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

Alright, one quick thing I forgot to mention is right after the first service we want to get a picture, and so pretty much right after the last song is sung during the first service, if everyone can come up before you fellowship, just come up, get a quick picture, and we might have a bit of a longer break today which is fine before we get started on the second service, but we'll get a quick picture, that way we get it before everybody leaves, alright? And so the name of the sermon is When the Excitement Wears Off. When the Excitement Wears Off. Let me read you a couple quick verses here in 1 Samuel 17, verse 44, 1 Samuel 17, verse 44. And the Philistine said to David, Come to me and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air and to the beasts of the field. Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword and with a spear and with a shield. But I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand, and I will smite thee and take thine head from thee, and I will give the carcasses of the hosts of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. Now in verse 46 you see this phrase, that all the earth may know, and there's a famous song that's sung in a lot of churches called That All the Earth May Know, based on this verse, okay? I would say everybody in this room is familiar with David and Goliath. Even at a young age you've heard the story of David and Goliath, you know, as a kid. Even people that don't go to church, they're not Christians, if they ever watch sports they always talk about David versus Goliath. And the reason why is because this is perhaps the most exciting chapter in the entire Bible. In fact, in my opinion, it is. I believe this is the most exciting chapter in the Bible. I have probably heard more sermons from 1 Samuel 17 than any chapter in the entire Bible, and every time you hear sermons there's new information. It's such a great chapter, it's so exciting, and I want you to realize that this mission strip is kind of similar. Because this is an exciting event, especially if you've come from other parts of the world to be here. Right, you're coming to a foreign country, you're experiencing a new country, and this is very exciting, but I want you to think about David. David the mighty king who did so many things in his life, do you realize as a young man this is the most exciting event he ever experienced? He never topped this event. When you think of the life of David, this is the number one event you think of. There's nothing that tops this. Him killing Goliath, okay? So what I want to talk to you about today is when the excitement wears off to still serve God. Because David could have said, man, I just did the most exciting thing I will ever do in my life, the most exciting chapter in the Bible, I'm just going to retire from soul winning as a man at the age of like 18, 20 years old, I'm done, I'm throwing in the towel. And look, the reality is that when you go back to your home church, soul winning might not be quite as exciting on Saturday or on Sunday as it was here. Say why? People are less receptive. It's not an exciting event, but you still need to serve God anyway. And see, the first point is simply this, that you need to keep soul winning whether it's exciting or not. You don't go soul winning because it's exciting or fun. You go soul winning because it's God's command. And see, on the weeks you don't feel like going soul winning, you still go. Why? It's God's command. Look, I don't always feel like going soul winning. There are times I go out on Sundays after we preach in the morning, you know, in Manila, and I'm just like, man, I just want to take a nap. I just want to rest. But you know, we don't serve God because it's exciting and fun. We serve God because we're supposed to. Now, no doubt about it, serving God is exciting, but look, not every single day you read the Bible is it exciting. Not every single day that you pray is it exciting. Not every single day that you come to church is it exciting. I'm sure there are people here today that say, man, I kind of want to just take a nap here today. It's been a fun week. I feel like relaxing though. I'm tired. But look, you don't serve God because it's fun. You serve God because you're supposed to. Turn to 1 Samuel 18, 1 Samuel chapter 18, and I want you to notice this is the chapter right after 1 Samuel 17, and David has basically conquered the most exciting battle he ever will in his entire life. But notice 1 Samuel 18, and David in verse 5, 1 Samuel 18 verse 5, and David went out whithersoever Saul sent him, and behaved himself wisely, and Saul set him over the men of war. So once again, David is going out to battle. Now this is not as exciting as 1 Samuel 17. He just killed Goliath. That's the most exciting event of his entire life, but there's still battles to fight. And look, this week, especially if you've come from the US or some other place, you say, man, this is exciting. This is the most exciting soul winning I've ever had in my life. People are receptive. They're listening. But look, you need to go and fight that battle when you go home to your country. Every single week you need to fight that battle, whether it's exciting or whether or not sometimes you don't feel like fighting that battle, okay? Notice what it says in verse 5, at the beginning of verse 5, and David went out whithersoever Saul sent him. What he's saying is this, that David fought the battle wherever Saul sent him. Saul says, you know what, I want you to fight this battle. David fought that battle. Saul says, I want you to fight this battle. David fought that battle. Where Saul told him to go, David just went, okay? You can liken that onto a church sending you to preach the gospel. When we go soul winning on most Sundays, we're very organized at Verity Baptist Church Manila, right? We have various areas, and I stand up here and say, here's your soul winning partner. This is the map you're doing. This is the area you're going. Now I'm sure in the back of your head, sometimes you're thinking, oh man, house to house. Man, why couldn't I get to park this week? The park is so much more exciting. So many more people get saved. It's like, man, door to door in Rizal. Nobody gets saved in Rizal, right? Sometimes it's not as exciting. Sometimes you might say, man, I wish I got to go to this area, but here's the reality, okay? With a church of 30 soul winners on a Sunday, we have to divide into different areas. Sometimes the lot falls on you, so you get the tough area. You might only get to preach the gospel one time, right? And hey, we're not done, okay? If the lights go out, I want someone to give me a flashlight, all right? I'm preaching here today, okay? And so if someone has a flashlight, we're going, okay? If someone has a flashlight on their iPhone, I can't see up here, all right? But here's what I want you to understand, that sometimes on Sundays, you get the map or the area that's not your favorite. You say, man, I wish I got to go to the park near