and pray with her. I am so humbled by you guys' love. I was doing okay until that song came on. Our God's amazing. He is gracious and kind to us. And so I thank you guys so much for you guys' love and how you guys reached out. I feel home here. And it's not because of the church, it's because of you guys and how much your love for us matters. Well, if you're visiting today, man, we are so thankful for you to be here. And I want to thank you as just a member here, formerly known as an elder. I'm still an elder, I'm told. I'm just on sabbatical. And so I get to preach today. Well, Pastor and I have been talking a little bit about grief and lament because of where we're at in the text in 2 Samuel. As we remember, David was lamenting, and what does that look like? Our culture kind of gets it wrong, don't they? They either, when we lose someone we love, we usually are crushed by it, or we push back lament, and we push back and don't really grieve like we should. But David here is gonna kind of Inform us to embrace lament embrace the difficult things he calls us to grieve in chapter 1 He informs Israel to cry over Saul and Saul in a lot of ways was a wicked king We should weep weep over death And we should learn from it We should learn from death as well. I believe David taught his son Solomon the truths we saw in Ecclesiastes 7, talking about mourning. As King Solomon wrote this many years after David passed away, it says this in Ecclesiastes 7 too, it is better to go to the house of mourning than the house of feasting. For this the end of all mankind and the living will lay it to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made glad. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth." Which is the party, is what he's talking about there. The key words here is that we're called to lay death on our hearts. We're called to learn from it. And that teaching is let sadness of our face makes our heart glad because we are wise because of it. If we lay it to heart and think on death correctly. David's language in 2 Samuel is even more descriptive. The lament is just weeping, but he has actually mental stress over this. He is distressed over the loss of his brother Saul, or his brother Jonathan, and his friend Saul. And also he chooses to think on the lovely things of Saul, which I can commend. Saul wasn't very commendable. But he thought on the lovely things of Saul. Many commentators called Saul David's enemy. It seemed King David would never say that about Saul. He would never call him his enemy. He cherished the time with him. It seems David loved going to battle with him. He loved playing music for Saul, ministering to him. And so he wept, he lamented. He lamented over the death of someone he loved. And even Saul, who tried to kill him more than once, he lamented. David spared King Saul's life as well. You remember, twice he spared his son. He could have killed him. He would not raise his hand to the Anointed One, is what he said. He even calls out the commander of Saul's army, Abner. You remember the story? He calls him out. He's like, why aren't you protecting the anointed king, Saul? David once again loves Saul and Jonathan. He wept over them. But notice two things. I said it earlier about lament. He wasn't crushed. He wasn't crushed by the sorrow of death. He trusted God, as we'll see in the text today. He didn't also push back sorrow and say, you know, we're just going to have a celebration of life. He embraced the fact that death is final. And David understood this. He'd never get to go to battle with Jonathan again. He'd never get to go hunting with Jonathan again. He'd never get to play music for Saul again. He'd never get to have a good meal with his friends again. For they were gone. They had gone to the grave. They had not returned. And death is final. Ecclesiastes 9 teaches us that. But today, I think we're gonna ask ourselves, what do we do with death? How does David respond immediately right after this deep sorrow? How does he respond in death? We'll turn over to 2 Samuel 2 if you're not there already. I'm gonna give you a little bit. We're gonna go through verse 11. And this David, after this David inquired of the Lord, shall I go up into any of the cities of Judah? And the Lord said to him, go up. David said, to which shall I go up? And he said to Hebron. So David went up there and to his two wives also, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail, the widow of Nabal of Carmel. And David brought up his men who were with him, everyone with his household, and lived in the towns of Hebron. And the men of Judah came and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah. And they told David, it was the men of Jabesh Gilead who buried Saul. David sent messengers to the men of Jabesh Gilead and said to them, may you be blessed by the Lord because you show this loyalty 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. 