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All right, amen. 1 Samuel chapter number 14. So, title of the sermon this evening is Why You Need to Take Risks. Why you need to take risks. And by taking risks, I'm not talking about stupid risks. I'm not talking about gambling. I'm not talking about things like that. I'm talking about situations involving exposure to potential danger for a good cause, whether that be mental, physical, or emotional danger, okay? Now, say, what in the world inspired this? Well, really Sunday sermon about the talents kind of inspired me to write this here. And, you know, I was thinking about that, you know, about those three guys, right? You got one guy that had five talents. You had another one that had two. They both multiplied. They both got rewarded, okay? But the one guy who was afraid, who didn't take risks, he, what did he get? He got nothing. He lost everything because he did not take a risk. And this principle, which you're gonna find that I'm gonna be talking about this evening, is really found throughout the entire Bible. You know, I mean, think about the beginning of the ministry of Christ when he comes on the scene and he starts, you know, calling his disciples, okay? And they just leave everything and follow him without a plan. You know, I'm sure a lot of people had said to them, or at least had this thought, you know, hey, you know, this is pretty risky. You know, you just met him. You're just gonna go and follow him. You're just gonna go and do all these things. But the reward and the payoff is priceless. I mean, those rewards are still stacking up to this very day. Think about the rich, young ruler, okay? The parable, the story, not the parable, but the story of the rich, young ruler who basically said, you know, master, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And, of course, Jesus trying to draw his air out of him in front of everybody, you know, said, give up all the house and follow me. And, of course, the guy went away sad. In the end, what did he lose? He lost a soul. He lost everything that he had because he was fearful. He was fearful to believe on Christ, to believe the message of the gospel. And so, you know, everybody has opportunities in front of them, okay? We're gonna talk about this today. Everybody has risks. Everybody has problems that I think if we learned about this subject, I think if we learned this doctrine and the value of actually taking risks, I think it would help us out tremendously. And I'm not calling anybody out. I'm just saying generally, you know, I think about myself, you know, there have been times in my life where I've had issues, I've had problems, and people have made me pitch solutions, and I didn't jump on it. I didn't take it, okay? And the result was I lost, okay? I didn't succeed. However, you know, I'm here today because I took a giant risk. I gave up a very nice, secure career or house, all of these things, to pursue what I believe is my calling to be a pastor. And the reward has been fairly substantial, I'd say. And you say, wow, but you're poor. Well, yeah, that's true. That's okay, right? I'm not poor in eternal rewards. You know, we've seen a lot of people saved. We've helped a lot of people out. This thing is doing very well. And so, you know, I couldn't be happier about that. But you need to think about the opportunities that are in front of you, whether they be at your work, in your family, in your personal life, in this church, okay? There are opportunities that you have that are right in front of you now. You need to ask yourself this question, why aren't you taking them? What is holding you back? What is the issue here? And so we're gonna start reading here in 1 Samuel, chapter number 14, and we're gonna go through three points this evening. But before we do that, I want to set you up with some context of what's going on here. So if you would, just really quickly, go back to chapter number 13. And chapter number 13. I just want to set you a quick stage here for what's going on. So chapter number 13 in verses 1 and 2, you're gonna see that Saul basically gathers himself, 3,000 men of Israel, and what he's gonna do is he's gonna start some skirmishes. He's gonna start some wars, and he's gonna start his conquest, if you will. And so what he does, he has Jonathan attack a small garrison of the Philistines. Now a garrison is simply another word to describe a place where troops are stationed, okay? That's what that word means. That's what you're gonna see there in verse number 3. Now let's read verse number 4 and see what happens next. So they get a little bit of momentum, okay? They get a little bit of forward momentum going here in battles, okay? But in the process of doing that, they stir up the hornet's nest of the Philistines, and then something happens, okay? Something happens to them to where their progress stops. It stalls. We need to figure out what that is, why this happened, so that these things don't happen to us. So look at verse number 4. So Saul's a little confident here. He's got a victory under his belt, and look at verse 4. And all Israel