our church, because more people would get saved. But the reality is, no matter where you get sent by the church, you just go and knock that area. And look, I've been at churches before, and when I was at Verity Baptist Church, there are certain areas that you know are receptive areas, and there are certain areas that are not receptive. People from Sacramento here today will say, yeah, North Natomas, oh man, I got stuck in North, why not Del Paso Heights, right? It's like North Natomas, it's like, man, everybody is basically from India there, and they're all rich, and so very few doors do people even listen. Usually you have a map of 70 doors, you knock every door, and guess what? Nobody gets saved, most weeks. Not a single person gets saved, but look, every single person in Sacramento, California needs to hear the gospel, or at least get a chance. And we knock that door to give them a chance. If they reject it, it's fine. But remember, you're rewarded for the work you do, not the results. And so when a church goes out and goes on seven different maps, and let's say 28 salvations happen, every group basically gets credit for four, because you part alike, because you're doing the same amount of work, okay? You're rewarded based on the work you do, not necessarily the results. See here in the Philippines, you get a lot of people saved. People are receptive. But I want you to realize that people in other countries that get far less people saved could get a lot more rewards than us, because it's based on the work you do, okay? And what it says is, David went out whithersoever Saul sent him. And so whatever church you're from, you know what, whenever you get a soul-winning map or an area to go to, be happy for it, even if it's not a receptive area, even if it's not where you want to go, okay? But notice what it says also, and David went out whithersoever Saul sent him and behaved himself wisely, behaved himself wisely. You know, for the most part, most of us in this room are part of a good church, okay? We have people from Verity Baptist Church, we have obviously a lot of people from Verity Baptist Manila, we have people from other areas. And quite honestly, a lot of the people that came from maybe not great churches, they weren't able to come due to the coronavirus, okay? But I want you to understand that whatever church you're part of, you need to behave yourself wisely. Just wherever you get sent to preach the gospel, just be a blessing to that church, okay? Look, I went to churches before I went to Verity Baptist Church in Sacramento, California. And let me say this, that if I had stayed in my church in West Virginia, that pastor would have ordained me to the ministry once I was qualified. You say, why? Because the pastor liked me. I brought people to church, I helped on ministries, I was nice, I didn't cause strife, I didn't cause problems. You know the reality is, within the new IFB or like-minded churches, a lot of people are just a pain to their churches. And it's like, I understand your church might not be perfect, but I want you to realize that in the US, you can find churches that are right on the gospel. Now here in the Philippines, that's not always the case. Some of you, you went to churches before where your pastor wasn't even saved, and you say, Brother Stuckey, what's the answer there? I don't know. I've read this book, I don't know what you do when your pastor's not even saved. It's like, that's a tough situation, okay? But I want you to realize that if you have a saved pastor, even if he's not perfect, behave yourself wisely. Don't always argue with him about the rapture. Don't always argue with him about the reprobate doctrine. Just say, you know what, I can serve at this church and actually help this church and be a blessing to this church. Verse 6 in your Bible, and it came to pass as they came when David was returned from the slaughter of the Philistine. So he goes, he fights the battle, and he comes back and they win the victory, even though it's not as exciting as what it is in 1 Samuel chapter 17, okay? Now, look at verse number 6 here again. Verse 6. And so the first point we have is quite simply this, just keep soul winning. Keep doing the work. After this week is over, just keep going soul winning. Even for our church here, Verity Baptist Church Manila, this week is going to be more exciting than next week, right? This week is going to be more exciting than the next time we're in passing and we're knocking the doors there. That's why. Because on Sundays as a church, we get maybe 20 salvations. It's not the easiest near where our church is, right? Door to door there, we don't just come back with 100 salvations every Sunday. It doesn't happen. Now, on Saturdays we do our all day soul winning in public parks and it's great. But on Sundays, you know what, a lot of us come back and it's like, didn't get to give the gospel, didn't get anybody saved. But do you realize the visitors we've had at our church since it started were from door to door ministry near our church. If you think about the families that are new to our church, outside of the online ministry, we haven't brought people to church from going soul winning in case I'm memorial circled. We haven't brought people to church from going soul winning in Rizal Park or going to other provinces. We're not going to stop that ministry because we get a lot of people saved. It's exciting. It keeps the zeal going. But I want you to understand, we're not forsaking the areas near our church to just go to popular areas. We need a proper balance of these things because I want to give every single person a chance in passing to hear the gospel and to get saved. And I want you to realize some of those areas that are very unreceptive, I have knocked all those doors already. I've tried my best to keep good areas for you guys at church. Behind those doors of that really rich church, guess what? I've knocked all those doors. A couple times some people join them, but look, all those doors were already knocked. And guess what? I had one day I came back, five hours of soul winning, zero salvations. And I didn't even finish the entire gospel one time. It's like, man, I feel like I'm in America, right? It's like five hours of soul winning, nobody's saved, but we're not forsaking the door to door to just go to parks all the time. We're going to do a balance on these things, okay? We need everything and we need to knock every single door, okay? And whether or not it's an unreceptive area or a receptive area, we need to take it seriously, okay? But number two, we need to stay humble. Stay humble. You've had an exciting week, you go back home and maybe you've got 50 salvations this week or 40 salvations this week, okay? And you go back to your area in California or the US and you think, man, I'm only going to get like 15 more salvations the entire year, okay? But I want you to realize, you know, you shouldn't get arrogant and kind of look down on other people at your church that might not get as many people saved this year, especially