Mike Bickle emphasizes the zeal and humility of David in his relationship with God, particularly in the context of God's covenant with him. David's desire to build a temple for the Lord reflects his heart for God's glory, even when faced with the disappointment of not being able to fulfill that dream himself. Instead of settling into comfort after achieving success, David remains committed to advancing God's kingdom and preparing the next generation to carry on his legacy. Bickle encourages believers to maintain a relentless pursuit of God and His purposes, regardless of their circumstances or the passage of time.

We're looking at four chapters, and so we're just gonna give a snapshot of these because we don't have time in the course to go into any kind of details, but the thing I want you to draw your attention to is the zeal and the humility in which David responded to the Lord. There's many ways to approach these chapters here, but I wanna respond to the Lord as a man after God's own heart in a generation, in a David generation, and obviously you do as well. Well, I have the review here. I'll skip that. I always like to add a little review for folks that get the notes separate. They just get one set of notes and they don't have the other sessions, but the overarching theme of David's life is this vow that he made in Psalm 132 where, Lord, I'm not gonna live business as usual. I don't care what it costs me all the days of my life. I'm not going to go to the comfort of my own house until, until, until. This is the vow that changed history, and we see in these chapters here in chapter seven to 10, David's walking out this same humility, but this same zeal, this hard pursuit after the Lord. Let's look at Roman numeral two. Now it came to pass, verse one, chapter seven, when David was dwelling in his house and the Lord had given him rest from all of his enemies, verse two, David said to the prophet Nathan, see, he goes, look, look at this. What's going on here? He goes, I dwell in this amazing house, a house of cedars, very expensive, nice house. It was given to him as a gift by King Hiram from Tyre came and built this house for him as a making a, it was kind of like an international statement of, hey, I'm behind you. I see God's hand on you. He goes, David says, I got this nice house, but the ark, the most glorious piece of furniture on the planet is inside of tents. He goes, this isn't good. And the implication being, I want to build a house for the ark, a temple, that's the temple, Solomon's temple. I want to build a house for the ark that's far more grand than my own amazing house that was given to me as a gift. And of course, the answer that we know, most of you know chapter seven that the Lord, I mean, Nathan said, yes, the prophet says, yes, the Lord's with you. And then that night in a dream, the Lord comes to Nathan and says, no, you missed it on this one. Go tell David, no. I didn't ask him to build me a house. I love his heart. Second Chronicles 6.8, God told David directly. He goes, you did well that you wanted to do this, but it isn't for your generation for that to happen. And I give that verse again, Second Chronicles 6.8, the Lord told David directly, you did well that you wanted to do this, but this was something that would happen in the generation after you, the next generation. It wouldn't happen in your generation, David. But the point I want to draw your attention to here is verse one, that the Lord had given David rest from his enemies. Saul is no longer chasing him like he did for five to seven years in the wilderness. He doesn't have this going from cave to cave, place to place, this unsettled life. Then the next seven years after Saul died, there's a civil war going on in the nation of Israel. That is settled. Nobody is pursuing him. And then after that, after he became king and he went to Jerusalem, then the Philistines in 2 Samuel 5, they attacked him several times, very aggressively. That's over, he defeated them. And what it means here is that the Lord had given him rest. It didn't mean that David would have no more battles, but it meant nobody was pursuing him. He had no enemies from within the nation pursuing him like the civil war and like Saul. And he had no nations that were at that time aggressive towards Israel. He had had a rest. Now, here's the point that I wanna emphasize, is that there are seasons in our life where you think, well, I haven't seen that season for a while, but there are seasons in our life, I'll put here, where there's a reprieve, where it doesn't seem like we're in the middle of a battle. There's an, I found over the years, there's an ebb and flow. Some seasons I'm right in the thick of all kinds of conflicts and tensions. And then the next season, things seem to be okay. And I look around and say, Lord, this is good, I like this. But here's what happens. Here's the point I mean, I wanna make, is that in the reprieve, when things have settled down, David isn't settling down spiritually. He goes, Lord, I'm gonna use this opportunity to advance your kingdom. I'm gonna take this ministry of singers and musicians before the ark in the tent, and I wanna bring it up a notch. I wanna build the temple. I wanna see the glory of God in a greater way manifest. Paragraph B, now what happens many times is that after people have a certain season of blessing and prosperity, David has