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good morning everyone today we'll be reading first kings chapter 20 first kings chapter 20 first kings chapter 20 and the bible reads and benedeth 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 warred against it and he sent messengers to ahab king of israel into the city and said unto them thus say benedeth also and thy children even the goodliest are mine and the king of israel answered and said my lord okay all that i have and the messengers came again and said thus speaketh benedeth saying although i have sent unto thee saying thou shalt deliver me thy silver and thy gold and thy wives and thy children yet i will send my servants unto you tomorrow about this time and they shall search thy house and the house of thy servants and it shall be that whatsoever is pleasant in thine eyes they shall put it in their hand and take it away then the king of israel called all the elders of the land and said mark i pray you and see how this man seeked mischief for he sent unto me for my wives and for my children and for my sober and for my gold and i denied it not and all the elders and all the people said unto him harken not unto him nor consent wherefore he said unto the messengers of benedeth tell my lord the king all that thou did send forth to thy servant at the first i will do with this thing i may not do and then benedeth 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 and the king of israel and the king of israel answered and said tell him let not him that gurdith on his harness boast himself as he that putteth it off and it came to pass when benedeth heard this message as he was drinking he and the kings and the pavilions that he said unto his servants set yourselves in a ray and they set themselves in array against the city and behold there came a prophet unto a half king of israel saying thus saith the lord hast thou seen all this great multitude behold i will deliver it in the lord and they have said by whom and he said thus saith the lord even by the young men of the princes of the province ordered the battle and he answered thou then he numbered the young men of the princes of the provinces and they were 232 and after them he numbered all the people even all the children of israel being seven thousand and they went out at noon but benedeth was drinking himself drunk in the pavilions he and the kings the thirty and two kings that helped him and the young men of the princes of the provinces went out first and benedeth set out and they and they told him saying there are men come out of samaria take them alive or whether they be come out for war take them alive so the 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 and benedeth the king of syria escaped on a horse with the horsemen and the king of israel went out and smoked the horses and chariots and slew the syrians with the great slaughter and 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 and the servants of the king sit of syria said unto him their gods are gods of the hills therefore they were stronger than we but let us fight against them in the plain and surely we shall be stronger than they and do this thing take the kings away every man out of his place and put captains in their rooms and numbered 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 shall be stronger than they and he hearkened unto their voice and did so and it came to pass at the return of the year that benedeth numbered the syrians and went up to effect to fight against israel the children of israel were numbered and were all present and went like two little flocks of kids but the syrians filled the country and 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 hill and deliver all this great multitude in thy hand and he shall know that i am the lord and they pitched one over against the other seven days battle was joined and the children of israel slew of the syrians a hundred thousand footmen in one day but the rest fled to effect into the city and there a wall fell upon twenty and seven thousand of the men that were left and benedeth fled and came into the city into an inner chamber and the servant 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 on your loins and ropes upon your heads and go out to the king of israel for adventure he will save thy life so they girded sackcloth on their loins and put ropes on their heads and came to the king of israel and said thy servant benedeth safe i pray thee let me live and he said is he is he yet alive he is my brother now the men did diligently observe whether anything would come from him and did hastily catch it and they said thy brother benedeth then he said go ye bring him then benedeth came forth to him and he caused him to come come up into the chariot benedeth said unto him i will restore and thou shall make streets for thee in damascus as my father made it samaria then said ahab i will send thee away with this covenant so he made a covenant with him and sent him away and a certain man of the sons of prophets said unto his neighbor in the word of the lord smite me i pray thee and the man refused to smite him 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 and as soon as he was departed from him a lion found him and slew him then he found another man and said smite me i prayed smiting he wounded him so the prophet departed and 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 shall pay a talent of silver here and there he was gone and the king of israel said unto him so shall thy judgment be thyself has decided it and he hated hasted and took the ashes away from his face and the king of israel discerned him that he was of the prophets and he said unto him thus saith the lord because thou has let go of thy hand a man whom i appointed 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 let's pray thank you lord for this day for this church lord i thank you for your for your word god and lord please fill brother joe with your holy spirit as he preaches his message and uh thank you lord in jesus name amen well it's good to be back and uh see everybody again i like the snow outside it's nice as long as i don't have to drive uh the title of my sermon this morning is hard learned lessons from a couple of losers hard learned lessons from a couple of losers and i'm not saying that to insult ahab and but you know what they really did lose a lot in life they lost out on so many different things we're going to learn from that um you don't have to turn there but romans chapter 15 verse 4 says for whatsoever things were written afford time were written for our admin or