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 Ish-bosheth the son of Saul and and brought him over to Mahanim and made him king over Gilead and the 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. The house of Judah followed David. The time that David was king in Heron was over the house of Judah was seven and a half years or seven and six months. Well, to give you a little bit of an outline on how King David responds to lament and death, the first thing we're going to see is that David prays. He prays to God. The second thing David does is he obeys. He obeys God and is anointed. And then the third thing we'll see how he responds to his lament is that he's gracious. These are all things we should consider in sorrow in our lives. One thing is he prays. After this, David inquired of the Lord, shall I go up in the cities of Judah? And the Lord said to him, go up. And David said, which shall I go? And he said to Hebron. Now that Saul is dead, David has a little more freedom to move about the country. And so this allows for him to have a little more freedom. This is right when he begins to pray to God, inquiring about what is already in his heart to do. He was in his heart to lead Israel. He knew that he had been anointed king. He wants to go up to Israel. It's his desire to go up to Israel. But he wants to ask God first, even in his desires. Shall I go up into any cities of Judah? We also see a contrast to him and Saul. If you remember Saul, Saul prays as well. He inquires of the Lord many times in 1 Samuel, but God doesn't answer him. He's just quiet. Doesn't answer. Doesn't give him an answer. And it's because Saul's heart was far from God. And he was after his own desires. But David gets an answer. David seems to know what should be done. I think he knows he needs to unite Israel. It seems he wants to know where. Like, where do I start? How do I get started? We have to understand, too, this is a difficult time in his life. This is a weird time in his life. It's seven and a half years he's in Hebron, and he's only king of one tribe of Israel during this time. Saul's followers were following him, David's followers were following him, and they were at war a bit here and there. It was a difficult time. In most of Israel, the army of the Philistines were occupying that country. And so it was a difficult time. They had just suffered a massive defeat. Many people had died. Saul and all of his sons had died, except for Ishmael Sheth and one more son that we'll see later. Yet David sees and understands he needs to be patient. He understands he needs to be patient and wise in his leadership, and so he asks God. I love Philip's commentator on 2 Samuel stated, the Hebron phase was going to require a patient faith that waited on the promises of God. That's what David's doing. He's waiting on God. He's praying. And so he waited for seven and a half years. David is king anointed in Hebron, but yet hasn't fully united the tribes of Israel. His first step, though, is to pray. That's where our first step should be. He does this often in 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel, and I'd argue that life goes better for him when he does, when he prays to God and really inquires of what God should do in his life, and it goes poorly as we'll see as well. It goes well in 1 Samuel 23. If you want to turn there, you can. In verse 1, this is where the Philistines are fighting against Israel, against Kilah, and are robbing the threshing floors. They're robbing their food. They're taking everything, right? And so therefore David inquires of the Lord, here shall I go up attack these Philistines. And the Lord said to David, go, attack the Philistines and save Kilah. But David's men said to him, behold, we are afraid here in Judah. How much more than if we go to Kilah against the armies of the Philistines? And then David inquires of the Lord again, and the Lord answered him, arise, go down to Kilah, for I will give the Philistines into your hand. And David and his men went to Kilah. and fought with the Philistines and brought away their livestock and struck them with a great blow. And so David saved the inhabitants of Kilah. It seems that goes well when he prays. It does. In contrast, later in chapter 29 of 1 Samuel, David mistakenly goes up to battle. Remember with Achish? He goes up to battle. He doesn't really inquire of the Lord. And because of it, the Amicalites steal everything, right? They raid their land, which is Ziklag, which was given to David, and they take all their wives, all their kids. It causes a ton of grief. And I think part of it was just David didn't inquire. He just went. He was kind of stuck. He didn't ask. And so their greed, their distress, that they're lost. David, men are so mad they want to stone him. And David was a good leader. And leaders, being a leader is tough. I want to say that. Being a leader is tough. Sometimes you do most of the things right and your sin kind of shines through here and there and you make mistakes and they want to stone them. Sometimes people have it out. But back to David. David has grieved his will, yet not to despair. I love this in chapter 30, verse 6. It says, David strengthened himself in Yahweh his God. He strengthened himself. That included prayer. And that's what he did here. He prayed to God. In fact, he asked for the ephod, remember? And the priests to come. And once again, he prays to God, shall I pursue this band and take in everything from him? And the Lord says, go. And he gets everything back that they had lost. David responds in his grief by trusting God. He does, and he prays, and he strengthens himself in the Lord as we should. Well, the last week, many of you know, my wife and I were next to the hospital bed of her dear mother, who was a wonderful mother, a genuine, kind soul. She would just sit on the floor and read books to my kids. My mother never read a book to me, not once. I don't remember one time. She was just such a kind soul. She was a loving person. And as we sat next to her, just holding her hands and just, all we could do is pray, you know? And just trust her with God. That's what I said to her often, trust yourself to God. And then I prayed Psalm 23. Often, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He restores my