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["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] Alright everybody, we're going to go ahead and get started this evening. If you would, find a hymnal and turn to hymn number 129, hymn number 129. We'll go ahead and start there right on the first. Rock of ages cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from thy wounds inside which flowed, be of sin the double cure. Saved from wrath that make me pure, could my tears forever flow, could my zeal no longer know. These were sin could not atone. Thou was safe and thou alone, in my hand no price I bring, simply to thy cross I bleed. While I draw this fleeting bread, when my eyes shall close in bed, when I rise to worlds unknown, and behold, beyond thy throne, rock of ages cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee. Good singing this evening will open with a word of prayer. Dear Father, thank you for this church and for the opportunity that we have to sing praises unto you. I pray that we'd be edified by this service, Lord, and help us to pay attention to the words that we are singing, Lord. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen. For our next hymn, if you would, turn in your hymnals to hymn number 143. Blessed assurance, hymn number 143. We'll go ahead and start there right on the first. Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine. Heir of salvation, purchase of God. Born of his Spirit, washed in his blood. This is my story, this is my song. Praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story, this is my song. Praising my Savior all the day long. Perfect submission, perfect delight. Visions of rapture now burst on my sight. Angels descending, rain from above. Echo's of mercy, whispers above. This is my story, this is my song. Praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story, this is my song. Praising my Savior all the day long. Perfect submission, all is at rest. Eye in my Savior and happy and blessed. Watching and waiting, looking above. Filled with his goodness, lost in his love. This is my story, this is my song. Praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story, this is my song. Praising my Savior all the day long. Welcome to Acre Baptist Church. At this time we'll go through some announcements. If you don't have a bulletin, please raise your hand. Usher would be happy to bring you one. On the front is our memory passage of the week, Galatians chapter 1 verse 8. Just remember that with ease. If you can quote the whole chapter, word perfect from memory, to an adult non-family member at the end, you will receive a prize. On the inside is our service times listed. Sunday morning at 10 30 a.m., Sunday evenings at 4 30 p.m., and our Wednesday evening Bible study at 7 o'clock. Our soul winning times are listed there, all those meet here at the church building. Nursing home ministry schedule is listed below that, and our year to date statistics for soul winning. We're creeping up on 100 for the year after today, and just want everyone to keep working hard on that. I understand today that there was a man in his 80s that got saved, so praise the Lord for that. That's a huge blessing. Usually people that are that old don't really want to change their beliefs, kind of stuck in their ways, but the word of God is powerful. Anyone of any age can go and preach the gospel, so I definitely want to encourage you to do that. On the right is our expecting ladies. Please be in prayer for Miss Whitney Reed. Also upcoming events, March 9th, we're going to have a men's preaching night for the evening service. There's going to be a 10 minute time limit for those sermons. Immediately after, we will have another potluck fellowship, so please bring something to share for that. March 15th is Miss Whitney Reed's baby shower here at the church, and there's some more details on the back of the bulletin listed there. April 19th is our Easter soul winning marathon in OKC. May 16th through the 18th, the King James Conference at Sure Foundation Baptist Church. May 31st, the Durant Oklahoma Soul Winning Marathon, teaming up with Steadfast Baptist Church. June 28th, fellowship event at the Tinker Air Show here in town. August 27th through the 31st is the Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship. And October 6th through the 11th is the Bahamas missions trip. So lots of great events coming up. If you'd like to give to our church, there is some information there. And on the back is our prayer list. Please make sure you're keeping everybody's requests in prayer to the Lord. And if you have anything to add, please email us or any updates that you have, email us, and I'll make sure to get that reflected in the bulletin. That's going to be it for announcements this evening. We'll go ahead and go to our third song. Alright, for our third song, if you would, take your hymnals and turn to hymn number 150. My faith has found a resting place. Hymn number 150, we'll go ahead and start there right on the first. I need no other argument. I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died and that he died for me. Enough for me that Jesus saves. This is my fear and doubt. A sinful soul, I come to him. He'll never cast me out. I need no other argument. I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died and that he died for me. My heart is leaning on the Word, the written Word of God. Salvation by my Savior's name, salvation through his blood. I need no other argument. I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died and that he died for me. My great physician heals the sick, the lost he came to save. For he is precious, bloody shed. For he is my decay. I need no other argument. I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died and that he died for me. Good singing this evening. As the offering plates are being passed around, turn in your Bibles to 1 Samuel chapter number 27, 1 Samuel 27. 1 Samuel 27 Good evening, 1 Samuel 27, the Bible reads, And David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape into the hand of the Philistines. And Saul shall despair of me to seek me anymore in any coast of Israel, so shall I escape out of his hand. And David arose and he passed over with the 600 men that were with him unto Achish, the son of Maok, king of Gath. And David dwelt with Achish of Gath, he and his men, every man with his household, even David with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezrelitess and Abigail the Carmelitess, Nabal's wife. And it was told Saul that David was fled to Gath and he sought no more again for him. And David said unto Achish, If I have now found grace in thine eyes, let them give me a place in some town in the country that I may dwell there, for why should thy servant dwell in the royal city with thee? Then Achish gave him Ziklag that day, wherefore Ziklag pertaineth unto the kings of Judah unto this day. And the time that David dwelt in the country of the Philistines was a full year and four months. And David and his men went up and invaded the Gershites, the Gergeshites and the Gergesites and the Amalekites, for those nations were of old the inhabitants of the land, as Algoas to sure even unto the land of Egypt. And David smote the land and left neither man nor woman alive and took away the sheep, the oxen and the asses and the camels and the apparel and returned and came to Achish. And Achish said, Whither have you made a road today? And David said, Against the south of Judah and against the south of the Geramalites and against the south of the Kenites. And David saved neither man nor woman alive to bring tidings to Gath, saying, Lest they should tell on us, saying, So did David and so will be his manner. All the while he dwelleth in the country of the Philistines. And Achish believed David, saying, He hath made his people Israel utterly to abhor him. Therefore he shall be my servant forever. Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer. Father in Heaven, we thank you for this day. The souls that were saved out this afternoon. And we ask that you bless our church and our pastor. And help us to learn from the discernment of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Amen. All right, we're in 1 Samuel, chapter 27. ...at all, but I think it was the right call just with the crazy ice and temperatures that we had. But we're in 1 Samuel, chapter 27, a little bit of a shorter chapter this evening. And really this chapter kind of highlights King David. Well, he's not the king yet in position, but David, who we know as King David, he starts to get a little bit backslidden in this story. And I think we can get some lessons about how someone becomes backslidden and just some insights that we could see to a backslidden Christian. Number one, I want you to realize that getting backslidden starts in the heart. It starts in the heart. 1 Samuel 27, verse 1, notice what it says. It says, And here we kind of see David start to lose some faith. He kind of starts to get discouraged and a little bit backslidden there, where he starts saying things in his heart. And he's kind of convincing himself that what he's saying is true, but that's not necessarily the case. Because all throughout the story so far, we've constantly seen God delivering David and God keeping David safe from Saul, even though Saul's been coming after him. And God has just constantly been blessing David, you know, causing him to defeat Goliath, the Philistine, and causing him to escape out of the hand of Saul and just blessing him. But here David's now saying in his heart, man, someday I'm going to perish by the hand of Saul. And he kind of starts to lose faith a little bit here and lose hope. Go to Romans chapter number 12. As you're turning there, I want to read Jeremiah 17, 9. The Bible says, And what is your heart? It's kind of your inner thoughts. It's kind of just the thoughts that kind of pop up and just your emotions, your feelings about a situation. And what you have to realize is that your thoughts, your feelings, your emotions are not always valid. And I constantly want to repeat this because the world wants to tell you, you're validated in your thoughts. You're validated in your feelings and in your opinions. But the Bible says that the heart is desperately wicked. You could have a feeling and a thought and you could be so convinced of it in your heart and it feels so real to you. That does not make it so. That doesn't make it real. That doesn't make it right. What we have to do is trust God. And consistently God has delivered David. He's blessed David. But now David in his heart says, someday Saul's going to get me. And that's just his own, you know, sinful flesh speaking. That's not necessarily true. Romans 12, verse 2 says, And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. See, every single person needs to continuously have their mind and heart renewed by the Word of God. Because the default setting of the human heart is desperate wickedness and extreme deception. It's deceitful above all things. So it's like the most deceitful thing in the world. Yet the message is constantly from this world. Follow your heart. Trust your heart. Do whatever your gut tells you, right? Trust in your feelings. Or someone will express an emotion about something and it'll be like, oh, you're a valid girl. You're validated in that feeling. And it's like, no, you need your mind renewed constantly. And I need my mind renewed constantly. And how does that happen? It happens through the Word of God. Look what it says in verse 3. For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. God tells us to think soberly. And there's this temptation when you're dealing with a situation to think emotionally. And, you know, I can't really fault David on a human level here for just getting sick and tired and kind of just exasperated with the situation of constantly being hunted down. I get that. And he's saying, like, look, I'm just in my heart. I'm thinking that someday, you know, Saul's going to get me. And so there's nothing else good for me. There's nothing that I could do except for go into the land of the Philistines. You know, he's kind of just made a self-fulfilling prophecy saying it's over. It's done. This is just how it has to be. But the truth is that we need to make sure in our lives when we're making decisions, when we're judging situations, that we sit down and think soberly. You know, you need to kind of detach yourself from whatever situation and all the emotions that you're feeling and just come to the Word of God and just don't think about it so emotionally and just say, what is the right thing to do in this situation? What does God want me to do? What do I know as a fact? And, you know, me looking as a person outside, it's like, fact, God helped David kill Goliath. Fact. God has preserved David's life up until this point. Fact. God is on his side. God has promised that he's going to be the king. God is saying he's going to preserve his seed. It's like if we just look at the facts, David has nothing to fear here. But when someone gets backslidden, it's when they start listening to the things that their heart tells them to do. Every single person, your heart is going to try to draw you away from the things of God from time to time, if not all the time, because we are naturally, by default, sinful people. You're in Romans. Keep your place in Romans 4. We're about to come to Romans 4. But as you keep your place there, go to Mark, chapter 7. Mark, chapter number 7. Verse 20, Jesus said this, and he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile the man. Here's what you have to understand is that no one, by default, is a good person. Not David, not me, not you. Your heart is desperately wicked, and from your heart comes all of these thoughts and all these wicked things. And if you just live a life where you're just following the thoughts that pop into your head, you know, people now, it's kind of known as intrusive thoughts. It's kind of a new buzzword. Intrusive thoughts. What's intrusive thoughts? It's called you're a sinner. It's called your heart is wicked. And you're going to think sinful things sometimes. And you have to realize that, hey, that's the flesh speaking. That's the heart speaking. But we need to go to the word of God and renew our mind and say, hey, I'm feeling this way. I'm desiring this. I'm thinking these thoughts. But even though I'm feeling that way, I'm going to recognize that that's wrong, that I'm wrong for feeling that way. And I'm going to decide to conform to God's word. It's not like because people think like, oh, man, it's just they'll they'll see a godly Christian. They'll see someone walking in the spirit and they'll think, oh, it must be nice. It just comes easy for this guy. Oh, man, he's just how is he just so consistent? How does he just go soul winning every single week? How does this lady just read her Bible every single day? And they think like there's something different about people that serve God. And let me tell you something. There's nothing different about us. We all have the same sinful flesh and the same temptations and the same laziness in our hearts and the same wanting to, you know, just be a lazy bum from time to time. Everyone is like that. Let me tell you the difference, though, is that one person has a feeling, has an emotion, and they just let that control their life. They are just run by their flesh. Their flesh says that they want something. They feel a certain way and they're just like, yes, sir. Whatever the flesh says, there's other people who have that same exact temptation and it's just as strong for this person as well. But they say like, hey, my