Obedience sounds simple until fear, pressure, and convenience crowd the soul. We sit down with Trevor McMahan to examine why “obedience is better than sacrifice,” how Saul’s half-measures cost him favor, and why David refused to strike a fallen king. Through the story of the Amalekites and the ripple effects into the book of Esther, we unpack the law of sowing and reaping, the difference between gifts and favor, and the quiet wisdom of honoring God’s timing. It’s a timely call to resist outrage culture, stop platforming division, and choose the harder path of unity and prayer.
Trevor shares how divination isn’t just sorcery—it’s trusting any voice over God’s voice. That lens reframes leadership failures, our response to messy churches, and the temptation to weaponize discernment. We explore why leaving an unhealthy environment doesn’t require burning it down, why God can still work through imperfect vessels, and how a heart like David’s protects calling without compromising truth. Expect scripture, context, and a practical, pastoral tone that aims to heal rather than hype.
We also step into the tender ground of suicide—naming the lying voice, rejecting the myth of an unpardonable label, and speaking directly to anyone standing on the edge. Trevor offers a grounded testimony from street outreach and a prayer for freedom, worth, and life. If enemies once held a corner on iron, God held a corner on David; that same hope meets every listener who feels outmatched today. Subscribe, share this with someone who needs courage, and leave a review to help others find a lifeline. Then tell us: where is God inviting you to choose obedience, unity, and hope this week?
Loving Yeshua/Jesus, Loving people... Come as you are and you will be loved!
Feel free to check out our website by typing in lifearoundthefire.com or Life Around The Fire ... We think you'll find some beneficial stuff to look at and apply to your life.
Shalom to you and your home.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:44):
Howdy folks, I want to welcome you back to another
episode of Life Around the Fire.
And today in our studio, we havea real treat, man.
This is one of my favoriteteachers, preachers that I've
come across recently.
And he is here live with ustoday.
And his name is Trevor McMahon.
And we've gotten to know eachother over the course of the
(01:06):
past year.
Feels like I've known himlonger.
And that's one of those things,kind of a koin and near
relationship, a real commonbond.
And I'm really thankful for him.
And he's become a regular and isgoing to remain a regular on
Life on the Fire.
And so today he's going to bepicking up from Matthew chapter
15 and covering chapter 16.
It's going to be a two-partmessage today.
(01:28):
So, Trevor, welcome back,brother.
And I don't need to say anymore.
You just go ahead and have out.
You have free reign, bro.
SPEAKER_01 (01:34):
Amen.
SPEAKER_00 (01:35):
All right.
SPEAKER_01 (01:37):
Thank you, thank you, my brother David.
I say my brother, I mean myfriend of my brother David, who
I love deeply and I appreciate.
I want to start today in 1Samuel 15, but before I do, I
want to speak about perspective.
Because perspective trulychanges everything.
(01:59):
Through this life that we live,it's a fallen world, and
everything in this world triesto conform us to that
fallenness.
But God has made it different.
(02:20):
Now in the Old Testament, theydidn't really have that
perspective, so we have theability to look back and try to
see what God was trying to do inthe mess that was going on.
And so I want to start off withthe verse Galatians 6 7.
It says, Be not deceived, God isnot mocked.
(02:40):
For whatsoever a man soweth,that shall he also reapeth.
That is so powerful to thinkabout.
And whenever you look throughthat lens, that God is judged,
that God is not mocked.
You cannot mock God, thatwhatever you sow, that whatever
(03:00):
you plant a seed, whatever thatseed is, that that seed will
make a harvest.
And so I want to look at thatthrough the lens of God as judge
and start off in uh 1 Samuel 15.
But before we get there, I wantto tell you a little bit about
the Amalekites.
The Amalekites, a lot of peopletry to say, like, oh man, God's
(03:25):
not just.
How could he say to wipe outevery man, woman, and child and
all the beasts?
But like that's so crazy.
But the Amalekites, they weredistant relatives to Israel.
In fact, they are descendants ofEsau, Jacob, or Israel's twin
brother.
Whenever Israel was weak and atfirst came out of the bondages
(03:49):
of Egypt, they had not reallyformed a military strategy.
They really didn't have anyweapons, and they were wandering
in the wilderness.
And the Amalekites, theirrelatives, were charging from
behind and killing them and stand plundering what they had.
In Deuteronomy 25, 17 through19, it says that never forget
(04:15):
what the Amalekites did to youas you came from Egypt.
They attacked you when you wereexhausted and wearied, and they
struck down those who werestraggling behind.
They had no fear of God.
Therefore, when the Lord yourGod has given you rest from all
your enemies in the land, he hasgiven you a special possession,
(04:36):
you must destroy the Amalekitesand erase their memory from
under heaven.
