Dads need to be involved
Key Passage: 1 Kings 1:1
Date: June 7, 2024
First Kings chapter number one. First Kings chapter number one. And we are nearing the end of David’s life.
Would you please stand if you’re able to just to show the word of God respect? First Kings 1, and verse number one. The Bible says, “Now King David was old and stricken in years, and they covered him with clothes, but he got no heat.” I will not read the next couple of verses, but they found a young lady that was very fair. The Bible says she was a good-looking woman, and she was a shudomite. Very interesting. The shudamites must have just had, you know, over in Song of Solomon, the lady in that is a Shulamite. And so the message had been pretty ladies. I think my wife is a Shulamite, amen. That’s what it is, you know.
But David didn’t know her, but she really kind of ministered to him, if you will, in his old age. I never came together. But we’re going to bypass that, and just kind of wanted you know the bearing here. David died when he was 70. So he may be 70 already now, but he’s somewhere close to that. We know that. And it’s to the point his health seems like he’s in bed a whole lot. Some, I was listening to a Bible teacher basically about it. He said he was seen out at this point, but I don’t see that anywhere in Scripture. But he’s old. I guess when you get there, you get cold real easy. But David was there, and he was somewhere around 70 years old at this point.
Jump down to verse number five there, First Kings, one. And verse number five: “Then Adonijah the son of Haggith exalted himself, saying, I will be king,” and he prepared him chariots and horsemen and 50 men to run before him.
Now, Adonijah—who in the world is Adonijah? Adonijah was the fourth son of David. Probably the oldest living son at this point. We know Amnon’s gone. Absalom, he was the third, he’s gone. The second, we think he died young, but we don’t have any proof of that. And so we think this is the oldest living boy of David, Adonijah.
So some would say, well, he’s in line to be the king. At least he thought that or wanted that. Of course, David had already told Bathsheba that Solomon would be the next king. But Adonijah, he didn’t see it that way. And Adonijah wasn’t the best boy in the world, that’s for sure.
The Bible says so much in two words right here. There’s such a key, two words in verse number five. Anybody want to guess what those two words are? Yeah, y’all got it right on the nose. Man, I’ll tell you what, y’all are smart out there. Anybody see a problem with that? He exalted himself.
Look over in the New Testament. Look over in Luke chapter number 14. Jesus here is talking about that very subject. And Jesus was going with the Pharisees to eat at a feast or supper on the Sabbath day. And Jesus watches as the Pharisees come in there and how they set in their pecking order, if you will. They had positions or rooms, the Bible calls it, of different elite. And Jesus is watching how the people come in and seat themselves.
Look in chapter 14, and would you look in verse number seven, please, verse number seven. And this is Jesus, and he put forth a parable to those which were bidden when he marked how they chose out the chief rooms, saying unto them, “When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, set not down the highest room, lest a more honorable man than thou be bidden of him. And he that bade thee and him come and say to thee, give this man place. And thou begin with shame to take the lowest room.”
If you will, all the other rooms are filled up, so you got to go all the way down to the bottom of the totem pole, you see. But when thou art bidden, go and set down in the lowest room, that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say to thee, “Friend, go up higher.” Then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee.
Here’s the principle, found out here in the New Testament. Here it is: “For whosoever,” notice that whoever—for whosoever, doesn’t matter what they look like, what their personality is, what their talents are—“for whosoever exalteth himself shall”—shall! Did you get that?—“shall be abased. And he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.”
Now, friend, nobody goes against the principles of God and wins. Nobody does. This Adonijah, he was a good-looking young man. He seemed like he had charisma and could persuade people and probably a very talented group of the palace and the oldest of the boys at that point and all that. But he didn’t win, friend, because he was trying to exalt himself.
It’s a sad thing when you see God’s people trying to say who they know and where they’re at and they’re always just trying to exalt who knows and who’s told them this and just always trying to exalt themselves. Friend, when God’s people try to exalt themselves, they’re included in that principle. They shall be abased. The person that’s always trying to lift himself up never stays up very long.