when you're able to come here and go soul winning and get a lot of people saved. Notice verse 6, 1 Samuel 18 verse 6. And it came to pass as they came, when David was returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, that the women came out of all cities of Israel singing and dancing to meet King Saul with tabrets, with joy, and with instruments of music. And they've won a great victory, they've won the slaughter, and these women are coming back and they're dancing and they're singing and they're just shouting about the great victory they had. Notice verse 7, and the women answered one another as they played and said, Saul hath slain his thousands and David his ten thousands. Now look, these women are kind of bobo. This is a pretty foolish statement to make, okay? For one, David didn't kill ten thousands of people. It's like, what are they talking about? Now I mean, he was basically led to charge in that battle, but he's not responsible for killing ten thousands of people, okay? But they're basically subtly kind of criticizing Saul and lifting David up above him, okay? This is a kind of foolish thing to do, and I've seen this happen at churches before where you hear people talk to someone and say, man, that was a great sermon you preached at men's preaching night. That was better than the pastor. It's like, you know what? That's a rude statement to make. That is a bobo statement to make. That's pretty foolish, okay? You don't make statements like that, and that's kind of what they're doing. It's like, man, you're pretty good, Saul, but David. Man, he's a little bit better than you. And see, the result of this situation is it starts to create envious in the heart of Saul. Now it is Saul's fault because he gets backslidden and he allows this to affect him. But I want you to realize this sort of statement affects Saul. It does not affect David. Because even though David is lifted up, David makes sure he stays humble, okay? Here's what it says here, and go down to verse 22. And I want you to realize this, that in life, you know what? People are going to make foolish statements sometimes. Somebody makes a statement that kind of criticizes you or makes somebody better than you, you know what? You need to learn to just take it. Don't be like King Saul where he gets envious and he's complaining and he's whining and everything like that. Just learn to take it, okay? If somebody criticizes you, just deal with it, okay? It's not the end of the world. But I want you to realize that if somebody lifts you up above where you should be, you need to bring that back down, okay? And I'll tell you what, I'm not going to go off the rails and preach about the reprobates, but let me just say this. Reprobates, bad people will intentionally try to lift you up and fill you full of pride. These sort of people, they come into churches and they're always really nice, aren't they? Oh, they're so nice. I mean, it's like, man, you know, you're such a great preacher. It's like, man, you're ready to pastor now. It's like you don't have any kids. It's like you're not married, but that's okay here in the Philippines, right? It's like you need to watch out for people like this, okay, that are going to lift you up. And these women, they make kind of a foolish statement. Verse 22. Verse 22, I'll prove to you that David stays humble though. Verse 22, and Saul commanded his servants saying, Commune with David secretly. So basically quietly away from everybody else and say, Behold, the king hath delight in thee, and all his servants love thee. Now therefore be the king's son-in-law. Now realize, Saul is trying to kill David, okay? I don't have time to go through all the verses because Saul does that a lot, okay? But Saul is secretly trying to kill David, and yet he sends servants to talk to David and they say very positive things. You see, what he's trying to do is get David to make kind of a foolish statement and get arrogant himself, and he can use that against him, okay? Kind of a way I can liken this too, when I used to play soccer, I remember, you know, when I played in high school one game, we were playing on the opposing, we were the away team, so we were playing at the other team's, you know, field, and whenever you play at somebody's field, they pick the referees, okay? They are supposed to pick referees that are unbiased. That's not always the case though, okay? Sometimes they're basically just, those referees try to help the other team win the game. And we were playing a team that, you know, we were beating pretty good, you know, we were a better team than them, but I remember, you know, the ref was just trying to kick all of our team out of the game. Like you'd steal the ball from someone and then they'd give you like a red card, and it's like, what in the world? It's like I didn't even do anything. And you know, I remember one time I took the ball from this player, and it was completely a fair play, I took the ball, it was not a foul, and I remember the referee runs up to me this close to my face. Now look, there's kind of a rule of personal space. It's kind of like, you don't get this close to somebody's face, alright? And he gets right in my face and he had his hand in his pocket. That's where you hold the yellow and the red card. He wanted to give me a card, and he's like, don't you ever do that again. This is the ref, it's like, I just took the ball from the player. I said, alright, no problem. And I was just as calm as could possibly be, and then he repeated again, and I was like, no problem, I apologize. And then all of a sudden, I just kind of started walking away, and he's just like, I mean it. He was trying to get me to say something so he could just be like, red card, you're done, you talk back. But I was just as quiet as possible, okay? And what's going on here is that Saul is trying to basically get into the head of David, okay? Verse 23, let's see how David reacts. And Saul's servants spake those words in the ears of David. And David said, seemeth it to you a light thing to be a king's son-in-law, seeing that I am a poor man and lightly esteemed. And David says, you know what, I'm lucky to be the king's son-in-law. I'm a poor man, I don't have a lot of money, I'm lightly esteemed, I'm not looked at very highly. And David kept an humble attitude in his heart. Because David is not expecting Saul's servants to approach him, okay? He doesn't plan out what he's gonna say. Basically Saul's servants come up to him and inside of his heart he was humble. And I want you to realize that in life you cannot always prepare for situations. You need to be humble inside your heart ahead of time. And so when Saul's servants come to get into your head, and look, they're probably trying to get him to say something against Saul, and then Saul can have reason to kill him. But David, in his heart, was humble. In his heart was meek. And inside of your heart it comes out of the mouth, okay? That is the way it works, he was humble. Verse 24, and the servants of Saul told him, saying, on this manner spake David. So