heard say that Saul had smitten a garrison of the Philistines, and that Israel also was had an abomination with the Philistines. And the people were called together after Saul to Gilgal, okay? So he's got his little puffed up speech here. He's, you know, he's got a little bit of momentum, but he stirs up the Philistines. Look at verse number 5. And the Philistines gathered themselves together to fight with Israel, 30,000 chariots and 6,000 horsemen, and people as the sand which is on the seashore in multitude. And they came up and pitched in Mikmash eastward from Beth haven. So there you have it, okay? Saul's got a little bit of momentum. He's got a little bit of a victory going on here. And all of a sudden the Philistines hear about this, and they're like, oh okay, you want to play games? So they get everybody involved here. Now what's the reaction, okay? As God's people, as the fearless ones, the ones with God on their sides, what do they do? What's the next move? What's the response? Look at verse 6. When the men of Israel saw that they were in a strait, for the people were distressed, then the people did hide themselves in caves, and in thickets, and in rocks, and in high places, and in pits. How's that for taking risk? How's that for walking by faith and not by sight? Okay, that is what happened. That was the result. Now skip all the way down to verse number 19. So in the process, in the interim here, basically Saul does a very foolish thing, gets rebuked by Samuel, and he gets told that he's gonna lose his kingship. We'll talk about that another day, but look at verse 19. It says, now there was no Smith found throughout all the land of Israel, for the Philistines said, lest the Hebrews make them swords or spears. Verse 20, but all the Israelites went down to the Philistines to sharpen every man his share, and his coulter, and his axe, and his madoc. So what do you have here? You have extreme gun control, if you will. You have weapon control, okay? That's what oppressing nations do to people, by the way. Again, a subject for another day. So these are the conditions that you're gonna be reading about in chapter 14. You have a nation where primarily everyone, including the king, is scared. They are hiding themselves. They are fearful. They don't have the ability to put together their own weapons. It is absolutely terrifying. What do you do in a situation like this? Because all of us will find ourselves in this similar situation in our lives. So go back to chapter 14, where we started reading, and look at verse number 1. So verse number 1 says, now it came to pass upon a day that Jonathan, the son of Saul, said unto the young man that bare his armor, come and let us go over to the Philistine's garrison. That is on the other side, but he told not his father. We'll get into why he withheld this in a minute, okay? So sounds like we've got somebody now with some guts. Someone has a plan. Look at verse 2. And Saul tarried in the uttermost part of Gibeah under a pomegranate tree, which is in Megron. And the people that were with him were about 600 men. So understand the picture here. You've got 600 guys chilling out. You've got the king of the nation of Israel hanging out under a pomegranate tree. And you've got two guys with a plan. Two guys with a plan. What does this mean? Okay? What does all of this picture here? Well, the first point that I want to bring up this evening is really this. Instead of seeing opportunities, most people see obstacles. It's just the way that it is. It's just the way that it is. Instead of seeing opportunities in the midst of chaos, most people see obstacles. Okay? For example, you know, somebody had said not too long ago, you know, I know that the Treasure Valley is kind of a small place and it's kind of looking at it on a map. Do you really think, do you really believe that you can knock every door? Do you really think that your ministry is having an impact? And think about it. That's how most people think. They look at a task that seems impossible. They look at the numbers. They look at what they have. And instead of saying, you know what? Let's just go over to the other side and find out. Let's just give it a shot. Let's just try it. Most people hide. Most people refuse to look at a situation as a possibility and rather what they do is they look at it as an obstacle. All they can see is the negativity. Oh, there's this problem, that problem, this problem. If that becomes how you think in life, you will not overcome obstacles. You will not be a good risk taker, which means you will not be the kind of person that walks by faith and not by sight, which by the way is a commandment for God's children. Keep your place there, but go to Mark chapter number eight, Mark chapter number eight. You have to understand that no matter what battle you go through, mental, spiritual, physical, doesn't matter. There is opportunity. There is opportunity looming in any battle that you go through. But what you have to understand is that most people cannot or will not see it and they will not take these chances. And so what does this pose? Well, what this poses