[0:00] But if you don't mind, turn your Bibles to 2 Samuel chapter number 23. We're going to be coming here to one of my favorite portions of Scripture, which I have a lot of favorite portions of Scripture. But we come here to a portion of Scripture where there's talking about David's mighty men.
[0:14] And I love this chapter because it's kind of like the man's chapter. These men that we find out about, the mighty men of David, they were like the men of all men, the toughest guys that you would think of.
[0:26] They were great warriors, strong, mighty men. And just to save a little bit of time, I'm going to go to verse 8. And it says here in verse 8, These be the names of the mighty men whom David had, the Tecmonite that sat in the seat, chief among the captains.
[0:39] The same was Adino, the Esnite. He lift up his spear against 800 whom he slow at one time. And after him was Eleazar, the son of Dodo, the Ohahite, and one of the three mighty men with David.
[0:52] When they defiled the Philistines that were there, I'm sorry, when they defied the Philistines that were there, gathered together to battle, and the men of Israel were gone away.
[1:02] So we have here some of the men that we are learning about. It's kind of like the cream of the crop. David had his mighty men, but we learn about three mighty men that were kind of mightier than the mightiest.
[1:17] And it says, So we find out here you have three men that are mentioned.
[1:44] Adino, Eleazar, and Shammah, the three mighty men of David. And these men performed some unbelievable tasks.
[1:56] These men, Adino, he lift up his spear against 800. Eleazar, he arose and smote the Philistines until his hand was weary, and his hand clave unto the sword.
[2:07] Shammah was a man who stood by himself. Whenever everyone else was running, he stood and defended the land, defended the crops. And the Lord wrought a great victory because Shammah was willing to stand and not run.
[2:20] So when we come here, we find out about these three mighty men. And that's kind of like the prelude before we get into the main story here, starting in verse 13. The Bible says in verse 13, And three of the thirty chief went down and came to David in a harvest time unto the cave of Adullam.
[2:35] And the troop of the Philistines pitched in the valley of Rephaim. And David was then in a hold, and the garrison of the Philistines was then in Bethlehem. And David longed and said, Oh, that one would give me drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate.
[2:47] What had happened, this was a time where David was with his mighty men, and he looked and he noticed that the army of the garrison of the Philistines was around, and there in Jerusalem, which was around his favorite water well, his favorite drinking hole.
[3:05] And he looked, and David just haphazardly made a statement. And he said, Man, I wish that I had a drink from the water of the well of Bethlehem.
[3:16] Now, David made a mistake here. The mistake that David made was that he made this ambition that he had, the desire he had. He said this out loud where his three mighty men could overhear what he was saying.
[3:31] Now, understand something. When David said, Man, I wish I had something, it's kind of like you wish for something you know you couldn't have. You know, have you ever put yourself on a diet, and you said, Man, maybe I can't eat ice cream, or maybe I can't eat something else.
[3:45] But, you know, when you can't eat it, man, all you can do is think about wanting that. Well, that's what happened here with David. David was like, he knew he couldn't get that water because that water was surrounded by the garrison of the Philistines, and it would be foolish to go there and charge the Philistines just for, you know, his fleshly desire to get that water.
[4:03] But what happened is he made that desire known. And these men, these mighty men of David, find out what happened with them. And it said in verse 15, I'll read this again, And David longed and said, Oh, that one would give me drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem which is by the gate.
[4:19] And the three mighty men break through the host of the Philistines and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem that was by the gate and took it and brought it to David. Nevertheless, he would not drink thereof but poured it out unto the Lord.
[4:31] What had happened, these men overheard David say that, and as soon as they found out what their king wanted, they went into action. They said, hey, King David wants a drink of water. You know, it's kind of like you look at someone, and what do you get the guy who has everything?
[4:47] He's very difficult to buy for. Well, these men were saying, you know, man, if this drink of water is what will be pleasing to my king, man, I'm willing to do whatever it takes to get that drink of water.
[5:00] And those men, they rushed into the garrison of the Philistines. They put their lives in danger so they could draw that water from that well that their king so desired.
[5:10] And they took that water and they protected that water, and they fought off the garrison of the Philistines just so they could bring that water back to their king and say, here, King, this is what was pleasing to you.
[5:21] This is what you desired. Now, when they brought that water to their king, something kind of strange happened. And it says here at the end of verse 16, And nevertheless, he would not drink thereof, but poured it out unto the Lord.
[5:37] Now, get this. These men, they risked their lives. These men went and despite the danger, despite the garrison of the Philistines, man, they went and just so their king could have that water.
[5:51] And when they brought that water back to their king, their king took it and poured it out. You know, if I first saw that, I would be like, wow, you know, how insulting.
[6:02] I put my life in danger so you could have what you desired and you just take it and you flippantly poured it out. As you understand, that's not what happened. What happened is those men brought the water back and when David saw that water, he realized what he had done.
[6:16] He realized that he had made a mistake of audibly making that desire known to those men. So David said, look down at that water and understood, man, the men that I love, the men that I care for, the men that I'm willing to sacrifice myself for, these men put their lives in danger over just doing something that would just be pleasing to my flesh.
[6:38] And so what David said is that there's no way I could dishonor these men and make them think that my desires of the flesh are more important than them. And he takes that water and he pours it all onto the ground.
