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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"] Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. All right, everybody. We're going to go ahead and get started this evening. If you would, find a seat and grab a hymnal. We're going to go ahead and sing our first song, hymn number 178. Jesus loves even me, hymn number 178. Hymn number 178. We'll go ahead and start there right on the first. I am so glad that our Father in heaven tells of his love in the book he has given. Wonderful things in the Bible I see. This is the dearest that Jesus loves me. I am so glad that Jesus loves me. Jesus loves me. Jesus loves me. I am so glad that Jesus loves me. Jesus loves even me. Though I forget him and wander away, Still he doth love me wherever I stray, That to his dear loving arms would I flee, When I remember that Jesus loves me. I am so glad that Jesus loves me. Jesus loves me. Jesus loves me. I am so glad that Jesus loves me. Jesus loves even me. Oh, if there's only one song I can sing, When in his beauty I see the great theme, Then shall my song in eternity be. Oh, what a wonder that Jesus loves me. I am so glad that Jesus loves me. Jesus loves me. Jesus loves me. I am so glad that Jesus loves me. Jesus loves even me. Good singing will open with a word of prayer. Dear Father, thank you for this church and thank you for this opportunity that we have tonight to gather together and sing praises unto your name as well as hear preaching from your word. I pray that you would bless the remainder of this service at this time and give us a ten of ears to listen to the message tonight. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. For our next hymn, if you would, turn in your hymnals to hymn number 75 on Jordan Stormy Banks. Hymn number 75. Hymn number 75. We'll go ahead and start there right on the first. Jordan Stormy Banks I stand and cast a wishful light to Canaan's barren happy land where my possessions lie. I am bound for the promised land. I am bound for the promised land. Oh who will come and go with me? I am bound for the promised land. All o'er those wide extended plains shines one eternal day. There God the Son forever reigns and scatters night away. I am bound for the promised land. I am bound for the promised land. Oh who will come and go with me? I am bound for the promised land. No chilling waves or poisonous breath can reach that helpful shore. Sickness and sorrow, pain and death are felt and feared no more. I am bound for the promised land. I am bound for the promised land. Oh who will come and go with me? I am bound for the promised land. When shall I reach that happy place and be forever planned? When shall I see my Father's grace and in his bosom rest? I am bound for the promised land. I am bound for the promised land. Oh who will come and go with me? I am bound for the promised land. Alright, good evening everyone. Welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church for our midweek service. If you don't have a bulletin go ahead and raise your hand. Usher would be glad to bring you one. On the front is our Bible memory verse of the week, Hebrews chapter 6 verse 7. Really great chapter. Hopefully everyone's working hard on this chapter. And on the inside, you'll look on the top left, there's our service times listed. Sunday mornings at 10 30 AM, Sunday evenings at 4 30, and our Wednesday evening Bible study of course at 7 o'clock. All of our soul winning times are listed there. And I just want to make a note, I highly encourage everyone to participate in our new Saturday soul winning rally. It's been a very receptive time and things are going really well with soul winning. Especially this month. Soul winning seems to have been really really good this month. I don't know if it's just fall, people like to talk to people more, they're not as angry because it's hot. I don't know. But it's been great. And so whatever it is, I like it. Our nursing home ministry schedule is listed there. As well as our salvations. Keep up the great workouts on soul winning. It definitely has been a great month. On the top right is our list of expecting ladies. Please be in prayer for Mrs. Reed for her pregnancy. And finally, coming soon, next service we're going to have a really great day. I made the food order. It's going to be coming out of your nostrils. You're going to say please stop feeding me Mexican food. It's going to be wonderful. So I'm really excited for that. Pastor Shelley is excited too. I had the opportunity to be on the Baptist Bias podcast last night and we talked about that for a little bit. He's excited to come up here and see everyone and preach for us on Sunday. So it's going to be a great time. We're going to give the Fur family a proper send off and we're very excited for them of course. And so make sure that you thank them for all the hard work that they've done throughout the years and show your appreciation to their family this weekend. It's bittersweet but it's going to be a great asset for the kingdom of God having them over there. So we're very excited for them. Coming up soon, October 4th through the 6th, is the Heritage of the Lord Conference. If you're interested in going to this conference the schedule is on the back of your bulletin here. If you have any more questions other than just the basic schedule you can always email pastorshelleyatsteadfastbaptistkjvatgmail.com But that's really all the information I have for the Heritage of the Lord Conference is the schedule posted there. November 6th through the 10th is the Faithful Word Baptist Church Missions Conference in Tempe, Arizona. That should be a really great conference. Before we go to our next song let's go ahead and go to the Lord in prayer as a church for our prayer list at this time. Dear Lord, thank you so much for the opportunity to be gathered together as a church this evening. Thank you for our members and laborers. Thank you for the salvations we've had this month. I pray that you would continue to lead our soul winners to people that are receptive to the gospel and that you would just soften hearts out there of the people we speak to. That they would be receptive and desire to know the truth. And Lord we pray for the requests of our members this evening that you would just give us your ear Lord and answer these prayers according to your will. We pray for brother Alex who desires to move here, who's looking for a job. Just pray that you would bless him for the job he needs. And just pray Lord for brother Kevin who's also looking for a job. I pray that you would help him to find one that allows him to come to church on Wednesdays like he desires. And we pray for Mrs. Fur for her co-worker Terry's cancer. I just pray that you would bless Miss Terry and help her to heal and recover. And we pray the same for Miss Remi who's also healing from a tumor. Just pray that she would not have to deal with that issue anymore. That she would completely heal her body Lord. I also pray for Mrs. Reed for her brother Cole. That his heart would be softened and that he be receptive to the gospel. Same for brother Zach and his family members that need to be saved. That they would just have a soft heart to the gospel and they would have a desire to hear the truth. And pray that you would give boldness to the people in this room to not only preach strangers the gospel but also people they know in their lives, families, co-workers, and friends. And Lord we just pray that you would bless our church. That you would strengthen us, give us more laborers Lord. We pray for this upcoming weekend that you would bless Pastor Shelley and his family as he travels here. And bring him here safely Lord. We also just want to pray for the Fur family. That you would bless them and their move and all the logistics that come along with that. And we just pray that their move to Texas would be a blessed one and that you would use brother Fur and his family to help Pastor Shelley continue doing a great work at Setfast Baptist Church. And just pray that that church would be able to do greater works than they've ever done before through more laborers. We love you. Thank you for all that you do for us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Alright at this time we'll go to our next song. Alright our next song will actually be in the white handout. So if you would grab a white handout and turn to Psalm 67. Psalm 67. We'll sing that right at the beginning. God be merciful unto us and bless us and cause his face to shine upon us that by way may be known upon earth by saving health among all nations. Let the people praise thee O God. Let all the people praise thee. O let the nations be glad and sing for joy for thou shall judge the people righteously and govern the nations upon earth. The nations upon earth see love. Let the people praise thee O God. Let all the people praise thee. O let the nations be glad and sing for joy. Then shall the earth yield her in Greece and God in our own God shall bless us. God shall bless us and all the ends of the earth shall fear him. Let the people praise thee O God. Let all the people praise thee. O let the nations be glad and sing for joy. Amen. Good singing. As the offering plates are being passed around turn in your Bibles to 1 Samuel chapter number 7. 