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Thank you very much. You Well good evening everyone welcome to Mountain Baptist Church take your song books and turn to song 132 Song 132 in your song books will sing never alone, and if you would stand We'll sing song 132 I've seen the lightning flashing and heard the thunder roll I've found sin breakers dashing trying to conquer my soul I've heard the voice of Jesus telling me still to fight on He promised never to leave me never to leave me alone No No No He promised never to leave me never to leave me alone No No Never He promised never to leave me Never to leave me alone The world's fierce winds are blowing Temptations are and keen I feel a peace of knowing my Savior stands between He stands to shield me from danger When earthly friends are gone He promised never to leave me never to leave me alone No No He promised never to leave me never to leave me alone No No, never alone, no, never alone. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. When afflictions valley under of care, my Savior helps me to carry my crown, heavy to bear. My feet entangled with briars, ready to cast me down. My Savior whispered his promise never to leave me alone. No, never alone, no, never alone. Miss Neverton leave me, Neverton leave me alone. No, never alone, no, never alone. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. He died for me on the mountain, for me they pierced his side. For me he opened that fountain, the crimson tide. For me he waited in glory, seated upon his throne. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. No, never alone, no, never alone. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. No, never alone, no, never alone. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, again, we just want to thank you, God, for this beautiful Wednesday night you've given us to meet in your house, and to hear your word preached. I pray, Lord, that you would just fill our pastor with your power and spirit. For it's in Jesus' name we ask all, but amen. All right, you may be seated, and take your song books and turn to song 230. Song 230 in your song books, we'll sing Heavenly Sunlight. Song 230. Walking in sunlight, all of my journey, over the mountains through the surveil, Jesus has said, I will never forsake me, promise divine that never can fail. Heavenly sunlight, heavenly sunlight, flooding my soul with glory divine. Hallelujah, I am rejoicing, singing his praises, Jesus is mine. Shadows around me, shadows above me, never conceal my Savior and guide. He is the light and him is no darkness, ever I'm walking close to his side. Heavenly sunlight, heavenly sunlight, flooding my soul with glory divine. Hallelujah, I am rejoicing, singing his praises, Jesus is mine. In the bright sunlight, ever rejoicing, pressing my way to mansions above, singing his praises, gladly I'm walking, walking in sunlight, sunlight of love. Heavenly sunlight, heavenly sunlight, flooding my soul with glory divine. Hallelujah, I am rejoicing, singing his praises, Jesus is mine. Amen. Amen. So welcome to Mount Baptist Church on this Wednesday evening. And just some announcements here. Be in prayer. I know with my family and with Brother Dave's family, some of our kids are dealing with kind of like some sore throats and stuff like that. So just be in prayer there. As long as you're not throwing up, I could deal with that. So just be in prayer there. And if anybody else obviously in our church is dealing with any type of sicknesses, I don't know if it's just allergy stuff that's going around or what, but it seems like a lot of people are kind of getting a little bit of that. So just be in prayer there, especially since we're going into the fall season. It doesn't feel like it right now. It's like 90 something degrees outside. But just be in prayer there when it comes to like colds and stuff like that as we go into the fall season here. As far as service times, everything is normal. The Sunday morning, Sunday afternoon service will be normal this coming Sunday. I will be out of town, but we do have preachers that will be preaching for us here at church. So be in your places even more so than when I'm here to support them and be there for them when they're preaching. But I'll be back the following Sunday as far as church goes and everything. So going on vacation, so just be in prayer for the travel mercies and all that stuff. But excited about that. But as far as soul winning, the normal soul winning time will be on here this Sunday at 1 p.m., but then also the regional soul winning times throughout the week. So just be on the church group there as far as you know what time and place you'll be meeting up. Try to remember, and I'm guilty of this, try to remember to mark off where you went. Listen, I'm guilty of this where I forget to mark it off. But when we look back at it, then we know that we're not going back to the same area or place that we've been to just recently. So just try to remember that when you're also wanting to mark those off. If it's on there. I know some places we go we don't have a map, so that is what it is. And we try to keep track of that on the little maps. But in upcoming events, we have the Mountain Baptist Church anniversary. So our six year anniversary is going to be coming up September 17th. And so we're going to have a fellowship in between the services. Dunk tank, so you get to try to dunk me again, or dunk Brother Dave, or you get this one opportunity. So we're going to have some obviously food and everything else if you want to bring anything. Obviously you're welcome to, you don't have to. And then the women's prayer meeting will be on the 22nd. The men's prayer meeting will be on the 29th. But before our anniversary service that Saturday, Brother Charles is going to be leading up a Solening Marathon in Point Marion, PA and that surrounding kind of area. Point Marion is not a metropolis, it's not exactly a huge place. So that being said, there will be other places around it as well. The 23rd, which is the next Saturday, we're going to be going up to the Cleveland, Ohio area. So we're going to be going up there. I was just planning on just leaving early in the morning to get up there as far as that goes. And just being a prayer for that and as far as all those that will be planning on coming to that. I know people from Ohio that are going to be meeting up there with us in that area. And so just being a prayer there when it comes to that. And our chapter memory for the month is Malachi chapter 4. So we're memorizing the book of Malachi. And so we're in chapter 4. This is the shortest chapter. So if you've gone through the rest of it, then this will be a lot easier. But Ephesians 6 and 11 is our memory verse for the week. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. We've got birthdays, anniversaries. And then on the pregnancy list there, we have the ladies on there. Amanda, Jennifer, Alyssa, Anastasia, and Tabby on there for pregnancies. And being a prayer for Tiara, they just had their little one not too long ago. And just being a prayer for her and the Lesko family as far as the transition to having three there. And I think that's about what I have as far as announcements that I can think of as far as things that are coming up. So September is usually busy, especially with the anniversary service and everything. So I'm excited to celebrate that again. And we have one more year in this building on the lease. So just being a prayer as far as on Sunday, especially when we're running like 90 to 100, it gets tight. And especially with the mother-baby room too, I'm not back there so I don't know what that's like for the ladies. But I'd imagine it's probably getting tight back in there too when it comes to that. So just being a prayer as far as what we end up doing with the building. And we still have another year, but it's something that we want to try to figure out and figure out where we're going to be. So offering box in the back there if you want to get tied to an offering. Mother-baby room is for the mothers and babies only. We're going to be continuing our study through the book of 1 Samuel. So we're going to be doing 1 Samuel chapter 3 tonight. What are you reading tonight? So Brother Joseph is going to be reading 1 Samuel chapter 3 after we do one more song. All right. Take your song books and turn to song 223. Song 223 in your song books will sing Springs of Living