This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome back to our study of First and Second Samuel. This is week six, day
three. We're looking at the last half of chapter two through chapter three
today, just looking together at these principles of what happens in the midst of
a transition, whether it's in your school, in your personal life, in your family
life, in your business, in your church.

What do you need to know? The next one is one you need to know whether you're
the leader in the transition or not. Every one of us as believers needs to
understand this so we can pray during the transition, so we can seek God during
the transition.

Because the truth is in any transition, the fifth principle is you expect
conflict. Expect conflict in the transition because it's a transition.
Everything's up in the air and out of those times of everything being up in the
air, there is some inevitable conflict that goes along with that.

Now what kind of conflict am I talking about? Well, David is an example of that.
We can just walk through it in this second chapter and third chapter of Second
Samuel.

Others will claim leadership other than the one who's supposed to be the leader,
that kind of conflict. Because of that, loyalties will be divided. Some people
will be for this person and others for this person, that kind of conflict.

Chapter two, verse eight to 11, "But Abner son of Ner, the commander of Saul's
army, had already gone to Maonaiam with Saul's son Ishbosheth. " There try to
say that five times fast by the way, Ishbosheth is his name. "There he
proclaimed Ishbosheth king over Gilead, Jezreel, Ephraim, Benjamin, and the land
of the Asherites and the rest of Israel.

Ishbosheth, Saul's son, was 40 years old when he became king and he ruled for
Maonaiam for two years. Meanwhile, the people of Judah remained loyal to David.
David made Hebron his capital and he ruled as king in Judah for seven and a half
years.

" So here's others claiming leadership. Here's the loyalties that are being
divided and out of that, battles will happen. Now for them, in a battle culture
with armies and wars going on all the time, there's very clear battles.

Chapter two, verse 12 down to verse 17, "One day Abner led Ishbosheth's troops
from Maonaiam to Gibeon. About the same time, Joab son of Azariah led David's
troops out and met them at the pool of Gibeon and the two groups sat down there
facing each other from opposite sides of the pool. " Let me just pause there and
say, what a picture of this conflict that happens when we're in the midst of a
transition.

You're facing each other down opposite sides of the pool. Who's supposed to be
the leader? What's supposed to happen?

Then comes the battle in verse 14, "Then Abner suggested to Joab, 'Let's have a
few of our warriors fight hand-to-hand right here in front of us. ' 'All right,'
Joab agreed. So twelve men were chosen to fight from each side.

Twelve men of Benjamin representing Ishbosheth son of Saul and twelve
representing David. Each one grabbed his opponent by the hair and thrust his
sword into the other side so that all of them died. " All of them died.

So this place at Gibeon has been known ever since as the field of swords. A
fierce battle followed that day and Abner and the men of Israel were defeated by
the forces of David. When the leadership is in transition, everyone is trying to
position themselves to be leader.

The battle for us is not going to be as brutal or as clear as it is here. What a
terrible battle. But there will be battles.

Of course there will be conflict. There are those who have their own ideas about
who should be leader. There are those who have their own ideas about who should
be the follower.

And this happens in every arena of life. In a family, even in a family, forget
business, forget church, forget government. In a family, children are always
trying to position themselves to be in charge.

In every transition, they would love to position themselves as we're the ones
who set the rules. We're the ones who get to decide if we can eat ice cream.
We're the ones who get to decide how late we can stay out at night.

So every stage they go through, they're trying to transition themselves to be in
charge. It starts when they're babies. The baby comes into the house, that
transition, they try to be in charge.

The way that they cry, when they cry, how they cry. I understand some of those
tears are just that they're hungry. But how long does it take them to learn that
they can control you with their cry?

And they begin to try to be the leader in your home. So this is not something
that happens just in companies. It happens in every single family.

And in that family, you're to be the leader as the mom or dad. The principle
here is just because God has chosen you to be the leader does not mean someone
else will not claim to be the leader. They absolutely will for all kinds of
reasons, seemingly positive reasons, the loyalty to the past leader or love for
those who are being led, and then clearly negative reasons, their own personal
pride or ego.

Battles are going to happen. Loyalties are divided. Others claim leadership.

Conflict in the transition. But also out of that conflict, opportunities will
arise. In the conflict, opportunities arise for you to show yourself as the
leader, the one who has a heart for God.

Those opportunities arise over time, and they also arise in certain
circumstances. Over time, as you're faithful, as you continue to love, through
the battle, through the struggles, God works. God works to establish your
leadership.

God works to establish your influence. Chapter 3, verse 1, "That was the
beginning of a long war between those who were loyal to Saul and those loyal to
David. As time passed, David became stronger and stronger, while Saul's dynasty
became weaker and weaker.

