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Hey, it's good to see you all. Glad you're here. We did have some woman drop a$5 bill out in the parking lot, and I was assured it was not a gift to the pastor. So if you dropped a$5 bill, it must be yours. So anybody but Pete Ramsey is able to claim it. Right? Hey, it really is good to see you guys. And let's pray and we'll uh and we've got a word for today. Lord, we thank you for today. A beautiful day outside, and uh and it's a beautiful day here. Thank you for a chance for us to come together as men and fellowship together, and especially today with the lesson that you've given us in our readings. And so I pray you'll bless us, teach us, guide us, and feed us from your word. We thank you for the meal that has fed us, and we thank you for the sweet folks that have made it for us. They they serve us every week, and we're so grateful for them. And so we ask your blessings on them. We ask that you use this food to the nurse from our bodies to give us strength to serve you. We thank you most of all for the gift of salvation that comes through Jesus. In his name we pray, and everybody said, All right. Um I'm gonna, you know, as we're we know we're reading through the Bible chronologically together, and this journey has been really fun. I hope it's a blessing to y'all. It's amazing every week, the stuff that's just jumping out as we go through it, and the folks are talking through it. But but uh in the last two weeks, um, we read one of my favorite stories in all of Scripture, and I didn't want to run past it without um without a chance to talk about it. So here's what I want to talk about: the picture of Christian fellowship. This literally is one of the best stories in all of Scripture. I absolutely love it. It's great for the church, but it's especially great for us as men, and I think there are some challenges in it and uh some encouragements in it. So I want to kind of share this with you from my heart today, uh, from the life of David. 1 Chronicles chapter 11, uh beginning in verse 15. Now, this chapter is introducing us, and there are a couple of other chapters that we'll do this later, but this is introducing us to these men that were in this cohort of soldiers that followed David through his battles with Saul and into the kingship of Israel. And so this is really about soldiers. Now, as you remember, when he was running for his life, there was one of the passages that we passed that talked about how all the men who were who were outcasts, who had been criminals or falsely accused, or they had no family, some of them were foreigners and all of that. And they just kind of uh began gathering around David, and he began collecting these men who followed him. They followed him into battle. They became the armies that followed him, and then they grew. And so there's this group of men, these two or three layers of this group of men, this cohort of soldiers and really brothers at arms, as we would say that today, that were with David. And so uh there they are referred to collectively as the mighty men of David. And there are layers to that. There are there are 30 that they refer to as the 30, and that's kind of how they're referenced, and they were incredible warriors. And when you put all the different chapters together that introduce them to you, they have some incredible stories. For example, I've preached here before on Sunday mornings in the past about a man named Beniah, and Beniah was an incredibly interesting fellow. Uh he first is introduced as a guy who kills a giant along the lines of Goliath. Then the Bible has this incredibly interesting sentence. He killed a lion in a pit on a snowy day. And that's a pretty awesome deal, and we've preached on that. And then you hear other couple of other places, and you find out that he becomes David, the king, the chief of David's bodyguards. And it's an incredible deal. There's another guy describes he and David are standing in a battle, and they're just the two of them fighting against the Philistines, and it says this guy fought along David so long and so well and so vigorously that his hand, his grip on the sword is frozen onto the grip on the sword. It's, I mean, it's awesome. You read these stories of these guys, and you're like, yeah. You know, it's like a man thing. And so here are three of the men from the 30, and I want to read this story to you. If you've not heard it before, it'll be it'll be wonderful to you, I think. The Bible says in verse 15, three of the 30 chief men went down to David to the rock at the cave of Adulum, where the Philistine army was encamped in the valley of Rephaim. At that time, David was in the stronghold, there where they were holed up, they were in battles with the Philistines. At that time, David was in the stronghold, and a Philistine garrison was at Bethlehem. Now you'll remember Bethlehem is David's traditional home. Like at Christmas time, when we talk about Bethlehem, we talk about the city of David, right? Bethlehem. And so that's his home. That's where he grew up and all of that. So in the midst of this battle and all that, David says, he's just in this moment, right? And he just kind of speaks out loud. And he says, David was extremely thirsty, and he said, if only someone would bring me uh water to drink from the well at the city gate of Bethlehem. Now, this is just a moment here. It would be like me. I was talking to