2 Samuel 15, we'll pick up where we left off. I'll be reading verses 13 to the end of the chapter. Again, this is God's holy word. Now a messenger came to David saying, The hearts of the men of Israel are with Absalom. So David said to all his servants who were with him at Jerusalem, arise and let us flee, or we shall not escape from Absalom. Make haste to depart, lest he overtake us suddenly and bring disaster upon us. And strike the city with the edge of the sword. The king's servants said to the king, we are your servants, ready to do whatever my lord the king commands. And the king went out with all his household after him. But the king left ten women, concubines, to keep the house. And the king went out with all the people after him, and stopped at the outskirts. Then all his servants passed before him, and all the Cherethites, and all the Pelethites, and all the Gittites. 600 men who had followed him from Gath passed before the king. Then the king said to Ittai the Gittite, why are you also with us? Return and remain with the king, for you are a foreigner and also an exile from your own place. In fact, you came only yesterday. Should I make you wander up and down with us today? Since I go, I know not where. return and take your brethren back. Mercy and truth be with you. But Ittai answered the king and said, as the Lord lives and as my lord the king lives, surely in whatever place my lord the king shall be, whether in death or life, even there also your servant will be. So David said to Ittai, go and cross over. Then Ittai the Gittite And all his men and all the little ones who were with him crossed over. And all the country wept with a loud voice. And all the people crossed over. The king himself also crossed over the brook Kidron. And all the people crossed over toward the way of the wilderness. There was Zadok also, and all the Levites with him, bearing the ark of the covenant of God. And they set down the ark of God, and Abiathar went up until all the people had finished crossing over from the city. Then the king said to Zadok, carry the ark of God back into the city. If I find favor in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me back and show me both it and his dwelling place. But if he says thus, I have no delight in you. Here I am. Let him do to me as seems good to him. Then the king also said to Zadok the priest, are you not a seer? Return to the city in peace and your two sons with you, Ahamaz, your son, and Jonathan, the son of Abiathar. See, I will wait in the plains of the wilderness until word comes from you to inform me. Therefore, Zadok and Abiathar carried the ark of God back to Jerusalem and they remained there. So David went up by the ascent of the Mount of Olives and wept as he went up. And he had his head covered and went barefoot. And all the people who were with him covered their heads and went up, weeping as they went up. Then someone told David saying, Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom. And David said, oh Lord, I pray. Turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness. Now it happened when David had come to the top of the mountain where he worshiped God, there was Hushai the Archite coming to meet him with his robe torn and dust on his head. David said to him, if you go on with me, then you will become a burden to me. But if you return to the city and say to Absalom, I will be your servant, O king, as I was your father's servant previously, so I will now also be your servant. Then you may defeat the council of Ahithophel for me. And do you not have Zadok and Abiathar, the priests, with you there? Therefore, it will be that whatever you hear from the king's house, you shall tell to Zadok and Abiathar the priest. And indeed, they have there with them their two sons, Ahamaz, Zadok's son, and Jonathan, Abiathar's son. And by them you shall send me everything you hear. So Hushai, David's friend, went into the city, and Absalom came into Jerusalem. Amen. Perseverance, endurance, pushing through, bearing through difficulties is a virtue that both we can identify as Christians and unbelievers can appreciate that as well. It takes perseverance to do just about anything well, whether you're starting a business, Whether you're earning a degree, playing a sport, learning how to play a sport really well, or maybe an instrument, the piano, you have to persevere. It's difficult. It's hard. There's times where you want to quit. And being a Christian is no different. Being a faithful servant of the Lord Jesus is not easy. It takes perseverance. Think of the words of the Lord Jesus Christ when he told a man that said to him, I'd follow you anywhere. He says that foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests, the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. It's gonna be uncomfortable. Christ said to his followers during the Sermon on the Mount, he said, narrow is the gate and difficult is the way that leads to life. And as Christians, we need perseverance, and even during our prayer requests, we picked up on that. We need to persevere, we have a need to endure difficulties for Christ's sake. I wanna speak to you tonight on that regard, and encourage you in it, to exhort you, as it were, to continue to persevere, and to encourage you as you do that. What we have in this passage, one of the reasons why I've chosen this section is because we have, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the narrator, okay, the author of this book has played out, has elaborated on various followers of the true king, not the false king. So the people of God we have here are all those that are following