(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

you you By thy grace we will you guys are singing good tonight on the fourth Fearsome long the battle rages, but our help is near Onward comes our great commander cheer my comrades cheer Oh For I am coming Jesus signals still Wave the answer back to heaven by thy grace we will Amen good singing brother bill, would you open up with a prayer? Amen our second song is me song number 310 footprints of Jesus Song number 310 in the red and the green him books footprints of Jesus Song 310 let's sing it together on the first Sweetly Lord have we heard thee calling come follow me And we see where thy footprints falling lead us to the Footprints of Jesus that make the pathway glow We will follow the steps of Jesus where e'er they go Oh Though they lead or the cold dark mountain seeking his sheep Or along my solo arms fountains helping the weak Footprints of Jesus that make the pathway glow Oh We will follow the steps of Jesus where e'er they go If they lead through the temple holy preaching the word Or in homes of the poor and lowly Serving the Lord Footprints of Jesus that make the pathway glow We will follow the steps of Jesus where e'er they go Then at last when on high he sees us our journey done We will rest where the steps of Jesus and that is thrown Footprints of Jesus that make the pathway glow We will follow the steps of Jesus where e'er they go Amen. Good seeing with that. We'll have our announcements Just lift your hand up high and Do we have any bulletins? No, we don't. All right. Well, I guess not If you need one then too bad should have been here on Sunday Alright on the front cover. We have our verse of the week. It says the Lord thy God is in the midst of thee In the midst of thee is mighty he will save he will rejoice over thee with joy. He will rest in His love he will joy over thee with singing Zephaniah chapter 3 verse 17 on our inside page there We have our service times 1030 a.m. For our Sunday morning service Sunday evening service 3 30 p.m. Will be in Joshua chapter 11 I think I don't know. I can't remember Anyway, we'll be back in the book of Joshua on Sunday evening and Thursday Bible study tonight's in 1st Chronicles chapter 21 Our sowing times are listed below. We had so many do we have anybody else saved tonight? We had one saved All right, praise the Lord for that and we had six saved on Sunday So one saved to tonight and then I had one on the telephone from a call And she is getting baptized on Sunday. So we're gonna need to have the baptismal all ready to go. I Want to get together with the ushers after church if I could you have time afterwards and I could just get someone to turn down that heater real quick I would really appreciate it because I know it's not gonna I'm not gonna last up here So anyway, also you look down you can see our stats so far And we do have two baptisms and that's those were recorded in Indianapolis and let's see. We had a good weekend last weekend with pastor we preaching for us Preached two great sermons for us. So it's really nice having them here with us and We had the Valentine's Or not Valentine's this sweetheart banquet Mary couple sweetheart banquet was really good and just want to say once again Thank you to everybody who participated and came here, but also thank you to everybody that made it such a such a success I think that everybody had a great weekend. So I know I did and my wife did also and Let's see. What do we got? We had the Valentine's Day kids party at 11 15 today And I think I didn't hear any complaints. So nobody called and complained to me. So I think everybody had a good time there and The Super Saturday is this weekend on Saturday between 12 and 3 p.m So if you're going to that, can I get a quick show of hands of who's going to that? Six Gabe you're going by yourself All right, it's like we got a super so winning Saturday 12 to 3 12 o'clock All Right, it's in Hazel Dell so, huh It's Saturday This Saturday It's coming Saturday at 12 o'clock So and the maps will be put in the whatsapp group and brother Alex you're gonna do that, right? Okay It's just we're gonna do apartments in Hazel Dell and we're eating somewhere. That'll be put in the group also Alex didn't you have an idea of where you wanted to go some crazy place. What was it called Oh Korean barbecue Is it delicious Well, it sounds delicious Okay. All right. What's the name of the place? Do you know? Well, let's not say on the line. Yeah Let's not do that. All right, talk to me after the service We'll try to pinpoint. All right, so that is 12 to 3 we'll have the meeting place in the whatsapp group and ready for us to meet and let's see the Anniversary in Spokane for the six year anniversary is gonna be March 14th. I'll be preaching there on Friday night there'll be some soul winning on Saturday and Then Remy's gonna preach both services on Sunday March 29th is the salt as a soul winning marathon And Then it'll be around. I don't know. I haven't picked the place yet. So I got to catch up with these announcements here March 30th is going to be a men's preaching night here and then the Lord's Supper Here for the evening service April 19th is gonna be this mega marathon Easter Sunday's the 20th and then what I didn't squeeze in there is the Seattle Second year anniversary is gonna be the last weekend of April, which is let's see Get my Calendar out here That would be the 27th I'm working on trying to get somebody to preach on a Friday night there So we would probably have to do that at like a hotel or something So working on that and then of course the big conference is coming in May and Then Chicago soul winning marathon the 28th of June Detroit soul winning marathon September all the rest of the information of course the family integrated services and Tithing information down at the bottom of the page And See that's everything Oh Amy and oh, yeah, we're already saying happy anniversary, right? Oh, yeah, you guys did you guys want your gift cards for finishing the New Testament? You guys been child. I know I know Eli does Little Eli All right young young Eli young spry Eli we want to come up and get yours Come on come on up you've been asking come on All right, I'm gonna read the list Now you're shy boy All right, so Jesse Come on up and get yours as I call your name or you're not getting it Jesse quickly Ramon And Bobby you can get hers too miss Sheila someone can take hers to her Jackson Jack Remy already gave Kylie hers Remy. Where you at? Come on This Rachel You You You Our next song is on number 49 meet me there Song number 49 meet me there Song for 9 let's sing it together on the first on the Happy golden shore where the faithful part no more when the storms of life are or meet me there Where the night dissolves away into pure and perfect day I am going home to stay meet me there Meet me there Meet me there Where the tree of life is blooming meet me there When the storms of life are or on the happy golden shore Where the faithful part no more meet me there Here our Honda's hopes are vain Dearest links are rent and twain, but in heaven no throb of pain meet me there By the river sparkling bright in the city of delight Where our faith is lost inside meet me there Meet me there Meet me there Where the tree of life is blooming meet me there When the storms of life are or on the happy golden shore Where the faithful part no more meet me there Where the harps of angels ring and the blessed forever Sing in the palace of the king meet me there Where in sweet communion blend hard with heart and friend with friend In a world that ne'er shall end meet me there Meet me there Meet me there Where the tree of life is blooming meet me there When the storms of life are or on the happy golden shore Where the faithful part no more meet me there Amen good seeing at this time. We'll have our offering brother Alex. Would you bless the offering for us? We ask you to bless this gift, both the gift and the giver, that we can further your kingdom. In Jesus' name, amen. You You You All right, good evening, it's good to see you this evening Would you please turn with me to the book of 1st Chronicles chapter 21? 