Want to thank Chris for the reading of the chapter.
A little bit of a lengthy reading and I appreciate his
willingness to do so. Kind of just threw it on him
right before service. So thankful for him and his
efforts in that. So we're studying continuing our
study in Second Samuel. We're now in Chapter 19 and
we'll be kind of going over the son of King David, which is
Absalom, his wicked son, who of course tried to overthrow King
David and usurp his kingship over Israel and, and all that
had to do with that and how Absalom went about that and, and
how he failed at it, of course. And when we read sometimes in
the Old Testament, one of the ways that we need to try to
read, there's two different ways you can just read it and
understand it for just its history.
But also when we read the Old Testament, we find ourselves
kind of pointing forward to Jesus because of what we find
there is so vivid of it, making an image or a picture of Jesus.
And other times when we read the chapter or the Old Testament,
we're pointed toward Jesus in a different way because what's
happening in the Old Testament is so far away and so opposite
of what Jesus looks like. It points us to Jesus saying,
well, we need to have Jesus because of of those those
things. And in Second Samuel 19 would
actually be the latter type because in chapter 19 of Second
Samuel, it is really about the return of King, the return of
King David to Jerusalem to continue his reign.
Of course, we're talking about King David now.
David's son Absalom is dead. And what we're going to discover
is that in return, in David's return to Jerusalem, everything
does not work out perfectly as he intends it to.
Of course, we recognize that Jesus the King, when he returns,
everything will be perfect. All things will be settled,
justice will be restored, truth will be absolutely established,
and all wrongs will be righted in all nations.
And races that are divided through the history of life will
be unified on that day when he returns.
And so when we read that this morning, I hope that you might
have that kind of in the back of your mind as we go through our
study. So at the end of Chapter 18, we
see the triumph, victory of David and his army over over the
his son Absalom. A victorious win if you want to
say, but it is overshadowed by tragedy.
As we read, the defeat of the rebel forces has been
successful, but it has left behind scar tissue.
If you want to say that proves to be evident and problematic
moving forward. Or if you want to think of David
being reinstated, his crown that he, you know, if you want to say
he's got his crown back now, but it's not the same crown as it
used to be. Maybe it's a little tarnished,
little beat up, a little dirty, still glistens in the sun, but
not with the same splinter that it did the beginning of his
reign, but is now tarnished. And life is going to go on, but
it'll never go on in the same way that it did before.
Now, in the light of that, we're going to try and summarize, or
at least make an attempt to summarize this chapter, these 43
verses, by first of all, acknowledging that the king is
grieving. Secondly, we're going to
recognize that the people are arguing.
And thirdly, we'll recognize that there's three lives
identified for us in this chapter that are going to be
changing. So firstly, the king is
grieving. First of all, in verses 8, one
through 8, we're going to start there.
Behold, it's it was told to Joab.
Behold, the king is weeping in mourning.
Well, of course, David, the king was weeping in mourning.
It's understandable because the death that he just encountered
with his son is bringing great sadness.
David had dealt with death in many times since this his story
began. In the Bible we see that what
happened at the death of Saul and Jonathan.
David had wrote a poem about for Saul and when Abner was killed,
David again writes another poem and disclaims the responsibility
for what happened to him. When the child of Bathsheba
dies, David said, the child will not return to me, but I will go
to him. And David is confronted at that
moment with his own mortality. When Amnon is killed, we
remember that Absalom kills his brother Amnon because of what
happened. And then when that happens,
David's response to that was anger.
And so there's all kinds of responses that that David had to
death on around him. But here we'll notice that there
are no words. There's no words.
There's no poem. All that we have is David is
reduced to kind of a a stammering repetition of grief
filled with his son's name, O Absalom, my son, O Absalom, my
son, my son. Now what we need to recognize is
that Absalom is a rebel to David.
Absalom is opposed to the king, opposed to the Lord's anointed.
Absalom is the usurper, as we saw, and Absalom is now dead.
What could be worse for David than this?
Because we see to die opposed to the king, to die to the opposed
to the Lord's anointed is to be lost as Absalom was.
