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Sermon Notes: http://notes.cornerstonesj.org
Cornerstone Church Worship Service
11, I'd like to read those for us as we start to turn to the Lord this morning.
Psalm 86, for you are great and do wondrous things, you alone are
God. What a vision, what a mindset to have, to realize we're gathering together in worship, we're gathering together today, we're going to hear the word draw closer to you, but outside there is a lot of stuff going on.
We know the God of all, and for our profession to be, you are great and you do wondrous things, you alone are
God, to me takes me all the way back to Genesis 1 .1, in the beginning,
God created the heavens and the earth. We know that he did that, we call it ex nihilo, he did that out of nothing.
He created and he continues to sustain and he continues to be the sovereign
God. That's who we are in front of at the throne today.
Let's keep our hearts centered on him. I'm going to ask that we could just bow our heads for a moment, in prayer and in submission to him.
For you alone are great, you do wondrous things, you alone are
God. We come before you today, we pray in Jesus name. Some of the announcements, what an amazing time we've been having.
Two things about yesterday. One of them was the memorial of 9 -11.
Let's keep our hearts ever remembering what happened and for those brave people who walked into those burning towers.
Let's ever remember. Here's the thing, the attacks were made and these people went in.
This week, I have not always obeyed my God. This week, I have had moments.
I call them sin, let's call them what they are. Before the creation of the world,
God knew. Before the creation of the world into the fires of humanity, he went into his own and his own received him not,
God sent his son. We remember those who went into the burning towers, we call them heroes.
We also remember our Lord Jesus Christ, who went to the very cross to die for my sins.
Today, in our world, in our country since 1973, there's been difficulties that are,
Jonathan, I'm pointing if you would come forward. The number of lives that are sacrificed at the altar of humanity is horrific.
Yesterday, we had a group joined together as our first kickoff of the ministry of love life.
Jonathan, could you give us some thoughts about it? You told me a half hour, then you told me 30 seconds, so I'll do somewhere in between.
Yesterday, we did our first outreach here at the Cherry Hill Women's Center. It's hard to put into words.
I know it's something we've been talking about as a church for a while. We had a great turnout. I think there were probably 30 to 40 people that showed up.
I know initially, we were a little concerned that, because usually Saturday is the busiest days there, and especially for people outside, they're supporting life.
But really, no one else was there besides us yesterday. So it was a blessing to have that whole sidewalk there.
Phil did a great job leading worship. I think we saw a little bit of everything outside too, from the people there, from the escorts, and even some other people who were against us.
The Lord protected us against evil. I think, John, just like what you were saying about for September 11th, how we had brave firefighters and police officers, and even a couple of the members of Flight 93 that fought back against the terrorists and crashed that plane in Pennsylvania.
When we see evil in the world, what are we going to do? Are we going to stand by and watch, or are we going to go out there and proclaim
Christ? We have a decision to make. It's not just with abortion. Abortion is one of many things of evil we see in our society.
Thank you for all who came out yesterday. As a church, we're going to try to get out there at least one
Saturday a month. Again, if anyone has interest going during the week as well, I usually try to get out there at least a couple of times a week.
Feel free to let me know if you have some time and want to get out there too. It was a great day, and thank you all.
Jonathan, did we get that place next door that we were allowed to use?
Working on it. Working on it. They didn't let us yesterday, but we'll do it. Next Sunday is going to be some more opportunities for us to draw closer.
After second service, we're going to have our ministry fair. There will be some tables set up. You can understand some of the various ministries.
Where God would have you plugging in. At the same event, we're going to have a baptism.
We've had a baptism class. If you are interested in getting baptized next week, didn't make the class,
I'm going to ask you to contact me. I will make sure we get a private session. If you are interested in baptism, that we can make that for you.
This week, the men are going to be having a movie night on Tuesday.
The men will be meeting. It's called Cinemark 16. It's in Summerdale. There's a movie called
Show Me the Father, and it has to do with men understanding what it means to be a godly father.
Very, very important in today. This Sunday, well, let me back up.
For those of you who don't know, our brother Rich Eaton is gone to be with the
Lord in heaven. He is completely healthy and restored and experiencing the glory of God, but there is emptiness that is left behind.
There is a memorial service being planned for Tuesday, and information will come out if you're interested.
It would be Tuesday morning here at the building. Our pastor this week is over in Island Baptist Church down the shore.
What we're having the opportunity to do is to develop networks with the
Christian pastors, Christian churches here in Jersey. God is blessing us this morning with Phil Rizzo, your wife,
Jen, and your children are back at home. So we welcome you to our pulpit this morning.
We look forward to being blessed by your word. Let's pray. Father, this morning we want to lift our country to you.
We remember over these past 20 years, and more recently, the attacks of Satan.
So we lift our country and our leaders. We pray for our president. We pray, Lord, that he, the vice president, would submit their lives, turn their lives, and follow you.
We remember and we honor the first responders who went to those towers, the military who supports and protects us.
