that this evening. Welcome back to Steadfast Baptist Church. Would find a seat, a hymnal. Turn to
hymn number 150. My faith has found a resting place. Number 150-150 resting place. We'll sing
there this evening. If you're with me. Heavenly Father, we thank you just another day, Lord,
that hopefully you're not taking for granted that we can gather together and serve you. And Lord,
I pray that that would never just be a meaningless repetition, that we would really understand how
great and how blessed we are to be able to gather and sing and worship you and learn freely. I pray
that you'd be with the souls that were warned this evening. I pray that you'd also be with us
for the remainder of the service, that everything is done decently and in order. These things we
pray in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, for our next hymn, turn to 173. 173. I do have some instruction
for this one. I know everyone generally likes to hold out at the end. Love lifted me. Here's what
we're going to do so that we're not holding it three different times. For the first and second
verse, we're going to sing it straight through. So just love lifted me. Into the second verse,
but at the third verse, the end of the third, we're going to hold it out like we've all heard
it done before. So do normal the first two, hold on the third. 173. Love lifted me. There on the
first of the week, their Hebrews chapter six, verse 12, encourage everyone to keep working on
this. Did receive one shipment of one of our prize options today and really excited about that. So I
think you guys will like it. Make sure to work hard on that chapter. On the inside, our service
times are listed Sunday morning at 10 30 a.m. Sunday evening at 4 30 p.m. And Wednesday evening
at seven o'clock p.m. Our soul winning times are all listed there. And you'll notice our Saturday
rally highlighted. It's where we have a quick soul winning challenge. We sing a hymn to get
filled with the spirit and go out into the community and preach the gospel. And that's
always a great time. Definitely encourage you to join us for that. Our nursing home ministry
schedule is there if you participate in that, as well as our year to date soul winning and baptism
statistics. Make sure to report those salvations to the soul winning leader or to that church
email address, please. Please continue to be in prayer for Ms. Whitney Reed for her pregnancy.
And tomorrow is finally the day. I'm really excited for our chili cook off right before service. I
finished mine up. I'm not going to be in the competition, but I did make one. If you really
like spicy chilies, you will like mine. If you don't, you will absolutely hate it. And you'll
probably be thinking about it for several days. Let's just say that, okay? But if you like spicy,
you will like it, all right? So looking forward to that. We got our prizes and everything like that.
And just as a quick reminder, I don't care if you put beans in your chili. Have fun. But there's a
special prize for preacher's pick, and that one has to have no beans. So again, if only one person,
if a child just shows up to church and just has a bowl of chili with no beans, that child will win.
So we'll see who wins that, if anyone. I'm bringing one without beans, so we'll see. You know, maybe
I'm the only one, but we'll see tomorrow. But I'm looking forward to it. After the service this evening,
if I could have the men just quickly help disperse these chairs and set up tables that way tomorrow,
we're just ready to roll. It does say 630. Yes, I wanted to ask if you are entering into the
competition, please make sure your chili is here by 645. So we're going to gather at 630 and then
at 646, the judges are going to start judging. So if your chili comes any time after 645,
you're not going to be in the competition. Please make sure you're here on time so that we're not
all just waiting all night for late comers. That is that for the chili cookoff. November 6th through
the 10th is the Missions Conference at Faith Board Baptist Church. November 24th is going to be
the transition from Steadfast Baptist Church to Anchor Baptist Church, Lord willing. Looking
forward to that. A lot of people have been contacting me from Steadfast saying they're
coming, so looking forward to seeing all of them for that exciting weekend. If you would like to
give online, online giving is set up for our church. You just scan that QR code and there is
a website that's in the works right now for Anchor Baptist Church. On the back is our prayer list.
There was one thing mentioned. I just I did not have time to do the Bulletin Write For Service,
but Cameron, your mother's having surgery on Monday, right? Okay, so just be in prayer for
her for that. Everything else should be the same for that prayer list. So let's go ahead and go to
the Lord in prayer as a church this evening. Lord, thank you for this day and thank you for the
opportunity to come together as a church family and to sing praises to your name, to hear the
word of God preached, and just to have fellowship with other like-minded believers. I just pray that
you would bless our prayer requests this evening, that you'd answer them according to your will,
and we pray for Cameron's mother, Barbara, that her surgery would go well on Monday morning, Lord,
and that you just help heal her cancer. Obviously, Lord, also that you would just soften her heart
to the gospel, and we pray for Brother Alex, who is still looking for a job. I just pray that you'd
help him to succeed in his upcoming interviews that he has, and that you just give him wisdom
on the correct job to choose. Lord, I also pray for Miss Sean Furr, for her co-worker Terry,
that her cancer would be healed, as well as for Miss Remy's cancer, that she be healed from her
tumor 100%. And we also pray for Miss Whitney and Brother Zach, who have family members needing
salvation. I just pray that all of our lost loved ones in this room, that their hearts would be
softened, and that they would get good opportunities in their life through either us as soul winners or
other saved Christians to hear a clear presentation of the gospel. I pray that you'd always help this
church to have a heart for lost souls, that we would love people, and that you would just give us
more laborers to accomplish the great commission. And we just ask that you bless this service tonight,
Lord. We love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, that's going to be it for announcements
this evening. Let's go ahead and go to our third song. All right, our third song this evening,
the Psalm of the Week, Psalm 149 in your white handouts, 149, 149 in your white handouts.
We'll sing there right on that first and only verse.
1 Samuel chapter number 12. Good evening, 1 Samuel chapter 12, the Bible reads,
"And Samuel said unto all Israel, Behold, I have hearkened unto your voice, and all that you said
unto me, and have made a king over you. And now, behold, the king walketh before you, and I am old
and gray-headed. And behold, my sons are with you, and I have walked before you from my childhood
unto this day. Behold, here I am, witness against me before the Lord, and before his anointed. Whose
ox have I taken, or whose ass have I taken, or whom have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed,
or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith? And I will restore at you.
And I said, That hast not defrauded us, nor oppressed us, neither hast thou taken aught
of any man's hand. And he said unto them, The Lord is witness against you, and his anointed
is witness this day, that ye have not found aught in my hand. And they answered, He is witness.
And Samuel said unto the people, It is the Lord that advanced Moses and Aaron, and that brought
your fathers up out of the land of Egypt. Now therefore stand still, that I may reason with you
before the Lord of all the righteous acts of the Lord, which he did to you and to your fathers.
When Jacob was come into Egypt, and your fathers cried unto the Lord, then the Lord sent Moses and
Aaron, which brought forth your fathers out of Egypt, and made them dwell in this place.
And when they forgot the Lord their God, he sold them into the hand of Sisera, captain of the hosts
of Hazor, and into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the king of Moab. And they
fought against them, and they cried unto the Lord, and said, "We have sinned because we have forsaken
the Lord, and have served Balaam and Ashtaroth, but now deliver us out of the hand of our enemies,
and we will serve thee." And the Lord sent Jerubbabel, and Bidan, and Jephthah, and Samuel,
and delivered you out of the hand of your enemies on every side, and you dwelled safe. And when you
saw that Nahash, the king of the children of Ammon, came against you, you said unto me, "Nay,
but a king shall reign over us, when the Lord your God was your king. Now therefore, behold,
the king whom ye have chosen, and whom ye have desired. And behold, the Lord hath set a king
over you. If ye will fear the Lord, and serve him, and obey his voice, and not rebel against
the commandment of the Lord, then shall both ye, and also the king that reigneth over you,
continue following the Lord your God. But if ye will not obey the voice of the Lord,
but rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then shall the hand of the Lord be against you
as it was against your fathers. Now therefore, stand and see this great thing, which the Lord
will do before your eyes. Is it not wheat harvest today? I will call unto the Lord,
and he shall send thunder and rain, that ye may perceive and see that your wickedness is great,
which ye have done in the sight of the Lord, and asking you a king. So Samuel called unto the Lord,
and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day, and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel.
