(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

We have heard the joyful sound, Jesus saves, Jesus saves, spread the tidings all around, Jesus saves, Jesus saves, bear the news to every land, climb the steeps and cross the waves, onward is our Lord's command, Jesus saves, Jesus saves, wafted on the rolling tide, Jesus saves, Jesus saves, tell to sinners far and wide, Jesus saves, Jesus saves, sing ye islands of the sea, echo back ye ocean caves, earth shall keep her jubilee, Jesus saves, Jesus saves, sing above the battle strife, Jesus saves, Jesus saves, by his death and endless life, Jesus saves, Jesus saves, sing it softly through the gloom, when the heart for mercy craves, sing in triumph for the tomb, Jesus saves, Jesus saves, give the winds a mighty voice, Jesus saves, Jesus saves, let the nations now rejoice, Jesus saves, Jesus saves, shout salvation full and free, highest hills and deepest caves, this our song of victory, Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Let's open up in a word of prayer, Heavenly Father, thank you for this day and thank you for the opportunity to be in church, I pray for all of our church family, both those here and that couldn't make it as well, I pray that everyone would have good health and that you just bless our service, in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Alright for our second song, we'll flip over to 248, Now I Belong to Jesus, 248, Now I Belong to Jesus, song 248, Now I Belong to Jesus. Jesus my Lord will love me forever, from him no power of evil can sever, he gave his life to ransom my soul, now I belong to him. Now I belong to Jesus, Jesus belongs to me, not for the years of time alone, but for eternity. Since I was lost in sin's degradation, Jesus came down to bring me salvation, lifted me up from sorrow and shame, now I belong to him. Now I belong to Jesus, Jesus belongs to me, not for the years of time alone, but for eternity. Joy floods my soul for Jesus had saved me, freed me from sin that long had enslaved me, his precious blood he gave to redeem, now I belong to him. Now I belong to Jesus, Jesus belongs to me, not for the years of time alone, but for eternity. Good evening, thank you so much for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you need a bulletin, lift up your hand nice and high, one of our ushers can come by and get you a bulletin. On the front we have our Bible memory passage, John 1 verse 37, and hopefully we'll be giving a lot of ice cream away tonight. On the inside we have our service time, our soul winning times, and our regional soul winning time. Make sure to turn in your maps for the soul winning. Also, I'm going to get a quick count, is there any soul winning that was not reported to their soul winning captain from Monday, Tuesday, or today that needs to get reported? All right, keep up the good work on soul winning. As always, you can still report that to your soul winning captain, that is preferred, but if we missed you, we'll try to gather that at church as well. Also, we have the church stats down below, keep up the good work. To remind you of a couple things, this upcoming Sunday, not this Sunday, but this upcoming month Sunday, so the end of the month, that Sunday, if you participate in our Sunday soul winning time, when you get back we're going to have Sunday treats, so it's going to be Sundays and Sundays, so the last Sunday will be the time to celebrate. Now there's nothing wrong with going soul winning with us this Sunday either, okay? It's just you get rewarded at the end of the month, all right? Also we have the last Saturday of every month is kind of like a bigger soul winning push, and Brother West and Lugo kind of combined their regional soul winning times. Do we have a spot picked out for this Saturday yet? Is it going to be kind of in Arlington probably, or somewhere around there maybe? It's probably going to be around the Arlington area, but we'll get the location kind of determined pretty soon, and we'll get that to you. On the right we have the list of our expecting ladies, as well as our prayer list. I'm going to quickly go over our prayer list. We have the Negara family, continue to pray for their health, Miss Lucy's mother's tumors, Brother Cameron Hall's leg, Miss Ashley Holder's husband's visa, which I thought ... I saw it on Facebook. It seemed like we had some good news on that one, so we need to follow up with her, but I think there was some good news on that one, so praise the Lord for that. Also Miss Ophelia Restrepo, continue to pray for her health. The Scott family, we're praying for both Grace and Horace. Also Matt Pendleton is a friend of ours from Faithful Word Baptist Church, pray for his brain cancer. Continue to pray for the Zermano's friend Cody for his salvation, for Brother Alderman's step-brother had passed away, so be in prayer for their family. Also continue to pray for Brother Illy for health. Also Juan Carrasco was asking for prayer for baby Leilani's kidney's health, and we also had one that wasn't in the bulletin, but Brother Wallach had asked for prayer for his friend Kathy Thompson's health, and so I think that's all I had written down for our prayer list. We'll go ahead and say a quick word of prayer as a church family. Thank you Heavenly Father for this opportunity to be gathered this evening, thank you so much for expecting ladies, please continue to be with them, strengthen them, help them with their baby's development, help them to have a smooth pregnancy and delivery. I pray that you would just bless our church family that is struggling with health, that you would strengthen them, give them health, please allow them to have just joy and peace during their time of tribulation. I pray that you would also just bless our friends from abroad, that you would honor the other requests that we have here. We have several needs that you know better than we can even describe, and I just thank you so much for our church, I pray that you would just help us to keep reaching people with the gospel, and we just thank you for all you give us in Jesus' name we pray, amen. On the back we have the list of upcoming events, this Sunday the 7th I'm going to be doing another song leading class, so this is one more extra tagged on, and we'll kind of do some fun stuff, also practice a little bit again, and if you're a musician we love it for you to come and practice with us, and work with us, in fact it really doesn't work well if you're not here, so you got to be here alright, bring all the musicians right, and then also our men's conference, August 18th to the 20th, there is a sign up sheet, I did turn in numbers for that, but if you can make it, there's still probably opportunity, so last minute just let us know, I am planning a couple things to be a little bit different, we're going to have a guest preacher, Pastor Thompson, he's coming out and he's going to be preaching for us, and that's going to be a lot of fun, but there is one new thing, we're going to have a Mighty Men competition, alright, and I'm not going to divulge all the details just yet, but there will be a winner, ok, and it's going to basically be kind of like a decathlon, with a lot of different events, and everyone's going to hopefully participate, now the thing is, it's going to be an elimination type event, so most people won't even get to participate in very many rounds, if any, hardly, because of the way it's structured, but there will be strength, speed, agility, and everything kind of as a competition element, there will be strategy, so I'm looking forward to it, you don't have to be the strongest, you don't have to be the fastest, or the smartest, but you have to have a good combination of all of it, so I'm looking forward to doing it, and there will be prizes as well for those who compete and do well, and so just FYI, I know we don't have much time left for you to get in shape, but, I'm just throwing that out there just to let you know, it's the Mighty Men's Conference, I mean we got to do something, right, and so I'm excited about it, it's not quite like Hunger Games, we'll all come back, okay, so not just the victor, but it will still be fun, alright, if Dylan ran the competition, it would be intense, no I'm just kidding, he had some interesting ideas, but that was just, I just wanted to throw that out there, we have the Sunday for Sunday, Soul Winners August 28th, also we have a Shreveport Soul Winning Marathon, Louisiana September 24th, this is definitely something you really want to plug, you know, invite people to, because, you know, I don't know how the receptivity has changed there, here it's gotten way worse, but it was so receptive there that I'm thinking it's probably still going to be a lot of fun, it was one of the most receptive places I've gone soul winning in the United States specifically, you know, previously, and so I highly anticipate that it's going to be very receptive again, so it's only about 3 hours, depending on exactly where you're coming from, the DFW area, obviously we're in the really far west side, it could be longer if you're really far east, maybe a little bit shorter, but kind of being somewhere in the middle, it's around 3 hours, and it was a lot of fun, and it's big enough that we can still eat some good food over there, and so I highly encourage you to participate, there will be church transportation, so do we have a sign up sheet yet? Yes, there is a sign up sheet, so make sure to sign up for the event, and that way we can anticipate you guys for food and travel arrangements and everything like that. I think that's pretty much all I have for now, I was gone this Sunday in LA, and you know, I have to say, visiting there made me like California a little bit more, because man, it was really nice, the