2 SAMUEL 14 PURSUING GODS HEART PROTECTS YOU FROM MANIPULATION2018 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: 2 Samuel 14 Pursuing Gods Heart Protects You From Manipulation

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2018. Well, as we look at 2 Samuel chapter 14 this evening, I've titled the message, Pursuing God's Heart Protects You from Manipulation.

Pursuing God's heart protects you from manipulation. And similar to last week, I really want to encourage you this week to be thinking about and be intentional about pursuing God's heart in all aspects of life. And to not kind of compartmentalize it into this, you know, this is just for your devotional time or just for your time at church. But that God has his will, his desires, and his commands for you.

in all aspects of life. And there is an important need for us to pursue God's heart in all of those arenas, in the workplace and with our families and in the decisions that we're making, that we would be seeking out and searching out what does God desire in all of this. And one of the reasons for that, of course, there's a ton of reasons that we would need to consider, but

Right before us here in the text is we see the situation where there is some manipulation going on with David and his emotions and getting events to happen the way that these people desire for them to.

Now, I don't think that any of us would like to be manipulated. Nobody, you know, volunteers for that. Or, you know, I like, you know, for people to mess with my mind, to mess with my emotions, to use me to get what they want. And that's not something that any of us desires. And I would remind you this evening that pursuing God's heart is really good protection for

against that kind of manipulation. The word manipulate, it means to control or influence a person cleverly, unfairly, or unscrupulously. That is sneaky and underhanded. In manipulating you to get what somebody else wants, that is something that is going on continually. In fact, I would

Also go on to say that the enemy, Satan, is at work with manipulation continually. That there is these efforts to underhandedly...

trick us or get us to give in and follow things and be convinced by false arguments to do something that God has not actually called us to do or wants us to do or wants us to be involved with. And the best way for us to protect against that, to guard ourselves against that kind of thing is to be

pursuing the heart of God and giving God opportunity to speak in the various aspects of our lives where we are making decisions and having these kinds of attacks come against us. When the Lord spoke to Saul, the guy who was king before David, he told Saul, I'm getting rid of you because you have disobeyed me.

And I'm replacing you with a man who will follow my heart. A man who is better than you, God tells him. And we saw that as we worked our way through 1 Samuel. But let me read to you what Paul says in Acts chapter 13, verse 22, kind of summarizing, you know, this whole exchange. It says, and when he had removed him, talking about King Saul, he raised up for them David as king and

And it gives us some insight about what it means to be one who pursues God's heart. It's about one who will...

Do the will of God. It's not about the one who knows about the will of God. It's not about the one who has heard the will of God or knows the scriptures, but it's about the one who does the will of God. And notice he says, does all my will. And again, that emphasis upon all aspects of our lives, that God desires for us to know him, to hear from him and to seek him.

in all aspects of our lives, that we would be pursuing his heart, seeking to please him above all else, desiring to know his will and obey him. And you need to know that that is going to be attacked a thousand different ways in your life. This idea of you walking with God and following God and pleasing God and doing his will, there is going to be some opposition to that. And that's not just going to happen automatically without you trying.

But even as you try, as you seek the Lord, there's going to be opposition. And one of the ways that the enemy will use to try to get us off track of the will of God is manipulation.

To try to convince us, I've shared it many times, that Satan, you know, he can't take away what God has for you. So what he tries to do is get you to give it up yourself. He can't take away the marriage that God wants you to have. He can't take away the promises that God has given to you. He can't take away the ministry that God has given to you. He can't take away anything that God has given to you. But what he can do is try to convince you, to manipulate you, to persuade you

to go down paths that God hasn't called you to go down. And so we need to be on guard against manipulation. And the safest thing for us to do

is to be pursuing God's heart, to be actively in pursuit. And I like the idea of pursuit, you know, as like a police officer or a highway patrol, you know, it's like sirens blaring, pedal to the metal. Pursuit is not like a casual stroll towards the heart of God. You know, hopefully one day I'll get to find out the Lord's will and, you know, maybe then it'll be great and stuff, but I'm just going to kind of cruise and just chill. No, no, no. Turn on the sirens.

Put the pedal to the metal, go as fast as you can, go as hard as you can towards the Lord to know him and what he desires for you. And that is some great protection for you against the attack of manipulation. Well, let's look at some of the manipulation that's going on here in this passage. Here in these verses we read, verses 1 through 13, it gives us point number one.

And that is that manipulated emotions do not always express God's heart. Now, what we have before us is an interesting passage because here is this woman who gives this account and it's a moving account. It pulls on the heartstrings of David and it presents a really good case for bringing Absalom home from where he's been in hiding after he has murdered his brother.

