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Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right, weekly church service time. Sunday mornings are at 1030. Sunday evenings at 6. Wednesdays at 7 p.m. Underneath there's a list of some winning times. If you have any questions, 208-391-5323. And again, the fastest way for us to respond is a text message because Google like kicked us out of Google. I can't make any. I don't know. I'm still dealing with it. But I still get your texts pretty fast. So, let's see announcements. Is this off? Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Verse of the week. Mark 2. We're a family integrated church. We don't separate children from their parents for any reason dads You can use that room right there. Mom's right across the hallway should be all good to go Let's see here. Don't forget to turn your phone off or place it on silent So it's not a distraction and with that being said we're gonna have one more song before we receive the offering All right, let's grab those hymn books one more time, please and we'll turn to song number 427 in the Christmas hymn section of your hymnal 3. I'm sorry 427. We three kings Of orient are we'll do the first three verses on the song We three kings song number 427 do the first three Three kings We three kings Are There is we Travis Star of light We're leading still Proceeding Guide us to Thy perfect Light Born a king On Bethlehem's plain Gold I Bring to crown Him again King forever Ceasing Never Over us all Gray Oh Star of wonder Star of night Star with royal Beauty Bright Less we're leading Still Guide us to Thy perfect Light Frankincense To walk In So I Prayers Raising Worshipping God Oh Star of Wonder Star of night Star with royal Beauty Bright We're leading still Proceeding Guide us to Thy perfect Light Alright Let's go ahead and pray Thank you again so much Lord For allowing us to be able to gather here this evening Just pray you bless the service The fellowship afterwards Lord Be with us as we go through out the week and bring us back again safely on Wednesday In Jesus name I pray Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Alright, amen. 1 Kings chapter number 20. I titled this sermon something that Pastor Thompson will find Meaning behind very quickly and that is the boiling point the boiling point. So we're gonna talk about that this evening so last week we talked about a Well, not a have so much but we talked about Elijah in what he saw and if you remember what he saw was the fact that You know Even after the miraculous events that happened in happened in chapter 18 where God obviously answered the prayer of Elijah it rained Elijah soaked the offering and water God sent fire down to consume that offering and in the sight of all the people Despite that miraculous event despite the fact that Ahab was invited to participate in that offering, you know What we learned last week is that he's not really in charge Okay, it was Jezebel who was able to call the shots and she's we saw that she was able to order the execution of Elijah which obviously God's protecting him and that's not gonna happen But that's what we talked about largely last week today We're gonna talk about some psychology believe it or not You know a lot of people think that Psychologists are on the cutting edge of human behavior and we need to go to them to figure everything out And now I'm not saying that they're dumb or they don't have you know some valid arguments But honestly any bit of wisdom that they have you can find it in the Bible, you know You hear them say something we can actually use the Bible to audit what they say And what you're gonna see today is literally psychology in warfare. So we're gonna take a look and break down this Situation where Ahab gets confronted by the enemy how he initially responds what makes him actually? motivated actually gets him excited what brings him to the boiling point and then we're gonna take a look at how he was successful for a short short Season and kind of apply that to our lives because we all know that we're all at war We're all at battle every single day. Okay, just because we don't have rifles We're on a battlefield fighting for Rothschild's oil doesn't mean we don't have warfare Okay, we all have battles that we fight throughout the week and these things are definitely highly applicable to us So again, we're gonna take a look at some psychology in warfare and we're gonna take a look at what needs to happen in the heart and Mind in order to be successful in any kind of battle any kind of war it's all listed in this chapter Now the first 11 verses what you're gonna see here is this you're gonna see what is required for a person to actually commit to War see what is required for example this morning. We had the mutts out here again, you know causing trouble armed And we had a group of people here and they're very kind they came to to support us, you know and they came to Help out and things of that nature and one of the things that one of them said to me afterwards was like, okay You know, this is the first time that we've seen these people that we've seen these sodomites actually armed, you know And so the wheels you can see the wheels spinning in their heads and they're like, you know at the abortion rally And all these political events that they go to We've never seen them this amped up this angry and this and in quite frankly armed at all You know and and they're they're upset and they're kind of excited They're trying to figure out what the next thing to do is do they come to this church? You know do what do they do? They just keep bouncing around and following these guys They're not sure but the point is what they saw Actually triggered something inside of them to make them think okay And you're gonna see as we go through this that very same thing happens to a hat He actually finally sees something he gets to a certain point to where he's like, okay, it's time to go Okay, and this is what we need to be able to understand what we need to be able to attempt to communicate to people if we're ever gonna get them on our side and to actually Properly fight the enemy and fight these battles So again, the first thing is this what is required for a person to actually commit to battle to commit to war and everybody in Here, you know, you guys can all realize it. What was the where was the moment? Where were you? What were you doing when you finally realized that the battle requires you the Word of God God's people knocking doors? Evangelizing and edifying one another, you know, think about that. Was it a sermon that you heard? Was it a truth that someone communicated to you was somebody take the Bible and just show you you know Were you praying for truth, you know, think about those things what got you excited? What