I think about Brother Bobby Robertson, what a just a humble man of God he was. How many of you know Bobby Robertson? I talk about him from time to time, Walker Town, North Carolina, just a man of God. I pastored that church for over 40 years, maybe 50, I’m not sure, but years and years. God just had his hand on him just to thousands. I think of their heyday, they’d run about 3,000 or so. Brother Bob, just such a humble man. We had him preach for us years ago and just so enjoyable to be around him. I, of course, pastored a small church and he a large church. He never acted like a big shot, if you will, not one time. Just down to earth.
But I saw him—it wasn’t when he was preaching for us. He was in the area. I did not know he was in the area. I am… I just went to a real good place and just happened to see him there. It’s called Cracker Barrel. Down in Murphysboro. Anyway, we’re down there, and Brother Bobby was there with a group of other preachers. And they had put tables together—I’m not sure, eight, ten people there at that table. Now, Brother Bobby, he had more people in his church than anybody at that table by far. By far. I mean, times what, you know, probably add all of our attendance together, and he had more for sure. I’m sure about that.
But when I watched, there’s another preacher there. He’s a good man. I know him. He’s a good man. But it’s just one of those guys that’s got to be the top dog, the loud one, the one that everybody’s kind of paying attention to, that type of thing, you know. And everybody’s getting different personalities. I mean, I’m not talking about him, but I watch Brother Bobby. He was the oldest pastor, the oldest preacher there. We didn’t sit down and eat with him; we just talked a brief little bit, and then we went on.
But so, what I watched: Brother Bobby was not at the end of the table. He wasn’t at the head of the table where the other preachers were. And he was sitting kind of, you know, on the side there. And I watched as another, and maybe a couple of them, just dominated the conversation. And I watched Brother Bob; it just seemed like he almost—it seemed like he didn’t mind it a bit in the world, maybe even almost enjoyed it. I mean, he had food kind of like that seemed like his attitude to me: “Man, I got some good food. Hey, I’m happy.” And you could just kind of see he humbled himself.
Now, if anybody needed to be treated with respect at that table, it would be Brother Bobby. But he was just very humble about it. He wasn’t trying to impress or lift up or, of course, he didn’t say anything about his church. He just let the others dominate, if you will. He was a younger pastor. I just watched that, and I was amazed.
But here’s the thing: you humble yourself.
I believe it was after that, maybe a couple years after that, I was at a conference, First Baptist Hammond, at pastor school, thousands of people there. And they wanted to honor some preachers that had been in the ministry a long time. And specifically, they honored Brother Bobby. And I’m talking about thousands of people there. And they played, I believe, a video of his life a little bit in a huge auditorium. And then, literally, literally, they drove—no, maybe they pushed it in there. I think they pushed it. But they pushed a Lincoln Town Car—ours are big enough to fit it in there—and they pushed that, and they gave it to Brother Bobby in front of everybody. Man, thousands of people just clapping and cheering and honoring him. And my mind thought, “Wow. You humble yourself, and he exalts you.” But Adonijah, he was doing the flip of that. He was trying to exalt himself.
Of course, it did not work. We’ll try to get into it a little bit here. But you know the Bible—it’s very interesting. I pointed this out so many times over the years. I don’t want to belabor the point, but the Bible is more than just not being proud. It goes farther than that. It doesn’t just say, “Don’t be proud.” It’s that for sure. But the Bible tells us to humble ourselves. You know the verse, very familiar verse, Second Chronicles 7:14. You could quote it yourself. “If my people,” the great verse for the nation. Years ago we went to the Ronald Reagan Library over in California. And in the Bible, his Bible—I believe it was his mom’s Bible—was in a glass case. And you could look in there, and it was open to Second Chronicles 7:14. It had written in there—you could tell just years ago somebody wrote in there, maybe his mom and his grandma—but it had written in there, “Great verse for a nation.” That’s just a wonderful way. But in that verse, you know, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves,” where it starts it. Now, God’s very capable of humbling you, but it’s not talking about that. It’s talking about us humbling ourselves.