come to the throne. Money is flowing in, honor is coming. Then nobody is pursuing him inside the nation or outside the nation in any notable way. He has a great success going on in his career, but there's no diminishing of his spiritual pursuit. It's very common that even for men and women of God, when they're entering into a time of blessing where things that seems like whatever they're doing is blessed and increasing, sometimes, I mean, again, it's very common for them to get content. They get content in their past victories. They get content in their new position. In this case, David is king. He has plenty of money. He has a secure position. He has plenty of honor, but the part that I want you to see is David refused to be content with that. He refused to draw back and settle into kind of a status quo, life of ease and leisure, and just say, you know, Lord, I did it. I've done the battles. I've been in the wilderness. This is just the time I'm gonna coast for a while, but David said, no, no, I wanna bring, I wanna go to the next level, and that's what I love about David all the way till he meets the Lord at age 70. He is always pressing for the next frontier, and I don't mean just of a new kind of ministry experience. He wants a greater measure of what God set before him. There's never a time when David says, yesterday's victories are enough. I'm in a good, nice, comfortable position. Let's leave it there. He goes, no, I'm going hard after you. Lord, I told you all the days of my life. I'm gonna behold your glory. I'm gonna inquire before you. I'm gonna do the will of God. I'm gonna advance the kingdom all the days of my life. Now, a lot of folks, I've noticed over 40 years of ministry that I've noticed a lot of folks for five, three, four, five, six, seven years. It's not like that's a exact number, but they'll pursue the Lord hard. A lot of times in their 20s, maybe their 30s, and I mean, they'll pray. They'll lay hold of fasting. They'll give their money to missions. They'll really engage with God's larger purposes and really give themselves to it, but most times, again, this is a vast majority. It's my observation only. It's not a statistical fact. I see people press in five, six, seven, eight years, and if they don't get the breakthrough they imagined when they started praying and seeking God hard, if things five, six, seven years don't end up the way they imagined they should be, I just see this drawing back and this settling in and saying, well, I guess it didn't work out the way I thought it was going to. I'm not gonna continue in that hard pursuit, or maybe they're in their position or their ministry, their career. They get big breakthroughs, and they go, hey, this is as good as it gets, and they settle down, and they become content with less than what God has for them. David is the absolute opposite of that kind of heart posture, and the reason I say that, I'm not trying to put down the people who draw back after a few years. I'm really, what I'm doing is I want to gird you, I want you to gird your mind that you're gonna set your heart. I'm not gonna be one of those folks. I'm gonna seek the Lord hard, my time, my money, my energy, and if in five or seven years I don't see the breakthrough, I'm gonna sign up for five to seven more years. If I don't see the breakthrough, the revival I imagine, or the increase in my ministry or the grace of God, I'm gonna sign up for five, seven more years after that, and after that, and after that, and after that, and that's what's going on in David's life. I mean, everything is going his way, and he says, I want more for the glory of God in my generation. I know some men and women like that. I mean, here locally and in the nations. I mean, it's a glorious reality to behold that and to watch that take place. You know, I remember meeting Vonette Bright. Many of you know the ministry Campus Crusade, and Bill Bright, who started Campus Crusade, and that along with YWAM, Youth with a Mission, those are the two largest mission organizations in the world, and Bill Bright died and went home to be with the Lord about, I guess about 85 years old, and his widow, Vonette Bright, who had been in the ministry with him for 50 years, she came and visited. She was about 85 years old, right about then. That's a couple years ago, and I'm talking to her, and this woman, 85 years old, widowed, doesn't have the same position in the ministry organization. It's the biggest missions ministry, again, Campus Crusade and YWAM, the two biggest ones in history, and she's talking to me, 85 years old. She looks me in the eye, she goes, what are you doing for the Great Commission? And I go, well, what do you mean? She goes, what's your vision? What are new ways? How are you giving your strength? She goes, I've seen young guys like you. That was about five years ago. I was 55. She goes, I've seen, she's 85, but she meant it. She goes, I've seen young guys like you, 55, 60. They start drawing back and thinking of how they can retire and settle down. She goes, I'm 85 years old. I'm learning new ways of technology to get the gospel to more people. I'm crying out to God with greater fervor than ever before. She goes, I plan to lead more people to the Lord from 85 to 95 than all of my years together. I looked at this lady. I said, oh my goodness, and I was blown away by her, and you know, my wife, she's very