I'm standing on the promises of God. On the fourth. Standing on the promises of Christ the Lord. Bound to Him eternally by love strong-born. Overcoming failure with the Spirit sworn. Standing on the promises of God. Standing, standing, standing on the promises of God my Saviour. Standing, standing, I'm standing on the promises Standing on the promises I cannot fall. Listening every moment to the Spirit's call. Resting in my Savior as my all in all. Standing on the promises of God. Standing, standing, standing on the promises of God my Saviour. Standing, standing, I'm standing on the promises Standing, standing, standing on the promises of God, I say. Standing, standing, I'm standing on the promises of God. I guess Aaron's out of town. They're rolling up a highway up through Georgia, approaching Macon, Georgia, and doing well. And everything's going fine, as far as I could tell. I talked with them just a few minutes ago. I said, I want to be able to tell the people where you are. And I want to hear from them every 15 minutes. But when I don't hear from them, I'm very content. I'm glad not to hear from them. And so I I'm glad they're doing well and should be in there at a reasonable hour tonight in order to get a good night's rest and ready for the activities tomorrow. Since Mark looked at me and I got to come do this, I'm going to ask him to come lead us in prayer tonight, okay? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for the promises that you've given to us in your word. We've sung about them, but Lord, they're a comfort and a strength to our heart. And Lord, I pray now that you would bless as we hear the songs of praise sung, and Lord, the joyous treasures from hearts. Lord, even this song next, keep on the firing line. Help us, Lord, to stay active and to find a place to serve faithfully. Thank you so much for that privilege. Now, Lord, bless pastor as he preaches. Lord, give us an open and a receptive heart. And Lord, I pray that we would surrender to your Holy Spirit's leading. Lord, I pray for Cassie Fleming right now. I pray that you would watch over her and keep her safe as she continues to travel. And Lord, bring her safely to where she needs to be there on the mission field. So, Lord, we love you. Thank you for first loving us. In Jesus name, we pray these things. Amen. God bless you. You may be seated. If you're in the battle for the Lord and right, keep on the firing line. If you win, my brother, surely you must fight. Keep on the firing line. There are many dangers that we all must face. If we die of fighting, it is no disgrace. Coward in the service, he will find no place. So keep on the firing line. Oh, you must fight. Be brave against all evil. Never run, nor even lag behind. If you would win for God and the right, just keep on the firing line. God will only use a soldier he can trust, keep on the firing line. If you wear a crown, then bear the cross you must. Keep on the firing line. Life is but to labor for the master, dear. Help to banish evil and to spread good cheer. Great shall be rewarded in the service here. So keep on the firing line. When we get to heaven, brother, we'll be glad. Keep on the firing line. How we'll praise the Savior for the call we had. Keep on the firing line. When we see the souls that we have come to win Leading them to Jesus from the paths of sin With a shout of welcome we will all march in So keep on the firing line For you must fight, be brave against all evil Never run or even lag behind. If you would win for God and the right, just keep on the firing line. If you would win for God and the right, just keep on the firing line. Amen. Amen. Well, thank you, ladies. I tell you, if you don't that doesn't put a smile on your face, you know, if you if you sat there and couldn't tap your foot, I don't know. I just I just get into the music. I what a joy and a blessing. And by the way, it's more fun to participate. It is more fun to participate. So if you're sitting on talent, find a good excuse that you're going to give to the Lord Jesus when you see him. If you're sitting on talent, use it and invest it for the Lord's glory. Listen as the choir sings from the first hallelujah to the last amen. Often in our reverent time, we say amen. And when our hearts are jumbled, hallelujah springs again. We look at meetings on the grass or temples built by men. A saint shouts hallelujah, and we all join in. From the first hallelujah to the last amen. I'll praise the Lord and then I'll praise him again. Sharing the love of Jesus with all men. When we say hallelujah, that means praise the Lord. And amen simply tells us that our hearts are in accord. So if you feel we strengthen, strike a brand new chord. Let's all agree together now to praise the Lord. From the first hallelujah to the last amen. I'll praise the Lord and then I'll praise Him again, Sharing the love of Jesus with all men, From the first hallelujah to the last amen. Don't you be embarrassed now to say amen. And don't you ever hesitate to join the hymn. If you can't raise a stinger gun, you'll be embarrassed then. And we sing amen. the angels singing. From the first hallelujah to the last amen. I'll praise the Lord and then I'll praise Him again, sharing the love of Jesus with all men. From the