All right, we'll be in 2 Samuel chapter 21 this morning, 2 Samuel chapter 21, if you want to kind of turn there in your Bibles and have that ready. The other night at men's prayer meeting, we were discussing the effect that our decisions And the decisions that we make, how that, you know, the effect they have on other people. And, you know, we spent, you know, we spent some time doing that and it was kind of an eye-opening thing. And it's something that we all know, but it's amazing when you sit down and you think about it. Sometimes our decisions can have a good effect on people. Other times our decisions, quite frankly, can be pretty destructive. On Sunday afternoons, for those of you that weren't aware, we're studying the book of Daniel. We do a verse-by-verse Bible study on Wednesday night and on Sunday afternoons at 2 o'clock. And that is really where you kind of get in and dig a little bit deeper into the doctrinal things of the Bible. And you begin to cross-reference things and put things together. So if you're inclined or if you have opportunity to come to those, I would encourage you to do that. But we're currently studying the book of Daniel. And we spent a lot of times looking at the four young Hebrew young men that made some good decisions early on in their life. And we watched how that over the years of their life, those good decisions produced a lot of good fruit and a lot of good results. And it paid dividends time and time again just making those good decisions. Now, we're not, you know, we're not talking necessarily about the decision of salvation versus staying lost. I think most everyone here is saved and praise the Lord for that. If you're not, salvation is obviously a good decision. That's a one-time thing. We're talking more about the daily decisions that you make that are going to have an effect in your life. You know, the Bible says you reap what you sow. And so those four Hebrew children, they sowed a lot of good decisions and they had a lot of good that came from it. Well, this morning we're going to look at the other side of the equation. And we're going to look at some bad decisions that were made in the Bible so that you can hopefully round out that picture and get a complete perspective on the decisions that you make in life. So if you only come on Sunday mornings, all you get is the negative message. You come on Sunday afternoon, you get the positive message. But the purpose, like I said, of looking at the bad decisions is because You know, we need to get that complete picture so that hopefully we'll strive to make better decisions in our lives. Amen? Hopefully we'll strive to avoid the bad decisions. And a lot of us can look back and see some of the bad decisions that we've made in the past. And the idea is to be able to cling to what is good and what is right. It says in 3 John, it says, beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. It says in 1 Thessalonians, see that none render evil for evil unto any man, but ever follow that which is good. The idea obviously is we're supposed to follow good, we're supposed to make good decisions, and that should be in the back of our mind with everything that we do. It says in Romans, let love be without dissimulation, abhor that which is evil. cleave to that which is good. Right? So that's your goal. That's what you ought to strive for in your life. But the reality is sometimes we fall short of the glory of God. So let us look at what can happen, folks, if you begin to fall short and you begin to make decisions that are not good. decisions that are bad. I've titled this message this morning, When Decisions Turn Into Disasters. When Decisions Turn Into Disasters. Hopefully, you're at Second Samuel. Let's go ahead and bow our heads for a word of prayer and then we'll jump into Second Samuel. Father, we thank you once again for an opportunity to be here on a Sunday morning. You're a great God. Father, you have been more than gracious and long-suffering and patient with us, and for that, we are grateful. But Lord, we come before you this morning, a needy people, and I pray that you'd minister and work in our hearts, help us to see, Father, that the decisions we make have a huge impact, not only in our lives, but in the lives of a lot of other people around us as well. And I pray that you would just help us as we try to make good decisions, give us strength, Help us to remember sometimes, Father, the bad side of the equation so that we can strive more earnestly for the good side of the equation. I pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Take a look at 2 Samuel chapter 21. And it starts off and says, and there was a famine in the days of David, three years, year after year. And David inquired of the Lord. And the Lord answered, it is for Saul and for his bloody house because he slew the Gibeonites. And the king called the Gibeonites and said unto them, Now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites. And the children of Israel had sworn unto them, and Saul sought to slay them in his zeal to the children of Israel and Judah. Wherefore