2 Samuel Chapter 19:1-18

Sooner or later, there's going to be a point in your life, maybe something tragic happens. Maybe like David and David probably felt like, you know what? I just need to go away for a little bit. I just need to be on the sidelines. I just need to take a break. And Jill, I mean, part is coming back to him and saying, you know what, David? You had a little break. It's time to get back in into life. And that was a tough thing to say. But you know what? We need people in our lives to say that it's time to get up. We've grieved. You've cried, you've hurt. But you know what? Let's get back to it.

Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David Magee, the senior pastor of the bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina. Today in the studio, we have one of David's associate pastors, D.A. Brown. Welcome, brother.

Hey, Bob. It's great to be here. We want to take a minute to pray for some cities in our listening audience. Hope everyone prays with me. Holbrook Pace and Pinetop Winslow, Yuma, Arizona. Bentonville, Fayetteville, Arkansas. God, we pray that many in these cities would tune in and listen today. Got it. We pray that summer under the weather. Sick not feeling will that you would heal them, God, for your glory. Well, we also pray that some would give their lives to you. Receive your grace and mercy to Jesus Christ. We pray that these cities would get excited about following you and the churches would fill up. And you give the pastors wisdom and discernment and how to expound upon your word for your glory in Jesus name. Hey, man.

Hey, man. Brother, I think it's awesome that we're lifting up to the Lord. Those listeners that hear us right at this moment. And as we're going into the teaching and 2nd Samuel, Chapter 19 D.A., what are some of the lessons we should look for and take away, Bob?

Everyone should have people in their lives that encourage them, in God's word. Pastor Dave is going to show us that today.

D.A., you said something just on the radio listening here, or does that mean like real life to Bob?

That's importance of being in fellowship and being in a good church, because there's other believers there who've been following God for a long time and they could point you in the direction to follow Jesus.

Well, that's good. Good advice, brother. And let's listen as David Magee continues teaching through Second Samuel, Chapter 19.

We find ourselves in the midst of this story of second time in the midst of the story of Absalom.

Absalom was the son of David, who at one time was probably going to be heir to the king. But a lot of things happened.

And regrettably, Absalom was probably not that heir anymore.

And even if he was the heir, Absolom wasn't patient enough to allow God's timing. And so Absolom created a rebellion. He led part of the Kingdom of Israel against David. There was a big battle. Absolom was killed. And we find David in the midst of this heartbroken and I understand the chapter and verse divisions came much later in the writing of the Bible and some places there in the just the right place and some places and not so sure.

This is one of those. I'm not so sure. So we're gonna go back to chapter 18, verse 33 and pick it up there. David's in mourning for Absolom. Since then, the king was deeply moved and went up to the chamber over the gate and wept.

And as he went, he said, US oh, my son Absolom, my son, my son Absolom. If only I had died in your place. Oh, Absolom, my son. My son. Chapter 19. Verse one. And Joab was told, Behold, the king is weeping and mourning for Absolom. So the victory that day was turned into mourning for all the people. For the people heard it said that day the king is grieved for his son and the people still back into the city that day is people who are ashamed steal away when they flee in battle. But the king covered his face and the king cried out with a loud voice. All my son, Absalom, Absalom, my son, my son.

If you think about it, David isn't. He isn't really a difficult position here because Absolom has read a letter rebellion against David. Some of the nation of Israel joined that rebellion with Absolom, some maintained loyalty to David. And then there was this big battle. And so David is in the midst of mourning his son. But in the middle of that, there's some confusion because the people who bravely faltered, they were almost ashamed that they had won. And David found himself really in a place that, quite frankly, leaders find themselves sometimes in that really it didn't matter what he did, somebody was going to find fault with what he did. You see, David is mourning a son. Some people are finding fault with it. But what if David had been rejoicing completely over the victory of the battle?

Then people would have said, my gosh, this God, his son was killed and he is rejoicing. What kind of king are we serving?

Either way, that David, which some people were not gonna be happy. But we're gonna see that God has Joab to give him wisdom here in verse five. Then, John. Went to the house to the king and said, today, you have disgraced all your servants who today have saved your life, the lives of your sons and daughters, the lives of your wives and the lives of your concubines, and that you love your enemies and hate your friends, for you have declared the day that you regard neither princes nor servants for day. Today I perceived that of Absolom had lived in all of us had died the day. Then it would have pleased you.