1st Chronicles chapter 21 As is our custom will read the entire chapter beginning in verse 1 Please read along silently with me 1st Chronicles chapter 1. I'm sorry 21 In 1st Chronicles chapter 21 the Bible reads and Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number Israel and David said to Joab and to the rulers of the people go number Israel from Beersheba even to Dan and bring the number of them to me that I may know it and Job answered the Lord make his people and hundred times so many more as they be but my lord the king are they not all my lord servants Why then doth my lord require this thing? Why will he be a cause of trespass to Israel? Nevertheless the king's word prevailed against Joab Wherefore Joab departed and went throughout all Israel and came to Jerusalem And Joab gave the sum of the number of the people unto David and all they of Israel were a thousand thousand and 100,000 men that drew sword and Judah was four hundred threescore and ten thousand men that drew sword but Levi and Benjamin counted he not among them for the king's word was abominable to Joab and God was displeased with this thing. Therefore. He smote Israel and David said unto God I Have sinned greatly because I have done this thing But now I beseech thee do away the iniquity of thy servant for I have done very foolishly And the Lord spake unto Gad David's seer saying go and tell David saying thus saith the Lord I offer thee three things choose thee one of them that I may do it unto thee So Gad came to David and said unto him thus saith the Lord choose thee Either three years famine or three months to be destroyed before thy destroyed before thy foes while that the sword of thine enemies overtake thee or else three days the sword of the Lord even the Pestilence in the land and the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the coast of Israel now Therefore advised thyself what word I shall bring again to him that sent me and David said unto Gad I'm in a great strait Let me fall now into the hand of the Lord for very great are his mercies But let me not fall into the hand of man So the Lord sent pestilence upon Israel and there fell of Israel 70,000 men and God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it and as he was destroying The Lord beheld and he repented him of the evil and said to the angel that destroyed it is enough stay now thine hand and the angel of the Lord stood by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite and David lifted up his eyes and saw the angel of the Lord stand between the earth and the heaven having a drawn sword Sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem Then David and the elders of Israel who were clothed in sackcloth fell upon their faces and David said unto God is it not I that commanded the people to be numbered even I it is that have sinned and done evil Indeed, but as for these sheep, what have they done? Let thine hand I pray thee O Lord my God be on me and on my father's house But not on my people that they should be plagued Then the angel of the Lord commanded Gad to say to David that David should go up and set up an altar unto the Lord in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite and David went up at the saying of Gad which he spake in the name of the Lord And Ornan turned back and saw the angel and his four sons with him hid themselves Now Ornan was threshing wheat and as David came to Ornan Ornan looked and saw David and went out of the threshing floor and bowed himself to David with his face to the ground Then David said to Ornan Grant me the place of this threshing floor that I may build an altar there in unto the Lord thou shalt grant it me for the full price that the plague may be stayed from the people and Ornan said unto David take it to thee and let my lord the king do that which is good in his eyes Lo I give thee the oxen also for the burnt offerings and the threshing instruments for wood and the wheat for the meat offering I give it all and King David said to Ornan nay, but I will verily buy it for the full price for I will not take that Which is thine for the Lord? For nor offer burnt offerings without cost So David gave to Ornan for the place 600 shekels of gold by weight and David built there an altar unto the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings and called upon the Lord and he answered him from heaven by fire upon the altar of burnt offering and the Lord commanded the angel and he put up his sword again into the sheet thereof at That time when David saw that the Lord had answered him in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite then he sacrificed there For the tabernacle of the Lord which Moses made in the wilderness and the altar of the burnt offering Were at that season in the high place at Gibeon But David could not go before it to inquire of the Lord For he was afraid because of the sword of the angel of the Lord Brother Brandon, would you pray for us? All Right before we get started I just want to let you guys know that the bathroom is out of order again so I'm not sure what's going on with it, but It got cleared out yesterday and now it's on the fritz again So I'm not sure what's going on, but don't use those first two around the corner You still have the one around the we have the one baton the very far back that we can use and one upstairs Anyway enough potty talk let's get into the chapter here Let's see first Chronicles chapter 21 and the title sermon tonight is David's census brings pestilence last chapter David finished off the children of Ammon and really kind of rolled the wheel over them so to speak and really Put them through the brick kiln and chopped them up with harrows. You know plowed them over with harrows of iron and chopped them with axes and and really kind of Made an example of what happens when you mess with David and the children of Israel kind of went overboard with their destruction, but I'm sure that people were very afraid to Mess with David and the children of Israel after that and then you know towards the end of the chapter He fights against those giants, and I had mentioned how the modern versions will take the part in that they'll take out that it was the brother of of Goliath they get tight and they'll take that part out back in chapter. I just kind of wanted to Go flip back to one page or wherever you're at in chapter 20 Instead of chapter 21. I wanted to kind of address something. I said I was a little bit mistaken So it's it's actually in 2nd Samuel chapter 21 verse 19 Where they take and say that it was the brother of in the King James, it says the brother of Goliath they get tight But in first chronicles, it says Lami the brother of Goliath they get tight So basically you have a contradiction if you read the modern versions They're gonna take that part the brother of Goliath out and they'll just say That this Elhanan the son of Jerigarim the Bethlehemite slew Goliath so all the modern versions in 2nd Samuel 21 19 will say That they slew Goliath, but the problem with that is is that everybody knows who slew Goliath? David slew Goliath, so then you have this later They'll say well that's not in the original Greek, or I mean the original Hebrew, and that's why they change it But here in first chronicle chapter 20 verse 5 it says and there was war again with the Philistines and Elhanan The son of Jer, slew Lami the brother of Goliath they get tight whose spear staff Was like a weavers beam So Elhanan the son of Jer slew Lami the brother of Goliath the brother of Goliath they get tight so But the problem with this is with the modern versions, which they have lots of problems all over the board but Go ahead and turn to 2nd Samuel check keep your finger here in The chronicles and Go over to 2nd Samuel chapter 21 verse 19, and we'll see what it says there in 2nd Samuel chapter 21 verse 19 And I just kind of want to address this real quick before we move on into our chapter here It says in 2nd Samuel chapter 21 verse 19, so this is like a parallel passage basically of this event that takes place Where they're kind of taking care of the remnants of the Giants of the Philistines So Goliath had brothers Goliath had sons And they're kind of just taking out this remnant here And it says in 2nd Samuel 21 19 it says and there was again a battle and gob with the Philistines where Elhanan the son of Jer or Oregon a Bethlehem I slew the brother of Goliath the get tight the staff of whose spear Was like a weavers beam So the King James gets it right it You'll see that that's an italics the brother of But in first chronicles, it's not an italics that it's the brother of Goliath and so people are like well Why is it? Why is it not in the Hebrew in? 2nd Samuel 21 verse 19 and the answer to that is I don't know why it's not But what I do know is That it's not an italics, and it isn't the Hebrew in first Chronicles chapter 20 verse 5, so what would that lead you to us? You know that you you know that what it what it says in first Chronicles 20 verse 5 Should be the right rendering in for in 2nd Samuel chapter 21 verse 19 You're like well. That's adding to the Word of God well No, it's just you know filling in a translational blank in your Bible. That should be there So now what are the modern versions do though they leave people confused that are lead that are reading a False Bible version because they're gonna leave people confused to think that Somebody else killed Goliath, and then it's