WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:20.320 Alright, go ahead and open your Bibles to 2nd Timothy chapter number 3. 00:20.320 --> 00:23.840 Be in 2nd Timothy chapter 3 if you don't have a Bible, there should be one underneath the 00:23.840 --> 00:25.400 seat in front of you. 00:25.800 --> 00:27.800 2nd Timothy chapter number 3. 00:37.800 --> 00:39.800 2nd Timothy 3 the Bible reads, 00:55.400 --> 00:57.400 2nd Timothy chapter number 3. 01:25.400 --> 01:27.800 2nd Timothy chapter number 3. 01:55.400 --> 01:57.800 2nd Timothy chapter number 3. 02:25.400 --> 02:27.400 2nd Timothy chapter number 3. 02:39.400 --> 02:41.400 Brother Eli, will you pray for us? 02:41.400 --> 02:45.400 We love you and we want to serve you better. 02:45.400 --> 02:51.400 Lord, there's so much power and so much information in this chapter Lord. 02:51.400 --> 02:55.400 Father, I just thank you for those who have experienced and will understand. 03:11.400 --> 03:25.400 The Holy Scriptures, excuse me, I went to the wrong verse. 03:25.400 --> 03:31.400 Okay, but continue down the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them. 03:31.400 --> 03:40.400 And that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise into salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 03:40.400 --> 03:56.400 All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. 03:56.400 --> 04:02.400 And so that term the man of God is right there in verse 17. 04:02.400 --> 04:10.400 And this letter here is a letter to Timothy who is a young pastor. 04:10.400 --> 04:22.400 Well he was a young pastor, I don't know if he was a young pastor in the second epistle, but I tend to think he was probably a lot older when Paul wrote this by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. 04:22.400 --> 04:32.400 It's, you know, the term the man of God appears in the King James Bible I think 54 times or something like that, 55 times that term. 04:32.400 --> 04:37.400 And some chapters like 1 Samuel chapter 9 say it multiple times. 04:37.400 --> 04:40.400 There's other passages that say it multiple times. 04:40.400 --> 04:59.400 And people in the New Testament, you know, obviously it says it this one time in the New Testament, but obviously God still believes that there are people that are called the man of God and that's why he mentions it here in this last verse to Timothy in verse 17. 04:59.400 --> 05:04.400 And he says that, and obviously if you're saved, you're one of the people of God. 05:04.400 --> 05:08.400 And if you're a man that's saved, you are a man of God. 05:08.400 --> 05:17.400 Okay, but obviously I believe that the primary interpretation of this is when it's talking about the pastor of that church. 05:17.400 --> 05:33.400 And because why would God break a theme that was in the New Testament or in the Old Testament said multiple times about Moses, about multiple different people in the Old Testament, and they call, and this term is called the man of God. 05:33.400 --> 05:37.400 Sometimes the term is used and they don't even use the man's name. 05:37.400 --> 05:41.400 They just say a man of God came and talked to someone or whatever. 05:41.400 --> 05:44.400 And it's like that's a good way to be mentioned. 05:44.400 --> 05:50.400 If God's not going to mention your name, at least he's going to mention that you're the man or a man of God or the man of God. 05:50.400 --> 05:55.400 And so this is not accidentally put in here by the Apostle Paul. 05:55.400 --> 06:08.400 I believe that he uses this term specifically so that we can identify Timothy as the man of God and also other pastors and preachers and evangelists and things like that. 06:08.400 --> 06:13.400 But again, so I think the secondary application would be this applies to all of us. 06:13.400 --> 06:20.400 Okay, and it applies to all of us in the sense that if you're saved, you're a woman or a man of God, obviously. 06:20.400 --> 06:23.400 But there is also leadership in the New Testament. 06:23.400 --> 06:26.400 And the leadership has carried over from the Old Testament. 06:26.400 --> 06:28.400 We're not called Levites anymore. 06:28.400 --> 06:32.400 Obviously, God's not working on that plan anymore. 06:32.400 --> 06:42.400 He's using the plan of the New Testament where he has pastors, teachers, and he had apostles at first, and he has the prophets. 06:42.400 --> 06:48.400 And I would say the modern day prophet is a man that gets up and preaches, but he's not a pastor. 06:48.400 --> 06:49.400 You know, something along the lines. 06:49.400 --> 06:51.400 But a pastor can be that also. 06:51.400 --> 07:01.400 But just because, you know, obviously, we're not going to get some special revelation from God that only we know, which a lot of corrupt churches try to say, oh, God said this to me. 07:01.400 --> 07:02.400 No, he didn't. 07:02.400 --> 07:05.400 Unless it's found in this book, God didn't say that. 07:05.400 --> 07:06.400 Okay. 07:06.400 --> 07:07.400 And so I hate it when people do that. 07:07.400 --> 07:09.400 It really annoys me. 07:09.400 --> 07:15.400 And the fastest way to get me to walk away from someone that's a so-called Christian is to sit there and say this. 07:15.400 --> 07:17.400 So, you know, it's annoying. 07:17.400 --> 07:28.400 But too many times people want to dismiss the term in the New Testament and act like, you know, the New Testament leaders or pastors. 07:28.400 --> 07:33.400 You shouldn't apply this as in they're the man of God. 07:33.400 --> 07:34.400 Well, why does he call? 07:34.400 --> 07:36.400 Why does he say this in this passage then? 07:36.400 --> 07:42.400 Why does he use a term that's used 54 times in the rest of the Bible right here? 07:42.400 --> 07:44.400 Is it because Timothy's not a leader? 07:44.400 --> 07:45.400 Timothy's not a pastor? 07:45.400 --> 07:47.400 And it just applies to everybody? 07:47.400 --> 07:50.400 No, the context means something in the Bible. 07:50.400 --> 07:55.400 When you're, you know, you can't arrest the text from the context, as it's been said before. 07:55.400 --> 07:59.400 And so this term man of God, it should be something we shy away from. 07:59.400 --> 08:06.400 Obviously, the man of God is not without fault or without sin in some aspects of their life. 08:06.400 --> 08:08.400 But that's the way it's always been. 08:08.400 --> 08:14.400 You know, it's not like, you know, people get this idea that pastors are, you know, above the rest of the people. 08:14.400 --> 08:15.400 That's not what it is at all. 08:15.400 --> 08:20.400 Actually, you know, if you want to be a ruler, you're going to be servant in God's kingdom. 08:20.400 --> 08:21.400 That's how it works. 08:21.400 --> 08:24.400 You know, Jesus came to serve, not to be served. 08:24.400 --> 08:32.400 Jesus set the example for the man of God in the New Testament when he, well, actually, it was before he died. 08:32.400 --> 08:33.400 The New Testament didn't start till after he died. 08:33.400 --> 08:41.400 But he still came and set the example of what a man of God should be like, how they should preach, how they should teach, how they should treat people. 08:41.400 --> 08:46.400 And sometimes Jesus does treat people a little bit rough, a little bit rough. 08:46.400 --> 08:50.400 It'd be weird if the Savior was nothing like the prophets of the Old Testament. 08:50.400 --> 08:59.400 And it'd be weird if we expect the pastors and the teachers and the leaders in the New Testament to, you know, not be this way also. 08:59.400 --> 09:01.400 Jesus rubbed people the wrong way. 09:01.400 --> 09:05.400 Sometimes when you get up and preach the word of God, you're going to rub people the wrong way. 09:05.400 --> 09:06.400 You're going to upset them. 09:06.400 --> 09:09.400 And, you know, that's the way it was in the Old Testament. 09:09.400 --> 09:11.400 I mean, why should that change at all? 09:11.400 --> 09:16.400 And I've seen people ridicule this, say, oh, you've messed with the man of God or whatever. 09:16.400 --> 09:19.400 Yeah, because you shouldn't mess with the man of God. 09:19.400 --> 09:33.400 You should not just sit there and feel like it's you have just open carte blanche to just sit there and attack a man of God that's leading a church, that's saved, that's, you know, going forth and preaching the gospel and sending people out. 09:33.400 --> 09:35.400 We should not just, we've got to be careful with our mouth. 09:35.400 --> 09:37.400 That's all I'm saying. 09:37.400 --> 09:41.400 And because the Bible says, rebuke not an elder, but entreat him as a father. 09:41.400 --> 09:45.400 So we're not supposed to just go around rebuking elders left and right. 09:45.400 --> 09:47.400 As a matter of fact, it says to not do that. 09:47.400 --> 09:55.400 So it doesn't say except in this case where you just feel like dropping the title from their from their, you know, pastor so-and-so. 09:55.400 --> 10:00.400 It's now it's just Thompson Anderson or, you know, Shelley or whatever. 10:00.400 --> 10:06.400 When people do that, you know, it's a it's a red flag to me when people just, you know, even though they know, you know, they're not going to be able to do that. 10:06.400 --> 10:11.400 They know, you know, the respectful term is to just call someone pastor or whatever. 10:11.400 --> 10:15.400 And look, I don't need someone to go, oh, pastor, pastor, pastor. 10:15.400 --> 10:21.400 But I'm just saying that, you know, there should be some reverence or respect for the man of God. 10:21.400 --> 10:31.400 And, you know, God doesn't take kindly to people messing with his men and talking and slandering his men. 10:31.400 --> 10:34.400 And so we see a lot of that happening. 10:34.400 --> 10:39.400 It's so weird because in the movement that we're in, that has been preached from the beginning. 10:39.400 --> 10:47.400 And it's like then people get disgruntled or people fall out and they just think, oh, it's OK to just throw in with all these freaks and weirdos and rebels. 10:47.400 --> 10:54.400 And for for them to just say whatever they want about pastors because they no longer deem them the man of God. 10:54.400 --> 10:58.400 But that doesn't make it so you can jump out in front of a truck and think it's a marshmallow. 10:58.400 --> 11:01.400 But you're still going to get ran over. 11:01.400 --> 11:04.400 It doesn't matter what you think. What does the Bible say? 11:04.400 --> 11:09.400 If you call yourself a Christian today, you should be very careful how you address the man of God. 11:09.400 --> 11:13.400 And we should be careful on how we address each other as Christians, too. 11:13.400 --> 11:16.400 You know, let's apply this to everybody. 11:16.400 --> 11:22.400 You know, just because, you know, someone's a pastor doesn't mean you respect that person over another brother in Christ. 11:22.400 --> 11:27.400 You know, when someone says to me, you know, brother, so and so, there's nothing wrong with that. 11:27.400 --> 11:29.400 I don't mind if people say that. 11:29.400 --> 11:37.400 But, you know, some people just think that they can address the leader of the church or whatever in any way they they want. 11:37.400 --> 11:42.400 They can criticize them on a keyboard and say whatever they want. 11:42.400 --> 11:49.400 But, you know, the Bible says every idle word that a man shall speak, he shall give an account thereof in the day of judgment. 11:49.400 --> 11:57.400 So if you're going to be held to account by every idle word, then you should be careful what you say. 11:57.400 --> 11:58.400 All right. 11:58.400 --> 12:03.400 Obviously, I don't believe that Christians are going to receive some sort of punishment once they go to heaven. 12:03.400 --> 12:04.400 I'm not saying that. 12:04.400 --> 12:08.400 But, you know, there are people that are not going to heaven. 12:08.400 --> 12:16.400 And if they want their hell to be a little bit cooler, maybe they should just back off a little bit and quit trying to come after men of God. 12:16.400 --> 12:26.400 I mean, there's people nowadays that just their pop their whole podcast exists to expose independent fundamental Baptists or to, you know, I mean, obviously, there's bad apples in every bunch. 12:27.400 --> 12:35.400 You know, that the real it's funny people, you know, we've read a wolves and sheep's clothing so many times, you know, beware of them. 12:35.400 --> 12:38.400 But then people act like they don't exist or something. 12:38.400 --> 12:39.400 They do exist. 12:39.400 --> 12:41.400 The wolves and sheep's clothing do exist. 12:41.400 --> 12:43.400 And what is their job? 12:43.400 --> 12:47.400 From Satan to kill, steal and destroy. 12:47.400 --> 12:49.400 That's what they want to happen. 12:49.400 --> 12:50.400 They want churches to get divided. 12:50.400 --> 12:54.400 They want people to fall out of church and and say, look, save people. 12:54.400 --> 12:59.400 Can get drug out of church to buy someone that's leading them astray. 