the king. And they're having to endure trials. Absalom, the son of David, in fulfillment of Nathan's prophecy in 1 Samuel 12, that from his own house, David's house, would rise up to attack him as it were. We have that going on here and all these people here are choosing to endure, to persevere through various difficulties in order to follow the true King, King David. And what I want you to see tonight is this lesson for us Christians Christians who desire to faithfully follow Christ must persevere through various difficulties. The difficulties of hostility, discomfort, unfamiliarity, inconvenience, and pride. Okay, Christians, in order to follow Christ faithfully, persevere through the difficulties of discomfort, hostility, inconvenience, and pride and unfamiliarity. So five points tonight. Notice my first two points come from the first few verses regarding essentially David's servants that are right around him. I want you to see first the hostility that God's people often experience as they follow Christ. So hostility. Notice verse 13, a messenger came to David saying, the hearts of the men of Israel are with Absalom. Have you ever felt unpopular as a Christian? That's the state now for us in this world. We're unpopular. Most people are not following Christ, and that's what's going on in Jerusalem, okay? The hearts of Israel are following after Absalom. It's suddenly becoming unpopular to be a servant of David, and we know as the story goes on that This may not be an enormous majority, but it seems as if the people have, in the main, have been deceived, and they're following Absalom. And there is a physical threat to God's people, David himself and the city, those who represent David's city. He took this city, it represents his kingdom. Verse 14, so David said to all his servants who were with him at Jerusalem, arise and let us flee or we shall not escape from Absalom. Make haste to depart lest he overtake us suddenly and bring disaster upon us and strike the city with the edge of the sword. Hostility, physical hostility. It goes really for all these people. I mean, Hushai and Zadok, excuse me, and Ittai as well, but especially Hushai and Zadok, they had to go back to the city where Absalom was gonna be, not exactly a safe mission, behind enemy lines as it were. It's hostile, there's a threat, there's a physical threat. And this is a normal experience for God's people, even if it's coming from the church, which is what we have in here, the visible church attacking one another, really. Christ said in John 15, 19, to his disciples. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. The world hates you. Think about that. John, the apostle, said in his epistle, 1 John 3, 13, Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you. Do not marvel. You stand up in your circles, in your community, in this city, for the exclusive gospel, you're going to be reproached. It's very unpopular in our land for men like myself to preach an exclusive gospel for you to witness to people, to represent that exclusive gospel. You might not be hunted down, you might not be in prison like some of God's people in China are, but it's hostile. We stand up for God's law. I mean just standing up for in love and doing it in its proper way, but just speaking out to what God says about sexuality in our land, whether it be marriage between one man and one woman, whether it be cohabitation, things like that. I mean, you start talking about these things, and people will be offended at you, and it can get ugly. And this is our experience, and we should expect this to happen to some degree. And one of the struggles you face is to not go there, to not be different, to kind of morph in. Because it's, after all, who wants to be around hostility? This is a difficulty that we face. We're not, in this country at least, faced with the exact same type of threat. But the world, if it's not under the authority of Christ, it's under the power of Christ, it's under the influence of the devil. And he hates us, and he hates Christ. We can expect this, and we need to be prepared for this type of thing. It appears to be coming to us more and more as Christians in this country. And are you prepared to do that type of thing? I've told you this before. I was encouraged when I had this interchange. There was a man in seminary from Nigeria who came and ate dinner at my house. And it was normal for him and his church back in Nigeria. to have been faced, there were people who had their gun pointed at them, Muslims. And he said to me, without a doubt, of course I would profess Christ. That's what we have to be able to do. He who denies before men, him I will deny before my Father in heaven. He who confesses me before men, him I will confess before my Father in heaven. Hostility. Notice also, secondly, discomfort. Discomfort. There are times as Christians, certainly comfort and wealth are not sinful themselves. But there will be times where we will face discomfort in order to follow Christ. And I'm picking up mainly on the fact in verse 15 and 16. And the king's servants said to the king, notice the faith here. This is what it takes. It takes strong faith to do these types of things. We are your servants ready to do whatever my Lord the King commands. And the king went out with all his household after him. Where are they going? Where are they leaving? They are leaving the city of Jerusalem. That's what we see here. All these servants here with their families it appears are leaving the city. The city is where they have a comfortable place. They have a bed. They have a home. David does not know where he is going. He says that