Managing Sin

ReCAST Church of Mattawan

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You're listening to a podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. This week, Pastor Don Filsack is preaching from his series,

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The Warrior Poet King, Study of Second Samuel. Let's listen in. Welcome to Recast Church.

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I'm Don Filsack. I am the lead pastor here. Despite what you might have thought over the last couple of weeks, I missed being here with you.

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I worked for a couple of weeks up at Camp Bearkell on vacation. I did the math, and we fed 200 mouths 10 days in a row, three meals a day, do the math.

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That's a whole lot of working in the kitchen, a whole lot of fun. For some reason, I find that kind of work restorative to my soul.

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There's something about having a tray in front of me, lining up the fish sticks, and voila, there's a done tray of fish sticks when

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I'm done. Like, it's there, ready to go in the oven. My work, and I think some of you probably work in a similar field where you're not quite sure where the line is where work is done, and so it's kind of nice to have something that is finished.

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So that's what I did this past couple of weeks, but I am so glad to be gathered back together with you guys.

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I miss you, and I mean that sincerely. You've got to take my word for it. Isn't a pastor supposed to say that he misses his church?

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But I genuinely do. This morning, we're going to be jumping back into the life of David in Second Samuel, and I'm guessing that we are in a stretch of the life of David, kind of from this chapter 14, moving forward in Second Samuel, that is kind of unstudied to most of us.

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You kind of have some idea that maybe something happened with Absalom and his son, but it might not be the first things you think of when you think of the life of David.

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Most people know something about David and Goliath. Most people know that David was a king in Israel, like we talked about earlier, and being a coronated king, crowned king over Israel.

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But I'm guessing, well, I'd even say so, that probably many people can associate the name David and Bathsheba together and know that something kind of off -kilter went on there.

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But how much do we really know about the rebellion of Absalom, David's son?

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It's probably not one of those, like, oh, I just look forward to that time of reading in my annual, going through the

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Bible in a year, whatever it is. Man, the stories about Absalom rebelling against his father, man, that speaks to my heart.

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Probably not many of us are like that. I imagine that some may even be confused why we see so many chapters taken up in the

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Bible to this dark stage of the life of David. Wasn't he a man after God's own heart, we might say?

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But let me set the stage for us as we're going to read this passage here in just a moment. God promised

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David that one descendant, born of his royal line, was going to rule forever. That was back in chapter 7.

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That was promised to David. And God further promised that sin would not stop that, death wouldn't stop that, and time would not stop that promise, that God was going to remain faithful to his side, of his promise to David, come what may.

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But now you've got to put yourself in the shoes of the people in the Bible to really understand some of the lessons that are coming at us.

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Look at this story from David's perspective. His sin has gotten in the way.

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I'm sure that David had at least a minor crisis of faith and likely quite a major crisis of faith during this season of his life that we're looking at, at the latter half of 2

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Samuel. Questions, I'm sure, that at least crossed his mind. Have I broken

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God's promise? Have I gone too far away from him? And how many of you would just say, there are times in my life where I've asked that same question.

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Have I broken God's promises? Have I gone too far? I'm the only one? Five of us.

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Okay, five of us. The rest of you are like, no, I've always been good with God. We're tight. No. I think all of us go through stages like this, right?

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Where we wonder, have I gone too far? Is his promise real to me?

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Will he stay faithful to what he said he was going to do? You see, David in this story, and I'm giving you some background before we read it because it's been a while since we've been in it, and I want to refresh your memory, but also because it's important to understanding some very specific things in this text.

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David messed up really bad. He messed up really bad by stealing the wife of one of his military officers.

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And then when it was discovered that she was Preggers, he had his military officer put to death in a cover -up.

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He then was discovered by the prophet Nathan. God revealed to the prophet Nathan, hey, go to David and confront him on this sin.

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He thought he had gotten away with it, but no, because God knows. And the prophet Nathan called

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David to task, and God issued consequences and discipline to David, consequences that are going to carry on throughout his life.

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And one of the consequences of his sin is that sin is now running rampant in the next generation of his family.

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I have no problem calling this a consequence rather than a punishment because I have no problem drawing a direct line between a father who is sexually promiscuous and a son who follows suit.

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It just makes sense. I believe it's true that generally speaking, generally speaking, our children are watching what we do and developing a moral and ethical framework through their parents, much more through their actions, much more through our actions and much less through our words.

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How many of you agree with that? Kids are watching what we do much more than they're listening to our voices. And that is indeed the case in David's children's lives.

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When we come to chapter 14, David's family is in shambles, and it has been, he personally has proven to be crazy, apathetic and immobilized for a couple of chapters now.

