June 13, 2026 ”David’s Secret Weapon” Pastor Jamey Houghton

Hello.

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We've been going through the story of

David. We're still in our in our series

on the life of David. And David's life

is a complicated one as you read through

it. lots of tough decisions that he had

to make as king. Um, decisions are

tough. This is President Bush

before and after he was president. Can

you tell any difference between the two

on the on the left, he looks ready to

go. Uh, a little bit younger there. Look

at the color of his hair. And then look

at the color of his hair after he's been

president.

He had some tough things to handle. I

don't know if you remember the uh the

footage of him, I believe he was sitting

in an elementary school classroom and

somebody comes up and whispers in his

ear that an airplane has hit one of the

towers in New York City. Remember seeing

that? I can remember seeing that video

and him just processing all of it. And

he's in a classroom, so he can't really

jump up and handle it. He's got to kind

of hold it all together. But imagine the

amount of stress that conversation had

on the president as he's going, "Now,

what do we do? How do we handle this

situation? These are choices he's never

had to make before. What's going to

happen? How are we going to do this?

What's the right thing to do?" Lots of

different choices during his presidency.

And you can see the result of difficult

choices. and the hair on this man's

head,

the stress that it causes when we have

tough decisions to make and tough

choices to make. And it's not only him.

Most presidents, you can see the aging

happened. On the left, you see

President, a young President Obama right

before, right as he's starting to become

president. And he looks ready to go.

He's serious. He's got, okay, I'm ready

to be president. Then you see the same

thing that happened with President Bush

with President Obama. Look at the color

of his hair in just a short amount of

time.

The stress of being a leader or head of

state is immense. There are lots of

different situations that they are put

in where they have to make a choice and

hopefully it's the right choice. Many of

us have been in situations in our lives

where we have several different paths in

front of us and we're not sure which way

we should go. Maybe it's a career choice

or a where you're going to move to or a

job. Different things like that. who

you're going to marry. That's a big one.

Lots of different choices that we have

in life. And sometimes those choices can

be very difficult because you don't know

what the right choice is. David

had a lot of choices that he had to make

very early on in his role as the king.

Now, in chapter 1, David is anointed

king of Judah, not king of Israel. just

the one tribe, King of Judah.

He's anointed, but the the tribes are

not all together. And there are several

different characters in our story today

that complicate David's life a lot and

the choices that he has to make.

Remember, he's new at this. He's been

running around being chased, leading a

band of about 600 men for quite some

time because King Saul has wanted to

kill him.

Now, King Saul has just died along with

his dear friend Jonathan. And everything

is different. Everything is different.

And the young king David has a lot of

tough situations that he's facing as a

new king. Now, some of the characters in

our story

are important to note, and there's two

of them that that make David's life more

complicated than he probably wanted. And

they're both generals. The first general

was the general under King Saul. His

name was Abnner. Abnner was related to

Saul. Now, there's there's some

disagreement on how he was related based

on how it's worded in the Bible. He was

either Saul's uncle or Saul's cousin.

One of the two, but very closely

related. The way I read it, it looks

like he was probably, in my opinion,

Saul's cousin.

Very closely related. But it's Abnner.

He's the general of Saul's army. Abner

has spent a good chunk of his career

chasing down David trying to kill him

with the suspicion that David is there

to replace his cousin.

Abnner's loyal to his family. But now as

King Saul is dead, Abnner is still alive

and Abner is actually a very highly

respected person in Israel. Ellen White

says that Abner was the most

distinguished man in Israel. That's a

pretty pretty strong compliment, isn't

it? He was the most Abnner was the most

distinguished man in Israel. People

liked Abnner. He'd kept them safe. He

protected them. He was in their

estimation a very wise person.

He was kind of the de facto leader of

the tribes of Israel when Saul was gone.

Now, Saul still had a son and his name

was Ishb. It's a tongue twister, Ishb.

And Abner didn't want to join up with

David.

He wanted to stay in more power over

here. So he kind of takes Ishbos and

makes him the king of Israel instead of

joining with David and Judah. Now Ishbos

is not a very strong character. He's not

going to be king without Abnner.

