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2 Samuel 23 (Part 2) Bible Study (David's Mighty Men) | Pastor Daniel Batarseh · Bible Study with Pr. Daniel Batarseh | Verse by Verse Series | Maranatha Bible Church - Chicago

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  Second Samuel, Chapter 23. I have a feeling some are not
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  here tonight because they come from a long way and they're
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  planning to be there tomorrow. But Bible study must go on.
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  Amen. And we've been getting, let me
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  just say this, we've been getting so many encouraging
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  emails of people finding out about this ministry by doing one
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  simple thing. They go on YouTube, they search
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  up a chapter and first or Second Samuel, and we show up and and
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  we get encouraging messages from people across the world.
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  And so we are blessed to be here together in person, and we are
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  blessed by those who watch every single week, tuning in live and
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  watching later. We hope you're blessed tonight
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  as we come to verse eight of this chapter, verse eight in
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  this chapter. And today you and I are coming
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  to a very invigorating portion of this chapter because a brief
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  glance at it will show that in the last 32 verses of this
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  chapter, God, the Holy Spirit consecrated it to give us a
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  catalog of God's mighty men assigned to David David's mighty
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  men. And as we look at these texts,
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  we might think and be tempted that there's not much value in
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  these verses with names that we've never heard before and and
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  the exploits of some of these men.
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  I mean, what does that have to do with you and I?
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  But anytime you come to, and I hope you know this by now,
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  anytime you come to any portion of Scripture and that thought
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  arises, shoot it down. Disregarded completely, no
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  matter how obscure or difficult a verse or verses may be.
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  God has given us this for our instruction.
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  And the Holy Spirit had in mind the sanctification of the Saints
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  when He gave us this historical report thousands of years ago.
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  And I believe the best way to approach the theme of the
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  exhortations and the encouragements found in the set
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  of verses is to see how this present text connects with the
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  preceding one. What did we study last time we
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  were together? Well, look at back the first
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  verse of of chapter 23. Now these are the last words of
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  David and the 1st 7 verses are technically a Psalm, the last
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  Psalm of David. And so right from the beginning
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  we understand what we are entering into.
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  The Holy Spirit at the end of this book is wanting us to
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  contemplate the last things pertaining to David's life and
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  David's reign. The last things, some debate.
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  If this is the last words of David, we know it's not the last
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  words, but it's the last Psalm song Public addressed that David
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  gave through a hymn. And is it coincidental that with
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  the last words of David, the meditation of the final
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  concluding moments of his Kingdom, we are introduced to a
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  review of the services of his servants?
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  It's not an accident. It's actually a nudge.
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  It's actually kind of a foreshadowing.
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  It's a reminder, you and I, if you want an overarching theme
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  for what this chapter is about, at least in this part, is that
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  in the same way that the end of this church age, the end of
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  Christ, work through his people on the earth, we too can expect
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  an evaluation and commendation from our king.
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  Every battle that you have fought, every trial that you
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  have endured will one day be surfaced before the throne of
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  Christ and will be highlighted by the King himself.
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  It will be tested with fire. And so there is a day coming for
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  every single blood bot Christian who wears the uniform of grace
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  and the righteousness of Christ to stand before their commander.
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  And this commander will look at your gifts, your context, your
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  opportunities, and through your faithfulness or lack of
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  faithfulness, it will determine the reward that we will enjoy
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  and the life to come. And so this, this portion, this,
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  these passages are perfectly aligned with the idea of our
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  meditation on David as king and the last things pertaining to
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  him. Because at the end of it all,
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  when all is said and done, there will be your name called, my
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  name called, and Christ will review what we've done on this
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  earth for His name and for us. That's exciting, I hope.
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  For others, that's terrifying. But I hope that what you will
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  hear today will inspire you to fight.
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  The good fight will inspire you to remain faithful until the
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  end, will inspire you to remember that this brief
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  existence of yours, it all of us is leading to one thing.
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  All roads lead to the judgment seat of Christ.
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  The judgment seat of Christ is not the judgment for
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  unbelievers. That's the great White throne
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  judgment. I hope you don't show up to that
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  one. The judgment seat of Christ is
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  for Christians, and we'll not determine whether we have
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  eternal life that's been determined at the cross.
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  It will determine our reward that we will enjoy when Christ
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  rules and reigns on the earth. How do we divide this?
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  I I won't read through the rest of the chapter, especially with
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  these tongue twisting names. Okay, I know you might enjoy
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  that, but I will not be able to do that today.
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  But I believe the best way to approach it is to look at it the
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  way the author divides it. It seems as though with this
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  list of 30 something men you have a division of ranks.
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  You have a first rank, you have a second rank and you have a
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  third rank. You have these different
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  classes. The first rank makes up of three
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  men. The three they're called.
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  The second class can arguably be about two men who were chief
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  among the 30 but were closely associated with the top three.
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  And the last class of men deal with a series of names.
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  And we don't necessarily have their a personal conquest
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  ascribed to each, but they still make up of the the 30 men of the
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  final class. Mighty men still, but of a
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  different caliber. And so that's what we're going
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  to do. Let's look at each of these
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  ranks. And here's the goal that you and
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  I want to accomplish. What is it about these men that
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  qualify them to be mighty? What is it about these men that
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  gave them the honor to be crowned with such monumental
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  praise and acknowledgement? Because the physical realities
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  of these soldiers and this army parallels with the reality that
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  you and I endure in this life as soldiers of Christ.
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  So that's what we're going to draw from these actual soldiers
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  in the flesh. What do they have to teach us
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  about us being good soldiers in the Spirit?
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  And so we read in verse 8. These are the names of the
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  mighty of the mighty man whom David had.
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  Joseph Bass. Hebeth he Takimonite, he was
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  chief of the three. He wielded his spear against
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  800, whom he killed at one time, and next to him among the three
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  mighty man, was Eliezer, the son of Dodo, son of Aho.
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  High he was with David when they defied the Philistines, who were
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  gathered there for battle, and the men of Israel withdrew.
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  He rose and struck down the Philistines until his hand was
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  weary, and his hand clung to the sword.
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  And the Lord brought about a great victory that day, and the
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  men returned after him, only to strip the slain.
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  And next to him was Shama the son of Ahi, the Hara, right?
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  The Philistines gathered together at Lehigh or some
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  translation, say as a troop where there was a plot of ground
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  full of lentils and the men fled from the Philistines.
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  But he took his stand in the midst of the plot and defended
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  it and struck down the Philistines, and the Lord worked
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  a great victory. I'm curious to know, based on
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  that simple reading, what stands out to you from these three
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  chief men, the top three. Any ideas?
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  And I'll do my best to repeat so help me a little bit by not
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  making your answer too long, because people tend to say, hey,
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  we didn't hear the answers of the people at the study.
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  Can you can you be more clear? So if you want to give a concise
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  answer that helps me repeat it, yes.
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  What stands out? Oh, very, very, very good.
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  They stood alone in their battles.
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  Yes. Anything else?
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  The Lord worked through these men?
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  Absolutely. He brought about a great victory
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  through the faithfulness of these men.
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  Yes. Anything else?
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  Go ahead. So there was many of their
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  adversaries, yet they still stood and they saw God come
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  through. Despite the challenging
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  opposition, their faith remained.
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  Yes. Anything else of these three?
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  Mighty. The first three?
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  Yes. Very similar to David?
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  Absolutely. In what sense?
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  Yes. Amen.
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  Isn't that a wonderful report concerning the followers of
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  David? They imitated their king, and we
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  learned that last time we were together, that David's
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  faithfulness rubbed off on others.
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  It was contagious, and he inspired others to walk in the
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  same level of courage that he did.
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  That's what your faithfulness can do when you're willing to do
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  something like David and stand alone for God?
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  Absolutely. Well, why don't we explore this
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  in greater detail? Shall we not?
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  Let's look at our first man, mighty man.
