2 SAMUEL 14-15 PURSUE GODS HEART INSTEAD OF YOUR SCHEMES2018 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: 2 Samuel 14-15 Pursue Gods Heart Instead Of Your Schemes

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, this evening we're in 2 Samuel chapter 14, continuing to look at the life of David, continuing to talk about pursuing God's heart. But tonight, as we have seen a few times and for the past several weeks especially, you're not so much looking at God,

the pursuit of God's heart, but really how to not pursue God's heart and learning from things that are recorded here that show us, well, this is not the way to live. This is not the way to go. And so we'll continue to see that as we focus for a little bit on Absalom, the son of David, who comes back and causes some serious issues. So let's read through the passage and then we'll jump into what the Lord has for us this evening.

2 Samuel chapter 14, we'll go ahead and jump into verse 25, where we left off last week, and read to the end of the chapter. Here's what it says. Now in all Israel, there was no one who was praised as much as Absalom for his good looks. From the sole of his foot to the crown of his head, there was no blemish in him. And when he cut the hair of his head, at the end of every year he cut it because it was heavy on him.

When he cut it, he weighed the hair of his head at 200 shekels, according to the king's standard. To Absalom were born three sons and one daughter whose name was Tamar. She was a woman of beautiful appearance. And Absalom dwelt two full years in Jerusalem, but did not see the king's face. Therefore, Absalom sent for Joab to send him to the king, but he would not come to him. And when he sent again the second time, he would not come.

So he said to his servants, see, Joab's field is near mine and he has barley there. Go and set it on fire. And Absalom's servants set the field on fire. Verse 31. Then Joab arose and came to Absalom's house and said to him, why have your servants set my field on fire?

And Absalom answered Joab, look, I sent to you saying, come here so that I may send you to the king to say, where have, or why have I come from Gesher? It would have been better for me to be there still. Now, therefore, let me see the king's face. But if there is an iniquity in me, let him execute me. So Joab went 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 then the king kissed Absalom.

Here we're jumping right into the middle of this account where there is this tension between Absalom and David. And it goes back to really David's sin with Bathsheba.

And one of the consequences of that, that God announced through the prophet Nathan, was that there was going to be issues within his family that bubbled up and that was brought forth by this sin that David had committed. And that began to unfold as we saw his eldest son Amnon force himself upon his sister Tamar, who was actually his half-sister,

But it was Absalom's full sister, same father, same mother, Absalom and Tamar were close. And so Absalom took it personally. He was the third born of David and he took it personally when this took place. And so he plotted and planned and then put Amnon to death when he had the opportunity.

Well, then he had to flee and he stayed outside of Israel for about three years until last week we looked at the scheme of Joab, you know, being able to manipulate David, to bring him to the point, to bring Absalom back. And so that's where we're picking it up now in verse 25. Absalom is now back in Jerusalem. His crime was not really dealt with.

His sin is not really dealt with. His heart is not repentant. And David is still not dealing with it well in that he's kind of giving Absalom the silent treatment. Okay, well, you can come back, but you're still in trouble. You know, I'm not going to talk to you and you can't see my face. And so there's this...

tension. There's, you know, he's around and David's around, but there's not the freedom of relationship. There's also not the dealing of sin, and it's a lot of things that are wrong with the situation. But this evening, as we look at this passage, we'll be kind of focusing on Absalom and

his actions and his behavior through this to learn further what not to do in our lives and in our walk with God. And so I've titled the message, Pursue God's Heart Instead of Your Schemes.

Absalom is a schemer, and he is a master schemer and manipulator, and he is effective at making what he wants to happen come to pass. This idea of scheming, it's making plans, and many times in a devious way, in a forceful way, to make something happen that you want to happen. I quoted several times last week and over the previous weeks,

Warren Wiersbe says that faith is living without scheming. And here as we look at Absalom in his life, we see that he is not a man of faith. He's not trusting God for his life. He's not trusting God and following God and pursuing the heart of God, the will of God, the plan of God. He's not doing anything that he's doing out of obedience to God. He's not doing anything that he's doing out of obedience to God.

That's what it means to be a man or a woman after God's own heart. That is to seek after the will of God and to seek to do what pleases God. But Absalom in his schemes is seeking to do what pleases him, trying to accomplish his will, not God's will. And as you look at these tactics, these schemes that Absalom uses, these are, wow, it's very up to date in the sense that these are common tactics still used today.

in order to accomplish our purposes and our schemes and our ambitions. These kinds of ways are continually used in people's lives all around us. Now, when I talk about schemes and pursuing God's heart instead of your schemes, you know, don't, you don't have to think of it as like, well, I'm not trying to be president or to be king or to be, you know, to take over something. Uh,

You know, maybe some do have those schemes, but it also doesn't have to be to that extent. As I was thinking about that, I was reminded of the cartoon, right? Pinky ass brain. Hey, what do you want to do tomorrow night? Same thing we do every night. Try to take over the world, right? I butchered that. But anyways, you get the point, right? That it doesn't have to be that level of, you know, you're trying to take over the tri-state area and you're trying to be the king or you're trying to be the ruler. Your scheme...

can be anything that is your plan, but not God's plan in your life. And I think it's important for us to consider these things because we may not like to think about it. We may not want to consider it that much, but I would suggest that we scheme a whole lot more than we would like to admit. That we are looking to accomplish our plans and not so concerned about whether or not it's God's

And sometimes for some people it, you know, takes the form of, well, I want a spouse. And so there's a scheme, there's a plan, there's a, you know, approach, there's a technique, there's a method, there's a way to, you know, accomplish getting a spouse or maybe trading in a spouse or, you know. It's not so much important if it's God's plan, but it's my plan. And there's this endeavor to obtain that.

