Amen.
All right, well, I just want to start off by thanking Pastor Mahia for giving me the opportunity
to preach.
And I know Brother Mark was just mentioning Pastor and his prayer, so I'm going to come
up again to pray.
But I'm just kidding.
But the title of the sermon this evening is Don't Be a Usurper.
Don't Be a Usurper.
And you're there in 2 Samuel chapter 15 and you look down at your Bible, verse number
1.
The Bible says, And it came to pass after this, that Absalom prepared him chariots
and horses and fifty men to run before him.
And Absalom rose up early and stood beside the way of the gate, and it was so that when
any man that had a controversy came to the king for judgment, then Absalom called unto
him and said, Of what city art thou?
And he said, Thy servant is of one of the tribes of Israel.
And Absalom said unto him, See thy matters are good and right, but there is no man
deputed of the king to hear thee.
And Absalom said, Moreover, O that I were made judge in the land, that every
man which had any suit or cause might come unto me, and I would do him justice.
And as I said in the beginning that the title of the sermon is, Don't Be a Usurper.
And just as a way of introduction, I just wanted to define what it means to be a
usurper.
One of the definitions would be someone who ceases an office or a position of
power by force or without legal right or who is perceived to have done so.
And this is a problem we see nowadays and we've always seen it, you know,
wicked men in the Bible trying to overthrow the established authority,
undermining those that God put over to rule over the people, to lead God's
people, the flock of God.
And this is something that we don't want to be characterized as somebody
undermining the authority that God has already placed at church, at the
workforce, at home.
I'm referring to, you know, the wise usurping the authority of the husbands.
In any area of our life, we don't want to be somebody that usurps authority.
You don't want to be characterized as a usurper.
And just as a way of introduction, we see in the Bible that wicked
men such as Absalom, here he wants to overthrow King David.
He wants to be the one that holds the title King.
And like I said, this is something that we don't want to be characterized as,
but we see this throughout all the Bible.
And in one of the examples that I could think of right off the bat is people
that want to be a pastor by any means, right?
And that's one of the positions that people in church, when they go into the
ministry, that's what they hold and, you know, in a higher regards.
And as they should, you know, being a pastor is a privilege.
It's something that God has given to the church to oversee it,
to instruct his people, to teach the people the word of God.
And there are people that want the product without the process
by any means possible.
And a lot of times people want to be a pastor for several reasons,
but some people are just wicked and they want to do it for the wrong reasons.
Some of the wrong reasons that a person might want to be a pastor
is simply just to have the praise of men, you know,
have people call them by that title pastor,
or they want to have some kind of status, you know.
You know, in the new IV sometimes the pastors are well known
because of controversial sermons that, you know, they preach.
And it's not really that it's controversial,
it's just that they're preaching the whole counsel of God.
And a lot of people want that fame, they want that, you know,
that praise in a way that people, you know, they have them in high esteem,
but they don't want to go through the work that those pastors put in
in order to achieve what they have achieved.
You know, they just want to have that title as pastor.
Another reason why people become pastors, which is a wrong reason,
would be to have a large following.
And just because you become a pastor doesn't mean
that you're going to have a large following.
You know, not every pastor has a large following.
It's really only those that actually put in the work.
And another reason why people want to become a pastor sometimes
that would be a wrong reason is just to have people serve them, right?
Have people to do things for them.
And these are all wrong reasons why somebody would want to be a pastor.
And oftentimes there's people that, you know, creep on
unawares in the church and they want to overthrow
what God has already established in that church,
the person that they put, that God has put in that church
to be the pastor and they themselves want to hold that title.
And so go to 2 Samuel chapter 13.
2 Samuel chapter 13.
And so we see that, you know, when it comes to being a pastor,
this is all introduction.
The Bible says that this is a true saying.
If a man desired the office of a bishop, he desired a good work.
And so the Bible says that being a pastor is a good work.
It's not only a title.
It's something that requires a lot of work.
And a lot of people, unfortunately,
they want that title without the process.
They want the product without the process.
They don't want to put in that work.
You see being a pastor is not only something
or somebody that preaches three times a week.
You know, they're putting out content.
They're studying the Bible.
They're discipling people.
They're counseling people.
They're helping people with their marriages.
They're teaching people how to give the gospel.
They're motivating people.
You know, they're challenging people to do better.
And that requires a lot of work.
And a person that is a successful pastor,
sometimes people look at that and they say,
well, I want that as well.
But they don't put in the work, right?
If a person has a large following as a pastor,
it's because God has magnified them.
God has given them that ability to be able to reach the masses.
And it's all because of the work that they put in.
You see, if you become a pastor or anybody desires to be a pastor,
that's not a guarantee that you're going to have that following.
You know, you're not going to have the praise of men all the time.
And if you're only doing it for that reason,
you're in it for the wrong reasons.
And so here we see in the beginning that Absalon,
although he was a wicked individual,
you know, there are some things that he did in the beginning
that will go over in chapter 13.
But first of all, let me just go back to chapter 15.
Where it says that in verse number three,
actually go back to chapter 15.
I know I said go to chapter 13.
But go back to chapter 15.
Look down your vows at verse number three.
It says,
And Absalon said unto him,
See that matters are good and right.
But there is no man deputed of the king to hear thee.
Absalon said,
Moreover, all that I were made judge in the land
that every man which had any suit or cause
might come unto me and I would do him justice.
And so we see here that Absalon is creating basically,
there's a problem, right?
King David is not hearing your matters.
He's not really judging the people.