in verse 20 to Ittai. Since I go, I know not where." He's going into the wilderness, the way of the wilderness, verse 23. Seems like to be an uncomfortable thing. What could have David's servants could have said? You can go, I'm going to stay here in my bed. Maybe Absalom will be merciful, especially if I defect and kind of do what you're suggesting Hushai does. I don't feel like being uncomfortable. Something to think about, the apostles Acts 14.22, notice what the apostles say to God's people. Acts 14.22, Think about Christ's exhortation to deny yourself. He who wants to be my disciple, let him take up his cross, deny himself and follow after me. Being a Christian can be uncomfortable. It doesn't have to be just physical things like this. It's uncomfortable. It may be uncomfortable for you to go up to a visitor who comes to our church and to greet them, start a conversation with them. It might be socially uncomfortable. Maybe it's uncomfortable for you to to some degree to budget in your finances a little bit more diagonal influence and giving. So you might have to give up a night out to eat with your family. You know, these type of things God's putting on your heart, it may very well be from the Lord. It may be very wise for you to do those things because Christians, living a Christian life, living faithful to Christ, we should expect some degree of discomfort. You know, it's uncomfortable to go out and to witness and to share, pass a track out. There's some uncomfortableness when you, Lori was talking about sharing and speaking to this young lady. I mean, you know, what are they going to say? Are they going to reject us? It's uncomfortable, socially. It can be discouraging. I think of verse 31. Maybe this is emotional discomfort or generally the same idea, discouragement. Here is news of Ahithophel, this wise man who's a mighty man, according to 2 Samuel, I believe chapter 23, David's friend. Ahithophel is defected. I mean, how discouraging is that? How emotionally uncomfortable is that? Perhaps this is a little bit different of a point, but these are the things that we must endure through and to know that It's coming, I mean this is part of what it means to be a Christian. It's not easy being a Christian. I'm gonna come back to that and encourage you in a moment, but I want you to see that. I want you to see that. And if that's happening to you, if you think God's challenging you in these areas, it may very well be true. What else do we see here? We have Ittai the Gittite, and I think there's a lesson here for us. Ittai, much of this applies to Ittai. Ittai is a great example of faith, of loyalty. I mean look at verse 21, as the Lord lives and as my Lord the King lives, surely in whatever place my Lord the King shall be, whether in death or life, even there also your servant will be. There is faith, there's perseverance. What is Ittai facing? I want you to see that, it's important for us to see this. He's also facing hostility. He's facing discomfort. Unfamiliarity. I want you to think about this. Unfamiliarity. I think this is especially useful for us if we're new converts. Maybe you can keep this in mind as you witness and do evangelism to new converts. Unfamiliarity. Ittai is a Gittite. It means he's from Gath. It's the same place where Goliath was from. He's not from Israel. He's not from Judah. He didn't play with David when he was a kid. His wife. His wife is not familiar with the other ladies. There might be a language barrier. He's not only from a foreign land, from the Philistines, but he's also just arrived. We don't know The exact circumstances maybe however he heard of David he appears to have faith in the true God and Yahweh and he's following the king. All this is very unfamiliar I mean even the king says listen you don't really have connections with me you can take off and go back to a place that's familiar. And I think it's very useful for us to see a connection here with a new convert. And I want you to think about it in that sense. I believe probably all of you are familiar with Rosaria Butterfield. You know, her conversion out of lesbianism, out of this nice job as an English, I believe as an English professor at Syracuse. I mean, it's a call to be unfamiliar, to leave a group of people that you know, more or less your family, your circle of friends, and to go somewhere else. I mean, she ended up going to, I believe it was Beaver Falls, Pittsburgh area. And that may be what God wants certain people to do. I've shared with you my story about Callaway, the interpreter in Iraq. He asked me, if I become a Christian, do I have to tell my parents about it? He knows that I'm about to lose my family. Who's gonna be my family? Who are gonna be my friends? We are pilgrims and strangers on the earth. 1 Peter 2.11, beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims. See how the Peter addresses the church? Those who are faithful to the whole of faith in Hebrews 11. Listen to this. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, were assured of them, embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Perhaps this is useful for us to think about when we do evangelism and we talk to people. One of the off-quoted, misquoted verses in the Bible, Jeremiah 29, 11. The context points away from a direct personal application to every single person now. But the verse says, for I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. And think about, I mean, becoming a Christian, to die to yourself, it can be very difficult, practically speaking, for someone to become a Christian. We shouldn't sugarcoat it. But we can always encourage people. who are looking at this, you know, the Calloways, my interpreter in Iraq, other people we know that are looking at this situation. If God is calling someone to put their faith in Christ, and He does call sinners to put their faith in Christ, and that means to leave a support group, He will provide another support group. He will provide a family, even if your literal family disowns you. And that's the church. That's the church. The beginning, or the book of Acts, we can see how the church functions. The church meets together, they worship together, they pray together, they break bread together. They even sold of their own possessions and provided needs for one another. They were a tight-knit group. And if God is calling someone out from their foreign land, as it were, to be a Christian, to follow Christ, and everything's unfamiliar, He will provide a support group. He will provide friends. He will provide another family. Unfamiliarity. Itai is willing to face this as well as many of the other difficulties. What else do we see here as far as the difficulties that these people are facing? We have here an account. of God's people and the situations they're in following the king. And with Zadok and Abathur and Hushai, we have the idea of inconvenience. And as I said, a lot of these applies what I've already said to them. But think about this for a second. Zadok and Abathur have an idea of how they are going to serve the king. So fourth, inconvenience. They have an idea. They have a plan. Hushai has a plan on how they are going to serve the king. And their plan involves tagging along with Ittai and all the others and being with the king and being faithful and being next to him and going into the wilderness. And David changes their plans. And that's inconvenient for them. Have you ever had your plans changed? Have you ever been walking down the path of the Christian life and things were not working out the way that you seemed, and for different reasons, maybe providential, God is directing you somewhere else? That's what's going on here. Zadok, perhaps David remembered the last time the Ark left its proper place. 1 Samuel 4-6 reminds us of that. Eli's sons brought the Ark into battle and the Philistines defeated them and they routed them. Perhaps David has that in mind. But either way, the king gives them orders with Hushai. They're gonna serve me as secret informants. You're gonna be in Jerusalem, you're gonna be near Absalom, and you're gonna tell me what's going on. And you're gonna try to, in the case of Hishai, you're gonna try to defeat Ahithophel's council. Hishai's thinking, listen, I'm not that old, I can hang with you. David said, no, you're gonna slow me down. I got another plan for you. And as we go through the Christian life, we will face times where God will redirect our life. We need to be flexible. We'll face inconveniences. You'll be looking at your life and situation A is what you want to do, but situation B and choice B is what Christ wants you to do. And that's very inconvenient. What do you do? Proverbs 16.9, a man's heart plans his way where the Lord directs his steps. A man's heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps. Now this proverb is getting at the idea of human responsibility and God's sovereignty, but it also reminds us of how we can make plans, but the Lord is the one who is going to direct us. And we need to be willing to to adjust. We don't have direct verbal revelation now like Hushai and Zadok did. But whether it be studying scripture, whether it be providence and prayer, God can change us. And we don't want to be like Jonah. Jonah had no problem being a prophet. He just didn't want to be a prophet in Nineveh. God changed his plans. It suddenly became very inconvenient for him. You may be disappointed about your situation in life. Maybe God has said, wait five more years. Maybe you're disappointed about jobs or your education or relationships. And God's saying, hold on. If that's the case, are you willing to be flexible? Are you willing to face this inconvenience and trust in Him? Something that I wanna encourage you, you know, You may be thinking to yourself, is God wise? I mean, that's what I would have thought if I was Zadok and Hushai. You want me to go back to the city? I mean, that's where Absalom's gonna be. Is God wise? Maybe you're really facing some difficulties, and maybe your A and B choice is really a big deal. Is God gonna provide for me? Is he wise? I've grown a lot of comfort, I've drawn a lot of comfort from Matthew 10, 29 through 31. I'm gonna read those verses to you. Matthew 10, 29 through 31. Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? Not one of them falls to the ground apart from your father's will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear, therefore you are of more value than many sparrows." You're facing a difficulty, you're facing a question of wisdom, you feel like God may be directing your life and it's going to be inconvenient, it's going to be difficult. Listen, God knows the number of hairs on your head. He knows your situation. And if there's not a bird that falls to the ground apart from His will, there's nothing that happens in your life apart from His will. He's gonna take care of you. You're more valuable than many sparrows. Do not fear. He's gonna give you strength to face these situations, and He is wise. He knows what's going on. And if this B option is truly from the Lord, then He's gonna provide for you. He's gonna care for you. Inconvenience. And fifthly, I want to look at another difficulty that we see here in following the king. And it's actually from David himself and