March 8, 2009

• Four Things to Remember by Pastor Don

  I am so happy to share this sermon with you, what a word in season for me. The transcript is below the video, and remember what is in [brackets] is what the congregation says.  I slightly edited it for readability. Hoping your Sunday is blessed!

  SAY AMEN
  SHOW 117
  Four things to Remember
  2/29/09

  There are four main things that keep us, hold us back, and prevent us from becoming all that we could be.  And these four things are errors that we make in our lives, and if we make these things, these four things, man, it’s just going to hold you back from your blessings and hold you back from achieving the things that you really, really, really want to do. 

  The person, unfortunately, that we can see this most clearly is in the life of King Saul.  King Saul was the King of Israel, God called him only because the people kept clamoring.  Listen, the people kept clamoring for someone with skin on.  [right] … I want you to think about this.  They just kept clamoring, “Give us a king. Give us a king.”  My heart breaks for women that say, “I gotta have a husband, just gotta have a husband.”  And God’ll finally relent and give you a husband, and you’ll go, “What in the world!”  [laughter]  What in the world! … What in the world just happened.  

  So the people called out, they clamored for a king.  So God finally relented.  You know, God gets tired of hearing you whine and complain.  So He says, “Ok, I’ll give it to you.  I’ll give it to you.  Just get off my telephone!…I’ll give it to you.”  And so God relents and gives them a king.  But the king that He gives them has all of the physical attributes.  He has all of the psychological and political attributes that the people want.  But he doesn’t have the ingredient that God really wants for him to have.  And he makes these four mistakes.  Alright?  So, we want to just look at them because we don’t have the time to, usually I’ve developed this by sneaking up on people.  You know, just give them a little bit and a little bit and then by the end of the Bible study they’ve figured it all out. 

  But let’s just go to Samuel, the book of Samuel, and if there’s a student here that was at the Bible study the other night, and you want to teach this, I’ll sit down and you can come up and… do it for me.  That would be cool and I’d be totally, totally good with that.  So, go to 1 Samuel and we’re going to go just touch on this and we’ll put it together. 

  Now first, the main characters are King Saul, and the second main character is Samuel.  Now, Samuel is the prophet of God, who also is the priest of God, who also sits in the office as priest, and sits in the office as prophet.  In those days that could happen where the priest is the prophet and the prophet is the priest.  OK, how many know, Samuel is a who? [prophet] and a [priest].  OK, so he is the High Priest and he’s prophet.  Alright, so let’s go.  We want to start in 1 Samuel and we’re just going to touch a few verses. 

  Go to Chapter 9…Chapter 9 verse 2.  “And he had a choice and handsome son whose name was Saul. There was not a more handsome person than he among the children of Israel.  From his shoulders upward he was taller than any of the people.”  … That is not the basis  upon which [laughter]  we’re going to pick a king … or a pastor.  [yeah, amen, well]  Well, glory.  This guy’s good looking.  He’s tall, tall and handsome.  Alright?  So in that first verse, this dude is handsome.  He’s shoulders taller than any other people… Alright? 

  Now I want you to go to Chapter 10… Chapter 10… Look at verse 6.  I didn’t share this with the people the other night but I want to show you what is supposed to happen, and it ties in with what I want to minister on later.  Cause some of us are just missing this thing and my job, you know my wife keeps telling me, just tell them.  If they receive it fine, if they don’t, you know, they’ll think, they’ll get confused, and that’s their problem… So look what it says, verse 5.  “After that you shall come to the hill of God where the Philistine garrison is.  And it will happen, when you have come there to the city, that you will meet a group of…” what? [prophets]  “…prophets coming down from the high place ” with a what?  “…stringed instrument, a tamborine, a flute, and a harp…” guitar, base drums, synthesizers, all kind of that.  Microphones.  And all the jazz.  Big P.A. system.  Little P.A. system.  I feel bad for the prophet that had to carry the P.A. system on his back.  But, you know.  Nevermind. Nevermind. Lighten up you all.  [laughter]  “…and they will be prophesying.”  So, what are the prophets doing?  [prophesying]  They are speaking two types of words for prophesy.  They are to foretell the future, that’s to prophesy, but also to speak forth the Word of God.  Speaking forth the Word of God.  Ok, so they’re doing both, these guys.  And they’re prophesying. 