Abnner kind of says, "Okay, now you can

be king." But he's really kind of

running things.

Now,

Abner really doesn't like David at all.

Not only because he'd been ordered to go

and find him so many times, but there's

been several issues between David and

Abnner. One of them in specific,

and uh we see this in

1st Samuel chapter 26. Turn with me in

your Bibles to 1st Samuel chapter 26.

And we realize a little bit more why

Abner does not like David so much.

Now, you might remember previously in

the story, David had the opportunity to

kill King Saul in the cave, right? You

remember that part of the story? They

were hiding in the cave. Saul came in,

took a nap. They were standing right

over him. David's friend right next to

him said, "This is your chance to kill

him. You won't have to run anymore."

David says, "I'm not going to do it."

Cuts off the hem of his garment. He gets

outside, tells him he was just there.

Saul makes one of his many uh apologies

that is usually short-lived.

And we come now to the second time that

David was in a position where he could

have killed King Saul. This is previous

to where we just were in the beginning

of of 2 Samuel. 1st Samuel chapter 26.

Saul and his men along with Abnner are

camped out in the wilderness there.

David and his men are hiding over here.

David and Aishi. Aishi is Joab's

brother. Joab is David's general. Abishi

was his brother. David and Aishi sneak

down right into the middle of Saul and

Abner's camp. While they're all

sleeping, they're tiptoeing over

soldiers to get to the middle where the

king is resting.

Aishi and David are standing right

there. There's Abner. There's Saul. And

Aishi says, "David, now's your chance.

Pick up his spear. His spear's right

here. run him through. You won't have to

run anymore. You'll be the king of both

Israel and Judah, like it's supposed to

be.

And David's looking at the situation and

he says, just like before, he says, "Who

am I to harm the Lord's anointed? He's

going to let God take care of those

things in his own time."

But there's Saul's spear, and there's a

jug of water for Saul in case he wakes

up and he's thirsty in the middle of the

night. David says to Aishi, "Grab his

spear and grab his jug of water and

let's get out of here." What's also kind

of mind-blowing is that they're having

this whole conversation while they're

standing over the king and his general

Abnner right there. They're discussing

this right there while these guys could

wake up

and they take the jug of water and the

spear and they take off. Then when

they're a good ways away, the Bible says

far enough away, it says a great

distance between them. Verse 13 and into

14 it says, "And David called out to the

people and to Abnner the son of Nurse,

saying, do you not answer Abnner?" So he

must have tried calling several times to

wake him up.

And Abner answered and said, "Who are

you calling out to the king?" So David

said to Abnner, this is probably why

Abnner doesn't like David very much. In

front of all of Abnner's soldiers and in

front of his boss, King Saul, David

shouts out, "Are you not a man?"

Questions his manhood. That's going to

be fighting words still today, probably.

He says, 'Are you not a man? And who is

like you in Israel? Why then have you

not guarded your lord the king? For one

of the people came in to destroy your

lord the king. This thing that you have

done is not good. As the Lord lives, you

deserve to die because you have not

guarded your master, the Lord's

anointed. See, where are the king's

spear and the jug of water that was by

his head?

Immediately Abnner probably looks down.

There's no spear. There's no jug of

water. Saul probably looks down for his

spear and jug of water and then looks at

Abner like, "Are you kidding me?"

Abnner's in a tight spot. His manhood

has just been questioned by David in

front of all of his soldiers. No wonder

Abnner doesn't like David very much. In

front of his boss and in front of all of

his soldiers, he says, "You deserve to

die for what you've done."

Back up to 2 Samuel,

we see a little bit of why Abner doesn't

want to join David.

David is finding out that being king is

very complicated. There's war and as

Ishb is the king, kind of a puppet king

for Abnner,

Israel and Judah

are waring with each other, fighting

with each other.

And we see

this get more complicated in chapter 2

of 2 Samuel.

In verse 17, there's a war going on

between the two. So, it's Abnner versus

Joab. Abnner, uh, Saul's former general,

Joab, David's general. Now, let's talk

about Joab for just a minute before we

jump into the story. Joab is has earned

his place as the general for David. He's

been a valiant warrior.

