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Well, baptismal services are always special.

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The Baptistery was warm tonight, let me tell you.

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I feel like a boiled lobster.

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I hope that you're planning to stay after the service tonight if your last name begins

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with letters A through E. And all of our guests this evening, we would love to have the opportunity

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to visit with you and get to know you a little better.

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So feel free to stay a few minutes after the service downstairs in the fellowship hall.

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There will be some light refreshments and time to meet you personally.

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We're going to turn this evening in our Bibles to 2 Samuel chapter 2 to begin.

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The passing of the torch of leadership is often precarious.

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That is true in a local church, for example, when a new pastor comes in for the transfer

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of the loyalty and the trust and the love to take place, there is time required.

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It is a precarious time in a local church.

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It is true in a home when there is a remarriage that occurs.

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I know in my childhood, as I've shared with you before, my father died.

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When I was in my mid-teens, my mother remarried, and there had to be developed for my stepfather

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a new loyalty, a love and trust in him.

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And although that came rather naturally, it was still a bit of a struggle as well.

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It took some time for that to develop.

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And I can remember thinking that he favored my little brother who had the same first name

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that he had and all of these more noble thoughts.

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I'm sure it was tough on him because he was a bachelor and at 39 inherited not only a

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wife but four kids.

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But God has blessed him, and they are going to celebrate 25 years this year.

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It's a difficult time in government, too.

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We had just gone through an election, and had there been a change of administrations

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in particular and a change of the one who was going to sit in the Oval Office, there

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would have been a period of two and a half months or so when the new administration would

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be getting things in order.

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And then it would take several months after that for all of the appointments to be made

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and so on.

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And so the change of leadership is often a precarious thing.

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But David became king overnight.

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I mean, one night he was a fugitive, the next night he's the king of the nation.

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There was no time for him to break into this thing, although God had in His own way been

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preparing him.

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There was no opportunity to learn the ropes in Israel.

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There was no opportunity to get all of the people united or the armies even united under

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him.

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He just became king like that when Saul and three of his sons were slain by the Philistines.

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Now we read in 2 Samuel chapter 2 beginning in verse 1 that after the memorial service

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for the slain king Saul and his son Jonathan, it came about that David inquired of the Lord

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saying, shall I go up to one of the cities of Judah?

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And the Lord said to him, go up.

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So David said, where shall I go up?

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And he said to Hebron.

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So David went up there and his two wives also, Hinoam the Jezreelitus and Abigail the widow

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of Nabal the Carmelite.

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And David brought up his men who were with him, each with his household, and they lived

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in the cities of Hebron.

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Then the men of Judah came and there anointed David king over the house of Judah.

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If you're familiar with a map of Israel at this time, you will remember that the land

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was apportioned to the tribes.

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And the tribe of Judah had a rather large portion about 12 miles or so inland from the

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Dead Sea and a large area surrounding that.

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They had several tribes to the north of them and none to the south.

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From the south there were the Philistines and there was a little buffer zone in between

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Judah and the Philistines.

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David at this time was living down there in that buffer zone in the city of Ziklag.

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And God said, now go up to Hebron.

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Hebron was in the tribal territory of Judah.

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And it was from there that he reigned for seven and a half years.

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As we see in verse 11 of this chapter, the time that David was king in Hebron over the

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house of Judah or the tribe of Judah was seven years and six months.

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Seven and a half years it took for David to become the king of the full nation.

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After that seven and a half years, as we will see a little bit later, he became king of

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not only Judah but all of the tribes of Israel.

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And he moved his capital up to Jerusalem, to Zion, seven and a half years of transition.

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That was an important time in David's life, chapters 2, 3, 4, and 5 of 2 Samuel deal with

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those years.

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There's an awful lot that's recorded that happens around David.

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He had some rascals who were his partners, his generals and soldiers, and they made some

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terrible mistakes and David let them get away with it.

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During this period of transition, there were three things that basically took place in

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David's life.

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Going to condense those three things into three simple words, the first one, waiting.

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Those seven and a half years were a time of waiting for David.

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Now he had the right, because God had appointed him to be king, he had the right to insist

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that all of the tribes follow him as king.

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The nation was overrun with Philistines at this point.

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Those northern tribes really had no central government.

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He knew he was God's man to be the king.

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So there were a lot of reasons why he should have forced the issue from the human standpoint.

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But David rather waited upon God.

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We see him here returning to his former attitude of waiting upon the Lord.

