[0:00] And welcome to Bethel Christian Church this morning. If you take out your bulletins, we have some things to lift up to you this morning. And I'd like to encourage you to read your bulletins and make sure that you're up on all of the things that are happening in the church.
[0:14] There is a change in our order of worship this morning that we need to lift up to you. And the last hymn that's listed there, 808, Eternal Father, does not belong in that spot. It belongs right after our prayer requests and prayers.
[0:27] So that will be sung at that time. Also, today is the day the Sacred Sisters for the next year are chosen. So if you're involved in that and interested in that, we would encourage you to go up to the old sanctuary after church and be prepared to go through that process.
[0:46] Today is also Father's Day. And I say Happy Father's Day to all you fathers out there. And we do have a gift for each of the fathers this morning after the service. We would like for you to file in through this door right back here to this Sunday school room.
[1:00] They'll be on a table in there, and you can take your pick of what's in there, and then go out the other door and just sort of make a trail through there to get that accomplished. Is there anything else to come before the congregation this morning?
[1:13] Our pastor and associate pastor, or whatever we call him, Ron, and he's a good man, and I appreciate him dearly, are not here today.
[1:26] They're at Johnny Camp or on their way to there. And so today our speaker is going to be Terry Baker. Terry has spoken to us before, and I asked him, and he readily accepted the opportunity to do that again.
[1:41] And I want you to know that I appreciate that, and I appreciate him, and I appreciate his message, because I wouldn't have asked him, but I thought he did a dumb job. I'd like to ask all of you to stand now, and let's have our time of greeting.
[1:59] Greet one another. And remain standing as we return to our seats. Take out your scriptures, if you would. And we're going to read the eighth psalm this morning, if you would get out your scriptures.
[2:19] And if you would turn to the eighth psalm, I will read together. You can follow along with me as I read, and help to make sure that I do it right.
[2:29] So if you'd all just follow along as I read. To the chief musician on the instrument of gath, a psalm of David.
[2:40] Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth, who have set your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants you have ordained strength, because of your enemies, that you may silence the enemy and the avenger.
[2:56] When I consider your heavens the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have ordained, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you visit him?
[3:09] For you have made him a little lower than the angels, and you have crowned him with glory and honor. You have made him to have dominion over the works of your hands. You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, even the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, that pass through the paths of the sea.
[3:29] O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth. Would you remain standing for our opening hymn, please? 143.
[3:41] This is my Father's world. 143. This is my Father's world.
[3:52] And to my listening ears, All nature sings and round me rings The music of the spheres.
[4:07] This is my Father's world. I rest me in the thought Of rocks and trees, Of skies and seas, His hand the wonders wrought This is my Father's world.
[4:32] The birds their carols raise The morning light, The morning light, The lily white, Declare their maker's praise.
[4:46] This is my Father's world. He shines in all that's fair. In the rustling grass, I hear him pass.
[5:00] He speaks to me everywhere. This is my Father's world. Oh, let me ne'er forget That though the throne seems oft so strong, God, he is the ruler yet.
[5:24] This is my Father's world. The mantle is not done. Jesus who died shall be satisfied And earth and heaven be one.
[5:42] Let's turn over to 404, 404, Faith of Our Fathers. Faith of Our Fathers Faith of Our Fathers Living still In spite of dungeon, fire and storm Oh, how our hearts beat high with joy Whene'er we hear that glorious word Faith of Our Fathers Holy Faith We will be true to Thee till death Faith of Our Fathers Faith of Our Fathers
[6:44] Faith of Our Fathers We will strive to win all nations unto Thee And through the truth that comes from God Mankind shall then be truly free Faith of Our Fathers We will be true to Thee till death Faith of Our Fathers Faith of Our Fathers We will love both friend and foe In all our strife And reach Thee to whom As love knows how By kindly words and virtuous life
[7:47] Faith of Our Fathers Faith of Our Fathers Holy Faith We will be true to Thee till death The chorus on 456 I think we'll sing this through twice Find us faithful And I'm sure it's a prayer of each father here Oh may all who come behind us Find us faithful May the fire of our devotion Light their way May the footprints that we lead Lead them to believe And the lives we live Inspire them to obey May the fire of our devotion
[8:48] May the fire of our devotion Light their way May the footprints that we lead Lead them to believe And the lives we live Inspire them to obey O may all who come behind us Find us faithful Thank you.
