I hope Brother Chris don't have it so messed up up here that I can't play it, amen? I can tell you for sure. But anyhow, I want today to do something a little different than what I normally do as a preacher. But I want to take you, I was not gonna read there yet, but turn to the book. of 1 Kings chapter 22, the very last chapter of the book of 1 Kings. And I want to, we're gonna read text in just a minute. We're told by preachers of bygone years that were great communicators of the word of God, that the most important thing that a person can do whenever they, a preacher can do whenever he is preaching is to catch people's attention at the outset of the message. And their reasoning, and I believe it's good reasoning, he said, because if you don't have their attention the first five minutes, you're not likely to have their attention in 30 minutes. And so I think there's a lot of truth to that. And I say that to say this, I have several introductions this morning, and I couldn't figure out which one to use. So I'm going to use one of them. And if it's not, if it don't work good, if I ever preach a sermon again, I'll change up and do a different one, all right? But today, in just a few minutes, we'll be studying about Ahab, and I hope the Lord will help me. But before we do that, I wanna ask you to join in with me and do something that everyone in this building, you'll remember as a child. How many went to Bible school when you was a kid? Raise your hand. All right. How many of you sung, I'm in the Lord's army? Raise your hand. Now, I'm not gonna make you stand up and do the motions, all right? And it's hard to sing this song without it, but we're gonna do it. So I want you to sing with me this song, I'm in the Lord's Army. ♪ I may never march in the infantry ♪ Ride in the cavalry, shoot the artillery ♪ I may never zoom or the enemy ♪ But I'm in the Lord's Army ♪ I'm in the Lord's army ♪ I'm in the Lord's army ♪ I may never march in the infantry ♪ Ride in the cavalry, shoot the artillery ♪ I may never zoom o'er the enemy ♪ But I'm in the Lord's army All right, you did well, you did well. Now let's step it up a little bit. Another song we used to sing, and all this is going with the message, is this song. And if you know it, jump in. If you don't, jump in anyhow, okay? I'm on the battlefield for my Lord. I am on the battlefield for my Lord. I promised him that I would serve him till I die. Yes, I'm on the battlefield for my Lord. Amen, you did good. Here's another one, and we'll be done after this one. And I don't know if many of you will know this, but if you do, jump in with me. It's an old song that God used many years ago to encourage my heart. ♪ One day when I was thinking of you of unseen things above. The Savior spoke unto me and filled my heart with love. I'm gonna die on this battlefield. I'm gonna die in this war. ♪ I'm gonna die on this battlefield with glory in my soul ♪ I used to have some people who walked and talked with me ♪ But since I've been converted they turn their backs on me ♪ Some say give me silver, some say give me gold But I say give me Jesus, he satisfies my soul. Oh, I'm gonna die on this battlefield, I'm gonna die in this war. I'm gonna die on this battlefield with glory in my soul. I'll take this gospel trumpet, I'll blow it wherever I go. Oh Lord, if you will help me, I'll blow it wherever I go. Oh, I'm gonna die on this battlefield. I'm gonna die in this war. I'm gonna die on this battlefield with glory in my soul. I think there's a truth that we have lost in the Christian faith. And that truth is this, we are in a battle. It is not a milk run. It's not an easy life. And I believe that we have done an injustice to this generation of people that tell them, if you'll get saved, all your problems will be gone. Now, I'm not trying to be pessimistic. I'm being honest. The Bible tells us in 2 Timothy 2, verse 3 and 4, Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, no man that worth entangle himself with affairs of this life, that you may please him who had chosen you to be a soldier. God chose you and me to be a soldier. Ephesians chapter six, verse 11 and following, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, who wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and against powers, against rules of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in our place. Wherefore, take upon you the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand. I believe today that the Christian life is a wonderful life. I believe it's a joyful life. I found in my own heart that the Christian life is a satisfying life. But I've also found that in the midst of the joy, in the midst of the satisfaction, and the midst of the blessings of the Christian life, there are times of sorrow. There are times of