Hold on, he says, Never forgetthis.
And so the Amalekites wereplanting seeds of destruction.
They were attacking God's peoplewhen God's people were weak.
(04:56):
And God took note of this.
He said, Hey, there will be aharvest coming for the
Amalekites.
So let's turn over to 1 Samuelchapter 15 now.
And we're going to start off inverse 16.
It says, Then Samuel said toSaul, Stop, listen to what the
Lord told me last night.
(05:17):
What did he tell you?
Saul asked.
And Samuel told him, Althoughyou may think little of
yourself, are you not the leaderof the tribes of Israel?
The Lord has anointed you kingof Israel, and the Lord sent you
on a mission and told you, goand completely destroy the
sinners, the Amalekites, untilthey are all dead.
(05:39):
Sound familiar?
Why haven't you obeyed the Lord?
Why did you rush for the plunderand do what was evil in the
Lord's sight?
But I did obey the Lord, Saulinsisted.
I carried out the mission hegave me.
I brought back King Akag, and Idestroyed everyone else.
Then my troops brought in thebest of the sheep, goats,
(06:01):
cattle, and plunder to sacrificeto the Lord your God in Gilgal.
But Samuel replied, What is morepleasing to the Lord, your burnt
offerings and sacrifices?
Or your obedience to his voice?
Listen, obedience is better thansacrifice, and submission is
(06:24):
better than offering the fat oframs.
Rebellion is as sinful aswitchcraft, and stubbornness is
as bad as worshipping idols.
So because you have rejected thecommand of the Lord, he has
rejected you.
Wow.
Wow.
(06:44):
He says, Because you haverejected the commands of the
Lord, he has rejected you.
I want to put the lens of theNew Testament on top of this.
And so in Romans chapter 11,verse 29, it says, For the gifts
and the calling of God arewithout repentance.
Psalms 105.15 talks about forsaying, Touch not my anointing,
(07:08):
and do my prophets no harm.
So even though Saul had steppedout of favor with the Lord, now
I want to point out that this iswhat happened.
So God had anointed Saul asking.
So God did not remove thatanointing.
(07:30):
When it says that he rejectedSaul, he didn't remove his gift
because it says the gifts andthe callings of God are without
repentance.
So Saul remained king.
What God did was he removed hisfavor.
He removed his favor.
And why did he remove his favor?
Because it says that rebellionis as the sin or is as sinful as
(07:54):
witchcraft.
Witchcraft is the worddivination or means divination.
And divination is fortunetelling.
So because of Saul's like fearof rejection of people, he chose
to believe another voice.
He chose to take in stock in thefuture or in his future and put
(08:17):
it in the hands of someone else.
You hear him say later on thathe's like, it wasn't me, but it
was the people who did this.
He didn't take responsibility toit.
He believed that his future wasbetter held in his hands than
God.
That if he gave the people whatthey wanted, then he would be
successful.
(08:38):
Instead of the ultimateobedience to God.
This is so important that weunderstand this that God has
anointed leaders in this worldtoday.
So many leaders today havefallen from the favor of God,
but God has still anointed them.
(08:58):
I want to fast forward into 1Samuel, and you can see over and
over and over again that Davidhad the chance to wipe Saul out.
He had the chance to kill him.
He went in there right next tohis bed while he was sleeping,
and David did not touch him.
He said that, do not touch myanointed.
(09:21):
Even David understood this.
And whenever it came down to thevery last breath of Saul, Saul
took his own life.
Saul took his own life.
God did not kill Saul.
Even for the rejection, even forthe atrocities that Saul had
done, God did not kill him.
(09:42):
Saul took his own life.
And so this is so important thatwe pray for our leaders.
And I really wanted to open thisup that we don't come into this
place of where we throw stonesat the people that are anointed
by God.
And every person who callshimself a Christian is highly
anointed by God.
(10:03):
I'm trying to wipe out thestrife and the division that's
going through the body of Christtoday because this is such a
horrible thing in God's eyes.
I've seen it in my owncongregation that that spirit of
division comes in, the murmuringand complaining comes in, and
God is just standing up inheaven shaking his head at this
because he wants a unified body.
(10:26):
And so you have the the right,if you see something going wrong
in your own congregation, toleave.
Nobody's holding you into thatplace.
Actually, you have the spirit ofGod inside of you, the spirit of
revelation, the spirit of truth,the spirit of wisdom, and you
can see things as they are.
(10:47):
And if you see somebody that isnot biblically leading, you have
the right to leave.
Now, when you leave, you shouldhold your peace.
Because there's so many timestoday that people are making
YouTube channels about thisleader or that leader that are
talking about that this personis uh fallen or saying this
(11:08):
negative thing about thisperson.
Well, Paul said, you know, ifone person comes to salvation
through that person, it'ssuccessful.