first hallelujah to the last amen. From the first hallelujah to the last. You. The way these guys are standing there looking at each other, I just, you know, anyway. Number 493, I just want to say a couple of things before I leave this song. Can we have the folks stand? Is that all right? Or should they be seated? All right, please be standing. Please stand, please, thank you. I just wanted to say what a great honor. You have one of the finest pianists in the world that's sitting at the piano here, that anywhere, anytime, she is wonderful, and I just wanted to say how much I appreciated Becky's playing this morning, and especially that solo piece that she played. It was wonderful, wasn't it? I call to the Holy Mother only out of respect. You understand. Number 493. Down at the cross where my Savior died, Down where for cleansing from sin I cried, There to my heart was the blood applied. Glory to His name! Glory to His name! Roaring to his fame, into my heart was the blood of mine. I am so wondrously safe from sin Jesus so sweetly abides with me There at the cross where he took me in Glory to his name Glory to his name Glory to his name Glory to his name. Oh, precious fountain that saves from sin. I am so glad I have entered in. There Jesus saves me and keeps me clean. Glory to his name. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. There to my heart was the blood of Christ. Glory to His name. Come to this fountain, serene and sweet, that's thy poor soul and the Savior's feet. Lunch in today and we make a play. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. There to my heart was the blood applied. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. Glory to His name. There to my heart was the blood of mine. Glory to His name. Name. Oh, how sweet the love of earth and joy of heaven. Precious thing. Oh, how sweet the love of earth and joy of heaven. Thank you, thank you, thank you so much. I guess you may be seated. I'm glad you're here tonight. Good to have Paul and Sharon Gaddy's friends back with us tonight. And they said, they said, I preached a sermon at last week and they're going to come back this week and see if I really could preach. They said, are you going to preach? I said, I don't know. I'll get up and open a book and we'll see what happens. and go from there. It's good to have Nick and Alicia here with us tonight over here on this side. Delighted to have you folks. Just moved to the land and here with us tonight. Thank you for coming. Any other visitors here with us tonight? I will not introduce Mrs. Pitts tonight. She's no longer a visitor. I went to some of our folks back here and I said, we got another Nazarene today. How would you know that? Your mama told you. And I know that this is the church of God. I know that. This is the church of God. And when we get together, we're the assembly of God. I know that. I understand that. I understand all of those things. But that's fine. That's fine. Just whatever. I don't know what this means, but I hear kids say, whatever floats your boat. You know, all right. But we're glad you've come tonight. Thank you so much for being here. The music has lent itself to this song. So I'm going to ask you to sing with me tonight. I'm so happy and here's the reason why. Keep on the firing line and then first hallelujah to the last amen. I got to meet the guy that wrote that song and he lived in Chattanooga, Tennessee at that time and I got to meet him. and whenever I was first introduced to that song and just really enjoyed it and and was thrilled to meet him and then glory to his name and so let's sing I'm happy I'm so happy stand together stand together and let's sing it I'm so happy and here's the reason why Jesus took my burdens all away Now I'm singing as the days go by Jesus took my burdens all away Once my heart was heavy with the load of sin I hear among you, I hear, I don't know if it's behind me, in front of me, or all around me, I hear you putting that counterpart there. I'm so happy in here, the reason why. Okay, so if you know that part, put that part in there. Let's do it again. Particularly choir, you put that part in there. Okay, and let's sing it again. Now what was that you said this morning? Look at the person next to you and say, surely you can sing better than that. Oh, yeah, I do. I listen. I always listen when you're at that microphone, because I never know what's going to come out whenever you're up there. All right? All right. So put that in there, if you will. Here we go. I'm so happy. Now I'm singing. Once my heart was heavy with the load of sin. Jesus took my load and gave me peace within. Now I'm singing, and the days go by. Jesus took my burdens away. Excellent. Wonderful. Greet one another. Enjoy each other a while. I'm so happy and here's the reason why Jesus took my burdens all away Now I'm singing as the days go by Jesus took my burdens all away My heart was heavy with the load of sin Jesus took the load and gave peace within my heart. And now I'm singing as the days go by. Jesus took my burdens all away. All right. Thank you. You may be seated. And ushers come forward if you will. How many of you shook hands tonight with someone you do not know? Oh, a lot of you did. A lot of you did. Okay. How many of you