difficulties. There are times where we go through some dark things. Now I want to look in your Bible to the book of I Kings chapter 22. And if you're able and you can stand, I wanna read beginning in verse 29 and read down the verse 28. This whole chapter, matter of fact, the last two or three chapters of the book of 1 Kings deals with the life of the king by the name of Ahab. Many of you might not, well, you may recognize the name, but you can't put it together. Ahab was married to Jezebel. Everybody knows who Jezebel was. And so he was married to Jezebel. But look, if you will, in verse 29 and following. So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, went up to Ramoth-Gilead. And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, I will disguise myself and enter into the battle, but put thou on thy robes. And the king of Israel disguised himself and went into the battle. But the king of Syria commanded these thirty and two captains that had ruled over his chariot, saying, Fight neither with small nor great, save only with the king of Israel. And it came to pass, when the captain of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, that they said, Surely it is the king of Israel. And they turned aside to fight against him, and Jehoshaphat cried out. And it came to pass, when the captain of the chariots perceived that it was not the king of Israel, that they turned back from pursuing him. And a certain man drew a bow at a venture, and smote the king of Israel between the joints of his harness. Wherefore, he said unto the driver of his chariot, Turn thine hand, and carry me out of the host, for I am wounded. And the battle increased that day and the king was stayed up in his chariot against the Syrians and died at even and the blood ran out the wound into the midst of the chariot. And there went a proclamation throughout the host about the going down of the sun saying every man to his city and every man to his own country. So the king died and was brought to Samaria and they buried the king in Samaria. And one washed the chariot in the pool of Samaria and the dogs licked up his blood and they washed his armor according to the word of the Lord which he spake. Now the rest of the acts of Ahab, and all that he did, and the ivory house that he had made, and all the cities that he had built, are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the king of Israel? So Ahab slept with his father, and Ahaziah his son reigned in his stead. I would ask you that you would help me to convey the truth that you have laid so heavily upon my heart this week, Lord. I really had no intentions of preaching this whenever I was scheduled to preach this morning, but yet, God, you have, without any doubt in my mind, just permeated my mind and my heart with this story and the scripture. I pray that you would help us, Lord, to recognize our position as soldiers of the Lord Jesus Christ. Help us, Lord, to be able to understand a truth that will help us in the midst of the battles that we face in our Christian lives, and we will thank you for asking these things in Christ's name. Amen. You can be seated. If you ever studied the life of Ahab, you'll study a life that was a life of misery. that was really a life of just wickedness and ungodliness. Ahab was the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat was the king of Judah. One day they were together and the king of Israel said, Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, would you go with me down to Ramoth in Gilead and that we can reclaim the land that we lost to the Syrians some three years prior. And Josaphat said, I will go with you and I will be with you and my soldiers will be your soldiers, my horses will be your horses. We'll go down and we will set this land of Gilead free and bring it back into the kingdom. Well, the Bible says that before they did this, that Jehoshaphat said, is there any prophets of the Lord that we can call them in and that we can hear from them? If you read the text in chapter 22, you'll find that Jehoshaphat, I'm sorry, that Ahab called in 400 prophets and they all prophesied the same. And they said, yes, you'll be able to take the land and come back in great victory. And then Jehoshaphat said, he was one who feared God and walked with God. Jehoshaphat said this, is there not any here a prophet of the Lord? He said, I've heard what your prophets had to say. I want to know what God has to say on this issue. And so the Bible said that he, and if you read this, there's a whole sermon in this part of this chapter. And Ahab said that Jehoshaphat, he said, there is one, and I underscored that in my Bible. Out of 400, there was one. There was 400 that were not prophets of God. There was one that was a prophet of God. And he said, there's one. And then here's what