Wednesday Night Service 7PM - Securing the Kingdom - I Chronicles 18-20 - Pastor Ryan Nichols

Good evening. How are y'all doing? Good to see you all. You want to stand and I'll open us up with a word of prayer. Dear Lord, I just pray that you would just prepare our hearts, God, to worship you, to be in your presence. God, we know that you're with us always. But Lord, as we praise you together as your body, God, I just pray that you would just draw nearer

to us. Lord, I just pray that you would bless our time in song and in word. I pray this in your name. Amen.

I am to bow down. Here I am to say that you're my God. You're all together lovely, all together worthy, all together. He's oh so highly exalted, glorious in heaven. Love's sake became to worship. Here I am to bow down. Here I am to say that you're my God. And you're all together love, all together worthy, all together wonderful to my sin. So here I am to worship. Here I am to

bow down. Here I am to say that you're my God. You're all together lovely, all together worthy, all together wonderful to my sin. So here I am to say that you're my God. You're all together lovely, all together worthy, all together wonderful to my sin. So here I am to bow down. Here I am to say that you're my God. You're all together God. You're all together lovely, all together wonderful to my sin. So here I am to bow down. Here I am to say that you're my God. You're all together

God. You're all together lovely, all together wonderful to my sin. So here I am to bow down. Here I am to say that you're my God. You're all together salvation was only the start and now i am chosen and forgiven the future and it's worth the living wasn't made to be tending a grave i was called by and raised back to life again need for more so why would i make a bed in my shame when a fountain

of i know i know the cross of salvation was the star and now it's worth because i was so why would is running my and i was being out your born and raised back to life so why is running for more as may is running my for more cross of salvation salvation was only the start i am chosen free and forgive have a future for my you're the you're the ones try and you draw me to about i'm far for the viz and the life you're the ones dry draw me in the night would you tend on lord that's just our prayer this evening god that we would not fall into the trap that the devil has set before us to depend on ourselves to think that we have the answer to think that we know best but god i just pray that we would rely on you that we would abide with you god that just

as you and the father are one that we can be one with you also god change our hearts change our natures to be yours i just pray this in your name if you would open up in your bibles to the book of first chronicles chapter 18 it's chronicles 18 the last time that we were together which i think was last wednesday was it last wednesday yeah it was last wednesday last time we were together uh we saw david's desire to build a temple to build a temple for the lord he as he sat in his palace he looked out and saw that the ark of the covenant was dwelling in a tent and he said man i want to do something about that and nathan of course sort of jumped into gear and said oh absolutely run with it

take that idea and run with it but then god said uh hang tight nathan um let david know something let david know that he's not going to be the one that builds me a temple instead what i'm going to do is i'm going to build a house for him a household for him that will last forever a household for him that that will they will ultimately span into the future and i'll give him a son and that son will build me a temple but that's not going to be for david to do and so god really ultimately blesses david with this idea that he's going to build him a house a household that will last forever and so now chapters 18 and 19 are really david establishing himself so that in establishing the kingdom so that he can ultimately

give security and the money necessary to his son to build the temple and so i've simply entitled the next three chapters securing the kingdom and so we pick up in chapter 18 verse 1 and it says this now after this it came about that david defeated the philistines and subdued them and took gath and its towns from the hand of the philistines he defeated moab and the moabites became servants to david bringing tribute david also defeated had a deezer king of zobah as far as hamath and as he went to the philistines he defeated the to establish his rule to the euphrates river david took from him 1 000 chariots and 7 000 horsemen and 20 000 foot soldiers and david hamstrung all the chariot horses but reserved enough for them

for 100 chariots when the arameans of damascus came to help had a deezer king of zobah david killed 22 000 men of the arameans then david put garrisons among the arameans of damascus and the arameans became servants to david bringing tribute and the lord helped david wherever he went so you see sort of a summary of the different victories that david had he had victories over the philistines he had victories over the moabites over the king of zobah and over the arameans and i love it because david again is bringing security to the land he wants the fighting to be done so that when solomon comes along to build the temple there is security and there is peace for him in order to be able to build that temple and for the people

to worship and in this we again have a beautiful picture of our greater than david which is jesus because jesus goes in and defeats the enemies so that we can with rest and security worship god as he has intended so that we can rest in our relationship with god because the work has already been completed and so that's what that's what david's doing but you know i think there's a practical lesson for us to learn here too david was never afraid of a fight and i love this about david because david saw the land in front of him and