now, you didn't know their name before, but you know their name now? Okay. Maybe I could ask you to stand and give their name. I know who you met. Who did you meet, Conrad? Alicia. Nick and Alicia. Okay. All right. Great. All right. Very good. May I ask you something? Is your daughter coming home at the end of this week? It's about time. Okay. Well, I just thought her parents might know, but you know. Anyway, what a joy to see you. I'm glad you're here tonight. It's good to be in the house of the Lord. David said, I was glad when they said unto me, let us go. Let's go. Now, I know they didn't say, let's go to church. But they said, let's go. Roger was talking to his next door neighbor. His next door neighbor gets a little rough sometimes. But he was talking to him. And he said, listen, I want you to go to church with me. And he stopped just a bit. He said, ask the church to pray for me. Bob Parker, not Barker, Parker, Bob Parker, Bob Parker. I said to them, I said, that's interesting. I've got a preacher friend in Jacksonville named Bob Parker. That's interesting. But I hope you will. I hope you'll pray for Bob. He lives right there in DeBerry. I pray that God will work and bless in his life. It would be wonderful to have him come. I trust he'll do that. Father, thank you so much for the time together this evening. We've come to this time of the offering. I ask you to bless. Give us wisdom in your work, I pray. In Jesus' name, amen. And back at that too but boy it takes a lot of hot air to fill a horn like that I'll tell you for sure. God bless you sir and that's a compliment you didn't take it that way but it really is. It's nice to have my wife Annette. She said to me this morning when she joined, she said, you know, I've never joined a church that I didn't have something to do, teach Sunday school or play the piano or serve on the board. I said, baby, you've been involved in this church for the last year and you didn't even know it because the scribe is an extension of the Volusia County Baptist Church. We've seen thousands of people who have come to Christ through the scribe in six different countries this last year. We went to the Bahamas 500 children gave their hearts to the Lord Jesus Christ through their scribe in the public school system We've been in schools. We've been in churches. We've been in theaters last a couple of weekends ago We were in Mears, Michigan and the high school the public high school and a number of people were saved through the scribe We are just thrilled you gave us an instrument that we could use to lead others to Christ. And I am really, really grateful to these two men that are on the platform that have so graciously helped me to pursue and to carry on this ministry over 500 performances of the scribe throughout the world. And we're just very grateful that it started right here in my home church, Volusia County Baptist Church. I just can't tell you how much I love and appreciate each one of you. I was just telling Mark before the service, some of the best people that God ever made go to this church right here in Orange City, Florida, and I'm just so grateful to each one of you. This is a wonderful song, and I used to listen to my sister sing it when I was just a boy. I know who holds my hand. I don't know about tomorrow. I just live from day to day. I don't borrow from its sunshine, for its skies may turn to grey. I don't worry or the future For I know what Jesus said And today I'll walk beside him For he knows what is ahead Many things about tomorrow I don't seem to understand. But I know who holds tomorrow. And I know, I know who holds my hand. I don't know about tomorrow. It may bring me poverty, but the one who feeds the sparrow is the one who stands by me. And the path that is my portion may be through the flame or flood, ♪ But his presence goes before me ♪ ♪ And I'm coming with his part ♪ ♪ Many things about tomorrow ♪ ♪ I don't seem to understand ♪ But I know who holds tomorrow. And I know, I know who holds my hand. And I know who holds tomorrow. We know who holds thy hand. And I'm supposed to preach after that. Okay. Wow. Thank you so much. Annette, thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you all for being here this day. And I appreciate that. I appreciate leading singing. That's a new role for us to see Brother Paul doing. And I knew that he had led singing, congregational singing, for many, many years. The other night we were together, I think it was, it must have been Wednesday night we were together. And I said, why don't you lead singing, since you're going to be there Sunday, why don't you lead singing for us? He said, all right. I called Mark. I said, Mark, how about it? Be okay? He said, yeah, be great. Okay. So here we are. And that's good. That's good. Come back and see us sometime. We'd be glad to have you. You're always welcome at the home place. All right? Okay. Very good. I ask you to turn to the book of 1 Samuel chapter 30, and I'm going to quote a verse while you're doing that. 1 Corinthians 15, 58. And boy, 1 Corinthians 15, 58 just left me. Thanks be to God, it giveth us a victory through the Lord Jesus Christ. Start it for me. That's it. That's it. Are you reading that or quoting it? Therefore, my beloved brethren, be you