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🎵Piano music plays🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 🎵Piano music continues🎵 Alright, good evening everyone. Welcome to First Works Baptist Church. Let's all make our way inside and find a seat. Grab a song book. Open that song book up to song number 43. We're marching to Zion. Song 43. We're marching to Zion. Let's all stand together if you are able for this first song. 🎵Piano music continues🎵 Song 43. We're marching to Zion. Everyone all together nice and strong on that first verse. 🎵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 sea of God.🎵 🎵Let those refused to sing who never knew our God.🎵 🎵But children of the heavenly king. The children of the heavenly king.🎵 🎵May speak their joys abroad. May speak their joys abroad.🎵 🎵We're marching to Zion. Beautiful, beautiful Zion.🎵 🎵We're marching upward to Zion. The beautiful sea of God.🎵 🎵The hill of Zion yields a thousand sacred sweet amens.🎵 🎵Before we reach the heavenly fields. Before we reach the heavenly fields.🎵 🎵For walk the golden streets. For walk the golden streets.🎵 🎵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 crown. We're marching through Emmanuel's crown.🎵 🎵To fairer worlds on high. To fairer worlds 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 allowing us, God, to be here tonight, Lord, and hear your word preached unto us, God, and sing these hymns unto you, Lord. We pray, God, that you would bless the evening, Lord, every aspect of it, God. We bless the preaching, God. Feel Pastor Mahiel with your Holy Spirit, Lord, as he preaches to us, God, and that you would be with us in the congregation, Lord, that we would apply that which we hear to our lives, God, and we hear differently when we come in, dear Lord. We love you, God. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. Song number 167. All hail the power of Jesus' name. Song 167. All hail the power of Jesus' name. Everyone all together nice and strong on that first verse. All hail the power of Jesus' name. Let angels prostrate full. Bring forth the royal diadem and crown Him Lord of all. Bring forth the royal diadem and crown Him Lord of all. Ye chosen seed of Israel's grace, ye ransom from the fall. Hail Him who saves you by His grace and crown Him Lord of all. Hail Him who saves you by His grace and crown Him Lord of all. Let every kindred, every tribe on this terrestrial ball. To Him all majesty ascribe and crown Him Lord of all. To Him all majesty ascribe and crown Him Lord of all. O that with yonder sacred throng we at His feet may fall. We'll join the everlasting song and crown Him Lord of all. We'll join the everlasting song and crown Him Lord of all. Of course this weekend is the beginning of the Belize missions trip and that'll be from February 26th through Sunday March 5th. We have it on the bulletin there just to kind of remind you so you can pray for the team that's heading out there for the next week or so. That they would get a lot of people saved of course have a safe trip and then just to collect a lot of info and essentially lay the groundwork for a potential preaching service in the month of November at the end of the year. So please pray over that and pray for them that they would have a successful trip. We have the men's prayer night tomorrow night I believe that's at 7 o'clock if I'm not mistaken or what 6.30? Did you say that with a question mark? It's at 7 o'clock I think I'm pretty sure it's at 7 o'clock. We'll have dinner as well and so if you're you're welcome to come to that bring your sons to come and pray with you. Ladies Tea Party is on Saturday March 18th and then of course you see the regular reminders there at the bottom. Please make sure you silence your phones during the preaching so as to not be a distraction during the service. Of course you see all the regular reminders on the left hand side. This Monday actually we're going to be going to Barstow and so if you're interested in participating that you can see brother Ulysses Hernandez. I'll be heading up the team but please see him if you are going to go. We'll be taking the van there to Barstow to do some soloing and so hope to see you there. I'm going to pull out your prayer sheet and we'll go over that briefly and then brother Adam is going to come on up and pray over the needs in just a bit. Continue to pray for God's favor on our church for the soloing, the teams, of course the missions as we mentioned. We're going to be going back to the school that we went to in November and of course if we finish that up we're going to be heading out to some other schools as well. So pray that people would get saved and pray for the trip in November as well. Pray for the protection of our church, the spiritual numerical growth, more labors. And then of course if you can pray for what's coming up the Easter Sunday. I love Easter and it's a great time where a lot of people just are kind of thinking about going to church. They're going to go to church and just have that tradition, that custom of joining a church during that time. And so if you can pray that we would break record on that Sunday that would be great. And so I want to encourage you to invite your friends, your family, co-workers, invite them on that special day. We will have a breakfast for Easter and then we're also going to have an Easter egg hunt for all the children on that day as well. And so be in prayer over that that we'd see a lot of people saved for Easter. We have a lot of visitors and break record. You see the different needs there at the bottom for the church families. If you have an additional prayer request that you'd like to be mentioned, make sure you put that at the bottom. Tear that off and put into the offering plate and we'll make sure it gets on there for the following week. All right. And that is it. Brother Adam, I want you to come up and pray over these needs. Let's bow our heads and pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day, Lord, that we can come to your church, Lord. And first of all, we thank you for our salvation, Lord, that you died on the cross for us, Lord. I thank you also for fulfilling our needs, Lord, and for the church band, for example, Lord. Thank you for fulfilling that need and I thank you for this church. And I thank you for, Lord, giving us fellowship and a place to meet, Lord, and a building over our heads and always meeting our needs. And I thank you also for the children of this church. Thank you for blessing our church with children, Lord. And I pray that you help it grow more with children, but also with new people, Lord, that new people would come. And on this upcoming Easter, Lord, that they'd come and join our church. But more important that they come and get saved, Lord, if they're not already. I also thank you for, Lord, this time of peace in our church. And we pray that you continue this time of peace for as long as is in your will, Lord. Thank you also for the preaching, Lord, and our pastor and the preaching from all the men. And we thank you for giving us the opportunity to go soul winning in all these missions, Lord, with the mission coming up in Belize. Lord, I pray that you bless that and make the harvest plan a full, Lord, there in Belize for all the soul winners going out there. And, Lord, I pray you help us even do soul winning here, not just in Anaheim, Lord, but in LA and Santa Ana and maybe beyond and give us new opportunities to go soul winning and maybe new opportunities to have new mission trips abroad, Lord. But unfortunately, the harvest plan is full, but the labors are few, Lord. So I pray that you bless us with more labors, Lord, and if there's people in this church, Lord, that come regularly but don't go soul winning, Lord. I pray that you give them that, the unction to go soul winning, Lord, and get in the fight, Lord, in the spiritual fight, Lord. I also pray for the leadership of our church, Lord, for our pastor, that you're guiding him in wisdom. And the other leaders in our church, Lord, like the pastors in training, Lord, I pray that you help them meet the qualifications of the ordained pastors or deacons or evangelists, Lord, so we can plant more church plants, Lord. And just saturate our area, Lord, with California, Lord, with churches, if that's your will, Lord. And I also pray for just our resources, Lord, that we can thank you for blessing us and always giving us the resources to do mission trips and go soul winning, Lord. And I pray that you bless the church corporately but also individuals, Lord, if there's anybody in the church that's struggling, whether it's at work or financially or anything like that, Lord, I pray that you ease that struggle, ease that burden. And I also pray for the health of the members of our church, Lord, that if there's anybody unhealthy, Lord, that you heal them of their illness or their ailments, Lord. And I pray that you protect the people who are currently healthy, Lord, from any sickness or disease or accidents or anything like that, Lord, so that we can keep serving you and growing in discipleship, Lord. We thank you for the preaching here, Lord, that helps us grow spiritually and helps us grow and be better Christians. We pray that the new people that join our church continue growing, Lord, and they don't backslide or stagnate. And even for the people here who have been here a while, Lord, I pray that you keep them in the fight and that they don't fall out of the fight or get disaffected with things of God, Lord. I also pray for the barren women, Lord, in this church that you'd help them and help them bear children. And I pray for the salvation of family members, of members of our church, Lord, like