is doubt and fear because you're sitting back here thinking, well, the majority of people are all doing this. You know, they gotta, they gotta be on to something that it makes you question your motives. It makes you question any chance that you see through any situation. Okay. I'm sure Jonathan had those same feelings. I'm sure his armor bearer had those same feelings. However, they overcame that and they went forward. And as you're going to see the, uh, we're provided a great victory. I mean, think about David versus Goliath. You've got an entire nation again, same situation, Saul's King. They're all sitting back like, Oh, woe is me. Woe is us. They got this Goliath guy. He's, you know, however many feet tall. He's not clumsy tall either. Apparently, you know, he's, he's, he's a good warrior. He's been fighting since his youth. No one could take him on. Okay. And then you have a young man named David. Okay. You've got David is probably what a teenager at the time, you know, and he's like, well, I'll do something. Hey, what, what separated David from Saul and from the rest of the inhabitants? What is it that brought David and Jonathan together? I mean, let's talk about that for a second. Okay. Because they were like minded, weren't they? They were like minded. David said, you know what? We serve the living God. He didn't just say it because it was a cool thing to say. He didn't just say it because he read it. He didn't just say it because he was taught it. He believed it in his heart. He could visually see it in his mind. And he knew that God would help him. But he said, you know, he probably said in his own heart, I would rather fight for my God. I would rather take a risk and risk it all. Then live in fear. Live in this oppression. Live with the consequences of not doing it. Live with all of that regret for the rest of my life. I'll bet you anything. David had those conversations in his heart. So you say, what do we do about it? What you have to do about this is you have to get a new pair of glasses. You have to learn to change the way that you look at situations. When bad things happen, when trials and tribulation and all these things come at you, you have got to stop focusing on how negative it is, but rather look at what else you can do in that situation. Mark chapter eight, look at verse number 17. In fact, this very situation happens to the disciples. So as Jesus is teaching these guys here, Mark chapter eight, verse 17, look at what it says. It says that when Jesus knew it, he saith unto them, why reason ye? Because ye have no bread. Okay, so what happened is Jesus brought up the word leaven and he was telling the disciples, hey, you guys need to be aware of leaven of Herod and bringing up this teaching here. And what they heard was, uh oh, we forgot bread. We're on a journey. So he's hinting. He's passively, aggressively coming. He's preaching against us right now. He's trying to tear us apart. That's what they heard. All they could focus on was the negative. So that's why it starts out like this in verse 17. And when Jesus knew it, he saith unto them, why reason ye? Because you have no bread. Perceive ye not yet, neither understand, have ye your heart yet hardened. Hey, look at that language there. Look at what Jesus is telling them. Perceive. Okay, he's saying perceive ye not yet, neither understand, have ye your heart yet hardened. That's the question that you need to ask yourself. How do you perceive a situation? How do you look at things? You know, like the old saying is the, is the cup half empty or is it half full? You know, the negative person is like, oh, it's half empty. I'm going to go thirsty and I'm going to die. Whereas the person that's optimistic, the person that's a risk taker says, oh, we still have half a cup of water. Okay. It's how you look at it. Look at verse 18, having eyes, see ye not, and having ears, hear ye not and do not ye. I'm sorry. And do ye not remember? Okay. So what is Jesus doing? He's trying to cultivate their thinking back to faith because all they can think about is physical bread. That's all they can see. That's all they can hear. That's all they can think about. Hey, this look, these things are in the Bible for a reason. These things are in the Bible because that's how you, and that's how I, that is how we tend to think when bad things happen. We think just like these guys do. And Jesus is saying here, you need to check your eyes. You need to check your ears. You need to understand that you have the ability inside of you to see beyond what is physical and to hear beyond what is physical. Look at verse 19. When I break the five loaves among 5,000, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? They say unto him, 12. Okay, look at verse 20. When the seven among 4,000, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? And they said, seven. And he said unto them, how is it that you do not understand? Say, what does this mean? Well, again, the first point that I'm bringing up this evening is instead of seeing opportunities, most people see obstacles. It happened here. I mean, think about these guys. They saw, they