Pursuing A Heart Like David’s, Pt. 3

Ronald Weinland

November 14, 2020

I’m going to jump right into the sermon today and make some comments as I did in the last sermon there concerning some of the things having to do with what I had stated in the midst of all that having to do with the Church, the meetings, the different size of meetings and what we’re striving to accomplish. So, I’ll just include that as part of this sermon here today as well.

So, we’ll just begin with this now. In this last series Pursuing A Heart Like David’s, with this being Part 3, we’ve been focusing on lessons that can be gleaned from the growing revelation of his character, of David’s character, of genuine humility, of, as well, his deep desire to uphold and to honor God, and that comes out over and over again throughout the stories that we have been going through and will still be going through.

Again, it’s important to understand here as we go through this the things that are recorded like these stories here are not just for the sake of stories of people’s lives in the past but they are things that are recorded that teach lessons (primarily for the Church), that we can learn from because there are physical things that took place that have those spiritual principles and spiritual truths that, quite candidly, that God revealed many to king David. David wrote so much of those things in the Psalms as well, and we’re quite familiar with a lot of that, but there is so much there that God gave to David back during that period of time.

Again, those things are very inspiring. It’s for the Church because it’s not for the world. It’s for those whom God calls because the world can’t grasp those things, they can’t know those things. God has to give of His spirit, draw with His spirit a person, an individual, and lead them to His way of life or His truth, His word, and then begin to reveal that in the mind. So, it’s a process. Again then, we need to understand that’s primarily for the Church.

We’re going to be talking about some of those things. To me, it’s really quite inspiring to see how more and more just continues to be revealed about spiritual principles and spiritual truths in matters just like David’s life here.

We’re going to go back and pick up the last part of the story of where we left off in 1 Samuel 19:1. It says, Now, Saul spoke to Jonathan his son and all his servants, that they should put David to death. But Jonathan, Saul’s son, delighted greatly in David. There was that very close relationship, as we talked about earlier. Right away after that battle with the Philistines and David having killed Goliath, and that fondness that Jonathan had toward David, and David likewise toward Jonathan, a very strong relationship that they had.

But Jonathan, Saul’s son, delighted greatly in David, so Jonathan told David, saying, My father, Saul, seeks to bring about your death. Therefore, please be on your guard until morning and stay in a secret location and hide. So again, there were these things that happened at different intervals, different times, as part of the story flow here, that began. All because of the kind of jealousy that was just eating up Saul inside. This just comes out over and over again, a jealousy, an envy which then turns into a deep hatred, which we have experienced in God’s Church.

Maybe people haven’t thought about those things or understood those things to this degree, but that’s the spirit, that’s the attitude that God wants us to grasp and understand, what happens in people’s lives and how disproportionately or blown out of shape such things can become because they can really control and ruin people’s lives quite quickly.

So again here, Jonathan told David, saying, My father, Saul, seeks to bring about your death. Therefore, please be on your guard until morning and stay in a secret location and hide. Then I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are, and I will talk to my father about you; then what I come to see, I will tell you. Thus Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul, his father, and said to him, Do not let the king sin against his servant, against David, because he has not sinned against you.

So again, trying to bring this back to an area where he could reason with his father on the level of bringing God into the picture and showing that there is sin involved here and that Saul doesn’t want to be that way as a king, or at least that’s what Jonathan was letting him know, that that shouldn’t happen.

…and because his works have been very good toward you. In other words, Jonathan here trying to paint a right picture, give a right picture, a right presentation, in that respect, to his own father concerning David and of how David has always been there for Saul, serving him.

For he took his life in his hands and killed the Philistine. So, taking him back to that moment that had a great impact on both Saul and Jonathan at that particular time, because Saul was very moved by that. But as so often happens with people because of human nature, because of pride, it didn’t take very long for Saul to begin to be jealous of those things that David had done. But he went back to that anyway because this was the moment that did move Saul and Saul could see and understood that God was in this, that there was that which God was doing.

Verse 5—For he took his life in his hands and killed the Philistine, and the Eternal brought about a great deliverance for all Israel. Again here, Jonathan is driving home the point this is what God has done, this is what the Eternal has done. God has blessed David. He helped to give deliverance to Israel, which benefits you as the king. You saw it and rejoiced. So again, reminding him here, of his taking him back there in that story to what it was like.

I think of things that we go through in the Church sometimes and how important it is to be reminded oftentimes of situations when a trial or different things arise, or a conflict arises between people, to remind individuals how they were able to start this journey, how important it is to live this way of life, to hold on to this way of life and the way that God delivered to us from the beginning.

Because there are many people who haven’t held on to those things. They haven’t held on to those things that are a matter of remembering our calling. That’s why, again, I love how this has led up to this point in time. We began talking about a calling, a uniqueness of a calling in that series, and it’s something we need to understand deeply, how God has worked in our lives. Because when we begin to lose that and lose sight of those things, what God has given to us, what we have learned through that process, then other things can begin to go by the wayside if we forget, if we begin to put those things someplace else and don’t understand how blessed we are to know and to see and to experience what we do that God has given us.

He’s reminding him of these things, going back to that moment that the Eternal was doing that for Israel. …you saw it, and you rejoiced. Why then will you sin against innocent blood, to cause David death without cause? “This is so far out! This is so hard to understand! I mean, how can you have that kind of a mind that something like this happened in such an incredible way and yet you can come to a point where you’re actually seeking to take his life?”

Now, this is easy to see concerning how wrong Saul was toward David—we grasp that. We see that—and how such a response, again, was steeped in jealousy and envy and turned into hatred. I mean, when you want to take someone’s life, that’s the extreme of hatred, to want to kill someone.

There is a lot to learn from that as well, because it’s the spirit and it’s the beginning of that spirit. It’s wrong, period. But people don’t tend to think of themselves as one who would murder, and yet hatred, God shows, Christ showed very clearly, that to do that, to have that toward someone else, that kind of emotion, that kind of feeling, hatred toward someone is murder.

And yet, we don’t tend to think in those ways because we think physically. We see the ugliness of something to the extreme of murder, of taking someone’s life, of blood being spilled to the earth, but it’s hard for us to grasp that is the spirit that God wants us to see and understand, how evil it is, when it begins with jealousy, with envy that turns to and is a form of hatred toward someone else.

Again, this is easy to see concerning Saul and David. But on a much smaller scale, which isn’t small when you understand the importance of it, such a spirit is very difficult so often for people to see in themselves. There is much of the dilemma when it comes to God’s people, when it comes to the Church, when it comes to what we’ve been given spiritually to see, to perceive things.

That’s why Christ came to give us, and did give to us the spiritual intent of a physical law, that that’s all Israel could grasp and understand, the things that were physical, and they didn’t even understand those really well.

