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["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] All right, good evening, everyone. Welcome to First Works Baptist Church. Let's all make our way inside and find a seat. Grab a songbook. Open that songbook up to song number 90, Jesus, Lover of My Soul. And let's all stand for our first song, song number 90, Jesus, Lover of My Soul. Sing song number 90, Jesus, Lover of My Soul. Everyone nice and strong all together on that first verse. Jesus, Lover of My Soul, Let me to thy bosom fly While the near waters roll, While the tempest still is high. Hide me, O my Savior, hide Till the storm of life is past. Safe into thy haven guide, O receive my soul at last. Mother refuge, have I none, Hangs my helpless soul on thee. Leave, I'll leave, be not alone, Still support and comfort me. O my trust on thee is safe, O my help from thee I bring, Cover my defenseless head With the shadow of life brings. Thou, O Christ, art all I want, More than all in thee I find. Raise the fallen, cheer the faint, Fill the sick and lead the fine. Just and holy is thy name, I am all on righteousness. Vile and full of sin I am, Thou art full of truth and grace. Plenteous grace with thee is found, Grace to cover all my sin. Let the healing streams abound, Make and keep me pure within. Thou of life, the fountain art, Freely let me take of thee, Spring thou up within my heart, Rise to all eternity. Amen. Let's open our service with a word of prayer. Father, thank you, God, Lord, for allowing us, God, to be here tonight, Lord, and hear your word preached unto us, God. Thank you, God, for this evening, Lord. I pray, God, that you would bless Pastor Lord, fill him with your spirit as he preaches to us, Lord, and I pray, God, that you would also be with us, Lord, in the congregation, God, as we're edified by your word, Lord, that we would live here differently than when we came in, God, and apply it to our lives, Lord. We love you, God, and it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. Song number five, When I survey the wondrous cross. Song number five, When I survey the wondrous cross. Everyone nice and strong all together on that first verse. When I survey the wondrous cross on which the prince of glory died, my riches gain I count but loss and pour contempt on all my pride. Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, save in the death of Christ my God. All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to his blood. See from his head, his hands, his feet, sorrow and love flowing all down, inner such love and sorrow meet. Oh, Lord's come, oh, so rich a crown. Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were a present far too small, love so amazing, so divine. He meant my soul, my life, my all. All right, great singing. Thank you for being here this evening. Just a few announcements before we sing our next song, which will be 187 if you want to get that ready in your song books. Jesus Loves Me, song number 187. If you did not get a bulletin, go ahead and raise your hand and one of the ushers can get one for you. Some important information on there, as well as the prayer sheet. Our services are as follows. Sunday morning is at 1030. Sunday evening is at 5 p.m. And of course, we have our Thursday night Bible study at 7 o'clock. We are currently going through the Book of First Samuel. You see the so many times and the teams, the list of expecting mothers, if you can continue to pray for them and the important reminders there at the bottom. We had a great Easter service, amen. We were shy of breaking our record, though. Last year, we had 159 and this year we had 157. And so I told you, Lisa, why don't you just pull someone off the street? Did you count all the pregnant ladies in our church? No, I'm just kidding. You know, just try to break that 160 limit there, but that's all right. We had a lot of people, a lot of visitors here, a lot of salvations. I think a lot of the visitors actually got saved on Sunday. And so thank God for that. Thank you for those of you who invited your friends and family to the Easter service. You see the upcoming church events there on the right side. We have the Ladies Tea Party coming up on Saturday, April 23rd. You can RSVP with my wife. And then the homeschool field trip is coming up next week to the San Diego Safari Park on Tuesday, April 26th. And of course, I do want to mention that any time we have an activity, whether it's for homeschool activity or church activity, it's sponsored by the church. And so it's absolutely free. You don't have to pay anything for that. However, with the homeschool field trip, it's only for our church members. And so just keep that in mind there. But we're looking forward to that. If you have any questions about the field trip next week, you can see my wife for more details. And then the Ladies Prayer Breakfast is coming up on Saturday, April 30th at 10 a.m. May Birthday Breakfast is coming up on Sunday, May 1st. And then we have the Men's Prayer Meeting on Friday, May 27th. You see the regular reminders there. Of course, no food or drink allowed in the main auditorium except for water and coffee. Make sure you're not loitering in the foyer and fellowship hall during the preaching service. And then quiet time on Sundays is from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. all over the building now. Okay, so we've actually switched that up to just turning off the lights everywhere. And so make sure you're not fellowshipping or being disruptive during that time. We want people to get their rest and be refreshed for Sunday night preaching. Amen. I mean, two of the most important times, three of the most important times, of course, on Sunday is Sunday morning preaching. So many and then Sunday night preaching. Amen. So we want to dedicate and devote our energies to those events there on Sunday. So take advantage of that afternoon to get your rest in before the evening service. Make sure you silence your phones during the preaching so as to not be a distraction during the service. And I know I say that every single service, but really do do that. Like either turn them off or turn, you know, put it on silent or leave your phone in the vehicle. Keep your phone with you at all times. You know, just make sure that it's not on while I'm preaching because then it disrupts me and then I don't know where I'm at in my points. You know, and then and then it's forever on YouTube. You know what I mean? So just keep that in mind. And that's it for that. Why don't you go ahead and pull out your prayer sheet there. And we're going to go over that just briefly, of course, continue to pray for God's favor on our church, for the sowing that we continue to see many souls saved, the teams, the missions trips that we're planning to do this year. And then, of course, spiritual numerical growth. Pray for the new people in our church. A lot of new people on Sunday, as I mentioned, from Easter. And so pray that a lot of them would return. We're doing some follow up to try to encourage them to come back. And then some of the church families there, church family salvation, excuse me, families to grow for the barren women and expecting mothers. If you can please pray for Abigail. She's she's not doing well. And the health has just gotten even more complicated. And she's actually going to be having surgery next Friday. And she has a lot of complications in her body right now, and she's actually losing a lot of weight and isn't able to keep anything down. And so please keep her in your prayers. We're going to pray for her corporately, of course, as a church. But I want to encourage you to also keep her in your prayers throughout the week. And do them a favor by texting them, giving them a call, encourage them, let them know that you love them and you're praying for them. If there's anything they need, be available for them. And so please pray for her. And then you see the other needs there. You can look at those on your own and keep this sheet with you, of course, throughout the week so you can use to pray. And then the church of the month is Steadfast Baptist Church, Oklahoma City. Please pray for evangelist, Tanner Ferp, the sowing there, protection and success, and of course, the new building. And then any additional prayer requests you'd like to be mentioned or be placed on the bulletin, please make sure you put that on the sheet there. Or if you have a prayer request that has already been answered that's on the bulletin, make sure you let us know so that we can remove that and let the congregation know that that prayer was answered. All right. And that's pretty much it. Let's go ahead and bow our heads in a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for our salvation. We're so thankful for the word of God. We're thankful that we have a church that we can come to to hear the preaching of your word. We're so thankful for church members and Christians and those who exhort us to continue to go forward. I pray you bless our service tonight, Lord. Fill me with your spirit to preach your word. And may you make it applicable to us in our day to day lives. I do want to pray, Lord, for your favor in our church that you would continue to bless us with more members and, of course, more salvations and baptisms. Help us to continue to labor for you to remain steadfast and unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. I pray, Lord, that you continue to provide for our needs individually as a family, as a church, Lord, that we can continue to serve you without distraction. And may you continue to bless the families in our church, Lord. And, of course, the missions that we would continue to go on to all the world and preach the gospel and do our part, fulfilling our responsibility in fulfilling the Great Commission. We do pray for the spiritual numerical growth of the new people in our church, Lord. And