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Come we that love the Lord, and let our joys be known. Join in a song with sweet accord, join in a song with sweet accord. And thus around the throne, and thus around the throne, we're marching to Zion, beautiful, beautiful Zion. We're marching upward to Zion, the beautiful city of God. Let those refused to sink who never knew our God. But children of the heavenly King, but children of the heavenly King, they speak their joys abroad, they speak their joys abroad. We're marching to Zion, beautiful, beautiful Zion. We're marching upward to Zion, the beautiful city of God. The hill of Zion yields a thousand sacred swings before we reach the heavenly field, before we reach the heavenly field. Or walk the golden streets, or walk the golden streets. We're marching to Zion, beautiful, beautiful Zion. We're marching upward to Zion, the beautiful city of God. Then let our songs abound, and every tear be dry. We're marching through Emmanuel's ground, we're marching through Emmanuel's ground. To fair world on high, to fair world on high. We're marching to Zion, beautiful, beautiful Zion. We're marching upward to Zion, the beautiful city of God. Amen, let's open our service with the word of prayer. Father, thank you, God, Lord, for Zion, God, and for the promise of heaven, Lord. We pray, God, that you would bless the service, Lord, every aspect of it, God, that you would bless the singing, Lord, the preaching, God. Feel pastored and healed with your Holy Spirit, God, as he preaches to us, Lord, and help us in the congregation, God, to apply that which we hear to our lives, Lord, and leave here differently than when we came in. We love you, God, and it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. Song number 65, Just Over in the Glory Land. Song number 65, Just Over in the Glory Land for our second song. Song 65, Just Over in the Glory Land, everyone nice and strong all together. I've a home prepared where the saints apply, just over in the glory land. I long to be by my Savior's side, just over in the glory land, just over in the glory land. I'll join the happy angel band, just over in the glory land, just over in the glory land. There with the mighty host I'll stand, just over in the glory land. I am on my way to those mansions fair, just over in the glory land. There to sing God's praise and his glory share, just over in the glory land, just over in the glory land. I'll join the happy angel band, just over in the glory land, just over in the glory land. There with the mighty host I'll stand, just over in the glory land. What a joyful thought that my Lord I'll sing, just over in the glory land. And with kindreds saved, there forever be, just over in the glory land, just over in the glory land. I'll join the happy angel band, just over in the glory land, just over in the glory land. There with the mighty host I'll stand, just over in the glory land. With the blood washed wrong, I will shout and sing, just over in the glory land. Let them send us to Christ the Lord and King, just over in the glory land, just over in the glory land. I'll join the happy angel band, just over in the glory land, just over in the glory land. There with the mighty host I'll stand, just over in the glory land. All right, great singing. Thank you for being here this evening. Just a few announcements here before we sing our next song, which will be He Descended. If you want to get that out, if you did not get a song sheet, go ahead and raise your hand, and one of our ushers can get one for you. If you did not get a bulletin, you can also raise your hand, and the ushers can get that for you as well. Some important information on there, as well as our prayer sheet. Our Sunday morning service is at 1030. Sunday evening is at 5 p.m. And then we have our Thursday night Bible study at 7 o'clock, currently going through the book of 1 Samuel. And then you see the so many times, the teams, the list of expecting mothers. If you could please keep them in your prayers, and of course the important reminders there at the bottom. Some of the upcoming church events. Next Thursday, we have Pastor Steven Anderson from Faithful Word Baptist Church. He's going to be preaching for us, and so make sure you're here for that. He's essentially doing a project where he's preaching through the 12 tribes of Israel. And so our church is the first stop, and he's going to be visiting all the new IFP churches. I know he's going to be traveling with some of his children, and so make sure you thank him when he's here next week. And then that Sunday is our Father's Day service, and of course that's the most important day of the year. Okay? And so we'll have a gift for all the dads on that day. The service will be geared towards fathers. And so make sure you bring your dad, bring someone's father on that day. And then on Saturday, June 25th, is the Ladies Prayer Breakfast. If you have any questions about that, you can see my wife for more details. They meet here at the building. The July birthday breakfast in Judea soul winning is on Sunday, July 3rd. And then we have a 4th of July church picnic coming up on Monday. Get this, July 4th, all right? At Eucalyptus Park. And so keep that in mind. No food or drink allowed in the main auditorium except for water and coffee. Make sure you're not loitering in the foyer or fellowship hall during the preaching service. Once the preaching starts, everyone should be in their place. Come sit down and listen to me yell at you for an hour. Amen? And then quiet time, of course, is from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. throughout the whole building on Sunday afternoons. And make sure you silence your phones during the preaching so as to not be a distraction during the service. Go ahead and pull out your prayer sheet there. I'm going to go over that briefly. If you could continue to pray for our church corporately, pray for God's favor, the soul winning in our church, so we continue to get more people saved for the missions, protection of our church, pray for spiritual numerical growth, more labors, new people, and of course the leadership, and of course the different needs there, the church families that are mentioned there at the bottom. And then if you can please pray for, of course, Pastor Shelley and his church. They just have a bombardment of sodomites just continuously persecuting them. And Brother Dylan Oz, amen, he preached a sermon and it got a lot of attention. And obviously they're just racking up the spiritual rewards, amen. And just remember this, is that any time the enemy just, you know, starts persecuting and putting the pressure on, they're just doing it to try to intimidate Christians to stop preaching. And the way you're supposed to respond to that is just be as obstinate as possible. You just make your face like a flint, you don't change, you keep preaching and you leave it in God's hands. And that's exactly what they're doing. But if you could please pray for them and their church and for their safety and that God would deliver them and prosper them as well. And then I think Pastor Joe Jones is actually getting persecuted too now because he preached a sermon and they got a hold of it and now his sermons are circulating through Twitter and he's catching a lot of heat right now, but amen, rejoice, amen. And so pray for them. And by the way, let me just say this, is that our church, First Works Baptist Church, stands with Steadfast Baptist Church. It stands with Shield of Faith Baptist Church and everything that they say and we agree with them 100 percent. And you say, what if they take you out of context? They're always going to take you out of context. The enemies of God, you can never give enough context for the enemies of God. They will always just twist it, pervert it, to say something, to fit their narrative, to demonize you. And so it's better to just stand for the truth and whatever they take out of context, let them take out of context. Because at the end of the day, listen, anybody with two brain cells to rub together will actually research and see actually what these guys are saying is right. And even if the whole world doesn't agree with that and they say, no, they're wrong, who cares, it's still right because the Bible says it. Amen. And so we don't do things to please the world. We don't do things so that we can get the affirmations and the praise of the world. We do it because God told us to do it. Amen. And so pray for them. Pray for their safety. And if you have any additional prayer requests, you can put that at the bottom there. You don't have to put your name or if you'd like to, you can. You can put anonymous or anonymous prayer requests or unspoken. And we'll make sure that it gets on the prayer sheet for the following week. All right. For the morning, why don't you come on up and pray over these needs. All right, let's bow our heads in a word of prayer. Dear Lord, Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be able to come out. And Lord, we just thank you for our church and our pastor and the brethren that we have at our church here, Lord. Lord, I just want to thank you for your words, the King James Bible. And Lord, I just also want to thank you for giving us a sound mind. And Lord, I pray that you bless all the church events that we have here. And Lord, I just pray that we have your favor on our