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Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music On the first Music Music Music Music Music Music On the last Music Music Music Music I love to tell the story On the first I love to tell the story of unseen things above Of Jesus and his glory Of Jesus and his love I love to tell the story Because I notice true It satisfies my longings As nothing else can do I love to tell the story Twill be my theme and glory To tell the old, old story Of Jesus and his love I love to tell the story More wonderful it seems Than all the golden fancies Of all our golden dreams I love to tell the story It did so much for me And that is just the reason I tell it now to thee I love to tell the story Twill be my theme and glory To tell the old, old story Of Jesus and his love Love to tell the story Tis pleasant to repeat What seems each time I tell it More wonderfully sweet I love to tell the story For some have never heard The message of salvation From God's own holy word I love to tell the story Twill be my theme and glory To tell the old, old story Of Jesus and his love On the last I love to tell the story For those who know it best Seem hungering and thirsting To hear it like the best And when in scenes of glory I sing the new, new song Twill be the old, old story That I have loved so long I love to tell the story Twill be my theme and glory To tell the old, old story Of Jesus and his love I love to tell the old, old story Of Jesus and his love Good evening, everybody. Welcome to Shur Foundation Baptist Church. Let's take our bulletins and go through the announcements real quickly here. If you need a bulletin, just slip up your hand. One of the ushers will not bring you one because we're out, I guess. If you do have your bulletin, just read along with me. If you don't, just make sure you note these things in your calendar that are the upcoming events. And the verse of the week is the grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever. Isaiah chapter 40, verse number 8. On our inside page there we have our service times 1030 a.m. for our Sunday morning service. And we're going to take a break from the series, the New Believers series. I'm just going to preach a standalone sermon this weekend because we have our friends and family weekend coming up. So I'm just going to preach one sermon this weekend and then brother Daniel is going to preach the other one. Sunday evening service, 3.30 p.m. Like I said, brother Daniel is preaching this weekend and then Thursday Bible study. Tonight we're in 1 Chronicles chapter number 10. So we're out of the names. The name game is over and we're getting right into the story. And then, let's see, so many times are listed below. Did we have any salvations out there tonight? No. No salvations, but we still had some faithful people go out, so thank you for going out if you went out. And our praise report, you can see the salvations, baptisms, and attendance from last week. And we had our men's preaching night on Sunday night. And like I said, family and friends this weekend is this weekend. So the pumpkin patch, I do have the times as 11 and 12. That might sneak to 10 and 11 depending on what time they're offering for the tickets. Is anybody willing to change and wants to go at 10 o'clock if that happens? Anybody else? God bless you. I see the hand. All right, hands all written down. All right, so yeah, tomorrow when I go to purchase the tickets I'll know the time slots and everything. So is there anybody that's not going that already signed up and now you can't go? Anybody like that? Is there anybody that wants to go and hasn't signed up yet or their name's not in the new form because the new form got destroyed somehow? I'm not sure what happened, but is anybody aware that the old one got destroyed and you still need to put your name in there? Anybody? Just go in there and check and make sure that your name's in there. All right. So tomorrow I'm purchasing the tickets and so if anything happens I'll just wait maybe until afternoon a little bit, purchase the tickets and yeah, so my plan is to meet everybody at the gate like I always do. I know you're going to be late. Try not to be. I always say don't be late, but everybody always is, so surprise me this year. I usually stand at the gate with the tickets and so I'll just hand out your tickets and then just go in and have a good time. I know some people are bringing their family. Is anybody bringing family in here? Anybody bringing other family besides your immediate family or your church family? Okay, I know you are. You're bringing like the whole family. She's bringing cousins and third uncles and I'm just kidding. No, that's cool. I said you could, so that's cool. Cool, so we're going to have a good time this weekend and then Pastor Mendez is not preaching, so if you didn't know that, he's not preaching this Sunday. It's going to be our evangelist from Spokane, Daniel Kutzar. So Pastor Mendez couldn't make it, but he is going to make it up to us sometime and he'll be back to preach for us. And yes, we're still friends so in case you were wondering. Alright, October 27th Super Bowl or not Super Bowl, super soul winning Saturday. Good night. Alright, I'm struggling. 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. so I'll kind of make up for last Saturday. I apologize about that. October 31st is the chili cornbread potluck game night and I just got to back up to the 13th. The 13th, Dr. Phil Stringer is going to be here preaching for us on Sunday, so he's going to be preaching both sermons. He had an opening in his schedule and so he is coming to see us, not this weekend, but the weekend after. So cornbread, chili, you all know about that and then so it's also a game night. It's going to start before church and if you want to come a little bit early, you may. Then all the other stuff is off in the distance there. We're family integrated, all that good stuff. You know the rules, offering stuff at the bottom of the page and then we had birthdays that we sing happy birthday for, but today is Olivia's actual birthday. So we're going to sing happy birthday to her again because she's my granddaughter and it's nepotism. No, I'm just kidding. She is my granddaughter and I love her. Where's she at? There she is. Hi, sissy. Happy birthday to Olivia. She's four years old today. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday God bless you. Happy birthday to you. Yay! We took her out to Mexican food last night and she got the big sombrero on her head and she was kind of freaked out at first but then when she saw the dessert at the end, she was pretty happy. Anyway, that's all I have for announcements. Go ahead and sing another song. We'll receive the offering. Page 356 will be your next song. I Must Tell Jesus, page 356. I Must Tell Jesus on the first. I Must Tell Jesus, I Must Tell Jesus I cannot bear my burdens alone I Must Tell Jesus I Must Tell Jesus Jesus can't help me, Jesus alone I Must Tell Jesus all of my troubles He's a kind, compassionate friend If I but ask Him He will deliver Make of my troubles quickly an end I Must Tell Jesus I Must Tell Jesus I cannot bear my burdens alone I Must Tell Jesus I Must Tell Jesus Jesus can't help me, Jesus alone Tempted and tried I need a great Savior One who can help my burdens to bear I Must Tell Jesus I Must Tell Jesus He all my cares and sorrows will share I Must Tell Jesus I Must Tell Jesus I cannot bear my burdens alone I Must Tell Jesus I Must Tell Jesus He can't help me, Jesus alone I Must Tell Jesus Oh how the world to evil allures me Oh how my heart is tempted to sin I Must Tell Jesus and He will help me Over the world the victory to win I Must Tell Jesus I Must Tell Jesus I cannot bear my burdens alone I Must Tell Jesus I Must Tell Jesus Jesus can't help me, Jesus alone Thank you for staying with us this evening. We'll receive our offering. Brother Sean, can you bless the offering for us? Lord, thank you so much for this day, Lord. Thank you so much for our church, Lord. Thank you so much for your pastor. We pray that you would fill him with the Spirit. I pray that you would bless this offering, Lord. We bless both the gift and the gift. In Jesus' name, Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. The Bible is to 1 Chronicles chapter 10. 