Water, song 223. I thirsted in the barren land of sin and shame And nothing satisfying there I found But to the blessed cross of Christ one day I came Where springs of living water did abound Drinking at the springs of living water Happy now am I, my soul is satisfied Drinking at the springs of living water A wonderful and bountiful supply How sweet the living water from the hills of God It makes me glad and happy all the way Now glory, grace, and blessing mark the path I've trod I'm shouting hallelujah every day Drinking at the springs of living water Happy now am I, my soul is satisfied Drinking at the springs of living water A wonderful and bountiful supply Oh sinner won't you come today to Calvary A fountain there is flowing deep and wide The Savior now invites you to the water free Where thirsting spirits can be satisfied Drinking at the springs of living water Happy now am I, my soul is satisfied Drinking at the springs of living water A wonderful and bountiful supply The child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli The word of the Lord was precious in those days There was no open vision It came to pass at that time when Eli was laid down in his place And his eyes began to wax dim that he could not see And ere the lamp of God went out in the temple of the Lord Where the ark of God was and Samuel was laid down to sleep That the Lord called Samuel and he answered, Here am I And he ran unto Eli and said, Here am I For thou callest me, and he said, I called not, lie down again And he went and lay down, and the Lord called yet again, Samuel And Samuel rose and went to Eli and said, Here am I, for thou didst call me And he answered, I called not, my son, lie down again Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed unto him And the Lord called Samuel again the third time And he rose and went to Eli and said, Here am I, for thou didst call me And Eli perceived that the Lord had called the child Therefore, Eli said unto Samuel, Go, lie down, and it shall be And if ye call thee, that thou shalt say, Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth So Samuel went and laid down in his place And the Lord came and stood and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel Then Samuel answered, Speak, for thy servant heareth The Lord said to Samuel, Behold, I will do a thing in Israel At which both the ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle In that day I will perform against Eli all things Which I have spoken concerning his house, when I begin I will also make an end For I have told him that I will judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knoweth Because his sons made themselves vile and he restrained them not And therefore I have sworn unto the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house Shall not be purged with sacrifice nor offering forever And Samuel lay until the morning and opened the doors of the house of the Lord And Samuel feared to show Eli the vision And Eli called Samuel and said, Samuel, my son, and he answered, Here am I And he said, What is the thing that the Lord hath said unto thee? I pray thee, hide it not from me, God do so to thee, and more also If thou hide any thing from me of all the things that he hath said unto thee And Samuel told him every wit and hid nothing from him And he said, It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground And all Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord And the Lord appeared again in Shiloh, for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord Let's pray Lord Father, thank you for this time. We're able to gather again here midweek Lord, thank you for your pure and holy word you've given to us We're asked to be a pastor and edify us through this study of Samuel In Jesus' name, Amen Amen So you're there in 1 Samuel chapter 3 And we are continuing through the book here And if you remember, chapter 1, we really see the story about Cana and Hannah And her praying for Samuel and giving birth to Samuel And then in chapter 2, we see really a lot about Eli and his two sons, Hophni and Phinehas And how they're the sons of Belial, that they're children of the devil And God is pronouncing judgment against Eli and his house and his children But then as we were going through that, we kept seeing but Samuel, but Samuel was there And so Samuel's kind of in the background and he's a child But there's this light, if you will, as far as this redemption, if you will, on the prophet that's being raised up And in this chapter, we see where Samuel, that God is calling out to Samuel And notice what, just get the premise here as far as what's going on, what time are we dealing with here in the day In verse 1 here, it says, And the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli And the word of the Lord was precious in those days, there was no open vision So what does this mean when it says the word of God, or the word of the Lord was precious in those days Now a lot of times when we think of precious, we think of something that's dear to us As far as like, you know, and it can mean that But in this case, what we're dealing with is the idea of like a precious metal or a precious stone What do you mean by that? Well obviously you could say it's precious because it's high value, right? But the reason that you're saying it's precious is because it's rare, right? It's scarce It's something that, the reason that gold and silver and diamonds have so much cost is because that they are very rare And that's part of the reason anyway, and obviously there's other reasons what they're useful for and everything But when we're talking about the word of the Lord was precious in those days, it really follows it up to really tell you what it means by that There was no open vision Now keep your finger in 1 Samuel, but go to Hebrews chapter 1, Hebrews chapter 1 What you have to understand is that back in the Old Testament, or even before the Old Testament When you're dealing with Abraham and all those before we get into Moses and the covenant there made with Israel Is the fact that God spoke in many different ways to two people and to his people And that they didn't have the 66 books of the Bible in front of them for them to read And so we're blessed today that hey, we have a more sure word of prophecy and we can go back and look at it anytime we want But back then what you'd have to do is hear the prophets and then you'd even have to judge whether the prophet is even speaking the word of God Based off whether it comes to pass or not and there's that whole idea there as far as just why the New Testament is better Because we have the perfect word of God and I don't need to, I know the shepherd's voice and here it is We have an anointing which you have received of him and you need not that any man teach you But it's the same anointing teaches you of all things and is truth and is no lie and even as it had taught you shall abide in him That the word of God is quick and powerful and we can go to it any day But back then, notice what it says in Hebrew chapter 1 and verse 1 It says God who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets Now what does sundry mean? It's pretty much the same as diverse It's the idea of different ways, it's the idea that it's diverse or various, you can think of various ways And basically what it's stating is that God in various times and in various manners or ways if you will He spoke to the fathers by the prophets Now notice what it says in verse 2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son whom he hath appointed heir of all things by whom also he made the world So in the New Testament we have the words all written down We have Jesus obviously who was that prophet which was to come but he's also the Lord And so back then you have prophets that would preach and obviously there were things written down I mean the first five books of Moses I believe were written down by Moses and they were put into the ark So it's not saying that nothing was written down but it was more so of that which was spoken So when you're in the New Testament sometimes you'll see as it was spoken by the prophets And that's a very distinct thing to understand there For example it was spoken by the prophets that he shall be called a Nazarene Yet there's no more written in the prophets that he was to be called a Nazarene And so there was a lot of things that were spoken but weren't written It talks about Jeremiah the