-Transcript-
00:40 Amen. Welcome to the cafe. Hopefully you’re doing well.
00:46 Hopefully you’re having a wonderful day, a wonderful week. I’m so excited to dive into God’s Word here. We’re in a three part series on godly deliverance and this is okay if you haven’t heard the other two parts because each part is dealing with a unique deliverance from God of King David that’s written about in the Scriptures.
01:04 Of course we know King David as the writer of Psalms. We know King David as a mighty king. We know King David as being part of the lineage of Jesus Christ.
01:10 We know King David as one that was a man after God’s own heart. We also know that he was not perfect and we see that through godly deliverance really I mean the way I put it was at least three life-threatening situations where David’s life was threatened severely. First with Goliath, then King Saul, and thirdly with Absalom his son, his own son.
01:37 We see that David is delivered by God. We see God’s hand in all three of these. In Goliath you see that it was God that had that smooth stone ready prepared for David.
01:51 It was God that put that smooth stone right where it needed to be in the sling and right there into Goliath’s head. It was God that had prepared David in advance with the lion and the bear and gave David the faith to defeat him.
02:04 It was God that saved David from King Saul and showed King Saul David’s intention not to hurt him by allowing David to cut off his robe but not kill him and then present it to him saying look I could have killed you and I didn’t does this not clearly show I’m not a threat to you because you’re God’s anointed.
02:18 And so we see that in in part one with David and Goliath, part two with David and King Saul, and now here we are in part three where David, King David, is on the run from his own son Absalom, his own son. Now who ends up becoming king after David? Solomon. That’s right if he said Solomon you’re right it’d be King Solomon.
02:46 That’s who the Lord had anointed king. King Solomon was the one that was the wisest man to ever live, wrote books like the Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, and of course Proverbs. And Solomon was going to be king but Absalom thought he should be king and so he rebelled as King David got up in age and said I’m gonna overthrow the kingdom and went against God’s ways.
03:11 And using his intellect, using his kind of his maybe how he felt, Absalom felt, he felt like his dad was vulnerable that he could overthrow the king. His dad was vulnerable.
03:23 And David then it goes on the run from Absalom and that’s where we pick it up here in 2 Samuel 18, 2 Samuel 18, and David numbered the people that were with him and set captains of thousands and captains of hundreds over them.
03:41 And David sent forth a third part of the people under the hand of Joab and a third part under the hand of Abashi and the son of Zariah, Joab’s brother, and a third part under the hand of Iddi the Giddite.
03:54 And the king said unto the people I will surely go forth with you myself also. But the people answered thou shall not go forth for if we flee away they will not care for us neither if half of us die will they care for us but now thou art worth ten thousand of us therefore now it is better that thou secure us out of the city.
04:13 And the king said unto him what seemeth you best I will do. And the king stood by the gate side and all the people came out by the hundreds and by the thousands.
04:23 And the king commanded Joab and Abashi and Iddi saying, and remember these are the three people that were over the hundreds and thousands, saying deal gently for my sake with the young man even with Absalom.
04:35 And all the people heard when the king gave all the captains charge concerning Absalom. Verse 5 of 2nd Samuel 18 is incredibly important.
04:45 King David’s own son wanted to kill him to become king and King David loved his son and did not want his son to be killed and knew the stakes were high the battle was hot and it could happen so he’s saying don’t do it.
05:00 So, the people went out into the field against Israel and the battle was in the wood of Ephraim where the people of Israel were slain before the servants of David and there was there a great slaughter that day of 20,000 men for the battle was there scattered over the face of all the country and the wood devoured more people that day than the sword devoured.
05:16 And Absalom met the servants of David and Absalom rode upon a mule and the mule went under the thick bows of a great oak and his head caught hold of the oak and he was taken up between the heaven and the earth and the mule that was under him went away. That’s verse 9 here of 2nd Samuel 18.
05:34 And so we see here the consequence of Absalom’s rebellion against his father and Absalom’s a rebellion against God frankly because God hadn’t anointed him to become king.
05:45 The consequence was that 20,000 people died in one day and so we see oftentimes that our rebellion against God actually can lead to consequences beyond what we can imagine and it can hurt others. There are ripple effects of sin that are very great.
06:03 I grew up in a broken home and my brother and I would often look at each other as five ten-year-olds and we’d wonder if we were cursed or something because we were dealing with a lot of really serious problems at a very young age
06:17 and now being older I know that we weren’t cursed with anything other than a sin curse and that same sin curse was evident in mom and dad and so forth and grandma and grandpa and whatever it was and we were victims in a way of sin.
06:30 We were in the wake of what sin had created and that is true all the time living in this world and yet David was not trying to sin but was trying to simply escape the hand of Absalom and regain the power that God had given to him. And so here we are here Absalom is stuck on an oak tree.
06:56 His mule is running away. Some people say his hair got stuck but it just said his head is stuck under the thick bows of a great oak okay and so he’s stuck there.
07:06 He’s vulnerable obviously very vulnerable and a certain man saw it and told Joab and that’s Joab being kind of the general there in charge of that group and said behold I saw Absalom hanged in an oak and Joab said unto the man that told him and behold thou saw’st him why didst thou not smite him there to the ground
07:24 I would have given thee ten shekels of silver and a girdle and the man said unto Joab though I should receive a thousand shekels of silver in mine hand yet I would not put forth my hand against the king’s son for in our hearing the king charged thee and Abshi and Iddi saying beware that none touch the young man Absalom.
