(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. When I see the blood on the first, Christ our Redeemer, died on the cross, died for the sinner, paid all his due, all who receive him he'd never fear. Yes, he will pass, he will pass over you. When I see the blood, when I see the blood, when I see the blood, I will pass, I will pass over you. Chief is of sinners, Jesus can save, as he has promised, so will he do. O sinner, hear him, trust in his word, then he will pass, he will pass over you. When I see the blood, when I see the blood, when I see the blood, I will pass, I will pass over you. Judgment is coming, all will be there, who have rejected, who have refused, who will sin or hasten, let Jesus in, then God will pass, he will pass over you. When I see the blood, when I see the blood, when I see the blood, I will pass, I will pass over you on the last. O, what compassion, O boundless love, Jesus, that power, Jesus is true, all who believe are safe from the storm, all will pass, pass over you. When I see the blood, when I see the blood, when I see the blood, I will pass, I will pass over you. Amen. Song number 75 on Jordan's Stormy Banks. Sing it out, song number 75 on Jordan's Stormy Banks. On the first. On Jordan's Stormy Banks I stand and cast a wishful eye, to Cadence, fair and happy land, where my possessions lie. I am bound for the Promised Land, I am bound for the Promised Land, O who will come and pull with me, I am bound for the Promised Land. All o'er those wide extended plains shines one eternal day, there God the Son forever reigns and scatters like a wave. I am bound for the Promised Land, I am bound for the Promised Land, O who will come and go with me, I am bound for the Promised Land. No chilling winds or poisonous breath can reach that healthful shore. Miss and sorrow, pain and death are felt and feared no more. I am bound for the Promised Land, I am bound for the Promised Land, O who will come and go with me, I am bound for the Promised Land. When shall I reach that happy place and be forever blessed? When shall I see my Father's face and in His bosom rest? I am bound for the Promised Land, I am bound for the Promised Land, O who will come and go with me, I am bound for the Promised Land. I am bound for the Promised Land, I am bound for the Promised Land, O who will come and go with me, I am bound for the Promised Land. I am bound for the Promised Land, O who will come and go with me, I am bound for the Promised Land, O who will come and go with me, I am bound for the Promised Land. I am bound for the Promised Land, O who will come and go with me, I am bound for the Promised Land, O who will come and go with me, I am bound for the Promised Land. Welcome to Maribel's anniversary on the 31st. Before we move on any further, I do have an announcement I almost forgot to mention, which is the prayer list. We are going to reset it. A lot of those things have been on there for a very long time, so we're trying to tighten it back up again. So anything on the prayer list other than the standard four things that we always pray for is getting wiped off. So again, when the play goes around after the third song, write something down on there if you have a prayer request. If you forget, you can always drop it in the box on the way out. You can always text, call, email, something like that. I would say Facebook Messenger is probably the slowest way to get me a prayer request, but I'll still get it in a couple weeks. Again, so yeah, just make sure that if you have any prayer requests, it goes on your communication card and it gets to us for this Wednesday, otherwise it's going to be a super short prayer list. All right. Verse of the week, Matthew 24, 38, which says, and he said unto them, why are you troubled and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? We talked about that this morning. We are a family integrated church. What that means is we don't separate children from their parents for any reason. Mom's mother baby room should be all set up and ready to go. And dad's got to use the break room from now on. Well, at least for another probably another couple weeks. Don't forget to turn your phone off. We're placing it on silent so it's not a distraction. And again, don't forget all that stuff back there will be gone after tonight. And the very bottom line says the Christian that bows before God walks upright before men. And that was from last Sunday. So we will have one more song before we receive the offering. All right. Let's go ahead and sing a quick happy birthday. We got brother Kevin who had a birthday recently. We got Miss Jasmine and Miss Rachel. So we'll acknowledge them saying happy birthday. God bless you because it's hard to squeeze in three names. So that's embarrassing. All right. We appreciate you all. All right. Let's go ahead and turn to song number 208 Grace greater than our sin. On the first. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace. All right, please tune your Bibles to the book of first Kings. First Kings chapter number one, starting a new study through the book of Kings. First Kings chapter number one. And when you get there, starting at verse number one, as our custom, we'll be going through the entire chapter together. First Kings chapter one, verse one, the Bible reads, Now King David was old and stricken in years, and they covered him with clothes, but he got no heat. Wherefore, his servant said unto him, Let there be sought for my lord the king a young virgin, and let her stand before the king, and let her cherish him, and let her lie in thy bosom, that my lord the king may get heat. So they sought for a fair damsel throughout all the coasts of Israel, and found Abishag a Shunammite, and brought her to the king. And the damsel was very fair, and cherished the king, and ministered to him, but the king knew her not. Then Adonijah the son of Hagith exalted himself, saying, I will be king. And he prepared him chariots, and horsemen, and fifty men to run before him. And his father had not displeased him at any time in saying, Why hast thou done so? And he also was a very goodly man, and his mother bare him after Absalom. And he conferred with Joab the son of Zeruiah, and with Abiathar the priest, and they following Adonijah helped him. But Zadok the priest, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and Nathan the prophet, and Shemiai, and Reai, and the mighty men which belonged to David, were not with Adonijah. And Adonijah slew sheep, and oxen, and fat cattle by the stone of Zoheleth, which is by Enrogal, and called all his brethren the king's sons, and all the men of Judah the king's servants. But Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah, and the mighty men, and Solomon his brother he called not. Wherefore Nathan spake unto Bathsheba the mother of Solomon, saying, Hast thou not heard that Adonijah the son of Hagith doth reign, and David our Lord knoweth it not? Now therefore come, let me, I pray thee, give thee counsel, that thou mayest save thine own life, and the life of thy son Solomon. Go, and get thee in unto king David, and say unto him, Does not thou my Lord O king swear unto thine handmaid, saying, Assuredly Solomon thy son shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne? Why then doth Adonijah reign? Behold while thou yet talkest there with the king, I also will come in after thee, and confirm thy words. And Bathsheba went in unto the king into the chamber, and the king was very old, and Abishag the Shunammite ministered unto the king. And Bathsheba bowed and did obeisance unto the king, and the king said, What wouldest thou? And she said unto him, My Lord, thou swearest by the Lord thy God unto thine handmaid, saying, Assuredly Solomon thy son shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne. And now behold, Adonijah reigneth, and now my Lord the king thou knowest it not. And he hath slain oxen and fat cattle, and sheep in abundance, and hath called all the sons of the king, and Abiathar the priest, and Joab the captain of the host. But Solomon thy servant hath he not called. And thou my Lord, O king, the eyes of all Israel are upon thee, that thou shouldest tell them who shall sit on the throne of my Lord the king after him. Otherwise it shall come to pass when my Lord the king shall sleep with his fathers, that I and my son Solomon shall be counted offenders. And lo, while she yet talked with the king, Nathan the prophet also came in. And they told the king, saying, Behold, Nathan the prophet. And when he was come in before the king, he bowed himself before the king with his face to the ground. And Nathan said, My Lord, O king, hast thou said, Adonijah shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne? For he hath gone down this day, and hath slain oxen and fat cattle, and sheep in abundance, and hath called all the king's sons, and the captains of the host, and Abiathar the priest. And behold, they eat and drink before him, and say, God save king Adonijah. But me, even me thy servant, and Zadok the priest, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and thy servant Solomon, hath he not called? Is this thing done by my lord the king, that thou hast not shewed it unto thy servant, who should sit on the throne of my lord the king after him? Then king David answered, and said, Call me Bathsheba. And