prophet It says that it was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet that he was going to be betrayed or he was going to be sold for 30 pieces of silver Yet in Jeremiah and Lamentations it never states that because it was spoken it wasn't written Now obviously it was written in Zechariah Think about Enoch Enoch prophesied that the Lord will come with 10,000 of his saints Yet that wasn't written until Jude So you can see just from the New Testament on quotations that we see that were God's word That were being spoken but weren't written until way later And obviously now I believe everything is written It says all the law and the prophets were written until John So we're not in a time where we have prophets where we need to hear an open vision from a prophet And the apostles, Paul was the last to be an apostle So as far as revelations are concerned that's done with As far as the word of God being written We have the complete word of God So that being said is that back then though The word of the Lord was precious meaning that it was rare It wasn't, they weren't getting open visions So where they were hearing the word of God being spoken to them and all of that Now go to Amos chapter 8, Amos chapter 8 Because this isn't an isolated incident Where what the Bible is going to say is that there was a famine on the word of God And Amos chapter 8 is in a different timeline So we're dealing with way after the story here in 1 Samuel But it's something that I believe happened periodically To where there was highs and lows when it came to the word of God being prophesied I mean think about it, Moses day I would say that was a high As far as when the prophecy of things When he's writing down the first five books of Moses And you have all of that and all these things that God's speaking to Moses face to face as a friend I would say that it wasn't precious or scarce at that time But in Amos chapter 8 verse 11 here It says, Behold the days comes to the Lord God That I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst of water But of hearing the words of the Lord And they shall wander from sea to sea and from the north even to the east They shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord and shall not find it So we see here that that's the state that they're in right now in Israel Is that there's this famine if you will on the word of God And the state of the nation at the time is in a very poor state Now today I would say that there is a famine on the word of God But it's not because we don't have it, it's because it's not being preached You get these little cupcake sermons where you have like one verse And then it's just blah blah blah blah blah afterwards As far as whatever cute sermon someone has Instead of just verse by verse or just seeing, diving deep into doctrine And we see that I believe that this is something that happens throughout history Where you have these highs and you have these lows We see in the beginning of 1 Samuel here is that there's this low that we're in We have Eli who is being reprimanded for his sons His sons are priests that are basically desecrating the house of God And desecrating his sacrifice to where the people of the Lord The people of Israel are abhorring those sacrifices And then they're lying with the women that are at the tabernacle So they're committing fornication, adultery They're obviously committing wicked sin there at the house of God They're sons of Belial so they're children of the devil So they're not saved and worse than that they're reprobate So that's what the state of being of the house of God is at that point So you're dealing with a very low point in Israel Is it any marvel that the word of the Lord was scarce at that time That it was precious to them meaning that there was no open vision It sets you up for this because God does talk to Samuel though What you see is that God isn't talking to Eli And I believe Eli is saved, I believe he's a believer But he's obviously not right with God And look at 1 Samuel 3 and verse 2 There are physical things that are going on before this happens As far as God calling out to Samuel But they all I believe have a more spiritual meaning to it Meaning this is that I believe first of all all these things are true And physically true that are going on with Eli and with the house of God and all this stuff But verse 2 here it says, and it came to pass At that time when Eli was laid down in his place His eyes began to wax dim that he could not see Now we know later on that he's like 98 years old I believe he's 98 years old So you can definitely see that's a reason why he can't see Or that he's going to sleep That they're laying down, they're going to bed And it's basically stating that he's going to sleep He can't see anything and all of that They're laying down, they're going to bed And so you can definitely see the physical meaning here of what's going on Verse 3 it says, and ere the lamp of God went out in the temple of the Lord Where the ark of God was And Samuel was laid down to sleep That the Lord called Samuel and he answered, Here am I Now, ere the lamp of God went out in the temple of the Lord Ere means before, a lot of times it would be like ere the foundation of the world was made Or you think about the story of Daniel and the den of lions When he's vindicated obviously And those that had him thrown into the den of lions Remember they're thrown in there And it says ere they came to the bottom of the den The lions had their mastery and broke all their bones So it's basically meaning like before they even hit the bottom The lions took them, right? So ere the lamp went out, meaning this is like right before the lamp went out So you're getting obviously just a physical meaning here Everybody's going to sleep The lamp is going out Obviously the oil is going out, all that stuff Until the next day when they light the lamps and all that, right? So you just get the picture Everybody's going to sleep, everything's shutting down But before the lamp went out, God called out to Samuel Now I want you to think about this on the spiritual aspect That Eli is being rebuked by God before this anyway That Eli's eyes are dimmed that he cannot see And before the lamp goes out, before that light goes out That's when God calls out to Samuel Now if you remember, go to Revelation chapter 3 Revelation chapter 3 What were the churches represented as in Revelation? Candlesticks, right? Seven golden candlesticks The lamp of God in the temple is what? Seven candlesticks, right? It's one candlestick, if you will, as far as the stand, right? But there's seven lamps on there Now they represent the eyes of the Lord and all that But think about the lamp going out Meaning that the church even says to Ephesus I will remove thy candlestick from thee, right? Unless you repent The idea is that you're no longer going to be a legit church If you don't get these things right So think about this and the fact that Right before the lamp goes out Eli's like, he's dim, he can't see About to go to sleep That right before there's where Samuel steps in That's the state that Israel's in right now I mean you're down at the bottom where they're about to just The light's about to go out And this is where Samuel's being called But I want you to think about this and the idea of Eli being the priest and the idea of being blind Now obviously being physically blind There's nothing sinful about being physically blind But there is something sinful about being blind as far as spiritually speaking Now go to Revelation chapter 3 and verse 14 Now every church in Revelation 2 and 3 are saved churches They're legit churches Jesus is walking through the midst of them But a lot of them have problems And Laodicea has some problems What is their problem? Well the problem is that they're lukewarm But what does it mean to be lukewarm? What does that mean when Jesus says this? Now in Revelation chapter 3 and verse 14 it says And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write These things set the Amen, the faithful and true witness The beginning of the creation of God I know thy works that thou art neither cold nor hot I would thou art cold or hot So then because thou art lukewarm Neither cold nor hot I will spew thee out of my mouth Now just the physical meaning there is that You either want drink to be hot or you want to be cold It's not a matter of being on fire for God or not being on fire for God It's just