weather was really good, and being around some of the people here in Texas, not you guys, but the other people, it's like, I don't even know that Texas is more conservative, I mean, I don't know, it's crazy over there, it was a lot of fun, we got to hang out with Pastor Mejia and his family quite a bit, and they were a huge blessing to us, and really good friends over there, and we had a great time, so it was a lot of fun, if you're ever in California, you got to go see First Works Baptist Church, and Pastor Mejia, they got a great thing going over there, they have a lot of people coming to their church, a lot of people zealous for soul winning, and the church has really been exploding ever since I've been there, in all kinds of ways, and I went in 2017, and you know, it's kind of a humble church, but now it's definitely grown a lot, a lot of people there, in fact, I asked in one of my sermons, I asked how many people in that church were raised independent from the Baptist, and it was like 130, 140 people on a Sunday morning, two people raised their hand, and then I asked how many people were saved as a child, and I don't know, maybe a dozen hands or so, so only about 10% of that congregation, you know, was reached as a child, it's a lot of new people that have been reached through all kinds of evangelistic means, and through online ministry, soul winning, all kinds of different things, and so it's definitely encouraging to see the Lord building a church and bringing people in, and I think it would even be pretty similar here, that we'd have numbers like that, but I know over there for sure that they're reaching a lot of new people, and so definitely be in prayer for them, encourage them, and that's pretty much all I have to say, but I just wanted to make that mention, so it's good to be back, and I don't plan on traveling any time soon, so you're gonna be stuck with me for a while, alright? Alright, for our next song, we'll go to 250, Burdens Are Lifted at Calvary, 250, Burdens Are Lifted at Calvary, song 250, Burdens Are Lifted at Calvary. Days are filled with sorrow and care, hearts are lonely and drear, burdens are lifted at Calvary, Jesus is very near, burdens are lifted at Calvary, Calvary, Calvary, burdens are lifted at Calvary, Jesus is very near. Your care on Jesus today, leave your worry and fear, burdens are lifted at Calvary, Jesus is very near, burdens are lifted at Calvary, Calvary, Calvary, burdens are lifted at Calvary, Jesus is very near. Troubled soul, the Savior can see, every heartache and tear, burdens are lifted at Calvary, Jesus is very near, burdens are lifted at Calvary, Calvary, Calvary, burdens are lifted at Calvary, Jesus is very near. All right, if you'll please turn your Bibles to 2 Samuel, chapter number 14, as the offering plates are being passed around, 2 Samuel 14, 2 Samuel 14, the Bible reads, Now Joab, the son of Zeruiah, perceived that the king's heart was toward Absalom. And Joab sent to Tekoa, and fetched thence a wise woman, and said unto her, I pray thee, feign thyself to be a mourner, and put on now morning apparel, and anoint not thyself with oil, but be as a woman that had a long time mourned for the dead, and come to the king, and speak on this manner unto him. So Joab put the words in her mouth. And when the woman of Tekoa spake to the king, she fell on her face to the ground, and did obeisance, and said, Help, O king. And the king said unto her, What aileth thee? And she answered, I am indeed a widow woman, and my husband is dead. And thy handmaid had two sons, and they too strove together in the field, and there was none to part them, but the one smote the other, and slew him. And behold, the whole family is risen against thine handmaid, and they said, Deliver him that smote his brother, that we may kill him, for the life of his brother whom he slew, and we will destroy the heir also. And so they shall quench my coal which is left, and shall not leave to my husband neither name nor remainder upon the earth. And the king said unto the woman, Go to thine house, and I will give charge concerning thee. And the woman of Tekoa said unto the king, My lord, O king, the iniquity be on me and on my father's house, and the king in his throne be guiltless. And the king said, Whosoever sayeth ought unto thee, bring him to me, and he shall not touch thee any more. Then said she, I pray thee, Let the king remember the Lord thy God, that thou wouldest not suffer the revengers of blood to destroy any more, lest they destroy my son. And he said, As the Lord liveth, there shall not one hair of thy son fall to the earth. Then the woman said, Let thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak one word unto my lord the king. And he said, Say on. And the woman said, Wherefore then hast thou thought such a thing against the people of God? For the king doth speak this thing as one which is faulty, in that the king doth not fetch home again his banished. For we must needs die, and are as water spilt, split on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again, neither doth God respect any person, yet doth he devise means that his banished be not expelled from him. Now therefore that I am come to speak of this thing unto my lord the king, it is because the people have made me afraid, and thy handmaid said, I will now speak unto the king. It may be that the king will perform the request of his handmaid, for the king will hear to deliver his handmaid out of the hand of the man that would destroy me and my son together out of the inheritance of God. Then thine handmaid said, The word of my lord the king shall now be comfortable, for as an angel of God, so is my lord the king to discern good and bad. Therefore the lord thy God will be with thee. Then the king answered and said unto the woman, Hide not from me, I pray thee, the thing that I shall ask thee. And the woman said, Let my lord the king now speak. And the king said, Is not the hand of Joab with thee in all this? And the woman answered and said, As thy soul liveth, my lord the king, none can turn to the right hand or to the left from aught that my lord the king hath spoken. For thy servant Joab, he bade me, and he put all these words in the mouth of thine handmaid. To fetch about this form of speech hath thy servant Joab done this thing? And my lord is wise, according to the wisdom of an angel of God, to know all things that are in the earth. And the king said unto Joab, Behold now, I have done this thing. Go therefore, bring the young man Absalom again. And Joab fell to the ground on his face, and bowed himself, and thanked the king. And Joab said, Today thy servant knoweth that I have found grace in thy sight, my lord, the king, in that the king hath fulfilled the request of his servant. So Joab arose and went to Geshur, and brought Absalom to Jerusalem. And the king said, Let him turn to his own house, and let him not see my face. So Absalom returned to his own house, and saw not the king's face. But in all Israel there was none to be so much praised as Absalom for his beauty. From the sole of his foot, even to the crown of his head, there was no blemish in him. And when he pulled his head, for it was at every year's end that he pulled it, because the hair was heavy on him, therefore he pulled it, he weighed the hair of his head at two hundred shekels after the king's weight. And unto Absalom there were born three sons, and one daughter, whose name was Tamar. She was a woman of a fair countenance. So Absalom dwelt two full years in Jerusalem, and saw not the king's face. Therefore Absalom sent for Joab to have sent to him the king, but he would not come to him, and when he sent again the second time, he would not come. Therefore he said unto his servants, See, Joab's field is near mine, and he hath barley there, go and set it on fire. And Absalom's servants set the field on fire. Then Joab arose, and came to Absalom unto his house, and said unto him, Wherefore have thy servants set my field on fire? And Absalom answered Joab, Behold, I sent unto thee, saying, Come hither, that I may send thee to the king, to say, Wherefore am I gone from Geshur? It had been good for me to have been there still. Now therefore let me see the king's face, and if there be any iniquity in me, let him kill me. So Joab came to the king, and told him, and when he had called for Absalom, he came to the king, and bowed himself on his face to the ground before the king, and the king kissed Absalom. Lord, thank you so much for this day, and for the opportunity to be in church. I pray now that you would fill our pastor with the Holy Spirit, help him to preach boldly what you've laid on his heart. I pray that we would just minimize distractions in the service, so we could pay close attention. We love you so much, in Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Amen. So we're in 2 Samuel, chapter 14, chapter 13, previously, Absalom, David's son, had killed Amnon. The Bible said in verse 39, the last verse, it says, for he was comforted concerning Amnon seeing he was dead. So David, in the Bible, has a little bit of favoritism towards Absalom over Amnon. Now that could be for a lot of reasons, I don't know exactly, could be simply just from the fact that Amnon had committed this wicked sin, Absalom had not. But for whatever reason, David really has a little bit of favoritism towards Absalom, as evidenced by the fact that one brother kills another, and he likes the one that's the killer, and is comforted at the one that had died, clearly showing that David shows a little bit of favoritism towards Absalom, at least at that point in time. And maybe it's just that he sympathizes with Absalom, since he wouldn't get the job done, he didn't do what was necessary by slaying Amnon, his son. It's