she came into the king's presence, and stood before the king. And the king sware, and said, As the Lord liveth, that hath redeemed my soul out of all distress, even as I swear unto thee by the Lord God of Israel, saying, Assuredly, Solomon thy son shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne in my stead, even so will I certainly do this day. Then Bathsheba bowed with her face to the earth, and did reverence to the king, and said, Let my lord king David live forever. And king David said, Call me Zadok the priest, and Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada. And they came before the king. The king also said unto them, Take with you the servants of your lord, and call Solomon my son to write upon mine own mule, and bring him down to Gihon. And let Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anoint him their king over Israel, and blow you with the trumpet, and say, God save king Solomon. Then he shall come up after him, that he may come and sit upon my throne. For you shall be king in my stead, and I have appointed him to be ruler over Israel and over Judah. And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada answered the king, and said, Amen. The Lord God of my lord the king said so too. As the Lord hath been with my lord the king, even so be he with Solomon, and make his throne greater than the throne of my lord king David. So Zadok the priest, and Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and the Carathites and the Perathites went down, and caused Solomon to write upon king David's mule, and brought him to Gihon. And Zadok the priest took an horn of oil out of the tabernacle, and anointed Solomon. And they blew the trumpet, and all the people said, God save king Solomon. And all the people came up after him, and the people piped with pipes, and rejoiced with great joy, so that the earth rent with the sound of them. And Adonijah and all the guests that were with him heard it, as they had made an end of eating. And when Joab heard the sound of the trumpet, he said, wherefore is this noise of the city being in uproar? And while he had spake behold Jonathan the son of Abiathar the priest came, and Adonijah said unto him, Come in, for thou are a valiant man, and bring us good tidings. And Jonathan answered, and said to Adonijah, Verily our lord king David hath made Solomon king. And the king hath sent with him Zadok the priest, and Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and the Carathites, and the Pelethites, and they have caused him to write upon the king's mule. And Zadok the priest, and Nathan the prophet, have anointed him king in Gihon. And they are come up from thence rejoicing, so that the city rang again, this is the noise that ye have heard. And also Solomon sitteth on the throne of the kingdom. And moreover the king's servants came to bless our lord king David, saying, God make the name of Solomon better than thy name, and make his throne greater than thy throne. And the king bowed himself upon the bed. And also thus said the king, Blessed be the lord God of Israel, which hath given one to sit on my throne this day, mine eyes even seeing it. And all the guests that were with Adonijah were afraid, and rose up, and went every man his way. And Adonijah feared because of Solomon, and arose, and went, and caught hold on the horns of the altar. And it was told Solomon, saying, Behold Adonijah feareth king Solomon, for lo he hath caught hold on the horns of the altar, saying, Let king Solomon swear unto me today that he will not slay his servant with the sword. And Solomon said, If he will shew himself a worthy man, there shall not an heir of him fall to the earth, but if wickedness shall be found in him, he shall die. So king Solomon sent, and they brought him down from the altar, and he came and bowed himself to king Solomon, and Solomon said unto him, Go to thine house. Brother Jeff, would you pray for us? Right. Amen. Well, on to a new book of the Bible. We are in 1 Kings, and it's been a while since we've been in the Old Testament, so I figure it's time to go back and make sure that we haven't forgot what we studied when we went through Samuel, which I doubt that's happened. But it'll be good. It'll be a good time to go through these passages here. Now keep your place there in 1 Kings, but go to 2 Peter, chapter number 1. 2 Peter, chapter number 1. So again, there's a lot of verses that we just read. This chapter is absolutely packed, but it is straightforward. We will get through it. Now the way these studies are going to work is some days we'll be able to do a verse by verse study, but the goal ultimately is to get through the complete thought with understanding. Whether we have to cover maybe two chapters sometimes, or we have to just really stay in one a couple times. It just kind of depends on what's going on, okay? So just keep that in mind. Now for those of you that maybe have, it's been a while or you have not sat through an Old Testament study, I want to start off by reminding us of a very good rule when you're reading the Bible. How to study the Bible, okay? Never forget this. Write this down. Whatever you need to do because this is going to greatly help you in your Bible study, but not only that, it's going to help you to defeat skeptics, okay? So you might be thinking, what in the world is this guy talking about? Well, let me explain here, okay? Now first thing I want to point out, you're in 2 Peter, chapter number 1. We're going to read verse number 21. Look what the Bible says. It says, for the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. So please keep that in mind as you're reading through these chapters, as you're studying through the Old Testament. Now these rules that I'm about to tell you, it applies for all Bible reading, okay? Now leave your place there in 2 Peter and go to 1 Samuel, chapter number 30. First Samuel, chapter number 30, okay? So hopefully we're able to establish something right off the bat here that the Bible says that the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man. So understand that when you're reading through the Old Testament, whether it be the first five books, whether it be the prophets, whether it be the kings, you're not merely just reading a book that was authored by Dr. Seuss or by just some man, okay? The author who wrote the Bible was moved by the Holy Ghost, okay? It's very important to understand that when you're reading the Bible and when people are challenging you with the Bible, okay? Now, here's the first rule that I want you to understand and to remember, okay? When a character is speaking in the Bible, so for example, when you're reading something, then somebody is talking, they're saying something, okay? You need to understand, what they're saying may or may not be true, okay? It may or may not be true, but what is always true is that they said it, okay? In the person writing it, the person who penned this was moved by who? By the Holy Ghost, okay? So what I'm saying is that you need to make sure you understand the distinction when you're reading through the Bible. Is this a character talking or is this the narrator talking, okay? Because what the narrator says always trumps what a person says. Now we're gonna get into 1 Kings here in a moment, but what I wanna do is I wanna bring your attention to a common, what would you say, common supposed contradiction in the Bible, okay? So you're in 1 Samuel chapter 30, we're gonna read a few verses here, but let me just kinda tell you what's going on. So this is basically the end of Saul's life. Saul was the first king, if you will, of the nation of Israel. Went bad, did a lot of bad things, and he was told that basically, guess what, you're gonna go out and fight the Philistines and you and your sons are going to die. Samuel the prophet had told him that, said you're about to expire, you're done, okay? God's done with you, he's given you enough chances, blah, blah, blah. And so we're gonna pick up the story here at the end of 1 Samuel, and I want you to just pay attention. So look at, I'm sorry, look at chapter 31, not 30, go over to chapter 31. 