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All right, amen. Second Samuel, chapter number 10. If you're paying attention, I know everybody was, there's kind of a funny story here, but we're gonna go through this this evening here, and the title of my sermon is The Animosity of the Ammonites. The Animosity of the Ammonites. Basically, animosity is just another word for hate. If you look up the noun version between the word hate and animosity, there's a slight difference there, according to the dictionary. I'm just gonna read those for you. So just listen to this. It says this, hatred is strong aversion, intense dislike, hateful regard, an affection of the mind awakened by something regarded as unpleasant, harmful, or evil. Now it says animosity is violent hatred leading to active opposition, active enmity, energetic dislike. Basically, just to sum it up, it's all hate, right? But if you study out different definitions of the word animosity, one thing that keeps coming up over and over and over and over and over again is that it's actually applying your hatred. So something upsets you, it turns into hate, it boils to animosity, and then you take action, or you react to something. And that's really what you see here in this chapter with the children of Ammon. And a lot to be learned from this chapter here, kind of a funny statement there, and you know, with what the Ammonites do. To David's servants, we're gonna talk about that. I've got five statements. But basically, this is just a study on hate. That's really what this boils down to. This is a Bible study on the subject of hate. You know, if you were to listen to most preachers, or what the world tells you, or the media, we're not supposed to hate anyone for anything. In fact, they would have you to believe that the Bible just speaks so much against hate in general, that you just, I mean, if you listen to them, you just never hate anything. But I'll tell you, that's not what the Bible teaches at all. And if you don't have hate for anything, then you don't have love for anything. And so that's one of the things that we will prove this evening. Now, the first statement that I've got for you this evening is this. Animosity can come from receiving false information. Animosity can come from receiving false information. And in a time like this, we are surrounded by a lot of false information, largely due to the fact that there's so much media out there, right? And what do they do? They mix lies with the truth, and it changes constantly. And so it's hard to know what to believe. And so people struggle with this because they subject themselves to it, and then they have all these gaps in their minds. And so a lot of times what they'll do is they'll seek information, or they'll draw up information that fills in those gaps, and it becomes just more false information. And then they go and preach that like it's the truth. People get upset, and they don't ever fact check anything. They don't ever double check anything. They just react. You know, and we're all guilty of that. Right here, man, look, a lot of times I'll react instead of act, and it's the wrong thing to do, and it's why I'm preaching to the server, right? I know, because Jessica's gonna be like, I know, you just reacted the other day. You know, and it's true, we all do it, right? But the idea here, the goal is to minimize how much we just react to stuff when it happens to us, right? And we need to be a people that are more based off of action, because you're gonna see that. That's what David did here. He didn't just react, he acted, okay? So point number one is animosity can come from receiving false information. Look down to verse number three. It says, and the princes of the children of Ammon said unto Hanan their lord, thinkest thou that David doth honor thy father, that he hath sent comforters unto thee? Right, so David here, trying to do a good thing. The Bible doesn't tell us a lot about what Hanan's father did for David, but obviously there was some good friendship there, you know, they helped each other out. And David's like, hey, I wanna comfort his son. So I'm gonna send my servants over there with, you know, victuals and, you know, blessings. And, you know, he does that. He sends these guys over there, what happens? Children of Ammon see them and they're like, oh, okay, they're coming here to play games. You know, the king's dead. And what do they do? They tell Hanan false information. They do it in the form of a question. And who else did that in Genesis? It was the devil, right? Isn't that what he does? Yea hath God said. Isn't that often when we, you know, read in the Bible? But there's no difference here. Thinkest thou that David doth honor thy father, that he hath sent comforters unto thee? Hath not David rather sent his servants unto thee to search the city and to spy it out and to overthrow it? So what is he doing here? He's fear mongering, right? And what ultimately happens? What is the result of this false information? It's animosity and you know that based off of what Hanan does here in a couple more verses. And you know what, what's the lesson for us? We need to be careful about allowing false information into our lives because the result is going to be animosity and animosity will hinder you from doing your mission. Every single time. Look, in the workplace, you know this is true, right? Aren't there always people from time to time that'll come up, you know, they're bitter about the boss, they're bitter about policy, they're bitter about something and so they just start making up false information. Oh, you know why they're gonna do this new thing? Because of X, Y, and Z, you know? And people are already upset, you know? And they're, oh, yeah, yeah, you must be right. Yeah, you must be right. I bet that's why they are making a stay till four o'clock, because they're trying to control our families and they're trying to take food off our plates, they're trying to do all these horrible things. And it's like, no, they're just, you're paid till four o'clock to just stay till four o'clock, right? But what the bitter people often do, like these people, is they conjure up false information and they project it. And when we fall for it, you know, all it does is breed shame. It hinders productivity and it just makes your life miserable. You know, people just subject themselves to the news. I talked about this last week. Guess what, animosity. As time goes on, as we head closer and closer to the final days, I mean the final, final days, you know what the media is gonna do? Provide false information about us. They're already calling us