got you motivated and what keeps you motivated, right? What keeps you at that boiling point and that's what we're gonna take a look at with a hab this evening So let's start this thing off here. Look at verse number one So the Bible says and Ben had add the king of Syria Gathered all his hosts together and there were thirty and two kings with him and horses and chariots And he went up and besieged Samaria and ward against it So obviously this here I see this is a picture of the devil and gathering his large Armies against the people of God because even though he have you know, he's definitely got some major issues He's described as a wicked king. He's not sold out to bail though You know He hasn't essentially bowed the knee if you will and the reason why I keep saying that is because in chapter number 18 he's invited to partake in the sacrifice meal. Okay, but he's got some issues He's got some problems and literally this verse here describes us, you know these freaks out here. They think they're so cool They think that you know, most of the world agrees with us and I'll tell we'll be honest Most of the world don't agree with us Okay But one thing's for sure still in this day and age most of the world and most of the Treasure Valley Just don't care about sodomites. I mean, it's just just a fact Okay, but often the media your family members or friends will often say oh the tiny church in Boise that tiny It's just a small group of people. It's just a small this small that it's always like that God always uses a small group of dedicated motivated disciplined people to actually show his strength in Okay, you see this all the time and that's kind of how this chapter is starting out here Look at verse number two and he sent messengers to Ahab king of Israel into the city and said unto him Thus saith Ben hadad thy silver and thy gold is mine thy wives also and thy children. Even the goodliest are mine Now most of us here would just be like, you know, that's that's strike one and you're done Yeah, you know, there ain't no strike three when you you want to threaten our families and things like that We're gonna we're gonna take some action here, but Ahab hasn't quite arrived there yet Look at first number four the king of Israel answered and said my lord O King according to thy saying I am thine and all that I have, you know, and again, that's why we're saying You know Ahab is kind of like a simp, you know He's he's he's literally a wimp at this moment in time His wife is able to just at will say no, I'm gonna get rid of the prophets I'm gonna do this and it happens. Okay, you're gonna see next week chapter 21 who's calling the shots Is it Ahab or is it Jezebel? It's Jezebel. Okay, but look at him here. Okay, you can take them You know, it's just it's just amazing to me by the way, I mean anybody who reads this chapter here It probably gives you tons of sermon ideas, doesn't it? I mean, it's just I've pulled tons of sermons from this chapter here over my life as a Christian But look at verse 5 says in the messengers came again and said thus speaketh Ben hadat saying although I have sent unto thee saying Thou shalt deliver me thy silver and thy gold and thy wives and thy children Look at this verse 6 yet I will send my servants unto thee tomorrow about this time and they shall search thine house and the houses of thy servants And it shall be that what so ever is pleasant in thine eyes They shall put it in their hand and take it away It's when I read this I can't help to maybe think you know What's going through Ahab's mind about Jezebel because you know these kings they had wives at concubines And you always kind of see this implied when you're reading this right, you know The king always has his favorite wife or he's always got his favorite You know child or something of that nature here And so I kind of wonder if he's like well Jezebel can hold her own so About Ben hadat taking her but if I lose my extra wives and you know The concubines and those kids as so be it as long as I'm good as long as they're not forcing anything on moi Then we'll be good to go But this thing right so it's not that's not enough for the king You know they again the king is Ben hadat is literally a picture of Satan as that's how I see him He basically is a picture of Satan Isn't it so true that when people out in the community think that they can placate the enemy they can placate these devils or these Dogs that they'll somehow get reprieve. They'll get relief not at all You know not at all you can stand out there you can you be nice to doesn't matter They're gonna try to devour you because that's what wild beasts do and we talk about this all the time And so here a hab is getting that lesson, right? He's like well, you know, I already told him I'd comply You know, I don't get it here, you know, but what does he do? He ups the game here Ben hadads like oh, okay Well, if I can take an inch then I'm just gonna go take a mile. I'm gonna take everything from him That's what the devil does and then this is why we teach and this is why you're gonna see tonight. We teach no compromise We don't back down from nothing anybody ever Not for one second because the moment you do you're gonna get smashed every time First seven then the king of Israel called all the elders of the land and said mark I pray you and see how this man seeketh mischief for he sent unto me for my wives and for my children and for my silver and for my gold and I denied him not Now, I mean, none of us would ever want to be I'm not I was gonna give him everything But look at verse 8 and all the elders and all the people said unto him Harken not unto him nor consent so the people have a right mind here, you know, his counselors are like don't agree Right. Just just don't do it. Like this shouldn't be that hard a hab verse 9 Wherefore he said unto the messengers of Ben hadad tell my lord the king All that thou did send for thy servant at the first I will do but this thing I may not do And the messengers departed and brought him word again Look at verse 10 and Ben hadad sent unto him and said the gods do so unto me and more Also, if the dust of Samaria shall suffice for handfuls for all the people that follow me So again, you cannot negotiate we cannot Compromise with evil with the devil with people like this a hab is getting this lesson here You know, he's trying to negotiate he's trying to placate this guy you can never placate the implacable it Doesn't work. For example, you're not going to be able to go down to the meridian library here and say, okay These books we don't accept but you will leave you alone As long as you keep them in the library and you don't deliver them to people's houses without parental consent You can't say stuff like that because as soon as you adopt that weak mindset They're