And all the people said unto Samuel, Pray for thy servants unto the Lord thy God, that we die not,
for we have added unto our sins this evil to ask us a king. And Samuel said unto the people, Fear
not, ye have done all this wickedness, yet turn not aside from following the Lord, but serve the
Lord with all your heart. And turn ye not aside, for then should ye go after vain things, which
cannot profit nor deliver, for they are vain. For the Lord will not forsake his people for his great
name's sake, because it hath pleased the Lord to make you his people. Moreover, as for me,
God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you. But I will teach you
the good and the right way. Only fear the Lord and serve him in truth with all your heart,
for consider how great things he hath done for you. But if ye shall still do wickedly,
then shall ye be consumed both ye and your king. Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer. Father
God in heaven, we thank you for this day, and we thank you for the book of 1 Samuel.
Amen. All right, well we're in 1 Samuel chapter number 12. If you remember, last chapter Nahash
came against Israel, and King Saul led them to a great victory, and it was at the end of that
victory that he really rallied the whole nation together behind him, and he was pretty much
publicly acknowledged king at this point. And that brings us to 1 Samuel chapter 12 verse 1,
where the Bible says, "And Samuel said unto all Israel, Behold, I have hearkened unto your voice,
and all that ye said unto me, and have made a king over you." So Samuel's letting him know,
hey, I've listened to you. This is your request that is asked for a king. This is not something
that God set up. Remember, God set up the system of the judges. And Samuel was the last judge in
that system. And he says, you know what? I've listened to you. I've hearkened to you. And here
you are now with King Saul. And number one, what I want to point out in this chapter this evening is
the longevity of Samuel, the longevity of Samuel. And you're going to see that in verse number two,
where the Bible reads, and now behold, the king walketh before you. And I, that's Samuel, am old
and gray headed. And behold, my sons are with you. And I have walked before you from my childhood
unto this day. And I think here Samuel serves a really great example that all of us want to
strive to get to, that we would serve God as long as humanly possible on this earth, right? We don't
want to be the types of Christians where we kind of get excited about the things of God for a few
months or a few years. Rather, we want to have the testimony that from the time that we got saved,
we stuck with it. We remained steadfast until we're old and gray headed. And Samuel here
specifically says that he walked before them and he walked with God since his childhood,
because you remember the beginning of first Samuel records the childhood of Samuel,
how he started hearing the voice of the Lord as a child. So Samuel has walked with the Lord
for decades and decades and decades. And quite honestly, there's probably no one, maybe maybe one
or two people in this room that have done that for multiple, multiple decades. And that's pretty
impressive. That's something that we should strive to. And you know, when we see a person,
even in our own personal lives, that we could look to, that's been serving God for decades and
decades, that person has figured out a thing or two about Christianity. And one of the things that
they've figured out is longevity. Longevity is a very important trait in a Christian. Why? Because
like I said, we don't want to just fizzle out. We want to serve God for our whole lives. Go to
second Timothy chapter number four, second Timothy chapter number four. I'll show you a couple more
scriptures that show this principle. Second Timothy four, verse six, this is the apostle Paul and he
said this, "For I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand." And he's
talking about his death here. It says in verse seven, "I have fought a good fight. I have finished
my course. I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which
the Lord the righteous judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but unto all them also
that love his appearing." And so here the apostle Paul is saying that he has fought the good fight
that he has finished his course. You see what's a lot more important than starting a race is finishing
a race and you know everybody runs at different paces but you know I have respect for someone
that at least finishes the race. You know it's not really that cool if you sign up for a marathon
or one of these you know just insane iron man challenges and it's like all right I'm signing up
for the iron man and then you go one mile. It's like cool you signed up for the iron man but you
ran at a high school p.e level like that's not really cool. What I have respect for is someone
that finishes the iron man or finishes the marathon even if they come in last place or even
if they go really slow it just shows the character of that person that signs up to do something that
goes through the pain that goes through the training and that continues all the way to the end of the
race that is a great example uh go to if you would uh first corinthians chapter 9 and while
you're turning there i'll read for you ecclesiastes 7 8 says this better is the end of a thing than the
beginning thereof and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit so notice the
bible is highlighting that the end of something is often better than the beginning thereof and
we can think about this in a lot of ways you know how about your journey as a soul winner you know
if you reach to your old and gray headed years still a soul winner that is better than the day
you started soul winning because let's be honest anyone can start soul winning that's safe i mean
anyone can go to a soul winning marathon and participate in soul winning one time but you know
what's really amazing is someone that's old and gray headed and still a soul winner and i've known
several people like this in my life that are soul winners into their 60s into their 70s and you know
that is a special thing that's a rare thing to see someone has gone through the marathon of life
they've experienced christian longevity and that's where samuel's at he's standing before
god's people saying hey i've stood before you basically all the days of my life you know what's
better than starting a church plant is 70 years after a church was started you know 50 years 100
years 150 years after when things are still going to me that's more impressive than someone just
starting doing something right look at if you would or actually before i read this you know i
was just thinking what are some of the things that causes someone to have longevity in their life
right because i don't think that you just accidentally get to your old age serving god
you just accidentally are old and gray-headed and you're walking in a right way that does not
happen by accident and i think one of the principles that the bible teaches that would
help us to experience longevity is something called temperance temperance now what is temperance
here's the dictionary definition of temperance it says moderation or self-restraint in action
statement or self-control another definition is habitual moderation in the indulgence of a natural
appetite or passion especially in the use of alcoholic liquors definition three total abstinence
from alcoholic liquors i like all of these definitions and if you think about someone
that's going to experience or participate in a physical competition what do they have to show
they have to show temperance right because they have to bring their body under control show
self-restraint self-control you know right now the world series is happening right now
and some of these guys are clearly just beasts for lack of a better word like they're just insane
athletes and how did they get that way through temperance through diligently and consistently
following a routine whether that's a workout routine or diet or both but what are they doing
they're showing temperance well it's the same thing for us spiritually look at first corinthians 9
verse 24 know ye not that they which run in a race run all but one receive it the prize so run that
you may obtain and every man that striveth for the mastery is notice temperate in all things now they
do it to obtain a corruptible crown but we an incorruptible so the apostle paul is actually
using this same analogy that i brought up he's bringing some sort of an athletic competition
and he's saying hey anyone that strives to actually win that thing to actually be successful in that
thing is going to have to be temperate in all things in all areas and when you look at the
best of the best of the athletes they are extremely well disciplined people and they're
extremely consistent people in restraining themselves from not eating certain food
or not you know doing certain things that are unhealthy but he says they're doing this to obtain
a corruptible crown right something meaningless like a world series trophy and growing up i thought
that a world series trophy was like the coolest thing ever but when you actually get saved and
learn the bible and learn that this life outside of serving god is vain and meaningless you know
the trophies that you get at the olympics or at the world series or the super bowl trophy it's just
completely meaningless right but we notice what he says we're trying to obtain an incorruptible
crown that he talked about in second timothy chapter 4 the crown of righteousness that we
will receive if we finish our course if we fight the good fight of faith and that is obviously a
lot more valuable than some corruptible crown look at verse 26 he says I therefore so run not as
uncertainly so fight I not as one that beateth the air but I keep under my body and bring it into