He's also David's nephew. It's his

sister's boy, so he's family. But it's a

rocky relationship between David and

Joab throughout their lives. But Joab is

a very talented general, very strong

general, the leader.

And Joab has a couple of brothers, Aishi

and Asahel. And we run into them here in

this part of the story in in Samuel 2

Samuel 2. So there was a very fierce

battle that day, and Abner and the men

of Israel were beaten before the

servants of David. Now the three sons of

Zariah were there. Joab, who's the

general, Abishi and Asahel.

And it says, "And Asahel was as fleet of

foot as a wild gazelle." I think that's

code for he was very fast. Fleet of foot

as a wild gazelle. An interesting way to

describe somebody. He must have stood

out as a speedy runner, a fast runner.

And now Asah as he's chasing the

Israelites, he sees Abnner. And he's

probably thinking to himself, if I can

go and kill Abnner, Israel will then

join Judah and we will unite all of the

tribes

because Ishbath is not a strong king.

He's only there because Abnner's

supporting him. And Isahel, who's one of

David's mighty men, we'll we'll talk

about that in just a minute. Fascinating

part of the story. and some of some of

David's uh soldiers. As Saul is here on

the battlefield and he sees Abnner, the

general that Saul had trusted and who is

now leading out essentially all of

Israel.

And it says pursued Abner and in going

he did not turn to the right hand or to

the left from following Abnner. Then

Abnner looked behind him and said, "Are

you a Sahel?" He said, "I am." And

Abnner said to him, "Turn aside to your

right hand or to your left and lay a

hold on and lay a hold on one of the

other young men and take his armor for

yourself." But Asahel would not turn

aside from following him. So Abnner said

again to Asahel, "Turn aside from

following me. Why should I strike you to

the ground? How then could I face your

brother Joab?"

However, he refused to turn aside, the

Bible says. Now, there may have been a

little bit of uh testosterone jostling

there as well when uh Abner says, "I

don't want to have to kill you right

now." And Assah's like, "Oh, you think

you can kill me, huh?" They're both very

good warriors,

but here there's this this

com competition between these two very

strong warriors. But Abner is very

confident that he can kill Asal, but he

doesn't want to. He says, "How could I

face your brother Joab?" He realizes

that there's there's relationships

there. There's politics there that he

has to be aware of. And Assahu will not

turn aside.

The Bible says, "Therefore, Abnner

struck him and killed him." This is

Joab's brother.

So Joab, in addition to not liking

Abner for being his opposing general,

now he's killed his brother.

Now it's more serious even.

Now

Joab is an interesting character to look

at in the Bible and throughout the story

of David. Joab is a very talented

general. And in fact, you'll read

different different parts of the story

where Joab will pray to God before he

goes into battle. A very moving prayer.

God, we're in your hands. Where he's

sections where he's surrounded and he

says, "God, be with us." He prays and

asks for the God of heaven to be there

and to help him.

And then you have also some some

situations where Joab is the one who

takes direction from David to withdraw

to allow Uriah the Hitittite to be

killed. We're going to talk about that

story in two weeks. and he's very

willing to be an accomplice in something

that was so wrong. And he moves back to

allow Uriah, who was also one of David's

mighty men, to be killed.

So, there's all kinds of complexities in

this story and the people that David

interacts with. So many politics, family

connections, family feuds,

all kinds of stuff. He's a new king

trying to figure this out because his

goal is to unite Judah and Israel

together to be the king. But it's split

off at this point with lots of different

complications.

David's mighty men. These are

interesting because we have we have both

Aishi and Assahil who are mentioned as

David's mighty men in 2 Samuel 23. Turn

with me over in your Bible. 2 Samuel 23.

These guys

are fascinating to read about. Now, God

worked in many different ways with

Israel, but one of the ways was to

protect them, physically protect them

from being attacked.

And God used specific individuals in

special ways to preserve life in Israel.

