 Amen. Keep your place in Proverbs chapter 27. We're going to get to a couple verses there in a few minutes but first of all, you know, there's some great advice on friendship in Proverbs chapter 27, and that's what we're going to be looking at. So just put a bookmark in Proverbs chapter 27 and first of all, I want to talk to you a little bit about military strategy. We're going to talk about military strategy and fishing this evening. Okay, so it's a I'm excited about the sermon. I don't know about anybody else but what we're going to talk about this evening is we're going to talk about strategies in your life. We're going to talk about military strategy in the Bible first. Turn to Joshua chapter 8, keeping your place in Proverbs chapter 27. Turn to Joshua chapter 8. Now I don't really like to, you know, go over things that I'm about to preach on in the Bible study on Wednesday nights but we're going to take a look at just one aspect of Joshua chapter 8 and then we'll move on. But let me just, let's talk about some military strategy in the Bible this evening for a few minutes, and then I'll tie it together for you towards the middle of the sermon. Joshua chapter 8, look at verse number 1. The Bible says, and the Lord said unto Joshua, fear not, neither be thou dismayed, take all the people of war with thee, and arise and go up to AI. See, I have given into the hand, into thy hand, the king of AI and his people and his city and his land. And now shall due to AI and her king, as thou didst unto Jericho and her king, only the spoil thereof and the cattle thereof ye shall take for pray unto yourselves. Lady and ambush for the city behind it. Just a note here. See, God does give some direction, you know, different direction when it comes to different battles and different people. You know, the problem this morning is Saul just didn't listen to the specific direction that was applied to him. Here he says, hey, you know, you can keep some of the animals, okay? But you just have to point is, whatever the direction is, you have to listen. To what God says. It's God's will, not your will. That's the key from this morning's sermon. So Joshua rose, verse 3, and all the people of war to go up against AI and Joshua chose out 30,000 mighty men of valor and sent them away by night, and he commanded them saying, behold, you shall lie and wait against the city. That means hide, okay? That means, you know, go and hide against the city, even behind the city. Go not very far from the city, but be already. And I and the people that are with me will approach unto the city, and it shall come to pass when they come out against us, as at first, that we will flee before them. For they will come out after us, till we have drawn them from the city, and they will say, they flee before us as at the first, therefore we shall flee before them. Then you shall rise up from the ambush and seize upon the city, for the Lord your God will deliver it into your hand. Turn to 2 Chronicles, chapter 20. So what Joshua says they're going to do is he takes these 30,000, you know, core warriors, and he says, you guys are going to hide behind the city, and then we're going to approach the city from the front, and when they come out of the city, we're going to run. We're going to run like we've been defeated, and they're going to chase us, and they're going to run after us, and then the mighty men who are hiding are going to go into the city after, you know, they've all the men have run out chasing, you know, the decoy, okay? So it's a pretty smart strategy there. It's kind of a surprise attacker and ambush as the Bible calls it here. And look, this strategy is used all over the Bible. It's known to work, it's known, it's a known successful strategy. I'll just give you one more example. Look at 2 Chronicles, chapter 20. And the Bible says in 2 Chronicles, chapter 20, in verse number 20, it says, And they rose early in the morning and went forth into the wilderness of Tokoia, of Tokoia. As they went forth, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, believe in the Lord your God. There's another strategy right there, by the way. So you shall be established, believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper. And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the Lord, and that should praise the beauty of holiness as they went out before the army to say praise the Lord for his mercy endureth forever. And when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seer, which were come against Judah, and they were smitten. So like this whole ambushing strategy, you know, is used commonly throughout the Bible. It's a known successful strategy. The point I'm trying to make is that they knew it was a successful strategy and just military strategy in general. You know whether it's successful or not because it's worked for someone in the past. It's been a common thing. You know, there's all kinds of strategies other than just ambushmen or surprise attacks. You know, like flanking is a common, you know, strategy, especially with men marching against each other. If you've ever read about the Civil War, you'll read a lot about flanking maneuvers. Okay, how, you know, you