[9:34] You may be seated. Great singing. Dear Heavenly Lord We come to you this morning And there's a lot of requests here A lot of unspoken But we know That you know Each and every situation We ask for your healing touch In each situation For your helping hand For your guidance I don't need to repeat All the names dear Lord You've heard The request from the people In the church I ask that you be With each and every one And work in each situation And we always ask For thy will to be done And to give us The understanding To accept that Be with all those traveling As we have a lot of Church members traveling today All those that are sick Lay them a touch That they will be better In your name And for us For the understanding Of your will for us For we ask us all In Jesus name Amen Would you like to take Your hymnals And stand And turn to 808
[10:35] Eternal Father Strong to save Eternal Father Strong to save Who's miracle The storm hath found the restless wave Who bids the mighty ocean deep Its own appointed limits keep O hear us when we cry to thee For those in peril on the sea O Christ the Lord of hill and plain For which our traffic runs the main By mountain pass or valley low
[11:39] Wherever Lord our brethren go Protect them by thy guiding hand From every peril on the land O Spirit whom the Father sent To spread abroad the firmament O wind of heaven By thy might All who dare the eagles fight And keep them by thy watch From every peril in the air O Trinity of love and power Our brethren shield in danger
[12:43] In the air From rock and tempest fire and fall Protect them where so'er they go As evermore shall rise to thee Seek the praise from air and land and sea Thank you Thank you May be seated It's time for a praise time One of the better times in the service As far as I'm concerned Some like others But I like the praise time Are there any praises this morning That the Lord's done something for you this week Or you know somebody else Or just a praise Amen Okay Well I'm glad he's here
[13:54] Praise the Lord Yeah Okay Just to give back to him Our Heavenly Father We thank you for today We thank you for this time of praise And fellowship Lord we just praise you And we want to give back to you What you want from us Just be with us now in this time Amen You may be seated
[14:58] Once every month We're blessed by someone Who's willing to come forward And have a kids corner For our children And I'd like to invite All the children in the congregation To come forward now And Dale Openlander Is going to give us The kids corner this morning So All you kids Come forward Good morning Good morning Is everyone excited?
[15:48] That it's What? Father's Day? Yes Yes There's a Bible verse That comes to my mind That says Listen To a father's instructions Pay attention And gain understanding This is in Proverbs 4 1 How many of you Listen to the wise things That your dad says to you?
[16:14] After all Your dad is older Has far more experience And has much wise And is much wiser than you are To prove my point I have made a list Of the top ten sayings Of wise dads I am sure that you have heard Many of these wise sayings From the lips Of your own dad Number ten Why?
[16:52] Because I say so That's why Number nine Just wait Till you have kids Of your own Number ten I mean number eight What did I just Get finished telling you?
[17:14] Number seven This is going to hurt me More than it does you Six Do I look like I'm made of money?
[17:27] Five Not now I'm watching the game Four When you break your leg Don't come running to me Number three No We are not lost Be quiet Can't you see I'm trying to think?