1 Samuel chapter number 7. 1 Samuel chapter number 7. Good evening. 1 Samuel chapter number 7. 1 Samuel chapter number 7 the Bible reads and the men of Kirjath-jearim came and fetched up the Ark of the Lord and brought it into the house of Abinadab in the hill and sanctified Eliezer his son to keep the Ark of the Lord and it came to pass while the Ark abode in Kirjath-jearim that the time was long for it was 20 years and all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord. And Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel saying if you do return unto the Lord with all your hearts then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you and prepare your hearts unto the Lord and serve him only and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines. Then the children of Israel did put away Balaam and Ashtaroth and served the Lord only and Samuel said gather all Israel to Mizpah and I will pray for you unto the Lord and they gathered together to Mizpah and drew water and poured it out before the Lord and fasted on that day and said there we have sinned against the Lord and Samuel judged the children of Israel and Mizpah and when the Philistines heard that the children of Israel were gathered together to Mizpah the Lord of the Philistines went up against Israel and when the children of Israel heard it they were afraid of the Philistines and the children of Israel said to Samuel cease not to cry unto the Lord our God for us that he will save us out of the hand of the Philistines and Samuel took a sucking lamb and offered it for a burnt offering holy unto the Lord and Samuel cried unto the Lord for Israel and the Lord heard him and as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel but the Lord thundered a great thunder on that day upon the Philistines and discomfited them and they were smitten before Israel and the men of Israel went out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines and smote them until they came under Beth-kar. Then Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpah and Shin and called the name of it Ebenezer saying hitherto hath the Lord helped us so the Philistines were subdued and they came no more into the coast of Israel and the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel and the cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel from Ekron even unto Gath and the coast thereof did Israel deliver out of the hands of the Philistines and there was a peace between Israel and the Amorites and Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life and he went from year to year in circuit to Bethel and Gilgal and Mizpah and judged Israel in all those places and his return was to Ramah for there was his house and there he judged Israel and there he built an altar unto the Lord. Let's bow our heads forward in prayer. Father in Heaven we thank you for this day and we thank you so much for our church and we just ask that you help us pay attention to your word and let's preach. Amen. Amen. Amen. Let's start reading verse 1. The Bible says, And the men of Kirjath-jearim came and fetched up the ark of the Lord and brought it into the house of Abinadab in the hill and sanctified Eliezer his son to keep the ark of the Lord. And the men of Kirjath-jearim that the time was long for it was 20 years and all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord. So if you kind of remember the timeline of the most recent couple of chapters in 1st Samuel chapter number 4 the ark of God was captured and recently they finally got the ark back but the Israelites were presumptuous. They looked into the ark of the Lord and God killed 50,070 of them and remember it's not 70 of them like the modern version say it was 50,070 of them and so here we are in this story and now for some reason they get the ark of God they don't put it back into the tabernacle where it was before now they're just kind of putting it in some guy's house. They're sanctifying some guy to keep the ark of the Lord in a person's house. Now go to 1st Samuel chapter 3 while you're turning there I'll go to I'll read for you Joshua 18 1 it says this and the whole congregation of the children of Israel assembled together at Shiloh and set up the tabernacle of the congregation there. So when the worship of the Lord was brought to Shiloh was actually during Joshua's day and that continued all the way up until the time of 1st Samuel because it says in 1st Samuel 1 3. Did I say 1st Samuel 3? 1st Samuel 1 3 it says this and this man went up out of his city yearly to worship and to sacrifice unto the Lord of hosts notice in Shiloh and the two sons of Eli, Hophni, and Phinehas the priests of the Lord were there. So why not now is the question. They had the ark of God in Shiloh all the way from Joshua to 1st Samuel. Why are they not doing that now? Well remember because the glory of the Lord had departed from Israel and God's kind of doing a reset right now on their nation. They're not going back to Shiloh the ark isn't going back to Shiloh. Why? Because God had kind of removed his blessing from that area at that time and so now they're doing something different. Now I want you to notice number one this evening the leadership of Samuel. The leadership of Samuel. Look at 1st Samuel chapter 7 let's keep reading in verse number three. 1st Samuel 7 verse 3 it says and Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel saying if ye do return unto the Lord with all your hearts then put away the strange gods and Ashtoreth from among you and prepare your hearts unto the Lord and serve him only and he will deliver you out of the hands hand of the Philistines. So notice I mean the Israelites they just had bad thing after bad thing happening to them. You know they lose in battle to the Philistines. The Philistines take the ark of God. They get the ark back. Great news right? 50,070 of them die. Then they consecrate the ark to go into Abinadab's house and it stays there for 20 years and right now Israel's kind of been in this state for a long time where they've had no leader. And finally we see a leader rise up here and who is it? That's the man Samuel and one of the lessons we can learn from this is that there's always a prepared place for a prepared person because here's the thing Samuel didn't just appear out of thin air in 1st Samuel chapter number seven because you know if you were just living in the nation of Israel at this time all of a sudden there's this guy Samuel that stands up and he's just like hey return to the Lord and this might be the first time you've seen him for a lot of people but we know having read the Bible that there was a lot of backstory to Samuel that led to the moment of him becoming a leader starting as a child as a little child you know God spoke to Samuel and remember Samuel ran to Eli said hey you're you're calling me because he mistook the voice of the Lord for Eli and so from a very young age Samuel started having a relationship with the Lord and sometimes people think when they see a leader when they see a great business leader or they see a pastor that they respect that's a really good preacher sometimes people may think like oh man this guy just came out of nowhere but no he didn't come out of nowhere he was preparing for a long time and there's a prepared place for a prepared person you know what if Samuel hadn't decided to sanctify himself to be spiritual to walk with the Lord you know we wouldn't be reading this right here Israel still would have been in their same state of being without a leader go to Titus chapter number one Titus chapter number one and you know we need today to have men and women to have the desire to be godly leaders in the way that God wants them to be you know one one leadership capacity that all of us can be is that of a soul winner you know God wants us all men women children to go out and do what lead someone to Christ and here's the thing if you're going to do that you're not going to just wake up one day without having ever learned how to give the gospel without having reviewed the verses that you're going to talk about or memorize the verses and then all of a sudden you're going to be a fantastic soul winner that's not going to happen but you know what there's a prepared place for