12:59.400 --> 13:01.400 That's why we identify them. 13:01.400 --> 13:03.400 We have to mark them and avoid them. 13:03.400 --> 13:05.400 That's what this is what the Bible says. 13:05.400 --> 13:07.400 And then people are like, oh, you kick people out of your church. 13:07.400 --> 13:08.400 Yeah, I have. 13:08.400 --> 13:10.400 And yes, I will again if I have to. 13:10.400 --> 13:14.400 I mean, that's not what I exist for is to just be on a hair trigger. 13:14.400 --> 13:16.400 Who can I who can I get out of here today? 13:17.400 --> 13:22.400 I mean, I'm not trying to go and pin the tail on the bad person in our church or whatever 13:22.400 --> 13:24.400 and just try to get him out of here because I think something. 13:24.400 --> 13:27.400 Obviously, when I know something's true, then I act. 13:27.400 --> 13:34.400 OK, and we've had a lot of that over the years in our church where, you know, we think someone's a good guy. 13:34.400 --> 13:41.400 And the next thing you know, they're screeching death metal at a concert that's supposedly Christian or whatever. 13:41.400 --> 13:44.400 And making weird videos. 13:44.400 --> 13:48.400 So they're so obsessed or more obsessed than an ex-girlfriend. 13:48.400 --> 13:52.400 And it's like, dude, you haven't been our church in years and you're writing a book about me. 13:52.400 --> 13:54.400 You haven't been to our church in years. 13:54.400 --> 14:01.400 And then you're saying you want to make an album about how much you hate the new I fear whatever or how much you hate your former pastor. 14:01.400 --> 14:04.400 It's like, get over it. 14:04.400 --> 14:09.400 If you're really saved and you've left our church and you're disgruntled, hey, just go and serve someplace else. 14:10.400 --> 14:18.400 But to just bring more reproach upon yourself to continue to just have the wrath stored up because look, God's wrath. 14:18.400 --> 14:22.400 You know, we're not going to see God's wrath in the tribulation or after the tribulation. 14:22.400 --> 14:30.400 We're not going to see the you know, we're not going to have, you know, things flying at us and locusts sucking on us and torturing us for months. 14:30.400 --> 14:32.400 We're not going to see that kind of stuff. 14:32.400 --> 14:37.400 But does God's wrath, you know, kindle against his saved people? 14:38.400 --> 14:42.400 If you haven't read, I mean, if you don't think that that's true, you've never read the Bible before. 14:42.400 --> 14:45.400 Because it's in page after page after page. 14:45.400 --> 14:51.400 And God will hold us to account in the in the body that we're in. 14:51.400 --> 14:54.400 So context does matter. 14:54.400 --> 15:03.400 And the main again, the main interpretation of this is Paul is now speaking to this pastor and he's calling him the man of God. 15:03.400 --> 15:08.400 Primary application, because obviously there's lots of different applications that you can use in the word of God. 15:08.400 --> 15:16.400 But when it says the man of God and then it's like, again, Paul using this term specifically using this term. 15:16.400 --> 15:22.400 And how do you not think about the Old Testament prophets and so on and so forth? 15:22.400 --> 15:24.400 I mean, he's not accidentally doing this. 15:24.400 --> 15:27.400 There's no way that this term the man of God is used here. 15:27.400 --> 15:29.400 And Paul didn't do that on purpose. 15:29.400 --> 15:32.400 It's like, oh, yeah, I must have forgot that there's men of God in the Old Testament. 15:32.400 --> 15:34.400 But it's not like that in the New Testament. 15:34.400 --> 15:36.400 There's no man of God in the New Testament. 15:36.400 --> 15:38.400 That's ridiculous. 15:38.400 --> 15:43.400 God still uses men to lead people in the New Testament, just like he did in the Old Testament. 15:43.400 --> 15:48.400 It's just the, you know, the positions have changed names or whatever. 15:48.400 --> 15:57.400 But there still needs to be a man of God that leads people and sends them where they should go and tries to feed them and exhort them. 15:57.400 --> 16:02.400 Let's look at Ephesians chapter four, verse number 11, Ephesians chapter four, verse number 11. 16:02.400 --> 16:05.400 And I put this as part one because there was just so much about it. 16:05.400 --> 16:11.400 And I really do want to kind of just study this term out and what we can learn and apply spiritually. 16:11.400 --> 16:13.400 But before we get there, let's look at Ephesians 411. 16:13.400 --> 16:24.400 It says, And he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, 16:24.400 --> 16:29.400 for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. 16:29.400 --> 16:32.400 So is this talking about the Old Testament? 16:32.400 --> 16:34.400 No, it's talking about the New Testament. 16:34.400 --> 16:38.400 And obviously there's no more apostles because Paul was the last apostle. 16:38.400 --> 16:45.400 And prophets in the sense that you would call them prophets in the Old Testament don't really exist like that today. 16:45.400 --> 16:54.400 They could preach something or write something and that have multiple layers and make it into scripture by God's commandment. 16:54.400 --> 16:57.400 Obviously, he knew what was going to go in there and what was not. 16:57.400 --> 17:00.400 But it says that he gave some. 17:00.400 --> 17:11.400 Now, when Pastor Shelley first took over steadfast Baptist and decided to take on the role of a pastor when Donnie Romero fell, 17:11.400 --> 17:20.400 he said something along the lines of that you're receiving a gift and people have made fun of that and mocked that a lot. 17:20.400 --> 17:22.400 But what does it say right here? 17:22.400 --> 17:24.400 And he gave some. 17:24.400 --> 17:27.400 If somebody gives you something, is that something you work for? 17:27.400 --> 17:31.400 No, it's something that you get for free. 17:31.400 --> 17:35.400 And so would that make God giving those things a gift to people? 17:35.400 --> 17:36.400 Yes. 17:36.400 --> 17:38.400 So to say that like that was a weird statement or something, 17:38.400 --> 17:41.400 no, maybe you just don't understand the Bible. 17:41.400 --> 17:46.400 Maybe you just should shut up against the man of God and not complain against him like that. 17:46.400 --> 17:51.400 So it says in verse 13, till we all come in the unity of the faith. 17:51.400 --> 17:53.400 So how long is he going to do this? 17:53.400 --> 17:57.400 How long is he going to give these positions and these men of God? 17:57.400 --> 18:05.400 It says till we come, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of God unto a perfect man, 18:05.400 --> 18:09.400 unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 18:09.400 --> 18:13.400 that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro. 18:13.400 --> 18:17.400 So what's the idea that we stop being children and we grow up? 18:17.400 --> 18:20.400 And this is how the man of God is supposed to guide his church. 18:20.400 --> 18:23.400 You know, we get people that come in, they're new and they need to learn. 18:23.400 --> 18:26.400 But eventually you got to stop being a child. 18:26.400 --> 18:29.400 You got to stop being a little baby and grow up. 18:29.400 --> 18:34.400 But it's the pastor or the man of God's job to facilitate these things to happen. 18:34.400 --> 18:42.400 And it says that they're taught, so that we're, there were henceforth no more children tossed to and fro. 18:42.400 --> 18:47.400 What does that mean? That you believe one doctor one day and you believe another doctor the next day and you just change your mind? 18:47.400 --> 18:55.400 Whatever, whatever the wind says, whatever the YouTube video about the Nephilim says, whatever, you know, you just, people just change really easily. 18:55.400 --> 19:01.400 So, and pastors are not supposed to be just changing night and day all the time. 19:01.400 --> 19:03.400 Obviously there's things that you can, you can change on. 19:03.400 --> 19:16.400 But I just think that if a pastor just changes his mind instantly the first time he hears somebody say something, unless obviously just strikes home, it's for sure, you know, in the scriptures. 19:16.400 --> 19:22.400 We should change our opinions about things in the Bible and about Christianity when the scriptures tell us that. 19:22.400 --> 19:28.400 And it's the man of God's job to get up and say those things and tell those things and correct those things. 19:28.400 --> 19:35.400 Why? Because we don't want to be henceforth children tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine. 19:35.400 --> 19:37.400 You know, the wind blows different directions. 19:37.400 --> 19:46.400 A lot of times in the place you live it might blow predominantly in one, but you're going to get winds that go across winds and everything's like that different times. 19:46.400 --> 19:50.400 And so that's kind of what the, what the picture is here. 19:50.400 --> 19:54.400 That every time the wind changes directions, so does your doctrine. 19:54.400 --> 20:02.400 Every time you just want to, you know, every time you just want to weasel out of something or you don't want to address an issue that you just change on it. 20:02.400 --> 20:06.400 Or you could just, some pastors just change depending on what person they're talking to. 20:06.400 --> 20:08.400 Well, do you believe in repenting of your sins? 20:08.400 --> 20:09.400 Oh, of course not. 20:09.400 --> 20:10.400 No, it's all grace. 20:10.400 --> 20:11.400 It's all faith. 20:11.400 --> 20:14.400 You know, repenting of your sins is something that happens afterwards. 20:14.400 --> 20:21.400 But then they go to the next person that does believe that or they're a Calvinist or something and the pastor will not address those issues. 20:21.400 --> 20:28.400 We should all be in the unity of the faith as it said in verse number 13, till we all come the unity of faith. 20:28.400 --> 20:39.400 And if your church is divided to where everybody believes a bunch of different stuff about salvation, about eternal security, about the main things in God's word, that's a problem. 20:39.400 --> 20:46.400 And so the man of God's job is to preach the word of God and to lead people in the way that they should go. 20:46.400 --> 20:52.400 And so that people won't be tossed about and carried about by everyone in doctrine by the sleight of men. 20:52.400 --> 21:00.400 See, there's these men that creep in unawares and they will, you probably heard the term sleight of hand. 21:00.400 --> 21:06.400 And magicians use these tactics to try to fool your mind into thinking that they did something magic. 21:06.400 --> 21:10.400 Now, I'm not saying that magicians don't have some kind of real power sometimes. 21:10.400 --> 21:12.400 I believe that they do. 21:12.400 --> 21:24.400 But some things are just parlor tricks, you know, like reaching behind someone's ear and pulling a coin out or, you know, stuff like that, you know, pulling the lucky rabbits, you know, the rabbit out of the hat or whatever, all that kind of stuff. 21:24.400 --> 21:26.400 Nothing up my sleeve, right? 21:26.400 --> 21:37.400 Well, with these types of people, there is something up their sleeve and they have, they want to, they use their cunning craftiness whereby they lie and wait to deceive. 21:37.400 --> 21:41.400 There's another term that's a lot in the Old Testament, lying and wait. 21:41.400 --> 21:42.400 So what does that mean? 21:42.400 --> 21:44.400 They're trying to ambush people. 21:44.400 --> 21:57.400 And so there's people, there's going to be people in our lives, in our church that they want to use cunning craftiness in order to make you swerve aside, make you toss to and fro and try to convince you of things. 21:57.400 --> 22:10.400 Look, some of these guys are pretty convincing because Paul the Apostle even said that Alexander the Copper Smith, you know, and men like that greatly resisted our words. 22:10.400 --> 22:12.400 And their words are the words of what? 22:12.400 --> 22:13.400 The words of God. 22:13.400 --> 22:15.400 So they're resisting these things. 22:15.400 --> 22:24.400 And sometimes people can come up with some doctrine that seems right, but, you know, you have to be very careful who it is that you're listening to. 22:24.400 --> 22:25.400 It can affect you. 22:25.400 --> 22:26.400 It can undermine you. 22:26.400 --> 22:27.400 It can destroy you. 22:27.400 --> 22:30.400 And you don't even realize that you have this root rot. 22:30.400 --> 22:33.400 You know, when sometimes plants, they'll look perfectly fine. 22:33.400 --> 22:37.400 But underneath, you don't know what their root system is. 22:37.400 --> 22:46.400 And so if we're not built on the solid rock, if we're not grounded in the truth, you can have someone come in and undermine those things and poison your roots. 22:46.400 --> 22:49.400 And then people might not be able to see it on the outside. 