How Godly Relationships Shape You- The Warriors of David: 2 Samuel 23:8-23

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And today we're going to be launching right in to

a second or the to the scripture. But before we do,

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Okay, well, we are going to deviate from what's on

our show sheet. Yes, every once in a while we

do this, and then we have to go to apologize

to des on this. But we came across the fact

that we were skipping two chunks that I think are

kind of important, one of them just because it's so cool. Yeah,

and that's today's episode and then tomorrow it's a real

pivotal moment, and so we have to deal with that

as well in it's life.

And just to remind everybody, the goal for this whole

series is to hit the milestones of the Old Testament.

So therefore we're not going verse by verse, right, we're

going chunk by chunk, just sort of hitting the highlights.

And so we realized we were skipping over a highlight

that we wanted.

To talk about.

And I think originally we were thinking more general with

regard to the highlights, and then we keep coming up

to stories we don't want to miss telling. And so

even though she was following this planet, we were following

this planet was supposed to be way more general and

just big chunks throughout the Throughout the thing, we keep

coming up to these things like today's story. We just

don't want to skip telling today's story.

It reminds me of Steve Martin in that really super

old movie. Did you ever see The Jerk in nineteen

seventy nine?

I think so. At the very end of the movie,

he goes, I don't need anything else, and he just said,

I just need this.

Chair, this paddle ball, this thermos, and I don't need

nothing else. And he walked by something he goes, I

need this, and then he picks up a laugh, you know,

and he walks down the street and he's like, I

need this, and he keeps on picking things.

And that's us.

That's us.

That's us.

It's not dead. It's us.

Yeah, that's right.

So we're gonna read Second Samuel chapter twenty three, and

we're going to pick up in verse eight. If you remember,

up to this point, king David was Saul is dead.

Now David was chosen to be king of Judah and

a couple of outlying little villages. And then Ishboshev was

Saul's son, and Abner, who was Saul's general, jumps in

and elevates him and he winds up becoming king of

the rest of Israel. And so this lasts for several years,

and during that time there's still conflict now between David

and Ishbosheth and Abner's armies.

Yeah, and Judah and Israel.

Yeah. So here's what happens. David continues to rise, and

as he rises, his mighty men begin to rally around him,

and he has like these special forces fighters. And so

this is why we wanted to talk about it.

Yeah. Yeah, And by the way, this is one of

the greatest, my most favorite story in the Bible, not

even kidding. This story that you're about to read is

one of my very favorites in the entire Old Testamony.

It's it's incredible. So we'll read. We'll start two Samuel,

Chapter twenty three, Verse eight. It says, these are the

names of David's mightiest warriors. The first was Jeshowa josh

Oban yeah good, the Hackmannite, who was leader of the three,

the three mightiest warriors among David's men. He once used

a spear to kill eight hundred enemy warriors in a

single battle. That's next in rank among the three was

Eliezer's son of Doda I a descendant of Ahoah. Once,

Eliezer and David stood together against the Philistines when the

entire Israelite army had fled. He killed Philistines until his

hand was too tired to lift his sword, and the

Lord gave him a great victory that day. The rest

of the army did not return until it was time

to collect the plunder. Next in rank was sham a

son of Aggi from Harar. One time, the Philistines gathered

in Lehigh and attacked the Israelites in a feel full

of lentils. The Israelite army fled, but sham I held

his ground in the field and beat back the Philistines.

So the Lord brought about a great victory. Once during

the harvest, when David was at the Cave of Adullam,

the Philistine army was camped in the valley of Rafaeum.

The three who were among the thirty, an elite group

among David's fighting men, went down to meet him there.

David was staying in a stronghold at the time, and

the Philistine attachment had occupied the town of Bethlehem. David

remarked longingly to his men, Oh, how I'd love some

of that good water from the well by the gate

in Bethlehem. So the three broke through the Philistine lines,

drew some water from the well by the gate in Bethlehem,

brought it back to David, but he refused to drink it. Instead,

he poured it out as an offering to the Lord.

The Lord forbid that I should drink this, He exclaimed,

This water is as precious as the blood of these

men who risked their lives to bring it to me.