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But before we read this text this morning, let's collect our thoughts around the all -important question that we must ask ourselves whenever we encounter

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God's word. So what? David sinned. What's that got to do with me here in Matawan in 2022?

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So what that he's facing severe consequences from his sin? So what that his buddy Joab is managing damage control in our text due to David's sin?

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So what is the question we must ask ourselves? But the things that we find in this passage only matter to us and only impact us because three things are true in all of our lives.

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It is good to rehearse them here at the start of a message like this that shows the consequences of sin, shows the difficulty of trying to quote, unquote, manage sin.

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The first is that we are all sinners. Like the tangle of David's family, we all have broken things.

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We're all sinners. The second is that God is holy. And that still doesn't matter that much.

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I mean, we're sinners. God is holy. Okay. But the third thing brings it together.

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He is our judge. We're not holy. He is holy. And we are all to a person in this room going to stand before him as the righteous judge.

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How many of you think that brings into focus why we would be talking about sin? It matters.

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Why study this extended story of the effects of sin in the life of David? Why keep marching through 2

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Samuel? Why so much time spent illustrating the sin in the family life of King David in this book?

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Because we need stark reminders that sin, church, sin is devastating.

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We have a nasty propensity in all of our hearts to think that we are different than David. We're different than others.

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We can manage our sin, right? We can control it. We can solve it. We can keep it at bay.

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But as we see sin going off like explosions in the family of a man like David, we ought to be reminded of just how much we need a

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Savior. And we must run to Jesus, the Savior, for shelter.

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And further, we keep getting reminders that God is the only faithful one. He keeps his promises to David despite David's performance.

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So let's go ahead and open our Bibles. You can open your device, your scripture journal, to 2

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Samuel chapter 14. You can also access the passage today through the app. You click on the faith tab, click sermon notes.

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Boom, you have the text in front of you and a place to take notes right there if you're digital that way.

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Go for it. We are gonna read the entirety. Yes, we're gonna read the entirety of chapter 14. I know you're gonna say,

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Don, that's a long passage. We're gonna read it together. I think it's beneficial for us to take in God's word together. So let's dive in to what

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God has for us this morning recast. 2 Samuel chapter 14. Now Joab the son of Zariah knew that the king's heart went out to Absalom.

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So Joab sent to Tekoa and brought from there a wise woman and said to her, Pretend to be a mourner and put on mourning garments.

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Do not anoint yourself with oil, but behave like a woman who has been mourning many days for the dead.

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Go to the king and speak thus to him. So Joab put the words in her mouth.

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When the woman of Tekoa came to the king, she fell on her face to the ground and paid homage and said, Save me, oh king.

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And the king said to her, What is your trouble? She answered, Alas, I am a widow. My husband is dead and your servant had two sons.

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And they quarreled with one another in the field. There was no one to separate them and one struck the other and killed him.

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And now the whole clan has risen against your servant. And they say, Give up the man who struck his brother that we may put him to death for the life of his brother whom he killed.

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And so they would destroy the air also. Thus they would quench my coal that is left and leave to my husband neither name nor remnant on the face of the earth.

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Then the king said to the woman, Go to your house and I will give orders concerning you. And the woman of Tekoa said to the king,

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On me be the guilt, my lord the king. And on my father's house let the king and his throne be guiltless.

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The king said, If anyone says anything to you, bring him to me and he shall never touch you again. Then she said,

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Please let the king invoke the Lord your God that the avenger of blood may kill no more and my son be not destroyed.

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He said, As the Lord lives not one hair of your son shall fall to the ground.

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Then the woman said, Please let your servant speak a word to my lord the king. He said,

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Speak. And the woman said, Why then have you planned such a thing against the people of God?

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For in giving this decision the king convicts himself inasmuch as the king does not bring his banished one home again.

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We must all die. We are like water spilled on the ground which cannot be gathered up again. But God will not take away life when he devises means so that the banished one will not remain an outcast.

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Now I have come to say this to my lord the king because the people have made me afraid and your servant thought

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I will speak to the king and it may be that the king will perform the request of his servant. For the king will hear and deliver his servant from the hand of the man who would destroy me and my son together from the heritage of God.

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And your servant thought the word of my lord the king will set me at rest. For my lord the king is like the angel of God to discern good and evil.

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The Lord your God be with you. And the king answered the woman, Do not hide from me anything

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I ask you. And the woman said, Let my lord the king speak. And the king said, Is the hand of Joab with you in all of this?

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The woman answered and said, As surely as you live, my lord the king, one cannot turn to the right hand or to the left from anything that the lord the king has said.

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It was your servant Joab who commanded me. It was he who put all these words in the mouth of your servant.

