I turned it on. Test one, two.

Of the world, you step down into dark.

And to worship, and to say all together, lovely, all together. Is that good, or are you going to keep playing? Good?

Good evening! How are you all doing this evening? You want to stand, and I will pray, and we can praise the Lord this evening.

That's kind of a weird thing to say, to praise the Lord. Usually, when you think about your boss, like somebody who tells you what to do and things you have to do, you kind of have this negative connotation, but I guess we've got a pretty good boss, so amen. Dear Heavenly Father, I just pray that as we come before you this evening, Lord, that you would just help us to soften our hearts before you, Lord, that we would just have an attitude of, of prayer, and praise, and worship, to give you the worship that you deserve this evening. I just pray that our words would be pleasing to you, and that you would be here with us.

In your name, amen. This heart, a door, am to say, all together, all together, all together, together, all together, all together. I say, all together, all together, all together, be seated as we continue.

At the smallonosie vlog, end of this edition.

Thank you for joining us.

Thank you for joining us.

And as we come before you this evening, Lord, we're just happy to have you. Because I, is, Thank you for being great, for being able to conquer the darkness wherever we proclaim your name. God, I just pray that, Lord, as Ryan comes up and speaks the words that you've given to us, Lord, I just pray that you would just give us a spirit of understanding and wisdom. Use Ryan as your spokesperson this evening so that we can hear from you.

I just pray this in your name.

Good evening. If you would, open up in your Bibles to the book of 2 Samuel, chapter 1. 2 Samuel, chapter 1. Just a little bit of introduction to 2 Samuel. We'll take a ton of introduction because really, in the Hebrew text, 1 and 2 Samuel were actually just one book. The first portion, of course, of 1 Samuel was actually written by Samuel. But, of course, he died in the middle of 1 Samuel, so clearly he didn't keep writing.

Probably written by either Nathan or Gad. But, just to kind of catch us all up to speed, when we were last together, David had repented of the way that he had been living. He had gone down to the Philistines to live among the Philistines because he felt like that was really his only choice because he thought Saul was someday going to kill him. And so, he went down, he dwelt among the Philistines, and as he dwelt among the Philistines, really just kind of lived apart from God.

And meanwhile, as he's living apart from God, Saul ends up going. He goes to the witch at Endor to decide what's going to happen with him because God had no longer been speaking to him. And, of course, she calls up Samuel who says, what are you doing? God has rejected you, and now, ultimately, you're going to meet your end in battle. And so, last week when we were together, David found himself in a place where he had repented of the way that he was living.

He had found himself in a place where he was once again calling upon the name of the Lord. And as he called upon the name of the Lord, God, of course, so graciously spoke to him. As David found himself in a place of repentance, Saul found himself in a place of judgment. And that last battle had taken place, and as that last battle took place, Saul and his sons were killed in the battle.

And so, now, David, not being aware of everything that was taking place, we pick up with David living in Ziklag for those couple of days when this battle is going on, waiting to hear what will come of the battle. And so, we pick up in chapter 1, verse 1 of 2 Samuel, and this is what it says. Now, it says, Now, it says, Now, David, of course, is just waiting at this point in time because he doesn't know how the battle is going to go. He was not allowed to go into the battle with the Philistines, praise God.

So, all he can do is sit in Ziklag now and wait for the battle to be done, to find out exactly what had taken place in the battle. And as he's waiting, imagine what that would have been like for him, trying to determine exactly how things went with this situation. And so, as he's waiting to find out what took place, this young man comes up, and it describes him two ways. It says that his clothes were torn, and there was dust on his head.

Now, those are typical signs of mourning at that point in time. When someone was mourning the death of another or mourning something very bad, they would throw dust on themselves, and they would tear their clothes. And so, David knew that perhaps the news was not good that this young man brought to him. And as he was waiting, as the young man came, he said, Hey, I've broken through the battle lines, and I'm here to tell you what happened.

And David said, Please do, because I've been waiting to find out what took place. And he said, The battle didn't go well at all. Israel's been defeated. Saul and his son Jonathan have been killed. And this is the state that we find ourselves in right now. And, of course, David asks him the question that we all would ask. He said, How do you know? So, David said to the young man, verse 5,

How do you know that Saul and his son Jonathan are dead? The young man who told him said, By chance, I happened to be on Mount Gilboa. And, behold, Saul was leaning on his spear. And, behold, the chariots and the horsemen pursued him closely. And when he looked behind him, he saw me. And he called to me, and I said, Here I am. And he said to me, Who are you?