Well, Joe, I was saying, David, people are gonna get the wrong impression that you don't appreciate what they did and stand in with you in this rebellion and then go into battle for you. You're going to see that there's going to be a change in David. Why does that change? Because David really did appreciate those who were standing with him and and those who were serving alongside of him.

And I guess, you know, it kind of gives me the perfect opportunity to say, you know what, I so appreciate the people who serve here, the people who attend here, the people who give and some people who give sacrificially. And the prayer support that I receive here were seven Joe and tells him what to do. This is now therefore arrives. Go out and speak comfort to your servants for us. Swear by the Lord. If you do not go out, not one will stay with you this night.

And that will be worse for you than all the evil that has befallen you from your youth until now. Then the King arose and sat in the gate and they told all the people saying, There is the king sitting in the gate.

So all the people came before the tent. For everyone of Israel have fled to his tent. This is a great pitcher.

David was an incredible man. We've seen that in the study of the Bible and looking at his life. Just incredible, incredible man of God. Yay! He messed up, messed up royally, you know, with the adultery, with murder and the conspiracy in that whole thing. And yet, here's this man with all this wisdom anointed by God, a giant killer. Yeah. Look in this chapter, because here's what's going on. David needed Joab to come to him and said, David, man, you got to get up. You got to get out here. You got to go to the gate. And you've got to start saying, you know, talking to people. A lot of times we think, well, you know, I'll just get this Christianity thing by myself. It's just me and God. And there is a certain aspect of that. That is truth. I mean, when it all comes down, it is you and God. But you know what? We all need one another. We all need each other. And we like to think of ourselves as independent. We think of ourselves as an independent nation. And yet we rely on goods and things that are outside this country. We'd like to think of ourselves as independent people. But really, the reality is, if you were all a sudden you were out in the middle of nowhere with no one around, we would find out actually how dependent we really are because you would know no tools. You'd have to get food. You'd have to kill something and cook it, you know, which would you know, a good portion of us would be disqualified right then because we just couldn't kill anything. And we would find out that we're really not that independent. Well, you know what? As Christians, we're not really that independent. The Bible gives us the picture of the body, the body, the human body. That's a very intentional picture that's given to us. Why? Because you understand your body is not made up of independent pieces. As a matter of fact, if your body if parts of it start to act independent of each other and only looking out for its own good. Well, there's one disease that has a name for that. That's called cancer. And imagine in parts of your body were in rebellion to the rest of your body. I've talked about this analogy before. What if one day your hand decided it wanted to take over and it was tired of the brain telling it what to do? Because every time two or three times a day, you sit down to a table and you point deadly instruments at your face in the means of a fork or a knife. And so your hand, you sit down to eat and your hand goes. This is it this time. Here's my opportunity. When you go and you think you're putting a mouthful of food into your into your mouth with your fork, but your hand has other ideas and your hand goes, this is the time I'm going to take the brain out am and put the fork right in the middle of your forehead. That isn't that's a body acting independent of itself. It doesn't function well. Neither do we function as lone rangers in the body of Christ. Doesn't work. You can try to pull it off, but you'll land in a world of hurt. Here's what the Bible has to say about council proverbs. Eleven fourteen says Where there is no council, the people fall. But in a multitude of councilors there is safety. Another place in Proverbs fifteen, twenty two, it says, without council plans go awry. But in the multitude of councilors, they are established. See, this is what's important, that we go to other brothers and sisters. And it really should be people. Who are mature in the Lord and ask him, say, you know what, I'm dealing with this, what do you think all to do? And I don't mean an isolated incidents. I mean, that ought to be part of our lives. The life lesson here, everyone should have people in their lives that counsel them, that counsel them. They notice counsel has a little marks on both sides. That's I'm not necessarily talking about going to a counsel law or having a counseling appointment several times a week or something. We do biblical counseling. I believe in biblical counseling. I believe biblical counseling should be short term because a lot of counseling that goes on in the world. You're paying seventy five hundred hundred fifty dollars an hour. And it seems like the thing that they want to do is perpetuate your state. So they're continuing to draw income off of you. You got to be real careful with that. We should all have people that we interact with who offer us counsel. If we don't ever listen to anybody else, that's not going to help. But if we listen to other people and say, hey, you know, what do you think to do about this? And what do you think ought to do about that? And so we develop those relationships and sooner or later, there's going to be a point in your life, maybe something tragic happens, maybe like David and David probably felt like, you know, I just need to go away for a little bit. I just need to be on the sidelines. I just need to take a break. And Joe, I mean, part is coming back to him and saying, you know what, David? You had a little break. It's time to get back in into life here. And that was a tough thing to say. But you know what? We need people in our lives to say that, hey, man, you know what time it's time to get up. You've grieved. You've cried. You've hurt. But you know what? Let's get back to it. And it's important, especially ministered to develop those relationships. You understand you can often tell somebody by somebody who's eyes in their face if something's going on that you may say, how are you doing? They go, oh, great. You know. And you know that they're lying. Take a moment, because maybe they're discouraged, maybe they're depressed. Maybe they really need an encouraging word.