Ms. Francescini's mom and the salvation of her eldest son and her husband, Glenn's wife's salvation, Christian's family's salvation, Lord, and all the other people who are family members of members of this church, Lord. I pray that you help them be humbled and come to the truth, Lord, and get saved at the very least. I also pray for people who hate us and revile us or try to persecute us, Lord. If they're not reprobates, Lord, help them come to the truth, Lord, and help them stop reviling us and persecuting us. But for those who are reprobates, Lord, who are persecuting us and are reviling us, Lord, I pray that you destroy them and you just make them leave us alone. And you send them to hell quickly, Lord. I also pray for the leaders in authority in this world, Lord, that you just keep them away from us and that they leave us alone. And if there's any people in authority that want to do wrong to us, Lord, I pray that you just remove them from power. And if there's leaders who want to benefit us, Lord, I pray that you help those people as well. And, Lord, I want to pray, I want to thank you finally for this church, Lord, and for the preaching. I pray that you bless pastor this coming evening with the sermon. They may preach boldly and clearly, and I pray that we can all be attentive to the sermon and listen and we can leave here changed, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, we'll sing our third song, song number 161, Our Great Savior. Our third song tonight, 161, Our Great Savior. Everyone all together nice and strong on that first verse. Jesus, what a friend for sinners, Jesus, lover of my soul. Friends may fail me, foes assail me. He, my Savior, makes me whole. Hallelujah, what a Savior. Hallelujah, what a friend. Saving, helping, keeping, loving, He is with me to the end. Jesus, what a strength in weakness. Let me hide myself in heaven. Empty, tried, and sometimes failing. He, my strength, my victory wins. Hallelujah, what a Savior. Hallelujah, what a friend. Saving, helping, keeping, loving, He is with me to the end. Jesus, what a help in sorrow. While the billows o'er me roll, even when my heart is breaking. He, my comfort, helps my soul. Hallelujah, what a Savior. Hallelujah, what a friend. Saving, helping, keeping, loving, He is with me to the end. Jesus, what a Guide and Keeper. While the tempest still is high. Storms about me, night o'er takes me. He, my Pilot, hears my cry. Hallelujah, what a Savior. Hallelujah, what a friend. Saving, helping, keeping, loving, He is with me to the end. Jesus, I do now receive Him. More than all in Him I find Him. He hath granted me forgiveness. I am His and He is mine. Hallelujah, what a Savior. Hallelujah, what a friend. Saving, helping, keeping, loving, He is with me to the end. Amen. At this time the ushers will collect the offering. Tonight will be in 2 Samuel chapter 20. Good evening. We're in 2 Samuel chapter 20. And there happened to be there a man of Belial whose name was Sheba, the son of Bichrai, a Benjamite. And he blew trumpet and said, We have no part in David, neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse. Every man to his tents, O Israel. So every man of Israel went up from after David and followed Sheba, the son of Bichrai, but the men of Judah clave on to their king, from Jordan even to Jerusalem. And David came to his house at Jerusalem, and the king took the ten women, his concubines, whom he had left to keep the house, and put them in ward and fed them, but went not in on to them. So they were shut up on to the day of their death, living in widowhood. Then said the king to Amasa, Assemble me the men of Judah within three days, and be thou here present. So Amasa went to assemble the men of Judah, but he tarried longer than the set time which he had appointed him. And David said to Abishai, Now shall Sheba, the son of Bichrai, do us more harm than did Absalom. Take thou thy lord's servants and pursue after him, lest he get him fenced cities and escape us. And there went out after him Joab's men, and the Cherithites, and the Pelethites, and all the mighty men, and they went out of Jerusalem to pursue after Sheba, the son of Bichrai. When they were at the great stone which is in Gibeon, Amasa went before them, and Joab's garment that he had put on was girded on to him, and upon it a girdle with a sword fastened upon his loins, and a sheath thereof, and as he went forth it fell out. And Joab said to Amasa, Art thou in health, my brother? And Joab took Amasa by the beard with the right hand to kiss him. But Amasa took no heed to the sword that was in Joab's hand, so he smote him there in the fifth rib, and shed out his bowels to the ground, and struck him not again, and he died. So Joab and Abishai's brother pursued after Sheba, the son of Bichrai. And one of Joab's men stood by him and said, He that favored Joab, and he that is for David, let him go after Joab. And Amasa wallowed in blood in the midst of the highway. And when the man saw that all the people stood still, he removed Amasa out of the highway into the field, and cast a cloth upon him, when he saw that everyone that came by him stood still. When he was removed out of the highway, all the people went on after Joab to pursue after Sheba, the son of Bichrai. And they went through all the tribes of Israel, unto Abel, and to Bethmeka, and all the Bereis, and they were gathered together, and went also after him. And they came and besieged him in Abel of Bethmeka, and they set up a bank against the city, and it stood in the trench, and all the people that were with Joab battered the wall to throw it down. Then cried a wise woman out of the city, Hear, hear, say, I pray unto Joab, Come near hither that I may speak with thee. And when he was come near unto her, the woman said, Art thou Joab? And he answered, I am he. Then she said unto him, Hear the words of thine handmaid, and he answered, I do hear. Then she spake, saying, There were wont to speak in old times, saying, They shall surely ask counsel at Abel. And so they ended the matter. I am one of them that are peaceable and faithful in Israel. Thou seekest to destroy a city and a mother in Israel, wilt thou swallow up the inheritance of the Lord? And Joab answered and said, Far be it, far be it from me that I should swallow up or destroy. The matter is not so, but a man of Mount Ephraim, Sheba, the son of Bichrai by name, hath lifted up his hand against the king, even against David. Deliver him only, and I will depart from the city. And the woman said unto Joab, Behold, his head shall be thrown to thee over the wall. And the woman went on to all the people in her wisdom, and they cut off the head of Sheba the son of Bichrai, and cast it out to Joab. And he blew a trumpet, and they retired from the city, every man to his tent. And Joab returned to Jerusalem unto the king. Now Joab was over all the hosts of Israel, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the Cherithites and over the Pelethites. And Adarim was over the tribute, and Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilah was recorder, and Sheba was scribe, and Zadok and Abiathar were the priests. And Ira also the Gerite was the chief ruler about David. Let's pray. We thank you, Heavenly Father, for the King James Bible. Dear God, we thank you for such a wonderful church you have given us. We thank you for our pastor, dear Lord, and his faithfulness. We ask that you please bless him with your Holy Spirit as he preaches unto us your word tonight. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Okay, we'll continue this evening with the book of 2 Samuel in chapter 20. Let me give you a little bit of review from last week, just to know where we're at here in the particular story. David has just won the war with his son, against his son Absalom. And of course, Absalom is dead. And in chapter 19, we see that David is mourning over his son, his soldiers, specifically Joab, disobeyed his command not to touch the son, not to do any harm unto him. Joab took it in his hands to essentially kill Absalom because he obviously saw him as a threat. And David is mourning over this, and Joab rebukes him for it. David comes out to the kingdom and basically makes his speech of how he's essentially, you know, God is with the nation and that God is with them. And many people try to reconcile with David. We see Shimei is trying to reconcile with David. A lot of people are joining themselves to them. But there's a certain segment of the population in Israel who's been under the leadership and influence of Absalom who have essentially defected from David. They don't really look at David kindly. They don't really respect him as the leader. And so you kind of see a little bit of civil war starting to brew here between Israel, referring to the ten tribes, and Judah, and of course Benjamin. Now the men of Judah are for David. It's the men of Israel, those ten tribes, that are kind of straddling the fence, so to speak, as far as who are they going to follow. Are they going to follow David or are they just going to do their own thing? And so you have this group of defectors and they're starting to transport David into the kingdom and Judah's the one who's kind of leading the whole thing there. And Israel begins to complain. A lot of the Israelites begin to complain. They're saying, why aren't we involved in this? We should be involved. And they're essentially a little envious of what's taking place here. And really the person who's spearheading that group there is a man by the name of Sheba, the son of Bikrai, which is essentially what chapter 20 is all about. And so here in chapter 20, David essentially learns from his previous