Amen. Sandy, thank you. That was a lovely special number. And very apropos, his eyes on the sparrow, I know he watches me. There is zero cause for any Christian to live in fear. There is zero cause for that. I know, I've talked an awful lot about that. And by the way, I do that as extreme pushback to a culture that wants us to live in fear. We ought not to be paying attention to these things. We ought still to pay attention to the Word of God. Well, open your Bible with me, if you will, to 1 Samuel chapter 14. 1 Samuel chapter 14. Kids, you can go to junior church. If that's where you're going, you can go. 1 Samuel chapter 14 in your Bible with me, if you would, please. Now, this morning, I was able to get through two points of an 11-point message. Now, when I say I had 11 points, that just struck fear into the heart of some who were hoping to go to Burger King after the service. Do not worry. I took points and combined them and put it all together and changed them. I'm not going to give you all 11, but you're going to get the gist of what I have to say in regard to this because. I think Saul as one of the most significant characters of the Old Testament because he was the greatest example of unrealized potential. And I think he provides for us the greatest warning, and especially for men. And I, by the way, I appreciate you men who came back tonight. That speaks volumes for you. That speaks volumes for you. But he is one of the great examples of unrealized potential, and therefore a cautionary to men. in regard to what we should avoid, because Saul's problems were not necessarily, at least initially, what we would call the classic sins of the flesh. They were not. They began with issues that were inside his heart, issues that came out in disobedience. But the disobedience, the action, began somewhere. And so this morning we saw that Saul was impatient under pressure. And this is an interesting, I'm not gonna name the person in regard to this at all because I would never embarrass anyone publicly, but someone sent me a picture of a vacuum cleaner that had consumed some kind of a fabric thing. Their kids were running the vacuum cleaner and it consumed this thing and it got all caught up in the spinner part and the text said something along the lines of this. Something like, you'd have to preach a message on patience under pressure, and then my kids destroy the vacuum cleaner. Well, let me just say, I saved the kid's hide this morning, and I'm very proud of that. Being patient under pressure, Saul was a man who was impatient. under pressure. What did he do? When he felt the pressure of the Philistines, the pressure of deserters, when he felt the fear of the people, he decided he would go ahead and make a sacrifice even though he knew he should not be doing that. And we emphasize how wrong it is really to act out of impatience simply because of pressure. The second point we gave this morning was this, and I really parked here for a while because it's something I absolutely despise, making excuses for wrong actions. Making excuses. Nothing will destroy your life faster than a good excuse. And there are some people who get in the habit of making one excuse after another. They can't do this, and they can't do that. And they don't feel like this, and they don't feel like that. And they'd far rather spend their whole life whining than doing something about it. Now, I understand. I understand if people have limitations. Don't get me wrong. I understand limitations, but do you wanna know who the heroes are in my eyes? The heroes in my eyes are the men and women who have notable limitations and never let it stop them. Those are heroes. Now, by the way, Gary, I wouldn't embarrass you for anything in the world, but everybody turn around and look at Gary. Right now, the camera can't get over there, I don't think. Gary, that man there, Gary, is in that wheelchair for a reason. Every time, now I want you guys to listen to me. Every time I go to the gym, Gary is there working out of the gym. He drives himself to the gym, he gets out of his vehicle, he goes into the gym on his own. He moves from one piece of equipment to the next. He's working out. By the way, Gary, we need to pray for you. You have a surgery coming up that's going to be a very big deal. We're gonna pray for him. Now listen to me, listen to me. That man, takes away every excuse that I've ever had for anything in my life. Period. We need to make you a t-shirt, Gary, you can wear around that says, what's your excuse? I really want to do that. I think that would be classic. And so, the next time you think about whining, because you have an ache or a pain, think about the fact that you can walk. I'm serious about that. Think about that. The next time you use some little physical limitation and whine about it, well, Pastor Monty, I'm just in pain. A lot of us are in pain. You know, some of the best people I've ever known have lived their lives in pain and have pushed right through it to the glory of Christ. And they do so because they're strong men and strong women. Sometimes it's physical pain, sometimes it's emotional pain, sometimes it's bearing up under pressure and stress that not one other person in the world knows but they themselves. Those people are champions because they do not make excuses. It's time for us to rise above our excuses. I don't believe in excuses. It's time for us to rise above them. But now number three. We're in chapter 14. Saul did something that seems extreme, and it was. Chapter 14, look at verse number 24. 