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All right, amen. First Samuel chapter number 22. So tonight we're gonna take a lesson from Doeg the Edomite. And I titled the sermon, Why Do People Become Brown-Nosers and Suck-Ups? And I had a harsher title, but I was talked out of it. So that's probably the wise thing to do. We're gonna talk about fitting in tonight. We're gonna talk about why people become this way. What's the temptation? What's the root cause behind it? What in the world is going on? Before we get started, I'll tell you a story. And then we're gonna get to this board here real quick. Back in 2009, I was working for the government and my boss said, hey, come here for a second. I gotta send you to this 15 minute training. You're gonna go to this building. And this was common, this happened all the time. It would just send you to random trainings, random locations, and you'd watch a video and then sign off that you observe and then go about your business. So I thought, okay. So he sends me to this building and we're waiting to get in. There's a sign up sheet, sign up to get into the training. There was like maybe 10 people in this room waiting to get in. And off to the side there, this guy comes out of the training that was ongoing that we were about to go into and he leaves a yellow and magenta bag on the side of the wall. Now, for those of you that don't have a nuclear radiological background, yellow and magenta is the colors or are the colors that are used to basically indicate that something is nuclear or radiological. And so I'm sure you could imagine the controls that are put into place. And the idea is that if you ever see unmanned nuclear radiological material that's not behind a specific barrier mark, you're supposed to call this number and report it right away and guard the area. And so this guy comes out of the room and he sets the bag down by the wall and I'm looking, I'm like, okay, I've only been here for like a year and a half. I've had the training, but I'm looking at this bag. And then the guy, everybody that was with me was like, what, 10 people? They start to just kind of pick it up and look at it and they're passing it around and they offer it to me and I'm like, whoa, what are you guys doing? You guys are crazy. I was like, no, no, no, we're not playing this. We're supposed to call somebody. And so I went and looked for the phone and turns out they were all like undercover. It was basically a speed trap. And that's kind of a thing that the government will do to, you know, the cops set up a speed trap for you. Well, that's basically what they do there. And if you don't do the right thing, you get written up and you get sent to all this remedial training. It just becomes a headache, okay? But all of these people were in on this to try to get me basically. And the boss of the group, he looks at me and he says, someday, he says, someday you're gonna be a leader. Someday you're gonna be in charge. It was one of the few good things that I did early on in my career over there. And at the time I was thinking like, yeah, right. I'm not a Mason, I'm not part of the Eagles Club. I don't go to bar, you know, I don't do all the things that typically get you promoted. Working for Uncle Sam and, you know, lo and behold, the guy's words rang true. And of course that's because of God. But I'm sure if you think in your life, you know, all of us have met people that are just this brown nosy, just these suck ups, okay? They're annoying, they're hard to deal with, and that is what we're gonna talk about. But on some level, all of us have probably found ourselves even, you know, giving up a certain truth or maybe changing how we act or changing the way we think about something just so that we would fit in. Now, let me just kind of show you something over here on this board. I just sent me this video, and I thought it was pretty interesting. Can everybody see this okay? Kind of see this here. I didn't have time to color them in. You guys know me and markers, it's just not really, if it's not stick figures, it's not really, I know these are kind of sticks, but. So you've got five bars here, okay? Four of them are the same, one of them's different. And so the way the study goes, and the study was conducted by Harvard, and there's always people doing studies like this, okay? So what they would do is they'd bring five people into a room, four of them are plants, okay? And one of them just thinks he's there to answer a question to test his IQ. And so what they do is they say, okay, we want you to look at this board here and circle which one of the five bars is different from the others, right? Taking you back to Sesame Street, which obviously, hopefully nobody watches that. So the guy who doesn't know what's going on, he's like, well, of course, I'm gonna pick number three because it's taller than the other four. Okay, well, the people that are plants, they all circle, let's just say, number one. So one guy circles one, another person comes along, number two, another person comes along, he's looking at it like, yeah, yeah, it's definitely number one. Another guy comes by, yeah, it's number one. And so this guy's like, what in the world's going on? So they bring everybody out, bring them back in again, same thing happens, okay? Only they just change, you know, three to four, whatever. And this goes on a couple of times. Finally, the guy walks in there, like on the third try, and you know what he does? He circles, number one, he circles the same one