The Ripple Effect | Nathan Lawson | Life of David Part 9

Music.

Your next step. Wow. School is almost here. Where did summer go?

It has gone by quick. And as a reminder for those doing the backpack campaign,

we are no longer under law, but grace.

And that means if you go back to the Hebrew word for law there,

it's referring to rose art versus Crayola.

Do not buy rose art. We are under Crayola now. Do not send out kids out there

with booby trapped crayons that don't actually color, right? Go ahead.

Freely you have given, freely we can receive.

Let a kid know that they are loved. There will be plenty of time later to get

office supplies that don't work the way they're supposed to.

We are glad that Tyler is back and his team, the same number that left,

came back all in one piece for the most part, so amen to that.

And today is Tyler's five-year anniversary of working here at Northside,

his Northside-iversary, so you'll see youth maybe later.

You saw them already wearing various pictures of Tyler on their shirts.

There's also going to be a cake reception that Daniel will remind you at at the end.

No pressure if you have plans for today, but if you are free,

you can go down there and thank Tyler.

If you can't go, you could always write a note or a message.

I know he appreciates it as we've watched that youth program more than doubled

even since I've been here. It's been great to see.

Also, one last thing. We got some new stuff coming up this fall.

And one of those is this important step that we're moving to be more intentional in discipleship.

But discipleship requires relationships and relationships are,

you know, best form when we create environments where people can connect over

maybe a common interest.

And so all of that to say pickleball equals discipleship. That's what I'm trying to say.

So if they're going to be a sign up list out on the Welcome Center,

we're trying it out. You might even see some blue tape.

We've been testing it, have some people looking at it. If you do not know how,

you do not have to know how to play already.

There'll be an instructional time. We'll have the paddles there.

We would love to have you out to come meet some new people and make some connections this fall.

I was talking with my daughter who loves to sing and dance.

She is four years old and has all the confidence that comes with not thinking

about how you look in the sight of others.

She swirls around and dances in a way that just melts my heart.

And she's always picking up new songs.

And one of the ones she comes back with is that classic, if you're happy and

you know it, clap your hands, clap, clap. And she's singing through it But when

she gets to the second verse She goes And if you are angry and you know it Stomp

your feet Stomp your feet.

Pause her for a moment and say, I don't think it's angry. I think you mean if

you're happy, stomp your feet. And she looks at me like I am the dumbest person in the world.

Why would you stomp your feet if you're happy?

And I was speechless. I got outsmarted by my four-year-old. That's what I'm trying to say.

I don't know. It's just the way that we learned it growing up.

It makes perfect sense. I'm so happy I will march and stomp in a circle around this room.

No, it doesn't make a lot of sense now that you think about it.

Sometimes when you think about songs we learned or things we do and why do we

do what we do, especially when it doesn't make a lot of sense when someone stops

and asks you, like, why do they do that around here?

And you're at a loss for a moment and say, I don't know why we do that.

And some of these, as I looked at it, hearing some quotes that have not aged well.

These are things that people at the time just assumed this was true,

but as time has gone on, they sound more ridiculous all the time.

There was a commander right before World War I that watched a demonstration

with planes and said airplanes are interesting toys but have no military value.

I will say it was a French commander, so that kind of makes sense.

There's also a guy who said this was the president, the CEO of 20th Century

Fox in 1946, said, accurately predicted, television won't be able to hold any

market it captures after the first six months.

There's no way people will get tired of staring at a plywood box every night.

It's not going to catch on.

That didn't age well. Or how about this one from 1969?

The Surgeon General of Los Angeles doing health advice said this quote,

for the majority of people, the use of tobacco has beneficial side effects.

So that one didn't do. But my favorite perhaps is Charles Dwell, who said.

Put in his letter of resignation. He used to oversee the patent office in the

U.S., but in 1899, he said, we need to close down this department because he said,

everything that can be invented has been invented, so there's no point in keeping

this office open any longer.

And when I heard J.D. Greer listing out quotes that he has heard people say

that I guarantee will sound more and more foolish to the next generation,

he said something that I have heard versions of it online, in ministry,

from people, and it's basically that my choices don't affect other people.

My choices only affect me.

And I've heard people say like, look, I realize what I'm doing is not healthy.

I realize what I'm doing is not wise, but like I'm the only one I'm hurting right here.

Like I'm the only one that's getting damaged by this. I shouldn't drink that. I shouldn't watch that.

