[0:00] We're in 2 Samuel, 2 Samuel chapter 14. We've made our way to the 14th chapter of 2 Samuel. 2 Samuel 14. A number of you made it out to the retreat this past weekend, so thankful you did.
[0:13] Some of you didn't. I know that my bed felt really good Sunday night, and I slept really well Sunday night. Now, I'm sure the ladies' room was all comfortable and everything was nice and quiet.
[0:26] But we had boys in our room. Let me just leave it at that, okay? And it was great. But we had fun. We had a good time. Really enjoyed the time of fellowship. Really enjoyed getting around the Word of God together.
[0:39] It's such a joy just to study Colossians and just to be reminded of who we are rooted in, rooted in Christ, and just be challenged by that. But I'm thankful to have the opportunity to be together with you and just continue to make our way through Scripture.
[0:51] We've made our way to the 14th chapter of 2 Samuel. Let's put it in context in case you don't remember, in case you weren't here. We are right in the midst of, really, the tragic outcome of David's decision to sin.
[1:06] And we don't say that David fell into sin. He made a decision to sin. That is, it was the time of year when kings go out to war, but David stayed in Jerusalem. David's decision to stay in Jerusalem and then also to tarry and walk around on the rooftop of the king's palace led to him making a series of bad choices, making a series of decisions, which led to the tragic outcome of his sin, of adultery with Bathsheba, of the issuing of his killing of Bathsheba's wife, Uriah, I mean not wife, husband, Uriah in battle, putting him on the forefront, and then feeling like he got away from it until he was confronted by the prophet who came to him and told him that while he had a heart that was broken, we see this in the book of Psalms.
[1:47] We're not going to take time right now to go through that. His heart was broken over his sin. He confessed his sin. God forgave his sin, but yet that doesn't mean the consequences of that sin disappeared. Forgiven sin still bears with it the consequences lived out in daily life.
[2:01] And we see that. We see it being played out in the family of David. We've seen how the war would never leave his own household, that what David had done in secret would be done openly.
[2:13] We see it as it starts taking place. Primarily, chapter 13 introduces us to a man named Absalom. Absalom's the third born, second in command, because there was another child that must have died early in his life.
[2:28] So Absalom's kind of not the heir to be, but he's behind the heir to be, who sins with Absalom's sister Tamar. Long story short, he finds out about it.
[2:39] Nobody says anything. Absalom plots and schemes for a number of years, and then eventually kills his brother, and then flees. Last time we were together, we began to look at this reality that sin was known about, but it was never confronted.
[2:53] Sin was well known throughout the kingdom, but nobody said a thing. Things were allowed just to continue being. And we started looking at how they were walking in the sins of their father.
[3:03] They were doing some of the same things, the plotting, the scheming, the conniving, all of these things, being driven by feelings and taking their own vengeance. And we introduced that, that it's going to come, really it's going to flesh itself out and bring you to the lowest point in David's life.
[3:19] And we continue that in the 14th chapter. So that's kind of the back story and gets us here to the 14th chapter, because Absalom has fled from the presence of Israel and went to actually his mother's parents.
[3:33] So he went to his grandparents on his mother's side and is living out of country with them. And here's Absalom kind of way. David still hasn't done anything in a number of years that's passed. As a matter of fact, it's been three years that have passed.
[3:47] Now Joab, the son of Zariah, perceived that the king's heart was inclined toward Absalom. So Joab sent a Tekoa and brought a wise woman from there and said to her, Please pretend to be a mourner and put on mourning garments now, and do not anoint yourself with oil, but be like a woman who has been mourning for the dead many days.
[4:05] Then go to the king and speak to him in this manner. So Joab put the words in her mouth. Now when the woman of Tekoa spoke to the king, she fell on her face to the ground and prostrated herself and said, Help, O king.
[4:16] The king said to her, What is your trouble? And she answered, Truly I am a widow, for my husband is dead. Your maidservant had two sons, but the two of them struggled together in the field, and there was no one to separate them.
[4:27] So one struck the other and killed him. Now behold, the whole family has risen against your maidservant, and they say, Hand over the one who struck his brother, that we may put him to death for the life of his brother whom he killed, and destroy the heir also.
[4:39] Thus they will extinguish my coal which is left, so as to leave my husband neither name nor remnant on the face of the earth. Then the king said to the woman, Go to your house, and I will give orders concerning you.