subjection that's temperance right there lest that by any means when I have preached to others I
myself should be a castaway so notice when he's running this Christian race and he's
desiring to make it to the end to finish his course what does he have to do he has to bring
under his body he has to bring his flesh under subjection to his spirit now this is a lot easier
said than done right the bible gives us uh ways to do this by teaching us to walk in the spirit
and that by walking in the spirit we're not going to fulfill the lust of the flesh and we could do
that by of course praying asking for the holy spirit singing hymns and godly music that can fill
us with the holy spirit but at the end of the day that's a lot easier said than done because we
still have the flesh right so what it's going to take to walk in a godly way to live a godly life
is temperance being diligent to restrain yourself and notice he's saying that he's bringing his
body into subjection when i think about people that fall out of the christian race just people
that i've seen in life where they served god for a few months or they served god for a few years
but they stopped i think one of the biggest reasons why this happens is they get involved
in some sort of major sin you know you see someone they're in church for a year or two
and all of a sudden they fall off the face of the earth and you find out they got back into
drinking you know someone's serving god and then all of a sudden they're gone you find out that
they went off into fornication and forsook the things of god why because in order to fight the
good fight to the end we're gonna have to have temperance we're gonna have to bring our bodies
under subjection and if you don't do that and you decide you know i'm going to go out and start
drinking alcohol you're going to find yourself outside of church because the truth is people
generally who have a conscience can't just continue living in major sins in a church like this that's
going to preach against those things really hard and talk about them often and even a church that
practices church discipline when someone's involved in these type of sins you know what they become
a cast away and isn't that what paul said he's saying the reason why i'm being temperate the reason
why i'm controlling myself is so that i don't wake up one day realizing that while i've been
preaching to others i am now a cast away and so that tells me something about samuel well i know
samuel's a sinner because for all of sin and come short of the glory of god right we're all sinners
for sure but what i know about samuel is that samuel was not involved in some super wicked lifestyle
samuel was not out boozing it up samuel was not out committing adultery samuel was not an idolater
samuel was not a railer right he was not involved in these super major wicked sins and really how
the bible paints samuel is honestly one of the most righteous characters in the old testament
because i could pretty much think of daniel and samuel as one of probably the two most righteous
guys in the old testament as far as the bible describing their life like the bible doesn't
really describe much negative about daniel and really the only negative thing i could find about
samuel is that god gives him a light correction when he's still mourning for saul towards the end
of the book which we'll look at and then his kids didn't turn out great but again we talked about
that in first samuel 8 how his children didn't walk in his ways meaning his ways were good his
ways were right he was godly but his children weren't but overall the bible paints samuel as
just an awesome guy a very spiritual guy and so how did he have christian longevity well he had it
by living a really godly life he had it by being temperate go to psalm chapter 23 psalm 23 so i
think by making sure that we're being very temperate in our lives that we're practicing
self-discipline and consistency is going to help us to have christian longevity also it's just
simply allowing god to lead our lives allowing him to correct us and change us when we move off path
is another way that we can have a better chance of making it to our old age serving the lord i'll
show you that in psalm 23 verse 1 the bible says the lord is my shepherd i shall not want so the
bible is comparing god to a shepherd and if god is our shepherd what are we sheep right what does the
shepherd do it kind of corrals the sheep guides them where to go keeps them from danger and look at
verse number two it says he maketh me to lie down in green pastures he leadeth me beside the still
waters he restoreth my soul he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake so
notice this person is allowing god to lead them in the paths of righteousness and this is a choice
that we get to make because you could read the bible you could listen to preaching but if you
don't actually allow that to cause a change in your life then you're not really being led to the
paths of righteousness you're just a forgetful hearer is what you are look at verse number four
yay though i walk through the valley of the shadow of death i will fear no evil for thou art with me
thy rod and my staff they comfort me thou prepare us to table before me in the presence of mine
enemies thou anointest my head with oil my cup runneth over notice this in verse six surely goodness
and mercy shall follow me how long all the days of my life and i will dwell in the house of the lord
forever who's the person that's going to have goodness and mercy following them all the days
of their life and dwelling in the house of the lord it's the person who actually looks at god
as their shepherd and actually allows god to lead us in the paths of righteousness for her for his
name's sake right because just coming to church this is what people think well i go to church so
i'm right with god or i read my bible and i'm right with god but that's not necessarily the case
those are great things to do but you know god has given us all scripture for doctrine for correction
for instruction in righteousness right so the bible is there to correct us so if you're reading it but
you're not actually thinking about how you could change how the bible can be correcting you well
then it's almost unprofitable to you at that point you actually have to be reading it for the
purpose of yes edification yes building up your faith but also just wanting to be corrected
wanting to be led because that's what being led is it's allowing yourself to be corrected
and so if god is our shepherd then he's going to take that rod and that's that and he's going to
push us where to go you know the bible talks about how preaching and the words of god is like goats
right something that sticks an animal to tell them where to go that's correcting the animal saying
like hey animal you're going the wrong way you're going out the wrong gate here and i'm going to
push you this way right so if you want to have longevity dwell in the house of the lord all the
days of your life you're going to actually have to allow yourself to be corrected go back to first
samuel chapter 12 first samuel chapter 12 number two i want you to notice samuel's integrity samuel's
integrity you know he's reached the end of his life and this is what he says in verse three behold
here am i witness against me before the lord and before his anointed whose ox have i taken or whose
ass have i taken or whom have i defrauded whom have i oppressed or of whose hand have i received
any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith and i will restore it you and they said thou has not defrauded
us nor oppressed us neither hast thou taken ought of any man's hand this is a man that had integrity
to be able to stand before all the people and just bring it out in the open and just challenge
anyone hey if anyone has a problem with anything i've done go ahead and tell me right now have i
stolen from anyone have i defrauded anyone have i taken anyone's ox or their ass and everyone's
saying like no and here's the thing that we need to understand is that credibility comes from
integrity if you want to have credibility as a person and especially as a leader it comes from
having integrity from on a consistent basis right and what is integrity well it's basically doing
what's right when no one's looking that's what integrity is and you know it's funny i i had a
law enforcement class in high school and the law enforcement instructor told me that the um police
academy that he went to back in the late 80s that what they would do for some of the recruits is
they would have like these vending machines in the hallways and sometimes the drill instructors
would purposely like put a ten dollar bill kind of sticking out a little machine to test people's
integrity and that if the drill instructors ever caught anyone just taking that and just putting
in their pocket that they would immediately be booted out of the police academy why because
being a police officer is a serious responsibility you have a lot of discretion in your job you have
a lot of authority you have the ability to take advantage of that authority and to defraud people
to steal from people to do wrong things where people wouldn't really see it especially back then
when body cams were not as common as they are now and so these drone instructors they said well
let's just put money hanging out and if we see these recruits stealing them when they think no
one's watching we're booting them out because that's not the type of people that we need
in law enforcement and i think that's a that's a good idea you know someone that lacks integrity
someone that is not willing to do the small things right when no one's watching you know someone that
is just covetous when no one's around you know that person's willing to transgress for a piece
of bread and so you need to realize that integrity is so so important and the person you really are
is not the person that you show to other people the person that you really are is the person