provoked. And I looked at Vonette and I looked at my wife. I said, I officially have a crush on this gal right now. I mean, my goodness. I looked at her. I said, what are you made of? She goes, I want to go to New Frontiers. I want to break out in new areas. Then I think of people like Joy Dawson. She's 90 years old this year. One of the principal personalities of YWAM, you know, 50 years ago. And Intercessor, both of these gals, they're both about 90. Both of them when they were about 20, 70 years ago, 70 years ago, they were seeking God hard in prayer and evangelism, intercession, and Joy Dawson's 90. Both of them widowed, nobody quitting, nobody drawing back, crying out to God, fasting, praying, 90 years old, wanting a breakthrough in the gospel and the kingdom. I said, Lord, where do these kind of folks come from? I want to be like that when I grow up. That's 30 years from now. I mean, I got a long way to go to a 90. I mean, I thought, she says, don't you young guys start drawing back? She goes, so many of you in your generation, you start this, well, I did my thing and now I'm going to start coasting. She goes, shame on you if you got that in your mind. I was getting all rebuked and everything, but I loved it. I remember Leonard Ravenhill. Some of you know the name Leonard Ravenhill. He wrote some of the classics on prayer that he went to be with the Lord. I'm thinking mid 90s, I'm not sure, but I got to spend time with him some maybe five or six times for a week at a time. I got to spend, one of the great intercessors in our generation. And here he is in his mid 80s. I mean, crying out to God hours a day. No sense of drawing back. He didn't care about a ministry position. I said, Lord, these guys, that's the kind of heart I'm talking about. Here David has more fame, more breakthrough. His enemies have driven back. Things have settled down. He's got more secure position, more honor, more increase. And he goes, I want a greater breakthrough than ever before. I look at this zeal in his heart. So he's crying out to the Lord and let's go to Roman numeral three here. I can tell we're not gonna get very far on these notes. That's okay. That's what the notes are here for. Says in verse four. So David says, I want to go all the way. I want to build a temple for the Lord. And it isn't just that he wanted a magnificent building. He was, I want something that all the nations would be alert to the glory of God in this city. And they would come under the sway and influence and inspiration and the authority of the anointing of the Holy Spirit. I mean, he wanted the glory of God being magnified in his city and therefore in the nations of the world. Verse four, so it happened that night. The word of the Lord came to Nathan the prophet. Go tell David in essence, no, you can't build the temple. You know, Nathan, the young prophet, he's getting corrected from the Lord because Nathan just spontaneously goes, the Lord is with you. And the Lord says, no, no, no. I'm not with him on that, Nathan. Go give him, go say, and the Lord would further say unto thee, no, I'm not gonna let you do that. Verse 11, but David gets the shock of his life. The Lord tells the prophet Nathan, go tell David that he can't build me a house, a temple is what he's talking about, this magnificent temple that his son, the next generation built, which is one of the great wonders of the world in that time of history. The Lord says in verse 11, instead of you building me a house or a temple, David, I'm gonna build you a house. David gets the shock of his life. He goes, you're gonna build me a house? What, I already have a house. You know, King Hiram from Tyre, he built my house of cedar. And the prophet says, no, that's not what I mean. I'm gonna build you a house. You're gonna have a royal dynasty that's gonna last forever. Your family line is gonna continue forever in the royalty of my kingdom and as part of my redemptive purposes. And what the Lord was really saying to David is, we know looking back now, the Messiah is gonna come through your family line and the Messiah is gonna be one of your great, great, great, great, great grandchildren and he's gonna sit on the throne and you're gonna be participating in his government with him in the age to come and your house is gonna continue in a very personal way. You, David, will be involved in government with your great, great grandson in Jerusalem forever. And David's like to Nathan, like, I don't even understand what this means. Top of page two, paragraph C. Let's read verse 11 again. And the Lord tells you, thus says the Lord, David, the prophet Nathan speaking, God's gonna build you a house. Your great, great, great, great, great grandson is gonna carry on the legacy and bring it to a dimension, a level that's beyond anything you can imagine. There'll be an eternal, global, eternal dimension to your great, great, great, great grandson and you're gonna be ruling with him is what it all comes down to mean when it's all understood. Verse 12, but when your days are fulfilled, when your, it ended up when he was 70 years old, David lived more in 70 years than probably five lifetimes. I mean, David did more things in his interaction with God in his 70 years. David did more with his resources, when I look at the life of David than any other man I know of in the Old Testament, the Old Covenant days. With the resources that David