This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

We're looking at 2 Samuel starting in chapter 4 today. This is week 6, day 4 of
our look through 1 and 2 Samuel. Chapter 4 and 5 as we continue to walk through
these things we learn from David about how to be faithful to God through the
transitions of life.

We all face them. There's a sixth principle that we learn in the beginning of
chapter 4 and that is watch out for those who want to take shortcuts. There's
going to be people around you who offer you an easier way to make the
transition.

How to get there more quickly. First principle was it's going to take time. So
the sixth principle is watch out for those who want to ignore the first
principle.

Chapter 4 verse 2, "Now there were two brothers, Baena and Rechab, who were
captains of Ishbo's Down in verse 7, "They went into the house, and they found
Ishbo's sheath sleeping on his bed, and they struck and killed him, and they cut
off his head. And taking his head with them, they fled across the Jordan Valley
through the night. And when they arrived at Hebron, they presented Ishbo's
sheath to David, 'Look!

' they exclaimed to the king, 'Here's the head of Ishbo's sheath, the son of
your enemy Saul, who tried to kill you. Today the Lord has given my Lord revenge
on Saul and his entire family. ' But David said to Rechab and Baena, 'The Lord
who saves me from all my enemies is my witness.

Someone once told me Saul is dead, thinking he was bringing me good news. But I
seized him and I killed him at Ziklag. That's the reward I gave him for his
news.

How much more should I reward evil men who have killed an innocent man in his
own house and on his own bed? Shouldn't I hold you responsible for his blood and
rid the earth of you? ' So David ordered his young men to kill them, and they
did.

Now here in ways that we never would, because David is king in a warrior
culture, David dealt very strongly and very quickly with those who wanted to
take a shortcut to leadership. Trying to take a shortcut to leadership says,
'It's in my hands, it's not in God's hands. It's in my hands, not in God's
hands.

' Notice what David says to them at the very beginning. In verse 9, 'The Lord
who saves me from all my enemies is my witness. ' He's saying, 'It's not in your
hands, gentlemen.

The Lord is the one who's going to save me from my enemies. ' When we take it
into our hands, that's when we know we're trying to take a shortcut. And you
know you're taking it into your hands and not leaving it in God's hands when you
break one of God's commandments, like don't murder.

You know you're taking it into your hands and not leaving it in God's hands when
you break one of God's principles, like be led by the Spirit, like be patient
with all men, all men and women, all people. David dealt extremely strongly with
this because he knew the danger of a shortcut. The truth is, everything in us
wants to take a shortcut to get to the leading as quickly as possible because we
don't like to wait.

But while you're waiting, God is working. While you are waiting to lead, God is
working on you. One of the most difficult times of waiting for leadership in all
the Bible is Joseph in the book of Genesis, waiting to lead all of Egypt and
therefore all the people of God as they came down to Egypt.

You might remember the story briefly, he first waited as a slave, he was taken
into Egypt as a slave and then he was accused as a slave and he was thrown into
prison. So then he waited in prison for 13 long years. He waits.

So what was happening? God was working. Psalm 105 verse 19 says this, "Until the
time came to fulfill his dreams, the Lord tested Joseph's character.

" Listen, God knows your dream and God knows the right time to fulfill that
dream and until that time he is testing you, he is growing you. God tested and
he grew Joseph's character. There are three problems with shortcuts.

They're short-sighted, they're short-term and you end up short-changed. First
they're short-sighted. Often our greatest ideas of how to get there quickly,
they're short-sighted because we can't see from God's perspective, we can't see
what God's doing.

We see it would get me my goal, but the truth is it wouldn't achieve God's goal,
which is going to last far longer than we could imagine. Our goal is just to sit
in the chair of leadership, but God's goal is what he wants you to do when you
sit in that chair of leadership. How he wants to work through your life in that
chair.

His goal is much, much longer-sighted than yours is. They're short-sighted,
they're short-term. Shortcuts are short-term solutions to long-term needs.

And when you take a shortcut, you release the pressure for a moment, but you end
up buying much more pressure in the end. So in a family, you can take a shortcut
by yelling, by anger, to try to get what you want as a parent instead of
discipline, instead of patience, instead of love. And maybe it'll work in the
short term, but in the long term, you lose out.

