Sermon Transcript
Bible Reading
2 Samuel 15:1-15
Good morning Church. Today's reading is taken from 2 Samuel chapter 15 verses 1 to 15.
In the course of time, Absalom provided himself with a chariot and horses and with 50 men to run ahead of him. He would get up early and stand by the side of the road leading to the city gate. Whenever anyone came with a complaint to be placed before the king for a decision, Absalom would call out to him, what town are you from? He would answer, your servant is from one of the tribes of Israel.
Then Absalom would say to him, look, your claims are valid and proper, but there is no representative of the king to hear you. And Absalom would add, if only I were appointed judge in the land, then everyone who has a complaint or case could come to me and I would see that they receive justice. Also whenever anyone approached him to bow down before him, Absalom would reach out his hand, take hold of him and kiss him.
Absalom behaved in this way towards all the Israelites who came to the king asking for justice and so he stole the hearts of the people of Israel.
At the end of four years, Absalom said to the king, let me go to Hebron and fulfill a vow I made to the Lord. While your servant was living at Geshur in Aram, I made this vow. If the Lord takes me back to Jerusalem, I will worship the Lord in Hebron. The king said to him, go in peace. So he went to Hebron.
Then Absalom sent secret messengers throughout the tribes of Israel to say, as soon as you hear the sound of the trumpets, then say, Absalom is king in Hebron. Two hundred men from Jerusalem had accompanied Absalom. They had been invited as guests and went quite innocently, knowing nothing about the matter.
While Absalom was offering sacrifices, he also sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David's counsellor, to come from Giloh, his hometown. And so the conspiracy gained strength and Absalom's following kept on increasing.
A messenger came and told David, the hearts of the people of Israel are with Absalom. Then David said to all of his officials who were with him in Jerusalem, come. We must flee or none of us will escape from Absalom. We must leave immediately or he will move quickly to overtake us and bring ruin on us and put the city to the sword. The king's officials answered him, your servants are ready to do whatever our lord the king chooses.
This is the word of the Lord.
I do have some slides for today. I'll just talk you through them if that's all right. I'll just ask for the next slide.
Thanks, Rebecca, for reading so carefully. The background to what you just heard is that Absalom is the heir apparent, David's eldest surviving son.
Opening Prayer
Let's pray. It's Father's Day. Good to hear Alfie's prayers. Good to think about our own dads. Good to think about you, Lord, our heavenly Father.
Life is complicated and that includes parenting. We have a picture before us today of disruption in not just a household, but the royal household in Israel.
We're going to delve into the mess and Lord, I pray that as we do, we would learn not just more about you and more about ourselves, but more about how it is you would have us handle, carry, bear the responsibilities and challenges that come our way.
That in all that we do, Lord, you might be praised and we ask this in Jesus' name, amen.
He Walks with a Limp
He walks with a limp. He walks with a limp. The damage was done when he was young and headstrong. He fought against everyone, even God.
He walks with a limp. It's a constant reminder that he is not invincible. He is not right all the time, that he is human after all.
Do you know his name? Do you know his name? Jacob. His name was Jacob.
But we know him as Israel, marking him forever as one who struggles with God, for that is what the name Israel means. As if the limp were not reminder enough.
But it's not just Jacob or Israel, for now his descendants will be known as the tribe of Israel, the people who struggle with God. And the record of their struggles is written down for us, it is the Old Testament. So of all the things that the Old Testament is, one of those things is that it's a record of the struggle of God's people Israel with their God.
Why is this kind of recorded? Why is it within the pages of our Bible? Well, we heard last week from Paul in 1 Corinthians that these things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings to us on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. So in one sense, these things are here as a kind of reminder, perhaps as a signpost, you know, stop, give way. Some kind of prod or prompt to us to think about God and our interaction with him in this life.
I mean, we too have our struggles with God. I won't ask you to put your hand up if you haven't had a struggle with God, but we too have our struggles.
And maybe in a group of this size, there's someone here or a couple of people here who are going through a struggle with God right now. Perhaps that's actually you.
And maybe you walk with a limp. Maybe you've had a disappointment or a struggle or a crisis or a tragedy or whatever with God. And you've come through. But there are scars.
For God is gracious and lifts us up when we cry out to him. That's probably why we're all still here.
But the limp remains as a reminder. As it was for Jacob.