It could be, you know, for a career, and we can work really hard and have schemes and plans and have, you know, things in place and strategies to get the career that I want, to get, you know, the position that I want, to get to the level that I want. But

Is it God's plan? Is it what God wants to do? Is that a position, a career, a place that God wants to give you? It could be, you know, college, you know, I want to get to this college or I want to go to that college or send my kids to this college. And that's really important. And we will work hard and plan and scheme and strategize and try to figure out

But we need to stop and think, is it God's plan or is it just my plan? And it can be that way for entertainment. It can be that way for popularity. It could be that way for ministry. It could be that way for anything in our life where it's our plan and not God's plan. And we're scheming and trying to make it happen even though God hasn't set that for us.

We see an example of this in Jacob in the Old Testament. We're in the Old Testament in 2 Samuel, but back in the book of Genesis, he's the heel catcher, the schemer, right? And he's trying to obtain even what God said that he was going to give him.

But he's obtaining it with his methods and his schemes and his plans rather than letting God do that or direct him in doing it in God's ways. You could think of a scheme also with Abraham and Sarah trying to fulfill the promise that God had given them.

And instead of waiting for God to do the work, they couldn't see how it could be done. So they thought, well, we need to take matters into our own hands and make this happen. And so it became a scheme. It became a plan. It was part of what God had promised, but they took their own approach and used their own methods. And so as we talk about schemes this evening, I would encourage you to think about it in light of those things that it's sometimes hard

very noble in the sense of the end result. Sometimes it's, well, this is what God promised, or this is what God said, but the scheme to get there, if it's not God's plan, it's, well, it's going to be very costly and dangerous to pursue.

Pursue God's heart instead of your schemes. That quote that I keep sharing from Warren Wiersbe, that faith is living without scheming, it comes from several different places in his writings, but here's one of them in a devotion that he wrote called Take Your Hands Off. Take your hands off. He says this, a friend of mine used to remind me, faith is living without scheming.

Whenever I discover myself pushing and prodding, God says to me, take your hands off. Be still and know that I am God. A time will come when he will say, all right, I will use your hands, but until then, keep your hands off. Know that he is God. There are many times in our lives where we need to be reminded to keep our hands off, where we want something to be changed. We want something to be different now.

And so we can try to push, try to prod, try to force, try to come up with plans and schemes to make happen what we want to happen. And again, it may even be with the best of intentions. It may even be, you know, a good desired end result. But we need to be careful that we don't take things into our own hands to execute our plans instead of the plan of God.

And when God says, okay, I'm going to use your hands and now it's time to execute a plan, well then it's God's plan and we can execute that. But

But to execute our plan, it's instead a scheme. And we need to be careful to pursue God's heart, to seek after what God wants. And so again, as we look at these things, I would encourage you to consider areas that you might be scheming in your life. And we don't always recognize it. So we'll look at five points to help you identify perhaps some areas, perhaps some ways that you might be scheming and executing your plans instead of God's plan.

plans. We're going to start in verse 14, I'm sorry, chapter 14, verses 25 through 27 with point number one, and that is you are scheming when you impress yourself.

When you impress yourself, are you impressed when you look in the mirror? Are you impressed with how you behave? This is where we find Absalom at. In verse 25, again, it says, now in all Israel, there is no one who was praised as much as Absalom for his good looks. That's only because Richard Buena wasn't around. From the sole of his foot to the crown of his head, there was no blemish in him.

Here we have some interesting remarks about Absalom. He was a good-looking guy. Now, this is...

Interesting, as you look at the history of Israel's kings, right? First, you saw King Saul, and he was head and shoulders above everybody else. He was a good-looking guy as well, handsome, you know, compared to everyone around him. And everybody looked at him and said, wow, that is a king, right?

When God was going to replace Saul and he sends Samuel the prophet to the sons of Jesse, Jesse sees the eldest brother and goes, whoa, that's a good looking guy. He's probably supposed to be the king. And God says, you're not looking at the right thing. You need to be looking at the heart. That's what I see. And here we have Absalom kind of following in that line. He is a good looking guy. And the people would look at him

at Absalom, and there would be a natural draw. There would be a natural appeal. Wow, this guy's a good-looking guy. He is very handsome, and boy, does he have great hair. I mean, his hair, his hair is mentioned here. It's going to be his downfall later, but it was something that was noteworthy about him. He would cut his hair every year, and then he would weigh it, and it would weigh 200 shekels.

Now, converting that to today's measurements, that's about five pounds, depending on exactly the conversion that is used. So some estimate four, some estimate six. Five pounds is a good average. So five pounds of hair every day.

year. Now, it's not always a sin to weigh your hair. If you want to cut your hair every year and, you know, weigh it, it's, that in itself is maybe not so bad. It's not such an issue. Now, if you come and weigh your hair, and then you wave it in front of me and just kind of tease me because I don't have that weight, that would be sinful. But here's what I would ask you to consider. Why do we know how much Absalom's hair weighed? Why do we know how much Absalom's hair weighed?

How do we know how much Absalom's hair weighed? Well, we know because it's written here, right? But why do we know? Now, Jesus tells us in Matthew chapter 10, the very hairs of your head are numbered. So whatever the weight of your hair is,

God knows that value. He knows how many shekels that is or how many pounds that is or ounces, you know, in the case of some of us. He knows how much that hair weighs. He knows the number of the hairs. And so God could just declare, I know how much Richard's hair weighs. And let me tell you how much Richard's hair weighs. Let me tell you how much Absalom's hair weighs. God could say,

But that's not what happened. That's not why we know how much Absalom's hair weighed. Why do we know how much Absalom's hair weighed? We know because every year Absalom made a show.