a prepared person and if you want to be a leader someday and lead someone to Jesus Christ well the preparation should start today you say i'm not a soul winner i don't know how to do that well today is the day that you start your backstory you know we we read samuel's backstory started when he was a child and here he is standing up as a leader for the whole nation you know you want to be a leader you want to be a soul winner someday start preparing today you know we need leaders in churches today not just pastors but we need men that could serve and assist in the work of the ministry there is a lot of work that goes in to a church you know i worked full time for a church for steadfast baptist church for four years and let me tell you there is a lot of labor that goes into church and there's a lot of people at steadfast baptist church that are godly men that have prepared themselves to be able to assist and lead in the ministry people that are ushers people that are safety team members song leaders bible readers you know these are important positions that we need help in in churches today but you know what it's going to take it's going to take someone that's actually spiritual that actually takes church seriously and do that faithfully for a long time and then they'll find themselves in that position of leadership you know you don't really have to go seeking for leadership if you just prepare yourself if you're just diligent in your work if you're someone that's just faithful to the work of god leadership will find you you know i promise you that if you just dropped you know pastor shelley or pastor jimenez in a different country with no church they would become leaders you know why because they've been faithful for decades and decades and now today they're very godly men they're very capable leaders why because all the work that they put in for decades previously why is samuel standing up right now well because he's put in the work he's been faithful he has a backstory of being a godly person and so now he's in a position of leadership you know we need also ordained men in this world men that want to stand up and be a deacon be a evangelist or be a pastor but let me tell you something getting to one of these levels of ordination it's not going to just happen by accident it's not going to happen overnight it's going to happen by someone being faithful to the lord for a long long time and i think about men like pastor jimenez and pastor anderson that were ordained as pastors in their but here's the thing it's not like they just started serving god in their 20s they already were serving god for well over a decade almost two basically by the time they were pastors and so people people might despise them and be like well this pastor's so young but it's like but hold on he's been serving god for two decades basically he's been being faithful for two decades and so there's a prepared place for a prepared person it doesn't matter your age it doesn't matter your you know secular education what matters is the spiritual preparation that you've been putting in for a long long time look at titus chapter number one it says for this cause left i thee in crete that thou should have set in order the things that are wanting and ordained elders in every city as i had appointed thee if any be blameless the husband of one wife having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly so notice already in the qualifications of a pastor one of the things that you have to be the husband of one wife and you have to have faithful children not accused of riot or unruly you know this fulfilling this verse does not happen in just six months it doesn't happen in a couple years just this qualification alone takes years and years and years to be met let's keep reading it says for a bishop must be blameless as the steward of god not self-willed not soon angry not given to wine no striker not given to filthy lucre but a lover of hospitality a lover of good men sober just holy temperate holding fast the faithful word and and notice this next phrase as he hath been taught that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers so notice just like samuel from a child he was taught the word of god he walked with god for a long time before now here in first samuel 7 he's stepping up as a leader same thing for a pastor a pastor is supposed to hold fast the faithful word as he hath been taught meaning he himself has been a follower for a long time he's been taught the word of god he's lived the life to meet the qualifications and then he could step up as a pastor and what is this teaching us it's teaching us that there's a prepared place for a prepared person and you know this is true in just every area of life you know when it comes to getting married hey there's a prepared woman for you when you're a prepared man you know i promise you if you're a really prepared man that's put together your your life is put together you've got a place to live you've got a car you know you know how to not dress weird you know how to talk to people you know you you could do more than like five push-ups i guarantee you there's a prepared woman for that man but here's the thing you want to get there you're not there at this point well you know what you need to do you need to start preparing today and rather than thinking like here's my proverbs 31 checklist of everything i demand in a wife it's like why don't you just make a checklist for yourself like here's my preparation checklist okay i got to six push-ups check now i'm gonna go for like 10 next week all right and then it's like all right i have a car that runs that's not going to break down on the first date all right i looked up a youtube video about how you know how to dress i mean this isn't this is needed in america right now okay you know i found out that you're not supposed to wear the same color tie is shirt all right i'm just saying this is i'm just trying to help you okay i'm not mad at anyone i love you guys i'm just trying to help you right now there's a prepared woman for a prepared man you know there's a prepared job for a prepared worker you gotta you know you got a super good resume you've put in the work you've been faithful oh yeah there's someone that'll hire you it'll happen right hey you want to preach there's a prepared pulpit for a prepared preacher you're you're filled with the spirit of god you know the bible really well you can preach i guarantee you there's a pulpit out there for you because we need more preachers in america we need more people like samuel in america that are going to stand up and be leaders but that you know just like there's a get quick rich scheme there's like a become a leader quick scheme too and samuel didn't take that route you know he didn't go ordain himself he didn't go lol baptist church style and get ordained by a congregation you know he walked with god for a long time until god approved of him and god rose him up as a leader notice number two the message of samuel we see the leadership of samuel notice number two the message of samuel let's read verse three again it says in first samuel 7 3 and samuel spake unto all the house of israel saying if notice this word ye that means you all if ye do return unto the lord with all your hearts then put away the strange gods and astroth from among you and prepare your hearts unto the lord and serve him only and he will deliver you out of the hand of the philistines notice the audience here who is samuel talking to he's talking to the children of israel he's talking to god's people here notice what he didn't say he said man if those wicked philistines would just get their nation right god will be pleased with us again god will heal this land again he doesn't say man if the moabites if the ammonites will just stop causing their children to pass through the fire then you know god will show mercy again to us notice who he's talking to he says if ye do return to the lord with all your hearts then put away the strange gods and astroth from among you go to second chronicles chapter seven second chronicles chapter number seven you know this is the message that needs to be coming from leadership today that the problems that we have in this world the problems that we have in america can only be fixed by one group of people and it's you and it's me and it's people that are saved it's god's people you know the fate of nations the fate of cities the fate of areas it doesn't depend on whether or not the catholic church is doing right news flash they're never doing right it doesn't matter whether or not the heathen are following the law of god they'll never follow the law of god what matters is what god's people are doing look at second chronicle seven verse 14 notice this it says if my people