Royalty: Royal Timing

like what is happening but thank you fella so much but yeah so it's I hope that through all of this what we understand that we we are royalty that he calls us royal and we actually gives us the ability to live up to that and this week we what we wanted to do was we wanted to invite you guys in we talk a lot about what goes on behind these closed doors and I said invite you in because we can only bet you in so far but some of that stuff's just for us but what we wanted to do is we wanted to make this a a personal setting of both me and Fred together studying we came together and we picked a passage and we started to pray on it and just both of our points but more so just a conversation to let you let you in on our little our little get togethers and how much we enjoy to talk and bring you guys in so I don't know we're gonna call this this could be a one-time thing this could be maybe we'll bite you into the living room just leave your shoes on please but yeah so we're gonna talk today about royal timing that's what we're gonna talk about and I'm just super excited so Fred if you will join me let's give Freddie to your hand all right so we have a couple rules of engagement here so I cannot freak sitting down like I got too much energy so I did this at Christmas and apparently at Christmas we had some Christmas phones night morning apparently I was carrying on a beat with my feet my wife you know let me know later she's like you were just pounding like so two things please let me know if I start this please let me know if I start this I'm also I'm very bad posture so my I'm a sloucher he was he was like what kind of chairs are we gonna use because I'll be probably reading a Bible like this here a little bit you know what we are talking about royalty I feel like we're missing something I got something for you bro it's Royal generosity all of this stuff all right what this is why this stuff makes me nervous like I'm so out of my own right now a Burger King oh yeah my foot is tapping sorry all right all right so sass that we're gonna let you know we a lot of times we rehashed the message before we preach it then the morning we're praying we're kind of rehashing some of our main points but you know there's always Joe right so we always like I love the laughs so you're too much have it your way bro well if I had it my way I don't want to mess my hair up though my hair is very important to me all right so today's message is going to be be called a royal timing and that within your life that's okay so within your life God God has an eternal purpose God has an eternal destiny for each one of you and within your within your eternal destiny God's actually factored seasons into your life and that your destiny actually unfolds through season testing probably because I'm slouching all right all right can you guys hear me okay so they got on fold your destiny through season and so we want to start out today just talking a little bit about seasons remember last week my father in a row I gave an example from King Solomon but really in a lot of what Solomon learned I mean obviously he was very wise but he really learned from the instruction of his dad and mom and really David really poured into Solomon's life so we're going to start today with a passage from the and we're going to look at a small just a small window small practice David left in his life and had tremendous ramifications in his life so yeah so like he said we're gonna start in Ecclesiastes 6 3 1 and I like the message translation but how many of us know that there's who has said this there's a time for everything there's a season for everything there's we've said all these things and I'm hoping today what we can you know bring some clarity to is be enabled to understand when we're when that time does come or when the season does change and be able to see that clearly because we say it a lot but I don't know if we often catch it and then we just like to say because it sounds good in a lot of ways but yeah Ecclesiastes 3 1 the message translation says there is an opportune time to do things a right time for everything on earth and I love how that I just love how that says there's an opportune time to do things and how many of you know we we have things to do not just in our life but God's calling us to do things right God has a plan and a purpose for our life amen and then he's a he's a new King Jamesr I don't know if you can is that what you read is that you're go to go to my go to definitely not the message okay I leave that for you slouchers right let's just I just want to read through let's read Ecclesiastes chapter 3 I won't just read verses 1 through 8 and I think this is a very familiar passage but we just kind of want to use it to launch from it says everything there is a season so that that everything you go through in life is a season and the great thing about seasons or this seasons always have a conception but they also have an expiration though that whatever season of life you're going through it's here's one thing it's pregnant with change because they're coming up to they'll come a time when that season is over and and seasons don't last like your lifetime seasons have a conception they start they have an expiration and when they hit their expiration point guess what starts a new season and so it says that to everything there is a season a time for every purpose under heaven so that within seasons there's certain things certain purposes certain assignments that line up with a particular season and so that in a given season we might do one thing and in another season there might be a different assignment it says a time to be born a time to die a time to plant a time to pluck what is planted a time to kill a time to heal a time to break down a time to build up a time to weep a time to laugh a time to mourn a time to dance a time to cast away stones a time to gather stones a time to embrace a time to refrain from embracing a time to gain a time to lose a time to keep a time to throw away a time to tear and a time to sow a time to keep silence a time to keep silence that might be for somebody. A time to speak, a time to love, a time to hate, a time of war, and a time of peace. And so as God factors seasons into your life, you know, a lot of times we're going through seasons and we don't recognize that the season has changed. And if you think about now, like if I said, anybody follow sports other than Seth?

