Is that fair? In 1 Corinthians 12, Brother Jeremy has been called to this church. I've been asked to give a charge to the church. And so I want to do that today. David has been given a ministry. In this ministry, this life, he is to be made the king of all of Israel. Our goal to the church, not to the world, but to the church, is to make sure that people know Jesus as King, as Lord. Not just Savior, but to know Him as King, as Lord. And so the ministry, if I understand your ministry, is to be a teaching elder in this church. So your ministry is to bring people to where they surrender to the kingship, the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Now, in 1 Chronicles chapter 12, there's a good picture of this, I think, of what's happening. If you look at verse 38, it says, "...all these men of war that could keep rank came with a perfect heart to Hebron to make king, take David king over all Israel. And all the rest, also of Israel, were of one heart to make David king." That ought to be our goal, and Jesus is king no matter what I do or what you do. He's king. But to make him the king, the ruler, the one we want to follow, the one we want to obey, the one we want to exalt, the one we want to stand up for, the one we want to die for in our lives and in our churches. An unbeliever can't do this. It's already been spoken that they're dead in trespasses and sin. The natural man understands it's not the things of God, the foolishness to him. You can't ask the lost world to go out and worship Jesus. You can't ask the lost world to especially follow Jesus and obey Jesus and do what He asks you to do. They don't understand it. It's all foolishness to them. And if the Holy Ghost don't work in you to teach you the truths of the Word of God, you won't know it either. Two things we've got to have. We've got to worship God in spirit and in truth. Now, Brother Jeroboam is not the Holy Spirit church. But if he's going to be the teacher of truth, him and Brother Jimmy, then they teach truth. And then the Holy Ghost has to make truth real to you. Men can appeal to our ears, as Brother Harold mentioned out, that the blood needs to be on our ears, what we hear. But the Holy Ghost, that God, has to make truth real to you. Now, we want to say that we can just accept truth. You can do that. You can accept truth, but it's not going to be real truth. When the Spirit of God gets a hold of your heart, and this is from Biblical truth, He said, they that worship Me must worship Me in spirit and truth. He was truth. And when the Holy Ghost came and asked chapter 2, it's already been mentioned, that He is God. When the Holy Ghost went to us Gentiles in Acts chapter 10, from there on out it's a little different even then. The only way we can know truth, we can't claim the covenant promises of Israel. We didn't have them. We were without hope, without promise in this world. But thank God He loved us dead dogs enough to give us hope in Christ Jesus. Now, let me go to this text, or I'm not going to get to it. He says, now these are they that came to David to Ziklag. Now the first thing that I'd say, church, would be those who comes. Listen to me. I'm not talking about lawspeople. I'm talking about those that come. Jesus tells Simon Peter on the Sea of Galilee, feed my sheep. Feed my sheep. He tells the elders of Ephesus in Acts 20.28. The Holy Ghost has made you overseers of the flock of God, feed the flock of God which is among you. But let me tell you something, I used to carry the burden of a community, of people, church people who wouldn't come to church. And one day the sweet Spirit of God enlightened me on something. If they don't come, I can't feed them. Now, I ought to be burdened for them, surely, but I don't have to take blame for them. So church, it is your responsibility to come. We've already heard messages on coming. You have to come. And so those that came to David, now why should you come to church? Because you want to come to Jesus. Why should you want to come to Jesus? Because He is Lord. Because He is King. And you want to come to bow before Him and surrender to Him, to obey Him, to love Him, to cherish Him, and to carry out what He has for us on planet earth. The second thing is when they come, I like verse 2, they were armed. with both and could use both the right hand and the left hand. If I understand, church, what his job is, is to equip the saints of God, to arm them. Now, we all got a Bible, but all of us are not equipped to use them. If you don't come, if you're not faithful to sit here and listen to the Word of God, You're not equipped to do warfare. I don't know where anybody else is in their life, but I'm in war. I'm in absolute warfare. I don't win every battle. I will win the war. But I see men laying down their arms. I'm not saying they won't take them up again, but I do see people laying down their arms. I see people like Demas, who has forsaken me, having loved this present evil world. I don't know how you do that theologically. I don't have all the answers. I just see it. I see people who are literally naming the name of Christ, and then down the road somewhere, they're laying down the armor. Now, I'm going to say a lot of it, and you say whatever you want to. I'm going to say a lot of it is because they're not equipped. The most frustrating thing for me is trying to do something I am not equipped for. Now what is it that God calls on me to do that I'm not equipped for? Not one thing in this world. Because if I know Him, I know that all things are possible with Him. But I have to know Him. Our strength comes from Him. Our weaponry comes from Him. Our source comes from Him. We've already heard this today. So to be armed, we've got to have the Word of God. That's the only thing that builds faith in us. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. And it's the shield of faith that we hold up against the fiery darts of the devil. So his job, if I understand it, church, is to help equip you for the war that's going on in this world. And buddy, you had all-out warfare. It is hell on earth today. This cultural warfare that we're fighting. I'm convinced that when David said, is there not a cause? It was a battle with the Philistines, but it's cultural warfare. David looked out at a Philistine giant, and he said, if you take my mama, you take my brothers, and you take my sisters, you're going to take away their God, because you will not let them go and worship the true and the living God. And the government and the world today is taking away our God. Now, I'm just telling you, when David said there's a cause, he's not talking about fighting a giant. He's talking about a whole culture that's fixing to change if the Philistine giant... We're not going to be able to go to Jerusalem. We're not going to be able to read the Word of God. We're not going to be able to pray. What was it when they took Daniel and the Hebrew boys in the Babylon? It was a call for change. We're in a cultural warfare. And the only thing we've got to stand on is the blessed Word of God. They're armed. If I understand what Brother Jeremy has come to do, Church, it's to arm you. Notice down in verse 8, "...and of the Gaddites they are separated unto themselves unto David, and into the whole of the wilderness, men of might, men of war, fit for the battle." If I understand it, Church, this is what we need, some people that's fit for the battle. You're saying, wait a minute, Brother Len, you're talking about spiritual warfare. You're talking about fighting with protest signs? Absolutely not. You're talking about getting on a political campaign? Absolutely not. I'm talking about people who, like Paul said, that I may know Him. I'm talking about people who have a real presence of God about them. Not theological intellectualism. Not pluralism, where everybody of every religion is going to heaven. People who know the definite line that, buddy, this is the way, one way, one truth, one Lord, one faith, one baptism. And we walk in that truth. Men fit for the battle. The only way you can get fit for the battle is enlist. Come, they came. When they came, they learned. You ought to come to learn. I remember one time at Bensford, I'd sat down to preach and almost everybody had a notebook and a paper. Now nobody has a notebook and paper. We're in a spiritual sleepiness. Well, the Bible would cry, Paul would say, Awake, awake, awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and God shall give you life. But where would we go? We ought to go to learn. And number one, you won't learn if you don't go. And you won't learn if you don't come to intend to learn. So his goal is not to do anything but to feed you the Word of God and equip you. Now, what makes us fit? Men fit. Brother Harold preached on it well ago. There's got to be a cleanliness for us to be fit for God's army. If I had time to build this, I'd certainly go that it comes with a continual repentance. If you're a child of God, it's not a one-time repentance. Now, I know godless are working of repentance unto salvation. I understand godless are. I understand God commanded men everywhere to repent. But in the believer, it's a continual repentance. Because it's continual sin that we battle with every day of our life. Just because I got saved, my friend, you let me tell you I have not laid down this robe of flesh. They tell me that once there was a nation that if a man committed a murder, that the government would tie the dead man on his back and make him pack him while the maggots ate him. So that he would never, ever have to worry about him committing another murder. Because he packed the dead man. Everywhere I go, I pack a dead man. That's why sometimes I do dead things, stupid things. I've not conquered this war. It is my desire. But I am carnal. And my flesh is dead, not to be redeemed. Thank God it's going to be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. And it won't be the same. But as long as I'm in this life I'm in today, I've got to battle with the flesh. So we've got to get fit for it. Then the next thing I'd say in verse 15, I'm taking my time here. In verse 15, I see that not only were they had to be made fit for the battle, but they had to be people of faith. Now, Brother Jeremy has come, Church, to help you. You gather up. You want to learn the Bible. You want to be fit for the battle. But you want your faith to grow. Faith is a gift from God. By grace are you saved through faith, that none of you are saved. None of us are saved without the workings of divine holy God. You can't get saved. God has to draw all of us. God has to give us faith to believe. But I'm not talking about the Lord. I'm talking about saved people. How many of you pray, Lord I believe, help thou my unbelief, that you may grow in grace and knowledge of the Lord, that your faith may grow exceedingly? Now, how does our faith grow? The Holy Ghost draws on what's placed in us. If we pour the Word of God into us, then the Holy Spirit can draw the Word of God for us to believe God. Not just simply say we believe, but acknowledge that this is God talking to me. And not only acknowledge this is God talking to me, but live out what God tells you to do. That's real faith. Faith without works is dead, being alone. So it's not just saying an