I Samuel 22, we have this story about Saul, who's pursuing after David. Saul had become jealous of David many years earlier. It all started when they started singing that song that said that Saul has slain his thousands but David has slain his ten thousands. Saul, as the king, is starting to feel insecure that David is getting a lot more popular than he is, and then because Saul disobeys the Lord on a few different occasions, he's told by Samuel the prophet that the kingdom of God is going to be taken from him and given unto someone else who is better than him. Of course we know that's David, who is anointed by Samuel the prophet back in I Samuel 16. The spirit of the Lord came upon him and so forth, and so because of Saul's jealousy, he's been pursuing after David and David keeps escaping out of his hand.
In I Samuel 22 here, Saul is whining to his troops and whining to the Benjamites and this is a bad principle of leadership. It's called sympathy leadership; when basically leaders get up and they whine and they whine to get the followers to feel sorry for them and they want people to obey them just out of sympathy and feeling bad for them. Obviously, leaders should project strength and confidence and those types of attributes; not this kind of whining, sympathy style leadership. When we get to Chapter 22 Verse 11, we get to the part where Saul goes to Nob because Doeg the Edomite had told him that these people at Nob had helped David.
It says in Verse 11, "Then the king sent to call Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahitub, and all his father's house, the priests that were in Nob: and they came all of them to the king. And Saul said, Hear now, thou son of Ahitub. And he answered, Here I am, my lord. And Saul said unto him, Why have ye conspired against me, thou and the son of Jesse, in that thou hast given him bread, and a sword, and hast inquired of God for him, that he should rise up against me, to lie in wait, as at this day?"
Ahimelech answered the king and said, "Who is so faithful among all thy servants as David, which is the king's son in law, and goeth at thy bidding, and is honourable in thine house? Did I then begin to inquire of God for him? be it far from me: let not the king impute any thing unto his servant, nor to all the house of my father: for thy servant knew nothing of all this, less or more. And the king said, Thou shalt surely die, Ahimelech, thou, and all thy father's house."
So here Saul is being very unjust because this man, Ahimelech, he did help David. He did feed him and his troops, but he assumed that David was doing the will of Saul, the king. David was Saul's son-in-law. David had not done anything treasonous and so Ahimelech is, in the integrity of his heart, helping David but Saul is trying to make it out as, "You're a traitor. You are an enemy of the state." He says, "You're going to die and all of your father's house." Which is also unbiblical to put the whole family to death instead of just putting the one man to death who had done wrong. He hadn't even done wrong. He had not even committed any kind of treason.
The next thing that happens is what I really want to focus in on tonight. It says in Verse 17, "And the king said unto the footmen that stood about him," so Saul is saying unto his troops, "Turn, and slay the priests of the Lord; because their hand also is with David, and because they knew when he fled, and did not show it to me. But the servants of the king would not put forth their hand to fall upon the priests of the Lord."
Saul says to his troops, "I want you to kill all the priests of the Lord here; Ahimelech and all his father's house. Slay the priests of the Lord." It's not true what they're being accused of when he said they knew that David fled. David told them that he was on a mission from the king. They had no idea that David fled. They were just doing what anyone in that situation would have done. This is a wicked thing that King Saul wants done, when he says to his troops basically, just kill innocent people. He says to the troops, "Kill these innocent people." Not only are they innocent people but they're the priests of the Lord, and Saul is saying, "Kill these men."
Because that is such a wicked commandment that the king is giving them, because that would be so ungodly for these troops to just kill these innocent people, they refused to do so. They disobeyed that order. They say, "No, we're not going to fall upon the priests of the Lord." at end of Verse 17.
Look at Verse 18. Look at what happens next, "And the king said to Doeg, Turn thou, and fall upon the priests. Doeg the Edomite turned, and he fell upon the priests, and slew on that day fourscore and five persons that did wear a linen ephod. And Nob, the city of the priests, smote he with the edge of the sword, both men and women." He'd taken it further than what King Saul had even ordered. King Saul just said, "Slay the priests." He's taken it further. He's slaying the women, and then it says, "Children and sucklings, and oxen, and asses, and sheep, with the edge of the sword." This guy's just on a slaughter-fest. He's just going in there and just killing man, woman, child. He's killing the animals while he's at it.
"One of the sons of Ahimelech, the son of Ahitub named Abiathar escaped and fled after David and Abiathar showed David that Saul had slain the Lord's priests. And David said to Abiathar, I knew at that day when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul." This Doeg the Edomite is just a wicked man. "I have occasioned the death of all the persons of thy father's house. Abide thou with me, fear not: for he that seeketh my life seeketh thy life: but with me thou shalt be in safeguard."
Tonight, I want to preach on this subject, when to disobey. When to disobey. There are times in our life, there are situations where we need to disobey authority figures in our life.
Now let me start out by saying this, of course we know that the Bible does teach that we should obey various authorities in our life. The Bible does teach of course that children should obey their parents, that wives should obey their husbands, that servants should obey their masters, that we should obey the powers that be, and that we should obey governors and magistrates. The Bible does teach submission to authority, but there is a time when we are to disobey human authorities and disobey those people that are over us, and I want to talk about tonight when that is.
The Bible says we ought to obey God rather than men. The first principle I want to point out is that whenever an authority figure in our life is telling us to do something that violates the commands of God, we must disobey that order. Even if it's coming from the king himself, not that we have a king of course, we don't live in a kingdom; but if we receive an order from any authority figure in our life that is in violation of scripture, that's asking us to commit sin, we should disobey that order.
Let me point out something about this story. This story is a story that I think illustrates something that has happened over and over again throughout history and will continue to happen. There are police officers and members of the military who will conscientiously object to carrying out ungodly orders such as the order to kill innocent people.
Now all throughout history governments have given these kinds of orders, "Kill innocent people. Kill the innocent. Kill women and children. Kill innocent people." There are people in the military, and there are people in the police force, that when they are told to do these types of things, they will refuse to follow those orders. And you know what? They ought to. And today, every police officer and every member of the military needs to decide that they are not going to blindly follow orders if they're told to kill American civilians or to kill any kind of civilians or to do anything that is wicked and ungodly in the sight of the Lord. People today in these institutions are often being trained to do just do as they're told. Shut up and do what you're told. Don't think about it before you do it. But Christians need to think about what the Lord wants before what their superiors are telling them to do.