Like what season is it Seth? It's technically football season. If you didn't hear, it is not the giant season. I'm a giant fan.

Throw your stones at me. All you cowboy fans. I see they had to change their team names. How bad they were.

You know, in seasons, although they have a conception and expiration, sometimes there's an overlap of season. So if you think about, like, if I say, what season is it? Well, it's football. Well, it's also baseball, right?

And then when football progresses, and eventually it might be some overlap with basketball and basketball and baseball. And there's always this overlap in season. So although there's a definite end, it's not like it's a complete break that sometimes there's an overlap in season. But recognizing that change when that change comes is so important.

It says in verse 11, I love this. He pleases you after these three 11, it says he has made everything. So the first thing we look at verse one, it says, to everything there's a season. Right?

There is a season for everything. But verse 11 says, he's made everything beautiful in its season. And I think there's probably people here that are going through a season right now that you don't like. Now, there are God's seasons, and I believe they're devil seasons.

And you have to be able to recognize the difference. But whether you like your season or not, or whether you're like, like some seasons are like, yes, I love the season I'm in right now. Right? And other times, what do we do?

Oh my gosh, this is like, but regardless, it says that everything is beautiful in its season or in its time. And if you think about it, anybody ever who likes apple? Like other than my wife, does anybody like green apples? A bunch of sour puss people.

They're awful. Oh, see, you got to put peanut butter on a green apple to even make it mouth worthy. But how many like red apples? Like golden, red, delicious, like honey crisp, like those apples?

There's no time for apples. But before that apple, like you could go to the tree and you could pick what should be, or is a red delicious apple, but in the season it's in its green. And if I pick a red delicious that's green and bite into it, it's probably bitter. But God's word says that everything is beautiful in its season.

And a lot of times, because we don't like the way something tastes, we initially reject it when God's word says, hey, this is beautiful. And what happens, a lot of times when we see people going through a certain season in life, what's the first thing we want to do? Try to get them out of it. Yeah.

Like everything's a devil. Come on now. All right. So sometimes, and I believe in casting out demons, I believe in deliverance, I believe in all of those things, but you can't cast a green apple out of a green apple season.

So you can't pray your way out of a green apple season. See what I'm ready to stand up. I told you, that's why we moved the table. But what, you know, oh, there's a come out green apple in the name of Jesus.

Like you could quote every scripture you could bind and lose, you could pray and you could meditate and you could pray in the spirit. You're not going to change a green apple. A green apple has to grow out of its season. So you cannot cast out a green apple season.

You have to grow out of it. And too often, we're trying to deliver somebody from something that they actually need to grow out of it. Come on. That's so good.

And I think it comes down to what you focus on. Like you said, if everything's the enemy, everything's the death, everything is attack, everything is as bad as negative. My focus is on the negative and it's on the wrong thing. Because what we just read, if we believe it, that he will make everything beautiful in its time.

So I don't know what season that everybody's in. And yeah, there is bad season. There's challenging season. But if we hold on to that, he's going to make it beautiful in its time and come on.

Like we got to start listening to the word. We got to start believing in the word. And then the second part of that is, oh, man, it's so great. Because it says, he is, I don't know, oh, yeah, he's there.

He has put eternity in their heart. Except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end. Guys, listen, he has put eternity in our hearts. He's given us something.

He's like, to me, that's like, we were talking about this. Like that's a part of the assignment that he's given us. Like, he set that in us. He's given something for us to look forward to, to long for, to, you know, I mean, to strive for it, to believe in, believe in him and trust him for.

And, see, the eternity, eternity doesn't start when you die. See, eternal life starts the day you get saved. But even when you're born, you have eternity in you. You will spend eternity somewhere.

So what happens when you get into a season, your season is not your eternity. See, we tend to define life by what's going on in the season we're in. But, but the fact that God has put eternity in us, that you have an eternal purpose. And we focus on the season instead of what God wants is eternal destiny.

That you have an eternal destiny that never changes. Seasons change, assignments change, purposes change. But the eternal destiny that he's put in you, like you have an eternal calling on your life. That God actually, Paul picks up on this.

And Romans 829. Yeah. So like, Paul brings this up in Romans 829 when he's talking about it, says, those he foreknew, he predestined. It means to order ahead of time.

It means to actually destined billions, like, think about this. Like before Seth ever had that beard on his face. Like, like God actually had an eternal purpose for Seth. Like, I know it's amazing.

A guy that wears a purple robe actually has an eternal purpose. Listen, your hair is getting close to that eternal purpose. I think what happens a lot of time is, you know, we focus when the season's not good. And I'm not saying that there aren't things that need cast out of people's lives.