know, somebody lost a battle because they were flanked from the left side or the right side, you know, from, you know, Calvary or infantry or whatever. But ambushes, you know, are used throughout history even. They're so well known to work. I mean, the Trojan horse in Homer's Odyssey was another, you know, sneak attack. You know, you had the Greeks, you know, attacking the Trojan city of Troy. And I mean, the siege lasted something like 10 years. So the story goes. But, you know, they couldn't take the city, so they leave a horse as a gift. You know, Odysseus, this man in, you know, talked about in the Odyssey leaves this gift of this Trojan, this wooden horse supposedly to the god of the Trojans. And the Trojans bring it inside the walls of the city. And inside, as the story goes, inside the horse is, you know, it's packed full of Greek warriors and at night they come out and they burn the gates of the city and they take the city. So after 10 years of just a front on assault, they couldn't get it done, yet this strategy of ambushing or a surprise attack is how they end up taking the city. You know, other common ambushes are 1776, the Battle of Trenton. You probably read about this even in public school. They probably don't teach it now, but I'm sure if you went to public school 20 years ago, they taught you about how Washington crossed the river on, you know, he crossed the Delaware on Christmas Eve and he did a surprise attack against the British. And it's credited for, you know, just boosting the morale of the revolution. And it's credited to be, you know, kind of a turning point in the Revolutionary War. Bad ambushes, Pearl Harbor 1941 was an ambush. You know, that, you know, that if our Navy had known that they were coming, you know, I'm not getting into conspiracy theories here, but if our Navy had known that they were coming, it would not have turned out the way that it did. But this, my point is that military strategies are commonly known because they've been successful in the past. Okay, because there's history behind them. Other military strategy is like force multipliers. A force multiplier is like if you have one army that has infantry and then you have another army that has infantry and tanks. The tanks are force multipliers, meaning a much smaller, you know, group of infantry with tanks can defeat a much larger infantry only group. You know, the biggest force multiplier in the Bible, and we read about it in 2 Chronicles chapter 20, I just read is whether or not the Lord was with you. That was the force multiplier in the Bible in all the battles throughout Joshua, throughout all the children of Israel. You know, when the Lord was with them, they won. You know, whether through an ambush or any other kind of strategy, you know, think of Gideon and his 300 men. Look, the Lord was with them, they won. So that's a force multiplier. But look, so the point is it's known with military strategy and even in the Bible that I've shown you, it's known what works. Well, here's another thing, it's also known what doesn't. Turn to Judges chapter 9. Judges chapter 9, we just studied this story, but let's just do a recap with a couple verses here. This is the story of Abimelech, the story of Abimelech. Look at Judges chapter 9 in verse number 50. Judges chapter 9 in verse number 50. Abimelech is fighting a battle. Of course, Abimelech is an evil man. That's not the point I'm trying to make, but I just want to show you the strategy that he used. Look at verse number 50. Then went Abimelech to Thebes and encamped against Thebes and took it. But there was a strong tower within the city and thither fled all the men and women and all they of the city and shut it to them and got them up to the top of the tower. And Abimelech came onto the tower and fought against it and went hard onto the door of the tower to burn it with fire. And a certain woman cast a piece of millstone upon Abimelech's head all to break his skull and all to break his skull. And he called hastily into the young man his armor-bearer and said unto him, draw thy sword and slay me, that men may not say of me a woman slew him. And his young man thrust him through and he died. So turn to 2 Samuel chapter 11. So Abimelech, he goes up to the wall. He goes up to the wall of this tower and this woman takes a big rock and throws it on his head and essentially kills him because he knew he was on the brink of death. He didn't want to be killed by a woman. So he has one of his men actually kind of finish him off. But the point is he got too close to the wall. He got too close to the wall. Turn to 2 Samuel chapter 11. 2 Samuel chapter 11 in verse number 21. 