Delayed Promise

We are continuing a series we were in some time ago. We took a good break, really for Easter. It was supposed to be a different break, but because of the coronavirus, we decided to just do a longer kind of pre-Easter preparation series, walking through Passover, walking through the call to sacrifice Isaac, and then the celebration of Christ, and then baptisms last week. We're jumping back into Samuel. So if you've been with us for a while, this is our normal pattern. We want to normally walk through books of the Bible. If we want to address a topic, we'll pick a text that addresses that topic. But for the most part, we're walking through books of the Bible, section by section. We finished 1 Samuel, and now we're getting into 2 Samuel. And, well, just by calling it 1 and 2, it, it kind of gives the idea there's two books. It's, it's one book. It's meant to be one story. It, it divides into really two helpful, clear halves. 1 Samuel being the rise and fall of Saul, and 2 Samuel being the rise and fall of David, all pointing to the one king we know now as Jesus Christ. But here we're looking at 2 Samuel and, well, the theme we want to think about at some level is waiting. Right? Here we are waiting. We're in the middle of a waiting period to get back to the life, well, we once knew, but we probably are aware that we're not going to go back to normal. We're waiting for what the new normal is going to look like. Hearing a sermon right now and waiting, I assume that would be kind of like listening to one during the DMV, right? Like your heart's restless. You're feeling that impatience. You're feeling kind of that anxiety. And now we're going to hear God address it. And so there's going to be some conflict, some wrestling. And I pray this helps us to see God, to know God, to desire to hear God. Waiting is difficult. Because it, at one level, it just feels unproductive. There's a fearfulness that comes with waiting. There's a desire to take things under our own control. There's a desire to feel like we're being more productive. God has prescribed waiting to be good for us. Because waiting is at least one wonderful reminder that it is not the work of my hands that saves me. It is not the work of my hands that restores me. It's the work of God. And so waiting is a way of being forced to seek, to find calmness and comfort from God above. Be still my soul and know that He is Lord. And then this morning we're going to think about that. From 2 Samuel. So if you'll turn there, we're looking at a big chunks, 2 Samuel 2 to 4, and I'm not going to read it in its entirety. I'm going to walk around and kind of, we're going to look at it from high above and try to get a big picture. And I wanna make sure we know where we are in the story. So we're gonna actually back all the way back to Genesis 12 here before we jump into 2 Samuel. In Genesis 12, God calls Abraham. Abraham's a pagan at the time, doesn't know God. And God in his kindness and in his grace calls Abraham, says, come, follow me, I will give you many children. That's surprising because Abraham and his wife are already old in age and have no children, she's barren. I'm gonna give you a land, and I'm gonna make you blessed, and I'm gonna use you to bless others. And Abraham follows. He abandons everything that would be safe, and he follows God. And then in chapter 15, after Abraham has failed to actually trust that promise, God again comes and repeats that promise. And Abraham believes him, and it's counted to him as righteousness. And then God gives him this ceremony. Cuts up two halves of dead animals. And, and the idea is whenever two people would walk through this kind of a ceremony, they're making a covenant. I will be as these animals if I do not keep my part of this agreement." Well, Abraham is put into a deep sleep and God walks alone, showing that he alone is going to keep this promise. Part of that promise is that his people will be in a foreign land for 400 years. And we fast forward to Exodus. We find in Exodus that they The people of Israel, they've been brought there for their protection. They've been brought there to multiply. They've, they've grown into such a multitude that the king of Egypt is afraid of them. So he enslaves them. And we hear the, the call of Moses, let my people go. After plagues, after the, the Passover, after the, the crossing of the Red Sea, God's people are free because God did it. He had the glory. And then God calls him to Mount Sinai, Exodus 19 to 20. He tries to establish his covenant with him by reminding him, you're my holy nation, you're my, my, my, my priesthood. And he gives him the Ten Commandments, and while he's speaking, this is who you are, and this is what I expect of you, they're making a golden calf. Why? Impatience. They get tired of waiting for God to tell Moses all that he is, and all that he was going to do, and all that he expects, and out of impatience. Build a golden calf. We fast forward further. That generation could not enter the land because they did not trust God to beat the enemies that they would have in that land. So Joshua takes over from Moses. Joshua leads the people into a land, the next generation. And they receive the land, but they did not take it all. And then Judges, just a wonderful transition between the patriarchs of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the 12 tribes, and then Moses. Judges declares, everyone did what was right in his own eyes. There was no king. Judges reveals there's a big problem. There's a lack of leadership. There's a lack