This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome to day two of week six of looking through First and Second Samuel. We're
going to look at Second Samuel, the first half of the second chapter as we
continue to look at these lessons from David about what to do in the midst of a
transition. Yesterday we looked at realizing that it would take time.

That's the hardest one of all for us. We want the transition to be about five
minutes and then we're fine, but it takes time to make a transition. And we
also, in a transition, need to recognize the significance of the past.

There's a third truth that we learn from David, and this is one of those times
in this truth that I see maybe most clearly what it means for David to be a man
after God's own heart. He always sought the Lord. He always talked to the Lord
about things.

He had this deep, close, personal relationship with God. So the third truth we
learn is you seek God's wisdom for the practical steps to take in the
transition. Not just, "Lord, should we make a transition?

" That becomes obvious after a while, but what are the steps to take? Lord, what
should we do in this moment? Listen to what David did.

Chapter two, verse one. "After this, David asked the Lord, 'Should I move back
to one of the towns of Judah? ' 'Yes,' the Lord replied.

Then David asked, 'Which town should I go to, to Hebron? ' The Lord answered.
David's two wives were Anoam from Jezreel and Abigail, the widow of Nabal from
Carmel.

So David and his wives and his men and their families all moved to Judah, and
they settled in the villages near Hebron. And then the men of Judah came to
David and crowned him king over the people of Judah. " David, this man after
God's own heart, instead of immediately moving to the main capital and trying to
take the throne, he asked the Lord.

The capital were solid, and he asked the Lord, "Where should I move? Should I
move back to Israel? What town should I move back to?

" See, you and I, we want the transition to be gotten through as quickly as
possible. But the truth of the matter is, the people that are around us don't
always think that way. And God knew this.

He knew that there needed to be time to walk through this transition for David.
People have to take time to gain trust in your leadership. So God says to David,
"I want you to move more to this county, this area, instead of the whole
country.

I want you to start leading there. " Now, the interesting thing to us as we look
at this conversation is the direct answers that David got from God. You think,
"I'd love it if I could get that kind of a conversation with God.

God, should I move here? Yes. Should I move into that neighborhood or that
neighborhood?

This is the neighborhood. " Wouldn't you love it if you got those kind of
answers? The truth of the matter is, we don't maybe have this exact kind of
conversation with God, but we do have two things that David did not have that
allow us to get the same kind of wisdom from God.

James tells us, "If anybody doesn't have wisdom, ask for it and God will give
it. " So how does he give his wisdom? Even in the practical details as we walk
through a transition, how does his wisdom come into our lives?

Two ways. Through God's Word and through God's people, who by the way are filled
with God's Spirit. Through God's Word written by God's Spirit and through God's
people filled with God's Spirit.

So when you're making a transition, you need to spend a lot of time in God's
Word and just let his Word speak to you. You're going to come across verses.
You're going to come across passages that speak to your heart.

If you're in a business transition, there may be a lot of business books you
need to be reading right now and you should read those books. There are some
practical things you need for wisdom. What should we do?

Who do we need to hire? But the truth is you also need to be reading God's Word
in the midst of this transition because you're going to hear truth from God's
Word that will help you to understand, "Oh, that's what the Lord wants me to do
in this situation. That's God's direction in this situation.

" He can give wisdom that you can get in no other book, obviously. It's
relational wisdom. It's deep wisdom.

If you're in a business transition, you might want to be reading through the
book of Proverbs right now because it's got a lot of business wisdom. If you're
in a relationship transition, you might want to be reading through any of the
Gospels or any of the New Testament letters. They give you great wisdom for
relationship transitions.

Read through God's Word. He will speak to you as you read it. And you also have
the wisdom you get from God's people.

You ask God's people. David went directly to God and he said, "Should I live in
Israel and then should I live in Hebron? " You and I can go directly to God's
people who are filled with God's Spirit and say, "Would you give me some advice
here?

What do you think? " Now, they're not perfect. They're not always going to give
you perfect advice, but when you start putting God's Word together with God's
people, you're going to get a sense of God's direction.

I want to remind you that leadership in the transition, when you talk to God's
people, it's not always doing what they say you should do. If you're trying to
lead a church or a ministry and you talk to a bunch of people and they say, "You
should do this," it's not always doing what they say you should do. Sometimes
leadership has to do more than what everybody is thinking.

That's why you need a leader. Leadership is always knowing and taking into
account what everyone is thinking, what everyone is saying. If you sense that
God is saying, "Do something different," then you can tell them why.

Then you can say, "I know we're all thinking this, but look at what God is
calling. " But if you don't listen to people, you're not even going to be able
to say that. You won't even know where they are.

