(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Let's pray. And I pray that you would bless Brother Saki and guide him and fill him with your Holy Spirit, Lord, so that he could preach with all boldness and clarity. I pray, Lord, that we would learn something today. And I pray that you would give us good weather this afternoon so that we could be able to reach those souls, Lord, who is interested in hearing your word. I pray, Lord, that you would give us a good fellowship this morning. I pray for the members. I pray, Lord, that you would guide them and help them to be here safe and sound. I pray, Lord, also for the members. I pray that you would help us and guide them whatever problem they have, Lord, so that we could be able to be with them in the next Sunday, Lord. I pray. And we're asking all these things. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. For our next song, let's turn to hymn number 229, sing the song, Since I Have Been Redeemed. 229, hymn number 229, Since I Have Been Redeemed. On first I have a soul I look to see, Since I have been redeemed. Of my believer, save the world from me, Since I have been redeemed. Since I have been redeemed. Since I have been redeemed. I will glory in his name, Since I have been redeemed. I will glory in my sin or my sin. I have a Christ and a Son, Since I have been redeemed. To do this will my glorious Christ, Since I have been redeemed. Since I have been redeemed. Since I have been redeemed. I will glory in his name, Since I have been redeemed. I will glory in my sin or my sin. I have a witness brought in me, Since I have been redeemed. He's sparing every doubt and wound, Since I have been redeemed. Since I have been redeemed. Since I have been redeemed. I will glory in his name, Since I have been redeemed. I will glory in my Savior's name, Unless I have a home prepared for me, Since I have been redeemed. Where I shall dwell eternally, Since I have been redeemed. Since I have been redeemed. Since I have been redeemed. I will glory in his name, Since I have been redeemed. I will glory in my Savior's name. All right. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Verity Baptist Church. Take out your bullets in here today. And on the front, our verse of the week is 1 Samuel 13, verse 13. The Bible reads, And Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done foolishly, thou hast not kept the commandment of the Lord thy God which he commanded thee, for now with the Lord have established thy kingdom upon Israel forever. That's a great verse there. We are a family integrated church, meaning children and infants are welcome during the services. We do have a mother baby room back there for your convenience as well as the ladies restroom. The men's restroom is up here in front. Remember, no eating during the services. Maintain a professional atmosphere and keep the children from running and making noise during the church service. On the next page, our weekly service time is listed. Our first service is at 10 a.m. Then a short break in our 1130 service. Wednesday evening Bible study at 7 p.m. Soul winning time is listed, 5 p.m. on Wednesdays, two hours before the service. Saturday afternoons from 10 to 12 and 2 to 4. And then also this afternoon at 2.15 p.m. Praise report for salvations. VBC Manila, we have over 5,000 salvations year to date. We're at over 400 in Pampanga. Then you have listed our Bible study fellowships. I want to just quickly describe what I mean by a Bible study fellowship. You might ask, what exactly is that? Well, think about before, you know, this church was started. Many of you didn't necessarily have a good church to go to where they're right on salvation. And unfortunately, a lot of people are in that situation, especially in Asia. There are very few good churches, but there's sometimes groups of people that love God in those areas. So, you know, they're trying to go soul winning and being motivated, but it's good to try to get it as organized as possible. So it's not necessarily officially a church, but we try to send them supplies, encourage them, keep tally of their results, and try to keep it as organized as possible. Because if it's not organized, it's just not going to end up working. So that's why we keep track of that. But they're doing a great job in Bicol and Hong Kong and Singapore. So keep up the great work. You have volunteering opportunities listed there. Then you have birthdays and anniversaries below. It's a great month to be born, right? Amen? Right? Today's actually my spiritual birthday. So this is my 18th year, you know, to the day of being saved, spiritually speaking. So that's kind of the, it's right near my actual birthday, so I keep track of it, you know, even a little bit more. So basically half my life I've been saved now. But on the next page, our Bible memorization challenge. So our challenge is chapters 23 through 41. And so we do have on the back table, we have the prizes, we have candies or chips. We have it marked on the bag. So that's not a free for all. You can't just go in there and grab a chip if you want it. You know, the pandas all go for it, okay? But the chips and the candy there, you know, you got to memorize the chapter to get it. So it's kind of the, it's the honor system, though. So, you know, we trust that you did memorize it, you quoted it to someone. And so if you did that, you know, you're welcome to get your prize, obviously one per chapter. But we want to try to encourage memorizing the Bible, especially as I'm preaching through these chapters. I think it's going to really help drive it in really well. Upcoming activities, we have our prayer meeting next week. Children's Day is going to be in three weeks. So I'm excited about it. It's going to be our first annual event. And there are going to be two sermons preached. One is kind of against, you know, All Saints Day, Halloween Day, and these dark holidays. The other one is kind of a motivation for, especially for young people, to serve God. So we'll have those sermons, and then we'll have a lot of games and activities here. We do have a Soul Winning Marathon November 1st, All Saints Day Soul Winning Marathon. Our two-year anniversary in Pampanga is coming up on November 13th. This year, we're not planning to make a push to bring, like, lots of people down from our church family. Obviously, if someone's able to come down, that would be great. But it's just kind of, you know, Magulo and Mahikpit, depending on the borders and stuff like that. So we don't want to get somebody stuck in the province or vice versa or whatever. But if you are planning to come and you want to come, let me know. You know, we'd love to have anyone who's able to come. Our building now is a lot smaller than it was because we're renting, you know, yearly our building. But if anyone wants to come, just let me know. And our three-year anniversary here is going to be on November 28th. So that's coming just in less than two months. So that's exciting. Let's see. Upcoming tournaments, ping pong and table tennis. This is the one people have been pushing me to have, like, for a while. Everyone's like, table tennis, table tennis. You know, and the board's great because it folds. It doesn't take up space. Let me just say, I love ping pong. It's not like I was holding off in the tournament because I'm terrible at it. I love ping pong. It's one of my favorite games. So I'm excited about that tournament. I'm happy to finish second again. I know that's what's going to take place. I always finish second at every single competition that we have. So, hey, whoever beats me, good job, right? No, I'm just kidding. But we also are going to be planning a chess tournament. But this year the chess tournament is not going to be like, you know, when Franklin and I played, the game was, like, over two hours long. Like, it takes up so much time, so you're probably going to have a time limit where you do your move and, you know, you have to click the button or whatever. It's a lot different. When I played Brother Alex, I was just like, man, he destroyed me. I'm like, I need time to think about these moves. So, but basically the goal will be to try to get the tournament done in one day or two days. So it definitely changes things where you're on a time limit and everything. So we're going to plan on that as well. And let's see, current and upcoming series, we are in the Book of Psalms and then on Genesis on Tuesdays. And then information on our group chat. Then on the back there is a place for sermon notes for the sermons here today. So I believe that's it for announcements. And we'll have Brother Marlon lead us in another song. And for our next song, let's turn to hymn number 246. Hymn number 246. Let's sing a song, ready? Hymn number 246 on the first, all together now, ready? Sing. Here we go. Here we go. I sing for I cannot be silent. His love is the theme of my song. Be dear, be dear. Be dear God of God of the Lamb. Be dear, be dear. His child and forever I am. I know I shall see in His beauty. Working in His love I do lie. All are in His heart and my good steps. And He will be strong in the night. Be dear, be dear. Be dear God of God of the Lamb. Be dear, be dear. His child and forever I am. Now let's take the offering. When the mighty men of Israel saw that they were in a strait, for the people were distressed, then the people that hide themselves were straight for the people were distressed and the people did hide themselves in cave and Samuel had appointed but Samuel came not to Gilgal and the people were scattered from him and Saul said bring hither a burnt offering to me and a peace offering and he offered the burnt offering and it came to pass that as soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt offering behold Samuel came and Saul went out to meet him that he might salute him and Samuel said what is thou done and Saul said because I saw that the people were scattered from me and that thou camest not within the days appointed and that the Philistines gathered themselves together to make match that the soul that was done foolishly that was not kept the commandments of the Lord thy God which he commanded thee for now the Lord have established thy kingdom upon Israel forever but now thy kingdom shall not continue the Lord had taught him a man after his own heart and the Lord had commanded him to be captain over his people because that was not kept at which the Lord commanded thee and Samuel arose and get him up from Gilgal into Gibeah Benjamin and Saul numbered the people that were present with him about 600 men and Saul and Jonathan his son and the people that were present with him abode in Gibeah Benjamin but at Philistines and Camden make match and the spoilers came out of the camp of Philistines and three companies one company turned into the way that