of trust in God. There's a lack of a king. And so people continue to bow down to other gods. And then Ruth, that short, sweet little book, tells us about this woman of faith, but it also tells us the king that we need comes from the tribe of Judah, which was already known, but now it's specifically from Jesse. So now enter 1 Samuel. Samuel is a prophet, and the book begins with him being called, because the word of the Lord was rare. Now it's abounding, because Samuel has obeyed the voice of the Lord. But then the people say, we want a king. We want a king like the nations. God always wanted Israel to have a king. God is focused on being their king, who provides for them and protects them. But they wanted a king like the nations. And so in chapters 9 through 11, God anoints Saul and affirms him. And then chapters 13 to 15, Saul disobeys God, and God rejects him. And that brings us to David. So there's the rise and fall of Saul, and we see just kind of the ongoing consequences of Saul rejecting God, and God rejecting him. But in the middle of that, God gives us this, this little moment in, in 1st Samuel 16, which is important for where we are with David especially. God says to Samuel, go to the house of Jesse, and there you will find the next king. There's a feast, and so Jesse brings his sons, and he lines them up, and they all have different appearances of strength and beauty and wisdom, and as Samuel goes down the line, not this one, not this one, that one isn't it either. After seven sons fail the task of God anointing, Samuel says, is this it? Is there another son? Well yeah, the eighth son, the hangover, the leftover, this one who we treat like a servant. He's out with the sheep, but you surely don't mean him. Bring him to me." And this is the one God calls, because he's a man of God's own heart. And we see that little David, that little man, that young boy, well he then defeats Goliath, the giant that brought fear to all of Israel. All of this is Israel rebelling against God. All of this is God bringing about his purpose and his plan. And it seems slow, especially after God has called David in chapter 16. Then David has conquered Goliath. Then clearly David is the man that Israel really wants and needs to be a king. It seems slow. Then 1 Samuel ends with Saul's death. 2 Samuel begins with David greeting over Saul. And we would think the next thing that happens in chapter 2 is David becomes king. No. Seven and a half more years. David waits to be king over all of Israel. Seven and a half more years of conflict. As we look at 2 Samuel, again it's, it's the rise of David and the fall of David. David is a unique character in all Scripture. He's a, he's a poet. We have many of the Psalms from him. It's, it's incredible to see the way he prayed to God and was used to create a pattern of prayer to God for us. He's a significant one in that he is the chosen man that God said, you'll be a king and then one of your children will be a king after you. If you wanted to think about the whole timeline of Scripture, 2 Samuel 7 is one of the high points of helping us as the New Testament church see how God is fulfilling His promise and how they are fulfilled in Christ. It is a great hinge point where we see a lot of promises coming together and then later finally fulfilled in Christ. I want to organize our message with three questions. Again, we're taking a very, kind of, balloon ride here, where we're going to look at it from far above and ask some questions to capture what's going on. The first question is, what is happening? This is just, let's retell the story. Let's understand what's happening in the text. The second question is, what is God doing? Always a necessary question, because he is the main character of every story. And then, what is David doing? What is happening? What is God doing? What is David doing? Message this morning, simple statement, wait with confidence in God. Wait with confidence in God. There are three other options. You can take control of yourself. You can refuse to have confidence in God, but want to take control and have confidence in what you can accomplish. And what's clear in Scripture is anytime we do this, we always get less than what God would have given us. The second option is we can complain, because that always helps everything. We can complain. That at least makes us feel better for a moment. But that again is not confidence. That's complain—really, it's a confidence in our ability to see what's wrong. Third option is seek comfort in some kind of coping mechanism. This coping device is contrary to a confidence in Christ. Wait with confidence. Okay, so what is happening? Saul is dead. David refused to lay his hand on Saul. David even was convicted the time he touched the corner of his robe just to cut off a piece out of a reverence for God and his anointed. And so the thought here would be, okay, Saul's been the obstacle for David to be king. Now he would be king. But that's not exactly what happens. If we go to chapter 2, the first thing we see David do is inquire of the Lord. What would you have me do? Well, go to Hebron. And then David, and just the kindness of a king, and this really stands out here. When David was told that the men of Jabesh Gilead, that is the people of Saul, they, they honored Saul. They buried him. David blesses them. Saul was always opposed to David. Saul appears to be the obstacle and the problem of David, but David doesn't look at him like that. David looks at him as the way God has anointed him. He's the king of Israel. He deserves