1 Samuel 14, verse number 24. The Bible says this. By the way, in the first part of 1 Samuel 14, Jonathan is involved in a great victory against the Philistines. There are ongoing border clashes against the Philistine troops, and a great victory is won in chapter 14. But verse 24, the Bible says this. And the men of Israel were distressed that day. Why were they distressed? Here's the reason. For Saul, their leader and their king. For Saul had adjured the people, saying, Cursed be the man that eateth any food until evening, that I may be avenged on mine enemies. So none of the people tasted any food. Now they were involved in battle. They were involved in arduous activity. And it may have been that food would have energized the army. They were certainly in distress for the activity they're involved in. And now Saul essentially says this, if anyone eats anything, you're gonna be put to death. Saul was putting himself first. He said, my victory is more important than you. If you touch a morsel of food, you'll be put to death. Look at verse 25. And all they of the land came to a wood. They went into the woods. and there was honey upon the ground. And when the people were coming to the wood, behold, the honey dropped, but no man put his hand to his mouth, for the people feared the oath. They understood that if they took so much as a drop of honey, that they could be put to death based upon the oath of the king. Now look at verse number 27. But Jonathan, this is Saul's son, But Jonathan heard not when his father charged the people with the oath. Why did he not hear? Because in the first part of the chapter, Jonathan was out slaying Philistines. He wasn't listening to his dad rant. But Jonathan heard not when his father charged the people with the oath. Wherefore he, Jonathan, put forth the end of the rod that was in his hand, and dipped it in a honeycomb, and put his hand to his mouth, and his eyes were enlightened. Now wait a minute. the king's son has violated unknowingly the oath that his father had made in regard to consuming any food that day until full victory had been won. If you read the first part of chapter 14, you'll find out that Jonathan had already wrought a great victory. And Jonathan would not purposely disobey his father's oath, but he did so inadvertently because he was busy fighting the battle. Verse number 28, Then answered one of the people and said, Thy father straightly charged the people with an oath, saying, Cursed be the man that eateth any food this day. And the people were faint. Then said Jonathan, my father hath troubled the land. That was not disrespectful, that was accurate. Jonathan already recognized the fact that Saul was falling apart. When I was preparing for these messages, I did a lot of reading both in commentaries as well as articles, and I came across a disproportionate number of articles that were written by medical doctors who had examined the life of Saul. And they looked at Saul from a mental health perspective. It's very interesting to read articles like that. There were a number of them, not just one or two. But a number of doctors have sifted through the scripture to look at this man's medical condition. And what we are finding as we're preaching through this and what they found was that increasingly his poor state of mental health was reaching a crescendo. It started off very smallly and it was building very rapidly. And so Jonathan was right, he said, My father hath troubled the land. See, I pray you, how mine eyes have been enlightened, because I tasted of the honey. How much more, if haply the people had eaten freely to-day of the spoil of their enemies which they found! For had there not been now a much greater slaughter among the Philistines, hey, if you had something to eat, maybe you could have done better. They smote the Philistines that day from Michmash to Adjalon, and the people were very faint. And the people flew upon the spoil, and took the sheep, the ox, and the calves, and slew them on the ground. And the people did eat them with blood. They were so hungry, because of the forced oath upon them, that they violated the Old Testament law, they did not slaughter the animals properly, they ate them with the blood. Pastor Monty, what does this illustrate in the life of Saul? In addition to being impatient under pressure and to making excuses, Saul became increasingly stubborn, unreasonable, and inflexible. Those are the marks of someone who is very troubled. When I was in Bible college, I went to Bob Jones University, and I think it's still true today, I don't know, but in every classroom in the alumni building, they had above the desk, the teacher sat on a desk that was on a little raised platform, and above that desk, behind the teacher, there was always a plaque on the wall. And the plaque contained some of the sayings of Dr. Bob Jones, Sr., the great Methodist evangelist, fundamentalist who founded that school many years ago. Some of what they called the Bob Jones Chapel sayings. They were pithy little things that Dr. Bob would say over and over and over again to drill into people's mind. And here was one of them. Dr. Bob Jones, Sr. used to say this. He said, good men are reasonable men. That's worth writing down, by the way. Good men are reasonable