Abounding Grace

Guest (Male): Pastor Ed Taylor shares this recipe for success.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Spiritual success comes through seeking the Lord. Spiritual success doesn't come by seeking out wisdom of the world. And spiritual success doesn't come by running to and fro and trying to figure things out. How many times have you come to a problem and your response was I need to figure this out. The answer is actually you don't need to figure this out. You need to seek the Lord. Or you come to a great difficulty and you say I really need to fix this. You don't need to fix this. We need to seek the Lord. Or you come to some great challenge.

And I'll get in and I'll take care of it. No, you don't need to take care of it. You need and I need to seek the Lord.

Guest (Male): Are you in need of some wisdom today? Sure. We all are. And the place to turn for it is the Lord. At the beginning of his reign, David modeled this for us. And we'll notice that spiritual success in his life and ours is linked to prayer. Welcome to Abounding Grace as Pastor Ed Taylor is about to return to our series in 2 Samuel. Now, if you'll recall, David has been on the run for 10 years. And now that Saul has died, what's next? Well, to enter that, David inquires of the Lord. That is a good move.

Here's Pastor Ed with more.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Take your Bibles, open them to 2 Samuel chapter 2. We have started a new book of the Bible. 2 Samuel chapter 2. Chapter 1, we left off with the finishing of that song of the bow. It was both a song and an instruction for the use of the bow to be given out as training among the young people in this new nation. And it actually came out of, you recall, this time of mourning and lamenting in the life of David. David was very sad. He was was hurt. Even after 10 years of being on the run, even after 10 years of being mistreated, even after 10 years of things happening to him in a very hard way that weren't fair, that weren't just, that were just plain wrong, even after the ups and downs of his own backslidden decisions, even after all of this, his heart was broken.

Yes, for his friend Jonathan, but also for Jonathan's dad, Saul. And in the time of mourning and lamenting, it's important to get back in the battle. It's important to move forward. Notice I didn't say get over. I simply said move forward. And we find an example in David's life of moving forward with his life. The people of Israel, really of Judah and Israel, cuz right now they're going you'll find that they're a divided kingdom. It'll be under David's leadership that the kingdom will be united. The kingdom will come under a beautiful unified commitment to King David.

It'll take some time and some warfare and and some spiritual warfare, just like anything. You know, unity, the Bible says even in the spiritual realm, unity has to be fought for. The Bible speaks in Ephesians to endeavor to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. The idea of endeavor means to work hard. And we see that as a picture here in the Old Testament. For unity to come, it's going to take some hard work. It's going to take some submission. It's going to take some humility, some some battles even. And the people are ready for good leadership because for 10 years they've had bad leadership.

Saul was a bad king and a bad leader, neglectful and selfish. And people are ready for that shepherd that God will provide. Jot it down in Jeremiah chapter 3 verse 14. It says return, oh you backslid sliding children, says the Lord, for I'm married to you and I'll take you from one city and two from a family and I'll bring you to Zion. And I will give you shepherds according to my heart who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. The primary purpose of a shepherd in caring for the sheep of God is to feed the sheep, to tend the lambs, and fill them with knowledge and understanding of who God is and what he has to say.

For the last 10 years, David has been in some intense training. Oftentimes the world will return will will often refer to heavy training, you know, you kind of learn the way learn things the hard way. They call that what? The school of hard knocks. Unfortunately, that has been the life of David. And in many ways, it will continue to be the life of David as it will be for many of us. He was on the run in the wilderness, tested, and under severe pressure. And yet at the same time, God was using that to what?

Train him and make him the man that God wanted him to be. He was preparing him. Listen, everything you go through now is preparing you for what's up ahead. And you're like, man, can I be prepared some other way? No. This is God's will for your life. This is what he's allowed. This is what is he was he is even sent your way. I I love the song that we sing tonight. I don't know if you caught the the the phrase. It caught it stood out to me of the of the lyrics. Henry was sharing with us as he was singing, you know, the storm we are in the storm, but the storm is not in us.

That was pretty powerful. It's something to chew on this week. I'm going to be thinking through that. The storm we're in the storm, but the storm isn't in us as if it's not going to touch the one that's abiding in the Lord even though everything is out out of control around us. The Lord is in us. I thought that was interesting. So David after the song and after the training, he opens up in chapter 2 verse 1. He starts to inquire of the Lord. It happened after this, after the death of Saul. You always like to ask the question after what?

Well, after the death of Saul, after this is all gone through, after the morning lamenting. Mark all of his words. After this that David inquired of the Lord saying, shall I go up to the cities of Judah? He was from Judah. And And the Lord said to him, go up. And David said, where shall I go up? And he said, to Hebron. So David went up there and his two wives also, Ahinoam and the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the widow of Nabal the Carmelite. And David brought up the men who were with him, every man with his household.