respect. And so he even blesses those who have blessed the man who made himself an enemy. Most of Saul's sons died. We now are introduced to Ish-b'shef as the one who will become the next king over Benjamin. Abner, one of the generals, he has organized a rebellion against David, and he is going to fight with Ish-bosheth. He is going to fight against David. David and Joab, or Judah, Ish-bosheth and Abner are Benjamin, and representing the rest of Israel. And we see there, verse 11, and the time that David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months. So in this waiting period, it's a long time. Seven years and six months. And, and if we were just to flip over to chapter three, there was long war between the house of Saul and the house of David. Verse six, well there was war between the house of Saul and the house of David. If you read the, the, the stories here of the Battle of Gibeon, they're taking each other by the head and thrusting the sword, and it's a, it's a vicious conflict. One of General Abner's brothers chases after Abner, and Abner kills him. And so you can see the conflict heightens between those two generals. Seven and a half years of conflict. Why, Lord? Why would you make us wait, would be a logical question. Chapter three also shows how everything falls apart. While there is a long war, and there's a long war, Ishbasheth challenges Abner over a relationship he has with one of Saul's concubines. And in response, Abner changes his allegiance. And, and what he says is, is one of the most important things we're going to meditate upon more. Look back at verse 8. Then Abner was very angry over the words of Ish-bosheth, and said, Am I a dog's head of Judah? To this day I keep showing steadfast love to the house of Saul your father, to his brothers, and to his friends, and have not given you into the hand of David. And yet you charge me today with a fault concerning a woman? Verse 9. God do so to Abner and more also if I do not accomplish for David what the Lord has sworn to him, to transfer the kingdom from the house of Saul and set up the throne of David over Israel and over Judah from Dan to Beersheba." And Ishmael could not answer Abner. If we go back to 1st Samuel, it was known far and wide David was meant to be the king. David has killed his ten thousands, and Saul only his thousands. It was, it was, it was, it was a common song sung. It was, it was common knowledge, and Abner of all people would clearly know, having been part of Saul's house. David was the promised one. What's actually amazing is that he's been fighting against David all this time, knowing that God has promised this, and now all of a sudden he's changed his allegiance. God. promised. He's sworn to him to transfer the kingdom. And this is a big turning point. We see it again as Abner seeks to make covenant with David. Verse 17, and Abner confirmed the elders of Israel, saying, for some time past you've been seeking David as king over you. Now then bring it about, for the Lord has promised David, saying, by the hand of my servant David I will save my people Israel from the hand of the Philistines. and from the hand of all their enemies." Abner makes a covenant with David. Joab finds out about this covenant, so Joab murders Abner. This is one of the more interesting parts here because David does not bring justice on Joab. He says, the Lord will avenge. The Lord will bring justice on you because you have killed a great man and a prince, verse 38. But you already feel this is like an ancient Near Eastern soap opera. There's infidelity, there's kingdoms, there's powers, there's battles, there's struggles. This is very chaotic. All the conflict. Where is the God of peace in all of this? He's actually orchestrating every single bit of it in just his right time. Chapter 4 shows the final stage here of the delay, and that is, Ish-bosheth is murdered by his own men, the men who led the raids. They go into his own house, they kill him in his own bed, they cut off his head, and they take it to David, thinking, if we'll show it to David, then he'll give us a place in his kingdom. Well, just as David did not respond well to the man who delivered Saul and the news that he killed Saul, David did not respond well to these men either. He even says, chapter 4, verse 9, And David answered, Rahab and Ba'anah, his brother and sons of Ramon and Barothite, as the Lord lives, who has redeemed my life out of every adversity. When one told me, behold, Saul is dead, and thought he was bringing good news, I seized him and killed him in Ziklag, which was a reward I gave him for his news. How much more when wicked men have killed a righteous man in his own house on his bed? Shall I not now require his blood at your hand and destroy you from the earth? And David commanded their heads. That's what's happening. 