[4:51] The woman of Tekoa said to the king, O my lord, the king, the iniquity is on me and my father's house, but the king and his throne are guiltless. So the king said, Whoever speaks to you, bring him to me, and he will not touch you anymore.
[5:03] Then she said, Please let the king remember the Lord your God, so that the avenger of blood will not continue to destroy you. Otherwise they will destroy my son. And he said, As the Lord lives, Not one hair of your son shall fall to the ground.
[5:16] Then the woman said, Please let your maidservant speak a word to my lord the king. And he said, Speak. And the woman said, Why then have you planned such a thing against the people of God? For in speaking this word, the king is one who is guilty, in that the king does not bring back his banished one.
[5:32] For we will surely die, and are like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up. Yet God does not take away life, but plans ways, so that the banished one will not be cast out from him. Now the reason I have come to speak this word to my lord the king is that the people have made me afraid.
[5:46] So your maidservant said, Let me now speak to the king. Perhaps the king will perform the request of his maidservant. For the king will hear and deliver your maidservant from the hand of the man who would destroy both me and my son from the inheritance of God.
[5:58] Then your maidservant said, Please let the word of my lord the king be comforting, for as the angel of God, so is my lord the king to discern good and evil. And may the lord your God be with you. Then the king answered and said to the woman, Please do not hide anything from me that I am about to ask you.
[6:13] And the woman said, Let my lord the king please speak. So the king said, Is the hand of Joab with you in all this? And the woman replied, As your soul lives, my lord the king, no one can turn to the right or to the left from anything that my lord the king has spoken.
[6:29] Indeed it was your servant Joab who commanded me, and it was he who put all these words in the mouth of your maidservant in order to change the appearance of things. Your servant Joab has done this thing. But my lord is wise, like the wisdom of the angel of God, to know all that is in the earth.
[6:43] Then the king said to Joab, Behold now, I will surely do this thing. Go therefore bring back the young man Absalom. Joab fell on his face to the ground, prostrated himself, and blessed the king.
[6:54] Then Joab said, Today your servant knows that I have found favor in your sight. O my lord the king, in that the king has performed the request of his servant. So Joab arose and went to Geshur and brought Absalom to Jerusalem.
[7:07] However the king said, Let him turn to his own house and let him not see my face. So Absalom turned to his own house and did not see the king's face. Now in all Israel, no one was as handsome as Absalom, so highly praised.
[7:20] From the sole of his foot to the crown of his head, there was no defect in him. When he cut the hair of his head, and it was at the end of every year that he cut it, for it was heavy on him, so he cut it, he weighed the hair of his head at 200 shekels by the king's weight.
[7:33] That's approximately four pounds of hair, by the way. That's a lot of hair. To Absalom there were born three sons and one daughter whose name was Tamar. She was a woman of beautiful appearance. Now Absalom lived two full years in Jerusalem and did not see the king's face.
[7:49] Then Absalom sent for Joab to send him to the king, but he would not come to him. So he sent again a second time, but he would not come. Therefore he said to his servants, See, Joab's field is next to mine, and he has barley there.
[8:00] Go and set it on fire. So Absalom's servants set the field on fire. Then Joab arose, came to Absalom at his house, and said to him, Why have your servants set my field on fire?
[8:11] Absalom answered Joab, Behold, I sent for you, saying, Come here, that I may send you to the king to say, Why have I come from Geshur? It would be better for me to still be there. Now therefore let me see the king's face, and if there is iniquity in me, let him put me to death.
[8:27] So when Joab came to the king and told him, he called for Absalom. Thus he came to the king and prostrated himself on his face to the ground before the king, and the king kissed Absalom.
[8:40] 2 Samuel chapter 14. I know it's a lot of words, a lot of story, but we need to have it in its context. I'll just be honest with you, I've wrestled with this passage longer than that after reading it last week as well, because I kind of knew where we were going, right?
[8:52] Everyone knows where we're going. We're just making our way through Scripture, and this is one of those portions of Scripture in which we open it up and read it historically, and we see what's going on. It's one thing just to pull out a text, what happened historically, we can all see that.
[9:04] But the grand question is, so what? What's the application, right? Where's the truth? There are a number of things in which I ask myself when I read a passage of Scripture, really just five questions.