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In order to change the course of things, your servant Joab did this. But my lord has wisdom like the wisdom of the angel of God to know all things that are on the earth.

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Then the king said to Joab, Behold, now I grant this. Go bring back the young man

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Absalom. And Joab fell on his face to the ground and paid homage and blessed the king. And Joab said,

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Today your servant knows that I have found favor in your sight, my lord the king, and that the king has granted the request of his servant.

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So Joab arose and went to Gesher and brought Absalom to Jerusalem. And the king said, Let him dwell apart in his own house.

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He is not to come into my presence. So Absalom lived apart in his own house and did not come into the king's presence.

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Now in all Israel there was no one so much to be praised for his handsome appearance as Absalom. From the sole of his foot to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him.

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And when he cut the hair of his head, for at the end of every year he used to cut it, and when it was heavy on him he cut it, he weighed the hair of his head two hundred shekels by the king's weight.

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They were born to Absalom three sons and one daughter whose name was Tamar. She was a beautiful woman.

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So Absalom lived two full years in Jerusalem without coming into the king's presence. Then Absalom sent for Joab to send him to the king, but Joab would not come to him.

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And he sent a second time, but Joab would not come to him. Then he said to his servant, See, Joab's field is next to mine and he has barley there.

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Go set it on fire. So Absalom's servant set the field on fire. Then Joab arose and went to Absalom at his house and said to him,

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Why have your servant set my field on fire? Absalom answered Joab, Behold, I sent word to you.

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Come here, that I may send you to the king to ask, Why have I come from Geshur? It would be better for me to be there still.

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Now therefore, let me go into the presence of the king, and if there is guilt in me, let him put me to death.

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Then Joab went to the king and told him, and he summoned Absalom. So he came to the king and bowed himself on his face to the ground before the king, and the king kissed

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Absalom. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for the grace that comes to us in the gathering of your people.

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We rejoice that you have seen fit to not allow us to languish on our own out in the world, like islands in the midst of the sea, but instead, you have seen fit to connect us with others around us who love you, who want to honor you, who seek to understand you from your word and are seeking to honor you in their lives.

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Father, I rejoice to be connected to this body, and I am so thankful for this gathering.

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I pray that you would be in our midst for wisdom, for power, for your word, encouraging and drawing down strength into each individual here, that we would gain perspective as a result of gathering together and hearing from your word.

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Father, I pray against any notion that as we talk about sin this morning, that you would fight and war against any propensity in any one of us that would be tempted to walk away from here with a thought, oh,

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I guess I need to clean up my act, I guess I need to get better. I pray that you would war against any thoughts that at least

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I haven't done what David did. I pray that you would draw down into each heart here a recognition and humility that says,

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I have broken God's law. What hope is there for me apart from Christ?

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But then I pray, Father, that you would provide encouragement to each soul here that a way has been made of salvation.

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That we are not left to try to put the pieces of broken life back together.

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We all know that in our sin we are not just broken people that have been acted upon, but we are breakers.

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We are those who have crushed others. To a person here in this room, we have hurt others.

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We have shattered things in relationships that we just don't even know how to put the pieces back together.

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So we rejoice in a Savior who puts things back together.

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We thank you for restoration. We thank you for hope. We thank you for the promise that in the end you will renew and restore all things in your good will, in your perfect plan.

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So Father, I pray that you would protect us from putting our hope in this life and instead place us firmly in the hope for the life that is to come where all things will be made new and made right in the eternal kingdom of your

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Son. We thank you for salvation in his name and for hope in his name and now

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Father, I pray that as we have an opportunity to sing these songs, we would do so from hearts of joy and gladness.

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We who were broken are being restored and the things that we have broken are being restored.

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Pray that you would help us to lift up voices consistent with that message, a message of glorious hope.

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I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, go ahead and be seated and if you can re -find your place in 2

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Samuel 14 so you can kind of follow along there if you lost your place, jump back into that device, your scripture journal or Bible and let's dive in.

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I want to start off with a statement to basically disagree right away with my title, Sin Cannot Be Managed.

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So my title this morning is an intentional misnomer, managing sin. I think we've all tried it.

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Can you imagine trying to glue back together mom's expensive vase after playing ball in the house?

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Can you imagine that? We try to put things back together and sometimes they just won't fit back together.

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And this is sad when it's something valuable like great grandma's vase that's been passed down from generations, right?

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Like it can be a big deal. But what about those times when something much, much, much more valuable is broken by sin?

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I think we all know that that happens. What about when it's a relationship with someone that we love?

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What then? How do we manage sin? How do we put the pieces back together again of broken relationships?

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Absalom and David had been separated by sin. David started it. I want to clarify that. David started it.