And so David did not drink it. And these are

examples of the exploits of the three. And then if

you keep going there verse eighteen, it says Abishai, son

of Zuruyah, the brother of joeab was the leader of

the thirty. He once used his spear to kill three

hundred enemy warriors in a single battle. It was by

such feats that he became as famous as the Three.

Abishai was the most famous of the thirty and was

their commander, though he was not one of the three.

It was also benaia A son of Jehoida, a valiant

warrior from Kabzil. He did many heroic deeds, which included

killing two champions of Moab. Another time, on a snowy day,

he chased the lion down into a pit and killed it.

Once armed only with the club, he killed a great

Egyptian warrior who was armed with a spirit. Benaiah wrenched

the spear from the Egyptian's hand and killed him with it.

Theeds like these made bena as famous as the Three

Mightiest Warriors. He was more honored than the other members

of the thirty, though he was not one of the three,

and David made him captain of the bodyguard. Yeah, these

are some tough guys. You think these are some tough guys.

Yeah, so, so many things in this whole passage about

the three and the you know, the thirty, and that

is the first that stands out to me always is

every single one of these would make a fantastic movie.

Yeah, exactly, you're reading this as a movie.

Oh yeah, I mean another version, you know, it says

that he was too tired to lift the sword, but

another version actually says his hand was frozen to the sword, right,

which means it's a really cold day. So he goes

down and he actually, what does it say? He killed

the entire Philistine army and they fled and another guy

kills eight hundred warriors with a single spear right now,

I mean, you know, how many is too many? You

remember the princess bride, right, the princess bride. How many

guards are there?

Thirty? At my best? I cannot take so many, you know.

And so it's like, you know, they're considering thirty eight hundred?

Are you kidding me? Right? So, I mean, but the

Bible doesn't lie.

So if you ever wonder how many eight hundred people

were in a standard basketball gym on the basketball floor, yes,

if you set up chairs with people's knees to the

back of the chair in front of them, you can't

fit eight hundred people on a basketball floor. Yeah right, yeah,

so think about it. That's a lot of people.

Oh my goodness.

You know, you ever exaggerated story sometimes where you're going

down the road and it's like thirty miles an hour

and you're like, dude, I was going like fifty, right,

and so you know, but not even really sort of

meaning to maybe you thought, you you know, we're going fifty.

But God doesn't exaggerate. So if God says eight hundred,

that means it's eight hundred. It's factual, and I just

cannot even imagine the movie that would make for one.

Guy to just it's just bodies flinging everywhere.

Like neo neo, and mister Anderson's right, And anyway, the

bottom line is is these guys all were epic warriors,

and think about it, they did things here that are

just as impressive as David's stand against Caliath.

Yeah, right, and that's kind of what's being highlighted here. Yes,

these guys are unbelievable talking about the three, and they're

talking about two guys that are outside the three but

as famous as the three, which.

Means it's an encouragement for us that we should strive

to hang around people who will sharpen our character. In

this case, these warriors, you know, they were attracted to

David because you know, David was brave. David was a

man of faith, unbelievable faith, and so these men stepped

out in faith, believing that God would be with them

in battle as well. You know, nobody shall defy the

army of the King of Israel and the or the

you know, the Lord's army, and so anyway, it's just

it's just an unbelievable thing.

So anyway, all of.

These things, and by the way, Ben and Ayah whatever

his name is here Ben Ayah, Uh.

He's got an honorable mention.

And he's only the guy who went down into a

snowy pit and killed a lion.

It says there was also so we already talked about

the cool guys, but hey, we should mention Ben Ayah.

You know, we have time.

He was more famous than the thirty. He didn't quite

make the three, but you know he.

Did many heroic deeds. By the way, he.

Took on a guy with a spirit of the club,

he killed the lion and the snowy pit, that snowy pit?

Are you kidding me? And so anyway, it's just pretty great. Now.

The other thing that stands out to me is the

story about the well. And uh, you know, we we

all have the food of our youth, oh right, and

ratituy it was the it was the food critics, Uh,

ratitui dish right. And for me, it's it's handled ice

cream in Youngstown, Ohio.

That's it. It takes you back to being a kid.

Yes, but but David is like, I know that well,

it's the well I grew up in.

It's it's in Bethlehem.

I grew up in the well, the well I grew

up with. What did I say in Yeah, it's early.