gonna keep doing it and they're gonna be more emboldened and they're gonna be like Oh, we'll just take everything because everyone's on our side. Look no one's coming after us And by the way, that is apparently what the meridian library does They will drop off pornographic books to your children if they choose without your consent That's a big problem. How did we get here? You know how we got here because we are a nation full of churches and political leaders that are just like a hab If not even worse than a hab weak no backbone No ability to stand up for truth afraid of confrontation on every level and it always breeds destruction and absolute disaster every time Okay So verse 10 Ben had ad here's the message and he's like, oh, you know You're just a flea and basically I'm gonna completely Just ruin you and notice how Ben had ad keeps talking to have like this stuff's already happened. Like I'm gonna do this to you I'm not asking you. I'm not telling I'm basically just just letting you know, this is as if it's already done Look at verse 11. He says this and the king of Israel answered and said now This is where a hab gets to the boiling point Okay And what the Bible's trying to tell us here is that look you have it in you we have it in us People should have it in them to be able to finally say, you know, what enough is enough. I'm done with this I'm gonna take some action here and here a hab has one of the greatest one-liners in the entire book here Look what he says and the king of Israel answered and said tell him let not him that girdeth on his harness Boast himself as he that putteth it off. I mean, that's a Hollywood statement right there I mean that's better than that's a great statement. Okay. Now this is a perfect example of someone reaching to the boiling point But what what did it take to get him there? Well, it took this King basically saying I'm not taking any compromise from you a hab I'm gonna take everything you have I'm gonna take your wives. I'm gonna take your children your silver your gold your 401k I'm gonna take your retirement and basically anything that you treasure. So you treasure Jezebel. I'm taking her too. He wants everything 100% and so To answer the question what is required for a come a person to commit to battle to commit to war To commit to fighting anything including the flesh including, you know our families I'm not talking carnally, but I'm just talking about truth in general What does it take for a person to finally stand up and say enough is enough? Well, it takes a person needing to see the enemy for what he is here a hab gets that lesson He's like this guy's not even gonna budge. I he's I agreed to do the first stuff, you know And I even sent back and said I'll do the first stuff. I'll give up the wives I'll give up the gold the silver no problem But this other thing I just can't when he finally sees that Ben had ads like uh-huh. I'm taking everything Anyways, he's like, okay I guess I have no choice tonight and he stands up and comes up with this great statement And what is this teaching us here? Well, James told us what this means resist the devil and he will flee from you You know I mean It's a basic Bible doctrine that Christians Are supposed to live by when we're under attack from the devil when we're under any kind of attack from anyone a bully of any Sorts you do not back down. You do not give in you do not compromise you resist that is why churches are supposed to Assemble together right because there's power in the pulpit. There's power in the pew there's power in evangelizing and edifying one another There's power in that there's no power in engaging these people Carnally for sure. There's no power in that all that does is just excite them. The power is in Resistance and Resistance comes from the Word of God the resistance comes from what we believe if you follow these people that hate us They keep talking about what we believe and what we say not just me But all of you, you know, someone just wrote on the on the Facebook page, you know I can't believe people still go to this church. It's like more people are coming to this church now, you know What do you mean you can't believe it? You know people are getting sick of these people out there trying to take advantage of our children Literally we live in a culture today ran by Ben hadad and what they're doing is saying we're going to the libraries We're going to your schools. We're coming to your house Without your consent and we will take whatever we want and you can do nothing And what we need today are people to adopt this mindset here that a have finally get and say, you know What enough is enough this battle is not over. We're still here. We're still breathing We still have the Word of God we can make a huge impact and we are and we will continue to drive forward and do so Despite the threats from these people they show up with guns people still show up to church It doesn't matter and by the way, we have enough firepower here to teach you a lifelong lesson So I would highly recommend that you don't engage us, but that's a sermon for next Sunday morning So again point number one was a question what is required for a person to commit to war the answer is a person needs to just come to the Realization of who the enemy is and what he's about and you could kind of see that this morning with these people now They didn't all get it. They didn't all fully get it I don't I don't think but but but they agree they saw firsthand finally how Vile these people can get and what they really want to do, you know They even made a Facebook post themselves and said look these people are here yelling at women and children Screaming death on them wishing them to die and saying the most obscene perverted things we have ever heard Okay, they're seeing this and people are starting to wake up. And so what do we do? We thank God for that We're like, amen. I'm glad that they got to see that this morning That is awesome Because that's what we've been saying from day one because that's what the Bible has shown us that these people are about that is what? They are like So let's move on here to point number two starting in verse number 12 And so the next thing that a person needs in order to stay Motivated or to turn that motivation into discipline and to be effective are clear rules of engagement Right a willingness to follow the plan. That's what you're gonna see next in verses 12 through 21 Even the our military has rules of engagement, right? We're not supposed to just go over to a place and just blow everyone I mean, there's certain missions that are like that But you know soldiers are trained to have some discernment you don't want to shoot innocent people You don't want to shoot women and children. What do the enemy often do? Well, you talk to