But, you shall not murder, and so forth, you shall not take someone’s life, like that, those kinds of things, not to commit adultery, those kinds of things that are seen on a physical plane that people can’t really grasp and understand the beginning of that, the spirit, the mind that God wants us to see.

Because that’s where transformation, that’s where change can begin. It has to begin in the mind. It goes beyond that which is on a physical plane that man is limited to. Mankind is limited to seeing things physically and we so often then begin our journey with that. Even within the Church through Philadelphia and truth being restored to the Church over time, it took a lot of time for the Body, the Church, to grow in spiritual understanding of things because we could get hung up then on physical things.

I’ve mentioned some of those things in times past, things having to do with doctors, with a medical profession, with science, with different things that, again, people struggle with. Because those are physical things. But to understand the spirit and the use of things on a spiritual plane is something that requires God’s holy spirit to be able to perceive those things so that we can begin to change and work on the things that are a matter of the mind.

Because that’s what God desires, the mind must change, the spirit within us must begin a process of change and transformation from that which is totally selfish because of our nature, being ruled by the “lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,” which kind of wraps it all up in a nutshell, in that respect, but it reveals then that which controls human life. We are selfish beings.

Then God calls us, begins to draw us by His spirit, begins to open our minds to a spiritual plane to what goes deeper within the mind so that we can begin to see those things and begin a process of change of growth spiritually and to begin to change to the mind of God, the being of God, so that one day that can be accomplished. Once we go through a period of judgment and growth and change in our own lives by choices we make over a lifetime or a long period of time anyway, then God brings us to that point of growth and maturity where He can say, “Now I know you,” and then give to us in time, whatever that time might be, perhaps a change because of what might happen during the timing of Christ’s coming when some are just going to be changed from mortal to immortal to become a part of God’s Family, others who are going to be resurrected to then have that for the rest of their life or all life, spirit life.

So again, it’s difficult for us sometimes to see those things. So again, we referred to or at the end of the sermon there, talked about James 4:10 where it says, Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he will lift you up. You know, again, things that can be learned from, things that we see, things that happen physically here in Saul’s life. We see things that David did and how God gave more and more to David and was taking more and more away from Saul, in that respect, and the matter of pride that’s so ugly as far as human nature is concerned.

But verses like this where it says we’re to humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord and he will lift us up, God is the one who lifts us up. We don’t have to lift ourselves up. Pride and envy and those kinds of things, where people try to lift themselves up, that’s what Saul’s life was. Saul’s life was eaten up by that, trying to lift himself up. I mean, he was the king but he still felt like he had to do things to be seen in a way that he wanted to be seen that was a matter of pride and being lifted up even more.

It’s important to go back to verse 5 here where some of these things are stated in context. It says, James 4:5—Or do you think that the scripture says in vain, The spirit that lives in us yearns jealously? Or as the King James says, “Lusts to envy.” That’s the human mind. People who see others and judge themselves accordingly by others around them. We tend to be very harsh in judgment of others and how we see others, of what we look up to or in what we admire or what we don’t like in others. We do these things very badly, in that respect, as far as human life is concerned because of how our heart, how our mind, how our spirit is that rules so much of life.

It’s just being very candid here, James is, about “the spirit that lives in us yearns jealously.” Desires things of others, wants to be like others, has others that they look up to that almost, as it were, to be like them, whether it be movie stars or sports figures and so forth. It’s almost like if you’re there on their side and with them and with that team or with that individual or you wear what they wear or you act like they act or you talk about them, that somehow you can relate to them and be like them. It’s sick. It really is.

But it goes on to say here then how God wants us to respond as a part of the Church: But He, speaking of God, gives more grace. Therefore, He says, God resists the proud. God can’t work with pride. He can’t work with haughtiness. We have to choose then to fight against that kind of a mind. That means that we have to be able to see it in ourselves, we have to come to understand it in our own lives, be able to recognize pride when it raises its ugly head because it’s ugly.

…but gives grace to the humble. They are a world apart from each other; vast difference between humility and pride, and they’re going in totally different directions. Therefore, submit to God, yield to God.

Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. I think that’s kind of interesting to look then at the story of Saul because he was tormented by a spirit and very well could have been Satan himself. So, God allowed that, and because of his pride, because of his jealousy, because of his envy those things just welled up in him more and more. It was just his natural thinking. God wasn’t first in his mind at all. Because of these other things, God allowed him to experience those things. They were written there then for us to learn from, what can happen in people’s lives, how people become eaten up inside in their feelings towards others.

It’s a horrible thing to experience in life, just to be eaten up toward others when there is jealousy and envy involved, and then hatred toward people. We have experienced those things. I think especially of ordinations and things that happen with different jobs that people have had in times past within the Church and some of the things that changed then when people have been given some of those, the hatred that’s there, the jealousy that’s there, the envy. Because people raise that up to a level that they shouldn’t raise up to at all. They just don’t grasp sometimes that we’re all being molded and fashioned for different things and we’re in God’s hands. We should leave it in God’s hands. That’s a matter of humility.

Titus 2:15. This is an admonition here that Paul is giving to Titus, and he’s telling him then here in this verse, Speak (preach) these things, he’s just given him different things to give to the Church, and exhort, and rebuke, in other words, correct. So, there are times when encouragement is to be given in the sense of different things that are brought out as far as God’s way of life in people’s lives and things that are going on within the Church. Rebuke or correct. In other words, do what you need to do when it needs to be done.

Correct with all authority. So, don’t be afraid to use that authority, to recognize that you have a responsibility to use it and if something is wrong, something needs to be addressed, then there are times to indeed, as it says here, rebuke, correct. There are other times to encourage and admonish, or whatever it might be, in different ways and help people to learn. So again, he’s doing these things.

He went on to say, Let no one despise you. Now, this is an interesting word because here, whether it was an example of Timothy, that there are things in there that Paul told him, things in here concerning this letter to Titus, things that are being explained here, that he’s teaching, he’s training, he’s trying to help them to see how to do a better job, to be able to better serve the Church, to realize there are going to be those things you’re going to encounter and how to encounter them. He said, Don’t let anyone despise you.

So, he’s talking about the Church. He’s talking about serving within the Church. And so, because he is a servant, a minister of God in this case, there are things that he needed to understand about how others might treat him at times, how they might respond to him at times. Again, this word here “to despise” is a word that means “to examine on all sides, hence, to question.” That’s what it’s about, to examine on all sides. Don’t let anyone examine everything you’re saying, to question the things you’re saying and telling them about how we function within the Church, perhaps different things whether they be small or great. Don’t allow those things to take place because that isn’t good for them, it isn’t good for the congregation.