that everybody else did. Now, why did he do that? That's the question. Even though he knew that this one was obviously different, obviously far taller, far different than the other five. And why in the world did he do that? Well, he did that because he wanted to fit in. Sorry, he got worn down basically by try after try and being different and being kind of looked at like, oh, you can't see the difference here, you know? And that's how this thing can get all of us, okay? We are the minority, obviously you're here, so you have a lot of experience with this. If you didn't and you wanted to be accepted, you definitely would not be coming to a church like this. That is a guarantee. But this thing is so pervasive that it can really just creep in to your life and you're not even aware of it, you don't even understand what's going on. And another good example of this would basically be the new evangelical community, okay? Go back to the 90s, you know, you could walk into a new evangelical church and they would be calling sodomites perverts and all the names that we typically call them and it wouldn't even be a thing, early to mid 90s. But because the government and the media decides to push this perverseness so much and they're just so steady with it and they're just so out there with it, okay? People, because people have a desire to want to be accepted, to fit in, hey, they eventually wore down people, okay? And then once they lost one denomination, they lost the other one. And before you know it, 2024, we're sitting here as a very small minority of people that will actually stand up for the truth in the face of adversity, okay? And we want to keep it like that. And so what you're gonna see this evening is that most people will drop the truth to be accepted by the majority. But a few people will hold onto the truth, okay? And be rejected by the minority. And that's what you're gonna see tonight. So you're in 1 Samuel chapter number 22. Basically, we're gonna start here in verse number six. But the beginning of the chapter, we just read this. Basically, David has come back from his attempt to join up with Achish. And if you're familiar with that story, you understand what's going on there. He was gonna try to join up with Achish, the Philistines, and changed his mind, I guess, at the last second, starts foaming at the mouth, acting crazy, acting like a madman, and then finally goes off. And then finally, a prophet comes up to him and says, hey, once you drop your parents off here with the king of Moab, we want you to go back down to Jerusalem. So David is doing that, and he is now in the hold. And in that process of David moving from Moab back into the nation of Israel, Saul hears that he's been discovered, that he's been found out. Hey, let's look at this here. Look at verse number six. I wanna show you the pressure machine. Okay, that's what we have to deal with. If we're gonna understand this subject of acceptance and this pull to get us to drop our guard and sacrifice the truth to fit in, we gotta understand the machine in which we're dealing with because it takes on many different forms, okay? Verse number six, it says this. When Saul heard that David was discovered and the men that were with him, now Saul abode in Gibeah under a tree in Ramah, having his spear in his hand, and all his servants were standing with him. Okay, so you get the picture here. Saul's doing his thing. He's standing there. He's got all of his men with him now. And he understands that David has been found. He knows where he's at in verse seven. Look at what Saul says to these guys. Then Saul said unto his servants that stood about him, hear now ye Benjamites, will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards and make you all captains of thousands and captains of hundreds? What is Saul doing here? Well, he's doing what the world does, okay? He's establishing the culture. And what he's doing here is he's getting a carrot, so to speak, right? He's showing them the carrot. This is what you can have. This is what you can have if you follow me. And then he does what every other narcissist in the world does. Look at verse number eight, that all of you, so he shows them what they could have. He shows them who can't give them that. Now look what he says, verse eight. That all of you have conspired against me, and there is none that showeth me that my son hath made a league with the son of Jesse, and there is none of you that is sorry for me. Or showeth unto me that my son hath stirred up my servant against me to lie in wait as at this day. So this is what the world will do to you. This is what people that want to manipulate you into sacrificing who you are and the truth to get you to follow them. This is what they'll do. They'll put the carrot right out in front of you. They will make it very clear. They will make you think they're the only ones that can offer that to you. And then what they do is they move it a little bit out of your reach, okay? And then all of a sudden, you find yourself dependent on them to get that carrot. You see how this works, right? This is how they trick you. This is how they get you. Now, let's enter in Desperate Doeg. Now, I wonder if Doeg's name was originally Doug, but he's just so stuck up. He's just like, it's not Doug, it's Doeg, you know? He strikes me as that kind of person. Obviously, his name definitely wasn't Doug. I'm being facetious, I'm just joking around. But I do believe he's that kind of guy, okay? This guy is a serious problem here, okay? Looking