1 Chronicles chapter 10. If you don't have a Bible, there should be one in the seat in front of you. 1 Chronicles chapter 10. Brother Eli read all the hard ones, so I get the easy one. 1 Chronicles chapter 10 verse 1. The Bible reads, Now the Philistines fought against Israel, and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines, and fell down slain in Mount Gilboa. And the Philistines followed hard after Saul, and after his sons, and the Philistines slew Jonathan and Abinadab, and Malchaishua the sons of Saul. And the battle went sore against Saul, and the archers hit him, and he was wounded of the archers. Then said Saul to his armor-bearer, Draw thy sword, and thrust me through therewith, lest these uncircumcised come and abuse me. But his armor-bearer would not, for he was so afraid, so Saul took a sword and fell upon it. And when his armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he fell likewise on the sword and died. So Saul died, and his three sons, and all his house died together. And when all the men of Israel that were in the valley saw that they fled, and that Saul and his sons were dead, then they forsook their cities and fled, and the Philistines came and dwelt in them. And it came to pass on the morrow, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, that they found Saul and his sons fallen in Mount Gilboa. And when they had stripped him, they took his head and his armor, and sent into the land of the Philistines round about, to carry tidings unto their idols and to the people. And they put his armor in the house of their gods, and fastened his head in the temple of Dagon. And when all Jabesh Gilead heard all that the Philistines had done to Saul, they arose, all the valiant men, and took away the body of Saul, and the bodies of his sons, and brought them to Jabesh, and buried their bones under the oak in Jabesh, and fasted seven days. So Saul died for his transgression, which he committed against the Lord, even against the word of the Lord, which he kept not, and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit to inquire of it, and inquired not of the Lord, therefore he slew him, and turned the kingdom unto David the son of Jesse. Brother Jeremy, will you pray for us? Amen. Alright. Like I mentioned, we are now into the story. And we've gone through the genealogy of Saul, we've learned a lot about Saul, how he started out pretty good as a king, and then he kind of went in the wrong direction, and I've kind of highlighted some things in past sermons about Saul and David, and we'll look at some of that again tonight. But I just kind of want to show the who, what, why, and where, and when of this story. It's kind of how stories are told when people are writing, but I just want to tell the story here of the death of Saul, and really the book of Chronicles of the Kings, it does have those genealogies at the beginning, but really this is a chronicling mainly of the kings of Judah. And the kings of Judah start with David, because Saul is the first king, but this is basically telling us the demise of Saul in this chapter, and David begins to take over after this. He doesn't take over as the king of all Israel until a little bit years later, but he does take over as the king of Judah very quickly after this. So the who, what, why, and where are the five questions that make up the five W's, again when you're trying to gather the framework of information for telling a complete story. So that's what I hope to accomplish tonight in this sermon, so that we can get a clear picture of what's happening, maybe do some application at the end. I'm already behind because of the prayer requests and starting a little bit late, but number one is the who and the where, and who is this happening to, so where is this happening, where is this story taking place? Well, look at verse number one, the Bible says, Now the Philistines fought against Israel, and the men of Israel fled before the Philistines, and fell down slain in Mount Gilboa. So the who and where is this happening? Well, the Philistines are against Israel, and the men of Israel are fleeing from before them. They're overrun, the Philistines are winning the battle, and they're falling down slain in Mount Gilboa. So Mount Gilboa is where this is happening, the Philistines are fighting against the armies of Israel, and they're led by King Saul. But, you know, God forbid that this should happen, but in reality it does. And what's the overall story here is that God is judging the nation of Israel, and specifically Saul, for what he has done as the leader of the children of Israel. Because, you know, essentially where leadership goes, the people go also. So if the leadership goes bad, then usually the people are not far behind it. And they've already chosen a king over God when they were supposed to be under the system of judges, so God's already kind of been angry with the children of Israel already. They've really, you know, messed things up in the system of judges, where everybody was doing that which was right in their own eyes, but things have started to turn around. Samuel was a good judge, and he did a lot of good things. But Saul, when he was made king, he started out good, like I said, but also then started to do bad. And he chased David, he tried to kill David, he betrayed David many different times, he killed the Lord's priests. What else did he do? He tried to kill his own son. I mean, he did many different things that are pretty unsavory, right? So, but God forbid that this should happen. I mean, God wants to bless his people, but when his people are doing that which is wrong, then God will allow his people to be overrun, like this is happening here. And it's not a blessing that's happening here, this is a curse. God's allowing their armies to be defeated by the Philistines, so when God's people are on the run from their enemies and being defeated, they're being cursed in some cases. Not all cases, but in some cases, in this case, for sure, they're being cursed. So, again, that is not always the case. Sometimes there are trials, like Job. Job was being cursed, but not because of something he did wrong. Satan was cursing his life because God was allowing that to happen. And Job didn't even know, maybe even possibly for his whole life, or the rest of his life why that was happening, but we know because the Bible tells us why that was happening. And sometimes they are, the reason why we're being defeated or being overcome by our enemies is because persecution for righteousness sake. Sometimes God's people get killed or they get hurt or they get mocked or whatever because of righteousness sake. If you tell somebody at work that you're a Christian, you're going to have a target on your back as long as you work there. And the people are going to whisper about you, people are going to talk about you, people are going to watch you more than they watch other people. And every time you say a cuss word or every time you are laughing at some joke that they told that's not good, they're going to be saying, well how is he a Christian? Or they're going to be judging every single thing you do and then they're going to bring that up to you and make you look like a fool. But persecution for righteousness sake has just been something that's been happening since Cain and Abel. I mean Abel was killed because his deeds were righteous and Cain's were wicked, right? Joseph was persecuted, why? Because he was telling on his brothers because they were doing wicked things. Moses was persecuted by the children of Israel because he was a great leader in doing what God asked and they were just rebelling against him. The prophets were killed, why? Because they were preaching to God's people the things that they needed to correct in their lives and people don't like to hear the correction of God's word sometimes and they just, there's generations that