for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures chapter there's a lot of information on the bible period but you know what we can learn stuff even from other people's failures from other people's mistakes and so that's what i'm going to be preaching about uh this morning like it says it says that through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope so you might be here this morning and thinking man life's just not going good for me right now you know i've made some mistakes i've done some wrong things i'm going to show you how you can learn to not repeat those how to get past that in your life and the bible says that through patience and comfort of the scriptures that means you do have to have that patience of you know hearing god's word preached over and over again uh reading meditating on the scriptures and things like that and so just to start out uh you know we just read first kings chapter 20 talks about a half a half was one of the probably the wickedest kings that uh israel had he was married to jezabel and uh jezabel's father was a king of the zydonians his name was eth bale or however you say it eth bale but uh yeah two very extremely wicked people and uh just for an introduction i just want to start going through this chapter here uh you keep something in first kings chapter 20 because we are going to stay there for a lot of the uh the sermon uh we will go to mark real quick and maybe a couple other places but uh definitely be able to get back to first kings 20 so look down there at verse number one it says and ben hadad the king of syria gathered all his hosts together and there were 32 kings with him in horses and chariots and he went up and besieged samarian warred against it and he sent messengers to a half king of israel into the city and said thus saith ben hadad thy silver and thy gold is mine thy wives also and thy children even the goodliest are mine so ben hadad just got done steamrolling no one's been able to stop me thus far i'm just gonna go ahead and take what israel has and then you know look down here at verse 4 it says and the king of israel answered and said my lord o king according to thy saying i am thine and all that i have now i don't know about you i'm i'm supposed to take my stuff that's fine but if you want to take my family you can forget about it you know and that's the attitude you we should never get this low in life to where we're just okay with the world taking from us you know our family or you know or or even our belongings you know we should be able to stand up to this this kind of garbage but you know what leading the life of you know just just selfishness and rejecting god's word will eventually lead you on a path to where you just feel powerless so look at verse 5 it says and the messengers came again and said thus speak of ben hadad 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 he says yet i will send my servants unto thee tomorrow about this time and they shall search thine house and thy houses of thy servants and it shall be that whatsoever is pleasant nine eyes they shall put it in their hand and take it away so right off the bat we can see here that if you give in to the world right ben hadad is a picture of the world a picture of the devil if you give in to them one inch they're just going to keep coming and keep trying to take more and more and more and more because you won't stop them that's that's what's what's being taught here but uh you know so ben hadad's like hey you know i'm gonna search that house so he's like i'm gonna come violate your fourth amendment rights you know i'm gonna you know illegal search and seizure i don't really care but uh no obviously he didn't have fourth amendment rights back then but uh you know that that does kind of remind me that you know we shouldn't as as uh american citizens value the constitution more than the bible because the bible says where the spirit of the lord is there is liberty if you lose god's word in the community and you lose that spirit the spirit of the lord you're gonna lose both we're gonna lose the freedoms that we have in this country as well as you know the freedom to preach god's word to our community so look at verse seven says that 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 it to me for my wives and for my children and for my silver and for my gold and i denied him not bad deal verse eight and all the elders and all the people said unto him hearken not unto him nor consent so the people have more common sense than they have they're like look what don't listen to them you know this is foolishness verse nine oh my lord the king all that thou did sin 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 and ben had sent it to him and said thy gods do so unto me and more also if the dust of samaria shall suffice for handfuls for all the people that follow me and the king of israel answered so this is where you know ahab said you know i guess he takes his vitamins or maybe he goes on royages or something i don't know but he kind of mans up here and 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 so right here you know he's like i'm not just gonna you know you can have my kids you can have a wife you can have my wealth but if you want to just take anything you want you know i i can't deal with that that's a very sad state of mind to me so point number one point number one here is refuse to be a pushover when the world attacks refuse to be a pushover when the world attacks and that's what we see ahab is allowing himself to become a pushover you know until ben and dad's like okay i'm just gonna take your whole life i'm just gonna take everything from you and then he finally decides to man up and why because he doesn't have very many people the syrians outnumbered israel at this time you know by by by many many many people and so obviously refused to be a pushover when the world attacks this just happened to me in my own life about what two weeks ago i got a task at work to go install a dishwasher for somebody and i look at the name tag and it says vera and vivian okay so most most jobs i get will say dave smith uh jim jones you know some you know some some name on it right and i'm like that's weird something all right and those two sodomites probably you know and and as as uh you know the world would have it uh this big district manager guy you know he's like hey i want to meet up with you and i want to ride with you to to do this job i'm like okay great you know and i still don't know for sure it's downtown sacramento so i get there and sure enough it looks like it's just two two guys i'm like so i knock on the door and