Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
Jesus you are truly God With Us Lord the New Testament and the Old Testament both reveal that you are God manifested In the Flesh the son given the government upon your shoulders you are called wonderful counselor the Mighty God the Everlasting father and the prince of peace Lord the Apostle Paul said in Colossians that you are the fullness of the godhead bodily in the beginning was the word and the Word was with God and the Word was God and Lord we thank you you are the Living Word Jesus you are God manifested In the Flesh you are fully the Creator all things were made by you and without you nothing was made we worship the King of Kings and the Lord of lords and you're willing to take on a human body die on the cross for our sins and that while we were yet sinners Lord you showed your love to us taking our sins in your body suffering on the cross dying for us the sinless Spotless Lamb of God God In the Flesh he rose from the dead the third day and you say believe me just believe in me come to me walk with me obey me and I'll give you Heaven and Earth and all eternity Lord you just want us to walk away from loving the evil the lust the perversion the greed the things that are in this world you don't want us to love the things that are in this world you just want us to turn loose and to love you and Obey you I pray that people watching and listening that we all do that or we'll turn loose not sin Idols distractions the Love of Money the cares in this world the deceitfulness of riches sexual immorality drugs alcohol nothing is worth missing out on first a relationship with you and your presence and missing out on eternity with you Lord I pray you help us make that real today in Jesus name amen you may be seated you gotta something to share there okay just a quick little word this morning this is Psalm 103 and this is for I know I've been dealing with this and I know there's got to be people out there that are dealing with not feeling like
you're living up to the expectations that God has for you and this Psalm 103 1-6 really spoke to me this morning just to to reaffirm that God loves us and that he is not forsaking us and he's not leaving us and he's not pushing us to the side it's bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless His holy name the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits so all have his benefits don't forget it then goes on to say who forgives all thine iniquities who heals all that infirmities or diseases says who redeems thy life from destruction who crowns thee with loving kindness and Tender Mercies who satisfies thy mouth with good things so that thy youth is renewed like the eagles the Lord executes righteousness and judgment for all that oppressed and that's that spoke to me this morning and I know somebody else out there needed to hear it this morning too because the Lord really put it on my heart to share that so just remember all the benefits of God are ours yeah and not forget them amen amen Hallelujah yeah it is a wonderful thing to know that your sins are forgiven I'm telling you people out there that's never been born again they've never truly known Jesus as their lord and savior and felt that burden of all that sin and evil and wickedness and lift off of you you're missing out you're just missing out it's true peace it's true Joy it's true freedom marijuana will give it to you alcohol won't give it to you all that stuff wears off and then you feel worse Jesus is real the presence of God is real and he manifested yes sir read it loud all right I'll come up here come up here confirmation of what Kevin just shared with us this morning I was in psalm 68. and the one verse that I chose to write down out of all of the chapter right there was verse 19. like Kevin was saying uh you know God loads us up with benefits and that's what this verse says it says blessed be the Lord who daily loads us with benefits the god of our Salvation exclamation point on the end of that
I mean I just had to just had to come up here and share that is directly in line with what Kevin just shared and that's what God gave me this morning be in Bank praise God I like that I like to hear when the Lord's sharing things with each of you I want you this morning everybody to turn to second Samuel chapter 23. second Samuel chapter 23. the lord has laid a word on my heart this morning and uh hopefully this is not something that I read last night or studied out or prayed about I just uh I was studying something else and preparing something else but this morning the Lord just kind of laid this on me about the P patch and the word AWOL we're going to talk about that in just a second but this is David's last words you know David King David was known as the man after God's Own Heart what a perfect man by any mean we know his Falls we know his stumbles we know the times when he was obeying God in the times that he was not he had his ups and downs as a man of God he had his struggles but for the most part and the majority of his life he lived fully in love with God I mean fully there was no holding back he worshiped God he was a musician he worshiped god with his stringed instrument he was faithful as a young man with the Sheep pending the Sheep he was faithful in little things and we know what happens and a man loves God and worships God and the man of prayer and he's faithful in Little Things what happened God makes him ruler over much and David Little David the youngest of eight Brothers God picks him out to be king of Israel and not only to be king of Israel not only to anoint him but also to make him king and a prophet and a priest David was a priest after the order of Melchizedek and David fulfilled those three offices and then God spoke of David and even though he wasn't a perfect man even though he committed adultery he didn't discipline his children correctly at times he fell into an adulterous Affair had a child that died ended up killing a man to try to cover up his sin I mean he did some bad things but who