were with Jesus every day. They saw his miracles. They saw what he did to five loaves and two fishes. In fact, they saw it on two different occasions. And here they are worried about physical bread. And don't even get me started on all the other miracles that they have seen up until this point. Absolutely insane. But you know what? That's human nature. And that is something that we have to be on the lookout for and that we need to overcome in our minds. Now, I'm gonna have you leave your place there in Mark and go back to 1 Samuel, chapter number 14. So again, the solution to this, okay? Understand, instead of seeing opportunities, most people see obstacles. What you need to do is change the way that you think and look about negative situations. I think a very helpful thing for you to do is to focus on the things that God has done for you in the past. One good tip, one good technique is to actually write these things down, whether it be on paper or keep it, you know, on an app in your phone, some place to where you can refer to that often. And when you find yourself in a situation like this, you look at that and you think and you meditate on all those times that God helped you in your past. Or, I mean, write down some of your favorite Bible stories. Just summarize them real quick so that you can go back and read those and think about how God helped these people. And you already know that God is not a respecter of persons. So if he would help these people, why wouldn't he help you? That is what you've got to understand. So you need to change the way that you look at these negative situations, especially when the odds are against you. And guess what? The odds are always going to be against you in this life, especially if you keep coming to this church. 1 Samuel 14, let's move on here to the second point. So we already saw the first part here, okay? I think the first two verses are very clear. Most people cannot see opportunities. They see obstacles. Now look at verse number three. So moving on here, he says, And Ahia the son of Ahitub, Ichabod's brother, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eli, the Lord's priest in Shiloh, were in Gnephod. And look at this here, the last part of this verse here. And the people knew not that Jonathan was gone. So we already saw that he didn't tell his father, and now we learned that he didn't tell anybody. The only person that knows this risk that he is about to take is the person willing to take it with him, his armor bearer, okay? Say, why didn't Jonathan tell anybody? Wouldn't letting people know, maybe help with your accountability, and so on and so forth. Wouldn't more people be better? Well, of course more people would be better. It's always better, okay? But here's the second point that I think you need to understand, that we all need to get, okay? Since most people can't see opportunities, it's usually pointless to tell them about them, okay? That's why. If he were to go back and say, Hey dad, guess what? You know, I really think we need to quit hiding. I'm sick and tired of going to the Philistines to have my weapons sharpened and to get my magazines filled, which obviously I don't have magazines, but you get the point, okay? Instead of going to them just to do basic gardening and to get a dagger sharpened, I think we should just go over there and fight them. We serve the Lord God of heaven, okay? I think he should have done that. I think it would have been okay. Actually, it wouldn't. What do you think would have happened if he would have done that? Okay, understand the mental state that his dad's in. It's very negative, okay? He's already been told that he's going to lose his kingship, okay? The people are hiding. They're going to say this, you're crazy, you're going to die. And they might have even restrained him. They might have even stopped him from doing it, okay? Here's the thing that I'm trying to get across here, okay? Since most people can't see opportunities, showing it to them usually can be pointless and you don't need to add more negativity to your life, okay? So if you know somebody's just full of cynicism and they're just always negative and anytime you have an idea or you have a dream or something that you want to pursue, a risk that you want to take, okay, I would recommend doing what Jonathan did, doing what his armor bear did, and just don't tell him. Let the proof be in the pudding. I think that's the best way. Let your actions speak for themselves because that's going to speak a more broad message, a more penetrating, powerful message to people around you than just bragging about it or not bragging about it, but you know what I'm saying, just telling people, okay? Now, go to Matthew chapter seven, but keep your place here in 1 Samuel 14. So Matthew chapter number seven. Why are you turning there, Maria, for you? One verse out of Ecclesiastes chapter seven, which is verse number eight. So Solomon, he said this, better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. So another benefit I think that you could get from not always telling people maybe about a risk or something that you're