But if you come unto me, I will see that you get justice.
And so Absalon, what is he trying to do?
He's trying to steal the hearts of the people.
And this is a lot of things that we see out in the world,
you know, when people try to usurp somebody's authority,
you know, they go after the people that are
following the person.
And most of the time they go after people that are simple.
People that don't have that much wisdom
or the Bible refers to as simple or, you know,
just dumb, simple people.
Those are the people that they try to obtain
to follow them through flattery, through different means.
And so here we see that Absalon is doing such.
And, you know, this kind of reminds me of the old I.B.
when you have a church, right, an English ministry,
oftentimes the large church, and then other than them,
they have the senior pastor and then they have
the youth pastor, they have the Spanish pastor.
And oftentimes, you know, the one that's supposed
to be calling the shots and making sure
everything's in order is the one that is
the pastor of the church.
But then you have the Spanish pastor, you know,
doing his own thing, not really listening
to what the pastor wants him to do.
And this is something that we see that's not right at all.
And God is not pleased with that.
And I used to hate it, you know,
when there used to be like a church split
and then the Spanish pastor, what often would happen
is like, instead of just going under
some other pastor's authority,
he's just going back to a different church,
he remains a pastor.
And that's not right because the Bible shows us that,
you know, churches are supposed to start churches,
pastors are supposed to send out pastors.
But when there's a Spanish pastor
that remains a pastor without the leadership
of the main pastor, you know, that's not doing it
the way God intended it.
And the people that follow them, you know,
I would say they're just simple, they're stupid,
they're not really like knowing what the Bible says.
And they develop this admiration for somebody
that at the end of the day proves to be wicked
because if they were a righteous individual,
you know, they see the church split
and, you know, they would tell the people,
hey, you know what, you need to stay in that church.
You know, I'm not a pastor no more,
I'm not your pastor, this is the pastor of the church.
But when the church splits, as I'm saying,
and the Spanish pastor remains a pastor,
takes the people with them,
that's somebody that is usurping the authority of a pastor.
So go to 2 Samuel chapter 13, 2 Samuel 13.
And I'm going to finish reading here
in 2 Samuel chapter 15 in verse number five it says,
and it was so that when any man came nigh to him
to do him obeisance, he put forth his hand
and took him and kissed him.
And see, right off the bat right there,
that's like a red flag.
You know, if somebody's trying to,
you strip the authority and they're trying to flatter you
and then they just come to you,
it's like, hey, here, I'll hear you out
and they just give you a kiss.
Well, you know, you're like, hey, hey, chill, you know.
Like that should be like a red flag already, right?
You're not going to let some dude just give you a kiss
and say like, hey, you know, what's the issue?
Let me hear you out like, heck no, right?
So that's a red flag already in and of itself.
And then in verse six it says,
and on this matter,
the abstinence to all Israel
that came to the king for judgment,
so abstinence stole the hearts of the man of Israel.
And so here we see that he stole the hearts
of the man of Israel.
See, when people win over the people,
usually they do it by flattery, they win their hearts.
And that's why it's important, you know,
if you're in a position of leadership
that you win the heart of the people, right?
They trust you, you gain credibility,
not only as a pastor, but as a father.
You want to gain the credibility of your children,
have credibility with your children,
win the hearts of your children
so that if anybody tries to undermine your authority,
you know, they reject that opinion.
They reject that advice.
And unfortunately, sometimes as parents,
we fail to do that.
We fail to win the hearts of our children.
You know, we take it for granted
that God has given us several children sometimes,
and we don't do anything to win their hearts
so that when another person comes in to their lives,
whether it be like an uncle or grandparent,
any relative that they have,
you know, it's easy for them to follow them
instead of us.
And that's something that we have to work on as parents.
You know, this is not the subject of the sermon,
but you know, it is an area that we as parents
have to make sure that we cover,
that we win the hearts of our children
so that they can follow us
and not any other person
that tries to turn them against us.
And so in 2 Samuel chapter 13,
go there real quick with me.
Look down at your Bible as the verse number one.
It says,
And it came to pass after this,
that Absalom, the son of David,
had a fair sister whose name was Tamar.
And Abnen, the son of David, loved her.
And Abnen was so vexed
that he fell sick for his sister Tamar.
For she was a virgin,
and Abnen thought it hard for him
to do anything to her.
But Abnen had a friend whose name was Jonadab,
the son of Shimei, David's brother.
And Jonadab was a very subtle man.
And so here we see that this is what created,
you know, problems in the first place,
the fact that Tamar,
her brother, Abnen, was in love with her.
And it should have just ended there.
You know, he's in love with her,
okay, whatever,
but he could control what he does after that, okay?
First of all, it's not even right
to be in love with your sister.
That's already like,
you know, Pastor's talking about
being their friend, not weird.
That's already weird.
But, you know, it should have just ended there.
And then the Bible goes on to says,
but Abnen had a friend whose name was Jonadab,
and we see that he was a subtle man.
And through this friend, you know,
he was pretty much encouraged
to pursue that relationship
and ultimately force her.
And what we could get for this is that,
you know, we need to be careful
who we're friends with,
because oftentimes, obviously,
we're all sinners,
we all have temptations,
we all sometimes have the tendency to veer off.
But we need to surround ourselves
with people that would encourage us
to stay in the fight,
to stay in the course,
not somebody that's gonna enable us
to do what's wrong.
You know, if, you know, you have a home girl,
I'm talking to the ladies, right?
And you're having problems with your husband,
and then you surround yourself
with wicked women that say,
you know, you should dump that guy, right?
