What Earthly Kings Cannot Do | Chris Osburn

Want to thank Chris for the reading of the chapter.

A little bit of a lengthy reading and I appreciate his

willingness to do so. Kind of just threw it on him

right before service. So thankful for him and his

efforts in that. So we're studying continuing our

study in Second Samuel. We're now in Chapter 19 and

we'll be kind of going over the son of King David, which is

Absalom, his wicked son, who of course tried to overthrow King

David and usurp his kingship over Israel and, and all that

had to do with that and how Absalom went about that and, and

how he failed at it, of course. And when we read sometimes in

the Old Testament, one of the ways that we need to try to

read, there's two different ways you can just read it and

understand it for just its history.

But also when we read the Old Testament, we find ourselves

kind of pointing forward to Jesus because of what we find

there is so vivid of it, making an image or a picture of Jesus.

And other times when we read the chapter or the Old Testament,

we're pointed toward Jesus in a different way because what's

happening in the Old Testament is so far away and so opposite

of what Jesus looks like. It points us to Jesus saying,

well, we need to have Jesus because of of those those

things. And in Second Samuel 19 would

actually be the latter type because in chapter 19 of Second

Samuel, it is really about the return of King, the return of

King David to Jerusalem to continue his reign.

Of course, we're talking about King David now.

David's son Absalom is dead. And what we're going to discover

is that in return, in David's return to Jerusalem, everything

does not work out perfectly as he intends it to.

Of course, we recognize that Jesus the King, when he returns,

everything will be perfect. All things will be settled,

justice will be restored, truth will be absolutely established,

and all wrongs will be righted in all nations.

And races that are divided through the history of life will

be unified on that day when he returns.

And so when we read that this morning, I hope that you might

have that kind of in the back of your mind as we go through our

study. So at the end of Chapter 18, we

see the triumph, victory of David and his army over over the

his son Absalom. A victorious win if you want to

say, but it is overshadowed by tragedy.

As we read, the defeat of the rebel forces has been

successful, but it has left behind scar tissue.

If you want to say that proves to be evident and problematic

moving forward. Or if you want to think of David

being reinstated, his crown that he, you know, if you want to say

he's got his crown back now, but it's not the same crown as it

used to be. Maybe it's a little tarnished,

little beat up, a little dirty, still glistens in the sun, but

not with the same splinter that it did the beginning of his

reign, but is now tarnished. And life is going to go on, but

it'll never go on in the same way that it did before.

Now, in the light of that, we're going to try and summarize, or

at least make an attempt to summarize this chapter, these 43

verses, by first of all, acknowledging that the king is

grieving. Secondly, we're going to

recognize that the people are arguing.

And thirdly, we'll recognize that there's three lives

identified for us in this chapter that are going to be

changing. So firstly, the king is

grieving. First of all, in verses 8, one

through 8, we're going to start there.

Behold, it's it was told to Joab.

Behold, the king is weeping in mourning.

Well, of course, David, the king was weeping in mourning.

It's understandable because the death that he just encountered

with his son is bringing great sadness.

David had dealt with death in many times since this his story

began. In the Bible we see that what

happened at the death of Saul and Jonathan.

David had wrote a poem about for Saul and when Abner was killed,

David again writes another poem and disclaims the responsibility

for what happened to him. When the child of Bathsheba

dies, David said, the child will not return to me, but I will go

to him. And David is confronted at that

moment with his own mortality. When Amnon is killed, we

remember that Absalom kills his brother Amnon because of what

happened. And then when that happens,

David's response to that was anger.

And so there's all kinds of responses that that David had to

death on around him. But here we'll notice that there

are no words. There's no words.

There's no poem. All that we have is David is

reduced to kind of a a stammering repetition of grief

filled with his son's name, O Absalom, my son, O Absalom, my

son, my son. Now what we need to recognize is

that Absalom is a rebel to David.

Absalom is opposed to the king, opposed to the Lord's anointed.

Absalom is the usurper, as we saw, and Absalom is now dead.

What could be worse for David than this?

