Laughter, Fury, Potsherds and Kisses

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Kyle Douglass; Psalm 2 Laughter, Fury, Potsherds and Kisses

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Welcome to the podcast of Recast Church in Mattawan, Michigan, where you can grow in faith, community, and service.
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This message is by Associate Pastor Kyle Douglas and is titled, Laughter, Fury, Hot Shirts, and Kisses.
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We apologize for the audio quality as we experience some technical difficulties. But here's Pastor Kyle now.
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I was a sophomore in high school, and I was an athlete, and my main sport was football.
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I loved football. Actually, my sophomore year, I didn't go out for football at first because I wanted to ride dirt bikes, and then my coaches got really mad at me and said, no, you're going to play, and my dad didn't talk to me for three days.
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Not sure if that's healthy, but anyway, I ended up finally going out for football, and after my sophomore year, I just loved it.
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And so I had a great season my sophomore year, and people started saying things like, you know,
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Kyle, you might be able to play in college. So you might want to begin to focus on football as your sport even more so.
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And so my sophomore year, instead of going out for basketball, I decided to wrestle because wrestlers are tough, and I wanted to get more tough and work out and, you know, get ripped and all this stuff.
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Sophomore in high school, I weighed about 185 pounds, and I talked to the wrestling coach, and I said, coach,
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I want to wrestle. I want you to toughen me up, get me ready for football, but I don't want to cut weight.
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I want to gain weight, and I want to lift a lot. And he was like, okay, yeah, come on, Douglas. We'll put you to work.
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Well, the senior who was wrestling at the 171 class went out with a knee injury, and we didn't have anybody else to fill in.
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So here I was, a sophomore, first -time wrestler, and the coach was like,
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Douglas, we need you to cut weight. So I had to cut weight from 185 down to 171, super tough, got down to that weight class, which is one of the toughest weight classes to wrestle because dudes are huge, right?
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And I remember one particular wrestling match. It was at Lawton, and Lawton had a great wrestling team.
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They may still, I don't know, but they had a state champion whose last name was
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Kony, and guess what weight class he wrestled? 171!
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Great! And we get there, and my coach, you know, we figure out the lineup, and we get everything going, and it's coming up to be my turn for the match, and my coach pulls me aside, and he starts coaching me up, right?
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You know, he's like, no, he's a big guy. He's gonna want to get you down on the ground, you know, quickly. So, you know, make sure you're guarding yourself, moving your feet, you know, try and get a leg if you can, you know, all that wrestling stuff.
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I didn't stand a chance, and he knew it! I think in his mind, he was like, man, if we can get 10 seconds out of him, we're gonna be good, right?
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And we get up there, and we get to the line, and this dude is like a beast. I mean, his biceps were the size of my thighs, and we come up, and we get down, and he's just all kind of calm and collected, and he just walks up, and he gets down like this, and I'm like shaking and nervous, you know, and I'm trying to think, okay,
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I got to come fast. I got to hit him hard, and the whistle blew, and he didn't do anything for a minute, and I thought, okay, and for a just a brief moment,
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I thought, maybe I have a chance, and then he shot into me, like just so smooth, grabbed the back of my head, yanked it down,
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I resisted it, I popped up, he shot my leg, had me twisted up like a pretzel, and I think literally that match lasted about 23 seconds.
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Done, pinned, and he was so strong. I couldn't breathe, you know,
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I'm like waiting, I'm like trying to tap out, and I can't, you know, get my arm on the mat. That's an example of a fight that I could not win.
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I should have known it maybe, but I was naive, but there's really probably no way that I could have beaten him.
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Just a funny quick aside, though. I'm working, before I came to Recast, and I connected with this guy, and he's like, hey,
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I got a financial planner that I'd love you to sit down with and talk with, and so I'm like, okay, you can come over, and we set it up, and guess who it was?
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That guy, Koning. I'm like, you're the dude that whipped me sophomore year, and he goes, oh man, sorry, you know, and he didn't look as big anymore, but you know.
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The whole point of that story is that, you know, there are fights in our life that we can't win.
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There are things that we come up against that, if we are wise, we acknowledge that there is no victory for us.
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That we had better try and make peace before we get destroyed, before we get pinned to the mat, and as we go to Psalm 2 this morning, what we're going to find is that there are many people who are fighting
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God. There are many people who are coming against him, refusing his rule, and what the psalmist wants to communicate to the nations, and to us, to me today, to you sitting here this morning, is that you can't fight
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God and win. It is a losing battle, guaranteed, and as we go through the psalm today, and it might be a mess, it's,
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I've stuffed myself full of this psalm, and we're just going to see what pours out today.