There are, right? There's things that need broken off. There's things that need cast out. But sometimes we need to grow out of the season we're in to prepare us for the next season we're about to enter.

Because what happens a lot of times we focus on the miracle and we at the expense of the fruit. Come on. So good. So what happens, I love, like, I love miracles.

I love miracles. Like, I wish I saw more of them. I've seen a measure, but I wish I saw more and I love they're instantaneous. I love that they suspend the natural laws of nature.

And I love that God, like, intersects time and space and does something like that. But see, miracles require faith, whereas maturity requires time and patience and obedience. And a lot of times we bypass maturity because we're so focused on the miracle. And it's not one or the other.

It's both and. Yeah, that's really good. And then I think, you know, what you're talking about, it's fun. We got together and got it down some of these notes.

But we get so excited about things like it's super cool. But often in those times and what we're doing is we're settling. Ultimately, we're settling and we end up making a career out of an assignment. And we have to make sure that we don't mistake our current assignment for a destiny.

Think about, like, everybody remember, like 200 years ago, there were settlers, right? Settlers. Yeah, we're still on work because I think Dawn was probably around by now. He's not here.

Nothing like kicking a guy when he's not around, you know. But a lot of settlers used to be pioneers. See, a pioneer is somebody that paves away. He cuts down the brush.

He actually forges new territory. And what happens is a lot of times, like God wants us to pioneer new seasons. But we get so comfortable in the season we're in that we decide to set up shop there. And when God wants us to grow into the next season and remain and have a pioneering spirit, we just decide, you know what, I've just chosen the place I'm going to level off in my life.

And I'm going to settle. And, you know, we don't settle. Don't be a settler. There was like an ad.

I actually preached the message one time, don't be a settler. Don't be a settler. There was like an advertisement. I think it was by Atlantic Broadband about the settlers.

It's been a long time ago. Don't get people started on Atlantic Broadband. Yeah, there's a new season of cable and cumblin. It's not any better.

It's a green apple cable season. Yeah, all of this is so good. Because we all, wherever, if we want to be honest with ourselves, I don't know where you're at, but you know where you're at. And we're all in the season.

We all have assignments. And I think one of the most important things is to realize where we're at and be listening to God. Because if we're not and we miss that, then that's where things just begin to get super hair. They get, you know, we, I don't think we realize that we start to get off track and we stop listening to him.

He stopped guiding us. And then we've kind of taken, taken over and then we end up staying longer than in a place that we should have stayed. I like to think of it like this. Like I said, seasons have conception and they also have exploration.

And if you ever come to my house, my kids, they'll verify this. Like I'll pull jelly out of the refrigerator and it has mold on the top of it. Well, it doesn't go all the way down. It's just on the surface, right?

You just scrape the mold off and then you go for the rest of the jelly. And my kids are like, let me, oh my gosh, it's George, it's by a year ago. I don't, I just don't see you doing that. I don't, I listen, but here's why I struggle with that.

Here's why I struggle with that though. I've watched the man say no to scraping the bread when you burn the bread. Oh, I'm christening your burning again. But you'll scrape mold off the top of the jelly.

Oh my. You I'm selective. I'm so I'm selective in my exploration. But here's what happens.

This message is for you, bro. This is for me. When the assignment, when the season expires and the assignment changes and you continue to do the assignment from the previous season, it's like eating from a jar that's already expired. And you know, we laugh about it, but you know, you open yourself up to issue.

We're going to look at a story today of of King David that actually was eating expired jelly. He was actually eating out of the prior season and he was carrying out the assignment that was right in one season, but because the season shifted, the assignment changed. And what happens is we're going to find out in this story when we actually do the assignment of yesterday's season when the season changes, we actually open ourselves up to ten patients we were never meant to encounter. So what happens a lot of times?

What are some people when they get tempted to do stuff? What do people say? Don't want to help us out. No, the devil made me do it.

We give so much credit to the devil. We really do. We have so much credit to the enemy. It's always everybody's fault other than ours.

And like you're saying, it's wild because we, when I don't think we realize when we're not focused and we miss that, what we are subjecting ourselves to, like you said, what we're opening ourselves up to. And then we wonder, we sit there and wonder why. Well, we're either pointing fingers at somebody else, we're blaming the devil, but sometimes not all the time. Sometimes the thing you're going to, you were never meant to encounter.

It's actually self and we'll call it self and post temptation. Like you created an environment because of what you weren't doing when you should have been doing something else. And the fact that I'm doing yesterday's assignment and today's season positions me in the wrong place, you're like, well, it was in the wrong place at the right time. Or wrong place at the wrong time.

No, you're in the wrong place at the right time. It was the right season, but you were in the wrong place because you were doing yesterday's assignment. So good. And that's what David, we're going to find out something that David did.

