(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

1 Chronicles chapter 18 verse 1, the Bible reads, Now after that it came to pass that David smote the Philistines and subdued them, and took Gath and her towns out of the hand of the Philistines, and he smote Moab, and the Moabites became David's servants and brought gifts. The first thing I want to point out is in verse number 1 where it says now after this. Now what's the after this? Well in chapter 17, if you remember, this is where David had it in his heart to build a house for the tabernacle, to build a house of God, to build the temple basically. And God tells him that it's not his will that David build the temple, but that rather his son would build the temple, of course that would be Solomon. But in chapter 17 we see that David's heart is to build the house of God. He wants to do something for the Lord, and then after he gets that answer from God about how he's not going to be the one to build it, then he prays and is very humble before God, he's praising God and giving God all the glory and thanking God and so forth. And then it says after this, it came to pass that David smote the Philistines. So what we see here is that when you seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, all these things shall be added unto you. And if there was one enemy that David wanted to smite, it was the Philistines, right? Because throughout David's life, this was one of his major enemies. If you remember, he was the one who went up against Goliath. And Goliath was the champion from Gath, from the land of the Philistines. And what did he do in this verse? He took Gath. Gath was one of the major cities of the Philistines. They had those five major cities, Ekron, Gath, Gaza, Ashdod, they had these important cities and so to take one of those five cities is a major victory. And so David took this after seeking the Lord and thinking about the things of God. So if we seek first the kingdom of God in our lives, then God will take care of the other problems in our life and he'll bless us in other ways. If we seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, he said all these things will be added unto us. What are all these things? Food, clothing, the things that we need in our lives according to Matthew chapter number six. So God's blessing him as a result of chapter 17. His heart was in the right place. Verse two says he smote Moab, another traditional enemy of the children of Israel, and the Moabites became David's servants and brought gifts. And David smote Hatterezer, king of Zobah unto Hamath as he went to establish his dominion by the river Euphrates. And David took from him a thousand chariots and 7,000 horsemen and 20,000 footmen. David also hawked all the chariot horses but reserved of them a hundred chariots. And when the Syrians of Damascus came to help Hatterezer, king of Zobah, David slew of the Syrians two and 20,000 men. Basically everywhere David turns, he's winning. He's defeating the enemy. God's blessing him. You know, when you're a man after God's own heart and you're seeking the Lord and putting him first, God's going to give you a lot of victories. He's going to give you a lot of blessings. And that's what we see happening in the life of David here. He's just prospering everywhere he goes. Now one thing I want to point out here is that it says when the Syrians of Damascus, and of course Damascus is still the capital of Syria today, so that town is familiar to us, came to help Hatterezer, king of Zobah, David slew of the Syrians two and 20,000 men. So if these Syrians had not helped Hatterezer, king of Zobah, they probably wouldn't have lost 22,000 troops. So sometimes when people get involved in the wrong battle or defend wicked people or defend the Lord's enemies, they can end up getting wiped out too. And this isn't the only time in scripture that this happened to Syria because there are other times where they helped the children of Ammon against the Israelites and then they ended up getting wiped out and then they were afraid to help the children of Ammon anymore because they ended up losing. So it says here that David, verse 6, put garrisons in Syria-Damascus and the Syrians became David's servants and brought gifts. Thus the Lord preserved David whithersoever he went. So not only did they lose 22,000 troops, but they ended up having the Israeli troops stationed in Damascus there as a garrison. A garrison is when they're occupied by a foreign army. And so this is a bad situation for Damascus. They should have stayed out of this fight. The Bible says that we should not meddle with strife not belonging to us. And especially not getting on the wrong side of things. And we especially shouldn't be defending wicked people. The Bible says, shouldest thou help the ungodly or love them that hate the Lord? Therefore is wrath upon thee from before the Lord thy God. So if we end up supporting wicked people, helping wicked people, teaming up with wicked people, we could end up getting destroyed. We end up with God's wrath upon us. So we need to be careful not to say, hey, we are Orlando or something