for his number nine. Okay, so Saul's carrot ordeal here, okay? Now, all the Benjamites are just kind of quiet, like, man, we really messed up, or whatever it is that they're thinking. But one guy stands up, verse nine. Then answered Doeg the Edomite, which was set over the servants of Saul, and said, I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob to Ahimelech, the son of Ahitub. And he inquired of the Lord for him, and gave him victuals, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine. We're gonna come back and talk about what he says here. We're gonna break this down and see whether or not it's actually true here in a little bit, okay? Now, look at verse number 11. And the servants of Achish said unto him, I'm sorry, I'm reading chapter 21. All right, now I'm in the right chapter. It says this, verse 11. Then the king sent to call Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahitub, and all his father's house, the priests that were in Nob, and they came all of them to the king. Now, what do you think's gonna happen here? He's just calling them for a meeting, okay? You think he's just gonna kinda try to get some information here, or does he have other intentions? Verse 12, and Saul said, Hear now the son of Ahitub. And he answered, Here am I, my lord. Verse 13, and Saul said unto him, Why have you conspired against me, thou and the son of Jesse, and that thou hast given him bread and a sword, now look what he says next, and hast inquired of God for him. We're gonna come back to that. That he should rise against me to lie in wait, as it is, or as at this day. Now, in this chapter here, understand there's a lot going on, okay? There's a lot of human flaws going on in this chapter. We don't even have time to really dig deep into what Saul's actually doing here, and the depth of his wickedness here. We're focusing on doe egg tonight, but I mean, look at Saul's attitude. If you're not like 100% throwing people under the bus to get done what he wants, like he just, oh, you're conspiring against me. You notice he keeps using that word. You're conspiring against me. It's all about me. Nobody feels sorry for me. Has anybody ever met somebody like this? Like, oh, no one feels sorry for me. It's like, oh, great. We're gonna have a great time, aren't we? It's terrible. It's vexing. We all know this. Look at verse 14. It says, then Ahimelech answered the king and said, and who is so faithful among all thy servants is David, which is the king's son-in-law, and goeth at thy bidding, and is honorable in thine house? Okay, so right off the gate, Ahimelech's just like, what are you talking about, Saul? You know, he's not like rehearsing this. He's not like, um, he just comes right out with this response here, you know, and he's just saying good things about David, but Saul does not have the ability to see the truth here because he's blinded by his goal. He's not gonna kill David at any cost. Verse 15. Did I then begin to inquire of God for him? Right, so he's like, did I really do this? Like, how did you hear this? Thanks, Saul. Think about what you're saying here. Then he says, be it far from me. Let not the king impute anything unto a servant, nor to all the house of my father, for thy servant knew nothing of all this less or more. The king said, thou shalt surely die, Ahimelech, thou and all thy father's house. So again, Saul, just murderer on the mind, just gotta kill, gotta kill you and kill everybody until I can get to David. Verse 17, the king said unto the footman that stood about him, turn and slay the priest of the Lord, because their hand also is with David, and because they knew when he fled and did not show it to me that the servants of the king would not put forth their hand to fall upon the priest of the Lord. So the footmen here are like, we're not doing this, okay? But notice they're not like being vocal. They're not saying like, actually, Saul, you have now violated pretty much all the law at this point here. You've violated a ton of it here by asking us to do something that is unbiblical. You know, they're not actually vocalizing. They're not actually doing anything about it. They're just silent, okay? Now, what does that permit to happen? What does that allow to happen? Well, look at verse number 18. And the king said to Doeg, interesting here. Now, why would he do that? Why would he turn to Doeg? Okay, what does he know that we don't? And the king said to Doeg, turn thou and fall upon the priests. Now, look at what he does without hesitation. Doeg the Edomite turned and he fell upon the priests and slew on that day four score and five persons that did wear a linen ephod. You wanna talk about a mass killing, a mass shooting or something like that. Here it is right here in the Bible, verse 19. And Nob, the city of the priests, smote he with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children and sucklings, oxen and asses and sheep with the edge of the sword, okay? So Doeg does the unthinkable and kills God's priests. And we're gonna get into this because this is gonna really give us some insight on how far people are willing to go to be accepted, okay? So the question I kind of have here is, why keep mentioning that he's an Edomite, okay? Why mention that he's an Edomite? What is an Edomite and what is he doing in Israel? Okay, those are some questions that we ought to understand here. Now, keep your place right here in 1 Samuel 22, but go to Genesis, go to Genesis chapter number 36. Genesis chapter 36, what's an Edomite? We'll