church here. And as we're doing the different ministries that we have, an opportunity to serve, Lord. And Lord, I just also pray for the mission strips. I pray that two places that Pastor Mihai has mentioned is Kazumel and Belize. I pray that those places remain receptive and that we have an opportunity to be able to go to these places and preach your word and get people saved there, Lord. And Lord, I just also want to pray for more laborers. I pray that more people are wanting to preach your word and get people saved and do a commandment that you've asked us to do. Lord, I also want to pray for the pastors in training as they are... I pray that you prepare them mentally, physically, and prepare their families as well if this is an opportunity for them to step into the ministry, Lord. And Lord, I also want to pray for the salvation of family members that haven't been able to hear the gospel in our church. And I pray that you give us the opportunity to be able to give them the gospel or soften their hearts, Lord. And then, Lord, I also want to pray that you continue to bless our church in allowing us to be able to grow, allowing the families to be able to grow, Lord. And I pray for the barren women that ultimately open the womb, Lord. And I pray for the new mothers and newborns and the expecting mothers. I pray that they have healthy deliveries and that they're nourishing their bodies in a way that's going to allow them to have a healthy and safe delivery, Lord. And Lord, I just also want to pray for the newborns as we're raising up the next generation, Lord. Lord, I also want to pray for Pastor Shelley and his church. And Lord, I just pray that you bless that fast church. And Lord, I pray that they're bold as lions, Lord, as they're preaching your word and also for the other churches that are doing the same as well, Lord. I pray for more churches to ultimately stand up for your word. And Lord, I pray that that also encourages us as well to be able to be even more bold for your word as well, Lord. Lord, I just want to thank you for giving us the service. And Lord, I just pray that we're able to grow and be edified by the sermon that Pastor Rainey has prepared for us. I pray in the simple name. Amen. All right, please open up your hymnals to song number... Oh, excuse me, the song sheet. Please open up your hymn... Excuse me. Retake. We got the song sheet. All right, so you guys should have gotten a song sheet, He Descended. This is actually a song written by Pastor Mahia and Brother Eric that they composed. We're going to be singing it tonight. If you know it, sing along loud. If you don't, follow along. Just a second here. He Descended, everyone nice and strong all together. The Lamb of God was slain, a birth of freedom came. The keys of death and now He took to ban me from its claim. Where is thy sting? It's been removed by Heaven's King. This thorn of wheat shall fall and die, a new body shall spring. He Descended that I may rise. He Descended that I may rise. He breached the lowest gates of hell for my soul of sin dispelled. Hates He felt no one can tell that I may rise. He Descended that I may rise. He Descended that I may rise. Three days, three nights in the heart of the earth that I may know the second birth. He Set aside joy and birth that I may rise. Through death my sin did shout, O death and hell did bow. Though in body I'm weak and frail, I shall be raised in power. My faith in this world cannot be found, no praise, no glory and no crown. Though this world will forget my name, my God will blot it out. He Descended that I may rise. He Descended that I may rise. He breached the lowest gates of hell for my soul of sin dispelled. Hates He felt no one can tell that I may rise. He Descended that I may rise. He Descended that I may rise. Three days, three nights in the heart of the earth that I may know the second birth. He Set aside joy and birth that I may rise. Amen. Great singing. At this time the ushers will come forth and collect the offering. Tonight will be in 1 Samuel chapter number 21. 1 Samuel chapter number 21. Good evening. We're continuing in 1 Samuel chapter 21 tonight. And the Bible reads, Then came David to Knob, to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech was afraid at the meeting of David, and said unto him, Why art thou alone, and no man with thee? And David said unto Ahimelech the priest, The king hath commanded me of business, and hath said unto me, Let no man know any thing of the business whereabout I send thee, and what I have commanded thee. And I have appointed my servants to such and such a place. Now therefore what is under thine hand? Give me five loaves of bread in mine hand, or what there is present. And the priest answered David, and said, There is no common bread under mine hand, but there is hallowed bread, that the young men have kept themselves at least from women. And David answered the priest, and said unto him, Of a truth women have been kept from us about these three days, since I came out, and the vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in a manner common, yea, though it were sanctified this day in the vessel. So the priest gave him hallowed bread, for there was no bread there but the shewbread that was taken from before the Lord, to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away. Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord, and his name was Doeg and Edomite, the chiefest of the herdmen that belonged to Saul. And David said unto him, And is there not here under thine hand spear or sword? For I have neither bought my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king's business required haste. And the priest said, The sword of Goliath of Philistine, whom thou slewest in the valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in the cloth behind the ephod. If thou wilt take that, take it, for there is no other save that here. And David said, There is none like it, give it me. And David arose and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achash the king of Gath. And the servants of Achash said unto him, Is not this David the king of the land? They not sing one to another of him in dances, saying, Saul hath slain his thousands and David his ten thousands. And David laid up these words in his heart, and was so afraid of Achash the king of Gath. And he changed his behavior before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrambled on the doors of the gate, and then let a spittle fall down upon his beard. Then said Achash on to the servants, Lo, you see the man is mad. Wherefore then have you bought him to me? Have I need of madmen? That ye have bought this fellow to play the madman in my presence. Shall this fellow come into my house? This way. We thank you, Heavenly Father, for your precious words, dear God. We thank you for every precious soul in the church. And we ask that you please bless our pastor tonight as he preaches your word. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Okay, we'll continue this evening with the book of 1 Samuel. We're in chapter 21. And tonight we're going to look at the showbread, the sword, and the senseless behavior of David. And so let me give you a little bit of a review from last week, just to get us caught up on the timeline of the story here. Of course we know that Saul is continuing his persecution of David. And he's trying to arrange for him to be assassinated, for him to be killed. And Saul's son, Jonathan, obviously catches word of this and discloses this information to David so that David can escape out of his hand. And so at this point, you know, he's fled from the hand of Saul. And essentially he has left the city because of the fact that Saul is just relentless. He's relentless to try to kill David. He doesn't want to stop nothing to try to slay him. And so this is where we really see David fleeing from his enemy and running away from him because he doesn't want to be slain. You know, you've got to put yourself in his shoes right now. He doesn't really feel like he has a whole lot of allies. He doesn't have a whole lot of friends other than Jonathan himself. He has the most powerful man in the land, which is the king, Saul, trying to kill him, trying to put him to death for no good reason. And of course, Saul's servants are with him on that. They're on the same page as Saul and they're going to obey the king. And so David obviously feels vulnerable. He's afraid. He doesn't necessarily know what to do, but he flees. And by the way, he's not necessarily by himself because we're going to see in this chapter that he has a group of men with him. We don't know exactly how many he has with him, but it's a group of men who have decided to follow David. And I'm assuming it's the men that fight with him in war. These are the men that are accompanying him in battles against the Philistines, against the enemies of Israel. And that's who he's with. And so in chapter 21, we're going to see him coming to Nob and speaking to Ahimelech, who's the priest there. And we're going to try to glean some spiritual truths from this particular story. Now, it's a short chapter, so let's go ahead and get started here in verse number one. We're going to look at David eating the shewbread and giving his alibi. Verse one, it says, Then came David to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech was afraid at the meeting of David and said unto