they're like yeah i'm like i'm looking like oh yeah that's us i'm like what the world's going on here i'm like all right so i'm already uncomfortable i'm starting to get pissed and i can't leave you know because i don't own my own business right now you know just getting ready to move here but you know and then in the boss he comes in and he's like hey guys you know there's this gigantic literally as big as this wall uh man all right well you know whatever i got i got to do this job so you know i start working on it there's a problem they get him on the phone and he's like yeah the girls said that there was a problem i was like there's no girls here it is like he's like well anyways so we talked through this issue is like can you put her back on like who's her and the guy's like oh that's me i'm like what all right whatever i i see what's going on here you know and and they're you know so i go outside get this stupid thing ready i come in i put it in as fast as i possibly can you know and i'm like i just want to get out of here so we leave get outside and he's like man now you did it you did a good job um i just one recommendation for you though he's like i can tell that they were uncomfortable with you calling them by the the male pronouns you kept saying dude man sir you know all the stuff he's like they clearly didn't want that i said well you know what i just can't do that you know i can't give in to that we as christians can't give in to the world you know because what's my morality by making me agree with their lie that is not something that christians should subscribe to at all that is satanic and i told the dude i can't do that they are clearly men and i will call them and i have that god given right and he's doing it too he's like but you're a liability you're a liability you know you he's like you and all the old guys man they they you guys get complaints all the time he's like i know they're gonna fill out the survey and it's gonna be a bad survey for you you know then let them fill it out and you can go to hell and i'll just get a different job because i would rather be poor and live in a tent than to call somebody that is a male a female just because you want me to i won't do it i refuse to do it i'm not going to be an a half and neither should anybody in this room so point number one refuse to be a pushover when the world attacks and they will attack they will come at you as soon as you leave this church today i guarantee you next week something is going to happen that makes you that puts you in a position to where you're going to have to compromise or where that temptation is going to be there and i just like to submit to you don't do it don't be like ahab because when we do that we lose we become losers so uh turn to mark chapter nine while you turn there i'm gonna uh give you the second point here and point number two is refusing to follow god's words will render you powerless in the christian life right so point number one was refuse to be a pushover when the world attacks you know being being a pushover leads into my next point it's going to leave you powerless right because you're going to eventually get further and further and further away from god's word and god's going to draw back and not hear your prayers and chastise you and then what do you have left to work with you're going to be powerless and ahab feels powerless here ben has coming against him yeah he says this cool you know one-liner here in verse 11 but he really feels powerless it's not until god sends a prophet to him that tells him hey i'm going to help you that he get that he you know man's up and gets help so refuse to follow refusing to follow god's words will render you powerless in the christian life and i took that from verse four which says and the king of israel answered and said my lord o king according to thy saying i am thine and all that i have you see he's not only he's not only just allowing himself to be a pushover but he is powerless he just feels absolutely powerless here so you're in mark chapter nine look at verse 17 because we're going to look at the a similar situation where the disciples felt powerless right so maybe you're here this morning you feel powerless maybe the world's that is coming at you you know you're just down in the dumps you just don't know what to do well we could learn some uh some remedies here look at verse 17 and one of the multitude answered and said master i have brought unto thee my son which hath a dumb spirit and wheresoever he taketh him he tareth him and he fometh and gnashes with his teeth and pineth away and i spake to thy disciples that they should cast them out and they could not so you know why couldn't they do it because they've been doing it prior to this they've had god's power they've been out there doing the works but they in this moment i'll bet you anything they felt absolutely powerless they probably had that same feeling that a have had look at verse 19 he answered him and saith oh faithless generation how long shall i be with you how long shall i suffer you bring him unto me and they brought him unto him and when he saw him straight away the spirit tear him and he fell on the ground wallowed and wallowed foaming and he asked his father how long is it ago since this came unto him and he said of a child oft times it hath cast him into the fire and into the waters to destroy him but if thou canst do anything have compassion on us and help us jesus said unto him if thou canst believe all things are possible to him that believeth so just real quick i just want to give you a few quick tips here if you feel powerless in the christian life if you feel like you're just being defeated you're just getting you know you're just getting bullied around and in number one comes from verse 19 and that is faith what is faith faith is the evidence or the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen you have to have faith because look at verse 19 says he answered answered him and saith oh faithless generation so they bring this guy into him and he's like look jesus just like look you faithless people you just don't have any faith that's what's wrong so when we lack faith when we are unstable when we don't believe that god's gonna help us you know what you're opening yourself up to get bullied by the world and number two is to believe look at verse 23 jesus said unto him if thou canst believe all things are possible to him that believeth look i don't know what you're going through here this morning or what you're gonna go through although whatever it is it can be brought you know it can be turned around it can be brought