haters, right? Oh, it's the fundamentalists, it's their fault. Everything's their fault. We'd have peace, love, and harmony if it wasn't for them. If it wasn't for their bigoted, Jesus is the only way, statements, and they're, oh, you know, they live by the Bible and, you know, do what's right attitude if it wasn't for them, the world would be a much better place, right? Is that true? No, it's false information is what they'll do. But obviously they're gonna mix in a little bit of truth with some lies because that's what the people believe. Oh, they're trying to stop world peace. There's some truth to that because you can't have world peace in worshiping multiple gods and, you know, allowing all this wickedness to go on. So yeah, we're gonna keep preaching against those things. That's biblical and that's righteous, that's okay. And if that produces animosity in somebody to where they get up and leave them, so be it, that's okay. We don't need those types of people in here anyways. And I'm not saying that animosity is bad across the board. Obviously we need to have animosity about certain things in our life. Like how about false information? How about misunderstandings? How about the old man, right? How about stuff like that? You know, why can't we have a hatred towards those things and take action against that and get things right? So I said, point number one is animosity can come from receiving false information. And that's the first thing that you find here. Extremely prevalent in the workplace, extremely prevalent in schools, even in families. You have got to protect yourself from false information because if you don't, the enemy will win every single time. It is designed to control you. And look, these people here, these princes, they controlled Hanen. He's a new king. They realized that and they say, you know what? He's gonna fall for this. And it worked. It worked like a charm. Now, number two is this. See, number two is this. Animosity can come from misunderstandings. Animosity can come from misunderstandings. Look at the last part of verse three there. Hath not David rather sent his servants unto thee to search the city and spied out and to overthrow it? Now, the question is, did they really believe that or were they trying to subvert Hanen? It doesn't really say, but either way you look at it, you know, it is somewhat of a misunderstanding and it's true that misunderstandings often result in animosity. Husbands and wives often, you know, speak a little bit of a different language and there's misunderstandings and what's the result? Fights and things of that nature. You guys are married, you know it's true. A lot of fights result because of misunderstandings, right? This is another reason why I always say, ask questions for clarification. You know, when somebody challenges you on your beliefs, you know, the way you're gonna protect yourself from getting mad and saying things that aren't true or just flipping out is by gaining understanding. Because it's the misunderstanding that will cause you to fall. It's the misunderstanding that will cause the animosity to grow in your heart. And that's exactly what's going on here in this chapter. This whole thing could have been avoided if these servants would have just said, gee, these guys are here with blessings. I mean, they had to have known there was a good relationship between David and Hanan's father. They would have just maybe gained clarification instead of just making an assumption. And what happens when we make assumptions? Right? I'm not gonna say it, but I'm sure you've heard the, you know, the old saying there. And oftentimes that's true, right? You all know it's true. Now look at verse four, it says, wherefore Hanan took David's servants. So what do we see here right off the bat? Wherefore Hanan took David's servants? He reacts. That's what he does, he reacts. He hears information and says, oh yeah, you're right. You're right, guys. They're trying to step up on me. They're trying to mess with me and I'm not gonna let that happen. Right? Doesn't fact check anything. He doesn't even know, I guess, if he could even trust you. I guess he, obviously you trust him, but don't you think it would have been a wise move for him to say, you know what? I haven't worked with these guys like my father has. Maybe I should kinda learn who I can trust and who I can. So you oughta be careful about just trusting people just because they come into church, for example, and start saying things. They speak the right language, brother, sister, Bible, Solon, King James. I'm not saying we don't have anybody here like this right now but you know these types of people. They've been here before. They will come back. You know they'll come back. And so you oughta be careful about just trusting those people just right out of the gate because they haven't been vetted yet. They haven't been proved. You say, oh, you know, what are you trying to start a cult? No. But I do believe to a certain extent you should get to know people before you just believe everything they're saying. You know, because there's a lot of smooth talkers out there. There's a lot of people that have ill will. They have animosity and wanna come into churches like this and cause trouble. And we have to be vigilant. You don't wanna have Hainan Syndrome and just react to something and overstep boundaries. And then why? Or what's gonna happen? Shame. That's what's gonna happen, shame. You're gonna get shamed. To eat crow, so to speak, right? And so, look at verse four. Wherefore Hainan took David's servants and shaved off the one half of their beards and cut off their garments in the middle, even to their buttocks and sent them away. Now, that leads me in to point number three. I've already been saying it, is this, animosity can create shame. Maybe not for you in the moment like here. Like in this moment while Hainan's doing this, he's not the one being shamed. It's people trying to do the right thing. It's people that are doing what their king told them. Hey, we're gonna go bless these guys because David told us. And what happens? Misunderstanding false information, they get shamed. What's the lesson for us? You know, sometimes going out soul hunting, sometimes telling somebody the truth, you're gonna get shamed. You know what? But we don't have to let that shame us. See, we have to be stronger than that. We have to be willing, we have to be ready, we have to be able to cope with the fact that you know what? Sometimes people are just gonna say witty things against us. Sometimes people are gonna, you're gonna get in a situation where you knock on a door and you're preaching the