him, Why art thou alone and no man with thee? Now, I don't believe he's necessarily saying that he doesn't necessarily have those men with him. I think he's just saying, like, why are you just out here by yourselves? What's the purpose of you coming here? Are you on assignment? Did the king send you forth on something? You know, he's kind of just he kind of just shows up in a sense. Verse two says, And David said to Ahimelech the priest, The king had commanded me of business and had said unto me, Let no man know anything of the business where about I send thee and what I have commanded thee, and I have appointed my servant to such and such a place. So he creates this alibi essentially saying that the king has sent him to fulfill some sort of business. And you kind of wonder, like, why is David lying? Why doesn't he just tell the truth? Why is he being dishonest about this whole thing? Well, he's at the point now that he doesn't really know who he can trust. So if he discloses why he's on the run, why he's a knob to Ahimelech, he doesn't know if Ahimelech is going to rat him out to Saul and then Saul is going to chase him there. And so he decides to create this alibi and is obviously being dishonest. It's not right. And he's just telling him, I'm just out here on business, just kind of taking care of things that the king sent me to do. Now we're going to look at Ahimelech's alms deed. Look at verse number three. It says, Now therefore, what is under thine hand? Give me five loaves of bread in mine hand, or what there is present. And the priest answered David and said, There is no common bread under mine hand, but there is hallowed bread if the young men have kept themselves at least from women. And David answered the priest and said of a truth, Women have been kept from us about these three days since I came out, and the vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in a manner of common yay, though it were sanctified this day in the vessel. So the priest gave him hallowed bread, for there was no bread there but the shewbread that was taken from before the Lord to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away. OK, so we see here a story. He's obviously hungered. He hasn't eaten, so are his men. And he asked the priest for some bread. He says, What do you have? Do you have a couple of loaves? The priest says, No, but we do have shewbread. OK, and shewbread is holy bread. It's bread that was consecrated only for the priest to eat. OK, but the priest offers him this bread to eat. And of course, he eats it. Now, hold your place or go to Mark Chapter two, if you would, because this story is actually referenced in the New Testament by Jesus Christ himself. And often a lot of people have a hard time interpreting what exactly Jesus Christ is referring to. Why is it that it was permitted for David to eat of the shewbread, even though it was something that was only consecrated for the priest to eat? Was David doing something wrong? Was the priest doing something wrong by doing so? Because if you think about it, you know, Saul, when he offered the sacrifice, he did something that only the priest was designated to do. Right. And so you can kind of draw that parallel as to why. Why is it that God allowed Saul to do that without punishment or excuse me, with punishment? But then he or I'm sorry. Why is it that he allowed David to do it without punishment? And yet Saul did it and God punished him greatly because of it, because they're both things that is only consecrated for the priest to do. What's the story behind that? Well, look at Mark Chapter two and verse twenty three. It says, And it came to pass as he went through the corn fields on the Sabbath day, and his disciples began as they went to pluck the ears of corn. And the Pharisees said unto him, Behold, why do they on the Sabbath day that which is not lawful? And he said unto him, Have you never read what David did when he had need and was in hungered? He and they that were with him, how he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar, referring to Ahimelech, the high priest, and did eat the showbread, which is not lawful to eat, but for the priest, and gave also to them which were with him. And he said unto them, The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Therefore, the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath. So Jesus Christ references this story when his disciples are going about the corn fields and they're picking the ears of corn. Of course, the Pharisees, these self-righteous, pompous religious leaders who are not even saved, they come up and they say, Hey, how come they're doing that on the Sabbath day? And Jesus gives them the example of David that essentially took of that which is consecrated and ate it for his own benefit. And we're going to draw the parallels as to why he's giving the story. Why is it that he said that? Go to Leviticus chapter 24, if you would. Leviticus chapter 24, we're going to come back to the story in 1 Samuel chapter 21. But let's get some context here as far as what the showbread is about. Now, Leviticus 24 essentially explains this commandment of how to make the showbread, what it's for, but we're going to look at what it also symbolizes. Look at verse number 5 of Leviticus 24. It says, And thou shalt take fine flour, and bake twelve cakes thereof. Two tenth deals shall be in one cake, and thou shalt set them in two rows, six on a row, upon the pure table before the Lord. So this is an instruction to the priest essentially telling them, Hey, when you make the showbread, make it a fine flour. Then make two rows of six loaves, making up twelve total. And then they're supposed to place it on the golden table that was in the tabernacle, of course, later on would be the temple. He says in verse 7, And thou shalt put pure frankincense upon each row, that it may be on the bread for a memorial, even an offering made by fire unto the Lord. So this is essentially an offering of memorial for God. Verse 8 says, Every Sabbath he shall set it in order before the Lord continually. So in other words, there was never a time when there was no showbread on that golden table. It was perpetually there. Now obviously the priest would eat it, they would consume it, but then the following day they had to make sure that a new freshly showbread was on that table. Again, it was supposed to be on there continuously it says. OK, it says in verse 8, being taken latter in the verse 8, being taken from the Children of Israel by an everlasting covenant. And it shall be Aaron's and his sons, and they shall eat it in the holy place. For it is most holy unto him of the offering of the Lord made by fire by a perpetual statute. So it's pretty self-explanatory. They make it put into row six on each side, twelve total. And then they're supposed to place it on the golden table. And it was essentially an offering unto the Lord, but the ones who were able to eat thereof were the priests. They were the ones who were consecrated or designated to eat of the bread. OK, go back to 1 Samuel chapter 21 again. So we see that there. Now, let me go ahead and answer why is it that Saul was not allowed to offer the sacrifice, but David and his men were permitted to eat of the showbread. Why is that? Well, I think it's just simply a matter of privilege versus functionality. OK, let me explain what I mean. You see, the function or the offering of the animal sacrifices was part of the responsibility of the priesthood. That was a function that they were only designated to do. Whereas eating the showbread was something that was privileged to them. In other words, they were able to eat of the offerings, you understand? You say, well, that still doesn't answer why David and his men didn't suffer punishment. Well, here's the thing. The showbread was designated for the priests to eat, but at the end of the day, it was designated for them to do what they wanted with it. So if they wanted to take the showbread and eat it or if they wanted to take it and give it to someone else to eat, they were actually free to do so. OK, it's just a matter of functionality over a privilege. Now, here's the thing is that that showbread, obviously in the New Testament, pictures the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, the Bible tells us that Jesus is the bread of life, right? Why? Because he fills the hungry soul who is in hunger over salvation. There's plenty of religions out there. They claim to be bread, but, you know, they're just this fake bread. They're just a Wonder Bread type of a thing. Whereas it fills you up momentarily. It makes you think like you're righteous. It makes you think like you married eternal life. But at the end of the day, it doesn't do anything. The showbread, the bread of life, which is Jesus Christ, is the only one who will fill you eternally. So just as that showbread was placed on the golden table continuously, guess what? You're saved continuously. It's an everlasting salvation that never ends. And when you eat of the bread of Jesus Christ, you know, it fills you eternally. You never have to go back and eat it again. That's the picture that is being put forth here in regards to the showbread. And that's why it was put on there every Sabbath day. Now think about this. When talking about or when looking at this particular story with Ahimelech, the priest, giving it unto David, it is designated