to good god could turn that situation around for you because he says here in verse 23 jesus sent him if thou canst believe so when we come to god we need to come to him believing that he's going to help us out with our trials and our tribulations you might be sitting here this morning saying well i don't have anything really going on right now you know i'm doing pretty good and that's great amen praise god but guess what the day is coming where you will have trouble you will have something come against you number three is avoid being double-minded in james chapter 1 verse 8 it says a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways unstable when we come to god and we're just like man i don't really think god's going to help me because of this or because i you know i got really mad in the traffic yesterday you know look you just just letting yourself get like that just being unstable it is not good and god is not going to respect it's not going to hear that prayer and it's just going to keep you in your current situation and number four is continuous training in verse 28 he says and when he was come into the house the his disciples asked him privately why could not we cast him out so they don't want to say it while everybody's around they're just like okay what do we do wrong here what's what what's going on what why couldn't we do it and jesus said you know in verse 29 look look at verse 29 and he said unto them this kind can come forth by nothing but by prayer and fasting see they didn't know that they had no clue so we need to know the bible we need to hear preaching we need to meditate on these things because knowledge is power understanding and growing in the in the grace and knowledge of the truth is what's going to help us get past our trials and tribulations get past that powerless feeling that we may get from time to time so point number three go back to go back to first kings chapter 20 back to first kings chapter 20 point number three is refusing to receive the whole council of god will ruin your life refusing to receive the whole council of god will ruin your life so look at verse 13 first king chapter 20 verse 13 says and behold there came a prophet unto ahab king of israel saying thus saith the lord hast thou seen all this great multitude behold i will deliver it into thine hand this day and thou shall know that i am the lord and ahab said by whom and he said thus saith the 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 now ahab's on board with god's plan he's like okay this sounds good you know who's gonna order the battle oh that's what god said oh i believe that i believe that no problem see look down at first skip uh skip to verse 38 we'll start there verse 38 it says so the prophet departed and waited for the king by the way and disguised himself with ashes upon his face and the king passed by he cried unto the king and said thy servant went out into the midst of battle and behold a man turned aside and brought a man unto me and said keep this man if by any means he'd be missing then shall thy life be for his life or else thou shall pay a talent of silver verse 40 and thy servant was busy here and there and was gone and the king of israel said unto him so shall thy judgment be thyself has decided it's like i don't care that's your problem 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 and said unto him thus saith 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 what do you see here you see in the beginning of the chapter he's all about it right in verse 13 and 14 when the prophet comes to ahab he's like okay that sounds great i'm all about that i will definitely follow that you know god's going to rescue us great and he ignores like half of what the prophet tells him he doesn't kill benedict in fact he's like oh you're my brother we're going to look at this again here in a little while a little more detail but refusing to follow the whole council of god isn't good for anybody yeah it'll grow church number one they have thousands and hundreds of thousands not hundreds of thousands but you know thousands of people in them you know because they only preach what's right but none are they going to win the christian life are they going to are they even saved for that matter you know so what i'm trying to say here is that when we refuse to just pick you know the whole bible and listen to it even the hard stuff we're really setting ourselves up for failure mark chapter 4 verse 4 says but he answered and said it is written by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of god you know you want to do big things for god you want to get right you want to have that zeal learn to to love the bible learn to just make up your mind that you're going to live according to every word of god you know even what smites you in the face all of it it's all good and of course jesus quoting deuteronomy chapter 8 verse 3 first peter chapter 2 verse 2 says as newborn babes desire the sincere milk and so what do we learn from that is that if we want to follow the whole council of god we need to desire that milk need to desire these words and read them every single day psalm 119 verse 140 says thy word is very pure therefore thy servant loveth it so the key to developing that love for the bible is just understanding that god's words are pure this isn't like any other book in the world these words are pure these words are what's going to deliver you out of your trials out of your troubles out of your tribulations so point number four is recognize that unholy alliances will never cease to knock on your door all right they will never see so look at verse 31 first kings chapter 20 verse 31 says 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 on our loins and ropes upon our heads and go out to the king of israel paradventure he will save thy life so these guys just get beaten down you know ahab's obviously refusing to kill ben hadad because they're not even going to try to wipe them out but they're developing a plan already to stay in the picture they're already developing a plan to say well maybe we can you know get i threw out this garbage tv in my life or i threw out this in i threw out that's in i guarantee you some devil's gonna come well okay you threw out the cable you got rid of cable you're not watching this but what about the youtube when no one's looking what about the facebook video when no one's looking you see what i'm saying there's always gonna be some backdoor they try to come in look at verse 32 so they girded sackcloth on their loins and he 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 said is he yet alive