leaded to Oprah and to the land of Shoah and another company turned the way to Betharon and another company turned to the way the border that look it to the valley of Zeboim toward the wilderness now there was no Smith found throughout all the land of Israel but the Philistines said lest the Hebrews make them soldiers spears but all these relates went down to the Philistines to sharpen every man his share and his culture and his accent is matter yet they had a file format for the matrix and for the cultures and for the forks and for the axis and to sharpen the goats so it came to pass in the day of battle that there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people that were with Saul and Jonathan but it's so long with Jonathan his son was there found and a garrison of the Philistines went out to the passage of Mi'kmaq amen blessing of God's word let us pray Lord God in heaven we thank you before the states were given to us if we're literally blessed over stay gave us wisdom and knowledge of the Holy Ghost the Lord to hear it to preach the word Lord is they love you in Jesus I pray all right we are here in first Samuel chapter 13 and the name of this sermon is four excuses for our sins four excuses for our sins and so before we get into that let me just go through the verses here that lead up to the excuses that King Saul makes let us look at verse number five here in the chapter first Samuel 13 verse 5 and the Philistines gathered themselves together to fight with Israel 30,000 chariots and 6,000 horsemen and people as a sandwich is on the seashore in multitude and they came up and pitched in Mi'kmaash eastward and from Beth haven so obviously we know that King Saul is the king of Israel and he's basically the political leader at this time and he's going into a battle and they are outnumbered there are a lot more with the Philistines than there are with the Israelites it says in verse 7 for being nailed to the aton to life it's referring to a being basically in a very thin position and it says for the people were distressed then the people did hide themselves in caves and in thickets and in rocks and in high places and in pits so basically battle and they don't really have much room to what are we gonna do and they're following him trembling and he tarried seven days according to the set time that Samuel had appointed but Samuel came not to Gilgal and the people were scattered from him so basically Saul has to wait until Samuel gets here cuz Samuel's gonna be making the burnt offering now here's the thing Saul is the political leader he's not the spiritual leader though the spiritual leader is Samuel so Saul has to wait for Samuel to do this and of course people are scattered you know they're going away they're afraid so I would presume King Saul is telling them hey we just got to wait a little bit longer Samuel's gonna be here just wait one more day wait a couple more hours and he's trying to encourage them and saying hey he's about to come and then he doesn't come on time right there's a set time and then Samuel is not there during that time period and they're already losing members they're outnumbered they're afraid for their lives and then King Saul basically gets desperate verse 9 and Saul said bring hither a burnt offering to me and peace offerings and he offered the burnt offering and it came to pass that as soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt offering behold Samuel came and saw went out to meet him that he might salute him this is oftentimes what happens in our life when we do something wrong it's like the answer was just right there we had to wait a little bit longer right people oftentimes jump in the wrong decisions and commit sins and do wrong and if they would just wait a little bit longer and then there's Samuel coming out to meet him it's like all he had to do is to wait a little bit longer but he makes the burnt offering now I would say it's hard for us to comprehend how big of a sin this is but just realize that this is why Saul gets replaced as the king it's obviously serious to God he's not the spiritual leader it was not his authority or position to do this verse number 10 and Samuel said what has thou done what did you do right you know you did wrong so Samuel's rebuked not supposed to offer the burnt offering you know what has thou done notice what it says here in verse 11 and Saul said because I messed up and I chose to do wrong is that what Saul says because you know what I I got scared and I made a wrong choice is that what Saul does does he admit to his mistake nope and Saul said because I saw that the people were scattered from me I saw that the people were scattered from me what is King Saul doing he's blaming his followers right the first words out of his mouth when Samuel rebukes him why did you do this because I saw the people were scattered from me my followers messed up that's the reason why I did it not that it's my fault it's not really wrong I had to do it because of the situation right there's a lot of Baptist churches why are you why do you have rock music in your services because people are scattered they don't come to church unless we have rock music it's not my fault I mean I have to do it because of the fact people won't come to church unless we have rock music right and the first thing out of Saul's mouth is my followers screwed up they send they did wrong he doesn't take responsibility himself now go to Exodus 32 Exodus 32 Exodus 32 this is a common excuse people make they oftentimes blame their followers for the mistakes they make they screw up as the leader or something goes wrong and instead of taking responsibility they just say well it's the followers fault right now look a good quote I've heard before is that a good leader shares the credit and takes the blame so if things go well you praise everybody for a great job that we did and you know what there's truth to that because of the fact it's a team effort right you know in a church setting if we're successful it is a team effort it's not an individual effort but a good leader is going to take the blame when things go wrong you say why is it a hundred percent your fault no but if it's five percent my fault then I should take the blame for my responsibility and say I could have done a better job and usually in life it's not a hundred percent on one side in a hundred it's usually a mixture and look you know we in our lives need to be willing to take responsibility and not just blame other people right you know men who would say man I'm a husband and I want to serve God I really do love God but you don't understand my wife doesn't it's not my fault right I'm the leader my wife just does not want to serve God that's why I don't read the Bible that's why I don't go to church that's why I don't pray because my wife doesn't want to go you know what am I supposed to do right well you know you need to take responsibility as the leader and not blame the followers Exodus 32 here's a great example this is obviously a very famous chapter because this is where they worship the golden calf okay and it says in Exodus 32 verse 19 and it came to pass as soon as he came nine of the camp that he saw the calf and the dancing and Moses angered waxed hot and he cast the tables out of his hands and break them beneath them out now idolatry is a very wicked sin in the Bible but idolatry is not isolated to that in and of itself because associated with it are a lot of other sins and when you read this chapter the Bible is being discreet but I think it's pretty obvious drunkenness and fornication are sins that are going on in the congregation those are some pretty major sins right I mean when it's saying dancing it's like dancing is not necessarily a sin because oftentimes the word dance is mentioned in a good light in the Bible obviously this dancing the whole was a sin right obviously the music's wrong and the dancing is going to line up with what the music is obviously what they're doing is very sinful because Moses sees the dancing and he's very angry right there worshiping the calf he sees the dancing it's like I've only been gone for a short time talking to God and now all the sudden there's just this this party that's going on it's like what in the world and then it says here in verse 19 and Moses anger waxed hot and he cast the tables out of his hands and break them beneath them out so Moses basically breaks the Ten Commandments you know that it's written on those tablets and he took the calf which they had made and burn it in the fire and ground it to powder and straddled upon the water and made the children of Israel drink of it now the next time somebody says brother sucky you're too harsh as a leader I've never made you drink gold as a punishment right because I have never made you do something I mean I'm assuming this is kind of poisonous to your health right I don't I don't know I've never you know read a nutritional guide on drinking this but you know Moses is very angry and he makes them drink of it it says verse 21 and Moses said unto Aaron what did this people unto thee that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them see Aaron was left in charge while Moses and Joshua were gone and then Moses says to Aaron you know what could these people have possibly done to you that would cause you to make a golden cap because look idolatry is a pretty major sin I mean you don't have to get very far in the Ten Commandments to hit a couple sins that highlight idolatry the first and second especially the second but also the first I mean are highlighting idolatry like worshiping false gods right I mean like idolatry is basically not hiding the fact that you worship a false god right I mean many people worship false gods but when you have an idol it's like you're making it very obvious and then they make a golden cap to worship and then he says to Aaron you know what did these people do on you to cause you to allow this major sin to take place now look if you're ever in this sort of situation where you're the leader and you screw up and you're caught red-handed your response ought to be I have no excuse I messed up I sinned I'm not justified for my action right I mean if something goes wrong and you're the leader you have to take responsibility if you're on a job and you're the manager of five employees underneath you and then they screw up the project and you get asked by the head office manager the head CEO you know why is this messed up you can't just say well they screwed up the project it's their fault it's like no it's actually partially your fault because you are the leader and you have to take responsibility for that but see this is not what Aaron does notice what it says verse 22 and Aaron said let not the anger of my lord wax hot thou know it's the people that they are set on