hasn't there's not one of us alive that can say that we haven't sinned and broken God's law and we can't say that we haven't you say well I never I never committed adultery or I never murdered anyone but the Bible says if you hate your brother in your heart You're a murderer and eternal life is not in you First John 3 15. very clear right so we've all done things that really we deserve punishment we deserve judgment we deserve wrath we deserve ultimately to go to hell because we have broken God's law and I'm going to say to you also one of the greatest things that we're warned about is not to be an offense or a stumbling block especially to younger ones young people or young people who are young Christians or new Christians we're not to do things and live a bad example as a Christian to cause people to stumble Jesus said it'd be better for you if a millstone were hung about your neck and you were drowned in the depths of the sea then for you to offend or cause to stumble and to sin one of these little ones so uh I look at that sometimes and I go you know when we as Christians do stumble and fall when we are a bad example to whether it be our children little ones or new Believers or even the unsaved world out there when I look at that you know it ought to Humble us to go oh God you know if if my life or my actions or my mistakes or my sins my fault my stumbles has caused someone else to stumble and fall boy Lord please forgive me please forgive me you know that's why really I'm going to tell you the truth one of the reasons that we should endeavor to obey God as best as we can to live the Christian life according to the scriptures to live holy and righteous and obedient more than anything more than just for us people are watching people are watching what we do actions speak louder than words I'm telling you all the time you know my dad told a story the other day and I'd forgotten this he told me before but you know he was unsaved back in the in the 70s you know drinking and just living his life and you know had us little kids and me and my brother my sister and my mom and at the time and just not going to church nobody saved you know and my brothers you know we played football and baseball mainly were the sports we played and my brother's baseball team coach uh my dad would go and watch their practice you know and they'd pick it you know pick us up and so he saw these guys coaches of this my brother's little little league baseball team and he said he told us this the other day he said he saw them he said there was just something different about him
he said there was something different about the way they interacted with each other the way they interacted with the kids the you know the little league baseball team and he finally he said after watching these guys for a while he went up to him and he said I don't know what's going on or I don't know what the deal is but something's different about you guys and I want to know what it is and they all looked at each other and smiled and said we go to the same church and they were all saved and dad said well I want to go to that church and dad went to that church and he took us to that church and that's where Dad first was born again and he met Jesus in that church that little Baptist Church on the north side of town that's where I had my first encounter with Jesus and my brother did that wasn't just the beginning I mean but it was the it was a good beginning but I think about it it was the influence the example of three other Christian men living what they said they believed um sadly today we got way too many people that say one thing and do another all right and this is something that as Christians if we have fallen short and I'm not trying to put in guilt or condemnation on anybody this is something if you've done it you've been a bad example you've caused others to stumble you haven't done what you should have done he doesn't he say God forgive me I I really was a bad example there God please if I cause this person to stumble or that person or I hurt that person please forgive me and please have mercy on them and and and touch them in a special way that they my actions don't make them run away from from Jesus right this is so vitally important um David did that David after his fall with Bathsheba the adultery and having her husband a plot and having her husband left alone in a battle and killed in battle it was all exposed by the prophet Nathan David though fell on his face he wept he repented he spent much time making humbling himself admitting his sin and and making things right between him and the Lord and getting forgiveness that's what Psalm 51 is all about Psalm 51 is Lord Purge me with hyssop that means wash me in the blood that means forgive me don't cast me away from your presence don't take your Holy Spirit from me and we know that God forgave him so the Psalms like what you read this morning Kevin Psalm 103 which you read this is David rejoicing in the Forgiveness of God that he received but it wasn't automatic it wasn't just because God said okay I'm just going to give it to you that's because David understood that he had to Humble himself and he had to seek that forgiveness until he knew in his heart that he received it and his relationship
with the Lord was restored again it's not always instant grits right not always instant stuff forgiveness though is something that God's provided it is a benefit but we have to seek it and we can't take it lightly there's a lot of there's a lot of Christians out there that think that God is obligated to forgive them because he says he will forgive and oh God's so loving and he's so forgiving I don't really have to make sure I confess and repent I don't really have to be diligent to make sure that my life is right with the Lord but see David David is an example to us really shows us how a man or woman God Who Loved God can fall into terrible sin but through humility and diligence get back right with the Lord and know that they've turned from that sin and and you know people make it out too A lot of people make it out like David uh that he was just an adulterer he never did it again see that's repentance too yes he committed adultery but he didn't keep practicing adults repentance means you don't keep doing it all right A lot of people think well God forgive me for my adultery but they don't get out of the adult that's not the way it works that's not the way forgiveness works we must confess our sins and forsake them that's what Proverbs says right Proverbs 16 6 I believe it is so David had an interesting life fighting giants the Nephilim being King being chased around by the former King you know being chased out of his kingdom by his own son we had an interesting line killing off the four brothers of Goliath the Giant constant battles with the Philistines and there was always in this stuff even though they were physical battles and they were physical uh you know War battles there was a spiritual element to them because for instance Goliath wasn't just a you know nine to 11 foot giant Nephilim half human and half Fallen Angel but there was a supernatural element to Goliath and that's why I believe David understood it's not a full the battle I have with Goliath is not fully just man on man there's a spiritual side to this and the Lord is with me and he's in trouble I don't care how big he is right so David understood there was a physical battle going on a physical war and a