he is my brother you see this is why ahab is a loser he gets a victory you know god helps him out and he's like okay well that's i'm happy now i'm gonna keep my wealth i'm gonna keep my family i'm gonna keep my goods but now i can be friends with ben hadad because he's cool look the world isn't cool the world the bible says that the wisdom of god or the wisdom of this world is foolishness with god you're not gonna get any kind of benefit by hanging out with the world by hanging out with worldly people and taking part in their stupid conversations at work or at school or where what have you it's never good they you know that and that's exactly what's going on here ahab's like he is my brother look the world is not your brother it is not your friend it's it's just gonna set you up for failure look at verse 33 now the men did diligently observe whether anything would come from him it did hastily catch it and they said thy brother ben hadad so right they're like oh yeah yeah he's your brother oh you bring him then ben hadad came forth to him and he caused him to come up into the chariot and ben hadad said unto him the cities which my father took from thy father i will restore and thou shalt 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 so if you read this the same story in chronicles you're reading this time period about the kings you're gonna run into uh a man named jehoshaphat a king named jehoshaphat he had the same problem as they have he liked to hang out with the wicked kings and there's a uh a captain at this time named jehu who winds up later becoming king of israel pal around with a half and he says shouldest thou help the ungodly and love them that hate the lord and obviously the answer is no you know should we help the ungodly by partaking in their crap their garbage their sinful wicked things and the answer is no you know the people that hate the lord like like the music industry hollywood i don't want any part in that that is what's going to keep you powerless in the christian life if you don't let go of that kind of stuff you know i mean look at what happened to have here eventually it's going to take over your mind and you're going to say he is my brother you know and that is the wrong attitude the world is not our brother that is not something that we want turn to ephesians chapter six daniel but keep your place in kings because we will come back to it so ephesians chapter 6 what are we talking about we're talking about you know recognizing that these unholy alliances they're never going to cease to knock on your door right when you put one thing away get ready because something else is going to come along something else that's tempting is going to come knocking on your door hey i saw that you threw out cable uh you ever thought about getting satellite hey i saw that you threw uh your tv you ever thought about getting the newest smartphone so you can watch all this stuff in private there's always some kind of stupid little you know uh trick that they're going to have and that's exactly what the syrians are doing to the to the israelites here the stuff now but can we still have heart in your life can't we still hang around so you're in ephesians chapter 6 look at verse 12 i know you're probably familiar with this but let's read it anyways ephesians 6 12 for we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities so stop right there you know it's it's not necessarily just us and our personalities that we're fighting against he says we're fighting against principalities against this world against spiritual wickedness in high places so we have to you have to understand this isn't a game there is a dark thing that's going on here that we can't see so you give something up there's a devil somewhere looking at your life saying how can i get in how can i get back in now go to daniel chapter 10 because we just read for you we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities so when you decide to partake in the world's activities you know simple things that christians should not be a part of you need to understand that that is a principality there is a power of darkness that is behind that that is trying to come into your life that is trying to get you like ben hadad so turn to daniel chapter 10 and let's take an let's take a look at an example of what this looks like in uh you know in the spirit world the world that we can't see because he says we wrestle we wrestle not against flesh and blood right so there's this battle that's taking place that you and i we can't physically see we can read about it but we can't physically see it so you're there in daniel chapter 10 let's see uh go to look up at verse 7 we're going to read quite a few of these verses but but i think you'll enjoy it look at verse 7 and i daniel alone saw the vision for the men that were with me saw not the vision but a great quaking fell upon them so that they fled to hide themselves therefore i was left alone and saw this great vision and there remained no strength in me for my commonness was turning uh turning me into corruption and i retained no strength yet heard i the voice of his words and when i heard the voice of his words then i was in a deep sleep on my face and my face toward the ground so right here we're picking up the story where daniel's seeing a vision and it's taken all his strength you know it's just just just too much you just can't handle it look at verse 10 and i and behold and hand touched me which sent me upon my knees and upon the palms of my hands and he said unto me oh daniel a man greatly beloved understand the words that i speak unto thee and stand upright front thee am i now sent and when he had spoken this word unto me i stood trembling and that's how we should have that's the exact attitude we should have when we are reading the bible when we're meditating on god's word so look at verse 12 then said unto me fear not daniel for from the first day that thou did sent thine heart to understand and to chase in thyself before thy god thy words were heard and i am come for thy word so here we have an example of daniel wanting to know something and sending prayers unto god and the answer doesn't come immediately you know you're me you may be wrestling god and it's just not you it's just not getting answered right away and it's because of this battle that's taking place remember we wrestled not against flesh and blood but against principalities and against powers the powers of darkness so he's saying hey thy words were heard right away but look at verse 13 but the prince of the kingdom of persia withstood me one and twenty days below michael