1 Samuel chapter 31, look at verse number one, it says this, now the Philistines fought against Israel and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines and fell down slain in Mount Gilboa. Verse two, and the Philistines followed hard upon Saul and upon his sons, and the Philistines slew Jonathan and Abinadab and Melchizedek, Saul's sons. Now look at verse three. And the battle went sore against Saul, and his archers, or I'm sorry, and the archers hit him, and he was sore wounded of the archers. Okay, now look at verse four. Then said Saul unto his armor barrows, stop right there. Who's talking right here? Is it the narrator? Is it the person that's narrating the story, or is it actually Saul that's talking? It's the narrator, okay, that's very important, you'll see why here in a moment. Then said Saul unto his armor bearer, draw thy sword and thrust me through therewith, lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through and abuse me. But his armor bearer would not, for he was sore afraid, therefore Saul took a sword and fell upon it. Verse five, and when his armor bearer saw that Saul was dead, he fell likewise upon his sword and died with him. Verse six, so Saul died, and his three sons, and his armor bearer, and all his men that same day together. So right there you have six verses that we just read, where the narrator is telling us the story of what actually happened, okay? That Saul didn't want to be abused by the Philistines, can't blame him, tells his armor bearer, hey, thrust me through, won't do it, so he commits suicide. Now go to the next book of 2 Samuel and look at chapter number one, verse number one, because this is the easiest for a lot of these skeptics to grab, right? They'll come over here and they'll read this passage to you, and then they'll come right over to 2 Samuel and say, see, there's a different story over here in 2 Samuel chapter one, so which is it? The Bible's full of contradictions, I could go to 101 contradictions in the Bible all day long and just beat you, and you guys can't win, that's what these atheists will say, they'll say things like that to you. But when you understand the rules of Bible study, when you understand who's speaking, it's no problem to put these people in their place. Now look at verse number one, 2 Samuel chapter one, look at verse number one, it says, now it came to pass after the death of Saul. Who's talking? It's the narrators, whoever wrote this, okay? Whoever was moved by the Holy Ghost, 2 Peter chapter one, verse 21, very important to understand that. It came to pass after the death of Saul when David was returned from the slaughter of the Amalekites and David had about two days in Ziklag. Verse two, it came even to pass on the third day that behold, a man came out of the camp from Saul with his clothes rent and earth upon his head, and so it was when he came to David that he fell to the earth and did obeisance. And David said unto him, from whence comest thou? And he said unto him, out of the camp of Israel am I escaped, okay? So up until this point, it's very clear the narrator is stating in fact that this man comes out of the camp of Israel, finds David, and look at verse number four, and David said unto him, okay, narrator's talking here, and David said unto him, how went the matter? I pray thee, tell me, okay? Now don't miss these next three words. And he answered, okay? Who answered? Yeah, the Amalekite answered, okay? So what you are about to read now is what the Amalekite is saying. You're reading his story, okay? The narrator is simply just writing down what he said. Everybody follow? Verse four, David said unto him, how went the matter? I pray thee, tell me, and he answered, that the people are fled from the battle, and many of the people also are fallen dead, and Saul and Jonathan, his son, are dead also. Verse five, David said unto the young man that told him, how knowest thou that Saul and Jonathan, his son, be dead? And the young man that told him said, as I happened by chance upon Mount Gilboa. That's always a red flag, by the way, you know? Anytime it's just too good to be true, it's too picture-perfect, well, I just by chance happened to be here, right? It's not like I hacked your computer and figured out your patterns and things like that. Now, it just happened by chance upon Mount Gilboa. It says, behold, Saul leaned upon his spear, and lo, the chariots and horsemen followed hard after him. Verse seven, and when he looked behind him, he saw me, and called unto me, and I answered, here am I. Okay, so again, quick reminder, who's talking here? Okay, the narrator's saying that the Amalekite is saying this. This is the Amalekite's answer, okay? This is what the Amalekite's saying. Verse eight, and he said unto me, who art thou? And I answered, I am an Amalekite. Verse nine, and he said unto me again, stand, I pray thee, upon me, and slay me, for anguish has come upon me, because my life is yet whole in me. So I stood upon him and slew him, because I was sure that he could not live after that he was fallen, and I took the crown that was upon his head, and the bracelet that was on his arm, and have brought them hither unto my Lord. Okay, we're gonna stop right there, go back to 1 Kings, and we'll talk about that here as you're going back to 1 Kings chapter one. So again, people will say, well, in 2 Samuel chapter one, they'll say this, the Bible says that the Amalekite slew Saul, and he even showed up with proof. Okay, and then they'll say, but the contradiction is in 1 Samuel chapter 31, the Bible says that Saul fell on the sword, and they'll say, which is it? Okay, as a student of the Bible, how read is thou? How do you read the Bible? How do you decipher that? How do you figure out what's going on? We figure out what's going on by remembering these two rules. When a character is speaking in the Bible, it's true that they said those things, but it doesn't mean what they're saying is true, okay, and not to, we don't have time to get into it and break it down. We've done that in the past. The Amalekite's lying, and that's crystal clear, okay, and you see this with people all the time, where they get just enough truth to where they can come to you to try to convince you of something, right, like, oh, I found this bike in the woods, you know, never mind that the serial number scratched off, but look, I saved the day, and he doesn't tell you the fact that the cop's almost got him, he narrowly escaped, okay, this type of stuff happens all the time, but again, going back to this rule, what the narrator says trumps the story. It trumps what a person says every single time, and you say why, because, again, holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, so when you're reading a passage and it's the narrator saying, hey, this is how it went down, Saul fell on a sword, end of story, that's what happened, so when you get to the next book and you read, oh, well, the Amalekite comes along and he starts saying all this stuff here, and you can kind of tell by the language and, you know, the implied verses there that David doesn't fully even believe him, right, but you got to understand that when a character says something and it contradicts what the narrator says, you go with what the narrator says, okay, because that is the Holy Ghost. Now, the whole thing's the Holy Ghost, but the Holy Ghost, the Bible often records what people say, right, I mean, how often did, you know, the Bible say that Jesus knew their thoughts, you know, and Jesus is basically talking about their thoughts, well, is the Bible saying that their thoughts, that the Pharisee's thoughts are truth? No, it's just telling us simply that this is what they thought, they didn't believe him, they didn't understand what he said, so on and so forth, so again, if you can just remember that the narrator trumps the stories, okay, every single time, so when someone's in the Bible and they're like, like Doeg the Edomite, right, he's running his mouth, okay, is he speaking truth, does he love God, is he really on Saul's side? Absolutely not, the guy's a suck-up, okay, the guy was a total suck-up, right, how do you know that? Because you understand what the narrator says about that story when you're reading through these passages, okay, so hopefully that makes sense, keep that in mind as we read these things and as we go forward, because that'll get you out of a lot of trouble when you understand that, okay? So, the title of the sermon this evening is Adonijah's Dreamland, Adonijah's Dreamland, you know, we just read this entire chapter and it always blows me away how this guy thinks he's gonna be able to steal the kingdom away, it's like you grew up around your father, you grew up in this nation, you saw the condition that it was in, you know, when Absalom was trying to kill his father, you probably, well, he didn't see that because he wasn't born yet, but, you know, he definitely heard the stories, he's heard of the mighty men, he knows who they are, he knows about the priests, he knows about Zadok, he knows about all the magnificent things that have gone on in Israel, but yet he still somehow thinks that he can pretend to be king, that he's gonna be the one in charge of this nation and there'll be some application at the very end of this and why that's dangerous, why is it dangerous to live in a fantasy land, you know, I mean, go talk to a Hollywood star, you know, they're living in fantasy land, the Bible talks about that, okay, these people who have everything and surround themselves with people that tell them everything that they wanna hear, they always fail at life, they always fall, why do you think the suicide rates are so high in these people, why do you think these musicians are always taking their lives, because guess what, that alarm clock goes off every once in a while and these people have to wake up, they have to wake up to reality, that they're not superstars, okay, that they are not above anyone else, just because they have money and they have fame, all of that stuff will come crashing down and God is constantly waking man up throughout his life and that's exactly what you're gonna see as we go through this. Now look at verse number one, it starts off with describing the situation that David's in, he's at the end of his life, it says, now King David was old and stricken in years and they covered him with clothes but he got no heat, okay, now if you would, keep your place there, go to Ecclesiastes chapter number four, Ecclesiastes chapter number