And you can you can offer that word.

You're listening to Pastor David McGee on Cross the Bridge. He'll be back with more in just a moment. But first, if you haven't been to our Web site at Cross the bridge dot com yet, what are you waiting for? Go to cross the bridge dot com. To learn more about how listeners like you are helping get the life changing truth of God's word to more people through the radio, internet and mobile technologies at cross the bridge dot com. You can also check out our broadcast schedule. Listen to more teaching from Pastor David. And sign up for Pastor David's free daily devotional. And there's more there, too. So visit. Cross the bridge dot com today. Now, here's Pastor David as he continues sharing verse by verse, verse nine.

Now, all the people were in a dispute throughout the tribes of Israel saying the king saved us from the hand of our enemies. He delivered us from the hand of the listenings and gnarliest fled from the land because of absolute. But Absolom, whom we anointed over us, has done battle. Now, therefore, why do you say nothing about bringing back the king?

See, the battle was over, but it wasn't over. David and Absolom had this battle. Absolom was killed. So really, the civil war to a certain degree is part of it's over. But there there's still division here in this country and the nation of Israel at this point. And here's the thing. Division. It always hurts people. It just always hurts people. And here's Absolom. Absolom made some really bad decisions. But notice, because of his rebellion, other people are paying the price. Now, let's do a quick review. Where did it start? Did it start with Absolom declaring war on David? No. Started in small ways. It started in Absolom sitting out at the gate and going, Hey, you know, David, he's too busy to talk to you, but I'd be happy to talk to you. And then it progressed to, oh, you know what? If I was king, I would probably do it like this. And then it led to the rebellion. But really, by the time the battle started. Yeah. There were some people that just for the first time got involved in the rebellion. But let's understand that rebellion was in the heart of Absolom for years before that event. And he wasn't afraid of hurting people. You know, and I've seen it here. I've seen people caused division and they were afraid of hurting people. Let's look at a couple versus speak about division, because it is important. The Bible does talk about Romans. Chapter sixteen, verse 17 says, Now, I urge you, brother, note those who calls divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine, what you learned and avoid them. Avoid the people who caused division. It's important to the body of Christ. Why? Because again, when the body starts to get divided, your body starts to hurt itself. Titus Chapter three, Verse Ten and Eleven says if anyone is causing divisions among you, give a first and second warning. After that, have nothing more to do with that person. For people like that have turned away from the truth. They are sending and they condemn themselves. And notice in those verses you might want to mark those down and remember. Notice in those verses that Paul is placing a responsibility on the here of divisive things, he's not just saying the people who are speaking divisive things are bad. He say now, if you're listen them to him, you've got to stop. You can't do that now, just so you know. You know, because I don't want people sitting there thinking, well, yesterday was really going through some stuff.

There's some people being divisive in the church and that's raised.

No, actually, this is one of those seasons of CALM's that occurs once every twenty seven years or something, but.

