Hello everyone! Today let us look at 2 Samuel. We have completed 1 Samuel on our previous bible study so we are continuing to 2 Samuel. In 1 Samuel, it was mentioning about God was looking for a faithful priest. Until today, the word “faithful” is an important component of what God desire of us.

I would like to encourage everyone to contemplate deeply on the word faithful, to look at faithfully seriously. If you are unfaithful, it will be very troublesome. Unfaithfulness leads to adultery and spiritual adultery is a fatal adultery. Let us look at Matthew 6:24, explaining clearly that we cannot worship 2 masters. If the reason you love God is to exchange for more money, how confused is your mind?

“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. Matthew 6:24 NIV

The book of 2 Samuel recorded that King David who was after God’ heart and knew God’s will very well. In fact, throughout the ages, a very important message has been conveyed to us that whoever follows his Lord, imitates David, and does what is right in the eyes of the Lord. David has become a model that we can imitate today, and David became a model for us to follow. David was faithful and the word "faithful" is amazing! In this era, God is still sitting on His throne looking down to see if anyone is faithful. If a person is unfaithful, that is called "fornication" in the eyes of God.

Throughout the ages of the Chinese, we particularly hated traitors and till today there are statutes to shame the traitors. If you know the traitors Qin hui and Lady Wang who plotted the conspiracy to cause the death of General Yue Fei. The statutes of Qin Hui and Lady Wang were made to kneel before Yue Fei’s tomb. Many people flock to see the statues cursed, spat, and urinated at these statues as they deem as a disgrace to be traitors for more than hundred years.

There were absolutely no shortages of traitors and to this very day, we are still aware of the China’s modern history. Wang Jingwei was a handsome man, and he was named together with his wife and several other generals were named as traitors. The name traitor is not very nice to hear. Never be unfaithful and you will call as traitors.

The life of a traitor is a tragedy and very sad. Even though Saul was not in line with God’s will, but he did not become a traitor. Regardless his motive was for the country or himself, he stayed put in his position until he died on the battlefield. Saul was also worthy of our admiration for fighting to till end as the King of Israel.

What is a hero? Looking at Saul, he was not a coward and surrendered to the enemies. Faithful is a very important word and today we are talking about Faithful David . Faithful David sounds good. The entire book of 2 Samuel recorded King David was a very faithful character.

Faithfulness Pleases God

If you asked me to become a traitor, I will tell you even you beaten me to death I will never be a traitor. No matter what I want to become a loyal and faithful person and to be faithful to God is an important aspect. If you asked me if I am a faithful to God, I tell you proudly that I am absolutely a faithful to God. You might ask me; how do you know you are faithful to God? I will answer you how can I do not know when I am doing it and putting in actions.** Faithfulness is not only applied to God, but we must also be a faithful person to the people in this world as faithful is a good character.**

You will find some interesting people! One time Lu Bu came out riding a red rabbit horse, holding Fang Tian's painted halberd in his hand. "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" also gave him a very interesting name. The name was given by Zhang Fei. Do you know what name was given to Lu Bu? They are called "domestic slaves with three surnames". The first master of the "house slaves with three surnames" was killed by him, and the second master Dong Zhuo was also killed by him. Lu Bu has a character that wants to rebel all day long, so Lu Bu was named "Three Surnames House Slave" in history.

Initially, Lu Bu recognized Ding Yuan as his adopted father, then he recognized Dong Zhuo as his adopted father, and he did not know where he recognized him. He was not a loyal person. If you ask me, I like loyal person. Loyalty is good, but do not destroy your core interests therefore faithfulness pleases God.

My lifelong desire is to be a loyal and a kind servant before God to achieve a medal in front of God. This is also the reason when I read the bible, I work diligently to understand God’s will and comprehending God’s will clearly to ensure everyone can walk in God’s will.

King David was a very loyal man. If a traitor was chosen to be the King and it would not seem right for the history of Israel. Therefore, we must write down our history carefully just like how we write our resume to God carefully as well taking a performance test and said to God, “ God, I am here and being a loyal person is so amazing.”

Loyalty is shown in one’s own interests

David is very interesting as mentioned in 2 Samuel chapter 1, many things happened in merely one or two weeks. What had happened? The King of Philistine was going to attack Israel and David seemed to be insistent to follow the King of Philistine to battle against Israel. Was this embarrassed? Absolutely awkward. In David’s heart, he said to God to help him, he did not want to go. Since he was at the land of the Philistine, that was the only courtesy towards the King of the Philistine. As a result, the Philistine leaders did not allow him to go to the battle which helped David instantly.

The king of the Philistines went to attack Israel, and the opponents were Saul and Jonathan. Before Saul went to the battlefield, he went to a medium and called Samuel out of the ground to talk to him. Saul felt uncomfortable in his heart, wondering what would happen to this war? It was predicted by the medium that he would be killed on the battlefield.

Was Saul’s death an act of God? It was an act of God. When Saul died, David should be gloating over Saul misfortune, but his reaction was beyond that of ordinary people. Ordinary people could never understand it. For most of us would think that David would have a celebratory drink to cheer the death of Saul. But no, David cried bitterly, and his followers also cried together with him. David was crying as though he was crying for the death of his father. Saul was really a father to him, and he was his father-in-law. The way David had reacted was something most of the ordinary people could not understand.

There was a young man from Amalekite came to David and told the ordeal that Saul had gone through in the battlefield. He knew that Saul and David were enemies. He told David that he saw Saul leaning on his spear still alive and Saul asked him to kill him. He killed him as he knew that after he had fallen, he could not survive. He took the crown that was on Saul’s head and the band on his arm and brought them here to David. This young man did not realize that David was a faithful man, and he was so loyal that he killed this man.

