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Ouachita Hills Academy

Chester Clark

Poured Out

You know, I learned some interesting facts this week, many facts about how God's work is progressing and what is happening around the world.

But there is 1 little bit of trivia that stuck in my mind which illustrated to me how blessed we are in this day and age and in this country and even here at Ouachita Hills.

Did you realize that 3000000000 people in this world have never spoken on a telephone.

3000000000 people have never spoken on a telephone.

There's another fact that has struck me recently though, and that probably is a much more serious fact, and That is that 2 billion people alive today have never had a drink of clean water.

2 billion people have never had a drink of clean water.

Father in heaven, today we come before you and we want to lay the few minutes we have together at your feet.

We want to commit our time, our thoughts, our minds to you.

And Lord, as we open your word, I want to pray that your spirit would guide us and teach us, that we might indeed find from it, through your spirit's working upon our hearts, truth that will make us better people for having studied it.

And Lord, tonight we want to commit our hearts our ways to you on the Sabbath these special blessed hours especially productive for Bible study and we just want to pray that you would help us to make the most of the blessings you've given us.

Now as we come into your presence, we want to put away our own ideas, our own thoughts, our own plans.

I want to take you to a passage in the scriptures found in 2 Samuel chapter 23.

You know, with all of the resources that we have today, there is something that I have noticed about human nature.

We have a tendency first of all to take things for granted, right?

No matter where we are on that socioeconomic scale, we have a tendency to take what we have for granted.

And secondly, we have a tendency to think that whatever we have is ours.

It doesn't matter whether it's our brand new sports car that we've probably not earned with our own money, at least not as a teenager.

Or maybe it's the empty water bottle that the neighborhood is fighting over in India, because that's a valued possession there.

Whatever it is, we have this tendency to take what we have for granted and furthermore to feel that we possess what we have.

I want to find a story here in 2 Samuel chapter 23 and it's in verses 14 and onward, which gives me reason to believe that we should reevaluate what we have and how we use it.

In 2 Samuel 23, verse 14, the Bible says, David was then in an hold, and the garrison of the Philistines was then in Bethlehem So David here has a problem.

He's fighting with the Philistine rulers and the Philistines have taken over Bethlehem and they've built a garrison or a base of operations there.

And so here he is, restricted from traveling.

He's locked up, sort of not able to move around very well, and the Bible says in verse 15 that he began wishing he had something he couldn't have.

What if I just had a private jet instead of having to sit in the airport hour after endless hour.

Well David was dreaming And this is what he said as he dreamed about something he couldn't have.

The Bible says in verse 15, David longed and said, Oh that 1 would give me drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem which is by the gate.

Now David knew he couldn't have that water.

He knew it very well because after all the Philistines occupied Bethlehem and There was no way that he could get a drink of water from the well, but a but David here He is he's sir.

He's longing his soul is wishing for he could that he could only have some of that water.

I don't know what it was about the water of the well of Bethlehem but it must have been pretty good water don't you think?

Perhaps it was the water he grew up drinking as he passed by that area.

I don't know, but he wanted some of that water.

And there were, in his hearing, there were a group of men who listened to what David said and had an idea.

Now these men were not your ordinary men.

In fact, we're not even sure what time period exactly this story took place in, because this chapter is essentially a Chronologuing of the brave feats of David's most valiant men and so this is a story that was included here because these were not ordinary men it says 3 the 3 mighty men break through the host of the Philistines.

In other words, they heard what David said.

Because they loved David so much, because they respected David so much, they said, we're going to get him what he wants.

Because he was the king, or at least well on the way, the anointed, Because he was someone they held in high esteem, they said, David wants water from the well in Bethlehem, we'll go get it for him.

And 3 mighty men, the 3 mighty men, they broke through the line at Bethlehem.

Somehow 1 of them must have ran, got water out of the well, and I don't know what they carried it in back.

They must have had some sort of a bag or something You don't really travel 5 or 6 miles away with water in a you know your hands or something They didn't have glasses or or cig bottles or anything like we have today somehow they carried that water back to David and David not realizing where they had gone not realizing what they had done when he saw that water he was horrified why because that water Why?

Because that water represented something worth way, way more than the H2O, the hydrogen and oxygen molecules that composed whatever amount of water it was.

That water represented something far more valuable than a drink you would just, you know, haphazardly, mindlessly drink as you passed a water fountain that water represented the very blood of 3 of his bravest men because they very well could have died trying to get him a drink of his favorite water.

David realized as he held this water in his hand, he realized, he realized this was not ordinary water.

This was not even ordinary Bethlehem water.

This was water that was worth far more than he deserved.

Couldn't you say that David had earned in many ways the respect of his men after all?

He is the 1 who had killed a lion killed a bear He is the 1 that killed Goliath.

He could have said in his mind, I deserve this water.

I'm an important person And this water is a gift to me and he could have had that mentality But instead as he looked at that water as he felt its cool wetness as He imagined I'm sure what it must have Must be like to drink that cool refreshing well water David did something and that now horrified the 3 men If you look in your Bibles It says in verse 16 after the men took the water and brought it to David, nevertheless he would not drink thereof, but poured it out unto the Lord.

You just went all the way to Bethlehem, not on a motorcycle, in your car, in your Humvee or anything else.

It was no small feat that they had undertaken and accomplished successfully.

And now they give their leader the water.

Who did he pour it out to, does the Bible say?

He poured it out unto the Lord and he says why he did so.

It says in verse 17, Be it far from me, O Lord, that I should do this.

Is not this the blood of the men that went in jeopardy of their lives?

You see, David realized this water was worth way more, it was far more valuable than he could ever deserve.

And in his mind, there was only 1 being in the universe that could deserve an offering that was really the life of 3 men.

And it wasn't him, even though he was anointed, even though he had killed a lion and a bear, even though he had killed Goliath, even though he was a man who had earned their respect.

It was the Lord who alone deserved that water.

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Poured Out

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