had, he engaged with God for the glory of God. David's money was for the increase of the kingdom. David's time was for the increase of the kingdom. David's promotion was so that the fame of his name could go forth, the name of the Lord. David never saw his promotion, his money, his status, his position about him building his own little secure thing that he could kind of draw back and kind of settle down and say, well, look what I've built, now I can relax. It was always about inspiring him and energizing him to the next measure of engagement with God and increase of the kingdom. He says in verse 12, he goes, when your days are fulfilled, you rest with your fathers, that means when you die, and that was just some years down the road. He goes, I'm gonna set up your seat after you, it's gonna be your son. And we know that he had a number of sons. He had, I think, 19 sons is what I, if I remember right, but the one son that God designated was Solomon. He goes, verse 13, and your son will build me a house. He'll build the temple. In other words, no, David, you're not gonna build the temple but your son will. And he goes on and describes, he goes, I'll be a father to him. But he goes, I want you to tell your son, David, and I want you to know it's true of you as well, and it was true of David. This very thing happened to David is what happened to his son. He goes, but I want you to tell your son that even though you love me and even though my favor's on him, I want you to know if he commits iniquity, that doesn't mean if he has a bad day, but if he commits iniquity, I will chasten him. David, my favor is on him, but I will chasten him, but let him know this, my correction is not rejection. I will chasten him, and it was Solomon who wrote, Proverbs 3, verse 12, which I don't have in the notes, Proverbs 3, verse 12, that it says that when the Lord disciplines his children, he does it because he delights in them. He disciplines the son he delights in. But anyway, the prophet told David, go teach your son this, and know that because he has the favor of God, he's not immune, he can't use his position of favor and increase to set aside God's leadership in his life. I will chastise him, I will discipline him, but my correction is not rejection. Again, Proverbs 3, verse 12, Solomon would write that the Lord disciplines the son he delights in. But he goes, here's how I'm gonna chastise him. I'm gonna chastise him with the rods of men and the blows of the son of man. He goes, when I chastise him, it won't be that his body will be sick or all of his money will dissipate, I'm gonna create strife in his world, and the strife will cause tremendous pressures upon him. And David, the same will be true of you, and that's exactly what happened to David. Because as we'll look at next week, when David stepped over that line and committed adultery with Bathsheba, he had tremendous strife. The blows and the rods of men came upon him. It wasn't financial, it wasn't military, it wasn't physical sickness, it was strife bore down on him and made him cry out to God under his discipline. But the point being, verse 15, my mercy will be there with this great favor, but he won't be immune to my discipline if he casts off my leadership in his life. He must respond to this way and you must train him and teach him in that. But no, verse 16, I'm not gonna reject it. The purpose will sustain through the time of discipline. Now paragraph D, I so appreciate David in this. So one of the greatest belongings in David's heart was to build this dwelling place, this building, this temple for the ark with the Shekinah glory resting on the ark. I mean, it's one of his lifelong dreams to do this. And God tells him after many years of faithfulness, you're not gonna actually see that long-term dream of yours. It's gonna happen in the next generation. And I've seen many a man over the years, they've labored for years, and when they don't see what was so clear to them, even for some decades, some of them draw back with a despondency and a disappointment that borders on bitterness and cynicism towards the Lord. But here's what I find in David. He goes, okay, okay, it won't happen in my generation. Ouch, here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna use all of my might to prepare to get the next generation to enter in then. I'm gonna use everything I have, my resources, my insight, my influence. I'm gonna prepare my son and the next generation that they can enter into that which I have longed to, but it won't happen in my day. Paragraph F. So verse 18, after David hears this remarkable word when God says, no, you can't build the temple, but I'm gonna build your house. You can't build mine. I'm gonna give you a royal dynasty. I'm gonna give you a legacy. I'm gonna give you a participation in a royal mandate that your great, great, great, great, great grandson, the Messiah, will be the epicenter of, but you're gonna be involved in it is where, again, it all comes down to that. It's gonna have a global dimension and it's gonna be eternal. Verse 18, David went in and sat before the Lord. Now, when it says he went in and sat before the Lord, it meant to sit before the Lord in this language of David means he's going into the tent, the tabernacle, and he's sitting before the ark. Because remember Psalm 27, this one thing I do all the days of my life, I wanna behold your