And some of these were listed as David's

mighty men. How many of you have ever

read about David's mighty men before?

Fascinating.

Who were some of these people that were

warriors for David?

Well, one of them in verse 8 of chapter

23 in 2 Samuel said, "Here are the names

of the mighty men whom David had. Joshua

Bash, we'll skip his name, the

Tachamite, chief among the captains. He

was called Adino the Eznite because he

had killed 800 men at one time."

One guy versus 800.

You want to be friends with a guy like

that.

After him was Eleazar, the son of Dota,

the aholite, one of three mighty men

with David when they defeated the

Philistines who were gathered there for

battle. And the men of Israel retreated.

Okay, the men of Israel retreated, but

this guy didn't. Eleazar, it says he

arose and attacked the Philistines. That

would be by himself, by the way,

attacked them until his hand was weary

and his hand stuck to the sword.

Then there's Shama. There's several more

here. It says, "So the people fled." And

this is down in uh verse 11. So the

people fled from the Philistines into

verse 12. But he stationed himself in

the middle of the field, defended it,

and killed the Philistines. So the Lord

brought about a great victory. These are

brave men who station themselves in a

protective mode for the people of

Israel. And God works great and mighty

things through them to protect Israel

and to protect the people there. Now,

some of these other people that are

mentioned over in verse 18. Now Abiti,

the brother of Joab, the son of Zariah,

was chief of another three.

He lifted his spear against 300 men,

killed them, and won a name among those

three. This is the brother of General

Joab. One versus 300.

Baniah down in verse 20. And eventually

Baniah will become general of the armies

of Israel under David later on in his

life. Biniah verse 20 was the son of

Jehoeda, the son of a valiant man from

Cabazil who had done many deeds. He had

killed two lionlike heroes of Moab. I'm

not even sure what a lionlike person

looks like, but it sounds intimidating.

I have I have a feeling that we would

all be scared of somebody who's

described as a lionlike person. But

Baniah went in and killed two of them in

battle. Says he had also gone down and

killed a lion in the midst of a pit on a

snowy day.

This guy is hardcore.

Verse 21, it says he killed an Egyptian,

a spectacular man. And in 1 Chronicles,

we see a little bit more about this this

story. 1 Chronicles tells us that the

Egyptian man that he fought was 7 and

1/2 ft tall. He went into battle with a

club. And the Egyptian had a spear.

He wrestled the Egyptian spear away from

him and killed him with his own spear, a

7 and 1/2t man.

These were some wild warriors that David

had fighting on his behalf.

They had done a whole lot of different

things. And Isahel, the brother of Joab,

was also one of these mighty men that

had been killed

by Abnner.

So, David has all of these different

scenarios. How is he going to bring

everyone together?

There's something interesting that

happens in this story with Abnner.

Abnner gets fed up with Ishbosh, the

person who he put in to be king. They

get sideways with each other. He decides

he wants to go make peace with David and

join Israel with Judah.

Now he starts he he comes over with a

delegation of 20 men and he sits down to

talk to David and he says, "Hey, I want

to make peace." And David says something

very interesting. He says, "None of this

will happen unless I get my wife Michael

back." You remember remember Michael who

she is? Michael was David's wife that

was also the daughter of King Saul. And

if you'll recall in Bible times, often

times there were marriages that were

arranged in order to bring peace to

people so that they wouldn't they

wouldn't attack each other. And you had,

of course, be respectful to the uh to

the daughter of whatever king got

married, otherwise things could get bad.

So there was there was a little bit of a

of an agreement when you allowed your

daughter to be married to someone else.

There was there was a code that like,

okay, now we're going to be at peace.

And so Saul had married Michael off to

another man when he was chasing David.

And David had to run. And so David says

this, a very, very shrewd move by David.

He says, "We can talk about peace, but

none of this goes anywhere until I get

Michael back as my wife."

And what that said to all of Israel was,

"Hey, this is King Saul's daughter. He's

she's still married to David, which

shows that there's a respect there and

that he will treat you all well, the

house of Saul.

