1 00:00:03,320 --> 00:00:05,960 Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives. 2 00:00:06,200 --> 00:00:09,040 The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist 3 00:00:09,040 --> 00:00:13,040 Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us 4 00:00:13,040 --> 00:00:17,280 or contact us at my libertybaptist.org or just look 5 00:00:17,280 --> 00:00:19,760 us up on Facebook. And now we hope that this 6 00:00:19,760 --> 00:00:22,080 message from God's Word will be a blessing to you. 7 00:00:24,480 --> 00:00:28,240 Second Samuel chapter #3 in the Word of God tonight, second 8 00:00:28,240 --> 00:00:32,200 Samuel chapter #3 and that we saw last week the patience of 9 00:00:32,200 --> 00:00:33,600 David. Remember, even though the goal 10 00:00:33,600 --> 00:00:36,440 post moved, even though he thought he was going to be king 11 00:00:36,440 --> 00:00:39,760 and still was not king yet, he was able to be patient because 12 00:00:39,760 --> 00:00:42,920 he knew that God was in control. But tonight, we're going to 13 00:00:42,920 --> 00:00:46,400 continue to look at David and Ishbasheth, and as Ishbasheth 14 00:00:46,720 --> 00:00:50,600 and his splinter Kingdom, if you will, is going to be on the 15 00:00:50,600 --> 00:00:54,200 decrease decline, we're going to see that David and his Kingdom, 16 00:00:54,360 --> 00:00:58,000 the rightful Kingdom, Amen, is going to be on the increase and 17 00:00:58,000 --> 00:01:03,440 on the incline. You know, for me being a pastor, 18 00:01:04,599 --> 00:01:07,400 this is not just a job. You know, I didn't turn into a 19 00:01:07,400 --> 00:01:09,400 pastor because I couldn't do anything else for a living. 20 00:01:09,400 --> 00:01:11,120 And it's like, well, if you can't do something else, just be 21 00:01:11,120 --> 00:01:13,160 a pastor. I guess that's not the way that 22 00:01:13,160 --> 00:01:16,880 it works for me. It's it's a calling, it's a 23 00:01:16,880 --> 00:01:18,480 ministry, it's a, it's a passion. 24 00:01:18,480 --> 00:01:21,440 I hope that those of you who are here have known me long enough 25 00:01:21,440 --> 00:01:24,440 to know that that's how I feel about the ministry, that this is 26 00:01:24,440 --> 00:01:26,760 not a nine to five. This is just not a way to make a 27 00:01:26,760 --> 00:01:29,000 quick buck. If it is, I picked a lousy way 28 00:01:29,000 --> 00:01:30,560 to make a quick buck, all things considered. 29 00:01:30,720 --> 00:01:34,440 But this is all about, it's about people and it's about 30 00:01:34,440 --> 00:01:39,840 seeing people get it, you know, and seeing people get saved and 31 00:01:39,840 --> 00:01:44,400 seeing them grow and seeing them get victory in their lives. 32 00:01:44,400 --> 00:01:48,200 It's such an incredibly satisfying thing to be able to 33 00:01:48,200 --> 00:01:52,640 see and one of the things that I have felt as a pastor often 34 00:01:52,640 --> 00:01:55,760 times and one of the struggles. That I have is often times I can 35 00:01:55,760 --> 00:01:58,960 see. Through someone's life and I'm 36 00:01:58,960 --> 00:02:02,080 not talking about a strange prophetic type thing, but I, I 37 00:02:02,080 --> 00:02:05,440 can just look at somebody and see I know what God could do in 38 00:02:05,440 --> 00:02:08,840 your life if you would just give your life to him to, to look at 39 00:02:08,840 --> 00:02:11,840 somebody who's struggling, you know, I know if you got saved 40 00:02:12,000 --> 00:02:15,800 your life would change or to see them save but yet not really 41 00:02:15,800 --> 00:02:18,800 living victoriously or not really living with Jesus as the 42 00:02:18,800 --> 00:02:20,600 king of their heart. Oh sure, they're saved, but 43 00:02:20,600 --> 00:02:23,800 they're not really listening to the Lord as they ought to and, 44 00:02:23,800 --> 00:02:26,400 and we all go through those phases and those seasons. 45 00:02:26,400 --> 00:02:29,120 It's unfortunate, but we do have those times in our own lives if 46 00:02:29,120 --> 00:02:32,840 that's the case, but to look at somebody know that Jesus, Jesus 47 00:02:32,840 --> 00:02:35,920 is the answer to your life. He's the answer to your problems 48 00:02:35,920 --> 00:02:39,960 if you would just allow him to do the work that only he can do 49 00:02:39,960 --> 00:02:40,960 it. It's really one of the things 50 00:02:40,960 --> 00:02:43,760 that grieves my heart more than anything to be able to see 51 00:02:43,760 --> 00:02:47,280 someone and say, won't you just let Jesus be your king? 52 00:02:47,640 --> 00:02:51,160 Won't you just let him be the sovereign of your life because 53 00:02:51,160 --> 00:02:54,080 it would change your life forever? 54 00:02:54,360 --> 00:02:57,280 And by the way, this isn't just a problem for young people. 55 00:02:57,520 --> 00:02:59,960 This isn't just a problem for new believers. 56 00:03:00,120 --> 00:03:03,840 Listen, I have seen this issue from those from 8 to 80. 57 00:03:04,120 --> 00:03:07,880 I've seen this issue from those who are young and the old hung 58 00:03:07,880 --> 00:03:10,880 in the Lord and those who are older in their relationship with 59 00:03:10,880 --> 00:03:12,560 Christ. That we all go through times or 60 00:03:12,560 --> 00:03:15,840 seasons and some maybe even more so, who struggle with this. 61 00:03:15,840 --> 00:03:20,000 That they just need to make Jesus Christ the King of their 62 00:03:20,000 --> 00:03:22,760 life, whether through salvation, which is what we have to do 63 00:03:22,880 --> 00:03:26,320 first and foremost, but then through the everyday struggles 64 00:03:26,320 --> 00:03:28,840 and issues and walk of our life as well. 65 00:03:29,320 --> 00:03:30,840 Well, this evening. We're going to look at the war 66 00:03:30,840 --> 00:03:34,680 between the House of David and the House of Ishbisheth now. 67 00:03:34,680 --> 00:03:38,960 It's going to end in our text this evening, and it's going to 68 00:03:38,960 --> 00:03:42,640 come to an end through an unlikely source, someone that 69 00:03:42,640 --> 00:03:46,480 you don't see as being the bridge between these two men. 70 00:03:46,480 --> 00:03:49,960 But yet I believe there's a lesson that we can learn from 71 00:03:49,960 --> 00:03:52,320 this man. An unlikely source, an unlikely 72 00:03:52,320 --> 00:03:55,640 candidate to be able to say, you know what, David needs to be the 73 00:03:55,640 --> 00:03:57,600 king. And I think there's going to be 74 00:03:57,600 --> 00:04:01,320 some lessons that we can learn from this tonight in a message 75 00:04:01,320 --> 00:04:06,640 that I have entitled now, then do it now, then do it down on 76 00:04:06,640 --> 00:04:07,800 its face. That doesn't make a whole lot of 77 00:04:07,800 --> 00:04:10,400 sense, but we're going to see where those 4 words are actually 78 00:04:10,400 --> 00:04:14,040 found in our text tonight. Once you remain seated, then 79 00:04:14,040 --> 00:04:17,000 we're going to read second Samuel chapter #3 beginning of 80 00:04:17,000 --> 00:04:20,160 verse one and going to verse #11 Now we'll continue on after 81 00:04:20,160 --> 00:04:23,680 that, but we'll stop at verse #11 for time to make some 82 00:04:23,680 --> 00:04:25,760 comments as well. So it says. 83 00:04:26,080 --> 00:04:29,400 Now there was long war between the House of Saul and the House 84 00:04:29,400 --> 00:04:32,640 of David, but David waxed stronger and stronger, and the 85 00:04:32,640 --> 00:04:34,720 House of Saul waxed weaker and weaker. 86 00:04:35,080 --> 00:04:37,520 And then the David were sons born, and Hebron. 87 00:04:37,920 --> 00:04:42,680 And his first born was Amnon of a Hinom the Jezreelitis, and his 88 00:04:42,680 --> 00:04:46,680 second Chilean of Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite. 89 00:04:47,040 --> 00:04:51,280 And the third Absalom, the son of Maka, the daughter of Talmi 90 00:04:51,560 --> 00:04:54,880 king of Gesher. And the 4th Adniga, the son of 91 00:04:54,920 --> 00:04:59,840 Haggath and the 5th chef Hitath the son of Abatto. 92 00:05:00,200 --> 00:05:04,040 And the 6th Ythrium by Igla, David's wife. 93 00:05:04,320 --> 00:05:07,040 These were born to David in Hebrew. 94 00:05:07,560 --> 00:05:09,840 And it came to pass while there was war between the House of 95 00:05:09,840 --> 00:05:13,560 Saul, the House of David, that Abner made himself strong for 96 00:05:13,560 --> 00:05:16,480 the House of Saul. You'll remember that Abner is 97 00:05:16,480 --> 00:05:20,040 the uncle of David, or rather the uncle of Saul. 98 00:05:20,040 --> 00:05:23,080 I apologies. And Saul had a concubine whose 99 00:05:23,080 --> 00:05:26,280 name was Rizpa, the daughter of Aiya. 100 00:05:26,560 --> 00:05:30,560 And Ishbashaf said to Abner, Wherefore has thou gone in unto 101 00:05:30,560 --> 00:05:34,400 my father's concubine? Then was Abner Barry Roth for 102 00:05:34,400 --> 00:05:38,520 the words of Istraceph, and said, Am IA dog's head, which 103 00:05:38,520 --> 00:05:41,760 against Judah do show kindness this day unto the House of Saul 104 00:05:41,760 --> 00:05:45,400 thy father, to his brethren, and to his friends, and have not 105 00:05:45,400 --> 00:05:49,280 delivered thee into the hand of David, that thou charges me 106 00:05:49,280 --> 00:05:51,640 today with a fault concerning this woman. 