22:49.400 --> 22:55.400 But if something's happening on the inside that is steering you away from the things of God, that man is. 22:55.400 --> 22:57.400 That man is a wicked person. 22:57.400 --> 23:03.400 That woman is a wicked person, whether it's your family member, whether it's someone in our church, doesn't matter who it is. 23:03.400 --> 23:11.400 If someone is trying to use sleight of hand or cunning craftiness to lie and wait to deceive. 23:11.400 --> 23:12.400 Why do they want to deceive? 23:12.400 --> 23:14.400 They want people to quit. 23:14.400 --> 23:16.400 They want people to fall out. 23:16.400 --> 23:21.400 They want people to join their, you know, legion of doom or whatever that they have going on. 23:21.400 --> 23:23.400 Or they all believe the same thing. 23:23.400 --> 23:32.400 I mean, these ex-NIFB losers all gather in one place and none of them eventually, you know, they turn on each other too. 23:32.400 --> 23:34.400 They'll be fighting amongst themselves. 23:34.400 --> 23:37.400 But it's not usually about sound doctrine. 23:37.400 --> 23:38.400 It's just about some opinion. 23:38.400 --> 23:43.400 But even if it is about doctrine, you know, it just proves that they don't all believe the same thing. 23:43.400 --> 23:44.400 So how is that unity? 23:44.400 --> 23:47.400 You know, they're just these people are trash. 23:48.400 --> 23:57.400 But some people get caught up in this stuff and they, again, they're like obsessed ex-girlfriends that can't, you know, they're just always looking at you. 23:57.400 --> 23:59.400 They're always paying attention to what you're doing. 23:59.400 --> 24:00.400 They're always doing all this stuff. 24:00.400 --> 24:02.400 And it gets weird. 24:02.400 --> 24:04.400 You know, it's like, hey, I don't want your gifts. 24:04.400 --> 24:06.400 You know, leave me alone. 24:06.400 --> 24:09.400 And you have to just shut people like this out of your life. 24:09.400 --> 24:14.400 So the first point of my sermon is that the man of God blesses people. 24:14.400 --> 24:17.400 So we're going to go to the first occurrence of this term, the man of God. 24:17.400 --> 24:21.400 I'm not saying there's not different terms or different places we can go to. 24:21.400 --> 24:22.400 Of course there is. 24:22.400 --> 24:26.400 But turn to Deuteronomy chapter 33 verse 1. 24:26.400 --> 24:28.400 Deuteronomy chapter 33 verse 1. 24:33.400 --> 24:37.400 So my first point is that the man of God blesses people. 24:37.400 --> 24:38.400 Look at verse number one. 24:38.400 --> 24:39.400 The Bible says, 25:08.400 --> 25:25.400 And he was king in Jeshurun when the heads of the people and the tribes of Israel were gathered together. 25:25.400 --> 25:26.400 And then he says, 25:32.400 --> 25:33.400 What is he doing here? 25:33.400 --> 25:35.400 He's blessing the tribe of Reuben. 25:35.400 --> 25:38.400 In this passage, he's blessing the children of Israel. 25:38.400 --> 25:44.400 Like Jacob blessed his own children, which are the literal children of Israel. 25:44.400 --> 25:46.400 Okay, the children of Jacob. 25:46.400 --> 25:48.400 But what does God call? 25:48.400 --> 25:51.400 He even calls us this in the New Testament, the Israel of God. 25:51.400 --> 25:56.400 And so, and that means a prince, right? 25:56.400 --> 25:58.400 And so we're all princes. 25:58.400 --> 26:04.400 And princes, look, we think of prince as the person that's going to take over eventually. 26:04.400 --> 26:08.400 You know, and they're the firstborn or whatever son. 26:08.400 --> 26:15.400 But, you know, a prince also could be the person that is in charge of everything. 26:15.400 --> 26:18.400 Okay, so it just is used differently today. 26:18.400 --> 26:25.400 So in this passage, I'd venture to say that Moses blessed them with his life, period. 26:25.400 --> 26:27.400 You know, they were rebellious. 26:27.400 --> 26:28.400 They were stubborn. 26:28.400 --> 26:30.400 God killed them off in the wilderness. 26:30.400 --> 26:32.400 All but Joshua and Caleb. 26:32.400 --> 26:35.400 But God still loved them and took care of them. 26:35.400 --> 26:38.400 He just knew that he wasn't going to be the one that takes them in. 26:38.400 --> 26:42.400 Of course, that pictures the Old Testament, that the law can't get you into heaven. 26:42.400 --> 26:47.400 The law is there to show you your transgressions, to teach you that you're a sinner. 26:47.400 --> 26:51.400 So that you can, so the law is a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. 26:51.400 --> 26:54.400 So we can see our sinfulness in the law of God. 26:54.400 --> 26:58.400 But Moses, you know, not going into the promised land, 26:58.400 --> 27:03.400 it pictures that you can't follow the law and get into heaven. 27:03.400 --> 27:04.400 Okay? 27:04.400 --> 27:10.400 And so when Joshua came up after him, then Joshua, you know, he pictures Christ. 27:10.400 --> 27:12.400 He's the one that did take him in. 27:12.400 --> 27:14.400 He's the one that everybody did obey. 27:14.400 --> 27:18.400 And so you have that queer picture of Old and New Testament. 27:18.400 --> 27:21.400 And Joshua literally is the name of Jesus. 27:21.400 --> 27:26.400 It's just transliterated into, you know, from Hebrew into Greek. 27:27.400 --> 27:29.400 That's why it's different. 27:29.400 --> 27:31.400 There's no sh sound in the Greek language. 27:31.400 --> 27:36.400 So it's Jesus, or Jesus is how we pronounce it. 27:36.400 --> 27:42.400 But anyway, so the man of God blesses people. 27:42.400 --> 27:45.400 And not just in saying a blessing or praying for a blessing, 27:45.400 --> 27:49.400 but those things are definitely things that a man of God can do. 27:49.400 --> 27:53.400 But he also, you know, blesses with his life. 27:53.400 --> 27:55.400 You know, because it's the work of the ministry. 27:55.400 --> 27:58.400 You know, being a man of God is work. 27:58.400 --> 28:00.400 It's not something, it's not called play. 28:00.400 --> 28:02.400 It's called work. 28:02.400 --> 28:04.400 When men go to work, they don't go, hey, I'm going to go play today. 28:04.400 --> 28:05.400 Bye, honey. 28:05.400 --> 28:06.400 I'll see you later. 28:06.400 --> 28:09.400 Or, yeah, you know, I'm going in for, I'm going to fun. 28:09.400 --> 28:11.400 That's what I'm going to. 28:11.400 --> 28:14.400 That's not what the Bible teaches. 28:14.400 --> 28:17.400 And, you know, I'm going for fun. 28:17.400 --> 28:18.400 No, you go to work. 28:18.400 --> 28:22.400 You go to work to get things done, to labor with your hands 28:22.400 --> 28:27.400 and to bring forth of your hands, to work hard. 28:27.400 --> 28:31.400 And God expects us all to work hard, not just pastors. 28:31.400 --> 28:35.400 And obviously we have a lot of people that work really hard in this church. 28:35.400 --> 28:37.400 So I'm not taking that away from anybody. 28:37.400 --> 28:42.400 Anyway, so what was said about Moses that he was more than everybody else 28:42.400 --> 28:44.400 on the face of the earth? 28:44.400 --> 28:47.400 He was the meekest man on the face of the earth. 28:47.400 --> 28:53.400 And so when Moses, you know, he had people rise up against him, you know, 28:53.400 --> 28:56.400 he just, he fell on his face and went to God about it. 28:56.400 --> 29:01.400 He didn't say, I'm going to clear this, you know, I'm going to take care of this myself. 29:01.400 --> 29:04.400 Sometimes God has to take care of things for us. 29:04.400 --> 29:08.400 And that's why we can't just go around picking people that we think are bad people in the church. 29:08.400 --> 29:12.400 Hey, unless you know for sure, you just keep your mouth shut about it. 29:12.400 --> 29:16.400 And you shouldn't just go around suspecting everybody. 29:16.400 --> 29:20.400 I remember when our church first started and everybody was a pedophile that came in the door. 29:20.400 --> 29:22.400 I mean, it's just like, is this person a pedophile? 29:22.400 --> 29:25.400 It's like, why is that the first thing that you think about? 29:25.400 --> 29:27.400 It's just, it's bizarre. 29:27.400 --> 29:31.400 But I mean, I had to kind of, you know, train this out of people. 29:31.400 --> 29:34.400 And obviously there's, we should be aware, we should be vigilant, 29:34.400 --> 29:39.400 we should be sober and looking for disaster sometimes. 29:39.400 --> 29:42.400 But if we just think that everybody's a pedophile that walks through the door, 29:42.400 --> 29:44.400 it's kind of a, people aren't going to want to stay. 29:44.400 --> 29:46.400 It's just that simple. 29:46.400 --> 29:48.400 So Moses was meek. 29:48.400 --> 29:49.400 He was lowly. 29:49.400 --> 29:52.400 He was actually content to live his life in Midian. 29:52.400 --> 29:55.400 It's not like he went seeking, hey, I want to be a pastor. 29:55.400 --> 29:58.400 Check West, Mary Jethro's daughter. 29:58.400 --> 30:00.400 Check. 30:00.400 --> 30:02.400 Be a shepherd in the wilderness to train me up. 30:02.400 --> 30:03.400 Check. 30:03.400 --> 30:04.400 Got all this done. 30:04.400 --> 30:06.400 You know, read my Bible 10 times. 30:06.400 --> 30:07.400 Check. 30:07.400 --> 30:11.400 You know, it's like, Moses was like, I'm of slow speech. 30:11.400 --> 30:14.400 You know, I can't talk to this people. 30:14.400 --> 30:19.400 And then he makes excuses as to why he's not going to do what God's called him to do. 30:19.400 --> 30:21.400 And God gets angry with him. 30:21.400 --> 30:23.400 He's like, I made the tongue. 30:23.400 --> 30:25.400 I can make you a better speaker. 30:25.400 --> 30:29.400 But, you know, he also said, I'm going to use Aaron for a mouthpiece for you. 30:29.400 --> 30:32.400 But I believe that Moses found his way. 30:32.400 --> 30:34.400 I believe that Moses actually did say things. 30:34.400 --> 30:36.400 It wasn't just Aaron proclaiming everything. 30:36.400 --> 30:38.400 I think Moses got over that. 30:38.400 --> 30:41.400 And but he was just a very meek man. 30:41.400 --> 30:43.400 He was a great man of God. 30:43.400 --> 30:46.400 The Bible calls him the servant of God. 30:46.400 --> 30:49.400 And so the man of God is supposed to serve other people. 30:49.400 --> 30:52.400 And doesn't serving people bless their lives? 30:52.400 --> 30:53.400 Yeah. 30:53.400 --> 30:59.400 And sometimes people don't even realize the service that the man of God in their life does. 30:59.400 --> 31:00.400 And it's unfortunate. 31:00.400 --> 31:02.400 Let's turn to Genesis chapter 12. 31:02.400 --> 31:04.400 Genesis chapter 12. 31:04.400 --> 31:08.400 I mean, I could pull example after example of people that are called the man of God. 31:08.400 --> 31:11.400 And Abraham isn't necessarily called that in this passage. 31:11.400 --> 31:15.400 But look what God does say. 31:15.400 --> 31:16.400 Why did he pick Abraham? 31:16.400 --> 31:19.400 Do you think Abraham was the only person saved in the whole world? 31:19.400 --> 31:21.400 I think people get that idea. 31:21.400 --> 31:24.400 Like there was nobody else who was saved. 31:24.400 --> 31:26.400 But Abraham, he got saved. 31:26.400 --> 31:28.400 And that was the first person of faith. 31:28.400 --> 31:30.400 No, there was other people that were saved. 31:30.400 --> 31:38.400 But anyway, it says in verse 12, or verse 1, excuse me, in chapter 12 of Genesis, it says, 31:38.400 --> 31:42.400 Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from my kindred, 31:42.400 --> 31:46.400 And from my father's house unto a land, that I will show thee. 31:46.400 --> 31:47.400 So what's he want? 31:47.400 --> 31:50.400 He wants him to separate from the world. 31:50.400 --> 31:53.400 He wants him to separate from those people that would drag him down. 31:53.400 --> 31:57.400 But it says, And I will make of thee a great nation, 31:57.400 --> 32:03.400 And I will bless thee, and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing. 32:03.400 --> 32:05.400 So was Abraham a blessing? 32:05.400 --> 32:06.400 Yeah. 32:06.400 --> 32:09.400 Well, I mean, we wouldn't be saved without Father Abraham. 32:09.400 --> 32:12.400 He had many sons, and many sons had Father Abraham. 32:12.400 --> 32:14.400 I'm one of them, and so are you, if you're saved today. 32:14.400 --> 32:16.400 So let's just praise the Lord, right? 32:16.400 --> 32:20.400 I'm not going to sing the whole song, but I'm not even going to sing it at all. 32:20.400 --> 32:22.400 But that's a Sunday school song. 32:22.400 --> 32:24.400 But it's a right song. 32:25.400 --> 32:28.400 You know, it's funny that these Zionists that have their junior church 32:28.400 --> 32:32.400 and have them sing that song, it's just like they don't realize what that song actually means. 32:32.400 --> 32:35.400 You know, we're children of faith through Abraham. 32:35.400 --> 32:36.400 Amen. 32:36.400 --> 32:37.400 All right? 32:37.400 --> 32:40.400 There's no secondary covenant going on in the background. 