not necessarily clear, but I think as you study these chapters, and we go a little bit further into the story, we see a consistent theme where David shows a little bit of favoritism towards Absalom that goes beyond just a normal affection towards your child, or having normal love and attention towards your child, but rather going above and beyond what should be normal or natural. It says here in verse number 1, now Joab, the son of Zeruiah, perceived that the king's heart was toward Absalom. So even by David's actions or the things that he says, just side talk, or maybe he's just even kind of saying it every once in a while, Joab's picking up that David has this favoritism towards Absalom. Perhaps he's just sitting around just being like, I wonder what Absalom's doing, or, man, have you heard about Absalom, or maybe he's asking about him. We don't know exactly what's happening, but for some reason, Joab's able to discern that David has this affection towards Absalom. Now, this affection is, in essence, good and bad, in the sense that obviously you want a father to have affection towards his son and be loving towards his son, but at the same time, Absalom's a murderer, and the Bible talks about how you're not supposed to take satisfaction in the life of a murderer, but rather, murderers are supposed to be put to death, and the Bible often say things like, Thine eyes shall not pity, meaning that you're not supposed to pity the murderer, but rather you're supposed to put the murderer to death. Now, there are certain places in the scripture where a murderer is not put to death, but I believe the only times that was right is when God just literally intervened and said, this person's not to be put to death. So you have certain cases like Cain was a murderer that should have been put to death, but God intervened and allowed Cain to exist. Or you have other places like David himself had committed murder, but when Nathan gave the word, he said, hey, you're not going to be put to death for this sin. God has put away your sin specifically. So there are certain cases where a particular individual has committed murder and God didn't take their life. Maybe even Moses. Moses committed murder, would have been worthy of the death penalty, but God obviously extended grace towards him. There's other places like Saul and Jonathan where they kind of cast lots and the lot lays on Jonathan. If you remember the story, it's kind of from 1 Samuel. I don't think I've actually preached 1 Samuel, but if you kind of remember the story, Jonathan disobeyed his father and his father had made kind of a crazy statement. He said anybody that eats is going to be put to death. Well, his son ended up eating. But his son kind of did it in ignorance. However, he ends up casting lots and asks God to basically guide the lot and it lands on him, Saul and Jonathan against the children of Israel, and then he casts it between him as Jonathan and then the lot is on Jonathan and Jonathan is to be blamed. And Saul even says, hey, if the sin is in my son Jonathan, he's going to die. But then the people of Israel rescued Jonathan and Jonathan wasn't slain. Well, here's the thing, nowhere do we have in the scripture where it says like God said Jonathan shouldn't be slain. And I perceive that you can kind of see the weaknesses in Saul there and like you don't want to make these just over the top broad statements of like this person is going to die and then not follow through with it, kind of shows weak leadership. And it also shows weak leadership when a father has a son who's guilty of a punishment like this and won't execute punishment. Now this is an extreme example, okay, murder and the death penalty are the most extreme you're going to get to. But as a leader, as a father, you still need to not have favoritism or nepotism towards your own children. It's a very hard task. Most people are not able to do it. I would suggest, in fact, it's safer to just not put yourself in scenarios where nepotism can even occur just simply from the fact that you don't realize that you're going to show favoritism towards your child. And David is leaning towards this favoritism of his child. Now here's the thing, Joab perceives this. Now if I perceive that a leader or a man has nepotism or favoritism towards their child in a bad way, it would not be good for me to then enable them to continue to act on that incorrect judgment, but rather I should try to steer them away from that, not basically enabling them or putting them in a bad scenario. Whereas we see with Joab, he ends up kind of going the opposite route and enabling his father in this proclivity to have a nepotistic viewpoint or attitude towards his son, Absam. Says in verse 2, and Joab sent to the Koah and fetched thence a wise woman and said unto her, I pray thee, feign thyself to be a mourner and put on now morning apparel and anoint not thyself with oil, but be as a woman that had a long time mourn for the dead and come to the king and speak on this manner unto him. So Joab put the words in her mouth. So that's kind of an interesting phrase there, and I'm going to come back and circle later, but notice that it says Joab put the words in her mouth. Joab put the words in her mouth. Verse 4, and when the woman of Tekoa spake to the king, she fell on her face to the ground and did obeisance and said, help, O king, and the king said unto her, what illth thee? And she answered, I am indeed a widow woman, and mine husband is dead, and my handmaid had two sons, and they two strove together in the field, and there was none to part them, but the one smote the other and slew him, and behold, the whole family has risen against thine handmaid, and they said, deliver him that smote his brother, that we may kill him, for the life of his brother whom he slew, and we will destroy the air also. And so they shall quench my coal which is left, and shall not leave to my husband neither name nor remainder upon the earth. So this woman comes to David. She is pretending like she's very sad and been crying for a long time. She says, hey, my husband died. I only have two sons. For whatever reason, they got in an argument, one killed the other, and now everybody wants my son to be put to death, which is technically right. But what will happen is she'll become a widow indeed at that point by having no one to take care of her, and their name, their family name, would go out. This is interesting, just, it's not necessarily part of this sermon, but I just want to take a second to address this. Keep your finger and go to 1 Timothy, chapter number five, 1 Timothy, chapter number five. The Bible says here that she's a widow indeed, and that's what she's saying, indeed a widow woman. And the Bible brings up that phrase in 1 Timothy, chapter number five. And so to understand what this word indeed means, it kind of helps just to kind of relate it to another passage. But the word indeed in the dictionary means really, truly, a fact, reality, or without question. So if someone were to say, I'm a widow indeed, it's saying that truly a widow. So someone that's not a widow wouldn't fit a certain description, and the Bible kind of gives us an idea of what a true widow is. It says in verse number, let's do verse number three, honor widows that are widows indeed, meaning like a real serious widow. It's saying, but if any widow have children or nephews, let them learn first to show piety at home and to requite their parents, for that is good and acceptable for God. So notice in 1 Timothy, chapter five, it kind of brings up a very similar scenario where not only have you lost your husband, but you also have no children. And in this particular context, it says nephews, but really what it's meaning is grandsons. So it's basically just saying if you had, because the word nephew from years past typically just meant grandsons, we usually think of it as like your sister, son, or your brother's son as being a nephew, and that's the accurate definition. But the word nephew could also mean grandson, especially from in the 1600s when the King James Bible is translated, and that's just simply what that means, is it means a grandson. So if you had sons or grandsons, they're supposed to take care of mom, they're supposed to take care of grandma, and yet if you had none, then the Bible brings a provision where if you're over the age of 60, you're basically a faithful Christian your entire life, you literally have no one to take care of you. The church could then at that point take care of you financially, but you'd have to meet that burden in order for the church to provide for you financially. Now you know what's silly to me? When I read that, and then I have able-bodied men come and ask and expect the church to give them money, I'm thinking like the Bible is saying it has to be a widow woman above the age of 60 with no men in her life who's been a faithful Christian their entire life, that's the only person that we're supposed to be giving money to as the church, and then able-bodied men want to walk in off the street and demand money from the church, and I'm thinking like who are you to sit here and then they act like you're not a Christian or something, or they act like you're not gracious or kind, but really you are gracious and kind because if I gave you money, you would just perpetuate your stupid lazy behavior, whereas telling you no, if everyone told you no, then you'd be forced to go out there and work with your own hands would actually be the thing that you need, whereas a poor widow woman that's over the age of 60, we're not trying to like get those hands to work, she's like my back hurts, it's like now your fingers are going to hurt, you know, it's like no, no, no, we don't do that, okay, we're going to help