2 Samuel is full of murder, infidelity, war, waiting. This is the world we live in. This is a difficult time of waiting. And, and what's really amazing as we think about this is David's kindness, David's patience, and God's power. The next question I want to ask is just what is God doing here? Always the most important question we ask. What is God doing? Where do we see God? And, and He appears slow. Why all this conflict? Well God is driving his promise in his way, in his time. The first thing we see about God is back in chapter 2. David asks the Lord, what do I do? Where would you like for me to go? And, and God always speaks with the exact amount of clarity that we need in any given circumstance. God always speaks good, clear, kind words to his people when we ask questions like this. Now right now, you know, you might be thinking, I want to, I want to make a move. I want to, I want to move to a city. God, if I, maybe I'll just ask where, and he'll, he'll write it in the clouds somehow. Well, this is a very unique calling. David is about to be put up on the throne as the king of Israel, and so he needed to know the exact city. And God's very specific there. God might tell you the exact place you should go in some way. But what we need to realize is God's Word is so clear on how we should conduct ourselves, no matter where we are. God's Word is good to know the kinds of ways we should prioritize our time and our energy so that we can think about where we should be. God is good and kind in instructing his people. He's driving David closer and closer. His instruction is always sufficient. The second thing we see about God here is what we really need to focus in on, because it is a key declaration in our own text, and it's really a key way we think about God in all of Scripture. God makes and keeps promises. The first thing is he instructs his people with clarity. The second, God makes and keeps promises. This is, this is what's incredible. God, God is constantly coming down to a people who are rebelling against him and are failing and making promises. Once he binds himself to a people, he, he's committed. He cannot deny himself. And the Abner Declaration. Again, chapter 3, verses 9 to 11. Verse 9. If I do not accomplish for David what the Lord has sworn to him, to transfer the kingdom from the house of Saul. He knows what God has said, and now he's actually seeking to make himself aligned with that promise. Verse 18, again, repeats that same promise. Two applications, just real quick. One, God doesn't need Abner's help. Abner seems to think he needs to help God accomplish this. It is helpful. It is wise. It is right to say, if this is God's purposes, I want to walk alongside of them. I want to be part of them. I want to to work with them, not against them. It really makes you scratch your head. Okay Abner, for seven and a half years you knew David was the promised one. Why in the world would you be trying to set up Ish-bosheth? We don't have an answer for that question. But it is amazing how we might know the truth and yet for a long time work against that truth. That shows the twistedness of the heart. That shows the perversity that, that dwells within to, to know what God is saying, but yet work completely against it. It's amazing. He's known that David would be king. And working against it for seven and a half years. God does not need Abner's help, but we should seek to align ourselves in a way that Abner does. The second thing I want us to see about this promise for David, That promise is for us. The promise that David would be on the throne is for us. So that when Jesus Christ came, and then those, those children on Palm Sunday were declaring Hosanna, the Son of David in the highest, when Jesus himself was, was doing everything to fulfill, He is the promised King, all the way back to what was promised to David. So we would see. This is the forever king. Again, this is driving towards 2 Samuel 7. That's worthy of your reading every week while we get into this text. It's there where God tells David, no, you can't build me a house. I don't need your house. But I will give you a dynasty. I will give you a household. One of your sons will sit on the throne forever. I will be like a father to him. He will be like a son to me." See what's happening there in 2 Samuel 7 is God is not introducing really a brand new promise. He's, He's reiterating one and clarifying it. It's amazing. God created us good. He declared it good. God, God gave us a good pattern. He gave us good instructions. That's Genesis 1 and 2. God gave us a good warning. Don't eat of that one tree. There was one limitation. And then we were easily deceived and rebelled. And we run away from God. We hide from God. We try to isolate ourselves in the midst of our shame. And what is God doing immediately afterwards? He comes to us and asks that very gracious question. Where are you? Why aren't you with me? And then how soon after does he make a promise? I'm going to crush the serpent. I'm going to send a son who will be born of Eve who's going to crush the serpent. And from Genesis 3 on, as you think about the generations of man. those genealogies. We're looking for that one son. That one son. Genesis 12 makes it more clear. That one son is going to come from Abraham, from the, from the circumcised. Then Genesis 49, it's going to come from the specific tribe of Judah. And then Ruth of Jesse from Judah. And now we see David. We see that promise. A son is going to come to reverse curse. A son is going to come and he's not going to keep sinning and failing. He's not going to have his kingdom end. He will reign forever. It's amazing about that son and how he actually won the victory as he died. He died to destroy the power of death. He died to destroy the power of the devil. He died to destroy the power of sin. He died so that we were no longer enemies with God, but that we can be reconciled because we can confess our sin. We can be forgiven. He is the conquering, forever victorious King. Jesus Christ, the true Son of David, the real Son of God. We feel like we're in a world of long waiting, but we can look back and see God has always been faithful. If you're not a Christian this morning, it's difficult. This world is full of chaos, confusion, conflict. The seven years here