if my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then will i hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land notice who it is that it depends upon for the land to be healed it's god's people and today there's an attitude out there that says man if we could just fix the republican party man if we could just get the democrats to stop aborting babies then america would be fixed america would be better you know if we could just help conservatives and help republicans get the right tax plan and the right foreign policy and the right ideas about who our allies should be who we should go to war with then america will be better that's completely wrong that's not what the bible teaches and today so many christians have been brainwashed into thinking how we fix america is by fixing them is by fixing the world when really how any area is fixed is by fixing ourselves and really our land our nation is just simply a reflection of ourselves because isn't the land here in first samuel reflection of the children of israel i mean we had the leadership of hofni and phineas and eli were they great spiritual leaders no they were not two of them were reprobates one was a bad dad one was someone that didn't correct his children so one was someone that wasn't a great spiritual leader right and the children of israel were they great no they were presumptuous and broke god's law and looked into the ark of the lord and they were trusting in the ark to save them right rather than trusting in god they weren't right with god and so you say man i want our area to be blessed by god you know i want oklahoma city to be an area that's blessed by the lord i want our state to be blessed our nation to be blessed you know what it starts with it starts with you and it starts with me you know you can complain all you want about the sins of our country and about the state of america that we're in but let me tell you the reason why we're in the state is because of the state of christianity because churches like this are not on every corner in america preaching like this is not at every church in america most churches today love people like andy stanley and hate people like pastor shelley most people they love joel osteen but they would hate pastor anderson right and what is that it's showing a reflection of our nation's heart and so you want our nation to get right it starts with christianity getting right that's why samuel said if you would return to the lord if you would put away the false gods if you would humble yourself and return back to god hey then he would heal our land so you know you really have no right to complain about our situation in america if you wake up and don't read your bible if you don't care about going soul winning if you skip church if you don't have godly standards in your life you know if you're not dressing right if you're drinking alcohol if you're not praying to the lord you're the problem you're the reason why god's not healing our land not joe biden not donald trump those are just reflections of us and so get mad about it all you want but notice his message was for god's people to change go back to first samuel chapter seven notice number three the result of samuel's preaching look at verse four it says then the children of israel did put away balaam and astaroth and served the lord only go to jeremiah excuse me jeremiah 23 jeremiah chapter 23 and you know what we see from this verse is that hard preaching works hard preaching works notice you had a prepared man you had a man that was filled with the spirit of god he had the message of god he preached that message and you know what they did they put away balaam and astaroth and served the lord only and you know we don't want to get jaded about you know the power of the word of god and the power of church and think like well you know because the world's wicked you know why are we even trying as a church is it even worth it to come to church and to listen to hard preaching you know it doesn't really seem like there's a ton of people just flowing through the door here's the thing that may not be true today but you reap what you sow and you could reap what you sow for good or for bad and you know we should be sowing into this church is lots and lots of hard preaching why because when you sow the word of god it's going to have an effect maybe not everyone will listen and maybe not everyone in church will listen to the preaching of god's word and take it to their heart but you know what some people will and that's who i'm preaching for is for people that actually care about the word of god and will make changes and you know samuel here by preaching this message it wasn't in vain because he caused people to turn to the lord and that's a great thing jeremiah 23 verse 28 says the prophet that hath a dream let him tell a dream and he that hath my word let him speak my word faithfully what is the chaff the wheat saith the lord is not my word like as a fire saith the lord and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces you know people that are carnal might look at our church and say you know this isn't really a special church there's not a hundred people here tonight you guys meet in a storefront you guys are in oklahoma city well here's the thing little as much when god is in it and guess what the preaching of the word of god actually makes an effect and actually can change lives and it doesn't matter what things look like to the eye the bible says that his word is like a fire and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces and here's what's cool we can go out and go soul winning and knock on someone's door and we could bring this hammer to their life and you know they could have been a catholic for the last 50 years and we just break their entire false religion with with our hammer in 15 minutes we go talk to someone who's unsaved whatever false religion they're at you know we have the hammer right here that could break any rock in pieces and we need to have faith and trust that the word of god is powerful that it's going to accomplish what god has set out to do and here's the thing once we get someone saved if they come and visit this church if they listen to the preaching of god's word you know god's word is like a hammer to our hearts as well you know when when a topic is preached about maybe a sin is preached against that we're guilty of in our lives you know once you have the holy spirit that word of god is going to hit you like a hammer it's going to burn like a fire in your bosom and you know i believe that preaching works you know why it worked for me here i am today i did not rate i was not raised in a christian home i did not grow up reading the bible i did not grow up going to church or caring about the things of god but you know what what made my heart change and what made me love god and what made me love serving god it's the word of god when i hear the word of god being preached when i got saved it was a it was a fire in my bosom it was a hammer that broke my world into pieces and you know i mean that in a good way and ever since i heard the word of god ever since i heard it preached you know my life has been changed for forever and you know what my my desire for my life is to be steadfast unto the end and to serve him unto the end why because i love the word of god and if god did that in my life i believe that he could do that in any person's life in this metro and so when we go out soul winning you know you could literally be changing someone's eternal destiny and the rest of how they live their life and so don't get jaded you know oh i've been a couple weeks where i haven't gotten someone saved you know maybe the word of god has lost its power no the word of god will never lose its power and samuel here he's preaching maybe some people wouldn't have listened to samuel but guess what these people did and so it was worth it when samuel was preaching go to uh jonah chapter number three jonah chapter number three while you're turning to jonah 3 hebrews 4 12 says for the word of god is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow and as a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart you know the word of god is very very powerful and those of us that are saved and that are walking with god we know this for sure is true but even if you're backslidden even if you're a very carnal christian you know when you hear the word of god being spoken when you hear it being preached you know there's something deep down inside that's still cutting at your heart because the word of god is powerful and what it takes for someone to get saved is the word of god and what it takes for someone to start serving god is the word of god and what it takes for someone who's backslidden to start serving