[0:00] I want to talk about something very quickly tonight that goes under the radar. And it's one of the worst things that you can be. And if you have a problem with it, you need to really, really work on it.
[0:13] So much trouble is caused in individual lives by stubbornness. We don't think of it as a sin.
[0:25] We don't think of it as a character, as a weakness. We don't do anything about it. We just shrug it off and say, well, that's the way he is.
[0:36] That's the way I am. And all the time, the devil is taking his way to the people who are caught up. Very, very tragic thing. In 1 Samuel, it's where Saul, King Saul, was told to go to the Amalekites and slay everybody and everything.
[0:57] And he came back with the king as a prisoner and with the best of all the animals. Remember that? And Samuel met him and said, what is all this?
[1:10] And he said, well, the people didn't pass the blood. Here's what the Bible says about it. Verse 22. Samuel said, Samuel said, Hath the Lord had great delight in her offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord?
[1:28] Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice. And to hearken, another word for obey, than the fat rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.
[1:46] Now, if you go up with the idea of the Israelites using parallelism all the time, they use two things that mean about the same thing, all the time.
[2:01] Then rebellion and stubbornness are used together. And yet none of us thinks of stubbornness and bad as revenge.
[2:13] We just don't. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from the iniquity.
[2:25] There's a verse in Proverbs 29.1. Somebody quote it for me. Very famous verse. He that hardeneth his death shall suddenly be destroyed.
[2:42] That was irony. You can't get out of it. When I see another stubbornness, I'm going to destroy you. You're not going to stop.
[2:53] Let me make this statement. Stubbornness is the twin brother of pride. And pride goes before destruction.
[3:06] Let me say this. Stubborn people will die before their time. Now, I've studied it. Stubborn people always die early.
[3:20] It is a sin, let's call it a sin, that God is hard on. He's very hard on them. In fact, it's a short in your life. If his children have stubbornness.
[3:33] I'm not sure you will shorten the life to anybody that has. I'm going to read the definition. Rebellion. Unreasonably unyielding.
[3:47] Adhering to an opinion or course of action. In spite of convincing attempts to persuade you to be different. What about it? What about it? What about it? What about it?
[3:57] Hang on to an opinion or course of action. When somebody's proved to you, you're probably wrong. We're stubborn. Everybody has some of us.
[4:11] Some of us have a lot of it. I'm going to read you synonyms. That always helps me to understand the term. When I find terms that mean the same.
[4:22] Listen to this. A list of synonyms. Obstinate. Unyielding. Bullheaded. Headstrong.
[4:35] Inflexible. What are you laughing about? Mrs. Schmitt. Hard-headed. Opinionated. Pig-headed.
[4:48] I got these out of a book of synonyms. Rigid. Self-willed. Stiff-necked. Unbending.
[4:59] Mulish. It was in my book. And unreasonable. That's a bad line of stuff to me. Here's that.
[5:10] And yet if you're a stubborn person. You're all of that. That's a description of you. Thank you. It is. How many of you women are thinking of somebody by hand?
[5:25] Don't raise your hand. Don't raise your hand. This is the truth. Now. In my study. Several. Several times. I ran across it.
[5:36] Men are usually more apt to be stubborn than women are. All you ladies feel good. All right. Put the chest in.
[5:46] All right. And I'm not going to change my mind. I do. I'm going to give you some Bible examples.
[5:59] And then one other little thing. And how to cure it. And put it there. Joel. Joel. Oh man. He is a post-order.
[6:11] The guy is going to do his way. He's going to have his way or die. He wouldn't listen to him. Joel was the general of David's army. David's king.
[6:23] He. He. He got direct orders from David on many occasions. And went exactly. Did what he wanted to do. That's right. Over and over.
[6:33] And I mean. He did some bad stuff. There were two of the northern kingdom's leaders. Amasa. And Abner. Who wanted to defect and come over to David's army.
[6:49] David was receiving them with open arms. Joel had sought them out. Each one. And killed them. Killed them. Murdered them.
[7:00] Because. After all. They used to be the enemy. He's a bad guy. When Adonijah. One of David's sons.
[7:11] Wanted to take the kingdom. Did you know that Joel had defected to? No. He was still a great military man.
[7:23] In the prime of his life. When that happened. He was going to be Adonijah's general. And there's a man named.
