"A Word to Obey" Pastor Chris Buskirk 5.12.19

[inaudible]

live like kings.

That's what this series is entitled.

And that's really the aim of it too.

We're not just studying kings.

We're hoping to study them so that we could become a men of kingly character.

Uh, and I don't know of anything that would bless a wife or a home more than to have a godly kind of king as its priest and its shepherd.

His name was Robertson McQuilkin and he was the president of Columbia seminary in Atlanta, Georgia many years ago, uh, the president of that seminary for 34 years.

But some people said it could have been at least 20 more because he retired early, resigned from his position when his wife Muriel was diagnosed with Alzheimer's.

He decided to devote himself first, primarily and solely to her care.

And for the next 17 or more years, uh, that was his mission and his purpose.

But someone from the seminary contacted him, told him that they were missing him some 17 years later.

And, uh, thoughtlessly just blurted out what came to mind.

Robertson, do you really think you did the right thing?

Letting God puts you on a shelf these last 17 years.

And he winced at those words and he had never thought of it that way, but it got him to thinking and got him to wondering that morning he and his wife were taking their, their walk and as they walked, she was now, uh, effected by the disease to the point that, that she needed him to steady her.

So they walked very closely, almost intertwined as a, as they would walk together.

And as they were walking that morning, uh, a familiar derelict and NIB radiated out, walked up to them and as he passed them, he said, boy, boy, I like that.

I like that.

That's good.

I really liked that, watching how they were holding each other as they walk and Robertson said in his heart, Lord, which that you, it resonated with something deep within his own soul.

Perhaps he remembered genesis one and how it was when man got together with woman in the garden that God said isn't just good.

It's, it's very good.

Yeah, I really liked that.

[inaudible]

okay.

And then Robertson realized it was that word deep within him, that it shaped him and caused him to make the decisions and to walk by the convictions that he walked because of that word.

His word I do for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health.

It was that word that gave his word it's resolve and it's resilience.

You know, I've watched a lot of the old, uh, western zone.

Me Too.

T V have you seen that?

If anything, anybody else watch those?

Okay.

A few of us are that old.

That's good.

And I love those old western movies cause there's, there's value and there's morals in them.

You know, men were men back then, you know what I mean?

Ah, you know, Josh's Maclyn talk and all, you know, just rip hardtack and all, you know, all those, all those kind of characters, you know, just uh, uh, men were men were men.

And there, there's something common in a lot of those movies when you can always tell the guys that are good guys from the bad guys.

White hats and black hats.

But, but the real interesting part is the ones that were the brown hats and you're not quite sure, and you, you have to watch how they respond.

And often what's tested is where they're not, they are a man of their word or if they're only a man of their word, until it conflicts with their personal interests.

How many times has that been a part of the plot?

Men?

What kind of men are we?

Are we men of our word and Roe only men of our word because of our own stubborn pride, which is really self interest, which can easily be trumped when keeping our word isn't in our self interest or does something deeper, more rugged, more solid.

Is there a ground to our being I settling in our soul because our word, it's based on his word.

That's what I'd like to talk about today.

Uh, that being a kingly man is about, um, obeying a word.

Here's how it lays out this, the story of the kings of Israel.

Samuel was the judge and the Prophet that anointed the Kings.

The first one he anointed was Saul.

He was the first king.

And then Saul had a son named Jonathan who would've been the prince, the heir apparent.

W W would have been Jonathan, but Jonathan was both assaults son and also David's friend.

Uh,

but David ends up being Israel's second King Samuel First, a anointed Saul.

Give me one more click.

Ooh, that's good.

[inaudible] he also anointed David.

Oh, I missed it.

Uh, I have no idea why that's there, but he also had on of David, you can tell the passengers rehearsed this many times.

Uh, and what that creates is this incredible triangle here between Saul who is the King David, who has already been anointed and will someday become the king.

And Jonathan who is a unique character in that he lives out this tight rope tension being loyal both to his father and the king saw, but also loyal to his best friend, his soul mate David.

And there's so much rich stuff to learn in the dynamics of who these guys were as the first kings of Israel and, uh, how they relate to one another, the character that emerges, uh, as we study them.

So let's start today.

Uh, we, we, we've talked a bit about, about Saul and last week it led up to that point where we're, Saul had re been rejected by, by the Lord the king that the Lord chose.

Saul had so lived in compromise.

He was, he was not a good example of what it means to have a word to obey.