[18:08] And number one On the list Of the top ten Is How should I know? Ask your mother Well maybe your dad Doesn't always have All the right answers But God has blessed Most of you With a godly dad And he And he has commanded You to show him Honor And respect You should also Remember to pray For your dad And ask God To give him The wisdom he needs To train you In the way that God wants you To grow Let's pray Dear Jesus We thank you For our dads And we pray That you will Bless them With wisdom Needed To be good Dads Amen And I have Something to give Out to you That you can Write little Messages to your Dad
[19:08] Gift of giving And he can also Give back And give you A message Thank Dale For doing The kids Corner This morning The one that Really hit me Was No I'm not Lost And I'm Thank goodness For modern day GPS's Because now I can Honestly say that Many times I was Lost and I didn't Want to admit it Our pastor is on His way to Johnny camp This morning Terry Baker Has Prayerfully Accepted the Opportunity to Come forward And speak to us This morning To bring God's Word to us And so I'm Going to ask Terry if he Would come Forward now And take Care of that Duty I give you Praise and Thanks for Him Good morning Happy father's
[20:10] Day to you All I Greatly appreciate Everyone who's Done something This morning Dale and the Musicians It's always Great to have The choristers And of course The deacons They've done Their part as Well I certainly Appreciate that I did Prayerfully Consider it And I heard This morning That Fred Announced that There was a Change in order And I was Thinking thank you Lord I'm off I'm off the Hook And then he Said my name And I thought By sitting up Front there Probably are Quite a few People who Get up and Leave now And sneak Out and I Wouldn't know That would be Just fine too But again I do A thank you for Coming and for Allowing me to Speak The pastor Is away Pastoral support Ron's away So you're Basically down To third String Being a High state Football fan I was pretty Excited last Year when our Third string Quarterback came Off and he Won three Great games And so it Gave me a Little bit of Hope that Maybe I Could have Some success Today So I'm Excited about That So again Happy Father's Day And I Hope that You have A great Day And the Sun is Shining Last time I spoke It was Very dry
[21:10] It was on Father's Day I remember I brought Some beans And they Were dry And they Died Today It's a Little bit Different Day Than that And so We should Enjoy the Sunshine that We do have Today It's a Beautiful Morning So the Verses that I'd like to Talk to you About today Are found In 1st Samuel Chapter 16 I'm going To read Verse 1 I'm going To jump Down to Verse 6 And read Down to 13 Our Pastor Always Most generally Says if There's a Bible in the Seat Go ahead And use It And if You need One Take it And use It And I Hope you Do that And I'm Going to Have that Liberty As well Today Take that Liberty Anyway Is to To invite You to Take that Bible And certainly Use it So 1st Samuel Chapter 16 I'm going To read Verse 1 Like I said I'm going To jump Down to Verse 6 And I'm Going to Pick up There So here With me The word Of the Lord And the Lord Said unto Samuel How long Wilt thou Mourn for Saul Seeing I Have rejected Him from Raining Over Israel Fill Thy horn Among his
[22:13] Sons Down to Verse 6 And it Came to Pass when They had Come that He looked Upon Elib and Said surely The Lord's Anointed is Before him But the Lord said Unto Samuel Look not at His countenance Or on the Height of His stature Because I Have refused Him For the Lord seeth Not as A man Seeth For man Looketh on The outward Appearance But the Lord Looketh On The heart Then Jesse Called Abedinub And made Him pass Before Samuel And he Said Neither Hath The Lord Chosen This Then Jesse Made Shamath To Pass By And he Said Neither Hath The Lord Chosen This Again Jesse Made Seven Of His Sons To Pass Before Samuel And Samuel Said unto Jesse!
[23:05] And He Sent And Brought Him In Now He Was Ruddy And With All Of A Beautiful Countenance And Goodly To Look To And The Lord Said Arise Anoint Him For This Is He Then Samuel Took The Horn Of Oil And Anointed Him In The Spirit Of The Lord Came Upon David From That Day Forward So Samuel Rose Up And Went To Ramah Let's Let's Have a Word of Prayer Lord Thank You For Your Word Thank You For What It Means To Us For The Ability To Look At It Lord And To Learn From It Lord Just As We See Road Signs Along The Way Lord We Look Into Your Bible To Find Those Signs So Help Us To Be Cognitive Of Those And To To Hold Our Hearts Open For You Lord That We May Hear Your Small Whisper And Put Everything Aside Lord We Are Busy All The Time But Help Us To Learn Something From You Lord So Again Give Us Understanding And Help Us To Look Into Your Word Successfully That You Would Have Us To
[24:05] Grow And To Become More Wise And More Useful To You Lord So In Jesus Name We Do Pray Amen Verse One We're Going To Look At God Says To Samuel Samuel You've Been Worried About Saul For Quite Some Time And I'm Done With I've Had Enough Saul Had Been The People Had Wanted A King Saul Had Been That Chosen Man He Was A Big Tall Handsome Guy Apparently Smart Since I'm Not Big And Tall You Always Like To Think Saul Had Miserably Failed He Had Become Involved In Himself As So Many People Do Good Looking Smart Handsome Tall Guys He Kind Of Fell Into That Whole Regime Of Thinking About Himself And We See That Today I Mean It's Not Anything Uncommon Saul Had Fallen Into Himself He Turned Away From God He Had Not Been Listening!