like that and just associate ourselves with the worst scum, the worst filth and off scouring of all mankind because we might end up being partakers of their judgment as well. Because the Bible says that if we bid people Godspeed, we become a partaker of their evil deeds. So, you know, these Syrians should have just stayed out of it. But they ended up with teaming up with the Lord's enemies and getting punished with the Lord's enemies. It says in verse 7, and David took the shields of gold that were on the servants of Hadareezer and brought them to Jerusalem, likewise from Tibhath and from Kun, cities of Hadareezer and brought David, cities of Hadareezer, brought David very much brass, wherewith Solomon made the brazen sea and the pillars and the vessels of brass. Now when Tawu, king of Hamath, heard how David had smitten all the hosts of Hadareezer, king of Zobah, he sent Hadoram his son to king David to inquire of his welfare and to congratulate him because he had fought against Hadareezer and smitten him, for Hadareezer had war with Tawu and with him all manner of vests of gold and silver and brass. Them also king David dedicated unto the Lord with the silver and the gold that he brought from all these nations. So we see now that not only in chapter 17 was David seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and giving the Lord all the glory and that's why he's being blessed in chapter 18 with all these victories. Not only that, when he wins these victories, when he brings in all the spoils and wins all the battles and increases and riches, he then takes of the spoils and dedicates them to the Lord. So he takes all this gold and silver and brass that's coming in from these battles and he's putting it toward the temple that Solomon's going to build. And it says that later when that great brazen sea would be built by Solomon in the temple, he's using the brass that was from these particular victories. The gold and silver that would plate the temple is coming from these battles. And so David is not only winning battles for the Lord but then he's giving of his treasures unto the house of the Lord. And so we need to learn the lesson that when we're generous with the Lord and good stewards of the things that God gives us, God's going to give us more. Whereas if everything that comes to us is just expended on our own lust and our own pleasure, God's not going to give us as much. My pastor back in Sacramento would do this thing called the silent sermon, where he would do this thing where he would go like this, like look up like this and go. He's like getting things from God so that he can be a blessing to other people to distribute, to be generous, to give the Lord. And then he gave another one that was like this. And basically what he was saying was, and then it's like, wait, nothing's coming anymore. Because if we're generous, the Bible says given and shall be given unto you. And if we're generous with what God gives us and if we're good stewards of what God gives, if we use it on things that are important or good uses, then God's going to give us more. Because he sees us wasting our money on lottery tickets, beer, cigarettes, gambling. Obviously God's not going to want to give us more because he sees that we're wasting it. We're a bad steward of what we've been given. So if we're a good steward of what we're given, he'll give us more. I think that's one of the reasons why our church has been blessed financially. Because we've been around for 13 years now. We've always been able to pay our bills. We've never run out of money. We've never had any debt. We've never gone into debt. I mean, how many churches can say that? You know, most churches have debt and all kinds of financial problems and they have to raise money all the time. We've never had a fundraiser in 13 years. Not one time have we ever had building fund, missions fund, raise money for this, raise money for that, fundraise. And I'm not saying that those are always a bad thing. We've never done it. And we've never needed to. You know, don't plan on ever doing it. Why? Because we've just always had enough money. Why is that? Because of the fact that our church has, number one, been a good steward of the money that we've been given and been generous. Have you noticed that everything's free? All the DVDs back there, Bibles, flash drives, sermon CDs, we give that stuff away for free. Other churches are charging, you know, $5 for a CD. Well, guess what? It's not worth charging $5 for a CD to make God's house into a house of merchandise and then God's displeased. I mean, I'd rather just have $5 less and just give that CD away for free because we don't want to be found to buy or sell in the house of God, which is strictly prohibited in Scripture. But how many churches have it set up in the back? The little bookstore, the little shop where they sell things. You know, they're not being generous. And when they have activities, everything costs, you know, our activities are free. We give everything away for free. We are generous with whatever we have. We're willing to share with others and not make them pay