for the priest to have, but you know what the priest chose to do? Is to give it to someone who was hungry. So why did God not punish him? Because he took the showbread, he took that bread of life, and he gave it to someone who was actually hungry. Now, we in the New Testament are considered what? The royal priesthood. You know, we don't have to wear this band-aid over our collar or whatever and be abstinent, not marry or anything like that. You know, we're not Catholics over here. But you know, what we see here is that the royal priesthood, because of the fact that we're consecrated a royal priesthood, a holy nation, it's our responsibility, we have this gospel, we have this treasure in earthen vessels. Right? But you know what? We have the privilege to have that, but we also have the privilege to give it to someone else as well. How do we do that? Through evangelism, through soul winning, through preaching the gospel, going door to door, you know, getting people saved. What are we doing when we knock on the door? We're bringing them forth the showbread. And when someone comes to us and says, I am unhungred, do you have common bread? You know, we don't have common bread. What's the common bread when it comes to salvation? Repent of your sins. That's a common way of salvation for the world. You know, we don't have the common bread of, you know, repenting of your sins, or baptismal regeneration, or workspace salvation, or you have to keep God's commandments, or you have to, you know, adhere to these commandments, adhere to these laws. We don't have that common bread. You understand? We have the showbread. We have the consecrated bread. We have the true gospel. Okay? And so, you know, if someone, you know, when we go to each door, when we go out there and preach the gospel, you know, people, in a sense, without knowing it, they're asking us for common bread. Because when you knock on the door, you ask them if they're 100% sure if they died today, they go to heaven. They're like, oh yeah, I'm full. I got common bread. What kind of bread do you got? Well, I got repent of your sins. I got you got to keep God's commandments. You know, I ran into someone today. He ended up getting saved, thankfully. But I was about to give him the gospel, and I said, are you 100% sure that if you die today that you go to heaven? He's like, yeah, I'm sure. He's telling me he's full. Right? And I said, well, what do you have to do to go to heaven? He's like, well, you have to stop sinning. But as the words are coming out of his mouth, he's like, but then again, like, we all sin though, huh? And he kind of thought about it. He's like, wait, that doesn't make sense. So in other words, what he's telling me, he's like, well, I got bread. I'm full. But then again, actually, I'm kind of hungry still. He's thinking to himself, like, that didn't really fill me up, actually. You know, so what did I do? I gave him the showbread. I gave him that continual bread of life. And thankfully, he got saved. Amen. But this is simply a picture of the fact that, and I think, you know, Ahimelech is a good picture of the Gentiles who get saved. Because the Gentiles who get saved, or even the Jews in the New Testament who got saved, they brought the bread to someone who wasn't really worthy of having it. Right? Whereas the Jews, they were the ones who didn't want to be a light unto the Gentiles. They felt that they were better than the Gentiles. They felt that they weren't deserving of that light. They were a guide of the blind, yet they didn't give the gospel to them. You understand? Whereas, you know, what God commanded Jews and Greeks who got saved to do was to bring the bread to everyone. You understand? Whether common or unclean, doesn't matter what it was, you're supposed to give everyone the gospel. And so Ahimelech, he's not a respecter of people. He's not like, well, you're not a priest. You're not this. You can't have this. He's like, here you go. The only thing we got here is showbread. You know, if someone comes to our church looking for salvation, looking for common bread, we're going to be like, sorry, we don't got that, but what we do have is the holy bread. What we do have is that, you know, that showbread, that consecrated bread. Hey, if someone comes to our church and they want us to use the NIV, the ESV, the HIV, and all these, STD and all these other things, you know, we're going to tell them, sorry, we don't have that. I mean, we're not sorry, but it's like, sorry to disappoint you, but we don't have that. We actually have the true bread, which is the King James Bible. Amen? Oh, you guys are like old-fashioned and stuff. You guys use that? I can't even understand the King James Bible. Well, it's because you probably don't read. It's not hard to read the King James Bible. All of these and the doubts. Oh, see, you can read. Oh, so you read it. That's good. You know, if you can pronounce the endow, hey, you're ahead of most people in this world who won't even crack open the book to read it. But in this house of God, we have the showbread. We have the true word of God that can fill the hungry soul. We have the true word of God that can fill a Christian who's saved who has gone astray. Because even after salvation, even though when it comes to salvation, we're filled, there's a longing in our heart for the truth. There's a desire for the truth. There's a desire to want to hear or drink the milk of the Word, to eat the meat of the Word. We want to know the truth. And you know what? Most churches out there, they're just giving out common bread. I mean, why are you calling it common? Because the most common Bible to use in most churches are like the ESV and the NIV. That's a common, you know, bread that people use. And it's not going to fill them up. You know, common preaching, for example, right? A lot of common preaching. We want to have the showbread preaching. The preaching that it'll fill you up. You know, you come on Sunday, you get filled up. You come on Thursday, you get filled up. It's here every Sabbath. And of course, I'm using that loosely. Okay? I'm saying like, you know, we got the golden table right here, amen? And we just come and feast on God's Word. Okay? And so I appreciate Ahimelek and the fact that he understood this. And you know, and at the end of the day, you know, just like Jesus said, you know, the Sabbath was made for the man, not man for the Sabbath. Well, you know, the gospel is made for man. Right? Not necessarily man for the gospel. The gospel was made to save us. It was made to save the world. And so good job, Ahimelek, of giving him the showbread. And they ate, you know, they ate without any, it didn't bother their conscience because they actually knew the Bible. Understand? And obviously the Pharisees in Mark chapter 2 know jack squat about the Bible. And whatever they do know, they twist and pervert. And they don't really know, I mean, they don't even know that they're saved. So, I want to say something, but I'm going to wait until Sunday night to say it. Okay? I'm preaching on winos on Sunday night, by the way. You know, I've been inspired lately to talk about alcohol. But we'll leave that for Sunday night. Okay? So, we see here that he gives them the bread. He gets filled up. And of course, Jesus is the showbread. So, this is a privilege that they had, not necessarily a function like offering the sacrifices, etc. But obviously, there's so many different ways we can apply this particular principle of giving the showbread instead of the common bread. But I think those are the best ones as far as salvation is concerned, as far as the preaching of God's Word is concerned. Hey, as far as the church is concerned. We don't want just like a common church, right? Because the common churches out there, the most common churches are not good churches. A lot of them are just apostate churches. With the false gospel, bad preaching, you know, queer pastors and the smoke and mirrors and the purple lights and the rock band or whatever. You know, that's the common church out there. We want to be a holy church. And in fact, the Bible tells us a church that's without blemish, right? Something that is distinct from everything else, right? That's why, you know, obviously we would consider ourselves to be an old-fashioned church. That's why we sing the hymns. That's why, you know, the pastor and the leadership wears a shirt and tie, okay? You know, sometimes people think like, oh, wait, you guys got a dress code there? We don't have a dress code. We don't have like a security guard outside. You know what I mean? Telling you, hey, what's going on, buddy? You know, where's your tie? Or whatever. Pleased to see your papers or something like that. We don't have any of that. You can come, as long as you have clothes, obviously. You better have some clothes on, okay? You know, you can come to church and you say, well, how come all those people in your church didn't dress like that on Sundays then? Because, you know, these types of things are catchy, okay? You know, having conservative values or living a clean life, you know, kind of your dress kind of reflects that. You know, you're not going to see some girl in Daisy Dukes and a short top, you know, reading out of the King James Bible and soul winning and singing the hymns. It's just not going to happen, okay? You know, you're not going to see some dude with torn