[25:01] To God And Samuel Had Tried Very Desperally To Very Concerned About It And Now God Told Him Don't Worry About It Samuel Forget About It I'm Moving On So There's A Great Lesson In That Sometimes We Can Get Involved In Ourselves We See It Again Happen All The Time With People Who Take Mighty Positions And Become Very Successful That They Fall Away From What They Should They Should Be Doing What Was Right So Again God Told Samuel We're Moving On I'm Even Going To Give You Some Direction I'm Going To Tell You Where You Need To Go To Find My Next King I'm Going To Go To To A Man Named Jesse And We're Going To Pick Out One Of His Sons He Has Eight So You Got It Pretty Narrowed Down One Of Eight Guys Samuel Had To Make Some Arrangements Again
[26:01] He Was A Tall Man Good Looking Fella Kind Of Guy That We Look For In Leadership Today And Then In Verse Seven God Says Something To Samuel That Has Been True For Thousands Of Years It's Just A Truth God Said Don't Bother To Look At The Outside Look At The Inside So That Gives Me A Guy Like Me A Lot Of Hope!
[26:30] You Probably Don't Know I Truly! I Truly Infatuated With United States Special Forces I Have Been For A Long Time I Not Sure Why They Are Certainly The Elite They Are Called Tier One Men Who Risk Great Deal For Us But One Of The Things They Do Is They Go Into!
[26:48] Training And I I To Talk Specifically About Navy SEAL Training You Know We Can Do A Lot Of Things In This Country Today We Can Send Men To The Moon We Can Send Rockets To All Kinds Of Planets We Can Split Atoms We Can Do Just An Amazing Amount Of Things But We Cannot We Have Been Unsuccessful At Predicting Who Will Pass SEAL Training I Speaking Specifically About SEAL Training There Are Several Special Forces Trainings In The United States Between One In Twenty Testing They Interviewed They Statistically Have Looked At People Going In Dedicated Young Men Highly Motivated Very Physical Going In And Coming Out Those Who Pass And Those Who Fail And You Know What They Can't Do They Can't Tell Who To Win They Can't Tell Who To Pass You Know Why Because They Can't Tell What A Man Has In His Heart They
[27:48] Can't Find It Out Until It Tested Until It Proven They Can't Tell We're Unable To Do That So What God Possessed The Show Samuel Right Here Something That He's Training Samuel Showing Samuel Making Him Aware Of You Know What You Can Look At A Man On The Outside But You Can't Tell What He's Going To Be Like On The Inside Until You Put It To The Test So You Test It So Jesse Runs All His Sons In Front Samuel Can You Imagine Samuel's I Don't Know Frustration His Confusion Because God Told Him None Of None Of The Seven Young Men That Samuel Has Looked At God Says He's The One He's Not Him So Samuel Says To Jesse Is This It Is All You Got Well I Have One More He's Out In The Field He's My Young He's Taking Care Of Some Sheep Meaningful Job Probably Not The Most Important Job On The Farm That Day But Something That Had To Be Done So Samuel Asked That He Come
[28:48] That Samuel Wasn't Going To Sit Down And Eat He Wasn't Going To Do Any More Until David Came So David Came Sure Enough God Had Selected Him So Samuel Anointed Him So As We And What I Like About These Verses It Introduces Us To The Boy Who Would Be King To David God Looked At His Heart He's The One So Let's Look At Some Things That Happened In David's Life The Scrapbook Of David's Life As To Why God Looked At David's Heart Why That Was So Important And Why It's So Important To Today Both As Men And Women I Don't Mean To Speak Only About Sons It Is Father's Day But I Want All Daughters To Think About It And We All Are Daughters Or Sons Of Someone Right I Want To Look At Some Of The Reasons Why It Is So Important That God Examines Our Heart And Why It Is So Important That Our Hearts Be Where God Wants Them To Be You Would Certainly Think That David's Been Anointed King Saul's Going To Have To Move Out Of The Way The