So we should hold our peace.
We should use the spirit ofwisdom and revelation to go
where God wants us to go and notspeak against his anointed, not
(11:29):
try to kill his anointed, nottry to wipe out his anointed.
Because that anointed person,which we're all anointed, is in
God's hands and God will handlethat situation far greater than
we possibly ever could.
I don't mean to rant and raveabout this, but I see this so
much in churches today.
God is not the God ofdenomination, he's not the God
(11:51):
of the Baptist, the Pentecostal,the Lutheran, the Catholics.
He is the God of His people.
The believers, every single oneof them.
I don't care what type of churchyou go to, we are one body under
one Christ with one head, JesusChrist.
And so he wants us to put downthe divisive walls and just
(12:15):
serve him together in unity andlove.
And so this is so importantwhenever you see this.
David, we're gonna get into thisin the next episode, but David
had the chance to serve Saul,and he did it faithfully because
that was God's anointed.
(12:35):
That's all I got, brother.
SPEAKER_00 (12:37):
That's powerful, brother.
Could you uh could you could youback up just a little bit?
And you covered somethingconcerning Saul and the fact
that he took his own life.
And this is a little bit of alittle bit of a caveat, but I
(12:59):
think it's something that is isworth looking at, and that is
this, that how do how do you howdo you handle the issue of
suicide, man?
SPEAKER_01 (13:12):
How do I handle it?
SPEAKER_00 (13:13):
How do you handle it?
SPEAKER_01 (13:20):
Spiritually.
So I have well I had to tell atestimony about it first.
We do park outreaches where wefirmly believe, like how Joshua
says, every place that you putyour feet, you know, God has
given you that place.
And so we go to parks and weprayer walk and all that.
Well, the first time we went tothis prayer walk, it was E-Wing
(13:42):
Park.
I'm not gonna say his name, butI ran across this guy.
He was extremely downtrodden.
And so we prayed for him andspoke life into him.
It presented the gospel, and thesuicide is a voice.
Okay, it starts off with thesevoices inside of your head.
(14:05):
They try to get you to come intoagreement with you're not
worthy, your life would bebetter off gone.
And what happens is that voiceis a spirit, and so essentially
we came against that spirit, andthe guy he he's telling us that
he's like, Hey, look, I came outto this park to end my life
today.
(14:25):
But Jesus Christ, the gospel ofJesus Christ, is a freeing
message.
They call it good news, right?
Good news.
So that good news is what setthem free.
I don't know if that answeredyour question or not, but it
it's getting there.
SPEAKER_00 (14:39):
Uh and and and we're gonna park on this because we've
got a little bit of time leftover, so uh, let's just kind of
camp here for a minute.
And there's another thing I wantto talk about too, but uh and
and this is for the record, thisis totally unscripted here.
So we're we're uh live anddirect, and nothing is a
watershed.
(15:00):
Meaning I'm not limiting Trevorto his beliefs by what he says
now because they might be inprocess.
It might be a developing thing.
So some people feel, and here'swhere I'm going with that.
Okay.
Some people, Trevor, some peoplefeel that suicide is the
unpardonable sin.
SPEAKER_01 (15:20):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (15:21):
That you commit suicide, you took God's role in
your own hands, and you tookyour own life, and so you're
pretty much on your own pal,regardless of any decisions that
you made prior to this.
You follow what I'm going withthis?
Yes.
What do you what are yourthoughts on that, bro?
SPEAKER_01 (15:41):
My thoughts are why argue the point of who of
whether the person's going toheaven or hell, but like that's
God's jud judge judgment, youknow.
My job is to get them beforethey hit that point and to save
their life.
Right.
You know, whenever we get toheaven, we'll see what happened.
Right.
SPEAKER_00 (15:57):
What's your Well, I I I think that that's the only
way that you can really saybecause it's not ours to put the
period at the end of thesentence.
Yes.
That's God's job.
Amen.
His judgment.
A judgment is his decision.
His decisions.
And the scripture says,decisions, decisions.
The day of the Lord is near inthe valley of decisions.
(16:18):
Yes.
And that means judgment.
Amen.
Judgments, judgments, and hisjudgments are clear and they're
true.
And just because, here's mybelief, just because a person
commits suicide doesn't meanthey've committed the
unpardonable sin.
It means that they have reacheda point in their own life where
they felt that it was betteroff.
(16:39):
It's a lie, it's a true lie, butthey believe the lie.
But that's not something thatwould prohibit them from
entering into heaven had theybeen a believer.
I don't believe so.
SPEAKER_01 (16:50):
Well, the only unpardonable sin supposedly is
blaspheming the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00 (16:54):
Right.
That's and that's a whole nothertopic.
Yes.
That's a whole nother kettle offish to get into.