for it. Because some people just don't have the money and we still want them to have this stuff. Okay. But then not only that, but we've been good stewards of it. We're not flushing large amounts of money down the toilet on missionaries who we never check up on and we don't even know what they're doing. We're not flushing large amounts of money down the toilet on, you know, just wasteful programs that God didn't tell us to have, like a Christian school, which is like a financial black hole for a lot of churches. So you know, our money goes toward reaching people. And the amount of salvations that our church produces, the amount of changed lives versus how much money comes into offering play is a pretty good ratio. So therefore, God blesses us with more. And in our personal lives, we want to be a good steward of our money, not waste our money on stupid things, buy dumb things, or just everything's just to consume on our lust. We want to be good stewards so that God will bless us with more. And David here is a good steward of what God blesses him with. He realizes that it's the Lord who gives him the power to win these victories. And so he gives back part of that to the Lord and gives him the gold and the silver and the brass and so forth. So it says in verse 11, them also, King David dedicated unto the Lord with the silver and the gold that he brought from all these nations, from Edom and from Moab and from the children of Ammon and from the Philistines and from Amalek. Now look at verse 12. This is very interesting and important. Moreover, Abishai the son of Zeruiah slew of the Edomites in the valley of salt 18,000 and he put garrisons in Edom and all the Edomites became David's servants. Thus the Lord preserved David whithersoever he went. Now this might just seem like a little footnote in a chapter all about David winning a lot of battles. Well, he's just beating everybody, right? I mean, he's beating the Syrians, he's beating the Ammonites, the Moabites, the King of Zobah, Hamath, whatever. But as you see here, he also had the Edomites as his servants. He puts garrisons in Edom and the Edomites become his servants. This is very significant because it is an important fulfillment of Bible prophecy. This is not just another nation in a list of nations that David takes over. This is something that was prophesied many, many centuries before. Now flip over to Romans chapter 9. This is really important that we understand this because Romans chapter 9 is a scripture that is often twisted by the Calvinists. This is the Calvinist big chapter. Every false doctrine kind of has its go-to scripture, works salvation, they run to James 2. Well, you know, the Zionists run to Romans 11, only the end of Romans 11. They ignore the first half, which destroys their false doctrine. But the Calvinists, man, they run to Romans 9. And I remember when I was a teenager, I got hit with this by a Calvinist. And I'll be honest with you, I didn't know the Bible as well at that time. And I got hit with this and I knew Calvinism was false. But I got stumped. I mean, I didn't know how to answer this. You know, I got hit with Romans 9 and I was like, wow, I don't know what to say to this. I don't know how to answer this. I can't understand this. How can this be? Because it seemed to be, you know, teaching what these Calvinists were saying. And I prayed about it for a couple of weeks. You know, I prayed and I prayed, I just said, God, just give me the answer, just revealed me. And I said, God, if Calvinism is true, I'll believe in it. You know, whatever you want me to believe, Lord, whatever the Bible said, whatever is true, I just want to believe the truth. But I just knew there were so many scriptures that contradicted Calvinism. But this Romans 9, man, it stumped me at the time. This is when I was 17, 18 years old. And then it just dawned on me and I felt like such an idiot for not understanding it. And what it is, is that we go into a scripture with a preconceived idea. And in this case, it wasn't my preconceived idea, it was the Calvinists put a preconceived idea in my head. And they get you looking at a scripture a certain way, and they get you thinking along those lines. And then you're stuck on that. And then I'm just like, what in the world? How could I believe that? That that's what it was talking about, personal salvation. See, here's the answer to Romans 9. It's not about personal salvation at all. That is a major twisting of this scripture to make it about personal salvation. And I'm going to prove it to you beyond any shadow of a doubt. First of all, if you just look at the beginning of the chapter, you'll see that he's talking about who is Israel and who is not Israel. Look at verse 6. It says, not as though the word of God had taken none effect, for they are not all Israel which are of Israel, neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children, but an Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. So what he's saying is the physical Jews, the physical seed of Abraham, they're not the real seed of Abraham. They're not the true Israel. It's the children of the