thank you for the great amount of people that we had on Sunday and for those who got saved. I pray that they would take their next step, whether that's baptism or just becoming a member of our church and putting themselves under the preaching of God's word so they can grow spiritually and fulfill their God-given roles and be prosperous and have success in their Christian life. We do pray for the leadership and, of course, the pastors in training and for those in authority, Lord, that you would be with them, Lord, specifically even those in authority in Orange County, Lord, in Anaheim, that they would leave us alone. That we would continue to serve the Lord without distraction or without hindrance here. And I pray that you'd prepare us for the battles ahead, Lord, as our church continues to grow over the years. We do pray for the innocent and in Omani, for those who were saved, Lord, and, of course, those who are righteous people, the righteous remnant. I pray that you'd protect them. And I pray that you'd strike down the wicked, Lord, and let them go down quick into hell, Lord, those who desire the hurt of the church. Desire the hurt of the people, Lord, and desire to hinder the work of God and hinder the gospel, Lord. I pray that you'd smite them. And I do pray, Lord, for our church families. And, of course, many of us in here have family members that are not saved. I pray that you continue to touch their hearts, help us to be a good testimony unto them, and give us the opportunity to give them the gospel, Lord, that they will listen to us. Of course, it's difficult sometimes to give the gospel to our own family members. Prophet does not without honor save in his own country. And I pray that, Lord, you would soften their hearts to listen to us when the opportunity presents itself. We do pray for the barren women and expecting mothers in our church that you continue to bless them and be with their pregnancy as well as the delivery, that the children would be healthy and grow, Lord. And may you touch their bodies and bless them. And we do want to say a special prayer for Abigail. And as she is suffering right now, Lord, I pray that your hand would be upon her, Lord, that you would show her mercy and grace and touch her body, Lord. Be with DJ and Adan and, of course, Jaden and just with the situation, Lord, with Abigail, that you would continue to bless her and help them to figure out the issue. I do pray for her surgery on Friday, that you would be with the hands of the surgeon and guide them, Lord. And the surgery would be successful, that there would be no complications thereafter and that she would recover and just help her to get better, Lord. And I do pray for the Church of the Month, of course, Steadfast Baptist Church, Oklahoma City, that you would be with Evangelist Tanner Fermi, protect them and fill them with your spirit, Lord. Continue to help them to be zealous for the things of God and to lead your people into righteousness, Lord. I pray the Church would continue to grow and succeed and get many people saved, Lord, and that they would turn many to righteousness even after salvation, that people would live a godly life and live the Christian life and devote themselves to the service of God. And, Lord, may you bless her service tonight as we continue to study the Book of First Samuel, Lord. Help us to apply the message this evening to ourselves, Lord. Bless our weekend as well on the Sunday. That all would go well and may all things be done for your honor and for your glory. We love you and we thank you. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Go ahead and take your song books, 187, Jesus Loves Me, song number 187. Song number 187, Jesus Loves Me. Song 187, Jesus Loves Me. Everyone nice and strong all together. Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Little ones to Him belong, they are weak but He is strong. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so. Jesus loves me, He who died. Heaven's gate to open wide. He will wash away my sin. Let His little child come in. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so. Jesus loves me, He will stay close beside me all the way. Thou has bled and died for me. I will henceforth live for Thee. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so. And at this time, the ushers will collect the offering. Tonight will be in 1 Samuel, chapter number 14. 1 Samuel, chapter number 14. 1 Samuel, chapter number 14. Good evening. We're in 1 Samuel, chapter 14. And the chapter reads, 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 Philistines garrison that is on the other side. But he told not his father. And Saul tarried in the uttermost part of Gibeon under a pomegranate tree, which is in Micron. And the people that were with him were about six hundred men. And Ahia, the son of Ahiatab, Ichabod's brother, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eli, the Lord's priest in Shiloh, the people knew not that Jonathan was gone. And between the passages by which Jonathan sought to go over onto the Philistines garrison, there was a sharp rock on the one side and a sharp rock on the other side. And the name of the one was Bozaz, and the name of the other Senna. The forefront of the one was Scituate northward over against Micmash, and the other southward over against Gibeah. And Jonathan said to the young man that bare his armor, Come, and let us go over onto the garrison of these uncircumcised. 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. And his armored bearer said unto him, Do all that is in thine heart. Turn to thee, behold, I am with thee according to thy heart. Then said Jonathan, Behold, we will pass over unto these men, and we will discover ourselves unto them. 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 they shall be a sign unto us. 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 the men of the garrison answered Jonathan and his armored bearer and said, Come up to us, and we will show you a thing. And Jonathan said unto his armored bearer, Come up after me, for the Lord hath delivered them into the hand of Israel. And Jonathan climbed up upon his hands and upon his feet, and his armored bearer after him. And they fell before Jonathan, and his armored bearer slew after him. And that first slaughter which Jonathan and his armored bearer made was about twenty men, within it as it were, and half an acre of land, which a yoke of oxen might plow. And there was trembling in the host, in the field, and among all the people, the garrison and the spoilers, they also trembled and the earth quaked, so it was a very great trembling. And the washmen of Saul and Gibeah of Benjamin looked, and behold, the multitude melted away, and they went on beating down one another. Then said Saul unto the people that were with them, Number now, and see who is gone from us. And when they had numbered, behold, Jonathan and his armored bearer were not there. And Saul said unto Ahia, Bring hither the ark of God, for the ark of God was at that time with the children of Israel. It came to pass, while Saul talked unto the priest, that the noise that was in the host of the Philistines went on and increased. And Saul said unto the priest, Withdraw thine hand. And Saul and all the people that were with him assembled themselves, and they came to the battle, and behold, every man's sword was against his fellow. And there was a very great discomfiture. Moreover, the Hebrews that were with the Philistines before that time, which went up with them into the camp from the country round about, even they also turned to be with the Israelites that were with Saul and Jonathan. Likewise, all the men of Israel, which had hid themselves in Mount Ephraim, when they heard that the Philistines fled, even they also followed hard after them in the battle. So the Lord saved Israel that day, and the battle passed over unto Bethavon. And the men of Israel were distressed that day, for Saul had enjoyed the people, saying, Cursed be the man that eateth any food until evening, that I may be avenged on my enemies. So none of the people tasted any food. And all they of the land came to the wood, and there was honey upon the ground. And when the people were coming to the wood, behold, the honey dropped. But no man put his hand to his mouth, for the people feared the oath. But Jonathan heard not when his father charged the people with the oath, wherefore he put forth the end of the rod that was in his hand, and dipped it in a honeycomb, and put his hand to his mouth, and his eyes were enlightened. Then answered one of the people, and said, Thy father straightly charged the people with an oath, saying, Cursed be the man that eateth any food this day. And the people were faint. Then said Jonathan, My father hath troubled the land. See, I pray you, how mine eyes have been enlightened, because I tasted a little of this honey. How much more, if happily the people had eaten freely today, of the spoil of their enemies which they found? For had there not been now a much greater slaughter among the Philistines? And they smote the Philistine that day from Michmash to I John, and the people were very faint. And the people flew upon the spoil, and took sheep and oxen and calves, and slew them on the ground, and the people that eat with the blood. Then they told Saul, saying, Behold, the people sin against the Lord, and that they eat with the blood. And he said, Ye have transgressed, roll a great stone unto me this day. And Saul said, Disperse yourselves among the people, and say unto them, Bring me hither every man his ox, and every man his sheep, and slay them here, and eat, and sin not against the Lord, and eating with the blood. And all the people wrought every man his ox with him that night, and slew them there. And Saul built an altar unto the Lord, the same was the first altar that he built unto the Lord. And Saul said, Let us go down after