Absalom put on a show and he weighed his hair every year. He cut off, it says in verse 26, the hair of his head at the end of every year. He cut it because it was heavy on him. And when he cut it, he weighed the hair of his head at 200 shekels according to the king's standard. It wasn't just that, you know, he went down the street and got a haircut.

This was something that was somewhat of a ceremony. This was something that was celebratory. This was something that was, you know, put on as a show. And this is why I phrase the point this way. You are scheming when you impress yourself. It is that Absalom was really happy with how much his hair weighed. And he wanted Bible readers for thousands of years later to know, listen,

I'm pretty impressive. My hair weighs five pounds every year. I grow that much hair. And, you know, maybe a little bit is lost for us culturally. A little bit is lost as us, you know, our customs are not quite the same. And, you know, that's not maybe that big of a deal in your mind. But it was something for them at that time. It was something impressive. It was something that was, you know, celebrated. And so this was, well, part of the issue of Absalom and his pride was,

Again, not just that he got a haircut, but he would make a ceremony out of it. And look at, here we go again. Five years in a row, guys, my hair was five. I grew five pounds of hair this year. I mean, there was this procession, this impression, this celebration that would go as a result of this. He was a good looking guy. No one was praised as much as Absalom. And it's not just that he was good looking. He was a good looking guy.

But he thought he was good looking. Now, you know the difference, right? There are some people who are good looking and then there are some people who are like, they think they're good looking, right? And it's a whole different attitude. It's a whole different air. He knew he was good looking. He thought he was good looking. He was impressed with how good looking he was. He was impressed with how good looking his children were. Absalom had a couple sons and a daughter. He named his daughter Tamar and that was also the name of his sister. That

We read about a couple of weeks ago. And so, you know, you see some sentiment there. He wasn't, you know, without his good traits. He had great fondness and love and sentiment. He names his daughter after his sister and it says she was a woman of beautiful appearance. So here we just have a little bit of a summary of Absalom's life. It's a little bit of a snapshot and there's not much detail here, but we do get the impression. We do get the understanding. Absalom,

He was really happy with what he saw in the mirror. He was impressed. He really thought he was fantastic. And I can share that with him. You know what's so great about me? Let me tell you. No, I'm just kidding. It kind of runs in line with the religious leaders of Jesus's day. And they were really impressed with how righteous they were.

Really impressed with how they kept the law. Really impressed with how they tithed and how they, you know, articulated things and divided things and put things into certain practices and habits and behaviors and

really impressed with how they would give. And so they would announce their giving and they would weigh their giving and they would blow trumpets to signal their giving and on and on and on we could go that there was this, yeah, I am pretty great attitude that the religious leaders had, that Absalom had, that you and I can tend to have as well. And you need to understand when we have that attitude,

when we're really impressed with ourselves, well, there's some scheming that goes along with that. We're looking at ourselves, we're liking what we see, and, well, we're looking at

to accomplish some things. We're looking at what we think that we deserve as a result of how impressive we are. We excuse ourselves for other things because of how impressive we are in some areas. And there is scheming that goes along. There's our plans, there's our plots, there's our attempts to accomplish things because of how impressed we are with ourselves. You're scheming if you're impressed with yourself.

Are you impressed? Are you scheming? Impressed with how much you read the Bible? Impressed with how good of a Bible teacher you are? Impressed with your grammar or your parenting skills? Impressed with... Watch out. There's an agenda there. There's an agenda. When we are really impressed... Now, I'm not saying that we have to hate ourselves. And I'm not saying that, you know, we have to punish ourselves or beat ourselves or always walk around and be depressed because of how wretched we are.

But there's a big difference between being depressed about how wretched you are, you know, perpetually and continually, and being really impressed with who you are, with how you are, with what you do. We talk about pride. We talk about humility. I like the definition of humility, which goes this way. It's an accurate understanding of yourself.

It's not a little understanding of yourself or a little perception of yourself. It's an accurate understanding. It's an accurate perspective that you see yourself from God's perspective, that you let God tell you who you are, what value you have, what's right and what's wrong, that you let God give you the correct perspective about your life and about your heart.

And so that's where we need to be, not impressed with ourselves in that sense that we think we're all that, but looking to God and saying, God, what do you say about me? The apostle Paul, it's often been noted about kind of his path of growth as an apostle. In 1 Corinthians chapter 5 or 15, early in his ministry, he referred to himself as the least of the apostles.

A little bit later in his ministry in Ephesians chapter 3, he referred to himself as less than the least of all the saints. So he's kind of brought himself in a different perspective. He's understanding a little bit more, not just the least of the apostles, but least of the saints. And then in 1 Timothy chapter 1, a little bit later on in his ministry, he called himself the chief of sinners. And

Paul, as he grew in the Lord, he didn't become more and more depressed about how wretched he was. That's not what he's describing here. He's just recognizing, I'm not as great as I thought I was. He's not as impressed with himself. He's more and more impressed with the Lord instead and the grace of the Lord and the mercy of God and the gifts of the Lord and so on and so forth. And we need to be careful when we're impressed with ourselves. There's an agenda. There's an agenda.

within our hearts, within our minds. There is a scheme that is unfolding. And again, it can be anything that is your plan, but not God's plan, whatever pursuit that might be. Moving on to verses 28 through 33, it gives us point number two, and that is you are scheming when you force people to do what you want, when you want. That one's a mouthful, and I could have broken it up into a

When it's our way or the highway, when we're willing to do whatever needs to be done to get people to do what we want and on our schedule, well, we need to be careful. There's an opportunity there for us to examine. Am I scheming? Am I plotting? Am I planning my ways and not the Lord's ways? Again, in verse 28, it says, "'Absalom dwelt two full years in Jerusalem, but did not see the king's face.'"