And I answered him, I am an Amalekite. He said to me, Please stand beside me and kill me, for agony has seized me because my life still lingers in me. So, I stood beside him. I stood beside him and killed him because I knew that he could not live after he had fallen. And I took the crown which was on his head and the bracelet which was on his arm, and I have brought them here to my Lord.

And then David took hold of his clothes and tore them. And so also did all the men who were with him. And they mourned and they fasted until evening for Saul and his son Jonathan, for the people of the Lord and for the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword. And David said to the young men, Where are you from? And he answered, I am the son of an alien, an Amalekite.

Now, there's a little bit of discrepancy in this story, because if you remember last week at the very end of the story of Saul, what had taken place was Saul had been mortally wounded by one of the enemy arrows. And he didn't want to say that he had been killed by the Philistines. So he looked at his armor-bearer and he said, Would you please finish me off? And the armor-bearer said, I can't do that.

I can't be this person. I can't take the life of my Lord. And so Saul took his sword and he fell on his own sword, essentially took his own life so that he would not be mistreated by the Philistines. And at that point in time, it says, when his armor-bearer saw that he was dead, he did the same thing. Now, this Amalekite just told a story. He said, Saul was still there and his life was still in him.

And Saul asked me to kill him. And so I did. And so I took the crown and the bracelet and I brought them to you. And so here's the question, which of those stories is real? Well, there's one of two ways that we can look at this. Either one, the Amalekite just made up a story. He saw Saul laying there and he knew who the king was, because that would have been pretty easy to notice.

And so he takes the crown and the bracelet and he brings them to David so that he could somehow gain some sort of a reward for what he had done, thinking that he's bringing good news to David at this point in time. So it could have been a lie that he made up. Or it could be that when the armor-bearer saw Saul, perhaps he did not actually die. From what had taken place.

And this Amalekite finished him off. Hard to say which one it was, but there is an interesting parallel or an interesting lesson that we can gain from this. So this young man identifies himself as an Amalekite. We talked about this a little bit last week when David was attacked by the Amalekites. But he identifies himself as an Amalekite, one of the indigenous people in that particular area.

And we remember that there had been a command that was given to Saul early on as king. And the command that was given to him was, you are to completely wipe out the Amalekites as judgment upon them for their sin. And Saul failed to do that. That was actually the thing that caused God to reject him because he would not fully obey God in wiping out the Amalekites.

Now, there's some things in Scripture that as you look, they are types for us. They present for us types of different things. For instance, Egypt is always a type of the world. And so when we think of going back to Egypt, we think of going back to the world. Well, the Amalekites in Scripture are a type of the flesh. The flesh is the part of us that still has a tendency to want to sin.

And we are told in the book of Romans that there is one cure for the flesh, and that's that you have to put it to death. You can't try to reform it. You can't try to make it better. You can't try to control it. All you can do is put it to death, which is part of the reason why what God told Saul to do was so important, because it would be a picture in times moving forward

that the best thing that you can do with the flesh is to put it to death. Now, if this Amalekite truly did finish off Saul, then it's kind of interesting to take note of the fact that the flesh that Saul would not put to death ultimately put him to death because we are reminded of a truth that you will either rule over your flesh or it will rule over you. You will either put to death the works of the flesh or they will ultimately bring you death. Because we are told in the book of Romans that the mind of the flesh leads to death.

And I just think it's so important as the church, it's so important as believers in Jesus Christ that we understand that there is no room to allow the flesh to dominate any part of our lives. You see, sometimes there's parts of us from God that we hold back and we say, yeah, but I kind of like this part of my flesh. That's sort of what Saul did. He held on to the king and some of the best of the animals.

And clearly didn't kill enough of the people. He kept a little bit of it back because it fed his pride. He kept a little bit of it back because he kind of wanted it for himself. And that's kind of what we tend to do with the flesh. As we say, oh, but that one little area, that won't hurt anything, right? It's not a big deal if I hold on to that. But the fact of the matter is,

when you don't put the flesh to death, it will eventually try to put you to death. And so this young man comes to David and you can imagine how he feels at this point in time. This young man feels like he has finally ended David's enemy. And David is clearly going to reward him for this. David is going to be like, oh, thank you so much for rescuing me from the hand of Saul.