gospel to two people and then five of them come up and make you look, maybe they'll make you look dumb. Maybe it's nothing you said, maybe it's nothing you did, you're doing all the right things, you have all the right answers, but they just overwhelm you because they have a false idea about what you're saying to begin with. Oh, Bible, you must be a Jehovah with us. Oh, you must be just like the Mormons. Oh, you must just be like these people. They haven't even listened to you yet, but they're trying to stop you from doing your mission and that's exactly what we have going on here. And what do they do? They shame us in that time. You know, but the idea is, are you gonna quit? You're gonna backslide? You're gonna let this get to you? Or are you gonna keep marching on? Are you gonna go tarry until your beard grows back? Now let's talk about this verse here because I can't help read this and not laugh. It is kind of funny, right? It's, you know, I mean, imagine these guys coming back to David with half their beards cut off, you know? Now here's what's really sad about this verse. There are people that do this to themselves today and it's considered okay. It's considered trendy. They'll cut off part of their beard. They have no problem exposing their nakedness. It's disgusting and they don't feel shame. They think it's okay. They think it's a great thing. Think, man, I learned that from Hanan. That worked out good for those guys. You know, what are they ashamed about? They still have some dignity to laugh because they're not replicates, right? Like a lot of these people. But there's another thing here. If you look at the verse again, it says, and shaved off one half their beards and cut off their garments in the middle, even to the buttocks, and sent them away. Now this is not trying to get too graphic here, but it's in the Bible, so we're gonna talk about this real quick. The world says, well, people back then, they all wore like these robe or dress type things, right? Well, here's the thing. If you were to cut it off, let's say they're wearing a dress type garment. If you were to cut it off above the waist, this wouldn't read that way because it would say they cut off the garment at the bottom and exposed their buttocks and so forth. But if you notice what the language says, it says and cut off their garments in the middle. That means there was clothing from the ankles all the way up. That means that men wore a pant-like material then. They're not skirts. Now, were they wearing Lucky Brand jeans? Were they wearing Carhartts and Dickies? No, okay. But these are people that were active, running around, riding, they would ride horses and go to battle. It's kind of hard to battle in those types of garments. It's kind of hard to cut off a garment like that in the middle and make it fit like this verse if it was a dress. Just something I noticed from reading it. It's just not to get too graphic, but it's in the Bible and I think it's there for a reason. These things are written for admonition. Now, leave your place there and turn to Psalm chapter 25. And keep your place when you get there because we're going to go back and forth a couple times. Psalm chapter number 25. So point number one is this, animosity can come from receiving false information. We have got to be smarter than that. We need to be careful with the information that we receive, especially in today's coronavirus situation, right? I know sick and tired of hearing about it, but it's true. It's something that we're living, it's something that we're going through. You know, there's going to be a lot of false information out there. And if you're not careful, that information can cause you to build up a lot of animosity against things you really can't do anything about, right? I mean, we can't change Fox News or CNN. We can't change what the governor's going to do. So there's no use in allowing that to just fester and be like, man, I'm going to do something about this. Get that fired up about the things of God. Now we're going to comply with their little 21 day thing. Okay? If it turns out, you know what, they're just doing this to go against churches. If that's what finally plays out, then we're not going to obey that, right? We're going to come back and we're going to meet, we'll figure out what to do, right? But in the meantime, we'll play the game, like I said last week, because we don't know, and you're better safe than sorry, right? You're better safe than sorry. I'll tell you that right now, every single time. Well, point number two is animosity can come from misunderstandings. And this is why I think it's very important in the workplace, in church, in every facet of life that you find yourself, it is just paramount for you to always have a great understanding. If you're not clear on something, you've got to ask the questions. If you're not sure what somebody believes, if it sounds kind of fishy, ask the questions, because it just leads to animosity. It can lead to hatred. It can lead to wrong emotions. And people that have this strong animosity towards everything, they're unhealthy people. It's not good for your body. You say, well, that just affects the spirituals. I know it can affect you physically, right? And that could be something that they're hoping happens as well. And we don't want to let that happen. We don't want to give the world any more ammunition to come against us than they already think they have, right? And number three, we're still on point number three, which is animosity can result in shame. And since we're talking about shame, I just want to show you some verses in the Bible to protect you, to protect us from suffering shame as believers, okay? Psalm 25, look at verse three. It says, yay, let none that wait on thee be ashamed. Let them be ashamed which transgress without cause. And you know, it says, let them that wait on thee. So what should be your focus as a Bible-believing Christian every day? God's word, prayer, all of these things. When you wait on the Lord, when you trust on the Lord, especially in times like this, you're not going to be the one that's ashamed. But when you let the false information and the misunderstandings and all that garbage just build up and fester into your mind, you're going to make wrong choices. You're going to make wrong decisions. You're going to get better. And then you're going to wind up backsliding out of here. And that's what you don't want. Look, what is the Psalmist saying here? Hey, let the world suffer shame. Let the proud suffer shame because that's what they deserve. And you know what? In the end, in this chapter, or in 2 Samuel 10, who