the Philistines by night, and spoil them until the morning light, and let us not leave a man of them. And they said, Do whatsoever seemeth good unto thee. Then said the priest that is drawn near hither unto God. And Saul asked counsel of God, Shall I go down after the Philistines, wilt thou deliver them into the hand of Israel? But he answered him, Not that day. And Saul said, Draw ye near hither, and all the chief of the people, and know and see wherein that this sin hath been to say. For as the Lord liveth which saveth Israel, though it be in Jonathan my son, he shall surely die. But there was not a man among all the people that answered him. Then said he unto all Israel, Be ye on one side, and I and Jonathan my son will be on the other side. And the people said unto Saul, Do what seemeth good unto thee. Therefore Saul said unto the Lord God of Israel, Give me a perfect lot. And Saul and Jonathan were taken, but the people escaped. And Saul said, Cast laws between me and Jonathan my son, and Jonathan was taken. And Saul said to Jonathan, Tell me what thou hast done. And Jonathan told him, and said, I did but taste a little honey with the end of the rod that was in mine hand, and lo, I must die. And Saul answered, God do so, and more also, for thou shalt surely die Jonathan. And the people said unto Saul, Shall Jonathan die who hath wrought this great salvation in Israel? God forbid, as the Lord liveth, there shall not one hair of his head fall to the ground, for he hath wrought with God this day. So the people rescued Jonathan that he died not. Then Saul went up from following the Philistines, and the Philistines went to their own place. So Saul took the kingdom over Israel, and fought against all his enemies on every side, against Moab, and against the children of Ammon, and against Ed-Edom, and against the king of Zobah, and against the Philistines, and whithersoever he turned himself, he vexed them. And he gathered an host, and smote the Amalekites, and delivered Israel out of the hand of them that spoiled them. Now the sons of Saul were Jonathan, and Ishmael, and Mokshua. And the names of his daughters were the name of the firstborn, Mereb, and the name of the younger, Michal. And the name of Saul's wife was Ahinoam, the daughter of Ahimehas. The name of the captain of his host was Abner, the son of Ner, Saul's uncle. And Kish was the father of Saul, and Ner the father of Abner was the son of Abiel. And there was a sore war against the Philistines all the days of Saul. And when Saul saw any strong man, or any valiant man, he took them onto his own. Let's pray. We thank you, Father, for a wonderful church here, God. We thank you for every precious soul here. We thank you for our pastor. Please fill in with your Holy Spirit tonight as he preaches your word. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Okay, we're continuing this evening with the Book of 1 Samuel. And let me just bring you up to date before we get into Chapter 14. In Chapter 13 is really where we see the beginning of the end for King Saul. And a lot of what's recorded of Saul initially in the Book of 1 Samuel is in regards to the wars and the battles that he's involved in. He's going through a lot of conquests, constantly fighting against the Philistines. And this is a very good thing, obviously, because the Philistines are the enemies of God. The Amalekites are the enemies of God. But we see that this is kind of going to his head a little bit. And what once was a humble man who was hiding among the stuff, who was filled with meekness, has now become proud and arrogant. And obviously he begins to act in a presumptuous way in Chapter 13. And that's really where we see Samuel condemning him and letting him know that the kingdom of God is going to be taken from him. And given to someone who desires the heart of the Lord. A manner for God's own heart, as he puts it. But he continues in his conquests. He hasn't really been dethroned as of yet. You know, King David, or David at this time, hasn't been anointed king as of yet. So obviously Saul is still very much involved. He's still the king. And he still has a lot of business to take care of. He still has to overcome the Philistines and conquer these areas, these cities, and take back the surrendered ground from the Philistines. And so that's what we see in Chapter 14 is a lot of this conquest. Even up until Chapter 15 we see there's just a lot of wars, a lot of battles. And here in Chapter 14 we begin to see that his behavior goes from being presumptuous to really being almost strict. But in an unrealistic type of a way. He's no longer a good leader. You know, initially he was very much a good leader leading by example, inspiring his men, just kind of exhorting them. And they were inspired to follow him. Whereas now they're just really afraid of him because he has all these unrealistic expectations that he wants them to meet. And it's not flying well in the eyes of the Israelites. And so we're going to look at that this evening. But here initially in the beginning of the chapter we're actually introduced to his son Jonathan. And Jonathan's pretty awesome. Obviously he has his problems and his failures and areas that he needs to work on. But for the most part this is a man of faith. And so we're going to look at Jonathan slaughtering the Philistines first and foremost. Let's go ahead and take a look at his initiative in verse number 1. It says, Now I'm not necessarily sure why that particular phrase is there. But if I were to speculate why the narrator chose to leave that particular or chose to mention that. It's probably indicating that Jonathan, although he's a man of faith, he's not necessarily a man who is under his father's authority. He's going out to battle and he's not telling his father, even though his father is in command. And whether or not Saul is backslidden, he still should have told his dad what he's going to do, right? It says in verse 2, So these men are all banded together, they're getting ready for a battle. And Jonathan just kind of slips away with his armor bearer to kind of fight his own battle. He says in verse 4, And the other southward over against Gibeah. So first and foremost, we see that he does take initiative here. And what's the initiative? He just wants to go to battle. He wants to go out and fight against the Philistines. And the reason this is admirable is because of the fact that he chooses a difficult situation. One can say he chose that place between a hard place and a rock. A rock and a hard place, however you want to word that. Because he's between two stones that are sharp. And so he's going between this place behind enemy lines. He only has his armor bearer. He doesn't necessarily know how many people are on the other side. This is a man of great faith. And we can look at someone like this and say, this is a man who's not afraid to fight. And this is a spirit that a lot of Christians need today. A lot of Christians are afraid to fight. And we're not talking about physically fighting. We obviously know that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God. To the pulling down of strongholds. We don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world. So we would apply this spiritually to say that we need to fight the Lord's battles in a spiritual way. Well, believe it or not, there's Christians out there that are actually afraid to fight spiritual battles. And they don't want to go to where the rocks are sharp and where there's Philistines and where behind enemy lines because that can cause them to be shut down as a church or be fired as a pastor. Not fired. I mean, obviously, if they have a deacon board, they might fire them, actually. A lot of old IFP churches will have a deacon board. They actually have more authority than the pastor himself. And so that's actually a real thing. We think that that's only something designated to the Southern Baptists, but you know some independent fundamental Baptists also have a deacon board where they'll actually remove the pastor if he's not doing what they want him to do or whatever. So you get a man of God standing up there and he does, he preaches the word of God. He stands for truth and he can be removed from his position by the deacon board or he himself can just become afraid and just stop being a pastor, not wanting to fight. Whereas Jonathan, he's like, come, let us go over to the Philistine's garrison. Let's go to the forefront of the battle. Why not? So we see his initiative and then this decision he makes is not based off of carelessness or he's not reckless. It's not because he doesn't understand how dangerous the mission could be. It's not because he doesn't know the Philistines are there. He doesn't know how pointy the rocks are there or what the situation is there. Really, his initiative is based off of his insight. Look at verse number six. So this isn't based upon reckless decision. This is not something careless that he's doing. He's basing this off of the character of God. He's basing this off of God's might and his power and he's saying, let's just try it. Let's see what happens. Why? Well, because there is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few. God can deliver Israel using 500 men, but he could also deliver Israel using two men. Why? Because at the end of the day, the battle is of the Lord's. So he's saying, let's situate ourselves in such a way that God can deliver Israel just by us. Just by using us. Who knows what can happen? Now, this is some great faith here because Jonathan could be wrong. He just goes there and just gets his butt whooped. He just gets killed and that's the end of story of Jonathan. That's it for him and his armor bearer, but he's just like, well, you know what? YOLO. You only live once. Might as well try it. And I really like, even though it doesn't say YOLO, it's in the Hebrew. No, I'm just kidding. You know, it's somewhere