men. In other words, somebody who is fundamentally good is someone with whom you can reason. When you encounter someone who is stubborn, unreasonable, and inflexible, who, like Saul, made an impetuous, off-the-cuff oath that was merely charged with his emotion, and certainly not charged with the consideration of his army, we have reason to question, as did Jonathan, the sanity of his declaration. He made an unreasonable edict, Jonathan did not know about it, but ultimately, when Saul attempted to put his own son to death. Now look up here. That's the height of unreasonable. The Bible makes it clear that Jonathan was so busy slaying the Philistines that he didn't listen to his father's rant and his impetuous oath. And Saul holds him accountable to something he didn't even know about, which was fundamentally unreasonable. May I just make a couple observations? Insecurity. leads to irrationality. Insecurity leads to irrationality. Preacher, what do you mean? Saul had become insecure, I think, back in chapter 13, verses 13 and 14, because that was where Samuel initially announced the fact that Saul had crossed the line and that his progeny would not be king. He would have no descendants who would be king. And as Saul grasped for power, He became unreasonable, inflexible, and stubborn, and he made an ultimatum. Gentlemen, look at me. I am, again, preaching to the men, but ladies, you can learn from this too. Ultimatums. are rarely wise. I'm speaking in relationship terms. Ultimatums are rarely wise. When a man comes to the point where he is, well, Pastor Marty, I told my wife that the Bible says I'm the leader. If you have to tell her that, you're really not the leader. Leaders lead naturally. A position or title does not equate with leadership. Did everyone hear what I said? You can hold a position, you can hold a title. You can be a husband and not be a leader. Because the biblical model of leading your family is to love your wife and to love her to the extent that Christ loved when he gave himself for the church. And when we practice ultimatums like Saul did, to grasp onto his power, to hold his control at any cost, when we do that, it is not a show of strength, it is a show of weakness. Every time we become stubborn, unreasonable, and inflexible, we are manifesting the spirit of Saul. Saul increasingly became attracted to the idea of absolute control. Now, I believe that a leader has to have a certain level of control, but not in inconsequential matters. And leadership thinks through things and their consequences before making a decision. Jonathan had a potential of dying. And because Saul was willing to save face, this is further on in the chapter, we haven't read that far yet. Because Saul wanted to save face as the leader, he endorsed his sons being put to death over a foolish and impetuous ultimatum of which his son was not aware. That kind of leadership does not deserve leadership. Saul was more interested in saving face with people than he was in sparing his own son. By the way, the people saw this in one of the most significant blows to Saul's leadership. The people intervened. It doesn't exactly say how. The people intervened, perhaps by pressure, and they rescued Jonathan, and Jonathan was never put to death for his supposed crime. Narcissism, and by the way, that's a term that's thrown about far too often today. The word narcissist is overused. Okay, can I make a statement here, folks? It's just generalization. Don't overplay words. When you do that, they lose all of their significance. Do you know what the most abused word in the English language is today? I gave you a hint. It's the word abuse. Don't overplay that word. When everything is abuse, nothing is abuse. Did you hear what I just said? Don't overplay that word. Ladies, don't over, that's a big word. That's a very powerful word. I'm making a statement here so I can be clear, that is a legal word. If someone comes to any one of our pastoral staff members and accuses someone else of abuse, we ask that person to immediately go with us to the police. because that is a legal term. Be very, very careful about using those words. If someone hurt your feelings, it's not necessarily abuse. Did you hear what I said? Abuse is a very, very high-level term. And because it's a legal term, if we hear of this, our staff is under obligation to go to the authorities and to report abuse. That's part of what we do as a staff, by the way. Legally speaking, I am a mandatory reporter. That means when there's an accusation of abuse, I don't cover it up. I go immediately to the authorities. Now, that being said, if there's genuine abuse afoot in your life, you have a friend right here. You have a friend. Because I will defend you and I will help you, but it will always involve legal proceedings. It will always involve something. This is why that's such an important word. The word narcissist is a word that is misused continually. There are people in this world, and I think all of us from time to time in our lives, there are people in this world who have a tendency towards selfishness. Don't we all? Don't we all? We sure do, we do. We have a tendency towards selfishness. A narcissistic individual is always and without exception selfish. They are characterized as having no empathy whatsoever. and they are also characterized by someone who must maintain absolute control either by dictate or manipulation. In all