But, Lord, we also remember the lampstands that you set up in our area here, where your word is proclaimed, where your word is preached.
We pray, Father, that we would always remain true to your word. We also pray this for the rock.
Father, we pray for the unborn. We pray for the women and men who are making choices that have eternal consequences.
We pray, Lord, that this Love Life ministry would be there, touching hearts, turning in submission back to you, and that these unborn lives would be protected.
Praying for our missionaries who take your word, who take that lampstand throughout the world.
And now, Lord, we pray for our brother Rich, who is with you, and our sister Janet, who is dealing with the loss.
Lord, we also pray many who are still dealing with illnesses, you as the great physician to touch these people.
Father, we thank you. We ask that as we gather together in worship, as we gather together to hear your word, that your
Holy Spirit, the ministry of your Holy Spirit, would open the eyes of our hearts. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Let's sing together. Has the sinner been forgiven?
How has the rebel been made clean? Or blinded eyes been made to see?
Or orphans been adopted? Who hated your love and ran from grace, despised and rejected all your ways?
How wonderful the Father's love, the Father's love for us, that he would send his only
Son to come and rescue us. He has saved us, called us blameless, guides us now and will sustain us.
Oh, how wonderful the Father's love.
Mercy floods our lives with kindness. Your grace has colored all we see, and you have promised not to leave.
You freely give your Spirit to us so we can be sure we're sons of God and rest in the hope of what's to come.
How wonderful the Father, he would send his only
Oh, how wonderful the Father. Your sufferings, they fill our lives.
We're confident we're heirs with Christ, and so we cry,
Abba, Father. Your sufferings, they fill our lives.
Abba, Father. How wonderful the
Father's love, the Father, that he would send his only
Wow, the amazing thing about the love that we just sang about is that it comes from the
Father, the Lord of all creation, the King of kings. You know, once we were all in darkness.
We didn't see without hope. But God loves us now and forever, and that should cause all of us to sing praises to him.
Let's sing together. In the darkness we are waiting, without hope, without light.
Till from heaven you came running, there was mercy in your eyes.
To fulfill the law and prophets, to a virgin came the
Word. From the throne of endless glory to a cradle in the dirt.
Praise the Father, praise the
Son, praise the Spirit, three in one.
God of glory and majesty, praise forever to the
King of kings. To reveal the kingdom coming and to reconcile the lost, to redeem the whole creation, you did not despise the cross.
For even in your suffering, you saw to the other side.
Knowing this is our salvation, Jesus, for mercy you died.
King of kings. In the morning that you rose, all of heaven held its breath.
Till the stone was moved for good, for the Lamb had conquered death.
And the dead rose from their tombs, and the angels stood in awe.
For the souls of all who come to the Father were restored.
And the church of Christ was born, and the Spirit lit the flame.
Now the gospel truth of old shall not kneel, shall not faint.
By His blood and in His name, in His freedom
I am free. For the love of Jesus Christ, He has resurrected me.
Praise the Father, praise the Father, praise the
King of kings. Praise forever to the
King. The King of kings and Lord of lords has planned before the foundation of the world everything according to that plan.
A huge tapestry started, and we are just a thread. But He has woven it together with everything that He wants to accomplish, all for His glory, all for His glory.
We don't have to understand all the things that are happening in this time in your life, but we do have a promise.
And we're on the winning side, and everything will work out according to His plan, and that He, and He alone, is faithful.
He is faithful in everything He does. There is strength within the sorrow.
There is beauty in our tears. And you meet us in the morning with the love that casts out fear.
You are working in our waiting. You're sanctifying us.
When beyond our understanding you're teaching us to trust.
Your plans are still to prosper You have not forgotten us.
You're with us in the fire and the flood.
You're faithful forever, perfect in love.
You are sovereign over us.
You are wisdom unimagined. Who could understand your ways?
Reaching high above the heavens, reaching down in endless grace.
You're the lifter of the lowly, passionate and kind.
You surround and you uphold me. Promises are my delight.
Your plans are still to prosper. You have not forgotten us.
You're with us in the fire and the flood. You're faithful forever, perfect in love.
You are sovereign over us. You are sovereign over us.
Amen. Good morning. Turn in your Bibles to 1 Samuel 17. 1
Samuel 17. And by way of introduction, as you find our text for today, my name is
Philip Rizzo. I'm the pastor of City Baptist Church. We started a church in Hoboken back in 2012.
We started a second church in North Bergen in October of 2019.
I was pastoring both churches for about six months until coronavirus showed up in March and we got thrown out of the
Hoboken High School Auditorium. And so what we thought was our second church plant there in North Bergen, God providentially knew that we were going to need another location.
And so he actually moved us from Hoboken into North Bergen.
And by God's grace, next month we'll be celebrating nine years since we started that ministry of City Baptist Church.
It was one church, then it was two churches. Now it's back to one church, but by God's grace, the gospel is going forth up there in Hudson County.
I have a wife. I have four children. They are helping to continue to run things there.