[29:48] First Thing That Should Come To Mind Here Is Patience David's Just A Boy It Is Not Going To Be Days It's Not Going To Be Weeks It's Not Going To Be Months It Is Literally Going To Be Years Before David Takes The Throne One Thing That Should Hallmark A Christian Life Is Patience Patience With Others Patience David Had To Be Patient Samuel Had To Be Patient The People Had To Be Patient They Needed A Change In Leadership Thousands Of Years Ago Does That Not Hold True Today Sometimes We Need Changes In Leadership We Have To Be Patient Have To Be Prayerful Have To Remember What Needs To Happen Some Of The Things Are Going To Happen To Us Along The Way We're Going To We're We're
[30:52] David Was Ordered By Asked By His Dad Jesse To Go Feed Some Of His Brothers Take Some Bread To Them He Grabbed His Food Did His Instructed And He Went Out To His Brothers Who Were In The Israelite Army They Were Lined Up Against The Philistines There Was A Guy In The Middle A Big Guy I Like To Think Big And Dumb That Works Well God's On Our Team Right God's God's On Our Team Why Isn't Somebody Going Down There And Doing Something About This Apparently The Israelite Army Thought That God Wasn't Quite Close Enough To Take Care Of Him So They Let Him Down There But David Said I'll Go So Here Went David Down All The Right Reasons He Was Highly Successful He Killed Goliath The Israelites Took The Day They Drove The Philistine Army Away Yet David Was Highly Disliked By Whom Saul In Time Saul Is Going To Learn
[31:52] To Not Only Dislike David For This Great Event I Mean What Could Be Finer Than To Kill The Biggest Guy You Could With A Little Boy Drive The Enemy From The Field Which Was So Important To That Society To Find Yourself He Tried To Appease Saul Saul Again Had Been Taken Over By An Evil Spirit And Grew To Hate David So Sometimes When We're Successful And For All The Right Reasons People Are Not Going To Like Us As Christians It's Going To Be Something We're Going To Deal With Next Thing That Is Going To Come Along!
[32:29] Like I Said David Is Now Hated By Saul It Grows Over Time Saul Learns To Hate Him He Starts To Pursue Him Dedicated To Killing Him So David Is On The Run Not Much Of An Option For A King I Don't Suppose But David Is On The Run Do You Suppose David Was Well Kept Do Suppose He Was Always Clean Do Suppose He Was Always Filled With Food He Left!
[32:51] The King's Court And Now He's Physically Challenged You're Going To Be Tired Cold!
[33:04] Hungry!! We Know There's Several Of Us That Are Hurting! Things Are Going To Come Along That Are Physically Going To Challenge Us Yet We Have To Stay The Course Sometimes That's Not So Easy Next Thing Your Decisions Are Not Going To Seem To Be Very Logical David Had The Opportunity To Kill Saul More Than Once Some Of The Men Around Him Told Him Let's End This Thing Let's Get This Over With We've Been Running For A Long Time It's Time For You To Take Over Your Time David Said No I'm Not Going To Do That He Spared Saul A Couple Of Times And Tried To Convince Saul That You Know What I'm Not!
