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Welcome to day four of our eighth week. We're looking through 1st and 2nd
Samuel. I want to go back today and pick up a verse from chapter 15.

It's a verse that reminds you of something in the life of Christ. We haven't
talked about this much in our study through 1st and 2nd Samuel. David's life is
a foreshadowing of the life of Christ.

It's what's called by people sometimes a type of the life of Christ. You can see
types of Christ in the people in the Old Testament. God helps us to see in
advance what Jesus is going to do.

They're not perfect. They're not the ones who came to give themselves for our
sin, but these people of faith in the Old Testament do show us what Jesus is
going to do someday. So you have Abraham willing to sacrifice his only son.

That's a type of Christ that's looking forward to what Christ is going to do.
You have Moses leading God's people from slavery into the promised land, looking
forward, picturing in advance what Jesus is going to do. And you have David.

You have David, a shepherd, who establishes a kingdom for God's people. Jesus is
our great shepherd, and Jesus is our great king. And the Bible tells us that
David's line is going to be the line out of which Jesus comes.

So you see in a broad way the fact that these men, the lives of these men, and
some of these pictures in the Old Testament help us to see the life of Christ.
But there's also glimpses in some of the occurrences, the circumstances of their
life that help us to see Jesus. And one of those happens in chapter 15, verse
23.

David has been chased out of Jerusalem by Absalom. This is before the battle,
before Absalom dies. David is fleeing Jerusalem.

And in chapter 15, verse 23, the whole countryside wept aloud as all the people
passed by. And the king also crossed the Kidron Valley, and all the people moved
on toward the desert. As difficult as you read, David passes across this Kidron
Valley.

It's difficult not to see a parallel in the life of Jesus. David is betrayed by
his son. He crosses the Kidron Valley as he flees from Jerusalem.

And Jesus, the night before he dies, he is betrayed by Judas, and he crosses the
Kidron Valley as he goes to his arrest in Gethsemane. John chapter 18, verse 1
says, "When he had finished praying, Jesus left with his disciples and crossed
the Kidron Valley. On the other side there was an olive grove, and he and his
disciples went into it.

" You know, when you think about history, there is this phrase that you might be
familiar with, "Crossing the Rubicon. " It's from the life of Caesar in 49 B. C.

when the armies crossed that river, there was no turning back. So we use that
phrase still today, "Crossing the Rubicon. " I've crossed to a place where
there's no turning back.

There's a different picture here, the picture of crossing the Kidron. This is
the picture of walking away from your greatest hopes, betrayed by your closest
friends, and walking towards Gethsemane. In the life of David, it was walking
away from Jerusalem, that capital city that he had captured.

It was walking away from his dreams for his son, the relationships that he would
have had if all had gone right. It's walking away from all of that. As he walks
away, he has to cross this Kidron Valley.

For Jesus, it's walking away from the upper room, the time with his disciples,
talking to them about what it meant that he would give his body, that he would
give his blood for them. But then Judas, he says, "One of you is going to betray
me. " And Judas walks out of the room, going to betray Jesus.

And Jesus is walking to Gethsemane, a place where he will pray, but a place
where he will also be arrested. Walking away from greatest hopes, betrayed by
closest friends, walking towards your Gethsemane, God's glory is on the other
side of Gethsemane. The cross, the resurrection, they're on the other side of
Gethsemane, but none of us want to go through Gethsemane to get there.

I don't, you don't, none of us do. Instead of crossing the Kidron, everything in
us wants to run somewhere else, to be somewhere else. I would rather live in
denial in Jerusalem, pretending that none of this is happening.

My son isn't betraying me. This is going to all work out. This is going to be
okay.

Let's just hide somewhere for a while until this all blows over and it's all
okay. I'd rather live in denial than cross the Kidron. But that's not reality.

Reality is sometimes we do face betrayal in this life. Reality is sometimes not
only do people betray us, but life betrays us, our own bodies betray us, our
health betrays us. Crossing the Kidron, what does this mean?

It means David was willing to admit what was happening and go to the place where
healing could begin. It meant that Jesus was willing to admit what was happening
and go to the place where my healing, your healing could begin because he would
be sent to the cross out of that place. Crossing the Kidron means you have been
honest about the fact that a betrayal has happened, that life has fallen apart,
that a hurt has happened in your life, and that there is now a new reality that
was not your dream that you have to live with.

Sometimes, like David, it involves one of our children and what we dreamed they
would become, it's not what they have become. Maybe it's because of health
problems in their life. Maybe it's because of poor choices in their life.

Maybe one of your children is in prison right now or in a hospital right now and
it wasn't your dream. There comes a point in our lives where we have to cross
the Kidron and realize this is the reality that I have to live with and God can
still work in that child's life. Not like I wanted them to, but God's still
real.

He's still at work. He still has a plan. Sometimes it involves a health
challenge in our own lives.

We had a dream for what retirement was going to be. We had a dream for how we
were going to build a business and then all of a sudden this health problem hit
and the dream is not being lived out. There comes a moment when instead of
living in denial, pretending that it never happened, we have to cross the Kidron
and say this has happened in my life.

This is where I am in my life. So God, what's your plan from this moment on?
What's your plan on the other side of the Kidron?

I leave the old plan behind. It was a good plan. It was a good dream.

People may have even affirmed that it was God's dream in your life, but things
have changed now in your health and so I leave the old plan behind and I step
across maybe not quite knowing where I'm going, but knowing I can trust God even
there. Sometimes we have to cross the Kidron because of the loss of a business
dream, a ministry dream, the loss of a job. Sometimes we have to cross the
Kidron because of a failed relationship, a divorce that you never wanted, but
then the divorce papers, they came that day.

It's the reality of your life and you can live in denial in Jerusalem the rest
of your life or you can cross the Kidron and realize, and realize God's there.
He's there on the other side of the Kidron. You see, you and I, we can get stuck
in our hurt.

We can stay there the rest of our lives or we can cross to a new place. It is
not the place you wanted to be. I understand that, but God is there in that
place you didn't want to be.

God is there in that place you did not want to be. Would you pray with me? And
in prayer, would you bring that dream in your life that may have been shattered,
would you bring it to God right now?

And just a moment of honesty, say, God, this is not my plan. This is not how I
would have done it. And God, I would rather, everything in me wants to move back
to where it used to be, but Lord, I realize that's not going to happen.

And so in faith, I cross to the other side of the Kidron with my marriage, with
my children, with my job, with my dream. And Lord, I know that you'll meet me
there. I know that your plan is greater than my dream.

I know that you don't have a plan B for my life, as if now that this failure has
happened with them or with me, that you can't be working in my life. I know that
you can be working in my life even now. And yes, Lord, it hurts.

It may always hurt. But it doesn't mean that you do not have a plan. You do not
have a grace to show me, even now.

So Lord, in faith, instead of trying to hang on to some past that's never going
to be again, in faith, I cross to the other side because I know I can trust you
to be there. You've been there before me. You will meet me there.

You have a plan for me there. I trust you with this. In Jesus' name.

Amen. Join us tomorrow. We're going to see David showing compassion, even in his
most difficult of days.