soul. And even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. through tears and sorrow, and shortly after she passed, I thought, how do people get through? How do people get through death, real sorrow, real grief, without God? Well, that's how David got through. David got through by praying. David got through by entrusting himself to God and holding dearly on to what God had for him. And he inquires, he inquires of the Lord. And we should strengthen ourself in the Lord, as David did, by going to him daily. Paul would put it that we pray without ceasing, not seizing, ceasing. We're back to 2 Samuel 2. David not only asked, you know, how he should go up, but he specifically asked where. Where should I go up? And God graciously answers him. He says to Hebron. Now, we don't know why or how he asked this one. We don't know if he asked for the ephod or asked for the priest or if he just was alone praying and he just knew in his heart God knew that he needed to go to Hebron and so he moved. We don't know. It was custom during that time to cast lots often. Maybe they cast lots. Who knows? We don't really know. But we do know he prayed. And it seemed that God had matured him. It matured him in his running from Saul and his suffering. It molded him closer to the image he needed to be, to be king of Israel. And now, in faith, he asked God specifically, where should I go? And he says, Hebron. Well, we should be careful, though, not to expect the still, small voice. We should not expect that God's going to tell us specifically where we should go and who we should marry, the name of the person we marry. But in wisdom, we can get in His Word. In wisdom, we can go to counselors, right? Many counselors, we make war. So we get wisdom from His Word and from people that know God's Word. This city, Hebron, is on a hill. He says, go up. You see this go up three different times? It's basically saying ascend. Ascend to being king. It's symbolic. He's going to be king in the city that is the highest in the region. It's on a mountain. It was about 20 miles south-southwest of Jerusalem, so it's close to the mainland of Israel, and David was to be king. He was going to be symbolic of that king to come that was going to sit in the highest of places, Jesus, and sit at the right hand of God. And David was just a shadow, a shadow of what was going to come in Jesus Christ through the line of David. Abraham was like a historically pretty significant place as well. If you guys remember, Abraham was from there, right? Abraham went there with his wife, Sarah. That's where they were buried. That's where they were given the promise of their son and ancestors as far as the stars can see. It's also where their sons were buried. It's where faithful Caleb was given. This is the land Caleb was given. Historically, it's just a very significant place. We could go into a lot of things here, but David was told to go up to this place. It's very significant. He says, ascend, go up, be king. Ascend to this place God has given you. Yet the author seems to kind of bring us down back to earth. He says, go up, look up, right? So this king that sits in heaven, it's a picture of this better king that's coming in Jesus, but he reminds us of what's below. He does so in verse 2. He says, Now the author chose to list them. They could have just listed all the mighty men that he'd won all these battles with or listed some of his closest confidants that are some of his counselors, but it lists his wives and reminds us David has a problem, doesn't he? It's like ominous music in a movie. You know something bad's happening soon, right? You know something bad's going to happen because David has a problem. He has sin. It lurks in his heart. His sin with women catches up to him and it disrupts David's reign. David gets held accountable by God in this. In fact, it's not even accountability and the trouble of his sin just follows him for years. It's difficult. It fears and, you know, warns us to fear God and to follow Him. It's just a shadow, I know. It's just a quick little verse, but it always just reminds me that something bad is going to happen soon. Well, the first thing we saw was David praised, and now the second thing we see is that David obeys and is anointed king. Well, David brought up with him men who were with him, everyone from his household, and they lived in the towns of Hebron. And the men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah. Now, if we're going to ask the question how to respond and lament, for one, pray. Faithfully entrust your life to God as David did, but also we should obey. If we're going to move forward in the difficult things of life, we should obey. He goes up where God calls him. He faithfully leads his wife and his men here. Once again, to do a full study on how God blesses David's life in obedience and kind of curses him when he is disobedient, or at least not curse, but I would say accountability. Accountability out of love for David. God holds him accountable. We need to entrust our lives to God and be obedient. It's very simple. He goes. I know. It's a very simple thing. Often obedience is like that, but it's awfully hard at times too. 1 Peter 13 calling us to obedience. Therefore, preparing your mind for action. and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that we brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ as obedient children. Do not be conformed to the passion of your former ignorance, but as he who called you holy, you also be holy in all of your conduct. On the contrary, we are to be wise. We're to be wise when we are