But look, in the privacy of my own home, it's not gonna affect anybody else.

And then the problem with that idea is it's based on a lot of assumptions that

most of us recognize don't pan out if you have had any length of time of having

relationship with people.

Choices just don't stay in the boundaries that sometimes we wish they would.

Like we have ideals about freedom in this country that you should be free to

do what you want on your own, but that's always an ideal that is a little bit

tricky if you try to live it out in its purest sense.

I mean, just to test it out, borrow a couple speakers from Daniel and at two

in the morning, play your Spotify list for the neighborhood and see how many

neighbors come and celebrate your expression of freedom alongside of you.

I don't know if that's the way it's gonna go, right?

Freedom has a way of colliding with other people and not just socially, but spiritually.

We have all been affected by the choices of the last generation and the next

generation of cities that we find ourselves in, under bosses,

with siblings, all kinds of ways in which choices do not just stay by that person alone.

And when you see somebody falling into tragedy or addiction,

it's not only them that they are hurting, but the family that cares for them.

We're going to be looking today at a very, very sad part of David's life.

You see, David has kind of moved along in this story. He is going to replace Saul.

And in a lot of ways, David has some of the characteristics that God wants in

future leaders. But he is far from perfect.

In fact, he's going to model, in some ways, his downfall is going to start to

model some of the same problems that will come from many kings in Israel.

If you read through 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles,

I'm just telling you, it is not an inspirational read. Everyone goes from it started out good.

And then, well, we're going to look at today's text.

You see, in the story that we looked at last week was this story of David and

Bathsheba. And if you didn't get a chance to see that, it is online.

And looking at what happens with David is he's ascended to the throne and he's in the height of power.

And he takes that power. And at least at first, it looks like it's going well

because he's worshiping before the ark of the Lord. he takes off his royal robe

to say, I want to be a people who are centered on God.

But then when he's standing on his roof with power and with influence and with

nobody who now is strong enough to tell him not to, he sees Bathsheba and he harms her severely.

And this is the beginning of a tragic story for David. And that was 2 Samuel 11.

In chapter 12, the prophet Nathan comes and confronts him.

Remember the story of the rich man with a bunch of lambs who takes a precious

lamb that belonged to somebody else and was cherished in that family and kills the lamb and eat it.

And in that story, Nathan, the prophet is telling David, this is what you've done.

Now, if you read through that chapter, one of the things that the prophet Nathan

is going to say is that you are going to be able to be forgiven.

When you read Psalm 51, David is going to pray for forgiveness and find forgiveness,

but that doesn't change what the prophet Nathan says.

Because of this action, the sword will not depart from your household.

Now, that was chapter 12.

So you had David and Bathsheba's chapter 11 and 12. What comes after chapter 12 in 2 Samuel?

13. We got some scholars out here. We got some scholars out here.

Look, I know it's been a while. We didn't all do common core mass, so we're not all up on it.

But yeah, see, that's the Bible scholar knowledge you're paying me for right there.

After 12 is 13. And so we're going to open up in 13, chapter 1,

sorry, chapter 13, verse 1, where we're going to look at the pattern that David

did with Bathsheba and the harm that that caused is going to be exactly repeated in the next chapter.

And so here's what it's going to say. In the course of time.

Amnon, this is David's oldest son,

the heir apparent, the one who becomes king if David is killed,

the one that people look up to, the one who can kind of speak a little bit on

behalf of his father. This is Amnon.

But Amnon, the son of David, fell in love with Tamar, the beautiful sister of

Absalom, who is also the son of David.

So this is his half-sister, Amnon's half-sister, same dad, two different moms.

And what you're going to see in Amnon's life is that he is going to have some

of the same problems that David had because he's king. He should be able to

get what he's going to be, future king.

Like, I just can't wait to be king. No one's going to tell me what to do.

I should be able to take what I need. And here's what it says.

Amnon became so obsessed with his sister, Tamar that he made himself ill.

Now she was a virgin and it seemed impossible for him to do anything to her.

Now when it says she's a virgin, it's telling us some clues for the text.

It means she's young, it means she's innocent, and it means she's trying to

live a life of integrity that would honor God and her future family.

But Amnon is going to make some tragic choices here where he uses power and

deception to rape Tamar in this passage,

which is exactly what David had done a couple chapters earlier and what the prophet warned about.

You see, these patterns have a way of repeating themselves.

We all grow up with certain ways that our family does things.

