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Song number 30, nothing but the blood. Song number 30, nothing but the blood. Everyone nice and strong all together. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the blood that makes me white as snow. No other mount I know. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. For my pardon, this I see. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. For my cleansing, this my plea. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. No other mount I know. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Nothing can force in a tone. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Not of good that I have done. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. No other mount I know. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my hope and peace. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my righteousness. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. No other mount I know. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. All right, great singing. Thank you for being here this evening. Just a few announcements here before we sing our next song, which will be song number 29 at the cross if you want to get that ready in your songbooks. Song number 29. If you did not get a bulletin, go ahead and raise your hand and one of the ushers can get one for you. Important information on there, of course, our services. Sunday morning is at 1030 Sunday evening at 5 p.m. And then we have our Thursday night Bible study at 7 o'clock. We are going through the book of First Samuel. You see the so many times and teams. And of course, as I mentioned last week, we just added a seventh team. But the Cody Hawk will be heading that up. And so he begins with his team this coming Sunday. And then you see the list of expecting mothers there. If you can continue to pray for them. The important miners there at the bottom. And then on the right there we see on Sunday, August 7th, which is this Sunday. We had the birthday breakfast, Judea, Sony and sports night. And so after sports nights will be after the same night service at Eucalyptus Park. And anybody obviously is welcome to come to that. We'll have food at the park and it'll just be a time of fellowship as part of our family nights. And so I want to encourage everyone to be there after Sunday night there. And then, of course, on Friday, August 12th, we have the Newport Beach bonfire. Now, originally it was actually Bolsa Chica, but Newport is just nicer. It's better. It's nicer. And the parking is cheaper. And so you can park on the street for free or if you want to park a little closer. I think it's like three bucks to park there. And so if you have any questions about that, you can see my wife for more details. I'm sure we're going to have the address of where we're meeting at in the bulletin by Sunday. And so but if you have any questions about that, you can see my wife or you can see brother Lisa's regarding that. Saturday, August 27th, we have the ladies prayer breakfast. You can see Ms. Janelle Gonzalez for more details about that. She heads that up. And then the men's prayer nights coming up on Friday, September 30th. OK. Just another announcement here. An announcement here that's not on the bulletin. We are clearing out the lost and found. Please stop by the fellowship hall to see if you have any items. They will be out tonight and on Sunday. And then after that, they will go into the trash. And so make sure you make your way over there after the service to see if you have any items that you might have left at the church building. And then, of course, no food or drink allowed in the main auditorium. We know that no loitering in the four year fellowship hall during the preaching service. And then, of course, make sure you silence your phones during the preaching so as to not be a distraction during the service. We don't have a prayer bulletin tonight. So I guess you guys would just have to learn our prayer on your own. All right. We have a line. OK, if you can pull out your prayer sheets there, of course, continue to pray for God's favor on our church. Pray for the soul winning and soul winning teams. I'm really happy about Cody taking on another team so we can train more laborers. Pray that that team succeeds there, that he will be able to equip others on how to preach the gospel, how to go soul win. And so be in prayer for that. You see the missions, of course, protection of our church, church fam, spiritual numerical growth, more labors. And of course, for new people and the pastors in training, pray that the YouTube channel stays up. OK, I know that seems like not really that important, but it actually is only because we've seen people come to church because of it. So it's not just like going out there. A lot of people are watching it. But we've actually had people come to our church, get saved, get baptized, get assimilated and actually start sowing. And so I think that's a that's a great thing. However, we do have two strikes on our channel right now because a certain pastor, you know, just says that F word. You know, and I'm not talking about Pastor Shelley. I'm talking about myself saying the word fag. OK. And so YouTube doesn't like that. But be in prayer for that, that that can stay up. And by the way, even if they do delete the channel, in my opinion, it's served its purpose because we've seen fruit from it. And then if it gets deleted, we'll just start another one. But be in prayer over that would reach more people. And in fact, let me tell you the story real quick. It's pretty it's pretty interesting. Yesterday, Ulysses and I were here working in the office and a car pulls up and and the person who was in the car just kind of walks into the building, which, by the way, we got to keep the doors locked so people don't do that. But he just walks in the building and he actually his dad is part of the fire little school. They got fire fighter school right next door. And he said, hey. And I actually recognize him for the first time from the first day that we moved here to this location and actually tried to witness to him then. And he was just not for it. But this time he is like, hey, I've been watching your YouTube channel and it's so cool that you're like right here. I'm like, yeah, you know, why don't you come and visit? You know, and we started talking and I asked him if he was 100 percent sure if he was saved. And this time he gave me a different answer. OK, before it was just like you have to repent of your sins, you have to do all these things. But then he was just like, oh, no, it's by believing on Jesus Christ only. That's it. I was like, can you do anything to lose it? He's like, nope. Once saved, always saved. Can never lose it. You know, that lingo sounded kind of familiar. I'm just saying, you know, and so I started chatting and then he's like, what can I do to learn how to like preach the gospel? Like, you know, and I told him, I was like, why don't you just come here and we'll show you how to do it. And so obviously it's having somewhat of an impact. And I think it's great. And we want to take advantage of that. So being prayer over there that we'd see more people get assimilated to church. We don't want to be like a robber breaker or something, you know, has all these subs. But, you know, first of all, all of his fruit is just not not saved, first and foremost. And then he he he makes him twofold more a child of hell than himself. You know, he turns him into dispensationalist. And, you know, he has no one going to his church because of his YouTube channel. And so we want to use that channel to, you know, bring more people to Christ and get more people saved and baptized and assimilated. And ultimately serving the Lord through soul winning and through the local church. And so pray to that end, you see the church families there, of course, family, salvation's families to grow. If you can pray for a specific person, it's actually a friend of mine from my old church. His name is Charlie Chimp. And last week he actually was on his way to a family camp with his with his wife and his five children, I believe. And they got in a really bad accident. And he's actually in a coma right now. And it's not looking well for him. And his wife was just she was in pretty bad condition, too. I think she she might have broken her ribs or something. And even his daughter had to get surgery because I think there was a tear in her spleen or something like that. It was a really bad accident. But he had to get surgery on his throat because his throat was cut and he had a bleeding in his brain. And he's he's pretty young. And so pray for him. He's an assistant pastor at my old church that he would come out of the coma there and that God's hand will be on him because he hasn't woken up. He hasn't woken up and he's still in the coma and he's kind of stable, but he's still in ICU. And so please pray for him. He's a good friend of mine. And then you see there the different needs expecting mothers and for new mothers and newborns. And of course, just different needs here, of course, pray for those who have been sick in our church. We've had a lot of that going around. And just a reminder, if you have a, you know, a debilitating fever, stay home. OK. And then if you're coughing uncontrollably, stay home. If you tested positive for covid, stay home. OK. Things of that nature. Just make sure you stay home. But of course, I'm not against you coming to church if you have a slight cold, as long as you stay away from people. And by the way, when I mean stay away from people, you know, I don't mean like like, hey, Gio, come here. I got to tell you something. I'm sick. That's that's not what I mean. You know, I mean, like keep your distance from people, fist bumps, do all that. Be considerate of others when you come to church. OK. And then that's pretty much it. If you have an additional prayer request, please make sure you put that at the bottom of this. We make sure that it gets on the bulletin