really suffers the most shame? It's the Ammonites, it's the Syrians. It's the people that stepped up against David and his kingdom, right? In the end, it was the world that suffered shame, but only because of the way David acted, all right? Turn to Proverbs chapter 25, Proverbs chapter number 25. I'm just going to read for you a couple of the verses here. Psalm 119, six says, then shall I not be ashamed when I have respect unto all thy commandments. You want to know why you're so easily able to shame the new evangelical? Because he doesn't have respect unto all of God's commandments. Think about that. He believes they're buried in the ground. He's trusting in the scholar, right? Or he's trusting in some man's interpretation, doesn't believe that he can really interpret the scriptures for himself, because he doesn't believe that what he have is inspired. God breathed. Psalm 119, 46 says, I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings and will not be ashamed. So when you find yourself overwhelmed by five people, when you're trying to give the gospel to somebody, don't let that shame you. Don't let that emotion take control of what you're doing. If you have to walk away, if you lose the conversation, you know what? I'd be more concerned about those five people that just stop somebody from getting saved, because they're going to get it. You don't think God cares about stuff like that? It reminds me of that bozo that stopped me from praying with that girl at the Northwest Nazarene University last year. I mean, it was this close, this close. You can't be here. And it turns out he's right, because it's a private college and there's whatever. But woe unto that guy. Woe unto him and his family. He thinks he's this great Christian guy too, because then we try to say something to him, I'm already, I already go to church. He probably goes to church right there. He's doing good, he's working his way to heaven. But you know what? I believe that girl will get another chance. Who knows what happened after we left there? There's no telling. One day in heaven, Psalm 1, 1978 says, let the proud be ashamed for they dealt perversely with me without a cause, but I will meditate in thy precepts. Look, here's what it boils down to. When you immerse yourself into God's word, you won't be ashamed. It's that simple. You will not be ashamed. Now the world, something may happen to you where the world looks at you and says, man, you should be feeling ashamed right now, right? You should be ashamed of yourself. There's 500 people protesting your church. Don't you feel ashamed? Aren't you embarrassed? No, I don't care because my trust is in God's word, his precepts, his commandments. And I'm not gonna live my life on the false information and misunderstandings that are set forth by the media, by the devil and by his minions. Proverbs chapter 25, look at verse number eight, and you'll see Hanan's mistake. Go not forth hastily to strive, lest thou know not what to do in the end thereof when thy neighbor hath put thee to shame. And this is why we say, don't react, but act. We're not saying don't take action. We're not saying you can't do anything. That you just be a doormat, right? But the job of the Bible-believing Christian is to gather intelligence, gather the information, gather the facts, and then take your action. Hanan didn't do that. He just said, oh, you're right, guys. I'm in charge on the king. These guys try to flex on me. Guess what, man, it's on. I'll teach these guys a lesson. I'm gonna shave off half their beards and put them to shame. And what was the end? He wasn't able to contend, right? He winds up being the one that eats crow. He winds up the one that suffers the most shame. And you know what? That's gonna be the end of the world. That's gonna, you know, all these rich people, you know, that are out there and you know they're behind the hype and the media and they want this. We know about the Georgia Guidestones. We know they have an agenda to cull the population. We know about the conference. We know about all that stuff. But ultimately it boils down to, you know, that's the devil's agenda as well. And that's who they serve. We know that. But don't let that bother you to the point to where you just shut down and you're no longer able to function in society. You know, last week it was the liberals at work that were all, you know, just really upset and I can't believe there's still people out. And I'm like, you called me to your house, man. You realize how you called me to your house and you're just talking trash about everybody who's outside. You let me come into your house and I've already been to five other houses. You know what I mean? But I'm not gonna say that, okay? This week, and this is just my experience. It may be different for you. I don't know. It seems like everybody's, now everybody's freaked out. Everybody. And where does that come from? Comes from the F-O-X. Because that seems to be the news channel of choice for the people that I see every day. It's pretty rare when I see Rachel Maddog on TV. It's the Fox people, you know? And you think that's better than CNN? I don't know. I don't watch either one of them. I just hear about it. But either way, all that does is create animosity. It creates these people taking action with their mouths, saying things they're just gonna regret later on. All right, we gotta move on here. Number four, go back to 2 Samuel chapter 10. Number four, animosity can be stopped by acting versus reacting. You need to understand this. You're the kind of person that gets upset as easily. You get worked up real good. Kinda like me, right? We got a lot in common. But I'll tell you, in this chapter, it will teach you that animosity can be stopped by acting instead of reacting. Look at verse five. When they told it to David, so what's happened? The shameful act has already been done. They're sent back to David. They come back to him, and it says, when they told it to David, he is sent to meet them because the men were greatly ashamed. And the king said, tarry at Jericho until your beards be grown, and then return. And that's it. Now, at this time, is David like, well, off with their heads? And sometimes David was like that. But in this situation, he felt like, okay, let's just wait for a minute. All they did was pull a prank. It's a pretty nasty prank that they did. They just did a prank, so he said, hey, just tarry here until your beards grow, and then come back. Verse six, and when the children of Ammon saw that they stank before David. So now there's a little bit of a process of time that's gone on. You see that? David wasn't just hasty