beauty and inquire. I wanna talk to you. So he would go and sit in the temple, I mean, not the temple, the tent, and the ark of the covenant was there, and he would be in the presence of God and he sat before the Lord. And David's humility, after God told him, no, you can't do the dream of your heart but David was captured by the big picture. Instead of saying, oh Lord, I've labored for years with this in mind, he said, Lord, who am I? I'm in the big picture of what you've called me to be. He goes, who am I and what is my house? He goes, I was a guy taking care of sheep out in the backside of the hills of Bethlehem. Verse 19, you made me the king of this nation and I'm defeating all that are opposing me all around. Verse 19, and that was a small thing to you, that I would be king. Now you're giving me an eternal dimension far beyond my lifetime. He goes, okay, I don't get to participate in the building of the temple like I wanted but there's something so big, so grand and you've called me to be a part of it. And David bows down in humility. And you would say, maybe you'd say, well, wow, if the Lord told me that, I think I'd feel the same way. Well, I got good news for you, he has told you that. You are sons and daughters of the most high God. You live in the new Jerusalem forever. When the new Jerusalem descends to the earth, you'll reign on the earth forever with a resurrected body in relationship to the eternal king as his eternal companion, the bride of Christ. So yeah, you didn't get to build the building you wanted. You didn't get the ministry position you were after. Do you see what David saw? Can you see the big picture? David said, who am I? A lonely man, I get all this privilege. I don't get to do the dream of my heart, but I'm locked into the storyline, the big one, the storyline. Beloved, you're involved in a very big storyline. So the money doesn't come through. So the position isn't yours. So the door doesn't open. I'm not saying all those things are easy. You're a part of something real big. I have one encouragement word to say, who are you that you would receive such favor from the Lord? To be in his family, to bear his name, to live in his city, to rule with him as his bride forever and forever. Look at paragraph G. Then David, he moves from the humility and gratitude of thanking him for the big picture, even though he's being rejected or the answer's no to the small thing he wanted to do, which was the desire of his heart to build that temple. Verse 25, he goes, okay, okay. So I have this glorious promise for me, this long-term promise. Verse 25, look what David does. Now he responds in faith. He goes, Lord, the word you just spoke, do it. If you've spoken about me, do it then. Raise up a son, give me this lineage, give me this heritage, give me this future. He says in verse 26, let your name be glorified and let my house be established. Verse 27, for you revealed to me this great blessing for my life, okay. You said you're gonna build me a house. He goes, no false humility here. If you said it and you're the great king, look at verse 27, therefore, I found it in my heart and I have confidence to ask you for it then. Beloved, this is so honoring to the Lord that when the Lord promises us something, he doesn't want false humility where we say, oh Lord, you know, I don't know, whatever you said. He goes, I spoke it to you. It may be delayed. If I spoke it to you, it will come to pass. And David says, because you spoke it, even though it's great, it is distant, but it is great, but I'm not gonna reduce it one degree at all. If you said it, I'm gonna contend for it. If God has given you a promise, whether in the scripture or by the Holy Spirit in a direct way about your life, beloved, don't draw back and say, oh gee shucks, just a little cabin on the edge of glory. Lord, don't bother with me. I don't want to be any trouble for you. Away with all of that. The Lord said it, then say what David said. I have confidence, I have courage in my heart now to ask you since you said it, I'm gonna say it. And he took the stand before the Lord. You know, here, paragraph H, the very heart of prayer is to hear from God from the written word or direct from the Spirit and to say it back to God and believe him for it. The very heart of prayer is to take what God said and say it back to God and not back away at all. Lord put it in my heart in a very dramatic way. 30 some years ago, he said, I'm gonna change my heart and I'm gonna change the understanding and expression of Christianity in the whole earth in one generation. I mean, that's not a word to me directly. It's about a generation, what he's gonna do the kingdom. Beloved, I don't care, I'm watching the church step into a season of apostasy in our nation. The same time I'm watching a prayer movement emerge and I'm watching people getting really committed to the Lord but it's far less than what I've been believing for for 30 years, but I got good. I'll tell you where my heart is. I'm not backing up for a second. I assure you that God is gonna radically change the understanding expression of Christianity in the whole earth in one generation. It's gonna happen. An apostasy may be emerging, but I tell you, something greater is gonna break out. And I don't care, it's not about you, it's not about me, it's not about them, it's about the word of God over his church and the nations. Now we're gonna have a little role in it like a million other ministries will have a little role in it, but together we're gonna see the most marvelous things. And I don't care how dark the darkness gets, I am absolutely sure of what's coming down the road. Here in Romans chapter four, God told Abraham the impossible. He told him an impossible promise. It says in Romans four, Abraham wouldn't waver. He wouldn't waver, he wouldn't back away and went on for 25 years. He said, you're gonna have a son. When he was 75 years old, he goes, really? My, he's 75, his wife's 65. 