In chapter 15 of Samuel, remember the Amalekites compromise?

He was supposed to wipe out all the people, but instead, when he saw all the spoils of that war, once he began to white people out, he decided, well, what's, what's the harm?

All right,

God can still get a clean slate with the Amalekites.

I'll still wipe him out.

But you know, who's to know and who's it to?

And beside the people would like to take home some of these, some, some of this cattle and some of this gold and some of the treasures in these houses.

And well, what would it hurt?

And so he decides to add to God's word or, or to diminish God's word, but the way he sees it.

And Chapter 15 Samuel The prophet then confronts him.

Is it not true though?

You were little in your own eyes.

You were made the head of the tribes of Israel.

This is verse 17 of Chapter 15.

And the Lord anointed you, king over Israel.

And the Lord sent you on a mission and said, go and utterly destroy the centers, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are exterminated.

Clean slate.

That's what God prescribed.

Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord and rushed upon the spoil and did what was evil in the side of the Lord.

And then Saul said to Samuel, I did obey the voice of the Lord and went on this mission on which the Lord sent me.

And I've brought back king a gag.

And uh, the king of the Amalekites and, and uh, I early utterly destroyed the Amalekites, but the people took some of the spoil who the people, the people took some of the spall, the sheep and the oxen choices of the things devoted to destruction to sacrifice to the Lord your God.

Samuel.

Now Saul is just a slippery character.

He, he wants to obey God as long as it suits his interests.

He, he, he's a king wearing a brown hat.

And because he was not ready to follow the Lord fully with his whole heart, it says in the scriptures that the Lord rejected Saul, the king who had rejected his word.

So it might be said was, was a halfhearted obey obeyer of the word of God.

And I, I could give you other examples, but, but I want to move on and get to the meat of this this morning.

Uh, so, so when it came to being a word keeper, there was first of all, the failing of Saul rather than trusting God's word, Saul's approach was to twist God's word, but a, alongside Saul, we need to look at the person of Jonathan, his son.

Do you remember where he was on the diagram earlier?

Jonathan's son of King Saul, best friend of David and Jonathan is so unlike Saul.

It's as if he doesn't share the same DNA.

If you even have known that to happen in a family, have you ever met a person and then met their family and wondered, how did you start out here?

He was just so different and character than his father.

Saul was loyal mostly to himself.

Jonathan had a heart of incredible loyalty.

And His story is, is maybe a picture of who he was is in first Samuel 14.

Let's look, let's look at that this morning.

First Samuel 14, and in First Samuel 14, Jonathan, uh, is with his father and with the Israelites as they are fighting the Philistines at Mick Mash, which just sounds like a Philistine place, doesn't it?

Rick Mush.

Uh, I dunno.

It's either Philistine or it's, uh, what do you call those guys on Star Trek?

Cling on.

Yeah, it's got, it's gotta be either cling on or, but Mick Mash and, and outside Mick Mash.

There's a standoff and nick mashes and interesting place.

If you look at the next slide, a little, yeah.

McMaster's an interesting place.

It's, it's got two Craig's or two hills on either side and a dry valley running through the middle of it.

And it would be easy how archers would set up an armies on each one of those sides and take pot shots at each other.

And, and that way hand to hand battle would probably be avoided.

And the Philistines were big old boys, right?

In addition to that, they so ruled and bullied the land that they only had access to most of the bronze.

They so bullied the area around Israel as they kept them without bronze and without metal.

So that only the things that Israel had to fight with was, was basically hoes in the garden.

And other instruments that they would then sharpen into would be, uh, there, there were only two swords in all of Israel.

One was King Saul's and the other one was King Jonathans.

All right, Prince Johnathan's.

But everyone was intimidated by the Philistines.

And that didn't sit well with Jonathan.

He had a warrior's heart and he honored his God.

And the nature of this intimidated, fearful approach to the Philistines was something that just turned in his stomach.

So without his father's knowledge, he and his armor bearer, just the two of them set out that morning.

And they go towards the Philistines and the Philistines look down to the from from there crag, and Jonathan is at the bottom of that hill and he turns to his armor bearer and he says, come and go with me today and see if God will not go with us.

After all, God is not limited.

He's not in any way restrained to, to give us a victory by many or by few.

Okay.

So there's 20 guys out there on the Philistines side on watch apparently.