steadfast, unmovable, always abounding." That's doing more than more than enough. Always abounding in the work of the Lord. For as much as ye know, your labor is not in vain in the Lord. Now I'm going to read the first six verses of 1 Samuel chapter 30. I'm not going to read all of verse six, though I know you will by the time we get there. Okay? It came to pass when David and his men were come to Ziklag, on the third day that the Amalekites had invaded the south and Ziklag and smitten Ziklag and burned it with fire. To set the stage for this, I must tell you that David has adjoined an affinity. He's made an agreement with a Philistine king called Achish. He's made an agreement with him because the pursuit of Saul in seeking to kill him has so threatened his life that he has just run and run and run and run. And he signs a treaty with the group of people that caused him to rise to prominence. the Philistines. Goliath was a Philistine. Now I want you to know at this time David has been anointed king. He has fought Goliath. He has been brought into the courts of King Saul, and King Saul feeling threatened by him has attempted to kill him many times. and he has fled for his life. Had an opportunity to kill Saul but said I will not touch God's anointed. He said I will not do that. That will be God's time and God will do that. And it has gotten worse and worse and worse. until now he has marched into battle from the south part of the country just east of Gaza, just east of the Gaza Strip at a city called Ziklag. And they have marched with Achish and other Philistines to the north across Mount Carmel down into the valley of Megiddo, the valley of Armageddon that we know it in the New Testament down that valley, and they have come to Mount Gilboa. Mount Gilboa. And there they are ready to engage the armies of Israel. And the other kings of the Philistines say to Achish, what are you doing with this Israeli? What are you doing with him? We will not go to battle with that guy because in the middle of the battle he will turn against us and he will identify with his king. Achish knew the story, the other kings did not. So Achish said to David, David I'm sorry you're going to have to take your men and leave. So they marched all the way up there prepared for the battle and now they go three days hard march back to the south of the country, back to Ziglag. Now notice what happens when they get there. Amalekites had invaded the south. I cannot let it go by without saying this. These are the people that Saul did not deal with under the instruction of Samuel. Samuel, under God, gave instructions for the Amalekites to be destroyed. and Saul did not obey God, and it was for that reason that God rejected Saul from being king over Israel there at Gilgal. Now, David has suffered as a result of King Saul's lack of obedience. It's all intertwined. All of this is just in there together, and here they come back. As one voice, it was like one voice, it was not voices, it was not plural, it was singular. They lifted up their voice and wept until they had no more power to weep. They just cried themselves out. And David's two wives were taken captive, Ahinoam, the Jezreelite, and Abigail, the wife of Nabal, the Carmelite. And David was greatly distressed, for the people spake of stoning him. because the soul of all the people was grieved, as one soul, as one heart, as one individual. The soul, singular, of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters. Whenever you read through the Psalms, you find many low points in David's life. But this has to be the bottom. I entitle the message, What Do You Do When You Want to Quit? What do you do when you want to quit? A familiar poem, when things go wrong, as they sometimes will, The road you're traveling seems all uphill. When the funds are low and the debts are high and you want to smile, but you have to sigh. When care is pressing you down a bit, rest if you must, but don't quit. Success is failure turned inside out, the silver tint of a cloud of doubt. And you never can tell how close you are. It may be near when it seems afar. So stick to the fight when your heart is hit. It's when things seem worse. that you must not quit. So here's David. I recall just the victories of his youth. There were private victories in his youth. The bear, the lion, in his years of tending sheep for his father as a lad on the hillsides of Judea. But there was the public victory. And there had been more public victories. But of course, the pronounced and amazing public victory to this time had been Goliath. and the praise for killing Goliath, and his prominence in the court of Saul. All of these things were in his past. And in addition to that, he has been anointed king over Israel. He knows that. His dad and mom know that. His brothers know that. And there are some others among his six hundred people that are in his little band, his army, they know that he's been anointed. But for the most part, it's not known. Perhaps word has finally come to Saul about that. But I'm going to tell you right now, if I were David, and I think David must have thought many times, though Samuel came down and anointed me to be king, it's not going to happen. It's not going to happen. Saul's going to kill me. And now