you are when you are alone or when you think you're alone because the truth is we're never
really alone you know god really sees everything god is with us he sees the imagination of man's
hearts he sees our thoughts he sees what we do he sees what we think we're getting away with in the
dark and that is the person that you really are and samuel was able to stand before people that he's
been around for decades and decades and say have i transgressed in any of these ways and all of them
said nope that's a really credible leader right there and you know why he had that credibility is
because of his integrity go to proverbs chapter number 10 i want to show you a couple verses here
on this idea of integrity and i'm really thankful for that class that i took because of all the
things that he taught us that was the one thing that he hammered just every day is just having
integrity having integrity he did not put up with people cheating lying or stealing and i really
am thankful that he instilled that in us you know imagine if before we read this just imagine if
politicians today got up and just said whose ox have i stolen who have i defrauded like who in
government would be able to stand up and actually say that to that level of scrutiny basically no
one and that's why they are bad leaders in our country today is full of bad leaders they would
not be able to stand up and have that level of integrity and so you know they're not really
worthy of that much respect sure their position is but them as a person they're not really
respectable look at proverbs 10 verse 9 he that walketh uprightly walketh surely but he that
perverted his ways notice shall be known people that live a fake life live a double life they want
to present to you that they are a godly person that they do have integrity that they are humble
well you know what if that's not true it will be found out it will be made known and there's been
many times in my life where i've seen a person and i've thought to myself this is a great person
this is a great leader this is a great christian and then it comes out that this person was a
complete fraud a complete fake and you think about judas right judas was very unsuspecting
it's not like every single person knew who who was the traitor you know oftentimes jesus was
making it so clear to disciples and they still like didn't get it so sometimes people can just
trick us but you know what you can't trick god and god will eventually make your ways known
go to proverbs 11 proverbs 11 look at verse number three the integrity of the upright shall
guide them but the perverseness of transgressors shall destroy them so notice by having integrity
you are going to have a path in life you're going to have a guide in life why because someone that's
fake they're not thinking about what's right what does the bible say they're thinking about what do
i need to do in this situation to be a chameleon what do i need to do to trick people in this
situation to make them think a certain way about me and they don't really have a guide in life
they're kind of just being tossed to and fro in whatever situation they're in they change to
adapt to that but someone that has integrity it says the integrity of the upright shall guide
them you know when we're faced with difficult situations but you have integrity you're going
to do what's right no matter what well then you have a guide called the word of god that's going
to lead you in life and you could know you could have a maybe a moral conundrum where your boss is
telling you to lie which i've literally had that happen before when i worked for a company back in
like 2019 where i had a boss that wanted me to lie to the customer about when we were going to
deliver their goods and that could be a you know issue for some people where they're torn what do
i do but here's the thing the person that has integrity sees the word of god that we're not
supposed to bear false witness and that's going to be our guide that's going to guide us in the right
way but someone without integrity they'll say you know what my brothers in christ will never know
about this phone call my my wife won't know about this phone call my friends won't know i could just
call this person and lie to him and no one will know except my boss but you know what you are
destroying yourself when you do that you are weakening yourself when you do that when you
sin against god that way and you know what's right but just out of pressure you transgress and you
sin you are making yourself a weak person you really are because what builds strength is doing
the right thing when it's hard over and over and over again so that when temptation comes you can
say i've been through this i've done what's right before i know that god can bring me through this
but the person that just transgresses like that man they have no integrity and just every time
they'll transgress every single time go to proverbs 28 flip a couple pages proverbs 28 verse 6 better
is the poor that walketh in his uprightness than he that is perverse in his ways though he be rich
and again it just makes me think of congress because a lot of these congressmen and congresswomen
they're not rich before they go into congress but they're filthy rich by the time they come out
and how did they get that wealth not by walking up rightly but from perverting judgment from insider
trading from you know doing bribes hey i'll pass that bill if you give me you know your million
dollar contract from pfizer or whatever things like that and so it's better to be poor it's
better to be poor and have integrity than to be rich and to just be a wicked person because god's
hand can still be on you when you're poor and oftentimes isn't it the poor that is receptive
to the gospel why because they have a good heart and oftentimes people that are rich not all but
oftentimes people that are rich are that way because they're sleazy people and because they
were willing to do anything to get money it was their only goal in life they didn't care who they
stepped on they didn't care what commandments of god they transgressed they didn't care that they
never went to church on sunday they never went to church on wednesday they didn't care that they
don't go soul hunting this is just how rich people often are not all but that is definitely the case
many times go to first peter chapter 3 first peter chapter 3 you know it's important to do
what's right even if it's going to cost you even if it's going to be uncomfortable even if it's
going to be embarrassing it's very important that us as christians that we maintain integrity
and do what is right look at first peter 3 verse 14 it says but and if you suffer for righteousness
sake happy are you and be not afraid of this their terror neither be troubled but sanctify the lord
god in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asked you a reason
of the hope that is in you from with meekness and fear having a good conscience that whereas
they speak evil of you as evil doers they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation
in christ for it is better if the will of god be so that you suffer for well-doing than for evil
doing so sometimes you can literally in life suffer for doing well suffer for following god's
commandments but you know us as god's people we should be willing to suffer to do what's right
and sometimes it's something as simple as just you know you're not going to engage in that
dirty joke at work and people are going to think you're weird right but you know what i'd rather
people think i'm weird and maintain my integrity before god and to suffer for righteousness sakes
and for doing well right or you're that one guy at work that doesn't use the lord's name in vain
and people will make fun of you about the way you talk that happened to me today but i don't care
because i'm not going to go use the lord's name in vain think that i'm weird i don't care oh we can't
so we can't cuss around dylan it's just like hey you know the bible says bastard hell piss ass
no problem with any of those words but yeah using the lord's name in vain is wrong it is a sin and
the bible says god's not going to hold him guiltless that take his name in vain so who should i care
more about people thinking oh dylan's weird or god looking down and saying i'm not going to hold
dylan guiltless because he's using god's name in vain you know we should be willing to suffer and
maintain our integrity go to titus chapter number one titus chapter number one and when i'm thinking
about samuel having integrity you know this is something that we should look for in leaders
this should be something that we strive for as leaders and you know virtually everyone has some
leadership i mean really everyone if you're a soul winner leading someone to christ you know
if your husband you're a leader if your mother you're a leader of your children men you can be
leaders at work you could be a preacher and be a leader there's many different areas where likely
every single person in here is a leader but i think about the office of a bishop which is supposed to
be the example of the believers god gives uh details of the qualifications that involve
integrity look at titus 1 5 it says for this cause left eye thee and creed that thou should
have set in order the things that are wanting and ordain elders in every city as i had appointed
thee and elders just means pastors there it says if any be noticed blameless the husband of one
wife having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly for a bishop must be blameless as the
steward of god not self-willed not soon angry not given to wine no striker not given to filthy
lucre and while samuel of course was not a pastor he was a judge and i think it's a great example
to pastors now and just to christians now that samuel at the end of his life stood before the
people and his integrity was unquestionable he had impeccable integrity he was blameless right
