I am Wade.  I'm on staff here. I normally lead worship. The end. 1 Peter chapter 2, please. Alright, turn there with me. Um, As you do, I'll give you a human analog or a non-inspired analog to what we're about to read, which is a warning about the passions of our flesh.

I was raised by two former morphine addicts, heroin addicts. They were saved, my dad in 1983, my mom in like 86. And one of the most impactful events of my life, or gifts, I would say, of my life is feeling the glass in my dad's forehead right here from when he was high and crashed into the back of a cop car and went through the windshield and landed in this lady police officer's lap or her arms.

And when he would let me feel that a few times, made real for me. The horror of sinful drug abuse to the degree that I never tried drugs of any kind because of that. Peter here, in an inspired way, is gonna give you a warning about something that is much closer to home, but equally or more deadly. I'm gonna read it, and then I'm gonna pray, and I'm gonna ask God specifically to chasten you about your sinful desires.

About the desires you have as a Christian. Which are wicked 'cause I was chasing this week by it. And I want you too. Alright, 1 Peter2:11-12. Beloved Peter says, beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.

Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable so that when they speak against you as evil doers. They may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. Allow me to pray for just a moment. Father, these are not the musings or the mere musings of the Apostle Peter. They are not merely human words.

What I just read is the inspired, inerrant, preserved word. that you gave to the Apostle Peter for the upbuilding and encouragement and admonishment and rebuke and chastening of your church, your people, including those people who are here in this room. I pray now for every saint, for everyone who is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, everyone who has been sealed by that Holy Spirit and given a new faith, a new soul.

I ask that you would expose to them, to all of us, And each of us, our sinful desires, which will wage war on us five minutes after we leave here. And I ask if there are any unbelievers present that you would grant. Each of them, repentance and faith, in Jesus name, Amen. So, 1 Peter here, this is the Apostle Peter, he's writing to these Christians.

He locates the danger much closer than our world, our current day, our current spirit of the age would locate it. What I mean by that is, , I have always had this sort of suspicion that in myself and in my, , peer Christians, we focus on our actions, right? We, we're very careful to make sure that our behaviors are not sinful.

And we sort of deep down think that we are kind of sweet people who just once in a while make bad choices or mistakes. And Peter says, your lusts, your desires, your passions, the word he uses is epithumia. It's a, it's the word for desire. It's just the straight up regular word for desire. That thing is sinful and is waging war against you.

The word he uses is the word where we get strategize in English. Your sinful desires, the wicked desires you have inside your own heart, are strategizing, are devising a plan to undo you. So, it's not merely that I came out of the womb a pretty good guy. Who once in a while made a few bad choices. I had an ugly, nasty, deceitful, idolatrous, wicked, God hating heart.

He reached into my chest, pulled it out, replaced it with a heart of flesh. And now I still have that old man who wants to draw me back. And I desire wicked things. Every day. And so do you. When I hear my kids chewing with their mouths open, and I desire to bang my hand on the table and say, Stop! That's not, that's not an okay, I don't, there's no, there's no heavenly desire there and I'm just pursuing it the wrong way.

That's a wicked desire. And you have them too. Before I go on, I do this a lot, but I do it because I know my own heart and I think I know yours. I remind you, again, you cannot think of anybody else right now. You must think about you. Peter is talking to you, and so am I. We used to have an old English word that captured what he's talking about.

Sinful desires. Not, not merely desires for things that are sinful, but sinful desires. Like the kind of thing where if I were strapped to a bed in a room without windows, it would still be sin just because it's happening inside my heart. And that English word was concupiscence. Concupiscence. And it captured the idea that...

Inside of me, there are lusts, there are things that I want, and the wanting of it, the longing of it, the aching for it is sinful. Calvin, John Calvin, my personal favorite commentator, calls the balls and strikes fairly in the text. And I think even if you're not a Calvinist, you'd be blessed by his commentaries.

But John Calvin says this in about verse 11. That verse that we just, the first verse that we just read where he tells us to abstain from the passions. John Calvin says this, By the lusts. or desires of the flesh. Peter means not only those gross concupiscence, those massive over the top sinful desires, which we have in common with animals, but also all those sinful passions and affections of the soul.

Sinful emotions, sinful wants, to which we are by nature guided and led. To which John Calvin, by nature, is guided and led. To which Wade Thomas, and Eric Tuff and Sam, and Steve Di Iorio, are guided and led. For it is certain that every thought of the flesh that is of unrenewed nature is enmity against God.