the poor little widow lady, okay, but the young able man, the strapping young man, you know, that's 18 years old that wants to be homeless, he needs to go get a job, he needs to go learn how to work with his hands, okay, so let's go back, that had nothing to do with the story, but it is a Bible study and so I think sometimes it's good to just kind of compare when we have those notes, so again a widow indeed is one that simply has really nothing, so you could kind of see though why you might give sympathy to this lady from David's perspective because if he does take her son, then she could potentially in this scenario literally have no one to take care of her and that would be difficult on her, okay, so that's kind of the scenario, that's kind of the situation that we find ourselves in in this particular story. It says in verse number 8, and the king said to the woman, go to thine house and I will give charge concerning thee and the woman of Tekoa said unto the king, my lord, O king, the iniquity be on me and my father's house and the king and his throne be guiltless and the king said, whosoever sayeth ought unto thee, bring him to me and he shall not touch thee anymore. So the widow woman, he kind of dismisses her it seems like in verse number 8 and she kind of combats that and she's like, no, no, no, don't just send me off, how about this, the iniquity of this, let it be on me, not on you and you got to think about what she's kind of saying, she's kind of saying like, no, no, no, I'm not asking you to pardon a murderer because that could be perceived as wrong on David's end, let it be on me. So from God's perspective, if God's mad at my child for living or for having escaped the death penalty, let me basically take all of the iniquity, let it not be on the king on behalf, that's kind of what she's suggesting and the king simply just says, hey, you know, anybody that wants to come after you for this, they're going to have a problem with me, you know, if they say ought, which ought means literally anything, just any kind of grievance, they don't like it at all, bad look, you know, they're supposed to bring it to him. Verse 11, then said she, I pray thee, let the king remember the Lord thy God, that thou wouldst not suffer the revengers of blood to destroy anymore, lest they destroy my son. And he said, as the Lord liveth, there shall not one hair of thy son fall to the earth. So not only does the king essentially grant her request, she kind of tries to strong arm him into doubling down and confirming what he just said. And she's like, okay, well, then make sure, you know, that you're going to remember that before God and everybody else, you decided that my son, nothing's going to happen to him. And then David just really doubles down and he says very clearly, as the Lord liveth, notice that he's basically swearing on the Lord, there shall not one hair of thy son fall to the earth. Now, the Old Testament has a lot of quotes like this. I believe it's wrong, even in the Old Testament. But for sure in the New Testament, Jesus Christ said, swear not at all, neither by heaven nor by the earth, which is his footstool, you're not supposed to swear. You can't even basically change the color of your hair. You can't change your height by a cubit, is what the Bible is describing. He's saying, like, why would you sit here and make such a proclamation? Because think about what he's really saying. As the Lord liveth, at what point is there any uncertainty as if the Lord is going to live? I mean, he's, I am. Of course he liveth, right? Do you really want to make a proclamation that no one is ever going to injure a particular person as sure as the fact that God lives? That's a silly proclamation to make, okay? But of course, typically people will kind of go above and beyond in a confirmation situation and they may kind of say something hastily that they shouldn't say. This is something you should never say. And that's what Jesus Christ brings up. When he says, let your yay be yay, your nay be nay, in the essence of, are you sure you're saying that? Yes. But not as the Lord liveth, and then X, Y, and Z. Not on my mother's grave, X, Y, and Z. Not I swear to God, X, Y, and Z. I swear on a Bible, X, Y, and Z. You know, that's going above and beyond, yes, and that's actually wrong in the Bible. So the Bible condemns swearing, at least from Jesus Christ's perspective, in the essence of swearing on the Lord, or swearing on the Bible, or swearing on heaven, or basically doing these extra o's. He's saying anything that comes above or beyond that, a yay or a nay, cometh of evil, okay? Meaning that there's something wrong with it, it's not right, you shouldn't be doing it. Now, here's another thing, though. Even though it's technically not right to swear, if you do, you better keep it. It's not like, oh, I shouldn't have said that, so now I don't have to do it. No, if you swear to God anything, then you better keep it. You know, there's not like, oops, I didn't mean it, or oops, take back sees, or something like that. It's like you have to do exactly what you said. So even though, right here, I don't agree with David's wording, he shouldn't have probably said that, he has to honor this, especially, especially since he swore, especially since he went above and beyond and then made such a proclamation. Really the only person that we see that's allowed to swear in the Bible is the Lord himself, because the Lord can't lie. So the Bible often talks about how the Lord swears, and the Bible even said that in the New Testament, the Lord swears on himself, because he could swear on no greater. No, he's basically like, you know, because of course, men swear on the greater, but the Lord has nothing above him, so then the Lord swears on himself, okay? Again, we're not talking about four-letter words here. I know I'm using the word swear a lot, I hope you're still paying attention, okay? The word swear means to make an oath or some kind of a promise. Now, I'm also not saying, though, you have to be careful when you study the context of the scripture. I'm not saying it's wrong to swear in the context of making a promise, okay? I believe that making promises is a justifiable thing, and in fact, we should make promises, okay? The problem with making a promise, though, is you want to make sure that you're not making a promise that you won't keep, and you don't want to go above and beyond and swear above a yea or an aye. So when we do weddings, of course, you're making a promise when you get married till death do us part, you know? And I literally even ask in the numptial vows, I say, do you so promise? And they have to say I do or yes or I'm not going to marry them, okay? So part of even your vows, your marriage vows, you're saying I do, I promise. But you know what you're not doing? As the Lord liveth, I do. You know, beware of the person that says that when you're about to get married to them, okay? And you know, the worst of that, worse than swearing, would be like, hey, let's get a pre-nump agreement. You know, you don't want that either, okay? You want the person that's not going to ask for a pre-nump and not going to swear to the Lord, you want right in the middle that just says I do, okay? And they seem like a trustworthy person, they're an honest person. Just like if someone asked me, you know, hey, can you come over tomorrow or can you go help me with this, there's nothing wrong with saying yes. And technically that's a form of swearing in the sense that you're making a promise, but it would be wrong to be like as the Lord liveth, I'll be there. You know, that would be a foolish statement to make or to suggest, hey, I believe this doctrine assures my salvation. You know, like that, that would be a really bad statement to make, okay? You don't want to make such an over-the-top swear, okay? And I've heard a lot of bad people really struggle with this. You kind of even notice, even good people can make this mistake, but sometimes you really notice the bad people. They just really eat these kind of swears out because what happens is when you're lying or you're not very sincere, your mind's stressed about lying, and so you end up trying to overcompensate and convince somebody that you're not lying. Whereas when you're not lying or you're a very sincere person, you virtually don't even struggle with this. So if you're someone and you just notice like, man, I feel like I'm constantly swearing on the Lord of the Bible or something, here's the question. Are you a very sincere person? And here's a tip. If you're around people that are constantly swearing, that should alert you that that person is not a very sincere person. They're not a very trustworthy person. There's something bad going on there, okay? And even in this situation, it's kind of I think that maybe David has just been judging for a long time. This is my personal opinion. He's just been kind of judging for a long time, so he's gotten a little bit hasty and maybe a little bit prideful in his position and just doling out things, just thinking he's always right or he's always got good judgment or not quite understanding the things that he's saying, so he's just getting a little bit hasty, a little bit prideful probably in his judgment making, whereas this is not necessarily the right thing to say. Now as we keep unraveling in this story, it says in verse 11, I think we skipped, I think we read verse number 11, verse 12, Then the woman said, Let thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak one word unto my lord the king, and he said, Say on. And the woman said, Wherefore, then, hast thou fought such a thing against the people of God? For the king doth speak this thing as one which is faulty, and that the king doth not fetch home