107 00:05:52,240 --> 00:05:56,160 So do God to Abdura. More also, except as the Lord 108 00:05:56,160 --> 00:06:00,240 has sworn to David Even so I do to him to translate the Kingdom 109 00:06:00,240 --> 00:06:03,640 from the House of soul and to set up the throne of David over 110 00:06:03,640 --> 00:06:08,800 Israel and over Judah from Dan even to Beersheba and he could 111 00:06:08,800 --> 00:06:12,480 not answer Abner a word again because he feared him. 112 00:06:12,880 --> 00:06:15,480 Now, whether you realize it or not, there's a great deal of 113 00:06:15,480 --> 00:06:19,680 drama that just took place within the 1st 11 verses of this 114 00:06:19,680 --> 00:06:21,600 chapter. So we're going to try to unpack 115 00:06:21,600 --> 00:06:25,000 it a little bit and then we're going to continue on in the text 116 00:06:25,000 --> 00:06:27,440 to be able to learn some lessons again in a message that I've 117 00:06:27,440 --> 00:06:30,280 called now then do it. And if I was to give this 118 00:06:30,280 --> 00:06:34,000 message a subtitle, it would be this Stop waiting to put the 119 00:06:34,000 --> 00:06:35,480 king. On his throne. 120 00:06:36,040 --> 00:06:39,400 Stop waiting to put the King on his throne. 121 00:06:40,040 --> 00:06:42,320 Heavenly Father, I do pray to you be with us this evening and 122 00:06:42,320 --> 00:06:45,080 allow me to say what needs to be said for these people tonight. 123 00:06:45,120 --> 00:06:47,000 Allow my preparation. Allow the work. 124 00:06:47,360 --> 00:06:48,640 That. Has taken place behind the 125 00:06:48,640 --> 00:06:54,320 scenes to have been fruitful for the admonition for the help of 126 00:06:54,320 --> 00:06:57,600 all who are here tonight and all who listen later on or watch 127 00:06:58,320 --> 00:07:01,280 online. And Lord, may it help them as it 128 00:07:01,280 --> 00:07:04,560 helped me and maybe bring them to a place of realizing some 129 00:07:04,560 --> 00:07:07,960 things even as it did for me this last week. 130 00:07:08,160 --> 00:07:10,360 Or thank you for this message and I pray that you would help 131 00:07:10,360 --> 00:07:13,560 me as I deliver it. And we ask it in Jesus name, 132 00:07:14,200 --> 00:07:16,840 Amen. Now from what we just read, 133 00:07:16,840 --> 00:07:19,360 there's enough drama taking place here that one could think 134 00:07:19,360 --> 00:07:21,680 that it came from the mind of a Hollywood screenwriter. 135 00:07:21,680 --> 00:07:25,040 But it's not something that came out of the mind of Hollywood, 136 00:07:25,040 --> 00:07:28,880 but rather it's found right here as we saw this morning, revealed 137 00:07:28,880 --> 00:07:31,600 to us by the inspiration of the word of God. 138 00:07:31,600 --> 00:07:35,920 Now, our chapter opens with this thought process of what's taking 139 00:07:35,920 --> 00:07:40,200 place in this, well, civil war that's taking place between 140 00:07:40,200 --> 00:07:44,040 Judah and the House of David and the other tribes and the House 141 00:07:44,280 --> 00:07:47,160 of Saul, which is being represented by Ishbosheth. 142 00:07:47,360 --> 00:07:50,040 But you remember, Abner is more of the puppet master. 143 00:07:50,520 --> 00:07:53,960 Abner is more of the kingmaker that's here behind the scenes 144 00:07:54,120 --> 00:07:57,680 that Ishbosheth, who we saw last week was a fairly weak man and 145 00:07:57,680 --> 00:08:01,520 certainly a man that I believe had very little by way of, of, 146 00:08:02,720 --> 00:08:05,280 of, of real character in and of himself. 147 00:08:05,280 --> 00:08:08,600 And we see that David's getting stronger and Ishbasheth is 148 00:08:08,600 --> 00:08:10,400 getting weaker. That that doesn't surprise us, 149 00:08:10,400 --> 00:08:12,480 does it? Because we know, as we saw last 150 00:08:12,480 --> 00:08:15,520 week, who was promised to be king, it wasn't Ishbasheth, it 151 00:08:15,520 --> 00:08:18,400 was David who was promised to be king of Israel. 152 00:08:18,520 --> 00:08:23,040 And so we have this ascension of 1 and the descending of the 153 00:08:23,040 --> 00:08:25,320 other. And then we get this aside for 154 00:08:25,320 --> 00:08:29,760 about four verses of the family of David and you'll realize that 155 00:08:29,760 --> 00:08:33,919 as David has amassed some level of wealth and he is he is 156 00:08:33,919 --> 00:08:37,080 ascending towards the Kingdom. He's also collected a few wives, 157 00:08:37,080 --> 00:08:38,520 hasn't he? Along the way. 158 00:08:38,520 --> 00:08:41,480 You might say, pastor, why is this mentioned here? 159 00:08:41,480 --> 00:08:44,840 Because as I've said to you before, the word of God does not 160 00:08:44,840 --> 00:08:49,120 shy away from the hard or sometimes the unsavory elements 161 00:08:49,360 --> 00:08:52,680 of those who are still considered heroes of the faith. 162 00:08:52,960 --> 00:08:56,680 David here is shown as a man who has collected women, as was the 163 00:08:56,680 --> 00:09:00,640 custom of kings of that time. But let me remind you that just 164 00:09:00,640 --> 00:09:04,160 because thing is a custom of those of the world does not mean 165 00:09:04,160 --> 00:09:06,400 it should be the custom of the child of God. 166 00:09:06,600 --> 00:09:10,360 You'd say, well pastor, where on earth does it say in the Bible 167 00:09:10,360 --> 00:09:13,680 explicitly that a man should not have more than one wife? 168 00:09:13,680 --> 00:09:17,720 And my answer to you is that it never says thou shalt have shall 169 00:09:17,720 --> 00:09:19,120 not have. Be careful. 170 00:09:19,120 --> 00:09:21,280 I would say that more than one wife. 171 00:09:21,280 --> 00:09:24,080 But I would argue to you that you look right at the very 172 00:09:24,080 --> 00:09:26,000 beginning. You look right at what marriage 173 00:09:26,000 --> 00:09:31,000 is as instituted by God. It is what one man and one woman 174 00:09:31,280 --> 00:09:35,120 that had been brought together. They leave their father and 175 00:09:35,120 --> 00:09:37,120 mother and cleave together as one. 176 00:09:37,280 --> 00:09:40,920 Nowhere is it ever introduced that there are to be other 177 00:09:40,920 --> 00:09:42,760 elements that are involved to the marriage. 178 00:09:43,000 --> 00:09:47,080 It's just implicit in the fact of what it's taught, that it's 179 00:09:47,080 --> 00:09:51,240 one man and one woman and that others are not to be added into 180 00:09:51,240 --> 00:09:53,560 this mix as well. It's not, well, this man and 181 00:09:53,560 --> 00:09:55,960 this woman, but the same man and this woman, the same man and 182 00:09:55,960 --> 00:09:57,480 this woman, the same man and this woman. 183 00:09:57,600 --> 00:10:01,120 That was never God's intent. There's also a Bible principle 184 00:10:01,120 --> 00:10:03,920 as well that you can find at times in the Word of God where 185 00:10:03,920 --> 00:10:07,120 something is mentioned and maybe it's never condemned because 186 00:10:07,120 --> 00:10:10,320 it's just being reported to us, the fact of the matter. 187 00:10:10,680 --> 00:10:14,080 But you can see just from the very nature of what it is that 188 00:10:14,080 --> 00:10:16,000 it's not going well. Well, I would challenge you to 189 00:10:16,000 --> 00:10:19,400 go through the Word of God and find a time when multiple 190 00:10:19,600 --> 00:10:24,040 marriages by one man is ever presented in a way where it 191 00:10:24,040 --> 00:10:26,920 works out well. Did it work out well for David? 192 00:10:27,320 --> 00:10:29,840 No Did it work out well for Solomon? 193 00:10:29,840 --> 00:10:32,240 No Did it work out well for Jacob? 194 00:10:32,320 --> 00:10:34,320 No. Did it work out well for Abraham 195 00:10:34,320 --> 00:10:38,400 who took of his concubine, who took of his wife's servant and 196 00:10:38,520 --> 00:10:40,320 had Ishmael with her? No. 197 00:10:40,400 --> 00:10:42,920 It never worked out well in the Bible. 