[9:15] And I'm trying to discern, not only just for sermon preparation, but for my own personal study. Where do I see God in this passage? Where do I see man? Where do I see sin?
[9:26] What is God's answer to man's sin in the passage? And how does man respond to God? That's pretty simple. What should I do? And when we read this passage, it's really difficult, because it seems to just be one of a historical record.
[9:42] Yet we know that all of the Word of God is profitable. So our challenge, our calling, is to look at the text and to see the application that it has to us.
[9:53] This is why it is so important to take it in context. That's why we introduce it the way we did, because the things that are taking place in the text before us are directly connected to what preceded it and what comes after, right?
[10:07] We see that in context, it is a grander picture, and we see really the continuation of last week. As we began to open up the passage last week and see the sins of David's sons, we really said the grand narrative from chapter 13 to chapter 18, the end of chapter 18, really is the story of Absalom and Absalom's revolt.
[10:30] The lowest part of David's life is going to come when Absalom, his own son, claims the throne, defiles the king's concubines on the housetop in the middle of the day, runs David and his men, takes some of his counselors, and really tries to go after the king and kill the king.
[10:46] That beautiful hair that's on his head will be his downfall, literally. We'll see that later on as we get into the passage. So this is really the grand narrative of how we get there. How do we get to the end of chapter 18, Absalom hanging in the crook of a tree by the hair of his head and spears stuck through his heart?
[11:05] How do we get to that point? Not only do we have to start with David's failure in the 11th chapter, and we see the outcome of David's own failures, then we begin to see the sins that were called, that were known but nobody said anything about.
[11:19] Now in the 14th chapter, we see the danger of unmanaged sin. It is the danger of unmanaged sin. And by the way, this is not just an Absalom issue, this is a mankind issue.
[11:33] That is, when sin is allowed to continue, and sin is not only allowed just to reign, but it's just allowed to exist and not be confronted and not be managed, it is grave danger to ourselves and to others.
[11:49] If you remember when we were together, we looked at that word confrontation, and we saw that even though confrontation comes with a negative connotation, it doesn't necessarily mean something negative. To confront means to stand in front of face to face.
[12:01] It doesn't mean to stand in front of for a bad way. It just means to stand in front of face to face. And confrontation, according to Webster's, I have in my office, and some people think I'm crazy for having this, it's a facsimile, so it's not an exact copy.
[12:16] I have a dictionary from the 1800s, but it's so old I don't take it out. But I have a facsimile of the original Noah Webster's dictionary in my office. And that's the one I consult because when Noah Webster wrote his dictionary, he wrote it for the purpose of answering what every word meant in biblical context.
[12:32] That's how he wrote it. And he wrote it for the English colony, or for the American colony, so that they could study words that they stood for in biblical context, even though Webster's dictionary has went so much further away from that now.
[12:44] But confrontation, according to Webster at that time, means to stand in front of for the purpose of being seen, so that you can see me as I am, and I can see you as you are. And in that seeing one another, there's a revelation of what is lacking and what is not, and what needs to be dealt with and what does not need to be dealt with.
[13:00] In the case of Absalom, there was never a confrontation. Though bitterness took root in his heart, and for two years, he planned how he may kill his brother, though others knew about it.
[13:11] We saw that in the text last time we were together. No one confronted him. Once the sin is accomplished, he leaves, he flees, and still there is no confrontation, but sin is left unmanaged.
[13:25] And if you remember, more than likely, the reason David did not manage the sin is because David was dealing with his own convictions of his own sin. Because it is very hard to help others flee from a sin in which we are held captive.
[13:38] It is very hard to lead others out of something which still has a hold of us. And we see this. The enemy probably sitting on the shoulder of David, reminding him of his own guilt, forgetting that Nathan had already told him he was forgiven.
[13:52] The enemy accusing David, because he is the accuser of our souls, reminding us of our own failures. And yet not realizing the completeness he had in that forgiveness before a holy God.
[14:05] And yet Absalom has continued to live in his unmanaged sin and the danger that it poses. The first thing I want you to notice is that unmanaged sin leads to misplaced concern.
[14:20] Unmanaged sin leads to misplaced concern. One striking thing about this passage. Now, David is sinning by omission.