feelings are not valid. My desire right now is not valid. It's not right. And I'm going to kill the flesh right now. I'm going to crucify the flesh and I'm actually going to do what the Bible says, regardless of what I want to do. I will just tell you right now up front that sometimes I do not want to come to church. Sometimes I do not want to go soul winning. Sometimes I do not want to read my Bible. But guess what I do? I just do it anyways because I'm not going to listen to my heart. And, you know, every single person has been backslidden. Every single person has had like feelings of not being as fired up for God as they used to be. Right. But I can honestly say since I've gotten saved that I've never, ever, ever had a period where I just stopped going to church. I have never had a period where I just stopped reading the Bible. I've never had a period where I just stopped soul winning. Now, do you think that there's just something special inside of me where I just have like such an easier time to do these things than other people? No, we have the same flesh. But I'll tell you what it is. It's someone who actually reads the Bible and renews their mind and tells their flesh no. Go to Romans chapter number four. Romans chapter number four. Also, what I think is happening in David's mind right here is that he's losing hope. He's listening to his heart and he's losing hope because as you're turning there, let me remind you of the verse we're talking about. And David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul. So notice it's just this kind of nebulous thing just hanging over his head. Just one day I know that I'm going to get killed. One day I know this is over. Therefore is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines. He's kind of just given up hope and he's made this self-fulfilling prophecy in his mind saying this situation will never change. This situation will never get better. And I'm sick and tired of it. And so I'm just giving up. I'm just going to go to the Philistines and we could get like that in our lives. But notice what Romans four verse 18 says. Speaking of Abraham, I love this verse. It says who against hope believed in hope that he might become the father of many nations according to that which was spoken. So shall thy seed be. You know what that means? It means that hope didn't make sense. There was no light at the end of the tunnel. There was not something that he could hang on to and say, well, you know, here's the silver lining that I could see how things are going to end in this situation. It's just like it was hopeless. Nothing made any sense whatsoever. But even though it was that way, yet he still had hope anyways. That's epic. I mean, that is just an awesome person who against hope believes in hope. Keep reading. Notice what it says in verse 19 and being not weak in faith. He considered not his own body now dead when he was about 100 years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb. I mean, I can understand how you might feel a little hopeless as a 90 year old woman saying like, yeah, I'm probably not going to conceive at 90 years old, but yet they still had hopes. It says in verse 20, he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God and being fully persuaded that what he had promised he was able to perform. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. Let's just stop reading there. But the whole point of showing you that passage is just how against hope he believed in hope. David here actually did have many reasons to be hopeful, but yet he still kind of chose this pessimistic attitude, this defeatist attitude, the self-fulfilling prophecy of someday Saul's going to kill me. Someday it's going to be over. And so he's already by doing that. Here's the thing. He's taken himself out of the fight by doing that. Instead of just trying God and testing God and saying, hey, God, I'm still going to do what's right. I'm still going to walk in the way that you want me to. And let's see if you preserve me from Saul. He takes himself out of the fight. And this is what happens sometimes with people is they get so in despair about something in their life. You know, maybe it's their marriage and they just think this situation is never going to get fixed. This situation is completely hopeless and they give up. And then because they've given up, now there's no chance. You know, when you give up in marriage and you get divorced, how are you going to see God come through and fix that situation and bless you in that situation? Sometimes you just have to say, hey, against hope, even though I don't see the light at the end of the tunnel, even though I don't know how the situation is good or how it's going to get fixed or if it's going to get fixed, I'm just going to believe God anyways. I'm just still going to do what's right anyways. And then at least now you have a chance. Now, now you could put God to the test and see what a mighty work God can do in your life. You know, you could think about this with finances or just relationships or your job or finding a wife or anything like this. You could just get this despair, which is like I give up. But when you give up, you lose. When you give up, now you do know have no chance whatsoever. But just against hope, believe in hope, because David's fears were not founded. But guess what? David's a sinner just like us, and he got backslidden here. Go to if you would. Romans 10, Romans chapter number 10. You know, if you feel like you're lacking in your faith, if you kind of feel at times that despair and that hopelessness, you know, what is the answer to that? Romans 10, verse 17 says right here. So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. If you lack faith, if you are feeling hopeless, if you are feeling in despair and like giving up, but you're not reading the Bible, that needs to be the first thing that you do. It's like people, people will have this despair. They'll have depression in their lives. They'll have misery in their lives, and they don't do the thing that's actually going to help them. You know, they'll turn to alcohol, they'll turn to drugs, they'll turn to prostitutes. But it's like what actually is going to help you is reading the Bible. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. People that are dealing with despair and depression and hopelessness, get in church, stay in church, read the Bible. And it's just like sometimes, and I feel for these people because we all go through bouts of sadness and depression, all those things. I've preached a whole sermon on that. But like this is kind of my philosophy is like if you're not reading your Bible every day, praying every single day, soul winning every single week, being free to thrive, getting good food, good exercise, sleeping well. If you're not doing all of those things first, don't tell me that you need to start taking some drugs to help your situation. It's like why don't you actually start doing some things to help your life before, before even trying anything? You're just like, oh, let's just take all these SSRIs, all these mind-altering drugs. It's like that's a, that's a weak faith right there. You need to hear the word of God. You need to read the word of God. Go back to 1 Samuel 27. But you know, the Bible talks about how we should take heed lest an evil heart of unbelief is found in us. Hebrews chapter 3 talks about. So don't think that, you know, we ourselves couldn't get backslidden like this. If David could get deceived by his heart, if David can become hopeless and kind of give up here, we could do the same thing. We need to make sure we're taking heed to these things and reading the word of God. Number 2, lessons about backslidden people. Getting backslidden affects other people. Getting backslidden affects other people. Look at verse 2, it says, And David