again his banish. Now, this woman's tone has changed dramatically. Think about initially she's saying help and she's pleading. Now all of a sudden she's rebuking the king, because think about what she said in verse number 13. She says, Wherefore, then, hast thou fought such a thing against the people of God? So she's saying like you're attacking the people of God. Then she says, For the king doth speak this thing as one which is faulty. So she's saying he's an error, he's done something wrong, he's bad, he's sinning. So she's calling out David very presumptuously even. And not fetching home again his banish, which is Absalom. Verse 14, For we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again, neither does God respect any person, yet doth he devise means, that is banished, be not expelled from him. Now therefore that I am come to speak of this thing unto my lord the king, it is because the people have made me afraid, and thy handmaid said, I will now speak unto the king. It may be that the king will perform the request of his handmaid. For the king will hear to deliver his handmaid out of the hand of the man that would destroy me and my son together out of the inheritance of God. Then thine handmaid said, The word of my lord the king shall now be comfortable, for as an angel of God, so is my lord the king that has earned good and bad, therefore the lord thy God will be with thee. Now I just want to pause. There's a lot in this that we've got to think about for a second. Number one, she is crafting a story, let's just kind of understand what she's saying. She's saying that all of Israel is really upset and really distressed and is in a bad situation because Absalom has been banished. That's what she's kind of suggesting, because she's saying, for we must needs die, like oh man, we're all going to perish, we're all going to be destroyed. And the logic that she's trying to draw, the parallel she's trying to draw, she's kind of suggesting that David is going to die, Absalom is going to be banished and die, and the children of Israel are going to have no leader, they're going to basically have, they're just like water spilled where there's just basically no good option, you can't gather it all back together, there's no rallying point, there's no one to basically be in charge of the situation, and that David is essentially just destroying the people of God, not giving them a good leader, not giving them an heir, as it were. And she said that the whole people are just so angry about this and so upset about this that they put so much pressure on her that she felt compelled to go and ask David to bring back Absalom, okay? This is her story. Pretty believable, no. It's almost as believable as a passport making it through 9-11, okay? But the buildings didn't, right? It's just like, why would a widow woman care so much about Absalom coming back and becoming king and being in charge of all the people? And really, what was Absalom accomplishing before all this that everybody was just so concerned with Absalom? Also, when Absalom killed Amnon, wasn't there a bunch of other king's sons that at first they thought had died? Isn't there other options here? It's not like her little parable, so-called, isn't even an accurate parable because David doesn't only have two sons. We've already read about Solomon being born. In chapter number 12, Solomon had already been born, plus plenty of other sons. David had a lot of sons, okay? So it's kind of a silly analogy. It's not even exactly the same kind of parallel, and we don't even have any group of angry mob people coming after Absalom wanting him killed. Like where is that group? You know, so this parable just doesn't even seem kind of befitting because the way that she drew it up is the two sons is Amnon and Absalom. Now she is in essence kind of being David in the sense that David is the one that has the sons. She's the one that has the sons. Who's the angry mob in this scenario? I don't know because it doesn't really seem to fit. And here's another thing. She has no husband. David doesn't really have that kind of situation. He's not really a widow. Plus we don't even know even from her story, I mean, let's say this lady wasn't even 60 years old. We don't even know. She could have gotten remarried and had another heir. Isn't that a possibility? I mean, think about Naomi. Wasn't Naomi at one point a widow indeed? Because her husband died, and both her sons died, and when she returned back to the land, the only person she had was a daughter-in-law. But then the daughter-in-law ended up getting married, and then she had grandchildren, and then she still had inheritance through that means. She didn't even bring up if she had a daughter or if she had a daughter-in-law, and in fact the daughters Zolofta had got inheritance when there was no son to inherit. So there's a lot of holes in this particular story we don't even know necessarily. But think about her narrative that she's crafting to David. She's basically kind of leading on or letting it known like there's something off about her story because she's all of a sudden pointing the finger at David. It's like, wait a minute. You were all asking for help five seconds ago. Now you're like pointing the finger at me. Is what you said even true, number one? You're calling me, you know, a sinner and being a fault, number two. And then think about verse 17. Then thine handmaid said, the word of my Lord the King shall now be comfortable, for as an angel of God, so is my Lord the King to discern good and bad. She's now flattering him. And I say flattery for a lot of reasons. I know that from hindsight because she's not, these aren't even her words. These are coming from Joab. She doesn't even care. So think about if someone insults you and in the next breath praises you, it's flattery. Think about like, hey, you make really bad judgments and you're at fault, but I want to let you know that your judgment's perfect. It's like the angel of God. It's like, which one is it? You know, simple-minded people, gullible people will fall for this kind of tactic. Bad leaders will fall for this kind of tactic. What she's trying to do, and really it's not her, we understand Joab is really the author of these words, but what she's trying to do is she's trying to butter him up into just going ahead and doing exactly what she wants. Hey, you made a mistake, but I know you're going to make the right decision now. Here's the decision you should make. And it's like, wait a minute, you're playing me. You're basically deceiving me and you're trying to manipulate me into making the decision that you want me to make by flattering me and saying, oh, you're going to be an angel of God. You know, you're going to have the right judgment here now. So she says in verse 17, so my Lord, the king, to discern good and bad, therefore the Lord thy God will be with thee. None of that, then he says, and God will be with you. So hey, go ahead and just bring Absalom back, because this is what she's trying to say. She's trying to say, look, you made the right judgment here. You're so good at making judgments, but you just didn't realize that you should have applied it to yourself, David. Go ahead and apply it to yourself, bring back Absalom and put him back in that place and bring back the air and restore the people, and God's going to be with you. Now look at what it says in verse number 18. Then the king answered and said, and the woman hid not from me, I pray, the other thing that I shall ask thee. And the woman said, let my Lord the king now speak. And the king said, is not the hand of Joab with thee in all this? And the woman answered and said, as thy soul liveth, my Lord the king, none can turn to the right hand or to the left from ought that my Lord the king has spoken, for thy servant Joab, he bade me, and he put all these words in the mouth of thine handmaid. To fetch about this form of speech hath thy servant Joab done this thing, and my Lord is wise, according to the wisdom of an angel of God, to know all things that are in the earth. So now this statement, she praises him again for the exact same thing. But this is her words, meaning that she actually meant it this time. She's like, oh, wow, I wasn't as good an actress as I thought. I thought I was going to get the Emmy Award, and David figured it out. I must be that Jew. But essentially, David is wise enough to realize it's Joab that's behind this. But here's the problem with what's going to end up happening is David isn't going to necessarily make the right decision, even though he figured out that it was Joab. But the thing's been caught, Joab is the one. So he realizes there's something off about this. Now think about this. If you've just been given a parable through deceit and manipulation, and you just figured out that it was deceit and manipulation, why would you then want to take that advice? It kind of makes me think of all these people that go out there and say the elections are rigged, and they're like, go vote. And I'm like, what? Wait a minute, say that again? The elections are rigged. They're not fair. They're going to cheat. They cheated before. But I need you to go and vote. What? I mean, think about this. David just figured out that this lady has been manipulating him, lying the entire time. She said every single word came from Joab. Is she a widow? No. Does she have two sons? Not at all. Is there anything she said about David being a good judge? Right. No. It was flattery. So what would you do in this situation? Probably have a talk with Joab. Hey, why are you lying to me? Why are you deceiving me? Why are you paying this Hollywood actress to come in here and give me this story, as it were? Now look what it says in verse 41. The king said unto