is it hot or cold? Do you want iced coffee or do you want hot coffee? But lukewarm coffee I'm going to spew it out of my mouth And that's why that sign is up there Above the coffee maker Is the fact that we don't want lukewarm coffee But the idea here is that What he's getting across is What he's about to describe is disgusting to him That he wants to just spew it out of his mouth It just I mean have you ever just taken a drink of coffee and thought it was hot And then it was actually lukewarm? Not quite but it's getting there So I'm not going to spew it out Don't sit on the front row when I'm illustrating this But notice why What does it mean by being lukewarm? It says here Because thou sayest So here's why they're lukewarm Because thou sayest I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing So that's why they're lukewarm Because they're basically saying I don't need anything I got everything I've arrived, right? I'm rich, I have everything I need And I have need of nothing Therefore You know what God thinks about that? He wants to spew them out of his mouth That's what he thinks about it Because we should never think that we've arrived Because Paul even says I have not attained Although already we're perfect The idea is that we're all growing We're not We haven't arrived Until the resurrection You can't say you've arrived Now in verse 17 as we keep reading there It says And knowest not that thou are wretched And miserable and poor and what? Blind and naked Now just so you know that he's talking to believers Look at verse 19 As many as I love I rebuke and chasten Be zealous therefore and repent The Lord loveth him and chasteneth And discourages every son whom he receiveth We're talking to believers We're talking about children of God here That he's rebuking Because they said they don't need anything And they don't realize that they're naked and blind But then it says I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire That thou mayest be rich And white raiment that thou mayest be clothed And that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear And anoint thine eyes with eye salve That thou mayest see So what are we dealing with here? Is that as a believer You can be blind And why? Because you're walking in the flesh That's why Your flesh has blinded the new man Go to 2 Peter chapter 1 2 Peter chapter 1 I know we just got done with the series on adding to your faith But the same type of thing is brought up It says in 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 5 It says Notice how Eli is dim And that he can't see That there's no open vision That's going on The word of the Lord is precious in those days You know what? He's barren in the knowledge of God Is what's going on And we have this in a lot of churches today And I'm talking about saved churches That believe right on salvation That are just anemic Or I guess emaciated I guess is the word I should use Not anemic Emaciated with the word of God And with doctrine That they couldn't tell you You know you think about our doctrinal statement If I said show me the trinity in the Bible That they would have to be like Give me a while to study that out And let me get some verses on that No you should just be like 1 John 5 7 Just right off the top of the bat Why wouldn't you know that? The thing is that The thing is that I'm talking about preachers I'm not talking about people in the pews Although the people in the pews should know that too But how much more the preacher should know How to defend doctrine just off the drop of a hat Should just know I know where that verse is at And But we're dealing with people that That are saved but they're just blind spiritually And the fact that That they're just walking in the flesh To where it's veiling that new man But it's saying How do you get away from that? How do you do that? Well get some eye salve So as you can see How about add to your faith virtue and knowledge And temperance and patience And add all these things to your faith And you won't be blind anymore And you'll be fruitful in the knowledge Of our Savior Jesus Christ And so We see the state of Eli The state obviously of his sons Which are completely unsaved and reprobate But But Samuel on the other hand There's this hope We saw that in chapter 2 Where you see all these things about Eli and his sons And you're just like, this is bad But Samuel But Samuel ministered unto the Lord And you just see this hope, this beacon of hope And here you see right before the lamp goes out God starts speaking to Samuel And today we have a lot of churches where the lamp's going out Where they may have been doing great things for God at one time But they have just fallen off the wagon They've gotten comfortable I don't know what to say about it Besides the fact that they are just not Not doing the work I think that's a big part of it Is that they're not doing the work So if you're not going to do the work of the ministry Then I don't believe that you're going to be blessed with a whole bunch of knowledge Actually I think you're probably going to forget a bunch of things Because you're not actually doing the work 1 Samuel 3 and verse 5 It says this It says So The idea is that in verse 4 The Lord calls Samuel But Samuel doesn't know that it's the Lord So that's the whole premise of what's going on here Because in verse 5 he says So The idea here is that the Lord is calling Samuel like Samuel Now as a kid you can understand this, right? You're in the house, you're around There's people that you know that are in the house And then you hear someone call your name I mean are you going to first off the cuff be thinking it's the Lord? And especially since Well especially nowadays, right? Because now we have that which is spoken by the Lord There's not like open visions going on right now with prophets But back then Even back then when God was speaking to the fathers by the prophets In sundry times, diverse manners At that time though it was very precious Meaning that it wasn't like it was happening all the time So it's not like Samuel's just always hearing about the Lord speaking to people So you got to get the idea where he's at in the timeline It's not like he just got done getting off the Mount Sinai with Moses You're like of course the Lord is speaking, you know So he thinks that it's Eli And Eli just kind of disregards it He's just like, no I didn't call you, go back to sleep Verse 6 it says And went to Eli and said, here am I, for thou didst call me And he answered, I called not my son, lie down again Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord Neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed unto him Now when it comes to that You could argue is Samuel saved at this point? Because here's the thing, when it comes to being saved It's not about knowing the Lord, it's about being known of God Right? The Lord knoweth them that are his And it talks about the fact that he knoweth them that put their trust in him And it says that after that you knew God or rather are known of God Obviously you need to know God to a certain extent to be saved But knowing God is another level And that's something that we'll never truly know him until we see him as he is And meaning that that's something that we're constantly trying to know more about God No one in here can say I know God and everything about him Right? I mean there's going to be something that you're going to be like Well I don't understand this about him, I don't understand this, I don't understand that And that's not salvation, that's just, that's the idea of knowing him and knowing who he is And studying and learning more as you go on So I think probably what it's stating here Is that Samuel wasn't just knowledgeable about the Lord He wasn't, he didn't know doctrine, he didn't know all these different things And obviously God had never spoken to him audibly before But keep reading there It says in verse 8 And the Lord called Samuel again the third time And he arose and went to Eli and said, Here am I, for thou didst call me And Eli perceived that the Lord had called the child So after three times he's like, okay, there's something going on here And so at this point he knows that it's the Lord speaking to him In verse 9 it says, Therefore Eli said unto Samuel, Go lie down, and it shall be, if he call thee, that thou shalt say, Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth So Samuel went and lay down in his place So