  In verse 6, “Then the Spirit of the LORD will come upon you, and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man.”  [amen]  Glory be to God!!! [wow!]  “You will be turned into another man.“  It baffles my mind, as a minister of the Gospel, how can you keep coming to church, going to meetings, running to revivals and all that, and not change!  You’re the same old person you were!  How many times do you have to fall on the floor and get up and be the same person?  What’s with that?  [that's right]  Let me stop meddling.  Let me stop meddling.  But you should determine, if you’re in the presence of the company of the prophets, you ought to be changed!  [Yes, come on]  You should be different.  You can’t get up and still have the same disease every year, after every year, after every year.  You need to get in the company of the prophets and speak like they’re speaking, talk like they’re talking, think like they’re thinking, receive your healing. Be healed, be changed, be different than you were before.  Not the same with just some icing.  Scrape the icing off the cake.  I want to see a different cake under there.  [yeah!]  Different.  Should be changed. 

  King Saul is hanging out with the prophets.  God’s purpose is to change him into another man.  He doesn’t want this handsome, tall guy with no character.  He doesn’t want him back.  He wants him to get in the presence of the prophets, and be changed.  [bring it on]  Something different.  He should be different.  Same demon can’t be beating on you 20 years.  What’s wrong with you?… You need, you need to come to church, every… you need to be in church more, till something gets down in you and says, “I reject that.”  [amen]  Well, praise God.  Moving right along.  Hey, we have a destiny with this thing…

  He got a touch though, look at verse 10.  He did get a touch.  “When they came there to the hill, there was a group of prophets to meet him; then the Spirit of God came upon him, and he prophesied among them.”  Lord have mercy.  “And it happened, when all who knew him formerly saw that he indeed prophesied among the prophets, that the people said to one another...”  Come on, let’s read it, “What is this that has come upon the son of Kish?  Is Saul also among the prophets?”  Lord, have mercy.  Is he among the prophets?  Well, glory be to God.  He’s getting his touch.  But, Lord have mercy, he couldn’t hold onto it. 

  Look at verse 12.  “Then a man from there answered and said, “But who is their father?” Therefore it became a proverb: “Is Saul also among the prophets?”  Fortunately, the answer to that question over time becomes “no”.  And the reason was he fell to these four things.  Write ‘em down.  I would like to say, “Get the tape.”  But we didn’t record Thursday night.  So, anyway, write ‘em down. 

  The first is what?  Somebody that was there, Thursday.  What was the first one?  [pride]  Pride!… Pride!… Pride! … Pride! … Alright.  The reason is pride is because that is the, that is the sin that satan runs with the most, runs with the best.  Drives us by our pride.  It’s wonderful to be recognized but when you’re doing it to be recognized, you’re ready for the fall.  [amen] 

  Look at chapter 12, verse 14, … Chapter 12, verse 14, “If you fear the Lord, and serve Him and obey His voice, and do not rebel against the commandment of the LORD, then both you and the king who reigns over you will continue following the LORD your God. However, if you do not obey the voice of the LORD, but rebel against the commandment of the LORD, then the hand of the LORD will be against you, as it was against your fathers.” 

  Now look, everybody look up here, get this.  Listen.  I’m gonna preach the love of Jesus till we all are in love with Jesus, [yes].  God is love.  Can you say that?  [God is love]  God is love.  But because He is love, He is also judgment.  [amen, yep] You don’t believe that, try and raise your kids with only an attitude of love and no discipline, and no judgment, and see what you get.  [That's right] … Well, let’s read it now, see you all.  My oh my, man see we need to understand something.  We need to know how to deal with evil in our midst.  [yes]  Alright?  Now let’s see where’s he do it, now … I’m skipping all over the place here, but we got to do that. 