There are ugly, rebellious, wicked desires that characterize our day, and they are at war with your soul. And you are not alone. And I am saying this in love, you know, if, if there's a danger out there in the world, you know, to protect your kids against it by warning them about, and I'm looking out at people who have dangerous things behind their breastbones.

I don't love you if I'm not warning you about the fact that you're mortal enemy. Stares back at you when you shave or brush your teeth. Peter's people here, he says, were sojourners in exiles. And he means, among other things, he means they're sojourners in exiles as pertains to what the Gentiles indulge in.

And the same is true for us, in that we are sojourners in exiles as pertains to the passions and the works of the flesh that the unbelievers of our world indulge in. And I'm gonna get to how, how we indulge in these too. But for a moment, I want to focus, he says sojourners in exiles because the Gentiles indulge in these passions.

I wanna remind you what you already know, which is that those passions of the flesh are the currency of 2023 America. A few years ago, I managed a La Roses and one of the delivery drivers I had never heard of, it gave me Game of Thrones, the box set of season one, and I thought, well, this is probably like Lord of the Rings.

No, it's not. And I felt physically ill as I watched this garbage, this hideous evil, fleshly garbage as somebody's granddaughter, they paid to act that way on screen. The world out there, if you haven't picked up on this yet, and you probably have, is drowning in Passions of the Flesh. Every new show on HBO is produced around, is built around, Passions of the Flesh.

All the number one songs that I hear on the radio when I'm walking through the department store or the supermarket are singing about the Passions of the Flesh. Every Super Bowl commercial, or at least the vast majority, they are highly produced, mega expensive Passions of the Flesh ads. The Gentiles, the unbelievers, are governed by their unredeemed sin-stained passions and we are at war with those passions.

The thing that their shows are about is the thing we're at war with. We have to grasp that if we're going to approach living in the world correctly. How are we living in the world? As sojourners and exiles. I'll give you an illustration. In 1940, spring of 1940, France fell to Nazi Germany. And they set up a government, the Vichy government.

The Vichy government didn't meet in Paris like the old French government and the current French government. The Vichy government met in the small town of Vichy. And it collaborated essentially with the Nazis. Well, live and let live. And if I, if I were a Frenchman from 1946 and God could let me go back in time to 1942, do you know what I would want to scream to my brothers?

Don't collaborate with the bad guys. The good guys win. Hang on. I'll abstain just a little bit longer. The allies win. And that's how it feels right now. It feels like 1941, or 1942, or 1943. And it feels like Vichy France, because you and I go out into that world, we work our jobs, we send our kids to school, or we educate our kids at home, and then we let them go play with the neighbor kids, and we feel so attacked.

And, like, there's a, there's a sense in which every single day I feel unqualified for living in America. Every single day. And I'm trying to remind myself, in light of the scriptures, The good guys win. God will be victorious. Hold out a little while longer. Let me read to you first Peter four, just a few chapters later here where Paul describes the gentiles.

Paul describes the unbelievers of hi, or I'm sorry, Peter describes the unbelievers of his day. And this is true of the unbelievers of our day. It's in first Peter four, verse three. Peter says, for the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, present tense living, and they're living this way today.

Living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. That, that's the mission statement of HBO. What I just read there. Verse 5. But they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. We are living as sojourners and exiles in a world that is drowning in that.

The implication of Peter's command to us to abstain from those things is that you could, you could, I could indulge them. And he doesn't say abstain because it's impossible for you to do this stuff. You could. And I could. And that's why he says to abstain. Abstain from them instead of entertaining them or reveling in them.

He does not say that only immature Christians need to be worried about the passions of the flesh. If Peter were to break open this letter right here in front of CTK right now, he would not say, he would not qualify it with, Fred over here doesn't need to worry about the passions of the flesh, but the rest of you, you, beloved, I urge you, beloved, to abstain from the passions of the flesh.

There is a roaring lion who would love to find you thinking that you are above or immune to this. 1 Peter 5, verse 8, same letter, similar warning. Peter says, Be sober minded. You, hearing me right now in this room, be sober minded, be watchful. Your adversary, your enemy, the devil, is a roaring lion. He prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

His mouth is watering at the prospect of destroying your marriage or your witness. Let me read to you something. This was probably the saddest thing I've read in months. I don't know if this man is a Christian or not, but I'm going to read it anyways because... You're, you have this same danger.