a contradiction in their Bible Let me read you what the Amplified Bible says the Amplified Bible says in 2nd Samuel chapter 21 verse 19 There was war with the Philistines again at Gob and Elhanan the son of Jer Origam a Bethlehemite killed Goliath the Gittite Whose spear? Shaft was like a weavers beam So apparently Goliath has been risen from the dead all these years later and was killed by somebody else So now in the Amplified version in 1st Chronicles chapter 20 verse 5 it says And there was war again with the Philistines Elhanan the son of Jer killed Lami the brother of Goliath the Gittite Who the shaft of whose spear was like a weavers beam? So you have a contradiction. It's a parallel passage and So you can't have it both ways he either killed Goliath or he killed the son or the the brother of Goliath which one is it? which one makes more sense the King James version or The ES or the amplified version well the amplified version is wrong obviously The ESV says and there was war again The ESV stands for the extremely stupid version But it says and there was war again with the Philistines with the Philistines at Gob and Elhanan the son of Jer Origam the Bethlehemite Struck down Goliath the Gittite wow here it is again He's risen from the dead in the ESV also the shaft of whose spear was like a weavers beam now They do the same thing that the amplified version does they they say that this guy struck down Goliath the Gittite which is which was killed by David many years before this and in the first in first chronicles it says That there was again war with the Philistines and Elhanan the son of Jer struck down Lami The brother of Goliath the Gittite the shaft of whose spear was like a weavers beam I'm not gonna torch you with everyone, but I'm just gonna read one more the NASB Which people say this is the most accurate of all you know. This is what Trump would say the most accurate of all the The versions all right the NASB says and there was war with the Philistines again at Gob and Elhanan The son of Jer Origam the Bethlehemite killed Goliath the Gittite The shaft of whose spear was like a weavers beam So the NASB the supposed most accurate of all the new translations also has Goliath being killed by somebody other than David so My question is if it's so accurate. Why are they getting it wrong? Why are they getting this real any kid in America? Could probably tell even if they're not Christian even if they're not religious at all Everybody probably knows who killed Goliath if you just ask them I mean even Someone who's never been to church before probably would know the answer to that question who killed Goliath. They'd say David David is one of the most famous people still after thousands of years in the whole world and in the story of David and Goliath is a very famous story and Nobody thinks that Elhanan the son of Jer Origam the Beth the Bethlehemite killed Goliath the Gittite nobody thinks that except for People that read the NASB the ESV and the amplified version I mean even some of the modern versions like the NIV actually Place it and put the right you know put they put it in the italics and make it right so The NASB of course gets it right in first chronicle chapter 20 verse 5 and say that You know that Jair that killed Lami the brother of Goliath the Gittite, so you know which one is it well Was it Goliath or was it the brother of Goliath is it Lami or is it Goliath you know? What's the problem with that well the problem with that is that? Somebody that's young that's in church. That's given one of these stupid version Bible versions is gonna get this and then somebody's gonna point out a contradiction to them some Atheist is gonna say hey, did you ever see this before and then they're gonna read that and go oh? There's a contradiction in my Bible the Bible is not true. That's the problem with it So but they can't do that with the King James. They're not gonna be able to do that with the King James They might be able to find some sly one Somewhere that's easily refutable, but they're not gonna find something that glaring in the King James Bible that they can just Scrutinize and say is not true So I did want to kind of back up I was just wrong about which which book that was actually in I Just had mistakenly said that but I did want to kind of cover that last week And I just ran out of time to do that so let's move forward into the sermon which is point number one that Satan Constantly looking to provoke us to sin and we see that here in verse number one It says in Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number Israel. You're like well. What's the big deal about that? Well, let's read on and I'll explain it to you here in just a minute But obviously he's doing something he's provoking something out of David to number him well It says in David said to Joab and to the rulers of the people go number Israel from Beersheba Even to Dan and bring the number of them to me that I may know it and Joab answered The Lord make his people and hundred times so many more as they be but my lord the king are They not all my lord servants Why then does my lord require this thing? Why will he be a cause of trespass to Israel so? You know when Joab's asking about The validity of something you know you're doing something. That's not right Okay, if Joab's like hey, are you doing something? That's right here David are you doing something wrong when he's like you know gutted people at the gate and killed you know a couple of David's relatives before and it's not really the shining example of You know doing what's right all the time? When he's questioning you then you got to wonder like am I doing something wrong here So how is what he's doing a sin though? How is what he's doing a sin well in verse 1 it says that he's provoking David to number Israel and Really, there's no reason for David to be doing this. He's already beaten down all of his enemies He's already crushed all the rebellions around him and now this is just kind of a matter of pride and Satan is His his main rebellion was pride wasn't it and so he you know David is the king of this mighty Kingdom he's you know we made some mistakes in the past, but Now he's he's kind of getting on to he's pushing buttons on David to get him to do something And that's a lot of how Satan provokes us to sin because he just likes to push Touch things that we like so that we'll do things and then he can just accuse us to God for doing those things He likes to provoke us to do things he likes to provoke us to commit sin now Exodus chapter 30 go ahead and turn to Exodus chapter number 30 And I'll explain to you, and I just preached about this in a sermon not too long ago about Why you're not supposed to? Number the people or what you're supposed to do when you number the people But I just want to go over it again real quick anyway in case you weren't here for that sermon Or you weren't paying attention Exodus chapter 30 verse 11 So when Israel numbered the people it was for a purpose It wasn't just because you want to just see how many people you have in your standing army This was something that the Lord wanted to do when he was ready to go to war for a purpose Okay, here's what it says in verse 11 and the Lord spake unto Moses saying when thou takest the sum of the children of Israel After their number then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul unto the Lord When thou number'st them that there be no plague among them when thou number'st them So in order to do this census that he's asked Joab to carry out there had to be There had to be an accounting of some Monetary value they were supposed to pay a sum to do this They were supposed to count, but while they do this they're supposed to collect Something look what it says and they shall give every one of them everyone that passeth among them that are numbered half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary a shekel is 20 Giras and Half shekel shall be the offering of the Lord Everyone that passeth among them that are numbered from 20 years old and above shall give an offering unto the Lord The rich shall not give more and the poor shall not give less Than half a shekel when they give an offering unto the Lord to make an atonement for your souls And thou shalt take the atonement money of the children of Israel and shall appoint it for the service of the tabernacle of the congregation That it may be a memorial unto the children of Israel before the Lord to make an atonement for your souls So in order to do a census like this they had to give this half shekel now David did not command this to take place This is kind of an unsanctioned Census that he's doing and so this is why Joab's like why are you doing this and Because he's he knows that he's not doing it according to what the Bible says