It's the well I grew up with. Well, I meant you,

it's the town I grew up there.

It was. It was really incredible. There was a crowd

all around, helicopters, there was the TV things hanging upside

down in the well.

For yeah, it's the town he grew up in, right, Okay, yeah, definitely.

And uh so you know when they dug wells back then,

if you know, in order to go deep, they had

to go very very wide wells. So like if you've

ever been to did you guys stop at when you

were in Israel? Did you stop at Jacob's Well? We didn't, Okay.

So it's interesting because think of like a soda bottle,

like a two liter of soda okay or pop whatever

you wanna call it.

So it's really really wide.

And then it goes into like this tiny little, uh

you know, nozzle where you pour the soda out, so

it's you know, super small, like it'll fit a penny

in it. But then you know, but then when when

you go down a little ways, it goes wide well.

That's what they did with Jacob's well. So Jacob's well

they probably had you know, dozens of men digging it,

you know, it was probably honestly, uh, it's as big

it was as the circumference was like this room the

size of this room. But then they would build a

cap on it, and the well itself would only have

a small little hole, right, so if you shine a

light in there, you're like, wow, look how big this

thing is. Well, in the case with the well at Bethlehem,

it was a massive well, like just almost the same size,

but they had three little openings. So there was three

little openings of this well, but the same well. That

makes sense, So then three different people could get water

from the same well at the same time.

From these three openings. So we had the choice when we.

Were on tour in Israel and we only had time

to go see one thing, and they said we can

go either go see the field where Gideon defeated.

The army, or we can go to the.

Well at Bethlehem. And I was the only guy on

the bus who sort of perked up, and I go,

what the well at Bethlehem were the three you know,

fought off the Philistines, and they got a cup of

water and they're fighting with one arm and they're holding

a cup of water or a canteen of water in

the other arm, and they go back and.

Are you kidding? Just to give their king some water,

just because he said he wanted some. I'm like, let's

go there.

And I was the only one, and everybody else wanted

to go see the field Borghinion was and I said,

that's fine, so I conceded. And then the leader of

the trip came up to me and said, you know,

even though you were the only one, we all saw

how excited you were, and so we all conceded. We're

going to go to the well, which was really fun.

So I got to take a picture and it was closed.

You couldn't you couldn't drink from it because the well

is spoiled, so so but I got the camera and

I put it down there and I took a picture

of it.

And I just thought, wow, this is where it happened.

And then for David to pour out a drink offering

to the lord and he think about how much he

wanted that water, and then they go get it.

If I were the warriors, I'd be mad you know,

I mean if I wasn't spiritual, you know, he's pouring

it out.

Oh thanks for this, But I'm going to pour it

out of like what I just risked my life for

that to fourteen people, right yeah, and.

So but he pours it out because he's so grateful

to him.

Yes, right at that moment. Nobody deserves that kind of

love of loyalty, right right, we're gonna pour it out.

We're gonna give it to God instead.

Well, think about think about in this moment, think about

all the things, the earthly things that you've ever wanted,

you know, all these things that you strive for, and

in that moment to recognize that God is the provider

of those things. Sometimes that's a hard thing to do

for us, right you know, Like you know, we strive

to get the promotion. We get the promotion, and we

think to ourselves, wow, we earned that. And yet what

David's doing here, as David is stopping and saying, I

directly acknowledge that it is God who has blessed me

with these relationships that I do not deserve. And so God,

I pour this out the thing that I want the

most in this moment, I'm parched, my mouth's dry. I

longed for this water and I'm watching it poor get

poured out before me on the ground. Because God, that's

how much I love you. You're more important than even

this glass of water that I wanted.

Yeah, that's incredible. So the Bible goes on after we're

done with this passage, goes on and names twenty six

other tough guys, right that are part of this part

of this group, a group of thirty and then you know,

so there's thirty one men named total. So there's the

leader of the thirty he's not, and then there's the three,

and then there's you know, these these other guys, twenty

seven others. So it's just really astounding. And the thing

that strikes me so much about these guys one, it's

incredibly gruesome. These are gruesome stories. We have to admit

that eight hundred dudes get wiped out at once.

Oh yeah, that's pretty gruesome. Yep.