And here's Jonathan and his armor bearer and his armor bearer was so won by this kind of single hearted Jonathan that when he turned to his armor bearer and says, are you up to this?

His Armor Bay at bearer in Biblical language basically says, I'm all in, do what your heart leads you to do.

I'm your guy.

And so the two of them at the bottom of that hill, then turn to the lord and Jonathon says, this will be assigned for us.

W W we, we will approach the Philistines.

And as we do, if they say stop there, we'll come down to you will know that the Lord has not given us the battle today.

But, but if they said, say to us, come up to us, then we will know that is a sign that God has given the battle, not to ourselves, but to Israel

for whom we fight, right?

And so sure enough, they walk out the Philistines, look down from the hill.

Hey guys, come up here.

We've got something to tell yet.

Okay.

If you've ever watched any one of those old westerns, what does this sound like?

Here's an ambush, right?

But,

but here's what Jonathan decides.

He decides, Great.

God's just shown us.

He's just given us a sign, right?

God's given them into our hands.

So he climbs up that Craig on the other side, hands and feet with his sword on his back and his armor bearer with a shield following him.

They get up to the top and the fight is on two versus 20 and Jonathan, Jonathan takes them all out, leaves a few for his armor bearer to finish off.

20 Philistines fall at the hands of this valiant warrior,

Jonathan.

It's so shocks the Philistines that they go on the run.

It's so infuses the Israelites with fresh courage that they go on the run after them.

In fact, Saul even gets inspired and says far be it that anyone today has a bite of food before we exterminate the Philistines.

And so all of those who heard that curse without anything to eat, went running after the Philistines.

Of course, Jonathan was already in the fray, right?

And so he didn't hear it.

And so Jonathan, as they fight all day long against the Philistines, finally they come into this place where there's some honey found on the ground and he takes his, his, uh, his staff or his, maybe he was also a bow guy and archer.

And he takes some of the honey and he eats it.

And as he does, his eyes in his face brighten with that fresh energy, right?

And he turns to those who are fighting with them and he says, please, please look what it's done for me.

Eat some of this.

He sharing it with others.

This is just Jonathan.

Tara.

He shared it.

He wants everyone else to have them and they say, no, no far be it from us because Sol is cursed the man that will have a bite of food before the fighting is finished today, the fighting finishes, everyone comes home.

Saul senses that up.

He knows someone is disobeyed.

Ah, his command.

Okay.

And he says, my son and I will be on one side.

All of Israel be on the other and we'll draw lots.

Let God decide by lots who it is.

That's to blame.

Surprising to Sol at the first lot he and Jonathan are chosen at the second lot.

It reveals that Jonathan is the one that is chosen.

And Jonathan says, father, I did.

I partook of the honey.

He tells him the whole story and he ends it by saying, I'm a surely die now.

Now I want you to hear this.

Jonathan understands the nature of his father, that he's a brown hat, that he wobbles either way, that he's not a man that has has much effect and and keeping his word.

And it's so important to Jonathan that we keep our word and that his father keeps his word, that he is willing to die to honor his father.

Saul is not willing to pass over some spoils.

His son is willing to lay down his life.

And Saul, Saul is such a saw that that, that he waivers and he says, oh, the people come to him and say, no far be it that we should touch a hair on Jonathan's head because God has fought with him this day.

He's our hero.

Saw you cannot put your son to death.

And Saul at first says, yes, you must surely die thinking that's a noble thing.

And then when the people come to him, no, you must not surely die.

He's in, he's out.

He's with you.

He's not Jonathan.

A different sort of character from his father saw.

But even Jonathon apparently, uh, gets tired of being maybe the only one that so believes in the word of the Lord that he's all in when he knows what the Lord has called him to do.

In first Samuel 17, the Philistines have confronted them again and this time they have a huge champion.

Do you remember the story of Goliath?

He's been taunting them for 40 days and no one is stepping forward.

Jonathan's there and not even Jonathan is stepping forward.

And then this little kid shows up.

He's a kid that saw

nose,

but he's such a pea on in eyes later on in this passage, he won't even recognize him.

David has had such a heart for God that it's been his place, uh, often shunned by his father and shunned by his brothers that we, as we talked about last week, that wound that he probably spent a lot of time with the sheep out under the open skies playing his harps and his love songs to God.

Those songs that later became the psalms that are in much of our Bible and this, this was the heart of David.

And from the point that Samuel had anointed him secretly, the spirit of God had come up.