because if samuel had been out taking bribes like our politicians do or stealing people's
oxes or their asses how could you say then that he's blameless right that would be a serious issue
that'd be a huge you know blight in his christianity in his testimony and so you know god is pointing out
that even in the new testament when it comes to the person that's supposed to be an example of
what a model christian should look like this person should be blameless this person should have
integrity go back to first samuel chapter number 12 you know and there's a lot of pastors out there
that don't have integrity they will cave to the pressure they will cave when they're getting
pressure from their friends well if i don't preach the post-trip like the bible says then
i won't be invited to that con that uh conference or whatever right but that's a pastor that lacks
integrity because someone that has integrity should be willing to suffer anything for what they know
is right out of the bible right or you have pastors today that their staff someone on their
staff or someone under them will get busted for being a child predator and instead of exposing
that to the congregation or calling the police or whatever sometimes they'll just quietly you know
shuffle that person on to a different church or to a different ministry for fear of being shamed as
being the leader that that happened under something like that you know what that's not having integrity
integrity means you do what's right when no one's looking and you do what's right even when it hurts
and so that's the type of people that we need in leadership look at verse number five and he said
unto them the lord is witness against you and his anointed is witness this day that you have not
found aught in my hand and they answered he is witness and of course that's a great truth
to constantly remind ourselves of that god is always witness of what we're doing you know the
eyes of the lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth god is omnipresent he knows all things
he sees all things and you are never getting away with your sin yet us as human beings we're so
stupid sometimes that we think oh yeah no one will see this but god always sees it god knows who you
are and so that's why it's so foolish to lie to yourself and to act like you're better than you are
you know god knows who you are and when you're praying to lord you should just be honest with
him about who you are because god knows you know ask him to forgive you of your sins ask him to
cleanse you of secret faults because god knows who you really are look at verse number six
and samuel said unto the people it is the lord that advanced moses and erin and that brought
your fathers up out of the land of egypt now therefore stand still that i may reason with
you before the lord of all the righteous acts of the lord which he did to you and to your fathers
when jacob was coming to egypt and your fathers cried unto the lord then the lord sent moses and
erin which brought forth your fathers out of egypt and made them dwell in this place so notice when
he's going to address them samuel's kind of giving the people his farewell address in a sense and he
tells them to stand still you know he wants them to remove the distractions to really pay attention
to what he's saying and what he brings up is he wants them to remember the great victory that was
god allowing moses to lead the people out of egypt and of course that was a wonderful amazing
victory that god's people had being in slavery for hundreds of years and god literally opening up the
red sea to make a path of dry land for the children of israel to escape from the egyptians
to close that thing up on the egyptians and kill them all he's saying remember those things stand
still and remember the great thing that god has done for you and i think the principle for us is
that we should from time to time just stand still and think about all the great things that god has
done for us because it's so easy for us as people to always be looking forward to the future or
always be you know concerned with our problems right now but part of the things that will help
you with your problems right now and part of the things that will give you clarity for vision for
the future is thinking about all the great things that god has done for you in the past i'm going
to read for you psalm 103 too it says bless the lord oh my soul and forget not all his benefits
you know it's good to remember all the beneficial things that god gives us and has done for us
you know how about the most basic of just salvation you know once you've been saved for a long time
you could start to take for granted the truly amazing awesome thing that god did for you by his
perfect son that never sinned dying on the cross for you a sinner that deserved hell and the fact
that jesus allowed himself to be brutally tortured and murdered and descend into hell so that we could
be saved and isn't it amazing wonderful thought that we have that salvation and that we can never
lose it for any reason you know that's something that every once in a while we should just stand
still and just say thank you lord that i am saved thank you god that i never have to experience
hell and whatever other issue you have in life thank god that we're saved because it could always
always always be worse you know when i think about some things in my life that every once in a while
i just i like to think back on and think about how it's really cool that god did that for me
i think about the first person that i ever got saved because it was not a normal experience and
i was doing everything wrong but yet god still allowed me to get that first person saved what
do i mean by that i knew nothing about soul winning other than i'd watched the soul winning
instructional videos from pastor anderson and he explained how to preach the gospel and i
marked up my bible and i underlined the verses and i didn't have a silent partner because the
church i went to didn't like soul winning so i kind of just threw myself into the fire i was
i was clueless what i was doing had no experience and for me i didn't understand there's this thing
of like the poor areas are receptive and the rich areas aren't so i just went to the part of town i
liked which was the boise foothills with all the multi-million dollar mansions in the beautiful
foothills of boise idaho bad bad idea don't go to those areas for soul winning you know nichols
hills is not the best part of town for soul winning you know the historic district just north of
downtown okc with those big historic houses a lot of kamala signs there not not the greatest area
of soul winning but i went into the richest area in boise idaho and i started knocking doors
and the first time i ever went there i got a gentleman saved and guess what i went back there
for like the next six months and got no one saved so i think it was god just like throwing me a bone
like hey good job you're starting to go soul winning i'm going to help you i'm going to give
you this this really receptive guy in the midst of a wicked and perverse generation but you know i
think back about that and i just like that was god like thank you lord for helping me get someone
saved and you know that first salvation just got me hooked seeing a man look at the bible realize
that he's a sinner see what jesus christ did for him and him decide to trust in him for his salvation
you know that that was amazing and sometimes we just get people saved every week yeah we're
in oklahoma it's very receptive get people saved all the time what an awesome thing it is that we
can get someone saved what an awesome thing it is and if you've never gotten someone saved personally
you need to become a silent partner you need to come out with us and you need to see how amazing
it is because once you see it you'll realize yeah it lives up to the hype yeah it is a beautiful
thing to see someone converted and believe in Jesus Christ and you know what you'll probably do
you'll probably want to become a talker after that and you'll love it i think about the first
uh service i ever went to in a new ife church is a great memory for me and it was at the time
verity baptist church vancouver and pastor thompson was preaching i remember exactly what he was
preaching on it was a midweek service and he was preaching matthew 24 and me having been in a pre-trib
ruckmanite church for three years and just going to new lifeby church where pastor thompson is
actually preaching the correct doctrine on the rapture was just a breath of fresh air and and
every once in a while we get spoiled and we get complacent we're like yeah we're in a church that
preaches the right doctrines yeah we're in church to go soul winning but i remember that first time
that i went to what's now sure foundation baptist church and i was excited i was pumped i thought
it was so cool to hear a preacher say that the rapture happens after the tribulation i was like
did he just say that because all i've been hearing for the last three years is sam gip and it was
terrible right and you know what i still love church i still get excited when i hear the word
of god preached i still love those things but you know why is because every once in a while i just
stand still and think about how great it is and i think about how much of a blessing it is the
people that don't do this they don't stand still they don't think about all the great things god
has done for them you know you can you can harden your heart that way i think about having children
and how the first time that i looked into bethany's eyes as a baby you know is the most
beautiful magical thing i loved it and all my children since it's been the same exact way
but sometimes when life can get hard you can think about like you know you only think about
the challenges with having kids and the problems but you know what everyone's why you need to just
stand still and think about what a blessing it is that you have them you know same thing getting