mistake. What was his previous mistake? Well his previous mistake with Absalom is that he didn't take care of Absalom sooner. He kind of obviously saw that Absalom was kind of doing his own thing. He is gaining influence. He is doing his own thing. You can obviously see that he is flattering the kingdom and he's taking it by subtlety and he didn't correct it right away, maybe because it was his son. He was just neglecting that, being neglectful in that area. So obviously he's learned from that. Now with Sheba, the son of Bikrai, he's like, oh we're going to take care of this immediately. Because if we don't take care of it immediately, then we're going to have another civil war on our hands and more people are going to die. And so he's trying to make sure that he brings a conclusion to this insurrection immediately. So really the theme of this particular chapter is removing the head of the insurrection, referring to Sheba, the son of Bikrai. So let's look at Sheba's insurrection here in verse number 1. It says, And there happened to be there a man of Belial. So first and foremost, that's not there by accident. That's telling us something there. Don't overlook them. Don't just bypass them. God is trying to tell us something here and what he's trying to get across to us is that the actions of Sheba, the son of Bikrai, or the reason he's doing what he's doing is because he's obviously a child of the devil. A man of Belial is referring to a godless devil, someone who is not saved, a reprobate as the New Testament will put it. So it says, There happened to be a man of Belial whose name was Sheba, the son of Bikrai, a Benjamite, and he blew a trumpet and said, We have no part in David, neither have we inheritance and the son of Jesse. Every man to his ten owe Israel. So as they're bringing David in to essentially establish him once again as being the true legitimate king, you have this guy who blows a trumpet, essentially telling everyone of Israel, Hey, we have nothing to do with this guy. We're not going to support him. He's not the true king. Everyone back to your houses. Get inside. We don't want nothing to do with this. So obviously this is a huge deal here. And look what it says in verse two. So every man of Israel went up from after David and followed Sheba, the son of Bikrai. So this guy is obviously a man of influence, right? If he could just blow a trumpet and just tell everyone the ten tribes, Hey, we don't want nothing to do with David. He's not the man. He's not the true legitimate leader. Every man to his tent and everyone just does it. This is not just some random dude. This is obviously a guy who has established his influence in Israel. Everyone's listening to him. It says there, every man of Israel went up from after David and followed Sheba, the son of Bikrai. But the men of Judah clave unto their king from Jordan, even to Jerusalem. So what do we have here? We have Sheba essentially starting this insurrection and rejecting the authority of the true king, which is David. Now, why is he doing this? Well, the very beginning of the verse tells us it's because he's a son of Belial. He's a man of Belial. And as I mentioned in the New Testament, that's referred to as a reprobate. And the New Testament gives us some qualities and characteristics of reprobates that fits what this person is doing here. Namely, in 2 Peter chapter 2 and verse number 10 tells us that those who are false prophets, those who are children of Belial, those who are reprobates, essentially will despise governments. They speak evil of dignities and it says that they are self-willed individuals. Now what does it mean to despise government? Does it mean they're just against any government that tries to oppress them or against the governors and mayors and magistrates who are essentially just trying to be dictators over them? No, when it says it despises governments, it's referring to individuals who just hate authority. They don't want anybody ruling over them. They don't want anybody to tell them what to do. And they resist authority, which in turn shows that they're resisting the authority of God. Why? Because the Bible tells us that the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever resisted the power, resisted God. And so any God-given authority that God has established in this world should be obeyed by mankind. Now obviously in matters pertaining to the laws of the land, not referring to things that are sinful or go against our faith, obviously we understand if the government were ever to say, hey we're going to outlaw preaching the Bible, outlaw sowing, we would obviously disobey that command because the Bible trumps whatever law of the land exists. When it says despising governments, it's referring to individuals who are doing it righteously. And these people are not willing to submit themselves or yield to that righteous authority. They're resisting mother and father. They're resisting a pastor. They're resisting some government who's instituting biblical laws or just moral laws in general, and they're not willing to adhere to it. And so what we see in 2 Peter 2 is that people who are reprobates, children of Belial, they despise governments, they speak evil of dignities, they hate magistrates. And it says that they're self-willed. Now what does it mean to be self-willed? What does that mean? Well another way of saying self-willed is stubborn. A person who's unwilling to yield themselves to any type of authority is a stubborn individual. They can't be told or corrected that they're wrong. Now this is essentially a characteristic of a person who should not be in authority. Well we see here Sheba is in a place of authority and he's a self-willed individual because someone more important than him is taking over King David and he's like, nobody follow that individual. No one follow David. We have no part in David. This is a very wicked act. It shows that he hates authority. Now we've had examples of this throughout the Bible but one that comes to mind is in Numbers chapter 16 where Moses is leading the children of Israel and you have Korah, Dathan, and Abiram who are, lo and behold, famous in the camp the Bible says. In other words they're very well known in Israel. They're people who have authority or influence and they're going against the man of God. They don't like that Moses is in charge. They say you take too much upon you and I don't want to talk too much about them because I'm going to actually be preaching on them on Sunday. But that's an example of someone who is self-willed. They despise governments. They resist the powers that be and they're not good people. You see a characteristic of someone who is humble is someone who wants authority. They love authority. They're characterized by individuals who embrace authority, not resisting authority. You say, what's wrong with resisting authority? Well because of the fact that the Bible is our ultimate authority if you can't obey mom and dad, if you can't obey the pastor, what makes you think you're just going to obey the word of God? This is what's funny about people who say, well I'm a follower of Jesus. I don't follow man. I'm a follower of Jesus. Such a stupid thing. It's an oxymoron. Due to the fact that Jesus expects you to follow a man that follows Jesus Christ. And by saying that, you want people to follow your ideology of not following man. When people say, I don't follow man, I follow Jesus, they're trying to get other people to be just like them which means they're trying to get people to follow them. You see what I'm saying? But it's completely contrary to God's word. God expects for us to follow people. The apostle Paul said, follow me as I follow Christ. We should follow an individual who is obeying the word of God. We should follow our parents, we should follow our boss, we should follow the laws. You say, well what laws should we follow? Those that coincide with the Bible. Not murdering, not stealing, making sure that we're not bearing false witnesses, just being law abiding citizens. This is proper in the eyes of God. We should never be characterized by people who despise governments, who despise magistrates and speak evil of them. As is Sheba doing here. And so we need to be aware of the Shebas of today. And every organization, you can turn it off now Brother Elise or turn it down or whatever it is you got to do. Everyone looks like they're getting frostbite. Every organization to a certain extent, I'll suffer for you guys, okay? Because it gets hot up here. Every organization to a certain extent will have some form, some type of a Sheba. Some individual who will infiltrate the organization, the institution. And they don't really show their true colors until something like this happens. Until the person who is in authority, his authority is questioned or he's taking over or whatever it may be. Then they begin to show their true colors and resist that. And they'll often do it in a very passive aggressive type of a way just like Sheba is doing. He's just like, we're not going to fight them, just every man to his tent. Every man just go home and go inside, we're not going to go to war with them. We're just not going to have anything to do with parading King David back into the kingdom. It's a very passive aggressive way to do it. And obviously he's blowing a trumpet as he's doing it. But there's a lot of individuals like that. And that's why it's important that when churches are established, one of the characteristics of a pastor is that they cannot be self-willed. In other words, they can't be stubborn. They have to be able to be humbled and take correction and be reproved and be rebuked and be okay with that. A person who is reproved