We just prayed about, sang about that the spirit of God had come upon him and God had been with him.

And so it's, imagine this little shepherd boy out on the hillsides and he's been singing his songs to the Lord at night, but something growls resonates nearby.

He recognized it's a bear.

Now he can be the kind of shepherd that can run faster than the slowest sheep,

right?

But instead, this little guy turns and takes on a bear.

He, he was so certain of the father's love and protection over him that a bear was no threat.

He picked up his sling, he took the bear out, did the same thing for what a lion.

And this was the nature of this little boy who was now such an accomplished musician that he was actually going back and forth from the shepherd folds.

And it was at his house in Bethlehem with Jesse to Saul in his palace because Saul was so tormented by the dark side of himself and by demons that, that he needed someone to soothe his disturbed heart.

And David was the musician that would come as his Advil for the night.

Right.

Did he get him through?

But, but he, here's the nature of saw though.

This kid is ministering to him again and again and again.

When he shows up in his tent to fight Goliath, he doesn't even recognize him.

Who are you?

I'm the son of Jesse.

Is it true what you've said that you've inquired as to what the king will do for the man who will stand and defeat Goliath?

Yes sir.

I have, but you're, you're just a kid.

You're just a kid.

Who are you to go up against the nine foot Goliath, a nine foot giant like that?

He's been a warrior longer than you've been alive.

Who are you?

And he says, oh, King.

Yeah, I'm sure it's the way it came out in Hebrew.

It's not a the size of the dog in the fight.

It's the size of the fight and the dog.

That's basically what he, oh king.

Don't you know that when the bear came and the lion came, God gave them into my hands.

The Lord gave them into my hands.

It's not the size of my hands or the size of my rock.

It's the size of my God and who is this nine foot?

Nothing to insult the armies of the living God.

No.

Notice he didn't say the army of the Living Guy.

He was thinking more than just Israel.

Yeah,

he knew something of the heavenly battalions.

He knew something of the majesty in the Grand Year of his God.

Who is he to taught the armies of the living God.

And those are the same words that David used as he face Goliath on the field.

You come to me with sticks and with stones.

What am I a dog that you would come to me with sticks and with stones.

You come to me, he says, taunting the living God.

But I come to you in the power of the Lord God Almighty and he will give you into my hands this day and I will take off your head and feed your carcass to the birds because the Lord my God is with me.

[inaudible] and Goliath roared.

And he picked up his, uh, eight foot long javelin that was like a weaver's beam and he starts running towards this little kid, I'm sure expecting him to run and flee.

And to his surprise, the little kid reaches in his pocket and run straight at him, run straight at him, pulls out one stone, puts it in that sling foom hits him in the middle of the head, it sinks into his skull and go to, does a face plant.

And all of Israel suddenly finds their heart again.

Wow.

Warriors arise when they know the Lord is with them and they routed the Philistines that day.

But if you read towards the end of that chapter, John A.

David Saul who was watching from a posit distance, all of this goings on turns to the general of his army.

Okay?

Both of them are on the porch, for God sakes.

Where should they have been there?

They're watching all of this going on and they turned to one another and they say, you know the kid and, and the general says, uh, I don't know.

The kid never seen him before.

And then it's discovered that he is the son of Jesse as he comes in and speaks to saw.

And then the next chapter begins with, with this, this word about Jonathan, look there with me.

If you will, in chapter 18 now, it came about when he had finished speaking to Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as himself, and Saul took him in that day and did not let him return to his father's house.

Now we'll pick up next week there with, with Jonathan and David's relationship.

It's gonna be a marvelous thing to behold, but something resonated didn't it?

With with Jonathan.

I think Jonathan, that day is David took on the strength of his God and became a warrior within and stood up to impossible odds that day.

When David did that, Jonathan discovered his heart beating in someone else's chest.

Eh, and that's the, a good definition for a soul mate.

I think they were knit together, uh, in their soul.

All of us, sometimes even wounded and weary warriors are in Jonathan's place.

We, we need to believe in ourselves.

We need someone to help us get our fight back.

Yeah, let me tell you, you won't find someone to be that kind of soulmate who does not also claim the same.

Lord.

Jonathan had lost his vote voice when they asked for volunteers.

He didn't speak up either, but that that day they, they discovered that they both had a word to obey because they were both familiar with the same, well to frequent.