which again, this is Joab asking about why David isn't doing something right, which is kind of funny, but This is You know a failure on David's part, so he already had that that big failure with Bathsheba And this is another incident. You know of course years have passed since then you know we go chapter by chapter And then like we think oh, this is just the next chapter this just happened the next day or something But years have passed since then we don't know exactly how many but this has been years since that all happened and now David is messing up again, so but it says Let's go to Matthew chapter 4 so but here's the thing David does Picture Jesus Christ a lot. He you know in a lot of different ways pictures Christ and he Jesus Christ is called you know the seed of David and all that But here in this instance. He's tempted of the devil he's provoked of Satan himself, but he does not pass the test does he and So this is where David fails. This is where David. You know we've seen David fail. You know many times, but No more Yeah, I mean this is like the second worst thing that he's done and and you know obviously he's done other things that are are Not exactly 100% correct, but this is probably his second biggest failure They did that he ever does the first thing being the matter of Uriah the Hittite Which was the biggest thing that he ever did wrong, but this one is second and so it says Matt did I have you turn to Matthew 4 turn to Matthew 4 did I have you turn to Matthew 4, okay? So now David is this is you know I would say this is a type of when the when the devil tempts Christ You know but but I think this is showing us that nobody's gonna be able to pass when the devil Hims this is Satan himself tempting David. You know most of the time I don't think Satan himself is gonna come and tempt you he's gonna send one of his minions He probably is reserved for doing you know like when he he Enters into Judas Iscariot. That's one of one of Jesus's right-hand guys basically or at least you know one of his twelve and Satan is going to enter into the beast himself, but you don't see Satan possess every single person he possesses Judas, and then he does possess the beast he possesses the Antichrist But that's the only two times you ever see him or the snake at the beginning in the Garden of Eden But possessing someone you know I mean, maybe he does possess other people I don't know, but in Scripture you only see him possess this the serpent Judas and then the Antichrist in the Bible So and I'm again. I'm not saying he doesn't go to other people. You know he messes with Job. We know that for sure But as far as messing with every individual on the planet, we don't really know that he does that for sure or not But this specific time he does go right to David. Who's the leader of all Israel and Tempts him to what to number the people and what's he get him to do he gets him to do it right away He also resists Joshua and Zerubbabel You know when they come back from the captivity Satan trying to resist him with his right you know without his right hand so those that's another one I just thought of but look at Matthew 4 1 it says Then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil and when he had fasted forty days and Forty nights he was afterward and hungered When and when the tempter came to him he said if thou be the Son of God command that these stones be made bread so Jesus is so much better than we are and so much more Holy than we are that he even went 40 days and 40 nights without food And then the first thing he did was say hey make these stones into bread Like the thing that he's probably thinking about the most because Jesus Christ is also a human being you know Nice fresh baked bread could he have made those stones into bread. He probably could have made those stones into bread, but I mean Yeah, anybody that's not eating for 40 days and 40 nights is probably gonna want a piece of bread, but what's he saying? But he answered and said it is written man shall not live by bread alone But by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God So he answers him with Scripture then the devil take up take him up to the holy city and Seteth him upon a pinnacle of the temple and sayeth unto him if thou be the Son of God cast thyself down For it is written he shall give his angels charge concerning thee and In their hands they shall bear thee up lest at any time thou dash by foot against the stone Jesus sayeth unto him it is written again thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God Well, I was studying for the sermon. I was thinking man That's kind of a good a good verse to use to prove Jesus's deity Because he said, you know because he's tempting Christ right and he says thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God So, I mean that kind of seems like he's saying that he's God right there in a way, right? And then it says again the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain and showeth him all the kingdoms of the world and The glory of them and sayeth unto him all these things Will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me then sayeth Jesus unto him get thee hence Satan For it is written thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Then the devil leaveth him and behold angels came and ministered unto him. So Jesus passes the test but none of us is gonna pass that test None of us as human beings. We're not gonna be able to pass tests like that Where and but Jesus kind of passed tests that were super extreme and This this little passage here shows us just how great Jesus Christ was because none of us are gonna be able to pass those things Up, I mean he's saying here. Here's the whole world Just all you have to do just bow down once and all this stuff will be yours None of us are gonna be able to pass that test. I mean, maybe maybe we could I don't know But like that's those are pretty tempting offers, aren't they? I Mean I don't know I guess we're never we've never been put in those situations but I'm sure that the devil does give offers like that to certain people and You know, maybe not quite that big of an offer But there are people that are children abelial and I believe that he probably does people do get things You know, you hear those things about people selling their soul to the devil and all that kind of stuff I'm not sure that he shows up at a crossroads in a cornfield somewhere and writes their name in blood or whatever I don't know but This seems like there's a lot of people out there that Somehow they're blessed but it's not the blessing of God obviously when they're having to do all this demonic stuff and sing all you know It's like Bob Dylan like he has this interview where he's Talking about how he sold his soul and then he doesn't really want to say who he sold his soul to he's like you know the big one the big guy or whatever and it's like He's he's saying that he sold his soul to the devil He said that he used to be able to write music and it just came to him and he's wrote it really well But now he said I could not write those songs again. He said I can't write music like that anymore. Why is that? Well, he probably just wrote everything the devil gave to him and now he's just waiting to croak and go to hell. I mean but anyway David could not resist the temptation. What was the temptation? Whatever pride he had was that he's this great warrior king and he wanted to show just how great his standing army was that he had built that he feels like he built and well, and you know the devil will come to us in different ways or Devils will come to us in different ways to push our buttons I'm not saying he can possess us You know if you're saved the devil cannot possess you or Devils cannot possess you but they might be able to influence you You know kind of influence hey, you know, this is a good option, you know There's a good job waiting for you down in Timbuktu or whatever where you know There's no good church to go to but you'll make a lot of money, you know stuff like that Or whatever it is that you might fancy and get you Out of the way, you know, we're supposed to stay, you know there's a way that we should go and we don't want to veer off the path of Righteousness that we're supposed to be on turn to 1st Peter chapter 5 verse 8 1st Peter chapter 5 verse 8 1st Peter chapter 5 verse 8 the Bible says Be sober be vigilant Because your adversary the devil has a roaring lion walketh about Seeking whom he may devour So we're supposed to be sober. That means we're supposed to be paying attention We're supposed to be awake and be serious about things and it says be vigilant You can't just be caught with your guard down. We're supposed to be paying attention to what's going on. Why because our adversary our adversary he's our enemy