And most of us recognize that the way we do things are often inherited,

especially if we don't challenge it by the generation that came before us.

I remember making fun of my dad growing up for various hand movements he would do as a professor.

And weirdly enough, they have resurfaced as I have gotten older in my own hands

that I look down and think, why are you doing that?

Because that's the pattern that I saw growing up.

And the assumption that we might have that most of us at some point,

when you were a teenager, young adult, most of us have said the phrase,

like, I'm not going to parent like my parents did.

Like, I'm going to do it better than they, I'm going to have a better marriage

than they, I'm going to have a better career than they had. I'm not going to

make those same mistakes because that pattern dies with them.

The problem is, it's very often patterns don't die, especially if they're not

taken through the hard work of discipleship.

They have a way of multiplying.

This is how the Bible explains this intergenerational sin that we're going to

see playing out here, that the sin

of one generation is passed on and even amplified in the next generation.

And so when you see a story like Isaac, right? And Isaac has two sons,

Jacob and Esau, and he kind of prefers Esau.

Esau's outdoors. He's athletic. He hunts.

He's more manly looking, the kind of son dad brags about, and then there's Jacob, who cooks.

Which is good if you cook. Oh, yeah, he's good too. He's good too.

But that favoritism, blatant favoritism on behalf of Isaac, add fuel to the

fire for the conflict between Jacob and Esau that'll result in a lot of hardship.

Not that there wasn't going to be tension, but it makes it much worse.

Now, you would imagine that growing up under that, Jacob would say to himself,

man, I know what it's like to not be the favored son. I'm not going to do that.

Except for he does it even more so.

He has 12 sons and one of them is Joseph and Joseph is his favorite son.

He buys him a coat. He's giving him more money.

He promises inheritance. He really loves it.

And because of that, now his brothers get so angry that they first plan to kill

Joseph, but ultimately end up selling him into slavery.

If you wanted to see, well, wait a minute. How did this happen from Genesis

where the God's people are walking into the land where they all end up enslavement in Egypt.

And the text seems to imply that what happened to Joseph individually is passed

on to all the Israelite people who become enslaved at the end of Joseph's story

going into the book of Exodus.

There's a way in which these patterns have a way of repeating.

When the Bible says that God is gonna punish the second, the fourth generation

of those who disobey him, it doesn't mean that God is sitting up there with

a credit account and he's about to pour on you punishment because your parents racked up bad credit.

It's more like what happens in the Bible is that the patterns that go from one

generation to the next, at certain points, God will withhold his blessing and

allow natural consequences to take their course.

Of course, God could actively punish, but as we see in this story,

it's not necessary because Amnon is capable of doing lots of suffering and destruction

and Absalom with him because they're modeling the pattern and that they've seen in David's life.

You see, your decisions will outlive you.

It's also important as we look at this story and kind of walk through it for

just a little bit, that the prophet Nathan told David he was forgiven.

And that for some people in our way, we talk about God and grace.

We want to imagine that that implies that there's not going to be any consequences,

that you're off the hook, that it's done. We want like mercy right now. We want instant grace.

Like it's got to be all good because I said I was forgiven.

And what you'll see throughout the Bible is even though David is forgiven,

it doesn't always take away the consequences, particularly if that person isn't

willing to do the hard work to undo the problems that led them there in the first place.

So if you drink too much and you go and drive when you shouldn't,

and that's a wake-up call for you, you get in a car accident and you come to

a place where you recognize God can forgive you from that, which is true.

There's no amount of damage you can cause that would put you outside of God's grace.

But you're also going to learned there about making amends with anyone that you hurt.

And here's a newsflash in case you didn't know this. When you go out after praying

for forgiveness and finding it, your car is just as broken as it was before then.

Like it's the same car that you wrecked. Like there's still things that happen

that break God's heart over sin.

That if you get caught cheating on an exam and you decide to go through this

moment where you're having to reconcile with your professor and you pray about

it, and God said, I am going to give you forgiveness and a lower GPA.

Like that's not going to take away like what happened necessarily.

In fact, sometimes that is the way that God is going to help you continue to

grow is that while you're forgiven, we need to be about the business of reconciliation.

It's just not a undo button. That great gift on a word processor,

when you make a mistake and we've all done it, you've been working on a paper

for ages, you push something you should not have. And suddenly the whole paper's gone.

Everything's vanish, you're in a panic, but you hit that magic button that they

put in all word processors. And what is it?