in there. It is implied because Jonathan's just kind of like, you know what? Why not try it? He's not restrained to save by many or by few. And believe it or not, God wants us to take risks in the Christian life. He wants us to take risks. He doesn't really like when people just walk on eggshells all the time. Now, the Bible does tell us that we should walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, you know, to understand what the will of the Lord is. In other words, when we walk through the Christian life, we should always walk based upon what the Bible says. You know, understand what the will of the Lord is. Don't be some careless Christian out there, you know, that you don't know what God's word is and you're taking all these risks and making all these choices and decisions, but it's not biblically based, you understand? We should know what God's word says and take risks based off of that, okay? And so, you know, God wants us to be risk takers. He wants us to step out in faith. Now, why is that? Well, because of the fact that once we step out in faith, our faith increases that much the more, okay? We want our faith to continue to grow in the Christian life. The Bible says that, you know, we go from faith to faith. And the reality is this is sometimes Christians, they can go through their entire Christian life and never increase their belief on what God can do in their lives. They'll never increase the amount of faith that they have in God to provide for their needs, to protect them from wicked people, you know, to be there for them in the darkest of moments because they'll never put themselves in a situation where God can show himself strong on the behalf of them whose heart is perfect with them, you understand? And you can understand why, you know, being put in a difficult situation is being put in a vulnerable situation. None of us like to be vulnerable. But the reality is this is that it's good for us to put ourselves in a vulnerable situation based off of God's word because when God comes through, our faith increases. And then, you know what, we get a little more bold. We become a little more courageous. Then, the more you do it, the less you care about your life, the less you care about your safety because you're like, you know what, God is able to deliver me, but if not, we're still not going to bow. You know, God is capable of saving by many or by few. Now, this is why, you know, it's a blessing, you know, to have, quote unquote, a small church. Now, technically, from a statistics standpoint, our church is actually larger than your average church in America. Because people would point to us and say, you guys got a small church and, you know, Joel Osteen or whatever or Rick Warren. It's like, yeah, but I mean, there's another congregation out there that's even bigger than his, but it's the same religion. It's called the cemetery. You know, Joel Osteen is just a spiritual cemetery. There's as much dead bodies in the cemetery as there are in his church probably. It doesn't mean anything. And it doesn't count because there's probably not probably there is more saved people in this room than there are at Joel Osteen's church. That's the truth, you know. But, you know, let's say, okay, we have a small church, in comparison to these mega churches, these non-denom mega churches or whatever. Okay, but you know what, there's no restraint of the Lord to save by many or by few. And the truth is, let's just be honest, you know, by God's glory, obviously, and by God's enabling, we probably see more people saved with our few small churches than most of these mega churches who don't do any type of sowing whatsoever. And even if they do some sort of outreach, let's reach our community, you know. They probably don't have a good, a right gospel. And let's say maybe, let's just give them the benefit of the doubt that maybe they do have the right gospel. I guarantee you most of them don't know how to present it, right? I mean, there's a couple steps you got to take to be a good soul winner, folks. First and foremost, you got to have the right gospel. Or let me back up. First of all, you got to be saved. Two, you got to have the right gospel. Three, you got to have a church that actually has an organized soul winning time, because most of the time you're not going to, no one's going to go soul winning if there's not an organized, allocated amount of time in the church to go soul winning, to send out soul winners. And also, they have to know how to actually present the gospel, okay? And so, you know, Lord willing, our church will continue to grow over the years, into the hundreds of, you know, 500, 600, 700, Lord willing even 1,000. I think that would be great. But if not, God can save by many or by few, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. God can do a great work with the church of 10, as he can with the church of 50, as he can with the church of 100, with 500, with 1,000. And even then, if our church would ever reach the size of 1,000, there's going to be someone out there, oh, that's not that much, you know. My non-denom church has like 5,000, 10,000 or whatever, you know. Who cares? You know, obviously, quantity is important because quantity means souls, amen? But we want quality. We want quality in the preaching. We want quality in the doctrine. We want quality in the practice as well, okay? But here, Jonathan is just saying, you know, let's see if the Lord will work for us. You know, Christians need to step out in faith a little more often and take a risk every now and then and see, well, let's see if the Lord will work for us, okay? You know, some single guys out there need to step out in faith, amen? Go talk to a young lady and see if the Lord will work for you. See if the Lord will work for you, you know. There's no restraint to the Lord to save by handsome or by ugly. Amen? Some of you guys aren't laughing. Does this offend you? Take a risk, amen? Take a risk. If you've never been sowing, take a risk and do so because God can save, you know, who knows if there's no restraint to the Lord to save by someone who is just an extrovert or an introvert. There's no restraint. You know, it may be that the Lord will work for you, okay? So you fill in the blank of what you think you need to step out in faith of or for and remind yourself of what Jonathan said. These are some wise words by this young man who is saying, you know what, God can work for us. And typically, you know, I believe that the reason God delivered them was because of Jonathan here because, you know, he knew that Jonathan's faith was great and that God can deliver, you know, the children of Israel just by one man. And obviously, this also can be applied to just one person sowing and recognize that one person can make a huge difference in this world, in this life. You may think to yourself, well, what type of impact can I even make though? You know, I'm not well versed or, you know, I don't speak well. I'm not an orator. I'm just not the best of Christians. Well, who knows, maybe the Lord will work for you though. You just never know what God can do. Don't minimize what God can do in your life just based upon, you know, what qualities you have or the lack of talent that you possess or the lack of giftedness that you have. Like, well, I'm not that gifted, I'm not that talented, so I don't know if the Lord will work for me. Well, you know what, God can use a stick in the hand of Moses to create some pretty darn good miracles. And you know what, if you're a stick, God can use you too, okay? And so, there's no restraint to the Lord. And as the years go by, I pray that in my personal life, my faith increases more. I don't want to be like these old farts out there who, they only live in the glory days. And, you know, it's funny but it's true. Well, there's tons of pastors out there who are just all about, we used to run this many in the bus ministry and have this many in Sunday school class and we did this. Yeah, but how long ago was that though? Well, that was like 30 years ago. Okay, well, here we are 30 years later. Welcome to 2022. This is a new world, okay? There are more souls here. What are you doing today? I don't want to live in the glory days, okay? Now, is it good to reflect on the glory days? Absolutely. Are they inspirational? Yes. I love thinking about, you know, times past, successes of times past and victories that we had in times past. I love listening to old preachers that are gone and dead. You know, I was actually, I restored one of my hard drives from a computer that I had a while back. And I got a bunch of files from like years ago, years ago. And on that file, I have some preaching from J Frank Norris. Some audio preaching from J Frank Norris. And I was just like, you know what? I'm going to listen to one of these, right? See what kind of things they struggled with back then. What kind of stuff did he preach against back then, you know? And I'm popping it in and he's like, you know, short hair on women is sinful. Long hair on man is sinful. And then he's like, what about Jesus? He had long hair. He's like, the Jesus you have in that picture is the Antichrist. I'm like, I preached that. Did you get that from me? You know, and then he's preaching and he's just like, let's talk about pants on women. And this is like back in the day. He's talking about pants on women and, you know, breaches on women. He's like, this is going to make a bunch of people my church, man, but I don't care. You know, it's wicked for women to wear pants. And then he's just like, he's going off on loudmouth women. He's like, well, I'm on the subject. He's like, what's with these ladies Sunday school teachers? God didn't call you to teach God's word. God calls them mad. And he's just going off. And he's just ripping. And this is like, I mean, this is 100 years ago or something like that. And, you know, in our minds, it's