he gathered the upper layers of water that had refines poured out from the ground with sand and he said this is the best time to build a temple here is the time to build a temple this person swam and composition side to side but he lost the dream and he could not create his own land before the times came i don't even want to talk about this so let me tell you why he foil akash again because i can't explain it that well or that you'll be lightning in your head because this is biblical during the hands of God찮uch he thought he wouldker might as well enter a rich current Skeleton ok and what he did is he bore that castle to him and he brought his brother to him because after that night he played the good tackles out with it fragrant

from home i saw that house and it was Ezekiel's castle he was extending a headsop with his apostle David he reminded him that not be reached after the acontece would eventually never I see an enemy. I know the problems that that enemy is going to cause. And so I'm going to face that enemy head on and I'm going to take the fight to the enemy. That's what David chose to do.

And I bring that up because we as people have a tendency to see the issues that lie before us. We have a tendency to see the things that sit before us and we can think to ourselves, I have two choices that I can make right now. I see enemies of God in the land. I see the enemies of the flesh living in my land. I see the enemies of sin. I see the enemies of temptation. I see the enemies

of not making a stand for the things of God. And I have two choices that I can make. I can one, pretend that they're not there and just live my life peaceably with all of the issues of the flesh that lie in front of me and never make a stand for anything godly. Or I can take the fight to the enemy. You should choose option B. Our tendency is to want to choose option A. We as a

human race, as human beings have a tendency to want to pretend that there is no enemy and just live at peace. I do this all the time. This is my tendency. This is one of the weaknesses that I have in my life is I just, I want to live at peace and I want to live happily. And I know that sometimes in order to live at peace and to live happily, I'm going to have to pretend that there are certain things

that don't exist in my land. I'm just going to have to pretend that the enemy's not there. But if I want to live in victory, if I want to live as God has called for me to live, sometimes I have to take the fight to the enemy. Sometimes I have to identify the enemy and I have to defeat it. And sometimes that's going to mean making really hard choices in my life. Sometimes it's going to

be making sacrifices in my life. And sometimes that's going to mean that I have to live with a little bit of difficulty. But I'm here to tell you right now, the difficulty that it requires to overcome the enemy is better than the compromise that you live in by pretending he doesn't exist. Because David could have lived as if the enemy didn't exist and his kids would have faced the issues that went along with it. But instead he chose to take the fight to the enemy. And because

he chose to take the fight to the enemy, David decided to take the fight to the enemy. And he enemy there was peace in the land and so david takes the fight to the enemy but lest we think that david is just some great warrior and he did all this work himself i want you to pay close attention to the end of verse six it says and the lord helped david wherever he went the lord helped david wherever he went i bring that up because what i just presented to you if you're not careful becomes bootstrap christianity i'm going to pull myself up by my bootstraps and i'm going to work really really hard and i'm going to try really hard and i'm going to be really good and and then

what you'll find is that you've failed because you'll find that in yourself in your own strength you're never going to have enough i talked with a group of kids this weekend and um i got to work with these huddle leaders before they worked with all of these high school kids so so i gave them a little bit of a message and i i told them about jesus feeding the 5 000 remember when jesus fed the 5 000 so there jesus was with this entire army full of people in front of him you and the disciples came to him and they said hey jesus it's getting really late you should send everybody home so that they can get something to eat and jesus said how about you give them

something to eat and they said give them something to eat he says yeah what do you have so we have five loaves and two fish but what's that amongst so many and jesus said make everybody sit down so everybody sat down and as everybody sat down jesus starts breaking the bread and he starts handing it out and as i told them this is still in my mind i want to see what this miracle looked like in real life like like after 2 000 people did jesus break into bread loaf number three like now it's time for the next thousand to be served like i don't know how that worked jesus is just handing out food left and right you can imagine how the disciples were right they just keep coming back to jesus and

they're like how do you have more we didn't give you anything but they had all that they needed and more than enough because what is not enough in our hands is more than enough in the hands of jesus you see what gave the disciples the bread is more than enough in the hands of jesus more than enough in the hands of jesus more than enough in the hands of jesus you see what gave the David his victory was not that he was a great warrior, even though he was. What gave David his victory is not that he was a great leader, even though he was. What gave David his victory is that the Lord helped him. That word help means to preserve or to defend. In other words, the Lord

was the one doing the work. David was just simply the one showing up. And that's the way it is with us. Sometimes we have to jump off of the treadmill of trying as hard as we can, and we just have to do what God calls for us to do. We just have to show up. And it's amazing how when we show up to the fight, God takes care of everything else. God takes care of all of the issues for us because

because he is ultimately the one that brings the victory, because he is the one that helps David. He is the one that preserves David, because he is the one who ultimately brings the victory. And that's the way it is in our lives as well. You have to show up to the fight, but then you have to let God be the one that gives the victory. And so he says, the Lord helped David wherever he went. I want you to notice how David responds in verse 7.

