A Horse Is a Horse, of Course! | September 7, 2025 PM

Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives.

The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist

Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us

or contact us at my libertybaptist.org or just look

us up on Facebook. And now we hope that this

message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.

Please turn to Second Samuel chapter #8 this evening as we

return to our series in Second Samuel chapter #8 as we see that

David was a man after God's own heart, and we'll be looking at

that this evening from the text in Second Samuel.

Chapter #8 I'm going. To repeat some lyrics to a song,

and I'm going to ask you to finish it.

I have a feeling I'm looking at this crowd.

I think that you're going to be able to know exactly what I'm

talking about. Are you ready?

A horse is a horse, of course, of course.

And no one can talk to a horse of course.

That is, of course, unless the horse is the famous Mr. Ed.

All right, that's good. So a lot of you knew that.

Michelle, did you know that? All right.

You had no idea what we were talking about.

All right, I knew what that was. You know, a horse is a horse.

I mean, talking horse. Mr. Ed.

You know, what did Mr. Ed say? Mostly was?

Oh, Wilbur, you know, was mostly.

I don't think I've ever done that from a pulp, and I hope I

never do it again, to be honest with you.

Yeah, that's good. Thank you for finally amening.

That's a blessing. You know, I mean, who wouldn't

want a talking horse? I mean, really, who wouldn't

want a horse in general? You think about it, No, I

understand there's a lot of expenses that go into having a

horse. In fact, it can be very

expensive to be able to care for it and to feed it and to stable

it. My understanding is that can be

a very very pricey venture to be able to actually take care of a

horse to. Own one on your own, but.

Of course we're talking about David this evening.

And if the issue of David having a horse or multiple horses,

well, David I wouldn't say had unlimited resources, but David

had quite a bit as far as resources didn't he didn't have

unlimited amounts of money, but I would say he was very, very

wealthy. Well, David had the opportunity

to amass to himself a large amount of horses, a large amount

of horses to be able to bring these into, not just into his

Kingdom, but really to bring them and fold them into his own

defenses and his own military for Israel.

And really, in many ways, it would seem like a no brainer for

David. He had the resources, he had the

abilities, and he has these horses that could be added to

him, which would be very, very helpful militarily speaking for

the people of Israel. But David not only passed on

having those horses, he passed on them in a very graphic way.

And we're going to look at what that is here in just a moment.

Well, the issue that David dealt with with these horses was very

much of the time we'll see that the issue that David's talking

about here rather the David is dealing with is not something

that we deal with here in 2025. Sure, we still have horses

around. We're familiar with what horses

are, but horses being used in the military is certainly not

something that is pertinent today other than maybe more of a

decorative nature or maybe just for some very specialized uses.

But in general, you know, tanks have taken the place of the

horse, the iron horse, if you will, in almost every situation.

But while it might seem that the situation is irrelevant by, you

know, several 100 years, and of course, looking at around 3000

years from our text, that really what the horses represent,

really what we see that David is dealing with goes far beyond

horses. It goes far beyond any type of

animal. And it is very, very relevant to

where we are today. So I'm looking forward to

getting this text. So why don't we go ahead and do

that? Let's all stand together for

Second Samuel chapter 8. Second Samuel chapter 8.

2 Samuel 8 · chapter mention 2 Samuel 8 · chapter mention

We'll begin reading in verse #1 it says.

And after this it came to pass that David smote the Philistines

and subdued them. And David took meth gamma out of

the hand of the Philistines, and he smote Moab and measured them

with a line, casting them down to the ground.

Even with two lines measured, he put to death and with one line

to full, one full line rather to keep alive.

And so the Moabites became David's servants and brought

gifts. David Smote also had a Deezer,

the son of Rehab the king of Zoba, as he went to recover his

border at the river Euphrates. Now note this.

And David took from him 1000 Chariots and 700 horsemen and

20,000 footmen. And David hawked all the chariot

horses, but reserved of them for 100 Chariots.

And when the Syrians of Damascus came to sucker Hadadeezer, king

of Zoba, David slew the Syrians 2 and 20,000.

Men. Then David put garrisons in

Syria of Damascus, and the Syrians became servants to David

and brought gifts, and the Lord preserved David whithersoever he

went. What we saw in the previous

chapter, when I preached a few weeks ago, we saw that David had

a time of rest. Well, that time of rest is over

and he's back to war and we're going to look at some of these

conquests, but particularly this issue of having horses and

Hawking horses. What's Hawking a horse?

Why is it important? Why?

What does it have to do with us? And I hope and pray we can

answer those questions as we go along.

So why don't you be seated and let's pray together.