promise. It's the saved Christians, the spiritual Israel. But then he says, for this is the word of promise, at this time will I come, and Sarah shall have a son. Watch how he's continuing the same thought. And not only this, but when Rebekah also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac, for the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. It was said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger, as it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. So what the Calvinists will do is they'll take this scripture and say, look, Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. That was decided before the children had done anything, before they had done any good or evil. God made that election or choice about Jacob and Esau. He made the choice, Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. And so what they're teaching is that God chooses who's going to be saved like Jacob or who's going to be damned like Esau. This is what the Calvinists are teaching. But actually, it's very easy to prove that that is not what this passage is talking about. It's not even talking, not only is it not talking about personal salvation, it's not even talking about the people Jacob and Esau. When it says Jacob and Esau, it's talking about the nations of Jacob and Esau. And I'm going to prove that to you beyond any shadow of a doubt. And this is how I figured it out. It dawned on me after praying to the Lord to guide me on this, that I should look up these quotes. And this is a great way to study the Bible. When you're reading the New Testament and it quotes the Old Testament, go look it up. Now watch what the Bible says here. It says in verse 11, for the children, being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of him that calleth. It was said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger. Let's look that up. Keep your finger here, go to Genesis 25. Genesis 25. Let's see if the elder shall serve the younger is about Esau serving Jacob, or is it about the nation of Esau serving the nation of Jacob? The nation of Edom serving the nation of Israel. Because Jacob is named Israel also, he has two names. Jacob became Israel. And then Esau's name became Edom. Esau and Edom are the same person, Jacob and Israel are the same person. Look at Genesis chapter 25. And it says in verse 23, and the Lord said unto her, two nations are in thy womb. So are we talking about the individual here? No, we're talking about two groups of people, two nations. Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels, and the one people shall be stronger than the other people. Here's the quote from Romans 9, and the elder shall serve the younger. Four times in that verse, he made it crystal clear, he's not talking about those two babies in that womb. He said two nations, two manner of people, the one people is going to be greater than the other people, and the elder shall serve the younger. So how can you take that phrase, the elder shall serve the younger, and apply it to the individual when four times he told you he's talking about a group of people? Now let me ask you this, you've read the book of Genesis, when did Esau ever serve Jacob? Never happened. It did not happen. And I remember when I read the Bible as a child, I never understood this. How come Esau never serves Jacob? Well it just happened in the Bible, no, no, no. The Bible tells us all about Jacob's life, and it tells us quite a bit about Esau's life, and we even see Jacob and Esau reuniting very late in their lives, and we hear what happened to them, both, and yet you never see Esau serving Jacob. If anything, it's Jacob that's bound down to Esau. Jacob is not ruling over Esau at any point in the story. Why? Because the elder shall serve the younger wasn't about the people Jacob and Esau, it was about the group of people, the nations that they would produce, Israel and Edom. So if we look this up, that's pretty strong evidence, but now, back to Romans 9, let's get the other quote. So it said, it was said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger in verse 12 of Romans 9, and then verse 13 says, as it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. And this Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated, this is the Calvinist big verse about how God's choosing one for salvation, and he's choosing the other for damnation, right? This is the verse that they use, this is the chapter they use. Let's look that quote up in Malachi. Malachi chapter 1 is where that comes from, and let's see if we're talking about individual personal salvation, or if we're talking about groups of people or nations. Look at Malachi chapter 1 verse 1, the burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. I have loved you, saith the Lord, yet ye say, where inest thou loved us? Malachi is just right before the book of Matthew. Look at verse 2, yet ye say, where inest thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother, saith the Lord? Yet I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau. So do you see that? I loved Jacob and I hated Esau, but now continue the thought. And laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. Did God ever do that to Esau? You've read the book of Genesis. When did God ever lay Esau's heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness? That never happened. Esau was blessed in his lifetime. He was prosperous, he succeeded, he grew and became a great nation. That's all we see, prosperity, blessing, that's it. But look what it says next in verse 4, whereas Edom saith, we are impoverished, but we are Notice the plural, will return and build the desolate places. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, they shall build, but I will throw down. And they shall call them the border of wickedness and the people against whom the Lord hath indignation forever. So it's not that God had hatred or indignation toward the person Esau. He had hatred and indignation toward the people of Edom. And whenever I read the book of Genesis, I always thought to myself, Esau doesn't seem like a very bad guy. Now did Esau have some problems? Sure, Esau did some wrong things. What did Esau do wrong? Well first of all, Esau despised his birthright. That was a stupid thing that he did where he sold his birthright to Jacob, he despised his birthright. Okay, that's what he did. That was bad. What else bad did he do? He married multiple wives and they were heathens. He married some of the wives of Canaan and he married a wife of Ishmael and he had these three wives and they were a grief of mind unto Isaac and Rebekah. They didn't approve of his wives and so forth. But you know, other than that, we see actually Esau do a lot of good things in his life. He was blessed, he did right, he honored his parents after that. And not only that, but he forgave Jacob. You know, Jacob comes to him afraid of him because there was another sin that Esau committed of hating his brother in his heart, but he ended up getting right on that and forgiving his brother. And when Israel goes out to meet Esau, he ends up being blessed by Esau and Esau's kind unto him and treats him well and it's all water under the bridge. And so they go away on good terms. And then when their dad dies, they get together at the funeral and they bury him and everybody's getting along great and they live happily ever after. So when you read Genesis, it's clear that both Jacob and Esau both live happily ever after. They both seem like good guys. So what's this about God hating Esau? It's because the people of Edom, the people of Esau, became a very wicked nation. And those are people that God was angry with and God hated them and had indignation against them forever. Keep in mind that this is being said in Malachi centuries after the person Esau was dead. Now it's predicted that the elder would serve the younger. It's predicted that Edom would serve Israel, but the people, that just frankly never happened. And so if we look up the quote in Genesis, it's about groups of people. We look up the quote in Malachi, it's about nations of people. We look at the story in Genesis, it has to be about people. Because it certainly isn't about the individuals, because those things never happened in the Bible. So now go back to Romans, chapter number nine, and it makes perfect sense once you understand where these quotations are from. What's the context? The context is who are the people of God? Who are the true Israel? It says in verse six, not as though the word of God had taken on effect, for they are not all Israel, which are of Israel. So what's the question that's being answered here? Who is Israel? Because it's not everybody who descends from Israel. It's not everybody who calls themselves Israel. Who is Israel? He says in verse seven, neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children, but in Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. So what the chapter's teaching is that the physical descendants of Israel are not God's chosen people. The spiritual descendants of Israel are God's chosen people. So the Jews over in so-called Israel today, they are not the people of God, but Christians, they're the ones who are following the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They are the real seed. They are the children of God. They are the spiritual nation. So we're talking about who is the nation and who is not. So the illustration is about Isaac versus Ishmael. Not all Israel that are of Israel, neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children, but in Isaac shall thy seed be called. It's Isaac, not Ishmael, but then he says it's Jacob, not Esau. That's the next illustration. So he says in verse number 10, and not only this, but when Rebekah also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac. So he's saying not only does Isaac represent the people of God and Ishmael represent the physical seed of Israel, but also Jacob and Esau represent the same things. There's the one that's chosen by God and the one that's rejected by God. Okay, think about this. God said Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. What did he mean by that? He meant he doesn't like the people of Edom and he chooses the