Ahab said, but I hate him. I hate him. Why? He said, because he always speaks evil against me. In other words, he didn't tell me what I want to hear. He tells me what the Lord says. And I love Jehoshaphat's response. He said, say it's not so. He said, oh, say it's not so. It was like he was so shocked at the response. of Ahab. Nonetheless, they call Micaiah in, and Micaiah gives them the word from the Lord. And the Bible tells us that Ahab was so incensed by the message of Micaiah that he sent him back to his own part of the country. And he said, you put him in prison, feed him with the bread of affliction, and give him water until I come back after this war. And of course, Micaiah said, if you come back, God didn't speak to me. He said, but you're not going to come back. Now let me just give you three quick things about Ahab that I want to use his life as an illustration that I believe could be beneficial to us as believers. First of all, I want you to understand that Ahab was a rebel. He was rebellious. He was one who lived a life in total contradiction to what God said in 1 Kings chapter 16 and verse 30. And Ahab, the son of Omride, did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were before him. Again, in chapter 21, verse 25 and 26, it says, But there was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord, whom Jezebel stirred up. So we find, and we could give you scripture after scripture, but it talks about the wickedness and the rebellion of Ahab. How do we say Ahab's rebellion? We say Ahab's ruin. Go back to our text, look in verse 34. The Bible said, And a certain man drew a bow at a venture, and smote the king of Israel between the joints of the harness. Wherefore he said unto the driver of his chariot, Turn thine hand, and carry me out of the host, for I am wounded. Now get the picture. Ahab had no understanding that that day would be the end of his life. He had no idea. Matter of fact, there's a lot of questions I have about this passage of scripture I just don't have answers to. I can't figure out why Ahab said, I'm not going to dress in my kingly robes, but Jehoshaphat, you do it, and Jehoshaphat did, and Ahab didn't. I don't understand all I know about that, but nonetheless, It is what it says about it. So I just take it what the Bible says. And so we find that the Bible said that Ahab was in his chariot and there was a young man that had a venture. Now, we'll talk about that in just a minute. But what it literally means is he said, what is that old saying? Arrow, arrow, let it fly. How does that go? But what he did, he just literally put an arrow in his bow, drew back the bow, let the arrow go, and guess where it hit? It hit right between the shoulder blades of Ahab. That was his ruin. Now we find Ahab's regrets. Verse 35. I never thought about this until this week when I was studying this. In verse 35 the Bible says, Now get the picture. This wound that Ahab experienced did not kill him immediately. As a matter of fact, the Bible said he was stayed up in his chariot until that evening. And Maude, I got to thinking about, wonder what was going through Ahab's mind as the last blood was ebbing out of his body. I wonder what he was thinking about as he knew he was coming to the end of his day. He did not die immediately and he no doubt had thoughts that were running through his mind. You don't you know his mind was just fluid with different thoughts. I believe that he probably remembered back in chapter 21 about his wickedness with Naboth's vineyard and how wicked he was and how ungodly he was and how he put a good man to death. so he could have his vineyard. I believe he would also remember back in chapter 21 about his rebellion towards Elijah, the man of God, and even described him as an enemy of his because he preached to him the truth. I believe it was as Ahab's blood was draining from his body and he said, it's about to die. I believe he remembered that Micaiah said to him, if you come back from this battle, I'm not a prophet of God. And I believe he understood and remembered these things that happened in his life and how he rejected the word of God. Can I tell you, this is a sober warning for every one of us, that one day when we come to the end of our journey, that we're gonna be looking back on our lives and we're gonna remember what we did, what we should have done, what we shouldn't have done, and we're gonna have some regrets in our lives just like Ahab did. However, today I want to call your attention to a verse of scripture that arrested me many years ago. And it really spoke to my heart and as I studied it through the years, it has just continued to be a blessing to my heart. And what I want to do today is I want to take this man Ahab and look at his physical battle and I want to use his life in