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Welcome to Anchor Baptist Church. If you would grab a hymnal and turn to hymn number 428. It came upon the midnight clear. Hymn number 428. We'll go ahead and start there right on the first. It came upon the midnight clear. That glorious song of old. From angels bending near the earth, to tithes their hearts of gold, Peace on the earth, good will to men, from heaven's all gracious King. The world in saw, but still displayed, to hear the angels sing. Still through the golden skies they come, with peaceful wings unfurled, And still their heavy music flows o'er all the weary world. Above its sad and lonely ways, they bend on coming wings, And ever o'er its banal sound, the blessed angels sing. And we believe by thrashing love, whose horns are bending long. It's all along the climbing lane, with painful steps and song. Look now for glad and bolded hours, come swiftly on the wing, For rest beside the weary road, and hear the angels sing. For long the days are hasting on, by part, and part, for toil, When with the ever-serving years, comes round the age of gold. When peace on earth, for all the earth, its ancient splendor's fleeing, And the whole world give back the song, which now the angels sing. Open with a word of prayer. Dear Father, thank you for this opportunity that we have to sing about our Savior's birth. Thank you for the great blessing of your son Jesus that you sent to this earth to be the sacrifice for us. Let us celebrate his birth at this time in our singing, and I pray that you would incline your ear towards us, Lord. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen. For our next hymn, if you would, turn in your hymnals to hymn number 430. While shepherds watch their flocks. Hymn number 430. Hymn 430. We'll go ahead and start there right on the first. While shepherds watch their flocks by night, all seated on the ground, The angel of the Lord came down, and glory shone around, and glory shone around. Fear not, said he, for mighty dread has seized their troubled mind. The tidings of great joy I bring to you and all mankind, to you and all mankind. To you in David's soundless name is Lord of David's mind, the Savior who is Christ the Lord. And this shall be the sign, and this shall be the sign, the heavenly rain to whom there shall apply, to you and you displayed. Only we wrapped in swabbing beds, and in a manger laid, and in a manger laid. All glory be to God on high, and to the earthly peace. Good will is more from heaven to men, begin and never cease. Begin and never cease. All right, thank you all for being here this evening. Welcome to Anchor Baptist Church. I don't know about you, I'm glad we're finally singing some Christmas songs, some of the best songs in the hymnal, so really excited about the remainder of this month. On the front is our Bible memory passage of the week, Hebrews chapter 6 verse 17. Keep working hard on that chapter. On the inside is our service times listed Sunday morning at 10 30, Sunday evening at 4 30, and Wednesday evening at 7 o'clock pm. All of our soul winning times are listed there, and of course they all meet here at the church building. Nursing home ministry schedule is listed there, as well as our year-to-date church statistics. Make sure when you go soul winning you report those numbers, either to that email address there or the signal group is fine, that seems to be working well. Please be in prayer for Miss Whitney Reed for her pregnancy, and really for all the Reed family. I heard that they're a little sick, so John's, you know, still staying strong. Pray for him too, and the remainder of his family. Upcoming events, Christmas caroling is coming up soon, December 9th at 6 30 pm. Really excited for that. December 20th is the ladies Christmas party here at the church, and there's a little description on the bottom there. It says the ladies of Anchor Baptist Church are invited to the annual ladies Christmas party. Dinner will be served at 7 o'clock pm on December 20th, and I think Italian is what we're going to be catering, so it's going to be good. There will be some Christmas themed activities, and also a gift exchange. If you'd like to participate in that, please bring a gift valued at around 25. I say around 25 because with inflation, you could have a little bit of leeway there, but it's around $25. Don't come with an iPhone or something, all right? Just 25-ish dollars, and for that, it's going to be nurselings only, so guys, please do watch the kiddos that evening. Take one for the team. You can do it. You will live, I promise. It'll be okay. Let the ladies have a fun night. On the back is our, well actually, let me see, I missed a few events here. Yeah, December 21st is our soul-winning Christmas. Push on the Saturday soul-winning time, and on the 31st is going to be our midweek service for that week, so don't come to church on January 1st. You'll be the only person here, and you'll be locked out, but New Year's Eve, there will be a men's preaching night and a time of fellowship and food, and that starts at 7 o'clock pm like our normal services, so men, you want to preach, wear a suit and tie or shirt and tie, I should say, and sign up on the sign-up sheet in the back, and you'd have an opportunity to preach, and on the back is our prayer list. If you have any prayer requests, please make sure to email me that. I'd be happy to add that for you, and at this time, let's go ahead and go to the Lord in prayer as a church family. Lord, thank you for the opportunity to be in church this evening to hear your word preached and to sing of the wonderful birth of Jesus Christ. I pray for all of our brothers that are on a missions trip in Jamaica right now, even one of our own members, Lord, pray that you would just keep them all safe and help them to get tons and tons of people saved over there. I pray that there would just be a fire lit of the gospel of Jesus Christ in that country, and that even after the American soul winners are gone, that the people that are saved there would get fired up to continue preaching the gospel in that country, and I just pray that you would bless Faith Board Baptist Church for their heart for missions and Pastor Anderson, and I just pray that you would give us here in Oklahoma City more laborers, Lord, that we can be faithful to our vineyard here, and Lord willing someday to grow and preach the gospel in other countries as well. Lord, I just pray that you bless all of our faithful soul winners. I pray that you bless Brother Moses from Germany. He's been fleeing some persecution, and just pray that you bless him, help him to be strong, and I pray that you bless him financially and all of his endeavors here in the United States. I pray for Brother James Perry for his back to heal, for Brother Cameron's mother, Barbara, that her heart would be softened to the gospel, and her body healed completely from the cancer. Also, we pray for the health of our members who've been asking for prayer for cancer or friends with cancer. Just you please bless the health of our church, Lord, that you would be merciful to us and enable us to be healthy to serve you at our best capacity, and help us just to be patient as we wait on your answers, Lord. We also pray for Miss Whitney, for her brother Cole, that he would have a heart that wants to know the truth and that he would get many opportunities to hear the truth, Lord. Same thing for Brother Zach's family members, his mother and brother, and really for all of our family members around this Christmas season, that they would just be thinking and pondering of Christ and salvation in heaven, and we would have a heart to reach people during this time. Help us during the holidays not to only focus on ourselves but focus on giving to others. We love you, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, that's going to be it for our announcements. Let's go ahead and go to our third song. All right, for our next song, if you would grab the handout that was passed around. Romans chapter number 10. Romans chapter number 10 in the handout. Go ahead and start there right at the beginning. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. Whosoever shall call, whosoever shall call, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek, the same Lord over all is rich to all that call upon him. For the scripture saith whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. Whosoever shall call, whosoever shall call, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Good singing. As the offering plates are being passed around, turn if you would in your bibles to first Samuel chapter number 16. First Samuel chapter number 16. Good evening tonight we are in first Samuel chapter number 15 and the bible reads and the Lord said unto Samuel how long wilt thou mourn for Saul seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel. Fill thine horn with oil and go I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite for I have provided me a king among his sons and Samuel said how can I go if Saul hear it he will kill me and the Lord said take and heifer with thee and say I am come to sacrifice to the Lord and call Jesse to the sacrifice and I will show thee what thou shall do and thou shall anoint me him whom I name unto thee and Samuel did that which the Lord spake and came to Bethlehem and the elders of the town trembled at his coming and said comest thou peaceably and he said peaceably I am come to sacrifice unto the Lord sanctify yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice and he sanctified Jesse and his sons and called them to the sacrifice and it came to pass when they were come that he looked on a lie up and said surely the Lord's anointed is before him but the Lord said unto Samuel look not on his countenance nor on the height of his stature because I have refused him for the Lord seeth not as man seeth for man looketh on the outward appearance but the Lord looked on the heart and Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel and he said neither hath the Lord chosen this then Jesse made Shammah to pass by and he said neither hath the Lord chosen this again Jesse made seven of his sons to pass before Samuel and Samuel said to Jesse the Lord hath not chosen these and Samuel said unto Jesse are here all thy children