2 Samuel 11 verse 21. So David wants Uriah killed and he has Joab kill Uriah and this is how Joab does it. And in 2 Samuel chapter 11 verse 21, Joab is explaining to David or to the servant that's gonna tell David what happened. He's gonna tell him why they did such a stupid thing because the way he got Uriah killed was the same stupid thing that Abimelech did. And look at the verse here. It says in verse 21, who smote Abimelech, the son of Jerubeshef, did not a woman cast a piece of millstone upon him from the wall that he died in Thebes. Why went ye nigh to the wall? He's like, I know David is gonna ask you when you tell him that the results of this little skirmish that happened or this battle, he's gonna say, why in the world were you so close to the wall? Because everybody knows that going up to the wall and he's probably gonna reference the story of Abimelech because apparently everyone knew the Bible. Wouldn't that be nice? But everybody knew this story and he's telling this servant and he's like, hey, when David tells you why were you so dumb? Why did you do such a stupid strategy? Then say thou, thy servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also and then David will go, oh. Because that was kind of the point that David was trying to do. He was trying to get Uriah killed and we all know the story there. But what's the point? What's the point of these couple of stories that I've told you? The point is this, in the Bible, in these military examples that I'm giving you, there's known good strategies and there's known bad strategies. And how to tell? Because of the results that you see, the results that people have had before you, the results from people before you, the Christian life is the same. That's the application that I'm heading for. You can look, you can see in your Christian life who's winning battles. Look, other people, this is one of the beauties of having friends and relationships in the Christian life because look, here's the thing, when people get backslidden many times, they don't personally see it. When people are backslidden, that's the funny thing about pride. Pride is a terrible thing because when you see people get totally backslidden, you're just like, what in the world are they doing? But they don't see it, but everybody else can see it. So the sermon this evening is about everybody else. It's about observing other people and seeing good strategies and bad strategies. Because look, you can see, you can see who's winning battles and who's not. So all you have to do in your Christian life is just repeat what works and avoid what doesn't. Let's pray. I mean, that could be the message right there, but we'll get into a little bit more detail, okay? Look, let's talk about some good strategies. Go back to Proverbs 27. Proverbs 27. Proverbs 27, look down at verse 17. I mean, the Bible says that it's a good thing that we're all together. It's a good thing that you have Christian brothers and sisters and it also talks about it in Hebrews 10, 24 and 25, talking about how we're here to edify one another. We're here to strengthen one another. Look at Proverbs 27, verse 17. The Bible says iron sharpeneth iron. So man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend. Now, there's a little bit of a caveat here. The caveat is this. This kind of assumes that you have the right type of friends. I mean, but look, I mean, it kind of answers the verse itself answers what kind of friends you have because iron sharpeneth iron, so it says your friends are iron. It assumes that you're iron and your friends are iron and then it says you sharpen each other. So it's kind of assuming you have the right kind of friends. Now, look, you should be asking yourself this question about your friends, especially you young people. You should be constantly asking yourself this question about your friends. I ask my kids this question all the time about their relationships and their friends. Do your friends, just think about this for a minute. Do your friends, especially when it comes to teenagers, young people, young adults, when you're looking for maybe someone of the opposite sex, someone that you might, you know, consider courting or marrying in your life. Do these people make you more spiritual or less spiritual? Are your friends, are your friends sharpening you? Is this a Proverbs 27, 17 friend? And if it's not, you better ask yourself why and you better start looking for answers there. Because look, I mean, we're here to sharpen people, but we're not here to have people make us dull. We're not here to have people draw us down. Look, these strategies, look, if you repeat strategies that are good, you will get good results. If you repeat strategies that are bad, you will get the same results that everyone else gets. Look, even amongst the saved. Well, if you're like, oh, you know, my friends are saved. Look, you still have to ask yourself this question. You still have to ask yourself, how many saved people in Fresno are coming to a Bible preaching church? Like a fraction of 1.1, you know, point something percent. None of them, okay? So the point is, look, your friends, your Christian saved friends can drag you down. You have to ask yourself this question. Turn to 1 Timothy chapter three. We're talking about good results first. We'll talk about good results first. Let's talk to, let's go to 1 Timothy chapter three. 1 Timothy chapter three. 1 Timothy chapter three is talking about the qualifications for a pastor. Someone who is a spirit, who wants to be a spiritual leader. Who desires to be a spiritual leader. Someone that desires to lead others spiritually. 