It says, David took the shields of gold, which were carried by the servants of Hadadezer. He brought them to Jerusalem. Also from Timhath and from Kun, cities of Hadadezer, David took a very large amount of bronze, with which Solomon made the bronze sea and the pillars and the bronze utensils. And whento King of Hamath heard that David had defeated all the army of Hadadezer, King of Zobah, he sent Hodoram, his son, to King David to greet him and to bless him, because he had fought against Hadadezer. And he had defeated him, for he had been at war with Tal. And Hodoram brought

all kinds of articles of gold and silver and bronze. King David also dedicated these to the Lord with the silver and the gold, which he had carried away from all the nations, from Edom, Moab, the sons of Ammon, the Philistines, and from Amalek. Moreover, Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, defeated 18,000 Edomites in the Valley of Salt, and he put garrisons in Edom, and all the Edomites, became his servants. I love what David does. Did you notice from each of those groups of people,

he took things. He took shields of gold, he took instruments of bronze, and even one who David defeated his enemy, brought to him all kinds of articles of silver. And what did David do with all of those things? With all of the things that at one point in time, the glory of the world, what did David turn them into? David turned the glory of the world into something that ultimately

served God. Because that's what he takes all these things, and he presents them to the Lord. And what at one point in time, those nations around him used as their way of saying, look how great we are, David brought to the house of God and said, look how great God is. Because no matter how great your glory may be in your own eyes, ultimately, it will turn out for the glory of the Lord.

And so David gives them to the Lord, and they become instruments that are used not only in the service of God, but ultimately in the worship of God. And so it tells us again, verse 13, he put garrisons in Edom, and all the Edomites became servants to David. And the Lord helped David wherever he went. So David reigned over all Israel, and he administered justice and righteousness for all of his people. Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was over the army,

and Jehoshaphat, the son of Ahilad, was recorder. And Zadok, the son of Ahidab, and Ahimelech, the son of Abiathar, were priests. And Shavshiel was secretary, and Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, was over the army. And Jehoshaphat, the son of Ahilad, was recorder. And Zadok, the son of Ahidab, the charithites, and the pelethites, and the sons of David, were chiefs at the king's aid.

I think it's important to take note of the end of verse 13, because for the second time in the same chapter, it says, and the Lord helped David wherever he went. I'll remind you of this, because remember who is writing the book of 1 Corinthians 2 Chronicles. It's a man by the name of Ezra. And we remember who he was writing it for. He was writing it for the exiles that were

returning from the Babylonian exile, back to a land where they were still learning the ropes, back to a temple that they were going to have to pour a great deal of work into, back to a people that didn't really want them to be there. And they were going to face difficulties, and they were going to face hardships. And they needed to be reminded of something. They needed to be reminded that the same God that brought David victory, the same God that helped David, the same God that defended David, the same God that preserved David, was the same God that was going to be with them as they returned to the land to not only secure the land, but to ultimately rebuild the temple.

You see, this is another one of those instances where we are reminded that God's past faithfulness brings us present confidence. And that's what God does here through Ezra as he writes this down for the people, because they needed to be reminded that same God that helped David is the same God that will help you. And I suppose I would be remiss if I did not remind you that the same God that helped David is the same God that will help you. And he's the same God that will help me. Again, one of the things that I've learned in life and

in ministry is that every day is a new battle. Have you ever noticed that? It may not be the same thing every day, or maybe it is, but every day is a new battle. Some days you'll do battle with the coffee machine. Some days you'll do battle with the coffee maker in the mornings. Some days you'll do battle with your alarm clock. And then some days you'll do battle with the

hardest things you've ever faced in your life. Whatever it is, every day is a battle. And every day we need to be reminded that the same God that defeated giants for David, the same God that defeated the enemies in front of David, is the same God who goes before you into your day. And he is the same God who will preserve you. He is the same God who will defend

you. And he is the same God who will help you, because he is 100% the same God. And so chapter 18 tells us about the victories that he had over their enemies. Now we come to chapter 19, and it's a story that was told before, but one that needs told again, and it's defending David's messengers. It says, Now it came to pass after this that Nahash, the king of the sons of Ammon, died, and his son

became king in his place. And David said, I will show kindness to Hanun, the son of Nahash, because his father showed kindness to me. So David sent messengers to console him concerning his father. And David's servants came into the house and said, I will show kindness to Hanun, to the land of the sons of Ammon, to Hanun, to console him. But the princes of the sons of