The season changed, but he didn't recognize that the assignment changed with the season. And he actually encountered something that he never would have and never needed to encounter in that season. Yeah, so if you will, if you got your bibles, we're going to turn to second Samuel. Got there 11.

I'll give you a second. Get your Bible. You did not bring your Bible to church. Shame on me.

No, I'm just kidding. We got one for you, right? Your phone. Why don't you guys download that app that sounds like pages turning?

So I can at least, it sounds like something's going on up here. I don't know if there's a map that does that. I'm getting closer to his eternal destiny. And so this is known for the story of David and best Jeeba.

Everybody knows that story. Everybody likes to reference that story and talk about David's. This is David's big flop as a king. And I like the story a lot.

I began to start reading as we were, as he was doing his message last week, I began to start reading in second Samuel. And it's something like jump off the page at me right off the bat in verse one. Is everybody there? Everybody ready?

Say ready. First one, it says, it happened in the spring of the year. Everybody read this with me. At the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him in all Israel, and they destroyed the people of Ammon.

And you're going to be besieged. Rabbi, Rabbi, I'm going to butcher these. You got it, Rabbi. But David remained at Jerusalem.

So yeah, so as we kind of build up to this, I want you guys to start looking at that. This is what we are talking about when we talk about there's a season, there's a time, there's an assignment. The king, when it was his time, you know, they didn't fight during the winter. So they would take the winter off, they'd go back home.

But then when the seasons change and it was time for kings to go out to battle, David did what? He stayed home. So the season changed, the assignment changed, but what didn't change? David.

David stayed back. And we're going to see when David stays back, obviously you guys have read the story, but I think you're going to start to see that in this story, what we just explained, how this really amplifies the fact that when we're not doing what we're called to be doing, or when we're absent from what we're called to be doing, what it opens us up to, which obviously is temptation in this sense, and how that once this starts, it's all downhill from there. I mean, once he opened himself up and missed what he was supposed to be doing and walk into what he was supposed to be doing, things start to really go south. So yeah, let's get into this.

What do you think? Because you were, it was interesting because when we got together and talked about it, he was like, yeah, let me pray about it. Let me read a little bit and then he comes back and he's like, I just can't get past this when the season changed and it was time to go to the battle. So that's where we began to just start up.

That's where we knew where we were going with this. So let's go to, yeah, let's just read, you go ahead. I have it in King James, you read your King James. So it happened in the spring of the year at the time when the kings go to battle that David sent Joab and servants with him and all of Israel and they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Brouba, but David remained at Jerusalem.

One thing I was thinking about there, it says that the Joab destroyed Ammon, and that sometimes when you're, when you have an assignment to go to battle, which David did, but you remain in the wrong place, you cause destruction to the wrong group of people, is that destruction should have been taking place on the battlefield with the enemy. But since David stayed in the wrong place and it was a season of battle, he wreaked havoc and obstruction in his friend's family and his own life. And that sometimes when the assignment changes and we're not in the wrong location, we can actually create the very thing or actually fulfill the very thing, but at the wrong place. It says then it happened one evening that David Rosemar is bad and walked on the roof of the king's house and from the roof he saw a woman bathing.

The woman was very beautiful to behold. So David sent and inquired about the woman and someone said, is this not Vasheva, the daughter of Elium, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? And David sent messengers and took her and she came to him and he lay with her, where she was cleansed from her current purity and she returned to her house. And the woman conceived and so she sent and told David and said, I'm with John.

Now I think most of us know the rest of the story, we're going to touch on a few of those things, but sometime goes by because he has intercourse with this woman, she goes home, she conceives. They didn't have the test back then. It's not like she peed on a stick a couple of days later and said, oh, I got a plus sign. She had to wait and she started showing and things didn't happen the next month.

They showed us some time passes and I always wondered like did David think in that next 30 to 60 days, like, hey, I got away with it. It's not like she went home and found out she was pregnant the next day, like time passed. And so then when time passed, then of course he tries to, oh, yeah, he just gets down this path where he tries to get her husband, he calls her, and her husband was like one of his mighty men. He was one of his top warriors and so he brings him back and he tries to get him to go sleep with his wife to cover it up that way and he gets drunk, tries to get him to do it again and he won't do it.

Like this guy's a man of integrity and obviously then eventually he sends a letter to back the job and says, hey, put him, like when they be seeds that, if you think of like the sieging, like if this imagine this is like the wall around the city and so they surround the city and they stop the water in the commerce and everything from getting in the city and they basically starve them out. And so when he said to put him close to the heat of the battle, he actually got him up close to the wall so that archers could actually get them, but they send him to his own bad death as a killer. Yes. It's just crazy.

