I want you all to turn with me to the book of 2 Samuel 23:13-17, but I’m not going to read it to you right now like we normally do. I want to tell this story and build on it because this is a story that almost preaches itself. It’s a powerful story that shows a lot about the heart of David and why I think God was able to say that David was a man after His own heart. Let’s turn to that passage and see what it means to give God our best.
2 Sam 23:13-14 says, “During harvest time, three of the thirty chief men came down to David at the cave of Adullam, while a band of Philistines was encamped in the Valley of Rephaim. 14 At that time David was in the stronghold, and the Philistine garrison was at Bethlehem.” Now remember that David was from Bethlehem, that was where he grew up, that was his home town, and now not only is he not in Bethlehem, but his enemy, the Philistines, are there. They have come and camped out in the town, taking it over.
I can’t imagine how that would feel. I love my home town, and I couldn’t imagine if one of my enemies had come and taken it over. Imagine Starkville decked out in red and blue. That would hurt, and I’m sure it was upsetting David as well.
In 2 Sam 23:15 it continues, “David longed for water and said, "Oh, that someone would get me a drink of water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem!" David was camped out in the desert region around Bethlehem, and it was hot and he had been drinking that old canteened water, and his mind started going back to the water from the well where he grew up. You know what it is like to remember something you want but you can’t have it. Some of you might remember what it was like sitting in the kitchen in your grandma’s house, you see baked cookies and fresh baked bread, and the whole place just smelt good, and you are there at the table with a piece of fresh baked apple pie with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream on top…oh you can almost taste it. And oh don’t you wish you could go back and get a slice. But there are things that stand in our way. Whether its time, or death, that thing we want so bad…we just can’t have it, and since you can’t have it, you want it that much more. And what makes it worse is when it is your enemy that is keeping you from what you want. So David was outside his hometown, thinking about his childhood days, he said, “Boy I would sure like to have a glass of water from that well!”
But as David was wishing out loud, some of David’s soldiers overheard him. 2 Sam 23:16, “So the three mighty men broke through the Philistine lines, drew water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem and carried it back to David.” Now I have gone through some tough situations to get a gift for someone. When Denise and I were first married, she saw a perfume in a magazine that had one of those scratch and sniff ads, and she said that she like the smell of it. So it was close to Christmas so I thought I might try to get it for her. Now the perfume’s name was rapture, and the only place it was sold was a place that for all practical purposes is off limits to males. The only place to buy it was at Victoria Secret. I was nervous and I didn’t want to go in, but I donned my battle gear and braved the hostile environment and I waded through the aisles of bras and underwear, and I got the perfume. I had to re-man myself afterwards, so I ate some hot wings and watched a ball game, but that is how much I risked to get a gift for someone I love.
These men loved their leader so much, that they risked their life. They were willing to sacrifice themselves for someone other then themselves. That said a whole lot about those men. Not for the gift they gave, but what they were willing to go through to get that gift. They broke through the enemy lines and got some of that water. They risked everything for a glass of water. But the gift wasn’t just a glass of water. It was everything that went with it.
I remember my mom telling us kids about when she was growing up. My mom grew up in a family of 16 kids on a poor farm in White Mills, Ky. She was the 2nd youngest, with my Uncle Kenny who has Down Syndrome being the youngest. The didn’t have any money and just barely had enough to keep their farm going, but when my mom was 13, her Dad died of a unexpected heart attack. My Grandmother had to try to run a farm on her own, and raise the kids that were left in the home. Needless to say, they went from poor to poorer. My mom was used to not getting for her birthday, but my Uncle Coleman, who was just a few years older then my mom, did something that still makes my mom tear up today. He quit school and at the age of 16 took over the responsibilities of the farm, but not only that, he took on other jobs around town, and for about 5 months every spare moment of his life was spent working. He had saved up his money, but the reason why he was doing all this, the reason why he was working so hard and saving every penny was so that he could buy his little sister, my mom, a record player and some records for her birthday. My mom says that she can’t really remember what records she got, or where that record player is today, but she will always remember her older brother coming in at 11 pm at night and leaving the house before sunrise to go to work, all just to give her a birthday present.
