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Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Welcome to steadfast Baptist Church. If you could please find your seats and turn in your hymnals to song 288, I am resolved. Song 288. I am resolved. I am resolved. I am resolved. I am resolved. I am resolved. I am resolved. I am resolved. I am resolved. I am resolved. I am resolved. Song 288. I am resolved. Sing it out nice and loud together. Song 288. I am resolved. I am resolved. No longer to linger. Charmed by the world's delight. Things that are higher. Things that are nobler. These have allured my sight. I will hasten to Him. Hasten so glad and free. Jesus' greatest highest. I will come to Thee. I am resolved to go. I am resolved to go to the Savior. Leaving my sin and strife. He is the true one. He is the just one. He hath the words of life. I will hasten to Him. Hasten so glad and free. Jesus' greatest highest. I will come to Thee. I am resolved to follow the Savior. Faithful and true each day. Heed what He sayeth. Do what He willeth. He is the living way. I will hasten to Him. Hasten so glad and free. Jesus' greatest highest. I will come to Thee. Good singing, everyone. Let's open up in a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, thank You so much for this day, and thank You for the rain and good weather, Lord. I pray that You'd bless this service, that You'd fill our pastor with the Holy Spirit, and bless the time of fellowship afterwards, in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, let's go to our next song. 263, verily, verily. 263, verily, verily. 263, verily, verily. Oh, what a Savior that He died for me. From condemnation He hath made me free. He that believeth on the Son sayeth, He hath everlasting life. Verily, verily, I say unto you. Verily, verily, message ever new. He that believeth on the Son tis true, hath everlasting life. All my iniquities on Him were laid. All my indebtedness by Him was paid. All who believe on Him the Lord hath said, He hath everlasting life. Verily, verily, I say unto you. Verily, verily, message ever new. He that believeth on the Son tis true, hath everlasting life. On the third. Though poor and needy, I can trust my Lord. Though weak and sinful, I believe His word. Oh, glad message every child of God, hath everlasting life. Verily, verily, I say unto you. Verily, verily, message ever new. He that believeth on the Son tis true, hath everlasting life. All right. Now on the fourth, there's a shout in this verse. And you only get one chance. So you have to make it count on this. Shout on the word shout on the fourth. Though all unworthy, yet I will not doubt. For Him that cometh, He will not cast out. He that believeth, oh the good news. Shout! Hath everlasting life. Verily, verily, I say unto you. Verily, verily, message ever new. He that believeth on the Son tis true, hath everlasting life. Good evening. Good to see you this evening. If you need a bulletin, you can lift up your hand nice and high. And we'd love to get you a bulletin from one of ushers. We have our binary passage. It's a little bit harder of a verse there, but hopefully some of you got this thing memorized. On the inside, we have our service times, our sowing times. I am going to capture any data that just hadn't already gotten captured. Does anybody have any soul winning from the last few days that they had not reported to their soul winning captain? Who would you go with? Okay. Anything else? All right. Keep up the good work on soul winning. And also we have on the right our list of expecting ladies. Continue to pray for them. We have our prayer list. We have a lot of people that we've been praying for. We have a couple extra ones. If you would continue to pray for the Negara family, for their health, continue to pray for Miss Lucy's mother's tumors, Brother Cameron Hall, his leg, Miss Ashley Holder's husband's visa. And I think that went well. I think we need to get an update. Someone give me an update on that. Matt Pendleton, we're praying for him. He's a brother from Faith Ward Baptist Church. Also Miss Natasha Zermano's friend, Cody. We're asking for salvation for him. Brother Taylor Alderman's step brother passed away, so pray for their family. Juan Grosco was asking for prayer for his baby Leony's kidney's health. Brother Wallach was asking for a coworker Miss Kathy's health. We had Riley Simpson, wife of Sarah's visa's process, and then also the Coopers if you'd pray for their health. So we have several prayer requests there. I'm just going to say a quick prayer just for everyone there that was mentioned. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for this evening. Thank you for the rain. I thank you for giving us the opportunity to be meeting here together and to praise you. Thank you so much for our expecting ladies. We pray that you would bless them during their pregnancy, help their babies develop, and for them to have an easy delivery. Also, I pray that you would just bless our church family that's struggling with health issues, that you could just give them strength. Please just comfort them right now. And if possible, just give them a miracle. Just give them just perfect health. I pray that you'd also bless our family, church family that's asking for salvations for their friends, for their coworkers, for their family members. Please just soften these individuals' hearts. Give boldness to a soul winner to open their mouth and to make known the mystery of the gospel. And I pray that we'd see them saved and baptized and to serve you. And I just thank you for our entire church family for this opportunity to be here. Just thank you for what you give us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Some upcoming events. We have the men's conference. It's really close. So I'm really excited about this. If you did not sign up, you have to, so that way I would know that you're coming, right? Otherwise I can't plan for you. I am going to send out an email to everyone probably at the end of this week or the beginning of next week as just a reminder of things that you should bring and just some tips where to go and meet. We will have a group that meets here in the morning on Thursday and then travels down there. So I believe that we're going to depart around 9 a.m. So if you want to participate, even if we can't all fit in the van, we can still carpool. But you don't have to. If you already live kind of south, you may not even want to do that. But if you'd like to carpool, we'll probably meet here and then depart at 9 a.m. It is the accommodations do pretty much have nothing. So whatever you anticipate wanting or needing, you have to bring. So just kind of an FYI, I wasn't necessarily fully anticipating that the first year we went. And so you but like things like a pillow, you know, a towel, toothbrush, you know, hopefully deodorant. OK, things like this you need to bring. You can't borrow mine. All right. And but again, I'll send out an email reminder. Also, it would be helpful if you can confirm once I send the emails out. We just confirm back like, yep, still coming and everything like that, just so we we have that information. We have a new thing at the last Sunday of the month. We're going to try Sunday, Sundays. So if you go participate in our soul winning when we get back, we'll have some Sundays. And that sounds really good right now. But I'm gonna have to wait. All right. Also, September 24th, Shreveport, Louisiana, Marathon. And then. I have. A couple of the church reminders. Just, you know, things things haven't really changed as far as like our building rules and everything like that, but sometimes we just forget and everything like that. But please don't let your children go into the mother baby room areas unless you are with them. And it's for mothers and babies only. And especially before and after services, because sometimes it's like this cool hangout area. I understand that some people have been going in there to play ping pong and things like that. But just for now, let's keep let's even keep the ping pong table in this room. And that way we're not having traffic going in that mother. We just don't want anyone to get hurt or an accident to happen. Doors get closed on fingers or all kinds of stuff. So let's just try to keep traffic out of the mother baby room, except for mother baby room activities and for mothers and their children. Also, we have a exciting announcement. Congratulations to the names on the birth of Layla Grace. She was born August 8th. That was Monday at three thirty two a.m. And she was weighing seven pounds, five ounces and measuring twenty one and a half inches long. Congratulations to them. And so that's exciting for their family. I think they might even like a meal train or something like that online. You can always ask either my wife or I think Mrs. Milstead usually helps manage that stuff. So that would be a great blessing to that family. So that's pretty much all I have for announcements. We're going to go and go to a third song this evening for two sixty one. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Two hundred and sixty one. Two hundred and sixty one. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Song two six one. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Oh soul, are you weary and troubled? No light in the darkness you see. There's light for a look at the Savior and life more abundant and free. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. Through death into life everlasting, He passed and we follow Him there. For us sin no more hath dominion, for more than conquerors we are. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. His word shall not fail you, He promised. Believe Him and all will be well. Then go to a world that is dying, His perfect salvation to tell. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. As the offering plates are passed around, turn in your Bibles, if you would, to 2 Samuel chapter 15. And we'll read the whole chapter as is our custom, 2 Samuel chapter 15. And the Bible reads there, starting in verse number one. And it came to pass after this that Absalom prepared him chariots and horses and fifty men to run before him. And Absalom rose up early and stood beside the way of the gate. And it was so that when any man that had a controversy came to the king for judgment, then Absalom called unto him and said, Of what city art thou? And he said, Thy servant is of one of the tribes of Israel. And Absalom said unto him, See, thy matters are good and right, but there is no man deputed of the king to hear thee. Absalom said, Moreover, O that I were made judge in the land, that every man which hath any suit or cause might come unto me, and I would do him justice. And it was so that when any man came nigh to him to do him obeisance, he put forth his hand and took him and kissed him. And on this manner did Absalom to all Israel that came to the king for judgment. So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel. And it came to pass after forty years that Absalom said unto the king, I pray thee, let me go and pay my vow, which I have bowed unto the Lord in Hebron. For thy servant bowed a vow while I abode at Gishur in Syria, saying, If the Lord shall bring me again indeed to Jerusalem, then I will serve the Lord. And the king said unto him, Go in peace. So he arose and went to Hebron. But Absalom sent spies throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, As soon as ye hear the sound of the trumpet, then ye shall say, Absalom reigneth in Hebron. And with Absalom went two hundred men out of Jerusalem that were called, and they went in their simplicity, and they knew not anything. And Absalom sent for Ahithophel the Gileanite, David's counselor, from his city, even from Gilo, while he offered sapphiresy was strong, for the people increased continually with Absalom. And there came a messenger to David, saying, The hearts of the men of Israel are after Absalom. And David said unto all his servants that were with him at Jerusalem, Arise, and let us flee, for we shall not else escape from Absalom. Make speed to depart, lest he overtake us suddenly, and bring evil upon us, and smite the city with the edge of the sword. And the king's servants said unto the king, Behold, thy servants are ready to do whatsoever, my lord, the king shall appoint. And the king went forth, and all his household after him. And the king left ten women, which were concubines, to keep the house. And the king went forth, and all the people after him, and tarried in a place that was far off. And all his servants passed on beside him, and all the Kerethites, and all the Pelethites, and all the Gittites, six hundred men, which came after him from Gath, passed on before the king. Then said the king to Ittai the Gittite, Wherefore goest thou also with us? Return to thy place, and abide with the king. For thou art a stranger, and also an exile. Whereas thou camest but yesterday, should I this day make thee go up and down with us, seeing I go whither I may, return thou, and take back thy brethren. Mercy and truth be with thee. And Ittai answered the king, and said, As the lord liveth, and as my lord the king liveth, surely in what place my lord the king shall be, whether in death or life, even there also will thy servant be. And David said to Ittai, Go and pass over. And Ittai the Gittite passed over, and all his men, and all the little ones that were with him. And all the country wept with a loud voice, and all the people passed over. The king also himself passed over the brook Cai-dron, and all the people passed over toward the way of the wilderness. And Zadok also, and all the Levites were with him, bearing the ark of the covenant of God. And they set down the ark of God, and Abiathar went up until all the people had done passing out of the city. And the king said unto Zadok, Carry back the ark of God into the city. If I shall find favor in the eyes of the lord, he will bring me again, and show me both it and his habitation. But if he thus say, I have no delight in thee, behold, here am I, let him do to me as seemeth good unto him. The king said also unto Zadok the priest, Art not thou a seer? Return into the city in peace, and your two sons with you, Ahime as thy son, and Jonathan the son of Abiathar. See, I will tarry in the plain of the wilderness, until there come word from you to certify me. Zadok therefore and Abiathar carried the ark of God again to Jerusalem, and they tarry there. And David went up by the ascent of Mount Olivet, and wept as he went up, and had his head covered. And he went barefoot, and all the people that was with him covered every man his head, and they went up, weeping as they went up. And one told David, saying, Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom. And David said, O Lord, I pray thee, turn the council of Ahithophel into foolishness. And it came to pass that when David was come to the top of the mount where he worshipped God, behold, Hushai the arkite came to meet him with his coat rent and earth upon his head. Unto whom David said, If thou passest on with me, then thou shalt be a burden unto me. But if thou return to the city, and say unto Absalom, I will be thy servant, O king, as I have been thy father's servant hitherto, so will I now also be thy servant. Then mayest thou for me defeat the council of Ahithophel. And hast thou not there with thee Zadok and Abiathar the priests? Therefore it shall be that what thing soever thou shalt hear out of the king's house, thou shalt tell it to Zadok and Abiathar the priests. Behold, they have there with them their two sons, Ahima, Zadok's son, and Jonathan, Abiathar's son, and by them ye shall send unto me everything that ye can hear. So Hushai, David's friend, came into the city and Absalom came into Jerusalem. Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer. Father God, we thank you for 2 Samuel chapter 15 and for the opportunity this evening to listen to the man of God expound on this chapter. I pray that you fill him now with your Holy Spirit and enable him to explain this portion of your word to us and help us to pay close attention and minimize distractions in the room so that we can learn more about the truths inculcated in this chapter. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen. Amen. We're in 2 Samuel chapter number 15 and here in verse number 1 the Bible reads, And it came to pass after this that Absalom prepared him chariots and horses and fifty men to run before him. Now, after this is simply Absalom's return, David has allowed him to see his face, and it all kind of seemed like we kind of got over it. Absalom, even though he did wrong in killing his brother Amnon and had to flee, he's kind of been restored and if you paid attention last week, we kind of realized though that a lot of the decisions that David made were not really coming from God. There was no instance in the previous chapter where we have a prophet of God delivering a message unto David, we have David inquiring of the Bible, we have any kind of real reference to what God thinks about this situation, we simply have David restoring Absalom. And I think that sometimes people think like, well, this person shouldn't be in my life biblically, but I'm just going to go ahead and restore them anyways. And it seems like it's working out, seems like it's fine, you know. And this is really where you get this idea, this concept of people being more merciful or more loving than God. And, you know, there's a lot of people out there that would just say, as far as the church is concerned, everyone's welcome at our church. All are welcome. And what's silly about this concept is you're actually trying to be more loving or more kind than God or more merciful than God, but there's a problem because you can be quote-unquote too merciful or too gracious where you end up bringing in wolves. And there's nothing gracious about bringing in a wolf. You know, if you actually associate the right wording, then it doesn't make any sense. If you said, I'm so gracious to let criminals come in here and pedophiles and wolves and everything like that, you're not really being gracious. What you're actually doing is you're not even doing your job. You know, what if I worked for a restaurant and every time someone ordered food and I just didn't let them pay. I just said, you know what, no need to pay today. And then the boss is like, what are you doing? And it's like, well, I'm just more gracious than you are. I mean, do you think your boss would be pleased with that? He's like, oh man, yeah, you're just so gracious with my food. I hired you to actually take their money and to pay for the good, you know, have them pay for their goods. You just keep giving it away for free. Actually what you're doing is you're stealing because it's not yours to give. And here's the thing, church is not my house to determine the rules. Church is not for me to decide what's right or wrong. The Bible, the Lord Jesus Christ is the shepherd. He's the one that decides what's right or wrong. And so if he says certain people aren't allowed in, I can't be more gracious than God. I can't be more gracious than the Lord. Really what I'm doing is I'm breaking his rules. I'm breaking his commandments. And I'm actually deceitful in the sense that I'm claiming to be gracious when I'm not. I'm claiming to be loving when I'm not. I'm claiming to be merciful when I'm truly not. Because you cannot be merciful to everyone. You know, you could say, well, this person committed murder. They killed someone. And you know what, I'm just so merciful, I'm just going to let it go, no punishment. But wait a minute, is that showing mercy to the family that's the victim? Is that showing mercy under the potential next victim that's coming down the pike? So you see, you can't technically have mercy towards everyone because then you'll actually have no mercy. You'll have no grace. You know, the devil likes everyone to be on his team, you know, because he's so gracious and merciful. But here's the problem, he has zero grace and zero mercy. Because when you let everyone on the team, it just shows you have no character, you have no real standards. And when David just allows Absalom to come back into his life, here's the thing, here's the problem, is that we don't know if that's legit or not. And of course we know it's not legit because God already said the opposite. You know, you say like, well, I don't know if I