the devil as a Roaring lion walks about seeking who may meet he may devour, you know, roaring lions are scary We don't have to mess with them too much You might have seen one in the zoo before you might have even heard one roar at the zoo before But imagine living in Africa where you actually have to be in fear of your life because of them it's a whole nother story I mean we have mountain lions, but how many has ever actually seen one in the wild before? Okay, I've seen them twice in my whole life and both times They were crossing a road when I was out just driving around in the mountains and one of them was pretty big and I was In the back of a truck, so it was a little scary, but I was a kid But I mean, that's the only two times I've ever seen them out in the wild But you know they can stalk you they can kill you and they will So you got to be vigilant out there when you're out walking in the forest and and cats, you know, they're pretty stealthy You think that they you know, they're gonna make a whole bunch of noise when they're sneaking up on you. They're not You know, I had a pastor in Eastern Oregon and I'd seen this like program on PBS and it said there's only been like two Mountain lion attacks and like the last however many years and mountain lions aren't really dangerous and you know They're giving this liberal perspective. That's because people just don't report them But he said he had his he was out like I don't know by Legrand somewhere and he had his his bow drawn on an elk And he said that he hurt he just heard like this kind of rustling behind him and he had his bow drawn He turned and it was a cat, you know and cats do that little thing with their paws It was doing that right was about because all cats do that when they're about to pounce on something even big ones and He said that his I said he was just paralyzed with fear and he pulled the bow and the cat jumped and when it jumped he just let go and it hit the cat right in the Belly and then it flew into like a it just kind of you know Wigged out, you know when it hit it and then it flew into this ravine and he just like said he just sat there paralyzed For a second he couldn't even move and he got it but like if he had to turn around That cat was gonna get him and that would have been the third attack They might not have ever found him I mean people go out into the woods and then they never hear of him again They're like, yeah, these hunters are just disappearing in the woods. Well, what do you think's happening to them? They're probably breaking something or falling down something or something's eating them possibly anyway, but lions That's what they do they stalk you and they wait for you to not be vigilant they wait for you to not be sober and They want to devour you they want to eat you. That's what the devil wants to do He wants to get into our life somehow and destroy it He wants to resist the steadfast in the face says whom resists the steadfast in the faith Hey, we all want to believe that we're so steadfast that nothing could ever get into our life and cause havoc and destroy it but That's just not true. We have long lives to live Christianity is measured by decades and not by you know as months It's measured by decades and hey if you want to make it through this long life of Christianity You still have to wait. You have to realize that we are Stalked we are stalked like by predators. There's predators everywhere and we have a predator that lives in our own body It's called the flesh So not only we have to worry about this devil this entity called Satan that hates our guts and wants to kill us and destroy our lives and destroy our marriage and destroy our children to destroy our faith and destroy our testimony and everything that we've built in this life as far as What's Christ has done in our life? But then we also have to worry about the flesh that we have in our own bodies I mean we have a lot of stuff that's stacked against us But let me not get ahead of myself too much, let's turn over to Revelation chapter 12 Revelation chapter 12 look at verse number 4 Revelation chapter 12 verse number 4 now Satan still has access to the throne of God even to this day I don't believe that Satan has been cast out completely with his Devils He still has access just like he had access To go when the sons of God would go to the throne of God in the book of Job He still has that access today to do what to accuse us to accuse the brethren day and night. That's what he does and When he sets traps for us or his Devils set traps for us then he goes Hey, did you see what so-and-so did last week? Hey, did you see what so-and-so did when you know? You think that they're so great. Well, look what they did This is what they did and then you know it then God that kind of forces God to move against us because God does have to punish sin God does have to punish his children and You know it kind of we have all these just like I said, we have all these things working against us so yes, we're forgiven but You know because we're not bastards and we're sons You know we have this entity called Satan and his minions that are just constantly trying to mess with us then he has these reprobates on earth that also mess with us, and then he deceives the whole world and So people that are deceived don't realize that they're messing with us But they are there's whole systems in place where you know they might not even realize what they're doing is Messing with us, but it is and so we have all these things stacked against us look at verse number four in Revelation chapter 12 it says and his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven and Did cast them to the earth and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered for To devour her child as soon as it was born now I believe this talking about Jesus being born and Herod was ready to kill and because the dragon was trying to have Jesus die when he was born But look how it says his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven This is this is talking about the devil. He he had a third of the angels Convinced that God was bad too, and he took them. You know he he basically convinced a third of the angels to go bad with him Why do I think that well well I'll get to that here in just a second, but skip down to verse number nine so and that's like millions of of demonic beings so Revelation 12 9 says and the great dragon was cast out that old serpent called the devil and Satan so it tells us who this dragon is this dragon was around in the Garden of Eden it says that old serpent That's how it identifies that and it says who's in and it's the devil and Satan So the Bible is telling us exactly who this dragon is which deceiveth the whole world So just because they're not they might not be reprobates, but they are deceived. They're deceived by religion. That's not true They're deceived by Systems in this world that are not true it might just be that they're atheists or just that they don't believe in anything They might just have some weird belief, that's not just not true, but they are deceived nonetheless And it says and he was cast out into the earth and his angels were cast out with him So that's how you connect that you connect that with verse 4 where it says his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven You see that verse 10 and I heard a loud voice saying in heaven now has come salvation and Strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ for the accuser of our brethren is cast down So here the Bible is telling us that he is the accuser of the brethren who's the brethren it's us That's this is what Satan does he accuses us, and it says which accused them before our God day and night This is what he does. This is what he where he gets his jollies or whatever is just Accusing us before God day and night and not just us in this room but anybody that's considered the brethren and so when the brethren are messing up then God has to punish sin and So we are at a big disadvantage because we have someone constantly on there like a tattletale Satan's like a tattletale. He's just like I didn't see what they did. I get I'm God God just probably like You know it just it's it stinks to have somebody all Who went to school or whatever and had? Someone always tell those the tattletale to the teacher though like the brown nose or at the teeth to the teacher You know what I'm talking about. I was shining up the Apple and you know Yeah, I don't know maybe those days are long gone But you know there's that person that is always just snitching to the teacher about stuff or or just even at work even at work if you work a job, and they're always just like trying to nose up to the teacher or whatever to the to the boss and Accuse you of things that you didn't do But it really stinks when