You know, sometimes the effort behind the gift is bigger then the gift itself, and the effort made behind the gift makes that much of a greater gift. And these men risked their lives, to give David a gift, something that he wanted so bad.
So here you have David, wanting a glass of water from the well in his hometown, thinking that it was impossible to ever have it. You have three men who because they loved David, risked everything to go and get him a glass that water. Now what happens next is what really makes the story. You see David had something he had always wanted, that came with a great risk from the giver, and this was something he may never have again…so what does he do when he gets this gift?
2 Sam 23:16 reads, “So the three mighty men broke through the Philistine lines, drew water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem and carried it back to David. But he refused to drink it; instead, he poured it out before the LORD. Far be it from me, O LORD, to do this!" he said. "Is it not the blood of men who went at the risk of their lives?" And David would not drink it.” David recognized the risk the men took, and this thing he wanted so much, the thing that he may never have again, this very thing, he refused to drink but instead he gave it to God. He gave it as an act of worship.
Now let me ask you a hard question…would you be willing to do the same? I want you to think for a moment, what is that one thing you want more then anything, that one thing that you desire most, what is the most valuable thing you own…and now ask yourself, would you be willing to lay that at the altar and say, “Lord, I give it to you.”
Now don’t worry, I’m not going to ask you to do that…at least not today, but I just want you to ask yourself if you would be willing to give it to God? It’s a little bit easier to give God our leftovers, but how about the first fruits, how about our best. That’s not always easy. It may be easy to talk about, but not always easy to do.
Sometimes its hard to let go, you know. I remember when I was younger, my sister was about 20 years old and she was watching a comedy telethon supporting the homeless, and she call and pledged some money, and the way this worked is that you pledged a certain amount of money and then they sent you a bill like for you to send in. It was easy for Pam to call and pledge the money, but when the time came for her to actually sit down and write the check, it wasn’t quite as easy, and I can tell you that the check never made it to the telethon.
It is hard to actually pour that water out on the altar. Much like when Abraham was called to sacrifice the one thing he wanted more then anything else, something he had waited to close to 100 years for, when Abraham was asked to sacrifice his son Isaac, he took his son up to the mountain, and he tied him to the altar and he brought the knife down to offer his son as a sacrifice. Now, God stopped him, and as troubling as that story is, it shows that Abraham was willing to give the thing he valued most to God.
Would you be willing to do the same, not with your kid, but with something else, with your possessions, with your time, with your talents. At the last church I served, there was a women in there who had a grandson who was one of those kids that was brilliant, just real smart…well, I don’t know, he did go to Ole Miss…just kidding. But when he graduated from his undergraduate studies, he had about as near to a 4.0 average as you can get, he had offers to post graduate schools across the country, and his options were that he wanted to become either a doctor just like his Dad, or he could become a medical micro biologist, which was his passion…but he chose neither. He went to Asbury Seminary to study to become a pastor. And some of his instructors thought he was wasting his mind, and his talent, and others said, “look at the money he could be making,” In other words, what a waste! But Patrick would say, It is me giving my best for God, and I couldn’t be happier doing it.
Now some will say that you are wasting it. Some there probably thought that David was crazy for wasting that water, but David would have said that not only did he not waste it, but he did the best thing he could do with it.
Fast forward a few hundred years. In a room belonging to Simon the Leper, a Jewish Carpenter reclines at a table when a woman named Mary came to him with an alabaster jar of perfume, a jar of perfume worth about a years wage, and she breaks it open and as the aroma fills the room, she pours it all out at His feet. One of the disciples, and I’ll let you guess which one it was, was upset. He said that what she did was a waste of money. And Jesus said, “No, this perfume wasn’t wasted. What she has done is a good thing.”
And nothing you give to God is ever wasted. Even a cup of water given in His name is remembered. You see, a gift given in love is never wasted! I want you to imagine a scene in heaven. The angels are gathered around and they are looking down, and there they see the Son of God hanging on a cross, His hands and feet painfully nailed in place, His body beaten and bruised, struggling and gasping for every breath of air. Do you think the angles might of said, “what a waste, why give such a high price?” But Jesus would say, “It is not a waste, what I have done is a good thing.” Now Jesus was willing to give you His best, are we willing to give Him our best?