four. So the first four verses here, we learn the condition that David's in, he's definitely up there in age, 70 something years old, I'm not exactly sure, but he's definitely over the age of 70 if you study it out, and the Bible says he's got this issue where he can't stay warm, he needs help staying warm, and so you gotta kinda answer this question, what were conditions like back then, did they have AC, did they have heat pumps and mini split heaters and things like that, no, of course not, they didn't have that, they had to have other means to stay warm, especially in a situation like this, right, there wasn't like a heating blanket, you didn't have a 120 volt outlet right next to your bed that you could just plug in a blanket and throw on extra heat, so they had other ways to take care of situations like that, and so what his people do is they say hey, let's find the finest girl we can, and she'll be a virgin, and she's gonna basically take care of the king, you know, just a good woman with a great reputation, not known man, you know, and again, people will come back to this passage here and say, well she actually became a concubine, she actually became a concubine of David, or a wife of David, and that's what led to all the drama that we're gonna read in chapter two. The Bible doesn't say that, okay, she was a caregiver, okay, she's a caregiver, that's it, and of course, you know, David being king, and David, you know, not only being a man after God's own heart, but David had his way with women too, you know, his guys are like hey, well he's on his way out, let's just make sure that the, you know, his final days are spent with a very fair woman, and so on and so forth, but I always like to bring this verse up anytime I read this, because this'll also solve another equation that I'll bring up here in a second, but Ecclesiastes chapter four, look at verse 11, it says this. So this is Solomon, many, many years later saying this, again, if two lie together, then they have heat, but how can one be warm alone, okay? I like to have that brought up from time to time, hopefully you guys remember that, write that down, because here's why. People, and especially today, and we're getting this emailed quite often, they'll say well, you know, you're saying that the Sodomites can't be saved, well, it says in the New Testament that two men will be in one bed and one be taken, so what do you think about that, okay? You need to go to this verse right here, because not everywhere on this planet do they have the means and the resources to keep a person warm in a fancy electrical bed like we would do today, right? For example, when I was in the military, okay, and we would be out in the woods and stuff, you know, stationed up in Alaska, one of the things that we would have to do is share a sleeping bag with somebody, and I was in a platoon with all guys, you say well that's queer, no, that's just called 30 below, 40 below, 50 below, I've been in 80 degree below zero weather, okay, you'll throw all that stuff out the window just to stay warm if you're out in the woods, I'm telling you right now, look, where do you think the army got that, where do you think the military came up with that? That's been passed down for centuries, okay? Two people lie together, then they have heat, okay? And so obviously, go back to 1 Kings chapter one, but obviously they understood that, and they said okay well David's obviously got this condition, maybe his body's not able to retain, you know, the body fat that he would need to stay warm, his circulation's probably slowing down and things of that nature, and so they need to supplement his heat because he's not able to get around as well. He's not out there doing things like he once was, and that's obvious by the fact that his son's running around saying I'm gonna be king, I'm gonna be the next in line, even though the prophecy had been made very clear that it was to be Solomon, okay? So, let's see, verse two, wherefore his servant said unto him, let there be sought for my lord the king, a young virgin, and let her stand before the king and let her cherish him and let her lie in thy bosom that my lord the king may get heat, okay? That's the solution to his issue. Now imagine you live back in this day, you have this condition, but you don't have any money, you don't have any resources, you don't have family maybe, you know? There are obviously people like that, what do you think happened to them? They probably died, you know, they didn't have, again, the technology and the things that we have today, so I bring that up because people a lot of times can't separate that, you know, they want to inject 2022 into 1 Kings chapter one and just come up with these wild elaborate stories and why the Bible's not true, okay? You have to know this as a student of the Bible. And so, again, solution verse three, they seek for a fair damsel and they find her in a place called Shunam, which is located near the tribe of Issachar, we don't have time to get into that, read Joshua 19 for that information. Look at verse number four, it says, and the damsel was very fair and cherished the king administered to him, and the Bible is very clear to tell you this, but the king knew her not. Now, does that mean the king doesn't know her name? Why are you in my room? Does he have dementia? No, he doesn't have anything like that, okay? He's talking about a physical relationship, there's nothing like that going on here. So when your Bible scholar gets up and says, well, Abishag actually wound up becoming the concubine of David and actually did get married according to historical documents that were dug up underground, written in ancient alien, you know, guess what, that's why Solomon gets mad and kills his brother in chapter two. It's false doctrine. Knew her not. What's the application here? Hey, David's body wasn't operating like it should, they found a caregiver. End of story. Now let's move on. Look at verse number five, okay? It says this, verse number five, then Adonijah, the son of Hagath, exalted himself. And so the question that we need to answer right off the bat is why does David's son feel safe doing this? Why does he feel that this behavior is okay? Verse five, then Adonijah, the son of Hagath, very important for later on, not the son of Bathsheba, the son of Hagath, exalted himself saying, I will be the king or I will be king. And he prepared him chariots and horsemen and 50 men to run before him. Verse six, and his father, and don't miss this, and his father had not displeased him at any time in saying, why hast thou done so? Now who's writing that? Who said that? Who's speaking here? This is the narrator, okay? Because if you were to go back there, David probably wouldn't tell you that. Do you think David's gonna volunteer that information? Like yeah, the reason why my son's acting up is because I didn't discipline him. I wouldn't volunteer that information. I'd be like, he's a cluck. I don't know what his problem is. The guy's just being a goofball. Look at the rest of the verse. And he also was a very goodly man, and his mother bare him after Absalom, okay? Now keep your place there, obviously, but go to Proverbs chapter number 19, Proverbs chapter 19. So the Holy Ghost here, the narrator is letting us know that he was a very goodly man, okay? Now you can tell by studying the life of David and obviously by his wives and his children especially when you look at Absalom, the Bible says he had no blemish. Obviously the application, not the application, but what's being implied here is that David was probably a good looking guy. You know, and his kids were obviously good looking people. And the narrator tells us here that he was a very goodly man. So a very well rounded man, probably had, you know, good height, maybe some good muscle on him. And was probably used to being treated, you know, pretty well. Not only was he the king's son, but he probably looked good and figured, you know, who's gonna stop me? Right? Because my dad's not stopping me. He's not saying anything. So maybe, hey, this is all you gotta do to take the kingdom. You just gotta get out there and get what's due to you. You gotta go get yours, man. Right? Isn't that what all the YouTube videos are telling you? All these self help. You gotta go get yours, man. You gotta go get what's yours. Well, there's a problem with that and especially if you're living in a dreamland, okay? Because guess what? Not everything's always meant for everyone. We say this all the time. Not everybody was born to be a professional athlete. Not everybody was born for leadership. Not everybody was born to do everything. Not everyone was born to be super mega ripped. Right? I mean, how many people have gotten rich, I know this is getting a little off topic, but just go to Proverbs 19, you know, but this just fascinates me. How many people have gotten rich off of selling these programs to get you ripped? You know, there's a lot of people that just genetically don't have enough muscle to look like the guys in the magazines. But that doesn't make any money. But what it does is it creates a dream and people love to buy a dream because it's better temporarily than reality. That is the state that Adonijah is in. But anyways, going back to this question, why does he feel safe doing this? What's