[14:33] That is, by not doing the things he should have done. The sin of omission is to know what we should do and not do it. The sin of commission is to know what we shouldn't do and do it anyway. David, as king, had been commanded to rule according to the law of God, according to the word of God.
[14:50] And the word of God is clear about premeditated murder. The word of God is clear about animosity and bitterness and all of these things. And it was the king's job to pass that commandment down. Now, I'm sure that it is difficult because this now is the heir to the throne.
[15:04] But what we see in the passage, though David really has this sin of omission, the one thing we notice, at least me, when I read the passage a number of times, is really the absence of any prophet of God coming and confronting David.
[15:22] Because when God has a word for David, and David sins a lot, we see this because he's a man like us, any time that God wants to call David back to himself, he sends a prophet.
[15:33] And the prophet comes with a word of God. And the word of God dictates what the king should do among men because he is God's representative among the people. We don't see that in this passage.
[15:44] And that's not saying that God is not silent, that God is not doing anything. But I just want you to follow with me here. There's no prophet, no one standing before him, no, thus saith the Lord God, this is what you should do.
[15:56] Rather, there's Joab who is conniving, there's Joab who is manipulating, there is Joab who, well, let's just say it, lying and bringing a woman from Tekoa to trick the king.
[16:07] Now, we know that when David was confronted with his sin with Bathsheba, there was also a story of two individuals, right? But it was God bringing the message clear from his prophet Nathan, who brought this to David and confronted him with this truth.
[16:22] Joab, one that we don't want to base our faith upon because some moments he looks so good and some moments he looks so bad, right? Joab decides to go get a woman from Tekoa. It's a little south of Jerusalem.
[16:32] By the way, if you ever go south of Jerusalem, you're getting away from the presence of God, right? So it goes a little south of Jerusalem, about 16 miles south there. Brings this woman up. She's wise, it says, and he gives her word.
[16:43] Put on this good play. And we see here, even in her statements, in those which ensue, is the concern is more about the people Israel and who will sit upon the throne as opposed to the holiness of God.
[17:01] Because the statement is, if we don't bring Absalom back, who's going to reign? That's really what she's saying is, we're all going to perish and yet spilled out like water on the ground. He is the heir to the throne.
[17:13] Joab's concern as a military leader is here is the heir apparent to the throne and he is really in hiding. We need to bring him back. Now we know the rest of the story, right?
[17:23] Solomon's going to sit upon the throne. We understand that. It's none of these that man think. But really, the concern is never mentioned about what does this matter look like before a holy God or what does God have to say about it.
[17:38] The concern is about what are we going to do? What about us as the nation? What about us as people? What about us in our occupations?
[17:49] What about our inheritance? What about this? And even the account that the lady gives, it really displaces a concern for the holiness of God and replaces it with the concern of personal affairs.
[18:03] And we see that. Because sin, when left unmanaged, always pulls our attention away from the things of God and puts it on the things of the world. It always pulls our devotion, our meditation, and our grand concern away from the holy standards of God to the operations and the cares and concerns of this life.
[18:30] Parable of the souls. You know the one soul that scares me the most? It's the seed that is choked out by the joys and the pleasures and the concerns of this life. Do you notice that?
[18:42] The joys and the pleasures and the concerns of this life. Because I think in my own life, it'd be easy to see the enemy out and out trying to steal the seed or the thorns.
[18:56] I want to get rid of the thorns, but it's the joys and the pleasures and the concerns which choke it out. And when sin is left unmanaged, what happens is we begin to have misplaced concerns.
[19:11] And we begin to be more concerned about what it looks like externally than what we're doing internally. We begin to be more concerned about what is going to happen with everybody else or what should be taking place over there as opposed to what's happening before me and a holy God.
[19:26] And the struggle is that David's heart is going out to Absalom, but David knows the standard of God, says that Absalom is deserving of death.
[19:40] We understand that. Now, I'm not here saying that God didn't want restoration or any of those matters, but what I'm saying is when we read the passage, we see that the things of God seem not to be mentioned until they're mentioned a little bit out of context, which leads us to the second reality, a lack of conviction.
[20:03] There is misplaced concern and a lack of conviction. David never addresses Absalom concerning this sin. He never has a conviction that what he's done, even if he does have a personal conviction, he never displays it publicly.