1 Timothy three, this is a true saying. If a man, which by the way means it's a man, I don't know, you know, I mean, you kind of read over this stuff in the Bible. And I think maybe one of my faults as a preacher is I don't like point out the obvious enough. You know, because I just, I take for granted, you know, that here we're all, we can all read, you know, and you know, if a man desired the office of a bishop, women cannot be pastors. It's not, it's not because we don't like women. I mean, oh, you hate women, what? I mean, we love our wives and our daughters and our, you know, we, I mean, women are, it's just, we recognize different spiritual roles. Why do we recognize different spiritual roles? Because that's what God wants. That's it. It's very simple. Okay, we just listen to what? What do we call it this morning? We listen to what the will of God is, not our will. Where are we at? Verse one, if a man desired the office of a bishop, that wasn't really my point. He desired the good work. A bishop then must be blameless. The husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach, not given to wine, no striker, not greedy, a filthy looker, but patient, not a brawler, not covetous. That's quite a list here. One that ruleeth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity. And then this one, verse four gets two verses. One that ruleeth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity. For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God? Look, first of all, this one's in your conscience. Because I remember before I was even saved, being in a Catholic church, going to a Catholic wedding, and just having some Catholic priest preach on marriage. And I'm just like, this is so weird. Like, I'm looking around. I mean, I'm sitting in the, I wasn't Catholic, but I'm sitting around like, is no one else noticing the irony of this situation? You know, but nobody's noticing. Okay, because look, they don't care what the Bible says. They're just doing their own thing. They've created their own religion. But look, this is the point. These are the qualifications for a pastor. Why would you have a pastor? Why would you follow someone? Look, you shouldn't follow someone that can't win his own battles. That's what this is about. It's, you know, a pastor that just continually runs up to the wall and has some woman throw rock on his head. You should not be following that person. This is about following good strategies. And the Bible even points it out. The Bible says, look, this man, if he desires, it's not just, I desire to be a pastor. Oh, you're a pastor now. It's like, no, if you desire to be a pastor, and then this huge list. And then the verse four and verse five, which means it's not just how you are now. It's how you have been for years, decades. I mean, it's talking about ruling your own house and having children in, you know, God is ensuring that pastors are the right type of people here. I mean, look, this theory holds true in all areas of your life. You need to be making sure that you're following the right people. I just started a new job. I just started a new job. And I don't know everything about this job. I don't know much about, you know, you just started a new job. You're just like, oh man. But you know what I'm really good at? I'm really good at finding the expert in the room. I've gotten good at that over the last 20, 21 years. There's a good saying. I just love this saying that says, if you're the smartest one in the room, you're in the wrong room. And I'm really good at finding. So you get to work. I mean, you're not gonna follow the guy that doesn't know what he's doing. I mean, you're not gonna go into a group full of engineers and find the person that can't add. I mean, no, you gotta find the subject matter expert. And then that's the person. I always find, I always get in meetings in a new job like that or in any job. And I always just, when I find that person or somebody speaks up and says something, cause look, I mean, it's pretty easy for me to tell who knows what's going on with these complicated situations. I always just make sure I write the name down. So I know who to reach out to if something with that situation should come up. Cause that person's gonna have the right strategies. They're gonna know what to do. School, home, ladies. School, home, children. Look, ladies start to edify each other. Ladies are to edify each other. And look, look at the results of other ladies. You know, don't find somebody who's, you know, a train wreck and doesn't run their house and doesn't know what they're doing and all that, you know, find somebody who's got some results. And those are the people that sharpen you. Those are the people that can edify you. Find the people with good strategies. In this coming year, in this coming year, just a preview. In this coming year, we're gonna be starting and pushing and it's gonna, and we already kind of started doing it, but we're gonna be really pushing hard the homeschool group here. Why? Why? And it's a really big deal to me. And I'm gonna tell you why. It's a really big deal. Why? It's so our families can edify one another. That's why. It's so our families can sharpen one another. You know, I had somebody just ask me the other day about homeschooling and look, people just don't