going to take is that it kind of keeps you in check, keeps you humble because you want to tell people, right? There's goals that I have, and I want to tell people, okay? But I know that certain people are just going to be like, you've tried this before, you've done this before, it didn't work, and blah, blah, blah, okay? I don't need that in my life. So what I do, I'm just going to do it, okay? And if I fail, I fail. At least I tried, okay? At least I gave it a shot, and then I can sleep better at night and live with myself better than had I not done anything at all, better than had I been like these guys that were hiding in a cave or like King Saul just chilling out under a pomegranate tree while the world goes to hell, okay? People need to learn to take risks and understand better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof, okay? That's another reason why I think just do it, just go for it. Now obviously there's times when you need to tell people, especially, you know, your family, like if you're going to be gone for a certain period of time or something like that, okay? But by and large, you need to tell all your co-workers, you need to tell everyone, you need to be careful who you tell. There's a reason why Jonathan only told his armor-bearer. It's because he knew him very well, because he knew his spirit, he knew his countenance, he knew what he was like, he knew he could receive it, and he knew that he would be on his side. Matthew 7, look at verse number 6. We spend a lot of time on this verse. I don't like to go too long without reading it, okay? Verse 6, give not that which is holy unto the dogs. Now we know who the dogs are. Neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you. So again, if you tell too many people about your risk, about your plans, it is going to backfire on you. They might turn, you know, against you in some way, shape, or form. Go back to 1 Samuel 14. You don't need it. Most people are going to try to shut you down. So again, be careful who you tell, okay? Again, understand the Bible says that these things were written for admonition, okay? There are so many different lessons that we can get from these stories in the Bible, and their actions, and the decisions that they made, that it's just absolutely mind-boggling, okay? But again, let's take a look at an example here, okay? So point number 2, since most people can't see opportunities, showing it to them is pointless, or at least we could say can be. So look at verse number 6. 1 Samuel 14, look at verse number 6. And Jonathan said to the young man that bare his armor, come, let us go over unto the garrison of these uncircumcised. Look what he says next. It may be that the Lord will work for us, for there is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few. Now look at verse number 7, and his armor-bearer, okay? So again, this is the example of this, okay? Since most people can't see opportunities, showing it to them is pointless. Jonathan got that. He understood that, okay? That's why he's telling his armor-bearer, verse 7, and said unto him, do all that is in thine heart. Turn thee, behold, I am with thee according to thy heart. We need to be careful who we pour our hearts out to, okay? Be careful. We are commanded to guard our hearts. If you neglect this, you're adding negativity to your life. It's going to ruin your plans. It's just extra stuff you don't need in your life, okay? Now again, I do believe in the situation that he would have been restrained physically if he had told the people, but you get the idea. You get the point, okay? Be careful who you tell your goals to. Be careful who you share them with. So point number 1, instead of seeing opportunities, most people see obstacles. Point number 2, since most people can't see opportunities, showing it to them is useless, okay? I know that's a harsh thing to say, but that's reality, and that's just what we have to understand in life. So let's move on to number 3 here. Look at verse number 8, 1 Samuel 14. It says, then said Jonathan, behold, we will pass over unto these men, and we will discover ourselves unto them, okay? Now let me just say this before we move on, okay? You're never going to learn faith. You're never going to get good at exercising faith in comfortable situations. It's just the way that it is, okay? You know, we're supposed to walk by faith and not by sight. Not seeing the guarantee at the end, it's scary. It produces fear. It does. That's what it does. Understand you will not get better at your faith without putting yourself in risky, uncomfortable situations. Look at verse 9. If they say unto us, Terry, until we come to you, then we will stand still in our place and will not go up unto them. But if they say thus, come up unto us, then we will go up, for the Lord hath delivered them into our hand, and this shall be a sign unto us. Look at verse 11. And both of them discovered themselves unto the garrison of the Philistines, and the Philistines said, Behold, the Hebrews come forth out of the holes where they had hid themselves. And so, of course, understand with your risks that you're going