rise up like Jeremiah's generation where he's just preaching and nobody likes him. Everybody's against him. Everybody wants to kill him but God still continues to protect him anyway. Jesus Christ of course was stocked, maligned, made fun of and people were sent to try to twist him into saying things that he shouldn't say and he defeated all those people. But that doesn't mean we're going to be able to do that. Sometimes people are great resistors of our words like Alexander the coppersmith was with Paul. He warned Christians that he has a great vocabulary and able to fight against Christians with his mouth in a way that most people don't have the ability to do. The apostles were maligned and mistreated for preaching the word of God and basically the apostle Paul before he became the apostle Paul was Saul who persecuted and tried to waste the church and anyone that follows that way. And what does that mean? That way is the way of Christianity. So we are always targets of persecution. So now again in this story this is not the case but we're not always going through persecution because of something that we've done wrong but again people like to say well this is because of that. This is because they didn't show up for church on Sunday night. That's why God made them all sick or something. We shouldn't be doing that. We shouldn't be thinking that way because we don't really know that that's the case. So when God's people are being blessed though, when God's people are doing right, when our church is in unity with one spirit, striving together for the doctrine and for the gospel's sake, God's going to bless our church. But are we still going to get persecuted sometimes? Yeah. Sometimes a bunch of trannies are going to show up in our parking lot with AR-15s and try to ruin our day. I mean do we do something wrong to deserve that? No. We're just having a conference about the Bible. Well does the Bible make people want to hurt and kill us? Yeah, it does. I mean people were burned alive for just knowing God's word. Just for memorizing the Lord's prayer. They were burned at the stake. So of course we're going to be persecuted sometimes even though we're doing that which is right. Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 32. Deuteronomy chapter 32. But sometimes it is our fault. And sometimes we see these pictures in the Old Testament about the children of Israel getting punished because they just refused to do what God said. They refused to take his counsel. They refused to teach their children. And then in just one generation it would flip a whole generation against the Lord and then he would have to send somebody again to work it all out for them in the book of Judges. And then they would follow him for about 40 years or so. And then the same thing would happen again. Look at Deuteronomy 32 verse 28. God said this was going to happen though. For they are a nation void of counsel. Neither is there any understanding in them. Oh that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end. How should one chase a thousand and put ten thousand to flight except their rock had sold them and the Lord had shut them up. See if we're the head and not the tail, if we're blessed and not cursed, then we can have one chase a thousand and two put ten thousand to flight. We're the ones, the Philistines aren't going to be chasing us around. We're going to be chasing the Philistines around. We're going to be the ones that are being blessed and people cannot stand before us on the face of the earth. But it says for their rock is not as our rock even our enemies themselves being judges. So our God is not like their God. Our rock is the Lord Jesus Christ and their rock is the devil basically. And their gods are devils. So we have way more power and authority and if we're doing that which is right and our banner is the Lord Jesus Christ, we're going to win that battle. The gates of hell will not prevail against us. But God forbid that we should have the Philistines chasing us around because we're doing wrong. Look at verse two, it says, And the Philistines followed hard after Saul, after his sons. And the Philistines slew Jonathan and Abinadab and Malekishua, the sons of Saul. So who are they specifically wanting to get though? And who is God allowing them to get? Well he's allowing them to get Saul who's the king and his sons because this is already prophesied and we'll go to that later. But this is already prophesied that this was going to happen by Samuel. And the leadership and his sons and other soldiers are being killed. So in the first verse it says that they're falling to the Philistines. So and you know what, here's the thing that everything rises and falls on leadership. Why are they falling to the enemy? Well because their leader ended up going bad. Their leader ended up having a lot of problems and so it's very important that I guess applying this to churches because I mean we're talking about kings and kingdoms and stuff. That's not really what we are necessarily even though we are a nation. We're a spiritual nation made up of believers all around the world. So I mean you can't apply it spiritually right? But you know we also are a church and churches are run by pastors or they're supposed to be run by pastors. And so the churches are going to succeed based upon the leadership and based upon how those people that are led respond to that leadership. And so if there's a bad leader then the church is not going to go right. And if there's a good leader the church theoretically should go right. So you know and John Maxwell he's like this author about he does a lot of workshops about leadership and stuff and you know don't bring me this well he has this doctrine I don't know. His stuff on leadership seems to be okay. He's the one that made that quote everything rises and falls on leadership. I'm sure it's a principle found in life though. It's not like he's the one that made up that principle. I'm sure you know he's attributed to the quote. But he does have some principles that I kind of wrote down here and I was just going to go through them real quickly. So and obviously we're talking about biblical leadership so the world's leadership's a little different but this guy claims to be a Christian so I don't know if he added some of this in. But according to him when he says everything rises and falls on leadership this means the leadership is about influence and that the success of any organization depends on the ability of its leaders to influence others and add value to their lives. And that's true. I mean if a leader is not adding or giving the ability to add value to other people's lives then they don't really have a lot of influence and their influence is going to wane and not be successful. And the success of our church this is just me saying this the success of our church depends upon my leadership being strong, fair, and balanced. I don't want to be too far one way or too far the other I want to be in the normal zone. Not too extreme, not too lax. You know the type of church and the type of church we want is the type of church that attracts normal people too. Not like radical weirdos or just people that don't care about the things of God. Of course we want people we want to draw a certain type of people here people that are fired up that want to make an impact in this world for the Lord Jesus Christ. The success of leadership is helped by continued growth in my leadership. I have to work on my own leadership. It's not like I just stay try to stay the same and never work on anything else and I realize that I have strengths and I have weaknesses and I think that it's my responsibility as a leader to work on those weaknesses and to improve on those areas and to maintain the strengths that I already have and work on those strengths that I already have and you can't just let everything fall by the wayside of the strengths that you already have just to work on something that you're not really good at. You should stay maintaining those things that you already have that you do well and make sure you keep working on those things. It's