a spiritual application to our spiritual battles. I believe there's a principle here that we can see. Look, if you will, in verse 34. We read it a moment ago. And a certain man drew a bow at a venture and smote the king of Israel between the joints of the harness. Wherefore, he said unto the driver of the chariot, Turn thine hand and, look at this, carry me out of the host, for I am wounded. I want to preach to you this morning on this thought. Take me out of the battle, for I am wounded. Take me out of the battle, for I am wounded. I believe today that anyone that has served God for any time and been on the front lines in the battle for the Lord knows what it is to receive wounds. We know what it is to receive scars, and we know what it is to receive those fiery darks that come from Satan and those around us. You see, I've said earlier, I'm afraid that many of us Christians have got the concept that the Christian life is a life of ease. It's a life of everything going right. Can I be honest with you? I wouldn't want to be anything but a child of God. I wouldn't want to do anything but preach the Word of God. I wouldn't want to do anything but serve the King of kings and the Lord of lords. And I want to be totally honest with you, there is a cost to serving God. There's a cost to being a soldier of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have taught, we've raised a generation of woke children, of snowflakes, and boy, they don't want anything that is hard, anything that is difficult. I want to tell you, whenever I was a young person and a teenager, whenever I'd go to church and the preacher would talk about paying the price, giving your all and fighting the good fight of faith, I want to tell you, there was something that welled up in my soul that says, I want to be on the front lines. I want to serve the God of heaven. He's worth everything in my life. I wasn't looking for a soft place to lay down. I was looking for an army to get involved in. I was looking for a battle to get involved in. I was looking for a war to fight in. Not the fleshly war, but a spiritual war and a battle for the cause of Christ. I was looking for that. We're not seeing that a whole lot in this generation. We're not seeing a whole lot of that. Remember in Luke chapter 14, Jesus admonished us to count the cost. Now, as I said earlier, all of us in this building have gone through some dark days. We've gone through some battles. We've gone through some wars. I can remember many in my life, the first that I really recall that so crushed me that I literally said to the Lord these words, God, if this is the way it's going to be, I don't want to do this no more. God, if this is the way it's going to be in serving you, if this is the hurt that comes with serving you, then Lord, I don't wanna do this anymore. Literally, I was saying to the Lord, but I didn't use these words, Lord, take me out of the battle, for I'm wounded. And I wanna tell you something, those are realities. And I'm not trying to be pessimistic, I'm being honest. With Scripture and honest with the Christian life, there are battles in the Christian life. I told Kathy some time ago, I said, you know what? This thing of passion ain't fun no more. Amen. You say, did you tell her, if I'm lying, I'm dying. I told her it ain't fun no more. Can I tell you I didn't get in this thing because it was fun? Amen. I didn't get in this thing because it was always joy. I got in this thing because there is a cause and there is a Christ and there is a commitment that I made to him. If he had saved me, I'd serve him to the day I died. Preacher, we go out, preachers, we go out and visit, and you that visit and knock on doors. You constantly hear this, well, I went to church down there at that church, and man, they didn't do me right, and they hurt my feelings, and the preacher preached right to me, and I mean, you hear all these stupid things, and they said, I just ain't going back to church no more because I'm wounded. That's what they're saying. And then you got others that say, well, I'll go, but I'll just go every once in a while. I'll go on Sunday morning maybe. I'll go on Sunday night occasionally. I'll go on Wednesday night whenever I get an opportunity. And there's been so wounded that they've allowed that wound to destroy their relationship with the Lord Jesus who saved them and who loved them. Now I want you to understand this. You serve God, you're gonna be wounded. I know this is not, I thought I come to church to get lifted up and you're knocking me down. Well, I'm gonna help you if you'll just hang in here just a few minutes. We say, preacher, you don't know how, people say, preacher, you don't know how bad they treated me down there. I mean, man, my grandmama gave that organ to the church and they sold