198 00:10:42,920 --> 00:10:44,960 Why? Because it was never God's plan. 199 00:10:45,200 --> 00:10:48,400 And if you're to look at this list of men that you have these 200 00:10:48,400 --> 00:10:52,560 sons that were born of these woman in these 4 verses here in 201 00:10:52,560 --> 00:10:57,840 chapter #3 of the men who were accounted for at this time never 202 00:10:57,840 --> 00:11:02,200 amounted to anything, or even worse, amounted into something 203 00:11:02,200 --> 00:11:04,920 quite wicked. You could take several of those 204 00:11:04,920 --> 00:11:08,480 names, including Amnon and Adonijah, and find that these 205 00:11:08,480 --> 00:11:12,680 are not exactly a paragons of Christian virtue, that these are 206 00:11:12,680 --> 00:11:15,080 quite the opposite. So I feel like we just need to 207 00:11:15,080 --> 00:11:17,800 clear off a spot there for just a moment and mention that while 208 00:11:17,800 --> 00:11:20,560 these are brought to our attention here, that this is not 209 00:11:20,560 --> 00:11:23,280 God's stamp of approval on what David has done here. 210 00:11:23,280 --> 00:11:26,320 It's just God reporting on, well, exactly what David has 211 00:11:26,320 --> 00:11:29,480 done and giving us the unvarnished look at his life. 212 00:11:29,480 --> 00:11:33,440 But anytime you see this idea of polygamy in the Bible, it never 213 00:11:33,440 --> 00:11:35,240 goes well. And isn't it amazing, by the 214 00:11:35,240 --> 00:11:38,480 way, how things that are old always become new and polygamy 215 00:11:38,600 --> 00:11:41,280 is in the news again, whether it's a reality show, Sister 216 00:11:41,280 --> 00:11:44,920 Wives a few years ago, or place like Somerville where throuple's 217 00:11:44,920 --> 00:11:49,240 are legally allowed to be able to be an entity. 218 00:11:49,600 --> 00:11:52,680 And this is something that is becoming in the news once again. 219 00:11:52,680 --> 00:11:55,560 And we just have to remind ourselves, look, God's word is 220 00:11:55,560 --> 00:11:58,640 always God's word. God's truth is always truth. 221 00:11:58,880 --> 00:12:02,120 And error just kind of keeps coming around over and over 222 00:12:02,120 --> 00:12:03,640 again. Does it gets repackaged and gets 223 00:12:03,640 --> 00:12:06,480 repurposed? You know, polygamy one time, 224 00:12:06,720 --> 00:12:08,720 throuple the next, but yet what is it? 225 00:12:08,760 --> 00:12:12,120 It's all sin in God's eyes, and certainly sin even though David 226 00:12:12,120 --> 00:12:15,080 partook of it here in verses 2 through 6. 227 00:12:15,440 --> 00:12:18,920 But then we get to the place where it says that Abner and 228 00:12:18,920 --> 00:12:20,880 Ishbashaf have this conversation. 229 00:12:20,880 --> 00:12:26,160 Ishbashaf comes up to Abner, and he says in verse #7 He says, 230 00:12:26,160 --> 00:12:28,360 Wherefore has thou gone in unto my? 231 00:12:28,360 --> 00:12:30,480 Father's concubine. Now this is. 232 00:12:30,480 --> 00:12:34,080 Something that is going to be an issue a few times as we study 233 00:12:34,480 --> 00:12:37,080 verse and Second Samuel, 1st and 2nd Kings, First and Second 234 00:12:37,080 --> 00:12:41,040 Chronicles, as we look at the lives of the kings of Israel and 235 00:12:41,040 --> 00:12:43,840 of Judah. But there is an issue at times 236 00:12:43,840 --> 00:12:49,120 when someone who perhaps desires to be a king takes on as a 237 00:12:49,120 --> 00:12:52,720 concubine someone from who used to be the king. 238 00:12:53,000 --> 00:12:57,600 And the idea of so was to be able to say, look, this woman 239 00:12:57,600 --> 00:13:02,400 belonged to the king and now she belongs to me. 240 00:13:02,400 --> 00:13:05,360 So I guess I should be king. You say that's a pretty 241 00:13:05,360 --> 00:13:07,640 backwards way of looking at things, isn't it, Pastor? 242 00:13:07,880 --> 00:13:11,040 Exactly. To consider a woman a piece of 243 00:13:11,040 --> 00:13:15,520 property, to consider a woman nothing more than being a a 244 00:13:15,520 --> 00:13:20,400 prop, to be able to make the man a king over the people. 245 00:13:20,400 --> 00:13:24,240 Certainly again, not the way that God looks at these things. 246 00:13:24,240 --> 00:13:27,160 That's not what's being said. But yet Ishbashev comes up to 247 00:13:27,160 --> 00:13:28,040 Abner. He says this. 248 00:13:28,040 --> 00:13:30,160 Listen, man, I've heard about you. 249 00:13:30,200 --> 00:13:32,760 I heard that you took one of my father's concubines. 250 00:13:32,960 --> 00:13:36,800 And what he is saying in this is basically saying I'm here and 251 00:13:36,800 --> 00:13:38,120 you want to make a play for the throne. 252 00:13:38,760 --> 00:13:40,400 I'm here and you want to take my spot. 253 00:13:40,880 --> 00:13:44,080 And again, we saw that Ishbashaf is a pretty weak man. 254 00:13:44,480 --> 00:13:46,800 We saw the Ishbashaf is not a man of character. 255 00:13:47,080 --> 00:13:50,000 And what's interesting about Abner's response, again, Abner 256 00:13:50,000 --> 00:13:52,160 is a relation to him. They are family. 257 00:13:52,520 --> 00:13:57,280 And his response is this look at verse #8 Abner was wroth for the 258 00:13:57,280 --> 00:14:01,080 words of Ishbashaf, and said, Am IA dog's head, which against 259 00:14:01,080 --> 00:14:03,600 Judah do show kindness. This day unto the House of soul, 260 00:14:03,600 --> 00:14:06,680 thy father to his brethren, to his friends, and have not 261 00:14:06,680 --> 00:14:10,040 delivered thee into the hand of David, that thou charges me 262 00:14:10,040 --> 00:14:11,760 today with a fault concerning this woman. 263 00:14:12,200 --> 00:14:15,440 So do God to Abner more also accept that the Lord has sworn 264 00:14:15,440 --> 00:14:18,440 to David. Even so I do to him to translate 265 00:14:18,440 --> 00:14:21,000 the Kingdom from the House of Salt, and to set up the throne 266 00:14:21,000 --> 00:14:25,480 of David over Israel and over Judah, from Dan even unto 267 00:14:25,680 --> 00:14:28,680 Beersheba. So I would say from reading this 268 00:14:28,680 --> 00:14:31,240 that the accusation that Ishbasheth is making against 269 00:14:31,240 --> 00:14:33,840 Abner was one that was seemingly false. 270 00:14:34,240 --> 00:14:36,040 It was not one that was actually true. 271 00:14:36,320 --> 00:14:39,600 Ishbasheth either had heard that this was the case, or perhaps 272 00:14:39,600 --> 00:14:43,480 Ishbasheth is trying to poke the bear a little bit, if you will, 273 00:14:43,480 --> 00:14:46,640 to try to make Abner mad, perhaps to try to remove him 274 00:14:46,640 --> 00:14:50,200 from the way, and trying to make himself more powerful, realizing 275 00:14:50,200 --> 00:14:53,400 that he seemingly looks like a puppet to all the people. 276 00:14:53,720 --> 00:14:57,240 I don't know what Ishbosheth reasoning was to accuse Abner of 277 00:14:57,240 --> 00:15:01,120 this, but it was a bad move. Listen, if you become king 278 00:15:01,120 --> 00:15:03,600 because of a kingmaker, you don't want to make the kingmaker 279 00:15:03,600 --> 00:15:05,920 mad. If you are a puppet, you don't 280 00:15:05,920 --> 00:15:09,280 want to make the puppeteer mad. And that's exactly what he did. 281 00:15:09,480 --> 00:15:12,440 He angered Abner and Abner says Ish Bashat. 282 00:15:12,600 --> 00:15:16,320 Who are you? Who are you to say this of me? 283 00:15:16,800 --> 00:15:21,040 Don't you know that the only reason you are in this throne 284 00:15:21,040 --> 00:15:23,800 that you have right now is because of me? 285 00:15:23,960 --> 00:15:26,600 Don't you realize you wouldn't even you wouldn't even beat 286 00:15:26,600 --> 00:15:30,480 anybody if it wasn't for me? And you would dare accuse me of 287 00:15:30,480 --> 00:15:34,080 trying to do something to hurt the Kingdom when I've done 288 00:15:34,080 --> 00:15:37,120 nothing but try to help you? He says, you know what I'm going 289 00:15:37,120 --> 00:15:39,160 to do? He says maybe I ought to just 290 00:15:39,160 --> 00:15:41,680 wander right over to David and talk to him. 291 00:15:42,120 --> 00:15:45,800 And maybe David ought to be the king over Israel, all of Israel 292 00:15:46,160 --> 00:15:50,840 other than you. Well, verse #11 says this. 293 00:15:50,840 --> 00:15:54,040 Berseth could not answer Abner a word because he feared him. 294 00:15:54,040 --> 00:15:56,480 What a weak man he is. And we're going to find out how 295 00:15:56,480 --> 00:15:59,080 weak even greater he is in just a moment. 296 00:15:59,080 --> 00:16:01,800 But yet Abner says this. Hey, buddy, you want to? 297 00:16:02,080 --> 00:16:04,960 You want to, you want to play with the bull and grab the 298 00:16:04,960 --> 00:16:06,560 horns. He says you might get the horns. 299 00:16:06,760 --> 00:16:08,640 And that's exactly what's going to happen right now. 300 00:16:08,880 --> 00:16:11,640 He says, you think you're going to going to cross me? 301 00:16:11,840 --> 00:16:14,880 He says, how about I cross the line and go over to David and 302 00:16:14,880 --> 00:16:17,880 maybe we unify this Kingdom and guess who's going to be out? 303 00:16:18,080 --> 00:16:22,360 It's going to be you. And we see as we continue on in 304 00:16:22,360 --> 00:16:27,040 our text from verse #12 on, that's exactly what took place. 