look here at verse number nine. The Bible says this, and these are the generations, so Genesis 36 verse nine, and these are the generations of Esau, the father of the Edomites in Mount Seir. So of course, I'm sure everybody already knows this, Esau was who? Esau was Jacob or Israel's twin brother, okay? Jacob obviously goes off and one of the fathers of Israel there and basically leads his own nation, but his brother goes off and gets his own nation later on in life. But Esau and Jacob were obviously blood brothers, biological twins, and he became the father of what would be known as the Edomites. So they are not part of the physical nation of Israel. So what do we know? Well, we know that Doeg the Edomite is not of the children of Israel. So that is interesting, okay? Now, what is he doing in Israel? Well, we don't really know for sure, but at some point in his life, he goes down and becomes obviously part of this nation and winds up earning a leadership spot. Chapter 21 describes Doeg as the chief herdsman. Well, chapter 22 describes him as basically the head of the servants here. So you could see that he's actually moving up the ladder if you compare chapter 21 and chapter number 22. But back to the question, why does the Bible here mention and keep mentioning that he's an Edomite, Doeg the Edomite? Well, remember how we study the Bible. When we don't know something, we start with what we know and then we go to the unknown. That's how you approach those things. So what do we know? I got seven things here. You don't have to write these down or anything. Just seven things real quick about Edom, about the Edomites here, okay? Well, we know that the Edomites, their founder was the biological brother of Jacob or Israel. We also know that Edom is a nation outside of Israel. So he's a foreigner, okay? And the Bible wants us to understand that he is a foreigner. Wasn't born in the land obviously. Number three, we know this just in everyday life, that when foreigners come into a nation, what is their goal? Well, their goal is to fit in or to change in some cases. But we can see that, okay? When foreigners come here a lot of times, what do they wanna do? Well, they wanna become citizens and they wanna, you know, hopefully, and I'm not talking about this madness, illegal immigration we've got going on, but just for the last couple hundred years, you know, people have wanted to come to America to become Americans and to basically live the American dream. It's probably the same thing for a lot of people in this nation. But what we know is that he probably feels the need to fit in, okay? Well, we know that he was willing to do a task that not even the people born in the land would do, which is what? Kill God's priests. And we also know this, okay? We know this by reading the whole chapter. We know that David actually had Doeg pegged back in chapter 21 when he saw him in the temple. And we know that Doeg seems desperate, okay? What do you say? Well, how do you know that? How could you prove that? Well, because he was so quick to respond to this horrible command from King Saul. So we know that Doeg is desperate enough and dumb enough to actually prove it, is what I'm trying to say. Now go back to chapter 21 for the seventh thing here real quickly. And you're gonna see this. And I think this is very interesting. Look at this here, chapter 21. So 1 Samuel 21, look at verse seven. So this is as David's in the temple. So David comes to the temple, he's on the run from Saul, and he's like, hey, do you have any bread here? Do you have any weapons? You know, do you have a sword for me? And that's what he's saying to Ahimelech. Ahimelech's like, well, I've got the showbread. I don't have any common bread. And as long as you guys haven't been with women, you can have the showbread. And then he says, what about the sword? He's like, the only sword that we have here is the sword of Goliath whom you killed. So he's like, cool, there's nothing like it, I'll take it. And during that whole process here, look at verse seven. So the Bible here, the narrator gives us a clue and says, now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day detained before the Lord and his name was Doeg, an Edomite. Okay, so he is an Edomite. He is a foreigner, but he's in the nation of Israel. And now we see him what? See him in the temple detained before the Lord. So it says he was an Edomite, the chiefest of the herd men that belonged to Saul. So number seven, we see he's like a supposed believer. Okay, he is willing to do anything that he can to actually fit in. So real quickly here, four things that I think are very dangerous to us, to anybody, when you feel that need to fit in. If you're around somebody, okay, it's a family member, somebody you just met, you know, wherever you are, and they're kind of making you feel like they can give you something. Like they can provide you something, they could give you something, but they keep moving that carrot, okay? You have to understand you're dealing with somebody like Saul, okay? And there are some red flags about this whole situation that you need to be aware of. Now, number one is that here's what's gonna happen, and probably one of the biggest dangers here is that they're gonna cause you to sacrifice the truth. On some level, they're going to cause you to give up a truth or to suppress a truth in order to be accepted. Remember, most people will drop the truth to be accepted by the majority, but a few people will hold onto the truth and be rejected