David said unto the Gibeonites, What shall I do for you, and wherewith shall I make the atonement, that ye may bless the inheritance of the Lord? And the Gibeonites said unto him, We will have no silver nor gold of Saul, nor of his house, neither for us shalt thou kill any man in Israel. And he said, What ye shall say, that will I do for you. And they answered the king, The man that consumed us and that devised against us that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the coasts of Israel. Let seven men of his sons be delivered unto us, and we will hang them up unto the Lord in Gibeah of Saul, whom the Lord did choose. And the king said, I will give them. But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, because of the Lord's oath that was between them, between David and Jonathan, the son of Saul. But the king took the two sons of Rizpah, the daughter of Ahaiah, whom she bare unto Saul, Armoni, and Mephibosheth, obviously another one, and the five sons of Michael, the daughter of Saul, whom she brought up for Adriel, the son of Barzillai, the Maholothite, and delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them on the hill before the Lord, and they fell all seven together and were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days, in the beginning of barley harvest. So here you have a passage of scripture where King Saul has seven of his sons that are now put to death because of something that happened in the past. When we think of King Saul, we think of a man that made a lot of bad decisions. Obviously, during his lifetime, he made several bad decisions along the way, and the Bible's pretty good about throwing those out there and letting you see what Saul is like. We think of a man that, for the greater part of his life, was at odds against the Lord. And and King Saul should have remembered what Moses had said and Moses Moses said this in verse 17 says you shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God and his Testimonies and statutes which which he hath commanded us and thou shalt do that which is right and good in the sight of the Lord That it may be well with thee Well Saul didn't remember that Saul didn't take any heed to that. Saul decided to make decisions, again, his own way. Saul became consumed with himself as a king. And what captured my attention about this, as I was reading it, you know, a while back, what captured my attention is that, you know, this decision wind up turning into a complete disaster for the nation of Israel. And the thing that stuck out is this, Saul made this breach on the Gibeonites, okay? They were descendants of Ammon, they were in the land and, you know, he slew the Gibeonites in verse one, and we're not told why he did it. We're not necessarily even told in the Bible when he did it. of all the things that Saul did wrong. And there's some hints about when it may have been, but there's no really direct account of when this happens. But regardless of when it happens, folks, the Lord is now looking at the nation of Israel. And the background on this is about 400 years prior to this, Joshua made a pact, made a league, make a covenant with the Gibeonites and said, all right, we won't harm you. Well, now 400 years later, Saul apparently breaks this contract. And then, if that isn't eye-opening enough, what really got me was this, the disaster that resulted from that decision does not come in Saul's day. It comes when David is king. And I was thinking about that for a while. So the first thing I'd like to point out about, you know, decisions and how they can certainly turn into disasters, folks, is what you have to watch when you're dealing with decisions is you have to realize that sometimes those decisions are decisions from the past. All right? Now, we've all been, you know, we've all faced that. We all know that about ourselves. Unfortunately, the past is not something that you can change. It is not something you can control. For the most part, there's not an awful lot that you can do about it. We'll talk about some preventative measures here in a second. But as you look back on your life, you realize you are the product of the decisions that you've made in life. for the most part, and sometimes the decisions of other people. But you're the product of those decisions. And sometimes, you know, those decisions, the Lord will overlook some things and give you crop failure and let some things slide. But other times, you'll find yourself in a disaster because of decisions that happened some time ago in your life. In this case, it was a decision that happened 400 years ago. And then for King David, it's a decision that happened, not even in his reign, in the reign of Saul, about 40 years prior to where we pick up the story. Take a look at verse one, and notice what happened. Then there was a famine in those days of David. Three years, year after year, And David inquired of the Lord, and the Lord answered, it is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites. Now, I was thinking about that. There's a famine in the days of David. This famine's going