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Crown Him! | June 29, 2025 PM

Sermon Podcast—LBC Easton

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  1. Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives.

  2. The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist

  3. Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us

  4. or contact us at my libertybaptist.org or just look

  5. us up on Facebook. And now we hope that this

  6. message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.

  7. Second Samuel chapter #5 And how do you remember being on the

  8. playground and it was time to play kickball or something like

  9. that? And, you know, it's time to get

  10. teams. And so, you know, they get this

  11. one over here and that one over there and, you know, they would

  12. get everyone down. And I felt like, especially when

  13. I was in second or third grade, once they got it whittled down

  14. to the group got smaller and smaller to the point that, you

  15. know, it was just me and one or two other guys or girls maybe

  16. who didn't know what to to. And finally they said and Adam

  17. and, you know, I was excited, but the problem was I was the

  18. only one that was left and they kind of had to take me because

  19. that's the way it worked. You know, it's interesting.

  20. Now schools, you know, try to shield kids from stuff like

  21. that. It's part of growing up, you

  22. know, just those kind of things. I'm not saying kids get made fun

  23. of or something like that. But you know, I just remember I

  24. wasn't exactly the first person that they were trying to choose

  25. on the kickball team. I wasn't the first person they

  26. were trying to choose on, well, any team that I remember growing

  27. up. But that's OK.

  28. I've survived and I've made it and, you know, and I don't know

  29. where any of those people are. So what does it even matter?

  30. Right? You know, it's interesting.

  31. I, I kind of wonder if David felt that way because it was

  32. like they went through everyone else and then they finally said,

  33. well, David, no one's left. I guess it's time to make you

  34. king. Remember, they had Saul 1st and

  35. they had Saul because that was the desire of their heart.

  36. David wasn't on the scene yet, but they wanted a king like

  37. Saul. They wanted to look like all the

  38. other nations. And then they listened to Abner.

  39. Abner was the one who said, listen, you don't want David as

  40. your king. I can deliver you someone else.

  41. And then they followed Ishbosheth because of what Abner

  42. was doing. And now Saul is dead.

  43. Abner is dead, Ishbosheth is dead, and David is the last guy

  44. on the kickball team. He's the last one that's left.

  45. And finally, the people of Israel, remember, Judah chose

  46. David, that's David's tribe. And then the other 11 tribes,

  47. they followed Abner, who told them to follow Ishbosheth.

  48. But now Ishbosheth is dead. It's been over 2 years that this

  49. has taken place, this divided Kingdom, this civil war that was

  50. taking place in these two factions, and finally, finally

  51. David is going to become king. I feel like we've been saying

  52. this for a while, that it was coming.

  53. Remember, we got into Second Samuel chapter 1, and we

    2 Samuel 1 chapter mention

  54. thought, well, David's going to be the king any moment now once

  55. he takes care of some of this business with Saul having passed

  56. away and Saul having taken his own life, and that now he's

  57. going to become the king of Israel.

  58. And it was like, wait, I remember we talked a little bit

  59. about patience and how we need to have patience, that the

  60. Lord's will in our life doesn't always work the way that we want

  61. it to work, and it requires patience.

  62. And David was a case study in having patience in this.

  63. But now it's finally time for David to be coronated as the

  64. king. And as we look at it tonight, I

  65. think there's some lessons that will be helpful for us as well.

  66. And so if you found your place in your Bible, I'd like to have

  67. you stand please, so we can read the first 12 verses of Second

  68. Samuel chapter #5 Second Samuel 5 verse.

  69. One says, then came all the tribes of Israel to David unto

  70. Hebrew. And spake say, Behold, we are

  71. thy bone and thy flesh. Also in time past, when Saul was

  72. king over us, thou was he that led us out and brought us in

  73. Israel. And the Lord said to thee, Thou

  74. shalt feed my people Israel. Thou shalt be a captain over

  75. Israel. So all the elders of Israel came

  76. to the king, to Hebron, and King David made a league with them in

  77. Hebron before the Lord, and they anointed David king over Israel.

  78. Love that they call him there the king.

  79. This is the first time we've just heard him as the king

  80. before He was the king of Judah when he was called the king.

  81. Now he's just the king. He's the king of all the

  82. Israelites. Verse 4 David was 30 years old

  83. when he began to reign and reign 40 years.

  84. And Hebron, he reigned over Judah 7 years and six months.

  85. And Jerusalem, he reigned 30 and three years over all Israel and

  86. Judah. Now the next few verses talk

  87. about David taking control of Jerusalem.

  88. And we'll talk more about this in a second because there's a

  89. verse or two that might sound troubling when we read it.

  90. And I think you'll know as soon as we read it.

  91. But I would just want to tell you, don't, don't get too

  92. concerned. We'll explain exactly what's

  93. happening here in just a moment. But I do think it's important

  94. that we read it, not skip over it.

  95. It says in the king and his men went to Jerusalem under the

  96. Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, which spake unto

  97. David, saying, Except thou take away the blind and the lame,

  98. thou shalt not come in thither, thinking David cannot come in

  99. thither. Nevertheless David took the

  100. stronghold of Zion. The same is the city of David.