We mentioned it Sunday morning in the message over in James 4. And it says, “Humble yourselves, therefore, in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.” First Peter 5:6: “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.” See, the Bible is speaking of us humbling ourselves.
Adonijah was doing the opposite of that. Now, if anybody has the right to exalt themselves, it would be Jesus Christ. I mean, he’s the Creator. There’s never been anything that he did not make, John tells us. And he’s our Savior, and he’s God, he’s the Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, and all along. And if anybody has the right to exalt themselves, it would be Jesus Christ. Do you agree? Oh, for sure.
But look over, if you will, in Philippians chapter number two. And let’s find out about Jesus. He had the right to exalt himself. I’d vote three cheers for Jesus, exalted himself. He has a right to do that. But let’s look at this saying Philippians 2—it is amazing, Jesus. Philippians 2. And when you look in verse number five, Philippians 2 and verse number five about Jesus Christ, you’re there tonight? Say, “What did you say?” Hallelujah. Good deal. Good deal. You’re there. Verse number five: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” All right, so we’re supposed to have this mind, the mind that Jesus had. Here it is. He explains it to us: “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God.” He knew who he was. He understood that. He knew his deity. He’s God in flesh. He understood that. But, here’s an amazing thing: “but made himself of no reputation.” Wow. I find myself doing the opposite of that sometimes. Now, we like to mention our good things, don’t you? Jesus, he made himself of no reputation. It’s amazing. He didn’t go around if he killed talking himself up and talking about all his good points. He made himself of no reputation. It’s amazing. “And took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself.” I mean, he had the right to exalt himself, but Jesus humbled himself, just like the Bible tells us to do, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
Friend, can I just say this? No one has ever humbled themselves as much as Jesus because no one has ever started off as high as Jesus. And he humbled himself all the way down. He became obedient unto death. I mean, he let them spit on him. That’s pretty humbling. He let them pluck his beard out. He let them drive those nails in his hands. He let them put that crown of thorns on his head. He let them put that spear in his side. He humbled himself and became obedient unto death. Wow, nobody’s ever humbled himself like Jesus did. Started off higher than anyone, and he laid down his life.
Watch this. Look at this thing here. It’s amazing. What an example he is. Verse number nine, if you would please: “Wherefore, because he humbled himself unto death, even the death of the cross, wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” Woo-hoo! God says, “I see my Son humbling himself like nobody else, and I’m going to exalt him like nobody else. Everybody is going to bow the knee to Jesus Christ.” God exalts him. Now that’s our pattern. That’s how we’re to live life. We humble ourselves. We don’t go around making ourselves a reputation. We humble ourselves; he exalts us. This old world is flip-flopped, and that’s why they’re falling flat on their face all the time, too.
Adonijah, this old man, king—and he’s exalted himself. He’s lifted himself up. And we have time, we’ll get it tonight, but he gets humble pretty quick, or humbled, I should say.
He’s a great preacher. He’s in heaven now. God used him in a great, great way. If I would say his name, I think many, maybe all of you know. I just sometimes don’t use it just because of controversy or whatnot. But his young man, he played high school football, and, you know, he was quarterback. And, you know, the high school football quarterback is a little bit, you know, treated like a king in high schools, especially in country towns and whatnot, you know, maybe in Tennessee a little bit. What do you all say out there?
And this young man, he had graduated, and God had called him to preach. And he was out of football and all that. He was graduated, but he was about to go off into the ministry. And so he went out on that football field at nighttime, nobody there but just him. And he went out on that football field, and he was praying, just walking up and down that football field that night, and, “Lord, would you use me?” He’s just praying, just having one of those prayer meetings. And just praying, “Lord, would you use me?” And he said he felt like the Lord just wasn’t quite satisfied, if you will.