on for three years. I wonder how long it took David to go to the Lord before he figured this out. Because three years of famine has gone by, and now he finally gets the answer. I'm certain that David had to have been praying about it before that time. But for whatever reason, three years into the famine, the Lord gives David the answer. And, you know, I hope that David would have been praying about it for the last prior to three years into the famine. But the Lord sends three years of famine, and eventually when it all gets sorted out, seven sons of Saul are dead. And I thought about that, and what struck my mind is I began to wonder, why? Why does the Lord pull up this famine under the reign of David when David's not the one that had anything to do with it at all? Right? Why me? You ever been there in life? You ever been there in a place in your life where things are going on and the world's caving in all around you and you sit there and you put your head in your hands and the only thing you can think of is, Lord, why me? Why me? Why is all this happening to me? I bet for three years, David has been sitting around wondering, what on earth is going on? How come we're in this famine? And I know that God is just. And I know that God is right. So why punish David and his people for something that Saul did 40 years ago? You ever wonder about those things when you read the Bible? I do. Now, I struggle with that question. And I hesitated to use this example because I didn't want to insinuate or bring into your minds or make you think that God is somehow or another unjust. that he somehow or another did things not right. I know in Ezekiel it says, the soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon them, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him. Right? So I know that's a biblical principle. And I'm sitting there and I'm, you know, looking at this passage and going over with the Lord, going, okay, Lord, I, hey, listen, I don't want the people at church to think that somehow or another, I don't want to put it in their minds that you made a mistake, because I know he didn't. I don't want to cast a shadow on your honor, Lord. What's going on here, right? Why did you wait until David was king before you throw this famine for three years on the nation of Israel? And by the way, it's not as if David just took over the kingdom. David's been a king for a long time. And the usual answer that I get at times like this came to me again, Bob, you're an idiot. Don't get tunnel vision. Look at the big picture. Look and see what's going on. Go with me, if you will, back to 2 Samuel chapter 19. 2 Samuel chapter 19. And and I'm gonna try time is gonna escape from me very quickly I'm gonna try to condense this and do the best that I can but a 2nd Samuel 17 19 excuse me 2nd Samuel 19 verse 17 and there were a thousand men of Benjamin with him and Ziba the servant of the house of Saul and his 15 sons and his 20 servants with him. And they went over to Jordan before the king. Go back to verse 16. I'm sorry, I put the wrong reference. And Shemei, the son of Gera, a Benjamite, which was of Baharim, hasted and came down with the men of Judah to meet King David. And there were a thousand men of Benjamin with him. And there went verse 18 there went over a ferry boat to carry over the king's household and to do what he thought good and Shimei the son of Gera fell down before the king and he was come over Jordan and he said unto the king let not my lord impute iniquity to me and Neither do thou remember that which thy servant did perversely in the day that my lord the king went out from Jerusalem." That would have been when Absalom rose up and took over. That, you know, don't remember what I did, all the mistakes that I made when thou went out from Jerusalem, that the king should take it to his heart. For thy servant doth know that I have sinned. So in 2 Samuel chapter 19, you have a bunch of Benjamites under Shimei that when David wound up being abdicated from the throne and he winds up running from his son Absalom, they wind up to some degree or extent rebelling. Take a look at chapter 20. Look at verse one, and there happened to be there a man of Belial, whose name was Sheba, this is another guy, the son of Bichri, a Benjamite. And we all remember Saul was a Benjamite. So Shimei's a Benjamite, Sheba's a Benjamite, Saul was a Benjamite. And he blew a trumpet and said, we have no part in David, neither have we any inheritance in the son of Jesse. Every man to his tents, O Israel. So every man of Israel went up from after David and followed Sheba, the son of a bickery. the men of Judah, but the men of Judah claimed to their king from Jordan even unto Jerusalem. So Sheba was a Benjamite and he led a revolt. And Shimei was a Benjamite and he led a revolt. And I got to thinking about that whole thing. And what I realized is this, Saul made this decision You know some 40 years ago during the time he was king and he decided to go kill a bunch of the Gibeonites which was a breach and then God held things off and We pick it up in in 2nd Samuel