That's not pleasing to the Lord.
You know, that's somebody that's subtle,
that's somebody that, you know,
wants the worst for you,
and that's not somebody looking out
for your well-being.
You need to surround yourselves with women
that tell you, you know,
obey your husband,
you know, listen to your husband,
not surround yourself with women
who are loud mouths,
who are busy bodies,
you know, who get involved
in other people's matters.
These are things that we have to look out,
you know, you guys as women,
and not have those kind of friends.
Go with me to Proverbs chapter 13.
And the same goes with the men,
you know, we have to surround ourselves
with people that are, you know,
credible, that have successful marriages,
that are righteous people,
so that if we have any, you know,
idea, any thought of even ever doing anything,
wake it, they could tell us,
hey, you know what?
That's wrong, you know,
the Lord doesn't want that for you.
We need to surround ourselves
with people that will hold us accountable.
And I'm glad I have friends in this church
that will keep me accountable.
I can't just go to anybody
and just like throw something
while out there
and expect them to like enable me, right?
At the moment, I believe that all the friends
that I have right now,
if I were to think of something bad to do,
you know, they would talk me out of it.
And that's the kind of friends
that we have to have,
not people that are going to enable us.
And in Proverbs chapter 13,
looked down in verse number 20,
the Bible says,
wise men shall be wise,
but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.
And we see this oftentimes,
you know, with the women again,
you know, they have these bad friends
that instead of encouraging them
to stay with their husband
despite having problems,
because every marriage has problems
here and there, right?
But the important thing
is to resolve the problems.
But if you surround yourself with women
that, you know, have failed at their marriage
and then they tell you,
hey, you know what?
You should just leave them.
You know, that person wants you
to be destroyed.
If you ever get advice like that
for any of the ladies here,
you know, you should like rebuke them.
You should let somebody else know
so that we can rebuke them
and stay away from people like that.
Now go to 2 Samuel chapter 15.
2 Samuel chapter 15.
And I'm going to read to you
from 2 Samuel 15 verse number 10.
Actually go to verse number 10.
It says, 2 Samuel 15 verse number 10,
but Absalom sent spies
throughout all the tribes of Israel
saying, as soon as you hear
the sound of the trumpet,
then you shall say,
Absalom reigneth in Hebron.
And with Absalom went 200 men
out of Jerusalem that were called
and they went in their simplicity
and they knew not anything.
And so we see here
that He was able to gather 200 men
and it says that they went
in their simplicity.
And again, we see that
these are people that were simple
that followed Him.
And you shouldn't be a person
that, you know, somebody can look at you
and say, well, that's a simple person.
We should be somebody that's wise,
somebody that's prudent.
The Bible says that the prudent man
foreseeeth the evil
and departed from it.
And if you're simple,
you know, you're going to follow
a multitude to do evil
just like the people did here.
And in verse number 12,
it says,
In Absalom sent for a hitahil,
the Galo knight,
David's counselor from his city,
even from Galo while
he offered sacrifices
and the conspiracy was strong
for the people increased continually
with the Absalom.
So he was getting pretty much
momentum here to overthrow
his father.
Now go to 2 Samuel 18,
2 Samuel 18.
And in verse 13,
I'm going to continue reading to you
from verse chapter 15.
It says,
And there came a messenger
to David saying,
The hearts of the men of Israel
are after Absalom.
And number one,
we see that usurpers,
they pray on the simple.
I said that the prudent man
foreseeeth the evil
and hiding himself
but the simple pass on
and are punished.
And then sometimes they do go
after those that are closest
to the leader.
In this case, a hitahil
that was David's counselor.
And so people that want to overthrow
in this case,
you know, in this example,
the pastor,
they're going to go over to the,
they're going to go
and try to reach those
that are closest to him.
And we have to,
you know,
nip it at the bud
when whenever we see these things
happening
when somebody has
kind of that vibe
of them trying to overthrow
authority,
you know,
they despise authority,
we need to be able to identify
and to let somebody know
so that it won't go
beyond that.
Because oftentimes problems
like this
get bigger
because it doesn't get handled
at the very beginning.
And we don't want to
create this environment
where there's like clicks,
there's like little groups
or facets forming in the church.
You know,
as we get bigger,
obviously there's going to be
more clicks per seger groups
of people.
Because you're going to click
with other people naturally,
but we don't want to be
the type where it's like,
oh, this group is always
by themselves
and they're always,
you know,
plotting,
you know,
plotting to do evil.
We don't want to have that
in our church.
You know,
like just weird people
and we don't want to have
weird people in our church.
One people that are normal,
right?
Any person that's weird
eventually gets exposed
because it's pretty hard,
you know,
to be a weird person
in our church.
You know,
you're pretty much
on your own at that point.
So go to Numbers chapter 16,
Numbers chapter 16.
And I'm going to read to you
from 2 Samuel 18,
before I move on.
So you know,
what's the end of
Absalon?
Obviously,
he's destroyed.
He's not successful.
And when it comes
to his sister Tamar,
obviously,
he started off
and he ended up killing
his brother Abnan.
And then later on
in 2 Samuel chapter 18,
the Bible says in
verse number nine,
and Absalon met
the servants of David
and Absalon rolled upon
a mule
and the mule went
under the thick
bowels of a great oak
and his head caught hold
of the oak
and when he was taken
up between the heaven
and the earth,
and the mule that was under
him went away.
And so we see that
and then later on
Joab takes the three darts
and then he kills them,
right?