for the following week. All right. And that is it. I'm gonna leave this up here for the Maury. He's going to come on up and pray over these needs. All right. Please bow your heads in a word of prayer. Dear Lord, Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be able to come to church. And Lord, we just thank you for the church and our and the passage that you've given us. And Lord, we pray that we continue serving with all of our hearts, growing closer to you and and all the things that we do. Bible reading, Bible memorization. Lord and Lord, I just want to pray that we have your favor on our church and allow us to continue to grow and reach new people as we go out into the highways and hedges and giving people the gospel. And ultimately, I also want to come to the YouTube channel as well, Lord. Lord, I just pray that that it stays up and that we're able to reach more and more people. And Lord, I just pray that this is an avenue that we can continue to bring people in and tell people about your truth, Lord. Lord, I also want to pray for the soul winning teams. I want to pray that that that they're that they're encouraging to the team or to the church members here. And and Lord, I just also want to pray for Brother Cody, who's one of the new team leaders. Lord, I pray that that he does a great job and and that you use him. And then, Lord, I just want to pray for spiritual numerical growth in our church. I pray that that we're obviously growing closer to you, walking with you, following your footsteps, Lord, but also that we continue to allow people to or as new people come in, that they continue to grow and and get acclimated to the church, getting plugged into the Christian life. Lord, I pray for the pastors in training. I pray that you bless them and their families. And as the second semester comes up, Lord, I pray that that they're with those men and their families there. And then, Lord, I also want to pray for the authority or pray for those that are in authority. I just pray that that you're that you have a hand of wisdom over past Mejia and the leaders in the church here, Lord. And Lord, I just also want to pray for families to continue to grow. Thank you for all the blessings that we have in our church here. And then, Lord, I just also want to pray for all of the church events that we have. I pray that that that the rest of the events that we have for this month are fruitful. And Lord, I just also lastly, I just want to pray for Charlie Chem. Lord, I just pray that you have a hand of healing over him and console him and his family and his loved ones. Lord and Lord, I just pray for wisdom for the doctors. And Lord, I pray that for a speedy recovery. And Lord, I just want to close and say thank you for our church. And Lord, we pray that we're able to receive the message and grow closer to you. And in the message of past me prepared for us and we pray in the someone name. Amen. All right. Please open up your hymn notes to song number twenty nine at the cross. Song number twenty nine. Twenty nine at the cross. Twenty nine. One nice and strong altogether. Alas, my. My. My. My. My. My. My. My. My. My. My. My. My. My. and the burden of my heart rolled away. It was there I prayed piracy in my sight, and now I am happy all the day. Thou might the sun in darkness hide, and shut its worries in, when Christ the mighty Maker died, for then the creature sinned. You have the cross and the cross crack, the curse of light, and the burden of my heart rolled away. It was there I prayed piracy in my sight, and now I am happy all the day. The drops of green can never pay, but get above my own. Dear Lord, I give myself away. It is all that I can do. At the cross, at the cross, where the curse of light, and the burden of my heart rolled away. It was there I prayed piracy in my sight, and now I am happy all the day. At this time the ushers will collect the offering. Tonight will be in 1 Samuel chapter number 26. In the name of Jesus Christ, the Lord is with you. Amen. . Good evening. Tonight we're in 1 Samuel chapter 26. 1 Samuel chapter 26, and the Bible reads, And the Ziphites came unto Saul to Gibeah, saying, Does not David hide himself in the hill of Hekilah, which is before Jeshaman? Then Saul arose and went down to the wilderness of Ziph, having three thousand chosen men of Israel with him, to seek David in the wilderness of Ziph. Saul pitched in the hill of Hekilah, which is before Jeshaman, by the way. But David arose abode in the wilderness, and he saw that Saul came after him into the wilderness. David therefore sent out spies, and understood that Saul was come in very deed. And David arose and came to the place where Saul had pitched, and David beheld the place where Saul lay, Abner the son of Ner, the captain of his host, and Saul lay in the trench, and the people pitched round about him. Then answered David and said to Ahimelech the Hittite, and to Abishai the son of Zeruiah, brother to Joab, saying, Who will go down with me to Saul to the camp? And Abishai said, I will go down with thee. So David and Abishai came to the people by night, and behold, Saul lay sleeping within the trench, and his spear stuck in the ground at his bolster. But Abner and the people lay round about him. Then said Abishai to David, God hath delivered thine enemy into thine hand this day. Now therefore let me smite him, I pray thee, with a spear even to the earth at once, and I will not smite him the second time. David said to Abishai, Destroy him not, for who can stretch forth his hand against the Lord's anointed, and be guiltless? David said, Furthermore, as the Lord liveth, the Lord shall smite him, or his day shall come to die, or he shall descend into battle and perish. The Lord forbid that I should stretch forth mine hand against the Lord's anointed, but I pray thee, take thou now the spear that is at his bolster, and the cruise of water, and let us go. So David took the spear and the cruise of water from Saul's bolster, and they gat them away, and no man saw it, nor knew it, neither awakened. For they were all asleep, because a deep sleep from the Lord was fallen upon them. Then David went over to the other side, and stood on the top of an hill afar off, a great space being between them. And David cried to the people, and to Abner the son of Nair, saying, Answers thou not, Abner? Then Abner answered and said, Who art thou that cries to the king? And David said to Abner, Are not thou a valiant man? Who is like to thee in Israel? Wherefore then hast thou not kept thy lord the king? For there came one of the people in to destroy the king thy lord. This thing is not good that thou hast done, as the Lord liveth, ye are worthy to die, because ye have not kept your master, the Lord's anointed. And now see where the king's spear is, and the cruise of water that was at his bolster. And Saul knew David's voice, and said, Is this thy voice, my son David? And David said, It is my voice, my lord, O king. And he said, Wherefore doth my lord thus pursue after his servant? For what have I done? For what evil is in mine hand? Now therefore I pray thee, let my lord the king hear the words of his servant. If the lord have stirred thee up against me, let him accept an offering. But if they be the children of men, cursed be they before the lord. For they have driven me out this day from abiding in the inheritance of the lord, saying, Go, serve other gods. Now therefore, let not my blood fall to the earth before the face of the lord, for the king of Israel has come out to seek a flee, as when one doth hunt a partridge in the mountains. Then said Saul, I have sinned. Return, my son David, for I will no more do thee harm, because my soul was precious in thine eyes this day. Behold, I have played the fool, and have erred exceedingly. And David answered and said, Behold the king's spear, and let one of the young men come over and fetch it. The lord rendered to every man his righteousness and his faithfulness. The lord delivered thee into my hand today, but I would not stretch forth mine hand against the lord's anointed. And behold, as thy life was much set by this day in mine eyes, so let my life be much set by in the eyes of the lord, and let him deliver me out of all tribulation. And Saul said to David, Blessed be thou, my son David. Thou shalt both do great things, and also shalt still prevail. So David went on his way, and Saul returned to his place. Let's pray. Dear Lord, we thank you for this church, Lord, the people within it, Lord, and Lord, we pray that you fill pastor with your spirit, Lord, and you give them boldness to preach your word, Lord, and I pray we're edified by the preaching today, Lord, and that you bless this service, and you bless the fellowship to follow, Lord, we pray this in Jesus' name, Amen. All right, we continue this evening with the book of 1 Samuel, we're in chapter 26, and let me just give you a bit of a review from last week. Of course, last week we had somewhat of an intercession with chapter 25, in that we are introduced to Nabal, who is a churlish son of Belial, and of course, through all the events that take place with Nabal along with David, the confrontation between Nabal and David, Nabal ends up dying by God, God destroys Nabal, but also David takes Nabal's wife to wife himself, and then of course, he also takes on a second wife, and we see that towards the latter end. But prior to that, in chapter 24, you actually have a similar story to what we see in chapter 26, in that Saul is in a very precarious situation, he's in a cave, he's used in the restroom, and he's in a position where David can essentially just take his life at that moment, but he spares his life, he shows him mercy, he cuts off a piece of his garment as evidence to show, I could have taken your life, but I didn't. And we see that in light of that, Saul essentially repents himself of what he did, his pursuit of David, and he essentially tells him, I'm not going to pursue you anymore, I'm not going to persecute you, I'm not going to go after you