mischief and Aaron says you know don't get too angry I mean you know the people are just really sinful they're set on mischief they want to do wrong and what is Aaron doing he's shifting the blame from himself on to the people right look Aaron should take responsibility now look is there truth to the fact that the followers messed up in the situation with King Saul yes what King Saul was correct the people were scattered from him that doesn't mean it's okay for you to offer the burnt offering is what Aaron said true yeah you know what there's truth right the people are set on mischief that's a true statement but that is not a justification for you doing wrong in making a golden calf go to Joshua 24 Joshua 24 Joshua 24 look if you're a husband in this room you know you're responsible for your household if your house is not serving God you have to take responsibility for that now I'm not saying that there's not truth to the fact that maybe the rest of your family doesn't want to serve God but you can't just blame them you must take responsibility as the head of that household right and this is what we see in Joshua 24 verse 15 it's a very famous verse but let's read it here Joshua 24 verse 15 and if it seemed evil unto you to serve the Lord choose you this day whom you will serve whether the gods which your father served that were on the other side of the flood or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord because here's the thing if you are a leader you must be willing to take responsibility for the followers make sure my whole family does it you say why Joshua is the leader of his home and as the leader you must take responsibility for your position in authority of leadership and if things go wrong you must be willing to take the blame right and look if you're the leader things are gonna go wrong sometimes writing we're not perfect none of us are a perfect leader right I mean if you're the leader sometimes you've screwed up if you're honest with yourself see I'm willing to raise my hand and say you know what in the three years of running this church I've made a lot of mistakes you know that doesn't make me weak by admitting my mistakes it's called actually taking responsibility when mistakes go happen and when things go wrong and then making the appropriate changes right I mean if things go wrong you got to be willing to take responsibility and look if you're a leader don't tell me you do a perfect job you're a husband in this room oh I'm the perfect husband I am perfect I am like 100% the greatest leader ever it's just like man I am just awesome you know what if that's if that's your attitude is probably because you're not a good leader right you're probably just extremely prideful there's probably a lot of mistakes that you're making look if you're a leader you're gonna make mistakes be willing to admit it when you screw up go to 1st Samuel 12 1st Samuel 12 1st Samuel 12 now look if you're a good follower you will appreciate if your leader is willing to take responsibility for things going wrong think about at your job you have a project and you what you screw up you you have a project and you make a mistake and then you know you're sort of in trouble but your boss takes responsibility says yeah you know I should have done a better job explaining this it makes you feel so much better because you're afraid right I've been at work before you make a mistake on the project I'm like oh I hope he doesn't scream at me it's just like and then you know the boss says you know that you know he takes responsibility even if I know even if I know I'm 80% wrong for what took place when the boss is willing to take responsibility it's like man it makes you feel better and you want to fix the problem because of the fact your boss is nice right and a good leader is willing to humble themselves and take responsibility when things go wrong King Saul though the people are scattered from me what why is it that God I mean Aaron's the older brother why is it God showed those chose Moses instead of Aaron because when Aaron screws up it's like well you know the people of course I'm gonna screw up right I mean these people it's like what do you expect me to do God first Samuel 12 let me say this though we're in first Samuel 12 there's truth to what King Saul saying I'm not denying the fact that there is truth to what King Saul saying because notice what it says in first Samuel 12 verse 13 first Samuel 12 verse 13 now therefore behold the king whom ye have chosen in whom ye have desired and behold the Lord hath set a king over you if you will fear the Lord and serve him and obey his voice and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord then shall both ye and also the king that reigneth over you continue following the Lord your God you know what Samuel says if you are obedient and follow God's will not only will you keep following God but so will your leader so will your king right and doesn't this make sense I mean think about it if everyone's going out so winning I'm probably going to keep going so winning myself I mean if everybody's doing the Bible memorization challenges or a lot of people are I'm probably going to do the Bible memorization challenge too but think about when we do our January New Testament challenge if I'm the only one who does the reading which is not going to take place but let's just say that you know I'll probably just stop doing that every year as a push because it's kind of embarrassing right to push for it have it in the bulletin it's like all right who finished the challenge nobody right so all right we got so winning at 2 15 p.m. all right let's go and then I'm up here singing everybody's gone it's just like I mean realistically if if the followers are doing a good job and are motivated it's going to keep the leader motivated however let's say nobody read the Bible in January does that mean it's okay for me not to do it let nobody does the memorization let's say those chips and those candy back there start to get moldy four years from now because nobody's doing it right it's like well I'm just gonna quit because nobody else is doing the memorization look as the leader I'm not justified just because followers might make a mistake or do wrong right you're not justified just because you're it's like brother Stuckey you know I know I should read the Bible but my wife doesn't read the Bible so I don't read the Bible what kind of an excuse is that right I know I should go so winning but you know my kids don't want to go so I don't go my wife doesn't want to go so I don't go right that's not a justification for doing wrong just because others are doing wrong you can't just blame the leader and say or blame the followers and say I would do a good job leading if they would do a good job following well how about do a good job leading and maybe the followers would do a good job following right go to Genesis 37 Genesis 37 there's truth to what King Saul said because Samuel specifically said from the mouth of God that if the people keep serving God so will their leader and it makes perfect logical sense because if people at our church are zealous to serve God I'm probably going to keep my zeal to serve God right I mean people are going so winning and reading the Bible and coming to church and excited for the things of God I'll probably stay excited you know why that is because iron sharpened it iron and look all of us are iron it's not like I'm above iron and I sharpen myself no iron sharpened with iron and you motivate me I motivate you we all motivate each other because we are one body different parts of the same body it's not like you're the body and I'm up here looking at the body and just it's like no I'm part of the body right and see if the followers do a good job it will keep the leader motivated but look it's not a valid excuse to screw up as the leader just because the followers messed up their job let me give you another example in Genesis 37 and you know there's this character in the Bible Reuben and of course last week we talked about unstable as water and that's a reference to Reuben okay and Reuben was a failure in life because he was unstable as water so we're gonna look at Reuben a little bit more here and realize that Reuben was a leader you say what do you mean he was a leader he was the oldest brother out of 12 that naturally makes you the leader right I mean if you have younger brothers younger sisters you are the leader you're the kuya right you're responsible right my dad told me this story before where he was inside his house growing up and his younger brother was about seven years younger and all of a sudden he heard yelling on the back or on the front porch my dad comes outside and there's like these three teens that want to beat up his brother my dad had absolutely no idea what what took place I don't think he knows to this date but my dad said go inside and then my dad just stood to face those three you say why he's the older brother you're responsible right I mean if you have I'm the youngest out of two okay but if you're the oldest there's a sense of responsibility that should be born inside of you hey it's my job to take care of my brothers and sisters because I'm kuya I'm the oldest brother right I'm responsible for those and look Reuben is the oldest of 12 who should be responsible Reuben right we'll notice this story in Genesis 37 verse 19 and they said one to another behold this dreamer cometh come now therefore and let us slay him and cast him into some pit and we will say some evil beast hath devoured him and we will see what will become of his dreams now look obviously all brothers fight but this is to another level okay it's like when he comes we're gonna kill him well notice what it says in verse 21 and Reuben heard it so Reuben heard it he didn't plan it but he heard it now remember he's the older brother so he's responsible to make sure he takes care of Joseph right and Reuben heard it and he delivered him out of their hands and said let us not kill him now here's the thing if you stop in your Bible at the end of verse 21 Reuben will seem like a good character and if you passively read over these chapters Reuben seems like a pretty solid character but I would argue he's the worst out of the 12 and if you read very closely you're gonna see that I preached a sermon several years ago where I talked about how Reuben was a bad apple and he was always a bad apple and I'm gonna prove it to you here notice what it says in verse 22 and Reuben said on to them shed no blood but cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness and lay no hand upon him that he might rid him out of their hands to deliver him to his father again now look Reuben doesn't allow them to kill Joseph but he says let's just throw him in a pit well it's not exactly a great