spiritual war and I want to show you that David 's last words whatever a man of God speaks his last words the the things we hear men of God say on their deathbed or they want on their tombstones um whenever they speak their last words you didn't pay attention these were the last words of David I want to read them we're going to look at David and his mighty men as well because he speaks about them here so the second Samuel 23 verse 1 now these be the last words of David David the son of Jesse said the man who was raised up on high the anointed of God the god of Jacob the sweet psalmist of Israel the spirit of the Lord spake by me and his word was in my tongue the god of Israel said the rock of Israel spake to me he that ruleth over men must be just ruling in the fear of God and he shall be at the light of the morning when the Sun rises even as the morning without clouds as the tender grass springing out of the Earth by clear shining after rain he says although my house be not so with God he says you know I didn't do it all right yet he hath made me and made with me an Everlasting Covenant ordered in all things ensure for this is all my salvation and All My Desire although he make it not to grow but the sons of Belial meaning the evil ones the traitors the people who turned on David he said but the sons of Belial shall be all of them as Thorns thrust away because they cannot be taken with hands but the man that shall touch them must be fenced with iron and the staff of a spear and they shall be utterly burned with fire in the same place they're talking about the men of wickedness the men of wickedness uh going to the fire so David David talks about salvation right talks about hell talks about God speaking to him all these things are vitally important foundations of our faith right let's keep going and then it goes into this in verse 8. These be the names of the Mighty Men whom David had I believe they that these are mentioned right here in the midst of David's last words because let me just say that for any leader for any man of God one of the most important things is to have other mighty men and women around you Warriors soldiers loyalty commitment the willingness to fight even if it seems over something that's insignificant I'm going to show you that
in just a second but let's read about these Mighty Men real quick because this is contained in David's last words and I think he was reminiscing because to a man of God to a woman of God who's been in the battle I mean you think about it any Soldier out there that's gone to war you know maybe maybe not sometimes the the war was just there was a just cause a real cause to go to war sometimes there's not you know our government's gone to war many times over the wrong reasons over lies and deception but the soldiers the soldiers they're the ones they're the they're the ones that they're there to fight and risk their lives and really when it boils down to you talk to any Soldier that's been to War I never been to war but I've talked to a few of them I was friends with a man who fought and World War II Korea Vietnam man served in 101st the 82nd Airborne and the Marine and he was interested in Mr Q never forget him in his 80s he still had muscles I mean he still had arms he could he was something else talked about meeting General Patton but I remember what what he spoke of I I sat with him one day he's in his 80s still in good shape he may still be alive now I just I don't know but I spoke to him one day and you know the story he told me he was at the Battle of the Bulge with Patton and he said he said my best friend we were we were friends through the whole thing we pushed through Europe he said my best friend on this particular day he said we were moving through kind of a sparse Forest and a German was hiding German Nazi Soldier was hiding behind this tree and was had his rifle aimed at him and he said I didn't see him he was about to shoot me my friend turned and killed him before he could kill me he said the very next day my friend was killed right in front of me Who Saved My Life this 80 something year old man tough as nails tears running down his face why was it was was his peers over the war that we won the war we lost the war you know his tears were over the fact that he watched his friend die that loyalty that friendship that in the battle together we are you know we're in it for each other in the church world I see far far too little loyalty to one another loyalty to so many other things that are messed up loyalty to people who don't care about you you're just a number to them
are people loyal to churches loyal to pastors loyal to leaders that they don't care about them at all if they cared about them they would teach them the whole truth of God's word but no to them they're only loyal to a point because they want their attendance and they want their tithe thank you and to keep everybody happy and at peace they don't tell them the truth you know I told somebody the other day true leadership true leaders must be Fearless and yes at times feared [Music] if a leader is not fearless and sometimes feared by the people he's leading he's not a leader if everybody loves him and never no one ever gets their feelings hurt then he's a butt kisser yeah all right that's the way it is I assure you I am not a butt kisser but I think everybody knows that by now all right but David was a true leader and David valued and the reason I believe he spoke about these men and these men are recorded here in his last words right before his death as an old man it's because they were that was that was one of the things besides his relationship with God that was one of the things that was the most special to him were the Mighty Men the Warriors the soldiers the the the men with heart and loyalty in the face of everything the men who fought with him against these Supernatural forces not just physical forces and I'm going to show you that it was both because one of these men fought 800 Men by himself and won the battle that tells me that David had some men that didn't just have physical strength and skills with weapons that they had the anointing of the Holy Ghost upon them the spirit of God was upon them they were Supernatural Warriors but they were very committed to David they were committed to God they were committed to each other and there was loyalty there these men were never AWOL let's look at it verse 8. These be the names of the Mighty Men whom David the attackmanite whom David had I'm sorry the tacmanite that sat in the seat Chief among the captains the same was adino the esnite he lifted up his spear against 800 men whom he slew at one time that's a man right there you know I know I got an Army Ranger it listens to us regular I know they're Warriors we got a Marine in here they're Warriors we have Navy Seals Special Forces