And David says, oh, Absalom, he doesn't respond to Absalom as
his enemy, as his, as a rebel, as a usurper.
He responds to him as a father. For what could be worse for a
father than his son to die? And David says, oh, Absalom, I
just want to pause and reaffirm what the Bible tells us
concerning these things. Jesus is king.
Unless we bow to Jesus is king, embracing him as Lord and Savior
in our life, we will face him as judge, as our judge in eternity
on that day, and we will have nothing to say in our defense.
So leaders lead and the way David responds to this great
tragedy bleeds over into the community of the Israelites.
If you want to say into into those who he has just won the
battle for the way he responds to that tragedy tragedy we see
here in verse 3. The people were told stole into
the city as people steal in who were ashamed when they flee
battle, but the battle was won they won the battle.
So why would they respond in a way where they're kind of somber
morning, you know, have their heads hanging?
If you want to say, well, because David had covered his
face, we're told he's in no way prepared to look upon upon his
people. We can't see what he can't
really see what's going on. He's got his face covered, is
what it tells us. He's been wailing so loudly.
If you want to say that he can't really hear what his people are
doing. And as we see at the beginning
of the chapter, Joab has been told this, Joab knows this and
how David's reacting and Joab realizes that somebody needs to
step in, somebody needs to intervene.
Of course, know if you know Joab into, you know, his personality,
he has no problem going and telling the king with the king
needs to do. And you have David's statement
there at the end of verse four. And then into verse 5, it says
Joab came into the house. Now we can read, you can read it
on your own, but I'm going to try to summarize it here.
And essentially what's what the text is telling us, it says Job
is going to David and he says to them, hey, David, listen, it's
one thing to cover your face, but you've got you're covering
something else. And that that's you've covered
the people with shame, the people who risk their lives for
you, the people who are out there in battle fighting for
you, who have come back expecting some sort of victory
parade. And instead what they have, what
did they receive, David? David, this is not right in the
way that you're reacting to this job says.
You know, if you show such affection to Absalom, your son
who was actually your enemy, then you create this impression
that you're turning your friends into your enemies and your
enemies into your friends. I'm going to tell you, David,
you're sending a message out to your commanders, into the
leaders and of the troops, that they don't even matter to you.
You're sending that idea that if Absalom were actually alive and
all of us were dead, then you would be perfectly happy.
And clearly what Joab is doing, he's exaggerating here in order
to wake David from his state of mind at the time, wake him out
of his great sadness. Drop says if you fail on this,
when you wake up in the morning, you won't even have an army.
You won't even have the people. All things will be worse than it
has been in the past. So what happened?
Well, the kid says the king arose and took his seat in the
gateway. And the men were told the king
is sitting in the gateway. In other words, David's back in
business. He was back at the city gates
doing what he did in the past. And all the people came before
the king. And this gate, of course, has
appeared more than once, most recently, if you want to say we
can look back at Chapter 15 when Absalom takes his place in the
gate. And Absalom, he's at the entry
of the gate. So Absalom could meet the
people, so he could show that he's kind of a caring guy.
And one of the people's hearts, he won the one to steal the
people's hearts. It tells us, you know, Absalom's
was saying, no, Dave, it's not even here, It's me.
And that was really the start of Absalom's attempt to overthrow.
Well, the people now are in a different position.
They heard all that had David said to the commanders, which
was deal gently with Absalom. And we know that that did not
happen. Then they had heard that David
was grieving, and the people began to grieve and to mourn
with him, that he they heard that he was back at the gate.
And so they all came before the king.
The people always know what the duty of the king is, do they
not? They always know what the duty
of a leader is. And David was unable to bear
either the burden or the privilege in that situation.
That's one of the reasons when we pray, you know, we pray for
the leaders of our land. We pray for our nation.
We pray for those who have the responsibility and the
obligations to make those tough, hard decisions for a multitude
of people. So we we pray for them because
we know that great, that great responsibility.
What they say heavy is the crown is it is a term that we hear.
