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["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] Alright, good evening everyone. Welcome to Anchor Baptist Church. If you would, find a seat and grab a hymnal. Our first hymn this evening will be number 200. He's a wonderful Savior to me. Hymn number 200. There on the first hymn number 200. I was lost in sin, but Jesus rescued me. He's a wonderful Savior to me. I was bound by fear, but Jesus set me free. He's a wonderful Savior to me. For He's a wonderful Savior to me. He's a wonderful Savior to me. I was lost in sin, but Jesus took me in. He's a wonderful Savior to me. He's a friend so true, so patient and so kind. He's a wonderful Savior to me. Everything I need, in Him I always find. He's a wonderful Savior to me. For He's a wonderful Savior to me. He's a wonderful Savior to me. I was lost in sin, but Jesus took me in. He's a wonderful Savior to me. He is always clear, to comfort and to cheer. He's a wonderful Savior to me. He forgives my sins. He drives my every tear. He's a wonderful Savior to me. For He's a wonderful Savior to me. He's a wonderful Savior to me. I was lost in sin, but Jesus took me in. He's a wonderful Savior to me. Here grows the love of Jesus every day. He's a wonderful Savior to me. Sweeter is His praise, while pressing on my way. He's a wonderful Savior to me. For He's a wonderful Savior to me. He's a wonderful Savior to me. I was lost in sin, but Jesus took me in. He's a wonderful Savior to me. Amen. At this time, we'll open with a word of prayer. Bow your heads with me. Heavenly Father, we thank you again for this evening to gather together again and just sing praises to your name and to your son's name and to just learn from your word. I just pray that you would be with us for the service, that everything's done decently and in the Word. And Lord, also, that you'd just be with us and those that are traveling for the inclement weather the next couple of days, that you would just have an edge of protection around us and that you would help us get to our destination safely and stay safe and warm through the weather. These things we pray in Jesus' name, amen. All right, for our next hymn this evening, turn, if you would, to 210. Wonderful grace of Jesus. Don't forget the men and women's hearts in the chorus. Men are on the lower part. Women are the higher. If you're singing out, I'd really encourage you to do so. 210. Wonderful grace of Jesus. We'll sing there on the first. Wonderful grace of Jesus, greater than all my sin. How shall my tongue describe it? Where shall its praise begin? Taking away my burden, setting my spirit free. For the wonderful grace of Jesus reaches me, misses you. Wonderful, the massless grace of Jesus, deeper than the mighty rolling sea. Higher than the mountains, sparkling like a fountain, all sufficient grace for even me. Louder than the scope of my transgressions, singing, greater than all my sin and shame. Magnify the precious name of Jesus. Praise his name. Wonderful grace of Jesus, reaching to all the lost. High in heaven and on earth, safe to the utter bones. Chains have been torn as thunder, giving me liberty. For the wonderful grace of Jesus reaches me. Wonderful, the massless grace of Jesus, deeper than the mighty rolling sea. Higher than the mountains, sparkling like a fountain, all sufficient grace for even me. Louder than the scope of my transgressions, singing, greater than all my sin and shame. Magnify the precious name of Jesus. Praise his name. Wonderful grace of Jesus, reaching to all the lost. High in transforming power, making him God's dear child. Purchasing peace and heaven, world eternity. And the wonderful grace of Jesus reaches me. Wonderful, the massless grace of Jesus, deeper than the mighty rolling sea. Higher than the mountains, sparkling like a fountain, all sufficient grace for even me. Louder than the scope of my transgressions, singing, greater than all my sin and shame. Magnify the precious name of Jesus. Praise his name. I want to encourage everyone to work hard on this chapter, and it's right at the beginning, so you have lots and lots of time to get this one memorized. On the inside is our service times listed. Sunday morning at 10 30 a.m., Sunday evening at 4 30 p.m., and our Wednesday evening Bible study at 7 o'clock. Our soul winning times are all listed there, and all those meet here at the church building. Our nursing home ministry schedule has been updated there for the next couple weeks, so if you take part of that, please do pay attention to that. Our year-to-date statistics, I think I have an old one here, but I think we have 11 so far for this week, which is great. Keep up the great work out, soul winning. Also, there's our prayer list for our expecting ladies. Please be in prayer for Miss Whitney Reed and their family. Also, upcoming events. February 2nd, we are going to have another men's preaching night. Really excited for that, so if you like this, you want to use the opportunity to become a better preacher, it teaches you to study the Bible more and read the Bible more. It's definitely a good opportunity, and I would recommend that the guys take part in it, and you don't have to even have the desire to someday be a pastor or evangelist or deacon to participate in these. This could just be something that you could do as a ministry unto the Lord and unto others, and something that can better you as well. February 14th is going to be our Sweethearts Banquet, our first time doing that. Really excited. April 19th is our Easter soul winning marathon in Oklahoma City, and we're going to try to really hit some super receptive areas that weekend as we're close to Easter, and people are thinking about going to church, and try to get some people in God's house on Easter. May 16th through the 18th is the King James Conference at Sure Foundation Baptist Church that's in Vancouver, Washington, so if you're interested in a conference in the first half of the year, that would be a good one. Also, this isn't in the bulletin yet, but there's also going to be the Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship in Texas again this year, so that's going to be a lot of fun too. Definitely recommend you make the drive down for that. May 31st, we're going to have a soul winning marathon again in Durant, Oklahoma, and this one's going to be in partnership with Steadfast Baptist Church. June 28th is a fellowship day for our church, going to the Tinker Air Show, and lastly, October 6th through the 11th, this is kind of like the big event of the year, the Bahamas Mission Trip, and I think like half of our church literally signed up for this, so praise the Lord for that, and the more the merrier. If you want to go, I definitely encourage you to think about it. You've got plenty of time to pray about it. See if you can make it work. Get your passports in order and anything like that, so definitely give it some thought because if you go, you will get a lot of people saved, and not only will you get a lot of people saved, you'll have a ton of fun, some of the best fellowship you could have. I mean, all of God's people together in one of the most beautiful places on earth is a great, great time, so I definitely encourage you to make it if you can. Online giving is there, that QR code, and we have our prayer list on the back. If you have any prayer requests or updates, you could always email the church, and we will add that for you. I think an update, brother Alex, I believe has an interview with a great company coming up pretty soon, so keep him in prayer for that, and let's go ahead and go to the Lord in prayer as a church family this evening. Lord, we love you. Thank you for the opportunity to come to you in prayer and give you our requests. I just pray that you would bless our church. I pray that you'd be with all the needs that people have here. Pray for Miss Remy for her visa process, that you would just help her and move in her life, that your will would be done in that situation, God. We pray for Brother Cameron, for his mother, most importantly for her to hear the gospel and have a soft heart so that she could believe it and get saved, but also that you would just heal her body from her illnesses that she's going through. And of course, Lord, during this time of year, we're praying for all of our people that are out sick or battling illnesses going around. Pray that you just keep our church safe from that and help us to be healthy so we can serve you effectively, Lord. We also want to pray for Brother Alex for his job search. Just pray that you'd help him in his job interview coming up, that you'd just help him to find favor in the eyes of the company, that he would get the right job that you have for him, Lord. We also pray for Miss Remy for healing for her tumor, that she would just fully heal her body, Lord, and also for our church members, Whitney and Zach, who have family members that are unsaved. I just pray that you would help them to soften their hearts, that they would have many opportunities in life to hear the truth, and I just pray that you would help us never to forget about the lost and dying world in this city and in our families, Lord, and just pray that we'd always be a church with a heart for souls. We love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, that's going to be it for announcements this evening. We'll go ahead and go to our third song. All right, for our third song this evening, if you'll grab your white handouts, turn to Holy, Holy, Holy, and get your white handout, Holy, Holy, Holy. Sing there starting on the first. Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God Almighty Early in the morning Our song shall rise to be Holy, Holy, Holy Merciful and mighty God in three persons Blessed Trinity Holy, Holy, Holy All the saints adore Thee Passing down their golden crowns Around the classy sea Terrapin and seraphim Falling down before Thee Which word and or And evermore shall be Holy, Holy, Holy O the darkness hide Thee O the eye of sinful men Thy glory may not see Only Thou art holy There is none beside Thee Perfect in power in Love and purity Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God Almighty All Thy works shall praise Thy name In earth and sky and sea Holy, Holy, Holy Merciful and mighty God in three persons Blessed Trinity Amen. As the offering plates are being passed, Sir, if you would, do 1 Samuel chapter 21. 1 Samuel chapter 21. 2 Samuel chapter 21. Good evening, 1 Samuel 21. The Bible reads, Now therefore, what is under thine hand? Give me five loaves of bread in mine hand, or what there is present. And the priest answered David, and said, There is no common bread under mine hand, but there is hallowed bread, if the young men have kept themselves at least from women. And David answered the priest, and said to him, Of a truth women have been kept from us about these three days since I came out, and the vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in a manner common, yea, though it were sanctified this day in the vessel. So the priest gave him hallowed bread, for there was no bread but the showbread that was taken from before the Lord, to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away. Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day detained before the Lord, and his name was Doeg and Edomite, the chiefest of the herdmen that belonged to Saul. And David said unto Himalek, And is there not here under thine hand, spear, or sword? For I have neither brought my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king's business required haste. And the priest said, The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom thou slewest in the valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If thou wilt take that, take it, for there is no other save that here. And David said, There is none like that, give it me. And David arose and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath. And the servants of Achish said unto him, It is not this David, the king of the land, did they not sing one to another of him in dances, saying, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands. And David laid up these words in his heart, and was sore afraid of Achish the king of Gath. And he changed his behavior before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down upon his beard. And then said Achish unto his servants, Lo, ye see this man is mad, wherefore then have you brought him to me? Have I need of madmen, that ye have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house? Let us bow our heads for a prayer. Father in heaven, we thank you for this day, and our church building to gather in, and we thank you for our pastor. Amen. All right. Well, we're in 1 Samuel chapter 21, and we're continuing the phase of King David's life where he's on the run. He's stressed out. He's going through one of the darkest times in his whole life. And the thing that we see in this chapter is we see King David make some mistakes. We definitely see that King David has some faults and some issues in this chapter. And, you know, I like that the Bible doesn't just whitewash all the characters. You know, the Bible says for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. You know, this is not a book that tries to hide or cover up the character flaws or issues or sins or mistakes that men of God made in the Bible. I like that God just reveals people who for they really are so that we could actually relate with those people where King David is not just some distant holy man that's untouchable that we can't relate with whatsoever. But King David is a man just like we are. And because of that, he has stresses and problems. And as a result of those problems, sometimes he does the wrong thing. And this story really resembles how a lot of Christians, when they're in hard times, when they're going through struggles or trials or tribulations, often make some of the same mistakes that we see King David make in this chapter. So first, let's look what he did right. Because in verse number one, it says this, Then came David to Nob to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech was afraid at the meeting of David and said unto him, Why art thou alone and no man with thee? So remember, we're coming off the story where Jonathan made it clear to David that, hey, Saul is trying to kill you. You are in danger. And as a result of that, what does he do? He goes to Nob, which is where, you know, the tabernacle, where the worship of God was at that time, to who? Ahimelech the priest. You know, it's a good idea when you're going through stress and problems to go to the house of God. You know, that's a good move that David makes right here. But it doesn't take us very long into the chapter to start getting into some of the mistakes that he makes. Look at verse two. And David said unto Ahimelech the priest, The king hath commanded me a business, and hath said unto me, Let no man know anything of the business. Where about I send thee, and what I have commanded thee, and I have appointed my servants to such and such a place. Now, is that true? Of course not. King David is now lying to Ahimelech. And, you know, it's always a red flag, by the way, when someone tells you something and says that they're on some sort of secret errand. You know, they don't want you to like ask the authority what's going on. He's like, no, I'm sent on a secret mission. He told me not to tell anyone what it is. You know, that's kind of a red flag. But here we see David not being truthful. He stressed out. He did what was right by going to the house of God. But now he's deceiving. He's lying. He's trying to cover up issues. And number one this evening is that David hid his problems. David hid his problems. And this is often the same exact thing that Christians do when they start to struggle, when they start to have issues in their life. Sometimes they just like to ignore these problems, hide from them, or hide their problems from other people. Go to Psalm 56. Psalm 56. You know, I think everybody does this from time to time. I think everybody, you know, lies to themselves about their issues and wants to ignore it, wants to pretend like it's not real. But look at Psalm 56, verse 1, it says, Now that could definitely be said of King David's situation, that man would swallow him up. There's a man out there that wants his destruction, that wants evil to come upon him, and he's crying out to God as a result of that. Verse 2 says, So the psalmist here is stressed out. The psalmist here has a lot going on. They have a lot to be worried about from a carnal perspective. But notice what the right answer is. It's in verse 3. See, it's just a human, it's just a fact of human nature that there's going to be times in our lives that we feel fear, that we feel stressed out, that we experience that emotion. But you get to choose the response to that emotion. You get to choose whether or not you're going to let your problems just overbear you and cause you to start doing that which is evil. Lying, deceiving, covering up your problems, hiding from your problems, you know, holding it back from other people, or what time you're afraid to trust in the Lord. And we're gonna get more into that in a minute here, but look at verse number 4, it says, I will not fear what flesh can do unto me. You know, one of the greatest blessings of just fully putting your trust in the Lord is that it helps you to eliminate fear. Because it brings peace in your life knowing that, hey, if God is on my side, no one can touch me, God can protect me, and if God does allow someone to touch me, then at least I know it's His will at that point. You know what, you can just get the fear out of your heart and out of your mind and trust in the Lord. Go to Proverbs chapter 3, another really famous passage on this issue of trusting God. Now think about it, who are we talking about here? We're talking about David, the same guy who killed Goliath. I mean, this is someone that already has, in times past, showed a lot of trust in the Lord. I mean, he wasn't going into the fight against Goliath, relying on himself, relying on his flesh. You know, he even said to Goliath that I'm coming to you in the name of the Lord. You know, Goliath came to him with a sword and with a spear, but David came to him in the name of the Lord. And just the little boy with a stone and a sling with God on his side was able to destroy the meanest, baddest enemy around. And now here we see Saul, a man who was too afraid to fight the Philistine, is chasing David and now David's scared. Now David's making mistakes. Look at verse number 5 of Proverbs 3. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. You know what that means? Your understanding is the way that you perceive the world or the way that you perceive a situation. David's looking at this situation and he's perceiving it a certain way. He's thinking, hey, he's trying to kill me. I'm about to die here. So now I need to take things into my own hand and just start deceiving and lying and covering it up so that I could live. But what the Bible is saying here is, hey, don't do that. Don't ever lean on your own understanding. And if you're ever performing an action where in your mind you're rationalizing it, thinking, I know the Bible says this is wrong. I know that God doesn't approve of what I'm doing, but I just have to do it for X, Y, and Z. At that point, you know that you're leaning on your own understanding. Trusting the Lord would be saying, God, I don't know how this is going to work out if I obey you right here. God, this doesn't even make sense to me. I mean, that's your understanding, right? Lean not on my own understanding. You could look at a situation and say, God, I don't even understand how this is going to work. But someone that trusts the Lord does what's right regardless. And look, that's easier said than done. I'm not going to stand up here and be like, oh, yeah, you know, if I was being killed, I would just never sin or do anything wrong. I would hope to do what's right. I would hope to be faithful unto death. That's my goal. But that's what we should strive to. But I'm just saying the reality is David didn't do that. Verse six. In all thy ways, acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes. Fear the Lord and depart from evil. You know, like I said, this is someone who already is trusted in the Lord, who already has shown themselves to be a great person of faith. But, you know, the lesson we could draw from this is just because you were great yesterday, just because you were full of faith yesterday doesn't mean that you will be today. And, you know, you can't just take your Christianity and your spiritual walk with God and whatever level you've obtained spiritually to in this life. You can't just take that stuff for granted and think, well, you know, I'm a soul winner. I'm three to thrive. So I'm kind of good now. No, no, no. Just because you were faithful last year doesn't mean you will be this year. Just because you were brave last year doesn't mean that you will be this year. And you have to make the decision every single day of your life to do what is right. Go to Ephesians Chapter number four. Ephesians Chapter four. Here's the great thing about salvation. It's a one time event. One time, one moment in eternity of placing your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. You're saved forever. That's a one time event. But you know what? Being a disciple, being a spiritual person, being someone that has a heart after or sorry, being a man after God's own heart, being someone that pleases God, that's not a one time event. That's a daily event, a daily event. Look at verse twenty two of Ephesians four. It says that you put off concerning the former conversation. The old man, the former conversation is talking about your old life. And for many people, they didn't necessarily have the blessing of getting saved at five years old, six years old, seven years old. I mean, if you got saved at that age, you don't really have a former conversation. I guess stealing cookies in the morning, you know, letting the chickens out too early, maybe stuff like that. But, you know, that's your old life when you're that age. But for a lot of people that were saved in their late teens, 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, there's going to be a lot of old conversation that they could look back on. And the Bible saying, hey, walk away from that stuff, put off that stuff. Let's keep reading, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts. See, lust is just desire and our heart is desperately wicked, the Bible says. And when we want something, our lusts can deceive us. This is why we don't lean on our own understanding, because our lusts can trick us and say, hey, I have to lie in this situation or I'm going to die or I have to sin in this situation or this is going to happen. But you know what? That's never the right thing to do. It's deceitful. It's a deceitful lust. Verse twenty three. And be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that you put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness, you got the former conversation with the old man. Now you've got righteousness and holiness with the new man. But you know what? It is a daily decision to put on the new man. The new man. It's like when you get up in the morning and you put on your pants, that's a daily event. That's not a one time event. That's something you do every single morning when it comes to serving God, being a disciple, someone that's going to walk in the spirit. That is a daily decision. You know what? That's why it's so hard for people to serve God for decades and decades and decades, because it's not like salvation where it's just one time. Salvation is easy. We get people saved all over this world that never do much for God after they get saved. They bow their head. They believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. They call upon him in faith. And you know what? They often don't come to church. Maybe they read, you know, a Bible story around Christmas or Easter. Maybe they watch some movie that makes them think about God every once in a while. It's probably has a bunch of false doctrine in it anyways, to be honest. But, you know, a lot of people are not here on a Wednesday night. A lot of people are not going to be here three times a week. A lot of people are not going to be here three times a week for years and years and years. But the person that will, I'll tell you this, it's the person that puts on the new man every single day and not someone that's just resting in the fact that, hey, don't you know I slew Goliath? Don't you know in the past I did something really good? Well, that doesn't matter. What matters is tomorrow. Are you going to wake up and put on the new man or are you going to wake up and walk in the former conversation? That's our choice that we have every single day and you ought not get prideful and think that you can't go back to the former conversation, that you've served God for too long now. You've done too many good things for God. I ought not to think, oh, you know, I'm a pastor now. I can't go back to that. No, I have to every single day remind myself to put on the new man. Go to James Chapter number five, James five. But, you know, what does David do? He's in trouble. And instead of being honest with the himalek, he probably should have said, hey, this is a guy who's serving God. This is a guy maybe I could tell him, hey, this is what I'm going through. Can you help me? No, instead, he just lies. And look, God wants us to be around other people, to be in a church, in a community, because we need help from other people from time to time. Look at James five, verse 16 says this. Confess your faults one to another and pray one for another that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Look, it's OK to confide in the people that you trust and care about and love in this church, that of issues that you're having, problems that you're having. You can come to me. I can help you. I can pray for you. We could put you on the prayer list. But look, we need each other in this life and we ought not to just go through problems, go through issues and want to just hide it and keep it to ourselves. Because you know what? That's a prideful attitude, thinking that you could do it by yourself because you can't. Because this is kind of just a prideful attitude of David thinking I've got it taken care of. I can manipulate this situation to do what I want the outcome to be instead of just asking for help. Being honest with the himalec. I mean, Jonathan was helping him. Maybe at this point him like would have. But you know what? We know that in this church there's people that do care about you and that will help you. And the Bible says that when we pray for each other, the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man notice availeth much. It means it gets a lot done. It's very effective. And because we are just by nature carnal, we're living in this flesh, we're living in a carnal world by nature. Prayer is something that is very difficult for people to stay consistent with and to just truly believe in. But you know what? The Bible says that it works and I believe it works and I've seen it work. You know, we need to be a people of prayer and not just for ourselves, but also for each other to help each other when we're going through difficulties. Go back to 1 Samuel 21. 