305 00:16:27,040 --> 00:16:30,920 Now there's a lot of bitterness that is involved in this. 306 00:16:30,920 --> 00:16:35,120 In fact, there's some of second Samuel chapter #2 that we did 307 00:16:35,120 --> 00:16:38,520 not address last week that I think we may address next week 308 00:16:38,520 --> 00:16:41,160 because it will pick up with where we leave off and Second 309 00:16:41,160 --> 00:16:42,920 Samuel chapter #3 if that makes sense. 310 00:16:42,920 --> 00:16:44,400 And so there's a lot of bitterness. 311 00:16:44,400 --> 00:16:47,320 There's a lot of animosity between the House of David and 312 00:16:47,320 --> 00:16:49,440 the House of Saul. And who's the one that started 313 00:16:49,440 --> 00:16:51,440 all up in the 1st place? It was Abner. 314 00:16:52,240 --> 00:16:55,760 Abner was the one who could not accept the fact that day would 315 00:16:55,760 --> 00:16:58,640 be the king of all 12 tribes. He was the one that grabbed 316 00:16:58,640 --> 00:17:02,680 Isbush Chef. He was the one who tried to make 317 00:17:02,680 --> 00:17:05,160 him to be the king. He's for two years the one 318 00:17:05,160 --> 00:17:08,160 that's been stirring the pot and keeping the animosity burning. 319 00:17:08,160 --> 00:17:11,920 But even Abner realizes, man, this guy isn't just a puppet. 320 00:17:12,000 --> 00:17:16,599 He's a fool. He's he's dangerous in the fact 321 00:17:16,599 --> 00:17:20,000 of what the way he thinks he doesn't understand who he is. 322 00:17:20,000 --> 00:17:23,640 He doesn't understand where he's gone or where he's been or who 323 00:17:23,640 --> 00:17:25,000 David is. He says, you know what? 324 00:17:25,000 --> 00:17:28,000 Let's just end this right now. And listen, we may not know 325 00:17:28,000 --> 00:17:30,960 Abner's motives. It could have been just the fact 326 00:17:30,960 --> 00:17:33,560 that he just felt wounded in his pride. 327 00:17:33,560 --> 00:17:35,640 Look, I don't know what it is. All I know is this. 328 00:17:35,640 --> 00:17:39,080 He says this has got to stop. And there's only one person who 329 00:17:39,080 --> 00:17:42,600 could make this stop, and it's the one who got it started, and 330 00:17:42,600 --> 00:17:44,960 that's me. So let's pick up at verse #12 331 00:17:44,960 --> 00:17:47,400 and move on. Then we left off at verse #11 332 00:17:47,400 --> 00:17:49,320 Look at verse 12. And Abner sent messengers to 333 00:17:49,320 --> 00:17:51,960 David on his behalf, saying, Whose is the land? 334 00:17:51,960 --> 00:17:53,920 Saying, also make thy league with me. 335 00:17:54,200 --> 00:17:56,960 And behold, my hand shall be with thee to bring about all 336 00:17:56,960 --> 00:17:59,720 Israel unto thee. And he said, Well, I will make a 337 00:17:59,720 --> 00:18:02,040 league with thee. One thing I require of thee, 338 00:18:02,040 --> 00:18:05,480 that is, thou shall not see my face, except thou first bring 339 00:18:05,480 --> 00:18:08,760 Michael, Saul's daughter, when thou comest to see my face. 340 00:18:08,760 --> 00:18:12,360 Do you remember in First Samuel chapter 18 that David was 341 00:18:12,360 --> 00:18:15,880 promised that he would have Saul's daughter to be his own, 342 00:18:16,120 --> 00:18:22,520 but yet Saul, in a bit of deceit towards David, ended up trying 343 00:18:22,520 --> 00:18:24,680 to use it as a way for David to be killed. 344 00:18:24,680 --> 00:18:27,240 David was not killed. And so he ended up giving away 345 00:18:27,240 --> 00:18:31,040 Michael to another man. And so David says this, Hey, I 346 00:18:31,040 --> 00:18:32,760 want to know that you're serious, Abner. 347 00:18:32,760 --> 00:18:35,840 I want to know, I want to ask you to do something that's going 348 00:18:35,840 --> 00:18:38,680 to cost you a little bit and it's going to cost the family a 349 00:18:38,680 --> 00:18:41,920 little bit, he says. I want my wife back now again, 350 00:18:42,120 --> 00:18:44,880 are we agreeing with this? David already has five more 351 00:18:44,880 --> 00:18:49,000 wives than he ought to have, but yet this is what David perceives 352 00:18:49,000 --> 00:18:51,960 as the correct way to go to be able to say listen she was 353 00:18:51,960 --> 00:18:55,160 promised to me. I want to see her before we go 354 00:18:55,160 --> 00:18:57,920 any further. So pick up at verse #14 it says 355 00:18:57,920 --> 00:19:00,960 and David sent messengers to Ishbosheth soul son saying 356 00:19:00,960 --> 00:19:04,600 deliver me my wife Michael, who my spouse to me for in 100 and 357 00:19:04,600 --> 00:19:07,360 foreskins of the Philistines. Again, going back to that story 358 00:19:07,360 --> 00:19:11,160 in First Samuel chapter 18. And Ishbosheth sent and took for 359 00:19:11,160 --> 00:19:15,000 her from her husband, even from Faulty Elle the son of Laish. 360 00:19:15,360 --> 00:19:18,640 And her husband went with her along weeping behind her to 361 00:19:18,640 --> 00:19:22,800 Bayrum, and said Abner unto him, go return. 362 00:19:23,040 --> 00:19:26,400 And he returned. This man's This man is married 363 00:19:26,960 --> 00:19:30,440 to Michael and he's been married to her seemingly for probably 10 364 00:19:30,440 --> 00:19:33,240 to 15 years, somewhere around that length of time. 365 00:19:33,480 --> 00:19:37,280 And so Abner comes and he says, listen, Michael, remember, 366 00:19:37,280 --> 00:19:39,000 David, remember, you're supposed to be married to him. 367 00:19:39,160 --> 00:19:42,480 You're going to him. Hey, you, Sir, sit down. 368 00:19:42,480 --> 00:19:45,280 She don't belong to you anymore. And so this man, well, he's 369 00:19:45,280 --> 00:19:47,880 upset and you ought to be upset. He's about to lose his wife. 370 00:19:48,120 --> 00:19:51,200 And so he's following behind Abner and he's crying and he's 371 00:19:51,200 --> 00:19:53,720 weeping. And Abner says, hey, man, go 372 00:19:53,720 --> 00:19:55,240 home. She don't belong to you anymore. 373 00:19:55,600 --> 00:19:59,920 And talk about a weak man. He goes, OK, and he walks home. 374 00:20:00,480 --> 00:20:03,040 We never hear from him again. I mean, what a crazy thing is 375 00:20:03,040 --> 00:20:06,040 that, huh? That his man's wife's taken away 376 00:20:06,040 --> 00:20:07,880 from him. And he's like, well, I'll try a 377 00:20:07,880 --> 00:20:08,920 little. I'll cry a little bit. 378 00:20:08,920 --> 00:20:12,320 But you know, oh, well, I guess I'll move on. 379 00:20:12,480 --> 00:20:15,680 And that's what happens there. Verse 17 Abner had communication 380 00:20:15,680 --> 00:20:18,920 with the elders of Israel saying you sought for David in times 381 00:20:18,920 --> 00:20:22,360 past to be king over you. Now then do it, for the Lord has 382 00:20:22,360 --> 00:20:25,120 spoken of David, saying, By the hand of my servant David, I will 383 00:20:25,120 --> 00:20:28,200 save my people Israel out of the hand of the Philistines, out of 384 00:20:28,200 --> 00:20:30,640 the hand of all their enemies. And Abner Spake also in the 385 00:20:30,640 --> 00:20:32,840 years of Benjamin, and Abner Witt to speak in the years of 386 00:20:32,840 --> 00:20:36,120 David and Hebron, all that seemed good to Israel, and that 387 00:20:36,120 --> 00:20:39,080 seemed good to the house, whole House of Benjamin. 388 00:20:42,760 --> 00:20:46,600 Sorry, I lost my space there. Verse #20 And Abner came to 389 00:20:46,600 --> 00:20:49,000 David to Hebron, and 20 men with him. 390 00:20:49,240 --> 00:20:52,120 David made Abner and the men that were with him a feast. 391 00:20:52,400 --> 00:20:55,440 And Abner said unto David, I will arise and go, and we'll 392 00:20:55,440 --> 00:20:58,520 gather all Israel unto my Lord the king, that they may make a 393 00:20:58,520 --> 00:21:01,880 league with thee, and that thou mayest reign over all that thine 394 00:21:01,880 --> 00:21:04,760 heart desireth. And David said Abner away, and 395 00:21:04,760 --> 00:21:07,560 he went in peace. So what takes place from verse 396 00:21:07,560 --> 00:21:09,720 #17? And on Abner takes Michael, 397 00:21:09,880 --> 00:21:13,160 delivers Michael to David, and says, David, I have kept my 398 00:21:13,160 --> 00:21:15,680 word. Then he goes and he talks to all 399 00:21:15,680 --> 00:21:18,400 the tribes of Israel. And he says this, listen, it's 400 00:21:18,400 --> 00:21:20,800 time to bring the tribes together. 401 00:21:20,800 --> 00:21:22,440 It's time to bring Israel together. 