Because we see to die opposed to the king, to die to the opposed

to the Lord's anointed is to be lost as Absalom was.

And David says, oh, Absalom, he doesn't respond to Absalom as

his enemy, as his, as a rebel, as a usurper.

He responds to him as a father. For what could be worse for a

father than his son to die? And David says, oh, Absalom, I

just want to pause and reaffirm what the Bible tells us

concerning these things. Jesus is king.

Unless we bow to Jesus is king, embracing him as Lord and Savior

in our life, we will face him as judge, as our judge in eternity

on that day, and we will have nothing to say in our defense.

So leaders lead and the way David responds to this great

tragedy bleeds over into the community of the Israelites.

If you want to say into into those who he has just won the

battle for the way he responds to that tragedy tragedy we see

here in verse 3. The people were told stole into

the city as people steal in who were ashamed when they flee

battle, but the battle was won they won the battle.

So why would they respond in a way where they're kind of somber

morning, you know, have their heads hanging?

If you want to say, well, because David had covered his

face, we're told he's in no way prepared to look upon upon his

people. We can't see what he can't

really see what's going on. He's got his face covered, is

what it tells us. He's been wailing so loudly.

If you want to say that he can't really hear what his people are

doing. And as we see at the beginning

of the chapter, Joab has been told this, Joab knows this and

how David's reacting and Joab realizes that somebody needs to

step in, somebody needs to intervene.

Of course, know if you know Joab into, you know, his personality,

he has no problem going and telling the king with the king

needs to do. And you have David's statement

there at the end of verse four. And then into verse 5, it says

Joab came into the house. Now we can read, you can read it

on your own, but I'm going to try to summarize it here.

And essentially what's what the text is telling us, it says Job

is going to David and he says to them, hey, David, listen, it's

one thing to cover your face, but you've got you're covering

something else. And that that's you've covered

the people with shame, the people who risk their lives for

you, the people who are out there in battle fighting for

you, who have come back expecting some sort of victory

parade. And instead what they have, what

did they receive, David? David, this is not right in the

way that you're reacting to this job says.

You know, if you show such affection to Absalom, your son

who was actually your enemy, then you create this impression

that you're turning your friends into your enemies and your

enemies into your friends. I'm going to tell you, David,

you're sending a message out to your commanders, into the

leaders and of the troops, that they don't even matter to you.

You're sending that idea that if Absalom were actually alive and

all of us were dead, then you would be perfectly happy.

And clearly what Joab is doing, he's exaggerating here in order

to wake David from his state of mind at the time, wake him out

of his great sadness. Drop says if you fail on this,

when you wake up in the morning, you won't even have an army.

You won't even have the people. All things will be worse than it

has been in the past. So what happened?

Well, the kid says the king arose and took his seat in the

gateway. And the men were told the king

is sitting in the gateway. In other words, David's back in

business. He was back at the city gates

doing what he did in the past. And all the people came before

the king. And this gate, of course, has

appeared more than once, most recently, if you want to say we

can look back at Chapter 15 when Absalom takes his place in the

gate. And Absalom, he's at the entry

of the gate. So Absalom could meet the

people, so he could show that he's kind of a caring guy.

And one of the people's hearts, he won the one to steal the

people's hearts. It tells us, you know, Absalom's

was saying, no, Dave, it's not even here, It's me.

And that was really the start of Absalom's attempt to overthrow.

Well, the people now are in a different position.

They heard all that had David said to the commanders, which

was deal gently with Absalom. And we know that that did not

happen. Then they had heard that David

was grieving, and the people began to grieve and to mourn

with him, that he they heard that he was back at the gate.

And so they all came before the king.

The people always know what the duty of the king is, do they

not? They always know what the duty

of a leader is. And David was unable to bear

either the burden or the privilege in that situation.

That's one of the reasons when we pray, you know, we pray for

the leaders of our land. We pray for our nation.

We pray for those who have the responsibility and the

obligations to make those tough, hard decisions for a multitude

of people. So we we pray for them because

we know that great, that great responsibility.

What they say heavy is the crown is it is a term that we hear.