know. People just don't know. There's a lot of good people out there have their kids in public school and they just don't know. They know, I mean, they're probably, they're not even saved. But they got their kids in this wicked system, teaching them all this wicked perversion and they're like, we don't want this. What do we do? And somebody asked me, look, people will ask you. Somebody asked me, like, what do you do about homeschooling? But don't kids that are homeschooled, don't they just sit in a closet by themselves and never talk to anybody? Look, that's what people think. It's like, no, it was just kids have tons of friends. But we're gonna get it, we're gonna sharpen it more. And we're gonna get more organized with it. And look, if we're gonna be a church, I mean, are you kidding me? I mean, think of the responsibility. We're a church where I stand up here and I scream and I yell about getting your kids out of this system. Look, we're gonna provide support. We're gonna provide support. We're gonna provide knife sharpeners. We're gonna provide direction. We're gonna get these ladies and these ladies and my wife is gonna help. We're gonna start, we're gonna get, this is gonna be a major, major goal of mine. Because there's nothing more important than this. There's nothing more important. And we already sort of have it. But we're just kind of priming you for what's coming. And the purpose will be to propagate all the good strategies in the homeschool group. Right, I mean, from the proven strategies, from educational proven strategies, to even down to like physical activity proven strategies. All things that will sharpen our families here. So we're gonna take good strategies. Like you know who was hard and I even explained this to this guy. You know, it was kind of hard to homeschool like 30 years ago. Because you were like the only one doing it. It was like this kind of this new generation that just popped up. I mean, they were the first responders, think of them. They're just like, oh yeah, whoa. We're not putting up with that. And they pulled their kids out. But then they were ostracized. They were, but look, we're not alone here. We're not alone here and we're gonna get, we're gonna get serious on this thing and we're gonna sharpen up. We're gonna have, I mean, we already have a great group here. You know, it's gonna be awesome. I'm super excited about it. So I mean, that's just to just take the good strategies. How do you find the good strategies? You find the people that have the good results. It's pretty simple. Just like in the Bible, just like in the military. Same thing. What about the bad strategies? How do we find the bad strategies? Look, the bad strategy side of this folks. I mean, just a little testimonial. The bad, I mean, the negative side of this theory has pretty much defined my entire life. I mean, absolutely. I mean, I knew there must be a better way. I knew there must be a better way. Why? Because I saw the results. Because I saw the results. I mean, I saw the results of what I was seeing. I saw people raising kids and it was just nothing but, you know, fornication and perversion and alcohol and broken families. And then I saw broken families raising more kids that just do the same things and it produced, I don't know, it produced like what, the same thing. I don't want those results. I'm just like, you know what, I don't want those results. So I mean, you do things, people just repeating these methods and then, you know, repeating these strategies, you know, the daycare, the public school, you know, following the pop culture. Ah! I told my wife yesterday, hey, the mass thing's over. You know how you're, there's gonna be a direct correlation to how much TV people watched over the last year or how much TV people watch in general to the people that are still wearing masks. I'm serious. They're doing it because they do nothing but watch seven, eight hours of TV every single day. And they're like, oh man, the government says, I must put a dirty mask on my face to stay safe. And they pull their mask out of the toilet and they put it on their face. It's disgusting. It's disgusting. They put their mask in their pocket with their phone. The phone is the dirtiest thing that you have that you own. If they ran tests on what was on your phone, you would never touch your phone again. I'm serious. Oh, unless you're this weird person that sanitizes your phone and washes your mat, nobody does that. I'm working with guys. I'm working with guys. We're out on the railroad and we're out there working at a circle. I'm just like, I forgot my mask. They're like, oh, there's one on the ground! They're like, oh! I can't tell you how many times I've seen somebody pull a mask off the floor of their truck. Put it on their face! And now they're like, you know, you don't have to wear it anymore. And everyone's like, oh! TV. TV. That's what they do. They watch TV and the TV says, put dirty mask on your face. Wear a toilet on your face. And they say it again and again and again and again and again for a year. And they're all like, wear a toilet on face. I mean, we're joking around here but this is exactly what's happening to people. I don't even