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We can observe David during this time waiting upon God's time.

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While he could have forced the events and been king of the whole nation much sooner,

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he knew that God had a time for that.

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The words, my times are in thy hand, reflect his thinking at this point.

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God knew when the other tribes would be ready to give allegiance, and so God had his time

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set aside, and David was willing to wait for God's time.

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And he was willing to wait for God's way.

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David could have fought, but there was a better way for the nation to be united under his

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leadership, for all of them to be willing to do so.

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Man's way would have been again to fight and to coerce those tribes in the north to

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follow him.

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But David was willing to wait for God's way.

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The Lord reminds us through Isaiah the prophet, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord.

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And then David was willing to wait on God's purpose.

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David may not have understood why he had to wait seven and a half years, but he was willing

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to wait for God to show him the reason why.

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And so the first word that kind of summarizes what took place in David's life in the seven

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and a half years is this word waiting.

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He was waiting for God's purpose, which ultimately was for him to be the great king.

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He was waiting for God's way for him to be king, which was for all of the elders of the

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tribes to willingly unite in anointing him to his king.

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He was willing to wait for God's time even though it was a long seven and a half years.

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I think the words in Psalm 37 pretty accurately reflect David's attitude during this time.

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These may be words that some of us this evening need to remember.

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David wrote these words.

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He said, do not fret because of evildoers.

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Be not envious toward wrongdoers, for they will wither quickly like the grass and fade

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like the green herb.

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Rest in the Lord and do good, dwell in the land, and cultivate faithfulness.

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Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

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Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in him, and he will do it.

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And he will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your judgment as the noonday.

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Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him.

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Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who carries out

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wicked schemes.

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Face from anger, forsake wrath, do not fret, it only leads to evildoing.

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Evildoers will be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord, they will inherit the land.

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W-A-I-T, one of David's favorite words, and he uses that again and again in the Psalms.

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I can remember a time when I was late in my high school years and eager to have a decision

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made regarding my future.

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And one night as I was frustrated about this, I was reading my Bible, and the verse that

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God pointed out to me said, wait on the Lord, wait on the Lord.

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And that word wait that evening struck me like a sword in my heart, and I realized that

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I was trying to push and move ahead out of God's time.

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God reminded me to wait, and I did.

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There may be someone here tonight who's eager, pushing, wanting to know the answer.

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God is saying to you, this is a time of transition in your life.

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Wait on the Lord.

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The second word that I think describes these seven and a half years in David's life is

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the word receiving.

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We see him, for example, in the verse we read, verse 4, chapter 2, receiving a fresh anointing

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for service as king.

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David had already been anointed.

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Why another anointing?

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Well, you may recall the first one took place with just his family present in Bethlehem.

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It occurred more than 10 years before this.

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David is 30 at this point.

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It was back when he was a teenager that he was anointed privately by Samuel the prophet

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to be the next king.

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Now it was important for that anointing to be public, for there to be more than just

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his family, but many, many people there to witness the fact that God had anointed him

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to be the great king.

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But I think it was important for David personally too, as well as for the nation.

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For David had been through a lot of experiences during the last 12, 13 years of his life,

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and he needed a reminder himself that God had anointed him to be the king.

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Somehow that needed to be impressed afresh upon his own heart.

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And so he was anointed there by the rulers, but the leaders, rather, of Judah as king

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over them in Hebron.

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He received a fresh anointing from God.

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And then during this period of time, he as well received gradually a growing loyalty

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from all of the people because of the wise way in which he lived.

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This is summarized for us in chapter 3 and verse 36.

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It says there, now all the people took note of it, the way David was behaving, and it

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pleased them just as everything the king did pleased all the people.

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Abraham Lincoln notwithstanding, David pleased everybody all the time, at least at this point.

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So he was receiving from the Lord a growing loyalty, a growing love from the hearts of

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his people.

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It was a time of receiving.

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And then thirdly, it was a time of increasing.

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Notice what it says in the beginning of chapter 3.

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Now there was long war between the house of Saul and the house of David, and David grew

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steadily stronger, but the house of Saul grew weaker continually.

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So the house of Saul was in decline, and the house of David was growing, increasing for

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these seven and one-half years.

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And so it was a joyous time, and yet it was mingled with trouble and tragedy for David.

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One example of that is found in chapter 2, David's cousin Abner, the son of Ner.

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I don't know about you, but when I hear his father's name, I think there can't be a whole

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lot about him that was commendable, the son of Ner.