we come to this place and even his own followers are ready to stone him to death. He's got to say, I would have been better off had I not been called. And sometimes you get like that in the service of the Lord Jesus Christ. You're doing what God has called you to do. But there comes times whenever you say, wow, I was better off before I got into this thing. I mean, it just has not gone well. It seems like after the initial rise in prominence that David had, after his anointing, the next thing we have is him going to the Valley of Elah and the victory over Goliath. And I'm sure that David had thought at this time, this is it. This is it. Samuel has anointed me to be king. And this is it. This is it. This is going to give rise to my going as a young man to the throne of Israel. But it didn't happen. It didn't happen at all. And the amazing thing was, Samuel had come and anointed him to be king. And it's like David, I'm sure, wanted to say, Samuel, where are you now? I mean, if you came and anointed me to be king, I'm the only one you told about that. You didn't tell anybody else about that. And Samuel doesn't come out and say to Saul, Saul, you leave that kid alone. He's going to be the king. Because Samuel said, don't let anybody find out about this. He told God. He said, God, if Saul finds out that I went down and anointed somebody else to be king, he'll kill me. You get the idea that Saul had that reputation. And so here David is now. All of these years after that, he is in the valley of despair. He's despised by his leader. Saul wants him dead. He's deserted by his friend Achish. the one he had established an alliance with. He has said, David, get out of here. I don't want you to be around. My other friends here don't want you with me. And so I don't want you with me. If they don't want you with me, I don't want you with me. and he drives him out. He is defeated by his enemies that Saul had let live. The Amalekites have come and conquered the city that King Achish had given him for his people, for his army, for his families. He let him have this city, and now this city is destroyed by the Amalekites. His family is captured, and the families of his followers have been captured and taken away captive. And now, at this time, they come to the city, and when we see it burned with fire, and all the people gone, they are weary, they are tired, they're exhausted. They're sad. They have wept themselves till they have no more power to weep. And now they say, the best thing we can do is get rid of David. And that's how they're talking. They're talking of stoning him. Now these are the ones that have come to David and they have encouraged themselves in David and David's closeness to the Lord. But now they're ready to kill him. I don't know how you can get much lower than that. And I don't know where you are in your spiritual life. I don't know where you are in your physical life. I don't know where you are in your family life. I don't know where you are in your financial life. I don't know what problems beset you. But I do know that those things come into your life. And sometimes, whenever you make a decision for God, I want revival. I want to serve God. I'm going to go out on Thursday night, pray for folks up and down these streets in this city. Opposition begins to come. And you say, whoa, I didn't bargain for that. I didn't sign on for that duty. I didn't know that's what happened. I thought, man, whenever I surrendered to the Lord and gave that over to him, that everything was just going to be, oh, I know there were going to be problems, but I didn't expect it to be this bad. I didn't expect to be going through this. I mean, David has gone through the ebb and flow of those emotions. Whenever he's running from Saul, and finally he has no more contact with Jonathan, his friend, Saul's son. He has no more contact with him. And then he goes down to Adullam, the cave at Adullam. And there at the cave of Adullam, all these renegades start coming in, and they start joining themselves to him. And he says, well, this thing's working pretty good now. And now those people are ready to stone him. I mean it about as much against David as you can get. David has nobody on his side. I mean right here whenever you come to verse 6 of 1st Samuel chapter 30 there is nobody that's for David. Now I don't know where his mama is His mama surely would have come over and pat him on the back and say, David, it's going to be all right. Everything's going to be OK. You just keep on going. It'll be OK. But he didn't have any encouragement. He didn't have any encouragement. And then we come to the last part of verse 6. But David encouraged himself. He didn't have anybody else to encourage him. He encouraged himself. He didn't just say, now come on, David, you pull yourself together. You pull yourself together. You've been through bad times. You've been through tough times. You can handle this. You can go. No. He encouraged himself in the Lord. He encouraged himself in the Lord. Someone has said, I think, and rightfully so, when you come to the place that the Lord is all you have, you'll find that He's all you need. But you never find that He's all you need until you come to the place that He's all you have. You'll never know that