So they dwelt in the cities of Hebron. David, as soon as he begins to have his mind around him of what the future will be, as he's coming into power, he begins to inquire of the Lord. He seeks the Lord. That's one habit in David's life that has benefited him the most. You never make a mistake, friend, when you inquire of the Lord. That is not a bad decision in any situation. And this habit when David did inquire of the Lord was a good one. Sometimes he would have Gad the prophet there for him that he could ask Gad to intercede and ask God for a word to speak like back in 1 Samuel chapter 22.

At other times, he would use the priest like Abiathar to seek God with the ephod. Or even at times in 1 Samuel chapter 30, David sought the Lord himself. Remember he encouraged himself in the Lord. He inquired of the Lord. Here again, he's inquiring of the Lord, wanting to know what am I supposed to do? What's the next decision for me? And I'd agree it's a good habit to seek the Lord. I've never made a mistake when I have sought the Lord, but I've made many mistakes when I've done things in my own strength, in my own wisdom, when I thought I had things figured out or I already knew the answer and I didn't need to ask for confirmation.

I've made many mistakes that way. In Isaiah 55 verse 6, it says, seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord and he have mercy on him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon. David's success spiritually and practically as well as yours and mine comes when we're walking in wisdom and in the will of God in both the good times and the bad times. Let me show you something. Would you turn over to James chapter 1?

Spiritual success comes through seeking the Lord. Spiritual success doesn't come by seeking out wisdom of the world. And spiritual success doesn't come by running to and fro and trying to figure things out. How many times have you come to a problem and your response was I need to figure this out. The answer is actually you don't need to figure this out. You need to seek the Lord. Or you come to a great difficulty and you say I really need to fix this. You don't need to fix this. We need to seek the Lord. Or you come to some great challenge.

And And I'll get in and I'll take care of it. No, you don't need to take care of it. You need and I need to seek the Lord. In James chapter 1, notice with me in verse 5, James says, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all liberally and without reproach and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea tossed and driven by the wind. Let no one suppose that he'll receive anything from the Lord.

He's a double-minded man unstable in all his ways. In the context of James chapter 1, of course is through times of testing, times of storms. He opens up the chapter, you know, counted all joy, brother, when you fall into various trials. When is it that we need the wisdom the most and in the midst of a trial? I mean, where we just are our energy level is low, we can't think straight, we don't know what to do next at at our most vulnerable time. I would say at any time, but man, we need wisdom in our most vulnerable time.

And wisdom you know, wisdom and knowledge go together and they're often confused. Knowledge is knowing the right thing. Knowledge is knowing the right thing. We want knowledge. We want to know what's right. Wisdom isn't knowing the right thing. It's knowing how to use the knowledge that you have. It's the proper application of knowledge, wisdom. And I'm sure you've met some people you've walked away from them and you're like, man, that guy he's wise. Not you don't walk away from them and she's so smart. There are people that you walk away with you're smart. I met a lot of people that are smart but not wise.

They have all the knowledge that they need, but they don't know how to use it. Or they use it inappropriately. And so it's not just I want to know what's going on, Lord. I want to know how how might I respond? What am I to do? It's possible to know a lot but not know how to use it. It's one thing to know something, but it's a whole other thing to take that knowledge and put it into action according to the will of God. Someone once said that knowledge is the ability to take something apart, but wisdom is the ability to put it back together.

I've always wanted to take things apart and understand how they work and put it back together, but I can't. And I now have the wisdom at this age that that's just not my deal. I remember as a kid taking watches apart, so curious. I even, you know, saving a few bucks to change the battery and completely breaking the whole thing cuz I lost this or I couldn't do this or I put it back together and I had five extra screws. Like where those come from? And it just like, man, knowledge knows how to take you know, I could take things apart, but man, wisdom is putting them back together.

So James says, look, it's wise. No one's ever made a mistake asking God for wisdom. Not only that, no one has ever asked God from for wisdom according to James here inspired by the Holy Spirit that hasn't received it. God is ready to give wisdom. You know, in difficult times or in times like David here, what am I supposed to do next? I've been on the run for 10 years. What do the next 10 years look like? What do the next 10 minutes look like? Why not ask for strength? You know, why don't ask for knowledge?

Why not ask for grace? Why not ask for deliverance? Why not ask for God to give the plan? Because none of them is wisdom. He says, hey, if any of you lacks wisdom, which we can all say amen to that, I mean, which one of us don't lack wisdom? God is always taking us into new areas where we don't quite know how to apply the knowledge that we have. So many of our issues isn't a need for nor knowledge. It's a need for no learning how to use the knowledge that we already have. Your endless quest for more knowledge will leave you still without wisdom.