It is crazy. One of my things that was pointed out in this as we were studying that was interesting because like you said, he has him come basically offers him in and he brings him back in to obviously try to make it look like he slept with his wife. It was going, you know, trying to clear things off that way, but what does he do? He, you know, he sleeps right outside of the king's door and says, how could I go home and do this?

Why my men are out on the battlefield with the ark? Now, what I want you to realize, what was the ark? What did that symbolize? God's presence.

So maybe we were thinking about this. Isn't it interesting? And the he just, he says, I can't go do like he should do what David did. David should do what he did.

But here's the thing. So the season changed and they went out. God's presence was there in the assignment and David was back where? In the palace.

Maybe sometimes the battlefield safer than the palace. Wherever God's presence is, but that was interesting. It stuck out to me. The presence was there.

He said, I can't go do that. And it just really, it really struck me when we were talking about that because David should have been where the presence of God was. That was his assignment. So one of the first things we want to talk about it as we go through today was like distance.

And you know, one thing I've noticed when people fall into sin, typically the first thing that happens is they begin to disconnect with other people. They begin to distance themselves from people. You know, you don't see them around as much. They don't come around as much.

They just start being one in the fringe. And if you notice what it said that David did, it said in the spring of the year at the time when kings went to war, the battle David sent his general. It says he sent his general. He sent his officers and he sent his men.

I guess who was left by himself? David. And what happens is God intends for us to be in community with one another. Like there's like strength in number.

Like there's like a strength that comes about that when we're in covenant and we're together in something and that like yes, I have an assignment God's given me, but I can't do it without you. And you have an assignment, Seth has an assignment. You have an assignment in your season that God's called you to do, but you're not as effective as you could be when you do it with like-minded people. So I tell like with my wife, I tell couples all the time in ministry, you'll never minister at a level, at the same level independently as you will as a unified couple.

Because you minister and you overcome things together and you go through things together that you just cannot do by yourself. Absolutely. And I think most of us can relate to this and understand when we think about times where we've all, I believe, I'm not speaking for you, I'll speak for myself, but in my times I realize of isolation, what it does do, and then you begin to protect at it all costs. You don't let people in.

You don't, you won't, you know, we just push people away because it's more comfortable. You know, we get to be where that's more of a comfortable like comfortability for us, but vulnerability comes from the lack of accountability. And I promise guys, if we, if we would begin to realize, you know, what guys called us to do, and then, and as we read throughout our scripture and the word that it's about others as well, like it's often that we need others. We're here to rely on each other, bear one another for it, and we're not building that, we're not focused on that, then we're subject, even King David, I mean King David is, we talked him up the past two weeks, and this is his plot, but the reality of it is someone even to, like, look what God has done in his life and look at all these things that he knew, but it's still when, when we isolate and we allow this temptation and we're not moving, we're God's calling us to, and we're open to these things that we can't do it alone.

Yeah, and Seth had brought it up about, so at the time, when Israel would go to battle, a lot of times, not every time, but they would take the arc God's presence with them in the battle. And so what happens is when God calls you into your next assignment to a particular place, guess what has already gone ahead of you? His presence is meant to lead you to the place that he's called you to go. And in the New Testament, of course, we know that when you receive Jesus and he comes to live in you, he will never leave you nor forsake you, but you can certainly reject what he's telling you to do.

And what happens is, as people begin to distance himself from each other, other believers, they also slowly begin to distance himself from the Lord. And in one sense, he's as close as he's ever been, but in another sense, he probably seems like he's a million miles away because you just tuned him out. And if you think about it, like when you said vulnerability, I'm thinking like when a wolf attacks a sheep, what sheep does it attack? The one that's away from the flock and away from the shepherd.

He doesn't really go for the one at the shepherd's feet. He doesn't go for the one in the middle of the flock. He goes to the one that's straight off on the front. He becomes vulnerable.

And that's the time that the enemy comes in. Yeah. And here's what I think we need to put some focus on too, is that how many of us know it only takes one time. Like I want you to think about that.

It takes one time for us to have our guard down for us to have, you know, sometimes that's a lot of times and people will be like, well, it's only this one time. That's enough guys. That's enough for us to lose focus. That's enough for us to open ourselves up to temptation.

And then once, as we see in the story, once the digression starts, it's just, and we listen, we've been there once something happens and we got to cover that thing up and then we try to do this and then it's just constant. Like, you know, we're going to get to us having a choice, but first King's 15, five, says, because David did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and had not turned aside from anything that he commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah, the Hittai. So one time is the only time that David let himself stuck in that time and change season change and whatever reason. And I don't want to go back to the info.