Joab, behold, now I have done this thing. Go therefore bring the young man Absalom again. I don't get it. I don't know. I do get it. But I don't get it. And here's the thing. It's like, why is David so smart, but then kind of falls for the trap that he even realizes is a trap? It's because he's human. And notice how the story started. Verse number one. Now Joab the son of Zirai perceived that the king's heart was toward Absalom. Here's a question. Would David have made this judgment if he didn't already was leaning in that direction? Probably not. He would have been smart enough to realize, hey, this was a trap. Even though he realizes the trap, he still just goes in the trap. And here's the problem. Some people, some Christians, they know it's a trap. They can see it's a trap. They can tell you it's a trap, and then they just walk into the trap. This happens. A lot of sins are like this. You know, alcohol, drugs, fornication, adultery, a lot of these deep types of sins. Christians know it's wrong. They can tell you it's wrong. They can preach against others on it, and then they do it. And it's just because human nature. And that's why it's also sometimes really important that you put certain boundaries in your life or you get around good friends that are not going to enable you in your sin. Joab is a bad friend. Joab is consistently a bad servant. And you know what? There's a lot of bad servants out there. Here's another thing that I don't like about Joab is Joab seems to be one of the most entitled servants you can find in the Bible. I mean, what kind of liberty do you think Joab has here to just go and just hire people to deceive the king? I mean, that's wicked. Like, if you truly had a problem with David or you thought David needed to do something, why wouldn't you just go to David and just talk to him man-to-man and say, look, David, why don't you just bring back Absalom? I think that's what you should do, you know, whatever you want, instead of hiring this lady to try and trick him. And what he tries to do, he tries to pretend like he's Nathan because we recently had Nathan. Nathan came, but here's the difference between Nathan and this lady. Nathan got his words from God. This woman got her words from Joab. And so how do I know which one's right or how do I know which one to do? You know, there's nothing wrong with the man of God getting rebuked, with David getting rebuked when it's from the Lord. But when it's coming from Joab, that's garbage. That's not necessarily right. You know what Job should have said is, hey, why is Absalom banished? Why didn't he get put to death? And if David had brought up, like, well, I still like him, it's like, well, thine eyes shall not pity. And he should have tried to correct the issue that he saw in his leader, not enabling him. But Joab's consistent. I mean, we read in the previous chapters before we got to Bathsheba that Job's, like, trying to rebuke David, saying, like, hey, you better come out here and take this city because other wise we're going to conquer it and they're going to name it after me. Resumptuous much? But I'll tell you, servants can be like this. And you give somebody a little bit of rope and they take the whole rope. You give them one area of responsibility and all of a sudden it's like they're the king of the castle or something. And you know what? Nothing rubs leadership wrong more than you being an entitled little prick and basically just taking all these liberties and advantages that were never granted to you. You know what? If you are on the job and your boss didn't tell you you could do something, you should always think I'm not allowed to do that. I'm not allowed to go into his office. I'm not allowed to sit in his chair. I'm not allowed to drive his car. I'm not allowed to drink from his water cup. I'm not allowed to touch his wife. I'm not allowed to do anything. I mean, think about Joseph. He's like, hey, he gave me everything but you. Why would you think that you're entitled to his wife? You don't take entitlement when you're a servant if you want to be having favor with the leader. As a servant, you need to do good on your leader, not just basically taking all the liberties. You know, I've done it too. There's been times where I've taken some liberties and it's just not right. I remember when I worked at, in college, they forced all of the sports teams to work in sessions at the football game. And I wasn't paid or anything. But they basically would just say like, oh, because you worked the football game, you can take, you know, you can eat whatever snacks you want and just take some home or whatever. I'm like, I'm going to take that to a liberal, a really liberal stance. Take some home. And I mean, I'll be honest, I took some liberties there. Not proud of it. It wasn't right. But I'm just saying, I might have taken a few extra home, OK? But you know what? That wasn't right. That was wrong. I shouldn't have done it. And you know, sometimes people do that at their work. They'll do that at a church. They'll do that at a friend's house. You know, they'll do it wherever. It's like your friend says like, come on in, and then you put your feet up on the couch. That's different. Hey, can I have a Coke? And then you start loading them in your purse or something. It's like, you know, or you come to church and you load up on stuff. And it's like, you know, I always have the policy that everything's free at church and I don't really care. And I literally mean that. But I still care. So let me make it clear, OK? I don't care in the sense that I'm not going to hunt you down or say anything to you. But obviously, I'm going to think that you're like a cheapskate or something. You know? If you're just like loading up on toilet paper or something, you're like, hey, sweet. You know? Or it's like, hey, can I have a Coke? It's like, sure. But then you just like take a case and you're just like loading up the back of your truck with cases. Now, I'll just be like, whatever, you know, at least someone's put into use. But I'll kind of think like, you probably should have asked. You know, you probably shouldn't just do whatever you want. Don't just take a bath in the baptistry, OK? You know, when you go to your job, when you go to work, don't just do whatever you want. You basically should be really conservative. You should essentially pretend like you have no privileges and then only ask for those things rather than thinking, you know what, I'm just going to take as much liberty and wait to basically ask for permission afterwards. You know, it's easier to ask sorry than for permission, right? Well, that is true, but not if you want favor with your leadership. OK? Asking permission is more difficult than asking, you know, they're saying that you're sorry later. Sure, that might be a cool philosophy in the world, but it's not a cool philosophy in the Bible. Where do you see that scripture in the Bible that just, you know, God's just saying like, hey, just do whatever you want and then later just pay an indulgence or something? Now, that's a Catholic church. You know, you want to basically err on the side of caution and not think that you're just entitled to anything and everything that you can do. And really it kind of makes sense what Joab says in this next verse. And Joab fell to the ground on his face and bowed himself and thanked the king. And Joab said, today thy servant knoweth that I have found grace in thy sight, my lord, O king, and that the king hath fulfilled the request of his servant. So notice that Joab bows down, gets on his face and says, hey, you gave me grace because he deserved to be fired or shamed or put out and for whatever reason the king grants his request. Now, here's another thing I would say. Sometimes when people are entitled or do something wrong, instead of punishing them, I may decide to just give them grace and be like, whatever, it's not a big deal. But the problem with that philosophy, and I'm not saying I'm always right, but the problem with that philosophy is that sometimes you enable bad behavior. And I think that I can be guilty of that too, where sometimes you just, basically someone screws up and because you give them grace, they almost think like, great, I can just do whatever I want now. This can even be with your parenting, right? If your kids screw up and they deserve punishment and you decide to give them grace, sometimes it almost seems like it could embolden your children to do wrong. Now, I would say this, I don't think there's wrong, there's anything wrong with a leader giving grace, okay? It's fine. But you have to be careful that you pay attention to how people respond to that grace. And if you give them lots of grace and then they just keep like taking advantage of that, then you eventually need to bring the hammer, okay? But as you as a person, if you end up doing something wrong and your boss gives you grace, your leader gives you grace, you need to take that as an opportunity to say, I'm not going to do that again. I know I got grace this time, but I'm not going to just be like, sweet, I guess, you know, no big deal, just do whatever I want. Whoo! No, no, no. You should take it seriously still as if you were chastised and get it right just like with the Lord. We don't want to have this attitude of constantly sinning against God and praying and asking for grace and he gives it to us and then just thinking like, I guess God doesn't care if I sin anymore because I can just do whatever I want, no punishment. No, no, no. That's wicked. When we sin, no matter how much grace God gives us, we should decide I'm not going to do it again. I'm going to forsake that sin. I'm going to not do it again. I'm going to try and put borders in my life and boundaries in my life so I