should give this person grace or not. Well, here's the question, what does the Bible say? Because if the Bible's saying don't give grace to this person, then why are you giving grace to this person? You know, there's even passages in the New Testament that bring up the idea of someone praying for someone and he's saying if they've committed a sin worthy unto death or a sin unto death, I do not say you should pray for it. Saying like there are certain people, certain situations, certain events that you don't pray for they're good. God even had to tell Jeremiah, hey, don't pray for this people's good. Because what they've done is they've gone past the point of return and you're just enabling them to do wickedness. Now Absalom is a complex character and it seems like as you read the story, he kind of gets worse and worse and worse. But one thing that's really consistent with Absalom's character is the sense that he doesn't ever do anything himself. He always likes to get other people to do his dirty work, right? Notice in verse one it said that he had 50 men to run before him. Now this is the opposite of what you call leadership. When men are running before you, that shows that you're a coward. That shows that you are basically a bad leader because you're not the tip of the spear. The tip of the spear is leading the charge, it's setting the example. You know, for these men they don't have an example to follow. They simply have to follow whatever Absalom claims or Absalom suggests and they basically just entice other people to do these wicked things. But Absalom is consistently a person who will often have other people do his dirty work. Now he does get his hands dirty here eventually, but initially he's just saying, you know, run before me, right? Protect me, verse two. Absalom said, moreover, oh, that I were made judge in the land, that every man which hath any suit or cause might come unto me, and I would do him justice. And it was so that when any man came nigh to him to do him obeisance, he put forth his hand and took him and kissed him. So Absalom gets 50 guys to run before him, but then he kind of just sets himself up in this position where he's catching a lot of passer-bys that are going to David. They want to see David and part of the responsibilities of the king is to judge, is to judge matters. And of course, you know, the Bible's biblical system was a system of judges that kind of would, you know, spiral up and you had all these judges making decisions. And really, frankly speaking, you know, our country on paper works that way, where we have a system of judges, you have your local judges, your low-level judges, district judges, county-level judges, and it kind of escalates and kind of builds. It kind of goes from a real small-level municipalities and districts and counties and then to regions, states, and then basically it goes all the way to the Supreme Court, which is considered the highest court in the land. And you have several judges that make up that system. There's not really a singular judge, it's a panel of judges. Now, I'm not saying it's perfectly biblical, but I'm saying it kind of follows a similar biblical model. Here, the king is kind of the ultimate judge and then he's going to have judges that kind of go below him. But it's just like America in the sense that you can't just get a case heard by the Supreme Court just because you want to. In fact, in order to even get a case heard by the Supreme Court, you have to go through all of the first few legal processes, all the first few courts and judges, and then you have to write like a petition to the Supreme Court about your case. And then based on all the petitions, they end up selecting only a handful of cases submitted to them that they will actually hear. So, and again, from their perspective, they are trying to find cases that would potentially set a course of action that would determine many other legal cases and any other lawsuits that are kind of similar related, have the same components or elements to them. So the king is in the same way where just because you have a problem doesn't mean you get to go see the king. You're probably going to have to see some other judge or some other low-level person. And so Absalom knows this and he's kind of tugging at the heartstrings of the individuals of Israel by saying, oh man, if I were the king, I would hear every case. And it's funny how Absalom just kind of does like the opposite of every godly person in the Bible. Like, you think about Moses. Moses at first tried to hear and judge every single matter, didn't he? But then he realized that was wrong and he decided he had to deputize other individuals, other men, other appointees, and he would only hear the hard cases specifically, similar to how the Supreme Court works in our case. But Absalom wants to just go ahead and flip it on his table and say, I would hear every case. And not only that, every single case that came to me, automatic winner. I mean, notice what he said in verse number three, and Absalom said to them, see thy matters are good and right. He didn't even ask about the thing. Think about what it just said. It said in verse number two, it said, of what city art thou? So it's like, hey, where are you from? And they're like, I'm from Houston. And it's like, you're right. Really? Yeah. Waco, you're right. Austin, wrong. No, I'm just kidding. He's like, Austin, right. San Francisco, right. I mean, this guy doesn't care. This dad doesn't actually hear the matter. He doesn't even know what the suit is. He's not asking to hear about all the case and what happened. He's also not telling people that they're wrong. And that's a bad situation. If every single person is right, then no one's right. I mean, this guy's not actually a legitimate judge. He's really a perverted judge. And what he's doing is making bad judgments by just simply just carte blanche, just saying, hey, you're automatically right. And then he digs at his dad. Notice that he's undermining his dad's leadership. And he's attacking his dad's leadership by saying there's no man deputed of the king to hear thee, saying the king doesn't care about you. I love you. I want to hear your matters. But the king, he doesn't care about you. You know what? This is classic gaslighting. This is classic just manipulation. This is a wicked attribute. And lots of people will constantly use these type of tactics to get what they want. And it's really showing that he has an evil, wicked heart here. Look at verse number four. He said, oh, that I were made judge of the land. Now, here's the thing. Did this person coming by and just passing by Absalom? How much does this person just care about Absalom being the judge? Like, he doesn't care about that. In fact, it's interesting that in this conversation, Absalom is bringing more up about himself than the persons matter. I mean, you didn't even hear what the guy's matter is, but he wants to tell him all his problems. Oh, man, the king doesn't have time for you. Man, I should be the judge. You can see his agenda. You can see that he's using some propaganda techniques. He's using subliminal messaging. He's kind of planting ideas into people's mind and trying to get them to buy what he's selling. And, you know, this would be tactics that even salesmen will employ. Salesmen and people that are constantly trying to manipulate politicians, the media, advertisers. They all use Absalom's techniques here. They just kind of plant these subliminal messages into the system. You know, you go watch a movie and every single person at lunch is drinking a Coke. If you notice, like, you'll notice, like, every single person has a Coca-Cola. And it's like you've never been to a restaurant in your life where every single person is drinking the exact same beverage. Or everybody has the exact same, you know, car. They have the exact same whatever. But it's like these advertisers just want to put it in the film just because you look at Coke and you're just like, that sounds pretty good. You know, chocolate cake. That sounds pretty good. Yeah. Whatever it is, they're putting that subliminal message into your mind and then you're going to end up doing that whether you like it or not. You know, whatever you listen to, I kind of tried to tell this to somebody today. I was like saying, look, unfortunately, it's not necessarily unfortunate, but just as a consequence to listening to a lot of my preaching, whatever I bring up, a lot of the people in this room will end up doing. Not because they want to necessarily, but just because it does just happen. Whoever you just listen to a lot of, you'll end up picking up some of their habits, traits, likes, interests, whatever it is. You might try things that you wouldn't normally try just because of that situation. And so obviously, you know, people might have eaten it out back more in the last two years than they have in their previous life, right? They might have decided that ranch is gross, you know, if they're right with God. Obviously, there's certain things that they're going to do whether it's even biblical or not. Now, of course, the things that I say, hey, this is what you should do. Here's what I think you should do. Yeah, you should do that every single time, right? But I'm saying, like, obviously, there's just other things that I bring up, interests I have, hobbies I have, things, and you're just going to basically, to some degree, that'll trigger things in your mind and you might end up doing them, okay? I've noticed this the same for me. And that's why it's important that you're careful what you listen to and you're careful to the messages that come around. And obviously, you know, you drive down the road, billboards are trying to constantly put these messages into your mind. I saw this stupid billboard today. We're driving to church tonight and it was said, like, a people commit suicide by gun every day. And I was like, what? And then I look and it was, like, there's actually a logo that had, like, a number. And it's supposed to be, like, 69 people commit suicide by gun every day. But it was, like, so poorly advertised, I couldn't even figure out what it was. Maybe just by being such a bad billboard, it actually worked by catching my