and he said there remaineth yet the youngest and behold he keepeth the sheep and Samuel said unto Jesse send and fetch him for we will not sit down till he come hither and he said and he sent and brought him in and now he was ready and with all of a beautiful countenance and goodly to look to and the Lord said arise anoint him for this is he then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brethren and the spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward so Samuel rose up and went to Ramah but the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him and Saul's servants said unto him behold now an evil spirit from God trouble with thee let our Lord now command thy servants which are before thee to seek out a man who is a cunning player on a harp and it shall come to pass when the evil spirit from God is upon thee that he shall play with his hand and thou shalt be well and Saul said unto his servants provide me now a man that can play well and bring him to me then answered one of the servants and said behold I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite that is cunning and playing in a mighty valiant man and a man of war and prudent in matters and a coming person and the Lord is with him wherefore Saul sent messengers unto Jesse and said send me David thy son which is with the sheep and Jesse took an ass laid him with bread and a bottle of wine and a kid and sent them by David his son unto Saul and David came to Saul and stood before him and he loved him greatly and became his armor bearer and Samuel sent to Jesse saying let David I pray thee stand before me for he hath found favor in my sight and it came to pass when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul that David took in harp and played with his hand so Saul was refreshed and it was well and the evil spirit departed from him let's bow our heads for word of prayer father in heaven we thank you for this day in our new church and we just ask that you fill pastor halls with the holy spirit and help us to learn from your word and help us all make home safely amen all right well we are in first Samuel 16 about halfway through the book this evening and the bible starts off here in verse one the bible says and the Lord said unto Samuel how long wilt thou mourn for Saul seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel fill thine horn with oil and go I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite for I have provided me a king among his sons so this is a very unique point in the life of Samuel at least from what's revealed to us in the bible because Samuel is actually one of the characters where the bible paints the most positively I mean you got a few people like that in the bible for example Daniel the bible doesn't really give us negative things about Daniel and Samuel's kind of very similar to that but this is just one of the only things where God kind of gives him not even really a rebuke here it's just more of a question more of kind of a reproof and so this is something that Samuel's doing that God's not a hundred percent pleased with what is it it's the fact that Samuel is mourning a little too long for Saul now on one hand it would be kind of weird if Samuel just had no emotion no feeling whatsoever over the fact that his friend Saul is now being rejected by God I mean it's natural and it's normal to have a little bit of emotion towards that and even in our lives sometimes we'll see people stop serving God sometimes we'll even see people you know going the way of Saul and just going down a really dark path a really bad path and it's natural at first to go through a little bit of a mourning phase with that and even when someone turns out to be really bad if you and your heart were convinced throughout that whole relationship that they were good that they were your friend there's going to be a little bit of mourning in that situation and if you ever experience that I don't want you to think that that in and of itself is wrong but there comes a point though in every relationship in every Christian's life where if you have to separate from someone you have to always pick God's opinion about a person over your feelings right because you could have times where you're like man I just really love that person I had a great relationship with them I thought they were my friend yeah but if your friend is Saul and if your friend is now getting rejected by God you need to back up God's opinion you need to stand with the Lord what's a good example of this how about when someone's kicked out of church I mean when someone's kicked out of church yeah you probably were their friend because they were in this church you probably did like them you probably had fellowship with them but if they're in violation of God's word if they're in violation of the Bible standards for church membership if you just continually feel bad about that person leaving and feel sorry for that person getting kicked out what you're starting to do is you're starting to annoy God because what you're saying is you're without saying it you're saying God you're being too harsh God why are you why are you so strict and here Samuel he's just mourning constantly over Saul being rejected but Samuel's a man of God he needs to get up and stand behind God's judgment and you know he did that with his mouth he delivered the message to Saul telling him hey God's basically rejected you God's gonna find someone better than you but his heart still a little bit wasn't fully on board with that message and hey at least he's saying what God told him to say but God also wants his heart to be in line with God's opinion go to first Corinthians four first Corinthians four you know also it's a good reminder to us not to be too wrapped up in a singular individual you know it's good for us to have respect for men of God it's good for us to honor them it's good for the church to obey the pastor all that is great I would never speak against the authority or anything like that but there is a danger with thinking of men more highly than you ought to look at first Corinthians 4 verse 6 it says in these things brethren I have in a figure transferred to myself and to apollo's for your sakes that you might learn in us notice not to think of men above that which is written that no one of you be puffed up for one against another it's not like there's any man out there that's infallible it's not like there's any man out there that can't go down the path that Saul is going down because guess what Saul is saved Saul is a saved man and all of us as saved people you know what we have the Holy Spirit but we also have the flesh and you don't want to just put all of your trust all of your confidence in one singular man to where if they go the way of Saul all of a sudden now you're just quitting serving God and quitting church and sometimes you see people where either a man of God will actually fail will actually do something horrible like you see a pastor commit adultery or pastors getting arrested for all these crimes and then you'll see a bunch of people quit serving God because of that so they were reading their Bible when they respected this person when they liked this person they were going soul winning they were going to church but as soon as that person steps down or is no longer respectable in their eyes all of a sudden now they quit serving God and it's like here's the thing were you serving Saul or were you serving God was your heart put into Saul or was your heart put into God because I'll tell you what every church I've ever been to and look I've been to some great churches I've been to some churches with who I think are some of the best pastors on this planet literally but I tell you what at all of the churches that I went to if the pastor would have quit if the pastor would have failed I would have kept serving God I would have kept reading the Bible I would have kept praying and soul winning why because I'm not here for a man and while we need yes preaching on respect of authority we also need preaching on you just loving God without any man involved whatsoever and you don't want to just sit here and mourn after Saul go to first Corinthians chapter 11 first Corinthians chapter 11 look at verse one the Bible says be followers of me even as I also am of Christ you see we are to follow men as they follow Christ and guess what if a man is following Christ follow him follow his lead obey the authority but when someone is no longer following Christ you know maybe at times if you're going to a bad church and your pastor stops following Christ there's nothing wrong with moving and going to a better church you know it would be weird to just sit in church and just mourn over your pastor just be like oh man this pastor's like Saul this pastor's not following God this pastor's not preaching good sermons this pastor's not leading the church well it's like okay how long are you going to mourn for Saul why don't you just follow someone that is following Christ then because the Bible says as he's following Paul you should follow go to first Peter chapter two first Peter chapter two it also makes me think about how sometimes Christians will really want to hold on to something that God doesn't want them to hold on to anymore let me show you an example of that first Peter two verse seven the Bible says unto you therefore which believe now who's that that's the save that's us he is precious that's Jesus but unto them which be disobedient the stone which the builders disallowed the same is made the head of the corner and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense even to them which stumble at the word being disobedient where into also they were appointed but ye are a chosen generation a royal priesthood and holy nation a peculiar people that ye should show forth the praises of him who have called you out of darkness into his marvelous light which in time past were not a people but are now the people of God which had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy you know what this makes me think of the story of Saul in general is it makes me think of replacement theology why because was Saul chosen by God yes he was is he now rejected by God yes he is and today people want to hang on to the idea of the old testament nation of Israel and so many Christians of