won't commit that wickedness. We don't want to get this attitude of entitlement through grace just because we have a gracious boss and look, God is a gracious God. He is a gracious leader and so it could breed entitlement in us. It could breed an attitude of like, well, I can do whatever I want and just ask for grace later. No, no, no, no, no. We should fear God. We should fear God and keep his commandments. You know what should fear your boss? You should fear your husband. You should fear your parents. You should fear every leadership in your life and not just let their grace build and breed entitlement and this just attitude of contempt in your heart. We should always have a fear of leadership in our lives. Now another thing that's interesting about this passage though is that Joab put the words into this lady's mouth and she even admitted it. Unfortunately, a reality of the world that we live in today is that you are going to be a product of your environment. You're going to be a product of your environment. Now keep your finger and go to Ephesians chapter 2 for a moment. Go to Ephesians chapter 2. All of us in this room at one point or another have said things that were words just put in our mouth. They were put in our mouth through a movie, through music, through a TV show, through your parents, through your school teachers. There's been all kinds of times and most of it's your parents. You'll say something and be like, man, that's what my dad would always say. Man, that's what my mom would always say. And what I want you to realize is that you're not that original. Like probably, arguably, almost nothing is really original in the essence of like everything. Think about it. You didn't even know how to talk when you came out of the womb. You had to learn speech first and then you had to learn phrases and then you had to learn sentences and then you read books and then you hear music and then you hear TV. And most of us, especially people that are unsaved, I mean, you are literally what I call an NPC, which is called a non-playable character, meaning you are just a robot or a zombie to whatever the world wants you to do and say and you just like don't even realize it. Now in Ephesians chapter 2, it actually proves this point that this is what's happening. Look at Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1. And you at the quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation in times past, in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. Even the first sin in the Bible with Eve was not her idea. The devil came along and planted that idea into her mind. And then she is essentially just allowing the devil's idea and the devil's influence to come out of her. And that is the same with unsaved people. The unsaved are just vessels of the devil's using. They're simply a pawn of his using and they just fulfill his will without even realizing it in many cases. A lot of people will say, oh, you know, Joe Biden, his cabinet is pulling all the strings in the world. No. Oh, the Jews are pulling all the strings in the world. Putin is pulling all the strings in the world. Mao Zedong is pulling all the strings in the world. China, Russia. No. The crypto-Jews. No. The Jesuits. No. Pastor Shelley, you have to understand, you know, it's the United Nations. No. Pastor Shelley, you have to understand. You don't understand. It's the devil. All of the people in this planet are simply pawns. And all of them are simply vying for world power. They all want to be the antichrist. They're basically campaigning to be the antichrist and the devil's like, you're too dumb. They're like, no. You know, get away from me, right? And he's not using them yet. One day he will select the ultimate pawn, the antichrist, to be used at his disposal. And look, even the antichrist, I mean, the epitome of power, humanly speaking, is basically just going to be tossed aside through death and the devil's going to inhabit his body and the devil's going to be in trouble. Because the devil's the one driving the train. Everyone else is just a passenger. Okay? Joe Biden is a passenger. He's at the back of the bus, okay? He's got a helmet on. He's on the short bus. Nancy Pelosi, she's just a passenger. George Soros is just a passenger. Mark Zuckerberg is just a passenger. They're all just on the train and the devil is just running through them. The devil's just using them like pawns and they don't even know what they're doing. They don't even know what they're saying. They're simply just saying what the devil wants them to say. Even the certain lewd fellows of the base are sore. They have no identity. They are simply just, let's support Ukraine. Wear a mask. Get your booster shot. Just whatever, just whatever the devil just wants to pump through the minds of people, they're just going to repeat those talking points, they're just going to say the same things over and over, not realizing they have zero original thoughts. They're not coming up with new arguments, cool things to say. They have no idea that everything they're saying the devil already thought before them. And the devil strategically and systematically planted that in their heart, in their mind. I mean they need to watch the movie Inception and realize they're the victim. And the devil's the one that put that Inception inside of them, okay? And notice it didn't even say just them, it said all of us. At some point we were all victims of this game. Now you say well how, so you're saying if I get saved then I'm a free thinking person. No, no, no, no. What you get to do is you get to change the source input. Instead of getting pumped in with the devil, you get pumped in with the Lord. And then you get to start thinking his thoughts and his ways and saying his stuff. But either way you're a pawn, you're just a vessel. Get over yourself, quit being prideful and thinking like you're better than everybody else. Because that prideful attitude is the devil pumping you up. The humble attitude is the Lord putting his word into you. But at the end of the day we are simply vessels to be written on. We're just vessels to be used. And it's best if we just let the Lord use us. And we pump and fill ourselves with the Bible and with his word. That's why it's important to get out of the world. Because if you're constantly pumping yourself with Jewish propaganda called Hollywood, then you're going to sound and act like the devil. But if you're constantly pumping yourself full of hymns and psalms and spiritual songs, you're constantly pumping yourself full of the King James Bible, you're going to start sounding like Jesus. And let me tell you something. The more you sound like Jesus, the more this other person is going to hate you. Because they're at war with one another, at conflict with one another. And just like this poor little woman, she's an unsuspecting victim to Joab's plan. That's how many people are to the devil. Joab is like the devil, just putting in bad ideas into these people. Just causing them to go around and just say things they don't even mean, they don't even know what they're doing. They're just paid actors and actresses. They'll do it back to our story. What is the point? Well, when you finally just humble yourself and realize you're not special, you're not smarter than the Lord, you're not smarter than the devil, you end up just saying, you know what, I'm going to humble myself and I'm going to plug myself into the Lord, Jesus Christ, and I'm going to get renewed with His wisdom, instead of being conformed to this world. Because it's not like you have a third option. There's not like, well, I'm going to reject the Lord's wisdom and the devil's wisdom, I got my own. No, no, you're just on team devil. You're silly. You're either going to be conformed to the devil or you're going to be renewed to the Lord Jesus Christ's wisdom and knowledge. But there is no third option. It's either A or B. Heaven or hell. Okay? Good or evil. The Lord or Satan. That's your two options. And we have to humble ourselves and realize that we're not special. We got to just rely on the Lord's wisdom. That's why the Bible says, trust not in thine own heart. You know, trust the Lord with all thine heart and lean not on thine own understanding and all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths. How can you allow the Lord to direct you? You submit to this. That's why it's so important to be King James only. Because then you actually have something that you can lean upon. With the other versions, you know, it's like leaning upon a thorn that's going to go into your hand. It's going to hurt you worse. You start reading the NIV and trying to make a sense of that, you're going to go insane. That book's stupid. Now in our story, Joab wants to bring back Absalom through Joab. Joab is realizing he needed that grace. Verse 23. And the king said, let him turn to his own house and let him not see my face. So Absalom returned to his own house and saw not the king's face. But in all Israel there was none to be so much praised as Absalom for his beauty. From the sole of his foot, even to the crown of his head, there was no blemish in him. And when he pulled his head, for it was at every year's end that he pulled it, because the hair was very heavy or was heavy on him, therefore he pulled it. He weighed the hair of his head at 200 shekels after the king's weight. And unto Absalom there were born three sons and one daughter, whose name was Tamar. She was a woman of fair countenance. So Absalom dwelt two full years in Jerusalem and saw not the king's face. Therefore Absalom sent for Joab to have sent him to the king. But he would not come to him. And when he sent again the second time, he would not come. Therefore he said unto his servants, see, Joab's field