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We're continuing our series on the fruits of the Spirit, and today we're going to be talking about faith, okay? And so let's look here at Matthew chapter 14, Matthew chapter 14, and I want you to see verse number 28, and this is one of the most famous stories in the Bible where Peter actually walks on the water to go to Jesus Christ, and notice what it says in verse 28. And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And so he's basically asking Jesus, he's saying, I want to do something great for you, can I walk on the water to go with you? And notice what Jesus says, and he said, come. Look, whenever you decide to do something big for God, God's not going to say, well, no, I don't want you to do it. As long as it's according to what he says and according to what's biblical and right, you decide to do something big for God, God's going to say, come. Come, I want you to do it. And he says, come out on the water, and when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. So according to verse 29, did Peter walk on the water? Yes he did. He starts walking on the water, but notice what it says in verse 30. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid, and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. Now this is a great verse that proves that when the word save is in there, it's not always spiritual salvation. But he's saying, Lord, save me. This is not when he called on the name of the Lord and got saved. This is when he was physically asking to be saved. However, if you believe you're going to drown and die, then what's logical is you're going to cry out for help or save me. And so the physical does help explain the spiritual. And if you believe you're on your way to hell and you need a savior and you believe Jesus is the savior, if you believe that, the natural thing is please save me. It makes common sense. And that's what you're seeing in the story. But this is actually the physical, and he's asking the Lord to save him. And the reason why he starts to doubt is he sees the wind boisterous. Notice what it says in verse 31. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? Now when you think about this story, this is actually one of the great examples of having strong faith, and yet the Lord says, O thou of little faith. That's why it shows us that faith we have is honestly really not that much. If we had the faith of the size of a mustard seed, okay, the Bible says you could move mountains. Our faith is actually pretty small. And if you want a strong faith, you're going to have to get really dedicated for God. Now what takes place in this story, the reason why Peter starts to doubt, he starts to fear, he doesn't have faith. The basic answer is he takes his eyes off the Lord, and he focuses on the obstacle. Instead of focusing on the Lord who says come, now he's focusing on the wind being boisterous. He's looking at the Baguio, and he's afraid. And he's looking at the wind, and he says, oh man, I might die, logically this doesn't make sense, okay. And so when you end up lacking faith in your life, honestly the reason why is because you're not focusing on the Lord, you're not focusing on the Bible, you're focusing on the obstacle or what could go wrong, okay. But what I want to do in this sermon is give you four different reasons that would cause you to stop focusing on the Lord and focus on the obstacle instead. Now in this story, the reason why Peter stops focusing on the Lord and focuses on the obstacle is because of turmoil, because of turmoil. Turn to Matthew chapter 8, Matthew chapter 8. Look, it makes sense, he had faith, and then all of a sudden he sees a storm, and all of a sudden it's like, oh man, I don't know if I'm actually going to make it. He sees a storm, and logically he should die. And so once he sees the turmoil, just a little bit of the wind being boisterous, he immediately lacks faith, okay. You say, Brother Stuckey, do you think you would have been like Peter? I don't because I probably wouldn't have been out on the water. I probably never would have had enough faith to get out on the water, so I'm not trying to criticize Peter, because I think I would have been happy in the boat saying, good job, I'll take a video of you, we'll post it on our YouTube and everything like that. I probably wouldn't have gotten out on the water. So my faith, if his faith is little, mine is like, I don't know, very, very small. But what happens is there's turmoil, and that causes Peter to stop focusing on the Lord. Because what it said in Matthew 14, when he saw the wind boisterous. He's literally stopping looking at the Lord, and he's looking at the wind, okay. And there's symbolism to teach you that what causes us to lack faith is when we stop looking at the Lord and we look at the obstacle. And what causes Peter to do this is turmoil. Notice what it says in Matthew 8, verse 23, Matthew chapter 8, verse 23. In Matthew chapter 8, verse 23, the Bible reads, and when he was entered into a ship, his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves, but he was asleep. You think of the song in our hymnal, Master the Tempest is Raging. This is a big storm. And the ship is being covered with waves, okay. So that basically means that they're just coming into the boat, the waves are, and they're getting wet, they're getting scared, because their ship, it looks like, is going to sink. And then Jesus is just kind of, you know, sleeping, okay. Now obviously Jesus is doing nothing wrong, but I will say this, that symbolism with the book of Jonah, when Jonah is asleep in the ship and they're afraid their ship's going to sink, there's symbolism with Jesus Christ, because Jonah's a good picture of Jesus Christ. Even though he does a lot of things wrong, you know, as he was in the whale's belly for three days and three nights, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, not six feet under the ground, in the heart of the earth, which means his soul is in hell, okay, that's what the Bible teaches. But here what we see is that there's a great tempest. Notice what it says in verse 25, and his disciples came to him and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us, we perish. They say, we're going to die, Jesus, can you please help us? What is causing them not to have faith? Turmoil. They're seeing a storm, they're seeing troubles, so you say, how does that relate to me, because I don't go out on the water? Yeah, but you know, when you go through a