so many fundamental baptists they just want to hang on to this idea that the Jews the physical Jews are still God's chosen people that they're the chosen nation that they're the royal priesthood but the Bible here says what that we are the chosen generation you know hey old IFB it's time to let go of the Jews it's time to let go of Israel it's time to wake up and realize that they've rejected God it's time to realize that they're not following the commandments they didn't believe in Christ and it's like look at Saul oh he's wearing a crown must mean that he's the king in God's eyes nope God rejected him and these Jews they could they could stand up and they could look religious they could wear the religious garbs they could put the phylacteries on their foreheads they could do all this religious mumbo jumbo and look special but guess what the curse of God is actually on those people they've actually rejected God and look if God's rejected them why are we embracing them why are we accepting their false fake religion and the fake nation that is Israel go to Romans chapter 9 Romans chapter 9 you know this is something that baptists just need to let go of how long are you going to mourn over the Jews look it's been thousands of years since they've rejected Christ it's time to just move on from them and maybe focus on I don't know someone like David a man after God's own heart someone that actually believes the Lord someone that actually trusts the Lord look at Romans 9 30 says what shall we say then that the Gentiles which followed not after righteousness have attained to righteousness even the righteousness which is of faith why is it that the Gentiles today made up of all nations but believers in Christ are the ones that found righteousness are the ones that are special today in God's eyes it's through faith the Bible says verse 31 but Israel which followed after the law of righteousness have not attained to the law of righteousness wherefore because they sought it not by faith but as it were by the works of the law for they stumbled at that stumbling stone and this is what people will say oftentimes when they hear replacement theology they hear you say the Jews aren't God's chosen people anymore it's believers in Christ made up of all races you know what they're going to say oh that's a racist doctrine you're anti-Semitic this is what they'll say you hate Jews you hate people from that part of the world but but hold on a second verse 32 saying wherefore why is it that Israel didn't attain to righteousness is it because of their blood is it because of their lineage no it says because they sought it not by faith and guess what at any time someone living in Israel could decide to actually seek God by faith and find Jesus Christ and believe in him and they would be chosen again but don't misunderstand don't get this weird idea this weird racist idea that oh we preach against Jews because we don't like their physical features and we don't like their blood type and we don't like you know their culture though their culture is bad okay that's not the reason why we don't like them the reason why we don't like rabbis and all these Jewish leaders is because they teach a false religion that sends people to hell okay don't get this stupid worldly idea that we're rejecting them because of their race because let me tell you something Adolf Hitler actually was a racist I know I know the new IFB is into all the dumbest conspiracies imaginable like Adolf Hitler is saved not saying most people believe that but I've heard that kind of garbage or you know I wonder if Adolf Hitler actually was a racist or if that's a lie of the Jews okay I actually read his writings where he made fun of Christians for being against Jews because of their religion and he's saying like Christians need to realize that we need to stop fighting over the over religion it doesn't matter if they're Jew or Catholic what really matters is their tainted blood their tainted blood and sometimes you even hear young guys you hear gen z dudes saying stupid stuff like that and they're not even joking around just making a funny joke or something like that like they actually believe this garbage but look the reason the Jews didn't attain to righteousness is not because of their tainted blood little Hitler no it's because they didn't seek it by faith that's the reason why verse 28 of Romans 2 verse 28 of Romans chapter 2 the Bible says for he is not a Jew which is one outwardly neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh the Bible's saying when it comes to being a Jew it's not about the flesh anymore it's not about whether or not you got circumcised it's not whether about you know whether or not you live in Israel or whether you live somewhere else but verse 29 says but he is a Jew which is one inwardly and circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit and not in the letter whose praise is not of men but of God see here's the thing how can I be hateful towards Jews when I am a Jew how could I be anti-semitic when according to the Bible if I've believed in Jesus Christ if I have confidence in God and not in the flesh that I'm the real Jew that you're the real Jew so guess what the old I have been stopped mourning after physical Israel and just embrace the fact that they are spiritual Israel now and just embrace that go back to first Samuel chapter 16 for Samuel 16 so God tells them hey stop mourning over Saul go anoint one of the sons of Jesse he's saying let's move on let's find a king that actually wants to obey my commandments someone that actually wants to love and serve me and verse number two says and Samuel said how can I go if Saul hear it he will kill me and the Lord said take and heifer with thee and say I am come to sacrifice to the Lord you know it's like even great men of God like Samuel can sometimes struggle with fear can sometimes struggle between doing what's right and the ramifications of something that you do to where even a godly man like Samuel is fearing Saul why God told you to do something you shouldn't be fearing what man is going to do to you we should rather fear God and here's the thing Samuel just got done hewing up a gag I mean think about that Samuel just literally took a sword to a human being's body and just chopped him up into a bunch of different pieces that same guy is now afraid right it just goes to show that as Christians we're not just always doing what's right we're just not always on a spiritual high we're not just always walking on water with Jesus Christ we have to put on the new man intentionally you know we have to be walking in the spirit to be bold men of God that are going to take a stand that are not going to fear what man will do to us because if we're just walking in the flesh every single one of us could fall to the sin of fear where even a guy like Samuel is starting to fear Saul when Saul's doing wickedly Samuel's doing what's right Saul doesn't have the blessing of God God isn't listening to Saul anymore God's still talking to Samuel I mean who's the one that should be afraid in this situation Saul should be afraid yet actually Samuel's the one that's scared also we could learn from this that whenever there is a conflict between what government is telling us to do or authority in general and what God is telling us to do we are more than safe to be obeying God rather than men he's saying hey you know Saul's not going to be happy Saul's not going to be pleased with what you're telling me to do and he's the king and God's saying doesn't matter what he thinks doesn't matter what the government thinks in this situation because I've told you to do x y and z you know that's how we should live our lives yes we should respect authority but whenever authority and God conflict we always default to the higher power which is God verse three and call Jesse to the sacrifice and I will show thee what thou shalt do and thou shalt anoint unto me him whom I name unto thee and Samuel did that which the Lord spake and came to Bethlehem and the elders of the town trembled at his coming and said come as thou peaceably you know think about this Samuel just walks into the town and the elders you know the rulers the sheriffs whatever they just figure out that Samuel's coming and they're so terrified of Samuel that they are trembling I mean you've ever seen someone actually tremble the only time I think I've ever seen someone tremble is I saw someone right after a car accident and they were in shock and they were trembling their body was shaking they had so much fear of Samuel walking into their town that they started to tremble and they asked him this question come as thou peaceably and a lot of people would probably look at this story and say well if you're a Christian and someone ever has to ask this question it must mean you're a bad person it must mean that you have a bad spirit yet pretty much everything we've read so far in the book of first Samuel Samuel has been doing that which is right Samuel has been preaching right his attitude has been right for the most part except what we just read and yet this town is afraid of him isn't that interesting now here's the thing this town shouldn't be afraid of him because are they the Amalekites are they Agag or are they just with the children of Israel right I mean see Samuel is going to be a different person to Agag than he's going to be to his own people and here's the truth is that people get to choose how the man of God treats them people actually get to choose that by their own actions and their own hearts see there's no reason for the people to be scared of Samuel here they're not doing wicked hopefully right I mean if they're not doing anything wicked if they're not doing anything wrong why would they be afraid of Samuel Samuel's on their side Samuel's on their team but you want to know why a lot of people are often afraid of men of God is because they're wicked is because they're doing what's wrong go to first Corinthians chapter four but I want to show you this principle that in a way people get to choose how their authorities treat them now not every time but generally speaking when you have a reasonable authority figure they are going to treat you oftentimes the way that you deserve to be treated look at this first Corinthians 4 verse 18 says this