just like someone that's talented at a sport. If you're good at baseball and you're good at hitting but then you're just like well I suck at fielding. I'm only going to practice on fielding and I'm never going to do batting practice. Well then you're going to start sucking at batting too and then you're going to be mediocre at fielding because you were never really great at fielding in the first place so then you're just going to be totally mediocre. Whereas if you're a great hitter and then you still work on your field and you're going to get better at fielding but you're going to stay great at hitting. Does that make sense? So if you're thinking like hey I just need to stop working on all these things that I'm already good at don't get that mentality. In your life I'm not just saying in leadership but in general keep staying sharp at the things that you are good at and the things you are talented with and then work on the things that you lack on because you're always going to be weak at the things that you're already weak at. You're never going to be some great mathematician necessarily if you just don't already have the mind for it. You're not going to be like good will hunting where you're just going to walk into some place and do some crazy math problem or something and everybody's going to wonder how smart you were or something. It's not going to happen. You're just not going to, people just are, some people are just really smart and born gifted in certain areas and some people aren't so it's just the way it is. But anyway so leadership empowers other leaders also so it's good to train other people so that they can be successful leaders. The future success of our church is going to be measured by the succession so I can't be the pastor forever. I'm not going to hang on until I'm 99 if I even live that long. So succession is something that's important and so when I leave I want to set this church up to be ready to succeed after I'm gone and so that's what I want. That's what I want. I don't want to just, oh well I guess it's going to be good in my time but when it's, and then give it the summary pen of your sins pastor later on. I want the succession to be successful for the future success of this church. And good leaders, good successful leaders know the way, go the way, and show the way. You got to know what you're talking about. At least know the direction you want to go in and go the way. Not just know it but do it and show people that you know and show people that you know how to go that way. So hopefully that makes sense. Number two tonight is the what. What actually happened to Saul and his sons? Well we already saw that Saul's sons were killed now by the Philistines and of course Jonathan was a great warrior so it doesn't say how long it took to get him or how many people he killed. I'm sure that he got as many people as he could before he got taken out. They're obviously overrun and they were never going to win this battle no matter how hard they fought because they'd be fighting against God, right? So it says the battle went sore, verse three, against Saul and the archers hit him and he was wounded of the archers. Then said Saul to the armor bearer, draw thy sword and thrust me through there with lest these uncircumcised come and abuse me but his armor bearer would not for he was sore afraid. So Saul took a sword and fell upon it. So was Saul actually killed by the Philistines? No, Saul was not killed by the Philistines. He was wounded by the archers and he asked his armor bearer to thrust him through because he was going to die. He was mortally wounded but he wasn't quite all the way there and he said lest these uncircumcised come and abuse me because surely they would have tortured him and who knows what else. They were filthy. Who knows what they would have done but he knows what they were going to do and when he says come and abuse me I mean they're obviously going to maybe do some weird stuff to him too, who knows? But they're definitely going to abuse him, torture him. They end up taking his head, I know that. So then what's he do? He kills himself. Now Saul is saved regardless of all these things he did and so you can do some pretty bad things and still be saved. We like to tell people this when the time is right, when you're out soloing and of course if someone really needs to see these things I would say to show it to them but definitely don't spend all night showing it to them but you can show them some verses about if someone is saved and they kill themselves they will go to heaven. This is my litmus test for when I think that someone is going to be is understanding what I'm telling them or not. And I use this if you killed yourself would you still go to heaven? Which I always kind of caveat it too because I know it's a very sensitive subject. But most people believe if they believe a false a false work of salvation or something most people believe that from some Catholic teaching or wherever they learned it if you killed yourself and you were saved that you would lose your salvation you would die because you killed yourself. It's a mortal sin. That's what the Catholic Church teaches. But this is a good one to show them you can show them in 1 Chronicles let's see well you can take them and yeah you can show them this and then you can take them to where well I'll take you there later but anyway so Saul kills himself I'll go to that here in just a second but Saul kills himself which of course he tries to get his arm bare to do it but he's too afraid. Why is he so afraid? Well this is the Lord's anointed this is the king he doesn't want to do it, he's afraid to do it. So but you know this also pictures the law needing to be put away before the New Testament why does it picture that? Because Saul pictures the Old Testament and David pictures the New Testament that's why. David pictures Jesus Christ Saul pictures Moses and the law I guess. So that's the same way that John the Baptist was the last of the prophets John had to die Jesus is the savior he had to decrease Jesus had to increase so unfortunately John the Baptist his head was served on a platter and you might think well that's kind of messed up that the greatest man that ever was born among women or born of women has to get his head chopped off for doing what he was told to do well I mean but there also is a picture there of the fact that the law is done away with in Christ as far as that covenant is done. So when Saul is dead then David takes over picturing the New Testament of course and so look at verse 5 it says and when his armor bearer saw that Saul was dead he fell likewise on the sword and died so Saul died and his three sons and all his house died together so and you know people would say well good he did all this bad you know it's a good thing that he died but there's nothing really to cheer about when leaders are taken down by God there's nothing to cheer about when a good man who maybe was misguided is taken down so even you know even ones that deserve it David didn't feel that way David doesn't talk about Saul in a bad way David never treats Saul in some kind of harsh manner if you remember the sermons I've already preached David comes and bows himself before him with his face in the dirt and is humble towards him and when he cuts the skirt of his robe off in that cave he is you know it convicts him in his heart and he feels bad about what he's done and you know he does this mind you while Saul is going to the bathroom which is you know I would feel bad just about doing that I mean that's an invasion of privacy that no man should ever do to another man I mean yeah so let's turn to 2 Samuel chapter 1 2 Samuel chapter 1 let's see how David felt and we've already gone through these verses before but David doesn't just recall yeah Saul did all this bad stuff let's just drag his name through the mud and just say how wicked he was and what all the worst possible things that he did let's just throw his name throw mud on his name and just disgrace him is that what David did no let's look at verse 17 it says and David lamented