of the reading I did in preparation for this message, there were some who classically identified Saul as having become narcissistic. He could not admit any of his mistakes, not only in the previous chapter we talked about, but in chapter 15, where we read this morning in the Scripture, Saul again goes back to excuse-making and blaming someone else, unable to admit his mistakes. And in this particular case, even when it affected his own son, He was unable to make an exception. He was unable to say, hey, Israel, I made a mistake. That wasn't a good call. The oath was impetuous. Go eat dinner. He wasn't able to do that. Because in his mind, leadership meant perfection. Let me tell you something, church. I know this about leadership. Leadership is very far from perfect. When I came to this church 24 years ago and accepted the pastor of this church, and you all graciously voted me in. Please don't vote me out. I don't have any other offers. You voted me in. When you did that, I made you a promise. I don't know if some of the old timers might remember this. I made you a promise. I promised this church, I promised you two things. I promised you two things. I said, number one, I will love you. I will love you. I've tried to keep that promise to the best of my ability. I love the people of this church. I love the quirkiness. You know who you are. I love the quirkiness. I love the kindness. I love the genuine Christianity that I see in this place. And I love you as a people. I genuinely love you. I've never loved a group of people as I've loved Faith Baptist Church. I've kept that promise. My second promise was even better, though. I said, number one, I will love you. And then I followed up quickly with this promise. Number two, I will make mistakes. Folks, let me tell you something. I have kept that promise. I keep that promise every week of my life, stumbling around wondering what we're going to do next. I have kept that promise. But leadership admits to that. One thing I love about Faith Baptist Church, I don't feel that the members of this church hold me to some kind of personal perfectionism that I am unable to live up to and won't pretend to. And I'm thankful for that. Saul, though, had a whole different view of leadership. He couldn't admit mistakes. He couldn't make any exceptions. Everything was by the book. What he had said, regardless of how wrong it was, he wouldn't back down. the propensity to control unreasonably always leads to negative outcomes. Becoming stubborn, unreasonable, and inflexible does not work in family life. It does not work in relationships. Now listen carefully. There's a New Testament scripture that warns us of this. Provoke not your children to wrath. Interesting verse of Scripture. Some of us feel, and I don't think this is in our church, but in fundamentalism or conservative evangelical, whatever you want to say. Some people feel that they have to keep their kids absolutely under their thumb to the point of suppressed at all times. May I make a statement? That doesn't work. In 35 years of pastoral ministry, you have to let young people grow up. You have to let them make some of their own choices. You guide them and direct them. But at times, it's even okay to let them fail in something fairly inconsequential, so that they understand the sting of failure. but to dictate, to control, to bind and to wrap children into a very tight little box will cause them to be unable to grow up and to function independently in this world. And in worst case scenarios, It can cause deep-seated bitterness. There is a fine line between healthy discipline, and you know I believe in that, and absolute and dictatorial control. And if I were to err on one side or the other, I would err away from the absolute and dictatorial control. stubborn, unreasonable, and inflexible. And now this action has been demonstrated in front of his entire army, and the people of Israel saw it as so unreasonable that they had to deliver Jonathan from the oath of the king. But there's more. Chapter 15 is where we read in our scripture today. You will recall that Saul was commanded by the Lord to destroy the Amalekites, everything, wipe them out. These were very wicked and evil people steeped in Satanism, the worship of Molech, animal, pardon me, child sacrifices, all of these different things. Chapter 15, verses eight and nine tell us what Saul did. Rather than wiping everything off the face of the earth as God had commanded, in verse number eight, the Bible says, he, Solomon, pardon me, Saul, Saul took Agag, the king of the Amalekites, alive and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword, but Saul and the people spared Agag, the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fatlings and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them, but everything that was vile and refuse, That they destroyed utterly. What was Saul's character flaw here? Conformity to the culture over God's word. Huh? Why don't you think about this for a moment? This was a tribal culture worldwide. The Middle East certainly was a tribal culture. And the culture of this was either eat or be eaten. And part of the philosophy of all warfare during that time was that the victor gathered the spoils. And the spoils were something that were to be divided among those who had participated in the victory. It was very common for men who were part of a military unit of that time