32:40.400 --> 32:41.400 For the land. 32:41.400 --> 32:44.400 The land. It's the land. 32:44.400 --> 32:49.400 I don't know why Baptists want to worship the land for the children of, 32:49.400 --> 32:52.400 supposedly the children of Israel, but in the New Testament, 32:52.400 --> 32:53.400 we are the children of Israel. 32:53.400 --> 32:55.400 We are Jacob. 32:55.400 --> 33:00.400 And they can't figure that out because they're just crippled by their education, 33:00.400 --> 33:03.400 crippled by dispensationalism. 33:03.400 --> 33:09.400 It's funny because I saw this preacher say, like everybody, 33:09.400 --> 33:12.400 you might just deny it and say dispensationalism isn't true, 33:12.400 --> 33:15.400 but everybody is a dispensationalist or whatever. 33:15.400 --> 33:16.400 I'm just like, what? 33:16.400 --> 33:19.400 No, no we're not dispensationalists. 33:19.400 --> 33:20.400 Okay? 33:20.400 --> 33:24.400 But I mean, does God change how he deals with people sometimes? 33:24.400 --> 33:25.400 Yeah. 33:25.400 --> 33:29.400 But that's not, you know, that's not what they're trying to make it out to be. 33:29.400 --> 33:33.400 There was no seven types of salvation in the Bible. 33:33.400 --> 33:35.400 Now, Rockman said that there were, you had like ten different, 33:35.400 --> 33:39.400 or I can't remember his exact quote, so don't quote me on this, 33:39.400 --> 33:44.400 but he said like that there's multiple gospels from Jesus, 33:44.400 --> 33:48.400 and Paul's gospel was different, and not only Paul's gospel, 33:48.400 --> 33:52.400 but then, you know, in the book of Acts it just changes multiple times. 33:52.400 --> 33:54.400 That's not true. 33:54.400 --> 33:56.400 That is just a bald-faced lie. 33:56.400 --> 33:58.400 Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. 33:58.400 --> 34:01.400 No man cometh unto the Father but by him. 34:01.400 --> 34:03.400 That hasn't changed. 34:03.400 --> 34:04.400 And guess what? 34:04.400 --> 34:07.400 You're still saved eternally when you get saved. 34:07.400 --> 34:09.400 That doesn't change. 34:09.400 --> 34:13.400 I mean, literally the first time the pre-trib rapture was ever preached to me, 34:13.400 --> 34:15.400 I'd already read Matthew 24. 34:15.400 --> 34:17.400 I'd already read stuff in Revelation. 34:17.400 --> 34:19.400 I'd already learned something, you know, 34:19.400 --> 34:22.400 and this pastor is just preaching this doctrine. 34:22.400 --> 34:24.400 I'm just like, what is he talking about? 34:24.400 --> 34:27.400 And so I went to him right after the service while I was nice, 34:27.400 --> 34:29.400 and I was entreating him as a follower. 34:29.400 --> 34:32.400 I'm confused because when I read Matthew 24, 34:32.400 --> 34:34.400 it says he comes back after the tribulation. 34:34.400 --> 34:39.400 So I was, you know, but he's like, well, some people believe that, 34:39.400 --> 34:42.400 and he had this book, and I forgot what the name of the guy was, 34:42.400 --> 34:47.400 he's like, he's the chart guy for that doctrine. 34:47.400 --> 34:48.400 Is it Clarence Larkin? 34:48.400 --> 34:52.400 No, it's an independent Baptist person. 34:52.400 --> 34:54.400 Anyway, I can't remember. 34:54.400 --> 34:56.400 No, no. 34:56.400 --> 35:00.400 But he brought up Rockman's belief in that the, 35:00.400 --> 35:04.400 some say in the tribulation that it's going to be a combination. 35:04.400 --> 35:07.400 It's going to be works and faith. 35:07.400 --> 35:10.400 And I'm not saying that he believed that, 35:10.400 --> 35:12.400 but why would he bring that up? 35:12.400 --> 35:15.400 I just thought, well, that's weird, I said, 35:15.400 --> 35:20.400 because, you know, he gave his life once, you know, 35:20.400 --> 35:23.400 and the book of Hebrews is very clear about that, 35:23.400 --> 35:26.400 that his atonement is an everlasting atonement. 35:26.400 --> 35:28.400 There's nothing that needs to be added. 35:28.400 --> 35:31.400 You know, I mean, some of these Baptists might as well be Mormons 35:31.400 --> 35:33.400 the way that they believe. 35:33.400 --> 35:34.400 It's ridiculous. 35:34.400 --> 35:39.400 So, but he says, I will bless them that bless thee 35:39.400 --> 35:42.400 and curse him that cursed thee. 35:42.400 --> 35:45.400 And in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. 35:45.400 --> 35:48.400 Does that read all Israel shall be blessed? 35:48.400 --> 35:51.400 No, it says all families shall be blessed. 35:51.400 --> 35:53.400 And again, I think that we're spiritual Israel. 35:53.400 --> 35:54.400 Don't get me wrong. 35:54.400 --> 36:00.400 But Abraham is the one that started the race or whatever of Hebrews. 36:00.400 --> 36:02.400 He was just called a Hebrew, 36:02.400 --> 36:05.400 and it kind of branched off from there, right? 36:05.400 --> 36:08.400 But he was also a Syrian. 36:08.400 --> 36:10.400 He lived in Ur of the Chaldees. 36:10.400 --> 36:17.400 I mean, he was born, he's one of Seth, or not Seth? 36:17.400 --> 36:18.400 Huh? 36:18.400 --> 36:23.400 Yes, he's one of Seth's, yeah, he was, yeah. 36:23.400 --> 36:26.400 So anyway, let's move on to point number two. 36:26.400 --> 36:29.400 So the man of God encourages people to follow the Lord. 36:29.400 --> 36:32.400 So look, the man of God blesses people. 36:32.400 --> 36:34.400 He's a blessing in their life. 36:34.400 --> 36:36.400 He actually blesses them literally. 36:36.400 --> 36:38.400 But a man of God should be praying for his people. 36:38.400 --> 36:41.400 A man of God should be helping his people 36:41.400 --> 36:45.400 so that he is actually a blessing to the church and not a curse. 36:45.400 --> 36:47.400 And we have Abraham as an example. 36:47.400 --> 36:51.400 And even God says, like, he says, 36:51.400 --> 36:53.400 I know that he will lead his children after him. 36:53.400 --> 37:00.400 So he lets Abraham in on the secret of Sodom and Gomorrah being destroyed. 37:00.400 --> 37:01.400 And then what's he do? 37:01.400 --> 37:04.400 He intercedes for the people. 37:04.400 --> 37:07.400 Even though he doesn't know them necessarily, but he knows that Lot's there. 37:07.400 --> 37:09.400 He knows that Lot's family's there. 37:09.400 --> 37:12.400 And so he kind of goes on this barter with God. 37:12.400 --> 37:17.400 Well, if there's 50 people, if there's 40 people, if there's 30 people, 37:17.400 --> 37:19.400 and it's like, it goes all the way down. 37:19.400 --> 37:23.400 And then God finally finishes it off with 10 people. 37:23.400 --> 37:27.400 But he said, I will not destroy it for 10 people's sake. 37:27.400 --> 37:29.400 But did he destroy Sodom and Gomorrah? 37:29.400 --> 37:30.400 Yes, he did. 37:30.400 --> 37:32.400 Why? Because there wasn't 10 people. 37:32.400 --> 37:37.400 And so all of Sodom and Gomorrah and those places got fried 37:37.400 --> 37:41.400 because of the fact that there was none of them saved. 37:41.400 --> 37:46.400 But then people will go, well, homosexuals can be saved just in the New Testament 37:46.400 --> 37:48.400 or they could get saved in the Old Testament. 37:48.400 --> 37:51.400 Because it would be kind of weird if homos got saved 37:51.400 --> 37:54.400 and not one single person in Sodom was saved. 37:54.400 --> 37:58.400 It doesn't mention they grabbed another queer's hand and took him out. 37:58.400 --> 38:01.400 No, it was Lot and his family. 38:01.400 --> 38:03.400 Lot and his family went out. 38:03.400 --> 38:09.400 Because God said, if Abraham's from Peradventure, there are 10. 38:09.400 --> 38:11.400 He says, I will not destroy it. 38:11.400 --> 38:14.400 I won't destroy them for 10's sake or whatever. 38:14.400 --> 38:17.400 So anyway, let's look at Joshua chapter 14. 38:17.400 --> 38:21.400 So Moses does this changing of the guard. 38:21.400 --> 38:26.400 And the last thing he does is blesses the people with another leader. 38:26.400 --> 38:30.400 He makes sure that there's another leader to take his place, 38:30.400 --> 38:32.400 to lead the children of Israel. 38:32.400 --> 38:35.400 And that person was Moses' personal attendant basically. 38:35.400 --> 38:41.400 And he trained Joshua and he was the captain of the army and all that stuff. 38:41.400 --> 38:45.400 So Joshua was trained by Moses. 38:45.400 --> 38:50.400 And so point number two is that the man of God encourages people to follow the Lord. 38:50.400 --> 38:53.400 Look at Joshua 14 verse number 6. 38:53.400 --> 38:58.400 The Bible says, Then the children of Judah came unto Joshua and Gilgal. 38:58.400 --> 39:05.400 And Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Cainisite said unto him, 39:05.400 --> 39:08.400 Thou knowest the thing that the Lord said unto Moses, 39:08.400 --> 39:13.400 the man of God concerning me and thee, and Kadesh Barnea. 39:13.400 --> 39:15.400 So what does Caleb call him? 39:15.400 --> 39:18.400 He doesn't say, you know, he doesn't call him his last name. 39:18.400 --> 39:22.400 I don't think, you know, we don't know his last name or whether he even had one. 39:22.400 --> 39:25.400 But Moses, you know, he's talking about Moses. 39:25.400 --> 39:27.400 But he calls him the man of God. 39:27.400 --> 39:31.400 It's not like, oh, Moses can't go into the wilderness or can't go into the promised land. 39:31.400 --> 39:35.400 So let's just drop his title of the man of God off of his name. 39:35.400 --> 39:37.400 No, he's still the man of God. 39:37.400 --> 39:42.400 He's talked about as the man of God and my servant Moses multiple times in the Bible. 39:42.400 --> 39:46.400 And so what does Caleb do? 39:46.400 --> 39:51.400 Well, Caleb goes to Joshua and goes, you remember what he said, what the man of God said? 39:51.400 --> 39:53.400 And so what did Caleb do? 39:53.400 --> 39:55.400 Did he follow God all those years? 39:55.400 --> 39:57.400 Yeah, he did. And why? 39:57.400 --> 40:00.400 Because he actually responded to God's word. 40:00.400 --> 40:02.400 He responded to the preaching. 40:02.400 --> 40:06.400 And so the two spies that actually lived were Joshua and Caleb. 40:06.400 --> 40:10.400 And they lived through that 40 years where God said everybody else is going to die. 40:10.400 --> 40:12.400 And why, though? 40:12.400 --> 40:14.400 Because Moses encouraged him. 40:14.400 --> 40:18.400 Moses, what Moses said, he said, thou knowest the thing that the Lord said unto Moses, 40:18.400 --> 40:22.400 the man of God concerning me and thee and Kadesh Barnea. 40:23.400 --> 40:28.400 So he's talking to Joshua specifically here because Joshua is the other person that got that blessing. 40:28.400 --> 40:30.400 And here he is leading the children of Israel. 40:30.400 --> 40:34.400 This is after the conquest is pretty much done for the most part. 40:34.400 --> 40:36.400 But then there's all these stragglers. 40:53.400 --> 40:56.400 But I wholly followed the Lord my God. 40:56.400 --> 40:58.400 So you have two different types of people. 40:58.400 --> 41:02.400 You know, you have the ten spies that weren't listening to Moses, 41:02.400 --> 41:05.400 that wouldn't follow the instructions of the man of God. 41:05.400 --> 41:09.400 And because of that, and because of the good report that Caleb had, 41:09.400 --> 41:13.400 and the good report that Joshua had, he blessed them. 41:13.400 --> 41:17.400 And so he encouraged them to follow because what? 41:17.400 --> 41:19.400 He preached the word of God to them. 41:19.400 --> 41:21.400 And they followed what the Bible was saying. 41:21.400 --> 41:23.400 You know, obviously they didn't have the Bible like we have it now. 41:23.400 --> 41:28.400 But he followed it though as the word of the Lord because whenever he says, 41:28.400 --> 41:32.400 Thus saith the Lord, that means that God's talking, right? 41:32.400 --> 41:37.400 Because if I said, Thus saith Bill, Thus saith brother Bill, 41:37.400 --> 41:40.400 he's the person that's being talked about. 41:40.400 --> 41:47.400 So anyway, so God, when it says the Lord, thus saith the Lord, 41:47.400 --> 41:51.400 then we should understand that God is the one that's speaking in that instance, right? 41:51.400 --> 41:54.400 So, and Moses swear on that day saying, 42:04.400 --> 42:08.400 And so when pastors get up and preach, hey, don't quit, don't give up, 42:08.400 --> 42:11.400 don't let yourself get out of the fight, 42:11.400 --> 42:13.400 Joshua and Caleb didn't get out of the fight. 42:13.400 --> 42:14.400 They stayed in the fight because what? 42:14.400 --> 42:16.400 They wholly followed the Lord. 42:16.400 --> 42:20.400 And Moses, the man of God, was a man that was worth following. 42:20.400 --> 42:24.400 And even though people didn't follow him, so look, people have a choice. 42:24.400 --> 42:26.400 You can follow him or not follow him. 42:26.400 --> 42:27.400 And you know what? 42:27.400 --> 42:31.400 If you drop out at the end of the day, it's going to affect me in the fact that it might hurt me 42:31.400 --> 42:35.400 that one of my church members isn't here anymore and my friend isn't here anymore. 