In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of being a chosen people for God. He highlights how God chose Israel not because they were the greatest, but because they were the least. The speaker also discusses the significance of the wilderness experience in the nation of Israel and how it was necessary for their survival. The sermon also touches on the role of prophets, specifically Elijah, and the importance of recognizing and humbly receiving the word of God through them. Overall, the sermon emphasizes the divine wisdom and exactitude in God's plan for His people.

about David's playing the role of priest, not having any genealogical qualification, stepping into the void in the absence of an existing priesthood, and functioning as priest, is something like the kind of thing to which we are called. Any thought on that? Would you call that presumption against God? For surely he was instructed in those that only sons of Levi could take that to themselves, and yet he has no hesitation, even putting on the ephod, the priestly garment, and making sacrifice. When Saul made sacrifice, God condemned him. Remember that there was an episode where Saul was waiting Samuel, who was a prophet-priest, to perform a sacrifice, but he was delayed. The Lord, I believe, delayed him, and in his impatience, Saul himself makes the sacrifice and God condemns him. By such an act, he's already on the way out. He's already showing that apostasy and disrespect for God, for which he shall soon enough be terminated, and David will replace him. But David takes upon himself the function of priesthood, and there's no condemnation at all. We mustn't pass over this without tasting and understanding the humiliation or the humility to which David was put in his time of flight while Saul was in pursuit of his life, that he had to occupy caves and live in wilderness places in continual threat from Saul. This somehow was a necessary preliminary to kingship. First humiliation, and then abasement. First going down, then exaltation. And probably the depth to which one is brought down is relative to the depth to which one shall be brought up and exalted. So we can well ask the question, if we're called to a royal priesthood, the restoration of Davidic things, to what humiliation must we be submitted in proportion to the kinds of things that we're called and by which we will be exalted. So David took that liberty, you think it was because of the necessity of hunger, or because of the depth of his awareness that priesthood is more than the issue of genealogy. One thing we have to say about you cats, you sure know how to phrase the questions. In fact, you phrased them so well we don't understand them. So to be repeated, for the high school dropouts, our brother is showing us the text where David took the liberty of eating the showbread intended only for the priests. And I'm asking, was that out of an act of desperation of hunger, or because David had already intuited and understood that priesthood is not the issue of genealogy, but a certain quality of relationship which he had already enjoyed with God and therefore could act freely to take what was intended for priests as a priest. I'm almost answering my own question by the question, and maybe it's a mixture of hunger, but even God in his sovereignty is in that circumstance and is wanting to establish something by David's act that would instruct us in the last days. That we are entitled to a certain liberty that others will condemn as not being our right and yet circumstance and the awareness of our own call will justify it. Can you act like that? Act in a priestly way that will be misconstrued and for which you're likely to be condemned and yet it is the thing that God is wanting in the moment by those who are in that relationship with him. So we need to see the similarity between Jesus and David because both go through a period of humiliation, rejection, and then attain to an exaltation as king under an anointing of God for that office. Here the writer says, thus David comes to the throne to begin a glorious reign over the whole nation. Those who had suffered with him in the wilderness experience now reign with him in the glory of the Davidic kingdom. If that doesn't have New Testament overtones, I don't know what does, but those who are willing to suffer with him in his exile and flight in caves and being pursued and hounded, persecuted are those who later share with him in the glory of his kingdom. If you suffer with him, you will also reign with him. It's the great principle of God. Here he speaks of the foreshadowing of the life of Christ, the greater son of David that the correspondence of the two lives should not be lost to us. Jesus, like David, was born in Bethlehem of Judah. He was anointed with the Holy Spirit in Jordan outside of the camp. The Spirit of the Lord came upon him in the midst of his brethren. He was accepted and loved by the common people who recognized that anointing. However, the religious leaders of his day, the priests, the scribes, the Pharisees became envious and jealous of him, thus turning the people against him. They represented the soul system of his time. So as David was persecuted by Saul as system because David is something organic, a stripling, so Jesus is pursued by the soul system, the Pharisaical and religious class of his time. And he says they soon began to throw the javelins of false accusations, hate, envy, and murder at him. It's a remarkable play on this. David suffered the physical javelins. Jesus suffered the javelins of accusation and expressions of hate also intended to put him away and ultimately succeeded. In this period, Jesus gathered to himself disciples who were counted as the riffraff of his day. In the same way that David got the discredited, the discontent, the off-scouring in the cave subsequently became the army of David and the kingdom of David. These would be willing to suffer with him in his rejection. In due time Christ was rejected and crucified at Calvary and the riffraff that he