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But I hope that by the end, that you too will be convinced, that it is not worth fighting a battle that you can't win, but instead that you would surrender yourself to God, and find out that you now have a
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Savior who, when he's with you, you can't lose. So Psalm 2, if you turn with me to Psalm number 2.
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Someone have a page number for the seat back Bible? 384. If you have a seat back
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Bible, turn to 384, and if you happen to be here this morning, and you don't have a Bible, we'd love for you to take that one home with you, so that you have a copy of the
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Word of God. Psalm 2. Why do the nations rage, and the peoples plot in vain?
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The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying,
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Let us burst their bonds apart, and cast away their cords from us. He who sits in the heavens laughs.
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The Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying,
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As for me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill. I will tell of the decree.
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The Lord said to me, You are my son, today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make your nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.
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You shall break them with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Now therefore,
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O kings, be wise. Be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the
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Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way.
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For his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
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Let's pray. Father in heaven, I thank you for this psalm. I thank you that David recorded this,
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Lord, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and we have it now to learn from. And Father, I pray that we would learn this lesson well.
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That there is no fighting you, Lord. That there's no resisting your authority and rule. Father, I pray that we would see you for what you are.
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Certainly a kind and compassionate and loving God, but also the one who is in charge of all things.
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And Father, I pray for us this morning that our hearts would be open to that message. That we would not fall into the trap of the first three verses there.
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That we would not find ourselves to be fighting you, Lord. So teach us. Teach us how to be humble. Teach us how to be open to you, and to surrender to your will.
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And it's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen. Psalm 2.
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I had mentioned last week that psalms, and even this morning, that psalms are varied. But psalms are poetry.
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They're songs or lyrics that are meant to evoke emotion, as well as teach or instruct or convict or whatever.
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Part of what we're going to do today is we're going to break down Psalm 2, but what I hope you walk away with is a sense of the feel for the song.
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This should work on our hearts and not just our heads. But this wasn't one of those,
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I'm in a hole and I got to scratch something out kind of a psalms. This is a more formal psalm. Some people think that it was a coronation psalm.
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So whenever a king of Israel was instituted as king, and they were having the celebration, the thought is that this was probably read because it celebrated the king.
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One commentator nicely called it evangelistic, in the sense that it was for the surrounding nations, almost like a warning, almost like a rally cry.
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You know, no one can defeat us because God is with us and his king. But to really understand it, and let me lay out my roadmap for this morning.
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What I'd like to do is I'd like to go through the psalm, how I think it would have applied to David.
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Because David, we believe, wrote it. Acts chapter 4 references David as the author of the psalm.
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This is actually the most quoted psalm in the New Testament. So it obviously had a lot to say about him and about his rule as king of Judah and Israel.
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But it is the most quoted psalm in the New Testament, because it says a lot about our true king.
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Who's that? Jesus. Right. And so we'll kind of take our second pass through and see how this applies to Jesus, who
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David is a shadow for, or a pre -runner of. And then the last thing that we'll do is we'll go through it and ask if there's anything here that applies to us right now, sitting here in these pews.
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And that's where we'll get to laughter, fury, potsherds, and kisses. Why do the nations rage and the people's plot in vain?
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David, as king of Israel, had a lot of trouble with surrounding nations. All right.
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Israel was this roughshod band of former slaves who
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God miraculously rescued from Egypt, took into the wilderness to reform and equip, and then was taken to a promised land.
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Beautiful land, the land of Canaan that he promised to give them. There was just a problem with the promised land in that it was already occupied.
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Right? So God says, hey, Israel, my chosen people,
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I want to provide this land to you as my grace and blessing to you to show you that I'm powerful and behind you.
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You'll be a light to the nations. We're just going to have to take care of all the people that hate your guts first.
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And that's where we get Joshua. Joshua was a mighty warrior. So Moses is a leader through the wilderness.
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Moses dies, passes the torch to Joshua. Joshua, Yeshua, savior.
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He was supposed to be God's warrior king. And he would go through and lead the people into the promised land and take out all of the enemies.
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And if you turn with me to Judges, Judges chapter one,
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I just want to give a little bit of background to how that went and show you who these nations were that were raging against Israel.
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Page 172, if you're looking for it. So Judges chapter one. And so there's we don't have time to go through this, but there's all of these names, right?
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I'm talking about who the men of Judah fought against the Canaanites. Who else?