it's pride. David is a type of Christ and I've been queuing off that and I think we should. David is a king. Christ is king. For God's people to follow the Lord it means to follow David. He's the anointed king. Yet David is not Christ. He's very much not Christ. In his own right he is growing in faith and in knowledge and he has to also follow the Lord. One of the things that I want you to see in this chapter is we begin to see David's faith more. We begin to see that he's still spiritually alive. He's facing the difficulty of pride. Now as Christians one of the things that you will face One of the things that I've faced is my own pride in the Christian life. A need to confess sin and to repent and to change and not harden. And David is under chastening. You can imagine that he's hearing Nathan's prophecy, 1 Samuel 12, and this is really happening. He can heart it and ignore it. He can argue that he's the right anointed king. He's very humbled. He's weeping. Verse 30, so David went up by the ascent of the Mount of Olives and wept as he went up. He had his head covered. He's humbled. He's humbled under the chasing of the Lord. He's praying. Verse 31, Lord, I pray, turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness." These are all signs of faith. These are all signs of repentance, of humility. Notice what he says in verse 26 to Zadok, but if he says thus, I have no delight in you, here I am. Let him do to me as seems good to him. David is facing the issue of pride. And he's responding in humility, and confession, and repentance, and faith. James 4.6 says, but he gives more grace, therefore he says, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Maybe another way of understanding this is shame. The idea of shame. Now there is certainly shame that would be wrong. You don't want to just expose your own sins and things like that. That's not a sign of godliness. But one of the things you have to get over is shame. I mean maybe you sinned against your spouse. Maybe your sin is public. In order to really respond to that you have to get over the fact that I'm going to have to face some embarrassment. I mean God wants you to live faithfully to Him and that might involve acceptance of the situation. Quit lying about what's going on. Humble yourself before the Lord. Confess your sin, repent. That's the path of life. In my short time as a pastor, not just in this congregation, but I'm really thinking in other situations, it's just, man, this person would just Be so proud and just realize that they're the problem. David is realizing that. I'm the problem, I wanna throw myself upon the Lord and confess and turn. And he will have mercy. And he will forgive. Proverbs 28, 13, we know that for David. We know that for David. David's gonna feel some consequences. He's gonna feel some temporal consequences of his sin. But he's ultimately going to be forgiven and restored. Think of Proverbs 28, 13. I've quoted this verse to you many times. He who covers his sins will not prosper. He who is persistent in their pride will not prosper. But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy. You will have mercy. And that's a real difficulty we see here, pride. And this is a difficulty that we face as Christians, and we need to recognize that and know that our God is merciful and gracious and will forgive us. Christians who, in order to faithfully follow Christ, persevere through the difficulties of hostility, discomfort, unfamiliarity, inconvenience, and pride. I want to ask you whether or not you are willing to do this. What would you have done? Would you have been one of David's servants who said, we are your servants ready to do whatever my Lord the King commands? Are you willing to do those things even if it means difficulties and trials? The encouraging thing is that God will always give you the strength and the grace to endure the trial that he has for you. Perhaps you're like me, you've read a few missionary biographies, and I could give a million examples of all these Christians who've endured all these great difficulties and trials. Listen, I'm not John G. Payton. You know, I'm not, I was, I don't have the grace and the faith because I'm not in that situation. But the situation that you're in, and so you might be kind of, you know, like me, like, wow, man, I could never do that. But God is gonna give you grace for the situation that you're in. My grace is sufficient for you. My grace is sufficient for you. I read this passage, I wanna close with this, during the service, James 5. Do you think about these verses? Verse 10, my brethren, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord as an example of suffering and patience. Indeed, we count them blessed who endure, who persevere. We count them blessed. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord, that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful. He's with you. He's with you, you're a pilgrim, you're a stranger, but he's with you and he's calling you to follow him, to persevere through difficulties. Let's pray. Father, we pray that you would give us the grace to persevere. in our situations, the various situations represented in this room, that you would give us grace and faith to be like Ittai and to be like Zadok and these others who followed the king. Father, we pray for strength, and we ask that you would renew to us more and more, that you are with us, that you are gracious, and that you have redeemed us, and that we're ultimately heavenly citizens waiting for that great and awesome day. We pray for this grace and for this encouragement, for we ask all these things in Jesus's name, amen.