storm in your life, when all of a sudden you lose money overnight, you lose your job, you have health problems, you have a big storm in your life, it's going to cause you to stop focusing on the Lord and focus on the obstacle. Now look, you've got to decide not to focus on the obstacle, but I want you to realize when people go through turmoil in their life, oftentimes that's when they quit church. Oftentimes that's when they lack faith, and instead of being dedicated to coming to church, they say, well, maybe in five months, but I've got to get through this situation first. They go through turmoil, they stop focusing on the Lord, they stop reading their Bible, they stop praying, and all they think about and meditate on is, oh, the turmoil in my life. And it causes them not to have faith, but instead, they fear. They live a life of fear. Verse number 26, and He saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? So notice having fear and faith, these are basically opposites from one another. If you don't have faith, it's because you're afraid. And if you're afraid, if you're fearful, you're not going to have faith. So that's what's taking place here. They are afraid because of the turmoil, and they don't have any faith, okay? Notice what it says, then he arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great come. But the men marveled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him? Well, I mean, he's not just a man. So what manner of man is he? Born of a virgin, you know, he's God in the flesh, full in him, dwell with all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Yeah, he's, what manner of man is this? He's not really a man, okay? I mean, he is man, he's fully man, but he's fully God, okay? And so they lack faith because they look at the turmoil in their life, they stop focusing on the Lord, they start focusing on the obstacle. Come to 2 Kings chapter 6, 2 Kings 6. See what you have to understand about turmoil is usually turmoil happens overnight. It's not something where it slowly happens. What we're talking about is basically all of a sudden you wake up and you're in the middle of a storm. See things come overnight, okay? You all of a sudden have this major trouble overnight, you know, someone near where my parents lived, someone I've known most of my life, you know, he's an older gentleman and, you know, he broke his hip just a couple days ago. He broke it just out of nowhere, okay? It's not like you slowly get the situation. Usually turmoil comes immediately and what happens is it scares you, you stop focusing on the Lord, all of a sudden you're filled with fear, you're focusing on the obstacle or what's going wrong in your life. 2 Kings 6 is another great example of this. 2 Kings chapter 6 verse 15. And when the servant of the man of God was risen early and gone forth, behold, and host compassed the city both with horses and chariots, and his servant said unto him, Alas, my master, how shall we do? Basically he wakes up Elisha and his servant and the servant is looking everywhere and they're surrounded by people that want to kill them, okay? It would be like, for example, if, you know, we go out the front door and there's like people there ready to kill us. We're thinking about going out the window, there's people outside ready to kill us. We open these doors, there's like an army here in this, you know, backyard. Everywhere we go, we're surrounded. There's logically no way you're going to get out of this situation, okay? From a physical standpoint. So he wakes up and they're surrounded and what's taking place? He's focusing on the obstacle, he's not focusing on the Lord. Notice what it says here in verse number 16. And he answered, Fear not, for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. And what Elisha is talking about is basically that we are protected, the Bible says, by the angels and God can protect us. And so even though we don't necessarily see it, we don't understand the spiritual thing that's going on out there. We look at the physical and we say, it just doesn't make sense. How in the world am I going to be able to pay my bills? How am I going to be able to do this? And yet God has a way to actually step in and protect you, okay? You might not have been in a situation where you almost physically died, but I'm sure you've gone through various storms in life. From a logical standpoint, you say, this doesn't make sense how I can get out of this situation. And yet God can step in because those that are with us are more than they that be with them, okay? Verse number 17, And Elisha prayed and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes that he may see. There's a song in our hymnal that's based on this verse, you know? I can't remember the exact word, but it's like, open my eyes that I may see or something like that. And it's based on this verse. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man and he saw and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. It would be pretty cool if God opened your eyes and you could see all of the angels and the people there trying to protect us. That would be a pretty cool thing. And he actually gets to see this and all of a sudden the enemy doesn't look that scary. See God can protect you in a situation where logically there's just no way you're going to get out of it. Turn to Job chapter 2. Why does the servant of the man of God, why does he focus on the obstacle rather than the Lord? Because of turmoil. He wakes up and it's like, oh man, we're going to die in 15 minutes. And so he's scared and he doesn't focus on the Lord. You know, it doesn't tell us in that story, but I kind of wonder if the servant of the man of God is really afraid and Elisha is just having his prayer time and doing his scripture reading and it's okay, just let me finish this chapter, no big deal. I kind of wonder that because Elisha, man, he has some strong faith. And in the Bible, he is probably an unsung hero. I mean, he's such a great man in the Bible and he doesn't have any sort of fear in that situation. Job chapter 2 verses 9 and 10, Job 2 verses 9 and 10, then set his wife onto him, dost thou still retain thine integrity? Curse God and die. Now why does Job's wife have this reaction? Why does she say that to Job? Well if you remember the story, pretty much overnight, not even overnight, pretty much in like five minutes, Job lost all of his money, his kids died, and now his health has destroyed him. It literally happens, like his health gets destroyed