one of the chief princes came to help me and i remained there with the kings of persia now i am come to take the i'm sorry now i am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days for yet the vision is for many days so if you look at verse 13 he says but this is the angel talking he says but the prince and that prince there is obviously the devil that hangs around with the king of persia the prince of the kingdom of persia withstood me one and twenty days below michael one of the chief princes came to help me so sometimes there's a spiritual battle that we can't see that's taking place and we have to understand that right you have to understand that there is a battle that we can't see that's very great that is very very powerful and sometimes that's why we don't get the answers to our prayers right away not every time right but sometimes but anyways that six it should give you a very clear understanding of what's really going on out there when you go soul winning we're we're we're in that battle right just because we can't physically see it doesn't matter it's still taking place and i'm sure you've seen it i mean how many times have you gone and given the gospel to somebody and you get like maybe real close to the prayer and all of a sudden this dog just comes out of nowhere oh here's captain pitbull he just shows up out of nowhere it's not even the dude's dog you know all of a sudden someone's baby you know just starts crying i'm not against crying babies you know praise god for that but it's just like always there's always like oh the phone rings always some kind of distraction you know i believe that that's that spiritual battle that we can't see you know devils are like wait a minute this guy's actually starting to believe this we better do something where's the nearest dog you know where's the nearest where they can come up and disrupt the this conversation i actually had that one time i was soloing in vancouver and this lady was really getting it she thought she was saved this is one of those tough cases i was like i'm finally i'm getting through somebody who thought they were saved and weren't and um and she's like you know my church just lied to me then huh you're telling me my church is lying to me i'm like well yeah if they told you how to repent of your sins to be saved they lied to you and she's like wow and no joke these two soft mics come up they're like whose minivan is that over there and guess what it was mine i was parked in in the wrong i don't know if this is much of the spiritual battle why they have to come up right when she was about to get saved you know and and she's like she goes she goes you know what why don't you just get out of here because i'm about to get saved that's literally what she said and they were like fine you know so thank god that she was you know really into it and really wanted to get saved you know she started mocking them and sent them off and she's like those people always complain about everything and i wanted to get into why but i was like no you know you need to be saved so that was that was funny but you know there's always something like that it seems you know that look these people aren't just gonna stand by and let us do you know god's work there's gonna be some resistance there's gonna be some resistance in our own lives so so point number four was recognize that unholy alliances will never cease to knock on your door they're always going to be coming for you they're always going to have something for us now go back to first kings chapter 20 back to first kings chapter 20 because there's this interesting story you know you're reading about uh ahab how he's a pushover how he feels powerless and then ben the dad's like oh you want to challenge me you want to you want to say stuff like this be fine i'm going to come you know and destroy you and then there's a war right there ahab defeats the syrians and then the prophet comes back to ab and he says hey they're they're going to come back after winter they're going to come try again so ahab gets ready when winter's over they fight again ahab destroys them twice you read the chapter he destroys them twice and then you have this little this little pause it seems like a little pause in the story in verse 35 where this prophet's like hey smite me in the face you know he's going around hey punch me in the face could you imagine seeing that somebody walking you know out here you're out soloing this guy comes up to you hey punch me in the face give me an elbow you know or give me a give me a front kick to the chin you like what are you talking about and so i want to be sure and cover this indeed so first kings chapter 20 look at verse 35 we'll read the story again first kings 20 verse 35 it is certain man of the sons of the prophet said unto his neighbor in the word of the lord smite me i pray thee and the man refused to smite him right so understand that he's doing this in the word of the lord this is something that god has ordained that god has commanded now look at verse 36 then not obey the voice of the lord behold as soon as thou are departed from me a lion shall slay thee and as soon as he was departed from him a lion found him in sloane so we're gonna we're gonna come back to that look at verse 37 then he found another man and said smite me i pray thee and the man smote him so that in smiting him he wounded him so this guy's like i don't know if you heard about the first guy but he's like all right you want me to hit you i'm gonna hit you hard you know so he gives them that street fighter technique what is it for sure you can you know or we don't really know i don't know maybe palm strike them elbow you know the baptist bouncer back here they probably have a pretty good idea what this guy did you know you could brainstorm later on what kind of what kind of hit it was but one thing we know is that it wounded the guy you know i mean this guy is like you want me to hit you no questions asked i'm all in we're gonna go ahead and hit you and hurry so look at verse 38 it says so the prophet departed and waited for the king by the way and disguised himself with ashes upon his face so i don't know if you've ever heard this preached before but i mean this does seem like an unusual request and it is it's definitely uh you know unusual and in at first glance this is obviously a picture of the word of god right this is a picture of jesus christ um because in isaiah 53 verse 4 for example it says surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows yet we did esteem him stricken smitten of god and afflicted right so when we get saved you know we're