And we see that
at the end of the day,
Absalon wasn't able
to fulfill what he wanted
to do
and that was to overthrow
his father David.
And you know,
this is what's going to
happen to those
that try to overthrow
authority.
You know,
God is not pleased
with those that despise
the media
and despise government,
people that hate authority.
And sadly,
you know,
we live in a day and age
where a lot of kids
they want to throw
the authority of their parents.
You know,
one day,
we were young too.
You know,
now we're all old.
No, I'm just kidding.
But now we're older,
right?
And at some point,
we did think that
we knew more than our parents.
And as we get older,
now that we have our children,
we realized our parents knew
a lot more than us.
You know,
and a lot of things,
even if they weren't saved,
they had some wisdom to them
that they were able to
convey to us
that we should have followed.
You know,
a lot of the mistakes
that we made,
you know,
if you made any as a teenager
was because you didn't
listen to the instruction
of your father or mother.
And so we want to be able to
raise up children
that don't develop this attitude
of wanting to usurp our authority.
You know,
at home,
we don't want to create
an atmosphere where,
you know,
our children see our wife
usurping our authority.
You know,
the husbands go out to work
and when we're at work,
the wife is in charge of the home.
You know,
she's able to tell the kids
what to do.
But at the end of the day,
as a father,
as a husband,
we have the last say.
When it comes to any
decision that we make.
Now go to number 16.
Number 16,
let me show you another
usurper in the Bible
by the name of Quora.
Never name your children Quora,
right?
Or Absalom.
There's a lot of ladies on that list.
I'm going to have to make that font
smaller and out on the bulletin.
But you know,
never name your kids Quora.
Look at verse number one here.
Verse number one,
it says,
Now Quora, the son of Ishaar,
the son of Kohath,
the son of Levi,
and Thaython,
and Abiram,
the sons of Eliab,
and An,
and the son of Peleth,
the sons of Reuben,
took men.
And they rose up before Moses
with certain of the children of Israel,
250 princes of the assembly
famous in the congregation,
men of renown.
And they gathered themselves
together against Moses
and against Aaron,
and said unto them,
ye take too much upon you,
seeing all the congregation are holy,
every one of you,
and the Lord is among them,
wherefore then lift ye up yourselves
above the congregation of the Lord.
And so here we see again
another example of men
rising up against the leadership.
And we know Moses to be
the friend of God.
He was the meekest man on earth.
He was a respectable individual.
He was a man of God.
And so we see Korah
and a group of men
trying to overthrow him.
And it says that they took 250 men.
And they're telling Moses,
you know,
why can't everyone in the congregation
basically do what Moses is doing?
But here's the thing,
in a church setting,
you know,
there's one pastor,
right?
And there's one pastor
that's leading the flock.
We can't all be pastors.
We can't all be,
you know,
in charge here.
In our church,
we have pastor,
we have the soul-winning team leaders,
we have members,
we have different ministries in our church,
but we all can be
doing the same job at church.
And I don't think it's right
for anybody to,
you know,
desire the position of somebody else
because you should be content
where God has put you.
And here we see that Korah,
he was not content
with what he was supposed to do.
I looked down in verse number 8.
The Bible says,
And Moses said to Korah,
Here I pray you,
ye sons of Levi,
seemeth,
but a small thing unto you
that God of Israel
has separated you
from the congregation of Israel
to bring you near
to himself
to do the service of the tabernacle
of the Lord
and to stand before the congregation
to minister unto them.
So he says unto him,
you know,
seemeth,
but a small thing unto you.
See, he had his own responsibilities.
And the way we could apply this here
is that,
you know,
at church,
at home,
at your job,
you know,
you have your own responsibilities
that the people
in Charter have given to you
and you should be content with that.
You shouldn't seek to overthrow
somebody else that's over you.
Right?
There's this thing,
I forget what it's called,
but basically
the way somebody,
sometimes overthrows,
somebody at a company
is that they slowly start taking upon
like themselves the task
that that person is responsible for.
If another person
has a certain amount of task
and then the person
under them,
they start like,
hey, you know what?
Let me do that for you.
And then they start taking over that task
and then that task
and then that task.
A lot of times
they're often doing that
because they want that position.
Right?
And they're doing it subtly,
but this is something
that we shouldn't do.
You know,
stay in your lane.
If you're told to do
a certain amount of tasks,
a certain job given,
that was given to you,
be content with that job.
Don't be somebody
that tries to overthrow
the people that are above you.
And so here we see
the example of like
in a church setting,
we all have different functions.
We all can't be in charge.
We all can't be doing the same thing.
Not everybody's going to be
a so many team leader,
but we need to be able
to support those
that are over us.
Now go to,
go to 1 Corinthians chapter 12.
Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 12.
And so I'm saying
that Quora,
in this case,
usurpers of authority
are not content with
where with God has them.
And in 1 Corinthians chapter 12,
look down at verse number 14.
The Bible says,
for the body is not one member,
but many,
if the foot shall say
because I am not the hand,
I am not of the body,
is it therefore not of the body?
And the ears shall say
because I am not the eye,
I am not of the body,
is it therefore not of the body?
If the whole body were an eye,
we're with the hearing.
If the whole we're hearing,
we're with the smelling.
But now had God set the members,
every one of them in the body,
as it had pleased them.
And so the point I'm trying to make
is that serve God where you're at.
If you just got saved,
get plugged into church,
learn how to give the gospel,
learn how to be a team player,
support your team leader.
Pray for them.
One of the best ways
that you could show your support to them
and it's just by showing up
for so many.