We are not invincible. We're not right all the time. We are human after all.
Personally Weakened, Carrying a Powerful Promise
Now we're traveling through David's life story, really. And like when you think about it, it's pretty unfair. I mean, imagine if we were traveling through Kevin's life story. I mean, the details would probably be pretty much the same, but it'd be much less comfortable for me. So I'm just so glad that we're pulling somebody else's life apart.
So here we go. We're working through David's life story.
And we've kind of seen the trajectory of his reign, like 20 years he's on the up. And we hit him when he's got rest from his enemies roundabout and he looks over the edge of his balcony and sees a beautiful woman and that's Bathsheba.
And from that point on down, she goes. And that's where we are now. We're in the second 20 years.
He was taken from the sheepfolds to shepherd God's people, Israel. We saw how his success brought its own dangers last week. And now he's living with the consequences.
I mean, maybe he just got comfortable. Maybe he just got lazy. Maybe he just got slack. God forgave him when the prophet Nathan prompted him to ask. It was over a year.
But the damage is done, as it always is. Uriah Bathsheba's husband, he's dead. He stays dead. The child that was born of their adultery has died.
And David's misuse of his office as king and abuse of Bathsheba cast a shadow over the rest of his reign. We're in that shadow now.
How is David? What did you notice about David from what we heard read? I'm trying to find some words to help you kind of grasp it. I think perhaps immobilized might be one word. Somehow or other, either the weight of what has happened or the worry about the future or I don't know, maybe David is just getting older, but somehow or other, he seems immobilized. He seems disengaged.
So how's Absalom able to do this thing, you know, standing at the gate? Was it four years? Oh, sorry.
You know, the king hasn't delegated anybody to be here to hear your case, but that would have reached David's ears. He did nothing. So he's kind of immobilized.
He's disengaged from his large family and certainly disengaged from his role as king. He's delegated kind of the care of the army into somebody else's hands.
I mean, David goes out for one more battle after Bathsheba. One more. And this is in 20 years. And the battle he does go to, he just gets tired.
And the guys who are kind of caring for him say, look, just go. You know, you're worth 10,000 of us. You know, just go. We'll deal with this. So he's out of that.
Chaos breaks out. He's an absent ruler, absent father, absent general. Chaos breaks out.
And in a way, he never really recovers from his fateful decision to take another man's wife. Everything's gone.
All the while, David carries with him this amazing promise of God that one of his sons would sit on his throne forever. He's personally weakened, but carrying a powerful promise. Personally weakened, but carrying a powerful promise.
And I don't think David knows what to do. I think he's so far out of his depth. And so he kind of goes back into his shell. And his sons run riot. The household begins to fall apart.
I mean, if you've been reading through with me, you will have seen incest. You will have seen murder, Absalom murders, the incest with his sister. He murders the brother who raped his sister.
And then he's kind of exiled, and Geshur, you heard that mentioned. He worms his way back into Jerusalem, but he's not allowed to see the king's face. And then he worms his way back into the king's presence, and then he starts to take on the role of the king.
I think, you know, Absalom can see David's disengaged. He is the heir apparent and he kind of just steps in. And so in one sense you could say good job Absalom.
But remember the relationship of David with Saul? David's got him in the cave and he's got a knife in his hand. It could all end here. But David knows. He says, no, no, this is the Lord's anointed.
So we can't just kind of run with, you know, common sense or, you know, good judgment or, you know, kind of take the chances that are offered to us. Because hang on, God's got some input here.
As one commentator said, David's sons divide up his sins between them and repeat them under his own roof. And it's like the whole thing really caves in.
You know, everything David thought he was getting away with, everything he did in secret, somehow or other now it's going to broadcast, you know, on public display for everybody to see. Incest, murder, rebellion.
And in our reading, I think I've got... we're looking for somebody beautiful and handsome in the slide deck. In our reading we have handsome, popular, powerful Absalom.
There he is. Yeah, I had to get the light just right to pose for that one.
He proclaims himself king and chases his father out of Jerusalem for the good of the nation. That's where we find David today, being hounded out of the palace by his own son.
You Always Reap More Than You Sow
But you know, we're following this guy's story, so my question is, where is David the giant slayer? What's happened to him? Where's he gone?
He walks with a limp. He walks with a limp. He's broken. Deeply broken.