and rebuked and corrected and does not take it well is a self-willed individual. And that's not just for pastors, that's just for Christians in general. I mean ask yourself this, are you able to take correction when it's given to you? You know when someone corrects you over something that you did that maybe is wrong or maybe not necessarily sinful, just not necessarily the best, how do you take that correction? Well it depends on who it comes from. And I can understand that. If you have some 13 year old kid who thinks they know more than you and trying to correct you in your area, that individual probably needs to be rebuked. They're not to correct an elder and they haven't lived long enough to have any experience to correct anybody. But what if it's just someone of reputation? Someone of reputation, someone who's an elder, someone who's mature in the Lord correcting you, how well do you take that correction? Or do you feel you have all your ducks in order and don't merit correction? If that's you, then you're a self-willed, stubborn individual. And that's not a good characteristic to have. And look, I'm not saying that everyone who's self-willed is a reprobate because being self-willed is just a sin that is common to man. It's just that sons of Belial are just fully characterized by that. They hate any type of government as long as they're the ones who are ruling over. So they're like, they hate all dominion, they hate all magistrates, they hate all leaders. But if it's them, oh man, they're like the best one for the job. And so it's a wicked thing to do and someone who's preparing to be a pastor or a leader in a church should be characterized by being a servant first. The ability to serve, to be humbled, not necessarily to be in the limelight. They want to be a blessing to someone else. They want to serve another pastor. And quite frankly, even before I became a pastor, I was very much content serving my pastor. I was content serving him and making sure that his operation and his ministry was successful. Because of the fact that my goal wasn't necessary to be in the limelight, I wanted to preach God's Word. But if I never did again, so be it. I'm happy where I'm at. Whereas there are individuals in this world who will, they want that limelight, they want to be in the spotlight, they want to be the one being recognized and they'll do it by any means necessary. You say like, whoa, I don't know, like creating an insurrection against a true leader. And a couple years ago we had an incident like that, not in our church but one of our friend's church, where there's a person placed in a position of authority and they weren't a pastor and they still are not a pastor no matter what they say. But they weren't a pastor, they were leading that congregation and there were a series of events, another leader took over for that specific church plant and that individual was not happy about it. And they resisted that person's authority, even to the point where they changed their doctrine in regards to ordination and whether he should be the true leader and pastor there. Just a complete debacle of nonsense of an individual who's just self-willed and he just essentially exposed himself as being a person who's just not qualified to be a pastor. I had an incident in my personal life before this church started long ago and I was essentially in that same position of that one person that I'm talking about. Where we had a church plant and I was essentially the one in charge and my pastor basically was telling me, hey I'm preparing you to take over this church in the coming years, this is what you're going to be doing and I was happy with that. And then he went into the hospital and then the current leadership, the one who took over after him, brought someone else in and that guy basically told me, hey this is your last week preaching, you're no longer in charge. And he didn't do it in the most nicest way either. It wasn't like, hey thank you for your service, you've done a great job, I think we're going to start transitioning a little bit. He was just like, you're done, you're out of here next week, just enjoy that next time you preach because that'll be your last time preaching. And he was kind of like happy about it. And it was a very painful experience because of the fact that I had invested a lot of time, effort, resources into that ministry and it's a very humbling thing too. When you're the one in charge and then you're removed from that position of authority. It's just like wow, because then after that you're going to have to answer every single Tom, Dick, and Harry who comes to ask you, like how come you're not in charge anymore? And it wasn't because I did anything wrong, it wasn't because I was involved in sin, it was just that he wanted to be the one in charge and he didn't want me to preach anymore. He was going to take over, I had the largest Sunday school class at that time, it was an adult Sunday school class. It was the largest Sunday school class in the church and he was like, I'm taking over your class too. I'm going to take over your class, you're going to go, he's like you're Mexican so you're going to go to the Spanish ministry. And so it was painful, it was a painful experience and I was very hurt over it. But at the end of the day I thought to myself, well I'm not a self-willed individual, not my will but I will be done. So it's whatever it is you want and it's going to suck having to answer every person about what's going on because I don't know what's going on. But I'm just going to submit to the authority and you know what, I know that my labor is not in vain in the Lord. I know that God sees all and he's going to reward me no matter what and I'm a producer anyway. So when I go to the Spanish ministry I'm just going to build that thing up and just reach more people. I'm not being hindered from winning people to Christ, I'm not being hindered from influencing people. I get to still serve and serve God and still just do God's service here so, you know, so be it. So I ended up going to the Spanish ministry and we had about five people and they weren't happy that I was taking over. Because they were just like, you know, what's this wannabe Mexican dude here kind of thing. By the way, I'm not Mexican but I embrace the title just because anybody who sees me calls me Mexican so I'm just like, yeah. And I'm not against Mexicans, I love Mexicans. So that's why I'm just like, yeah, I'm Mexican. But I'm not like, they're kind of Mexican. They're just like, this is Spanish only type of a thing and you're not really there. You're into English or whatever. It's just this great divide between English ministry and Spanish ministry. Have you ever been in an old IFP church with that? You know what I'm talking about. It's almost like they're like separate churches almost. It's crazy. So I had this great mountain of work to accomplish because I had to win these people over and then the leader who was there, he's being thrown out. Not for me, the guy was removing him. And I'm just telling him, I'm not the one making the decisions here. He's putting me on here. The guy's, you should go for him. I'm not the one, be mad at him, not me. I don't have power here. I don't have any authority. So I remember being there and my wife remembers this. We would sit in the service. This was before my wife really understood Spanish actually so I would have to translate for her. But for like three or four services with five people, my wife and me included at certain times, this guy would just preach against me for those services. He'd just preach against me the entire time. And then my wife was just like, you know, because my wife, she wants to be with it. So she's just like nodding her head. I'm like, he's kind of calling me out. And she's like, wow, I don't know, this guy's mad at me or something. So I had to sit there. And here's the thing, because there's only five people, everyone knew who he was talking about. It wasn't hard, it was like, the three other people was like two ladies. And one of them had a husband who was just not interested in church or whatever, he was just there because of his wife. So it was pretty evident who he was talking about, you know. And he's like, how are you going to come in here? You don't even speak the language very well. Well they all speak, they only speak Spanish. So he's obviously referring to me. So I'm just like, I can't believe I have to put up with this. Like, this is so crazy. So I told him, I said, look, it's not my fault. I don't want to be here, I told him. I'll just be honest with you. I never envisioned being in a Spanish ministry. This is not my thing. I was moved here, so don't be mad at me. And he didn't care, he's still preaching against me no matter what. So anyways, he ended up leaving, and I just thought to myself, you know what, I'm going to have to learn Spanish better, win people to Christ in Spanish, preach in Spanish. And I did it. We grew that thing from five to like thirty-five people to forty-five people. And then once we grew it to forty-five people, the leader was just like, hey, you need to stop growing that thing. We can't let the Spanish get bigger than the English. You know what I mean? I was just like, what? If anything, this is going to help the church. So then, you know, and again, I'm a producer, so I would bring people to church, I'd win them over to Christ, and I'd bring them to our service. And then he would see them and say, hey, they need to be in English, don't let them go over there. I'm like, my converts, though, and he's just like, doesn't matter, bring them over here. And I told him, I said, hey, the pastor wants you guys to go over