up jeans, skinny, looking kind of, you know, a little sugar in his pocket, preaching hellfire and damnation sermons because it doesn't go together. You say, what does the hellfire and damnation go with? With this, man. That's what it goes with. People, they're like, oh, these fundamentalists. Thank you. This is typically what fundamentalism is associated with. Now, we don't determine that we're fundamentalists by the way we dress, obviously. We determine by our doctrine. It just happens to flesh itself out in this manner though, okay? And by the way, you know, you put a liberal pastor, okay, who, or no, you put a pastor that looks liberal, but maybe you might be a fundamentalist who believes in the key doctrines and you put myself right next to them and you tell them which one do you think is the pastor or which one do you think believes the Bible, who would point to the one man with the suit? That's just how it is. Man always looks on the outward appearance. Now, obviously, we can't determine everything that a person is based upon that, right? You know, we got to see what they actually believe, but we want to be just balanced Christians, okay? And I find people who just fight people on dress standards and music standards are often some of the most shallow Christians that obviously don't even read the Bible because those issues mean nothing to us because the most important thing to us is doctrine. So as long as your doctrine is right, dress however you want. Just don't look like you got sugar in your pockets and we're good to go. And by the way, you know, sometimes people come and they dress a little worldly. They dress a little weird, you know, but you know what? You see that the more often they come, the more they begin to change and it's not because we're like, hey man, make sure you buy the next service. You loosen up those pants, buddy, you know what I mean? We don't have to tell them anything. They just kind of catch it because things are rather caught than taught. And the more you're around people, look, God made us in such a way that we become like the people we're around. It's just the way it is. You know, we don't have to tell ladies face to face, hey, you kind of look like a what, you know, like a lady on the streets now, can you mind changing that dress or something like that? We don't have to say anything like that. They often just catch that and then change the way they dress. You know, we don't slam them. Now, I do preach it from the pulpit. I don't preach on specific people. I don't say, all right, here are the three ladies that I'm going to talk about this week or whatever. You know, I say it because I love you. It's like, I obviously have to teach the Bible and teach what the word of God says. But what I'm saying is that, you know, things are rather caught than taught, folks. Okay. And I don't even know how I got off on that. But, oh, the showbread, you know, this is the showbread, amen. This is the showbread church. We show the bread. We bring the holy bread. We teach you what the word of God says. We want you to savor that bread. We want you to savor it and know it and build an appetite for it. You're like, well, I want common bread. That's because you're so spiritually unhealthy, you've built up an appetite for the wrong type of food. You know, you're into McDonald's or whatever. You're into Taco Bell or something, you know. Oh, man, it got quiet on that one. You're into Del Taco or something, you know. What else? What else? You're into what? Give me another one. KFC. You're into Church's Chicken. That's the wrong kind of chicken. That's because it says Church's Chicken. That's the greasiest chicken you ever have in your life. That's the only chicken that when they put it in the box, it just has the potential to just fall out the bottom. Because it's so greasy. Anyways. All right, let's get back to the Bible here, okay. So we see here David eating the showbread. We see David's alibi, Ahimelech's alm deed. And then in verse 7, we're going to look at the agent of Saul. In verse 7 it says, Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord, and his name was Doeg and Edomite, the chiefest of the herdmen that belonged to Saul. So there was obviously somewhat of a spy there. We don't know exactly if he was there to do so. He was just there at the right time, so to speak. And the Bible seems to indicate that he's detained of the Lord there. And we don't know exactly why he's detained. God allowed him, in a sense, to be there. But one principle that we can learn from this is that when you go through a trial in your life, when you go through tribulation, just know this. God allowed that. Because sometimes when you go through a really difficult time, something that is beyond the measure of your strength, you often think like, Is God even with me? Or is God even strong enough to help me out of this? Well, you've got to kind of bring yourself back to principles like this and understand, God allowed this to happen. This didn't catch—this caught you off guard, but it doesn't catch God off guard. God obviously knows the beginning from the end. He knows everything you're going through. And if you go through it, number one, he allowed it. But number two, obviously he knows that you're fit enough to actually go through. Or if you weren't, he wouldn't have allowed you to go through it. And obviously when you're in the thick of it, you think to yourself, Well, I'm going to die. I can't handle this. I can't handle the depression, the anxiety. I can't handle the financial stress or whatever it may be. I can't handle it. But here's the reality check. If you're in it, it's just proof that you can handle it. And if it ever gets to a point like you're not going to be able to do it anymore, just know this. That means you still can handle it. Because there comes a point where God just removes it from you because he knows what you can handle. You understand? And so I thought that was an interesting phrase there, that he's detained of the Lord in a sense that God kind of allowed that guy to stay back to go tell Saul in a sense to make matters worse. And obviously, you know, this is God's providential hand ultimately to remove Saul and to uplift David. And so that was David eating the showbread. Next we're going to look at David acquiring Goliath's sword. Verse number 8 says, Verse number 8 says, And David said unto him, And is there not here under thine hand, spear, or sword? For I have neither brought my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king's business required haste. And the priest said, The sword of Goliath, the Philistine, whom thou slewest in the valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If thou wilt take that, take it, for there is no other save that here. And David said, There is none like that, give it me. So it just so happens that Goliath's sword is there with the Himalayas. It's very coincidental, pretty interesting. And, you know, you think about this, it's kind of weird, you know, it's kind of nostalgic, I guess, for David. It's like, oh yeah, there's a reason why this sword is here, it's because I killed the guy bearing it, kind of thing, right? Now what is the spiritual principle that we can learn from this interesting little tidbit here? Well, think about this, you know, David made a great sacrifice in fighting Goliath, because he had to kind of, you know, put himself out there and step out in faith and fight Goliath and slay him. But what we can learn from that is that the sacrifices of today will essentially give us the advantage tomorrow. Okay? And so, you know, it's good, think about this, you know, when you're in the midst of making a sacrifice, whether that's disciplining yourself to read the Bible, disciplining yourself to come to church, disciplining yourself to go sowing, you know, doing just the things that God requires of you, when it becomes grievous to you, just know this, it'll pay off in the long run. You're going to need that sword later on. And just remember this, you know, when David fought Goliath, he couldn't even handle the sword, right? All you could handle was the sling. You know, Saul gave him his armor and his weapons, and he's like, I can't go with these, I've not proved them. But now he's gotten to a point where he can prove it. And in fact, you know, he can, he's actually moved beyond Saul's sword, he could even hold Goliath's sword. Right? Think about that. And so think about this, you know, that's why it's important that you stick it out into Christian life, not just for years, but for decades, right? That you just say, you know what, I'm in this for the long haul. Never put any type of stipulation on how long you're going to be faithful to the Lord. Then say, well, you know, if I find a husband or if I find a wife or something, or, you know, as long as God blesses me with this, I'm going to stick it out. That's foolishness and nonsense, folks. Stick it out to the very end. Because of the fact that you will see that God will give you, listen to this, abundantly above all that you can ask or think. Because there was a time when he couldn't handle Saul's own sword, but now he's gotten to a point where he can handle Goliath's sword, which is obviously a lot larger. And so what you'll notice is that if you just stick it out, not only will you be able to handle the trials and tribulations that you thought you couldn't