It's a large responsibility to lead people.

But of course that won't stop us from having our own opinions

claiming that we know what's best.

Secondly, what we're going to we're going to look at here is

the people are arguing Halfway through verse 8, the scene

switches, changes. It's the sad picture fades and

up onto the scenes comes a bigger picture of what's

actually really happening throughout the land.

And all the people it says in verse nine were arguing, they

scattered in confusion. So from the king is grieving to

the people were arguing. Now, what we have, if my

understanding is correct, we have here in two different

sections of this chapter, sections verses 9 through 15 and

then 40 through 43 are kind of bookends, if you want to say

what's actually happening in the greater scheme of things in the

Kingdom of Israel, both amongst the northern tribes of Israel

and as well as Judah. And as we get to chapter 20, we

can see there's actually what I've seen some commentators say,

actual civil war that happens there.

My understanding is proper. So in verses 9 and following

into verse 15, I'm going to try to quickly summarize it for us.

Absalom, as we know, had stolen the hearts of the people and

they and the people had followed Absalom, but he's now dead.

And so in verses 9 and 10, they're quite confused about

what to do. They're confused because they

had rejected the true king. They had gone with the potential

king who was Absalom. He Absalom, is now gone and

therefore a number of now saying now it's you know that now what

we do, you know, we were going to follow Absalom.

He's now dead. So now we're going to reverse

our decision. Now we're going to go back with

King David. Their efforts were futile.

So they wanted to get back with the one who was the true king,

and that was David at the time. And clearly some people even

then were challenging that at that time.

And all of this disruption and this arguing had gotten back to

David's years. We'll see that down in verse 11

towards the verse of end of verse 11, it says the word of

all Israel came to the king. So David hears that the northern

tribes, those are the ones who had sided with Absalom, are

having a discussion about how they're going to handle the

future. He then dispatches Abby, Athar

and Zeda, who we've who we've learned about previously.

He dispatches them to go to the people of Judah and say to them,

well, hey, what's going on with you guys?

How come you're not here celebrating or bringing David

back, but you're you're the last ones to bring him back.

It says in verse 11. And so he sends a word to Judah,

Remember, David is from the tribe of Judah.

And he says, why are you not at the front of this celebration or

bringing David back? He tells them to go, go after

them. Go ask them after.

He says, you are my brother. You were bone to my bone.

You're my own flesh and blood. If you want to say is what it

says in the scripture, there you should be the ones who are

taking me back. Now we're not going to come back

to this, but if you go back to the beginning of when the story

of David happens back in Second Samuel chapter 2, Judah was

2 Samuel 2 · chapter mention

actually the first tribe to anoint King David.

They were the ones that were kind of leading and and doing

that for David. But now they're not doing so.

And David says, you were at the front of my kingship before.

Why are you now hesitant to do so?

You're actually my brothers. You are mine.

You are my flesh was and which is exactly what the armies of

Israel or the people of Israel said when they adopted David as

king back in chapter 5. And So what is David doing here?

What I think David is doing here is he's actually stitching

together in his mind. He's arguing factions of the

tribes of Israel. They're see, he's seeking to

bring them together on the same page.

And he adds to this in a political way, I think as we see

in verse 13 where he says, say to Amasa, are you not my own

flesh and blood? Now if we've been following the

story and understanding who Amasa is, Amassa was the

commander of the armies of Absalom.

So he was leading the the soldiers against David when

Absalom was trying to overtake David.

So David now says go to Judah and say listen, let's have

Amassa now be commander in place of Joab.

Now what I think he's doing here in some parties, making it clear

that they weren't going to face any retribution for their

rebellion in one one sense. But I think we're actually he's

also doing at the same time, he's actually punishing Joab for

the party he had in the that Joab didn't in the in the death

of his son Absalom. Remember, Joab actually killed

Absalom when David told him not to.

So Joab is not going to be commander anymore, not after

that. And what happened?

Well, we're told that he swayed the hearts of the people where

he won them over and they were united as one man, and they

brought the king over Jordan. Now, if you notice, David does

not force the people to follow him.