What happened to this man could happen to you. Orwife. It's not simply men. But I read this in a message board. This is a 45-year-old man. He wrote, I cheated on my wife. It changed her fundamentally. She has always been this bubbly and cheerful woman with her beautiful smile never leaving her face. She makes everything better and has the ability to make people around her happy around her wherever she goes.

Now she is distant, silent, and I haven't seen her smile since it happened a year ago. When we got back together after a small break, she told me that she was fully aware that our declining romance and her role in that played into the situation. She said she didn't know if or when she could ever sleep with me again.

I hate myself for what she has become, like a broken bird. When I talk to her about divorce, her tears just start pouring, and she asks if I didn't love her anymore. I do, more than anything. I want to set her free, but her tears, I can't. The only thing she hasn't changed is her kiss in the morning. She starts very early and before leaving she kisses me goodbye and whispers, I love you.

I pretend that I'm sleeping. When I hear the door lock, I break down crying. I cry for a good hour before it's time for me to go to work too. Do not kid yourself that that can't be you. It can. Beloved, I urge you, abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. The average Christian vastly underestimates the power of his indwelling sin and the long-term damage of the chronic sin that he just lets linger, like lower back pain.

These passions, these lusts of the flesh, they marshal themselves against your eternal soul. They want you distracted by, or enamored with, or entangled in the fleeting immortal desires of your flesh. The passions of the flesh, when they wage war, that verbiage, let it conjure up in your image. They've got a room, a war room, with a map of your soul up on the wall.

And little pushpins that represent their plan of attack a couple weeks ago, it might have just been a week ago, one of my daughters said, said to me something along the lines of: I can't wait till I'm grown up because then you won't be irritated anymore.

That's okay, you can laugh at my expense, I'm giving you permission, go ahead. And we talked about how that wasn't true, she was exaggerating, and yet, she was getting on, getting at something that didn't come out of nowhere. Now I've got time to deal with that. Or I could ignore it, and let it fester, and let it destroy my relationship with my children.

I'm not trying to be melodramatic, but this warning is in Scripture for a reason. Scripture wants you, and the God who authored Scripture, wants you to deal with your sinful desires now. God wants to spare you the carnage of not dealing with them, not abstaining from them. There is a believable version of you that destroys your life by not abstaining from the passions of the flesh.

Dad, you indulge a little bit of porn, and then you confess it to a friend, and you don't for a few months. And then you do it again, and this time you don't confess it to your friend because it was really humiliating to have to confess it last time. And then before you know it, you sabotage decades of future marriage.

You incinerate a future where you would have sat in these chairs and watched your grandson be baptized, because a little bit of porn led to an act of adultery, which led to divorce. Or sister in Christ, mom, you drive your children away by indulging the passion of vanity. And being obsessed with what the world thinks of you as a mother more than you are worried about your children themselves.

Or sister in Christ, you drive away friends because you indulge your bitterness. And a spirit of gossip, or a brother in Christ. You erode all the affection and respect your children have for you because you let yourself have these outbursts of rage. And eventually your kids leave the house wondering if their Heavenly Father is as quick to criticize or yell as you were.

Abstain from these passions.

Don't ever underestimate your sinful passions because the war that they wage is not against your weekend, it's not against your retirement, it's not against your good night's sleep, it's against your soul. Your soul. And your soul is precious. It's worth more than the whole world. Do not make peace with your sinful desires.

Don't have a peace conference with them. They're like Hezbollah, or Hamas, or Hitler. They don't honor treaties. Don't give in to them at all. They lie to you all the time. Don't, tell me that this gossip or anger hasn't talked to you this way. Look, if you just do it this one time, just let it out a little bit.

I love the phrase “venting”. That is, that is such propaganda from hell. You know what venting is? It's spewing. That's what venting is. It's gossip, or in the case of anger, I'm just gonna vent a little bit. I'll just punch this wall. I had to spackle a wall one time in an apartment because I punched it in anger.

That's wicked. It's sinful. I didn't need to just blow off some steam. I needed to repent. Do not make peace with your sinful desires. Too many of us live as though our sins are not trying to kill us, and they are. If you are Sherlock Holmes, your anger is Dr. Moriarty. If you're Luke Skywalker, your lust is Palpatine.