Ammon said to Hanun, Do you think David is honoring your father, and that he has sent comforters to you? Have not his servants come to you to search and to overthrow and to spy out the land? So Hanun took David's servants, and he shaved them, and he cut off their garments in the middle as far as their hips, and he sent them away. What a bad day, right? David's like, Man, I heard about his dad. We got to go love on them a little

bit, okay? Like his dad did so much good stuff for me. Probably in the wilderness when David was fleeing from Saul is when this Hanun helped out David. And he just wanted to show some love and respect. And so basically he sends a little entourage, right? A group of messengers, probably with some sort of a gift to this man named Nahash. And he just wants to show him a little bit of love.

And he's like, I'm going to go love on them. I'm going to go love on them. I'm going to go love on them. And these guys show up, and they're like, We're here from David, and we just want you to know, have a hug, right? That's how I picture it in my mind is that they all show up, and they're like, and they all try to hug him. And they're like, No. And so his advisors go to him, and

they're like, You know David's men are not here to show you love. They're not here to show you respect. They're here to spy out the land to defeat you. And he gets really, really angry about it. He's like, How dare he? How dare he show up like that? And so they do the worst thing in the world to them. First of all, they shave their beards, which in this day and age, no biggie, right? It just means my face won't itch as bad.

But in that day and age, your beard was your glory if you were a man, right? And so they shaved their beards. And so they may as well have just stripped them naked and called them Susie, right? Like that's what they could have done to them. But they shaved their beards, and they almost did because it says that they cut off their garments. And the New American Standard puts this

in like the nicest way possible. It says they cut off their garments to the hips. The old King James gets like down and dirty with it, right? They're like, they cut it off and revealed their buttocks, right? Like, now that's the funny way to say it. If I was teaching a group of teenagers, they'd probably be able to handle that. But I know you all can. And so basically, they expose

their nakedness. And these guys are like, What the heck, man? We just showed up to show you some love, and you went and cut our garments off and shaved my beard. What are we doing here? It's kind of interesting what happens when we misunderstand someone's intentions. I bet this has happened to you. Or somebody's simply trying to show you some kindness, and you misunderstood it.

You thought that they were actually being mean, or you thought they were being rude, and somehow you showed some sort of a misunderstanding. And you ended up treating someone bad because you didn't understand the intent of what they were trying to do. And I'm here to tell you right now, when you serve the Lord, you invite misunderstanding. When you decide that you're going to show love to someone, you invite the opportunity for them to misunderstand your motives.

One of the greatest lines I've ever heard somebody say about being a leader and being a pastor is that when you are in leadership, you present an invitation for misunderstanding. And you present an invitation for criticism. And this is what happens to David's men. And I'm here to tell you right now, that statement is one of the truest statements I've ever heard about being a leader. Because you just invite the misunderstanding of the people that are around you.

And they misunderstand your motives. They misunderstand what you intended to do. And pretty soon you find yourself in the position of these men. And your butt's hanging out. And your beard's been shaved. You're really embarrassed, right? And you, what you intended to do for good for somebody else, they actually turn into your greatest embarrassment. And now you don't even know what to do. And you're finding yourself going,

Lord, I don't know what to do. I was doing everything that you called me to do. I was trying to do everything the right way. And they took everything the wrong way. And now, not only have they taken it the wrong way, but now they have ruined my name with all of the people around them. Again, you have a choice to make at that point in time. And here's the choice you have

to make. You can go around and you can put out every fire that's around you. And you can go to every single person that you think maybe was affected by this misunderstanding. And you can say, listen, I know what so-and-so said about me. And that's not true at all. And you can wear yourself out trying to go clear your name with everybody else. And that's what I see most people do. And that's what I've been guilty of doing in the past myself.