chapter 21. We're now now David's in the middle of a famine why because of what Saul did and But after Saul's death, you've got these Benjamites that still are against David and they're still bringing a revolt against King David. You know what I think happened? I think the Lord was looking back and I think the Lord would have let Saul's transgressions slip. except for the fact that a bunch of people started making decisions against King David. And a bunch of the Israelites, a bunch of the Israelites, there was a bunch of people that followed him. A bunch of those people decided they wanted to follow the house of Saul versus the house of David, even after David had been king for a while. Remember, David had that problem with Absalom, and we'll talk a little bit more about that in a second. But Absalom rose up and he took over as king. David fled. The kingdom's kind of in turmoil because the king has now been run out of town by his son. Well, they have the battle. Of course, Absalom dies. David comes back. David takes up as king again. And now you have a bunch of these Benjamites who they're in the mix of this political turmoil. And they're saying, you know what? We don't want to follow the house of David. We want to follow this house of Saul. And I think what happened is I think the Lord held off. on this punishment from that transgression that happened in the past from Saul's sin. And I think he sat back and he watched the sons of Saul to see what they would do. And he watched the nation of Israel to see what they would do. And as time went on and as Saul died and David took over the throne and David began his reign and then you had some turmoil in David's reign and David's now back on the throne. I think the Lord was sitting back there, and when it comes to decisions that were in the past, in your life, how does the Lord decide whether you're gonna reap or whether he's gonna give you crop failure? Because if it's a bad decision, you want crop failure. Hey, you know what the Lord did here? The Lord sat back for a while and watched, and he looked at more decisions that are made. And a bunch of those people decided They were going to keep making bad decisions. And now here we are, 40 years after Saul made his transgression, and the Lord says, you know what? All these people in the nation of Israel, they're still making bad decisions. They're still trying to follow the house of Saul. All right, if they want to follow the house of Saul, I'll let them reap the punishment for some of Saul's sins, if that's the direction they want to go. You know what I gather from that, folks? I gather from that that The Lord, the Lord is looking, you know, you've got decisions in your past that you made that maybe wind up in some pretty tragic things happening. Some pretty big disasters. But there are other decisions in your life that you made that you're sitting there praying, Lord, don't let me have a bumper crop on this decision. Lord, would you give me a crop failure on this decision? And you know what I think? I think the Lord sits back and watches. And I think the Lord probably wanted to let it go. That's why he waited so long. Because there's really no reason for him to punish David and his kingdom until you consider all the decisions that everybody else is making. So you know one of the best ways to, you know, to avoid, to avoid this, you know, this dilemma in your life? Hey, maybe you have made some bad decisions in the past. Don't keep making them. It's rocket science, right? It's just rocket science. What David did when it came down to this whole thing, David found out what was going on. The Lord tells David, hey, it's because of Saul. You know what the first thing David does when he finds out what's going on? David says, I want to make things right. Okay, Lord, what do I need to do? You want to, you want to, you know, do you want to hopefully reap crop failure from some bad decisions in the past? Hey, take a look at it and go to the Lord and ask him the same thing David did. What can I do to make this right? And he went to the Gibeonites. Hey, guys, you're the ones that have been wronged. You're the ones that have been cheated. You're the ones that have, you know, had this transgression made up on you. What does it take to make things right? And they gave it, you know what? We're not after vengeance. We're not after all that. Just give us seven sons from Saul. And that's exactly what David did. Decisions in the past are difficult to deal with, right? I ran across this. It's kind of a cool little thing. I'm sorry is a statement. You know, I won't do it again is a promise. How do I make it up to you is responsibility. David saw what was going on, and you know what he was after? He was after, how do I fix it? How do I pay? What can I do to make up for the transgression that Saul made? Folks, sometimes that's all you can do for decisions that you've made in the past that have been big blunders. You can't change them. All you can do is acknowledge it and say, okay, Lord, how do I make it right? And maybe the Lord will give you crop failure. However, the