If you're Indiana Jones, your desire for drama and gossip are the Nazis. If you're the Bengals, your bitterness is Joe Burroughs calf. Your sinful desires are your enemy. Deal with them. Do not indulge them. Do not treat them as harmless. And since these passions wage war against your eternal soul, seek brothers in arms.

We have a nine o'clock and an eleven o'clock and both of them are filled with Christians. That was Christians you just heard singing, you are worthy of your name. They were singing about their Savior. Their Savior is your Savior. And they're gonna, in a few minutes, eat the bread and drink the cup with you.

They will war with you. They will fight with you. Do you know our church has an accountable to you that we can all be on? I'm on it, Michael's on it, Zach's on it. If you're tempted by lust or pornography, get on it. If you can't afford it, talk to me. We'll pay for it for you. If you're tempted towards gossip or bitterness, tell two Christian sisters or two Christian brothers.

And ask them to help guard your mouth with you. If you're tempted towards fear of man, and this is some of you. If you're tempted towards fear of man or cowardice. Find one or two stout hearted Christian men or women and ask them to help you fight against your fear of man. Ask these Christian brothers and sisters to help you and ask God to help you.

The God who crucified your flesh with His Son is not going to leave you to fight this war on your own. Let me show you something in Galatians 5:24-25. Right after talking about the works of the flesh and the fruit, singular, of the Spirit. Galatians 5, 24 through 25, Paul says this, and notice, notice the word here towards the end of the verse, or the phrase towards the end of the verse, 24.

And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the what? The flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. The thing waging war against you, still, has been crucified with Christ. Now, do you think God is going to crucify that flesh with its passions and then say, And now, you're on your own.

The Holy Spirit is your air cover in this war. Call in for Him. Alright, that's the war. The spectators. This war has spectators. In verse 12, he tells us about them. He said, just to remind you, keep your conduct among the Gentiles, or in our case, the unbelievers, honorable so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

One reason for keeping our conduct honorable, I am talking to Christians, if you are not a Christian, repentance and faith at the end of this. But I am talking to my brothers and sisters in Christ which is the purpose of this pulpit and the gathered worship on Sundays. We are to keep our conduct honorable among them so that on the day of visitation They may see our good deeds and glorify our Father who is in heaven We want to see unbelievers transformed and one of the ways we want to see them transformed is to realize how wrong they are about us and about our father, they will call us evildoers.

Did you see that? But when they do, we want them to see our good deeds and then glorify our father. We want them to have to stack up. They're calling us hateful or bigoted or proud against reality and realize that it's a falsehood, right? So, when, when they call us shameful, we want them to see that we have happier marriages, more peaceful households, that we're better employees.

More trustworthy citizens. And this not of ourselves, because none of us get to boast, but that this is what the Holy Spirit is making happen through us. We want the unbelievers to be perplexed about our good deeds, and then see that our Father has wrought them. And notice, by the way, notice, he says, when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God.

Not if.

But if you hear this and you're like, well, I don't think anybody's ever called me an evildoer, or whatever the 2023 slang version is of evildoer, I'm 38 years old, so I don't know. But I'm sure there is some word out there that the kids use. If you have never had a pejorative thrown at you or said about you as a Christian, it's worth asking, are you following Christ obediently?

Because he doesn't say, they might speak against you as evildoers. But this is one of many places in scripture where he makes it plain. A part of walking with Christ is being hated because you walk with Christ. If they hate you, remember they hated me. 1 John 3:1 teaches us the world doesn't know us because it doesn't know our Father.

Not merely because we're not sweet enough to it. And there's a reason why, or at least, let me give you one reason why they get angry at us. It's in chapter four again. I'm gonna go back there and I'm gonna read the first five verses. And I want you to think of, if you have an office, if you work in an office, think of the people you work with.

If you're in school, think of the unbelievers who you try to talk to in your class. If you're a mom raising children, think about the neighbors, or the neighbor kids, or their parents. Or your unbelieving relatives and hear this, Peter says, since therefore, Christ suffered in the flesh arm yourselves with the same way of thinking.

For whoever has suffered in the flesh, has ceased from sin so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh, no longer for human passions. That's what they do. Every morning talk show, right, that every unbeliever is living for, in some sense, human passions, but for the will of God. You, however, live for the will of God.

For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, idolatry. With respect to this, they are surprised, they, the Gentiles, unbelievers of our day, are surprised when you don't join with them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you.