there, and they're just like, we don't want to go over there. We want to stay here, and I say, hey, they want to stay here. What am I going to do? What do you want me to do? Sorry, I'm not a failure. I just know how to win people to Christ, I can bring people to church, you know, and it was just like a constant thing. But you know, that took place for a couple years, and did I create an insurrection against him? No. Did I take a vote to usurp his authority? Absolutely not. He said, what did you do? I kept serving him, and I kept serving the church. Kept serving the Lord. And whatever that guy asked me to do, I'd do it, and I made it happen, and I was content with where I was at, and we just made it happen, my friends. Why? Because of the fact that I don't want to be a self-willed individual, and you know what, at the end of the day, I know God sees the laborer, and he's going to bless me for it anyways. You know, it was great. I enjoyed my time in the Spanish ministry. I will never do it again. Ever again. Not to say we won't have a Spanish ministry here, but we probably won't. Don't get your hopes up, okay? You know, because the reality is, because people ask me all the time, how come we don't have a Spanish ministry? And I'll tell you why. Because most people who are in this country, who are Spanish speakers, speak English as well. The only ones who really want a Spanish ministry, who need a Spanish ministry, are the first generation Hispanics, who probably only speak Spanish. But their kids, and their teenagers, and their young adults, they all speak English. I mean, look around you, there's all kinds of Mexicans in this church. Okay? I mean, your pastor's Mexican. But, you know, and here's the thing, so when that happened, you know, I was just kind of like, whatever, I'm just going to keep serving God. And look, here's the thing, folks, don't be a Sheba, son of Bichirai. You couldn't, Sheba, obviously he's a reprobate, so it's too late for him. He's in hell right now. Who cares, right? But let's say Sheba wasn't a son of Benjamin, right? Or Benjamin, a son of Belial. They're so kind of, they're kind of related though, you know what I mean, because the Benjamites were reprobates too. But let's say he wasn't a son of Belial. Let's say he wasn't a reprobate. He could have done some great things for David, because he obviously already had influence. Right? He could have been a great asset in the kingdom, and who knows, maybe David would have promoted him, or whatever, and would have blessed him, it would have been all good. But he chose to take a different route. And here's the thing, you know, people, when that happened, I remember people coming up to me, and they were like, we don't want him as the pastor, we want you as the pastor. You know, in my heart I was just like, yeah! I was like, I knew it! You said, what did you say? I said, that's wrong. I was like, don't ever tell me that again, because that is wrong. He's the legitimate leader, and he's just as good, if not better than me, and you know what, this is what the leader has chosen, so you go with what the leadership has chosen. I'm not going anywhere, I'm just going to be over there. And then I walk away with like tears in my eyes, like dang, this sucks. But you know what? But deep down inside, deeper than that initial feeling is, you know what, this is still right in the eyes of the Lord, because this is what the authority has chosen to do. Now thankfully, I remember he told me, he's like, next week is your last week, and I think I asked for an extension, because I was going through like a series. I was like, can I get like one more week to finish my series though? And he's just like, he's like fine, you know, he's just like, he was really like upset about it. He's like, but that's your last week though. I'm like, alright. It was like a Wednesday night, because we had services on Wednesday. I was like, alright, great. Well the last service was when Pastor Anderson came to visit our church. That's when he came, and he heard me preach, and I remember seeing him, he had like a red flannel, and he walked by and I was just like, I feel like I recognize this guy. And I was like, hey aren't you? And the only way Pastor Anderson knows how, he's just like, Pastor Steven Anderson for Faithful Word Baptist Church. I'm like, damn, this guy's about to do a YouTube video right here. And we shook hands, and we had heard about him like slightly, but I don't think our church was really into YouTube at the time. But we met, and then he was there with his wife, they were there for a procedure that they were having done in Hollywood, at a hospital in Hollywood, and he sat down, and I remember preaching, and he was like my loudest amen-er, he was the loudest singer. It was like a great time, and I remember just having good fellowship with him, and walking away thinking like, this is a really good guy, I don't know what the issue is, because I've heard a couple things about him before that. But I was like, I don't know why people complain about this guy, he seems like a pretty nice guy. But we had a great meeting. But it was during a time where both of us were going through a really difficult time. I was going through a difficult time with the whole church situation, and then he was going through a difficult time because his wife was going to have this procedure, which he didn't know at that time, but one of his children was going to pass away. His wife was going through a tough time. So God allowed our paths to cross during that time, and then we didn't see each other until years afterwards, or that meeting would be essential to the starting of this church. Because he made a great impression on me, and I made a great impression on him, and thankfully I didn't stop preaching the week before. Because then he told me, and even years later when I saw him again, I'm talking about years later, I went to his church, I went to go visit him, he's like, I remember the sermon that you preached, and here are all your points that you said in that sermon. Because my wife and I loved that sermon, it was during a difficult time in our lives, and you were a really big encouragement to us during that time. So it was like we crossed paths during a difficult time, and we didn't even know that that meeting was essential for what was going to happen here. But what if I was a self-willed person? What if during that time I was leading an insurrection against the authority? You think God would have blessed that? Absolutely not. But I think because God saw that I allowed myself to be defrauded, I yielded to the authority, I pointed other people to the authority, in spite of the fact that I didn't agree with them 100%. I didn't criticize the authority, I didn't create an insurrection against him, I wasn't like Sheba here, being a little punk about it. I yielded, I think God blessed that. And so obviously Sheba, there's no hope for him, this guy's a wicked person. But the reason I bring that up is because a guy a couple years ago was in that same situation that I was in, and he went about it all the wrong way. He basically took charge of the church, usurped the authority of the pastor, it was a complete mess. But you know what, thank God that happened, because it exposed him for being a wicked person, a Sheba son of Bikrai. Right? Because a legitimate person would have just gone with him and been like, hey, new leadership, all good, hey, I'm on board captain, what is it that you want to do? Let's do it. That was my attitude when that happened to me. I was just like, hey, people can still be one to Christ, let's do whatever it is you want, I don't need a title. I don't need a title, you don't even call me pastor or evangelist or whatever, I'm just happy serving God at this church, what is it you want captain? El Capitan, what is it that you want me to do? And I'll do it. But that's not the attitude that this guy had, he ended up splitting the church and leading a bunch of people astray, and there's still people that go to his church, but you know what, they're idiots. And literally, they're flat earthers who go to that church. A bunch of flat earthers who just deny the true authority and the guy's a complete embarrassment, to be quite honest with you. And so, beware of the Sheba's, the son of Bichreis, who try to sneak in, and we need to be able to observe when people are being self-willed, when they're being stubborn, not yielding to authority, not just yielding to whatever, maybe it's their parent's authority, or biblical authority, pastoral authority, if they're just characterized by rebellion and stubbornness, it's not a good person. And I'm not saying let's just write them off as a reprobate, because I don't think we should do that, I think God just requires for us to see are they a self-willed person. And look, some of you in here, there might be someone in here who's just like, man I want to be a team leader one day. Well you'll never be a team leader if you're a self-willed individual. Never. Like being a team leader is one of the greatest positions in our church that you can attain to if you're not planning to be a pastor, or a deacon, or an evangelist, being a team leader is a great thing to strive for, get a lot of influence, you're a leader in our church, but if you're a self-willed individual who is just stubborn, you can't take my correction, you can't take correction from others in our church, you just think you're always right, you're not qualified for that job. And so we all need to be corrected, we all need to be humbled every once in a while, someone needs to tell us how it is every once in a while, and we need to be able to take it. I know that's