nation of Israel continued to follow those things of Saul and continued to follow Saul and continued to have a heart and a desire to follow Saul. And I would venture to say that a bunch of those sons of Saul were in on a lot of these revolts. And the Lord finally got to the point where he said, okay, There's no change in the decision-making pattern. Now we're gonna have to reap for the past. Decisions, right? So I think the Lord gave them the result of their decision. You know what you gotta be careful of, folks? You gotta be careful of the decisions that you make now because of decisions in the past. may be affected greatly by what you do now. You can't change the past, but you can certainly take care of now. Let me look at another thing, another bad decision that is an example. Another thing that you have to be careful of when it comes to decisions, because you don't want them to turn into a disaster, is you need to be careful when you make a decision when you are in pain. Take a look at 2 Samuel chapter 13. 2 Samuel chapter 13. Decisions of the past that you can't do an awful lot about, but sometimes you get to the place where you are making decisions when you're in a lot of pain, or you're under a lot of pressure, and you are forced to make decisions. When you get to that point in your life, folks, you've got to be careful, because that is a disaster waiting to happen. In 2 Samuel chapter 13, you know the story. Absalom is David's son. He has a sister named Tamar. Of course, you know, Amnon, another one of David's son, goes in under her, defiles her. Absalom waits for the right opportunity, and then he goes out to take vengeance on Amnon, and he has Amnon killed. And all that is the beginning of chapter 13. I don't have time to read through all that or take, you know, go through all that, but take a look down at verse 28. So that's where we pick it up, verse 28. Now Absalom had commanded his servants, saying, mark ye now when Amnon's heart is married with wine, and when I say unto you, smite Amnon, then kill him. Fear not, have I not commanded you? Be courageous and be valiant. And the servants of Absalom did unto Amnon as Absalom had commanded. Then all the king's son arose, and every man gat him up upon his mule and fled. So Amnon is now dead. It says, and it came to pass in verse 30, while they were in the way, that tidings came to David. saying Absalom has slain all the king's sons and there is not one of them left. Then the king arose, tear his garments, lay on the earth, and all the servants stood by with their clothes rent." So now David hears news of this and of course he doesn't, just like most things, you don't get the full story right at the beginning. But David thinks all of his sons are dead. And it turns out, no, it's not all of them, just Amnon. But nonetheless, David now finds himself in a place where he is in great pain. He is in great turmoil. And David is going to have to make some decisions coming up here in just a second. And he finds himself in a place where the pressures of life, the pain of life, and what he's thinking about, all those things are weighing on his heart. And now David's got to deal with this family tragedy that's taken place, right? And to make things worse, the villain, Jonadab's friend, y'all remember it was Jonadab's friend that kind of instigated this whole thing, right? Well, that's actually, that is actually Absalom's cousin. It's David's nephew. This is a big mess, this is a big family mess. So David, David is under a lot of pressure. David's got some things going on that are just, you know, he's got a daughter that's been defiled, a son's been killed, another son that's fled. Absalom winds up leaving and running away because he's afraid that, you know, dad is going to be angry at him. And so in verse 38, take a look at verse 38. So Absalom fled, went to Geshur and was there three years. And look at verse 39, and the soul of David longed to go forth unto Absalom, for he was comforted concerning Amnon, seeing he was dead. So here's David, he's king, he's had all this stuff happen. Absalom has fled because he's afraid that he's going to be in big trouble. David is now overwhelmed. And David kind of to some degree gets over, okay, I lost Amnon and, you know, he's some measure of comfort. And it says in there that he longed, it says he longed to go forth unto Absalom. David has a decision to make right here at this point. David can either go to Absalom and make amends and repair the relationship and get things set back on order as the way they should be, or David can do nothing. Guess what David does? David does nothing. His heart's telling him to go make things right with Absalom. But he just can't cross that line. And you know what that is, folks? That's a decision. But that's a decision made out of pain because of what David's been going through. So David's decision is to do nothing. When you know the solutions to all your problems, but you just don't want to do them. Ever been there? I have. You know what you gotta be careful of? You gotta be careful of making the decisions when