42:35.400 --> 42:39.400 But it's going to be a sad day if you just go back and go into the world 42:39.400 --> 42:44.400 and stop living out your faith in this world. 42:44.400 --> 42:48.400 But it says because he wholly followed the Lord my God. 42:48.400 --> 42:51.400 So the man of God encourages people to follow the Lord. 42:51.400 --> 42:54.400 Look at 1 Corinthians 11. 42:54.400 --> 43:00.400 1 Corinthians 11 verse 1. 43:03.400 --> 43:05.400 1 Corinthians 11 verse 1. 43:05.400 --> 43:06.400 The Bible says, 43:06.400 --> 43:11.400 Be followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. 43:11.400 --> 43:16.400 And so how does the man of God encourage people to follow? 43:16.400 --> 43:18.400 Well, there are examples. 43:18.400 --> 43:22.400 And so like Paul is someone that was worth following. 43:22.400 --> 43:25.400 He didn't say don't be followers of men. 43:25.400 --> 43:28.400 Now obviously we know what that means when people say that. 43:28.400 --> 43:30.400 You just follow man. 43:30.400 --> 43:35.400 Well, but there's nothing really wrong with following a man as long as he's following Christ. 43:35.400 --> 43:37.400 So it says, 43:37.400 --> 43:38.400 So it says, 43:54.400 --> 43:55.400 So what's he doing here? 43:55.400 --> 43:57.400 He's saying, well, here's the pecking order. 43:57.400 --> 44:01.400 Here's the hierarchy or whatever as you would like to call it. 44:01.400 --> 44:05.400 But obviously Christ is the head of the church. 44:05.400 --> 44:07.400 He is the Savior of the body. 44:07.400 --> 44:10.400 And Christ's head is God the Father. 44:10.400 --> 44:13.400 So but he says, 44:13.400 --> 44:15.400 Be followers of me. 44:15.400 --> 44:19.400 And so the man of God encourages people to follow the Lord. 44:19.400 --> 44:22.400 He's not saying follow me and forget what Jesus said. 44:22.400 --> 44:23.400 He's not saying that is he. 44:23.400 --> 44:28.400 He's following me as even as I also am of Christ. 44:28.400 --> 44:31.400 And it says in verse number four, 44:31.400 --> 44:34.400 So look, we don't want to follow people that get you to get out of church. 44:34.400 --> 44:36.400 They get you to stop serving God. 44:36.400 --> 44:41.400 I mean, if people are doing that, usually alarm bells should go off in your brain. 44:41.400 --> 44:43.400 They're telling you to stop serving God. 44:43.400 --> 44:46.400 They're telling you to stop doing what the Bible says. 44:46.400 --> 44:51.400 And they'll use this cunning craftiness in order to deceive you. 44:51.400 --> 44:56.400 So number three this morning, the man of God encourages people to follow the Lord. 44:56.400 --> 44:57.400 He's saying, 44:57.400 --> 45:00.400 So the man of God is also supposed to be a teacher. 45:00.400 --> 45:04.400 He's supposed to be able to teach the people, have the aptitude to teach. 45:04.400 --> 45:06.400 It says the man. 45:06.400 --> 45:09.400 I mean, the third point is the man of God teaches. 45:09.400 --> 45:11.400 Look at verse number two in Judges 13. 45:11.400 --> 45:12.400 It says, 45:12.400 --> 45:16.400 And there was a certain man of Zorah of the family of the Danites, 45:16.400 --> 45:18.400 who was a man of God, 45:18.400 --> 45:23.400 and he was a man of God who was a man of God who was a man of God who was a man of God. 45:23.400 --> 45:27.400 And there was a certain man of Zorah of the family of the Danites, 45:27.400 --> 45:29.400 whose name was Manoah, 45:29.400 --> 45:32.400 and his wife was barren and bare-naught. 45:32.400 --> 45:34.400 And the angel of the Lord appeared unto the woman, 45:34.400 --> 45:35.400 and said unto her, 45:35.400 --> 45:37.400 Behold now, thou art barren, and barest not, 45:37.400 --> 45:40.400 but thou shalt conceive and barest son. 45:40.400 --> 45:43.400 So this is interesting because it's like Christ. 45:43.400 --> 45:46.400 I mean, an angel appears, she's barren. 45:46.400 --> 45:48.400 Obviously there's differences, 45:48.400 --> 45:52.400 but it's still the angel of the Lord proclaiming these things. 45:52.400 --> 45:53.400 And he says, 45:53.400 --> 45:55.400 Behold, therefore, beware, I pray thee, 45:55.400 --> 45:59.400 and drink not wine, nor strong drink, 45:59.400 --> 46:01.400 and eat not any unclean thing. 46:01.400 --> 46:02.400 What's he doing? 46:02.400 --> 46:05.400 He's teaching them what to not do. 46:05.400 --> 46:06.400 So he doesn't say, 46:06.400 --> 46:11.400 Go ahead and just drink as much grapes or grape juice as you want, or wine, 46:11.400 --> 46:14.400 and don't drink strong drink, 46:14.400 --> 46:16.400 don't drink alcohol, 46:16.400 --> 46:18.400 and eat not any unclean thing. 46:18.400 --> 46:22.400 So obviously there's some strict rules about dietary things, 46:22.400 --> 46:26.400 the picture, of course, the things of God and Christ, 46:26.400 --> 46:28.400 not to mix your faith, 46:28.400 --> 46:31.400 the mixed fabric thing that people always want to throw in our face, 46:31.400 --> 46:34.400 well, I bet you're wearing a mixed blend or whatever it's like. 46:34.400 --> 46:37.400 I mean, don't be stupid. 46:37.400 --> 46:40.400 I mean, those pictures were in place in the Old Testament 46:40.400 --> 46:42.400 so that we knew, 46:42.400 --> 46:45.400 so we know the difference between clean and unclean. 46:45.400 --> 46:50.400 Okay, and so we end that you can't mix faith and works. 46:50.400 --> 46:52.400 So that's what those things picture. 46:52.400 --> 46:54.400 So it says, 46:54.400 --> 46:58.400 Then the woman came and told her husband, 46:58.400 --> 47:00.400 actually, sorry, verse five, it says, 47:00.400 --> 47:02.400 For lo, thou shalt conceive embarrassed, no, I already read that. 47:02.400 --> 47:04.400 Okay, and verse six, it says, 47:04.400 --> 47:07.400 Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, 47:07.400 --> 47:09.400 A man of God came unto me, 47:09.400 --> 47:12.400 and his countenance was like the countenance of an angel of God. 47:12.400 --> 47:14.400 Very terrible. 47:14.400 --> 47:19.400 But I asked him not whence he was, neither told he me his name. 47:19.400 --> 47:24.400 So this man of God comes, is what she calls him, 47:24.400 --> 47:27.400 and it says that in verse seven, 47:27.400 --> 47:32.400 But he said unto me, Behold, thou shalt conceive embarrassed son, 47:32.400 --> 47:36.400 and now drink no wine nor strong drink, neither eat any unclean thing, 47:36.400 --> 47:41.400 for the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb to the day of his death. 47:41.400 --> 47:44.400 So people will be like, well, how come Samson had long hair? 47:44.400 --> 47:48.400 Well, because he was a Nazarite from his birth until his death. 47:48.400 --> 47:50.400 That's what God said. 47:50.400 --> 47:54.400 So normally a person would make some kind of a Nazarite vow, 47:54.400 --> 47:57.400 and when the vow is done, then you cut your hair. 47:57.400 --> 48:00.400 You shave your head, right? 48:00.400 --> 48:04.400 But in this case, Samson was supposed to keep the locks of his hair growing 48:04.400 --> 48:08.400 for his whole life and not have short hair. 48:08.400 --> 48:12.400 So again, you might call this the exception to the rule. 48:12.400 --> 48:14.400 Sometimes God has exceptions to the rule. 48:14.400 --> 48:17.400 There's a lot of things that are exceptions to rules in our world, 48:17.400 --> 48:22.400 and here we have this instance where he's a Nazarite to the day of his death. 48:22.400 --> 48:26.400 He's supposed to be anyway, but he doesn't really follow the plan very well, does he? 48:26.400 --> 48:31.400 Verse number eight says, Then Manoah entreated the Lord, and said, 48:31.400 --> 48:35.400 O my Lord, let the man of God, which thou didst sin, 48:35.400 --> 48:41.400 come again unto us, and teach us what we shall do unto the child that shall be born. 48:41.400 --> 48:44.400 So what's he want? He wants the man of God to teach. 48:44.400 --> 48:50.400 And the man of God is supposed to teach the people, avoid these things, 48:50.400 --> 48:58.400 do these things, encouragement, exhortation, building, edifying, building up people, 48:58.400 --> 49:00.400 but also saying don't do these things. 49:00.400 --> 49:03.400 Isn't that what he's saying? Don't do these certain things? 49:03.400 --> 49:07.400 So people, oh, you just have a lot of do's and don'ts. Well, so does God. 49:07.400 --> 49:11.400 I mean, if he says don't do this, that's a commandment. 49:11.400 --> 49:14.400 It says, And God hearkened to the voice of Manoah, 49:14.400 --> 49:18.400 and the angel of God came again unto the woman, as she sat in the field, 49:18.400 --> 49:21.400 but Manoah her husband was not with her. 49:21.400 --> 49:25.400 And the woman made haste, and ran, and showed her husband, and said unto him, 49:25.400 --> 49:29.400 Behold, the man hath appeared unto me, that came unto me the other day. 49:29.400 --> 49:32.400 And Manoah rose and went after his wife, and came to the man, and said unto him, 49:32.400 --> 49:37.400 Art thou the man that speakest unto the woman? And he said, I am. 49:37.400 --> 49:41.400 And Manoah said, Now let thy words come to pass. 49:41.400 --> 49:45.400 How shall we order the child, and how shall we do unto him? 49:45.400 --> 49:49.400 And the angel of the Lord said unto Manoah, Of all that I said unto the woman, 49:49.400 --> 49:51.400 unto the woman, let her beware. 49:51.400 --> 49:56.400 She may not eat of anything that cometh of the vine, neither let her drink wine, 49:56.400 --> 50:03.400 or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing. All that I commanded her, let her observe. 50:03.400 --> 50:08.400 And so you have this guy, he's called the man of God, who appears to Manoah's wife, 50:08.400 --> 50:11.400 and then also to Manoah, and what's he doing? 50:11.400 --> 50:15.400 He's laying down some rules that God has always had for us. 50:15.400 --> 50:17.400 Don't drink alcohol and strong a drink. 50:17.400 --> 50:22.400 And obviously we don't want to be given too much wine. 50:22.400 --> 50:26.400 We don't want to just have this lifestyle that's lavish, 50:26.400 --> 50:29.400 like the lifestyles in the Rich and Famous, if you remember that. 50:29.400 --> 50:33.400 Welcome to the lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. What was that? Robin Leach, right? 50:33.400 --> 50:38.400 And he would show these lavish lifestyles that the Hollywood elite have and stuff like that. 50:38.400 --> 50:41.400 Wine can be interpreted in that. 50:41.400 --> 50:44.400 Obviously this is talking about the literal beverage here, 50:44.400 --> 50:48.400 but in other passages it can be talking about that. 50:48.400 --> 50:50.400 And so what is the man of God supposed to do? 50:50.400 --> 50:54.400 Well, he's supposed to teach things that relevantly and currently apply to us. 50:54.400 --> 50:58.400 So didn't that currently apply to them? Yes. 50:58.400 --> 51:04.400 But it also is in the past for us, and we can learn from that situation, 51:04.400 --> 51:08.400 and that God does send people to teach us the Word of God. 51:08.400 --> 51:11.400 And so it's important that a man of God teaches. 51:11.400 --> 51:16.400 Look at 1 Timothy chapter 3. 51:21.400 --> 51:23.400 1 Timothy chapter 3 verse 2. The Bible says, 51:23.400 --> 51:28.400 A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, 51:28.400 --> 51:32.400 vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality. 51:32.400 --> 51:34.400 And what does it say at the last there? 51:34.400 --> 51:36.400 Apt to teach. 51:36.400 --> 51:40.400 And so if you want to just use a modern word for that, it's aptitude. 51:40.400 --> 51:44.400 You have the aptitude to teach. You can teach people. 51:44.400 --> 51:46.400 And so that's one of the qualifications of a bishop, 51:46.400 --> 51:49.400 is that you can teach people what the Bible says. 51:49.400 --> 51:53.400 It says in meekness, oh, I'm sorry, go to 2 Timothy chapter 2, 51:53.400 --> 51:58.400 2 Timothy chapter 2, and verse number 24. 51:58.400 --> 52:00.400 2 Timothy 2 verse 24 says, 52:00.400 --> 52:03.400 And the servant of the Lord must not strive. 52:03.400 --> 52:07.400 So here we have Paul calling him the servant of the Lord. 52:07.400 --> 52:10.400 What did he call Moses sometimes? The servant of the Lord. 52:10.400 --> 52:13.400 What are we supposed to be? Servants of the Lord. 52:13.400 --> 52:15.400 He didn't save us just to not do anything. 52:15.400 --> 52:18.400 He saved us so we could bring forth good works, right? 52:18.400 --> 52:23.400 It says, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient. 52:23.400 --> 52:26.400 So here you have it again in the next epistle. 52:26.400 --> 52:28.400 He still says the same thing. 