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Now Abner being David's cousin was obviously a very powerful man, and he was in certain

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respects a gifted general of the armies of Israel, or the army of David, rather.

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Now Abner was a rival, excuse me, when I said he was a cousin of David, I didn't mean David,

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I meant Saul.

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He was a cousin of Saul, and he was the head of the armies of Israel.

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He was a rival of a man by the name of Joab, who was a nephew of David.

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So these two men were basically equals at this point, and they had it in for each other.

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In chapter 2, they gathered some armies together and met and decided they would have a representative

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combat.

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And so they each chose 12 men, and they allowed them to fight it out, but all 24 men were

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killed.

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The battle was indecisive.

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It was severe.

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And Abner then left with his men.

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But there was another nephew of David, a brother of Joab by the name of Asahel.

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Asahel was a track runner.

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He was swift like a gazelle, it says.

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And he ran after Abner.

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He wanted to get Abner.

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He wanted to finish him off.

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So he followed Abner's chariot, mile after mile after mile.

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Abner turned around and said, get lost.

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I don't want to hurt you.

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Turn back.

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Go to the left.

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Go to the right.

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Just get lost.

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Asahel would have none of that.

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He was after Abner.

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And finally Abner took his spear and thrust it back, not with the metal or the stone part

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of it, but rather with the pointed end.

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They would sharpen both ends, and the other end, the wooden end, was sharp so they could

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stick it in the ground.

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He just took the butt of the spear and shoved it back toward Asahel, who was following him,

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and killed him.

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He fell dead.

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That was Joab's brother.

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Well, that didn't increase the love between Joab and Abner, to say the least.

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Now this was a tragedy for David.

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Asahel was killed.

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Asahel was his nephew.

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And even though the battle did not proceed, at that point there was bad blood between

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Abner, who was of the household of Saul, and Joab, who was of David's household.

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After that, one of Saul's sons, who happened to be living, and his name was Ishbechef,

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remember three of them were killed with him down the hills, but Ishbechef lived.

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He did not ever rule the kingdom.

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He was their king in name only.

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He depended a great deal upon Abner, who was the general, the powerful general.

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In fact, he was afraid of Abner.

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Well, on one occasion, Ishbechef accused Abner of an impropriety, and Abner was so angry

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at that weak king, the son of Saul, that he said, I am going to turn against you and bring

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the armies of Israel to David, so that they will follow him.

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He made an approach to David.

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They met together, unknown to Joab, David's general.

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When the meeting was over, Abner went on his way, and Joab and his men got back in camp.

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Somebody said, hey Joab, you know Abner was here?

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And David let him go in peace.

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Joab was furious at David, and so he sent after him and tricked Abner and killed him.

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And so there was a second death.

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David did not approve of this in the slightest.

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He mourned for Abner, called a great funeral for him, and called him a prince and a great

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man who had fallen in Israel.

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And he said regarding Joab, he said, may the Lord repay the evildoer according to his evil.

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By the way, later on, though he was David's own flesh and blood, he told Solomon, you

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better get rid of Joab, and that was one of the things that Solomon did when he became

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king.

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He killed Joab because he knew he couldn't trust him.

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That left Ishbechef, Saul's son, in a very precarious position because his whole reign,

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as weak as it was, depended upon Abner, and now Abner was dead.

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And there were two of his commanders who took advantage of the situation and found Ishbechef

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resting at midday and killed him.

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And so Saul's son was dead.

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Those two men, by the way, went to David and said, hey, we've killed your enemy, Ishbechef.

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And David, rather than being glad about that, was grieved, and he commanded that both of

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them be killed, he cut off their hands and their feet and hung them up beside the pool

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in Hebron.

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As a testimony to everybody what happens to people guilty of treason like that.

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Well, that was the end of any kind of Saul's reign in the north when Ishbechef died.

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And David was enthroned then in chapter 5 over all of the tribes of Israel.

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It goes like this beginning in verse 1.

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All the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and said, behold, we are your bone

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and your flesh.

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Previously, when Saul was king over us, you were the one who led Israel out and in.

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And the Lord said to you, you will shepherd my people Israel, and you will be a ruler

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over Israel.

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And so all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron, and King David made a covenant

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with them before the Lord at Hebron.

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And they anointed David king over Israel.

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So this is the third time now, the final time, when he is anointed the king.

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And David was 30 years old when he became king, and he reigned for 40 years.