married to my wife you know everyone when they get married they're so excited during the honeymoon
phase and they're so in love and they're so thankful and then sometimes it just becomes
normal to them they forget that special relationship that they have and it can become cold it can become
dead but you know what every once in a while you should just stand still and think about what a
blessing it is to be married to your spouse and think about how great it is that you have a
companion in this life that wants to serve god with you because not everyone has that and so you
should thank god you should stand still and think about those things go to first timothy one you
know i think about when i just stand still and think about some of the best memories of my life
i think about working for steadfast baptist church that was amazing you know that was probably the
best four years of my life and i just thank god that i didn't even know pastor shelly really and
he just called me just asked if i would ever want to be in the ministry or ever work for a church or
ever be a pastor or anything like that and i just said yeah i think that is something i'd be
interested in he's like hey you want to move to texas in like a couple weeks and work for me it's
like if god's opening this door yes i do and you know what that experience was the best four years
of my life it was amazing seeing god work through intense persecution seeing pastor shelly a man of
god be a steadfast pastor you know seeing that example seeing our church be unified during
problems seeing a church where people just love each other they're there for each other they help
each other through life's problems you know seeing a church that's on fire for soul winning that wants
to go out and reach the lost that wants to change the culture too you know that was an amazing four
years of my life and it's just it's funny how quick life goes where i could just i could think back
to the day i got saved in my room as a child calling upon the name of the lord and i could
just snap my fingers and here we are today in 2024 and it's just crazy to think about sometimes but
as life is moving so fast we just need to take samuel's advice every once in a while just stand
still and just be like whoa we're here in a great church with great people that we love that are
there for each other we have a great mission to fulfill in the great commission and we should just
stand still and think about these things every once in a while. I told you go to first Timothy
1 12 it says and I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who hath enabled me for that he counted me faithful
putting me into the ministry you know I'm very thankful for where I am now I'm very thankful
that God has allowed me and my family to move here to this church from the first time I ever
visited this church this felt like a very special church my wife and I immediately loved it and
talked about what a great congregation this is and it's just a miracle to me that we're here and we
love being here we're excited to be here we're happy to be here you know thank God that he put
me into the ministry and for all of us we have the ministry of reconciliation and you are in the
ministry too and every once in a while you just need to stand still and like thank God that you're
an ambassador for Christ thank God that you have the opportunity to go win someone to him that's
amazing go back to first Samuel 12 but I want you to notice what Samuel is about to say because
he brought up the good he says stand still and think about when God brought you out of Egypt
but you know what he also wanted them to think about the negative too and I'll show you that
verse 9 and when they forgot the Lord their God so now here it's going to turn he sold them into the
hand of Sisera captain of the host of Hazor and into the hand of the Philistines and into the
hand of the king of Moab and they fought against him and they cried unto the Lord and said we have
sinned because we have forsaken the Lord and have served Balaam and Ashtaroth but now deliver us out
of the hand of our enemies and we will serve you so notice when they forgot God what happened they
were sold into the hand of the enemy and he's saying I want you to stand still remember this
great victory that you had in Egypt and you know we should do the same thing we should stand still
and think about all the great things God has done for us but you know what if we've been through
something negative if we've been punished by God if there was a time in our life where we did forget
the Lord in our lives as it were we're sold into the hand of Sisera you know every once in a while
you need to stand still and remember that too because oftentimes people are in church they're
living the Christian life it's three to thrive they're soul winning but they kind of get bored
of the same routine and sometimes our fleshly mind will wander and think man wouldn't my life be cool
if i kind of went back to how i was before but it's like how you were before was a slave in egypt
how you were before when you forgot about god last time was that you were sold into the hand of sissera
and so if you don't want to keep repeating those same mistakes in your life where you get right with
god and then you just completely go off the trail and just get back into wicked sin and then you get
right with god again and you're just way off again into left field you know what you need to do you
need to sit down every once in a while and just remember hey life apart from serving god is not
that great sometimes you think man there were certain benefits that i had there are certain
activities that i partook in but yeah don't don't forget cistera though because it wasn't that great
you know people like to romanticize the past back when they were drinking and they could think of
one or two fun experiences they had when they were drinking and they conveniently forget all the times
they were puking in the toilet they conveniently forget the time that they slept with someone that
wasn't their spouse they conveniently forget their teen pregnancy that they had while they were drunk
right so every once in a while you know it's good stand still remember the good but stand still and
remember the evil that you've gone through too because oftentimes god brought us through those
situations for a reason and you know what it's so pointless to go through chastisement and
punishment and not even learn from it that is just insane you know it's like a child don't steal you
spank them they steal again it's like okay i guess you're just going to keep wanting to get spanked
i guess this is just your life now and that's how a lot of christians are it's like they get
right with god god just wrecks them and then there's like okay god got his hand off me sweet
right back to the sin it's just like what is wrong with you you know what's better is just
stand still remember that evil you went through and then don't repeat that same mistake that's
the key there verse 11 and the lord sent jerebael and bedan and jeffah and samuel and delivered you
out of the hand of your enemies on every side and he dwelled safe and when you saw that nahash the
king of the children of amen came against you remember that was the last chapter you said unto
me nay but a king shall reign over us when the lord your god was king now therefore behold the
king whom ye have chosen and whom ye have desired and behold the lord hath set a king over you so
again this wasn't god's will god didn't want them to have a king but here they are they're in this
situation they're in plan b for their life if you will and now they just need to make the most of it
now they actually need to follow the king obey the king honor the king do what's right in the side
of the lord and not repeat the same mistakes that they keep doing number three this evening
i want you to notice the need to fear the lord look at verse 14 it says if you will fear the lord
and serve him and obey his voice and not rebel against the commandment of the lord then shall
both ye and also the king that reigneth over you continue following the lord your god you know
today fearing god is kind of a doctrine that's lost on many christians many churches they don't
teach on fearing god or they pervert fearing god they turn fearing god into like a warm fuzzy love
feeling but over and over tons of time if you've read the bible cover to cover you will constantly
see this phrase fear the lord fear the lord thy god fear god why because god is someone to be
feared god the bible says is terrible that doesn't mean that he's bad that means that he is able to
inflict terror on your life i don't know kind of like drowning the entire egyptian army in the red
sea i mean we read those stories but could you imagine that could you imagine a whole army going
through a body of water and god just closing that on them and just killing them could you imagine god
killing over 23 000 people in one day for fornication i mean can you imagine god raining down fire and
brimstone on sodom and gamora and killing every single person in the city can you imagine god
flooding the entire earth and killing every single human being except for noah and his family sounds
like god should be feared sounds like we should be terrified of god and samuel's reminding them of
that saying hey if ye will fear the lord and serve him and obey his voice and not rebel against the
commandment of the lord then shall both ye and also the king that reigneth over you continue
following the lord go to joshua chapter 20 joshua 20 i want to show you a few verses on fearing
the lord joshua chapter 20 verse 1 it says and those are sorry verse 20 and those 12 stones
which they took out of jordan did joshua pitch in gilgal and he spake under the children of israel
saying when your children shall ask their fathers in time to come saying what mean these stones then
you shall let your children know saying israel came over this jordan on dry land for the lord your god