with this lamentation over Saul and over Jonathan his son also he bade them teach the children of Judah the use of the bow behold it is in the book of Jasher the beauty of Israel slain upon the high places how are the mighty fallen so is that something that he's saying that he's saying it's a negative thing that these are mighty men right tell it not in Gath publish it not in the streets of Ashkelon lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph he's saying hey don't tell about this victory that the Philistines got let's not let's not publish this that's going to give them a reason to rejoice and woe unto us as Christians when we cheer on the demise of a man of God it's wicked look at verse 21 mountains of Gilboa let there be no dew neither let there be rain upon you nor fields or of offerings for there the shield of the mighty is vilely cast away the shield of Saul as though he had not been anointed with oil from the blood of the slain from the fat of the mighty the bow of Jonathan turned not back and the sword of Saul returned not empty saying he's basically saying they they both got some they both took down some of the enemy with them Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives and in their death they were not divided I mean they had some division you know some turmoil but in their death they were together they fought together and it says it says they were lovely and pleasant in their lives but is that true of their whole lives no it's not true of their whole lives but David's not here to spend a bunch of negativity about them they were swifter than eagles they were stronger than lions he's just like positively lifting these guys up because the reality of it is there's nothing positive about godly men perishing there's nothing positive about a godly leader who you know screws up going down for the count it says he daughters of Israel weep over Saul who clothed you in scarlet with other delights who put on ornaments of gold upon your apparel how are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle oh Jonathan that was slain in thine high places I'm distressed for thee my brother Jonathan very valiant has thou been unto me pleasant excuse me that has been unto me thy love to me has was wonderful passing the love of women how are the mighty fallen and the weapons of war perished this is a lamentation but notice that it's positive it's not negative David is not just you know running him through the ringer saying how wicked he was was saw wicked did Saul do wicked things yes he did but you're not going to hear that come out of David's lips when a true man of God has done great things for him dies when that happens you see how a man after God's own heart talks about him is David a man after God's own heart yes or no how does he talk about him positively he says nice things about him and you know you can tell the difference between how enemies talk about a man of God when he dies and positive when when other people you know yeah if somebody falls somebody you know somebody has a fall in their ministry or you know some Christian has a fall just a regular Christian they just you know they have they get into sin and they get out of church you're like man that's rough and then they come back to church and it's a victory you know we we shouldn't be like where have you been brother you know don't do that to people let them live it down let them come back they shouldn't feel like they could never come back to our church unless it's something that they really can't come back to our church for but if they've gotten something right and they've made things right and it's something they can they can do they should be able to come back you know but David doesn't have this attitude where everything's lost everything's gone you know everything's wicked about Saul everything's bad he thought about the good and pleasant things about them and chose to lament and this is recorded in the Bible for us as an example for us of how we should treat people and how we even if it's his enemy I mean Saul threw a javelin at him twice Saul tracked him like all over the place trying to kill him multiple times and so this should be an example to us how we should treat and how we should talk about people that maybe have fallen in the ministry also look at number three is the where the where is Mount Gilboa and the valley and the cities of Israel look at verse seven back in our text it says and when all the men of Israel that were in the valley saw that they fled and that Saul and his sons were dead then they forsook their cities and fled and the Philistines came and dwelt in them so what happened as a result of Saul and his sons getting taken out well everybody fled so it's not a good thing when the leadership falls it's a bad thing because the Philistines came took over their cities probably killed more people killed more innocent people there's a big fallout when leadership falls when leadership fails so wishing that upon people wishing that upon churches is not a good thing not a great thing to do it's not it's not a godly attribute to just say oh I hope that church fails I hope that church falls that's a wicked attitude to have you should hope that it gets you know things right or get things you know to where it still can carry on and have succession right verse eight and it came to pass on the morrow when the Philistines came to strip the slain that they found Saul and his sons fallen to Mount Gilboa when they had stripped him they took his head and his armor and sent it into the lands of the Philistines round about to carry tidings unto their idols and to the people and they put his armor in the house of their gods and fastened his head in the temple of Dagon and when all Jabesh Gilead heard all that the Philistines had done to Saul they arose all the valiant men and took away the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons and brought them to Jabesh and buried their bones under the oak in Jabesh and fasted seven days so I mean David how he treated Saul how he responded to that I mean look at how these men these valiant men just came and just said you know what you're not going to treat our king that's dead like that you're not going to keep him in your house of idols you're not going to keep his head and body and they went and took it and brought it back and they fasted for seven days so they cared about him it wasn't just some trash that you threw in the rubbish bin number five the why why did this have to happen why did Saul have to die why you know the Bible tells us why this happened look at verse 13 it says so Saul died for his transgression which he committed against the Lord even against the word of the Lord which he kept not and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit to inquire of it and inquired not of the Lord therefore he slew himself or excuse me he slew him and turned the kingdom unto David the son of Jesse so he transgressed he committed against he did a transgression he committed sin against the Lord and even against the word of the Lord and kept it not and he asked counsel of a familiar spirit through a witch and then he inquired not of the Lord and God slew him so and gave it to David turned it over to David so yeah this is why it happened because and so why did this happen well he went to a witch this is the final straw so God you know this is a good lesson for us too is that God will put up with a lot of stuff for us for a while because God didn't just immediately take the kingdom from Saul and he didn't just immediately take the kingdom from Saul it took years he was the king for a long time after that before he actually took it over but you could see the downward spiral of Saul slowly go the spirit of God was taken off of him David was anointed with with the oil David started to increase Saul started to decrease Saul started to do wickedly David started to do valiantly and you know that that transfer of power happened when God wanted it to happen not when the people wanted it to happen not when the people in the cave wanted it to happen not when his men wanted it to happen