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He took a married woman and took a hit out on her husband a few chapters ago. And it became a public shame on their family.

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There's no way that the king was able to keep this suppressed. David's oldest son then in turn raped his half -sister and so his brother

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Absalom killed him. David took a woman not his. So did his crown prince

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Amnon. David became a murderer putting to death Uriah, the husband of Bathsheba.

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So did his son Absalom become a murderer by putting to death his brother Amnon. The apple doesn't fall too far from the tree.

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And at the start of our text, David is in a catch -22. We see that right at the beginning. He loves his son

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Absalom and he's thinking about him and his heart is going out to him. He is his crown prince. He is his son.

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But he cannot merely absolve him of the sin of murder. And so at the end of chapter 13 and the start of chapter 14 of 2

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Samuel, Absalom is in exile and his father at both places it says his father's heart was going out to him.

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So we start the text of chapter 14 with David's mind taken up thinking about Absalom.

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How many of you would acknowledge that at seasons and times of your life a significant chunk of your mental bandwidth is taken up in relational family issues?

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I think all of us have been there at times, right? Where family stuff is starting to crowd out other stuff.

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It's starting to make it hard at the workplace to focus on the things you need to there because things are not going well at home.

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I think that's where we find David in our text. And Joab, one of David's coworkers, if you will,

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David's military commander, he notes the funk of his boss, David, and sets a plan in motion to try to manage this broken relationship between father and son to bring about some healing,

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I think, for the nation itself. There is a brokenness between father and son, between king and crown prince at the start of our text.

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And so our text is a straightforward narrative. It's kind of in story form. It's fairly easy to follow the story and there are only a couple of foggy spots that require a little bit of cultural understanding, but by and large,

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I think when I read it, you were able to tell what's happening. You were able to get the flow of it. But after reading it, we all can see clearly that Joab hired an actress from Tekoa and he writes a script for her.

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He likely chose Tekoa simply because it was a backwater hilltop town out of the way. In other words, it was unlikely that David was going to know this woman and therefore that was part of the ruse.

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Joab's script is not super crafty, but it serves its purpose. This woman claims to have two sons and they got into an argument out in the field and it went all

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Cain and Abel and one of them ended up dead. This would pull at David's heartstrings and I think the story that Joab weaves here through this woman, the script that he writes is intentionally meant to pull at David's heartstrings.

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Well, why would I say that it would pull at David's heart? He encounters this woman who is mourning and grieving the loss of a son.

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Not just the loss of a son, but really, in essence, the loss of two sons. Well, David has just lost himself.

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In the last few chapters of 2 Samuel, he's lost three sons. He lost an infant son.

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Amnon was murdered by his brother Absalom and so now, Absalom is lost too in exile in Geshur.

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David's heart is wracked with family strife and problems.

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He has lost three sons. Now he has to adjudicate an issue where a woman is about to lose her second son as well.

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So she fakes mourning. She threw herself at the mercy of King David in the text. Her request in verse 4 struck my ears, especially after the message last week from Zach Lloyd.

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She says in verse 4, Save me, O King. And it reminds me of the cry of the desperate

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Canaanite woman from Zach's message last week where she cried out, Lord, help me. A very parallel picture where somebody's coming to David, King David, for help.

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Somebody's coming to the greater son of King David for help in Zach's passage. But despite the circumstances of seeking to manipulate the king, let that rest aside for a second.

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We at least see a common ancient occurrence that we would do well to learn from because in America, no generation has really ever had a king.

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We have that whole King George thing and we make fun of him, right? But we don't have a king over America.

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We have been steeped in a type of political atmosphere that does indeed impact our mind towards spiritual things, towards the word, towards God.

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We're steeped in self -direction. We've been saturated with independence. Freedom is the cry of the

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American. Now, I would tell you right off the bat, don't back me into a corner, I love my freedom.

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But I also recognize that there is something about my being born into such a free society that muddies my understanding of my radical dependence upon a king.

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You get what I'm saying in that? There's something that's missing in my, just in the framework of my heart that doesn't come natural to bow the knee to anybody.

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Anybody know what I'm talking about? I'm getting some blank stares. It's not natural for an American to bow the knee and put their face down on the floor.

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Now, what do we do? We stand up and bang our chest and say, I'm here. Isn't that the American way? Do Americans bow their knee before anybody?

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No. Of course we don't. But I recognize that there's something wrong there.

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The way we perceive ourselves as self -directed can most certainly get in the way of a cry that must be on the lips of anyone who will be rescued from their sins.

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All must come to the king. All must bow the knee and cry out, save me,

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O king. Do you hear it? All must cry, save me. Lord, help me.

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Because we are dependent. We're dependent about the most fundamental things that are true of us.