Saul is waiting to hear back what David said, why he wants to use it against him, okay? Turn to Proverbs 27, Proverbs 27. See you have to realize that David, he fought Goliath, he won that battle, but if David got filled full of pride, that's the only great event he'd ever do in his life, okay? If he had gotten arrogant, if he had not stayed prideful, he would have never done anything else great in his life. And the reason why we know that is look at King Saul. King Saul, did he start out arrogant or humble? Humble. But he became arrogant and he lost his place because of that, okay? And look, our church in Manila, we've had a lot of great successes this past year. We've gotten a lot of people saved, our church has probably grown by 25, 30%, you know, we're a lot bigger than we were a year ago. Last year, you know, a year ago, we're probably running mid-30s for services, now we're running kind of the low 50s, you know, a lot of services, just steady growth, added new families, new soul winners, I mean, we've had a lot of great success. We have a successful church plant that we started just a few months ago, we have a lot of things that we can be excited about, and we should be excited about that, but even though other Baptist churches are failing in this area, don't allow yourself to get prideful just because other ones are dropping the ball, because we're just doing what we're supposed to do. Just because other churches aren't doing it, that doesn't mean that we're so great. It just means we're doing what we're supposed to do, okay? And look, I wish there were other churches here in this island so we wouldn't have to be responsible for like 60 million people, okay? But the reality is there's just not a lot of churches doing the work here. Very few ones are doing the work, okay? But we should not allow that to make ourselves prideful. We must stay humble, okay? Proverbs 27 verse 2, Proverbs 27 verse 2, the Bible reads, let another man praise thee and not thine own mouth, a stranger and not thine own lips, okay? Proverbs 27 verse 2 is basically saying don't be a Haman, okay? Don't praise yourself. Don't talk about how great you are, okay? Let somebody else praise you, okay? And if somebody wants to give you a compliment or tell other people, man, so-and-so, I think he's a good preacher, or so-and-so seems to know his Bible, hey, you know what, if other people praise you or give you a compliment, that's fine. But don't praise yourself. Nobody likes to hear a braggart. Those people are annoying. Nobody wants to be friends with those people. And we have all met people like this in our lives, that every time you talk to them, it's a one-way conversation. They tell you, man, this is how great I am. It's like I did this and this and this and this. It's like all right, that's great, I'll go and talk to somebody else, okay? Because nobody likes to be around people like this, okay? And look, if people choose to praise you or they praise our church, you know, glory to God, that's great. But here's the thing about this, we don't praise ourselves, okay? Now turning your Bible back to 1 Samuel 18. And so the first point we had is this, we need to just keep doing the soul winning. Keep up the same work we've always been doing. But number two, we need to stay humble in our lives, okay? And this is important for all of us as soul winners because at a church that does a lot of soul winning, you know, it's possible you might be a little bit more zealous than other people. Don't allow that to make you feel like you're better than them, okay? For one, we don't all have the same situation in life, okay? You know, this week, every single day, my wife and I have gone soul winning in the mornings in Rizal Park. And for the most part, I've been kind of babysitting, right? I've been watching the kids, okay? Because it's tough when you have a young daughter that's a month old and then Zeph's pretty rowdy, right? He sees Rizal Park, he's like, man, what a giant playground. He's like, this is awesome, a giant playground all for me, right? And look, we've been able to get people saved in the morning, but look, the reality is it's been a little bit difficult though. There was times I took over the gospel conversation halfway through because, you know, you have a young daughter, you know, it's just not the easiest thing, okay? And I want you to realize that when it comes to moms, look, moms are not going to be able to do as much soul winning as, you know, young single people. It's just reality. It's like, you know, the reality is, you know, and my wife, when we had Zeph, my wife came out on some Saturdays, did the all day soul winning, but you know what, she might not be able to do that anymore because it's kind of difficult, okay? That doesn't mean you're going to get more rewards in heaven though because you're doing more soul winning because your situations are not necessarily the same, okay? And so you need to be careful and not get arrogant and think you're better than other people because you feel like you're doing more work. Because the reality is we don't all have the same situation in life and when it comes to rewards being given one day in heaven, let God sort that out. I never preach that I'm going to get more rewards than anybody in the room. I don't preach like that and I don't act that way because I do not believe pastors are automatically getting more rewards than any of the members. I don't believe that. It's like, you know, we're rewarded for the work we do and we're in different situations in life so God can sort that out. So you run your own race and let other people run their own race, okay? Because none of us have reached our destination. We still have work to do, okay? Our last point here today is this though, prepare for persecution. Prepare for persecution. Look, when you have exciting victories in the Christian life, you can guarantee that persecution is on the other side of the corner. First Samuel 17, David kills Goliath, the most exciting event in the entire Bible. The next chapter, Saul tries to kill him, right? Think of another story. Think of Elijah, the false prophets of Baal, man, that's an exciting chapter as well. They win that victory, they kill all those false prophets, man, Elijah had this big victory. What happens in the next chapter? Jezebel tries to kill him, right? Why? Persecution will always follow exciting, big, successful events. And see, you have to realize that as our church has grown, we've had people that have left due to persecution. It's not because I didn't warn them, because I've warned everybody, we know this is coming. But the reality is, you know what, some people the persecution comes and they leave. Now here's the thing, the people that are soul winners that have stuck at our church, they've already gone through some persecution. They just chose to stick it out. So it's not that their situation is different, because the Bible says, all that will live godly shall suffer persecution. All that will live godly. At Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra, meaning all places, wherever Paul went and served God, he went through persecution. Look, when our church started, we had the persecution a couple weeks in. I was like, man, I've already got these famous Baptists trying to sue me. It's like, what in the world? I just got here. I thought it would take a little bit more time. But when you're doing something big for God, you know what, the persecution is going to come. 1 Samuel 18. And when it comes to persecution, one of the big aspects is persecution from other saved people. Okay? Or at least other people that claim to be saved. But definitely sometimes other saved people that are backslidden. 