Study chapter 12.
We see God pronouncing the consequences to David
for his sin.
Though God forgave his sin, still there were
consequences that David must face because of the
sin.
The Bible tells us that whatsoever a man
sows, that shall he also reap.
And beginning with chapter 13, we see now
David beginning to reap the consequences of his
sins.
And it's going to follow now David the
rest of his life.
And in our scriptures tonight, beginning with chapter
13, and on now through the rest of
David's life, we're going to follow the consequences
of his sin.
This morning we'd like to draw your attention
especially to chapter 15 and verses 25
and 26 of chapter 15.
David has been betrayed by his own son
Absalom.
Absalom, through clever guys, had gradually stolen the
hearts of the people and the loyalty of
the people from his father David to himself.
He would stand daily in the gate of
the city of Jerusalem where people would come
because that is where court was held.
And he would greet them as they would
come into the gate from the various tribes.
And he'd say, hi there, where are you
from?
What tribe?
And what's your situation?
And as they would explain the problems, he'd
say, oh, you know, it's a shame that
my father hasn't made arrangements to have people
to listen to cases like yours.
You really have a strong case.
You know, it'd be wonderful if my father
would let me judge because I can see
where you really should receive some justice in
this issue.
And the people would go to bow down
and he'd grab their hand and kiss it.
He's a clever politician.
He might just, you know, ingratiating, winning the
hearts of the people away from his father
David.
And when he felt secure that he had
sufficient support, he said to his father David,
grant me to go down to Hebron.
I have some vows I want to pay
down there.
David said, sure, son, go.
And when he got to Hebron, he called
throughout the tribes of Israel for the people
to come unto him there.
And there he formed an army.
And they began to march towards Jerusalem to
drive David from the throne.
Actually, to kill David.
And Absalom was going to take over as
the ruler of the nation.
David, when he heard that Absalom had gathered
the people and was leading a rebellion against
him, rather than staying in the city and
making the city of Jerusalem a place of
great bloodshed, David decided that he would just
leave the city unto Absalom and the army
that was marching upon it.
And David would flee to the wilderness.
And so as David was fleeing from the
city, and those that were loyal to David
were coming with him, he saw Zadok the
priest with his sons, and they were carrying
the Ark of the Covenant.
And it was here where David speaks in
verse 25, and the king said unto Zadok,
carry back the Ark of God into the
city.
And if I shall find favor in the
eyes of the Lord, he will bring me
again and show me both it and his
habitation.
But if he thus say, I have no
delight in David, behold, here I am.
Let him do to me as seemeth good
unto him.
David at this point had come to a
complete commitment of himself to the will and
to the purposes of the Lord.
If God desires, he can bring me back,
and I'll see the Ark of the Covenant
again and the tabernacle of God there in
Jerusalem.
But if God has no delight in me,
then let him do whatever he wants.
Here I am.
Let God do what he pleases.
The person who has real peace and contentment
is the person who has totally committed the
issues of his life to the will of
God.
As long as I am struggling and striving
with my circumstances, as long as I am
insisting that God follow after my dictates and
directions, I will be subject to strife, to
worry, to fear, to discontentment.
There are those false teachers who tell you
that you can write your own ticket with
God, that you can have whatever you say
if you just say it in faith.
You can create your own reality.
And they talk about positive confessions.
Just say what you want, and God is
forced then to give to you whatever you
claim that you desire.
They would put you on the throne.
They would make God your servant.
Sort of a private genie who is subject
to your wishes.
But you know, this does create a lot
of problems.
For God is not subservient to us.
God does not have to obey my commands
or my wishes.
He is Lord.
He is sovereign.
And he can do as he pleases.
Have you ever thought of how foolish it
is for me to try to instruct God
how to run his world?
The Bible says, who has been his counselor
at any time?
Well, I have.
I've counseled God on so many issues.
But in reality, think of how foolish that
is for me to tell God what's best
for me, how best to run my life.
That really doesn't make sense.
How much better to take the attitude of
David.
The Lord can bring me back to this
place.
And if he isn't pleased, then here I
am.