attention. I don't know. Like, a grammatically incorrect sentence, like, caught my attention more than if it was, like, actually good. But then I just sat there and I'm thinking, like, what's the point of this stupid billboard? Now, of course, yeah, do I like the fact that people commit suicide? No. But, you know, there's probably 69 people out there that it wouldn't really hurt my feelings if they committed suicide. So it's kind of contextual, isn't it? You know what I mean? I mean, there's probably even more than that that are out there that I'm thinking, like, okay, that was a good day, you know? Or maybe it's a really bad day. It kind of is contextually driven. But then I'm also thinking, like, what's the message here? I don't think anybody's advocating for suicide necessarily. Like, I've never really heard that message. I don't really advocate for suicide, generally speaking. So I don't really understand why that would be a message. So it's like, is this just a propaganda tool to basically make it sound like guns are bad? And I'm like, who's paying for this junk? Who's paying for this stupid billboard that was poorly designed, poorly advertised? It's just these little subtle messages to try and creep into the minds of everyone in our society to try and say guns are bad. And look, that is how Absalom works. It just constantly gets these little stupid messages in here, like, guns are bad, guns are bad, guns are bad. And it's just like, you know, it's also not very contextual when it says 69 people die. Are we talking, like, the entire world? Are we talking the United States? Are we talking Texas? You know, if we just compared that with how many people just die. Also, you know, was it even really purposeful? Was it an accident? What was the exact situation? You know, how did they acquire these guns? I mean, there's so much context around this statement. What does this statement really mean? And so you have to be careful about all the messaging that's constantly coming into your brain. Think about this. Hey, oh, I want to be judged in the land. Well, if we slow down and pay attention to that statement, we can tell a lot about Absalom. We can tell that Absalom has some hatred towards his father. We can tell that Absalom has some disdain towards his father, doesn't like his father, thinks that he's better than his father. Now, why do you think he has that idea? I'll tell you why he has that idea. Because David wouldn't put Ann on to death and Absalom did. Now, let me say something. Absalom had better judgment than David in that realm. Now, it wasn't good judgment for Absalom to do that out of the boundaries of the law. So, I'm not saying that what he did was right. What I'm saying is, in his mind, he's right. So, according to Absalom, he's like, well, I have a better judgment than my father because I actually dealt with Amnon and my father wasn't willing to deal with Amnon. And I'll tell you this, there is going to be a tendency, especially in teenagers, but in all people, to have disdain for their parents for the bad decisions and bad judgments that they make. Now, keep your finger and go to Ephesians, chapter number 6 for a moment. Go to Ephesians, chapter number 6. Let me make something clear. It's almost 100%, if not for sure, you will, at times, have a better judgment than your parents. There will be times when you are right and your parents are wrong. Now, it doesn't matter what the age is, all ages. As a young child, sometimes you can be right and your parents are wrong. As a teenager, you're going to think you're right a lot and think that your parents are wrong, but only sometimes is that true. But even then, I can't even think to this day times where I had a conversation with my mother or with my father and I was right and they were wrong when I was a teenager. But you know what? It's a prideful person that decides, well, now I'm going to second guess my parents' judgment or not listen to my parents because sometimes they're wrong. Because sometimes I'm right and they're wrong. Look at Ephesians, chapter 6, verse 1. Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Let me tell you something. It's not for you to decide if you obey your parents or not. It's not for you to decide if you're going to submit or subject yourself to your parents. You just always do what your parents say, period. Because you don't think that God realized that your parents are going to make some bad decisions at some point in their life? I mean, what parent in here is just like, I've never been wrong in my entire life? Don't raise your hand, okay? We all make mistakes. We all can have bad judgments. We can all do things that are wrong. We all have our imperfections. But you know what? Our children are supposed to submit to us and obey us and follow our lead and our example regardless of how good we are, regardless of how right with God we are, regardless of what kind of judgments we make. In fact, you can see this modeled in Saul and Jonathan when Saul kind of made this really dumb rule about not eating. And it was just kind of bizarre why he made this rule. But Jonathan went ahead and disobeyed his father. And whenever Jonathan basically explained to his father why that was a bad decision and explained to the people that it was a bad decision, it kind of made sense. But here's the thing. Whenever they cast lots and God was guiding the lot, he said that Jonathan was wrong. He didn't say that Saul was wrong. He said that Jonathan was wrong. So even if in our mind, even if it makes perfect sense how Dad's wrong, you know what? You do whatever Dad said. You do whatever your parents say. And here's another thing. You just do whatever the leader says, whether you like his judgment or not, whether you agree with his judgment 100% of the time. And let me give you a tip for church, too. There's going to be times when you know more than me. There are going to be times when you have a better judgment or a better idea than your pastor. There will be times when you know something in the Bible that I don't know. There will be times when I make a mistake while preaching and you understand that I made a mistake because you understood that better than me or whatever it is. There are going to be times when I'm not perfect. I make a mistake. But let me tell you something. If you decide to disobey me or disobey your pastor or go against the church because you think you have better judgment than me, you're wrong. And you're wrong if you do that to any pastor, to any church, if you do that to your boss. You know what? You obey your boss even if you're smarter than him, even if you have a better decision than him, even if you've already seen him make certain mistakes. Because it's not for us to decide to rebel at any point. The only exception is when we say, I'm not technically rebelling, I'm just obeying God. Right? Obviously, there's a time when there's a struggle of power between the higher powers. I get that, right? We're not talking about sinning here. We're not saying if your leadership is asking you to commit murder and you're like, well, I don't know what to do. I think that's the wrong judgment. No, no, no. You obey Christ at that point. But it's not that you're rebelling against your boss, you're just obeying the higher power. But you should not rebel against your boss, your leadership, your authority. Obviously, the clear exception of following God's commandments. But if it's not in a violation of God's commandments, you follow the leader. And even if they're in violation of God's commandments, it's still not for you to then go out of your boundaries. Just like Absalom went out of his boundary to put his brother to death, even though that's technically right, it was David's job. It was David's responsibility, so you don't do it. Here would be a thing, and this is like the really easy way to understand this, okay? Let's say your husband screws up. Well, shouldn't you be rebuked for screwing up? Shouldn't someone tell you that you did something wrong if you do something wrong? But you know what? It's not the wife's responsibility to rebuke or correct her husband. So she could sit here and think like, well, you screwed up, so I'm in the right in telling you that you did wrong. But you know what? You're actually in the wrong because you're not supposed to rebuke and correct your husband and tell him what to do. Unless he asks for correction, right? I mean, so you have to make it clear, even when your parents screw up, it's not for the children to go around and rebuke their parents and tell their parents what to do. No, you just submit to the authority. You submit to the leadership. You don't go around and just think, well, I'm better than them. I should be in charge now. No, no, no. If you should be in charge, God will put you in charge. You know, David didn't walk around saying like, who's going to put me in charge? David waited for God to put him in charge. And think about the differences between Absalom and David. David walked in to a problem, and he didn't get 50 men to run before him. He ran at Goliath by himself. No one was behind him. No one was running with him. Nobody was there. Absalom gets 50 guys to run before him. Okay? David walks into the camp, and he actually corrects his brethren who refused to do any kind of fighting against Goliath. He's actually correcting them, whereas Absalom is just telling them everything's right, everything's good. You know, David doesn't care about pissing people off or making friends. You know, I'm sure everybody was a little bit envious and a little bit kind of like, who's this little shepherd boy coming here saying like, he's going to fight Goliath? But you know what? David didn't care because he's going to go fight the enemy. Whereas Absalom wants everyone to like him. He's a career politician. Okay? And he just, this is the only thing Absalom cares about, being in charge. It doesn't really matter how he gets in charge. It doesn't really matter what he has to say. It doesn't really matter what he has to do. He just wants to be in charge. And I believe that that has stemmed from coming from this place of, well, my dad's not as good a judge as I am. Because look at Amnon. And here's the thing. Yes, David made