This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Well, welcome to Day 5 of Week 9 of our look through 1 and 2 Samuel, Chapter 23
we are going to look at today. This significantly is the end of our look at 1
and 2 Samuel, so congratulations. You have made it to the end of the study of
these two Old Testament books.

Not always an easy study. There are some things to wade through in this study,
but there is also great inspiration from God about our lives. And we have seen
as we walk through this study a focus on four particular men, Samuel and Saul
and Jonathan and David.

Samuel the man with an open heart, Saul the man with a troubled heart, Jonathan
the man with a divided heart, and David the man after God's own heart. And from
Samuel the man with an open heart, we have learned from a man who experienced
God's call and then helped others, helped us even as we walked through this to
experience that call in our lives. From Saul the man with a troubled heart, we
have learned from a man whose fear caused him to trust himself instead of
trusting God.

How dangerous fear can be in our lives. How dangerous allowing inferiority to
rule can be in our lives. From Jonathan the man with a divided heart, we have
learned from a man who some people might have called his life on this world a
tragedy, but the truth of the matter is he is a great success because he is a
man who never gave up.

He never gave up fighting, never gave up loving, never gave up dreaming. I want
to be that kind of man. And then we have learned from David the man after God's
own heart and we have learned about faith and humility and compassion and
worship.

This week we are learning about worship and you see the heart of worship that
David had in these verses we are going to look at today. In chapter 23 beginning
in verse 1, we get a rare peek into David's life. Not often do you get to hear
the final words of somebody's life.

Many times you are so weak you don't have the strength to say them. And even if
you do say them, nobody has the time to write them down, but David's last words
are recorded for us. Beginning in verse 1 of chapter 23, these are the last
words of David.

The oracle of David, son of Jesse, the oracle of the man exalted by the Most
High, the man anointed by the God of Jacob, Israel's singer of songs. The Spirit
of the Lord spoke through me. His word was on my tongue.

The God of Israel spoke. Like the rock of Israel said to me, when one rules over
men in righteousness, he rules in the fear of God. He's like the light of
morning at sunrise on a cloudless morning, like the brightness after rain that
brings the grass from the earth.

Is not my house right with God? Has he not made me an everlasting covenant
arranged and secured in every part? Will he not bring to fruition my salvation
and grant me my every desire?

But evil men are all to be cast aside like thorns, which are not gathered with
the hand. Whoever touches thorns uses a tool of iron or the shaft of a spear.
They are burned up where they lie.

So here's David, David who's described in these verses as a man exalted by the
Most High, a man anointed by the God of Jacob, Israel's singer of songs. And
here's David talking in these verses about where you and I find affirmation and
assurance as we face the end. He's talking about the end of life.

It could be the end of a ministry, it could be the end of a season in your life.
Where do you look for affirmation and assurance as you face the end? Now David
in typical form, he gives us this affirmation and assurance and then he says,
"Oh, by the way, God put down all my enemies.

" He was a man who was a warrior to the end. He faced enemies to the end. But I
want to focus on these three things that David looked to in these last words
that were for him in the end, a place of affirmation, a place of assurance.

Where are you going to look in the end, at the end of a ministry? Where are you
going to look at the end of your life, at the end of a season of raising kids,
at the end of whatever you're facing of a business career or being in a company?
Where are you going to look for affirmation?

Where are you going to look for assurance? David looked to three things. First
he looked to the words that God had spoken through him.

And to him, by the way, he looked to the words that God had spoken through him.
One of the places that you look for affirmation, assurance in your life is by
asking yourself the question, "What is the communication that God wants to make
through my life? How does God's Spirit want to speak to others through my life?

" And when you come to the end of anything, you look back and you say, "How did
God use me to encourage someone? How did God use me to bring someone into his
presence? How did God use me to help someone to understand the love that he has
for them?

" Maybe it was a single word, maybe it was a teaching that you gave or an entire
sermon. Usually it's just a sentence, the right time and the right place to help
people to wake up to the light of God in their lives. If you can't think of
anything right away, you're like a lot of us.

These affirmations don't come to our minds easily, but ask God to bring them to
mind. "God, would you bring to my mind those times when your Spirit spoke
through me? " That's a place of affirmation.