handle before, but you're going to be able to handle something even greater than that. You understand? Your, the amount of pressure or stress and strength will increase. It will triple, it will quadruple the longer you are a Christian. That's why it's important that you endure sometimes the Christian life. And I understand, you know, the Christian life is not all about enduring it, because we have a good time in the Christian life, right? I have a great time. I love the Christian life. I love, even if I wasn't a pastor, I would love the Christian life because I love the benefits of being a Christian. I love the fact that, you know, I'm saved, and the fact that I have God's word, and the fact that I have brothers and sisters in Christ, and then I have purpose in life. You know, there's so many blessings that come with it. I love the fact that my kids are being raised in a Christian home, that I have a Christian wife. You know, this is great. You know, it's more than I can ask for. But here's the thing is that, you know, if all of those things were taken away, it's important that we endure still. You understand? To increase strength, to increase endurance, to increase those things, and you'd be surprised how much stronger spiritually you'll get if you just stick it out. You say, well, I want to know how much stronger? Well, you're just going to have to wait a couple years. You're just going to have to wait a couple years to find out. That's why it's important that you just stick it out in church because that's a good measure to show you, you know, this matter of faithfulness. Stick it out in church. Be in church. Be here when you feel like it. Be here when you don't feel like it. You know, create that habit of being here so that you can bear Goliath's sword later on. Because there's a time again, he couldn't hold it, he saw a sword, but not only can he hold Goliath's sword, he's going to use it. You know, it's just like, this is lightweight compared to what I was able to lift before. Right? And I'm not going to give you those examples, but you can, you know, I want to, really bad. Ah, let's just do it. No, I'm just kidding. So David acquires Goliath's sword and, you know, thankfully he stood in the gap and fought Goliath because he was going to need that sword later on. You know, the battles that you fight today, the victories that you get, they're going to come back around, you will benefit from it later on. Learn how to overcome depression today because someone else is going to be depressed in the future that you can help out with that. Learn how to overcome anxiety, depression, and, you know, body dysmorphia. Learn how to overcome sin, learn how to fight in the Christian life because you're going to need that sword later on. It's going to come in handy and you're going to need it. Alright, let's move on here. So we looked at David eating the showbread, we looked at David acquiring Goliath's sword, and now we're going to look at David's senseless behavior. Now, what we're going to look at here is just David acting really weird. It's very contrary, it's like, dude, you just got a sword. And then all of a sudden he just starts acting like a maniac. Now, the reason this story is so good is because of the fact that as godly as David is, he's still just a man just like you and I. Because wouldn't you say that you've done some pretty stupid stuff too? You're like, not me. No, I've never done something stupid. No, that's not... Come talk to any one of us and maybe we can point a time where you did. Every single one of us has done something done. Every single one of us was at a point where we were weak in our character, we were in the flesh, and we did something that was just dumb. Here's an example of David doing something really stupid. Keep in mind, he's slain many Philistines by this time. He's earned himself a pretty great reputation, not just among God's people, but among the enemies of God. So with that in mind, let's go ahead and read here verse 10. It says, And David arose and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath. And by the way, what do we see here? Why is he acting this way? Because of fear. Fear will make you do some pretty dumb things. Verse 11, And the servant of Achish said unto him, Is not this David the king of the land? They did not sing one to another of him in dances, saying, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands. So we see that David is well known in verses 10 through 11. Now I want you to notice what it says, isn't this David the king? But he's not a king yet. But obviously he's earned a reputation, it's like this guy might as well be the king. Because he's such a great fighter, he's a great general, he behaves himself wisely. And so, you know, they're kind of, these statements, this rhetoric is kind of going around, and it gets to David. Look at verse 12. He starts to imagine the worst case scenario here. Verse 12 says, And David laid up these words in his heart, and was sore afraid of Achish the king of Gath. Why? Why are you afraid of him? Why is he afraid? What he said was like, isn't this King David? And he's just like, oh man, now he's going to know who I am, now this is going to happen. This shows us the sinful nature of a man's imagination. And when I say a man's, I'm also referring to women. I'm referring to just mankind in general. You know, where people just jump to conclusions of things that just will never happen. And you and I both know that sometimes as Christians, sometimes as human beings, we have a tendency to just make stuff up. We're like, well, if this happens to him, this is going to happen, if this happens, this person's going to say this, if this person says this, I'm going to go here. Oh, I'm just leaving the Christian life. It's like, whoa, whoa, whoa. First of all, the first step hasn't even happened. It's probably never going to happen. But that's how powerful our imaginations can become. That we just believe that the worst case scenario is going to happen. Now, here's the thing, this is what I commonly tell people who struggle with imaginations or the worst case scenario. I always tell them, think of the worst case scenario and then just make peace with that. Think of the worst possible thing that can happen to you in this particular situation and just make peace with it. Say, well, that's the worst thing that can happen to me and so I'm going to leave that in God's hands. I'm going to cast my care upon him because I know he cares for me. And you know what happens? Nothing! Most of the time, it never happens. And I would dare say that one of David's greatest weaknesses is not his lust, is not the fact that he committed murder or adultery, it was his fear. Because later on, we'll see that Saul is seeking to slay David, as usual. And then he finally gets to a point where he says, you know what? You spared my life and so I'm going to do the same for you. I'm no longer going to follow you. And he's being honest. He's like, I'm done following you because you could have killed me and you didn't kill me. I'm paraphrasing here. And so, in a sense, they made peace. And then in the next chapter, David's like, I shall surely die by the hand of Saul one day. He literally says, he said in his heart, I shall surely perish by the hand of Saul one day. And so what he decides to do is flee into the land of the Philistines for an entire year, based off of something that he said in his heart. Based off of an imagination. Based off of an irrational fear, even though the complete opposite was going to happen. So it kind of shows you how much we can mess up our lives just based upon our imaginations. Now obviously, fear is just common to man. We are all afraid to a certain extent. We have all different fears to a certain extent. The thing is, you can't let your fears go unfettered and create these imaginations where it just determines your actions. You've got to like temper your fears. If you're afraid, say, well you know what, I'm afraid but I'm just going to continue to do what God requires of me in spite of my fear. Do you understand? But David, you know, he laid up these words in his heart, and what are the words? This is the guy who slew ten... What he should have done was be like, yeah that's right, that's me. You better watch out, bro. You know, what he should have said is like, that's right, you don't want no smoke. Because I've slain tens of thousands. But instead he's just like, oh no, they're going to kill me because I'm the man or something, you know. Look what verse 13 says, and he changed his behavior before them and feigned himself mad in their hands and scrabbled upon the doors of the gate and let his spittle fall down upon his beard. So what is he doing? He's just acting like a crazy dude. Like he belongs in a mental institute. He's like scratching on the doors. And people are like, maybe this isn't David, you know. Verse 14 says, then said Achish unto his servants, lo you see the man is mad. Mad doesn't mean like he's angry, it means crazy. Wherefore then have you brought him to me? He's like, why are you bringing this crazy dude to my presence? Have I need of a madman? He's like, do I need a jester in my presence? Do I need a laugh or something? Have I need of a madman that ye have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house? And I'm like, what is this guy? This is not David, this guy's lost his