And we're not going to try to gothere in this one.
And so what we're doing in rightnow is we're kind of prepping
things for this next episode inthis time of transition, but
there's a very important pointthat you made in your first run
(17:19):
at 1 Samuel chapter 15.
And what would you say would bethe one thing you came away
from?
What's your takeaway from thatportion of scripture?
SPEAKER_01 (17:30):
That God sits outside of time, right?
And so that perspective trulychanges everything.
I thought I put it in my notes,but I didn't.
So the Amalekites originallysold the sowed the bad seeds of
attacking Israel from behind andplundering them.
And they were supposed to reapthe harvest of that right here
(17:52):
with Saul.
But you find out later on that Ithink it was around a hundred
years or something like that,that the book of Esther was
written, right?
But so you find out that thebook of Esther probably would
not have needed to be written ifSaul would have wiped out all of
the Amalekites.
Because Haman, the one who cameagainst the Jewish people in the
(18:15):
book of Esther, he is adescendant of the Amalekites.
So if all the Amalekites hadbeen wiped out right then, then
God would have not had to sendthe Mordecai or an Esther.
So God, in his foresight, he istrying to plan things out to
have his will and purposes doneon the earth.
And I think it's pretty cool towatch throughout history about
how God had tried to set thingsin order, but man fumbled
(18:39):
things, but God still got hispurposes fulfilled.
SPEAKER_00 (18:43):
It's is you know, we're in this portion of
scripture right now, well, wellstated to her, by the way.
We're in this portion ofscripture right now where that's
a again a transition time anddecisions are being made.
Amen.
And it's really key.
Some of you listening are in atransition time.
Some of you listening, theremight be someone listening who
(19:05):
is even considering suicidebecause your situation in life
has gotten really out of hand.
And God is not after you to killyou.
And the Amalekites, they were onone hand, they were a step ahead
(19:25):
of Israel because they also hada corner on the blacksmithing.
And so the Israelites couldn'teven make a spear on their own,
they didn't know how to.
Iron hadn't come into theirequation yet.
Right.
But the uh Philistines and theAmalekites knew how to work with
iron.
And iron was greater than thethings that they had for war,
(19:48):
their weaponry, except they hada corner on the iron, but God
had a corner on David.
Yes.
Amen.
unknown (19:57):
Amen.
SPEAKER_00 (19:58):
And I'm not gonna steal your thunder, but God had
a corner on David.
And though the Philistines had acorner on iron, God had a corner
on David coming on the scene.
God was ahead of them.
SPEAKER_01 (20:07):
Yes.
SPEAKER_00 (20:08):
And that's a word of encouragement to someone
listening today.
You're in a situation that'skind of deep, but God is ahead
of it.
SPEAKER_01 (20:14):
Amen.
SPEAKER_00 (20:15):
Don't worry, you don't have to take things into
your own hands.
And Trevor, would you do us thethe uh a kindness by just uh
leading us in a ton of prayerright now?
SPEAKER_01 (20:27):
Yes, um, before I do, I want to speak to uh that
issue of suicide.
I run across it quite often.
Me personally, I was a person Ididn't want to live anymore
whenever I got saved.
You don't have to believe thosevoices that that whenever you
(20:49):
understand and have therevelation of God's love, it
changes everything.
And so I want to speak toanybody today that is
contemplating suicide, and Ijust want to say a simple phrase
that God loves you.
Something is worth determined bythe price that is willing to be
(21:18):
paid for.
For you.
The most expensive ransom everpaid was for you.
Your life is important.
(21:38):
Father God loves you so deeplythat it says in the word that he
would leave the 99 to go foryou.
And right now, the the the Godof the whole universe, the God
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,the God that sits in heavens and
laughs at the enemies, he ischasing you today.
(22:00):
That your life is meaningful andhe loves you deeply.
So I want to speak to anysuicide.
I command you to leave in Jesus'name, that you have no place
inside of this person's life.
And Father, I ask that the eyesof the understanding would be
opened and enlightened foreverybody under the sound of my
(22:23):
voice, and that that greatransom that was paid by the
blood of our Savior Jesus Christwould be revealed in its
fullness to every personlistening.
That love that changed my lifewould change every person's life
under the sound of my voice.
Your life is important.
Psalms 139, 16.
I said this last time I came on,that God wrote a book about you
(22:44):
in heaven.
That means you are important tohim.
So I just want to close in thisprayer.
That Father, we love you, welove you, we love you, Father.
Father, I just thank you for theopportunity to share the love of
Jesus Christ.
Father, I ask that that lovewould be ever revealed to every
(23:04):
person under the sound of myvoice today.
That they would just seep deepinto the hearts and the minds of
everybody listening, that therewould be no doubt, that there
would be no variance, that wewould just come into a full
revelation of God's love today.