not popular, but it's true, we all need that. We need to get knocked off our high horse. Now the great thing about this situation is that Israel followed Sheba, but it says in verse number 2, Judah clave unto their king. What a great statement at the latter end of verse number 2. It says Judah clave unto the king from Jordan even to Jerusalem. It's like what John chapter 10 talks about that a stranger will they not follow. They're not going to follow some foreign king, someone who's not the boss, they're going to stick with their king, they're going to stick with David, they're going to stick with Jesus Christ. That's why it's also important for us to realize that in Christianity, not everyone is going to follow David. Some people will follow the insurrection against the true king and follow a false king known as the antichrist. They might follow the antichrist one day, and they might even call themselves Christians. In fact, the majority of mainstream Christians, in my opinion, will follow the antichrist in the end times. You say, why is that? Because they're not saved. You say, who are they filled with? Methodists, Lutherans, Asbury College, you know the so-called revival that's going on here in Santa Monica Beach, you guys seen that? There's a so-called revival going on also. It's catching fire over here too. There's a bunch of people on the beach and they're just like doing stupid stuff. They're just doing the same thing that Asbury is doing. Just, you know, falling on the sand and, you know, just nonsense. No revival whatsoever, my friends. You're like, yeah, but it's spreading, yeah. It's called a revival of heresy. It's a revival of the charismatic movement, which is a demonic movement. That's not true revival. That's a bunch of people moving around like sizzling bacon. And calling that godly and saying that that's what God is coming upon. I guarantee you the vast majority of them, there might be some, and I'm not going to say all of them are not saved because that would be a stupid statement to make. To say all of them are not saved because it's not like we've gone to every individual there to check, right? But based upon the group that's there, in general, I would say the vast majority of them are not saved. I guarantee you there's a lot of ecumenicism there, all types of denominations that don't believe the right salvation. They don't believe in the right gospel. They're not getting saved. But let me say this, in general, most Christians are not going to be there. Real legitimate Christians are not going to be there. Why? Because they're going to be in church. They're actually going to be out sowing, reading the Bible, doing Christian things actually. Wasn't that a Christian thing? That's not a Christian thing. Marching at Santa Monica Beach with flags and yelling out Jesus and Yeshua and Yahashua and doing all that nonsense, there's nothing Christian about that. Show me in the Bible where that's Christian. Show me in the Bible where it's Christian for just a bunch of people to march on a beach and just yell random things and snap their wrists and just kind of have limp wrists at worship or whatever. Show me in the Bible where that's a thing. What does the Bible say? You've got to lift up holy hands? That's not what that's referring to. And I'm not trying to remove the emotion out of Christianity, my friends, because there's some emotion that has to be involved, but that's called hyperspiritualism is what it is. Same thing with Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday, you see a bunch of people, I saw people today, they still haven't taken a shower. They're walking around with ashes on their foreheads, these bunch of Catholics with ashes on their foreheads. What is this, the beginning of Lent? And they put ashes on their foreheads to signify that they're going to observe Lent or whatever that they're going without or something like that. It's hyperspiritualism. There's never ever a command in the Bible to ever do something like that. And in fact, the Bible specifically says, listen to this, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face. That's what it says in Matthew chapter 6. Matthew chapter 6 literally says to anoint your head and wash your face, not put ashes on your head and walk around. You know, I'm going to Starbucks and people are drinking their coffee. And I would do like a double take, like, that lady's forehead is dirty. Why is that lady's forehead so dirty? I'm like, oh, it's Ash Wednesday. I want to call it something else. Yeah, you get it. That's exactly what it is. It's something that's completely contrary to God's Word. It's hyperspiritualism. It's not biblical. We should never partake in something like that. You know, the men of Judah will always just cling to their King. The King of Kings, Jesus Christ, the King of Bibles, the King James Bible, because the King James Bible is the King of Bibles. They're going to cling to the right type, they're going to clave onto the right type of doctrine, the right type of salvation, regardless if there's ten tribes versus one. Right? If the vast majority of Christianity is worshipping Ben Shapiro and Matt Walsh and all these heretics and Joel Osteen or whatever, Judah will always clave onto their King. Christians are just going to stick to the right thing, regardless of what the majority says. Understand? And so, Sheba's insurrection is causing people to depart, but you know what? It doesn't matter. Judah's still doing the right thing. And look, in the end times, it'll be us against the world, my friends. Even against Israel. And I don't mean literal Israel, though that might be the case as well. I'm saying the fake Christians. Because Israel can kind of represent the fake Christians. Judah can represent the true believers who are following King David. We're going to be persecuted by a lot of false Christians. I mean that's happening today. Alright, look at verse number three. Well, we'll skip down to verse number four. Verse number three, David just goes back and he basically puts his concubines in isolation for what was done with Absalom. And they basically become widows until their death. And the lesson you can learn there, you say, that's messed up, why did he do that? Well, the lesson we can get from that is this, never become a concubine. Because you come out losing no matter what. So, that's it. They only get one verse. Verse number four says, then said the king to Amasa, assemble me the men of Judah within three days and be thou here present. Now, who's Amasa? Well, if you remember, he was the general who was serving under Absalom, right? And as a consolatory move, basically what David does is he gives Joab's position to Amasa. Basically he says, you're the one in charge now. And he's kind of trying to reconcile, he's trying to win the hearts over, so he does it to kind of win them over. But here's the problem, because we're all for demoting Joab because he's such a scoundrel. But here's the problem, Amasa is just not really qualified for the job either. Because what David's saying is this, hey, you need to go throughout all Israel and find all the loyal supporters of David in three days because we're going to start a fight and we're going to find this guy Sheba and put him to death. And you need to get this done in three days. So he has a deadline, he's like, go do this in three days, right? Why is he saying in three days? Because he doesn't want the same thing to happen to him as what happened to Absalom, with Absalom. So Amasa, verse number five, went to assemble the men of Judah, but he tarried longer than the set time which he had appointed him. So he's just lagging it. He's procrastinating, he's lagging, he's not doing it in three days, he's taking four days, five days, six days, seven days, who knows how long. And this is not good, verse six says, And David said to Abishai, Now shall Sheba the son of Bichariah do us more harm than did Absalom. Take thou thy Lord's servants to pursue after him, lest he get him fenced cities and escape us. And there went out after him Joab's men and the Cherithites and the Pelethites and all the mighty men, and they went out of Jerusalem to pursue after Sheba the son of Bichariah. So David is pretty much fed up with Amasa and he's just like, this is not good, he's doing more harm because of the fact that now Sheba is going to have an opportunity to really assemble more troops and get more people to follow him and then this civil war is going to be really bad. So what is David trying to do here? He's trying to remove the head of the rebellion because if he can remove the head, a civil war doesn't have to break out. Lives can be spared, people don't have to die, just get rid of the main problem here and the problem will essentially dissolve, it will kind of go away as long as you remove the leader. It's somewhat of a, not in its proper context, you smite the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered. Well you smite the leader even of a bad rebellion and then essentially you don't have this insurrection taking place. So what he does is that he sends his men along with Abishai to go pursue after Sheba. He's like, I'm giving you the job now, you go after Sheba. Verse 8 says, when they were at the great stone which is in Gibeon, Amasa went before them and Joab's garment that he had put on him was girded unto him and upon it girded with the sword fastened upon his loins and the sheath thereof and as he went forth it fell out. And Joab said to Amasa, art thou in health my brother? And Joab took Amasa by the beard with the right hand to kiss him. So what's going on here? Well because Joab is such a wicked person, he sees this as an opportunity