No team leader here wants to,
on a Sunday,
and realize
that nobody's going to go out so many.
That's not a way to support your team leader.
If you want to be an asset to your church,
be here on time.
Be here on service days.
Be here when the church doors are open.
Be consistent.
And the thing about soul winning,
a lot of people oftentimes,
well not a lot of people,
I would say we have a good amount
of introverts here,
but the best way to make friendships,
long lasting friendships,
is by going out and soul winning.
Why?
Because when you're with your partner,
you get to know them,
you get to laugh,
you get to create memories,
you get to share experiences,
learn from them.
These are ways that you can make friends
in our church.
And so what I'm trying to convey here
is that you need to be a team player.
You know, don't worry about being
the one in charge,
worry about supporting
the person that's above you.
And in this case,
pray for your team leader.
Show up.
Now Core and his company,
you know, they were questioning
the leadership of Moses
and you know,
it just reminds me of people
that always complain,
you know,
why is this person in charge?
Why does this person get to do this?
You know,
be content where you're at.
At your job,
whatever position you have,
be content with that position.
You know,
be the best that you can
in that position.
And it really doesn't matter
what you're doing for the Lord
in the sense of like,
wherever you're serving,
you have to do it
as unto the Lord.
And God sees that.
God is going to reward you.
God is going to reward
your consistency
and your faithfulness.
Now go to,
go back to first,
go to number 16.
Go to number 16.
And this kind of reminds me too,
there's churches
and different denominations where,
you know,
they rotate the pastors
like every five years.
And then they do this.
And I know this because like,
I have family that are SDAs,
you know,
seven-day Adventists,
and they rotate the pastor
every five years
so that the people there
doesn't develop
like some kind of
like loyalty to the man
instead of God.
And that's the reasoning for it.
But you know,
if the pastor is following Christ,
you know,
we could follow the pastor, right?
If the past man of God
is following Christ,
we should be able to follow them
as they follow Christ.
Now the pastor ever,
for some reason,
and I don't think that would ever happen
with our pastor,
you know,
God forbid,
but if you were to,
you know,
eventually,
you know,
fall into sin or whatever,
is we still got to follow Christ.
You know,
if I were to fall into sin,
get away from church,
get out of church,
my kids should still follow Christ.
Right?
Because at the end of the day,
they're not following me,
per se,
they're following Jesus Christ.
Now I think I told you
go to Numbers chapter 16.
Look down in verse number 28.
The Bible says,
And Moses said,
Hereby ye shall know
that the Lord has sent me
to do all these works
where I have not done them
of my own mind.
If these men die,
the common death of all men,
or if they be visited
after the visitation of all men,
then the Lord had not sent me,
but if the Lord make a new thing
and the earth open up her mouth
and swallow them up
with all that appertain unto them,
and they go down quick into the pit,
then ye shall understand
that these men have provoked the Lord.
And it came to pass
as he had made an end
of speaking all these words,
that the ground clave
asunder that was under them,
and the earth opened her mouth
and swallowed them up
and her houses,
and all the men that appertain
unto Korah
and all their goods,
they and all that appertain
to them,
went down alive into the pit,
and the earth closed upon them,
and they perished from among the congregation.
And so here again,
we see that the usurper
eventually is destroyed.
And in this instant,
you know, he was destroyed
in a crazy way.
Like the earth literally opened up
and hell swallowed him up alive.
You know, that's how much God
hates those that try to usurp authority.
Now go to first Kings chapter one.
First Kings chapter one.
I'm going to give you
another example of another usurper.
And so the Bible is filled with people
that try to always overthrow
the man of God.
And here in first Kings chapter one,
like down to verse number five,
here's another son of David.
It says that then Adonijah,
the son of Haggath,
exalted himself,
saying,
I will be king
and he prepared him chariots
and horsemen and 50 men
to run before him.
And that's another characteristic
of somebody that is a usurper
is that they exalt themselves, right?
They try to like praise themselves,
magnify themselves.
Whereas the Bible says
in Joshua 414 on that day,
the Lord magnified Joshua
in the sight of all Israel
and they feared him
as they feared Moses
all the days of his life.
Now go to Luke chapter 14 real quick,
Luke chapter 14.
And so somebody that tries to
pass as a figure of authority,
you know, they're going to exalt themselves.
And the Bible always says
that let the other man praise you,
not that own lips.
So you don't ever want to be this person
that is constantly praising yourself, right?
You never want to say,
well, you know, I'm pretty much
like the best soul winner
or, you know, I'm pretty much
like the best looking sibling
in my family.
No, I'm just kidding.
But it's not that much of a competition.
No, it's okay.
But like you never want to be
one that praises yourself.
And in Luke chapter 14
and verse number 11,
the Bible says for whosoever exalted himself
shall be a base and he that humbleth himself
shall be exalted.
So the way to be exalted by God
is by humbling yourself,
serving quietly.
You know, one day if God wills,
he's going to magnify you.
And you don't want to be like Adonijah,
the son of Haggath,
the Bible says exalted himself.
Now go to first Kings,
go back to first Kings chapter one.
Now continue reading chapter one,
verse number six,
the Bible says and his father
had not displeased him
at any time insane.
Why has thou done so?
And he also was a very goodly man
and his mother bear him after Absalom.
And he conferred with Joab,
the son of Zariah and with Abayathar,
the priests and they following Adonijah
helped them.
But Zadok, the priests of Benaiah,
the son of Jehoida and Nathan,
the prophet and Shimei and Rai,
and the mighty men which belong to David
were not with Adonijah.