And so that man, he said, on that football field, he got on his knees. And he said, “Lord, would you use me?” He said, “I didn’t feel like the Lord was quite satisfied with that yet.” And so he said he actually just laid down on the football field. He said, “Lord, would you use me?” And he said it felt like the Lord just wasn’t quite satisfied quite yet. And so he actually put his face in the dirt on that football field. And he said, “Lord, I’m asking, would you use me?” If I’m going to be ministered, would you use me, Lord? And it felt like the Lord wasn’t quite satisfied.
So he actually took his finger and dug a little notch in the dirt. And he laid back down. And he put his nose in that little notch. And he got about as low as he could. And he said, “Lord, use me.” I’ve heard him tell it. He said, “I would be lying if I didn’t say I felt like God put his hand on me that night.” Had an incredible ministry. God exalted him.
Friend, that’s God’s pattern in His Word. We humble ourselves, and the Lord, he shall lift you up. Oh, Adonijah is doing the opposite of it. Let’s find out what happens with Adonijah. Would you please? We’ll go back over to First Kings. And we’ve been in verse number five, verse number five of chapter number one, First Kings.
And he’s trying to exalt himself, and he’s got the chariots and the horsemen and 50 men to run before him. Kind of reminds him a little bit there. Verse number six: “And his father, that’s David, had not displeased him at any time.” So sad. David was such a great king, but just a sorry father. And it’s such a sad thing. And his father had not disciplined—or excuse me, displeased him at any time in saying, “Why hast thou done so?” And he also was a very goodly man, and his mother bare him after Absalom.
Here’s the thing: Adonijah, his dad had never disciplined him. Never displeased him. If you’re going to have some good kids, every once in a while, you’re going to have to displease them. A lot of different ways that happens. You can say amen on that. I mean, if you want good kids, that’s going to be part of the formula. You’re going to have to displease them sometimes. Oh, old David, David just never would be an involved dad. Even here, even here, David never really goes over to Adonijah and disciplines him in any way. He just directed Solomon to be on the throne, but the Bible never even at this point records him getting on to Adonijah. Such a sad, sad thing.
Children need discipline. I do. Moment to moment, God gave them to you, and they’re not going to be gold. Now the gold, the diamond of you is in there, but they’re not going to come out like that. You’re going to have to chisel away at that. You know, in the Bible says over in Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” You know that word “train”—what does the Strong’s Concordance say? It means to narrow up. You know why? Because they’re going to want to go this way and that way. And it’s your job, parent, to narrow them up.
We had parents in here then time, “Well, I’m just going to let them do what they think is right.” Friend, we’re not even supposed to do what we think is right. That’s what they did in the book of Job, and it was a disaster. My job, your job, is to narrow them up. Now, when they’re young, when they’re young, that typically means spankings. Y’all can say amen out there. Benjamin Franklin used to say, “Let the first lesson be discipline, and the second will be what thou wilt.” As they get older, discipline may change, but they all need discipline.
Look over, if you will, in Numbers chapter number 12, please. Numbers chapter number 12. And this is when Moses had married a lady, and his sister, Miriam, was not happy about who he chose to marry. And Miriam, boy, she let Moses have it. She was complaining, murmuring. Say that ten times: Miriam was murmuring. Miriam was murmuring. Whew, we’ll live it all. And God says, “I’ve had enough of this undisciplined girl.”
And so God—God, he had to deal with her. And he smote her. Numbers chapter number 12, if you look at verse number 14, if you will. And I want you to notice what God says here. Numbers 12. “And God had smote with leprosy.” And Moses is crying to the Lord. Verse number 13, we’ll start there: “And Moses cried unto the Lord, saying, Heal her now, O God, I beseech thee.” Pretty good brother.
“And the Lord said unto Moses, If her father had but spit in her face, should she not be ashamed seven days? Let her be shut out from the camp seven days, and after that let her be received in again.” And Miriam was set out from the camp seven days, and the people journeyed not till Miriam was brought in again.