going on here? How do we avoid this type of behavior? Proverbs 19, verse 18 says, Now again, we spent a great deal of time talking about chasing. This is what the Lord does to us, right? Hebrews chapter 12. The Lord chastens every son whom he receiveth. He loves us and when we get out of line, he is going to do some level of chasing, okay? Whether he takes something from you, whether he gives you a shot across the bow to get your attention, something is going to be done to correct behavior and the Bible tells us here, Now who here thinks there's hope for Adonijah? Right? If you've read chapter two, you just know there's no hope. It's too late, okay? It is too late for him. Go to Proverbs chapter number 22. Proverbs chapter number 22. And again, as we go through the Old Testament, also remember what Paul said about the Old Testament. The things that were written aforetime were written for what? For our learning, for our comfort, for patience and for hope. That is why we are going through the Old Testament because there's a growing movement out there to knock the Old Testament to say, you know what? It's not really applicable today. We shouldn't even really be talking about it, okay? That's a real thing that's going on today and we need to counteract that and plus, you know, you come here and you start going through these things, man, you're going to really learn the Bible. I mean, just after you leave here today, you're going to know more Bible than probably 90% of these evangelicals out here. I'm dead serious. Most of these people have no idea who Adonijah was. They have no idea what these things even mean. They don't understand how to decipher the narrator versus the person talking. You present them with that issue in 1 and 2 Samuel and they're like, well, in the original language. This is what they do in the original languages. You got to go back to the Hebrew to really understand it and they think that's somehow going to win the argument. No. That's foolishness. That makes us look stupid and I don't like that. Anyways, what am I talking about here? Verse 22, look at verse 15, okay? So here's why. That's right. Here's why we need to chasten our children while there is hope. The Bible also says while they are young. Look at verse 15. Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child. It doesn't say that foolishness is bound in the heart of some children. No, it says foolishness is bound in the heart of a child. But the rod of correction shall drive it far from him. Go back to 1 Kings, okay? This is the solution, right? So don't beat yourself up. You know, a lot of parents will beat themselves, I don't know, kids doing this and it's like they're young. Foolishness is bound in the heart. It's supposed to be like that, right? And God gave you the solution. You correct them. You take that behavior and you say, hey, that's not okay and you correct it so that they understand why what they're doing is wrong and they don't grow up to be Adonijah, they don't grow up to be a person who is spoiled, to be a person that thinks, you know what, I'm just going to live the rest of my life in a dreamland. I mean, that's what all these victims out here are doing. They're living in a dreamland to think that the world owes them just because they are who they are. Right? You go to a lot of these poor communities, especially a lot of Section 8 housing and you know what you're going to find? You're going to find a lot of people think, he owes me. Now I haven't seen that too much here in the Treasure Valley because people here that are in the poor house, they're poor, okay? And a lot of times they just receive the gospel. But you go up to Washington and there's all these like, and they're always around Winko's too. There's always like these very nice, and I'm not knocking Winko, they got cheap stuff, whatever. Go to Winko, I don't care. Okay? But they got these very nice homes and you go outside there and there's nice cars and it's Section 8 state subsidized housing and we would always go knock these things because there's a ton of doors and because our tax dollars subsidize these places, they can't kick us out. Okay? So we go in there, I have never, out of 300 doors I've counted, I've measured this. 300 doors, I personally have never gotten anyone saved. Because the prevailing attitude is this, well Uncle Sam gives me whatever I want and I don't have to work. That guy up there, he better do the same thing. That's their attitude. Living in a dreamland. Okay? Look, there's an agenda today to put every American in that position. Okay? They want to tank the economy so bad and then they want to come out and say, well we'll just give you another stimulus check, we'll just give you some more money. What that does is that spiritually attacks people. It makes people think, oh, well, you know, heck, I'm just going to keep getting this bailout. I'm just going to keep getting rescued. And then you come to them with a gospel and you tell them, you know what, you are a sinner and you need to be saved, once you're saved, you're saved forever, but it's not because of anything you've done. They're like, he owes me. I'm a victim. I'm a victim here. He owes me. He's not going to let me go to hell because I'm me. And guess what, sooner or later that heart, boom, stops. You open your eyes in hell. Guess what? It's time for reality. My dream is now over. Look at verse number seven. It says this about Adonijah and it says, and he conferred with Joab, the son of Zeruiah and with Abiathar, the priest, and they following Adonijah helped him. Now what does it mean conferred? Okay. That means to discuss. So basically you've got two guys here. You've got Joab, who is David's, who is David's nephew. You've got Abiathar, the priest. Now who's Abiathar, the priest? If you haven't gone through Samuel, let me just tell you who Abiathar is. There was a situation in the Bible where Saul was trying to kill David. Okay. And there was an Edomite, a guy from the land of Edom. His name was Doeg. Okay. And Saul's moping around feeling sorry for himself. He's like, doesn't anybody feel sorry for me? As a father, I say this about once a week. I'm like, don't none of you girls feel sorry for me in the house? And they're like, nope. Okay. Well, Saul finds himself in that position. And this guy raises his hand. His name's Doeg. And he says, I feel sorry for you. Right. And he starts to, to tattle and he says, you know what, I actually saw David come through here actually. And he came through and he got, he got some bread and the priests helped him. And Saul's like, oh, well, I got one guy on my side. So what does he do? Tells Doeg, hey, kill all the priests. So Doeg's like, no problem boss, goes and kills all these priests. In the midst of all that, this man named Abiathar, he escapes. He goes and finds David. He joins himself with David and with his mighty men before they really became mighty while they were still in the infancy and attached himself from that point on. And now here at the end of David's life, you have Abiathar and you have Joab. And we don't even have time to get into all that. Okay. I mean, Joab, look him up on your own time. Okay. Was definitely a mighty man. Definitely gifted in the art of warfare for sure. But now at the end of David's life, you have these two guys who were at one time loyal to David. Now they're like, you know what, we ain't having it. We're going to side with Adonijah. Why is that? Why do you think, I mean, what in the world? Why would they do that? Well, I think Abiathar, and I preached about this a year and a half ago, I think Abiathar was probably bitter. You know, I think Abiathar was bitter, Joab definitely bitter with that whole thing with Absalom, you know, and David not listening to him. But really what they're saying, whether they realize it or not, is they don't want God's word to be fulfilled. Joab and Abiathar, Joab always with David, David a man after God's own heart. When David was making preparations for the temple, and we'll read it here in a second, had spoke about his son Solomon. Abiathar, a priest, a priest for crying out loud, with the word of God, being around prophets, being in the midst of the things of God, understood that it was supposed to be Solomon. So by them saying, you know what, we're going to go inside with Adonijah, you know what they're saying? We don't want the word of God to be fulfilled. Now if you were to go back in this time and ask them, is that what you're saying? They say, oh, we're not saying that at all. We believe God chose Adonijah. But their actions contradict what they're actually saying. Look at verse 8. It says this. It says, but Zadok the priest, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and Nathan the prophet, and Shimei, and Re, and the mighty men which belonged to David were not with Adonijah. You're going to see that phrase, were not with Adonijah, or he did not call them, come up a few more times in this chapter. Why is that? Because God is trying to give us some discernment. He's trying to let us know that birds of a feather flock together. If you get any group of people around, and you get them on a common goal, and you insert some bad people, those bad people will go around, and they will try to find people that are just as bad as they are, so that what? So that they can overthrow