anybody who's been to Somalia, you know Who's ever heard of Blackhawk down? You go talk to the Rangers that were over there or the 10th Mountain Division that were over there and what the Somalis would Do is they would bring out a woman holding a child and shoot between her legs at the Americans. That's what they would do Okay, that's how violent and that there is satanic that there is a picture of what the world is doing the world the wicked Once the the devil's they're hiding so behind this so-called family. Oh, well, you guys are attacking our families It's like you can say that all you want to you're not a family. You're the family of hell You know, that's what you are And so the point is we need to have clear rules of engagement and the Bible gives us that I mean We're told in the New Testament that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal We're not to go out there into physically engage, but we do have the right to self-defense Okay, that that is clear in the Bible, but our job and our goal is to preach truth Okay, I mean hey John the Baptist right? He lost his head for preaching against adultery Okay, look and that's all right. You know God said hey, that's a righteous thing You know precious in the eyes of the Lord of the death of the of his Saints. So let's move on here We need to have clear rules of engagement and a willingness to follow the plan and you're gonna see Ahab get that right here Look at verse 12 says and it came to pass when bed had had heard this message. He was drinking guy Look at he's drinking. We'll call him boozing Ben So he was drinking he and the Kings in the pavilions that he said unto his servants set yourselves in array And they set themselves in array against the city. So again Ben had had just has this attitude like this guy's weak It's already done. I got this in the bag verse 13 Okay, and behold there came a prophet unto Ahab king of Israel saying thus sayeth the Lord has thou seen all this great multitude Behold, I will deliver it into thine hand this day and thou shalt know that I am the Lord And so you see a lot of different things going on even in this verse here. Okay. God is letting Ahab know Hey, first of all, it's your fault Ahab that you're in this situation to begin with but I am going to show myself to you So when we read this we need to understand sometimes we have to go through things like that this morning And other things in our lives so that God can show himself strong amongst his people Okay and look what he says there at the end of verse 13 that you may know he says now shalt know that I am The Lord look at verse 14 and Ahab said by whom and he said thus saith Lord Even by the young man of the princes of the provinces Then he said who shall order the battle and he answered thou so again Ahab is having to learn leadership here Okay, I mean, yeah, he's in a leadership position, but he's not a very good leader. He's having struggles to make decisions Jezebel runs the show but here he's already puffed up. He's already got to the boiling point He's ready. He's in the perfect state of mind and heart to fight the enemy. And so what does God do? He shows him what is required to achieve that and what is required for any leader the ability to follow Okay, a person who cannot follow cannot lead effectively. We all know that I mean that's leadership 101 right there That's what God is about to show Ahab and he realizes in this moment. Oh, it's me I'm the one that's gonna have to make these decisions. Okay, I'm the one that's gonna have to order the battle But God is letting him know. Hey, the power is here. God is here to help look at verse 15 Then he numbered the young men of the princes of provinces and they were 232 and after them he numbered all the people even all the children of Israel being 7,000 kind of an interesting number there when God told Elijah that he's reserved 7,000 who have not bowed the knee to bail Verse 16 look what it says says and they went out at noon But Ben-Hadad was drinking himself drunk in the pavilions he and the Kings the thirty in two Kings that helped him So again, obviously the it's not over look the obvious here. Ahab is outnumbered by by Obviously by by resources, but he's out powered because Ahab has God on his side in this moment here Okay, so you see this here. Oh Boozing Ben, right? He's just drunk. He's I take this guy drunk. I got my bad boys I'm good, you know Budweiser Ben, right? That's Going on here verse 17 and the young men of the princes of the provinces went out first and Ben-Hadad sent out And they told him saying there are men come out of Samaria And he said whether they become out for peace take them alive or whether they be come out for war take them alive So these young men of the princes of the provinces came out of the city And the army which followed them and they slew everyone as man and the Syrians fled and Israel Pursued them in Ben-Hadad the king of Syria escaped on a horse with the horsemen verse 21 and the king of Israel went out and smote the horses and the chariots and Slew the slit of the Syrians with a great slaughter. Okay, so Again, just to recap. What does it take for a person to actually finally wake up and say this is my fight This is my battle well They have to see the enemy for who he is or what it is And once they see that then they're in a position to where they can possibly get into the fight But then after that right so after a person wakes up and they see who the enemy is what what I mean What's obviously next here? Well, you have to understand the rules of engagement and God says you have to do things my way You're gonna follow my instructions meaning you Ahab you're gonna order the battle. Here's your people. I'm behind you I'm gonna show myself mighty and great if you believe that if you go forward with that if you do what I tell you you Will be successful and what was the result? They were successful they won they slew the Syrians with a great slaughter I mean This is quite the other side of the coin isn't this is quite down the road from just a few moments ago We're reading about him being willing to give up his wives being willing to give up his gold and his silver When all he had to do was resist the devil and the devil will flee from you But it's that initial resistance that scares a lot of people out in the community By a lot of Christians are afraid of that initial resistance like man I got to stand up to the groves in the high places of my mom and my dad and my aunt my uncle my sister and whoever and Jesus is like absolutely Absolutely, we ought to put God first and everyone else Second okay Ahab does that what happens success battle? Goes accordingly And obviously the lesson here for us is like I've been saying all along our job is to edify and evangelize Okay, the local New Testament