1 Samuel 18, verse 8. This is after the ladies acted a little bobo, and we saw David's reaction. Let's see Saul's reaction. And Saul was very wroth, meaning he was extremely angry, okay? Now they said Saul slayed thousands. They did compliment Saul, but his problem was they complimented somebody more than him. He's like, I'm the king. I need to get the big compliments. Well then, why didn't you fight Goliath? Right, right. Right, if these other Baptist churches want the compliments, why don't you do the Saul winning then? Right, right. And you'll get them. It's like, Saul, you didn't fight Goliath, there's a reason why they're complimenting David more than you, because they look at what he's doing and he's more successful than you. Okay? That's the reality. Saul was very wroth and the saying displeased him, and he said, they have ascribed unto David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed but thousands. And what can he have more but the kingdom? Now notice what he says, they have ascribed to me but thousands, okay? Thousands is a lot. I mean, isn't that a lot of people? If somebody's told me, hey, Brother Stuckey, your church is reaching thousands of people, that's a lot of people. It's like, you know, if another church, and look, there's like-minded churches throughout the world that are reaching more people than us, but look, we should be happy we're reaching some people. Thousands is a lot of people. It's like, yeah, there's other churches reaching ten thousands or even a hundred thousand, maybe even a million, I don't know, but look, thousands is a lot. We should be happy we're reaching somebody. We're not competing versus them. And Saul shouldn't feel like he's competing versus David. David doesn't feel like he's competing with Saul, but Saul feels like he's competing with David. And you know what I've seen is that with people that are soul winners that love God, we don't feel like we're competing with other people that are soul winning. But the ones not soul winning, they feel like they're competing with us. It's like, well, you know, I don't know what to do, then just go soul winning, okay? We can be on the same team, be on the same side. And then it says, what can he have more but the kingdom in verse 8. So basically Saul says, you know what, the only thing left for him is he's going to take the kingdom and be the king. Well, I mean, you were already told that you lost the kingdom. That wasn't David's choice, that was God's choice. So basically he's kind of mad because of the fact that David's taking over for him, okay? Verse 9, and Saul eyed David from that day and forward, okay? When it says he eyed David, it doesn't mean he just stared at him all the time, right? David's eating breakfast and Saul's just looking at him to eat breakfast, okay? No, that's not what it's saying. It's saying he's eyeing him to kill him, okay? He's planning to kill him. That is what his goal is, okay? Now Saul, despite what a lot of Baptists think, is a safe person. Saul is in heaven today, okay? We see what can happen to a man who gets prideful and envious. This is King Saul, okay? This could happen to any one of us in this room if we get backslidden, okay? If you get backslidden, you're going to probably end up persecuting and criticizing those that are more righteous than you. That's what we see throughout the Bible, okay? Verse 10, and it came to pass on the morrow that the evil spirit from God came upon Saul, and he prophesied in the midst of the house, and David played with his hand as at other times, and there was a javelin in Saul's hand. Now in verse 10, let me just say this. I don't have time to prove this, but I believe the evil spirit is referring to a spirit of fear, okay? Because the Bible talks about basically having a sound mind and not being filled with a spirit of fear. Saul did not have a sound mind because he was filled with a spirit of fear. I don't believe this is like some sort of like ghost or goblin or devil or whatever, this evil spirit troubling Saul. I believe it's the spirit of fear. The spirit is not always referring to like what we think of as like angels or devils. When you look up spirit throughout the Bible, it's not always referring to that. Sometimes it's referring to characteristics, okay? And so I believe it's referring to the characteristic of the spirit of fear. And when you look at the way Saul runs his life, he is scared to death he's going to lose the kingdom. And as a result of that, he wants to kill the person who's going to take over for him, okay? He's filled with the spirit of fear. And so David's basically playing the instrument before him. And then in verse 11, and Saul casts the javelin for he said, I will smite David even to the wall with it. And David avoided out of his presence twice. And so Saul basically tries to kill David. And so it says this was twice. And so I'm not exactly sure what happened. I don't know if basically Saul throws one at David, David leaves the room, then all of a sudden he comes back into the room and then all of a sudden he avoids again. I'm not really sure, okay? Because it says twice, okay? But Saul is trying to kill David. You say why? Well here's a fellow believer, a saved person who's persecuting David because David is more righteous and more right with God than Saul. Look, there's no new thing under the sun. The same thing will happen in this room and in this world. And look, as someone who loves God, you're in this room, you say I came here to be a part of this trip and to go soul winning and you love God. Look, do you want to end up like Saul or David? You need to make sure you don't backside in your life or you could end up like Saul. Even if you don't try to kill somebody who's saved, you might basically try to tear them down and criticize them and gossip against them and pull up every bit of dirt you know about them and be just like King Saul, okay? Turn your Bible to, look at verse number 25, go down to verse 25. Verse 25, and Saul said, thus shall you say to David, the king desireth not any dowry but in hundred foreskins of the Philistines to be avenged of the king's enemies. But Saul thought to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines. And so King Saul kind of sends David on a weird request, okay? And so before you get mad at me for that soul winning map, here's David going whithersoever Saul sends him to do whatever he says. And