[33:43] Here To Hurt You That Doesn't Seem Very Logical To Us Today We Want To Get Our Enemies Out Of The Way Yet David Seemed To Follow What God Wanted Him To Do And Honor That God Had Chosen Saul Sometimes Your Decisions As A Christian Are Not Going To Seem To Be Very Logical To Those Around You They're Going To Seem Stupid Why Don't We Get Revenge Why Don't We Take Something Out Why Don't David Would Not Do It Next God's Timing Is Not Going To Seem To Be Very Good God's Timing Is Not Going To Seem To Be Very Good David Had Been On The Run For Quite Some Time Saul Had Been With Drawn From David He Had Him Surrounded At One Point Samuel Tells Us The Only Thing That May Have Saved David Was The Fact That The Philistines Were Pretty
[34:47] Soon The Israelite Army Is Faced Up Against The Philistines And You Know What They're Losing Saul Has Been A Miserable Leader And It's Starting To Show They're Losing Saul Realizes He's Going To Lose Tries To Withdraw From The Battlefield!
[35:02] And He's Killed He's Dead A Couple Of His Sons Have Died In Fact One Of David's Best Friends Jonathan Has Perished As Well Guess Who's Going To Take Over Now Couldn't Have Been On An Upswing Wouldn't You Think David Would Have Thought How About A Swing Up Couldn't Saul Just Got Hit By An Arrow Or Had A Heart Attack Or Something After We Won A Big Battle No They've Lost They've Been Driven From The Field Their King Is Dead Some Of His Sons Are Dead David's Best Friend We're Going To Find Ourselves In Some Pretty Desperate Situations This Was A High Stress High Stakes Game That David Was In He Basically Had To Push Out The Rest Of Saul's Family Take Over The Entire Country He Had Part Of It Came To Him Judah Did He Had To Take The Rest Of It By Force He Suddenly Had To Organize His Army Because There's An Enemy Army Right Out There Folks
[36:02] They're Waiting To Take Over They're Already Put Together He Has To Put It All Together He Has To Consolidate His Power He Has To Put The Right People In Place He Has To Make Things Happen Very Quickly That Doesn't Seem Like Very Good Timing To Me Sometimes God's Timing Is Not Going!
[36:21] To Seem To Be Very! Good! We're Going To Have So He Went And Got It He Had A New Cart Built For It He Sent Some Of His Top Guys To Go Get It They're Bringing It Back And On The Journey They Want To Put It Inside To Keep It Out Of The Weather They Want To Put It On It Comes In And It It Be
[37:25] God Killed Him He Died Right On The Spot He Didn't Do Exactly What God Had Said That Is David Was Greatly Disappointed In That He Wasn't Sure Why That Had Happened He Was Confused Very Understandable Things Happen In Our Lives People Die And We Become Confused About Them Why Did That Happen How Did That What What Could Be Wrong With Steadying An Arc Like Back To Town And Basically Sit Around For Three Months Kind Of Trying To Figure It Out But The Ark Stayed To The Family And That Family Continued To Be Very Blessed By The Presence Of The Ark And David Really Wanted To Get That Ark Back To Zion So He Went Back And He Got It He Brought It Into!
[38:12] Pretty Exciting Time I Don't Know About You But I Have Of You That's Excitement Folks That Is True Excitement To The Point Of Almost Being Crazy Right I Don't Want Anybody Having Any Mental Pictures Up Here Cause I Not That Excited Or Nor Have I Been And I Have Had Some Pretty Exciting Things In My Life And I Hope You Have Too But That Much Excitement Can You Imagine That That Excited That Arch In Town Jumping Around Town Happy As Can Be Dancing Sometimes People Close To Us Are Going To Steal Our Joy Sometimes People Very Close To Us Are Going To Steal Our Joy David Walked Back Into The House He's Been Excited I Don't Know If He Had Put Some Clothes On But His Wife Met Him At The Door Yeah Pretty Impressive King Ran Around Town Naked Everybody Is Pretty Happy To See
[39:12] You That's Royal Treatment There All The Women Saw You That's Pretty Good Stuff Good Stuff You Know I Don't Know How I Would Handle That That's Pretty Harsh Something That Exciting Happens In Your Life And Here Someone Pulls The Rug Right Out From Beneath Of You David Was Certainly Unhappy With Her He Let Her Know It He Took It Is Going To Happen We Are Going To Feel Like We Are On An Emotional Christian High Something Great Is Going To Happen In Our Life And We Are Going To Think God Has Truly Blessed Us We Done What God Wants Everything Is Together The Pieces Are All Perfect!