Teach, judge righteous judgment. There are times that that has to be done, and he’s telling him these things, that be careful because some are going to question, they’re going to raise questions about things for the wrong purpose. Now, that’s what’s behind all this. It’s fine to ask questions to learn things, to better understand a matter, but this has to do more with this thing of picking things apart, of picking something to pieces. Because the bottom line is that sometimes people just don’t agree.

I brought up the crazy thing about make-up. You think of something so physical and yet it was such a big thing during a period of time within the Church, and you look back and you think, how is that possible? Those of you who didn’t live through that or didn’t experience that, and you’ve been called later on, it’s hard to grasp that. Yet those are the kinds of things that rule in people’s lives, physical things that can begin to take people away from the spirit of a matter. If their eyes are focused on God and they have that humble spirit there isn’t going to be a problem.

Let me go on to read this. So again here, he’s admonishing him, encouraging him. There are going to be these times when you’re going to have to stand and stand firm in what you’re doing and how you’re dealing with various things because otherwise there can be a lot of problems created within the Church if people go off on different tangents and do things.

That’s an amazing thing to understand, that the world isn’t trying to live by these kinds of things at all because they don’t see them, they don’t understand them. We live in a world today where when it comes to government, when it comes to authority, there is so much division and so much corruption oftentimes as well, the twisting and distorting of things, and so these kinds of things happen regularly. People are constantly asking different people for their opinions.

But when it comes to God’s way of life and the truth of God and how we’re to live our lives, it’s not a matter of something that is to be questioned. It is absolute. God’s law and how we live life, how people are to live in their relationship toward others, how they’re to treat others, how there are those things that they’re not to engage in in life.

That candidly, has been one of the biggest things when it comes to sex, one of the biggest things that have led people astray oftentimes because there is that which they want that they’ve been told they shouldn’t have. They can’t have. There are certain things that God says as a matter of conduct and how you live your life in true genuine care and love toward others and a setting a right example toward others.

And so, whatever it might be. The thing of judgment and being angry toward others, being jealous or envious towards others, all those things. The world is not trying to conquer those things in their life. They can’t see them on the same plane either as someone who is in God’s Church who has the impregnation of God’s spirit. Because only with God’s spirit can one really begin to be honest with the mind and begin to see the things that need to change in the mind.

Again here, things that we can easily see in Saul we don’t see in our self so often. Yet that’s the whole point of it all, to learn that, to recognize how ugly sin is, whether it be something we see, we might consider to be on a bigger scale in life. Here is a king, he is sinning, he wants to kill David. I mean, how bad is that?

Well, to not love your neighbor, to not love one another within the Body, to not love those who are filled with God’s spirit, those who are called by God, to judge people harshly, those things are actually worse. They’re worse than what Saul did. Because Saul didn’t have, at this point in time, he didn’t have God’s holy spirit. God was giving him that opportunity in the beginning to have that opportunity to experience things from Him, but Saul made the wrong choices and was cut off from that very quickly very, very early on.

So, within the Church though we are impregnated with God’s spirit. We have the opportunity to be baptized, to have our sins forgiven. A unique experience then for God’s people when they’re called into the Church, which has only been around for the past couple of thousand years. Before that God just worked with individuals, not through a body, not through an organized structure of a Church, the Body of Christ. That came later.

And so, this was totally different. But again, there are things we are to learn from all this as well as we look at them.

So, going on here then to Titus 3:1 it says, Put them in mind to be subject… So, this is the context of things being discussed here. Put them in mind to be subject. Now, that word means “to be under.” We are under rule. We are under authority. We are under God’s authority, His government. We have to make choices constantly in our life whether God is going to rule our lives or not.

That’s a matter of understanding then we want that rule in our lives because that’s the only thing whereby the mind can be changed. We want to be subject to that. We want to be under that. We don’t want to be under that which is in the world, because God isn’t there.

Put them in mind to be under… Now, some of this is so awkwardly translated, and the Church has struggled with some of this stuff as well in times past, because it’s too easy to relate to physical things in governments and authority in the world. Well, those things should be understood. There are certain ways we have to work with some of those things and do work with and deal with those things that are to be subject in whatever country we live in. That’s a whole other matter.

But this is about the Church. This is something on a spiritual plane that’s being discussed here. And put them, the Church, to be subject, to be under, rule. That’s what the word means, “to be under rule.” We should want to be under rule. We don’t want to be rebellious. We don’t want to go off and be doing our own thing without guidance, without God in the picture. We should always want to measure things according to what is God’s will, what is God’s desire for me in the decisions and choices I make.

So again, to be subject to (under) rule and (it says “powers”), but it’s just a word for authority, under authority. Well, here he’s talking to the Church. It’s about that which is in the Church, to understand the importance of that.

So much of what happened during Philadelphia, whether it be in individual’s lives or especially in the ministry, is that there are those who moved away from being under that rule and authority in their life that was coming down from God’s apostle, Herbert Armstrong, and through the Church. Then people would make choices of doing something different. They’d make a choice of doing something different concerning something they might be teaching – 14/15th Passover, as one evangelist began to teach and began to teach many in Ambassador College who then went out and secretly had this belief themselves and at times would very, I’d say, fiendishly, schemingly, still try to interject their thinking even though they might not have come right out to teach it.

Some of them didn’t come out with that until after the Apostasy. Then some of them came right out and showed exactly where they were in their ideas and beliefs on a 14/15th Passover. They took themselves out from under the rule within the Church, the government within the Church, the structure of being in unity and oneness within the Body, to understand how important it is to be at one with God, to be in unity with God’s word and way of life. And how do we have that? Through the Church, through the government God has established within the Church.

…and to obey magistrates. Again here, very awkward translation. It’s a compound word that just means “to encourage people, put them in mind to be under rule and authority, to obey authority.” That’s what the word means, “to obey authority.” So, if you’re going to be under it you need to obey authority.

…and to be ready to every good work. What good work? Well, whatever God gives. Whatever is within the Church. Whatever it is in our own personal lives or whatever it might be within the Body, within the Church. God will lead and guide and direct. So much of that is given through sermons that God gives. Then later on in time it came through printed material, especially during the time of Worldwide.

So, he’s simply telling him here to be under rule and authority, obey authority, to be under it and to obey it.

I might interject here about the COVID thing. I gave some guidelines last Sabbath about certain things, how they were to be done. Some asked questions because they just wanted to understand it. Others asked some questions because they were questioning. That’s a wrong spirit if it’s a matter of questioning because you don’t agree with what’s being given.

The reality is if you want to be in unity and harmony and oneness with God, you know, God gave us kind of a heads up here of what we’re heading into. We may be going into a time, and some areas already are, this past week being told that they’re very likely going to go into some greater shutdowns.

As God’s Church we want to be prepared for some of those things. What an awesome thing if God can give us help to perceive, to know certain things ahead of time so that we can be ready for them as they come along because we need to be concerned about the Church, we need to be concerned about the welfare of the Church, the name of the Church, and not to bring shame and dishonor to God’s Church. We should desire to be in unity and harmony.