  OK, go to Chapter 13… In Chapter 13 the battle with the Philistines is starting to get mounted here. And things are beginning to get to a place where, where King Saul, he’s beginning, his pride is beginning to manifest.  Alright?  In verse 6, they’re going to fight the Philistines, everybody got that?  “When the men of Israel saw that they were in danger (for the people were distressed), then the people hid in caves, in thickets, in rocks, in holes, and in pits.”  Are they afraid?  [yes]  I would say they’re afraid.  “And some of the Hebrews crossed over the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead.  As for Saul, he was still in Gilgal, and all the people followed him…” how?  [trembling]  They were what?  [trembling]  They’re afraid. The people are afraid. Saul’s afraid.  Everybody’s afraid.  Verse 9.  “So Saul said,” watch this now, watch this carefully “Bring a burnt offering and peace offerings here to me.”  And he offered the burnt offering.  Now it happened, as soon as he had finished presenting the burnt offering, that Samuel came…” Who’s the priest?  [Samuel]  Who’s the prophet? [Samuel]  What is Saul?  [King]  The king.  Wait a minute, pride will cause you to attempt to step into an office that God has not blessed you with.  Pride will cause you to take on something that God has not given you.  Pride will cause you to think, “I’m all that.”  So Saul is thinking, “Hey, I’m all that….God put me in this office, God loves me so much… I could do that.”  But why?  What’s his motivation?  Pride.  He is afraid. He is afraid for the people.  And so he does it on his own. … [right]  OK?  Write this down.  Write this down. 

  After pride will come disobedience… Pride will lead you to disobedience.  The reason is, because you’re putting yourself in God’s place.  Your pride lifts you up and then you begin making decisions and making assumptions that are not given to you… You know, pride will cause disobedience.  We have to realize that with our kids.  When the 16 year old wants to stand in your face and shout you down, because you won’t give him the car, you need to realize something.  They’re lifted up in pride and their pride is resulting in disobedience.  [amen]  Now you can go, “I love you, I love you, I love you. (sniff, sniff)  Here, here’s the keys to the car and here’s a credit card to go with it.”  [yeah]  … Well, there’s some preachers that want you to do that. They want to tell you that there’s no punishment, there’s no justice.  There’s no, God’s not gonna take you to task for what you do.  That he’s just going to give you the keys to the car and the credit card and say, “Go kill yourself.” 

  I ministered to a lady yesterday.  She did that with her daughter.  She just kept, the daughter wrecked three cars.  Destroyed three cars.  And the mother is now responsible to pay, you know because when they repossess the car, after you crash it, you still have to pay what you owe on it.  [right]  Come on, somebody.  Anybody here?  Huh?  [yep]  Right.  So, pride will lead to what?  [disobedience]  Disobedience.  Now, what is the motive stuck up in here?  After awhile, here’s what happens.  When pride begins to really take control, and disobedience begins to manifest, a person is motivated by fear.  And there’s two types of fear.  There’s your fear and then there’s the fear of the people.  Write it down.  Your fear and fear of the people is the third one. 

  We put the people in the place of God.  We begin to let them motivate us because our pride and our disobedience we figure we can do whatever we can do.  We do what we want to do.  People, and fear of the people…So, let’s see what happens then.  In verse 11, “And Samuel said, What have you done?”  And the answer is.  “When I saw that the people were scattered from me,…”  Cause see, the people are afraid so they’re running away.  He says, “…and that you did not come within the days appointed,…”  Well wait a minute, what’s he doing now?  [Blaming]  What’s he doing?  Write down the fourth one.  When you fear the people, and you have fear stuck in yourself, you’ll develop a religious spirit… He’s developed a religious spirit now, and what has he done?  He has decided that he is a spiritual leader, and therefore, he is in position to judge the other spiritual leader.  [whew, uh oh] 

  When you’re around people, when you’re around people that are telling you what Pastor Don ought to do…. [oooh]  You’d better address them.  And address them quickly… What are you talking about?  What are you talking about?  You’d better be careful.  Only God knows what I ought to be doing.  [amen]  You know what you think I ought to be doing, and you’d better be careful how you traffic it because what’s that song?  I love that song, Beth Midler did?  “God’s watching you.”  How is it? Come on.  He’s up in Heaven.  God’s watching you.  [God is watching.. from a distance]  God is watching us.  God is watching us.  God is watching us, but there ain’t no distance.  [laughter] 

  What do you mean, from a distance?  He’s watchin’ you up close.  [yeah, laughter]  What are you talking?  God is watching from a distance.  If this is you…here’s God.  [laughter] … [amen]…God is checking you out up close.  From a distance… You born again, filled with the Spirit, and now God is far in the distance.  You know, you hoping He’s missing some stuff. 