And I want to ask you, do you? Do you walk with a limp?
Friends, this is not just some kind of Old Testament idea when we can, you know, look back on the way it used to be and you know, learn a couple of lessons and live a better life. This is a spiritual principle.
I mean, Paul picks it up in Galatians chapter 6, and it will appear on the screen, but let me read it for you.
Do not be deceived. God cannot be mocked.
Okay, so notice this. Do not be deceived. Don't just listen to the, you know, the happy sounds the world makes about this. Oh, everybody's doing it. It'll be all right. It doesn't matter.
Don't be deceived. Why? God cannot be mocked.
Each one reaps what they sow. The one who sows to please the sinful nature or the flesh, from that nature will reap destruction. The one who sows to please the Spirit, however, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.
It's a principle of reaping and sowing, and when you sow, you always, when you reap, you always get more than what you sow.
And I think that's where we are in David's life. He's done some stuff, and it's just piling down on top of him now. The principle of reaping and sowing.
Yes, David the murderer is spared. Yes, God forgives him when he asks, but the mess, the consequences, the limp. I'm always saying it. Let me say it again. It's much easier to learn from the mistakes of others than to make your own.
Please, please see God's laws, that they're not there to kind of rob you of your fun. They're there for your protection. It's kind of like a guardrail.
I had a friend once who was, you know, driving about 40 minutes up a freeway to get to work, fell asleep at the wheel one morning, woke up to hear the dreadful sound of the side of his vehicle sliding up the guardrail, okay, but lived. Guardrails are there for our protection, and we ignore them at our peril.
Perhaps He Has Learned Humility
Here's a reflection on what's going on for David. He wrote a psalm about this moment in his life, Psalm 3. It's actually headed, a psalm of David when he fled from his son Absalom, Psalm 3.
So I want you to think, think about what you've heard read, and now here is a reflection from the heart of David.
Psalm 3
O Lord, how many are my foes! How many rise up against me! Many are saying of me, God will not deliver him.
But you are a shield around me, O Lord. You bestow glory on me and lift up my head. To the Lord I cry aloud, and he answers me from his holy hill.
I lie down and sleep. I wake again, because the Lord sustains me. I will not fear the tens of thousands drawn up against me on every side.
Arise, O Lord! Deliver me, O my God! Strike all my enemies on the jaw. Break the teeth of the wicked.
From the Lord comes deliverance. May your blessing be on your people.
What did you hear? What did you hear? Did you hear a great catalogue of what David is going to do about the problem and how he's going to fix it? No.
No, David has almost no part in an active part in this psalm. It's God! And I wonder what that tells us about David. You know, in one sense I think he's done. He's finished. He's no more tricks up his sleeve, no more arrows in his quiver, no more to contribute.
It's game over for David. He's leaving the palace for good.
David was a man after God's own heart. No one else in Scripture is described in this way.
And maybe what we see in his life, his walk with God today, is humility. Perhaps he's learned humility. He is being humiliated and if we keep on reading, we'll see that as he makes his way up the Kidron Valley towards the garden of Gethsemane, as he's left the city and is on his way out of town, one of Saul's relatives, Saul the previous king's relatives, is standing on a, on a, it's like they're in a trough or a valley and there's hills on either side.
He's standing on one of those hills cursing King David and throwing dirt and rocks at him. How to make friends and influence people. Don't do that.
I'll read it for you.
David then said to Abishai and all his officials, my son who is of my own flesh and blood is trying to take my life. How much more this Benjaminite? Leave him alone. Let him curse for the Lord has told him to. It may be that the Lord will see my distress and repay me with good for the cursing I am receiving today.
And so David and his men continued along the road while Shimei was going along the hillside opposite, cursing and throwing stones at him and showering him with dirt.
The king and all the people with him arrived at their destination exhausted and there he refreshed himself.
Seems to me that David knows that he's completely in the Lord's hands. He won't even send someone to put down that rabble rouser who is pelting him with rocks and throwing dirt in the air and calling him names. In your wrestle with God, in your wrestle with God, your struggle against your circumstances, your battle with your appetites, your drives and desires, have you learned humility? Because it's only when you know how empty you are that you realize how much you need to be filled.
No one would put their hand up for the kind of experience that David is having today. No one would want that. No one would want to have the kind of trial and crisis and oh my God moment that kind of brings you to your knees.