402 00:21:22,440 --> 00:21:25,480 It's been a long two years. Saul died two years ago, and 403 00:21:25,480 --> 00:21:28,600 we've been split in half. Judah, the larger tribe with 404 00:21:28,600 --> 00:21:32,040 David, the 11 other tribes with Ishbasheth. 405 00:21:32,480 --> 00:21:34,240 It's time to bring the family together. 406 00:21:34,240 --> 00:21:36,520 Then he goes to the tribe of Benjamin, his own tribe. 407 00:21:36,680 --> 00:21:38,760 Why is that important? Well, that's the tribe of Seoul. 408 00:21:39,000 --> 00:21:42,160 And of course, they had great pride in knowing that Seoul was 409 00:21:42,160 --> 00:21:43,880 their king and he was one of their own. 410 00:21:43,880 --> 00:21:45,680 And he went to them and he told them the same thing. 411 00:21:45,680 --> 00:21:48,240 He said it's time for us to bring everybody back together. 412 00:21:48,240 --> 00:21:50,440 It's time for the civil war to be over. 413 00:21:50,600 --> 00:21:53,920 And then he goes to David, and David very graciously throws a 414 00:21:53,920 --> 00:21:56,160 banquet for him. And David very graciously 415 00:21:56,160 --> 00:22:00,080 decides to be a unifier instead of trying to make things worse 416 00:22:00,080 --> 00:22:03,360 and instead of trying to get a pound of flesh, an ounce of 417 00:22:03,360 --> 00:22:06,880 blood from Abner, he says this, Listen, the time for this is 418 00:22:06,880 --> 00:22:08,400 over. It's time for us to come 419 00:22:08,400 --> 00:22:10,680 together. It's time for the Kingdom to be 420 00:22:10,680 --> 00:22:13,040 is 1. It's time for me to be the king 421 00:22:13,040 --> 00:22:16,560 as God has promised all of that time ago. 422 00:22:16,960 --> 00:22:20,200 So with all of that being said, there is an interesting 423 00:22:20,200 --> 00:22:22,920 statement you might have caught because it came from our text 424 00:22:22,920 --> 00:22:25,360 just a few moments ago. There's an interesting statement 425 00:22:25,360 --> 00:22:28,360 that I want to focus on for the remainder of the message that we 426 00:22:28,360 --> 00:22:31,680 have tonight because it's something that I think is really 427 00:22:31,680 --> 00:22:35,560 helpful to us when we consider, look at verse #17 and it says an 428 00:22:35,560 --> 00:22:39,000 Abner had communication with the elders of Israel, saying you saw 429 00:22:39,000 --> 00:22:43,960 it for David in times past to be king over you now, then do it. 430 00:22:43,960 --> 00:22:46,200 I'm going to stop right there for a minute. 431 00:22:47,520 --> 00:22:50,640 He says there have been times in the past when you knew David 432 00:22:50,640 --> 00:22:52,720 should be king. Now when exactly that is, I 433 00:22:52,720 --> 00:22:54,800 don't know. It very likely could have been 434 00:22:54,800 --> 00:22:58,720 that after Saul died that the tribes were starting to believe 435 00:22:58,720 --> 00:23:03,120 that they needed to coalesce together under David and that as 436 00:23:03,120 --> 00:23:05,640 they were starting to that process and allowing it to 437 00:23:05,640 --> 00:23:08,600 begin, that Abner ended up saying, no, no, no, hold on a 438 00:23:08,600 --> 00:23:10,160 second. Before you go to David, there's 439 00:23:10,160 --> 00:23:12,280 another option. Before you go to David, there's 440 00:23:12,280 --> 00:23:14,600 another way. You may not have realized it, 441 00:23:14,600 --> 00:23:17,720 folks, but there was a another son of Saul that I have hiding 442 00:23:17,720 --> 00:23:20,400 over here, and he was hiding because I believe he wasn't in 443 00:23:20,400 --> 00:23:22,200 battle. He was not a man who was. 444 00:23:22,200 --> 00:23:24,400 Honorable in any way? But he says, listen, you don't 445 00:23:24,400 --> 00:23:27,000 have to have David. You could have this guy over 446 00:23:27,000 --> 00:23:29,120 here and wouldn't he be so much better for you? 447 00:23:29,560 --> 00:23:32,800 And, and so Abner was saying, look, there was a time when you 448 00:23:32,800 --> 00:23:35,440 all sought for David and then you let him be. 449 00:23:35,800 --> 00:23:39,880 He said, but now listen, now then do it. 450 00:23:40,560 --> 00:23:43,840 It's time to make the king the king. 451 00:23:44,000 --> 00:23:46,040 It's time to stop talking about this. 452 00:23:46,640 --> 00:23:49,680 It's time to stop talking about putting him on his throne, and 453 00:23:49,680 --> 00:23:54,120 it's time to get this done now. Then do it. 454 00:23:54,560 --> 00:23:57,920 You know, I feel like we've been calloused by the phrase just do 455 00:23:57,920 --> 00:24:00,440 it over the years. And we can probably thank Nike 456 00:24:00,440 --> 00:24:03,640 for that, can't we? Because starting in 1988, they 457 00:24:03,920 --> 00:24:08,000 started one of the most popular advertising campaigns in history 458 00:24:08,240 --> 00:24:12,200 by simply saying those 3 words. Just do it. 459 00:24:12,440 --> 00:24:17,640 And Nike came became from a boutique shoe resaler or seller 460 00:24:17,640 --> 00:24:21,600 rather, to becoming an international juggernaut, which 461 00:24:21,600 --> 00:24:23,760 it is today. And much of that can be 462 00:24:23,760 --> 00:24:26,360 attributed to that phrase. Just do it. 463 00:24:26,760 --> 00:24:29,360 And so I feel like we've heard it so many times that it's 464 00:24:29,360 --> 00:24:32,080 something that almost we don't really think about very much 465 00:24:32,080 --> 00:24:33,880 anymore. And it's just become a slogan. 466 00:24:34,120 --> 00:24:36,200 It's become an advertising phrase. 467 00:24:36,200 --> 00:24:39,640 It's not really something that maybe we internalize as we ought 468 00:24:39,640 --> 00:24:41,440 to do. But, you know, there is an 469 00:24:41,440 --> 00:24:44,680 element of the Christian life that it really comes down to 470 00:24:44,680 --> 00:24:46,200 this. Just do it. 471 00:24:47,440 --> 00:24:50,240 There's enough of the talk. There's enough of the preaching, 472 00:24:50,240 --> 00:24:53,120 there's enough of the teaching. You say there's enough preaching 473 00:24:53,120 --> 00:24:55,480 and teaching. Well, obviously there's never 474 00:24:55,480 --> 00:24:57,880 enough in one sense. But what I'm trying to say is 475 00:24:57,880 --> 00:24:59,400 this. There's some people who just 476 00:24:59,400 --> 00:25:03,080 want to absorb preaching and absorb teaching and read and 477 00:25:03,080 --> 00:25:06,120 hear and learn, but yet they never want to put it into 478 00:25:06,120 --> 00:25:08,120 practice. They never want to. 479 00:25:08,920 --> 00:25:12,240 They never just want to do it. They want to feel like they're 480 00:25:12,240 --> 00:25:13,880 learning. They want to feel like they're 481 00:25:13,880 --> 00:25:15,800 growing just by sitting under the Word. 482 00:25:16,000 --> 00:25:18,800 But listen, God didn't give us the Word just so that we could 483 00:25:18,800 --> 00:25:23,040 expand our minds and not actually put it into practice in 484 00:25:23,040 --> 00:25:26,320 the 1st place. When it comes to the issue of 485 00:25:26,320 --> 00:25:29,360 having the King on the throne, just do it. 486 00:25:29,840 --> 00:25:33,560 And when it comes to having the King on the throne of our heart, 487 00:25:33,680 --> 00:25:36,000 what are we to do? Just do it. 488 00:25:36,760 --> 00:25:39,600 Is Jesus Christ the King of our heart? 489 00:25:40,680 --> 00:25:41,960 You know what's interesting about David? 490 00:25:43,320 --> 00:25:45,480 David never forced himself on anybody, did he? 491 00:25:46,120 --> 00:25:51,720 David's passive here, David is a representation, I believe, of 492 00:25:51,720 --> 00:25:54,080 Jesus Christ. What is he doing? 493 00:25:54,400 --> 00:25:57,400 David is ready, David is available. 494 00:25:58,400 --> 00:26:03,320 He's the king of promise, but he is not going to force himself 495 00:26:04,000 --> 00:26:07,840 upon anybody. Do you realize our king, King 496 00:26:07,920 --> 00:26:11,200 Jesus? Is there any other king, I mean, 497 00:26:11,200 --> 00:26:13,320 any other king can only get their power from the King of 498 00:26:13,320 --> 00:26:17,480 kings and the Lord of Lords. But Jesus will not force himself 499 00:26:17,480 --> 00:26:20,280 upon you. He does not force himself upon 500 00:26:20,280 --> 00:26:23,400 you in salvation. He does not force himself upon 501 00:26:23,400 --> 00:26:26,240 you in your daily life. You know what we have to do. 502 00:26:26,560 --> 00:26:30,440 We have to take that which we understand the word of God and 503 00:26:30,440 --> 00:26:33,040 do it. And every day we have to wake up 504 00:26:33,040 --> 00:26:36,360 and say, Lord, you're in control of this day and not me. 505 00:26:37,280 --> 00:26:40,280 Lord, you're in control of my wallet and not me. 506 00:26:40,960 --> 00:26:43,720 Lord, you're in control of my agenda and not me. 507 00:26:44,240 --> 00:26:46,640 Lord, you're control of my eyes and not me. 508 00:26:47,040 --> 00:26:49,360 Lord, you're in control of my mind and not me. 509 00:26:49,520 --> 00:26:52,000 You're in control of my ears. You're in control of my hands. 