Undo. But the way it works with sin is sin can be forgiven, but it doesn't make

it having had not happened.

It's not a rewind button. It's a rescue.

And we're going to see in this story, this tragic turn of events where the patterns

of David's life that left unchallenged in David's own heart,

even though he sought forgiveness, he isn't changing the way that he's interacting with women.

And Amnon is going to follow this exact pattern.

So what happens is Amnon does does violate Tamar, who is Absalom's sister,

the younger sibling, the one who's not going to get to become king,

the one who was already slighted and already probably had some animosity with his older brother.

And so Tamar goes to live with Absalom and Absalom waits for justice to happen that never comes.

And so there's a moment where now it's going to be the beginning where this

sin left unchallenged and unchecked is going to lead Absalom to say that I'm

taking justice into my own hands.

And there's an opportunity two years later where they're going to go.

He says to his father, David, we've got this big harvest festival coming up

and we could sure use a good leader like Amnon out there.

Oh, we just, well, I don't think we could do it without somebody so good as Amnon.

And he says, well, take him out there. You can use him. And when he's out there,

Absalom has him run through by his friends with a spear and killed.

And so this is the unfolding of the broken house of David that we've got up here.

It went from the tragedy of Bathsheba and Uriah's murder and deception,

but now it's going to multiply to where not just hundreds, but thousands of

people are going to be negatively affected by the sin that we saw.

And the text is written in such a way that you understand that this wasn't just

out of nowhere, that there were things that were happening earlier that left

unchallenged were causing more damage in the future.

And so David's own house is going to become divided.

Amnon is now dead. And these consequences are continuing to go on.

Here's what happens as we kind of look at, as we look at what happens in this

story that Amnon has now been killed and Absalom has gotten his revenge.

And let's look at what happened, though, leading up to that story.

And a little bit, I think what the text wants us to see, part of the problem

of David's own life that is continuing now to plague his children.

Here's what Absalom ordered his men.

He said when he said, high spirits from drinking. Sorry, we skipped to the next one.

Skip to the next one. He says this, that when David heard all of this,

this is the initial problems he faced.

It's going to say this, David was furious.

What's going to happen in this story is David hears about what happens with Amnon and Tamar.

And this is before he is killed, before anything's happened,

David hears about it. And he's really, really angry.

And that's where the text stops. Because it doesn't say that he does anything.

He doesn't talk to Amnon.

He doesn't talk to Absalom. He doesn't welcome Tamar in to try to put things back right.

He doesn't, like he does with Mephibosheth, invite him into the house saying,

I'm going to take care of you. He doesn't do anything. He's just angry.

And as Beth Moore has described, that we have a generation of guys who know

there's something wrong in the world and they're angry, but that anger doesn't

lead to justice and to action and to reconciliation.

It just leads to isolation and pushing things down the road.

What we see in David's life is that silent fathers leave broken families.

That silent fathers leave broken families.

That when Tamar is hurt and she is abused in a way that is going to really damage

her future, what they needed then was a king who fights for those who are on

the weakest in society. And where was David?

He said nothing.

And Absalom is sitting there waiting for his dad to do something to Amnon,

but nothing happens. He's the older son. He's the heir apparent.

No, saying this is going to put his inheritance in jeopardy.

Where was David when Amnon is now saying, I'm going to be the future king?

You know, these kind of things you got to expect because I'm the king.

I should be able to pick the wife that I want. Where was David then?

Absalom said, I have to take it into my own hands. And even after Absalom kills

Amnon and David is angry and heartbroken over what has happened And yet his

response to Absalom is silence.

He doesn't want to talk to him. You can't come back to Jerusalem.

You're kicked out. And he's kicked out for years.

Eventually, he sends the lady to go and talk to David on his behalf.

And she comes in and she shares a story with David about two sons,

one who accidentally killed the other one.

And if something isn't done, this last son is going to be lost and there'll

be no one to carry on the family name.

And David says, that sounds terrible. you've got to make a way for the younger son to come back home.

And this lady who was talking to David looks at David and says,

you are that person in the story. And David goes, man, they got me again.

No more stories in my court. That's it. We're not going to do any more stories

where I'm the subject of it.

But he says it and that does soften David's heart. He says, fine, he can come back.

But David still won't talk to him. He comes back to Jerusalem and David refuses

to have an audience with him.

No face-to-face contact, no conversation.