right Delta Force they got nothing on this guy right adino de S Knight was a warrior 800 men he slew with a spear at one time I would like to have seen that battle after him was Elie Azar the son of Dodo the ahoite say that three times fast Elias are the son of Dodo yahohi one of the three mighty men with David when they defied the Philistines that were there gathered to battle and the men of Israel were gone away he arose and smote the Philistines until his hand was weary and his hand cleaved unto The Sword and the Lord wrought a great victory that day and the people returned after him only to spoil let me say this about leasar the son of DOTA via hohic notice it says that he stood with David when the men of Israel the rest of the soldiers ran away let me tell you something in the church world in in being a man of God or being a woman of God the true mighty men and women the true loyalty is always revealed when a battle starts the ones that are not loyal the ones who are fickle the ones who are weak the ones who love other things they run away but the ones who are loyal to you the ones who are Soldiers with you the ones who have said I'm going to live and fight and die with this brother they don't run they stand and they fight a battle Against All Odds and numbers and when I'm just going to tell you I need mighty men and women amen I'm asking for that I want to show you though there was one more there was three of them there were some let's read it verse 11. and after him was shama the son of A.G the hair right and the Philistines were gathered together into a troop and there was a piece of ground full of lentils and the people fled from the Philistines but he stood in the midst of the ground and defended it and slew the Philippine Philistines and the Lord wrought a great victory and all of this happened he was talking about in the Valley of raphaim the Valley of the Giants now let me say this about shama and this is what I want to talk about the P patch a little bit today lentils or peas we'll just call them peas and this is a trait
you know I I see I see three things in these men I see in the first one he had the supernatural power of the Holy Ghost upon him to fight 800 Men by himself so that means he was a man of prayer he was a man of morality he was a man of of uh true submission to Authority he was a man who understood his calling and his place he was under his man that stood loyalty in battle he was a man understood fasting in prayer what I'm saying is this man was Adina was not AWOL from anything he needed to do he was not undisciplined he was not weak he was not a runner run away when things got tough so we see he had Supernatural power five 800 Men by himself I don't care how strong he was or how skilled he was that's holy ghost power upon him to fight 800 men it reminds me of Samson when the Holy Spirit would come upon Samson and he picked up a job on it said he killed a thousand men that's not just a man doing that that's the supernatural power of God Almighty upon a man to make him supernaturally strong I believe in the days ahead we may even have to be some of that I'm 48 I'm not as strong fast or uh tough as I used to be but I believe if I had to fight a platoon of soldiers physically God will give me what I need amen just like I believe if we need food and the bag of rice is running empty I believe we can pray and God will multiply that bag of rice just like he did I don't I believe everything in the Bible that God did supernaturally is possible again for us if we believe it and we needed it at a moment in time it's better to have you you can have all the strength and weapons and skill in the world but you still need God amen because one sniper can take you out you could be the strongest man the best warrior but if you don't have the favor of God the protection of God one sniper take you out like that right and then we see the next thing a man stands when everyone else leaves but shama was interesting here you know why it wasn't 800 men we don't know how many men in the Philistines 1 800 men it wasn't in the midst of a battle that was like you know something that would be historic no Shama saw that the Philistines were going to take a little P patch a little garden of lentils that belong to the people of God I don't know how big this little Pea Patch was and I don't know how many people it would have fed but you know what shama said I don't care how small insignificant or unimportant it may seem this Garden this Pea Patch belongs to
God 's people and the enemy is not going to have it and everybody else runs away and Shama stays by himself and fights against clearly outnumbered over a pee patch he risked his life over a pee patch and this is what I believe so many Christians especially in America cannot grasp they cannot grasp that sometimes God wants you to stand and fight and be loyal over something that seems small and insignificant and unimportant simply out of principle that it belongs to God that it is of god and that it will feed God's people amen you understand what I'm saying too many times and I've seen this in Christianity they're looking for what's I call the Christian celebrity Church Realm they're looking for the next big thing the next new fad the next new mech Church the next new sad in the church world a bunch of pastors out there in their 50s and 60s wearing skinny jeans that should not be happening understand what I'm saying there is a ridiculous level in this world where in in the church and among Christians let me remind you of something Timothy said gain is not godliness don't assume gain is godliness there are people that assume if a church is Big it must be doing something right let me tell you sometimes if a church is Big it's because they're doing everything wrong and they're giving people what they want and they're tickling their little ears I mean Joel Osteen's church is a perfect example of that what's what's sad is is that this church growth caught that's out there and that's what David Wilkerson called it in his book set thy trumpet to thy mouth in the in the 80s in 1985 when he wrote the book he already said there's a church growth cult growing in the in America that there's the obsession is growth at all costs and whatever we have to do however we have to tailor things however we have to manipulate people however we have to lure them in I find it absolutely ridiculous