  101. And David said on that day, whosoever getteth up to the

  102. gutter and smite at the Jebusites, and the lame and the

  103. blind that are hated of David's soul, he shall be chief and

  104. captain. Do you think you know what we're

  105. talking about? That might sound a little bit

  106. odd there. We'll explain what that means in

  107. a second. Wherefore they said, The blind

  108. and the lame shall not come into the house.

  109. So David dwelt in the Fort, and called it the city of David, And

  110. David built roundabout from Millow, and inward David went on

  111. and grew great, and the Lord God of hosts was with him.

  112. That's a great verse right there.

  113. Verse 11 in Hiram, king of Tyre, sent messengers to David, and

  114. cedar trees, and carpenters and Masons.

  115. They built David house and David perceived that the Lord had

  116. established him king over Israel and that he exalted his Kingdom

  117. for the people Israel's sake. Verse 12 tells that David was

  118. mentally in a good place. He realized God had made him the

  119. king and that God was trying to do something through his people

  120. to glorify himself, not to glorify David.

  121. And he he learns this and it's something that I wish Saul had

  122. held on to for a few years because David understand this

  123. and will carry him through much of his Kingdom.

  124. You may be seated. Let's have a word of prayer

  125. together and we'll continue in our text.

  126. Heavenly Father, I do thank you for this night and I thank you

  127. and I, I, it's never lost on me another time to be able to be in

  128. the pulpit. There are people that are

  129. willing to listen, not even to listen to me, but to listen to

  130. your word. And so I pray that I would do

  131. them justice this evening and do your word justice by rightly

  132. dividing the word of truth. Or take what I've studied, take

  133. these things that have been mulling in my heart for the last

  134. several days and help me to give them to these dear folks in a

  135. way that it's pleasing to you and they'll be helpful in their

  136. Christian walk. But work through all of this now

  137. in a way that only you can. And we ask it in Jesus name,

  138. Amen. Well, from we just read David

  139. has finally been coordinated the king of Israel.

  140. It's taken over 2 years and this is a big deal.

  141. In fact, we're not going to turn there right now.

  142. But if we were to turn to First Chronicles chapter 12, we find

    1 Chronicles 12 chapter mention

  143. that this isn't just a small ceremony.

  144. In fact, that there is over 300,000 men at the very least of

  145. the armies of well now David that have all gathered together

  146. with 1 accord with one voice to say, David, we now serve you and

  147. we will serve the Lord together with you as our king.

  148. And so when we get to verse #5 chapter #5 rather it's

  149. interesting because in verse #2 this group comes up to David.

  150. Some emissaries of this group come up to David and they

  151. basically say this. They said, listen, we remember

  152. who you were when Saul was king. We remember the kind of general

  153. that you were. We remember the kind of fighting

  154. man that you were. And at the end of the verse it

  155. says that thou shalt feed, or rather it says and broadest in

  156. Israel. And the Lord said to thee, thou

  157. shalt feed my people Israel. Thou shalt be a captain over

  158. Israel. And I know we mentioned this a

  159. few weeks ago, but it bears repeating here in this verse

  160. that they understood on some level David was supposed to be

  161. king. It wasn't that, you know, we we

  162. didn't realize you were supposed to be king.

  163. Abner told us that Ishbasheth was supposed to be king.

  164. We had no idea. No, no, on some basic level,

  165. Abner knew the 11 tribes, knew all the people knew that David

  166. was supposed to be the next king.

  167. But they let all of these other influences get in the way.

  168. And so they never crowned the man who was supposed to be king.

  169. They never crowned the man that God had chosen to be king all

  170. the way in First Samuel chapter #16 when he was out there as a

  171. shepherd, just serving and doing what his father had told him to

  172. do. And when Samuel anointed him to

  173. be the next king over Israel. And so it says that he was 30

  174. years old, and he would reign for the next 40 years, and seven

  175. of those years he would reign in Hebron.

  176. But then they were going to to capture Jerusalem and that's

  177. what happens in the next verses that we see here.

  178. I think sometimes we just have this idea that Jerusalem has

  179. been under the control of the Jews just, you know, all the way

  180. back as far as we can remember. But the fact of the matter is up

  181. until this point, Jerusalem as we know it was controlled by the

  182. Jebusites. The Jebusites were the ones who

  183. are in control of Jerusalem. Now this is a problem, and this

  184. is a major problem because God had told the people of Israel

  185. all the way back in the book of Joshua, remember when they were

  186. dividing the land that the tribe of Judah was supposed to clear

  187. out the remnants of the land, and that included the Jebusites

  188. there in Jerusalem. And they hadn't done this for

  189. probably about 300 years, that they had neglected the small

  190. pocket of people in Jerusalem. And Jerusalem again belonged to

  191. Israel. It was promised to Israel, it

  192. belonged to them. By the way, it still belongs to

  193. them today. That promise hasn't changed.

  194. No matter what someone may tell you that the people of Israel

  195. are still the people of Israel, and Jerusalem is the place of

  196. the people of Israel. Jerusalem will have a lot to do

  197. with what happens in future events when we look at the Book

  198. of Revelation. And so Jerusalem was supposed to

  199. be conquered. David says it's time.

  200. It's time for us to go. Now the Jebusites make this very

  201. strange saying here in verse #6 when it says, except thou take

  202. away the blind, the lame, thou shalt not come in thither

  203. thinking David cannot come in, hit her.