1 Samuel chapter 21. Notice what it says in verse 3. Now therefore, this is David speaking, now therefore what is under thine hand? Give me five loaves of bread in mine hand. Or what? There is present. So he's hungry. He's asking for food. Verse 4. And the priest answered David and said, there is no common bread under mine hand, but there is hallowed bread. If the young men have kept themselves at least from women. So he's saying, look, I don't have just some grocery store bread here. This is the show bread. This is the holy bread. And verse number 5 says, and David answered the priest and said unto him of a truth, women have been kept from us about these three days since I came out and the vessels of the young men are holy. And the bread is in a manner common. Looks like other types of bread, right? Yea, though it were sanctified this day in the vessel. So the priest gave him hallowed bread for there was no bread there, but the show bread that was taken from before the Lord to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away. Now, let's do a little bit of a Bible study. What is show bread? Go to Exodus chapter 25. Exodus chapter 25. Look at verse number 28 when you get there. Exodus 25 verse 28. The Bible says, and thou shalt make the staves of shittim wood and overlay them with gold that the table may be born with them. And thou shalt make the dishes thereof and spoons thereof and covers thereof and bowls thereof to cover withal of pure gold, shalt thou make them. And thou shalt set upon the table, notice, show bread before me always. So in the tabernacle, in the most holy place on this special table was supposed to be the show bread. And it's exactly what it sounds like. It's there for a show. It's there for a display because it's obviously a picture of something. But also notice there in Exodus how it said it's supposed to be there always. It's supposed to be always before the Lord as a show. Now, go to Leviticus 24 and we'll see who was able to partake of this show bread. Who was allowed to eat this stuff? Because obviously it's not just one loaf of bread that's staying there forever that's just going to get moldy and look gross and stuff like that. This is something they're doing on a continual basis. But Leviticus 24 verse 5 says, And thou shalt take fine flour and bake twelve cakes thereof. Two tenth deals shall be in one cake. And thou shalt set them in two rows, six on a row, upon the pure table before the Lord. And thou shalt put pure frankincense upon each row, that it may be on the bread for a memorial, even an offering made by fire unto the Lord. Every Sabbath he shall set it in order before the Lord, continually being taken from the children of Israel by an everlasting covenant. And it shall be, notice, Aaron's and his sons, and they shall eat it in the holy place. For it is most holy unto him of the offerings of the Lord, made by fire by a perpetual statute. Now, David does not meet the criteria here to be able to be allowed to partake of this bread. You had to be a priest. David's a king. He doesn't fit this. But because he was in such dire need, I mean, it seems like he's about to die here to Ahimelech. And Ahimelech is like, all right, are you at least like clean from women? And they're like, yeah, you know, we're ceremonially clean. He's like, OK, we'll just give you this anyways. But it's important to know that technically this was not supposed to happen according to the law of God. This is kind of why Ahimelech had a little bit of reservations when he's saying like, hey, I don't have any common bread. I only have the hallowed bread, the showbread. Now, the reason I'm showing you all this is because Jesus actually referenced this story in the New Testament. Go to Matthew Chapter number 12. Matthew Chapter 12, because on the surface, it kind of seems like a little bit of an obscure story. But if Jesus is looking back to a story, it's pretty it's pretty important. Right. Look at Matthew Chapter 12. Verse one, the Bible says, At that time, Jesus went on the Sabbath day. That's going to be important through the corn and his disciple disciples were and hungered and began to pluck the ears of corn and to eat. Now, when the Sabbath was instituted, the command was obviously to on the Sabbath not do any work. Right. But here's the thing. Jesus and his disciples were not gathering food here to go flip it and sell it and make a profit. They were just doing it to survive. They were just doing it to have food. But of course, the Pharisees wanted to accuse him of breaking the law. Look at verse two. It says, But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that, which is not lawful to do upon the Sabbath day. He's saying, hey, our strict letter of the law interpretation of this is saying you guys have technically violated the Sabbath. Verse three. This is Jesus's response. But he said unto them, Have ye not read? Which is almost always the problem to any doctrinal issue. Have you not read? Notice what David did when he was in hungered and they that were with him. So Jesus is kind of backing up this story and he's pointing out like David had a very serious need. He was very hungry. Same thing with the people that were with him. Verse four, how he entered into the house of God and did eat the showbread. Notice which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the priests. And notice what Jesus is saying here is he's saying, look, it's better for David to have not starved to death and for his guys around him to have not starved to death and have died than for them to have kept perfectly the letter of this law, specifically this law, because this was a picture of something. Okay. And so he's saying, look, you guys are not looking at this correctly. You really wanted David and his guys to just starve to death here because you've got this strict interpretation. He's looking at the Jews are looking at Jesus and his disciples. And you're like, we're just out here gathering food to eat, to live. And you're sitting here saying, making a big deal about us breaking the Sabbath. Now, like I said, these were all pictures. Go to John Chapter six and keep your place there. Matthew twelve, John chapter number six. The picture, the here's the thing, the rules, the bread, the rules about the bread, the rules about the Sabbath, the rules about the temple. Yeah, they were important, but they were a picture of something. And the something that those things picture are more important than the pictures itself. Does that make sense? The thing itself is more important than the shadow. Look at John Chapter six, verse 30. So the Jews here, they want a sign from Jesus Christ and they're referencing, well, you know, God, he gave us bread from heaven. We wanted a sign. We wanted God to work for us then. And he gave us bread from heaven. Why don't you give us a sign, Jesus? Verse 32. They then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. They're like, this sounds great. Verse 35. What is bread? Bread is provision. Bread is sustenance. Bread is nutrition. And the showbread was supposed to be before the Lord continually. Just how Jesus said he's the true bread. And when you partake of the true bread, you'll never hunger again. And so this bread was the bread important. Yeah. Were the rules important? Yeah. But why, though, were the rules important just for the sake of the rules themselves? Were the rules important just for the sake of the bread, the tabernacle, all of these things? No, they were important for what they were picturing the Lord Jesus Christ. And while we want to follow the rules the best we can, he's saying, look, we're not going to let David die over a picture. Let's just bake some more bread. OK, we'll have some more bread. We're not going to let Jesus die. The Sabbath, you're misunderstanding it. The Sabbath wasn't supposed to be this great burden on you to where you can't even gather food to live for the day. You know, you're misunderstanding these pictures. Also, when it comes to the bread being a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, I thought this could be a possible connection. I'm not dogmatic about this. But how David, he asks for the bread and Ahimelech says, well, it's not common bread. It's it's hallowed. It's special bread. But David goes, yeah, but it's in a manner common. And it makes me think of the fact that Jesus is 100 percent God, but he's also 100 percent man. You know, Jesus is that bread from heaven. He's that hallowed bread. But he's in a manner common. I mean, you look at him, he looks like just a man. There's no beauty or comeliness about him that we would desire him. There was nothing special about his physical appearance. He's just in a manner common. But even though he was in a manner common, he was special bread, wasn't he? He was the bread from God, the real true bread from God. Also, we know that Jesus said man does not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. And of course, we know we have to live through Jesus Christ in the sense of getting saved, that if we believe in him, we'll live eternally. But also our daily life of reading the Bible. That's how we live a good Christian life is through daily consuming the bread of God. By the way, it's not consuming Jesus's flesh literally like the Catholics do. I saw some stupid real today on Instagram was like miracle happened in Cyprus. The Eucharist turned into the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ. And the camera is like showing the priest and the camera like gets to the Eucharist is like, all right, you know, you saw something like red in the bowls. It was Jesus's blood. No, it's not. It's fake. The Eucharist, this idea that Jesus's blood actually comes into the, you