in the next chapter in Job 2, but in Job 1, everything, his business, his money, his livestock, his animals, and his kids, just all destroyed immediately. And then the next day, what happens? All of a sudden his health is destroyed. And so what happens? His wife is looking at all the problems that are going wrong instead of focusing on the Lord and she says curse God and die. Now I don't think his wife was a bad person because, quite honestly, I don't think any of us have gone through anything like this before. And I can't imagine a mom who's lost all of these children. I mean she's going to be grieving, okay? I remember my friend who died when he was 20 years old and I was at the funeral and one of the saddest things was just seeing his parents, you know, especially his mom, because you have a sobbing mom and, you know, how can you console her in that sort of situation? This woman has lost all of her kids immediately. So obviously, you know, we're not saying she's a bad woman. She's probably a great woman of God. But what happens is the turmoil that takes place causes her to stop focusing on the Lord and she's just thinking about everything that's going wrong or everything that has gone wrong in her life. Verse 10, but he said on to her, thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evil? And all this did not Job sin with his lips. Why does Job handle this so well? Because he chooses not to focus on everything that's going wrong and he focuses on the Lord. Now when you read the book of Job, I don't think we can say that he handled it 100% perfectly, but none of us would have, okay? He does from time to time focus on what's going wrong and he's basically, why is this happening to me? But overall, he does a pretty good job of just focusing on the Lord. Now turn to Genesis 16, Genesis chapter 16. And so one thing that could cause us to quit focusing on the Lord and to be filled with fear rather than having faith is turmoil that takes place. But another thing that can take place that can cause us to quit focusing on the Lord and focusing on the obstacle is time. See when time goes by, we might have strong faith, but as time goes by, that faith will often kind of die out and we stop having confidence and then we focus on the obstacle. A great example is with Sarah and Abraham. Notice what it says in Genesis 16 verse 1. Genesis chapter 16 verse 1, Now Sarai, Abram's wife, bare him no children, and she had in handmaid an Egyptian whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the Lord hath restrained me from bearing. I pray thee, go in unto my maid. It may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai. And so in this story, Sarai is not able to have children for Abram and basically eventually it reaches a point where I'm sure when they first got married, they had confidence God is going to bless us with children. And then as time goes by and there is no child, as time goes by, that faith starts to die out. Look, you're not going to make this decision a couple weeks after marriage. Like oh man, we don't have any kids, we're going to do something crazy, like you know, here's this other woman you can have a child with. But what's taking place is time is going by and the faith starts to dwindle, okay? And look, the truth is that if you look at women who get married, your natural expectation is if they want to have children, they'll probably be able to have them right away. That doesn't always take place. It took my wife and I a few years to be able to have children. And I'll be honest with you, when we first got married, we had a strong faith God's going to bless us with children and then as time goes by, your faith starts to slowly die out a little bit. And you might be in this room and you might have a situation where you did have strong faith at one time and yet God has not seemingly blessed you in that area yet and you're starting to lack faith in that area. Why? Because time often gets us to quit focusing on the Lord and we're focusing on the obstacle or what's going wrong. Turn to Genesis 17. Genesis 17. Notice what the Bible reads in verse number 15, Genesis 17 verse 15, and God said unto Abraham, as for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be. And I will bless her and give thee a son also of her, yea I will bless her and she shall be a mother of nations, kings of people shall be of her. And it's been decades and decades and decades and no children and then Abraham's being told your wife is going to bear a child and she's going to be a mother of nations. That's going to be kind of hard to believe when you don't even have one child together. And yet God is telling that to him. Then Abraham fell upon his face and laughed and said in his heart, shall a child be born unto him that is in hundred years old and shall Sarah that is ninety years old bear? And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee. Now Ishmael was his child with Hagar. Now realize that at this time they did live to be a little bit longer than they do today. So Abraham being a hundred is not like in today's world if he was a hundred and Sarah being ninety is not like you know someone who's ninety in today's world. But they're not young at this point. This is over halfway through his life. What I find interesting about this verse is that Abraham thinks it's really weird to have a child when you're a hundred years old as a guy and yet Abraham has children after when Sarah's already passed away. And that's always been kind of weird to me because obviously men can have children at an older age than women. And Abraham's able to have children after this point. Now with Sarah it's a little bit differently because there's kind of a time period where ladies are able to have children and if you're past that time period it's scientifically or logically going to be impossible. And so Abraham says you know I don't believe this is going to happen. My wife is 90 years old. Turn to Genesis chapter 18. Genesis chapter 18. Genesis chapter 18 let's go along with the story. And now we're going to see what Sarah's reaction is. Verse number nine. Genesis 18 verse nine. And they said unto him, Where is Sarah thy wife? And he said, Behold in the tent. And he said, I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life. And lo Sarah thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard it in the tent door which was behind him. Now what do you think Sarah's reaction is? Do you think she's really excited or do you think she basically says you