And so there's this case that is made, but it's through this emotional exchange, this emotional account that is given. Now, it's the woman who's presenting this, but it's

the product of Joab. In verse 1, it tells us, So Joab, the son of Zeruiah, perceived that the king's heart was concerned about Absalom. Joab has been close with David for many years. He's the commander of the armies for David. And so he's been around David for a long time. He knows David very well. And he recognizes at the end of chapter 13, we saw that

There was this longing in David. He had mourned over Amnon. He had mourned over the loss of his son. But now, after three years have passed, he also is mourning the loss of Absalom. And he's missing Absalom. And he's longing to see Absalom. And so Joab here is recognizing that. And so what does he do? He hatches a plan. He comes up with a scheme to get Absalom.

Absalom back to Jerusalem. Although David was longing for Absalom, there was some conflict within him because Absalom had murdered David.

his son. And so there's parts of him as a king that, you know, that's injustice that has taken place. It was wrong. It was a crime that had been committed. And yet also as a father, he missed his son. And so there was these conflicting emotions within him. And so he wasn't bringing Absalom back, although he missed him. But Joab decides, no, no, David needs to bring Absalom back.

And so he hatches this plan. He comes up with this scheme. He goes to this little town called Tekoa and he brings this old widow before David. It tells us that he put the words in her mouth. He taught her what to say. He gave her the whole story and the whole account so that he could get the results that he wanted. He's working hard to bring about what he wants.

What is Joab after? He's after what he wants. And again, as we talk about pursuing God's heart, this is not what Joab is doing. This is not all an effort to, you know, try to get this to work out because he believes it's what God wants. This is what Joab wants. And so Joab is working hard. He's scheming. He's manipulating. He's

in order to accomplish his will, again, as opposed to God's will. What does God want in this situation is not something that Joab is concerned about. Pastor Warren Wiersbe says that faith is living without scheming. I like that. Faith is living without scheming.

scheming. When we're trusting God, when we're walking with God, we don't have to manipulate and plot and try to come up with our own ways to accomplish what we want. Instead, we are walking in the plan of God. And faith is obedience to God, that we're walking step by step in fulfilling God's plans and not having to force our own plans to come about. And

And so Joab here is not an example of pursuing God's heart. Instead, he is plotting and planning and manipulating and using through this woman this emotional appeal to David. In verse 4, it says,

Now your maidservant had two sons and the two fought with each other in the field and there was no one to part them, but the one struck the other and killed him. So here this woman presents this account. Now it seems like that this account is completely made up.

That it's not an actual event. In verse 3, it tells us Joab put the words in her mouth. It is possible that this event has happened to her and Joab is just, you know, taking advantage of that and presenting it in such a way that it would pull on the heartstrings of David. But

It seems more likely that this is just a made-up scenario. It didn't actually happen, but here she is presenting herself before the king as a widow, as one who has been in mourning, and Joab had to instruct her, you know, don't anoint yourself with oil, don't take a shower, you know, look like you've been mourning, look like you're miserable, so that you can tell him, well, my husband is dead.

Now, this would already put her in a bad situation in their culture and their day because there was not much opportunity for widows to be able to provide for themselves. And so to be a widow was to be in a very grave situation already. But she had two sons to take care of her. But as she tells David, well, my two sons, they always got into arguments. They wrestled and they fought with each other. And man, one time this was happening and they fought and one killed the other.

And so now I've lost my husband and one of my sons. And now that living son is in danger. In verse 7, she says, So they would extinguish my ember that is left and leave to my husband neither name nor remnant on the earth.

Now for them, God had established for the people of Israel some procedures, some things that should take place whenever someone is killed in the nation of Israel. And he established some cities of refuge, which were cities that were spread out throughout Israel that if someone was killed, if you killed someone accidentally, you could run to a city of refuge and

And there you would be protected because their culture had what was known as the avenger of blood. And the avenger of blood, it's basically the next of kin. And their responsibility, you killed my family member, now as the avenger of blood, as the kinsman redeemer, it's my responsibility now

to kill you, to execute justice because you killed our family member. And so there was this responsibility and that was the way that they handled those kinds of crimes. But God, in order to establish justice, set up the cities of refuge so that it would be illegal for the avenger of blood to kill someone who was there within the city of refuge because, well, they needed to be given a trial first, right?

And so God established this as a safe haven. Now, someone who had killed someone, but it wasn't accidentally, if they fled to the city of refuge, then the city of refuge would be responsible to make sure that they were executed for their crime.

But if you were innocent and you were there, then the city of refuge, the elders there were responsible to protect you and to keep you safe for that accidental killing of someone. And so what the widow is describing here is this whole scene where the avenger of blood, this guy, her son, the living son hasn't fled to a city of refuge yet.