So, this goes back, just like the Feast thing, of different people, different situations where people are given certain guidelines, and if you’re not sure about guidelines then you’re to ask. Who do you ask? You go to your minister and ask, and if they don’t know they know where to go to find the answer. There’s an order of things that God has given us, and God wants to know are we responding to that, are we doing that? Because it’s so important that we learn these things.

These are some of the major areas that the Church, well, that candidly, led to the Apostasy. Because it wasn’t following government, which is the very first truth, if you will, that’s attributed, that God gave to Herbert Armstrong to give to the Church, to re-establish within the Church because it wasn’t in Sardis. And so, the fourth truth, that’s from counting the first three in Sardis there – the first one given, attributed to Herbert Armstrong to have given, which I think is a great place to have placed, number one.

Because it’s about, everything is about, the Kingdom of God, the government of God. It’s what governs life. It’s a way of life! There’s a spirit involved in it. It’s the holy spirit. It’s God’s spirit. We fight against that. Our nature resists that. We’re told that over and over again in scripture, “The carnal mind is at enmity with God.”

We have this battle. Paul talks about that in Romans especially. You go through 7, 8, and 9 chapters there, those chapters, and Paul goes into those in depth in talking about this battle, this warfare, that we have this fight going on inside of us. But we’ve got to recognize the fight.

If we recognize it, we can enter into the battle. But if we don’t recognize it and we yield to, we let other things rule us like “lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,” we’re going to go the wrong way, if we let pride begin to intervene, where our way, the way we want to do it, the way we see it is okay. I mean, “What’s wrong if we all get together and have a meal on the Sabbath? What’s wrong with that? Why can’t we do it? We’ve been doing that. Why can’t we continue to do that?” Because you’ve been asked not to. Simple as that. Because you’ve been asked not to. So, “Yes. Yes, God.”

Because we have to understand – are we under that or not? Or do we want to do our own thing because we don’t see why we can’t? Well, that’s just like a spoiled child. That’s what that’s like. We want to do our own thing.

“Why can’t we do what Cincinnati is doing?” and don’t even know what Cincinnati is doing. I heard comments. When I heard that comment I thought, “You’ve got to be kidding! They don’t even know what Cincinnati is doing.” Their comments make it clear, by the other context of things that were said, when talking about the Feast.

So again, it’s this battle that goes on in the human mind. If we don’t recognize what’s there, if we don’t recognize where we’re going astray, where we’re sinning, because to resist God, to resist God’s government, is some of the greatest of sinning that takes place in people’s lives. So, how can His way of life rule us, how can we yield ourselves to that rule in our lives if we don’t let the littlest of things, the smallest of things within the structure of God’s government rule our lives in the sense we want to be in what? Unity and harmony.

It’s like the make-up thing. Shouldn’t we all want to have unity and harmony, all doing and saying the same thing? Or do we want different groups and factions fighting, because when fighting gets involved and people begin, “Oh, they’re wearing this,” “Oh, they don’t ever wear it, they’re so self-righteous.”

Those are the kinds of things that went on with thousands of people. They let those things get in the way on both sides because they were on two different sides of judgment and it wasn’t a matter of seeing something and saying, “You know, I’m going to do it because God’s apostle said and we need to have unity and oneness within the Body and the more we have unity and oneness in the Body the better we can work together and not be judging each other.” What a wonderful life to have when there’s that kind of unity and a harmony and peace – peace!

I’ll give some guidelines again here. Different areas are having a crack down as far as interjecting certain rules and regulations and so we have to abide by those things. We have to strive to live according to those things. But for the sake of the Church, and that’s my concern, that’s why some of these decisions are made. So, it’s not a matter of questioning the decisions and the choices. Just like Paul was telling Titus, don’t let individuals do that because that’s wrong to do.

If you’re judging something differently because you want a different response, you want something, you don’t understand. “Why can’t I do that, because I’ve been doing that, and I don’t see any harm in it.” Well, there’s harm if there is not a matter of unity and oneness. So, that should be so easy to do. And if our spirit is right, it is easy to do, it really is.

I strive to live my life like that. I’ve been blessed in that. I truly have. God has blessed me in those matters. Because if you start out that way and you think that way and you realize, you recognize something is a matter of government, why go against it, why fight against it? Even sometimes when things aren’t done totally well by some who administer it you strive to be able to have a spirit of cooperation, of unity, to make something work. Because if you resist and fight against it, it just causes division and jealousies, envying, harsh judgment, hatred, anger toward others, which is murder.

That’s just not God’s way of life. He wants us to learn these things in our physical lives, in the environment, so much of it within the environment of the Church.

So, again I go back to talking about some of these guidelines that have been given. As a whole, definitely trying to stay away from the matter of any kind of potlucks that are of any kind of large scale whatsoever, and making it very clear here, because I know that different areas have let down and haven’t fully followed some of the guidelines, and I know that some have quickly responded to some of those things. I love it when I hear that when people quickly respond to something and bring something into check where they realize ,“We’ve been letting up in this area.”

This, there are some things to learn in this COVID thing. We are so blessed to have God’s favor, God’s protection in our lives. I often think about this when I’m praying about some of these matters, about protection, and just like different scriptures talk about God putting a hedge about us, Him being our High Tower, our Great Wall of Defense, and we have those different examples throughout the Old Testament, Petra, our Rock, our Fortress. So, we have those different things.

I think of a dome of protection and I think about how often we don’t even know it, and yet maybe sometimes some of us have experienced some of those things, how by a second or so if something had been different it could have ended life. Traffic, things of that nature, things that can happen in life and how God has blessed us as His people. There are so many times I know that people have been protected and they don’t even know it. I know that in my own life that has to exist.

Because we are unique. Because God is working a work within us, and as long as we are responding to that and a part of the Body there is that protection of life that God gives to us until He’s completed a job, until He’s completed a work within us, and if somebody hasn’t rejected and been cut off from that.

We have to be careful because you don’t want to tempt God. You have to realize that God gives us guidance and direction in various things in our life. You don’t know at some point if something might change to where something mutates and becomes far worse.

You don’t know what might happen in life if because of a lack of unity and oneness in doing things the way we’re directed to do them that God isn’t going to say, “Okay, go ahead, be without My protection. You’re not going to follow the guidelines, the direction, then you’re without My protection.”

That’s a dangerous state to be in and we should always want to be in God’s hands. Where else would we want to be? To be under that protection, His favor in our life, and not to tempt Him in any fashion or form.

Sometimes we don’t realize what we’re doing by some of the kinds of responses we have that aren’t a matter of unity and harmony. These things might be little things. We look at them as being small things, and they are. Spiritually, they’re huge because they reflect things in our mind, and if we’re not addressing those things in our mind and we’re letting those things rule us and we’re responding without thought, without thinking then we can do incredible damage to our spiritual life.