  Now, the spirit of religion, will cause you to bring criticism and begin to give direction to spiritual people that have been placed in authority over you.  [come on, bring it on]  … My goodness.  You start coming up with spiritual solutions and you haven’t even solved your own.  You know.  If someone’s in authority over you in this church,  you just be obedient.  I don’t care if it’s the usher board, the singers, the dancers, the praisers.  If someone’s, if I placed them in authority over you, you do as you’re told.  [amen]  Until the Lord what?  Removes them or raises you up.  [amen]  Cause bad stuffs gonna happen to  you if you challenge ‘em, wham.  Did you see that?  [I saw it]  That thing is still going…  [laughter]  Boom, it just hit the ground.  You gotta be careful. 

  King Saul gets lifted up in pride, he becomes disobedient, he gets the fear of the people, and his own fear tangled up and now all of a sudden he’s religious.  He’s religious enough to tell the prophet and the priest what he ought to be doing, and it’s his fault.  What he’d take to blame himself?  He’d say, “It’s your fault.  You were seven days late gettin’ here.  You were late.  You should have, you should have been here.  And since you weren’t here, I had to take over myself.”  [laughter]  Lord have mercy. 

  That’s what the devil did.  He said to Adam, he convinced Adam and Eve, you know, “Well, what did God say?  And you know, I should be God and take over,”  and they just lined up with it. 

  Alright, let’s look at another quick example here.  And so what happens, look at verse 12 again.  He says, “…”The Philistines will now come down on me at Gilgal…”  Is that true?  No, we don’t know.  That’s a  spiritual thing.  It’s a spirit.  It’s a religious spirit when you start assuming what’s going to happen.  You’ve been playing God.  You’re going to assume what’s going to happen.  You don’t know what’s going to happen.  Only God knows what’s really going to happen.  [right] 

  We’re all gonna be broke…One guy says, well the antichrist is coming.  He’s going to take over the whole world… well, he ain’t going to take over the saints that are in the world.  [well, well]  Yeah, we’ll be in Heaven but there will be other people down here that’s left to deal deal with him.  And they’ll be saved, born again, he won’t have authority over them.  Amen. 

  So he says, “…Therefore …”   look at the second half.  “….Therefore…”  he draws a spiritual conclusion, “…Therefore I felt compelled, and offered a burnt offering.”  Pfhew. (chuckles)  I forced myself to do it.  I had to do the religious thing.  [laughter]  You know, I had to do the religious thing.  You know what I mean?  Praise God.  Moving right along.  So we got four things.  We got pride, disobedience, fear of man, fear of the people which is all the same thing – the spirit of fear, and then it causes us to have a religious spirit.  But now, look what happens to this guy. 

  Verse 14.  I’m sorry, verse 13.  “And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly.  You have not kept the commandment of the LORD your God, which He commanded you.  For now the LORD would have established your kingdom over Israel forever.”  Would have been forever.  And he says, verse 14, “But now your kingdom shall not continue. The LORD has sought for Himself a man after His own heart, and the LORD has commanded him to be commander over His people, because you have not kept what the LORD commanded you.” 

  And what did he not keep?  He didn’t keep his pride in order.  He didn’t stay humble…He began to become disobedient, doing it his way.  He got filled with fear.  Afraid of the people.  Sometimes we’re afraid of people’s theological viewpoint.  I don’t understand that.  You know, the Jews had something that us Gentiles just need to figure out.  It was ok to argue and debate on religious matters.  And we have this thing, don’t discuss religion, sex, or politics.  And as a result, our nation is in, is in the pit. Because we won’t discuss sex, religion and politics.  And on all three of those, we are in a mess.  [oh, yes] 

  You know, our kids are out fornicating, running around and everything.  Because why?  We didn’t discuss it with them…  You need to discuss, when you say you have some hard discussions.  You know, politics.  We won’t talk about politics because I may offend you.  And now the devil is using that, and that’s a theological position.  That we will not talk about anything if it has the potential to offend anyone.  [amen]  We need to get offended.  When we’re in error we need somebody in our face saying, “That’s not so.”  [amen]  We don’t need to be afraid of people.  [yeah, amen] 

  We’ve created monsters in our midst because we won’t challenge people.  We won’t say to them, defend this in the Name of the Lord, give me line upon line, line upon line.  Show me because the Spirit and the Word must agree.  [amen]  Turn on the TV and you get some of these, answer them.  Write them back.  Force them to defend their position.  Let’s not take this thing laying down.  We’ll be, we’ll be ankle deep first in error, and then we’ll be knee deep in error, then we’ll be choking on this stuff.  The homosexual community now is trying to shove it down your throat, that if you offend them, you’re homophobic.  You’re a homophobic and some kind of prejudicial person.  Listen, because we don’t agree with your lifestyle doesn’t mean that we can’t love you.  We can walk in love with you.  But because we want to discuss it, let’s get it out on the table and talk about it.  [amen]  I’m not afraid of you.  [amen]  I’m not looking to offend you.  I’m looking to state my case and present my position.  And you should be able to be willing to do the same. 