  204. Which then follows up in verse 8 where David says, Hey guys, I

  205. want you to go up into the gutters, which basically would

  206. have been like what we think of gutters.

  207. We think at the top of a roof or a top of a wall.

  208. Basically, I want you to scale the wall and I want you to take

  209. away the the lame and the blind, the ones that I hate.

  210. Now, if you're like me and I'm just going to lay it out, just I

  211. mean, this is what I do. I just want to lay it out for

  212. you. I have a son with disabilities

  213. and I hear something like that and it just makes me cringe a

  214. little bit. And likely it made you do the

  215. same. You thought, well, well, why did

  216. David hate the lame and the blind so much?

  217. Why? Why would that be something that

  218. Dave would say? Certainly that's not the type of

  219. attitude that a child of God should have.

  220. And so you read that and you, you kind of think that this

  221. doesn't seem right. And I would encourage you,

  222. anytime you're reading the Word of God and there's something

  223. that just doesn't seem like it belongs there with everything

  224. else, what you're reading probably needs to be placed in

  225. the context with everything else that's going around, and then it

  226. will make much more sense. And the case here, always see

  227. about David in this chapter up to this point, is the fact that

  228. he's doing things the way that he's supposed to be doing them

  229. and that he's listening to the Lord.

  230. And, and I just can't imagine that he would in his heart say

  231. that I hate the lame and I hate the blind.

  232. Well, I think the answer is right here for us in the text,

  233. particularly in verses #6 and eight, and it's in it says in

  234. the king and his men went to Jerusalem under the Jebusites,

  235. the inhabitants of the Lamb, which spake unto David, saying,

  236. Except thou take away the blind and the lame, thou shalt not

  237. come and thither thinking David cannot come and hit her.

  238. Really it all starts with that last phrase, David cannot come

  239. and hit her. Their thought process was this,

  240. David has no chance of defeating us.

  241. David has no way then he can beat us.

  242. And So what they are basically saying is this David is so weak.

  243. David is has so much inability to be able to take our fortified

  244. position here in Jebus. The land that would end up being

  245. Jerusalem, that is now going to be called the City of David

  246. basically said, look, we could put the halt and the lane up on

  247. the wall and they have no chance of winning.

  248. We could do that because they, they, they have no chance.

  249. They have no abilities. We could put the weakest among

  250. us on the wall and we'd still win.

  251. And so David in verse #8 basically is making what I would

  252. call a rhetorical flourish. He's saying to them, well,

  253. you're saying that you're putting out your weakest.

  254. It seems like we're going to beat your weakest.

  255. It seems like we're going to beat those who you have put out

  256. there in front of us. It's not David saying that he

  257. hates the halt and he hates the blind.

  258. Listen. He's basically using their own

  259. phrase as a rallying cry to help his men see what they think of

  260. you. Do you see how little they

  261. regard you? Now, listen, if you're not sure

  262. how David feels about those who would be lame and those who

  263. would be blind, consider Mephibosheth.

  264. I think it's important that he was just mentioned in the

  265. previous chapter, Mephibosheth being lame on his feet.

  266. But what did David do? He could have killed him because

  267. he was of the line of Saul. But he says this, come to my

  268. table. I'm going to take care of you.

  269. You're going to become part of my family now.

  270. No, no. David had no disregard for those

  271. with disabilities. He's just taking their own

  272. phrase that they were using to mock him with and basically

  273. said, no, you think that that's the case, Hey guys, that's what

  274. they think of you. That's what they when I played

  275. basketball or coach basketball, we always look at the other team

  276. and say, look, it disrespected us.

  277. And you'd find whatever shred of disrespect the other team, you

  278. see what they looked at you funny.

  279. You see that they they're, they're, you know, whatever it

  280. was, you could take some of those that small, you try to use

  281. it to have a chip on your shoulder and go out there and

  282. play the game and get something. That's what's happening here.

  283. I have no doubt about that whatsoever.

  284. Really. It all circles around the fact

  285. that they said David cannot come and hit her.

  286. They thought he has no ability to take over this city.

  287. But David wins the battle as we know.

  288. And now the land of the Jebusite, or the really the city

  289. of the Jebusites, sometimes called Jebus, sometimes called

  290. Jerusalem, is now the city of David.

  291. David has now renamed it. And then at the end of the text,

  292. we see that it wasn't just the fact that the Israelites

  293. realized that David was king, but then there was also a man

  294. named Hiram, the king of Tyre. We're going to see several times

  295. him pop up here and there in our text in relation to David Tyre

  296. to to the north of of Israel and would be to the more towards the

  297. coast. It had great cedar trees and

  298. they had great carpenters that were there and they were able to

  299. do some amazing things with the artisans they had within their

  300. coasts. And so now Hiram is going to

  301. recognize, hey, David's the king.

  302. So it's not just Israel that's recognizing it.

  303. Now there are others outside of Israel that are recognizing this

  304. as well. And then verse #12 kind of gives

  305. us that summary that David perceived that the Lord had

  306. established him king over Israel, and he exalted his

  307. Kingdom for his people, Israel's sake.

  308. David had the right heart and the right thought process.

  309. And that's going to be important because we're Saul started that

  310. way. Remember, Saul started so well,

  311. but it all descended into chaos so very quickly.