They had confidence in their God and their confidence in their God translated into confidence in whatever he called him to a warrior's will was rediscovered.

What did they, that must've been God's word.

That's the word that we're talking about here.

A word to obey God.

God's word is a lasting word.

Jesus said, not a jot or tittle will will diminish or are or be taken away from the word of God until the day that he returns in all of his glory.

The word is a lasting word.

The scriptures call us to meditate on it.

Let me put it this way.

The scriptures call us to marinate in it until it actually becomes a part of us.

In Romans 12 two, it says that we are to, uh, renew our minds with the word of God and therefore be transformed really by the renewing of our minds.

The word there is metamorphosis, that we would be Mehta morphed by the word of God.

That means that we don't just know the God and know the word or read the word, but that the word shapes us, shapes who we are.

God's word for us is still a lasting word that we can meditate on, that we wholeheartedly want to morph into.

God's word is the living word.

Well, we missed the long and listen for the Holy Spirit.

We must follow through with the promptings.

I'm not just talking about studying the word and understanding a principle and then going and living out the principle though we, the word that we're following is the word of the living God.

He is alive and he is among us and so though we've been shaped by his word to have certain attitudes and and a certain likenesses with Jesus, we also ought to let that tune us to his voice so that we recognize when he is prompting us to do something.

We're not just studiers of the word.

We're also those that are walking with God in such a way that we can be prompted by his spirit.

I had one of those promptings the other day.

You know, sometimes there's some pushback when God gives you a prompting.

I was walking with some friends that are accountability buddies to me the, and as I walked I, something came to mind, something that had been kind of fuzzy and out on the edge and a problem that might've been approaching and I've learned long ago to handle those things the way the word says to handle those things.

If your hand causes, causes you to sin, sin cut it off.

Now I still struggle with sin, but you don't see me as an amputee up here.

So what does that talking about?

Did, Jesus was saying, if if something in your life could cause you to sin, cut it off, right?

Deal with it.

Don't wait for it to deal with you and alums.

I was walking with these accountability buddies.

Something came up on my radar and I said, Lord, I don't want to talk about that.

That hasn't become a problem.

That's not anything that's pushing me or prompting me.

And I almost walked half a lap not seeing anything

ever been there.

Yeah,

prompted.

And then once I did finally put it on the table and they, they heard me out and we walked another lap, I was a totally different person.

Whatever that was that was out there and festering suddenly had no power over me anymore.

It had been brought to the light.

It was no more, it had no grip.

Do you know what it is to, to feel a prompting of the Lord that, that your flesh wants to resist, but then to claim that there is a word to obey.

If I am to be God's King.

Another friend here in the church texted me the other day.

She's a prayer warrior.

I'm indebted to her for the amount of prayer she's done for me and done for this church.

She's out, prayed me about 10 or 15 times over.

She called me.

She said, pastor, would you pray for my neighbor?

Remember that person that you walked over to see the stubborn guy and his wife?

You know, several years ago I didn't,

but, but, but, but,

but I didn't let onto her and, and, and, and then she, she said he, he's in the hospital with her right now.

She's had a stroke we think, and it doesn't look like she's gonna make it and uh, it's absolutely incredible.

He just called me, texted me what was going on and at the end of his text, he said, keep praying.

He never talks about prayer or talks about God.

Pastor, if you could have a moment, do you think you could run by and just pray a quick prayer with them?

I didn't make any promises.

My schedule was full.

If I had prioritize the things on that day according to what I had to get done, it wouldn't even make the a list.

Do you ever do that with your day timer?

It wouldn't have even made the a list, but something in my heart said, turn the car around.

Don't go back to the office.

Go by the hospital.

I walked in the hospital, she was on machines and in the bed and unresponsive and he stood up where he was.

And I greeted him, told him who's friend we had in common and that I had come to pray, would it be all right if we prayed together and hesitantly?

He said, well,

yeah, I guess so.

Yeah.

So I just took his hand and drug him over to the bed and we prayed over his wife and then it just like God to so be after his heart as well as loving his wife.

I got a text just this week that a week from now she's expected to go home.

Hey men, a credible,

no, I, I wouldn't have the thrill of even being a small part of that story had I not followed that particular prompting.

Right.

So being a person with a word to obey is not just hear me now following principles from the word.

It's having a heart that has a true north because of those principles, but is still enough of it in venture with a living partner named the Holy Spirit that at any time you can be prompted and if your heart is, is listening for that kind of prompting, follow through with it, will you always know if it's right, will you always know with certainty that it's of God?