And everybody who is sufferingwith suicide, and suicide is
(23:26):
such a huge thing today.
It comes across my path all thetime, and I say suicide no more
in Jesus' name.
I say suicide leave in Jesus'name.
And Father, we thank you.
We thank you for that savinggrace.
In Jesus' name I pray.
Amen.
SPEAKER_00 (23:47):
Thank you, brother.
Folks, we love you.
And if you have any thoughts,questions, concerns, please feel
free to drop us a line atLiferonTheFire at gmail.com.
That's life around the fire.
gmail.com.
That's our email address.
If you want to just check us outon the web on the internet and
(24:11):
check out our website, you canjust type in LifeRound the Fire
and you'll find our website, andwe would love to hear from you.
In the meantime, God bless you.
Adios, amigos.
Howdy folks, I want to welcome you back to another
episode of Life Around the Fire.
And today in our studio, we havea real treat, man.
This is one of my favoriteteachers, preachers that I've
come across recently.
And he is here live with ustoday.
And his name is Trevor McMahon.
And we've gotten to know eachother over the course of the
(01:06):
past year.
Feels like I've known himlonger.
And that's one of those things,kind of a koin and near
relationship, a real commonbond.
And I'm really thankful for him.
And he's become a regular and isgoing to remain a regular on
Life on the Fire.
And so today he's going to bepicking up from Matthew chapter
15 and covering chapter 16.
It's going to be a two-partmessage today.
(01:28):
So, Trevor, welcome back,brother.
And I don't need to say anymore.
You just go ahead and have out.
You have free reign, bro.
SPEAKER_01 (01:34):
Amen.
SPEAKER_00 (01:35):
All right.
SPEAKER_01 (01:37):
Thank you, thank you, my brother David.
I say my brother, I mean myfriend of my brother David, who
I love deeply and I appreciate.
I want to start today in 1Samuel 15, but before I do, I
want to speak about perspective.
Because perspective trulychanges everything.
(01:59):
Through this life that we live,it's a fallen world, and
everything in this world triesto conform us to that
fallenness.
But God has made it different.
(02:20):
Now in the Old Testament, theydidn't really have that
perspective, so we have theability to look back and try to
see what God was trying to do inthe mess that was going on.
And so I want to start off withthe verse Galatians 6 7.
It says, Be not deceived, God isnot mocked.
(02:40):
For whatsoever a man soweth,that shall he also reapeth.
That is so powerful to thinkabout.
And whenever you look throughthat lens, that God is judged,
that God is not mocked.
You cannot mock God, thatwhatever you sow, that whatever
(03:00):
you plant a seed, whatever thatseed is, that that seed will
make a harvest.
And so I want to look at thatthrough the lens of God as judge
and start off in uh 1 Samuel 15.
But before we get there, I wantto tell you a little bit about
the Amalekites.
The Amalekites, a lot of peopletry to say, like, oh man, God's
(03:25):
not just.
How could he say to wipe outevery man, woman, and child and
all the beasts?
But like that's so crazy.
But the Amalekites, they weredistant relatives to Israel.
In fact, they are descendants ofEsau, Jacob, or Israel's twin
brother.
Whenever Israel was weak and atfirst came out of the bondages
(03:49):
of Egypt, they had not reallyformed a military strategy.
They really didn't have anyweapons, and they were wandering
in the wilderness.
And the Amalekites, theirrelatives, were charging from
behind and killing them and stand plundering what they had.
In Deuteronomy 25, 17 through19, it says that never forget
(04:15):
what the Amalekites did to youas you came from Egypt.
They attacked you when you wereexhausted and wearied, and they
struck down those who werestraggling behind.
They had no fear of God.
Therefore, when the Lord yourGod has given you rest from all
your enemies in the land, he hasgiven you a special possession,
(04:36):
you must destroy the Amalekitesand erase their memory from
under heaven.
Hold on, he says, Never forgetthis.
And so the Amalekites wereplanting seeds of destruction.
They were attacking God's peoplewhen God's people were weak.
(04:56):
And God took note of this.
He said, Hey, there will be aharvest coming for the
Amalekites.
So let's turn over to 1 Samuelchapter 15 now.
And we're going to start off inverse 16.
It says, Then Samuel said toSaul, Stop, listen to what the
Lord told me last night.
(05:17):
What did he tell you?
Saul asked.
And Samuel told him, Althoughyou may think little of
yourself, are you not the leaderof the tribes of Israel?
The Lord has anointed you kingof Israel, and the Lord sent you
on a mission and told you, goand completely destroy the
sinners, the Amalekites, untilthey are all dead.
(05:39):
Sound familiar?
Why haven't you obeyed the Lord?