must have felt forever in terms of the many people who died unnecessarily. I want to assure you, God is not slow. God is not distant. God is a God who cares and looks at His people and makes promises to heal us and help us. And the only thing I can tell you this morning is that as you look at Scripture, if you were to study Scripture, all of the promises of God are found as a yes and amen in Christ. If you want to know who God is, you need to study Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, the Gospels, one of the stories of Jesus Christ, who he is, what he came to do for you. He came to seek and save those who are lost. He came to die in our place for forgiveness. He came to rise again to give us new life. You need to know who Jesus is and believe in him. And if you want somebody to walk alongside of you and help you know that, please contact somebody at our church. We would love to help you see Jesus from the gospels. If you are a believer this morning, don't forget God is good. Don't forget that when things seem slow, when things seems unusually difficult, when things seem just, just nonsense, God is good. We want that immediate gratification. We want to be able to feel like we're in control. God is, He's with you. He's for you. He is bringing about His will. He is faithful. The third thing we see about God, the first was He instructs us. The second one is He makes promises. Third is a very simple statement that David declares. He's the final judge. Chapter 3 verse 39. The Lord repay the evildoer according to his wickedness. This is something that's very helpful because God is the ultimate God of justice. He will execute perfect justice. For the believer, we can actually step back and realize we don't have to take things in our own hands. We can, we can wait upon the Lord. Oh, that's so much easier said than to, to be done. We don't have to take matters in our own hands. Justice is God's delight. Justice is, is God's perfect will. He will repay. We're not called to repay evil for evil. We're called to, to overcome evil with good. We're, we're called to, to repay evil with good. Because Christ has come to overcome our evil with his own good. We can look back and we can see God is perfectly just because Christ died as the perfectly innocent and righteous one for us, so that we might be forgiven. God had to punish sin, and so Jesus came to be punished for us. So it had to be paid for. but not by us. We see his justice. We see his mercy. The final reference we see here of God is that he is the one David trusts. And again, it's a it's a small statement But he he declares very clearly very boldly as the the men are coming to try to get some kind of reward From David because they killed Ish-bosheth verse 9 as the Lord lives who has redeemed my life out of every adversity David did not need these men to help him. He was trusting the Lord Ish-bosheth was a problem. Ish-bosheth wanted David dead and just as he trusted God with Saul, he trusted God with Goliath, he trusted God with Ishmael, he trusted God with the lion and the bear. He knew the God of deliverance. He knew he could trust him. So we see from this passage it's very clear about God. He leads his people. He promises his people. He, he judges perfectly and he delivers his people. The last question is, what is David doing? What is David doing? Now I want to step back and just kind of give some questions I have. I'm not quite sure about some of the things of David. So with David, he executes judgment very quickly with his own word. The man who brought him news that he had killed Saul. And then we see him execute judgment very quickly with these men who came with the head of Isphosheth and said, we killed him. You're welcome. He responds with his own swift justice. This leaves the situation with Abner somewhat interesting. I don't have a judgment to make here, but it does seem kind of unusual that David is very quick to make a certain declaration of judgment with these men. But when it comes to Joab, somebody he's close to, somebody he's trusted, he's slow to make a judgment on him. He says it's the Lord. And maybe that's righteous. Maybe that's good. Maybe David is overlooking sin in his own household in a way that's unhelpful. So there's been a motif throughout 1 and 2 Samuel. The reason Samuel was needed was that Eli had not disciplined his sons. They were worthless men who were taking the sacrifices of God and eating it for themselves. Samuel was not a man who was raising up his own children and did not discipline them. With his own household, he would not correct his sons. We'll see in a little while, in a few weeks, David does not discipline or correct his son. He lets his raping son and his murdering son go without consequence. Interestingly, Saul has the one son who seems to be faithful, Jonathan. But we see here a warning motif. Throughout the entirety of Samuel is those who are in power oftentimes overlook the sins that are closest to them in their own homes, in their own company. I believe that could be what's going on with David and Joab. Well, what I do see clear is that David is pointing us to a king. He is foreshadowing. He is modeling the kind of king we really want. He shows kindness to his enemies. The family of Saul, Jabesh, Gilead, he blesses them. He offers his kindness to them. He is patient and trusting God. He expects God to have perfect justice. It's this kind of kind king and selfless king that we all long for. And here's the real news. David is not that king. We'll find out why later on in 2 Samuel 11. He