to react. Notice that. He doesn't just say right away, like, off with their heads, like the sons of Terahiah, right? He's not quite doing that yet here. It says, and when the children of Ammon saw that they stank before David, but obviously the kingdom's upset, and rightfully so. They're upset, and the Ammonites can see, okay, these guys didn't really like that. You know what? We'll just, again, we're just gonna believe that hype. We're just gonna believe the false information, the misunderstandings. You know, they're getting themselves worked up. They're like, I mean, and of course, look, obviously the Israelites were probably upset. There were things being said. Who knows how this really played out, but the word got back to the Ammonites that they stank before David. You know, David's displeased. He tried to send them a blessing and they rejected it. They basically threw it back in his face. But notice once again what the Ammonites do here. They don't act, they react. And when the children of Ammon saw that they stank before David, look what they do. Do they go and talk to him? Do they try to sort this out? Do they try to get righteous information and clear misunderstandings? No. The children of Ammon sent and hired the Syrians of Beth Rehob and the Syrians of Zobah, 20,000 footmen, and of King Machah, 1,000 men, and of Ishtab, 12,000 men. So they were like, we're just gonna have to fight them now. They're, we stink before them. They're upset about what we did to their servants to try to bless us. And so guess what? I'm gonna go hire me all these mercenaries and we'll see who's tough now. Look at verse seven. And when David heard of it, he sent Joab and all the host of the mighty men. Now that's not a reaction. The shameful act had already been done. He said, tarry here at Jericho till your beards be grown and left it at that. Now obviously, they weren't happy about it. The Ammonites heard about that. They jumped the gun. They say, we're gonna go and act. We're gonna hire all these people and gear up for war. And what king wouldn't take action at that time? Right? So David's like, okay, apparently this is gonna go down. And so he has to react now. And what he does is he sends Joab and all the host of the mighty men. Now, if you're familiar with 2 Samuel 11, it's where David's walking around on the roof at midnight, looking at Bathsheba when he should have been out to war. So you can already see that mentality with him here in this verse. It's almost, this chapter is almost like a shot across the bow from God to David. Like, hey, wake up, wake up. You're about to go down the wrong road here. And so it says in verse seven one more time, and then when David heard it or heard of it, he sent Joab and all the host of the mighty men. And so what we're gonna do now is we're gonna kinda just talk about hatred, what the Bible teaches about hatred. And again, I said that the definition in the dictionary is a strong aversion, intense dislike, hateful regard, an affection of the mind, awakened by something regarded as unpleasant, harmful, or evil. Like, I've always said this before, I hate mayonnaise, but you don't see me blowing up mayonnaise factories. I don't argue with you people that like mayonnaise. I don't look down on you, I don't care. It doesn't bother me, right? I hate bags. And as far, I've hated them since I was a little child. Since I was, the second time I was in second grade, that's when I can remember hating them. I didn't even really fully understand it. It was, there was something on TV, it was a reference to it. I asked what it was to my parents. They told me and I just hated it. Later on down the road, I met a kid named Jamal. He acted really funny. Asked my mom why he acts like that. She says he's a little girl trapped in a boy's body. I said, I hate that guy. I don't wanna talk to him anymore then. That's weird. That's stupid. You know, that was my attitude back then. But to my knowledge, I've never met a queer or heard of a queer that's died because I've hated him. Yeah. Right? But apparently, the world, including most churches, will say, if you hate a queer, well, you should be banned from society. You're causing more harm than good. We should dream up laws against people like you. Why? What's wrong with hating somebody? I'm not taking animosity or taking action and going out there and doing stuff to harm them myself because that's illegal. Now if somebody takes a swing, that's a different story. You know, I got a right to protect myself. And I'm trying to be a brawler, but you know, I got a right to protect myself. So do you. So what's wrong with hatred? And like I said at the beginning of the sermon, you know, people would have you to believe that hate is the thing that Jesus talked against or preached against the most. But I don't see that when I study the subject out. In fact, we're told to hate a lot of different things. In fact, we're told that God hates a lot of different things. In fact, God hates certain people. Look at verse eight. And the children of Ammon came out and put the battle in array at the entering end of the gate. So do you see what's going on here? David is acting. He says, okay, I can see them gearing up. I'm gonna send for Joab and the mighty men. Who puts the battle in array? It's the Ammonites. All they do, this is what the world does. They react, they react, they react. They just jump the gun every single time. Verse nine, when Joab saw that the front of the battle was against him before and behind, he chose of all the choice men of Israel and put them in array against the Syrians and the rest of the people he delivered into the hand of Abishai, his brother, that he might put them in array against the children of Ammon. And he said, if the Syrians be too strong for me, then thou shall help me. But if the children of Ammon be too strong for thee, then I will come and help thee. Here's point number five. Hate has its place in the life of a believer. Hate has its place in the life of a believer. Do you think these people who David's commanded to go fight would be effective warriors if they didn't hate the enemy at this point? There's no way. They love David. They love God. They love their nation. And that's why they said, hey, if the Syrians be too strong for you, you know, I'll come help you. That's why these brothers, Abishai and Joab, were like, hey, we're gonna help each other out. But I wanna show you this here in verse 12. It says, be of good courage and let us play the men for our people and for the cities of our God. And the Lord do that which seemeth him good. Turn to Psalm chapter 97. Psalm chapter 97. That's the