" So if you're in a battle in your company, if you're in a battle in your
church, if you're in a battle in your family for leadership, as you're faithful
to God over time in this battle, you become stronger and stronger. And those who
are pushing in the wrong direction, those who are pushing out of their own ego,
they become weaker and weaker. God uses it as sort of a filtering process.

Over time this happens, but also it's important to understand even in specific
circumstances this happens. You never know what kind of an event or circumstance
the Lord might use to establish your leadership in the transition. For David, it
was Ishbo Sheth accusing Abner, his general, of sleeping with one of his
father's concubines.

And out of that, Abner gets so angry, he decides to support David. In chapter 3,
verse 6, "As the war between the house of Saul and the house of David went on,
Abner became a powerful leader among those loyal to Saul. One day Ishbo Sheth,
Saul's son, accused Abner of sleeping with one of his father's concubines, a
woman named Rizpah, a daughter of Aiya.

Abner was furious. 'Am I some Judean dog to be kicked around like this? ' he
shouted.

'After all I've done for your father Saul and his family and friends by not
handing you over to David, is this my reward that you find fault with me about
this woman? May God strike me and even kill me if I don't do everything I can to
help David get what the Lord has promised him. '" Abner says he's going to make
David king.

Now notice he doesn't deny what happened. He did commit this sin, but he thought
he deserved to commit this sin. He says, "I'm going to make David king.

" And then he goes to meet with David and tell him he's going to become the
king. So this maybe is how God's going to make David the king, but no, it's not
going to happen that way. He goes to meet and then Joab, the leader of David's
army, who isn't there, finds out Abner came and he thinks that Abner came to spy
and not support David.

So he chases Abner down on his way home and he kills him. This potential friend,
he kills him. So what's David going to do?

This is a great test of his leadership in this moment. He wins the hearts of the
people, not with his sword, but with his tears. David decides to openly mourn
the death of Abner, not act like it never happened, not support Joab.

In fact, he says, "This is on your head, not on mine," but he decides to mourn.
Listen to what happens in verse 31, "Then David said to Joab and all those who
were with him, 'Tear your clothes and put on burlap, mourn for Abner. ' And King
David himself walked behind the procession to the grave.

They buried Abner in Hebron, and the king and all the people wept at his
graveside. Then the king sang this funeral song for Abner, 'Should Abner have
died as fools die, your hands were not bound, your feet were not chained, no,
you were murdered, the victim of a wicked plot. ' All the people wept again for
Abner.

David had refused to eat anything on the day of the funeral, and now everyone
begged him But David had made a vow saying, 'May God strike me and even kill me
if I eat anything before sundown. ' This pleased the people very much. In fact,
everything the king did pleased them.

" Here is David. This conflict was messy. All didn't turn out as David had
hoped.

Mistakes were made. Sins were committed. But David did not allow the battle to
cause him to lose sight of the goal.

And David did not lose his character in the battle. And out of that, he mourned.
He mourned for Abner.

And that's what won the hearts of the people that day. Again, those two things I
just said. David did not allow the battle to cause him to lose sight of the
goal.

When you're in a battle for leadership in your family, in a company, in a
church, sometimes all you can see is the battle. Don't lose sight of the goal.
What God wants to do in your family.

What God wants to do through your company. How God wants to change the world
through your church. Don't lose sight of that goal in the midst of the battle.

It's not all about the battle. It's about what God wants to do. And secondly,
don't lose your character in the battle.

Others might. And that tempts you to lose your character. They start to say
things or do things that God's word clearly says, don't do that.

Build each other up. Don't tear each other down. They start to tear other people
down.

And everything in you wants to tear them down. It could even be your teenager
who's tearing you down. And everything in you wants to tear them down for what
they just said to you.

Don't lose your character in the battle. You see in the example of David, he won
this victory over the people because he continued to have a heart for God, even
in the midst of the mistakes and the sins and the realities of human life. What
a lesson about how to be a leader in the midst of a transition.

Our Father, as we pray, we ask that by your grace and through your power, when
we're in the midst of transitions and there's battles going on with people
around us, people we love, help us not to lose sight of the goal. The goal of
eternity, the goal of what you're doing in our lives. And Lord, help us not to
lose our character.

Your Spirit's working within us. You can give us strength that we don't have in
ourselves to continue to love even when people around us aren't loving. Continue
to be gracious even when people around us are being prideful.

Lord, let your Spirit empower us and let people know it's you and not us. And by
that, let people be drawn to you, we pray, in our family, in our school, in our
churches. Let them be drawn to you in our companies and our businesses.

We ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Well, tomorrow we're going to look at the
danger of shortcuts and the value of commitments.