with the minority. And it's always gonna be like that. Hey, number two, they're gonna cause you to do things that you normally wouldn't do, okay? You say, well, how do you pull this from Doeg? Well, I mean, he killed God's priests, okay? Not only did he kill the priest that Saul told him, he's like, you know what, I'm gonna go above and beyond, I'm gonna go to the land of Nam, I'm gonna kill the women and the children as well. Keep in mind, this is a guy, this is a guy who was just detained before the Lord was in the temple in chapter 21, okay? So number one, they will cause you to drop or sacrifice the truth. Number two, they will cause you to do things you normally wouldn't do. Number three, they're gonna cause you to act in a manner that is not who you are. Now, in this situation here, okay, obviously you say, well, Doeg was a murderer, he was all these things and that's definitely true, but how is Doeg acting like somebody he's not? Well, you see how quick he was to murder, right? How quick he was to kill God's priests? Well, again, going back to chapter 21, you find him in the temple. That's not him being detained before the Lord. Somebody who's like detained before the Lord, who actually loves the Lord is gonna do honestly what the Benjamites did and the footmen did and say nothing or just not kill God's priests. Like that's like basic level stuff, right? You don't even have to teach that to people. Like you just know because God's law is written on your heart that you shouldn't do that. That's obviously seriously evil and wicked. And of course you're gonna hurt other people, people you haven't even thought of hurting, okay? There are consequences and this stuff just rolls out there. So going back to number one, I'm gonna cause you to sacrifice the truth. How do we see that in Doeg's speech here, okay? Well, look at verse 10 of chapter 22 real quick. Look at what Doeg, so when Doeg pipes up and he's like, I'm your man, Saul. Look at me, look at me, look at me. I'm on your side. What does it say here in verse 10? So this is Doeg speaking here and he says, and he, referring to Ahimelech, inquired of the Lord for him and gave him victuals and gave him the sword of Goliath Philistine. Now the last two things we see very clearly in chapter 21. But the question is, do we see that Ahimelech inquired of the Lord for David? Well, we don't have time to go back and really dig and read all of chapter 21. It's 15 verses. It's very easy to read that later on tonight. But when you read that chapter, you're not gonna find that Ahimelech inquired of the Lord for David. Because the way it reads, David just very quickly goes in there and Ahimelech's kind of caught off guard. He's like, what's going on? The Bible says that he was just a little taken back and surprised to see him. And he says, hey, the king's business required me to be in haste. I gotta run quickly. I didn't have time to grab a sword. I don't have anything to eat. And so he's literally like in and out, gets what he can and he leaves. That's the situation. But Doeg's like, well, I've got two things that are true. So the way Saul's acting right now, he's probably just gonna believe anything that I tell him. And so he tells him, oh yeah. And he makes matters worse, right? He says, oh yeah, Ahimelech, he inquired of the Lord for David. And that's really what set Saul off to issue the order to go ahead and want to kill the priests in order to draw David in and to get to David. Now go to Matthew chapter number five. So we're pretty much done with this section here. Go to Matthew chapter number five. Let's just take a look at some verses here on why God does not want us to fit in, but especially to the world, because that's gonna be your biggest draw. The world coming at you and trying to get you and pull you out of serving God and being on fire for him and just to hang out with him, just to just chill out a little bit, okay? You don't really have to be doing all that stuff. So Matthew chapter five, verse number 14, look at what this says. You're the light of the world, a city that's set on a hill cannot be hid. Well, who is the you there? Well, the you there are believers. That is you and I, that is us, the people that are saved. Okay, we're described as the light of the world because we have the truth. And we go out and we manifest that truth to anybody that will look at it. Verse 15, neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Verse 16, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father, which is in heaven. Now go to Ephesians chapter number six. So to answer the question, you know what? Why doesn't God want us to fit in to the world? Why doesn't he want us to fit in when people are trying to draw us without being honest to us? Well, God doesn't want us to fit in so that we can stand out. That's the very easy way to put it. God doesn't want us to fit in so that we can stand out. If we're worried about being accepted by the world, being accepted by those who are even less zealous than us, okay, then that means we have to give up something. That means we have to tone down our light. That means we have to take our salt and make it less savory. That means we have to compromise and the mission is no longer as effective, okay? And this is something that you teens are definitely gonna see, if you haven't already, is that there will be people that you will run into and they will try to get you to get away from serving God and say, oh, you're young, you can do all these other things you could do both, don't