This is something that is a conflict that has been going on all throughout history. We see it here, troops being ordered to kill innocent people. They have to decide, "Are we going to obey that order or not?" But the thing I want to point out here is that there's always going to be those who will follow any order no matter how heinous it is, no matter how bad it is. I promise you that in the United States military there are Doeg the Edomites in that military. I guarantee you that on the police force there are some Doeg the Edomites who not only will follow these types of orders to turn on Americans or to kill civilians or to do all manner of wickedness. There are those who would even enjoy it and even take it to another level; and even take it to an extreme of killing and raping and pillaging. They exist.
What I think is so interesting about this story is that we see the good troops, they refuse to follow the order, but they don't stop Doeg. That's all always the way it is. You say "oh well these cops that are just beating and killing innocent people, it's just a few bad apples." But you'll notice that whenever they do it, the other cops are just... standing there just allowing it to happen. Or troops that will do the- and then other troops just kind of allow it to happen. They're not participating in it, they're not following those unlawful orders, but they'll sit back and allow the innocent to be- for example, even when I was beaten and tasered by the police several years ago. "Oh it's just a few bad guys, a few bad eggs," but what about the other twelve people that were standing right there smiling and laughing and going along with it? What does that tell you? There's a different level of disobedience to wicked authority. One level is just to not participate in it, but really what they should have done is should have stopped Doeg.
Don't you think that this whole army that's following Saul could have stopped one man, Doeg the Edomite, and saved the lives of all these innocent people in this town that were slaughtered mercilessly by this man? They could have stopped it. In fact, I'm not going to turn there for sake of time, but earlier in the book of I Samuel, there's a similar story where Jonathan is going to be unjustly put to death. Jonathan did nothing wrong. Jonathan is going to be executed and not only do they not follow the order to execute Jonathan, they protect him. The troops actually rallied and delivered Jonathan and these troops should have delivered the city of Nob out of Doeg the Edomite's hands and should have defended it. Why? Because we ought to obey God rather than men and the Bible.
Go to Proverbs 24. Let me just show you that this is something that God expects us to do. This is not just something that it's okay if we just stand back and watch innocent people be slaughtered and killed.
Look what the Bible says in Verse 11 of Proverbs 24. "If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death and those that are ready to be slain. If thou sayest 'behold, we knew it not.' Does not he that pondereth the heart consider it? And he that keepeth thy soul? Doth not he know it and shall not he render to every man according to his works?"
Doesn't that teach right there that God expects us to deliver those who are about to be killed unjustly? If we see someone who's about to be murdered, we see people that are about to be harmed and killed and they're innocent people, doesn't God expect us to step in and protect them? To step in and defend the defenseless? If we are armed and they are not armed, we would step in and defend them and help? Look, every member of the military or of the police needs to understand that God expects them to not only not participate in the harming of innocent people, but also they should be there to stop their associates and stop the rest of them- the Doeg the Edomites of this world- from hurting innocent people.
Go to Romans chapter 1, Romans chapter 1. This is a very relevant topic tonight because we are entering a time in our nation where our country has become very wicked, and our government has become run by wicked people. Even more recently, just in the last year or two, our military has now opened its doors unto open sodomy. In the past, sodomites were not allowed in the Armed Forces and if they were caught being a sodomite, they'd be cast out of the Armed Services. But now, just in the last year or two, our nation has institutionalized sodomy in the military. I know a lot of people who are members of the military and they have contacted me and told me that they have been forced to take classes on accepting sodomy, accepting homosexuality, accepting this filth and perversion, and they're being taught how to handle it and how to deal with it, and be tolerant of it. So our nation has now opened its arms and said, "Come on in queers! Come on in faggots and lesbians, and join the Armed Services."
Let me explain to you why that's so dangerous, because they are wicked, violent people, that's why. Look what the Bible- and by the way, John the Baptist when he preached unto the military, you know what he said? Do violence to no man. You see, it's one thing to go fight on a battlefield and to fight against soldiers and to fight against other men that are armed. But when you're just slaughtering civilians, when you're killing women and children, that's just violence. That's not a legitimate calling of a soldier, and there's nothing brave about it. There's nothing valiant or courageous about killing unarmed civilians and killing women and children.
We see in Romans 1, a description of what the homosexuals are like, and it's not like what you saw on TV. TV today, and the media, have purposefully put out a false image of homosexuality looks like. Today it's cute, it's funny, they're just nice people, you know- what's our idiot president's name? Barry Soetoro? He gets up, Barack Obama gets up and says, "You know, it shouldn't matter." What's that stupid thing he always says? "Who you love shouldn't stop you from the country you love." Whatever stupidity. "Hey, it shouldn't matter who you love or whatever." They don't love anybody; they love Satan, they love filth.
Let me just prove it to you from the Bible. Look, let's use the Bible in a second, let's put aside the Bible. Go on the Center for Disease Control website. Go on the internet and just Google the statistics that they'll never tell you about in the media; that they'll never tell you about on the TV; that you'll never read in the newspaper. Go Google it. Even institutions that are government institutions, even that are pro-homosexual, will tell you that 40% of them have been with over 500 partners. 40%. I mean, the average homo has 500-some partners. Even studies done by pro-homosexual groups said there is no such thing as monogamy amongst homos, even the ones that are married are some of the hundreds of just random partners. It is the most filthy, disgusting lifestyle. When you read about it in the Bible, they're always forcing somebody, they're always molesting somebody, they're always raping somebody. Look, it is vile, it's filthy, it's disgusting, it's reprobate.
But let me show you what the Bible says today, and I don't care what you say! I don't care what Hollywood says! I don't care what Madison Avenue says! I'm going to tell you what the Bible says! As a Bible-believing Baptist church, welcome, come on in! Let's see what the Bible says.
Look at Romans Chapter 1. It says in Verse number 26, "For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections." Notice it doesn't say alternative affections. Notice it says he gave them up unto vile affections. "For even their women did change their natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; being filled..."
Look, who's being filled? The homos, the sodomites. It said, listen, being filled with all unrighteousness. Let me ask you something, is there any unrighteousness that these homos are not filled with according to the scripture? According to the apostle Paul? According to Romans? According to the New Testament? According to the inspiration of the Holy Ghost? Is there any unrighteousness that they're not filled with?
It says, "Being filled with all unrighteousness." Fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy. What's the next word? Murder. Murder! Look up the murder rates amongst these homos. Look up the life expect- look, being a homo shaves twenty years off your life, that's a fact. Look up the statistics of the life expectancy of being a homo shaves twenty years off your life.