  312. David, for the most part, is going to retain that heart of

  313. integrity throughout his life. And even when he does do wrong

  314. and boy, he's going to do wrong. And boy, is he going to make

  315. some major, major mistakes. But yet at the same time, he is

  316. going to have this thought process in his life that when I

  317. do wrong, I got to be right with the Lord.

  318. If someone tells me I've done wrong with the Lord, that I've

  319. got to do right and I've got to confess that.

  320. And David, much of his 40 years is going to be marked by verse

  321. #12 what we see right there, that's our text that we have

  322. before us here this evening. And as we consider chapter #5

  323. not the whole chapter, but what we've read to so far.

  324. I, I, I really in studying it this week, I was, I was left

  325. with one thought as I was going through it.

  326. And that would be this. It would have been so much

  327. better for Israel if David had just been crowned king in the

  328. 1st place. Think about all that would have

  329. been avoided if the whole Abner and Ishbosheth mess had been

  330. avoided and they just coronated the king who was supposed to be

  331. the king the whole time. Here's some of the things that I

  332. was considering this week that would have been different if

  333. they had just crowned David king.

  334. First of all, the Kingdom could have recovered from their

  335. devastating defeat at the hands of the Philistines at the end of

  336. Saul's reign. As it was, they had the yoke of

  337. the Philistines upon them for several years because they were

  338. so busy fighting amongst themselves that they weren't

  339. able to go and fight the Philistines.

  340. We're going to see in short order that that's going to

  341. change now that David is installed king.

  342. But in the meantime, they still had the Philistines with their

  343. heavy yoke of bondage upon them because Israel's too fight busy

  344. fighting amongst themselves the conquered territory that the

  345. Philistines had taken. Remember that they had a major

  346. incursion into the land of Israel.

  347. The Philistines did that. Conquered territory could have

  348. been one bag by now. If they had just coordinated

  349. David as king, they would not have gone through the animosity

  350. of a civil war where they were fighting each other for two

  351. years. And the division lines between

  352. Judah and the rest of Israel would only deepen over the next

  353. few years to the point that it would really explode when

  354. Jeroboam becomes king over Israel.

  355. And Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, is now only the king of

  356. Judah because there's these old fault lines that it existed all

  357. the way back from here. They were made worse by the fact

  358. that David was never crowned king.

  359. And then perhaps maybe the most compelling of all, you'll

  360. remember during that civil war, soldiers died.

  361. By the best count that I have from chapter #2 / 400 men died.

  362. The men of Israel dying at the hands of the men of Israel.

  363. There were 400 families that were affected that this civil

  364. war never would have taken place.

  365. Those men would have still been alive if they had just crowned

  366. David king over Israel. It's a costly mistake.

  367. It was something that was a very, very difficult time in the

  368. life of Israel and didn't affect just the nation.

  369. It affected the tribes. Didn't just affect the tribes,

  370. it affected the families as well.

  371. Waiting so long to make David the king had some devastating

  372. consequences for the people, and it would have been much better

  373. for Israel if David had been crowned two years before.

  374. But tonight, I want to kind of give you an applicable thought

  375. from this text in the form of a question.

  376. Again, we want to bring out what the people of Israel did

  377. tonight, but I'm not preaching to the people of Israel.

  378. I'm not preaching to people of Judah or people to the other 11

  379. tribes. It's, it's you and me that need

  380. to learn a lesson from the word of God tonight.

  381. And as I was considering it this week, I would, I would say this,

  382. that really it came down to me this thought, if we say Jesus is

  383. our king, shouldn't we actually make him our king?

  384. If we say Jesus is our king, shouldn't we make him or king in

  385. actuality? You see, the day you got saved,

  386. the day you trusted Jesus Christ as your savior, he became your

  387. king. I mean, that's just the theology

  388. of it. In fact, Colossians 113 says who

  389. had delivered us from the power of darkness and has translated

  390. us into the Kingdom of his dear son.

  391. See, the day you got saved, you went from living within the

  392. Kingdom of Satan and having him be your father, to now having a

  393. heavenly Father, and now Jesus becoming not just the King of

  394. kings and the Lord of Lords, but your King of kings and your Lord

  395. of Lords. And what a blessed day that was,

  396. that everything changed. That's why we're new creatures.

  397. That's why we're born again. Everything that's old is out and

  398. everything that is new is in. And what a glorious day that was

  399. that he truly became your king. But I would say this, it's one

  400. thing for him to be your king in position.

  401. It's another thing for him to be king in practice.

  402. Now think about that for a second.

  403. It's one thing for him to be king in position, meaning this,

  404. He is seated upon the throne of your heart, if you will.

  405. But it's another thing for him to be king in practice, meaning

  406. this. When a king gives edicts, when a

  407. king gives orders, when royalty says to do this or do that,

  408. Listen, hey, we don't have royalty around here.

  409. You know, we took care of that about 300 years ago, you know,

  410. didn't we? You know, because America,

  411. right? Am I right?

  412. We're going to celebrate that this week.

  413. But I will say this, we know enough about royalty just from

  414. watching around the world and just knowing history, that if

  415. the King says to do something, you do it.

  416. There's really no negotiation. There's really no back and forth

  417. that there is. It's just that the King says

  418. it's done. It's done.