to be paid exclusively from what they took in the spoils. But God had commanded Saul and said, look, you're gonna destroy everything of the Amalekites, including their sheep and their ox and their goats, everything they've got, destroy it. And of course, when they saw the wealth of the Amalekites, that command of God seemed unreasonable. But it was most certainly counter-cultural. And you can see spinning around in the minds of the members of the military there, the idea that, well, if we destroy this, we're not going to have much of a salary. And really, the reasoning the reasoning that sounds on the surface good, the reasoning, well, if we just follow the custom of keeping the spoil, yeah, we'll destroy some of it, the garbage, the ones that aren't very good, we'll destroy that and kind of give tacit obedience to God. But if we keep this, well, it's going to benefit us ultimately, and it's all going to be good. They were, in essence, conforming to the culture. Saul went along with it. Now, later, Saul would give a spiritual excuse. Well, Samuel, the reason we did this was because we wanted to make a sacrifice unto the Lord thy God. It's almost accusatory to Samuel. But that wasn't their initial purpose. They weren't doing it for a sacrifice, they were doing it out of greed. And then when Samuel the prophet calls them on the carpet, Saul says, oh, well, yes, of course we spread all this because we're gonna have a big religious service. And he covered his disobedience with a religious lie. If we've ever lived in a day and time when that is popular in the average church, it is right now. because rather than confront a culture that is increasingly encroaching upon our freedoms as American Christians, there is a growing chorus of voices among ministers who say the church should capitulate. And they say it in the most spiritual of terms. The last two years, I've had a misapplication and a misinterpretation of Romans 13 thrown in my face probably a dozen times, sometimes from pastors. Let me be clear, ladies and gentlemen. We're subject to the higher power. What is the higher power in America? The United States Constitution. Our higher power is not embodied in a person. It is, thank God, embodied in a document. And our loyalty rests with obedience to that document. And it is that document that sets us free to conduct worship as we will. It is that document that allows us to keep the doors of the church open regardless of any edict. And by the way, in both the Old and the New Testament, God's people follow government authority as long as it does not encroach upon their free worship of God. But you will recall that in Nebuchadnezzar's day, in Daniel's day, in the book of Daniel, an edict was made by the king. No one's allowed to pray! And what did Daniel do? He opened up his window, he faced Jerusalem, and out loud he prayed in direct disobedience to a kingly edict, and he is a hero, because he understood the principle of the book of Acts, that we are to obey God rather than man. It's funny how Saul couched his disobedience in spiritual terms, but his conformity to the culture would ultimately bring him down because in chapter 15 is the next portion where Samuel again very clearly says, you'll never be king for long, and no one, none of your posterity will sit upon the throne. Today, cultural conformity is often disobedience to God. And may I remind you, and I think our young people need to hear this, cultural conformity is a form of fear. It's a form of fear. Pastor, what are you talking about? A lot of people conform to the culture, young people, because they're afraid to be different. God's people, in both the Old and the New Testament, have always, and without exception, been different. And people conform to culture because they don't want to be called out. They don't want to look different. They don't want to dress differently. They don't want to act differently. They don't want to speak differently. They want to go along with everything, just go with the flow. And when a church adopts that idea, that church becomes weak because it follows the culture, oh, maybe not right on the heels of the culture, but it follows the culture at a little bit of the distance, and so much so that the message of the church ultimately changes. Folks, I have no intention of changing the message of this church. I heard recently that the Department of Homeland Security has issued a non-classified memo stating that there are certain characteristics of dangerous internal extremists in America. Do you wanna know what they list? Anyone who questions the results of the last presidential election. Guilty. Guilty. I can't find one person who will admit to have voted for Biden. I can't find one. I just can't find anyone. Nobody wants to admit to that. That's number one. Number two, you're an extremist. How about this? You might be an extremist if. You're an extremist if you believe that the pandemic was planned. I do. I do. I just do. That's just my opinion. You can have another opinion, but I don't think someone ate an undercooked bat and cause the world all this trouble. I just don't believe that. You don't believe it at all, okay? Especially when you patent the gene structure and DNA structure of the very virus that makes us sick. That's weird. I don't believe that. Those two things. Now, I am labeled an extremist. Do you understand, folks? Now, let me just make a statement. I'm