arose, and he passed over with the, notice, 600 men that were with him unto Achish, the son of Mayoch, king of Gath. And David dwelt at Achish at Gath, he and his men, every man with his household, even David with his two wives. And Hanom the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the Carmelitess, Nabal's wife. And it was told Saul that David was fled to Gath, and he sought no more again for him. So notice, he decides, hey, I'm going to the land of the Philistines. I'm giving up. And who goes with him? All those people that were surrounding David. You know, this decision that he made to give up and quit and just go ahead and reside in the land of the enemy, that affected all of his wives, all of the men that were following with him. It wasn't just him that was affected. Go to Exodus chapter 20, Exodus chapter 20. But the truth is, is that when we get backslidden, I don't care if you are married, single, have a bunch of kids, have no kids. You affect other people when you get backslidden. You harm other people. And by the way, the converse is true. When you're on fire for God, when you're here at church, when you're doing things which are right, you're blessing other people. You're encouraging other people. You know, no one just lives on an island. Your actions affect other people. Exodus 20 verse 5 says, Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them. For I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me. So notice, even your actions, your sins can have a direct impact on the descendants that come after you. You know, like we were talking about this morning, different nations rejecting Christianity. You look at a nation like India. It's like, let's just be honest, if you're born in India, you're way more likely to be going to hell when you die than if you were born in the Bible Belt in America. Not because of your skin color or anything like that. It's because one's going to have a lot of exposure to the gospel of Jesus Christ and one isn't. And so the sins of the father's idolatry can be visited upon the children for many generations to come. And just even a more immediate application of that is that your sins that you commit directly affect people around you all the time. Let me give you an example. I was talking to some of you guys last week about the driver that drove off the road on Route 66 by Lake Overholser, and the police had to pull out that truck. There was a dead body inside of the truck. Well, the news updated that situation this week, and it turns out that it was a drunk driver. Some guy was driving drunk with his buddy in the truck, and his stupid, drunk, retarded self drove off the road and killed his friend. And he swam out of the truck and survived, and his friend sat there and drowned to death in the icy river. Why? Because one person was drinking alcohol. You think, oh, I'm just having a fun time. I'm just enjoying myself. I'm just blowing off some steam drinking alcohol. Next thing you know, your friend, quote, unquote, is choking on water in an icy river and is dead. And, you know, thank God at least this guy had enough integrity to turn himself into the police. I will at least give him that. But what a wicked thing to do. And people always love to downplay drinking alcohol. Talk about Jesus made, you know, Jesus drank wine. It's not a sin to drink alcohol. Let me tell you what, it is a sin to drink alcohol. And beyond just being a sin, it's extremely stupid and reckless and selfish. And there was a life lost a week ago here in Yukon that didn't have to be if alcohol wasn't involved. That's a sad thing. But I'm telling you, getting backslidden, you say, oh, yeah, you know, I'm just going to go out and get back to the world. I'm going to start drinking alcohol. That could affect other people. That could affect your friend that's riding in the truck with you. You know, it does have an effect on other people. Go to Hebrews chapter 10, Hebrews chapter number 10. But because when someone's backslidden, obviously they're not walking in the spirit, they're just listening to their heart. You know, the consequences of sin isn't really on these people's minds at the time. I'm sure that that was never even close to what that driver was thinking about. But it doesn't change the reality from it being what actually happens. Look at Hebrews 10 verse 24, it says, and let us, I love this phrase, consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching. What is a big reason why you should not get backslidden? It is consideration of other people, because when you get backslidden, you know what you're doing? You're not provoking other people unto love and unto good works. You're provoking other people to get backslidden with you. You know, people by nature are followers. And if you're the person in the church who's, you know, friends with people and people like you, you have friends or whatever, you have family, you have someone looking up to you in your life and you quit. You know what that makes them want to do? Makes them want to quit as well. And one of the examples he gives right away is not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. You know, that's one way that you should be considering other people. And it makes a big difference when someone's here and someone's not. Look, I notice those things. I think about those things. I pray for people when they're gone. I don't want people to get backslidden. I don't want them going down this dark path because it ends up hurting you. But not only does it hurt you, it hurts other people as well. And when less people are serving God, less people are preaching hard, when less people are soul winning, you know what, you're smashing the fire out in other people. Whereas when you say, you know what, I'm going to go soul winning this Saturday, and I show up and there's soul winners here, that fires me up. When I see new people preaching the gospel, getting the first person saved they've ever had in their life, that pumps me up. I'm telling you, it does. You know, of all the statistics I get excited about, you know, hitting this target number of salvations, hitting this target number of baptism, I get excited about that stuff. But what's way cooler to me is when someone gets their first salvation, because now we have a new soul winner. Now we have someone who could join the efforts, and as long as they're alive on this earth, they could do that. How many salvations is that going to add up to for a whole lifetime? A lot of people, right? So that one salvation to me just gets me so excited. And, you know, I want to encourage you and I want you to encourage each other to, if you've not had a salvation in your life, make this your year. Start going out soul winning. Join us on Saturdays. Say, hey, I'll just be a silent partner. No problem. We'll just let you watch gospel presentation after presentation after presentation to where you can learn it. I could give you sheets on how to outline your Bible. I could send you sermons. I've made all these first person videos on our YouTube channel of me actually winning a real person to Christ. You can see the real gospel presentation that I do. Look, it's not hard to learn. You can learn how to go soul winning. But you know what? You've got to have that desire. And where does it come from? It comes from considering other people, loving other people. You know, it's this way with, you know, marriage, too. When you quit on your marriage, you know what it causes other people to want to do? Quit on their marriage. When they see Christians failing in marriage, it makes them want to give up. When you give up on just anything spiritual, it can dampen the fire in other people. Go to First Corinthians chapter five, First Corinthians chapter number five. You know, this is why, again, churches should be practicing church discipline. It's not out of hatred or anger for the offender, but really it's out of love for the congregation. It's out of considering other people and how they would be affected by allowing sin to go unfettered in a church. Look at First Corinthians five, six. Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened, for even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. You know, it talks about, uses this carnal example of leaven. I've never made bread. I've seen my wife do it many times. I know she gets that little sourdough starter, which I believe is the leaven, and it doesn't take much and it leavens the whole lump, okay? It doesn't take much to make a loaf of bread, just like how it does not take much of these sins to destroy a church and to cause other people to be discouraged when it's like, oh yeah, this guy who I thought was some reputable member in the church, oh, it just turns out that he's committing adultery. Oh, it just turns out he's drinking alcohol and no one's doing anything about it. No one is batting an eye at that. Wouldn't that kind of make people, you know, backslidden in their heart as well and see that sin is not as severe as it really is? Go to 2 Samuel chapter 12. And you know, David himself becomes very acquainted with this idea in his life of his sin affecting other people because not only is he like dragging all these people into the land of the Philistines in this chapter, but later he commits a much more grievous sin of committing adultery and murder. And notice what happens in verse 9. It says, So notice a direct result of David's sin causes the sword to never depart from his house. Constant warfare, constant violence surrounding him. Talk about a brutal punishment. The sword not departing from your house? Then your wives are going to be lined with other people in public, in front of people. I mean, that's intense. That's terrible. That's wicked. But it's a result of his sin. Verse 12. The last part of David's punishment was the fact that his soon to be born child, obviously his wife was pregnant, but that child would die. And you know, obviously that's kind of the coup de grace of the punishments that he received. But the point is that when people are getting backslidden, when people are sinning, they're not thinking about these things. They're not thinking that these things are going to happen to them. But while you're sober, while you're in church, while you're thinking soberly, while you're reading the Bible, you need to cement it into your heart that God will punish his children and that the punishments that he meets out are often way more severe than anything you'd want to sign up for. You think you're just playing around with sin. You think, oh, I'm just having a beer. You think, oh, I'm just going for a drive with my friend. We're just a little buzz. Next thing you know, your friend is dead, right? Oh, you think, oh, I'm just going to fool around, just going to have some fun with this girl. It's just going to be a one-time thing, no problem. Next thing you know, the sword's not departing from your house. Next thing you know, your wives are being lined with other men. Next thing you know, your baby is dead. Is that what you want for your life? Of course not. You know, I don't want to see Christians just constantly being chastised, constantly having these terrible consequences, having lifelong consequences oftentimes, when it can be avoided by you just not getting backslidden to begin with, by you not listening to your wicked heart, by you actually listening to the Word of God. Go back to 1 Samuel 27. Number three, backslidden Christians often make alliances with the wicked. Backslidden Christians often make alliances with the wicked. Verse five says, And David said unto Achish, If I have now found grace in thine eyes, let them give me a place in some town in the country, that I may dwell there. For why should thy servant dwell in the royal city with me? It's like, what is David doing talking to this god, this Philistine, calling himself his servant? You know, asking all these favors from him. It's like, these are supposed to be the enemy. The Philistines are not your friend, are not someone you should be hanging up with. But notice what it says in verse six, Then Achish gave him Ziklag that day, wherefore Ziklag pertaineth unto the kings of Judah unto this day. And the time that David dwelt in the country of the Philistines was a full year and four months. And David and his men went up and invaded the Geshites and the Gezrites and the Amalekites. For those nations were of old inhabitants of the land, as thou goest to sure, even unto the land of Egypt. So notice how David, he went from being the boy that killed Goliath, being the one that was stacking foreskins like Saul wanted him to do, and just killing all these Philistines, being like a terror unto them, to where now he's dwelling in their land for over a year. Now he's kind of working this deal out with them and trying to have affinity with them and being friends with them. And let me tell you, whether on purpose or inadvertently, this is what happens to people when they get backslidden, when their heart is far from the things of God, when their mind is not being renewed by the things of God. You'll see Christians who were on our side. They were standing with us and then they get backslidden and then they find themselves living with the Philistines and they find themselves making affinity with them and blessing them and being friends with them. But go to Psalm chapter 1, if you would, Psalm chapter number 1. You know, David clearly does not belong with these people. He's David, right? He's supposed to be with God's people. But Psalm 1 verse 1 says this, Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seed of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night. These things are very connected. The person who's reading the Bible day and night, meditating in the Word of God, you know what they're going to do? They're not going to be standing in the way of sinners. They're not going to be sitting in the seat of the scornful. They're not going to be walking in the path of the wicked. They're going to be separated from those people. And you could tell a lot about a person by who their friends are. Someone who loves God's Word, look, who delights in the law of the Lord. Someone who's reading the Bible, someone who's meditating day and night, they're not walking in the counsel of the ungodly. They're not standing in the way of sinners. They're not sitting in the seat of the scornful. So what does it tell you about a person when all of a sudden now they are? When you see someone who is obviously on the right side, they're still saved, not saying they could lose their salvation or anything, but when they were doing right and all of a sudden now they're friends with the wicked, the scornful, they're getting bad advice. They're around all these evil people. What does it tell you about that person? They've ceased to delight in the law of the Lord. They've ceased to delight in it. They've ceased to read it. They're not meditating in it day and night. They're backslidden. They're far from God. And now here they are hanging out with the Philistines. And it's like if David could do this, then this could be a danger for any Christian. You know, it makes me think of like the ex new IFB rejects. This stupid Facebook group, which is like one of my favorite things in the morning, is just to open up that group just so that I could just block immediately the latest loser who's joined it. And it's just like every once in a while I'll just hop on there and be like, oh, okay, you know, two more losers I could block because I don't want to walk in the way of these people. I don't want to talk. I don't want to be around their counsel. I don't want to be around scorners. I want to be separated from