it. Get over it. Amen. I mean, the problem is, they say, I just can't go to church anywhere now. What they're saying is I'm wounded, I'm done. I don't wanna fight for the Lord. I don't wanna fight for the cause of Christ. I'm done. Now, here's what they're saying. Take me off the front lines, take me out of the battle, I'm done. Now, let me say this, and I'll give you four quick things. My runway is longer than my flight, okay? Number one, there are two kind of quitters in the Christian faith. There are quitter periods and there are quitter commas. Can I tell you this? I've learned in my own heart that I am a quitter, but I'm a quitter comma. I quit, but it's okay, I'm not quitting no more. I said, I'm done, I've had it, I'm fed up, my heart's hurt, my heart's broken, I'm gonna quit. And then all of a sudden, before the sun rises on the next day, there's something that burns in my soul that says, I just will not quit. I cannot surrender, I cannot throw in the towel. There's something in me that makes me a quitter, comma. You say, well, I'm not a quitter, congratulations. I'm thankful. But see, I'm just honest enough to tell you that, man, there are some times that trials are so heavy that I say, what is the use? And then all of a sudden, the Holy Ghost in my heart says, I'm the use, amen. And I say, yeah, you're right, it is worth it. And old Hume says, it will be worth it all when we see Jesus. One glimpse of his dear face, all trials will erase. It will be worth it all when we see Christ. I'm saying, thank God, it'll be worth it one day. find people and I find people every day in our lives that there used to be. You cannot probably visit around this church anywhere that you will not find after just a few minutes of visiting someone who's unchurched, someone who is bitter, someone who is angry, and someone who will tell you, yes, I used to go to church, but they got hurt somewhere along the journey. You wouldn't give a dime for a preacher who gets hurt and quit, would you? Hello. You'd say, but God, that preacher got hurt and he quit. He wasn't much of a preacher. Well, what about these Christians that get hurt and quit? Is that good preaching? Amen. You're going to get hurt. I hate it. I wish you wouldn't. But I know this, if you get hurt and you do the right things, you'll get help. Let me show you four things, quick four things. Number one, the time of the wound, verse 30. It was during a time of battle. Now I understand I'm taking a fleshly man and a fleshly wound, and I'm even taking a wicked man to describe to you a spiritual truth, though it may be out of context of where we read it, it's not out of context of life in the scripture, and I want to use his life to help you understand the truth. Number one, the time of the wound. The wound took place when they were in a battle. Now, I want you to understand that those folks who never get in the battle, they'll never get wounded. Those folks who sit on the sidelines, watch the world go to hell, don't give their tithe and offer to the church, they don't help support missionaries, they don't do anything for the cause of Christ, they're not likely to get wounded in the battle. But you take someone who's on the front lines, and he's fighting, and he's sweating, and he's laboring, and he's putting his all into it, and he's pouring his soul into the battle that he's in. I wanna tell you, he's likely to get wounded in the battle. If you stay at home and you drink Pepsi and eat popcorn, you probably ain't gonna have a whole lot of problems, amen? Until eternity. Amen, that's a little different, but we're talking about on this day and time. You say, well, preacher, if there's a chance of wounds, why get involved in the Bible? Well, because there is a cause. You remember when David and Goliath was defying the armies of God? You remember the words that David used when he come down to check on his brother? He said, who is this uncircumcised Philistine over there that's defying the armies of our God and blaspheming the name of our God? And then he made this statement, is there not a cause? How dare you let him get by with that, talking about our God like that. It's time that Christians understand we have a righteous cause and we must stand for what is right. We must take a stand in difficult days. Whenever we're challenged and whenever we're come up against, even with legal things, we've got to stand for what is right. There's a cause, but then there's a call. The fact is when God called me, he did not call me to sit on the sidelines and watch the world go to hell. He called me to be involved. Amen. When God saved me, he didn't call me just to go to church and sit on the pew and saying, I shall not be moved. Amen. He called you and he called me to come to church to get under the burden of the