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The as I look at it, I can't see them. Anyway, let's jump to 27
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Canaanites, Philistines, Amalekites. All right.
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But read with me from verse 27. Manasseh did not drive out the inhabitants of Bethshean in its villages or to knock in its villages or the inhabitants of door in its villages or the inhabitants of Iblium in its villages or the inhabitants of Megiddo in its villages.
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For the Canaanites persisted in dwelling in that land. When Israel grew strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labor, but did not drive them out completely.
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And Ephraim did not drive out the Canaanites who lived in Giza. So the Canaanites lived in Giza. Zebulun did not drive out the inhabitants of Kittron or the inhabitants of Nahalol.
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So the Canaanites lived among them, but became subject to forced labor. Asher did not drive out the inhabitants of Akko or the inhabitants of Sedan or of Aleb or of Akzib or of Helba or of Akit or Rehob.
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So the Asherites lived among the Canaanites in the inhabitants of the land, for they did not drive them out. Naphtali did not drive out the inhabitants of Bethshemesh or the inhabitants of Bethanon.
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On and on, right? And so you have the people of Israel coming into the Holy Land.
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God has promised it to them. He said that He'll be with them, but they are unable to completely drive them out from the land.
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And what happens when you go and fight someone and don't totally win or even make them slave? Do they like you?
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No, they don't. They're annoyed by you saying it nicely, right?
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And so the Israelites continually have these problems with these people who they are meant to take the land over.
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But this is interesting. If we skip ahead in Judges chapter 2 to verse 16, we find out what he was doing to help the
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Israelites against their enemies. But it's even a little bit deeper than that. He's using the enemies of the people to correct them.
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It says, then the Lord raised up judges. So we had some leaders in Moses and Joshua, but then there's a period of the judges which precedes the period of the king.
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And the Lord raised up judges who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them. Yet they did not listen to their judges, who they whored after other gods and bowed down to them.
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They soon turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the Lord, and they did not do so.
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Whenever the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge, and He saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge.
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For the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them. But whenever the judge died, they turned back and were more corrupt than their fathers, going after other gods, serving them and bowing down to them.
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They did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways. So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. And He said, because this people has transgressed my covenant that I commanded their fathers and have not obeyed my voice,
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I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died in order to test
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Israel by them, whether they will take care to walk in the way of the Lord as their fathers did or not.
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So the Lord left those nations, not driving them out quickly, and He did not give them into the hand of Joshua.
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So these are pagan nations. They're serving other gods. They're tempting Israel away from the one true God. And God is using them to bring judgment into the
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Israelites' lives. But these were the people that they were to fight against.
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These were the people who were trouble even for King David and King Saul.
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And so these nations are raging against them. They are opposing them on every side.
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It says, the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together. And we see that in some of the stories that there's a scheming together against the people.
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It's like my two favorite teams in college football are Ohio State and whoever plays
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Michigan, OK? So I can be, when I play, when
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Ohio State plays Michigan State, I'm an enemy with the Spartans. But when you play Michigan, pal, common enemy, right?
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Go green and white. And so we see sometimes these pagan kings rising up together.
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In fact, Don preached of that at one point, how these alliances are formed, and they come against the people of God.
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And it says, against the Lord and against His anointed, same. So against His anointed, who is the anointed?
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Well, David is the anointed. But actually, any king was the anointed. And anointing was a process of taking oil or water and going to a person and declaring something over them in the name of the
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Lord. And so as the oil would pour down, they were anointed for the purpose that God had given them.
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And so we hear this often. Now, anointed in Hebrew is Messiah, or Messiah.
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I'm not awesome at Hebrew. It's something like that, right? But what does that sound like? Messiah, right.
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So as a king was anointed, just like the judges were anointed, they were
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God's anointed, meaning that they were given authority by God to rescue or save or lead the people of Israel.
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And the psalmist is lamenting that these people are coming against the Lord's anointed. And they say, let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their courts from us.
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So God is in control of the universe. He has plans that he's unfolding. And he is anointing rulers in order to enact that plan.
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So he anointed the king. The king is to serve him and unfold his plan in the lives of his people.
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And through that, they would find salvation. That anointed was to obey
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God fully. Now, if we turn to 2 Samuel, or I'm sorry, 1
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Samuel. We got a bunch of stories. 1
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Samuel, we're talking about Saul here. 1
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Samuel 15, 1
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Samuel 15, Saul is the first anointed king of Israel. So he was chosen by God.
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The prophet Samuel came and anointed him and said that God has set you up. But here in this story, we see a couple of things.