beyond words do I find it ridiculous but let me say this you can always find a pastor the church Sunday school class a youth group you can always find some some church or some group that calls itself a church to tell you what you want to hear you can't always find that but I'm gonna tell you what I know this to be true and I'm not speaking this out of Pride or out of arrogance or anything else I know I've been in this church world in America for 30 years some well really longer if we go back to when we started it's been longer than 30 years closer to 40. right I can tell you that there is there appears to be these beautiful buildings and churches everywhere but there's so little so little actual peas in the patch to feed anybody you know I look at shama why did he risk his life fight who knows how many Philistines over a p patch why would he fight over something so small and insignificant was it just out of principle Maybe he realized that that pee patch with some family or two or three families that had little children and they wasn't going to eat you understand maybe decided this is food somebody will be fed by this so it's worth fighting for right you get what I'm saying this is why look I'm going to tell you something right now there are days that I get so discouraged as a pastor over the fact that I see so many people AWOL not just from church but from doing what I know they should be doing in prayer in fasting in the word in witnessing and praying for their Pastor I know there's a bunch of of areas in our lives where we're AWOL and God wants us to switch a little bit more from being AWOL in some areas to being disciplined to being soldiers to deciding are we going to be mighty men and women of God are we going to be loyal to first to God and to where God has put us are we going to be loyal and diligent and fight with all our might even if it's over a little p patch are we going to run when it gets tough
I've watched most people run most people most Christians run from the truth that they cannot handle you know Colonel Jessup had it right people going who's Colonel Justin Colonel Nathan R Jesse Few Good Men Tom Cruise screams I want the truth he says you can't handle the truth and that's the most part most Christians that I know oh no they'll say I can handle the truth oh really no what you're saying to me is you can handle part of it the parts you like in the Bible the parts you want to hear the parts you've deemed important right let me talk about some of those other parts and we'll see how loyal you are we'll see how fast you run let's talk about Christians having demons let's talk about once saved always say being alive the devil let's talk about the baptism the Holy Spirit and speaking of another tongues talk about the gifts of the Holy Spirit the gift of Prophecy let's talk about Bible prophecy martyrdom persecution boy they run run run run in fear oh chicken little running I can't take that Skyfall in business run run run far too much running I have to say granted I get some encouragement from you guys last week was awesome of the testimony I know there's more testimonies to come and I'm looking forward to that that's encouraging I get encouraging email sometimes encouraging phone calls encouraging Facebook messages every now and then but for the most part I look over the church world and frankly even within my own family and I'm disappointed I'm so disappointed and discouraged by what I see I just see such emptiness such futility so much money and time and energy wasted on churches and Ministries and things that thank you it's it's it's just a business it's a business we gotta have a certain number of people through the door a certain number of percentage of that tithing and assert
it's just that's what it is and and sadly for the most part I I just I guess I don't know maybe I'm just kind of uh what's the word I'm looking for maybe I'm just getting some things off my chest this morning venting a little bit I'm just disappointed I look at where churches churches that used to be good churches pastors that used to be good pastors my dad just told us about a church up in Spring Hill up in Tennessee an Assembly of God Church I won't name the name just yet but I'm sure there are some that'll figure it out if they live up there but Assembly of God Church I visited with them years ago when I was there I guess around 2007 when I came through but an Assembly of God Church supposed to you know the the 16 Foundation of doctrines right supposed to be a sound denomination Pentecostal domination doctrinally sound anyway supposed to be right here's a pastor of an Assembly of God Church up there near Nashville Tennessee that now is fine with homosexuality and transgender thanks that's okay because his son turns out to be gay where it is I watch the church I watched two churches in a town near here both at one time 1500 members give or take they were in that range 1500 member churches that had the anointing of the holy spirit that were teaching the truth the Holy Spirit moving you know what I'm talking about and a pastor takes over that decides we've got to build bigger buildings we've got to tone down the worship you had a pastor over in Georgia same thing we got a we gotta tone down the worship we got to make sure the gifts of the holy spirit no tongues in the service no tongues interpretation in the service we've got to tone it down but on our skinny jeans at 55 or whatever we got to tone it down shorten worship change worship and start preaching sermons that we've that we're getting from these other mega churches because they're going so we're going to do what they do I've watched this so much it just once it makes me vomit let's let's follow their model and these once churches that I'm talking about we would walk in to this particular one and you would feel the presence of God on Sunday morning from the moment you