ministry and to get busy rescuing the perishing and caring for the dying. There's a concern. You know, one of the things, I wasn't gonna say this, but I'm going to anyhow. As the Lord began to work in my heart and direct me to come and assist Brother Chris here at the church, And I'm serious as I can be when I say this. This was my prayer every day. God, if this is what you want, well, let me go a step further than that. When God affirmed it was what he wanted for my life, my prayer was this, dear God, let me help him. Let me hold his arms up. Let me encourage him. You want me to tell you why? Because he's on the front lines. He needs somebody to come alongside him and to help him carry the burden that he carries for the cause of Christ. And I ask God, Lord, please don't let me do anything that would make him regret asking me to come and let me not do anything that would hurt him or harm him or harm the cause of Christ. Why? Because he's on the front lines. He needs somebody to help him. And I say to members of Fellowship Baptist Church, we need your help. Well, I gotta hurry, the time of the wound. Can I say three things about this? First of all, the privilege of fighting in the battle, it's a privilege. It's a privilege. Sometimes we'll even get benefits from it on this side of eternity. Years ago, I was pastoring in Florida and I came back to Chattanooga for something to revisit my family or something. I went to the Farmore Drug Store over in, it was over, I forget, I think it's over in Hamilton Place, something in that area. I was coming out the door, I was going in the door, and there was a young man that come out the door, his name was Stan Johnson. Stan Johnson was in my youth group. Stan loved to irritate me. He loved it. He lived not far from me and Jill and the kids, and every Saturday night without fail, he would roll my yard. Without fail. I mean, and I'd stay up and still couldn't catch him. He was sharp. I mean, he knew how to do it. But one day when his mom said to me these words, she said, Brother Andy, please don't ever quit living for God. Her name was Martha. And I said, well, Miss Martha, I have no intentions to, but why would you say that to me? I said, have you seen something in my character that make you think that I'm straying? I said, because man, I didn't want to do anything contrary to the Lord. I said, so why did you say it? She said, Brother Eddie, the reason I said that is because you're the best Christian that Stan knows. And if you fall, he'll fall with you. And I tell you, that broke my heart, at the same time challenged me to say, hey, I want to live for God. Now, let's go back to Farmore. I'm walking in Farmore, he's walking out. And it was like shock. Eddie Killian, I mean, I hadn't seen him in 10, 15, maybe 20 years. Eddie Killian, man, it's good to see you. Okay, if you got a minute, I wanna talk to you. I said, sure. He said, this week, or maybe it was the previous week, he said, I was praying and felt the Lord was calling me to preach and said I was afraid. And I didn't know what to, I didn't know if I was called or, he said, I was trying to figure it out. He said, here's what I told the Lord. You might not have done it, but it's what he said. He said, I told the Lord, Lord, if you want me to preach, then you let Eddie Killian cross my path in the next little while. If I'm lying, I'm dying. I'm telling you, I'm saying that yeah, fighting those battles were rough and going through the heartaches were difficult, but blessed be God, you get to see some victories if you'll keep fighting the battle. There's provisions for the battle. I want to tell you, you're not in this thing alone. God's giving you provisions, giving you the word of God. Everything that you need, God'll give it if you'll get in this book. I so appreciate Brother Dale's teaching this morning and talking about his love and his thirst for the Word of God and how we must get to that place in our Christian life where we live by this book and we love this book and we listen to this book. We've gotta get to that place in our lives. How long has it been since you sat down and really gave attentiveness to reading of the Word of God? That's good preaching. Provision of the battle, God provides it. We find the products of battles is wounds that happen. Fleshly battles produce fleshly wounds. Spiritual battles produce spiritual wounds. I'd like to say it isn't true, but it is. You're gonna weep yourself to sleep some nights. You're gonna go to bed and with a burden so heavy that you can hardly breathe, thinking if I can just make it through to in the morning. and wake up the next morning with that heaviness still there in your soul. You say, why is that? Well, just keep following along, you'll find out. Notice the type of the wound, verse 34. It was