Back at home, I am honored and humbled anytime I get an opportunity to be in a different pastor's pulpit.
I understand how big that is and how sacred it is to be able to be in the pulpit to preach the perfect eternal word of God and to do it where somebody else has been called is always humbling and I'm honored.
And so I'm glad for Pastor Jeff. We have spent much time on the phone. We've not met face to face and I know he's preaching out today and I have somebody preaching in my church and so we have a little bit of a round robin going.
But either way, the gospel goes forth. And so by further introduction, your eyes are not deceiving you.
Yes, I do have one arm. Back in 1980, I had a home accident.
We were living up in Morris County. My sister and I and one of her friends, we were roller skating on the basement floor swinging around the lolly columns and one of those columns was loose and fell down and it hit my arm and then my arm on the concrete floor, it crushed the bone and it crushed the artery and kind of just inside everything was broken.
I wasn't bleeding externally, but internally there was no blood flow and so after a number of attempts to save and get that blood flowing, it didn't work, obviously.
And so in 1980, it left me as an amputee at four years old.
Now if that accident happened today, it would be a different story. Science and medicine has come a long way in those sort of things, but everything in my life from that day has become a fight.
And so I'm, by DNA, by personality, I'm type A. I'm a fighter.
I stand where I stand, but you add that to a four -year -old where everything in their life becomes a fight from learning how to tie my shoes and button a shirt to zipping a coat.
I remember I was in kindergarten and they were going around the room and they were asking everybody, do you know how to zip a coat? Yes. Okay, the next one, do you know how to zip a coat?
Yes. And everybody knew how to zip a coat. They get to me, they're like, Philip, can you zip your coat? I'm like, yeah.
They're like, great. And they go around the whole room. They're like, okay, tomorrow everybody wear a coat and come zip it.
I thought, oh no, I just lied, right? And so that night up all night learning how to zip a coat, right?
So I didn't get caught in my lie, but everything in my life has been a battle. Things have needed to be overcome from those simple things, right?
To playing baseball growing up, little league into high school. I played into high school until my sophomore year.
I played high school football, freshman through senior year. Got some offers to play in college.
They didn't just let me on the team. I was actually good. And all of that, why? Because I'm a great athlete? Yes, of course, but also
I work really hard. And so I have to overcome these things. And so in my personality,
I'm a fighter and starting a church up there in deep blue Hudson County, the progressive city of Hoboken, starting a conservative church, no small task.
But I enjoy the fight. I enjoy the battle. I enjoy setting a course for God's glory and accomplishing that goal.
If you did not know, just recently I was involved in the gubernatorial campaign in the primaries.
I am not a politician. I'm a pastor and I own a real estate business, but I decided that I didn't like the direction that New Jersey was headed by prayer.
I believe God led me into the race. And so looking back, I mean, my wife was right. You're crazy, right?
And so, yeah, five months of a campaign, basically no money and a pastor running for governor.
Well, we came in second place. We were the runner up to the nominee, Jack, and Jack will go up against Phil Murphy on the ballot this
November. But with all the things that were against us, I knew that that's where the
Lord was leading. And so I believe the outcome was divine, picking up almost 90 ,000 votes for a political nobody.
Listen, conservativism is alive and well in New Jersey. It may not look so politically, but for us to accomplish what we did was divine.
And so that is the preacher this morning. And so the message will kind of go along a little bit with my personality, a little bit about what
God has done in my life, the things that we ought to be involved in. And you'll see that from our text today.
And so if you're there, you'll realize it's a familiar story. It's a familiar passage, David and Goliath.
We're going to read a few verses of scripture, and then we're going to get into the message this morning.
Verse number 26 in 1 Samuel 17, the Bible says, And David spake to the men that stood by him, saying,
What shall be done to the man that killeth this Philistine, and taketh away the reproach from Israel?
For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living
God? And the people answered him after this manner, saying, So shall it be done to the man that killeth him.
And Iliab, his eldest brother, heard when he spake unto the men, and Iliab's anger was kindled against David.
And he said, Why camest thou down hither? And with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness?
I know thy pride and thy naughtiness of thine heart, for thou art come down, for thou might seest the battle.
Verse number 29, And David said, What have I now done? Is there not a cause?
And that phrase at the end of verse number 29, is there not a cause, is going to be really where we're going to head with the message, this question.
When there's a question asked in the Bible, you should look for the answer, right?
But in this passage, there's no answer in the next verse. There's no answer to that question, is there not a cause?
Why is there not an answer in the next verse or in the next few verses? Well, because it's a rhetorical question.
There is a cause, and David was challenging his brother, saying, Is there not a cause?
The rhetorical answer is yes, there is a cause, and that's what we're going to look at today. Jesus did that, you see that in the
New Testament. As he was challenged, and he was accused by his haters, by the religious elite, they would challenge him, and many times he would ask them a question, and there was no answer given in the next few verses.
Why? Because Jesus didn't need the answer. Jesus is God, God in the flesh, and he is omniscient, he knows everything, and so the questions that Jesus would ask was not because he needed the information back.