But they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. Man, Peter, that sounds really belligerent and confrontational. And Peter might say, man, Wade 2023 American Christianity sounds really milquetoast and you guys should grow up. This is what it means, or at least part of what it means to be a Christian, is to live for something different.

And then when they see, I don't live for what you live for, they are surprised. And then that surprise metamorphosizes into a stinging conscience, and they malign you. And when it happens, it's okay. It's okay. They did it to your Savior. He loves you. Walk faithfully anyway. Bring it way down low and tell you how this looks because this happened to me in my office in my last job I work here now, but I didn't used to work at a place where everybody was Christian So let's say you're standing there with Jeff in leasing and all of a sudden.

Mr. Crude nasty Belligerent sales rep named Nick. Those are literally the guy's names that had this happen to me So if you're watching this Nick repent so Nick comes up and he said he gives some sort of crude, nasty remark about Stacy over there in accounting. And he and Jeff, they laugh. And then there's six seconds of awkward silence.

And then Nick looks up at you, and you're not smiling at all.

It's not funny, Nick. Okay, holier than thou here, and he leaves. And you don't.

And you pray for Nick, and you pray for Jeff, and then you answer your emails and move on. Or, you're a mom, and you're out in the backyard playing with your kids, and then the neighbor... Jill comes over, and she's like, Hey, did you hear about, did you hear about Jennifer? Their marriage is really on the rocks.

And she starts going, 15 seconds in, you're like, hey, Jill, listen, I'll pray for Jennifer, and I'll check in on her later. I'm not gonna gossip.

I've got laundry to do. Forget it. And Mom, you don't care. You resolve yourself to be obedient to your God. And you pray for Jill, and you pray for Jennifer, and then you go in and change your diapers.

Will they malign you? What's the answer? Come on. Will they malign you? Yes. And your God loves you, and will grant you faithfulness to Him, if you walk after His ways and ask Him for help. And then, a year later, or five years later, or ten years later, on the day of visitation, when God appears to them in power, and in saving grace, they will look back upon your good deeds and your abstaining from the passions of the flesh, and they will glorify God that he gave them such a coworker or a neighbor.

Isn't that the testimony of some of you in this room? That you look back on the Christians who did not live for what you lived for, and at the time you thought they were just sticks in the mud, and now you thank God that he granted you acquaintance with them, friendship with them? Lastly, I'll end with this and then I'm gonna read you a, a scriptural illustration.

Of, of what I've just read to you from 1st Peter. But lastly, we have to have good deeds for them to see. We have to have them. Right? He says, when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds. And the things that you must have as good deeds are not what the world calls good deeds.

Right? The world would tell me that if I put up a Ukraine flag on my Facebook wall, that was it. I'm done. I did my part for 2023 and I'm a good guy. But scripture calls me too much, much more. I am to love my enemies. I'm to be honest. And to be generous, even when it costs me something, I'm to pray for all people and kings and those in high places and the Holy Spirit will help me do it.

He will help me be the kind of man that they cannot be, not because of anything in and of myself. He will help you be the kind of woman He has called you to be, not because of anything in and of yourself, but because He loves to conform His children to the image of His Son. And when they see that, they may glorify your God.

Good deeds for a Christian, they're revelatory. If you guys have ever been to a play, I will never go to a play. Because the theater is for sissies.

I stand by that remark. I'm just kidding. But, if you've ever gone to a play, there's that moment where they peel back the curtain, right, at some point, and you can kind of see, you're like, oh, okay, so there's where, you know, that's where everybody was, and that's where the set pieces were. It's revelatory.

That's what good deeds are for a Christian. A good deed, when, good deeds, a life that is characterized by good deeds. They expose to unbelievers what the world really is. Who is really in charge. That God is really righteous. That he really does love some things and hate some others. That he is in control, that he's ransoming a people for himself.

The good deeds of a Christian sort of show to unbelievers what story we're actually in. So, this is part of why Jesus phrases it this way in Matthew 5:15-16. He says in the Sermon on the Mount, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand. And it gives light to all in the house.

It's revelatory. Shows people in the house where things are and what's really going on. In the same way, just like that lamp that shows everybody in the house what's up. Let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven. I'm going to close with this 20-verse story here that illustrates both that and abstaining from fleshly passions.

King David, before he was King David, was on the run from Saul. And Saul had given in to his fleshly passions. Saul had essentially made a life of giving in to his fleshly passions. He had just had all the priests of Nob murdered. And he's on the lookout for David and he wants to slaughter him because he knows that God has chosen David.