there's somebody that can see things that we do and then bring that to God It's embarrassing you know we probably get talked about all the time. We just don't even realize it In fact we do that's what the Bible says right Now look at verse 17 it says and the dragon was wroth with the woman and went to make war with the remnant of her seed we are at war folks and This obviously is talking about in the end times and stuff, but like we're at war now, too. He's doing this right now which keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ in the end of course is you know when he's cast down at the earth You know he's gonna have a short time, and then we get to finally have a rest from all this but It's not just the devil and his minions and his reprobates and his deceived people, but it's also You know it's a hard fight that we have to go through our life is not super simple Getting saved is super simple getting saved. You know it's once saved always saved. It's believing on the Lord Jesus Christ that's the easy part, but We also after being saved the hard part is picking up our cross daily and following after him The hard part is living the Christian life all the time The hard part is coming to church three times a week the hard part is going soul winning once a week the hard top the hard part is You know Inacting the things that we learn in church into our life and our daily life the hard part is raising children the hard part is You know being single and still living for God the hard part is Getting along with your spouse over every single thing that you're supposed to living You know a Christian life in front of everybody. That's a hard. That's hard this stuff is hard. It's not easy because we have the flesh so Let's look at Galatians chapter 5 Galatians chapter 5 You're like this sermons not really covering a lot of track. Well. I'm not gonna finish the whole sermon tonight So just ease up you're all right Galatians chapter 5 verse 16 Galatians 5 I mean I'm gonna. I'm not gonna finish the whole chapter is what I mean not the whole sermon I'm gonna finish the whole sermon, but not the whole chapter all right, so Galatians 5 16 the Bible says This I say then walk in the spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh and You might say well, that's easier said than done pastor it is Easier said than done. It's not easy to always walk in the spirit Is it says for the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary? The one to the other so that you cannot do the things that you would The Apostle Paul has these same issues in Romans chapter 7. He said the things that I hate those are the things that I do And he said oh wretched man that I am how who shall deliver me from this body of death We are in a body of death this flesh has to die before we can put on immortal flesh and don't kill yourself Okay, because then you're not gonna be able to do all these great works and stuff that you need to do here And you know it's a sin obviously But Paul's just saying you know when he says that it's like hey, I struggle with the flesh. He says I am carnal You know people say you can't be carnal and still be a Christian well the Apostle Paul was And he was one of the greatest Christians that ever lived Well, this is what you know false prophets and false teachers will say that you you know you can just be a perfect Sinless Christian, and that's just not true We should strive to be we should strive to be the best Christians. We can we should strive to not sin Obviously, but you know we're just it's gonna be a tough road to do that but it's so It says that these things are contrary one to the other and I do like that I Do like that teaching where it's like if you feed one More than the other that's the one that's gonna win, so if you feed you know if you got two dogs I like this that that that teaching that you got two dogs one is the the carnal dog and one's the spiritual dog You feed the spiritual dog more and that spiritual dog is gonna win over the carnal dog You know you it's whatever one you feed the more the one that's going to win You know if you starve out the carnal dog then the spiritual dogs gonna win and be able to control most of your life But if you just let that carnal dog always take over and he's gonna beat that spiritual dog up because the spiritual dog Doesn't you know if the spiritual dogs supposed to be reading the Bible you know the spirit You know obviously dogs can't read the Bible, but anyway That's where it falls apart right, but if you just take just take the spiritual man in the carnal man The flesh loves to be fed things of the flesh and the spirit loves to be fed the things of the spirit The spirit wants you to pray the spirit wants you to read the Bible The spirit wants you to go soul winning the spirit wants you to go to church the spirit wants you to be engulfed in the things That are spiritual things of God But the flesh wants you to watch and see and hear and do things That are lustful to the flesh, and this is the battle. This is the battle that rages in us every single day You know whenever you're awake You know 24 7 3 6 5 this is what we deal with and you're like pastor. This is not very You know edifying well But the thing is we have something that other people don't have we have the Holy Spirit We have advantages that other people don't have we have God on our side We have the Holy Spirit, and so we're able to do things that other people can't do The the world that's deceived they don't even know what it's like to even have the Holy Spirit So we have advantages that other people don't have let's go back to first Chronicles chapter 21 verse 4 So yeah, it seems frustrating that we have all this stuff against us You know, but David you know he had the Holy Spirit also, and he messed up, too But you know what he did get God he understood what what God he understood what God wanted And he understood that he needed the Holy Spirit. He knew he understood how to ask for forgiveness He understood what he was supposed to do when he sinned and see sometimes I think that Christians forget that we have an advocate Jesus Christ the righteous we have one mediator between God and man the man Christ Jesus We have someone that we can count on someone that already bore all those burdens for us at Calvary Someone that already walked with that cross and Someone had already got crucified for us someone already got his beard ripped out for us someone already They got punched in the face for us someone had already bled and died for us someone that Paid that heavy ransom that we couldn't pay and he has big shoulders his burden is light and his yoke His light his his burden is light his yoke is light. Oh, you know we don't have to bury to Bear that heavy burden look at 1st Chronicles chapter 21 verse 4 says nevertheless the Kings word prevailed against Joab Obviously he's gonna win out right he's the king Wherefore Joab departed and went through all Israel and came to Jerusalem and Joab gave the sum of the number of the people unto David and all they of Israel were a Thousand thousand and a hundred thousand men that drew sword So that's a 1.1 million standing army. That's a pretty big army isn't it and Judah was four hundred thousand or 400 three score and ten thousand men that drew sword so that's four hundred and seventy thousand men just out of Judah That drew sword so this is what David's counting David's counting all the men 20 years old and upward That can fight in a battle, so this is like him just wanting to know how You know how tough is my army how many swords do I have who can take me on this is a pride thing It says, but Levi and Benjamin counted he not among them for the Kings word was and was abominable to Joab so Joab was ticked off He didn't want to even count those two tribes just because he was so irritated with David And it says in God was displeased with this thing therefore He smote Israel, and I've already said this before but whenever it says God is displeased people die so to us displeased might mean You know like a very mild. I'm just very displeased with you right now But when God when it says God's displeased people literally if you just do a word search on it When when men say they're displeased not that big of a deal But when God says that people are literally just dying every time like the first time. It's using the Bible. I think he kills Like he kills Ornan or something then yeah, he just killing people when it happens so He kills date. You know when the first time he uses it with David is when he commits adultery with Bathsheba, so anyway, um So it says therefore he smote Israel So he's mad at what David did so he's smiting the nation of Israel it says and David said unto God I Have sinned greatly because I've done this thing But now I beseech thee do away the