not gonna shut up. And I'm not going to go along with the culture. I have no intention of going along with the culture because I'm preaching the Bible. Say, do you know what? I still believe marriage is between a man and a woman. I still have the audacity to tell you that your anatomy and your birth certificate is evidence enough of your gender. that you can't decide that. There are some things you can't decide. I can't decide that I identify as a five foot two man. Or woman, for that matter. I can't decide that that's my identity, okay? And by the way, the more you follow the culture, the more into the realm of absolutely crazy you go. And what Saul was doing was this. Well, everyone else is doing the spoil thing. Everyone else takes the best of everything. We're just following along what other people do. You can't do that and be a Christian. Now listen, it simply means we stand. Someone says, Pastor Monty, what's your direction? Let me inform you of that. I don't have a direction, I have a position. I have a position. So I'm not headed anywhere, I'm just standing here. It's really important, there's a distinction there. Because when you have a position, or pardon me, a direction, you might go this way, and then you might go that way, and then you might go this way, and then you might go any way. But if you're simply standing, because God's word says to stand, then stand on it, regardless of the culture. Saul's problem was he conformed to the culture Culture conformity invites confusion. Marriages, the structure of the home, the male leadership model, all that is called into question. Pastor Marty, it is simply because you are a male chauvinist defender of the patriarchy. What? I just believe the Bible. I just believe you can put all the fancy labels on it you want. I'm just a Bible believer who believes a man ought to love and to lead, who believes a man's responsibility is to provide, protect, and preside. I believe all of that is taught in the scripture, and that a woman is called alongside as his helpmate, and they come together, and they form a family, and they do so with a marriage that pictures the relationship that Jesus Christ has with the church, and they do so to the glory of God. By the way, that was the model that everyone accepted in traditional America 30 years ago. The new models are simply something of an imagination, and I think of satanic origin, but we won't get into that. He conformed to the culture, but then he became increasingly suspicious and jealous. This is another point. Increasingly suspicious and jealous. So if you turn over all the way to chapter 18, You're going to look at verse number 6 with me, chapter 18, verse number 6. The Bible says, "...and it came to pass, as they came, when David was returned from the slaughter of the Philistine," that is, from the slaughter of Goliath, "...that the women came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with taverns with joy, and with instruments of music. And the women answered one another as they played, and said, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands." Verse 8, And Saul was very wroth, and the saying displeased him. And he said, They have ascribed unto David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed but thousands, and what can he have more but the kingdom? Well, that was a silly statement, because some women came out with a little jingle. He now thinks David is taking the kingdom. By the way, David would have the kingdom, as we'll come to, and I'll not get there tonight, obviously, but as you come to the close of 1 Samuel, two separate times Saul admitted, and by the way, both times were after David had spared Saul's life, could have killed him, on two separate occasions, and in a brief meeting that they had after David demonstrated his mercy and respect for Saul as God's anointed, Saul looked David in the eye and said, you will one day be king. Twice he admitted it, and yet he kept hunting David like a rabbit. The Bible says in verse number nine, in his jealousy and suspicion, Saul eyed David from that day forward. Now the suspicion, I think, initially was spawned by Samuel's curse. We saw that in chapter 13, repeated again in chapter 15. Saul knew that he had failed, but interestingly enough, though the prophet whom he trusted had predicted the end of the dynasty of Saul before he had ever begun, though he respected Samuel, he continued to grasp for what Samuel said would never be his, a dynasty and a kingdom. Jealousy, was spawned because David succeeded. I want everyone to look at me. It is a very small man who is a critic of successful people. He's a very small man, very small. Saul was suspicious. Saul was critical, and Saul was jealous because David, the young man in chapter 17, described as a stripling, just a little youth. David, the youth, had slain Goliath. This should have been a cause of thrill in the heart of Saul, because Saul sat around on his portable throne, not doing anything in relationship to Goliath, and a champion arose, an unlikely hero arose, and saved the reputation of Israel, and saved the reputation of Jehovah, and Saul's angry about it. There's something I found out in life, success garners far more criticism than failure. Saul was suspicious and he was jealous because David had succeeded. Honestly, suspicion begins when you view others from your own perspective. If you have a very dark heart, you