He's just there at home with his mom. And now the family is threatening. We're going to take him out because that's our responsibility. It's the avenger of blood. It falls on the next of kin and he needs to pay for this crime. In verse eight, the king said to the woman, go to your house and I will give orders concerning you. So here she is. She's asking the king to intervene in this situation and

But David doesn't really jump into this wholeheartedly right away. He says, you know, why don't you go home and I'll think about it and I'll let you know what I decide about this. He basically, you know, says, leave a message. I'll get back to you. He's not ready to make a firm decision about this. He's not going to change their customs or anything like that right off the bat. But

The woman is a little bit persistent. In verse 9, it says, So first she presents the case and she's like, hey, I'm going to be without an heir.

That was a serious thing for them, especially in their culture, that the land that belonged to them, that the Lord had given to them, was going to go on to a different family because she was a widow and she wasn't going to have any children anymore if her other son was executed. So here she is. She's going to lose that opportunity for their name to be continued. She's going to lose her last living son. And there's all this emotion that's built into that. And she presses further and says,

I'm innocent and this is innocent and we'll take the guilt. There is no guilt, but if there is guilt, you'll be guiltless and we'll take the guilt. I'll take the guilt if what I'm asking you to do is wrong. I'll take the guilt, she says, but I need a decision. Will you do something about this? Will you protect my son? And so David responds a little bit stronger now. He says, whoever says anything to you, bring him to me and he shall not touch you anymore.

Here, David says, okay, if it becomes an issue, then I'll deal with it. Then, you know, someone, you know, doesn't like this idea, doesn't like this decision, then bring them to me and I'll deal with it at that point. It's a little bit of a deferral still. David's still being a bit noncommittal

And the woman is really pushing for a stronger decision, a stronger declaration in this. And so in verse 11, she says, please let the king remember the Lord your God and do not permit the avenger of blood to destroy anymore lest they destroy my son. And he said, as the Lord lives, not one hair of your son shall fall to the ground. Amen.

So the woman doesn't give up. She doesn't get a real strong response immediately or even at the second request. But now finally she says, please. And so there's this pleading, there's this begging, don't let the avenger of blood destroy. Please keep my son alive. And so David now fully commits and he makes a vow. He says, as the Lord lives, this was a way of making a vow of promising just as surely as God is alive today,

Not one hair of your son shall fall to the ground. Your son will not die. And David here reversed the normal, you know, scheduled, not scheduled, but the normal routine of execution for this crime that had been committed. And he says, you know, he gives him a pardon. He says, he will not die for this sin, for this crime. And so he grants him freedom. He grants him a pardon now.

from killing his brother at this woman's request. And so now verse 12, the woman's got the response that she wanted. Now she's going to capitalize on it. Therefore, the woman said, please let your maidservant speak another word to my Lord, the King. And he said, say on. So the woman said, why then have you schemed such a thing against the people of God? For the King speaks this thing as one who is guilty and that the King does not bring his banished one home again.

Here this woman now goes on to say, okay, good. You got to the decision that I was looking for. You made that decision. Okay, now let me tell you one more thing. You speak as one who is guilty. Now, maybe this has some like deja vu going on in your head because this is very similar to what we saw with Nathan the prophet a few chapters earlier, right?

Nathan the prophet was sent by God to David after David had committed his sin with Bathsheba and then the murder of her husband Uriah. And God gave David some time to repent. But after some time, he sends Nathan and Nathan tells him the story of a rich man with lots of sheep and a poor man with just one sheep that was like a daughter to him. But the rich man took that poor man's sheep and slaughtered it and fed it to his guests.

And David was enraged and furious and pronounced the execution upon this guy. And then Nathan pointed at him and said, David, you're the man. You're guilty. Now here this woman is attempting the same thing. It's not as well executed. And it's not as well intended. And it's not under the direction of the Lord. It's under the direction of Joab. And so there's some similarities, but there's also some important differences, right?

And the important differences really comes down to what does God want in this situation? Pastor Warren Wiersbe says, Nathan had told a story to help David do a right thing, repent of his sins. The woman told a story to encourage David to do a wrong thing, to restore Absalom without first insisting on repentance. The issue here with bringing Absalom back is that

The complete lack of any justice being done for what Absalom did to his brother Amnon. And there's lots of things that we could discuss surrounding this. And we could, in some ways, look at this situation and understand, wow, Amnon got what he had coming to him. Amnon got what he deserved because he had forced himself upon Tamar, his sister. I mean, that was...