mind. Now this is completely out of David's character. Because he's acting crazy, he's scrabbling on the doors of the gates, and then he's letting spit fall down his beard. I mean they're like, this guy is nuts, he's possessed or something. And it's sad, you know, it kind of brings down the quality of David down a little bit. You kind of wonder what his men were thinking like, should we all do the same thing? How is this leading by example? But it kind of shows you the state of mind that he's in. And obviously we want to cut David's slack because of the fact that he's human. And humans often will do some really dumb things, myself included. We all will, because we're sinners, we're fallible people, we make mistakes, and when we're not in the Spirit, we can do some pretty dumb stuff. I'm not saying we'll do something like this, but I don't know, it's possible I guess. But it obviously shows that he's not in the Spirit because the Bible says that God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind. And obviously he's not acting like he has a sound mind right here. Now I want to spend some time talking about this particular phrase here, this particular word, that says, feigned himself. Now what does that word feigned mean? Well, a good way to remember it is just fake. So he's faking himself to be a crazy person. But he uses this phrase feigned. Now typically when the Bible uses feigned, sometimes it's often referring to bad people. Now here you see David, who's a righteous person, feigning himself to be crazy because he essentially, he doesn't want to arouse any suspicion of who he really is because he doesn't want to die. But in general, for example in the Gospels, you have the Sadducees, the Pharisees, they were feigning themselves to be just men. Now what does that particularly mean? It means they're faking as though they were saved people. That they were righteous people. Now why would they do that? Because they wanted to catch Jesus in his words. They had an ulterior motive behind it. So often, someone who is faking themselves or feigning themselves in the Bible is often just telling us that there's people out there who are just fake. They're fake people. They act one way in order to get something else. And you know what, this happens in churches. You know where pastors feign themselves to be just men in order to gain access to the innocent, right? Youth pastors will feign themselves to be men who love the youth and have a vision for the youth, but they really only want to gain access to children and teenagers or whatever, right? But look folks, that's not just for spiritual leadership. Sometimes people literally come into church just to become a member and feign themselves to be a Christian. They feign themselves to be a righteous person just because they have an ulterior motive behind it. And this is something that we have to watch out for. Not in a paranoid way, but just be aware that this is something that exists. There's times that people can come into a church, a man can come into a church, and he feigns himself to be a righteous man because he wants access to the women in our church. That's definitely a possibility. He wants access to the women. He said, well, you know, is it only men who do that? No, actually, you know, sometimes women do the same thing. Where women will feign themselves to be righteous people, godly people, in order to like find a boyfriend or something like that. Or not just find a boyfriend, just like take advantage of innocent people or something. You understand? Because obviously there's nothing wrong with coming to church, getting saved, and you want a godly spouse, and you find a godly spouse here, and you get married. Many people have done that, and that's perfectly fine. You understand? That's the natural course of life, right? But let me tell you, let me give you some unnatural courses. Where, for example, you know, if you have a man who's like in his 50s or something, and he comes to our church, and then he's talking to like some of the teenage girls in our church or something, you know, yeah, the look that you're giving me, that's exactly how we should react to that. That would obviously be wrong. For some 50-year-old talking to like 15, 16, yeah, even 18-year-old, that's inappropriate, that's wrong, but people do that. And let me just say this, you know, there might be women who do the same thing, who feign themselves to be Christians, they feign themselves to be godly, in order to come to a congregation like this in order to have access to the young men in our church. Right? And you think to yourself, is that, does that happen? Yes, it happens. Because, you know, the Bible talks about that the adulterous will hunt for the precious life. Okay? That there's people who will hunt for the precious life. Who's the precious life? The young man, the young lady in our church, who might be naive, you understand? So parents, keep an eye on your kids, and know who your kids are befriending in our church. You know, you should know the friends of your kids' friends, amen? You should know who they're hanging out with, you know, I don't want to be overbearing, why not? You're their parents. You're the mom, you're the dad, that's your responsibility. That child's life is in your hands. You know, don't just like hand someone off to someone in our church and you guys become best friends or whatever and my job is done here. No, you have a responsibility to take care of that teenager until they hit the altar and get married and then they become someone else's responsibility. Okay? And let me just make myself very clear, I just want to announce this, just as a reminder, you know, because it's always good to remind our church of certain policies that we have at our church, because sometimes, you know, we often forget certain things, you know what I mean? If it's not emphasized that, you know, if someone's in our church that is divorced, for example, you are not allowed to just establish any type of intimate relationship or have a relationship with someone with the purpose of getting married with someone in our church. That's not right to do. Number one, okay? So if you are a divorced man or a divorced woman, don't ever try to come up with this plan that you're coming in our church and hoping to find a new fling or a new love or something like that in our church, because we'll put a stop to that. I'll put a stop to that. It's a policy in our church, if you're divorced, you can no longer marry anybody. Now, you can do whatever you want, just not here, you understand? And if a man in our church is divorced and he's trying to, you know, woo some girl in our church, even if she is of age, so to speak, of 30, 35 or something like that, but you're divorced, it's an inappropriate relationship that will get called out. But you know, we always get on the men, but you know, it's applicable to the women as well. Some lady in our church just starts kind of establishing relationships with the young men in our church, because she has a purpose or something to develop a relationship where potentially she can find her future husband or something like that, but she's divorced? Completely wrong. I will call that out. Inappropriate. Now first of all, it's inappropriate because you're divorced, but it would be even more inappropriate if you're talking to a young man in our church who's like in his teens especially. It's inappropriate. And we need to keep an eye out for that. And young men, you need to get some discernment, okay, and get some wits about you, get some sense about you, and understand that, you know, if that takes place, you need to go to your parents, you need to come to me. This information needs to be disclosed, because that will not be tolerated here. Why are you saying that older people can't marry? Obviously older people can marry, but why not marry an older person like yourself? But you know what, if you're divorced, yeah, you can't marry. And let me make myself very clear about something. I'm not preaching against divorced people in our church, because we have divorced people in our church, and I love every single one of them, and I respect them, I love them, and they know that I love them, and I have great relationships with them, and so don't think that I'm just, oh you're just getting on like divorced people in our church. No, what I'm trying to do is help the young people in our church, you know, not be naive about certain things. And you know, I'm trying to help the young men and the young ladies in our church understand that you can't just be developing relationships with people who are like, people who could be like your mom or your dad. Right? And obviously I'm not saying like, for example, I'll give you an example, Ms. Kelly you're in the front row, so Gio I'll give you a break tonight. Ms. Kelly, you know, we would consider her to be like a mother of our church. Right, that's what the Bible says. And so even though I'm the pastor, I treat Ms. Kelly with a lot of respect, and we have an appropriate relationship. Of pastor and member, but even just of member and member, sister and brother in Christ, there's a boundary that you just don't cross there. Right? You know, she's never going to say anything inappropriate to me that would indicate that she would want some sort of affair with me or anything like that, or even to joke like that either. Right? Because