God can do with me whatever he wants.
In my prayers, I've learned to just express
my desires to the Lord.
But then just realize that he is free
to do as he pleases.
Think about David for a moment.
This surely was one of the darkest hours
of his life.
He was an older man now.
He had grandchildren by now.
And not the warrior that he once was.
At the time of life where he should
have been able now to just sit back
and enjoy the children, the grandchildren, and all
of the blessings that he had attained and
achieved as the king.
He's fleeing from the city.
He's barefoot as he goes down through the
Brook Kidron and up the Mount of Olives
and off to the Judean wilderness to escape
from his son Absalom, who is in total
rebellion.
At this point, David's future is very uncertain.
People have turned against him.
In fact, some of his closest friends and
advisors have turned on him.
He wrote about them in Psalm 55.
He said, For it was not an enemy
that reproached me.
I could have taken that.
Neither was it one that hated me, that
magnified himself against me.
I would have hid myself from him.
But it was you, a man my equal.
You were my guide.
We were good friends.
We had wonderful conversations together as we would
walk together to the house of God.
David was heartbroken to realize that those that
he thought were his closest friends and associates
had joined with his son Absalom in rebelling
against him.
Not only is David losing his throne, but
his own life is in danger at this
point.
But we do not see David challenging God.
We do not hear him saying, Why did
God allow this to happen to me?
We do not hear him demanding that God
deliver him from the hand of Absalom.
We don't see him wringing his hands and
saying, Alas, poor me.
He doesn't even seem to be alarmed or
fearful.
How can he possibly have such peace in
these conditions, in the midst of this great
calamity?
The secret is his full commitment of himself
and of his situation to the will of
God.
If I find favor in the sight of
the Lord, he'll bring me back.
I'll be okay.
And if he isn't pleased with me, then
here I am.
Let him do whatever he wants.
It was a total commitment to God.
If I come back, wonderful.
If God has something else, fine.
He turned it over fully and completely to
God.
He could do that.
Because he knew God.
He knew that God was merciful.
He knew that God was gracious.
God had forgiven his horrible sin.
And now he is willing to just commit
himself unto the Lord.
Nothing can happen but what God has allowed
it to happen.
And if God has allowed it to happen,
then he has a good purpose for it
happening.
So, he'll just commit his ways to the
Lord and let God do what he seems
best or deems best.
Often in life, like David, we find ourselves
in distressing situations.
Anxious moments in which we often are filled
with fear, anxiety.
Kay and I had a frivolous lawsuit filed
against us a few years ago.
There were no just grounds for the suit.
We were just named with a lot of
other John Doe's and the person was just
seeking to harass us by putting our name
on the suit.
They were successful.
We were harassed.
And I would wake up at night and
I would think about the injustice of this
suit.
I would think of all of the arguments
that I could show and the proofs that
I could give, showing that we were totally
innocent of the things that were being alleged
in the suit.
Of course, we had to get an attorney
and we had to answer the interrogations.
But knowing the fickleness of the court systems,
we knew that you can never be certain
of the outcome.
Justice is not always served.
And after about five months of fretting over
this suit, one day I just got tired
of fretting over it.
And I just turned it over to the
Lord.
I said, Lord, you know, I'm yours.
My life belongs to you.
Everything I have, Lord, is yours.
And so, Lord, I'm not going to worry
about this anymore.
I'm just going to let you take care
of it.
You do the worrying for me.
Just sort of like David, if the Lord
pleases, you know, I'll win the case.
If the Lord isn't pleased, then, you know,
whatever the court determines, that'll be it.
And it's all in God's hands.
And when I turned it over to the
Lord, I was able to sleep through the
nights.
Didn't worry about it again.
Didn't wake up, you know, thinking about the
thing.
It just passed.
I just let it pass.
No more worrying about it.
The suit was ultimately dropped and it was
over.
But it was over for me before.
I had already won the case.
Because I had committed it fully to the
Lord and was ready to accept whatever the
Lord saw fit in and through it.
Realizing my life is in His hands.
In Psalm 37 that we read this morning,
it said, fret not thyself because of evildoers.