people of Israel. What did he mean when he said the elders shall serve the younger? He's saying that Jacob or Israel is going to be the chosen people, not Esau and the Edomites. Okay? Now why does that make sense? Because Esau is the first born son. So physically, carnally, he has the right to be what? To be the chosen, first born, birth right, the blessing, but he doesn't get it. And it's the younger brother who receives it. This is a huge theme in scripture. How many times in scripture does the younger brother excel the elder brother? What's being taught there? All the way from Jacob and Esau in the Old Testament, Cain and Abel, you can go back even further, right? Cain and Abel, Ephraim and Manasseh, I mean just over and over and over again this theme comes up, Ishmael and Isaac, but then even you get to the New Testament, you've got the story of the prodigal son, you know, and then you've got that elder brother representing what? Israel. Okay? And then you have the younger brother representing the Gentiles, okay? There are tons of symbols of this, parables of this. What it is is that the elder brother represents Israel of the Old Testament, of the Old Covenant. The New Testament, the New Covenant represents the younger brother. So here we are, we Gentile Christians, we're the younger brother, so to speak, right? Because wouldn't Israel or the Jews or the Old Testament saints be considered the older brother? We're the younger brother, right? Because we're the New Testament believers. And here we are inheriting everything. You know, here we are excelling the older brother. Here we're taking the blessing from the older brother, replacing the older brother as being the heirs of the kingdom. So anyway, that's what the chapter's actually teaching. He's teaching who are the people of God. It's the believers. It's the saints. It's not the physical seed of Abraham. So you can see how Isaac and Ishmael illustrate that. You can also see how Jacob and Esau illustrate that. And in fact, it's interesting that when Jacob comes in and steals the blessing, which obviously he was wrong the way he did that, but there are some things that are symbolized there. When he ends up stealing the blessing, what does he put on him? He puts on skins of an animal, which represents, of course, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. You know, we're clothed in his righteousness. And so when the Father looks at us and sees Christ, you know, and I don't want to go too deep on all that, but there's a lot of interesting symbolism here. But now that you understand that, now that you looked up those scriptures in the Old Testament, you can see this has nothing to do with who's going to heaven and who's going to hell. And in fact, this may shock you. I believe that Esau is in heaven right now. I don't see any evidence that the person Esau is not in heaven right now. I don't believe that God hated the person Esau. He hated the nation of the Edomites that came from Esau. He loved the children of Israel and hated the children of Edom. But I don't believe that he hated the person Esau. I believe Ishmael is in heaven as well. Okay. Even though he pictures something bad, he still was not too bad of a guy. So I, you know, that might be shocking to some people, but I believe that both Ishmael and Esau will be in heaven. Also, I don't even believe that Esau was even a fornicator. I think that people are misunderstanding that scripture in Esau when it says, Lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. I think what he's saying there is that if you're a fornicator, you're like Esau. Because Esau sold his future for some momentary pleasure. By getting a meal now, he sells out his future. And that's what you're doing when you commit fornication. So he said, Lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his brother's birthright. It doesn't say as Esau who also was a fornicator. I don't think there's any evidence of that. You know, we see him getting married. We don't see him committing fornication to our knowledge. Only getting married. So we've got to be careful that we don't mix up the symbol and the actual story. There's the literal story of what took place, and then there's what it symbolizes. And those are two different things, right? Being on the ark, when Noah's ark happened, being on the ark represented what? Salvation. But was everybody on the ark a saved believer? Ham was on that ark. And drowning in the flood represented not being saved. But there were saved people who drowned in the flood, but they didn't get on the ark. It's not like the whole planet was damned. Because the Bible talks about some people died in the flesh, but they were saved in the spirit. You know, they still were saved people. So the point is, we don't want to mix up the illustration or the story or the allegory with what actually happened, what actually took place. So once you understand this, you see the Calvinists have twisted the scripture, and they have no leg to stand on because the whole rest of the New Testament is teaching what? That Christ died for everybody. That whosoever will may