It was to reveal the heart of those that he was asking the questions to, and so as they were processing the question in their mind and in their heart, before the answer came out, they knew that the answer would condemn them, and so there was no answer, and so Jesus was the master at it, and here we see that David's question is also rhetorical.
Is there not a cause? The answer is yes, there is a cause worth fighting for, and that's the title of the message today, a cause worth fighting for, and so let's pray, and then we'll get into the message today, a cause worth fighting for.
God, we thank you for this passage of scripture. We thank you for the truths that we can see from your perfect eternal word.
God, it is practical, and it is relevant throughout the ages, and God, I pray that you'd help us today.
Help me with my mind and with my mouth to say the things that you would have me to say.
I pray for each one that is here listening to the word of God. May it stir their hearts today about a cause worth fighting for.
I pray for Pastor Jeff as he preaches out. I pray for Zach who fills our pulpit up there in Hudson County.
May churches throughout the state, throughout the country, throughout the world lift up the word of God and lift up the name of Christ today that he may draw all men unto himself.
God, I pray that you'd help us now. Bless this message, I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. A cause worth fighting for.
A cause worth fighting for, number one, a cause worth fighting for is people. People are worth fighting for.
Look there in verse number one of the chapter, 1 Samuel 17, verse number one. Now, the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle, and were gathered there at Soco, which belongeth to Judah, and pitched between Soco and Ezekiah and Ephes Demim.
And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together, and pitched by the valley
Elah and set the battle in array against the Philistines. Saul was there. The men of Israel were there.
Verse 13 says, And the three eldest sons of Jesse went and followed
Saul to the battle. Those are David's brothers. When he says, Is there not a cause?
Obviously the answer is yes. Saul was there, the men of Israel there, and his three older brothers were there.
Listen, people are worth fighting for. Christians are worth fighting for.
Listen, we know people. Maybe they're not in church today. Maybe they weren't in church last week and last month, and maybe last year.
They are Christians, they are believers, but something happened in their life where they're now out of church. Listen, don't be mad at them.
Don't be bitter against them. Pray for them. Go after them.
Restore them as the Bible tells us. If a man be overtaken in a fault, restore such a one.
But listen, do it meekly, and do it humbly, because listen, you're just one day away of getting out of church yourself.
Christians are worth fighting for. People are worth fighting for. Our Christianity is worth fighting for.
No doubt there is an attack on Christianity. I have some dear friends.
They pastor in Berlin, not very far from here, Solid Rock Baptist Church. I've been friends with the pastor there and the family and their extended family for a number of years.
They receive citation after citation after citation simply for having church, but rallies and protests and burning down cities and smashing police cars, that's the
First Amendment, but a church to receive a citation simply for opening their church doors and preaching the gospel gets a citation.
Listen, there's an attack on Christianity. There's an attack on Christians. People are worth fighting for.
We ought to stand up for the faith community. Now listen, we may not agree with everybody doctrinally, but listen, if they go after a different religious group and we don't fight for religious liberties, well, when they're done with them, they're coming for us.
There are people worth fighting for. Christians are worth fighting for. The religious community, our religious liberties are worth fighting for.
The unborn are worth fighting for. I'm so happy to hear, this is my first time here,
I was so happy when I heard this morning in the first service about the prayer that was made outside of a
Planned Parenthood facility, maybe not by name, but that sort of location where they terminate the life of the unborn.
Listen, if we as Bible believers, those that believe life exists in the womb, if we're not going to fight for it, who's going to?
It's really on us. If not us, who? If not now, when the unborn are worth fighting for.
And listen, don't back down. Don't be talked into a corner. Don't be convinced that you're against women's rights.
I'm against women being aborted in their mother's stomachs. I'm against that. I am for women's rights.
All those little girls that have lost their life before they were born. Well, don't go by the narrative.
My body, my choice. Excuse me, unless your body has two heads, two hearts, four hands, four feet, and two completely independent and separate
DNA, that's not your body. It's somebody else's body inside your body. The Bible doesn't say that a woman is pregnant.
It says she is with child. That is a human being created by God.
If we do not fight for people, Christians and religious liberties, and the unborn, who's going to fight?
The next generation's worth fighting for. What's coming through our public school systems with critical race theory and gender identity in every grade level, starting in kindergarten, that's vile.
That the color of your skin defines your worth and what the history of America is all about.
That's just not true. My wife and I, we have four children. Our three oldest are biological.
Our fourth, our youngest, is adopted out of San Antonio. He has Spanish, Latino descent with his biological father.
He's darker than us. Are you telling me that within my home, I need to teach my children that they have different worth simply by the coloration of their skin?
If we do not fight for the next generation, we're going to lose the next generation. Boys and girls not being able to look in the mirror and know whether they're a boy or a girl, this is insanity.
And who's going to fight it? If it's not us, who's going to do it? We have the authority of the scriptures to let us know that life begins in the womb.
We have the authority of the scriptures that say in the beginning, God created them male and female, period.