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In verses 5 through 7, this woman spins out Joab's script. She is acting at best, lying at worst.

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Nothing in the text gives any indication that what she did here was right, but it's what she did.

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This is recorded for us. But she says she's about to lose her husband's only heir. She's a widow.

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The remaining son is the only one who will carry on daddy's name. So if the law for murderers is applied, as her clan is requesting, knocking on the door, say, turn over your murderer, she will be left sonless without an heir.

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And this cuts to the heart of the covenant problem that's going on in David's heart at this time. Absalom is not his last son, but he is the next one in line to inherit the promises of God.

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He is the next one in line to be king of Israel. And Absalom is estranged from his father in exile as a murderer.

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So David's heart, naturally, I think, goes out to the woman, and thinking that at face value, he's merely adjudicating some issue in some backwater town of Tekoa.

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He says, in essence, in verse 8, you can see it there, but this is a summary of that. I've got this. Go home.

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I'll take care of it. That's what he means by I will issue orders concerning you. You don't need to worry about it. You've got the king's weight behind you.

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You can just go home and not worry about this again. And further in verse 10, he says, if anyone gives you any problems, they have the king to deal with.

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Now, again, not having a king, we go, ooh, you know, the government's going to take care of it. But I don't know. In this, he says, the king, the full weight of my authority, the full weight of my power is behind you, and you're going to be all right.

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They're going to have to deal with me. But nestled in between verses 8 and 10 is indication that they both know what maybe isn't obvious to most of us, and that is that they are indeed bending the law of God here.

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She calls for the guilt. What guilt? She calls for the guilt to be on her head and on her household for this breach in the law that she's asking for.

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You see, this woman is asking for an exception to God's law. God's law.

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The way that the clan is knocking at the door and saying, turn over your murderer is right. That's God's law.

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And she's saying, could you protect my son from that rabble? Those law -following,

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God -honoring rabble who want to judge him for murder? Who do they think they are?

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I mean, I don't know what her attitude is. Her son, a murderer, should be put to death, but here David is soft on the law of God.

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The hired actress from Tekoa asks for a more solid assurance than merely David's words because she knows what she's asking for.

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She literally says, your word is not enough on this one. She says, I need you to swear by Yahweh.

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She uses the personal name of God, Yahweh. He obliges in verse 11.

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Now under normal court protocol, so she's received what she's asked for. He is basically issued by God an oath saying, your son's going to be fine.

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I am by God going to take care of this. As surely as the Lord lives, not a hair from your son's head will fall.

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So she's received what she came for. He has already dismissed her and told her, go home. What you've asked for is given.

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What comes next is she ought to be bowing in gratitude, leaving his presence, very grateful that the king has heard her and has responded positively.

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But instead, she asks to say something more. Please one more word, king.

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Here it comes. And here comes in Joab's crafty script, the revelation of her real purpose in coming.

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She asks in a way that is dangerous to speak to a king. Why would you make an exception for my son, but not for the prince of the people?

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I think it's deeply ironic that all of this context is outside of the boundaries of obedience to God's clear laws regarding the treatment of murder and cold blood.

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This woman is calling David to apply, hear me carefully, she is asking for David to apply his disobedience to the law fairly.

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Equal disobedience please, she's asking. He's gonna bend the law for her now that he's pledged an oath.

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Why not for Absalom? But his oath in the name of God has sealed him up in this conundrum now.

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He sprung the trap before he saw it and now the bear trap is around his ankle. He cannot back out now and equally put both to death.

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When she says it that way, oh that's right, I am disobeying the law, right? So why don't I just put both to death?

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No, because he's made an oath by God's name that he would not do so. Joab has effectively trapped

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David into disobedience anyway, so why not go ahead and free Absalom is the gist. So verse 14 could be difficult to understand but I believe that what she's saying is something like this, paraphrase, life is short, you know we're all spilled out on the ground, life is short,

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God is gracious, so why not set your son free is what she's getting at in verse 14.

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Why not set your son free? Life is short, we're all going to die anyways. Some see here a reference back to Cain who was not put to death for his murder of Abel.

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If you remember, instead God devised a means by which Cain was exiled and eventually was brought back into community and not even an outcast.

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And in verses 15 through 17 she tries to soften her very direct speech to the king which could get her in a lot of trouble by lying and saying this confrontational tone is not the reason she came to him but instead she spins this all off into all kinds of flattery saying she trusted the king and knew he had wisdom like a messenger of God and he would adjudicate fairly and all of this stuff.

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But he's wise enough to see through her acting and in verses 18 through 19 he sees through the trap that has already been sprung.