he says I want a hundred foreskins of the Philistines. I believe he's trying to give him a hard job so he's more likely to die, okay? So he says I want a hundred foreskins, basically kill a hundred and bring back the proof, okay? A hundred foreskins of the Philistines. And the reason why, Saul thought to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines. He wants him dead. Verse 26, and when his servants told David these words, it pleased David well to be the king's son-in-law and the days were not expired. So David's like, all right, great, he sent me on a mission, I'm gonna do it, all right? Now this is not the best mission, okay? But he says I'm excited to do it. Look, when you go soul winning during the week and your church sends you, be happy with wherever you get sent, okay? This theme is coming up throughout the Bible. Be happy with what you're sent to do, okay? You're rewarded for the work, not the results. That's what the Bible teaches, okay? Verse 27, wherefore David arose and went and he and his men and slew of the Philistines two hundred men. And David brought their foreskins and they gave them in full tale to the king that he might be the king's son-in-law, and Saul gave them Michael, his daughter, and a wife. So Saul says I want you to kill a hundred and bring back their foreskins, and David goes above and beyond. He brings back two hundred. Now I can imagine, because Saul's hoping he'll die if he just tries to kill a hundred. I can imagine how angry he was. And you know, honestly, this is what you see from backslidden Christians. They get angry when you get people saved. That's the reality. They are mad. There are Baptists here in the Philistines that are angry. They are angry that this week we're getting a hundred souls saved every day. They're upset about it, and it's not always necessarily an unbeliever. Believers can act the same way. That's what you see with Saul. And they're going to be upset that you're having good results. You say why? Because when you backside, you start acting like the old man. You don't act like the new man. You act like the old man, and it manifests itself, okay? That is what we see. Why is it that sometimes believers are mad that you get souls saved? It's like it is possible they're just devils that are false prophets, but you know, sometimes it's just they're envious. They're upset that you're more righteous than they are. That's the reality. And look, persecution will always come because people backside all the time. So if you're right with God, there's thousands of people ready to persecute you. And sometimes it's from other fellow believers, and often from other Baptists, okay? That's the reality. Notice what it says in verse 28. And Saul saw and knew that the Lord was with David, and that Michael's soul's daughter loved him. And Saul was yet the more afraid of David. So like I said, he was filled with the spirit of fear. He's afraid of David. And Saul became David's enemy continually. And that's what you see pretty much in every chapter, okay? Now notice what it says in verse 30, because Saul has already tried to kill David. Verse 30, then the princes of the Philistines went forth, and it came to pass after they went forth that David behaved himself more wisely than all the servants of Saul, so that his name was much set by. So basically, the character of David does not change. Now later on in his life, he does become afraid of Saul. But here at the beginning, he stays humble. He's not afraid. He's just serving God, and he's just trusting in God, okay? That's what we see. Now turn to 1 Samuel 17. Now when it comes to persecution, one of the big people that's going to persecute you are going to be other believers, okay? Now we know the LGBT will persecute you and people that really hate God. We're not going there for the sake of this sermon. It's not really in the text, but that's obviously true. People that hate God, sons of Belial, they'll persecute you. But what we saw is fellow believers will persecute you, and certainly fellow Baptists. But another part of the persecution is going to come from your family. That's what the Bible teaches. 1 Samuel 17, verse 28, 1 Samuel 17, verse 28, 1 Samuel 17, verse 28, and Eliab his eldest brother heard when he spake unto the men, and Eliab's anger was kindled against David. This is the older brother of David, and he's mad at David, okay? Now David's father told him, go to the battle. David is obeying the rules of his father. He's doing what he should do. He's obeying the authority at that time in his life. He's just doing what he's told to do, okay? His older brother's not his boss. His father was his boss. He obeys what his father says, but Eliab is mad at David, okay? David has done nothing wrong. He's just shown up to battle and followed instructions, okay? Notice what it says then, and he said, why camest thou down hither? Why did you come to this battle? Well, David doesn't answer that question, but the answer is, look, our father sent me. He told me, go to the battle. That's why I'm here. He told me to go to the battle, and I'm just obeying instructions, okay? And with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness? And so what you see is that Eliab is trying to make all these railing accusations and see if one of them sticks, okay? And this is what you see from family members or fellow believers. They'll try to criticize you. They'll throw up everything, and a lot of it's just completely false. It doesn't make any sense, because Eliab is accusing David of basically forsaking his job of keeping the sheep. Well, the question is, did David forsake the sheep? Just verse 20, verse 20. And David rose up early in the morning and left the sheep with a keeper. Did David just forsake the sheep? No, he didn't. He left the sheep with a keeper, okay? And if you remember this story, when a king was supposed to be anointed, all of David's brothers went out to be anointed. They're like, man, I'd love to be the king. Not David. They go through the whole list, and then Samuel's like, is there another one? Because God didn't choose any of them. And what was David doing? He was keeping the sheep. Now look, keeping the sheep is not as glorious of a job as being the king, okay? But that's the job David was given. And see, in life, no matter what your job is at work, no matter maybe your responsibility at church or whatever, it might not be the most glorious job, but look, all of those jobs need to get done, okay? And it doesn't matter if you get the job that gives you the most credit, you just do what you're supposed to do, okay? Look, I haven't always been the one preaching the sermons. When it comes to a church, the reality is that the person who's preaching the sermons is going to get the most credit, okay? They also get the most blame. Let me tell you that, though, okay? Look, at Verity Baptist Church, Pastor Menes gets the most credit. He also gets the most blame from people as well. So realize that, that if you feel like you're not getting enough credit, I also am the one who's