anymore, it's done, it's over with. So we go to chapter 25, we have the story there with Nabal, and of course his wife Abigail. Now in chapter 26, we basically have the same exact encounter where Saul is again in a precarious situation, and David has the opportunity to take his life and get rid of Saul, and essentially take vengeance upon him for his persecution of David, but of course he shows him mercy again. Now look at verse number 1 here, and by the way, chapter 26 is actually David's last encounter with Saul. And of course David doesn't know this, Saul doesn't know this, but we know this because of the story here, the way it's laid out, and we've read the book of 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel, we know that this is basically their last encounter, after this is where Saul ends up dying along with Jonathan, and looking at verse number 1 it says, The Ziphites came unto Saul to Gibeah, saying, Does not David hide himself in the hill of Hakula, which is before Jeshimon? Then Saul arose, and went down to the wilderness of Ziph, having three thousand chosen men of Israel with him to seek David in the wilderness of Ziph. And Saul pitched in the hill of Hakula, which is before Jeshimon, by the way. But David abode in the wilderness, and he saw that Saul came after him into the wilderness. David therefore sent out spies, and understood that Saul was come in very deep. So the first thing we're going to look at is the Ziphites stirring up Saul's wrath. Now this is pretty interesting here, because the first thing we see is that the Ziphites are coming to Saul, essentially disclosing the location of David, listen to this, once again. Because of the fact, if you remember in chapter 23, David is in the wilderness of Ziph, he's among the Ziphites, and the Ziphites essentially betray him. They go to Saul and they say, hey, do all that is in thine heart, you know, David is here, take him, we'll help you. So they assist Saul in persecuting David, and then they reappear once again here in chapter 26. Now we don't know too much about the Ziphites, all we know is that they're a bunch of snitches. They're just coming and they're basically everywhere David goes, and if they know where he's at, if they have any information on David, they're going to for sure disclose that to Saul. Now here's the sad thing about this is that, you know, Saul, if no one would have told him where David was, it looks like he could have just gone over it. Because we saw that in chapter 24, he told David that he's not going to seek him anymore, he's not going to go after him, and we know obviously that from the beginning of when he began to persecute David, he had some murderous intentions towards him, right? But you know, the Ziphites are not helping with that, okay? The Ziphites are stirring up his wrath. They are provoking him to seek after David continuously. And the point that I want to make here with these specific people is that, you know, it's pretty wicked to provoke someone or to instigate someone into doing wrong, right? This is exactly what the Ziphites are doing. You see, chapter 24 looks like he's already over it. Saul in chapter 24, he's looking to get over it. Obviously we know, whose baby is that? No, I'm just kidding, it's my baby. Everyone's like, whoa, pastor just called out some baby. It's my daughter, okay, relax, alright. She doesn't like my preaching. No, I'm just kidding. You know, Saul, obviously, we know that he's in the flesh, we know that God's favor is not on him. However, you know, the Ziphites are there to kind of enable him in that direction, okay? Because what we see is that although Saul is doing something else, he's kind of gotten over it, they're coming to provoke him, they're coming to instigate him. And this is actually very wicked, okay? And in fact, you know, the Bible tells us in Proverbs chapter 20 that the anger of a king is as a roaring lion, the Bible says. Whoso provoketh him to anger sinneth against his own soul. Essentially saying that, you know, when you provoke others unto wrath, you provoke others into anger, you provoke others into sin, you know, for your benefit or because you want some sort of outcome, you see some sort of benefit in that outcome, eventually it's going to come back to bite you. Eventually the anger and the wrath of that particular person is going to turn on you as well. You're sinning against your own soul when you're provoking others into wrath, you're provoking them to anger, you're getting them mad, you're instigating in that area, okay? Now, you know, we have these examples throughout the Bible, but I think of like the Jews in Acts chapter 6. You know, one of the main enemies, if not the main enemy, of Christians in the New Testament were Jews, okay? More specifically, of course, the scribes and the Pharisees and the Sadducees. And every time, you know, the apostles and the believers of the New Testament churches there were making, they were increasing, they were starting churches, they were getting people saved, you always had the Jews come and they had to suborn men, the Bible says in Acts chapter 6, and they would stir up the people, they would stir up the elders, they would stir up the scribes to essentially fight against the Christians, okay? They're provoking them to fight against or to persecute God's people. And of course, this is a very wicked thing to do. And so, you know, the lesson that we can learn here is that we need to stay away from people that will instigate us to do wrong, okay? That's why it's important that you stay away from old friends, old family members, not old family members, but family members you may have now that may provoke you to commit some sort of sin that you used to commit in the past, you understand? You know, you need to stay away from people who will instigate you from going back to old habits, old places, old boyfriends, old girlfriends, old friends that are potentially a bad influence on your life, okay? Stay away from the Ziphites, in other words. You know, Saul's already in a bad enough condition as it is. He doesn't need someone enabling him and provoking him, instigating him to continue in that path. And so, you know, we as Christians, we need to be wise and we need to choose our relationships carefully, amen? And we can't just say, well, we're just going to befriend every single person in this world or every single Christian for that matter. There are certain Christians that, you know, sometimes can be a bad influence on you too, you understand? You know, you might have a Christian friend who's saved and they believe the Bible and they're right on salvation, but what if they're not even in church, right? What if they're not even in church, they're backslidden? You can easily try to excuse your friendship with them only because they're believers or something like that, but hold on a second, that person can instigate you and provoke you to being as lukewarm as they are. And eventually, that person could pull you back in into the world, you understand? Not only that, but, you know, how about just not being friends with people who will cause you to be just a lame Christian? You know what I mean? Because lameness is contagious. If you're around lameness, you're going to be a lame person. And obviously, I'm not referring to lame like you're a nerd or something like that. I'm talking about lame spiritually, right? A lame person spiritually is someone who's, you know, disabled, right? If you're disabled spiritually, it means you're not walking with God as you're supposed to. And, you know, there's a lot of lame Christians out there. I don't make for a good sermon, actually, now that I think about it. Lame Christians, amen? You know, there's a lot of lame Christians out there who they're saved, you know, they have the right doctrine, they believe in the right salvation, but they're not necessarily walking with God, you understand? They're not opening their ears to hear God's word. They're not on fire for God. They're not using their eyes to behold the word of the Lord to learn from God's word. They're not swift to hear and slow to speak. They're carnal Christians. And we need to stay away from people like that and make sure... You say, why? You know, I'm trying to influence them for right. Yeah, but for how long, though? You know, I hear that a lot where it's just like, well, I'm trying to win them over. Yeah, is this like a five-year program or something like that? It's like a five-year discipleship program where you're trying to win this person over. It sounds like they're winning you over. You know, well, you know, I'm just trying to get them on the King James Bible. Buy them a King James Bible and that's it. This is the word of God. Here's New World Order Bible versions. Watch it. And that's it. If you want to hang out, come and hang out with me in my church. Right? You say, I don't know if that's really a big deal. Folks, you know, the Bible tells us that he that walketh with wise men shall be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed. And guess what? There are Christians out there that can also be foolish. Because what is a fool? A fool is a person who knows what God's word says and just decides not to obey it. You know, there's Christians out there that are like that. Well, they know what the Bible says. They know this should be in church. They know this should be outsold. And they know this should be obedient to God's word, but they refuse to do it. God says that we should abstain from fellowshipping with people that are like that. We obviously know that we should abstain from fellowshipping with people that, you know, who partake or are partakers in the unfruitful works of darkness. But you know what? God wants us to take it a step further and separate from even Christians who are lukewarm, who are not going to benefit us spiritually. Okay? And so, you know, we need to choose our relationships carefully. And look, the Ziphites are a part of Israel. You know, they would essentially be a part of God's