acknowledgement, well, I believe that message. Who gives a rip to the devil's belief? It's only when you say, that's God speaking. Have you heard men today? I don't know if any of you have heard from God. There's a big difference in hearing from God and hearing from men. We're vessels. All I am is a vessel. I sat right there and prayed again that God would cleanse me this evening, this morning, and the Holy Ghost could use me today because I'm just a vessel. Some do honor, some do dishonor. But it's God that uses the vessel to touch somebody else's life. So here it says in verse 15, these are they that went over Jordan in the first month when it had overflowed all its banks. They tell me that Jordan would be possibly a mile wide. Do you remember when they came in under Joshua and the Jordan was overflowed? You said, ain't nothing to that. Try it, darling. Go out on a mile wide river and step out and say, I'm going to walk across it. Huh? Go down to the Red Sea like Moses and stand there and see a sea of water and say, well, I believe I'll just step out by faith. God said, listen, you better have a word from God before you step out or you're going to drown. You better learn how to wait upon the Lord and listen to God. You better be in tune with the Master. But these people were not afraid of the floods that tried to wash them away. They stood. They worked. They went. And the floods of this world is trying to wash away all of Christianity today. And what this church needs is some people who will get on the Word of God and listen to the Word of God and say, we're not afraid of the floods. We know our God's bigger than the floods. And He can make a way in the flood or a way in the fire because He's God. So you've got to be people of faith. Verse 18 tells us, And the Spirit came upon Amassiah, he was chief of the captives, and he said, Thine are we, David, and on thy side thy son of Jesse. Peace, peace be unto thee. and peace to thine helpers by God." I suppose if I titled the message today, I'd put, Helpers in Christ. Matter of fact, you can turn to Romans 16 and read it. Paul starts out that passage of Scripture about Phoebe, and she's been a sucker of many, and myself also. But he goes on to name some people who helps him. No man, no man, no man can do it on his own. God always uses bodies. collectively, bodies. God's given us a ministry, and He has to keep adding people so the work of God can go on. If it don't, don't look at me. I can't do it. Thank God for the one He's at. Amen? Thank God for the ones that's coming. Oh, we've had many sent out. Many gone. Many leave for ministry. Many leave mad. Many leave and don't know what they're doing. But many leave. But thank God in the morning, if the Lord be willing, we'll stand up and preach to a house full of folk. Because some still coming. And some new ones still coming. Because God brings them in so that we can help equip them and preach to them and see them get saved and thank God for that. But let me tell you something. Here it says we're here because of peace, David. We've come to help you and we want to be helpers. And we want to bring peace, listen, to help Brother Jeremy Church, to help Brother Jimmy build this church, you've got to learn to be people not only fit for the battle, people of faith, but you've got to be people of peace. We don't hardly know what that is today. It means it's a lack of emotional agitation, that people aren't emotionally agitated. We live in a society where it's dangerous to drive a vehicle. It's called road rage. I know none of us ever get it. I'm lying like a dog, I do. We live under such stress. I'm a task-oriented person. My wife's people-oriented. So if there's a task to do, I'm about the task. People come up, I'm saying, why are you here? Why are you getting in my way? I've got something to do, bless God. Don't get mad at Matt. Jesus was task-oriented. He was all the way up the northern edge of Israel. He said, I must go to Jerusalem and die. They said, oh, no, no, no. He said, yes, I am. Just get out of the way. I'm going. But he was also people-oriented. He had time to stop on that journey where he was going to die to save folk, help folk. My wife could be on a task, and you'd drive up. She'd say, oh, come in. What can I cook you to eat? What do you need? And she's people-oriented. I tell her she's a compromiser because she's a people-pleaser. She tells me I'm too hard and dogmatic because I'm task-oriented. So that's where we live. Somewhere in between. I reckon that's where we all ought to live in between. Amen? So what I'm saying is sometimes in ministry, you need to stop and make sure that everybody's at peace. The Bible said, blessed are the peacemakers. Emotional agitation is destroying churches. Not just cultural change, but cultural change is what caused people to be so emotionally agitated. We can't keep up with the changes. We're trying to stay up with Hollywood. This dude from Hollywood killed himself the other day. My grandkids were over the house. I said, I sat down to him. I said, y'all listen at me. I don't know this fella, Robin Williams. I said, but I know this. He's a multimillionaire. Somebody told me how many millions he was worth. I won't repeat because I'd be forgotten. I said, but you know what? He lived on depression. He lived on pills. He lived on alcohol. Then I heard some doctor get up and try to explain on the news about alcoholism. It's like a heart disease or kidney disease. You just have it and you have to learn to deal with it. I thought, well, I don't believe I'd go out and buy me a bottle of heart disease and pour it in me. consistently over and over and over again. I