know I don't believe God. She doesn't believe God. Verse 11. Now Abraham and Sarah were old and well stricken in age and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. What does that mean in verse number 11? It means Sarah reached the point in her age of menopause. Basically you can't have kids after this point. She's reached an age where it is impossible to have kids. And she's reached that age it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. Verse 12. Therefore Sarah laughed within herself saying, After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my Lord being old also? And the Lord said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh saying, Shall I have a surety bear a child which am old? And so God's saying, Why is Sarah laughing? I said this was going to take place. And notice what it says in verse number 14. Is anything too hard for the Lord? That is one of the greatest quotes in the entire Bible. And honestly I would recommend you memorize that quote because that's a quote I've said many times. Is anything too hard for the Lord? This is what you call a rhetorical question where the answer is no. Nothing's too hard for the Lord. Is anything too hard for the Lord? No. Nothing's too hard. God can do anything. And so when he says you're going to have a child, point blank, he means you're going to have a child. You say, but it's too late. It's past the point I can have kids. He said you're going to be able to have a child. He said you're going to have a child. Turn to Hebrews chapter 11, Hebrews chapter 11. So why is it that Abraham and Sarah don't believe God? Well, I mean, it's because of time. Time has gone by and it's like, well, I believed that 40 years ago, but too much time has gone by. We're too old at this point. And at this point, I just don't believe God's going to give us children. That's what they're saying. So turmoil is one thing, but another thing that can cause you to lack faith over time is time. When time goes by, what will take place is your confidence can slowly start to die out. Hebrews chapter 11, verse 11. Hebrews 11, verse 11. It says through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed and was delivered of a child when she was past age because she judged him faithful who had promised. So what the Bible does say is that Sarah did end up having faith. Now in Genesis 18, we don't believe this, but this is why you compare spiritual things with spiritual things. She reaches a point afterwards where she does believe and she does end up having a child. That's what the Bible teaches. You say, Brother Stuckey, how does this apply in my life? Turn to 1 Samuel chapter 16. I don't know everybody's situation in this room, what it is that you need to have faith or what is the situation where you don't have a lot of faith, but I'll just say a couple examples. One was for me and my wife that it took us a little time to have kids, and your faith starts to die out and you start questioning, why aren't we able to have kids? The question went through my mind and my wife's mind, and I thought, why are all these whores and whoremongers having kids? Those are Bible words. I'm not saying anything vulgar. Those are Bible words. I thought in my mind, why are all these whores and whoremongers having kids? My wife and I, we go to church, we go soul winning, and then why isn't God blessing us with children? It didn't logically make sense to me. Now that's not the right attitude. I'm just being honest with you today. I'm just being honest that my faith is not always up here. Sometimes you start to doubt and instead of just focusing on the Lord, you start to say, why is this happening to me? I got saved when I was 18 years old and I started going soul winning when I was 19. I wanted to be married in my early 20s. I was looking for a spouse. I just wanted to find someone godly, be married, just work and support my family. Yet I didn't get married for 10 years later. I didn't want to go around and just date all these people. I started to wonder, why is it I can't meet the right person? Why is it that I just want to serve God? I want to get married. Look, there's probably people in this room right now and you think the same thing. You think, I go soul winning, I serve God, why is God not blessing me? Here's the thing. You once had a lot of faith that God would bless you, but as time goes by, the faith starts to fade out. What you're doing is you're focusing on the obstacle instead of focusing on the Lord. When you do that, you're going to live a life of fear and you're going to be miserable. What you have to do is just focus on the Lord and look, God is going to bless you. The truth is, when you look in the Bible, the way people get married, it's a lot of different ways. There's really no set formula. It's really kind of random. When my wife and I got married, I was actually the best man at my friend's wedding. I just kind of made a joke to his fiance, like, oh, which one of your friends are you going to set me up with? She pulled out her cell phone and showed me a picture of my wife. I was like, oh, wow. I was just kind of joking to her, but it was when I wasn't expecting it. I know from my life that I used to focus on that a lot, and I kind of just quit thinking about it. I said, you know what? I'm just going to go soul winning, serve God, and if God blesses me, he does. I'm not just going to spend my life trying to find that person, though. I remember I was going soul winning five or six days a week while I was working a full time job, and then all of a sudden the person just kind of came in my life when I didn't expect it. Now, I can't guarantee you the same thing's going to happen for you, but here's what I'm saying, that when you choose to focus on the obstacle, it makes you miserable. You end up living a life of fear. You don't have any faith. What you need to do is just always focus 100% on the Lord, okay? Now, look, it's pretty basic that what causes you to not have faith is when you focus on the obstacle instead of focusing on the Lord, but that's why we're going in depth and looking at the reasons why you would stop focusing on the Lord. Because when you're serving God and things are going well in your life, everything's just perfect, you're like, oh, always serve God, I won't deny you, Jesus, everything's perfect in my life, then a few chapters later, it's like, oh, you just denied Jesus Christ three times. And so here's the thing, all of us in our life, we might have times where we have strong