Heavenly Father, do thank you for this night.

And I do pray that you would just help me to be able to

convey what's in this text to. Be able to explain what is the

happenstance here with these animals.

And Lord, at the same time, help us all to understand that the

issue here, although it's not something that would be dealt

with today, couldn't be any more relevant to our own lives.

It's something that we deal with very, very often.

So I pray that you would just help us as we look at this

passage and look at it in some ways in its obscurity, but at

the same time, know that it will help us right here, right now

where we are. And we do ask this in Jesus

name, Amen. Like I mentioned in Second

Samuel chapter #7 a few weeks ago, we were last in our series,

we saw that David had the Davidic covenant given to him.

Of course, it wasn't called the Davidic covenant that time, but

it was a covenant that God made with David.

That was the fact that he was going to be able to have a

lineage and he was going to have land.

Do you remember that that the land was that reconfirming that

the promised land belonged to the people of Israel?

Remember, that is a promise that has not expired.

And we talked about why is relevant in world events even

today, but then also the day would have a lineage, meaning

this, that there was going to be a line of kings that would come

from his family. And that the ultimate of that is

maybe he did not understand at that time, but we understand by

looking at Bible prophecy, we understand the fulfillment of

that is Jesus Christ. And someday Jesus Christ will

set up his Kingdom here on this earth for 1000 years.

And so we looked at that a couple weeks ago, and that was

given to David during a time of rest.

But yet as it is often times in life that, well, there's seems

to be times of rest, but then, well, kind of life starts

happening again, doesn't it? That's just often times the way

that it is. And that was the way for David.

Because here in chapter #8 it says that after this came to

pass, meaning after that Davidic covenant was given, there were

some more battles that took place.

And verse #1 is mentioned almost just really as an aside.

It's not even mentioned as a very big deal, but it's actually

a very big deal because it mentions in chapter one that

David smote the Philistines and subdued them.

Now remember, it wasn't that long ago that the Israelites

were in hiding from the Philistines, that the

Philistines had made that major incursion into Israel, that they

had come into Israel at the death of Saul, and that now

David has overthrown the yoke of Israel, or rather overthrown the

the yoke of the Philistines on Israel.

But he's gone beyond that. Now it's not just that the

Israelites are free, but he's now, you know, taking the fight

to the Philistines. It's not just they're defending

themselves and trying to restore their own land.

He's pushing into the Philistines territory and

mentions here meth gamma. But we if you were to go to and

you don't have to turn their first Chronicles 18 one, you'll

find that David pushed all the way and took Gath.

Now Gath was the capital of the people of the Philistines.

And so for this time, David has completely subdued the

Philistines. Now this, this isn't my message,

but let's dwell on this for a moment.

What a different from Saul's reign.

What a difference that just a few years makes Saul, who left

the Philistines alone. Because instead of chasing the

actual enemy, the Philistines, he was chasing David around the

wilderness for years, wasn't he? And he left the Philistines

alone. They grew in power.

And it ended up causing great havoc and great harm to the

people of Israel, including at the expense of Saul's life and

all of his sons. Now David realizes who the real

enemy is, and they real enemy were the Philistines.

And So what does he do? He not only protects the people

of Israel, kicks them out of Israel, he continues the fight

and brings it all the way right into the heart of the land of

the Philistines, brings it right to Gath and the Israelites win

the day. It's an absolutely incredible

thing. Verse #2 mentions that then he

moves on to the people of Moab and that he takes Moab and

actually mentions here that they he deals very harshly with them.

It says that he smote them. He measured them with a line,

casting them down to the ground. Even 2 lines he measured he put

to the death and with one full line to keep alive.

And it seems that after he captured the land of Moab, but

he took the the military that he had captured and some lived and

some died. And it seems very harsh because

in many ways, remember that David is a great grandchild of a

woman who came from Moab. Do you remember that?

We're talking about Ruth? And so it seems like, wow,

David, why would you treat them so harshly?

And, and we don't know all that goes into this verse, but even

just doing some study and even looking at Jewish history, and

of course, Jewish history is not the Bible.

We know that the Bible is true from cover to cover.

But when we look at history, it can give us some light and some

understanding. But we don't always know that

it's exactly true. But there are some maybe

historical indications that when David was on the run, his

parents went to Moab. Now that is in the Bible that he

had his parents go to Moab, Jesse would have been.

The grandson of Ruth. And so they hid there.

For a while, and it could have been that and history suggests

that perhaps they were mistreated or perhaps maybe even

died at the hands of the Moabites as their way of trying

to Curry favor with Saul. So it very well could be that

David goes to Moab. And again, this is not vengeance

that he's taking out on them. Remember that these are people

that are not supposed to be in the promised land.