[20:21] There's never a bold statement. As a matter of fact, even when Absalom dies, Joab reprimands him because Joab said, you're showing a greater concern for the death of the son who had done wrong, who had taken your kingdom away from you, than you are for those who fought for you.
[20:34] There's always this remorse over his son rather than a conviction over his sin. And he's in a difficult passage. I mean, he's in a difficult place. We will acknowledge that because the very sin which he had committed, so too had his sons.
[20:45] And he had found grace and mercy, but yet what about Absalom? And here's the difference, because why is David declared to be a man after God's own heart? Remember the one great distinction between David and Saul?
[20:57] Both of them sinned. Both of them disobeyed. Both of them did things they should not have done. What's the one great distinction, the difference between David and Saul?
[21:10] Why is David a man after God's own heart? Not because he's perfect. Not because he's sinless. Not because he always does it right. But because when sin is acknowledged, then he repents of that sin.
[21:24] He is remorseful over that sin. He acknowledges before a holy God that sin. All you have to do is read the penitent Psalms, right? Psalm 51 is a psalm directly connected to his sin with Bathsheba.
[21:37] And he speaks of this reality. He wants to be restored, not so that his life would be okay, but so that the people of God would worship God. After the death of that child born to Bathsheba, the very first thing David does is go into the house of God and worship, right?
[21:50] Before he even went and saw Bathsheba again, he went to the house of God and he worshiped. We see the Psalms, I believe it's Psalm 37, that speaks of how when sin was in his body and he didn't confess it, it was like fire in his bones and it was consuming him on the outside.
[22:02] He acknowledges the guilt that he has from it. That's what makes David a man after God's own heart is that in his failure, he agrees with God about who he is. That's it. That's the key.
[22:13] Which is also the key to helping us understand what the woman from, what Tekoa said. The woman from Tekoa said, yet God does not take away life, but plans ways so that the banished one will not be cast from him.
[22:26] Now on the surface, this sounds great. On the surface, it says, God doesn't want Absalom to die, you need to bring him back. Now be careful because sometimes the greatest lies come to us as half-truth.
[22:38] The mercy of God says restoration is possible, but the justice of God declares that the sinner must die.
[22:51] Now the way for the banished one to return to him would be repentance. That's the way God has planned. We're still operating. Now, I know before you get too, think I'm getting too legalistic on this, we're on the other side of the cross.
[23:07] We're still operating in the covenant, right? And in the covenant, in the book of Leviticus, has this, all these laws and all these ways that if you sin, do this. If you sin, do that.
[23:17] If you kill an individual and you didn't mean to kill an individual, you flee to the city of refuge. Notice, Absalom did not run to the city of refuge. Why? Because he meant to kill his brother. He didn't go to the city of refuge because if you meant to kill someone and you run to the city of refuge, it does you no good.
[23:32] You're still guilty and you're going to be found out. The Bible very clearly says in the book of Leviticus, for there is no offering for the high-handed sin. That is, when you look at God and you say, I know it's wrong, but I'm going to do it anyway, and you have the high-handed sin, you say, I don't care.
[23:50] There's no sacrifice for that. The only way of restoration is repentance, confession, acknowledgement, genuine, admittance as to what you've done, and then returning to a holy God, all of which are absent from Absalom.
[24:13] Because as far as Absalom is concerned, he's done no wrong. We know this because he looks at Joab and says, if I'm guilty, then let the king kill me. He acknowledges he's done something, but he finds no wrong.
[24:27] There's no conviction in the man Absalom. Therefore, according just to the biblical line of thought, there could also be no restoration.
[24:42] God has planned ways. God does not want the banished ones separated forever. God has planned ways for him to be reconciled and to be brought back. The good news, that is the gospel, is that God has planned a way that the one who is banished can be reconciled and be brought back.
[24:57] That's you and I, right? Those who have been cast away from the presence of a holy God because of our sin. We are fleeing from his presence. We're just like Adam in the garden, and we hear him in the cool of the day, and we go hide behind whatever kind of tree you want to call it.
[25:10] Sometimes it's the tree of pride. Sometimes it's the tree of shame. Sometimes it's the tree of fear. Sometimes it's the tree of addiction. Whatever it is, we're hiding from the presence of a holy God, and we have separated ourselves just like Absalom fled from the presence of King David, and we are hiding because we know we did wrong.