  You people on your jobs, stop hiding behind the coffee machine.  Stop it!  Get out in front of the coffee machine.  Tell them where you’re going on Sunday… Don’t be afraid to tell them.  Yeah, I go to church, I’m a believer.  Because why?  The key that opens Heaven to you, is the battle that you fight against persecution, and the cross of Jesus Christ.  [amen]  … You know, well I don’t want to offend them… [chuckling] 

  Samuel is not afraid to offend Saul.  [amen]  He said, “Buddy, guess what, you’re lifted up in pride.  You’ve been disobedient to God and God has what?  It’s all being taken away from you.”  Hallelujah.  Someone say Hallelujah.  [Hallelujah]  And then as a result, you went and got a religious spirit and now God can’t even use you.  [wow]  Well, glory be to God. 

  For those of you who want to continue with this study, please just read chapters 14, 15, and 16.  And see the outcome.  Eventually Saul is going to not only take himself down, he’s going to take his children down, and he’s going to take the armor bearers and the people closest to him, and he’s going to as a result of that, end up at the end of the story, surrounded by the enemy who wants to kill him, after he visited religious spirit caused him not to go to God, but to go to the witch of Endor.  [hallelujah] 

  Come on, we’ve got some witches of Endor in the body of Christ.  And we need to stop going to them.  Hallelujah.   [amen]  Yeah, cause see there’s some people in the church, weave a web of deception and confusion.  You know, the part I love of the story of the witch of Endor, when she figured it out.  When she finally, when she got into the spirit realm, she said, “Oh, you’re King Saul.”  [yes]  … She figured him out.  She said, “Oh, you’re King Saul and you’ve come to trap me.”  You know, the sucker came to trap himself.  [yeah, laughter]  He came to trap himself. 

  So, anyway, trust me.  These four things will take a believer down.  These four things.  So, if we’re diligent about looking for them, we can find the opposite.  The opposite of pride, of course, is humility.  [right]  Just be humble.  Have a contrite heart.  Be quick to say, “I was wrong, forgive me.”  Be quick to be humble.  Stay humble.  Be proud of the position and office that God has put you in and let God raise you up.  He’ll take you when you’re ready to go and then you won’t fall.  [thank you Lord]  You won’t fall when God places you there.  Hold you there.  But if you allow pride to come in, you’ll take yourself down.  Come on, say somebody, [amen] 

  And then disobedience.  Come on…we’re not stupid.  We know not to touch the unclean thing.  It’s been a bad day, let’s get high.  Let’s get down, plowed out drunk.  Let’s smoke some of that, snort some of that.  Let’s do some of this and that.  Because why, I deserve it.  You deserve it.  You had a rough day.  Just trash yourself.  You’ll feel better if you trash yourself.  [laughter]  Oh child of God, listen to the voice that is within you that says, “I don’t think so.”  [laughter]  “Think so.”  Just the question, stay in the question.  I’m not sure.  I don’t think that’s a good idea.  That does come with ramifications, and I don’t… stay in the question.  Then you can be obedient.  It’s easy.  Okay?  Come on, I preached that we all grow and get better.  See I’m, I’m preaching so that I get better.  I’m getting better already.  [amen]  Cause why?  It’s the second time I heard this.  So, pride…I got to stay what?  [humble]  Disobedient, no I’ve got to stay in the moment and the question in the moment and be obedient.  Got to be obedient.  Obedient.  Third, no fear.  Don’t let people’s fear drive you.  Don’t let your own fear, then get hooked up with it.  Fear.  Come on say it, “I shall not fear.”  [I shall not fear]  God has not given me a spirit of fear.  [God has not given me a spirit of fear]  but of what?  [power]  Power.  Love [love] and what?  [a sound mind]  A sound mind.  A sound mind.  [amen] A sound mind.  And then the other one, stay humble in your own eyes and don’t be getting all religious…

  • 7:07 pm
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