some guys who are from Memphis, and uh home, David and I are from Memphis, and and uh, you know, in Memphis, we pretty much eat barbecue for breakfast, lunch, and supper, like five days a week. I mean, it's just kind of what we're raised on, it's what we do, and I love it, and it just there's a comfort level and a just a thing. It's just part of who we are. And there sometimes I think, man, I'd shoot somebody for a slab of dry rub ribs from the original corkies on poplar near I-240. And Dave will roll his eyes and say, You need to go to Central Barbecue. Right? I mean, it's just you know, but this is kind of that moment, right? When I lived in Perigool, uh, Perigol was great. We were there five years. That was my first pasture in Arkansas, and Paragol is surrounded by farms, but it's also surrounded by catfish farms. And so there's there's never less than like six catfish restaurants in Paragol. You know, it's Perigol's the size of, you know, it's like two Greenwoods. It's not very large. And there's like six catfish restaurants because everybody's eating catfish. And every time you go to lunch and eat a catfish, it was swimming before breakfast that very morning. Right? It's incredibly fresh. They're incredible. So it'd be like a person paragol saying, I'd shoot somebody for some fried catfish, you know. I mean, it's just this moment he has, and he's nostalgic and he's reminiscing about that, and he's thirsty, and he goes, Man, that water tasted from that well at home, man. It tasted so good. I'd shoot somebody for that. And so the Bible says these three guys were standing around. They hear this from their commander in chief, to whom they are loyal, the king that God, the person that God has anointed to become the king. They're following him through all these battles. And so the Bible says the three got this idea, and they broke through the Philistine camp and drew water from the well at the gate of Bethlehem, and they brought it back to David. Now you got to stop for a minute and paint the movie in your mind about what this is. They're going fight through an entire garrison of Philistines to get a jug of water. Like you got to fight your way in and fight your way out. There's three of them, and they're going into a basically a fortress camp, and they're fighting through there to bring David a jug of water. Is that awesome? Like, that ought to be a movie. I mean, that's that's incredible, right? And so it says they brought it back to David, but he was so overwhelmed he refused to drink it. Instead, he poured it out to the Lord, and we'll talk about that in a second. David said, I would never do such a thing in the presence of God. In other words, I would never drink this drink in the presence of God. How can I drink the blood of these men who risked their lives? For they brought it at the risk of their lives, so he would not drink it. Such were the exploits of the three warriors. Now, is that a guy story or what? Is that incredible? I mean, seriously, I can't wait to meet these dudes when we get to heaven. Like, I have a list. Do you have a list? After we've been at the feet of Jesus for a couple thousand years, then I'm gonna be able to go get to my list. And I got a list of these dudes, and these three dudes are on my list. Like, I gotta hear this story, I gotta know the battles. This is incredible. And the not just the heroism of these guys doing it, but the loyalty and the friendship, the brotherly love, the brotherhood, the family blood oath these guys have together, doing battles together and all that, that these guys would hear this comment and see him, this combination of nostalgia, and he's probably tired, and he's probably fatigued from all the battles, and they see that and they can see it on his face, and they go, We're gonna go get that done for our man. And they go fight their way through those Philistines and bring back this jug of water. I mean, I don't know about y'all, but that just fires me up. I mean, that's like the most incredible story in scripture outside of Jesus. So here's a couple of things I want to just show you. I want you to think about this in terms of guys. Now I want you to, one verse I want to stick in your head. We've all heard this verse. As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend, right? Everybody's heard that verse, right? So I want you to think about the bonds that are created from those kinds of relationships. These are not dudes checking a box and they see each other once a week when they go to the tabernacle. Like these dudes are in war together. David's response is these men risked their lives for me. Right? And so here's what I want you to know. That kind of relationship first, it is built on, that's a second point. I keep hitting the buttons. I get so excited I can't stop hitting the buttons on the thing. Uh, it is this relationship is built on a faith and trust that flows from Jesus. It flows from every one of those guys serving the same Lord, looking for the same Messiah. They are building this bond. One of the 30, these three were part of the 30, so they all had these shared experiences. One of the three is David's nephew, Abijah, who, if you'll remember from our lessons, went with David to the camp of Saul and stole his that jug of water and spear where he was asleep in the middle of the Philistines. I mean, these three dudes are such men, they are constantly sneaking or fighting their way into the