like, oh, it was so much more conservative back then. No, there's fags back then. There are loudmouths back then. There are people who rebelled against God's word back then. You know, and we had men of God back then, too. I want some of these old IFB pastors to listen to that sermon. And I want to be like, see, I'm not the only one. You're mad at me and your hero, J. Frank Norris. And by the way, this is when he's like really old. Because obviously it had to be when he was really old because he's from like the 20s. So this is when, like, I don't know, recordings were invented. The audio is kind of rough, you know, but he's like kicking and screaming. And I'm thinking to myself, he's new IFB. He preaches like a new IFB guy. I mean, he hit on every single sin that we would typically, and it was probably like a Sunday morning that he was preaching this to. It was actually at someone's church. So he's ripping at someone's church. And I'm listening to this, I'm like, this is, I covered this this month. I covered this this year, you know. But the old IFB preaches, they garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, though. You know, I don't even know how I got into that. What I'm saying is, oh, the glory days. You know, it's nice to reflect on the glory days. It's nice to reflect on the successes. But I'm looking forward to what God's going to do in the future. Because why? Well, because there is no restraint for the Lord to save by many or by few. And let me just say this, folks. Our greatest days are ahead of us. The greatest days for First Works Baptist Church are ahead of us. They're not behind us, they're ahead of us. You think what happened in 2021 was crazy? Oh, just wait until you see what happens in the next five to 10 years. It's going to knock your socks off. It's going to put skirts on women, amen? It's going to cause men to cut their hair, the men to cut their hair short, women to grow out their hair, man. And so we see Jonathan slaughters the Philistines here, takes an initiative. We see his insight. And then the Philistines begin to instigate in verse number 11. Well, let's read in verse number 7. It says, And his armor-bearer said unto him, Do all that is in thine heart. This is the only time you really see that phrase, amen? Follow your heart. That's because his heart was in line with God's word, amen? Turn thee behold. I am with thee according to thy heart. Now, this is an awesome armor-bearer. He's not like, well, I don't know, you know, you're being a little too mean there or you need to take it easy. Don't you think you should bring someone else? He's like, I'm with you. This is Road Dogg right here. Then said Jonathan, Behold, we will pass over unto these men and we will discover ourselves unto them. If they say, Thus unto us, Terry, until we come to you, then we will stand in our place and will not go up unto them. But if they say, Come up unto us, then we will go up, for the Lord hath delivered them into our hands and this shall be a sign unto us. What a great tactic there, Jonathan. All right, this is what we're going to do. If they tell us to go over there, we'll go over there. And if they tell us that they're going to come to us, then we'll just wait for them, all right? Good plan? All right, let's do it. But notice what he says. He says there, if they say, Come unto us, then we will go up, for the Lord hath delivered them into our hand. He's like, I'm just going to assume that if they want to come to us, that's our sign that, you know what? We win. He's like, so let's just do it. Verse 11 says, And both of them discovered themselves into the garrison of the Philistines. And the Philistines said, Behold, the Hebrews come forth out of the holes where they had hid themselves. 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. That's how they used to call people out back in those days. We're going to show you a thing. And Jonathan said unto his armor-bearer, Come up after me, for the Lord hath delivered them into the hand of Israel. 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 them. 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 is a yoke of oxen my plow. So this is amazing. Two guys take on 20. They destroy 20, right? He says it was about 20 men. And, I mean, if you've ever been jumped by, like, five guys. If you've ever been jumped by three, you might hit one and maybe swipe the other, but you're going to get beat up. Unless you're just a really good Muay Thai kickboxer or, you know, some sort of martial art or something like that. For the most part, you might get a good lick into one, but eventually they're all going to get you, okay? Now, five for sure they're going to get you. Ten, you're done. Twenty, you're dead. But these two guys took on 20 and defeated 20. Okay? So what does this teach us here? It teaches us that although God used them in a great way, they had to do their part. So in order for God to work for us, we have to work the plan. So it's not like, oh, you know what? God can deliver us, he will work for us, and let's just sit back and wait for him to do it. You know? Oh, God's going to give me a godly wife one day, but I'm just going to wait here until all the girls just come talk to me first. Right? You know, oh, you know, I'm going to win so many souls to Christ, but you just never learn how to go soul and never learn how to preach the gospel. You're just all talk and no walk. God says, according to this principle, what we're learning here is that God will work for you, but you have to work the plan. You have to actually step out in faith and execute the plan and just do it. Amen? And don't be dumble-minded either. You see, God wants us to put some thought into our plans and what we're going to do to succeed spiritually, and he wants us to follow through on it, too. The Bible says a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. Let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. If someone is wavering, tossed about, and just is kind of double-minded, and is like, I think I'm going to do it, no, I don't think I am going to do it, oh, maybe I will, or maybe tomorrow I won't, God's like, oh, here, I've got a better option. You're not getting anything. Right? He's like, you don't even have to keep hopping back and forth, I'm just not going to give you anything. You're not going to get anything. Why? Because God doesn't like it when we're indecisive. Think about that for a second. God actually is not pleased when we are indecisive. Now, why is that? Why doesn't he like it when we're indecisive? I'll tell you why. Because if you make a good choice, God will come through. If you make a bad choice, all things work together for good, to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose. You win no matter what choice you make, as long as you keep loving the Lord. But if you decide not to do anything, God's like, I'm not going to do anything then. Before, you're not trying. You're not even trying! So why make anything happen? You can either try and succeed, your faith increases, or you can try and fail, and it humbles you, and then God draws nigh to you because of that humility, and he exalts you, and you win anyways. But if you say, well, I'm not going to try either, okay, then you don't get anything then. What I'm saying is, you've got to put in the work. You actually have to do something. We need to raise a generation of decisive Christians who would just decide, I'm going to do this. It's going to happen. Today, I'm going to do it. Today, I'm going to start reading my Bible. Today, I'm going to start praying. Today, I'm going to start doing this. I'm going to go soul winning. I'm going to do this. I'm just going to decide to do this. And sometimes people are like, well, I need to pray about it first, though. There are certain things you don't really need to pray about. Sometimes, God already has you covered in that area. You don't need to pray about it. God's already told you what to do. Just do it. Well, I need to pray for courage. Okay. You want to pray for boldness? Pray for boldness as you're doing it. Like, it doesn't work like, give me boldness first, and then I'll go do what you told me to do. No, it's like, Lord, give me boldness as I'm going to do what you told me to do. And then he comes through. That rhymed. I didn't do that on purpose. It just kind of slips out every once in a while. Just kidding. So, you know, he does a great work there. Okay. He slaughters the Philistines. Verse 15, we see that their courage is impaired. Verse 15 says, and there was trembling in the host and the field and among all the people, the garrison, the spoilers. They also trembled in the earthquake. So was a very great trembling. What happened? They're afraid. They are fearful because they're like, how are these two guys just whooping everyone? They must have access to something that's just causing them to have to... Yeah, the access is they have God. They have God's favor. And so we see his initiative, his insight, the Philistines instigate. They're defeated and then their courage is impaired. Okay. And this is very important, folks, is that the next time we face a battle as a church, keep this in mind. Okay. If you're afraid, if you're fearful, if you're fearing your own safety, just do it anyways. And God will make their heart melt. I promise you that. They can talk a big talk on social media. They can talk a big talk in front of your face. But at the end of the day, their hearts are melting because that's always how it works. God instills the fear of God in their heart when they are confronted with a Christian who just won't back down. Because they think to themselves they must have access to something that's causing them to behave in this way. And it's like, yeah, we have access to God. We're Christians. We're saved. We have the Bible. Okay. And then their courage is impaired. And look, there's obviously more of them than there