Even if it wasn't forced, just that relationship, according to God's word, was forbidden and punishable by death. And so Amnon for sure deserved to die. And yet at the same time, you understand, I hope, that we can't just take matters into our own hands and try to bring about justice when we think that there's been injustice. And that's what Absalom does. He does that.

takes matters upon himself and kills his brother in a way that was not what God had desired or called him to do. And so to bring him back now with no justice being done, with no repentance happening, with no, you know, really hearing from the Lord about the situation, there is some serious issues with that. And so again, that's why David, he was conflicted because as a father, he misses his son.

As a king, he has certain responsibilities. There's this conflict within him about bringing Absalom back, and what should he do, and can he do it, and what are the people going to think? And, you know, there's all these things that are happening within him, but Joab here uses this account and uses this woman to stir up some emotions, and there's some sympathy that's stirred up as

As David sees this woman in a really difficult predicament and having lost her son and David can relate to that. And so he's, you know, bringing this story is not, you know, just some random account, but it was designed by Joab to really get at David's heart, to get his sympathy, to get his empathy. And then Joab,

to lay on a guilt trip. She says, hey, you speak as one who is guilty. David, you should be ashamed of yourself. You are guilty in that you will pardon my son who you never know, never met, don't know anything about, but you won't pardon your own son and bring him back. And she is pronouncing these things. Again, this isn't the word of the Lord. There is no prophet of the Lord in this. It is

The scheming of Joab, the manipulation of Joab trying to accomplish what it is that he desires. And so he's using the emotions of David to bring about the desired result that he wants. Now emotions are good and they are part of who God has created us as.

And sometimes we have a love-hate relationship with our emotions. We feel emotional about our emotions, right? But that's part of who we are. And one of the hard things about emotions for us is finding balance. That emotions are good. They're part of who we are. And sometimes we get out of balance by trying to...

pretend like we don't have those emotions. We try to pretend like we don't have those feelings. And rather than face the feelings that we have and face the emotions that we have, we try to ignore them or pretend or try to not deal with them. And there's some issues when that happens. And that has some serious consequences in our lives. But then we need to come back the other way and understand that there is also the other end of the

And we're dominated by how we feel. We're dominated by what we think. And that controls us and guides us. And that's what makes our decisions for us. And those two extremes...

They're not extremes like, you know, we rarely see those. No, no, those are very often we find ourselves in one or the other end of the spectrum and finding and maintaining the balance between those is really challenging for us. But we need to do that because, well, we can't just pretend like emotions aren't there, that we don't have those feelings. We need to feel those things. That's part of the way that God has built us and created us. But we also need to

pursue God's heart above, first, more importantly, than how we feel. And in the pursuit of God's heart, we find the balance between these things. And in seeking out what does God desire, we find the balance. And we learn to submit our emotions to the will of God and to the word of God. And if we're not doing that, then we are, well, we're openly vulnerable to God.

to having our emotions be manipulated, to get us to a place of pursuing something that is not God's heart. You know, because we feel things doesn't make them real or true. Manipulated emotions don't always express God's heart. We need to learn to challenge what we feel and to check what we feel, to examine what we feel and

By what God has said. David could have been protected from this manipulation in a lot of different ways. But just one example, God had established a process for these situations. I made reference to it earlier, the cities of refuge. If he would seek counsel of the Lord and refer back to the scriptures, well, how do we handle a situation where someone has been killed and there's some dispute about whether or not it was God

intentional or not? And how do we handle that and deal with that lone survivor? Well, God set some established guidelines for that in Numbers chapter 35. As he's establishing the cities of refuge, he says, they shall be cities of refuge for you from the avenger. Now, this woman is saying, please protect my son from the avenger. And God had already established, here's how you do that.

These cities are there so that the manslayer may not die until he stands before the congregation in judgment. God said, look, the congregation is to stand in judgment. Not David, not the king, not one person who kind of just like, okay, I'm just pardoning him. It doesn't matter if it was intended or not or if he's guilty or not. I'm just going to call it right now without any examination of the evidence. That is not at all what God had established. Right?

David could have been protected from this had he gone back to what is the Lord called for in these situations? And again, this is why I encourage us this evening to consider that we need to pursue God's heart in all aspects of life. When we're making decisions and coming to conclusions and making judgments and deciding things and looking at things, that there needs to be an examination. What does God say about us?

about this kind of situation? What does God say about this kind of scenario? I can sympathize with Absalom in killing his brother Amnon. I think we could all understand, hey, you did that to my sister, I'm going to take you out. Yeah, that's no problem understanding where Absalom was coming from. Looking at this situation with the widow and David, oh, I can sympathize. I can understand. Yes,

You feel bad. You've lost your son. Here's a woman facing a similar situation. I can understand why you make those decisions. But is that the pursuit of God's heart more than anything else? Is that the pursuit of God's heart and what he wants in that situation? And so our emotions, emotions are good, but they also can be used against us. And we need to be pursuing God's heart

to protect ourselves from manipulation. And let me just remind you that the enemy, Joab here, there's a lot of speculation about why Joab wanted Absalom to come back. There's a lot of things that we could discuss about that. But generally speaking, it's pretty safe to say Joab wasn't David's enemy. But you and I, we have an enemy and he hates us. And he is not afraid to mess with our emotions, to get us to do his will instead of God's will.