We were talking about like, he woke up from a nap and he went out on his roof. It was like, you know, it was just like, wait, and I guess he, I'm just thinking, why you go to the roof? It's like, at that time, that was probably pretty common. They probably went out there.

One translation did say something I thought was neat. It said he had advanced, like he had a height advantage, like an advantage point from where he was standing. And my wife's not feeling good today, she's not here, but when we were talking about it, he was like, now you know, that's not the first time David went on that roof and saw a lady bathing. Like, he probably saw other women.

Like, it probably was a big question is why was he getting up in the middle of the day? Like, I don't think he was working night shift. Like, Ray, like, he wasn't recovering from hopefully not from a really fun night the night before. Like, he's getting up when other people are actually already coming home from work.

And I think what happens a lot of times is something that said him early is sometimes success in life leads to your most vulnerable time. And I think David who had experienced success after success, after success, he just says, you know what, I know the season change, but hey, I'm going to kick one back. I'm going to lay back. I'm going to sleep today.

I'm not going to do what I need to do. I'm just going to, I'm taking a season off. And what happens, like, when we see this digression start, you know, it starts with, it's not, it's not, it's never the first look. And I want to talk to you man for a minute.

How many? Oh, I'm only window shopping. I've heard it. Oh, it's just window shopping.

No, you're playing with five. See, it's not, it's not the first look because we all see things in life that we really should never have to see. We all run into situations. It's just like we see things we don't need to see.

We run into the filth. We shouldn't be part of it. It just happened. But what do you do with the second look?

And what do you do with the third look? And are you looking away? Are you looking back? And that's where the shift takes place.

It's not that you ran into something. It's not that you encountered something. It's that I leaned it. That I continued to look.

And it says he sees a woman bathing next thing you know, like how do you know she was beautiful to look at? Because he was staring at her. Like he was continuing to look. And then here's the best part.

Then he inquires about her. And we talk about this a lot, but I don't know if we realize how many, how often we entertain things, but then end up leading to other things. And we say things as if like, you know, why say this a lot, but you know, you you entertain the clown, you become part of the circus. Yeah, like, and most of the time we take it past that point for multiple reasons, because this is part of the aggression that once once something has already happened, then it just makes it easier for everything else to continue to happen.

Right? He already missed that. He's back. He said he's taking the nap.

He's sauchen. He comes out. He sees a woman bathing. He's beautiful at states.

Now it's just like, oh, let me just let me just see who she is. Hey, any I try to find out he's looking in this situation. And then like it says, then this was this was like 1000 BC instant messenger. It says he sent messengers after her.

Right? But we do the same thing today. I have seen men cast and women, they cast this big net on instant messenger, like fishing, trying to see who bite on it. And but he said actual message says he inquired about her.

He sends messengers about her. Hey, go, go, go. Like what do we do? A little glance, a little nudge, a little pecs, a little eye message, a little DM, like whatever it is, it starts with that little like one step and then another step.

It's like that song by I think it's casting crowns. It's called slow faith. It said nobody crumbles in a day. It's like one digression after another after another after another.

And and I tell people this and it sounds arrogant, but I want you to hear my heart. I will not have an affair on my wife today. It's literally impossible, but it doesn't mean I'm beyond having an affair on my wife. It just takes one bad decision, one bad decision, one bad decision, one bad decision, and another bad decision.

And eventually I could end up in a place that I never want to be an encounter, a temptation that I was never meant to encounter, but it won't happen today because today I'm surrounded with people that I should be around and I'm in the presence of the Holy Spirit today. But the minute that I depart from the people that I need to keep me accountable, the minute I quit staying in the word, the minute I quit spending time in prayer, the minute I quit spending time in the presence of the Holy Spirit, then it's one bad decision after another and it ends up somewhere God never intended me to be. Will it happen? Like it won't happen today unless somebody ties me down.

But it can't happen. It can't like, but it could. It can't happen today, but it could happen. We all have a choice, but here, but I put on your habit your way.

Like he's saying, it continues and it starts with a decision, it starts with a choice and we're consciously making these choices whether we like to admit it or believe it or not, but again, he chooses to stay home, he chooses to inquire about it, he chooses to have sex with her. He chose to have her husband married. It continues to go, what did I say? Oh sorry, I'm tied down.

I'm trying to focus. So yeah, right? So I told y'all y'all we're going to come into like, we like to have fun. But again, as it does come down to that choice, David also, as we're going down this path, we also want to point out that David ends up making a choice to repent and to do these things because just as much as we had a choice to open ourselves up to that, we have that same equal choice to do the right thing and turn from that.