No. But it is a season to come. You know, I know that right around the corner, at some point somebody is going to say something divisive. They're gonna do this. You're going to do. It's just part of the you know, when God's moving in a place the enemy wants to move against, that people's flesh gets involved and that happens. And so but the problem is a divisive person hurts other people and it and it can hurt your faith sitting and talking with a divisive person. And here's what Jesus said. Matthew twelve, twenty five years isn't. But Jesus knew their faults and said to them, every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand. That's why the Bible talks about the vision and the body of Christ being an important thing. That's why the Bible says, you know what? Once once somebody begins to be divisive, warn them once and after the second time, be done with them, be done with them. Now, we've been in the position of somebody is walking around saying this and we've had to call him and say, you know what? You can't say that if you've got a problem with this person, you go to that person, you've got a problem. You come to me, but you can't go around going. I can't get, get, get, get, get, because people get hurt.

And we see here that there's you know, we're dealing with the aftermath of the rebellion of Absolom, which really is going to lead to some major divisions for years and years in the nation of Israel.

Virtual heaven, the king David set the Tzadok and Abia author the precinct speak to the elders of Judah saying, Why are you the last to bring the king back to his house? Since the words of all Israel have come to the king to its very house. You are my brother and you are my bone and my flesh. Why, then, are you the last to bring back the king?

So David is he's really waiting for an invitation. This is interesting thing about David. He's waiting for an invitation to come back and be the king over all the tribes. Was that a necessary thing? Not really. David could have said, hey, you know what? I took out the Sirpa. I took the pretender. The guy was trying to take the throne. I took him out. And now it's the throne, his man once again. But David is looking for unity in the nation.

And look at verse 13 and say to him, Massa, are you not my bone and my flesh? God do so to me and more. Also, if you're not commander of the army before me continually place of Joe.

And this is interesting because a massa had led the forces under Absolom against David. And after the fact, David says, you know, I'm going to put you in charge of the Army and relieve Joab of his command, which kind of makes you wonder if when David was sitting out in the gate, if somebody didn't say to him, hey, are you aware of how Absolom DOD? I don't know that. But if you remove that knowledge, you have to wonder what looks like David is rewarding somebody that was a rebellious and punishing somebody that was loyal.

So there has to be some kind of mitigating circumstance or a different circumstance that calls David to do that, I believe verse 14. So he, David, swayed the hearts of all the men of Judah just as a heart of one man so that they said this word to the king, return you and all your servants.

Now, the civil war is coming to an end. The two factions, the two groups fighting against each other because they recognize the kingship of David and notice again.

David, wait for the invitation to be their king.

David had the right to be king, but he waited for the invite. Me draw a parallel for you. God created us. God is within his rights to demand that we worship him and we declare him king. King of all the king of Glory. But does he do that? No, he doesn't. No, he doesn't. He waits for us to make the invitation to him to become our king. It's really an amazing thing if you think about it.

God, with all that power, all that force waits for us to invite him to be our king. There's some of the attributes of God. You look at me go, you know what? He's just different than me. This is one of those in it. I mean, because I know that if I had that kind of power, then I would probably turn circumstances and situations to make people treat me as their king. Let's keep in. My God is within his rights to do that. But he doesn't do that. He waits for you to invite.

To be your king. Which kind of begs the question, is he your king? Is he your king? We use that king word. You're an American. You grew up here in America. You've got no idea what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about is he your president, somebody that you can vote in and out every four years. I'm talking about. Is he your king? Somebody that is forever on the throne. Somebody that doesn't have to listen to your critique. But somebody that you're totally submitted to. If every time gonna ask you to do something, he creates a situation, go, God, why are you doing this? What are you doing this where? I need to know all the details. He's not really your king. She can understand as a servant to a king. That's not a right that a servant has to go to the king of. OK, King, I need I'll do this. I need to know why you're asking me to do that. That's not the relationship of a servant to a king.

Here's what Tom chapter one hundred, verse three says no, that the Lord. He is God. It is he who has made us and not we ourselves. We are his people in the shape of his pasture. He created us. He made the heavens and the earth. And still he waits patiently for us to invite him to be our king. He is even willing to forgive us of our sins as we come to and say, Jesus, I believe in you. Please forgive me of my sins. Justice is done for believing. And still some of us stopped short of making him our key life lesson. God should be our Savior, our King, and our Lord. God should be our savior, our king and our Lord. It usually goes in that order. He becomes your savior and your you know, when you first ask him, we forgive you of your sins. Somewhere in the back of your mind, you're thinking, this is great. I'm getting my sins forgiven. I can take it from here. I'm going to direct my own life. And, you know, and thanks God for the forgiveness. I'll see when I die. And that sort of thing. But, you know, God has much more in plan for the relationship than that. So then he becomes our king in the sense that we know he is a greater being. He has power, he has love, he has mercy. And then we're led into the ship. And Lordship, is that complete submission? It's interesting.