when God not when David wanted it to happen when God wanted it to happen this is something that we have to understand it's not our job to overthrow presidents in our country it's not our job to overthrow kings in other countries it's not our job to overthrow people in their offices that God has ordained them to be in it's not you know so all these people that are saying hey it should be like 1776 I don't believe that I think that we should you know look whatever's happened our country is too far gone to recover from now we're just going to have to deal with the results of it if you think your vote counts then you know I got some ocean front property in Arizona I'd like to sell you if you want to believe that if you want to be all political that's fine with me I don't really care you're not going to bother me any I just don't think that it's going to help us you know it's not going to help to vote for the orange man or for the Indian woman so the whore of Babylon gets in then you know she's going to be the literal whore of Babylon so what are we going to do about it we can't do anything about it and it's not our job to do that just like it's not our job to overthrow a pastor of a church so take that for what it means look God overthrows the pastor God overthrows the king God overthrows those people that are anointed and that are in the positions that he's put them in so it's not up to us to be Dr. Seuss or Dr. Sherlock Holmes or you know that we're going to have evil surmises and we're going to lead a rebellion and a charge to get rid of whatever pastor we feel like we need to get rid of it's not our job and you know what it's not another pastor's job to tell another pastor what he should do it's the congregation if the congregation is still happy with that man and still happy to have him as their pastor then who are we to reply to that it's not our job, it's not our business and we shouldn't be just chiming in on everything that happens in every church that's not our church this is Shur Foundation Baptist Church and we're going to go by principle here we're going to go by the word of God here and we're not going to just cater and be bullied by people on the internet that want to just tell us what we should do where you stand at are you the pastor of this church? then shut your mouth are you the pastor of their church? shut your mouth I don't need to see your little statements online either nobody asked you your opinion I'm on number 5 I'm sorry I'm starting to get upset 1 Samuel chapter 28 verse 15 so Saul was put down because of what he did and who put him down? God put him down God said that this is the reasons why Saul was taken out and the last thing he did is he went and saw a witch and he was told he was supposed to inquire of the Lord look at 1 Samuel chapter 28 verse 15 and Samuel said to Saul why hast thou disquieted me to bring me up? and Saul answered I am sore I am distressed for the Philistines make war against me and God has departed from me and answereth me no more neither by prophets nor by dreams therefore I call thee that thou mayest make known unto me what I shall do then said Samuel wherefore then dost thou ask of me seeing the Lord has departed from thee and has become thine enemy and the Lord hath done to him and the Lord hath done to him take by me for the Lord hath rent the kingdom out of thine hand and given it to thy neighbor even David because thou obeyest not the voice of the Lord nor executest his fierce wrath upon Amalek therefore hath the Lord done this thing unto thee this day moreover the Lord also will also deliver Israel with thee into the hand of the Philistines and tomorrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me this is a clear verse to show people about Saul actually being saved because Samuel is saved for sure okay and so if him and his sons are going to be with Samuel the next day then where did Saul go? Saul went to heaven so if you want to write that down for your soul be my guest but it says the Lord also shall deliver the host of Israel into the hand of the Philistines so this is a curse that is being put upon him for his poor leadership for the things that he's done but notice it's not David that's doing it he's not sending David and his mighty men to go take Saul out no he's not he's not taking you know David and all of his friends to do it he's not sending anybody else he's not sending God's people against him he's sending the Philistines against him and the Philistines are taking him out so it's not up to us to turn the kingdom over to David is it? it's God's job to turn the kingdom over to David it's not up to us to usurp the kingdom and give it forth to another it's not up to us to fight against ordained leadership of God and there's been a lot of stretching forth of hands to touch the Lord's anointed men in the last weeks and it's just honestly been disgusting to me but you know people can do whatever they want they're independent but I just I mean I just don't I don't understand why everybody has to give their opinion I like this comment all you have to do is say it's none of our business I like that quote that's a good quote let's go to 1 Samuel 24 verse 3 1 Samuel 24 verse 3 it says that he came to the sheep coats by the way and there was a cave and Saul went to the cover of his feet and David and his men remained in the sides of the cave and the men of David said unto him behold the day of which the Lord said unto thee behold I will deliver thine enemy into thine hand that thou mayest do to him as it seemed good unto thee then David arose and cut off the skirt of Saul's robe privily and it came to pass afterwards that David's heart smote him because he had cut off Saul's skirt and he said unto his men the Lord forbid that I should do this thing unto my master the Lord's anointed to stretch forth my hand against him seeing he is the anointed of the Lord and look I don't care if people say well you can't compare David with the pastor or whatever he's still the Lord's anointed that's the point and yes you can compare it you can compare it spiritually behold this day thine hand or thine eyes have seen how that the Lord had delivered thee oh I'm sorry skip to verse 10 behold this day thine eyes have seen how the Lord hath delivered me thee today into mine hand in the cave and some bade me kill thee see he had people saying kill them now's the chance kill them but mine eye spared thee and I said I will not put forth my hand against my Lord for he is the Lord's anointed why did David not want to do it? because he was the Lord's anointed was David the Lord's anointed? yes he was he was a co-anointed guy right and people would say well you know David probably could have killed him and it would have been okay did David think that? did God bless David because he didn't kill him? yes I believe he did he said moreover my father see ye see the skirt of thy robe in mine hand for in that I cut off the skirt of thy robe and killed thee not know thou and see that there is neither evil nor transgression in my heart in my hand excuse me and I have not sinned against thee yet thou huntest my soul to take it the Lord judge between me and thee and the Lord avenge me of thee but mine hand shall not be upon thee so David just keeps telling him I'm not going to touch you I know it's wrong I'm not going to do this thing then he says as sayeth the proverb of the ancients wickedness proceedeth from the wicked but mine hand shall not be upon thee this is what wicked people do is what he's saying wickedness proceeded from the wicked but my hand shall not be upon me so when you see people just popping off their mouth and calling and saying things that are not proven and not provable and they're saying these wicked accusations and and just you know running down a man of God that they don't know the truth of the matter then you know and then they're just trying to kill that man of the Lord that's wicked that's what I mean he's saying my hand won't be upon me but yet you have pastors whose hands have been upon another pastor and to kill him in the sight of the people that's what they're