Therefore, Absalom sent for Joab to send him to the king, but he would not come to him. And when he sent again the second time, he would not come. So he said to his servants, see, Joab's field is near mine and he has barley there. Go and set it on fire. And Absalom's servants set the field on fire. So Absalom's back, really impressed with himself, looking in the mirror, liking what he sees. But what he doesn't like is when he looks around, he realizes, I haven't seen my dad in five years now.

He was three years outside of Israel. He's been back in Jerusalem now for two years, it tells us, and he's not seen David. Now, not getting into the forgiveness, the reconciliation, that piece of it. There's a lot of issues there. There's unforgiveness. There is a lack of dealing with the sin that went on. David is giving Absalom the silent treatment and not dealing with the issues. But here's Absalom saying, I don't get to see the king.

And we can see as we go through the passage, he's not so interested in seeing David. It's not that he's like, oh, I miss my dad. I want to see my dad. No, this is the beginning. He needs to be able to see the king in order to execute the next part of his plan. And so he is, you know, taking things one step at a time as any good schemer will do in order to knock down that obstacle to get to the next part of the plan. And so David,

He looks around. He says, man, I'm not able to be in the presence of the king, to be around the palace. I'm not able to be around, and I need to be there for what I want to accomplish. And so he sends for Joab, and he says, hey, Joab, I want to go visit the king. We need to have a meeting, and I want to see him face to face. And Joab didn't respond. And so Absalom gets a little bit frustrated, a little bit impatient, sends another message. Hey, Joab, I want to go see my dad.

You need to tell my dad I want to see him. But Joab would not come. So two years have passed. Two times Absalom sends to Joab, and that's Absalom's limit. He can't take it anymore. Two years, two messages, that's it. I'm done. Something needs to happen. It needs to happen now.

And so he tells his servants, hey, that's Joab's field right there. Just set it on fire. That'll get his attention. He doesn't want to listen to me when I send a message. All right, set his field on fire. And he lights up the barley field that is there and sets it on fire. Because he misses his dad? No. This whole situation, it's messing with his ambitions. And what we see here with Absalom is such a little regard for...

other people for their property, for their interests, for, you know, their purposes and what's good for them. This is not something that is done to benefit anyone except for his own agenda. Absalom is saying, I need to get what I want and it doesn't matter how much it costs you.

Because, well, and you could hear Absalom kind of justify himself. Hey, I left you two messages, dude. I left you two messages and you didn't respond. What other choice did I have? I had to burn down your house. I mean, there was no other choice. I had to set your field on fire. And it reveals to us this hearts within Absalom. He had to get what he wanted in the timeframe that he wanted, or he would make it happen, whatever it costs.

No matter how much it costs. Not him, but no matter how much it costs you. Pastor John MacArthur puts it this way. This was an act of aggression by Absalom to force Joab to act on his behalf with David, his father. Such a crime was serious as it destroyed the livelihood of the owner and workers. It reveals that Absalom's heart was not repentant and submissive, but manipulative.

We talked about the manipulations of Joab and the schemes of Joab last week and over the life of David. We've seen that as a characteristic of Joab and we see that now carried on in Absalom. And he is aggressive in his manipulation.

He is forceful. He is going to make this happen. Joab, you have to go tell my dad. I have to see the king. We have to deal with this. It's been two years. I messaged you two times forcing people to do what he wants when he wants. It's successful, it seems, in verse 31. Then Joab arose and came to Absalom's house and said to him, why have your servants set my field on fire?

Here we get a little insight in Absalom. He is absolutely convinced. He is innocent in his murder of Amnon.

in his execution of Amnon, in his putting Amnon to death. He says, look, if there's iniquity in me, let him execute me. But he says that because he's convinced, no, I did the right thing. And so here is Absalom. You can kind of get a sense of his heart. He is bitter, self-righteous, convinced that

I'm right. Everybody's out to get me. Everybody else is wrong and fed up with it. And so now I got to make things happen because it's not happening the way that it should happen. And so he begins to execute his plan in a very forceful, aggressive, disrespectful, unloving way. He sets Joab's field on fire. Now it works in that it brings about the meeting that Absalom had.

In verse 33, And so finally after five years, they see each other face to face. Finally after five years, they're reunited again.

Except for it's all just facade and charade. It's not for real. You'll see that as we move forward into the next verses. This was just a step in Absalom's plan to get to the next point. He had to be in proximity of the king in order to execute the next part of his plan. And so he began to become forceful, getting Joab, manipulating Joab, forcing Joab to do what he wants in the timeframe that he wanted.

wanted. Are you scheming your way, your timeline? Does it have to be that way? Are you forcing people? Is it difficult, you know, to work with you in that sense? Because it has to be your way, your timeline. Listen, sometimes God sets timelines and they're tough and they require lots of force. And that's okay if it's God setting the timeline and setting this is the agenda.

But when I have to force my way in my timeline without God's insight and God's direction, well, there's an indication there. There's some scheming going on. There's some planning. It's not God's plan, my plan. I've got to make this happen.

I've got to get married by this age and we have this agenda. I have to, I have to, and I'm going to make it happen. I'm going to do everything I can. I got to reach this objective in my career by this time and have this much money in the account by this time or, you know, have accomplished this or have that. And there is this timeline. There is this objective that is forced. Now, listen, if God tells you to force a conversation, then go for it.