Not if you're like me, not if you're like me.

In fact, often it's whether or not I've been in the word and with God that morning, whether or not I've been going to the will often enough that his spirit has the influence on my soul to actually move me with a prompting.

I think I'm a busy guy, but I don't want to ever be too busy for God.

You're with me.

Uh, W W

we are word keepers, but we're way ahead on the next slide if will advanced that quite a ways.

Just put the whole next slide up there

if you went.

Yep.

Yeah.

The words not only the lasting word in the living word, it's also the latest word.

God speaks to us all the time.

It is word can speak to us all the time.

The scriptures itself calls this a living word, a living word.

Even the word is something that's not just 2000 years ago, something to reflect on from back then when we read it, we read it for what it meant to them then and use that as a way to translate what it means to people today.

But the last step is always to say, Lord, what does it mean to me today?

What does it mean to me?

What's your latest word?

In second Timothy three 16 and 17, it says that this word, uh, is inspired by God.

God, breathe and it's good for teaching and reproof and correction and training for all four of those things.

For teaching.

What am I to see that I've been missing?

Lord, teach me to reproof, to rebuke.

What am I doing?

To which I just heard you say stop it for correction.

Lord, are you, are you showing me what it is that I must do in order to get back on the track that I am off of for correction for training?

Lord, are you, are you saying that I'm a strength in myself and in the teaching that you've already given me?

That there's some discipline, our, our, our calling that I, that I need to embrace in order to grow day by day more like Jesus.

Are you given me something to train with here?

And it's not just asking God, he's saying it's okay.

It's listening to his word and discerning the tone of the one who sang it.

But what gives us the strength to obey the word is knowing the heart of the one who speaks it.

If we trust him, we will not leave his word on tried, right?

If it's like the chain of command that, uh, that, that, uh, in an army or in the military, it's like a chain of command.

Uh, the strength with which you have to follow the orders has everything to do with where the orders came from.

And to follow orders to be submissive to that order doesn't make you less a man.

It makes you more soldier, makes you more reliable.

Yeah.

To follow an order doesn't make uh, an army compliant to follow that order.

Makes an army and active instrument of its commander.

That's what God's word is meant to do.

I've watched, uh, my wife and some of you others have on Facebook with her new puppy, Dakota and, and Cheryl gets up every morning at seven o'clock.

This is why this is Cheryl's dog and not my dog.

Sure.

Cheryl gets up at seven o'clock every morning and lets the doggy out to go, go, go do his business.

Right.

And brings him back in and feeds him and plays with him and trains him and stuff for an hour and then lovingly puts him back in the Kennel for so she can go to work and all this.

Ah, I just hear the stories of what happens.

Right.

Uh, but the other day she took, she took Dakota to the groomer.

And when she walked in at t, now you got to understand Dakota.

He's a Jonathon at heart, right?

Everybody's his buddy, everybody.

He, I love this little dog.

Every time I walk in the door, he comes running up to me, you know, and now they're, Cheryl has taught him not to jump on me, which I didn't really mind all that much, but, but she, she doesn't want him to do that.

So she's taught him, so now he just runs to the door all happy and does this.

Yeah.

What a delight.

Right?

And, and so he's at the groom and he walks in the groomer, he sees new people and he starts to run in and, and make new friends.

And all of a sudden there's this 50 pounds shepherd that's not real happy to be at the groomer.

You know what I'm talking about?

And all of a sudden from, from nearby, from inside this huge Kunal, it comes his roof and all of a sudden[inaudible], you know, is backing up and running back to Mama.

Right, right.

Why?

Because even a puppy knows who loves him and, and, and if you know you're loved like that, you'll want to obey the word of the one who loves you like that.

Yeah.

His name wasn't Dakota.

It was Dawes in part from the moment he was a little guy, he, he knew the power of God's word.

He stared at it embroidered on his mom's wall frame, the 10 Commandments.

One was sticking out in his countenance.

At that moment it said, thou shalt not murder.

He had just taken a, a rock in the yard to his little brother's side of the head and thought he had killed him.

Yeah.

And as they call to him from the other room saying, he's breathing now, he's going to be all right.

Those bird words were burned into his consciousness.

[inaudible]

he decided that when the war broke out, the Second World War, that, that he had a duty, he was a kingly man.

He didn't avoid responsibility.