faith, but all of us for sure have times where we have like this much faith, and we live a life of fear and we don't really believe God, even though He says it. Notice what it says in 1 Samuel 16. So first we saw that turmoil can cause you to quit focusing on the Lord and focus on the obstacle. Then we saw the second thing, that time that goes by can cause you to quit focusing on the Lord and focus on the obstacle. The third thing is transgression, turmoil, time, transgression. Transgression or sin will cause you to lack faith in your life. Notice what it says in 1 Samuel 16 verse 14. But the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, 1 Samuel 16 verse 14. But the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him. And Saul's servant said unto him, behold now, an evil spirit from God troubled thee. Now I want you to understand that when Saul first became the king, he was very humble, he was very godly, and he was very bold, wasn't he? He was very bold. He had a lot of faith. He did not have much fear at all when he started. But in 1 Samuel 16, you're getting an in-depth look at a backslidden man. And I'll tell you what, of all the characters in the Bible, King Saul is my number one favorite character to kind of study and read about. Because you're getting the heart of a backslidden man, and there's so many lessons we can learn. And what you're going to see is that Saul is filled with fear in his life, and he starts acting kun sing ballyu. He's a little bit crazy with the things he does, because he's filled with fear. You say, how do you know he's filled with fear? Well, here's what I believe. When it says an evil spirit from God troubled thee, I don't think he's saying, I sent the devil to trouble you. I don't think he's saying, I sent a fallen angel to trouble you. You say, what is it that, what was that evil spirit? Well turn to 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 7, 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 7. What you must realize in the Bible is that spirit is not always referring to angels, demons and things such as that. The Bible mentions the spirit of meekness, it mentions the spirit of a lot of things. And when it's saying an evil spirit, I believe what it's referring to is the spirit of fear. And we're going to look at a few other places that are going to prove this, but 2 Timothy 1 verse 7 is a great insight, because this is the verse that makes me think of King Saul. 2 Timothy 1 verse 7, for God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. If you have the spirit of fear, you do not have a sound mind, which means you're a little bit crazy. That's what it's saying, if you don't have a sound mind. Now in the US, there's a lot of people that are drug addicts, and you see them on the streets all the time, and the vast majority of homeless people in the US are crazy. They're drug addicts. They're not just poor, they are addicted to drugs, and their mind is warped. They are insane. And you try to talk to them, it doesn't make sense. And we have so many examples of Verity Baptist, because our church was located in a few areas where there'd be a lot of homeless people, and sometimes people would visit from time to time. I remember somebody came and visited our church, and myself and a few of the ushers are up front, and then what this man told us, and this was one man, only one person, he said, can we come to church today? And then my friend said, sure. And then when he walked in, I said, we? He didn't say, can I? He said, can we? Five minutes later during the service, they're taking the offering, and I would sit in the back row with the ushers, and they're the ones who took the offering, so I'm the only one in the back chair, and then all of a sudden the guy turns around, because the guy's looking over to his side, and he's talking to nobody. And nothing's coming out, he's just talking to the air, he's crazy. And he turns around and he starts walking at me. And then he's like mouthing and saying nothing, and I'm like, well, I had the spirit of fear. I was like, what is this guy doing? This guy was afraid, and he didn't have a sound mind, I mean, this guy did not have a sound mind due to the drugs, okay? Sin leads you down this road where it can give you the spirit of fear and you become crazy. And this man, he was out of his mind. And so one of the ushers kind of quickly went and then came there just in case I needed help. I said, why don't you talk to me outside? And so I went outside and for 20 minutes with a few other ushers there, he was saying stuff and it did not make any sense. They were words, but they didn't make sense in a logical, coherent way in sentences. They're just like, what are you talking about? And he just keeps going on and on, kept wanting to shake my hand. And look, you know, I mean, this guy's a drug addict, you know, honestly, I didn't know what I was just thinking. And I said, well, yeah, you know, we'll pray for you, you know, and eventually the guy ended up leaving. And the guy was out of his mind. But I want you to realize that King Saul, he's not possessed, he's a saved person, but he is out of his mind in the Old Testament. He doesn't have a sound mind. He's crazy. I mean, he's going and persecuting and trying to kill David over and over. I mean, it's like a comedy. I mean, it's not like an action story, it's like a comedy. It's like you try to kill David, oh, I'm so sorry. I'm sorry, forgive me. Then you try to kill him again. I'm so sorry, what am I doing? Then you try to kill him again. It's like, what in the world? I mean, how does that happen? Because he's filled in his life with a spirit of fear, and according to 2 Timothy 1 verse 7, if you don't have faith and you're filled with a spirit of fear, you're not going to have a sound mind. Now, look, I don't believe in this room any of us are going to end up acting like King Saul, but I will say this, that when you look at people that don't have faith and they're filled with fear, they make stupid decisions. And from an outside perspective, you're just thinking, what are you doing? I mean, are you crazy? Why does that happen? They don't have faith. And if you live your life with fear rather than faith, you're going to make a lot of foolish and unwise decisions. You're going to be kind of out of your mind a little bit. Now turn to 1 Samuel 26, 1 Samuel 26. What led Saul down this road? Well, it was sin. It was transgression. Saul lived a life of sin. He used to be godly. He ended up becoming sin. He