[39:53] Yes! Somebody Is Going To Steal It From Us It Is Going! Next! Our Mistakes How Many Times Have You Ever He He Says He Is A Christian But He Does This He Does That That Doesn't Seem Very Christian Like To Me And I Am Not Certainly Condoning Anything That Is Not Christian Like What I Am Saying To You Are Is Or Is People Are Going To Look At Us As Christians And Hold Us To A Very High Standard They Are Going!
[40:34] They're Going To Expect Nothing Less Than Perfection In Fact You Don't Have To Really Do Anything Wrong To Get To Their Iyer Our Mistakes Are Going To Look Very Bad And People Are Going To Notice Them David Made A Huge One It's One Of The Things That David Is Probably Best Remember For To To You And It Certainly Isn't Pleasant In Football They Pay Men Millions Of to make incredible catches, one-handed catches, things that you and I couldn't dream of doing, millions of dollars.
[41:07] Yet how many times have you seen that same guy that makes that wonderful catch, the ball hits him right in the chest and he drops the ball? How did, what? How did that happen? David took his eye off the ball so completely, so thoroughly that someone else had to come along and tell him, you missed it.
[41:27] But here's what happened. Here's what you just did. David had straight, he knew better. We all know better than what David did. He did something and then went ahead and made it worse.
[41:39] He continued. I've often wondered, God, why didn't you send Nathan sooner? He didn't have to let somebody die, did he? Free will. Free will. David really screwed up.
[41:50] Wasn't pleasant. Wasn't that pleasant, we're going to screw up. David had conceived a child from all that had happened. He had killed a man, her husband, had taken her.
[42:02] He had a child that he was dealing with. God pointed it out to him. Nathan came to him and told him the story. David realized it. I'm sure he was upset with himself. He had a son involved, or a child, excuse me.
[42:15] He had a child involved. So David stopped and fasted and prayed. Samuel tells us that he took off his clothes. He did what they did at the time. He basically lived in the ground. Didn't eat.
[42:27] He prayed. The child died. David got up, dusted himself off, put clothes on, and went back to work. Sometimes we're going to make mistakes. We might get punished for it.
[42:39] When it's all said and done, we're going to have to pick ourselves up and move on. Ask for forgiveness. Move on. You know what you did. You've been punished. Go on.
[42:51] Sometimes that's what's going to have to happen. In fact, any time we screw up, that's what's going to have to happen. We get punished. We got it coming. No doubt about it. We pray about it.
[43:04] Ask for repentance for it. Accept it. Pick yourself up. Move on. Sometimes our kids are going to let us down.
[43:14] It's going to happen. I know I got two of mine here. It's going to happen. They are going to disappoint us. David's kids did, to a pretty large degree, actually.
[43:28] They did some pretty bad things. Our kids are going to let us down from time to time. It's going to happen. It's free will. We need to do our very best to raise them as best we can.
[43:42] We as fathers, we as mothers, show them the way. Let them know everything that they need to know. And move on with that. There's really not much more we can do than just pray for them and hope that God would put a seed inside their heart that would grow.
[43:57] The same way that I hope that seed grew in our hearts. Yet through all this, and again, I'm talking about Christian life, there are going to be a lot of ups and downs. There are certainly going to be a lot of trials in our life.
[44:10] Things that aren't going to go the way we want them to. Things that aren't going to be pleasant. God's timing is going to be bad. People are going to steal our joy. It's all part of life.
[44:21] And as a Christian, we have something that we need to be well aware of. That we need to be thankful for all that we do have. That we do have a Heavenly Father. That we do acknowledge Him and He acknowledges us.