know what we're talking about. People repeating the same thing of previous generations are gonna get the same results. You know what else I saw? You know what else I saw? I saw them get those results by letting somebody else raise their kids and by just going with whatever the culture of the day is, news flash, the culture's getting worse, fast. And so will the results. The results are gonna get worse too. So you young people, when I sit up here and I preach about all these things and we talk about the cultures like we talked about last Sunday. Don't be like, that's weird. Hey, you want those results? You do it the same way that they're doing it then. You want different results. You follow what the Bible says and what is preached at this church. And then you will get different results. But you're like, oh, but I wanna, you know, fornicate and whatever. Then you're gonna get the same results. You're gonna be full of disease. You're gonna have broken families. I mean, you're gonna wreck the next generation just like everybody else did. You know what else I saw? After seeing all these different results. Look, you don't have to be saved to see this. You know what else I saw? I saw the people that produced those results. I saw them change to match those results. I saw them change. I saw them raise a generation that did all these things and they're just like, yeah, I guess that's okay. They changed. You know what? I knew that if I followed those same, look, I'm not so arrogant to think that if I don't follow the same results, you know, the same theories, I'm gonna get the same results. I knew if I followed that, I would get those results and I knew that I would change too. And I don't want that. I don't wanna change. I wanted to catch it before it was necessary. Let's look at a BMLEC strategy, what doesn't work in the strategy that we just looked at. Let's look at the failed strategy of a BMLEC. You know what his problem was? His problem was he got too close to the enemy. That's what a BMLEC's problem was. You get too close to the enemy in this life. You get too close to the enemy, especially in this Christian life and you know what, you can get rocks dropped on your head. That's gonna happen to you. And you know what? You bring your family with you, fathers. As you get too close to the enemy, you know what, they're gonna drop rocks on your family's heads. Yeah, people will stay there. They'll go right up against the wall and they'll just stand there with their whole family. Identify the enemy. That's the first step. What do I mean? Those people that are against what you stand for, that is what, you know, they're against what you're trying to accomplish. Here's my crazy list. I made a crazy list of things that I'm trying to accomplish in my life. Okay, look, I mean, this is nuts, but this is what people will be against. Living a life pleasing to the Lord. People are gonna be against that. I don't know, like reading the Bible. It's a bad one. Praying on a regular basis, having a relationship with the Lord, you know, having a church life, that's a really bad one. Going soul-winning, man, getting other people saved. People are really not gonna like that. I mean, having a personal, spiritual relationship with Jesus Christ and using your life for something that God wants you to use it for and, you know, people are gonna be against that. And you know what? You gotta mark those people. You gotta know who those people are who are against that. Look, make it clear. Make it clear. Be honest. Make it clear. Hey, this is what we're trying to accomplish here. This is what we're trying to accomplish here. And then when people are against that, mark that wall. Here's a crazy one. I mean, this one's nuts. Hang on. We're trying to raise the next generation ourselves. We're trying to teach them diligently as Deuteronomy chapter six says. I mean, who could argue with this? People are gonna argue with this. Clearly define it. And then anyone that fights against it, enemy and keep distance. Stay away from the wall. Cause they'll drop rocks on your head. Turn to 2 Samuel chapter 19. And here's what's worse. Here's what's worse. Turn to 2 Samuel chapter 19. Here's what's worse. If you get close to the wall, you get too close to the enemy. Look, there's gonna be personal damage to you. I'm just trying to save you. I'm trying to save you. You do what you want. But I'm trying to save you pain, suffering and time. Because people will realize this five years down the road and then five years is gone. Turn to 2 Samuel chapter 19. But here's another one that's worse. Now, here's some wise advice or semi wise advice from Joab in the Bible. You don't see a lot of wise advice from Joab. But this is actually something that David needed to hear at this point. Look at 2 Samuel chapter 19 in verse number one. Absalom David's own son had taken over his kingdom and David's men, Joab and all his mighty men, they just fought this huge battle. And David said, hey, don't kill Absalom. Well, Joab did what he wanted and he killed him anyway. And David, after they won the battle, David has the kingdom back. These people went and they fought this huge battle for David to restore him to