experientially until you come to that place. So we have not only the victories of His youth, And we not have only the valley of despair, but now here we have the validity of his faith. The validity of his faith. Knowing this, that the trying of your faith is much more precious than gold that perisheth. He encouraged himself in the Lord. Now what does that mean? How do you encourage yourself in the Lord? I think we all need to know that. You encourage yourself in the Lord. There are a number of things you can do to encourage yourself in the Lord. You can remember the past things that God has done for you. Now I enjoy preaching from Psalm 78 verses 40 and 41, and how the children of Israel forgot what God had done for them. And often we forget what God has done for us. But dearly beloved, we ought to remember that. Whenever Things go wrong, as they sometimes will, and the road you're traveling seems all uphill. When the funds are low and the bills are high, when you want to quit, when you want to say, that's it, that's enough, I can't go any further with this. I just simply cannot make it. I can't go any further. Remember what God has done for you in the past. Now, there's only one way you're going to really do that, and that's by writing it down. You ought to make a journal of those things that God has done for you. You say, I'll never forget that. I'll never forget that. I got so amused in a good way with my mom as she approached the last days of her life. And something would happen, something would go on. She said, oh, she said, I'll never forget that. But you know what? She did. She did forget that. And I say that sometimes myself. I say, man, I'll never forget that. And then I stop and think, yeah, I probably will. I probably will forget that. But remember this. The palest ink is stronger than the best memory. Write it down. Write it down. You'll remember it if you write it down. And you can go back and rehearse the blessings of God and the victories that He gave. Now, I want to tell you something else you can do that will encourage you in the Lord. You can encourage yourself in the Lord by seeing what God has done for other people. Now, what the devil tries to do in that is he tries to, in those times, say, God doesn't like you. Look what he did for other people. but he hasn't done that for you. Here are people in the same church, the same people, the same friends praying for one person that their transplant will be a success and praying for another person that that transplant will be a success and this one dies and this one does great. and you go, oh wow, how do you handle that? Handle that. You handle that in the goodness of the Lord. Because you do not know what's best. Though he has told us to make our request. And we have an audience before the king. And we can go to him and we tell the Lord our request. but it doesn't mean that our request viewed from our perspective is the very best thing that could happen for us and for the glory of God. So I encourage myself in what He has done for others. Who was it? Stuart Hamlin wrote the old song the chimes of time. Ring out the news, another day is through. Someone slipped and fell, was that someone you? You may have longed for added strength, your courage to renew. Do not be disheartened, for I bring news to you. It is no secret what God can do. What He's done for others, He'll do for you. With arms wide open, He'll pardon you. It is no secret. what God can do. So you encourage yourself by what God's done for you in the past. You encourage yourself with what God's done for others. But you also encourage yourself by the promises of God. At this point in time, David had to go back and say, I am God's anointed king. He had to go back to that. He had to go back to the promise of God. He had to go back to that time as a little 15, 16 year old boy. Whenever Samuel came down, met with his family, and he's out tending sheep, and somebody comes out and gets him and says, your daddy wants you back at the house right now. And he goes back there and he walks in and he doesn't know what's going on. And he's not dressed for the occasion and he's not anticipating what's happening. He doesn't know what's going on. And Samuel says, ah, Jesse, this is the one right here. Where have you had this boy? This is the one right here. And he takes out that horn of holy oil, and he anoints the head of David to be king over Israel. He had to go back to that time at this time. It's good to go back to the time you trusted Christ. as your Savior. I am God's child. His royal blood now flows in my veins. His DNA is in my being. I belong to Him. He's my father. It's good to remember those times of decision. It's good to remember those times of walking down the aisle and on your face before God saying, God, this is what I give to you. And this is what I determined before you. And having that rest that comes from God that we talked about this morning, that comes with that surrender to God. That's how you encourage your heart in the Lord. You don't encourage your heart in the Lord with some external substance or experience. You don't encourage yourself in the Lord by some feeling because he had no such feelings at this time. He simply encouraged himself in the one who was, and is, and