people because they're in Israel. And in fact, they are descendants of Judah. Okay? So, you know, people can make the excuse, well, you know, they're a part of us. And, you know, they're Christians, and they're believers, and they believe in the true God. And they go to a church or whatever. But, you know, if they go to some liberal fun center, though, I mean, I'm not saying they're wicked, but, you know, is that the kind of Christianity you want to be associated with? I don't. I don't want to be associated with some liberal fun center where they have the purple lights and the smoke and mirrors. And, you know, they don't preach hard, and they don't stand for biblical truths. That's not the kind of church I want to be a part of. Okay? And, you know, just like it says in the New Testament, not everyone who's in Israel is of Israel, right? And that's obviously referring to the fact that not everyone who was in Israel was actually saved. Well, you know, not everyone that calls themself a Christian is saved. You understand? And not everyone that goes to some sort of non-denom Christian church or even a Baptist church is saved. Okay? But even then, even if they are saved, what direction are they going in? Now, look, you may look at me and say, well, I like their direction. Okay, then take that direction then. Go with the Ziphites and be just like the Ziphites, a bunch of snitches who are helping Saul persecute the man of God. You know, be friends with people who can't stand Christians who stand for the truth. Right? You know, and by the way, you know, just to be honest, if you're around Christians that are like that, you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that there are certain things you cannot say around them. Right? Because then you can't be friends. Can two walk together except they be agreed? So how can you be around those friends unless you're keeping your mouth shut or unless you're being as lukewarm as they are? And so, you know, God talks a lot about our friendships. He talks a lot about our fellowships. He talks a lot about the people that we should surround ourself with and recognize that, you know, relationships are important. Amen? And, you know, that's why it's important that you're in the right church because church is not only just a place where you come and hear the preaching of God's word and you can worship the Lord, but it's also a place where you can make friends. And obviously you can have friends at different churches too. This is not a cult where it's just like your only friend should be right here and you're not allowed to know anybody else, you know. But at the same time, you know, there are certain friends of other churches that you probably shouldn't hang out with because they're not going to increase your love for God's word. Maybe they are involved in sin and, you know, the longer you're around a person who's involved in sin, you're going to end up tolerating that sin as well. And so, you know, don't be around the zip fights. They can stir you up to do wrong. They can stir you up to become lukewarm. They can stir you up to being a lame Christian. Now this matter of stirring someone up can be bad, but it also can be good because the Bible tells us that we should provoke others unto love and to good works. You understand? And so we should be the type of a church that encourages spiritual growth, it encourages repentance, it encourages soul winning, it encourages being on fire for God, it encourages biblical conversations. Amen? You know, I love our church because it's the kind of church that I would want to go to if I wasn't the pastor. You know, I long for a church where I can come to and just talk about the Bible with the brothers and sisters in Christ and, you know, people are not judging you like, oh, man, are you trying to be all spiritual or something? Look at this guy. He's just trying to be all spiritual just because you, like, talk about the Bible, you know, and that exists out there, folks. And so we should create an atmosphere, an environment in our church where we're provoking others to love and to good works. You know, it should be that when people come to our church, we motivate them to get baptized if they're already saved. Amen? And in fact, there's a young man who came to church on Sunday who found the church through shorts. He brought it to his mom and his dad and we checked on his salvation and he was saved. He gave us the right salvation testimony. And then the first thing the brother used to say was just like, you want to get baptized? And then he was just like, yeah, let's get baptized. And, you know, I don't know if his parents were necessarily happy about that, but he was, you know. And, you know, we have an atmosphere in our church that once someone gets saved, we automatically follow up with believers' baptism. He said, well, man, you shouldn't really pressure people like that. Hey, we provoke them unto love and to good works. You know, we don't peer pressure anybody and say, just come on, let me just throw you in here real quick and it's fine. We just tell them what the Bible says and we give them that positive encouragement to say, look, this is what the Bible says. You should be baptized. And we kind of help people just to jump off the cliff a little bit, okay? That's probably not the best way to say it, but that's basically what it is, okay? Into the baptistry, okay? We should provoke others. And then, you know, if there's someone who's, you know, they're just kind of straddling the fence of whether to go soul winning or not, we want to provoke them to go. We want to provoke them to go and preach the gospel, to get involved and let them know that they can hop on a team and get the training that they need and that they can be winning souls in the next three months or so. If they're just consistent, they're learning, they are, you know, adopting the principles and the practices and the methods that we teach them that they can be preaching the gospel, getting people saved as well. That's provoking someone to love and to good works. You see, a church should be provoking Christians to like live like the Christian life. You know what I mean? Whenever we want to be a church, it's like, well, we don't want to put people in an uncomfortable position to, you know, what, like to be like Jesus? Like to follow the Lord? Well, you know, that's their decision. Yeah, but hold on a second. Why don't you preach on that decision? Why don't you actually talk about it and actually provoke them and say, this is what you should be doing? And then create an atmosphere in your church where the people in the pews also agree with you. You know, where the pastor's not the only one instigating people and serving the Lord, but the people in the pews are also doing the same thing. You understand? You know, provoking people is very much an important thing, my friends. We ought to provoke people into getting into church. Hebrews 10 talks about that, you know, that we are exhorting one another daily, you know, making sure that they're not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is. Well, I don't want to peer pressure people into doing that. There's no such thing as peer pressure people into saying you should be in church. Like come to church with me, you know, let's go to church Sunday morning. I'll take you out for lunch afterwards or come to church Sunday night. We'll go out to eat afterwards. We'll go hang out. What do I got to do to get you into church? That's a good thing to do, amen? I'll pick you up or I'll drop you off. What is it? Let's remove whatever excuse you have to get you into church because that's what you're supposed to do. You know, and we had a generation that's too soft. They're just easily offended. You encourage them to take spiritual steps and they're just like, oh, you're offending me. That church is too like, they're too active. They just keep asking me if I'm saved. And they know I'm saved and then they keep asking me to get baptized. And I'm baptized, now they want me to go soul winning. Now they want me to come to church. Oh, man, that's just so terrible. What a horrible place to go to where people are encouraging you and instigating and provoking you to actually serve God and be blessed by the Lord. You know, I'm being facetious here, okay? It's called sarcasm, folks, okay? You know, and obviously, you know, we don't want to become overbearing either, okay? You know, if you have a person who comes to our church and they just don't want to be baptized and you've already asked them like, I don't know, like 5,000 times. Maybe just lay off a little bit, you know what I mean? Just kind of, all right, maybe this person does not want to get baptized, okay? And by the way, don't do it 5,000 times. Sarcasm again, okay? You know, if you ask them once, you ask them twice and they just say no, then just don't ask them again, you know? But for the most part, most people who come to our church, they get saved. More often than not, they get baptized as soon as they get saved, okay? On a rare occasion, you'll have someone who just, you know, wants to wait or something like that. But for the most part, you know, we should encourage them to do so. And I'm talking about positive peer pressure. I'm talking about positively provoking someone to just follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Because, you know, you have a lot of people out there who talk about following Christ, that they're a follower of Jesus, that they're a follower of the Bible, but they don't actually follow the Bible. They don't actually follow Jesus Christ. It's all words and no, it's all talk and no walk. You know, I'm a follower of Jesus, dude. When's the last time you actually got someone saved, though? Or when's the last time you actually opened your mouth boldly to make known the mysteries of the Gospel? Well, I do it through my lifestyle. You know, I don't really remember Jesus doing a whole lot of evangelism that way. Most of the time, He was actually preaching the