That's probably what he thinks is going to happen. But notice what he says in verse 14. David said to him, how is it that you were not afraid to stretch out your hand to destroy the Lord's anointed? And David called one of the young men and he said, go, cut him down. So he struck him and he died. And David said to him, your blood is on your own head, for your mouth has testified against you saying,

I have killed the Lord's anointed. See, David does what Saul should have done and he puts the flesh to death. Well now, David and his men are mourning. I want you to take note of the way that David kind of responds to this because it's kind of amazing the love that David still had for Saul, even in the midst of everything that had taken place. And so starting from verse 17 through verse 27

is a song that David wrote for Saul and for his family. Notice what it says in verse 17. Then David chanted with this lament over Saul and Jonathan, his son. And he told them to teach the sons of Judah the song of the bow. Behold, it is written in the book of Jasher. Point out a couple of things before we get to the song real quick. First of all, this was not just something

that was to be sung one time. David said, you need to teach this song to everybody else so that they can sing it. I'm gonna point out why I think that's important in just a little bit. But it also indicates that it was written in the book of Jasher. Now you may remember that when we were in the book of Joshua, there was a particular day when Joshua and the children of Israel were in battle

and they prayed to God that the sun would stand still and the sun did stand still. It was an extra long day. And it was written in the book of Joshua. It says, is this not recorded in the book of Jasher? Now Jasher is an extra biblical historical text that we have. I actually have what is considered to be a copy of the book of Jasher in my office. And this is in there.

It's kind of an interesting thing to read. Some people question the authenticity of it, but it seems pretty authentic to me based upon what I've read. And it just is an extra biblical historical source. It's a wonderful thing to have. It doesn't mean that it's inspired scripture, but it does give us a little bit of background on some things. And so that's where this song is also recorded.

Notice what it says. He says, your beauty, O Israel, is slain on your high places. How the mighty have fallen. Tell it not in Gath. Proclaim it not in the streets of Ashkelon, where the daughters of the Philistines will rejoice. The daughters of the uncircumcised will exult. O mountains of Gilboa, let not rain or dew be on you, nor fields of offering. For there the shield of the mighty was defiled,

the shield of Saul not anointed with oil. From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty, the bow of Jonathan, did not turn back, and the sword of Saul did not return empty. Saul and Jonathan, beloved and pleasant in their life, and in their death they were not parted. They were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions. O daughters of Israel, weep over Saul,

who clothed you luxuriously in scarlet, who put ornaments of gold on your apparel. How the mighty have fallen in the midst of the battle. Jonathan is slain on your high places. I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan. You have been more pleasant to me, or you have been very pleasant to me. Your love to me was more wonderful than the love of women. How the mighty have fallen,

and the weapons of war perished. There's a couple of things that I'll point out to you about this song that David writes. The first thing I'll point out is, did you notice a familiar phrase in there? How the mighty have fallen. That's actually where that phrase came from, that tends to be used today. So kind of an interesting phraseology that David uses in there.

The second thing that I'll point out to you is in verse 21, he almost calls a curse on Mount Gilboa. Tells them nothing's gonna grow on you again. And interestingly enough, the top of Mount Gilboa looks a lot like the top of my head. It's very bald, so there's nothing up there. So interestingly enough, that actually did take place. And apparently if you take a tour to Israel,

they will point that out to you while you're there, that there's no trees or anything growing on top of Mount Gilboa. And then the third thing that I wanna point out to you about this song is a little bit more personal application in nature. Because if you think about David's relationship with Saul, is it not a little odd how fondly he wrote of Saul? That really he wrote almost this song of praise for the kind of man that Saul was.

And it's kind of interesting because David was Saul's enemy. But there's something interesting that we can point out. That even though David was Saul's enemy, Saul was not David's enemy. And that really can't happen. Just because somebody views you as their enemy doesn't mean you have to view them as your enemy. As a matter of fact, Jesus, who David is oftentimes

a type of, points out to us in the Sermon on the Mount something very interesting. He tells us that we should love our enemies. That we should pray for them. We should pray for those who abuse you and despitefully use you. Pray for them. And this is kind of the way that David treats Saul. It's interesting because David was running for his life. But did you notice that every time David had a chance

to do something to Saul, every time he had a chance to take Saul's life, he never took that opportunity. Not only because of his respect for the authority of Saul, not only because his respect for the position that Saul had been in, but I think because ultimately he truly viewed him as a father figure in his life. And no matter how bad Saul was, David always had this heart of love for Saul. Because even though someone may treat you as an enemy, doesn't mean that you have to stop caring about them.