know, container of the Catholic priest and that his flesh actually, you know, went from being a cracker to his actual flesh. That's disgusting and blasphemous. OK, that's not what's happening. And I don't know what type of a cult you have to be in where you're literally eating a cracker and you could feel in your mouth, you're eating a cracker and you taste a cracker and you're like, yeah, that was his flesh. It's like, how brainwashed are you? You know, you're drinking. It should be grape juice. But, you know, the Catholic Church, they actually use alcohol. They're drinking wine. They know what they're drinking. They're like, yeah, that was the blood of Jesus Christ. It's like, will you believe anything? We even deny reality that you're experiencing. That's what you have to do to be a Catholic. But, you know, the bread pictures Lord Jesus Christ. And even the story relating to this, he brings up the Sabbath. This is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ as well. Go to Hebrews chapter four. Hebrews chapter four. Hebrews four, verse number three. The Bible says, For we which have believed do enter into rest. As he said, I have sworn in my wrath if they shall enter into my rest, although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. Verse four, For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, and God did rest the seventh day from all his works. And so what is the Sabbath? It's a day of rest. Picturing the fact that the way that we get to heaven is by resting in Jesus Christ. We don't have to do the works. God did the works for us. We don't have to work our way to heaven by following the commandments, living a good life, doing good, not doing bad. No, it's just rest. It's just trusting in the work that Jesus did on the cross and in hell and in rising again. And of course, you know, other things like the tabernacle in the temple itself also is a picture of Jesus Christ. If you want to learn about that, go listen to the Sunday morning sermon. But go, if you would, back to Matthew chapter 12. Told you to keep your place there. Matthew chapter 12, verse seven. Let's keep reading this discussion between Jesus and the Jews in verse seven of Matthew 12. It says, But if he had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice. You would not have condemned the guiltless for the son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath day. So one of the principles that God wants us to learn from this, that Jesus wants us to learn is that he wants us to balance keeping rules and having mercy on people. It's not that God doesn't want us to follow the rules. He said what he meant for a reason. You know, things aren't in the Bible just as a joke or a suggestion or if you want to know God's rules are serious and we should keep those. But Jesus wants us to balance that with mercy for other people, because here's the thing. The best Christians in this world are not the Christians that keep the most rules and that live the strictest lives, but then jump down everyone's throat and is super unmerciful to other people and condemning of other people. The best Christians in this world are those that follow the most rules and have a lot of grace and mercy for other people. They follow the rules the best they can. But when they look at someone else who hasn't arrived to their level, who hasn't been exposed to as much truth, heard as much preaching, been in church for as long, been saved as long. Oh, I can't believe that you're not following all these rules. Oh, I can't believe you're not exactly like me. Oh, I can't believe that your dress is a centimeter shorter than my dress. You know, that's not the attitude that God wants us to have. Look, keep the rules. God wants you to follow the rules, but you're not trying to follow the rules with the heart of I'm so much better than everyone else. It should be you're trying to follow the rules because you love Jesus Christ, because you love the word of God and because you actually want to draw close to him and you actually want to invite others to do the same, not just try to knock people down and make them feel terrible for wherever they're at. You actually want to bring people along and help them grow, help them love God more, help them. Yeah, follow the rules more, but not just from this condemnation point of view. He's saying, I would rather have mercy than sacrifice. Look, if you live a super strict life and I'm for living a very strict life, there's going to be sacrifice involved in that. I mean, Bible saying put off the conversation of the old man. You're going to have to sacrifice some things that you used to do. There's some things that your flesh wants to do that the Bible says no. And you're going to have to say, all right, I'm just going to be a living sacrifice. I'm going to do what God wants me to do. But you don't do that stuff so that you can just think, wow, I'm so much better than other people. Wow, I've gotten so much farther in my Christian walk than other people. No, he would rather have mercy than sacrifice. Yes, have sacrifice, but mix it with mercy as well. Now, let me give you a really specific example of this. Go to First Corinthians, chapter five, First Corinthians, chapter number five. Here are some rules that are definitely hard and fast rules when it comes to attending church. These sins that we're about to read here. The Bible says we can't allow this stuff in church. This is not something that like, oh, we have discretion to just look over. This is something that God is very serious about. Verse 11 says, But now I have written unto you not to keep company. So don't spend any time with these people. If any man that is called a brother be a fornicator or covetous or an idolater or a railer or a drunkard or an extortioner with such and one, no, not to eat. Now, some of these things we're going to have to make a judgment call on. What is covetousness? How like to what extent does covetousness get you kicked out of church? You know, idolatry. Did someone just unmistakably have something weird from their childhood that they didn't know? Or are they bowing down in their home to idols? Like there's different levels to some of these things, but some of them are very clear fornicator. OK, you're with someone outside of marriage. You're guilty of that 100 percent railer lying drunkard. That could have some variation as well. Extortioner with such and one, no, not to eat. Now, here's the thing. Let's say we go out soul winning and we get a young couple saved. We get a boyfriend and a girlfriend saved. Technically, they that guy is called a brother because he's saved. Technically, by the letter of the law, let's say they just got saved and they came to church. But they're living together. They're in fornication by the letter of the law. Could I kick them out of church? Absolutely, I could. I have the I have the Bible verse. I've got the rules. I've got the authority. Someone coming in this church committing fornication, even if they got saved yesterday. Technically, I would be allowed to throw them out of church. But is that the thing that Jesus really wants us to do? You really think that God wants me to do that as a pastor? Or do you think that God would want to have mercy rather than sacrifice? Don't you think that God would want me to give that person a little bit time to grow, a little bit time to hear the truth? A conversation with me saying, hey, this is what the Bible says. We love you guys. We want you to get right on this issue. We want you to stay. Why don't you get married? But if you don't, then you're gonna have to leave. Do you think God would rather us take that or just be like, oh, the Bible says, wait, did you just have a covetous thought? Get the hell out of this church. I mean, the rules are there, guys. We could do that. But do you think that God would be pleased with that type of judgment, those type of actions? No, God wants us to balance mercy and sacrifice. Go back to First Samuel chapter number 21. First Samuel chapter 21. So, look, don't think that just because you're within the rules of the Bible, don't think that just because your life falls within the bounds of the law of God, that that means that God is just, no matter what, pleased with you. That's not true because there's there's the spirit of the law. There's the letter of the law. You know, we want to make sure that we're aligned with both of these things as much as possible. Verse seven. Now, a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord. And his name was Doeg and Edomite, the chiefest of the herdmen that belonged to Saul. Now, this guy is wicked. I believe this guy is a reprobate and the Bible is going to talk more about him in coming chapters. But I just want to point out how it's interesting that Saul, though he's saved, he's so prideful. He's so far from God that he himself, like his number two guy, one of the dudes that he's hanging out with, is a reprobate. You know, that's scary to think about the fact that a Christian could be so far gone that they're just hanging with reprobates because you'll see in coming chapters why I believe he is. Verse number eight says, And David said unto him, Alek, and is there not here under thine hand spear or sword? For I have not neither brought my sword nor my weapons with me because the king's business