  419. But I found just within my own life that sure, am I in the

  420. Kingdom? Have I been translated into the

  421. Kingdom of his dear Son? Yes.

  422. Is He positioned on the throne of my heart today?

  423. Yes, the day I accepted Jesus Christ, my Savior, December 2nd,

  424. 1998. Absolutely.

  425. That's what happened in my life. Does that mean I always listen

  426. to him? It's a different story.

  427. So he's the king, but do I acknowledge him in every way is

  428. my king? I would say that that's a quite

  429. different story. Hey, they knew he was supposed

  430. to be king. They knew it, they admitted it.

  431. But do they listen to him as king?

  432. No, not. And it was too late.

  433. In fact, they did everything else they could.

  434. They exhausted every other option.

  435. They looked for everyone else on the kickball team, and then they

  436. got left with David. How often is it if our own lives

  437. that we do everything we possibly can do to do things our

  438. own way, And then when that doesn't work, we try God's way,

  439. But He's the king the whole time.

  440. You know, when nothing else works Well, we might as well

  441. pray. We might as well pray.

  442. Why is that our last resort when it ought to be our first option?

  443. He's the king. He's seated upon your heart.

  444. We ought to treat him as our king.

  445. We ought to have him as our king, not just in position, but

  446. in practice. That we obey his every command

  447. because he's not just a king, He's a benevolent king.

  448. He's a kind king. There's been some pretty nasty

  449. kings and Queens over the years and royalty throughout the

  450. world. That you wouldn't want to listen

  451. to what they did. You wouldn't want to follow what

  452. they say because there was no godliness to be found in them

  453. whatsoever. But we're not talking about a

  454. king of this world or a queen of this world.

  455. No, no, we're talking about King Jesus who has only had your best

  456. in mind from before the foundation of the world when he

  457. desired to make a way of salvation for you, going to the

  458. cross. None of this was a surprise to

  459. God. God wasn't surprised in Genesis

    Genesis 3 chapter mention

  460. chapter 3 when mankind fell. What are we going to do now?

  461. It's the same plan from the foundation of the world.

  462. It's this. It's always been Jesus Christ.

  463. And for the joy that was set before him, Hebrews chapter 12,

    Hebrews 12 chapter mention

  464. he endured the cross. He suffered the shame.

  465. Why for you, He's your king. He has your best in mind.

  466. So why don't we listen to him? Like the title of my message

  467. tonight is this. Crown him.

  468. That's what Israel ought to do Crown.

  469. Crown the man. He's waited long enough, but how

  470. often do we have Jesus as our king, but we refuse to live like

  471. he's our king? It's a couple thoughts that I

  472. want to give you with that tonight.

  473. And the first is this. Listen, don't wait to make Jesus

  474. the King of your heart. Don't wait to make the Jesus to

  475. make Jesus the King of your heart.

  476. And first of all, if you if someone doesn't know Jesus

  477. Christ their Savior, and I know it's a Sunday night and I know

  478. it's the home crowd that's here tonight, but someone could even

  479. be watching here this evening. I believe that could be the case

  480. or listening to this later on podcast form and they don't know

  481. Jesus Christ your savior. You need him to be the king of

  482. your life. You need him to be the king of

  483. your eternity and he'd ask Jesus Christ to be your savior.

  484. You can't understand anything else here before you get that

  485. step and taken care of in your own life just.

  486. But just as today is the day of salvation, today is an equally

  487. great day to allow the Lord of your life to actually be the

  488. Lord of your life. Do not just call him King, but

  489. to live as if he's your King. Do not just give him lip

  490. service, but to give him life service.

  491. But I'm afraid that we do as Christians that as if we're not

  492. careful when it comes to our loyalty.

  493. King Jesus comes last that when everything else takes place

  494. first that he's the last one to be able to receive our loyalty.

  495. But Matthew 633 says this one of my favorite verse.

  496. I feel like I say that all the time.

  497. One of my favorite verses. There's there's a lot of them.

  498. You probably feel the same way. But seek ye first the Kingdom of

  499. God and his righteousness, and then all these things shall be

  500. added unto you. So when we seek those other

  501. things first, when, when we crown other things as the Lord

  502. of our life, what ends up happening?

  503. Well, we chase after those things, but they don't satisfy.

  504. They don't last that they don't give us what we think that

  505. they're going to give us. But we seek Him first.

  506. Not only does He give us the things that we need, He gives us

  507. a lot of wants as well. You know, I think I'll just be

  508. be honest with you, probably, you know, 25 minutes.

  509. And that's a good time to start being honest, right?

  510. But I'll be honest with you. I'll be honest with you.

  511. If I was to count how many hours I have spent in church in the

  512. last 20 years in an independent Baptist Church, the world would

  513. probably think I was crazy. Three hours or more Sunday

  514. school if I counted, you know, activities and outreach and all

  515. those things. I can't even imagine.

  516. I even tried to calculate, but I can't even imagine how much

  517. time. And they would say, look at all

  518. the time you've wasted, but look at how much better my life is

  519. because I've given him these things.

  520. I lack nothing. They say, oh, you got a lot of

  521. money. I didn't say that I could.

  522. I could probably pull that up right now and tell you see, I

  523. can see when I log in and find out on, on my bank number.

  524. I didn't say I lack nothing. God has been so good to me.

  525. I've not lost out on anything. It's just been a game.

  526. Oh, there've been hard times. Yeah, there've been hard times.

  527. Have there been difficulties? Of course there's been

  528. difficulties, which sure has been good to me.