were of Jonathan and Armand. But numbers don't matter here because they're still scared. Okay. So Jonathan slaughters the Philistines. Great, great story there that we can learn from that we need to step on in faith in the Lord's battles. But next week we're going to see the victory spurs the Israelites. In verse 16, we're going to see Saul investigates who's fighting. It says in verse 16, the watchman of Saul and Gibeah of Benjamin looked and behold, a multitude melted away. And they went on beating down one another. Then said Saul to the people that were with him, number now and see who is gone from us. Because they're thinking to themselves, how is this happening? Count all the men, count all the soldiers who were missing here. He's like, was there an infantry that went out and fought against these guys? And that's why they're melting away. That's why they're being defeated. Verse 17 says, then said Saul to the people that were with him, number now and see who is gone from us. And when they had numbered, behold, Jonathan and his armor bearer were not there. So only two guys. And Saul said unto Ahiah, bring hither the ark of God, for the ark of God was at that time with the children of Israel. And it came to pass while Saul talked unto the priest that the noise that was in the host of the Philistines went on and increased. And Saul said unto the priest, withdraw thine hand. So this is interesting because we see that Saul is investigating who's fighting. He finds out Jonathan and his armor bearer are not there. And then the fear of the enemy increases. But notice what Saul does. Because he says, bring the ark. But then he begins to see them afraid and he's like, actually withdraw thy hand. What does that show you? It shows you he's not really depending on God. You know, it's just like the circumstances like, okay now we don't need God. We need God now. But then he realizes, oh it's Jonathan and his armor bearer and they're defeating all these guys? Okay, withdraw thine hand then. Folks, let me just say this is that, and although this is obviously Saul's being really dumb and he's very much carnal and not spiritual at this moment, this is something that a lot of Christians do. Okay? And how do we apply it practically in our lives today? Well, you know, it's easy to pray unto the Lord when we're going through a difficult time. Right? We cry out to God when the going gets tough, but when everything goes well, that's when we cry out to God the least. Right? When the bills are being paid, the health is good, everything's going fine and dandy in our life. That's typically when we say, withdraw thine hand. But you know what we should say is, we need to communicate with God in the good times and in the bad. We need to seek the face of the Lord at all times. Seek the Lord in the latter rain, as the Bible puts it. You know, when there's locusts consuming the field, or when we're just having an abundance in our fields as well. When it's just bursting through with new wine. We need to seek God at all times. You say, well, why do we need to pray when we have so much and everything's going well? Well, pray that it stays that way, number one, right? But also pray, let me say this, against yourself. Like what? Yeah, pray that you don't become proud and arrogant and you forget the Lord in your time of prosperity. Because that's a temptation. Everything goes well, you're not suffering, you're not going through tribulation or difficulty. We, myself included, can have a temptation to just kind of forget our walk with God or our service for the Lord. Because everything's going fine and dandy. It's in the darkest of the moments that we seek the Lord the most. May we not be like Saul that's just like, oh, everything's good? Alright, hey, actually we don't need you. We don't need you right now. That's what he's doing. Because of the fact that the fear among the enemy is increasing. Well, if the fear of the enemy is increasing, bring the ark of God and say, Lord, smite their heart even more with fear. What else can you do, Lord? Strike them down. Save us. And then the Israelites are inspired in verse 21. It says, Moreover, the Hebrews that were with the Philistines before that time, which went up with them into the camp from the country round about, even they also turned to be with the Israelites that were with Saul and Jonathan. Likewise, all the men of Israel, which had hid themselves in Mount Ephraim, when they heard that the Philistines fled, even they also followed hard after them in the battle. So the Lord saved Israel that day, and the battle passed over unto Bethaven. So another principle that we can learn here is that, you know, it only takes one man to really inspire many. You know, because of this this courageous decision that Jonathan made, even the Israelites who were in subjection to the Philistines that were in the garrisons, they decided to fight back. They decided to rise up and fight in the war. They became courageous. And, of course, the Philistines were then defeated. Look at verse 24. We're going to look at the unrealistic standard of Saul being imposed. So we looked at Jonathan's slaughter of the Philistines. The victory spurs the Israelites. And then we're going to look at the unrealistic standard of Saul thereafter. Verse 24, the extreme oath that he takes. It says, And the men of Israel were distressed that day, for Saul had adored the people, saying, Cursed be the man that eateth any food until evening, that I may be avenged of my enemies. So none of the people tasted any food. And all they of the land came to the wood, and there was honey upon the ground. And when the people were come into the wood, behold, the honey dropped, but no man put his hand to his mouth, for the people feared the oath. So this is crazy. You know, you would think a victory would cause Saul to be a little more lenient during his time, especially when you're dealing with physical warfare. It's like, eat as much as you need. You need the calories, you need the protein, you need the fat, you need the energy, because you're defeating the Philistines. But instead of rejoicing over the fact that God is delivering them, he's just kind of being a little more stern, a little more austere with his people, and saying, well, I'm going to make an oath. No one can eat until all of the Philistines are defeated. So no eating, everyone fasts, until the Philistines are just completely defeated, until I am avenged. Now what does this tell us of Saul? He's just full of himself. He's full of himself. He's full of himself, he's making these unrealistic standards for his men, and you know what, he's no longer inspiring them. He's not inspiring them to follow him, he's not inspiring them to follow the Lord. Why? Because he's not really taking them into consideration when they go out to battle. He's not really taking them into consideration. He's causing them to abstain from meats, which is the doctrine of devils. God wants us to eat, amen? Amen, brother. God wants us to eat, especially when we're in spiritual warfare. Now when it comes to, from a spiritual perspective, in order for us to be in spiritual warfare, we need to eat, amen? We need to consume the Word of God, those spiritual calories and spiritual protein, and the fats needed in order to continue the battle. So obviously, what would this do to a soldier? It would discourage them, cause them to be a little disillusioned, and even a little bitter towards the leader, because they're fighting his battle, but he's not necessarily being kind to them. And to make matters worse, there's honey there. So the honey's right there, and they're just licking their chops, can't touch it, can't do anything. So this extreme oath. But then, aside from the extreme oath, Jonathan is just oblivious to the command. So Saul has this extreme oath, but then Jonathan is oblivious to the command. Verse 27, But Jonathan heard not when his father charged the people with the oath. Wherefore he put forth the end of the rod that was in his hand, and dipped it in the honeycomb, and put his hand to his mouth, and his eyes were enlightened. So now the king's son, he's like, and then he just eats it, and everyone's like, what is he doing? But he didn't hear when he said it. Now there's a spiritual application to this, particularly, because honey in the Bible pictures God's word. You know, the Bible refers to God's word being sweeter than honey, and then the honeycomb. And when we consume the word of God, it is sweet in our mouth, right? And really, if you eat too much, sometimes it can become bitter in your belly. You consume a lot of honey, it can actually hurt your stomach a little bit. And the same thing with God's word, because it's so enriched, because there's so much content in the word of God, you know, sometimes you're just not capable of digesting all of the hard sayings, it becomes bitter in your belly. But one thing that we know that the word of God does is that it enlightens your spiritual eyes. You know, when you are heavy, laden, and you are just going through a difficult time, you're tired, whether physically or spiritually, you're mentally taxed, you're just going through difficulty in your life, take some honey, and your eyes will be enlightened. You will be given that spiritual energy to continue to go forward for the Lord. And, you know, when the Bible talks about the eyes being enlightened, it's sometimes just in reference to knowing God's will, knowing God's word, and having that discernment, so to speak, because of the honey of God's word, okay? And so, you know, he takes it, he loves it, it does him well, and, you know, he benefits from it. So, but obviously he's oblivious to the oath there. Verse 28 says, Then answered one of the people and said, Thy father straightly charged the people with an oath, saying, Cursed be the man that eateth any food this day. And the people were faint. And one thing