Force a conversation. But if God hasn't told you, well, then you need to stop and think, why am I so forceful in this? Why am I so aggressive in this? Now, if God has given you instruction to nag until you see something change and something different, then go for it. But if not, maybe you need to stop and consider, why am I so forceful? My way, my timeline, what I want. Again, faith is living without scheming.

Not trying to accomplish my purposes and my plans and what pleases me, but trying to accomplish what pleases God. What is pleasing to him? Pursue God's heart instead of your schemes. We're going to move on into chapter 15 now, and we're going to work our way through verse 12. But looking at verses 1 through 6 for point number 3 here, it's, you are scheming when you undermine people. So continuing to look at the pattern and the life of Absalom, again, he is

insisting on this meeting with his dad, not so that he could, you know, spend Christmas and Thanksgiving with him, but setting the stage for what he wants to do next. And here's what it is in verse one. After this, it happened that Absalom provided himself with chariots and horses and 50 men to run before him. Now Absalom would rise early and stand beside the way to the gate. So it was whenever anyone who had a lawsuit came to the king for a decision, that Absalom would call to him and say, what city are you from?

And he would say, your servant is from such and such a tribe of Israel. Then Absalom would say to him, look, your case is good and right, but there is no deputy of the king to hear you. Moreover, Absalom would say, oh, that I were made a judge in the land and everyone who had any suit or cause would come to me. Then I would give him justice. Now that Absalom has been reunited with David, he's able to be in proximity to David and

which is where he needs to be to really accomplish what it is he's looking to accomplish. He sets himself up to intercept people who are on their way to visit King David.

Now, the way that it worked in those days, the court system was handled a little bit differently. It was done with elders at the gate of the city. They would decide on matters that, you know, civil matters, things that were conflicts between people. And so, you know, two people having an issue would go to the gate of the city and there was elders there throughout the day, every day. And so the elders of the city would, you know, hear the case and decide on the case and decide

If the outcome of that decision wasn't something that everybody was in agreement with, then they would appeal that decision by going to the king.

So, you know, people would go to the courts, the gates of Jerusalem to have their cases heard. And then from there, if they didn't like the decision, then they would take that to the king. So that way, you know, most of the cases would be dealt with, but there would be a few, the more difficult ones or the ones that were more troubling, they would be taken before the king.

And so what Absalom did is he set himself up there on the way to the king. So they've already dealt with the elders. Now there's the people who are still not happy with the decision. They're still, you know, not happy with how things turned out with the elders. And so now they're on their way to David and there's Absalom there to greet them. And he greets them with, well, an impressive parade. It tells us in verse one that he provided himself. Who provided? He did. Chariots and horses and

and 50 men to run before him. So he sets up this parade for himself, chariots, not because he was interested in the speed, because the 50 men in front of him would slow him down. He wanted this impressive show. And so here he is appearing presidential. He has an entourage. People would stop and go, whoa, here comes Absalom. Like, you know, here's this parade that comes through the town. Absalom is now here. And he began to set this impression in people's mind with

these chariots and horses and 50 men to run before him. And then he would intercept these people who are on the way to have their case heard. It says he would arise early in verse two and stand beside the way to the gate. So anybody who is coming by, he would say, hey friend, how are you doing? Where are you from? Oh, wow. Yeah. My cousin's from Issachar. You know, that's cool, man. Yeah. How's the springs? Oh yeah. They're nice. Yeah. Well, what are you here for, man? What's your case? And

oh yeah, this situation happened and you know, this unfolded and I said this and he said that and we went to the courts and boy, they didn't hear really what happened and the decision was really unfair and Absalom would go, oh man, yeah, you're right. That was really wrong what they did to you. I can't believe that that injustice would go on and oh man, it's too bad. There's no deputy of the king to hear you, he says in verse three. Your case is good and right, right?

Oh yeah, but you know, my dad, he just, he's not really provided the resources that people need to be able to have their cases resolved. I mean, it's such a shame. There's just no deputy of the king to hear your case. And here, Absalom is undermining the authority, the credibility, the heart of the people towards David. It is a sneaky and underhanded and wicked approach that he is taking.

and so effective. I would suggest it's so effective. I'm wrestling within my head to see if I'm going to actually say this or not, but it's so effective that most Bible commentators believe Absalom, and they go on to explain how David was so busy and how he had so much to do, and so, you know, he really didn't have time to hear everybody's cases, and he didn't have, he was lacking in his responsibilities, and maybe he was, but

But we're taking the word of Absalom when we take that perspective. We're believing him. You go back earlier in chapter 14, this widow was able to be brought before David who brought this story and it was all fake and all that. But hey, there was opportunity perhaps. There was opportunity probably. But boy, is it effective at convincing. Oh man, yeah, he's too busy. He's got too much going on. Oh, there's no deputy here.

Really just not doing a good job in being king. He's not just undermining David, but what goes hand in hand with that, right along with that, he's presenting himself as the solution. In verse four, oh, that I were made judge in the land. Man, your case is good. I would totally rule in your favor. And I would make sure that was handled. I would cover, I would make sure that that injustice would take, I would give him justice.

For sure. Oh man, if only David would let me decide on things.

He holds everything himself. He won't delegate. He won't let other people help him. And he won't let other people decide on things. There's no deputy of the king. And he's too busy. And so, oh, man, it's such a bummer. It's so unfortunate. You're not going to be able to have your case heard. But oh, if only. If only he would just relax a little bit. Just chill and let some other people help him. I would love to help you get justice.

