First Kings chapter number 1. Let me read a portion for you. Verse number 15. Look at what the Word of God says. And Bathsheba went in unto the king. Now, the king is David. You understand that. Unto the chamber. And the king was very old. Abishag, the Shunammite, ministered unto the king. And Bathsheba bowed and did obeisance unto the king. And the king said, What wilt thou? And she said unto him, My lord, thou swarest by the Lord thy God unto thine handmaid, saying, Assuredly, Solomon thy son shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne. And now, behold, Adonijah reigneth. And now, my lord the king, thou knowest it not. And he hath slain oxen, and fat cattle, and sheep in abundance, and hath called all the sons of the king, and Abiathar the priest, and Joab the captain of the host. But Solomon thy servant hath he not called? And thou, my lord, O king, the eyes of all Israel are upon thee. Thou shalt tell them who shall sit on the throne of my Lord the King after him. Otherwise, it shall come to pass when my Lord the King shall sleep with his fathers, that I and my son Solomon shall be counted offenders." Notice the question Bathsheba comes and asks King David, verse 20, once again, Thou, my Lord, O King, the eyes of all Israel upon me, Thou shalt tell them who shall sit on the throne of my Lord the King after him. A few years ago, my family and I were heading on a missions trip. We try to do that quite frequently as an entire family. We were heading over to Poland. And I was going to preach over there in a couple of different churches and be there for a few days. All the way over, we had to change planes in London, so we stayed an extra day. As a matter of fact, we were with Brother John Anderson. You probably know John, and I know John well. And so we were over there, and we stayed with him for a day or two and saw some sights. Saw some of the stuff like the palaces and all those things. And as you understand, really since 1707, when Great Britain kind of formed, Scotland and England came together, and formed Great Britain, they've then for a number of years been ruled under the House of Windsor. Now, Queen Elizabeth's been there a bunch of years, and Brother Anderson was saying, well, this is part of this, and he was showing us all these neat things, and as you know, for years they've been sort of a monarchy, a little loose today, as you know, but that's the way they've been. And there becomes a lot of discussion then about different, who, if Queen Elizabeth dies, they say, well, I wonder who will sit on the throne? Somebody said, well, maybe Charles will, or maybe William will. Personally, I don't care who does. I mean, just being honest, and I'm an American. And if I went too long ago, my wife and I, we were eating somewhere, and the waitress came, brought us the bill, and the bill was $17.76. That was a total for the bill. My wife goes, wow, what a great year, 1776. I said, sure, unless you're British. Not too great a year, maybe then. But I'll be honest with you, I really don't care who sits on the throne in England. What I do care about, I do care who sits on the throne of the United States. I don't mean that we're a monarchy. I'm not trying to say that. We're a republic. At least we're supposed to be. But I'm concerned about who rules in the United States. Let me say this also. I'm concerned about who rules in your life. I'm concerned about who rules in my life. I'm concerned about who sits on the throne in the life of Mark Campbell. Who sits on the throne of your life. Who sits on the throne of the United States. I believe if we're going to really have a revival in our nation, it will be when believers once again allow the Lord Jesus Christ to have that complete control of them. That He truly sits on the throne. That He truly is in charge. I'm not talking about a lip service. I'm not saying, well, He's on the throne next to the Father. Isn't that good enough? No, I'm talking about where we get off the throne of our lives. And we allow Him to have 100% control of our lives. That we begin to think like Christ and to talk like Christ. And to look the way Christ would have us to look. And to do the things that He would have us to do. See, here's the problem that's going on here. Dave is near the end of his life. And if you'll notice in the passage, very quickly you'll notice there's a competition for the throne. There's a competition. Matter of fact, here's what's happening. Go back, if you would, earlier. Look at verse number 5 of chapter 1. Then Adonijah, the son of Agath, exalted himself, saying, I will be king. And he prepared him chariots and horsemen and fifty men to run before him. There was a competition over the throne. Let me explain this very quickly. David's at the end of his life. Someone will assume the throne. Israel's at a pinnacle, a zenith of power. David has been a man of war. You understand that if you know much about scripture. Who's going to sit on the throne next? Bathsheba comes in and she says to David, she said, David, very soon you will sleep with your father. In other words, you're going to die very soon. And she says, what happened is, you don't seem to understand something, David, that there is something going on, that there is a competition for the throne. You've got to say who is going to sit on the throne. Who is going to do that? Otherwise, you're going to die, and what's going to happen is you're going to sleep with your fathers, and I'm going to be here, and Solomon's going to be here, and there's going to be confusion, and no one's going to understand. There is a great competition over the throne, David. Now here's some things why that happened. David was actually somewhat responsible for that. Adonijah was his oldest living child at the time. So Adonijah just begins to assume, well, I'm the oldest one, I should be the king. And he exalts himself and says, I will be the king. Now here's something about David, why he allowed part of this to happen. First of all, David was