It's a large responsibility to lead people.
But of course that won't stop us from having our own opinions
claiming that we know what's best.
Secondly, what we're going to we're going to look at here is
the people are arguing Halfway through verse 8, the scene
switches, changes. It's the sad picture fades and
up onto the scenes comes a bigger picture of what's
actually really happening throughout the land.
And all the people it says in verse nine were arguing, they
scattered in confusion. So from the king is grieving to
the people were arguing. Now, what we have, if my
understanding is correct, we have here in two different
sections of this chapter, sections verses 9 through 15 and
then 40 through 43 are kind of bookends, if you want to say
what's actually happening in the greater scheme of things in the
Kingdom of Israel, both amongst the northern tribes of Israel
and as well as Judah. And as we get to chapter 20, we
can see there's actually what I've seen some commentators say,
actual civil war that happens there.
My understanding is proper. So in verses 9 and following
into verse 15, I'm going to try to quickly summarize it for us.
Absalom, as we know, had stolen the hearts of the people and
they and the people had followed Absalom, but he's now dead.
And so in verses 9 and 10, they're quite confused about
what to do. They're confused because they
had rejected the true king. They had gone with the potential
king who was Absalom. He Absalom, is now gone and
therefore a number of now saying now it's you know that now what
we do, you know, we were going to follow Absalom.
He's now dead. So now we're going to reverse
our decision. Now we're going to go back with
King David. Their efforts were futile.
So they wanted to get back with the one who was the true king,
and that was David at the time. And clearly some people even
then were challenging that at that time.
And all of this disruption and this arguing had gotten back to
David's years. We'll see that down in verse 11
towards the verse of end of verse 11, it says the word of
all Israel came to the king. So David hears that the northern
tribes, those are the ones who had sided with Absalom, are
having a discussion about how they're going to handle the
future. He then dispatches Abby, Athar
and Zeda, who we've who we've learned about previously.
He dispatches them to go to the people of Judah and say to them,
well, hey, what's going on with you guys?
How come you're not here celebrating or bringing David
back, but you're you're the last ones to bring him back.
It says in verse 11. And so he sends a word to Judah,
Remember, David is from the tribe of Judah.
And he says, why are you not at the front of this celebration or
bringing David back? He tells them to go, go after
them. Go ask them after.
He says, you are my brother. You were bone to my bone.
You're my own flesh and blood. If you want to say is what it
says in the scripture, there you should be the ones who are
taking me back. Now we're not going to come back
to this, but if you go back to the beginning of when the story
of David happens back in Second Samuel chapter 2, Judah was
actually the first tribe to anoint King David.
They were the ones that were kind of leading and and doing
that for David. But now they're not doing so.
And David says, you were at the front of my kingship before.
Why are you now hesitant to do so?
You're actually my brothers. You are mine.
You are my flesh was and which is exactly what the armies of
Israel or the people of Israel said when they adopted David as
king back in chapter 5. And So what is David doing here?
What I think David is doing here is he's actually stitching
together in his mind. He's arguing factions of the
tribes of Israel. They're see, he's seeking to
bring them together on the same page.
And he adds to this in a political way, I think as we see
in verse 13 where he says, say to Amasa, are you not my own
flesh and blood? Now if we've been following the
story and understanding who Amasa is, Amassa was the
commander of the armies of Absalom.
So he was leading the the soldiers against David when
Absalom was trying to overtake David.
So David now says go to Judah and say listen, let's have
Amassa now be commander in place of Joab.
Now what I think he's doing here in some parties, making it clear
that they weren't going to face any retribution for their
rebellion in one one sense. But I think we're actually he's
also doing at the same time, he's actually punishing Joab for
the party he had in the that Joab didn't in the in the death
of his son Absalom. Remember, Joab actually killed
Absalom when David told him not to.
So Joab is not going to be commander anymore, not after
that. And what happened?
Well, we're told that he swayed the hearts of the people where
he won them over and they were united as one man, and they
brought the king over Jordan. Now, if you notice, David does
not force the people to follow him.