at this point Eli realizes what's going on And Samuel obviously is realizing what's going on And in verse 10 here it says, And the Lord came and stood and called as at other times Now that's an interesting little distinction there, isn't it? Is that, before that it was saying that he called and said, Samuel, Samuel But here he stood, he came and stood and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel Then Samuel answered, Speak, for thy servant heareth Now I can only imagine what that would be like as a child And the Lord speaking to you, standing there And you say, well, how is he standing there? Well, I mean in the Old Testament there was Old Testament appearance of Jesus You know, when it comes to, think of Abraham When he was at his tent door and the Lord came and two men with him Obviously we realize later that those two men are angels that go down to Sodom and Gomorrah There's a case where Joshua is going into battle and the captain of the host meets him and it's the Lord So there's many times that the Lord meets there And it doesn't say that Samuel saw him, but he was standing there, right? So I mean, whether he saw him, we don't know But he definitely heard him But it's stating that he stood and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel Then Samuel answered, Speak, for thy servant heareth And the Lord said to Samuel, Behold, I will do a thing in Israel At which both ears of everyone that heareth it shall tingle And so you can imagine that whatever is going to happen When you think about your ears tingling is the idea of just like you are like perked up about what's going on And it says, In that day I will perform against Eli all things which I have spoken concerning his house When I begin, I will also make an end So he already spoke, there was a man of God that came to Eli So it's not like God wasn't speaking to anybody at that time, it was just precious, right? It was scarce And so the man of God came to him in chapter 2 So Eli already knows this information But God is speaking to Samuel now and saying pretty much the same thing about what's going to happen to Eli But notice that when I begin, I will also make an end I love that, and God says this in many different ways throughout the Bible That basically I'm going to start it and I'm going to finish it The idea is like I'm going to start this and it will come to an end You know what this means is that there is no chance of this changing Think about it when he goes to Nineveh, when he sends Jonah to Nineveh And says preach to them because I'm going to destroy it in 40 days He obviously didn't say I'm going to begin and I'm going to end it because he didn't end up destroying them Because they ended up turning to God and they repented in sackcloth and ashes And so when you hear things like that, what you know is that nothing is going to change that There's no remedy for that They're not going to be able to pray that away, they're not going to be able to ask God to change his mind on this It's just, it is what it is Just as much as when it says Babylon is fallen, is fallen When it uses that term is fallen And it hasn't happened yet, you know what that means is that nothing is changing that The Lord, it talks about it in Romans chapter 4 that he speaketh of those things which be not as though they were So there's sometimes that the Lord says something and he uses maybe past tense or present tense And it hasn't happened yet because it's as if it had already happened He's speaking because it will happen Nothing is changing that, it is what it is And so we see that with what he's saying here and I'll keep reading there in verse 13 It says, For I have told him that I will judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knoweth Because his sons made themselves vile and he restrained them not Now notice the, he already told him this, you know Samuel is hearing this but Eli already heard it But he's stating it to him and he's telling Samuel why Because his sons made themselves vile Now we know that the Bible talks about those that are vile and brute beasts And made to be, you know, brute beasts made to be taken and destroyed That they are twice dead, plucked up by the roots That we're dealing with the sons of Belial that his sons have become But Eli is not called vile, he's not called the son of Belial He's getting rebuked because he didn't restrain them Right, he didn't, his fault was obviously that, well, he didn't get them saved He didn't, you know, obviously raise them right and they are now in the state that they're in And he's getting rebuked for that But it says in verse 14, it says, and therefore I have sworn unto the house of Eli That the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be purged with sacrifice nor offering forever So again it's kind of like I'm beginning it and I will make an end, right The idea there is that there's nothing that's going to purge this That's why in the New Testament you see passages like in Hebrews chapter 10 Where it says if we sin willfully Notice that it's willfully, it's presumptuous, like you know what you're doing You're doing it in spite of what the Bible says That you're not going to get away with it And you're not going to just be able to ask for forgiveness and not get the consequences for it Obviously we're talking about physical consequences, we're not talking about hell Because you have eternal life and you can't lie And obviously that's not what it's talking about It's actually the example that's given is the death penalty Physical capital punishment And obviously if you sin willfully What it's saying is that there's no more sacrifice for sins Because you're going to get punished and nothing's going to change that Because there's a lot of things that you can do that if you fall into sin Or if you sin ignorantly To where you can go to the Lord and just say, Lord I'm sorry that I did that, I fell into that And that you may not have to suffer consequences for that That he'll just have mercy and then he'll just be like, alright, keep on going No consequences in this life for it as far as certain things go But there are certain things where it doesn't matter what you do, how you pray You're going to be judged for that sin And that's what's being stated here when it comes to this And again, when I look at this passage, when I think of Eli and I think of Samuel What I see And, you know, forgive me for bringing it into where we're at today I think of old IFB churches These old independent Baptist churches That the light is about to go out And they may have done great things in the past But their light is about to go out Because they care more about the praises of men than the praises of God Because they care more about what some group of LGBTQ AARP people think about their church Than what the Word of God says That they're about appeasing all the politically correct garbage that's out there They want to be friends with the world is what they want And you know what, the lamp is going out in those churches But make no mistake about it That God's church, the lamp has never gone out holistically There has always been a light There's always been saved people from generation to generation That have been revealing the righteousness of God from faith to faith From the beginning, from able all the way down the line That that will always be there and it's not broken And you know what, there will be independent churches That will stay true to doctrine until Jesus comes That will happen There will be God's people that will do great exploits for God In the darkest times of this world Because that's what the Bible says I believe it to be true And when you see stuff like this, it's very easy to get downtrodden Depressed about it You know when you see a lot of churches like, why won't you say something You know what the truth is And you know when these preachers, they know what the truth is They know what it is, they're afraid to say it They're afraid of the persecution They're afraid of whatever would come from that But you know what, that's why the lamp's going out That's why these churches are dying And the average age in these old IFP churches is 80 to dead Because the young people don't want to be there Because you're not preaching the truth They're like, well you preach the truth, you're going to scare people away No, actually if you preach the truth, that's what people want You preach deep doctrine, no one will want to hear it