had called to himself become the apostles of the church. I like the men who were sent from Jerusalem to see what John the Baptist was up to. Like how their view, presumed to be involved in any activity that does not have its auspices in our Jerusalem that doesn't issue from our system. What are you about, you wilderness prophet? And by the way, John was of priestly descent. John the Baptist, his father was a significant priest. So here's the indignation that anything can happen outside our system. What are you about? And then he berates them and calls for fruits, meat for repentance. So there always is this contest and friction between a religious system who thinks that they are at the cutting edge and they operate out of the Jerusalem or the Zion of their systems as against what has its origin in the wilderness that they cannot equate and fit in with what they are about. John the Baptist was in the wilderness. David was in the wilderness. And if you haven't noticed, we are in the wilderness. There's a necessary wilderness in preparation. It's the time of humiliation, separation and accusation and indictment that comes from the religious powers that be that cannot only not recognize what you are about but are threatened by it. And in the end, the threat is carried out or sought to be carried out by death. David had to go through that. John had to go through that. Jesus had to go through that. We have to go through that. There's something about the system that is antithetical to that which is born of God that is homely, has no credentials, is the least and the weakest and has to grow up organically. And then receive the anointing of God in preparation for the office to which it's called. And those who have recognized it and suffer with it in its wilderness stage come then to rule and reign with it. So the remarkable correlation between David and Jesus and the principles are fixed and they exist today. That which is of Saul will always be antagonized by that which is of David. You wonder why that is. What is there about a stripling who is inoffensive, plays the harp, was only a shepherd, should yet be such a threat to a man like Saul whose heads and shoulders above his contemporaries has armor and is anointed king. Why should he in any way be threatened by this David? And threatened to the point where he'll not be satisfied except by the death of this threat. If you don't understand that, you'll not understand why you yourself will be pursued and you're likely even to be conscripted and drawn up and taken into the Saul system and find yourself opposing the thing which is Davidic. You've got to understand what is represented in this remarkable polarity because it remains to this day and will to the end. In fact become more vehement and violent even at the end than ever it was in David's time. And what is Paul talking about? That which is of the flesh is an enmity with the spirit and what is of the spirit is an enmity with the flesh. There is an innate, ineluctable and necessary antagonism and conflict that needs to be recognized and discerned. If we're not experiencing it there may be the measure by which we are outside of the Davidic orbit and have not fully identified ourselves that it can be recognized and opposed by what is of the Saul system that is in the world. Follow that? If we're not experiencing javelins and nothing is being thrown at us and we're even being found compatible with the Saul system, how Davidic are we? How much of the wilderness are we willing to be? How much do we secretly desire the approval and the acceptance of those that are in power and are running the show and want to be part of it? But the end of David's suffering is the glory of the kingdom. The end of Paul's system is the shame of apostasy and rejection by God. So we have to recognize what the end of these two things take note of where we presently are and where we've been drawn to the one orbit or the other which is a continual thing that's going on. What would represent today? The Saul system. Would it be only Catholicism or the high church the major denominations? Is that the Saul system of today? Or does it take other forms and that we might miss it because it's not officially a denomination but its character and its spirit is Saul-like. It uses God and employs God for its own ends. Even has the audacity to say that it's serving God and making sacrifice but it's not priestly. It's not it doesn't have David's fear. I'm not asking you to name names I'm just asking just throwing out something for you to consider. Here this writer says those who suffer with him or because of him shall reign with him. It is after his exaltation to the throne that he also begins to build his tabernacle the church that is called by his name this is the true tabernacle of David. Well here's where I would have a little point of departure with this Australian writer because I think it's a piece of displacement that the tabernacle of David is the church would you agree with that? What is the tabernacle of David today or what is being formed or what needs to be established that is being restored in Amos chapter 3 at the same time that Israel is uprooted and sifted through the nations and that day God said I will restore the tabernacle of David that is broken down. Is that a reference to the church? It's remarkable in that day I will restore the tabernacle of David in what day? In the same day or period of time in which Israel is uprooted and exiled through the wilderness of the nations here's this tabernacle established out of the wilderness of David's early experience in flight and so is this tabernacle that will be everlasting out of another wilderness of Israel in the nations so the remarkable pattern I'm seeing it for the first time as Reggie mentions this but you need to see it there's a wilderness that proceeds and that day what day? The day that I will uproot the sinful kingdom and sift them through the nations in Ezekiel says to the wilderness of the nations in that day I will restore the tabernacle somehow