Doesn't mean that you have to stop loving them. Doesn't mean that you have to stop praying for the best in their lives. And I think that that's an important thing to remember in the culture that we live in right now. Is that you don't have to treat other people as your enemy. Because we're told to love those that are around us. And that's what David does ultimately here

in the way that he handles the death of Saul. And so David and his men mourn the death of Saul. And I don't know about you, but I'm really glad I don't have to memorize that song because that would be a really long song to memorize. But that's what they sang about Saul and his son Jonathan. And now as we come to chapter two, we're gonna see David as the king of Judah.

Notice what it says. Then it came about afterwards that David inquired of the Lord, saying, shall I go up to the cities of Judah? And the Lord said to him, go up. So David said, where shall I go up? And he said to Hebron. So David went up there and his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess and Abigail the widow of Nabal the Carmelite. And David brought his men who were with him,

each with his household, and they lived in the cities of Hebron. And then the men of Judah came there and anointed David king over the house of Judah. Now David does exactly what he's supposed to do in this particular instance. It would be easy to jump the gun right now. Could we all agree with that? David had been anointed as king and had been anointed as king

for 10, 15 years at this point in time. And the sitting king had died. And you would think that the most natural thing for him to do is to show up wherever Saul had his palace and say, okay, guys, I'm here. It's time for me to be the king. But he doesn't do that. Instead, what's the first thing that he does? The first thing that he does is he seeks the Lord.

You see, that's why God had to allow the Amalekites to attack the city that David was living in so that David would come to a place of repentance so that his heart would be ready to be the king. Times in the wilderness are never wasted times. There are always times that produce in us the right kind of heart. And that's what happened with David. David inquired of the Lord.

And so I have a question for you this evening. How often do you inquire of the Lord when it comes to you? When it comes to the things coming up in your life? How often do you take the time to stop and say, Lord, what do you want me to do in this situation? How would you have me to handle this? The college group is going through a little book right now by Jack Hibbs called Temptation, the Battle of Your Life.

And one of the things that he's talking about is understanding the will of God for your life so that you don't get outside of the will of God. And one of the questions that we all found to be somewhat intriguing at the end of this chapter was asking how dependent are we upon the guidance of the Holy Spirit? And I thought it was kind of an interesting question and we really spent a lot of time talking about it because oftentimes we depend on what we have known about God in the past or what we have seen in the past and we think, well, that's probably always what God wants me to do. And just because God's moved one way in the past doesn't mean that's how He wants you to move this time.

It's so important that we take the time to seek the Lord and don't just depend upon the knowledge that we have previously, but prayerfully seek Him in every season and in every aspect of our lives. Because God may want you to move a different direction. He may want you to do something different. And so it's important that we take that time to really seek the Lord.

As a matter of fact, just for my own personal, I'll just have a little right in transparency here, the thing said was, how are you going to do better at this? And so I said that the best thing that I need to be doing in my life in this area, and maybe you can bear witness with this as well, is I need a prayer that says, I need to prayerfully seek God through His word. It's easy for me as a pastor to every time I approach God's word, even in my devotional life, to put a study together. Because that's what I do on a pretty consistent basis.

I do it several times a week. So every time I get into God's word, I'll start outlining it. This is the first thing that I do. And it's like, okay, I don't necessarily need to outline my devotions right now. I maybe just need to stop and I need to pray and I need to seek the Lord because I don't need to teach anybody else what God's showing me in my devotions right now.

I need God to speak to me. I need God to teach me. And I know that one of the things that God has been putting on my heart is to not rush through sections of scripture that I know, not rush through my devotional time, not rush through my time in God's word, but to really stop and to really pray and to really say, Lord, what are you talking to me about here? Not what you're talking to the congregation about, not what you want me to teach to people because that's a separate thing that I do.