David does not force them to recognize him as king.

He instead sways their hearts of the people.

Now that should remind us of what Jesus does.

Jesus does not force us to obey Him.

Jesus does not force us to follow Him.

Jesus, in fact, He just lays it out.

This is what I can do for you. This is what I will do for you.

This is what I'm going to do for you.

This is what I have done for you.

He, He shows us everything that we can have if we follow His

wills so that we may follow Him. He doesn't force it upon us.

That's the beginning of the chapter, verses 9 through 15.

And what I'm going to do is I'm just going to skip to the back

of the chapter beginning in verse 40, and we'll come back to

the middle of the chapter here in a minute.

And really it's starting in verse 40.

We come to the second part of this argument, reuniting the

Kingdom of Israel. The king went over.

He went on to Gilgal. Chim Ham, who we'll come back to

in a moment, went on with him. But notice now it says all the

people of Judah and also half the people of Israel brought the

king on his way. OK, So again, if my

understanding is correct, what we're seeing is actually the

fragile nature of a renewed Kingdom between Judah and

Israel. They're back together, but it's

not perfect. Judah was united.

It says all the people, but only half the people of Israel.

The disagreements that we saw it back in verses 9 and 10 amongst

Israel, they still haven't been resolved by the end of the

chapter. The efforts that David has has

put forth, they haven't, they haven't produced the unity that

David desired. But there was one thing that

that they agreed on and it was their conviction.

And we'll see here that the people of Judah had stolen the

king and brought him over. They'd stolen him and brought

him over there in verse 41. Well, was this the case?

And so they said to him, why is this?

Why have you done this? And all the men of Israel or

Judah answered the men of Israel.

This is because the king is our close relative.

Why would you be angry? Well, the response to that says,

well, you may be close, but actually we have 10 shares in

the king and and in David. And also we have more than you.

Basically they're saying we have a weighted vote here because in

Israel, the northern Kingdom of Israel, that there was 10 tribes

associated with that northern Kingdom.

And then the the the Kingdom of Judah was a singular tribe in

the South. That's where the split was.

Well, of course, it made perfect sense because when they were

tear 10 tribes in that in the north, Judah was of course by

itself. And the narrator tells us that

as this argument continues, the argument from Judah carried more

weight or was fiercer than the argument from Israel.

And so at the end of the chapter, it's clear that the

return of the King has not united the people.

So back to the beginning of what I said to start with.

If we remember, we said one of the ways which we see Jesus and

we see God's purpose in the Old Testament.

We see a picture or silhouette of things that look to be

fulfilled, or a picture of what might be or what may not be.

And this clearly does not look like what King Jesus can do.

You know Jesus, Jesus can create unity and he will unify, but an

earthly king cannot do what King Jesus can do.

Because you see, all that David would have wanted to accomplish,

he was unable to accomplish. And in fact, every endeavor that

we see all the way through the United Nations that we see

today, that seems to break about peace, tranquility, unity,

oneness, every endeavor, every battle, every fight to that end,

no matter how good, no matter how admirable those efforts may

be, it's destined to defeat. Only when King Jesus returns

will that which David desired to be accomplished will be done

only when the one true king returns.

There's only one fixed to all the world's issues, and that is

in the gospel, in the king. And earthly kings cannot

achieve, which is only achieved in and through Jesus as the one

true King. So now we have 3 lives changing.

That's the beginning and the end of the chapter.

We're going to come back to the final point which deals with the

middle of the chapter 3 lives changing.

In verses 6 through 23, we have Shimmy Eye appealing for mercy.

Verses 24 through 30 we have Miss FIBA Chef displaying his

loyalty. And verses 31 through 39,

Barzillai confronts his mortality.

So Shimia, hopefully we haven't forgot about Shimia.

He made quite as quite a striking appearance back in

chapter 16. He was cursing.

He was throwing stones at David. He was flinging dust.