now some are puffed up as though I would not come to you he's writing to a group of people that are prideful that are attacking the apostle Paul and his leadership verse 19 says but I will come to you shortly if the Lord will and will know not the speech of them which are puffed up but the power for the kingdom of God is not in word but in power what will you he's saying what do you want shall I come unto you with a rod or in love and the spirit of meekness see Paul is saying you have the decision you have the choice what do you want from me do you want me to come to the churches at Corinth with love right and that's probably what Paul wants he wants to come to those people in love he's interested in preaching the bible he's interested in telling them hey let's go on unto perfection let's teach you about the deep doctrines of the bible or he says do you want me to come to you with a rod do I need to be like your father that didn't spank you enough and do I need to bring the rod for you why because they're doing right no because they're puffed up because they're speaking against Paul because they're lying and railing against him and being terrible followers he's saying you know it's going to go one of two ways here you can either repent stop being so prideful stop being so arrogant and just fall in line and guess what you're going to meet love but if not you're going to see the rod and with Samuel it's like hey Samuel could either be your best friend or your worst enemy I mean Samuel's such a loyal friend that he's mourning over Saul to a fault you can't say he's not a loving guy he's he's a little too loving but if you're a gag he's going to get a sword and chop you up to pieces and this is what we need leaders to do today we need leaders to love the righteous do good unto the righteous right bless their people but when an agag shows up when a wicked person shows up every leader should be able to flip that switch on a dime from the from love to the rod you know you should even be like this as a parent you know kids how your parents treat you you get to choose because guess what guess what parents how they want to treat their children with love this is how parents just naturally want to treat their children but it's like hey do you want me to come to you children with love or with the rod because if you obey and you're respectful and you do that which is right you know what you're gonna get love and if you don't you know what you're gonna get the rod which is still love by the way but it's it's a different form of love that people don't really like to receive and you know this is the exact same way that god treats us too this is just true in every area of life go to psalm 18 psalm 18 psalm chapter 18 the bible says in verse 24 therefore hath the lord recompense me according to my righteousness according to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight with the merciful that will show thyself merciful the bible saying hey you want god to be merciful to you well guess who he's going to be merciful to people who are merciful with an upright man that will show thyself upright with the pure that will show thyself pure and with the froward that will show thyself froward for that will save the afflicted people but will bring down high looks i don't know how you can get away from this truth in the bible that oftentimes authority will treat you exactly the way that you deserve to be treated and so you often ought to think about this in your life if you think about why does it seem like mom and dad are so harsh on me maybe because you're so disobedient why is it that i have such a big time getting along with my boss at work why does it seem like he's always breathing down my neck maybe it's because you're a crappy employee maybe it's because you keep showing up late maybe it's because you keep complaining maybe it's because whenever there's a hard task given to the team you try to run away from that task as much as possible maybe it's because you're wasting your boss's time why does it seem like the pastor's always getting on to me i don't know are you going around gossiping in the church i don't know are you going around spreading false doctrine i mean these are things that are going to get your pastor upset oh man i just feel like god is always coming down on me like a ton of bricks how much are you sinning against god how much are you being froward against the lord because if you're merciful if you're upright god's going to deal that way with you and so it's you know if we could go back in time and talk to the people of this city it's like hey why are you tripping over samuel are you on god's side or not i mean if you're on god's side then you need to chill out it's going to be fine but yeah be afraid if you're wicked be afraid of the man of god if you're wicked and you know i wonder if it was in our society in times past was our country a better place when people actually feared god when people actually cared what the bible says so much so that when we wrote our laws we actually looked at what the bible says and just quoted it you know i wonder if our society was better when we feared god and when we respected pastors when we respected men of god in fact if you read the original state constitutions of the 13 colonies almost all of them explicitly banned pastors from running for political office and at first you might think well that seems anti-christian that seems bad but they explained they gave commentary saying no no we don't want to not let pastors be in in government because we think pastors are bad we think their office is way more important than being a senator we think their office is way more important than being a president or a representative or a judge or anything like that of course they wanted christians in those positions but they literally specifically spelled out in their in their law that clergy is not going to hold this office why because they respected the man of god now was our country a better place back then was our country a place that was more right with god was that was our country a place where there was a higher percentage of safe people or now when when every christian is just fair game to make fun of and in fact if you're a christian at work it almost can hurt your chances of getting jobs sometimes it can hurt your chances of getting promoted into management at least from a humanistic perspective why because our country has lost a lot of respect for god and for the men of god go back to first samuel chapter 16 verse 5 this is samuel's response verse 5 says and he said peaceably i'm come to sacrifice unto the lord sanctify yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice he sanctified jesse and his sons and called them to the sacrifice you say hey what are you worrying about i'm coming here to serve god why don't you come with me right and look there's no reason to be afraid of authority especially godly authority when you're doing what's right you know what i've noticed about people in life that you know they've got a long arrest record they were doing a lot of illegal shady stuff i mean i remember in high school playing on the baseball team and there were some rough dudes on that baseball team doing some shady stuff and you know those guys that were constantly breaking the law you know they were terrified of cops they were terrified of cops they were terrified of getting pulled over with alcohol in their vehicle they were terrified of getting found out that they were you know fornicating with a minor when they were 18 or whatever or worried about getting found out that they were selling drugs they were always scared of police but it's like those of us that weren't breaking the law we don't start sweating when we get around cops we don't start getting you know frantic and anxiety ridden or anything like that why because we're not doing anything wrong you know i don't feel a bunch of anxiety when i'm around my boss because i'm doing the best job that i can i'm not thinking at every moment that god is this close to just taking me to heaven because i'm not just trying to be the most froward christian most worldly christian on the planet no i'm actually trying to be pleasing to god and of course i'm not saying that i stand today by my own merit i stand by grace and all of us stand by grace but there's a difference between someone who's a sinner saved by grace striving to do what's right and a sinner saved by grace who just doesn't care just flippantly sinning all the time and doesn't even care about it doesn't think it's a big deal verse six and it came to pass when they were come that he looked on a lyub and said surely the lord's anointed is before him so samuel's about to you know anoint the next man up here and he's convinced that it's going to be a lie why because he just looked at him now this is a bad way to judge leadership this is a bad way to judge character look if you're not married this is a bad way to be your sole decision on whether or not you marry a person is how they look in your eyes because there's plenty of people that work in hollywood that everyone in the world would agree yeah this person's attractive but yet often are some of the most scummy people on this planet there's plenty of actors and singers and famous people like that it's a bad idea to just judge on appearance verse seven but the lord said unto samuel look not on his countenance or on the height of his stature because i have refused him for the lord seeth not as man seeth for man looketh on the outward appearance but the lord looketh on the heart god says to him hey samuel don't look at his face don't look at how you think his countenance looks and try to you know do all this math in your head of whether or not this person is going to be a good leader or the height of their stature i'm thankful for that as a guy that's five foot nine really thankful that the height of your stature is not what causes leadership but he's saying hey god is looking at the heart and this is the truth is that human beings we tend to overemphasize the appearance and when we're thinking about a situation where we're judging a person we tend to overemphasize the appearance now here's the thing it's not that god doesn't care about your appearance god does care about your appearance you know i preached a