What are you telling me? Because God's direction in my life can only be given by God. And God's direction in your life can only be given by God. And we need to prayerfully seek him through his word and seek the direction that he has for us. And that's what David does. And do you notice that when David prayerfully sought God's direction, what did God do? God directed him.

It's almost like God answers prayers. Can we agree with that? It's almost like that's kind of what he does every time. And so the Lord said, yes, you should go up. And I love, and I love, I love that David even gets specific and he goes, where? I appreciate that because I like specifics. I don't want to go somewhere I'm not supposed to go. And he says, where?

And God says, to Hebron. That's where I want you to go. And then I want to point out one more thing. Verse two. So David went up there. I know that doesn't sound like a groundbreaking verse, but that's a groundbreaking verse because what does that mean? When God gave David direction, what did he do? He obeyed it. You know what we struggle with? Follow through, right?

Like I can come up with all the plans in the world. I can be like, this is what God wants me to do. This is the direction that he wants me to go. And I am so excited and I'll do that later. Right? And that's what we tend to do. Like, okay, I'll obey God when I've got a little bit more time. I'll obey God when I've got a little bit more faith. I'll do what God wants me to do

when it doesn't hurt as bad as it's going to hurt right now. But sometimes it's going to require a little sacrifice on my part. Remember, how many men are with David? 600 men. And all of their families. And all of David's family. I'm here to tell you right now, moving to Hebron at this point in time was not an easy adventure. But he did it. Because he eventually realized,

if God gives me direction, I have to obey it. Sometimes we're sitting there going, Lord, why did you stop giving me any direction? Why aren't you speaking to me? I thought you were the God that answered prayer. And you know what he wants you to know? Because you didn't obey the first thing he told you to do. And he's not going to give you any other directions

until you obey step one. You know how that works? You know how I know? Because God's not a whole lot different than the directions for putting together furniture. And if you don't get step one right, you can't move on to step two. And until you do step one, you're going to be waiting. And so he gives him this direction, and David follows the direction. And so David went up there.

And he takes his family, and he takes all of his men. It's wholehearted obedience. Because half-hearted obedience, we know as wholehearted rebellion. And they make him king over Judah. They make him king over the house of Judah. Now David does a really wise thing. It says, and they told David saying, middle of verse four, it was the men of Jabesh Gilead who buried Saul.

David sent messengers to the men of Jabesh Gilead and said to them, may you be blessed by the Lord because you have shown this kindness to Saul your Lord and have buried him. And now may the Lord show loving kindness and truth to you. And I also will show this goodness to you because you have done this thing. Now therefore let your hands be strong and valiant for Saul your Lord is dead.

And also the house of Judah has anointed me king over them. He shows kindness to them because they showed kindness to Saul. But it also allows him to move into a place where they are loyal to him. And so he makes kind of a wise political move as well as a compassionate move in the way that he treats the people of Jabesh Gilead. Now there's one other thing that I want to point out to you about this section.

Because remember, David's supposed to be the king over Israel. Who's he the king over right now? He's just the king over Judah, right? Now there's 11 other tribes he's not king over right now. So he's going to have to wait. As a matter of fact, if you were to look at verse 11, it says that the time that David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months.

How long has David been waiting by this point in time? At least 10 years. Somewhere between 10 and 15 years to become the king. And the whole time that he's been waiting, he's been running. Running for his life. Continually. And now Saul's finally gone. You think, perfect. Everything's in the right place. He can become the king of Israel. And so he goes and he's like,

but now you're the king of Judah. But wait a second. Why am I only the king of Judah? Not only is he just the king of Judah, but he is the king of Judah for seven and a half years. Now there's something interesting we pay attention to here. And that's that we must always remember exaltation has to come from God. David could have done this the wrong way at this point in time.

He could have forced his way in. And he could have come to him and said, listen, I am the rightful king of Israel. Samuel anointed me the king of Israel. This is what I'm supposed to be doing. And he could have forced his way into being the king of Israel. But he doesn't do that. Because he knew a truth. He knew that exaltation comes from God. As a matter of fact,

we read about this Sunday morning in our responsive reading. Let me just read it to you. Psalm 75, verses six and seven. You don't have to turn there, but you might write it down. Psalm 75, verses six and seven. Notice what it says. It's not David that wrote this psalm, but it is true. It says, not from the east, nor from the west, nor from the desert comes exaltation,

but God is the judge. He puts down one and he exalts another. Listen, if you put yourself in the place, then you're always gonna question if it was something that you did. But if God puts you in that place, then you are confident in the position that you're in because you know God is the one who did it. Because exaltation comes from the Lord. But do you know there's another interesting lesson

that's learned from this? Because David has waited and waited and waited and waited. And you would think at this point in time, he's like, finally I'm done waiting. And when he's done all of that waiting, God says, that's great. Keep waiting. There's a beautiful portion in the book of Isaiah. And it says, that wait upon the Lord, shall renew their strength.