midst of Philistine camps and coming back out. And so one of those 30 was that story. And so these guys are sharing these stories, and they are built on this loyalty and this foundation of David doing things like teaching them, we are going to trust God's plan for how things work. He has a character that I am not going to touch God's anointed in Saul. We're going to let God do that with him. And these men are following him and they're sharing these experiences and stories together. These three, these 30 guys are probably at a campfire around, and other guys would walk up and wish they could get into the circle around this campfire. But they are not allowed into this circle. And these three do these 30 guys are sharing these stories and these moments together. And that's where the bond of these three men and their loyalty to David comes from. They are serving the Lord. They know that God has anointed him as a king. They have seen him say things and teach lessons like, we are not going to touch the anointed one of God. These 30 guys are the ones offering to kill Saul so they can end this battle and David can be king. And they and David's teaching them, we're not going to do that. And so they see his faith of the Lord. They've seen him in prayer. They've probably prayed together. They have these shared journeys, and it is built on a faith and trust that flows from Jesus Christ. And you know that to flip this story on its head, when they bring back this offering, and David's immediate response is, this is a God-honoring thing. These are men who walk with God and they've done this for me, and it would dishonor them to do anything but to praise the Lord for the sacrifice that they've made and the bond that we have. It is a bond built on faith following the Lord. And so when David pours that out, it's a drink offering. And everybody knows what a drink offering is. They're established in the Levitical law when God was building the nation of Israel, and we studied a lot of those things when we read through that part. And so they all know what a drink offering is. It was a part of their culture. In fact, in Leviticus, when the Bible talks about establishing the drink offering at a particular time of year, when the harvests are coming in, it literally says this statute will remain in place for all time. So everybody knew what a drink offering was. And so when David gives this drink offering to the Lord, it is an honor that he is giving, where he is acknowledging it was their shared bond of faith that makes them do these kinds of things for each other. And can you imagine? I just killed 47 Philistines fighting our way out of that. We bring this jar and we give it to him, he pours it on the ground. Like, bro, that is not why we fought our way through the Philistines. But they get it, they understand the significance of this. This meant that their gift and encouragement to David impacted him at an even greater way than they expected. They expected him to drink that and to express his joy, and they would see on his face, drinking from the water of that well, and all of that. That's what they expected. They got more than they expected. When he praised God for them and honored them, they knew what that meant because they share a faith. And so they do this for him, and both of them, the three guys and David, are giving honor to the Lord for this experience and this loyalty and this relationship that they have together. And that's what church bonds are supposed to look like. If we are bonded together by the blood of Jesus, then it ought to be a bond that is unbreakable and deep and is built on a joint faith in the person of Jesus. Now, one of the things I don't understand, and I never will, this is my third church to pastor as a full-time pastor. I did nine interims when I served with the with the state convention. The first church I went to, I followed a terminated pastor who split the church. The second church I went to, first Baptist and Cabot. The first was in Perigo. Second one, First Baptist Cabot, I followed two terminated pastors. Like who would do that job, right? I'm following two terminated pastors. Both of them had split the church. It was less than half of what it was. And then I came here following struggle as well. And so I've walked through these journeys, about uh four or five of the interims, of the nine interims that I did, I stepped into crisis situations. And it just, it, I just, there's a fundamental part of me I cannot understand that, if you know what I'm saying. I'm not being critical, but I mean, you know what I'm saying. You hear about a church struggling, churches struggle everywhere, it's a part of life. But just in my mind, as I'm walking through these journeys, I'm thinking, how can brothers get in this spot? It's again, I'm not trying to be critical. I hope you get the point I'm trying to make. The bond should be so deep that we do these battles for each other, not with each other, if that makes sense. There's a bond that should be there that is deep and it is it is illustrated by men who've gone to battle together. You've been around, you know me, whatever I talk often about being a World War II historian and all that. It's fascinating when you read about World War II because what happens, like in many wars, but especially in that one, because we were attacked and it was so egregiously shocking the way we were attacked at Pearl Harbor, that people were