So, David is having to take into account

all of these different little nuances of

things and his agreement. And so, he and

Abner sit down and talk and work out a

peace agreement. Now, there's two things

that are interesting about this part of

the story. The first thing is is that

David can sit down with somebody who

hates him and has tried to kill him so

many times and can talk peace.

I think there's value in that.

Sometimes we get sideways with different

people. We have disagreements with

different people. It's always good to

have a forgiving spirit and want to

reconcile things. And for sure, David

had to have done something like that in

his own heart before he could even have

a conversation with Abnner about this.

The second thing that's interesting in

the story, and we see this in just a

moment when Joab comes back on the

scene, when Abnner and David are talking

peace about uniting Israel and Judah,

Joab is not there.

Joab is out on a raid somewhere else.

And I think probably David arranged for

this so that Joab wouldn't be there when

a when uh when um Abner was there

because he knew the two of them didn't

like each other cuz the death of a

psalm.

So David's having to to delicately go

back and forth with all of this, trying

to be a good king, trying to handle all

of the nuances, all the different tough

situations.

Now Abner and his 20 men take off and

leave before Joab comes back into

David's presence. And in verse 22 of

chapter 3 in 2 Samuel it says at that

moment the servants of David and Joab

came from a raid and brought much spoil

with them. But Abnner was not with David

in Hebron for he had sent him away and

he had gone in peace. When Joab and all

the troops that were with him had come

they told Joab saying Abner the son of

Nur came to the king and he sent him

away and he is gone in peace. Then Joab

came to the king and said, "What have

you done?"

David probably knew Joab wasn't going to

be happy with this decision. Probably

why he sent him away. Wouldn't get in

the way of negotiations.

He says, "What have you done?"

The relationship between David and Joab,

like I mentioned a minute ago, was very

rocky. Ups and downs.

There were some times later on when when

Joab would come and just read David the

riot act.

Joab was the one that killed

David's rebellious son Abselum.

And David weeps. Joab comes in and says,

"Why are you crying for the one? We all

just fought this guy and we've been

fighting him and he's been treasonous

and you're weeping for the bad guy and

not sorry for us." A very up and down

relationship between David and Joab. So

much so that on David's deathbed when

he's talking to Solomon who's going to

take his place, he says to Solomon,

"You're going to go ahead and need to

kill Joab,

my nephew."

That's how complex the relationship was

between David and Joab. At the end of

his life, he says, "Solomon, you're just

going to have to kill him.

He's earned it."

Very, very complicated. So, here we have

Joab. He comes to the king, King David,

and says, "What have you done? Look,

Abnner has come to you. Why is it that

you sent him away and he has already

gone? Surely you realize that Abnner's

son of N, the son of N came to deceive

you. He's kind of talking a little

disrespectful to a king, isn't he?

Surely you see what he's doing here. Are

you this dumb is kind of what he's

saying.

So Joab leaves. Joab sends a servant to

go catch Abner and bring him back. The

servant says, "Hey, David wants you to

come back." Okay. Abnner turns around

and comes and Joab meets him on the road

right at the gate outside of Hebrron and

he says hey Abnner I need to talk to you

for a second privately.

I'm sure Abner was like what?

Cuz he killed this guy's brother.

They step somewhere privately and Joab

pulls a sword and kills Abner, one of

the most highly respected people in all

of Israel.

Kills him right there.

David finds out about I mean everybody's

going to find out about this.

David finds out about this and he

realizes that the peace that he was

trying to broker between Israel and

Judah is going to be almost impossible

now because his general has killed the

guy that he was doing peace talks with

that is the most influential person in

all of Israel. People like this guy. How

is it that they're going to want him to

be their king when when one of his

general his general just killed their

leader?

David must have thought, "How on earth

did I get into this job? There's no good

way out of this. Everything is so

complicated.

How is David going to handle this?"

Verse 31. David said to Joab and to all

the people who were with him, "Tear your

clothes, gird yourselves with sackcloth,

and mourn for Abnner." And King David

followed the coffin. Did you notice who

David addressed first? Who was going to

be mourning at King at at Abnner the

general's funeral.

He says, "Joab, tear your clothes. Put

on sackcloth and ashes. We're going out

to mourn for the man you just killed."

That was probably a tough pill for Joab

to swallow. And off they go, mourning

the death of Abnner.

And David,

it says he wept at the grave of Abnner.

This speaks a lot for David and how he's

able to forgive people who have done him

harm, to be sad. And a little bit later

on, he calls him a prince

and a great man. Those are the two words

that he calls him over in verse 38

describing Abner.

The people of Israel see how he is upset

at David's at at Abnner's death. He even

sings a song in the funeral dur says,

"Should Abnner die as a fool dies? Your

hands were not bound nor your feet put

into feathers. As a man falls before

wicked men, so you fell." What is he

saying there about Joab? He just sang a

song about how his general is a wicked

man.

the politics that he's having to deal

with, the tough choices, the difficult

people, his own people going behind his

back

make things so much more difficult for

him.

Here's what he says at the end, verse

39.

With all of this drama going on, he

says, "And I am weak today, although

anointed king.

And these men, the sons of Zariah, who

are Joab and his brother, who's still

alive.

These sons of Zariah are too harsh for

me. The Lord shall repay the evildoer

according to his wickedness. Basically,

Joab, he couldn't touch him. Even though

he did something wrong that made him

look bad, that that complicated

everything, he could not touch him

because he and his brother were too

strong. And he says, 'Even though I'm

king, my hands are tied. I can't do

anything about this.'

probably thought how in the world am I

going to do any of this? How am I going

going to lead this nation?

There are times in our lives where we

face impossible situations, complicated

situations in life, decisions that we

have to make.

And

in our lives, we're going to come back

to those slides here in just a minute.

In our lives, we face a wide variety of

different situations. end of life care

for loved ones, decisions, caring for

grown children. Sometimes we face

difficult how are we going to do this?

Sometimes if our if our children have

walked away from God, how are we going

to bring this up? More than anything,

you want your kid to follow Jesus, but

they don't want to maybe want to hear

about it. How is it that you can bring

up spiritual things without them getting

angry at you?

Difficult situations, how we navigate

career change. If you're changing your

careers and all right, what am I going

to do with my life now? Maybe maybe uh

AI has changed your whole career and now

AI does your job and you're like, "All

right, now I have to figure out what I'm

going to do with my life. What do I do

here? What decision do I make?" Maybe

it's loneliness that you're trying to

figure out how to handle living alone

and being alone.

Maybe it's a trying to decide what

you're going to study in college, what

what degree you're going to take, which

direction you're going to go in your

life. Maybe you're wondering how you're

going to be able to retire. Looking at

different different financial situ how

am I going to be able to do this and

quit working.

Maybe you're single and you're like, I'd

really like to get married, but I'm just

not sure who what I'm looking for. I

there's nobody around that kind of meets

what I'm looking for and I'm just not

sure about this. God, what's if if they

come, what should I be looking for? Who

who should I be looking for? There's

lots of different decisions that we have

to make in life. How was it that David

made his decisions

in all the complexities that he faced in

life? Let's take a look

in 1st Samuel 23:2.

It starts off and says, "Therefore,

David inquired of the Lord."

>> Then you see again in 1st Samuel 23:4,

two verses later, it says, "Then David

inquired of the Lord." Again, in 1st

Samuel 23:9-12, David inquires two more

times. Ask God, "What should I do? Are

they going to do this? What what's going

to happen here?" God answers both of

those. 1st Samuel 37:8, "And David

inquired of the Lord." 2 Samuel 2:1,

2 Samuel 2:1

"After David inquired of the Lord," do

you see a trend here? As he's facing

tough situations, David repeatedly asks

God what he should do. 2 Samuel 5:19,

2 Samuel 5:19

"And David inquired of the Lord." 2

2 Samuel 5:23

Samuel 5:23. And David inquired of the

Lord over and over again as David faces

tough situations. He says, "God, what

should I do?

How should I handle this?"

And what did God do for David?