Church. That is how we wage warfare now We're not gonna go down to the transvestite Santa Claus on December 18th at the Botanical Gardens in protest Now let me ask you guys a quick question. I want to preach about this What would happen if we showed up there? Armed with weapons and just stood there How fast do you think the cops would show up? No, no lightning quick. In fact, they're already there. I mean Here you take one Boise PD. Listen to this. I'm gonna be there right but guess what? We won't be because we don't want to defile ourselves. We understand that the battle is here. It's in this building It's us assembled together. It's us knocking on doors and preaching truth and making converts That is our battle and it is going very well We are doing very well at that God is blessing us tremendously and I'm excited about that Let me ask you guys this what happens if we go to one of these no soliciting apartments downtown Boise and start knocking doors and someone calls the police and says there's people with King James Bibles on my doorstep But I told them to leave and they won't leave They show up lightning quick, don't they lightning quick now what happens when we call them say hey We have screenshots of them saying they're gonna blow our church up They're gonna start shooting people and they're actually out there yelling that they're gonna kill us and they're armed They never show up not once Interesting, and I'm not gonna let that go We aren't gonna let that go but I got to get back on track here because I'm starting to get myself angry but So number two, okay. What is it? What is required for effective warfare battle? Well, you got to know who the enemy is you have to feel it you have to see it for yourself You got to come to the realization that there is a battle and that you can fight it But you got to know the rules of engagement. You got to do it God's way. You've got to do it properly The result is always success but one of the psychological things that you have to overcome is that we will often be Physically outnumbered you just you and I we we have to be okay with that We just got to be alright with that and God will always take care of the rest now What you're gonna see here number three, which will be Verses 22 through 31 is the next thing that's gonna make us successful. What makes a hab Successful for this season is the ability to keep your guard up. Okay the ability to handle success Okay So he gets a victory here and this is key a lot of times people get a couple of wins under their belt They get a couple of victories and they start to drift off. They start to slack off They start to think like Ben had out. I've got this in the bag It's time to pop the cap on that Budweiser and I'm getting drunk in the pavilion with my kings You know and people adopt this attitude that is when they always go down, right? We need to keep our guard up and that's exactly what you're gonna see here. So look at verse 22 says in the Prophet came to the king of Israel and said unto him go Strengthen thyself and mark and see what thou doest For at the return of the year the king of Syria will come up against thee look at this wisdom here Okay, a hab gets the victory his men get the victory. They have a great slaughter of the Syrians What is the message from God to him? It is to strengthen thyself to mark and to see Okay and see what thou doest for the frat the return of the year the king of Syria will come against me look Until we get to heaven we can never let our guard down. We can never be like, okay We got this victory we can take a little bit of a break or whatever No we have to accept when we have rest and use that rest period that God gives us from our enemies and Strengthen ourselves learn more sharpen each other more do more you take that's how the Christian rest Because remember like we learned this morning we're in the Sabbath every day, right? Jesus is our Sabbath. We're in him We're always at rest, but the work of us being ambassadors is Ongoing and we do like this work rest kind of deal and that's exactly what the message is to a hab here look at verse 23 and The servants of the king of Syria said unto him their gods Are the gods of the hills? Therefore they were stronger than we but let us fight against them in the plain and surely we will be stronger than they and of Course, this is just how the world is. They don't understand God. They don't understand. He's not the god of the hills He's the god of the universe. He's out of everything even he made you who's saying this here. You guys are crazy verse 24 and do this thing Take the Kings away every man out of his place and put captains in their rooms and number thee an army Like the army that thou hast lost Horse for horse and chariot for chariot and we will fight against them in the plain and surely we will be stronger than name and they hearkened unto their voice and did so now look at this here verse 26 and It came to pass at the return of the year That Ben had outnumbered the Syrians went up to affect to fight against Israel So again, okay when you have to understand this, you know read Matthew chapter 4 What happens at the end of the warfare that Jesus has with Satan says that Satan departed from him for a Season so until we're up there with Jesus in heaven. We need to realize the enemy's coming back around. Okay He's coming back around You know, it's kind of like this summer, right? We had regular visits from them and they kind of tapered off for a while, right? But they were watching they're there. They're looking for a reason to come back and to come get us. We're always ready Okay, we understand how the enemy thinks okay That's why we these stories are in the Bible to teach us this too So it's not not such a shocker like all these people are here. What it's like, of course, we own them I mean, you know, we're in Christ and what is what is Christ doing? He's making his enemies his footstool So, of course, they're gonna show up here. We need something to put our feet up on Look at verse 28 There came a man of God and spake unto the king of Israel and said thus saith the Lord because the Syrians have said The Lord is God of the hills, but he is not God of the valleys Therefore will I deliver all this great multitude into thine hand? Ye shall know that I am the Lord So again, let's understand this got you know Just because God hasn't come back and been physically manifest and just destroyed everyone who's speaking against him Doesn't mean he isn't upset you know these comedians and all these celebrities and people that are mocking Jesus every single day of our lives like every minute it seems like Look, they're just racking up damnation for themselves and they're gonna meet the day that they wished Never would come for them and they will get destroyed because