Yet they go into the schools and say, "Kids, don't smoke kids. You're going to shave years off your lives if you smoke. Don't smoke." Look, I'm against smoking. I don't smoke. I don't want to destroy my health. But let me say this, you know King James, he didn't like smoking very much, but anyways, don't smoke.
Then they'll tell you, "Hey, but you might just be born that way! You might just be born a pervert!" They don't warn them that, "Oh by the way, your life expectancy is going to go down by about twenty years. Not to mention that you'll spend that life filled with AIDS and MRSA and syphilis and gonorrea, and everything else. You know, all the different disorders and diseases that go along with it." Isn't that hypocrisy to sit there, "Don't smoke kids, it's bad for you."
You know what? Being a homo is more hazardous than all of it put together. They're constantly killing each other, and beating each other, and abusing each other. It's a disgusting, filthy, wicked, reprobate lifestyle. You've just been completely lied to. "Oh it's just two men that just love each other." You know what? Two men that love each other give each other a firm handshake and a punch in the shoulder and say, "Hey let's go play basketball this weekend." They don't have this perverted sickness.
It says that they're full of murder. I believe it. It says they're full of unrighteousness. I believe it! And because most preachers won't preach it, nobody even knows what I'm saying. The stuff I'm saying right now, is unknown even to Baptists because preachers won't preach on this. They won't talk about it, they're scared of it. They're scared of their own shadow, but the righteous are as bold as a lion.
Look what the Bible says, "Full of murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud," there's your gay pride. "Boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenantbreakers," you know, I guess that'd be like oath breakers, like the oath to uphold and defend the Constitution? "Covenant breakers without natural affection," watch this, "Implacable, unmerciful." Those last two words are the ones that I really want to focus in on, implacable and unmerciful.
What does it mean to be unmerciful? How about this? Some innocent person's crying for mercy, you show none. Isn't that unmerciful? I mean, when you're full of murder, and when you're unmerciful, and when you're implacable... I mean, who is implacable if not Doeg the Edomite? Who, when he's done slaughtering the men, moves on to slaughtering the women, moves on to slaughtering the children. Look, he was implacable. What does it mean to be implacable? It means not satisfied. Just inexorable, implacable, just stopping at nothing.
It reminds me of the sodomites in Genesis 19 where after they were smitten with blindness, they're still trying to find Lot. Just implacable, and this shows you the type of people now that are being ushered in to our military in the United States, ushered in to the Armed Forces openly. I've even seen some advertising by our Armed Services trying to specifically recruit these people. I'm not kidding. It's out there, trying to specifically recruit sodomites into the military. Listen, they will follow orders to slay the innocent. They will, you know, do whatever violence they are commanded to do. It's a scary thought but look at Verse 32, it says, "But knowing the judgement of God, that they which commits such things, are worthy of death. Not only do the same but have pleasure in them that do them."
Let's go to II Samuel 18. Let's look at another story. II Samuel 18. I don't want to spend my whole night just talking about the military, and just talking about the sodomites, and just talking about orders to kill innocent people, and orders to do violent acts. There's more to this issue than that because I don't think anybody here tonight is in the military or a member of the police force. So we need some preaching also that would just apply to us in our daily lives.
When do we disobey authority in our life? Let's face it, God wants us to obey the authorities in our life. In general, God wants us to obey authority, but we have to balance that with this idea of when to disobey. When does God want us to disobey authority? When do we draw the line and not obey? What we need to understand is that the key is found Romans 13 when it tells us "Let every soul be subject under the higher powers."
There's a chain of command today. God is at the top of that chain, so we always obey God supremely. If God's telling us one thing and another authority figure's telling us something different, we go with what God says. Even in our lives there are chains of command. For example, at your job you might have an immediate supervisor but then there's also who? The general manager, the owner of the company; and if the owner of the company is telling you, "This is what I want to happen." Then your supervisor says, "No, I don't care what he says, we're going to do it this way." I mean, this can happen. It's like well okay, who do I obey? If you're smart, if you're Biblical, you got to obey the higher power. You got to go with what the top guy says. There are conflicts like that that will happen.
Here's a conflict like that, look at II Samuel 18:5. "And the king," this is the highest authority in Israel besides God of course, humanly speaking, "The king commanded Joab and Abishai and Ittai, saying, Deal gently for my sake with the young man, even with Absalom. And all the people heard when the king gave all the captains charge concerning Absalom." Everybody heard this order, didn't they? The king, the most supreme commander humanly speaking, said "Go easy on Absalom."
Look what it says in Verse 9. "And Absalom met the servants of David. And Absalom rode upon a mule, and the mule went under the thick boughs of a great oak, and his head caught hold of the oak, and he was taken up between the heaven and the earth; and the mule that was under him went away."
So here's the guy, he's got very long hair. Absalom had long flowing hair, and he's riding on a mule. He goes under a great oak, and his hair gets stuck in a tree. He's literally ripped from the back of the mule and he's hanging from his hair in the tree.
It says in Verse number 10, "And a certain man saw it, and told Joab, and said, Behold, I saw Absalom hanged in an oak. And Joab said unto the man that told him, And, behold, thou sawest him, and why didst thou not smite him there to the ground?" Is that what the king had said to do? Smite him to the ground and kill him? No, the king had said "deal gently with him. Do not harm him."
"I would have given thee ten shekels of silver, and a girdle." He's like, "I would have rewarded you if you would have just killed him!" But look what he says, "And the man said unto Joab, Though I should receive a thousand shekels of silver in mine hand, yet would I not put forth mine hand against the king's son: for in our hearing the king charged thee and Abishai and Ittai, saying, Beware that none touch the young man Absalom. Otherwise I should have wrought falsehood against mine own life: for there is no matter hid from the king, and thou thyself wouldest have set thyself against me. Then said Joab, I may not tarry thus with thee." You know, I don't have time for this. I don't want to sit there and talk about this.
So then he goes and he took three darts, and it says in Verse 14, "In his hand, and thrust them through the heart of Absalom, while he was yet alive in the midst of the oak. And ten young men that bare Joab's armour compassed about and smote Absalom, and slew him." These are the ten Doag the Edomites that are just ready to just follow any order. How many people does it take to kill this guy that's hanging by his hair? Ten people all just start slaughtering him? But there are some people that are just bloodthirsty, they love violence, they are ungodly people.