David does not force them to recognize him as king.
He instead sways their hearts of the people.
Now that should remind us of what Jesus does.
Jesus does not force us to obey Him.
Jesus does not force us to follow Him.
Jesus, in fact, He just lays it out.
This is what I can do for you. This is what I will do for you.
This is what I'm going to do for you.
This is what I have done for you.
He, He shows us everything that we can have if we follow His
wills so that we may follow Him. He doesn't force it upon us.
That's the beginning of the chapter, verses 9 through 15.
And what I'm going to do is I'm just going to skip to the back
of the chapter beginning in verse 40, and we'll come back to
the middle of the chapter here in a minute.
And really it's starting in verse 40.
We come to the second part of this argument, reuniting the
Kingdom of Israel. The king went over.
He went on to Gilgal. Chim Ham, who we'll come back to
in a moment, went on with him. But notice now it says all the
people of Judah and also half the people of Israel brought the
king on his way. OK, So again, if my
understanding is correct, what we're seeing is actually the
fragile nature of a renewed Kingdom between Judah and
Israel. They're back together, but it's
not perfect. Judah was united.
It says all the people, but only half the people of Israel.
The disagreements that we saw it back in verses 9 and 10 amongst
Israel, they still haven't been resolved by the end of the
chapter. The efforts that David has has
put forth, they haven't, they haven't produced the unity that
David desired. But there was one thing that
that they agreed on and it was their conviction.
And we'll see here that the people of Judah had stolen the
king and brought him over. They'd stolen him and brought
him over there in verse 41. Well, was this the case?
And so they said to him, why is this?
Why have you done this? And all the men of Israel or
Judah answered the men of Israel.
This is because the king is our close relative.
Why would you be angry? Well, the response to that says,
well, you may be close, but actually we have 10 shares in
the king and and in David. And also we have more than you.
Basically they're saying we have a weighted vote here because in
Israel, the northern Kingdom of Israel, that there was 10 tribes
associated with that northern Kingdom.
And then the the the Kingdom of Judah was a singular tribe in
the South. That's where the split was.
Well, of course, it made perfect sense because when they were
tear 10 tribes in that in the north, Judah was of course by
itself. And the narrator tells us that
as this argument continues, the argument from Judah carried more
weight or was fiercer than the argument from Israel.
And so at the end of the chapter, it's clear that the
return of the King has not united the people.
So back to the beginning of what I said to start with.
If we remember, we said one of the ways which we see Jesus and
we see God's purpose in the Old Testament.
We see a picture or silhouette of things that look to be
fulfilled, or a picture of what might be or what may not be.
And this clearly does not look like what King Jesus can do.
You know Jesus, Jesus can create unity and he will unify, but an
earthly king cannot do what King Jesus can do.
Because you see, all that David would have wanted to accomplish,
he was unable to accomplish. And in fact, every endeavor that
we see all the way through the United Nations that we see
today, that seems to break about peace, tranquility, unity,
oneness, every endeavor, every battle, every fight to that end,
no matter how good, no matter how admirable those efforts may
be, it's destined to defeat. Only when King Jesus returns
will that which David desired to be accomplished will be done
only when the one true king returns.
There's only one fixed to all the world's issues, and that is
in the gospel, in the king. And earthly kings cannot
achieve, which is only achieved in and through Jesus as the one
true King. So now we have 3 lives changing.
That's the beginning and the end of the chapter.
We're going to come back to the final point which deals with the
middle of the chapter 3 lives changing.
In verses 6 through 23, we have Shimmy Eye appealing for mercy.
Verses 24 through 30 we have Miss FIBA Chef displaying his
loyalty. And verses 31 through 39,
Barzillai confronts his mortality.
So Shimia, hopefully we haven't forgot about Shimia.
He made quite as quite a striking appearance back in
chapter 16. He was cursing.
He was throwing stones at David. He was flinging dust.