iniquity of thy servant for I have done very foolishly now this is This is like the right way to respond when someone says hey, you know You've done something wrong and David like David just realizes it When people start dying David just realizes hey, I've done something wrong. This is my fault and why are they dying well? What would have what what what would happen in? Exodus it says that they're gonna start being plagued if they didn't give that sacrifice that half shekel well That's exactly what starts happening so God starts smiting Israel, and it says David says I've done foolishly. I've sinned greatly I've done this thing I beseech thee do away with the iniquity of thy servant for I've done very foolishly So David you know he's a man after God's own heart not because he never sins but because when he does he owns it and Doesn't make excuses about it. He admits it he apologizes to God for it, and he makes it right That's the opposite of what a lot of people do when they get called to the carpet about things They don't want to admit it they don't want to say that they've sinned they want to make excuses Oh, it's so-and-so's fault. It's somebody else's fault, and they never want to just admit that they've done the sin That's how most people do what did Adam and Eve do they try to hide from God good luck doing that They try to hide from God, and that's what a lot of people do too We try to hide what we've done we try to cover up what we've done We try to just make excuses instead of just owning what we do and just say yep, I did it forgive me We don't we just we don't Respond the way we should I think this is why God just loved David so much because when he's when he does it He's like I did it. I've sinned I've sinned greatly because I've done this thing and then he's like I beseech you that means That he's begging God to do away with the iniquity that he's done. I've done very foolishly see how he's saying I Now normally when you say I I I it's a bad thing, but when you're saying I've done The wicked things then he's owning what he did Usually when people say I I I then it's usually a bad thing But he's now owning it And a lot of people just refuse to own what they've done and that's the problem So look at Psalm chapter 51 now David writes this Psalm Specifically because of what he did with Bathsheba. We're not gonna go through the whole thing, but we're gonna go through some of the verses here Psalm Chapter 51 It says to the chief musician a psalm of David when Nathan the Prophet came unto him after he had gone in to Bathsheba, so that's the header that's not You know preserved scripture, but that's the heading of the title of the psalm So Take that for what it means, but anyway it says have mercy upon me Oh God according to thy loving kindness according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin For I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is ever before me See that is not the attitude of someone that's blaming other people. It's just you know he's just owning it Against thee thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight that thou mightest be Justified when thou speakest and be clear when thou judgest So again he's saying I have sinned and this and against thee he's he's saying like you know obviously He's sinned against other people But he does understand that God is the only one that he that can make him right before him Skip down to verse 9 says hide thy face from my sins and blot out all mine iniquities Create me a clean heart. Oh God and renew a right spirit within me See when we sin You know it does do something to us, and it makes our heart not right And so when we go to God, and we just say you know we go with the first John 1 9. You know where we It says if we confess our if we confess our sins He's faithful and just forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness You know we fail to do that. We kind of have this Shameful feeling about what we've done and unless you just go to God and do what David's doing right here then you're gonna feel that shameful feeling and So that's what God. That's what David's doing here is he's saying hey create me a clean heart You know clean my heart up and renew a right spirit within me because if you have Unconfessed sin sin that you're just you know just you're you're making excuses for it then then your spirit is not right your heart is not right and You have to fix that and only God can do that for you this is cast me not away from my presence and take not by Holy Spirit from me and The advantage we have as New Testament believers is that God cannot take his Holy Spirit from us. He will not do it It's a promise that we have in the New Testament now. God could have taken David's the Holy Spirit from David but he didn't and So David's asking him not to do that But the that's see that's one of the advantages that we have that other people do not have in this life as we cannot have the Holy Spirit taken from us and It says restore unto me the joy of thy salvation But that can be taken away from us if we're lit if we're not living right if we're not Living the Christian life if we're not Fulfilling what God wants for us in our lives Then our joy of salvation can be taken from us because we're not right with God And it says and uphold with and uphold me with thy free spirit see the spirit we've been given has been freely given to us and You know when we have that joy of our salvation Restored in our spirit. It feels good. That's why it's called joy It feels great to you know when we go into the house of the Lord we're excited to be here because we want to you know God to show us something special to To you know just rejoice with the Saints and to fellowship together and to sing unto the Lord and To hear God's Word preached and those things excite us. We should be excited about being in God's house We should be excited about the things of the Lord and when we lose our joy of salvation we have you know When our hearts not right our spirit is not right when our heart is not clean. We're not gonna feel that way We tend to just hide and we and people might not see it We might not show it to other people, but it does exist and Like I said, we just try to hide those feelings and people might not even see him, but they're there It says then I will teach transgressors thy ways and sinners shall be converted unto thee now there's been a lot of talk lately about Having to be right with God before you can go soul-winding or something and I would say that it's probably good To have your heart as right as possible to go soul-winding But that's not what I think that David's saying here I think that David's saying here is that I want my heart to be as right as possible So that I will feel that feeling of wanting to do that Because let's just face it if we're not feeling very spiritual if we feel like everything's you know Going wrong in our life because we're not living right because we have a deep because David look he's repenting here of a great sin that he's committed and let's just face it that none of us want to read our Bible when we're Feeling sinful. None of us want to go to church when we're feeling sinful None of us want to go soul-winding when we're feeling sinful None of us want to pray to God when we're feeling sinful None of us want to do anything spiritual when we're feeling sinful when we feel like we failed Nobody wants to do Spiritual things when we do when we're feeling that way and this is what David is saying He's like I want that joy back of my salvation Cast me not away from my presence because you know what we don't feel very close to God When we've been sinning we don't feel that closeness because we're we're the ones that feel that way and Really? We're not close with them the more sinful we are the less close we feel that's just the way it is That's why Adam and Eve are hiding behind trees Thinking they're gonna just escape God's presence Yeah, we're just gonna escape God can see everything God knows exactly where he's like calling them, but like he knows where they're at You know But David wants that feeling back. That's what I mean this psalm is about him wanting to get right with God again It's not like I can't go soul-winning until I'm a hundred percent right with everything. That's not I don't think that's what he's saying, but he is saying that he wants to Be right with God, and he's gonna be the you know I think that we will be the most effective But look we you can still go soul-winning when you have sin in your life because look everybody has sin in their life everybody does and To say well, I'm just gonna wait to go soul-winning until I don't have any sin in my life You're fooling yourself if you think that that's what's that's what it is. That's gonna happen You're never gonna have all