evermore shall be the truth of God, the experience of God. And then, in the validity of his faith, he not only encouraged himself with the Lord, but he inquired at the Lord. In verse 8, if you look down, David said, what am I going to do? Lord, I don't know what to do. David inquired at the Lord, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop and overtake them? He said, My guys are worn out. They've marched three days up to Gilboa. They've marched three days back, and now this has just simply defeated their spirit. They have nothing left in them. What shall I do? Shall I pursue them? And the Lord answered, Pursue. for thou shalt surely overtake them and without fail recover all. That's pretty good. Now's the time to smile. Now's the time to say amen. Alright. Okay. It's good to hear the word from the Lord. I got a word from God. And somehow these people that were ready to kill him Get up and go. Some of them said we can't go on. David said that's okay, you stay by the stuff. And those of us that go, you stay here and you guard what's here. You can't go any further, we understand that. You stay and you watch over all of our things. You watch over our things and we'll pursue. And David took the ones that could go and he pursued after the army of the Amalekites. And they found a guy that had met the Amalekites, and he told them which way they went, and they went. And sure enough, the Word of God was true. The Word of God was true. And they recovered everything. Everything. I mean, I cannot imagine the leadership of David that it must have taken for him to encourage himself in the Lord until the point that he could go out in front of these guys who are ready to kill him and say, all right guys, I got a word from the Lord. God's going to give us everything back. Let's go. And somehow the adrenaline starts flowing and they say, all right, let's go. And they follow him after they're ready to kill him. That has to be God. They inquired of the Lord. And then he exercised wisdom from the Lord. If you look down in verses 24 and 25, he established something that became a principle for the nation. Because whenever they came back and they came with all the stuff they had lost, and they came with all the stuff of the Amalekites too. They took a spoil of the Amalekites. And whenever they came back, David said, now all of us are going to divide this up. And the guys that had gone said, ah. they didn't go. Oh yeah, David said. David said, those that stay by the stuff shall share equally with those that go on to the battle. And it became a principle in Israel, so he exercised wisdom from the Lord, and there was not a division within the ranks of his people. He kept that together. And then he did something else. He gave a present to his friends in verses 26 on through 31. If you look at that and read through that, and we really do not have time to read through all of it, but what a wonderful thing he did. Whenever that took place, David came to Ziklag and he sent a spoil unto the elders of Judah. Now these are the guys who are in charge of the nation. over which Saul is ruling, over which he has been anointed to be king. Even to his friends, saying, Behold, a present for you of the spoils of the enemies of the Lord. To them which were in Bethel, and to them which were in south of Ramoth, and to them which were in Jatar, and those that were in Arur, and to those that were in Sifmoth, and those that were in Eshdomoah, and those that were in Rachel, and unto them that were in the cities of the Jeremalites, and to them that were in the cities of the Kenites. All of these. He sends them gifts. He sends them of the spoil of the people. Now that's just smart. There's nothing wrong with that. That's just a smart way of doing things whenever you're at the bottom as far as you can go and you've been anointed to be the king. Now he did not know what was taking place up in the north at Gilboa. He did not know what had taken place. But what had taken place in the battle between the Philistines and the armies of Saul The thing that took place there was that Saul and Jonathan and other of his sons were killed in battle. And now Israel is without a king. So what happens? in the last part of the story. And the story goes on. It would take a while to read through it. But you have not only the validity of his faith, and not only the victories of his youth, not only his valley of despair, the validity of his faith. And after the validity of his faith, when he hits absolute bottom, not because of his not because of his sin, just because of the way things were going in the country, he is absolutely in despair and distress and defeat and everything. And at that point, at that point, God meets him there, and the next place we find him is on the throne of Judah. That's the next place we find him. Now the word comes about the death of Saul, and whenever word comes about the death of Saul, he mourns the death of Saul. He publicly mourns the death of Saul, and it's not anything put on. It's not anything artificial. It is a sincere sadness over the death of Saul, and especially over the death of his beloved friend, Jonathan. There's a sadness in that. But then the leaders of Judah come to him and say, okay, David, this is the time. It's