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And he can see clearly the hand of Joab in this entire scenario. It may be that Joab had made attempts and a lot of scholars believe that Joab had probably made prior attempts to restore

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Absalom in the past and Joab is maybe directly just saying why don't you bring him back from Geshur and just be done with it.

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And David was having none of that. But whatever the case she returns to flattery in verses 19 and 20 to try to avoid

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David's wrath. You are so wise nobody can pull a fast one on you she says. And she uses super exaggeration saying

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King David you know all things on the earth. No, he really doesn't.

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She is just trying to blow smoke in his face and boost his ego. She must be dismissed.

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We don't have the record of that but there's no more reference to her at all in the text. I imagine Joab was called in immediately or was present there observing her acting skills.

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The text doesn't tell us exactly why Joab was so interested in restoring David and Absalom.

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I made some guesses but I think it may very well be that Joab was tired of the king moping around and distracted by his son.

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Back in verse 1 you can look at that. We saw that Joab was observing David's heart out with Absalom.

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It's like his heart wasn't there his heart was out there out with Absalom which likely implies that his heart was not in Jerusalem ruling the people well like I said that bandwidth the bandwidth of his heart the bandwidth of his mind and his energy was taken up in thoughts and feelings and trying to figure out how to figure this out to restore his son.

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David gave Joab permission to go to Gesher and bring Absalom the crown prince back into Jerusalem.

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Now Joab in the text is very stoked that his scheme has worked he fell on his face paid homage before his king blessed

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David and so the result of the scheme is clarified in verse 23. Absalom here's the key

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Absalom was brought to Jerusalem. He's brought back home. This is such a long narrative to get to this one result and the question has to be asked why spend so many words why spend so many chapters why when ink and parchment was so valuable why spend so much time recording this return and I suggest to you it's because it explains how convoluted situations become when we allow sin to run the show in our lives.

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David is still even in this spin afterwards disobeying God in the in the the repercussions of trying to manage sin has caused sin and ripples of sin and here in managing quote unquote managing sin he is still bending the law to his own whims.

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And I think it would be a legitimate question for us. Why does God put up with this? Why does

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God sometimes like smite Uzzah for touching the ark and then let David get away with this stuff?

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Anybody ever ask that question of scripture? Why does sometimes he's just like boom and then other times he's like eh let this one let this one go see how it plays out.

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I don't know I don't believe God ever thinks that thought like I'll see how it plays out he knows all ends and all beginnings but I believe that God is a

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God from scripture that has a will. He has a plan.

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He chooses to do what he will. Every sin will be paid for.

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That's fundamental. Every sin will be paid for. Not immediately. Sometimes he chooses not to provide immediate consequences for sin but all will be paid for.

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Not even necessarily in this life will all sin be paid for. But either all sin will be paid for on the cross by Jesus Christ or it will be paid for through the eternal punishment of the individual who committed those sins in the lake of fire forever.

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I believe that these sins of David I believe this by the testimony of scripture that these sins of David are covered by the blood of Jesus Christ.

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And we will I believe see David on the new earth. You can talk with him about these things someday.

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But please don't take that to mean that these sins of disobedience on David's part letting a murderer go free in this particular text don't take that to mean that this is no big deal.

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On the contrary every sin is such a big deal that God's own son

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Jesus Christ himself the sinless lamb of God the greater son of David the perfect one took the weight of that sin on himself at the cross and experienced the wrath of the father in our place in David's place.

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But David and Absalom here on this earth in our text are not reconciled yet.

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We know that relational restoration often takes steps and sin doesn't just it's like okay you just apologize and move on right?

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And how many of you have ever been guilty of wanting that? Like you just want others to be like okay you said you're sorry like we're all good now everything's fine back to normal.

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How many of you know that it doesn't work that way? Raise your hand go ahead and interact with me for a second. You know that it doesn't work that way. Like you've got it takes steps often for reconciliation.

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Sin which breaks relationships does not have quick and easy fixes and we're seeing this here in this text.

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Remember our shattered vase that we're trying to glue back together so mom won't find out. How many of you know that it's hard to put the little chips in the pulverized parts back together again?

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You know what I'm talking about? There's gaps there's parts that you just the part that goes under the couch and you didn't find it or whatever.

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You know there's always it's never going to be restored to the way that it was. You getting what I'm saying? Sin pulverizes often pulverizes relationships.

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In this sense forgiveness and restoration among us sinners hear me church always always always requires his miraculous work in our hearts.

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Every time that a sinner is forgiven by another sinner it's a miracle.

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It's an amazing work of God in our lives that we can not hold anybody guilty for their sin.

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That's a major thing. And so often reconciliation of course takes steps.

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David loves Absalom. He thinks about him often. He's on his mind he's on his heart he's actually interfering with his rule and reign.