And so Absalom is having this dialogue 50 times a day, you know, just intercepting everybody as they come, intercepting people on the way in to the king. In verse 5 it says, And so it was, whenever anyone came near to bow down to him, that he would put out his hand and take him and kiss him. In this manner Absalom acted toward all Israel who came to the king for judgment. So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel."

He undermined the king. He doesn't have time for you. He doesn't think your case is important. He hasn't even appointed a deputy to hear your case, your matter, to take you before the king. If only I could, if only he would let me. And then as people are bowing down, he's like, oh, no, no, no, don't do that. Come on, man. I mean, I'm just a guy just like you, you know, and pretending humility, pretending to be relatable in that way. No, let me hug you. Let me kiss you. You don't kiss me. I'll kiss you.

In this manner, Absalom acted. Key word there, acted. Now that's just actually technically describing this is his behavior, but acting is an interesting translation that this was all a show. It's a pretend that he's putting on to accomplish his scheme. And it was effective in verse six. He stole the hearts of the men of Israel. Subversive, underhanded, sneaky, by undermining the king, undermining Israel.

his father. Pastor David Guzik says, Absalom's clever approach made him able to subvert and divide David's kingdom without saying any specific thing that could condemn him. If someone objected, Absalom would simply say, tell me one specific thing that I have said or done. And all of this, he was very careful, very careful with his words, crafty with his words, so that a direct accusation couldn't be brought. But still at the same time, he was subversive.

Stealing away the hearts of the people. This tactic has been used over and over and over throughout the centuries. This is used in politics. It's used in families. It's used in the church. It's used all over. It is not the way that God would have us to operate. Undermining people, it's not God's way. It's not what God calls us to do.

That doesn't mean we never deal with faults or issues. That doesn't mean that, but we must do things and operate in a way that is beneficial, not tearing down, but building up. One of my go-to verses that I quote often because I need to hear it. Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.

Paul says, let your words, let nothing be tearing down coming out of your mouth. Again, not that we don't have to talk about issues and difficulties and hard situations, but only let out of your mouth what's good for necessary edification, what's helpful, what builds up, what imparts grace to the hearers. And sometimes we do need to address that.

lacks and issues. And if David did have issues of, you know, this kind of thing in the court system and handling justice, that would be something that would need to be approached and talked about and dealt with, but not in this way, not in an undermining way, but in a way that was building up, that was imparting grace, that was helpful. You are scheming when you undermine people.

when you're tearing down, when you're breaking down, when you're reducing credibility, when you're reducing reputation in the eyes of others around you, that there is an undermining that's going on. And you need to recognize that that's not just you because you've got the gift of, you know, criticism that, you know, you're just so gifted by the Lord and you're just able to call people out on, you know, all their faults and,

there's schemes going on. And you may not be fully aware of what's happening and the agenda that is there within your own heart. But when we are undermining people, tearing down, that is not love. It's not the way of the Lord. It's not what Jesus would do. Are you scheming? To capitalize on a fault, whether that be real or imagined, it's undermining. To take advantage of

a weakness of a situation. It's undermining. It's not the pursuit of God's heart. God never works that way. He never works that way. Jesus never operated that way in his ministry. We need to, well, let no corrupt word proceed out of our mouth, but only what is good. As we pursue God's heart, what's best for people, love does what is best for the people around us. That is what we need to do.

Moving on to point number four, looking at verses seven through nine here, we see you are scheming when you fake spiritual things. In verse seven, it says, now it came to pass after 40 years that Absalom said to the king, please let me go to Hebron and pay the vow which I made to the Lord. For your servant took a vow while I dwelt at Gesher in Syria, saying, if the Lord indeed brings me back to Jerusalem, then I will serve the Lord. And the king said to him, go in peace. So he arose and went to Hebron.

Here it tells us in verse 7, some time passes. Now, it says 40 years. There is lots of discussion about whether 40 is the correct number there. Most would suggest that it's probably four years that have passed of Absalom doing this, or Absalom being back in Jerusalem, and so that much time has passed. Others disagree and say, no, 40 ties to something, and you can wrestle with that if you want to, but

Not that important as far as I'm concerned. So here, the point is, Absalom says to David, hey, I need to go to Hebron because I made a vow to the Lord. Back when I was in Gesher, before I was brought back, man, I was just distraught. And I just, I promised the Lord, Lord, if you bring me back to Jerusalem, I'm going to make a vow. I'm going to keep this vow. I'm going to serve you. I'm going to be devoted to you. That's what Absalom is telling David. You know, it's all made up. It's fake. It's fake.

He maybe made a vow, but it wasn't to the Lord. It wasn't in honor of the Lord. Absalom's objective was to get to Hebron because this was going to be his headquarters for this revolt, for this plan that he had to take over the kingdom of Israel. Absalom was born there in Hebron. So he knew the area, his, you know,

childhood friends were there. He had connections there. It was the original capital, so there was political clout there. It was close to Jerusalem, but far enough away, it was safe for him to really amass a following, to put together an army, and to begin to really mount up against David to take over the kingdom. So he tells David, I made this vow. I made this promise. Sounds like a

But David buys it. He falls for it. In verse nine, it says, and the king said to him, go in peace. So he arose and went to Hebron. David falls for it. This is not hard to do. This is something we can be very vulnerable to, to fall for fake spirituality, especially when it's something that we want to be true. Just think of it as a parent. Your kid says, man, I promise I want to serve the Lord and I want to go and be faithful and serve the Lord.