a mistake with Amnon. But that does not mean that you're now better than David. And just because you notice a mistake in the leader doesn't make you better than that leader. Doesn't make you more qualified for that position or ready to do their job. You know, it's that armchair quarterback mentality. Right? Where you're watching the quarterback throw an interception and you're like, I would have never thrown that. And maybe you wouldn't have. But that's because you wouldn't have been able to see over the line. And you would have gotten sacked like way earlier than that. And you would have gotten injured before that. And in fact, you just never would have made the team. So it really doesn't even matter what you think. Because you're not able to do his job. And here's the thing. Hey Absalom, why don't you go kill Goliath first and then tell us what kind of judgments you're going to make, buddy? Why don't you actually go out and kill a bunch of Philistines and get 200 foreskins first and then come tell us about your judgment, buddy? You know, everybody wants to think like, oh, I could do it at the top. But wait a minute. Could you do all the things necessary to get there legitimately? Everybody's like, oh, I could be the pastor. And it's like, oh, really? Well, how about you start reading the Bible and studying and praying and serving and being humble for a while if you're just so good at being the leader? You know, it's really easy to, quote unquote, be at the top in your mind. But you know what? It's a lot harder to actually earn it and get there. Absalom doesn't want to do that. And look, I'll say this. There's nothing wrong with Absalom wanting to be king. Okay? He's the son of the king. But here's the problem. He's going about it the wrong way. Why not be humble about it and just say, you know what? I would like to be king one day. Or I do think that's an important job or an important role. So why don't I just go ahead and learn as much as I can from my father? Why don't I help my father? Why don't I serve my father? You know, if it never works out, at least I serve my father. But you know what? I don't think there's anything wrong. Just like the Bible talks about being a pastor, there's nothing wrong with desiring the office of a bishop. But, you know, you shouldn't just decide, oh, I already should be that person. Let me go ahead and figure out how to get in that position. Rather than just humbly serving and allowing it to happen naturally. You know, Absalom is going to force his hand and force it to work out in his favor. Now, go if you would back to our story and let's notice verse number five or verse six. It says, And on this manner did Absalom to all Israel that came to the king for judgment. So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel. Now, here's another thing, though, is it worked. And evil tactics work. Keep your finger. I want to go one more place. Go to Proverbs 14 and I'm spending a few minutes on these first few verses. But if I preach a short sermon, you'd freak out. So you drove through the rain for a reason, right? No, I'm just kidding. Proverbs 14, look at verse number 15. The Bible says, The simple believeth every word. But the prudent man, look at where it was going. You have to be a person who does not believe everything. You have to be skeptical. You have to prove all things. You have to test things. And praise the Lord that God gives us this commandment even about scripture. He tells us to study the scripture and He tells us to prove the Lord and to test these things. Why? Because God already knows that He's going to stand the test. He's going to stand the test of time. He's going to stand the test of endurance. He's going to stand the test. You know, wisdom is justified of all our children is what Jesus brought up. And what that simply means is if something's really true, if something's truly wise, it's going to be evident. It's not like you have to really convince people of the truth. The truth is already powerful enough of itself. And when it's the Word of God, you know, we can know that it's the Word of God through testing. Because it's always true. It's always right. It's always evident. It always comes to pass. It never fails. God's truth never fails. We see everything in the scripture exactly describes our world. Every event. So we can have some reliance. We can have some confidence on the Word of God. But also we believe by faith too. Because there's going to be areas in the Bible where we haven't tested it yet. We haven't proved it yet, but we just walk by faith anyways. And then by walking by faith, you're constantly testing and proving it. And it'll constantly increase that faith, increase that confidence, increase your trust in the Word of God. But you know what? When you're constantly testing everything, you're just in a constant testing mode. You're going to start realizing there's a lot of things that are not like the Bible. There's a lot of people that are not like Jesus. Who lie. Who steal. Who deceive. Who are selfish. Who have evil motivations. You start realizing that everyone seems to be just a big liar. That everyone will proclaim every man his own goodness. But a faithful man who can find. You start realizing the imperfections in mankind. And eventually you'll come to this conclusion, everybody sucks. Okay? Now this is my personal philosophy. And look, I'm included. Okay? I'm not discluding myself. But here's the thing. You have to realize people cannot be depended upon. People will fail you in every way possible. I mean, when you plan things, you can never plan for the happy path. Okay? In programming there's this term called the happy path programming. And it's basically you just believe that the user will do everything right. All the information they give you is perfect. And they'll click on all the right buttons and all the right sequences. And they'll do everything exactly as designed. But here's a problem that never happens. So you'll end up being a very poor designer, engineer, architect, anything when you try to program or you try to develop or engineer or build things with that type of mentality. You know, I remember my dad would tell me a joke. There's a computer assistant or technician and he's receiving calls from support. And this is a long time ago. Okay? Some of you might not get this because you're too young. But the technician is receiving calls and this person says, hey, I have a problem. My copy holder, my copy cup holder is not working. And he's like, sorry, this is a computer technician. And she's like, no, no, no, it's my computer. My computer copy cup holder is not working. And he's like, well, can you describe it? And she's like, yeah, it's this round little hole. And it pops out when you press the eject button. It's like, sorry, man, there's a CD wrong. Right? I mean, you can't how could you ever like develop that and be like, this is not coffee. You know, this is for not not for a coffee cups. Right. You read the warning labels. You should read warning labels of like what things are not for. And you're just like, really? You know, it's not for that. Okay. That seems pretty obvious. You know, it's like McDonald's has to put like extremely hot coffee on their coffee cup because they got sued for a woman spilling hot coffee on herself and saying she didn't know it was hot and won. That's why they had to put hot coffee. It's just like, oh, okay. Obviously, they have cold coffee now, I guess. So maybe that's the thing. But it's just like this is the type of people that exist in our world that they believe everything. They're so simplistic. They have no real aptitude to comprehend anything. And so evil people prey on them. Evil people take advantage of them through propaganda, through subliminal messaging, because they can sit here and they can kind of manipulate and trick people into doing things that they want, into believing things that they want, getting people on their team, getting people on their side. And David does the exact same thing. Notice how does it work? Well, didn't he kiss them? When is David going to come down off his throne and come give you a handshake or give you a man hug or whatever? David's not going to have any man to hear you, but I'll give you a kiss. And obviously, this is a greeting that's not in our custom or our culture really, but it's just simply a really nice gesture in essence, especially of a person of authority to kiss another man that's considered lower than him would essentially be the biggest flattery you could probably do. Because you wouldn't give this kind of greeting unless you have respect under the person or you think that they have a lot of value. And he's basically trying to insinuate, oh, yeah, you're so special to me. Because again, isn't a kiss also kind of a show of intimacy, like it's kind of an essence of this is something that like, you know, us as men, we don't have this, but maybe you might give some people like a hug, family members or a really close friend. You might give them a hug or whatever, right? But if you just went up to some guy at your work that you barely met, you wouldn't just go give him a bear hug. That'd be kind of awkward. It'd be kind of weird, right? So by him giving this kind of greeting, it's almost like acting like we're buddies. You know, we're best of pals. And think about it, go all the way to Matthew, chapter number 26. One of the interesting things about this chapter is how it parallels to future events. And Absalom in your Bible often pictures a very evil, wicked person. Now we understand that David pictures the Lord Jesus Christ in many places in our scripture. And it's no different than in this chapter where David is also a picture of Christ. And Absalom here, interestingly enough, pictures Judas. Because if you think about it, how does Absalom betray David? He betrays him with a kiss. And how does Judas betray Jesus? With a kiss. In Matthew 26, verse 45, the Bible says, Then cometh he to his disciples, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest. Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed in the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going. Behold, he is at hand that doth betray me. And while he yet spake, lo, Judas one of the twelve came, and with him a great multitude with swords and staves, from the chief priests and elders of the people. Now he that betrayed him gave them a sign, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, the same as he, hold him fast. And forthwith he came to Jesus, and said, Hail, Master, and kissed him. Notice again also flattery from Judas, Hail, Master, oh, wonderful Master. But he gives them the kiss of death. He gives them the deceitful kiss. The kisses of an enemy are deceitful, is what the Bible says. And you have to beware of this insincere, over-the-top flattery that people will give you while they try to make it seem like your best buddies or best pals or best friends. Go to Luke chapter number 22, Luke 22. You have to really think about their actions and say, Is this person really my friend? I mean, if you just met Absalom five minutes ago, is he really your best bud? I mean, if he's saying, Man, we're best of buds, you have to just know instantly the person's lying. You cannot sit here and think, like, I think that's true, no matter how much you want it to be true. I mean, if you go meet your superstar, your idol, or whoever it is that you look up to, the person that you think is a great person, and in the first few minutes they're acting like your best friends, they're lying to you. That politician that doesn't know you is lying to you, and he's just like, You're right. I agree with you. You're such a good guy. I'm going to have dinner with you someday. We should do dinner sometime. This is what I, this is, in my mind, what these people do all the time is they say things that sound really cool that they will never do. They're like, You know what, you and me, we need to get drinks, or you and me, we need to go eat dinner, or you and me, we need to go catch a game. Hey, I want to let you, I have like this really awesome box. I have like the cool box seats at the Cowboys. You should come with me sometime. All you can eat, all you can drink, I mean, we should definitely do that, and you're thinking like, Yeah, what's the date? Like, when do we set this up? I'll call you, man. Don't worry. It's like they're just saying stuff like this, and it's like, but then you have to pay attention. Oh, the guy right before me, he got the same offer, and the guy right after me got the same offer. How big is this box seat area? Right? Then you start realizing this person doesn't actually care about it. You know, it's just the same as that whore, that cheap woman, that you walk into the bar and she's just like, Where have you been all my life? It's like she's a liar. She was going to say that to any guy that walked in, because there's plenty of women in their mind, they say like, I'm just not going home alone tonight, so they just, they're just trying to get with anyone, with anything, and they will say anything to get with that particular individual. You have to, have to test people's words with their actions and say, Does this make sense? Look at Luke 22, look at verse 47, and while he had spake behold a multitude, and he that was called Judas, one of the twelve, went before them and drew near unto Jesus to kiss him. But Jesus said unto them, Judas, betrayest thou the son of man with a kiss? I mean, Jesus even knew it was going to happen, and then he still did it. You know, now again, I don't know what the exact right approach would be, but if someone's just calling you out like that, you're not going to go through with it if you're a sincere person. You know, if someone thought you were like stabbing in the back, you know, in that moment, you're not going to go through it. So it's like, you can see how these people's actions just don't really line up, don't really make sense. Think about Judas is bringing things up in his, in their ministry. You know, why was this ointment not sold and given to the poor for 300 pence? Not that he cared for the poor, you know, you could have actually looked and seen, has Judas ever actually given any money to the poor? Has he given a cloak to any of the poor? Like maybe just Judas has like this, this really special gift where he just cares about poor people so much, and you just noticed it, right? Like he's always caring about the poor, he's always helping the poor, and so then he just had this wrong idea. But it's like, hey, I've been around Judas and he never tips, he never gives any money to any person. He's always really stingy, he's like a Jew or something, and yet he says he cares for the poor, right? He cares for people that are in need. It's like Joe Biden's, like he just loves black people so much. And it's like, okay, Joe Biden, name all your best black friends, your best friends that are black. Hey, Joe Biden, name all the black people that you went and had lunch with or dinner with or you hang out with. Hey, Joe Biden, you know, he's like, oh, these Democrats care so much about the poor and they want to give them so much money and help or whatever. And it's like, okay, Joe Biden, how much money did you give to the poor this year? Oh, 300 bucks? Wow. That's impressive. I mean, you must just really care for the poor, don't you, buddy? You know, I think someone like did calculation in like 10 years. He only gave like a thousand bucks a year or something to charity. And again, we don't even know what that charity was. You like hear charity like what's decent, you know, I mean, at least he gave some money that that charity could have been just some charity to give money to Hunter Biden, like Hunter Biden paintings or something like that, you know, Hunter Biden's crack cocaine fund or something, you know, most and most of these things, they're basically what these rich people do is they just hand over the keys of the castle to their accountant and their accountant just puts it in all the buckets. He probably didn't even realize he did it. He probably was thinking like, I didn't give any money to the charity. What is this? And he's like, it works from a tax perspective and like, okay, you know, whatever, you know, I mean, cause here's the thing, people that are taking advantage of charitable donations for a tax benefit would never give that few of dollars. They would be giving hundreds of thousands to shield a lot of the taxes that they're having, you know, taken out. So someone that's giving that insignificant amount of money was probably never purposely gave him an assent to charity. It just simply fit one of the tax buckets that their accountants put it in. Okay. Because a lot of things are charitable donations that have nothing to, I mean, giving money to Antifa, I mean, giving it to BLM, you know, this could be considered a charitable donation that's tax deductible. I mean, how many of you would like to brag about giving money to these groups? Hey, I helped buy a mansion for these rich spoiled black sodomites that claim that they care about black people. Talk about a bunch of Absalom's, BLM, the leaders of BLM going around pontificating about how much they care about black people when they rip them off and take all of their money. I mean, they're taking money from poor black people so they can have nice mansions and cars and eat out and do whatever they want. I mean, they're a bunch of liars and scumbags is what they are. And you know what, there's nothing wrong with leadership having things nice, but why are you such a hypocrite about it? It's not like you're blessing other people with that. Well, it's not like you actually cared about those people. You didn't actually do anything to deserve that. When did they actually go and volunteer in the community or help some poor black kid or, you know, sit down with them or love on them or do something? You know what? Hey, at least if they were actually doing that, maybe they deserve a good paycheck. You know what? These people are scam artists. And you know what? Absalom is a scam artist. He doesn't actually care. Judas was a scam artist. Judas only cared about getting a position of power. And once he realized Jesus was never going to do that, he betrayed him for money. We went back to our story. It says in verse number seven, and it came to pass after 40 years that Absalom said unto the king, I pray thee, let me go and pay my vow, which I have vowed unto the Lord in Hebron. Now, the 40 years there is an interesting phrasing. I think it's probably suggesting the age of Absalom at this point in time. This is simply from, if you think about timeline a little bit, I believe Absalom was born in Hebron. He was born of a Hinoim, and he married a Hinoim, the Jezrelitist, and he didn't come to Jerusalem. David didn't come empty handed. He came with some wives and children. And when David dies, he's around the age of 70, right? So in the time of David's death, also seems to be really close to this particular sequence of events. So it kind of roughly adds up to be probably, this is about Absalom's age. So it's about 40 years, now Absalom, or I'm sorry, then, yeah, Absalom is doing these type of things. It's not that he did this scheme for 40 years, that would be mathematically impossible based on ages and chronology and everything like that. So that's what, that's my best guess as far as what that means. I think that that's correct. Verse 8. For thy servant vowed a vow while I abode at Geshur and Syria, saying, If the Lord shall bring me again indeed to Jerusalem, then I will serve the Lord. And the king said in him, Go in peace. So he rose and went to Hebron. Now this is weird. It's like, hey, I made a vow to God that if I get to go back to Jerusalem and serve him, then I'll go to Hebron. It's like, well, why are you going to Hebron? Why would you go to, the story just kind of seems weird. So it's like, I guess he didn't know your son very well, that your son's not a very spiritual person, even though he's claiming to be one of the most spiritual people ever. I mean, I made a vow to God, and I have to honor this vow, and my vow is that I will serve the Lord. You know what? I think this is what happened. David had wishful thinking. And sometimes parents, they just allow themselves to be lied to by their children because they want to believe their children are good. It's like, mom and dad, of course I'll never commit for an occasion. I