God led and guided David through a

complex web of situations, people, and

politics,

and was by his side throughout all of

that, giving him guidance and what to

do. He says here in Psalms 25:4 to5,

Psalms 25:4–5

"Show me your ways, O Lord. Teach me

your paths. Lead me in your truth and

teach me." Psalm 27:11, "Teach me your

Psalms 27:11

ways, O Lord, and lead me on a level

path." again at the end of uh Psalm 143,

teach me to do your will. David was not

a perfect man.

He made some big life mistakes, poor

choices when he was doing them on his

own. When David was asking God for

guidance in his life, God was there to

point him in the right direction.

Friends, when we face different

situations in life where we're just not

quite sure what the right decision is,

I think the best thing we can do

is learn from David from what he did

right and ask God. Say, God, what is it

I should do here? What decision should I

make? What decision would honor you? And

you know what? We don't have to have

that that really cool yurum and thumbum

rock that the high priest had, that yes

and no rock. That'd be really nice to

have. We don't need to have that. We've

got God's word right here.

>> And when we pray and ask God for

guidance in our life, he will either

reveal it here as we study God's word.

He may impress our minds. He might bring

a spiritual friend who is discerning and

and close to Jesus to point you in the

right direction. There's a a thousand

ways that God still works today. God

loves you as much as he loves loved

David. He didn't like David any better

than you. If he was willing to work with

David, he's willing to work with you.

There are so many neat Bible promises

that talk about

God helping us. Psalm 32:8, I will

Psalms 32:8

instruct you and teach you in the way

you should go. I will counsel you with

my eye upon you. Isaiah 58:11, "And the

Isaiah 58:11

Lord will guide you continually." How

often?

>> Continually. He will satisfy your desire

in the scorched places and make your

bones strong. That's code for he will

take care of you when you're in tough

times and he'll give you strength to

make it. Psalm 23:2 to3, he makes me lie

Psalms 23:2–3

down in green pastures. He leads me

beside still waters. He restores my

soul. He leads me in paths of

righteousness for his name's sake. If we

were to switch this around, this promise

is for you. He makes you to lie down in

green pastures. He leads you beside

still waters. What is he doing for you?

Leading you. He restores your soul. He

leads you in paths of righteousness for

his name's sake. Friends, the creator

God is just a whisper away.

And he cares about what goes on in your

life. He cares about the things that are

important to you. And he promises to

give us wisdom in how to handle these

things. He gave David wisdom

when David asked.

There was a man who was called to be a

missionary, a medical missionary to Mali

in Africa. And there was uh there was a

mission outpost there with the medical

emphasis. And someone one of the leaders

in the in the clinic there came to him

and said, "Hey, I've got a I've got a

job for you that that doesn't really

have to do with anything medical, but

it's really going to help out with the

people in the village because the people

in the village need to work. there's

nothing for them to do to work. And so I

really want to start an industry here

where they can work and that'll help us

connect with the village as well. He

says,"I want you to start making soap.

We'll sell the soap and you can hire

people from the village to come make the

soap." He said, "Okay." So he started

looking uh at what it would take to

start a soap factory and all the

different tools that he would need. And

he went online and was sitting at his

desk and looking on his computer looking

for the different things that he would

need. And there was a machine that he

was going to need to cut the bars of

soap. And that machine was like $1,800.

He was thought, "Man, I don't have

$1,800 for this thing. I'm not sure how

I'm going to pull this off and start a

whole business without the right

equipment to be able to cut the soap so

we can then divide it up and sell it.

I'm not sure what we're going to do."

And as he was sitting at that desk, he

whispered a prayer and said, "God, I

need your help.

I'm not sure how to move forward with

this project, but I think it'll be a

good help for the community and help us

connect with them. Please God, help me

figure something out. And as he's

wrapping up his prayer, one of the bolts

inside of his desk drops, a big bolt. It

drops right on the ground and makes a

big loud noise. And he kind startles

just a little bit. And he looks down at

this bolt and he's like, "Huh, it's a

huge bolt." He reaches down and picks it

up and he looks closer at the bolt and

at the top on the head of the bolt, it's

thick like this. And there's a there's a

hole drilled through the through the top

of the bolt. And he's like, "Huh, I've

never seen a bolt like this in my life."