But oh, so often we are prone to
indeed fret over the evildoers.
David surely could have fretted over what Absalom
had done.
Several years ago, our youngest child, our younger
daughter, who was one of those late comers.
Her older brother was seven years older than
she and the others were older than them,
than him.
So, she was one of those, you know,
that come along late, where you have so
much experience now, that you can really enjoy
them.
Every parent owes their first child an apology.
We knew so little about raising kids.
And we had such high expectations and demands
upon them.
But, you know, you get more casual and
you're not so worried.
And you just can enjoy, as you get
older, those little ones that come along.
And this one was a total blessing to
us.
She was sparkly.
She was alive.
She just brought constant joy into the home.
But she took very ill.
And those bright little eyes became dull.
And that active little person became just sort
of listless.
She was running a very high fever.
And I sat up all night with her,
rocking her in a chair all night long,
holding her, sort of wrestling with the Lord,
as I was praying that God would touch
her and heal her.
And towards morning, as I was holding her,
I said, Lord, I thank you for this
gift, for all of the joy and blessing
that she has been to us.
One of the greatest blessings, Lord, of life.
But if you want her, and if you
take her, then Lord, I will still love
you and serve you.
She is yours.
She's yours to do as you please, Lord,
as you see and know best.
I commit her, Lord, fully to you.
And my mind no longer was in turmoil.
I was now at rest.
I could accept whatever the Lord deemed at
that point.
She went into a convulsion.
I thought I was losing her.
We called the doctor.
He told us to meet him at his
office.
So Kay and I got in the car
and we began to drive over to the
doctor's office.
And suddenly, our little daughter just sat up,
bright eyes.
Where are we going?
And just fever gone.
And this beautiful little active girl that we
had enjoyed so much.
When we got to the doctor's office, she
was just perky and back to her normal
self.
And the doctor examined her and said, there's
nothing wrong with her.
She's fine.
How long, Kay, since you've had a tetanus
shot?
As long as you're here, you might as
well get a tetanus shot, you know.
So Kay got the treatment.
But again, the peace came in the commitment.
The turmoil left.
The restlessness left.
When I came to that place of complete
commitment.
And you will find that these things that
are troubling you.
These vexing situations.
These things that you're fretting over.
Like David, you need to come to that
place of just saying, Lord, I put it
in your hands.
You do what you deem best.
As David said, if the Lord pleases, He
can bring me back.
If He is not desiring to do that
for me, then here I am in the
Lord's hands.
He can do with me whatever He wishes.
And you know, I think that it takes
much greater faith to just commit the situation
totally to the Lord than it does to
demand that God heal or that God work
in these things according to our will.
Because that can leave you in a continued
state of anxiety.
As we're wrestling with the Lord over the
issues.
In that total commitment, there's contentment.
There is peace.
There is rest.
But how do you come to that place
of commitment?
First of all, you need to recognize that
there's really nothing that you can do anyhow.
Except the Lord watch the city, the watchman
wakes in vain.
Unless the Lord builds the house, they who
build it labor in vain.
The least beneficial thing you can do is
worry.
Which of you, Jesus said, through worrying can
add 18 inches to his height?
Say you're a little shorty.
You want to play basketball, but those big
guys tower over you.
And so you sit there and worry about
being so short.
Oh, I hate being so short, you know.
Well, Jesus said, which of you by worrying
about it can add 18 inches to your
height?
Not going to do it.
Learn to accept.
Learn to commit it.
Just turn the issue over to the Lord.
The Bible tells us that all things are
working together for good to those who love
God and are called according to His purpose.
As we read in the Psalm this morning,
commit your way unto the Lord and just
trust in Him.
And He will bring it to pass.
Bring what to pass?
His perfect will.
But it's important that you know that His
perfect will for your life is so much
better than anything you could ever dream or
devise for yourself.
You can't get any better than God's perfect
will.
Well, I need to realize that God loves
me.
That God loves me supremely.
That God so loves me that He gave
His only begotten Son to take my sin,
to die in my place, so that I
could experience that love, so that I could
come into fellowship with God, so we could
have this beautiful relationship with each other.