to take, okay? With the battles that you're going to wage, okay? Don't expect always that the enemy is just going to roll over and say something nice and be like, wow, you're so cool, and you took a risk, and you're really bold, okay? Now, a lot of times, they're going to push back even harder, okay? Here you see these two guys coming out of holes. They know what their nation's guilty of. Their nation has a king who's hiding under a tree. People are hiding themselves in thickets. They're hiding themselves in rocks. They're scared to death. So, of course, the enemy is like, oh, here's two brave little souls. Look at what these cute little guys are going to do. You know, that's probably what they were saying to them, okay? But what did you notice about this conversation here, okay? Look at these two words, verse 8, okay? Then said Jonathan, Behold, we will, okay? We will pass over. Look at verse 9. The first three words, if they say, jump down to verse 10, but if they say thus. You see that? You see those phrases there? What is that? That's preparation. That's planning, okay? So point number 3 is something that I kind of mentioned on Sunday and really what inspired this entire sermon, and that is the fact that success follows preparation. Success follows preparation. Success, I would say, is attracted to preparation. A long time ago, I want to say like eight years ago, I heard a sermon by Pastor Stuckey, and he talked about a passage that we're going to go to here in a minute out of Proverbs 6. He was talking about how the more prepared you are, the more opportunities that God gives you, you know, and he was talking about like, you know, you guys that want to be preachers, you know, you need to just write sermons, and God will give you these opportunities. So I was like, cool, well, I want to preach sermon, even though I was terrified. So I've said, cool, I wrote one, okay? I wrote one right after I watched that sermon by him, and then like a week later, we went down to Sacramento, and Pastor Mendez was like, hey, I want you to preach the sermon for soul winning on Saturday. I was like, what? I was like, what? I was like, dang, that Pastor Stuckey, little brother Stuckey at the time, I was like, man, this is terrible, but it all worked out. It all worked out. You know, so I said, you know what, I'm going to take Pastor Stuckey up on this offer again. And I had a government job, so I have a lot of downtime, a lot of leisure time. So I wrote like, I don't know, 25, 30 different outlines of sermons. And then all of a sudden, Verity Baptist Church opens up a satellite church in Vancouver, Washington called Verity Baptist Vancouver. And Pastor Thompson was like, hey, you know, I'd like you to preach Sunday nights. And I'm like, what? You know, I don't want to do that, but I do want to do that. You know, I'm terrified, but I got no reason to say no, you know? So he proved right again. And all I'm trying to tell you is success follows preparation. Okay. I have proven this. It's what the Bible teaches. You see it all throughout the Bible. In fact, let's finish the story here real quick. Look down at verse number 12. Again, look at verse number 12. This cracks me up. And the men of the garrison answered Jonathan and his armor-bearer and said, come up to us and we will show you a thing, right? I was back here laughing when Brother Josh was reading that. I was literally laughing out loud. I was just like, come up here. We'll show you a thing. You know, how many of us want to say that? You know, you know where you at? It's this gangster talk back in the Bible, right? You know, come up here. We'll show you something. I got, I got something for you. I love that. Jonathan said unto his armor-bearer, come up after me for the Lord hath delivered them into the hand of Israel. Okay. Again, guess what? Jonathan was prepared. He'd thought this out. He had a plan, a well-detailed plan. He gave it to his armor-bearer and guess what happened? Success followed preparation. Verse 13 and Jonathan climbed up upon his hands and upon his feet and his armor-bearer after him. And they fell before Jonathan and his armor-bearer slew after him. Verse 14, and that first slaughter, which Jonathan and his armor-bearer made was about 20 men within, as it were, a half acre of land, which a yoke of oxen might plow. Now I'd submit to you that most people today would be winded just walking a half acre. Okay. So don't discredit this because he only had a 20-man slaughter. Okay. Look, understand this was Jonathan's plan. Him and his armor-bearer, it wasn't like God's like, hey, I want you to do this. Although God respected that and gave him success. So just understand, you know, he took a risk here and he got the reward. You say, what's the reward? Well, look at verse 15. And there was a trembling in the host, in the field and among all the people, the garrison and the spoilers, they also trembled in the earthquake. So it was a very great trembling in verse 16. And the watchman of Saul and Gibeah of Benjamin looked and behold, the multitude melted away and they went on beating down one another. So what Jonathan