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First of all, God is against the enemies of Israel. And one of those enemies was the
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Amalekites. And what we read in the story is that as Israel was leaving
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Egypt and trying to go to the promised land, the Amalekites opposed Israel. And they made trouble for them. Meaning they were trying to plunder them or kill them or whatever.
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And so now that Israel is kind of more established, he sends Saul back to bring judgment on the
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Amalekites for opposing Israel. And it says this. I'll start reading from verse 1 of chapter 15 of 1
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Samuel. And Samuel said to Saul, the Lord sent me to anoint you king over his people Israel. Now, therefore, listen to the words of the
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Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts. I have noted what Amalek did to Israel in opposing them on the way when they came up out of Egypt.
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Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, oxen, sheep, camel and donkey.
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So Saul summoned the people and numbered them into laying 200 ,000 men on foot and 10 ,000 men of Judah. And Saul came to the city of Amalek and lay in wait in the valley.
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And then Saul said to the Canaanites, go, depart, go down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them. For you showed kindness to all the people of Israel when they came out of Egypt.
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Without reading the whole story, what happens is that Saul goes down against the Amalekites. And he has a great victory.
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He routes them. But he disobeys the Lord. The Lord had devoted the entire people to destruction.
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And trust me, I know that these are the hard parts of the Old Testament, right? Women, children, cattle, everybody.
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But God saw fit to bring judgment on that people. And he enacted his anointed one, Saul, to go and carry that out.
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Saul gets down there. He does it, but he saves all the good stuff. He takes the best of the cattle and sheep for himself.
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And he's like, well, the only God who would want to destroy that is perfectly fine. We'll just hold on to it.
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And we'll take it to sacrifice to you later, right? He disobeys the word of the
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Lord. Samuel comes and calls him on it. God's angry. He actually revokes his blessing from Saul for disobeying him.
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And Saul, rather than admitting that he had sinned against the Lord, tried to make excuses. It was for you,
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God. I was just, I was saving it for you. We're going to take it back and sacrifice it. But he's disobedient.
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God says, I'm sorry, Saul, but you lost your shot. He grovels. Saul grovels to Samuel.
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Please, just help me save face in front of the men. Like, just at least walk back with me so that they don't know that the
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Lord has removed his hand from me. And that was the downward spiral for Saul.
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And then after Saul, a new king is anointed. And who's that king? David.
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So Saul falls out of favor with God. God anoints a new king and calls
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David to do the same. To be a Messiah, to save his people, to follow the
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Lord fully. All of his days. And for the most part, David does a decent job.
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And turn to 2 Samuel. We'll stop flipping here in a minute.
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But 2 Samuel, chapter 8, 2
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Samuel, chapter 8, verse 15, it says, So David reigned over all of Israel, and David administered justice and equity to all his people.
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David reigned over all Israel, and David administered justice and equity to all his people.
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And there's just a great little side note here of what leadership is really about, I think. That when
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God anoints someone for leadership and sets them above to lead other people, it is for the purpose of serving that people, protecting them, bringing justice to them, helping them grow, defending them from their enemies.
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So these nations are raging. David is fighting these people who are against him, all of these nations.
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And what are they saying? Let us burst their bonds apart and pass away their cords from us. They're essentially saying that David, despite you being anointed by God, apparently you believe that, that God thinks that you're our boss.
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Forget it, dude. We got our own plan. I'm a king, okay?
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Right? This is addressed to other kings. You, David, are going to tell me that you're my boss and that I'm going to submit to you and your
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God? I don't think so. I don't think so, David.
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Nice try. They essentially do not want any part of God's reign in their life.
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It's interesting, too, to think in this time that many of these pagan kings, and we see this even carry on into Greek and Roman culture, these leaders thought of themselves as gods.
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They would dub themselves as divine titans to influence themselves and bring power to themselves, right?
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They really thought of themselves as in control. And what's the reaction from God to this kind of thinking?
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It says, he who sits in the heavens laughs. The Lord holds them in derision.
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So he who sits in the heavens, that's a common phrase for God. He's high above. All right? Now, it's not just that God actually has a nice little bungalow up in the sky somewhere, right?
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And clouds floating around and winged deer gently stroll past him.
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But it's the idea that he is over us. He's sovereign. He sees all. He's untouchable.
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He's beyond the reach of our arrows or our weapons.
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And he's omniscient. He looks down and he sees it all happening. It's like ants walking around on the ground.
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Nothing surprises him. Nothing's out of his control. One who sits in the heavens, whose throne is in heaven.