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  We are told here about this man that he is the chief of the
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  three, the chief of the three. So he's not just among the first
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  three, he is the chief of the three.
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  It is believed that he must have been an advisor for the military
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  as a whole. He was an expert.
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  He was extremely wise and discerning.
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  He was somebody that can be counted on, not just with his
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  mind, but with his skill. And one of the things that are
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  highlighted concerning his ability is the fact that at one
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  time, in one specific event, he wielded his spear against not
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  eight. One against eight is super
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  impressive. One against 800.
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  Unusual. Supernatural, to say the least.
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  And so you look at this man and you see something that is pretty
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  difficult to match. Pretty difficult to replicate.
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  Something that is unique even among the mighty and the
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  faithful. And I think what we can take
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  from this is to understand. And even in the Kingdom of God
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  today, there are certain servants of God who have been
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  gifted by God to to do certain things that are very difficult
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  to repeat, very difficult to follow in.
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  I mean, you look at this man and you realize that he does the
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  work of 1000 men. And when you look at the Kingdom
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  of God throughout history, the church throughout the ages, you
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  know this very well. That God and every generation
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  chooses and raises up certain men to touch many people at the
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  same time to do work that some, if they live 10 lives, will not
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  even do a fraction in comparison.
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  And that is not to say that these men and these women
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  throughout history were more loved by God.
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  It is all to say that God and his sovereignty and desiring to
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  expand his glory, will expand the ability and the gifting of 1
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  particular person to do a great and mighty work on the earth.
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  That's what you see here with this first fella.
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  He he is a mighty man, but he is an exceptional mighty man.
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  He is a different kind of mighty man, one in the generation kind
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  of guy. And we know those people.
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  And some of you can even name those people.
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  And when you when you understand that, you have to not be
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  discouraged, but understand that the Lord knows what He's doing
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  in ascribing to you the gifts that you have and ascribing to
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  others the gifts that they have. And I've personally learned this
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  even in this past week. I was meditating on that truth
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  this morning. And this past week was an
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  unusual week for me in terms of my schedule of preaching.
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  There was almost something happening every day where there
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  was online or in person, and and yesterday I was just laying a
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  bad thing to myself because my throat is sore even now.
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  So be gracious to me if I'm not as loud as I usually him.
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  I thought to myself, how, how did these men of old do it?
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  If you know a little about church history, if you've read
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  into George Whitfield and Wesley, you see that these men
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  preached twice a day, every day for months without stop and no
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  microphone, no amplification, and they had thousands of people
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  before them. Here I am and I did A2 extra
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  meetings and my throat is, is is acting all soft.
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  And I'm thinking to myself how And I wasn't discouraged.
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  I just thought to myself, well, just like this man here, God has
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  enabled certain people to do things that I might not be able
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  to do, that you might not be able to do, and that shouldn't
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  squash you. That should just cause you to
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  rejoice that God in his wisdom knows what to give to whom.
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  And in the end, God's getting the glory anyway.
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  That's the whole point. It's not to be in competition
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  with other preachers or missionaries.
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  It's to see what the Lord has done, to see what the Lord can
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  do, and to rejoice in that. We rejoice in this testimony.
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  And there is a verse that Paul gives that confirms this, this
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  idea that I'm conveying to you. I want you to see it.
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  In 2nd Corinthians 10. He speaks to the Corinthians and
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  he is challenging how they are being influenced by these false
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  apostles, these false teachers that are boasting themselves and
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  then boasting themselves, trying to disqualify Paul and notice
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  what he says. Notice what he says here in
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  verse 13, he says in 2nd Corinthians 1013.
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  But we will not boast beyond limits.
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  But we will boast only with regard to the area of influence
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  God assigned to us. To reach even to you, what a
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  humble man Paul understood and Paul's theology, practical
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  theology. He understood that God
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  sovereignly determines how each of his servants will serve him
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  and to what capacity. There are some who have been
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  gifted by God in a way in which they will have a larger platform
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  and a wider reach. And there are others who may
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  have a more limited reach. And that is not to say one is
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  more special or favored by God. That is merely to say that God
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  knows exactly what portion of his vineyard you should occupy.
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  And Paul here is expressing contentment in the extent of his
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  influence. He's not complaining.
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  Oh, you have every right to say, Lord, use me to touch as many
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  people as possible. But as you serve him, trust in
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  the breath that he is granting to you.
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  Your job is to determine the excellence of your ministry.
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  Your job is to determine the character that you should have
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  as a minister. Your job is to do whatever God's
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  put before you with great zeal, passion and practice.
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  God's job is to broaden the influence.
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  If He wants to, that's not your job.
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  That's not your job. And that's why you can strive as
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  much as you want to make it happen.
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  It will not happen unless he makes it happen.
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  That shouldn't frustrate you, That should put you to rest,
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  because God even knows how much you can handle.
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  As much as your dreams are big, He knows exactly how you've been
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  wired. And there are things that you
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  will touch that even these mighty men, like this man here
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  in verse eight will never touch. Yes, he was able to touch 800
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  lives in in this negative sense and killing them, but the rest
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  of the mighty men were able to do things that he could not do.
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  And so it's not a matter of you being lesser.
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  It's a matter of you occupying something that those people who
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  might have touched millions of lives will not even touch.
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  And so it's all about how God places you and where He places
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  you and you, fitting and fulfilling a piece of the puzzle
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  that even mighty men here like this will not touch.
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  So that's what we see here. There are certain mighty men who
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  operate with a level of gifting and influence that that is not
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  repeated, and that shouldn't frustrate you.
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  But look here at verse 9. At the 2nd next among the chief
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  3 is a man named Eliezer, the son of Dodo.
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  What's his story all about? Well, it's here in verse nine.
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  He was with David when they defied the Philistines, who were
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  gathered there for battle, and the men of Israel withdrew no
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  explanation to why. But here's a specific battle,
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  and you have the men of Israel there.
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  And for whatever reason, they were intimidated.
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  Fearful, they turned their backs and their run.
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  Then they run. And who's there on the scene?
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  Two of them, King David and Eliezer, the son of Dodo at
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  Liaiso. The son of Dodo is the one who
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  planted his heels in the dirt and said, I'm not going nowhere,
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  We're going to do this together, right?
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  King David and everybody else runs.
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  We don't give, we don't get to understand.
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  That's not the main point of the the passage.
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  It's it's to see this man stand out, stand and guard his post,
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  regardless of the fear and regardless of the lack of
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  support from those on his own team.
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  It's easier to serve in your ministry when those that you
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  like and enjoy are serving in that ministry.
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  It's easier to pray when other people are also praying.
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  It's easier to maintain a zeal when you're constantly feeling
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  the warmth of other burning hearts.
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  But what we see here about what makes up a mighty man is that
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  the king will commend faithfulness when it sparkles.
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  And the backdrop of Christian compromise, what moves the heart
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  of God is not just faithfulness, but faithfulness that shines on
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  the backdrop of Christian compromise.
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  This is what we see. We see these men who withdrew
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  and this man stands out. And where faith really matters,
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  I mean it matters at all times. Where we're really stands out is
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  when other people are not serving him, are not worshipping
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  him, are not devoted to him. One writer put it this way.
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  God esteems fidelity and holy zeal far more highly in a season
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  of declension and apostasy than he does in a time of revival.
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  I couldn't say it any better. Absolutely right.
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  There's something that particularly touches the heart
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  of God when he sees one man, a few men, a few woman, who even
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  in the coldness of the spiritual atmosphere of their day still
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  are willing to stand by. The king and our brother
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  mentioned and already that one of the things that stand out
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  about these mighty men, the chief 3, if there's one thing
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  that they shared despite the differences in their
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  testimonies, is that they stood alone.
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  They stood alone. And there are today who are
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  expressing woes, right disappointment about what's
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  happening today. And christen them seems like
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  most of Chris of them is asleep in a time of of great need.
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  And that's not a this is not a time to be discouraged.
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  You also at the same time though you can be overcome by despair.
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  Realize the opportunity at hand in 2023.
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  What's that opportunity that you have a chance to give God
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  praiseworthy devotion when it really matters, When it really
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  matters. That's how I want to see it.
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  OK, let other people compromise on the pulpit.
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  OK, let other people not want to be in the church.
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  OK, let other people not want to serve with a greater zeal.
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  Though the darkness is increasing.
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  Let them. That's not my job, to make sure
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  that everybody is doing what they're supposed that's between
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  them and God. I can exhort and encourage, but
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  if I, if I and you have to stand and serve the Lord, then so be
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  it. Whether the presence of God's
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  people are there or not, whether the majority are in for it or
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  not that that's not, that's not what determines anything.
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  God would look at your faithfulness and he'll look at
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  the lack of faithfulness around you and he will, He will deal
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  with them and He would deal with you.
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  And you think that this is different today.
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  You think what, what's happening here with this one man, the
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  commendation that's ascribed to him is different in the church
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  age. No, Look at Revelation chapter 3
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  in one church. Look how God evaluates churches.
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  Man, it's absolutely frightening to me because his, his
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  measurement, his evaluation sheet is much different than
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  man's. But he comes to this church in
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  Revelation 3. This church called Sardis.
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  Well, at least it was in Sardis. And this church had a reputation
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  of being alive, but it was actually dead.
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  And they're relying on their reputation and and the Lord in a
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  loving way scolds them. But he says something so
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  powerful that encourages me at least in chapter 3, verse three,
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  is it there on the screen. Here's what he says.
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  Remember then what you received and heard.
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  Keep it and repent. If you will not wake up.
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  I will come like a thief and you will know.
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  You will not know at what hour I will come against you.
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  Look at verse 4. Yet you have still a few names
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  in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they
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  will walk with me in white, for they are worthy.
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  I love how the King James and the new King James puts it, it
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  says in that translation of this verse.
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  Yet you have still a few names, even in Sardis.
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  It's a even in a spiritually dead, a lifeless place like
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  Sardis. Yes, even in such a hopeless
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  environment, you have some who have not soiled their garments.
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  And the part that touches me is this.
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  And I know their names. He knows their names.
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  And you know what the reward will be for those who choose to
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  stand, Though there's soil garments all around them.
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  They'll walk with me. They'll walk with me.
• 22:31
  I'm going to invite them into close fellowship with me.
• 22:34
  Because you stood for me, and you served me in your church, in
• 22:40
  your family, in your generation, when others chose to just be
• 22:46
  content in their spiritual death, reminiscing on things of
• 22:49
  the past and not keeping up with their faith and their devotion
• 22:52
  to me. That touches my heart and I and
• 22:56
  I see this, and I see the parallel for our own lives.
• 23:00
  And you see still a glorious description added to Eliezer.
• 23:03
  Did you see it in verse 10? It says here that he rose and
• 23:07
  struck down the Philistines until his hand was weary and his
• 23:11
  hand clung to the sword. This guy had a grip on his sword
• 23:17
  and you couldn't. You couldn't do anything to
• 23:19
  separate those fingers from that grip.
• 23:23
  So already he had to deal with the challenge of the lack of
• 23:27
  support and fidelity of those around him.
• 23:29
  All his boys turned back and ran the other direction.
• 23:33
  Now he has another challenge. Perform, and that's his own
• 23:35
  flesh. And you too have the same
• 23:38
  challenge. You have the challenge of
• 23:40
  dealing with the lack of examples, the temptation of
• 23:42
  those around you, And then you got to deal with the weariness
• 23:45
  of your own flesh and mind and soul.
• 23:48
  And yet, despite the weariness, despite his own body trying to
• 23:52
  convince him to give up, it says here that he was not weakened.
• 23:58
  He stayed the course. He did not let go of the sword
• 24:02
  until the task was complete. He did not remove his hands from
• 24:06
  the plow until the master said you're done.
• 24:11
  Mighty men and mighty woman of God endure until the end.
• 24:17
  They finish what they started. You have to fight them to keep
• 24:22
  them from not doing what they want to do for the Lord.
• 24:27
  It's the opposite for people in today's generation.
• 24:31
  You have to fight them and get them all riled up to get to
• 24:34
  serve the Lord and to hopefully stay on that course for some
• 24:38
  kind of length of time. And that's the opposite.
• 24:40
  With this fella, you couldn't do anything to remove that sword
• 24:43
  from his hand. He was going to do it until it
• 24:47
  was done. And this is something to to
• 24:51
  consider for your own devotion in mind.
• 24:54
  To not give up so easily defines a mighty man of God.
• 24:59
  Despite the lack of encouraging environment, he is not deterred
• 25:02
  in his commitment. And that liaiser's story here it
• 25:06
  concludes with a convicting summary.
• 25:08
  What's that convicting summary? Look here at the last part of
• 25:11
  verse 10. And the Lord brought about a
• 25:13
  great victory that day, and the men returned after him only to
• 25:17
  strip the slain. So when it came to the fight,
• 25:22
  nobody was there. When it came to the reward,
• 25:23
  everybody shows up. Unique story.
• 25:27
  No human nature. Human nature.
• 25:31
  I looked at this and I thought to myself, how sad is it that
• 25:34
  the presence of many Saints is only made known when they
• 25:38
  recognize an immediate benefit to their enlistment in God's
• 25:41
  army. How true is it?
• 25:44
  For many who have enlisted in God's army will pause and
• 25:48
  retreat when there's an actual cost to their enlistment in
• 25:51
  Guard's army. But when it's prosperous and
• 25:54
  when it's easy, when it's successful, and when there's
• 25:57
  growth, and when there's fame, we want to be associated with
• 26:02
  it, We want to partner with it. We want to be a part of it.
• 26:08
  But when it comes to standing in the midst of the threats of the
• 26:12
  world and consistently fighting against the flesh, those numbers
• 26:17
  dwindle. And that kind of caliber of
• 26:21
  Christianity faints. And so you see some who've only
• 26:26
  come to strip the slain. And it's true that even today,
• 26:31
  it's usually the faithfulness of 1 or a few.
• 26:33
  The other people enjoy the benefits of, you know, the
• 26:40
  statistics they say, of local churches, of who in those local
• 26:43
  churches serve actually serve consistently, is embarrassingly
• 26:47
  low. I think they.
• 26:49
  I don't want to give a wrong statistic, but it's below 10%,
• 26:53
  below 10% of most congregations. Do you have people who serve
• 26:58
  consistently in that church and the rest just attend once a
• 27:01
  week? If they can't even do that, that
• 27:04
  that is the difference between mighty men and women and the
• 27:07
  feeble in the faith. Here's a person who he's been,
• 27:11
  he's been assigned a sword. He's like, I'm not letting go of
• 27:14
  this until the job is done and we come to the third and final
• 27:21
  of the Chief, 3, verse 11. And next to him was Shama, the
• 27:27
  son of Aggie, the Heroright. The Philistines gathered
• 27:30
  together at Lehigh, where there was a plot of ground full of
• 27:34
  lentils and the Med fled from the Philistines.
• 27:37
  We've seen this before. Here's another man, mighty man.
• 27:40
  And what do we see about him? He stands when everybody else
• 27:44
  flees, but there's a description about his whereabouts, about his
• 27:48
  actual engagement, that is striking.
• 27:54
  It may seem strange, but when you meditate on it, it's
• 27:57
  actually striking. The description of the plot of
• 28:00
  land that he was on is this, that it was a land of lentils.
• 28:05
  It was a field. It was a field that farmers
• 28:09
  occupied. Now that's important because you
• 28:12
  have the Philistines who show up on the horizon and clearly they
• 28:16
  want to occupy this countryside, but it's not the citadel found
• 28:20
  in Jerusalem. It's not a strategic city that
• 28:22
  would determine the nation's security.
• 28:26
  It's it's a land of lentils. That's not very important, at
• 28:30
  least in my mind. If anything, it's on the
• 28:33
  peripheral, probably. It's not striking at the nerve
• 28:37
  of the nation. And so to me, it seems as though
• 28:41
  the people calculated very quickly here are the
• 28:44
  Philistines. They want this land.
• 28:46
  They want to park here. It's not worth risking my life
• 28:48
  for. And so we're out of here.
• 28:51
  And they dropped their instruments and they went into a
• 28:53
  different direction. But there's a crazy guy in the
• 28:56
  field that day. There's an insane man, if I can
• 29:00
  use that word. And this man Shamat looks around
• 29:03
  and he says, no, I'm going to stand right here, bring it on.
• 29:11
  Why was he a man that found adrenaline in these kind of
• 29:15
  things? Was he a man who was just
• 29:17
  reckless and his behavior? No, he was a man with
• 29:19
  revelation. Yeah.
• 29:23
  To the to the crowd. This was a plot of lentils.
• 29:27
  You know how I believe this man saw this land?
• 29:31
  Leviticus 2325. You look at this passage and you
• 29:34
  understand the significance of every part of the promised land.
• 29:39
  Here's what the Lord says to his people.
• 29:41
  Leviticus 2325. It writes the land shall not be
• 29:45
  sold in perpetuity, for the land is whose.
• 29:50
  The land in Leviticus 2325 is mine.
• 29:54
  That's what the Lord says. The land is mine.
• 29:57
  I'm giving you what belongs to me.
• 30:00
  Though you're living on this land, though you'll benefit from
• 30:03
  this land. I own it.
• 30:05
  It's mine. And I believe.
• 30:08
  Shamar looked at. He looked at this field, and he
• 30:11
  understood that it was the Lord's inheritance.
• 30:14
  He saw this, and he realized that he was a steward of this
• 30:18
  land, that he was responsible in defending what God provided.
• 30:25
  And when you understand that, you realize many wonderful and
• 30:29
  glorious lessons. Here's the first glorious lesson
• 30:33
  that you see from Shema, and it's something that you and I
• 30:35
  have to understand about our own walk with the Lord.
• 30:38
  This person here sees, although he's not like the first
• 30:41
  individual who is able to have vast influence over hundreds of
• 30:44
  people. He was an individual who saw the
• 30:46
  value of the piece of real estate that he was in, that he
• 30:50
  was on, and he was willing to give his life to it, though
• 30:54
  other people did not see the value in it.
• 30:57
  And you can say the same thing for people in various ministries
• 31:00
  today. I think of those who look and
• 31:04
  serve in certain capacities, where the majority of people
• 31:08
  don't see the glamour in it, don't see the importance of it,
• 31:10
  don't see the relevance of it. And yet for them, they say this
• 31:13
  is part of the Lord's inheritance.
• 31:16
  And this is where God has me in this Providence, and this is
• 31:18
  where in his Providence I will remain.
• 31:21
  And so you think about those who do what you think about those
• 31:24
  who serve little children, little children, right.
• 31:28
  And most people see the little children's ministry as a
• 31:30
  babysitting ministry, just to give parents a chance to be
• 31:32
  upstairs to hear the message. But no, I believe the teachers
• 31:35
  of this church and many other churches say this is the Lord's
• 31:38
  inheritance and this is discipleship and this is
• 31:41
  investing in the next generation.
• 31:44
  This is not just a plot of lentils.
• 31:47
  This is what God has given us and we are responsible for it.
• 31:52
  I think about others also who might be part of a local church
• 31:55
  that not might not mean significant.
• 31:57
  That might might be like a major voice in the nation or the state
• 32:00
  or the city, but they see what God is doing in that place.
• 32:04
  And they say this is where God has me.
• 32:05
  I will plant my feet here and I will honor God in it.
• 32:10
  And there are others who realize the value of prayer, and they
• 32:15
  have the time on Wednesday. So they come to pray because to
• 32:18
  others prayers like a plot of land of lentils.
• 32:23
  But for those who believe in what God said about prayer, they
• 32:26
  say no. This is part of God's plan in
• 32:28
  advancing his work. And so we will plant ourselves
• 32:31
  in prayer and we will pray. You see, it's all about
• 32:34
  perspective. It's all about revelation.
• 32:37
  And this man had it. This man had it where many men
• 32:39
  lacked it. And I think of others also who
• 32:42
  give their time and specific ministries.
• 32:47
  You see that this person here is, is is giving us an example
• 32:50
  of somebody who is in one lane and they stay in that lane.
• 32:53
  And I couldn't help but think of a variety of different
• 32:57
  ministries that have unique deliveries.
• 32:59
  And they they specify in certain doctrines and certain
• 33:02
  demographics, and that's all that they do.
• 33:06
  They they just, they occupy this, this is what they do.
• 33:09
  And they are still regarded as mighty men.
• 33:12
  I think about those who deal with Muslim ministries, who
• 33:15
  speak to them and try to prove the truth through the
• 33:18
  scriptures. I think of others who teach
• 33:20
  homeschooling parents how to do it well, through their own
• 33:24
  history and through their own experience.
• 33:27
  I think of others to evangelize, and that's all that they do.
• 33:30
  They're not expert theologians, but they just preach the simple
• 33:32
  gospel. I think of intercessors, they're
• 33:34
  calling is just to pray and seek the Lord.
• 33:38
  And again, though, they're not like the first individual who
• 33:40
  was able to do many things, who is promoted because they had
• 33:43
  manifold abilities, but they just had one assignment and they
• 33:46
  did that assignment well. And if that is somebody,
• 33:49
  something that describes you, realize that God can still in
• 33:52
  that consider you to be a mighty man, a mighty woman of God.
• 33:59
  Oh, there's so many ways of applying Shema's example.
• 34:02
  Another way of applying it is looking at how he took this one
• 34:06
  land and saw the absolute glory in it and did not disregard it.
• 34:11
  Though at on the natural it seemed to be insignificant.
• 34:15
  It is no different with God's revelation.
• 34:17
  How much more should we be defending, cherishing, adoring,
• 34:23
  loving and applying all of God's word?
• 34:27
  Not just some. Not just the pillars of our
• 34:30
  faith, not just the major things, but all things, the
• 34:33
  whole council of God. And you have many people who
• 34:37
  believe otherwise. You have many people who are
• 34:38
  campaigning for unity. And here's their mantra.
• 34:41
  Let's just gather around the gospel of Jesus Christ.
• 34:46
  Everything else is irrelevant. Well, that's not true.
• 34:49
  That's not true. Allow me to show you one of the
• 34:52
  most convicting sayings of Jesus pertaining to how you and I
• 34:56
  serve him in relation to his word.
• 34:58
  It's on the Sermon of the Mount. I don't know if you've ever
• 35:00
  noticed this. It's in Matthew 519.
• 35:03
  I want you to see what Jesus says when he gives his
• 35:14
  instructions. Before he does, He makes this
• 35:16
  statement. And this statement is very
• 35:18
  humbling as it deals with as it deals with how we relate to the
• 35:25
  word of God in Matthew 5/19, he says here in Matthew 519,
• 35:37
  Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments
• 35:41
  and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the
• 35:44
  Kingdom of heaven. But whoever does them and
• 35:47
  teaches them will be called great in the Kingdom of heaven.
• 35:51
  Have you ever meditated on that? So whoever comes to the word of
• 35:55
  God and looks at things that may not seem instrumental or
• 36:00
  important in our application of the Christian walk or church
• 36:02
  governance or anything, whoever relaxes them and teaches others
• 36:06
  to do the same. When it comes to his final
• 36:09
  estimation and evaluation, he will consider such people to be
• 36:12
  the least. But those who look at the whole
• 36:16
  council of God and absorb all that God has to say and it
• 36:18
  properly applies and dissects and determines how we move about
• 36:24
  these things will be called great in the Kingdom of heaven.
• 36:27
  And Shama is a is a illustration of that a plot of land of
• 36:31
  lentils he was willing to fight for.
• 36:35
  And today we're getting in a lot of trouble because you have
• 36:37
  people not fighting for doctrines because in their mind
• 36:41
  it's secondary or it's it's it's in the 3rd place and and we have
• 36:45
  little cracks in the foundation. That's where compromise is.
• 36:48
  Compromise is able to seep in. And so yes, Jesus did say
• 36:52
  Matthew 2323 that there are weightier matters of the law.
• 36:56
  But at the same time, he says that does not mean you should
• 36:58
  neglect those that are under those weightier matters.
• 37:01
  So there is nowhere in the scripture where we are
• 37:03
  encouraged to annul or delete or ignore any part of God's Word.
• 37:08
  And unfortunately, Shama's testimony.
• 37:10
  Yet some would say this, this is not that important, We're going
• 37:12
  to walk away from it. And he says, no, no, no, no, no.
• 37:16
  I will stand for it. If you want to be mighty man, if
• 37:18
  you want to be a mighty woman of God, you will take all of God's
• 37:21
  word, and you will seek to understand all that he has to
• 37:24
  say and apply it as as much as it depends on you.
• 37:27
  Again, what are we talking about here?
• 37:29
  We're we're talking about the difference between the mighty
• 37:32
  and the feeble, the strong and the weak, the commended, and
• 37:36
  those who will be corrected by Christ.
• 37:41
  We deal with this later, but we come now to the interesting
• 37:46
  portion found in this verse 13. This is a heartwarming
• 37:51
  testimony. When you're then verse 13, you
• 37:53
  read of something that most of us are familiar with, the story
• 37:55
  of three mighty men who who fetch for a glass of water for
• 37:59
  their king. Now people debate are these the
• 38:02
  same three mighty men that we just mentioned or three
• 38:04
  different ones? That's not even the main point.
• 38:06
  The main point is what they did. So whether you believe it's the
• 38:10
  three that we just heard of or three new ones, look at the
• 38:12
  point and the three. Verse 13 of the 30 chief men
• 38:16
  went down and came about harvest time to David at The Cave of
• 38:19
  Adelam, when a band of Philistines were encamped in the
• 38:22
  valley of Rafaem. David was then in the
• 38:25
  stronghold, and the Garrison of the Philistines was then at
• 38:28
  Bethlehem. And David said, Longley, oh,
• 38:31
  that someone would give me water to drink from the well of
• 38:34
  Bethlehem, that is, by the gate. Then the three mighty men broke
• 38:38
  through the camp of the Philistines and drew water out
• 38:40
  of the well of Bethlehem that was by the gate, and carried and
• 38:44
  brought it to David. But he would not drink of it.
• 38:46
  He poured it out to the Lord and said, Far be it from me, oh
• 38:49
  Lord, that I should do this. Shall I drink the blood of the
• 38:52
  men who went at the risk of their lives.
• 38:54
  Therefore he would not drink it. These things the three mighty
• 38:57
  men did so much to glean from this text.
• 39:01
  Here's the scene. David is in The Cave of Adelam.
• 39:05
  Most people believe it's the same time that he was in The
• 39:08
  Cave in First Samuel 22, when he was just the fugitive.
• 39:12
  Some debate and say no. I was at a later time when he
• 39:14
  found himself in the same cave at a different war.
• 39:17
  If it was when he was just in exile, if it was when he was
• 39:21
  kicked out and became Public Enemy number one, then this says
• 39:25
  something about these mighty men.
• 39:28
  Here are these men willing to serve David with great sacrifice
• 39:32
  when there was no promise necessarily of his exaltation to
• 39:37
  the throne. There is no immediate reward or
• 39:39
  blessing for their service where there was no evidence of of
• 39:44
  anything going their way, and yet still they found it within
• 39:49
  themselves, a passionate desire to serve him at any length.
• 39:54
  And David here is not making a command.
• 39:57
  David here is not issuing some kind of instruction, abusing his
• 40:00
  power. He's just pacing back and forth
• 40:02
  in The Cave and he's feeling a little nostalgic.
• 40:06
  Here he is enduring a difficult season and he's thinking back to
• 40:09
  the days of innocence. He's thinking back to the days
• 40:11
  of safety, where he was able to freely go perhaps with one of
• 40:14
  his brothers or friends and draw from that well in Bethlehem on a
• 40:18
  hot summer day and drink this crisp water to quench his
• 40:22
  thirst. That's the memory that he is.
• 40:24
  He is rehearsing and and so profoundly impactful that he's
• 40:28
  actually saying out loud. He's just thinking out loud.
• 40:32
  And you have three of these guys that are squatting in that cave
• 40:34
  and they look at each other and say, did you hear what David
• 40:36
  said? You hear what the king is
• 40:39
  talking about? You know what this means, right?
• 40:43
  Yeah. But the Phyllis things are that
• 40:44
  that doesn't matter. He wants it.
• 40:46
  They get up and they go, and the lesson is this about being a
• 40:50
  mighty man or a mighty woman of God.
• 40:53
  What were they ultimately motivated by?
• 40:55
  If you consider who David was in his status at this point as a
• 40:57
  king, he had nothing to give them.
• 41:00
  It was not popular to follow him.
• 41:03
  In fact, to be associated with him meant death.
• 41:06
  If Saul found out so the desire in serving him was not
• 41:09
  stimulated by anything that they would be rewarded with.
• 41:13
  All that they needed was a revelation of what pleased their
• 41:17
  king, and they went. The difference between a mighty
• 41:22
  man and a feeble man, The difference between a mighty
• 41:26
  woman and a weak woman, is this. Your obedience is not determined
• 41:31
  even by what you would be blessed with, but what blesses
• 41:34
  God. That's it.
• 41:36
  If this blesses God, that's all the motivation I need to serve
• 41:39
  God. If it will put a smile on his
• 41:41
  face, whatever frowns, I will inherit as a result.
• 41:45
  I will still do it regardless. So what happens with a mighty
• 41:49
  man or a mighty woman? It's this.
• 41:51
  God's pleasure is your treasure. That's what it is.
• 41:54
  That's all you need, nothing else.
• 41:57
  And these men show that they move along, They go ahead, they
• 42:01
  break through because one thing they knew, one thing they
• 42:05
  learned. This is what David delights in.
• 42:07
  And if he delights in it, then we will give ourselves to it.
• 42:12
  Come on, be honest now, be honest.
• 42:14
  On this Friday night, how much of that drives our devotion?
• 42:18
  What the simple delight of God. If God wants it, that's all I
• 42:22
  need for me to do it. Do you see?
• 42:25
  Do you see now the division? Do you see the line being drawn?
• 42:33
  What? What would it look?
• 42:35
  God said it. We'll be there.
• 42:38
  God wants us to do it. Count us in.
• 42:41
  This is what the Lord asks of us.
• 42:43
  Then so be it. That's it.
• 42:45
  That's what makes a mighty man a mighty man.
• 42:48
  No arm twisting, no games, no mechanics and no bribing.
• 42:55
  God said it. And more than that, you see
• 43:00
  something else when David receives this water.
• 43:03
  I mean, come on. After all of that, what do you
• 43:05
  expect the king to do? What do you want to see the king
• 43:07
  to do? Drink it.
• 43:10
  We risked our lives for you to have this glass of water for a
• 43:13
  few seconds of refreshment. We put our next on the line.
• 43:18
  So if I'm one of those three, you know what I'm expecting?
• 43:20
  I'm expecting David to say you are mighty, You are something
• 43:26
  else. You, you will be positioned in
• 43:30
  my mind and for the rest of history unlike any other.
• 43:34
  He grabs that water, chugs it. You know what he does?
• 43:38
  Takes that water. He looks into that glass, and he
• 43:40
  sees blood, and so he pours it onto the ground.
• 43:43
  And it's an honorable thing, right?
• 43:45
  It's an honorable thing. But if I'm one of those three,
• 43:48
  I'm thinking you probably should have just drank it, right?
• 43:54
  No complaint, no protest, no sigh.
• 44:00
  That's challenging and serving God.
• 44:04
  When you when you serve him and you give to him what he desires
• 44:10
  and what he does with that is not necessarily what you thought
• 44:12
  he would do. What are you going to do?
• 44:19
  I thought that if I would pray for this long and come every
• 44:26
  Wednesday and pay gas in the time of inflation, I thought
• 44:30
  that this would happen. I thought that if I would preach
• 44:33
  faithfully that people would invite me and I will be ranked
• 44:37
  amongst this and ranked amongst that.
• 44:39
  And I I thought that my obedience would lead to this.
• 44:42
  There there's nothing of the sort because a mighty man
• 44:44
  doesn't care, because it's not about the reward.
• 44:50
  It's simply because of the delight that the master enjoys.
• 44:53
  And seeing your faithfulness and your sacrifice.
• 44:57
  That sounds good in theory, but it's not a theory for the mighty
• 45:00
  man. It's reality.
• 45:01
  It's what makes their heartbeat. If this is what pleases him,
• 45:05
  that's all I need. That's all I need to know.
• 45:07
  May God bring us there. May God bring us there for his
• 45:10
  glory. Side note, David, although he's
• 45:13
  a picture of Christ, provides an example for us in what he did
• 45:17
  with that water. You've heard this truth before.
• 45:18
  Let me repeat it again. He gives us a lesson concerning
• 45:22
  a principle in the area of pleasure, in the area of self
• 45:26
  gratification, in the area of pursuing your desires.
• 45:29
  Here's the lesson that he provides.
• 45:31
  When David realized that there are people who put their lives
• 45:36
  on the line for him to enjoy this water, he considered it an
• 45:39
  illegitimate thing to engage in. Because anything that you and I
• 45:45
  desire or want, if it will cost somebody else in any way, if it
• 45:53
  puts them in danger in any way, is not legitimate.
• 45:59
  The language that Paul would use is you're not walking in love.
• 46:02
  If you want something, no matter how strong it is, no matter how
• 46:05
  neutral it is, if you want something so badly at the
• 46:07
  expense of your conscience, the conscience of your brother being
• 46:11
  violated, then it becomes illegitimate, It becomes
• 46:16
  illegal. You should disqualify it and
• 46:18
  cancel it as something you should pursue in that moment for
• 46:21
  the sake of your brother's wellbeing.
• 46:23
  And so we're not just talking about physical danger here,
• 46:25
  we're talking about spiritual danger.
• 46:28
  And so qualify your your pleasure singing your pursuits
• 46:31
  in this. There's there's many more other
• 46:33
  conditions, but here's an important one.
• 46:34
  Light this context. If what I want put somebody else
• 46:37
  at risk. If what I want put somebody else
• 46:39
  in danger. If what I want harms or hurts
• 46:41
  somebody else. I don't care how strongly you
• 46:43
  feel about that thing. You do not pursue it.
• 46:47
  You do not indulge in it. You do not drink from it.
• 46:49
  You pour it out. And one preacher made an amazing
• 46:52
  observation. If don't if David had only made
• 46:54
  the same decision when it came to Bathsheba.
• 47:00
  If David only realized what I realized in this cave.
• 47:02
  How can I enjoy this knowing that your lives were at risk and
• 47:06
  and me enjoying this. If he only had that same idea
• 47:10
  run through his mind when he looked at somebody else's wife
• 47:13
  and said, how can I do this to my brother?
• 47:16
  How can I do this to one of my mighty men?
• 47:20
  And so it's very likely that David had these convictions
• 47:23
  strong in the early part of his his life.
• 47:27
  And it's so true that things that we enjoyed and and believed
• 47:29
  and held on too early on can dissipate over time if we're not
• 47:32
  careful to steward it. Let's go to the second rank.
• 47:37
  We're done with these mighty men that the first three.
• 47:39
  Let's go to the second set here, look at verse 18.
• 47:42
  Now Abhishei, the brother of Joe Abh, the son of Zuraiya, was
• 47:45
  chief of the 30 and he wielded his spear against 300 men and
• 47:50
  killed them and want a name beside the three.
• 47:52
  He was the most renowned of the 30 and he became their
• 47:55
  commander, but he did not attain to the three.
• 47:59
  Abushai. I'm not getting into the details
• 48:02
  of what he did, but what stands out to you in this one verse.
• 48:06
  I'm curious to know if anybody caught on to something.
• 48:08
  If you've read this chapter before, you would know it.
• 48:11
  If you haven't, you might not know it until you read the the
• 48:14
  rest of it. But I'm wondering if anybody
• 48:16
  notices something about Abishai's description here.
• 48:34
  Abishai who? The Who?
• 48:38
  The brother of Joe AB. I looked at this verse and I
• 48:42
  thought to myself, the brother of Joe AB.
• 48:43
  We're going to learn about Asaha.
• 48:45
  Well, you'll read it. We won't read it tonight.
• 48:46
  He's the brother of Job. We look down, we see even that
• 48:49
  another man here in verse 37, Z, like the Ammonite Naharay of B
• 48:53
  Roth, the armor bearer of Joe Up.
• 48:55
  So three times Joe Up is referenced, but not directly.
• 49:00
  He's only referenced in relation to other people who are either
• 49:04
  related to him or who served him.
• 49:07
  You read this entire list and you'll notice someone is
• 49:09
  missing. Who's missing Joe Up.
• 49:12
  How? How in the world is a man like
• 49:16
  Joe AB after all that he's done? After his fierce loyalty, after
• 49:20
  the very position that he operated in?
• 49:22
  How is a man like Joe AB not included among the 30 mighty
• 49:26
  men? Job is not mentioned.
• 49:28
  He's not mentioned at all except in connection to the other
• 49:31
  people, and I'll tell you why Job is not mentioned.
• 49:36
  And it deals with the principle of being a mighty man, a mighty
• 49:39
  woman of God, who will be commended at the end of it all.
• 49:43
  Because of Joe Abs unrepented sin.
• 49:46
  No matter what he did, no matter what title he possessed,
• 49:50
  ultimately saw all his works turn into ash.
• 49:55
  Because of Joe Abs unrepented sin, he sinned.
• 49:59
  And it's not about us sinning that that necessarily
• 50:01
  disqualifies. This is what happens when we do
• 50:03
  sin. This man, listen, was playing
• 50:06
  according to his own rules. And when you play discipleship
• 50:12
  according to your own rules, you may not be immediately flagged,
• 50:19
  you may not have the red card put into your face.
• 50:22
  But many people will have a shocking surprise at the end
• 50:25
  when they try to justify certain things and how they live for the
• 50:29
  Lord only if you met with no commendation at all, no crown at
• 50:34
  all, no trophy, no promotion. When I learned that, that really
• 50:41
  helped me understand how there are certain people in ministry
• 50:43
  today who who, like Job, are holding on to two things at the
• 50:48
  same time and yet seem to seem to be seeing results.
• 50:52
  Seeing fruit, holding on to their ministry, holding on to
• 50:56
  their position with no discipline, no consequence from
• 50:58
  heaven. And then one day this verse came
• 51:02
  to my attention and it made sense of it all.
• 51:06
  You want to see it? It's in Second Timothy 2.
• 51:09
  When you go to Second Timothy 2, you get a list of different
• 51:12
  metaphors of what the Christian life is like.
• 51:14
  One is like a soldier, the other like an athlete who remembers
• 51:17
  the third one, a farmer. And look at verse five of Second
• 51:22
  Timothy Timothy, chapter 2. What do you see there?
• 51:29
  An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the
• 51:34
  rules. So you can run this race and
• 51:40
  reach the finish line only to be met with no crown.
• 51:44
  Why? Because at some point or
• 51:47
  throughout that race, you were not running according to the
• 51:49
  rules Job ran. He was a soldier, he was a
• 51:55
  general, but when it came to the end, he was not crowned.
• 52:00
  And there will be some people within Chris and them who will
• 52:02
  have that same reality check. And so play according to the
• 52:07
  rules. Don't look at sin and say, well,
• 52:10
  this is permissible. God needs me so I can have a
• 52:12
  little relief in my life. That's how you have some people
• 52:13
  thinking this is God's word, but I'm going to help him because
• 52:18
  the culture has changed. So let me say what I think it
• 52:20
  says to to when that you're playing according to your own
• 52:22
  rules, When you play according to your own rules, you are
• 52:25
  throwing away your reward. And Joe Up did that.
• 52:30
  Joe Up did that instead, like those three mighty men that we
• 52:36
  just learned, we're there in Second Timothy go to Philippians
• 52:39
  220 Look at Philippians 220 when I told you about how a mighty
• 52:45
  man is driven not by his own delights, not by his own
• 52:48
  desires, but what is determined by the pleasures of God.
• 52:53
  And here's what Paul says about one of his servants, ultimately
• 52:56
  a servant of God and Philippians 220 This is an encouraging
• 52:59
  scripture to me. He talks about the many servants
• 53:02
  of God that he knows, the many ministers that he knows.
• 53:03
  And he says, for I have no one like him concerning Timothy.
• 53:07
  I have no one like him who will be genuinely concerned for your
• 53:10
  welfare. And look at this, They all seek
• 53:13
  their own interest, not those of Jesus Christ.
• 53:18
  What made Timothy stand out? His life was orbiting around one
• 53:24
  thing. What interests the Savior?
• 53:27
  Not even my own interest. That's what distinguished them
• 53:30
  from other ministers. And the reason why he had a
• 53:33
  genuine concern for the Philippians is because he had a
• 53:36
  he had a connection with the heart of his master.
• 53:41
  And so if you can just know what the will of God is, know what
• 53:43
  his heart is, knows what his desires is, you're on the path
• 53:46
  of being crowned by him. But if you, like Job, want to
• 53:50
  play by your own rules, which many people are excuses,
• 53:54
  justifying certain things, though God's word is clear on
• 53:57
  it, all right, you might enjoy your ministry.
• 54:00
  You you might still be invited, you still might be tolerated at
• 54:04
  people who want to use your gift.
• 54:07
  But when it matters the most, you're in for a shock.
• 54:10
  You're in for a shock. And then you have the 2nd man in
• 54:14
  the second rank in verse 20. We're wrapping up very quickly
• 54:16
  here and Banaya, the son of Jehodia was a valiant man of of
• 54:23
  Capzeal, A doer of great deeds. He struck down to aerials of
• 54:26
  Moab. Aerials is a difficult Hebrew
• 54:29
  word, that's why some translations say lion like lion
• 54:34
  like men of Moab. He also went down and struck
• 54:37
  down a lion in a pit on a day when snow had fallen and he
• 54:41
  struck down an Egyptian, a handsome man.
• 54:43
  The Egyptian had a spear in his hand but Benaya went down to him
• 54:47
  with his staff and snatched the spear out of the Egyptians hand
• 54:50
  and killed them with his own spear.
• 54:52
  These things did Benaya the son of Jehodia and want to name
• 54:56
  beside the three mighty men. He was renowned among the 30,
• 54:58
  but he did not attain to the three and David set him over his
• 55:01
  bodyguard. So many things to say about this
• 55:04
  one man. You know what stands out to me
• 55:05
  though? He figuratively deals with these
• 55:08
  lion like men of Moab and he actually literally killed a
• 55:11
  lion. Not just killed a lion.
• 55:14
  Listen, he kills a lion in a pit on a snowy day.
• 55:22
  Disadvantage, disadvantage, disadvantage, right.
• 55:25
  I was talking to my brother that day.
• 55:26
  He was talking about how he had to pull over somebody.
• 55:29
  And he was telling me how he was in the country, Country Rd.
• 55:31
  And there's a ditch by the side of the road.
• 55:33
  And so he told me he had to be on the side of the highway.
• 55:36
  And I said, why this car zooming by?
• 55:38
  Why I'm going to go the other side?
• 55:38
  Because they train us that if you're on the other side and
• 55:41
  something happens, you're at a disadvantage if you're in that
• 55:43
  pit. And so you want to be on the
• 55:46
  same level ground as that potential threat.
• 55:49
  So you have this man where everything is is going against
• 55:51
  him. You have him in a pit with a
• 55:53
  lion. I mean, if you just have the
• 55:54
  lion, that's a bad day on its own.
• 55:57
  Never mind the pit, never mind the snowy day.
• 55:59
  You have a lion with the pit and a snowy day.
• 56:01
  That's a bad day in my books. You know what I love about it?
• 56:06
  The out of all that, the snowy day part.
• 56:12
  The snowy day part. Like the Holy Spirit wanted to
• 56:14
  include that. It was a snowy day.
• 56:18
  I think Christians are allergic to snow.
• 56:21
  A lot of them are, at least. And rain you have.
• 56:25
  You have a man who's willing to kill a lion on a snowy day.
• 56:30
  And how many things, How many excuses arise when it's a snowy
• 56:33
  day? For us, the spiritual lesson is
• 56:37
  that he's serving his king in all seasons.
• 56:42
  He's serving his master in all seasons.
• 56:47
  When the sun is shining and when the snow is falling, when the
• 56:51
  sky is clear, when the sky is Gray.
• 56:55
  He's still a man serving his master When it's easy and when
• 57:01
  it's very, very difficult, because Christ is worthy of that
• 57:04
  perpetual devotion. The King is worthy of that
• 57:08
  unending, unceasing, unbroken fellowship.
• 57:12
  When it's snowy or when it's sunny.
• 57:15
  Whatever you ask of me, my King, that I will do, that I will do.
• 57:20
  And I love how the Lord will challenge us in that way.
• 57:23
  In some ways, I love how tomorrow our outreach is on a
• 57:26
  Saturday. You might not.
• 57:27
  I love it. I love how it's on a Saturday
• 57:30
  morning. Do you know why?
• 57:33
  Because what kind of a statement is that going to make in
• 57:35
  downtown Chicago when a group of people who are praying for the
• 57:38
  unborn chose to set apart two hours of their Saturday to do
• 57:43
  so? I love it.
• 57:46
  I I love how love life does it on a Saturday.
• 57:50
  It may not be convenient, okay. It's his interest.
• 57:54
  It's his desires. In fact, I'm going to, I want to
• 57:58
  continue with Benaya. But let me wrap it up with one
• 58:01
  verse because I want to talk about how Benaya was promoted.
• 58:04
  He was promoted out of this place.
• 58:05
  Benaya shows up in First Kings chapter one and First Kings
• 58:08
  Chapter one. We see him not just in a
• 58:11
  physical sense when it's spiritually freezing.
• 58:15
  Also he chose to serve his master.
• 58:17
  Actually, let me show it to you. Why not?
• 58:18
  And 1st Kings chapter one. Notice something with me on a
• 58:24
  physically snowy day he's serving his king.
• 58:26
  And what happens when there is this chill in the air
• 58:31
  spiritually and politically? Add the Niger wants to become
• 58:35
  king and look here, verse seven of chapter one of first kings.
• 58:38
  He confer withdraw the son of Zaria and with Abbyathur the
• 58:42
  priest, and they followed a de Niger and helped him.
• 58:44
  But Zara the priest and Benaiah the son of Yohodia and Nathan
• 58:48
  the prophet and Shamayan Rahai and David's mighty man were not
• 58:52
  with Adenija. This confirms the point right?
• 58:57
  I'll kill a lion on a snowy day and when there is another
• 59:01
  potential absolute 2.0 David, I'm with you.
• 59:07
  I will stand with you. Let Joe AB go.
• 59:09
  Let the others go again. It's it's confirming that main
• 59:12
  point. Wherever the king is, no matter
• 59:15
  who goes and who stays, I'm with the king.
• 59:18
  And then you go to chapter 2 and look here at verse 25.
• 59:21
  What do you see? So King Solomon sent Banaya the
• 59:24
  son of Jehodia, and struck him down.
• 59:26
  And he died. Out of all the men, he chose
• 59:29
  Banaya. And he says go and get him.
• 59:30
  And he does, and he takes care of him.
• 59:33
  And then you go to verse 35 in the same chapter, and what do
• 59:35
  you read? The king put Banaya the son of
• 59:37
  Jehodia over the army in place of Joab, and the king puts out
• 59:42
  of the priests in the place of Aviatar.
• 59:46
  So in 2nd Samo. 23 David elevated this man to be his
• 59:50
  bodyguard. When King Solomon comes into the
• 59:53
  place of the throne, he elevates him as the commander of the
• 59:56
  army. And you can make a case that
• 59:59
  Solomon, especially with the Temple, is a picture of and is a
• 1:00:02
  reminder of as a foreshadowing of the rule and reign of Christ
• 1:00:06
  in its permanence, right? The Tabernacle was mobile.
• 1:00:09
  The Tabernacle was something that moved along.
• 1:00:12
  It was not something concrete. And yet when the temple came, it
• 1:00:16
  stood in one place. It remained.
• 1:00:18
  It wasn't going anywhere. And when Christ returns to
• 1:00:22
  ruling, though he is ruling and raining now, there's something
• 1:00:25
  about his coming that will be obvious, that will be glorious,
• 1:00:29
  that will be beautiful, that will outshine the Tabernacle
• 1:00:32
  era. And the point that I want to
• 1:00:35
  make is this. That is when Benaya was rewarded
• 1:00:39
  as a mighty man, as a mighty woman of God.
• 1:00:41
  You may not know God's blessing in this life, but you will in
• 1:00:45
  the life to come. You will, when Christ returns to
• 1:00:48
  establish his era of the Millennium reign, when He will
• 1:00:52
  reward you and where nothing will take it away from you.
• 1:00:55
  No thief can steal it. No kind of creature can erode
• 1:00:58
  it. Here's the verse I wanted to end
• 1:01:02
  with. Second Corinthians, chapter 5,
• 1:01:06
  verse 15. Here's what Paul says about
• 1:01:13
  Christians. He says.
• 1:01:19
  And he died for all that those who live might no longer live
• 1:01:22
  for themselves, but for him who for their sake died and was
• 1:01:25
  raised, and he died for all. Why?
• 1:01:30
  So that when you die, you can go to heaven.
• 1:01:33
  That's part of it. He didn't say that, though, and
• 1:01:36
  he died for all that. Those who live, you are living.
• 1:01:40
  I hope those who live might no longer live for themselves.
• 1:01:47
  You know how some people interpret the gospel, I'll tell
• 1:01:49
  you how. And they may not confess it.
• 1:01:50
  They prove it. Practically, though, they they
• 1:01:53
  at some point, are confronted with their sin.
• 1:01:55
  They hear the good news of God's grace and mercy.
• 1:01:57
  They receive it. They accept it.
• 1:01:58
  They get emotional about it. They get baptized for it, and
• 1:02:03
  they prove their devotion to the Lord to that extent.
• 1:02:07
  And here's what here's here's how it's lived out, though.
• 1:02:10
  Glad I got that out of the way. I was on my way to hell.
• 1:02:14
  I was on my way to experience God's wrath, but that's dealt
• 1:02:17
  with now. I'm secure forever, and they go
• 1:02:20
  on their merry way of life. That doesn't describe what Paul
• 1:02:25
  is talking about here. He died for all.
• 1:02:30
  So that what? Yeah, you would find eternal
• 1:02:32
  life, but that your life, your your little pretty life would
• 1:02:37
  also be crucified. That your plans, your dreams,
• 1:02:41
  your hopes, your desires would also be nailed on the cross, not
• 1:02:44
  just your sins. And so that in pursuing the
• 1:02:49
  Lord, yes, in his saving work, but also in His Lordship over
• 1:02:53
  your life, you know what happens to if you're truly Christian.
• 1:02:56
  I don't live for myself. I know this is Christian 101.
• 1:03:01
  I know this sounds basic, but be reminded again, it's not about
• 1:03:05
  my life. It's not.
• 1:03:08
  When I'm a Christian, I literally reorient.
• 1:03:12
  I literally wash my blueprint away.
• 1:03:16
  Give God a blank canvas and say you write what you want.
• 1:03:20
  To what extent, to every extent, to what details to the molecule
• 1:03:24
  details of your life? Think about that.
• 1:03:30
  Everything about my life, my marriage, my children, my home,
• 1:03:33
  where I live, where I serve, what I plan, what I do, where I
• 1:03:37
  go. That's all now surrendered to
• 1:03:40
  Christ. I no longer live for myself.
• 1:03:44
  Now I live for the one who died. For me, that's Christianity.
• 1:03:50
  That's not American Christianity, though.
• 1:03:51
  American Christianity is what I just described to you.
• 1:03:54
  Wow. Thank God I found the gospel.
• 1:03:58
  I was going to be an eternal torment.
• 1:04:00
  Not anymore. I'll reach you when I need you.
• 1:04:03
  I'll serve you when you think you need me.
• 1:04:06
  I'll be back. That's how most people live
• 1:04:09
  their Christian life. And Paul says what that's not,
• 1:04:14
  that's not Holy Spirit inspired Christianity.
• 1:04:17
  That's not blood bought Christianity.
• 1:04:19
  That's Walt Disney Christianity. And so let's conclude on this.
• 1:04:25
  You're here on a Friday night to learn more of God's Word, let's
• 1:04:29
  recommit ourselves to saying, Lord, if there's any area that I
• 1:04:32
  have reclaimed when originally I surrendered it, if there's any
• 1:04:38
  area of my devotion that I said about, this is just a plot of
• 1:04:41
  lentils. I don't need to give myself to
• 1:04:42
  it. I don't need to be attentive to
• 1:04:44
  it. I don't need to be devoted to
• 1:04:45
  it. Make me a mighty man of God.
• 1:04:48
  Make me a mighty woman of God. Do something in me so that you
• 1:04:53
  would receive more glory and number me among those that you
• 1:04:57
  will commend in the end. Lord, we ask by your precious
• 1:05:00
  grace that you would bring us there.
• 1:05:03
  We thank you for this study. We thank you that it was perhaps
• 1:05:06
  more exhortation than it was digging up inside and making
• 1:05:09
  references. Although we thank you that on
• 1:05:12
  this Friday we received a stirring that we always need a
• 1:05:16
  reminder of what our lives are. We thank you for the gospel.
• 1:05:20
  We thank you that you are the true and better David.
• 1:05:23
  We thank you, O Lord, that we have eternal life.
• 1:05:26
  Yes, but we have a new way of life today.
• 1:05:28
  And so we pray and we ask that knowing that you've died for all
• 1:05:32
  that those who live might also die to self and live for you.
• 1:05:37
  We pray, O Lord, that you would show us what it is that you want
• 1:05:40
  us to do and how we can do it with excellence.
• 1:05:42
  We pray that you protect us from going outside of our lane or
• 1:05:47
  being frustrated or discouraged with what has been
• 1:05:49
  providentially provided to us. The way you've wired us, the way
• 1:05:53
  you have gifted us. Help us, oh Lord, fight this
• 1:05:56
  battle. Help us finish well.
• 1:05:58
  Help us, oh God, in our weaknesses.
• 1:06:01
  And may you receive all maximum praise and honor that you can
• 1:06:04
  receive from our lives. In Jesus name we pray.
• 1:06:07
  Amen. Let's stand and worship.
• 1:06:09
  We'll sing and pray for for tomorrow morning and make our
• 1:06:13
  way home with our hearts stirred afresh.
• 1:06:16
  I hope Akshay.