worry about it. And if you do this, you need to compromise a little bit over here. You're gonna be liked by more people and I'm telling you it's a lie. And another thing I'm telling you is that it will never go away, okay? The older you get, it's just gonna happen. You know, when you have a family, you guys go out into the workforce, it is that pressure, that pressure machine like Saul demonstrated, that is always going to be a part of your life. Therefore, it's something we always need to be on guard against, okay? Ephesians chapter number six, look at verse number six. So talking about servants, which obviously are us, Paul issues this statement here and he says, he basically tells us how he wants us to serve. And he says, not with eye service as men pleasers, okay? So not with eye service as men pleasers, we need to make sure that every single task that we do, whether we agree with it or not, if we're commanded at work, for example, to do something, okay, let's say your job is to, I don't know, to manufacture something, but the boss is like, hey, I need this room over here cleaned up, okay? You ought to go into that room and clean that thing up like you're doing it for God himself, because you really are. Because remember, the world is always watching how we handle situations and what we do, okay? And it has an impact, your testimony does have an impact. So if you just take that and own it and do the best job that you can, you're literally applying the extra mile principle, okay? Which God will eventually reward you. This isn't a maybe, this is a guarantee at some point when that's your mentality, God will reward you. I'm telling you, I've lived this, it's true. And Paul tells you right here, not with eye service as men pleasers. So we don't want to be the type of people that are just doing things to be seen of men. We want to do them with the right intentions, okay? So as God pleasers, he says, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, okay? Set your heart to want to do these things to be seen of God, not to be recognized by men. Now go back in the Bible to John, the Gospel of John, John chapter number 15. We're getting close to being done here. John chapter number 15. So again, God needs us to not fit in so that we can stand out, so that we can be that city on a hill, so that we can be that bright and shining candle, okay? That is how he wants us to behave. John chapter 15, look down at verse number 18. So Jesus says this, if the world hate you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. So when people are coming at you and they're trying to make you feel guilty because you're trying to better yourself, you're trying to do more, you're trying to rise above, you're trying to be that city on the hill, this verse needs to be ingrained in your thought process, okay? Understand if the world hate you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. So when you're at work and you're seeing the, you know, the boss's favorites, okay? You know those guys that are fornicators and professional drunkards, and the boss is trying to live vicariously through that person or those people, and they're getting all the perks and they're getting, hey, don't worry about that. This verse needs to be memorized by you. Carry an index card, put it in your phone and look at it, and it will carry you through that situation. Just understand that this is how it will always be. The world will always take care of their own, okay? But God is gonna take care of his own as well. Look at verse 19. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own. So you gotta rejoice, you gotta understand this and be glad and be excited. Then he says this, but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. And we just need to be okay with this. We just need to accept this. We don't wanna be like those people, you know, that went into the room there and could clearly see truth, clearly see that one of these things is not like the other, and just be like, well, even though I know that's true, it's not popular. Even though I know that's true, everyone else is going this way, so I might as well do it too. That's weak, and that is not how God has called us to be. When you get the truth, you need to maintain that truth no matter what anybody says. I don't care how many people are running towards that cliff, you be strong and stay away from that. Go to Galatians chapter number six. And of course, you just need to understand that all who shall live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. It's coming. It is going to happen to you. You just need to be ready and expect it. This is really the last passage we're gonna go to here, Galatians chapter number six, and we'll be done. So remember, God doesn't want us to fit in so that we can stand out. Okay, look at verse number 11, because this is kind of what happened to the church at Galatia, if you really think about it here. Now, the Judaizers come in and go, oh, yea hath God said? You know, if you really wanna be accepted by us, well, we'll accept you if you just make these little minor tweaks, okay? Only to learn those little minor Jew tweaks aren't really so minor after all. Verse 11, Paul says this, you see how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand. All right, let me just take a quick commercial break here. Sometimes I like to do this. Has anybody ever heard of a preacher read this verse and they say, well, if you go back to the Greek, it was a very large Greek symbol that Paul wrote to them and