[25:28] God does not desire that any would be separated but that all would be reconciled, and he has a plan to do it, and that plan is in Jesus Christ. But Jesus Christ died upon the cross. He paid the price.
[25:39] And the only way for the banished one to be reconciled is to admit who he is or she is before a holy God and to accept the punishment that was rendered on Christ as their own and therefore be reconciled.
[25:53] Absalom never acknowledges, never accepts, and has no conviction of these realities. Therefore, sin is left unmanaged. Why? Because until you are convicted of it, you will never repent from it.
[26:05] Lack of conviction always brings a lack of repentance. This is why I'm so thankful for the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has a way of making us uncomfortable in our sins, bringing about, the Bible says, Jesus says there in the Gospel of John, John 15, that when the Holy Spirit would come, he would come to convict the world of sin and righteousness.
[26:33] And he reminds us of the teachings of Christ, makes us uncomfortable. He makes us aware of the reality.
[26:45] But there's a danger because Paul tells us not to suppress the Spirit, right? Not to take that conviction and cast it to the side, not to let it lie, not to ignore it, but we need to respond to that.
[26:56] Why? Because it leads to the third thing. The third thing, in this danger of unmanaged sin, there is misplaced concern, there's a lack of conviction. Here's the third thing.
[27:06] This is the one that scares us the most. There is room for greater conspiracy. When unmanaged sin is allowed to continue to exist, it provides room for a greater conspiracy.
[27:19] Absalom is brought back. Joab gets his way. Absalom's brought back. David doesn't want to see Absalom. For five years, David doesn't see his son. He's three years over here in Gashur.
[27:29] He's two years back home in Jerusalem, but he can't see the king. He's pretty much on house arrest. But while he's in house arrest, he's out in the city. And the Bible tells us that Absalom is handsome.
[27:42] There's another handsome man, too, that everybody admired. His name was Saul, so we have to be careful there. Absalom's very handsome in appearance from the head to his feet. It says that he was popular. Everybody liked him.
[27:53] Everybody was really moved by his appearance and his charm, and here he is. He's the prince. He's the king to be. We must be careful because popularity among men does not always mean acceptance before God.
[28:06] He's popular. He's so popular later on when he stands in the gate of the city and begins his revolt. Everybody's drawn to him. He has charisma. He has looks. He has everything Saul had, but yet he does not have the one thing his dad has, and that is a heart that is soft to the things of God.
[28:23] But David knows he's there, and David brings him back but leaves him over there and still never says a thing. Now, this bothers us because it was the king's responsibility to confront this, and yet they just allowed it to tarry, and unmanaged sin led to one thing after another, and really it gave Absalom time to think.
[28:43] He calls Joab. A couple of times Joab doesn't answer. Joab says, I don't want to get involved in that because the king and his son aren't talking, and he kind of avoids the circumstances.
[28:56] And just so, in case we wonder if Absalom's heart is really right, he wants to get Joab's attention, so he sends his servants to set his field on fire. He burns Joab's field, and now Joab has to deal with this matter, right?
[29:09] In case we thought he was repentant of his planning and conniving before, we see that he's not. Joab comes, and he says, why did you burn my field? You notice Absalom never answered that question. He said, I want to see the king.
[29:21] So Joab brings him to the king. King brings him in. He falls on his feet, prostrate. He does homage. He does the right thing. The king kisses him on the cheek, and that's kind of his sign of restoration.
[29:34] But see, here's the danger. The danger is is that every seed that needed to be planted for what follows this has already had time to be planted. The seeds of revolt are already there.
[29:48] His popularity among people, his lack of concern for man, his focus on self. He has sons. They must die fairly young because the three sons are only mentioned in this passage, and later on, he erects a statue to his own namesake because he has no sons to carry on his name.
[30:06] Now, Tamar, his daughter, will end up being a wife to one of the queens who reigned after Solomon. But he has no son to bear his name, so he erects his own statue.
[30:19] He kind of has this thing, you know, personal. I like to say it this way. He loves him a lot of him. He loves himself a lot.
[30:30] And all those things were allowed to continue on because he did not see any wrong in his life. He did not see any harm in what he had done. He had time to think and consider and look at what he could do better.