And so we see Adonijah with self-will
and that's a quality that we don't want
for somebody that's trying to be a pastor,
somebody that's just self-will.
Right, in order to be able to
serve as a pastor,
serve as somebody that has
a position of authority is that you
need to be learned to be under somebody else.
You should learn to follow other people.
You should learn to take instruction
for other people and not just automatically
expect to be a person
with a position of authority.
And so we see in the beginning,
Saul was chosen to be king,
David was chosen to be king,
and they both fought their battles
in their day.
But Adonijah, I don't think
believe we ever see him fighting any battles.
And so he wanted the product
without the process.
He just expected this position
without ever putting any work.
Now go to,
well you're in First Kings chapter 1,
look down at verse number 25.
The Bible says,
For he has gone down this day
and had slain oxen and fat cattle
and sheep in abundance.
And I called all the king's sons
and the captains,
and the captains of the host
and a biathor of the priests
and behold they eat and drink before him
and say, God save king, Adonijah.
And we see the same thing with
Absalom, you know,
they both wanted to put themselves
above David.
They wanted to overthrow their father.
I looked down at verse number 39.
The Bible says,
And Zadok the priest took a horn
of oil of the tapernacle
and anointed Solomon.
And they blew the trumpet
and all the people said,
God save king Solomon.
And all the people came up after him
and the people piped with pipes
and rejoiced with great joy
so that the earth rent
with the sound of them.
And so we see that Solomon
was actually the one that was
set as king and not Adonijah.
And you know,
this is pretty humbling for him
because even though he thought
he was going to be the one next,
he was going to he was going to be
the one that was to be king.
We see that God put Solomon
as the king of Israel.
And so what a humbling thing
for it for that for that to happen
to him.
And this kind of reminds me too
when, you know,
with Bible college graduates, right,
that without ever putting any work,
you know,
what do they expect after graduating?
You know,
just to have some type of leadership
position.
And it does happen oftentimes
because of the requirements
in the old IB
sometimes are not,
you know,
that great, you know,
as long as you have a degree of some sort,
you're able to be a pastor.
You know,
I know pastors from the old IB
that had no kids,
whereas the Bible says,
you know,
you need to have faithful children.
And so there are things that people
from the old IB do
that obviously are wrong,
but because they want that product
so bad
without ever going through the process.
Now,
go to First Timothy chapter two,
First Timothy chapter two.
And so the first three serpents
that we saw was
Absalom,
Adonijah,
and Korah.
And these are all people
that try to throw
overthrow the man of God.
You know,
another type of usurper
that we can see in the Bible
that is pretty clear
that the Bible condemns
is women pastors, right?
These are people that
try to overthrow
the office of a bishop.
And before I get into this,
you know,
I just want to say
that we do see a pattern,
like I said,
of usurpers,
you know,
that the main thing
that they want
is the title.
They want the authority
without putting the word,
without going through
the proper channels.
And so women pastors
is the same thing,
you know, they want to be
over the flock of God.
And the Bible clearly says
that let the woman
learn in silence
with all suggestion,
but I suffered not a woman
to teach
nor to usurp the authority
over the man,
but to be in silence.
And so God is a God of order,
right?
At the home,
he's put the husband
as the head of the home
and the wife
is supposed to submit to him.
And in the church,
God has put,
you know,
a man
to be in charge, right?
We're never going to have
a woman come up here
and preach
a whole sermon
or anything like that.
You know,
that would be,
you know,
that would be crazy,
first of all.
But I want,
I kind of want to show this
because this is something
that if I still,
oh, they don't,
they took it down.
So we got this
at Hobby Lobby, right?
Not just kidding,
but it says,
let the woman
learn in silence
with all subjection.
And so if you want to
get one of these,
you can go to Hobby Lobby,
not just kidding,
but I think somebody
gave this to our church,
but it's funny because,
you know,
every time that,
like I'm cleaning the
restaurants,
I see this in there
and I was like,
oh, that's always
a good reminder
for the women
in the church, right?
And, you know,
this is something that,
you know,
I encourage everybody
to have,
you know,
because sometimes
people forget,
you know,
and I think it's
important,
you know,
as a lady,
you know,
if you ever do forget
for some reason,
you didn't read
your Bible that week,
when you go into our
restroom,
you're going to read this,
right?
So it's a reminder,
just a little
plug there,
if you want to buy one
and you can use
my promo code.
Not just kidding,
but, you know,
these are verses
that are in the Bible
that clearly teaches
that the man
is in charge,
right?
We're never going to have
women pastors,
we're never going to have a
woman,
you serve the authority
of a man in our church.
Right.
Now go to Revelation
chapter two,
verse 20,
and the Bible says
in verse 20,
now it's standing,
I have a few things
against thee,
because thou
sufferest that woman
Jezebel,
which called herself
a prophetess,
to teach and to seduce
my servants to commit
fornication
and to eat things,
sacrifice into idols.
Idols.
And, you know,
women pastors,
I don't think it's a thing,
it's not even a thing
in the IFB
and, you know,
independent Baptist churches
I think in Southern
Baptist churches
they might have it,
but we see this a lot
in Pentecostal churches,
right?
And I've never been
in Pentecostal church,
but I adjourn by them
and you could always see
a lady just up in the
pulpit just,
you know, preaching
and, you know,
that's something that,
you know,
God forbid ever happens
in our churches.
Now go to 1 Corinthians
chapter 14,
or actually go to
Ephesians chapter five,
Ephesians chapter five.