510 00:26:52,000 --> 00:26:53,880 You're in control of my feet and where they go. 511 00:26:54,040 --> 00:26:56,840 You're in control of my heart. You're in control of my car. 512 00:26:56,840 --> 00:26:58,840 You're in control of my house. You're in control. 513 00:26:58,840 --> 00:27:01,880 You say, pastor, that's a lot of stuff, and I'm not even close to 514 00:27:01,880 --> 00:27:04,920 being done. If he's the king, he's in 515 00:27:04,920 --> 00:27:08,440 control of everything. But yet I've often found to be 516 00:27:08,440 --> 00:27:12,360 the case is that you and I as believers, we want him to be the 517 00:27:12,360 --> 00:27:14,080 king. But we only wanted to be the 518 00:27:14,080 --> 00:27:18,080 king so much, and we only wanted to be the king so far. 519 00:27:19,000 --> 00:27:20,760 And sure, we like having him around. 520 00:27:20,760 --> 00:27:22,400 It's comforting to know that he's there. 521 00:27:22,520 --> 00:27:26,080 But we still want to exert some level of autonomy on our own. 522 00:27:26,080 --> 00:27:27,920 We still want to be our own person. 523 00:27:28,000 --> 00:27:30,520 And here's Jesus. He's waiting to be crowned. 524 00:27:30,600 --> 00:27:32,320 He's waiting to be put on the throne. 525 00:27:32,640 --> 00:27:35,080 And we get to a place where even Abner looks at this. 526 00:27:35,080 --> 00:27:39,200 He says, man, just do it. Just do it. 527 00:27:40,080 --> 00:27:43,880 Get it done. And you know, there's another 528 00:27:43,880 --> 00:27:48,320 part of this that's it's almost galling when you think about it. 529 00:27:50,080 --> 00:27:51,200 And I don't know that I caught this. 530 00:27:51,200 --> 00:27:53,320 I, I've been working on this message all week and I've 531 00:27:53,320 --> 00:27:55,720 actually struggled with this message all week and trying to 532 00:27:55,800 --> 00:27:57,880 the compose it and trying to put it together. 533 00:27:57,880 --> 00:28:01,840 I've been working on it as early as Tuesday and just not, not 534 00:28:01,840 --> 00:28:05,400 happy with how things lined up and, and, and I don't know. 535 00:28:05,400 --> 00:28:08,920 But every time I came back to this thought because it was 536 00:28:08,920 --> 00:28:12,600 troubling to me, because listen again, do you think Abner's a 537 00:28:12,600 --> 00:28:14,760 hero here? I mean. 538 00:28:14,760 --> 00:28:17,200 Abner's the. One that got everyone into this 539 00:28:17,200 --> 00:28:20,520 mess in the first place. Abner's hands aren't necessarily 540 00:28:20,520 --> 00:28:25,880 clean here, but for whatever issue, the insult by Ishbashaf, 541 00:28:26,480 --> 00:28:30,760 whatever it was, Abner did come to his senses and we can be 542 00:28:30,760 --> 00:28:33,120 thankful he came to his senses again. 543 00:28:33,120 --> 00:28:35,520 I, I can't really say the motives of his heart and 544 00:28:35,520 --> 00:28:37,520 entirety because the Bible doesn't tell us. 545 00:28:37,680 --> 00:28:40,560 We can probably infer some things, but you and I have 546 00:28:40,560 --> 00:28:43,120 probably been someplace in our lives where, you know, we got to 547 00:28:43,120 --> 00:28:45,360 the right side of things and it's because we got to a pretty 548 00:28:45,360 --> 00:28:49,040 low place. And perhaps this is what 549 00:28:49,040 --> 00:28:52,920 happened to Abner here. He realizes that even the level 550 00:28:52,920 --> 00:28:56,280 of control he thought he had, he doesn't even have the level of 551 00:28:56,280 --> 00:28:59,640 respect he thought he engendered from Israel he didn't have. 552 00:28:59,960 --> 00:29:03,000 And he got to a low place. And he said, look at this. 553 00:29:03,040 --> 00:29:06,000 Just look at this verse 17 or verse #18 Now do it. 554 00:29:06,400 --> 00:29:09,760 For the Lord has spoken of David saying, by the hand of my 555 00:29:09,760 --> 00:29:12,640 servant David, I will save my people Israel out of the hand of 556 00:29:12,640 --> 00:29:16,200 the Philistines and out of the hand of all of their enemies. 557 00:29:19,160 --> 00:29:21,640 The part that really troubled me, of course, the first part. 558 00:29:21,640 --> 00:29:23,280 Now then do it. You know, that's where we're 559 00:29:23,360 --> 00:29:25,360 we're we're kind of getting the thrust of the message. 560 00:29:25,760 --> 00:29:31,640 But Hebner admits in that second phrase that he knew all along 561 00:29:31,640 --> 00:29:33,240 that David was supposed to be king. 562 00:29:34,280 --> 00:29:36,520 Am I reading the same thing you are this evening? 563 00:29:36,520 --> 00:29:39,120 Look at it now then do it. For the Lord has spoken of 564 00:29:39,120 --> 00:29:41,120 David. Well, how long? 565 00:29:41,120 --> 00:29:44,040 Has he known that? I would have to wonder that he's 566 00:29:44,040 --> 00:29:47,280 known that for some period of time, and he's saying it in a 567 00:29:47,280 --> 00:29:50,440 way to the men of Israel, to the leadership of Israel, as if 568 00:29:50,440 --> 00:29:52,000 they've known that for some time. 569 00:29:52,280 --> 00:29:55,480 And so what's the problem here? And you're saying basically for 570 00:29:55,560 --> 00:29:58,520 the last two years, I knew David was king. 571 00:29:58,680 --> 00:30:02,240 I knew he was supposed to be on the throne, but yet I decided to 572 00:30:02,240 --> 00:30:06,200 do my own thing anyway. You know what often times is the 573 00:30:06,200 --> 00:30:10,280 problem with believers. And listen, I am. 574 00:30:10,280 --> 00:30:16,320 I'm right there with you is that we know what's right, we know 575 00:30:16,320 --> 00:30:22,280 what we ought to do, but yet we just don't want to do it because 576 00:30:22,280 --> 00:30:26,440 the throne of our heart is ruled by self instead of by King 577 00:30:26,440 --> 00:30:31,480 Jesus. Abner knew David was supposed to 578 00:30:31,480 --> 00:30:33,600 be king. There's an argument to be made 579 00:30:33,600 --> 00:30:35,800 that all the people of Israel knew David was supposed to be 580 00:30:35,800 --> 00:30:40,880 king, but they wanted to be the ones in charge and not David. 581 00:30:41,880 --> 00:30:45,560 And so many times, when it comes to the life of the believer, so 582 00:30:45,560 --> 00:30:49,560 many times we know that Jesus should be on the throne of our 583 00:30:49,560 --> 00:30:53,840 heart, but yet we're just too comfortable with the Kingdom 584 00:30:54,120 --> 00:30:57,840 that we have created ourselves. And so we know what's right. 585 00:30:58,640 --> 00:31:00,160 We know we shouldn't be doing these things. 586 00:31:00,160 --> 00:31:01,600 We know we shouldn't be watching these things. 587 00:31:01,600 --> 00:31:03,080 We know we shouldn't be saying these things. 588 00:31:03,080 --> 00:31:04,680 We know we shouldn't be acting this way. 589 00:31:04,920 --> 00:31:07,440 Or we know we should be doing certain things, or we should be 590 00:31:07,680 --> 00:31:10,400 acting in certain ways, or we know we should be doing things. 591 00:31:10,920 --> 00:31:13,120 The things we're not supposed to do, we know not to do them. 592 00:31:13,120 --> 00:31:15,080 The things that we're supposed to do, we know to do them. 593 00:31:15,280 --> 00:31:17,840 But yet, as Paul said, but yet we do the opposite. 594 00:31:18,440 --> 00:31:20,320 Why? Because who's the king of the 595 00:31:20,320 --> 00:31:22,920 heart? We ourselves are. 596 00:31:24,000 --> 00:31:27,920 And now Abner says, listen, I realized I was wrong. 597 00:31:28,600 --> 00:31:32,680 David needs to be the king now. Do it now. 598 00:31:32,720 --> 00:31:37,320 Do it too many times. We as believers just get to the 599 00:31:37,320 --> 00:31:40,280 place where we know what we're supposed to do. 600 00:31:40,280 --> 00:31:46,040 But yet the Kingdom of self is far too great and it cannot be 601 00:31:46,040 --> 00:31:47,800 overthrown. So what do we do? 602 00:31:48,360 --> 00:31:53,240 We stop waiting to make Jesus the King of our hearts and make 603 00:31:53,240 --> 00:31:56,600 him the King of our hearts, both in position and in practice. 604 00:31:57,400 --> 00:32:00,920 We stop waiting for Jesus to be the King of our hearts, and we 605 00:32:00,920 --> 00:32:04,040 make him the King of our heart, both in position and in 606 00:32:04,040 --> 00:32:08,720 practice. Listen, Jesus could force 607 00:32:08,720 --> 00:32:12,320 himself upon you as sovereign, but He will not. 608 00:32:13,640 --> 00:32:17,760 He's there like David, waiting for you to acknowledge who he 609 00:32:17,760 --> 00:32:20,560 is. Now is was David the King of 610 00:32:20,560 --> 00:32:21,760 promise? Absolutely. 