required hate. So he continues to lie here. He's saying, hey, get me a weapon. You know, I forgot my Glock at home. He said, just leave right there. Just get me a weapon, whatever you have. Verse number nine says, And the priest said, The sword of Goliath, the Philistine, whom thou slewest in the valley of Elah. Behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If thou wilt take that, take it. For there is no other save that here. And David said, There is none like that. Give it me. Number two, the second mistake that King David made in this story is that David wanted to rely on the carnal. He wanted to rely on the carnal. Remember, this is the same guy that faced Goliath with what? A sling and a stone and the name of the Lord. Now the guy who was too scared for like 40 plus days to fight Goliath. That is King Saul, who's losing his mind, who's far from God. David wasn't afraid of Goliath, but he is of this guy. He's afraid of King Saul, so much so that he's not worried about the name of the Lord anymore. He's not worried about relying on him. He needs a carnal weapon. Not only does he need any carnal weapon, he needs the very weapon of the guy that he killed back when he was trusting in God. Back when he was right with the Lord. Look at verse 10. It says, And David arose and fled that day. Why? For fear of Saul and went to Achish, the king of Gath. Go to Proverbs chapter number 29, Proverbs 29. You know, this is sometimes how Christians are when we go through troubles in life. When we experience fear is we want to just clam up, hide our problems, hide from our problems. And then what's the next step? Immediately rely on the carnal. Immediately rely on self or rely on other resources here. But look at Proverbs chapter 29, verse 25. It says, The fear of man bringeth a snare, but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe. What is the objective that David is seeking? To be safe, but he's experiencing fear. Bible says that the fear of man brings a snare, which is a trap, right? And in his desire for safety, he's not worried about praying to the Lord, getting right with him. He desires that carnal weapon of Goliath. Now, here's the thing. There's nothing wrong with carnal weapons. In fact, Jesus said to sell your garment and buy a sword. There's nothing wrong with in our modern application, carrying a firearm, carrying a knife, having weapons in your home, having security systems, being able to fight things like this. They're great things. I think you should have those things. You should learn those things. That's great. But the problem is when your trust is in those things. The problem is when you're scared and you're doing those things out of motivation from fear and not trusting in the Lord. Let me give you an example. I carry a gun every single day. But, you know, this year, Lord willing, I'm going to be going to the Bahamas in a nation where you cannot carry a firearm. You can't do it. You're not going to be able to travel on an airplane and get into that nation. It's just not going to happen. So should I just not go to the Bahamas now? Because, hey, in America, I carry my firearm. Excuse me. So therefore, you know, I'm just not going to go on this missions trip because I need to have my gun. Or could I just trust in the Lord and say, look, hey, I'm going there to do a work for God. I'm going there to put pedal to the metal and try to get as many people saved as I possibly can. I'm just going to trust God that he's going to protect me through that. I'm just going to trust God that I want people to get saved. He wants people to get saved. We're going to get people saved there. I'm just going to trust that he's going to protect me. Now, here's the thing. Well, what if he doesn't? OK, well, at least I know that it's God's will at that point. At least I know that, hey, God, I'm right with him. I'm right with the Lord. I'm not trusting in my firearms, not trusting in myself. I'm trusting in God. If he allows something to happen to me, it must be because he's allowing that to happen for whatever reason. To try us to have persecution. For whatever reason, God allows us to go through bad things. But at the end of the day, I'm not going to be freaking out the Bahamas without my firearm. I'm not going to be upset about it. Not going to be thinking about it. I'm going to go there and have a great time. Never once thinking about my gun, because at the end of the day, my trust is not in my firearm. It's not in the alarm systems. It's not in the battlements or anything like that. It's in the Lord. But when people get scared, what do they run to? Relying on the carnal. How about when people have financial problems? This is something that's scary. This is something that's not fun to go through. And oftentimes it can cause people to just clam up and immediately just rely on the flesh. Rely on themselves. They need to make this happen. They need to make more money. And sometimes what they'll do is they'll say, hey, I've got financial problems. I've got to skip church now. You know, I've got to skip. I've got to stop going to church because I have financial problems. What mistake did that person made? They're relying on the carnal. They're forsaking the spiritual. They're not trusting in the Lord. They're trusting in themselves. They're trusting in money, in a sense. Go to Isaiah chapter 31. Well, I read Job 23 12. Job said this. Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips. I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. Job saying it is more important to me and I've esteemed it as a higher priority in my life. The words of God than physical food. There's a lot of people that could never relate to that in this world. But you know what? That is the attitude that we should have as Christians, that we would rather skip meals, that we would rather be poor, not have the greatest food. We just want the word of God in our lives. You know, that person is going to be more blessed by God in the latter end, like Job was later, than the guy who just says, oh, I just need money. I mean, money is more important than God because your actions reveal your priorities. Your actions reveal your priorities. When you say I don't need to go to church. I'm skipping Sundays. I'm skipping Wednesdays because I have to go make more money. Excuse me. You're saying that money is more important to God, more important than God. Excuse me. Obviously, that's the wrong attitude. Isaiah 31, verse one says this. Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help and stay on horses and trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong. But they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the Lord. See, there's nothing wrong with horses. There's nothing wrong with chariots. There's nothing wrong with soldiers. There's nothing wrong with weapons. But notice the end of that verse says, but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel. This is like people today that is trusting on America's military might to keep us safe. Well, you know, as long as we got the F-35, as long as we got the F-22, as long as we got all these missiles and soldiers and the Marine Corps and all these things, we'll be good. Now, you know what our nation needs to do? Trust in the Lord and then have a military. There's nothing wrong with having a military. You got to have a military. But you know what our military should do? Our military should say, hey, we are going to worship God. Stop handing out the stupid ESV and boot camp military. Oh, you get the military boot camps. How cool. Burn that thing. That thing's trash because they don't hand you the King James Bible. I saw my brothers when he went through boot camp a few years ago. They give you the ESV. That's a bunch of garbage. Let's get the King James Bible back in the military. Hey, let's let's do the one thing that Trump did good in his first administration. No trainees allowed in the military. Wow. What a radical statement that is. Yeah. We don't need trainees in our fighting force. In fact, we don't need them alive, but we especially don't need them in the military. It's insanity. But, you know, we take for granted the safety that we have in our country. We take for granted that we haven't been invaded in forever. When was the last time we've been invaded? 