caused by an arrow. Notice this phrase, adventure. When he got wounded, it was, quote unquote, an accident. Now granted, the guy who shot the arrow was pretty proud, but he surely didn't know it was Ahab he was shooting at. Can I tell you this? For the most part, the wounds that we receive are not intentional wounds. No one, for the most part, gets up and say, yes, today I'm going to get him. No. Things happen. Circumstances change. People's thought processes sometimes get out of line. And they will wound us. Now let me say two or three things. Number one, you can be wounded by your own sin. We commit a sin and we wonder why we're suffering from it. Take a young lady out who loses her virginity. She's a Christian, she loses her virginity and gives in to the lust of the flesh. And she gets pregnant. And then she wonders why. She's suffering because of her own sin. Sin breaks fellowship with God. It causes us to feel guilt, and it certainly harms our testimony. We're wounded by Satan. He attacks us spiritually. Can I be honest with you? I don't know that I've ever gotten Satan's attention, and it's all right with me, okay? I'd just as soon not have his attention. But I want to say his demons have sure visited around me many times. And there's spiritual battles that go on in my heart, in my mind, that I had to fight constantly. I'm honest with you. I can't tell you how many times I've had to go on my face before God. I said, God, I don't know what to do. I don't know how to deal with this. I wanna tell you that there are spiritual battles. We could be wounded by another saint. Amen. A brother or sister in Christ could wound us. Even Jesus knew this, although he was not a saint, but Jesus knew it being a friend. He said in Psalms 41, nine, the prophecy of the Messiah, yet my known familiar friend in whom I trusted, which is he to my bread, has lift up his heel against me. He's talking about Judas. Again, in Matthew 26, again, the same principle. There are people in this building today that you've been hurt. Preacher's disappointed you. I can tell you he didn't mean to. It wasn't his desire to do it. There are people in this building that's gone through a dark time and someone in a church service has lied to you or done you dirty. You know what you're doing? You're sitting there, you're contemplating. I think I'm done. I'm just gonna stay at home. I'm gonna stay at the house. I'm not gonna go down there at that church. There's too many hypocrites down there. It don't keep you out of Walmart. Amen? Okay, buckle your seat belt for just half a second here. Well, there's too many hypocrites in the church. One more won't matter, come on. Okay, you can unbuckle your seatbelts now. I thought, that's cheap, that don't cost you nothing. The tragedy of the wound, it disabled the warrior. I want to tell you, when you're wounded and you don't get it taken care of, you're going to be disabled. You're going to allow bitterness to well up in your heart. And you're going to have those mental arguments. Well, if they had said this, I'd have said that. Hello? Anybody else been down that road? You're in this battle and you're struggling and you're thinking, you know, I can't forgive them what they've done. I'm gonna tell you something that is a tool of Satan to take your wound and to turn it into bitterness. This warrior could fight no longer, but notice this, not only did it disable the warrior, We find also that it destroyed the warrior. I want you to hear this. If you don't get the wound taken care of, it's gonna kill you. It will kill you. People have had an unforgettable experience, and then they develop an unforgiving spirit that leads to an unmovable attitude. And they're gonna live where they have lived all their life, and they're gonna live in misery. I have died running from the battle. I'll be honest with you, I don't wanna die running from the battle. I don't. Only that lady right there knows how many tears in the last 11 years of my life that I have shed over the work of God and the ministry. And I told her, it's not fun anymore. And it ain't, amen. But I didn't get on a museum ride or a park ride. I got in a battle. But let me show, this flows to this last thought. There's a triumph over the wound. Ahab didn't find it. Unfortunately, there's a lot of quote unquote Christians that never find it. You say, what is that? Triumph, how can we get victory? There is an answer. You say, well, what is it? Well, if you read back in the Old Testament, it talks about the balm of Gilead. And that balm of Gilead was a salve that they would put in a wound and it would keep out the germs and it would keep infection out. And can I tell you that that balm of Gilead is the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you'll fill your heart with that balm of