dried up the waters of jordan from before you until you were passed over as the lord your god
did to the red sea which he dried up from before us until we were gone over that all the people of
the earth might know the hand of the lord that it is mighty that you might fear the lord your god
forever so i think this story in joshua 20 it kind of fits perfectly with this idea of standing still
and thinking and dwelling and remembering things and first he said positive then he said negative
because when joshua he set up these stones and they said why are you setting up these stones he
says i'm setting it up so that your children will ask you why are you setting up these stones and
he's saying the reason i want them to ask you that question is so that you can remind them how
terrifying god is and the fact that god dried up jordan and allowed us to walk through in the same
way that he opened up the red sea and allowed us to come through and then killed all the egyptians
he says i want you to tell your children that oh you know don't read to your children certain
parts of the bible like revelation that are scary like steven crowder says don't read revelation to
your children no actually you should stand still and remember some of the harmful you know terrible
things that god has done and you should specifically tell your children about those things why so that
your children fear god there's a reason why you want your children to fear god go to proverbs 16
there's a reason why you need to fear god why i need to fear god proverbs 16 because today people
be like doesn't god love us yes he does love us well why would loving god want us to be scared of
him why would he want us to fear him this is why proverbs 16 verse 6 by mercy and truth iniquity
is purged and by the fear of the lord men depart from evil what causes a person to depart from sin
to cease from living a wicked life fearing god and when you see a person or family or church
or a nation that's just abounding in wickedness i could tell you something about that they have
no fear of god why because if you feared the lord it causes men to depart from evil go to romans 13
romans 13 now obviously you want to grow in your christian life to the point where you are doing
things out of love for god right you know we want to go soul winning because we love god we want to
keep his commandments we want to love people we want to get them safe that is a mature level of
christianity but honestly at first the reason why people start serving god is because of fear this
is why also hard preaching is so important and why the seeker sensitive church model is so misguided
because they think well someone's someone's new someone's a babe in christ so we don't really
want to give them the hard truths of the bible but hold on a second the bible says that we need
the fear of god so that we could depart from wickedness and so let the chips fall where they
may if someone gets offended they get offended someone quits then they quit but we're looking
for people that actually want to fear god that actually want to change while you're turning to
romans 13 i'll read hebrews 10 3 it says it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living
god look at romans 13 8 it says oh no man anything but to love one another for he that loveth
another hath fulfilled the law for this thou shalt not commit adultery thou shalt not kill
thou shalt not steal thou shalt not bear false witness thou shalt not covet and if there be any
other commandment it is briefly comprehended in this saying namely thou shalt love thy neighbor as
thyself love worketh no ill to his neighbor therefore love is the fulfilling of the law so you
know eventually you want to get to the to the place where you just truly love people you truly
love god and what is love the bible says love is the fulfilling of the law because if you love
your neighbor you're not going to commit adultery with your neighbor's wife right if you love your
neighbor you're not going to go steal their car or do wickedness unto them or sin against them
right but don't forget that's usually farther down the road for a christian before that you
know what comes is just the fear of god and today when i look around when i see the direction our
country is heading i just see a nation that no longer fears god that no longer cares what god
thinks that no longer wants to even pretend to respect the bible why because you have kamala
harris running for president then she just says openly yeah i just want to bring abortion back
yeah we just want to have a nation where you can just murder babies but you know what someone that
would actually fear god would do is preserve life you know like the uh women in egypt that the uh i
want to say handmaids but it's um the women that help with pregnancy the midwives yes the midwives
when they were instructed to kill the children they didn't and the bible tells us why they feared god
because i i mean my brain can't comprehend this you know killing a child like how are you not
terrified what god is going to do to you you're killing a pure innocent baby how are you not so
afraid that god is just going to take your heart and just crush it in your chest you know i can't
imagine doing something so evil but you know what it takes it takes a person who has no fear of god
you know the bible talks about how all that are proud in heart are an abomination to the lord
and us as a nation every june what do we do we celebrate pride we have businesses hanging their
pride flags off their businesses we have government offices we have government buildings doing the same
thing and it's just a big middle finger to god because they don't fear the lord and you know what
we need to bring back a culture in america where we model what it means to actually fear god it's
like oh why aren't you just blaspheming god's name like everyone else uh because i'm scared of god
that's why because i fear what he's going to do to me because i know the one that actually holds
power in my life and in this world is god he could choose to prosper me he could choose to curse me
he could choose my family and my children to be blessed or for us all to die young in a fiery car
accident god can choose for those things to happen and so you know what every single moment every
single decision of your life you should be thinking about the fear of god and you know it brings back
to the earlier part of the sermon what would cause you to have integrity knowing that god always sees
things right so if you know god always sees things and you know god is a terrible god that should
motivate you to fear him that should motivate you to be scared of him go back to first samuel 12
another thing i want to point out with this verse in verse 14 is it tells them hey fear the lord
serve him don't rebel but notice the last part of verse 14 says if you do that then shall both ye and
also the king that reigneth over you continue following the lord your god so notice if the people
feared god if the people obeyed god if the people were not rebelling against god the king also would
fear god the king also would not turn away from following the commandments of god and the truth is
oftentimes we get the leadership that reflects us we get the leadership that we deserve i want to
read this verse to you proverbs 21 one the bible says the king's heart is in the hand of the lord
as the rivers of water he turneth it whither so ever he will and you know again it just makes me
think of our current day in america it's like why do we have the most prideful person ever donald
trump who loves money who has been a whoremonger in the past who has been an adulterer who has
ran casinos who says i would ask god for forgiveness if i had something to ask him for forgiveness of
right who is just always just singing his own praises talking about how wonderful he is
why is a guy like that the leader of the conservative party the republicans well because
many christians today are self-obsessed money loving whore loving prideful people and so today
god looks down from heaven and says all right this is how you are well this is how your king is too
and then on the other hand we have a bloodthirsty child murdering literal whore communist in kamala
harris it's like why is she an option for the democratic ticket because many people in america
are a bunch of whores and whoremongers are a bunch of commies and are a bunch of bloodthirsty baby
killers and so you want to be a bunch of baby killers okay we'll just we'll make your queen
a baby killer i mean god forbid she probably will win though because it's kind of what america
deserves not saying i want that but i'm just saying it might happen verse 15 but if you will
not obey the voice of the lord but rebel against the commandment of the lord then shall the hand
of the lord be against you as it was against your fathers remember he's talking to a nation here
and he's saying if you rebel if you don't obey if you don't fear god my hand will be against you as
a nation and boy have we seen god's hand be against israel as a nation i mean Babylonian captivity
the diaspora after that and then even today that nation is cursed but you know it's the same thing
for us you know all the nations that forget god the bible says will be turned into hell
and so us as a nation too if we don't fear god if we don't keep his commandments god's hand will
be against us and we like to think like well we're america we're the superpower of the world
you know we haven't had a war on our soil pretty much since 1814 unless you count pearl harbor and
we think like we're invincible we can't be touched but you know what if god's hand turns against us
we could lose everything in one moment we could be destroyed as a nation and god can humble us so
quickly and you know what i don't want that to happen god forbid that would happen you know our
ministry is here our church is here our families are here our loved ones are here our children are