I don't care what you do. I don't care what you call yourself when they dig up your bones in 100 years and check your
DNA. You're a girl. You're a guy. Who is going to stand up and speak against this madness?
There's a cause worth fighting for, and the cause is people, Christians, the unborn.
And how about our next generation? There's a cause worth fighting for. Number one is for people.
Number two is for our possessions. Our possessions are worth fighting for. Back in verse number one, it says,
Now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle and were gathered together at Soco, watch this, which belongeth to Judah, and pitched between Soco and Azica and Ephestimim, and Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together and pitched by the valley of Elah and set the battle in array against the
Philistines. I've been here. I've been to this location. I've had the blessing to have been here four times.
I've been to Israel. I've gone, and it's been a special time. It's dad and kid time, right?
I've gone with my oldest all the way down to the fore. My wife is invited. She is, but it's too dangerous, she says.
No, it's too dangerous with terrorism. You and the kids go. I'm staying here. She had her chance.
I'm not sure we're going to be able to go back. Maybe we will one day, but I have been here four times, and this area is just due west, maybe just a little south of Jerusalem, about a 30 -minute bus ride.
It is in the heart of Israel. This was their possession. God promised this to his people, and yet the
Philistines are there encroaching on their possession. This was
Israel's land, and it was worth fighting for. We have things that are worth fighting for.
Our homes are worth fighting for. I'm an 80s kid. The things that we learned about social issues, we learned at the kitchen table.
Now the government is saying, no, you're not woke enough to teach those things at the kitchen table. We're going to teach them in the classroom.
We ought to protect our homes. That is ours. God gave us our homes, and if you're running your home on the
Scriptures, you have a Christian home, you would never turn it over to the unsaved, and yet we do it every day.
We need to guard our homes. We need to protect our homes. God has given us our home.
It belongs to him, but he's given it to us to steward according to his word. We ought to do that.
These are our possessions. They're worth fighting for. Our businesses are worth fighting for. However you pay your bills.
Maybe you own your own business. Maybe you work for somebody. Whatever it is, our businesses are worth fighting for.
It doesn't matter what anybody says. If you put food on your table, by the job that you work, you are essential.
It doesn't matter what anybody labels it. We ought to fight for our businesses. We ought to fight to be able to provide for our families.
We're commanded in the Scriptures to do that. The Bible says if a man doesn't work, neither does he eat.
We need to get to work, and we need to protect and defend our work and our businesses. Our state is worth fighting for.
I'm New Jersey, born and bred, and when I die, I want to be New Jersey dead. I don't want to go to Florida.
For vacation maybe, but I don't want to have to move there. Don't lie. Listen, don't lie.
I know what you do on the computer late at night. Zillow. What does my housing dollar get me in Tennessee?
Slash Texas, slash Florida. Don't lie. Stay off the internet late at night. I know what you're looking up.
You're looking for houses outside of the state. Listen, we ought to stay and fight for our state. I'm born and raised here.
I'm raising my children here. Three generations of Rizzo's have been here. My wife's family came from Italy.
They all came here. They're from New Jersey. They're here. Why are we just going to run away? We need to stay and fight.
The Israelites, they didn't just turn. Oh, listen, the Philistines are here. Let's go.
No. There's a cause worth fighting for, and it's people, and it's our possessions.
You need to think about what God's given you, and it's your responsibility to steward it. There's a cause worth fighting for, people, possessions.
How about this? Righteousness. Righteousness is worth fighting for. Look there in verse number 10.
I'm sorry, verse number 8 through number 10. And he, that's Goliath, stood and cried unto the armies of Israel and said unto them,
Why are ye come out to set your battle in array? Am not I a Philistine, and ye servants to Saul?
Choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me. If he be able to fight with me and to kill me, then we will be your servants.
But if I prevail against him and kill him, then shall ye be our servants and serve us.
And the Philistines said, I defy the armies of Israel. Do you understand what he was saying?
He was saying, hey, Israel, God's people, we're going to fight.
And to the victor goes the spoil. If I win, you serve us.
Could you imagine Israel serving the wicked, uncircumcised Philistines?
David said, is there not a cause? David heard these words. Look down in verse number 22.
And David left his carriage in the hand of the keeper of the carriage and ran to the army and came and saluted his brethren.
And he talked with them. And as he talked with them, behold, there came up the champion, the
Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, out of the army of the Philistines and spake according to the same words.
And David heard them. David's thinking, if we lose this battle, we,
God's people, serve them? I don't think so. Is there not a cause? Is somebody going to go kill this guy?
I mean, this is a battle, not just a physical battle. This is a battle for righteousness.
This is now good versus evil. This is unrighteousness versus righteousness. Who are we going to serve?
Listen, we're funding our enemy if we don't get involved in this fight. Did you know that almost every product we purchase is manufactured by a company or sold by retailers that support
Planned Parenthood or they invest money into curriculums being developed for our children regarding LGBTQ?