Gilead, that purse of the Lord Jesus. If you'll fill your heart with his presence, and his wonder, and his glory, and his grace, and his mercy, and his kindness, you fill your heart with that, I promise you, you may weep, but you won't get out of the battle. You may struggle, but you'll stay in the battle. If you wanna keep bitterness out, you better run to Jesus when you're hurt. When I went through a time some time ago, I knew the tendency was to become bitter as far as the flesh goes. And there was not a day for months that went by that I did not fall on my knees before God and say, God, please, if there is any bitterness in my soul, show it to me. I want to confess it. Because I knew that bitterness would kill me. It would destroy me. If you've been wounded in the battle, you better deal with it right. Because if you don't, you say, well, you know, my health is gone. God didn't treat me right. That's bitterness. It's bitterness. Truth is, God's been better to any of us than we deserve. And only the balm of Gilead, the Lord Jesus, can cause that wound to heal. I finish asking this question. Are you in the battle for our Lord? Well, I promised him that I would serve him till I die. I'm on the battlefield for my Lord. Then what are you gonna do when wounds come? And if you're not on the battlefield, could it be that you're not even saved? You say, why would I wanna get saved? I'll tell you why. Because there is a relationship with Jesus Christ that you cannot understand until you've had it. I cannot explain to you that relationship I have with Jesus Christ. I can't explain to you what it means to drive down the road and all of a sudden, God get in the car with you. I can't explain that. I mean, there's a time I'm driving down the road, God gets in the car and I think, wow, good night, wow, man, thank you, Lord. I was, I gotta quit. Years ago, I had a member in North Carolina to help me build my house. And And he was just a sweet brother and he loved me and he cared about my family. One day I was driving down the road, I may have been going to the hospital or something, and he called me on my cell phone and I was all to pieces. I mean, God was just moving in my soul. I was listening to a girl's home sing and it just moved my soul. And he called me and I answered the phone and I said, He said, Preacher, what's wrong? I said, Brother, God's in the car. I wish I could explain what that is, but I can't unless you've had it. And if you don't know Christ as your Savior, you're never going to have that. But in all that, you'll go straight to hell and burn for eternity. But Jesus died so you wouldn't have to. The invitation day is twofold. Number one, Christian. Are you wounded? Let's take the facade off for just a minute. Let's be honest. Let's quit playing the game. Let's realize that as long as I'm wounded, I can't be a soldier for the Lord Jesus Christ. I've got to get it healed, and he's the one who can heal it. You say, well, you know, I'm tired of the traditional church. No, let's be honest. You're wounded. You're not willing to deal with it correctly, so you use everybody else as an excuse for you not serving God. Are you saved today? If not, I want to tell you, there is a love that Jesus showed when he died on the cross. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man let his life for his friends. I like that third, I think it's the third verse of that song that says, could we with ink the ocean field. And were the sky a parchment made, where every stalk on earth a quill, and every man a scribe by trade, to write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry, nor could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky. That's the love of God. Father, we're grateful for your word. I want to thank you for how people were attentive today. Lord, I bless my heart that they listened. I pray they received help. I pray for those that are here today that have been wounded. The battle has gone hard against them. It may be someone intended to wound them. It may be someone didn't, but they wounded them nonetheless. I ask you, Lord, that they'd understand that the only hope they have is that balm of Gilead, the Lord Jesus. He's the only hope they have of overcoming such hurt and such hardship and such wounds. I ask you, Lord, that you would touch that one that's here that's lost. Oh, God, one day when I was in the third grade, I sat in a service like this one. Man of God preached like I did. And the Holy Spirit of God spoke to my heart and convicted me. drew me to Christ Jesus. Holy Spirit, would you do that again today? Save that young person, that teenager, God, that adult that's lost, would you save them? I ask this in Jesus' name. Our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed, and while we wait and listen to the Lord,