god again is the word of god you know the word of god is the key it's going to be the key to this church's success it's going to be the key to your life's success you know it works for Nineveh look at jonah 3 4 says and jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey and he cried and said yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown he's preaching the word of god here and it was a very short message in 40 days god's going to smoke this place he probably said more than that too but that was the gist of his message look at verse 5 so the people of Nineveh believed god why because of the word of god and they proclaimed a fast and put a sackcloth put on sackcloth from the greatest of them even to the least of them and god saw their works that they turned from their evil way and god repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them and he did it not notice the power of the word of god here you know this city's fate was to be destroyed by god jonah preached the word of god they believed it they turned from their evil way and god turned from his desire to destroy that city and he did it not by the way this is what repent means it means to turn and how you know that salvation is not by repenting of your sins because the bible says it's not of works lest any man should boast and here the bible says god saw their works that they turn from their evil way so what is works according to the bible it's when you turn from your sins and according to the bible it's not by works that you're saved it's not by works of righteousness which we have done but it's according to his mercy it's according to his grace it's according to faith alone and you know this is a great story that shows the power of the word of god look at first samuel chapter number seven go back there first samuel chapter number seven verse five it says and samuel said gather all israel to misspah and i will pray for you unto the lord and they gathered together to misspah and drew water and poured it out before the lord and fasted on that day and said there we have sinned against the lord and samuel judged the children of israel in misspah go to psalm 69 so notice what's happening here is that the people have listened to the preaching of samuel samuel has told them to turn from other gods to worship the lord and what do they do they obeyed that and so now they're getting right with god and in the process of getting right with god one of the things that they decide to do is they decide to fast now this is a great time to fast when you're getting right with the lord this would be a very good reason to fast some people don't really know why fasting is in the bible or it could be kind of a confusing subject to them but one of the best reasons to fast is to afflict yourself or to chasten yourself when you're not right with god to get right with the lord why because you're kind of showing like hey lord you're more important than me your my relationship with you is more important than my carnal desire to even eat my need for food and so i'm showing you how serious i am about getting right with you let's look at several verses in in the book of psalms about this psalm 69 verse 9 for the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up and the reproaches of them that reproach thee are fallen on me when i wept and chastened my soul with fasting that was to my reproach i made sackcloth also my garment and i became a proverb to them they that sit in the gate speak against me and i was the song of the drunkards but as for me my prayer is unto thee oh lord in an acceptable time oh god in the multitude of thy mercy hear me in the truth of thy salvation so notice how here what is this person doing they're chastening their soul with fasting and so you know you hear jesus talk about fasting in one context there's a man that's possessed with many devils and he says this kind goes not out by prayer and by fasting so you know one time you might fast is when you really need god to do something right so you're praying hey lord this person's possessed with many many devils you know i'm fasting to try to invoke your help for this great task that i can't do by myself i can't do this on my own i need your help another reason is like we see here in first amule seven where you've sinned you've been far from the lord and you genuinely feel bad about that you want to get on the right track so what you do is you fast and afflict your soul literally self-affliction because think about it you know if you're not right with the lord if you sin what's gonna happen god's gonna afflict you god's gonna punish you and so by you fasting you're kind of just being like hey you don't have to do that you don't have to chase me i'm gonna chase him myself right now i'm gonna afflict myself you know that would be a good reason to fast one time i had this person ask me he was about to preach his first sermon ever and he said hey you have any advice for my first sermon ever and i said yeah just keep it super simple only preach what you know and don't try to be fancy or cool because nothing that you could say is going to be cooler than what the bible has already said and i don't know about you i like preaching that is what the bible says because i think the bible is cool i don't think man is cool whatsoever okay well he did not take my advice whatsoever his first sermon ever he walks up just just imagine this in your brain okay first sermon ever he walks up and he says i've judged the church tonight and i have found that it is wanting it is lacking and the title of my sermon is fasting according to the bible he's preaching on fasting and in this sermon he's talking about how fasting is just so easy he's like what's wrong with you guys i mean it's so easy isn't it just easy to fast it's like no it's literally called afflicting yourself chastening yourself why because it's not supposed to be easy and he's like bragging he's like i make my pregnant wife fast 17 hours a day and you should do the same thing to your pregnant wife and i'm just like what the hell am i listening to and this this was a dude that was like overweight as well so he's like screaming and slamming the pulpit about how easy it is to fast i'm just like dude you failed you failed so hard and this is the only time i've ever done this but i called this person's pastor who was pastor thompson i'm just like hey you might want to listen to this sermon this is like the worst sermon i've ever heard and so like pastor thompson talked to the guy tried to correct him and he didn't take any correction he quit the church and became a calvinist it's like shock this dude's not even saved so i just when i excuse me when i read verses like this about how fasting is afflicting yourself it's humbling yourself i always think about this silly person that did not understand fasting whatsoever it's like look if you're fasting and it's easy you're doing something wrong it's like well i'm gonna do a i'm gonna do a fast where i only eat sugar and you know no other foods like that's not a fast i mean the catholics try to do this right they'll be like well i'm just giving up video games on fridays during lent it's like that's not a fast guys it's afflicting your soul it's chastening yourself that's what it is go to first amule seven and so here you know they want god to forgive them they want god to be back on their side they're tired of getting their butt kicked by the philistines they're tired of getting their ark stolen they're tired of 50,070 of them dropping dead for looking into the ark and they're just like you know what let's just chase in our soul and get right with god you know that's always a good thing to do notice number four the fear of the israelites verse seven and when the philistines heard that the children of israel were gathered together to mizpah the lords of the philistines went up against israel and when the children of israel heard it notice they were afraid of the philistines now this is a normal human emotion that right or wrong we are all going to experience at times in our life that is fear and you know if you put yourself in these people's situation you've just gotten defeated by the philistines multiple times you've gotten your ark stolen you got it back shortly but then you lost 50,070 men and now here comes the philistines again you could see how they could maybe be a little fearful right but the right response when we're fearful because you know being fearful is not something you can necessarily control right off the bat but your response to that fear is definitely controllable let me read for you psalm 56 2 it says mine enemies would daily swallow me up for they be many that fight against me oh thou most high what time i am afraid i will trust in thee so there's going to be