A second place of affirmation that David talks about in these verses is he talks
about the actions that he'd taken out of his fear of the Lord. Now, remember,
the fear of the Lord is not being afraid of God, it's having this deep
awe-filled respect for God, for who God is, his presence, his character. And
because of who God is, David says, "This is what I did.

" He talks about his leadership because he was a leader. And he says, "Somebody
who leads out of fear of the Lord, they're like a bright day. They're like the
sunshine after the rain that makes things grow.

And God, that happened in my life. Because I feared you, this is what I did, and
this is what happened. " So how about your life?

Where have people been caused to grow? Maybe somebody in your own family, maybe
somebody at a place of work, maybe somebody at a school. Because of your respect
for God, your love for God, you spoke up, you showed up, you acted in love, you
acted in compassion.

When no one else cared, you cared. That's a place of brightness in your life.
That's a place of affirmation in your life.

And David looked back to those places. At the end of life, he didn't look back
to all the battles that he had won. He didn't look back to all the trophies he
might have had on his wall.

Look at all those swords that I have won from all of my enemies. He didn't even
look to the place of Jerusalem, his greatest dream, the city of David. He looked
at the fact that he'd feared God, and he'd acted on that fear, and God had
worked in his life through that.

But then third, and maybe most significantly, where do you look for affirmation?
You look at God's promise. David looked at the promise that God had made to him.

And did you notice as I read through that, the phrase he used? He says, "God is
an everlasting covenant, arranged and secured in every part. " God did the
arranging, God did the securing, and it's God's everlasting covenant.

And because of that, David says, "I have a house that's made right with God. "
Because of that, David says, "I have a salvation that's been brought to
fruition. " Well, when you and I look at the promise that's been made to us in
Jesus Christ, it is an everlasting covenant, arranged and secured in every part.

For God so loved the world that he gave, he gave his only begotten Son. God
arranged it. God arranged it.

That whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life,
secured in every part. When you come to the end of something, sometimes it's
difficult to find the affirmation that you want to in the words you've spoken or
the actions you've taken. We forget the words, we forget the actions, but I'm
telling you, if we have nothing else, we have the promise of God.

And you look at that promise that God has put into your life, it is secured no
matter what. And that's what you hang on to. When Satan tries to bring a moment
of doubt about what you did or what you didn't do, what your life stood for or
what your life didn't stand for, you stand on the promise of God.

You stand on that everlasting covenant that God has made for us in Jesus Christ,
arranged and secured in every part. God has made your life to demonstrate his
faithfulness. And the greatest way we demonstrate it is because we're saved,
because our salvation has been brought to fruition because of what Jesus did for
us.

And so David, at the end, what does he look to? He looks to the Spirit of the
Lord, the fear of the Lord, and the promise of the Lord. And he says, "That's
where I find my security.

That's where I find my affirmation. " Let's find it together right now in him.
Let's talk to the Lord together.

Lord, as we come to the end of this study, our first and second Samuel, we end
it by looking at David's last words. We want to have that kind of heart. Lord,
looking to you for affirmation, not some honor that men, women, clubs, countries
would give to us, but you.

And so we look to your words spoken by your Spirit. We look to faithful actions
that come out of our love for you and our respect for you, God. We look to your
promise that on the cross of Jesus Christ was arranged, was secured at every
point, in every place, in every part.

And God, we know we can stand there, and we do stand there right now in this
place of security thanking you for who you are. Let us carry that into our lives
today, the security that we have in our relationship with you, knowing that in
one way we come to these end points in life, but in another way there is never
an end, because we have an eternal life in you. And so we thank you for that.

We praise you for that. In the name of Jesus, Amen. Well, thank you.

I am grateful that you joined us for this study of 1st and 2nd Samuel, and I
want to invite you to join us. Come back next week for our continuing study in
Drive Time Devotions, and you can just keep up with our week-to-week study, or
you can go to drivetimedevotions. com and pick from almost any of the books of
the New Testament, many of the books of the Old Testament, and just pick the
book that God wants to speak to your life through right now and begin to listen
to it.

I am so grateful for you. I'm grateful for your love for God's Word, that you
spent this time together in learning God's Word and living it out in your life.
That's what I want to do, that's what I want you to do, and I'm grateful that
you have that heart for God.

I'll see you for our next study in Drive Time Devotions.