[44:32] David wrote the book of Psalms. Nobody can deny it. I was glad that someone read out of the book of Psalms this morning. I thought that was wonderful. It works well.
[44:43] 150 chapters, over 43,000 words of praise. It's a book in the Bible. It's for real. Just as David was for real. David had a lot of great challenges in his life.
[44:56] Great challenges. Challenges that face all of us. And yet David took the time to write a lot of words. That say, thank you God. Praise be to God. He had a lot of reasons to say, you know what?
[45:08] God, your timing is terrible. Why did Jonathan have to die? Why did the guy have to die who touched your ark, who steadied it? Why did all these things happen to me?
[45:19] And I think that's true of all of us. Things are going to happen. Yet we need to take the time to praise God for all that He's given us. For the opportunities that we have. For the opportunities to grow. You know, David probably wouldn't have been nearly as great a king had he just walked into the throne and been given to him.
[45:34] But he had to work for it. He had a lot of challenges. He had a lot of things to make him grow to be a better man or woman. And he accepted each one of those. And he went on with life.
[45:46] And he found time to praise God in a huge way. So if there's something I want you to take from this today is, number one, as a Christian you're going to have a lot of challenges. Number two, we need to counteract that with a lot of praise.
[45:59] Thankfulness for who we are. Thankfulness for where we come from. For all the things that we have. For the opportunities. And when things get tough. When things get hard. That we have the heart and soul to carry on.
[46:12] To steady ourselves through. So again, I wish you a great Father's Day. I hope our earthly fathers can look at us and be thankful for each one of us. That we have became Christian and done what they would hope that we would have.
[46:26] And I hope our heavenly father can look at us and look in our hearts and say, you know what? I picked the right guy. Or girl. I got the right one. There's going to be some things come along the way that are going to challenge that heart.
[46:39] But I want you to remember that God has chosen us. And I want to put a plug in for our Sunday school class. It's a great Sunday school class. We have the greatest Sunday school class, I think, in all of Ohio. I think it's some sort of thing that's out.
[46:50] But take time to come to that because we are learning a lot. But again, God has chosen us. We chose God. Now let's act on that and make sure that everything comes to pass as God would have it.
[47:03] So again, happy Father's Day. I hope you have a great day. It's a wonderful day. It's beautiful outside. Thank you for allowing me to come speak. Thank you for everyone who has been a part of the service this morning. I hope you have a blessed day.
[47:14] I hope God blesses you. And you take the time to think about your father. I will mine. Thank you. Take your hymnals and turn to 433.
[47:29] 433. Rise up, O Church of God. Thank you.
[48:01] To serve the King of kings. Rise up, O Church of God. His kingdom tarries long.
[48:14] Bring in the day of brotherhood and in the night of Rome. Rise up, O Sons of God.
[48:27] The church for you doth wait. Her strength unequal to her test. Rise up and make her great.
[48:41] Lift high the cross of Christ. Tread where his feet hath drawn. As followers of the Son of Man.
[48:55] Rise up, O Church of God. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thanks for coming out this morning.
[49:05] Thanks for being a part of the service. I hope you have a really blessed Father's Day. I hope we do pause today to think of our fathers and to enjoy that time together. So have a safe day today and enjoy the weekend and enjoy your Father's Day.
[49:18] Let's close with a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you again for this day. Thank you for our fathers who have come before us. Help us to remember all those who come behind us, Lord. Make us be faithful, Lord, and just true to you.
[49:29] Let you look upon our hearts, Lord, and find us faithful and to be the kind of people that you want us to be, that we would be resilient, that we would be strong, that we would remain what you would have us to be, Lord.
[49:40] Help us to overcome each trial that we pass upon. Help us to be successful in those things, Lord. So bless us with wisdom and help us to remember that the mission field is outside our doors. Help us to be those missionaries that you would have us to be.
[49:52] Thank you for allowing us to gather together in your name, Lord. In Jesus' name we do pray. Amen. Amen.