And then an idea hits him as he's

sitting there with the bolt in his

hands. He's looking at he's like, "Wait

a second. I bet that if I run a guitar

string through this hole in this bolt

and I tighten it on the other side, I

bet it'll be tight enough and be perfect

and anchor it just right enough so that

we can use it to cut the soap into bars

so that we can sell it.

He went and tried it out and it worked

perfectly.

And he thought to himself, "God answered

my prayer right away. How long has that

bolt been getting loose getting ready to

answer my prayer? He said he went online

and looked at how desks were made. He

said he couldn't find one desk

manufacturer that made bolts that had a

hole in the top of it like the one that

fell out of his desk.

And it fell out right as he was praying

to God for help. And it was the perfect

solution exactly to what he was praying

for. God knew about that prayer back

when that desk was being manufactured

and someone put the wrong screw in

there, but it was the right screw.

was the screw that was going to answer

his prayer all those years later and

fall out just at the right time. God

cares about the big stuff in our life.

He cares about the little stuff in our

lives. If it's important to you, it's

important to God.

What an amazing thing that is that the

God of the universe

who the Bible says by the breath of his

mouth the heavens were made. That's how

powerful of God that we're talking

about. He cares about what goes on in

your life. He cares about the struggles,

the choices that you have to make in

your life. And he promises to give you

wisdom and how to make the best choice.

As you look at choices in your life, I

want to encourage you to spend time in

God's word.

You may be surprised as you read through

God's word, as a thought pops into your

mind, as he inspires you through his

word here. Listen for that still small

voice as you pray. Because the God who

guided David through very complicated

situations as he became the king is the

same God that has promised to give you

wisdom and guide you through the choices

in your life to make the very best

choices that will honor him and bring

you happiness in life. That same God

cares about you today here in McDonald,

Tennessee. And he loves you and wants

the best for you.

>> Amen.

>> And he's only a whisper away. Amen.

>> We're going to close with a song and I

invite our singers to come back up. Our

closing song is Fill My Cup, Lord. And

the song says, "I lift it up, Lord. Come

and quench this thirsting of my soul.

Bread of heaven, feed me till I want no

more. Fill my cup. Fill it up and make

me whole." God is willing to send out

blessings to each one of us and fill us

when we need it. Let's stand together as

we sing our closing song, Fill My Cup,

Lord. Father in heaven, Lord, thank you

for showing us how you were with David

and giving us an example from him on on

going to you with our our the things

that are on our heart, the complexities

of life, the choices that we have to

make. Lord, help us to follow suit there

and do as he did and going to you first

for wisdom and advice. God, thank you so

much for promising to give us that

wisdom and advice. And like the

scripture said this morning, your lamp

is a light to our feet. And Lord, we

thank you for your scripture leading and

guiding us, for the whispers in our ear,

the convictions in our hearts that you

give to us. And Father, for those that

are facing tough choices in life right

now, Lord, I just ask that you be with

them and give them clarity of where you

want them to go and what choice you want

them to make in their situation. God,

thank you for caring about the big

things and the little things in our

lives. And Lord, we love you so much and

can't wait to be with you in heaven.

Keep us faithful until you come to take

us home is our prayer today in Jesus

name. Amen.

>> Thanks so much for joining us here at

the McDonald Road 7th Day Adventist

Church for worship. Each month we reach

between 25 and 30,000 people with gospel

content online. We're looking to expand

our audiovisisual department this year

and looking to raise $30,000 in this

project. We would love for you to

partner with us on this and consider

making a donation to our audiovisisual

department as we look at expansion and

reaching more people with the gospel

across the internet this next year. You

can go to mrcsda.org

to make a donation directly to our

audiovisisual department. Thank you so

much for considering making this

donation and the privilege is ours to

partner with you in making this a bigger

and more effective ministry here at the

McDonald Road 7th Adventist Church.

God bless each one of you and thanks

again for joining us here at the

McDonald Road 7th Adventist Church.