Why did you rush for the plunderand do what was evil in the
Lord's sight?
But I did obey the Lord, Saulinsisted.
I carried out the mission hegave me.
I brought back King Akag, and Idestroyed everyone else.
Then my troops brought in thebest of the sheep, goats,
(06:01):
cattle, and plunder to sacrificeto the Lord your God in Gilgal.
But Samuel replied, What is morepleasing to the Lord, your burnt
offerings and sacrifices?
Or your obedience to his voice?
Listen, obedience is better thansacrifice, and submission is
(06:24):
better than offering the fat oframs.
Rebellion is as sinful aswitchcraft, and stubbornness is
as bad as worshipping idols.
So because you have rejected thecommand of the Lord, he has
rejected you.
Wow.
Wow.
(06:44):
He says, Because you haverejected the commands of the
Lord, he has rejected you.
I want to put the lens of theNew Testament on top of this.
And so in Romans chapter 11,verse 29, it says, For the gifts
and the calling of God arewithout repentance.
Psalms 105.15 talks about forsaying, Touch not my anointing,
(07:08):
and do my prophets no harm.
So even though Saul had steppedout of favor with the Lord, now
I want to point out that this iswhat happened.
So God had anointed Saul asking.
So God did not remove thatanointing.
(07:30):
When it says that he rejectedSaul, he didn't remove his gift
because it says the gifts andthe callings of God are without
repentance.
So Saul remained king.
What God did was he removed hisfavor.
He removed his favor.
And why did he remove his favor?
Because it says that rebellionis as the sin or is as sinful as
(07:54):
witchcraft.
Witchcraft is the worddivination or means divination.
And divination is fortunetelling.
So because of Saul's like fearof rejection of people, he chose
to believe another voice.
He chose to take in stock in thefuture or in his future and put
(08:17):
it in the hands of someone else.
You hear him say later on thathe's like, it wasn't me, but it
was the people who did this.
He didn't take responsibility toit.
He believed that his future wasbetter held in his hands than
God.
That if he gave the people whatthey wanted, then he would be
successful.
(08:38):
Instead of the ultimateobedience to God.
This is so important that weunderstand this that God has
anointed leaders in this worldtoday.
So many leaders today havefallen from the favor of God,
but God has still anointed them.
(08:58):
I want to fast forward into 1Samuel, and you can see over and
over and over again that Davidhad the chance to wipe Saul out.
He had the chance to kill him.
He went in there right next tohis bed while he was sleeping,
and David did not touch him.
He said that, do not touch myanointed.
(09:21):
Even David understood this.
And whenever it came down to thevery last breath of Saul, Saul
took his own life.
Saul took his own life.
God did not kill Saul.
Even for the rejection, even forthe atrocities that Saul had
done, God did not kill him.
(09:42):
Saul took his own life.
And so this is so important thatwe pray for our leaders.
And I really wanted to open thisup that we don't come into this
place of where we throw stonesat the people that are anointed
by God.
And every person who callshimself a Christian is highly
anointed by God.
(10:03):
I'm trying to wipe out thestrife and the division that's
going through the body of Christtoday because this is such a
horrible thing in God's eyes.
I've seen it in my owncongregation that that spirit of
division comes in, the murmuringand complaining comes in, and
God is just standing up inheaven shaking his head at this
because he wants a unified body.
(10:26):
And so you have the the right,if you see something going wrong
in your own congregation, toleave.
Nobody's holding you into thatplace.
Actually, you have the spirit ofGod inside of you, the spirit of
revelation, the spirit of truth,the spirit of wisdom, and you
can see things as they are.
(10:47):
And if you see somebody that isnot biblically leading, you have
the right to leave.
Now, when you leave, you shouldhold your peace.
Because there's so many timestoday that people are making
YouTube channels about thisleader or that leader that are
talking about that this personis uh fallen or saying this
(11:08):
negative thing about thisperson.
Well, Paul said, you know, ifone person comes to salvation
through that person, it'ssuccessful.
So we should hold our peace.
We should use the spirit ofwisdom and revelation to go
where God wants us to go and notspeak against his anointed, not
(11:29):
try to kill his anointed, nottry to wipe out his anointed.
Because that anointed person,which we're all anointed, is in
God's hands and God will handlethat situation far greater than
we possibly ever could.
I don't mean to rant and raveabout this, but I see this so
much in churches today.
God is not the God ofdenomination, he's not the God
(11:51):
of the Baptist, the Pentecostal,the Lutheran, the Catholics.
He is the God of His people.
The believers, every single oneof them.
I don't care what type of churchyou go to, we are one body under
one Christ with one head, JesusChrist.
And so he wants us to put downthe divisive walls and just
(12:15):
serve him together in unity andlove.
And so this is so importantwhenever you see this.