I'm wondering, like, why didn't you say anything before he did it? They're just all, Why'd you do that, you know? Could it be that they just wanted him to do it first, so that they can have a reason to also disobey it, you know? I don't know. They just waited for him to do it. But they were faint. Verse 29, Sorry, so Jonathan is oblivious to the command, and then we see his obstinate response in verse 29 says, Then said Jonathan, My father hath troubled the land. Now that's pretty disrespectful. And, by the way, is he right? Yes. You know, Saul's not necessarily a good example right now. But, you know, Jonathan should just keep his mouth shut. And because he's his son, he should just be like, you know what, I didn't know I'm going to go, you know, make it right with my father. I didn't know that this was wrong. I didn't know he had said that. But instead, he begins to criticize his dad. He says, My father hath troubled the land. See, I pray you, how mine eyes have been enlightened, because I tasted a little of this honey. How much more if haply the people had eaten freely today of the spoil of their enemies, which they found. For had there not been now a much greater slaughter among the Philistines. So we can see a little pride even amongst Jonathan. Okay. So it runs in the family apparently. All right. He's a little prideful because God used them. And look, this is a temptation for anybody who's used of God. If you get a lot of people saved or you're being used to turn the brethren to righteousness, if God is using you in a great way, there's a tendency, listen to this, to become a little prideful. Sometimes a lot of prideful. Mucho prideful. Okay. And just as Jonathan is right here, you know, he needs to humble himself because at the end of the day, God can literally remove our influence whenever he wants. At any moment. Okay. You know, don't become an arrogant, prideful Christian because you belong to First Works Baptist Church. Amen. It's a great church. It's a great church. It's my favorite church for sure. The steadfast is cool. I love steadfast. We got a member from steadfast here. It's all right. No, I'm just kidding. We love Pastor Shelley. But you know, every church member should feel that way about their church. But never become prideful and arrogant about it. Where it's just like, we're the only best church there is or something like that. Now that is true in this particular plaza. Okay. I'm willing to say that. But you know, we should never have this arrogant attitude. It's like, well, look how much we've done. Look at everything. Look at our great exploits. Is it good to rejoice in what God has done in our church? Absolutely. Is it good to rejoice in how God has used us in our church to get a lot of people saved and to fight the Lord's battles? Absolutely. Nothing wrong with that. But don't let it get to our heads because of the fact that God can just remove that in a moment's notice. He can kill the channel. He can kill the church. He can just dwindle us down to nothing. He can cause us to not be successful and fruitful and our soul winning. He can do a lot of things that can humble us. So we need to just humble ourselves first so that he doesn't remove us in that way. Amen. But he's criticizing his father. That's not a good thing there. And what happens? Well, the Israelites succumb to their appetites. We're going to see the desperation of the people in verse 31. And they smote the Philistines that day from Michmash to Eijalon. And the people were very faint. And the people flew upon the spoil and took sheep and oxen and calves and slew them on the ground. And the people eat them with the blood. They can't even wait. They're just like, I'm breaking this oath today. It's just like people when they fast, they're just like, they're driving and they see you and they're like, I'm flying upon the spoil today. I'm faint right now. Don't make an oath when you fast, folks. That way, if you fall like an hour later, you're good to go. But these guys are crazy. They're killing the animals on the ground. They're just eating them. They're just acting like animals. And so we see the desperation of the people. And then we see Saul's decision to repeal the oath. It says in verse number 33, then they told Saul, little rats, they're just like ratting on their own guys here, saying, Behold, the people sinned against the Lord, even though they probably did it too, right? And that they eat, they're like a toothpick, they're all, you know, hey, they're like eating all the food over there, you know. And that they eat with the blood, and that they eat with a blood, excuse me, and he said, Ye have transgressed, roll a great stone unto me this day. And Saul said, Disperse yourselves among the people, and say unto them, Bring me hither every man his ox, and every man his sheep, and slay them here, and eat, and sin not against the Lord, and eating with the blood. And all the people brought every man his ox with him that night, and slew them there. And Saul built an altar unto the Lord. The same was the first altar that he built unto the Lord. So he repeals the oath. And again, you know, this may seem like, oh, Saul's being, you know, he's being considerate here, but again, arrogance, because he's saying, Oh, you guys are sinning against the Lord. You sin against the Lord, Saul. You're still not even right with God. It's crazy. Which shows us, leading to my next point, Saul's lack of self-awareness. You know what he lacks? Self-awareness. Look at verse number 36. We're going to see Saul's desire for conquest. And Saul said, Let us go down after the Philistines by night and spoil them into the morning light, and let us not leave a man of them. Which is interesting. Think about this. We're going to see this later on, played out in the next chapter. But here he's saying, Let's go spoil them. Don't even leave another man. So this is his command. Well, in the next chapter, God commands them, Don't leave any of the Amalekites alive, but he saves the spoil for himself. Hypocrite. You know, he's trying to be more justifiable than God or have more justice than God, more righteous than God here. And they said, Do whatsoever seemeth good unto thee. Then said the priest, Let us draw near hither unto God. So he's like, Hey, let's go conquer this land and destroy all the people. And then the priest comes and is like, Maybe we should seek the Lord on this. See what he wants us to do next. That would be a pretty good idea, right? It's like when you're about to eat, everyone got their food, they're about to eat. And someone's like, Hey, you guys want to pray first before? And then the guy with three fries in his mouth is like, Verse 37, And Saul asked counsel of God, Shall I go down after the Philistines? Wilt thou deliver them into the hand of Israel? And of course, during this time, God would actually speak to the priest to speak unto the king. Okay, this is obviously a unique time in history. Look what it says. But he answered him not that day. God didn't answer him. He didn't say anything to him. Okay, now why is that? Well, because Saul is not right with God. That's why. Okay, look at verse 38. And Saul said, Draw ye near hither all the chief people of the day, of the people, excuse me, and know and see wherein this sin hath been this day. He's like, God's not answering me. All right, meeting. Which one of you guys are involved in sin right now? Who is it? It's you. You're the problem. You sinned against the Lord a couple chapters ago, or the last chapter. You know, you're the problem here, Saul. And even though Jonathan is being a little punk and being a disobedient son, he's right about him troubling Israel. Because he's the leader, you understand? So he is the one who's in sin, but yet what is he doing? He's blaming everyone else. He's trying to see who's the real problem, because I'm not the problem. I got my stuff together. I'm the king. I'm conquering the Philistines. I'm accomplishing so much for the Lord, it can't possibly be me. I'm just doing everything right. Saul lacks self-awareness, my friends. Let me say this. If Jonathan were to say those words unto Saul, it would still be really bad. It would be a very bad criticism of his father. But you know, there would be some truth to it, would there not? And just remember this, folks. When someone criticizes you or criticizes me, before you put up your bars up and you're just like, well, you're just less spiritual than I am, or you're a bad person, or I don't trust you, just know this. There's always a little bit of truth in all criticism. Always a little bit of truth. And if you don't see that, you lack self-awareness. You lack self-awareness. If you just think, well, I just do everything right, though. I'm just like a great church member. Everyone loves me. I love everyone. I'm faithful. I just do everything right. I read God's word. I'm just the best at X, Y, and Z. And I don't know, I just can't see why people don't like me. Yeah, listen to this. You can't see why people don't like you. It's called you lack self-awareness. My father-in-law used to say, you know, if, what are the three names again? If Richard has a problem with you, if Bob has a problem with you, and what's another white person's name? Give me a white person. If John, let's just say John. If John has a problem with you, you know, the problem is probably not Bill, I don't know what other names I said. The problem is not those three white guys. No, I'm just kidding. You know, the problem is probably you. And I remember him telling me that a lot of times because he was trying to teach me to be self-aware. You know, there's times when a lot of criticisms that I received in my early Christian life, you know, some of it were lies, for sure. I mean, looking back, it's like, these people just blatantly lied about me. But then when I would scrutinize, if I were to scrutinize their criticism, I would