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Ever had that laugh where someone laughs and there's nothing really funny said? Isn't it creepy?
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Most of the time, it's the bad guys laughing like this, right? Most of the time, it's the, you know, the joker or, you know, somebody, the nemesis.
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Maniacal laugh, maniacal laugh. You think you're going to thwart me and my plans?
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Bah, ha, ha, ha, you know. How much worse when the true sovereign ruler of all creation looks at you and says, and what you're doing and your attitude and your actions.
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This might mess with some of you. It's like, well, that's pretty dumb of you, right? God's laughing at us?
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Well, it's stupid. You're being dumb.
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These nations are coming against God. And that's the point, right? Is that if you come against God's anointed ruler, you're not just fighting
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David. And Goliath found this out in a big way.
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Goliath was not fighting a little kid with a couple of stones. He was fighting the Lord's anointed, the one who said,
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I'll stand up for God. He found himself fighting against God. And God laughs at their rebellion.
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He laughs at their attitude. This is really funny. When Don preached this at Berean, we used the exact same illustration.
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So I don't know what that says about it. But imagine me, and I, you know, I mentioned I was an athlete, I was a football player, and I really worked on my speed and fitness.
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I got my 40 times down to five flat. So my senior year, big tight end, running a five flat 40 yard dash.
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Let's say I called up my buddy Usain Bolt and said, hey, pal, been working out a little bit.
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I think I got you. And he and I raced. He set the record in 2012
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Summer Olympics. Broke his own record with a 100 meter dash time of, anyone know?
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9 .58. He ran 100 meters in 9 .58
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seconds. You know what that translates in terms of 40 times? 4 .1.
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So you get an NFL wide receiver that can do a 4 .3, 4 .4,
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and that dude's quick. Lightning Bolt is running a 4 .1. And if I called him and I said that I wanted to race him, his appropriate response to me would be laughter.
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Really? I don't even know how to respond to you. That's hilarious. If you think that you can come against God, the creator of the universe, the one who came up with this system, who made the molecules that hold you together, who breathed life into you and allows you to exist on this planet, if you think that you can come against him, his gut reaction, he's laughing at the joke of your foolishness.
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Because the Lord holds them in division. It's a scoffing mockingness that he has for us when we oppose him.
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But then the laughter quickly gets serious. And it says, Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying,
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As for me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill. Do you think you're in charge? No, I will tell you who's in charge.
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David is in charge. And if you want to oppose him, you will find out what will happen.
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You will suffer my wrath. And that's what we see. Back to 2 Samuel again, verse 8.
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And this is just before what I read before, talking about David administering justice and equity to all.
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We talked about David's victories. And it says, chapter 8, verse 1, After this, David defeated the
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Philistines and subdued them. And David took Mephag Ammon out of the hand of the Philistines.
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And he defeated Moab. And he measured them with a line, making them lie down on the ground. Two lines he measured to be put to death, and one full line to be spared.
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And the Moabites became servants to God and brought tribute. David also defeated Hadadazer, the son of Herod, on and on.
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You come against God and his anointed, and you may suffer his wrath.
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He's the one who says he's in charge. And if you find yourself against that person, then you are against God.
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Then verse 7 of Psalm 2. He goes on. He says, I will tell of the decree the Lord said to me, You are my son, today
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I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.
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You shall break them with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. And this is important for us, especially as we read the
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New Testament, because this is an important time for our understanding of the
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Messiah. And in some ways, this applies to David. It gets a little bit funny, but back when
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David was king, and he had had all this success, this is verse 7. I know we're kind of going backwards from 2
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Samuel there. But David is successful as king. The Lord is with him. And David, in his heart, says,
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You know what? I'm in this beautiful palace, and I've made myself a house, but we've been dragging
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God, essentially, around in His ark, around in just like this box in a tent.
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And God's out sleeping in a tent, and we don't have an actual place for Him. And anyway, he wanted to honor the
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Lord by building Him a temple. And the Lord was actually very pleased with that.
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He didn't allow David to build it, but he said that your son would build him a temple. But what's kind of cool is that you can't out -give
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God, right? And so David suggests doing this. He tells it to Nathan, the prophet.
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Nathan says, Go and do everything that's in your heart. And God sends
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Nathan back to David, and He gives this covenant to David. And this is what we call the
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Davidic covenant. He says, Now therefore, this is verse 8 of 2
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Samuel 7. Now therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David, thus says the
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Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture, and following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel. And I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you.
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And I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. And I will appoint a place for my people
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Israel, and will plant them, so that they may dwell in their own place, and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall afflict them no more as formerly, from the time that I appointed judges over my people
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Israel. And I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the
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Lord will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled, and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you.