Yeah, but it tastes good. What? But it's so much more convenient.
What? We are literally funding the enemy. And if we're not careful, they're going to prevail over us, and we're not going to have anywhere to go or any place to shop because our convenience and our taste buds trumped the idea of righteousness versus unrighteousness, and we are funding our enemy to gain power and position over us.
And if we don't take a stand and fight for righteousness, we're going to lose.
Who has the power? Evil or righteousness? Who has it?
Well, whoever wins the battle. The Bible says in Proverbs 29 verse 2, When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice, but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.
Somebody's going to be in control. Righteousness or unrighteousness? The Bible says in Proverbs 1110,
When it goeth well with the righteous, the city rejoiceth, and when the wicked perish, there is shouting,
Amen. I am not upset at all that the abortion clinics in Texas are going to be shut down.
We should salute and praise the Lord and say Amen to that. Praise the
Lord. Righteousness won a battle. And listen, just because it's Texas doesn't mean those battles cannot be won here.
They can, but we've got to be involved in the fight. Why do they win there in Texas? Well, because they're red.
Why? Because the people there are, quite honestly, the Bible Belt in the
South kind of went through there. Why do you think that's red? Why do you think that that's red? Because that's the
Bible Belt. Christians and a lot of them being engaged in the fight, not only for people, but for possessions and for righteousness.
Who's going to run our government? The righteous or the unrighteous? That's basically where we're at right now.
I want to take a little detour and talk about righteousness in government. Look at Genesis chapter 9.
Genesis chapter 9, and we're going to do a little response here because this is important for us to understand.
And so I'm going to ask for your help here in response. Genesis chapter 9.
Noah and his family come off the ark. The waters have receded, and God gives
Noah some more information. He says to him in verse 6, Who so sheddeth man's blood?
By man shall his blood be shed. For the image of God made he man.
Do you know what that is? That's capital punishment. It says if a man sheds man's blood, by man's hands his blood will be shed.
That's not vigilante justice. That is not us going around executing people that have done wrong.
You hurt somebody of mine, I'm going to hurt you. That is not what that's talking about. This is talking about government.
Government keeping control. This is capital punishment to be delivered and executed by government.
The Bible tells us in the New Testament that the government does not bear the sword in vain. It's there for a reason.
To execute judgment on those that do evil. That's why it is there. That is the government. So who created government?
God. God created government. And as everybody nods yes, I know that we can go on to the next point, right?
God created government. And if God created government, which he did, don't you think he's probably got some rules and regulations for how he wants it to be handled?
Good answer, yes. Exodus chapter 18. Exodus 18.
Look here in verse number 17. Exodus 18 verse number 17. And Moses' father -in -law, that's
Jethro, said unto him, The thing that thou doest is not good. Exodus 18 verse 18.
Thou shalt surely wear away both thou and this people that is with thee, for this thing is too heavy for thee.
Thou art not able to perform it thyself alone. Hearken now unto my voice.
I will give thee counsel, and God shall be with thee. Be thou for the people to Godward, that thou mayest bring the causes unto
God. Verse 20. And thou shalt teach them ordinances and laws, and shalt show them the way wherein they must walk, and the work that they must do.
Moreover, thou shalt provide of all the people able men, such as fear
God, men of truth, hating covetousness. So now God created government in Genesis 9, and in Exodus 18, he's teaching more about the administration of it.
He says, listen, Moses is going to give ordinances and laws, and then you're going to get people involved to help govern the ordinances and laws.
And there's some people that are going to be qualified. Able men. They have to be able.
People that are capable of doing the job. Capable of doing the job. It says, able men, such as fear
God. These are the qualifications to be involved in governing. Able, fear
God, men of truth. All of our government leaders tell the truth.
None of them lie. Hating covetousness. I mean, we're basically 0 for 4.
But God created government, and then he gave us parameters by who should be involved.
Able, fear God, love truth, hate covetousness. Hello. And where are they supposed to be involved?
Keep reading. Verse number 21. It says, and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.
Did you know our founding fathers used Exodus 18 verse 21 to set up our government?
To have rulers over thousands and hundreds and fifties and tens. Federal and state and county and local.
It's amazing. And they had parameters by who could be involved. Our founding fathers feared
God. They went to the scriptures where they were all genuinely born again. I don't know. But they feared
God. They went to the scriptures to figure out how they were going to establish governance in the new land.
And here it is right here. They went to the scriptures. So, who created government?
God. He gave us who should be involved. People who are capable. They fear
God. They love truth. They hate covetousness. And they should be involved at federal, state, county, and local.
Set them in every area. Now, if we actually believe that. I believe that if we actually believe that and we put it into practice, we would read
Romans 13 very differently. Turn to Romans 13. This has been a passage of scripture that has been somewhat in contention for the last 18 months with pastors around the state and around the country.
But God created government. And God gave parameters of who should be involved and where they should be placed.
Over thousands. Over hundreds. Over fifties and tens. If that was true and as believers, as God's people, we actually did it.