it was on extra large papyri paper. That's what he really meant. Has anybody ever heard that or just me? Just me? Well, now you've all heard it, okay? There are people like that out there and it has nothing to do with the sermon. I guess it could, because you know what? To be accepted, a lot of people will buy that kind of junk, won't they? But back on track here, verse number 12. So he says this, Paul says, and he says, as many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh. And there you have it. How many are literally out there trying to make a fair show in the flesh, okay? See, what does that look like? We'll go to any football stadium on a Sunday and you'll see that people shouting out there, you know, trying to make a fair show in the flesh. Look what he says. They constrain you to be circumcised only less they should suffer persecution for the cause of Christ, okay? So he's like, hey, these people coming into you, they don't wanna suffer any persecution and they feel a certain level of shame. So what do they do? They make a promise. Hey, if you just get circumcised like us, even though you don't have to, it's not gonna hurt anything, it's all physical, right? It's okay, we'll accept you, okay? They're doing that so that they can have something over these Christians. Verse 13, he says, for neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law, but desire to have you circumcised that they may glory in your flesh. And there's that term again, the flesh, okay? Again, perfect example. You wanna see what it looks like to glory in someone's flesh? Go look at any kind of NFL, you know, any kind of sporting event, then you'll see all the fans in the stadium. They are glorying in other people's flesh, what other people are doing. That's what the Jews do, okay? There are Jews right now and you say, oh, you're anti-Semitic, whatever, shut up, okay? There are Jews right now that are just gloating and just ecstatic that they've got so much of professing Christendom wrapped around their pinkies, okay, because they have bought off on all of these lies, just all of the Zionism and all of this false prophecy garbage that's going on out there. It's ridiculous, it's disgusting. And you know what it is? It is weakness, that's what it is, okay? Look at verse number 14. It says, but God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. So Paul's mindset here, what is it? It's himself, it's the flesh down here and God getting the glory up here, that's his priority, okay? And when you really think about Doeg, what was his priority? His priority was to be seen in the eyes of Saul. His priority was to be going from chief over the herd man and up and up and up that ladder. That was his desire and he will do anything, anything to achieve that, okay? Verse 15, for in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. Verse 16, and as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them and mercy upon the Israel of God. So you wanna have peace in the Christian life, you just need to be okay with the fact that our priorities are blessed by God. They are respected by God. He said, you put me first and I will take care of everything else, okay? That's the way that it needs to be. So people become brown noses and suck-ups for one very simple reason. It's because they want to fit in, they want to be accepted. When you're feeling that kind of pressure from someone, you need to take a look at that individual and take a look at that situation and remove yourself from it. Because they're not being honest with you, there's something else going on there, okay? That I think is what the story of Doeg really teaches us. It teaches us how far somebody is actually willing to go just to fit in, just to be accepted. And we know this, that most people, again, let me say this again, most people will drop the truth to be accepted with the majority. However, okay, in the Bible, you always see this. There are still a few people who will hold the truth and be rejected with the minority. David and his men picture that very scenario. He's got what, 400 men at this point, winds up going to 600, okay? He hunkers down, he makes some mistakes along the way, but he's not worried about being accepted. He's okay with where he's at. He understands that God is with him and he knows in the end, because he's a man after God's own heart, that God is gonna bless him and take care of him, okay? So you say, well, great, what does that mean? Well, what happened to David eventually? Well, he wound up getting the kingdom just as prophesied, just as promised. And if you, when you're in this situation where someone is trying to pressure you to sacrifice the truth, sacrifice who you are to earn their friendship, so to speak, to earn their acceptance, okay? You're gonna be much happier and you're gonna be much more at peace. When you pull back and just say, you know what? This is not wise, this is not going to please God, and you do it God's way, you will never look back when you're older and say, wow, I really made a mistake there. You're gonna be like, that was the right decision, that was the right thing to do, okay? Be yourself, be true to the truth, and let God take care of the rest. Let's bow our heads and have the word of prayer. Thank you so much, Lord, again, for the truth, you bring us week after week. I just pray that you would bless the fellowship after the service, Lord, someone that we have going on this week. Bring us in safely this weekend. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.