They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. And if you know the song, it goes on to say, teach me, Lord, teach me, Lord, to wait. Right? Because that waiting is the most important thing that we do. And you can think to yourself, but I've waited and waited and waited and waited. Why can I not move into the place that I wanna be?

Because it's not time yet. And if you'll wait for God to do it, then it'll happen exactly the way that he wants. So when you've waited and feel like you can't wait anymore, keep waiting. Because God has not forgotten you. And so that's what David does. He waits all this time. Well, in the meantime, while David's waiting, go back to verse eight of 1 Samuel, or 2 Samuel chapter two.

It says, but Abner, the son of Ner, and can we all agree that that's just a great name, Abner? And his dad's name was Ner. Anyway, Abner, the son of Ner, the commander of Saul's army, had taken Ish-bosheth, almost as good of a name, the son of Saul, and brought him over to Mahanaim. He made him king over Gilead, over the Asherites, over Jezreel, over Ephraim, and over Benjamin, even over all of Israel.

Ish-bosheth, Saul's son, was 40 years old when he became king over Israel, and he was king for two years. The house of Judah, however, followed David, and of course David was king for seven and a half years. Abner was the commander of Saul's army, and Abner was quite a man of war, and we're gonna find that out in just a moment. Abner was actually, I think, a cousin of Saul, and had been commanding his army this entire time, and Abner was not ready to surrender to David as king.

As a matter of fact, Abner decides to take the one living son of Saul named Ish-bosheth. Now Ish-bosheth has a very interesting name, not because it's fun to say. Later you should say Ish-bosheth, and you'll find yourself smiling because it's a fun name to say. But not only is it just kind of a fun name to say, but it actually sort of spoke to his character.

The word Ish-bosheth, Ish means son, and the word bosheth means shame. He was the son of shame. So really he was kind of the son that Saul was ashamed of, which is probably why he wasn't in battle. Like maybe he just wasn't the warrior type. He was more like, hey, I'm not really a, you know, maybe he was a peaceful objector or something like that. I don't know.

He just wasn't a warrior, and so he didn't go to battle, and so he's the one that survives the battle. But Abner is not willing to surrender to David being the king just yet, and so he kind of does what he wants to do, and he installs this kid named Ish-bosheth as being king. And it's kind of interesting to pay attention to because Abner refused to submit to God's will. Abner found himself where he knew what God's will was.

As a matter of fact, later in a couple of chapters, he's going to come to David. He's going to say, I know that you're the Lord's anointed. I know that you're supposed to be king. But even though he knew God's will, he wasn't willing to submit to God's will. And do you know what I find with a lot of people living in the world today is they know God's will. They're not willing to submit to God's will.

I've been doing a decent amount of studying and apologetics here lately, kind of trying to sharpen my skills a little bit. And one of the things that Frank Turek points out in his book, I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist, is that sometimes people genuinely have an intellectual problem. They have an intellectual issue with God's word, and they have an intellectual issue with God and some of the things in it because some things are really hard to understand, and they require faith in order to understand them. And so our goal as believers in Jesus Christ is to be able, to the best of our ability, intellectually explain why God's word is true.

He said, but more often than not, people don't have an intellectual problem with God's word. They have a heart problem with God's word because it's not that they don't know what God wants. It's not that they can't believe what God wants. It's that they can't surrender to God. They don't want to come to a place where they say, you are Lord of my life. Because if they come to a place of saying,

you are Lord of my life, it means I have to do what God wants me to do now, and my life is no longer my own. And that's oftentimes the problem that most people have. They won't come to Jesus because they're not willing to surrender, not because they can't believe. And so we have to pray for people in those situations that their hearts will be right with the Lord.