David, we're gonna get into thisin the next episode, but David
had the chance to serve Saul,and he did it faithfully because
that was God's anointed.
(12:35):
That's all I got, brother.
SPEAKER_00 (12:37):
That's powerful, brother.
Could you uh could you could youback up just a little bit?
And you covered somethingconcerning Saul and the fact
that he took his own life.
And this is a little bit of alittle bit of a caveat, but I
(12:59):
think it's something that is isworth looking at, and that is
this, that how do how do you howdo you handle the issue of
suicide, man?
SPEAKER_01 (13:12):
How do I handle it?
SPEAKER_00 (13:13):
How do you handle it?
SPEAKER_01 (13:20):
Spiritually.
So I have well I had to tell atestimony about it first.
We do park outreaches where wefirmly believe, like how Joshua
says, every place that you putyour feet, you know, God has
given you that place.
And so we go to parks and weprayer walk and all that.
Well, the first time we went tothis prayer walk, it was E-Wing
(13:42):
Park.
I'm not gonna say his name, butI ran across this guy.
He was extremely downtrodden.
And so we prayed for him andspoke life into him.
It presented the gospel, and thesuicide is a voice.
Okay, it starts off with thesevoices inside of your head.
(14:05):
They try to get you to come intoagreement with you're not
worthy, your life would bebetter off gone.
And what happens is that voiceis a spirit, and so essentially
we came against that spirit, andthe guy he he's telling us that
he's like, Hey, look, I came outto this park to end my life
today.
(14:25):
But Jesus Christ, the gospel ofJesus Christ, is a freeing
message.
They call it good news, right?
Good news.
So that good news is what setthem free.
I don't know if that answeredyour question or not, but it
it's getting there.
SPEAKER_00 (14:39):
Uh and and and we're gonna park on this because we've
got a little bit of time leftover, so uh, let's just kind of
camp here for a minute.
And there's another thing I wantto talk about too, but uh and
and this is for the record, thisis totally unscripted here.
So we're we're uh live anddirect, and nothing is a
watershed.
(15:00):
Meaning I'm not limiting Trevorto his beliefs by what he says
now because they might be inprocess.
It might be a developing thing.
So some people feel, and here'swhere I'm going with that.
Okay.
Some people, Trevor, some peoplefeel that suicide is the
unpardonable sin.
SPEAKER_01 (15:20):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (15:21):
That you commit suicide, you took God's role in
your own hands, and you tookyour own life, and so you're
pretty much on your own pal,regardless of any decisions that
you made prior to this.
You follow what I'm going withthis?
Yes.
What do you what are yourthoughts on that, bro?
SPEAKER_01 (15:41):
My thoughts are why argue the point of who of
whether the person's going toheaven or hell, but like that's
God's jud judge judgment, youknow.
My job is to get them beforethey hit that point and to save
their life.
Right.
You know, whenever we get toheaven, we'll see what happened.
Right.
SPEAKER_00 (15:57):
What's your Well, I I I think that that's the only
way that you can really saybecause it's not ours to put the
period at the end of thesentence.
Yes.
That's God's job.
Amen.
His judgment.
A judgment is his decision.
His decisions.
And the scripture says,decisions, decisions.
The day of the Lord is near inthe valley of decisions.
(16:18):
Yes.
And that means judgment.
Amen.
Judgments, judgments, and hisjudgments are clear and they're
true.
And just because, here's mybelief, just because a person
commits suicide doesn't meanthey've committed the
unpardonable sin.
It means that they have reacheda point in their own life where
they felt that it was betteroff.
(16:39):
It's a lie, it's a true lie, butthey believe the lie.
But that's not something thatwould prohibit them from
entering into heaven had theybeen a believer.
I don't believe so.
SPEAKER_01 (16:50):
Well, the only unpardonable sin supposedly is
blaspheming the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00 (16:54):
Right.
That's and that's a whole nothertopic.
Yes.
That's a whole nother kettle offish to get into.
And we're not going to try to gothere in this one.
And so what we're doing in rightnow is we're kind of prepping
things for this next episode inthis time of transition, but
there's a very important pointthat you made in your first run
(17:19):
at 1 Samuel chapter 15.
And what would you say would bethe one thing you came away
from?
What's your takeaway from thatportion of scripture?
SPEAKER_01 (17:30):
That God sits outside of time, right?
And so that perspective trulychanges everything.
I thought I put it in my notes,but I didn't.
So the Amalekites originallysold the sowed the bad seeds of
attacking Israel from behind andplundering them.
And they were supposed to reapthe harvest of that right here
(17:52):
with Saul.
But you find out later on that Ithink it was around a hundred
years or something like that,that the book of Esther was
written, right?
But so you find out that thebook of Esther probably would
not have needed to be written ifSaul would have wiped out all of
the Amalekites.