He thought he had done something good. He was unaware that Saul was the Lord's anointed one. How dare he killed Saul? David considered Saul his father-in-law and considered Saul as his king! If Saul died, his celebration would be bad because it would not be in line with God's will. In the eyes of the ordinary people, they would be thinking was the punishment from God and David should opened a champagne to celebrate that finally he could become the King of Israel. That would be disaster and the second Saul would be born. David knew God well and he had a clear grasp of God’s will. David knew God would not like anyone who gloat over someone who was killed. Why David was unhappy when he could be the king? In David’s heart, he knew what kind of person God was looking for. He knew God was looking for a faithful person. If our loyalty conflicting with our inner cire interests, will there still be loyalty? Loyal people are so hard to find, it is like searching for a needle in the haystack.

Our Core interest determine if we are a loyal person or not. In other words, if your core interest has been offended, you would not be a loyal person. A person who puts his core interest as the most important aspect of his decision, he can never be a faithful person. Let me tell you, even my core interests are offended, I will still be a loyal person, and this is what is in my heart. What David did was so beautiful that it can be passed down to all generations. It is so amazing and if we are like David, God will remember you. There are so many tests everywhere in our lives on the road to faithfulness. David was so great to pass the test that God had given him. God will test you to see how loyal you are and I will also test you to see how you are.

David honoured the one that Jehovah’s anointed

Then David and all the men with him took hold of their clothes and tore them. 12They mourned and wept and fasted till evening for Saul and his son Jonathan, and for the army of the Lord and for the nation of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword. 2 Samuel 11-12 NIV

Loyalty is very important. David did not have to look up for the young man from Amalekite. It was totally unnecessary; he was not Jehovah’s anointed one. The young man came to claim his credit for killing Saul who was Jehovah’s anointed one so David killed him directly. Why? The Honor should be given to the Lord’s anointed though God was not pleased with Saul. David was given two opportunities to kill Saul, but he did not seize the opportunities. He absolutely respected Jehovah’s anointed one.

David did not open a bottle of champagne to celebrate when Saul died in the battle instead, he was weeping. David was so loyal and was thinking if he was by Saul’s side to protect him and he would not have met with this misery unfortunately, Saul did not accept him.

David also wrote a song for Saul and included it in the book of Jashar, called the Song of Bows. This song has been passed down to this day. Our inner thoughts must be the same as God’s thoughts that please people. If our inner thoughts are not the same as God, we need to adjust our inner thoughts.

David taught people how to treat their king. David was not stupid, and he was Jehovah’s anointed one, and he was setting an example for the people on how to treat Jehovah’s anointed one. He wrote a song praising Saul and Jonathan. Why did Saul and Jonathan go to war? They went to war was to protect the territory and people of Israel. Most importantly, David wept to remember the faithfulness of God's people, which was his duty. He was anointed king of Israel, and the people of Israel were killed. How could he not mourn and cry? He was the King of Israel who possessed the quality of a King.

David cares about God’s people

They mourned and wept and fasted till evening for Saul and his son Jonathan, and for the army of the Lord and for the nation of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword. 2 Samuel 1:12 NIV

We must be like David, took care of God’s people and shoulder our responsibilities. In fact, many pastors hired workers who are not faithful before God. They shrivelled up the followers with hunger. He does not share the spiritual food at the right time and come to us to acquire the spiritual food to share with his followers. A person who truly cares about God’s people will pay the price. If you cannot care about God’s people in your own church, how can you care about the kingdom of God? If you do not shepherd well the sheep God gives you, is that called faithfulness? Therefore, a faithful person acts according to God’s will. David had set a good example for us, he cared about God’s people, which is the character of a king.

The bible mentioned a very interesting thing in Matthew 20:16 “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” You may have never thought about this, and you may not understand it well, but I am going to tell you today. "The first will be last", why? If you want to be the leader of everyone, you must be the servant of everyone, shepherding God’s flock, and you must pay the price. How can you not be behind? If there is a wolf behind you and you run very fast and leave the sheep behind, is that okay? A shepherd does not run in front of the sheep, but when there is a wolf coming from behind, he runs behind the sheep. Therefore, "the first will be last."

In our Church, we have a plentiful supply of spiritual food as well as the ability to train you to make a living, doing things, polish your skills in relationships and learning how to speak. We want to train you to become a bunch of loyal people who are in line with God’s heart. This is what our church is doing. It is really tiring but, it does not matter to me as this is my job! Therefore, brothers and sisters, we must grow up healthy and constantly cultivate our loyal character. When the kingdom of God comes, you will be a part of God’s glory. This is called the character of a king.

It is our job to shepherd God’s flock. It is our destiny to be God's faithful people. We are born for this purpose and come to this world for this purpose. Maybe we don’t understand what David is doing but if you look at David from the perspective of loyalty, you can understand. His core interest is not the throne. The throne was given to him by God, and God gave him the throne so that he could manage the people of Israel well. I am very smart. I do not want to make a name for myself, or become a famous pastor, or make money. I just want to be praised by God and be a loyal and good servant. Since God has chosen me among all people, it is great to have the opportunity to serve God, distribute spiritual food at the right time, and provide spiritual food! What do I need my name for? God will make our name great.

The opposite of loyalty is called fornication

Fornication is abhorrent and sounds like a very unpleasant thing to hear. Therefore, everyone must be a faithful person before God and no longer be a fornicator. To love the world and God at the same time is called fornication. If you love God, you cannot love the world; if you love the world, you cannot love God. If you want to be loyal to the world, then I wish you good luck.

I would like to end my bible study with this conclusion: David was a loyal man and is worthy of us following his footsteps to be like him. May God bless you all!