Then it says in Verse 16, "And Joab blew the trumpet, and the people returned from pursuing after Israel: for Joab held back the people." We don't know this man's name in II Samuel 18. We don't know what his name was, but we know this, he was smart, he did what was right, and he saved his own life by not obeying a wicked order. Why? Because he was obeying the higher power, he went with the supreme command.
Go to Romans 13 and let's look at that, exactly how that reads in the New Testament. Romans 13. When do we disobey our authorities on this earth? First of all, we need to disobey authority when they are forcing us to do something that is against God's word. We ought to obey God rather than men. But secondly, we should disobey our authority when a higher authority, or that person's authority, is in conflict with what they're telling us to do. There's a chain of command today. In a business, there's a chain of command. There's the CEO, then there are other regional managers, then there could be a general manager, a supervisor, and then there's the guy on the ground, the worker.
In the military, there's a chain of command. The President's the Commander in Chief, then you got the generals, then you got lieutenants, and then you go down to sergeants, and then you go down to just the private at the bottom, just the bottom rung guy. They know that if they receive conflicting orders they're supposed to go- is that right- they go with the higher authority? They do not just say, "Well my immediate commander's telling me to do this." They go with the higher power, and it's like that with all- and it's not just in the military- not just in business, in the home. There's the father, then there's the mother, then there's the children, but God is above all.
In the church, Jesus Christ and the word of God is the supreme authority, then then pastor. Not to say that, "Well the pastor said it, so let's just do it." But is it biblical? Christ is the head of the church. Now the pastor does have authority, but he's under Christ's authority, and we need to go first and foremost with this. This is the authority, this is the top right here. Jesus Christ and the word of God, his words, his teaching, and his mandate is what we must follow.
Look at Romans 13:1. "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake."
This scripture is teaching us that in general, most of the time, rulers, authority figures, whether it's our parents, whether it's our boss at work, or whether it's even human government, they're usually there for our good and usually obeying them is going to be the right thing to do. Usually, most of their commands are commands that jive with scripture or at least don't contradict scripture and are there to help us live a quiet and peaceable life and all Godliness and honesty.
I have rules for my children that are outside the scope of the Bible. I have my own rules in my house. My wife has other rules for the children. These rules are for their benefit. They're for everybody's benefit. They don't contradict scripture. The Bible says look child, if you're constantly afraid of the power, meaning you're just constantly in fear that mom and dad are going to cloud up and rain on you, he says you just need to start doing what's right instead of complaining about the authority and complaining about, "Oh they're just coming down on me all the time, they're just always coming down so hard on me." Do that which is good and thou whilst have praise of the same.
Now are there times when authority goes wrong and when parents can tell their children to do wrong? Yes, but most of the time that's not the case. Most of the time, if we would just be honest, there is not a conflict between what we're being told to do by human authority and what we're being told to do by God's authority. But when there is a conflict, we go with God's authority.
Now, for example, let's look at human government. Human government has laws against stealing, laws against murder, these laws are good laws that protect us and protect the innocent. These laws are there to protect us from the evil doer and the Bible even says here in Verse 3, "For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil."
So what is God's purpose for government? To execute wrath upon people that do evil, to punish the evildoer. That is what government often does, but often government goes outside their bounds. Like in a totalitarian system where government wants to dictate things in your personal life. For example, if you lived in the Soviet Union and they're telling you, "This is what your job is going to be," and you're like, "Well wait a minute, can't I be a marine biologist if I want to? Grow up and do whatever the job?" They say, "Nope, this is your job, this is what you're going to do." That's an abusive government. When they start taking away your freedom and telling you, "This is where you're going to live, this is the job you're going to have, this is what you can eat and drink." They just start dictating every part of your life. That's outside their scope.
Sometimes even government can become a terror to good works. For example, in communist countries, what about where they're rounding up Christians in a communist country and putting them in concentration camps? That's never happened, right? Yes it has happened.
In the Soviet Union, Christians were rounded up, also not just Christians but just anybody who is not line with the ideology of Communism, which is a wicked ideology. All the Russian Orthodox church and them, they were all rounded up, many of them were tortured and killed. That was a government that was a terror to good works. That's not a government that anybody should support or obey or think, "Well, they're doing God's will. They're the minister of God. Joseph Stalin's the minister of God." No, wrong. Not when you're rounding up Christians and killing them. Not when you're murdering and torturing innocent people just because they disagree politically. That is not of God.
Now a lot of people will teach a false doctrine that says well when Romans 13 was written they'll say this, "Christians were being executed by the Roman government and Paul is saying they're not a terror to good works."
First of all, would that make any sense? If Paul is living under government that's murdering and killing Christians and burning Christians at the stake and throwing Christians to the lions, would Paul say "Obey the government because rulers are not a terror to good works"? That wouldn't really make any sense, would it? But that's what they teach and people go "Paul wrote that when Nero was on the throne and he was murdering and massacring Christians and he still said, he still said to be subject to the government, and love the government, and obey the government, even when they- we need to love and respect them even when they're massacring Christians."
I guess according to these people when the anti-Christ comes we're going to love and respect him and pray for him every day that God will bless him every day because he's in authority. I mean, that's what they're saying, it's what they're teaching. But think about this my friend, I can prove to you right now that that is a lie about Nero being on the throne killing Christians when this was written. I'll prove it to you. The book of Romans, if you look at the book of Romans in chapter 16, if you want to flip over there, let's just prove all things. Let's just see what the Bible actually teaches.
I didn't have this in my notes, it's just off the cuff, so I'm trying to find the Verse I'm looking for. If somebody knows where it is, help me out, in Romans 16 where he talks about where he's going to Spain. I know he says it in Chapter 1, somebody find it for me in Chapter 16, but I'll read for you in Chapter number 1- or does he not talk about it in Chapter 1? No, he doesn't. Somebody help me out here. Does anybody want to earn a special prize tonight? No, I'm just kidding.
Is it in...? Goodnight. It's not in chapter... Is it 15? Oh good, okay thank you.
15:24, look up Chapter 15:24. It says "Whensoever I take my journey into Spain, I will come to you: for I trust to see you in my journey, and to be brought on my way thitherward by you, if first I be somewhat filled with your company."