  529. And so why would I make him the last resort when he ought to be

  530. the first one that I turned to? You know, so often when we're in

  531. trouble, it's then that we start to pray and read our Bible.

  532. Well, that ought to be our first go to, not our last resort.

  533. Oftentimes people can think about their ties last and how

  534. they spend their money on their own projects first.

  535. Why? My own projects have my own

  536. needs. And if there's anything

  537. leftover, then I will give it back to God.

  538. And he says that's that's backwards.

  539. Well, once I get my stuff straightened out, then I'll give

  540. to God. Maybe your stuff's not

  541. straightened out because you're not giving to God.

  542. I've witnessed that within my own life.

  543. Well, it just doesn't make sense right now.

  544. It would be. It would not even be responsible

  545. for me to give, but responsible to who?

  546. He's the King, we obey him. Often times when people are

  547. busy, they cancel on God first. Often times when it comes the

  548. issue of church, other commitments come first and

  549. listen, listen, this is the Sunday night crowd.

  550. You know what I'm saying? Like you're here Sunday night,

  551. you're here Wednesday night. If I said, Hey, let's get

  552. together on Friday for church, a lot of you'd show up then

  553. because that's just the way that you are.

  554. And thank the Lord for that. But but I will say this, we want

  555. we want God, his house to be our first priority.

  556. Why? Because the mean old Baptist

  557. preacher gets up and points his Bony finger at everybody and

  558. says you ought to be in church. No, because I don't talk like

  559. that. First of all, but, and I don't

  560. think my finger's that Bony, how do I think about actually, it's

  561. actually, yeah. Anyway, but let's say, you know,

  562. as we get to be with God's people, we get to be in God's.

  563. And this isn't a guilt trip. You know what this is?

  564. It's man. I get to be with God's people

  565. and worship him and praise him. What does it say in the Psalms?

  566. Enters gates with Thanksgiving and into his courts with praise.

  567. I get to, I get to be here, man, that's great.

  568. That's a wonderful thing. But so many people look at the

  569. House of God is something that's just, well, if I get around to

  570. it, you know, it'll be OK, I guess I will get there.

  571. And so that's why we made the decision a long time ago that we

  572. work everything around our calendar or everything on our

  573. calendar around the House of God.

  574. And there are things that we have missed out on.

  575. There's some things that we have not got to do.

  576. There's some things my children have not got to do because I

  577. told them that we don't do ball games on Sundays.

  578. We don't do those kind of things, but I will tell you,

  579. we've had conversations even just recently about and I

  580. probably have a testimony I could share with you at some

  581. point, but I don't have the liberty to do so tonight.

  582. But I would say this, that they have lost some things, but I

  583. would hope that they have gained a lot more than what they've

  584. lost from just say, hey, we're going to be in the House of God

  585. and for your own soul, that's what's needed.

  586. We don't want to put him last. We want to put him first.

  587. The Lord of all must truly be the Lord of all that.

  588. Our thought process, the way we look at life, the way that we

  589. choose what to do and what not to do, that all of it goes

  590. through the filter of this. He's the king, OK?

  591. It's not what Rivera would have you to do.

  592. Look, if you're going through the day saying, what would

  593. pastor want me to do? Listen, that's false religion

  594. and I'm serious about that. I'm not even saying this to to

  595. try to be cute or to be funny. But I, I know from independent

  596. Baptist churches in the past that people were, were afraid to

  597. do things or not do things, not because of what the Lord thought

  598. about it. Because what are the preacher

  599. going to see if he finds out? Listen that you know, I don't

  600. want you to be afraid of me. Well, maybe a little afraid of

  601. me, but I don't want you. No, I don't want you to be

  602. afraid. Listen, I'm not your king.

  603. I'm not the king of your home, nor am I the king of your heart.

  604. Do you know who he is? Who is he is and we want to

  605. please him and we want to honor. Listen, if you're trying to

  606. please him, then if I'm trying to please him, then we all ought

  607. to be pleased. That would kind of work itself

  608. out, shouldn't it? That I shouldn't even be part of

  609. that equation. That if you want to love the

  610. Lord and I want to love the Lord, and we say, yes, he saved

  611. us, we're part of his Kingdom. But yeah, I'm going to live

  612. every day like he is my king. That think of what could happen

  613. if we just live that way. So what do we need to do?

  614. We need to make him the king of our life.

  615. Don't wait to make him the king of your calendar.

  616. Don't wait to make him the king of your pocketbook.

  617. Don't wait to make him the king of your electronic devices.

  618. Don't wait to make him the king of your emotions.

  619. Don't wait to make him the king of your car.

  620. Don't wait to make him the king at your job site.

  621. Don't wait for any of those things.

  622. Make him the king. Because this is what's deserved.

  623. This is what's right. But I would say, and probably

  624. our testimony of a lot of us here tonight is, yeah, he's

  625. mostly my king. There's a few areas that I kind

  626. of like. I like to have control over.

  627. It would be like a king saying, you see this map?

  628. This is my Kingdom, but you see that shaded area over there?

  629. I can't go over there. Could you imagine, could you

  630. imagine what that would be to have a king who said, well, I am

  631. the king of all this realm, but there are parts of this realm

  632. that I cannot go to. Well, man, are you the king or

  633. not? You know what that king would do

  634. if there were parts of the realm that felt like that?