job defending him either it's not like you know he's saying you better make sure you don't touch him it's kind of like okay I mean it's like if that's his younger brother and they're threatening to kill him shouldn't he be by his side to make sure nothing happens to him I mean if somebody's threatening to kill your youngest brother shouldn't you as the oldest brother make sure you stay right beside and say no you're not doing anything you do it to him you want it to me right but Reuben throws him in a pit now he does want his brother to go back to his father but you have to understand why that is go to verse 29 verse 29 and Reuben returned on to the pits and behold Joseph was not in the pit and he rent his clothes now here's my question where were you Reuben I mean ask yourself that question you're reading this story they just threatened to kill Joseph and then all of a sudden you're like hey don't kill him put him in a pit and then he just kind of leaves it's like well I trust nothing's gonna happen to Joseph I mean are you an idiot right I mean they just threatened to kill him and you're leaving him you're not protecting him right and it says we're I mean sad he's mourning he's renting his clothes you say brother Stuckey seems like he really cares about his brother well notice what it says in verse 30 and he returned on to his brethren and said the child is not and I wither shall I go see out of his own mouth he condemns himself because it shows what's in his heart because all Reuben cares about is himself now why would he say wither shall I go where am I gonna go why would he make that sort of statement because he's afraid he's getting get in trouble with Jacob he's afraid his dad is gonna be mad at him you say why he's the oldest brother responsible and so he his brother's gone and he doesn't ask hey what happened to Joseph he said the child is not what am I gonna do I'm in trouble as the oldest brother you know what am I gonna do I mean I was responsible hey maybe you should have stayed beside your brother to make sure nothing bad happened right now go to Genesis 42 let me show you a little bit more and actually I think I preached a sermon when I was in Sacramento I don't think I preached it here I could be wrong but if you're familiar with the story isn't it true that all the other brothers come around right and all the other brothers end up loving Joseph and feeling bad and everything well all of them except one Reuben and if you remember the story you know Jacob is like really worried about what's going to take place he's worried for his youngest son Benjamin and everything and Reuben's like hey I will make sure to bring him back and deliver him and if I do not then then kill my sons it's like what it's like don't don't worry I'm gonna handle the situation if I don't handle it you can kill Zephaniah and Christabel what right I mean that's not exactly a loving father that's called only caring about yourself isn't it but what did Judah say Judah said if I don't bring him back I'm responsible and you know what here's the thing Jacob didn't even listen to Reuben he basically ignored it you say why because he knew his oldest son was untrustworthy but he left it in the hands of Judah who was not the oldest why because he knew he could trust the word of Judah right he knew that Reuben said a lot of stuff to promote himself but it was all talk he never actually delivered and the fact that he said my sons you can kill if I don't deliver shows that he didn't actually have any real care about anyone except himself he just wanted to look good to Jacob you say why Jacob had some money I mean there's an inheritance there he wants to make sure he doesn't lose that inheritance of being the oldest brother I mean this is a truth I mean I encourage you I mean I don't have time to go into it but I encourage you when you're reading Genesis pay close attention and Reuben is a bad apple and he never gets it right and this is proven in chapter 42 because notice this chapter 42 verse 21 and they said one to another we are very guilty concerning our brother because if you remember this story Joseph is pretending not to understand them because they assume he doesn't speak the language but he understands everything they're saying they don't recognize him and they realize man we're in trouble because God is basically testing them and they're realizing we're guilty we screwed up and it says in that we saw the anguish of his soul when he besought us and he wouldn't and we would not hear therefore is this distress come upon us so obviously when they're throwing him he's scared he's probably begging for mercy pleading for mercy please you know rescue me forgive me if I did something wrong I'm sorry and they sell him into slavery I'm sure Joseph is begging for his life right but they had no mercy when they saw the anguish but don't you see all these brothers admitting they screwed up they're taking responsibility verse 22 and Reuben answered them saying spake I not on to you saying do not sin against the child and ye would not hear therefore also be therefore behold also his blood is required what does Reuben say hey I told you you didn't listen you messed up but not me as a leader I didn't do anything wrong I mean I wasn't there to protect my brother I was just off on a journey doing whatever I didn't exactly deliver him but this is this is over a debt not willing to take responsibility when you screw up I mean if you screw up you just admit I messed up I sinned I did wrong I'm not gonna blame Judah I'm not gonna blame leave I should have done a better job protecting my brother and you know what but he says ye he doesn't say we he says ye right he's blaming them all the other brothers are willing to admit they screwed up but not Reuben because Reuben only ever cared about himself and it's very obvious when you pay attention to what he's saying but see as a leader you can't blame your followers if things go wrong go to 1st Samuel 13 1st Samuel 13 1st Samuel chapter 13 now is there truth to what Reuben said absolutely he didn't plan to kill Joseph that wasn't his plan there's truth to it I'm not saying there's not truth but what I'm saying is Reuben should have still protected him he screwed up as a leader and here's what I'm saying you and your life you're thinking of situations where you as a leader have been overseeing something and it did not work out and you let your excuse probably has some truth to it you're probably not telling a bold-faced lie it's probably true that yes the followers messed up but how is that a valid excuse if you're the leader you're responsible right so if things went wrong you can't just say well the followers screwed up right you know well you know if Pastor Menes came here it's like brother second why do we have rock music in the service well that's what people wanted what do you what do you want me to do it's not my fault but brother say why is there a golden calf up here it's like you know the people I mean they're set on mischief you know what am I supposed to do right it's not a valid excuse now would there be truth to it well of course there'd be truth if everybody was saying rock music rock music golden calf gold but that doesn't mean that you're justified the first thing we see King Saul do is he blames the followers 1st Samuel 13 verse 11 and Samuel said what hast thou done right and on gina gina wah mo what did you do and Saul said because I saw that the people were scattered from me he blames the followers then notice this in that thou camest not within the days appointed now he blames the leader because King Saul is the political leader but Samuel is the spiritual leader and he does something spiritually wrong and what does he say thou camest not within the days appointed what is he doing now he's blaming the leader not only did the followers screw up but you screwed up try this at your job you get in trouble by your head manager he gives you a project to oversee it gets screwed up everything goes bad he rebukes you well I mean the people screwed up and you know what you should have done a better job leading me well good luck lasting at that job brother second I don't know why I keep getting fired from jobs well I wonder why it's just it's a mystery to me too right I mean if you're gonna blame the followers and blame the leader of course you're gonna get fired of course you're gonna fail because then you can't be trusted as a leader or a follower that's a pretty difficult situation right I mean if you're not good at being a leader or a follower well good luck with anything in life right and see what King Saul does is he blames Samuel the leader now is there truth to what he's saying yes there's truth to it Samuel did not come within the days appointed we don't know why the Bible doesn't give us the reason what took place but it doesn't mean your actions are okay because the leader screwed up go to Exodus 15 Exodus 15 I'm just think about maybe at some of your old churches you say brother stuck you know I don't read my Bible but but my pastor didn't read his Bible either I didn't go so winning but my pastor didn't go so winning so it's not my fault I mean he doesn't go so winning I'm not gonna go so winning he doesn't read this Bible I'm not gonna raise Bob now is there truth that yeah I doubt your old pastor did read his Bible I doubt he did go so winning that doesn't mean it's okay for you not to though just because your leader is messing up doesn't mean it's okay for you to you say brother Stuckey you know my parents don't want to serve God that doesn't mean it's okay for you not to serve God you still need to read the Bible too my husband doesn't want to read the Bible and doesn't want to serve God you're still responsible as the wife or the kids or whoever you are it doesn't matter if your leader screws up you need to do right I mean if your boss shows up an hour late to work every day it doesn't mean it's okay for you to show an hour up an hour late you still have to get there on time and do your job whether your boss is doing his job or not right my old boss in Maryland you know he was very good at what he did but he sort of went on to a retire into retirement his last five years while he was still an employee where it's basically like he didn't really take it all that seriously and you know unfortunately there's litigation I just read online this big lawsuit of things because it was so much below the mistakes and everything like that but here's the thing about it just because you know my boss wasn't doing his job doesn't mean I can just stroll into work three hours late and just say well you know I'll just you know just write down what just add you know four thousand eight hundred seventy five right now I saw people do that on the job the numbers don't match up it's like just