sermon recently called look like a christian why because god wants girls to have long hair god wants men to have short hair god wants women to wear women's clothing men to wear men's clothing you know god wants women to be beautiful of course but there's people that overemphasize looks and they overemphasize the outward appearance of things go to exodus 18 exodus 18 there's a great list of qualifications that was proposed by jethro moses's father-in-law to moses to help him pick people to help him share the burden of leadership verse 21 the bible says moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men he says hey when you want to look at who's right for the job here's the first thing you should look at not their race not their height not their build you should look at if they're able meaning do they have the skills do they have the ability to do the job see it would be a weird world that we live in if leadership was just granted by looks by height and even there especially like around the 60s and 70s there was a bunch of studies into presidents getting elected to office and they would poll people on like who do you think is the most attractive of these two guys who is the most tall now not every time was this the case because you know ape lincoln won the presidency and he was a rough looking guy but oftentimes peter would just people just gravitate towards leaders just because of their physical appearance not even considering their ability boy is that an important thing today in our world don't you want to go to work and work for a guy and work with around guys that have ability or do you want to just work with a bunch of charity cases that were just given a job because people just liked how they looked you know that'd be a frustrating world to live in or do you want to just you know go to a church where the pastor is just only there for the sole reason he's there is just for his appearance that would be weird or have a president of your country who's president just because he's six foot five and tall dark and handsome that would be stupid but yet this is our foolish human heart is that if you're honest with yourself oftentimes we just immediately judge people solely by their looks now look what else it says it says such as fear god that's a more important trait right that you actually fear god men of truth that would get rid of just about every politician hating covetousness by congress you're done and place such over them to be rulers of thousands and rulers of hundreds rulers of 50s and rulers of tens see god does care about the appearance god does care how you look but you know what he cares more about that you're an able person that you're a person that fears god that you're someone that loves truth that you're someone that hates covetousness you know if you ever desire to be any type of leader whatsoever you should worry more about your heart matching these characteristics than just trying to look like a leader whatever that even means you know different throughout different cultures and different times go to titus chapter one titus chapter one titus one talks about the qualifications of a bishop and you're going to see in this list that you know what's left out of it is what the person looks like because that doesn't matter verse five for this cause left i thee in crete that thou should have set in order the things that are wanting and ordained elders in every city as i had appointed thee now he's going to give the qualifications if any be blameless now this doesn't mean he doesn't have a zit on his face or on his forehead or something like that all right that's not what it's talking about it says as the steward or i'm sorry the husband of one wife having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly for a bishop must be blameless as the steward of god not self-willed that's saul right not soon angry that's definitely saul not given to wine no striker i mean saul's trying to kill david all the time not given to filthy lucre but a lover of hospitality a lover of good men sober just holy temperate holding fast the faithful word as he had been taught that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers see it's better to follow a person in life that has character and integrity and godliness rather than just gravitating to people that you just find attractive for whatever reason and you know sometimes let's just be honest in this life there are some people that are more attractive than others i mean the bible literally talks about that about people being fair about people you know having certain qualities about them but if you actually are that person if god has just blessed you with beauty or if you're a handsome guy or whatever you got a bunch of muscles you're really tall you should be aware of flatterers and you should be aware of vain people that come to you simply for your looks why because human hearts what do they do they overemphasize the outward appearance you know especially ladies that aren't married let's be honest every young lady is attractive okay that's just how the world works you need to be careful that some guy isn't just giving you attention you know because he really just wants your body he really is just attracted to you rather than a guy who actually has character and will love you and will cherish you will be a good husband for you because guess what every guy is attracted to ladies that's just how the world works but not every guy is a suitable man not every guy is a righteous guy in fact it's rare a faithful man who could find the bible says you know it's the the stakes are a lot higher for a woman getting married than for a man getting married this is just true okay because as a man if you marry a woman who maybe is not as spiritual and not as jazzed up about the things of god you're in charge you get to drag her butt to church you get to drag her out soul winning you get to set the rules you're in charge but when a woman marries a bad dude she's in for a rough life oftentimes it's not to say that things can't be prayed for and fixed and get better in the future but i'm just telling you it's it's very important for ladies especially to be picky about their men and sometimes men guys that can't get women get upset because about how women are so picky it's like let them be picky i'm for women being picky when it comes to this because you don't want some dude that just likes you because your looks and then you're stuck with some loser or some guy that isn't spiritual no please be picky i want my daughters to grow up and be very picky because girls being raised in an independent fundamental baptist home being free to thrive being soul winners is not something you could just find on every street corner of this world yeah be picky ladies i'm all for it go to first samuel chapter 16 for samuel 16 first samuel 16 verse 8 then jesse called abinadab and made him pass before samuel and he said neither hath the lord chosen this then jesse made shamma to pass by and he said neither hath the lord chosen this again jesse made seven of his sons to pass before samuel and samuel said unto jesse the lord hath not chosen these and samuel said unto jesse are here all thy children and he said there remaineth yet the youngest and behold he keepeth the sheep samuel said unto jesse send and fetch him for we will not sit down till he come hither so we have all the brothers of david just being passed before samuel nope he's not it he's not it he's not it and it finally gets to the point where samuel literally has to ask are these all your sons because god hasn't chosen any of these people he's chosen someone else and what i think this is a picture of i think that david here is being a picture of the lord jesus christ why because david is kind of being looked over and not recognized and not appreciated by his own family see in the eyes of god almighty god god looks down at david and says that's the man i want that's the man i honor that's the man that i like yet all of his family they didn't even think about him and samuel had to literally point blank ask him is there anyone else because god hasn't chosen any of these just goes to show how you know oftentimes familiarity breeds contempt and what happened to the jews who jesus was one of let me read for you you could stay there john 110 says he was in the world and the world was made by him and the world knew him not he came unto his own and his own received him not but as many as received him to them gave you power to become the sons of god even to them that believe on his name you know jesus came into this world the perfect lamb of god you know the high priest from heaven who became us the bible said to serve the world to love the world to suffer for the world to save the world from their sins and he came unto his own and did his own appreciate him honor him respect him love him believe in him no his own actually rejected him and he came unto his own the physical nation of israel and you know what they did they delivered him up to the romans and said crucify him his blood be on us and on our children that's what they did for lord jesus christ and here you know what what are these guys doing they're just you know hanging out and jesse's passing them before samuel meanwhile the guy that's being overlooked you know what he's doing he's keeping the sheep he's working hard he's being a good shepherd right and the jews they love to heap unto themselves teachers having itching ears they want to listen to false prophets these fake rabbis but when the good shepherd came they didn't care about the good shepherd they didn't think of or consider the good shepherd right i mean jesus wasn't he laid in a lowly manger was he given royalty as a baby i mean think about today in countries that still have royalty like england if a baby was born into a royal family how would that baby be treated what would that baby's instagram page look like i'd be wild i mean that baby would just be the most followed thing on instagram and tik tok and they'd be wearing all the cute garments and they'd be pampered and they'd be given all the toys and everything and then here's jesus in a manger i mean that's insane to think about but guess what he came to this world and this world didn't receive him didn't respect him didn't love him the way that he deserved look