partaking in that smiting we're partaking in what he did on the cross for us you know so that could be looked at as an example as a picture of jesus christ where the first guy that wouldn't smite him is like the guy who says you know i'm good you know are you 100 sure you're in heaven he's like no i'm good i'm good guys i i i refuse to to partake i refuse jesus christ i don't want to be saved and then verse isaiah 53 5 it says but he was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him with his stripes we are healed so like i said that's how this can be looked at as a picture of jesus christ and obviously the guy in verse 37 is like yeah i'm gonna hit you is the guy that's just all in okay i don't know if i'm safe i don't know if i'm going to heaven please tell me you know and he's just just go ahead and he partakes in it and gets saved but there's another thing going on here there's another picture here so the prophet could also be a picture of us who are already saved who are seeking truth right i mean how many of us here have the testimony of going to a church trying to find the truth just wanting a pastor just wanting someone to just tell us what the bible says just preach it like it should be hard preaching and then you get to a church you know they maybe they read romans one and they gloss over things or they they read verses that preserve being inspired being perfect and they don't want to take that strong hardcore stance on the king james bible they want to dance around the issues right but they want to bring like some missionary into their church that preaches repent of your sins and they're like yeah well we don't really believe that but you know he's just young he's just graduated from west coast so you know we'll give him some grace no we don't want that out i mean especially if you want to argue about it now you know people are obviously welcome here that have different views and stuff we want to see people saved we want to educate people but if you don't want to believe especially salvation you want to preach work salvation and you don't want to budge on that you're gone you're done you know we're not going to put up with that kind of garbage and so um look at verse 35 again it says any certain man of the sons of the prophet said and refused to smite him this is a picture of churches today pastors today people today that refuse to tell it like it is they refuse the harder things in the bible that will not preach the truth of god to you look at the result there and and then uh what is it verse 36 you know you know then he said unto him because thou has not obeyed the voice of the lord behold as soon as thou are departed from me a lion referred to in the bible also as the lion of the tribe of judah so you can rest assured that all these liberal churches out there even the ones that are saved you know i'm not trying to wish any harm on them but i do want you to understand that jesus christ is not playing games he will take away their candle these churches that have the truth but are soft on god you watch they're gonna fail the only way to succeed with that kind of model is to go full-blown heretic go full-blown heretic and just reject everything just turn you back on all the counsel of god that's the only way you're going to have that worldly success that's how you're going to grow the numbers but to them that are saved out here in this community that have churches that are soft guess what a lion is going to come find them and destroy them you watch this thing in a couple months it's going to take the words we're going to do the great works for god we're going to have the zeal and you know what they can either get on board or get the hell out of here if the choice is very clear it's very simple and so the first thing that you see here when you read about this the story is that you have a choice right we have a choice we have preachers that will smite you with the truth and there's preachers that won't and you know ahab refused hard preaching so you're there first kings 22 let me just just show you this here go to chapter 22 just a few pages of the right first kings 22 ahab was a person that refused hard preaching first kings 22 here let's let's look at this uh first kings 22 look at verse number seven first kings 22 verse seven it says and jehoshaphat said is there not here a prophet of the lord beside that we might inquire of him so i i mentioned this earlier the jehoshaphat king of juda like to pout ahab wants to go take back ramaph gilead from the syrians and jehoshaphat's like okay i'm going to help you know my people are zai people and then verse seven here he says okay now that we've agreed to do this and jehoshaphat said is there not here a prophet of the lord besides that we might inquire of him because ahab just brought out all his favorites and they were telling him what he wanted to hear so look at verse eight when the king of israel said unto jehoshaphat there is yet one man makiah the son of imla by whom we may inquire of the lord but no don't miss this but i hate him for he does not prophesy good concerning me but evil so so ahab here we can see is a king is a person that hated hard preaching he didn't want the like that you got to be willing to have your toes stepped on it happens to all of us you know i get my toes stepped on all the time already you know i get my toes stepped on here everywhere you know it's just going to happen don't take that that stance that ahab has because that's a recipe for disaster so the first thing we learned out of our our story here with the prophet is that we have a choice right you have a choice whether you go to the church that's just going to tell you the truth like it is or i mean there's what four or five hundred other churches in the city you can go to you know take your pick but if you choose the other end just realize you know just realize you're you're going to be powerless you're going to become a pushover you're going to become weak you're going to have problems you're going to fail at the christian life and the second thing we see here is a challenge right so i mean think about this after you know the prophet's going around he asked this first guy he hit me you know punched me in the face elbow me whatever and uh and he didn't benefit him one single bit in fact you see if you go to a liberal church they won't teach you the truth they're causing more work for you because now you gotta go home you gotta you gotta read well you should read anyways but right now you gotta put on pastor anderson or something like that to get fed right that's a horrible not horrible but it's just not