These are people that were supposed to be have cleared out

of the promised land far before the Moabites.

But the Israelites did not obey God's command here.

David is just obeying the commands, the Lord, and very

likely that he is also executing justice for some things that

have been done to the people of Israel and perhaps even his own

family. Basically, he's taking care of

business again that Saul did not take care of previously.

So what happens verse #1 the Philistines, verse #2 Moab.

But then in verse #3 it says that David Smote had it easier,

the son of Rehab, the son of the king of Zoba, as he went to

recover the border at the river Euphrates.

Now, if you're thinking in your mind of a map and you consider

where Israel is on that map, and you look to the West, what do

you see? To the West?

You would see the Mediterranean Sea, the great sea, they would

have called it. We call it the Mediterranean Sea

today. Now, if you were to look to the

east, you would see the Jordan River, and then if you were to

continue to go to the east, you'd go all the way to the

river Euphrates. And in that void, in that space

between the Jordan River and the river Euphrates would have been

the land of Gilead, where the 2 1/2 tribes of the people of

Israel would have lived. But then you'd also find that

there would be the the country of Syria, there would be also

other nations air W effects Syrians and Damascus is

mentioned in verse #5 but in that same area of Zoba is

mentioned. Had it easier.

Now remember, if we were to go back and look not just at the

Davidic Covenant, but we're to go all the way, way back to the

Abrahamic covenant that God promised Abraham not just the

land, but he, he gave the deed to the land in the sense that he

said what that land would be. And when you look at the

different covenants and you put it all together, really you see

that. Remember we talked about this a

couple weeks ago, that really in many ways it's from the river to

the sea. That's why it's such a affront

when those who use that term, that phrase, those Palestinians

who say from the river to the sea and use it as a phrase of

genocide, which again, that's the way they use it today.

It was really a promise of God to the Israelites because you go

all the way to the river Euphrates.

It belonged to the people of God all the way to the sea, all the

way to the border of Egypt. It all belonged to the people of

God. The deed was given to them by

God. And so now here in chapter after

three and beyond, we see that David says this.

I'm just going to trust God that he's going to give us the land

that we don't possess yet. But he's already promised to us.

And so he goes on this military campaign and he doesn't just go,

he wins. And then the Syrians get

involved. There's some men from Damascus

and some other areas and they try to help and they lose as

well. David wins the day because he

trusts in the Lord, as it says in verse number six, that God

preserved him wherever he went. David's just taking the word of

God for what it is. And he says, Lord, you said this

land belongs to us. I trust you that it belongs to

us. And he goes and he fights and he

wins. So it's from this campaign, this

campaign to the River Euphrates, which comes the issue of the

horses. And what's the deal with these

Hawking of horses? Well, again you see it just

mentioned briefly in verse #4 look at it again with me.

It says, and David took from him 1000 Chariots and 700 horsemen

and 20,000 footmen. And David hawked, I know that

word. The word looks like hauged, if

you will, but it's hawked. He hawked all the chariot horses

but reserved of them 400 Chariots.

So we see in this verse Davidde plunder.

David took 1000 Chariots, he took 700 horsemen, he 20,000

footmen and this isn't David Hawk chariot horses.

So David in capturing what he does, he captures Chariots and

he captures our horses out. Interestingly enough, we don't

have a number of the horses that are given.

We see the number of the horses that were preserved, which were

very few, but we don't know how many horses.

I would suggest to you it was a very large number.

Now again to you and I, we think of horses, we mostly think of

maybe agriculture or racing. I mean, that's most of the

applications that we have for horses here in our day, or just

recreation, if you will, if you were to go to a farm or

something like that. But horses in those days had one

primary use. Not that it was the only use,

but one primary use in those days and those times.

And they were animals of war because, as I just mentioned a

few moments ago, they could make a great difference on a

battlefield where there were no tanks.

Horses and Chariots were the tanks of the day.

Why? Well, because they were fast.

Imagine on a battlefield, having a sword, being on a battlefield

and having a bow and an arrow. Imagine coming against a horse

and a chariot. It would be.

It would be a very bad thing for the one who was on foot.

It would be very bad. Why?

Because they're so fast, they're so maneuverable.

They were armored. I mean, you could hit that arrow

and it wasn't that the fact that or you could rather shoot that

arrow. You wouldn't hit the arrow, but

you could shoot that arrow and what would happen?

It will be very unlikely to be able to harm the rider of the

chariot. He's protected by the chariot.