Paul here is talking about how he wants to take this journey to Spain, missionary journey. He says when I go to Spain, I want to make a pit stop in Rome. Okay now flip back to Chapter 1, and in Chapter 1 he makes it clear that he has not yet been to Rome. In Chapter 15 he's saying, "When I make my journey into Spain, I want to stop off in Rome." Why? Because in Chapter 1, he's saying, "I haven't been there," and that's why he says in Verse number 11, "For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established."
Verse 13, "Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, but was let hitherto," let means hindered, "But was let hitherto, that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles. I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise. So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also."
He's saying, "I want to have some fruit amongst you like I've had amongst other Gentiles. I want to go to Rome. I want to take a trip to Spain and I want to stop in Rome. I want to go soul-winning in Rome. I want to preach to the churches in Rome. I want to do this because I haven't done it before." It's clear reading it's going to be his first time showing up in Rome.
You say why is that significant? Because we read in the book of Acts about the Apostle Paul going to Rome. Think for a moment, was the book of Romans written before that story in the book Acts where Paul goes to Rome, or after that story in the book of Acts where Paul goes to Rome? It was written before he went to Rome. When we read the book of Acts, not your history book, not your commentary, not your Bible encyclopedia, when we read the book of Acts, God's word, we will find that the Romans were not persecuting Christian at all during that time.
Did they persecute them later? The Bible never talks about it. I'm sure that it probably happened because of course, history tells us it happened. But when I base what I believe on the Bible, I don't take into account a secular source because often those things can be inaccurate. Usually there's some truth in everything, and I'm sure that there were Christians who were martryed and persecuted. I don't really doubt that, but I don't think it's really relevant to Bible preaching because it's not found in the Bible.
What we do know for a fact today is that at the time that the book of Romans was written, Christians were not being persecuted by the Roman empire at all. That is a biblical fact. We can debate about when the persecution of Christians started, to what level that persecution was, how it all played out, what role Nero and other Caesars played, but that's not biblical teaching. I will tell you for a fact that when the book of Romans was written, the Roman empire was not only not persecuting Christians, they were not persecuting Christians at that time, period, but they were actually protecting Christians from persecution. That's what the Bible teaches, because if you read the book of Acts, Paul is being persecuted by who? The Jews. Not the Roman empire, the Jews.
I mean look, did the Romans- were the Romans on a hair trigger to just crucify Jesus? The Jews had to beg them and cajole them and practically force them to do it! What was Pilot doing? The Bible says he tried to deliver Jesus out of their hands, that's what it says. He tried to deliver Jesus out of the Jews' hands.
In the book of Acts, the Jews want to kill Paul. The Romans send 200 soldiers to protect Paul! In the book of Acts, the Romans, and by the way this is after the book of Romans has been written, proving that the persecution of Christians had not yet begun by the Roman empire. Doesn't even seem like it's close to beginning. The Bible says that the Apostle Paul was protected by 200 Roman soldiers from the Jews that were trying to kill him. Does that sound like the Romans were persecuting Christians, and killing them and burning them? It's such a lie and when it's being brought before them and when you see Paul being brought before Roman officials and other government officials, anybody who reads the book of Acts... no one is ever going to come to the conclusion, "Oh man, the Romans were really persecuting Christians." It's not in the Bible, folks.
You can make a case and say, "Well Revelations 17, you know maybe at that time seems to indicate..." And that's all prophetic future stuff of course, written way later that maybe by the time Revelation was written you could make a case that perhaps at that time, Romans had started persecuting Christians, but I'm not even saying it might be this way. I'm telling you for a fact that when the book of Romans was written, the Roman empire was not persecuting Christians. That's just a fraud, just simply isn't true and the Bible proves it by reading the book of Acts.
In Romans 13 we see a teaching that says obey the powers that be, obey authority, obey human government, but be subject under the higher power. Don't obey them when they conflict with what God says and when they're a terror to good works, they're no longer a legitimate government. When they're murdering Christians and so forth- you know when the anti-Christ is in power, I hope that you're not going to keep on thinking that we should just always obey government no matter what. Is that when you're going to draw the line, finally? You say, "Well God puts all leaders in authority." Well, the Bible says the dragon gave him his power and his seat and great authority, so there you go.
Let's go to one more place. Let's go to Daniel Chapter 1 and let's put this into practical teaching in our lives.
We want to obey the higher powers. By the way, all the modern versions, they get rid of that phrase, "higher powers," and just change it to obey the government. Obey the government instead of just saying "obey the higher powers."
In our nation for example, the highest power is the Constitution. Obviously God's the highest power, but I mean humanly speaking in our government, the Constitution's the supreme law of the land. That's why the Supreme Court has ruled that any law that is repugnant to the US Constitution is null and void.
Listen to me, the Supreme Court has ruled that Americans do not have to obey laws that are unconstitutional, did you know that? If a law is unconstitutional, Americans do not have to obey it. That's what the Supreme Court says.
So there are Christians out there who are just these rabid, neo-con, just pro-government apple pie eating flag waving just, "I love the government! I love the government! Oh Bush! Obama!" But wait a minute, hold on now, the Bible teaches obeying the higher power, but even if we were to put the Bible aside and just look at our own government, our own government is telling us we don't have to obey laws that are against the Constitution. The Supreme Court has said any law that is repugnant to the US Constitution is null and void, meaning that if a local town, for example made a law, like let's say the city of Tempe were to make a law that says "no soul-winning. You cannot knock doors with the gospel." Okay, obviously biblically we know that we ought to obey God rather than man, so we're going to go soul-winning anyway. But even the Bible aside, that law is null and void because of the fact the US Constitution says that Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or, and I'm messing it up- I have the Bible memorized better than the Constitution- but it says, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.
The government cannot make a law that forbids us from exercising our religion, and part of exercising our religion is preaching the gospel to every creature. It's going daily in the temple in every house, it's disciplining our children, it's doing all manner- it's preaching the Bible. If they made a law that said, "Hey don't preach this part of the Bible", even our own government will tell us we don't have to obey that law. There are local governments that sometimes enact laws that are over the top and they're struck down. They're struck down, they say that this law is not legitimate.
We need to understand that the higher powers is not only a biblical concept but it's a concept in our government humanly speaking, that the Constitution is the supreme law and that anything that violates that, we don't have to obey laws that violate our religion. We don't have to- you know, the government makes some law that says, "You have to buy birth control and abortion for all your employees." You know what that's doing? That's violating people's religion. They don't have to obey. Biblically they have every right not to obey and just civilly they have every right not to obey.