signing up and the patriotism was driving them, and guys were lying on their uh on their applications. I mean, they were volunteering at 16, they were turning 15-year-olds away. I mean, everybody was trying to go because we were fighting for our nation, and though, you know, though all the Nazis were evil, and the Japanese at that time were evil, and we're going to fight, and all this patriotism caused all these guys to sign up and all that. But as you study that war, what you find out is they didn't fight for patriotism. They fought for the dude in the foxhole next to them. This shift that occurs in battle, they signed up patriotism. We're gonna go fight, we're gonna rid the world of the Nazis, and we're gonna stand up for America because they bombed us and all that kind of stuff. But man, you get in battle, and the bonds that are forged are deeper in the battle, and they become the bonds of I'm fighting for the guy in the foxhole next to me. That's what happens. Now, I've not been there, but I've talked to enough guys, studied enough guys. Some of you guys are vets or nodding your heads. You get that, right? And that's these men. And so what you think about is as Christians, we're on mission. We are on the Great Commission. We are to be pleading for men and women, boys and girls that come to faith in Christ. We're supposed to be serving. We're supposed to be attacking darkness in the world. We're supposed to be leading people to Christ. We're supposed to be an army. An army. I hear people refer to church sometimes as a hospital, and I get what they mean, but that's not true. We're an army. Now we have a mash tent and a surgery unit in our church, and we should the way an army does, because we take care of wounded soldiers, but we're an army. We're advancing. We're fighting together. We're on our knees together. We're serving together. We're fighting against the devil together. We're pushing back darkness together. We're an army together. And we should have a bond that is bonded in the way these men are, that they would literally go fight the enemy to bring a drink of water that was a refreshment to their commander, to their brother at arms, really, is the picture here. Does that make sense? That's what church ought to look like. It's incredible. It's an incredible picture. It's one of the strongest pictures of what it ought to look like. So here's the thing I really want you to get hold of. With that in mind, that foundation in mind, here's what I want you to think. That kind of bond should raise us to inspirational levels of encouragement. Like we ought to be inspired to do things like that. Coming to church is not checking a box. It's not just drinking coffee together, and I think that's great, and we should be doing all that. But I mean, think about when's the last time you saw someone do something inspirational? Like they rose to the level of fighting through the Philistines to bring a jug of water from David's hometown to them. That's what church should look like. And it's best and most powerful. And stories like this should inspire us to more. We should be the most visionary, passionate people in the world. And we should be driven to like, I'm looking for opportunities to do things like this. I mean, we should be driven to that level of inspiration. And I have stories like that of guys in my life and people I've joined with to do that, and I don't necessarily want to tell them because I don't want it to be like me or whatever, but I want you to look at this story and you think who should I be inspiring like that in my life? Who should I be inspiring like that? I should be inspired to do. Something dramatic. Picture in this camp. David's like, hey man, where are those guys? Where'd they go? You know, he's going over and finding the commander of the 30. Like, where's the guys, man? We got a meeting, and everybody, like, I'm expecting, where are they? And then all of a sudden you hear this hubbub on the other end of the camp. And these guys are in awe. And what's happening? And these three dudes come walking up and they got blood stains on them. They're blood dripping from the scabbards of their swords. I mean, they're exhausted, they're nasty, they're filthy, they came from battle, and they got this jug of water. And all these guys watch them come walking in the camp, and they all come around and they're following these guys as they walk up there to where David's tent is, and they bring this jar, and this crowd is coming, following everybody, and they present this jar to David. Everybody was inspired. And these guys, you didn't have to tell them to do this. They heard an off-handed comment from their commander-in-chief and their brother at arms, and they thought, you know, we can do that. You know, we can we can speak into the life of our commander and our brother at arms, and we can do something. Man, this will blow him away. Nobody else can do this for him but us. But I mean, what in the world are we part of the 34 if we can't do this? We've been killing those stupid Philistines for years. Give me a break. Like we're gonna go get this done. And they come in and do this, and the inspirational level for them to attack this as a thing, to design this as an encouragement gift to David, and then the impact on those guys around them. Man, we need we ought to be inspired to this kind of activity, this kind of action. That's what church looks like. When you take a