Lord have established thy kingdom upon Israel forever. But now thy kingdom shall not continue. The Lord had sought him and man after his own heart. And the Lord hath commanded him to be captain over his people because thou has not kept that which the Lord commandeth thee. And what was the big difference between Saul and David? One was a man after God's own heart and one was not. And what was it that made David a man after God's own heart and not Saul? Well, Saul was in it for himself, wasn't he? He was in it to get the glory for himself. He wanted to have stolen valor and don't give the glory to his son or the credit to his son that actually won in battle. He wants everyone to love him and look at him and think how awesome he is. Why is he not a man after God's own heart? Because he was presumptuous. Because he decided to do something without permission, without right, without authority. And as a result of that, you know what ended up happening to him? He was replaced. And you know, this needs to be a warning for us. These stories are not in the Bible for no reason. These stories are very applicable to our lives right now in 2024. That if you in your life, you want to get prideful, you want to get lifted up, you want to start taking authority that doesn't belong to you. You want to start becoming presumptuous and be involved in these type of things. You know what? God might replace you. God might demote you. And so you know what? Let this chapter cause us to fear God and to not be in it for ourselves, not be in it for our own glory, but rather to give honor to other people, to our brothers in Christ, to obey God's commandments, not be presumptuous, not make excuses for our sins. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for this day. Thank you for this chapter and word of God. I pray that all of us would take these things to heart and that we would just allow the word of God to correct us. And that we would just be humble people that want to serve you, that we wouldn't wade into things without right or authority, and that you would just help us to, when we're wrong, that we just face it, admit it, and confess our sins to you and repent. We love you and Jesus, we pray. Amen. If you would grab a hymnal, we'll go ahead and sing one last song to conclude the service. Hymn number 401, Set My Soul on Fire, hymn number 401. We'll go ahead and start there right on the first. In this day and hour, I will be your witness. Fill me with thy power. Set my soul on fire, Lord. Set my soul on fire. Make my life a witness of thy saving power. Millions grow in darkness, waiting for thy word. Set my soul on fire, Lord. Set my soul on fire. Set my soul on fire, Lord, for the lost in sin. Give to me a passion as I seek to win. Help me not to falter. Never let me fail. Fill me with thy spirit. Let thy will prevail. Set my soul on fire, Lord. Set my soul on fire. Make my life a witness of thy saving power. Millions grow in darkness, waiting for thy word. Set my soul on fire, Lord. Set my soul on fire. Set my soul on fire, Lord, in my daily life. For too long I've wandered in this day of strife. Nothing else will matter, not to live for me. I will be your witness as you live in me. Set my soul on fire, Lord. Set my soul on fire. Make my life a witness of thy saving power. Millions grow in darkness, waiting for thy word. Set my soul on fire, Lord. Set my soul on fire.