You're like, yeah, I want, I'm in support of that. Yeah, let's, yeah, go for it. Yeah, go do what God wants you to do. And David here says, go in peace. These are his final words to Absalom. David doesn't know that yet. Absalom doesn't know that yet, but Absalom is about to lead a revolt. David's going to run out into the wilderness. There's going to be a battle between

This kind of civil war, the army of Israel as they fight those who are on David's side and those who are on Absalom's side and Absalom is going to die in the midst of that battle. Sorry, spoiler alert, just ruined the whole story for you, right? These are his last words. He says, go in peace. At least they were good words. They weren't angry words, but David says, go in peace. But on Absalom's side, they're just fake. It's just false. It's just lies. We can be vulnerable to fall for these kinds of things.

especially when it always so wanted to be true. I always appreciate it in the testimony of Raul Ruiz. You know, in his testimony is he is there that night and he's about to kill his family and then put himself to death. He's at the end and there's a long history of trouble that led up to that. And then he kicks the TV, Chuck Smith comes on, he hears the gospel, he gets saved and

His wife comes home later. He says, I'm a Christian now. I received Jesus. And she says, yeah, right. And I don't remember the exact amount of time, but basically for a year, she says, yeah, right. And it takes a long time for her to come to the point where she believes that he really did accept the Lord and that his life has been changed. Sometimes life changes so

Take a long time and there's room for a little bit of skepticism and not in a cynical way, not in a negative way, but in a let's see how it plays out kind of way. Great, you made a vow. Great, you wanna serve the Lord. Awesome, let's watch you do that. We need to be careful.

not to fall for it just because it is something that we so want to hear and so want to see. Think about Judas, right? Judas Iscariot. Now, I would say probably not his whole time with the Lord and the disciples was fake, but some portion of it was, some segment of it. He faked it for some amount of time, even if it was only, you know, a couple days around the betrayal that took place, that there was this presentation of, oh, let's walk with the Lord. Let's serve the Lord. But

It was not the reality. Listen, if you're faking spiritual things, it's scheming. You need to understand, if you're trying to pass this idea, this notion to other people that you're in a different place than you actually are spiritually, it's scheming. There's an agenda. There's a plan. It's not God's plan. And if you would stop and think about it, why would you fake spiritual things?

In the sense that God is never fooled. If I tell you I pray eight hours a day, you might be well impressed. You might be skeptical and maybe I'll have to pray eight hours a day, you know, in your view to be able to kind of prove it to you. If only I do it for, you know, that long just to prove my point, convince you, yeah, that's what I do every day. I pray eight hours a day on my knees. That's why I have these, you know, bloody knees that I have. But if I convince you,

I still don't convince God. What benefit do I get from faking spiritual things? If I sit next to you in worship and pretend to worship, what for? Why? Why are you pretending? Why do we pretend? There's a scheme. There's an agenda. There's a plan. It's for yourself, perhaps, that you fake it.

Because you need to feel less guilty. You need to feel good about yourself. Or perhaps that you're trying to pass on an impression. You want other people to view you a certain way. There's a scheme. There's an agenda. There's a plan. And it's not God's plan. People fake repentance.

They pretend to repent because they got caught or whatever the long list of reasons might be. People fake revival. People fake the working of the Holy Spirit. People fake worship. People fake prayer. People fake love. People fake devotion. There's all kinds of things that we fake in spiritual arenas and it never fools God. It is always for some plot, for some plan, for some scheme, for some agenda, right?

that is going on within us. Are you scheming? Faith is living without scheming. It's living without scheming. There's this notion, this idea of, you know, fake it till you make it. That's not the way to approach spiritual things. God wants you to be genuine. You have doubts? Don't pretend that you don't. Be honest. Be real. You don't want to worship? Be honest. Be real. Also, repent and start to worship. But

but don't pretend to worship and not deal with the heart that doesn't want to. Don't pretend to pursue spiritual things and not deal with the heart that doesn't want to. No, be real about where your heart's at. When you're faking spiritual things, you're scheming. You're plotting. You're planning. You are not pursuing God's heart. You're pursuing something else. Pursue God's heart instead of

your schemes. Finally, finishing it up in verses 10 through 12, we get point number five, and that is you are scheming when you enlist people. When you start recruiting, you better throw up some warning flags. Better check your heart. Getting people on your side, that's something we all want, but we need to be careful with. Verse 10, then Absalom sent spies throughout all the tribes of Israel saying, as soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet, then you shall say, Absalom reigns in Hebron.

Now, in the safety of Hebron...

Absalom is recruiting. He's pulling people to himself, getting people on his side. It starts by sending spies throughout Israel. Now, the idea of spies, it's like planting people in different strategic places so that they would announce, Absalom reigns in Hebron. It's been shared. It's been testified. Sometimes this happens in the ministry scene in ungodly ways. But, oh, the Lord told me

someone's going to give $1,000. And Harvey stands up and says, I'll give $1,000. But I gave him $1,000 before the service so that he could stand up and make that show to encourage the rest of you to give $1,000. That sometimes things are manipulated in that way, that there is this strategic placing. Hey, when the time comes, Russell, you tell people what I'm telling you to tell them because they need to hear from you, not from me. But it's my words, but I'm telling you to tell, you know, there's...

Putting spies out. Planting people so that they can recruit on your behalf. It's using these spies, these plants. The real issue here is calling people to take sides. This is what Absalom is doing. He is getting people on his side.

side. And this happens. Again, what we see here in Absalom, it happens in politics, it happens in families, it happens in the church, it happens everywhere there's people gathered. There is these kind of tactics and techniques, and there is these schemes that go on sometimes within our own hearts. And you need to be careful. When you're calling people to take sides, there's a scheme. When you're calling people to your side in particular, there's a scheme.