got filled with transgression. All of a sudden he has no faith and he's afraid that David's going to try to kill him. It's like, what are you talking about? Over and over again, he says, I'm not persecuting you. Look, you're the one chasing me. And so I thought you were trying to kill me. It's like, what are you doing? It's like, you're the one who's literally chasing me and you're saying, well, I thought you were coming after me. It's like, he doesn't have a sound mind. He's acting crazy. Look, the wicked flee when no man pursueth, but the righteous are as bold as a lion. And when you're living a godly life, you have boldness that just can't be explained. Look, you look at people that are filled with the Spirit that go out soul winning, and sometimes they just have so much boldness and it doesn't really logically make sense. But when you're filled with faith and boldness and the fruits of the Spirit, you're going to start acting in a way that you normally wouldn't do because you have boldness in your life. But in your life, you go the opposite route and you get filled with transgression, you're going to start having fear and you're going to start making stupid decisions that don't make sense. And you're going to start not having a sound mind and you're going to start acting very foolish. First Samuel 26, verse 17, and Saul knew David's voice and said, Is this thy voice, my son David? And David said, It is my voice, my lord, O king. And he said, Wherefore doth my lord thus pursue after his servant? For what have I done? Or what evil is in mine hand? And so what David's saying is like, Why are you pursuing after me? What have I done to you? I haven't done anything. And then notice what it says in verse 19, Now therefore I pray thee, Let my lord the king hear the words of his servant. If the lord have stirred thee up against me, let him accept an offering. But if they be the children of men, cursed be they before the lord. Now I personally believe that this is part of what took place. I believe that there was children of the devil, bad people that probably tried to persuade Saul because what you notice and we're going to talk about this a lot starting next week as we have our series on reprobates and psychopaths. But what you see is those people will use situations and they use people's emotions against them. And I'm sure there were reprobates amongst King Saul that gave bad advice. I'm sure there was a lot of doegs in there who basically just took the situation and basically used Saul as we say, played Saul like a fiddle for their own personal benefit. I'm sure that took place. I'm sure that was part of it. Okay. But honestly, the big part was just Saul chose to backside and live a sinful life. Okay. And it says, cursed be they before the lord for they have driven me out this day from abiding in the inheritance of the lord saying, go serve other gods. Now therefore, let not my blood fall to the earth before the face of the lord for the king of Israel has come out to seek a flee as when one doth hunt a partridge in the mountains. And so he's asking Saul, why are you trying to kill me? Verse 21, then said Saul, I have sinned, returned my son David for I will do no more do thee harm because my soul was precious in thine eyes this day. Behold, I have played the fool and have erred exceedingly. So once again, Saul says, I won't try to kill you anymore. It's like, well, I mean, it's kind of hard to believe that when it's happened over and over and over. Turn to first Samuel 28, first Samuel 28. Now I would say this, you look at the life of David, David's the man who killed Goliath. David had a lot of confidence in this situation with Saul. I would say that David was filled with faith. Wouldn't you say that? David had a lot of faith and I don't have time to go into it and yet time goes by and what is the statement David makes? He's like, I will one day be killed by Saul basically. As time goes by, eventually he says in his heart, you know what, I'm not going to make it every single time. Why? Because he had faith for a while, but as time went by, David's faith ends up dying. And what does David do the last several chapters of first Samuel? He acts crazy. He literally acts crazy. Remember the story, I mean, he literally intentionally acts crazy. He doesn't have a sound mind. Why? Because he no longer has faith. He had faith for a while. Why did David lose his faith? Time went by. It was a combination of turmoil and time, but he went through the turmoil over and over again. But as time went by in that turmoil, he ends up lacking faith. Then he starts making foolish decisions and starts committing sins himself. Why? Because honestly, not just transgression, but turmoil and time are ways that you're going to start to lack faith. First Samuel 28. First Samuel 28. Notice what it says in first Samuel 28, verse 4, and the Philistines gathered themselves together and came and pitched in Shunem and Saul gathered all Israel together and they pitched in Gilboa. And when Saul saw the host of the Philippines, not Philippines. When Saul saw the host of the Philistines, he was afraid and his heart greatly trembled. Here we see that Saul is afraid, and this is what you're seeing throughout first Samuel. It doesn't always say he's afraid, but you can tell he's afraid based on his actions. Why? For Saul, it was transgression. It was sin he committed. When you live a sinful life, you will start to be filled with fear and not to have faith. Now turn in your Bible to Daniel chapter 3. Daniel chapter 3. Turn your Bible to Daniel chapter 3. So far we've seen in this sermon, turmoil is something that can cause you to quit focusing on the Lord and focus on the obstacle and will cause you to be filled with fear and not with faith. Time going by is something that can cause you to quit focusing on the Lord, focus on the obstacle, and transgression is something that will cause you to quit focusing on the Lord and then focus on the obstacle. But the last thing I want to mention is tentative. Basically a tentative or not fixed or not certain situation. Tentative means when it's not 100% sure. We're going to look at Daniel chapter 3 and show you an example of this. Daniel 3 verse 14. Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego? Do not ye serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up? And so Nebuchadnezzar, the most powerful man in the world, is basically coming to these men and saying, Are you not worshiping the golden image? Look, I would probably be pretty afraid in that situation when the most powerful man in the world is basically saying, You better worship these images or you're going to get killed. Verse 15. Now if ye be ready, that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sack, butt, sultry, and dulcimer, and all kinds of music, ye fall down and worship the image which I have made well. But if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. And who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands? And so Nebuchadnezzar basically mocks God. Who is that God? I'm the most powerful man in the world. What could you possibly do to me? I'm the most powerful man in the world. Who's that God that's going to deliver you? I built Babylon. I'm the richest man in the world. That's what Nebuchadnezzar is saying. Notice what it says in verse 16. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said unto the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. You say, What does that mean? It basically means we have no fear. We're not holding anything back. I'm not afraid of you. We're not going to be careful and try to word things in a way not to offend you. We're not careful in this matter. And it's just like Nebuchadnezzar is mocking God. And look, I'm sure Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were a little bit offended, and they're not going to be filled with fear. They say, We're not careful to answer you in this matter. Verse 17, If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. And they say, You know what? Our God is powerful enough, and he is going to deliver us. And notice the next verse, But if not. What is he saying by, But if not? What they're saying is, they're not saying, Well, if God's not able to deliver us. No, they're saying, If God chooses not to deliver us. See, what's taking place is, this is a tentative situation. It's not a guarantee they're going to be delivered. They have faith. They're not backing down. And see, that's where we can kind of misunderstand faith. You say, Well, if they really had faith, they'd know 100% for sure they would be delivered. No, you can be martyred. That is a possibility. Look, go back 500 years ago, and there were people that chose to get baptized, and they had faith to get baptized, knowing they might end up being killed by the Catholic church. They still had the faith to get baptized, though. And so in this situation, they're not lacking faith, but they realize there's not a guarantee that God is going to deliver us. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up. See, what are you trying to tell me, Brother Stuckey? What I'm trying to tell you is, the situations you're thinking about, there's not necessarily a guarantee that it's going to come through the way you want it to come through. God doesn't guarantee you this is going to happen in your life, but you can still have faith if you choose to live for God anyway, regardless of what the outcome is. Do you understand what I'm saying? You can still choose to focus on the Lord and serve God and have faith and say, If not, I'm still going to be happy because I've learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. Even if my life is not exactly as I want it, I'll still have faith, I'll still serve God, I will not live a life of fear. God doesn't guarantee you you're going to have everything that everybody else has. He never says that in the Bible. But Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they had complete faith. They realized, though, it is possible we might get martyred. Let me give you an example of this. Back in Sacramento, California, two and a half years ago, or three years ago, whenever it was, when we had the big protest, my wife and I were talking about it because we were the first ones that arrived at the building to open up, and there was already protesters there. And I basically said, There's like a 95% chance that God's going to deliver us. But it's possible He might not. Maybe He would allow something to happen and that could wake up people to what's going on out there. I didn't know. I had faith because I showed up at church. We were the first ones there. We weren't afraid at all. We went to church and said, Hey, whatever happens, happens. We weren't lacking faith. But the reality is, we didn't know 100% for sure that God's just going to just completely deliver us. Right? You just don't know what could happen. And so what I want you to understand in your life, whatever situation it is that you lack faith or something you're really focusing on, there's not necessarily a guarantee that you're going to get what you want. And what happens in a tentative situation, it causes us to just say, You know what, I'm just fully focusing on the obstacle. The result, though, is you're going to be miserable. You'll live a life of fear rather than having a life of faith. You cannot focus on the obstacles in your life. Turn to Esther 4. We're going to close up here. Esther 4. Esther chapter 4. Having boldness versus being fearful, it's kind of a funny thing because in my life, I've seen times where I was really bold, and then like 10 minutes later, I had no boldness whatsoever. And a great example is when you're going out soul winning, especially as you're going soul winning by yourself sometimes. And you go soul winning in a group, and somebody makes fun of you or the conversation doesn't go as you expect, you kind of laugh it off. You got a cool story to tell, right? But then you go soul winning by yourself, and somebody makes fun of you. And all of a sudden, oftentimes, your boldness goes here immediately, isn't that? I mean, that's true with me. I'll say that there's times when I went soul winning by myself, I'd have confidence and say, man, I'm going to go out soul winning for two and a half hours. You know, you knock six doors, and then a couple doors get slammed in your face. People yell at you. You're thinking, man, you know, you have no boldness whatsoever. You say why? Because the way we work as people, we need other people to feed off each other. Look, if we didn't have a church and everyone just said, I'm going to meet on my own on Sundays at 2.10 p.m. to go soul winning, and I'm going to meet on my own on Saturdays to go soul winning, the amount of souls that we would get saved together would be like this much of what it is. We need each other to have boldness and confidence. We need church. It's important for everybody to have this. Notice what it says in Esther 4, verse 10. Again, Esther spake unto