25 years later, no son. Now his wife's 90 and he's 100. He goes, I'm not backing away. I'm gonna have a son. And his son's son's son is gonna be the Messiah. I'm not backing away from this. At 100 years old with a 90 year old wife, it happened. Paragraph I, beloved, the consequences are serious. Because when God visited John the Baptist's father, Zachariah, in the temple, Gabriel says, you're gonna have the son. He goes, oh, I don't think so. He got struck mute, he couldn't speak. And Gabriel said, you don't believe what I just told you? And he goes, well, I mean, I mean, it was a little kind of out there. I mean, we're old, there's not a chance. The same angel visited Mary. Mary said, have a baby without a man? Be it done to me according to your word. If you said it, it is. I mean, that is incredibly hard to believe. One man became mute, couldn't speak under a judgment. The other young woman is blessed among women. It really matters how David responded to the Lord in that hour. Top of page three. Well, David has this glorious encounter, chapter seven with the Lord. And the Lord tells him of, I mean, after his great prosperity, the Lord gives him even greater promises. After his prosperity in chapter five and chapter six, then chapter seven, he gets these great promises. Here he is now in chapter eight. I mean, after all of this success, after all of this prosperity, look what David did. I love it. It came to pass. I mean, everything is going David's direction away. He attacked the Philistines. What? David said, I'm gonna be involved in the advancement of the kingdom. Not drawing back. I'm doubling my efforts. I'm going forward. See, up until this time, the Philistines had been attacking him. The Philistines had been the aggressor on every one of these occasions since David has been king. But he has defeated them. Now he becomes the aggressor. Again, there's a time when a man says in his own human logic, I got the blessing. I got the breakthrough. I got the position. I got the legacy. But David said, that's not enough for me. I want a greater breakthrough of God's purpose in my generation. He goes, I'm gonna. It says here, you can read the passage on your own here. He went and fought the enemies to the east, to the west, to the north. I mean, I could imagine the guy saying, David, I mean, you've been doing this for years. Isn't there's a time, I mean, just where you just kind of draw back and enjoy the fruits of your labor. David says, no. No, that his name is gonna go forth through my labors. And David attacks. I mean, this zeal of David. I mean, after this tremendous word from God in chapter seven, and after all the prosperity, I mean, many a good man would have drawn back and just stayed in that reprieve mode as long as possible. David goes to the north, south, I mean, to every direction for the increase of his kingdom. Again, I think of those people I mentioned, Leonard Ravenhill in his 80s, and Vonette Bright, you know, and Joy Dawson, both, you know, near 90 years old, pressing, and there's never a time of, you know, the old cute phrase of retire, but refire, but this is real. This is real. There's a kind of man and kind of woman, the greater the breakthrough of money, position, prosperity, honor, the greater the tenacity and the zeal to bring the kingdom forward. There's never a time where they look at their position and their resources as theirs, but they look at it as an occasion to increase the kingdom. And again, David, I never, I don't know any man in the Old Testament who used his resources more for the advancement of the kingdom and never drawing back and thinking of his own house. He was true to his vow to his last day. I'm not gonna go to the comfort of my own house. I'm gonna use my own wealth and I'm gonna break, I'm gonna use it for the increase of the kingdom. I'm gonna use my time and my influence and I'm gonna mobilize the prayer movement of my generation. I'm gonna expend myself beholding the glory of God, the beauty of the Lord in His temple day and night. Paragraph B, Paul the Apostle had this same tenacity. Here's Paul after many years of successful ministry. I mean, you don't get too much more successful than Paul the Apostle, right? Great signs and wonders, direct revelation, authoring a good portion of the New Testament. I mean, he had reason to draw back if he wanted to in the natural. But verse 22 of Acts 20, here he is up in years, no drawing back. He goes, I go bound in spirit to Jerusalem. Going to Jerusalem was a place of conflict, but he's bound in spirit. He goes, I have a mandate to bring the gospel there and I'm bound in spirit, I'm not drawing back. I mean, the Holy Spirit said, you can read the passage, everywhere he went through the prophets, the Holy Spirit said, if you go to Jerusalem, you'll have