indulgent. What do you mean by David was indulgent? I mean David was letting Adonijah get away with some things. Look if you would, back in the passage. Look at verse number 6. And his father had not displeased him at any time in saying, why hast thou done so? There was never a time where David said to Adonijah, no, that's not what we're going to do. No, that's not the way it is. Don't do that. Now, listen, a lot of you are parents here. How many of you were parents before you had a three-year-old? Now, there's got to be more than two of you. They need their coffee. I'm with you, man. I'm about ready to go pour it for you, all right? Now, stay with me. How many of you parents had a three-year-old, not right now, but at some point? Oh, there we go. Okay, we all have a three-year-old there. Okay, wonderful. Three-year-olds. You ever watch a parent try to reason with a three-year-old? A number of weeks ago, my wife asked me to stop into a store that I don't like to go to. But there was a few things she wanted me to get and they were there. Walmart. I'm not anti-Walmart. I'm just anti-me going to Walmart. Very anti that. And so I went in there and was getting this thing and getting that thing, and I just want to get in, get out, and I'll pay more sometimes so I don't have to go someplace like that. But anyways, I went in, got some things, came around the corner and there was a father there who was probably as excited to be there as I was, but he had a three-year-old. And that three-year-old was reigning supreme in that aisle. I mean, he was taking stuff off there, and then I watched the father, just in curiosity, as he kneeled down and said, now, and he put right next to the little three-year-old, tried to explain why you don't do that. You don't because of this, and because of this, and because of this, and because... I'm sitting there thinking, this ain't gonna last long. Sure enough, that three-year-old took off. I'll never forget, I'm standing there now, I'm glad I'm at Walmart. And I'm watching that father as the three-year-old takes off. And I'll never forget to the day I die, as that father watched that three-year-old, he said, I'll never forget his words. He chased the three-year-old with these words, come here, come here, come here, come here, come here, come here, come here, come here. And that three-year-old's going, and he's saying, come here. And that child is not listening. So I'm intrigued. I follow the father. If he's going that way, if I've got to be in here, I might as well be entertained. So I followed the father. I wasn't running though. I wasn't that bad. But I thought, let's see how the story goes. And he catches the son about two hours later as the son is redecorating the aisle. And once again, he gets on his knee and begins to give this explanation about why we don't do that. Two minutes into it, they took off again. The boy took off. I heard, come here, come here, come here, as the father chased him. And then I was out of breath, so I didn't chase him any further. But you know what, sometimes when you come to three-year-olds, you just say this, no. We don't do that, no. My father's been in the ministry for many years as an associate pastor. My father's not a real talker. My brother and I, my brother's one year older than I am. Sometimes we would go to dad and we'd say, but dad, we'd really like to. He'd just say, no, no, we won't do that, no. Yeah, well, let me lay out my reasons. And even sometimes he'd let me go through my reasons when I was a teenager. And at the end of it, he'd say, no. I said, well, maybe you didn't understand. He goes, oh, I understood. No. Well, I mean, maybe I wasn't clear. Maybe you're thinking it was my brother who's not as smart as I am. That never went over big either. But maybe this, no. I'm just saying this, there needs to be some times that it really is believers. There's some things in our lives that we just have to say no to. And if there had been such a change, if David at one time looked at Adam and Isaac and said, no, that's not what we do. That's not how you'll do it. No. I think there's some things in our nation we have to stand up and say no. We'll not have that in our society. We'll not have that in our nation. We'll not have that influence us. No! Sometimes as parents, we've got to take a stand in our families and just say no. Let me say this, by the way, mom and dad, let me give you a great piece of advice. My dad used to do this, aggravated the fire out of me, but it was so effective. Sometimes when he'd say no, he'd say, well, here's why then, why I'll say no, Mark. And he'd open up the Bible and show me a verse. I'd sit there and say, don't pull the book out on me now. By the way, if I was a parent, what better thing to do than open up the Bible and say, here's why we do what we do and why we don't do what we don't do. The Word of God. David was indulgent. Let me say this also. David was ignorant. He didn't even know what was going on. Please don't. I'm not trying to be mean to David. I'm just saying this is the truth. Look at verse 18. Bathsheba says, And now, behold, Adonijah reigneth, and now my lord the king thou knowest it not. She says, David, you don't get it. You don't seem to understand. Adonijah has already exalted himself to the throne, already put himself on the throne, and you don't even know what's going on. I'm going to tell you one of the saddest commentaries we have is that we don't even understand and see and observe what the devil is even trying to do in our churches and in our nation. And sometimes we just say, everything will be okay, everything will be okay. Well, just one day we'll come out of it. And sometimes we just wake up and say, this can't be. Listen, I'm not old. This week I had my birthday, by the way, April 1st. I saw that in the bulletin. Those of you who have a birthday on April 1st, God help you. I've been through it all my life, and my wife's name is April. I've had them all, alright? You can just take that to the bank, alright? But this