Now look, one day our government may turn into a total dictatorship some day. But we're not quite there yet, so therefore we should not just think that, "Well we just have to obey every local law and every police officer who tells us to do anything, even if it violates the Constitution, even if it violates scripture, to just think, "Just do what you're told!" No, do what God said, do what the Constitution says, let's take a stand for our freedom.
You might not think freedom matters that much, but it does matter when you can't go soul-winning, and when you're being rounded up and put in a box car for the FEMA camp. When you're being rounded up with machine guns, all of the sudden freedom starts mattering. When they're telling you it's illegal for you to spank your child? When they're telling you you must allow homosexuals to come to church? Then all the sudden freedom starts mattering. We should just have an attitude that says, let's stand for freedom, let's not abuse the freedom of others, and obviously we should spend most of our time fighting the spiritual battle and not get too caught up in the politics of this world because God's kingdom is not of this world.
We should spend most of our time on spiritual things. But when people do ask us our political opinion, if we are going to get active at all in any kind of a political arena, we need to always need to fight for freedom and stand for freedom. The Bible teaches principals of freedom and we need to never come down on this totalitarian government side, whether it's right wing or left wing, should never side with big government and a government that's totalitarian in nature.
Look at Daniel Chapter 1, let's look at this more from our personal lives because probably the situation that we're going to run in to more than anything with this is within business, marriage, and our parents. Those are pretty much the three scenarios that we're going to deal with the most. Parents telling children to do something ungodly or a husband telling his wife to do something ungodly or a boss at work telling an employee to do something ungodly. How do we handle that? What do we do when we're faced with this conflict?
First of all, this conflict doesn't usually happen all the time. Thank God. But sometimes it does happen and we need to know how to deal with it. Look at Daniel 1, here's a great example how to deal with it. It says, "But Daniel," Verse 8, "Purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat."
Let me ask you this, is he maybe going to defile himself? He says no way. He makes a decision in his heart, he purposed in his heart, I will not defile myself because he's being commanded by his leaders, he's being commanded by the king and by the king's lieutenant, they're saying, "Eat meat sacrificed unto idols. Drink wine." And he purposed his heart, I'm not going to do it. I will not do it! But look what he says in the latter half of the Verse. "Nor with the wine which he drank." Therefore he what? Requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.
Now let me ask you this, in Daniel's heart, was it a might? "I might not defile myself." Was it a "Well, I'm going to ask, I'm going to request not to defile myself"? Was that what it was in his heart? No, in his heart he purposed that he would not do it, but when he went to his boss, when he went to his authority figure, it was requesting that he might not defile himself, showing that he did not go in there guns a-blazing. "I don't care what you say, I'm going to obey God and not you!" He didn't do that, and if we're smart, neither should we. We should be respectful, kind, and humble. We should take a stand, we should not back down, but we should do it in a kind and loving and humble way.
Look at the next Verse. So tip number 1, for disobeying authority when you have to, number 1, don't be rude and abrasive and go in there guns a-blazing. You be respectful and humble.
Point number 2, look at Verse 9. "Now God had brought Daniel into favor and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs." Point number 2 is that we should have a good repertoire with our leaders in the first place and if we have a good repertoire with them, they're going to be more willing to work with us on things like this.
If you're the worst employee on your job, and then you're going to them saying, "Hey I need these days off for church and hey it's against my conscious to do this and do that," you're more likely to be told "Just shut up and do what you're told" because you're a bad employee, because you have a bad repertoire with the boss.
If you have a very good repertoire with the boss, if the boss loves you and you've been a great employee and you tell them, "Look I want to go to church on this night, I need abstain from this particular activity because it's against my conscience" they will work with you on it. That's the second point right there and also God can help with that. The Bible says that God had brought Daniel into tender love with the prince of the eunuchs. Not only that, but Daniel was such a good student and such a good worker that he was loved and respected by his authority.
That's going to go a long way folks, and by the way, a wife for example. Let's say a wife is told by her husband to do something ungodly. Do you have a tender loving relationship with your husband? That's going to go a long way to getting your husband to work with you on your conscience, right?
Children, if you're good, obedient, godly children; if you're helpful around the house, you're respectful to your parents, you're doing what you're supposed to do, they're not going to cloud up and rain on you as much when you want to do something for God that they don't approve of or that they don't like or when you- and you say "when would parents ever tell their children to do something ungodly? When would a husband ever tell his wife to do something ungodly?" It happens.
Let's just give you some examples and let's give some examples from business. Your boss at work asks you to lie. That's never happened, right? Happens all the time. Your boss at works tells you to charge money for parts that were never even installed. This stuff happens all the time.
Charge them, look, I've seen it so much in business. Literally, when I was in the fire alarm business, I'd go out to jobs and another company had been out there before me and this company had literally billed them for replacing the panel, replacing all kinds of parts, and I went out there and I said "these parts are twenty years old, they've replaced nothing." Talk about brazen. Can you imagine a company billing the customer? "Oh yeah, we did $5,000.00 worth of work, we replaced all this stuff." I took pictures, it's dirty and has cobwebs on it. I said "this has not been replaced" and they're like "They billed us." No, they did nothing because nobody's checking the work. And this happens all the- that didn't happen once my friend... all the time. I was constantly photographing stuff. "no, it hasn't been replaced" and then they confront the customer, "Oh whoops, we thought we replaced that. Whoops, we thought we did $5,000.00 worth of work out there." Happens all the time. That means somebody is telling somebody "Hey just write this down that we did this."
There was a situation in LA, I worked with a lot of elevator technicians where I would coordinate with them. I was talking with this elevator guy that I had done a lot of testing with, and he told me that it was just in the news how someone had been killed by an elevator that went awry. Somebody had been killed by this elevator that malfunctioned and his company had just been out there to inspect this elevator and test it and the boss had told the elevator technician, "You need to inspect this elevator," and the technician said "That particular elevator, it's impossible to do the inspection, I need to do without two guys. It takes two guys. You got to be here and there." The guy said, "Just do a drive-by." Basically saying, show up, say you inspected it, sign off on it and call it good, and don't test anything, but write it up as if you did all the testing.
Then somebody died and then it was like, "You guys were out there a week ago and tested this and it worked?" But it turned out they had not been, and they were caught. Caught having deceived and dissembled and it was a big deal. Heads were rolling in that company and people were in big, big trouble when something like that happens. When somebody dies from something like that, an accident like that.