He probably also has armor on himself.

So the fact is, if you could even hit the man on the chariot,

you'd have to hit him at the speed that he's going, at the

direction he's going, the armor he's going.

They were almost invulnerable. Not completely, but they were

almost invulnerable. And maybe most importantly, when

you look at these horses and look at these Chariots, maybe

more importantly than all of these things, they were in short

supply. Because if one nation has tanks

and another nation has tanks, you can kind of be the stand

off, can't you? But if one nation has horses and

Chariots and the other have none or very few, it's very, very

likely that the nation with horses and Chariots will be the

one that will put the other nation to the worst.

Oh yeah, If you had horses, you're in good shape.

You had Chariots. You weren't invincible, but you

were pretty near invincible. Here's David.

He goes on a campaign, first to the Philistines.

He wins, Then he goes to Moab and he wins.

And now he's understanding that God is blessing.

He understands that God is doing things that only God can do.

And he says, you know what, I'm going to continue to trust God

in a major way, and I'm going to apply the promises that were

given to our people in the past. So we're going to go all the way

to the River Euphrates and we're going to continue the military

campaign. They win again.

Syria gets involved, they win again.

Over and over they win. And in the plunder, in

everything that happens, they end up inheriting, if you will,

through the spoils of war, horses and Chariots.

Listen, Israel will never lose again.

They will never lose on a battlefield again, because not

only have they won victory after victory, but now they've got

these horses and Chariots that almost nobody else has, and they

have them in abundance. And so David does the opposite

thing of what we would think. And he Hawks.

The horses. He basically makes the horses

unusable for war. Now, maybe you've heard that

term of a Hawking of a horse before.

Sometimes it's called hamstringing.

Of a horse. The idea of it is that the

hamstring of a horse is cut. In fact, doing some research

I'll just read this. Hamstringing involves cutting

the large sinew or tendon in a horse's hind leg, which impairs

its ability to run or pull heavy loads like Chariots, effectively

ruining it as a War Horse. Importantly though, this did not

render the horses completely unable to stand, graze, or move

slowly. They could still function for

basic purposes, but we're no longer viable for military

purposes. You know, he didn't kill the

horses. What did he do?

He made sure they would never be able to use a military campaign

again. Now, listen, if you were Hawking

the enemy's horses, that made sense because you don't want the

enemy to be able to use the horses again in battle.

But if you have received the horses as spoils of war and you

could incorporate them into your military, why on earth would you

take this seemingly amount of invincibility?

And throw. It away a horse that couldn't

even handle a chariot. Maybe you've seen someone in

sports or maybe it's happened to you yourself here or there where

you pull the hamstring. And I'll tell you this, it's

painful. It hurts.

And on top of that, if you're running and pulling a hamstring,

you're not going to run anymore, not until it's healed.

And the difference between pulling a hamstring and having

the hamstring cut is quite different.

The hamstringing of a horse, the Hawking of a horse means it will

never participate in a military campaign again.

So why on earth? Would a king who just received

the gift of near invincibility in battle throw it away?

Listen, on its face, it makes zero sense unless you understand

that to David, the horse wasn't just a horse.

Of course, trying to work that in somehow, all right?

The issue was the horse really wasn't about the horse.

There was an issue that was far greater at play that David had

in mind. See, David wanted David had the

ability by incorporating these horses and Chariots within his

military of near invincibility. But I would submit to you.

That he already had that. Why?

Because he had something greater than a horse and a chariot.

He had God Almighty. He didn't need the horses.

He didn't need the Chariots. Why he had got, listen, he'd

been doing fine before the horses and the Chariots.

It's not like he was struggling before.

Why? Because he was aligned with the

God of the universe that the God of the universe said, you go and

you honor me and you follow me and you will win over and over

again. He didn't need the horses, and

he was afraid that if he kept the horses, his trust would be

in the horses and not in the God who created the horses.

That's not just conjecture on my part.

That's not just me reading into the text.

There are several mentions in the Old Testament where it was

important for a king to understand who he was, trusting

it. And literally the comparison was

made between trusting in God and trusting in horses.

Again, I know for us you don't even think about that today,

boy. I trust God or I trust a horse.

You probably don't think about that very much, but to them it

was a very real thing. Follow me for just a second.

Deuteronomy 17, verses 14 through 16.

Deuteronomy 17:14–16

You don't have to turn there, but just follow me as I read.

When thou art come unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth

thee, and shalt possess it, and shalt dwell therein, and shalt

say, I will set a king over me, like as all the nations that are

about me. Thou shalt in any wise set him

king over thee, whom the Lord thy God shall choose one from

among thy brethren. Shalt thou set the king over

thee. Thou mayest not set a stranger

over thee which is not thy my brother.