just want to go pick up my girlfriend and just go on a nice vacation alone, and we'll go under the sunset, and we'll play checkers, and we're going to do a Bible study while we're there. We've been thinking about it, and we just want to go on this really fancy trip. I know it's with my girlfriend, but it's just, I know we've been dating for two days, but I'm in love with her already, and you know, it's a match made in heaven, and we're going to take checkers and chess, and we're going to play patty cake, and we're going to read the Bible. We're going to read Bible stories, and we're going to sit six feet apart at all times, and the only time we look at each other, we're going to say praise the Lord. The parents are just like, what? My child's such a godly person, such a wonderful person, and ignore all the clothes that I put in there. I'm not actually aware. I'm just going to bring them with me. I know they don't look right, and I won't drive that car really fast when you're not looking. It's like, parents just want to believe in the best in their children. You should believe the worst about your children. You were a child. How do you not realize that you were doing dumb things, foolish things? The sins that you did, it's like, why would you think that your children are so trustworthy? It's like, don't have this naive approach of just like, oh, absolutely, he's supposed to serve God, man. I know he killed a bunch of people and set a field on fire, but he's just a servant of God. Why? Because I'm sure David wants his sons to serve the Lord like he did, right? Don't let your zeal allow you to make bad judgments about your children. If your child's not the best child, don't be unrealistic with them. Not every child's going to be David, and that's okay. You don't have to be David. You know what? Don't just try to make them David or believe they're David when they're not, and just let them just ruin their lives because you're unwilling to discipline them, because you're unwilling to correct them, because you're unwilling to spend the extra time needed to teach and to train them and to do that which is right. You know, if it's harder for them to do certain tasks or they have struggles in certain areas, then you need to work on those weaknesses with your children. And don't let this fake, you know, this fake spirituality, it makes me think of Adam Fanon, because when Adam Fanon was the evangelist, in quotes, okay, he was the so-called evangelist for Jacksonville. I don't know if he actually did any evangelism, but he at least had the title. While he was out there and I was coming in as leadership, you know, the plan was that he was just going to stay on as the evangelist, and I was fine with that. In fact, the first several conversations I had with him were all about planning that and just talking about, you know, him being the evangelist and, you know, my, quote, unquote, expectations, which really I didn't have much. I really, it was mostly him just kind of like digging information out of me or what I wanted. I'm just kind of telling him like, do whatever you want, like it's, you know, just keep it going, and whatever problems you have, I'll help try to make him better. And he had a couple issues and I tried to like, he wanted more money, which I'm thinking like in hindsight, that was kind of a red flag. I mean, when your church is just had like going through a spiritual crisis and the only thing that your evangelist cares about is paycheck, that is a big red flag. I just was kind of like naive initially and just thinking like, okay, well, you know, sure, we'll fix that, you know, whatever, whatever, whatever we need to do, we'll make it work because money, money doesn't matter. When we're talking about people's souls on the line, we're talking about soul winners, we're talking about a church keeping together, it's like, let's spend all the money if we need to, you know, I don't want you worrying about money when you need to be worried about people's souls and keeping people, you know, in church and making sure that they're okay. I mean, their pastor just got caught from being one of the most giant hypocrites ever. He probably, in fact, not just being a giant hypocrite, was probably teaching some junk, was probably doing some really shady things. I mean, it's not the time for a promotion, okay, but that's what, you know, wicked people, that's all they can think about and at a time of crisis, it's about them, it's not about other people. Also, this is what I think about, he's like, oh, I just want to go serve the Lord. It's like Adam Fannin, when he finally got, I finally decided to expose the guy for all the stupid things he was saying and doing, he said, all right, I'm going to walk away and we're going to go to an old IFB church and we're just going to serve the Lord quietly. That's what he said. He said, we're going to leave the building and we're going to go serve God quietly, we're just going to go to an old IFB, and then it's like one week later, Pastor Adam Fannin. Now, of course, people are making fun of that, so then they, like a few weeks later, months later or whatever, then he had to get the whole congregation to come up there and, you know, a bunch of flat earthers to come lay hands on him and tell him that he's a pastor now or something. But it's like, who decided that? He did. But again, he had to use this fake spiritual, if you were really a spiritual person and you disagreed with the church, there's nothing wrong with walking away just going and serving another church. There's nothing wrong with that. But then who decided to just make this new church Law of Liberty Baptist Church, I mean, let me ask this, what church birthed Law of Liberty Baptist Church? It came out of the imagination of Adam Fannin. He birthed it. It's like, who anointed David King, Samuel? Who anointed Absalom King, Absalom, okay, you got to see the pattern here of what these wicked people are like and what their real agenda is. And again, this is the only thing that Adam Fannin could really bring up because he brought up the money but that was one time. This is the only thing, ordination. Just when am I going to be ordained? I want to be ordained. People want to ordain me. When am I going to be ordained? What's your ordation timeline? What's your ordation, you know, requirements? And I'm like, well, you have to meet the biblical requirements like having faithful children. Sorry, you're not there. You're going to have to wait until you can actually, that statement isn't just a joke to say about you. You know, when your kid's on a leash in church, okay, like that's kind of bizarre. Now again, I'm not judging you if you've used a leash other places, but if you're bringing that in church, sorry, that's weird, okay. I get it, like children can be crazy and you've got a wild child and you're going to a really dangerous place, like on a hike or to like maybe a zoo or something. You may decide to use a contraption like that, just be extra cautious. But let me tell you something, you know why you did that? Because the child's not faithful, okay. You didn't have to put a leash on, I don't have to put a leash on my wife when we walk in, okay. I don't have to put a leash on Dylan when I walk around here, okay, but you certainly wouldn't think he's a faithful employee if he was on a leash. What do you put on leashes? Dogs. Because dogs aren't faithful. Dogs are crazy. Dogs are unpredictable. They could do any, all manner of thing at any moment and then something could just squirrel, you know, or just attack or pee or whatever, it's just like dog, I mean it's just like, it's like a toddler, you know, it's just like you don't even know, potty training toddler or something. It's like you don't know what's going to happen. But you can't just like keep your eyes off of it. But it's, you're going to literally sit here and say I have faithful children. I mean in what capacity is that baby or infant or toddler on a leash faithful, right? So in my mind I was like, okay, look, you have to have at least two children above the age of two for me to even say that and feel like it has any level of legitimacy, okay. That was just my personal, now again, yeah, you could have a toddler trained at a very young age and be faithful and serving God and, you know, go for it. And there's other pastors that may even have different views on that. I'm not going to, you know, basically judge them for that. But he's asking me what my opinion is and that's all he cares about is being ordained. Why? Because he just wants to be a pastor. He just wants the title. He just wants to be in power. Not because he really wants to serve people. Not because he wants to do it right. Just wants the power. Just like Absalom. It's like, oh, I got to have the power. But of course these people never go around and say like, I have to be in charge. I have to be the pastor. They lie about this. I'm just a humble servant. I just want to serve the Lord. This is God's calling on my life. You know, I surrender to the call of pastor. You know, this stupid idea of having people come down the aisle at age 15 and say God told me I should be a pastor. Welcome to independent fundamental Baptists. Hey, welcome to Pentecostals. Hey, the charismatic Pentecostals, they'll have 18-year-olds come down and say I should be pastor and they'll lay hands on them and ordain them as pastor and send them out as pastor. Is it like 18, 19, 20? Without even, they don't even have a family. It's like, what are you doing? Oh, God called me a pastor. I mean, sometimes when you walk in these ghetto areas, you'll write to people like, I'm a pastor and you're thinking like. But they like are in their mind because they literally were called pastor so and so. You go to a lot of these churches, these non-denom churches, and everyone's pastor. It's like pastor of coffee and pastor of donuts and pastor of communications and pastor of this, pastor of the carpet, and it's like, what are you doing? Look all the men, all the women. I mean, you got young guys in there, pastor so and so, and everybody's called pastor, and it's just like, you just throw out all these titles, throw out all these things. It's like, who decided that? Who anointed