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But the sin of murder that his son committed is tied his royal hands regarding reconciliation. So Absalom lives alone for two full years meaning that there we are looking at a total of five years by the end of our text that David and his son

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Absalom have not even seen each other. Five years of separation here in this text.

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Three years in Gesher by the way in case you're wondering how I get that math. Verses 25 to 27 give us all of the best stuff.

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Now it's kind of like we're really moving over to a story about Absalom with David fading into the background here in the text.

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So by way of introduction we're starting to get in verses 25 to 27 the introduction to Absalom.

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We've seen him move and do a few things but we're now starting to really see him as a character moving and breathing and doing stuff.

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And I would suggest to you that 25 through 27 are attempting to give us the best stuff about Absalom.

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This is an introduction of the best. And what's interesting is that in the best stuff mentioned about Absalom we see nothing about a relationship with God.

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In introducing him there's only a couple of things that stand out that are like well here's a summary of Absalom in a nutshell.

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He's really, really, really, really, really, really good looking according to verse 25.

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Yeah, a little blue steel. He lets his hair grow out like Fabio.

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By the way when we were making that slide I made sure that we kept kind of shoulders up. We didn't want to cause anybody to stubble with those abs or anything.

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So we're like yeah keep Fabio from the neck up please. Don't want to intimidate any of us.

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It says he only cuts his hair once a year and it weighs 200 shekels. What's 200 shekels? It's almost exactly 5 pounds.

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That's a lot of hair. I don't know how much hair it usually weighs. How much hair do you have to have to weigh 5 pounds? Seems like a lot.

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And for some reason that's a good thing. I don't know. Some of you are like how do you wash that?

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I don't know if he did. What do you do? It may be strange if this is what's recorded for us in an introduction to Absalom.

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How many of you think it's kind of strange? Like okay, super good looking, long hair. Whoa, okay. Wouldn't have made it in a lot of Baptist churches

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I can tell you that. But anyways. When the narrator is looking for good things to say about this man everything is external.

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And it would be sad to me if you were introducing me in a recording of my life after I'm gone and you said something like but he had really nice hair.

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What would bother me about that is number one it would be a lie. Number two is that that's what you deemed worthy of mentioning about me.

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Anybody of you with me on that? You don't want that to rate up there high in the list of things that are said of you.

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But spoiler alert. Spoiler alert. If you don't know how the story ends and you don't want to know until it comes plug your ears now.

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Absalom's hair is going to prove to be a main character in his closing scene. This is kind of an introduction to a main character.

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Yes. Gotcha. Got you all. My kids are groaning.

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Eww. Dad, come on. No. It's there. It's in writing. Absalom gets tired of being unwelcomed into the king's presence five years without seeing daddy.

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I'm not sure that it was out of love as much as out of not loving the position. Are you hearing me? You're going to see some things in Absalom's life coming up that demonstrate that he didn't have a lot of love for dad.

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He had a lot of love for power. And he has this access, this supposed to be access to the highest in the land and he's relegated to the outside.

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Can you imagine that? Being a crown prince that never gets into the royal court. That's what's going on in his heart.

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And so he tries to get Joab to go to the king for him. And in verses 29 through 31, we kind of laughed as I was reading it.

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We see the ruthlessness of Absalom in what amounts to a strange account. You set my field on fire, you get my attention.

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That works for Joab. So Joab went to David on behalf of the crown prince.

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And in an anticlimactic verse 33, King David summoned his son Absalom.

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Absalom comes into his presence after five years apart, bowed before his king daddy, and he is ready for either restoration or death.

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The text tells us that Absalom was like, I'm done with this. Either he's going to have to kill me or he's going to have to restore me.

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I'm going to force his hand. And David restores his son to full rights in the kingdom through a royal kiss of acceptance.

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We see in this text the results of sin. It's been a dramatic scene of reluctant reconciliation.

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Again, what sin has wrought here is not ideal. It is not beautiful. It is jagged at the edges.

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It's like a shattered vase glued back together. Absalom and David are not the same person they used to be.

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The vase is not what it once was. Our attempts to resolve the effects of sin are very limited.

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Have you ever tried to manage sin? Try to put the pieces back together again? It's tough. And we are meant to take in this train wreck as a serious warning to us, church.

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We are meant to gaze at it. We are meant to look at it. For all of these verses, it is there for our attention.

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Is this what you want your future to look like? Do you want to be immobilized by your own compromises?

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It's good to be warned about the drastic effects of sin. But hear me, church. Warning us has very limited value.

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Has very limited value. I can tell you, don't sin. And you can even agree to that here.

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You can even say, yeah, man, I recognize that Don Sin is leading us down a road we don't want to go down.