And so we need to pursue God's heart because, oh man, there could be stories that are brought that really touch our heart, that like really just pull at us that, oh my goodness, it breaks my heart. But that doesn't give me the liberty to turn away from what God desires and what God's will is. Manipulated emotions do not always express God's heart. You may feel it really strongly, but that doesn't mean that it's what God has said or desires. We have to go back and

to seeking the Lord and finding out what he says and what he desires. Well, moving on to verse 14, we get point number two, and that is convincing arguments do not always reveal God's heart. The argument that she presents here, it's pretty convincing. In fact, I would say that looking at this passage in preparation for this evening, and it really began last week, I didn't really know what to think about this passage last

uh before that like if you would have asked me i would have just you know probably thought or said that you know she was uh you know had some wisdom it refers to her as a wise woman and look at the wisdom uh with which she presents this argument and and and it's very convincing the way that it comes across in fact if you want to dig into this a little bit i would encourage you

Pull up a few commentaries and read what different authors and scholars have to say about this passage. And it's a mixed bag of some people think this is right on. Like, why didn't David listen to her? She, you know, he should have listened to her. Like, yeah, totally right on. Exactly everything that happened is what was supposed to happen in this chapter. And then, you know, the other side of the...

scholars are like, no way, man. This was way off base, completely unjust, and not at all what God wanted. And so there is, obviously, you know where I ended up, right, as I'm sharing this message. But there's room for discussion, and you can go work that out if you would like to. But again, bringing it back to the point here, there's a lot of convincing arguments. There's a lot of things that can be presented in a way that, well, that really makes a lot of sense. And it can be incredibly persuasive. And

But at the same time, we need to recognize that that doesn't always reveal the heart of God. In verse 14, here's what the woman says. David, you should bring your son back, this woman says.

Because our time is short. Our opportunities are limited. We're all going to die, and it's going to be like water spilled on the ground. Now, if you spill water on the ground, it spreads out. It soaks into the ground. It cannot be recaptured. If you're trying to scoop it up again, you know, you're going to be scooping up all the dirt and the mud now that it's made, and you can't have that

bottle of water, that glass of water that you had once it's been spilled out. In the same way, this life, it's very limited. And once it's done, it's gone. It's just, it's spread out. And all of those opportunities that you had, they're gone. And yet, even though that is the way of life, she says, God doesn't take away a life, but he devises means. He figures out ways so that his banished ones are not expelled from him.

In some ways, you can look at this verse and say, wow, that is a golden nugget. There's just like, oh man, awesome power and encouragement in this declaration that she makes. There's some truth in this. The reality of the limit of opportunities and life and that picture that is painted in that illustration. Well, there's some truth in that. Wow, the mercy of God and the grace of God that he devises means something.

So that his banished ones are restored. That they're not expelled from him. And there can be great power to that. And it could be taught in a powerful way. In fact, there are many teachings from this verse. About the mercy of God and the grace of God. And the power of God in restoring and healing. And doing those kinds of works. And not that the point is not true. But it's.

At the same time, what this woman is saying is not, well, I would suggest it's not exactly accurate to God's heart in this situation. I think you'll agree if you think through it, but on the surface, boy, is it convincing. It's compelling. It's persuasive.

But if God devises means so that banished ones are not expelled, if you take that to the final conclusion, you play that out for a little bit, then you kind of have to come to the conclusion that, well, then everybody is restored. Everybody is forgiven. Everybody is healed. There's no one lost. There's no one that is left in a state of condemnation because God figures out a way so that they're not expelled from him.

This is a big subject, and I'm not trying to cover the whole concept, but just if you think through what she's declaring here, you'll understand this is not God speaking and saying, look, David, you must bring him back because, look, I don't let anybody get lost. I don't let anybody get banished. I don't let anybody suffer consequences or deal with the aftermath of their crimes or sins.

That is not what God declares. Here's another quote from Warren Wiersbe. He says, God demands that we repent and turn from sin.