power. Look at verse number one. And it was told Joab, behold the king Weepeth, the battle's over now. David is back in charge. David, David's kingdom is back. The king Weepeth and Morneth for Absalom. I mean, it's a son. It's a son. And the victory that day was turned into mourning unto all the people. For the people heard say that day how the king was grieved for his son. So here these people went and they fought for David. They fought for David, many of them gave their lives. I'm sure they knew people that were dead. They knew friends, family that had died in this battle. And here everybody hears that David, who is the victor, is crying in the gates of the city for his son. The person that caused all the trouble in the first place. Verse three, and the people got them by stealth that day into the city as people being ashamed, steal away when they flee in battle. So all the people came back from the battle. They're like, they heard David was sad crying for the enemy in this case. And they're all just like, they just won the huge battle. You'd think they'd be coming back and David would be praising them and, you know, good job and thank you and all this. But the king covered his face and the king cried with a loud voice, oh my son, Absalom, oh Absalom, my son, my son. And Joab, for once Joab does something that's helpful to the king. And Joab came into the house to the king and said, thou hast shamed this day the faces of all thy servants. I'm not saying he talked to them in a good way. But he said, which this day have saved thy life and the lives of thy sons and of thy daughters and of thy wives and the lives of thy concubines. He's like, look, you've got other family. He goes straight to the point he's got, you got other kids. In verse number six, and thou in that thou lovest thine enemies and hateest thy friends. For thou hast declared this day that thou regardest neither the princes nor servants, for this day I perceive that it, Absalom had lived and if we had all died this day then it had pleased thee well. So I understand that Joab has some other motives here in that he was the one that killed Absalom. But the point, it needed to be made. And I understand, verse six is super interesting here because look, we're supposed to love our enemies. But notice what Joab said this looked like to everyone. It wasn't that he loved his enemies that was really the problem. He was showing that he hated his friends. And unfortunately, you have to understand the perspective of these people. They just fought this huge battle, many of them were killed, many died, friends, family. And you know what? I mean, his friends perceive that he must hate them. That's the problem. So I mean, in the ministry, this perspective's pretty clear and I understand the perspective of a lot of pastors when they've gone through certain things. It's something that I didn't really understand until I was actually in this position. But the point is, when you see people that you put so much effort into and you've put so much love into and then they just go and they just, they're constantly up against the wall with their enemies and your enemies, you're just like, what in the world that you must hate your friends? But people, look, people will get close to their enemies and damage will be done to them and to their children. But look, it also hurts their friends. That's what I'm trying to explain here. Joab said, you know, he's like, look, you're hurting us. That's what he said. He's like, you're hurting the people that actually fought for you. All I'm trying to do this evening is just give you some insight that will help save you time and pain and suffering. That's all. You've gotta make your goals clear. Our goals are all, hopefully, all pretty much the same. As far as what we're trying to do with this physical life that we have. I'm just trying to spend my life in a worthy manner for the Lord because he's saved me. That's what I'm trying to do here. I'm trying to do the things that are pleasing to him and part of those things is just being faithful to church and just being faithful to my friends and just going out and just trying to spread this gospel that saved me to other people. I mean, it's not rocket science. That's all I'm trying to do, people are gonna be against that. You need to stay away from that wall. Stay away from that wall. And man, look, man, referencing this morning's sermon, you find out where those walls are. You find those walls and you keep your family away from those walls. They're gonna get hit with rocks, too. An analogy that came to mind when I was writing this was a fishing analogy came to mind. I don't know, maybe I was thinking about fishing at the same time. But most of you have been out in the ocean. Some of you out with me. Most of you that went out with me didn't see much of the ocean. Your head was in a bucket. But let me give you a... The ocean is vast. It's just like, it's vast. I come from North Dakota where we go fishing on lakes. You can see the other side and you can kind of know where you are. If you're looking at a map, have a compass, that type of thing. But look, you get out on the ocean. You're just like, oh man, where do I go? I was