And it is challenging once you start down this path and you've got into the middle of this, but here's where I believe the big difference is going to be is where your heart's really postured at because we make choices that leave the consequences and put us in certain situations or circumstances. But I believe it's our focus on God, which determines whether we stay there or we move out of it. And it's like, that's the basic. But what I want to challenge the thought of is will we continue to make these choices and will we continue to stay in the assignment in the season when God's clearly calling us out of it?

Because here's what I do believe. We didn't really talk about this, but I believe that we know. I truly do believe that we know. And I think a lot of times what we do to stay comfortable, to not challenge ourselves to step out or to do the thing God's calling us to do, we will just, we'll throw up those excuses like we talked about earlier of like, wow, is this you God?

Is that God if it's you, let me know. And here, I'm not I'm not basing it, but I'm just saying really like if you're really speaking him and we aren't understanding that there's a time in the season for everything, he's placed it in our hearts and we're chasing after him, I believe we're going to know and we do know that when it's time to step or moving this, that it's either we're going to trust and move in it or or we just simply don't. And then that's when we leave ourselves open to everything else and what's the digression of what's happening to David here. The one thing that God will never take away your freedom to like he protects that at all cost.

You can choose the sin, you can choose to follow God. And that's the great thing that even though David opened the door for something that he should never should have encountered, he distanced himself with people. He makes one bad decision after another that leads into this major digression. A lot of times we just focus on the story of David and Bathsheba, but really the redemption in this story comes in chapter 12.

And that when David is confronted with his sin, he says when when when Nathan the prophet goes there and tells him this parable like, you're the guy, David said, I have sin. And think about what Saul did. When Samuel confronts Saul, you know, Saul's waiting seven days and waiting to make sacrifices and and finally, you know, Saul gets tired of waiting for Samuel and Saul goes ahead and sacrifices and does something that he wasn't it wasn't his assignment. It wasn't his season.

He actually did what was Samuel was supposed to do. And all of a sudden Samuel shows up within the same hour and he says, what have you done? Oh, I saw the enemy. The people were getting restless.

You didn't come. And then I felt compelled to make an offer. Excuse, after excuse, after excuse. And I think that's a big difference between Saul and David.

Saul may excuse us. David took ownership. Like he actually made a decision to get it right. And when Nathan confronts him, he said, I've sinned.

He didn't say, well, that woman, that woman that the devil put on the roof of that. If you're if you're Ryan would have just taught his wife not to go on the roof. You know, he could have made up all this stuff. What if he just would have slept through his alarm, slept another 20 minutes?

He probably would have been washed up and done by that. David could have made a lot of excuses. He could have pointed a lot of fingers, but he took ownership. He literally he decided to repent.

And he said, I was wrong. I said, and the great thing is, is the assignment in his season was still waiting for him. Like it was still waiting for him. Like he actually changed directions.

And when when the the Ammonites, so what it was is if you read back in chapter 10, we really didn't talk a lot about the back story, but the Syrians had helped the people of Ammon in the in chapter 10. And Israel defeated. They defeated the Syrians, but they didn't finish the job. And that's why in the spring, they went back to war.

And then all these things take place with David, and the child dying, and then Solomon's born. But the people of Ammon still have not yet been defeated. And it just shows you that how that our sin and walking out of the assignment God's called us to actually delays the thing that God has prepared for. That David, like we don't know, but it wouldn't have had it.

It wouldn't have taken two years for this to happen. It took two years because he took a detour. But had he walked into the season when kings go to battle, it probably wouldn't happen a lot quicker. Do we want to read that?

Yes. Or do you want me to read it? Because it's King James. Yeah, go ahead, King James.

Where are we at? Second, same as 12. Seasons change, assignments change, but destiny never does. David was called to be a king.

Like he had a royal destiny. And here's like, you know, you've not messed up as much as David messed up. I know a lot of times we think, well, I've thrown away my life. I've thrown away the calling on my life.

I've run away with my assignment. I've messed my season up. It's there. It says the callings, the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.

The gods gifted you. God's equipped you. God's called you. And even if you've messed up, I bet you never tried to like cover up a sin like David tried to cover this sin.

Probably never murdered somebody to cover a sin. There's a lesson here. Is that you, if David didn't mess up, you didn't mess up. Too bad.

Not too bad. Never too late to make that decision to turn around. Yeah. I don't know.

Just to go off of what you're saying, you know, it doesn't matter how many bad decisions you've made. I don't know, maybe things are digressing in your life because of the bad decision that you made. I just want everyone to know that just like the one decision that we're talking about, you have one decision, your one decision away from forgiveness, from grace, from the love for everything that he has to offer. And you know, we, I think we have to, we were talking about this morning and something I think Whitney was talking about in the story, we're finding that, finding just that drive inside yourself, that there's times where, you know, we don't have access to a worship song.