the restoration just as David brings it back to Zion this last days bringing back to Zion also requires the proceeding by a wilderness sifting David was sifted in the wilderness he was tempted and he was tried wilderness is a trial is a sifting is an affliction to fit a people for the glory of a kingdom or else that glory will corrupt them David was not corrupted because of the dues that he paid in the wilderness that proceeded his enthronement which is the issue of the tabernacle it's not a worship it's a government because Amos chapter 9 somebody have it at their fingertips in that day Edom and all the nations that are called by my name will submit to that authority my rule over the nations will go forth from the restored tabernacle of David in Zion if that is not a formula for exaltation that will corrupt a nation I don't know what is and yet the Israel that is debased and humiliated through it's wilderness sifting can handle the exaltation of being at the heart of the Davidic kingdom and ruling over Edom which is the symbol of all gentile nations without being corrupted a wilderness has got to proceed in exaltation if you are in a wilderness now that's the reason for it and that wilderness can take place even in a suburb even in a city setting wilderness is not necessarily raw nature wilderness is the place of stripping wilderness is the place of dealing wilderness is the place where your flesh is denied where you have to face the unfamiliar and even the dangerous and the foreboding and it comes at God's hand to which even Jesus had to be driven it says by the Holy Spirit after his baptism and the Holy Ghost comes upon him in the form of the dove and the voice of the father in heaven this is my beloved son whom I am well pleased it says then the spirit drove him into the wilderness where he was tempted for 40 days or tested or tried 40 is that symbolic number Israel 40 years Jesus 40 days so 40 is not the number of actuality but the required time by which the testing must take place fitting one for kingship because the anointing of Jesus that came with the dove is the anointing for messiahship which is the anointed king so even Jesus as the prototype of the entire nation has first experienced wilderness before enthronement David had to experience wilderness before enthronement what must we and present Israel experience before its enthronement but the same wilderness which is an apocalyptic scenario that many do not want to consider that this is necessary somehow but we need to consider it and recognize it and even in whatever measure pass through it I don't mean that we will all be out there in the woods at the same time but there is a prescribed period proportionate to our Davidic call through which we must pass in a place of testing and denial and come out with a humiliation that will so temper us that no amount of exaltation that will come will in anyway corrupt us and steal from God the glory of his kingdom even the issue of Israel survival in the wilderness is likely the presence already in the wilderness of those who have been prepared for it and can be to them what they must through that preparation because it says that the woman flees into the wilderness where a place is prepared for her and where she is fed for three and a half years Isaiah 35 shows that there is a presence in the wilderness where God says say to them your God shall come there are people already in the wilderness who have already been tested and prepared through it and know that God will come though the conditions do not seem at all to indicate it and they can speak a word of encouragement to those who will be panic stricken but their word of encouragement is more than a pat on the back it actually opens the eyes of the blind and makes the lame to leap so our preliminary wilderness experience is necessary for Israel's very survival Elijah is the proverbial and classic wilderness prophet and last night Inga said I don't know why she came up with this why was it necessary for him to wear a rough garment and be girded about with a certain belt what does the outward external appearance have to do with Elijah Cole because she is complaining about me that why do I go dressed like a slump why don't I dress more appropriately to the dignity of my office and so I had to explain to her that he dressed appropriately for the wilderness calling that his very apparel was the statement of his wilderness existence as was also his diet so this is no small thing of how we are dressed and that Elijah necessarily as did John come out of the wilderness they were the wilderness prophets that precede the coming of the Lord or precede the coming of the kingdom and we are called to that company Elijah company how then shall we be dressed what is our external adornment what do we put on that is reflective of this call will we be comfortable with clothes that chafe the flesh and are not smooth and not the latest gap thing that is in style for your generation I am being a bit fanciful but it is not an issue to be dismissed and I am not talking about something external but something spiritual what we take on how we show ourselves this wilderness thing is critical and we have not sufficiently considered it and therefore we won't even recognize it when God brings us into it by the spirit Jesus was driven into the wilderness I wish I had a dollar for every occasion in which I am meeting dignified leaders of the church and they look me over I can just watch their eyes going up what is he wearing from shoes to the top of his head to make their assessment that the external thing that a man wears is the statement of who and what he is and whether he is acceptable and bears the credentials of being in their company I want to say that I failed that test every single time that even if I am wearing something decent I look like a slump I don't know how it is but it shows where they are that their assessment is based on the external measure Davidic insight into the nature of the lesser David and the greater David the remarkable