going to get the blame when things don't go well, okay? If the lights go out in this room, it's my fault, right? It's like, I should have planned for it or something, it's like, I will also get the blame for situations as well, okay? I might get the credit, I'm also going to get the blame, okay? But I want you to realize, I have been an independent, fundamental Baptist since I was 19 years old. I got saved five days before I turned 19, okay, on October 9th, 2003, okay? I got saved, it was right around midnight, so it might have been October 10th, but it was right around the 9th or the 10th, around midnight, okay? But I want you to realize, when I went to churches, I just served at the churches. I just helped on their bus ministry and helped pick up kids, even though I don't even believe in that ministry, okay? I just helped and served at the church that I was at, and I didn't get the credit that other people did. But you're not serving God to get the credit. And if that's how you're living your life, you're not going to last very long in the Christian life. You must just decide, I'm going to serve God because it's the right thing to do, okay? Look, if you go out and get four people saved a day and nobody gives you credit, that is still four people that are not going to hell. Why do you care about the credit? You should be happy that you rescued someone from going to hell, okay? It's not about getting the credit. And in this story, we see that Eliab is criticizing his brother David. Why? Because he's not right with God. I want you to notice in verse 20 it says he left the sheep with the keeper, but notice, and took and went, 1 Samuel 17 verse 20, as Jesse had commanded him. So David is still under the authority of his father. Jesse doesn't say, hey, if you want to go to the battle, he says, no, go to the battle. He's commanding him. Those are his rules. And David's just following orders. And David makes sure, I'm not going to forsake the job of being a sheep keeper, I'm going to make sure there's someone to take care of those sheep, okay? And he came to the trench as the host was going forth to the fight and shouted for the battle. Now, go back to verse 28. Go back to verse 28. And what it says in verse 28, what Eliab says to David is, I know thy pride, okay? So Eliab's throwing out all kinds of accusations. He says, you know what, David, you're prideful. You're not a humble person. Now it's kind of funny because when you read this story, I don't see any pride at all in David. There's no pride whatsoever. And do you realize when you say, you know what, I got three people saved today, you're prideful. You didn't get anybody saved. God got those three people saved. Now look, we know God is the savior. We're not denying that, but the reality is we're not Calvinists in this room. All right? And if you are a Calvinist in the room, we've got to talk to you after the service and help you out about salvation, okay? God's not going to just come down and just predestinate people and send them to heaven or come and preach the gospel. That is our job to do, okay? So I want you to realize this, that when we get people saved, what do you see a lot of Baptist churches do? They try to criticize us in any way they can. They say, well, how do you know they really got saved? It's like, well, why are you saying you got them saved? Well, cause Paul said he got people saved. Okay. That's the reason why. Paul said he got people saved. That's the terminology in the Bible. He that winneth souls. You are winning souls. We don't do it alone. Obviously we do it with God, but look, we're going out and winning souls. And they say, well, you're not saving anybody. Okay. How do you know they really got saved? How many of them got baptized? How many have came to church? How many have repented of all their sins, right? They just throw out these wild accusations and they try to criticize what we're doing. Don't allow the persecution to get you to stop. As an individual, that's pretty tough if you're at a church and no one's doing the work. Now, here at our church in Manila, that's not a problem. When people go through persecution, it's like, just jump into our church, you got a family here for you. But the reality is it's tough for people to go through the persecution and a lot of people have left our church. People that I hope will come back one day. Okay. But persecution got to them and they left. Look, this is just part of the Christian life. And Eliab says, you know what, you're prideful. That's just throwing out a random, crazy accusation. Why? Because he's trying to find something that's going to stick. Okay. And the naughtiness of thine heart. So apparently, even though man looketh on the outward appearance, Eliab says, I can see your heart. And it's naughty. Okay. This is ridiculous. He's just throwing out these crazy accusations. I'm surprised he doesn't bring up, hey, 15 years ago, you did this, you told mom about something I did when we were kids. It's like, just throwing out all these crazy accusations. Okay. And the naughtiness of thine heart, for thou art come down that thou mightest see the battle. Okay. Now I want you to turn to 2 Samuel 2. Second Samuel 2. Look, it would have been very easy for David to get prideful because he was determined to be the king one chapter before he killed Goliath. Now look, here's the thing in the Philippines. Once you get elected pastor, you're retiring from soul winning, right? Right. Like man, in 1 Samuel 16, I just became the pastor. Right? So I get to retire, right? Just I don't go soul winning anymore. I reached this level where I'm above soul winning, basically. I'll just send you out to preach the gospel. I'm going to Starbucks, right? That's the reality with a lot of pastors, but see, that's not the reality of David. David says, you know what? I'm going to still fight the battle. And he goes in 1 Samuel 17 and risks his life to fight the battle when he is the king because the king leads the charge. And then after the excitement's gone, he's still fighting battles. You say, why? Is not above fighting battles. And look, if I had to forsake soul winning to be a pastor, okay? If I had to forsake soul winning to be a pastor, you know what? I would just forsake being a pastor. Say why? Because soul winning is my first love after I got saved. I love soul winning. I love preaching, but I'm not going to forsake soul winning to just preach sermons. Okay? I'm going to do them both. And if I couldn't do them both, you know what? I would just forsake being a pastor because I love soul winning and I could serve God at a church even if I wasn't the pastor, okay? And so we're in 2 Samuel 2. Now let me say this. When it comes to why do other Baptists and believers and family hate us? Because I'm not asking for a show of hands, but I'm sure everybody in this room, you've gotten persecution from some family. If it's not your parents, if it's not your brothers and sisters, it's your cousins, it's your uncles, you know, it's your sodomite uncle or whatever, you know, you've been persecuted