He was dramatically opposed to David as he made his exit from
Jerusalem. And remember that there was on
one side of the road, he was shouting, Oh, he was calling him
a bad act. He was calling him like you have
all this blood on your hands. You're the reason for all this
turmoil. He was telling David and it's
and it's he's back. If you want to say Shemi is back
now in chapter 19 and he's not alone.
He's got 1000 people with him. He says all the House of Joseph
is with him. The tribe of Benjamin, which was
Saul's tribe. He's got Zeba who we who we've
seen and which we'll come back to as well.
And and there they are. They're on they're on a mission
to now get on the winning side of David.
And in verse 19, I'm excuse me. And he's now concerned that his
hostility now he wants that hostility that he showed back in
chapter 16. He wishes that to be vanquished.
He wants to be met with forgiveness from David.
And so he appeals on that basis for mercy or and clemency.
And in verse 19, he said, said, said, he said to the king, let
my Lord not hold me guilty. You remember how your servant
did wrong on that day for my Lord the king left Jerusalem on
the day my Lord the king left for Jerusalem.
You know, why would even why would shimmy I even mention this
to David. You know, David remembers
exactly what shimmy I did to him.
There's no way you could forget that.
But shimmy I thinks that it's a good idea to remember to bring
it back up again. If you want to say and shimmy I
says, don't let the king take that to heart.
Basically forget about what I've done.
Forget about that act. Well, that's easy for him to
say, you know, for your servants know that I have sinned, it
says, and the reason I'm here today, I'm the first of the
House of Joseph to come and to meet my Lord the King.
I haven't wasted any time to come see you.
I'm the 1st and you'll notice. Well, what are we to do with
that? How would you make sense of
that? I kind of think, well, how
sincere is really Shimmy I being here?
Is he really being sincere about the things that he's saying?
Do we take it for base face value?
I don't know. I think it's strategic
regardless. It's convenient, of course, for
Shimmy I to do so when Shimmy I assumes victory was certainly
absaloms. He was throwing dirt clods at at
David. Now that he realized that he
knows that David is the king, he's not throwing dirt clods
anymore. He's throwing himself at at
David, throwing himself at the feet of the king.
Because apparently now that things have gone in a different
direction then shimmy, I thought I put now apparently Shimmy I
has a conscious about himself. And then you have Mr. Abishai,
Mr. Consistent, always wanting to take somebody's head off.
If you read through Shimmy I he, he responds as he's done in
previous times. Remember in Shimmy I doing this
when when Shimmy I did this in chapter 16, Abishai said, let's
just take his head off then and now just as consistent as ever.
And of course, there's a indication of mercy immediately.
David says you shall not die and the king swore to him.
Well, when you get to 1st Kings chapter 2, we'll discover that
David actually did take care of Shimmy I, and it's a reminder to
us. Again, by way of contrast, you
could beg before for mercy before King David and not get
it. And all who beg for mercy before
King Jesus will receive it. So you saved yourself?
Well, my life has been 1 of cursing and of Jesus.
I've been on the other side of the street.
I've been had no interest in Jesus at all.
Are you actually telling me that if I come to him and acknowledge
him that I've sinned, that I've been wrong, that I've made the
wrong decisions, that he will grant me forgiveness?
Absolutely, 100% of the time we look at the cross of Christ and
we see that there is the ultimate expression of
forgiveness at the cross. So that's Shimia, that's his
appeal for mercy. Then we have Mephibosheth
declaring his loyalty beginning in verse 24.
And Mephibosheth, the son of Saul, came down to meet the
king, and he was quite a scene to be seen, you know, as the
Scripture tells us here. We've been introduced to
introduced to him back in chapter 16 by Ziba.
And on that occasion, Ziba had painted a picture of
Mephibosheth, the Saint staying home and not supporting the king
because Ziba said he is keen to see Absalom succeed so that the
Kingdom of Saul will prevail. That's what Ziba told David.
He kind of painted a a poor picture of what Misuvosheth was
doing. And if we remember, David made a
knee jerk reaction to that and he said everything that I gave
to Mephibosheth, I'm going to give now to use Eva.
And we read that and we say, well, that's quite the reaction.