07:44 Remember verse 5 I believe it was the king commanded all three of them deal gently for my sake with the young man even with Absalom and so the soldiers simply telling the general look I did what the king told me to do and let’s see what Joab does
08:00 otherwise I should have wrought falsehood against my own life for there is no matter hid from the king and thou thyself would have set thyself against me.
08:08 Verse 14 then said Joab I may not tarry thus with thee and he took three darts in his hand and thrust them through the heart of Absalom while he was yet alive in the midst of the oak and ten young men that bear Joab’s armor could passed about and smote Absalom and slew him
08:25 and Joab blew the trumpet and the people returned for pursuing after Israel for Joab held the people back held back the people that’s verse 16 there of 2nd Samuel 18
08:35 so we see here that David’s enemy also his son was killed by one of the generals and David was distraught he was very upset about it he didn’t want this to happen Amen the king said unto him
08:51 this verse 30 turn aside and stand here and he turned aside and stood still and behold cushy came and cushy said tidings my lord the king for the Lord hath avenged thee this day of all them that rose up against thee the king said unto cushy is the young man Absalom safe
09:06 so David knows he’s okay but he just wants to know is his son safe and cushy answered the enemies of my lord the king and all that rise against thee to do thee hurt be as that young man is and the king was much moved and went up to the chamber over the gate and wept and as he went thus he said oh my son Absalom my son my son Absalom would God I had died for thee Oh Absalom my son my son
09:29 whoo that’s tough as a dad I think of my son my youngest son CJ especially boy he’s got a stubborn bone about him I don’t know if he got it from me or his mom or his grandma or somebody but that kid can be stubborn and I could see him going against me and something and into the point where he was mad and you know I just no matter what I wouldn’t want harm to come his way no matter what even if he desired harm on me I wouldn’t want harm to come his way and that’s how David felt there and it’s a sad story but also it’s a story of deliverance
10:01 because we don’t read that Absalom killed his father and becomes king we don’t read that in fact we read in the Bible that David’s throne stands forever amen deliverance sometimes comes from your very own earthly family and this is a hard truth Amen
10:17 sometimes there are people in our family that are not living as God intends for them to live and that desire to do those that are living godly harm which could be you and sometimes God will deliver us from our own family
10:32 and you know there were many people that were against David in this battle it wasn’t just Absalom he had gathered a group Amen and those many people the crowd reminds me of that verse in the Bible that speaks of even though many are joined hand-in-hand wanting to rebel they won’t go without punishment
10:53 and so even though there are many today that will say oh well we’re all a group and popular culture says it’s okay to sin against God it’s okay to do things that are perverse and
11:04 and aberration awful in God’s sight it’s okay to live against God’s ways and will because we’re a group and think about this this this logic doesn’t make sense because if you read the Bible you learn about who God is he’s a fearful God is a mighty God is a creator God he’s made everything what is it to him if one person rebels or a million people rebel is it too hard for him to take over a million people was it too hard for him then no is it too hard for him now no
11:32 and so even though there was a crowd with Absalom godly deliverance still occurred it still occurred God’s man prevailed don’t trust the wisdom of the crowd when seeking God for deliverance seek the Lord I’ve heard it said by many preachers oftentimes the majority or the crowd is wrong not always but oftentimes they are wrong
11:52 if there’s a wicked movie and everybody’s going to see it and you can’t decide whether you want to see it or not but you say to yourself well everyone else is going to see it that doesn’t make it right Amen
12:01 how many subscribers does Netflix have that play that’s a wicked program to cancel that subscription today and you’ll be blessed for it I promise you get something else Amen get rid of that stuff oh but we’ve got millions of subscribers that doesn’t make it good Amen that doesn’t make it godly and I know I’m just bringing up a simple example but you know where where you are today and where you need deliverance from and the crowd may tell you it’s okay to be drunk it’s okay to have sex before marriage it’s okay to commit adultery it’s okay to steal it’s okay to lie it’s okay to worship a false God it’s okay to covet
12:36 it is not none of these things are okay with God they weren’t okay with God then they’re not okay with him now and God will deliver you from these struggles if you turn to him and have faith in him God’s deliverance often includes lessons on his ways
12:48 you know we see that Absalom’s head was stuck in the tree he was not captured by man he was captured by God God allowed his nature to take this rebellious individual and capture him and hold him there to be killed that was God’s hand God used that tree to capture him
13:06 and so we see oftentimes that the lessons that we learn from God are great and they’re all around us in nature as we are delivered from those problems in our life maybe it’s not an individual maybe it’s some other kind of problem
13:21 it’s important to seek the Lord expect deliverance from him even if that means coming home to heaven to be with him God may deliver his saints by taking them out and allowing them to come to heaven amen that to me is a reward Amen that’s a homecoming Amen
13:35 but if God is gonna give you deliverance here he’s gonna do it by you having faith like David you trusting him and not the crowds you believing that he will deliver you and then you giving him praise after he delivers you you showing forth praise how did David do that what he wrote the Psalms Amen
13:53 he praised God every day until the Lord took him home I believe it we need to do the same thing when we’re delivered from our struggles we need to turn to God
14:03 and thank him whatever you’re facing today turn to God in prayer and trust him to deliver you and I believe he will Amen
14:07 and you give Him all the glory when He does
14:10 I thank you so much for listening take care God bless and Amen