No one would think that's a good idea but God might think it's a good idea. Because your development, your proximity to him, your love for him is much more important than your comfort.
And he'll sacrifice your comfort that you might know him more and be strengthened in him and ready for the next challenge. You see he can see over the hill.
I believe David knew this truth. I think that's what we see in his behavior today.
How else can a shepherd boy defeat a giant? Right?
So from the beginning David has known this truth but maybe he became you know successful or he forgot this. Perhaps he just got slack, distracted, a bit full of himself, a bit busy running his kingdom.
And so we end up with David you know looking over the parapet seeing a beautiful woman and saying she's mine. Okay this is not right. What's happened to you David?
God cared for David and remained true to his promise. He did not abandon David. He continued to work with him through the turmoil of the consequences of his rebellion.
Okay so God's not gone anywhere. And even though David has to go through some of the most painful experiences of his life, God doesn't let go of him.
There was a cost of course to David but the cost to God the Father was much much greater. It was going to cost him the death of his son to forgive sinners, to wipe out wickedness.
It was going to cost him the life of our Lord Jesus so that justice could be done, the penalty paid and the guilty set free.
Oh yeah David goes through you know the moment Psalm 51 and he's on his face and he's praying to God but God pays the price for that forgiveness. He pays with his son.
I'm loving the music here at Deep Creek. Thank you band for today.
In my reflections on this I thought of another song. I'm forgiven because you were forsaken. You know that one? I'm accepted, you were condemned. I'm alive and well your spirit is within me because you died and rose again.
Okay there's the price. David's copping it but God is paying for it.
Amazing love how can it be that you my King would die for me. Amazing love, I know it's true, it's my joy to honour you. In all I do, I honour you.
Empty to Be Filled
I want to talk about the Holy Spirit for a minute. I think we think that there's the Christian life and the Holy Spirit is like the icing on the cake. Okay? That's not the way Scripture talks about the Holy Spirit.
It's not like you're doing really well and you need help with this bit. It's like you can forget that, here's a new one. And I'm so glad to see you here today because this is how I think the Christian life works.
God breaks us down. Not very comfortable. Not very easy. God breaks us down so he can build us up.
And sometimes I think it can be our strengths, our attributes, our positive qualities, our good things that are the very blockage to what God wants to do in our lives.
David's destroyed. He's got his tail between his legs and he's making his way up a hill out of Jerusalem while some so-and-so pelts him with rocks. Being emptied is not comfortable but once you're empty you can be filled again. I think this is the work of the Spirit. I think it's by God's grace, if this has happened to you, thank him, that we are brought low, brought to the end of ourselves, emptied out, so he can fill us again.
You know about the day of Pentecost and all that happened but let me just read you the sermon that Peter gives.
In the last days God says, I will pour out my spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions. Your old men will dream dreams.
Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my spirit in those days and they will prophesy and I'll show wonders in the heaven above and signs in the earth below. Blood and fire and billows of smoke.
The sun will be turned to darkness, the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord and everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
There it is.
When the people heard this they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other Apostles, brethren, what shall we do?
Peter replied, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, all whom the Lord our God will call.
Friends, God longs to fill you but he has to empty you first. We want to hang on to our ideas about ourselves, about our abilities and our achievements and our identity but in the end it all has to go.
It all has to go. It all has to be put off in Paul's language or burned up. Great choice of song.
Friends, the Holy Spirit is there already prepared to fill you. Do you want that? Do you want that?
It's counterintuitive but it may be, as I said, our very strengths stand in the way of what the Lord wants to do in our lives.
There's an invitation today, an imperative. Give it all to him. Abandon your efforts at self-salvation, your kind of do-it-yourself spirituality where you can manage but I need God's help with this. That has to go. We just have to stop that and invite him in. David was brought very low but God fulfilled a promise through him that is a blessing to us today.
So here's the invitation. Open yourself to the Spirit of God and invite him to burn, burn, burn everything in you that is not of him or that doesn't reflect him perfectly and as he fills you with his unquenchable fire you'll shine bright for him. Take heart because of his faithfulness to David even in hardship, even in trial, even in difficulty, even in sin, even in failure, even in brokenness and see there a pattern of the Messiah. Come near to us for our redemption and deliverance. What a wonderful God we serve.