  635. He'd probably bring an army and he'd probably subdue the people

  636. to be able to rightly rule the people he's supposed to rule.

  637. I will say this, there are times because God loves us.

  638. Going back to Hebrews chapter 12, that there are parts of our

    Hebrews 12 chapter mention

  639. life we don't give him. There are realms within us that

  640. we do not give with to Him like we should.

  641. And sometimes He has to do some work on us to be able to get us

  642. to a place where we say, Lord, this belongs to you.

  643. It doesn't belong to me. I give it to you.

  644. It's not about what I want. It's not what about what I need.

  645. It's not about what I think. It's not about what my opinions

  646. are. Lord, I give it to you.

  647. And again, this sounds like such a negative, but do you realize

  648. what freedom this brings to the Christian and the Christian?

  649. When you live the Christian life the way God intends it, it is

  650. not constricting, it's not restrictive, it's not fear

  651. inducing. It's all about freedom.

  652. Because when the King of kings is your king, what freedom do

  653. you have? It's incredible.

  654. You know, they say that you can go pretty much anywhere in the

  655. world with an American passport. I've never really thought about

  656. it before. I've only used my passport a

  657. couple of times. But that there's great power

  658. that comes with an American passport.

  659. A lot of other passports. You can't go to other countries

  660. the way that ours can, that we have, that we can go to pretty

  661. much almost any country in the world.

  662. If you want to go to North Korea, listen, that's all you.

  663. I don't know that you can make it.

  664. But for the most, for the most part, you can go pretty much

  665. anywhere. But do you realize that when we

  666. belong to the Kingdom of his dear son done that it's not

  667. restrictive, it's freeing. I think sometimes we don't

  668. believe that. I think sometimes we think, you

  669. know what? If I really, if I really gave

  670. him everything, my life was over.

  671. My life would be over. And you realize if you gave him

  672. everything, your life would just begin in a way that you couldn't

  673. even imagine. Trust him.

  674. This isn't about legalism or Bad Religion or crazy angry

  675. independent Baptists. No, this is about this.

  676. God says this. If he's going to be the king,

  677. make a king. These people had this weird

  678. attitude with David. He's annoying the king, but

  679. we're not going to make him king.

  680. Just make it crown him. What are you waiting for?

  681. Just crown the man. And for us, it's can we crown

  682. him in our hearts? Not the man, but the God.

  683. Man Jesus Christ 100% God 100% man who lived that life so that

  684. he could help us even when we're in tempted because he knows all

  685. points. He was tempted on all points

  686. like we were yet without sin. And that was he did that so that

  687. he could better help us as our King to get us through the

  688. difficulties of life. What an amazing God we have #1

  689. Don't wait to make Jesus King of your heart #2 if you're like

  690. most people and you haven't truly made him the king the way

  691. that you're supposed to. And maybe you've lived some of

  692. your life. Maybe you've lived a lot of your

  693. life and you know you've never truly made him the king of, of

  694. every area of your life. My second point is this tonight

  695. and this, and this is very quick.

  696. If you do, if you did wait to make him king, do it anyway and

  697. rejoice when you do. If you've waited, just do it

  698. anyway and rejoice when you do. See, oftentimes I've found with

  699. a type of message like this that it can almost induce sadness.

  700. It can almost induce discouragement in people.

  701. Well, look, look at me. Look at where I am in my life

  702. and I still don't trust him the way that I'm supposed to.

  703. Can I be honest with you? Until you're in glory, you're

  704. not going to trust him the way you're supposed to when you see

  705. him face to face. But I do know this.

  706. I want to trust him more tomorrow than I did today and I

  707. want to trust him to more today than I did last week.

  708. But this process of actually making him the King of your

  709. life, actually listening to him in every facet.

  710. If you haven't done it the way that you should, if you, if

  711. you've gone through a rough patch of discouragement, if

  712. you've gone through a time where you didn't listen to him, if you

  713. went through years, or maybe you're away from the Lord,

  714. whatever it is it and you feel unworthy or you feel like you

  715. can't or you feel like you shouldn't or you feel like,

  716. like, what's the point anymore? Do you think that's the Holy

  717. Spirit saying that to you? Or maybe that's Satan who wants

  718. to keep you away from the Lord, you know?

  719. Hey, crown him. And when you do rejoice, turn to

  720. First Chronicles chapter 12. We're almost done.

    1 Chronicles 12 chapter mention

  721. First Chronicles chapter 12. Remember I mentioned those

    1 Chronicles 12 chapter mention

  722. 300,000 that all showed up at David's coronation?

  723. Boy, what a party that would have been.

  724. First Chronicles chapter 12, Look at verse #23 verse.

    1 Chronicles 12 chapter mention

  725. Chronicles 12 just a few pages over verse 23 that says, and

  726. these are the numbers of the bands that were ready armed to

  727. war, and came to David, to Hebron to turn the Kingdom of

  728. Saul to him according to the word of God.

  729. Now the next several verses just give the reckoning of the amount

  730. of soldiers that were there, and it would have been well over

  731. 300,000. Now drop down to verse #38 All

  732. these men of war that could keep rank came with a perfect heart

  733. to Hebron to make David king over all Israel.