We don't have access to, you know, the, whatever it is that you, your ultimate go to is to get you pumped back up and and feeling good and encouraged. And sometimes we don't have those things. And that's why I think we have to really get encouraged with the word and start to understand and have this stuff just just there to help encourage ourselves. And, you know, in first Corinthians, 10, 13 talks about no temptation has overtaken you, except such as common to man, but God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able.

But with the temptation will also make the way of escape that you may be able to bear it. And I think we share those things a lot, we talk about this, we share these things often and talk about it. But I don't know if it's a disconnection in what we really believe or our trust in him, because if we realize that it just takes us like latching back on to him and how good he is, it'll give us back our direction of where we are to go and the assignment that he has for us and it'll put us right back on track like that. It might have digress that and went off and I'm telling you there's one simple voice that will put you right back on.

Listen, they're up here laughing. Just trash. They're snicker and it's my hair. Did something with my hair.

But, and second Corinthians 618 says, flea everyone say flea. What's flea mean? Go away. But, but it's an elbows.

Yeah. From sexual immorality, every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. But just like David, like we talked about, he had a choice to repent. We have that same choice.

We have that same choice and in that it's going to change the direction. Like I was just saying. I like a verse in verse 10. It says that God doesn't make the temp, God doesn't tempt you.

James tells us, says God cannot be tempted with evil. Neither tempts any man. So, God, but what God does make, it says in 1 Corinthians, God makes a way of escape. Like he makes a way.

It might be a word. It might be an action. It might, you know, there is a way out of your situation. And when it looks impossible, God always makes a way of escape.

Like sometimes it's like Joseph is with Potiphar's wife. He's like doing his thing. He's a man of integrity. Potiphar's wife's trying to do some.

And it says that he got up and led out the door. Like that's a literal plea. But sometimes it's like shutting something down. Sometimes it's saying a word.

Sometimes it's saying yes. Sometimes it's saying no. But there's always a way of escape. I like what sass said a minute ago.

You're just, you're like one decision from forgiveness. You're one decision from grace. You're one decision from being empowered to step back into the thing that you put on the back burner. Like it's there.

It's there. That's good. And when David did that, he returned to the battlefield. He returned to his assignment.

And so one one. Let's close with this. Right. So all that to say in second, second Samuel chapter 12 verse 26, it says, now Joe had fought against Rabbi the people of Ammon took the royal city and Joe had sent messengers to David and said, I fought against Rabbi and I've taken the city's water supply and I've gathered there for the rest of the people together and then camp against the city and take it.

I take the city and it'd be called after my name. So David gathered all the people together and went to Rabbi, fought against it and took it. Like he did what he was supposed to do. And he did it with people.

Because he gathered them all together. He went, he fought and he took it. And then he took the king's crown from his head. It was a town of gold with precious stones.

It was set on David's head. And he brought out the spoil of the city and great abundance. And he brought out the people who were in it. And he put them to work with Saul's iron going to get to work.

Pics is an axis. And he made them cross over to the brick works. All he did to the cities of people in the David and all the people returned to Jerusalem. It wasn't that being in Jerusalem was wrong.

It was being in Jerusalem was wrong at the time of battle. And when the time of battle was over, then they correctly returned to Jerusalem. And so that God, as we started out earlier, God has an eternal destiny for you. He's woven eternity in you.

He has a purpose for you that's beyond what your season's on. And those seasons actually unfold what your destiny is and actually matures you and grows you and produces in you the thing that God needs to get in you to take you where he wants you to go. Don't despise the Green Apple season. You know, if you think about a caterpillar and the cocoon and the butterfly and we all know that thing about transformation, but the cocoon in its season is beautiful.

It's dark. It's ugly on the inside. It's a bunch of like you. But if I help the cocoon too soon, he never develops the wings to fly into his next season.

And so sometimes we can help people out of a season that God needs them to go through. Because he's preparing them to fly and he's preparing them to soar. And we do need deliverance, but we also need maturity. And we need to grow into what God's called us to do and be patient.

That is, that's super good. But do you want to come up? Like he said, no, it's a weird way to close it. But yeah, so David's profession of faith led to his progression of faith.

And I'm not going to be able to sit down. So with what we're talking about guys, if you guys will go ahead and stand with me. So we're all in seasons, right? We all have assignments.

And I don't know if you're in here and this has touched your heart or you feel like I am stuck in a season where I'm stuck in an assignment. And I'm just, I'm just not sure. Maybe I'm missing an assignment. Maybe I'm asking all these questions and you don't have