and his armor-bearer did, the risk that those two guys took sparked an all out war in which God gave them victory for. You have no idea how the good risks that you take on the opportunities that you can see through the midst of chaos, you have no idea how that can impact those that are around you. Okay. And it's time that God's people started thinking like this and started taking these risks and taking these opportunities so that we can motivate the brethren that we have that are around us. So again, success follows preparation. I go to Proverbs chapter number six, Proverbs chapter six, Proverbs chapter number six, getting close to being done here. Proverbs chapter number six. So again, remember point number one, instead of seeing opportunities, most people see obstacles. Point number two, since most people can't see opportunities, it is useless to show them. Okay. And understand what I mean by that doesn't mean like somebody who's cool, who you trust, you're like, I'm going to do this and you suck. Cause I'm strong in your week. No, I'm the true alpha here. You know, now, that's not what we're talking about. Okay. Know your audience, know those that are in your circle. Okay. And start to learn some of these cues and people that are very fearful. Okay. Just pick that up, mark that down, keep that stored in that hard drive of your brain. Okay. And be careful about telling them your plans because they will drag you down. Okay. I don't care if they're saved. That's great. Amen. Praise God. Hopefully they get motivated after your success, but guess what? Your risk, your faith walk in that moment is not good for them. It's not good for you. Okay. They're not going to get it. They're not going to understand it. Proverbs six, look at verse number six, go to the ant thou sluggard, consider her ways and be wise. Now, isn't it sad that ants are better than people on this level, at least. Okay. They're obviously not more valuable than people. We step on them all the time. We, you know, we got pest control to get these stupid things out of here, but, but you understand, okay. They're, they're, they're, they're good at what they do. Okay. Look at whatever, look, look what verse seven says, which having no guide overseer or ruler. Look at this, provided her meat in the summer and gather her food in the summer. And gather through food in the harvest. So look, if an ant, a little tiny ant is good at preparation, okay, we need to be good at preparation as well. We need to show our brethren, we need to show the world that guess what? Okay. We understand that success follows preparation. Okay. We don't want to just leave it up to the ant kingdom here. Go to Acts chapter number 11. We're going to finish off here in Acts chapter number 11. So I want to show you another example of this preparation here. So Acts chapter number 11 is basically a recap of what happened in chapter 10 regarding a man by the name of Cornelius. So Cornelius was an Italian guy. He was a Gentile, if you will. And he was a great, I guess, religious guy. Okay. He did a lot of alms, a lot of good deeds. He had a lot of prayers, but as you all know, there was a big problem with Cornelius and that is he wasn't saved. Okay. And so God gives him a vision and tells him he needs to go and meet this guy named Peter. And by meeting Peter, Peter is going to tell him and everyone around him words whereby he must and they must be saved. So that all works out. That all happens. But now Peter's got a problem. Okay. Which by the way, it was a risk for Peter even talking to Cornelius because you all know how Jews are. Okay. They like to be amongst themselves and everyone else just sucks. Okay. Well, Peter is still dealing with that even among saved Jews. So he knows he's going to get some flack for this. He knew it was a risk, but the risk was worth it. Guess what? Cornelius got saved. Those around him got saved. The Holy Ghost had fallen on them and they were now able to preach the word of God boldly and with power. So the risk reward ratio, obviously very, very worth it. But now Peter is in a situation to where he needs to prepare his mind for conflict that he's going to have with his Jewish counterpart. So acts 11 look at verse one and the apostles and brethren that were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God. Verse two. And when Peter was come up to Jerusalem, they that were of the circumcision contended with him. Okay. Again, this is literally every page of the Bible is just what it is. Verse three, saying, thou winnest in to men uncircumcised and did eat with them. Now here it is. Verse four. Look at what Peter explains here. Look what the Bible says about Peter. But Peter rehearsed, but Peter rehearsed. He had prepared in his heart and in his mind how he was going to respond to this criticism. But Peter rehearsed the matter from the beginning and expounded it by order unto them saying, okay, we don't have time to read the whole dialogue here, but we want to prove the point. Success follows preparation. Peter was prepared. Where's the success? Jump down to verse number 18. When they heard these things, they held