One of the lessons I've learned, and I'm in the process of learning, is that if I try to do that myself, I will wear myself out and it won't do any good. Or I can let God clear my name. See, that's what happens here. Notice what it says. Verse 5, so certain persons went and told David about the men. And he sent for them, for the men who were greatly humiliated. And the king said, stay at Jericho,

until your beards grow, and then return. I love it. He says, why don't you hang out in Jericho until that beard grows back? Got it? Okay. Maybe put yourself a pair of pants on too, because you're embarrassing yourself, son. And basically he says, you go hang out, let me fight your battle. You see, you can go fight your own battle. You can go clear your own name. And you can go wear yourself out, trying to run around and put all the fires out.

Or you can hide yourself in the Lord. And you can trust that God is able to do that for you. To take care of things. There's a beautiful, beautiful line in Psalm 37. And it says this, he is able to bring forth your righteousness like the noonday sun. God is able to bring forth your righteousness like the noonday sun. Vengeance, this isn't out of Psalm 37, so don't misquote me here. Vengeance is mine, I will repay, declares the Lord.

You see, if you fight your battle, you'll probably end up getting in your flesh, and you'll probably end up making things worse. If you let God fight your battle, not only are you held unaccountable for everything that takes place because it was God that defended you, but he's way better at it than you are. I actually think that there's a certain guy in a certain office of political power in the United States of America that could stand to let God fight his battles and not use his phone to do it all the time. Because I wonder if he wouldn't have some of the issues that he has right now dealt with, if he would let God fight his battles instead of running around trying to put all the fires out himself.

That's a political question. That's a political question. That's a political statement. You can take or leave, but it's just the truth. And so, David says, you go to Jericho, let me handle this. Notice what it says. So when the sons of Ammon saw that they had made themselves odious to David, that's a word we don't use enough in our culture. They'd made themselves odious to David.

Hanun and the sons of Ammon sent 1,000 talents of silver to hire for themselves chariots and horsemen from Mesopotamia, and from Aram-Maaka, and from Zobah. So they hired for themselves chariots and horsemen from Mesopotamia, and from Aram-Maaka, and from Zobah. They hired for themselves 32,000 chariots, and the king of Maak and his people who came and camped before Mediba. And the sons of Ammon gathered together from their cities, and they came to battle. And when David heard of it, he sent Joab and all the army, the mighty men.

You can imagine how this went. Word returns to the king of Ammon, and they say, you done messed up, Aaron. Right? Like, you got a problem on your hands now, because you ticked off the wrong guy. You should go and hire yourself an army, because it's going to take you and every other army to defeat David. Do you know who all he's taken out so far? You have a problem. So that's what

they do, right? They pull out the treasury. They pull out the oil reserves. They start hiring everybody that they can. They start passing out the hundies. And they're like, bring the chariots, bring the armies, bring everybody that you can. And David hears about it, and I love it. David hears what he said about the mighty men. Like, one of them took out 800 guys all by himself.

Right? Like, these aren't guys that you jack with. These aren't guys that you screw with. It's like a whole bunch of Jason Bournes. And so they bring out Joab and all of the mighty men. And so in verse 9, it says, the sons of Ammon came out, and they drew up in battle array at the entrance of the city. And the kings who had come were by themselves in the field.

And when Joab saw that the battle was against him in front and in the rear, from all the choice men of Israel, and they arrayed themselves against the Arameans. But the remainder of the people he placed in the hand of Abishai, his brother, and they arrayed themselves against the sons of Ammon. And he said, if the Arameans are too strong for me, then you shall help me. But if the sons of Ammon are too strong for you, then I will help you.

Be strong, and let us show ourselves courageous for our people and for the cities of our God. And may the Lord do what is good in his sight. Can I just tell you, verse 13 will preach, like that's just a great verse, right? He says, be strong, be courageous, the Lord's going to bring us victory. It's the exact same thing that I just told you a minute ago. Listen, sometimes you got

to face the fight. Sometimes you got to decide it's time for you to get in the fight and show up to the fight. But remember that the guy that's actually winning the fight is actually God, not you. And that's exactly what Joab tells his men. He said, listen, it's time to show up. It's time to be strong. It's time to be courageous. Now let God do what's good in his sight. Verse 14,

so Joab and the people who were with him, drew near to the battle against the Arameans, and they fled before him. That's it. They just fled. Game over. Joab shows up. The mighty men show up. They're like, this is a terrible idea. And so they flee. They just run away. And when the sons of Ammon saw that the Arameans fled, they fled before Abishai, his brother, and they entered the city. And Joab came

to Jerusalem. When the Arameans saw that they'd been defeated by Israel, they sent messengers and brought out the Arameans who were beyond the river. With Shophak, the commander of the army of Hadadezer, leading them. And when it was told David, he gathered all Israel together. And he crossed the Jordan, and he came upon them. And he drew up in formation against them. And when David drew up in battle array against the Arameans,

they fought against them. And the Arameans fled before Israel. And David killed the Arameans, 7,000 charioteers and 40,000 foot soldiers. And he put to death Shophak, the commander of the army. So when the servants of Hadadezer saw that they were defeated by Israel, they made peace with David and served him. Thus the Arameans were not willing to help the sons of

Ammon anymore. Isn't it great that when you let our greater than David fight the battle for us, when we let Jesus fight the battle for us, it's not even really a battle. Because the battle already belongs to him. And I'm here to tell you right now, if we will start letting God fight our battles, instead of all of us trying to run around and put out every single fire, I bet it would deal with 80% of the relationship issues that you have in your life. If you will just trust that God is

able to bring forth your righteousness like the noonday sun. And so these men are defended. Ultimately, David wins the victory. But now sets up something kind of interesting. Because remember, these Ammonites still need to be dealt with. And that's what brings us to chapter 20. And I've just simply and very creatively labeled chapter 20 as more victories. It says,

What happened in the spring, at the time when the kings go out to battle, that Joab led out the army, and he ravaged the land of the sons of Ammon. And they came and they besieged Rabbah. But David stayed at Jerusalem. And Joab struck Rabbah and overthrew it. And David took the crown of their king from his head. And he found it to weigh a talent of gold. And there was a precious stone in it. It was placed on David's head.

And he brought out the spoil of the city, a very great amount. He brought the people who were in it. He cut them with saws and sharp instruments with axes. And this David did to all the cities of Ammon. And David and all his people returned to Jerusalem. The first three verses of chapter 20 actually span almost a year's worth of time. Only the writer of the book of 1 Chronicles

was very good at it. He was very good at it. He was very good at it. He was very good at it. He was gracious to David. But I feel like if we don't once again deal with the heart of what happened in the first three verses of 1 Chronicles, we are truly doomed to repeat it. I'd like to read verse 1 to you one more time. It says, And it happened in the spring, the time when the kings

go out to battle, that Joab led out the army and ravaged the lands of the sons of Ammon. He came and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed at Jerusalem. You see, if we were to go all the way back to 2 Samuel chapter 11, we would find that almost this exact same line is given at the very beginning of chapter 11. David, at this point in time in his career, is living at the height of his kingdom. He has overcome the enemies. He has made himself

an incredible warrior, an incredible king, an incredible leader, and an incredible administrator. Everybody knew who David was. And he has firmly established himself as the greatest king in the Israel could have ever hoped to have. And the problem that he had is he believed it. Because David allowed himself to relax when he should have been on watch. It says, It was the

time when the kings went out to war. You see, there was actually a battle season that they had because nobody wanted to do battle in the wintertime. Because in the wintertime, that was their rainy season. And quite frankly, in the desert, it gets pretty cold at night in the winter. And it would have been hard to do battle in the winter. So there was really just a, it was a war season. And it was

time to go about the business of war. It was time to go about the business of battle. And instead of going out to battle, David stayed home. And he sent someone else to do what he should have been doing. And instead of being at war, instead of being in battle, instead of being focused, he allowed himself to be distracted. And when he should have been at war, he got distracted by the flesh. Because we find in the book of 2 Samuel chapter 11 that what

David does at this point in time is he sends for a woman named Bathsheba. And he invites her up to his room. And they, as it says in the Bible so kindly, knew each other. And she became pregnant. And it says that the thing displeased the Lord. Of course, she was married to a man by the name of Uriah, who, by the way, was one of David's mighty men. And he knew that the only thing that he could

do is potentially cover this up in the best way that he possibly could. So he calls up to Joab and he says, send me Uriah, the Hittite. And so he sends him Uriah. And Uriah comes back. And David says, oh, how's the war going? Oh, it's going great. They are kicking rear end and taking names. He says, why don't you go spend the night with your wife? Only Uriah is too honorable of a man. He says, I can't do that. Not while the ark of God

and all of God's warriors, all of my brothers are out in battle. So he stayed the night on David's porch. So David kept trying to get him to go and sleep with his wife so that it would appear that the child belonged to him. But he was way too honorable man. David even got him drunk one night so that hopefully he could convince him to. To go stay the night with his wife and he wouldn't do it. And when he knew that he couldn't do it the

easy way, David did it the hard way. And he sent a note by the hand of Uriah. Uriah carried the note that was the seal of his death in it. And it was a note that he carried to Joab. He hands the note to Joab and the note said, when the battle's hot, everyone pull back and make sure that Uriah doesn't come out alive. And that's exactly what happened. The messenger came back to David

and explained to him that there was a battle besieging a wall and one of the men, many of the men were killed. And David said, didn't he know? Hasn't he learned the lesson of history that you can't, you can't get too close to the wall? And he said, by the way, David, I was supposed to also let you know that Uriah, the Hittite perished in the battle as well. And David said,

you win some, you lose some. Better luck next time. And we're told in scripture that the thing greatly displeased the Lord. So time goes by. David thought that all of his sin was hidden, but the only problem was it was hidden as far as anyone else could see, but it was not hidden inside of him because the sin that he had committed was actually wasting him away.

We learned that from Psalm 52, where we find that David, it says, my bones were wasting away because he was so sick with guilt over the sin that he had committed and the sin that he had hidden. Until finally one day, Nathan, the prophet shows up. He says, David, there was a man, a very rich man who had all kinds of sheep and cattle and a guest showed up to his house and he wanted to slay one of the sheep to have a great feast for the guests that showed up. But rather than taking from his own flock, he went to his poor friend and he stole his sheep and he sacrificed that sheep and he fed it to his guest. And David looked at Nathan and he said,

that man should be put to death. And Nathan looked David square in the eye and says, you're the man. And David's heart was broken because he knew his sin was found out. And after he confessed his sin, and after he lost his heart, he said, I'm going to kill you. And he said, I'm going to kill you. And he said, I'm going to kill you. And he said, I'm going to kill you. And he said, I'm going to kill you. And he said, I'm going to kill you.

He lost his child because of that sin. And after he was told the sword will never escape your house because of that sin, David came to the place where he had repented, where he had confessed, and he had dealt with it. And after that comes verses two and three, where it says, David took the crown. Basically, Joab sends back to David and he says, listen, I'm about to take the city. And if you don't show up, I'm taking the crown myself. So David shows up and he takes

the crown and he is. He is given everything that's possibly his because of the victory that he earns that day. But that day, David learned a very important lesson. And it's a very important lesson that I think everybody in this room has to pay attention to. You can never get to the place where in your walk with Jesus Christ, you stop paying attention. You can never get to a place

in your walk with Jesus Christ where you can say, I finally arrived. The flesh can no longer defeat me because there is an entire history full of people. Who, when they reached a place of ease and said, I think I'm doing pretty good now, they fell into the worst sin of their lives. Because brothers and sisters, as believers in Jesus Christ, every day is a new day. Every day I have to crucify the flesh. Every day I have to

decide today I will walk with Jesus with all of my heart. And the day that I wake up and decide today's the day I'm going to take off. Today's the day I'm going to be at ease. Today's the day I'm not going to pay that close of attention to my walk. Today's the day that you will fall deeper than you ever thought possible. And you, like David, will find yourself going, what have I done? And perhaps someone will look at you and say,

you're the one. You're the one that needs to deal with it. So what do we do? How do we keep from becoming like David? Instead, you should act like Joseph. Do you remember the story of Joseph? Joseph is a fantastic story. Because Joseph faced temptation probably greater than that of David. In this moment. David's problem was he let himself relax and he started living at ease instead of

being ever watchful like we are told to be. Joseph was the exact opposite. Every day he was being propositioned by Potiphar's wife. Every day he had temptation presented in front of him. But every day he did one thing. He stayed about his master's business. Every day he decided that serving his master and loving his God was more important than fulfilling his flesh. And I'm here to tell you,

I don't care what age you are in this room. I don't care how long you've walked with Jesus in this room. One thing remains true. If you don't wake up every day and say, today I will be about my master's business. Today is a day that I will choose to love God more than my flesh. Today is the day I will decide that I'm following Jesus with all of my heart. Then that will be the day

that you don't. Because every day is that day. I'm not saying you can't rest. I absolutely think you should rest. But there can never be ease in your walk with Jesus. Because every day there are temptations that are thrown into your face. Every day those things are thrown at you. And if you don't decide every day to put to death the flesh and every day that you're

going to pursue Jesus with all of your heart, it's a recipe for disaster. I always wonder how this would have ended when it says it was the time of the year when the kings go out for war and Joab took the army and David went with him. How different all of that would have been. How different the entire thing would have been. Brothers and sisters, decide every day. Today's the day you're going out to battle. Not the day you're going to stay home.

And so ultimately God restores him. Ultimately God forgives him because God is a God of grace and God is a God of mercy. But it was still what he dealt with. And so it says in verse 4, now it came about after this that war broke out at Gezer with the Philistines. Then Sibachai the Hushethite killed Sippai, I have no idea if that's right, Sippai, Sippai, that guy, one of the descendants of the giants

and they were subdued. And there was war with the Philistines again. And Elhanan, the son of Ger, killed Lami, the brother of Goliath, the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver's bee. Again there was war at Gath where there was a man of great stature who had 24 fingers and toes, six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot.

Nevermind. That's true. I wonder what it looked like with that guy in sandals. I can't help it. I would just be like, that's too many of those. Anyway, it's a great story other than that. When he taunted Israel, Jonathan, the son of Shimea, David's brother, killed him. And these were descended from the giants in Gath and they fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants. Now there's still giants in the

land at this point in time. Remember David defeated Goliath. But do you remember when Goliath, or when David was about to go against Goliath, how many stones, you can shout it out, how many stones did David choose? You may remember five. Very good. He chose five stones. Is that because David thought one stone wouldn't beat him? No. It's because he had either four other brothers or another brother and some

sons. There was more than one giant living in the land at that point in time. And David said, if one of them's coming at me, the potential is they could all be coming at me. So he got enough ammunition to kill them all. Because that's what faith does. Faith says, I know I can take out the one, but there may be more coming. So I'm going to get enough to take

care of all of them. Well, David didn't have to deal with all of them in the beginning, but that didn't mean that the giants were still there. Let me say that again. David didn't have to deal with all of them in the beginning, but that didn't mean the giants weren't still there. Listen, I bet you've beaten some giants in your life. This is something I've learned after having walked with the Lord for over 27 years now. I have beaten

some giants in my life through the grace of God, but that doesn't mean there's not a giant still there. Because there's always going to be another giant that you have to face. The problem that we have in the Western culture church is we think, I'm going to win this one victory, that's my testimony, and then I'm done. That's another thing I shared with some kids this weekend. A few weeks ago, I was sharing something that God had done

in my life, and this young lady said, so is that your testimony of how you came to Jesus? I said, kid, that's just one testimony. Because when you walk with Jesus, you don't have just one. You don't just have the testimony of when you came to Jesus. That's how the whole thing started. But from that point on, I have multiple testimonies of what Jesus has done in my life to overcome

giants. And you know what I'll be able to say 10 years from now? Those were just the beginning. Because I have more giants in my life that I have to face. But just because I beat the one doesn't mean I don't still have to face the others. But because I beat the one, I know I can beat the others. And this is exactly what they do here. You see, it wasn't just David that started beating giants. Everybody started beating giants,

right? It's kind of like the NFL. Everybody started beating the giants. And so, I don't even know if they're good this year or not, but maybe they are. Everybody's beating the Chiefs. I know that. So I guess maybe that's a Chief thing, too. I don't know. Anyway, so everybody's beating them now. But isn't it great that when we start to see the pattern for victory, it's easier for us to

follow that pattern of victory when we follow our greater than Jesus? Well, David's going to bring security to the land, and he's going to use lots of different people to do it. And it's amazing what God is able to do. And brothers and sisters, I want to leave us with two messages tonight. Number one, don't let yourself ease up in your walk. Keep moving forward. Don't move back. Number two, if you have found that you

have fallen back, don't give up. Stand back up and keep walking again. David had a great failure in his life, but that didn't mean that God was done with him. David had a great failure in his life, but that didn't mean that God couldn't steal him. David had a great failure in his life, but that didn't mean that God couldn't steal him. So if you have found that, like David, you fell into some pretty bad sin, don't live in it. Confess

it, repent of it, and move on from it. Amen? Father, we come before you, and I just thank you for this time that we have in your Word, and I thank you for how good your Word is to our souls. I pray that you would continue to use it in our hearts and in our lives. And Father, as we see these giants, Lord, as they keep showing up in our lives, Lord, may we continue to defeat them.

Through the power of the Holy Spirit. Father, I pray that we wouldn't lose the fight. Father, not that we have an opportunity to lose the fight because you can't do it, but Lord, that we wouldn't lose the fighting spirit in our soul. That we, like Caleb, would say, I'm an old guy, and I've been at this a long time, but I'm ready to face the giants again. And so, Lord, keep us strong in you.

We just pray these things, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed. Amen.