Now, what was this thing about spitting in her face? What does that mean? If a child—here, a young lady, a girl—was just totally unruly and would not listen, would not respect her father, the dad, it was the thing that did: the dad would actually spit in her face, and then she was put out of the camp for seven days. I mean, she had to bear the shame, the reproach of that. And she wasn’t put in unsafe territories. Seven days, she bore the shame and reproach of that. And God was saying, “Look, Miriam’s dad never did this to her. So now I’m going to have to do this to her.” And he struck her with leprosy, and she was left outside the camp for seven days. Kind of like God saying, “You didn’t do it, Dad. So the heavenly Dad’s going to have to take care of business.” God here speaking. She’s just a complaining, murmuring out of control lady because her dad never would discipline her. That’s what God’s saying.
A friend, in our day and time, we’re just getting so far from that. And there’s just no discipline nowadays. And we wonder why we have to have police in the schools and so on. So important. Now, when they’re young, there’s going to have to be some spankings. Some more than others. We had one very strong-willed and one that was pretty compliant. The strong-willed one got it probably, oh, ten times more than the compliant one. And it wasn’t because we’re playing favorites. Some are going to need it more than others.
But that’s got to be part of it, a friend. The time-out chair is only going to work so long. You’ve got to have something to enforce the time-out chair. And if you’re not careful, you’re going to do one, two, two and a half, two and three quarters, two and seven eighths, two and fifteen sixteenths—I mean, you’re just going to have to take care of action, friend. Talk is cheap unless it’s coming from a logger, you know.
Proverbs 19:18: “Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying.” It calls us crying. Now, not this crying—how many ever did it, or you’ve seen it done, where before you even spank or whatnot, they’re already crying? You haven’t even touched them yet. They’re just trying to lighten the load, you know. Or how many ever tried to put something down, you know, the pads, back, some magazines, whatever, in there? Anybody? No, you’ve seen or know. Yeah, yeah, for sure. My mom’s raising her hand. It’s probably me. I don’t know. We’ll see. Well, that’s got to be part of it.
This is an interesting verse. Proverbs 22:15: “Foolishness is bound in the heart of the child, but the rod of correction”—you know that’s not right—“the rod of correction will drive it far from him.” It’s bound in him, and the only thing that’s going to get it out there is from time to time, just the old rod. I’ve even seen it in a strong-willed child; it’s almost like they can’t control themselves, and they don’t mind sometimes when you bring the rod to help them get under control.
Young children—just now as they get older, it’s going to transition around. Let me say this now. Emily and Brandon, you might want to close your ears on this one here. Brother Joel, I’m not sure, you know, you may want to hear. But if you’ve got teenagers, if you’ve given them a phone—and Emily and Grace, you might want to cover your mom’s ears if you want to do that, you know. We waited for a good while to give our kids phones, and even today, I wish I’d waited a little bit longer. But once they got it, you want to get a teenager’s attention? “Give me that phone.” Emily and Grace are like, “Oh, man, Brandon, that’s the worst.” That’ll get their attention. Oh, yeah, we’ll do whatever. I’m going to talk to your mom here real soon. I need to talk to your mom a little bit, I think. I really do. You take those phones. Proof is in the pudding, man. I mean, Emily and Brandon had me to listen all night long, and I start talking about taking phones. And look here, they can’t even quieten down about it, you know, got them all worked up. And we haven’t even taken a phone yet, you know. Discipline has to be done, though. Gotta be done. That’s our job!
And Adonijah, his dad had never displeased him. Now, go back to discipline. You know, it’s going to be a lot of spankings with the younger; as they get older, it’s going to transition them. And here’s the ultimate: It was a good day when one of our kids, when we would send them to the room, and we’d been through this many times, we’d send them to the room, and go in there. If we needed to cool down, we’d cool down. We’d go in there and talk to them very plainly. We would not yell and scream, “You’re the worst kid in the world.” We’d say, “Hey, you’re a pretty good kid,” or we’ll try to be honest about them, “but this one thing right here, you lied, or you disobeyed your mom, whatever it was.” And we’d get right to the point exactly what they did wrong. And they said, “All right, this is—you’re going to get a whipping right now.” And somewhere in there, we would say, “I’m disappointed in you. I thought you were better than that. I’m disappointed in you.” And it was a good day when our kid—specifically one kid in particular about this right here—they said, “You know, the whipping hurts, but…” As they got older, they said, “You know what hurts even worse than the whipping? When you say you’re disappointed in us.” That’s what you want. Because, you know, when they get older, you’re not going to be able to whip them physically. I know men, you can still take them all right. I’m not trying to, but things change. But it starts off very young with them: “No, we’re not going to do that.” And you teach them to obey. You train them.