you're in the middle of a lot of pain, when you're in the middle of being hurt. Why? Because oftentimes you'll decide to do nothing. Because you just don't feel like it. because it's too much energy, it's too much work. Hey, listen, how many times have you been angry at somebody and you knew that you should move, take a move to make things right, but you just didn't do it? Hey, husbands and wives, ever have that happen between you? Right, what is that? Hey, that's making a decision when you're in the middle of pain. And sometimes it's easy just to not do anything. And that's what David winds up doing. Decisions made in pain are often bad decisions. And the reality is this, folks. You'll tend to do one of two things when you find yourself in that situation. You will tend to be too soft on everything because you're trying to avoid more pain. Or you will tend to be too hard because you're putting up a defensive barrier because you're trying to avoid more pain. And that's where David finds himself in this whole mess. Right? David just puts up that defensive barrier and I don't want to deal with Saul. I mean Absalom. I don't want to deal with Absalom chapter 14 Joab intercedes Convinces the king hey King you got to go get Absalom. He's your son. You need to go get him Absalom's been gone for three years now And Joab intercedes and and and David, you know, he acquiesces and finally gives in to Joab's You know Joab's counsel and Joab's advice and he says, okay fine go get Absalom But So Joab arose, chapter 14, verse 23, arose, went to Geshur, brought Absalom back to Jerusalem. But in verse 24, and the king said, let him turn now to his own house. Let him not see my face. So Absalom returned to his own house, and he saw not the king's face. So again, David made another decision because he was still in pain. He was still troubled over this whole thing that was going on. And he decides, even though Absalom's now back in Jerusalem, I don't want to see him. Bad decision. Why? Well, because he's hurting. Man, when you're hurting, you've got to be careful because you'll make some terrible decisions. You'll make some decisions that will turn into complete disasters. Why? because of the pain. King David wasn't immune to that. It says in verse 28, so Absalom dwelt two full years in Jerusalem and saw not the king's face. That's five years, folks. Five years. Why? Because somebody was making decisions when there's a lot of pain going on. Right? David made that decision. He refused to see Absalom. Why? Because he was hurt. And you know the story. What does it cause? Eventually, Absalom, you know, rises up. In fact, I think it's the next chapter. Rises up and he takes over the kingdom and David winds up being exiled. The breach between father and son was that bad that Absalom turns on his own father and steals the kingdom away from him. Why? Well, because for the last five years, David has been stifled about making a decision because he's been in pain. And he chose to do nothing. And now that decision has become a disaster. He's lost his kingdom. Right? When do decisions become disasters? Well, you know, one of the times is when they're from the past, and then you're making more just bad decisions, you know, currently, and that has an effect on it. Another time that decisions turn into disaster is when you begin to make decisions from a position of being in pain. And you don't seek counsel, you don't take counsel. It's hard to listen to people when you're feeling that down. and it turns into a disaster. Finally, I need to wrap things up. So you make decisions from a position of pain, which is what David did. Finally, when do decisions that you make in your life turn into disasters? Well, they turn into disasters when those decisions come from pride. It says in, Take a look at 2 Samuel chapter 24. 2 Samuel chapter 24. Now this is David. Second Samuel chapter 24 verse 1, and again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. He moved David against him to say, go number Israel from Judah, Israel and Judah. For the king said to Joab, the captain of the host, which was with him, go now throughout all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, and number ye the people that I may know the number of the people. And Joab said unto the king, Now the Lord thy God add unto thy people how many soever there be, and hundredfold, and that the eyes of my lord the king may see it, but why doth my lord the king delight in this thing? Notwithstanding, the king's word prevailed against Joab and against the captains of the host, And Joab and the captains, the hosts, went out from the presence of the king to number the people of Israel. So David winds up on the throne. This is some time later. He's back on the throne, been reestablished. And he decides, you know what? I want to know how big my kingdom is. And he sets out to number the children of Israel. And Joab and the captains of the host, they decide, hey, David, this is not the right thing to do. This is a bad thing to do. You better reconsider this. Why do you want to do this? And David basically