1814? Literally? Unless you count Pearl Harbor, which that's far away from the mainland or 9-11 or something like that. I mean, like a real invasion. OK, it's like 1814 is the last time we've had a real invasion in this country. We live in safety and prosperity and people just take for granted. Oh, it's because we're so strong. It's because we're so rich. No, it's because God's been good to us over the years and we better be thankful to God. And we better continue to beg God for his mercy in the future and not just say, well, we're America. We can never be hurt. No, things can change really fast. And, you know, this cushy little life that we live as Americans, the thin little fishing line that's between our cushy little life and hell on earth is so thin that people have no idea. Until they're living in Israel right now, until they're living in Russia right now, Ukraine right now, until when I went to Germany, I was the only white person in customs because as far as the eye could see, we're refugees from the Israeli war going on there, from people that are experiencing hell on earth. We think, oh, we're America. We can never experience anything like that. That's a stupid attitude. We should beg God that we never experienced something like that. You know, people get scared. They rely on the flesh and they take things into their own hands. Go to Genesis chapter 16, Genesis chapter 16. They get scared. They decide, you know what? I'm going to lean on my own understanding. I'm going to do what I think is right. I'm not going to listen to God's word anymore. I'm going to take it into my own hands. Verse number two of Genesis 16. What's this an example of? Relying on the flesh and just taking things into your own hand. You're stressed out. You're going through something hard. And Sarah is like, hey, just let's commit adultery real quick. Go ahead and just go into my handmaid here. I mean, that's an insane idea. But people do insane things when they're stressed out, when they're super emotional, when they're going through all these issues, people tend to rely on the flesh. We got to remind ourselves not to lean on our own understanding. Go to Psalm 146. How about trusting in people to save you? Trusting in a human savior. This is something that people do today when they're fearful, when they're stressed out, is they look to some man to save them. And we're not talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. We're talking about leaders, princes, rulers, presidents, congressmen, these type of people. Psalm 146, verse three. Again, there's nothing wrong with princes. We need princes. There's nothing wrong with voting. There's nothing wrong with wanting a better government. There's nothing wrong with these things. What's wrong is putting your trust in those people. And there are people, millions of people across this country that thought in this last election, if Donald Trump gets elected, our country will be saved. Saved from what? Not saved from hell. You know, we need to be worried about that type of saved. And you know, Donald Trump got up in Texas when he was preaching at Robert Morris' church. He's like, our country needs a savior, not me, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's just a bunch of lip service. I mean, you really think that that guy reads the Bible every day. You really think that guy worships the Lord every single day. He gets his, God bless the USA Bible, the best book. I love this book. I have so many of these books. No, you don't. No, you don't, Donald Trump. You're a liar. Raise your hand if you think Donald Trump has read the Bible cover to cover. Oh, yeah, no one. Yeah, because he doesn't actually love God. Now, look, I'm not saying I hate Donald Trump or, you know, that I don't want him to be president. I'd way rather him be president than Kamala Harris. If for nothing else than the funny videos and all the impressions I get to keep doing of him from his silliness. OK, but look, here's the thing. Donald Trump's not going to save our country. You know what's going to save our country? You going out and preaching gospel. You know what's going to save our country? You waking up in the morning and saying, I'm going to walk in the new man. I'm going to put off the former conversation. You getting your butt in church. You blessing the house of God. Me and you preaching the word of God and being faithful to what it says. That's what will actually fix our country, because that's what made our country great to begin with. That's what even our country was founded on was people escaping persecution in England and coming here to bring the glorious light of the gospel to these shores. And on these shores was built the greatest civilization in human history that this planet has ever seen. You know what it came from? It came from the King James Bible. That's what made America great. Go back to First Samuel, Chapter 21, First Samuel, Chapter 21. Number three, the last mistake we see David make here in this story is that he fled to the world. He fled to the world for refuge, for comfort. Look at verse 10. It says, And David arose and fled that day for fear of Saul and went to, notice this, Achish, the king of Gath. Now, remember, it's Goliath the Gittite. So he's going to the town of Goliath. The guy that he killed, King David, the anointed of the Lord, the man after God's own heart, the guy who killed Goliath is running from King Saul. And where is he running to? The hometown of Goliath. I mean, that is crazy to think about. But you know what? It's crazy when Christians run to the world for comfort. It's crazy when Christians are on the right path, are doing what's right. Their life is being blessed. And it's just crazy to see them go back to the world. It's crazy to see them forsake church. It's crazy to see people blow up their marriage and quit and get divorced. I mean, it's just crazy to see people do this stuff. But go to Psalm, Chapter number one, Psalm, Chapter one. Look, in times of trouble, you and I are going to experience temptation at times to go back to the world. We're going to experience times where we feel that pull of Egypt, that pull of our former life. And you ought not to be so prideful to think, oh, I'll never experience anything like that. But when you go through that, you need to remember not to lean on your own understanding, but to trust in the Lord. Look at Psalm one, verse one. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly. Nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night. He shall be like the tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season. His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. Look, if you want to be blessed, it's not going to be by hanging out with the Philistines. It's not going to be by living in Gath. That's not the place that you're going to be blessed. How do you know that? Well, look at verse one. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly. You know what people like to do when they get backslidden, when they start getting away from church and the things of God? They like to walk in the counsel of the ungodly. You know, before, when they were right with God, they knew that their unsaved family members had bad advice. Because they were reading their Bible, and they saw that the advice that the Bible was giving was different than their family, or their friends, or their co-workers. But when people get so backslidden, they stop reading the Bible, they often go to those wicked counselors, to the counselors of this world, and they start listening to them. Oh, yeah, you need a better man, honey. Oh, yeah, you got to trade up. Why don't you find someone that makes you happy? That was foolishness to her when she was right with God when she was in church. But then when she gets out of church, all of a sudden, she starts walking in the counsel of the ungodly. And here we have David literally walking to the ungodly, walking to those at Gath. You know, you got to be careful when things in life get hard not to allow wicked people to start counseling you. And when wicked people come into your life, or just unsaved people, people that don't take God seriously, and they start counseling you, they start giving you advice, you better run to the Word of God. You better run away from that counsel and not stand in that counsel. Because the person that's blessed doesn't listen to that stuff. It talks about being in the way of sinners. Look, don't hang out with a bunch of wicked people. Your best friends should be Christians. Your best friends should be fundamental Baptists. Your best friends should be at Anchor Baptist Church. Okay? Because we're actually not trying to live with the ungodly, walk in the counsel of the ungodly here. We're not trying to stand in the way of sinners. But look, oftentimes people get backslidden. What do they do? Back to their drinking buddies. Back to their fishing buddies. And what do fishermen do? They just drink. That's really all fishermen do. Okay? But, you know, you ought not to go back to those relationships because other people are going to rub off on you, be a negative influence to you, cause you to go back down a dark path. Go to Proverbs chapter 4, Proverbs 4. It also talks about the seed of the scornful. You know, when you're getting backslidden, you know what people tend to do? They start listening to the scornful. Oh, the people that hate our church? The people that hate the new IFB? You know, at first those people are crazy. Those people are backslidden. But then another person gets backslidden. Oh yeah, I'm in the anti-new IFB hate group too. How do I join the Facebook group? Can you make me an admin? Okay, that's what happens to people when they're listening to the scornful. When they spend time with the scornful, they become a scorner themselves. And so you've got to be aware of those people. Proverbs 4 verse 14, Look, get away from wicked people in your life. Get away from wicked family members that are just far gone. They're not interested in getting saved. Look, get away from those people. I'm not saying you can't love them. I'm not saying you can't even preach them the gospel or anything like that. But look, don't let those people influence your life. Don't let those people be a big influence on your children. Realize when someone's a scorner, when someone's going in the wrong path. Look, get away from that person. Disassociate from those people in your life. It will hurt you when you hang out with them. And look at verse number 11 of 1 Samuel chapter 21. Let's go back there. 