Romans 13 reads differently. Verse number one. Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers.
That's government. For there is no power but of God. The powers that be are ordained of God.
Whosoever therefore resisteth the power resisteth the ordinances of God.
And they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works but to evil.
Will thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good and thou shall have praise of the same.
Watch this. Verse four. For he, the government, is the minister of God to thee for good.
But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid. For he beareth not the sword in vain. For he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon all him that doeth evil.
Well, we should close our church because Romans 13 says we're to submit.
Not when they're godless and they hate God and they're coming after Christianity. No, we don't.
Now, if there's righteousness and authority and there's people of God and they set rules and regulations, we ought to obey.
But when they tell us to do something contrary to scripture like, I don't know, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another.
And so much the more as ye see the day approaching. Listen, anybody think we're closer to the return of the
Lord today than we were yesterday? Hello. So what should we do? If only we had something from the scriptures to tell us what to do when we see the day approaching.
Assemble more. And now the government is saying don't assemble at all. And we're going, yeah, but Romans 13.
No, Romans 13 doesn't apply to wicked. He then God haters who you and I let take authority over us.
Who is going to win righteousness or unrighteousness? It's a fight.
Worth fighting. There is a cause worth fighting for its people, its possessions, and its righteousness.
And if we do not get involved, we will end up losing that battle and we will end up serving unrighteousness.
David heard these words that Goliath said. And he goes, is there not a cause?
There certainly is. Number four cause worth fighting for is the fight itself.
Verse number 32 in our text. First Samuel chapter 17 verse 32. And David said to Saul, let no man's heart fail because of him.
Thy servant will go out and fight with him. The enemy was before them.
The fight had come to them. Don't forget. The fight was before them, but nobody was willing to fight.
The fight was in their own backyard and it wasn't going away. In verse 16, it says in the
Philistine drew near morning and evening and presented himself 40 days, 40 days, morning and night, 80 times.
He comes out and says, come fight with me. And if I win, you serve us. If he beats me, we'll serve you.
This fight was not going away. They were in it for the long haul. And listen, I don't believe that we should go out and start fights.
But when the fight comes to you, that's sometimes cause enough. Is there not a cause?
Sometimes the cause to fight is simply because there's a fight to be fought. Israel didn't start it.
They were not the instigators, but the fact the fight was in fact there. And sometimes our lack of confronting our enemies allows them to gain position over us.
Edmund Burke said, the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
You just let them come. No timeout. Sometimes we need to fight simply because the fight is at the front door.
I believe in the second amendment. I do not run around waving guns in people's faces.
But if my alarm goes off at 4 o 'clock in the morning because I hear the front door get kicked open, it's going to be on like Donkey Kong.
I am not interested in hurting anybody. But when the fight is in your foyer and now coming up your stairs where your wife and your children are, there's a cause worth fighting for, and the cause is the fight is coming up my stairs.
Listen, we cannot ignore what's going on. I get it. Christians, conservatives, for the most part, we want to be left alone.
We want to raise our family. We want to go to church. We want to go to work. We want to have a hobby, and we want to be left alone.
But you know what? The progressives have been banging on people's doors. They've been activists for the last three decades, four decades.
And conservatives and Christians, we've kind of been doing our thing. No more.
The fight's now at our front door. It's now here. Is there not a cause?
Yes, there is a cause. What's the cause? The fight's at the front door. We have to engage the enemy now, or we will lose simply by doing nothing.
David said, is there not a cause? Yeah, there is. There's a cause worth fighting for. It's people.
It's possessions. It's righteousness, and it's simply for the fight's sake itself.
As we close number five, the cause worth fighting for will be empowered by God.
Look there in verse number 33. And Saul said to David, thou art not able to go against this
Philistine to fight with him, for thou art but a youth, and he is a man of war from his youth.
Thanks, buddy. That's really encouraging. Well, good thing that David wasn't relying on the endorsement of Saul.
He was relying on being empowered by God. Verse 37. David said, after recalling the stories of his victories, the
Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion and out of the paw of the bear will deliver me out of the hand of this
Philistine. Listen, we'll do much better in our battles if we remember the victories that we've already won that God has given us.
We need to remember the victories that God has given us in our life. We can't think about the defeats.
We can't think about the new battle, the new thing that's always in front of us. That'll just discourage you. The Bible says, as a man thinketh, so is he.
You ought to remember some of the victories that God has given you in your life. It'll encourage you that God has fought with you and for you in previous battles, and remember them and testify of them.
And David said, same God who helped me with the lion and the bear, he's going to help me with this uncircumcised
Philistine. I know God's leading me into this battle, and he will empower me for it.
David says, and Saul said unto David, go and the Lord be with thee.
He better be. Listen, we need to understand that if we get involved in this battle, which one do you want to get involved in?
There's 30 of them. There's 30 fires raging all around us. You can't fight them all, but you've got to pick one or two or three.
Don't throw a dart at a dartboard. Don't put all the issues on a dartboard and just throw it. No, pray about it. Pray where God would lead you to engage in the battle.