you? Who gave you this? And you know, it doesn't match the Bible. Should Absalom be the king according to the Bible? No, because Solomon's supposed to be the king. So you're not following any scripture, you're not following any Bible. But again, no one's going to walk around and say like, I'm not following the Bible. I want to be in charge. Come follow me. I made a vow unto God, you know. I'm going to serve the Lord. But you know what? He's lying. And he even knows he's lying. But he's just trying to pretend like he's spiritual. And the worst people are those that pretend to be spiritual, and they're out there. There's a lot of them. They're wicked. Look what it says in a few more verses. It said in verse 9, and the king said to him, go in peace. So he rose and went to Hebron. But Absalom sent spies throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, as soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet, then you shall say Absalom reigneth in Hebron. And with Absalom went 200 men out of Jerusalem that were called, and they went in their simplicity, and they knew not anything. Now, I have way too much to preach in this, so I'm not going to finish, okay? So we'll pick up this chapter next week. But I do want to finish on this point, okay? Go if you would back to Proverbs, and go to Proverbs chapter number 22. Notice that 200 men get caught up in Absalom's conspiracy, but it says they didn't even know it. Why? Because the symbol believeth every word. Because they think they're going with Absalom to serve God. I mean, think about how, I mean, they're like, woo, let's go serve God in Hebron. And then all of a sudden it's like, oh, you're the pastor. Oh, you're the king. Oh, what happened? It's like, well, that came out of nowhere. And again, people will just follow anything. They follow vain stuff. It's like, how is there literally a church on every corner in DFW? I mean, there is a church everywhere. And you look at some of these pastors, and you're thinking, like, who is following that? And it's because, you know why they go to that church? Because it's close to the house. And you know, vanity goes both ways. Simplicity goes both ways. That pastor thinks that he's special, and these people actually care about him, and they don't at all. They only care about the church being that close to their house. Because as soon as that pastor does something bad, the church will just throw him out and look at a new one, right? And so church is a two-way street where they're both flattering each other and both just trying to, like, keep the relationship going. And both of them also want to pretend about being spiritual. It's like, oh, I just love my pastor, and I just love this church. But we know in a hot minute they would throw the guy out if it wasn't popular to like him anymore. If he preached something that they didn't like, even though it was biblical, they would want to toss him aside. Not because they actually love the guy. And at the same way, you know, the pastors pretend about how spiritual he is. He's studying so hard, and you know, his job's so hard, or whatever. And it's like, these pastors are a joke. These pastors don't even seem like they've read the Bible once in their life. I think they would say that they read the book of Hezekiah. They're so lame. They would just like, they wouldn't even get anything. But you know, you have to be careful who you follow. You have to be careful what church. You know, I know the people at our church don't live close, okay? So you're driving. That's a commitment. That's an investment. So then you want to make sure that that investment you're making is sound, and you should test your pastor, should test the words that he's saying, should test the scripture. You know what? I'm glad that people in here do do that. And that's, in fact, why I think they do come, is because they would test the pastor, whoever it is. They would test the church. They would see if the things are lining up with scripture. But those who don't, there's a warning. Look at verse number three. A prudent man foreseeeth evil and hide himself, but the simple pass on and are punished. You know, the smart person is paying attention to what's going on here, and like, I'm not going to follow Biden here. I'm not going to follow the Democrat party off a cliff. I'm not going to follow Absalom. I'm not going to follow these wicked evil people, even if I'm in a minority. Even if I'm in a small group that's going to stick with David, I'm going to stick with David. And let me tell you something about this chapter. The vast majority follow Absalom. It is the remnant that follows David. And it's because of a lot of these pictures, and we'll get into more of the pictures and stuff later, but Absalom also kind of pictures the Antichrist, and you have to realize, at some point in the world, everyone's going to follow the Antichrist, except for the remnant that are saved, that follow David. And there's only two parties, following Absalom and following David. It's the saved, and it's the unsaved. And they're both following their leader. And those that are simple end up getting punished for following the wrong leader. And you say, oh, God can't hold me responsible for that. I didn't know any better. No, no, no. Hey, ignorant people still go to hell. Ignorant people are still punished all day long, every single day, and you know what? We can't just sit here and pretend like, well, if I don't know anything, I'm not going to be punished for it. No, you're going to be punished, period. You should just try to educate yourself as much as possible. You know, people can get mad at a sermon that I preached on Sunday morning, where I tried to step on everyone's toes as much as possible, and maybe even jumped up and down on them. But here's the thing. If that's true, you should want to know that. You shouldn't want to go to a church that's just going to tell you what you want to hear. You should go to a church where you hear what you need to hear. You hear truth. You hear the word of God. Don't go and find an Absalom. Look, you can find it. Go across the street. Absalom will preach to you. And then right next door, Absalom's brother, Absalom, will preach for you, okay? Actually, it's more like Judas than the other one, but it's like you just, you go this way, there's an Absalom. You go over there. I mean, Todd White is Absalom. I mean, have you seen the long hair? A guy full of himself? I mean, you could go have Absalom. And look, I guarantee Todd White's personality is very similar because if you come up to him, all of thy matters are good and right, and he might even kiss you. I would be afraid to go and talk to that guy. I don't want him to touch me, okay? But you know what? You just decide. You know what? I'm not going to follow Absalom. I'm not going to just believe everything somebody tells me. I'm going to educate myself. I'm going to educate my children. I'm going to be prudent, and I'm going to perceive the evil that's out there. And look, this world is destroying itself. It's destroying itself through bad health advice. It's destroying itself through bad, obviously, religion, but just bad socioeconomic advice. People are ruining their careers by deciding to be entitled and have this victim mentality rather than working hard and getting skills. The society is just destroying itself with its children, not raising children to be godly, not realizing that the children will rise up and hate them and want to destroy them and kill them. You know, I'm telling you, there is a lot of evil out there, and you should be wise and say, you know what? I'm going to stick with Steffa's Baptist Church, and I'm going to weather that storm. I'm going to come out smelling like a rose because I follow the Lord Jesus Christ, and I follow His commandments, whether or not Pastor Shelley was right about everything. David's not necessarily right about everything, but you know who's right about everything? Jesus. And so you just keep going to the church that's going to get you closest to this. That's the only thing that really matters, and if you find a church that's way better than ours, I'll join you. Why not? I said it. Look, I have no qualm in stepping down and letting someone else lead, but at the same time, you know, we need some leaders. We don't have that problem. We have the opposite problem. We don't have too many good options. We have like a half of an option. It's like we need more people to step up to the plate and be sending them out. You know, hey, if we had the best church in the world here, I'll go somewhere else. I'll go back to Houston, you know? We'll go to, not Austin, anywhere else in Texas, you know, first. And then a lot of other places first, right? Someone needs, there's a good church that needs to be in Austin, okay? I'm just maybe not the right person. Pray for me, okay? It's my Nineveh or something, I don't know. But I'm just telling you, you've got to stick with the Lord and beware of the Absalom. So let's go in prayer. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for this chapter. Thank you so much for our church, for giving us the opportunity to have wisdom, to have discernment, to beware of the Absaloms and the evil people that are out there. I pray that we wouldn't just believe everything, that we would study to show ourselves a proven God, that we would test the spirits, that we would try the spirits, that we would make sure that we're on the right path, and that we'd always consult scripture for the decisions we're making in our life. We would examine our lives with scripture on a daily basis to decide if we're doing things that are pleasing in your sight, because we know that you will bless us if we follow you. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen. For our last song, we'll turn to 244, Amazing Grace. Two hundred and forty-four, Amazing Grace. Song 244, Amazing Grace. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see. Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear, the hour I first believed. Through many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come. Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home. When we've been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun.