Not On a Silver Platter

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Don Filcek; 2 Samuel 2 Not On a Silver Platter

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You're listening to a podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan This week Pastor Don Filsack is preaching from his series the warrior poet
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King study of 2nd Samuel Let's listen in I'm glad that you're here.
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I'm Don Filsack I'm the lead pastor here and I'm gonna get our minds thinking about God And his word by introducing the message this morning before we come to praise him in singing
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I'm part of the reason that I do that is because I'm convinced I mean some people think of the singing as preparation to hear from God's Word I like to think of both of those things go hand in hand and to some degree
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We need to know who we're singing to we need to be reminded How many of you've had a bit of a busy week? You've had things going on and there's all kinds of stuff that presses in around us
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And so I like to hear from God's Word get reconnected to him in that way before we sing together
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And so let me introduce the message this morning It's gonna be from 2nd Samuel chapter 2 and we may sometimes you'll notice that the title of the sermon is not on a silver platter
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We may sometimes use the phrase he had his future handed to him on a silver platter And what we mean by that phrase is that everything came easy to him that it was given to him
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He didn't have to work hard for it. Have any of you are you familiar with that phrase? Not you know He was handed to him on a silver platter something to that effect
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But it's quite rare and I think many of you can testify that it's very rare that anything is handed to anyone on a silver
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Platter now some people come into some old money or inheritance or something like that But it's very rare that that happens in our lives
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And as we look at our historical passage this morning at the start of the reign of King David We see that the kingdom he was promised through the anointing of the
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Prophet Samuel in his youth Will come to him in waves. It doesn't come to him all at once The kingdom is not handed to David on a silver platter now imagine in your youth that you have this
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Prophet the man of God of Israel come to you and say you're gonna be king one day and he anoints you with oil
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Now many of you would think like that would that would do something in your brain Would that have impact you would that impact your view of the future what's going on in your life?
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How many of you would just be kind of waiting for that day from that point on it would be like wow I'm gonna be king like everything in your life in preparation for that moment
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And we read the when we read these old Old Testament historical accounts I encourage you all to consider that these words are recorded not merely it's not merely for our information
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But it's also for our daily benefit in other words. It isn't as though We're studying this stuff so that we can identify the names of Abner and Joab and Asahel names
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We'll see in our text this morning, you know so that we can pass a quiz later and then move on to chapter 3
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No, that's not the point. God is showing us in these historical books How he works in and through the real lives of real people in a real fallen world
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Now, why would he show us these snapshots of ancient life? And isn't that so old?
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We're here and we're in 2022 and we've got the internet and we've got smartphones and life is so different But let me suggest to you that it is all about our faith.
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It is to show his faithfulness in history Even in the waiting times, is that something that's familiar to you?
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Have you spent some time waiting for things go to raise your hand if you spend some time waiting for some things happen and transpire
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You know, I think all of a sudden we can relate to that regardless of the Internet regardless of smartphones There's similarity to the experiences that they had to the experiences that we have today in this particular account this morning
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I believe that God is seeking to shatter within all of us any any any Expectations that we have that a life lived in his service is just handed to us on a silver platter
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We see how God works in this text in the life of his servant David And his pathway to the throne should inform us about the ways that God works in preparing those he calls to serve
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And that's all of us. It relates to all of us. He calls all of us to serve him So as we open up and read this strange passage this morning,
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I want to encourage you to not lose sight don't lose sight of the fact that God is working in this strange chapter 2 and we'll talk about it after we have an
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Opportunity to read it sing some songs and then we'll come back to it in more depth So open your
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Bibles your devices your scripture journals to 2nd Samuel chapter 2 Yes, we're gonna cover the entire chapter
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It's one kind of common unit and although it's a little bit longer. We're gonna read it in its entirety recast
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We value God's Word and think that there's benefit even in reading a long historical text like this so 2nd
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Samuel chapter 2 and Recast this is God's holy and precious word on what he desires for us to take on this morning and come to greater understanding about After this
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David inquired of the Lord shall I go up into any of the cities of Judah and the Lord said to him go up Go up David said to which shall
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I go up and he said to Hebron. So David went up there and his Went up there and his two wives also a an ohm of Jezreel and Abigail the widow of Nabal of Carmel and David brought up his men who were with him
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Everyone with his household and they lived in the towns of Hebron and the men of Judah came and there they anointed
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David King over the house of Judah When they told David it was the men of Jabesh Gilead who buried
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Saul David sent messengers to the men of Jabesh Gilead and said to them may you be blessed by the Lord because you showed this loyalty
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To Saul your Lord and buried him now May the Lord show steadfast love and faithfulness to you and I will do good to you because you have done this thing
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Now therefore let your hands be strong and be valiant for Saul Your Lord is dead and the house of Judah has anointed me king over them but Abner the son of Ner commander of Saul's army took ishbosheth the son of Saul and brought him over to Mahanaen and Made him king over Gilead and the
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Asherites and Jezreel and Ephraim and Benjamin and all Israel Ishbosheth Saul's son was 40 years old when he began to reign over Israel and he reigned two years
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But the house of Judah followed David and the time that David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months
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Abner the son of Ner and the servants of ishbosheth the son of Saul went out from Mahanaen to Gibeon and Joab the son of Zariah and the servants of David went out and met them at the pool of Gibeon and They sat down the one on one side of the pool and the other on the other side of the pool and Abner said to Joab let the young men arise and compete before us and Joab said let them arise
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Then they arose and passed over by number 12 for Benjamin and ishbosheth and the son of Saul and 12 for the servants of David and each caught his opponent by the head
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And thrust his sword in his opponent's side. So they fell down together therefore that place was called
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Helkath Hazorim, which is at Gibeon and the battle was fierce that day and Abner and the men of Israel were beaten before the servants of David and the three sons of Zariah were there
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Joab Abishai and Asahel Now Asahel was as swift a foot as a wild gazelle and Asahel pursued
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Abner and so and As he went he turned neither to the right hand nor to the left from following Abner Then Abner looked behind him and said is it you
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Asahel and he answered it is I Abner said to him turn aside to your right hand or to your left and seize one of the young men and take his spoil
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But Asahel would not turn from following him and Abner said again to Asahel turn aside from following me
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Why should I strike you to the ground? How then how then could I lift up my face to your brother
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Joab? But he refused to turn aside therefore Abner stuck him in the stomach with the butt of his spear so that the spear came out at his back and he fell there and died and He fell there and died where he was and all who came to that place where Asahel had fallen and died stood still
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But Joab and Abishai pursued Abner and as the Sun was going down they came to the hill of Amma which lies before Ghia on the way to the wilderness of Gibeon and The people of Benjamin gathered themselves together behind Abner and became one group and took their stand on the top of a hill
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Then Abner called the Joab shall the sword devour forever. Do you not know that the end will be bitter?
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How long will it be? Before you tell your people to turn from their pursuit of their brothers and Joab said as God lives
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If you had not spoken surely the men would have not given up pursuit of their brothers until the morning
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So Joab blew the trumpet and all the men stopped and pursued Israel no more nor did they fight anymore and Abner and his men went all that night through the
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Araba they crossed the Jordan and marched the whole morning and Marching the whole morning. They came to my name
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Joab returned from the pursuit of Abner and when he gathered all the people together There were missing from David's servants 19 men besides Asahel But the servants of David had struck down of Benjamin 360 of Abner's men and they took up Asahel and buried him in the tomb of his father
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Which was at Bethlehem and Joab and his men marched all night and the day broke upon them at Hebron.
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Let's pray Father I thank you for your word and it is sometimes strange to our ears
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It is difficult to understand all of this fighting all of these battles this representative battle between these 12 men
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Asahel and all that's going on there those relationships don't Mean a whole lot to us. We know that we've got relationships that do matter a whole lot to us
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And so father, I pray that you would help to bring this text to light into our world today
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I pray that you would allow it to break over us in a new way. This is a passage
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It would be very easy to skip over a passage It would be very easy to just kind of brush aside as so much ancient history and somewhat confusing to our ears
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But father I pray for your word to have its way in our hearts in a way that allows the Spirit to use it
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To give us power and strength and greater faith father I thank you for the most important thing that we have in thinking about this text
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You're leading to a kingdom under David and one of his descendants that will reign and rule forever
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Jesus Christ our Lord and it's in his name that we have hope it's in his name that we have trust It's in his name that we have faith.
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And so I pray that even now as we have an opportunity to sing songs before you It's on the basis of that greater
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King who came in and David's line Who is our hope who was our peace who is our love and father?
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I pray that that love would be poured out of our hearts now and song before you we Rejoice in the chance that we have to gather together in your name
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And we ask that you would be present in our singing today in Jesus name. Amen But you can go ahead and be seated and let me encourage you to get comfortable if you need more coffee or water
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Donuts back there take advantage of that during the message and keep your Bibles open or your scripture journal to 2nd
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Samuel chapter 2 and you see that we're that's the flow. That's we're going through that passage So we have a long text this morning, but the narrative moves along pretty quickly
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I mean, it's important to understand that 2nd Samuel follows the rise of David to the throne as the king over all of Israel He was promised this kingship as I mentioned in my introduction in his youth
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And it has been deferred for years at the start of our text where we where we begin
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It's already been deferred for years And at the start of the text, it seems like it's going to come to pass
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Finally, the former king is has gone He's died and it seems likely that he is now going to inherit his kingdom, but not every passage
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Let me just state this directly and I think you already know this not every passage in Scripture is obviously applicable to our lives
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You don't read it and go. Oh now I know what to do. Here's my three steps for this next week Here's something obvious for me to do we might honestly skim this if we're reading through the
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Bible in a year and say That was weird and then move on to the next chapter, right? How many of you know what
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I'm talking about their passages in Scripture? It's like I don't really get what in the world is going on here I don't know how to apply this to my life.
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I don't know what it's got to do with me I think I'm gonna skip it move on not really skip it But I'm just gonna just gonna blaze
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But I'm convinced that by the end of this sermon every single one of us will see something in here that the
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Spirit wants to work into our lives Have you ever had an unrealized dream that seemed like it would never arrive a?
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Stage or a movement in your life that you thought that's the next step and the next step isn't coming
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Do you know what I'm talking about? I think all of us can relate to that to some degree or have you ever had bad people become come between You and what you knew that God desired for you
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Have you ever had that happen where somebody was standing across the pathway in the way of what you believe
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God? Desired for you or have you ever tried to figure out God's next step in your life
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God? What do you want for me? I think that pretty much sums up all of us, right all of us at some point I've said God what's my next step?
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What do you want from me? This text will address all of these things as we watch God's movement and the movement of the things that God desires to accomplish in the life of David Now I would start off by saying all
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Americans have I would say a misguided notion that we were made for greatness
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Every one of us is unique has a really high and special calling and and we define greatness
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And I would say misguided primarily because of our definition of greatness We define greatness as fame fortune spotlights or heroism or something to that effect but our outline this morning has four points that I draw from this text and You'll see why
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I'm talking about our Quest for greatness as Americans in the highlight of what
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I mean by these points these points I will call four steps to owning our years of Unrealized potential let me say that again four steps to owning our years unrealized
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Potential and I kind of say tongue -in -cheek Unrealized potential because that's something that we ascribe to ourselves, right?
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I'm gonna have some potential out there that you're just like my boss isn't using me, right? God you're not using me, right?
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I mean You don't know what I'm made to do and you don't know where I'm supposed to be and I'm already supposed to be five years Ahead of where I am today and my boss is just holding me down or somebody else is holding me down.
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I've got this unrealized Potential that God desires to do in me and everything's in the way
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But I would suggest to you that this is an expectation setting sermon What do you expect life to give to you?
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How do you expect it to roll? What do you think God is doing in your present? That's that kind of question
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The key in all of these steps that that that God took David through is to remember that he was promised
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The kingdom over Israel in his childhood and now that the old king is dead and the crown prince is gone as well
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David seems just mere moments away from the throne and yet those moments are gonna turn into Seven and a half years before he comes into the crown of Israel think that through How many of you are sitting where David's sitting the the crown was delivered to him already in chapter 1 a courier came and said
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Here's the old Kings crown. He's dead on the battlefield How many of you think David's like this is it?
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This is it. I am now going to be king so here are our steps to owning our years of Unrealized potential if you're taking notes, these are gonna be the the four main points
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The first is submit to God's leadership verses 1 through 4 a I don't like to divide up verses like that But I have to in this context
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You'll see why it actually is a paragraph break in the middle of that verse The guy in the Middle Ages who sat down to write chapters and verses in the
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Bible did a pretty fabulous job Occasionally didn't quite get it spot -on but submit to God's leadership 1 through 4 a the second is be winsome toward all verse 4b through 7 and then on the third is
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Acknowledged there will be enemies verses 8 through 12 and the fourth is expect setbacks and it's a big chunk
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Versus 13 through 32. So let's first talk about submitting to God's leadership
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That's in these first four verses here 1 through 4 a this is about I listen carefully church
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This is about a stance toward God more than just merely what you're doing. It starts in your heart submission to God Begins here.
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It doesn't begin with behavior The behavior follows the submission in your heart if we submit ourselves to his will that is more than half of the battle
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Because once we've submitted to him in our hearts the other two things we need to do fall in line Well, what else do we need to do if we are submitted to God and we say
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God? I want things to be done your way Then the only thing left is to know what does he want seek his instruction and then second of all
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Obey his instruction So submit yourself to God and then seek his instruction and obey his instructions
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We see that in verse 1 David inquired of the Lord for his next move and this is often what set him apart from King Saul David will often seek the
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Lord in the coming chapters But when we saw him and I think it's fine I think it's important that we understand what it meant for David to seek the
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Lord because I think some of us have probably some Fuzzy notions of what it means to seek the Lord, right?
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Does it mean pray and ask him to send me an email am I expecting a phone call? What am I expecting? What was David doing when he sought the
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Lord? Well, we have an example of that back in 1st Samuel chapter 23 That's worth mentioning It was through the priest
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Abiathar who followed David around and he brought the priestly ephod
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Which contained two stones called the Urim and the Thummim? these were used as Sanctioned lots that God would speak through and they had put these two stones in a in a bowl or in a cup and swirled it
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Around whichever one came out first was the was determined to be the Lord's will this was a scripturally ordained
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Method of determining God's will in the Old Covenant Well, one of the reasons we don't necessarily do things that way is
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I'm not a priest We don't have an ephod and God has not ordained that method for his church in any clear manner
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But there are two observations I want to make clear as we consider David seeking the Lord and what it means to submit to his leadership
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First is that God is concerned to guide his people. God is concerned to guide us He is indeed concerned with your lives and God is also secondly
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God is able to communicate He is concerned for your life and he is able to communicate he's able to tell
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David where to go here I'm gonna be just that's a fundamental thing that you need to grasp Because some of us are we're raised in churches where it's like God doesn't still speak today
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He only speaks those where God is able to speak folks. He's able to communicate to us
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But the starting point for each of us to assess honestly this morning is whether or not we really want
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God to speak into our lives Take a careful thought about that for just a moment because many of us
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I would suggest want to limit God in his Communication and we wouldn't say that out loud, but in all honesty
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I'm like God, I really would like to know whether you'd like me to sell this house and buy this house but could you stop right at the point where you stop top where you start telling me how to talk to my wife or how to Respond in this situation or what to look at on my computer and not to look at I'm like Do you know what
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I'm talking about? How many of you would acknowledge that there have been times and seasons in your life where you're like God, I love it
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I'd love for you to answer this But please stop talking about this Do you know what
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I'm talking about anybody with me on that or is that just me? Okay, a few of you won't leave me hanging the rest of you are like never never been there
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Don't know what you're talking about Don. You're gonna leave you guys out on that one God is able to communicate to us
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And so are you submitted to his authority in a way that you want to obey his instructions
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Do you want to obey him? Before you ever ask him to talk Be sure that your heart is ready and say
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God whatever you want of me I want that too If you tell me you want to hear from God you come to my office and you say
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Don I'm struggling with my job right now, and I don't know whether to switch jobs I don't know what to do right now or I'm struggling with this or I'm struggling with that and I need
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God's guidance and I want to know what he wants from me and You equally can tell me you are not spending time in his word
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I'm throwing the flag and blowing the play dead for a false start Okay, I'm saying you you didn't start in the right place
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Okay, you didn't start in the right place begin with his word and begin saturating your life with his word and Demonstrating a willingness to follow his word from this passage
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I have no problem saying that it is a good thing to give our decisions and planning over to God's will We do this in prayer.
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We do this through drawing near to him in his word We also do so by asking him to communicate to us in a way that we can understand
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David inquired of the Lord about whether or not he should relocate to Judah God said yes, and God told him even the city.
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He said go to Hebron a city that had a significant history Abraham Sarah Isaac Rebecca Jacob Leah all buried in that area and saw a very significant place in the history of Israel God revealed very likely through a by a thar the priest that David was to do these things and so David obeyed
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David moved He moved his wives. He moved his family and his men with him and there in Hebron.
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He was made king over Judah Now what's happened here? One of the twelve tribes of Judah is now declaring
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David their king One twelfth of the promise of God is now
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David's that sound like a small number For seven and a half years one twelfth of the promise is his
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But let me wrap up this first point by of submitting to God's leadership by highlighting two things that stand out
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First is that David valued God's leadership enough to ask him first We could take that on as a lesson
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Second but even more important is that we serve a God who communicated with David in a way that he understood We serve a
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God who is not distant from our lives who is able to communicate to us and here in this text
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God communicated in a unique way to David. He communicates to us also quite specifically through his word
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But if we come to expect the same kind of interaction that David has and we think that that's normal everyday life
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You better get yourself a priest and you better bring an ephod It's not to be our expectation.
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Don't fall off of either side of this table church Don't be immobilized in the line at Wendy's waiting for God to tell you chocolate or vanilla vanilla today
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Okay. I mean, how many like Frosties? That's good stuff, right? And you've got two good choices there folks
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Two good choices the vanilla. It's kind of newer. How many you grew up with only the chocolate still?
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That's where that's my go -to right but don't let this don't let this text lead to inaction and indecision
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So many of us can freeze up. Haha freeze up in trying to make decisions that wasn't even in my notes, but um,
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I am a dad Welcome kids early in your summer. Um Don't don't let it freeze you in indecision
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But equally the other end of the spectrum is possible for many of us too That's just to leave God out of our decisions.
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Well, he already knows what I'm gonna do. Anyways, he's already planted Why even consult him? What can he even talk to me?
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Anyways, is he really going to answer my questions? is he even really concerned about these things that on and on the
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Rationale can go to fall off the other side of the table and exclude God from our decision -making So I recommend it and I'm gonna say this tongue -in -cheek, but I recommend a humble prayer like this
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I've prayed this regularly in my life and I encourage you to grab it to God.
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I am thick. I Have a hard time understanding you. I Have a hard time
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I'm gonna I'm gonna Interpret everything that I see from this moment on because I got a decision in front of me and I don't know how to make it
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I prefer chocolate But would totally do vanilla if it was your choice if for some reason the vanilla glorifies you better than I will do that But I'm about to have a frosty
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I'm stepping up to that counter and I'm gonna order and I'm gonna act father So if you for some reason want the vanilla
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Make it clear Because I'm going to order chocolate right now, and then
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I step up to the counter and I order the chocolate I act I'm not immobilized but I'm giving
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God the Opportunity to stop me in my tracks and I might step up to the counter and you know what the guy behind the counter might say
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Sorry, we're out of chocolate. All we have is vanilla and I go Lord Thank you
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For some reason you're more glorified by the vanilla obviously I'm being facetious about that decision
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I mean we make decisions all the time without having that kind of dialogue, you know, that's okay But what I'm suggesting to you is when it comes to those bigger decisions we act
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But we give God the final trump card He has the ability to stop us and we say
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I'm I'm not I'm not easy to get through to God But you're powerful enough to communicate to me in a way that I will understand
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I don't have to tell everybody else how God speaks directly to me and makes this clear or whatever
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But if you could just make that clear to me that I will do what I can to honor and glorify you
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Submit to God's authority then act now the second step to owning our years of unrealized potential is a little bit strange and it seems like kind of a
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Module added into the middle is text But it's be winsome to all and I think what the point here is in verses 4b through 7 you have this part about J Bashgiliad and be kind of confusing what's going on there.
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Um, you need to understand that David in the meantime, okay he's in this waiting period he's in this time between the the start of his kingdom and the
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Finality of being the king overall and there's some brief history and geography that helped make sense of what
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David is doing with J Bashgiliad, they're a unique place. You see J Bashgiliad was probably the most loyal of cities to King Saul who has just died
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Saul's first act as king over Israel was to break a siege on J. Bashgiliad They were under siege
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Saul comes into the kingship and he breaks that siege You see the city was surrounded by the forces of an
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Ammonite ruler known as Nahash the mutilator Name sound good. What do you think?
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That doesn't sound good You see he set to siege J. Bashgiliad and he wanted to subjugate the citizens there and he said don't worry
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I'm not gonna starve you to death. I'm not gonna smoke you out I'll let you all live because I'm gracious that way.
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The only thing I want is by tomorrow I'm gonna attack and I'm gonna take you all and I'm gonna kill you all
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Unless you come out to me right now and make peace in the next 24 hours make peace with me
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And all I ask for is the right eye of every man It's all I want just a little token of your goodwill towards me and also to make it more difficult to shoot arrows
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So I'm gonna I just want the right eye of every guy. That's history. That's in first Samuel That's a that's a biblical account
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So Saul broke that siege by rallying all of Israel to come to the defense of J. Bashgiliad and smack and Nahash the mutilator down Can you imagine that this city loved this guy?
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Can you imagine that they loved Saul? He had saved them. They looked up to King Saul with both eyes
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So when Saul was killed at the end of first Samuel 31, it says the men of J. Bashgiliad This is the last thing recorded for us in first Samuel the men of J.
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Bashgiliad led an all -night Rescue mission to recover the bodies of King Saul and his sons
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They trekked ten miles in the darkness to Bethshan where the bodies were hung on the city walls
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And they trekked at ten miles back with those mutilated bodies to give them a proper rest
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Out of dignity and honor for the one who had saved them So when David seeks to win the hearts of J.
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Bashgiliad under his kingship He is being generous to those who had expressed severe and extreme loyalty to his predecessor who obviously had no love for him
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We can learn a lesson here of expressing winsome kindness toward all he commends their deeds of bravery
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He asked for the Lord to bless them He pledges his own goodwill towards them and prays for them that they would have strength and be valiant and even calls for the
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Lord's Covenant of love and promise -keeping to be applied to the people of that city Now, I don't believe that this is mere merely a record of David offering self -serving flattery to a people
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He desires to win over to his cause. I believe that David is honestly Commending the noble and gracious actions of the people of Gilead Now it may seem like negotiations with Jeb Jeb Ashgiliad are left inconclusive in verse 7 and we move on to another subject in verse 8, but not so Because David David gives us a model of rewarding and commending those who do right
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Regardless of where they fall in loyalty to us. We'll see in verse 9 the outcome of these negotiations
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But while we're living out our days Unsure what God is doing in the big picture in the days of our unrealized potential we see here a record of routine kindness
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When you don't know the big picture and it feels like you're your wheels are spinning and you're not getting anywhere be
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Faithful in the little things Church be faithful in the little things that God has right in front of you like being winsome to all
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Well David's kindness towards Jeb Ashgiliad produces zero personal benefit because our third point comes abruptly in verse 8 and even includes the loyalties of Jeb Ashgiliad in verse 9
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Which says that they were under the reign of Ishmael Sheth We'll see in a moment So the third step to owning our years of unrealized potential is acknowledge that there will be enemies
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Acknowledge that there will be enemies in our lives verses 8 through 12, and I don't mean I don't mean like your mother -in -law
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I don't I don't mean like, you know enemies like as in Just the guy that's at the in the cubicle next to you who plays his music too loud, or I don't mean those like little annoyances
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This is significant what Abner does here Abner an enemy of not just David He does indeed set himself over and against David, but he is
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Absolutely an enemy of God in this text Abner was the commander of Saul's army
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Saul is dead, but rather than giving his loyalty to David Abner sets up a puppet king named
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Ishba Sheth Now I say puppet king because the words used in verses 8 and 9 leave nothing to the imagination
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Regarding who it is that's doing the action Ishba Sheth didn't take the crown Abner Pushed him into it
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Abner made the youngest surviving son of King Saul King over Israel despite the fact that it's quite clear all throughout first Samuel that Abner knows that David is called to be the next king
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Well, it's interesting to note some of these things are funny. Um, Ishba Sheth means man of shame I doubt that he went by that.
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I mean, you know what I'm saying? If your name was man of shame, how many would change that pretty quick if he became king, right? Like but I think that this is a case.
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I'm tempted to remind you that victors get to write the history But that's not exactly what's going on here
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It is in this case a little bit more chilling a little more shocking because who's writing this history
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God Who calls this man man of shame? God, this is
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God's chosen title for this man. Ishba Sheth man of Shame, how many of you'd like a different title if he was writing your history?
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I would but he has set over in opposition to David who is the rightful
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King the the man of God's choice The man God anointed to have King is going to have to wait even more time before he will get the complete throne
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That has been promised because of this enemy Abner and his puppet king
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Ishba Sheth Now when I define an enemy here an enemy is defined as one who is a thwart of God's will
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Not your preferences not your plans not your desires, but one who is clearly in opposition to what
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God Desires and how do we know what God desires? Well in his word when we talk about an enemy, we better be talking about an enemy of God We better be talking about a biblically clear enemy
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Not again, not not just somebody who aggravates you or kind of you know, their voice grates on you or something like that Now put yourself in David's shoes.
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He has been promised greatness promised to rule and reign over all of Israel. He is indeed
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King But in a few more years before he it's gonna be a fine a few more years before he finally sits on the throne that Was promised to him over all of Israel and God works in our lives.
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Does he not through fits and starts? It doesn't all get handed to us on a silver platter
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The pathway to service the pathway to the sweet spot of our callings is indeed a very very winding road
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Most people today I would say to you and this is I don't mean this in any arrogance But I kind of felt it a little bit, but I see it even more today people expect to graduate from college and immediately begin a
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Fulfilling career that gives them a blank canvas in which to expect, you know express their potential
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But how many of you would raise your hand and testify that God's work in your life has been a Significantly winding road toward a sweet spot.
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Some of us haven't even been arrived there yet Eugene Peterson explains the way he backed into the role of pastor never wanted to be a pastor thought he was going to be a
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Professor in the Academy and he talks about this phrase. He invented this phrase intentionally haphazard
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He invented that phrase as he was observing a dog Running from light pole to mailbox to fire hydrant sniffing for something
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Following the scent but no real plan was he heading to the park or was he heading down to the river?
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No real agenda. No real long -term perspective, but running from thing to thing to thing seeing what's stuck
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Any of you relate to that? Does that describe your history? Does that describe a bit of your present right now how you got to where you're at?
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Intentionally haphazard. I agree with it. I said in my youth
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Just give you a personal illustration. I Relate to Eugene Peterson a lot in this phrase.
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I said in my youth definitively to my wife. She can testify that I said this I will never
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Be a pastor I Will never be a pastor. You can take that one to the bank
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Linda winding roads are real and I have spent my
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Seasons in my times in the doldrums where it felt like the wind wasn't blowing and I didn't know where he was heading and I didn't
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Know where I was going just attempting and working to try to be faithful in the day Some of you relate to that.
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That's all that you can do is Sometimes all the energy we can muster is to be faithful today
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Not quite sure where we're going, but I'm gonna be over here sniffing this fire hydrant for a little bit And then
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God if you want to move me on you just kind of haphazardly Intentionally haphazard. We're gonna take me where you want to take me
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In those seasons where we think we know where we are going The text tells us there's gonna be
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Abner's from time to time in all of life. There will be Abner's Abner for some undisclosed reason wanted to thwart
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God's plan and to make God's plan to make David King. He wanted Ishmael David's men had shamed
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Abner at at least one occasion And so that may give us some clue as to what was motivating Abner But it makes little difference because Abner has set himself up to be the enemy of God's chosen
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King and therefore the enemy of God himself But he set up Ish -bosheth over all of the rest of Israel including
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Gilead where Jabesh Gilead was located as well Which gives us the indication that they would have followed loyalty to King Saul and his
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Abner and Ish -bosheth David gets Judah the Saul gets all the rest of Israel So Now according to the map on the screen if you can see it up there the green in the north is this bush
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Ish -bosheth territory the port portion in the south is David's but it even there, you know
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You look at the territory and you can kind of look at the territory go. Well, it's not that much smaller But it's actually a lot more rugged and a lot more wilderness and desert there
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So even the populations of those are very imbalanced A lot of the people lived in the north and not as many people in the southern area.
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That would have been David's Territory David will reign in Hebron for seven and a half years Two of those years will be over only
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Judah and then he will begin to grow in his Control over various areas until eventually like I said, it's not gonna be handed to him
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It's gonna be over seasons, but Abner is a real historical figure and yet we see in him a model for a type of person
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I think we can all relate to he's a strong man ready to make things happen against God He's not willing to accept
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God's chosen rule. He is willing to take Scripture and and twist it to his own ends
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He's willing to make up stuff as he goes He will set up his own ruler who he can then control
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All of us have encountered people who seem set against God and his people and yet Abner is not merely an obstacle to God's plan
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Abner is a part of God's plan for David in his life Think about that for a moment.
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This is not a mystery to God We may be all tempted at times to think of certain people's as obstacles when they may actually be the thing
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God is doing in our lives to lead us Deeper into grace deeper into patience deeper into trust in him rather than ourselves
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I'm not sure exactly what this waiting produced within David But I'm confident that it was supposed to result in greater faith for David Acknowledge that there will be enemies to what
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God wants to do in you and through you there will always be Abner's this is expectation setting
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Our fourth step to owning our years of unrealized potential is the last one expect setbacks versus 13 through 31
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I mean 32 and it's a bigger chunk this larger chunk But what's happening here is the recording of a battle that focuses on some strange details
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That are there to let us know one primary thing There's one fateful event in the midst of this battle that immediately makes everything ten times more
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Divided for David and Ishmael for Joab and Abner the commanders of these two guys
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What happens on this fateful day is not outside of God's control But it drives a permanent wedge between Abner and David's military commander
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That will lead to escalating bloodshed that we're gonna see in chapters coming Verses 12 to 13
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Abner moves his army 20 miles southwest To an intentionally provocative location on the edge of David's territory
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You need to understand that Abner initiates Abner begins to amass forces on the border of David's territory
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Like Russia amassing troops on the eastern edge of Ukraine How many of you notice that that gets a little bit of global attention recently global attention global tension?
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This is what Abner does so it's very similar to what we see in the news today Militaries do this regularly to provoke one another to kind of push each other's buttons and so Joab Joab musters to check things out right on the edge of David's territory
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Joab being the commander for David Abner the commander for Ishmael They line up on opposite sides of a massively dug out pool
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This very large cistern has been located by archaeologists for those of you who geek out about this kind of stuff
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You could go to this location today with fairly Reasonable accuracy and know that you're standing in the very location where these events took place right there at Gibeon But Abner suggests that the feud between their two armies be resolved by what's known in ancient times is representative combat
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We've seen this before and you've known it before you just maybe didn't think of it that way But David and Goliath is the is a model of this, right?
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It's the if my champion wins you submit if your champion wins we submit Only in this case they really want to be sure they've decided clearly so they send out 12 on each side and The crazy thing is when the combat ceases all 24 warriors die of their wounds
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I'm pretty crazy So then the battle ensues and that battle that ensues is due to the inconclusive nature of the representative combat.
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Nobody won There was no clear winner and the place gets a nickname Plaza of the sword edge is what that translates to that weird
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H phrase that's there But Joe ABS kid brother who was one of David's 30 most mighty warriors.
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His name was Asahel He had a particular power up and those of you play bit video games
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You know exactly what I'm talking about You're here as a pop power up you hit the button and he either tanks up and regains power or he goes fast
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This guy went faster. I said how I had this power up when you hit his button. He runs with super speed He was not the most powerful he wasn't the tank
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But he was a quick strike kind of guy and he sets his sight this young man Youngest of his brothers sets his sight on being the hero of the day now any of you have younger brothers
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Anybody go ahead and raise your hand if you got younger brothers, do they think they've got power -ups? Do they want to win the day?
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They want to take it to their older brother every single time, but you just hold their hands, right? You just hold both hands in one hand and then you got him
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I have three younger stepbrothers used to pick on him they could all take me now every single one of them, but um Not when we were young So this young man you can kind of picture young man bit brash
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Battle -hardened tough not not a weakling by any stretch of the imagination But his primary thing is the dudes got endurance and he is quick and he says
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I'm gonna chase down Abner I'm gonna kill the enemies Commander and then the battle is gonna be over.
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So I'm gonna take care of this by myself So he chases Abner and they have this conversation and you got a picture that's somewhat comical somewhat not because how it ends
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But um, there's huffing and puffing That you Asahel Yep.
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Yep. It's me Quit following me attack one of the other men take his take his stuff, but don't don't don't make me kill you
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Okay, that's what's going on Twice Abner tries to stop Asahel's pursuit to no avail
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So Abner stops quick uses Asahel's speed against him doesn't even have time to turn his spear around and with the butt of his spear
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Plunges it through Asahel's gut and kills him Says all who saw the body of Asahel Dead from either side all who saw that body
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Stopped and stood still like around that place the battle stopped and everybody's jaw went down This was not a play battle
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One of David's champions had been killed in battle. This is significant. And I think we all go. Well, wait a minute
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What about this weird comment about take the guy next to me, but don't kill me kind of thing I think we all recognize that all life matters, right?
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How many of you would just say that all life matters and how many of you know that some people get to lie in state? under the rotunda when they die There's a difference right?
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We are okay with that. Like some people are honored differently than others. That's what's going on here This guy was a hero a mighty man one of 31 of David's 30 most powerful
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Battle -hardened men and he has now died on this Battlefield and all knew what this meant.