So again, people need to be wearing masks, as a whole, in services, whether it be a small group or a large group. We need to be careful. So, matter of unity, matter of harmony.

Would it be nice to be able to have, like we’ve had in Cincinnati in times past, those big potluck type things? Yeah, it’d be nice. But it’s not smart right now. It’s not a wise thing to do within the congregation right now. It is primarily then around a group of people who come together, who have been out in the world in different areas of jobs and so forth and they come together, and when you eat, you take off your masks.

If you have seven or eight or nine or ten or eleven or twelve people eating in a small confined area and your masks are off and someone’s carrying something and they don’t even know that they’re carrying it, this stuff is some nasty stuff out there. It really is.

We have to be careful. We have to be wise in how we’re dealing with things. This is just a small area right now that we’re being tried in and tested in. There are much bigger things coming and what we learn during this period of time can be exceedingly important to what happens later and how we’re able to deal with various things later on.

So again here, unity, harmony, it’s a beautiful thing in God’s Church. Truly is. So again, opportunities to see things in ourselves or examine ourselves in ways that we need to. So, you know if there are four or five people that have come together and having a service together and they have a meal together, I don’t have a problem with that, but because of what I said at that moment in time, it should have been, “Okay. That’s what we’re going to do right now.”

It’s a larger group, seven, eight, nine, ten, whatever, somewhere in there, I don’t… I’m not even going to set a number. You just need to be wise in how you handle some of these things. So, in that particular area, on occasion, you don’t have to do it every Sabbath, because you’re taking off your mask and you’re taking chances, and if there are older individuals or people with health issues there you really shouldn’t be doing it, out of love toward them. You really shouldn’t.

Do you have a right to? Well, you can do whatever you want to do. But if you want to follow the guidelines being given, to strive to be in unity and harmony with something of what we’re striving to accomplish and do as far as the Church is concerned and protection of the Church, then we’re going to follow those things the best of our ability. Because it may not apply to you in your area, but it may apply to 80% of others in other areas. But we still have to have unity and harmony within the whole body, so you do something for the sake of others as well. That’s just the way it is. We all cooperate and work together in unity and harmony.

I don’t know if I need to explain that anymore. I don’t want to beat a dead horse. But we just need to check our own attitudes, our own spirit, and strive to live by the guidelines that have been given to us for the sake of unity and harmony and oneness within the Body.

So again here, just to read this, this particular verse here, verse 2. Titus 3:1, where it talks about being under authority, to obey authority. Verse 2—to speak evil of no one, to not get into fights. This is talking to the Church. People shouldn’t get into arguments. They shouldn’t get into situations where they’re debating with each other over a matter, a disagreement about certain things. We should strive to have unity and oneness within the Body, within the Church, and if we recognize government, then we’ll recognize that it comes to us in a certain way, especially within the Church.

As it says here, to speak evil of no one. So, we need to be careful how we talk about one another, to uphold one another within the Body, to protect one another within the Body. …and not to get into fights. Put it simply, don’t get into arguments. In other words, strive to live by peace, get rid of the drama. Be a peacemaker. That’s what we’re told to do. There are certain things you have to do in order to be a peacemaker.

…but yielding, showing all meekness unto everyone. So again, there are so many cases in our lives where we need to have and exercise, if you will, humility and meekness, a willingness to learn. Well, I guess it won’t be until the next part here, Part 4, when we get into some of this, but there are things going to come out that are discussing this very thing on a spiritual plane. We’ll just go on past that.

So, showing all meekness unto everyone. Then there’s a portion of this that’s poorly translated. It says, For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish… Basically, it’s saying here, For there are times that all of us have been without understanding about a matter. It’s just like what David and Saul in this situation they’re going to experience here on a greater plane physically that brings out certain things of understanding why certain things are done the way they are.

So again, this is getting a little ahead of the game here in what’s being said here, but basically, that’s all this verse is saying here in verse 3, that there are times that all of us have been without understanding about a matter and have acted foolishly, done things in haste. The best thing we can do then is that moment in time when we come to see it is to repent of it, is to make things different, to do it differently, to be a peacemaker.

As it goes on to say here, disobedient. So, we’ve had things in our life that we’ve experienced, but we don’t want to continue in those things. We want to change; we want to conquer them. …disobedient, deceived, serving different lusts or pleasures, living wrongfully even in envy, hateful, and hating one another.

There are things that have happened in times past before we were ever called, and sadly, sometimes then some of these things happen later on in people’s lives within the Church. Those things were addressed by Paul and his instruction that he gave to Timothy.

Let’s go back here then and continue on in 1 Samuel 19:6. It says, So, Saul heeded what Jonathan said, and Saul swore, As the Eternal lives, he should not be killed. So, this went back and forth, back and forth, this matter of Saul getting riled up and this jealousy just eating away at him to where he wanted David dead. Then Jonathan called David, and Jonathan told him all those things. So, Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence as in times past.

Then goes on to say: And there was war again and David went out and fought with the Philistines. So, a little bit of a reprieve for a little while, but it didn’t last long. It says here, David went out and fought with the Philistines and struck them with a mighty blow, and they fled before him. Then the distressing spirit from the Eternal came upon Saul. These things that were happening were a result of his thinking. His thinking here was about himself and his pride and what he thought he should have and what he wanted to have and he didn’t want anyone else to have any of it whatsoever that might take away from his importance.

That’s a horrible thing to happen when people think themselves as being so important and they become so envious and so jealous of others if for whatever reason someone else seems to receive a little bit of a lime light at different times in life. Again, we’ve had this experience in the Church in times past, that some have learned from and most have not.

It’s an incredible thing. It’s a thing of the spirit. That’s why these stories are so incredible to go through and look at in this regard, is because they’re so glaring in Saul’s life. But what’s incredible, as I go through these things, I can’t help but think they’re so hard for people with God’s spirit to see in their own lives. Because it’s a spirit. It’s not going to happen in a grandiose, grand, great manner like this as with a king and with what he was doing and look at something like that and think, “Oh, that’s so horrible! How could he have ever been like that?” And yet spiritually we can have the same problems going on in our mind and our heart.

Verse 8—There was war again and David went out and fought the Philistines and struck them mightily with a mighty blow. Then it says, and then the spirit from the Eternal came upon Saul as he sat in his house with his spear in his hand. So again, David had another victory. It just brought everything back to him. David had another victory. He went out and people are talking about him and he’s receiving all this honor and this glory and people are looking up to him, all these praises. “I’m the king!” Incredible.

It says, as David was playing music. This spirit was bothering him. So, you think, here is a great man of war and yet he had this thing of playing this music. He was the only one that was able to do this. God was involved in this, obviously, all through this to teach us, help us to learn things that we can learn from, so, these stories we go through here.