attitude we should have, right? Hey, let's play the world. Let's play these false prophets for the cities of our God. Amen. Right? For his statutes. And he'll do what seemeth him good. But I'll tell you what, you will never be effective at playing the enemy if you don't develop a hatred for the enemy. Amen. Right? It's just a fact of life. Ecclesiastes chapter three, verse eight, a verse that's largely ignored by most people, says this, a time to love and a time to hate. Amen. A time of war and a time of peace. If hate wasn't the opposite of love, if hate had no part of love, then why did Solomon say that? You think you're wiser than Solomon? Apparently the world thinks so. Apparently the scholar thinks so. Psalm 97, look at verse 10. Ye that love the Lord hate evil. He preserveth the souls of his saints. He deliverth them out of the hand of the wicked. Ye that love the Lord hate evil. Those words right there, and you know what that proves? If you want to love the Lord, you better learn to hate evil. Amen. That's right. So, but like Gandhi said though, not that the people, we don't hate evil people. We don't go hating chum lusters. We don't go hating those people. We don't like what they do. And we love them. No, those people are evil. They hurt and we hate them because they hate God. Amen. And we're going to play them like fools, just like Joab and the mighty men played the Ammonites and the Syrians. It's the same thing. So I would tell you that hate has its place in the life of a believer. Otherwise, Psalm chapter 97, verse 10 makes no sense. Ye that love the Lord hate evil. You can't love the Lord if you don't hate evil. Somebody who says, oh, I love God. I go to church and I don't hate anybody, right? Didn't somebody tell us that the other day? Well, that was Briley, right? That bozo from Alabama, that bum. Yeah, I don't hate anybody and I don't judge anybody and I don't disagree with anybody. I went into a Jehovah Witness church, man, and then I just loved them all. I love the Mormons. I love everybody. He don't love anything. He don't even love himself. Because he don't hate anybody. It's ridiculous. Turn to Genesis chapter 26. Genesis chapter 26. Before we proceed any further, I just want to give you just a quick background on hate in the Bible. Because again, the world wants us to think that if we hate, we're these monsters. There's something wrong with us. We need shock therapy. We need to go to the psychiatrist. We need help. We need pills. We need Xanax. We need something because you shouldn't hate anybody for any reason at all. Well, again, so what? I hate somebody. Is it going to kill them? Is it going to do them any physical harm? Does it take money out of their bank? So far, I've really gotten no financial profit from hating anybody. So what's the big deal here? Oh, that's right. It's a lie. It's a lie. But I want to show you this here. Genesis chapter 26. So here's a story about Isaac. He's doing the same thing that Abraham did. You know, he's with the Philistines. He's with Abimelech. You know, they're having disputes and stuff about wells and God's blessing Isaac in front of the Philistines, okay? And you know, you know, Isaac, you know Abraham, how they always said, oh, you know, she's my sister. And you give that little half truth there. And so Abimelech finds out about it. He tells Isaac, hey, you know, go from us because you guys are just, you're mightier than we. You're stronger than us. God's blessing you. And so a process of time goes on that Isaac has left and Abimelech's like, man, now we're not getting blessed. And so in verse 26, it says this. Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar and Ahuzath, one of his friends, and Fichol, the chief captain of his army. Now these were the early days of the Philistines here. Look at verse 27, and Isaac said unto them, wherefore come ye to me, seeing ye hate me, and have sent me away from you? Now I think it's interesting here what Isaac says to these guys. He says, why are you here? Why are you coming to me, seeing you hate me? Well, what was the hateful act that the Philistines did to him? They just said, go from our presence. Did they kill him? Did they beat him up? Did they take his wallet? Did they take his video games? I mean, what did they do? They just said, go from our presence. That's considered a hateful act. Is that not what the world does to us? What does that prove? They're hypocrites. Go from our presence, they're hypocrites. Now turn to Luke chapter 14. Luke chapter 14. You find the same thing in Judges chapter 11. So you turn to Luke 14, and I'll just kind of quickly talk about Jephthah. You guys remember Jephthah from our study last year. He was the ninth judge in Israel. He was, his father was Gilead, born of a harlot. And then apparently we don't know the full details, but apparently Gilead gets right, has a bunch of other children, and those become his brothers. He say, hey, we don't want you to inherit with us. So basically get out of here. They send him packing and Judges chapter seven, they realize they're in trouble and they're like, well, we need our brother back. We need to go get Jephthah because he was mighty. He was strong. He can help us. And it says in verse seven of Judges chapter 11, and Jephthah said unto the elders of Gilead, did not ye hate me and expel me out of my father's house? And why are ye come unto me now when ye are in distress? So again, you know, another instance in the Bible where we see a hateful act and all it is, is telling somebody, I don't want you in my presence. Nobody dies, no one's money gets taken, nothing. I mean, think about it. He's okay. There, they approached him and said, we need your help. So what's wrong with hating people? It hurts your feelings? They're making you cry, huh? What's the matter, little baby? Huh, you can't take it? That's what it is. We got a society just hopped up on soy milk and taking estrogen pills. That's what's really going on here. Just a bunch of soy milk licking, just pansies. That's right. Oh, you hate, oh, it's so bad. I can't believe you said that. Get these emails all the time, all the time. You're so full of hate. I can't believe you. So did you die? Did you lose a leg? Did you lose a hand? No, then shut your mouth and just deal with it. Luke chapter 14, verse 26. We read this verse last week, but it applies with what we're talking about. This is what Jesus is saying. If any man come to me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters, yay, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. Wait a second here. That's not the Jesus that's talked about in Sunday school over at