I remember one situation. I received a phone call back in the day and Pastor Tom was still here and the person on the other end of the line described the situation. What do you think? I was reluctant to answer because I sensed something was amiss. And so I answered in a very guarded way and then the response came, well, here's what Pastor Tom said. What do you think about that? And there was this deliberate attempt to

pit us against each other for you. Don't you agree with me? Don't you think I'm right? Don't you think you should tell him? Don't you think, you know, and there was this recruiting, you should be on my side. We need to be careful. Calling people to take sides, it's also referred to as causing division.

But causing division, we'll never like confess to that. Like, no, no, I'm not causing division. But I'm just, you know I'm right, right? I mean, take my side, you know? That is something that is appealing to us. We want people on our side. And the problem with taking sides is the division that it brings. Now, sometimes that happens with spies. Sometimes it happens because innocent people are just caught up in the mix. In verse 11, Absalom went,

with Absalom, went 200 men invited from Jerusalem. They went along innocently, not knowing anything. So here's the plan for Absalom. He's like, okay, let me trick these people into coming. And then there's going to be this great declaration. And then people from the outside are going to look on and, whoa, there's this whole big gathering. There's 200 people there. It's legitimate. It's real. And so he's using that to give himself credibility. He's enlisting people without their awareness of what is going on. Enlisting people. It's an indication.

There's some scheming going on. There's some plotting. There's some planning. There's some agenda. Why do you need people on your side? Why do they have to agree with you? Why do they have to say what you say? Now, not that we're all independent and we don't have any connection to each other. Not in that way. But the problem is we, enforcing people and causing people to choose sides and enlisting people, we do cause divisions within the church, within the body of Christ. And

not for good reasons. It's one thing to divide over real issues and matters of serious doctrine, but there's a lot of reasons not to divide, not to enlist people to our cause or to our case. The Apostle Paul, in speaking to the elders of Ephesus in Acts chapter 20, verse 30, says, See,

We are called to come alongside people. We are called to work together, to be together. And so you could maybe think in your mind like, well, that's enlisting people. Yeah, but in actuality, what we're doing is we're connecting people to the Lord. We're coming together to work. We're not getting people to our agenda. We're getting people to God's agenda because we're pursuing God's heart.

But the problem with false teachers and the wolves that Paul's talking about in Acts chapter 20 is those people are interested in getting people after themselves. And that is not the kind of teaming up that God has called us to. Are you enlisting people? Absalom then sent for Ahithophel, the famous wise counselor of David. He was hurt by David because Bathsheba was his granddaughter. Uriah was his grandson.

David killed Uriah. There was obviously some hurt there. And Ahithophel sides with Absalom. He joins in on this conspiracy. It hurt David greatly. He wrote a couple Psalms about that betrayal and how that impacted him. But here's Absalom getting this one who had been hurt greatly by David, getting innocent people, sending out spies and amassing this army, this group of followers. He's not pursuing God's heart.

as he's calling people to take his side. In the same way, we need to consider, we need to allow the Lord to evaluate our hearts. Are you scheming? Are you pursuing your plans, your agenda, or God's? What you want or what God wants. If you are impressed with yourself, you're just so pleased about how amazing you are. I understand there's some scheming going on. There's some issues there that God needs to deal with.

When you force people to do what you want, when you want, that it has to be your way right now, there's an agenda there. God gives people patience or God is patient with people, giving people time to turn, to repent, to move. And sometimes God moves quick and he tells us, hey, move quick. And then, okay, well, we move quick. But just trying to force things to happen the way we want and saying, well, don't you think God would want that? Well, maybe, but maybe not without patience.

that kind of clarity, we need to be careful. There might be some scheming going on. When we're undermining people, for sure, that's never what God wants us to do. Faking spiritual things, for sure, that's scheming. There's an agenda there. That's indication that our hearts are not where God wants us to be. And when we're enlisting people, calling people to our side, there's an issue. Calling people after ourselves, there's an issue.

Calling people to the Lord, that's what we're called to do. That is what we are to be focused on. We're to be pursuing the heart of God. For Absalom, the scheming came about rooted in the bitterness that he had, but also the ambition that he had. There might be different motivations and sources within us that are boiling up these schemes, but we need to recognize the schemes that are going on and take our heart before the Lord.

and invite him to change it, to pursue God's heart instead. Let's pray. God, I pray for each one of us that you would help us to recognize in our hearts those areas, those issues of scheming, Lord, where we are not walking by faith, but we are working out and trying to accomplish our purposes and what we want and what we desire. And Lord, we might be fully convinced it is for good reasons.

It is for other people's benefit. It is for their good that we want these things so desperately. And yet, at the same time, you care about not just that end result, but how we get there. Just like you promised Jacob certain things, and yet you didn't invite him to go about the accomplishing of those promises the way that he did. And you promised Abraham and Sarah a child, but

Lord, you had a specific way that you wanted to accomplish that, and the way that they did it was not the way that you had in mind. Lord, I pray that you would help us to recognize that, Lord, that we wouldn't justify ourselves to execute our plans and our ideas, our techniques. Lord, that you would help us to keep our hands off, as Warren Wiersbe said at the beginning, Lord, that

that we would let you be God. And when you tell us to put our hands on it, then we'll do what you say. But until then, Lord, help us to surrender to you. And those things that we want, that we crave, that we desire, Lord, we don't scheme because we're disinterested. We scheme because we want something. Help us, Lord, to recognize and to catch when our hearts are craving after things that you don't have for us, when our hearts are desiring things that are not for us.

or when we're seeking after ways that are not your ways. Help us, Lord, to pursue your heart instead of our schemes. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.