to get his position back. Now there's a couple things that we can interpret this as. Either Joab is just a really wicked person, which I believe he is, and he's just trying to kill Amasa to retain his position once again. Or he legitimately loves David and he's just like, you know what, Amasa's kind of fishy here. This guy can't seem to get the job done. He might be for the other people, this is why he's taking so long, so he takes Amasa out of the picture. And you can kind of see why he would think that, because Amasa was under Absalom for a time. He's taken a long time. Now look, if I was Amasa I'd be like, I don't want the king questioning my loyalty. He said three days, I'll get it done in one. Right? Like he wants three days, most I'll take is two. Because you would want to make a good impression. This is your first day on the job, Amasa. Don't screw up on the first day. Do a good job, exceed the expectations of the king so that you have a good reputation before the king. But he's kind of taking his time, he's not doing a good job, and Joel was just like, well I'm going to take an opportunity to just slay this guy. And he does it in a very subtle way. So what he does is he has a sword and it falls out, but essentially what he's doing is he's catching it so that Amasa doesn't see it when he comes to him. He says, art thou in good health, brother? Now what does that mean? Does he really care for his health? Because he's about to kill him. This is called flattery. Art thou in health, my brother? And he takes Amasa by the beard with the right hand to kiss him. Now what does the Bible say? The kisses of an enemy are deceitful. This is another sign of flattery. Now today we don't do this. Kissing, I'm saying with individuals who are not our spouses. But in these days, obviously it was just a very cultural thing to do. Kiss on the boy, I mean there's someone in the church who actually does that. But only to the man with the man. He's not weird guys, he's just a cultural thing. When he's overwhelmed with joy, he has a tendency. Let me just say this, let me just warn you. Don't make a really good joke about the Jews because you'll get a kiss on the forehead. I'll just leave it at that. If you ever make a killer joke, you will merit a kiss on the forehead. I'm just telling you. And a hug. Okay, very very very uncomfortable for you. He means nothing by it, other than he loves your sense of humor. But you know they would do this, so this is kind of like something that people would do. However, he's being deceitful, he's being subtle, this is flattery, and he's trying to get him nice and close in order to kill him. Now you know there's another person who also kissed someone on the cheek in a deceitful way. Oh yeah, Judas! Hell Rabbi as he kisses him and then he's also turning him in for thirty pieces of silver. So he's obviously a very wicked person, he's doing so he can get nice and close in order to pierce him through. Verse number 10 says, But a master took no heed to the sword that was in Joab's hand, so he smote him therewith in the fifth rib, and shed out his bowels to the ground, and struck him not again, and he died. So Joab and Abishai, his brother, pursued after Sheba, the son of Bichrai. So this is pretty bad. This guy is not an enemy, he's on the same side as David, he's doing David's job. I mean, albeit he is lagging and he's procrastinating and he's not doing a good job, but he's still on the right side and Joab just decides to kill him. Verse number 11 says, So obviously people are standing there looking at this and they're probably like, and so someone who's close to Joab is just like, hey, whoever's for David, you're going to be for Joab. So everyone's just kind of like, oh okay, we just killed one of our own here. Verse 12 says that he's wallowing in his blood in the midst of the highway. And when the man saw that all the people stood still, he removed Amazah out of the highway into the field and cast a cloth upon him when he saw that everyone that came by him stood still. Yeah, well Joab, you just killed one of your own. So, you know, Joab could just kill someone and just move on with his life. He could just slay someone in the fifth rib and just be like, alright, so where did he go? Where's Abel? He's like looking at his map, he's like scrolls, he's like, where am I going here? He's like moved on because he's such a scoundrel, he could just move on from doing such a wicked act. But the normal people who are there, they're just like, this is the general, you just killed a general. And then Joab is there and he's just like, hey, hello? Oh, he's like, yeah, we should take care of this, huh? And he moves him out of the way and he puts a cloth on him like as if that does anything. He's just like, oh great, you know, he's not there anymore or something. What is removing him out of the way and putting a sheet over him change? Nothing. You're still wicked, Joab. It doesn't cover your sin. I mean, this is the same thing with like Adam and Eve when they made apron, clothes out of leaves. To cover their nakedness, it's like that does nothing. God can still see your sin, you can put a sheet over your transgression, but it's still very apparent to God and to others that you killed this person. So what's the lesson that we can learn there? You know, when you sin, when you commit a great transgression or iniquity, a simple act like that, putting a sheet over your sin doesn't help anything. Justice needs to be paid. Moving it out of the way doesn't remove it from God's eyes. Putting a sheet over it of excuses and reasons why you did it and trying to cover your sin does nothing. And in fact, the Bible says if you try to cover your sin, you're not going to receive mercy, only if you confess it, shall you obtain mercy. Whosoever confesses and forsakes it shall obtain mercy. That's what the Bible says. You can't cover the multitude of your sin using a sheet, using excuses, trying to justify your sin. Well, this is why I did it. It doesn't help. Moving a mask a couple feet off the road and putting a sheet over as he's wallowing in his blood changes nothing. And I preached this sermon a couple years ago regarding this story and how a lot of churches do this. They basically have this wicked sin in their church and they think they can just sweep the body under the rug. You know, they have this glaring problem of pedophilia in their church where children are being molested, bus drivers are molesting the bus kids, Sunday school teachers, song leaders. They're just this cesspool of pedophilia and reprobation in their church and what do they do? They try to just sweep the pedophiles under the sheet, put it under the rug as if no one can see it. And then they tell their congregation, you know, don't go on social media, don't listen to the news, don't listen to what's going on, you know, don't believe everything you hear. It's just like, dude, the lady who got molested is right outside the door, dude. The guy's arrested for this. And you know, the church has like decades of cases where children are molested and what do they do? They just take the body and hide it under the sheet as if that does anything at all. I mean, how can you as a pastor even get up on a Sunday morning to preach to your congregation after something like that? What makes you think you have any type of authority to even get up and preach God's word when you got a bunch of bodies in your church, not literally obviously, you guys get what I'm saying here, a mass that was wallowing in his blood under a sheet. And everyone knows about it. Like all the congregation are just like, that guy was a pastoral staff here and he was committing this or he was a song leader and he was committing this. And he's just like, nothing to see here, folks. Nothing to see here. Don't pay attention to the children that were molested and all this nonsense that's going on. You know, a lot of churches operate like that. That's how First Baptist Church of Hammond was with Jack Scott, who recently got out unfortunately. Where all this nonsense is taking place and instead of actually dealing with the problem in a correct way, they smite it under the fifth rib and hide it under a sheet and just move it out of the highway where everyone can still see it and think that no one's going to look at their transgression or something. It's nonsense. So this is Joab's insidiousness. He just kills them, removes them and think that that can just take care of the job. And let me say this, you know, when it comes to your sin, my sin, we need to make sure that when we sin, we confess it before the Lord. Get it right, forsake it, right? And make sure that we are confessing our sins daily, that we're not harboring or regarding iniquity in our hearts and not just trying to cover it up with the sheets known as excuses or whatever it may be. We need to make sure that we're covered by the blood of Christ. Amen? He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We don't need to cover our sins, we need to be cleansed of our sins, which takes place when we confess them on a daily basis. And so that's the application there. All right, let's move on here. This is the really cool part of the story. All right, so when he was removed out of the highway, all the people went out on after Joab to pursue Sheba the son of Baker, verse 13. And he went through all the tribes of Israel and to Abel. So we're going to skip some of these verses here. Go down to verse 16. So he's kind of like searching for Sheba because Sheba's taken off. He ran. He's on the run. They know they're out to kill him. So what he does, he goes to a city called Abel, okay, and he's essentially hiding there, hoping