walked in and most of the time there would be the gifts of the holy spirit would work sometimes worship would be 20 minutes and sometimes it would be an hour and a half so and the you just you couldn't wait to go to church and now that same church got a pastor that said told me to my face he said he said we're gonna we're gonna be we're going to be the mega church in town I said that's of the devil you will kill this place starting to his face and he killed it all the spiritual people the godly people the anointed people after us they just left the place but he filled it back up I mean about half of what it was but he filled it back up with people who just had itching ears and wanted Christian Light the greatest enemy right now of the church is not the Illuminati not the Satanist not the globalist not the Antichrist not the U.N the greatest enemy of the church is the lukewarm Church was the lukewarm Church we are rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing and they don't know Jesus said you don't even know he told those churches he said the sad thing about the lukewarm churches is they think they're okay they think and these are lukewarm Christians remember lukewarm churches are full of lukewarm Christians and lukewar means you're not hot or cold you're in the middle somewhere you're not you're not these radical loyal soldiers Warriors like shama and adino and and eliezon the son of Dodo the aho height these guys were intense they were intense about God they were intense about being loyal to David they were intense about winning the battles against against these Nephilim demon people the Philistines they were intense about not even letting the devil steal a little pee patch but we got lukewarm churches let's say we're rich and increase with goods and have need of nothing and you read that in Revelation 3 and you see that Jesus is standing outside that door of that church knocking to get in Jesus is not in these churches but they think he is and it is disturbing to see so many long to sleep in these lukewarm Mega Mack Church what's the word what
are those 3D printed churches we take a model here's what we're gonna do print them out and some of them the pastor is not even in the local church he's videoed in that's the new hot thing going on what happened to the local church local it's ridiculous American Christianity is more dead lukewarm number crazy money hungry weak shallow ignorant rebellious resistant to the scriptures then anytime I've watched it in all of these 30 plus years and yet these Christians walk around like peacocks thinking they're deep and their home is riddled with a cursed objects and demons and sickness and constant issues if they walk around with the peacock she showed me facing Nancy showed me the picture of this white peacock of this video he was impressive he just walked along strutting and stuff and all sudden he stops that big old tail I mean he was proud of that thing that's American Christians right there they're peacocks deep deep is a little puddle out there on the asphalt after it rains here and I'm just blown away I'm Blown Away the arrogance the attitudes I'm telling you sometimes it just makes me want to say Lord I I don't want to fight over the pre-patch anymore they don't want the P patch they want the carnival they don't want the food of scripture no they want the cotton candy I mean this is a battle I have with a six-year-old that always wants to eat Twix instead of her food but what does that tell you when a Christian says no no I can't handle that stuff I gotta go over here and get me some Christian Light it's disturbing and Christians who should know better that's what's so so sad we're not talking about just babies Christians that were just born again yesterday or a year ago I'm seeing this from people that's been in the church world for 10
20 30 years they don't they don't they put the fingers in there don't no no no I don't want to hear it I don't want to hear that I don't want to hear that let me go somewhere where I don't have to hear it well guess what there's plenty of those places you'll find them there's a very I'm gonna be honest with you there's a very small remnant the church the real Church in America and I'm talking about bible-based love God's word every bit of it praying fasting demon casting out fighting this fight that's a very small remnant of people very small I mean we found more of them but they're scattered all over the place well I mean we've we've met some and I I love see I wish somehow if we could gather all these people together we'd have we'd have some kind of meeting I'm going to tell you our friends in Halifax Nova Scotia our friends and uh Duncan or whatever British Columbia whatever the island that is I can't remember now friends you know people in Finland people throughout the U.S and little pockets here and there Philadelphia Florida but they're hungry this is what what blows my mind uh the Army Ranger friend up in uh where is it Pennsylvania I mean he says I wish my son and I could come I wish we lived closer we come to your church you know how many times I hear that but I hear that it's still it's a small remnant of people that really say I want the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth of the word of God I don't want any of the lives of the world I don't want any of the compromise of the world I don't want any of the manipulation in the church world or the church growth manipulation I don't want to just give me the word of Truth just tell me the way it is tell me the truth and what God's word says tell me what's actually happening in the world feed me the truth even if it's uncomfortable feed me the truth that's what that P patch was important because it was going to feed people it was going to feed some some some people of God and Sama said I'm not going to let the enemy steal this P pass because it's feeding people so I want to say some of you in here you fire and Grace Church people some of our extended fire ingredients listen we're our small little pea packs but we're feeding people and I will promise you I will do my best to be a Shepherd that feeds the Sheep