What I'm saying is, a boss could tell you to lie. Parents can tell their children to lie. Here's an example, "Tell them we're not home." Right? Out soul-winning. Or what about this? What about this one? "Say you're 12." You know, you're going somewhere but you know the child's 13 and it's like, if you're 12 and under it's free, right? Or it's half price. It's like, "Just say you're 12, say you're 10. You're 8 years old, you understand?" I mean that's lying. Should a child who's told "say you're 8", should they do that? No. That's an example of being told to lie.
A husband could tell a wife to lie. A husband could tell a wife to steal, whatever. Whatever the case may be. Also there are some husbands, believe it or not, that are perverted and could actually tell their wife to do something like commit adultery or look at pornography. Obviously to the normal man that sounds- why would any man want his wife to commit adultery or to look at pornography? I mean, that's so warped, but it's out there. If a husband says to a wife, "Look at pornography." or- no, we've not broken the record, Mercy. She rung the bell.
If a husband were to say to his wife "look at pornography" or "commit adultery" or "be involved in weird things that involve a third party." I'm not trying to be graphic, I'm just telling you it's out there. Obviously we ought to obey God rather than man.
Here's a really common one. What about a husband who says to his wife, "You can't go to church"? Now does the Bible command us to go to church? I believe that a wife should go to church anyway, even if the husband says don't go to church.
Or how about this, if the husband says, "Don't get baptized"? "Well, I got to obey my husband." Well, you got to obey God rather than men.
What about the parent who says to the child "you can't get baptized"? These are things that happen and these are difficult situations, but that's why we need to be in tender love with our authority figure and at least please them in other areas and at least be a good child or a good employee or a good wife so that when these things happen we can have a little more repertoire and a little more leeway with the authority figures in our life and say "look I'm not willing to violate my conscience here."
Obviously there are some things that are better but it doesn't mean that we're commanded by God to do them. I believe that God's perfect will that wives me a housekeeper or homemaker and not be out in the workforce. But if a husband makes his wife go to work, then she has to go to work. It's not a sin for a woman to go to work. You can't really say in the Bible "it's a sin for a woman to work." There are some women who have to work because nobody's supporting them. Maybe if their husband leaves them or if they're just single, they find themselves in that situation. There are some women who have to go work, and they go to work. There's nothing in the Bible that says it's a sin for a woman to go to work.
But if we know that what the Bible teaches and the Bible teaches that the husband should provide and that if any man provide not for his own and we see those type of scriptures and if we know that God wants women to be discreet, chaste, and keepers at home, and good and obedient to their own husband. Then obviously if we know to do good and do it not, it's sin. We as husbands should lead and say "I'm going to provide, you're going to be a keeper at home." That's God's will, but at the same time, you can't really, in my opinion- and maybe this is a gray area, you may have a different opinion- my opinion is that it's not a sin for a woman to get a job, but that it's God's will that the woman be at home if the husband will lead in that way, and he should. So I would blame the husband for that.
What I'm saying is that there are certain things- your husband might say for example, "You can't go to every church function under the sun" you might have to compromise with that and say okay. But when it comes to him saying, "You can't go to church at all" well now you're violating the Bible when you don't go to church at all.
See how these kind of difficult situations where you're looking- if your husband says you can go to church on these days, but not on these days, you might need to work with him on that. But if he tells you, "You can't go to Faithful Word Baptist Church, you're going to the Catholic church." I think that's a situation where you disobey your husband and go to church. If he's telling you, "Hey commit adultery." No, you need to do what's right in the sight of God. If he's telling you, "Lie for me, cover for me, steal for me," you got to ask yourself, what does God want me to do in this situation? These can be tough situations.
I think if we look at Daniel 1, we can see that there's a way to handle this conflict. I think it's very rare that children just have to totally defy their parents or that wives have to just totally defy their husband or that workers have to just defy their boss. I think that usually, the Daniel 1 method will work the vast majority of time.
If you're working hard, if you're being a good worker, and you're kind about it, usually you can get away with a lot if you're a good worker. I've been on jobs where I've refused to do things. I remember- good night- the boss that I had right before I started my own fire alarm business, he was constantly trying to get me to work on church days, constantly. I told him going into the job, "I can't work- there are 168 hours in the week, I can work all of these times except Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night." I told him that going into the job and I never wavered on that, I never budged on that. Even years and years later, "Hey I need you to work on this Sunday," or "Hey I need you to work on Wednesday night." I don't do that, and I just told him over and over. I told him, "Look, I'll work all night. I'll work crazy hours, I'll do what you want," but I said "These particular times I'm not going to work." And you know what? He worked with me all the way to the end. I never lost my job and I always refused to do it.
He wanted me to go to a job one time and it was in like a bar and it was in the evening time, and he wants me to go to a bar. He just gave me the address, I didn't know what it was. I pull up at the job and it's a bar and it's full and I had never even been to a bar and it's all filled with people who are drinking and partying and everything. I just called my boss and I said, "You know what, I don't know, I don't want to go work in that bar. I don't feel comfortable going into a place like that."
You know what I was able to work out was that I was able to go in and do the job at a time when the bar was not open and I was able to go in through the back door and just go to the electrical room and do the work and didn't have to be exposed to that atmosphere and the partying and all the scantily clad women and just the whole bar thing. I just didn't want to be there and my boss was very kind and understanding about it because he knew that I was willing to go the extra mile over here to make up for the fact that I wasn't doing what he wanted over here. Yeah, I'm not working on Sundays and Wednesdays but I was really willing to do extra over here to make up for it.
I think that wives can do the same thing, really go above and beyond with cooking or whatever, do something really good, make your husband really happy, and then you're going to have favor in his sight.
Children that are really good children, do what they're supposed to do can really score points with mom and dad and then they're going to find favor when they need to conscientiously object to this, that, or the other. I'm telling you, this is the right way instead of just being defiant and rebellious, "I'm going to obey God rather than you!"
We need to instead try to work with people if we can, and please everybody if we can. If we can, go above and beyond. Look, if you do extra chores for your parents it's going to be so shocking they're just going to be, "Hey go to church. Whatever." How many wives are really going above and beyond to really serve and please their husband? If you went the extra mile and did some extra things to make his life easier and to be a blessing to him, you're going to get a lot of leeway with him when you need something in return. Same thing, when you're showing up early and staying late and working your fingers to the bone, and you ask them 'Hey, I need your help with this." They're going to work with you on that more often than not.