that, you know, he's not going to die or something. Verse 16, Then cried a woman, or look at verse 15, excuse me, and they came and besieged him in Abel of Bethmakah. And they cast up a bank against the city, and it stood in the trench, and all the people that were with Joab battered the wall to throw it down. So they're just like, you know, we know he's in there. Beat down the doors until we can get him. Then cried a wise woman out of the city. Hear, hear, say I pray you unto Joab. Come near hither that I may speak with thee. So the city has this wise woman come out, and she's trying to negotiate with Joab, okay. And you can see why she's wise. This is a very wise woman, okay. This is not some compromising person. This is not some leave him alone. I'm his mother. He's one of us now. Leave him be or something. No, she's got wisdom. You're going to see right now why she has a lot of wisdom. When he was come near, verse 17, unto her, the woman said, Art thou Joab? And he answered, I am he. Then she said unto him, Hear the words of thine handmaid, and he answered, I do hear. Then she spake and say, They were wont to speak in old times, saying, They shall surely ask counsel at Abel. And so they ended the matter. I am one of them that are peaceable and faithful in Israel. Thou seekest to destroy a city and a mother in Israel. Why wilt thou swallow up the inheritance of the Lord? So she's like, Why are you going to destroy this entire city for one guy? You know, and when she says she's a mother in Israel, it's just referring to the fact that she's probably like an elderly woman. Okay, which signifies, obviously, based upon the previous verses that she has a lot of wisdom we see here. And Joab answered in verse 20 and said, Far be it, far be it from me, that I should swallow up or destroy the city. The matter is not so. But a man of Mount Ephraim, she but the son of Bichrai by name, had lifted up his hand against the king, even against David. Deliver him only, and I would depart from the city. And the woman said unto Joab, Behold, his head shall be thrown to thee over the wall. Modern translation would be this, Say less. I got you. No problem. Taken care of. Okay, because he's like, you know, I don't have any beef with the city. I'm not trying to destroy the city. But there's one guy who's in there who's lifted up himself against the king. We want him. And the lady's just like, No problem. We'll decapitate his head and throw it over the wall. Need anything else? You know, customer service with a smile, my friend. And you know what? Joab, if I was in Joab shoes, I'm like, Man, this lady's legit. Like, this lady's better than a Massa. Verse 22, Then the woman went unto all the people in her wisdom. What does that mean? She's like, Alright, guys, this guy needs to die. I can't do it because I'm a woman. We just got to figure out how to take that guy's head off and throw it over the wall. That's what it means when it said she went into all the people in her wisdom. And they cut off the head of Sheba, the son of Bikrai, and cast it out to Joab. Who had the job of lopping that thing over? It's just like, I mean, they could have just brought it to the door, but you know. And he blew a trumpet and he retired from the city. Every man to his tent and Joab returned to Jerusalem unto the king. Now, this is a great story. Why did they chop off his head? Why didn't they just bring him to Joab to slay him and just take his body? I'll tell you why. First and foremost, it was supposed to be a message to anyone that if anybody tries to make themself, because a head is what? What does a head signify? Leader, right? Authority, leader. It's to signify if any fake leader is trying to come up and take over, so shall it be unto them. And more also, right? Like the head, you remove the head and the rebellion ceases. So often, you know, the thing to do whenever there's some sort of rebellion or insurrection, you just got to find that one person who's leading it. You take care of that one person and it goes away. Understand? And who knows? We might have some sort of insurrection in this church one day. You just never know. I might be looking at some insurrectionists right now. I don't know. I might be looking at some rebellious people right now. I don't know. But if it were to ever happen, all I have to do is look for Sheba, the son of Bikrai, and spiritually decapitate him. Right? Bring him before the church, call him out by name, and essentially lop that head over, right? And the problem will disintegrate or go away because you got to take care of the one who's running the entire thing. Okay? Instead of dealing with everyone, you just deal with that one person and it often dissipates. You say, what if other people try to like, you know, take over after that? I mean, if you got the head, the arms and the legs are not that hard. Right? Very great picture here, you know, and David's trying to send a message here like he's a benevolent king. He's a kind and benevolent king. He's gracious. He's kind. He's very merciful. He's long suffering, but don't cross him. He will chop off your head. And you know what? I think this is a great quality for all leaders to have. And in fact, in my opinion, you know, pastors can't, people can't be pastors, men can't be pastors if they don't have that type of mentality. If they're not willing to chop off some heads to get the job done. Too many nice pastors nowadays. Too many people who are just too passive and they just let everyone walk all over them. We need a new generation of pastors to rise up and don't put up with the nonsense and the bullcrap that people try to bring when they come to a church. Right? You know, when people try to come to our church and try to, you know, disrespect me like just in an indirect way or disrespect the leadership, chop off the heads right away. That's why when something happens in our services or in our church and someone even just shows that type of disrespect, I immediately diffuse it right away. I'll call that person out right to their face. Not putting up with that nonsense. Get rid of Sheba right away or humble Sheba right away. Let them know who's boss. Let them know who's in charge. Well, that's not really pastoral leadership. Then go to Calvary Chapel then where you can walk all over that pastor. He's a Sheba too. Go with Sheba Son of Bikrai Church where you can walk all over the pastor and you can do whatever you want there and teach whatever you want and be disrespectful and belittle the leadership and say all manner that you want. Not here my friends. And so I think that's important for churches to have that type of leadership. The church, Lord willing, if we ever start a church, we're not going to retain some guy who's unwilling to, you know, lop off some heads. You know, it's kind of sad that there wasn't some dude at Abel who said this. It had to be a wise woman. I mean, thankfully, right? Where's the dudes at? Where's the guy who came up and was like, Joab, don't worry, I got you. It required a woman to do it. But we want to send out men who have that cutthroat mentality in a sense of, hey, you know what? We're not going to just allow problems to just persist in the church and allow people to be disrespectful and try to cause an insurrection and be disrespectful indirectly and take shots at the leadership and take shots at the pastor and say all this. We cut it off immediately. And look, you have my permission. If there's people like this in our church, you don't even have to pull them aside. Just do it right there in front of them. Just correct them right then and there. Say, hey, you want to repeat that to everyone in this church, what you just said to me in my face right now? And so, great move there. Too bad Amasa couldn't do it, you know? And then at the end, verse 23 through 25 is essentially, you know, David's new administration. We're not going to go over that. But it just tells us there who is the one administrating. But I will say this is that at the end of verse 26, this is Ira also, a Jeri, was a chief ruler about David. And I think what this is referring to is just essentially a person who's there to kind of teach David the word of God. So it kind of shows you that even though David is a king, he has someone there still holding him accountable. He's still learning. He's not someone who claims to have arrived. And so a great story here. And that's pretty much it. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this story. I pray you help us as your people, Lord, to be aware of the Shiba's in our personal lives and churches, Lord. May we be able to identify them when they come, Lord. And I pray, Father God, that you'd help us as your people to lop off the head if needed. And so there's no room for passive leadership, Lord. We need to be aggressive, especially in the day and age in which we live. And so, Lord, may you bless us as a church. Help us to continue to preach the kingdom of God and get a lot of people saved, Lord. And serve you without distraction. But also recognize that these are some of the dangers that can be posed to us as a church. That we may readily deal with them when necessary, Lord. We love you. We thank you. Pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, 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 all together nice and strong. When I can read my title clear to mansions 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 and fiery darts be hurled, 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 deluge come and storms of sorrow fall. May I but safely reach my home, my God, my heaven, my all. May I but safely reach my home, 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.