just add a hundred thousand to it well you can't really do that okay there's a reason why those formulas are there and if it's not working out you know you can trick the numbers into looking when you're making long-term projections but you're gonna have a lot of problems because it just gets more messed up every single year and then you get sued and then that's all over Google right that's what takes place what I'm saying is just because you know my boss did that it doesn't mean it would be okay for me to just cheat the system show up late for work you still have to do your job go to Exodus 15 now throughout the books of Moses through Exodus to Deuteronomy one of the major things you see is people complaining about the leadership isn't that a big thing you see always complaining against Moses always complaining against Aaron always complaining against these people we're only gonna look at a couple of them but Exodus 15 verse 22 so Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea and they went out into the wilderness of Shur and they went three days in the wilderness and found no water so they're without water for three days and when they came to Mara they could not drink of the waters of Mara for they were bitter therefore the name of it was called Mara and the people murmured against Moses saying what shall we drink Moses what are we gonna drink it's your responsibility to make sure that we have something to drink it's your fault that it didn't work out now in this instance there's there's really 0% blame to Moses because he doesn't have water he's the one leading he doesn't know where God's gonna provide that from so this is actually a situation where the followers are 100% to blame right but it's just like what do they do well they blame Moses things don't work out in our lives hey Moses you're the spiritual leader it's your job to fix it Moses is probably thinking I'm thirsty too right you know I don't know where God's gonna provide the deliverance go to Exodus 16 Exodus 16 Exodus chapter 16 Exodus 16 verse 2 and the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness and the children of Israel said unto them would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt when we sat by the flesh pots and when we did eat bread to the full for you have brought us forth into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger now they're saying where's our food there's nothing to drink there's nothing to eat hey Moses you brought us into this wilderness to kill us it's like yeah Moses is some cult leader who just lied to you and is just trying to bring you all there to kill you I mean Moses is probably thinking I didn't sign up for this I said no many times and God got mad at me and I was like all right I'll do it and then all of a sudden this is what I have to deal with right but what are they doing well they're blaming Moses for everything that's going wrong look it's not Moses's fault I mean why did they wander around for 40 years in the wilderness was that Moses's fault it was their fault for being disobedient it was their fault for being rebellious let's jump jump forward to numbers 20 numbers 20 numbers 20 look when things don't work out you can't just blame the leader and say well it's his responsibility it's his fault anyway this is a tendency we see from the Bible but also in people's lives sometimes they take this where if things don't work out in their life it's it's automatically the church's fault or brother Stuckey's fault or pastor Jimenez's fault it's not my fault if things don't work out in your life right I mean it's not my fault if things go wrong you know kind of a modern-day example of this it's like you know no food no water be like brother Stuckey you know this COVID situation what are you gonna do about it it's like what do you want me to do about it I'm not locking the borders I mean I would love to have my kids you know out of prison but you know it's just like I can't really do anything about it right but isn't that the way people are they just kind of blame the leadership no matter what it's just somehow it's automatically you know your fault if things do it's it's not my fault if things don't work out it's not my fault if you have problems in your life right it's just like that's what you see though in this story they're blaming Moses for the situation numbers 20 verse 1 numbers 20 verse 1 then came the children of Israel even the whole congregation into the desert of Zen in the first month and the people of Boden Kadesh and Miriam died there and was buried there and there was no water for the congregation and they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron and the people showed with Moses and spake saying would God that we had died when our brethren died before the Lord and it's like you know what I wish that we had just died earlier it's just like they're gathering together against Moses and Aaron it's like it would have been better off just dying right verse 4 and why have you brought up the congregation of the Lord into this wilderness that we and our cattle should die there and wherefore have you made us to come up out of Egypt to bring us in onto this evil place it is no place of seed or figs or vines or pomegranates neither is there any water to drink once again they blame Moses where's our food where's our drink it's your responsibility go down to verse 10 verse 10 now I'm kind of I'm kind of this is this ties into brother Mateus this sermon that he's gonna be preaching this week so I don't want to say too much you're gonna be talking about Egypt and stuff like this but but they're blaming Moses for this situation is as if it's his fault and this is something people often do that they'll blame the leader right in a spiritual sense but also in your secular jobs or whatever situation people oftentimes if things don't work out it's not because I messed up it's because my leader my boss my manager they messed up I would have done right but unfortunately my leader didn't do right therefore I didn't do right or therefore my life is messed up it's not your leader's fault if you have problems in your life that's just a very weak excuse that people give blame the follower blame the leader now here's the thing notice the reaction of Moses here in verse 10 and Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock and he said unto them here now you rebels must we fetch you water out of this rock and Moses lifted up his hand and with his rod he smoked the rock twice and the water came out abundantly and the congregation drank and their beasts also so Moses smites the rock twice he was not supposed to do this and this event is why he does not enter the Promised Land now here's the thing you know we're talking about blaming the leader but here's the thing Moses could not say it's because of the followers that's why I messed up now there would certainly be truth to that because Moses had some pretty obnoxious followers but you still disobeyed what God said right you can't blame the followers you can't blame the leader you can't make excuses for situations in your life turn your Bible to first Samuel 13 first Samuel 13 look if if if you're a follower then you know what your leader should actually care about you and love you whether it's your husband whether it's your father your mother or even as the spiritual leader I should actually care about the members the Bible says laying down your life but if your leader does not do their job you should still be a good follower you should still show the leader respect kids need to show their parents respect whether the parents are doing their job or not wives need to show their husband's respect whether the husband's doing a great job or not you say but brother sucky you don't know my husband well it doesn't change what's written in the Bible though and we live in a day 2021 where you know this idea of respecting authority is just kind of thrown out the window in all situations but you know God set up a system of authority in all areas of life and we don't always agree with the decisions of the authority but we have to respect that and go with that decision right I mean I don't think there's anybody in the world who fully a hundred percent agrees with everything that their government decides but I do believe we're supposed to respect and follow what the government decides even if we don't agree right I don't teach rebelling against their government just because we disagree some with some things we're supposed to obey what they said because we're the followers that's a system that was set up by God there's an authority structure and any authority structure you're supposed to obey the authority unless they ask you to do wrong it's it's really not that complicated it's just people don't like that they're like I I should be able to disobey what I want to disobey right well I mean if you do that you're gonna be a bad follower and here's the thing you know you're never gonna be a good leader unless you learn to follow first because the first step in being successful is humbling yourself it's not like you know I graduated Bible College and all of a sudden I'm a pastor right it's like no I've been at churches for a long time just you know doing whatever to try to be a blessing of the church and everything you have to learn to be a follower before you're a leader that's just the way it works first Samuel 13 the first thing King Saul does notice in verse 11 and Samuel said what has thou done what did you do and Saul said because I saw that the people were scattered from me blames the followers and that thou camest not within the days appointed blames the leader and that the Philistines gather themselves together at Micmash blames the situation blames the circumstance first he blames the followers then he blames a leader then he says I'm just in an unusual difficult situation and he says I'm justified for doing wrong because of a difficult situation go to Genesis 12 Genesis 12 Genesis 12 look it's wrong to offer that burnt offering whether you're in a difficult situation or not right just because you're in a difficult situation doesn't mean thus saith the Lord becomes thus saith the Lord if you want it to be hey it's thus saith the Lord it's like brother stuck you don't understand you know it's like I'm in this difficult situation that's why I'm doing wrong that is not a good excuse for why you do wrong you know it's it's kind of like the name an example it's like well I'm gonna I'm gonna pretend to worship this false god because I might lose my job that's not a valid excuse it's like I'm glad you got saved name in but quit worshipping the false god it's like brother stuck you my whole family's Catholic you know I know this isn't you know actually a god but I have this in my house to make my Catholic family happy it's still