Now listen. But he shall not multiply horses

to himself, because the people to return to Egypt to the end

that he should multiply horses. For as much as the Lord has said

unto you, you shall no more or you shall henceforth return no

more that what that day as Moses is preparing the people to go in

the promised land, God has told them, someday you're going to

ask for a king. I know because you're

disobedient. Someday you're going to ask for

a king. And when that king comes, I'm

going to give you some guardrails to help that king to

understand how he should lead. And one of them was this, don't

multiply horses to yourself, meaning this, don't breed them.

And then he mentions Egypt. Did you hear those mentions of

Egypt? And that text said, what does

that have to do with Egypt? Well, Egypt would oftentimes be

breeders of horses themselves. And so basically the Lord is

telling the King. Listen, you don't need to breed

the horses. You don't need to buy the

horses. Trust me.

You don't need to breed the horses yourself.

You don't need to go to Egypt and buy the horses.

Just trust in me because I will protect you.

Psalm chapter 20, verse #7 which, by the way, was penned by

Psalms 20 · chapter mention

David some. Trust in Chariots, some in

horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God.

That's powerful, isn't it? Psalm 33, verses 16 and 17.

Psalms 33:16

There is no king saved by the multitude of an host.

A mighty man is not delivered by much strength, and horse is a

vain thing for safety, neither shall he deliver any by his

great strength. David had read, David had heard,

and then David wrote about the fact that trust must come in the

Lord, not from any other entity, that no other entity can give

safety. No other entity can give

strength. It is only God who gives safety

and strength. And listen, there are things in

this life that do give safety and strength, but it's only

because God has granted it to them, because those things can

give safety and strength until they don't.

That's why you don't put your confidence in man.

That's why you don't put your confidence in things.

That's why you don't put your confidence in items.

That's why you don't put your confidence in horses.

You put your confidence. In God, and there's nowhere else

that it belongs. And that's why verse 6, the

final phrase is so important. Look at it again I just

mentioned a few moments ago. And the Lord preserved David

whither so ever he went. It wasn't the horses that

preserved him. It wasn't the Chariots that

preserved him. It was the God of the horses.

It was the God of the Chariots. It was the God of Israel.

No, David understood, I don't need these horses, I need God.

I don't need these Chariots. I need God.

So when is a horse not a horse? When it represents something

that becomes your trust. More than God.

A horse is no match for having God's protection, and there's

nothing else that's any match for God's protection either in

your life. A horse is no match for God's

protection, and there's nothing else in your life that's any

match for God's protection as well.

Now I'm going to answer a question that might be rolling

around in your mind right now. Well.

OK, I see what you're saying. What you're saying, you know,

you're saying I should throw away my gun.

I mean, I'm sure nobody in here carries.

But anyway, are you saying I should throw away my gun, get

rid of my Ring doorbell, cancel my security system subscription?

Is that what you're saying the Bible says?

And my answer is absolutely not. Did David disband his military?

Did David say I trust the Lord so much that I don't even need a

standing army? Not only did he not do that, God

never commanded him to do that. No, no, we don't.

We're not talking the absurdity of saying that we were becoming

pacifists and, well, we'll just let God do everything and that

that's what we're looking to do here.

No, the Bible doesn't teach that.

The Bible doesn't say that, do we?

No, no. Where do we find that in the

Scripture or anywhere else in the 66 books of the Word of God.

Remember, it says in Psalm 2027, some trusted Chariots and some

in horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God.

You know, this is not an issue of having them.

This is an issue of trusting in them.

No, this is not the issue of having them.

This is the issue of trusting in them.

Listen, there's nothing wrong with being able to protect

yourself with a firearm. Amen.

There's nothing wrong with being able to protect yourself by

having a home security system. There's nothing wrong with being

able to protect yourself by knowing who's at the door when

they knock on the door. There's nothing wrong with that.

But listen, when you trust in those things more than you trust

in God, then you have gotten the emphasis in the wrong place.

You put the order wrong. David, who was so concerned that

the people of God would end up giving the glory to the horses

instead of God, said we don't need those horses.

So we're going to do what we need to do to be able to let

them graze in the field or do some agricultural purposes, but

we won't use them with Chariots. We won't use them.

Because we're afraid our trust will be in the horses and

instead of God, it's possible to have firearms security and

defense measures and that be your trust.

It's also possible to have the exact same things and God to be

your trust. So the issue is not a having

them issue, it's a heart issue. Let me say that again.

It's not a having them issue to have things.