If you think about the concept, if you think about this idea of forgiveness and reconciliation and restoration, Warren Wiersbe says, even God doesn't restore a banished one without a price being paid. Now, the grace of God and the goodness of God and the mercy of God towards us is that there is the opportunity, even though we don't deserve to be forgiven and restored, that God gives us the opportunity, but he also doesn't just give forgiveness and

Without expectation on our behalf. Forgiveness is not cheap. It's not just given to everybody. It's given to everybody who asks. It's given to everybody who believes. It's given to everybody who repents. But it's not just given without condition. Now, on the other hand, it's not worked for. And that, you know, so again, we have to find the balance in these things. But think about the probably most famous verse of the Bible, right? John 3, 16.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Now here in this verse, you can see a part of what this woman says, that God devises means by which his banished ones should not be expelled from him. And God was serious about that. He devised means. He sent Jesus Christ to die upon the cross, right?

He came up with a way for us to receive forgiveness when we couldn't work for it, when we couldn't earn it, when there was no way for us to deserve it, to deal with our sin, he dealt with it by receiving the penalty himself. He devised means. But then there's a requirement in this. It doesn't say, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, and so everybody is automatically saved. It says that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

So there is the requirement. There is the belief, the faith that's required. And the context of this passage is Jesus telling Nicodemus, you must be born again. There is a requirement. Forgiveness is not to just be given without any requirement, without any expectation. That there is, well, you must be born again. You must believe.

Jesus goes on here in John chapter 3 to say, for everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light that his deeds may be clearly seen that they have been done in God. Everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light. The one who's practicing evil is not the one who receives the forgiveness that's offered through the means that God has devised.

through Jesus Christ. And so the message of Christ from the beginning was repent, turn from sin. And in that, there is some justice that is accomplished because the penalty and punishment for that sin was placed upon the Lord there upon the cross. And so there is the execution of the penalty, the death that is deserved. But again, it's not

a means that is devised that is without exception and without requirement, there is the requirement of repentance. There is the requirement of a change, a change of heart and a change of mind, and not of a perfection, but of direction. And what this woman says, again, it's a convincing argument. It can be presented in a way that sounds very persuasive, but we need to be on guard and understand convincing arguments are,

Don't always reveal God's heart. So how do we know God's heart then? I mean, on the one hand, you don't want to take the position where, don't tell me anything ever. I'm not going to listen to you. I can't be convinced because, you know, that doesn't necessarily mean what God says. Okay, well, there's room for a lot of us to have discussions about a lot of things.

But the point is, we need to not just take somebody else's word or just be convinced by a convincing argument, not just be persuaded by a persuasive argument, not just take that for the truth by itself, but then we need to take that to the Lord and give God an opportunity to say, what do you say about this, Lord?

It's like the Bereans, right? They were more noble than the Thessalonians because they heard what Paul said. Then they went to the scriptures and searched them out daily to see if what Paul was saying was true. Boy, his arguments were convincing. He was very persuasive, but that sounds really right on. I better double check that before I just grab hold of it and accept that as the truth. That's what the Bereans said. That's what they're commended for. And that is what the Lord would call us to do as well. Be convinced.

But be convinced by the Lord. There needs to be room for us to change. There is going to be, you know, things that we need to learn and grow and hear from. But don't let it just be someone said, whether they have the name pastor in front of, or the title pastor in front of their name, or reverend, or Harvey, or whatever. You know, that just because somebody says it, don't just accept it as the truth. Even if it's really convincing and persuasive.

You take what that is, that argument that is being presented, that thing that is being shared, and you take it to the Lord and pursue God's heart. God, what do you say about this? Again, we need to pursue God's heart in all aspects of life. We're told in Proverbs chapter 14, verse 12, there is a way that seems right to a man, but the end is the way of death. We can be convinced by these convincing arguments and persuaded by these persuasive arguments. And

It fully seems right. We're convinced. But the end of that road is death. And so we need to go back to the Lord and let him redirect for those arguments, for those conclusions, for those decisions. Moving on to verses 15 through 20, we get point number three, and that is flattering words

Do not always communicate God's heart. I struggled with the word always in this point, even though I used always in all the other points. So I maybe would have said flattering words, never communicate God's heart or seldomly or not usually, you know, so you can fill in the blank with what you prefer. But here's verse 15. Now, therefore, I have come to speak of this thing to my Lord, the King, because the people have made me afraid.

And your maidservant said, I will now speak to the king. It may be that the king will perform the request of his maidservant. For the king will hear and deliver his maidservant from the hand of the man who would destroy me and my son together from the inheritance of God. Your maidservant said, the word of my Lord the king will now be comforting. For as the angel of God, so is my Lord the king in discerning good and evil. And may the Lord your God be with you.