Gospel and actually getting people saved, and so were the apostles and the disciples and the Christians of the New Testament churches. They were actually actively going out two and two, getting people saved, you know. And, you know, Jesus said, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. So the supernatural, should I say, byproduct of following Christ is that you become a fisher of man, you know, translation, a soul winner. So whoever says something, I'm a follower of Jesus, we should follow up with, well, do you go soul winning? Are you fishing men? Are you able to get people saved? If not, then that statement is a little weak. Let's just be honest, okay? And so, there's nothing wrong with provoking, there's nothing wrong with instigating. We don't want to be overbearing, but we don't want to just be, you know, kind of soft on everything and just say, well, you know, I'm all for pressuring people and to serving the Lord. I'm all for it. You know, I'm thankful that I put a lot of pressure on people to join the orchestra. Or else we probably would have never had an orchestra if I didn't, okay? You know, and it takes uncomfortable sermons sometimes to do that, right? I'm thankful that people, you know, provoked me and instigated me as a brand new Christian just to do the basics of the Christian life. You know, my pastor would get up and talk about reading the Bible. You got to read the Bible and get out a Bible reading calendar and finish the Bible in one year and you talk about the Bible. And just so, you know, we understood what he meant, you know, every Sunday morning he'd get up and talk about the Bible reading of that day. This is what I read in my Bible according to the Bible reading calendar. And he would say that just to kind of put it in our minds, well, this is a big deal. It looks like everyone here reads their Bibles. I probably should start reading my Bible more consistently now, right? And so what I'm saying is that provoking people in a spiritual manner is very much a necessity in a church, okay? If you're going to get anything done for the Lord, if their souls are going to be saved, if they're going to get discipled, if they're going to be trained, if husbands are going to lead their families, it requires someone to instigate them and provoke them to do it. We can't just be quiet and just say, well, I'll just let people make their own decisions. Okay, I'm all for that as long as you are putting out a challenge, you know, prior to that, to, you know, to make that decision, to, you know, love their wives and be the leader in their homes or submit to their husbands or whatever it may be. But we should not be around people who provoke us or can instigate us into doing some sinful act or becoming, you know, fleshly in our Christian walk. We need to stay away from people like that, okay? You know, the people you hang around with really determine the type of person you're going to be, okay? You know, someone once said, show me your friends and I'll show you who you're going to be in the next five years. And that's absolutely true. You show me the five closest people in your life and I'll show you who you're going to be in the next five years, okay? That's why it's important that young people, you know, make sure you're hanging around older, godlier Christians, okay? Nothing wrong with having like friends, contemporaries, but the majority of your time should be spent with older Christians learning from them, right? And that goes for everyone. So we see there the Ziphites stirring up Saul's wrath. They did this in chapter 23 when David was in the wilderness and they're kind of provoking him once again to do so. Look at verse number two. Then Saul arose and went down to the wilderness of Ziph, having three thousand chosen men of Israel with him. So keep in mind, David has like six hundred, okay? So obviously, Saul has the numerical advantage here. But the fact that he's bringing in three thousand men, you know, this kind of shows you that he's probably a little afraid of David, okay? Knowing full well that David does not have that many soldiers, he's bringing that many because he probably knows that, you know, David can whoop him, okay? Verse three says, And Saul pitched in the hill of Hacula, which is before Jesse, by the way, but David abode in the wilderness, and he saw that Saul came after him into the wilderness. David therefore sent out spies and understood that Saul was come in very deep. Now one thing you see here is that David, he's so wise because he knows Saul's coming, so what is he doing? He's sending out spies to kind of monitor his enemy, you know what I mean? He's basically being vigilant is what he's doing, okay? He's sending out spies to monitor the location of Saul, just making sure he knows what's going on. He's not falling asleep, he's not placing himself in a precarious situation, he is alert, right? And in like manner, you know, we as Christians, we need to be vigilant, we need to be alert, and we need to make sure that we have understanding of the times, and more specifically, that we filter everything that's going on in our world through the Word of God, okay? Because vigilant doesn't mean like, you know what's going on in the news. Vigilant, you know, you just know what Alex Jones has said, and you've already watched all these YouTube channels, and you know everything that's going on, that NASDAQ is down or whatever, Bitcoin is down, and I know everything that's going on, so I'm really prepared here just in case everything just falls apart. That's not what it means to be vigilant. Vigilance means that no matter what's taking place in the world, you're here. You're paying attention to God's Word, okay? You're paying attention to, you know, the principles of God's Word so that you are responding biblically instead of in the flesh, you understand? And I know a lot of people don't like to hear that, but you know, as a pastor, I gotta like remind people of this. Because if not, people can become just really paranoid and drift from God's Word. It's happened in the past. It can happen now. In fact, I'm sure it's happening already where the news and everything that's going on in the world is just, you know, the Bible says that there are many voices in this world, and none of them are without signification. And sometimes, all these voices in the world can become so loud that it drowns out the most important voice of all, which is the voice of the shepherd. And you know, Christians can often say, well, you know, we just gotta make sure as Christians that we do this, you know, or else we're gonna run out of food or something like that, you know? By the way, gas looks like it's going down, right? That's a good idea, right? That's a good thing, right? See, I'm positive. See, the gas is going down, guys. Calm down. It's all good. You say, well, how do you know? I just drove by a gas station. Maybe it's not going down. I just saw one gas station, so I don't know. Don't quote me on that, okay? But what I'm saying is that, you know, we need to make sure we filter life through the Bible, okay? And understand that the Bible is relevant to every era, every year, no matter what tribulation the world experiences, we need to make sure we respond biblically and know what God's Word says about it, so that we can understand where our enemy is in very deed, you understand? You know, we know who our enemy is. We know, you know, that we have understanding of the times. We're monitoring the situation from a biblical perspective, okay? That's what we need to do. Look at verse number 5 here. So, the Ziphites stir up Saul's wrath, and now we're gonna see Saul become susceptible here. In verse number 5 it says, David arose and came to the place where Saul had pitched, and David beheld the place where Saul lay in Abner, the son of Ner, the captain of his host, and Saul lay in the trench, and the people pitched round about him. Then answered David and said to Ahimelech the Hittite and to Abishai the son of Zeruiah, brother to Joab, saying, Who will go down with me to Saul to the camp? And Abishai said, I will go down with thee. So David and Abishai came to the people by night, and behold, Saul lay sleeping within the trench, and his spear stuck in the ground at his bolster, but Abner and the people lay round about him. So this is a really bad situation for Saul, okay? And it kind of shows you the contrast between Saul and David in regards to being vigilant. David is alert, he's alive, awake, and enthusiastic, he's paying attention. What is Saul doing? He's sleeping. What are Saul's men doing? Sleeping. I mean, wouldn't you think that Saul should have a watch? I don't mean like a watch. I mean like someone who is like watching for him. I mean, this is just basic knowledge, right? You're just like, hey, I'm gonna go to sleep, can someone stay up and make sure no one like, you know, infiltrates and kills me? But even his commander is asleep, okay? Now, later on we'll see that this is potentially something that God orchestrated, because the Bible actually says that God sent a deep sleep unto Saul and his men. And we don't know if it's because, you know, maybe God wanted Saul to die, or he's testing David. We don't necessarily know exactly why he put him in such a deep sleep, but all of them are asleep. And so it's a contrast, because really it shows that Saul is essentially, or he's physically sleeping, just like he's spiritually sleeping. Because what does it mean to be asleep in the New Testament, as far as spiritually speaking? It means you're in the flesh. You see, when someone is asleep, they're essentially referring to the fact that they're dead, understand? You know, someone is asleep, they look like they're dead, they have their eyes closed, they're not really paying attention to what's going on. This is why the New Testament tells us, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. The Bible constantly emphasizes in the New Testament to be awake. Now, I think you should be awake physically, especially