Stonehenge, is it? No, is that the Jesus that Life.Church preaches about? Wait a second here. Did Jesus just say there's a requirement for you to be my disciple and it is to commit an act of hate? And I told you, all this first means here, it's not saying that you gotta go to your mom and cuss her out. It's just basically saying that when you adopt these fundamentals, you say, I wanna go hardcore for Christ, your family is not gonna want anything to do with you. And you know what? Just so be it. You wanna be a disciple, so be it. And when you do that, that's considered a hateful act because you have distanced yourself, you have sanctified yourself from the world. And are we not yet supposed to hate the world? Of course we are. And that's really what he's teaching us here. The exact opposite of what I was taught growing up. The exact opposite of what I was taught before I got right and started reading the Bible. Oh, I can't believe you hate. It's so bad. According to Jesus, there's not really anything wrong with it You hate the right things and the right people. Turn to Psalm 139, Psalm 139. So again, we already said, you either love the Lord, hate evil, right? Hate evil, hate the world. That's how you're going to get to be a disciple. When you can distance yourself from those people. And you know what? It's considered a hateful act by them, but that's okay. Jesus said it was okay. In fact, it's a requirement. Psalm 101, verse three. I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes. I hate the work of them that turn aside, it shall not cleave unto me. Think about that. We're supposed to hate the works that the evil people do. And you know what? That would include Hollywood. And I'm not saying don't watch, don't stay informed about news and stuff like that. Don't misunderstand me, but be careful about immersing yourself and committing your mind and your heart to those things because it's a zoo out there. It's a zoo out there. And it will cause you to hate the wrong people and the wrong things. But I like how David says this, says I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes. I hate the work of them that turn aside. People get mad at me. You know, there's some people left the church, you know who I'm talking about. Because I preach against Disney. Well, I hate the work of those people because they turn God's people aside. Is it not true? Where are they at today? Proven right once again. Not because of anything I did. It's just because I read this verse, said I believe it. I'm going to commit myself unto it and preach it. I'll be instant in season and out of season. Just like everybody else in here. You know, all of a sudden now I'm a bad guy. Now I'm a hateful guy. Now I'm a hate monger. Now I'm irresponsible. Now I'm immature. So be it. So be it. Psalm 119, 104 says this, through thy precepts I get understanding. Therefore I hate every false way. I hate the Buddhist way. I hate the Muslim way. I hate the Catholic way. I hate the Jehovah Witness way. I hate the human achievers. In all their preachers. I hate it. It's a false way. How did I get that way? Through God's precepts. Through understanding. That's why we are the way that we are. And it's okay. Hate has its place in the life of a believer. Psalm 119, 128. Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right. Therefore I hate every false way. I would rather trust God's word any day over anyone over any promotion over anything in this world. Because it's the only thing that's going to stand the test of time. You're there in Psalm 139. You know which verses we're going to read here. But before we read them, you need to understand this. The Bible says that David was a man after God's own heart. Verse 21. Do not I hate them? Uh oh. Them? Are them people? Do not I hate them? Oh Lord, they hate thee? Oh, wait a second here. You know, according to Ray Comfort, according to one of my old pastors, this was David's private prayer life that we shouldn't be privy to. King James only soul winning Baptist heard him say it. Do not I hate them? Oh Lord, they hate thee? Look, he's asking a rhetorical question here. Now God's like, yes, I know you do. I remember what you did. How you sawed people asunder, right? I get it. Do not I hate them? Oh Lord, they hate thee? And am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred. I count them mine enemies. People say, well, you're supposed to love your enemies. Yeah, you're supposed to love your enemies. By heaping coals on their head. Right. Right? Even when you read those verses in the New Testament and you do a loving act for somebody to hate you, you're still heaping coals on their head. Right. So think about that. I hate them with perfect hatred. I count them mine enemies. You know what? There's a difference though. When someone's just your enemy and maybe they don't hate God versus somebody that we know that hates God, like all these queers. Yup, amen. Those are the enemies of God. They hate him. Romans chapter one, very clear. Genesis chapter 19. I mean, study the subject out. It's okay to hate them. Amen. Are they gonna die? Are they gonna lose an eyeball? Are they gonna drink? What's that fish tank stuff? That these people drink because they said chocolate? I don't know. Yeah. But he says, I hate them with perfect hatred. I count them mine enemies. Search me, oh God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. Why would he make this statement and ask God to try him? Search his heart if this wasn't to be in the Bible, if this was a bad thing, if hate was so bad. It doesn't make any sense. And see if there'd be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. So apparently, if we hate the people that God hates, we're seeking after his own heart. And there's no wicked way in you. So that's not a wicked thing. So when someone tells you it is, they're lying to you. You're dealing with somebody who's ignorant and you should not listen to them. Go back quite a few chapters to Psalm chapter number five. You know, Romans chapter 12, verse nine, Paul tells the Romans this. He says, hey, let love be without dissimulation. Abort that which is evil. Cleave to that which is good. You can't cleave to that which is good if you don't know how to abort or strongly hate that which is evil. You find that teaching consistently from the beginning of the Bible to the very end without wavering. Psalm chapter five, look at verse six. Thou shall destroy them that speak leasing. The Lord will abort the bloody and deceitful man. You know, these abortion doctors that are out here that are crying because their clinics are closed. You know that God hates them. Look at verse, back up to verse five. It says this, the foolish shall not stand in thy sight. Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. These are people. Who are the workers of iniquity today? The people that teach works plus faith. Matthew chapter seven. I could prove this. What happens to those people? They get sent straight to hell. Is that a loving act? Come on. Very clear, God hates some people. It's a fact. Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. People say you should lighten up on those false prophets. Man, that's not right. How are they ever gonna get saved? It's not my problem. Cause God hates them and so do I. With a passion. All right, real quick. Turn to Proverbs chapter 26. Proverbs chapter 26. We gotta be done here. I'm just gonna leave you with some final thoughts really. There are, I was going on all the liberal sites, trying to look for sermons of people that preach against hate. And there's a few verses that keep breaking up over and over. By and large, they twist everything. They take verses that have nothing to do with hate and they just apply those. What Jesus said, you should never hate anybody for any reason. It's just over and over. One of the verses that keeps coming up over and over again is first John chapter four. I'm just gonna, you don't have to turn there. I'm just gonna read these for you. First John 4.19. We love him because he first loved us. If a man say I love God and hateth his brother, he is a liar for he that loveth God or that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? It's kind of interesting because this guy has a brother. How do you have a brother if you're not in the family? See, nobody ever takes the time to read these full chapters. And I've said this before and you guys know this. You're smart. You understand this. You can't let somebody just take you to first John. People, you know why people read first John? Because it's a quick read. It's a quick read. Oh, I'm reading the Bible. And they see a verse like this. Oh, you hate your brother? I don't hate my brother. But they'll twist us and say, well, if you hate anyone, you hate your brother. That's Mormon doctrine. Did you know that? Because the Mormons say we're all God's children. We're all Heavenly Father's children. So it just depends. So you're being bad right now because you hate your brother. Just wanted to bring that up because it's common for people to do that. It's one of the verses, you know, they didn't really have a whole lot. They didn't have a whole lot, but the consistent ones were first John four and Proverbs 26. And I'm sure you've heard others. I can think of some others, but we gotta be done with this. You know the drill here. It always goes back to them either not being saved or just not reading the full chapter. You read Proverbs chapter 26, you're gonna find fools, tail bearers, people that aren't saved. It's a chapter just warning you against these types of people. But here's what they'll do. They'll take it to 24. Proverbs 26, 24. He that hateth, dissembleth with his lips and layeth up deceit within him. Bam, gotcha. Gotcha. No rightly dividing the word of truth. Did you know you have to divide the Bible? Did you have to compare scripture with scripture? And of course it's hard to do when you have the mindset that, oh, well, it's buried in the ground somewhere. You know, this is what the scholars say, so it's what it is. It's what the Sadducees say, so it's what it is. If you haven't figured out now, this is probably like one of the things that just pisses me off more than anything. People saying that God's word's not inspired. God breathed today. What are you doing calling yourself a Christian? Right, yep. Who's the one that really hates? It's them. And then verse 25. When he speaketh fair, believe it or not, for there are seven abominations in his heart. This is clearly, with all the other verses we've gone over tonight, this is clearly talking about somebody who's not saved, somebody that's just full of hate. And there are those types of people out there. And don't ever let anybody try to convince you or make you feel ashamed or make you feel bad because you hate certain people, people that God hates, and say, well, you've got seven abominations in your heart. No, you don't. Verse 26. Whose hatred is covered by deceit, his wickedness shall be shewed before the whole congregation. Whose so thick as a pit shall fall there end, and he that rolleth the stone, it will return upon him. A lying tongue hateth those that are afflicted by it, and a flattering mouth worketh ruin. Look, this chapter is just simply warning you about these types of people. We don't have time to go through the full thing, but it's really not a leg to stand on. You can't just isolate one scripture and build an entire worldwide philosophy on it. You gotta take into consideration Psalm chapter five, Matthew chapter seven, Psalm chapter 139, Psalm chapter 97, and all the things that we've talked about today, right? If you don't, then you're being dishonest. That's really what it boils down to. So I said the title of the sermon is The Animosity of the Ammonites. I really just put that up there because it's kind of an easy way to remember, right? Here's a good study on hate. You know, this is a great chapter, lots of doctrine that could be pulled from here, but the biggest things that we need to remember is we don't wanna be a people that just reacts to information, right? It's gonna lead you to the wrong kind of actions, the wrong kind of hate. That's what happened to Hanen. False information, misunderstandings. What does he do? He uses a gun, just starts reacting. And what was his end? Death. Shame. David said, hey, I'm not happy about this. I'm just gonna let the guys tarry over here until things get better and let them come back. And in that process of time, Hanen says, you know what? I can tell that we're no longer best buddies. We're no longer, you know, in favor with one another, so I'm gonna gear up for war. And at that point, David's got no choice, right? So we wanna be like that. We wanna have that reaction. Gather the facts, gather the right information, and then make your decision. It's not, this doesn't just apply to your Christian life. It does largely, but it'll help you at work, help you in your family, help you wherever you're at. Gain the right information, and you won't be put to shame, right? Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Lord, thank you so much for the truth in your word. Just pray you take care of us, Lord. Bless the fellowship after the service. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Amen.