trying to do to kill him in the sight of the people and it's and it's wrong one of these pastors have been making a lot of noise lately and really leading the charge of all this said I want to be David for once well I want to be David why can't I be David I'll tell you why you can't be David you little cry baby because you act like Saul that's why because you act like Shimei you act like what's the other guy that betrayed David Ahithophel because that's the character that you actually are you are a bottom feeder and a disturb a bad friend also by the way and you'll never be David because you don't have the character of David you have the character of Saul so just keep wishing that you're going to be David someday but you're never going to be nobody's ever going to call you that maybe your yes men will maybe your little pit bulls that you have go and attack people you know in comment sections will but nobody that I know is ever going to call you that you might have to preach a sermon where you're David but it's not going to happen you're never going to be David this password made of chocolate he'd eat himself that's how much he thinks of himself I mean this person works in secret to overthrow pastors this person has meetings with other people to overthrow pastors he preaches sermons to congregations like ours to try to overthrow pastors I'm supposed to respect that he's just righteous he always is right his kids are perfect and his life is perfect you know people that have no grace you know when people don't have any grace for anybody else then you know and I don't wish this upon people that the grace won't be bestowed upon them but people sometimes learn lessons the hard way you know when you want to overthrow somebody else's church maybe your church is going to have a church split oh wait it did happen it did happen and you know what I felt bad for this person I texted and I said I'm sorry to hear that that you went through that but like you know I feel like they didn't get the hint hey maybe that judgment is coming upon you because you tried to overthrow other people's churches I mean maybe you should learn that lesson and stick your nose into your own business and run your own church and quit trying to overthrow everybody's churches and overthrow everybody as a pastor and if you want to leave the new IFB so bad just be gone and just leave us alone I mean you want to be done with us just stop talking about us it's really that simple did David do evil Saul no he didn't no he didn't and you know I would mention this pastor's name but like they'd love that way too much and they're probably just just jumping up and down with glee in the fact that I'm just mentioning anything which I really don't want to mention anything but it's just like been disgusting the giddiness that they have of watching another man get taken down it's just disgusting here's a warning to those that would kill the Lord's anointed or even say something against him in some sort of sycophantic favor to get some sycophantic favor of this of other people now because look the weirdos that leave our movement they become the sycophants for the next pastor or they become the sycophants for the next pastor's kids or whatever and they and you know these people think that they're the real true fans or something they're just going to do to you what they did to the last guy they'll act like they're so devoted but then the minute they have a chance they're going to do the same thing to you and you think that they're your true followers you're crazy these people are nuts I mean they've been calling my phone ever since the service started because they're psychopath reprobates that's why look at the second I know we got to go I actually didn't start the sermon the sermon hasn't been going for an hour yet so second Samuel chapter second Samuel chapter one so but here here's a warning to those that just think it's just okay to just kill the Lord's anointed and of course I'm applying this spiritually right second Samuel chapter one verse two it says it came even to pass on the third day that behold a man out of the camp from Saul came out of the camp and Saul with his clothes rent and earth upon his head and so it was when he came to David and he fell to the earth and did obeisance and David said unto him from whence comest thou and he said unto him out of the camp of Israel am I escaped and David said unto him how went the matter I pray thee tell me and he answered that the people are fled from the battle and many of the people also are fallen and dead and Saul and Jonathan his son are dead also and David said unto the young man that told him how knowest thou that Saul and Jonathan his son be dead and the young man that told him said as I happened by chance upon Mount Gilboa behold Saul leaned upon his spear and lo the chariots and horsemen followed after him and when he looked behind him he saw me and called unto me and I answered here am I and he said unto me who art thou and I answered him I am an Amalekite he said unto me again stand I pray thee upon me and slay me for anguish has come upon me because my life is yet whole in me so I stood upon him and slew him because I was sure that he could not live after that he had fallen and I took the crown that was upon his head and the bracelet that was on his arm and have brought them that hitherto unto my lord and then David took hold on his clothes and rent them and likewise all the men that were with him and they mourned and wept and fasted until even for Saul and for Jonathan his son and for the people of the lord and for the house of Israel because they were fallen by the sword so I mean this is real bad news that they are getting and David thinks that this is probably true but what what is the real story we know that he actually killed himself but this guy is trying to take credit for killing Saul but we know he didn't but David doesn't know this he says in verse 13 and David said unto the young man that told him whence art thou and he answered I am the son of a stranger and Amalekite and right then I am sure that this is like oh he is an Amalekite huh these guys that we are all supposed to kill every single last one of and David said unto them how is thou not afraid to stretch forth thine hand and destroy the lords anointed and David called one of the young men and said go near and fall upon him and he smote him that he died and David said unto him thy blood be upon thy head for thy mouth hath testified against thee saying I have slain the lords anointed and you know I would say to the people and pastors that are coming out super hard on these current affairs you know be just be aware of the fact that you are trying to slay the lords anointed and like you can make fun of me for saying that or whatever but you know what I am just going to stand on the principles of the word of God this is still a principle this is still a spiritual truth and I still believe this with all my heart that this is not something we should do show me the time that I ever called a saved man of God to ever resign or to to quit being the pastor of his church just show me that time because I'll eat my words I've never said that about any of these guys and even guys that I don't like I still have never tried to openly overthrow them as the pastor of their church even if I don't like them which some of them I don't I mean I preach a sermon against pastor Fritz because of his bad behavior but I never said I said hey I still think he's saved I still think he's doing good things or whatever but I never said to overthrow him as the pastor of the church if I did then show me the show me the video where I said it you know and I don't take that kind of stuff lightly I'm not trying to you know when people have bad behavior yeah we do have to call it out I understand that but to sit there and just try to overthrow other people's churches and bug your nose into people's business and you have laymen in churches that are just attacking pastors maliciously now look if one of the pastors that got called out in the sermon on Sunday from Faith War Baptist