52:28.400 --> 52:30.400 Hey, the servant of the Lord must not strive, 52:30.400 --> 52:33.400 but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient. 52:33.400 --> 52:36.400 In meekness, instructing those that oppose themselves, 52:36.400 --> 52:41.400 if God, per adventure, will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. 52:41.400 --> 52:44.400 So instructing is what? Teaching people how to do stuff. 52:44.400 --> 52:51.400 And so the man of God is supposed to teach people how to live out the Christian life, 52:51.400 --> 52:53.400 what the Bible says. 52:53.400 --> 52:56.400 They're supposed to be teaching the Word of God. 52:56.400 --> 53:01.400 So number four this morning is the man of God shows us the way to go. 53:01.400 --> 53:03.400 He shows us the way to go. 53:03.400 --> 53:07.400 And the man of God should be an example or an example unto the people 53:07.400 --> 53:10.400 and show people which way to go. 53:10.400 --> 53:14.400 Obviously the way, I believe, applies directly to salvation. 53:14.400 --> 53:16.400 I am the way, the truth and the life. 53:16.400 --> 53:19.400 But it also, the Bible talks about that way. 53:19.400 --> 53:22.400 You know, there's much disputing about that way. 53:22.400 --> 53:23.400 What's that way? 53:23.400 --> 53:27.400 Well, the way of Christianity, the way of serving God. 53:27.400 --> 53:31.400 And so the man of God is supposed to show people the way to serve God. 53:31.400 --> 53:33.400 And what's the Bible say? 53:33.400 --> 53:35.400 Turn not to the right hand nor to the left hand, 53:35.400 --> 53:38.400 to the left hand, or not, you know, don't turn aside. 53:38.400 --> 53:42.400 Just keep your eyes fixed on what you should be doing. 53:42.400 --> 53:45.400 Look at 1 Samuel chapter 9, 1 Samuel chapter 9. 53:45.400 --> 53:47.400 The man of God shows us the way. 53:47.400 --> 53:52.400 And you have this perfect example here of King Saul who is not the king yet. 53:52.400 --> 53:58.400 And he gets this idea because his father's asses have ran away. 53:58.400 --> 54:00.400 His donkeys or whatever. 54:00.400 --> 54:03.400 They've run away and he's going to look for them. 54:03.400 --> 54:05.400 And he can't find them anywhere. 54:05.400 --> 54:10.400 And verse 6 says, And he said unto him, Behold, now there is in this city a man of God, 54:10.400 --> 54:12.400 and he is an honorable man. 54:12.400 --> 54:16.400 All that he saith cometh surely to pass. 54:16.400 --> 54:22.400 Now let us go thither, paired venture, he can show us our way that we should go. 54:22.400 --> 54:23.400 Isn't that interesting? 54:23.400 --> 54:25.400 So who's the man of God that he's talking about here? 54:25.400 --> 54:26.400 It's Samuel. 54:26.400 --> 54:29.400 So he says, Hey, I know this guy. 54:29.400 --> 54:31.400 He's in this city right now. 54:31.400 --> 54:33.400 And he's an honorable man. 54:33.400 --> 54:36.400 And all that he saith surely cometh to pass. 54:36.400 --> 54:43.400 And we can apply this today that, hey, there's a man in your city that's leading people in the way they should go. 54:43.400 --> 54:45.400 Maybe you should go to that church. 54:45.400 --> 54:48.400 Maybe you should attend a church, some church. 54:48.400 --> 54:51.400 People always have excuses why they can't go to church. 54:51.400 --> 54:58.400 And look, I went to the old F.B. even though I wasn't necessarily believing the same things on certain things that they believe. 54:59.400 --> 55:01.400 But I wasn't there to start trouble. 55:01.400 --> 55:02.400 I was there to serve God. 55:02.400 --> 55:06.400 And obviously we can still serve God in a church that's not as great. 55:06.400 --> 55:08.400 I mean, look at the churches in Revelation. 55:08.400 --> 55:11.400 I mean, at least Jezebel isn't preaching in our church, right? 55:11.400 --> 55:14.400 I mean, there's a lot of things that we don't do that are on that list. 55:14.400 --> 55:17.400 But not all churches are the same. 55:17.400 --> 55:21.400 But obviously we don't want to go to a place that teaches false doctrine. 55:21.400 --> 55:23.400 But is that pastor showing you the way? 55:23.400 --> 55:25.400 Is he showing you how to live the Christian life? 55:25.400 --> 55:27.400 Is he showing you how to live the Christian life? 55:27.400 --> 55:30.400 But more importantly, is his salvation right? 55:30.400 --> 55:39.400 And so the man of God is someone that's going to lead you in the way that you should go and not have you turn from one side to the other. 55:39.400 --> 55:42.400 It says, but be not... 55:42.400 --> 55:44.400 Oh, wait. Sorry. 55:44.400 --> 55:45.400 I'm ahead of myself here. 55:45.400 --> 55:48.400 So anyway, it says in verse 7, 55:48.400 --> 55:55.400 Then said Saul to his servant, but behold, if we go, what shall we bring the man? 55:55.400 --> 56:01.400 For the bread is spent in our vessels, and there is not a present to bring to the man of God. 56:01.400 --> 56:03.400 What have we? 56:03.400 --> 56:07.400 So, but here Saul is like preaching something that's not really necessarily true. 56:07.400 --> 56:13.400 Just because you don't have a present to give to the man of God doesn't mean that he's not going to teach you the truth. 56:13.400 --> 56:17.400 You know, I mean, it's a weird thing that someone's... 56:17.400 --> 56:18.400 I don't know. 56:18.400 --> 56:20.400 But Saul has to get straightened out. 56:20.400 --> 56:25.400 You know, sometimes people go to the man of God and they're wrong about some of the things that they believe, but allow them to straighten you out. 56:25.400 --> 56:28.400 Because Samuel does straighten him out to a certain extent. 56:28.400 --> 56:30.400 Obviously, he kind of goes astray later on. 56:30.400 --> 56:33.400 But when Saul first started, he was a good man. 56:33.400 --> 56:35.400 And he was who God... 56:35.400 --> 56:37.400 God picked Saul. 56:37.400 --> 56:38.400 God picked him to be the king. 56:38.400 --> 56:42.400 So obviously, there were some great qualities about Saul before he fell off there. 56:42.400 --> 56:48.400 He says, And the servant answered Saul again and said, Behold, I have here at hand the fourth part of a shekel of silver. 56:48.400 --> 56:52.400 That will I give to the man of God to tell us our way. 56:52.400 --> 56:54.400 So again, what am I telling you? 56:54.400 --> 56:56.400 That the man of God is teaching you the way that you should go. 56:56.400 --> 56:57.400 And then here we have... 56:57.400 --> 56:58.400 Why do they go to Samuel? 56:58.400 --> 57:00.400 So they can show the way. 57:00.400 --> 57:01.400 So he can show the way. 57:01.400 --> 57:04.400 And so it's important that you go to church. 57:04.400 --> 57:08.400 Because God put pastors and evangelists and teachers above... 57:09.400 --> 57:13.400 Not above you, but in place for you so that you can be shown the way. 57:13.400 --> 57:17.400 Because look, if we go astray, we're like the sheep that go astray. 57:17.400 --> 57:19.400 We're just doing anything that we want. 57:19.400 --> 57:20.400 That's not what God wants. 57:20.400 --> 57:23.400 He wants us to be part of a flock. 57:23.400 --> 57:30.400 He wants us to be part of a church so that we can be energized and pointed in the direction that we should go. 57:31.400 --> 57:32.400 It says... 57:43.400 --> 57:47.400 So that's a key point to understand when it says seer. 57:47.400 --> 57:49.400 In the Bible it's talking about a prophet. 57:49.400 --> 57:52.400 And sometimes people are like, oh, I'm in a bad church. 57:52.400 --> 57:54.400 I'm in an area that there's no good church to go to. 57:54.400 --> 58:00.400 If you actually feel that way, you should move to a place where a man of God is that can show you. 58:00.400 --> 58:03.400 And obviously they didn't move here. 58:03.400 --> 58:05.400 But look at what it says. 58:05.400 --> 58:06.400 It says... 58:10.400 --> 58:12.400 It's important that you go to church. 58:12.400 --> 58:13.400 You go to church. 58:13.400 --> 58:14.400 You go to church. 58:14.400 --> 58:15.400 You go to church. 58:15.400 --> 58:16.400 You go to church. 58:16.400 --> 58:17.400 You go to church. 58:17.400 --> 58:18.400 You go to the city where the man of God was. 58:18.400 --> 58:21.400 It's important that you have a place that you go to church. 58:21.400 --> 58:26.400 And if you can't get behind the man of God that's in your town because they're not really your cup of tea or whatever, 58:26.400 --> 58:27.400 then go to a different town. 58:27.400 --> 58:29.400 Proverbs 14-12 says... 58:34.400 --> 58:40.400 If we follow our own way, if we follow the ways that seem just right to us, 58:40.400 --> 58:45.400 kind of like the book of Judges where every man did that which was right in his own eyes, 58:45.400 --> 58:47.400 that's not how we should be. 58:47.400 --> 58:50.400 We should be someone seeking to please the Lord. 58:50.400 --> 58:54.400 And hey, if you're not in a good church, move to a good one. 58:54.400 --> 58:57.400 And if you're not going to church, you should get into church. 58:57.400 --> 59:02.400 Because the way that you're going might seem right to you at the time, but what are the end? 59:02.400 --> 59:05.400 The end thereof are the ways of death. 59:05.400 --> 59:10.400 So look at Psalm 32 verse 8. 59:10.400 --> 59:13.400 You're right in the same neighborhood there. 59:13.400 --> 59:15.400 Let's turn to the left in your Bible. 59:15.400 --> 59:17.400 It's a Psalm chapter 32 verse 8. 59:17.400 --> 59:18.400 It says... 59:26.400 --> 59:29.400 So who's this Psalm from? It's from David. 59:29.400 --> 59:31.400 So who does he seek to be led from? 59:31.400 --> 59:35.400 He seeks to be led from the Lord in the way that he's supposed to go. 59:35.400 --> 59:38.400 I will teach thee in the way which thou shalt go. 59:38.400 --> 59:42.400 Be not as the horse or as the mule which have no understanding, 59:42.400 --> 59:49.400 whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee. 59:49.400 --> 59:50.400 And it says... 59:57.400 --> 01:00:01.400 So when we're following the right way, things are going to go well for us. 01:00:01.400 --> 01:00:05.400 But if we're not following in the right way, things are not going to go well for us. 01:00:05.400 --> 01:00:08.400 And so look, just another passage saying that. 01:00:08.400 --> 01:00:10.400 But he says, be not as the horse or as the mule. 01:00:10.400 --> 01:00:13.400 And have you ever heard the term as stubborn as a mule? 01:00:13.400 --> 01:00:17.400 We don't want to be stubborn and not have to be dragged everywhere we go. 01:00:17.400 --> 01:00:22.400 I mean, I can just remember, I don't even know what movie it was or whatever. 01:00:22.400 --> 01:00:26.400 I've seen where people just, they can't get their donkey to move anywhere, right? 01:00:26.400 --> 01:00:31.400 And Balaam was beating his because he... 01:00:31.400 --> 01:00:33.400 He was trying to, that donkey was trying to lead... 01:00:33.400 --> 01:00:36.400 It's funny that an animal has to lead this guy in the way he should go. 01:00:36.400 --> 01:00:41.400 But the animal is trying to lead him in the right direction, but he's resisting. 01:00:41.400 --> 01:00:45.400 Balaam is resisting because he's an idiot and he's a false prophet. 01:00:45.400 --> 01:00:52.400 But he beats his mule and then, or not his mule, but he beats his donkey, his ass. 01:00:52.400 --> 01:00:56.400 And then it actually speaks to him. 01:00:56.400 --> 01:01:00.400 God was going to kill him and so the ass was looking out for him. 01:01:00.400 --> 01:01:04.400 But look, many sorrows shall be to the wicked. 01:01:04.400 --> 01:01:10.400 Look, if we want to just drop out and live a wicked lifestyle, then it's not going to go well for you. 01:01:10.400 --> 01:01:13.400 Number five this morning, the man of God, and this is my final point. 01:01:13.400 --> 01:01:17.400 The man of God is peacemaker when they can be. 01:01:17.400 --> 01:01:22.400 The man of God is peacemaker, or a peacemaker, when they can be. 01:01:22.400 --> 01:01:25.400 Because it's not always possible to be at peace. 01:01:25.400 --> 01:01:35.400 In our modern society, people look at Joel Osteen and they look at someone like him that he's this great guy or whatever 01:01:35.400 --> 01:01:37.400 because he never offends anybody. 01:01:37.400 --> 01:01:39.400 He never says enough to offend people. 01:01:39.400 --> 01:01:45.400 And even when he's on Larry King Live, he doesn't want to answer the questions 01:01:45.400 --> 01:01:48.400 because he doesn't want people to think that he hates people or whatever. 01:01:48.400 --> 01:01:51.400 He's being negative in any way. 01:01:51.400 --> 01:01:53.400 His messages are always positive. 01:01:53.400 --> 01:01:55.400 Always. 01:01:55.400 --> 01:02:00.400 And I was driving by a church not too long ago and it was saying something along the lines as, 01:02:00.400 --> 01:02:02.400 oh man, what did it say? 01:02:02.400 --> 01:02:04.400 But it's something that we mock all the time. 01:02:04.400 --> 01:02:08.400 Anyway, I'll remember it later, of course, when the sermon's over. 01:02:08.400 --> 01:02:11.400 But look at 1 Kings chapter 12, verse 21. 