with numbers. That's the idea. That's what people will do. They will come into a church like this, and it will start to cause issues, and we've had that in the past, and I don't believe we have that right now at all, you know, which explains some of the empty chairs, but we're doing great, no issues there, but that's what these people will do. They will come into an organization, maybe you've seen this at work, you've seen this in your job. There are toxic people out there, okay? Adonijah is a toxic person. Why? Because he's living in a dream world. He's living in fantasy land. And you know what? He's also adopted the slogan, when the cat's away, the mice will play, isn't he? I mean, because David's not actively out there calling the shots, he was a very strong leader, you know, an exceptional leader who loved the Lord, and now he's got some health issues, he's not able to be out there, and Adonijah sees that, he can sniff that out, he can smell that, and he's like, ooh, I gotta make my move now, right? And I personally believe that his goal was to actually kill all of these people, you'll see why here in a moment. But look at verse number nine, it says, and Adonijah slew sheep and oxen and fat cattle by the stone of Zohalath, which is by Enrojel, and called all his brethren, the king's sons, and all the men of Judah, the king's servants, right? So it's interesting how all these people go, and they're like, oh, okay, I guess, well, I guess, you know, Adonijah's gonna be the king, but look at verse 10. But Nathan the prophet and Benaiah and the mighty men, and Solomon his brother, don't miss that, what does it say? He called not. Now here's where we need to kind of back up for a second, okay? Now, I've seen this in larger churches where somebody will have a baby shower, and there's like two or three hundred people in the church, and they can't invite everybody. They only invite people that are close to them, or they're select friends. And then you always have that person that thought they were closer than they were on the outside, like, oh, she didn't invite me? Well, now it's time to scrub, right? We don't want to be like that, okay? We don't want to have that issue here, because, you know, we're a smaller church, whatever, but just keep that in mind. But here's the thing, okay, when someone comes in here, and we had this at the beginning of this church, and they start going around, hey, let me get a signature from you, let me get your email, right? Let me get your phone number, and start calling around. You know, you really agree with what the pastor said the other day? Look, if you don't agree with something I said, let's talk about it. It's as simple as that. You don't got to go around and be like, you know, yea hath God said? You know, do you really believe salvation's by total grace through a hundred percent faith? I mean, not even a little bit of words? That's what these people do, right? That's what they do. They are toxic. They go around, and they spread their net trying to get people that are like them to stay with them. Safe people do this, too. Safe people that get better. What they'll do is the people that they feel that they have a grasp on, when they get better, and they can no longer remain in church, you know what they'll do? They'll make up lies, and they'll go call their mommy, and they'll go call their daddy, and they'll go call everybody else that was serving God, and say, you know, I think things are changing. I don't think it's like it once was, you know, and they'll start whispering, they'll start full whispering, and in that moment you get to see whether or not those people are going to actually stand up firm for the truth, stand on the side of God, or were they really just there to please a man? Gee, I wonder how I picked that one up. Look at verse 11. It says, Wherefore, Nathan spake unto Bathsheba the mother of Solomon, saying, Hast thou not heard that Adonijah the son of Hagath doth reign, and David our Lord knoweth it not? So again, remember, why doesn't he know? Well, because he has this illness, okay? He's being ministered to. He has a caretaker, and so obviously by Adonijah's actions, by him saying, hey, we're going to offer up these sheep and basically make this festival, you know, set up this carnival, really this is just a little carnival, Nathan's like, this is getting out of hand. We need to do something about this here, okay? So they come up with a plan. Look at verse 12. Now therefore, come let me, I pray thee, give thee counsel that thou mayest save thine own life and the life of thy son Solomon. So this is what Nathan the prophet, who's on the side of David, who's on the side of the Lord, says, okay? He obviously has some insight to the situation, and the Bible is very careful here to give us this information. And so I believe that Nathan knew, hey, if Adonijah for some reason winds up taking the kingdom, we're done. He's going to kill us. I mean, you see that happen all the time in politics, right? You see that happen later on in the books of the kings, where someone will get into power and they'll try to kill everyone else who could have an opportunity to take the throne. You know, this is just human nature, this is what people do. So look at verse 13. It says this, it says, go and get thee unto King David and say unto him, didst not thou, my lord, O king, swear unto thy handmaid, saying, assuredly, Solomon thy son shall reign after me and he shall sit upon my throne? Why then doth Adonijah reign? So Nathan has to come up with this plan here, and his plan is to send Bathsheba into David first, and then he's going to back her up, okay? Now why do you think he feels the need to back her up? Well first of all, don't forget that he has not displeased his son, Adonijah, at any time. So at no time has he been like, can you call Adonijah here? And just, dude, it's not you, you're my son, care for ya, but you're not gonna be the king. David doesn't do that. He's at the end of his rope, he's done for. And also, don't forget about this, Bathsheba is not the mother of Adonijah, okay? So there could be a little resentment there. David could say, you just don't know him like I do, okay? It's an issue that blended families have to deal with, it's a real thing, and so Nathan understands that, so he comes up with this very wise plan, look at verse 14, behold, while thou yet talkest there with the king, I also will come in after thee and confirm thy words. And Bathsheba went in unto the king, into the chamber, and the king was very old, and Abishag the Shunammite ministered unto the king, okay? So nothing has changed yet. It doesn't say that Abishag married the king while she was ministering to him, doesn't say that. Verse 16, and Bathsheba bowed and did obeisance unto the king, and the king said, what would est thou? And she said unto him, my lord, thou swearest by the Lord thy God unto thine handmaid, saying, assuredly, Solomon thy son shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne. Verse 18, and now behold, Adonijah reigneth, and now, my lord the king, thou knowest it not, and he hath slain oxen and fat cattle and sheep in abundance, and hath called all the sons of the king, and Abiathar the priest, and Joab the captain and the host, but Solomon thy servant hath he not called. Okay, so she makes sure and puts that information in there, okay? Because when David's about to find out that, guess what, Abiathar is there, Joab is there, he's gonna realize, wait a second, it makes sense that Joab would be better, wait a second, it makes sense that maybe Abiathar would be bitter. I don't think that, and I talked about this before, but during the reign of David, you have Abiathar the priest, and then you have this other guy named Zadok, okay? Zadok was a priest from the northern kingdom. After David unified the kingdom, after he became king over all 12 tribes, you know, he didn't have respect of persons, he's like, Zadok, you're a great man of God, come down here and you're gonna be serving God, you know? And I don't think Abiathar liked that, and I also think that Abiathar probably had some bitterness over that whole Doak thing. He probably feels that David is to blame for all of his buddies getting killed, okay? And so now maybe at the end of his life, he's like, you know what, David's down and out, let's kick a dog while he's down, he's got that mentality. Verse 18, it says, I'm sorry, jump down to verse number 20. It says, and thou, my lord, O king, the eyes of all Israel are upon thee that thou shouldest tell them who shall sit on the throne of my lord, the king after him. So she makes this statement here, everybody's watching to see what you're gonna do, okay? Later on this year, I'm not sure exactly if it's gonna be October, November, but soon we're gonna do a leadership series on Sunday mornings, and I'm gonna re-bring this up, and we'll talk about it in more detail, but the principle here, I'm just gonna put it out there, silence is considered agreement. For example, let's say I'm, let's say a couple of you guys are sitting back there, and somebody is like, you know Pastor John, he just sucks, this and that, and you're just like, right? And I get the video tape, not that we have video, but let's just say I find out about it. You know what I'm gonna be like? It sounds like you agree with him. And then I'm gonna come after you. You know what I mean? I mean, that's just kinda what's going on here, you know? Because he didn't speak up, it almost looks and appears like he's endorsing Adonai's actions, okay? Now, just for reference, go to 1 Chronicles, go forward in your Bible, 1 Chronicles chapter 22. 