And David has a chance to give in to the same vengeful spirit that Saul has given in to. So, allow me to read this to you and then I'll pray. 1 Samuel 24, beginning in verse 1. When Saul returned from following the Philistines, he was told, Behold, David is in the wilderness of En Gedi. Then Saul took 3, 000 chosen men out of all Israel and went to seek David and his men in front of the wild goat's rocks.

And he came to the sheepfolds by the way where there was a cave and Saul went in to relieve himself. Now David and his men were sitting in the innermost parts of the cave. And the men of David said to him, here is the day which Yahweh said to you. Behold, I'll give your enemy into your hand. And you shall do to him as shall seem good to you.

He wants your blood; you can take his now. David arose and stealthily cut off a corner of Saul's robe. And afterwards, David's heart struck him because he had cut off a corner of Saul's robe. Just insert here. When your heart, Christian, strikes you because you have begun to give in to a passion of the flesh, don't ignore it.

David said to his men, Yahweh forbid that I should do this thing to my Lord. Yahweh is anointed. To put out my hand against Him, seeing He is, Yahweh is anointed. So, David persuaded his men with these words. I'm not going to give in to the flesh, and you shouldn't either. I'm going to abstain from my bloodthirsty revenge, and so should you, and so will you.

So, David persuaded his men with these words. did not permit them to attack Saul. And Saul rose up and left the cave and went on his way. Afterward, David also arose and went out of the cave and called after Saul, My lord, the king! And when Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the earth and paid homage.

It's the kind of man that God is making in us. The kind of man who would bow his face and pay homage to the... Murderer who wants to seek his life simply because he had been anointed king. David said to Saul, why do you listen to the words of men who say, Behold, David seeks your harm. Behold, this day your eyes have seen how Yahweh gave you today into my hand in the cave.

And some told me to kill you, but I spared you. I said, I will not put out my hand against my Lord, for he is Yahweh's anointed. See, my father, see the corner of your robe in my hand, for by the fact that I cut off the corner of your robe and did not kill you, you may know and see that there is no wrong or treason in my hands.

You have let yourself be deceived through your fleshly passions into thinking that somehow, I'm your enemy. I've never been your enemy. I've always been your friend. I've always loved you. And now my good deeds and my abstaining from these passions is gonna show you what's really going on. Who I really am, who you really are, and who our God really is.

Verse 12, May Yahweh judge between me and you, may Yahweh avenge me against you, but my hand shall not be against you. As the proverb of the ancients says, out of the wicked comes wickedness, but my hand shall not be against you. After whom has the king of Israel come out? After whom do you pursue? After a dead dog?

After a flea? May Yahweh therefore be judge and give sentence between me and you and see to it and plead my cause and deliver me from your hand. As soon as David had finished speaking these words to Saul, Saul said, Is this your voice, my son David? And Saul lifted up his voice and wept. And he said to David, you are more righteous than I.

He sees curtains peeled back for you, have repaid me good, whereas I repaid you evil and you have declared this day how you have dealt well with me in that you did not kill me when Yahweh put me into your hands. For if a man finds his enemy, will he let him go away Safe? Every gentile on earth, every unbeliever on earth, once he gets his enemy, is gonna kill him.

And here you are and you're, you didn't touch me at all.

So may Yahweh reward you with good for what you have done to me this day. And now behold, I know that you shall surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hand. May God, through your good deeds and your abstaining from the passions of the flesh, on a day of judgment and visitation of judgment on the unbelievers in your life and around you, or on a day of grace, saving grace, may God use your abstaining from the passions of the flesh and your good deeds to show them What's really going on pray with me.

Father every single one of us has a life to live that you have ordained We have good works to do that. You have predestined from before all eternity We have a path to walk which you have prepared before us, and you've ordained that we need to pray and ask And believe for your help in being faithful.

That's how you've written this story So we're asking, we're begging, we're pleading, do not abandon us to our own fleshly passions. God, left to ourselves, we will destroy our marriages, our lives, our households, our jobs, our friendships, our church, our small groups, our sanity, but we are not by ourselves.

You will never abandon us.

We have 66 books of your inspired word right now in front of us because you love us, and you will never leave us alone. We have a church filled with people who love you and who will listen to and pray for us because you love us and will not abandon us. We are not orphans. Help us. Help us, please. We thank you for all that you are and all that you are doing.

And it's in the name of Jesus. We pray. Amen.­