Haytack and gave him commandment unto Mordecai. All the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces do know that whosoever, whether man or woman, shall, man or women, shall come unto the king into the inner court who is not called, there is one law of his to be put, to put him to death, except such to whom the king shall hold out the golden scepter that he may live. But I have not been called to come in unto the king these 30 days, and they told to Mordecai Esther's words. And so there was a law in the Persian Empire that if you came before the king and he didn't call you, then you could be put to death, no matter who you were. You say, why in the world was that in the law? Well, I don't believe it's because Ahasuerus was an evil person, and if you've listened to the sermons on Wednesday night or if you've been here, you'll know from my sermons I preached, I think the Persian Empire was actually pretty godly, and you can prove that in Esther 1 and 2. What I believe is taking place is that it was a dangerous situation for kings. In fact, earlier in the book of Esther, they tried to kill the king, and so I believe the law was in place that you couldn't just barge in to talk to the king because there's a chance you could have a sword trying to kill the king. So it's kind of like having bodyguards where it's like, hey, nobody's allowed to come in here unless I say I want you to come in here to talk to me. Why? Sometimes throughout the Bible and throughout world history, people like killing kings because they want to become the king. That takes place all the time. So I think the law was put in place that you can't just barge into the king unless you've been called, and if you do, then you're going to be put to death. Now this isn't the same thing in a secular place, but let me say this, that when I worked at an office, I didn't just barge into my boss's room to talk to him about something. It's like if you wanted to talk to the boss, you would basically knock and kind of wait to see if he answers. If he doesn't, you don't go in there. You kind of wait for him rather than just going into him. It's this thing of respect. It goes to another level here where you can be put to death, but I think the reason why is for safety purposes. And obviously Ahasuerus loves his wife, so he holds out the golden scepter for her. Verse 13, then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king's house more than all the Jews. For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place. But thou in thy father's house shall be destroyed, and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this? And so Esther is afraid to go on down to the king, and the reason why is it's a bit of a tentative situation. There is no guarantee she's going to be safe, and so the result is she's lacking faith because there's a possibility she could be killed. And then Mordecai says, if you don't step in in this situation, you're going to end up being destroyed. Verse 15, then Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer, go gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day. I also and my maidens will fast likewise, and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law. Notice this praise, and if I perish, I perish. What is she saying? If I die, so be it. I am not going to allow this situation to cause me to lack faith. But there is a possibility she could die, okay? And so this is a situation where she does lack faith. At first she doesn't want to go in unto the king, but eventually she says, you know what, if I perish, I perish. And look, the reality is in our lives, we are all going to have fear sometime, and you must come to a place where you say, if I perish, I perish. But if not, I still won't bow the knee to the gods of Nebuchadnezzar. Look, there's many different reasons that would cause you to lack faith in your life and focus on the obstacle. One thing is turmoil. I don't know what's going to take place tomorrow, but who knows, one of you tomorrow might get in an accident and break your leg. One of you might have a situation you get sick out of nowhere. One of you might have a situation where you go through a financial storm, and those are the situations where you end up lacking faith, you have fear, and you end up making foolish decisions. Me included. This sermon applies to me as well, I've done that many times. You make foolish decisions because of turmoil that comes. Or another situation is time. Time goes by in your life, and you did have confidence, you did have boldness, and then as time goes by and it doesn't work out like you expect, all of a sudden you say, well, you know what, I guess I don't really believe it anymore, and you start focusing on the obstacle and you make foolish decisions because you have an unsound mind and you live by fear. Transgression will cause you to do this. Look, if you live a life of sin and worldliness, you will not have boldness and strong faith, and you're going to make foolish decisions in your life. You say, Brother Stuckey, why do you preach so hard against sin? Because I want you to live a life of faith and boldness and serving God, and if you keep that worldliness in your life, your faith is going to just dwindle away. The more you serve God, the more boldness and the more faith you're going to have in your life. Another thing that can cause us to doubt, not to have faith, is that sometimes we're in tentative situations. There's not a guarantee that it's going to work out like we want it to, but here's what you need to realize. If you choose not to live a life with faith and you just run your life based on fear, you will make very foolish decisions and every single person can see it except you. That's the reality. If you don't choose to live a life of faith. Let's close in with a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today and just getting to read your word and see what you have to say about faith, God, and help us all to apply this to our lives, God. Help us to make smart decisions and always focus on the Lord. Help us not to live a life based on fear, God, and I have been very guilty of this in my life as well, God, many times making foolish decisions, not having a sound mind because I'm choosing to let my life be run based on fear rather than just having faith in your word and what you say, have boldness to doing what is right. God, I ask you to all be filled with this boldness and have strong faith in our lives, God. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.