sorrowful. Don't let our sorrow push us to disobedience, but obedience. Ecclesiastes reminds us that you're not going to find life and answers to your grief at the nightclub or the party, or with pleasures and comforts. You're going to find answers to your lament in wisdom and obedience to God. David, though, is anointed king, and he's anointed king for the second time. If you remember correctly, he was anointed in 1 Samuel 16, I believe. But he takes time to think here, he takes time to pray, and then he acts. He acts in obedience. God confirms his prayer by having him go up, and then the men anoint him king. It confirms what was in his heart. He's anointed for the second time. And we must ask why. Why is he anointed the second time here? It's a little odd. Why here? Well, I think the best answer is the men of Judah felt it was their way of obeying God's plan as well. It was them saying yes and amen to what God had already willed for David. And so Samuel couldn't be anointed king or be king fully when Saul was still alive. And Saul had died now, so they can say yes to this. These men of Judah couldn't answer for the sins of all the other tribes, but they had to answer for themselves, right? These men of Judah had to answer for themselves. What do we have to do to be obedient to God? We can't answer for Israel. for the remaining tribes. And so they obeyed, they anointed David king. It was a seemingly simple thing for David to go up and these men to anoint him king. And often obedience is like that. It's pretty simple. And yet it's often difficult as well. We should have highlighted it. Obedience is tough. At the heart of us all is a selfish person that wants to do what we want to do when we want to do it. That's the heart of us all. The harder thing is to obey God. It's the tougher thing to set aside what we prefer and what we want to do to follow what God has us to do. See, it's easy to complain. It's easy to roll our eyes. It's easy to sin. That's just come natural. It's in our DNA. The harder thing is to obey. And we should. Obey God. We should submit to God. We should submit to the leaders God has placed in your lives. Submit to them. I have to ask, where are we disobedient? If it's pushed into my space. Maybe we have a tendency to believe the world when it comes to parenting. Instead of disciplining them, maybe we just correct them a hundred times. Maybe instead of accountability, you want to take that away from them and just give them an excuse. Now they're tired. In their hearts, it's Genesis 3, but accountability is important. It's so important we're going to see God hold David accountable. David has the heart of God in him. The descriptive language about David was that he has a heart after God, and when he sins, We've got to hold them accountable, as we should as well. Obedience can be simple because it's a choice to trust God and obey, but difficult because our desires wore in us. It does. They wore in us. 2 Peter reminds us of this, chapter 3, verse 3, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with a scoffing, following their own sinful desires. Believe me. When we're disobedient, it's because we're following our own way. We're following our own sinful desires. We're saying, you know what, I'm gonna believe what I wanna believe. I'm gonna push God's word aside. Are we going to believe God's Word? And then second Peter here, Peter calls them in chapter, in verse 17 of 3 here, it says, Therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you're not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. See, disobedience is sand, man. It's just shifting under us. It's nothing to stand on. It says you'll lose your stability. In fact, it warns a little earlier that it's to their own destruction. It'll destroy their lives if they go too far. And then he implores us here. It's for his glory. It's not for us. It's not about us. Instead, we should press in. We should press into growing in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, to His glory and our good. It's to our good. And that happens by obedience to His Word. And it's difficult. It's simple, yet difficult. But what will we believe? Will we believe God's Word? Will we believe our own thoughts and ideas? Or will we say, Lord, to You alone in Your glory? Well, they told David, Here's in verse four, it was the men of Jabesh Gilead who buried Saul. David sent messengers to the men of Jabesh Gilead and said to them, may you be blessed by the Lord because you showed this loyalty to Saul. David's gracious, isn't he? He's so gracious. He gives us an example. How do we respond to lament and loss? Man, he's gracious. He wants to press into what is good and right. David finds out these men of Jabesh Gilead who buried Saul, and so he wants to honor them. In fact, if you just turn back a couple pages in 1 Samuel 31, we'll see exactly what he does, or they do, in verse 31. Or no, verse 11. Verse 11, chapter 31. When the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, all the valiant men rose up and went all night and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth-shan. And they came to Jabesh and burned them there. And then they took their bones and buried them on the Tamarash tree. And Jabesh and fasted seven days." Notice that. These words, they were valiant men. They went all night, all night into enemy territory and retrieved the bones of Saul and his sons. And these men risked their lives. Why should they do that? Why would they do that? Well, if you turn back to 1 Samuel 11, you don't have to turn there, but King Nahash, remember this Ammonite