here that's not what i want for america so what america has to do is to repent and to fear god
because you know individuals can be judged in the next life but nations are judged in this life
and so if our nation does not fear god then we will be turned into hell number four i want to
notice the punishment for israel demanding a king verse 16 says now therefore stand and see this
great thing which the lord will do before your eyes and great here isn't going to mean good it
just means like a big thing that he's about to do he says is not wheat harvest today that's an
important detail remember that i will call into the lord and he shall send thunder and rain that
you may perceive and see that your wickedness is great which you have done in the sight of the lord
and asking you a king so samuel called into the lord and the lord sent thunder and rain that day
and all the people greatly feared the lord and samuel so he's saying hey notice now you're going
to get your punishment for asking a king why you reap what you sow god didn't want them to have a
king it was a sin to reject the system of the judges that god laid out and he says okay now
you're going to see this great thing that i'm going to do isn't today harvest now that's important
because what is harvest it's when farmers go out they gather their crops which is kind of important
if you want to live because we need food right he says hey today's harvest today's the day when
you're gonna get all your food you know what i'm gonna do i'm gonna send thunder and rain and what
he's implying here is that he's gonna cause a really big storm that's gonna destroy all their
crops and you know we live in such a detached society from living in that type of a world but
you know we just go to walmart we go to sam's club or whatever we get our food but you know the real
world that actually feeds us are farmers and if all the crops go away we starve to death the world
starves to death and so again this just it just makes me think about how quickly a nation can fall
everything's good right and then all of a sudden god sends this storm and causes them to lose all
of their food that's intense and that's how quickly god can judge look at verse number 19
notice number five the mercy of god says and all the people said unto samuel pray for thy servants
unto the lord thy god that we die not for we have added unto all our sins this evil to ask us a king
so notice they were mercy they were uh humble they admitted that what they did was wrong
they're asking god to forgive them and to be merciful unto them and so you're going to see
in a minute that god is merciful to them but just notice they were this close they were this close
to getting destroyed by god and again that should cause us to fear the lord but also the fact is
that god is merciful look at verse 20 and samuel said unto the people fear not ye have done all this
wickedness yet turn not aside from following the lord but serve the lord with all your heart he's
basically saying like hey don't worry god's not going to kill you all you're not going to starve
to death but you need to do it right now now you should fear god now that he's shown mercy on you
it should lead to repentance look at verse number 21 and turn you not aside for then should ye go
after vain things which cannot profit nor deliver for they are vain notice he's saying serve god
trust in the lord only want to serve him because if you don't you're going to turn aside to something
else that's vain right and us as a people as a church as a nation we need to trust in the lord
for our safety we need to trust in the lord and his mercy not in something vain like you know a
military like missiles like fighter jets like battleships you know at the end of the day
those are cool tools and i think we should have them but it's vain if we don't have god's
protection it's completely vain you could have the best military you could have the billions of
dollars of equipment but if god's hand is against you you will be destroyed period verse 22 for the
lord will not forsake his people for his great name's sake because it hath pleased the lord to
make you his people moreover as for me god forbid that i should sin against the lord in ceasing to
pray for you but i will teach you the good and the right way only fear the lord and serve him in truth
with all your heart for consider how great things he has done for you but if you shall still do
wickedly he shall be consumed both ye and your king and at the end of this chapter i just want
you to notice that samuel you know though he is here a hard preacher he's telling them like hey
if you don't do it's right you're going to be destroyed and your king but i want you to notice
that this was coming from a place of love still samuel still didn't love the people how do you
know that because he says god forbid that i should sin against the lord in ceasing to pray for you
and so while samuel's up delivering the message delivering positive messages sometimes delivering
messages of condemnation and punishment at other times he still loves the people he's preaching to
so much so that he's saying hey i'm not going to cease praying for you i'm not going to cease
loving you last verse we're going to go to tonight is second timothy chapter four
second timothy chapter number four second timothy four verse two says this preach the word be instant
in season out of season repute reprove rebuke exhort notice this with all long suffering
and doctrine you know we're living in some really crazy times we're living in some times where
wickedness is abounding our country seems to be getting worse in a lot of ways and sometimes i
think it could be easy for us to kind of get jaded against people and to kind of stop loving
people where we really like the first part of this verse preach the word be instant in season
out of season reprove rebuke exhort we're like yeah we need some reproving we need some rebuking
right we love that we love hard preaching amen but notice the caveat at the end there with all long
suffering meaning that you're willing to put up with things you don't like you're willing to put
up with stupidity you're willing to put up with sinners you're willing to put up with bad ideas
you're willing to put up with stiff neck people you know think about this out soul winning right
man sometimes it could be so frustrating out soul winning let's just be honest you run into that
person that's super prideful and they act like they know everything but you hear what's coming
out of their mouth and they know nothing whatsoever sometimes we kind of want to get jaded away from
those people and just be like all right i'm done with you but you know we should be long
suffering willing to put up with those things right when you are at work or when in your family
relationships and people aren't doing the right thing right away people aren't receiving the
words that you're giving them right away you're not receiving the gospel or not receiving things
you're explaining out of the bible don't just be quick to judge them and quick to cut off from them
you know we should be long suffering and you know this last part of advice i want to give to any man
that ever preaches a sermon because i i thought of this when i read this chapter of samuel how he's
not going to stop praying for the people and he's up delivering a message he's up preaching he's
preaching good he's preaching bad but he's not going to cease to pray for the people one thing
that i learned from this chapter that i try to incorporate that i highly recommend you do if
you ever preach a sermon is oftentimes preachers they'll pray for themselves which is good right
please fill me with the holy spirit lord help me to deliver this message help me to understand the
scripture be with me when i'm preaching that's great but you know what else a preacher should do
is they should also pray for the people they're preaching to and i wonder how many preachers
obviously i have no idea because i'm not in their head when they're praying i wonder how many
preachers only pray for themselves when they preach when we see an example of samuel here
when he's preaching to the people he's saying god forbid that i should sin against lord and
ceasing to pray for you and i think what will help get god's blessing on a man's preaching
and on just the ministry in general is the preacher actually praying like hey god please open up the
hearts of the people that are going to hear the message help people to love your word help people
be willing to be corrected by your words right help people to have a love for the things of god
lord please be merciful to people that hear this sermon help them help to have forgiveness on their
sins you know that's good things to pray for and i think that samuel here models that great example
and so you know out in this world when you see your co-worker with the kamala sticker right or
you hear someone saying that ancient egypt was actually in the grand canyon like i heard this
week it could be it could be tempting to be jaded but you know what let's still love them let's
still be long-suffering and let's not cease to pray for other people let's pray lord thank you
for this day thank you for our church thank you for this great book in the bible i pray that you'd
help all of us to apply the truths that we're reading to our lives that you would help us all
to fear you lord and help us just to stand still every once in a while and think about all the great
things that you've done in all of our lives help us to learn from our mistakes and the times that
you've had to punish us and correct us help us not to repeat those things but going forward to
make sure that we're being steadfast that we're being temperate we're being diligent to follow
your commandments we love you in jesus name we pray amen and at this time we'll go to our last
hymn for the evening in your hymnals turn to 188 the love of god 188 188 the love of god we'll sing
there starting on the first