You can imagine day in and day out living in the shadow of a palace where your

father is living and no ability to talk to him.

Oh, Absalom, what's going on in David's house? What's happening with David's campaign?

And he would say, I don't know because I can't talk to him.

And it goes on for years after years, five years go by where David refuses to even talk with Absalom.

And you can imagine the internal conversations going on in Absalom's heart about,

I had to do this because you didn't do anything and because you've always favored

Amnon and because this is all going on in Absalom's heart for five years,

desperate to go back and talk to a father who will not let him in the courtroom.

Well, in response to this, Absalom does what a lot of kids do when their dad

does not talk to them, he begins to act out to get his father's attention.

And by act out, I mean, he grabs torches and lights a general's fields on fire,

and he burns down a huge wheat field. That would get somebody's attention.

He goes to Joab, that general that worked for David, the very high up official,

and he burns his whole field down. And Joab's like, what are you doing?

And he's like, well, if no one's going to talk to me, I might as well do whatever I want.

And so they're like, fine, we'll go talk to David. And David tries to talk to

him. But by this point, Thank you.

So much damage has already been done.

The problem with what takes place next is that Absalom has built up years of

bitterness and revenge and now leads a rebellion against David's house.

It says as we lead up to chapter 18 that in the place where David's courtroom

was, people would come to seek justice from the king and there was Absalom outside

the front doors beginning to plan his future,

putting his arms around those who would come up to the court and he would say, oh.

You know, you and me, we're really cut from the same cloth. Tough to be on the

bottom, isn't it? He says.

And he would say, you know, if I was the judge of Israel, I would make sure

your case was heard properly.

And over time, people begin to say, you know, we got to consider whether or

not this Absalom would do better in charge than David. I mean,

he's so much more personable.

And the text says that he is very attractive and he has long,

beautiful hair that every year when he cuts it, it says his hair alone weighed five pounds.

I does seem like a fair amount. He's the Fabian of Israel. I don't know.

And so he's attractive. He's smooth talking. He's trying to say that I'll have your back.

I'm from the bottom too. I'm a youngest son. I know what it's like to be on the outside.

And people began to say, you know, Absalom should be in charge.

The army's like, David keeps fighting all these wars. When is going to stop?

I mean, that's the problem with David's ego. We need someone like Absalom.

And they go out into the woods and he leads a full-scale rebellion where the

very words of Nathan the prophet that said, you will lose your wives and your

house, and you will look on from the outside, come to pass.

And David fights a rebellion.

And in the midst of it all, David is now, I don't know, somewhere in here,

realizing perhaps that he has let things go too far.

And so he says to them, you need to go and stop Absalom. He gets an army together

and Joab, and he says, you got to stop him, but don't kill him.

Whatever you do, you bring him back here alive because I suspect,

it doesn't say why, but that there are some things that have not yet been said.

And it makes sense of what's going to happen next in this chapter,

where he's leading this rebellion against David, but David keeps saying to all

his guys, I know he's terrible and I know it's wrong and I know it's violent,

but don't kill Absalom. Bring him back alive.

I just want a chance to say something first.

Well, Joab catches Absalom, not on purpose exactly, but that beautiful flowing

golden hair that those of you maybe feeling a smidge jealous can at least have

this peace of mind knowing that Absalom,

when it was flowing in the breeze, he's got caught in an oak tree.

And he's hanging there in a tree with his hair all tangled up when Joab comes

up and says, look what we have here.

That is some mighty fine hair God has given you, am I right?

And one of Joab's attendants nudges Joab and says, David said not to kill him, right?

We weren't supposed to. We're supposed to take him back.

And Joab's like, you know, problem with David, you know how musicians are.

They're up, they're down. I mean, you can't, I mean, you can't take every word literally.

If we let Absalom out now, he's going to lead another rebellion.

It's never going to be over.

I have lost friends in this rebellion. Hundreds of people of my friends have

died trying to stop this guy.

Something needs to be done. And forget David. This is over now.

He grabs three spears and shoves all three of them, one after the other, into Absalom's heart.

And so David is waiting. And everyone who comes in, he's got one question that

David repeats again and again. What news of my son?

What news of my son? Have you heard about my son though? Like the battle,

the kingdom, it's good. I'm still in charge. That's good. But what about my son?

Over and over. And the messengers don't have the heart to tell him.

When the third guy comes in and he says, finally breaks it to David,

but in a gentle way, he says, I guess, David, you should know about your son

that I hope all your enemies meet the same end as your son.