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You shall come, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.
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He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son.
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When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men. But my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom
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I put away from before me. And your house and your kingdoms shall be made sure forever before me.
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Your throne shall be established forever, in accordance with all these words, and in accordance with this vision Nathan spoke to David.
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And so here God is promising to David that he will be with him forever, that he will establish his throne forever through one of his descendants.
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And he speaks of this descendant saying, I will call him a son, and he will call me father. And this is where we start getting a little bit fuzzy with, well, who's talking here in verses 7 -9 of Psalm 2?
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Is it David? Or is he prophetically speaking of something in the future? And I think absolutely this is speaking of Christ, and we'll get to that before.
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But there is a promise that applies to David, and that David was his anointed. And essentially he was saying that if this son was going to come from your loins, then you,
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David, are my son. And he said, today I've been established as God's own son.
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And so when you hear in the New Testament, the son of man, through this kind of network of prophecy and whatever, you're thinking
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Messiah. You're thinking the anointed one who's going to come from David and save Israel.
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Everyone see the connection there? So you have the anointed one called the Messiah. Here in Psalm 2, it gets connected to the son of man that's going to come from the line of David.
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And that's why Jesus is referred to as the son of man and the son of God.
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And he says, ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession. And I believe that David felt that this was a promise that if he was obedient to the
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Lord, that he would give him into his hands all of the nations that were surrounding him, as is reported.
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And it says, you shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.
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A rod of iron or a scepter of iron symbolized rule that was unyielding, heavy.
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Right, so it's hard to hold up a little bit.
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That would hurt, huh? A rod of iron.
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He shall rule with a rod of iron. This symbolizes unopposable authority.
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If you have a king with a giant staff, a rod like this, David Knoll gets out of line, puts this on his kneecap a couple times, he'll do whatever
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I want him to, right? Yeah, except stand up.
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A rod of iron. You shall break them with a rod of iron. And some translations say rule with a rod of iron.
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But literally what he's saying is that if you oppose the Lord's anointed, if you oppose the son of man, he will take his rod of iron and he will smash you into bits, just like the potter's vessel.
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Just like this little clay pot here. Now imagine this coming into that.
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Imagine this. It would not stand.
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This little pot would have no hold. Ptolemy was trying to remind us that these nations, these kings that think they set themselves up against God, they're nothing.
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They're nothing but a clay pot against the rod of iron. Can you see why this maybe would have been sung at a coronation for a king, right?
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Rule us, king. Rule us well. You are mighty in God. You'll protect us from our enemy.
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No one will bother us anymore. There's actually a thought that this was taken as a nod to an
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Egyptian ceremony where the pharaoh would take little votive jars like this and would somehow convey on them an enemy or a surrounding nation.
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And he would take his scepter and smash it in front of the people, kind of like Serenity Beauty doll. But it's this idea telling these nations, you cannot stand before God and his anointing.
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We went from laughter to wrath and God's wrath is most serious.
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A few examples of God's wrath. And again, these aren't easy. I'm actually here to kind of provoke your thinking this morning because oftentimes we only like the soft and the easy parts of our faith.
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We only want to hear about the cuddly unicorn Jesus who's going to sweep us all up and hug us.
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And he is that. He is. God is a gentle, compassionate, loving
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God. But if you oppose him. Psalm 110, five through seven.
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And this is helping us maybe start bridging that gap between David and Jesus. Psalm 110 talks about sitting at my right hand.
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This is David again. The Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.
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He goes on to reference Melchizedek and Hebrews ties Melchizedek to Jesus for us.
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But then in verse five of Psalm 110, he says, the Lord is at your right hand. He will shatter kings on the day of his wrath.
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He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses. He will shatter chiefs over the wide earth.
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He will drink from the brook by the way. Therefore, he will lift up his head. God's not messing around.
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Hebrews 10, 26 through 31. We find in there things like vengeance is mine. I will repay.
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That's where it says it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God, talking of those who come to Christ and yet continue in their sin and in their rebellion, accepting the forgiveness, but not wanting
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God to be real in their lives and to submit to his authority. And the writer of Hebrews, I think it was
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Paul is warning them. It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of a living
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God. So be warned. In Revelation 6, 12 through 17.
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I told Nathan I would read this. Nathan's doing a study right now in Revelation.
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But this is where the sixth seal is broken and Revelation is super confusing and super tough. But the whole point is that God wins in the end.