parallel between the two and what is my house that you have brought me thus far and yet this was a small thing in your eyes O Lord God you have spoken also of your servants house for a great while to come may this be instruction for the people O Lord God and what more can David say to you for you know your servant O Lord God because of your promise and according to your own heart you have brought all this greatness so he knows it has nothing to do with some qualification in himself your promise your name your honor your word according to your heart you have brought because of your promise that is a great statement here is the heart of David thanks for joining us to this David's answer to the remarkable statement the oracle that comes from the prophet Nathan of an eternal kingdom to come that will always bear the name David and be born out of his loins his ancestry and will be the enthronement of the nation through all time and all posterity all generations and here is David now speaking to God having heard this remarkable oracle and saying may this instruction be for the people O God he means us as well as his own generation what more can David say to you what more shall I say I don't know how to pray for you know your servant O Lord God that is to say you know what we are made of and what we are capable of left to ourselves because of your promise and according to your own heart you have brought all this greatness so that your servant may know it therefore you are great O Lord God for there is no one else like you and there is no God beside you according to all that we have heard with our ears who is like your people like Israel is there another nation on earth whose God went to redeem it as a people and to make a name for himself doing great and awesome things for them by driving out before his people nations and their gods and you established your people Israel for yourself to be your people forever and you O Lord became their God what a remarkable summary of the whole mystery of Israel's nationhood God says I didn't choose you because you were the greatest I chose you because you were the least I chose you to exhibit me not to exhibit yourself my glory is taking a nothing and making of it a nation that shows forth my character David understands this or how else shall he be king over it unless he understands the origin purpose and calling of the nation itself and that the governance over that nation through him must be keeping with its call this is the Davidic genius and this is not to use that word again obsequious this is not a playful thing that man uses as a word to manipulate and to seem self effacing when David says servant he means servant and in some way as I mentioned I think in the prayer time David said he served his generation and fell asleep he served the purposes of God for his generation the whole purpose for his being was servanthood and he was schooled in it by tending the flock of God the sheep and so can you be king and not be servant and when Jesus washed the feet of his disciples what was he exhibiting and reaffirming but that self same Davidic servanthood in fact he says I came to serve and not to be served so what are you guys talking about about who is going to sit at my right hand who is going to sit at my left and have this glory and this honor the servant he who is the least of all is the leader so this is the kingdom of God and the kingdom in its earthly expression in Israel has to bear that character from its inception or it's not God's kingdom and his king therefore is the epitome of that expression of what he is in himself that's why David bears such a reason for examination we need to take this man and take what he is, he is the thing in himself and therefore God the father is not ashamed or hesitate to call Jesus the greater David and that Jesus is the offspring and the root and the offspring of David, David is derived from him but Jesus is also the offspring from him, he is out of the loins not only genealogically but spiritually, what Jesus exhibits in his earthly tenure and forever as king of glory has its auspices in this fleshly son, this David who was a lowly shepherd and the least of his brethren so what must be the character of such a kingdom that is yet to come, I wish you guys had my experience in New York, I went to hear a lecture on why Jews are suffering anti-Semitism again and the guy was giving a lecture he said it's because we represent virtue and we are righteousness and we are hated for that very reason I said did you ever read the bible we are an apostate people, we are out of our kingdom place, we don't even know what covenant we are suffering because of the very lack of the thing that you are celebrating what a piece of egoism to so exalt Jewish flesh as that we exhibit some kind of superior morality and that's the reason why the world the gentile world cannot take what we demonstrate in our greater virtue complete contradiction so that view has got to go down into death, that same man if he has breath will be expelled with others like him and in the wilderness through the sifting of God and being reduced and stripped and made to recognize the truth of our condition as we see the truth of his condition we will be fit for the place of the kingdom for which we are intended, that's how you are right what an astonishment that God could take this arrogant nation by the way historically Israel has been called by gentiles the arrogant kingdom so where does the brokenness come and the priestliness by which we shall be a light to the nations so this we can dwell with profit on David's statement and you know what's so precious about it it's entirely unpremeditated this isn't well now that you said this give me a couple of weeks and I'll go to my study and work on my computer and come with an appropriate response this is David right on the heels of God speaking through the prophet speaking out of his extemporaneous heart and that's why it's so precious and this is a real humility being expressed who am I the first word who