So you have to listen to God's people and you have to listen to God's Word. Now,
seeking God's wisdom for the practical steps to take in the transition. David
asks some questions of God.

Should I move back to one of the towns? Which town should I go to? The question
I have of you is this.

What questions do you need to be asking God right now? What questions about your
family? What questions about your business?

What questions about your ministry? What questions about your own growth and
life? Where is it that you're facing a transition and in that place, where do
you need to ask God some questions?

You seek God's wisdom for the practical steps to take in the transition. There's
a fourth principle we learned from David. Fourth principle begins in verse 4 of
chapter 2 and that is you clearly identify yourself as the leader.

If God's calling you to be the leader and in transitions there are times when
all of us, God's calling you to be the leader, then you clearly identify
yourself as the leader. Listen to what happened in the last half of chapter 2,
last half of verse 4. When David heard that the men of Jabesh-Gilead had buried
Saul, he sent them this message.

May the Lord bless you for being so loyal to your master Saul and giving him a
decent burial. May the Lord be loyal to you in return and reward you with his
unfailing love. And I too will reward you for what you have done.

Now that Saul is dead, I ask you to be my strong and loyal subjects like the
people of Judah who have anointed me as their new king. David had been anointed
by Samuel to be king. So he knew where this story was headed.

He knew what God's will was. So although he's not yet over the whole nation,
God's told him not to do that yet, he did ask those where he lived and he asked
those with whom he was in relationship to be loyal to him as king. He stood up
and he said God has chosen me to be the leader.

To be the leader at some point you have to say that you are or you want to be
the leader. You have to act like the leader. A lot of people just sort of wait
for people to rise up and say hey you're the leader without them saying
anything.

That almost never happens. That almost never happens. No, you have to stand up
and say I'm the leader.

Now there are two problems with this that I see amongst followers of Jesus.
Number one, those who try to take leadership that's not theirs. They stand up
and say I'm the leader when they're clearly not the leader.

They're just filled with me with their pride or they think it's the right thing
to do. For whatever reason they say I'm the leader and they're clearly not.
David is our example there.

He waited until Saul was gone to say he was the leader. Before he became the
leader he waited for God to deal with the leader who was in place. He let God
take care of that one.

He didn't try to push too hard. He waited on God's timing. If you can't wait on
God's timing then you're clearly not the leader.

It's probably about your pride or your anxiety or your fear or something else.
When God has anointed you to be the leader you're able to wait on God's timing.
That's one problem.

But I'll tell you what. There's a bigger problem. And the bigger problem is
those who out of a kind of false humility refuse to take leadership that's
clearly theirs.

You say I'm not perfect. Who am I to lead? No one is perfect.

And who are you not to lead when God is pointing the way? So I see this false
humility in a dad who doesn't lead his kids in understanding God's truth. Who am
I to tell them about the Bible?

Let them find their own way towards whatever kind of truth they want to follow.
Because the dad knows his struggles or he's even having struggles right now in
his own life he refuses to lead even though God says you're the one who's
supposed to lead spiritually in the home. I see this in a woman who shrinks from
leadership in her company even though it's obvious to everyone that she's the
best person for the job because she feels like it would seem pushy to say that I
want to lead.

I see this someone in a ministry who constantly pushes others into leadership
positions even though they are clearly the most qualified and even the one who's
called because they're afraid of the criticism that might go along with
leadership. There are those moments in life when you have to take a risk and say
I'm sensing that God is calling me to lead here. I'm sensing that God is calling
something in my life.

That's part of the transition. And you may think I'm not a leader most of the
time but there are some times in all of our lives when God has called you to
lead and in those moments you have to take the risk to step forward to step out.
So what do we learn from David?

We learn to pray about the details as we walk through the transition. We learn
to say what you sense God is calling you to through the transition. Let's talk
to the Lord.

Let's pray to him right now. As we pray there may be some detail that came to
mind today as we were talking and I encourage you talk to him about it right
now. Just say Lord I need your wisdom in this.

What to do with my company. What to do in the company that I'm working with.
What to do at my school.

What to do about this move that we're thinking about. What to do with one of my
kids. What to do about this relationship.

Should we get married? Should we not get married? What to do Lord?

I need your wisdom. So as I read your word would you give it to me? As I talk to
your people would you give me your wisdom?

You said if anyone would ask for wisdom you would give it. So Lord I'm asking
for your wisdom in this detail of my life, in this decision of my life. And I
ask for this wisdom in the name of Jesus.

Amen. Tomorrow we're going to talk about the reality we don't like to face. The
truth that there is always conflict in the transition.