David was the one then that was to play the music again and to help Saul become soothed. But it got to a point where it wasn’t helping him so much, was it? It says, Then Saul tried to pin David to the wall with the spear. It just so was eating up at him that the music wasn’t helping him anymore and he takes this javelin, the spear, and throws it at David trying to kill him, trying to pin him to the wall, as it says here.

…but he slipped away from Saul’s presence, and it says, and he drove the spear into the wall. David was able to slip away. He saw it coming, saw the movement of whatever Saul was doing here, probably a little on guard, not fully trusting of him. But anyway, he saw this and got out of the way and left. As it says here, David fled, and escaped that night.

Then verse 11—Saul also sent messengers to David’s house to watch him and to kill him in the morning. So, this is how far Saul is going at this point. He missed him with the spear, so he sent out, it says “messengers,” but they’re soldiers of the soldiers that were here, and he had sent them out to find him and kill him.

Then Michal, David’s wife, told him, saying, If you will not save your life tonight, tomorrow you will be dead. So again, this word travels through the family, it travels through the palace most likely because of servants that overhear various things. But Michal knew this, and she told David, “If you don’t get out of here by morning, you’re going to be dead.”

So, Michal let David down through a window, and he went, and then fled and escaped. So, there were those who were watching so that he couldn’t go out the normal way. They were there in secret. But she knew what was going on so found a spot where they weren’t watching and let him down so he could escape.

It says, And Michal took a body like figure and laid it and put it in the bed, put a cover of goats’ hair for his head, and covered it his clothes. So, this hide, that part, that portion of it to make it look like, be like it was hair coming out the top of the covers. It says and covered with clothes. So, had the clothes there and whatever, covering and tried to make it look like David was there.

So, when Saul’s messengers (soldiers) went to take David, she said, He is sick. Then Saul sent the messengers back to see David, saying, Bring him to me on his bed, that I may kill him. So, it wasn’t enough then what they said because what Michal said here, “You can’t move him right now because he’s sick in the bed.” So, Saul says, “Bring him in the bed, and the bed. Bring him to me and I’m going to kill him.”

You think how far this had gone in his mind to tear him up inside. It’s a horrible thing. I’ve witnessed these things in people’s lives in the Church on a spiritual plane over and over and over again, where people hold things in of jealousies and envy toward others and it just eats away to where it comes a point where you really can’t hide those things. Not from God and not so often then neither from those who have seen these things, experienced these things as a part of the ministry in the Church. God gives that to us to be able to see, to perceive what’s happening in people’s lives, and hopefully, be able to help sometimes through sermons that are given and things that are spoken, other times just to intervene to take care of matters if it gets to that point.

I’ve seen it so often where these things happen in people’s lives; they become so jealous and envious of others and it just eats away at people’s lives spiritually to where as soon as these things start and they don’t address them, and they begin to have disdain for others – because that’s what jealousy and envy does, it leads to disdain and harsh judgment and to a point of disliking someone to hating them. Just to hate to be around someone, not even want to talk to them. These things have happened over and over in God’s Church.

Sometimes people do – I don’t like to use, “a fairly good job,” because that’s very deceitful, but they try to cover. Some have done that quite well in some ways. Sometimes they just can’t fully cover it, but they do it enough that most in the Church don’t recognize those things are actually going on. I’m talking, as a whole, in things of times past, yet every once in a while, they still can creep up in people’s lives and you have to be on guard against them. So again, the reason for this series.

Verse 16—So, when the messengers had arrived, they found the image in the bed with the cover of goat’s hair on his head. So, Saul asked Michal, Why have you deceived me like this and sent my enemy away so that he’s escaped? So, he got on to his own daughter, “Why have you done this, that you helped him to escape?”

She said, she answered her father and said, He said to me, Let me go; why should I kill you? So, in other words, “If I don’t let him go, he’s going to kill me. I had no other choice. I had to do what he told me to do.” That’s basically what she’s saying.

So, David fled and escaped, and went to Samuel to Ramah, and told him all that Saul had done to him. Then he and Samuel went and remained at Naioth. Now, this is a place where prophets lived, so this is where they were abiding. Samuel and David went there at this point in time to live.

Now, the things that follow in scripture continue to show several accounts of how Saul continued to be jealous toward David and tried to have him killed at different times. We’re going to jump ahead a little bit here.

Then we come to an account of how Saul went so far as to strike out against a priest of God as a result of his rage and jealousy against David. So, now it was more directly toward God in that respect because it was toward the priests of God. This is a story here that develops then as we go along. These things had gone back and forth and Saul’s hatred toward David.

So again, this is something that can easily be seen, that we can see as being so wrong, of what Saul did. Now, when we go through the story think about that as we go through it. Think about how we can so clearly see something like this, and then try to understand the lesson in it, the spirit of it that God wants us to see. Because these things are big things that are able to be seen, of how ugly the mind can be, of how ugly selfishness, jealousy, envy, hatred can be, but we need to be able to see the spirit of it.

That’s why these stories are so important. So again, this is something that we can easily see that was so wrong for Saul to have done. But sometimes within the Church, again, it’s difficult for individuals to see the same spirit in themselves. And yet it’s a spirit. That’s what’s so important, is to see that spirit. Because that’s how far, if you were in that position, that that goes and can carry people away into that kind of environment. If you were in that kind of environment, that kind of situation, that’s what you would be doing.

But the spirit of it, especially when you have access to God’s spirit, hopefully, that can begin to ring truer and clearer to us, of how ugly that is. Because we’re talking about the spirit of a matter, the essence of what’s in the mind, of whether God’s spirit is there or to the degree God’s spirit is there and how much we’re yielding to that spirit in our life, to God’s spirit in our life.

Sometimes these things are difficult for people to be able to see and it has been that way within the Church when they disagree with actions or words of the ministry, and to strike out in words against them. So, I think of something so small as things that happened during preparation for the Feast. I think of this thing about COVID. It puts people to the test oftentimes.

Now, these are small things, and they’re not. They’re not, spiritually. We can see where Saul was wrong but sometimes it’s difficult for us to see how our spirit, when we’re supposed to have God’s spirit, yielding to God’s spirit in our lives, is as bad – candidly, worse. Truly is.

So, we need to be able to see those things because God has given us ability and opportunity to see those things, to change, to desire to be transformed, to be in unity and harmony with Him. That should be one of the overriding things in our minds. Hence, pursuing a heart like David’s.

Because David’s mind, his heart, was constantly in that mode, in that mind of looking to God’s government, of how God’s government was working around him in his life. Even so much so that even toward the king he yielded to things and didn’t take things into his own hands because he understood on a very great way, in a physical way here, things about authority and government that we need to understand very much so on a spiritual plane because we’re judged according to this.