at verse number 12 verse number 12 and he sent and brought him in now he this is david was ruddy and with all of a beautiful countenance and goodly to look to and the lord said arise anoint him for this is he so notice i was talking about how you know the bible talks about some people are just objectively attractive that's what i think david was because the bible saying that he had a beautiful countenance and he was goodly to look to now samuel he saw the first couple of guys and he thought they were leadership material they probably weren't beautiful or goodly to look to they probably just looked mean and rugged and strong maybe big and muscular because when we think of a warrior when we think of a king going out to lead a nation in battle that's what we think of right and david though he absolutely was a great warrior yet the bible says that he's beautiful i mean i never i never think of a man as beautiful i mean i hope none of you guys ever think that that never comes into my mind right but yet the bible is saying that he has a beautiful countenance he has a beautiful face you know ladies don't tell your husbands they're beautiful they're not gonna like it all right and goodly to look to you could say that though that's okay and the lord said arise anoint him for this is he go to song of solomon chapter five song of solomon chapter number five and so what was different about david right i mean they both had in their categories some looks going for them his brothers probably looked really strong and mighty warriors and he looks really beautiful but what's the difference between them well i think the difference is that david was out keeping the sheep david was out being a hard worker and you know you got guys like the apostle paul in the new testament where you know from the surface you wouldn't really think that he would be one of the greatest christians to ever live a guy that used to persecute the church a guy who was accused of his speech being contemptible and his bodily presence weak and you wouldn't look at the apostle paul and think man this is the guy that's going to turn the world upside down this is the guy that's going to plan all these churches and write most of the new testament but you want to know why maybe god chose him is because the apostle paul said i labored more abundantly than they all why because god today is looking for people that work hard not necessarily people that are strongest biggest best looking but he's looking for davids that are out willing to work with the sheep willing to work in the pastures today willing to work in the field now something else interesting about that verse is the bible talks about how he's ruddy now that's not a word that we would normally use today but the dictionary definition of ruddy is having a healthy reddish color or just red and people postulate that it might be the case that king david was what we would call a ginger and i think that's very possible so hey gingers do have souls i just i have to break this to you gingers do have souls and you shouldn't discriminate people because they're ginger not pointing at anyone or anything like that but they could be great people too and you know i'm clean shaven but if i grow out my beard it's actually red so just letting you know about that but song of solomon chapter five look what it says verse 10 this is about solomon it says my beloved is white and ruddy the cheapest among ten thousand sounds like he kind of ran in the family here it seems like you know david and solomon were probably very likely red heads so don't hate on redheads okay you know there's nothing wrong with being white i know that's controversial today being a white person is like the worst thing you could possibly be well song of solomon 5 10 my beloved is white and ruddy and guess what they were awesome dudes so get over it all right verse 13 of first samuel chapter 16 first samuel 16 i'm gonna get protested already verse 13 then samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brethren and the spirit of the lord came upon david from that day forward so samuel rose up and went to raima another picture of the lord jesus christ is that i don't think it's a coincidence that the first chapter where we're introduced to king david what does the bible tell us about him is that he was a person that was filled with the spirit of god and of course we know that jesus christ was anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows jesus christ was max filled with the holy spirit at all times and read that verse again about king david it says and the spirit of lord came upon david from that day forward i mean he just had the spirit of lord on him his whole life that wasn't the case for every single person in the old testament today we're sealed with the holy spirit of god we have the earnest of the inheritance the spirit of god but in the old testament the spirit of lord came upon people to enable them to do great work or to do some sort of service for god but yet david special here because the spirit of god comes upon him and just from that day forward remains upon him why because david is a picture of the lord jesus christ verse 14 but the spirit of the lord notice the contrast departed from saul and an evil spirit from the lord troubled him a lot of people get upset about this verse in the king james bible how the bible says an evil spirit from who from the lord troubled saul but here's what you have to understand is that the word evil oftentimes in the bible simply means harmful hurtful not every time there's times where evil does mean what we would use the term as today meaning bad wicked right but here i believe what the bible's saying is that a hurtful spirit from the lord went to trouble saul now this is a good reason to fear god the fact that god can literally send a spirit to harm you to hurt you saul is a saved man yet there's a harmful spirit from the lord going against saul why because the spirit of god had departed from him look at judges chapter 9 let's look at a few instances of this in the bible now what this is not saying this is not saying oh saul lost his salvation guess what because you can't lose your salvation and you're going to see later in first samuel that saul absolutely was saved once you're saved you're always saved that's not just a new testament doctrine that's an old testament doctrine as well but the spirit of the lord which again did not indwell believers in the old testament it had departed from saul judges 9 verse 23 says then god sent an evil spirit between abimelech and the sons of sheikham and the men of sheikham dealt treacherously with abimelech so god sending an evil spirit go to first kings 22 first kings chapter 22 first kings 22 the bible says in verse 23 now therefore behold the lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets and the lord hath spoken evil concerning thee the bible here is talking about how god was allowing a lying spirit to be in the mouth of these false prophets now this is not god sinning right god doesn't even imagine evil god has never sinned god never will sin but you know what god sometimes does god looks at this world and he knows some people are going to reject him some people are going to hate him you know there's some of the angels that left their first estate that jew talks about that are reserved to everlasting darkness right and those angels rejected god and what are they now they're demons but you know what they're still the servants of god in the sense and even the devil himself is a servant of god in a sense why because god is the supreme ruler and god could even use evil spirits evil people to serve his purpose i mean god doesn't condone of evil god doesn't condone of lying but he's saying hey you want to believe lies you want to hate me you want to hate the word of god you want to hate the preaching of god's word well this lying spirit is here and he wants to go into the mouth of this false prophet and i'm just going to punish you by you listening to this liar and oftentimes you want to know why people are under the preaching of a bad preacher is because they're a bad person why they get deceived by false prophets is because they didn't want to know the truth to begin with now not all people but sometimes god does allow things like this to happen go to revelation 20 revelation chapter number 20 revelation 20 and while you're turning there i mean think about the book of job satan could only do unto job exactly what god allowed him to do so in a sense god he's still in control of this revelation 22 says and he laid hold on the dragon that old serpent which is the devil and satan and bound him a thousand years and cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him up and set a seal upon him that he should deceive the nations no more so when god locks up the devil he's no longer allowed to deceive the nations until till the thousand years should be fulfilled and after that he must be loosed for a little season see god knows that what does the devil do lie kill and destroy yet he locks him up for a thousand years so that he doesn't deceive the nations but then god allows him out again why because god is using the devil as a tool for his purpose so that he could find all the people that hate god all the people that don't want to know the truth and just allow them to be deceived by the devil i'll prove that to you go back to first samuel while you're turning back to first samuel second thessalonians 2 7 or 2 8 says this and then shall that wicked be revealed let's talk about the antichrist whom the lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming even him whose coming is after the working of satan with all power and signs and lying wonders and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved and for this cause god shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie that they all might be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness see god's will is of course that all men would come unto repentance and be saved but here's the thing if someone's not going to get saved his will for someone that rejects jesus christ is that they would be damned and so there's people out there that want to lie the antichrist wants to lie the devil wants to lie and he says hey i'm going to allow them to do all these great