when the preaching of God's word is going on, amen? You know, you should be alive, awake, and enthusiastic. This is God's house, these are the unsearchable riches of Christ, and no one's falling asleep in here, or anything like that. I'm just putting that out there in case you thought I was, in case you thought you were, okay? And you say, well, man, how do you stay awake? Well, you know, I'm preaching up here, this is how I do it. But what it means here in the New Testament is when you're asleep, it doesn't mean physically asleep, it means spiritually, you're not really paying attention to what's going on spiritually. Whereas when you're awake in Christ, it's referring to the fact that you're walking in the Spirit. You're alert, you're vigilant, you know what's going on. And from a physical perspective, here we see that Saul is asleep physically, just as he's asleep spiritually as well, okay? He's not paying attention, and so are his men. Everyone is not, you know, they're not being vigilant, they're not alert, they don't know what's going on, and this is basically the perfect time for David to strike him if he wanted to, okay? So they go to this trench and he's laying there and he has a spear by his bolster referring to like a pillow, something he used to put his head upon, rest his head on. It says in verse number 8, Then said Abishai to David, God hath delivered thine enemy into thine hand this day. Now I like Abishai, he's not spiritually mature per se, you know what I mean? He doesn't have the ability to discern, but his heart's in the right place though, okay? He's trying to discern here, he's like, oh, the Lord gave this to you, David. And then this next statement is just like so gangster and savage. Now therefore, let me smite him. Now why is he saying let me smite him? Well because in chapter 23, David was going to smite him, but then it smote David in his heart to even tear the garment from him. And so Abishai's like, hey, I can do it. And then you're like, you're guillous, you know what I mean? Nothing's going to happen to you, you're not going to smite the Lord's anointed. I'm going to do it, okay? Now Abishai, you know, he's kind of cool because, and forgive me for this because obviously it's not right what he's doing here, you've got to admire the guy, you know what I mean? But what he's doing here is trying to make it as easy as possible for David to just make the call, put the green light to just kill Saul. Because look what he says. Now therefore, let me smite him, I pray thee, with the spear even to the earth at once. And I will not smite him the second time. What is he saying? He goes, just let me, he won't even feel it. That's what he's saying, he's like, he's not even going to feel it, it'll just be one blow, straight to the head, with his own spear, to the ground, I won't do it twice, I'm not going to get all crazy, there's just one. And I'll do it. I mean, what king would not be like, you're a good guy, you know what I mean? Obviously, clean, clean, hard, dirty hands, okay? Or maybe it's the other way around, I don't know. He loves David. Obviously he loves David, he's loyal to David, and he's been on the run with David throughout this whole time. And you know, this is Usher material here, amen? You know, this is Usher material here, this is Deacon material, this is Evangelist material, just like, let his life be upon me, I will smite him to the ground even at once. And you know, obviously there's some irony here because if he did carry out this execution, it potentially would have been with the same spear that Saul sought to slay David with, even from the beginning. You know, when he would throw the javelin at him, he'd throw the spear at him, it would eventually come back around to bite him, okay? And so, he says that there, and we all love that type of friend there, he's making it as easy as possible for David to just give the green light to smite him. Look at verse number 9. David said to Abishai, Destroy him not, for who can stretch forth his hand against the Lord's anointed and be guiltless? David said furthermore, As the Lord liveth, listen to this, the Lord shall smite him. Okay? So, two reasons why he didn't want Abishai to kill him. Number one is like, back to the previous point in chapter 23, we can't just like take the Lord's anointed here, okay? And if you did, you're not going to be guiltless. But number two, he's saying, don't forget, the Lord eventually is going to kill him. And he even says there, Or his day shall come to die, or he shall descend into battle and perish. Now, is David a prophet or what? Because this is exactly what happens to Saul. Okay, now obviously we know that Saul ends up taking his own life, only because he didn't want to die by the hands of the Philistines. Okay, but the Philistines, they had smitten him, he was already injured to the point where he was going to die, he just didn't want them to find him, and then they would desecrate his body, which they actually ended up doing, after he had already been slain. But he didn't want the Philistines to torture him, so he took his own life. Okay? But essentially he did die in battle, because that's exactly what happened. And it was at the hand, or by the call of God, because that's what God wanted him to do. He wanted him to die by the hand of his enemy, and he prophesied that by Samuel, who came from heaven, and delivered that grievous message unto Saul. Where he said, tomorrow thou and thy son shall be with me. Okay? But I want you to pay attention to the fact that, as easy as it was for David to just kill Saul at that moment, he remembered the Lord is going to slay him. Now, you know, I've battled with this particular story in my mind, only because you think to yourself, well, you know, the Lord put them to sleep. He put them in such a perfect situation. You know, would it have been bad if he slew him? Because it's almost as if God kind of gave him over to his hand. And, you know, obviously at the end of the day it would have been bad, just because it's the Lord's anointed. But there's so many things that David did that were just not right, you know, like having multiple wives, okay? But the Lord still blessed him even thereafter, not because he committed those sins, but because all things work together for good to them that love God. So in my personal opinion, if he did slay, or if he allowed Abishai to fulfill his promise of only doing it once, you know, smiting him once to the ground, you know, obviously there might have been some immediate consequences to that. But because David loved the Lord, I'm sure somehow it'll work together for good, because we look at the history of David, when you look at his story, he did a lot of bad stuff. He took upon him many wives, he committed murder, he committed adultery, yet years after his death, the Lord is still showing mercy to future kings, and he says this, From my servant David's sake. Because of the fact that at the end of the day, David loved the Lord. And the principle we can learn there is that, no matter how many mistakes you make as a Christian, no matter how many dumb things that you do, no matter how many bad decisions you make, you know, if you love the Lord, things will work out together for good. And you can probably mess up your life pretty bad, but if you're loving the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, God can take those ingredients of destruction, bad decision, and sin, and still make something out of you that is pleasing unto him. So the main ingredient here is that he still loves the Lord. And the fact that he obviously has a good understanding of the nature of God, because he remembers the Lord's going to smite him. And you know what folks, that takes a lot of faith. It takes a lot of faith to say, you know what, I'm not going to do it, I'm not going to lay my hands on him, I don't want you to do it, even though it's pretty tempting, I'm sure it was tempting for David. You know, what is he saying? God's going to do it. And you know what, God didn't even give him a timeline when he was going to do it. He just knows, according to God's nature, vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, I will repay. He doesn't want us to avenge ourselves and do anything on our part, because at the end of the day, that's God's responsibility anyways. And you know what, I think this still applies to us today in 2022. And you know, David was defrauded for many years. You know, some say that from the time that he was persecuted by Saul, up until the end of Saul's life, some say it was about 20 years. Most people would agree it's about 8 years or so, 15 years. I mean, that's a long time, folks. It's a long time to have to go through this without any justice being carried out. Right? I mean, wouldn't you agree? After like the first or second year? And just think about this for a moment, okay? Just think about this for a moment. David is away from his family, and he's away from his people where he can actually freely worship the Lord. And in fact, we see this in this particular chapter, he's like, you've caused me to go to places, to foreign places, to worship other gods. In other words, he's like, I'm forced to leave my family, I'm forced to leave my place of worship to go to like a foreign land where these heathens are, where they're worshiping a false god. But even then, he maintained his way before the Lord, and he understood that at the end of the day, God had Saul's number, and God would take care of it. And let me say this, you know, we need to remember that today. Okay? And we need to put that into practice today, because it takes more faith, my friends, to leave it in God's hands than to take matters into our own hands. That's fact, folks. And you know what? I don't really like that, I'll be honest with you. You know, for me, that is in my flesh, I don't like that, because I'm used to just taking, you know, just making it happen myself. Okay? Making it happen, and making sure that I do whatever I can on my part, but