this is the heart of God here We need to understand that when you hear people mocking God You need to know that he doesn't appreciate that at all and he will get justice and it's gonna happen It's a fact it happens every single time look at verse 29 and they pitched one over against the other seven days and so it was that in the seventh day the battle was joined and the children of Israel slew of the Syrians and 100,000 footmen in one day and again these numbers seven days, you know, it's kind of like the Battle of Jericho You know these clues are in these stories, right? I mean you can take these new these numbers in these things like that and you can bring up past battle experiences But what more does it do for us? It solidifies the fact that this isn't apocryphal Okay, this belongs in the Word of God. This is scripture here. This is Bible Okay, that's why you see these little similarities like that that the author has left for us has preserved for us Okay, so again, what do you see here you the ability to keep your guard up, okay, it's essential in any battle It's essential in any war. It's essential that we always Maintain readiness. Okay. I mean look the United States military. That's a big thing. You'll hear Maintain readiness. Okay. Why do they do maintenance? Why do they do this? Why do they do so much training when there's downtime to maintain readiness and if our corrupt Military can do that. Why aren't God's people doing that right? That's the point That's the key. You have to maintain readiness. Keep your guard up. That's what Ahab does. Guess what? They're successful. Okay Successful again, but now what we're gonna look at here is we're gonna shift gears here We're gonna take a look at some human psychology here. You're gonna get to see some of the Distractions that the enemy will throw at you in the midst of battle to throw you off Track and so many of us have fallen for these so many times so verse 30 it says this it says but the rest fled to a feck into the city and There a wall fell upon the twenty and seven thousand of the men that were left Ben hadad fled We came into the city into an inner Chamber. Hey, look at this here verse 31 Says this and his servants said unto him behold now We have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are merciful Kings Let us I pray thee put sackcloth upon our loins and ropes upon our heads and go out to the king of Israel Prayer adventure. He will save thy life Now how let's stop right there. How did they hear about this? Because Solomon didn't put up with a whole lot and he had rest from his enemies David certainly With much you say the wrong thing today of it and his get they're ready to cut your head off, you know They're like, ah, we were I ain't giving you nothing right? Look you can put David in the worst possible situation You know, no food. No resources uncertainty in the cave hiding from the king, you know Just just distraught and say you know what? I think you're just a bond man I just think you escaped your master like the ball said right? What was David at? What was David's attitude? I'm just gonna kill you and kill everybody. Yeah, that's how David was. So who are they talking about here talking about King Saul? See the of the weakness that Saul displayed by not hewing a gag by not doing a full complete job that Lasted that spread throughout the years and that's what these people are hearing, you know And that's what people think of today, isn't it? When they hear Christians the reason why these people keep coming back is because most Christians back down You know, for example, how many times have we gone to an apartment complex and people come after us? They start getting super aggressive and we're like, we're not going anywhere What's up? We're not soliciting. We're visiting Show me the law right and we resist what do they have to say? Well, you know, that's not very nice of you when we do this to the other groups. They'll even send us gift cards We've had that said to us I ain't sending you a gift card I'll send you another invite maybe if you you're nice, but you know, I mean you because So called Christians have cowered down they have backpedaled they have not stood their ground Right that often gets placed on us and people think Oh Christian week You're supposed to just love everybody blah blah blah because they heard that lie They heard that false doctrine from these other teachers and so it just gets placed on us Okay, but what are we supposed to do when it gets placed on us? And here's where a hab fails and this is a major major Strategy that the enemy will often use to you and our old man uses this on us all the time and I call it the Pity pose. Okay. I call it the pity pose Then the goal of the pity pose is to see if there is any hesitancy in you Right women in the workforce sometimes are very good at doing this how strong are you in your marriage? How committed are you to your family? right and they will often try to throw some pity out there and oh And they'll say something to see if you're gonna back them up if you're gonna put that deposit down in other words And the moment you do they know in their minds they have got you they can turn you into a piece of bread and they Can take you at your will? This is what the enemy does this is what your family members do some of your family members This is what some people that you know do Can't you just give up one week of church to just come out to the club? Can't you just come golfing with us? Just this one Sunday the moment you do that person owns you They've got you you are now under their control. You've lost your warrior status You are now no longer that warrior, but you are a captive you are a P.o.w. you are a prisoner of war and I know this isn't popular, but this is fact This is exactly what you're gonna see here What benedict does as they start to bring up? Yeah? Yeah, we heard that the kings of israel are very now obviously you know the kings before that all week You know you got Jeroboam you got zimri all these guys You know definitely not good examples of warriors not good examples of God's people and what does the enemy do they? capitalize on that mistake they capitalize on that weakness okay, and so they disguise themselves And they want to put on a pity party and see how a hab handles it look at verse 32 So they girded sackcloth on their loins and put ropes on their heads and came to the king of israel and said thy servant Ben hadad saith I pray thee let me live and he's look at this, and he said is he yet alive. He is my brother There it is the pity pose and the goal is to see if there's any hesitancy and not only does a hab Hesitate he's like he's my brother is he alive. I didn't want to hurt you poor, baby When God said you're gonna take him out you need to destroy these people