But you know what? It's not just people of the world who have a hard time struggling or who struggle to really surrender to the Lordship of God. Sometimes it's people sitting in pews in churches or in really comfy chairs in churches. Because you go, I've come to Jesus because I know that he's the one hope that I have for salvation, and you've purchased what I would call fire insurance, but you still haven't made Jesus the Lord of your life.

You're still saying, I've done enough to make myself feel good, but you still are trying to have your own will. You still are trying to have your own way. And God says, no, I either want all of you or I really don't want any of you. I either want you to surrender to me or you really just kind of need to go your own way. That's kind of what Jesus said in the book of Revelation

when he was talking to the Laodicean church. Remember, they were lukewarm. They had enough of Jesus to make themselves feel good, but not so much that it caused them any sacrifice. And so Jesus said, you are lukewarm. And so because you're lukewarm, I'm going to vomit you out of my mouth because I would rather have none of you than to only have a portion of you.

I want you to completely follow me. Interestingly enough, that's when Jesus goes on to say, behold, I stand at the door and knock. We usually use that as a salvation verse for people that have never come to Jesus, but that's written to a church, a church that has found themselves in a place where they're not fully surrendered to God. He says, behold, I stand at the door and knock.

Why? Because if you're not fully surrendered to Jesus, he might not really be living in you. That's what Abner finds himself in the places. In the next two or three chapters, we're going to find Abner fighting against the will of God. Now, as I mentioned, this is the first time that Jesus has installed Ish-bosheth as the King, a puppet King. I was reading Chuck Smith on this,

and it's kind of fascinating. So Chuck Smith wrote in the 5000 series that I studied with was written in the late 70s. And he said, really, this Ish-bosheth was sort of a puppet King, kind of like Jimmy Carter is today. And I thought, isn't that funny? It's kind of like Joe Biden is today, right? I mean, it's just a puppet. He's not really doing any of the work.

Somebody else is behind him. Sorry about that. But it's just, I just thought it was funny. here. Now, speaking of political, there's going to be a civil war that takes place. Now, Abner, son of Ner, there it is again, went out from Mahanaim to Gibeon with his servants, or the servants of Ish-bosheth, the son of Saul. And Joab, the son of Zeruiah, and the servants of David went

out and met them by the pool of Gibeon. And they sat down by the pool of Gibeon, or they sat down on one side of the pool, and the other on the other side of the pool. And Abner said to Joab, let the young men arise and hold a contest before us. And Joab said, let them arise. So they arose, and they went over by count twelve for Benjamin and Ish-bosheth, the son of Saul, and twelve of

the servants of David. Each one of them seized his opponent by the head and thrust his sword in the opponent's side. So they fell down together. Therefore, that place was called that, I can't remember the name of the place, but it was called that. And the sons of Israel were beaten before the servants of David. Now, this is just a bloody horrific scene, right? Again, how the movie

makers today haven't made movies out of any of this, I don't know. But this is kind of an interesting scene. Joab is the commander of David's army. And Joab was actually a nephew of David. Joab's mother's name was Zeruiah, who was David's older sister. So Joab is a nephew of David, and he's been kind of one of David's mighty men. Really a very fierce warrior. And when you come

to a place where we read about David's mighty men, you read a little bit about him, and the battle feats that he was able to do were intense, right? He was a really amazing warrior. And so Joab and Abner are sitting on the other side of the pools, and they're like, we should have a contest. And they're like, yes, we should have a contest. You send out twelve men, I'll send out

twelve men, and let's see who wins. So they all send out these twelve guys, twenty-four guys, come against each other in battle. And simultaneously, they each grab each other by the head, grab their sword, and pierce each other in the side. Twenty-four dudes, right? What a dumb thing to—why do men do things like this? I don't get it. It's dumb, but it's what

they did. And so these twenty-four guys die, and then the battle is on, right? Like, that didn't work out the way they wanted for it to, and so the battle was on. Because there's a civil war. Because listen, when someone won't surrender to the Lord, there's always strife that goes along with it, am I right? And so Abner and his men against Joab and his men, and the battle is on.

Notice what it says in verse eight—or excuse me, verse 17. And Abner and the men of Israel were beaten before the servants of David. Now the three sons of Zeruiah were Joab, and Abishai, and Asahel. Lost my place there. And Asahel was as swift-footed as one of the gazelles which is in the field. And Asahel pursued Abner and did not turn to the right or to the left from following Abner.