[6:49] And he says, I want to give that as an offering and a sacrifice to the Lord. He says in verse 17, And he said, Be it far from me, O Lord, that I should do this.
[7:00] Is not this the blood of the men that went in jeopardy of their lives? Therefore he would not drink it. These things did these three mighty men. Man, you see a story here that's kind of crazy. We open up in chapter 23 where we learn about these three mighty men and the story that is kind of brought out for us all to look at is the story where these men put their lives in danger so their king could have a drink of water from his favorite water spot.
[7:26] Man, I've, you know, I've been on the mission field. I've craved things to drink. You know, there's things that you can't get in South Africa that you have here in America that you take for granted. One thing that I remember when I came to the States, one of the things I wanted the most was a Diet Dr. Pepper.
[7:42] I was like, man, just get me a Diet Dr. Pepper. I craved it. But, you know, when I'm in South Africa, I can say, man, I want a Diet Dr. Pepper and think, well, I can crave it all I want, but I'm really not going to get it. That's kind of what David was here and he was craving the water, but he knew he couldn't really get it.
[7:56] But those men, they just had, I mean, they had just an idea of what their king wanted and they went into action. You know, one thing we see about these men, for these men to know what their king wanted, then they had to be close to him.
[8:10] They had to be able to hear him. They had to be, you know, so, you know, he was just like, man, I wish I had a drink of that water from that well. And those men, they were so close to their king that they were able to hear and listen to his desire.
[8:23] And the thing that I loved about it is they didn't care about their lives. They only cared about what was pleasing to their king. And then you find out, how is it that those men could care for their king the way that they did?
[8:36] And we find out because of the sacrifice that David poured out onto the ground, we find out the reason why those men loved their king the way that they did is because they knew how much their king loved them. Because he exemplified it and he illustrated it and he showed them that he was there to serve them.
[8:54] He was there to not lift his own self up to be a king that honored God and that loved his servants and loved his men.
[9:05] And as I look at this story, you know, we find about these three neat men that put their lives in danger and we find out about a king who would not take the drink, would not take the cup.
[9:19] And these men were willing to put their lives in danger for their king because they loved him and they wanted to please him. As I think about that tonight, I'm like, you know, we also have a king.
[9:32] And I'm wondering, are we willing to put our lives in danger for our king the same way that these men put their lives in danger for their king? We say we love Jesus.
[9:46] We say that He's our God and He's our Savior. We say that we love Him with all that we have. But I'm wondering tonight, do we love our king the same way that these three men love their king?
[10:00] Now don't get me wrong. King David was an awesome king. He was an awesome man. But understand this, he's just a man. The king that we serve is not just a man. The king that we serve is the king of kings and the Lord of lords.
[10:13] The king that we serve is the creator of the universe. And I'm just wondering, do we love our king the same way that these three men love their king? Our king speaks to his disciples in Matthew chapter 9 and verse 36.
[10:27] And we find out here, it says, But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion. Speaking of Jesus. He was moved with compassion on them because they fainted and were scattered bright as sheep having no shepherd. Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few.
[10:42] Pray ye therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest. Now we find that David's men, they overheard the desire of their king.
[10:54] And they heard that their king wanted water, so they said, Hey, I'm willing to put my life in danger to get my king some water. And here in Matthew chapter 9, as we hear our king, we find the only prayer request that Jesus Christ ever makes in the New Testament.
[11:07] And his prayer request is for laborers into the harvest. He says, Pray ye therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest. I'm warning tonight, does our love for our king provoke us and move us to be involved in what?
[11:26] Our king desires. He desires that the gospel go to the world. He desires that men and women give their lives to take his gospel message that people have never heard. His desire is for laborers.
[11:41] And a lot of times we talk about the need in missions. The need in missions is money, but the need in missions is men. The need in missions is labors. And the prayer request of our king here tonight is for labors.
[11:54] And I wonder, man, does hearing the desires of our king provoke us to action? Like the mighty men of David were provoked to action when they heard the desires of their king? Pray ye therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labors into his harvest.
[12:10] I know that this is a very uncertain time. I know that, you know, we're supposed to keep a certain distance from people. We're supposed to be guarded.
[12:20] We're supposed to be protective. And we appreciate all of that as far as our government officials, our governor trying to keep our people safe. But, you know, we do not need to allow that to be an excuse to carry out the command and the desire of our king.
[12:41] His desire is that we go to the world. His desire is that we go to the lost. He is desiring that laborers will give their lives to take the gospel message to the world.
[12:52] Tonight, as we continue praying for our pastor, tonight, as we think about the crazy things that are going on in the world, I pray that we don't forget what our king desires the most for men and women to give their lives to get the gospel message that people have never heard.
[13:10] What are we doing to reach the lost? What are we doing to reach our neighbor? What are we doing to reach the person we work with? Pray ye therefore the Lord will harvest that he will send for his labors into his harvest.
[13:23] Those men were willing to risk their lives over a cup of water. Are we willing to risk our lives? Are we willing to risk our reputation? Are we willing to risk our security?
[13:34] Are we willing to risk just our comfort zone to carry out the desires of our king in seeing laborers go around the world?
[13:46] Might we love our king as much as those men love their king?