Much more pressure in the end. Short-sighted, short-term and you end up
short-changed. You seem to get what you want quicker, but you end up losing it
just as quickly.

Or even if you have it for a while, what you do just doesn't last. God wants to
build into your lives in ways, into your life in a way that lasts. That's why
shortcuts don't work, because God's plan is much, much beyond the shortcut plan.

So refuse those who want to take shortcuts to get to God's plan for your life in
the transition. And then there's a seventh principle. As you start to make the
transition, finalize it, the seventh principle is make a covenant with God and
his people to seal the transition.

Listen to what happens in chapter 5, verse 1. It's this moment of victory in
David's life. "Then all the tribes of Israel went to David at Hebron and told
him, 'We are your own flesh and blood.

In the past, when Saul was our king, you were the one who really led the forces
of Israel. And the Lord told you, 'You will be the shepherd of my people Israel.
You will be Israel's leader.

' So there at Hebron, King David made a covenant before the Lord and all the
elders of Israel, and they anointed him king of Israel. David was 30 years old
when he began to reign, and he reigned 40 years in all. He'd reigned over Judah
from Hebron for seven years and six months, and from Jerusalem he reigned over
all Israel and Judah for 33 years.

" Here's this moment. David has finally anointed king over all the nation. How
long did he wait?

Well, if you read this closely, he was 22 and a half years old when he moved to
Hebron, and he was 30 years old when he began to reign. Just think of this. 22
and a half years old.

He wasn't ready when he moved to Hebron to be the king of a nation. God was
working. He was changing his character.

The time was right at 30, and at that right time the people come to him and they
say, "We want you to be the leader. " And what does David do? When the moment of
leadership comes, when the recognition comes, make it a time not primarily for
celebration, but a time for covenant, for commitment.

David said, "This is what I commit to be as your leader. " When you are given
that time of leadership, that is the time to give back by saying, "This is the
covenant I make before God. " So you get a new position and a change to a new
office in your company.

You are now the leader of that division. You're the leader of that part of the
company. You're the leader of that crew.

You're the leader of that division at the school. That's the day that you say,
"I commit to lead with integrity. " That's the day you say it.

You make a covenant that day. So your child finally reaches out to you as their
dad in a blended family. They finally express love to you.

They finally express some kind of connection. That's the day that you say, "I
want you to know I will always love you. I'm committed to you.

" You celebrate the transition in your heart, but you make a covenant, a
commitment outwardly in that moment because that transition isn't for you. It's
for them and what God wants to do in their lives. So you finally become the
leader of the group that you've been wanting, that you've been a part of for so
long and so long you've been wanting to be the leader because you see a new
direction that could happen that could really make a difference.

When you become the leader, that's the day you say, "I'm asking for God's
strength and wisdom. " You say it publicly. You make a covenant with God and His
people to seal that transition.

Now as we pray today, I don't know what transition, we're talking about
transition all this week you might be a part of right now, but I know you need
God's comfort in any transition of life. I'm going to pray for you that God will
give you His strength and comfort. Lord, I pray right now that the transition
that we're facing, whether it's in family or in company, whether it's about
where I live or about where I work, it's about some discomfort even in my own
life.

What should I be doing? I pray right now you bring the comfort of your spirit,
the strength that only you can bring into this moment. Lord, if we're to be the
leader that you might mean for us to be on the other side of this, it's going to
come because we're trusting you.

So right now we trust you with this. And we ask Lord that instead of settling
for shortcuts, we wait for your plan. Lord, it's your dream.

It's your plan. And Lord, it's your work in our lives. And we want it so badly
because we want to do the right thing.

We want to be a glory to you. We want to let people see who you really are. But
Lord, that has to begin with you.

So instead of settling for shortcuts, Lord, give us the patience, give us the
strength to wait for your dream in our lives, what you want to be doing in our
family, in our business, in our school, in our company, in our church. We wait
for you, Jesus. In your name, amen.

Tomorrow we're going to see together that once you start leading, the transition
is not finished.