times we're afraid what time i am afraid i will trust in me this is a verse that i like to teach my children because i don't know about your guys's kids my kids get very scared during thunderstorms during storms my kids get very scared and i tell them hey at what time i am afraid i will trust in you i tell them hey when you're scared you know what you should do you should pray to the lord you should ask him to help you you should ask him to give you bravery and boldness you know at what time i'm afraid i will trust in me and there's going to be times in our life even as adults that you're going to be afraid you know maybe you're going to be afraid to do something as simple as confronting someone with the gospel you know for people that are very shy that could cause people to have fear could cause them to literally shake at just the anxiety and fear of giving someone the gospel but you know what at what time i'm afraid i will trust in me you tell yourself hey god wants me to be a soul winner god is with me here you know i'm doing god's work god's gonna protect me i'm doing what he wants me to do you know what let's do this at what time i'm afraid i'll trust in me you know there's been times for in my life and maybe for some of you where you've had to walk into church past a sea of protesters and for a lot of people that's very scary to them for a lot of people they've never dealt with confrontation they've never had people screaming at them and these people that have protested us scream the most vile things to try to really get at you you know for me the thing that pissed me off the most and maybe i shouldn't give enemies the lord you know information i don't know mute this no i'm just kidding is when they is when they say nice things about my kids that really pisses me off when they're just like oh your girls are so beautiful oh you're i'm just like dude don't talk about my daughters like to me that almost pisses me off more than like f you dylan f when they're just talking about how gorgeous my daughters are these sick freaks these degenerate reprobates that are just literal dogs that will sleep with anything and do anything and eat their own vomit they're just disgusting you know don't talk about my daughters don't talk about how beautiful they are just keep my daughter's names out of your mouth how about that but they're trying to get you riled up i'm kind of getting riled up thinking about this right there's been protesters that have kind of pointed firearms at people kind of at the low ready not fully pointed at them but just kind of brought it up real quick that could cause someone to be afraid there's been people that have showed up to my house there's been people that have said hey dylan i know where you live i'm coming to your house tonight and i'm going to shoot you in the back of the head and that person got arrested on the spot for saying that but i'm saying stuff like this will happen in your life where you will maybe feel this experience of fear they're feeling it here they're coming up against a physical army but you just need to remind yourself that at what time i'm afraid i will trust in me because you know what if god is for us who can be against us and so here and here's what will really help you not be fearful is just be right with god because when you're not right with god that would cause me to be a lot more fearful you know if i have tons of people that hate me and want to kill me for for evil that i have done or for harm that i have done i might be a little afraid you know or if i know i'm living a sinful life a wicked life i don't care about the word of god or the commandments of god yeah i might be a little afraid but you know i could sleep like a baby at night when i know that i'm right with the lord and you know though thousands compass about me in the name of the lord will i destroy them is what the bible says let's look at a couple more on this or actually stay there first samuel seven eight it says uh and the children of israel said to samuel notice cease not to cry unto the lord our god for us that he will save us out of the hand of the flistines notice this is the proper response when you're afraid what do you do you call upon the name of the lord you cry out to the lord this needs to be your knee-jerk reaction in times that you're afraid because some people they're afraid you know the protests come the calls come the attack videos come the online haters come the trolls come the bad publicity comes the lies and the railing and the false accusations and the misrepresentations come and some people are just like oh let's quit church i'm afraid no don't be afraid trust in the lord call upon the lord pray to the lord but you know it's a weak response as a christian just quit serving god because you're afraid and there's a lot of people today that quit serving god that have quit going to church because they were afraid of persecution and there's a lot of christians that don't even start serving god because they are afraid of persecution you know the bible says that the fear of man bringeth a snare you know fear is a trap in your life the devil wants to trap you with fear to keep you from doing anything from for god and so the proper response is to pray to the lord go to psalm 27 psalm 27 let's flip through a couple psalms quickly here psalm 27 1 it says the lord is my light and my salvation whom shall i be here the lord is the strength of my life of whom shall i be afraid hey why would we be afraid of anyone the lord is the strength of our life there's a quote by a famous general from the civil war stonewall jackson he was a famous southern general and i'm not going to get the quote exactly perfect but he said something to the effect of like i don't really think or care about the time of my death because basically unless god wants me to die then i know i'm going to keep living and that's true you know god has our lives and our deaths in his hand and he could preserve you through any danger or he could kill you in your sleep really god can just do whatever he wants and so there's no sense of really being afraid because god's got us in his hand and that's kind of this general's attitude and he was known for being extremely brave he was known for you know sitting atop his horse during a battle and not even flinching as guns are being fired at him and it was really famous because you know he had lots of bullet holes in his jacket and stuff like that and people are like man this guy's like a stone wall and that's that why his nickname became stone wall jackson because he just stood up there on his horse and he just didn't care i don't know if he was saved or not but it sounds like he was trusting in the lord and you know that's how we need to be in the christian life where we're just a stone wall it kind of reminds me of something like the name steadfast you know what a stone wall is it's steadfast it's unmovable it's always abounding in the work of the lord you know that's how we need to be as christians go to psalm 34 flip over psalm 34 psalm 34 verse 4 i sought the lord and he heard me and notice delivered me from all my fears you know when you pray to the lord he may not deliver you immediately from the danger or from the source of your fear but if you're trusting in him he can't deliver you from fear itself and elsewhere david prays and asks god to remove from him the fear of the enemy he didn't even pray that god removes his enemies he just said i pray that i don't have the fear of the enemy and you know that's how we should be psalm 46 go to psalm 46 psalm 46 verse 1 it says god is our refuge and strength what's a refuge well refuge is a place that you can kind of hide and shelter down and be safe you know they have wildlife refuges where deer can go and all this wildlife can go and not have to worry about getting killed by cars and traffic and stuff like that you know the lord is our refuge and strength a very present help in trouble you know when you need help right now in the present there's only one person you can call and that's the lord you can't call your best friend you can't call the police you know if you need if you need help right now there's one person that could help you and that's god and so when you're afraid hey call out to him go back to first amule seven first amule seven psalm 118 6 says the lord is on my side i will not fear what can man do unto me hey the lord's on my side what can man do to me right but the important thing is that the lord's on my side right and that i'm pleasing in a sight that he's on my side that he's on my team that i'm on his team then there's no need to be afraid and here's the thing just just get this into your heart and into your mind if you are striving to serve god if you know in your heart that you love