She challenges David about why he hasn't brought back Absalom. But she says, look, David, I came to you because I know you're a great God. You're a good king. I came to you because you are so wise. You're like an angel of God. You're so wise. And so that's why I came to you. And that's why I know you're going to do the right thing with your son, Absalom. You see, she's buttering him up, flattering him, you know, giving him some very kind words.

uplifting words, but again, it's still part of this manipulation to accomplish the plan and the purposes of Joab. Verse 18 is not in my notes. Verse 18 is in my Bible though. So then the king answered and said to the woman, please do not hide from me anything that I ask you. And the woman said, please let my Lord, the King speak. So the King said, is the hand of Joab with you in all this? And the woman answered and said, as you live, my Lord, the King,

Verse 20. David here recognizes something's up about this situation.

It seems like from the following verse that Joab is there present. David's like looking at him, looking at her. Something's going on. Tell me the truth. Did Joab put you up to this? And she confesses, yes, yes. You're so smart, David. You're so, look, I tried to pull, I did a really good job pulling this off, but you saw right through it. You're so wise. You're like an angel of God. You have such great wisdom.

Yeah, Joab did this to bring about this change of affairs, to bring about this change, to bring Absalom back, he did this. You're so wise, you found that out. We couldn't sneak it by you. Good job. Again, she's flattering with her words in order to bring about the desires of Joab. David could have been protected from this manipulation, but he's hit with the emotions. He's hit with the arguments. He's hit with the flattering words.

And it brings him to the point where he makes the decision. He calls for the return of Absalom. And that gives us point number four for this evening. That is successful schemes do not always reflect God's heart. Verse 21, and the king said to Joab, all right, I have granted this thing. Go therefore, bring back the young man Absalom.

So the situation concludes with Joab's desired result. David gives in and says, Absalom can come home.

And we're not actually sure why Joab is so intent on making this happen. Clearly in verse 22, he's bowing down. Oh man, I know I found favor in your sight because you've commanded this. He's happy. He is like super excited about bringing Absalom home. We're not exactly sure. We don't know what it was that Joab had in mind in the bigger picture, what he wanted to accomplish. But he got what he wanted, whatever purpose that was for.

He brought David to the point now, David says, Absalom can come home. Joab got what he wanted, but did Joab get what God wanted? And again, that is the question for us to consider in this idea of pursuing God's heart. There's lots of arguments I'm sure Joab could present of why this was a good idea, why it needed to be done, why it was the best thing, you know, for David as king, for David as dad, whatever it might be. You know, there's, I'm sure he had great reasons in his mind for making this come to pass.

But just because it was successful doesn't mean that it was actually what God wanted. Did Joab get what God wanted out of this situation? Now again, in Numbers chapter 35, in the account of the cities of refuge, there is specific guidelines that are laid down for how to handle a situation when someone has been killed and how to evaluate that. And God gave the guidelines. If you look at those guidelines and you apply that to Absalom's situation, you

returning home to Jerusalem isn't what God would have prescribed. But then also you could look at David and look at his situation with Uriah and how he executed Uriah. And well, David deserved to die as a result of that. But God sent the prophet Nathan and at David's repentance, granted forgiveness and said, you shall not die. And so God is able to give a stay of execution. It's not that that's never appropriate, but

But here there's no word from the Lord. There's no seeking of God's heart. There's no God announcing a state of execution for Absalom. It's just some talking, some discussion, some convincing arguments, some manipulation of emotions, some things to get the results that Joab wanted. There wasn't the pursuit of God's heart. I much rather look at the scenes in David's life where he was a great example for us and taught us how to pursue God's heart.

And although I would much prefer those chapters and those seasons of David's life, Paul tells us in Corinthians chapter 10, 1 Corinthians, that these also are recorded for us so that we learn not to make the same mistakes, so that we learn to pursue God's heart by learning from what happens when others had the opportunity but didn't. Now, Absalom's gonna come back. This is gonna set the stage for

for some worse things to take place now. And Absalom is going to come back and he's going to try to steal the kingdom away from David. He's going to commit treason. He's going to attack David and his armies. There's going to be some serious issues that unfold as a result of this. It sets the stage for even greater difficulties to come because nobody in this scene, nobody in this scenario knows

was really looking for what God wanted from the situation. And so there is an element of forgiveness. In verse 24, the king said, let him return to his own house, but do not let him see my face. So Absalom returned to his own house, but did not see the king's face. And there's this like partial forgiveness, this partial reconciliation, which I quoted from Warren Wisby earlier. It's a fiction. It's fake. It's not a real forgiveness. It's not a real reconciliation. And

And again, it sets the stage for some greater difficulties to come. Alan Redpath puts it this way, David's forgiveness of Absalom was completely inadequate, leading to a further outbreak of sin. In contrast, God's forgiveness of a man's soul is completely adequate and a deterrent to continued sin. When sin is dealt with in God's way, it brings us to a place of turning from sin.