wrong for you to have an idol in your house it's not justifiable just because of the circumstance just because of the peer pressure just because you're scared or a difficult situation it doesn't make it right to do wrong it's still wrong and you can't sit here and say well you know I screwed up but is the circumstance your brother second that's why I did that right because I was in a tough circumstance Genesis 12 verse 10 Genesis 12 verse 10 Genesis 12 verse 10 and there was a famine in the land so there's a famine in the land there's there's you know obviously little food and a brabrand went down into Egypt to sojourn there for the famine was grievous in the land so there's a famine in the land in Abram leaves this area to go to Egypt now there's nothing inherently sinful about any country or location but the idea is this that he was in a place where he was able to serve God and he went to a place Egypt where he's not able to serve God for example if you're at this church you've got a good church you don't have a perfect church but we go soul-winning we preach the word your round like-minded people I believe it would be wrong to go to another location where there is no good church for the purpose of money now I don't think it's wrong though if you get a job offer you say brother Stuckey I got a job offer in Sacramento California well that'd probably be very unlikely but yes that's where Verity Baptist Church is you know go for it right there's a great church there so if you're gonna move from an area with a good church where you're able to serve God make sure you go to an area where you're still able to serve God well I mean there's Baptist Church everywhere brother Stuckey yeah but not all that call themselves Baptists are actually Baptists right and so Abram goes to Egypt and notice it says to sojourn there what does that mean to sojourn it basically means temporarily right what is it pansemantala is the word like temporarily that's what it means to sojourn meaning Abraham was not planning to live there permanently he's so joining meaning hey I'm staying here while there's a famine and then I'm gonna come back right and this is what a lot of people do they say brother Stuckey you know I'm not reading the Bible now but I just got this thing for six months I'm not gonna be able to read the Bible or go to church or serve God but in six months I'll start serving God that would be wrong to say I'm gonna just sojourn it where I'm not gonna be able to serve God for just six months just a year you know that's six months usually turns into six years right that one year usually turns into ten years right the idea that you're gonna sojourn for three months and it's just gonna be three months that's probably not gonna be the case and it's never the case in the Bible Abraham goes down to Egypt and he truly does sojourn here because of all the problems that take place but notice this the famines grievous in the land verse 11 and it came to pass when he's come near to enter into Egypt that he said unto Sarai his wife behold behold now I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon he says you know my wife is very beautiful therefore it shall come to pass when the Egyptians shall see thee that they shall say this is his wife and they will kill me but they will save thee alive and so he says you know what they're gonna think that you know if they know you're my wife they're gonna kill me so they can have you say I pray thee thou art my sister that it may be well with me for thy sake and my soul shall live because of thee and so Abram tells you know his wife just just say that we're brother and sister that way they don't kill me now look this is just bizarre right it's like telling you tell you tell your wife oh yeah as we go to this area just pretend to be my sister so they don't kill me well what about your wife right maybe you're making the wrong choice by going into Egypt if your first thing is I'm really afraid we're I'm really afraid we're gonna be killed or I'm gonna be killed so just pretend to be my sister right now I will say this on the side note I'm not saying whether they were or not but actually there's no verse in the Bible that says Abraham and Sarah are brother and sister the only thing we have is Abraham saying oh no it she actually is my sister she's my half sister there's actually no verse that says they're brother and sister whether they were or not that's kind of up for you to decide I don't actually think that they were brother and sister half brother and sister I could be wrong because the Bible doesn't say but the only thing we know is Abraham saying I know it's considered a fact and hey maybe it is true but the only thing we have is out of the mouth of someone who was already lying saying no we actually are brother and sister oftentimes people cover up a lie with another lie to try to lighten the sentence so maybe he's telling the truth maybe it is his half sister but there's actually not a verse in the Bible and I encourage you you can read the Bible you know correct me if I'm wrong if you find something but other than Abraham's own mouth but whether they are or not obviously you're being deceiving by saying she's my sister whether they're half brother and sister or not and obviously you're doing wrong and you say where is this coming from well I mean brother Stuckey it's not his fault he had a difficult situation well first off he's the one who chose to go to Egypt it wasn't right to go to Egypt to begin with and you can't say it's a difficult situation so we're just gonna do wrong that doesn't justify your action it's not okay to do wrong because you're in a tough situation look all of us are gonna come to tough situations in life if every time you're in a difficult situation you just do whatever's in your own heart and commit sin and do wrong you're gonna be doing that your whole life because life is difficult life is hard life as trials life as tribulations and you know what sometimes you're tempted to do wrong and look one thing we see in the Bible is that with something with money that's probably the big thing for a guy where they could end up doing the wrong thing I know that for me personally there's nothing that scares you more than just you know taking care of your family right that makes you paranoid like oh man where's the money gonna come we need to be reminded that God said he's gonna provide our needs if we do what's right and it was not okay for Abram to go into Egypt you say brother sucky but he made lots of money well who says the money he made was a blessing he made all this money and that is why lot had to go to Sodom because they had too much and they had to separate why did lot go to Sodom because of all the money that Abraham made why did Abraham end up getting involved in Hagar Hagar the Egyptian it wasn't a blessing God didn't bless him for doing wrong it was a curse and look sometimes you know if God might give you what you want and it might destroy your life because you're not doing what God told you to do go to Ruth one let me show you another example this Ruth one Ruth one and look this is this is a common thing people do where they'll they'll just say well brother sucky I'm no longer able to come to church but you have to understand you know this is the only job and it's like so I'm just gonna have to be out of church for a couple years but I I plan to come back well you know I'm sure you do plan to come back I'm just being honest it's probably not gonna happen I mean if you just leave because of the difficult situation I mean it doesn't justify your situation of just well I'm just gonna leave and quit serving God and no longer to be in church anymore because I'm in a tough situation look a lot of people are in tough situations I mean as a result of everything that's happened with COVID a lot of people are in tough difficult situations and you got to make tough choices and it really requires strong faith during difficult times because there's a lot of people that you know are struggling due to the times and I remember when everything first started happening you know of course nobody knew or thought it would last this long and everything and you know we help various people at church and we provided some food and stuff like that I remember my wife and I were talking about this and I said well I you know I don't want to I don't want to do this forever because we were talking about should we provide more because I said I don't want people to start just relying on the church as if it's the church's responsibility because people are just gonna have to figure it out because we can't as a church just you know it's it's like of course we're gonna help people when things go difficult and stuff like that but what I'm saying is it's like this situation's been a year and a half it's like sometimes you got to adjust to the situation and things in life change sometimes I remember when I was in college in the u.s. the biggest program for engineering because I started in engineering the best field was petroleum engineering and the reason why is because oil is a precious commodity well until the government says we got to protect the environment and all of a sudden it's like the best career field in engineering all of a sudden becomes the worst in the u.s. probably the lowest paying of the career fields in engineering is civil engineering say brother Stuckey that's such a great paying job here well it's supply and demand and depending on where you live and see what you have to understand is things go through cycles where something might be very valuable and desirable and then all of a sudden it kind of fades out and it goes through cycles we don't know what's gonna happen 20 years from now is what I'm trying to tell you there's no guarantee that your job that is a very good job right now there's no guarantee it's gonna last permanently think about people that live when computers first started to become popular well a lot of jobs became obsolete because a computer does it right I mean it changed a lot of things and so think and technology is rapidly changing it could be that you have some special niche but eventually a robot's gonna do it for you I mean that's the truth and I I hope that's not the case I hope that you can have successful jobs that will last you know 20 30 40 years from now there's no guarantee we really don't know what's gonna happen and when difficult situations come you got to keep serving God but you got to just figure things out and adjust to the situation that's just the way it is Ruth one we see another example this Ruth 1 verse 1 now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled that there was a famine in the land and a certain man of Bethlehem Judah went to sojourn so once again just temporarily right in the country of Moab he and his