I'm going to read to you
from 1 Corinthians
chapter 14,
it says,
let your woman
keep in size in the churches
for it is not permitted
to them to speak,
but they are commanded
to be under obedient
as also say the law.
And they will learn anything.
Let them ask their husbands
at home for it is a shame
for women to speak
in church.
And so here we see
God's instruction
for the wives.
If you have any question,
you know,
let them ask their husband
at home, right?
They're not supposed
to just speak up in church
and say amen,
and, you know,
try to usurp the authority,
try to usurp the service.
You know,
that's why as a husband
you should be able
to teach your wife the Bible.
You should be able
to teach your children
the Bible.
And don't be one
of these husbands
where, you know,
your wife knows more than you.
And I remember, you know,
back in the day,
I think it was like
one of the red hots
where I was at
and I was with brother Alex
and there was a lady,
you know,
there was a couple
that were just dating
and the guy was actually
asking the girl,
his girlfriend
at the time,
it was embarrassing.
You know,
what does the Bible say
about this?
You know,
as a guy,
you kind of get,
you know,
like this feeling like,
damn,
that's freaking like embarrassing,
right?
But you don't want to be
characterized
as somebody like that
where your wife knows
more than you.
As a husband,
you do want to know
more than your wife.
Even if you just,
both recently got saved,
you should put in the work
to be able to teach your wife.
There's no excuse for it.
Now, Ephesians chapter five,
it says in verse 22,
it says,
wife, submit yourselves
into your own husbands,
as unto the Lord,
for the husband
is the head of the wife,
even as Christ
is the head of the church,
and he is the savior
of the body,
therefore,
as the church
is subject unto Christ,
so let the wives be
to their own husbands
and everything.
And you know,
I hope the ladies
never get tired of hearing
these verses, right?
Because it's in the Bible
and we're going to keep preaching it
because we live in a day and age
where other pastors
are no longer preaching that.
And our pastor
preaches that constantly
because he's trying
to help the guys out, right?
He doesn't want your wife
thinking that it's ever okay
to serve our authority.
And you should be thankful
that we have a pastor
that constantly hits on this.
Every other service
throw it in for good measure,
less women should forget.
We shouldn't care
what other people think,
the haters and all that stuff.
If they want to be
ruled by their wives,
let them be ruled by their wives.
But our church,
you know,
we as men,
we're going to rule our wives.
We're going to be the ones in charge.
Now go to
Isaiah chapter 14.
I'm almost done.
Isaiah chapter 14.
And so here,
I was just making the point
that as wives,
you shouldn't,
you serve the authority
of your husband.
I also brought up
at the fact in the beginning
that kids
should not,
you serve the authority
of their parents.
And that's why it's important to
be careful
with who you let
around your kids.
You know,
be careful with that
uncle,
with that on.
You know,
back in the day,
you know,
you have relatives
that your parents
have a set of rules
for you at home.
But then there's always
that uncle, right?
That says like,
well,
if you come here,
you can do this.
You know,
just tell your parents
you're going to come
with us
and then they let them
go to a party
or something.
That's why you got to pay
attention to
who's around your kids.
You don't want them
to be around grandparents
that spoil them, right?
When they're kids,
it might be like
funny or like you,
you know,
they give them candy
here and there.
But you don't want them
to be around grandparents
that will usurp your authority,
right?
You need to be the one
that's in charge of your children.
So be careful
who you let around your children.
You know,
God gave us our kids.
We're responsible for them
as long as they're
in our home.
And we want to make sure
that, you know,
they learn to do it right
and they learn to know
who's in charge.
Now I'll go to,
I think I'll tell you
go to Isaiah chapter 14.
Another usurper
that we see,
and this is the last one,
would be Satan, right?
And this is the,
you know,
Satan would be
the biggest usurper
that we see in the Bible.
And this is in Isaiah 14
in verse number 12.
How art thou falling
from heaven,
a usurper,
a son of the morning?
How art thou cut down
to the ground
which did is
weakened the nations?
For thou hast set in thy heart,
I will ascend unto heaven.
I will exalt my throne
above the stars of God.
I will sit also
upon the mount of the congregation
in the size of the north.
I will ascend
above the heights
of the clouds.
I will be like the most high.
Yet thou shall be
brought down to hell
to the size of the pit.
They that see thee
shall narrowly look upon
thee and consider
thee, saying,
Is this the man
that made the earth to tremble,
that did shake kingdoms,
that made the world
as a wilderness
and destroyed the cities
thereof,
that opened not
the house of his prisoners?
And ultimately,
Satan,
the biggest usurper,
is going to be
destroyed in hell.
And here we see that,
you know,
Satan wanted to be
like the most high.
And so any person
that has this characteristic,
they're being like the devil,
right?
They're trying to usurp
the authority
that God has placed
in our lives.
And go to Matthew chapter 14.
Go to Matthew chapter 14.
And what does Satan want?
He wants people to worship him,
right?
He doesn't want people
to get saved.
He doesn't want people
to come to the knowledge
of the truth.
He wants people
to follow him.
And that doesn't necessarily
mean that they're going
to worship him
in the sense that
they're all going to be
Satanists.
No.
He's content with people
which is never getting saved,
with people which is being
part of a false religion,
with people which is
being distracted,
you know,
by their phone,
by anything,
by any means,
the whole point
that Satan,
the whole goal and mission
of Satan is for people
not to get saved,
not to go to heaven.
And for those that are saved,
you know,
his main goal is,
you know,
to disarm them,
to render them useless,
right?