past Monday, on my birthday, I turned 45 years old. I'm not that old. I'm young. I tell myself that. The older I get, I'm young, and I am. But you know what? I see things going on in our nation. I see things going on in churches. I see things that I say I just never dreamed, even in my lifetime, that I would ever be seen. Did you ever think in North Carolina you'd have to work so hard to vote down to not allow same-sex marriage? And thank God it stood the way you all should have stood here. But I'm telling you, who would have thought that we'd have to keep doing that and fighting that over and over again and to see those things happening? I'm saying this, I'm saying believers, we've got to make sure that we understand that we've got to be sober and be vigilant because our adversary walks about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. David was ignorant. Didn't even notice there's competition for the throne. Let me say this, young people, please listen to me. There is such a competition for your life. Such a competition. And mom and dad, unless you think you're out of it, there's a competition for your life. There is a battle for the throne of your life. There's a competition for the throne. But let me say this, secondly, if you'll look, there was a command for the throne. A command for the throne. Notice, that here in verse 17, And she said unto him, My lord, thou swearest by the Lord thy God unto thine handmaid, saying assuredly, Solomon thy son shall reign after me and shall sit upon my throne. Now, I say there's a command for the throne. Listen to me, please. I'm going to finish in just a few moments. There was a command for the throne in the fact of this. God had already told David who was to reign. The command is already given. It wasn't like David now came to his life and said, boy, who is going to sit on the throne? The command is already there. I'm saying this, you and I do not have to come in today and act surprised about who should reign in our lives. It's not like we should walk in today and say, wow, Do you think God should reign? Or do you think someone else should reign? Or do you think I should be in charge of it? Just who do you think? No, the command's already given. You and I already know that the best days of our life will always be the days where God has complete control of us. The command's already there. It's not like it's a shocker to us. You know, let me tell you this. I've been preaching since I was 16 years old. Let me say this. Not one time since I've been saved, When I say when I was five, and all the time I've been preached, not one time has God ever come to me, preacher, and said, hmm, Mark, what do you think we ought to do? Not one time. Not one time have I received a message from God saying, give us your input. God doesn't need my input. What does God expect me to do? Open up His Word and see what He has to say, let the Holy Spirit work in my life, and then just obey it. He said, well, but Brother Campbell, there's so many things in the Bible I just don't fully get. I mean, I get into Ezekiel, and I don't understand some things there. I get into a minor prophet, and I don't understand all that. And I can't grasp that, and I can't grasp this. And so what should I do? You say, we should follow those commands. OK, listen. Let's just obey, then, what we do understand. That's pretty fair, then. You say, well, what do you mean by that? Well, listen. We know we're supposed to be in the Word of God every day. We know we're supposed to be soul winning. We know we're supposed to be giving. We know we're supposed to walk holy. Let's just take everything we know He commands us to do and we understand and obey it. And I believe we'd find the blessings of God like never before. It's not like David didn't know what to do. The command for the throne was already done. You see, the problem is sometimes we want to assume the throne. I know your pastor would have great respect for the man I'll mention, but Lee Roberson had a great impact on my life personally. I met him the first time when I was just a teenager, and he wrote me a letter when I was 14 years old. Just rode back to the airport with him, that little thank you note. And I read that and said, that's it, I'll do whatever this man says. And so really, I went to college and got to know him there. And then later on, when I was pastoring in North Carolina, I had him come every year. But Lee Robertson had a great, great impact personally on my life. Lee Robertson, if anyone knows about him, knows that he's very famous for saying, die to self. He would say it over and over again. I've heard him preach hundreds of times in my life and before he passed away. I mean, over and over and over. Died of self. I mean, stand up there with that crooked finger. Died of self, you know. So he was preaching for me. In fact, just right down the road here. He used to stay at the hotel there in Lincolnton. And I said, Doc, I'm going to make a hospital visit. I said, would you like to go with me? This is on one day. And he said, sure. I'll never forget, by the way, the first time I called him and asked him to come preach. Man, I was young. I didn't know if he'd even come and I called him and I said here's the Sunday that I'm looking if it'll work for you and I'll never forget he goes great great I'm free Friday Saturday and Sunday we'll begin on Friday night we'll go Friday night Saturday night all day Sunday how do you tell Moses no okay three-day meeting sounds like it wonderful to me we got in the car to make that visit that day and I said no can I ask you a question I said you always know for saying die to self die to self die to self I said you're so known for that I said, why is that? And I forget, he's sitting there next to me and he's kind of looking out the window and he said, I'll answer that question. I said, great. He said, because it works. He looks back out the window. I'm waiting for more. I said, is that it? He goes, that's all. He said, when you die to self and