It's an issue of a heart issue. Am I trusting in them more than

I'm trusting in God? So when you think about it, 3000

year old issue is as relevant today as it was back then.

Do you have issues with trusting in horses?

I don't. I've ridden a horse a few times.

I don't know that I trusted it, to be honest with you.

But that's not what we're talking about.

We're not talking about trusting a horse with our safety or our

life or the life of our nation. But I will say there are plenty

of things I deal with and that you deal with that.

We acquire that. We have that.

If we're not careful, we will trust them more than we trust

God. Can I give you some examples?

Finances. Isn't it good to have finances?

I think it's important, isn't it?

I mean, I like going to the grocery store and, you know,

having money, to be honest with you, because you can only eat so

many free samples and go home before they want you tell you,

you got to go. All right.

Even at Costco, there's a limit. You know, finances are, are, are

good. God has given you finances to be

able to do some of the things you need to do and meet some of

the needs of life. But I will say this, when you

get to the place where you believe money will insulate you

from life's problems, or you get to the place where you believe

finances are the more important thing of your life, and

decisions are being made not by what God wants to do in your

life, but by finances. You're spending what you spend

on or what you don't spend on. Listen, you have ended up

trusting in finances like David was afraid he would trust in

horses. First Timothy 617 says charge

them that are rich in this world that they be not high minded nor

trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God who giveth us

richly all things to enjoy. I love the I love the

juxtaposition. I love the contrast of those

two. He says don't trust in uncertain

riches, but he says this, but trust in the living God who

gives us all things richly. Meaning this, you want to be

rich in this life, it's not going to come from what's in

your pocketbook or your wallet, It's going to be from God

almighty material possessions. We often think that owning more

houses, cars, gadgets, secures our future, but these things

rust, they decay, and trusting them over God leaves us empty.

It's amazing to me, the push and pull, and I think I've mentioned

this before, people who own their own home and who rent A

home. Many times when people own a

home, they say, you know, I own a home, I have equity.

You own a home, you have equity that you're able to own

something yourself and it means something.

And I look at people who own and that's what I think of.

I'm spending rent money every month and it's just like you're

lighting money on fire, you know, You're not building

equity. You're not.

But there's an amazing amount of people, believe it or not, when

they retire in our apartment complex that move to our

apartment complex. You know what they say, I don't

have to worry about property taxes.

I mean, you still do, but it's baked into the rent.

I don't have to worry about repairs.

You know, I've never paid for a roof that hit close to home for

some of you. You know what?

I've never had to pay for home repairs.

Since we've moved in our apartment.

I've had a, we, we've had a, a refrigerator go down, a

dishwasher go down, a washer and a dryer.

The only thing we've got left is the oven and we'll have a whole

new set. And you know, we've never paid

for one of them out of our own pocket.

Oh, sure, we paid for it through our rent, but never through our

own pocket. So it wasn't a time where, oh

boy. Well, what?

What, you know what, I don't have time for this bill.

I wasn't expecting to pay this $1000 bill right now, or maybe I

should put it on credit. All those things.

It's just it's baked into the cake of my rent.

And there's sometimes people who own, look at people who rent and

say, wait, you don't do landscaping, You don't mow your

own yard. You could.

You can put in a a maintenance request and go out for two or

three hours and come home and it's fixed.

And they look at the people who rent and say, wow, look at you.

And the people who rent, look at the people who own and say, hey,

look at you. Listen, you know what the bottom

line is? Material possessions are just

possessions and they rust and they decay.

Don't put your trust in those things.

Matthew 619. Lay not out for yourselves

treasures upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt.

We can trust in our own health food, exercise.

It's good. It's good to take care of

ourselves. It really is.

I know we joke around about it sometimes, but it's good to take

care of ourselves. But listen, there are some who

trust so much in their healthcare regimen.

There's some who trust so much in their their exercise

routines. There's some who trust so much

in those things that listen they have made it into a God and

first Timothy first four verse 8 says for bodily exercise

profiteth little. One of my favorite verses of the

Bible. Doesn't say it doesn't profit,

it just says a little OK. But godliness is profitable unto

all things, having promise of the life that now is and that

which is to come. Listen, we better be careful

putting our trust in people. People, people let us down

sometimes. We want people to protect us.

We want people to help us. We want people to give us all

the answers. And again, I'm not saying that

we shouldn't have some level of that within our own lives, but

listen, when it gets to the place where we don't go to God,

but we go to the trusted confidant, you need to hawk that

horse. You need to be careful what

you're doing when we go to that trusted confidant looking for

counsel more than trusting that we can hear from the Holy Spirit

in our own life. Now again, God has given us

counselors to blessing. Book of Proverbs says in the

multitude of counselors, there's safety.