[30:41] That's when he stands in the gate of the king. We'll see this. He tells everyone how he could do it better. He had time to think. These things did not just come to be overnight. He had five years allowing to live in his unmanaged sin, which inevitably would lead to the greater revolt.
[30:57] Why? Because greater conspiracies are always born in moments of unmanaged sin. Revolt against the king did not start because of a decision made there.
[31:08] Revolt against the king took place and was conceived and was planted and really came to be. And when these things weren't addressed on the front end, which the application is this.
[31:18] Friend, listen to me. It was sin exists in our life and we allow it to tarry before we know it, we will be in an open, out and out revolt against the king of kings and lord of lords.
[31:30] Because the danger happens when the Holy Spirit's presence is there to bring conviction and this is why Paul says suppress not the Holy Spirit. And we ignore it and we ignore it and we ignore it and we ignore it. One of the scariest passages I've read in all the scriptures when it says in 2 Thessalonians, I believe it's chapter 2, and God gave them over to a debased mind.
[31:48] It says it also in Romans chapter 1. God gave them over. You know the thing that scares me the most is when God gives people over. That is, he quits convicting them. He quits bringing the acknowledgement of their sin.
[31:58] And what happens when God gives them over? When God gives them over, they live an open revolt against the king of kings and lord of lords. Why? Because sin was left unmanaged.
[32:11] And in case we think this is an Absalom problem, this is a mankind problem. The scripture very clearly tells us sin needs to be dealt with because we're not.
[32:25] This little thing over here, this little thing over here, which we think is not bothering anybody, and we self-justify it and self-validate it when we are allowed to live in it long enough, it will always take us further than we want to go.
[32:41] And inevitably, it will lead to revolt against the king of kings and lord of lords. Because we'll begin to start seeing ourself as more important than anything else.
[32:52] The good news is we have a king who will not be silent about our sin. That doesn't make us comfortable. The king sitting on the throne of our lives is not one who sits over there and worries about what he should say.
[33:04] He's the one who has spoken already to us. Right? He's the one that confronts us with the word of God. He's the one that confronts us with the very word and speaks to our spirit. He's the one that brings the acknowledgement of sin.
[33:16] He puts people around us to hold us accountable. You know how easy it is to shelter in and just to kind of be over here and isolate ourselves and separate ourselves. We don't want to be like that. Right? We don't want to be the Absalom who just allows sin to be left unmanaged and kind of uncared for and unchallenged.
[33:33] Confrontation's not a bad thing. When I read these passages, all I think about was what if David had said something at the very beginning? What if David had said something?
[33:47] When I think about mankind throughout history, when I think about my own life, when I think about in my own failures, what if someone had confronted me at the very beginning?
[34:00] I told you guys that were with us at the retreat, I told you Sunday morning. Cedars 11, and we were at Cedars 11, and we were in the group lodge there. And it was kind of, it didn't hit me until we got there.
[34:11] It was kind of bittersweet for me. This is the last year that lodge will be there. I stood up to preach that Sunday morning. There was a window to the left, and I shared with them. Sitting in front of that window when I was 19 years old, Carrie and I have been married about a year, it was the first time anyone ever confronted me with the gospel.
[34:28] And I told you, he made me mad. He made me mad. It was my pastor, or the pastor of the church we were attending. He would become my pastor and become my ordaining pastor, not become the pastor that I surrendered to call the ministry under later on.
[34:41] First time I was ever confronted with the gospel. He just lovingly confronted me. What if he hadn't? What if he hadn't called me to account?
[34:54] What about those that I just allow to let sin reign unmanaged in their life, and I don't confront them in a loving way because of my own fears and concerns? What leads to an open revolt?
[35:08] To a life who live according to their own desires and own purposes and own plans. And it will eventually lead to out-and-out revolt against a holy God. And we see this. We see it being played out for us in the life of Absalom.
[35:21] But if we're not careful, we'll also see it being played out for us in our own lives and in the lives of those we love. It doesn't mean we have to be harsh. It just means we have to be loving enough to confront and loving enough to say, I don't want this thing to remain unmanaged.
[35:41] There's a king that we will answer to one day. And we want to stand holy and blameless before the king. Right? 2 Samuel 14. Thank you, my brothers.
[36:01] Thank you.
[36:31] Thank you.
[37:02] Thank you. Thank you.