1 Samuel 21. Almost done this evening. Notice what happens. This is kind of a picture of a Christian that goes back to the world. Notice what happens to this person. Verse 11, That's what people will say about you if you get backslidden and stop serving God. They'll say, wait, aren't you a Christian? Oh, I thought you were a Christian. I thought you were a fundamentalist. What happened? What are you doing drinking? What are you doing going over here? I thought you were a Baptist. I thought you were a Christian. That's what happened to David. I'm sure he really enjoyed all the songs from the ladies when he was right with God. But now it's probably causing him a lot of anxiety and fear. They're saying, aren't you King David? Aren't you the one that killed Goliath? He's going to Goliath's hometown with Goliath's 70 foot long sword or whatever it was. He sticks out like a sore thumb. They're saying, who's this guy? This is David. Verse 12, So notice, David's afraid of Saul and he's fleeing. He's running. He's afraid of his situation. He lies to a himalek. He gets to Gath. He's afraid of all the Philistines. He just has no peace in his life. Just fear all around. This is what a person experiences that is not right with God. There's no peace in your heart. See, when you're unsaved, you can just frolic through your little vain life sinning. And it's not going to bother you because you're unsaved. Because you don't have a Heavenly Father. Because you're not getting chastened. But when you are saved and you just decide that you're not going to be right with the Lord. You're going to get far from him. You're going to start lying. You're going to start. Whatever the sin is, you're going to notice a lack of peace in your life. And to me, that's like one of the biggest nightmares I could think of. Because life is already hard enough in and of itself. The job, the working, the family, the balance, all the things that we all struggle with in life. That we go through. How would you like to just add on top of that? Just no peace. You're just afraid of everything. No peace in your life. That sounds like hell. But that's what people experience when they quit on God. When they get far from the Lord. You know, I would just advise you, just don't even go down that road to begin with. Hey, if you're three to thrive, stay that way. You're reading the Bible? Keep doing that. You're not listening to the wicked and ungodly? Yeah, keep not listening to them. Listen to the word of God. Verse number 13, let's see what happened to him. And he changed his behavior before them. And he feigned himself mad in their hands. So, what does he do? He fakes that he's crazy. And really, what does he even do in this whole chapter? He's been feigning himself. He's just been fake to him. Oh, I'm on this fake mission. You know, I had to go out fast because the king told me this, told me that. All fake. He's just faking. Living a lie. And now he's going to continue to do that. He's going to feign himself mad. And scrabbled on the doors of the gate. It's like a hamster or something. And let his spittle fall down upon his beard. I mean, he's just drooling all over himself. Yikes. Then said Achish unto his servants, Lo, you see the man is mad. Wherefore then have you brought him to me? Have I need of mad men that ye have brought this fellow to play the mad man in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house? I mean, this is just crazy how the anointed of God, the king of Israel, the slayer of Goliath, the destroyer of the Philistines is sitting here drooling all over himself, spitting all over himself, scratching at the door like he's some weirdo in downtown Portland or something like that. And it's all just a fake weird thing that he's doing. But you know what? This is what happens to Christians that run away from the Lord, that don't do what's right. You will experiment or you will experience punishment in your life. Go to Hebrews Chapter 12. We'll close with this. Hebrews Chapter number 12. Hebrews Chapter 12. Look at verse six. It says, For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons. What is the Bible saying? If you are saved, God will punish you for your sins. Just like a parent who loves their child will spank their children when they disobey, will spank their children when they do that which is wrong because you love that child. Look, when God sees his children doing wrong, he is going to punish us. And look, you can do a whole sermon about all the ways that God has punished his people. The chastisement of God can be a pretty big spectrum even for saved people. There are saved people that God killed in the New Testament. There are saved people where God caused them to lose certain things in their life. There are saved people like David where he ends up acting like a psycho in a foreign land, running from everyone, scared of everyone. You know, this is the punishment of God in David's life. Now here's the thing, even though from just a human perspective, from just a purely carnal perspective, can't we all sympathize with David a little bit of his situation? Can't we all just acknowledge he's going through a hard situation, right? People want to kill him everywhere he goes. I could acknowledge that, but here's the thing. Going through something hard doesn't give us a license to sin. And what do we like to do? Well, I'm going through something hard, so here's why I'm not doing what's right. And it's like, look, I understand I'm a human being. We're all human beings here. I understand from a carnal level, but that's not going to stop God taking his belt off and whooping your butt, okay? I could sympathize with you all day long. We could read this story and say, man, that's a really tough situation to be in, David. I don't know how I would react if someone was trying to kill me, but that doesn't stop God from saying, I'm going to punish you. Doesn't matter if you think it's hard or not. Look, God's not going to tempt us above that which we're able to handle, that we're able to do without providing a way to escape for us. God is loving in that way. Go to Psalm 56. I said that was last place. Sorry, one more, one more. Psalm chapter 56. But what have we seen so far in this chapter? David's afraid. David's lying. David's hiding his problems, hiding from his problems. He's relying on the flesh. He's fearful. He's not relying on the Lord. Let's read this verse again. We read it earlier in the sermon. Psalm 56, verse 3. What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. In God, I will praise his word. In God, have I put my trust. I will not fear what flesh can do unto me. Verse 3 is a great verse. It's very short. I like to quote this verse to my children a lot when they're fearful, when there's thunder and lightning in the night. Hey, at what time I'm afraid, I will trust in thee. Because here's the thing. We're human beings. We're sinners. We're not going to go the rest of our lives without ever experiencing fear. We're going to experience it. But you know what? You get to decide. You get to decide the response to the fear. Does the fear cause you to clam up, hide from your problems, lie to those around you, not seek out any help, start trusting in yourself, start running from the Lord? Or when you fear, what are you going to do? I will trust in thee. That's the decision that we need to make. David made the wrong decision at this point. And you know what? God chose us this because David's just a man. We're just men here. We're just human beings here. We've made mistakes in this area. But going forward, hey, when we're afraid, let's make that decision. How do I respond? Trust in the Lord. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for this chapter. Thank you for the story of King David. And I just pray that you help all of us here to rely on you, not to rely on our understanding, but when we experience stress and fear and problems in our life, we wouldn't run to ourselves or our resources or man, but that we would trust in you, that we would do what's right, even if it doesn't make sense to us, even if we can't see the end of a situation, that we just put all our faith in your word. We love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. 3-0, Heavenly Sunlight. We'll sing there starting on the first. Heavenly Sunlight, Heavenly Sunlight, flooding my soul with glory divine. Hallelujah, I am rejoicing, singing his praises, Jesus is mine. Shadows around me, shadows above me, never conceal my Savior and God. He is the light and in him is the darkness, ever unwalking close to his sight. Heavenly Sunlight, Heavenly Sunlight, flooding my soul with glory divine. Hallelujah, I am rejoicing, singing his praises, Jesus is mine. In the bright sunlight, ever rejoicing, pressing my way to vengeance upon. Singing his praises, gladly I'm walking, walking in sunlight, sunlight above. Heavenly Sunlight, Heavenly Sunlight, flooding my soul with glory divine. Hallelujah, I am rejoicing, singing his praises, Jesus is mine. Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday God bless you, Happy Birthday to you.