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But the seven seals are broken, opened up and a number six.
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Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, fall on us and hide us in the face of him who is seated on the throne and from the wrath of the
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Lamb. For the great day of their wrath has come and truth has come. These pompous leaders, these people who thought that they were so powerful will beg to be crushed by rocks so that they will not see the wrath of the
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Lamb. He should be freaked out right now. He should be fearful in the sense that if we are found to be an enemy of God, we are in a fight that we cannot win.
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And such is the feeling for India. And so it ends. Now, therefore, O kings, be wise.
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Be warned. The rulers of the earth serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. There is a place for rejoicing.
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There's a place for thanks, thankfulness. But it comes with humbly surrendering to the authority and sovereignty of God of coming under His anointed leader.
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And that's where you see in this the mercy and the grace of God. He's warning them. And I believe that God is not vengeful.
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He's not out to just wipe people out. But He is about establishing
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His authority on the earth. About establishing His glory. And there is such good waiting for us, but not if we refuse to surrender to Him in humility.
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If your pride is so great that you think that you are ruler of your life, that you have greater authority and power than Him, you will not go well.
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So we are to serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. And that's a call to the nations. Stop priding us. Join us, if you will.
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And we don't see many examples of them taking up the offer of death in the story of David. Then it says,
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Piss the son lest he be angry and be perishing away. For his wrath is quickly kindled, and to perish in the way meant suddenly.
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So you're intending to go to your neighbor's house, and you're on the way, and the lion rises up and eats you up.
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And He's warning them that the wrath of God can come on you quickly. And you don't know how long you have?
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Don't push it. Today is the day of salvation. Repent. And then finally, an ending word of grace.
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Blessed are all who take refuge in Him. Go back to that line, that David led the people with justice and equity.
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Under his protection, they had a wonderful life.
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They had safety and security. They were happy to be ruled well by a good leader.
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So this is, in some ways, a psalm about David, but I believe it's also a prophetic psalm about Jesus Christ.
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The New Testament shows us that. That this is about Jesus. How many of you know it's really all about Jesus?
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Start to finish. It's all about Jesus. You can find Him everywhere.
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Are the nations raging against Christ? Do people all over the world, nations especially, love the idea that Jesus Christ is the
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Son of God and the preeminent ruler? Nope. Some people think that a great example of the fulfillment of this is
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Pilate, King Herod, who were part of the crucifixion of Christ.
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Even the nation of Israel, Israelites who were calling, the Jews who were calling for the crucifixion of Jesus.
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Today, you might have co -workers or neighbors who are raging against God. You don't want
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His rule. You don't want your Christian bigotry in their life.
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People are opposed to Christ even today. People take counsel together against Him.
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I won't share hardly any of the story, but there's someone in our own congregation who just this week had a work incident in this past week where he had to confront someone because of a
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Christianity issue in the workplace. And he was under disciplinary action. And what's behind these people is a lot more than just these people, if you know what
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I mean. It's an agenda that's being driven to remove any kind of Christian prayer value system from his particular workplace.
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Maybe some of you have experienced something similar. They come against the
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Lord and His anointed. Is Jesus the anointed of God? Yep. John, early chapters of John, John the
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Baptist testifies of Jesus. I saw the Spirit of God descending on him like a dove.
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And the Spirit, the oil and anointing was symbolic of the Spirit of God. So when a king was anointed with the oil, the idea was that the
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Spirit of God then descended on that person. And we actually have that in the account of David that the Spirit came on in a mighty way over David after he was anointed as king.
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And so when Jesus has the Spirit come down on him at his baptism,
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God is anointed. He's letting everybody know, this is my King.
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This is the Son of God. This is the Messiah that you've been waiting for that I promised to David.
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He says, in Him I'm well pleased. And I think the same still applies to Christ that when people look down on how people rage against Him and how they come against Jesus and fight against Him, I think
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He laughs. I think He laughs at how ridiculous it is to fight the
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Lamb of God. The one, the very one who would feed Him from sin and death. The very one who will lead them well beside still waters, who will shepherd them with justice and equity.
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It's laughable that they wouldn't want that in their lives. And people are bursting with bonds all the time.
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But there's a fury that is coming, and we reference that in Revelation, that Jesus will come seated on a white horse and will lead the armies of heaven against the evil ones.
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And He will win. And that's just the cleanup. He won at the resurrection.
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When He rose from the dead, Jesus Christ defeated sin and death, our true enemy.
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And He releases anyone who faith in Him from that captivity.
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He is our true Messiah and our true King. He is the one set on Zion as Holy Grail.