He was dramatically opposed to David as he made his exit from

Jerusalem. And remember that there was on

one side of the road, he was shouting, Oh, he was calling him

a bad act. He was calling him like you have

all this blood on your hands. You're the reason for all this

turmoil. He was telling David and it's

and it's he's back. If you want to say Shemi is back

now in chapter 19 and he's not alone.

He's got 1000 people with him. He says all the House of Joseph

is with him. The tribe of Benjamin, which was

Saul's tribe. He's got Zeba who we who we've

seen and which we'll come back to as well.

And and there they are. They're on they're on a mission

to now get on the winning side of David.

And in verse 19, I'm excuse me. And he's now concerned that his

hostility now he wants that hostility that he showed back in

chapter 16. He wishes that to be vanquished.

He wants to be met with forgiveness from David.

And so he appeals on that basis for mercy or and clemency.

And in verse 19, he said, said, said, he said to the king, let

my Lord not hold me guilty. You remember how your servant

did wrong on that day for my Lord the king left Jerusalem on

the day my Lord the king left for Jerusalem.

You know, why would even why would shimmy I even mention this

to David. You know, David remembers

exactly what shimmy I did to him.

There's no way you could forget that.

But shimmy I thinks that it's a good idea to remember to bring

it back up again. If you want to say and shimmy I

says, don't let the king take that to heart.

Basically forget about what I've done.

Forget about that act. Well, that's easy for him to

say, you know, for your servants know that I have sinned, it

says, and the reason I'm here today, I'm the first of the

House of Joseph to come and to meet my Lord the King.

I haven't wasted any time to come see you.

I'm the 1st and you'll notice. Well, what are we to do with

that? How would you make sense of

that? I kind of think, well, how

sincere is really Shimmy I being here?

Is he really being sincere about the things that he's saying?

Do we take it for base face value?

I don't know. I think it's strategic

regardless. It's convenient, of course, for

Shimmy I to do so when Shimmy I assumes victory was certainly

absaloms. He was throwing dirt clods at at

David. Now that he realized that he

knows that David is the king, he's not throwing dirt clods

anymore. He's throwing himself at at

David, throwing himself at the feet of the king.

Because apparently now that things have gone in a different

direction then shimmy, I thought I put now apparently Shimmy I

has a conscious about himself. And then you have Mr. Abishai,

Mr. Consistent, always wanting to take somebody's head off.

If you read through Shimmy I he, he responds as he's done in

previous times. Remember in Shimmy I doing this

when when Shimmy I did this in chapter 16, Abishai said, let's

just take his head off then and now just as consistent as ever.

And of course, there's a indication of mercy immediately.

David says you shall not die and the king swore to him.

Well, when you get to 1st Kings chapter 2, we'll discover that

David actually did take care of Shimmy I, and it's a reminder to

us. Again, by way of contrast, you

could beg before for mercy before King David and not get

it. And all who beg for mercy before

King Jesus will receive it. So you saved yourself?

Well, my life has been 1 of cursing and of Jesus.

I've been on the other side of the street.

I've been had no interest in Jesus at all.

Are you actually telling me that if I come to him and acknowledge

him that I've sinned, that I've been wrong, that I've made the

wrong decisions, that he will grant me forgiveness?

Absolutely, 100% of the time we look at the cross of Christ and

we see that there is the ultimate expression of

forgiveness at the cross. So that's Shimia, that's his

appeal for mercy. Then we have Mephibosheth

declaring his loyalty beginning in verse 24.

And Mephibosheth, the son of Saul, came down to meet the

king, and he was quite a scene to be seen, you know, as the

Scripture tells us here. We've been introduced to

introduced to him back in chapter 16 by Ziba.

And on that occasion, Ziba had painted a picture of

Mephibosheth, the Saint staying home and not supporting the king

because Ziba said he is keen to see Absalom succeed so that the

Kingdom of Saul will prevail. That's what Ziba told David.

He kind of painted a a poor picture of what Misuvosheth was

doing. And if we remember, David made a

knee jerk reaction to that and he said everything that I gave

to Mephibosheth, I'm going to give now to use Eva.

And we read that and we say, well, that's quite the reaction.