ideal you know it's just more work for you it's more time i'd rather just be able to come to a church like this where i can just get the heart preaching that i need you know a church like ours you know it doesn't have to be this one you know just just pick a church that's going to teach you the truth the whole council of god and then that frees up more time you know and then you listen listen to all the sermons you can obviously you know read as much as you can meditate and things like that but the second thing we ourselves is somebody that will not smite us they won't tell us the truth it's just going to cause you more work it's going to cause problems it's going to cause you to have to go actually move out there and find it and the third the third thing that we see here is a charge to go forward right i mean after after this prophet gets smitten after he gets wounded he just moves on he's like okay i'm good now i'm gonna carry out with a mission so look at verse 38 so the prophet he gets hit he's like okay thanks you know have a that was it that was a good shot have a good day i got i got a mission to go on you know and like i said that's the attitude we need to have you're something you don't like okay fine you got me you're hurting me with the truth you know what monday morning comes rolling around i'm just gonna keep on going i'm gonna keep doing what's right keep doing what god wants for me so look at verse 38 so the prophet departed and waited for the king by the way and disguised himself with ashes upon his face you know probably goes well with the disguise so here the prophet he's like okay i'm gonna go wait for the king he covers his face with uh with ash and he's probably wounded so i'm sure that that goes you know it goes along well for the disguise because look at verse 39 he says and as the king passed by he cried unto the king and said thy servant went out into the midst of the battle so here's that prophet right he's waiting for ahab and he's like i'm you know i got a mission i've got to tell you a story here and king doesn't recognize him at first so he says thy servant went out into the midst of battle and behold a man turned aside and brought a man into me and said keep this man if by any means he be missing then shall thy life be for his life or else thou shall there he was gone and the king of israel sent him so shall thy judgment be thy self has decided so ahab's like look you made your bed lie in it you know i don't care and he probably wouldn't have talked to the prophet like that if he knew it was him so you see when people ask well why is this why is this this this crazy story here in the bible to get hit for a sign for one thing right and it went well with the story because he said hey i was a man that went out to battle so ahab looks at this prophet he's probably sees him wounded you know covered in ash he's like yeah he's been out to battle okay you know and then his heart is revealed because look at what he says like so you know you decided it you decided to lose the guy so it's your fault you know now you're gonna die 41 and he hasted and took away the ashes from his face and the king of israel discerned him that he was one of the prophets you see and that's how it goes for us sometimes you know sometimes we're in a house position when we're backslidden we come to church you hear something that smites you real hard and then all of a sudden it's like oh that came on quick that came on real quick he's preaching about me when in fact you know maybe the preacher isn't you know he isn't it's for a reason you know so look at verse 42 and he said unto him thus saith the lord because thou has not let go out of thy hand a man whom i have 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 go back to first kings chapter 22 we're almost down first kings 22 really was a loser right i mean everything we've read so far just points in the direction of the loser right he lost out on god's full counsel he could have done something right for god here you know he could have listened and killed ben hadad and maybe just said you know what i'm gonna get right with god and actually if you read chapter 21 he does humble himself before god i do think ahab was saved i might be wrong about that i personally think ahab was saved i think you gotta say you don't have time to get into it right now read the read the next chapter when you get home but uh i do think that you know but he really was a loser you know he lost any change about this you're gonna spend more time in eternity obviously than you will hear so is it really worth sacrificing you know your eternal rewards just for temporary pleasure and the answer is no so first kings 22 look at verse 34 first kings 22 verse 34 and a certain man drew a bow at a venture and smoked the king of israel between the joints of the harness so this is ahab here he gets shocked wherefore he said unto the driver of his chariot turn thy hand and carry me out of the host for i am wounded and the battle increased that day and the king was stayed up in his chariot against the syrians and he died at even and the blood ran out of the wound into the midst of the chariot just like god said it would look at verse 36 and there went a proclamation throughout the host about the going down of the sun saying every man to a city and every man to his own country now look at verse 37 so the king died and was brought to samaria and they buried the king in samaria so if you remember in first kings chapter 20 after the prophet took the ashes away from his face what you know what did king what did we read about king and what happened it says well just just turn back there look at look at first kings chapter 20 verse 40 verse case 20 verse 43 it says in the king of israel went to his house heavy and displeased and came to samaria so you see here in chapter 20 ahab goes back to samaria he's heavy and displeased chapter 22 verse 37 he goes back to samaria heavy with an arrow in his chest sticking out his heart and dead right so what can we learn from that other people's mistakes if we choose not to learn from our own mistakes if we choose not to follow the words of god ahab's fate will become your fate ahab's fate would become my faith ahab's fate would become ours the title of the sermon is hard lessons learned from a couple of losers and the sermon can really be summed up into one sentence learn from your mistakes and learn from god's words and you won't end up a loser like a house you didn't preach i thank you for this church i pray you bless the fellowship and the soul-winning lord to you lord and just please take care of us and jesus