Because Haman, the one who cameagainst the Jewish people in the
(18:15):
book of Esther, he is adescendant of the Amalekites.
So if all the Amalekites hadbeen wiped out right then, then
God would have not had to sendthe Mordecai or an Esther.
So God, in his foresight, he istrying to plan things out to
have his will and purposes doneon the earth.
And I think it's pretty cool towatch throughout history about
how God had tried to set thingsin order, but man fumbled
(18:39):
things, but God still got hispurposes fulfilled.
SPEAKER_00 (18:43):
It's is you know, we're in this portion of
scripture right now, well, wellstated to her, by the way.
We're in this portion ofscripture right now where that's
a again a transition time anddecisions are being made.
Amen.
And it's really key.
Some of you listening are in atransition time.
Some of you listening, theremight be someone listening who
(19:05):
is even considering suicidebecause your situation in life
has gotten really out of hand.
And God is not after you to killyou.
And the Amalekites, they were onone hand, they were a step ahead
(19:25):
of Israel because they also hada corner on the blacksmithing.
And so the Israelites couldn'teven make a spear on their own,
they didn't know how to.
Iron hadn't come into theirequation yet.
Right.
But the uh Philistines and theAmalekites knew how to work with
iron.
And iron was greater than thethings that they had for war,
(19:48):
their weaponry, except they hada corner on the iron, but God
had a corner on David.
Yes.
Amen.
unknown (19:57):
Amen.
SPEAKER_00 (19:58):
And I'm not gonna steal your thunder, but God had
a corner on David.
And though the Philistines had acorner on iron, God had a corner
on David coming on the scene.
God was ahead of them.
SPEAKER_01 (20:07):
Yes.
SPEAKER_00 (20:08):
And that's a word of encouragement to someone
listening today.
You're in a situation that'skind of deep, but God is ahead
of it.
SPEAKER_01 (20:14):
Amen.
SPEAKER_00 (20:15):
Don't worry, you don't have to take things into
your own hands.
And Trevor, would you do us thethe uh a kindness by just uh
leading us in a ton of prayerright now?
SPEAKER_01 (20:27):
Yes, um, before I do, I want to speak to uh that
issue of suicide.
I run across it quite often.
Me personally, I was a person Ididn't want to live anymore
whenever I got saved.
You don't have to believe thosevoices that that whenever you
(20:49):
understand and have therevelation of God's love, it
changes everything.
And so I want to speak toanybody today that is
contemplating suicide, and Ijust want to say a simple phrase
that God loves you.
Something is worth determined bythe price that is willing to be
(21:18):
paid for.
For you.
The most expensive ransom everpaid was for you.
Your life is important.
(21:38):
Father God loves you so deeplythat it says in the word that he
would leave the 99 to go foryou.
And right now, the the the Godof the whole universe, the God
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,the God that sits in heavens and
laughs at the enemies, he ischasing you today.
(22:00):
That your life is meaningful andhe loves you deeply.
So I want to speak to anysuicide.
I command you to leave in Jesus'name, that you have no place
inside of this person's life.
And Father, I ask that the eyesof the understanding would be
opened and enlightened foreverybody under the sound of my
(22:23):
voice, and that that greatransom that was paid by the
blood of our Savior Jesus Christwould be revealed in its
fullness to every personlistening.
That love that changed my lifewould change every person's life
under the sound of my voice.
Your life is important.
Psalms 139, 16.
I said this last time I came on,that God wrote a book about you
(22:44):
in heaven.
That means you are important tohim.
So I just want to close in thisprayer.
That Father, we love you, welove you, we love you, Father.
Father, I just thank you for theopportunity to share the love of
Jesus Christ.
Father, I ask that that lovewould be ever revealed to every
(23:04):
person under the sound of myvoice today.
That they would just seep deepinto the hearts and the minds of
everybody listening, that therewould be no doubt, that there
would be no variance, that wewould just come into a full
revelation of God's love today.
And everybody who is sufferingwith suicide, and suicide is
(23:26):
such a huge thing today.
It comes across my path all thetime, and I say suicide no more
in Jesus' name.
I say suicide leave in Jesus'name.
And Father, we thank you.
We thank you for that savinggrace.
In Jesus' name I pray.
Amen.
SPEAKER_00 (23:47):
Thank you, brother.
Folks, we love you.
And if you have any thoughts,questions, concerns, please feel
free to drop us a line atLiferonTheFire at gmail.com.
That's life around the fire.
gmail.com.
That's our email address.
If you want to just check us outon the web on the internet and
(24:11):
check out our website, you canjust type in LifeRound the Fire
and you'll find our website, andwe would love to hear from you.
In the meantime, God bless you.
Adios, amigos.
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