wife and his two sons and the name of the man was a limelike and the name was wife Naomi in the name of his two sons Malon and Chilean Ephrathites of Bethlehem Judah they came into the country of Moab and continued there so basically a limelike makes a decision we've got a famine and we're gonna go to Moab which is a wicked area so the same sort of thing as Abraham now I'm sure that he knew the story of Abraham because people probably read the scriptures back then right it was important to them but he didn't apply it and here's the thing you might hear lots of sermons that could change your life if you don't apply them doesn't do you any good I hope you do these memorization challenges and reading challenges and everything but if you're just if you just constantly look at the mirror and just be like yeah it doesn't matter then you're gonna have problems right I mean some I mean this morning you know where my wife and I are trying to figure out on the way up you know like we gave our son a piece of gum where did the gum go where is it then all of a sudden we get here and it's like oh part of it's on my shirt because I was carrying my son up and the rest is on my son's stomach wouldn't it be foolish though for me to say yeah I'll just have a gum stain here I said well I got my suit to cover it I'll get off as much as I can the suit covers it nobody knows but you can kind of see right but it's just like isn't it foolish though if you see a problem not to fix it nobody likes to see problems but when you see him you got to fix them that's just the way it works now here's the thing what's interesting a limelike dies his sons die in Moab so he never makes it back but you know what's amazing is that Naomi is a really great character in the Bible because show me the verse in the Bible where she blames her husband you're not gonna find it now truly if anybody could blame their husband for screwing up their life Naomi would be the person because she ended up in a foreign country and no money no husband no sons to take care of her her life was screwed up but you know what she never never blames her husband for the situation you say why because it's not a valid excuse saying well my leader screwed up you just got to take responsibility and maybe in her mind she's thinking maybe I could have tried to encourage him and and and help make him make the decision not to go to Moab it's like even if she's 1% at fault then guess what she's still 1% at fault and here's the thing even if she's 0% because it is possible that she just said no and just did what her husband said because he's the leader here's thing about this you still shouldn't complain about the leader like what's the purpose you say brother sucky my husband screwed this up so I'm just gonna let him know and point it out to him I told you what's the purpose of that you're just revealing that you're being rude of course your leader is gonna screw up something if somebody screws up you don't have to point it out I told you you should have done this I told you you should have done this I told you you should have done this it's like thank you right I really appreciate that right when things aren't going well it really helps having somebody complain and say I told you I told you I told you I told you right but see Naomi doesn't do that she actually takes the responsibility herself and she basically is very humble and her reaction and I wonder why Naomi's life ended up being blessed maybe because she had the right attitude and you know honestly it was pretty humbling for Naomi to go back anyway because it's kind of embarrassing to go back with egg on your face where it didn't work out right but she came back to serve God and you know people recognized her and they're like I mean is that is that Naomi right I mean it's a bit embarrassing but she was willing to humble herself you need to be willing to humble yourself go back to first Samuel 13 we'll close up first Samuel 13 first Samuel 13 I mean you look at two people in the Bible King Saul versus King David who committed the more grievous sins I would say King David I'd say adultery and murder is pretty high up there on the list why is it God was merciful to David he said I have sinned and when he said I have sinned he meant it right you could see through his actions and there was repercussions for sins but he was it willing to admit his wrong right glee you know I'll tree and the other Pentecostal preacher got him in trouble later on but basically he was caught with prostitutes and it became a big public thing front page of the news very famous I mean he had tens of millions of dollars or whatever hundreds of millions of dollars and he got caught and he has this famous speech where he's at his church and he's like I have sinned right I mean he said the same words as David but then a couple years later he got caught with prostitutes again and then his response was it's none of your business but when David said I have sinned you actually see the actions to prove that he was willing to take responsibility King Saul every time he got caught he blamed other people and God said I can't trust him as the leader because if he's unwilling to admit when he screwed up how could I possibly have him as my leader because if you don't admit that you screwed up you're not gonna make changes it's like okay you messed up admit it get right and make the changes but if you're not willing to admit the changes you feel justified you're not gonna change anything right first Samuel 13 verse 11 and Samuel said what hast thou done and Saul said because I saw that the people were scattered from me so first he blames the followers and that thou camest not within the days appointed now he blames the leader and that the Philistines gathered themselves together at Michmash he blames a circumstance therefore said I the Philistines will come down now upon me to Gilgal and I have not made supplication unto the Lord I forced myself therefore an offer to burn offering now he's blaming God in verse 12 now I'm sure if you were to ask him are you blaming God he would not say yes but out of his own mouth it reveals what's in his heart because he says I have not made supplication unto the Lord I mean I had to make supplication on the Lord I forced myself I didn't want to do it I forced myself right I was in this situation the followers screwed up you screwed up God required it I forced myself I mean I felt bad about it but I knew I had to do it because of the situation and everything that was happening I forced myself because God required it did God tell you to do that I mean he's blaming God but did God tell you to do that King Saul and here's the thing even though he might not publicly admit that he's blaming God you see it through his words it reveals what's in his heart but here's the thing if you're blaming your followers you're still blaming God because God gave you those followers if you're blaming your leader who gave you that leader God appointed that leader if you blame the situation who allowed you to be in that situation God allowed you to be in that difficult situation so you're indirectly blaming God on each of the three points but now just directly King Saul is blaming God in verse 12 go to Malachi 1 Malachi 1 it's a bad way to get mercy from God right blaming God is a bad way if you want to get mercy it's your fault God it's like but that's what he's doing and we actually see this in the Bible other places we're short on time I'll just show you this a couple more verses we'll close up of Malachi 1 is a great example Malachi 1 is a great example verse 11 Malachi chapter 1 verse 11 for from the rising of the Sun even on the going down of the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles and in every place incense shall be offered on to my name and a pure offering for my name shall be great among the heathen sayeth the Lord of hosts but yet profaned it in that you say the table the Lord is polluted in the fruit thereof even as meat is contemptible he said also behold what a weariness is it and you have snuffed at it sayeth the Lord of hosts and you brought that which was torn in the lame and the sick thus he brought an offering should I accept this of your hand saith the Lord what a wearing is it it's so difficult to do what God said I have to make an offering I mean it's not fair it costs money it's work what a weariness it is to serve God I have to read the Bible every day what a weariness I got to pray every day what a weariness I got to go to church every week what a weariness I got to go soul winning and get people saved what a weariness I mean it's not fair that God has given me so many responsible I can't watch this movie what a weariness to serve God I can't you know do whatever I want with my free time I can't drink alcohol if I want it I can't smoke if I want to I can't do drugs if I want what a weariness it is to serve God it's not fair I want to do this I want to do that blaming God and and and last I checked God is not actually that restrictive governments are restrictive I mean there's more than Ten Commandments in the Bible but there's not ten thousand commandments every government in the world is far more restrictive than the Word of God yeah you know what God says no to some things what a weariness it is it's not fair I mean III I'm already trying to serve God brother stuck it's not fair I just really like my Buddha statue it's I have to get rid of it it's not fair I mean it's not fair I spent my money God should reimburse me right it's not fair right what a weariness it is to serve God man it's like brother stuck in here you're trying to push this to go soul-winning and come to church and bring visitors and read the Bible there's this Bible memorization challenge what a weariness it is to serve God blaming God I didn't write the Bible I'm not the one who wrote read there in all the days of my life look if you don't read the Bible every day you're not right with God but that's just directly what God says you can't blame me because that's what's written in the Bible I mean pray without ceasing we should pray every single day it's it's not my fault if you don't pray every single day I'm not the one who required that I'm just telling you what God requires but see this is what people do they have situations in life and things don't work out and they blame God as if it's God's fault where things don't work out go to Matthew 6 let me show you just two more places we'll close up Matthew 6 and look it's true it's it's tough to serve God it's tough to do right when 90 whatever percent of the world's not saved and 90% plus of saved people don't want to serve God and the world's pushing you in directions against what the Bible says it's difficult it is hard to serve God in 2021 it's not easy but you know what it's never been easy