[7:35] Adonijah. That stayed with David all the way. And David soon went off the scene. And was telling Solomon. His son.
[7:46] Giving him some advice. With his. For his new kingdom. And he said. Don't forget what Joab did. You take care of him. Solomon called Benaiah.
[8:02] He said. My daddy said. We don't need Joab in his kingdom. Here's a man. That's still. Robust. And strong. And one of the greatest. Warriors.
[8:13] In the Bible. Benaiah fell on the guilty. Stubbornness. Shortens your body. Yeah. God sees to him. That will happen.
[8:24] King Saul. Right here. In 1 Samuel. He died. Because of his stubbornness. Stubbornness. Shortens your life.
[8:35] I'm telling you. Over and over. You'll find it. What about you? Can you imagine. Anybody. Seeing all that Judas saw. Witnessing all he witnessed.
[8:47] About Jesus. And stubbornly held on. To the idea. That if this guy. Doesn't set up a kingdom. I'm going to help him. Get him. Oh God. It was stubborn.
[8:58] It was pure. Old. Heart. Heady. Pighead. Heady. Stubborn. You know. He saw the truth. You know. He knew. I get you. That's the way stubbornness is.
[9:10] It goes against all reasonableness. Just. I'm going to have my way. I'm going to do this. And nothing is going to convince me otherwise. And Judas.
[9:21] Died young. And is in hell. Because of his stubbornness. Here's somebody else. You haven't thought about stubbornness. Associated with. There were two thieves.
[9:33] On the cross. One of them. Said. I'm getting what I deserve.
[9:46] This man is nothing. And I've stood here. He heard him say. Forgive. Why he's the son of God. The other fellow never did change his mind.
[9:58] He started out cursing Jesus. He started out out last in him. And although the other thieves said. You shouldn't do that. You deserve what we're getting. This man doesn't deserve anything.
[10:09] Kept on clamor. That thing. And never changed his mind. And because of stubbornness went to hell. Amen. You find that everywhere you want to look. And you'll find out why.
[10:21] When King Saul. Stubbornly did his own will. Instead of God's. The Lord said that's it. That's it.
[10:33] Not only are they going to take the kingdom away from you. They're going to cut your head off. And you're going to be gone. Earlier than you should have been. Now I've been going on with the illustrations.
[10:45] I don't need to. Before it kills you. Stubbornness will. Number one. Kill the love of those. That you love. I'm a counselor.
[10:59] You have no idea. How many times. I've seen wives and others. Come in too late. And she said. I'm sorry. I can't go any farther than this guy.
[11:11] And they start talking. And start describing. And I'm telling you what. You can write stubbornness. Across the forehead. Of every one of the guys. He knew better. He was told better.
[11:23] God had warned him. Preachers had warned him. And he was going to keep on doing what he's doing. You're not going to tell me anything. I'm going to do what I want to do. Self-willed. It's one of the synonyms.
[11:34] And that woman finally said. I've had all I can stand. I'm not going to take you. I've had all the time. And it's called stubbornness. We just. It's fine under the radar.
[11:45] We don't. We don't think that we're that bad. If we don't look stubborn. Well you're bad as witchcraft. Isn't that right? You're right.
[11:56] Don't raise your hand. But think now. Are you stubborn? Are you? So it's going to kill the love of those you love.
[12:08] Number two. It's going to kill your effectiveness. That's correct. Did you know everybody else knows you're stubborn? Absolutely. If I'm stubborn.
[12:19] Did you know the whole church knows I'm stubborn? You're not going to hide it folks. You're not going to hide it. Watch this. Obstinate. Unyielding.
[12:30] Bull-headed. Head strong. Hard-headed. Opinionated. Pig-headed. Rigid. Self-willed. Stiff-necked. Unbending.
[12:41] Mulish. Unreasonable. You know if you're like that or not. Thank you. We know you're like that too.
[12:55] You're going to ruin your opportunity to be effective. Number three. Before it kills you, it will kill you the love of your loved ones. It will kill your effectiveness. And it will kill your relationship with your God.
[13:11] And he will give up on you. Where he would let many, many other things go. And he would give you chance after chance after chance. But you get bull-headed from him.
[13:21] And when you get stiff-necked. What does that verse say? 291? Hmm? Say it all about it.
[13:35] So what does that? Either part of it or the neck. She ought to suddenly be destroyed. Now what I do? Bad stuff, isn't it? Now number two, I'm finishing up.