verse, iron sharpening iron, soul man sharpens the countenance of his friend, what's that look like? Well, that's what it looks like right there. That's incredible. And there should be this, there should be this vibrancy and this vision and this inspiration that just comes out of the Holy Spirit, giving us an attentiveness and a heart and a focus and a desire that comes from walking with Jesus. And then it becomes focused on the other people around us who are our comrades at arms because they're walking and serving the same Jesus that we are alongside of us. And this is a powerful picture of what it looks like. That's what encouragement should look like. When we use that word encouragement, man, this ought to be the image that we get. And it ought to inspire us to things. And it doesn't have to be so dramatic, we're going to kill all the Philistines on the way there. But it should be something that is fueled by selflessness and sacrifice. I mean, the Bible says they broke through the Philistine camp. It took effort to do what they were doing. It took a certain amount of knowing David and knowing that that was more than an off-handed comment to him. He was being nostalgic. It came out of probably exhaustion from battle, and the Philistines are still over there, and they're there, and we're here, and we got battle coming and all of that. And they recognize that in him and they're thinking about him, and there's a response that comes from him. That is something that we can do, and we're going to give some effort to this. I mean, picture those guys fighting their way through the camp. I mean, they weren't sneaking in, they were headed to that well. And one of those guys got to draw the water while the other two are fighting off all the Philistines. Right? I mean, you got to, you, the movie in your mind you need to make of this and see this. And they're fighting off those guys, and that guy's drawing the well, and I'm sure they're having a conversation. Hey, kill that guy, don't let him get that close. Shut up and draw the well faster, you know. And they're, I mean, get there, and they fight their way back out, and one guy gets jostled and battery, like, hey, don't spill the water. We're not having to go back to the well again. Like, take care of it, right? Well, then you fight them off and don't let them get close to me. And they're working their way back through this, and they're a team fighting their way back. And so it takes effort and it takes focus and it takes understanding who's around them. Here's a scripture that I use often. I'll close with this. We talk about often the triangle here and how we grow spiritually. And here's one of the scriptures that we use. In Hebrews chapter 10, the Bible says this consider one another and stir one another up to love and good works. What does it mean to consider one another? It means that you've thought about that person. Where are they in their journey? What do they need? How are they growing? Where are they stuck? What's in their life? I've spent time with them that I know enough about them that I can understand those issues, or when God lays them on my heart, I can process through that. And I'm considering them. It's the picture of these guys. And when David makes this off-handed comment, they know David. They've seen him in battle. They understand him. They understand his heritage and the pressure that he's under carrying everybody through this and all this stuff. And they recognize that and they think about him and they consider him. And they say, we're going to stir him up as a leader. We're going to encourage and strengthen him as a leader. We're going to fight our way through there. We're going to get that water. We're going to bring it back. We're going to bless him. They stir him up to love and good works. They do it because of a bond that they share with Christ. They are walking with the Lord together. They're in battle together. And they know each other and they sacrifice for each other in an inspired fashion. I love that story. I hope it becomes one of your new favorite stories in Scripture. Let's pray. Lord, we love you and we thank you. We know that the ultimate sacrifice, Jesus fought through all of the spiritual battles and sin and everything else to be the greatest warrior, to go to the cross, to defeat death and sin, to be raised again, to offer us victory. Your word tells us in 1 Corinthians 15, because of his resurrection and defeat of death, it has no sting, and in all things we are more than conquerors. But Lord, I thank you for examples in Scripture how that Jesus in us, that spirit that comes from walking with you, inspires us to be those conquerors. And as we see these three men and how they are warriors and conquerors, how they sacrifice to build up the people around them, and especially in this story, David. It'll stir something beautiful in us, visionary in us, exciting in us as men. That we we rise to these inspirational levels of walking with you and allowing that to encourage, impact, sharpen the men and the people around us. They leave excited and interested in your speaking to their heart. Bless the rest of their day, bless the rest of their week. I pray you'll bring us safely back together tomorrow night here at church or the guys that are other churches to their church on Wednesday night and then again on Sunday. We love you and we thank you for Jesus. In his name we pray. And everybody said,