at the end of the day, you know, the Bible tells us to suffer ourselves, to be defrauded, and to increase our faith in God, knowing that He's going to take care of it at the end. And let me just say this, you know, Abishai smiting him to the ground, that would have been a sight, but just think about how Saul actually ended up dying. Or think about what the Philistines did to Saul. I mean, they decapitated his head, and they pinned his torso to the wall, to be on display for everyone. Okay? You know, they decapitated his head, they pinned his body to the wall, I mean, they completely desecrated his body, and to add more to it, it's in the Bible. This story will be forever remembered. I mean, it's written in heaven, you know, he's in heaven right now, and thank God for it, but it's like he's the dude who had his torso pinned to the wall by the Philistines. You know, and then the men had to come in by night and secure the body to give him a proper burial. I mean, it was a horrible way to die, but you know what, that's what God wanted for Saul. That's how angry God was with Saul. And let me say this, Saul was a believer. Think about that for a minute. Saul was a believer, he was saved, he, you know, he was a man who obeyed the Lord in the beginning, and look what God did to him. Now, think about what God will do to those who are not saved, who hate the Lord, who hate Christians, who hate the Bible, who hate Christianity. I mean, folks, if he's willing to do that to his own people, right? The Bible talks about how fearful it is to fall into the hands of the living God, how much more for someone who's just not saved. What I'm saying is that the amount of punishment that God can institute is far greater, therefore we should relinquish that unto him and say, you know what, Lord, you take care of this, I'm going to go ahead and just keep serving God, I'm going to allow myself to be defrauded, and I know I shall be recompensed in the resurrection because of it, okay? And so this is a very wise thing for him to say, and you know, I can't tell you that that's what I would have said. I probably would have been like, Ulysses, I'm going to look away, I'm walking away. Do you want me to do it? I said I'm walking away, you know? So like, once then, stop asking. Look at that tree over there, you know? You know, that's probably what I would have done, I don't know. Hopefully not, but I'm glad I wasn't put in that situation. You know, David had the right response. And so look what it says in verse 11, it says, The Lord forbid that I should stretch forth mine hand against the Lord's anointed, but I pray thee, take down now the spear that is at his bolster and the cruise of water, and let us go. So he does the same thing that he does in chapter 23, he takes basically like souvenirs, but he does it as evidence to show Saul I could have killed you. Okay, that's what he's taking it for. In other words, he's saying, I got so close that I was able to take the spear that was by your head, and I could have killed you, I could have smitten you, but I didn't. He says in verse number 12, So David took the spear and the cruise of water from Saul's bolster, and they got them away, and no man saw it nor knew it, neither awaked, for they were all asleep, because a deep sleep from the Lord was fallen upon them. So throughout this whole discourse, I'll slide his head to the ground, just once, all the way to the earth, don't do it, he's the Lord. This whole conversation is going on, everyone's asleep. I kind of wish as a parent that the Lord would give this kind of sleep to our kids sometimes, you know what I mean? That's some good sleep right there. Look at verse 13, Then David went over to the other side, and stood on the top of the hill, far off at great space between them. And David cried to the people, and to Abner the son of Nair, saying, Answerest thou not, Abner? Then Abner answered and said, Who art thou that cries to the king? And David said to Abner, Are not thou a valiant man? I'm about to rag on him a little bit here. And it was like to thee in Israel. Wherefore then hast thou not kept the Lord the king? For there came one of the people in to destroy the king of thy Lord. This thing is not good that thou hast done, as the Lord liveth. Ye are worthy to die because ye have not kept your master, the Lord's anointed. And now see where the king's spear is, and the cruise of water that was at his bolster. What is David doing? He's basically telling them, I took better care of your king than you did. Because I could have smitten him, and I didn't. I cared more for your king, the same king who was trying to kill me, than you did Abner. And he's like, Aren't you valiant? Aren't you the guy who's like his commander? Isn't this your responsibility? And you didn't even do that? You're worthy to die. You should be killed. What verse are we getting? Seventeen? And Saul knew David's voice, and said, Is this thy voice, my son David? And David said, It is my voice, my Lord, O king. And he said, Wherefore doth my Lord thus pursue after a servant? For what have I done? Or what evil is in my hand? Now therefore I pray thee, Let my Lord the king hear the words of a servant. If the Lord have stirred thee up against me, let him accept an offering. But if they be the children of men, cursed be they before the Lord. He's basically telling them, If it's God who's caused you, provoked you to fight against me, then allow me to do an offering so as to put away my sin from before the Lord, so that you no longer pursue me. But if it's the children of men, these people are cursed. And you know what? It was the children of men who were instigating Saul, not just the Zippites, but other people, to pursue after David. And this is why he constantly tells them, Why are you hearing the words of men? Why are you listening to the gossips and the slanders? Why are you listening to these people? You shouldn't be influenced by the people in your kingdom. You should be the one influencing your kingdom. You know this happens a lot today. Where someone rails against the pastor or men of God and automatically people believe it. It's like they automatically believe it. No investigation, no inquiry is made. They just hear the words of men and they automatically believe what they say. And that's wicked folks. You know it's wicked to just... And let me say this, even if we hear something of someone that we may not necessarily like, or we think is a bad person in the sense of they're not part of our camp or whatever it may be, or our church, or part of our friends or whatever, we shouldn't just blindly believe everything that's out there. We need to make sure that we make diligent inquiry to make sure that these things are so. Now out of the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word shall be established. And if it's something that's just commonly reported, then more than likely it's true sometimes. And I'm not just referring to church. If you hear about a pastor out there who's molesting children for example, that's a big accusation, but if you have a lot of people saying it, such an accusation is so strong and powerful that if multiple people are saying it, there's probably some truth to it. Because pastors just don't get accused of being child molesters without there actually being some sort of evidence to prove it. You understand? But if it's just like, oh this pastor is just wicked, why? Oh because he does X, Y, and Z, he's like where's the proof? Well he does it though. That's how he is. He's part of the new IFB. He's like, man get out of here. You don't know what you're talking about. And look, the Bible tells us not to receive an accusation against an elder. And obviously that more specifically can be applied to church. Like if someone comes to you and is just like, pastor, he is stealing money from the offering plate. It's just like, alright, whatever. But obviously if two or three people say the same thing, then at that point you should investigate it. Come to me and say, hey, we're getting these accusations against you that you're stealing money from the offering plate. Can you show evidence that you're not? And it's just like, here it is, here's the evidence that I don't even touch the money or whatever. It's like, okay. And then we throw out the railer who started that. Because that does happen where people bring up railing accusations. And let me just say this is that when it comes to this matter of railing, people could even rail against bad people and it's still bad to do. You know, we hear about some false prophet or something. And he's a false prophet because he's preaching repent of your sins and he's teaching all this wicked doctrine. Well, you know, if you say, well, yeah, he must be a faggot too. That's actually a railing accusation. Because if there's no evidence to prove that, we can't do that. That's actually, yeah, but if he's a reprobate, yeah, but if there's no evidence to prove that he's involved in that, that's called a railing accusation. In fact, Michael the Archangel just not bringing a railing accusation against Satan. But said the Lord rebuked thee. And so we can't just like bring up, well, because, you know, he's a false prophet, automatically he's a child molester or something like that. You know, if you can't prove that, that's a railing accusation. Okay. Now look, people can form opinions if they want, right? But to say this is what he is because he falls under the category of being a reprobate, not okay, not good, not biblical to do. He says in verse 19, If they be the children of men, cursed be they before the Lord, for they have driven me out this day from abiding in the inheritance of the Lord, saying, go serve other gods, he says. So he's essentially saying, you know, the people who are talking in your ear have something against me. Because the reason they're doing this is to drive me out from my inheritance to go serve false gods. And obviously he's not serving false gods, he's just saying they're driving them out into lands where