You can't fight where I'm fighting, and I can't fight where you're fighting because they're all individual battles.
Don't forget that Saul gave David his armor and his helmet and his breastplate and his sword, and David said, yeah, this isn't mine.
I've not proved these, and he went out. Listen, you can't fight my battles. I'm not telling you to end up on a ballot for governor of New Jersey.
I'm not telling you to do that. And whatever battle you are going to take on, listen, if God doesn't lead me to it,
I'm not going to fight the battles that you guys are going to fight because everybody has their individual place to be involved.
Well, how do we know which one it is? By prayer and supplication. Let your requests be made known unto
God. God, I see the battle raging. I see the enemy advancing.
God, where do I get involved? Show me. That's a scary prayer.
I bet you all don't pray that. You'll leave here. Some won't because you're afraid of God leading you to a fire that needs to be stomped out.
But if you do, God will show you exactly where you need to get involved. It has to be your battle that the
Lord has led you in, and when you do, he'll empower you for that fight.
We need to understand that there's a cause worth fighting for, people, possessions, righteousness, simply for the fight's sake.
And if we will do it by prayer, God will show us where our battle is.
He will go with us. He will empower us, and the results will be up to him. Make no mistake, church, the most important battle that we can be involved in is the battle for the souls of men and women.
Do not get distracted from the ultimate eternal battle.
We know, listen, if America goes off and we go into a, you know, communist country,
God still wins. Those that have trusted Christ are still going to heaven, whether we go from free
America or we go from communist America, because of Jesus Christ, we get to go to heaven.
Our most important battle that we are involved in regularly is for the souls of men and women and children.
Telling people about Christ. If you're a Christian and you're here today, somebody told you about the
Lord. Somebody in love confronted you with your sin and probably quoted to you or showed you in the
Bible, Romans 3 .23, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And the
Spirit of God convicted you and you said, yeah, you know what, I am a sinner. But everybody's a sinner, what's the big deal?
Well, the big deal is Romans 6 .23, for the wages of sin is death.
Uh -oh. The Bible says in Revelation chapter 20, and death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.
This is the second death. That's what sin brings. Well, yeah, I'm a sinner. What's the big deal? The big deal is if you stay in that condition, you're going to die and you're going to go to hell.
But the rest of the verse says, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Well, now what do
I do? For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Sharing the gospel with people, confronting them in love with their sin against a holy and righteous
God that will be dealt with in a place called hell. But God loves them and He does not want them to go to a place like that.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
That is the battle that we need to be involved in on a daily basis. Don't get distracted by the government battle, but they're not mutually exclusive.
It's not one or the other. We can do both. We could do both. But keep the main thing, the main thing.
Christ ought to have the preeminence in the church, not simply prominence, preeminence in the church, telling people about Christ.
You got a great service here next week. Baptism, that means somebody recently got saved at a fellowship after you ought to be inviting people.
This auditorium ought to be packed next week. Because you know why? When you bring people that don't know the Lord into a church and then they see a believer's baptism service and they think, oh, what's going on?
Why are you all underwater? I was sprinkled as a baby. Well, yeah, so was
I. But now a door is opened to share the gospel. The church is a wonderful resource that God's given to you.
It's a tool that God's given to you. Use it. Invite people here. Share the gospel.
That's the most important battle. That's the cause we're fighting for. But we can see while we're having those eternal battles, we ought to be fighting earthly battles as well.
Listen, the devil is our enemy. He's defeated by Jesus. We got to fight the stinking devil every day.
The victory is won in Christ. But we have to fight him every day. And listen, evil is prevailing.
Evil is winning. But they don't have to win ultimately. We can, as Bible believers, understand there is a cause.
Let's pray. God, we thank you for this time. Lord, I pray that you'd stir in the hearts of each one that's here. God, I pray by the spirit of God, Christians would be exhorted and encouraged to find their place in the battle if there is anybody here without salvation in Christ alone.
Lord, I pray that they'd understand their sin and come and confess it and be saved today by Christ alone.
We thank you for it. We ask you to bless now in Christ's name, amen. Thank you,
Phil. That our souls to Him belong
Who holds our days within His hands
What comes apart from His command And what will keep us to the end
The love of Christ in which we stand
Oh, sing Hallelujah Our hope springs eternal
Oh, sing Hallelujah Whatever we confess
Christ our hope in life and death What truth can calm the troubled soul
God is good, God is good Where is
His grace and goodness known In our great
Redeemer's blood Who holds our faith when fears arise
Who stands above the stormy trough Who sends the waves that bring us nigh
Unto the shore, the rock of Christ Oh, sing
Hallelujah Our hope springs eternal
Oh, sing Hallelujah Now and ever we confess
Christ our hope in life and death Unto the grave what shall we sing
Christ He lives, Christ He lives And what reward will heaven bring
Everlasting life within Then we will rise to meet the
Lord When sin and death have been destroyed
And we will feast in endless joy When Christ is ours forevermore