And now here we're on the other side of the story because

Mephibosheth now has returned to the king and he comes looking

like somebody who's been on a hunger strike.

If you want to say in a solidarity to the king, his

toenails are long, presumably dirty, we wouldn't want to sit

next to him on a plane ride. He hasn't showered or washed or

taken care of himself in some time.

And he looks like this. And the reason he looked like

this, and we discovered that this is when David invites him

to come clean. The reason that he expressed his

solidarity in absence, because David asked him, well, you know

what's really going on here, Mephibosheth?

Mephibosheth says, Well, Ziba deceived you and deceived me.

What Zeba told you was not true. I was getting ready to come and

join you, but Zeba took off without me.

Now again, you know, we need to ask ourselves, are we with

Mephibosheth on this or with Zeba on this?

There was a little phrase in there.

I was. It says, My Lord, O king, my

servant, deceive me. For your servant said to him, I

will saddle the donkey for myself, that I may ride on it

and go with the king. For your servant is lame.

Maybe kind of wander there for a minute, maybe kind of question

Mephibosheth's motives, like David didn't know Michelle

himself and fish up. Mephibosheth was a cripple.

David knew that David took him into his house because he was

lame. He did it out of kindness, even

though he was a grandson of Saul.

He knew exactly that Mister Fibosheth was lame.

So I'm just wondering whether he's Mephibosheth was kind of

pushing a little too hard here. He's got every vested interest

to be welcomed. You can decide that on your own.

It's just something that I thought about during the course

of the study. It's not the main point of the

study, but make your own decisions.

And he's prepared to say to him, why don't you just do what seems

good to you? I don't have any right to ask

you for anything, is what he's asking.

And notice what David does, he says and and the way that David

responds to makes you kind of wonder if there's something

going on there. And the king said to David, why

speak any more of the your matters?

Basically, I've had enough of this conversation than what

David was telling Mephibosheth. I don't know whether he's David

saying, I don't know whether to believe you or to believe in or

Zeba. But David says, I'll tell you

what I'm going to do. We're going to do A505050 split

now. I gave it to you, then I gave it

to Ziva. Now we're just going to give it

to each of you and we're just going to move on and let's be

done with this whole matter of who's getting what inheritance.

Well, we see that there. And I wonder, you know, are his

dirty toenails, his messed up appearance and are sacraments of

his faithfulness, or whether they're just an attempt to put

himself in the good graces of King David.

People will go through all kinds of endeavours to try and be

accepted by the king. Lastly, we'll come to Barcelona,

the Gileadite who confronts his mortality.

We've seen this guy before as well, in chapter 17, when he

provided resources for David, when David and his friends were

out in the wilderness, as it were.

And we noticed first of all that he was an elderly man.

Verse 32 says he was a very aging man, and he was 80 years

old. OK.

He has not shown up. Not he has shown up not to seek

anything for himself, but to escort the king over the Jordan

going back to Jerusalem. And he receives an invitation

from the king to come and receive all these things.

And so he responds and says, how many years have I still to live?

Have I still left to live now? It's not because he's being

morbid. I think he's actually being very

realistic of his situation. The psalmist tells us that the

years of our life are 70 or even by reason of strength 80 in

Psalms 90, verse 10. Now there's very smart people

Psalms 90:10

who work in the insurance agency, the life insurance

agency, those who put together the do, the actuarials who are

way smarter than any of us here in this room.

And I'm inclined to think that despite the ability for people

to live any longer, it wouldn't be at all surprised that when

they did all their calculations, they look at everything that

they don't come really, really close to this number that's put

forth in Psalms chapter 90, 70 years is good.

Psalms 90 · chapter mention

After that you're on extra time, 70 and then extra time.

Some are here are approaching 70 or far beyond 70.

There's many here. There are on what some consider

extra time. Incidentally, you never die a

day early and you never die too late.

I believe God has that plan. Where we're at here in our

lives, where you've been placed, were you growing up, Jobs you

have are exactly what God has intended for you.

And in the mystery of God's Providence, He's got it under

his control. But Barzilai recognizes this.