And Abner looked behind him and said, is that you, Asahel? And he answered, it is I. So Abner said to him, turn to your right or to your left. Take hold of one of the young men for yourself, and take for yourself his spoil. But he would not turn aside from following him. And Abner repeated again to Asahel, turn aside from following me. Why should I strike you to

the ground? How then could I lift up my face to your brother Joab? However, he refused to turn aside. Therefore Abner struck him in the belly with the butt end of the spear, so that the spear came out his back, and he fell there and died on the spot. And Abner said to him, turn to the right or to the left from following me. It came about that all who came to the place where Asahel had fallen and died stood still.

But Joab and Abishai pursued Abner. And when the sun was going down, they came to the hill of Amah, which is in the front of Gaia by the way of the wilderness of Gibeon. And the sons of Benjamin gathered together behind Abner and became one band, and they stood up on top of a certain hill. And Abner called to Joab and said, shall the sword devour forever? Do you not know that it will be

bitter in the end? How long will you refrain from telling the people to turn back from following their brothers? And Joab said, as God lives, if you had not spoken, surely then the people would have gone away in the morning, each from following his brother. So Joab blew the trumpet, and all the people halted and pursued Israel no longer, nor did they continue to fight anymore. Now three

brothers again were mentioned. There was Joab that we've already talked about, and then there were two other guys, Abishai and Asahel. Now Abishai is the one who snuck down with David when he went down and stole Saul's water jug and spear. You remember that story? Abishai was one of the ones who went with him, and again, one of David's mighty men. And then there was this other guy, Asahel, who was apparently an incredibly fast

runner. And so he's pursuing Abner because he's going after him. He's like, you know what? Let's take this guy down. The battle's fierce, and he's going after him. And Abner tries to warn him. He says, listen, I'm going to have to deal with you, and I don't want to have to deal with you because I don't want to have to deal with Joab. I don't want to have to face him after this takes place.

And he wouldn't listen to him, and so jabbed him with the butt end of his spear. Can I tell you, I can't think of too many other ways that would be worse than that to die, but that's exactly how he died. And we're going to find that this is going to create a real rift within the kingdom as they move forward. But that tells the death of that young man right there, and the battle was intense.

And finally, Abner stands up kind of at the top of the hill, sort of a moment of rest in the battle, and he says, what are we doing here? How long are we going to keep doing this? This is not going to end well. It's only going to end in bitterness between both of us. And Joab says, you're exactly right. Fellas, let's move out. So the battle ended that day. But notice what it says.

Abner and his men, verse 29, went through the Araba all that night. So they crossed the Jordan, walked all morning, and came to Mahanaim. And Joab returned from following Abner when he had gathered all the people together. Nineteen of David's servants besides Asahel were missing. But the servants of David had struck down many of Benjamin and of Abner's men, so that 360

men died. And they took up Asahel, and they buried him in his father's tomb, which was in Bethlehem. Then Joab and his men went all night until the day dawned at Hebron. I'm going to close with one last statement. You may have noticed how lopsided the battle was. David lost men in this battle. But Abner lost more, 19 to over 360, because David had taken a ragtag group

of men who were the down-and-out, the outcasts, the indebted, the one who were just dissatisfied with the society that they were living in. And they found themselves gathered to David. When they gathered themselves to David, David took all of the outcasts, and he turned them into men who fought for a cause. He turned them into men who were true warriors. And can I say, in that way, David is the type of

Jesus. Because all of those who find themselves to be outcasts, all of them who find themselves to be indebted, all of them who find themselves to be the off-scouring of the world, we've gathered ourselves to Jesus. And he has taken us from being those who are the outcasts of the world to those that he is using for his kingdom and for eternal glory. Isn't that amazing what Jesus is doing? Isn't that amazing what Jesus is doing? Isn't that amazing what Jesus is doing?

And so next week, we'll get into a little bit more of this civil war and see how ultimately David becomes the king over all of Israel. And so, Father, we come to you, and I thank you that we have these examples given to us. And Lord, I pray that you would cause us to be those people who prayerfully seek you, who prayerfully seek you through your word. And then don't just hear what your word has to say.

Don't just hear what your direction is. But we live it out in our everyday life as we obey you. And so, Father, draw us close to you and continue to fashion us into the men and women of God that you want us to be. In Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.