like, you could go anywhere. So I'm gonna give you some of my secrets this evening. Because nobody really puts on the internet where they go fishing. It's pretty quiet. People are pretty good at covering that up. So I'm gonna give you some of my secrets on how I find... Because look guys, you guys have been out with me and the ones that didn't have your head in a bucket. The fish just stacked themselves in the boat. You guys must just think like, oh man, there's just fish everywhere in the ocean. But look, there's hours of planning that went into where we go. I'm gonna give you some of my secrets. I'm not gonna tell you my spots, but I'm gonna give you some of my secrets. Look, first, step one, before I go out fishing somewhere, because you could go anywhere on the ocean. It's huge. It's intimidating. You get out there and you're just like, oh, what do we do now? But here's, you know, I order maps. I like doing this. I order maps and I look at like topography of the ocean floor and all this kind of stuff. I look at things on Google Earth. What I do is what I do. But look, here's the thing, sometimes that works. Sometimes that doesn't work, making my own plan. But you know what else I do? And here's another secret. I look for the success of others. There's many times, there's many times you're out there, you're like, oh man, you know, how do you know who's the successful fisherman? You know, I mean, because many times, I've seen a couple guys out fishing in the area and I pull up and we fish there for a while and nobody's catching anything and we're all gone in 15 minutes. So I mean, look, here's what I do. You know, charter boats, they have proven results. So here's what I do. I'm running my plan. I'm running my plan. Maybe I'm going to my spot that I have planned, but every time I see a charter boat, you know what I do? I drive by, I'm real slow. I'm on the way to my spot, but I drive by, I'm real slow and all the people in the charter boat, they wave and I tell the kids and everybody with me, hey, wave to the charter people. They're friendly and everybody waves and I get as close as I can without being rude. Waypoint. That's what I do. And then on the way home, look, we got about half my spots that way. What do I know? I'm from North Dakota. Here's a guy running a business. He's obviously good at it. He's got a boat full of people. He knows what he's doing and I just drive by and we're like, hey, gotcha. And then we go fish that place on the way home and we just, we load the cooler up. There's my fishing strategy right there. Drive by, we smile and we wave and we mark that waypoint because it's proven results. Make sure you're finding the charter boats in your life is the point I'm trying to get at. Don't just go find the guy who just bought his fishing pole and just came out there and just he doesn't know what he's doing. Don't follow that guy around. Look, I've met plenty of those guys out there. They don't know what they're doing any more than I do. You gotta follow the charter boats. Find the charter boats in your life. The people with proven results. Look, this means you gotta have the right friends. You gotta have the right friends for proverbs 27, 17 to apply to you. You gotta have the right friends. You gotta watch for the right results, folks. And then you duplicate that. You know, you look for people that have raised a God-fearing family. You know, hopefully people have a pastor that meets all those qualifications. You follow that example. That's what God's plan was. You know, you don't go the route of the Catholic priest that knows nothing about families, wives, marriage. I mean, it's one of the weirdest things that I've ever experienced in my life. But here's the thing, folks. On waypoints, one last thought. And then we'll go have ice cream. But on waypoints, look, first of all, I kind of gave you my fishing strategy here, but that's not really an exact match to the Bible. Because here's the thing. God doesn't expect us to order maps and make our own maps. Okay, we don't have to go out and, you know, buy maps. And He's given us all the waypoints. God has given us all the waypoints. He's given us every single GPS coordinate that we could ever need in our lives. And look, if we follow these waypoints, they're all right here. They're all right here. All these waypoints are right here. And you make those markers. You find out where those walls are that have the lady with the millstone on top of the wall that's ready to throw it on your head. You find out where all those things are because look, those walls, those walls where those enemies are going to be nowhere near these coordinates, those people are going to come looking for you. You have to actually, the funny thing is you actually have to veer off of these coordinates to go up to that wall, which makes it even dumber. It's like someone beating their head against a wall and saying, I have a headache. I have a headache. We'll stop beating your head against a wall. We have all the waypoints. And here's the thing, folks, if you follow these waypoints, you'll never get lost and you'll fill the boat with fish. It's very simple. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.