Barzili says. I'm on the outer limits of

things. Life has shifted me, he says.

Can I discern the things that are really pleasant?

Can I taste? Can I listen to the songs of men

and women? Furthermore, why should I be?

Why should I burden you, King David?

I can't walk as good as I used to be able to walk.

My earthly powers are fading. They're shifting in my

expectations. But I'll tell you what I go part

way with you, is what Barzili tells him in verse 36.

Is your servant will go a little way over the Jordan with the

king. Why would I get repaid with such

reward? No, he says.

I won't let I want you to let me go back.

I want to die in my own city near the grave of my father and

my mother. Now I understand that.

I think we all get that. I don't understand the people

who say it doesn't matter what I get, where I get buried.

Well, if it doesn't matter to you, I guess it doesn't matter

to anybody else, does it, Barzila?

I wanted to go home and I want to pause here for a second and

talk about those who are older in age, who are in the range of

Barzila or beyond. Those who may have are retired,

have the privilege of being retired, have their abilities

about them, still may have some extra time on their hands.

The time that we may complain about when we're younger, in the

middle of our life, that we just don't have the time.

I wish I could do this. I wish I had more time to serve.

I wish I had more time to help in some way.

The church, There may be no better time in your life than

right now to serve King Jesus the way he intends you to.

The Lord needs you. The church needs you.

Our children need you. We look to the older in the

church to guide us, to help us, to share your experiences with

us and lead us. There is no greater time in your

life to be a champion for the church then you have now.

Now, how's that supposed to look?

I don't know. I don't know how that looks when

you're retired on what you can and can't do what you're able to

and able not to do. You know those things better

than we do. There's great wisdom in just

from your past experience. Like we like I mentioned,

there's no answer that I have, but I do know that doing

something, something that you were not able to do in the past,

something small or great, take the opportunity before it's gone

to further the Kingdom of God. Some of you might know Tom Brady

and his Hall of Fame speech. He said to be successful at

anything, the truth is you don't have to be special, he said.

You just have to be what most people aren't consistent,

determined and willing to work for it.

But in the word of the scriptures, we understand by

Barzilai's reaction says, let me return to my own place.

I'm going to go a little way with you, but I'm going to go

home. And why don't you give Chim Ham,

Jim Ham, relative, a friend, a son, I think it's a son.

It talks about the sons of Chim Ham later on in Chronicles.

He says, why don't you give Chim Ham what you would have given to

me? And then we have a lovely

picture here. It says I'm Barzili went home

and Chim Ham went on with the key.

Isn't that what we long for as parents, because we will

eventually go home, but we longed that our children will go

on with the king, that they would come to know the king,

that they would come to submit to the rule of King Jesus so

that when our time has come, we could go home and they could go

on with him. 400 years later. Actually, we read about this in

Jeremiah, We read of the habitation of Chim Ham was which

was near Bethlehem in Jeremiah 41.

So to the end, all the battles fought, all the kingdoms

established, the work of God continues day by day in the

lives of His people. Our names may not be known

beyond our borders, beyond the city limits, but they are known

entirely to God. So let us give ourselves

unreservedly to spend the balance of our time, of our

life, our talents, our energies, to serve the one true King, that

is King Jesus, who can do what no earthly king can do.

Are we ready to serve King Jesus, the one who can do what

earthly kings cannot do? Are we ready to do what is

needed to come in contact with this cleansing blood?

Are you in need of being baptized, come believing,

repenting, confessing Jesus as the Son of God, And then when we

are baptized, we come in contact with the blood of Christ and we

are forgiven of our sins, removing all evidence of sin

that God the Father sees. Or do we need to make a public

confession? Because maybe we're like Shimmy

eye. Maybe we made a mistake.

Maybe we were living on the other side of the road.

Maybe we were cursing Jesus and doing all the things that we

shouldn't be doing for Jesus, but now we need to make things

right again. We're going to give an

opportunity for an invitation to do so.

If there's one who is in either one of those class or just needs

the public prayers of the congregation here, we ask you to

come while we stand and while we see.