am I that you should consider me in such a way that my name should always be the designation of such so glorious a kingdom and what is this people that you have chosen for yourself and defeated kings in their behalf it's what we do and what we say in the moment that takes us that is what we really are not when we've had time to compose ourselves and come up with an honorific statement this is the man in himself and that's why Paul's writings is so glorious he never thought it would be part of scripture he just was writing a letter just an epistle of practical advice to the church at Rome but Ephesus and yet it is so glorious a statement of his apostolic character that God has enshrined it so to speak as scripture so also this statement from David what we are in the moment is what we are so I'm enjoying what David is thus in verse 26 your name will be magnified forever that's David's only concern to your servant verse 27 saying I will build you a house therefore your servant has found courage to pray this prayer to you so is your servant your servant your servant and now oh Lord God you are God and your words are true and you have promised this good thing to your servant that's it no ifs ands or buts no doubt no apprehension no anxiety you said it you promised it it will be done now therefore may it please you to bless the house of your servant so it may continue forever before you for you oh Lord God have spoken and with your blessing shall the house of your servant be blessed forever is this a priestly recognition of the efficacy of blessing or is this just a little blurb is this a little rhetorical icing on the cake of how to finish a statement before God in reference to your blessing understand what I'm saying here's David the priest knowing that blessing is everything and the blessing of God is ultimate and he ends his statement by saying your blessing your word your promise your blessing compare the way the trite the way in which the word has fallen and become a trite expression bless you brother bless you brother David blessing priestly blessing the divine blessing is everything what is the house of God if it's not blessed what is his kingdom if it's not blessed so Lord you've spoken this you've promised it and now I'm asking that you bless it and bless it forever for when you bless it it remains blessed and if it's not blessed and just has the rudiments of a governmental framework that has a certain functioning efficacy it will miss it by a mile you'll not be glorified your name will not be honored that's why I'm asking the blessing I'm not asking the blessing that it should be enjoyed on our lust I'm asking the blessing that your name shall be enshrined in your house forever can you get the davidic heart you dear saints you dull saints can you get this can you desire it are you jealous for this do you realize you're not in that place you're not praying like that you don't have a mindset like that you don't think in those terms you don't desire those things and you don't believe for it therefore you have to go through wilderness that's it long and short of it till you will you'll not come to this and the restored temple of david tabernacle of david is already blessed in that blessing yeah that's right because it's blessed forever I hope you don't mind me over sharing but this is like it's just coming alive to me I want to point out something in verse 29 and also in verse 27 in verse 29 it says for thou O Lord hast spoken and up in verse 27 for thou O Lord of hosts the God of Israel hath made a revelation to thy servants and the marginal reference on made a revelation says uncovered the ear of uncovered the ear of so he says you made a revelation to thy servant Lord you uncovered my ear so therefore I know that you have spoken something is percolating in me now listen to this David is saying you have spoken you have revealed but how has God spoken was it a voice out of heaven but it came through an earthly instrument called Nathan the prophet and David's identification and recognition of that office and that speaking is as much as God himself has spoken no question whatever that Nathan speaking is God speaking how come he didn't suspect that Nathan is just buttering him up and wanted to be caught prophet and say pleasing things which false prophets have always done in the history of Israel's kings but David knows this is an oracle this is a man who is later going to accuse me thou art a man in the sin with Bathsheba and the same man who will identify my sin is equally able to identify my call with the same objectivity and the same truth without any human condescension looking for favor because he is a true prophet therefore you have spoken if David could not make that recognition and ascribe to the speaking of the prophet the speaking of God he could not be king over Israel I have never before said that I have never before seen that I thank you that we are moving and drifting here to pick up these observations they are critical for us because the issue of the prophet is the issue of the kingdom and that's why that title is so much now under the gun and so much an object of controversy of who in fact is the nation and who are the prophets of the kings of Israel who have been man pleasers and have opposed the true prophets and thrown them into the pit by which they have been brought out by a black servant I love this about David not a moment since thou hast spoken Nathan spoke, you have spoken it's your promise, this is not man's flattery I'm receiving this as coming from very God now why didn't God speak to David in a dream why didn't he give it to him in a vision the same God who led David to the battle of Philistines by direct communication go out against him in this instance does not speak that way in this instance this remarkable end time and eternal call of a house for David for all generations does not come directly but comes through the prophet we mustn't miss this this is the wisdom of God and it's even an instance of David's humility to receive so great