It's the kindness of God that leads us to repentance. It's an effective work in us in helping us to remove ourselves from sin. Again, not perfectly, not flawlessly, but in that direction. But here in this case, when fake forgiveness is given and partial reconciliation is happening and the sin is not dealt with, then it sets it up for further sin and greater hurt and more harm.

And again, it's why it's so important that we pursue God's heart. Because if we don't, we put ourselves in a situation where we are exposed, vulnerable to further harm, to greater difficulty, to more hardship, because we haven't dealt with things the way that God desires and requires. The scheme was successful, but it doesn't reflect the heart of God. Just because a plan, a plot works, it doesn't

Doesn't make it right, and it doesn't mean that God's in it. Again, I would quote from Warren Wiersbe, faith is living without scheming. There can be some great convincing arguments that we can have in our own heads about why it's okay for us to manipulate people's emotions and present convincing arguments about

and flatter them and, you know, butter them up in order to get them to come to church. You know, it's like, well, you know, we do all of this to try, it's like, what we want is good. And so that allows me then to behave this way all in all these things. And listen, there's lots of ways that we would love to change other people's lives and to, you know,

Try to get them to do what we want for them for their good, probably. Not necessarily because we're just trying to steal their money, right? But hey, for your good. And so I'm going to trick you into doing what's good for you. And oh man, totally sympathize with that heart. But even if it works, a successful scheme doesn't necessarily reflect the heart of God. We need to be very careful, right?

We may have great reasons to be like Joab, but Joab was not one who was pursuing God's heart. And we need to be sure, we need to be careful that the schemes that we're about, that the things that we're doing are in response to God leading us and directing us and speaking to us and not just us trying to accomplish things

what it is that we want. Here's something that I've always appreciated from the book of Exodus, chapter 18, verse 23. It's when Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, gave him some advice. He says, if you do this thing, setting up judges and appointing elders to deal with cases, if you do this thing and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure and all this people will also go to their place in peace.

Jethro gives his advice. He says, Moses, what you're doing is not good. This is not wise. You're not going to survive this. It's not going to last a long time if you keep on this path. So here's what I suggest you do. And he gives his suggestion. He gives his advice. He gives his counsel. And it's wise counsel. It's a convincing argument. It's very persuasive. You know, it makes a lot of sense. But then he also tags on this little phrase, and God so commands you. If you do this, and God so commands you. This is what I think.

This is what I advise. This is what I counsel. Now you check with God. Moses, you pursue God's heart and make sure that what I'm telling you is what God wants from you. And if it is, then you'll be blessed. This is what I think you should do. But check with God before you do it. I think that presents for us a really good approach to help us live without scheming in other people's lives, trying to get them to where we want them to be.

God doesn't trick us. He doesn't, you know, work that way in our lives. And yet sometimes we work like Joab in other people's lives and try to get them maybe for good reasons, but we need to be careful. And our primary job is first of all, to pursue God's heart. But then secondarily is to help others pursue God's heart. And so we can advise and we need to counsel and we need to share what's right and we need to share the truth. But in a way where we're pointing them out

to the Lord, that they would pursue God's heart and know him and know what he desires of them. To protect you from manipulation, that is being manipulated, but also to protect you from manipulating others. And then you behave that way to others to help protect them from being manipulated.

Because if you can manipulate them to your quote unquote good ends, other people can manipulate them to worse ends. But if you teach them how to pursue God's heart, you help protect them from those attacks of the enemy. And so it all comes back to this. We need to pursue God's heart. We need to seek after what is the will of God? What does God say? What does God want? We need to know him and walk with him. And so let's take some time to just

communicate with the Lord what we're going through in our situations. Kim's going to come up and lead us in some worship. And as she does, let's just take this time to pursue his heart. I don't know what you're facing and what you might be dealing with and what kind of manipulation might be happening in your life and what kind of arguments might be presenting themselves that are so convincing and what type of things might be setting you up to try to get you to do something that God doesn't want.

This is an opportunity for you to take that influence, to take that counsel, to take those feelings to the Lord and just invite him to speak to you about what he desires in those situations. And maybe the Lord's speaking to you about how you've been dealing with somebody else and maybe some manipulation that you're not the victim of, but the perpetrator of. And you can take that before the Lord in repentance this evening as we just spend this time with him.

pursuing his heart, inviting him to speak to us about what he desires in our lives. During this time, as we always do, we want to give you opportunity. And so as you feel that, you can pray with one another, encourage one another, minister to one another as we worship the Lord together and pursue his heart.

We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.