come, that he loved the whole world, and that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. So I hope that helps you if this has, if any Calvinists have tried to hit you with this. And you know, a real quick way of explaining this to Calvinists if they hit you with this, because I've had Calvinists bring this up to me, and I just say, well, why don't we look up those two quotes and see what he's talking about? Look up the two quotes, and it's like they have to admit it's nations that are being dealt with, not the individual person. Let's go back to 1 Chronicles 18 and finish up. So why is this important? Because this is the fulfillment of that. Remember he said, the elder shall serve the younger. So when did that happen? When did the Edomites ever serve the Israelites? Well guess when it happened? First Chronicles chapter 18, because in 1 Chronicles chapter 18, we see the fulfillment of this. Verse 12, Moreover, Abishai the son of Zeruiah slew of the Edomites in the valley of salt, 18,000, and he put garrisons in Edom, and all the Edomites became David's servants. Thus the Lord preserved David whithersoever he went. So there's your fulfillment of Genesis 25 verse 23. There's your fulfillment of what it's talking about in Romans chapter 9, when the elder served the younger. You're not going to find that fulfillment in Genesis. Good luck trying to find it. It isn't there. Look at verse 14. So David reigned over all Israel and executed judgment and justice among all his people. And Joab the son of Zeruiah was over the host, and Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was the recorder there. I'm adding words there. And Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud recorder, and Zadok the son of Ahitub, and Abimelech the son of Abiathar were the priests, and Sheyfshah was scribe, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the Karathites and the Pelethites, and the sons of David were chief about the king. So what we're seeing in this passage here is David in his heyday, right? This is David at his peak, when things are going the best. Everywhere he goes, he's being blessed. He's prospering. He's winning. They're all serving him. Everything's great. Okay. Flip over quickly to verse 1 of chapter 20. Chapter 20, verse 1. And it came to pass that after the year was expired at the time that kings go out to battle. Does that sound familiar? We're not going to read that chapter. We're not going to read that story, which is left out of that chapter. But we know that that's the same time as what happened. The sin with Bathsheba. So what we're seeing here is David at his heyday, at his pinnacle, where everything's going great. He's serving God. He's getting everything ready for the temple. Everything's going well. God's blessing him. And he's being a good steward of what God gives him. He's seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And so that's when things are at their high point. Later in David's life, things are going to go downhill. But this chapter is when things are going the best. So I mean, this chapter couldn't really get any more positive as far as just everything's going perfect for him. You know, that should show us that even if we're serving God, loving God, and doing well, prospering, God's blessing us, we're thriving spiritually, we're thriving physically, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. We're not immune from going all the way down. Because later on in David's life, he's going to crash so hard that he's going to be fleeing and not ruling over anybody. I mean, he's going to lose the whole kingdom. He's going to lose everything from what he had in this chapter. Now, admittedly, he gets it back. But he's eventually going to lose everything that he has in this chapter. So no one's immune from losing everything if they do what? Commit a major sin like he did where he committed adultery. Or if we turn away from the Lord or stop seeking him, stop putting him first, things can go downhill for us. So we need to fear the Lord and his goodness and stay right with God when things are going well so that we can just keep riding that wave, amen? And this isn't a prosperity gospel. He still has to go out and fight the battles and work hard. It's when he stopped working hard that things started to go downhill. But we need to make sure that when we're prospering, we keep seeking the Lord and don't get prideful or high-minded and think, oh, yeah, we're invincible. Nobody's invincible. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for this chapter and what we can learn from it, Lord. Thank you for the fact that you died for all of us and that Calvinism is a lie when it teaches that you only died for certain people. Lord, thank you for dying for the sins of the whole world, that we could go out and give the gospel to every single person and to know that every single person that we talk to is someone that you died for, Lord. And help us to preach the gospel and get many people saved, help us to always seek you first in your kingdom that we might be blessed. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.