said, hey, silence. I'm the king. I can do what I want. Shut up. Go number them. And so they went and they numbered the children of Israel. You know, when you're the king, you got to remember you're not king over God. Right? And God specifically commanded the kings not to number the children of Israel. David had to have known what he was doing. But sometimes when that pride wells up and you begin to make a decision and that pride interferes, man, you can sure make a disaster of things. Right? It's all about me. It's all about what I think. You know the verses, pride goeth before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall? Listen, only by pride cometh destruction, right? Well, that's where David found himself. And when you're at a place where decisions have to be made and you begin making those decisions based upon pride, Brethren, you're just waiting for a disaster to happen. It will get you, right? It will get you. How many of you have heard of the Charge of the Light Brigade? Ever heard of that? Some of you may have heard the poem or the thing. Basically, in 1854, there was an alliance between the British and the French and the Turkish forces, of all things, and they were against Russia. And the battle happened in a place, you and I are looking at it right now, in Crimea, right, down in that peninsula that Russia is now taking over again. It happened down in that area. But what happened is, you know, the Russian soldiers had come down. They had taken a base and they captured a number of forts. And they made some advances during the battle. And they had actually, you know, were making some headway against some of the British forces. And they were, you know, about ready to overrun this British position, this one position off on the side. And they were about to take some of the British's artillery pieces. Well, Lord Reglan was in charge of the whole army. And he, in his military career, had never had any of his artillery pieces taken captive by the enemy. And he was not about to let that happen in this case. So he sends this order. And he calls on a Captain Nolan and he gives Captain Lewis this order. He says, I want you to get over there to the light brigade. He was in charge of the heavy brigade, which is the heavy artillery. The light brigade was they had much lighter armor. They literally were lighter because they were faster and quicker and they could move and maybe make flanking movements so they didn't have the protection that you normally would have. So they were the light brigade. And so he gives Captain Nolan this order. He says, why don't you go over to the light brigade and I want you to tell Lord, Lord Lucian that he needs to attack these Russian soldiers that are about to steal his guns, his artillery pieces, and stop them because I have never lost any artillery pieces. I want them to attack. Save those artillery pieces, right? So Captain Nolan takes the message and the problem becomes in that Captain Nolan doesn't really like Lord Lucian. They, they got some tiffs going on. They got some things going on and he doesn't like him and they don't like each other. And so he's kind of got a bad attitude and he goes over there. And so he goes over to Lord Lucian and he tells, you know, he gives the order from, from, from Lord Reglan. And he said, you know, he gives the order to go save those guns, go capture those guns, which is what, which is what Lord Reglan wanted. And, you know, Lucian wasn't really clear on the order. And he asked Nolan, what guns does the brigade commander want captured? And Nolan, because of this little tiff and because he had this, you know, this pride thing, just kind of pointed out to the field and said, well, there's the battle. Those guns. Go get them. Right? He goes, there's your enemy. There are your guns. And he kind of swept his arm across the battlefield. Lord Lucian is thinking, I got an order. Now, the guns that he was talking about, that the commander was talking about, are often some little flank over here that the Russians are about ready to attack. Well, because of where they're at, the guns that Lucian sees is the main Russian force right in front of him. And he thinks that is the order. Go get those guns. Which takes him right down through this long path where those guns are firing directly at him. And then there's also guns on the side. that when he goes down and tries to attack those guns, he's going to be getting bombarded from the side and from the front during his whole advancement. But an order is an order. So he steps back and he says, all right, guys, let's go. I don't understand it, but we've been ordered to go get them the guns. Let's go. He gets his light brigade, and they head right into the main force of the Russian artillery. And I mean, they're just, you know, they begin charging. And then what happens, what happens is Captain Nolan, who is now, you know, again, they had a little tiff going between them, so he didn't take the time to explain. He just gave the orders and left. Captain Nolan now realizes they're going after the wrong guns. So he takes off at