No, you don't preach deep doctrine, that's why no one wants to come Because they're tired of hearing the same thing over and over again No, they want to dive deep into doctrine and know the deep things of God And when it comes to church, obviously when it comes to preaching sermons And even when we're going verse by verse through chapters Especially Wednesdays Because it's hard being here on Wednesday You work all day, you come out here And listen, I don't take that lightly Because that's the hardest time to come to church in my opinion Is on a Wednesday night And I'm not just going to throw away and be like, alright, let's just read some verses And just, there we go No, listen, you should come here and say, hey, I at least got exhorted If I didn't, or I learned something And hopefully that you're learning something every single time you come to church Every single time we open the Bible That you say, hey, I saw something there And it may not be some brand new, it's not some new doctrine But it's just like, oh, I didn't realize how that correlates I didn't realize that that fits perfectly with this doctrine over here I didn't realize that little detail there I learned something today That's what people want in church Not some cute sermon with a poem and a prayer at the end They want to know what God has to say And when it comes to this, it's like reading a newspaper And I was, you know, I sat in Baptist churches Where I'm just like, I should have just sat at home and read my Bible And listen, I'm not saying to forsake the assembly, forsake church I'm just saying that there's times where I'm like, what am I doing here? And it's not that I'm like some high and mighty person That I'm just like, oh, you know, I just know more than everybody here The idea, and listen, I've heard it taught That this is what Bible colleges would teach Is that you don't want to preach deep doctrine to your congregation That Sunday morning is like that fluffy sermon I don't think they say it like that, I'm saying it like that That Sunday morning is like that fluffy sermon, you don't want to offend anybody It's kind of like just all about goodness and light And then Sunday night is where you get into maybe a little more doctrine But you don't want to go overboard, right? You don't want to be talking about thermodynamics or anything like that That's deep doctrine But you don't want to go overboard And then Wednesday, that's where the hardcore people are at And therefore you can go, you can really get into nitty gritty But what they mean by nitty gritty is like, okay, the term the here What does that mean? What does that mean? If we go back to the Greek The term the Means it's a definite article It's like, thank you for that Learned that one in second grade You think I'm joking though, but a lot of times they'll be like, we're going down deep And they'll like look up grace like 50 times And just look at every place grace is mentioned Listen, I'm all about grace But you probably only need to look that up a couple times Where you're like, okay, we get it It's a gift, it's free, you know, all that Anyway What I believe we're seeing here We're seeing a revival We're seeing a revival in Israel And I believe there's a revival going on right now in Baptist churches That You know, take me out of the equation I'm not like here to say, hey look at me, look at this church Look at the churches that are the consequence of these dark churches These Baptist churches that won't preach doctrine Are afraid to preach against sin Are afraid to step on anybody's toes Look what that's breeding There are people standing up and saying, you know what, we're done with that Two things happen, either people get out of church and they just give up Or they say, you know what, I'm going to go to a church that's serious about things of God That's literally the two things that are going to happen You're either going to quit Or you're going to say, no, I'm going to find a place that's actually serious about it Because who wants to be in the middle? Just ride the fence Be in the middle of the road The only thing in the middle of the road is a yellow line And skunks, possums So in 1 Samuel 3 and verse 15 God tells Samuel this Then he wakes up It says, And Samuel lay until the morning And opened the doors to the house of the Lord And Samuel feared to show Eli vision Again, it's interesting that Samuel is the one that opened the doors to the house of the Lord It's kind of like the idea of, it's time to come to the house of God There's this revival that's happening where people are like, hey, it's time to go back to church It's time to get back into the things of God But here's the thing, it says that he feared to show Eli vision Now, you can understand why he wouldn't want to tell Eli vision Because the vision is against Eli and his whole house Then Eli called Samuel and said, Samuel, my son And he answered, Here am I And he said, What is the thing that the Lord hath said unto thee? I pray thee, hide it not from me God do so to thee and more also if thou hide anything from me of all the things that he said unto thee Now you can understand why it's hard to say it is Eli Because saying the truth when it hurts is hard to do It's easy to tell the truth if it's nice, right? Like for example, Miss Paula makes pepperoni rolls It's easy for me to say they're amazing Because they are, right? The difference would be if she made something and then I didn't like it And she's like, Tell me the truth, what do you think about that? That's harder, right? It's harder to say that Except for that apple pie with the cheddar cheese I have no problem Cheddar cheese should not be on apple pie, just saying Everything else that you've made is amazing Just giving you a hard time But obviously saying a truth that is not good news is hard to do But Proverbs 27 says this in verse 5 It says, Open rebuke is better than secret love Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful Listen, the person that loves you will tell you the truth even if it hurts Obviously, if you tell someone the truth, if it hurts, you need to say it in a kind manner, right? You don't need to be a jerk about it But if I preach against sin, it's not because I'm just like, listen And just trying to get down on you and condescend No, it's because I care The thing about fornication The reason I preach hard against fornication is because fornication will destroy your life It'll put a scar on your soul that you'll never get rid of And that you'll have to deal with that the rest of your marriage If you end up getting married, you'll have to deal with that the rest of your marriage Of things that you can never forget Think about obviously lying, stealing, all these different things that you would preach against That, hey, that's going to ruin your life Drugs will ruin your life, drinking will ruin your life Wine is a marker, a strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise It'll destroy your life You may not become an alcoholic But I'll say this, you definitely won't be an alcoholic if you don't drink it But that'll just destroy your life The Bible teaches about that And listen, it may step on toes of people that like to drink, like to smoke Whatever the case may be when it comes to these types of things that you would preach against But it's not because, man, I just can't stand you because you do that No, I don't want to see you ruin your life And so preaching things that are hard That's something that we need to do because we care about people and we don't want to see them get hurt Now, another thing to think about Samuel is going to be a prophet, obviously, and he's being established as a prophet Go to Jeremiah chapter 1, Jeremiah chapter 1 This is something I think about as a pastor, okay Because you don't always get the best reception when you're preaching I'd say most of the time here I get a pretty good reception People aren't usually scowling at me But there's definitely times where I'm like, that person does not like what I have to say Notice what the Lord says to Jeremiah Obviously a great prophet, Jeremiah In verse 4 here it says The word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee And before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctify thee and ordain thee a prophet unto the nations Then said I, Ah, Lord God, behold, I cannot speak, for I am a child But the Lord said unto me, Say not I am a child, for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee And whatsoever I command thee, thou shalt speak Be not afraid of their faces, for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord I want you to think about preaching and the idea of you get those dirty looks, right You get those scowls that are looking at you And the idea of just don't be afraid of their faces Preach the truth, preach what I have to say Now he's literally going to different nations So he's not preaching in front of a congregation that's coming to hear him preach So when you think about this, obviously If you're coming here, hopefully you're coming here because you want to hear the word of God You don't hate my guts, like you want to be here, right But think about going to different kings and nations and preaching what they don't want to hear And the idea of not being afraid of their faces When they're looking at you like we're going to like stone you, we're going to kill you Like we want to like harm you, that type of thing And it says in Jeremiah 1 17, it says Thou therefore gird up thy loins and arise to speak unto them all that I command thee Be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them Notice that if he is dismayed at their faces, the Lord is going to confound him before them You know what the Lord wants from a preacher? Someone that has boldness and grit that will actually say what needs to be said and not be afraid to say it You know the Bible talks about that he has not given us the spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind That we are to be bold when we're preaching the word of God And you know the Bible talks about that it might have utterance That it might, I'm going to misquote that Give me utterance, that it may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel The idea is that when we go out soul winning we're not yelling at people or anything like that But you're boldly proclaiming the gospel, you're not afraid, you're not like cowering You're just like this is the truth, this is what you need to hear And having boldness in that But having boldness when you're preaching as well and it says For behold I have made thee this day a defense city and an iron pillar And brazen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof Against the priests thereof and against the people of the land And they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee For I am with thee, said the Lord, to deliver thee See you know what a lot of these preachers are lacking is faith That God is able to deliver them When it comes to preaching the truth, listen You know that the world hates the truth And that the world is gonna come after the truth and they're gonna try to get you to lose your job I mean this isn't even just for like Bible believing Christians, this is just if you're a conservative Right, you believe there's two genders, that hateful rhetoric Don't come after your job You're like that person's hateful, they're not all inclusive You know what, I see a watershed moment where people are like nuts to it all Like you push them so far that they're actually wanting to become Bible believing Christians now What a time to live in right now where the world has gotten so weird And so crazy that people are like We need God And you know where we need to be, we need to be there to bring them to the fold Say hey, here's the gospel, here's what you need to believe Hey, here's what the Bible says about all of this God already knew that all this was gonna happen You wanna know truth, here it is And the problem is, is that there's a lot of people that wanna know truth They're seeking it Not even just salvation, obviously that's the most important thing But just the truth about where do we come from, how did all this come to be You know, what's our purpose, why does God want us to be here Why are all these things happening, like they wanna know all of this The problem is there's like very few people that are actually preaching it And it's not, I'm not here to say like a lot of these preachers don't know these things They're just afraid to say it They're afraid to proclaim it Go to 2 Timothy chapter 4, 2 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 1 2 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 1 says this It says, I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom Preach the word, be instant, in season, out of season Now, what does that mean In season would mean like when it's easy to do, right Think about it, if someone asks you what you think about something and it's good news That's easy, that's in season, right Out of season is when it's not good news When it's not something that they wanna hear In season, out of season, reprove, rebuke Exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine But after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears And they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables Listen, I believe this has happened time and time again throughout history Where you'll have these lows where people are just in itchy ears They don't wanna hear the truth They just wanna, don't tell us Don't tell us right things tell us smooth things You know what that means is that the right things are rough The truth is rough But I'd rather know the truth even if it's rough I mean wouldn't you, even if it's bad news wouldn't you wanna know what the truth is You don't wanna just, this idea of ignorance is bliss You know when it comes, no When it comes to the truth I wanna know what the truth is I don't wanna just go around thinking that everything is just great when it's not Try that in your marriage Like oh yeah everything is just going great, I mean she said everything's fine We all know what that means, right When it comes to that you obviously need to be like okay I need to get to the bottom of what's going on here And it may not be easy to hear But I do see, I do see a revival of people that wanna know the truth They wanna know what the truth is and we need to be there to give it to them Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason to the hope that is in you with meekness and fear We need to be ready, let your speech be all the way with grace, seasoned with salt that you may know how you ought to answer every man This goes for soul winning, but this goes for any doctrine What if someone just came up to you and you asked you about a certain doctrine in the Bible Could you explain it to them, they just wanna know the truth You know what I find is that the unsaved actually are more open to the truth than the Christians are You explain to them the reprobate doctrine and they're just like makes perfect sense Before you even get them saved, before you even like they even believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation You explain to them that hey there's certain people that are unnatural that God has given over to a reprobate mind Like Pharaoh and like Judas and like other people and they're just like that makes perfect sense But you go tell a Christian and be like oh no no you know we need to love these pedophiles Hard truth isn't it, actually it's not that hard for me to I mean it's not hard for me to know that the Bible says we should not love those that hate the Lord And that I have no love for a pedophile And that they are twice dead, plucked up by the roots and their end is to be burned But it seems like there's a lot that don't want to say it, they don't want to preach it Go to 1 Samuel chapter 3 and we'll be finishing up the chapter here and we'll be done So Eli, think about it, Eli has his faults obviously But he wants to know what the truth is no matter what it is He's just like tell me everything, don't hide it from me, I want to know what the truth is So you've got to give Eli credit here And his response too because it says in verse 18 So I mean give credit where credit is due, Eli is hearing this, he's just like it's the Lord He accepts it, swallows it and you know what, it's a hard thing to hear But that's the response that you should hear from hard preaching is that it's the Lord I mean think about it, if you hear something and you're like man that hurts But did God say it though? It's the Lord He's got to take it That's the way we should be, we shouldn't just bristle at it and just say how dare he say that and just shoot the messenger What you really need to look at is what does God say about it? Is God right? Or are you right? There's a way which seemeth right unto a man