Now here is the human psychology port part of this look at this here So after aab says this is he yet alive. He was my brother look at verse 33 now the men did diligently observe Whether anything would come from him you see that so they do this ben hadad these guys put on This front they put on the show to test his guard to test his mental Fortitude how strong are you how disciplined are you yeah? Ahab got to the boiling point But look you need to take that boiling point and put a lock on the switch and make sure no one could just come and Flip that thing off at will okay. This is where a hab fails. He fails it I mean look it's so clear here verse 33 now the men did look at this Diligently observe who's got the diligence the people of God are the people of the devil people of the devil now the men did diligently Observe whether anything would come from him and look at this next part after the comma and did Hastly catch it. What are they playing softball you think ben hadad's out there with his mitten his budweiser can Oh throw me a little pitch. No They're looking to see how he responds to their pity pose okay They're looking to see if there's any chink in his armor Is there any hesitancy or when he says no does he mean no? That's what they're look and they catch what he says which is pretty obviously right is he alive. He's my brother Oh, I'm just so glad you didn't die. You know. Oh, this is great. Look at the rest of the verse Thy brother ben hadad so they capitalize on that right thy brother. Yes thy brother thy brother ben hadad Right then he said go ye bring him what in the world He's through here look at this Go ye bring him then ben hadad came forth to him and he caused him to come up into the chariot and that you know so There there there goes that great verse in verse number 11 there goes that boiling point to the melting point to the frozen point I mean, it's just now this guy's inviting the world to be a part of him come up into my house Come up into my cherry. Let's be one together. Now. How's God gonna react to this? Well, let's take a look look at verse 34 Says and ben hadad said unto him the cities which my father took from thy father I will restore now shall make streets for thee in Damascus as my father made in Samaria then said Ahab I will send thee away with this covenant. So he made a covenant with him and sent him away You may stop there or somebody may stop there and say we'll see You know, this all worked out. This is good to go there. They made a coven. There's peace, right? That's what God's people are supposed to do there. They're just supposed to make big peace Jesus said I came not to send peace on the earth but a Sword and what do you do with a sword you use it to slice dice stab chop to destroy? And our sword is the Word of God and what it says is harsh and sharp and people have a difficult time with it But it doesn't matter. The enemy is looking to watch every single one of you hesitate Do you believe really that all dogs go to hell? Yep You really don't want them in all of them every single one of them and that's our attitude Leviticus 2013 all day long. We're not backing down a Second from any of that not even for a second. We stand upon these things firm no matter what anybody says We're not inviting these people up into the chariot We're not about negotiating what the Bible says is what the Bible says and that is how we live That is how we operate and that is how we win battles That is how we win wars and that is what we will continue to do in our personal lives when we're battling ourselves When we're battling our families, you know what we're gonna put God and what he says first and say, you know What you're not coming up into this chariot, you know what you want to come up here you get born again You get on the program, right? That's how this thing works Ahab was supposed to do the same thing that Saul was supposed to do to a gag and utterly destroy him But he doesn't do that he makes a covenant Okay, and guess what happens now judgment. So look at the how the story changes here. Look at verse 35 And a certain man of the sons of the prophets said unto his neighbor in the word of the Lord Smite me I pray thee the man refused to smite him So obviously what's going on here is these people are with Ahab's army Okay, and it says a certain man of the sons of the prophets you hear these old-time pages Well, this was the school of the prophets you ever that everybody in here's heard that it's like whatever It says the sons of the prophets Okay So you have this certain man this certain prophet and he looks into his neighbor who is also a prophet and says smite me I pray thee and look at this and the man refused him. Hey, he refused to smite him He's like no, I'm all about love and acceptance and tolerance. I mean, that's what God wants Okay here. So here you have a classic example of a prophet not Understanding or not being willing or not willing rather to actually stand his ground and be Strong in the Lord and he's like I can't hit you. I Can't I can't do this. I'm not I'm not gonna do this. Well, what happens to him? Look at verse 36 then said he unto him because thou has not obeyed the voice of the Lord behold as soon as thou art departed from me a lion shall slay thee Okay, and as soon as he was departed from him a lion found him and slew him Right, didn't we read a similar story to that a few weeks ago? Okay. Yeah, we read that the very similar story with a prophet Didn't follow the instructions that God told him and he went back and he listened to the old Prophet from Israel who lied to him and what happened a lion slew him and obviously that's a picture of Jesus Slaying people that reject him that reject truth So here you have a prophet who's supposed to be about the Word of God Even though this is a hard saying a hard thing to do to hit somebody. It doesn't matter It was the Word of God and what's the judgment on people that don't want to follow the hard things of God? God can't use him in battle. He can't use him for war So what does he do? He sends the line of the tribe of Judah to smite this guy and to destroy him teaching us that it's Jesus's way Or the highway to hell I mean, I mean this is just the way it is Okay, that's the way it is or to destruction now. I'm not saying this guy died and went to hell Okay, I don't want it to kind of sound like that We don't know anything about him other than the fact that he did not adhere to the word of the Lord And so God sent a lion to destroy this guy look at verse 37 Then he found another man and said smite me I pray thee now look at this and the man smote him so that in smiting he wounded him Okay, so this prophets like yeah, I've seen that mountain lion, you know I saw that lion that destroyed the other guy or I heard about it and I don't want