full speed to try to intersect the charging light brigade. Well, Lucian sees Captain Nolan coming this way, charging, and he thinks in his mind, this guy wants to take over and be the leader. I'm not about to let him become be the leader of my blight brigade. Decisions made from pride. And so he, you know, heralds his men, let's go faster. Let's charge these Russian guns even harder. And they run right into the main artillery of the Russian defenses. And they just get slaughtered. Captain Nolan is, meanwhile, coming over, trying to intercept and tell, hey, what are you guys doing? You're going after the wrong guns. You're going to get killed. And he winds up getting killed in the opening fire. Never gets the message to Lucian. And so they take that light brigade, and they just charge right into those Russian guns. And they just get utterly decimated. What is that? Well, you got a lot of pride that welds up in there, and you got some decisions that were pretty foolish. And it turned into a disaster. One of the great military disasters that was there. Now, the thing about it is, is Lucian and his people, they actually made it all the way to the Russian guns. Some of them did. They fought for a while there, they turned around, they ran, and then they got shot and killed on the way back when they were trying to retreat. What is it from? Well, because you got somebody that, you know, his pride raised up and he was ready to make that charge and nothing else mattered. Decisions. Decisions. I better hurry up. I got kids out there that are done, right? You ever been in a place where you'd rather move forward with a bad decision than admit you were wrong? Somewhere up that, you know, heading up that cactus, that cat had to think, should I keep going to the top? Well, he made it. Well, guess what? Now he's got to get down. All right. I'm going to wrap things up and get it to the end. Hey, when can decisions that you're making in your life turn into disasters? Folks, I tell you, you know what? They can turn into a disaster real quick when you've got things coming from the past. You have the possibility of either reaping a crop or crop failure. And those decisions that you're making now might make the difference as to which one of those two you get. But sometimes decisions from the past can come and haunt you. Decisions that you make when you're in pain are more than likely gonna be the wrong decisions and lead you down a bad path. It's just something you gotta watch, you gotta be careful of. Another one that'll get you is decisions when you begin to make decisions from a standpoint of pride. There's just something about us as human beings. We get halfway up the cactus and we don't wanna turn around and go back down. And then we wind up at the top of the cactus and we're stuck, right? Those are, that's the other side of the equations, folks. Daniel and his three friends, they made some great decisions when they were young, and they reaped the benefits of those decisions for years and years to come. The other side of the coin is you make bad decisions because you're at a bad time, and you run the possibility of reaping destruction for years and years to come. But the life you and I are in is all about the decisions that we make. Amen? It's about our decisions. So be careful. If you find yourself in one of those places, be careful, because that's when you're likely to make a pretty big mistake and have a decision turn into a disaster. Let's bow for a word of prayer. Father, we thank you again for the opportunity to be here on a Sunday morning. Lord, I know these things are not pleasant to think about, because every one of us has got things that in our life we can look back and father we can we can peg so many bad decisions we've made in our lives and we do father we regret those things we're sorry for them we we wish we could go back and change and make things different and and do things differently but the reality is we can't so father help us if we find ourselves in that position help us to make good decisions now and to be around people that make good decisions so that Lord, maybe you'd give a crop failure for some of those things that have happened in the past. Father, when we find ourselves in a situation in this life right now where we're in pain and we've been through some stuff and it's hard to deal with life, Father, help us to realize that But we need to be able to just sit back, maybe take counsel, listen to other people and realize that we may not see things just as clearly as we should see them. Father, help us to be extra prudent and careful, cautious during that time. Same thing when it comes to pride. Father, help us to put our pride down. Realize we're just sinful men. If David can make those mistakes, Father, we can make those mistakes. to help us to learn and to be very cautious about making decisions from a position of pride. It never turns out to anything good. Father, we thank you and love you. Just pray that you'd help us as we try to make these decisions in our life. I ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.