but we need you I need you to be Shama a Dino Zar the son of Dodo the ahoi I need you to be mighty men and women of God that are loyal that are soldiers that are warriors in the spirit and that you're not going to run when things get difficult and I'm not saying I'm not saying necessarily you run from this being your church but you run from prayer so many people when they get going through tough time they run from the prayer closet and start watching TV or they try to find some Escape they quit fasting they quit praying they quit doing spiritual warfare oh it's just too hard so I'm gonna just lay here and watch five hours of TV a lot of people though listen how many how many I could we have had more people come to this church and leave than we have in it not because there's been any scandal there's not been any scandal with me all right I'm not out chasing women cheating on my wife I'm not trying to build a mega church I'm certainly not trying to get a big salary I preach differently you know what I'm saying don't understand what I'm saying there are a few out there there's a few men and women of God out there that money and numbers and tickling ears they don't want any of that but it's a small Remnant anymore the lukewarm Church doesn't even know they're the lukewarm Church they don't know they don't know Jesus has left and is outside knocking saying let me in Jesus says to the lukewarm Church in Revelation 3. you say I am rich and he creaks with goods and have need of nothing he said yet you don't even realize you're a wretched miserable poor blind and naked wretched he says that to a church you are wretched I am going to vomit you out of my mouth you're so well that's that's not a boring that church is not born again no no if you're in his mouth you're and his stomach you're in his body and if he vomits you out of it you're vomited out of it there's only one way to be in the body of Christ you must be saved born again all right lukewarm lukewarmness is dangerous because
you actually think because you because you go to church you may even pray you may even read your Bible you may even have a bit of semblance of Christianity but it's not the passion of your heart this is what I know I drive down the road now I think about families I think about people that I used to know and I think and I'm talking about Christians Christian families Christian people and I'll think about them and the thought will come into my mind I'll realize yes they're Christians yes they go to church occasionally yes they believe in God they believe in Jesus but when I say that that's the most important thing in their life they would say it was but their actions prove different is that the most important thing strip it all away strip all away everything else passion and desire for the things of God more than the things maybe they're not even sinful things just things I'd rather do I mean we on the way to church this morning perfect example on the way to church this morning we get a phone call I guess somebody drove by saw our church sign got the phone number called my phone number my wife answered I was driving and what do they want this lady starts giving this story of how she's got to have surgery and I mean I you wouldn't believe how many calls I get of this the stories I get of course my first thought is always they want money for drugs that's nine times out of ten that's what the issue is okay now I know there's people with legitimate needs but let me let me just go here with you for a second let me explain this so this lady starts wanting money for gas so she can run around town to get ready for whatever so she can have her surgery or whatever right so she's gonna have a surgery next week or whatever but my first thought is my wife handled it great but my first thought is number one who's your who's your pastor where do you go to church if you do [Music] why aren't they helping you why haven't you talked to them and at minimum let me talk to your pastor your church to make sure you're not a nut case or a drug addict or a liar or a maniac right but then the second thing is if you're okay enough to run all over town before you have a surgery why aren't you in church somewhere you want our church to give you money but you won't even walk in the door
what kind of psychotic thinking do people have go to church somewhere give your life to Jesus and oh here's another one don't call a church that meets in a basement that has around 30 people for money when there's mega churches all over the place that are building million dollar buildings go to them for money you can understand what I'm saying I don't even get this mentality I'm going to call this little church over here that's obviously not rich and try to get money out of them when there's five or six huge ones all around us that are buying up every bit of land they can in Opelika and Auburn crazy the world has gone crazy I've helped people our church has helped people we've paid power bills and phone bills and helped people with I don't mind that there's time for that but I'd like to know a little bit more about you I'm not giving you money so you can go by Meth and boy I can tell I dealt with enough drug addicts in my day to know they have a creative demonic ability to come up with clever story after story after Story to get one more twenty dollar bill out of you so they can go get one more crack rock or whatever all right it's usually hey when you get those increments it's twenty dollars forty dollars sixty dollars or you know they they get smart sometimes and make it 42 21 I need this for David no it's for crack rock or now a mess rock or whatever it is so no I'm not handing somebody calls me on the phone with a sob story and they need twenty dollars they ain't getting it they pass it in your cruel to me well whatever go to church somewhere find a pastor go to counseling get to know somebody in the church and they will help you if they find out that your need is actually legitimate and not you're addicted to drugs or gambling or alcohol or whatever I always send them the first method as a First Baptist anyway everything [Music] hey one of their church members has probably got more money than all of us in here put together so let's go let's go find out if Jesus is in the big church