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It's a bad road. And so you leave here with like doubled resolve to avoid sin and to push it aside wherever you see it and to fight and to war against it.

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And that resolve, that strong resolve in your life lasts about 20 minutes. Maybe not even until you get home.

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20 minutes if you're lucky. What we need, church, is salvation.

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Ongoing dependence upon our Lord and Savior. The best we are shooting for is staying close to God.

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Confessing to God when we sin, sure, being radically honest with Him, certainly putting up barriers to our sin and fighting it, yes.

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And these warnings in the life of David serve as reminders of the terrible effects of sin. We are to fight it and war with it in our own lives, for sure.

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But our only hope for effective battle against sin is by coming to the cross of Christ in faith for forgiveness.

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And for those who have asked Jesus Christ, we know that the battle belongs to the Lord. We lean on Him and the power of His Spirit to grant us the grace to forsake ungodliness, to forsake worldly passions, and to live upright and godly lives in this present age.

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I'm going to say a word. The next word in my notes here is a word that's going to make you want to check out. Please hang with me for just a minute or two more.

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Communion. When I say communion, I see people kind of go, ooh, glaze over, shut everything.

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Here we go. Communion has a backwards look and communion has a forward look.

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So if you belong to Jesus Christ by faith, if He is your Savior because you have asked

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Him to rescue you from the effects of sin, because of His death on the cross in your place, and if you have asked

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Him to be your King so that He will call the shots in your life, and if in your heart you want to honor

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Him with your life, then I invite you to come to the tables this morning during this next song.

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Let's stay connected for a second here, church. Let's look backwards in this.

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Look backwards for a moment. Consider what our sin cost Him. Why do we take a cup of juice?

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We take a cup of juice to remember His blood because it was literally spilled on the ground at Calvary, ran down the cross on our behalf.

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We take a cracker. Let's be honest. It's because it's breakable. We must chew it and break it down just like His body was crushed for us.

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In this symbol, we look back and remember that the way we are reconciled to God is through a further crushing.

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The way the vase is put back together is by another being broken in our place, and yet the future look, the future look meant in every communion,

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He was restored better in resurrection, and He promises that same putting back together of restoration through resurrection for any who believe in Him by faith, and that is our future, church.

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Anticipate with joy the restoration of the broken things that sin has produced in your life. He gives us tastes of that reconciliation and that restoration.

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Here and now, occasionally we catch just a glimpse of the light coming through, just like it's coming through a filter, but occasionally we see it.

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When my wife says to me, I forgive you, and she's saying it for the 16 ,000th time this week,

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I see a little bit of the light coming through of that restoration that is meant to be there and will one day be filled.

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When a child says to his mother, thank you for all the sacrifices, I can see them now that I'm 45.

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We get tastes of restoration, but the only promised restoration given to us, the only promise of restoration, church, is that all will be made well when

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He returns to set up His eternal kingdom. Don't lose sight of that hope, recast.

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We have broken the vase in our disobedience. God will put the vase back together better than it was before.

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Let's pray. Father, I thank you for hope of restoration. Without that, we would be wandering here in darkness.

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Cynicism would capture our hearts. Maybe even nihilism would capture many of us, were it not for the hope of eternity.

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If this life is all that there is, we are in a sorry state, desperately sorry state, a hopeless state.

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We thank you that there is a rock -solid hope of eternity where things will be made right, where our hearts will be put back together, where we will be made right.

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We recognize that all of that is made possible through the death, burial, and resurrection of our

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Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We come to the tables of communion this morning to land there, to land at the place where our hope was forged, to come back to the white, hot center of our lives, to come back to the place where we can be set on fire to go out and minister to the lives of others because we recognize that it's not in our strength, but it's in the forgiveness and the hope and the solid foundation that we've been given that we are not those who are wandering around in shifting sand, but we have been placed on the rock of Jesus Christ, a solid foundation upon which we can minister to the needs of others and reach down to those in the sand and rescue them and pull them back up because we know the truth and we have hope.

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Father, I pray that that will be a reality for us this week, that everyone here would camp on that place of solid foundation.

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And if there's anybody here who is living their lives in that shifting sand of opinions and thoughts and attempts at improving themselves and getting their sin taken care of and trying to look good to others,

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Father, I pray that today might be a day of being lifted up by Christ out of that shifting place of hopelessness and worry and strife and attempts to a place where they would recognize what you have done for them.

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That the only thing that is beneficial in our lives is what has been done for us, not what we can do.

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And then, Father, for those of us that are standing on that rock, I pray that you would give us an obedience from the heart, a genuine fight with sin, a genuine battle against it, and a genuine keeping short accounts, confessing and coming to you, drawing close to you.