  734. And all the rest also of Israel were of 1 heart to make David

  735. king. And they were with David three

  736. days, eating and drinking, for their brethren had prepared for

  737. them. Moreover, they that were thy

  738. them, even unto Issachar and Zebulun and Naphthali, brought

  739. bread on asses, and on camels, and on mules, and on oxen and

  740. meat meal, cakes of figs, bunches of raisins, wine, oil,

  741. oxen and sheep abundantly. For there was joy in Israel.

  742. These are the same people that waited.

  743. These are the same people that held David at arm's length all

  744. that time. But they finally got it.

  745. And when they did, with a perfect heart, they came

  746. together and they must have been Baptist because what did they

  747. do? They brought a lot of food and

  748. for three days they ate and they drank and they enjoy themselves.

  749. Let's stop talking about drinking in an intoxicating way,

  750. obviously, but it's talking about the fact that they had

  751. great joy amongst themselves. They should have done it two

  752. years before, but they did it. And when they did it, they

  753. rejoiced. It's my point this evening to

  754. make you discouraged. Look at look at how old I am.

  755. Look at how long I've been in the Lord and I should be so much

  756. further in my Christian life. Maybe that's how you feel.

  757. Maybe you feel like now you know, I don't trust him.

  758. I trust everything else. I trust everyone else, but he's

  759. the king in position. But in all practicality, he's

  760. not the king of my heart. My purpose is not to discourage

  761. you tonight. It's to encourage you to say,

  762. then make him the king of that area of your life, making the

  763. king of that component of your life tonight, make him the king.

  764. And when you do realize this, that when you do that, you will

  765. have such great joy and gladness that the only thing you'll say

  766. is I wished I'd done it sooner. But you won't even say it

  767. necessarily like you're, you're moping about it the rest of your

  768. life and just say, I wished I'd done it sooner because look at

  769. how good it is when the one who is anointed king actually is

  770. allowed to be king in my life. I'll leave you with this thought

  771. and we're done. If you, if you were to go back

  772. to verse number or chapter #5 you don't have to right now.

  773. But do you remember Hiram? We had that, that little verse

  774. about Hiram, the King of Tyre. And he was the one who said,

  775. Hey, you know, you're building this Jerusalem.

  776. I'll give you some, I'll give you some materials.

  777. You know, there was no Lowe's back then.

  778. So, you know, Hiram, King of Tyre was like Lowe's and Home

  779. Depot put together. It's like, hey, you know, you

  780. know, you know, you need something, you ask something,

  781. you know. This is what you, we'll give it

  782. to you whatever you need. But you know, Hiram did not

  783. recognize David as king until Israel recognized David as king.

  784. Do you know one of the reasons it's so important for us to live

  785. like he's the king? Because the world that we

  786. interact with will not truly see Jesus and us until we do.

  787. I wish, I wish my Co workers saw, I wish they would listen

  788. about Jesus. Maybe they need to see Jesus in

  789. you first, that you live like he's the king.

  790. Why doesn't my family get it? Why don't they listen?

  791. Perhaps, and again, I'm not saying this is the only reason.

  792. There's a lot of reasons. Everyone has to come to make

  793. these decisions on their own. But perhaps we need to actually

  794. live like he's the King within our own life.

  795. That there's some things we have to say no to.

  796. There's some events we can't go to.

  797. There's some things we can't participate in.

  798. Well, that'll push them away. Will it push them away?

  799. Or maybe we'll just show them if you do it in love, that you

  800. serve a different king and that, no, there's some activities I

  801. can't go to. I won't go to, I won't go to

  802. during church time. Now these, this is what I do.

  803. I'll come after church. I'll, I'll come on a different

  804. day. Let's have it at a different

  805. time or, or whatnot. No, I can't do that at work.

  806. No, I, I, I wouldn't, I can't do that.

  807. I, I feel like if I do that with the paperwork, I'm, I'm fudging

  808. the numbers and I can't do that. I, I won't do that.

  809. No, no, I know that you all we're friends, but I know you're

  810. going to a place. I don't, I don't, I can't, I'm

  811. not comfortable going to or you're telling stories and and I

  812. just can't participate in those. You say I would sound like such

  813. a oh, I would sound so awful if I talk like that.

  814. Well, first of all, you don't say it in a way to be a jerk.

  815. You know, you don't say, hey, you heathens, what are you doing

  816. on Sunday morning? No, you say, hey, you know, I'd

  817. love to be there, right? But I have a prior commitment.

  818. Well, that's not true. And I have a prior commitment to

  819. my king. But hey, maybe when they see

  820. that, they will see more in you and they'll see Christ in you.

  821. The hope of glory. Hiram did not recognize David as

  822. king until the people of Israel recognized David as king.

  823. And how many people out here will not truly see Jesus until

  824. they see him in us, the people of God?

  825. So this week, as we consider these things, let's don't wait

  826. to put Jesus on the throne until everything else fails.

  827. Jesus isn't the last one we pick on the kickball team.

  828. No, he's the first. The first in our heart, the 1st

  829. for our love, the first for affection, the first in

  830. everything. And that's not restrictive.

  831. That brings freedom unlike anything you can imagine.

  832. Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of

  833. Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing

  834. to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us

  835. know by contacting us at [email protected].

  836. Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,

  837. MA. May the Lord bless you as you

  838. grow in His Word.