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He is the one who said, you are my son, today I have begotten you. All of the nations are the possession of Jesus Christ.
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And someday every knee will bow before Him. The dead will be raised. There's going to be a big salutation party.
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We're all going to acknowledge Him as King. And some of us, that's not going to be so great. Because Jesus is ruling with His rod of iron.
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And our life, this clay pot, if we continue in opposition to Him, we'll be smashed to pieces.
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And this is a hard message. And if anyone needs to talk about the fact that hell is real, and that there's a lake of fire reserved for the devil and the angels, and anyone who would come against God, come and talk to us, because we know it can be offensive.
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And it can be hard to work through that reality. But it's true. It is true that if you end up opposing the anointed one of God, the
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Messiah, Jesus Christ, your end is to be shattered in this world. And it doesn't take much.
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When I looked at this pot, there was a hairline crack that went down right here.
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And I thought, isn't that a great image of what we are? Some of us think that we're put together.
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Some of us think that we're okay. But we are weak and broken people. And all
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I did was I took this and I just tapped it, just like that. And that whole piece fell out onto the ground.
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And this is our lives, some of us. All of us. We are pot shoes.
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We are broken, fragmented people. And this is the reality of coming in humility to the
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Son of God. You can either be against Him, and He can bring His rod of iron down to us and finish the smashing.
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Or we can submit to Him and accept His rule in our life. You know what happens then? Then Jesus stands and He says, you and your enemy with His rod of iron,
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He says, you don't touch this. This pile of shards is mine.
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And I will remake it and put it back together and form it into something beautiful. But you don't touch it.
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That is a beautiful choice before us. That ends here. Now therefore,
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O kings and wise, be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son. The invitation to you and to me is that we would stop fighting
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God and that we would simply accept His protection, knowing that by ourselves we are just a broken pot.
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That we would accept His rule and He protect us and He would love us and restore us. And it says, blessed are all who take refuge in Him.
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You may not be a king. You may not rule a nation. But I'm willing to bet that you still want to be in control.
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Maybe some of you have not yet come to Christ at all. And you're fighting Him and you think you've got everything put together.
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Stop fighting. It's a battle you're not going to win. But some of you, like me, have come to Christ and yet we still have little pockets, little dominions in our heart where we still want to be the boss.
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And the same warning applies, I believe. Don't fight God. Give it up to Him.
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My time is up. I'll just share one super brief illustration here that as I'm reading this and preparing to preach it,
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I admit that I'm not great with money. Just have to admit it. I wish I was. I wish
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I was super, you know, a saver and a little delayed gratification, all that kind of stuff. But I like stuff.
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I'm only half ducked, which means I only feel bad about spending money. But I've been buying some camping gear lately.
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Need camping gear for our vacation. I love buying camping gear. It's cheaper than the gas money we spend pulling a trailer.
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My wife asked me very gently the other day, she goes, have you done our finances? You know what my reaction to my part was?
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You're not my boss. I'll spend my money the way
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I want. If I want to get camping gear, I'll get camping gear. Come on,
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Bender. You see what happened? God was using my wife to remind me that I'm not my own, but that I serve a king.
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And that I might not have been being obedient to my master. And my heart raged.
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And I just spent some time in prayer, and I don't think I'm fixed yet. I think he's about halfway. I just spent his time in prayer because I needed to surrender that part of my life.
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And I'm working on it. But I know that if I do it, if I give it to God, it'll be better than if I do stupid stuff.
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It'll keep heightening. So I just share that to show that we all have areas where we may be fighting the
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Lord. But the greatest fight is over the salvation of the soul. It's whether we will accept Jesus Christ as our
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Messiah and surrender our life to him as humanity. And maybe today is your day that you give up the fight so it will never leave you dead.
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Amen. Father in heaven, I thank you,
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God, for your word. I thank you for the psalm that reminds us of your authority and rule and how you are in charge of all things in God.
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Your violence sometimes is difficult for us. Sometimes it's hard for us to imagine that your judgment would include the total eradication of us people.
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So Father, you will not stand for evil and you will not stand for rebellion, whether it's in a pagan nation or in our own homes.
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And I thank you, God, that in between the warning and the smashing, there is
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Jesus. That in him, we can come and be forgiven and no longer fight you, but actually be your friend and your servant.
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I thank you, God, for the blessing that we have of being in Christ, that he is our true ruler and king.
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And I pray that all of us here would surrender ourselves to him, that we would acknowledge our brokenness, that we would kiss the sun and humble ourselves before him and take on his love.