And just go over and over. You're always learning, never coming to the knowledge of the truth, the Bible declares. Now, God wants to give wisdom to his believers. God wants to show us through it how to mature and grow and be stretched. And so he asks back in 2 Samuel. He inquires for wisdom. He wants to know what's next. He already knows he's from Hebron. He already knows he's from Judah. He already knows he's the anointed king. He's got all the knowledge in the world, but what do I do with it? I know I'm going to be king.

I've been running for 10 years trusting you, Lord. And I know that the people are going to want I I've been I mean, I'm ready, but I I know this, but what am I supposed to do with it? What am I supposed to do with it? Prayer and inquiring of the Lord is the highest, most important calling of of any believer. It'll keep you out of the depths of depression, prayer will. It'll keep you from away from the idleness of predictability and apathy. It'll keep you away from the traps of temptation. In the beginning of his reign, David models the absolute necessity of prayer, of inquiring of the Lord.

And remember now in David not too long prior, he was on the side of the Philistines fighting with them in a backslidden condition. Not too long but he was feigning craziness before the king trying to get out of and work this and manipulate this and and you know, not too long ago, he wasn't inquiring of the Lord and it got him in big trouble. He lost everything. He came to a place in his backslidden condition that he lost everything and the people that had put their hope in him, they lost everything. And when I mean everything, I mean everything.

Possessions, family, everything. They came back to the city of Ziklag to nothing. He never expected that, but you know, you talk to those that have backslidden and perhaps you have this story. You didn't expect to come back to what you came back to either because you actually came back when you come back from backsliding, you come back to two things. You come back to find out how much you've really lost. You've been living a lie. You've been living a life of lies. You might be listening in right now. You're living a life of lies right now and deception, yourself deceived.

You're intoxicated all the times. You're not in reality. You're you're smoking that pot you can buy now legally or you're into some of the heavier drugs and people are lying to you and using you and manipulating you and you're in this place of self-deception. You're in a place of rebellion against your parents and you think you're going to do your own thing and you're going to go get your own place and you're going to do your own thing and you find yourself that it's a little premature, but you're not willing to admit it's premature cuz you're so filled with pride and you don't want to admit you failed and you just kind of go off I'm going to do my own thing.

I'm going to take my inheritance like the prodigal and do my own thing. But you'll find out soon enough that when you run out of everything and you finally come to your senses and come home, you're going to find out two things. Number one, you're going to find out just how much you lost, but number two, you going to find in a tremendous amount of grace and love and forgiveness as the Father receives you back. And you begin to gain all that the enemy you try to you restore because David is in a place where he is today because God led him to another time of inquiring to go back and get his stuff.

And he did. He was everything that was ripped off the enemy tried to steal was restored to him. Even as the promise I've hung on to every day of my Christian walk that from the first day it was ever introduced to me that God promises to restore to me the years that the locust had eaten. Or in my case in the Ed Taylor paraphrase, the years that I absolutely threw away in rebellion against God. And while I'll never be able to get the years restored, the missing fruit from those years can come in abundance. They can just God can just drive with a truckload of fruit and just dump it on your doorstep and say enjoy.

So if you are backsliding, the Bible even though we read earlier, maybe the Lord has got a theme here today like he's calling the backslider home. And I know it's going to be hard. I know it's going to be humbling. I know it's difficult to to admit that you were wrong, but admit you were wrong. That's the first step of repentance. Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God and he will lift you up. Inquire of the Lord, get back in the battle, get back in the game, serve him because the days are short. David's back in the game.

He's seeking the Lord. He's asking for God's direction. He's asking and God says go to Hebron. He says now back in chapter 2. That's what he's supposed to do. Go to Hebron. Go up north, go into Judah. And according to the Bible in verse 3, David brought up the men, every man to his household. They dwelt in the cities of Hebron. Verse 4, then the men of Judah came in there and anointed David king over the house of Judah. And they told David saying the men of Jabesh Gilead were the ones who buried Saul. And David sent messengers to the men of Jabesh Gilead and said to them, you're blessed of the Lord for you've shown this kindness to your Lord to Saul and have buried him.

And you see a great contrast from that, a Amalekite that came and thought he was going to get some kind of favor and so we killed Saul. Well, these guys they took care of they took care of the body. They were there available to him. And so David sent messengers in verse 6, now may the Lord show kindness and truth to you. I also will repay you this kindness because you have done this thing. Now, therefore let your hands be strengthened, be valiant, for your master Saul is dead and also the house of Judah has anointed me king over them.

And you come to this like we read through it so quickly, but you just finally say finally. Here it is for David waiting 10 years of difficulty, uh 10 years of trials and plus the kid years that that that he wasn't on the run. And finally he's anointed king over Judah. Not the rest of the tribes as you'll see, but he is a finally anointed king. It it's finally coming. The people have finally caught up with the will of God. Because in their estimation, the people were we want a scene. We want a king. And they anointed Saul.