saying to people there that have have needs we'll see right I'm just being straight I know everybody's looking at it he started looking at me like oh Pastor D you get in trouble now I don't care foreign I really don't care you know that's a good thing again a leader has to be Fearless I mean listen when I was a kid living here I'd say a kid junior high high school I'm just gonna be honest I may offend somebody I don't care when I was a kid now running around 13 14 years old didn't know anything about church world or anything else you know what our nickname was for First Baptist Church let's go to the First Baptist Country Club and use their gym that's what we said and we didn't know in knowing about church entity or religion but do you understand that that's what it that as a as a child as a as a young person that's the impression we got because I remember going there and playing basketball and all this stuff no one ever told me about Jesus in there no one ever gave me a gospel track we went in there drunk playing basketball same thing First Methodist Church I'm busting something I don't care First Methodist Church when I was in high school here First Methodist Church had a dance in their Church every Friday night after football is I'm talking about a heathen music dance and we went there drunk high and rubbing up on every girl we could in the church that was the first Methodist every Friday night for years in this town foreign that happened regularly I would we would sit out on a little swing set where the kids play before we right outside the door where you walked into where we had the dances in their youth meeting where they had their youth meetings they had the dances on Friday nights we would sit there and pop pills and smoke marijuana on the church grounds before we went in there and I can tell you that people were slipping off in their Sunday school rooms and having sex of them and they let that crap go on in the church and that was in the 80s I don't know if they're still doing it they may not maybe praise God maybe they woke up and got right with God I don't know but I'm telling you that went on when I lived here in this town oh Pastor Dean you telling too much now
well you don't want to tell don't let it happen right you know do we have a problem over here okay all right we need to finish let me just say this go back and read this story and let it sink down in you what that all of it means God put it in the Bible for a reason they put it in the Bible about these Mighty Men he put it in the chapter of David's last words for a reason if you read on you see even a greater story of their loyalty to one another this is what I hope see too many people too many Christians don't understand that every decision they make every decision they make everything they do has an effect on people around them that's why it's very important that we make sure we're praying and doing what God wants us to do in every manner because it will affect someone else if shama would have run yeah maybe he would you know he'd still be alive nothing it wouldn't affected him that much if he'd run away from the P-Patch but what would happen to the p-pack what would happen to the people that the P Patcher was feeding right what I'm saying is a lot of things that we think we can be AWOL and it doesn't affect us that much but what we don't realize is how much it affects other people around us I know when people are not praying in this I can feel it I can feel it when we're getting distracted I can feel it when the things are pulling us away from the spiritual battle you got to fight for people I'm gonna tell you I'm in a fight I'm in a fight for some people right now that I know are in trouble it's a fight in prayer it's like a tug of war going on I know I could let go I could let go of the Rope I'm trying to tug somebody out of hell I'm trying to pull them out of Darkness through prayer and spiritual war but I'm going to pull them back to the Lord and out of sin and I'm pulling and they're pulling and I could let go of the rope and I would be fine because I'm gonna walk with Jesus I'm gonna walk off Jesus I'm gonna keep trying to do what God wants me to do but they won't be fine if I let go of that rope and that spiritual warfare realize that you cannot be AWOL you can't be AWOL from church you can't be AWOL from from prayer you can't be AWOL from fasting you can't be AWOL from
spiritual warfare you can't be AWOL even if it's a p patch you can't it might not affect you that much but it's affecting other people more than you realize people need Warriors to fight for them Israel was strong in the days of David not just because of David but because he had faithful loyal men that would fight even for a pee patch they would fight 800 Men by themselves they would do whatever was necessary to make sure the kingdom stood strong they were selfless Warriors and maybe some of the people that they were fighting for didn't even realize maybe maybe some of the children or some of the families didn't even realize that a man who stood in the pee patch and risked his life and battled an entire Army of Philistines to save their garden and they didn't even know it and a few days later they're just walking through picking the peas and eating the peas in the Pea pads and thinking thank God for a feed patch and they have no idea that you stood in the P patch or you stood in the P patch and fought that battle so they could have it so they could get some food some spiritual food everything you do is important in the kingdom of God everything you do has affect Charles Finney the great revivalist of the 1800s used to say everything we do we step on cords that vibrate throughout eternity everything foreign Jesus spoke very clearly our actions are either Gathering people to him or scattering them yes we've had a long weekend we better quit let's pray heavenly father I pray in Jesus name that you would give us a warrior spirit that you would give us the spirit of David's Mighty Men Lord that they had God to be Warriors faithful soldiers Fighters even over something small and insignificant as a Pea Patch sometimes the battle we win will just be for our kids for our family but that's worth it sometimes the battles we fight will be for more people around us because they're battles we have to win I cannot be AWOL from we can't run away when it gets tough father I ask you to put this Spirit of a Warrior from the Holy Ghost in my brothers and sisters here today in
those listening and those watching and those who will listen we pray that they will become Defenders Fighters they'll stand and fight even for a peat patch that our church fire Grace members fight for this church even though it's a small peat patch those out there I pray will fight for us as well in prayer that we may do and fulfill our purpose to feed the sheep wherever they may be wherever this Remnant is scattered father we pray it in Jesus name amen well Hallelujah I hope you learned something from that today let's stand this morning you know what I want to do before we go I want to do that song what was it the third one again the third one out of the four that she gave you I know we only did three I can't remember the name of it what is it let's do that and then we'll uh Paul if you would when that song finishes you can dismiss us