say, you know what, but I am guilty of these things right here, for sure. Because at the end of the day, no one's perfect, my friends. And we hate criticism. We hate to be criticized. Everyone hates to be criticized. No one likes to be said this is wrong about you or you need to fix this. No one likes it. And that's fine if you don't like it, but you need to accept it. And take criticism to say, well, there's some truth to this. The Lord bade this person to say these things to work in my life. Never have this attitude that you're just God's gift to First Works Baptist Church. Right? You're like, but I am. I'm very gifted. He gave some apostles and some prophets and some pastors. He gave gifts unto, what is it that he has sent, but that he sent it first into the lower parts of the earth? And he gave gifts unto all men. I'm one of those gifts. You lack self-awareness. And here's one thing that Christians need to practice is be aware of yourself. And in the most practical ways, terms, is be aware of what you say. Right? Be self-aware of the conversations that you have on a Sunday morning where there's a bunch of unsaved people here. Right? You want to be, like, self-aware and not think that, like, you know, well, everyone in here agrees with me. It's not always like that. But not only that, but just be self-aware in general. Okay? That if you're being criticized, you're not a martyr. Don't consider yourself the martyr of the church because you have problems with people in our church. Now, you could do one of two things. You could either do one, just be blinded by it and just think you're still perfect, there's nothing wrong with you, and then you just never improve. And then more people would just not like you in the future, and of course it's all their fault, too. It will always be their fault. Or you can take those criticisms and become a better Christian because of it. But that second option is just very uncomfortable though because then you've got to admit that, like, you're wrong. You've got to admit that you do have issues. You've got to admit that you're not perfect. You've got to admit that, you know, you are annoying sometimes. You've got to admit that you have character flaws. You've got to admit that, you know, you have character issues and character flaws and, you know, you're kind of vulnerable at that stage. But here's the thing. That's the only way you can improve yourself is by knowing what you're doing wrong. Saul is blaming everyone else. He's like, give me the chief captains. And here's the thing. It's like, Saul, do you think there's a reason why? Maybe the reason God's not answering you is because, you know, what happened earlier? You offered a sacrifice or something? And I'm sure Saul would have been like, no. No, it's someone else, for sure, someone else. Because he's not self-aware, okay? So God chooses not to respond to him. Saul isn't conscientious that he's the problem in verse 38 to 39. And then he decides to cast lots to find the culprit in verses 40 through 44. You know, what does he do? He begins to, he casts lots and obviously it dwindles down to Jonathan. And the practice of casting lots was something that was done in the Old Testament. We don't know how exactly that looked, whether that's, you know, they picked five different sticks that were different sizes, who knows? But basically it was a practice that lifted up the chance in a sense, okay? And we're not Calvinists here. The Bible talks about per chance, okay? Something happening by chance. And this is just simply a way that they can determine who is the person, who's the culprit. It's another way of God speaking to them, but just not necessarily verbally through a priest or through the ark. It was through these lots, okay? We see that happening even with Jonah, for example, when they were trying to figure out who was troubling them and then the lot fell upon Jonah and then Jonah was thrown into the ocean, et cetera. And so he does that there. And then, you know, Saul finds out that it's Jonathan. To save face, he's like, well, you're going to die then. You're going to die. But fortunately, Jonathan had basically gained a lot of reputation before Israel because of this great battle that he just, you know, did here. So the people seek to conserve Jonathan's life in verse 45. It says, And the people said unto Saul, Shall Jonathan die who hath wrought this great salvation in Israel? God forbid. As the Lord liveth, there shall not one hair of his head fall to the ground, for he hath wrought with God this day. So the people rescued Jonathan that he died not. Then Saul went up from following the Philistines and the Philistines went to their own place. And then lastly, Saul succeeds in his conquest. I'm not going to go over that. That's verses 47 through 52. And it almost seems as though Saul is kind of like trying to ignore the fact that God is no longer with him. And he's trying to kind of cover it up with just a lot of action. Conquest, fighting, because he's trying to forget the fact that he's no longer going to be king. That he's done for, you understand? And we don't know exactly why. Obviously we can speculate he's just bloodthirsty or he likes war or whatever it may be. Or he just wants to feed his own ego. We don't know exactly what it is. But he continues this conquest and just ignores the fact that he is just not right with God. And let me say this, you know, we want to keep serving the Lord all the days of our life, right? And even if you're backslidden, serve the Lord. If you're backslidden, serve God. If you're involved in sin, keep serving God. If you did something bad today, go serve God anyways. Well, I don't want to be a hypocrite. Well, here's the thing is that you're already a hypocrite. You making an effort into serving God, even in your backslidden state, it's not your flesh wanting to do that. It's not like your flesh is like, let's go. Because the carnal mind is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. It can't please God. It's obviously your spirit making an effort to serve God, you understand? But let me say this is that you should, you know, address those issues in your life though. And don't just keep going about the same way and not fixing those pet sins, not, you know, getting those habits out of your life, not fixing the way that you think. We need to continuously make an effort to renew our minds and be a better Christian today, you understand? And so, you know, Saul's not doing that. At this point, you know, because here's the thing, in my opinion, if Saul would have repented, I believe that God would have just been like, alright, you can just stay king. Because we see that multiple times throughout the Bible. I mean, when the Bible says that God is long suffering, that's no joke whatsoever. I mean, that part where it says long, it is very long. It's very long. And, you know, I mean, look at David. David did worse than Saul to a certain extent. You know, he committed adultery and murder. But yet God still used him because he repented and he got right with God and he loved the Lord and he continued to serve him no matter what. Because his concern was that his heart was right with God, okay? And so we'll conclude there with this great battle that's unfortunately, it's climaxing to Saul's demise eventually. And so we'll get into that next week, alright? Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your word. And thank you for the courage and the boldness of Jonathan. I love stories like that where people are just taking risks and they're just putting their life in your hands and just kind of just stepping out in faith. It's a great example to us and inspires me. I'm sure it inspires many in our church. We know that it's inspired many Christians throughout the years. I pray that you'd help us to remember that we want to see if you will work for us, Lord. And that you will save by many or by few. And may you use us, Lord, to do so and increase our faith in you, Lord. And I pray, Father God, that we would have greater faith in our old age than we do now. And Lord, help us to avoid being like Saul. And Lord, help us to avoid setting these unrealistic standards, Lord, for those who follow us, for our families, for our spouses. And Lord, help us to live among our people, whether it's in our families or our church, and to be like unto our people and have that empathy, not be overbearing or lording over those that we're in charge of, Lord. And I pray, Lord, that you would also help us to avoid not being self-aware. Help us to know if we're the problem. And if we truly are sincere, we want to just improve as a Christian, we will take criticism. It's not easy. We know that it's not easy, but it's necessary. And I pray, Lord, that you'd help us to do so. We love you. We thank you. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, we'll sing one last song. Song number 10, Near the Cross. Our last song, song number 10, Near the Cross. Everyone nice and strong all together on that first verse. Jesus, keep me near the cross. There, a precious fountain, Free to all a healing stream, Flows from Calvary's mountain. In the cross, in the cross, Be my glory ever, Till my raptured soul shall find, Rest beyond the river. Near the cross, a trembling soul, Love and mercy found me. There, the bright and morning star, Sheds its beams around me. In the cross, in the cross, Be my glory ever, Till my raptured soul shall find, Rest beyond the river. Near the cross, O Lamb of God, Bring its scenes before me, Help me walk from day to day, With its shadows o'er me. In the cross, in the cross, Be my glory ever, Till my raptured soul shall find, Rest beyond the river. Near the cross, I'll watch and wait, Hoping, trusting ever, Till I reach the golden strand, Just beyond the river. In the cross, in the cross, Be my glory ever, Till my raptured soul shall find, Rest beyond the river. Thank you for watching!