Church is upset about that or people are upset about the fact that he did that listen just listen to me for a second they were calling him a child abuser a wife beater and all manner of evil and saying a lot of crazy stuff and letting their wives say a lot of crazy stuff in the comments did you not think he would say something in response and honestly I think he was very graceful in what he said because he probably could have gone a lot more nuclear than he actually did because to say something like that about a person when you don't have physical evidence of that I think is wicked as hell and you're like well I didn't think you were going to get involved in this well you know what Pastor Anderson is my friend and you know what me you know I didn't want to say anything until he actually preached himself about this and so I just I wanted to just you know hopefully everything was going to go okay and everything but like if he's my friend then shouldn't I say he's my friend shouldn't I say that I stand by him and you're like oh you're you're supporting an abuser shut up if you think that then you're an idiot if you think I support abuse then you're an idiot if you think that I beat my wife then you're an idiot if you think I support you know people beating their wives you're an idiot my whole church knows that and if you don't know that let me tell you right now I don't support that I mean I don't I just told you guys I don't believe in going too crazy with your spankings with your kids it should be age appropriate it should be with a rod that's what the bible says so you can just add all these little attacks that you want onto me but you're never going to hear me talking about I don't even want to mention what they're saying because I just don't believe in it it's a nothing there's nothing in the bible to teach that doctrine and I'm just not I'm not even going to preach about it because why should I it's just nothing I don't believe in it I've never had one person come to me and say that their husband is beating their wife or that they are you know I haven't had a woman come to me and say my husband's beating me I've never had that happen in counseling ever unless I've just forgotten about something but I don't think that that's happened so to say that oh the new IFB teaches that we should beat our wives that's ridiculous but people are just using straw men because somebody said this or that like but my strong stand is of course you guys know this I don't believe that men should hit women but I don't believe that women should hit men either just so you know and I don't think that you should go overboard with spankings with your kids what do I mean by that well I think you should hit with the rod that's what the bible says age appropriate so that's what I believe so but to those that are making these hard stands or whatever the day might come when you're accused of something and you didn't and say you didn't do it and then you don't have friends to back you up because you didn't back your friend up when you could have and look if some crazy evidence comes out and it turns out that it was all true you know what I'm going to say well I guess I was wrong that's what I'm going to say that's what I'm going to say but you know what a friend loveth at all times that's what the bible says and you know what I'm not going to just abandon my friend when he's saying I'm not guilty of these things I did not do them so people can get pissed off about that all they want but the fact remains that there is no physical evidence that this happened there is no arrests have been made nothing in court, no trials nothing, if that happens if there is some kind of evidence that takes place I will change my mind I'm not going to like I even told this to him to his face, well I mean on the phone that I'm not going to just I'm not this kool-aid drinker of course I'm circling the wagons, I'm drinking the kool-aid right, but here's the thing, if there's evidence on the contrary then I would change my mind that's not a kool-aid drinker that's just someone that I'm going to believe I'm going to believe what my friend is saying, I'm not going to be like Job's friends and just say surely you had to do something to make this happen right you don't know that and so that's what the truth that's the truth I know anyway at this point and you know again I mentioned to this in prayer time though that the apostle Paul said no man stood with me, is it possible that no man can stand with you and you're still, but you're right still is popular opinion and pressure from other people and pressure from other pastors and pressure from your friends and pressure from Facebook for people to go where do you stand I don't need to tell you where I stand because you tell me what I need to stand I'm going to tell you what I want to tell you you're not going to control me and I just felt like it was time for me to say where I'm at oh you're with the abuser, shut up if you think that then you're an idiot and you can just leave but I don't think anybody thinks that so if I'm wrong come up and talk to me after church I won't call you an idiot and I won't yell at you but I still love you I want church to have unity though, I really do I don't want to be divided on this but if you have a different opinion like you're just like oh I don't think he's qualified I don't care, I already told you that but what I have a problem with is people railing and people saying he's this wicked evil child beating wife smashing monster or something well then how'd you get saved? because I would say that someone that's as bad as the testimonies that I've heard is a reprobate and I don't think he's a reprobate so last verse and we'll be out of here I'm sorry this sermon's taking so long now it's five minutes over, I'm sorry but I was Matthew 7 and 2 but what I was saying though is that the day might come when you have a battle and you're accused of something hopefully God's mercy will fall on you I'm not cursing anybody or telling anybody I hope that this happens to you I hope that people get this right I think that this is the biggest deception that I've ever seen it's the biggest attack I've ever seen and I've never seen anything like it and I just think it's been crazy it's been really hard to deal with honestly but but on a day also when your enemies rise up against you I hope your friends stand with you and give you the benefit of the doubt because that's not what I've seen happen Matthew 7 2, for with what judgment you judge, ye shall be judged and with what measure you meet it shall be measured to you again this is a warning to people, hey be careful how you judge people because if you're going to just sit there and act like you're just so high and mighty and then the same situation happens to you you're going to be judged like you judge that person and that's pretty harsh in this case here I hope your children never rebel against you I hope your teenager never goes wayward because there's a lot of people who already have had that kind of stuff happen to them and they understand what's going on so anyway I'm done let's pray, Lord thank you so much for this church I pray that you just bless and help us to have unity and I pray Lord that people would just get right on these types of issues Lord that we would understand that it's Lord it's your place to remove leaders that are anointed by you Lord and whether it's presidents or pastors or whatever it is that Lord it's your job to remove them and they cannot fight against God they cannot fight against you Saul could not fight against you and Lord it's not our job to replace people it's your job I pray that you'd help us with these things help us to have good judgment and sound judgment on these types of things we wouldn't let our heart be taken away with just the popular vote and the popular thing and I just pray that you would Lord just help us give us discernment because there's not a lot of discernment going on today I pray you just bless as we go our separate ways in Jesus' name we pray, Amen ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...