And here is what David says in response. The king was shaken.

He went up to the roof at the gateway and he wept. And as he said it,

oh, my son, Absalom, my son, my son, Absalom, if only I had died,

you, Absalom, my son, my son.

Did you see how many times it says my son in a text that is handed down that

has very few repetition?

And yet the word son is repeated five times in this speech and seven more if

you go for this whole chapter. My son.

Because as bad as he was, David wouldn't want to bring him back in and perhaps

have said all those things that I didn't say, all those things that I was waiting

on, that I was ruling in this kingdom. I don't know why he didn't talk to him earlier.

Maybe he was proven a point. This will show him trying to ascend to the throne.

I'm going to teach him a lesson by giving him the cold shoulder.

Maybe you have relatives that have done that, that have decided to respond to

your lack of what they perceive, lack of respect or gratitude,

and they're going to treat you with silence.

Maybe you have been that person. if that's the way it's going to be,

then I'm not calling them until they call me first.

And year after year goes by, maybe it was just a hard conversation.

And David knew he needed to have it, but it was so complicated because of his

own guilt of what happened with Bathsheba and then Amnon and his own inability

to call it out in public because of the fear maybe that somebody would say, but didn't you also?

And there was shame mixed up with it. He should have said something and he was

planning on it, but a kingdom and one thing after another and year left a year

and it just never seemed like a good time.

And now the opportunity is lost. And he is sitting here weeping on his throne

saying, Absalom, I shouldn't have, I shouldn't have kept silent for five years.

I should have reached out sooner.

And now what has happened will affect not just one generation,

but many generations to come.

There's something in this story that tells us about the heartbreak that happens to people, power,

non-power, success of David or non-success, those whose hearts aren't turning

back toward God, the sins of one generation causing tragedy in the lives of the next generation.

And so when David finally reaches the end of this horribly difficult battle

where many people, even his own advisors who went with Absalom,

will have to be killed as traitors to the throne. and it's ending David's career

and nothing but more heartache and more bloodshed.

And finally, when it's all been put down and he's gonna hand over the rule to

Solomon who will now step in his place, not the one who was supposed to be,

but one of the only ones left.

And here's what happens. David says this to him in 1 Kings 2, verses two and three.

He said, I'm about to go to the way of all the earth.

So he says to Solomon, this is David, be strong, my son. And you act like a man.

You observe what the Lord your God requires and walk in obedience to him and

keep his decrees and his commands and his laws and regulation as written in the law of Moses.

Do this so that you may prosper wherever you go. Do you hear what he said?

Not once did he say, remember how awesome I was with Goliath? He'd be like that.

Oh, Solomon, you need to lead just like me.

Instead, he says, don't. Don't do what I did.

You follow after what God says, not what I said. You need to be a strong man.

And if you're wondering what that means, I can promise you for one who wept

at Absalom, it did not mean keeping silent, but going and taking care of today,

what I would rather not have to say.

And David rested with his ancestors. He passes away with a kingdom that is covered,

his hands covered in the blood of friends to try to keep his kingdom intact.

And he had reigned 40 years over Israel, seven in Hembron and 33 in Jerusalem.

So we come to this point in this story, And it is one heartbreak after another.

And I was praying with God at the worship night, actually, right here in this

room, saying, like, why is this in here?

Like, there is nothing inspirational in all of 2 Samuel. It just,

like, starts out bad. And then you're like, oh, that's worse.

And then you go to the next chapter. You're like, now's the redemption.

And then it's like, no, it's worse.

And it just keeps going. And I'm, like, saying to God, like,

I know all Scripture is God-breed, but come on.

Like, we've got to have something good in here. And it's one heartbreak after

another. and I felt God telling me.

You think it breaks your heart, think about what it does to mine.

Think about David looking at his own kingdom and inheritance and family,

his retirement gift crumble in his very hands.

It's here so that you will remember that none of us are going to do well to

follow leaders and to repeat patterns of the past generation.

All of us have to fix our eyes on a greater king, the king that was to come.

Because every generation in Israel is going to do the same thing.

They're going to lift up a king who will be good for a while,

but power is going to lead to the same results again and again.

They're longing for this king to arrive that doesn't come because they're not good enough.

They're not what we need until eventually a thousand years later,

there will come the king who's not going to be like the last one,

who instead of a grab for power, will pour it out.