But now God said I have a king for you and they're coming and I finally caught up with God. It's interesting, isn't it? How many times people are way behind God where it just seems like God is doing something years in advance and God has said something years in advance and then finally man catches up with God and agrees with him. I mean, how long I mean, that's like the picture of the rebellious and the and the backslidden like or just the resistance, you know, just the resistance you give to God. It's like how long are you just going to hold out until you finally just agree with what God has already said?

What he's already anointed. David has been anointed multiple times and finally the people agree. And again, man catches up and the people of Judah are finally recognizing what God has already said. David is about 30 years old now, king of Judah and he's going to reign in Hebron for about 7 and 1/2 years. And when I give some numbers to you and you're note takers, it's going to be good for you to jot them down. It will help you as we bounce back and forth now through the historical narrative uh and putting the pieces together.

So I would encourage you. He's about 30 years old. He reigns 7 and 1/2 years. Verse 8. Now Abner, the son of Ner, the commander of Saul's army. Remember he was the one that was rebuked by David for not protecting Saul when they went down and they took the jug from Saul's head. Do you guys remember that? And then he ran out and and then he David was mocking him. You should have taken care of the king. That's this Abner. I share that with you only to remind you Abner is a a rat. And and and you'll see what I mean as we go.

Rabner this Abner, Rabner, whatever his name is, Abner, the son of Ner uh commander of Saul's army took Ish-bosheth, the son of Saul and brought him over to Mahanaim and made him king over Gilead, over the Asherites, over Jezreel, Ephraim, Benjamin and all over Israel. Ish-bosheth, Saul's son, was 40 years old. He began to reign over Israel. Reign 2 years. Only the house of Judah followed David. What what what we're being told here is the kingdom is divided. And now we have two kings, David of Judah and Israel. And you'll notice them being distinction even even as now they're distinguishing distinguishing two kingdoms.

And the time that David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah uh was 7 and 1/2 7 years and 6 months as I've mentioned earlier. Sa Abner is Saul's cousin and the commander of his army. Abner brought David to Saul after David killed Goliath. Abner pursued David for 10 years with Saul. He was rebuked in chapter 26 of 1 Samuel uh for and openly humiliated when he failed to protect the king. And we're not told exactly what's going on here. We're not told the the the the scriptures don't declare to us what's going on, but I think you can figure it out.

He's setting up a puppet king so he can rule. He's setting up weak Ish-bosheth so he can rule through him, which by the way is a big problem as we open up the book of Kings. It's going to be a big problem. It's going to be a bad habit for the nation going forward. And Abner perhaps doesn't see any future in a united kingdom because David not only did humiliated him, so maybe he's taken maybe it's like a personal grudge white which you which means which reminds us you need to be quick to forgive even as Jesus Christ has forgiven you or you'll make decisions based out of emotion and grudges instead of being led by the Lord.

Maybe that's what's happening here. He never dealt with that humiliating experience, but I think, you know, there's a political aspect to this, not just spiritual. And I think he knows David already has Joab as well as we already know and and he doesn't see a place for him in the new unified kingdom, but he does see a place if he can put Ish-bosheth up as he takes things into his own hands and anoints Ish-bosheth Ish-bosheth. Those of you that are pregnant, perfect name for a new child. We'll call him little Ishy. Can't say it too many times.

So let me ask you this. Is Ish-bosheth the anointed king of God? No. Did Abner and the people anoint him to be king over them? Yes. Was it the will of God? No. Listen, so many times things in your life are that easy. Does the Bible say this? Yes. Did I do this? Yes. And what did it match what the Bible said? No. Don't do it. It's that simple.

Guest (Male): As long as we seek the Lord, there is success. That is the big takeaway today on Abounding Grace with Ed Taylor. It's part of our study in 2 Samuel. You can hear it again online at aboundinggraceradio.com or wherever you get your podcasts. We're also at oneplace.com. At Abounding Grace, we're committed to bringing the truths of God's word to the radio and internet every day, but we can't do it alone. We look to the Lord and our listeners to help us provide these daily studies. Today when you give a donation of $25 or more, we'll send you Pastor Ed's new book, How to Take Notes.

This highly practical guide will give you some ideas for taking notes as you head off the church on Sunday or as you listen to us on the radio or by podcast. Instead of just sitting back and listening, learn how to engage with scripture and the teaching in a more personal way. Request a copy right now by calling us at 877-30 Grace. That's 877-30 Grace. You can also order it online at calvaryco.store. That's calvaryco.store. Donations can also be made at aboundinggraceradio.com. We'll catch you back here next time when Pastor Ed will share more from 2 Samuel.

That's right here on Abounding Grace.

Guest (Male): Abounding Grace is brought to you by Calvary Church Colorado here in Aurora.