01:02:11.400 --> 01:02:17.400 1 Kings chapter 12, verse 21. 01:02:17.400 --> 01:02:21.400 The man of God isn't just supposed to only fight and strive for... 01:02:21.400 --> 01:02:22.400 Obviously, we're supposed to fight. 01:02:22.400 --> 01:02:24.400 We're soldiers of Christ. 01:02:24.400 --> 01:02:27.400 God puts us in place to lead the battle. 01:02:27.400 --> 01:02:29.400 But our battle is not a physical battle. 01:02:29.400 --> 01:02:31.400 Our battle is a spiritual battle. 01:02:31.400 --> 01:02:34.400 And so that's got to be understood also. 01:02:34.400 --> 01:02:38.400 Look what happens in verse 21, 1 Kings chapter 12. 01:02:38.400 --> 01:02:45.400 It says, And when Reboam was come to Jerusalem, he assembled all the house of Judah with the tribe of Benjamin 01:02:45.400 --> 01:02:49.400 and hundred and four score thousand chosen men, which were warriors, 01:02:49.400 --> 01:02:56.400 to fight against the house of Israel, to bring the kingdom again to Reboam, the son of Solomon. 01:02:56.400 --> 01:03:01.400 Because of him making a stupid decision early in his kingship, 01:03:01.400 --> 01:03:06.400 listening to the young men instead of listening to the old paths, the old men, he chose the wrong way. 01:03:06.400 --> 01:03:11.400 And obviously, it was because of his dad Solomon that God divided the kingdom. 01:03:11.400 --> 01:03:15.400 But Reboam here is trying to bring them all back together again. 01:03:16.400 --> 01:03:23.400 It says, But the word of God came unto Shemaiah the man of God, saying, 01:03:23.400 --> 01:03:30.400 Speak unto Reboam the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and unto all the house of Judah and Benjamin, 01:03:30.400 --> 01:03:33.400 and unto the remnant of the people, saying, Thus saith the LORD, 01:03:33.400 --> 01:03:37.400 Ye shall not go up, nor fight against your brethren the children of Israel. 01:03:37.400 --> 01:03:42.400 Return every man to his house, for this thing is from me. 01:03:42.400 --> 01:03:49.400 They hearkened therefore to the word of the LORD, and returned to the part according to the word of the LORD. 01:03:49.400 --> 01:03:56.400 And so you see here that God sometimes will say, No, don't go fight these people. 01:03:56.400 --> 01:04:01.400 And why? Because they're the brethren. And this thing was of God. 01:04:01.400 --> 01:04:06.400 So if someone's of God, if someone is doing that which is right, 01:04:06.400 --> 01:04:09.400 we should be just going around chopping God's fruit trees down. 01:04:09.400 --> 01:04:12.400 You know, in the Old Testament, that principle applies. 01:04:12.400 --> 01:04:16.400 Why would you not want to chop down the fruit tree? Because then you won't have any fruit for the next season. 01:04:16.400 --> 01:04:21.400 So and I would liken that to someone that's winning souls, someone that's wise. 01:04:21.400 --> 01:04:25.400 So if someone's winning souls, if someone's leading people in the way they should go, 01:04:25.400 --> 01:04:28.400 we should not fight against that person. 01:04:28.400 --> 01:04:33.400 So we should not fight against them. And so because why? Because they're brethren. 01:04:33.400 --> 01:04:38.400 And maybe they're not our cup of tea. But you know what? We don't control what other people do. 01:04:38.400 --> 01:04:40.400 We don't really control what our church does. 01:04:40.400 --> 01:04:43.400 And so I think that there's a lesson to be learned here. 01:04:43.400 --> 01:04:48.400 But when they were hiding the sodomites and not letting the sodomites come out in Benjamin, 01:04:48.400 --> 01:04:52.400 what did God say? Go up. Probably surely deliver them into your hands. 01:04:52.400 --> 01:04:56.400 I mean, there's multiple times in the Bible when people say, Should I go? 01:04:56.400 --> 01:04:59.400 David would say that. David would pray before he did something. 01:04:59.400 --> 01:05:04.400 And he'd say, Shall I go up? Shall I go up against the Philistines? Go up. 01:05:04.400 --> 01:05:09.400 Sometimes, you know, God allows us to fight these battles, and sometimes He doesn't. 01:05:09.400 --> 01:05:14.400 And I'm just saying that the man of God comes here and brings peace because they're about to fight. 01:05:14.400 --> 01:05:18.400 They're about the war. And then He steps in as a peacemaker, doesn't He? 01:05:18.400 --> 01:05:23.400 And it says He's the man of God. Look at Psalm chapter 120, verse number 6. 01:05:23.400 --> 01:05:26.400 Psalm chapter 120, verse number 6. 01:05:28.400 --> 01:05:33.400 And David had these things like... David would... He got in a fight with the Syrians. 01:05:33.400 --> 01:05:38.400 Remember, they shaved the servants' beards and cut their clothes off of them 01:05:38.400 --> 01:05:44.400 and sent them back with their buttocks hanging out or whatever, their plumbers' crack showing or whatever. 01:05:47.400 --> 01:05:52.400 But what did David do? He went up and fought against them for what they were doing. 01:05:52.400 --> 01:05:57.400 And obviously, they're trying to provoke Israel to war. I mean, that's why they were doing it. 01:05:57.400 --> 01:06:01.400 But David, you know, he knew when it was time to fight and when it was time to be a man of peace. 01:06:01.400 --> 01:06:07.400 And so obviously, God wants us to be both. He doesn't want us always fighting, always warring, 01:06:07.400 --> 01:06:13.400 always in some kind of battle necessarily because, you know, sometimes it's time for peace. 01:06:13.400 --> 01:06:18.400 And so there's a time for peace and a time for war. Isn't that what the Bible says? 01:06:18.400 --> 01:06:20.400 So is that God's word? Yes, it is. 01:06:20.400 --> 01:06:25.400 So we don't always have to fight about every single thing that someone is different with us on. 01:06:25.400 --> 01:06:30.400 You know, if the main thing is the main thing, then I think that we should just let them alone 01:06:30.400 --> 01:06:35.400 and let God figure all this stuff out. You know, vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, right? 01:06:35.400 --> 01:06:38.400 Psalm 120 verse 6, again, this is David. 01:06:38.400 --> 01:06:42.400 My soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace. 01:06:42.400 --> 01:06:46.400 I mean, he literally had enemies surrounding him all the time. 01:06:46.400 --> 01:06:51.400 And it says, I am for peace, but when I speak, they're for war. 01:06:51.400 --> 01:06:56.400 And sometimes we want peace, but the things that we say, the things that we believe, 01:06:57.400 --> 01:07:02.400 the things that a man of God preaches, put them at odds with people. They get mad. 01:07:02.400 --> 01:07:06.400 I mean, I can't even count how many times someone's got up and walked out of one of my sermons 01:07:06.400 --> 01:07:09.400 because I made them mad. I offended them. 01:07:09.400 --> 01:07:11.400 And I've seen that happen to a lot of people. 01:07:11.400 --> 01:07:14.400 I mean, they'll just get up and walk out in the middle of service. 01:07:14.400 --> 01:07:18.400 And I've learned to not go, well, don't let the door hit you on the way out, buddy, or, you know, 01:07:18.400 --> 01:07:23.400 stuff like that because, you know, it kind of backfired on me one time. 01:07:23.400 --> 01:07:26.400 But, you know, we definitely want to have times of peace. 01:07:26.400 --> 01:07:33.400 Look at, well, the Bible says, oh, turn to Matthew 5. 01:07:33.400 --> 01:07:36.400 Matthew 5, this is the last place I'll have you turn, Matthew 5. 01:07:41.400 --> 01:07:47.400 It says, blessed, verse 7, blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. 01:07:47.400 --> 01:07:51.400 So should we be merciful to people when they need it? Yeah, absolutely. 01:07:51.400 --> 01:07:56.400 We can't always just be, you know, dealing out hate and discontent on people. 01:07:56.400 --> 01:07:58.400 Sometimes it's time to have mercy. 01:07:58.400 --> 01:08:00.400 Obviously, people should ask for that. 01:08:00.400 --> 01:08:04.400 You know, sometimes people want to fight and you can't really help it. 01:08:04.400 --> 01:08:08.400 And David said, well, I'm for peace, but when I speak there for war, 01:08:08.400 --> 01:08:10.400 sometimes you're going to go to war over it. 01:08:10.400 --> 01:08:14.400 And look, we've gone to war over just the Bible being preached. 01:08:14.400 --> 01:08:16.400 Hey, I'm willing to fight that battle any day of the week. 01:08:16.400 --> 01:08:19.400 I'm willing to fight for the Word of God any day of the week, 01:08:19.400 --> 01:08:22.400 any day that ends with a Y, I'm good to go. 01:08:22.400 --> 01:08:27.400 But when we have moments where we can have peace, we should have them. 01:08:27.400 --> 01:08:30.400 It says, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. 01:08:30.400 --> 01:08:34.400 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. 01:08:34.400 --> 01:08:39.400 So to say these things is not some kind of weak Christianity. 01:08:39.400 --> 01:08:41.400 This is what Christ taught. This is Jesus' teaching right here. 01:08:41.400 --> 01:08:46.400 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. 01:08:46.400 --> 01:08:49.400 And so if you're a child of God today, there should be some peace. 01:08:49.400 --> 01:08:52.400 There should be some time that you make peace. 01:08:52.400 --> 01:08:55.400 We shouldn't always just be on a hair trigger to start war with somebody. 01:08:55.400 --> 01:08:58.400 As a matter of fact, God's long-suffering to us. 01:08:58.400 --> 01:09:02.400 God is merciful and has plenty of kindness to go around. 01:09:02.400 --> 01:09:06.400 He doesn't just cloud up and rain and destroy us every time we do something wrong. 01:09:06.400 --> 01:09:07.400 I'm glad. 01:09:07.400 --> 01:09:10.400 But you see, we should be merciful to other people too, 01:09:10.400 --> 01:09:13.400 because however we deal with people, 01:09:13.400 --> 01:09:16.400 we're going to be dealt with when our time comes. 01:09:16.400 --> 01:09:18.400 And so if you're just constantly... 01:09:18.400 --> 01:09:20.400 You know, obviously there's times when you can't be merciful. 01:09:20.400 --> 01:09:23.400 Agag, he's standing before the Lord, 01:09:23.400 --> 01:09:27.400 and God told Saul to kill everything that breathes. 01:09:27.400 --> 01:09:31.400 Every man, woman, child, every animal that they have. 01:09:31.400 --> 01:09:33.400 He didn't say save some for the sacrifice. 01:09:33.400 --> 01:09:37.400 Save Agag, you know, their king, alive. 01:09:37.400 --> 01:09:41.400 He says, surely, you know, surely whatever is passing, 01:09:41.400 --> 01:09:46.400 he's like, you know, Samuel has to chop this dude up, 01:09:46.400 --> 01:09:49.400 you know, because Saul refused to do it. 01:09:49.400 --> 01:09:52.400 He takes out a sword and hews him into pieces, 01:09:52.400 --> 01:09:55.400 which that sounds gruesome. 01:09:55.400 --> 01:09:57.400 Hewing something into pieces, you know, 01:09:57.400 --> 01:10:00.400 he's said he hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord. 01:10:00.400 --> 01:10:03.400 I mean, at this time, Samuel's an old man, 01:10:03.400 --> 01:10:08.400 and it shouldn't have to be the old men stepping in for someone that's young 01:10:08.400 --> 01:10:13.400 and spry and saying, hey, you're wrong, but sometimes you have to. 01:10:13.400 --> 01:10:16.400 He says, hey, you didn't finish what you started, Saul, 01:10:16.400 --> 01:10:19.400 and the kingdom was rent from him because of those things. 01:10:19.400 --> 01:10:22.400 And so Samuel had to do the dirty work, you know, 01:10:22.400 --> 01:10:25.400 and sometimes the man of God has to do some dirty work, 01:10:25.400 --> 01:10:27.400 and people get upset about that. 01:10:27.400 --> 01:10:31.400 People got upset with Moses when hell opened up, 01:10:31.400 --> 01:10:33.400 you know, the earth opened up, 01:10:33.400 --> 01:10:36.400 and they all dropped screaming and kicking into hell. 01:10:36.400 --> 01:10:38.400 Snart, nose, and crying, whatever. 01:10:38.400 --> 01:10:40.400 Everybody went to hell instantly. 01:10:40.400 --> 01:10:42.400 And then what do the people say? 01:10:42.400 --> 01:10:45.400 The people are sad, they're crying, oh, those poor people. 01:10:45.400 --> 01:10:48.400 You've killed the people of the Lord. 01:10:48.400 --> 01:10:51.400 It's like, how are they the people of the Lord if they went to hell? 01:10:51.400 --> 01:10:53.400 How are they the people of the Lord if, like, 01:10:53.400 --> 01:10:58.400 he said, you know, if God hasn't chosen me, let a new thing happen, you know? 01:10:58.400 --> 01:10:59.400 And so what is that new thing? 01:10:59.400 --> 01:11:03.400 That's never happened before where God just opens up the earth 01:11:03.400 --> 01:11:06.400 and everybody drops straight into the pit of hell. 01:11:06.400 --> 01:11:07.400 I'm not saying he couldn't do it again. 