their peace and glorified God saying then have God also to the Gentiles granted repentance on to life. So instead of acting how I like to act sometimes and be like, you suck, you're dumb and you're stupid. Okay. Peter actually said, you know what? I'm, I too am not going to stick my foot in my mouth. I'm going to rehearse this matter. Okay. I'm going to come up with a way to explain this that hopefully teaches these guys something and changes their minds on how they view the Gentile believers and what happened. Success. What happened? Verse 18 when they heard these things, they held their peace and glorified God. Okay. They glorified God saying then have God also to the Gentiles granted repentance on to life. Okay. That is where it's at. Success follows preparation. Okay. So again, point number one was what? Instead of seeing opportunities, most people see obstacles. Okay. You say, what are you talking about here? This is pretty bold. This is pretty arrogant. No, it's the truth. It's what it is. Most people see obstacles. There are a lot of people in the treasure Valley who have contacted us, who have contacted other people that are on like these new IFB groups. There's a decent amount of them. I wish there was a church like this in the treasure Valley. They know about us. Okay. Cause people are always like, Oh, go to shield the faith Baptist church and we never see them. Why is that? I'll tell you why it is. Because instead of seeing opportunities, people see obstacles when it gets real and it's put right in front of them. Most people say, man, they got a 1.5 view there. Oh man, there's just, if I go there and people see me walking in, they got this protest. Wow. You know, they start seeing all the challenges instead of the possibilities. Okay. I'm not trying to be rude. I'm just being honest. That's how it is. Most people cannot see opportunities. They see obstacles and they're bogged down and they're pinned down and they're focused on the obstacles. Okay. I get like that. You get like that. We all get like that. Okay. And that's why we need these stories in the Bible to pull us out of these types of situations. In point number two, since most people can't see opportunities, you know, when you decide to take a risk, just understand it's pointless to show it to them. It's pointless to show it to them. And number three, I've said a million times, success follows preparation. Okay. So when you see these opportunities, what you need to do is get a plan in place. Okay. And this is where I've failed in life. I'm like, Oh, I see opportunity. Boom. And I just throw myself at it and I'm like, what am I doing here? I can't, you know, and then I'm all mixed up. Okay. That's not what Jonathan did. He actually had a plan. So come up with a plan. It may not be the best plan, but at least it's a plan that you can make adjustments with as the battle rages on. Okay. And think about this as well. You know, the world says this all the time, you know, show me proof and all belief. Show proof, show me proof. You know, if you can demonstrate some sort of proof, then I'll, I'll believe you. Okay. But the Bible says much different. Jesus says, no, believe me and then I will show thee, believe me. Then I will show thee. So, you know, again, hopefully these are just a couple of quick points to just remind us and to help us understand that we need to be taking risks, especially in these days, because honestly, with the increase in self love and self worship that is out there in our culture today, you're going to see less and less people willing to take risks because taking risks is putting yourself and I mean just, just, just down because you might lose, you might take some hits and putting other people and the outcome that your risk might have above your own. Okay. It's putting other people's needs above your own. That's what it is and that's what it really boils down to. So again, we need to be a people that are willing to take risks and by risks, I mean good risks. Okay. I'm not talking about gambling. I'm talking about the horse races or things like that. You know, doing foolish things. You know, someone knocks on your door and they want to sell you this, you know, 10 year contract on a solar panel. You know, think, you know, I'm just going to risk it all. No, no, no. Think about that. Okay. That's different. That's not the type of risk I'm talking about. Talking about you're in a situation most people are hiding. Okay. Can you see opportunity? There's always, always, always opportunity. Show me one story in the Bible with the people of God did not have an opportunity. You can't do it. The problem is with the people. Are we willing to walk by faith and not by sight? That's really what this all boils down to. So I'm going to stop right there for tonight. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you so much Lord again, for allowing us to be able to gather here this evening and just pray that you bless the fellowship after the service and the soul winning that we have going on later this week. Just pray that you bring us back again safely this weekend in Jesus name. I pray. Amen.