time for you to be king. And they take him to Hebron. And in Hebron, they set up a throne and they set up a king's house and they anoint David king over Judah. is not Ishmael, it is Saul's son. It is an ish, I cannot get the last part of it. He is put in by Abner, Saul's general. He puts him in as king over Israel, over the northern tribes. always a division between the south and the north in Israel, or always was, always a division in that, kind of like this country. But there was that division there, and whenever Saul died there was that division for a little while, and for about seven years there was that division, and then the kingdom came together under David, and the capital was moved, not to Samaria, not to Hebron, not to Ramoth-Gilead, not to there, but it moved to Jerusalem. It moved to Jerusalem, and for the first time. But what I want you to see, and I get into that story and it's hard for me to stop because it's so wonderful, it's a great, great history. But what I want you to see is at this time, whenever David encouraged his heart in the Lord, and he obeyed the Lord, and he exercised wisdom from the Lord. It was when he sought the Lord, the people sought him. It's an interesting thing that God teaches us there. and he's seated as king in chapter 5 of 2 Samuel. He's seated as king, and he is anointed for the second time to be king. Now whenever the kingdom comes together, north, south, Jerusalem, all of these things, he's anointed for the third time. David is anointed to be king three times. three times, but I'm going to tell you one thing right now. Whenever he was at the very bottom, it seemed like everything was gone. His family was gone. His friends were gone. His leader was wanting to kill him, and now his followers are wanting to kill him. He said, I'm not going to cave into this thing. I'm not going to do that. I'm going to encourage myself in the Lord. And he encouraged himself in the Lord. And immediately at that point, at that point, it went just boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And he's seated on the throne and crowned king over Judah and then king over all Israel. Are you here tonight wanting to quit? May I give you a word? Don't. Let's stand together. Don't. Don't quit. Don't quit. Rest if you must, but don't quit. Don't quit. Father, I pray that the example of David will be the inspiration for us. Now Lord, We ought to be able to encourage our heart in you because of what you did for David. We ought to be able to encourage our heart in you because of what you've done for us in the past. We ought to be able to encourage our heart in you, Lord, because of the promises of your book. I know, Father, there's folks that physically, physically it just seems, it just seems like they can't go on. But I pray, Lord, you'll encourage them and that they will encourage themselves in you. I think of Bob tonight. Lord, I ask you to bless him. May he encourage himself in you. I think of Victor. Lord, bless him and help him. And Father, I think of Anita here tonight. Just a difficult, difficult, difficult time. Many others going through difficulties, Lord. I think of some of our folks that are walking through difficult times financially, looking for work and not being able to get anything that really they can do and are able to fulfill. I pray that you'll just watch over them and take care of them. Now, Lord, again, I'm going to ask you to watch over our kids as they travel, be there as he drives. Give the other people, Lord, safety as they travel to camp. I pray, Lord, you'll take care of everyone. And now before we finish the prayer, I wonder how many here tonight will say, Preacher, I am just going to take heart and go on. I am going to encourage myself in the Lord. Will you raise your hand? I am just going to do that. I am just going to do that. If you need to come tell God that, just come tell God that. We're going to sing a verse of, all to Jesus I surrender. We'll just have the instruments play. All to Jesus I surrender, all to him I freely give. And if you need to do that, come. If God has spoken to your heart about coming and uniting in this fellowship, we'd be glad to have you. If you're here tonight and you need to trust Christ as your Savior, perhaps someone has walked in here tonight needing to trust Christ as your Savior. Oh, what a wonderful time to get saved. Anytime is a good time to get saved. And whenever you get saved, it is a wonderful time. Trust Christ tonight. Maybe somebody needs to be baptized. Whatever the need of your life is, if God's spoken to you and you need to respond to Him, now's the time. Am I freely given? I will ever love and trust Him, in His presence daily live. I surrender all, I surrender all, all to Thee, my blessed Redeemer. I surrender all. Father, I thank you for your word. I thank you for your promises. I thank you, Lord, they're as steadfast as they were the day you gave them. They're as sure as your person, and I thank you for that. Now, Lord, bless us as we go tonight. I pray you'll make us a blessing to someone this week. And I pray, Father, for your Spirit's power upon our lives and upon our services and in our midst here. In Jesus' name, amen, amen. God bless you. Shake hands with those around you. You're dismissed.