And God loved me so much.
He wanted to make possible that kind of
intimate relationship with Him.
And so to do that, He sent His
only begotten Son.
And Jesus said, greater love has no man
than this, than a man will lay down
his life for his friends and He laid
down His life for me.
I need to know how much God loves
me.
And because God loves me so supremely, His
desires and His will for me is the
very best.
God wants the very best for me, because
He loves me.
He wants to do the best for me.
And so whatever God does, whatever God allows,
He does it and allows it because of
His love for me.
Now, there are times as God in His
love is working in my life, He allows
hardships, He allows difficult situations, painful situations to
arise.
In these, He is seeking to just draw
me closer to Himself, so that I can
experience more of His love and His grace
towards me, to cause me to appreciate Him
that much more.
And I have discovered that
the goodness of
God in the things that He has allowed
in my life, though maybe I didn't understand
them at the beginning, but as I see
God work and I see God's grace at
work in my life, my heart just sings
for joy unto the Lord, for His goodness,
for His mercy, for His grace.
Paul tells us, if God spared not His
own Son, but delivered Him up for us
all, how much more then shall He not
freely give us all things.
And so we learn in the dark night,
when we can't see our way out, to
just commit our way to the Lord.
It was a dark night for David, driven
from his palace, from his throne, by his
son, deserted by his friends.
Zadok the priest coming with the Ark of
the Covenant.
David said, take it back, carry it back.
If I will find favor in the eyes
of the Lord, He'll bring me back.
But if God says I don't have any
delight in Him, well here I am.
Let God do with me what He desires.
David knew God, and thus he could commit
the situation to God.
He had experienced God's grace and God's love,
and he was willing now to just commit
himself to that love.
God did bring David back.
The rebellion was put down.
David returned to the throne.
But David won the victory long before Absalom
was defeated in war.
He won the victory when he committed the
whole situation to the Lord.
And that's where you can win the victory
today.
It may take a while to work out
the details, but when you come to the
place where you just place it in God's
hands, there is where you have the victory.
There is where you now experience peace, contentment,
and rest.
Because it's in God's hands.
It can be in no better place than
God's hands.
Let's pray.
Father, we do thank You for Your love,
and for the loving purposes that You are
working out in our lives.
And Lord, there are those things that are
necessary to develop our character.
Those things that are necessary to teach us
of Your constant care and concern.
Those things that are necessary that draw us
closer to You.
That sort of force us, Lord, to rely
upon You.
And so, Lord, rather than fretting, rather than
worrying, rather than being filled with anxieties, help
us, Lord, to just commit our ways unto
You.
Lord, if we find favor in Your sight,
You can bring us back again.
Whatever.
Here we are.
You do, Lord, what seems good to You.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
Shall we stand?
The pastors are down here at the front
today, and it could be that, like David,
you're going through one of those hard experiences
in life.
One of those dark nights.
Things are not going well.
The future is sort of clouded and uncertain.
You are fearful.
You don't know what the outcome is going
to be.
But you can have peace today.
You can have assurance.
You can rest if you'll just commit it
to the Lord.
And these pastors are down here at the
front today to pray with you and to
pray for you.
To pray for that situation.
But more to just pray that you today
can find the victory of commitment.
And that you will go forth from this
place today comforted, happy, content, peaceful, resting
in the fact that you've placed it in
God's hands.
The God who loves you.
The God who is able to do exceeding
abundantly above all that we ask or think.
The God who has promised to take care.
And as you commit your ways to Him,
He will bring to pass His perfect plan
and will in your life.
And maybe He's allowed these things just to
bring you to that place of commitment today.
So I would encourage you as soon as
we're dismissed, make your way forward.
And these men will be happy to pray
with you.
And the peace of Christ which passes human
understanding will fill your heart, your mind.
As you've placed it in God's hands and
now are trusting in Him to bring to
pass His perfect plan.
The Lord bless thee and keep thee.
The Lord make His face to shine upon
thee and be gracious unto thee and be
gracious unto thee.
The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee
and give thee peace.