01:11:07.400 --> 01:11:08.400 Of course he could. 01:11:08.400 --> 01:11:12.400 But, you know, this is the first time for everything. 01:11:12.400 --> 01:11:17.400 And so God, you know, he sometimes he has to step in for the man of God 01:11:17.400 --> 01:11:18.400 and take care of business. 01:11:18.400 --> 01:11:21.400 I did say that was the last place we're going to turn, 01:11:21.400 --> 01:11:23.400 but I am going to read Romans 12, 17. 01:11:23.400 --> 01:11:24.400 It says, 01:11:24.400 --> 01:11:26.400 Recompense no man evil for evil. 01:11:26.400 --> 01:11:29.400 Provide things honest in the sight of all men. 01:11:29.400 --> 01:11:34.400 So we're not supposed to deal out evil because someone's done evil to us. 01:11:34.400 --> 01:11:35.400 We're supposed to love our neighbor. 01:11:35.400 --> 01:11:41.400 And obviously, you know, if they're a reprobate, OK, just always remember this. 01:11:41.400 --> 01:11:46.400 If they're a reprobate, some of these things are off the table, right? 01:11:46.400 --> 01:11:49.400 But it says, provide things honest in the sight of men. 01:11:49.400 --> 01:11:54.400 If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. 01:11:54.400 --> 01:11:55.400 If it be possible. 01:11:55.400 --> 01:11:57.400 It's not always possible, though, is it? 01:11:57.400 --> 01:12:01.400 And, you know, when you're trying to proclaim the truth and stand up for the truth, 01:12:01.400 --> 01:12:05.400 then these things are, you know, are going to happen. 01:12:05.400 --> 01:12:06.400 You're going to have fights. 01:12:06.400 --> 01:12:07.400 You're going to have wars. 01:12:07.400 --> 01:12:11.400 It says, dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath, 01:12:11.400 --> 01:12:13.400 for it is written, vengeance is... 01:12:27.400 --> 01:12:29.400 you 01:12:57.400 --> 01:13:04.400 play out because there's people in our lives, whatever, you know, whatever, 01:13:04.400 --> 01:13:09.400 whatever degree of difficulty it may be, there's these people in our lives. 01:13:09.400 --> 01:13:13.400 And sometimes it's easy to want to take vengeance ourselves. 01:13:13.400 --> 01:13:17.400 We want to avenge the wrongs that were done to us. 01:13:17.400 --> 01:13:22.400 But I think that the times that I have not tried to do that or have not done that, 01:13:22.400 --> 01:13:26.400 you know, I always see God take out the vengeance anyway. 01:13:26.400 --> 01:13:30.400 I mean, God's the one... He says He will repay. 01:13:30.400 --> 01:13:36.400 He says, but rather give place unto wrath, for it is written, vengeance is mine. 01:13:36.400 --> 01:13:38.400 I will repay, saith the Lord. 01:13:38.400 --> 01:13:40.400 So is He saying for you to do it? 01:13:40.400 --> 01:13:42.400 No, He's saying, don't avenge yourself. 01:13:42.400 --> 01:13:45.400 Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves. 01:13:45.400 --> 01:13:47.400 I mean, it's pretty clear, right? 01:13:47.400 --> 01:13:50.400 So sometimes we've got to just let God do the speaking for us. 01:13:50.400 --> 01:13:53.400 You know, so there's a term in the Bible that says... 01:13:54.400 --> 01:13:56.400 I'm biding it out right now. 01:14:00.400 --> 01:14:03.400 Let God choose between me and thee. 01:14:03.400 --> 01:14:07.400 So sometimes we just have to let God do the deciding. 01:14:07.400 --> 01:14:10.400 You know, who's right in this situation? 01:14:10.400 --> 01:14:12.400 Well, God will decide. 01:14:12.400 --> 01:14:14.400 That's kind of what that term is talking about. 01:14:14.400 --> 01:14:18.400 So God will decide when it's time to take vengeance. 01:14:18.400 --> 01:14:20.400 And again, we don't... 01:14:20.400 --> 01:14:23.400 Like all these people that think that we're these bad people or whatever, 01:14:23.400 --> 01:14:28.400 and they're just constantly calling for us to quit or whatever, you know, 01:14:28.400 --> 01:14:31.400 those people... we'll find out who's right and wrong. 01:14:31.400 --> 01:14:36.400 I think that it's kind of shown through who's right and wrong multiple times. 01:14:36.400 --> 01:14:42.400 You know, it always seems to be like these enemies of ours fall in some crazy way 01:14:42.400 --> 01:14:46.400 and get destroyed and it's like, but that's not what that was. 01:14:46.400 --> 01:14:48.400 That's not what that was. That was something... 01:14:48.400 --> 01:14:51.400 That wasn't God's wrath. That wasn't God choosing. 01:14:51.400 --> 01:14:53.400 That was just an accident or whatever. 01:14:53.400 --> 01:14:57.400 It's like, no, you know, God's not going to just appear in the sky 01:14:57.400 --> 01:14:59.400 and destroy our enemies before us. 01:14:59.400 --> 01:15:01.400 He'll destroy them in ways that He wants to. 01:15:01.400 --> 01:15:05.400 So how do we apply all this stuff? 01:15:05.400 --> 01:15:08.400 Well, the first point was to... 01:15:09.400 --> 01:15:13.400 The first point was to... 01:15:13.400 --> 01:15:16.400 that the man of God blesses people. 01:15:16.400 --> 01:15:20.400 But are you being a blessing to people? 01:15:21.400 --> 01:15:23.400 So it's not just for someone to always bless you. 01:15:23.400 --> 01:15:26.400 Sometimes we have to bless other people in our lives too. 01:15:26.400 --> 01:15:30.400 And so it shouldn't just be, you know, everybody blesses us, 01:15:30.400 --> 01:15:32.400 but you never bless anybody back. 01:15:32.400 --> 01:15:34.400 That's not really how friendships work. 01:15:34.400 --> 01:15:36.400 That's not really how Christianity works, 01:15:36.400 --> 01:15:39.400 that someone's just a perpetual mooch in that way. 01:15:39.400 --> 01:15:41.400 But you should be blessing other people. 01:15:41.400 --> 01:15:43.400 You're like, well, I don't have any money to bless people. 01:15:43.400 --> 01:15:45.400 Well, it doesn't always take money. 01:15:45.400 --> 01:15:47.400 Sometimes it can just be kind words. 01:15:47.400 --> 01:15:50.400 Sometimes it can just be acts of labor or acts of service. 01:15:50.400 --> 01:15:52.400 So are you blessing people? 01:15:52.400 --> 01:15:55.400 The Bible says to bless and curse not. 01:15:55.400 --> 01:15:59.400 The man of God, number two, encourages others to follow the Lord. 01:15:59.400 --> 01:16:01.400 And in reality, that's all of our job. 01:16:01.400 --> 01:16:06.400 Shouldn't we be out encouraging other people to follow the Lord? 01:16:06.400 --> 01:16:08.400 Of course we should. 01:16:08.400 --> 01:16:10.400 It's a message to all of us. 01:16:10.400 --> 01:16:12.400 Obviously the man of God is the one that spearheads all this stuff. 01:16:12.400 --> 01:16:15.400 But look, there's people in our lives that we can be examples to 01:16:15.400 --> 01:16:17.400 and we can help them follow the Lord. 01:16:17.400 --> 01:16:20.400 Everybody has their own sphere of influence in this room 01:16:20.400 --> 01:16:23.400 and people that you talk to outside of church and things like that. 01:16:23.400 --> 01:16:27.400 It could just be a person that cuts your hair once a month or whatever. 01:16:27.400 --> 01:16:31.400 But we can in some way lead someone to follow the Lord. 01:16:31.400 --> 01:16:34.400 And the best way to do that is to get them saved first, right? 01:16:34.400 --> 01:16:41.400 And then encouraging people by showing our example in front of them. 01:16:41.400 --> 01:16:44.400 If you're the worst example at work, you're the one telling all the dirty jokes. 01:16:44.400 --> 01:16:46.400 You're the one that's the raunchiest or whatever. 01:16:46.400 --> 01:16:48.400 That's not good. 01:16:48.400 --> 01:16:51.400 You're not going to turn anybody to the Lord in that way. 01:16:51.400 --> 01:16:54.400 So our example should rub off on others. 01:16:54.400 --> 01:16:56.400 Number three, the man of God teaches. 01:16:56.400 --> 01:17:00.400 We all have teaching roles in our lives to a certain extent. 01:17:00.400 --> 01:17:02.400 We can teach our children. 01:17:02.400 --> 01:17:08.400 We can teach our coworkers and the people that we influence, our children, our wives. 01:17:08.400 --> 01:17:12.400 And that should be, you know, the wives teach their children, teach their friends. 01:17:12.400 --> 01:17:16.400 Look, there's somebody out there that you can teach the Word of God to. 01:17:16.400 --> 01:17:21.400 You don't have to be a pastor or a man of God to do that as far as that term, man of God. 01:17:21.400 --> 01:17:23.400 Number four, the man of God shows us the way to go. 01:17:23.400 --> 01:17:26.400 We are the sheep of his pasture. 01:17:26.400 --> 01:17:27.400 He is the good shepherd. 01:17:27.400 --> 01:17:28.400 We are the sheep. 01:17:28.400 --> 01:17:29.400 I'm an under shepherd. 01:17:29.400 --> 01:17:31.400 I'm not the shepherd. 01:17:31.400 --> 01:17:34.400 The pastor's job is to lead others in this way. 01:17:34.400 --> 01:17:39.400 But again, we all have some kind of someone we can lead in the right direction. 01:17:39.400 --> 01:17:41.400 And ultimately, again, that's salvation. 01:17:41.400 --> 01:17:44.400 So number five, the man of God is a peacemaker. 01:17:44.400 --> 01:17:46.400 When he can be. 01:17:46.400 --> 01:17:48.400 It's not always possible. 01:17:48.400 --> 01:17:50.400 Paul said to war a good warfare. 01:17:50.400 --> 01:17:53.400 I mean, that sounds like sometimes we go to war, doesn't it? 01:17:53.400 --> 01:18:00.400 So we can also personally as Christians, we can strive for peace in our lives too. 01:18:00.400 --> 01:18:06.400 A lot of times when we're new Christians, we start just chopping up with a sword and hacking the bushes away. 01:18:06.400 --> 01:18:11.400 But that can permanently damage your relationship with people where they never want to listen to you again. 01:18:11.400 --> 01:18:17.400 So if you expect other people to follow the Word of God and they're not saved, you're expecting something that's not going to happen. 01:18:17.400 --> 01:18:19.400 They don't look at adultery the same way you do. 01:18:19.400 --> 01:18:21.400 They don't look at fornication the same way you do. 01:18:21.400 --> 01:18:24.400 They don't look at things the same way we do because we have the Spirit of God. 01:18:24.400 --> 01:18:25.400 We know what's right and wrong. 01:18:25.400 --> 01:18:26.400 We know what we're supposed to do. 01:18:26.400 --> 01:18:28.400 So that's what we should be doing. 01:18:28.400 --> 01:18:32.400 And we should be peacemaking when we have the opportunities to do so. 01:18:32.400 --> 01:18:36.400 But when it's time for war, then the man of God, what leads the charge? 01:18:36.400 --> 01:18:39.400 You know, Joshua went out first and came in. 01:18:39.400 --> 01:18:41.400 And people followed him. 01:18:41.400 --> 01:18:42.400 And the same thing with Moses. 01:18:42.400 --> 01:18:43.400 Same thing with the kings. 01:18:43.400 --> 01:18:50.400 Look, there was always a man of God in the Old Testament that was called the man of God, whether he was a prophet, a king, or whatever he was. 01:18:50.400 --> 01:18:54.400 And look, we've got to follow a man of God in our lives. 01:18:54.400 --> 01:18:57.400 And there's nothing wrong with the term man of God. 01:18:57.400 --> 01:19:01.400 It shouldn't be like, man of God, they think they're a man of God. 01:19:01.400 --> 01:19:03.400 Well, what did Paul call Timothy? 01:19:03.400 --> 01:19:05.400 What was Paul saying in that passage? 01:19:05.400 --> 01:19:07.400 That the man of God. 01:19:07.400 --> 01:19:10.400 And look, Paul was really knowledgeable in the Bible. 01:19:10.400 --> 01:19:13.400 And I'm pretty sure he understood what he was saying right there. 01:19:13.400 --> 01:19:16.400 That wasn't just a slip of the pen. 01:19:16.400 --> 01:19:19.400 But men of God aren't really men of God in the New Testament. 01:19:19.400 --> 01:19:21.400 Yes, they are. 01:19:21.400 --> 01:19:21.400 01:19:21.400 --> 01:19:25.400 Lord, we thank you so much for the men of God that have helped us in our lives. 01:19:25.400 --> 01:19:30.400 And Lord, I just pray that Lord, we would see things for how they are. 01:19:30.400 --> 01:19:32.400 And Lord, we'd be discerning as Christians. 01:19:32.400 --> 01:19:34.400 That we'd be vigilant, sober. 01:19:34.400 --> 01:19:39.400 And Lord, we know that the devil goes around like a roaring lion seeking who he may devour. 01:19:39.400 --> 01:19:43.400 But I pray, Lord, that we'd be ready for and watching. 01:19:43.400 --> 01:19:50.400 And Lord, that we would be people that follow the man of God no matter who that person is, as long as they're following you. 01:19:50.400 --> 01:19:53.400 And I pray that you would bless us as the rest of our day goes on. 01:19:53.400 --> 01:19:59.400 And that you'd help those that are sick in our church to get healthy as quickly as possible and come back. 01:19:59.400 --> 01:20:02.400 And we thank you, Lord, in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.