that would be wrong. That would be inappropriate, it would be wrong to do. Okay? And vice versa. We have that understanding. Understand? And by the way, Ms. Kelly and I, we joke around with each other all the time, but there's a boundary that we will not cross. Okay? Or how about this, you know, let's just say if there's an older lady, you know, I'm sure she has that relationship with other young men in our church, and it's an appropriate relationship. Where they can talk, they can talk about their week, they can talk about sowing, they can gossip about geo, they can do all that stuff, right? Appropriate things. Things that are just appropriate to talk about. You know what I mean? We'll talk later. No, I'm just kidding. You know, it's appropriate because the Bible wants us to have relationships with everyone in the church, but as long as it's within the boundary of being appropriate. You understand? And so, you say, what is not appropriate? Well, when you start delving into subjects of, you know, having a relationship, or giving notes to one another, and having like this secret relationship outside of church, at that point it becomes inappropriate. Okay? And at that point, you know, my ears perk up, and the red flags start going up, and then I have to somehow apply this to a sermon somehow. Are you just going off just to go off? I'm just trying, I'm, as the pastor, it's my responsibility to take care of the flock, and to kind of grab the staff and just kind of, just kind of wake people up a little bit. Okay? And I don't hate anybody here, I don't, you know, I'm not against anybody here, but this is preventative. Amen? Now, don't go overboard on this, and like, none of the young guys go, they just no longer talk to Ms. Kelly ever again or something. Or they no longer go to my mom or something like that. You know, my mom's here tonight. I don't want to point out anybody else because then people might be like, you're insulting me because you're saying that I'm older or something, you know? None of you go to my wife, how about that? Okay? I don't want to go to Ms. Mejia or whatever because, you know, it might be viewed as just like inappropriate or something. Be, be, just be, just have some discernment. And look, folks, here, this is how you can, this is how you do it, okay? You don't really have to work much if you have nothing to hide or you have no ulterior motive. I can talk to anybody in our church, I'm not like, oh, I've got to be careful what I say around these people because I don't want them to know my nefarious agenda or something like that. Because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth's speaking. I'm going around in church, I'm like, rah, rah, rah, rah, rah. Because there's nothing unrighteous in my heart. I have no ulterior motive, nefarious motive against anybody in our church. So I can just freely speak. I cannot but speak to the things which I have seen and heard, okay? But what I'm saying is that, you know, obviously there's a level of appropriateness that needs to be established between men and women in our church. And more specifically, older men and older women and younger men and younger women, okay? And let me just say it right off the bat, in conclusion, but not really, is that older men and older women in our church, and when I say older, I'm talking about, let me just say this, 40 and up, okay? We'll just put a safe number there, okay? Shouldn't I be developing close, inappropriate, BFF friendships with younger men and younger women in our church? Now this is a public service announcement. I leave you with a warning. I'll let it go this time with a warning, so to speak, okay? And so I think that's important to mention. I know that's uncomfortable to hear, you know? And if you're just like, I don't even know what you're talking about, well, you know, just take it as is and learn from it and that's it, amen? We're talking about First Testament 21 is what we're talking about, right? You know, for example, you know, I'm sure, you know, for example, Miss Susie, okay? I've known Miss Susie since I was, I don't know, 21 years old, okay? Miss Susie and Brother Albert, I've known them, and I have a great relationship with them. I would even say that I'm, like, they're some of the closest people to me in the church only because I've known them for so long, you understand? But here's the thing, I don't know, I've known them for about 15 years, let's say that, right, since I've been saved. But you know what? There is a boundary that I won't cross with Miss Susie or with Brother Albert just because of the fact that they are, number one, Miss Susie is a female who's older than me, she's married, and number two is that, you know, I have respect for it and they're my church members. I'm not going to be like, you know, what's up, fool, you know? To Miss Susie, that would be inappropriate to do. We're not going to have some secret relationship or something like that because that would be inappropriate. Because she's married and I'm married, but let's say I wasn't, it would still be inappropriate. Let's say she wasn't married and let's say I wasn't married, it would still be inappropriate to do, okay? So where do you draw the line? Just be safe and sorry. Rather be safe than sorry, okay? Commune with everyone in our church, talk to everyone, but young men, have some sense. Young ladies, have some sense. Don't be paranoid, but have some sense, okay? And I will tell you this, if you feel like something inappropriate is being said to you, you come talk to me, okay? And if someone tells you, oh, whatever you do, don't go tell pastor, let me translate that for you, go tell pastor right now. If someone says, hey, you know, let me slip this to you, just don't tell anybody about it. Oh, maybe you should talk to pastor about it. I don't want to go talk to pastor about it. Go tell pastor right now. That's weird. The only person I'm passing secret notes to is my wife. You know, maybe to someone else in our church if we're gossiping about Marcos or something like that or about Gia or something. Maybe, but, you know, between, you know, genders, different genders or whatever, men and women, you know, you just, you have to be appropriate as possible and not have these secret, there's no secret relationships here. The only secret relationship that there is, is between a husband and a wife and their own home. And that's it. Amen? And so, that was David's senseless behavior. What I'm just simply saying is this, is that, you know, he's feigning himself to be something that he's not and sometimes people do that. They can feign themselves to be something that they're not because they have an ulterior motive. You say, well, when someone in our church gets offended at this and they leave our church because of this, then it just confirms that I'm right. Well, don't you feel bad about that? Nope. Not at all. If it salvages all the young people in our church, so be it. If the parents get mad at me, but it salvages their children, so be it. I'm not here to please my church. I'm not here to please the members of our church. I'm here to do my job and try to do it well and do it with my might. And sometimes it requires some uncomfortable speeches. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your word. And Lord, may you continue to bless our church, Lord, and help us to bring the showbread to a lost and dying world. And we would say, even according to the text, just a hungry world, a world that's hungry for the right salvation, that's hungry for the right doctrine. Help us not to give them common bread, but showbread, consecrated bread, the bread of life. And Lord, help us to win the battles today and stick it out today for the advantages that we can receive tomorrow. And I pray, Lord, that you just give us discernment and help us not to fear, like David feared, of what consequences may come about. And I pray that you just help us to have the spiritual mind that we would be filled with the Spirit to do that which is right on the side of the Lord, no matter what. And may you bless our people, Lord, and bless this weekend and church on Sunday. May many more people get saved and baptized and assimilate to the Christian life. We love you. We thank you. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. We have one last song, song number 45, When I Can Read My Title Clear. Song 45, When I Can Read My Title Clear. Everyone nice and strong all together. When I can read my title clear, Two mentions in the skies, I'll bid farewell to every fear, And wipe my weeping eyes, And wipe my weeping eyes, And wipe my weeping eyes, I'll bid farewell to every fear, And wipe my weeping eyes, Should earth against my soul engage In fiery darts we whirl, Then I can smile at Satan's rage, And face a frowning world, And face a frowning world, And face a frowning world, Then I can smile at Satan's rage, And face a frowning world, Let cares like a wild dead looch come, And storms of sorrow fall, May I but safely reach my home, My God, my heaven, my all, My God, my heaven, my all, My God, my heaven, my all, May I but safely reach my home, My God, my heaven, my all, There shall I bathe my weary soul In seas of heavenly rest, And not a wave of trouble roll Across my peaceful breast, Across my peaceful breast, Across my peaceful breast, And not a wave of trouble roll Across my peaceful breast. Thank you for watching!