backslidden Christians. I want to be separated from the wicked. I want them to get right with God. And look, some of these people, I don't even think some of these people are just like rotten to the core. Some of these people, I think they've just been led away with the error of the wicked. Because some of these people, I knew that they were fighters. I knew that they were on the right side. I knew they were on the right path. And it's like, how is this happening to you? There has to be some sort of backsliding going on in their heart. There has to be something going on where they're ceasing to delight in the law of the Lord. Maybe they're just bitter about something. They're envious, obviously. And it's causing them to team up with the wicked. Where it's like, you've got this group of people who have been kicked out of all these new IFB churches for oneness modalism. Which is a damnable heresy. It's like, who hurt you? Where on the doll did you get hurt that's caused you to team up with oneness heretics? What has caused? Who hurt you on the doll where you quit a church and you join? This actually happened. You join in the efforts of sodomites protesting Steadfast Baptist Church. I knew someone who was an evangelist who later typed on Facebook about all the hours and hours that they spent on the phone with our sodomite protesters in cahoots with them trying to destroy Steadfast Baptist Church. Who hurt you, bro? It's insane. And you see this group. It's just like, oh, persons kicked out for railing. Oh, this person's, you know, a flat earth or all this person is denying the Trinity, all these different wicked people. And then you see another name and you're like, why are you with this person? Why are you teaming up with them? What is happening to you? What is wrong with you? I'll tell you what it is. You're backslidden. I'll tell you what it is. You cease to delight in the law of the Lord. And you don't want to go down that road because if David could go down that road from from literally killing Philistines to teaming up with them, living in their land. Look, it could happen to save Christians. It does happen to them. And it's sad. And, you know, I definitely will continue to cut those people out of my life because I don't want their suckiness rubbing off on me. I tell I encourage everyone to do the same thing. You open up the app, you go to the reject group and you just block everyone. That way they can't see anything you say. You can't see anything they say. Just get them out of your life. And quite honestly, the only reason I'm talking about this is because people send me so much stuff from this group. Guess what? I don't see anything in the group because I have them all blocked. And the only reason I find out is people send it to me. So just block them. Get them out of your life. Go to 2 Corinthians chapter 6, 2 Corinthians chapter number 6. 2 Corinthians 6. This is the advice that David needed at this time. Verse 14. Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God. As God hath said, I will dwell in them and walk in them. And I will be their God and they shall be my people. Wherefore, come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you. Look, God wants us to be a separated people. He does not want us having fellowship with the Philistines of this world, the Reverbaits of this world, the Sodomites of this world. And beyond that, he doesn't even want us having fellowship with Christians involved in grievous sins, like those listed in 1 Corinthians chapter 5. God wants some separation here. And again, it's just like I look at this reject group and I see a lot of mixing of people that are saved and some people who are just complete heretics, some people who have been living in wicked sin and kicked out of churches, railers, and it's like, what do you guys have in common? It's like what you have in common is hatred of Pastor Anderson. What you have in common is you have no life. What you have in common is envy and idleness. I mean, I saw this one pastor's wife. Someone told me that she just immediately clipped my sermon last week right after I got done preaching it. And it's like, what did you do? Did you like get out of your husband's boring service and you're just like, oh, anchor Baptist Church. Let's just listen to what Pastor Oz said. And you made a clip of it like within an hour and you made like a gigantic post about it. Within an hour? I mean, what are you doing with your life? Why don't you just block me? Why don't you just stop listening to us? You can't because you're envious and you're blinded by hatred and you have nothing else going on in your life. You've got nothing else to live for. You're not even interested in your husband's preaching apparently. You're not interested in your husband's ministry apparently. Since the second you get out of church, you're tuning in to anchor Baptist Church. What a freak. What a psycho ex-girlfriend. And I've never even dealt with this person in my life. I'm just like, who are you again? It's insane. But this is what happens to backslidden Christians. If David's hanging out with Philistines, you're going to see Christians in our life hanging out with weird people too. And teaming up with weird people too. And don't be like them. Look at them as an example of what not to be. Go to 1 Samuel 27. 1 Samuel 27. You know, can two walk together except they be agreed? How is David walking with Philistines? They have different gods. Why are they in affinity? There's something obviously wrong with that picture. Number four, backslidden Christians often get into grievous sin. Verse 9. And David smote the land and left neither man nor woman alive and took away the sheep and the oxen and the asses and the camels and the apparel and returned and came to Achish. Now this is crazy because God never told him to do this. I mean, God never said to go do this. This is just something that David does, leaving neither man nor woman alive. And later on in the chapter, the Bible is going to tell us his motivation for doing this and it wasn't something good. You know, so here's David all of a sudden descending to a serious, wicked sin here of just murdering people. And this is often what happens to Christians when they get backslidden is that they obviously, they sometimes end up in a place that they never thought they would get to. You know, they start by just skipping church. They start by just skipping soul winning or not reading their Bible. But oftentimes people go down that road and over the course of time, they find themselves in serious sins, in major sins, even sins like murder. You know, you got Christians today involved in abortions. You got Christians today involved in IVF. You know, someone could get backslidden going down that road and they're literally involved in murder. Now go to, if you would, Galatians chapter number five. Galatians chapter number five. You know, there were times in the Bible where God said, hey, go wipe these people out. Man, woman, child, ox, ass, suckling, all those things. And here's the thing. That obviously is not a sin. God's telling them to do that. That's a commandment of God. But what you have to understand is that sin is often contextual. Sin is often contextual. What do I mean by that? Well, how about this? Saying the name of God. What if I say, oh God. Well, if I'm talking to God or about God or I'm praying to God, that would not be a sin. There'd be nothing wrong with that. But what if I stub my toe and yell, oh God. Now that has become a sin, right? Because sin is often contextual. Here's a couple other examples. What about the physical relationship? If you're married, there's nothing wrong with that. Same exact act, you take that outside of marriage, wicked sin. Why? Because sin sometimes is contextual. How about this? Preaching a sermon. If you're a man doing it in the right context, it's great. If you're a woman getting into preaching a sermon, that's wicked. Okay. How about killing someone? Well, if you kill someone in self-defense, it's fine. If you're enacting capital punishment, you're a lawful authority, it's fine. When God is telling the nation of Israel, go wipe out these wicked sodomites, yeah, no problem. But when you just take upon yourself to kill someone, that is a sin. That's murder. That's wicked. And this is what happens to Christians. They get backslidden and they find themselves sometimes committing grievous sins that they never would have imagined themselves doing. Here's why. Look at Galatians 5 verse 17. For the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary, the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these. Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envies, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such likes. So these are the works of the flesh. Like I've already preached in this sermon, we all have that same flesh. Human beings default setting is wickedness and sin and the only way that you can even escape that pattern is by having the spirit of God and by walking in the spirit of God. But when you stop doing that, when you get backslidden, when you start just living in the flesh, all of these sins are on the table. And that's sometimes something that shocks Christians that do stay in church is they'll see someone get backslidden and they'll see them commit a very grievous sin and they'll question like, were they ever saved? Well, here's the thing. If someone leaves us to become a Mormon, it definitely shows they were never saved. They didn't lose their salvation. They never believed right to begin with. But if someone quits church and becomes a drunk, that does not mean that they're not saved. If someone quits church and a woman goes and gets an abortion, that does not mean that she's not saved. It means that they're walking in the flesh. And that should scare us because you got to realize that all these sins are on the table for all of us. If we're walking in the flesh, don't have this prideful attitude that says like, Oh, I can never do something like that. Absolutely. You can because you're a sinner, but look what it says verse 22, but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance against, against such, there is no law. And of course, this is all what we're striving for and all things that we want to have in our lives. But notice it's the fruit of the spirit. That's why it says in verse 24 and they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the spirit, notice, let us also walk in the spirit, right? So there's a couple of things to think about while you're sober, while you are in church, while you're not backslidden is think about, Hey, what are the unforeseen consequences of me going down this road and getting backslidden? I guarantee you it's worse than what you're thinking. It's worse than what you can conceive. Not only that you might be thinking, well, I'm just getting backslidden. I'm just skipping church. I'm just going to stop soul winning. But here's the thing. If you keep getting backslidden, you don't know where you're going to be down the road in a year from now or two years from now. You could be into a lot of stuff on this list. And obviously no one wants that for themselves. That's why we have to walk in the spirit. Go back to 1 Samuel 27, 1 Samuel 27. And like one of the things listed on that list there was heresies and man, boy, do you see this with people that get backslidden. You won't see them slip into damnable heresy because they're saved. They're not going to start preaching that you could lose your salvation or that you have to do works to be saved. Otherwise that just shows that was a Judas from the beginning. It was never saved. But boy, do you see people who get backslidden start preaching false doctrine, start preaching heresy. Why? Because they're getting up there just in the flesh. They're getting up there with just the carnal mind. They haven't been renewing their mind with scripture. They're just going up and it's just like, welcome to opinion Baptist church. Turn to 2nd Opinions Chapter 1. Let's talk about child rearing tonight. That is terrible, but it shows a backslidden heart. Number 5, backslidden Christians live a deceptive life. Look at verse 8, it says, So notice, who is he going and invading and fighting against? It's all these enemies of God. It's not the Israelites, but this is going to be important in a few verses. Verse 9 says, So he goes out, he invades all these people. He kills all of them. Doesn't leave any of them alive. Now he's coming back and he's giving his report. Verse 10 says, He's being a little deceptive here. Notice how the previous verse told us all the people that David was attacking, that David was killing. But yet when he goes and gives his report, he kind of says, Oh, you know, I've been around Judah. I've been invading Judah today. Why? Because he's trying to seek refuge with the Gittites, with the people, the Philistines here. He's trying to seek refuge with them. He's trying to get favor with them. So if they think that he's going and attacking other nations that could possibly be confederate with the Philistines, they're going to be like, Whoa, this guy is still an Israelite at heart. He still wants the best for the people of Judah and Israel. We got to not protect this guy. We can't let him live with us. So he kind of is deceptive while presenting himself saying, Oh, yeah, I was going against Judah. I was in the south of Judah, when really he was still attacking the enemies of God. He still in his heart is wanting to fight the Lord's battles. He's just backslidden. And verse 11 says, this is important. And David saved neither man nor woman alive to bring tidings to Gath saying, notice, lest they should tell on us, saying so did David and so will be his manner all the while while he dwelleth in the country of the Philistines. He did not want any survivors because he didn't want these survivors coming up to Achish and saying, Hey, he wasn't attacking Judah. He wasn't attacking Israel. He came and killed all of us. And by the way, he's probably going to do this to your nation. So you probably shouldn't be protecting him and giving him the stronghold because he's wiping all of us out. You know, he killed all the witnesses here so that he could present this story. And notice the result of it. It says, and Achish believed David saying, he hath made his people Israel utterly to abhor him. Therefore, he shall be my servant forever. So Achish kind of has a false sense of security here. He's saying like, OK, he's not on good terms with Israel anymore. This guy is safe. He's going to be my servant forever because he's believed this deception that David has presented to him. Now, one more place we're going to go is First John chapter number one. But this is kind of what Christians do when they get backslidden, is there's a temptation there to live a very deceptive life, to present yourself one way to one group of people in a completely different way to another. And we talked about hypocrisy a few weeks ago. Everyone is a sinner and does this to some extent. OK, but there should not be this colossal difference between the person that you are at church, the person that you are around Christians and the person you are at work and the person you are around your family. You know, at that point, you're kind of just living this deceptive double life and you just need to be honest with yourself that you're backslidden and change. Don't sit here and just have these two lives. Just realize, like, hey, this is wrong. This is bad. I should go back to Israel. I don't want to hang out with the Philistines anymore. I don't want to have to pretend like I'm their friend because I'm not their friend. And