And now here we're on the other side of the story because
Mephibosheth now has returned to the king and he comes looking
like somebody who's been on a hunger strike.
If you want to say in a solidarity to the king, his
toenails are long, presumably dirty, we wouldn't want to sit
next to him on a plane ride. He hasn't showered or washed or
taken care of himself in some time.
And he looks like this. And the reason he looked like
this, and we discovered that this is when David invites him
to come clean. The reason that he expressed his
solidarity in absence, because David asked him, well, you know
what's really going on here, Mephibosheth?
Mephibosheth says, Well, Ziba deceived you and deceived me.
What Zeba told you was not true. I was getting ready to come and
join you, but Zeba took off without me.
Now again, you know, we need to ask ourselves, are we with
Mephibosheth on this or with Zeba on this?
There was a little phrase in there.
I was. It says, My Lord, O king, my
servant, deceive me. For your servant said to him, I
will saddle the donkey for myself, that I may ride on it
and go with the king. For your servant is lame.
Maybe kind of wander there for a minute, maybe kind of question
Mephibosheth's motives, like David didn't know Michelle
himself and fish up. Mephibosheth was a cripple.
David knew that David took him into his house because he was
lame. He did it out of kindness, even
though he was a grandson of Saul.
He knew exactly that Mister Fibosheth was lame.
So I'm just wondering whether he's Mephibosheth was kind of
pushing a little too hard here. He's got every vested interest
to be welcomed. You can decide that on your own.
It's just something that I thought about during the course
of the study. It's not the main point of the
study, but make your own decisions.
And he's prepared to say to him, why don't you just do what seems
good to you? I don't have any right to ask
you for anything, is what he's asking.
And notice what David does, he says and and the way that David
responds to makes you kind of wonder if there's something
going on there. And the king said to David, why
speak any more of the your matters?
Basically, I've had enough of this conversation than what
David was telling Mephibosheth. I don't know whether he's David
saying, I don't know whether to believe you or to believe in or
Zeba. But David says, I'll tell you
what I'm going to do. We're going to do A505050 split
now. I gave it to you, then I gave it
to Ziva. Now we're just going to give it
to each of you and we're just going to move on and let's be
done with this whole matter of who's getting what inheritance.
Well, we see that there. And I wonder, you know, are his
dirty toenails, his messed up appearance and are sacraments of
his faithfulness, or whether they're just an attempt to put
himself in the good graces of King David.
People will go through all kinds of endeavours to try and be
accepted by the king. Lastly, we'll come to Barcelona,
the Gileadite who confronts his mortality.
We've seen this guy before as well, in chapter 17, when he
provided resources for David, when David and his friends were
out in the wilderness, as it were.
And we noticed first of all that he was an elderly man.
Verse 32 says he was a very aging man, and he was 80 years
old. OK.
He has not shown up. Not he has shown up not to seek
anything for himself, but to escort the king over the Jordan
going back to Jerusalem. And he receives an invitation
from the king to come and receive all these things.
And so he responds and says, how many years have I still to live?
Have I still left to live now? It's not because he's being
morbid. I think he's actually being very
realistic of his situation. The psalmist tells us that the
years of our life are 70 or even by reason of strength 80 in
Psalms 90, verse 10. Now there's very smart people
who work in the insurance agency, the life insurance
agency, those who put together the do, the actuarials who are
way smarter than any of us here in this room.
And I'm inclined to think that despite the ability for people
to live any longer, it wouldn't be at all surprised that when
they did all their calculations, they look at everything that
they don't come really, really close to this number that's put
forth in Psalms chapter 90, 70 years is good.
After that you're on extra time, 70 and then extra time.
Some are here are approaching 70 or far beyond 70.
There's many here. There are on what some consider
extra time. Incidentally, you never die a
day early and you never die too late.
I believe God has that plan. Where we're at here in our
lives, where you've been placed, were you growing up, Jobs you
have are exactly what God has intended for you.
And in the mystery of God's Providence, He's got it under
his control. But Barzilai recognizes this.