is not the king. But here's what David is doing. He's pointing us to the true king. He's pointing us to Jesus. What's incredible about David is he trusts God so much he doesn't take matters into his own hands. He's selfless. He's kind. He gives himself over to his people. He doesn't cling to his power. He doesn't try to have control over it. Jesus came in the same way. Jesus came lowly. Not clinging to his deity. Not clinging to his divine rights of being in glory and being in power. Now he came lowly. He emptied himself, Philippians 2 tells us. He set aside his glory. He came considering others more important than himself. He came, Jesus did, considering others' interests more important than his own. Why? Because the Father had sent him for the appointed duty of becoming like us in every way, yet without sin. The Father had sent him, and he trusted the Father, and he committed himself to the Father, that he should come and be like us in every way, so that he in his death, he looked forward to his death at one level. Because he knew by his death he would inherit us into the kingdom. What a king of salvation. What a, a powerful picture of God's promises coming about in Providence. We can see David modeling at some fashion what it means to trust God. He's a foretaste of the king we're looking for. Jesus, who actually comes to be that perfect king. Because David is foreshadowing in a right way who that king will be, he's also, for us today, a model. He's teaching us. How we should consider others more important than ourselves in Christ. How we should consider others' interests more important. We're getting to a matter of stewardship here. David waited seven and a half years, not trying to control his own outcome, not trying to bring about God's promises, but waiting. Why? Because he trusted God. He knew that if he tried to insert his energy where it was not supposed to be, he would mess it up. It's exactly what he does later. David was able to trust God, to have a confidence in his timing and his power in a way that we see David here, he's a steward. You see, the kingship was something promised. It wasn't a right. It wasn't earned. It wasn't deserved. It was something promised and given to him by God. So when we think of God's positions, as we think of God's gifts as something we own, we think, I'm gonna use it for what I want. What we see is, I believe David is modeling here, a stewardship. God has given me the promise that I'll be king. I'm going to let him control when and how I will get that office finally. Owners say these things are mine and we're selfish. Stewards say this is of God. I'm going to hold it loosely and I'm going to seek to use it for God's glory. David here points us to Christ so that we can see we're stewards who have been bought by him. He owns us. And he's a good, kind, powerful king that we should seek to serve. As we conclude, how do we wait with confidence? How do we wait with confidence? A couple different directions we want to look. First, look back. Look back and just, as I try to do this very briefly, all the promises God has made. Look back and see how he promised hundreds and even thousands of years before fulfilling those promises. Look back and see how quick he is to make promises. Look back and see how faithful he is to stay committed to those promises. And then look back and see how he's orchestrated all of history to fulfill them. And Jesus Christ, who was born of a woman, born under the law, so that we might be born again. Look back. We have an entire history of God's work at our fingertips with Scripture. Look, look back. Secondly, look up. If we look up, we'll see Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand, because he finished the work. He died for us. He rose again. He's now ascended, having finished the work. We've been purchased with His precious blood. He is the forever King on His throne, as God promised. We're not alone. We're not out of control because we're under His control. Yes, we go through difficult times, but we do not have to do it alone. God is with us. We also look up, and we look up by reading His Word. There's promises for us today in the New Testament. It's not just promise in the Old Testament. There's promise in the New Testament. As we meditated earlier when Andrew read 2 Peter 3. He's coming back. God says He is with us. God says He will sanctify us. God says, I am faithful. I will surely do it. He is the good God that we need. We also want to look within, and I want to be very careful here. You look within for your own strength, you're going to take control and turn sideways. But look within and seek strength from the Spirit that seals you. Look within and try to hear that testimony of the Spirit that testifies to our spirit, that you are a child of God. Look within and feel and experience and know, because of Christ, that that Spirit who rose Him from the dead is also in you, giving you strength. Seek Him. And finally, look forward. This world is not the way it's supposed to be and it's not the way it always will be. There will be a new heavens and a new earth where there's no more death, there's no more sickness, there's no more tears, there's no more conflict, there's no more waiting. There's not gonna be any more sin. And we long for that day because when sin is removed, we will see God as He is, we will know ourselves as we are, and we'll be able to delight in Him without the perversion and twisting of sin in our own hearts and over our eyes. Look forward. Cry out, come Lord Jesus. Come quickly. Will you pray with me?