Let's get one more point from Daniel 1 here. It says in Verse 10 "And the prince of the eunuchs said unto Daniel, I fear my lord the king, who hath appointed your meat and your drink: for why should he see your faces worse liking than the children which are of your sort? then shall ye make me endanger my head to the king."
So what's he saying? He says to his immediate supervisor, "I don't want to eat this meat sacrificed unto idols and I don't want to drink wine." The supervisor loves Daniel because he's been such a good student and such a good worker but the supervisor says to Daniel "You know there's nothing I can really do" because he said "I'm taking orders from the king. The king has commanded that you eat this stuff and drink this stuff" and he says "I'm afraid that if you don't eat this red meat and drink, that you're not going to gain as much weight, you're not going to be as strong and healthy, and then the king is going to look at you and you're all skinny, you're looking like these skinny vegans.
You know vegans, sometimes they're emaciated, I'm sorry. Sometimes people that are vegan are not a very good advertisement for veganism because sometimes they're just so emaciated and you're like "I'm not interested in being that skinny, okay?" And he's like "I don't want them to look at you and say 'what kind of a vegan diet do you have those guys on?'" He has a point, right? Because he goes "why do they look like this?" and "Oh well you know, they didn't want to eat the meat." and it's like "Good night. They didn't get enough protein."
So look what Daniel says in Verse 11 "Then said Daniel to Melzar, whom the prince of the eunuchs had set over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, Prove thy servants, I beseech thee, ten days; and let them give us pulse to eat."
What's pulse? Pulse is like beans and lentils, which is not quite as high in protein as meat, but if you're looking for a plant-based protein source, beans are going to be one of the plants that has the most protein. So they said "give us pulse to eat and water to drink, Then let our countenances be looked upon before thee, and the countenance of the children that eat of the portion of the king's meat: and as thou seest, deal with thy servants. So he consented to them in this matter, and proved them ten days. And at the end of ten days their countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the king's meat."
So these guys, yes they're going to go and abstain from the meat sacrificed unto idols, but notice, they said test us for ten days and I guarantee you that during that ten days they made sure to eat as much pulse as they could. They ate a lot of beans, they ate a lot of lentils, they ate a lot of split peas. They didn't just say "oh we're not going to eat that" and then eat a few and go "oh I'm full." I mean they're like "yeah! Let's eat these beans! Let's eat lentils!" They were wolfing it down and they're eating five meals a day, you know they were. They were saying "we want to make the boss happy. We want to please him. We want him to work with us here." And you know what they were able to do? They were able to get the work done that they needed to get done without compromising their beliefs.
Some people, sometimes they want to use their beliefs as an excuse not to get work done. They want to use their beliefs just as an excuse to be lazy. I heard about a situation of a guy who he told his company "I can't work on Sunday, I got to be at church, I can't work on Sunday." They said "You can work really, really late on Saturday then. You can work a double shift on Saturday and then you can go to church on Sunday." And he's like "Oh well I'm going to be too tired."
See what I mean though? If you want the boss to work with you and give you that Sunday off and he says "Okay, work double shift on Saturday." That might just be what you have to do. Maybe it's just time for you to man up and work hard and push yourself a little bit and get some strength and some backbone and then your boss- why would the boss care whether you do the same work and you double up Saturday and take Sunday off and go to church? When it just becomes "Well I want Saturday and Sunday off!" It's like, "Come on dude, you're using church as an excuse to just not do you work."
That's not what Daniel's doing. He's saying look, I'm going to do my best to get the job done on beans and lentils, but I'm not going to sin and eat meat sacrificed unto idols. It's not that meat is wrong, it was meat offered in sacrifice unto idols that's wrong. It's drinking an alcoholic beverage that's wrong. He's saying "I'm going to get it done without violating conscience." Look boss, I'm going to get the work done.
I remember my boss one time, he's like "You got to be here Wednesday, you got to be here for three days, there's too much work for you in two days" because I had to fly to Chicago and get a bunch of work done. He said "There's too much for two days," he said "You got to stay through Wednesday." I'm like "No I can't do that because I'm a pastor, I have to be back. I have to preach and everything." He's like "Well just go to church in Illinois." I used to do-
Look, if you're not a pastor, that works. If you're not a pastor and let's say you have to be out of town for a couple of weeks, just go to church in that area. I used to visit all kinds of churches when my company would have me travel. But as a pastor, I needed to be here. I couldn't just go to church in Illinois. That would've been fine if I was a layman, but I need to put my pastoring as a high priority.
I told him, I said "Look, let me just do some math with you. If I go out there Monday and I work all day Monday and all night Monday and don't sleep at all, and all day Tuesday, eventually I'm going to have to go to sleep, right? So how much can I really do?" I said if I go out there for three days I'm going to work all day Monday and sleep Monday night. Then I'm going to work all day Tuesday and sleep Tuesday night, and then I'm going to work all day Wednesday and sleep Wednesday night. I said that's what I would do, that's what you want me to do. I said you want me to go out there and work for three days and sleep for three nights, right? But I'm going to do the same amount of work by working all night Monday night and I'm going to work all Monday, all night Monday night, and that's all that I can humanly do anyway." He said "Okay, but just get it all done."
I went out there and I worked all day Monday, I worked all night Monday night. I worked all day Tuesday night and at the end of Tuesday night I was so tired. I got on the airplane to fly back, I sat down in my seat, buckled the seat belt, and the next thing I know "Sir, the plane's empty sir. You're in Phoenix." I'm like "What? Where am I?" It wasn't fun and usually it's not that extreme, that's one extreme scenario that I'm bringing up.
Usually it's not that extreme, I'm just saying that's kind of mentality that we should try to have of just hey, let's do more over on this side to balance out what we're refusing to do over here because of the Bible instead of just using the bible as a way to get out of working long hours.
Sometimes as a man in 2014 you have to work really hard and sometimes the difference between people who make ends meet and people who don't are people who are willing to work all night sometimes.
Who here has had to work all night before? All types of hands going up. Who here has had to work- you don't have to raise your hand- who here has had to work 80-90 hours? We've been there. I know Scott's been there because I've made him do it because he worked for me for a little while. Sometimes that's life as a man and so we need to obey God but let's try to obey our human authorities also.