the lord you're trying to do what's right you love the word of god you love church you love soul winning just just realize you have no reason to be afraid there's no reason to be afraid because it is a iron clad guarantee that god is on your side because if you draw nigh to god he'll draw nigh to you is what the bible says notice number five this evening in first samuel seven nine the prayer of samuel verse nine and samuel took a sucking lamb and offered it for a burnt offering holy unto the lord and samuel cried unto the lord for israel notice and the lord heard him so remember when before the children of israel they're in battle and they say hey go get the ark maybe the ark will save us god didn't hear them then when they were trusting in the ark but notice what happens when they're trusting in the lord then they call upon him and he hears them right go to romans chapter number 10 here's the thing when you're trusting in the lord and you call out to him he hears you he'll deliver you but people that aren't trusting in the lord you know they're trusting in some sort of religious memorabilia they're trusting in their beads they're trusting in their crosses they're trusting in their idols you can call all day long god's not going to hear you god's not going to hear you you or care about your cry romans 10 9 that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the lord jesus and shall believe in thine heart that god hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation for the scripture saith whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed that mean that word ashamed right there it doesn't mean that you're not going to feel embarrassed or something like that ashamed in the bible often means forsaken so he says whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed that's saying that if you believe in jesus which how does that work you believe in your heart you confess with your mouth that's someone that believes in jesus christ you'll not be ashamed meaning you won't be forsaken and you know a good truth from this is that you're never going to lose your salvation once you put your faith in jesus christ he's not going to forsake you you're never going to be ashamed you're never going to be waiting and be like oh man the lord left me let me down the lord forsook me you know if you want to pain yourself last night i did a podcast on the baptist bias we we reacted to a documentary that was supposedly debunking once saved always saved and it was a painful documentary to watch it was very poorly made but let me just tell you the bible teaches all over the place that once you're saved you're always saved and here's another just great verse for that is saying that when you believe on him you're not going to be ashamed because here's the thing if i believed on him but then i had to maintain my salvation by living a good life by not sinning well then i would be ashamed he would forsake forsake me because i sin every day and only a holier than thou pious drudge false prophet would stand up and say well i've attained though i'm holier than you i actually live a perfect life you know i don't sin anymore i only have pure godly desires you know these guys were talking about i can't relate to paul in romans chapter seven you know i can't believe when i hear preachers preaching out of roman seven where paul's talking about how he does the things that he doesn't allow and that he's like desiring things that he knows is wrong and vice versa the internal struggle that we have between the new man and the old man these people were like oh i just can't believe when preachers relate to that you know that that's like the standard for christianity it's like yeah man you're better than paul you're better than every single preacher in the world and that's why you're not going to lose your salvation you know why i'm not going to lose my salvation because of the grace of god that's why not because i'm awesome or i don't sin anymore no i still sin the only reason i'm not going to lose my salvation is because whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed and in this story we're going to see that the lord delivers them from the philistines why because they called upon the name of the lord in faith before they're trusting in the ark god help us yeah you're trusting the ark you're gonna lose but then you call upon the name of lord when you're trusting in god and he hears you look at verse number 12 of romans 10 for there's no difference between the jew and the greek for the same lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him verse 13 for whosoever shall call upon the name of the lord shall be saved yes you must call upon the name of the lord to be saved and you know what if the israelites here and of course they're dealing with a physical situation but honestly this represents salvation and i'm just going to reiterate this again i know i've already said it but before they were trusting in an inanimate object to save them what does that represent well that represents the person that's trusting in their good life to save them or their religion to save them or their priest or their whatever their church to get them to heaven right and guess what that doesn't save you that's going to fail you every single time now here in first samuel seven samuel's preached to them the word of god they've listened to the word of god they're desiring to be in fellowship with the lord they call upon him are they trusting in the ark anymore now they're trusting in the lord right and he's going to deliver them and it's the same thing with salvation that when someone stops trusting in their good life or whatever dead works that they're trusting in and they trust in god and they call upon him god will hear them god will save them and this is why it is completely accurate to say that this is how you believe calling upon the name of the lord is how you believe because think about it before trusting in the ark doesn't matter it's it's dead works doesn't matter if you call it the lord but here their heart has changed where they're putting their faith and once they put their faith in the lord what do they do they call out to the lord is this making sense to you this is why when you go soul winning and you get to the point where you preach someone the whole gospel you've asked them questions to thoroughly check that they understand everything and sometimes so winners may even ask this be like hey you know when i first got here you were trusting in the ark okay no you don't mean to say that exactly but you say hey when i first got here you were saying that you think you have to repent of all your sins to be saved that you have to be baptized to be saved but you know i've showed you that salvation is only by faith in jesus christ have you changed your mind and you know what nine out of ten people say yes i've changed my mind okay hey if you've changed your mind let me show you real quick uh this whole time i've been telling you that all you have to do to get to heaven is believe on jesus christ all i've been showing you is believe believe believe the question is how do we believe let me show you i show him romans 10 9 through 13 and i just say hey if you believe these things will you just say a quick word of prayer with me and ask god to save you right now you could just repeat after me and say yes and then we pray dear jesus i know i'm a sinner i know that i deserve hell but i believe that you died on the cross that you were buried and rose again that you paid for all of my sins i'm only trusting in you to save me and not in myself please save me and give me eternal life amen you know what has happened to that person they changed from trusting in the ark to trusting in the lord they called upon the name of the lord and guess what god heard that and god saved them go back to uh first amule seven first amule chapter number seven calling out to the lord is how you put your trust in him which is why the bible says that at what time i'm afraid i will trust in you what are we supposed to do call upon the name of the lord hey whether it's spiritual or physical salvation you know how you get delivered calling upon the name of the lord it's the same look at first amule seven eight it says in the children of israel said to samuel cease not to cry unto the lord our god for us that he will save us out of the hand of the philistines and samuel took a sucking lamb and offer it for a burnt offering holy unto the lord and samuel cried unto the lord for israel and the lord heard him and as samuel was offering up the burnt offering the philistines drew near to battle against israel but the lord thundered with a very great thunder on that day upon the philistines and discomforted them notice and they were smitten before