don't think that's a good idea. But, you know, you believe whatever you want to. But what I'm saying is, in the church, the Word of God is what brings peace and love and unity. And you've called Brother Jeremy over here to teach the Word of God. Be here. Come. Listen. Learn. Ask God. God cleanse me that I can hear the Word of God. Make me fit. Make me people of faith. and didn't make me people of peace. Verse 23 says this, and these are the numbers of the bands that were ready armed to war and came to David, to Hebron, to turn the kingdom of Saul to him according to the word of the Lord. You know, when I read all these people, I realize they're different. Different gifts, different backgrounds. But they had one common goal, and that's to make David king. So this group had to accept this group, and these people had to accept this color, and these warriors had to accept these warriors. Church, if you're going to grow, you have to accept other people. A lot of y'all are not like me. Some of you don't believe what I believe, and I don't believe what you believe. But we can accept one another if we all believe the gospel of Jesus Christ. They accepted one another for one goal, to make David king. I'm not talking about compromising truth. I mean, you know, I'm still learning. I don't know all, you may know everything, but I don't. And I'm still learning truths. And as I learn truths, I try to change, too, what truth says. And as I learn more, I hope I'll change more and more. Verse 32 says there are people of understanding from the Word of God. The Bible says in verse 32, "...and the children of Ispachar, which were men that had understanding of the times." You know, the purpose of Brother Jeremy being here is to help you understand the times. That's what Paul said in the book of Romans, knowing the times. We don't know what time we're living in. We ought to be able to look around us and know what time it is. Can you? I mean, can you look around biblically and see what time it is? Paul said this, knowing the last days perilous times shall come. There's a lot of bad times. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 6, now's the accepted time. It's a time when God's saving people by His marvelous grace. I'm glad He turned to a lost and dying Gentile world and saving us. I thank God for it. But it's a dangerous time, it's a perilous time. And then the last thing, or right next to the last thing, verse 33 says this, Church. It says, a zebulun such as went forth to battle, expert in war with all instruments of war, 50,000 which could keep rank, and they were not of a double heart. We need some people that can line up. I know we hate authority. I preached the other night about a woman's role in the church, and I've had two young women come to me and said, brother, Len, that changed my life. You just got to understand how God sees authority, not how you see it. He said the angels are beholden. That's what he said. He said the angels. And what I believe is, as a wife submits to her husband, the angels run back and report and say, did you see that? God, do you know what she did? It's the same way in the church. Rebellion is the sin of what? Witchcraft. It's demonic. But when you submit to the authority, obey them that have the rule over you and watch for your soul. That's what Scripture says. They were not of a double heart. They were fixed on one thing. How we can make David king. Our lives ought to be fixed on one thing. How can we exalt Jesus? Jesus said, if I be lifted up, I'll draw all men unto me." You know, the biggest problem with the gospel's progress in the world is the church. The biggest problem to the advancement of the gospel in this world is the church. And we're the only one that can change it. It's not government, not wickedness, it's sin, it's the church. If the church could come together, people could come in this local church, in this assembly and see people loving one another, excited about Jesus, loving their leaders, working with their leaders, who wouldn't want to come back? Somebody said the reason people won't go to church is because they've already been there. Who won't come in and walk out on the front porch and say, that dude preached too long. I didn't like that. I don't like her. Did you see what she was wearing? Does anybody know what I'm talking about? I heard Scotty Rayburn preach the other night, and I got to laughing. I said, Brother Scotty has been pastoring too long. It teaches him stuff. The last thing I want to say is this. Verse 40, the last statement. It said, For there was joy in this. Doing right things is good, but that's not the ultimate thing. You know when there's real joy in your heart? When he's king of kings. When He's Lord of Lords. When He's the Master of your life. When you bow unto Him. Church, you know when you're going to have real joy? We can all pretend it and fake it. I try to a lot of times. I flat out fake it. I say, how you doing, Brother Linton? Man, I'm doing fine. How you doing? Smile. Yup, yup. Some of y'all not old enough to know what I'm talking about. Some of you old enough to know what I'm talking about. You're doing terrible. You're hurting all over. You've got more problems. basket and pack, but God is still God. Jesus Christ is still Lord of Lords, and over Him we can rejoice. But if we all come together under the men of God that teach us the Word of God, our ultimate goal is to rejoice in the Lord by glorifying Him, honoring Him. Church, I beg you, I beg you, to be a part, as Bill Riddick would say, I'll quote him, be a part of the solution and not the problem. Amen? God bless you, Brother Jimmy. Thank you, brother.