the sin out of your life And look I don't I don't know anybody that believes in our church or any other church that You can just you know live like the devil all week And then your soul-winning is gonna wipe away all the sin that you did last week nobody believes that I Don't know anybody that believes that I don't know anybody that believes that they can just be the most wicked wife-beating child abusing Deep you know drink all day You know do drugs all week And then just show up for the soul-winning and all your sins are washed away or some nobody thinks that that is insane That is not what anybody believes that I know if you believe that come talk to me after church. I'll straighten you out But nobody believes that And This whole thing you know look Paul said I am the chief of sinners If he would have waited till he was the the greatest man alive He would have never have gone out soul-winning If he would just lived in the guilt of what he did he would have never went out and knocked every single door Because remember he was known for knocking doors in a different in a different way before he went out knocking doors for the right reasons I'm sure when he started knocking doors at first people like what are you here for Paul? You know like people that knew who he was but He became a great man, and he still struggled with sin. Just like everybody else does look everybody struggles with sin Don't let people make you feel guilty that you are a sinner, and you still go soul-winning Don't listen to that garbage. It's not true Oh What it says in verse 14 Deliver me from blood guiltiness. Oh God thou God of my salvation and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness See you're seeing the songs a little more deeply with a lot more meaning When you have a clean conscience don't you oh? Lord open thou my lips and my mouth shall show forth thy praise For thou deservest or excuse me thou desirest not sacrificed else would I give it Thou delightest not in burnt offering the sacrifices of God or a broken spirit a broken and Contrite heart Oh God thou will not despise Is it true? Yes, we we should have a broken Heart and a broken spirit about the things that we do and if you never feel bad about the things that you do you probably should Find a way to feel bad about it. I Mean if you're calloused over that much. That's why God said harden not your hearts You know let that cut those calluses away and let something affect you Because if you're not ever affected by the things that you do then you definitely need some help you need Some help dealing with your sin And if you never confess your sins before God you never try to get right with God about anything Then you you do need to work on that and get right with God I'm not saying live like the devil and go so in any way, but if you're sinful and you go out soul winning praise God Because nothing's gonna help you. You know get that love back for Christ more than going so winning you start thinking hey Look at this person's life look how look how bad off they are and you start feeling like hey, maybe my problems aren't so bad Maybe I remember my life was like this I remember when I felt this lost and you start caring about people and Start stop focusing as much about the your little woes that you have because our woes You know we're gonna forget about those in eternity. We're gonna have a lot of better Situation than a lot of people that we walk on their knock on their doors You know when's the last time you beg someone to get saved was the last time you begged someone to? You know to just call upon the name of the Lord. What's the last time you cared about somebody? because those things do matter and Those will help you have a more contrite heart about about things There's a quote that says either this book will keep you from sin or sin will keep you from this book and I think that's from John Bunyan I don't really necessarily like the person that quoted the made the quote if that's really him that did it who knows sometimes quotes are From other people too, but that's where I got where I think that the quotes from but it's still true nonetheless whoever the quotes from It's true Because when we don't feel spiritual We're not gonna want to read this book That's the truth And then there's that other saying that says sin will take you farther than you want to go Keep you longer than you want to stay and cost you more than you want to pay that is also true And the deeper into sin we get the less spiritual we're gonna get and then our sin is gonna come The chickens are gonna come home to roost and so we don't you know from You know we all struggle with sin But like if you're deep into some kind of sin that you feel like you can't get out of you know like take this prayer of David and read over it a few times and Get your heart with God so Look at verse Back to our chapter verse 9 verse 9 Actually, I don't have I don't have time to get into it I Don't all right well, we'll close there, but You know David Our advantages are though is that We do have the Holy Spirit. We are saved if you're saved You know we have a great advantage, and we you know I don't I wasn't trying to depress you tonight. I really Just think that you know we should be thankful for the opportunities that we do have the fact that we are saved and You know if we're struggling Then we have to do we have to do something about it Nobody else can do it for you. We know our own hearts. We know what's going on in our own lives and You know running from our problems isn't gonna help hiding from our problems isn't gonna Help blaming other people for our problems isn't gonna. Help. We have to own our own problems and You know obviously Help is there for us from God Help is there for us from you know whoever's in our family our support systems and things like that But we cannot just blame where we live where we're at In you know any other situation. We are responsible for our own actions and our own sins and Our own happiness You know if you're not happy do something to make yourself happy if you're not if you're you know Hurtin and you're in sin, then ask God to forgive you and move forward and repent You know I am gonna say repent of your sins repent of your sins as a Christian and move forward I mean yes some of these are like high places that we have to try to conquer in our lives You know But God can help us That's the advantage we have is that God I mean we have all the devil's because we have Satan we have the devil's We have all these minions against us. He's accusing us night and day, but we have the Holy Spirit. They don't God is still the God of Satan, and he still tells him what to do He still can't touch us unless God gives him permission Don't don't let him give him permission You know and sometimes he still lets him have permission anyway with job we saw that, but we can't help that All we can do is try to pass the test and come forth as gold job did so Let's pray well We thank you so much for this chapter of the Bible and Lord as we can see through the life of David Lord He made mistakes and so do we Lord help us to see ourselves in The characters in the Bible and Lord help us to do what they do Especially the great ones Lord like King David that he's such a great example to us and Lord even though he wasn't perfect We know that we're not either and that we can come to you and and get our hearts, right? or to pray that you'd help us Lord where we're lacking and we're Help us to take stock and what we're doing in our own lives and help us to To fix the things that we're failing in Lord and pray that you just bless us bless this church Lord thank you for everybody that came on a Thursday night and Hey, you just bless them for the rest of this weekend Lord bring us back to church on Sunday Keep us all healthy in Jesus name we pray amen No, sorry about that Sweet mine by page 41 on the first there's a land that is fairer than day And by faith we can see it up For the father waits over the way To prepare us a dwelling place there In the sweet By and by We shall meet on that beautiful shore In the sweet By and by We shall meet on that beautiful shore We shall sing on that beautiful The melody is songs of the West and our spirit shall Not a sigh for the blessing of rest in the sweet By and by We shall meet on that beautiful shore in the sweet By and by We shall meet on that beautiful on the last to our bountiful father We will offer our tribute of praise For the glorious gift of his love And the blessings that hallow our days By and by We shall meet on that beautiful shore in the sweet By and by We shall meet on that beautiful Shore Coming out tonight. We'd love to see you back here Sunday and appreciate you singing out to the Lord this evening Brother Robert, can you end us with the word of prayer?