is near mine and he hath barley there. Go and set it on fire. Absalom's servants set the field on fire. Then Joab arose and came to Absalom unto his house and said unto him, wherefore have thy servants set my field on fire? And Absalom answered Joab, behold, I sent unto thee, saying, come hither, that I may send thee to the king to say, wherefore am I come from Geshur? It had been good for me to have been there still. Now therefore let me see the king's face, and if there be any iniquity in me, let him kill me. So Joab came to the king and told him, and when he had called for Absalom, he came to the king and bowed himself on his face to the ground before the king and the king kissed Absalom. Now, when I read this last portion, I think of a phrase out there, it's like, bad planning on your part does not constitute a crisis on mine. It's like, hey, just because I'm not answering you doesn't mean you need to set my field on fire. Okay? Now, we've already talked about this, but think about how Absalom almost has the exact same attitude. He has a very entitled attitude, like, if I call you, you better answer. You know, who are you to demand that Joab just answer you right away? I mean, here's the thing, he's almost acting like he's the king or something, because he's prideful. Absalom is a very prideful person, very presumptuous, and Joab is a really weird character too in this scenario. Like, why did he bring, like, why does he care so much to bring Absalom back, but then not care at all? I will submit to you that Joab just simply doesn't care. Joab is kind of just a froward person, and what a froward person is, is they're just an adversary, and they're just against everything, and they're always contrary. So the fact that Joab wants to bring back Absalom is not because he really cared about Absalom, it's just he knows it's contrary, so he just wants to do it. He's just, like, basically just, there's some people that are just, like, mean-spirited. Like they just go around, if they just see a dog, they would just kick it. Just because it's, just because, well, I just thought of it. I just want to do it, right? If they could just hurt someone, they'll just hurt someone. If they could steal something, they'll just steal, they're just like an opportunist to just do evil. That's what a froward person's like. If they control someone online, they would troll them. Not because they really care. If they could just pull a fire alarm and get away with it, they'll pull the fire alarm. If they could tie someone's shoes together and they'll trip, they'll do it. It just basically just, they just want to just do damage. That's kind of like Joab. Because it's like, if he really, really wanted Absalom back, wouldn't he have called, when Absalom finally called him, they would be hanging out, they would be buddies. It's like Joab can't even be bothered, because he didn't really care about Absalom, he just wanted to do it. Then finally, when there's this conflict or whatever, Joab finally goes and brings him unto the king. I think by Joab not answering Absalom, he was also contrary, because he just knew it was going to bother him. There's that one person in your life that if they call and you just don't answer, they're going to get really irritated by it. Some people just don't care, right? You're just like, okay, call me back whenever. There's some people that you know, if you don't answer their call, they're going to be like, why are they calling? Aren't we friends anymore or something? What's going on? By not answering his call, it's like he's basically just giving them a hard time. It's just like Joab is just giving Absalom a hard time just because. This is a really confusing dynamic, but Joab's just kind of a weird guy, and we kind of get further down the road. We just see he's a bad servant. He's a very froward person. Absalom is a very prideful person. This story in my mind is really just important for character development as we get a bit later down in the story. What are some things we can notice about Absalom? He's very spoiled. What kind of brat just sets a field on fire because someone's not answering your call? Someone that's never worked hard for anything. Someone that never actually planted crops and dug up the ground. To just burn someone's assets or crops is just basically a spoiled brat. He's super entitled. He always makes other people do his dirty work. He didn't set it on fire. He just gets other people to set it on fire. He didn't want to kill Amnon. He gets other people to kill Amnon for him, right? And he's very demanding. I mean, talk about demanding. If you don't answer my call, burn your house down, bro. And he's very manipulative because as soon as Joab's like, hey, why did you do this? He didn't even answer the question. Did you notice that? He says, wherefore have thy servants set my field on fire? And Absalom answered Joab, build thy sin unto thee, saying, come hither, that I may send thee to the king to say, wherefore am I come from Geshur? So it almost sounds like he's answering the question, but he's not at all. He's like, hey, why did you set my field on fire? Why am I here? It's like he makes everything about himself. Why? Only prideful people make everything about themselves. He's kind of a narcissist if you study the Bible. He's obsessed with himself. And here's the other weird thing. I'm always thinking, like, why are people catering to this jerk? Because Absalom is the king's son and because he's one of the most attractive people. But you know what? The Bible says favor is deceitful and beauty is vain. And you know what? There's some people that are attractive, and you get a lot of favor, but you know what? It's not good favor. Favor is deceitful, is what the Bible's saying. And I don't know exactly why David had this favoritism toward his son, but it's going to end up setting up for future chapters to go really bad for David. And if David had dealt with Amnon, he may not have had to have the situation with Absalom. If he had dealt with Absalom, then he wouldn't have had this horrible situation happen with Absalom. So because of David, allowing favoritism and nepotism and these type of things to basically ruin his judgment and pervert his judgment a little bit gives him a lot of issue. And so what can be the story from this lesson? We need to be careful about the influences in our life. David's influenced by Joab. Joab's influencing Absalom. Absalom's influenced Joab. This woman's being influenced by Joab. There's all these little things going on. You got to be careful about the influences in your life, and we need to be humble servants fearing God, not thinking too highly of ourselves, not thinking we always have perfect judgment, allowing ourselves to always go back to this book. You know what I find is absent from this chapter? Anybody caring what God thinks. When did Joab consult God? When did the woman consult God? When did David consult God? When did Absalom consult God? It's just a bunch of people just doing their own thing, and you know what? It goes bad. When you're just doing your own thing, you're not consulting the Bible, consulting the Word of God. We need to be humble and careful about the influences in our life, the decisions we're making, the things that are coming out of our mouth. You need to pay attention. Pay attention. Start thinking like when you say something, is that coming from the Lord or is that coming from the world's influence? Why am I making this decision? Is this entitlement coming from the Lord or is this entitlement coming from my own selfish desires? And again, we just want to make sure that we're humble enough to admit that we're not perfect and we need the Lord's directing. We cannot direct ourselves. Let's close in prayer. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for this chapter. Thank you for showing us the human condition so much in the Bible so that we could realize our own frailty. We could understand our own dependence upon the Lord, our own need for your guidance and your wisdom. I pray that we wouldn't get lofty, that we wouldn't get haughty, that we wouldn't get heady. We wouldn't think that we're capable of just solving every problem and issue on our own, but rather we would see a need and dependence upon the Lord and that we'd always look to the Scripture. I pray that you'd help us to be humble servants, that when you extend us grace or we have grace in our lives, that we wouldn't let that pervert our judgment or cause us to build an attitude of pride or entitlement, but rather we would continue to stay humble. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. For our last song this evening, we'll go to song 246, Redeemed. 246, Redeemed. Song 246, Redeemed. Redeemed how I love to proclaim it, Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, Redeemed through His infinite mercy, His child and forever I am, Redeemed, Redeemed, Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, Redeemed, Redeemed, His child and forever I am, Redeemed and so happy in Jesus, No language my rapture can tell, I know that the light of His presence with me doth continually dwell, Redeemed, Redeemed, Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, Redeemed, Redeemed, His child and forever I am, I think of my blessed Redeemer, I think of Him all the day long, I sing for I cannot be silent, His love is the theme of my song, Redeemed, Redeemed, Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, Redeemed, Redeemed, His child and forever I am, I know I shall see in His beauty the King in whose law I delight, who lovingly guardeth my footsteps and giveth me songs in the night, Redeemed, Redeemed, Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, Redeemed, Redeemed, His child and forever I am,