conflict, tribulation. They'll beat you, they'll whip you if you go there. Thus says the Lord, everywhere he went, the spirit bore witness through the prophetic voice, trouble waits. Paul, look at your ministry. Look, you've already done it. Paul goes, I'm bound in spirit. I'm never drawing back and settling down, never. And he went there in verse 24. He goes, none of these things move me. I don't care if I lose when I go there. I don't care if I lose my money, my comfort. I'm gonna do the will of God, I don't care what I lose. Well, you've labored all these years for your retirement, you got a good name, you got a good ministry, you got a good business. I mean, you've labored hard. Paul says, verse 24, I don't care about any of this stuff. He goes, what I care about, I wanna finish my race. I don't count my life dear to me. There's a day and there's an hour where a man or woman of God determines they're not gonna count their life dear to themselves. And that's the David heart here in chapter eight, and that's Paul the apostle. I don't count my life dear. My dream agenda for my life of enjoying all these things and I appreciate people enjoying things. But there's a vision, there's a purpose, there's something bigger than kind of settling down and just letting go and drawing back. We wanna keep pressing on. He went on to say in Philippians three, I press on. Here he is at the end of his life, he's writing this in prison. He's in prison in Rome in Philippians, writing this letter. He goes, I'm gonna press on. He goes, I'm gonna lay hold of that which God laid hold of me for. Paul, you're in prison. You've been beaten and whipped everywhere you go. You've preached the gospel everywhere. He goes, no, I'm not done yet. I'm gonna get out of this prison and I'm gonna press on. Paul, you're an older man right now. Look at the scars on your body. He goes, I don't care, I'm reaching. I mean, there were many people in the body of Christ that were against Paul. You know, Paul, he didn't become near so famous till after he died. In his day, many in the church didn't like Paul. They didn't think he was right. They thought he was off. I mean, in the church, he had many opposing him. He goes, I'm reaching forward. I'm pressing on. I'm gonna get out of prison and go to the next dimension in God. Like, boy, now that excites me. That's the kind of man that David was. Okay, paragraph C, chapter eight, verse 11. Well, David, he had all these battles and he kept pressing and he had breakthroughs, but he took the money and tremendous wealth came his way as he obeyed the Lord and kept moving forward, but it's what he did with the wealth. He says, verse 11, all the wealth that he got from all of these breakthroughs in all of these nations, he dedicated it to the Lord. He said, I'm gonna use it to advance the kingdom. Well, you know, you should think of yourself. You've labored a lot of years, David. He goes, I'm gonna use it to advance. It's I'm gonna dedicate it all to the Lord. Paragraph nine, chapter nine. Well, David goes from this zealous, I'm gonna keep going forward. Everything belongs to God. The breakthrough, I'm gonna give it back to the Lord. I mean, this unrelenting heart. So you wanna be like David. That's the heart you set yourself, not just to be involved in a worship movement, but you're gonna go for everything that God has ordained in your life. Never you're drawing back. I determined years ago, and if I live to be 90 and I don't see the Lord before then, I'm gonna be on my deathbed crying out for a double anointing and for a revival to break through on the generation coming after me. There's never a time we draw back and just determine we're gonna coast for a few years. I mean, that's the heart of David. Many of you have it. You wouldn't be here at this time of night on a Friday night if you didn't have that kind of heart. Okay. You guys are fanatics. You're my kind of people. Well, chapter nine and chapter 10. I'm just gonna summarize chapter nine and 10. Got two minutes left here in the class of this core. I mean, this session here. David shows his kindness in chapter nine to Jonathan's son, Mephibosheth. David says, here he is, all the breakthrough, the money, the honor. He's taking advantage of the kingdom. He goes, wait. He goes, now that I'm in the place. He goes, I made a covenant from my friend several decades ago, or I don't know how long ago it was. I don't know the exact timeframe on this. Probably. He goes, and Saul's family has been scattered because the dynasty of Saul has, you know, Saul's sons all were killed. So he's got a grandson still alive. And David goes, I made a promise to Jonathan. Does he have any children, anybody related to him? Because I'm gonna use my resource and I'm gonna show kindness to him. I mean, we see, there's a lot of parallels of the gospel that Mephibosheth is a picture of people like you and I where the Lord is giving us that which we could never ever deserve on our own. You can just read that on your own. But in addition to that, that's a chapter nine and chapter 10 are pictures of the gospel where the kindness of God, which David is a picture of Christ, where the kindness of God being given to those that have no meriting of that kindness. But what I want you to see is, is that when David, nobody had authority to hold David accountable. I mean, there wasn't a group of people that could say, you know, you