by some family, okay? That's the reality. I promise you, other Baptists have persecuted you as well, okay? You say, I don't remember that happening. Look, if you're part of our church, trust me, Baptists have persecuted our church. They've sent people to our church to spy on us for a couple months and see what's going on and things like that. Look, we've been persecuted by other Baptists and the reality is we're all going to go through persecution. That's part of it. So what we saw in this sermon was number one, that we need to keep soul winning. Two, we need to stay humble. And three, you need to be prepared and ready for that persecution. But the reason why these Baptists and believers and family members, especially ones that are at least claiming to be Christian, the reason why they hate us is because they know we're right and what we're doing is right. Say, how do they know that? Because we provide Bible verses to prove our points. They provide opinions. We say, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. And then they fight against what we're saying, well I don't think everybody has this special gift to be a soul winner. What verse do you have to back up what you're saying? Because we've got lots of verses to back up what we're saying. Look, I want you to realize I'm really not a naturally outgoing person. You know what I like to do? I like to just, I'm a homebody, I like to stay home. I don't really like to go out and always be involved in an adventure and stuff like that. Okay, now I enjoy preaching sermons and I want you to realize when I first started going soul winning, I remember telling the person who was trying to motivate me to go, look I'm shy. It's not my gift. I couldn't do that. I don't have that ability. But I want you to realize soul winning is not an option based on the personality God gave you. It's a command no matter who you are. And the reason why these people are mad at us is because quite honestly, they're just not right with God. And these Baptist churches, they hate us not just for the soul winning, but we preach standards and look the reality is that when you're at a church like ours, you kind of live a little bit higher of a life than them in terms of worldliness. They can just listen to all the music they want in the movies and the TV. No big deal to them. We preach against it and we try to follow it. That doesn't mean we're perfect, but we're not just going to put a blindfold on and pretend like there's no big deal by just partaking in all the sin of the world and you watch Vice Pong eat on TV and oh it's oh so funny. It's like it's not funny to me. It's disgusting. It's filthy and someone needs to preach against it. But they're mad when we preach against it. And they would never preach against that. Look, everybody at our church has said this. Every Baptist church you've been to in the Philippines, they preach about nothing. You learn nothing. They don't preach against anything and it's just follow the pastor's rules. Right? That's what they say. Second Samuel 2. Second Samuel 2. And sorry, there's kind of an inside joke with pastor. So you have to kind of have been a part of our church to say, well, I'm not saying pastor instead of pastor. Why am I saying that? Well, it's kind of an inside joke. Second Samuel 2 verse 4. One day we'll sing a song about it. It's already written. Second Samuel chapter 2 verse 4. And the men of Judah came and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah and they told David saying that the men of Jabesh Gilead were they that buried Saul. So what is the result? What's the end of this whole situation for David? Well here's the end of the situation. David becomes king. Saul is dead. He paid for the sins he committed. He's above Eliab. You don't really hear about Eliab anymore in the Bible. He's kind of done. He's a forgotten character. Why does this happen? Because David, you know what, he stayed humble. He didn't get filled full of pride. He basically fought through the persecution and the end result is he won. Look, there's a lot of chapters left in First Samuel and David was persecuted quite a bit. Now he did fail along the way and in Pompanga we're preaching through the life of David and he does make a lot of mistakes along the way, even before adultery. You see him backslide and the reality is any of us when that persecution gets to us, it can take us where we can't take it after a while. Now in the story of David though, with David he is kind of isolated from everybody else though and that could be what would happen if you would forsake church and you're on your own. You will basically get depressed and quit on God. That's why you need a good church, okay, and I hope everybody in this room, I hope you have a good church to go home to because you need fellow like-minded people to help motivate you because the world kicks you around and persecutes you and fights against you and criticizes you and eventually it affects you. It would affect any of us so you need a great church. You're not going to serve God on your own. It just does not work very well, okay, but we see the end result is that guess what? David just keeps fighting the battles and you know what? Now he's the king, okay. You say what's the point of the sermon? The point of the sermon is that you know in First Samuel 17 you have the most exciting chapter in the entire Bible. I think it's obviously the most exciting chapter but you know David after that because in this missions trip it's been very exciting. You've gotten a lot of people saved, you've had great fellowship, exciting events, you're in a new country, things are great, but after the excitement wears off you keep soul winning, you stay humble, and you prepare for the persecution that will win the excitement wears off, not if. Let's close in a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here in your house here today and help us to apply the sermons to our lives, God. I think it's been an exciting week for all of us, God, but help us to just take this zeal back wherever we're from, God, and just take that soul winning every single week very seriously, even if very rarely we get people saved going door to door and people are unreceptive and they don't want to listen, God. Help us to just not leave here and forget about the excitement but take that zeal back with us and say in the local community that God has placed me in, I want to make a difference, I want to get people saved, I want to bring people to church, help them get baptized, help them learn the word of God, help them become soul winners, God, and help us to always stay humble as well, but help us also prepare for the persecution that will come in our lives. Maybe some people in this room haven't experienced much, God, but it is going to come. Help us to be ready for that persecution and still serve God no matter what happens. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. One quick reminder is we'll have a picture right after Marlon's done singing the last song, right up here we'll have a quick picture.