suspect others of having the same. It's very common, very common occurrence. Successful people, however, are not intimidated by the success of others. I want you to pause for a moment. Here's what I believe, and I believe it firmly. Every success on this staff is a win for Faith Baptist Church. Hear what I just said? None of it intimidates me one bit. There's a pastor who, pastor's in the general area of central Indiana, who told me one time this, and he said it seriously. He said, Pastor Motti, when I hire staff, I hire idiots because they make me look good. He was not kidding. I was stunned. I'll never say who it was. Don't you even ask, Caleb. I'm not telling you. I can see you want to know. I was stunned. No, no, no, no, no. I don't care how I look. I want the ministry of our men to succeed. And by the way, I tend to hire people who can do things that I cannot do, because I am kind of a one-trick pony, and it involves preaching and speaking. That's what I do. It's my wheelhouse. This is where I'm the most comfortable. I am not good at technology. I'm not good at music, though some of you think I am. But you would be wrong. I'm not good at administration. What a nightmare. Years ago, the staff of this church locked me out of the church calendar. I can look at it, but I can't meddle with it. They electronically with some incredible code that the CIA itself couldn't broach, they have locked me out. They hide passwords from me. They keep all, why? Because it's a total nightmare. And I agree with that. I love my staff. Every success they have is a win. When you are a strong individual, you're not intimidated by the success of others. In fact, you learn to cheer it on. Suspicion and jealousy are the marks of intimidation and weakness. And the people who fail, they desire fundamentally to eliminate competition. Preacher, where is that? Drop down in chapter 18, verse number 11. So David's done nothing but good for Saul. He kills Goliath in chapter 17. Saul gets jealous because of a little ditty that the ladies began to sing. David and Saul are together somewhere in the kingly palace. Saul is depressed again, and David, wanting only to do King Saul a service, plays for him, plays his instrument, plays his guitar for him. Verse number 11 says this, can you see this man, this brooding, angry, bitter, jealous, suspicious, mentally instable man, holding a javelin in his hand, as David is innocently playing his guitar in an attempt to soothe the troubled soul of Saul, and Saul casts the javelin, for he said, I will smite David even to the wall with it. And David avoided out of his presence twice. Wow. Wow. I don't have time to finish all of my points. But let me just say this. I would challenge, I said at the beginning of this two-part series, you can learn more sometimes from a negative example than you can from a positive, at least just as much. And I would challenge men to finish the reading of this story and see where Saul ends up. Fast forward, Pastor Mahdi, where is this? In the heat of the battle on Mount Gilboa, He is wounded by archers. He begs his armor-bearer to slay him, realizing that the wounds are mortal. He begs his armor-bearer to slay him. The armor-bearer will not slay the king, and so Saul takes the sword and falls upon his own sword, and later, the enemy comes and finishes him off. An ignominious death at best. And it all started, not because of some great sin, but because of flaws that built and crescendoed, and were up to a point hidden, and then became public, and rather than changing his way, and by the way, rather than turning to the one person who would have helped him. Spasivani, who is that? David. David, don't make an enemy out of the guy who's trying to help you. Don't be a Saul. That's a very Saul-like thing to do. Rather than turn to the one man who could have helped him, Saul turned his back on it all, and he and Jonathan both perished on Mount Gilboa. recorded in the pages of scripture, ultimately Saul, as one of the greatest failures in the Bible. You know what the good news is? You're not on Mount Gilboa. The choices are still yours. But by the grace of God, by his strength and power, you need to recognize, you need to stop making excuses. Stop it, stop it, I don't want to hear it. You need to embrace what God's called you to do, and you need to make changes, gentlemen, changes. I try to make changes all the time to myself, changes that will help me to grow as a person, as a better servant, as a better pastor, as a better husband, as a better father. Improve, improve, improve, because that's where God has called us. You're not on Mount Gilboa. Take the opportunity you have today. Father, I pray you take the word of God. Help us, Lord, tonight. There is so much about this one individual in the pages of the Bible. And Lord, we have only scratched the surface of what we could study regarding him. But Father, it is enough for us to know that maybe the Holy Spirit is speaking in our hearts about making changes. Fundamentally, Lord, Saul became very rebellious against you. And Father, I pray that we would not push back against the Word of God. Lord, give us the wisdom to recognize humbly our own humanness, our faults, and our errors. Give us the grace to rise above them and to determine we will rise above them and change in the name of Christ. Thank you for your love. In his name we pray. Amen. Stand with me, please, everyone.