I know a mom, good mom, and got good boys. And she said, “I think—oh, I know—three or four boys, all boys.” And she would take her boys shopping sometimes when she had plenty of time. And she really wasn’t there to get the grocery list, but she would just go there, and she would go in the grocery store. And when they started pitching and pitching and doing all that—and I heard of time you got to be careful—she would take him out in the car and she would apply the Board of Education to the seat of knowledge.
And then she’d go back in there and shop for a hot minute. She really wasn’t trying to buy anything; she’s trying to train her boys. They’d act up and do whatever. You know, they know when people are—boy, our kids knew when we’re on the phone or people out of our house or something. They knew people around. That’s when they try. And so many things. And so she’d take them shopping. And sure enough, they’re boys. And so she’d take them out of the car. She’s training them. And you get it, we’re just instinct—no way. And that’s what you want.
But Adonijah had never, never been displeased. I mentioned this not too long ago, but I was amazed at this. We had maybe a year, six months, a year ago, we had a situation with a bus child and one of her teachers. We thought maybe this child was being physically abused, and there were some issues there and whatnot. So we were trying to handle it wisely. So I called Brother Brown. He said, “Brother Brown, he probably sees this stuff every day.” I said, “Brother Brown, he probably sees this stuff every day.” I said, “Give me some advice here. What do you think?” I told him this scenario and asked him, “What do you think about doing all those things?” And that’s what he said. I was really surprised, honestly, Brother Paul. “In our day and time, I mean, they have 20-something kids in the children’s home all the time, always some new ones coming in and some leaving, and all. I’m on the board, so I just always see these things, and they deal with it every day.” And this is what he said: “I was really shocked.” He said, “I will be—I was with Brother [unclear name]—he said, ‘Nowadays we really don’t have an issue with that anymore. We very, very seldom—I really haven’t dealt that much with physical abuse.’ He said, ‘Really what we deal with all the time is they never disciplined at all nowadays.’” That’s our problem we have nowadays. They just have never, even in any way, been disciplined. That’s been the major problem we face.
And that’s the day and time we live in. And if we’re not careful, that seeps into our minds. The world influences us. Adonijah, this boy is a good little boy. I mean, he looked good and probably had a lot of talents about him, but he had never been displeased by his dad. Never been disciplined or displeased. And let’s just find out what happens. Let’s keep going.
We’re going to read a little bit here. Now stick with me through the reading. Don’t lose me. We’re in verse number seven here, First Kings 1, verse number seven: “And he conferred with Joab”—Joab’s the general, right?—“with Joab the son of Zeruiah, and with Abiathar the priest; and they following Adonijah, Adonijah is trying to exalt himself, and he gets people on board.”
“Though hand joined in hand, they should not be unpunished,” the Bible says. And they following Adonijah helped him. But Zadok the priest, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and Nathan the prophet, and Shimei, and Rei, and the mighty men which belonged to David, were not with Adonijah. Praise your Lord for that good crowd. Wise enough not to follow such a sorry guy like this.
And Adonijah slew sheep and oxen and fatted cattle by the stone of Zoheleth, which is by En-rogel, and called all his brethren, and the king’s sons, and all the men of Judah, the king’s servants. But Nathan the prophet, Benaiah, and the mighty men, and Solomon his brother, he called not. He was selectively calling them. He knew who not to call.