So that part's pretty gruesome. But there's a couple of

things when I read this passage. One, God raises up

hard men for hard times, and we can't be resentful

or or you know, somehow look down on them. Instead,

you realize, Okay, there are some really bad guys in

the world. We need some really tough guys to stand

against the really bad guys, right, Yeah, And so they're

talking about these Philistines that and we've talked about the

Philistines before, but the evil that they did, the oppression

that they were committing, and nobody was standing against them.

In Saul's day, Saul was pretty much inept. He couldn't

he couldn't defeat them, which was so strange. And then

Abner was a pretty good general, but he just couldn't

seem to get a leg up. It was because God

wasn't giving them the victory. But David had these fairly

small armies compared to Sauls, and David was having victory

often one because he was a great leader too, because

God kept giving him victory and he had these mighty men.

So David is going around having victories against these people.

But it's because God sent really hard men to David.

So being a hard man or a strong man or

a tough man does not give you permission to be

a bad man, right, right, So you have to use

your strength for the protection of others. But then the

other part of it is this, And this is maybe

the most profound lesson I get from these because these

stories are so cool, and I agree they'd make great movies.

But the thing that I take away from it is

like attracts like you attract what you are right on

a regular I've recently had a conversation with a young

person who has you know, was kind of admitting a

series of bad choices and then said, I don't know why,

but it's like I'm completely surrounded by bad people, right,

And I said, well, you're making a lot of bad choices, dude,

it's not just you're making bad choices. Apart from the

bad people you're surrounded by. Maybe like attracts Like right,

here's what I don't see. You know, I don't see

a lot of groundhogs hanging out with zebras, right.

Well, I mean I've never looked for but I've.

Never seen it. Yeah, I've never seen seeing a lot

of zebras in the bush. I've seen a lot of

g I've never seen him just hanging out together, right.

And and it's because we tend to attract the same

and if we would so learning from David, the reason

why David had almost Superhero type friends that were loyal

to him was because he was a great man. And

the reason why Saul could not win and he attracted

a guy like Abner was because Saul was deficient in

his character. And so if you want to be great,

and you need to be surrounded by great people, but

that means you need to make great choices, and it

takes a tremendous amount of discipline. And so I go

back again. I've said it so many times in this series.

Those hidden valleys is where David became great. He didn't

become great when he started recruiting tough guys. He didn't

become great when he killed Goliath. He was already a

great young man before he walked out on the battlefield

that first day, right, and then he continued to maintain

that greatness for a long time. He stumbles in his career,

he certainly does, but for a very long time he

maintained this integrity of this walk with God and this greatness,

and he continued to draw great strong men to be

around him, and they wind up delivering Israel. Ultimately.

Yeah, so ultimately, when I read this chapter, I most

of the time, when I preach this message or use

this chapter. It is a challenge for us to surround

ourselves with the right kind of friends, the kind of

friends that are going to push us, to challenge us

to sharpen us, to support us. And God creates us

to depend on one another. Others are part of the

equation of life, and we have to choose to surround

ourselves with the people who we want to be like,

who emulate people who are further along than us in

our faith, in our walk, you know, in our character,

people who have you know, emulated great character. And I'm

telling you it's just a great, great message for us

who you know, may have questions about our shaky friendships

or are questionable friendships. There are probably people listening to

this who think, you know, I have a pretty toxic

friendship that I probably should get rid of, and uh,

you know, maybe it's time, right So if you if

you feel like it's the right thing to do, even

though you love them, you know, hey, I'm still going

to love you from afar, I'm just not going to

spend as much time with you because you know, I

just I just can't do it anymore.

My dad has a bunch of funny sayings. I was

like to teaching about his funny sayings. Did your parents

have funny phrases every once in a while, Yeah, my

dad always did. But he had some really really goodness too.

It will always tease him. Shut the door, you know,

anybody shut the door. He always has learn anything, right,

we we'd be sitting there bleeding out, you know, there

with a body part hanging if you're like learn anything.

That was always his first thing. But he had a

lot of really wide sayings and one of them that

has carried with me my whole life is you either

are right now or soon shall be, just like the

crowd you run with. And that's what we see with

David and as mighty men.

That's great.

Yeah, that's a great way to end. So hey, we

will see you next time, hopefully on the Bible.

Guys,