[13:48] How do you defeat stuff? What can I do? I can admit that. I know that I've got a problem here. Live it a little bit. One reason I know it's to go out for the night.
[14:01] I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie. Number one, admit. The possibility that you may not always be right.
[14:18] Every one of you knows somebody. And you think of right now. He thinks he's right all the time. Yes, sir. He's his own authority.
[14:31] And if somebody disagrees with him, that person's wrong. It's I. Don't laugh too loud. Now somebody will hear you. Admit the possibility that you might be wrong sometime.
[14:48] Every human being is going to be wrong sometime. Right? Yeah. Yeah. But these kind of people just can't see it, man. Whether they can probably see it, they're not going to admit it.
[15:00] Number one, admit it is possible. Number two, examine your position on any subject. Thoroughly and objectively.
[15:10] Do you know what objective is? Stand back as if you weren't a partner situation. And look at it from somebody else's eyes. Try to look at it like others.
[15:22] See if that's objective. Examine your position thoroughly and objectively and prayerfully. Dear God. Preacher says this is a bad thing.
[15:34] And he's got it by my front of him. And he proves it. If I've got this problem, help me. First thing you need to do is if I've got help. Because the devil is in this thing.
[15:46] And he's got you wrapped up with it. And you're not going to get loose from it by yourself. Be objective now. Try to look at it like other people do.
[15:58] And pray about it. Number three. This is hard for you. Get other respected persons opinions. You don't have any respected persons.
[16:13] You respect your opinion and not many others. If you have this problem, we're bad. Get other respected opinions and perspectives.
[16:25] You know one reason that people come to me or to God or somebody like us? They want to get a third person's opinion. Somebody that's not real closely. And they want to get another perspective.
[16:38] Viewpoint. Stuff a person won't. He doesn't want that event of viewpoint. He knows he's right. He cares whatever other people want. It's called self-will.
[16:51] It's called what it's called. Pig-hands. Mutilation. I thought that was a funny mutilation. Well, look.
[17:03] Get somebody else's opinion. Open your mind. And admit the possibility that they might be right and you might be wrong. You've got to get to the point where you let somebody tell you something.
[17:15] Doesn't have to be your wife. She would love it if you let her. But let somebody else that you respect just open your mind and say, Look, I've got a problem being stubborn about my opinion.
[17:30] I want to ask you what you meant about me. And open your mind. These people that do open their mind, sometimes it's like somebody turning on a floodlight.
[17:43] And they're thinking, man, I never thought it was like that. You wouldn't let yourself. You're right. The devil blinds the minds of the government Christians. Just like he blinds the minds of the saints.
[17:55] And you don't let yourself think good. It might be some other way. Fight pride. Because pride is his twin brother. Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God.
[18:05] And you found evil in the old soldier. Is that right? What was the first thing I said to do? Admit the possibility. You might be wrong about something. It's going to be hard for you.
[18:16] Number two, examine your position objectively and prayerfully. Ask God to help you. Number three, get other people that you respect and listen to their opinions.
[18:29] They may agree with you. But at least get other opinions and perspectives. Number four, fight pride. Fight pride.
[18:41] Pride is going to kill you. Those who want you to do destruction. All these spirits were fallen. So does stubbornness. They are twin brothers. And the last thing. Numerize.
[18:56] Proverbs 29.1. And say it to yourself many times during the day. Many times.
[19:06] You say that 50 times for yourself today.
[19:21] And there's not anything that's more of an incentive to the human person than not dying. You don't want to die. That will give you more of an incentive than any man.
[19:34] You will convince yourself that that verse tells you. You stay like you are over your heart and neck and you will die. Yeah. That will help you. Yeah. As much as anything else.
[19:47] To get over. Preacher, who do you think about tonight? Not anybody. I think all of us have a problem with that. To some degree.
[20:00] I'm not going to tell you the truth. I don't know. I'm not thinking anybody. Some wives here are thinking of some wives. And there might be some husbands here thinking of somebody too. It's possible for a wife to teach them.
[20:14] It's just not a problem. But I'm just telling you. God told me to tell you. It's a big deal with him. And he only puts up with it so long.
[20:27] You're right. And every person. Listen. Every person that doesn't conquer stubbornness and shortness is right.
[20:39] Stay with me.