1 Chronicles chapter number 22, I just wanna show you the place in the Bible where David talks about Solomon, his son, becoming the king, because I think it's important for us to know these things. Just a few verses here, 1 Chronicles chapter number 22, look at verse 1, it says this, then David said, this is the house of the Lord God, and this is the altar of the burnt offering for Israel. Verse 2, and David commanded to gather together the strangers that were in the land of Israel, and he set masons to hew rot stones to build the house of God. And David prepared iron in abundance for the nails, for the doors of the gates, and for the joinings and brass in abundance without weight. Also cedar trees in abundance for the Zidonians, and they of Tyree brought much cedar wood to David. Look at verse 5, and David said, okay, and David said, Solomon my son is young and tender, and the house that is to be builded for the Lord must be exceeding magnificul. Of fame and of glory throughout all countries, I will therefore now make preparation for it, so David prepared abundantly before his death. Look at verse 6, then he called for Solomon his son, and charged him to build a house for the Lord God of Israel, and David said to Solomon my son, as for me it was in my mind to build a house, or to build a house into the name of the Lord my God, but the word of the Lord came unto me saying, thou hast shed blood abundantly, and hast made great wars, thou shalt not build a house unto my name, because thou hast shed much blood upon the earth in my sight. Okay, so go back to 1 Kings, and we'll start to wrap this up here. But I just wanted you to have that for reference, okay? It was not a secret, it was not something new, it wasn't something supposed, it was talked about, it was prophesied that Solomon would take the kingdom. So what, I mean, what are we supposed to learn here? Well, as soon as Adonai just started running his mouth and saying, I'm going to take the king, I think more people should have stood up, right? More people should have stood up and said, hey, we need to actually do something about this, instead of waiting until he starts setting up ceremonies and actually ordaining himself, right? And that often happens in organizations. A lot of times there will be a problem. People will be, you know, battling it out, and I won't even know, you know? But yet you're sitting in the pew thinking that I know everything, and I don't, you know? I don't know some of the skirmishes, you know, these kids have some serious beef sometimes over here. And I find out about it like two, three weeks later, I'm like, oh, I didn't know, wow. But anyways, let's move on here, we gotta get moving, look at verse 21. So it says this, back to Bathsheba, otherwise it shall come to pass, when my lord the king shall sleep with his fathers, that I and my son Solomon shall be counted offenders, lo, while she at talk with the king, Nathan the prophet also came in. So here's the critical part in this plan where Nathan the prophet comes in, and obviously David has a lot of respect for him because he's a prophet of God. Verse 23, and they told the king, saying, behold, Nathan the prophet. And when he was coming before the king, he bowed himself before the king with his face to the ground. And Nathan said, my lord, O king, hast thou said, Adonijah shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne? For he has gone down this day and hath slain oxen, fat cattle, and sheep in abundance, and hath called all the king's sons and captains of the host, and Abiathar the priest. And behold, they eat and drink before him, and say, God save king Adonijah. But me, even me, thy servant, and Zadok the priest, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and thy servant Solomon, hath he not called? So there it is, there's that phrase again, hath he not called, that signals to David's heart, hey, this is how severe this problem is. Doesn't this make sense? That these people would become bitter, that they are not for you any longer. Verse 27, is this thing done by my lord the king, and thou hast not showed it unto thy servant who should sit on the throne of my lord the king after him? So notice the tact that he has here, right? The king is just not with it, but he's still the king. There's a problem, right? Nathan wisely and tactfully comes up with a plan to get the truth into David's heart, just like we talked about this morning. He doesn't just barge in and say, you don't know what the heck's going on around here, David. You know, what's the matter? You brain dead? You got dementia? You got Alzheimer's? You know what the heck's wrong with you, right? He doesn't do that, right? He communicates to his heart. How does he get to David's heartstrings? By mentioning the people that have turned their backs on him, okay? It would make sense that those three would definitely do that to David, okay? So he understands that. Look at verse 28. And King David answered and said, call me Bathsheba. So you know, here's another one. Oh, well Bathsheba was just in there. Now David calls her, so contradiction. Obviously she stepped out, okay? It wasn't really popular for, it's so stupid, these people, man, but I have to look these things up when I preach this, you know, and it cracks me up. It wasn't real popular back then to have mixed company conversations, okay? That's just how it was. In fact, it's like that in a lot of countries. It's like that in a lot of countries today, you know? She left. She said what she had to say. Nathan comes in. She's like, oh, okay. And she backs out. Okay? And then he calls for her again. Look at verse 29. The king sware and said, as the Lord liveth, that hath redeemed my soul out of all distress. Man, that is so powerful. Think about that. David at the end of his life had not forgotten all the ways that God rescued him. We ought to be the same. Don't neglect the praise list, right? That praise list is this verse here. That praise list is power. When God does something great for you, let people know. Verse 30, even as I swear unto thee by the Lord God of Israel, saying, surely Solomon thy son shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne in my stead, even so will I certainly do this day. So David gets it. Now he understands. Now he gets it. And he's like, it's time to ordain Solomon. Verse 31, then Bathsheba bowed her face to the earth and did reverence to the king and said, let my Lord King David live forever. And that winds up being a true statement. David is alive this very moment. You say, well, how is that possible? His sepulcher is with us unto this day. Well, guess what? When you're saved, you never die. You just change locations. So there's that. Verse 32, and King David said, call me Zadok the priest, and Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada. And they came before the king, getting excited because next week we get to talk about my favorite assassin in the Bible, Benaiah the son of Jehoiada. I almost want to start preaching it now, but I can't. Verse 33, the king also said unto them, take with you the servants of your Lord, and cause Solomon my son to ride upon mine own mule and bring him down to Gihon. So you see what's going on here. David is going to do the actual ordination here, and it's going to be much better than what Adonai is just putting on for himself. It's kind of like the guy that says, you know what, I'm a black belt, I could just buy this black belt online. I am a BJJ black belt now, you know. I've met guys like that. You know, when I was in Japan, we had this guy show up to a seminar and he had a black belt on, and I had to roll him. And I rolled him up like a taco, and I was like, dude, you don't have to take it easy on me, man. He was like, oh, you know, I kind of hurt my shoulder the other day. Someone else rolls him up. And I'm like, what in the world is going on? I'm coming to find out this guy actually was a total fraud. He had a website and everything. He was selling courses. He was just there for the pictures. Think about it. I'm in Japan. Look at me and all this stuff. Again, another person living in a dreamland. What am I talking about? Anyways, look at verse 34. Let's say it like the priest and Nathan the prophet anoint him their king over Israel and blow you with the trumpet and say, God save King Solomon, verse 35, then you shall come up after him that he may come and sit upon my throne for he shall be king in my stead and I have appointed him to be ruler over Israel and over Judah. Notice how it includes both there because he will be the last, pretty much the last king. You give a little bit to Rehoboam because he kind of like maybe for a little tiny bit gets all of them, but not really. Look at verse 36. It says, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada answered the king and said, Amen. Now this will be important here. This gives us insight on Benaiah the son of Jehoiada. We'll have to kind of maybe revisit this in next week's study, but this is really the only