“Wherefore Nathan spake unto Bathsheba the mother of Solomon, saying, Hast thou not heard that Adonijah the son of Haggith reigneth, and David our Lord knoweth it not? Now therefore come, let me, I pray thee, give thee counsel that thou mayest save thine own life and the life of thy son Solomon.” This is Nathan talking to her. “Go and get thee in unto King David and stand before him, didst not thou, my lord, O king, swear unto thy handmaid, saying, Assuredly Solomon thy son shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne? Why then doth Adonijah reign?”
Now, there’s just a word here. It was known to the point that Nathan, the prophet, knew that David had said Solomon was going to be the king. So it wasn’t just between Bathsheba and David. At least Nathan, maybe others, Nathan knew about it. And Nathan said, “Now Bathsheba, you know the king swore to you that your son, Solomon, is going to be on the throne.” And, oh, verse—verse number 14: “Behold, while thou yet talkest”—oh, let me go back up. He’s telling her to go into the king and tell her all that. And then verse number 14: “Behold, while thou yet talkest there with the king, I also will come in after thee and confirm thy words.”
Now, that’s what they do. Bathsheba goes in, and we won’t take time to read it. And she says, “Now look, David, David, you don’t know this, but Adonijah, he’s on the throne. He’s exalting himself. You said Solomon’s going to be king.” And while she is talking, Nathan comes in. Nathan tells him the same thing: “Hey, King, hey, Adonijah has exalted himself. And I’ve understood that you told Bathsheba that Solomon’s going to be on the throne.” And they’re setting it up.
Let’s look at David’s response. Would you look down in verse number 28? Verse number 28 here, chapter 1: “Then King David answered and said, Call me Bathsheba.” She had already left, and she came into the king’s presence and stood before the king. “And the king sware and said, As the Lord liveth, that hath redeemed my soul out of all distress, even as I sware unto thee by the Lord God of Israel, saying, Surely Solomon thy son shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne in my stead; even so will I certainly do this day.”
By the way, for those that have said he was senile, David knew what was going on right here. He had alertness of mind and said, “I’m going to do something about this thing today.” And so he does. And he gets together all the good guys, if you will, and they anoint him. So I look down in verse number 38: “Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the Cherethites and the Pelethites went down and caused Solomon to ride upon King David’s mule and brought him to Gihon.”
By the mule—if the king was going out to war, he rides a horse. That’s why when Jesus comes back, Battle of Armageddon, he’s on a white horse. He’s going to put down the Antichrist and the world that’s against him, and he’s going to set up his throne, and he’s going to thresh the winepress, if you will. He’s going to press it out. But a king typically, if he’s—remember Jesus when he’s riding into Jerusalem presenting himself, he came in on the donkey? And that was kind of like the king riding in his royal chariot, if you will.
And so they put Solomon on the king’s mule. Verse number 39: “And Zadok the priest took a horn of oil out of the tabernacle and anointed Solomon. And they blew the trumpet and all the people said, ‘God save King Solomon!’ All the people came up after him, and the people piped with pipes and rejoiced with great joy, so that the earth rent with the sound of them.”
Now I want you to do—I want you to go back up, if you would. Look, look up in verse number 32. Verse number 32 of chapter number one: “And King David said, Call me Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and they came before the king.” And the king also said to them, “Take with you the servants of your lord, and cause Solomon my son to ride upon mine own mule, and bring him down.”
Here’s the thing I just want to get real quickly here: just the need of involved fathers. David got involved, and he said, “Hey, Solomon, he’s going to be king.” Now, there wasn’t a lot of arguing about it. There’s a need—can I just say one of the great sins of America, especially in the past, I’d say, is the lack of involved fathers? Praise the Lord for those ladies that are there. They got that mother instinct for the most part. They’re there, involved. Poor mom trying to raise her kids without an involved dad is a sad situation. Especially, especially as those boys become teenagers—they’re kind of halfway an adult, half a young man, and yet they’re halfway still got the kid’s side in them. And those teenage young men, they need a dad to say, “You’re not going to talk to my wife like that. You’re living under our roof, and you’re going to respect your mom. You’re going to respect me.” And as they reach more of manhood, they need a man to deal with them. Teenage young girls—they need a dad. If they don’t have a biological dad there with them, God could use so many different men to be a father role to them, but they need that. And they need a dad to say, “Hey, look, look, you don’t want that young man there, you don’t want that kind of a guy,” and you’re not going to—you’re not going to go there to one day when you’re married and so on and so on and all these things. Just the need of involved dads. America has hurt so much for that. Just hurt for that. David got involved. Praise the Lord he did.