but at the end there are other ways of death There's a lot of times that you think what's right and it's not And it says that he told him every wit and in verse 19, I love this right here It says, And Samuel grew and the Lord was with him and did let none of his words fall to the ground What a statement right there So he grew and the Lord was with him and you think about what Joseph and the Lord was with him But the idea that he didn't let, it says he let none of his words fall to the ground That that's the type of prophet Samuel was It's from the very beginning he told him every wit He didn't hide anything from him And Samuel was that way to the very end If you think about it, I mean think about Saul, we haven't got to Saul yet He didn't hold back, he told him exactly what he needed to say, the king of Israel And he told him exactly what God told him to say And that's the type of preacher you need to be, that's the type of Christians we need to be Speak the truth and let the chips fall where they may Obviously we need to do it with grace, seasoned with salt We need to be nice, don't be a jerk Be nice when you're talking to people about the truth But in the end, let the chips fall where they may And in Jeremiah, you don't have to turn there But kind of since we've been dealing with Jeremiah and kind of seeing that as well Is that the Lord says all the words that I command me to speak unto thee diminish not a word So Jeremiah 26 to 2, if you want to look it up later, he's telling them to preach All these words, but diminish not a word Go to Acts chapter 20, keep your finger in 1 Samuel, we'll be done But in Acts chapter 20, Paul the apostle So notice how this isn't just unique to Samuel Like well Samuel was to not let any of his words fall to the ground Samuel was to tell him every whit, right? No, Jeremiah is the same way The apostle Paul, same way Timothy, same thing, right? It's not like this is unique to just one believer This is to everybody Whether you're a preacher or not, whether you're a pastor or not This is what we should be like We should be the idea that we read God's word, we don't let one word hit the ground And we diminish not a word when we speak the truth Listen, every jot and tittle is important If you leave out the word not, that's a big deal Think about this, for by grace are you saved through faith and that of yourselves That not has a big meaning, right? That negating term has a big meaning there If you leave out the not, not of works Listen to me boast, of works So that men should boast Right, I mean do you see how every word is important, you shouldn't diminish any See the devil can't get rid of God's word, but he can take away and add to it And obviously that's what we see with these new versions That's what people do all the time when they twist scripture Well you gotta repent of your sins to be saved Except it never says that in the King James Bible ever Well it says repent, but does it say repent of your sins? No it doesn't Stop adding to it Well you need to believe and you need to do all these other things too, it's like well stop adding to it That's what we need to preach every word, diminish not a word, but also don't add to it So in Acts chapter 20 and verse 26 it says Wherefore I take you to record this day that I am pure from the blood of all men For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God So he's saying that Think about it, I am pure of the blood of all men, now that is a callback to Ezekiel When it talks about the blood of the people being on your hands When you don't give warning The idea of giving warning or blow the trumpet when you see the enemy coming Is that if you blow the trumpet and you give warning You're free of the blood of whoever doesn't heed that call But if you don't preach it, then you're guilty of that blood right? I take it seriously, listen if I don't preach all the counsel of God Then your blood's on my hands As a pastor, my office as a pastor is to edify the church To feed the flock of God And if I don't feed the flock all the counsel of God And you go out and do something that you shouldn't be doing And you're like well why didn't you preach on that? You see it falls back on me And listen I don't look at it that way I look at it because I don't want to be punished So that's in the back of my mind eventually I look at it that I don't want something bad to happen to you So that's why I'm trying to preach on everything I can I'm trying to hit on every subject that I can And there's times when I'm preaching on things that I don't like preaching on Just to be honest I don't like Obviously I love the whole word of God But what I'm saying is that it's not like this I just love preaching on tithing I don't think anybody was preaching on tithing except for Kenneth Copeland But there's certain subjects where I'm just like Well you know but the Bible does teach that we need to do that And then there's other things where I'm just like I don't really want to preach on that You think I like preaching on fornication? No one likes talking about that But it's a relevant subject that needs to be preached And so going back to 1 Samuel to end the chapter here Is that Samuel is established to be a prophet of the Lord In verse 20 it says, And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord And the Lord appeared again in Shiloh For the Lord revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord Now Dan to Beersheba if you know the geographical layout of Israel Dan was up north, Beersheba was down south So basically it's kind of like from the north to the south We would say from sea to sea If you think about America From the east coast to the west coast Of course the east coast is better For my west coast brethren out there I'm joking But West Virginia is the best Virginia But that being said is that from Dan to Beersheba Everybody knew that he was established to be a prophet And he's a great prophet And we're going to be seeing more about Samuel As far as his exploits and everything Once he gets older and all that But yeah especially these first three chapters I just see a lot of correlations With what was going on back then With what we see today But I don't believe that our time is like the only time this has ever happened I mean think about the revivals that have happened in the past When you think about like dark ages of the Catholic Church And then how there was like Okay you know we need the Bible in English And people need to read the Bible And that happened back in like the 1500s and 1600s right And there was this revival And you say well you know it's just getting so bad right now I just don't see it ever getting righteous again Pompeii The Roman Empire Listen throughout history you've had lows and highs of morality I mean think about back in the 1800s how As far as like modesty was concerned And just the idea of how People thought of that I'm not saying people were perfect right And that there wasn't atrocities going on There wasn't murder there wasn't slavery or anything like that I'm not saying that I'm just saying that We see highs and lows throughout history And could we be in the end time You know like getting to the end times where it's like It's going to be Sodom and Gomorrah Jesus is coming back And it's all going to be over Sure I'm not against that Could be in our day Or maybe we got another hump of a high That we can get to Before it goes down straight into hell Okay and that's I preach for the best Hope for the best prepare for the worst I guess is the way I look at it So be optimistic but at the same time be realistic So that's the end of the word of prayer Dear Heavenly Father we thank you today thank you for your word And thank you for this passage thank you for the book of 1 Samuel And praise you help me to preach it Lord Help me to know the passages And to know how to preach it And what to preach out of these chapters Lord thank you for it And praise you be with us throughout the rest of the day I hope to talk to you about soul winning today And just pray that you help them to understand the verses And just understand salvation And Lord we just pray that you be with us for the rest of this week And Lord we love you and pray also in Jesus Christ's name Amen So brother they will come and sing one more song And that will be dismissed Alright take your song books and turn to song 271 Song 271 we'll sing Lord I'm Coming Home if you would stand We'll sing song 271