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This was this was significant This is not just one of David's champions though. Hear me carefully church because you didn't get it
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It's not just one of his champions. It's his nephew This is his sister's son
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Joab his commander is his sister's son Asahel is David's nephew and his army commanders kid brother
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So Joab and Abishai his brothers pursue the one who has killed their little bro, and they plan on pursuing them
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Of course till death The battle ends strange because Abner calls a truce with a speech in verse 26 about them battling brother against brother
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This is Israel fighting Israel here folks And the battle ends with Joab agreeing to end the pursuit probably out of weariness and somewhat out of grief and mourning over his kid brother
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Both sides retreat for home Abner's for Abner's men force march through the night 20 miles after this battle
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They still force march They don't make men like this anymore Force march through the night 20 miles back to their home in my name all the way through them the next morning to get home
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While David's men retreated back to Hebron But only after stopping by Bethlehem to bury Asahel in the tomb of his father
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The battle resulted in only 20 men lost on David's side 360 lost on Abner's side
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And that's really astonishing when you consider the loss of 20 men when we know that 12 of them died and represented a battle
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One of them of course was Asahel and then you had eight more on top of that But Asahel has died it's a major setback major major setback
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Diplomatic reconciliation has been removed as a reasonable solution now The death of Asahel at Abner's hand has not made the pathway to a united throne easier for David It has made it seem nearly impossible that the kingdom will be united under him
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So can consider this reality from from this particular situation in David's life. God gave him victory in the place
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He would have preferred Unity, let me say that again. God gave him victory in the place where he would have preferred
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Unity and I point that out to say we have a tendency to think that God's blessings only ever come in peaceful relationship
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If God is in it, then there will only ever be unity It'll all be kumbaya and together singing and holding hands and everything's gonna be fine, but that's not real life
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There is a time in a season in a fallen world where God's goal for us is not merely a kumbaya kind of unity
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But sometimes he has a season for his people defined by battle against opposition
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We need to be ready for that church as we wrap things up this morning consider that God took
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David through stages toward his calling His unrealized potential was the throne of Israel and he spent years in that place
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When he has also he has also brought us He has done the same thing in the greater
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David Jesus Christ our Lord Think think about his journey toward a throne that is not yet complete
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Jesus was born in humility He was raised in the north baptized in the south traveled in his ministry
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Traveled in his teaching his healing is performing miracles while people stood by going. I don't get it How come you don't have a sword in your hand?
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You're not gonna kill the Romans. What are you? What are you doing? And he was ultimately crucified Rose again.
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He now reigns in the church until one day the father will send him back to remove all opposition And it's at that point that he will set up an eternal kingdom of sinless.
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Peace joy and glory Church, think about it. The kingdom is not yet what it will be
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The kingdom is not yet what it will be Jesus is the anointed one of God. He's anointed
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He rules but his final coronation over all things is indeed yet future
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So if your trust is placed in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for your sins And you've asked him to be your king and you trust in his death and his resurrection to take care of sin and death for You this morning
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Then I encourage you to come to come to communion come to one of the tables in the back during this next song and remember
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That he died on the cross for us Church. Amen But maybe some of us today
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I Don't know who I'm talking to But maybe you know that in your heart you're playing the part of Abner Every story has its villains
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Could be that one of one of the villains is here among us today Are you one who has rejected the rule of God in your life?
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There's an application for you here this morning as well Repent Turn from your rebellion against God confess your sin believe in Jesus and come to the wide open spaces of gladness and light today
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Recast greatness looks like patience in the years of unrealized potential
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Submitting to God's leadership being winsome toward all Acknowledging that there will be enemies
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Expecting setbacks and above all of these things trust in Jesus to fulfill the real work that our souls need
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We cannot make ourselves in the thing that into the thing that God wants us to be one of you knew that already
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Can't make yourself into the thing that God wants you to be but one glorious day The great King will come and make all things new
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Let's pray Father I thank you so much for your your grace and mercy that flows toward us and your son
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Jesus Christ I pray that if there's anyone Listening right now who is not all -in with Jesus that today might be a day of Reconciliation a day of of healing that relationship that broken relationship between you and them
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That you would allow humility and a brokenness in all of us as we approach these things
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It's much more than a to -do list of of actions that we should take or behaviors We should do
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I'm guessing that the scripture journals have some some notes and some things in there Things that people could do but I pray that all of those things begin ultimately with trust in you a
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Faith in you to accomplish it in our lives not a pulling ourselves up by the bootstraps and doing it on our own
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We know that that will accomplish nothing in a month from now We'll have forgotten any of this haven't even happened
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And so father I pray that your spirit would lodge these things exactly where they need to be this morning
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That you would bring us out of this Out of this place that we're in now to more faith more community and more service because you're working in us and among us
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Father I pray that you would be with us as we take communion together We have this opportunity to remember the the body of Christ broken for us the blood of Jesus shed for us
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What a great thing to do together to stand up and get in line and just demonstrate. Hey, we're busted.
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We're broken We're jacked up to a person and our only hope is found in Jesus Christ in his sacrifice for us.