I was talking to a man. I’m trying to quit here just a second. I was at a preacher’s conference, and one of them said a statement about preachers finishing. Brother Jacob, do you remember what it was? They said today—I said, “I got to remember that.” Something about finishing, but it takes two miles to finish or something. I can’t remember what it was. I said, “But I’ve got to remember that. I’ve got to get it.” But anyway, I was talking to a man here recently, and he was really opening up. He’s been through a divorce, and he was blaming himself a lot for it. Sounded like it’s pretty legit. But he’s telling me he has a daughter, maybe 20, somewhere along there. And even though he’s divorced, a lot of heartbreak he had shared about it all, but his daughter, maybe 20, had just, in texting—I think it was, or maybe a Facebook Messenger—had just chewed her mom out. She’s going through her teenage stage. And even though they’re divorced, somehow, I think maybe one of the sisters had sent Dad a text on what all she had said. And I loved it. They’re divorced now, but he texted his daughter. And he said, “Look, you better—you better apologize to your mom.” If you don’t, “I’m going to take everything I’ve got, I’ve got it, I’ve got it. I’m going to post it on Facebook, and I’m going to tag every one of your friends I can find them anywhere. And the whole world’s going to know how disrespectful you are to God.” And he said, “Your mom has done more for you than just by anybody in the world.” He said, “Besides that, I raised you better than that.” And he said, “If you don’t”—I’m posting this thing kind of like tomorrow, if I remember right—“if you better get on the phone as soon as you can, apologize to your mom.” And praise the Lord, his daughter did. So he got on the phone, apologized to Mom, sent him back the text, and said, “Dad, you’re so right. Sorry. Never should have done that.” Hey, just the need of involved fathers.
And one last thought, and we’re done. If you’re a born-again Christian, you got the best Dad in all the world that wants to be involved in your life. You say, “Well, my mom, my dad, da-da-da-da-da.” Hey, friend, you got the best, best Dad in the world. He loves to be involved in your life, every detail, every detail of it.
We didn’t get to cover it all, but Adonijah, he runs. He has fear of his brother, Solomon. Solomon assumes the throne. And by the way, so often if there are not involved parents, the children fight with one another. Sometimes there’s fear between each other. And eventually—not this point—Solomon says, “Hey, not a hair of your head shall fall,” for you prove yourself a worthy man. Great statement. A little while later on, once King David’s gone, Adonijah tries to kind of connive and looks like he’s trying to assume the throne again, and Solomon has to take care of business and has him executed. But he was trying to exalt himself, and he got abased. And just a great—so many great stories in the Old Testament that illustrate truths from the New Testament. All from the Old Testament, you’ll see that. Glad you’re here tonight. Appreciate you being in the house of the Lord. And Saturday, looking forward to a good, good day. Make sure you’re in your place, and then Sunday, excited about God working in their hearts and lives. I failed to mention—I’m going to quit—but Tabitha Justin, Tabitha just—they had to increase, I believe it was today or last night, her ventilator to the max as much as they can. She’s not really breathing. She’s not responsive at all. They’re going to try to maybe take her into a little bit deeper of a coma. And so you pray for her, if you would, Tabitha and Justin, Tabitha. I typically say it maybe where Brother Chip is, just maybe a touch where the Humphers are. Brother Chip back along in there. Justin and Tabitha, you pray for them if you would, please. And that whole family in her. She’s down in the same time as Rutherford. You pray for them if you would, please. And God bring healing to her and strengthen her. Would you do that, please? I appreciate that.
Original File: Dads need to be involved - Pastor Paul Chisgar Wednesday PM 92221