that to be me So in other words this prophets like okay Boom, right and he hits the prophet he hits the certain man into the point to where I it wounds him somehow Right to where it's definitely a visible Hit here. It was a good hit and so that's the kind of person you want on your side Okay, where when we hear these hard things in the Bible We're put in a position to where we have to defend these hard things these things that are out of season in the world God is looking for people like this who say yeah, I'm going all out for this, right? Here's why this has to happen though. Okay. Look at verse 38 so the Prophet departed and waited for the Kings a hab waited for the king by the way and Disguised himself with ashes upon his face and as the king passed by he cried unto the king and he said thy servant went out into the midst of the battle and behold a man turned aside and brought a man unto me and said keep This man if by any means he be missing then shall thy life be for his life Or else thou shalt pay a talent of silver now look at verse 40 And as thy servant was busy here and there he was gone and the king of Israel said unto him So shall thy judgment be thyself has decided it so a have here's the story here He's walking by here's this and he's like I you should have kept better track of this guy You should have done what you were told. You shouldn't have let him get away Right. He's got no mercy here. He doesn't care. He's just like yeah, it is what it is but look at verse 41 and he Hasted and took the ashes away from his face and the king of Israel Discerned him that he was of the prophets. So now I have like oh, wait a second here. This is bad This probably means something for me in verse 42 And he said unto him thus sayeth the Lord because thou hast let go out of thy hand a man Whom I appointed to utter destruction Therefore thy life shall go for his life and thy people for his people and the king of Israel went to his house Heavy and displeased and came to Samaria So again, this is perfect a perfect lesson for us in battle Okay When God tells us he wants certain things out of our lives and we don't do it what always happens those things wind up taking Us they wind up coming back to get us God is serious. He needs warriors He needs people to see the enemy for who is God has this book set up for us And you could start reading in Genesis and by the time you get to Revelation You will see so many common threads about our enemies about the reprobates Okay The people that hate God it never changes from the beginning of the book to the end of the book and when you can see that and you can Understand that these dogs out here. They are not just lost souls They're reprobates. They're rejects. They hate you. They hate God They cannot believe that ability has been taken away from them Because they threw it away as far as they could they didn't want it And when you understand that then you can be in a position to wage Proper Warfare and you can protect yourself physically and you can protect your family physically and you can bring an awesome Testimony that rings throughout the spiritual world you can literally display the manifold wisdom of God Which the angels desire to look into this is how deep this stuff goes. This is powerful And what this prophet is telling Ahab here? He's like because you want to be weak because you want to compromise on these things Guess what they're gonna Take you your life is going to go for their life How many people how many children have lost and had their innocence stolen from them because their preacher was too weak and too much of? A sissy to kick these people out of church How many more children's lives have to be compromised and destroyed? Before someone with a backbone is going to stand up and say we're not letting them in here anymore You know we understand what the Bible says we understand that when somebody has to take a hard hit We should be willing to take that hard hit You know what it's a hard hit when you have to tell your family and the people that you know and the people that you Grow up with hey, they'll say if the Lord this is how we stand this is how we operate you know what it does Hurt you on the exterior But the internal is actually healing and it's profitable and you take that Deep wound which seems like a wound and you turn it into power This is what God is desiring of this prophet And that's what he's showing Ahab He's saying because you were too much of a coward these people are going to now Start to win and they're going to start to advance They're going to start to take over and your life is going to go in the place of theirs And that's exactly what you see today isn't it so many people and so many of these churches out here Compromising not willing to look at the truth because they're afraid of the dollars that are coming in the door Well, what if I lose the money? What if I lose this you don't think they have that conversation with themselves of course? They do these preachers know how vile these dogs are they see it all the time. They know it There's no way they can't understand it. They know what's going on out here in these public fool systems They know what's going on in these libraries, and they're not upset about they won't even speak about it And when they hear us in the news like yeah, there's another unloving guy, or her you know But they go back home And they scratch their heads when no one's looking and they have this conversation with themselves in their hearts And they say man if I were to take a stand like that. I'd be the one severely outnumbered. I'd lose half my cut That's the wrong way to go now those people gonna come creep into your church And they're gonna take your kids and they're gonna destroy you and your life is gonna go for theirs They're gonna prevail and you're gonna lose all because you were weak. You're a coward. You're nothing. That's the truth That's the reality that we live in today, and we need to stop it We need people that are willing to take a hit that are willing to get to that boiling point and say you're not touching this Switch here. This is staying on. I'm in control of it. I'm not giving this up. That's how we have to be so I'm done with that. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you so much Lord for your truth again thank you for these stories Lord that they point us to so much application and Just understanding of actual warfare, and how we can apply this to our lives on a daily basis in Jesus name. I pray amen Alright so for our final hymn this evening. Let's turn the back of the book to number 423 and we'll sing joy to the world I Celebrate Christmas season for 23 joy to the world On the first joy to the world Let Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Brother James when she closes You You Oh