and it's not gonna get easier if anything it's gonna get harder and if thou faint in the day of adversity thy strength is small that's what God says yeah I mean if you can't learn to run with a foot man how are you gonna keep up with the horses right I mean it's like if they worried you what are you gonna I mean it's gonna get tough you think it's tough to serve God now what if the end times happens during our lifetime you think this is tough now it's nothing compared to what it will be one day you can't blame God for your situations in life and look is it hard to serve God yeah it is but you know what God demands are very best have I done my best for Jesus you know we should strive to do as much for God as we possibly can it's not fair I mean it's not fair I mean I'm serving God I should be able to just go out and just be you know going all these fancy vacations I don't want to go to church every week I don't want to bring that Bible well here's the thing you can do what you want because God gave you free will and you want go ahead and go down that road don't read your Bible don't go to church because it's such a weariness to come to church and let's see how your life ends up and I'm not trying to say that arrogantly because I don't want your life to get messed up I'm just stating a fact that if you're not reading the Bible every day your life's gonna get messed up if you're not serving God your life's gonna get messed up right you know the Bible talks about I don't remember which chapter you know it is in Psalms but in our memorization where it's like God will give you the desires of your heart when you're seeking after him you say brother Stuckey so if I seek after him he's gonna let me drink alcohol no no no no because your desires will be changed you're going to be happy but you're gonna be happy and doing what God wants okay it's not saying yeah man I'm gonna start going to church so God lets me start drinking it doesn't work that way right but here's the thing you can have happiness serving God but your happiness is actually gonna be changed into something else when you start serving God you're gonna be in a different situation in life Matthew 6 verse 33 but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these these things shall be added on to you take therefore no thought for the morrow for the mark the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself sufficient on to the day is the evil thereof and it's saying that basically you know what we should seek God first serve God first and do what he says and the rest is going to work itself out now this requires a lot of faith right I mean look at some characters in the Bible we're gonna look at I think we're gonna look at Elijah in the next sermon but in Elijah I mean he literally is told to hide and he's trusting God's gonna have food provided by a raven every day that takes a lot of faith but God does provide I mean during the end times it's gonna be miraculous because if you can't buy or sell I mean if they shut you out of every sorry sorry store they shut you out of the Palenque I mean but God's still gonna provide he can perform that miracle but see the Bible says we seek God first you know the rest of the things are gonna work themselves out now here's the thing God is gonna give you what you need he's not necessarily gonna give you what you want in fact I would say probably with all of us there's a lot of things we want that we're never gonna have I don't think there's anybody in this room that would say honestly man I just wish I had less money I just wish my car was not as nice I wish my house was not as nice right I wish I had one more broken window in my house right all of us would like more than less but here's the thing God's not necessarily gonna give you everything you want but he's gonna give you what you actually need good at first name of 13 first name of 13 so the fourth thing we see King Saul blame first he blames the followers it's a common thing people do things don't work out they blame their followers he also blames his spiritual leader he blames the leadership this is a common thing people blame spiritual leadership but also just at work things don't work out it's the boss's fault right or it's somebody else's fault they blame the leader they blame the followers they blame the leaders they blame the circumstance they think because of a difficult situation you can just kind of change and do wrong because it's okay look there's a lot of people in much more difficult situations in you imagine getting saved today while living in a Muslim country it'd be very tough to serve God there's a real chance the head's gonna get cut off at some point if you're serving God I mean if you look back hundreds of years ago the Catholic Church murdered people for getting baptized that'd be very difficult to serve God during that time period I may be very difficult to make the decision hey I'm gonna get baptized in just whatever happens happens right it's not actually that difficult compared to its men in other parts of the world and other time periods but the circumstance doesn't justify doing wrong and then blaming God is something King Saul does well that's obviously foolish because obviously God's perfect but out of his own mouth you see what's in his heart where he blames God for being in that situation and I would say this nobody in this room is gonna openly say they blame God they might openly say they blame the followers or blame the leaders or blame their circumstance but nobody's gonna openly say they blame God unless they're just speaking out of emotion without thinking about it but secretly inside your heart many people when things are not going well they blame God as if it's God's fault it's not fair I'm in this situation you're blaming God it's not God's fault it's not fair it's not right I should have a different situation it's not fair that somebody else got the promotion and not me or whatever you're blaming God right it's not right to blame the followers the leaders the circumstance not right to blame God but let's see the reaction of Samuel Samuel says in verse 13 and Samuel said to Saul thou hast done foolishly thou hast not kept the commandment of the Lord thy God which he commanded thee for now would the Lord have established thy kingdom upon Israel forever but now thy kingdom shall not continue the Lord hath sought him a man after his own heart and the Lord hath commanded him to be captain over his people because thou hast not kept that which the Lord commanded thee and Samuel says from the mouth of God you have been rejected Saul because God cannot trust you you are untrustworthy and God is done with you because you will not admit your mistakes and look this is how it is for all of us you know if we're not willing to admit when we do wrong or when things don't work out we can't be trusted with anything look Saul was the leader in a political sense he messed up and he blames the followers look if you're a leader in any sense and things don't work out you need to have the attitude you know what I should learn to do a better job now think about this you know think about being a teacher or a tutor or something like that you know I bring up often the example of math because you know I was a math teacher what if you make a test and you spend time teaching them and then all of a sudden like everybody fails the test now is there truth to the fact that they didn't study enough probably right I mean if they do the studying they're probably going to do okay but you know but here's the thing if you get called into the principal's office you can't say hey they just didn't study it's their fault you know what the principal is gonna say well you got to figure a way to teach them so they're gonna get it you can't blame the followers well I mean you're the one who gave me those students principal it's like you could have given me other students right I mean I it's like you know blaming other people you're gonna fail at life and see here's the thing if you're not willing to take responsibility your students are gonna keep failing every single class because you're not making any changes when things don't work out you have to ask yourself what could I do differently to change the situation not what could so-and-so do differently and look other people maybe they could change and it would help the situation but what can you personally do differently to fix the situation for the future don't blame other people for your problems in life look if things are not working out in your life last week I talked about kind of the three areas I talked about your work I talked about your family life I talked about your walk with the Lord if things are not working out in one of those areas you can't blame other people you have to ask yourself what can I do differently and look you might have valid excuses and valid reasons maybe those things are true I'm not denying them King Saul had some valid excuses but it doesn't justify it though and it doesn't change the situation it doesn't make it okay Samuel says what doesn't matter you had a tough situation it doesn't matter I was late it doesn't matter that they scattered from you it's still wrong to have a golden calf in church it's still wrong to sing some song where the song leaders are like this you know during playing the song that's still wrong right it doesn't justify it just because of the situation that you're in and here's the thing the danger and not taking responsibility is if you do not take responsibility nothing is ever going to change it's gonna be the same thing over and over and over in your life so if you have an area today that is just not going well and it's failing don't think in your head well this is the reason why here's my excuse no ask yourself what could I personally do to fix the situation let's close in order prayer dear Heavenly Father thank you for allowing us to be here today and ask you to help us to apply this to our lives including myself God help us to to be able to handle difficult situations and help us instead of making excuses try to come up with solutions to the problems God we pray this in Jesus name amen even for that song let's turn to him number 60 in number 60 6-0 that same the song face to face face to face with Christ my savior face to face what will it be face to face with Christ my savior face to face what will it be heaven laughter I behold him Jesus Christ to die for me face to face I shall behold him Oh Oh I see Oh rejoicing in his presence when our banish sleep and pain when the cooking bays are straightened and the dark things shall be pain face to face I shall behold him far beyond the starry sky face to face in all his glory I shall see him by and by on last face to face of this full ball face to face face to face with my baby Oh please amen