Instead of that tendency of David with Absalom to withhold mercy until his son

has gone through the hard times, instead there will be a king who will freely offer mercy.

There's going to come a king who is not going to conquer through bloodshed and

battles, but through saying, pray for your enemies and bless those who persecute you.

We will redeem this world, the one that my father made. There will come a king.

And so as I read this story, I think the last thing we want to walk away from

before we wrap up next week with David's final legacy, which is more positive

than the end of 2 Samuel, is that it's time to break the cycle.

I don't know what patterns you absorb growing up, but I know that I have passed

on things to my kids that I am not proud of.

It reminds me of that story, my nephew with my brother when he was four.

My brother was driving around and my brother hit the brakes harsh at a light and stopped quickly.

And his four-year-old throws his hands in the air and said, these idiots on

the road at four years old.

And TJ, of course, has that knowledge. I wonder where he learned that.

And if you had that moment where you can find yourself stopping in your tracks

because I can hear the sarcasm in my kids cutting one another down,

knowing they weren't born with that, they learned that that is what a guy who

is intelligent and has power can do.

You see, this story is a story saying if you don't decide that today's the day

to break the cycle, whether you intend it or not, you are passing on patterns.

I don't know if you're signed up for re-engage, community groups or discipleship.

And I would hope that you growing closer to Jesus would be enough of a motivation,

that you wanting a better marriage would be enough of a motivation for you to do it.

But if that's not enough, then if this text can say, then maybe one more thing

to consider is that if you don't do discipleship, you will hurt the people you care about the most.

That you need a moment to get around other people because I have been in those

re-engage groups where they have said, and I'm not talking about any one couple.

I don't want to, I'm not sharing anyone's specific story, but they'll say,

in my house growing up, we never got to talk about this.

And I know I need to change that about how I do it. And you know,

I've gone through this for a while and I've realized that this is what I do when I get angry.

I need to stop the cycle now.

So it is time to break the cycle. That temper that you have laughed off as an

heritage from your Irish background and your family is well known for it, it ends here.

That silence and withdrawal until they said their sorries first,

because this is a good way to get leverage.

And that's what I learned growing up on how to get a person to do what you want.

That with passive, aggressive, harsh, cold shoulder, it ends today.

That addiction that continues to plague and you're getting by okay,

but it's just been year after year saying, oh, I'm not hurting anybody. It's on my own.

But if this were passed on to my kids, it would break my heart.

If my nephews see me, this would break my heart. I don't want this for anyone else.

It needs to end here.

Those things that guys, the addictions that many guys and girls have about looking

at images that they should not.

And a whole generation will tell you it's only natural. It's as normal as can

be. Everyone will understand.

I mean, it's just one of those things. And yet, you know, the toxic things that

happen when our minds begin to be warped by things we should never have saw.

That is something I do not want to pass on to the next generation.

But if I mean that, then the only way it's going to happen is if it stops with me.

So in just a moment, Daniel is going to come out and we're going to gather around

a table for the awaited king, for the one that came into cycles of heartache

where even the best kings had innocent people suffer around them because their

hearts were not yet transformed into what God wanted them to be.

They were looking forward to a moment when God really would create in me a clean

heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit within me that a future king would come

and he would invite you not only to find forgiveness, but to say,

now let's go and start picking up the pieces.

Let's go and apologize. Let's go and intervene now.

Let's not wait five years of silence to where war is at the city gates and there

is death and heartache going everywhere.

Absalom, Absalom, my son, if he could go back and have a day like today,

a day where repentance and change is still possible.

We've got tables on the front and the side. This is not our table.

This is Christ's table. You don't have to be a member of this church.

We are here on invitation, the same as everyone else, to take bread in our hands

and remind us that the cycles that we have participated in have caused harm,

but God wants to take that sin and take this bread and remember that my son

was broken so that you can find forgiveness and not live in guilt and shame,

that you would take this cup and remember the invitation to be part of a new

covenant that doesn't just wipe the slate clean, but it does,

but invites you to be part of new creation,

of putting things back right the way they were meant to be.

I'm going to be down here at the front, and Mark's going to be here on the other side.

We would love to pray with you about what a next step might look for you.

But all of us, as we gather around this table today, what is God laying on your

heart? Would you pray with me?

Thanks for listening. If you're near Yorktown, we'd love to see you in person.

Services are Sundays at 9 and 1045 a.m. And wherever you are,

keep leaning into hope, because it really does.

Music.