didn't make that promise to Jonathan, you know, 20 years ago or whatever it was. You're not keeping it. David said, I don't need somebody to do that. I made a commitment and I've got a heart of faithfulness and I have a loyalty and I'm gonna use my position in order to show that kindness. And there's so much about David's heart and David's leadership. Look at verse seven here, paragraph B, verse seven of chapter nine. He gets Mephibosheth, he finds him in some far away, out of the way place. They bring Mephibosheth to David. He's never met David before. He goes, oh, so you're Jonathan's son. He goes, oh. You know, it's years later, Mephibosheth is going, I'm of the Saul dynasty, your enemies. And Mephibosheth's a little nervous. He goes, what am I doing here? I'm the only survivor possibly. Hey, I didn't do nothing wrong. I mean, what's going on? And he's lame in both of his feet. He had an accident in his childhood at age five and both feet are lame. And David says in verse seven, he goes, don't worry, he goes, this isn't about me removing any remnants of Saul's family line so there can't be a revolt against me. No, no, no, no, no. This is about me loving your father. This is about me showing kindness. Look what it says, look at this verse seven. He goes, I'm gonna give you all of the land of your grandfather Saul. I mean, the king, Saul had enormous amount of land and properties, the king. He goes, I'm gonna give it all to you, all of it. This young, handicapped young man goes, really? He goes, not only am I gonna give you all of it, I'm gonna restore everything that was in your family line. I'm also gonna have you eat at my table, the king's table, the rest of your life. I mean, this is one of the favorite pictures of the gospel of the Old Testament. Beloved, when you deserve nothing, God says, I'm gonna restore all back to you and you're gonna eat at the king's table all the days of your life as the free grace of God. Then chapter 10, something similar but different happens. He goes to one of the heathen nations, the Ammonites and David goes and says, hey, he tells this prince, he goes, I hear your father just died. And Israel had a treaty with that nation. He goes, I hear your father died, I wanna show kindness to you. And this prince of this foreign, of this heathen nation, the Ammonites, he's going, you wanna show favor, you wanna show kindness because my dad died, I don't even know what you're talking about. He goes, get out of here, I don't want your kindness, you're probably trying to trick me anyway. And David goes, no, no, you don't really know me. I wanna show you the kindness of God. I mean, David had this incredible place of leadership and influence and authority but kindness and loyalty to his word and attentiveness to the pain of the people around him was a hallmark of his life all of his days. Well, we could go on and on in these chapters but like I'll end with that right here. I wanna invite you to stand and I wanna ask you just as the worship team comes to just to set your heart that no matter what kind of breakthrough you get, no matter what kind of finances come your way in a year or 25 years, maybe you'll be the president of a nation one day or of a great corporation or a mighty ministry, you're never going to draw back but you're gonna rise up and say, Lord, I'm gonna bring the kingdom, I'm gonna seek your face, I'm gonna facilitate the worship movement and I'm gonna show kindness to the people around me. I'm not gonna forget who you are and who I am and what you're worthy of and what I've committed my heart to do before you. So Father, we come before you now and Lord, we set our heart again tonight. We set our heart again to be like David. Lord, I say that whatever disappointments because it didn't happen the way that we imagined, we say, who am I Lord? Who am I that you would be so kind to me? And I say, Lord, I wanna keep going forward. I wanna keep advancing your kingdom. I wanna keep moving forward. I wanna stay in the spirit of kindness. Lord, I ask you even now in the name of Jesus, you would stir vision, you'd restore vision, stir passion. There's some of you in the room, the Lord's saying you've lost your vision. Some of you, maybe you're 20, some of you might be 70. You had a fire, whether a year ago or a couple of decades ago and you've kind of lost it through disappointment or you lost it because you got content with a little bit of breakthrough in your life of some blessing in your natural life. And the Lord's saying, I want you to recommit to the vision. Lay the disappointment down and don't be distracted by some blessing in your circumstances. Become fiery again. Give everything to me again. Renew your commitment to go all the way. I'm gonna invite anyone in the room, you're saying, yeah, that's in my heart. I wanna renew my commitment to go all the way. Full blast to the end. Or maybe someone's in the room, you're saying, well, I haven't lost my way, but I just wanna take a stand tonight. I wanna take a stand and say, that five to seven year window you talk about, I'm not gonna pursue for five or seven years and then when it doesn't happen, I'm gonna move on to something else. I'm going all the days of my life. All the days of my life. I wanna renew my commitment before you. I'm gonna invite you to come forward if you would like prayer according to any of those things. Lord, we.