Barzili says. I'm on the outer limits of
things. Life has shifted me, he says.
Can I discern the things that are really pleasant?
Can I taste? Can I listen to the songs of men
and women? Furthermore, why should I be?
Why should I burden you, King David?
I can't walk as good as I used to be able to walk.
My earthly powers are fading. They're shifting in my
expectations. But I'll tell you what I go part
way with you, is what Barzili tells him in verse 36.
Is your servant will go a little way over the Jordan with the
king. Why would I get repaid with such
reward? No, he says.
I won't let I want you to let me go back.
I want to die in my own city near the grave of my father and
my mother. Now I understand that.
I think we all get that. I don't understand the people
who say it doesn't matter what I get, where I get buried.
Well, if it doesn't matter to you, I guess it doesn't matter
to anybody else, does it, Barzila?
I wanted to go home and I want to pause here for a second and
talk about those who are older in age, who are in the range of
Barzila or beyond. Those who may have are retired,
have the privilege of being retired, have their abilities
about them, still may have some extra time on their hands.
The time that we may complain about when we're younger, in the
middle of our life, that we just don't have the time.
I wish I could do this. I wish I had more time to serve.
I wish I had more time to help in some way.
The church, There may be no better time in your life than
right now to serve King Jesus the way he intends you to.
The Lord needs you. The church needs you.
Our children need you. We look to the older in the
church to guide us, to help us, to share your experiences with
us and lead us. There is no greater time in your
life to be a champion for the church then you have now.
Now, how's that supposed to look?
I don't know. I don't know how that looks when
you're retired on what you can and can't do what you're able to
and able not to do. You know those things better
than we do. There's great wisdom in just
from your past experience. Like we like I mentioned,
there's no answer that I have, but I do know that doing
something, something that you were not able to do in the past,
something small or great, take the opportunity before it's gone
to further the Kingdom of God. Some of you might know Tom Brady
and his Hall of Fame speech. He said to be successful at
anything, the truth is you don't have to be special, he said.
You just have to be what most people aren't consistent,
determined and willing to work for it.
But in the word of the scriptures, we understand by
Barzilai's reaction says, let me return to my own place.
I'm going to go a little way with you, but I'm going to go
home. And why don't you give Chim Ham,
Jim Ham, relative, a friend, a son, I think it's a son.
It talks about the sons of Chim Ham later on in Chronicles.
He says, why don't you give Chim Ham what you would have given to
me? And then we have a lovely
picture here. It says I'm Barzili went home
and Chim Ham went on with the key.
Isn't that what we long for as parents, because we will
eventually go home, but we longed that our children will go
on with the king, that they would come to know the king,
that they would come to submit to the rule of King Jesus so
that when our time has come, we could go home and they could go
on with him. 400 years later. Actually, we read about this in
Jeremiah, We read of the habitation of Chim Ham was which
was near Bethlehem in Jeremiah 41.
So to the end, all the battles fought, all the kingdoms
established, the work of God continues day by day in the
lives of His people. Our names may not be known
beyond our borders, beyond the city limits, but they are known
entirely to God. So let us give ourselves
unreservedly to spend the balance of our time, of our
life, our talents, our energies, to serve the one true King, that
is King Jesus, who can do what no earthly king can do.
Are we ready to serve King Jesus, the one who can do what
earthly kings cannot do? Are we ready to do what is
needed to come in contact with this cleansing blood?
Are you in need of being baptized, come believing,
repenting, confessing Jesus as the Son of God, And then when we
are baptized, we come in contact with the blood of Christ and we
are forgiven of our sins, removing all evidence of sin
that God the Father sees. Or do we need to make a public
confession? Because maybe we're like Shimmy
eye. Maybe we made a mistake.
Maybe we were living on the other side of the road.
Maybe we were cursing Jesus and doing all the things that we
shouldn't be doing for Jesus, but now we need to make things
right again. We're going to give an
opportunity for an invitation to do so.
If there's one who is in either one of those class or just needs
the public prayers of the congregation here, we ask you to
come while we stand and while we see.