Now, it says here in 1 Samuel 22:9—Then answered Doeg the Edomite, who was set over the servants of Saul, and said, I saw the son of Jesse going to Nob, to Ahimelech the son of Ahitub. Now, we’re going on down here to a part of a story here where there are a few things that happened leading up to this. But we don’t need to go through all those at this point here. There are things you can read on your own.

But again here, coming up to a point here where this is going back and forth and Saul’s desire to find out where David is so he can pursue him, go after him and kill him. Here is an account then when this comes up. And so, this is what this Edomite is saying.

As it says here, “Who was set over the servants of Saul.” Now, you think, what a horrible thing that an Edomite here had to be set over the servants of Saul because there were those, because Saul’s jealousies were so great, things were eating away at him and he knew how his servants looked up to David. Here he is taking things to a level that just isn’t smart, wasn’t smart for him.

This Doeg, the Edomite was saying, I saw the son of Jesse going to Nob, to Ahimelech the son of Ahitub. And he enquired of the Eternal for him. So, he’s saying here that here this priest was enquiring to the Eternal for David and he was ministering to David, in other words.

…gave him provisions and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine. Well, David had asked if there was anything there, any weapons of any kind, and so he said that that sword was there so he gave it to him. As far as he was concerned it was David’s. David took it so David did go with it. But this Doeg isn’t doing things for the right motives at all and he’s twisting things and distorting things to make himself look better.

So again, this is very common that happens on a physical plane, that people, whether it be in government or any kind of a business or corporation or whatever it might be, these things take place. Because people want to have more power, they want to be raised up, they want to be looked to. What happens so often is (which is, to me, so sick), when you know what someone else wants, that’s the answer you give them. When you know what someone else wants to hear, they’re looking for something, then you give them that and a little bit more which isn’t true because, you know, that’s what they want. So, those things happen all the time, especially in politics.

And he enquired of the Eternal for him, gave him provisions and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine. So, the king sent to call Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahitub, and all his father’s house, the priests who were in Nob. And they all came to the king. Then Saul said, Hear now, son of Ahitub. And he answered, Yes, my lord. And Saul said to him, Why have you conspired against me? So, again here, incredible what’s taking place here and how Saul is addressing him, a priest, and he says, “Why have you conspired against me?” It’s this mindset here searching for some fault.

…you and the son of Jesse, in that you have given him bread and a sword. So, he’s trying to find something here to justify his anger, to justify his jealousy, to justify the mind he had of himself, the pride that was there. …in that you have given him bread and a sword, and have enquired of God for him? So, that’s what he wanted to hear, what this individual had told him, what Doeg told him.

He built upon that even more then: that he should rise against me, to lie in wait, as it is this day? So, here it’s gone so far now that Saul’s becoming paranoid. Now, he’s the one out to kill David and now he’s beginning to think that David’s out to get him. That’s how far the mind can go in these things. It’s like becoming so jealous, so eaten up.

I can’t help but think of different ministers I’ve known in times past who have had battles with others in the ministry. They became almost paranoid, of looking for things of why…motives, imputing motives of why someone is doing something toward them because what they were seeing is the very spirit that was in them that was working in them toward others. So, it’s a perverse thing that can take place in the mind, the human mind, that people can begin to impute motives for others because this is how they’re thinking.

If you’re thinking this way about others then you begin to think others are thinking this way toward you. They must be just like that. Then they carry that even farther.

This is exactly what Saul was doing. It’s a perverted, perverse mind, it really is, to go this far with hatred, with envy, with jealousy. It was just eating Saul away, it truly was.

So, he says, Why have you helped him out so that he can go lie in wait, and as it is to this day? And so, he’s out to get me. There were others as it comes out in the stories later on here, that this is evidently even advice or things that were being told to Saul. Because this is how Saul was thinking. Like Doeg, he gave him this information and built upon that. “Yeah, he’s out to get you. He’s out to take your life.” So, making Saul feel better by being justified for going after David.

Because he was eaten up! He knew he was wrong but after a while you can deceive yourself so much that you can justify your thinking.

That then really becomes perverse, when people go that far, that they begin to justify their thinking for being in disagreement with God, with the Church, with the ministry. On and on it goes.

Ahimelech answered the king, and said, Who among all your servants is as faithful as David? “David isn’t like that.” In essence, “He’s not out to get you.” That’s what Ahimelech is saying. He’s speaking truth. He’s speaking reason with Saul. Saul didn’t want to hear it because he has Doeg and others around him telling him what he wants to hear and fueling that.

So, he says, Who among all your servants is as faithful as David, who is the king’s son in law? After all, “He’s your son in law!” …who goes at your bidding. “Who goes out and goes against the Philistines and has this history of what he’s doing, to go into the fiercest of battles for you? He’s upholding you,” in essence, and if Saul had dealt with this properly that’s the way he should have seen it. That’s the way he should have received it. “What an awesome thing David is doing because he’s making your reign more meaningful, more powerful, more effective over Israel.” But instead, he became jealous of it.

…who goes at your bidding, and is honorable in your house? Did I then begin to enquire of God for him? Far be it from me. Let not the king impute anything to his servant. Basically here, “That’s not what I was doing. That’s not what David was doing. He’s not trying to find something where he can come after you or lie in wait for you. He’s not plotting and planning against you and seeking God’s help in that. That’s not what was happening.” …or to any of the house of my father. For your servant knew nothing of all this, little or much.

In other words, “What you’re saying here, I’ve never heard. This isn’t what was happening.” So, it isn’t what Saul wanted to hear at all.

But the king said, You shall surely die. He didn’t believe anything he had to say. He didn’t like what he had to say. That’s not what he wanted because his pride was so great already. He wanted to hear things like what Doeg was telling him and he didn’t want to hear what Ahimelech was saying. He’d already judged Ahimelech. He was out to kill him because, you know, he has this paranoid mind now.

You shall surely die, Ahimelech, you, and all your father’s house. Isn’t that incredible? Here a priest of God, the Eternal, and all those who were priests. Incredible, going to kill them? So, Saul wasn’t listening to any reason whatsoever.

Then the king said to the guards who stood about him, Turn, and kill the priests of the Eternal, because their hand also is with David. He judged him according to that because that’s what he wanted to believe. It’s amazing at times then what people choose to believe, what they want to believe.

I think about that, what’s happened in the Church. You can hate people so much. You can hate some ministers so much that you will do whatever to believe anything you want to believe. I think of Herbert Armstrong and how people were ready to believe the most hideous things that anyone would say about him because they so hated him. Within the Church! Within the ministry! You think, how could that have been toward God’s apostle? But yet it existed.

He’s telling them, Turn and kill the priests of the Eternal, because their hand also is with David and because they knew when he fled, and did not tell it to me. It’s like, “This conspiracy is going on and they’re a part of it and they’re out to get me.”