you know signs and powers and lying wonders so that we could find out all the people that didn't want to receive the love of the truth that they might be be saved but rather they're going to be damned who had pleasure and unrighteousness first samuel chapter number 16 verse 15 says and saul's servants said unto him behold now an evil spirit from god trouble with thee let our lord now command thy servants which are before thee to seek out a man who is a cunning player on an harp and it shall come to pass when the evil spirit from god is upon thee that he shall play with his hand and thou shalt be well so it's interesting that you know the spirit of god's departed from saul and basically this guy wants to give him some quick fix advice saying you know you just need to listen to some music and you'll feel better but really the problem with saul was not that he was not listening to the right type of music it was the fact that he was doing wickedly in the sight of god it's the fact that he was sinning it's like hey get rid of the get your life better quick scheme and just get right with god right i mean today people want to come up with all the different methods of trying to fix their life they just think man if i just get more money my life is going to be fixed or if i just get this surgery to make myself look more attractive i'm just going to be doing great in life it's like no actually what you need is to get saved and what you need is actually to read the bible and what you need is to go to church and love god and love people that'll actually fix your life when the spirit of god is upon your life when god's hand is on your life that's what's going to fix your problem but there is some truth to what this guy is saying though that music can change your attitude can change your spirit i'll read for you you could stay there ephesians 5 18 the bible says and be not drunk with wine wherein is excess but be filled with the spirit how speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs making singing and making melody in your heart to the lord you know when we sing as a church i don't know about you but it moves my spirit it changes my attitude it gets me fired up to do something for god sometimes it just breaks my heart and just love and offer the lord you know we sing these great christmas songs and songs like oh holy night changes our heart doesn't it let me read you some of the lyrics truly he taught us to love one another his law is love and his gospel is peace amen all of the law of god is love right chains shall he break for the slave is our brother and in his name all oppression shall cease sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we let all within us praise his holy name doesn't that stir you up when you sing that let all within us praise his holy name not muhammad's name not buddha's name the little baby the lord jesus christ that's who we're praising that's who we're singing to christ is the lord oh praise his name forever his power and glory evermore proclaim his power and glory evermore proclaim that's a powerful song that's a beautiful song right it is well and lord haste the day saying i can't wait lord haste the day when our faith shall be sight the clouds be rolled back as a scroll the trump shall resound and the lord shall descend even so it is well with my soul when we see christ life's day will soon be over all storms forever past will cross the great divide to glory safe at last we'll all share the joys of heaven a harp a home a crown the tempter will be banished will lay our burden down it will be worth it all when we see jesus life's trials will seem so small when we see christ one glimpse of his dear face all sorrow will erase so bravely run the race till we see christ it's hard for me to even read these words let alone sing them because they're so powerful they're so beautiful i can feel my spirit being moved right now just reading these words why because ephesians 5 is telling the truth that is how you're going to get filled with the spirit of god but you know what is going to give you a different spirit the crap that americans love today because it's not oh holy night it's not it is well with my soul it's not when we see christ let me read to you the lyrics of the number one most popular song in america it's called euphoria now look i am a sinner i have a lot of problems there's a lot that i need to fix about myself but i at least thank god that i did not know any of these songs on the top 10 list because these are unbelievably bad all right you ready shoe shoe shoe shoe shoe bbb bbbb yeah i'm out the way yeah i'm low-key okay yeah the island right here is remote okay i ain't thinking about no reaper and i'm reaping what i sew okay got a benjamin and a jackson all in my house like i'm joe okay i hate the way you walk i hate the way you talk i hate the way that you dress surprised you wanted that feature request you know that we got some bleep to address i even hate when you say the word n but that's just me just got some bleep just cringe worthy it ain't even got to be deep i guess wow that is the number one most popular song in our country woe unto us how shameful is that that this is the best song in america what does this even mean shoe shoe shoe and it's spelled s h o o what the hell is this and i know you heard me i censored myself how bad it is and you know what people want to talk this is just so funny to me right we're bad baptists are bad preachers are bad independent fundamental baptists are sexist homophobic racists how about who who's really hurting black people today think about this is it me that tells black people to stop fornicating and get married and have children and work hard at your job and go to church or is it this stupid retard rapper whoever the hell he is that's destroying your culture because guess what there's nothing wrong with the color of your skin there's no such thing as your tainted blood but you know what's real is culture and when you listen to trash like this you know what it's gonna make you trash you know what's gonna make your neighborhood ghetto you know what's gonna make your walmart parking lot look like shopping carts everywhere and drug needles everywhere and alcohol bottles everywhere because you're listening to crap like this it's gonna turn you into a crappy person why because the things you listen to change your spirit it changes your spirit here's number two by the same artist so painful to even read this okay it's called not like us wop wop wop wop wop dot f them up wop wop wop wop i'm gonna do my stuff why you trolling like a bleep ain't you tired trying to start strike a chord and it's probably a minor they not like us they not like us they not like us they not like us they not like us they not like us there it is i didn't add any of those that was what the singer did i wasn't just repeating that on my own that was there that's the number two greatest song in america wow what an idiotic nation we're becoming here's everyone's favorite whore taylor swift i was supposed to be sent away but they forgot to come and get me i was a functioning alcoholic until nobody noticed my new aesthetic all of this to say i hope you're okay but you're the reason and no one's here to blame but what about your quiet treason and for a fortnight there we were forever run into you sometimes ask about the weather now you're in my backyard turned into my good neighbors your wife waters her flowers i want to kill her she's not a psycho ex-girlfriend or anything like that just singing about how you know she's seeing your wife just watering flowers and what is she doing she's just fantasizing about murdering your wife and we wonder why we have so many feminists in our country that listen to stupid whores like taylor swift one of the worst artists ever one of the worst americans ever leave our country you know these these stupid famous people whatever you want to call them celebrities whatever they keep promising that every time donald trump gets elected they're going to leave our country it's like at least the dyke ellen degeneris left thank god for that sorry england that's your punishment from losing the war i guess but it's like why don't you all just leave you people like taylor swift get out of our country she has another song called this but daddy i love him but daddy i love him i just learned these people only raise you to cage you oh yeah dads are terrible right dads only raise daughters to cage them sarah's and hannah's in their sunday best sounds like she really loves church right clutching their pearls sighing what a mess i just learned these people try to save you because they hate you god saved the most judgmental creeps that's what she thinks about you you that listen to her music who say they want what's best for me sanctimoniously performing soliloquies i'll never see thinking it could change the beat of my heart when he touches me and counteract the chemistry and undo the destiny you ain't gotta pray for me me and my wild boy and all of this wild joy if all you want is gray for me then it's just white noise and it's just my choice hey guess what i don't think god's gonna ever change your heart because your reprobate is gonna burn in hell for all of eternity you wicked person she has another sin called guilt or another song it is a sin her song is a sin it's called guilty as sin i did not misspeak there what if i roll the stone away i wonder what that's in reference to what if i roll the stone away they're gonna crucify me anyway she's saying what if i just you know help jesus get out of the tomb all these terrible christians are still gonna hate me what if the way you hold me is actually what's holy whatever weird reference to fornication that is right because obviously the bible condemns fornication oh but the way he holds her is holy and it's like well brother or pastor aus you see i haven't even gotten used to it either okay well pastor aus you know you're just proving her point right the christians are just so judgmental guess what not everyone writes songs about how much they hate god right you know they're they're sinners and i'm one of them they're sinners all of you are one of them and guess what i love all of you but there's a difference between a sinner that believes in the lord jesus christ and a sinner that says