I thank the Lord for that. But if you have taken your

multitude of counselors and have elevated them to the place of

receiving answers and not God, then you're putting your trust

in the wrong place. Listen, we can turn our spouses

into those as well. Those of us who are married, we

can look at our spouse and and we can look at them to answers

that we can look for them for comfort.

We can look for them. For our.

For our. Own identity, we can look for

them for all of those things and realize, listen, my identity

comes from God alone first. We can even look to our spouse

for our spiritual walk with God. And while I would say this, once

you're married, your spiritual walks are linked together.

We're all individually accountable before God.

Look up here, please. Hey, pay attention, guys.

What do we need to do? We need to know that, well, I

can't put more faith in my spouse than I do.

And my God, I know that may not be an issue for everybody, but I

do know this. It can be a problem.

Listen, you shouldn't put that much faith in your pastor.

See, Who are you talking about? Oh, I see a shadow back.

They actually see a couple of them back there because the way

those lights are. Listen, I'm thankful that that

you, you look up to me. Many of you do I'm, I'm thankful

for that, but I'm just a person. I deal with sin just like you

do. Now I do take, I do take it

seriously and I want to, I want to follow the Lord in a way that

to be like Paul who said follow me as I follow Christ.

It's important to me that I have a right relationship with the

Lord. So I can model that for you.

But again, I can fail you. I can disappoint you now on the

other side of that you can so trust in me that that that you

asked me pastor, what should I do?

And there are many times that people ask me about what they

should do. And my first question would be

this. Have you prayed about this yet?

What has the Lord told you that you need to do?

Can I pray with you about this? Why?

Because you can't allow your trust to be placed in me to the

place that as your spiritual leader here in this church, that

did you hear from me before you hear from God.

You know, hawk that horse. People will let you down.

We can trust our knowledge and our intellect.

Our mind is a gift, but leaning solely on our own understanding

is a fool's errand. We can chase answers and books

or logic, yet miss the truth that surpasses understanding.

Proverbs 3 five and six. Trust in the Lord with all thine

heart. Lean not in that own

understanding. In all that ways, acknowledge

Him and he shall direct that path.

But we get so caught up in the things that we've learned, the

things that we've known. Listen, even when we get older,

we can almost trust our life experience.

Why? I've lived this, I've seen this,

I've done this, and we almost have this, no pun intended,

horse sense within us that we feel like we know what's going

to happen before it happens because we've lived life a

little bit. And listen, we can elevate that

intuition above even our walk with God if hand in hand with

that self-reliance. We, you know, it's, it's amazing

to me, the younger generation today that they can't do

anything without help. It's amazing that that's that's

not always the case, but it often times is the case that if

you were to ask them to do something, they have no idea

what they're do what they don't even know they can't even

fathom. There were there were 18 year

old men going to war in World War 2 and an 18 year old man

today, 18 year old boy basically knows how to start up his PS4

and how to play Call of Duty. That's not all of them.

Again, I want to be careful that I don't own over generalize, but

you understand there's been a generational shift in our

culture. There's no doubt that we can say

that. And so I say those of us again

who are. Older, and maybe even those who

are younger that don't fit into that mold.

We can get into this place where we get a little bit smug in our

self-reliance. Look at what I can do.

Look at what I can handle. But I will tell you this, we can

end up relying so much on our own strength that we isolate

ourselves from God's strength. Well, what do we need to do?

It's a horse. You got a hawk?

Got a hamstring? It.

Our trust is in God and God alone.

I've heard it said before, and I've repeated it here before

many times, that an idol is anything you have to check with

before you do God's will. An idol is anything that you

check with before you do God's will.

Meaning this that we think idols are silver and gold that we bow

down to, but really, we can create a God out of anything,

including ourselves. So what do we need to do?

Do whatever we need to do to make sure our trust is in God.

1st. Before anything else, by the

way, trust means this. You put your whole support, you

put your whole weight, you put your whole being on something.

That's what trust is. I've told you before, I'm afraid

of heights, and I'll tell you if I've gone on a ladder.

We have a couple different ladders we've had here over the

years. We have one that's metal.

I don't like going on it, but I'll tell you this, I'm pretty

sure it'll hold together. Now, I may not hold together on

the ladder going up 10 feet, but the ladder will hold.

I trust it. It's firm, It's steady.

We had a wooden ladder here for some years that we eventually

got rid of. But every rung that you went up,

it felt like you were going through an earthquake on San

Andreas Fault. It was shaking everywhere.