allow Christ to reign supreme, that works. So true. The command we already know. So let me give you the last point. Look at number three, if you would, down in Scriptures. Finally, there's a commitment to the throne. Look at verse 28. Then King David answered and said, Call me Bathsheba. She came in under the king's presence and stood before the king. And the king swore and said, As the Lord liveth that hath redeemed my soul out of all distress. even as I swear unto thee by the Lord God of Israel, saying, Assuredly, Solomon thy son shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne in my stead. Even so will I certainly do this day." Verse 32, And King David said, Call me Zadok the priest, and Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada. And they came before the king. The king also said unto them, Take with you the servants of your lord, and cause Solomon my son to ride upon mine own mule, and bring him down to Gihon. Let me stop right there. There's a commitment to the throne. Bathsheba says, David, you're going to have to tell the people who is going to reign supreme, who is going to be on the throne. You're going to die soon. Who's going to do it? We know the command. I love this part though. I love that David didn't have to sit back and say, what am I going to do? What will be the next step? How will I make my decision? Will I do like the current president? Will I just take a poll and then let him decide? Or will I just figure out which way the winds are blowing? What would I do? What could I possibly do here? He never one time had that in his mind. He said, that's it. I know what I'm going to do. Solomon is going to be on the throne. I'm going to put him on my mule today. I'm going to declare to the priests. I'm going to declare to the people. Solomon, Solomon will reign on the throne. You know what I love about that? David is showing a commitment to a promise that he had made to God. Hey, listen, I'm about finished. So many times today, we're big on our words, but let's be honest, we're weak in our commitment. I mean, we're big to say, man, the Lord is wonderful, the Lord is great, and He is! But I wonder sometimes, If push comes to shove, then maybe that commitment isn't where it should be. David could have said, yes, yes, that's Sheba. Solomon's going to reign. Kind of like some of your husbands when, you know, your wife asks you something, yeah, yeah, I'm going to get to that. My wife's big on trying to get me, we just moved into a new house, and new to us at least, and so she's trying to get me to do little projects when I'm home, and that makes her nervous in itself. The other day I'm walking through the house with a tool in my hand, and she goes, what are you doing? I said, well, I'm going to fix that, and she's right behind me, especially when I'm right with a hammer in my hand. I mean, she'll go, do you know what you're doing? No, but we'll figure it out as we go. Instructions? No, we don't need those. Or sometimes I'll just say, yeah, I'm going to get to that, dear, I promise. I got this trip this week. I get back there, well, I'll do that. And we'll get that taken care of. And then it never happens. I'm just saying sometimes we let that come into our spiritual life where we say, oh, yes, I love the Lord. Oh, yes, I believe the commandments are great. Oh, yes, I want Him to reign supreme. But there's one thing when we say it. There's another thing when He really has it. David said, I'll not just give lip service here. I'll do something about it. I will put Solomon on the throne. That way everybody in the kingdom knows Adonijah is not the king. The competition is over. Solomon's the king. Now here's where we're at. Some of us today, we're doing battles in our lives. The Lord Jesus Christ wants to reign supreme. You may say, oh, but he is out there. Lip service is one thing, but a commitment is another thing. A number of years ago, there was an old, kind of a hermit of a man, centuries ago. I don't know much about him except for these words that are given in his case. His name was Nikolai, and he said this word as a prayer. He said, O Lord, take from me what keeps me from Thee. Give me what brings me to Thee. And take myself and give me Thyself. Boy, I wish we had more believers who would pray that today. Take everything from me that keeps me from Thee. Give me whatever I have to have so I have Thee. And just take away myself. and give me thyself." So here's the question as we finish today. Who sits on the throne? The throne of your life. The throne of your family. The throne of our nation. If we'll be honest today, and I hope that we would be, we would say, Lord, take away whatever keeps me from thee. and let the Lord Jesus Christ reign supreme in my life and in my family and in our church. And I believe that will be a groundswell that will keep moving right across our land. And I believe that will bring honor and glory to the Son of God. Don't you? Who sits on the throne? There's a competition for it today. Commands were already given. You know who should. there must be a commitment to it. Father, thank you for the time we've had. I'm thankful for this preacher of this church, his family. It's a great, great place. Father, I believe you want to do a work in our lives every day to mold us more into the image of your precious Son. Maybe today, Father, there might be somebody here that's come that does not know you as their personal Savior. They don't know if they died today, they'd go to heaven. Oh, I'm burdened for them. They'd understand Christ is the only way. Might be some believers here today, some young people, some moms and dads, some grandparents, single, married, of all ages that would come in and maybe they already have trusted you as their Savior, but let them understand there's a competition over that throne of their life. And I wonder who sits on that throne. Let us be honest before you. Let you do the work that only you can. We give this time to thee in the precious name of Jesus, preacher.