611 00:32:22,560 --> 00:32:24,560 It didn't matter who said he was or he wasn't. 612 00:32:24,760 --> 00:32:28,320 God had said he was, but yet it was important for all those 613 00:32:28,320 --> 00:32:31,920 people to recognize it as well. Listen, whether you admit Jesus 614 00:32:31,920 --> 00:32:34,640 is the Lord of your life or not, He is the Lord of your life. 615 00:32:35,360 --> 00:32:37,480 But it sure does make a difference in your life whether 616 00:32:37,480 --> 00:32:40,440 you admit it or not, doesn't it? But he's the Lord of your 617 00:32:40,440 --> 00:32:43,720 speech, No, He should govern the way that you speak. 618 00:32:44,840 --> 00:32:49,920 He's the Lord of your actions. He's the Lord of every area of 619 00:32:49,920 --> 00:32:53,720 your life, and there's no area that the sovereign is not 620 00:32:53,720 --> 00:32:57,360 allowed to be in control of. You know, we have trouble 621 00:32:57,360 --> 00:33:01,160 understanding this in our society because we don't live in 622 00:33:01,160 --> 00:33:02,480 the monarchy. I don't know about you. 623 00:33:02,600 --> 00:33:04,600 I'm happy for that. We kind of did a war over that 624 00:33:04,600 --> 00:33:06,360 to make sure we didn't have a monarchy anymore. 625 00:33:06,480 --> 00:33:08,080 Threw some tea overboard. I don't know if any of you heard 626 00:33:08,080 --> 00:33:10,600 about that, but that happened around these parts a little 627 00:33:10,600 --> 00:33:14,080 while ago. We don't have a king, but I do 628 00:33:14,080 --> 00:33:16,720 realize that maybe we have a little bit of overlap with a 629 00:33:17,640 --> 00:33:21,600 work relationship. My very first job that I had, I 630 00:33:21,600 --> 00:33:24,160 worked at McDonald's because that's, you know, America, 631 00:33:24,160 --> 00:33:26,480 right? You know, I was 15 years old and 632 00:33:26,480 --> 00:33:29,240 I was working at McDonald's making $5.00 an hour thinking 633 00:33:29,440 --> 00:33:31,560 that I would pretty cool stuff, let me tell you. 634 00:33:31,840 --> 00:33:35,080 And there I was on the keyboard making the orders, getting 635 00:33:35,080 --> 00:33:37,040 everything done. And it was amazing to me that 636 00:33:37,040 --> 00:33:40,200 there were times I only worked, I think maybe 10 hours a week 637 00:33:40,200 --> 00:33:43,160 for the longest time because my parents, you know, I was just 638 00:33:43,160 --> 00:33:46,880 working maybe a 5:00 to 8:00, a 5:00 to 9:00 after school. 639 00:33:47,040 --> 00:33:49,760 My parents were very careful with how much I worked at the 640 00:33:49,760 --> 00:33:52,440 store there. And, but I remember, you know, 641 00:33:52,440 --> 00:33:54,240 you go in at night and a lot of times there'd be a little bit of 642 00:33:54,240 --> 00:33:57,120 a dinner rush and then it was quiet and I didn't know what to 643 00:33:57,120 --> 00:33:58,320 do. And so a lot of times I would 644 00:33:58,320 --> 00:34:01,080 just start cleaning stuff up because I didn't want to just 645 00:34:01,080 --> 00:34:03,200 stand behind the counter. I just kind of started to work. 646 00:34:03,520 --> 00:34:05,280 And I remember working with other people because back in 647 00:34:05,280 --> 00:34:07,600 those days there wasn't those kiosks that you had to order 648 00:34:07,600 --> 00:34:09,000 from. They're like real live people 649 00:34:09,000 --> 00:34:10,840 taking orders. And there are usually two or 650 00:34:10,840 --> 00:34:14,400 three of us each at our station to get people through the line 651 00:34:14,400 --> 00:34:16,480 quickly. I know that's a concept that's 652 00:34:16,480 --> 00:34:18,480 from a long time ago, McDonald's, It's not that way 653 00:34:18,480 --> 00:34:19,719 anymore, but that's the way it was. 654 00:34:20,159 --> 00:34:22,000 And I remember I had a manager, his name was Jose. 655 00:34:22,000 --> 00:34:23,880 He's the very first manager that I ever had. 656 00:34:24,159 --> 00:34:28,360 And Jose would tell us, listen, if there's time for you to 657 00:34:29,199 --> 00:34:31,040 stand, then there's still time for you to work. 658 00:34:31,320 --> 00:34:32,560 And he would give U.S. jobs to do. 659 00:34:32,560 --> 00:34:34,040 You need to clean the Mcflurry machine. 660 00:34:34,040 --> 00:34:35,400 You need to clean the milkshake machine. 661 00:34:35,600 --> 00:34:37,679 Oh, my kid, the milkshake machine didn't work even 25 662 00:34:37,760 --> 00:34:39,679 years ago. But anyway, these are all these 663 00:34:39,679 --> 00:34:42,320 different things that you had to do to be able to clean, you 664 00:34:42,320 --> 00:34:43,840 know, go clean up the dining room. 665 00:34:43,840 --> 00:34:46,199 You know, just make sure you sweep up, make sure the tables 666 00:34:46,199 --> 00:34:49,000 are wiped over all that. And I remember I'm 15 years old. 667 00:34:49,040 --> 00:34:51,320 And so I'm just dumb enough to think that when the manager 668 00:34:51,320 --> 00:34:52,520 tells you do something, you just do it. 669 00:34:54,639 --> 00:34:57,480 But yet I was working with people sometimes twice my age, 670 00:34:57,720 --> 00:34:58,800 who would say something like this. 671 00:34:58,800 --> 00:35:03,400 Jose can't tell me what to do. Like he thinks I'm gonna go 672 00:35:03,400 --> 00:35:05,960 clean the dining room. I work the I work the register. 673 00:35:06,480 --> 00:35:10,320 I'm I'm not Mcflurries. I'm not dealing with Mcflurries. 674 00:35:10,880 --> 00:35:13,000 Help the drive through. Why would I do that? 675 00:35:13,000 --> 00:35:16,760 And it was amazing to me, people that would sometimes behind his 676 00:35:16,760 --> 00:35:19,800 back and oftentimes to his face, say something like this. 677 00:35:20,120 --> 00:35:23,360 I'm not doing that. And it just struck me as odd. 678 00:35:23,360 --> 00:35:26,880 I'm thinking they're paying us right, but they're telling us 679 00:35:26,880 --> 00:35:30,080 what to do. We knew when we came in that for 680 00:35:30,080 --> 00:35:33,040 whatever time we're here, we have to follow the instructions 681 00:35:33,040 --> 00:35:35,600 that they're giving us. And I just never understood why. 682 00:35:35,920 --> 00:35:37,240 Why would I even want to stand around? 683 00:35:37,240 --> 00:35:40,320 I'd rather work and keep myself busy than I would just standing 684 00:35:40,320 --> 00:35:42,440 there for 20 minutes waiting for the next customer to come. 685 00:35:42,640 --> 00:35:44,520 I'd rather wash a Mcflurry machine. 686 00:35:44,520 --> 00:35:47,480 I'd rather pray over the milkshake machine, see if we can 687 00:35:47,480 --> 00:35:49,360 get it to work. I'd rather do all these things. 688 00:35:49,360 --> 00:35:51,120 This would be a much better job to do. 689 00:35:51,360 --> 00:35:54,120 And I was just dumb enough to do what the supervisor told me to 690 00:35:54,120 --> 00:35:56,280 do. And I was told at 15 years old 691 00:35:56,440 --> 00:35:59,720 that they would have made me a manager if I wasn't 15 years old 692 00:36:00,680 --> 00:36:01,960 because I was one of the few people. 693 00:36:01,960 --> 00:36:04,880 It just worked. And it wasn't because I was 694 00:36:04,880 --> 00:36:06,080 special. It's just because like, well, 695 00:36:06,600 --> 00:36:07,960 that's what you're supposed to do, right? 696 00:36:09,000 --> 00:36:11,440 Well, after a while, I was making $5.00 an hour at 697 00:36:11,520 --> 00:36:12,840 McDonald's and that wasn't enough. 698 00:36:12,840 --> 00:36:15,200 And so I went over to Target to work. 699 00:36:15,200 --> 00:36:19,680 I was now 16 1/2 and I was making 650 an hour. 700 00:36:19,920 --> 00:36:23,440 Whoa, baby, 650 an hour. I mean, that was a, that's a big 701 00:36:23,440 --> 00:36:27,880 deal from $5.00 an hour, 650. I mean, come on, you know, so 702 00:36:27,880 --> 00:36:29,160 I'm going to go over work at Target. 703 00:36:29,360 --> 00:36:31,760 They hired me to work at the cash register. 704 00:36:31,760 --> 00:36:34,160 And by the way, I'm old enough to remember that when you had a 705 00:36:34,160 --> 00:36:35,800 credit card, there was no PIN pad. 706 00:36:35,800 --> 00:36:39,120 We got to pull out the carbon copies and the, you know, kind 707 00:36:39,120 --> 00:36:41,360 of the old fashioned way. That's how we used to do things 708 00:36:41,360 --> 00:36:44,480 back when I worked at Target. And that was the way it was. 709 00:36:44,560 --> 00:36:47,440 Back in those days, so anyway, I worked for a while, they would 710 00:36:47,440 --> 00:36:50,920 say, hey Adam, we need somebody to work carts, go fetch those 711 00:36:50,920 --> 00:36:52,960 carts. And you know, it looks fun up 712 00:36:52,960 --> 00:36:57,960 here in the spring when it's 75° in Florida, when it's 95 and 713 00:36:57,960 --> 00:37:00,320 100% humidity, it's really not fun. 714 00:37:01,080 --> 00:37:03,160 But I didn't know that I had a choice to tell them I didn't 715 00:37:03,160 --> 00:37:04,880 want to do it. So I just went. 716 00:37:05,760 --> 00:37:08,240 I worked carts for a while. I learned how to do customer 717 00:37:08,240 --> 00:37:11,040 service. I ended up learning how to be 718 00:37:11,040 --> 00:37:14,280 able to process returns. One day they said, hey, we need 719 00:37:14,280 --> 00:37:17,720 you to work in the Food Ave. That was the where you did short 720 00:37:17,720 --> 00:37:18,800 order cooking back in those days. 721 00:37:18,800 --> 00:37:21,240 There's a little fat flat top grill and you would work there. 