it's like, where they serve false gods. Okay. Where he has to live among these people. Verse 20, Now therefore let not my blood fall to the earth before the face of the Lord, for the king of Israel has come out to seek a flee, as when one doth hunt a partridge in the mountains. He's showing humility here. Verse 21, Then said Saul, I have sinned. Return, my son David, for I will no more do thee harm, because my soul was precious in thine eyes this day. Behold, I have played the fool and have erred exceedingly. Now some would say that he's being insincere. I don't think he's being insincere. I think, you know, Saul is just an emotional person. So I think he really means this. Just like he really means to kill him when he wants to kill him. You know, he has these extreme emotions where he's just like, I'm gonna kill David. And he's just like, I've sinned against you, you're such a good guy. Because he's just an emotionally unstable, he's like a two year old. Two year olds are just emotionally unstable. They just, the emotion spectrum is just all over the place sometimes, you know. They could be the sweetest little baby and then all of a sudden it's just like, you know, you gotta bring out the rod. And you know what, Saul's just like that. He just brought 3,000 guys to come kill David. And he's like, you know what, I've sinned. I'm sorry about that. I'm not gonna do you any harm. It's like, how fast you switch from one end of the spectrum to the other is like, the guy's just so emotional. You know, as Christians we should never just flip on a dime like that. You know, obviously there's gonna be times when we're emotional, okay. And we get angry, we get upset, or we're sad, or sometimes Christians get depressed. They have anxiety or whatever, or you know, they just are anxious. Or you know, they just have a range of emotions. We all have a range of emotions that are within us. But if you were to have a spectrum of emotions, you should never go from like here to like here. 0 to 60 in just like 4 seconds flat. You should always remain about here. And depending on the situation, obviously you know, you teeter to one side or the other. You know, something bad happens, your day goes bad or whatever, you're gonna go here a little bit. But it should never be like, boom. And then it's like 5 seconds of doom. And then you get a cough and it's like, boom. And then you're not hungry, so now you're hangry, you're like, boom. And you're just like, and no one wants to be around you because everyone feels like they gotta walk on eggshells. Because you're so emotional, you know. And obviously understand, girls can, you know, they can, they know what I'm talking about. But you know, ladies, obviously, you know, women, the Bible says out there, just to let you know guys, that they're the weaker vessel. It's not my words, it's the Bible's words. So many, we've gotten so many emails from feminists who just hate my guts over the family series. Out of all sermons, it's just like the biblical home and they're like, F you. Who do you think you are? You sexist pig and all this. Feminism is a disease, my friends. But you know, the Bible says they're weaker vessel, they're weaker emotionally. As noted by these feminists, by the way. Women are weaker emotionally and obviously they can, they can, they can teeter to extremes sometimes. But you know what, even women, moms, whatever it may be, you know, need to learn how to balance those emotions. And obviously, you know, they have other elements and factors that they have to deal with. They have hormonal things that are going on in their body that men don't experience. And if men, you're experiencing that, you need to go lift some weights or go change your diet or do something to raise your testosterone because your estrogen levels are too high. Because you should not be responding like a woman, you understand? But women, you know, we cut them some slack because they do have those hormones that they're battling, you understand? But even then, women need to learn because the Bible even tells, the Bible tells everyone that we should walk in the Spirit and seek as much as lies within us to be stable, okay? Doesn't mean you don't cry. Doesn't mean, you know, you don't weep or whatever. But you need to make sure that you control yourself. You know, he that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down and without walls. It's not just referring to men, it's referring to ladies as well. And men, you know, you got to help protect your wives in that manner. You know, protect their spirit, help them with their emotions, not blow a gasket when they have a breakdown or something like that. You need to walk them through and be patient with them, be kind to them, loving to them, and help them navigate through those emotional ups and downs. But you know, I want to give advice for the men to do that. I don't want to give advice for women to do that for their husbands though. Like, help your husband navigate through this emotional trauma and this bad day that they're going through. And obviously, guys can have a bad day, but that should not be, you know, the norm, okay? I chased the rabbit there, but it was a partridge that needed to be chased, okay? I have sinned, he says. So he just, you know, I played the fool, I've erred exceedingly. Yeah, you think? You've killed a bunch of priests. You've been chasing me all these years. And David answered and said, Behold the king's spear and let one of the young men come over and fetch it. So David is really wise, even in the way he talks to Saul. Because Saul says these things and he could have been like, yeah, yeah, yeah. But instead, what does he do? He deflects to, hey, I have the king's spear, have someone come get it. He's kind of trying to save him the embarrassment because he's still the king. He's trying to save him the embarrassment of correcting the king. So he says, you know, hey, you know, the king's spear, let one of the young men come and fetch it. So he's very wise in the way he answers. The Lord rendered to every man his righteousness and his faithfulness. For the Lord delivered thee into mine hand today, but I would not stretch forth mine hand against the Lord's anointed. And look what he says in verse 24. And behold, as thy life was much set by this day in mine eyes, set by simply means that it was valued. He goes, as your life was valued in my eyes, so let my life be much set by in the eyes of Saul, no, in the eyes of the Lord. He's not saying, hey, be merciful to me. He said, I just hope my life is valued in God's eyes. Especially telling him like, you know, in a subtle way, you know, you might turn on me again. You know, this might happen again. You might want to kill me again. So I'm just praying that God values my life. Okay. Showing you that he trusts in God and let him deliver me out of all tribulation. Then Saul said to David, blessed be thou, my son David, thou shalt both do great things. He's so flippant in the way he's just talking. He's just like, thou shalt both do great things and also shall still prevail. So David went on his way and Saul returned to his place. Saul's crazy, man. That guy's a mess. And this will be the last time that David has to deal with him. You know, and it could be these encounters or for the purpose of just testing David. You know, just kind of testing him to see what he would do in this particular situation. Now, you know, as godly as David is and as much as he responded well, we see after this that he still ends up leaving and going into enemy, you know, enemy territory because he still believes that Saul's going to kill him. Now, you can't blame him for that because that's just the way Saul is. But, you know, we see in chapter 27 that he thinks he's going to perish by the hand of Saul. And we'll get into that next week. The main crux of this particular chapter is that I want everyone to understand David's response. And you know what? We can't change what kind of things happen in our life, the way people act around us, the way your boss acts, the way your husband acts, the way your wife acts, you know, the way the world acts. But what you can control is like how you respond to it. And, you know, that's a win for David here because he responded in the correct way, even though he was defrauded, even though he was wrong. He responded biblically and the Lord will bless him for that. And so, amen. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for David's example, for his godliness, his wisdom. I pray that you'd help us, Lord, adopt those same principles, Lord, and help us to think not just like David, but really as the Lord Jesus Christ. David's a picture of Jesus. And, of course, we need to respond as the Lord would. And, Lord, help us in our weaknesses when we fall short, when we are asleep spiritually, so to speak, and we're not walking in the Spirit. Help us to be vigilant, Lord. And bless us as we go on our way. Bless us this weekend, Lord, and the soul winning, the preaching of God's word, that everything may be honoring and glorifying to you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Got one last song tonight. Got one last song tonight. Song number 44, We'll Work Till Jesus Comes. Song 44, We'll Work Till Jesus Comes. Everyone nice and strong all together. O land of rest for the eyesight, When will the moment come? When I shall lay my armor by and swell, If peace at home will work, Till Jesus comes we'll work, Till Jesus comes we'll work, Till Jesus comes and we'll be gathered home, To Jesus Christ thy plan for rest he made, We cease to roam, And lean for supper on his breast, Till we conduct we whole, We'll work till Jesus comes we'll work, Till Jesus comes we'll work, Till Jesus comes and we'll be gathered home, I sought at once my Savior's side, No more my steps shall prolong, With him I'll break death's chilling tide, And reach my heavenly home, We'll work till Jesus comes we'll work, Till Jesus comes we'll work, Till Jesus comes and we'll be gathered home. Thank you for watching!