But the servants of the king would not lift their hand to strike the priests of the Eternal. What an incredible thing here. These individuals, these servants, basically, again here, generally a part of the military or a part of the army, those that travelled with Saul on these occasions, but this was going too far. They weren’t going to take their hand. They knew better. They understood you don’t do this.

And the king said to Doeg, You turn and kill the priests. So, old faithful Doeg, you know, telling him what he wants to hear and feeding, fueling his pride, his haughtiness, his distorted thinking. So, yeah, he’s going to do it, And so, Doeg the Edomite turned and struck the priests, and killed on that day eighty-five men who wore a linen ephod. Incredible how evil.

Now, again, I marvel at how we can see something like this and think, “That is so sick! That was so evil, what Saul did, when he should have seen through that, when he should have known better than to kill God’s priests. To go that far with his rage, with his insanity toward David, his extreme jealousy?” It is insane and yet that can happen.

It can happen on a spiritual plane. A lot of people. I don’t mean a few. Hundreds and hundreds and thousands of people in God’s Church have had these things on a spiritual plane happen to them because of their disagreement and their actions against the government of God.

Because when it comes to seeing that on a spiritual plane and to understanding that, well, it becomes exceedingly important then what might seem small. Because we can look at stories like Saul here – that’s big! That’s something that happened on a massive scale that’s so ugly, that’s so evil.

Yet what can happen with individuals who have God’s spirit is evil, far more evil on a spiritual plane because they have the ability to see through those things if they make the right choices. If they really want to honor and obey God and love the way of God, the truth of God, and uphold the things that God has given in His Church. But many, many people have gone by the wayside because they haven’t followed these things.

…he killed eighty-five men who wore a linen ephod. Also, Nob, the city of the priests, he struck with the edge of the sword. So, he didn’t stop there. He went to that city because that’s where David had been and because he felt they were conspiring against him as well, other priests were involved in this, it couldn’t have just been this one, so went out to destroy and kill even more.

It says here, both men and women, children and nursing infants, oxen and donkey and sheep, with the edge of the sword. You think of that kind of rage, to go that far with jealousy, it’s hard to imagine.

Again, I’m not going to go through the stories, but there are so many stories that just pop into my mind of situations like this that are far worse on a spiritual plane with people in God’s Church, with vast numbers of ministers in God’s Church in times past. The things that led up to the Apostasy.

Now, one of the sons of Ahimelech the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped, and fled after David. And Abiathar told David that Saul had killed the Eternal’s priests. So, David said to Abiathar, I knew that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul. In other words, see him there and go and carry this story then to Saul and tell Saul what he wanted to hear, twist and distort what was true.

Now, it says here in some of the translations, “I have caused the death…” That’s not what it’s saying. He’s saying here something on a spiritual plane that sometimes, again, is difficult for people to grasp, that I have told many ministers in times past and still do to this day.

He said, I am the cause of all the people of your father’s house. “I am the cause of this. It’s because of me. It’s because of Saul’s hatred so much toward me that this has happened.” It’s not that he did it, but Saul did it because Saul’s hatred was so great.

The reason I mention this concerning the ministry is because there are things that sometimes are given to individuals just because of the job, the function they have, to perhaps give certain guidelines and instruction or something, and there are times that people don’t react well to that. Or because of people pre-judging different ones that are there, there are things that can happen in people’s lives to where they don’t grasp what’s happening to them spiritually when they strike out against or they bypass the authority that God has given within the Church, the government within the Church, because of jealousies or envying or because of harsh judgment. Because, well, I don’t want to go through all those. I’ve talked about those things as well in times past here.

So, again here, sometimes it’s because of something that I have stated. Perhaps about the Feast, perhaps about COVID, perhaps whatever. It’s then within the ministry that they seek to help people to understand those things when questions do come their direction, or sometimes be given a job to go out and address something when something has been done improperly or in a wrong way.

Sometimes they meet resistance and sometimes individuals don’t treat them well by things that are said to them. That’s a shame because that’s spiritually the same thing here. It’s evil. It really is evil to treat God’s servants in that manner, to treat them with disdain. Because that’s what happens. There are people out here today who still have disdain toward some in the ministry and they don’t, they haven’t seen that in themselves. They have disdain for certain ones in the ministry, perhaps someone in their area, and they don’t even recognize it in their heart. It distorts your thinking when you get into that mindset. It can destroy you, if you don’t repent of it.

God’s giving those opportunities to people right now. That’s why this series is being given. Because we all have different things we hear in sermons each Sabbath that we need to address in our lives. But this is something that people need to address in their lives if it exists out there. You need to ask yourself the question, how you think toward different ones in the ministry, how you think toward the minister in your area, as an example. If your thinking isn’t totally right it’s wise to be honest about that, to be truthful about that, and in some cases, or maybe many cases out here, to repent of that.

Sometimes I’ve had to let individuals know it’s not them, it’s a different battle that they’re having. It’s really even not about me. It’s about God. That’s why I love that example about when Israel first desired a king and Samuel had this difficulty here and God was letting him know, “They haven’t rejected you. They’ve rejected Me, that I should not reign over them.”

Because that’s what government goes to, it goes to God Almighty, and if we understand that within the Church then, then we learn from that and we recognize how we’re to respond to that, how were to think toward that, and how we’re to think even more importantly towards that because of the job, because of a responsibility that someone has, and to understand this is something that God has given within the Church. He upholds that mightily.

If we don’t yield to that process, if we don’t see those things in our lives and we only see what is physical and address it on a physical plane and we seek to justify our thinking then towards them of why we whatever toward them, don’t think properly as we should or we don’t go to them for guidance and direction because, who are they?

I’m trying to think here if I want to go into this next chapter or not. I think that’s enough for today. Cut it a little short here today because there are other things coming out in some of this that I think it takes too long to build upon.

But again here, it’s so important to zero in on things that are given that we can see on a physical plane here in a contrast between the mind of David who was of a humble spirit and Saul. You’re going to see things in the story of David here that are going to come out more and more here about the humility he had, absolute humility even when he was treated wrong. He had absolute humility in his relationship because God was always in the picture and how should he do something that was a matter, the way that God would want and has commanded.

But he could grasp these things because he had help of God’s spirit. He could see a lot of these things on a spiritual plane and so that’s why they’re written here, is because there are things of the spirit we’re to see in this and to recognize that these big things that we can see so often pop up in smaller, on a smaller scale in our lives that are far more serious than what happened there with Saul.

So, something to mediate upon, to think about, to pray about this week and to ask God to reveal anything in one’s heart if it isn’t right. Because this series has been about, is about seeking, pursuing, if you will, a heart like David’s and fleeing from anything that resembles a heart like Saul.