king, terrible king, a fearful king, did terrible things, besieged the land of Jabesh, Gilead, and Saul, came to their rescue. Saul won that battle, came in and saved these men. And these men didn't forget it. They risked their own lives. They gather up the bones of Saul and his sons and bring them back for proper burial. And then they even fasted. They fasted seven days. They loved Saul. They were thankful for Saul. Now, seemingly, because they're friends of Saul, it means they're enemies of David. They probably, at one time, probably chased David. There's a good chance some of these men chased David to kill him. But, you know, you'd have to think, like, what would David do here, right? What would you do? What would David do with these men that maybe chased him, that were friends of Saul? Once again, though, David doesn't treat them as enemies, does he? He doesn't treat them as enemies. He doesn't treat Saul as an enemy. He did the opposite of what most self-serving kings would do. Most self-serving kings would do what? Kill them. Including Saul. That's what Saul would have done. I believe deep in my soul that's what Saul would have done. He was a selfish king. He was after David. But David, he's different. He wants to bless them. He's impressed by their loyalty. The word is kahesed, which means mercy or kindness. In fact, it even means, it's typically referred to like an exceptional act of honor. An exceptional act of honor to another or meeting an extreme need outside of like normal duty. This isn't normal to go into enemy territory, sneak in there, Seal Team Six style and get some bones just so you can bury them. They weren't going there to battle to kill people. They were going there to get bones. I mean, like really endangering their lives. And David was pouring on his words of blessing and saying loyalty because it meant much more than the loyal dog, right? That's what we think. Every time I hear the word loyalty, it's like, that dog's a loyal dog. This is an extreme honor. It's an extreme thing they did. David wants them to know what they did was incredible, and he appreciated what they did. Once again, never accepting the role of enemy to Saul or the people that followed him. He was a great man. He wanted to honor him. He wanted to honor these men of Jabesh Gilead. Saul's friends were not his enemies. He was grateful for their loyalty to Saul and their love for Saul. We also need to realize these men, their territory is 70 miles. north of Hebron. This is deep, deep into enemy territory. It's right now, once again, being occupied by Philistine armies. And I think, too, I think we have to give David some commending here that he's a good politician as well. I think he comes at it honestly. He comes at it like our politicians that come at it in a way to get their own way. David really wants the best. But he's trying to win them over as well. He wants to unite all of Israel under his kingship. And he needs to do that because there's an enemy, a real enemy, not each other. The Philistine armies were a real enemy, the armies that were called to kill and to get out of their land. They were not good to mingle with because they would pull their hearts away from the Lord. So he wants to honor Saul. And they did. They were selfless and no real thoughts of their own safety. J.Bash Gilead's men got the bones. David prays that the Lord would show them steadfast love or exceptional kindness. The same kind of kindness that they showed Saul. This language of steadfast love. You ever read that? Steadfast love. That's like God's gospel language. I think immediately we should be starting to think about the gospel when we see that steadfast love and kindness. Essentially asking God. That's what he's doing. He's asking God to forgive him. He's asking God to graciously save these men. That's really in his language. When he's talking about these men, he wants to see them know God and submit to God. Jesus did this even more magnificently as he prayed for his enemies. In Luke 23, 33, when he came to the place that is called the skull, they were there, they crucified him. And the criminals, one on his right and one on his left, and Jesus said, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. And they cast lots to divide their garments. And Jesus prays this beautiful prayer as men mocking Him, dividing His clothes. He hung naked, beaten, bloodied on the cross, never sinning in His whole life and laying down His life for us. And judgment should have been coming to the men around Him. And Jesus was taking all that judgment upon Himself for sinners like us. We deserve the justice. See, we need forgiveness. We need forgiveness because we're sinners. There's none in here. There's none righteous. There's no not one. We all need forgiveness for us to stand right before God. Jesus, or John put it this way in 1 John 8, he says, if you say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. In Proverbs it says, turn in my reproof and I'll pour out my spirit to you. That's what it is. It's about confessing, trusting your life with God. And then David says this in the text, he says, I will do good to you. He's not just saying, look, I want grace for you. I really want peace in your life. He was saying, I'm going to do those things in your life. I'm going to choose to do good in your life. He was gonna show grace. He was going to show steadfast love and how he acted towards them. He also encourages them to be valiant, to be strong, take courage, be confident, because Saul is dead, and he's now anointed king whom God chose, and the men of Judah had anointed. David knows these men need him, and he needs these men. He needs to unite Israel. He needs to bring them together, and he's imploring them to follow him. This message was beautiful and mirrors that of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It does. Enemies now had a way to God if they trusted Jesus. I love this from Romans 5, 6. While we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for the righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die. But God shows his love for us in that we are still sinners. Christ died for us. Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by his life. David was using gospel language. And so should we. And we should remind each other. That's why we're here, church. We're here to glorify God, we're here to worship God, but we're also here to remind each other. Remind each other of that great gospel that God saved us. We deserved hell and God saved us. We also are here to share the gospel with people that need Jesus. We should be sharing that gospel with people in our lives that don't know Him, that don't know Him yet, to remind them to look, turn, trust God. It's the only way. I know we can, we try to figure it out and we can try to, maybe if I do this or maybe if I do that, it's the only way. Trust God and trust your life to Christ. The last thing we see is what bad leaders look like. Verse 8, we see that transition word, but Abner. It transitions here, most of the time it's in contrast when they use that word. But Abner, the son of Ner, commander of Saul's army, took Ishbosheth, the son of Saul, and brought him over to Mahanim, and made him king over Gilead, and Ashurites, and Jezreel, and Ephraim, and Benjamin, and all Israel. Ishbosheth, Saul's son, was forty years old when he began to reign over Israel, and he reigned two years, but the house of Judah followed David. the time that David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months." Now, notice what Abner does. He does the opposite of David. He doesn't obey God, he doesn't submit to God, he doesn't pray to God, he doesn't show mercy, and he knows. Listen, he knows. We'll see that in chapter 3. He knows David was anointed king. You see it in chapter 3, if you just turn over there, verse 9, exact words. God do so unto Abner and Moarsal if you do not accomplish for David what the Lord has sworn to him. The Lord's sworn it. He knows. He knows David is crowned king, yet he's up there doing his own thing. He's looking out for number one. He's looking out for himself. Nowadays you'd say it's good. It's okay to be selfish. That's what you hear in language today. It's okay to choose self. Forsake others. Well, to declutter a little bit of the timeline, David reigns in Hebron for seven and a half years, and we know Ishvosheth is king for two years. So we're missing like five years. What's going on there in that time? Most historians, most commentaries believe that Abner was kind of, he was up there in charge. He was the commander of the army. It would have been natural for him to be in charge, wouldn't it have been? He was the commander of the army. All the armies submitted to him. And so he somewhat is up there reigning, we believe. Most commentaries believe. ruling as commander. He understands he has no real claim to the throne, I think, and so that's why he picks Ishvosheth and kind of crowns him king. I'm in charge, I can do what I want. So he crowns him king and uses one of Saul's last sons to try and unite Israel under himself, really, as a shadow king. And Abner's a difficult, you're gonna see him try to, like, buddy up the David here later, and maybe he was, either way, his selfishness gets him killed. We're gonna notice that. He does his nation no favors. After fleeing the army that killed Saul and his sons, Israel was weakened, and Abner's actions seemed to weaken them even further. His unholy desire for power was selfish. It harmed himself. It harmed others. It harmed his nation during a time of real grave danger. I mean, there's armies all around Israel still today in grave danger. And eventually, like I said, his selfishness gets him killed. He was blinded by his desire and willing to endanger his own nation for his own selfish wants. Now, I know we're never going to get the opportunity to be king in Israel, or be Admir, the commander. I don't think there's any commanders in here. But I think we can learn something from his life. I think we have to ask ourselves, do our desires or our pursuits step on others? or hurt others. I mean, often isn't it our desires that get us to say the wrong thing or do the wrong thing? How often do our preferences lead us to complain and gossip? Our preferences. How often do we, our preferences become king in our life and we suddenly start thinking, man, we're on the right and everyone else is wrong. I've been there, I'm not. It's a question for you, a question for me. Why don't the leaders do what I want? Remember, complaining and making our preferences kink can only lead to problems. It just does. I love that David's hard. He wants to unite people. He's kind of like humbly sitting back thinking, what's going to be best for all here? He's wanting to bring them together. Well, Abner's doing the opposite. Instead, I think we should ask, how do we serve others? How do we grow to love each other better? How do we grow to serve each other better? How do we grow in submitting to God and submitting to the leaders God has placed in your life? How do we grow in trusting our lives to God? How do we die to self? Remember also, I said earlier that he knew David was gonna be