i'm going to make millions of dollars and become rich off of teaching women to hate god teaching women to hate their husbands to hate their fathers to hate men to hate authority you know what go to hell taylor swift i don't care what anyone thinks about that oh you're proving your point well guess what anyone that actually wants to listen to her music is not someone i'm probably gonna reach anyways especially if they actually understand the lyrics that she's saying there go to james chapter four now you know in in my in my wisdom i think i shouldn't even have to prove this to you from the bible because i just read those lyrics and it should have just been shocking to you right but you know sometimes our opinions can be wrong we want to make sure we're proving things with the bible how do i know how do i know for sure that god doesn't want us listening to this crap that god is not pleased with this type of music james 4-4 ye adulterers and adulteresses know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with god whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of god you know you ought to let that verse sink into your heart and you ought to think about the things that you watch and the things that you listen to and the places you go and the events that you attend and you ought to think you know am i doing something right now am i a friend of the world you know do i do i sing along to taylor swift like she's my little bestie or something like she's my friend because if you are a friend of the world you are the enemy of god that's something you should take seriously you know there's a big difference between oh holy night and taylor swift and those other songs i was telling you about go to psalm 96 now there's hundreds in the verses of the bible telling us to sing praises to the lord let's just look at a few psalm 96 1 oh sing unto the lord a new song sing unto the lord all the earth sing unto the lord bless his name show forth his salvation from day to day hey there's nothing there's nothing wrong with singing a new song coming up with new music coming up with new styles of music but what matters is the content that matters a lot and when your content is sinful when your content is blasphemous when your content is worldly and and friends with the world then it's for sure something god doesn't like you could just stay there i'm going to read through a few verses psalm 13 6 i will sing unto the lord because he has dealt bountifully with me psalm 18 49 therefore i will give thanks unto thee oh lord among the heathen and sing praises unto thy name i like the hymn where it says let my voice it says something like always only for my king let me lift my voice always only for my king god wants to sing praises unto him psalm 34 sing unto the lord oh you saints of his and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness psalm 33 to praise the lord with harp sing unto him with the psaltery and an instrument of 10 strings don't get the idea that musical instruments are bad you know you don't want to be like the church of christ where they go so far in this direction that they think the piano is sinful the guitar is sinful i mean the bible is literally telling you to praise god with instruments the bible is telling you to do that how people could walk away from the bible saying god's against instruments it baffles the mind there's nothing wrong with new songs there's nothing wrong with instruments there's no such thing as a tune that's just inherently sinful or anything like that okay but let me tell you the songs that i just listed those are sinful and if you have a problem with that i'm just telling you you're not right with god whether you want to like me or agree or disagree if you listen to that crap you are not right with god go back to first samuel chapter 16 and i get it it could be hard music sometimes is some of the hardest things for people to give up when they start learning about things like this music has it has an addicting uh lure to us but i'm telling you you need to stop listening to stuff like that verse 17 and saul said unto his servants provide me now a man that could play well and bring him to me then answered one of the servants and said behold i have seen a son of jesse the bethlehemite that is cunning and playing and mighty and a mighty valiant man and a man of war and prudent in matters and a comely person and the lord is with him how would you like to have that testimony said about you i mean you could see why david is a man after god's own heart you could see why david was the superstar that he was wasn't because of his looks it wasn't because of any of those things but it was because the person that he was was stellar and think about this you know david didn't have trouble finding a wife let's just be honest okay and if you're having trouble finding a spouse here's a great thing to focus on all right check this out cunning and playing you know what chicks love chicks love guys that play instruments i'm just let's just be honest did ladies like king david or not yep and you know what he was cunning and playing he was good at instruments and he was a mighty valiant man i mean he could have done the hundred push up a day challenge with one hand easily he'd have no problem he's a mighty valiant man and you know what women like mighty valiant men men that are strong men that are bold right and a man of war you know your wife might not tell you this but girls like guys that know how to turn on the the kick you know what if they have to girls like guys that actually they don't get a gun and they're like how do you use this thing like like you actually know how to use a weapon you could actually kill someone that's trying to kill your family if you had to do that right he was a man of war and prudent in matters he was wise he made good decisions he had foresight he was a good leader he had good vision and a comely person notice looks are almost one of the last things and guess what ladies care some of the least about your looks are not the most important thing you if you have all those other things i guarantee you there will be a line of women that would like to know you and it says last thing and the lord is with him that is very important right there and honestly that trumps everything else on the list when god is with you you're going to see people have favor with you in life and god have favor with you in life verse 19 says this wherefore saul sent messengers unto david and said send me david thy son which is with the sheep and jesse took an ass laden with bread and a bottle of wine and a kid and sent them by david his son unto saul and david came to saul and stood before him and he loved him greatly and he became his armor bearer you know one of the things that the narrator of the bible says about king saul is that saul loved david and that's kind of sad to think about because soon we're going to see saul treat david very horribly and you know we have to be careful in life not to treat the people that we love the most the worst because it's not like saul didn't love him i mean the narrator is telling us that saul loved david yet pretty soon we're going to see that saul's trying to literally kill david almost done here verse 22 and saul said sent to jesse saying let david i pray thee stand before me notice for he hath found favor in my sight and it came to pass when the evil spirit from god was upon saul that david took in harp played with his hand so again the music's changing him so saul was refreshed and was well and the evil spirit departed from him so you know the chapter kind of ends saying that basically david is pleasing in saul's sight david is the one that god chose and not only is david pleasing in the sight of god but david is even pleasing in the eyes of a man who's sinful wicked disobedient rebellious to god david finds favor in both of their eyes now that is an awesome ability in life if you could have to find favor not just with god not just with your spouse not just with your brothers in christ but maybe even your worldly unsafe boss at work that could have favor with you you know that is a great thing to have i'm going to read a couple verses will be done proverbs 22 29 says see is thou a man diligent in his business he shall stand before kings wasn't that literally true for david he's a hard worker he has character he's out with the sheep and he's standing now before a king last verse psalm 75 verse 6 for promotion cometh neither from the east nor from the west nor from the south but god is the judge he put it down one and set it up another you know if you are pleasing to god if you are a superstar christian and god wants to bless you there's no saul that could stand in your way there's no person who even is super rebellious and black backslidden and far from god if god wants to rise you up if god wants to bless you he's the author of promotion and at the end of the day our trust should not be in ourselves in our appearance in any of those things what we should really focus on is making sure that we're pleasing in the eyes of god let's pray lord thank you for this day thank you for this wonderful chapter in your word i just prayed that you would help continue to reveal great truths of this book to us as we study it help us to be someone like david who's a hard worker and who has great character traits help us not to focus too much on the outward appearance of folks but help us to love people for their heart and their character we love you thank you for your son jesus christ in jesus name we pray amen all right with that we'll go ahead and sing one last song to conclude the service if you would take your hymnals and turn to him number 432 angels from the realms of glory hymn number 432 we'll go ahead and start there right on the first angels from the realms of glory when your flight or all the earth is Come and worship, come and worship, Worship Christ the newborn King. Sages, lead your comfort and patience, Brighter visions be afar, Seek the great desire of nations, He hath seen His little star. Come and worship, come and worship, Worship Christ the newborn King. Sades, before He owns an ending, Washing on with hope and fear, Suddenly the Lord, and He sent me, In His temple shall appear. Come and worship, come and worship, Worship Christ the newborn King.