place we get to see the, I guess the personality of Benaiah. You know, we read about him killing a lion, right? He kills a lion in the time of snow in a pit. I mean, this guy was just an absolute warrior here and look at his attitude here, okay? And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada answered the king and said, Amen. The Lord God of my Lord, the king say so too. Verse 37, as the Lord has been with my Lord, the king, even so be he with Solomon and don't miss this and make his throne greater than the throne of my Lord, the king, or King David. Now he's not saying I hope he does way better than you did because you're trash. No, he wants Solomon's throne to be greater, meaning larger, reach more people, have more influence, do greater things for God. That's what he means. That's his heart. That's his attitude. And that, guess what? That's why Adonijah wouldn't call this man, because he knew his loyalty. Look, your reputation precedes you. Look, Adonijah knew, I can't call Zadok, I can't call Benaiah, you know, I can't call a lot of these mighty men because they're too loyal to David. They had already spent a lifetime proving that, right? That should be said of us to the kingdom of God. Look at verse 38. So Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet, Benaiah the son of Jehoiada and the Cherithites and the Pelethites, went down and caused Solomon to ride upon King David's mule and brought him to Gihon. Verse 39, and Zadok the priest took a horn of oil out of the tabernacle and anointed Solomon and they blew the trumpet and all the people said, God save King Solomon. So again, tabernacle, this is before the temple, we'll get towards the temple here in a few chapters but look at verse 40, and all the people came up after him and the people piped with pipes and rejoiced with great joy so that the earth rent with the sound of them. So this is making it official, right? The people are excited. They're like, okay, the king has spoken. It is now clear. We have a clear leader with a clear vision. Everything is going to be great and guess what? That's also the alarm clock. Adonijah is about to wake up out of his dreamy little sleep that he's been in. Look at verse 41. So meanwhile, dream boy, in verse 41, it says this, and Adonijah and all the guests that were with him heard it as they had made an end of eating. And when Joab heard the sound of the trumpet, he said, wherefore is the noise of the city being in an uproar? Verse 42, and when he yet spake, behold Jonathan the son of Abiathar the priest came, and Adonijah said to him, come in for thou art a valiant man and bring us good tidings. You see that? This is how a lot of customers are today. If anybody here has to deal with customers, right? Maybe you fix things and you go to them, and they're like, you've got good news for me, don't you? And it's like, is good news $8,000, $9,000? Because that's the reality. I can't tell you how many times I have to go fix something, somebody's like, I'm hoping it's just this. And I'm like, I'm with you. I'm hoping it's just that too. Some of them though, they're like, no, I know that's what it is. And I'm like, no, you don't. Because if you did, I wouldn't be here. I don't talk to them like that, but I want to. This is how I get that out, right? You got to get it off your chest like we talked about this morning. All right. So anyways, he's living in dreamland, come in for thou art a valiant man and bring us good tidings. Okay. Now, who's there saying awkward, okay? It's about to get real awkward here, look at verse 43, and Jonathan answered and said to Adonijah, verily, meaning truly, verily, our Lord King David hath made Solomon king. So yeah, I do have good news for you, dream boy, guess what? You're not king. Verse 44. And the king has sent with him Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and the Cherithites and the Pelethites, and they have caused him to ride upon the king's mule. And Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet have anointed him king in Gihon, and they are come up from thence rejoicing so that the city rang again. There's that ringing of the alarm clock. Adonijah is starting to come out of his sleep now. You're going to see that. He's like, oh. This is the noise that you have heard. Verse 46. And also, right, so to make matters worse, to tell you more good news, and also there's this other fee, by the way. And also Solomon sitteth on the throne of the kingdom, and moreover the king's servants came to bless our Lord, King David, saying, God, make the name of Solomon better than thy name, and make his throne greater than thy throne, and the king bowed himself upon the bed. Verse 48. Said the king, blessed be the Lord God of Israel, which hath given one to sit on my throne this day, mine eyes even seeing it. So David acknowledges what a blessing it is to see a son actually be able to fulfill the prophecy and to take the kingdom. We're almost done. Verse 49. And all the guests that were with Adonijah woke up. Well, it doesn't say that, but it says, were afraid. Okay? Why were they afraid? Look at the rest of the verse. And he rose up and went every man his way. Verse 50. And Adonijah feared because of Solomon, and arose and went and caught hold of the horns on the altar. Right? So he gets to base. Remember playing, you know, tag or hide and go seek when you're kidding, and somebody found you had to book it over to the base, and like, aha, you can't get me. That's basically what he's doing here. He grabs hold of the horns of the altar, and he's like, you can't kill me here. This is a sacred place, man. This is holy. Okay? So if what he was doing was right, if he wasn't living in a dreamland, would he act like that? No. He's guilty as charged. He is woken up from his slumber, and he's like, oh no, reality sucks. Okay? I'm not king. I'm a loser. Verse 51. And it was told Solomon, saying, behold, Adonijah feareth King Solomon, for lo, he hath caught hold of the horns of the altar, saying, let King Solomon swear unto me today that he will not slay his servant with a sword. Verse 52. And Solomon said, now look at the wisdom here. So this is how the chapter ends off. You start with David in his current situation, and it ends with the first bit of wisdom that we get to see from Solomon, and Solomon said, if he will show himself a worthy man, there shall not an hair of him fall to the earth, but if wickedness shall be found in him, he shall die. That'll be key for next week. So Solomon gives him a chance. He's not bitter. He's comfortable. I mean, he, you know, he obviously, being, you'll see the wisest man on earth, but he's like, hey, I'm all about giving people a chance. You know, it's hard to do, but he does that. Verse 53. So King Solomon sent, then they brought him down from the altar, and he came and bowed himself to King Solomon, and Solomon said unto him, go to thine house. We would say, get back inside. Get back inside. That's how we would put it, right? And I'll explain that to some of you guys later, but. So again, the biggest problem with living in dreamland is that you eventually have to wake up. Either you're gonna wake yourself up, which is pretty rare, or someone else is gonna wake you up. That is the lesson for today. It is dangerous to think that you're something when you're nothing. It's dangerous to put yourself in fantasy land, and to think, and to ignore all of our problems, and to ignore all the situations, and all the issues that we have to take head on. It is dangerous for us to live in this dreamland and say those are just gonna go away, because guess what? What usually winds up happening is it comes back around to bite us, and to slap us on the face. We cannot ignore reality as much as it hurts, as much as it makes us uncomfortable. We must always seek to realize that living in a dreamland is nothing but a dream, and the source of a lot of people's problems on this planet. So we're gonna stop right there. I know that was a lot, so you may have to go back and watch. Go read the chapter again. Get ready for chapter two next week, and let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you so much, Lord, again, for these great stories in the Bible, Lord, that we can learn from, take comfort in, build patience from, and just pray that you help us to remember these things, and to defend your truth always. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. All right, so we'll sing one final hymn this evening. Let's turn to number 316. I have decided to follow Jesus. 316, I have decided to follow Jesus. Let's follow him this week, amen. On the first. I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back, no turning back. Though none go with me, still I will follow. Though none go with me, still I will follow. Though none go with me, still I will follow. No turning back, no turning back. Behind me, the cross before me. The world behind me, the cross before me. No turning back, no turning back. Amen. Great singing. Brother Moses, will you close us out with a word of prayer, please? Thank you, Lord, for this day. I pray that you just let us as we go our separate ways this week, I pray that we all just learn something about patience, something about peace, something about love, something about Jesus, amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.