Couple times in couple of places in New Testament, the disciples say to him, no, lord, what's your two words that should never go together? Because if he's your lord, you don't tell him no. And if you're telling him no, then he's not your Lord. There's an old saying either he's Lord of all or he's not Lord at all.

So a lot of us say, well, Lord, you can be you can be Lord of my life while I'm sitting in church.

I'll be totally dedicated to you. But after that, it's all me. And then again and again, God wants to be Lord of every part of your life.

A lot of us think, OK, wearing I don't give God financial aid. We'll give him 10 percent and enough to be paid my dues. I'm done. No, no, no, no, no. God wants us to be stewards, good stewards of a hundred percent of all that we have. Why? Because he's the one that has blessed us in that way. And so these are lordship issues. These are kingship issues.

Because if you understand he's your lord and your king, you're going to have a heart to express gratitude through serving other people, through worshiping God, through attending a fellowship, through I mentioned tithing, through tithing. Yes, through these things. And you re not doing those things. Then you have to ask yourself, well, is he really my king or am I still somewhere between Savior and King? He's waiting for that invite for it. Verse fifteen.

Then the king returned and came to the Jordan and Judah came to Googol to go to meet the King to escort the king across the Jordan and Shemya, the son of Garah Benjamin, who was with my hurried and came down with the men of Judah to meet King David. There were a thousand men of Benjamin with him and Zeba, the servant of the House of Saul and his fifteen sons and twenty servants with him, and they went over the Jordan before the king. Then a ferryboat went across to carry over the King's household and to do what he thought good. Literally in the Hebrew. That ferryboat is crossing play. So really in the original language just now we're not sure of it's actually a ferry boat or just the place on the Jordan that the cross. It's the same in ten. But let's look at some look, the first two people that pop up Zieba and Chimere.

Now, if you've been with us for a few weeks, when David was leaving Jerusalem, Shemya was the one that came out and threw rocks at him and started cursing him. And Zeva was the one who came out. He was the servant of my ship, of my a chef. And he came out, said, hey, you know what, my Furbish if he's willing to take over the throne as well as. Absolutely. We're going to find out that that was a lot.

But it's interesting that the first two people that pop up are a little treacherous, didn't really support David as he was being temporary, displaced from us through friends.

You know for sure that your sins have been forgiven. You can know right now only Legian a short, simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking him to help you to live for him.

Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus. I believe you, dad, for me. That I could be forgiven. And I believe you were raised from the dead. That could have a new life. Now, I've done wrong things. I have sinned. And I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things. Please give me the power to live for you. All of my days in Jesus name.

A man friend of you prayed that prayer. According to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again. So congratulations, friend. You just made the greatest decision that you will ever make.

God bless you if you pray that prayer with David for the first time. We'd love to hear from you. You can visit cross the bridge dot com to receive our first steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ. Or you can write to cross the bridge at P.O. Box 12 515. Winston-Salem, North Carolina two seven one one seven. And share how God is working in your life. Well, D.A., before we go.

What are some ways that we can bless our listeners if you're not able to make it to your home church this Sunday? Why not join us for our livestream at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time or on Thursday nights at seven p.m. Eastern Time? Does visit cross the bridge dot com and click on our livestream link? There you experience a live service from Davis Home Church, the bridge in North Carolina. Again, that Web site is Cross the Bridge dot com.

That sounds good. Pastor Day. And again, it's been great to have you with us on the program today. But tell us, what else can our listeners find on Cross the Bridge dot com?

Each day you can wake up with encouragement from Pastor David to the word of God with his email devotional life lessons to consider a daily reading plan and a thought to meditate on throughout your day from the heart of David Magee.

Those are terrific. And it's easy and it's free. So folks sign up today at Cross the Bridge dot com. And thank you for listening. We hope you'll join us again next time as we continue studying verse pipers through second Sam.