that's what I want some of the people that have been burned recently to do and have become envious is like, dude, you don't want to be around these freaks. I know there's a part of you that loves God. I know there's a part of you that wants to keep fighting and doing that which is right. I know there's still a part of you that wants to be a part of a good church that's focused on the Great Commission. I know that part is there. And it's like, you need to just choose to get right with God and go back there. Get away from the Philistines. Get away from the modalists. Get away from the railers. Get away from the envious pastors' wives. Get away from those people and go back to the land of Israel and be David again. Do the right thing. Notice what it says in 1 John 1-8. It says, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Some people live a double life because they're deceiving themselves. And there's kind of a spectrum here. Obviously, there's some people who just say, oh, I have no sin. It's like that person's extremely deceived. Right, but then there's other people where maybe they're sinning or maybe they're doing something very wicked, but they justify it in their mind. And that person is also deceiving themselves. And that, I think, is what David is doing here is he's not being honest, he's being deceptive, but he's trying to justify it in his mind by saying, well, if I don't lie to Achish here and I get kicked out, Saul's gonna kill me. All these what ifs, right? And so people will do this, they'll get backslidden, they'll get around a bunch of wicked people, they'll be around a bunch of railers, around a bunch of gossips, but they'll justify it in their mind somehow. They'll make some sort of excuse of why it's okay for them, but really what you're doing is you're deceiving yourself. When you are backslidden and you wanna get right with God, there has to come a point where you just look at the scripture, you look at your life, and you just say, I have sinned. That's what David did when he was confronted about his major sin with Bathsheba is he finally just came to the point where he said, I have sinned. And guess what? That's the difference between David and Saul because David and Saul both committed seriously grievous sins. I mean, David just wiped out all these cities, God didn't tell him to do that, just murdered a bunch of people. Saul did something worse when he said fall upon the priests of the Lord, telling people to kill God's people, right? David goes and commits adultery. David commits murder of an innocent man. Like these men were both sinners. These men both had serious issues. But what was the difference though is that one had the humility to say I have sinned and to actually change and to actually seek God. The other one dug his heels in, stayed bitter, stayed sinful, didn't try to seek for repentance, didn't admit he was wrong. He just kept doing the same things over and over again and God destroyed him. And it's like at the end of the road of Saul and David are two different destinations. And it's the same thing for Christians. Those that choose to get backslidden and just harden their heart, they don't ever get right, they just stay out of church, they don't read their Bible, the end of that is a destructive lifestyle. And God will punish that person severely. Whereas the other person, you may have sinned a lot in your past, I may have sinned in my past, we may in the future sin, but as long as you just stay on the right path, as long as you just pray and ask for forgiveness and just confess it to God, look, God's going to be faithful to forgive your sins, the Bible says. You just have to admit it to yourself and to God. Go to Hebrews 11. I'm sorry, there actually was another scripture here. Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11. Let's read this in conclusion here. It says, These all died in faith, not having received the promises, verse 13, but having seen them afar off and were persuaded of them and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country that is a heavenly, wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for he hath prepared for them a city. We're going to kind of end the sermon where we started about how, where does all this start? It starts in a person's heart. And the Bible's saying here that if these people had been mindful of the country that they came out of, they might have had opportunity to have returned. And it's like, how does someone, how does a Christian get backslidden is that they start becoming mindful of the things of the world, right? They either get discouraged and hopeless and just quit and throw in the towel, or they become mindful of it and saying like, maybe there's something there to be desired. Maybe there's something there that's a better life living in the world. And when you are starting to be mindful of the things of the world, you give yourself the opportunity to return to that. How do you prevent that is to get your mind in the things of God, is to get your butt in church and be around other people who could consider you and provoke you to love and to good works. That's going to keep you on the right track. Last verse I'll read is James 1.8, a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. David's kind of at a crossroads here. Is he going to stay in the land of the Philistines? Is he going to go back to Israel? Look, if a person is backslidden listening to this sermon, you need to just make a decision. And let me tell you what decision to make. Go back to Israel. Go back to the things of God. Go back to church. Come back to church. Come back to church. Come back to church. Okay? Read your Bible. Come back to soul winning. If you haven't gone soul winning in a long time, let's go soul winning again. Okay? If you've given up on the things of God, come back. Make a decision. Don't be a double-minded man. Half of your life in the land of the Philistines, half in Israel. Make the right decision. Come back to the spiritual things. Let's pray, Lord. We thank you for our church. We thank you for the word of God. I just pray that the people in here would not be mindful of the things of the world, that you would just help establish our hearts and the things of God. I pray that we would continue to read the Bible, not based on our motivation or how we're feeling each day, but that we would just do it out of discipline, knowing that we need it. We need our minds renewed. I pray that you bless us as we go our separate ways. 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 hymn number 161, our great Savior. Hymn number 161. We'll go ahead and start there right on the first. Jesus, what a friend for sinners. Jesus, lover of my soul. Friends, they fail me, fold us, sail me, keep my Savior, make me whole. Hallelujah, what a Savior. Hallelujah, what a friend. Saving, helping, keeping, loving, He is with me to the end. Jesus, what a strength in me, Let me hide myself in Him, Tended, tired, sometimes failing, Keep my strength, my victory wins. Hallelujah, what a Savior. Hallelujah, what a friend. Saving, helping, keeping, loving, He is with me to the end. Jesus, what a help in sorrow, While the billows o'er me go, Even when my heart is breaking, Keep my comfort, balance my soul. Hallelujah, what a Savior. Hallelujah, what a friend. Saving, helping, keeping, loving, He is with me to the end. Jesus, what a guide and keeper, While the tempest still is high, Storms around me die, For days we lead by pride, But here's my crime. Hallelujah, what a Savior. Hallelujah, what a friend. Saving, helping, keeping, loving, He is with me to the end. Jesus, I do now receive Him, More than all in Him I find. He hath granted me, Forgiveness, smile, and kiss, And He is mine. Hallelujah, what a Savior. Hallelujah, what a friend. Saving, helping, keeping, loving, He is with me to the end.