He turned towards it.

If anyone else was going to fight then, then he'd have to go to, his father was an ex soldier.

He didn't want him to go, but he said, dad, how can I not go where you're going to go over there and get yourself killed?

He said, no, no, I'm going to be a medic.

He goes into bootcamp and he there.

He's trained to be a medic thinking that that'll be his way to serve and that he'll never have to carry a gun that way.

Hmm.

The bootcamp sergeant had a different idea,

hmm.

Called him a coward, but somehow he survived bootcamp and in the arena they were assigned the toughest spot in the whole war.

At the time, I think it was hacksaw ridge, a piece of ground that had been fought over many times and w was never able to be claimed by the allied forces.

[inaudible]

and then, then he showed up.

He was a medic.

He refused to carry a gun or any kind of weapon.

He walked into war without anything to defend himself, but

[inaudible]

and as the war breaks out and the wave that he goes in and starts to be overwhelmed and guys are coming off the ridge and running for their lives, he somehow is trapped above and his friends are dying around him.

And he turns his heart towards heaven.

And he says, speak to me, Lord, what do you expect of me?

What do you want of me now?

And there's nothing but silence other than the bombs and the guns and the brutality of war going on around him.

It's dark now.

And then he hears

[inaudible]

a voice on the field.

It's one of his route wounded comrades.

And he simply says, medic.

Hmm.

Medic

[inaudible].

And then one after another, private daws, another one to safety and down over the hill, one after another, he's exhausted.

He's risking his life each time he goes.

And yet everyone he puts over the wall, he turns towards heaven one more time.

And he says, Lord, help me save one more.

Hm Lord,

help me save one more.

And it goes back again and again and again and again until 80 of his wounded comrades are now being nursed at the infirmary back at the back of the base the next day, the next day, the next wave has been told that they miss, take the hill.

They missed try, but they're not willing to go.

There.

General is asking them why they're stalling, they've heard their orders.

[inaudible]

general, you don't understand.

Daws isn't finished praying yet and none of the men have that next wave.

We're going to go on that hill.

If he didn't go with them and they sure weren't going to go before he finished praying why he wasn't a coward, he was a king, he was a king and all those other soldiers came to understand that because he was willing to stay in and to trust the word, have it as Lord, despite risks to his own self interest.

[inaudible]

all the world at the bottom of that hill knew that there was a living God in heaven because there was no other explanation for private dies.

[inaudible]

he wasn't a private in those men's eyes, he was the general.

Okay.

He was the one in charge.

He was the one with spiritual authority and now I don't know what the invitation is for you in this message.

Maybe.

Maybe you're realizing that today is a day that you need to renew your practices to marinate and his word.

Do it today.

Don't wait until the end of today.

Do it today.

Even though it's mother's day before you go to bed tonight.

Soak in his word.

Some of us are realizing, Lord, I haven't been tuned in.

I haven't been paying attention to your promptings.

Say that prayer here today.

Lord, make me attentive and then go out into this war world and I say, Lord, help me save one moment.

Okay,

help me save one more.

That's not just a prayer for warriors on Hacksaw Ridge

[inaudible]

or maybe today you're Jonathan.

Maybe today you're Jonathan and you're needing the fight back in your soul.

[inaudible]

you find it by getting back to the well by attaching your heart to others who follow that same Lord.

Perhaps this is your morning to say, I'm not just going to attend this church.

I'm going to be part of it.

I'm going to contribute to it with the sweat of my brow and with the love of my heart and with the prayers of my soul.

[inaudible]

I dunno what the invitation is for you today.

[inaudible]

but every man within the sound of my voice know this.

God wants you to live like kings

[inaudible]

to live like kings, a well to frequent

[inaudible]

a word to obey.

It's never too late to start that adventure.

Would you stand with me Lord Jesus this morning we thank you for your goodness to us.

We thank you for the gift of our moms and father.

We pray that we could grow to be such men that we could live like kings, that we might honor them for being the mothers that they are.

We pray your blessings over Logan as we go to cheer him on at his baptism.

Father may here he with the cheers of our hearts as he comes up out of that water.

Feel what Jonathan felt that day.

Call to the fight, the fight for your kingdom and for your goodness.

Lord, renew that wore your heart.

And all of us as men of God especially, and your name, Lord Jesus, rekindle that fire.

We ask it in your holy name, and all God's people said, hey man.

Amen.