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At Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months, and in Jerusalem he reigned

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33 years over all Israel and Judah.

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And we learn next about how they got Judah, and we will save that for another evening.

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This is a time of increase for David, though it was mingled with tragedies and sorrow.

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And by the way, during this period of time that David was increasing under God's blessing,

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we nonetheless see some flaws in David, which later came to be real problems for him.

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David had a hard time with self-discipline, a very hard time with that.

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He was apparently a man who had a great deal of passion, and during this time he took to

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himself multiple wives.

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He had two when he moved to Hebron, but during these years, these seven and a half years,

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he increased in wives too.

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And that caused a multiplication of children, and later that created all kinds of family

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problems and tensions because of all of these children who were vying for the throne.

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We'll get into some of that in weeks ahead.

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Furthermore, David had a hard time discipling those children.

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He allowed them to do basically whatever they wanted to do.

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That created problems.

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And he had a hard time discipling his army.

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Actually he should have slain, he should have executed Joab because Joab had killed Abner,

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who was really an innocent man.

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And he did it in the city of Refuge, by the way.

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I didn't point that out as we went through, but a place where he should have had sanctuary.

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Nonetheless, it was there that Joab killed Abner.

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David should have dealt with his general, but he was not strong enough somehow in his

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character to deal with him, and left it to his son Solomon to care for it.

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Those are the negatives.

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The positive is that during this time David was increasing.

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Now, in certain respects, I think that this transition period in David's life can be

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likened to the period that you and I are in.

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For we too are in a transition period in this world.

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By the grace of God, we have been saved from our sin.

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We have been cleansed in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

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We have been anointed by the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives and appointed to

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reign with Jesus Christ.

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We are right now in transition to that reign.

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We are, as it were, in preparation for that time when we will share the throne with our

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Lord Jesus Christ.

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So what is this transition time to us?

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What are these years between the time that we were saved and the time that we will reign

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with Christ?

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Well, they are in the first place years of waiting.

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We are learning to wait upon the Lord for His time and His way and His purpose in our

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lives.

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Our faith is being stretched.

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We are learning that it's by trusting Him, not ourselves, that we make progress.

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We're learning to wait upon the Lord and to know that He is God.

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And as we learn to wait upon Him, we are receiving.

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What are we receiving?

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We are receiving spiritual blessings.

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All of them are given to us positionally in Christ.

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But during this period of time, we are learning to appropriate those blessings.

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All that we need for life and godliness has been given to us in Jesus Christ.

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Now during this transitional period, from the time we're saved until the time that

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we reign with Christ, we are learning what it means to get a hold of those resources,

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to possess our possessions, so to speak.

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We are receiving from the Lord His grace, His peace, His love.

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We're learning how to appropriate those, make those real in our lives.

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So we wait and because we wait, we receive, and because we receive, we increase.

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We are growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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We are growing up into maturity.

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We are expanding and increasing so that we will be prepared to reign with Him on the

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throne.

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Recognize that what you are going through right now is God's way of schooling you,

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of tutoring you, so that you will be prepared to reign with Jesus Christ.

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What takes place in your life now is purpose to that end.

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You are destined for the throne of Jesus Christ, to reign with Him.

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And now as you wait upon Him, you receive from Him, and as you receive, you increase.

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And all of that is a part of God's plan for us during this time of transition.

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God is teaching us to trust and obey and to walk with Him.

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And as we do that, we not only please Him now, but we're being prepared for what's

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coming.

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These were years of transition.

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David was anointed.

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He was to be anointed again as he reigned over the whole nation.

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You and I have been anointed by the presence of the Spirit of God in our lives the moment

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we were saved, but there will come a day when we will be coronated with Him and set apart

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to reign with Him on His throne.

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Right now we're in the period of transition.

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Let's make the most of it.

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Like David, we have our failures.

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Like David, there are mistakes that we make.

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But let's ask God to give us victory over those so that we will be adequately prepared

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when the time comes to stand with Him and be seated with Him upon His throne of glory.

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Let's pray together.

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Lord I pray that this quick lesson tonight from the life of David may find application

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in our hearts and that you would there cause it to take root to encourage us.

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Lord help us to see the destiny, the destiny that you have appointed for all of those who

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love and trust your Son.

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And in light of that glorious purpose that you have in mind for people like us, then

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teach us what it is to wait, to appropriate, to increase so that we will be prepared and

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adequate to reign with your Son, be joint heirs of all things.

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And we pray this in Jesus' name, amen.