To distract them enough
to where they don't do
anything great for God.
And go to Matthew chapter 14.
Look down in verse number 8.
The Bible says,
again, the devil
taketh him up,
the friends of Jesus,
into an exceeding high
mountain
and showeth him
all the keenness
of the world
and the glory of them.
And saith unto him,
all these things
will I give thee,
if thou will fall down
and worship me.
Then saith Jesus unto him,
get thee hand Satan,
for it is written,
thou shalt worship the Lord
thy God and him only
shall thou serve.
And so here we see,
this is what God,
it was Satan tells people,
you know,
hey, worship me
and I will give you this.
And we see music
made about this,
you know,
about them worshiping
Satan
and them getting
what they wanted.
You know,
this is what Satan wants.
He wants to be God.
He wants to have,
you know,
he wants to be
in the place of God
and receive praise and worship.
And just like the other
you servers
that we saw today,
Absalom and Korah
Adonijah
and these women passers,
they're like the devil
in the sense that they want
to usurp the authority
that God has placed.
Now go to Revelation chapter 20.
What is the end of Satan?
Revelation chapter 20.
The Bible says in verse number
one,
And I saw an angel
come down from heaven
having the key of the bottom
of this pit
and a great chain in his hand
and he laid hold
on the dragon,
that old serpent,
which is the devil
and Satan bound him a thousand,
is the devil and Satan,
excuse me,
and bound him a thousand
years and cast him into the bottom
of this pit
and shut him up
and set a seal upon him
that he should receive
the nations no more
till the thousand years
should be fulfilled.
And after that
he must be lost
a little season.
Now skip down
verse number 10
and it ends with
and the devil
that deceived them
was cast into a lake of fire
and brimstone
where the beast
and the false prophet
are and shall be tormented
day and night
forever and ever.
And so God is never
going to allow
your serpent
to just,
you know,
live out their days.
In this case,
Satan eventually will go to hell,
go to the lake of fire.
Now go to 2nd Thessalonians 2.
2nd Thessalonians 2.
And what's the sermon tonight?
It's just to not be a usurper.
You know,
anywhere that you're at
at your job
in church
at home
for the women,
don't usurp the authority
that God has placed
in your life.
You know,
don't exalt yourself.
Don't praise yourself.
You know,
humble yourself
and follow those
that are above you.
Now in 2nd Thessalonians 2,
lastly,
we see the Antichrist 2,
where it says in verse number one,
Now we beseech you,
brethren,
by the coming of our Lord,
Jesus Christ,
and by our gathering
together unto him,
that ye be not soon shaken
in mind or trouble,
neither by spirit,
nor by word,
nor by letter,
as from us,
as that that day
of Christ is at hand.
Let no man deceive you
by any means
for that day shall not come,
except there come a falling
away first,
and that man of sin
shall be revealed
the son of perdition
who opposes it
and exalted it.
Again,
it says exalted himself
above all that is called
God,
or that is worshiped,
so that he as God
sitteth in the temple
of God showing himself
that he is God.
And again,
we see this characteristic
which is constantly
exalting yourself.
So the characteristic
of the usurper,
if you remember
anything from the sermon
or get anything,
is that they hate the authority
that God has in place.
You know,
they rally up the simple,
you know,
by flattery.
That's how they obtain
their positions,
and then they obtain
a position of power
by the seed and force.
So number one,
what can you do?
First of all,
don't be a usurper.
And if anybody comes to you
trying to overthrow,
you know,
those that are over you,
first of all,
don't be simple,
you know,
don't be stupid,
don't be dumb,
and get some wisdom
so that you could be able
to discern
when somebody's just
trying to flatter you.
You know, flattery is
oftentimes goes
like unnoticed
if you're not like
really paying attention.
And you should be honest
with yourself
to be able to like
identify flattering
because sometimes,
you know,
we take it as compliments,
but it's really just flattery.
You know,
don't flatter yourself
as well,
don't flatter yourself.
So learn to discern
flattery,
don't be a usurper,
and just be a team player.
You know,
whatever you're doing
in our church,
keep doing it
as unto the Lord.
You know,
I'm thankful for all the people
that help out,
for those that help to clean,
to set up,
for those that are in the teams,
you know,
supporting the team leader.
You know,
these are all things
that we all do
to serve Christ,
but we do it
as unto the Lord.
If it ever comes to our head,
you know,
like I'm not really pleased
with what I'm trying to do,
then go through the proper channels,
put in the work.
You know,
try to do your best
to be faithful
where you're at
and consistent
so that one day
God will magnify you
and exalt you
and put you in another position.
But until then,
you know,
just serve quietly,
be consistent,
be faithful.
So the title of the sermon,
like I said in the beginning,
it's just don't be a usurper.
And with that,
let's pray.
And we follow the Lord
thinking for this day,
thinking for everything
that you've given us, Lord,
for our pastor, Lord,
for our great church.
I pray the Lord
that you continue to use us
as a church
that we be able to
save those
that are in our city
and the city's surrounding.
And I pray the Lord that you
continue to bless our church,
have your hand over our pastor,
keep them safe.
I pray the Lord that you
continue to use us
in a mighty way
so that we could
continue to do
great things for you,
help us to reach
that goal
of 12,000 salvation
by the end of the year.
And I pray the Lord
that you would use me
and everybody else
to serve
in the position
that we have right now
and be content
with everything
that you've given us, Lord.
Thank you for everything again
and in the praise
in Jesus' name, amen.