king, but he chose to disobey God anyways. The same thing Saul did. He knew he was supposed to be king. He knew David was supposed to be king. And he chose his unholy ambition. Let us not be like Abner and choose self. But as David did, die to self. Seek to serve. Ask what's best for all of us. Try to view things not just in light of our circumstances and our wants. What's best for all? What's going to be best for the church? How often do we think like that? It's hard to get up in the morning and think, man, I wonder what's best for others today. Isn't it? It's like, I want a cup of coffee and give me some space for just a second here. It's easy to just think about self immediately. Luke 9.23 says this. about dying to ourself. If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it. Whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? You see that contrast? If you die to yourself, you get life. If you live for yourself, what do you get? You lose your life. He's talking about death. You see Abner was trying to gain the whole world, wasn't he? What does it profit him? He loses his life. He loses everything. Not at the hands of David. David wants to bring him in. David's kind of mad. You'll see it later. Great narrative. Beautiful story, but difficult. Beautiful in that David's gracious, sad in that men are just, they want what they want. We're seeking self and selfish desire. It's a dangerous place to be. It's a dangerous place for our own life. It just is. In fact, I'd argue that's the most dangerous place to be. The pastor alluded to it before. The most satanic thing we could do is not just, okay, we could just follow Satan with our life. That's pretty bad, don't do that. Satan would be happy for us to just follow self. He'd be happy for you to be selfish in your marriage. He'd be happy for you to be stuck in your own preferences and not see others. He'd be happy if you did not see the bigger picture. Well, in conclusion, we saw really three ways to respond in death biblically. It's not really exhaustively, but I think David gives us a little bit of a mold here or a model to follow. At first we see David, he seeks God and his will for his life in prayer, right? That's how we should respond in death. That's how we should respond to life. We should fall before God every day. Lord, what would you have for me today? And we have to admit, we don't pray as much as we should. I know I don't. I pray more than I've done in the past. I don't pray enough. I don't really seek God. It's hard for men especially. You'll get, you know, we're men. Northwest men, we can skin a buck, we can run a trap line. I don't know how to run a trap line, you guys don't have to teach me. How do we entrust our lives to God? David does a second thing, he obeys, and it's hard. Obey God. It's hard, just give me strength to put my own selfish desires and sins aside. Let me follow you. Let's seek to do so. Third thing is that we should seek to be gracious as David is gracious. Remind each other of the gospel. Once again, remind me. Every once in a while I want to hear, AC, you deserve death. We should be in hell, bro. But we have life. And I need it. I need it for many of my life. I need it. Remind me. Because I'll think often, I kind of deserve this thing. No, you don't. You deserve death, but you've been given life through Christ. Remind each other. And then, again, man, let's share the gospel, people. Let's invite them to church. You know what's great about the church? You're gonna hear the gospel every single week. Whatever we're preaching. I'm gonna flip over to 2 Samuel 7. I bet you're gonna hear the gospel. Invite people. And then finally we saw Abner's selfish pursuit of power. And we had to ask ourselves some tough questions, man. What about our own selfish pursuits? Do we believe the world more when it comes to fill-in-the-blank? Marriage, parenting, death, fill-in-the-blank. Or do we believe God's Word? Do we believe Him? Are we gonna follow our own selfish pursuits? Or are we really gonna submit to God and submit to the leaders God's placed? in your life. Or look out for number one. These are tough questions I think we all should ask. Let's pray. Well, Lord, we do praise you for you are good. You love us while we're yet sinners. You died for us while we were your enemies. And we were blown away by that mercy. Lord, help us use David's life as a model. It's an imperfect model. I'd hope when we look to David's life, we'd see you. We'd see an imperfect man that's being used by God because he submits. Lord, let us use this example to pray and pray often. We inquire of the Lord of what we should do with our lives and which direction we should go and seek out good counsel in our lives. so we can stop some of the gnarly things that happen in our life because of our selfishness. Pray that you'd help us with obedience. May you would lay our lives down and look to serve others and be obedient to you, Lord. Help us be gracious. Help us share the gospel with each other and share the gospel with a world that needs it. The sand is shifting under their feet. They have nothing to stand upon. that will give them life apart from Christ. And so, Lord, help us share that news with people we love. We also, Lord, as we look to heaven, we don't just shake our head. We humbly look in the mirror, Lord, where we're selfish and where we desire just things that are going to lead to our own destruction if we follow them. So help us, Lord. We need you. We need your mercy. We need your grace. And we need each other. So help us, Lord. In your name we pray. Amen. We have one more song.