You know what? I didn't want to be on it.

Why I didn't trust it. I didn't want to put my weight

on it. And often times the way we can

tell whether we trust God or not is, are you willing to fully put

your weight, if you will, on him?

Well, I trust in the Lord, but I'm also going to try to do

things my own way too. One of the ways we'll end up

working out. Well, that shows you really

don't trust the Lord. You're trusting your own way of

doing things. Well, I, I trust what God's

going to do, but I'm going to, I'm going to have a couple

different exit strategies just in case.

Listen, Just trust. In the Lord, I'm not talking

about being foolish. I'm not talking about being

unwise. Even the things that I mentioned

are all good things in themselves.

Do you think self, do you think self-reliance is good?

To a point? Absolutely.

Do you think knowledge and intellect is good?

The Bible tells us we're to be knowledgeable.

We talked. About it this morning.

To be knowledgeable in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Do you think it's good to have friends and people in your life,

a pastor, a spouse? If that's what God has done for

you in your life, do you think those are good things?

Yes, to be healthy, yes. To have material possessions,

Yes. To have finance, Yes, these are

not. Sinful things, what is sinful is

when they come to a level above God in your life and you trust

in them before you trust in God. Those are things that you have

to hamstring and say, you know, if I trust in my finances more

than God, how do I remedy that? If I trust in other people more

than hearing from the Lord in my own life that the Holy Spirit

can teach me through His word and through prayer, prayer, how

do I remedy that? Maybe there's someone that you

need to remind yourself, you know, when I'm in trouble.

Maybe I shouldn't call them, at least not right away, or text

them. You know, when I panic.

Maybe I shouldn't just spend money like a drunken sailor.

And maybe I should just get on my knees and ask the Lord what I

should do before I do anything else.

You know, when I have a situation when I don't know what

to do, maybe I shouldn't just Stew on it for hours and hours

just trying to work out all the possibilities and trying to

figure out the best way to handle things.

Get on the phone, call this person, call that person, and

try to set up all the different contingency plans to try to

figure it out and just stop and get on your knees.

Say, Lord, I trust you. That trust doesn't mean I'm not

willing to work. That trust doesn't mean that I'm

not willing to. Talk to other people for

counsel. But that trust means this.

I'm fully leaning on you first and foremost, and I will only

lean on someone else or something else once you direct

me that way. Maybe mentally you need to go

through all of God's provisions in your life, everything that's

God's given you, and say this. Do I trust this more than I

trust you? Do I trust this friend more than

I trust you? Do I trust my money more than I

trust you? Do I trust my possessions more

than I trust you? Do I trust my job more than I

trust you? Do I trust my own abilities

before I trust you? And whatever the answer is.

Make whatever remedy you need to, to make sure, whether it's

hamstringing it or whether it's making sure that you have some,

some guard rails in place to make sure you don't go to those

things and run to those things before you go to the Lord first.

But listen, if you're going to run, run to the Lord in my mind.

As I finish up, I think a Gideon, Gideon had 32,000

people. Now against the Midianites, they

had about 150,000. Gideon was down 4 to 1.

Now again, not knowing much about the military, those are

bad odds, but God whittled down 32,000 to 300.

You know, about 150 to one, actually, more than that.

Why would God do something like that?

Well, because it really didn't matter if it was 32,000 or

10,000 or 300, God could bring the victory.

Whether it was 30, 2010, 1300 or three.

God could have brought the victory.

But God brought it down to a place where it was ensured that

the people of Israel could make no mistake, that God was the one

who did it. So I'll tell you this.

This is my admonition to you, and I'll be done.

It's best for us to go through our own mental inventory of what

we're trusting in and make corrections now before the Lord,

like Gideon, has to take things away from us.

Oh, you have a lot of money, and you trust in that more than me?

Well, maybe you won't have that much money.

Uncertain riches, trust in people more.

Or maybe that person will move away.

Maybe it'll be a rift in a friendship.

You trust, you trust in in some other entity.

Maybe that entity will no longer exist.

But what do we need to do? Well, trust him more than

anything else. So when's a horse not a horse?

Well, when a wallet's not just a wallet or a house isn't just a

house or any other entity is not just that, when anything takes

the place of our trust in God, listen, it's out of order and

we've got to get it right. Thank you for listening to the

sermon from the pulpit of Liberty Baptist Church.

If this message was a blessing to you, or if there's any way we

can serve you, please let us know by contacting us at

[email protected]. Or you can visit us this Sunday

at 800 Washington St. in Easton, MA.

May the Lord bless you as you grow in His Word.