israel so notice just like hard preaching works and samuel preached the word of god and it worked it caused people to change you know what also works prayer also works when you call upon the lord to deliver you it works and when someone is unsaved and they put their trust in christ they call upon him hey no one's going to be ashamed it's going to work every single time when you call out to the lord for help he will hear you it will work notice number six the victory of the israelites verse 11 it says and the men of israel went out of mispa and pursued the philistines and smote them until they came under beth car so notice finally here in first samuel seven you know finally we get a positive chapter here finally some good is happening here i mean before it's just like reprobate leadership and they're just like defiling the house of god they're laying with the women at the door of the tabernacle god's killing hoffman and phineas you know the glory of god's departing from israel they're getting smoked by the philistines the ark is stolen by the philistines hey yeah we got the ark back 50,000 70 over are dead but what happens is they get a leader and all of a sudden everything changes why because everything rises and falls on leadership when you had eli hey i think eli was saved i think we'll see eli in heaven but he was not a great leader and so the nation was not in a great state but all of a sudden here comes a godly leader here comes a man with a vision with the word of god who's right with god and all of a sudden everything gets changed around why because everything rises and falls on leadership good leadership will bring you victory in life it doesn't mean that your your life is going to be perfect because some people you know this could happen at a church right churches go through ups and downs churches go through lawsuits churches go through protesters and you know that's not necessarily a reflection of whether what you're doing or not is right or sometimes you know women they could get discontent because the finances are aren't great you know there could be ups and downs in life and still have a good leader but here's the truth though is that at the end of the day good leadership will ultimately lead to victory good leadership will ultimately lead to victory while you'll have ups and downs when you have a good leader hey there'll be victory you know in a church if you have a godly pastor if you're following a righteous preacher there may be ups and downs but if you stick it out if you ride the ups and downs if you follow that person if you follow the lord you'll stand before the judgment seat of christ someday and you'll realize like hey we were led to victory when when god rewards us for our works when god you know gives us crowns of righteousness for the works that we've done it'd be like yeah but you know life wasn't really all that fun yeah but it's not really about life it's about the kingdom of god it's about the kingdom of heaven and things that are eternal and you know just ladies you got a husband in this room that goes to a great church your husband's a good man if he's coming willingly to set fast baptist church you know he's taking your family here he's leading you spiritually you know maybe not everything's perfect in your life right now but i'm telling you that if your husband sticks out serving god he'll lead you to victory he will lead your family to victory you know you'll see your children grow up someday and get saved and love the lord and he'll lead your family to victory but we need good leaders in our country we need good leaders in churches we need good leaders in families because everything rises and falls on leadership go to look at verse number 12 first samuel 7 it says then samuel took a stone and set it between mispa and shen and called the name of it ebeneezer saying hitherto have the lord helped us and and just notice how samuel here why is it that god used this man why is it that this guy's such a great leader notice the humility here he says hitherto hath the lord helped us and this is what a good leader does a good leader glorifies god a good leader gives the credit to other people rather than just taking the credit on themselves and here why is it that samuel's such an effective leader why is it that he's used by god well because when he leads them to victory he doesn't say like oh yeah you know i've slain my thousands i've slain my ten thousands right he's not singing his own praises what is he doing he's saying hitherto hath the lord helped us and just you know a tip for you if you want to be a leader if you want to be used of god you want to be a great man like samuel you know always give the glory to god for your accomplishments don't ever try to just bask in the glory of it or take it upon yourself because that's the surest way for god to humble you for god to abase you rather if you want to continue to be used by him as a faithful servant give all the glory to him verse 13 so the philistines were subdued and they came no more into the coast of israel and the hand of the lord was against the philistines all the days of samuel and the cities which the philistines had taken from israel were restored to israel from ekron even unto gath and the coasts thereof did israel deliver out of the hands of the philistines and there was peace between israel and the amorites and samuel judged israel all the days of his life and he went from year to year in circuit to bethel and gilgal and misspah and judged israel and all those places and his return was to raima for there was his house and there he judged israel and there he built an altar unto the lord so you know first samuel chapter 7 it's a refreshing chapter in this story isn't it you know it's not too often especially in the old testament where you see pretty much everything going right so just just bask in this for a minute because it'll immediately change all right this is just human nature it'll immediately change pretty soon here but you know finally we see a positive chapter where things are going right you know god is causing the philistines to be kept out of their coasts all the days of samuel's life he's led them to victory they're prospering they're right with god and you know he this may be shocking to you but here's the thing in your life in my life when we actually humble ourselves when we actually maybe afflict ourselves with some fasting every now and then when we actually follow the man of god when we actually you know do what's right and seek the lord and turn from our wicked ways and seek his face you might find that your life prospers too you might find that your life could be like a first amuel chapter number seven as well when you're actually doing what's right but many people today it's just human nature you read it in the bible you know how quickly we turn astray from the lord and it doesn't have to be that way you know we could choose to do what most people aren't doing do the hard thing and be faithful humble ourselves do what's right last verse here this evening go to james chapter number four james chapter number four you know you don't have to wait until your life gets so hard like these guys you don't have to wait until you're just defeated in battle after battle you know people are getting killed god's like destroying and cursing your nation you don't have to wait till it gets to that point you know what you can do james four look at verse eight draw nigh to god and he will draw nigh unto you cleanse your hands ye sinners and purify your hearts ye double-minded let's pray lord thank you for this chapter in the word of god and the encouragement that we can draw from it i just pray that you would bless leaders in our life bless pastor shelley and thank you for his leadership and thank you for a man that's dedicated himself for so long so that great works for god like this can be happening just pray that you would knit our hearts unto him and that you would help us to humble ourselves to afflict ourselves from time to time and just to truly desire to seek your face to call upon you when we need help and just pray that you would help us to have a burning desire to lead others to call upon the lord the lord and be saved we love you in jesus name we pray amen all right if you would grab a hymnal we'll go ahead and sing one last song to conclude the service hymn number 93 in your hymnal art thou weary art thou languid hymn number 93 hymn number 93 we'll start there right on the first art thou weary art thou languid art thou sore distress come to me if he be my guy diadem that his brow adorns if i ask him to receive me will he say me not till earth and not till heaven pass away finding falling keeping struggling is he sure to bless saints apostles prophets martyrs cancer yes good