722 00:37:21,480 --> 00:37:24,640 They gave me one day of training and then left me alone. 723 00:37:25,240 --> 00:37:26,880 And I would say there's a lot of people should have got their 724 00:37:26,880 --> 00:37:29,840 money back for their food for a while because I was cooking eggs 725 00:37:29,840 --> 00:37:32,600 and omelets and all kinds of things for breakfast and going 726 00:37:32,600 --> 00:37:34,520 to lunch, cooking hamburgers and stuff like that. 727 00:37:34,840 --> 00:37:37,000 He said, well, you should have told him no, I didn't know I had 728 00:37:37,000 --> 00:37:40,280 an option. They were in charge, they were 729 00:37:40,280 --> 00:37:43,880 paying me how I worked out in the lawn care center. 730 00:37:43,880 --> 00:37:46,160 Hey, should this plant get sun? Should this plant get shade? 731 00:37:48,520 --> 00:37:50,640 Does it have A tag on it? Because I don't know. 732 00:37:50,800 --> 00:37:53,480 We had a big book back in those days because there was like no 733 00:37:53,480 --> 00:37:55,240 Internet. Or if there was, it took an hour 734 00:37:55,240 --> 00:37:58,160 to be able to pull up a picture. And so we had a big book that 735 00:37:58,160 --> 00:38:00,760 was about this thick that we would go through and check out. 736 00:38:00,760 --> 00:38:03,000 You know, it gets this much water, it gets this much light, 737 00:38:03,000 --> 00:38:04,760 it gets this much shade. You plant in the summer, you 738 00:38:04,760 --> 00:38:07,200 plant in the in the, in the spring, you do all these things. 739 00:38:07,680 --> 00:38:09,120 I did all of it. Why? 740 00:38:09,120 --> 00:38:13,280 Because they told me to. I didn't know I had any choice. 741 00:38:14,640 --> 00:38:16,120 And the fact of the matter is I did have a choice. 742 00:38:16,920 --> 00:38:21,400 I could say no and get fired. That might have been a long 743 00:38:21,400 --> 00:38:22,760 processes. It seems like in a lot of these 744 00:38:22,760 --> 00:38:26,000 places, sometimes it is a long process of defiance to firing. 745 00:38:26,200 --> 00:38:28,320 But yet in the end, it's always the same. 746 00:38:28,800 --> 00:38:32,200 You're fired, you don't want to follow instructions, you're 747 00:38:32,200 --> 00:38:35,240 gone, bye bye. That's the way it works. 748 00:38:36,520 --> 00:38:39,960 But you know what I found? I found this to be true. 749 00:38:40,920 --> 00:38:44,680 God tolerates a level of self will that no manager, no 750 00:38:44,680 --> 00:38:50,440 employer, or no king ever would. He allows us to say no. 751 00:38:51,680 --> 00:38:56,400 He allows us to push away His lordship of our life. 752 00:38:57,080 --> 00:38:59,960 Why? I would submit it's because He 753 00:38:59,960 --> 00:39:04,840 loves you more than any supervisor, than any employer or 754 00:39:04,840 --> 00:39:08,400 any king ever could. He loves you so much that He 755 00:39:08,400 --> 00:39:13,240 will allow you to say no, even to your own detriment, because 756 00:39:13,240 --> 00:39:16,240 he will not force his love upon you. 757 00:39:17,120 --> 00:39:20,400 He will not force his kingship upon you. 758 00:39:21,240 --> 00:39:25,280 He wants to be your king, but he only wants to be your king if 759 00:39:25,280 --> 00:39:28,040 you put him on the throne yourself. 760 00:39:30,000 --> 00:39:34,160 We all know what to do. I would submit. 761 00:39:34,160 --> 00:39:35,720 We all know what to do. That's right. 762 00:39:36,840 --> 00:39:40,520 But the issue is this are. You going to do it, We make him 763 00:39:40,520 --> 00:39:43,600 the king of your heart and Abner's a great example. 764 00:39:43,600 --> 00:39:47,440 He was a flawed man. He was a man that had a lot of 765 00:39:47,440 --> 00:39:50,400 problems. He was a man that knew to do 766 00:39:50,400 --> 00:39:54,080 right and actively went against that which was right for a long 767 00:39:54,080 --> 00:39:56,240 period of time. But even he came to his senses. 768 00:39:56,240 --> 00:39:59,400 He says, you know what, we just got to do this. 769 00:40:00,080 --> 00:40:03,080 We've got to make the rightful man the king. 770 00:40:03,760 --> 00:40:08,160 And you and I, we might have a long complicated back story, but 771 00:40:08,160 --> 00:40:12,800 by the grace of God. We need to make him King, who is 772 00:40:12,800 --> 00:40:15,320 King in our lives first through salvation. 773 00:40:15,440 --> 00:40:17,280 He needs to be king of everyone's life through 774 00:40:17,280 --> 00:40:22,000 salvation, but then He's sovereign in our day-to-day life 775 00:40:22,520 --> 00:40:25,640 that every minute of every hour we allow Him to be in control. 776 00:40:25,880 --> 00:40:28,640 And there's no area of life that we say He doesn't control. 777 00:40:28,960 --> 00:40:31,320 Lord, you can have everything except my finances. 778 00:40:31,560 --> 00:40:33,480 Lord, you can have everything except my family. 779 00:40:33,640 --> 00:40:36,000 Lord, you can have everything, but I'll worship as I want to. 780 00:40:36,200 --> 00:40:38,480 Lord, you can have everything, but I talk the way that I want 781 00:40:38,480 --> 00:40:39,680 to. Lord, you can have everything, 782 00:40:39,680 --> 00:40:42,120 but my friends are my friends. Lord, you can have everything, 783 00:40:42,200 --> 00:40:44,000 but I look at what I want to look at. 784 00:40:44,160 --> 00:40:45,680 I experienced what I experienced. 785 00:40:45,680 --> 00:40:50,760 You know, then he's not the king because David wasn't the true 786 00:40:50,760 --> 00:40:53,600 king until he was the king of every tribe. 787 00:40:55,040 --> 00:41:00,640 If Abner got it and Israel got it, you can get it and I can get 788 00:41:00,640 --> 00:41:02,640 it. And to the final admonition is 789 00:41:02,640 --> 00:41:07,280 this Now then do it. Do you bow your head and close 790 00:41:07,280 --> 00:41:16,730 your eyes with me this evening? It's not just enough to know 791 00:41:16,730 --> 00:41:20,170 that he should be the king. You've got to do it. 792 00:41:21,530 --> 00:41:24,400 I can't do it for you. Your spouse can't do it for you. 793 00:41:24,960 --> 00:41:27,920 The kids can't do it for you. Your boss can't do it for you. 794 00:41:28,680 --> 00:41:31,040 Diane can't do it for you. No. 795 00:41:31,120 --> 00:41:33,480 Who does it? You have to put him in his 796 00:41:33,480 --> 00:41:36,440 rightful place. And here's Abner. 797 00:41:36,440 --> 00:41:38,600 He do all along. David was supposed to be king 798 00:41:39,400 --> 00:41:46,640 because of his own selfishness. He caused those problems for two 799 00:41:46,640 --> 00:41:49,040 years. Don't allow your own 800 00:41:49,040 --> 00:41:51,280 selfishness. Don't allow your own self will 801 00:41:52,120 --> 00:41:55,040 to keep you from doing that. What you must do to allow God to 802 00:41:55,040 --> 00:41:58,480 be sovereign over everything, that He has control over every 803 00:41:58,480 --> 00:42:01,840 area of your life. Just as a manager can tell you 804 00:42:01,840 --> 00:42:06,080 to work in whatever area, just as a king can require anything, 805 00:42:07,200 --> 00:42:11,400 then yes, our God requires all. But may I remind you, our God is 806 00:42:11,400 --> 00:42:14,040 more loving and benevolent than any manager, than any 807 00:42:14,040 --> 00:42:17,280 supervisor, than any CEO, than any king. 808 00:42:18,040 --> 00:42:23,400 There is no more loving sovereign then your King Jesus. 809 00:42:24,400 --> 00:42:27,080 Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of 810 00:42:27,080 --> 00:42:30,000 Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing 811 00:42:30,000 --> 00:42:33,480 to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us 812 00:42:33,480 --> 00:42:38,080 know by contacting us at info@mylibertybaptist.org. 813 00:42:38,360 --> 00:42:42,880 Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton, 814 00:42:42,880 --> 00:42:45,720 MA. May the Lord bless you as you 815 00:42:45,720 --> 00:42:46,920 grow in His Word.