a call coming from the mouth of another and seeing it as being God's own mouth and God's own speaking, have you got that humility what do you think Nathan looked like what do you think that he had some bearing and some overt and physical thing that there's no question about the man's calling or do you think that he sweat just like me and dropped some egg on his shirt just like me and had every reason that if a man wants to question he can find ample grounds to set aside see what I mean, in a certain sense David is tested in an ultimate test everything preceded the javelins assault, the opposition, the persecution, the wilderness and the last and the final testing is how he will regard the utterance that comes to him through a man whom he's called to recognize as prophet and it may well be and I've never said this before or recognized before it's exactly our issue at the end of the age as to whether we will come into the Davidic place and that kingdom is the issue of prophet and the issue of our humility to recognize it and to receive the word from that vessel as being God has spoken especially if it's a wilderness prophet so I thank you Lord for such can you see the exactitude the divine wisdom in everything that we've considered this morning the mind of the Lord and the way of the Lord has passed finally now praise God for Nathan who could receive the imprint of God's oracle and communicate it without in any way intruding himself or finding a way to slip in himself and have a little piece of the gravy a little piece of the honor, a little piece of the kingdom there's nothing of Nathan that comes through in this that will come back to him as any benefit because his prophetic utterance to David is entirely priestly priestly service is not priestly if there's anything that redounds to the priest as personal benefit it's got to be entirely free of any benefit or consequence that accrues to your priestly service that's why this Christian identification with Israel Christian Zionism is not priestly service to Israel it is a self-serving symbiotic kind of a thing where the one who makes nice and speaks the flattering thing and encourages receives something for the flattery of his own soul and wants the recognition and admiration of those to whom his favorite is coming but a prophet or any priestly service has got to be entirely devoid of any benefit that accrues to the one who is performing it or is no longer priestly and if it's no longer priestly it cannot be prophetic Nathan is a precious picture of that and David knows it and he knows whom to appoint or whom to receive as being the Oracle of God for his cork and for that same one as we have already said later on does not hesitate for a moment to say thou art the man and when he says it David who was already in deception and found a way to justify his adultery and by the way orthodox rabbinism finds a way also that it was not a legitimate marriage between Bathsheba and what's his name Uriah and that it was already in the process of divorce and David was legally entitled, they found a way to smooth it over, save David as if they have to defend his reputation but what are they doing, they are saving themselves making way for man, justifying man but God does not play that game and the prophet speaks with incisive precision thou art the man and the moment David hears it his deception is burst and he breaks and falls before the Lord in acknowledgement of his guilt only the man who is the Oracle to speak to him the eternal blessedness of a kingdom that would bear his name forever is the same Oracle that speaks to him the word of necessary indictment and the king is king because he can receive the one as readily as the other this is David and this has to be us, when I call you guys in prayer, sons and daughters of David this is what I am meaning to you and I am desiring for myself, this is no cheap this is no easy put on and take off this is deep work of God in human personality to bring us as the products of an age that is so contrary to all of this and into a timeless and eternal place that God designates by one name, David, it's Davidic it was at the beginning, it will be at the end it's an everlasting kingdom and it's going to be restored in that hour when Israel will be sifted through the nations, through the wilderness I will rebuild, I will pick up, I will establish again, build the tabernacle of David that has fallen down, that all Edom shall come under it's rule, so Lord we welcome being candidates this is more the little glitzy prophetical school, what you are after my God, we are feeling for it thank you Lord, I am so glad you didn't dismiss us after the break and called us back, I am learning something that I have not seen so clearly as I am seeing now of what it means to be Davidic what a gem, what a treasure what a high thing Lord, what a personality that is nothing less no other than what Christ is in himself David foreshadowed by being that thing in himself so we thank you my God and we ask that we might indeed be his ancestry and that the anointing that came upon him will also in measure come upon us and for the same purpose, the advancing of that Davidic kingdom, bless these children Lord and bring us step by step word by word, experience by experience into the reality for which we are called and we thank you Lord, precious God we welcome our wilderness testing if it is yet ahead of us, may we anticipate it with appreciation, if we are in it now may we recognize it for what it is and not look upon it as some haphazard thing that just is happening, but the thing given of God to which Jesus had to be driven you have called us, thank you Lord for such love, that knows exactly what we need that we would never come to a place where we would be free from our own self-exaltation and think only in terms of your glory unless we had first been so sifted and refined turn it up, turn on the juice Lord, do it the time is short, you need such a people you are waiting for such a people, may we be such may we be sure for them